"Svarte Greiner is the nom de plume of Deaf Center's Erik K. Skodvin. Hailing from Norway, his solo efforts are always stripped bare, white-knuckle sojourns through dark, haunted ambient sonic corridors. "Penpals Forever (and Ever)" is the imaginary tale of a long dead Baroque painter and his telekinetic correspondence with a flightless bird. It feels archaic; experimental death marches circa 1622. Like Guercino's Et in Arcadia Ego, once the end is realized there's nowhere left to go. It's beyond our experience and sometimes you never recover from the shock.

Despite its rather cheery title, "Penpals Forever (and Ever)," is another step toward the abyss. Musically sparse, Svarte Greiner finds new channels connecting desolate landscapes through ethereal nightmares. It is music best served cold. Chattering, looping guitar lines that feel like muscle being separated from bone slowly build into aching piles of aural dissonance. It's painful to a point. Recorded voices speak a language you can't understand underneath ominous, echoing single notes. Distant metal fragments scrape the dirt from detuned strings while a nefarious feathered minstrel bows dying instruments in the background. No hope left, death is just around the corner.

As it ever was, Svarte Greiner is again weaving something deliciously sinister. This is music that is uncomfortably bare. Within its blood-stained confines there is nowhere to hide. Skodvin's tangled, gnarled tale goes back and forth into infinity until it becomes clear that the flightless bird in question lives inside your skull. Drowning slowly into one's own twisted mind, "Penpals" is the soundtrack of loss; the procession of fears gradually becoming so overbearing that you can't escape your own demons."

-Digitalis

"Fresh from the sunny cascades that split the mountains into pieces, the duo of Brad Rose (Altar Eagle, The North Sea, etc) and Kevin Danchisko (Sovetskaya Gone) rip into the bliss that drips from synthetic space nebulae. "I Will Be Missed" is the first vinyl release following up a handful of cassettes. With nods to '60s Americana via laced cocktails and theoretical academic roots, Ossining takes this drag race to the moon.

"I Will Be Missed" collects three synth-driven underwater vision quests. Crystal sequences are force-fed through strings of filters resulting in flourescent, smoldering towers of muddy ambience. The idea is to make something inherently beautiful that sucks the air from your lungs resulting in a wobbly, unclear treatise. With the cracks smoothed over, each sharp jolt takes on a life of its own turning up the temperature and morphing into a pure white heaven. It's all hands-on-deck if you don't want to get dropped into the boiling seas below.

The flipside brings the lightshow to its peak, taking things positively solar. Backed by walls of bloop-infested waters and arpeggiated madness, the duo let the vocals fly. Each run through exudes an underlying tension searching for any hole to escape. As melodies loop and feedback on top of each other, the beginnings are consumed by the ends. Nothing is left to chance and nobody is hoping for perfection. In the end, Ossining deliver two sides of silver-soaked dreams blasted in a holographic glow. Mad men, the lot of them."

-Digitalis

"Flashback to 1997 and in the world of underground droning weirdness, Bugskull were heavyweight champions. The revolving cast of characters always centered around Sean Byrne. He concocted buckets full of syrupy delights that encompassed everything from electronica, post-rock, dub, noise and endless pop hooks. Byrne was joined by multi-instrumentalist Brendan Bell and percussionist James Yu throughout the latter half of the '90s, taking Bugskull from bedroom wonder to full-blown magic carpet band. Bugskull released records and singles on some of the great experimental labels of the day such as Road Cone, Scratch, and Shrimper. I can safely say that as I was discovering experimental music during my mid & late teens, Bugskull were one of my all-time favorite bands.

The last album Byrne released was in 2002, "The Big White Cloud," which followed-up the acclaimed "Distracted Snowflake" duology. During the late '90s, Byrne recorded a third album that extended the themes of the "Snowflake" records. Due to label issues and disputes, this third album never came out until now, almost ten years later. "Communication" is the bookend to the hypnotic reverie created by "Distracted Snowflake" volumes 1 & 2. With layers of organ and synth floating like cotton candy on top of dub and hip-hop infused beats, Byrne is in top form.

