HWYL NOFIO The Singers And Harp Players Are Dumb (Hwyl Nofio) cd 15.98
We heard about Hwyl-Nofio from AQ pal Kevin who does the amazing UK zine Salt (see elsewhere in this list) and finally managed to get our hands on a bunch. It's kind of a hard record to explain. But I've been listening to this almost every night when I go to bed, if that tells you anything. Dark and dreamy and cinematic. Somewhere between musique concrete, Stars Of The Lid, David Darling (solo cello) and drone ala Jonathan Coleclough, Troum or Mirror. Hwyl-Nofio is Steve Parry, and the records sound centers around his restrained, haunting piano, some times prepared, sometimes effected, but always simple and gorgeous. Dark slowly building somber bass swells cycle endlessly as melancholy piano hesitantly joins in. Warm washes of whispery rumble spread like thick rich fog, spilling from the speakers as distant high end notes twinkle and sparkle. Wheezing dissonance is laid beneath whirring church organs and keening guitars. Rumbling and bubbling low end floods your ears like molasses, while in the background, subtle clatter, plucked guitar and throbbing pulses. This has become my absolute favorite bliss out, late night, chill out record ever! So gorgeous and so good.
RealAudio clip: "Jerusalem Lane"
RealAudio clip: "Black River"
RealAudio clip: "Luminous Is An Autumn Sunset"
RealAudio clip: "Angel Tits"

HYPE WILLIAMS Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite, And Start Getting Reel (De Stijl) lp 19.98
Not to be confused with the infamous music video director, THIS Hype Williams is a Euro boy/girl duo who traffic in a woozy washed out, looped and loopy lysergic dubbed out witchy electronica, like How To Dress Well crossed with The Skaters, each track, a dizzying hypnoscape of cyclical rhythms, of layered melodies, and processed vox, a sound all syrupy and sludgey and seriously lo-fi, casio-core writ downtempo dancefloor drawl, chopped and screwed, and not all that far removed from Witch Housers like oOoOO or Salem, the same sort of cough syrup soaked electro dub, all skittery and shuffly, warped and warbly, everything dragging and druggy, sloe eyed and slithery, the bass is fuzzy and buzzy but is muted and blurred beneath robotic primitive rhythms, and hazy swirls of dreamlike melody, samples are manipulated, processed, stretched and reimagined, Sade becomes an icy chunk of electro murk (not here, but on another record, HW samples aQ fave Doug Blunt, AND half of Hype Williams calls himself D. Blunt, hmmmm), elsewhere the samples are not so easy to pick out, instead they're simply shards and streaks and fragments, all woven into HW's psychedelic skitter and bleary creepy crawl.
From ominous mysterious mumbly murk, to hazy, looped dreampop drift, from twisted chaotic collaged shuffle funk to Ariel Pink style alien FM radio groove pop, all the tracks here ooze and bleed and melt before your ears into one ever shifting organic assemblage of late night, under water, doped up, drift off, zombie funk...
MPEG Stream: "Rescue Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

I AM SEAMONSTER Nebulum (Basses Frequences) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another amazing release from Basses Frequences (and no, that's not a typo), a new-ish (mostly) cd-r label from France, whose gorgeous sounds and lovingly packaged super limited releases have definitely been hitting the spot lately. They're up to 6 or 7 releases by now, we listed the Tamagawa a few lists back, and elsewhere on this list you'll find a new release from Aidan Baker, and the latest from Irish drone outfit Wereju.
But here, we have the debut (as far as we know) from the curiously (and cooly) named I Am Seamonster, and we knew we were were in for something special, after only a few seconds of "Nebulum". It's definitely drone music, but this is not cavernous doomy low end rumbles, or delicate high end shimmer (although we do love both), no, this is something much more akin to Fennesz or Tim Hecker or Philip Jeck. Washed out and gauzy, blurred and ethereal. It's like someone removed a 2 or 3 second chunk from a perfect pop song, and stretched it out to 500 times that, simple melodies pulled apart into indistinct streaks, notes and chords transformed into deep glowing slow burning drones. Or perhaps imagine taking some shimmery bit of pop and examining it under a microscope, glimpsing past all the surface stuff and examining the mysterious world within, the textures revealed offer up a whole new world of sound, all the various microscopic parts, music at the atomic level, a blurred soundscape of massive slow moving shapes, of slowly shifting textures, the sound all grainy and blurred, you can almost imagine this as the first shot in the musical version of that film when the camera pulls back from the inside of the molecule all the way back to the furthest reaches of the universe. Who knows what sort of song, or what kind of music might be revealed if we pulled back from the soft, intimate dreamlike sounds of I Am Seamonster, but it hardly matters, because if anything, we actually want to get closer, to go deeper, to shrink ourselves down and lose ourselves in I Am Seamonster's mysterious microscopic soundworld...
Amazing packaging. The cd is seated in a black tray within a hinged metal tin, with a paste on front cover, full color sticker, and a sticker inside too with the liner notes.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Nebulum"
MPEG Stream: "Constellatrix"

I AM SPOONBENDER Spoonbender Sleep Research Team: 'Hypnotic Trance Pamphlet' - Series 1 (Seismic Seance) card set 9.98
'You have been suggested': This is the 1st of 3 in a series of what I Am Spoonbender call 'Hypnotic Trance Pamphlets' -- sort of an 'Oblique Strategies' for the memetic engineering mindset. Ten 2" by 3" cards unique to each series, imprinted with an array of provocative IAS word/image concepts, thoughts and musings enclosed in a hand-numbered red vellum envelope. Tres sublime. Each edition will be limited to 333 copies. When I snap my fingers, you will not snooze on this...

I AM SPOONBENDER Spoonbender Sleep Research Team: 'Hypnotic Trance Pamphlet' - Series 2 (Seismic Seance) card set 9.98
This is the 2nd series of 'Hypnotic Trance Pamphlets' by the Spoonbender Sleep Research Team (the printed-word annex of I Am Spoonbender). Enclosed in each metallic anthracite-hued paper, die-cut envelope are ten 2" by 3" cards (unique to each series), imprinted with an array of provocative IAS word/image concepts, thoughts and musings. Think a sort of 'Oblique Strategies' for the memetic-engineering mindset, although this set has some sociomagico narrative-generating possibilities... mix 'em up! Tres sublime! As with the 1st (and forthcoming 3rd edition), these are limited to 333 hand-numbered copies. Hypnotico! Arouseo! Awakeup!

I/DEX Seqsextend (Nexsound) cd 8.98

IASOS Inter-Dimensional Music (EM Records) cd 23.00
New age. Pretty much the ultimate diss when you want to put down someone's musical taste. Or harsh on some band, or record. Tough to think of a more purely musical putdown. Sellout? Maybe. Poser? Definitely, but not necessarily musical. But New Age. Oof. Moms and Grandmas listen to new age. Yanni ferchrissakes! And with all the ambient music we love so much here at AQ, we're extra conscious of negative New Age connotations, cuz it's always a fine line between shimmery droney dreaminess and whooshy New Age schmaltz. But c'mon, trust us, trust the folks at EM Records, and take our word that if you're only ever gonna buy one unabashed actual New Age album (and Andee hasn't already forced you to get some George Winston or Kitaro), then this should absolutely be the one.
Iasos was born in Greece and moved to America when he was 4, began playing piano at 8, then flute at 10. In the late sixties, he began to hear a 'new' music in his head and moved to California to try and realize this "heavenly music". And finally in 1975, he did it! Iasos 'invented' new age music with the release of 1975's Inter-Dimensional Music Through IASOS, which has now been reissued by the fine folks at EM, and has stood the test of time pretty darn well.
It's all here, tinkling piano, swooshing synthesizers, running water sounds, bird calls, maudlin melodies, fluttering flutes, crickets chirping, lots of nature sounds, thunderstorms, strange sound effects, gentle keening drones, whirling sonic washes and sweet swirls of soft focus sound. Even the song titles: "The Bubble Massage", "Rainbow Canyon", "Crystal Petals", "Clouds Prayer", Libra Sunrise." Yep, this is definitely New Age, there's no two ways about it, but if you can look past that 'stigma', this record is actually quite beautiful. And mysterious. And delicately lovely. It has lots of elements that plenty of AQ faves share, strange production, lots of fuzzy airy drones, plenty of insect sounds, bird calls, all wrapped into sweet expanses of dreamy sound. In fact if we listed this as some super limited cd-r on some upstart microlabel in Tasmania, and it had some murky forest photo on the cover, we'd sell tons, and no one would be the wiser. It's easy to forget that the modern crop of drifting ambient experimentalists owe quite a bit to new age pioneers. And let's not forget about all the pretty cool bands who either WERE new age, became new age, or incorporated elements of new age into their sound: Popol Vuh, Ashra, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Deuter, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Vangelis.
But Inter-Dimensional Music, regardless of pedigree, or genre classification, is just a dang good record. A little cheesy in places maybe but so what, hasn't stopped us from listening to this practically every day!!
Like all EM releases, the packaging is amazing. But the Iasos has a truly striking cover, even by the already impossibly high EM Records standards. Metallic gold embossed printing on glossy white paper. the cover image a man's torso, emerging from a cloud, arm upraised holding a flute, which is being struck by lightning. Some of you may recognize the image as it was stolen for a record cover many years back by Canadian noiserock guitarmy Superconductor. And of course there's also gold and white obi, as well as a massive booklet full of liner notes (all in Japanese, sorry) and loads of photos. As with all EM releases, SO RECOMMENDED!!!!
MPEG Stream: " Libra Sunshine"
MPEG Stream: "Formentera Sunset Clouds"
MPEG Stream: "Lueena Coast"
MPEG Stream: "Rainbow Canyon"

