MACHINEFABRIEK Hapstaart (self-released) 3"cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wow! Another cd-r from Machinefabriek, who seems to be in some sort of competition with his sometime partner in sonic crime, Jasper TX, who seem to in the throes of trying to out release each other. But that is most definitely not a complaint. We're all winners in this contest. But for those of you keeping score, it's 6 to 5 Machinefabriek, but heck, that's only counting the ones we got here.
Anyway, we're just happy to have more Machinefabriek to listen to. This 20 minute 3" bucks the usual trend of most 3" cd-r's and instead of offering up one ultra long sprawling epic, splits his 20 minutes into 11 bite size pieces, which actually suits the sounds on Hapstaart as well.
Unlike the blissy gauzy ambience of his other releases, on Hapstaart, Rutger Zuydervelt, the man who is Machinefabriek, pushes his sounds to the extreme, ending up with a disc that has more in common with Ryoji Ikeda than it does any of his drone bliss peers. The whole disc seems to be based on a massive, barely audible low end thrum, that pulses and throbs subtly over the course of the 20 minutes, sometimes dipping to near silence, other times threatening to blow the speakers. Textures and layers are ultra minimal, with the volume turned waaaaaaaay up, you can hear these little drones twist and shimmer. The record is peppered with bits of crackle, of little pops, brief exhalations of hiss, or static, crumbling sine waves, intense streaks of jagged high end, but these intrusions are typically brief, fading out as fast as they appeared, only to leave the records active ultra low-end to slither almost silently on its way.
An awesome slab of microscopic sound. Headphones recommended!
MPEG Stream: "track 5"
MPEG Stream: "track 8"

MACHINEFABRIEK Huis (self-released) 3" cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, like clockwork, it's time for another short sweet blast of fuzzy sounds from our favorite sonic overachiever Machinefabriek. We recently made Weleer, a collection of long out of print self released Machinefabriek cd-r's record of the week, and it seems as if already, Mr. Machinefabriek Rutger Zuydervelt is already hard at work preparing for a second volume.
For those of you not content to wait, this here latest gem is another 3" cd-r, but instead of one looooooong piece, this is 10 tracks crammed into less than 20 minutes -- but they all sort of play out as a single piece with different movements. One of the prettier, more delicate discs we've heard from Zuydervelt, Huis is heavy on the piano, always drenched in reverb, and often allowed to drift aimlessly over fuzzy backdrops. The best part of Huis, and maybe the most subtle, is the presence of extreme amounts of bass, huge rib cage rattling swells, throbbing barely audible tectonic shifts, adding a strange weight to the delicate soft focus drift. Steel string guitars fade in and out, sweet music box melodies, melodic fragments, glitchy and washed out. Compositionally, the most dramatic development is a strange stop start rhythmic remixing, each little snippet of warm fuzzy ambience, is chopped into strange rhythms, a slow motion pulse, almost like someone is pressing pause and play on your cd player creating weird throbbing abstract arrangements. Bizarre for sure, and at first it sounds like your cd player is on the fritz, but soon you get sucked into the subtle rhythm and the whole thing reveals itself as weirdly hypnotic and so lovely.
Another sparkling sonic gem from the seemingly infallible Machinefabriek. And as always, crazy limited, we got a bunch but will probably sell out fast. So you know what that means...
MPEG Stream: "Welkom Thuis"
MPEG Stream: "Droog Water"

MACHINEFABRIEK Huiswerk (Ketchup Cavern) 7" 9.98
Not one, but two new Machinefabriek releases this time around, both on the smaller side, a 3" cd-r elsewhere, and this one song 7", both great as always, both limited as always, and depending on how full your Machinefabriek shelf is at home already, both quite possibly essential.
This new single features a single track spread out over two side, a gorgeously minimal guitar workout that reminds us of another aQ fave, Part Timer, with it's sleep guitar figures, wreathed in digital glitch, bits of crackle and streaks of hiss, every now and then a thick distorted guitar surfaces, only to drift off again, leaving lots of space for that lonely guitar to drift through. Stuttery, skipping, sudden moments of near silence, but all peppered throughout a slowly unfurling expanse of warbly woozy fractured folk, soft and pretty, spacious and minimal, the glitchiness mostly adding texture, rarely interrupting the song's dreamy drift.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

MACHINEFABRIEK Koploop (self-released) 3" cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another brief but fantastic little self released 3" cd-r from the ever prolific Machinefabriek, aka Rutger Zuydervelt. We won't go into too much detail, as obviously fans already know they need this, and folks new to the gorgeous soft sounds of Machinefabriek could do worse than starting with this relatively cheap introduction. And as always, this is super limited, we only got a handful, and that might be all we can get.
Once again utilizing a strange arsenal of sound making devices: memo recorders, mixing deck, effects pedals, guitar, banjo, organ, laptop as well as violin and cello (provided by guest musicians), Zuydervelt weaves a breathtaking world of tranquil ambience, all summery shimmer, warm summery warble, soft languorous drones that flow and pulse like the tides. Near the end it opens up and becomes some impossibly expansive soundworld, almost choral sounding, like some homespun piece by Arvo Part, the strings emerging near the end to flutter and flit, like butterflies after a rain storm. So lovely.
Packaged in a mini 3" sleeve, strikingly designed, also includes an URL where you can download an alternate version of Koploop...
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

MACHINEFABRIEK Lenteliedjes (Type) 7" 7.98
This new series of 7"s from the Type label looks to be pretty amazing. Even just based on the first two releases. A new single from Paavohaarju reviewed elsewhere on this list, and this here single from former AQ Record of the Week honoree Machinefabriek. The Machinefabriek cd was released on a label called Lampse, who we have decided is our perfect label. Every release is somehow in some way distressed, whether it's electronic, or lilting pop, everything is buried in hiss, or record crackle, the sound is murky or blurry, everything has that foggy distant sepia toned vibe that we can never get enough of, like Jeck or Basinski or Tim Hecker, Machinefabriek creates a mysterious sound world that hovers like a dear memory or a hard to recall dream.
This 7" is a strange one, as each side is split into 4 distinct fragments, each dark and dreamy in their own way, but also quite brief and way too fleeting. It's almost like a sonic slideshow, with just a few moments to glimpse each image, each sound. Side A starts off with some sort of wheezing harmonium, a music box like melody, with a haunting low end lullaby lurking beneath, the next movement begins with chiming bell like melody, lilting and dreamlike, under a glaze of static and crackle, all beneath a warm swirl of synth buzz and disembodied spoken word, part three is all strummed steel string guitar swathed in rumbling melodic grit, quite sweet and sad, and finally a sort of redux of the first track with a warm wash of forced air, a whirring mournful melody. The second side begins with a jaunty ice cream truck melody bathed in gentle chimes, all over a gently buzzing drone, part two is a swirl of shimmering guitars and chirping birds, the guitar sounding quite a bit like the intro to the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now" only stretched way out, while above drifts more buzzing steel strings and random found sounds. This slowly gives way to a murky soundscape with distant percussion, all crumbling and dark, drifty and dreamy but strangely ominous, and finally a mysterious little coda of chiming acoustic guitar, simple percussive thud and barely there glitch. So nice.

MACHINEFABRIEK Machinefabriek's Stottermuziek (self-released) 3" cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super limited, self released ep from one of our favorite proponents of what we've decided to call fuzzy dreamdrone soft noise. Well, actually, we only decided to call it that just now, but it does describe the sound of Machinefabriek perfectly, as well as his Lampse labelmates Jasper TX and Gultskra Artikler, all of whom traffic in similar droney drift...
On Stottermuziek, Machinefabriek explores similar territory as on his AQ record of the week Marjin from back in May. A dark dreamlike journey through a swirling soundworld of minimal whir and hum, shimmer and sparkle. Super soft shuffling swells of barely there sound, bits of hiss and whirring white noise surfacing here and there, strings woven into soft smears of sound, crumbling slightly distorted melodies drifting to and fro like some alien sonic tide, buzzing steel strings over a muted distant percussive throb, all delicately arranged into a gorgeous soft focus sonic landscape.
Packaged a bit like the Celebrate Psi Phenomenon releases in sleeves made from old wall paper, in little 3" plastic pouches with a sticker affixed to the front. And as with most things like this... VERY LIMITED!!!
MPEG Stream: "Donderwolk"
MPEG Stream: "Maris"

