As a composer, John Wiese is an elusive one. Employing a very healthy range of conceptual framework throughout his oevure, he's unmistakably recognizable, but rarely easy to predict. No matter what the sound, we find it always sounds like Wiese. Seven Of Wands contains a romanticism only hinted at previously. Comprised of pieces from a range of eras and sequenced into a narrative arc, this very unique album has a quality of being beautiful, listenable, immersive, and transportive all at once. He probably wouldn't like this, but I dare say "musical."

Let's look for a second at the development of Wiese's solo albums to date: Magical Crystal Blah (2003), Soft Punk (2002–2005), Dramatic Accessories (2007), Circle Snare (2008), Zombie (2009), and now Seven Of Wands (2004–2010). With the exception of Zombie's rigid conceptualism, what we can see is a development of a completely individual approach to cutting and stereo spectrum, with a constantly fluctuating degree of severity in choice of sounds. On this latest, we see this transposed to a longer-form, with more emphasis on beauty and musical qualities (well, don't get me wrong), employing strategies and techniques of musique concrète and electroacoustic music throughout, all the while further emphasizing the mixing desk as a true instrument.

Two of the albums central pieces were developed while touring the US, UK and Europe with Liars, No Age, and (in quadraphonic) Matmos, and feature source material contributed by Angus Andrew (voice, field recording) and Julian Gross (percussion) of Liars. This is Wiese's second release on PAN, following the vinyl edition of C-Section, his duo album with Evan Parker.

PAN

Brud is a three volume compilation of recordings from 1995 to 2011 by Andre Vida, morphing seamlessly between a sense of total irreverence and the sublime. His spontaneous compositions and notated works are the angled mirrored counterparts of a transient saxophone driven performance language, drawing on elements of 1970s performance art, new music, improvisation cult, folk and pop hybrids, channeling them into asymmetrical tunes of feral beauty.

BRUD traces the development of Vida's wayward language through 16 years of copious ruminations. The three delightfully polymorphic perverse discs unite sparkling solo sax, pieces for cello and woodwind sextet, synth / concrete electronic music, nocturnal improvisations, rare 90's New York free jazz compositions, and the Kreuzberg suite — a distilled culmination of a hundred nights of Berlin mayhem into ecstatic swinging lyricism. Both solo works and as well as various collaborations with Anthony Braxton, Rashad Becker, Axel Dörner, Matt "MV" Valentine, Tim Barnes, Helen Rush, Olaf Rupp, Clare Cooper, Clayton Thomas, Brandon Evans, Elisabeth King, Steve Heather and many more.

Andre Vida is a Hungarian American saxophonist, composer and lyricist living in Berlin. More downtown cheeky grin than mere caveman smile, he is cosmically notorious for continuing the Rahsaan Roland Kirk one man horn section legacy with hydra headed style. He has been at the forefront of several major developments in experimental music, being mainly in Anthony Braxton's original Ghost Trance Ensemble, as founding member of New York collective the CTIA, subsequent 'freak folk' groups such as The Tower Recordings, and his extensive collaborations with electronic music visionaries Jamie Lidell, Tim Exile and Kevin Blechdom, Elton John, Gonzales, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman to name but a few, sewing up some heavy threads in downtown sax patchwork refracted through a Borgesian lens.

PAN

Intersex is the debut LP by Steven Warwick a.k.a Heatsick. The title references the work of German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld looking at how music and sexuality can operate in flux on a constantly sliding scale. Executed on just a Casio keyboard and manipulated loops via guitar pedals, Intersex deliberately evokes "ersatz" notions of electronic dance music and early electronics in the line of Roberto Cacciapaglia's Ann Steel record , the work of Warner Jepson and the kaleidoscopic sound of Ron Hardy, pushing dance/body music through a saturated psychedelic lens.

Steven Warwick is a Berlin based performer, also known for his work in the electronic duo, Birds of Delay. His approach is one of carefully thought out loops which are then sent into varying interactions and play. Active in the club, art and music scenes, Warwick's work is one existing in a liminal space, meditating both at once in real time and the "just past".

PAN

Ian Martin is a visual & recording artist from Rotterdam. As a stalwart of the Netherlands electro squat scene he performs using a maximum of two synths and no drum machines due to the enforced space limitations. It infuses his material with a claustrophobic minimalism and a necessarily unique rhythmic element that mimics polypharmacy intoxication.