IASOS Inter-Dimensional Music (Hearted Hand) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This awesome new age classic newly reissued on vinyl!! And at a nice price!!
New age. Pretty much the ultimate diss when you want to put down someone's musical taste. Or harsh on some band, or record. Tough to think of a more purely musical putdown. Sellout? Maybe. Poser? Definitely, but not necessarily musical. But New Age. Oof. Moms and Grandmas listen to new age. Yanni ferchrissakes! And with all the ambient music we love so much here at AQ, we're extra conscious of negative New Age connotations, cuz it's always a fine line between shimmery droney dreaminess and whooshy New Age schmaltz. But take our word that if you're only ever gonna buy one unabashed actual New Age album (and Andee hasn't already forced you to get some George Winston or Kitaro), then this should absolutely be the one.
Iasos was born in Greece and moved to America when he was 4, began playing piano at 8, then flute at 10. In the late sixties, he began to hear a 'new' music in his head and moved to California to try and realize this "heavenly music". And finally in 1975, he did it! Iasos 'invented' new age music with the release of 1975's Inter-Dimensional Music Through IASOS.
It's all here, tinkling piano, swooshing synthesizers, running water sounds, bird calls, maudlin melodies, fluttering flutes, crickets chirping, lots of nature sounds, thunderstorms, strange sound effects, gentle keening drones, whirling sonic washes and sweet swirls of soft focus sound. Even the song titles: "The Bubble Massage", "Rainbow Canyon", "Crystal Petals", "Clouds Prayer", Libra Sunrise." Yep, this is definitely New Age, there's no two ways about it, but if you can look past that 'stigma', this record is actually quite beautiful. And mysterious. And delicately lovely. It has lots of elements that plenty of AQ faves share, strange production, lots of fuzzy airy drones, plenty of insect sounds, bird calls, all wrapped into sweet expanses of dreamy sound. In fact if we listed this as some super limited cd-r on some upstart microlabel in Tasmania, and it had some murky forest photo on the cover, we'd sell tons, and no one would be the wiser. It's easy to forget that the modern crop of drifting ambient experimentalists owe quite a bit to new age pioneers. And let's not forget about all the pretty cool bands who either WERE new age, became new age, or incorporated elements of new age into their sound: Popol Vuh, Ashra, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Deuter, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Vangelis.
But Inter-Dimensional Music, regardless of pedigree, or genre classification, is just a dang good record. A little cheesy in places maybe but so what, hasn't stopped us from listening to this practically every day!!
MPEG Stream: " Libra Sunshine"
MPEG Stream: "Formentera Sunset Clouds"
MPEG Stream: "Lueena Coast"
MPEG Stream: "Rainbow Canyon"

IASOS Inter-Dimensional Music (Wild Sages Records) lp 15.98
This lovely New Age classic reissued once again on vinyl - though actually we think its the previous pressing on Hearted Hand with a sticker over that saying Wild Sages, hmm. Anyway if you missed it before, it's a definite AQ fave, despite the New Age tag. Yeah, New age. Pretty much the ultimate diss when you want to put down someone's musical taste. Or harsh on some band, or record. Tough to think of a more purely musical putdown. Sellout? Maybe. Poser? Definitely, but not necessarily musical. But New Age. Oof. Moms and Grandmas listen to new age. Yanni ferchrissakes! And with all the ambient music we love so much here at AQ, we're extra conscious of negative New Age connotations, cuz it's always a fine line between shimmery droney dreaminess and whooshy New Age schmaltz. But take our word that if you're only ever gonna buy one unabashed actual New Age album (and Andee hasn't already forced you to get some George Winston or Kitaro), then this should absolutely be the one.
Iasos was born in Greece and moved to America when he was 4, began playing piano at 8, then flute at 10. In the late sixties, he began to hear a 'new' music in his head and moved to California to try and realize this "heavenly music". And finally in 1975, he did it! Iasos 'invented' new age music with the release of 1975's Inter-Dimensional Music Through IASOS.
It's all here, tinkling piano, swooshing synthesizers, running water sounds, bird calls, maudlin melodies, fluttering flutes, crickets chirping, lots of nature sounds, thunderstorms, strange sound effects, gentle keening drones, whirling sonic washes and sweet swirls of soft focus sound. Even the song titles: "The Bubble Massage", "Rainbow Canyon", "Crystal Petals", "Clouds Prayer", Libra Sunrise." Yep, this is definitely New Age, there's no two ways about it, but if you can look past that 'stigma', this record is actually quite beautiful. And mysterious. And delicately lovely. It has lots of elements that plenty of AQ faves share, strange production, lots of fuzzy airy drones, plenty of insect sounds, bird calls, all wrapped into sweet expanses of dreamy sound. In fact if we listed this as some super limited cd-r on some upstart microlabel in Tasmania, and it had some murky forest photo on the cover, we'd sell tons, and no one would be the wiser. It's easy to forget that the modern crop of drifting ambient experimentalists owe quite a bit to new age pioneers. And let's not forget about all the pretty cool bands who either WERE new age, became new age, or incorporated elements of new age into their sound: Popol Vuh, Ashra, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Deuter, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Vangelis.
But Inter-Dimensional Music, regardless of pedigree, or genre classification, is just a dang good record. A little cheesy in places maybe but so what, hasn't stopped us from listening to this practically every day!!
MPEG Stream: " Libra Sunshine"
MPEG Stream: "Formentera Sunset Clouds"
MPEG Stream: "Lueena Coast"
MPEG Stream: "Rainbow Canyon"

IBITSU Foolproof Betters Fools Bettering Foolproof... (Editions Mego) cd 17.98
As Mego had been shifting towards the power-electronic and blackened noise end of the spectrum, this one is something of a surprise for us. The Olde English blackletter script which adorns the cover belies the agitated silence found within. Ibitsu is the work of Shunichiro Okada, whose debut for Editions Mego follows in the hushed footsteps of Robert Ashley's Automatic Writing or perhaps even Nurse With Wound's similarly minded composition A Missing Sense. Okada situates his composition in two distinct levels, a higher frequency ceiling and a lower than low subharmonic base with nothing (and do we mean nothing!) in between. Above there are insect-like vibrations that circle and buzz about the stereo field with occasional brushes with softened white noise; and below are agitated rumblings that sound like somebody trying to push a giant piece of furniture in the apartment upstairs. Even as the album gradually moves from inaudibility to microsound glitchiness, Ibitsu maintains a even-handed control which always favors the 'objectness' of silence. A bit of a warning: this is a mere 25 minutes long.
MPEG Stream: "Foolproof Betters Fools Bettering Foolproof..."

IBM The Oval Recording (Mego) lp + 7" 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
So Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen have picked another mega-corporation to name a sound project after. The precedent was Panasonic who demanded that the Finns change their name, with Pan Sonic being the permutation of the offending moniker. Of course, Vainio & Vaisanen's argument here will be that IBM is nothing more than an acronym for Ilpo, Bruce, Mika (the Bruce being Bruce Gilbert from Wire), but they've appropriated the IBM corporate logo, thus abolishing any artistic propriety they may have in the matter... Sure this Mego release will certainly be such small pressing (it's vinyl only, too) as to not even show up on IBM's legal radar. But if this project continues and gets signed to Mute / Blast First, their name too will likely get altered. Personally, I'm hoping for MIB, but then Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will be on their case.
The self-naming crisis aside, the collaboration between Ilpo Vaisanen, Mika Vainio, and Bruce Gilbert is a triumphant one, but one that is far from the crystalline sounds that have dominated the Pan Sonic aesthetic. The turntable appears to be the original source for these recordings, for which the trio has forced locked grooves onto already mangled pieces of vinyl and then manipulated the resulting sounds through a variety of computer generated effects (lots of pitch shifting, flange, and digital-crunch distortion). "The Oval Recording" (another play with names as it was recorded in The Oval Mansion across from the Oval cricket arena in London) has nothing to do with the clean digital fragmentation of Oval - this is a dissonant rumbling album which rides a thick wall of industrial strength fuzz before diving into an Earth / Sunn like low end rumble. There's just as much Non and Otomo Yoshihide as there is Pita and Fennesz on the first.