MACHINEFABRIEK Marijn (Lampse) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We love noise. Not the face melting super nova amp destroying ear shredding noise of Merzbow and Wolf Eyes, although we do dig that too. No, we're in love with -noises-, the sounds of sound, from the warm whisper of nature, the whoosh of the wind, the roar of the surf, the chirping of crickets and the croaking of frogs, to the clattery clang of industry, the roar of cars, the grind of machinery, the whir of air conditioning and and the thrum of vacuum cleaners, to the subtle sonic byproducts of sound reproduction and music making, the hiss of old cassette tapes, the warm warble of old 78's, the pops and crackle of lps, the digital glitch and fuzz of more modern musical malfunctions. On their own sure, we could listen to a symphony of frogs or the gentle hum of an air conditioner for hours, but preferably wrapped around some haunting otherworldly music, creating a glorious hybrid of subtle murky mystery.
We've sung the praises of Philip Jeck and his creaking antique turntablescapes, the murky looped loveliness of William Basinski, the strange warm fuzzy pixelated guitarscapes of Fennesz, the dd that we just may have found ourselves a new favorite label. Murky and pretty and fuzzy and so so so pretty. Everything we've heard so far. Instead of looking at Lampse as just the label, one can almost picture Lampse as the actual artist, and each release an epic track from some massive hours long murky muted masterpiece Each of those tracks dense with subtly varied parts and movements, each its own entity for sure, but at the same time one piece of a larger and indescribable puzzle.
Where Jasper TX was deeply rooted in soft indie rock jangle and sleepy bedroom pop (albeit swathed in a thick cloak of blur and grit), Machinefabriek approaches the same sound from a slightly different direction, each piece a lengthy slowburn epic, brooding gradually building ambience, grandiose washes of sound, the cinematic dynamicism of Mogwai or Earth, filtered through the looped hypnosis of Basinski, pianos and guitars rendered as abstract sounds, smeared and swirled into buried minor key melodies and and slow shifting chunks of sonic mood music. Marijn is Machinefabriek's sonic travelogue of a journey through the abyss, a soundworld cloaked in fog and draped in constant darkness.
Our first glimpse of the other side is a gorgeous echoey world of record crackle and pop, of thick reverb and crunching creaking ambience.
Like a beat up old record player stuck in the run out groove of an old 78, recorded at the bottom of an enormous cavern, eventually soft warm swells surface beneath the rainlike crackle, a mournful melody of delicate piano and whirring drone, the notes of the piano blown out so they distort and waver a bit like bad radio reception or some strange atmospheric interference. Some antique piano recital recorded on a wax cylinder and then broadcast from tiny blown out speakers in a huge empty warehouse, then broadcast over shortwave radio and finally heard through a battered pair of old headphones.
The rest of the record, while not as obviously damaged (in terms of crackle and distortion and fuzz) is rife with sounds equally obscured and obfuscated, lilting lonely pianos and haunting music box melodies drift beneath some strange sonic murk, occasionally interrupted by strange crumbled digital interference and all manner of stuttery hiccuping glitch and skitter, as if some other piece of music is trying desperately to claw its way through. Eventually, the distortion and audio damage recedes just enough to allow a simple piano motif to drift softly and subtly across a soundscape of barely there drone and hushed melody. From far off in the distance, warm warbles and shimmering sheets of sparkling muted sound appear, glimmering softly, like the reflection of light in some undersea cavern, lit only by the glow of indirect sunlight, waves and ripples and strange patterns shiver and shimmy subtly. Then, a piano begins unfurling a funereal crawl, mournful and melancholy, before being slowly enveloped by a digital swarm, a swirling dizzying drone, until it's almost like a blinding white wave of fuzz and hiss, but beneath it all, a sad melody still lurks, just an echo, a shadow, a warm rich whisper behind a blinding roar. The final passage is a near 20 minute piano meditation, soft and smooth, notes drift and shimmer, simple but stately and sweetly sorrowful, nestled in a tangled bed of digital hiss, slowly swelling chordal hum and whispery keening drones, all beneath a distant whir like some alien orchestra tuning up, the soft cacophony building slowly into the thick wash of static and distortion slowly swallows the melody whole, until all that remains is a ghostly afterimage, a shimmery outline, a fuzzy faded memory...
MPEG Stream: "Kreukeltape"
MPEG Stream: "Somerset"

MACHINEFABRIEK Marijn (Senor Hernandez / Roadburn) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our all time ambient drone favorites, available on vinyl for a super limited time.
We love noise. Not the face melting super nova amp destroying ear shredding noise of Merzbow and Wolf Eyes, although we do dig that too. No, we're in love with -noises-, the sounds of sound, from the warm whisper of nature, the whoosh of the wind, the roar of the surf, the chirping of crickets and the croaking of frogs, to the clattery clang of industry, the roar of cars, the grind of machinery, the whir of air conditioning and and the thrum of vacuum cleaners, to the subtle sonic byproducts of sound reproduction and music making, the hiss of old cassette tapes, the warm warble of old 78's, the pops and crackle of lps, the digital glitch and fuzz of more modern musical malfunctions. On their own sure, we could listen to a symphony of frogs or the gentle hum of an air conditioner for hours, but preferably wrapped around some haunting otherworldly music, creating a glorious hybrid of subtle murky mystery.
We've sung the praises of Philip Jeck and his creaking antique turntablescapes, the murky looped loveliness of William Basinski, the strange warm fuzzy pixelated guitarscapes of Fennesz, the dreamy electronic droneworlds of Tim Hecker, and most recently, the gorgeous post-rock dreampop haze of Swedish bedroom soundscaper Jasper TX. It's no coincidence that this record, the latest from Dutch sonic explorer (and former doom metal guitarist) Machinefabriek is on the same label as the Jasper TX. Both share a similar approach, burying gorgeous melancholy sounds beneath all manner of sonic disturbances and musical interference. After discovering the Jasper TX record, we looked a little deeper at the Lampse label and decided that we just may have found ourselves a new favorite label. Murky and pretty and fuzzy and so so so pretty. Everything we've heard so far. Instead of looking at Lampse as just the label, one can almost picture Lampse as the actual artist, and each release an epic track from some massive hours long murky muted masterpiece Each of those tracks dense with subtly varied parts and movements, each its own entity for sure, but at the same time one piece of a larger and indescribable puzzle.
Where Jasper TX was deeply rooted in soft indie rock jangle and sleepy bedroom pop (albeit swathed in a thick cloak of blur and grit), Machinefabriek approaches the same sound from a slightly different direction, each piece a lengthy slowburn epic, brooding gradually building ambience, grandiose washes of sound, the cinematic dynamicism of Mogwai or Earth, filtered through the looped hypnosis of Basinski, pianos and guitars rendered as abstract sounds, smeared and swirled into buried minor key melodies and and slow shifting chunks of sonic mood music. Marijn is Machinefabriek's sonic travelogue of a journey through the abyss, a soundworld cloaked in fog and draped in constant darkness.
Our first glimpse of the other side is a gorgeous echoey world of record crackle and pop, of thick reverb and crunching creaking ambience.
Like a beat up old record player stuck in the run out groove of an old 78, recorded at the bottom of an enormous cavern, eventually soft warm swells surface beneath the rainlike crackle, a mournful melody of delicate piano and whirring drone, the notes of the piano blown out so they distort and waver a bit like bad radio reception or some strange atmospheric interference. Some antique piano recital recorded on a wax cylinder and then broadcast from tiny blown out speakers in a huge empty warehouse, then broadcast over shortwave radio and finally heard through a battered pair of old headphones.
The rest of the record, while not as obviously damaged (in terms of crackle and distortion and fuzz) is rife with sounds equally obscured and obfuscated, lilting lonely pianos and haunting music box melodies drift beneath some strange sonic murk, occasionally interrupted by strange crumbled digital interference and all manner of stuttery hiccuping glitch and skitter, as if some other piece of music is trying desperately to claw its way through. Eventually, the distortion and audio damage recedes just enough to allow a simple piano motif to drift softly and subtly across a soundscape of barely there drone and hushed melody. From far off in the distance, warm warbles and shimmering sheets of sparkling muted sound appear, glimmering softly, like the reflection of light in some undersea cavern, lit only by the glow of indirect sunlight, waves and ripples and strange patterns shiver and shimmy subtly. Then, a piano begins unfurling a funereal crawl, mournful and melancholy, before being slowly enveloped by a digital swarm, a swirling dizzying drone, until it's almost like a blinding white wave of fuzz and hiss, but beneath it all, a sad melody still lurks, just an echo, a shadow, a warm rich whisper behind a blinding roar. The final passage is a near 20 minute piano meditation, soft and smooth, notes drift and shimmer, simple but stately and sweetly sorrowful, nestled in a tangled bed of digital hiss, slowly swelling chordal hum and whispery keening drones, all beneath a distant whir like some alien orchestra tuning up, the soft cacophony building slowly into the thick wash of static and distortion slowly swallows the melody whole, until all that remains is a ghostly afterimage, a shimmery outline, a fuzzy faded memory...
MPEG Stream: "Kreukeltape"
MPEG Stream: "Somerset"

MACHINEFABRIEK Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We're really not sure what else to say at this point about Machinefabriek. This will be the 25th release in 2 years, and those are just the ones we carried and reviewed. That may seem like a lot, but they are all different, and all pretty great. He is definitely one of the modern masters of soundscaping, able to weave gorgeous landscapes of sound using whatever sound or tones or equipment are at hand, seemingly effortlessly. Live albums prove he can pull it off there as well. And this is in fact sort of a live record, recorded for the radio, released as part of VPRO's esteemed Mort Aux Vaches series, limited to 500 copies, and housed in a beautiful thick clothbound cardstock, hand screened sleeve, each hand numbered.
And the music inside, as we would expect, is just as carefully and uniquely crafted. This three part, 35 minute piece seems to be based on guitar mostly, simple muted strums and subtle melodies, wreathed in effects and allowed to blur and smear into long stretches of soft shimmer, sometimes interrupted by bits of digital glitch or crackle, a bit of buzz, some abstract guitar twang, but those just seem to ground the proceedings in the moment, adding grit and texture so the music sounds more organic, like it's being played not produced. The second movement is another looped guitarscape, the main melody growing more and more faint and disappearing into a haze of crackle and soft static.
The closing movement, is the most minimal, offering up a deep drone, rich with subtle layers, what sound like voices, shimmering tones, harmonics and overtones, muted scrape and buried buzz, haunting and ghostly, drifting glacially until disappearing in a brief flare of static. As always, very very nice.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. We only have a handful...
MPEG Stream: "Bathyale 1"

MACHINEFABRIEK Music For Intermittent Movements (Soundtracks For Films By John Price) (self-released) cd-r 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been a while since we've heard from Machinefabriek. Never thought we'd have to type those words. But it's true, after a relentless release schedule, it's been at least a few months since we've heard even a peep from Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek, but as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and we were getting a little overloaded to be honest, too many releases to listen to let alone review.
But listening to this now, we're reminded just why we were all so excited about this group in the first place. Zuydervelt has such a way with sounds, merging the pristine with the gritty and damaged, turning soft subtle shadings into dark crumbling mysteries.
This cd-r collects a handful of scores composed for the International Film Festival in Rotterdam earlier this year, and harkens back to the Machinefabriek of old, back when we first discovered his Marijn record.
Dark and doleful, soft shimmering ambience, smeared with tape hiss and subtle digital distortions, notes and tones drifting over a crystalline landscape of blurred murmur and strange crackles and creaks, everything gauzy and washed out, the sound gradually decaying, chords falling to pieces, a slowly collapsing house of sound, recorded in slow motion, and all the various elements fall to pieces, a gorgeous bit of decasia rendered in deep resonant rumbles and haunting ghostly melodies.
Elsewhere dense squalls of static explode, the shards and fragments drifting to the ground like dead leaves, hailstorms of hiss fill the air with sizzling shimmer, piano notes flutter and flicker like dying stars, thick metallic strings rumble and reveberate, huge cavernous swells sprawl over a field of muted glitch, and the subtle whir of alien machinery, gong like tones ripple lazily through a gauzy moonlit haze, disembodied chords float weightless, the ghosts of songs, the spirits of melodies, allowed to flat freely, affording us just glimpses and overheard whispers. So good.
All we needed really was a little break, and now with fresh ears, we're totally re-smitten by the gorgeous sounds of Machinefabriek.
The bad news though, is that like always, this is crazy crazy limited. So when we run out, it's not entirely likely that we'll be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "Camp Series 1"
MPEG Stream: "The Boy Who Died"

