KLANGMUTATIONEN Schwarshagel (Utech) cd 14.98
"Organic free metal from Malaysia" is what we had heard about Klangmutationen. Wow, really? Utech doesn't provide much information at all about this band, other than to describe them as a "mystery" (how helpful), and compare their music to the work of outside '70s free improv artists from Europe (the FMP label) and Japan (Masayuki Takayangi, Kaoru Abe). We're also told that this mysterious group hails from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Do we believe it? Maybe. We'd like to.
Certainly their music has a dark, strange vibe - literally, vibrations - cycles of low-end droning, sounding like giant metal springs being vibrated... or more likely, electric guitars, detuned. Strings/springs flapping loosely, arcing with electricity. Weird and atmospheric. Like Harry Bertoia meets Caspar Brotzmann!?
That's the first track (2:19) and part of the second into which it flows (25:05). But before long, the lengthy track two develops a serious case of screaming, saxophone/flute/clarinet skree, definitely giving some skronked-out substance to those free jazz comparisons. It's pretty intense and extreme, right on for those into Rudolph Grey's Blue Humans, John Zorn's Painkiller, Peter Brotzmann, Charles Gayle, Arthur Doyle, Albert Ayler, cats like that... yet it's definitely not, y'know, jazz. More like "jazz" for fans of SUNNO))) and Aufgehoben... or drone music for fans of Borbetomagus. Dense and distorted, this is the sound of plunging into the abyss, with a witches' chorus of reed-squealing cacophony as company.
The third track, clocking in at 19:42, is almost as much of a juggernaut. More whale-call feedback guitar grind, murk and moodiness. And then this disc comes to a close with the brief (1:58), relatively quiet caresses of fourth, final track. An eerie, wispy coda that could be the soundtrack music heard as a landing party from TV's Star Trek beams down to some strange, oddly lit world... and they should be glad they don't have to face whatever alien threats the album's earlier tracks would provide cues for!
Curious stuff, this Klangmutationen. Heavy too. We're enjoying repeat spins of this disc, and also should mention we have another release of theirs, yet to be reviewed - an LP on the Holy Mountain label (which affiliation in itself is a recommendation).
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

KLANGMUTATIONEN Weibe Messe (Holy Mountain) lp 14.98

KLARINETTE (CLARINETTE) The Path Of Sisyphus (self-released) cd-r 12.98
A match made in heaven (or maybe hell), one of our favorite noise makers / soundscapers, Mr. Dan Vallor, aka Clarinette, or in this case, Klarinette with a K, tries his hand at 'metal', the end result sounding less like metal proper, and more like some twisted, super distorted, ultra heavy, hypno rock, avant noise rock dirgery, which of course means we're digging it big time. We weren't sure what to expect when Vallor told of us this impending metalocalypse, but it definitely wasn't this. We were expecting something more dronedoomdirge-y, sort of noise style drones, but delivered with some extra heft. But instead, The Path Of Sisyphus reveals itself as something much more subtle, rhythmic and hypnotic, a simple skeletal drum beat (programmed perhaps?) locks into a stripped down krautrock like groove, and seems to set the controls on autopilot, while the surrounding sounds explode in wild gouts of crumbling distortion, keening moaning swaths of blown out buzz, murky tangled melodies, undulating swells of layered guitar fuzz, that pulsing propulsive beat, keeping this from being straight up abstract noise, and helping transform it into something that sounds not all that far removed from a past Record Of The Week by Torlesse Super Group, which features another longtime aQ fave Roy Montgomery. That TSG record was a fantastic assemblage of murky ambience, and minimal rhythms, tranced out and super hypnotic, and the vibe is similar here, but with a hefty helping of Dead C style guitarnoise over the top, as well as some super catchy melodies buried in the murk, all deftly woven into billowing clouds of soft focus psych guitar and bleary distorted tangles of blissed out noise, and all anchored to that beat, that persistent rhythm, which somehow holds it all together.
Those guitars, and it sounds like there's lots of 'em, as in swarms and swarms of em, are what this is all about, and they swoop wildly from angry buzzing barrage to keening Sunroof! like skree, to grinding metallic churn, to weird Butthole Surfers like distorto melody dirge, in fact, at some points, this sounds like it could be some lost live BH recording, that simple tribal rhythm, and the super distorted melody infused guitar freakouts over the top, all wreathed in a sort of fuzzy haze.
Fantastic stuff! And while maybe not strictly metal enough for metalheads, it's still plenty heavy, not to mention psychedelic, dark and rhythmic, tranced out and utterly hypnotic, which means, of course, absolutely recommended! And it's dedicate to our very own Andee!!
LIMITED TO 60 COPIES!! Of which we have almost half, but it's very likely these will be go pretty quick, and once they're gone, that's it. Each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "The Path Of Sisyphus (exceprt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "The Path Of Sisyphus (exceprt 2)"

KLEEMAN, ARROW Phase Reps And Builds (Root Strata) cassette 6.98
One of two new tapes from Root Strata, this one comes from Arrow Kleeman, who we know very little about other than the fact that he's a visual artist and musician/composer, on Phase Reps And Builds, he pretty much does exactly what the title suggests, repeating electronic phrases, looped rhythms, and layering them into lush, gorgeously mesmerizing sci-fi synthscapes. Percolating rhythms, overlapping melodies, the sound simultaneously futuristic and retro, definitely tapping into the whole Blade Runner / John Carpenter / Logan's Run vibe that folks like Majeure and Zombi and Umberto have been exploring lately. But where those folks seem to be pushing the eighties soundtrack / Euro dancefloor, Kleeman's explorations are more minimal, more academic. Not to say they're lacking in emotion, they're just darker, and more contemplative, the sounds cyclical, mesmerizingly repetitious, each track and experimental loopscape, trancelike and tranquil, infusing its rhythmic and electronic elements with the compositional approach of Steve Reich and Terry Riley, creating a sort of modern minimalism / sci-fi retro-futuristic space synth hybrid.
Needless to say, recommended for fans of Lichens, Grasslung, Oneohtrix Point Never, Pulse Emitter, Le Revelateur, etc.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "AutoBlips"
MPEG Stream: "NuPhase"
MPEG Stream: "RepeatAgain"

KLEINBACH, WILHELM The Funerary Notebooks Of Herr Gratchenfleiss (The Guild Of Funerary Violinists) cd-r 12.98
What is more amazing than discovering a whole movement in music that had never been documented, let alone even heard of. EVER! No mention in any books, magazines, not a single trace. What if that music was in fact the music of Funerary violins. A music created and composed to be performed at funerals. The only evidence of these musics, some scratchy old wax cylinder recordings, some faded photos, and brittle sheafs of old sheet music. A music that flourished in the 1800's and disappeared almost completely by the 1900's after the Catholic church's Great Funerary Purges. Only recently discovered in a locked trunk was the music of Herr Gratchenfleiss, recorded to wax cylinder by Wilhelm Kleinbach. The sound a mournful miserable, gorgeously minor key dirge. So completely moving and emotional, the recordings thick with static and crackle, only adding to the power and timelessness of the music. What could be more amazing?
How about making the whole thing up? Constructing an elaborate history of a genre that never existed. Populating this history with lifelike characters, creating photos, sheet music, historical documents, but most amazingly, recording all the music, and treating it to sound as if it was some old wax cylinder recording.
Hard to say which would be more amazing, a wholly undiscovered hidden dark corner of musical history, quashed by the church and relegated to be lost forever, or an insanely detailed project, the ultimate conceptual art piece. Either way, we are in love with this stuff.
Simply from a musical standpoint, this is everything we could hope for. The recordings are fuzzy and staticky, bathed in layers of crackle and grit, and years of neglect and decay, but beneath the recording inconsistencies we love so much, are some truly moving and emotionally rich performances, the melodies are so intense and sad, minor key and mournful. truly funereal. It's impossible not to imagine some old funeral procession, a row of black clad mourners, trudging down a dirt road, with their deceased atop an old wooden cart, the sky grey, the music of the Funerary violinist winding around the procession like wreaths of black smoke. So goddamn lovely. We have been listening to this non-stop since we got it.
And then there's the story. The "history". Is it real? Is it possible that a musical movement could disappear so completely. So much so that not a single person anywhere EVER had heard of the Guild Of Funerary Violinists? Or is it all a huge put-on? A massive made up world? The ultimate outsider art project. Either way, we are completely blown away. If this is indeed real, HOLY SHIT! How utterly mysterious and romantic!! We do sort of want to believe it's real. It's so perfectly evocative of some other time, of death and sadness throughout the ages. But if it is in fact made up, it has to be one of the most brilliantly conceived and executed hoaxes of all time. There's even a book (you can probably find at you local bookstore), filled with photos and sheet music, and histories of all the players, the birth and death of the genre, it's so detailed and elaborate, so much so it almost seems impossible that someone could have created all of this from thin air, if it was made up, it must have been the creator's life's work. Years and years of methodical planning and writing and recording for sure. But either way, it's magical and fascinating, and 'real' or not, the music is truly gorgeous, and the story completely captivating, both intertwined into some sort of time machine, perfectly transporting us to that rain splattered dirt road, the soaring sad sounds of the Funerary violin drifting into the black sky...
MPEG Stream: "The Noble March Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "The Dizzy Flight Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "The Stately Tragedy Of Death"