ICE Code: Quarantine (Carcrashh) cd ep 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Folks who flipped over the recent copies of Techno Animal's Ghosts we dug up and listed a while back, are probably gonna flip over this too, a long lost remix ep from the group Ice, that like Techno Animal, featured both Kevin Martin of The Bug and Justin Broadrick of Godflesh, Jesu and lots and lots of other stuff. There was plenty of overlap between Techno Animal and Ice, both being sort of avant industrial hip hop /dub groups, the big difference was that Ice included sax (played here by both Martin and 16-17's Alex Buess!!), which gave it a sort of free jazz vibe, although that was balanced by Ice's overall lurching, lumbering industrial crunch.
On Code:Quarantine, two tracks from Ice's Under The Skin record get reworked, as does one from that awesome long out of print Isolationism compilations. "Juggernaut Kiss (Deaf, Dumb Blind)" is all nineties industrial thump and skitter, the beats dubbed WAY out, all tangled up in squiggles of distorted guitars, swinging wildly from speaker to speaker, thick low slung bass rumbles and thrums, sax squeals and skronks, the vocals are spoken or mumbled, the whole thing is a constant barrage of dizzying beats, twisted production, and staggering deconstructed beats, like some sort of Godflesh / 16-17 mash up, pulled apart and reassembled as something much more spaced out and skeletal. "The Dredger (Titanic)" is mostly beatless, long stretches of moaning horn and reverbed string buzz, loads of echo and delay, plenty of reverb, streaks of feedback, when the beats to come in, they're pretty abstract, shuffly and skittery, more about texture that rhythm, building to a skronky psychedelic freakout, before locking back into a more stripped down groove, as it slithers through billowing clouds of twisted FX and whirling fragmented melody.
Finally, "Implosion (Flying Machine)" gets WAY dubbed out, thick syrupy basslines under horns and vox and drums, that get slathered in effects and sent spinning, a looped tripped out cracked looking glass bit of free jazz industrial dubbiness, with some seriously killer long stretches of stripped down minimal skitter that makes up almost the whole second half of the song, various beats all space echo-ed and Lee Perry-ed, the motorik rhythm pounding and shuffling its way through occasional fields of crumbling distortion, insectoid buzz, and swirling psychedelic chaos.
WAY OUT OF PRINT. We got a small handful of these direct from the label, who discovered a small stash, so odds are these will be gone before you know it, so buy one now cheap, or pay way too much later for it on eBay...
MPEG Stream: "Juggernaut Kiss (Deaf, Dumb, Blind)"
MPEG Stream: "The Dredger (Titanic)"

ICE BOUND MAJESTY How Can We Live In A Kingdom And Never See The Throne (Frequency Thirteen) cd-r 7.98
It's been a good long while since we've heard from the Frequency Thirteen label, home to a sound and style of music we became pretty obsessed with and they call TRUE SHEFFIELD BLACK PSYCHEDELIA. There was Black Vomit, Dukkha, Rape Rack, Skultroll, that amazing Audio Apogee double cd-r compilation featuring a whole mess of TSBP bands, including the above, and then of course there were these guys, Ice Bound Majesty, who at the time we described as surreal free folk black metal ambient experimentalism / epic melodic blackened folk flecked post rock, but then ultimately decided that they were pretty impossible to describe. But now we get another chance with this latest batch of twisted avant heaviness and weirdo blackened psychedelia, which starts out all skittery electro almost, a synth melody draped over a house-y plus and what sounds like animal sounds, only to immediately be obliterated by a wall of SUPER distorted crumbling black buzz, crashing drums and harsh vokills, a sort of blackdrone drift, that also quickly give way to a bit of glitch, and then a long stretch of dreamy, hushed ambient shimmer, all softly layered undulating chordal thrum and delicate acoustic guitars. The second track begins just as baffling, with some sort of sampled Irish folk song, again immediately crumbling in a haze of in-the-red metalgaze buzz, and pounding blown out beats, a sort of electro metallic dirge, that sounds a bit like a more lo-fi version of Necro Deathmort, but it's here where the post rock vibe comes in, the sounds may be harsh and metallic, but the melodies and the arrangements are total Godspeed style slow build drama, loping and hypnotic, although this is IBM, so the song does lurch from that dreamy lope to crumbing blackened metallic dirge and back again, sprawling into a nearly 11 minute second half, where the sound drifts and whirs and shimmers, flecked with sheets of distorted low end, keening feedback, looped feedback, muted skeletal beats, again, sonically in line with the electronic metal hybrid that Necro Deathmort specialize in, but IBM are much more twisted and raw.
The rest of the record is equally schizophrenic, lumbering doomy glitch flecked pound gives way, to swirling druggy, tripped out ambience, which in turn blossoms into a weird sort of electronic krautrock, wreathed in blackened buzz and strange distant voices, before slipping into what might be our favorite track, with looped female vocals, haunting minor key piano melodies, thick doomdronedirge guitars, a super blown out beat heavy second half sprawl, that gradually fractures and begins to stutter, a digital freak out that sounds like malfunctioning cd players, before finishing off with a thick corrosive avalanche of skittery distorto doom.
After a brief bit of haunting industrial ambience, the record finishes with the 12+ minute "Thevirgocluster/Acollapsedstar", which right out of the gate sounds like some Jesu / Nadja hybrid, all big booming distorted beats, blurred crumbling melodies, and sprawling tarpit riffs, all muted and muddied, washed out and woozy, peppered with wide open spaces, the heaviness peeled back to let the drums skitter and shuffle through fields of hushed shimmer, before heaviness swoops back in, finishing off with a wild tangle of collaged vocal samples, and a final hidden track of blurred, softly blackened shimmer. So good.
And here's hoping this heralds the return of the label, and all the warped outfits that sail with her. As always crazy limited, so grab one while you can. And word is there's a new Black Vomit on deck too, so prepare thyself...
MPEG Stream: "Bespoke Negativity"
MPEG Stream: "Sixdaysoulpart1"
MPEG Stream: "Sixdaysoulpart2"

ID BATTERY Inferno From An Occult Diary (Siwa) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recorded almost two years ago, "Inferno From An Occult Diary" is the fourth album from the lo-fi dronologist outfit Id Battery. Here, Loren Chasse and Brandon La Belle present their alchemical duets crafted around field recordings, slow rumbling bells, creeping organ drones, and the lo-fi errors of cable buzz. Between the seemingly placid aquatic sounds of rain tumbling onto sheet metal and the sounds of electricity, an ominous realization occurs that these sounds - however tranquil - are also charged with a certain life threatening danger. Recommended as with the rest of Id Battery catalogue!

ID BATTERY The Foot (Drone Records) 7" 6.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"The Foot" is perhaps the last document to be released from Id Battery, the collaborative effort between Loren Chasse and Brandon LaBelle. With Chasse well entrenched in the Jewelled Antler Collective (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Child Readers, etc), in Coelacanth, and in his solo projects, and with LaBelle pursuing a career in the academic realms of avant-garde composition, the likelihood of Id Battery recording again is small. Nevertheless, the acclaimed duo's Drone single "The Foot" is another wonderful document of their organic textures through low-fi found sounds, repetitive rock scrapings, soft electrical field disturbances, and strange hummings. "The Foot" is edited from the recordings made during Id Battery's performance during the Activate The Medium festival in San Luis Obispo in 1998. Artwork by Loren and AQ's Jim Haynes, and limited to 250 copies on marbled yellow and green vinyl. Very nice!

ID BATTERY Unique Ancient Tavern (Center Of The Ass Run / Ecstatic Yod) lp 14.98
Thurston Moore and Byron Coley curated the quizzically named series Center Of The Ass Run in the mid-'90s, packaging a handful of obscurant freeform experimentalists in pre-fab LP sleeves and a sticker annotating which Ass Run this might be. They looked purposefully lowbrow, but within always lurked stellar explorations of avant-noise, no-wave jazz excursions, and splattered electronics, with Id Battery's 1997 release Unique Ancient Tavern fitting nicely within this batch of releases. Id Battery was an early project for Brandon Labelle and long-time aQ-favorite Loren Chasse, who began this project well before anything Jewelled Antler. Much of this material harkens back to their earliest collaborations, when Chasse was found behind a drumkit and Labelle was on bass. While they soon moved beyond this guise into the more well-known explorations of sound through found objects, contact microphone probings, and rebroadcasting sounds in unconventional settings, the bass/drum Id Battery arrangements were more in keeping with garbled lo-fi murk that was coming out of New Zealand at the time (e.g. Dead C, Birchville Cat Motel, Doramaar, A Handful Of Dust) with falling-down-the-stairs drum clatter and atonal thwacking on the bass with plenty of choking atmospherics filling in the gaps. Chasse and Labelle spliced these grimy improvisational recordings with thrumming drones of equally lo-fi quality as various looping techniques amassing the sounds into deep bellows, pocked with skittering texture and corroded noises.
These are the last pieces of vinyl kicking around from the Center Of The Ass Run series, as a small stash was uncovered in a vault somewhere in Massachusetts. Don't expect these to be around for long!

