News & Events
title: Some Blood Will Stick
catalog #: IMPREC106
format: cd
release date: October 24, 2006
Hototogisu is Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Sunroof!) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards). They've been laying down billowing sheets of tetonic guitar drone-noise since 2003 with the thickest possible helpings of vocals and electronics.
Some Blood Will Stick is a collection of tracks from their ultra-limited self produced label Heavy Blossom. Songs were taken from Swoon Scream (2004) and Awful Symmetry (2005) with one additional track. What makes this disc more than a simple re-release is the extraordinary scalpel re-editing by Matthew Bower and the crushing and invigorating mastering by Scott Hull at Visceral Sound making this one of the heaviest and most beautiful Hototogisu releases.
ARAB STRAP | TEN YEARS OF TEARS
Farewell compilation album released early 2007
After six studio albums, three live albums and countless gigs, Arab Strap
are to split up. A book-end compilation album and a celebratory farewell
tour will mark the end of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton's ten year
relationship. The Last Romance, released in 2005, will remain their final
studio offering.
"There's no animosity, no drama. We simply feel we¹ve run our course,"
explains Aidan. "The Last Romance seems the most obvious and logical final
act of the Arab Strap studio adventure. Everybody likes a happy ending."
Titled Ten Years Of Tears (a nod to the critics who frequently pegged Arab
Strap as "Falkirk miserablists'), the compilation is by no means a
traditional 'Best Of' collection. Comprising B-sides, demos, remixes, new
recordings, live tracks and Peel sessions, it's a handpicked selection
designed to give a full picture of this unique band.
"The idea of the compilation is to capture the essence of the band over our
ten year career," says Malcolm. "Sometimes the albums were a bit stifled
because we were worrying too much about making a good album. I think that
live versions of songs and b-sides etc show a truer, more relaxed side to
the band. Ten Years Of Tears can serve both as an introduction to Arab Strap
and also a fitting finale to those people who have followed us along the
way."
Acquaintances on the Falkirk scene, Aidan and Malcolm became friends in
1995. They soon began making music together, telling twisted tales of messy
sexual encounters, shit jobs, titanic drinking sessions and the twisted
chemistries of human relationships. They called themselves Arab Strap after
a sex toy Aidan spotted in a porn mag.
Signing to Chemikal Underground, they released their debut single, The First
Big Weekend, a tale of Aidan and Malcolm's adventures on the weekend
Scotland were knocked out of Euro '96, in September of that year. A cult
classic, it's included on this compilation along with a recording from their
debut live performance. Over the years that followed, we were given
countless glimpses into the intimately private lives of our two
protagonists, whether they were pondering the risk of STDs (Packs Of Three)
or wondering if they'd get to shag that friend of the cellist from Belle &
Sebastian (I Saw You).
"No one really writes honest, hateful love songs," Aidan once said. "The
kids never hear it like they should hear it. They should know of the
farting, the fighting and the fucking. The pain and the pleasure."
Together, Aidan and Malcolm have created some of the most beautifully
observed and brutally painful music of the last ten years. The album ends,
appropriately enough, with the triumphal There Is No Ending. The story
continues with Malcolm's solo career (he's currently recording his new album
with Tony Dougan at The Castle Of Doom in Glasgow) and Aidan¹s recordings as
his alter ego L. Pierre (new album 'Dip' released early 2007) and a
spoken-word album and tour in late 2007. And then there's this album, which
serves as a key to that astonishing back catalogue. Future generations who
want to know about the farting, the fighting and the fucking will hopefully
know where to look.
Robert Hampson/Steven Hess:
"S/T"
CD
A sensible combination, brought to light by a chance contact resulting in a fairly lengthy process of recording, listening, and mixing. Robert Hampson, is, of course, the visionary behind sound behemoths LOOP and MAIN, and even served a highly productive position within GODFLESH, ORGANUM, and also collaborated with JIM O' ROURKE. Steven Hess is a percussionist who provides comfortably obscure rhythms and textures for PAN AMERICAN, FESSENDEN, ON, and HAPTIC.
Together, Hampson and Hess create a delightful peephole into the space where resonance from various percussions exist. These are the indirect moments that are just as real as those obvious times when a drummer nails the snare drum in 4/4 time. This is the stuff that for without, the attack, the beat, the percussion itself, would be lifeless pricks of meaningless sound. These recordings are filled with the active and excited ghost of interaction with material; highly unreal at times, and undeniably human at others. For those familiar with their previous endeavors, this is certain to please. For others, you are about to hear the collaboration of two people who know exactly what they are doing, and have created an even more powerful joined effort. Clearly tasty.
CDep released in an edition of 500, packaged in mulitple layers of clear material. See?
Available online from Crouton directly: http://www.croutonmusic.com/cr31.htm
artist: Daniel Menche
title: Jugularis
catalog number: imprec103
format: cd
release date: July 25, 2006
Imagine yourself riding on cells coasting through your body's veins. The sound of the heart grows stronger like a beating drum as you're pulled closer. Suddenly, you're embraced by this giant pulsating muscle and when you're finally released back into the veins you can hear it's sound fading slowly, but still growling with the same intensity that it has beat with for eternity. Jugularis is the soundtrack to this ride and like your heart it's packaged in blood: the ultimate symbol of life and intensity.
Recently Daniel Menche has embraced more percussion based sound to create music that manipulates the listeners blood flow and intensifies the listening experience. Jugularis still contains a distinctly Menche sound yet being that it's intensely rhythm and percussion based it's extremely different from anything that he has created prior.