"Communication" isn't so much a lost album as it is confirmation of a legacy and declaration of intent. Bugskull is back. From the tribal beach vibes of "High Steppin' II" right down to the drenched bones of the droning, black river sonics of "Subterranean Life," this album brings everything that made Bugskull so great and concentrates it on two sides of vinyl. Upbeat, fast-moving synth lines bob and move in minimal electronic waves while violins moan on "Squeaky Bagpipe." The title track is an exercise in restraint as Byrne uses turntables and molasses-paced guitars to the listener into a false sense of serenity, only to be drowned in opiates and put to bed by "Pondlife." Whether he's created simple, deceptive trips with sparse, but effective rhythmic cues or is just wallowing in the aural beauty of sine tones and synth drones, Byrne doesn't ever let up.

For those who have been as big of fans I have through the years, you probably never thought another Bugskull album would show up on the horizon. I know I didn't. But after seven years of waiting for something fresh, it's all worth it in the end to start the journey from scratch."

-Digitalis

"The past couple of years have been good to Scott Tuma. After a five-year hiatus, "Not For Nobody" reminded everyone of the subtle force that was lurking up in Chicago. He followed that up with an epic collaborative LP with Zelienople's Mike Weis and an underrated gem as part of the Good Stuff House trio. Those ideas and manifestations present on all three albums come to a head with "Dandelion."

This is Scott Tuma at his most definitive, most vocal, and most devastating. His acoustic vignettes flicker in and out like the specters of long forgotten greats, showing up just long enough to remind you that once upon a time, they ruled the land of kings. Sparse guitar plucks and banjo strums ache in the thin air. "Red Roses For Me" puts all the pieces in place with hollow, reverberating drones piercing the grey skies in the first half of the song. Quiet recordings of birdsong echo in the background, bouncing off minimally shifting banjo and chimes. But this is when Tuma really starts to mess with you, this is when "Dandelion" takes one of many unexpected turns. As a siren wails in the background, he is almost playful in the last half of the piece with a chord organ and gently strummed guitar bleeding nostalgia into the streets. It's a sinister joke in the middle of the flood.

"Dandelion" is a a hymn to loves won, then lost. Dying on the vine, he bellows "You are so pretty," yearning for something simpler and easier to navigate. "You're always on my mind" reminds us that things come to an end, that even the best things have a shelflife. It runs head first into the megalith that is "Free Dirt." Mike Weis makes his present felt as the duo navigates the darkest moments Tuma's ever put to tape. This is "Taradiddle" drowned in the mud. Hope is lost to the darkness as denial turns to acceptance. Winding down into a wall of cymbals and heavy-handed acoustic guitar, it's total catharsis. Tuma and Weis show again just how well they work together.

Eventually this ride, this testament comes to an end. The mournful longing of the final two pieces wraps "Dandelion" up into a perfect, graceful package. Scott Tuma shows one more time why there's nobody else like him around. This may be an album that asks a lot of questions, but it answers every single one"

-Digitalis

"Though this is the official debut recording from Swedish duo Roll the Dice, Malcolm Pardon and Peder Mannerfelt are certainly not strangers to the world of independent music. Mannerfelt has been producing records for years as The Subliminal Kid and also produces and tours with Fever Ray while Pardon continously composes for film and television. Having shared a studio in southern Stockholm for several years, they finally decided to join forces in something musical. If the original impetus was little more than sharing a bottle of wine and attempting to make something different, the final result is something far beyond.

Each session started and ended in the same way. There were to be no pro-conceived ideas going in, but had to be a completed track at the end of each day. These forced limitations led to a creative cloudburst, finding unexpected passages from beginning to end. Elements of early electronica bleed into hints of minimalists such as Terry Riley and Arvo Pärt. Repetition and understated progression engage the listener subtly. It may bring a piece of Basic Channel to mind, but it's another beast entirely. Each track consists of only synths and piano. Nothing more. No computer processing. No drum machines. Pure analog. The result is something warm and emotive. There may be a murky darkness underlying these tracks, something almost sinister but there's a streak of something comfortingly familiar running throughout.