IDEALIST, THE I Am The Fire (AA / Nosordo) cd 14.98
The cover of I Am The Fire depicts a lone figure crouched amidst a strange assemblage of equipment, several amps, a synthesizer, an old fashioned tape recorder, some sort of oscillator and a large square lamp illuminating the scene, while surrounding the figure and all the equipment is a light dusting of what appears to be leaves, quite evocative, and we'd like to think it's an actual photo of the creation of this disc, as the sounds here are definitely dimly lit, suffused with a mysterious glow, dark and intimate, haunting and abstract. A slow burning drone music, less minimal and more melodic, the opener sounds like Godspeed or Explosions In The Sky, stripped of drums, melted down and poured out into a slowly spreading pool of blackened sonic shimmer, the sound muted and softly distorted, smoldering with a strange urgency, more thick and warm than heavy, reminding us quite a bit of a less heavy Fear Falls Burning. The other tracks here definitely slip into more minimal territory, but even then, the sound is dense and organic sounding, tones and notes stretched way out and laid atop one another, alongside other sympathetic tones, unleashing clouds of rhythmic overtones and all manner of subtle colorations, drifting slow and low, glimmering dreamily, a prismatic soundfield of blacks and greys, beautifully blurred into soft focus suite of deep listening dronemusic.
MPEG Stream: "The Knifes Are My Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "To Make Exact Copies Of Every Mistake Ever Made"

IDES OF GEMINI Constantinople (Neurot) cd 14.98
At the risk of repeating ourselves, there's a visual component to this witchy blackened trio, that is certainly worth mentioning again, and seems to tie directly into the strange occultic vibe of the music. Imagine two willowy women, both beautiful and with long black hair, each wearing what seems to be an old white wedding dress, one at the mic, the other behind the kit, while the guitar player, quite willowy himself, sits in a chair hunched over his guitars, the trio remaining mostly motionless, but evoking a strange sort of vibe, like some ancient ritual, enacted for hundreds of years in different permutations, this one being in the form of a musical trio, the medium now a sort of blackened dirgery. Not so much metal as slightly metallic, and as we mentioned in our review of Ides Of Gemini's debut, we found they seemed to have much more in common with Warpaint or Mazzy Star. But the opening of the first track definitely throws down a black metal gauntlet, unfurling a frenzied buzzing black metal riff, underneath which, the drums pound tribally, yet instead of exploding into some furious blast, the sound shifts into a sort of funereal march, all simple stumbling drums, doomy riffage, and then the vocals, mesmerizing and ethereal, but still powerful, the harmonies haunting, the sound blossoming like some blackened liturgical incantation, the overall effect quite mesmerizing.
The whole record's a series of ritualistic sonic spells, driven mostly by the vocals, but constantly underpinned by simple blackened droned out riffing and driven by the spare martial drumming.
All four of the tracks from the demo are re-recorded and presented here again, including our favorite, the utterly spellbinding "Resurrectionists", which is essentially a gorgeous slab of indie pop slowcore, with a killer main riff/melody, and an insanely catchy refrain/chorus, the sort of song that you'll find yourself returning to again and again, the new version (of this and the other three demo tracks) so much heavier, and so much more lush, wreathed in warm swaths of reverb and echo, as if these sonic rituals were being performed on a crumbling altar in some old stone cathedral, the listener hunched in an alcove, hidden by shadows, letting Ides Of Gemini's mournful musical lamentations wash over them...
MPEG Stream: "Resurrectionists"
MPEG Stream: "The Vessel & The Stake"
MPEG Stream: "Starless Midnight"

IDES OF GEMINI Constantinople (Sige) lp 21.00
NOW ON VINYL!!
At the risk of repeating ourselves, there's a visual component to this witchy blackened trio, that is certainly worth mentioning again, and seems to tie directly into the strange occultic vibe of the music. Imagine two willowy women, both beautiful and with long black hair, each wearing what seems to be an old white wedding dress, one at the mic, the other behind the kit, while the guitar player, quite willowy himself, sits in a chair hunched over his guitars, the trio remaining mostly motionless, but evoking a strange sort of vibe, like some ancient ritual, enacted for hundreds of years in different permutations, this one being in the form of a musical trio, the medium now a sort of blackened dirgery. Not so much metal as slightly metallic, and as we mentioned in our review of Ides Of Gemini's debut, we found they seemed to have much more in common with Warpaint or Mazzy Star. But the opening of the first track definitely throws down a black metal gauntlet, unfurling a frenzied buzzing black metal riff, underneath which, the drums pound tribally, yet instead of exploding into some furious blast, the sound shifts into a sort of funereal march, all simple stumbling drums, doomy riffage, and then the vocals, mesmerizing and ethereal, but still powerful, the harmonies haunting, the sound blossoming like some blackened liturgical incantation, the overall effect quite mesmerizing.
The whole record's a series of ritualistic sonic spells, driven mostly by the vocals, but constantly underpinned by simple blackened droned out riffing and driven by the spare martial drumming.
All four of the tracks from the demo are re-recorded and presented here again, including our favorite, the utterly spellbinding "Resurrectionists", which is essentially a gorgeous slab of indie pop slowcore, with a killer main riff/melody, and an insanely catchy refrain/chorus, the sort of song that you'll find yourself returning to again and again, the new version (of this and the other three demo tracks) so much heavier, and so much more lush, wreathed in warm swaths of reverb and echo, as if these sonic rituals were being performed on a crumbling altar in some old stone cathedral, the listener hunched in an alcove, hidden by shadows, letting Ides Of Gemini's mournful musical lamentations wash over them...
MPEG Stream: "Resurrectionists"
MPEG Stream: "The Vessel & The Stake"
MPEG Stream: "Starless Midnight"

IDES OF GEMINI Hexagram (Magic Bullet) 7" 8.98
A special Record Store Day release from this witchy blackened dreampsych trio, featuring rock scribe J. Bennett on guitar, along with Sera Timms (of Black Math Horsemen), and Kelly Johnston, on guitar and bass respectively, two willowy women, both of whom very much look the part of the witchy temptress, performing live hey both wear old white wedding dresses, looking like they stepped right out of some old daguerreotype, and who provide the haunting harmonies, which are definitely what make ion so magical and mysterious sounding.
While their past records were laced with a bit of black buzz, the sound here is much more moody and minimal, the A side sounds a bit more like nineties slowcore filtered through a more modern shoegaze aesthetic, but even here, Bennett introduces some blackness, in the form of his slo-mo black metal riffing, which is transformed into something more hazy and washed out, a doomy drifty churn, the song slipping into some full on dirginess, a heaving, heavy, reverbed creep, the whole thing a little bit noisy, a little bit gothy, the vocals keeping the sound grounded, transforming what might otherwise be some minimal doominess, into something more ethereal and hauntingly transcendent, the plodding minimal drumming, adding a primal pulse to the blurry buzzy dreaminess. The B side gets even more dreamy, ditching all the buzz and plod, in favor of something more atmospheric, lilting minor key piano, wreathed in a gauzy sonic haze, seems to blur and drift, the vocals doused in echo and reverb float spectrally above, the whole thing a dreamlike sprawl of gothic slowcore ethereal dreampop soft-psych bliss, the vocals reminding us of Cheslea Wolfe or Zola Jesus, but set amidst a landscape much more cinematic and abstract. So gorgeous.
This was in fact a 2013 Record Store Day release, and thus super limited, but we did get a whole bunch - however once we sell out, these are probably gone for good.
The record comes in different colored sleeves, and multiple colors of vinyl, includes a nice printed insert with lyrics.

IELASI, GIUSEPPE Aix (12K) cd 14.98

IELASI, GIUSEPPE August (12K) cd 14.98
Italian guitarist and electronic experimentalist Ielasi has become a bit of a favorite here at AQ over the past few years, what with his several discs for the Hapna label, and his Bellows collaboration with Nicola Ratti on Kning Disc last year, etc., all being extremely pleasurable soundscapes woven with fractured, processed guitar, silence, and (sometimes) beats. Now he's got a new solo disc, this time on the 12k label, where he fits right in with their usual "lowercase" aesthetic. It's taken us a while to get enough of this new one to list, but of course it's been worth the wait, being another finely detailed display of abstract dronological beauty, warmly wrought from both acoustic instruments like guitar and piano, along with synths, Hammond organ, and shortwave radio static...
Track one sets the scene: wavering electronic drones melted over rustling, scurrying acoustic clatter of undefinable origin, the whole thing dense yet delicate, and slowly pulsing with organic/electric buzzings... as the track progresses, somewhere buried in the background the suggestion is formed of a sleepy jazz combo (we think we can hear notes being plucked on the upright bass and the drummer brushing his snare). Moving at a similarly somnolent pace, the next cut, and the others that follow, add (or subtract) other sonic elements -- heavier distortion or purer tones, horn-like melodic driftings and white noise blanketings -- while always maintaining that murky, moody, mesmeric blissfulness for which we adore Ielasi so.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

IELASI, GIUSEPPE Gesine (Hapna) cd 15.98
Personally, this is our first concentrated encounter with this Italian guitarist and electronic experimentalist, though a friend of ours speaks highly of his prior output. And it's on the Hapna label, generally a pretty good bet for goodness (they last brought us discs by Sinistri, Pita, and Stephan Mathieu among others). Though, in some rare instances Hapna stuff goes too far into the skronking, scrabbling, indulgent improv thing for our tastes. However, Ielasi's Gesine turns out to indeed be quite excellent and enjoyable. It's abstract and seemingly improv-involved, yes, but tastefully, gorgeously so, all sounds well-placed and possessed of strange beauty. The twang of strings, amidst droney static, mellow and mesmeric. It's like Hans Reichel gone onkyo, or John Fahey-on-Mego, to make two weird and probably unhelpful comparisons. Definitely something for fans of David Grubbs, Taku Sugimoto, and Dean Roberts, we'd venture. In fact, it turns out we have heard Ielasi before, as he played prepared guitar on Roberts' wonderful Be Mine Tonight album released on Kranky a few years back.
Unlike some guitarists, Ielasi doesn't feel obligated to play his instrument very much -- some tracks are purely electronic ambience, no notes being played. He says a lot with a little, over these six tracks/31 minutes 13 seconds. I first listened to this on a rainy day and was absolutely entranced. So very good, we'll definitely have to start paying closer attention to this guy and his electro-acoustic artistry.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 4"
MPEG Stream: "track 6"