Never before has Daniel Menche's mantra of "If Music is like blood then make
the speakers bleed" been so appropriate.
Mute are pleased to announce the release of the long-awaited Fad Gadget by
Frank Tovey project on 11th September 2006.
The 2 DVD and 2 CD package features a specially made documentary covering
Tovey's life and career up to his untimely death in 2002.
It will also include rare and unreleased tracks and live footage of
legendary performances, as well as classic songs recorded under both his own
name and his alter ego Fad Gadget.
This release has been put together by Frank's family in conjunction with
Mute, utilising the Mute and family archives.
Full details of the tracklistings for this package along with sound and
visual clips will be available in the coming months.
www.fadgadget.co.uk
www.franktovey.de
Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves is the Legendary Pink Dots' 25th anniversary album (and in the running for best album title ever). It's hard to believe a quarter century has passed since the Pink Dots first unearthed their complex vision where fate and whimsy cast stones at each other on some hazy, polluted playground. LPD's unusual legacy of psychedelia, industrial gloom, and textural madness has made them a constant presence on the innovative fringes of cult music, and has earned them near-universal respect from critics and peers. It was this legacy that shaped much of the album:
The actual theme of "legacy", "the consequence of past and present action on the future", has consciously informed much of
this release. In some ways, it's been a central-core-theme of all our songwriting these last 25 years. - Phil 'The Silverman' Knight
Twenty-five years later, the Dots have hardly paused for a breath. Edward Ka-Spel, The Silverman and company (Niels Van Hoornblower, Raymond Steeg & returning member Martijn de Kleer), still make boundlessly weird, beautifully disturbing music.
This is an album about mortality & immortality, about time ticking away mercilessly, about seizing the moment and damning the consequences. Your victims are lining up on both sides of the corridor, unborn yet forgiving. We are all pitifully human and we all want to take everything with us at the end, but there is no end...just a darkening endless horizon...
- Edward Ka-Spel
In addition to the 25th anniversary album, the Dots will embark on a massive North American tour this June to celebrate this landmark occasion. Then they'll disappear into the ether...until their next haunting.
TRACKLIST: 1) Count On Me, 2) No Matter What You Do, 3) Stigmata (Part 4), 4) Feathers At Dawn,
5) Please Don't Get Me Wrong, 6) Peace Of Mind, 7) The Island Of Our Dreams, 8) Bad Hair,
9) The Made Man's Manifesto, 10) A Silver Thread, 11) Your Number Is Up
PREVIOUS RELEASES ON ROIR: The Whispering Wall (cd - cat#RUSCD 8286)
All the King's Men (cd/lp - cat#RUSCD/LP 8278)
Under Triple Moons (cd - cat#RUSCD 8231)
PRESS QUOTES:
"Since 1980, LPD have created some of the most enigmatic and challenging compositions in modern music. The uniqueness of their work is due in large part to its omnivorous ability to consume and transform a variety of styles into a new, cohesive entity. The introverted folk of Nick Drake may be found here, as well as the graphic cyberpunk nightmares of Frank Tovey (Fad Gadget), not to mention the rhythmic permutations of Philip Glass. From Beefheart to Brahms, the sources of LPD's quicksilver soundscapes are myriad. What holds them all together is Ka-Spel's dense lyricism and grim obsessions." - ROLLING STONE
"Proceeding out of a hodgepodge of gloomy/fringey/hippie antecedents -- Joy Division, Syd Barrett, Faust, etc. -- but adding a classical sensibility, involuted mythology, found-sound sampling weirdness, plus all sorts of stylistic cross-mingling and experimentation, Edward Ka- Spel (vocals, lyrics, keyboards), Phil Knights (aka The Silver Man; keyboards) and a shifting collection of associates have turned the Legendary Pink Dots into an open-ended adventure. Although certainly prone to enigmatic risk-taking, the enormously resourceful LPD is a mellifluous and dynamically restrained proposition: this is one dip into the rock netherworld that won't send you running for cover. The lyrics, however -- a disturbing onslaught of doom, violence and apocalypse -- are a different story." - TROUSER PRESS
Brainwashed BRAIN010: Mimir 7"
Mimir is the collaborative effort between Christoph Heemann and Andreas
Martin (Mirror, HNAS); Edward Ka-Spel and Phil "Silverman" Knight (The
Legendary Pink Dots, Tear Garden); and Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth, Gastr
del Sol). There have been three full-lenght albums that have been
released since 1989, all of which have fuelled mad fan obsession and
critical acclaim. This 7" is the first new recording to surface in over
five years and comes on a thick maroon 75g vinyl with beautiful cover
artwork by Monika Kweicinska.
This record is also limited to 500 copies. Expected ship date: July 9.
- Administrator
- Buzz Bin
For immediate release:
The London-based instrumental trio, Fridge is about to release their
fourth full-length album, "Happiness", due in September. "Happiness" will
be their first US album and will be available through Text in the UK and
Domino throughout Europe.
The Baltimore, MD-based record label Temporary Residence and the
internet web site Brainwashed.com have teamed up to co-release the album
and bring the band for their very first North American Tour. Dates are
currently being confirmed for October, including a handful of dates
opening up for Low.
Fridge have two albums out on Output in the UK, "Ceefax" and "Semaphore"
as well as a double-length collection of singles titled "Sevens and
Twelves". Their last album, "Eph" was released on Go Beat! in the UK.
Kieran Hebden of the group also has released a couple albums and various
singles as Four Tet.
For more information and some sound samples, please see
www.brainwashed.com/fridge or www.temporaryresidence.com
Tour dates will be posted on line when they're confirmed.