MACHINEFABRIEK Piano.wav (self-released) 3" business card cd-r 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's tough to begin a review of a new super limited Machinefabriek cd-r, without discussing the fact, that this guys is dangerously prolific. This is in fact, the 12th Machinefabriek release in the last year. That's a release a month! AND that's just the ones we know about. But what can we do, they're all great! And while some of these self released little gems do get gathered up on compilations (like the recent Weleer), lots of stuff falls through the cracks and continues to exist only in these handmade micro-editions. So if you're anything like us, and we're pretty sure by now you most definitely are, then you don't want to miss out on a single shred of Machinefabriek's gorgeous and mysterious world of sound...
So here we have another 3" business card size/style cd-r (the first was the amazing Stofstuk, which for those of you who missed out, is also available on the remix 2cd Kruimeldief), a brief 5+ minute piece, created entirely using a found sample of a piano tone, hence the title, Piano.wav.
And as you might expect, this is sheer loveliness, a simple tone, pitch shifted into a virtual piano, haunting melodies drifting over landscapes of muted crackle and hiss, gorgeous ringing harmonics, lush harmonies, lots of reverb and abstract shimmer. Very forlorn and cinematic, huge smears of soft low end throb beneath a delicate landscape of spare melodic fragments and abstract arrangements, dreamy and dark and so so nice. Like most of the other short form Machinefabriek releases, this is going to be very very taxing on your cd player's repeat button. WAY recommended.
And again, as always, EXTREMELY LIMITED!
MPEG Stream: "Piano.wav"

MACHINEFABRIEK Ranonkel (Burning World) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've joked in the past about the uber prolific nature of Machinefabriek, but then every time we still manage to write a HUGE review, describing each song and all the sounds in explicit detail, but as this is the second of TWO new Machinefabrieks this week, and the 22nd we've reviewed in 2 years, not sure we can pull it off again. But we'll give it a go.
What we can say, is that much like the A Room Forever lp box reviewed elsewhere on this list, the sound of Machinefabriek seems to be moving in a much more melodic direction, not that there wasn't always plenty of melody, but these latest forays into soundmaking sound less purposefully experimental, less abstract, and more songlike, more melodic, the opener is downright lovely, and sounds like it could be Godspeed or some Godspeed spawned outfit, a luxurious slow burn, and deep warm chords and glistening sprinkles of high end over the top, haunting and ominous and cinematic, might just be the best track we've heard from Machinefabriek. But heck, the rest of the disc is some pretty great shakes too.
Long stretches of weary acoustic guitar, deep droning shimmer, warm reverbed piano, soft muted static, all culminating in the 17 minute closer "Zink", a pastoral underwater dronescape, that glimmers like sunlight through water, muted and effulgent, everything washed out and blurred, it's like Machinefabriek's version of Oval's Diskont, a dreamy extended drift, only where Oval kept their looped landscape going right until the end, Machinefabriek turns the track all dark and creepy, before fading to near silence, and finishing up with a brief stretch of whispered barely there melody.
Quite possibly the prettiest Machinefabriek yet!
MPEG Stream: "Trouringh"
MPEG Stream: "Stofstuktoon"

MACHINEFABRIEK Rusland (self-released) 3"cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second of two releases from Rutger Zuydervelt, aka Machinefabriek. This 19 minute piece is a collage of live performances, woven deftly into one single organic soundscape, lots of space, and distant shimmer, simple reverbed guitars, deep Jeck-like swells of soft focus fuzz, dark low end rumbles that slip into a slow drifting loopscape of field recordings and warm melodic whirs, of smoother out record cackle and deep drones, brief moments of found sound, coughs, footsteps, eventually transforming into hushed whispery blur, peppered with thick resonant thuds, a muffled piano perhaps or an effected guitars, more mysterious voices, all very funereal and mysterious drifting off to near silence before finishing off with a woman singing a song in some other language. It's basically everything we love about Machinefabriek boiled down to a lean 19 minutes, the various performances fitting together like puzzle pieces, so much that it's impossible to tell where one ends and another begins.
Incredibly nice packaging, an accordion like full color fold out, with gorgeous photos, and liner notes, includes a link to a website where you can download a 25 minute bonus track, of course, LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "Rusland"

MACHINEFABRIEK Slaapzucht (Root Strata) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another gorgeous burst of glowing guitar experimentation from AQ fave Machinefabriek, and while the instrumentation on Slaapzucht is listed as electric guitar, e-bow, tuning fork, file, an electric toothbrush, minidisc recorder, melodica, loop pedal, laptop, mixing desk, lots of effects pedals and a little iron rod, it's obvious that this disc is all about the guitar. Not always overtly so, but such is the magic of Machinefabriek.
Five of the six tracks here were previously released as ultra limited 3" cd-r's ('Slaap' and 'Zucht'), and are presented here for the very first time, along with a 22 minute bonus track which is basically like a whole 'nother record.
The tracks from 'Slaap' revisit much of what we loved about the MF record we made record of the week a while back. A burst of crumbling amp buzz and electronic glitch gives way to haunting swells of gritty tones and soft shimmering whirs, all within shimmering clouds of distant glitch and muted crackle, building in intensity, while remaining muted and minimal. Ultra soft, glimmering soundfields marked by distant melodic sparkles and barely audible percussive events erupt into thick chordal washes, reverb drenched and swirling majestically before quickly fading away. Bits here and there resemble some long lost Oval track assembled from bits of guitar instead of skipping cds, but woven so seamlessly, they just sound like sweet soft swells of shimmering buzz over gentle strums and muted hums, occasionally building into dense dirges, thick and roiling, strangely lush, and bathed in all manner of crackle and grit.
The two tracks from 'Zucht' are similarly haunting and beautiful. Bits of abstract hum are rendered almost choral, soft slightly melancholy chords drift and intertwine into long slow flowing drones, dense but warm and glowing. Crumbling, grinding whirs are transformed into gorgeously washed out pop ambience, thick soft sonic swirls, very aquatic, gently drifting and hovering, sounds overlapping and blurring into one another, so lovely.
The final track, is an epic, slow burning build, as heavy and intense as it is soft and dreamlike. A landscape of ominous low end drift, tones stretched out into long smears of sound and laid atop other tones, allowed to shift and shimmer, to slip in and out of phase, little fragmented melodies surfacing here and there, little sparkling streaks of tonal color, gleaming from within the wash of greys and blacks, eventually building into some seriously fierce buzz, a huge crumbling blissed out doom, grinding guitars churning and roiling, but amidst angelic swirls of fuzzy breathy shimmer, impossibly straddling two worlds, simultaneously beautiful and brutal. So nice.
Packaged in a gorgeous fold over card stock sleeve, screen printed off white on white.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "Slaapdronken"
MPEG Stream: "Slaapwandelen"
MPEG Stream: "Slaapmiddel"

MACHINEFABRIEK Stofstuk (self-released) 3" business card cd-r 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another in the recent deluge of self released cd-r's from Machinefabriek, aka Rutger Zuydervelt (a flow of continuous releases rivaled only by Machinefabriek contemporary and collaborator Jasper TX and his own seemingly never ending series of releases), but we're not complaining, not at all. Other than the hassle of the short form, of having to get up after 10 or 15 minutes to switch discs, we could listen to this stuff forever. In fact we're secretly hoping that Jasper TX and Machinefabriek will collaborate next on some 200 disc cd player, each slot filled with a collaborative 3" cd-r, for the ultimate in dreamy droney fuzzy ambient sonic overload. If only!
But for now, it's the repeat button for us, and this, the latest (and shortest) Machinefabriek release yet. A little rectangular business card shaped 3" cd (still playable in most cd players) clocking in at an impressive 5:31, recorded with only a singing bowl, a contact mic, a vinyl record and a laptop, and originally created as a private pressing.
Stofstuk is a one of the most gorgeous slabs of shimmery minimalism we've ever heard. And this is where the brevity is so frustrating. Music like this definitely deserves to sprawl and spread. Needs to. But for five glorious minutes, deeeeeeeep notes are loosed, lush and resonant, allowed to billow out like sonic ripples, every once in a while, some massive bass kicks in and washes over the listener like a huge slow motion wave, it's strangely transcendent, rich with intense emotion and sonic impact. Around these cavernous swells, various drawn out notes drift and shift, soft focus layers laid upon one another, gauzy and ephemeral, all hovering blissfully over a gorgeously muted field of barely there record crackle. Wow. Like a warm and dreamy Jeckian take on Raster-Noton, or some cosmic minimal meditation music. So totally beautiful.
Pressed as a strange rectangular business card shaped cd-r, housed in a thick plastic jacket and a striking miniature black and grey sleeve. And of course, incredibly limited...
MPEG Stream: "Stofstuk"