'Mechanical Rain' records the industrial ambience of empty office towers. Night shift slave drones construct sonic camouflage for leaking air vents and humming fluorescents while throbbing vaccuums and faulty alarm systems effect a state of hypnotic cataplesy.

It's his 2nd album for Further after 2010's 'Intensions' following both his 'Shadow Walker' album for Bunker Records and 'Defused Nights' on Legowelt's Strange Life Records. He is an alumni of RBMA and programs the SEER channel for Intergalactic FM radio.

Further Records

L.A. based Derek Rogers brings together five epic tracks of beautiful guitar and synthesizer. Side one consists of four shorter tracks of distorted guitar and calming synth. Side two is one long, epic meditation. Hand duplicated on Sony TC-WE475 on high bias chrome cassettes, hand-printed/stamped stickers, hand-numbered, ed. of 50

Space Slave Editions

Wind-blown drones from Bay Area musician, Wesley Abellon. Tragedies of War explores hazy, deep, and dark noise, creating four crumbling pieces. Hand duplicated on Sony TC-WE475 on high bias chrome cassettes, hand-printed/stamped stickers, hand-numbered, ed. of 50

Space Slave Editions

In time it makes you feel good when you feel down. When the king wanders for answers he only finds his crown. Although the pain is never-ending the suffering will eventually drown. Hand duplicated on Sony TC-WE475 on high bias chrome cassettes, hand-printed/stamped stickers, hand-numbered, ed. of 50

Space Slave Editions

A joint duo split between Gainesville, FL soundcrafters Persepctives and Southern Ontario's Basked Unit. A side is a minimal freeform instrumental via Royallen & Do Tell, guitars interweave tales between piano notes for a strange trip down memory lane. Flip side sees Thoughts on Air visit the house of sun for a relaxing afternoon session with Knit where two guitars and various contact mics / patch cords join as one for a flowing medley of mid-winter looped patchwork.

House Of Sun

Glistening shimmer from one the the finest; B Douglas (Different Lands label) delivers another thoughtful moment from his carefully released Pink Desert project. Circular soothing passages that recall past experiences. Meditation through synthesis.

House Of Sun

Outback tape loops and found sound arrangements by R Franklin, dragging the mic through the dried leaves and warping am radio waves. A continuation of the Lake Seeds series of lo-fi tape assembly cut-ups.

House Of Sun

Early tinkering within the framework; loose experimenting before things clear up. Here; melodic strings and harmonious vocals weaving smoke into shapes.

House Of Sun

We are very excited about being a part of McLaughlin's tape loop based Echolocation series. #4 is an homage to the mid day meal…a sign of togetherness and humanity. A signal—to the weary, the tired, and the energetic alike—to come refuel the body and soul for another stint outside, or inside as it may be, doing the good work.

Sunshine Ltd.

Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason are two composers used to shrugging off the distinction between experimental sound-art and deeply felt melodies. Frost’s vast, blackened post-industrial works often crystallize in moments of quiet beauty before disintegrating in pure visceral noise; Bjarnason’s orchestral music marries brutal modernism to classical aesthetics one moment and soaring ethereal harmonies the next. And yet here, on the tail of two widely acclaimed releases; Bjarnason’s PROCESSIONS and Frost’s BY THE THROAT, we are given something altogether new. A unique collaboration, SÓLARIS is a quiet, stilled and all consuming symphonic suite at once as affecting and uncanny as the science- fiction classic that inspired it.

The power of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris is not in its futuristic sets, or in the hypnotic shots of the alien planet’s weird, fluid surface, but it’s in the way he juxtaposes his alien, futuristic elements against the intimately familiar. This is a future not just of flashing lights and video screens, but of wood and wool and leather, of dogs and horses, books and photographs. In Frost & Bjarnason’s SÓLARIS we do find the futuristic, gaseous atmospheres and pulses one might expect from a sci-fi soundtrack. Yet here they are carved instead from the warm, fragile sonorities of a string orchestra -Poland’s Sinfonietta Cracovia- a gently prepared piano whose harmonies warp and melt before transforming again—and waves upon waves of guitar.

Created through a unique series of processes, Frost & Bjarnason’s initial sketches —improvised to the film— were fed through software designed to correct music which tried to turn their dense and distorted sonic input into a digital sequence of raw musical data. Working from data riddled with error and misunderstanding, a human score was orchestrated; the whole process deftly mirroring the core of the film’s own narrative of memory and loss, alien doppelgangers and emotional feedback loops. Brian Eno —who consulted closely in the creation of SÓLARIS— also used the same film to create a video accompaniment to this music in another strange loop of computer-generated distortion.