Two years after their first session together they put the finishing touches on the record through the API desk at the legendary Gröndal studio in west Stockholm. It is music that etches itself in your mind like diamond on glass. Pardon and Mannerfelt operate with absolute precision, expressing raw emotions and ideas that are as flitting as they are unforgettable. Each new morning is a chance and Roll the Dice are just getting started"

-Digitalis

"i think ricardo donoso has to be one of boston's best-kept secrets. when he's not performing as 1/2 of perispirit (recent tape on hospital) or in the avant black metal outfit, ehnare, he runs his semate productions label. in other words, donoso is busy and responsible for a lot of excellent things. his solo work is no exception. on "deterrence," donoso finds his peak. generated with guitar, analog synth, piano, tapes & contact mics, this is an album of layers. each repeat listen finds new elements and new sounds floating deep in the mix. donoso's interest in game theory and behavioral psychology are the theme to which the music wraps itself around. by the time the final pieace, "mutually assured destruction," reaches its inevitable climax, the listener is left to pick up the pieces. in these slow-decaying sounds are the roots of introspection. listen closely and make your own choices. edition of 80. "

-Digitalis

"this split from knit prism and black eagle child-spinoff w.a munson finds its solace in the greath white north. ontario's knit prism aka michael pouw has been churning out gem after gem lately and this split follows-up on his gift tape quite nicely. hazy drones bleed into glassine accompaniment, shards falling like hypnotic crystal rain. pouw cuts and pastes like a master, fusing together something ancestral with an aim to the future. his piece is equal parts old, dusty relic and computer-age synth dream. pouw's a master craftsman and knit prism is just getting started. munson returns from hiatus and eschews the momentum of black eagle child to dive straight back into the deep end of the pool. somebody asked me if he's using a heavily-effected guitar or a synth and i honestly have no idea and could really care less. munson is playing for keeps. over the first half, munson is searching. underneath hiss and fuzz, time-worn melodies play-out even if they're completely unsure of the destination. but midway is his come-to-jesus moment. the fog and haze clear and we're left with a beautiful, modern hymnal. tones and melodies that remind me of boards of canada suck you in without fail. equal parts earnest and heartbroken, its a place i could stay for a good, long while. edition of 75."

-Digitalis

"the salutations are over and everyone is wide awake. indian weapons is the new duo of yours truly and nathan young. of course there are similarities to ajilvsga, but this is something different, something new. organics are in fully supply. acoustic instrumentation is melded with oscillators and filters and processed into a delicious abyss. it's an attempt to meld the mangled into something less deconstructive and more composed. there's still a lot of crunch, but with melodicas singing and violins floundering on a bed of synthesized chaos, it finds its way behind the mask. and then somehow it became about derrida."

-Digitalis

"sorc'henn is the twisted brainchild of laurent boulouard and on "shadow is ov silver, phantom is ov gold" he's determined to invade your dreams and paint them all black. sickly organ drones proliferate every corner in this darkened soundworld. sometimes they're stretched and overrun by diamond-cut guitar riffage other times they're turned into the soundtrack to the worst funhouse imaginable.

there are few artists around who can turn their music into something so completely haunted like boulouard. he takes it to a different place. it's the most sinister church music imaginable. dampened chimes over ghostly voices creep into your psyche until you'd rather be dead than posessed. it's so fucking eerie it gets buried uner your skin. but in the end, "shadow/phantom" reminds me why i love sorc'henn so much: he takes you places you'd never go on your own and in that sense it's almost divine. almost. edition of 72, pro-dubbed & imprinted."