MACHINEFABRIEK Veldwerk (Cold Spring) cd 17.98
The art of field recording is deceptively tricky. With tiny digital recorders and a pair of decent binaural microphones, anybody can wander through a city center, capturing the sounds of an urban environment with incredible detail. Such audio tourism might be instructive on personal level, but as a statement beyond "Listen up everybody! I went to Thailand!" such recordings can be really dull. We approached Machinefabriek's Veldwerk with some trepidation, as these recordings are framed as "audio snapshots" based around travels to Slovakia, Russia, and Germany (plus some more close to home recordings from Rotterdam). Fortunately, Rutger Zuydervelt (the man behind Machinefabriek) uses those recordings as a jumping off point for his compositional abstractions, akin more to the psychogeographical work of Tarab or John Grzinich, but further augmented with his deft extended guitar techniques. While he never achieves the massive, Tim Hecker-ish swarms of melodic drone density Zuydervelt mastered on his epochal Marijn cd from Type many years ago, he uses those guitar drones still coated in blur and antiquated grit as radiant coronas of sound that echo through the decontextualized field recordings of various locations. The dramatic noise crunch of "Slovensko I" which opens the album is quite a jarring passage amidst a slow drifting loopscape of warm melodic whirs. "Rusland" (which was actually one of the micro-edition cd-r releases we got back in 2008), is a beautiful organic soundscape with lots of space, distant shimmer, simple reverbed guitars, deep Jeck-like swells of soft focus fuzz, and dark low end rumbles that slip into smoothed out record cackle and deep drones, brief moments of found sound, coughs, footsteps, eventually transforming into hushed whispery blurs, peppered with thick resonant thuds, muffled effected guitars, more mysterious voices, all very funereal and mysterious drifting off to near silence. "Apollo" - another microedition release which never passed through these doors - bristles with a quiet electro-static energy, with some of the field recordings coming to the foreground through watery churns, cargo-ship reverberation, industrial clank, and ventilator drones but always rendered as organic abstractions. We should have never doubted Zuydervelt, as he's once again presented us with an incredible album.
MPEG Stream: "Slovensko I"
MPEG Stream: "Rusland"
MPEG Stream: "Apollo"

MACHINEFABRIEK Vloed (Cold Spring) cd 14.98
Originally released back in 2008 by Sentient Recognition Archive as a cd-r, Vloed is a collection of exceptionally good live recordings by the ever impressive Machinefabriek, who had one time been releasing something just about every week but now has slowed his output, so it seems. In any case, Vloed now features a 22 minute bonus track and slightly different edits of the other three tracks (presumably so that all four of these lengthy tracks would fit on one cd!). Here's what we said of Vloed a couple years back:
All performances find Machinefabriek in fine form, offering up thick billows of warm guitar shimmer, fluttery staticky ambience, and at one point some uncharacteristically heavy super distorted metallic guitar, but here, it's not so much metal as simply a mighty drone, thick and throbbing and super intense. There are long stretches of near silence and super minimal high end drone, glimmering slow building crescendos, squalls of distorted choral buzz, warm whirring metallic reverberations, shimmery almost new age and dense black dronemusik, all the stuff we love about Machinefabriek, BUT, and this is what makes this disc so good, is that live, while still being dynamic and subtle, Zuydervelt also proves to me way more intense and aggressive than on his recordings. And thus, we must recommend!
MPEG Stream: "Allengskens"
MPEG Stream: "Drijfzand"

MACHINEFABRIEK Vloed (Sentient Recognition Archive) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK! We though it was gone gone gone but managed to get a few from the label, but these are definitely the last ones:
As is the case with Aidan Baker and Nadja, it almost wouldn't seem like a proper aQ new arrivals list without the presence of Machinefabriek, aka Rutger Zuydervelt, so we're quite relieved to have both. Actually, all three.
This latest Machinefabriek recording captures three live performances, all in Amsterdam, recorded between 2006 and 2008 all looooong, the shortest 16 minutes, the longest 22.
All three performances find Machinefabriek in fine form, offering up thick billows of warm guitar shimmer, fluttery staticky ambience, and at one point some uncharacteristically heavy super distorted metallic guitar, but here, it's not so much metal as simply a mighty drone, thick and throbbing and super intense. There are long stretches of near silence and super minimal high end drone, glimmering slow building crescendos, squalls of distorted choral buzz, warm whirring metallic reverberations, shimmery almost new age and dense black dronemusik, all the stuff we love about Machinefabriek, BUT, and this is what makes this disc so good, is that live, while still being dynamic and subtle, Zuydervelt also proves to me way more intense and aggressive than on his recordings. And thus, we must recommend!
LIMITED TO 180 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "06.07.2008 Bimhuis, Amsterdam"
MPEG Stream: "09.06.2006 Oude Kerk, Amsterdam"

MACHINEFABRIEK Weleer (Lampse) 2cd 22.00
It had to happen, even if only to be fair to those of us without lightning fast reflexes and supernatural senses regarding tracking down ultra limited, barely available cd-r's. Over the last 4 years or so, Machinefabriek, aka Rutger Zuydervelt, in addition to releasing several amazing 'proper' records, a cd, a 7" and maybe a few other things, has unleashed an impossible amount of self released ultra limited cd-r's, all in micro editions, 100 copies, 50 copies, some even less, and while we've done our very best to grab as many as we could of every single one, we missed a bunch! And of the ones we did get, they sold out in the blink of an eye. So here's your chance, a massive sprawling double disc collection, gathering up bits and pieces, the best tracks from an armload of releases, all sequenced and woven together, into what could very well have been actual Machinefabriek albums.
It's hard to tell exactly which cd-r's are included, and since only certain songs were selected, even those of you who nabbed every cd-r in sight, odds are there is plenty here that you haven't heard. Definitely lots of stuff we didn't recognize, and all of it, as we've come to expect, simply amazing. Long drawn out stretches of warm fuzzy ambience, muted glitchery, melancholy melodies, soft sweeping epics, wreathed in dense FX and thick swirls of shimmery whir and whirl. One of the masters of our new favorite sound, that sort of foggy buzzy dreamy drone thing we can't seem to get enough of. Fans obviously absolutely need this, and folks who were daunted by the limited nature of past releases, or just have a thing against cd-r's, this is the perfect introduction, a chance to hear what you've been missing.
And there -are- plenty of surprises. While both discs do flow beautifully, there are some strange sonic moments, the dreamy wheezy Eastern tinged post rock drift of "Oi Polloi", the ultra gristly and crackle infused glacial crawl of "Chinese Unpopular Song", the almost Merzbowian intensity of "Hieperdepiep", the THX-theme-stretched-into-gorgeous-metallic-drone of "Wintervacht", all seemingly strangely out of character for Zuydervelt, but in the bigger sonic picture that is Weleer, they sound perfect, all nestled comfortably amidst rich, thick sonic swells and smears. So great!
MPEG Stream: "Oi Polloi"
MPEG Stream: "Onweer"
MPEG Stream: "Wintervacht"

MACHINEFABRIEK & STEPHEN VITIELLO Box Music (12K) cd 14.98
Another new Machinefabriek, this one a collaboration with American musician, Stephen Vitiello, and this is a record where the concept is so genius, the music would be hard pressed to live up to the expectations. For this collaboration, with Machinefabriek in the Netherlands and Vitiello in the US, instead of sending files back and forth as is typical with long distance projects, the duo came up with a clever idea. Each picked a handful of objects, and sent the objects to the other with instructions to use nothing but those objects to craft a piece of music. Which seems simple enough until you see the list of items: bells, book, tin foil, buttons, crackle box (?), thumb piano, field recordings, rocks, speakers, broken record and cassettes. Each of them created two songs on their own, and would team up for a final piece using another box, full of even less obviously musical items, which we'll discuss in a second.
First, the two Machinefabriek pieces, number one, using just bells and tin foil and buttons, Machinefabriek, aka Rutger Zuydervelt, managed to craft a piece not all that different than stuff he's done in the past, bells being the main sound it seems, sometimes recognizable, other times blurred into warm fuzzy tones, super minimal, by the end the tones seem to have blossomed, expanded, the notes deep and resonant, the bells a distant shimmer. For his second piece, Zuydervelt, using field recordings rocks and speakers, crafted a very Jewelled Antler sounding soundscape of staticky crackle, muted scrape, distant hum, all very rough and raw, but partway through they transform into something much more clinical and cold, the field recordings taking center stage, an intense buzz, almost felt more than heard, bits of high end squiggle, distant voices, all over a deep dark shimmering whir. Quite nice. Like a more musical Ryoji Ikeda during the second half.
The first of Vitiello's pieces, using just a crackle box whatever that is and a thumb piano, is all sine waves and dog whistle tones, crackle and buzz, clipped clicks and processed static, the thumb piano, only audible now and again way off in the background, a mournful almost melody, drifting in a field of glitch and crackle. Vitiello's second track, utilizing broken record and cassettes (seems like he got the easier part of the bargain, as most of his items were sound oriented or sound makers), is a gorgeously blurred and woozy field of electronically altered voices and snippets of music, bits of crackle and pop, skipping looped fragments, all smeared into what sounds like fractured short wave broadcasts, chunks of glitchy buzz, muted melodic whirs, strange effects, by now I think we can safely assume that the objects sent weren't the only items used, as there seems to be much processing and loads of effects. Still gorgeous and abstract, but would have been neat too to see what these two guys could have done without a computer and all those effects. But it's a good thing, they were allowed to use effects and computers and things, cuz not sure what the last track would sound like without em, considering the objects for the final track, the collaboration, are chocolate sprinkles, tape, egg cutter, rice and a plastic bag. Listening to it now, hard to believe even with all that technology at their disposal, that these guys could conjure up something so musical, but they did, and it's fantastic, deep resonant tones, disembodied voices, shimmering chimes, deep swells of low end, plenty of crinkle and crackle and static, but all very warm, and haunting, dark and mysterious and most surprising of all, melodic. Easily the prettiest song on the disc. But now matter how hard we listen, we just can't seem to hear the chocolate sprinkles...
MPEG Stream: STEPHEN VITIELLO "Broken Record, Cassette"
MPEG Stream: MACHINEFABRIEK & STEPHEN VITIELLO "Chocolate Sprinkles, Tape, Egg Cutter, Rice, Plastic Bag"