But here the score stands on its own. SÓLARIS; a journey into an internal world, into the self, a flux of wonder, horror, sorrow and tenderness, and a ravishing sensory experience.

Bedroom Community

"Don't look back", repeats one of several voices within Mark van Hoen's The Revenant Diary, his fifth solo album and first release on Editions Mego. Surrounded by weighted beats, analogue synthesizer drones and granular dirt, the unidentified, siren-like female voice's advice is as much seduction as warning. Tellingly so, for as well as being both Van Hoen's most ambitious and his most accessible work, The Revenant Diary is an eloquent meditation on the allures and dangers of memory, regret and nostalgia.

The album's foundation was shaped by a memory and a chance encounter. While remastering some of his early 90s releases and Peel Session tracks, Van Hoen – a founding member of Seefeel, who also worked as Locust and in Seefeel offshoot Scala and has collaborated with Slowdive, Robert Fripp, Edison Woods & Esben and the Witch amongst others – happened upon a track he had recorded in 1982. Attracted by its simplicity, he was inspired to record the basis of The Revenant Diary on 4-track tape, using a minimal set-up, reminiscent of his first early 80s musical adventures as a young teenager. The recollection of one of these – a 13 year old Van Hoen\'s experiment in reel-to-reel tape recording of an ineffectual pop song playing on the radio, which spuriously transformed it into a spooky amalgam of backwards church organ and unintelligible voices – provided an evocative inspiration.

The Revenant Diary pivots on this combination of complex reflection and simplified technology. A determinedly analogue affair, it brims over with Van Hoen's signature sounds: immersively decayed drones, almost broken ambient surfaces and lulling rhythms, with granular crackle providing spectral grit. Fragments of female vocals pepper the album, and notably dominate the 10-minute epic "Holy Me", one of Van Hoen's most complex compositions, in which non-verbal sounds rub delicately against each other in an otherworldly choral composition.

Less song-based than his last solo work, the well-received Where Is The Truth [City Centre Offices, 2010], its palette and structure are more descendants of the 1995 album Truth Is Born Of Arguments, which utilised a similar combination of decayed atmosphere against a granular / glitch rhythmic structure. Tracks like "Laughing Stars At Night" and "Unknown Host" exude a powerful emotional undertow, as alluringly woozy as they are intensely contemplative. But this is no exercise in Instagram-style disposable nostalgia. Van Hoen's adroit juxtapositions of gauzy textures evoke the blurred luminescence of 16mm film and the rich, colour-saturated hues of rediscovered Polaroid photos, as the cover artwork, designed by Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley, acknowledges. The Revenant Diary expertly renders displaced memory daze in lushly melodic, gently delirious electronic sound.

editions mego

Editions Mego is happy to announce the release of 'Kanal GENDYN', a Vinyl and DVD set by Russell Haswell & Florian Hecker. This is the first full length release by the artists following their highly acclaimed albums, 'Blackest Ever Black (Electroacoustic UPIC Recordings)' (Warner Classics, 2007), and 'UPIC Warp Tracks' (Warp, 2008), in addition to their remix's of Popol Vuh, and Voice Crack.

In the late 90s, early 2000s, it became common for bands, or solo artists to perform live - often alternative - soundtracks to feature films or silent classics. Critical of obvious instrumentation and the combination with known classic film, the artists Russell Haswell & Florian Hecker chose to create a real-time soundtrack, to an unscored film, 'Kanal Video' (1992, 60 min.) by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli & David Weiss.

Core to Kanal GENDYN is Haswell & Hecker's ongoing research on the legacies of polymath Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001) and in particular his concept of the Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis, an abstract sound synthesis procedure that creates 'sound out of nothing'.

In an interview with Peter Hoffmann, the artists recall: "This video, which consists of an hour long 'ride' through the Zurich sewage system, with a remotely controlled maintenance vehicle equipped with a video camera to survey the sewers for eventual irregularities of defects — struck us both as an ideal piece to be projected in a 'nightclub' or music venue with a GENDYN only performance. We found twisted relations with such an hour long 'tunnel vision'. Once with the seemingly endless amount of computer generated video projections used as visuals accompanying raves and techno parties during the 1990's — and also to the accounts of visual hallucinations induced by Mescaline as described by Heinrich Klüver in the 1920's — with the so called 'form constants' — where he mentions amongst others, 'tunnel like' patterns. The particularities of GENDYN, with its ever changing and meandering waveforms appeared to us as an ideal counterpart."