IELASI, GIUSEPPE s/t (Hapna) cd 16.98
This self-titled album from Italy's Giuseppe Ielasi is his second for the Hapna label. His first, Gesine, was a favorite 'round here and this one is great too! Compared to Gesine, this is more drone and beat oriented, but in the most murky and abstract way. Ielasi is an "experimental guitarist" but beyond that we don't know much about the processes that went into the construction of the tracks on this cd -- other than that he thanks sonic compatriot Renato Renaldi for "his invaluable help with tape manipulations". The five untitled, all-instrumental tracks here dreamily blend guitar (presumably), electronics, percussion and who knows what else into moody soundscapes. Are those cowbells clinking distantly amid the hypnotic hum and crackle? It's foggy and swampy and really nice. Like a lot of our favorite Hapna releases, this has a certain twilit grace. Textural and abstract and simply quite pleasant -- recommended.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

IELASI, GIUSEPPE & NICOLA RATTI Bellows (Kning Disk) cd 14.98
We're pretty happy with the Swedish label Kning Disk lately. Their releases look lovely, and more importantly, always engage our ears. Here's a new one on Kning from the duo of Giuseppe Ielasi and Nicola Ratti. Italian experimental guitarist Ielasi is already a pleasant fixture in the AQ consciousness, entrancing us with the rainy-day moodiness of his quietly blissful releases on the Hapna label (see elsewhere on our site for reviews of those). Nicola Ratti we're not familiar with, but clearly he gets on well with Ielasi's usual sonic approach.
Bellows consists of seven untitled tracks of abstract beauty, a detailed dronescape created with guitar, percussion, turntable, and electronics. Thus... Crackle and glitch. Chime and shimmer. Gentle and mysterious. Offering seeming glimpses of song and melody amidst all the insectoid buzz, a dreamy reverie of looping loveliness and static-y texture.
Limited to just 450 copies, by the way...and of course we have far fewer than that on hand.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

IF, BWANA Clara Nostra (Pogus) cd 15.98
The original recording of "Clara Nostra" (initially called "Clarinots") was additive piece for a singular clarinet which was bounced back and fourth between multi-tracked recording units resulting in the sound of 106,476 clarinets being played / recorded at the same time(!?!). For "Clara Nostra," If, Bwana remixed the maximalist sound down to half speed, causing a deep resonant rumble. A solid piece of dronology from an outfit that we think usually sucks. Anyway, that's a lot of clarinets for sixteen bucks!

IGNATZ Hello There Little Ghost / Slumber With Great Peace (Dreamtime Taped Sounds) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A brief two song tape from AQ faves Ignatz, a gorgeous collection of dreamy sonics, created to celebrate the birth of his first child. The A side is classic Ignatz, at once gorgeous and shimmery, but aggressive and distorted, the focal point being the mysterious and haunting wordless vocals, raw and overdriven, that eventually become more and more blurry and distorted until they simply become another layer in the textural smear of sound, tangled up with the sing song guitar melodies, as the whole track grows more and more intense and blown out until it's like a more metal Fennesz. The track finishes off with a surprising little coda, a playful little jaunty fragment, a playful melody, over a super distorted Konono-like percussive backdrop.
The flipside, is a gorgeous laid back, soft focus blissed out ballad, the guitars drifting and whispery, the vocals an about to crack falsetto croon, all bathed in tape hiss and amp buzz, super spacious and intimate and so so pretty.
Hand silkscreened sleeves and of course crazy limited...

IGNATZ I Will Soothe My Eye To Feast It With A Sight Of Beauty (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When we last heard from this mysterious ensemble, we likened their sound to some sort of Alien Folkways collection. Vibrant images of Alan Lomax in a space suit going from planet to planet, recording the natives, as they perform strange ritualistic folk music, the likes of which we had never heard on Earth before. This latest missive from the strangely monickered Ignatz, plays out in a similarly alien fashion, although this time it sounds like we've travelled toward the center of the Earth, rooting out all of the subterranean dwellers, from the bottom of the sea to bottomless pits, to maze like warrens of underground caverns, bat people, strange lizard like folk, a new breed of eyeless humanoid, with strange suction cup stumps instead of limbs. All living happily beneath the surface, building elaborate civilizations, and most importantly creating their own folk music. Bits and pieces slightly resemble some of the more terrestrial sounds we're accustomed to. Maybe some of the underground dwellers heard snippets of music drifting down through cracks or storm drains, but even those sounds were twisted and reshaped into new sounds.
This Subterranean Folkways collection was gathered from over 400 trips below the surface, from all over the world, below China, beneath Egypt, underneath the Canadian Tundra, within several famous peaks, and in several legendary volcanos. Each culture and "people" developed on their own, separated from the rest of humanity and the rest of the sub-dwellers, their evolutionary paths taking many unexpected twists and turns, which are of course reflected in the music. A haunting disembodied angular blues folk, cobbled together from sharp jagged riffs that float in a dark cloud of spacious reverb while from way below huge pulses of depth charge bass float to the surface, threatening to swallow everything whole. Dense clouds of chirping crickets and tangled birdsong are woven into thick sonic brambles, a swirling confusional knot of sound, a bit like Sunroof! occurring in nature, while underneath a strange melodic tapping drifts and a moaned vocal floats ominously. Pulsing bagpipe like guitars intertwine with haunting chant like vocals, lilting electric guitar melodies zig and zag beneath warbly swells of fuzzy organ. A distant disembodied blues, pulled apart and tossed into a huge blaack pool. left to drift and spin and eventually sink below the surface. A stumbling Jandekian dirge, atonal vocals, over shifting swirls of detuned guitar and glistening high end shimmer. Mysterious and so wonderful.
We anxiously await the next Folkways collection, gathered on various excursions into the human body, to record the indigenous musics of the many creatures and organisms that call our human forms home!
MPEG Stream: "Be Careful"
MPEG Stream: "Even In The Old Days"
MPEG Stream: "Never Dodge Anything"

IGNATZ II ((K-RAA-K)3) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ignatz II (or III if you count the recently reviewed I Will Soothe My Eye To Feast It With A Sight Of Beauty cd-r) heralds the return of our favorite alien Appalachian troubadour and another transmission of fuzzed out, obfuscated, FX laden, bedroom free folk outer space buzz and shimmer. Not too much has changed since I (a past AQ Record of the Week), but if anything, the sound of Ignatz has become even darker and more expansive, and somehow, impossibly more beautiful and mysterious. Another haunting and dreamily disorienting stopover in a musical journey to points unknown. While some of what you see or hear on II might sound familiar, it doesn't take too long before you realize that the sounds here are... well, different, off kilter, damaged, prettiness is present but summarily obfuscated. Bits of folks and blues surface here and there, but are slowly and methodically transformed into a whole new shapes and sounds. Every melody, at first warm and inviting, begins to twist and change, becoming some bastardized blues, sometimes broken down into jagged shards and stumbling cadences, other times splattered into glimmering glistening sonic sparkles.
The root of Ignatz's sound is still a wonderfully gnarled Appalachia, guitars and vocals mostly, drenched in filthy spacey FX most of the time, but even when delivered sans effects, they manage to sound alien and otherworldly. Ghostly abstract dirges, lengthy meanders through epic and ominous landscapes of blown out slow burn riffs and bits of delicate fingerpicking. Hovering above are wistful, abstract vocals, distorted and indistinct, wrapped around mournful melodies, the whole thing stumbling and slightly off kilter. Occasionally the guitars build into huge thick torrents of fuzzy riffing, dense and chaotic, before the riffs crumble and threaten to fall apart completely, until the vocals and guitars tangle up and become more and more indistinct, a slow shifting cloud of blues shimmer and folk swirl.
It almost sounds as if someone pulled apart some old blues 78's, piece by piece, note by note, and then, hundreds of years later, reassembled them without any instructions, utilizing some as yet undiscovered alien technology, only to discover that THIS is what music sounded like in 2007. What a strange world it must have been....
This warm and warbly, futuristic ancient folk is a masterfully mangled Delta blues transmitted from planet to planet, and with each million light year stretch, the sound becomes more tangled and less obviously blueslike. Alien musical transmissions intercepted using an old victrola and played back by some crazy old man, sitting on his porch, armed with just an acoustic guitar, a pile of busted old wax cylinders, and a huge bank of broken and rusty effects pedals...
So goddamn great!
MPEG Stream: "He Deals With Love & Her Eyes Glaze"
MPEG Stream: "The Dreams"