MACHINEFABRIEK (V/A) Kruimeldief: Machinefabriek Remixed (self-released) 2cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This massive remix disc from AQ dronedrift fave Machinefabriek, is composed entirely of remixes of the out of print Stofstuk cd, the shortest Machinefabriek release but quite possibly our favorite. Originally released as a little rectangular business card shaped 3" cd and clocking in at an impressive 5:31, Stofstuk was recorded with only a singing bowl, a contact mic, a vinyl record and a laptop, and originally created as a private pressing, and is easily one of the most gorgeous slabs of shimmery minimalism we've ever heard. It was also crazy limited and went out of print in no time. Thankfully, since all of these remixes are based on that same track, it's included here for those of you who missed out. So before we get to the remixes, best to probably quickly describe the source. For five glorious minutes, deeeeeeeep notes are loosed, lush and resonant, allowed to billow out like sonic ripples, every once in a while, some massive bass kicks in and washes over the listener like a huge slow motion wave, it's strangely transcendent, rich with intense emotion and sonic impact. Around these cavernous swells, various drawn out notes drift and shift, soft focus layers laid upon one another, gauzy and ephemeral, all hovering blissfully over a gorgeously muted field of barely there record crackle. Wow. Like a warm and dreamy Jeckian take on Raster-Noton, or some cosmic minimal meditation music. So totally beautiful. It almost seems a shame to remix something so nearly perfect to begin with, but thankfully, the majority of these mixes manage to subtly tweak the original, retaining much of the magic, while managing to imbue the revamped version with a bit of their own subtle style.
If you loved the original version as much as us, this double disc is pretty much a no brainer. We complained in the first one about the 5 minute playing time, and how we just set the cd player on repeat and listened to it over and over and over, and that's almost what this is, but with each repeated play subtly and slightly altered (and a few dramatically different), but it's pretty tough to argue with 2+ hours of variations on Stofstuk. Plus check out the list of remixers: Alva Noto, Mitchell Akiyama, Xela, Svarte Greiner, Lesser, Freiband, Kim Cascone, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Luigi Archetti, Julien Neto, Pita, Adam Paccione, Henrik Rylander, Gert-jan Prins and loads more. As we mentioned, most of the versions are subtle variations, you might not even be able to tell the difference if you weren't paying close attention, but a few folks mix it up, Freiband adds a thick layer of caustic buzz and grind to the then barely audible original, Aaron Martin adds some glitch and microphone noise, Xela brings out the original's muted melodies and adds voices, Lesser adds a bit of grind and crunch, Henrik Rylander buries the original beneath layers of warm whirring fuzz, Julien Neto gives his version a soft focus, easy listening sheen and Gert-Jan Prins transforms the tones of the original into gritty buzzing grinding low end and piercing sine wave tones, but these are the exceptions, and even though the above descriptions make it seem like those tracks must stick out like crazy, in the context of a massive double disc set, they sound just perfect, nestled as they are amongst song after song of whispery droney drift. So gorgeous.
Packaged in a soft cottony pouches, housed in a folded cardstock jacket and a thick vinyl outer sleeve.
MPEG Stream: XELA "Stofstuk"
MPEG Stream: ALVA NOTO "Stofstuk"
MPEG Stream: SVARTE GREINER "Stofstuk"
MPEG Stream: LESSER "Stofstuk"

MACHINEFABRIEK / BLACK TO COMM Stofstuk / Stickstoff (Dekorder) 7" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Split singles are the perfect way to shove two bands together and see what happens. A successful split can go in either directions, two bands who have fuck all do to with each other, and do their own thing, or two bands who are together for a reason, best case scenario, because their sounds are in some way complimentary.
So consider this a best case scenario, two AQ faves, both masters of abstract drone and beautiful ambience, each given a side to do what they do, and it sounds like the two 'groups' worked off each others sounds. That's how great these two tracks sound together.
Machinefabriek goes way minimal, a super abstract, nearly static tone poem, each note stretched out into long barely pulsing streaks, rich luxuriant tones allowed to ring out and slowly subside, crystalline and gorgeously minimal, the lows deep and fluid, the highs soft and shimmery, a subtle sound that dissipates softly, as if it was designed to be a constant fade out from the very first note.
Black To Comm unfurl clouds of reverberating tones, thick billows of metallic shimmer, deftly (and VERY subtly) crafted into muted melodies, sounding like a louder, more dense reinterpretation of the Machinefabriek track. Chimes and bells, smeared into blurs of warm melodic drone, distant percussive twinkles, all wrapped up in BTC's gorgeous dreamlike sprawl.
Pressed on beautiful swirled grey vinyl, and packed with an original full color, hand painted collaged insert/cover, every one is different.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!!! We got 20. Once these are gone we will NOT be able to get more...

MACHINEFABRIEK / KLEEFSTRA / LIONDIALER That It Stays Winter Forever (White Box) cd 15.98

MACHINEFABRIEK+ LEO FABRIEK Fabriek + Fabriek (self-released) 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.
Another entry in the who-can-release-more-records competition currently going on here at aQ. It's Machinefabriek versus Jasper TX, complicated by the fact that the two occasionally decide to make records together! Thankfully, it's a contest where everyone wins, especially those of us into gorgeous ambient dronemusic.
You couldn't ask for a better set up though. Two Fabrieks. Machinefabriek and pianist Leo Fabriek. We have to wonder if it was a coincidence and the two already new each other, or if Machinefabriek discovered this other Mr. Fabriek and tracked him down. Either way, the results are fantastic, and sounds like the two of them are very much of the same sonic mind.
The main sound source is of course Fabriek's piano, while Machine fabriek contributes guitar, banjo, effects and something called Povtronic. And we assume does all the mixing and processing. Dark doleful piano sprawled out over slow shifting whirls of processed low end. A constant slow pulse of rumble and whir, the piano a constant dark melody drifting dreamily. The background sound some sort of slowly moving nearly static sonic snapshot. The various elements moving subtly beneath the piano's slow crawl. The fourth track has little swirls of backwards guitars, some disembodied banjo twang, and ends up sounding like some back porch piano flecked ambient doom. While the final track features a gorgeous languid piano melody, drifting downstream on a buzzing sea of murk and hiss and whir, rumbling and shimmering, building in intensity until it's almost a machinelike grind, never deterring the resolute piano, plucking out note after note, letting them sink into the noisy abyss. So gorgeous.
We only wish there were more hours in the day, so we could spend some of them listening to this, and the growing stack of Machinefabriek cds we've been amassing.
Amazing packaging too. An elaborate folded origami style sleeve, not exactly sure how it's assembled, so haven't pulled it all the way apart to see what lurks inside, but it looks gorgeous. And there's a printed cardboard insert, with the liner notes, that slides into the side. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Het Waait Over"
MPEG Stream: "Wolken Boven Cronesteyn"

MACLAURIN, ANGUS Glass Music (Bubble Core) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Angus MacLaurin (a piano-tuner and pipe-organ builder who lives in a log cabin in Maine), has been a member of various indie-rock ensembles that we're not super-familar with...but here he's all on his own, recording his "finely-tuned glasses" (wine glasses, judging from the indistinct photos) onto five different reel-to-reel machines, and then carefully splicing and mixing the tapes. A bit of theremin, kalimba and bass is added on two of the tracks as well. The results are varied and beautiful, a kind of ghost music. Gently haunting, chiming, ringing, glistening drones. Occasional backwards voices are heard, adding further to the ghostly effect... And I just noticed that one of the songs is called "Ghost Ship". Nice!
RealAudio clip: "4th of July part I"

MACLISE, ANGUS Astral Collapse (Quakebasket) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There has been something of an Angus MacLise revival going on in the past couple of years, stemming from the discovery of many archival Maclise recordings by Tony Conrad. In the '60s, MacLise had been a instrumental figure in the inception of LaMonte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music as well as the first incarnation of The Velvet Underground, before infamously departing after learning that they would get paid for a gig. Anyway, he thought VU was too structured. A creative wanderlust led him out of those pursuits, working with dozens of composers, poets, film-makers, artists, etc. and travelling all across the globe in pursuit of hermetic wisdoms and Buddhist teachings. "Astral Collapse" collects 6 tracks from the MacLise archives, offering a variety of instrumentation including organ, bongos, piano, autoharp, cembalum, bells, an Arp synthesizer, field recordings, voice, and plenty of effects. As heard on previous recordings, MacLise transforms everything into shimmering, intoxicated trances of amorphous sound. As talented as MacLise may have been as a poet, I can't say that the spoken word entries on "Astral Collapse" are all that successful; however, the haunting arpeggiated organ on "6th Face Of The Angel" and the dreamy, sonic shape-shifting of "Cloud Watching" more than make up for the incongruities of psychedelic drones topped with an earnest recitation of Buddhist mysticism.
RealAudio clip: "6th Face Of The Angel"
RealAudio clip: "Cloud Watching"

MACLISE, ANGUS Astral Collapse (Quakebasket) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There has been something of an Angus MacLise revival going on in the past couple of years, stemming from the discovery of many archival Maclise recordings by Tony Conrad. In the '60s, MacLise had been a instrumental figure in the inception of LaMonte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music as well as the first incarnation of The Velvet Underground, before infamously departing after learning that they would get paid for a gig. Anyway, he thought VU was too structured. A creative wanderlust led him out of those pursuits, working with dozens of composers, poets, film-makers, artists, etc. and travelling all across the globe in pursuit of hermetic wisdoms and Buddhist teachings. "Astral Collapse" collects 6 tracks from the MacLise archives, offering a variety of instrumentation including organ, bongos, piano, autoharp, cembalum, bells, an Arp synthesizer, field recordings, voice, and plenty of effects. As heard on previous recordings, MacLise transforms everything into shimmering, intoxicated trances of amorphous sound. As talented as MacLise may have been as a poet, I can't say that the spoken word entries on "Astral Collapse" are all that successful; however, the haunting arpeggiated organ on "6th Face Of The Angel" and the dreamy, sonic shape-shifting of "Cloud Watching" more than make up for the incongruities of psychedelic drones topped with an earnest recitation of Buddhist mysticism.