Kanal GENDYN was performed on the occasion of the event 'Musterraum 9. Dual Presentation — Peter Fischli & David Weiss — Russell Haswell & Florian Hecker' at Musterraum, Munich, 30.01.2004. Originally constructed as an experimental building, 'Musterraum' — German for sample or reference room — was a freestanding cube with a base area of 10 × 12 meters. Built as a test and reference space for the planning and construction of the adjacent Pinakothek der Moderne.

Two stereo feeds were crossed for quadraphonic (4.0) diffusion using a L&B F12 / B12 loudspeaker system. Performed concurrently to the Peter Fischli & David Weiss, 'Kanal Video' (1992, 60 min.) screened on three facing walls.

Kanal GENDYN is released as stereo vinyl LP + 4.0 DTS 24 Bit / 48 KHz DVD (audio only) set. The cover features 10 stills from the original Fischli & Weiss video, included inside is a 30 x 30 cm 170 gramm paper insert with a further, full-page still, plus extensive sleeve notes by musicologist and software developer Peter Hoffmann, and everything was designed by NORM, Zurich.

Its also worth noting that, with a running time of over a hour, this is one of the longest single LP releases you will come across! Cut by Rashad 'the Master' Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, Setpember 2011

editions mego

Chris Watson presents two special mixes for vinyl from his El Tren Fantasma (TO 042CD) release. A radio program was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2010, produced by Sarah Blunt, and described as "a thrilling acoustic journey across the heart of Mexico from Pacific to Atlantic coast using archive recordings to recreate a rail passenger service which no longer exists." It's now more than a decade since FNM operated its last continuous passenger service across country. Chris Watson spent a month on board the train with some of the last passengers to travel this route. As sound recordist, he was part of the film crew working on a program in the BBC TV series Great Railways Journeys. Now, the journey of the "ghost train" is recreated, evoking memories of a recent past, capturing the atmosphere, rhythms and sounds of human life, wildlife and the journey itself along the tracks of one of Mexico's greatest engineering projects.

touch recordings

Here at Spectrum Spools, one of the many missions is to make sure great, under-documented, and limited offerings get a chance to see a wider release. No UFO's debut cassette,"Soft Coast" (2010, Nice Up Int'l), is surely no exception. It was said about the Swell Maps "A Trip to Marineville" that the album had been obviously crafted by true music lovers who were record collectors. It seems that Konrad Jandavs' debut as No UFO's was calculated and carefully pieced together to spawn a whole new universe from the omniverse of collective musics, a feat which many attempt but few succeed. Lazy comparisons to Neu! and other such kraut-oriented material have bubbled up here and there, but Jandavs' vision, as with any great recording artist, is all his own; a new perspective from looking at musics past and present.

"Soft Coast" began Jandavs' short, yet potent string of collaged "cosmic trash" which gripped the underground tape scene. Since he's just seen the drop of his new "Mind Controls the Flood" EP on Public Information and has future releases planned, it seems wrong to let this one slip thru the cracks any longer. A killer debut out of the blue, more than deserving of wider recognition, now available on vinyl.

spectrum spools

"Flux" is the 1981 debut solo outing of Robert Turman, an American multi-instrumentalist and avant-garde composer. Until recently, Turman was perhaps best known for his contributions to the ballistic NON project with Boyd Rice, as well as other obscured U.S. industrial acts such as Z.O. Voider. In the summer of 1981 Turman decided he would take a drastic turn from the noisy/electronic/industrial work of his compatriots, and began work on what is now the classic "Flux" cassette. "Flux" was originally self-released in extremely limited numbers. Weary of the noisescapes of old, he set out to create long-form minimalism utilizing kalimba, piano, "Mini-Pops Jr." drum machine, and tape loops to create a complex bed of interweaving micro-stasis'. The results of these new experiments were as beautiful as they were perplexing.

A curious dusty fidelity carries these classic tracks across four sides of vinyl, including all of the original "Flux" content. These compositions glow with a sprawling, slow motion haze that's light years ahead of its time. "Flux" reveals wide spectrums of sound from melancholic kalimba and percussion patterns to slowed down, syrupy Exotica. Turman had complex ideas in his mind yet only the simple technologies of the day were at hand. Hear the click of the stopping and starting Tascam 3340 open-reel tape machine as one hand presses the "record" and "play" buttons and the other plays piano phrases. While there are similarities in style to Classical Minimalism, Turman's sound and vision is his own and is exclusive to his limited discography.

spectrum spools

Released in a limited edition 2xLP set, Lovingly remastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering from the original c-60 cassette master. Original cassette artwork and scans provided by Aaron Dilloway.

