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.

 

Crunchy, harsh, trance, rhythmic, noise, acidic, violent and unavoidable are all words that have been used to describe the music of Terrorfakt. The NYC based artist has been grafting infectious and innovative power noise trance since 2001. their corrosive music has re-invented and infused the noise and trance genres of electronic music with fresh ideas and influences. Their second album on Metropolis, Teethgrinder, is a myriad of torment, anger, confusion, hatred and pain. Agressive is too mild of a word to describe the pummeling beats, explosive rhythms, critical state melodies and self-destructive tempo. With the most raging album you'll hear this year, Terrorfakt has reached unprecedented levels with the seething Teethgrinder.

 

Teethgrinder tracklisting:

01. Welcome To Hell   RA MP3
02. Headcase
03. The Unknown
04. Damage
05. Skullfucker
06. The Fine Art Of Killing Yourself   RA MP3
07. Empire
08. Rhythm & Hate
09. Stormbreaker
10. M15
11. Crown Of Thorns
12. Do Unto Others
13. Sie Bringen Mich Um
14. Animal
15. We Gave Till We Bled
16. Welcome To Hell (Reshanked by Manufactura)
17. The Fine Art Of Killing Yourself (Refined by Tonikom)

FALL TOUR w/ TONIKOM
09.07.06 - Garfield Werks - Pittsburgh, PA
09.08.06 - Empire @ Whitehawk Cafe - Penn Hills, PA - DJ DATE
09.09.06 - The Phantasy - Lakewood, OH
09.11.06 - Jakes - Bloomington, IN
09.12.06 - Smalls - Hamtramck (Detroit), MI
09.13.06 - The Inferno - Madison, WI
09.14.06 - Star Central - Minneapolis, MN - CANCELLED
09.15.06 - Spot 6 - Chicago, IL (with Caustic)
09.17.06 - Bluebird Theater- Denver, CO
09.20.06 - Sabalas Mt. Tabor - Portland, OR
09.21.06 - The Vogue - Seattle, Wa
09.24.06 - The DNA Lounge - San Fransisco, CA
09.27.06 - Infirmary - Garden Grove, CA
09.29.06 - The Krave Lounge - Las Vegas, NV
09.30.06 - Sadisco @ Mardi Gras - Scottsdale, AZ
10.01.06 - House Of Rock N Roll - El Paso, TX
10.04.06 - The Conservatory - OK City, OK
10.05.06 - Darkside Lounge - Dallas, TX
10.06.06 - Sanctuary - San Antonio, TX
10.07.06 - Havok - Houston, Tx
10.10.06 - Club Red - Gainesville, FL
10.12.06 - Young Avenue Deli - Memphis, TN
10.13.06 - Main Street Lounge - Louisville, KY
10.14.06 - Outback Lodge - Charlottesville, Va
10.18.06 - Asylum, Washington D.C.
10.19.06 - Alchemy, Washington D.C. - DJ DATE ONLY
10.28.06 - Valentines - Albany, NY

 Terrorfakt  | Tonikom | Metropolis Records

artist:  Boduf Songs
title:   Lion Devours The Sun
catalog #:  krank099
formats available:  CD
Release Date:  October 30, 2006

Content:
Mathew Sweet is an alchemist, having developed the powers to mysteriously transform a minimal palette of common musical elements into something extraordinary. While his work contains references to psychedelia and folk musics, it fits comfortably in neither category. His understated vocals are delivered not as declamation, but rather a muted invitation to listen to his tales of the failing human condition; a terrain of fallow fields, poisoned wells and doomed existence. All hail the messenger of truths.

Context:
Lion Devours The Sun is the first full length release from U.K. resident Mathew Sweet following his self-titled kranky debut EP released in the fall of 2005. It was recorded at home with a 4 track and a single microphone, using acoustic guitar and voice along with well placed touches of a cymbal-playing monkey, some bricks, an e-bowed autoharp, a homemade gramophone, and daggers. The title derives from alchemical imagery, the sun representing consciousness and the lion symbolizing emotion. Some of these songs contain actual invocations of demonic forces. Not really. Mathew states that "this is not folk music", and that someone told him that they think the first record "sounds humble and withdrawn and the new one sounds righteous and bitter". He agrees. The debut Boduf Songs release garnered high praise from all reviewers. He has performed limited live shows in the U.K. and Europe, and recently recorded a live session for the legendary VPRO in Amsterdam.