-Digitalis

"back the fuck up and freak the fuck out. planets around the sun are another epic cog in the music vistas of portland, maine. made up from members of cursillistas/herbcraft, tempera, white light and others in the l'animaux tryst family, planets' sonics feel like religious offerings to a long-forgotten stellar godforms. it's huge, sprawling and absolutely magickal.

acoustic drones flicker like organic spires in the distance. the group's combined voices singing through heavy rays like sirens beckoning you home. the build-up is incredible. minimal, nearly-tribal drums push the movement to another level entirely as it enters into its cathartic, critical mass before breaking down and decaying back into the earth. left behind are the strums of guitars and industrial, percussive blasts that couldn't be contained in the fallout.
edition of 80."

-Digitalis

"steven r. hess has been around for ages, most notably operating as part of the incredible duo, on, with sylvain chauveau (type records) as well as work in haptic, dropp ensemble and others. hess is a chicago mainstay. thick, dusty drones highlight the bulk of "demise." subtle crackling feels like these are radio transmissions from a distange age. it all breaks down, though, and the almost-pure sine tones echo and weave their way between your muscles, finding a way into the deep tissue. this is a dense, sonic massage. hess is a heavyweight, providing one hell of a soundtrack to your favorite metal ghosts."

-Digitalis

"the first time i heard matt lawson's (aka secret colors) "infinite wandering" tape, i was hooked. this is my summer soundtrack and should also be yours. blissed-out keys and time-warped, sun-soaked guitars greet you at the gates and trail you throughout your journey through "dreamersss." rising melodies blanket your ears in a delicate crystalline haze, pouring fluorescent pink rain down your throat and in your eyes. what a fucking world.

minimal beats take you straight to the beach under overcast skies. synths blurt out the punchline and glockenspiel serenades bring it all back home. there's something increasingly reflective and nostalgic about lawson's approach. he records on a warm sonic landscape that adds depth and even a bit of gnarl to his deceptively catchy songs. in all, secret colors never disappoints and keeps your head bobbing under the sun."

-Digitalis

"back when i started digitalis in 2003, bluesanct was one of the labels i admired most. michael anderson's catalog had no boundaries, but always traversed in interesting fare. at the top of the mountain is his solo wares as drekka. "ancestral cave sequence" is one of his most cryptic efforts yet.

crackling folk textures and bent strings shine out from the reverb-laden soundscape mazes. vocals and violin escape the murk with their melancholic melodies fighting off the static to cement themselves in your mind. electronics get washed in but the strings are never far off. everything here feels so delicate, so fragile. "ancestral cave sequence" is a ghostly orchestra leading you away, serenading you into the gloaming. anderson has really unlocked something stunning."

-Digitalis

"AC brings his bag of toys back to oklahoma, but this time goes back in time and pulls out a total war bomb from the archives. heavy electronics and thick, bleeding walls of synth skronk are just what you need after a long weekend of drinking with the fam. it feels like there's some serious guitar riffing trying to find its way out of this electronic hell, but half the time there's no fucking telling what's going on here. it's everything all at once. coltrane goes to eleven. i don't even know. sax blasts come in from the deep, sourcing new megacreatures that don't just want your blood, they want your fucken soul.

rusted factories breaking down never sounded so damn good. hell, if this isn't cathartic, i don't know what is."

-Digitalis

"black molasses flows downhill, slow as fuck and consuming everything in its path. laiha busts out his guitar and wields it heavy-handed, blowing out speakers and walls as fast as he can. distorted saws are crushed by atonality. "solar warden" will massage your ears until they bleed. can't ask for much more than that really, can you? hellfire."

-Digitalis

"i'm honestly surprised that lakes AKA sean bailey isn't more of a household name. through the years, he's put out some killer damage on his inverted crux label and his own projects (paeces, lamp puffer w/ peaking lights' aaron coyes, wasted truth, etc). well, "monument of nests" is one of his best and we're damn pleased to make it available again. originally self-released in a micro edition, it's now hear to stay. disjointed, deconstructed pop songs that lean heavy on primitive, almost tribal rhythms and ramshackle instrumentation. acoustic guitars sound like they've been overblown to smithereens. makeshift electronics find their way through the fog, splattering everything in waves of analog fuzz. all the while, bailey's deep, monotone vocals spell the end for anyone who moves to close. punk in spirit, fucked in sound."