A bludgeoning mix of machine and audou / Central African percussion plus other acoustic instruments combine to create one of the most physically intense musical experiences ever.

Songs featured in VBS's films 'Vice Guide To Liberia' and 'Mandingo'.

Since 2007's Whitehouse album Racket, and after his original 'Afro Noise' mix became one of the most downloaded experimental mixes ever made, William Bennett's remarkable Cut Hands album has seen 4 long years of meticulously obsessive studio work in the making, notably deploying his special collection of Congolese and Ghanaian percussion instruments.

2 seperate Limited Vinyl Editions With Extra Tracks. Startling afro noise that will blow your fucking mind. An unholy genre unto itself.

Dirter Promotions

A bludgeoning mix of machine and audou / Central African percussion plus other acoustic instruments combine to create one of the most physically intense musical experiences ever.

Songs featured in VBS's films 'Vice Guide To Liberia' and 'Mandingo'.

Since 2007's Whitehouse album Racket, and after his original 'Afro Noise' mix became one of the most downloaded experimental mixes ever made, William Bennett's remarkable Cut Hands album has seen 4 long years of meticulously obsessive studio work in the making, notably deploying his special collection of Congolese and Ghanaian percussion instruments.

2 seperate Limited Vinyl Editions With Extra Tracks. Startling afro noise that will blow your fucking mind. An unholy genre unto itself.

Dirter Promotions

Second release from Jeff "Rene Hell" Witscher's Salon label (salonturnkey.blogspot.com). Pretty neat generative computer music collaboration between Jeff & Mark Lewis.

DSCRMNT

Hot on the heels of the acclaimed Oneohtrix Point Never 'Returnal' album come these fabulous versions of the title track. Antony swings the mood and strips the track of its delayed harmonised vocals and creates poignant ballad with Dan OPN on piano. Fennesz on the other hand sprinkles some his world famous majestic stardust over the proceedings. All packaged in dazzling artwork by Stephen O'Malley.

editions mego

Native Philadelphian Steve Gunn has been a stalwart of the American experimental scene for closing in on a decade. He is known by many for his contributions as one half of the core duo behind GHQ (with Marcia Bassett) as well as for his many other affiliations with underground luminaries such as Tom Carter, the Magik Markers and Marc Orleans. Gunn has an incredible talent for fusing traditional American song structures with a raga influence, his playing effortless and his songcraft incredibly strong. His solo work began with some CDr and cassette releases and was followed with two incredible albums over the past years – Sundowner (Digitalis, 2008) and Boerum Palace (Three Lobed, 2009). Last year he released Sand City on Three Lobed, an album featuring him and percussionist John Truscinski. Gunn will release a new album of material on Immune in the near future.

Pakistani-born musician Ilyas Ahmed traffics a sound that borders on the folk/drone/raga/rock axis, one that Scottish critic David Keenan has called "gone". Currently residing in Portland, OR, Ahmed has released recordings on Immune, Time-Lag, Digitalis, and Root Strata. He is known to perform live with Honey Owens (Valet) and Jed Bindeman (Eternal Tapestry, Heavy Winged). Ahmed has recently been performing and recording in a duo with Liz Harris (Grouper). Last year Ahmed's first two albums Between Two Skies & Towards The Night were given a deluxe vinyl treatment by Immune.

immune recordings

"In psychic defense" is the last work of Clay Ruby as Burial Hex. With this record Burial Hex faces a new chapter in his music where noise, post-punk, a wise use of the rythm, experimental wave and dark melodies match together in a perfect balance. The record is elaborated as a protection spell in psychic self-defense, and the lyrics are from an old hymn to the Archangel Michael, always been seen as a leader and protector of the faithful.

This one sided also confirms the collaboration between Clay Ruby and Troy Schafer, who wrote and performed all the bass and guitar parts.

Sound Of Cobra

Fjords are a new guitar and keyboard duo from Boston, MA. Their debut reelease is comprised of improvised recordings that fuse melodic guitar with moody synthesized passages, creating a lush lanscape that flows gently while building sonically. A bit like Troum jamming with Barn Owl in a forest cave watching the sunset. Much patience was excercised in the music and it really shows.