IGNATZ II ((K-RAA-K)3) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ignatz II (or III if you count the recently reviewed I Will Soothe My Eye To Feast It With A Sight Of Beauty cd-r) heralds the return of our favorite alien Appalachian troubadour and another transmission of fuzzed out, obfuscated, FX laden, bedroom free folk outer space buzz and shimmer. Not too much has changed since I (a past AQ Record of the Week), but if anything, the sound of Ignatz has become even darker and more expansive, and somehow, impossibly more beautiful and mysterious. Another haunting and dreamily disorienting stopover in a musical journey to points unknown. While some of what you see or hear on II might sound familiar, it doesn't take too long before you realize that the sounds here are... well, different, off kilter, damaged, prettiness is present but summarily obfuscated. Bits of folks and blues surface here and there, but are slowly and methodically transformed into a whole new shapes and sounds. Every melody, at first warm and inviting, begins to twist and change, becoming some bastardized blues, sometimes broken down into jagged shards and stumbling cadences, other times splattered into glimmering glistening sonic sparkles.
The root of Ignatz's sound is still a wonderfully gnarled Appalachia, guitars and vocals mostly, drenched in filthy spacey FX most of the time, but even when delivered sans effects, they manage to sound alien and otherworldly. Ghostly abstract dirges, lengthy meanders through epic and ominous landscapes of blown out slow burn riffs and bits of delicate fingerpicking. Hovering above are wistful, abstract vocals, distorted and indistinct, wrapped around mournful melodies, the whole thing stumbling and slightly off kilter. Occasionally the guitars build into huge thick torrents of fuzzy riffing, dense and chaotic, before the riffs crumble and threaten to fall apart completely, until the vocals and guitars tangle up and become more and more indistinct, a slow shifting cloud of blues shimmer and folk swirl.
It almost sounds as if someone pulled apart some old blues 78's, piece by piece, note by note, and then, hundreds of years later, reassembled them without any instructions, utilizing some as yet undiscovered alien technology, only to discover that THIS is what music sounded like in 2007. What a strange world it must have been....
This warm and warbly, futuristic ancient folk is a masterfully mangled Delta blues transmitted from planet to planet, and with each million light year stretch, the sound becomes more tangled and less obviously blueslike. Alien musical transmissions intercepted using an old victrola and played back by some crazy old man, sitting on his porch, armed with just an acoustic guitar, a pile of busted old wax cylinders, and a huge bank of broken and rusty effects pedals...
So goddamn great!
MPEG Stream: "He Deals With Love & Her Eyes Glaze"
MPEG Stream: "The Dreams"

IGNATZ III ((K-RAA-K)3) cd 15.98
In the past we've alternately described Ignatz as space folk drone or alien Appalachia, owing much to Ignatz's blend of buzzing lo-fi murk, and Folkways style folk guitar. A confusional mix that works magically, Fahey meets Uton, or James Blackshaw recording with Starving Weirdos, a stumbling buzz infused sprawl as spacious as it is clattery and chaotic. Beneath the drone and ambience there was always a blues element to Ignatz, the guitar playing, distinctly blues in its alien Appalachia, but usually, those blues were sublimated by all the other various noises happening, the only trace being the bits of pick and strum, that weren't blues so much as bluegrass, and even then it was sort of twisted and abstracted. Well, III is Ignatz's blues record. And while this may be far out, and idiosyncratic and lo-fi and a bit freaky, this is most definitely BLUES. Big time.
Right from the beginning, it's mostly just guitar and voice, the guitar effected and processed, the sound a little warped, the leads and melodies cracked and off kilter, but locked into a distinctly blues progression. The vocals raw and rich, a deep distorted croon, wrapped languorously over the creeping riffs and warbly melodies. It may be blues, but it's some seriously outsider blues for sure. And the whole first half of the record continues on in this fashion, unfurling haunting alien blues, "Gazing At The Fire" probably being our favorite, as the guitar gets all twisted up, stuttering and skipping, making all sorts of staccato rhythms within the various chord progressions, wreathed in space-y FX, and turning the song into something even more avant garde.
The second half of the record finds Ignatz retuning to a more familiar sound, that mysterious murky drone folk, buzzing guitars, sad plaintive vocals buried in the mix, notes and chords detuned, everything warped and warbly, strange bagpipe like melodies stretched out over wide open expanses of reverb spring buzz and tape hiss, angular melodies and high end trills. The final track sounds like Ignatz jamming with Jandek, the guitar super warm and washed out, the vocals pained and anguished, the whole track thick with murky ambience, and a muted mumbled percussion, haunting and creepy and beautiful.
At first we were thrown by the new bluesier Ignatz, but it's still such a unique sound. We can only imagine, while listening to this, that III was in fact made in the '30s or '40s, recorded by some mysterious old man in a cave somewhere in the South, and these tapes were literally dug up, discovered in the collapsed cellar of some old shack, wrapped in a bloodied flannel shirt, with a note written in rust colored ink, nothing but song titles and strange cryptic symbols. And even if that's not how it happened, it sure sounds like it did...
MPEG Stream: "The Water"
MPEG Stream: "Two Nights And A Day"
MPEG Stream: "Gazing At The Fire"

IGNATZ III ((K-RAA-K)3) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the past we've alternately described Ignatz as space folk drone or alien Appalachia, owing much to Ignatz's blend of buzzing lo-fi murk, and Folkways style folk guitar. A confusional mix that works magically, Fahey meets Uton, or James Blackshaw recording with Starving Weirdos, a stumbling buzz infused sprawl as spacious as it is clattery and chaotic. Beneath the drone and ambience there was always a blues element to Ignatz, the guitar playing, distinctly blues in its alien Appalachia, but usually, those blues were sublimated by all the other various noises happening, the only trace being the bits of pick and strum, that weren't blues so much as bluegrass, and even then it was sort of twisted and abstracted. Well, III is Ignatz's blues record. And while this may be far out, and idiosyncratic and lo-fi and a bit freaky, this is most definitely BLUES. Big time.
Right from the beginning, it's mostly just guitar and voice, the guitar effected and processed, the sound a little warped, the leads and melodies cracked and off kilter, but locked into a distinctly blues progression. The vocals raw and rich, a deep distorted croon, wrapped languorously over the creeping riffs and warbly melodies. It may be blues, but it's some seriously outsider blues for sure. And the whole first half of the record continues on in this fashion, unfurling haunting alien blues, "Gazing At The Fire" probably being our favorite, as the guitar gets all twisted up, stuttering and skipping, making all sorts of staccato rhythms within the various chord progressions, wreathed in space-y FX, and turning the song into something even more avant garde.
The second half of the record finds Ignatz retuning to a more familiar sound, that mysterious murky drone folk, buzzing guitars, sad plaintive vocals buried in the mix, notes and chords detuned, everything warped and warbly, strange bagpipe like melodies stretched out over wide open expanses of reverb spring buzz and tape hiss, angular melodies and high end trills. The final track sounds like Ignatz jamming with Jandek, the guitar super warm and washed out, the vocals pained and anguished, the whole track thick with murky ambience, and a muted mumbled percussion, haunting and creepy and beautiful.
At first we were thrown by the new bluesier Ignatz, but it's still such a unique sound. We can only imagine, while listening to this, that III was in fact made in the '30s or '40s, recorded by some mysterious old man in a cave somewhere in the South, and these tapes were literally dug up, discovered in the collapsed cellar of some old shack, wrapped in a bloodied flannel shirt, with a note written in rust colored ink, nothing but song titles and strange cryptic symbols. And even if that's not how it happened, it sure sounds like it did...
MPEG Stream: "The Water"
MPEG Stream: "Two Nights And A Day"
MPEG Stream: "Gazing At The Fire"

IGNATZ Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat) cd 24.00

IGNATZ s/t ((K-RAA-K)3) 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 really wanted to think of some clever intro to this review referencing Ignatz the brick throwing mouse and Krazy Kat, but this record is hardly whimsical or cartoonish, instead it's a dark and mysterious exploration of the guitar, a disembodied ghostlike folk, simple melodic figures are fragmented and twisted and recontextualized. Ignatz is the ultimate modern outsider folk record. Blown out crumbling fuzzy distorted pulses of barely recognizable guitar, haunting fragments of dessicated melodies, burts of manic noodling that are quickly blown apart into their constituent sounds and re-absorbed into the ether, strange baroque sounding steel string guitars float below the murky throbbing surface. It's like some strange Alan Lomax style back porch hillbilly recording, an alien Smithsonian Folkways. Imagine Lomax wandering a dusty road on some other planet and discovering Ignatz sitting on the front stoop with a guitar plugged into some strange looking homemade contraption and recording this record right there on that alien porch. Simple blues numbers are twisted and swathed in layers of effects, the vocals pitched up or down into chirps and rumbles, the whole thing bathed in a reflective coat of glistening reverb and warm warbly distortion, stark, simple stretches of minor key guitar are disrupted by bursts of disembodied guitar grrzzzt, hovering above a framework of delicate barely there chimes. Huge slow shifting expanses of warm guitar shimmer, and crumbling slabs of distorted sound (not at all unlike Sunroof! or Birchville Cat Motel), strange footstomping campfire hoedowns buckle beneath the layers of sound and fury piled atop them, mysteriously broadcast from beyond through a tin can and twine. It's almost as if this were some long lost future edition of Harry Smith's Anthology of Alien Folk Music, with Ignatz simultaneously channelling Roscoe Holcomb and Fennesz. Alien Ambient Appalachia maybe. Future Folk? New Weird Belgium? Whatever this is, it's dark and dense and thick and warm and weird and lovely and one of the weirdest most wonderful things we've heard.
MPEG Stream: "Rebound From The Cliff"
MPEG Stream: "Echo All Acoustically Correct"

IGNATZ Selected Songs From Cassettes 2005 - 2009 (KRAAK) lp 15.98
We've long been fans of this outsider alien Appalachia folk troubadour, we've made at least one of his records an aQ Record Of The Week, and raved about most of the others, so when we recently were offered some new releases from the Kraak label, one of the titles we were most excited about was this vinyl collection, which gathers up a handful of tracks from various out of print cassettes, most of which were so limited we were never able to get them.
And like the records proper, the sounds here while rooted in a sort of psychedelic folk, definitely veer in all sorts of directions, sonically quite disparate at times, but somehow strangely cohesive. The random samplings here seem to have been assembled in a way that at least simulates a record proper, but even then, the sounds are still tripped out and fantastically erratic.
Angular electric guitars wrap themselves around a reverbed croon, moody funereal dirges laced with muted percussion give way to dark buzzing drones, which in turn give way to a chiming dronefolk shimmer, weirdly twisted and detuned, wreathed in buzz. Elsewhere lush forest folk transforms into a swampy sort of abstract blues, with crooned vox and a woozy warped production. Jangle meets strum, falsetto vox drift over tinkling vibes-like melodies, shuffling jazzy rhythms blossom into something more rocking and psychedelic. A brief bit of moaning buzzy dronemusic, a la Angus Maclise or Tony Conrad introduces a barrage of wild squiggly melodies draped over a woozy strum, wrapped in swirls of feedback and blurred into a raga like trip out and finally, the record finishes off with an ultra minimal, barely there Jandekian creep, some serious outsider folk, with haunting falsetto vocals drifting over hushed tendrils of melodies and lots of mysterious near silence.
Cool stuff, essential for fans, maybe not the best place to start for newbies, but if you have any/all of the other records and dig them as much as we do, this stuff too will hit the spot.