-Digitalis

"dan dlugosielski's body morph project has been scorching ear drums all over the world for the past few years. fuzzed-out and stretched-to-oblivion electronics spit their way into a black cauldron. scuzz reeds scatter like buckshot, painting everything in town a solid shade of red. in the static, beats emerge to plug the holes where water is pouring in. i dunno if this is a nightmare or a wet dream or what, but i can tell you it sounds oh so fucking good. screamers for the masses."

-Digitalis

"junkyard strolls through the outskirts of rock n roll find a home with austin's most underrated jewels, diamondhead. after releases on russ waterhouse's white tapes and bryan day's eh?, this collection of songs from l.e. methe, r.j. reynolds & company are dinner scraps that have been rehashed and reformed into a total gourmet experience. guitars and piano knock each other over, trying to get to the foreront while methe belts it out. scarred, angular riffs fall deep into the dirt at times, leafing around for one last morsel of sanity. some songs include flute and vocals, sounding like a lounge band on a drunken voyage to west africa. this is the full package.

everything on "corrective action" feels like it could implode at any moment. it's that last-thread mentality that pushes diamondhead's boundaries. there's good times and bad all laced-up and ready go into a pit of magnetic glory."

-Digitalis

"coltrane weaves another mess on top of the rotting remains of last night's leftovers. "DMT shadow" is a drill straight to your frontal lobe. entirely blown out with axxe, ring mod, & delay, AC is on digging tunnels to china and spewing up molten lava and space dust like it's going out of style fast. a total headfuck."

-Digitalis

"christopher riggs is 1/2 of the soulcrushing duo, trauma (w/ graveyards' ben hall), but has been cranking out mounds of cryptic debris in his own right for years. "live in michigan" documents one of his rare live performances, recorded in december of 2008. riggs turns his guitar into a sonic chainsaw, dismembering strings and notes with the precision of a blind surgeon. this is not a safe environment and soon you'll feel your bones cracking under the pressure. good stuff."

-Digitalis

SAMPLE

"m. geddes gengras aka ged made his bones in the duo he christened with his bro, cyrus, aka antique brothers and in his original solo guise, fantastic ego. but gengras has been throwing knives at the wall in recent years, changing things up. now a full-time member of robedoor, vibes, and the band formerly known as pocahaunted, more importantly he's built himself an epic modular synth setup. on "blackened arts," that baby sings. stone-cold electronics will fry your circuits, teasing you with endless corridors through dark space. gengras bends tones to his will, creating an aural moonscape that stretches to infinity. you're not going to find much better modular synth explorations out there."

-Digitalis

"and here the insanity begins. french transplanted duo blue sabbath black fiji have no limits. they don't know when to dial it back, they don't know when to turn it down and because of that, we're all getting fried whether we like it or not. "wankers" has been stewing for a while but finally is getting let out from its cage to wreak havoc on unsuspecting listeners. mindbender baby, let's floor it.

squealing feedback with cut-to-bits beats and trashcan percussion go into some futuristic tribal bounce. on the back end you're left wondering how in the fuck did i get here? unexpected guitar hooks skronk into the foreground, jumping the tracks laid down by minimal electronic beats. sometimes this shit even gets pretty, which really throws you for a loop. it's one fucked-up dream sequence that never wants to end. always searching for the loudest path, blue sabbah black fiji are unlike anyone else and thank your lucky stars for that."

-Digitalis

"i don't know if there's a more aptly named project around than denmark's pummeler. mikkel dunkerley is bounding around down in the murkiest depths. this stuff feels like it's been stripped bare by vultures, the bones left to freeze in the scandinavian air. distant metallic pings call you to your grave. these are heavy, black masses you can't avoid without being swalloed whole.
dunkerley's use of varying textures is exceptional. his work is minimal yet enthralling. each piece, no matter how long or short, feels like an expansive wasteland of sound. listen once, you hear one thing, listen again and it's something else entirely. it's time you rolled it all downhill."