Sonic Meditations

J.D. Emmanuel should need no introduction, the composer has had his classic album from 1982, "Wizards", re-released a few years ago received with much praise and buzz around it. Having been resurrected out of private press obscurity, J.D. Emmanuel's music stands the test of time, especially in the current state of underground New Age-inspired electronic music. I'm excited to bring forth a unreleased live recording from 1982. J. D. Emmanuel was the first show for "Music and Ideas: A Celebration and Harvest" - A Benefit Concert for "Peaceable Kingdom" presented at the Washington On the Brazos State Park, Texas, October 1, 1982. This live document is a close live representation to the material on "Wizards", which was released the same year as the performance.

Sonic Meditations

Excited to issue the first cassette for Craig Williamson's Lamp of the Universe project. William's has been producing albums under Lamp of the Universe since 2001. "Arc of Ascent" is the sixth release from 2007. Eastern influenced long-form drones via New Zealand.

Sonic Meditations

Future Islands' romantic synth sound scales new heights with On the Water, the Baltimore trio's most ambitious and fully realized statement yet. Built around a song cycle exploring love, loss, and memory, their latest album finds the band continuing to deliver pounding rhythms, swelling melodies, and undeniable hooks - but finding new ways to probe inner space and tug at hearts.

Convening in March 2011 in Elizabeth City, NC's historic, waterfront Andrew S. Sanders House, vocalist Samuel T. Herring, bassist William Cashion, and keyboardist Gerrit Welmers lived together in a space that served as both studio and sleeping quarters. The band used this tranquil retreat to refine their most reflective and mature batch of songs to date, adding new material in the process.

What emerged is a lush yet visceral album about two parallel journeys--one physical and one psychological. On the Water's narrator offers enough detail that their story feels personal, yet open enough that any listener can inhabit each twist and emotional pang as their own.

Travelling on foot, we seek something - an exorcism, an epiphany, an ending. Memories wash across us as in life: non-linear, linked by emotional resonance rather than conventional chronology. And so, the pain of letting go channeled by "The Great Fire" collides with a moment's fleeting serenity in the Eno-esque "Open"; the triumphant rallying cry "Give Us the Wind, " despite its confident declaration of individual strength, remains a mile away from final chapter "Tybee Island." It is there the song cycle ends, and what is discovered in "Tybee Island" will be as different as the lives lived by each person who finds their way to this album.

On the Water may unearth aural memories as well. The mind may flash upon our first encounters with New Order's "Ceremony," David Bowie's "Heroes," or The Cure's Disintegration, memories which, are continually reborn and re-imagined in the context of the here and now. And as the song-cycle's narrator comes to terms with his own memories, his singular journey collapses into the collective experience of album-closer "Grease." It is here that the "I" of the nine previous songs collapses into the "we" of Future Islands, now singing the literal journey of the people who came together by the ocean to deliver these songs into our ears. Far from just a narrative trope, the ocean played an integral role in On the Water's creation. The bulk of the album was recorded with waves pounding sand mere feet away. The album opens and closes with field recordings made by the band on a nearby dock, and one pivotal track, "Tybee Island," began with vocals recorded on the beach (subsequently fleshed out in the studio with additional instrumentation).

The ocean inhabits every note of these songs. On the Water is an addictive ride that demands repeat listens, eagerly awaiting the test of time. To produce these results, Future Islands fleshed out its sound with the additions of cello, violin, marimba, and field recordings. As with their 2010 breakthrough album In Evening Air, On the Water was produced by frequent collaborator Chester Endersby Gwazda, perhaps best known as producer of Dan Deacon's Bromst. Noted guests include Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner, who provides vocals on "The Great Fire," and Double Dagger's Denny Bowen on live drums and additional percussion.

For all its undeniable weight, On the Water is not a sullen concept album. Every track on the record works both as a contribution to the whole and as a stand-alone pleasure, evident in the insistent throbs, addictive melodies, and stirring vocals of tracks like "Close to None," "Balance," and first single "Before the Bridge."

Make no mistake, On the Water is a record that aims to both break your heart and heal your wounds.

thrill jockey

Comprised of J. Gerrit Welmers (synthesizers and programming), William Cashion (bass), and Samuel T. Herring (vocals), Future Islands has continued to make passionate music through an electronic medium for the past four years. [Although, the three have been working and performing since the spring of 2003.] They call their music "Post-Wave," taking in part from the emotional fragility of New Wave and coupling it with the power and drive of Post-Punk.