IGNATZ They Are Quiet As Mice (Bennifer Edition) cassette 7.98
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A super limited tape from these mysterious space folk drone devils. Past Ignatz recordings we had likened to some sort of Alien Smithsonian Folkways, a curious blend of disembodied Appalachian twang and murky lo-fi ambient dronemusic, and if anything this cassette missive from whatever sonic planet these freeks call home, only moves their muted twang further into the realms of some alien music. At its core, the sound is a strummed abstract folk, the vocals a buried blurry croon, the guitars, a rough twang and simple strum, that spends most of it's time struggling beneath a dense fog of crumbling distortion, thick drifts of tape hiss, and what sounds like malfunctioning effects pedals.
But what could be a mess, instead ends up sounding magical, a noisy swirl of blunted feedback, detuned melodies, processed vocals, all recorded onto a tenth generation cassette, all of the old music bleeding up through Ignatz's droney drift, hovering and drifting, floating and fluttering, sometimes building to Dead C like noise rock squalls, but always with some lilting melody or sweetly hushed croon right below the surface. The perfect mix of weirdo folk and chaotic drone drenched floor-core. Fans of folks like the Skaters, The Yellow Swans, as well as fringe folk weirdness will definitely dig. And if you've yet to delve into the other Ignatz releases, this will definitely go a long way to convincing you that you MUST.
Gorgeously handmade and outrageously limited. The tape has colored silkscreened labels pasted to both sides of the tape itself. Housed in one of those oversized plastic cassette cases, like language courses or self help tapes come in. A hand screened full color cover insert on the outside, inside two photocopied inserts and a unique miniature abstract painting. So cool.

IIDA, HIROYUKI & ATSUSHI TOMINAGA s/t (WrK) cd 16.98
The conceptually leaning WrK label out of Japan presents a solo piece from both Hiroyuki Iida and Atsushi Tominaga as well as a collaborative piece. Iida's solo piece "BPM 60" ampilfies two quartz watches using the electro magnetic inferference caused by two loop antennas, producing a noxious hypnosis of clattered rhythms. Tominaga's "050" piece is an ominous recording of bass rumbles which occurred when he recorded the sound of boiling water using speakers as the microphone. "Grainness" - the collaboration between the two - is a performative piece for a vibrating plate glass and a steel pipe. Fluxus to say the least.

IKE YARD 1980-82 Collected (Acute) cd 14.98
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As hard as it is to believe that there can still be a steady stream of amazing reissues of '70s psychedelia from all around the world (but there is!), we're equally amazed that the purveyors of '80s grim synth punk have also been re-emerging with increasing regularity and surprising quality. While the German collector's label Vinyl On Demand have been at the forefront of the '80s resurgence of cold, cold, cold post-punk (mostly of the Germanic variety), Acute has also uncovered some gems, offering us the Metal Urbain reissues as well as a handful of pre-symphonic Glenn Branca projects. Now Acute presents Ike Yard. Hailing from New York back in the early '80s, they were one of the few American bands to sign to Factory Records (the most notable other band being ESG). This collection of tracks from 1980 - 1982 culls all of the material from Ike Yard's one LP on Factory and an EP for Le Disque Du Crespuscule plus the requisite unreleased material. Initially, Ike Yard really does sound like Factory should be their home, easily paralleling the death disco prowess of Public Image Limited or Section 25. Their dour monochrome post-punk enjoys a spectral production quality which haunted all of the Martin Hannett produced Factory recordings. But gradually the Factory overtones disappear in lieu of an claustrophobic electronic sound which reminds us a lot like early Cabaret Voltaire, or rather what we wished CV would sound like given that CV hasn't really weathered all that well up very. Ike Yard though is another matter, as they seemed to really fight over whether to groove on a primal, sexual funk or to alienate their audience with their cold, electro-primitive detachment. Between the metallic synth arppegiations, drum machines struggling to work through the complex patterns, and the angular swatches of screeching guitar, there is Kenny Compton's chilling, zombified vocal delivery that really pushes Ike Yard deeper into the realms of urban malaise. A very cool reissue.
MPEG Stream: "Cherish"
MPEG Stream: "NCR"
MPEG Stream: "Kino"

IKEDA, RYOJI 0degreesC (Touch) cd 15.98
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There are a number of odd experimental records that for some reason cause detrimental tonalities in the apartment of our upstairs neighbors. CM Von Hausswollf's Ray of Light, Oval's Diskont 94, Aphex Twin's "Girl/Boy" and this piece by Ryoji Ikeda are some of the most recent suspects. Blistering shards of drum & bass fragments brutally cut up next to monstrous pure digital tones that build and pop into rhythmic sequences. Not the more serene minimalism that one normally expects from Mr. Ikeda! Needless to say, we've not been able to get through the whole album (thanks to the neighbors)...

IKEDA, RYOJI 1000 Fragments (CCI Recordings) cd 17.98
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Excellent first album of skittering electronica (material from '85 to '95) finally back in stock. Japanese import.

IKEDA, RYOJI 1000 Fragments (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98
The first nine tracks of 1000 Fragments are not what you would expect from the Ryoji Ikeda of today. His contemporary installation work and accompanying audio documents have been researching pure frequency manipulation and psychoacoustic delirium with occasional bursts of Pan Sonic / Alva Noto ventures of post-techno rhythm. Albums like Dataplex or Test Pattern are uncompromisingly clean and conceptually simple; but in 1995, Ryoji Ikeda likened himself more a media provocateur than a minimalist technician. 1000 Fragments was originally released through Ikeda's own CCI label well over a decade ago and now enjoys the re-issue treatment care of Raster Noton. Those first nine tracks represent one of three distinct styles of work on 1000 Fragments, and collectively manifest as a frenzied media collage of disembodied voices, electro-shock noise bursts, and skittered militant rhythms, paralleling the dystoptic sound of Illusion Of Safety and The Hafler Trio from that same time period. The second section explores more sedate dronefield territory, still emerging from a post-industrial framework (again think Illusion Of Safety and The Hafler Trio albeit in their alchemical and gnostic guises) whose beating phasepatterns upon long-form tones refined from shortwave datastreaming anticipated where he would venture in many years later. The third chapter to 1000 Fragments is a subtle composition that weaves together the aerated reverb from what could be some forgotten choral piece by Ligetti. This finale is surprisingly delicate and beautiful for an artist best known for his cold, hard edges of pure electronica, although it has to be said that a track such as this does look forward to Ikeda's orchestral detour Op. While never intended to be a cohesive body of work, 1000 Fragments is an excellent overview of the origins of one of our favorite sound artists.
MPEG Stream: "What's Wrong"
MPEG Stream: "Zone 4"
MPEG Stream: "Luxus 1-3"

IKEDA, RYOJI 20' to 2000 : March (Raster-Noton) cd 14.98
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Following Vaisanen, Ryoji Ikeda's contribution to the series is a wicked example of bruitist electronica whereby a sine wave blasting a headrattling throb evolves slowly into Pan Sonic style 'grooves'. Its end result is quite simply painful.

IKEDA, RYOJI Dataplex (Raster-Noton) cd 15.98
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We're always excited when a new disc from Ryoji Ikeda appears. As far as we're concerned, this Japanese electronic composer is the master of the "clicks and cuts", minimal-micro-sonic scene. And Dataplex is his latest masterpiece, a twenty-tracker with titles like "data.complex", "data.googolplex", "data.superhelix", "data.vertex". With each data dot shift, clinical little sounds that clearly come from a computer -- datastreams it would seem, that's the idea here -- are presented and then worked into rhythmically complex techno music. It's not exactly "dance" music though, but these carefully placed, computer-generated clicks and whirrs and glitches and high frequency pulses you could maybe THINK about dancing to... certainly they're something for your brain to marvel at, edging closer to seizure as the album progresses, though Ikeda gives some relief with a more ambient ten-minute track near the end of the album. It all starts off with sounds that are almost raw data, morphed into music as Ikeda, track by track, engineers more and more 'plexity into the disc, working with a purity of sound and at so microscopic of a scale that Ikeda and his music seemingly belong in the science laboratory. Yet, at the same time, he breathes a lot of life into these little bits of information, making them dance even if you don't. Recommended -- and don't let what's stickered to the cd tray scare you off: "Caution! This cd contains specific waveform data that performs a data-read test for optical drives. The last track will cause some cd players to experience playback errors, with no damage to equipment." We love warnings on cds like that!
Yes indeed, after his successful foray into orchestral instrumentation on 2002's Touch release Op., long time fans of Ikeda (like us) should be happy that he's still also forging ahead in the digital realm, Dataplex being a fine successor to such past Ikeda classics as +/- and Matrix.
MPEG Stream: "data.multiplex"
MPEG Stream: "data.microhelix"
MPEG Stream: "data.vortex"