KLEISTWAHR Arsonicide (Harbinger Sound) lp 26.00

KLEISTWAHR The Return (Noiseville) lp 23.00
Legendary UK noise merchant Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Skullflower, Broken Flag collective) returns with Kleistwahr, a project that fits nicely within the legacy of a man known for harsh electronic noise. While we struggled to find any detailed information on Kleistwahr, we can say that anyone digging Skullflower's more recent forays into blown out guitar skree (and we know there are plenty of you out there) will find much to love here. The four songs making up The Return contain all the air raid siren guitars and eardrum pulverizing feedback we have come to love, but things take a surprisingly beautiful turn on side two, with warm droney keyboards weaving a haunting melody that perfectly compliments the album cover, a stark photocopied image of a building foundation sitting exposed in the snow surrounded by dead trees. Though the songs are instrumental, Mundy is able to perfectly convey a feeling of despondency and sadness, genuine emotions that definitely set Kleistwahr apart from the multitudes of floorcore outfits, all hunkered over effects pedals making lots of noise, but very little of it as compelling and emotionally charged as this.
Part of Noiseville's awesome Outer Bounds Of Sound series, with each lp limited to a one time pressing of 300. We received 20, so you know what that means...

KLIPPERT, GARTH STEEL Music For Taxicabs (Field Hymns) cassette 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the same label that brought us the old school electro synth lo-fi party jams of the oddly monickered Oxykitten, comes this, the latest from PDX via SF audio alchemist Garth Klippert, who while living in SF and working as a cab driver, spent his free time creating dreamy abstract melodic soundscapes, cobbled together from field recordings, twangy guitars, electric pianos, assorted homemade instruments and toys, as well as all manner of junk (plastic guns, saw blades, pot lids, shoes, etc). These disparate elements are smeared and blurred into warm, fluid, layered sonic drifts, from woozy piano driven sunshiney kraut shimmer, to twang flecked Negativland-esque vocal collages, to slow burning skeletal blues wrapped around mysterious voices and fields of click and chitter, to windswept expanses of almost Eastern sounding sort-of-ragas, rife with sped up voices, croaking frogs, muted murky looped and lo-fi rhythms, everything very hazy, a little haunting, cinematic and subtly psychedelic. Cool stuff for sure.
Pressed on bright yellow tapes, housed in full color sleeves, LIMITED to 100 COPIES, each one hand numbered, and comes with a digital download.

KLOOD P4.2: A Collection of Drones (self-released) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The French ensemble Klood was responsible for one of the best releases from the Drone Records series of limited edition seven inches, coming very close to sounding like a lost track of melancholic guitar ambience by Maeror Tri. "P4.2: A Collection of Drones" is much grittier and more distorted than the rather lilting sound of that aforementioned single, but does live up to its name. Sustained tones (probably from guitar and synth) are run through a crunchy distortions, ample amounts of delay, and plenty of reverberation.
RealAudio clip: "Part 3"

KLOSOWSKI, A.K. / PYROLATOR Home-Taping Is Killing Music (Bureau B) cd 17.98
A second generation krautrock anomaly created in 1985, Home-Taping is Killing Music is the first and only collaborative lp by Pyrolator (Ata Tak label operative and member of Der Plan) and tape loop tinkerer Arnd Kai Klosowski, now reissued by the always reliable German electronic resurrectionists Bureau B. Using the then burgeoning technology of sampling, this duo created raw sound experiments and whimsical almost Dada-ish musical forms and rhythms, spliced from prerecorded tapes. Not sure if it's a response or parallel to what hip-hop producers like Double Dee and Steinski were doing, but it seems like a precursor to the sample-based dance tracks groups like Colourbox and M.A.R.R.S would mine heavily just a couple of years after this. The Pyrolator / Klosowski material, though, is far weirder, as anyone familiar with Der Plan would expect! Sometimes sounding like the tropical groove of Can's Flow Motion mixed with bits of Penguin Cafe Orchestra colonial exotica and Holger Czukay style song-craft, this may be too odd of a record for the casual listener. But for those who dig the strange and eccentric with the technically innovative, a very cool and unique release. (FYI, the vinyl version includes the cd with it.)
MPEG Stream: "Osterreich"
MPEG Stream: "Hammond"

KLOSOWSKI, A.K. / PYROLATOR Home-Taping Is Killing Music (Bureau B) lp+cd 24.00
A second generation krautrock anomaly created in 1985, Home-Taping is Killing Music is the first and only collaborative lp by Pyrolator (Ata Tak label operative and member of Der Plan) and tape loop tinkerer Arnd Kai Klosowski, now reissued by the always reliable German electronic resurrectionists Bureau B. Using the then burgeoning technology of sampling, this duo created raw sound experiments and whimsical almost Dada-ish musical forms and rhythms, spliced from prerecorded tapes. Not sure if it's a response or parallel to what hip-hop producers like Double Dee and Steinski were doing, but it seems like a precursor to the sample-based dance tracks groups like Colourbox and M.A.R.R.S would mine heavily just a couple of years after this. The Pyrolator / Klosowski material, though, is far weirder, as anyone familiar with Der Plan would expect! Sometimes sounding like the tropical groove of Can's Flow Motion mixed with bits of Penguin Cafe Orchestra colonial exotica and Holger Czukay style song-craft, this may be too odd of a record for the casual listener. But for those who dig the strange and eccentric with the technically innovative, a very cool and unique release. (FYI, the vinyl version includes the cd with it.)
MPEG Stream: "Osterreich"
MPEG Stream: "Hammond"

KLUCSEVEK, GUY Free Range Accordion (Starkland) cd 14.98
Fifty three year old Guy Klucsevek is one of the world's foremost accordionists who consistently pushes outward the conventional notions of what an accordion must sound like. Described as possessing "poker-faced wit", his many recordings invite listeners to take delight in the many forms of music which can benefit from accordion intrumentation. This newest record features collaborations with or tributes to composers Klucsevek admires, including Burt Bacharach (covering a rare song Bacharach wrote for a B-horror film which he first heard on a tape John Zorn made for him), the esteemed Japanese composer Somei Satoh, and Lars Hollmer of AQ-beloved cult Swedish folk-prog band Samla Mammas Manna. Ranges from intense drones to fucked-up polka to some of the fastest most impressive fingers-flying-over-the-keyboard arpeggiated notes that I didn't even know were possible on the accordion! Klucsevek is one of a kind.
RealAudio clip: "Aeolian Furies"