Future Islands' music is spearheaded by Welmers, whose layers of synths and drums create the landscape for Cashion's punching-strum style, that pulses and fights--the two--creating noise and bliss. Herring, who has been called "one of the most magnetic frontmen in indie rock," finds his space in between. Carving through the music, at times, with a whispering croon, and at others, with a deathly wail.

In Evening Air marks the first full-length release from Future Islands since moving to Baltimore, and also their first full-length release as a focused three piece. However, there's no lack of spirit in this paring down. More so, there's a greater intensity and eye to detail than we have yet witnessed from the group. These changes are felt and heard. In Evening Air takes us and swirls us around those feelings of growing outside of one's city and one's self. It moves through gripping loss and the search for peace from a heavy head, with an ease and understanding where there was none.

With production by Chester Endersby Gwazda, Future Islands fuses together their poetry with a dynamic musical range. Traveling from the slow burn to the highly ecstatic while holding on to the quill and not letting go. These songs are answers. They are born from fire and pain, yet are filled with light, acting as breathless testaments to love and it's consequences. But this isn't just a group of songs. This is a book of stories. From darkly quiescent and imaginative tales, to the passionate burnings of a searching heart. From the fear of being misunderstood and coming to terms with the loss of love. Future Islands speaks a language of forever and always, with an honesty that falls but never touches the ground.

thrill jockey

On the lip of the wake these classy bro's have served up hot and toasties roasters for the ears and eyes: its the debut of Inner Tube, the project that took two heads, a lotsa boogers, and some extreme staring at the SEX WAX logo! Arriving just in time for the Aussie Summer and devoted to sick beaches like Mermaids and Swami's or Sunset Cliffs and Bondi, these two rolled taco munch crunchers studied the deepest references and private home movie eclipses to surf up 8 landscapes of hot licks both keys and strings alike! G3 wont even be allowed to jump up in line at Hodad's, Inner Tube is TOP TOASTERS!!!!! Comes with tons of stories from both Mark and Charles plus a surprise giant fold out poster of the two stoned in front of their favorite movies! "Hey! There Goes my Hot-Pocket!!!!!!!"

Pacific City Sound Visions

Under both the Cheapmachines alias and his own name, England's Phil Julian has been venturing across various strains of unorthodox sound over the past decade or so, with his prolific output encompassing sonic textures that run the gamut from harsh squalls of decaying cacophony to humming spectral tapestries of melodic drone to patiently constructed compositions of hyper-minimalistic timbres. On Transcript, Julian sources tones and reverberation from blank cassettes as well as the actual cassette decks used in this particular process. Allowing the hissing, fuzzy, and clicking mechanics at work in this aural realm to traverse effortlessly across a half hour of ethereal space, Transcript stands as a remarkable work of foreboding and atonal constitution that stands confidently alongside the best works of similarly inclined sound sculptors such as Francisco Lopez and Joe Colley. This is warmly eerie listening that sounds especially exquisite coming from a cassette itself.

Obsolete Units

When last we saw Brooklyn-based bass clarinet/baritone saxophone duo TwistyCat on Obsolete Units, they provided a deeply hypnotic and extremely limited loop cassette showcasing three immaculate minutes of their beautifully stark and patiently composed agglomeration of drone-infused improvisation. Taking noticeable cues from this previous release, Ed Bear and Lea Bertucci erupt on Solar Plexus both with pieces of meticulously realized minimalism as well as more comparatively dissonant waves of contemplative and ominous themes. The first side distinctively adds a veneer of found sound (from radio and elsewhere) to the mix, building upon these unfamiliar modes into a great wash of unrest before giving way to their distinctive command of woodwind-derived subterranean melodicism, whereas the flip presents in explicitly unblemished detail two pieces of slow-burning improvisation where the loops and electronic manipulations wavering in and out of the mix controlled with the utmost subtlety for further bewilderment. Includes special transparent liner-notes.

Obsolete Units

A blistering set of impressively reckless and spastic hardcore, Kyoto, Japan's Whales craft an attack exhibiting forces both distinctively ferocious and ardently uncompromising. Drawing significant influence from numerous legendary purveyors of power-violence (Spazz, Dropdead), the trio shoot through 6 minutes of absurdly accelerated blasts of song before ending this treat with another 6 minutes of the most blistering Incapacitants/MSBR-style walls of noise. The same program runs on both sides, and you'll probably need to listen to both in one-sitting just to catch-up with what you've just heard. Seibutsu Shigen strips bare this expeditious punk template to its most cathartic core; this is no muss, no fuss, and no bullshit. Whales includes on guitar Takahiro Yorifuji, who has released numerous ambient/drone releases as Hakobune on a variety of different labels (Install, Ghetto Naturalist, Tobira).