IKEDA, RYOJI Matrix (Touch) 2cd 21.00
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"Matrix" completes the trilogy of releases that Japanese electronica-experimentalist Ryoji Ikeda has put out through the Touch label (also including "0¡C" and "+/-"). Inspite of what the title may imply, Ikeda hasn't taken to computer-assisted wire stunts, battling Keanu Reeves in a kung fu competition for the title of Cyber-Christ, though we think that the first half of "Matrix" could use a little more high-flying, ass-kicking action...of which, thankfully, there's plenty on the second half! Let's explain: "Matrix" is a double cd that explores a conceptual relationship between the body and architecture within a controlled sonic field. Disc one concentrates on the architectural metaphor as Ikeda unleashes two closely matched sine wave frequencies which quickly fill up any enclosed space which can offer body-cavity-churning standing waves or warm blissful drones, depending on where you stand in that room. An interesting conceptual piece but one that you might not listen to too many times...
Disc two, on the other hand, is the reason to pick this up. Ikeda explores the idea of broadcasting his sine waves through the much more complex architectural system of the body, which with its amorphous surfaces and natural electical field reacts in a much more interesting way than a boxy cube. Ikeda begins the second half of "Matrix" with some amplifications of his own heart pulse, then phases in top quality Raster / Noton digital rhythms in only the low and high frequencies, sounding much closer to Mika Vainio's earlier recordings. So, focusing on disc two, this turns out to be a pretty exceptional release! Regard disc one as a bonus disc of conceptual-ambient stuff, with the main disc (disc two) being completely amazing and powerful clicking and humming "dance music". His tones are so pure and his sense of dynamics, contrasts and rhythms so exciting that this is already Allan's favorite "party" album of the year...
Joking about "The Matrix" aside, one can imagine that this style of "techno" should have been used on the soundtrack to it (or better yet, "Run Lola Run") but I don't know if theatre audiences would have survived. Certainly the action on the screen would have taken on secondary importance!
RealAudio clip: ".matrix (track 5)"

IKEDA, RYOJI Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat) cd 17.98
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Limited edition cd of Ikeda's contribution to VRPO Radio's live series! Variations on +/- and Headphonics plus an unreleased track. Pure, delicate tones of ultra high and low frequencies shifting against each other with Pan Sonic style clinical beats appearing late in the tracks...excellent!

IKEDA, RYOJI op. (Touch) cd 15.98
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We're used to hearing clinical clicks from Japanese electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda -- so what's this then? 21st century classical, all acoustic stringed instruments, no electronics at all?? Yes, and it's great. With help from Belgian chamber-prog group Art Zoyd, Ikeda has crafted a gorgeous soundtrack-like suite of droning string bliss, that's far from the chopped-up aesthetic of his earlier use of orchestral elements in the electronic realm.
Two years ago, Ikeda released "Matrix" -- an amazing double cd split between pure sinewave aggrevation on one disc and smooth, post-techno click 'n' grooves on the other. While that album was the conclusion of a trilogy of electronic works that also included "0 Degrees Celsius" and "+/-," it remains unclear if the arrival of "op." also marks a disavowal of electronics altogether (as good as this is, we hope not). While the German avant-garde ensemble Zeitkratzer have done very well for themselves in translating electronoise works by John Duncan and Merzbow into atonal orchestrations for classical instruments, Ikeda's "classical" debut bares little resemblance to anything he's done in the past. No cyclical pulses. No clinical precision. No irritants to speak of. Instead, Ikeda's compositions for strings (one piece for 9 strings and the rest for quartet) gracefully glide in and out of complex timbres, with plenty of breathing room in between all of the harmonic tones. Indeed, the closest resemblance to Ikeda's past work is how initial attack of bows on strings can sound uncannily like the electronically-generated tones on the sinewave half of "Matrix"... Soon they reveal themselves for the acoustic orchestra instruments they are, Ikeda apparently using them to tap into the emotions of sadness and majesty, which rock musicians also have appropriated from romantic composers. Yet, with its stoic simplicity and stately pacing, "op." also mirrors the fascination that fellow minimalist Bernhard Gunter holds for Morton Feldman and Luigi Nono, although Gunter's approach has remained within the scope of sampling and hasn't yet arrived at full blown orchestrations.
As beautiful and compelling as Ikeda's "op." is, Ikeda has to ask himself how he can build a language that not only reflects back upon successes of his previous electronic works but also understand the peculiarities intrinsic to this form of composition. He's already issued vague statements about his electronic works building "invisible patterns filling the listening space." Is this a strong enough bridge between Ikeda's electronic masterpieces and the possible future for other classical compositions? Only time will tell...
RealAudio clip: "op.1 movement 2"
RealAudio clip: "op.2 version 2"

IKEDA, RYOJI See You At Regis Debray (OST) (Syntax) 2cd 23.00
Ryoji Ikeda scored the soundtrack for CS Leigh's film See You At The Regis Debray; and this two disc set is the entire soundtrack to the film split into two sections, approximately 45 minutes each. We've not seen the film; but from what we can gather, it describes a few days in 1969 when Andreas Baader (of Baader-Meinhof fame) spent with the French intellectual Regis Debray, while Baader was on the run from the German authorities. Debray himself had quite a storied past, having spent time in a Bolivian jail for associating with Che Guevera.
Ikeda's soundtrack begins as you would expect any Ikeda album to start: with a slow-building ascension of precisely micro-shifting digital tones. Ikeda cuts to a collage of the jarring ring of telephones that dissolves into a repetitive strum of a low-slung guitar that sounds very much like a Morricone sample from The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly. This detours into a subterranean field recording of various clanks, muffled rumblings, and distant voices. Then an elegiac chorale of reverb saturated drones with snippets of radio transmission (bells? gongs? chimes? those same digital tones?) completes the first disc. The second disc returns to that Morricone riff, only flushed out this time, given more of an Achim Reichel energy of bad-ass Western twang matching futurist arpeggiation. These 15 - 20 minutes of the soundtrack are the highlight of the album, and make us wish Ikeda would do more of this type of work. The rest of the second disc consists of an eerie collage of someone panting heavily transitioning to a collage of chimpmunked AM radio hits then to dissonant guitar squalor sort of like early Nurse With Wound, before turning to a collection of old Spanish political speeches, perhaps Che Guevera?
MPEG Stream: "01"
MPEG Stream: "MoRT"
MPEG Stream: ""

IKEDA, RYOJI Test Pattern (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98
Been waiting for this for a while, the new Raster-Noton disc from Japanese electronic artist Ryoji Ikeda! There's a bunch of other new Raster titles that we're excited about too (Coh, Alva Noto, Byetone, etc.) but this is the one we were anticipating the most. Sure, lots of folks make electronic music of the experimental glitchy, clicky variety - like many of Ikeda's just-mentioned labelmates - but in our book, Ikeda is the KING. His precision architect(r)onic computerized clicks and cuts are on a whole 'nother level, totally hallucinatory and 3-D spatial. An immersive environment you enter at your own risk (of epileptic seizure, perhaps). But if you pass the test (of his relentless electronic pitter patter patterns) you'll be entranced and entangled.
And we're pleased to report that Test Pattern is yet another strobing, brutally stereo display of his skills. 16 binaryily named tracks, "Test Pattern #0001" to "Test Pattern #0000", that provide prickly pleasure with rapid, stuttery nano-beats, like a frantic Geiger counter on the fritz, or some sort of Morse code madness. Ikeda's techniques include both minimalist repetition, and sudden shifts; his skittering, synthetic slices of sound arranged in complex, rhythmic patterns, an omnidirectional aural assault of high pitched, panicked, hissing sine tones, and deeper bass hums n' buzzing drones... it's a pretty incredible collection of constructions, vibrant and varied within Ikeda's self-imposed electronic boundaries and specific sets of data-based building materials. As ever with Ikeda's output, recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Test Pattern #0010"
MPEG Stream: "Test Pattern #0011"

IKEDA, RYOJI Time / Space (Staalplaat) 12" 12.98
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Strange that a piece by Ryoji Ikeda would get released on vinyl, but Staalplaat has always been known to defy convention. Originally released as a double 3"cd back in 1998, "Time / Space" found Ikeda first exploring the now commonplace glitch 'n' sinewave agenda. "Space" is incredibly quiet with deep low end rumbles, unwavering midrange tones, terse pinprick pings, and surface noise scrapes (...well we're pretty sure they're supposed to be there as they're in perfect rhythm with the subtle rhythm shifts). "Time", on the other hand, is Ikeda's more active side, with those low end rumbles tightened into mid-tempo techno pulses while blistered glitches, morse code shards, and very tense dueling sinewaves spiral throughout the skeletal rhythms. Of course it's on white vinyl, and of course it's limited to 500 copies.

IKEDA, RYOJI Time and Space (Staalplaat) 2x3"cd 17.98
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When he released +/-, he totally broke new ground for minimalist digital music. He was then strangely criticised for the accessiblity of his next recording, 0 Degrees C. Time and Space finds a middleground. He is able to create a deep and complex field of sound with the very simple elements of tones and clicks.