KNEALE, CAMPBELL Pink Stalingrad (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ran out of these super quick, so for those of you who got left in the dust last time around, we just now managed to get more!
After a whole slew of recent releases, this is the first new record in a while from Mr. Kneale presented under his given name. Not sure what makes this a Campbell Kneale record and not a Birchville Cat Motel record, but who cares, fans of either will dig this heavily. Seems like Kneale's focus lately has been almost exclusively on his black sludge doom project Black Boned Angel, and we're not complaining, we definitely can't get enough of that stuff. But Kneale has quite a deft hand when it comes to free ambient drone as well, and oddly enough we can't seem to get enough of that stuff either. So here we have the new Kneale record, which could have just as easily been a Birchville record, based on the sounds within, and is shot through with plenty of Black Boned Angel-isms, delicate drones are thicker, heavier, more dense and volatile, sludge metal blissed out into expansive stretches of shimmer and swirl. Four lengthy tracks, each a barely moving slab of molten sonic grrrrwwwwrrrrrrrrvvvvvmmmmmm. Layers atop layers, delicate melodies buried beneath, rumbling churning slow shifting sound, keening high end skree all tangled up with subsonic reverberations, the whole thing a slow moving vibrational flow, a massive abstract multiphonic spaced out downtuned tranced our Ur-drone.
MPEG Stream: "Pink Stalingrad"
MPEG Stream: "Black Thrash Princess"

KNEALE.KIRK.PIETERS Btwxt / Bdvld (Celebrate Psi Pheomenon) cd-r 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another batch of super limited and beautifully packaged cd-r's from Campbell Kneale's (Birchville Cat Motel) Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. The finest in underground free noise / drone, culled mostly from New Zealand but all around the world as well. For those of you new to the CpsiP label, imagine classic Siltbreeze (Dead C, etc.) mixed with Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Blithe Sons etc.), dark and deep listening that sometimes verges on all out noise, but more often than not remains subtle experiments in avant drone and abstract sound. And when we say limited we mean LIMITED. Thes babies come in pressings of 30-80, out of which we get a whopping 10 copies!!
A veritable New Zealand noise super group, featuring one member from each: Birchville Cat Motel, Sandoz Lab Technicians, and Flies Inside The Sun, the whole is definitely less than the sum of its parts, with three cooks in the kitchen, making barely audible microscopic soundscapes of whir and scrape, skitter and whisper, hum and tinkle. Huge expanses of barely-there sound, vast and wide open, only the occasional tiny bell or reverbed clunk letting you know the action is still on. This is some definite headphone listening.
MPEG Stream: "Btwxt"

KNEALE.KNEALE.KNEALE Majestic Header (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It must be pretty fun being Campbell Kneale's kids. Not only is he a cool guy, funny, weird taste, he also gathers his offspring together once in a while and records an album!! Man, when we were 7 or 8 years old, I'm not sure we would have even understood what was going on if our Dad asked us to start a band or record an album. But the younger Kneales, Winter, aged 7, and Caspar, aged 9, are old hands at this recording business. In fact this is record number two, for this familial ensemble, rounded out by Campbell, aged 33. The last Kneale-Cubed record, Myriapod, was a chaotic freeforall blast of noise, a wall of sound very reminiscent of Papa Kneale's harsher Birchville albums. But part of that may have been cuz the kids were too young to know better, nothing more fun than making loud noise after all. But it seems Winter and Caspar have matured, both physically and musically, as Majestic Header is a much more refined affair, two lengthy tracks of skittery beated drone, with Winter and Caspar handling most of the instruments: beats, electronics, and percussion, leaving Dad to violin and guitar. The result is pretty cool. Both tracks are long free form drone workouts, a thick layer of fuzz beneath squealing peals of violin skree, while nestled amongst the fuzzy drone and thick whirs, a simple propulsive drum machine pulses along and the whole thing is pelted with strange alien squelches and abstract FX. The second track has an almost-house music thing going on, although it's buried under some Black Boned guitars. Like a techno Total or a heavy metal Neu! or some sort of primitive Birchville remix record. Cool stuff. Can't wait to hear what sort of sonic trouble these boys will get up to in their teens!! We're sure Campbell is bracing himself as well!!
SUPER LIMITED! WE GOT ABOUT 30 COPIES, WHEN THOSE ARE GONE THEY MAY BE GONE FOR GOOD, SO ACT FAST!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

KNEALE.KNEALE.KNEALE Myriapod (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet again, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon / Birchville Cat Motel madman Campbelll Kneale risks the wrath of child services by enlisting his offspring, Casper and WInter, in a 30 minute noise drenched free for all. Record number two from the Kneale family, this one is a speaker shredding burst of jagged noise and crumbling distortion. There might be songs and singing and other music type things present, but if they are, the kids have thrown them to the floor and stomped them to bits, then tossed them into the air, a massive swirling cloud of industrial rrroooaaar, like a battle royale between Total, Birchville Cat Motel and Hijokaidan. SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
MPEG Stream: "Myriapod"

KNEALE.KNEALE.KNEALE The Silver Chair (Celebrate Psi Pheomenon) cd-r 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another batch of super limited and beautifully packaged cd-r's from Campbell Kneale's (Birchville Cat Motel) Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. The finest in underground free noise / drone, culled mostly from New Zealand but all around the world as well. For those of you new to the CpsiP label, imagine classic Siltbreeze (Dead C, etc.) mixed with Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Blithe Sons etc.), dark and deep listening that sometimes verges on all out noise, but more often than not remains subtle experiments in avant drone and abstract sound. And when we say limited we mean LIMITED. Thes babies come in pressings of 30-80, out of which we get a whopping 10 copies!!
This triple K release is definitely a family affair, with the Kneales -- Campbell (age 30), Caspar (age 7) and Winter (aged 4) -- all getting together to make a sweetly innocent racket. Stumbling acoustic guitars, caterwauling violins, chimes and shakers and splattery percussion, distorted guitar fuzz, squiggly synthesizers, squeaking horns and toys, almost new wave keyboard pulses, primitive four on the floor techno beats and all sorts of other business. Sounds like it must have been a blast to make, and thankfully it's just as fun to listen to. Primitive, abstract New Zealand all ages noise rock. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Feather Duster"
MPEG Stream: "Dinosaur Wars"

KNELL Last Ten Meters (Utech) cd 14.98
Knell comes from the same mold that has shaped the work of Jasper TX and Machinefabriek. While it remains to be seen if Knell will take the course of cd-r infinitude as both of the aforementioned artists have, it's clear from this debut recording that Knell (aka Johannes Buff) has the chops to pull off that expressive blur between art-drone soundsmear and elliptical patterns of darkened songwriting broken and stretched into lengthy constructs. Piano and harmonizing echoes set a shadowy stage at the onset of Last Ten Meters which Buff flushes out with unsettling squishes of sound as if aquatic creatures were unduly having their contents squeezed out of their pores. Eventually, a singular detuned guitar strum begins a melancholy dirge which steadily doubles and interweaves into a minor-key crescendo that all together falls somewhere between Larsen's post-rock hypnosis and the molten, subharmonic doom of Corrupted. After one of these smoldering peaks of downer rock riffs burns out in distant washes of distortion, the pools of metallic drone begin to coalesce once again and a fragmented song emerges once again. Yeah, Knell really does conjure the grim yet beautiful atmospheres as found in the best work of Jasper TX and Machinefabriek; hopefully, Buff will continue on with the Knell recordings in same exemplary fashion as his aesthetic contemporaries.
MPEG Stream: "Extract 1"
MPEG Stream: "Extract 2"

KNIFE, THE (IN COLLABORATION WITH MT. SIMS & PLANNINGTOROCK) Tomorrow, In A Year (Rabid / Mute) 2cd 19.98

KNIVES OV RESISTANCE Prisca Sapientia (Aurora Borealis) cd 14.98
Back in stock!
Latest release from the UK's Aurora Borealis label, responsible for the KTL double lp elsewhere on this list, as well as records from Moss, Ginnungagap, Wolfmangler, Guapo, the Grails, even Crebain!
Knives Ov Resistance are a European ensemble who weave dense soundscapes of blissed out ambience and abstract guitar shimmer, Channeling the spirit of Popol Vuh, Spacemen 3, Godspeed, Jackie O Motherfucker, and other like minded sonic explorationists.
A lush blend of field recordings, glistening guitars, rumbling drones, warbling turntables, all woven into drifting sun dappled sonic tapestries of sound. An ambient post rock drift, that flits and flutters amidst the sounds of children laughing, the lush din of the forest, chittering birds, the sound of leaves and water, a dense and thick backdrop, rife with turntabled fragments of sound, bits of opera, soaring strings, muted squiggles, slowed down ambience, warm whirs, mixed in with simple percussion, everything smeared into fuzzy blurs, all beneath an abstract summery folk, that glimmers and drifts, gradually changing shape and color, texture and timbre. Epic and expansive, yet subtle and simple. Some sort of abstract avant ambient folk perhaps... really really nice.
Fans of the above mentioned bands will definitely dig this, as well as fans of new weird America, modern free folk, and all things Jewelled Antler.
Packaged in a thick vinyl pouch, housed in a cool textured paper sleeve that folds out into a poster.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 1"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 2"