Obsolete Units

Dan Burke is one of those consistently brilliant, insanely prolific, and unquestionably irreproachable artists that deservedly wears the handle of legend. Since 1983, Burke and his conspirators under the Illusion Of Safety banner have traversed and conquered most every facet of the avant sound plane, from early industrial pop deconstruction to blindingly minimal sound art to densely surreal found-sound collage, each unique approach bending and reconstituting the expectations and possibilities of each realm. This solo performance at the 2008 edition of the infamous No Fun Fest in NYC is one of Burke's most singular missives, melding the patient field drones of past releases like Probe and Water Seeks Its Own Level with the powerfully stark melencholia of 2008′s Sedation & Quell 10″ and In Session CD. Rumbling, nebulous drones collide with pastoral field recordings and various unidentifiable factions of percolatting sound, all guided with ease at Burke's hand.

Obsolete Units

This Brooklyn-based gang of roving synth junkies have established quite the catalog since the release of their first Obsolete Units missive I Swarm With A Thousand Bees. They've expanded to a trio, blown minds with walls of pulsating force both meditative and confrontational around Brooklyn and elsewhere, released a slew of essential recordings on such labels as Prison Tatt, Baked Tapes, and The Comic Beyond, and are further extending their reach to various other vectors and projects throughout the rest of the year. This nearly-lost companion piece to I Swarm With A Thousand Bees, however, reaches back to OPPONENTS as the Slusher-Feinstein duo, a more caustic permutation that nevertheless tossed out the ripe seedlings of what this project would soon become. Ambivalent Cloud Designs rings with the vilest of synth howls giving way to full blown riots of garbled sonic refuse, the electronic exorcisms of mangled vocals become lost in the torrents of circuitry invading the ether. Remastered by Jesse DeRosa of Grasshopper for optimal malevolence.

Obsolete Units

This cassette, a long time in the making, acts as the the first full-length solo missive from Jon Nicholson of Excepter. Keeping in the spirit of his group's numerous successes in their singular fusion of club music's subterranean history with the studied nature of live avant-garde improvisation, Highly Sensitive is an cunningly progressive and meditative dance record, seamlessly connecting the primal force of his beats' rhythmic velocities with the interstellar transcendence of his percolating army of synths. Invokes the ostensibly disparate yet notably interconnected sonics of predecessors like Cabaret Voltaire, Juan Atkins, Kraftwerk, Conrad Schnitzler, and Kurtis Mantronix with remarkable vehemence. Pro-dubbed/pro-printed cassettes complete with cryptic art.

Obsolete Units

A title-less missive from Italy's Nodolby, the solo personage of Dokuro label mind Michele Scariot, this particular cassette brusquely fortifies two sides of gnawing scrape and sibilation. The four pieces manage to etch a natural approximation of early industrial's rhythmic churn and the mangled feedback fetishization of harsh noise as this quartet of discharges obeys a certain amorphous structure that nevertheless remains unrelenting in its ability to menace. A beautifully conceived album of unbridled disorder.

Obsolete Units

Five distinct pieces of prepared guitar from this veteran erupt impulsively on Polar Shifts, each digging out its own medium in ranges from subliminally minimal silence and sustainment to off-kilter "songs" comparable to the more entracingly sparse and industrial ventures of This Heat. Miller, who's appeared in projects ranging from the infamous Destroy All Monsters to M3 to GKW to Dirty Old Man River, initiates a stark boldness pertaining to his meticulously modified instrument, forgoing easy novelty for a demanding and rousing execution of pleasantly cryptic resonance. An exceptionally obscure venture into immaculate and subtle clamor.

Obsolete Units

Having cut his teeth for a good couple years in Towering Heroic Dudes and furthering expanding his solo chops in various live settings, Paul Haney returns with his second Rust Worship cassette, this one consisting of three live recordings from last year in various locales around the New York area. An improvised concoction of droning atonalities, the performances ebb and flow between something like blown-out sound art, crackling harsh noise, and ominous psychedelia. Arrives at the peaks of heavily dense manipulation of tapes, turntables, electronics, and other forgotten miscellany. An apt representation of Rust Worship's current state-of-affairs.

Obsolete Units