MACLISE, ANGUS Brain Damage In Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze) cd 14.98
"Brain Damage In Oklahoma City" is the second archival release on Siltbreeze of Angus MacLise's ecstatic drone minimalism. MacLise was the original percussionist for the Velvet Underground (before quitting after learning that they'd been PAID for a gig) and an active member of LaMonte Young's Dream Syndicate along with Tony Conrad and John Cale. While MacLise's sound definitely holds a similarity to the '60s minimalist giants around him, his sensitivity to texture separates him from his cohorts who were more interested in a strict adherence to concept. The highlight of this collection is the lengthy concert performed in New York as a benefit for the Oklahoma City Police Dept. Tony Conrad's liner notes (which appear to be some of his diary entries from 1968) aren't terribly clear as to the intent of the benefit - whether to pay for MacLise's legal fees from getting busted in Oklahoma for pot or because of general benevolence to the fraternal order of the police. I think the former is more likely. Regardless, this blows that recent Dream Syndicate release on Table of the Elements out of the water. Impressive tranced out drones (featuring Conrad playing "limp string") collide with the abstract rhythmic patterns from MacLise's barrel conga.

MACLISE, ANGUS Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This most recent collection of work by Angus MacLise is culled from a collection of over 50 tapes discovered over 20 years ago and rescued from probable destruction. MacLise was instrumental in the formation of LaMonte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music as well as the first incarnation of The Velvet Underground, and continued to explore drone music, Eastern music and electronic tape music until his death in 1979. This two disc set features early electronic experiments, some epic ambient/drone pieces including performances from John Cale and Tony Conrad, and 2 recordings of Maclise reading his poetry, of which there are apparently very few recordings. While we are not much for spoken word around these parts, the two pieces here are actually quite nice. MacLise's poetry is strange and pretty wonderful and is delivered over a background of drone and hum and buzz. The rest of this collection includes the above mentioned short pieces for electronics, a bunch of short instrumental explorations and three 30 minute pieces of ambient clatter and ur-drone. Gorgeous and spacious, free and transcendental. Think No Neck Blues Band meets the Dead C meets Stockhausen. Great stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Trance #2"
MPEG Stream: "Organ & Drum"

MACLISE, ANGUS s/t (Counter Culture Chronicles) lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Angus MacLise was the original percussionist for the Velvet Underground (before quitting the band upon learning that they would be paid for a gig) and a member of the legendary trance / minimalist ensemble The Dream Syndicate with LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad, and John Cale. Recently his archival recordings have resurfaced as the Silbreeze collection "Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda," this vinyl only collection from Counter Culture Chronicles, and the indefinitely postponed Dream Syndicate release (courtesy of Table of the Elements). Distrubing trance music that drifts endlessly with gritty hurdy-gurdy (?) drones and the constant pitter-patter of tablas and small hand drums. This eponymous collection features the long out of print "Trance" single from Fierce, "The Joyouse Lake" flexi disc which featured an excerpt from 1965's "Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda," and the soundtrack to Ron Rice's 1964 film "Chumlum."

MACLISE, ANGUS The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (Siltbreeze) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Angus MacLise - poet and percussionist - was a key player in LaMonte Young's "Theatre of Eternal Music" which also spawned such artists as Tony Conrad and the Velvet Underground (which Angus a considerable amount of input in founding but quit upon learning they'd make money at a gig). "The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda" is comprised of lengthy pieces of looping psychedelic drones and hippy drum circle freakouts that were composed to accompany Ira Cohen and Jack Smith art films.

MACLISE, ANGUS & HETTY MACLISE Dreamweapon II (Boo-Hooray) lp 33.00

MAD MUSIC INC. Mad Music (Drag City) lp 17.98
Just as it first appeared in the Boston Area around 1977, there are no song titles, contact info or any other identifying information accompanying this mysterious release, a reissue of a private press recording of serene but outsider-inflected new age classical composition. Like another similarly minded aQ fave, Moolah, the music presented on Mad Music Inc. is an oceanic mixture of echoed piano, harp and gong, in short sketches with one track adding percussion, some subtle bass groove and female spiritual cosmic jazz vocals (not quite the "cosmic disco" stated on Drag City's cover sticker, but still pretty cool!).
The primitive cover painting of two diametrically opposed naked women looks like it was inspired by Da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man, with the women jumping out of their constrained environs. This seems like it would be an easy candidate for the Nurse With Wound list, especially with the back cover graphic of a chuckling Ming The Merciless type character with a tape machine implanted on the side of his head. Whatever it means, it must have been too elusive for even Stephen Stapleton, an obsessive authority on such obscurities. Regardless, for fans of weirdo new age, library records, and private press mysteries, this should be a nice sounding addition to your collection!

MAEROR TRI Ambient Dreams (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 22.00
The liner notes to this reissue from a 1990 cassette boldly state that, "all sonds you hear on this cd originated from natural ambient sources. No electronic sound-sources were used." For those who would think that such a disclaimer would result in Maeror Tri's excursion into field recording and acoustic documentation, you would be wrong. All of the effects and heavy treatments that plant Ambient Dreams firmly within Maeror Tri's well established aesthetic of dark atmospheric drones and post-industrial bleakness are still present and accounted for. If anything, Ambient Dreams demonstrates that Maeror Tri (and their contemporary incarnation Troum) are all about their arsenal of effects units and their backmasking tape techniques; but they sure as hell know how to use them as effectively on Ambient Dreams as on any of their other records. As on all of their other albums, blurred masses of sound ground everything for Maeror Tri's droning productions whose amorphous structure fluctuates with a frigid liquidity. The half melodies, breathy fragments of sound, and rippled textures that break through the aforementioned dark ambience have all of the trappings of Maeror Tri's typical guitar strategies, rebuffing their claim that all of the work is of "natural ambient sources," unless of course those highly treated sounds found their way into a sampler and sequencer. Regardless, Ambient Dreams conjures the recurring image for Maeror Tri of blackened clouds of ash, dust, and soot suspended in desolated abandoned warehouse whose interior is sporadically pierced with dim shafts of light.
MPEG Stream: "Window To The Absolute"
MPEG Stream: "Piano Bursting Soul"
MPEG Stream: "Amputation"

MAEROR TRI Emotional Engramm (Iris Light) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MAEROR TRI Emotional Engramm (Zoharum) cd 17.98
Originally released in 1997 on the now defunct Iris Light imprint out of England, Emotion Engramm was the final album from Maeror Tri - the haunting, post-industrial drone trio that was the precursor to the equally haunting, post-industrial drone DUO Troum. This record - more so than any of the other Maeror Tri albums - engaged the complex structures that Troum would later push through their interlocking, shadowy melodies and slow-motion, effects-heavy drone. At the same time, the concepts that went into Emotional Engramm are more closely related to the clinical psychological themes of the Maeror Tri albums Multiple Personality Disorder or Language Of Flames & Sound, as referenced by the titular engram (purposefully misspelled in the title), a Scientology term for a mental image embedded into the brain by any type of trauma - physical, emotional, psychic, or otherwise. Far from prescribing the teachings of Scientology, Maeror Tri uses that concept as a jumping off point in conjuring "resonance of control, impact, fortuity, the randomly instigated yet inedibly etched emotional memory: Kodak ghosts." It's easy to read particular passages within the frozen din of washed-out guitar noise, spectral melodies, tectonic bass rumblings, and metallic slashes of grim electronics as the seizures within the psyche that might get caught in an infinite loop for the inner-mind. Some of those images provide an emotional resonance that's deeply sad and full of despair, while others are enraged with a blackened hostility. As we mentioned, many of the ideas and strategies that went into this album continued to develop through Troum; but even so, this stands as one of the best albums that either Maeror Tri or Troum had produced.
MPEG Stream: "Secunda Figura: Sublimis"
MPEG Stream: "Quarta Figura: Vadum"
MPEG Stream: "Septima Figura: Sphaira"

MAEROR TRI Hypnobasia / Ultimate Time (Old Europa Cafe) 2cd-r 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been a very slow process, but the massive catalogue of cassette only releases from Maeror Tri appears to be making its way into the digital realm. Back in the early '90s, the Italian label Old Europa Cafe had released a very interesting tape series including two albums by this legendary German industrial drone outfit. It is a shame that in their recovery of these archival Maeror Tri recordings, OEC released the two cassettes as a double CD-R instead of giving them a proper CD release. No matter, it's still nice to see these recordings back in circulation. How long they'll be around is, of course, another matter. Hypnobasia (1992) is one of the noisiest manifestations of Maeror Tri, as trio of guitars spew volcanic slabs of distortion upon their signature low-end drone work and deep space ambience. Ultimate Time (1994) featured a bunch of tracks that had originally been commissioned for compilations, which for whatever reason never materialized. The flanging bass drones, metallic scraping, phased delay patterns, backwards masked screeches, and eerie crashing noises buried in digital reverb make for a much bleaker, more nightmarish version of the Krautrock antecedents in Popul Vuh and Kluster, but with ample references to Zoviet France and Lustmord thrown in the mix.
VERY LIMITED!! We only have a handful of these, and assuming we -can- get more it might take us a while.
MPEG Stream: "Drowning Souls"
MPEG Stream: "The Reckoning Space"

MAEROR TRI Hypnotikum I (Soleilmoon) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Almost entirely overlooked by 'post-rock' journalists for their fascination with industrial culture, Maeror Tri (now disbanded though Stefan and Martin have continued as Troum) have nevertheless constructed some of the most beautiful and simultaneously terrifying drone rock, complete with delicate melancholic melodies sublimated beneath glacial guitar washes. These tracks were culled from the backing tapes Maeror Tri performed with on their last European tour. Opens up a can of whup-ass on Windy & Carl and Labradford. A pretty limited piece of vinyl from Soleilmoon.