KNIZAK, MILAN Broken Music (Ampersand) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Czech artist Milan Knizak began his art career without much success, getting himself thrown out of Pedagogic Uni Prague, Preliminary Art School Prague, and Art Academy Prague in quick succession. But during the mid '60s, Knizak affiliated himself with Fluxus and began experimenting with turntables, tape recorders, and the surfaces of vinyl in order to make a 'broken music,' predating the damaged turntable 'n' vinyl experiments of Christian Marclay by almost two decades! Originally he would just slow down and speed up his records to change to quality of the intrinsic music. But by 1965, he started to scratch the records, punch holes in them, sticking tape to the surfaces, dumping paint over whole record, burning them, literally cutting the records apart and gluing them back together. These would then be played on his turntable, and inevitably destroy the needle and often wreck the turntable itself! The collages that Knizak arrived at are nerve-wracking clattering works in which snippets of the original would emerge amidst erratic skips and asynchronous warbling. Certainly for those adventurous fans of Philip Jeck, "Metal Machine Music," and Marclay.
RealAudio clip: "Composition N. 1"
RealAudio clip: "Composition N. 3"

KODAMA Turning Leaf (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 21.00

KODE 9 Rinse 22 (Rinse) cd 16.98
It's hard to believe we're on volume 22 of this long running series of DJ mixes from the venerable UK radio station (online and terrestrial) Rinse FM. It might be even harder to believe that of those 22, we've only previously reviewed ONE, the recent Roska installment. Which is crazy, cuz we're all big fans of these mixes, and previous installments have featured a who's who of the modern electronic/garage/dubstep scene, including Skream, Skepta, Plastician and loads more. And while our favorites in the series were definitely heavy on the dubstep, that is after all the genesis of this series, the individual mixes are all over the map, mixing in everything from house music to techno, dub to electro. Obviously when we discovered the new one was curated by Hyperdub label head honcho Kode9, we knew we had to hear it. And we were not disappointed. Just a quick flit through the tracks here, jams by Burial, Kode9 himself, Theo Parrish, The Bug, Rustie, Terror Danjah, and even RP Boo (whose new full length on Planet Mu is reviewed elsewhere on this week's list). So yeah, heavy on the dubstep, and of course plenty of Hyperdub artists, past, present, and we're presuming future, not to mention some seriously rare dubplates and sneak peaks of new up and comers.
It starts off super string with Burial's "Turant", perfectly setting the mood with the murky slo-mo soul, sinister and skittery, but after that, pretty much all bets are off, playful super melodic house music collides with shimmery, prismatic electro pop, which bleeds right into some Kompakt style house-dub, which in turn leads into a killer dubstep groover, with rad sped up soul vocal samples, and a killer bass drop. And that's just the first 10 minutes. It's a DJ set after all, so similar sonics come in clumps, our favorite, of course are the Hyperdubby dubstep stretches, like the one that starts with Jam City's "Her", a dizzyingly stuttery hip hop dubstep mash up, which mutates into Kode9's ominous "Uh", or later when Faze Miyake weaves strange theremin like melodies, and what sounds like barking dogs into a sultry sprawl of dubbed out skitter and stutter, which blossoms into Cashmere Cat's weirdly Eastern synth heavy lurching stutter-groove "Aurora", big beats, and weird chooped vocals, like a revved up Burial sort of, but definitely wanna here more from him (her? them?).
Still later, we're treated to one of the best songs we've heard from Rustie, sick ribcage rattling bass, distorted and laced with siren like high end squiggles, a crunked out beat, and some epic almost M83 sounding flourishes. That launches a killer dubstep stretch, with Terror Danjah, S-type and Kode9 offering up variations of that low slung dubbed out groove we can't seem to get enough of.
The Bug pops up too with some of that supercharged dubbed out dancehall, and then some wildly funky and maddeningly repetitive footwork from RP Boo, a strangely perfect fit with some of the other dubstep jams here.
The last ten minutes or so is mostly DJ Rashad and friends, who spin a whirling web of revved up garage, stuttery techno-house breakdowns, sliced and diced vocals, recontextualized into twisted melodies, and stuttering free form vocal freakouts, draped over and wrapped around chaotic rhythmic skitter, swirling soft focus synth pads, some tracks slow burn electro-soul, some laced with little blurts of jungle, others stretched out into some seriously hypnotic dancefloor mesmer.
Bunch of killer stuff on this installment we'd never heard (or even heard of) before, here's hoping more of that stuff will be coming out on Hyperdub in the near future...
MPEG Stream: DVA "Chilli Burrito"
MPEG Stream: CHAMPION "Friday 13th"
MPEG Stream: JAM CITY "Her"
MPEG Stream: KODE9 "Uh"
MPEG Stream: FAZE MIYAKE "Burciaga"
MPEG Stream: THE BUG "Dirty"
MPEG Stream: RUSTIE "Triadzz"

KOHN Random Patterns (KRAAK) 12" 15.98
We first discovered Kohn, aka Jurgen DeBlonde, via his contribution to the Western Vinyl 'Portrait' series, in which each artist was to pick an individual, write songs about said individual, and provide a drawing for the cover. Kohn picked Bruce Willis, so we could hardly resist when we saw this weird record in the racks with this scrawled portrait of BW on the cover. We were then pleasantly surprised to discover that there was more to the record that the concept/cover, and in fact, it was a gorgeous disc of glitched out folkiness and droney melodic abstractions, trippy loops and blurred collaged soundscapes, it was so good that we went searching for every release we could find.
And not soon after, this showed up, the latest from Kohn, an lp on Kraak and one that finds him exploring the concept, as the title suggests, of random patterns, recorded with just an organ, and with minimal edits, improvised variations on simple random patterns, designed to be listened to, again according to the liner notes, while doing something else, reading, meditating, driving, and it does sound perfect for that. Obviously influenced by Reich, Riley, Glass and the like, this is moody hypnotic, almost new age sounding kosmische mesmer, four long tracks, that over the course of each, gradually shift and transform, from murky looped churn, to glistening melodic shimmer, and from lush chordal thrum, to percolating sci-fi arpeggiations, that sound very cosmic and soundtracky, the sort of stuff that should definitely appeal to everyone into the current crop of retro futurism, Zombi, Umberto, Majeure, Blizaro, etc, although this is definitely more minimal, and in places definitely has a Zomes vibe, a similar sort of spaced out zoner vibe, perfect drift off, zone out, late night soundtrack for sure.
Housed in a super swank four color silkscreened fold over jacket, with a printed insert with liner notes detailing the motives behind the music, and Kohn's ideas and intentions in creating these random patterns.

KOHOUTEK Expansive Headache (Music Fellowship) cd 15.98

KOICHI, MAKIGAMI Koedarake (Tzadik) cd 15.98
More from this avant-garde Japanese vocalist.

KOICHI, MAKIGAMI & ANTON BRUHIN Electric Eel (Tzadik) cd 15.98
Japanese avant-vocalist Koichi and Swiss voice/tape experimentalist Bruhin team up on an array of home-built electric jaw harps! Extended techniques (based on Tuvan throat-singing) abound, the two harpists creating an amazing & amusing symphony of some very bizarre, unlikely sounds. Plus, it's practically three records in one, as Koichi is heard in one speaker and Bruhin in the other--so you can listen in stereo or have the option to hear each man individually!