-Digitalis

"The procession was timed so that she would be left alone on the scaffold at the moment the morning star rose. When the morning star appeared, two men came from the east with flaming brands and touched her lightly in the arm pits and groins. Four other men then touched her with war clubs. The man who had captured her then ran forward with the bow from the Skull bundle and a sacred arrow and shot her through the heart while another man struck her on the head with the war club from the Morning Star bundle. The officiating priest then opened her breast with a flint knife and smeared his face with the blood while her captor caught the falling blood on dried meat. All the male members of the tribe then pressed forward and shot arrows into the body. They then circled the scaffold four times and dispersed "

"created as a mode to release some of the piles of recordings we've amassed through the years, "skull bundle" features recordings done between june 2007 and january 2009. all the music is exclusive."

-Digitalis

"The procession was timed so that she would be left alone on the scaffold at the moment the morning star rose. When the morning star appeared, two men came from the east with flaming brands and touched her lightly in the arm pits and groins. Four other men then touched her with war clubs. The man who had captured her then ran forward with the bow from the Skull bundle and a sacred arrow and shot her through the heart while another man struck her on the head with the war club from the Morning Star bundle. The officiating priest then opened her breast with a flint knife and smeared his face with the blood while her captor caught the falling blood on dried meat. All the male members of the tribe then pressed forward and shot arrows into the body. They then circled the scaffold four times and dispersed "

"created as a mode to release some of the piles of recordings we've amassed through the years, "skull bundle" features recordings done between june 2007 and january 2009. all the music is exclusive."

-Digitalis

"The procession was timed so that she would be left alone on the scaffold at the moment the morning star rose. When the morning star appeared, two men came from the east with flaming brands and touched her lightly in the arm pits and groins. Four other men then touched her with war clubs. The man who had captured her then ran forward with the bow from the Skull bundle and a sacred arrow and shot her through the heart while another man struck her on the head with the war club from the Morning Star bundle. The officiating priest then opened her breast with a flint knife and smeared his face with the blood while her captor caught the falling blood on dried meat. All the male members of the tribe then pressed forward and shot arrows into the body. They then circled the scaffold four times and dispersed "

"created as a mode to release some of the piles of recordings we've amassed through the years, "skull bundle" features recordings done between june 2007 and january 2009. all the music is exclusive."

-Digitalis

"The procession was timed so that she would be left alone on the scaffold at the moment the morning star rose. When the morning star appeared, two men came from the east with flaming brands and touched her lightly in the arm pits and groins. Four other men then touched her with war clubs. The man who had captured her then ran forward with the bow from the Skull bundle and a sacred arrow and shot her through the heart while another man struck her on the head with the war club from the Morning Star bundle. The officiating priest then opened her breast with a flint knife and smeared his face with the blood while her captor caught the falling blood on dried meat. All the male members of the tribe then pressed forward and shot arrows into the body. They then circled the scaffold four times and dispersed "

"created as a mode to release some of the piles of recordings we've amassed through the years, "skull bundle" features recordings done between june 2007 and january 2009. all the music is exclusive."

-Digitalis

"The procession was timed so that she would be left alone on the scaffold at the moment the morning star rose. When the morning star appeared, two men came from the east with flaming brands and touched her lightly in the arm pits and groins. Four other men then touched her with war clubs. The man who had captured her then ran forward with the bow from the Skull bundle and a sacred arrow and shot her through the heart while another man struck her on the head with the war club from the Morning Star bundle. The officiating priest then opened her breast with a flint knife and smeared his face with the blood while her captor caught the falling blood on dried meat. All the male members of the tribe then pressed forward and shot arrows into the body. They then circled the scaffold four times and dispersed "

"created as a mode to release some of the piles of recordings we've amassed through the years, "skull bundle" features recordings done between june 2007 and january 2009. all the music is exclusive."

-Digitalis