MAEROR TRI Hypnotikum II (Poetra Negra ) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
AQ favorite dronologists Maeror Tri dissolved in 1997 (with two thirds of the band reincarnating as Troum), but a handful of MT recordings have recently seen the light of day. "Hypnotikum II" is the second (and final) part of a series based on the tape loops used in a series of MT performances in 1996. Maeror Tri's dreamy oversaturation of drone-guitar noise is reminiscent of the old skool power electronics in which you can't tell if the melodic interludes are actual elements buried deep within the sound or hallucinated fragments. As with everything Stefan Knappe touches (either as MT/Troum or on his Drone 7" label), this is golden.

MAEROR TRI Language Of Flames And Sound (Old Europa Cafe) cd 21.00
Here is the second pressing of Maeror Tri's 1996 album Language Of Flames And Sound, which has long been noted for the brain-shaped packaging (faithfully restored in the second edition) and also has the distinction as being Maeror Tri's noisiest recording. This German trio began in the early '90s as a bleak, Dark Ambient project that brought a simple, if elegant use of effects-driven melodies to post-industrial noisescapes proposed by the Hafler Trio, Lustmord, and Illusion of Safety. While there are plenty of drawn out periods of flanging drones, spectral hiss, and those evanescent melodies which have become the trademark for the post-Maeror Tri project Troum, Language Of Flames And Sound brutally slams down on the distortion boxes, turning these languid, pseudo-Goth drones into thickened buzzsaws of melodic guitar noise that's not all that far from where black metal has progressed in recent years. An album like this should also make Aidan Baker blush as so many of these sounds have been mirrored in Najda. Throughout these megawatt explosions of radioactive noise splattering the all-consuming, ever dark ambience, Maeror Tri set down grinding loops of mekanoid pulsations that get at the band's Industrial roots. It's nice to have this back in print, although it's pretty limited. So who knows how long this batch will last.
MPEG Stream: "Viurunge [Last Firing Of The Neurons]"
MPEG Stream: "Onus"
MPEG Stream: "Diving Into Monument"

MAEROR TRI Meditamentum I (Manifold) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the second Maeror Tri reissue to appear in the past month, perhaps signifying a flood of old material from the seminal German droned-out industrialists. Or maybe not. Regardless, Meditamentum I originally came out on the tiny Holonom label back in the mid-90s, collecting tracks from the huge catalogue of Maeror Tri's cassette-only releases dating back to 1989 (including tracks from Peak Experience, Somnia et Expergisci, Ambient Dreams, Sensuum MEndacia, Sublimal Forces, Allianz, Hypnobasia, and Venenum, if you must know). Limited to 500 copies, the first volume of Meditamentum quickly went out of print, only to be repressed (in a much nicer package with embroidered cloth sleeve) by Manifold. As a whole Meditamentum is a far more ambient, drifting collection than the black-hole isolationism found on the recent Singles collection released on EE Tapes; nevertheless, the trio still concentrates on their signature cold, grim soundfields of droning guitars, laced with backwards breathy echos and haunted extented vocalizations.
MPEG Stream: "The Threat"
MPEG Stream: "Vox Sirenum"
RealAudio clip: "Vermis"

MAEROR TRI Multiple Personality Disorder (Purplesoil) cd 14.98
Multiple Personality Disorder was the first cd and first major release for the seminal post-industrial ensemble Maeror Tri; and yes, the album's title does allude to one line of psychological research into the delineation of (in this case) four personalities that often correspond with acute cases of multiple personality disorder. On one hand, this thematic application does make a parallel to the pseudo-diagnostic aesthetics promoted by SPK and Lustmord in the early '80s; but on the other, Maeror Tri's Stefan Knappe was studying psychology throughout university, and those ideas clearly impacted the way he approached music, smearing dark drones and ethereal melodies out of heavily processed guitars, bass, synths, and other instruments through Maeror Tri to provide an evocative, enveloping, atmospheric, and occasionally threatening form of dark ambience.
The four suites of the album include "The Administrator," "The Anaesthetizer", "The Revenger", and "The Protector," each seeking to encapsulate the metaphoric sounds of those aforementioned personality traits. Hence, the first seeks something of a balance that's neither too dark nor too warm in the shimmering guitar drones and backwards masked swells of monochromatism. The second piece is a opiating, druggy drone track, that has a serpentine, oozing quality in the densely stacked rumbles of low-end distortion and shadowy murk. "The Revenger" is a suitably menacing track of down-pitched vocal snarls and demonic growls that grate against a noisescaping drone backdrop. The finale is downright beautiful certainly looking forward to the post-Maeror Tri project Troum and their luminous, billowing drones sculpted with lilting melodies buried under tons of smeared reverb. Multiple Personality Disorder was always one of the best Maeror Tri albums, and one that succeeded through this conceptual framework (which would have caused lesser artists considerable trouble). The reissue does do away with the original Korm Plastics artwork, which wasn't anything really to write home about; so, if you don't have the original and are keen on anything dark and droning, pick this up!
MPEG Stream: "The Administrator"
MPEG Stream: "The Anaesthetizer"

MAEROR TRI Myein (Waystax) cd 16.98
Maeror Tri was a legendary German band that forged a mighty sound of corrosive, post-industrial dronescaping throughout the '90s before moving onto the equally impressive drone-based project Troum. Myein was one of the first cds by Maeror Tri, originally released by ND Records and housed in an unusual, oversized triangular sleeve. Now that this has been reissued through Waystyx, Myein enjoys a slightly less cumbersome, but no less appealing matte black, die-cut sleeve with a gold envelope housing the disc. Myein opens with a black cauldron of swarming guitar drones that steadily increases the atmospheric pressures over the course of the opening track before cracking in a burst of seething noise. Maeror Tri follows this with one of their more melodic interludes, extending a melancholic descending chord progression into a haunted mantra. The final entry on Myein finds Maeror Tri at their most sprawling, amorphous, and shadowy with an undulating ocean of dark dark drones littered with flanging sounds. We can only hope that Myein is the first of many reissues from Maeror Tri's hard to find back catalogue. Excellent!
MPEG Stream: "Phlogiston"
MPEG Stream: "Desiderium"
MPEG Stream: "Myein"

MAEROR TRI The Beauty Of Sadness (Tantric Harmonies) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK from the German ensemble Maeror Tri, whose exceptional, post-Industrial dronemusik straddles the current obsession with the doom-laden atmospherics of Corrupted, SUNN O))), Earth, etc. and the sublime impressionism of Jonathan Coleclough and Mirror. The Beauty Of Sadness was one of the last cassettes that Maeror Tri released before calling it quits in 1996; and as one might be able to discern from the title, this record finds Maeror Tri shifting their drones away from their heavy, menacing bleakness and toward a transcendent etherealism. Out of the churning wash of sound from their dynamic use of reverb, delay, and flange effects boxes, Maeror Tri push through honest to goodness songs of hypnotically repetitive guitar chords, melodies, and harmonies, making The Beauty Of Sadness come across like a rough-hewn but equally effective version of My Bloody Valentine's bleary eyed monotone found on Loveless. For those familiar with the recent work of Troum (whose members were two-thirds of Maeror Tri), The Beauty Of Sadness is an obvious precursor to their marvelous first chapter in the Tjukurrpa trilogy.
MPEG Stream: "Melting In Warmth"
MPEG Stream: "Dreamscaping"

MAEROR TRI The Singles (EE Tapes) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Since their early beginnings, the German guitar-drone ensemble Maeror Tri had a love affair with the 7" single that extended into their formation of the now seminal Drone Records series of 7" only releases. From 1993 to 1998, the trio released five singles on a handful of labels, condensing their ground zero ambience, post-industrial shadows, and subharmonic detonations into eight minute chunks. Cleverly packaged in a seven inch cover, this compilation from EE Tapes features four of those five singles, including the Physis 7" for Fool's Paradise, the Mystagogus 7" for Noise Museum, and their two releases on Ant-Zen, Exorbitant and Pleroma. Saltatrix, which was the first single that Maeror Tri produced for Drone Records, is the one missing single from the compilation; and that's only because Drone is planning on re-pressing that single sometime in the future.
The Physis single opens the album with a post-Neubauten bashing of tribal rhythms upon heaps of scrap metal which gets an accompaniment of looping feedback, static, hiss, and ominous throbbings. While better known for their bleak ambience, both Maeror Tri and their later incarnation Troum explored primitive rhythms within the guitar excursions from time to time. Mystagogus and Exorbitant delve into subterranean murk with deep, all-consuming heavy drones steeped in a gravel throated menace, often heard in recent days from naysayers SUNNO))) and Corrupted. The album ends with some of the best pieces that Maeror Tri or Troum have ever done from the Pleroma 10" which happened to be released after MT had already disbanded in 1996. It's a cauldron of low-end misery that brims forth with an ominous riff whose melody sheers through the isolationist pall of secrecy. Absolutely stunning! Considering that only 524 of these things exist, they (like the rest of the Maeror Tri catalogue) won't last long.
MPEG Stream: "Phyein"
MPEG Stream: "Industrial Meditation"
MPEG Stream: "Pleroma"

MAEROR TRI Venenum (Une) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Some of the earliest work from this amazingly prolific German drone band, "Venenum" was originally released back in 1991 as a cassette on AudioTapes and now sees a super limited digital release. At this early stage in Maeror Tri's existence, the overstaturation of guitar, keyboard, and occasional Teutonic vocalising held much more of a post-industrial ambience than the trancedent darkness of their later work. Lumbering melodies and bleak passages of raw sound filter through tons of icy effects. Really great stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Onoskelis"