KOJO, HITOSHI Ezo (Alluvial Recordings) 10" 13.98
Occasionally working in the past as Spiracle, Hitoshi Kojo presents this thoroughly amazing piece of ancient-sounding drone music. No doubt, Kojo's work will be compared to that of the classic Organum sound; but considering that very few have even come close to replicating the power and mystery of such classic Organum recordings as Ikon or Horii, such parallels should be taken as the highest praise. Kojo claims that all of the sounds originated from various found objects. He doesn't specify beyond that, but all of the objects must be metal in origin, probably large pieces of sheet metal, or flexible rods of steel, or long pieces of wire, or something equally resonant and with a dynamic timbral quality. Each of these objects is bowed in order to coax a controlled dissonance of metallic screeches, protracted tonal bellows, and various acoustic drones. The two compositions are simple in their moderate pacing of the ebb and flow between all of these sounds, not too slow... but certainly not too fast. Through these recordings, Kojo offers very little in the way of digital treatments or effects of any nature. Just a terse edit of one layer here, or a reversing of a metallic gong decay there. The results are a timeless set of interlocking metallic rasps and gasping drones that rivals what Harry Bertoia, Taj Mahal Travellers, LaMonte Young, and of course Organum had done so impeccably in the past. Beautiful, mysterious, and very highly recommended!

KOJO, HITOSHI High Tide Mirror (Omnimemento) cd 17.98
More breathtaking cosmic music from the Japanese artist Hitoshi Kojo, whose densely layered constructions once found company with the brutal, malcontent sounds of Maurizio Bianchi. Where that collaboration was suitably apocalyptic and bleak, this solo album (made just six year later) is remarkably light and airy. Such a move could easily be anticipated through the waking dreamscape of the stratospheric Ananta 2cd under his moniker Spiracle as well as the freak-folk clatter of his ensemble Juppala Kaapio. Like all of Kojo's work, High Tide Mirror holds to a single vision, pulling facets and variations from his stratified sounds. So the fundamental drones and tactile happenings all still occupy a strong presence in his compositional agenda, but the sources for all of his sounds are far more bright. So when he gets a little more feral with a droning set for chord organ and Jew's harp on "Seminal Weavers", he intertwines the holy minimalist drive for overtones and rich harmonics with rapturous psychedelic romps akin to Kojo frolicking through the woods with bacchanalian glee. Elsewhere, you'll find plenty of allusions to Terry Riley trills on analogue electronics and the swirling vocal intonations of Pandit Pran Nath amidst Kojo's slippery phasing electronics and liquid shimmer. He saves his best work for last with the sunrise of a title track that gasps with blurry tones stretched from a shakuhachi and layered on ever blossoming ambient radiance. Lovely hand packaging and limited to 200 copies!
MPEG Stream: "Seminal Weavers"
MPEG Stream: "Lunar Germination"
MPEG Stream: "High Tide Mirror"

KOJO, HITOSHI Lux Ova (Omnimemento) cassette 10.98
This brilliant, super-limited cassette from Hitoshi Kojo collects various pieces that the Japanese psychedelic-drone-noise artist recorded on cassette back in the early to mid '90s, making the media especially suitable to the material. While Kojo's recent output as Juppala Kaapio and Spiracle has embodied a shamanistic ritualism through freak-folk instrumentation and cracked-drone expressionism, his earliest work was more of a feral beast with full-spectrum clattering of acoustic sounds and ecstatic noise shimmer. The six tracks densely pack the 45 minute cassette, with slippery references between the hallowed percussive dronescaping of Angus MacLise and the bloodcurdling wash of Matthew Bower's Sunroof! There are definitely glimpses of the psychedelic density that Kojo later refined through his luminous Juppala Kaapio recordings, but we would never decry the howling skree, ghostly harmonics, and vertiginous grit that sprawl across Lux Ova. Comes housed in a handsomely die-cut O-card.

KOJO, HITOSHI Omnimoment (Omnimemento) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Gorgeously packaged, gorgeous dronemusik!
Hitoshi Kojo is a Japanese sound artist and drone-centric expressionist who has recorded in the past under the moniker Spiracle and performs in the jubilantly psychedelic but still quite droned-out project Juupala Kaapio. Omnimoment is a collection of edits from Kojo's sound installations and site-specific work dating from 2006 - 2009, all of which extract and manipulate elemental forces of wind, fire, water, metal, wood, sand, etc. into blossoming thrums of sublime minimalism which run parallel to the works of Andrew Chalk, Loren Chasse, and John Grzinich. "Shiranui" was originally conceived at the MoKS residency program in Estonia, sourced mostly from the blades of an abandoned Soviet turbine left inexplicably out in the countryside. Kojo extracts pensive, metallic overtones from those blades that sound more like an ancient gong than some hulking industrial machine; and he amasses those sounds into semi-melodic phrases and ritualized acoustic dronings that Organum mastered in the mid-'80s. "Sea Migration" is an excerpt from an installation involving a feedback system and a bunch PVC pipes that hung from the top window of Germanic castle, looking sort of like a weird plastic octopus playing the part of Rapunzel. Those pipes captured the sound of the wind and the various frequencies of that feedback system creating a tactile, generative composition of pure tones and haptic events not too far from those far more composed works from Andrew Chalk's once prolific project Ora. The last three tracks demonstrate Kojo's ongoing strategies involving found objects through a process which he calls 'molecular communication' where extended vibrations and dense beds of accreted drone broadcast outward from Kojo's scraped metals, clinked glass, and rubbed sand. There's definitely some type of alchemy at work in Kojo's sound design, with mysterious energies transforming the commonplace into something sublime, otherworldly, or divine.
This is the limited art-edition of Omnimoment, which comes in a thick cardstock folio with a 24-page book and die-cut artwork. Certainly on par with what Faraway Press has done in their packaging department! Limited to just 88 copies! We most likely won't be able to restock the limited version, but will have the standard version soon.
MPEG Stream: "Shirunai"
MPEG Stream: "Sea Migration"
MPEG Stream: "Seeding Planets"

KOJO, HITOSHI Omnimoment (Omnimemento) cd 17.98
BACK IN STOCK! At a lower price (in slightly less extravagant packaging, but only just slightly!)
Gorgeously packaged, gorgeous dronemusik!
Hitoshi Kojo is a Japanese sound artist and drone-centric expressionist who has recorded in the past under the moniker Spiracle and performs in the jubilantly psychedelic but still quite droned-out project Juupala Kaapio. Omnimoment is a collection of edits from Kojo's sound installations and site-specific work dating from 2006 - 2009, all of which extract and manipulate elemental forces of wind, fire, water, metal, wood, sand, etc. into blossoming thrums of sublime minimalism which run parallel to the works of Andrew Chalk, Loren Chasse, and John Grzinich. "Shiranui" was originally conceived at the MoKS residency program in Estonia, sourced mostly from the blades of an abandoned Soviet turbine left inexplicably out in the countryside. Kojo extracts pensive, metallic overtones from those blades that sound more like an ancient gong than some hulking industrial machine; and he amasses those sounds into semi-melodic phrases and ritualized acoustic dronings that Organum mastered in the mid-'80s. "Sea Migration" is an excerpt from an installation involving a feedback system and a bunch PVC pipes that hung from the top window of Germanic castle, looking sort of like a weird plastic octopus playing the part of Rapunzel. Those pipes captured the sound of the wind and the various frequencies of that feedback system creating a tactile, generative composition of pure tones and haptic events not too far from those far more composed works from Andrew Chalk's once prolific project Ora. The last three tracks demonstrate Kojo's ongoing strategies involving found objects through a process which he calls 'molecular communication' where extended vibrations and dense beds of accreted drone broadcast outward from Kojo's scraped metals, clinked glass, and rubbed sand. There's definitely some type of alchemy at work in Kojo's sound design, with mysterious energies transforming the commonplace into something sublime, otherworldly, or divine.
This new version replicates the packaging of the out of print deluxe art edition, and again comes in a thick cardstock folio with a 24-page book and die-cut artwork. Still on par with what Faraway Press has done with their packaging! Exquisite!
MPEG Stream: "Shirunai"
MPEG Stream: "Sea Migration"
MPEG Stream: "Seeding Planets"

KOMET 20' to 2000 (Noton) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first in what seems to be a very promising series from the already exceptional Noton label. Packaged in an odd slimline case looking more like something to put birth control pills in rather than a CD, this series will consist of limited edition releases from twelve of minimalists, each composing 20 minutes of music for the end of the millenium. In theory, all of these will be released before this deadline...
Komet's contribution is one of the best examples of 'bleep blip minimalism' we've encountered in a while. While barely audible on one level, it is exquisitely dynamic...