MAFOUKA Closet Crown (self-released) 3" cd-r 5.98
BACK IN STOCK!
Second solo record from Preston Nunez, who plays in cosmic synth rock outfit Scantily Clad, whose three cd-r's were all big hits around here. A little while back Nunez sent us some copies of the debut record from his new group Guisher, which while bearing virtually no relation to Scantily Clad, still totally hit the spot, a head spinning bit of slice and dice audio collage weirdness, rhythmic and groovy and noisy and all over the sonic map. So we weren't entirely sure what to expect from this new project, Mafouka, which definitely has more in common with Guisher than with Scantily Clad, but where Guisher was a relentless sonic barrage, Mafouka sounds more measure and composed, at least a bit, it's still a bit of a barrage, 14 songs in a little under 20 minute, short bursts of hypnotic soundscaping. The opening track is all woozy and warped, a rhythms created from what sounds like a needle scratching across the surface of a record, not to mention some slowed down beats, looped female vocals, shimmery synths, it's like a super raw, primitive home brewed Portishead almost, that sort of washed out, late night vibe, then the next three tracks, all clocking in at well under a minute each, offer up brief snippets of sound, from a layered and looped but of easy listening, to some dialogue heavy, drum addled ambience, to a killer chunk of super distorted dirgey doom, again laced with bizarre samples, until finally another song that breaks the 2 minute mark, a synthy distorted creeper, the sound panning from speaker to speaker, laced with chopped up bits of drumming, layered voices, warm swirling melodic shimmer, which leads directly into another twisted, surprisingly melodic loopscape, from which unfurls the rest of the record, a sprawling selection of primitive sampledelia, equal parts Art Of Noise and Negativland, but all woven into something much more moodily musical, a glorious bit of home brewed 4-track alchemy that in some way plays out like a bedroom indie pop Endtroducing, albeit a bit more freaked out and fractured.
More super extravagant home mad packaging, this time, colored jewel cases with the art printed onto clear stickers which are affixed to the front, no tray, the 3" disc affixed to the inside of the trayless jewel case, over some photocopied artwork pasted into the bottom, which is also visible through the back of the jewel case, which has yet another clear sticker affixed to it. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 5"
MPEG Stream: "Track 11"

MAGDALENA SOLIS Hesperia (Klangverhaeltnisse) cassette 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
LAST COPIES EVER!
This out of print cd-r now reissued on TAPE!! Here's our review from when we first listed the cd-r version back in June:
Portable mp3 players and iTunes and all the digital music out there has definitely changed the way we listen to music. Many folks barely listen to whole albums anymore, instead making playlists, or setting their devices on shuffle, and while in some ways, that's a bummer, that the traditional concept of THE ALBUM, seems to be slowly fading from the collective consciousness, in other ways, it's actually gotten lots of folks to listen to music they've had forever, but had maybe forgotten all about, and shuffle is the best thing to happen to deep cuts EVER. How often does some track start playing, and you're forced to check and see who it is, and it ends up being some band you love, some record you love, but it's a track hidden away mid-record. And the other thing we've noticed is how much you end up listening to records that are in your iTunes RIGHT AFTER one of your favorite records, there's that record you always listen to, which inevitably leads right into whatever comes next alphabetically, and bam, that next record is suddenly a new favorite too. Something similar happened at work, where one of the computers had an iTunes full of music, and there were certain records we listen to all the time, and like above, one of those records would play right into the next, and EVERY time, we would have to check and see what it was, and every time, it was a band called Magdalena Solis, so we checked the store, and the website, and we had never carried it. A mystery of sorts. Quickly solved when we discovered that it was sent to us by two awesome aQ customers, Wouter and Terje, thinking we'd like it, and boy did we, we LOVED it in fact, so much so that we tracked down the band, and then the label, and finally got actual copies for ourselves, and for YOU. And trust us, it was well worth the wait.
The sound of Magdalena Solis hovers somewhere between psychedelic space rock and kosmische krautdrone, which means it's pretty much EXACTLY what we love, hazy, washed out drifts of dense distorted wah wah guitars, swirling FX, Eastern melodies, hushed angelic female vox, minimal drums, most of the tracks, pulsing and drifting and shimmering, and when there are drums, it's more sort of a blissed out, percussion laced spacedronedrift, take "Seven Boys And Seven Girls" the drums a simple motorik pulse, the main melody looped and cyclical, the whole thing wrapped in effects-heavy swirls of distorted synth and psych guitar buzz, the sound building to a seriously blown out cacophony, only to settle right back down again, leading into the comparatively contemplative "Cities Crumbling Planets Growing", a sitar soaked stretched of billowy low end, and distant sci-fi squiggle, barely there guitars slowly build into something, thick and fierce and spaced out and dreamily distorted.
The whole record is a series of smoldering slow build space drone epics, heavily layered landscapes of swirling synths, wheezing organs, skittery percussion, lush warm sonic swells, all wreathed in thick swaths of serious psych guitar, the sound constantly shifting from tranquil and dreamlike, to blown out and druggy/droney and way tripped out, heady and hypnotic and easily some of the best kaleidoscopic kosmische space/drone/psych we've heard. Most definitely recommended for fans of White Hills, Grails, the Alps, Expo 70, Gnod, Carlton Melton, Bong, Lumerians, White Noise Sound, Spacemen 3 and other droney, druggy psychedelic drifters...
MPEG Stream: "Wake Up And Start To Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Seven Boys And Seven Girls"
MPEG Stream: "Cities Crumbling Planets Growing"
MPEG Stream: "Prosperina's Gardens"

MAGDALENA SOLIS Hesperia (Dying For Bad Music) 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.
Portable mp3 players and iTunes and all the digital music out there has definitely changed the way we listen to music. Many folks barely listen to whole albums anymore, instead making playlists, or setting their devices on shuffle, and while in some ways, that's a bummer, that the traditional concept of THE ALBUM, seems to be slowly fading from the collective consciousness, in other ways, it's actually gotten lots of folks to listen to music they've had forever, but had maybe forgotten all about, and shuffle is the best thing to happen to deep cuts EVER. How often does some track start playing, and you're forced to check and see who it is, and it ends up being some band you love, some record you love, but it's a track hidden away mid-record. And the other thing we've noticed is how much you end up listening to records that are in your iTunes RIGHT AFTER one of your favorite records, there's that record you always listen to, which inevitably leads right into whatever comes next alphabetically, and bam, that next record is suddenly a new favorite too. Something similar happened at work, where one of the computers had an iTunes full of music, and there were certain records we listen to all the time, and like above, one of those records would play right into the next, and EVERY time, we would have to check and see what it was, and every time, it was a band called Magdalena Solis, so we checked the store, and the website, and we had never carried it. A mystery of sorts. Quickly solved when we discovered that it was sent to us by two awesome aQ customers, Wouter and Terje, thinking we'd like it, and boy did we, we LOVED it in fact, so much so that we tracked down the band, and then the label, and finally got actual copies for ourselves, and for YOU. And trust us, it was well worth the wait.
The sound of Magdalena Solis hovers somewhere between psychedelic space rock and kosmische krautdrone, which means it's pretty much EXACTLY what we love, hazy, washed out drifts of dense distorted wah wah guitars, swirling FX, Eastern melodies, hushed angelic female vox, minimal drums, most of the tracks, pulsing and drifting and shimmering, and when there are drums, it's more sort of a blissed out, percussion laced spacedronedrift, take "Seven Boys And Seven Girls" the drums a simple motorik pulse, the main melody looped and cyclical, the whole thing wrapped in effects-heavy swirls of distorted synth and psych guitar buzz, the sound building to a seriously blown out cacophony, only to settle right back down again, leading into the comparatively contemplative "Cities Crumbling Planets Growing", a sitar soaked stretched of billowy low end, and distant sci-fi squiggle, barely there guitars slowly build into something, thick and fierce and spaced out and dreamily distorted.
The whole record is a series of smoldering slow build space drone epics, heavily layered landscapes of swirling synths, wheezing organs, skittery percussion, lush warm sonic swells, all wreathed in thick swaths of serious psych guitar, the sound constantly shifting from tranquil and dreamlike, to blown out and druggy/droney and way tripped out, heady and hypnotic and easily some of the best kaleidoscopic kosmische space/drone/psych we've heard. Most definitely recommended for fans of White Hills, Grails, the Alps, Expo 70, Gnod, Carlton Melton, Bong, Lumerians, White Noise Sound, Spacemen 3 and other droney, druggy psychedelic drifters...
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, comes with a download code.
MPEG Stream: "Wake Up And Start To Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Seven Boys And Seven Girls"
MPEG Stream: "Cities Crumbling Planets Growing"
MPEG Stream: "Prosperina's Gardens"

MAGGOTED s/t (Jyrk) cd-r 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Elsewhere on this list we're reviewing the vinyl reissue of a long out off print cd-r featuring an AQ wet dream collaboration between Australia's Grey Daturas and Portland's (formerly SF's) Yellow Swans. Here we have a similar match up, but instead of those two bands butting heads in a dense noisy free for all, Maggoted is the secret rendezvous of just two like minded souls. Rob Mayson from the Grey Daturas and Pete Swanson of the Yellow Swans. You can almost picture the scene. Two guitarists, a bassist, drummer, keyboards, lots of noise, a big glorious ear splitting drone drenched racket, when Pete leans over and whispers in Rob's ear "Psst. You wanna go somewhere, umm, a little less crowded, you know, just you and me?" So the two secret off, and whip up their own private din. 30 minutes of droning grinding industrial free noise ambience, that ends up being as good as anything either one has done on their own.
There's definitely a like-minded approach to sound making shared by the Swans and the Daturas, obvious on their collaboration, and even more evident here when it's just one on one. Huge slabs of corrosive distorted whir, are separated by stretches of haunting tranquility, peppered with strange little sonar like tones, sort of industrial, a definite creeped out dark ambience, grinding and lumbering like Godflesh with all the metal removed, leaving nothing but a huge dense amorphous heaviness. By the end of the first 15 minute tracks, all the subtle dynamics and mysterious industrialism has been swallowed up completely by sheets of white noise and squalls of brutal hiss. The second 15 minute track follows a similar pattern. A dreamy muted drift, with boiling teapot high end skree way in the background, a moaning minimal drone right underneath, wavering and warbling below, with soft fluttering notes and lower register melodies drifting and swirling like whisps of black smoke. As the two meander darkly through this subtle sound world, a distant wave of white noise and damaged electronics threatens to overtake them, building into a frothing fury, before completely burying them in a thick swirl of cracked glitch and buzz and wild whipping streaks of grinding guitarnoise. Woah!
Packaged in a cool blue on black handscreened sleeve with photocopied insert.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, OF WHICH WE GOT ABOUT 40!!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"