KOMET Audio.NL (Korm Plastics) cd 15.98
Audio.NL was an offshoot of the stalwart avant-garde label Korm Plastics, which released an impressive catalogue of adventurously minimalistic techno from 1998 - 2007 from the likes of Taylor Deupree, Motor, Goem, Tomas Jirku, and Komet. The label was at the forefront of the blossoming 'clicks + cuts' aesthetic of jittery electronica built almost one electron at a time; and that reputation was solidified through the two singles that Komet produced for the label. Komet, of course, is the work of Frank Bretschneider, one of the principals behind the seminal label Raster-Noton. While he's probably not as well known as his partner Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto), Bretschneider has a similar knack for injecting the blip and bleep with as much of a slippery grooviness as one could muster from sine-tone pulses and phase patterns. This cd compiles all of the material that Bretschneider produced for Audio.NL, including those two singles and a compilation track. Everything has been out of print for years, so to have it all in one place makes a considerable amount of sense. On these 9 tracks, Bretschneider laces subtle glitchiness upon his reductive techno rhythms - little more than a drum machine high-hat and kick gliding at a metronomic pace. That digital errata is bent and twisted through delay patterns, flanging metallic gleams, EQ-fluctuation, and time suspension tricks, giving each of the tracks an unmistakable, if muted slinkiness that keeps the tracks from becoming dehumanized. Sterile, this may be; but Bretschneider makes all of the surgical tools dance on the operating table.
MPEG Stream: "Mog"
MPEG Stream: "Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost"

KOMET Rausch (12K) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Full length release from Raster-Noton head, and Signal collaborator Frank Bretschneider. Still working from a palette of aseptic beeps and clicks, but composing pieces that are surprizingly catchy in an utterly minimal way. Without stepping into the dubby, and almost (I said "almost") organic ballpark of Stefan Betke (Pole) and steering clear of the borderline housey territory of Thomas Brinkmann, Bretschneider none the less harkens the works of both in his own way. The tracks on this disk even have a slowly evolving quality, starting with very minimal pulse beats and short tones (typical of Raster-Noton) and developing to the point where, by the time you reach the end of the disk, you convince yourself you're hearing pop songs and hooks. Bretschneider has the knack of making the sterile swing.
RealAudio clip: "#11"

KOMMISSAR HJULER UND MAMA BAER Leben Gesteingt Selektion (Black Horizons) cassette 9.98
Three new tapes from Black Horizons, all of them mysterious, and mysteriously wonderful, this one from a German married couple who call themselves Kommissar Hjuler Und Mama Baer, and the label drops a Fluxus comparison, and we'd be hard pressed to disagree, a strange assemblage of lilting melodies, abstract lo-fi collages, field recordings, the opening track, sounds a bit like someone humming to themselves as they do things around the apartment, but somehow the sounds are blurred and abstract, and are transformed into some strange otherworldly mantra, the label description goes on at great length about the roots of this project/recording, much of which we won't even pretend to understand, but these were dropped off around Halloween, and we were told by label head honcho James that these were all very Halloween worthy, this one especially, in that it's sort of bizarre and subtly terrifying, like the soundtrack to some nightmarish dream sequence, warped and warbly, woozy melodies, fragmented pop songs, industrial creak and whir, hushed whispering, panicked vocalizations, lots of distortion, tape hiss, feedback, screaming, speaking in German, the mind conjures up some seriously chilling imagery to accompany these strange and alien sounds. Woah.
Gorgeous packaging too, purple and gold offset printing on green vellum, held together by a riveted obi strip, all housed in a green case. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!

KONDO, HIDEAKI Structures (PSF) cd 17.98
Fans of the late great Japanese free improv guitar master Masayuki Takayanagi take note of this release. Guitarist Kondo and his group pay tribute with a version of Takayangi's gorgeous, gradually projected "Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain". And the rest of this is quite in keeping with the spirit of Takayangi's pioneering New Directions Unit. And while therefore pretty "out" sounding, it's also quite a bit different from some of the more extreme offerings we've heard from Kondo's other band, the electronics n' computers plus free jazz noisemaking ensemble Exias-J, known for their droning and distorted Borbetomagus-like jams. Here things are often calmer and more, dare we say, melodic. Though this is still pretty darn avant-garde. It opens with a solo guitar piece, finding Kondo playing a "ten-string gut guitar", which is an impressively large, plank-like instrument. Later on, he's accompanied by a group featuring flute, percussion and contrabass.
And this is called Structures for a reason. Even though there's a large improvisational element to Kondo's music (with certain tracks designated as such) he's really into experimenting with improvisations within particularly strict and unusual theoretical structures. Or at least that's the idea we get from what we've read about it, and certainly the very meticulous music here, full of moody pink-plonk, rumble-fumble, and scritch-scrape, seems like it could creatively stem from such complex, intellectualized musical methodologies...
MPEG Stream: "Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain"
MPEG Stream: "The Secondary Object Of Mode One, Crossing Lines"

KONER, THOMAS Daikan (Mille Plateaux) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Currently, Thomas Koner has been stepping outside of the heroin house persona that absorbed his work within Porter Ricks as the defining force for the Chain Reaction sound. Complementing his recent low-end frequency collaborations with Asmus Teitchens as Kontakt Der Junglinge, Thomas Koner's "Daikan" is a return to the isolationist aesthetics that were indicative of his earliest work (such as "Teimo" and the aptly titled "Permafrost"). Koner opens the album by breaking a pristine, black silence with deep bass rumbles that ominously plod, as if made by some Promethean creature from a Lovecraft horror story. Amidst these distant pulses (which resemble a 909 kick slowed way the hell down), cold washes of densely layered synthethic drones intrude into the audible realm, only to pass back into silence, but with an altered acoustic teleology, sounding sort of like the doppler effect. These fluctuations in and out of silence build up to a rather subtle climax in which Koner introduces a very simple descending three note melody composed out of those same synthetic drones. As simple a compositional technique, this melody, which only appears twice throughout the 54 minutes, is incredibly dramatic. For all of the metaphors and allusions that Koner implies in this work, it is a little odd that he would claim that it "will create a presence of sounds which do not refer to anything, and not only allow, but stimulates a complete awareness, free of dramatized illusion." While he's obviously intended something other than his end results, "Daikan" is a breathtaking vision into an existential void, just as powerful as anything Lustmord or Main has created in the realms of dark acoustic soundscapes. Very nice indeed!
RealAudio clip: "Daikan excerpt 1"
RealAudio clip: "Daikan excerpt 2"

KONER, THOMAS La Barca (Fario) 2lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
My goodness. The arrival of a Thomas Koner recording has become an incredibly rare event, with the 2003 Zyklop album being the last album he released outside of his busy schedule traveling the world as a video/installation artist. La Barca parallels his globetrotting, as a travelogue presented through the glacial hush of his frozen ambient productions. Each of the tracks designates a GPS coordinate of a particular location, with ghostly remnants of human voices echoing in deep reverb amidst his signature darkened backdrops and slow-motion melodic phrasing. Many of the voices seem to be taken from the announcements from train stations, airports, and other non-placed environments that easily detach from the psychogeographic details of those specific places he designates in those coordinates. So, as much as this album is a travel narrative through various places, Koner intentionally presents the sonic artifacts as connected and unifying rather than endemic and localized. It's a feeling a profound melancholy and detachment that Koner succeeds in embedding into these pieces.
The cd of La Barca went out of print before anybody really had the opportunity to get a hold of it; and that will definitely be the fate of the 2lp version of the album, which features 4 extra tracks not on the cd, making up the entirely of Side D!!

KONER, THOMAS Novaya Zemlya (Touch) cd 15.98
Novaya Zemlya is a grand statement. But then again, Thomas Koner doesn't operate in any scale other than monumental. All of his albums (barring the somewhat lackluster La Barca from 2003) speak through the gasping drones of a bleak existentialism. For Koner, the human condition is mirrored in the environment around us, especially those rugged, barren locales at the poles, with his isolationist smears of grey sounds alluding to water, ice, permafrost, wind, radiation, and vast empty spaces above the Arctic Circle. The environmental site for this album is a suitably inhospitable Russian archipelago jutting far out into the Arctic Ocean toward the North Pole. During the arms race of the Cold War, the Soviet Union used Novaya Zemlya as a nuclear test site, dropping the Tsar Bomba in 1961 on the landmass, which was permanently scarred by the largest atomic detonation in the history of the world. The thin layer of nuclear fallout which has buried itself in the frozen tundra of Novaya Zemlya commingles with radioactive isotopes from poorly managed storage facilities, sunken reactors, and scuttled submarines.
Koner describes this landscape through its hazardous potential, which is so much worse than the current situation. With global warming, the methane gas spewed from a melted permafrost will lift all of that radioactive material into the atmosphere and send that along the prevailing winds across western Russian over Scandinavia and into continental Europe. Perhaps, a greater catastrophe than Chernobyl. In speaking to that potential, Koner manifests pockets of near silence throughout the album with his signature tectonic rumblings and stealth-bomber frequencies gliding beyond the event horizon into the realm of the audible. Darkened crumblings of earthen material pocks the beginning of the first in a trilogy of tracks, sounding almost like slabs of ice thunderously collapsing into the sea. Drones swell and collapse into pools of resonant emptiness, broken on the second track by a disembodied shortwave radio transmission of garbled voices. The album returns to those cold, contemplative sounds until the end of the album draws near, when Koner introduces a few elegant, melodic plucks from what might be a harp. For all of the foreboding that looms throughout, the end is almost hopeful that humanity might just sort out this global warming puzzle. But then again, we might not; and then, we're fucked.
An easy contender for 2012's album of the year.
MPEG Stream: "Novaya Zemlya 1"
MPEG Stream: "Novaya Zemlya 2"

KONER, THOMAS Nunatak (Type) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Thomas Koner's debut album Nunatak Gongamur was a record that quietly emerged on the Dutch label Barooni in 1990. With works from Nurse With Wound, Charlemagne Palestine, Roland Kayn, and Christoph Heemann also released by that same imprint, Koner's debut had some very good neighbors trafficking in a somewhat similar post-industrial murk and bleak minimalism. Unfortunately, the label went out of business after a ten year run, rendering many of those amazing records impossible to find. Two of Koner's other albums on Barooni - Teimo and Permafrost - were reissued on Mille Plateaux in 1997, only to suffer the same fate, when that company dissolved. In 2010, Type Records enters the picture and reissues Nunatak (now without the Gongamur) on vinyl, hopefully ushering in eventual reissues of all of Koner's early out of print material.
The German isolationist Koner has always been known for his dark, haunting ambient music which further froze the already chilly strategies that Brian Eno set forth on his seminal album On Land. Almost all of Koner's recordings (at least his solo recordings), speak to the tundra of the Northern environs, with a lot of allusions to the expanses of Greenland in particular. Nuuk was the name of one Koner record, which happens to the capital and largest city of that frigid island; and Nunatak is an Inuit word describing any rocky outcropping not covered in snow. And of course, Koner excels in the producing of cold cold music. There is a considerable difference between this album and the rest of his catalogue, as Nunatak is an electro-acoustic album entirely sourced from huge gongs. His other records definitely obliterated the source material (some of which was cited as being the sound channel on blank 16mm film stock) into deep space shadow and blackened noise. Here on Nunatak, Koner leaves the resonance of his metal gongs alone, occasionally catching them in languid loops but always focusing on vast deep rumbling overtones and the vast subharmonic frequencies. Given the rasping textures from the gongs, this one is less the all-consuming isolationism and more of an adventurous dronescrape as if extracted from the hull of a cargo ship. As with all Type vinyl, this one is strictly limited...
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

KONER, THOMAS Nunatak / Teimo / Permafrost (Type) 3cd 26.00
With the three key albums of Thomas Koner's work having recently been reissued individually on vinyl, Type has now collected those records - Nunatak, Teimo, and Permafrost - in a handsome oversized folio for presenting those albums on compact disc. Here's a recap of our reviews of these stunning pieces of glacial minimalism:
Thomas Koner's debut album Nunatak Gongamur (now truncated as Nunatak) was a record that quietly emerged on the Dutch label Barooni in 1990. Almost all of Koner's recordings (at least his solo recordings), speak to the tundra of the Northern environs, with a lot of allusions to the expanses of Greenland in particular. Nuuk was the name of one Koner record, which happens to the capital and largest city of that frigid island; and Nunatak is an Inuit word describing any rocky outcropping not covered in snow. And of course, Koner excels in the producing of cold cold music. There is a considerable difference between this album and the rest of his catalogue, as Nunatak is an electro-acoustic album entirely sourced from huge gongs. His other records definitely obliterated the source material (some of which was cited as being the sound channel on blank 16mm film stock) into deep space shadow and blackened noise. Here on Nunatak, Koner leaves the resonance of his metal gongs alone, occasionally catching them in languid loops but always focusing on vast deep rumbling overtones and the vast subharmonic frequencies. Given the rasping textures from the gongs, this one is less the all-consuming isolationism and more of an adventurous dronescrape as if extracted from the hull of a cargo ship.
Teimo is an album that was originally released as a cd on Barooni in 1992. Like its predecessor Nunatak Gongamur, Koner had sourced much of Teimo from recordings of gongs, using contact microphones and hydrophones to capture an unusual assortment of resonance, timbre, and decaying frequencies from his gongs. In these recordings, Koner was investigating what he qualified as an 'aesthetic of decline' shaped by the processes of decay, thermal cooling, and any gradual event that will achieve stasis. Water seeking its own level. Glaciers amassing in frozen landscapes. The metal fatigue of submarines, cracking under the pressure of an entire ocean. The long sustained metallic resonances of the gong is an apt tool for his conceptual framework, with Koner further manipulating his sources into elegant passages of subharmonic rumblings that utter subtle melodic phrases whilst shaking the bottom of the seafloor. Amidst the low-end drones and allusions to barren landscapes, Koner takes great care to keep the sounds immersive without imbuing them with terror. Yes, this is 'dark' ambient music, but his aesthetic of decline is far more clinical than say the theatrical drama that Lustmord can muster through his deadly recordings. Koner's quest is for the sublime, filled with awe and beauty simultaneously; and he has effortlessly achieved that quest throughout his career, certainly including this masterful record.
In Permafrost, we have the third and final chapter of this series of reissues from Type, documenting the long out-of-print isolationist composition from Thomas Koner. As with the previous recordings - Nunatak and Teimo - the German sound artist has masterfully captured the frigid atmospheres of the most northern ecosystems, and the title Permafrost leaves little to the imagination as to where this one will be travelling. Cold. Barren. Black. Sublime. The sounds are thoroughly abstracted into shifting blocks of grey noises slipping above seismic rumblings of infinitely bellowing low-end frequencies. By doing so, Koner eschews the use of the gong scrapes and metallic glistenings which graced those early records, adopting the bleak ethos which he continued to master on such albums as Kaamos and Daikan (the latter of which is probably the pinnacle of his career).
All of Koner's work is required listening for anyone who has been interested in drone-based recordings from any time period (e.g. Eno, Lustmord, Chalk, Hafler Trio, Roland Kayn, Alan Splet, Bernhard Gunter, BJ Nilsen, Kevin Drumm, etc.). His subtle use of movement and half-melodic phrasing in his arctic-driven ambience has warranted him quite a reputation, and fortunately none of his reissues fail to sound timeless, breathtaking, and bone-chillingly beautiful. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (Nunatak)"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (Nunatak)"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (Nunatak)"
MPEG Stream: "Andenes"
MPEG Stream: "Teimo"
MPEG Stream: "Nieve Penitentes 1"
MPEG Stream: "Permafrost 1"
MPEG Stream: "Permafrost 3"
MPEG Stream: "Permafrost 4"

KONER, THOMAS Nuuk (Mille Plateaux Media) cd + dvd 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KONER, THOMAS Permafrost (Type) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In Permafrost, we have the third and final chapter of this series of reissues from Type, documenting the long out-of-print isolationist composition from Thomas Koner. As with the previous recordings - Nunatak and Teimo - the German sound artist has masterfully captured the frigid atmospheres of the most northern ecosystems, and the title Permafrost leaves little to the imagination as to where this one will be travelling. Cold. Barren. Black. Sublime. The sounds are thoroughly abstracted into shifting blocks of grey noises slipping above seismic rumblings of infinitely bellowing low-end frequencies. By doing so, Koner eschews the use of the gong scrapes and metallic glistenings which graced those early records, adopting the bleak ethos which he continued to master on such albums as Kaamos and Daikan (the latter of which is probably the pinnacle of his career).
All of Koner's work is required listening for anyone who has been interested in drone-based recordings from any time period (e.g. Eno, Lustmord, Chalk, Hafler Trio, Roland Kayn, Alan Splet, Bernhard Gunter, BJ Nilsen, Kevin Drumm, etc.). His subtle use of movement and half-melodic phrasing in his arctic-driven ambience has warranted him quite a reputation, and fortunately none of his reissues fail to sound timeless, breathtaking, and bone-chillingly beautiful. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Permafrost 1"
MPEG Stream: "Permafrost 3"
MPEG Stream: "Permafrost 4"

KONER, THOMAS Teimo (Type) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's the second of three vinyl reissues of the early, seminal work from Thomas Koner, who alongside Andrew Chalk may stand as the greatest drone artist from the past few decades. Teimo is an album that was originally released as a cd on Barooni in 1992. Like its predecessor Nunatak Gongamur, Koner had sourced much of Teimo from recordings of gongs, using contact microphones and hydrophones to capture an unusual assortment of resonance, timbre, and decaying frequencies from his gongs. In these recordings, Koner was investigating what he qualified as an 'aesthetic of decline' shaped by the processes of decay, thermal cooling, and any gradual event that will achieve stasis. Water seeking its own level. Glaciers amassing in frozen landscapes. The metal fatigue of submarines, cracking under the pressure of an entire ocean. The long sustained metallic resonances of the gong is an apt tool for his conceptual framework, with Koner further manipulating his sources into elegant passages of subharmonic rumblings that utter subtle melodic phrases whilst shaking the bottom of the seafloor. Amidst the low-end drones and allusions to barren landscapes, Koner takes great care to keep the sounds immersive without imbuing them with terror. Yes, this is 'dark' ambient music, but his aesthetic of decline is far more clinical than say the theatrical drama that Lustmord can muster through his deadly recordings. Koner's quest is for the sublime, filled with awe and beauty simultaneously; and he has effortlessly achieved that quest throughout his career, certainly including this masterful record. Limited to 500 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Andenes"
MPEG Stream: "Teimo"
MPEG Stream: "Nieve Penitentes 1"

KONER, THOMAS Teimo / Permafrost (Mille Plateaux) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mille Plateaux has seen fit to reissue two of the three early isolationist recordings from Thomas Koner. At the time (being the early '90s), those three records (sadly there's no sight of a reissue of the best of the three: "Nunatak Gongamur") stood as a bleak dark ambient monuments that were too alien for the global hippy ambience of contemporaries like The Orb or Future Sound of London. However, Koner's membership in Porter Ricks - which defined the trajectory of the Chain Reaction washed out techno minimalism - has inspired more than a few techno boffins to look back at Koner's post-industrial roots. Very nice deep listening drones.

KONER, THOMAS Unerforschtes Gebiet (Die Stadt) cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
About a year ago, we touted Thomas Koner's "Unerforschtes Gebeit" as a piece of art that was executed to near perfection from beginning concept to final product. The first pressing was one of the loveliest picture discs we've ever seen with images of antique seafaring maps of the Arctic Ocean / North Pole. That pressing is now out of print; however, Die Stadt has seen fit to repress it on CD. The title translates from Koner's native German as "Unchartered Territory," a common theme for electronica's isolationist whose previous work has prompted metaphors of arctic desolation, astrophysical emptiness, and Zen-like nothingness. Koner's "Unerforschtes Gebiet" is a very quiet composition that explores variations of low frequencies which crawl very slowly in and out of audibility amidst down-pitched cracklings and muted rumbles. Koner has stated that this album has its origins from his experiments with projections of a really dusty piece of blank 16mm film; thus, the CD version -- with its digital clarity -- concedes some of the aesthetics and metaphors from archaic forms (i.e. old maps, the surface noise of vinyl, and that dusty film); however, it's a minor criticism of an otherwise exceptional piece of music. Furthermore, Koner flushed out "Unerforschtes Gebiet" with a bonus track, a 27 minute track from a soundtrack called "Les Soeurs Lumiere" which Koner produced for a video presentation by Karen Vanderborght. The slow rumbles and ominous tonalities found on the "Unerforschtes Gebiet" tracks are accompanied by a narration of woman speculating about the sky, outer space, and a bleak existentialism. Just as recommended as the lp.
RealAudio clip: "Unerforschtes Gebiet"

KONER, THOMAS Unerforschtes Gebiet (Die Stadt) lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As an objet d'art, Thomas Koner's "Unerforschtes Gebiet" is almost perfectly executed from beginning concept to final product. The title translates from Koner's native German as "Unchartered Territory," a common theme for electronica's isolationist whose previous work has prompted metaphors of arctic desolation, astrophysical emptiness, and Zen-like nothingness. Inscribed upon one of the loveliest picture discs we've ever seen with images of antique seafaring maps of the Arctic Ocean / North Pole, Koner's "Unerforschtes Gebiet" is a very quiet composition that explores variations of low frequencies which crawl very slowly in and out of audibility amidst down-pitched cracklings and muted rumbles. It could be assumed that Koner has kept this album relatively quiet and has geared-down all the frequencies to give more presence to the surface noise inherent in all picture discs (which for better or for worse never sound as good as a thick slab of 220 gram vinyl). Koner has stated that this album has its origins from his experiments with the projections of a really dusty piece of blank 16mm film; thus, he's done his best to cover all the conceptual bases between the historical references to those old maps, the surface noise, and that dusty film. Of course, if you can't stand surface noise, by all means stay away and be content with the knowledge that a slightly different CD version of this album will be released later on this year. But if you waffle on this one, I guarantee you will miss out as Die Stadt has manufactured a mere 700 copies!
RealAudio clip: "Unerforschtes Gebiet 1"
RealAudio clip: "Unerforschtes Gebiet 2"

KONER, THOMAS Zyklop (Mille Plateaux) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For all of the successful albums that Thomas Koner has produced and been a part of, it was inevitable that he'd release a dud. "Zyklop" -- a double disc featuring radio plays, incidental music for installations, and live performances -- will never be remembered as Koner's finest moment. Many of the tracks have this feel of being "Imaginary Sound Design." Not dissimilar to the Imaginary Film Score, these pieces sound as if they had been lifted directly from an unidentifiable film, having two distinctly different layers of sound. The first being the ambient sounds, voices, and everything that matches up with the action seen through the camera, and the framing mechanisms of synthetic atmosphere which underscores a set of pre-determined moods that the director uses to develop context and atmosphere. The sporadic narration of French and German texts are clearly anomalous to Koner's previous albums, and without the film, installation, or live performance, these voices simply don't work very well. Koner's much better at establishing meaning through the unspoken languages of the isolationist drone. Futhermore, entire passages from his masterful album "Daikan" have been regurgitated onto "Zyklop." As Koner's work explicitly asks for careful listening, why would you think you could get away with releasing the same material twice?
RealAudio clip: "Zyklop"
RealAudio clip: "Une Topographie Sonore: Col De Vence"

KONER, THOMAS / ASMUS TIETCHENS / DITTERICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG Untitled (Die Stadt Musik) cd 23.00