Quotes:
"Sweet is at once engaged and detached from the outside world, his evocative observations surreal, literate, and fatalistic..." Grooves

"Quiet revelations from an acoustic guitar, gentle male voice very nearly whispering, and the harmonic convergence of cymbals, violin bow, toy piano and manipulated field recordings." Dream Magazine

"Stark and dark psychedelia exquisitely woven by one M. Sweet. What spirits are invoked I don't know, but I imagine they are as riveted as I am to these haunted musings." Foxy Digitalis

"Picturesque and pastoral, using little more than his voice and guitar to create a vivid picture of the world around him. Only Sweet sees a world populated by very dark happenings and very dreadful ideas, all swirling, massing and waiting to descend on the world." Brainwashed

Track Listing:
1. Lord of the Flies  2. Two Across the Mouth  3. That Angel was Pretty Lame  4. Great Wolf of No Tracks  5. Green Lion Devours the Sun, Blood Descends to Earth  6. 27th Raven's Head (Darkness Showing Through the Head of the Raven)  7. Please Ache for Redemptive  8. Fall of Cherry Blossom in Long Shadows of Twilight  9. Bell for Harness

Release: Oct 10 2009
ISIS AND AEROGRAMME In The Fishtank
http://www.konkurrent.nl

Upon first listen, this Fishtank session between Isis and Aereogramme
attracts attention solely for its sound. While both bands are known for
their love of metal and post-hardcore as well as experimental and
atmospheric approaches, here they not only show those skills, but also
reach an impressively high level of purity, roominess and emotion.
Putting two bands together with such different home-bases (Los Angeles
and Glasgow, respectively) in a small town near Amsterdam was a
challenge Konkurrent couldn't resist. In December 2004, the idea
grew concrete that these two bands would record in the Fishtank,
and all directions pointed to July 2005 for action. Isis had just
finished their European tour, so Aereogramme hit the road and the bands
played a warm-up show at the Amsterdam Paradiso the night before
entering the studio. When Konkurrent invited Isis and Aereogramme
to do a Fishtank session, we expected a loud and heavy session not yet
heard in the series. Expectations can be misleading.

Was it the extremely hot weather? The overwhelming 70s atmosphere in the
studio? The shitty hotel the night before? We may never know those
answers, but we know this: it's the analog warmth that makes the songs
tender, organic, and fragile. It's the unexpected that makes this a very
successful edition to us.

Tracklisting:
1. Low Tide
2. Delial
3. Stolen

Daniel Menche:
"Creatures of Cadence"
CD

Despite what the title might suggest, “Creatures of Cadence” is not about endings, completion, or finality. Instead we find Menche inviting a slew of new mediators into his cathartic miasma. The medium now extends beyond the rich and unfathomable depths of somatic sound. His ongoing dialogue between body and mind has found sympathetic resonators in a myriad of instruments (percussion, cello, horns, and zither) that have proven through the ages of being capable of channeling both our most ecstatic joy and profoundest grief.

“Creatures of Cadence” finds Menche in full exploratory mode; excavating well-concealed networks of sonorous information through a systematic deconstruction of drone and pulse. In the process, he further erases any perceived division between hearing / feeling and performer / instrument. The result, if consumed at the appropriate amplitude, is nothing less than a sixty minute journey through a voluptuous and pristine mania.

“Creatures of Cadence” is a work commissioned by Crouton and Longbox Recordings and published in conjunction with Menche’s first Midwest U.S. concerts: in Chicago and Milwaukee, September 29 and 30, 2006. Released in an edition of 500, including three full color inserts and overwrap with images of detailed bird drawings peppered with a whisper of the disturbing by Eric Stotik. It is our sincere hope the listener will find the packaging for this release a fitting visual analogue to the vehement beauty of the aural.

This release will be available at the corresponding concerts, September 29, 2006 in Chicago and September 30, 2006  in Milwaukee, and will be available through both Crouton and Longbox Recordings thereafter.

 

 

Seattle's Jon Weisnewski (Bass/Vocals) and Nat Damm (Drums, ex-Tight Bros From Way Back When) have solidified a unique and devastating sonic battle axe left embedded in numerous skulls. Hand picked for the Alternative Tentacles roster by Jello Biafra, they encompass everything that has made rock, punk, and metal a dangerous sound for the last 18 years. Hungrily devouring the corpses Zeppelin and Sabbath; dissecting the still quivering bodies of Black Flag and Drive Like Jehu; infusing the essence of the still beating heart of The Melvins, Akimbo has released four pounding albums (on Alternative Tentacles, Seventh Rule Recordings, Dopamine Records, and Rockandroleplay). With a relentless touring schedule and an ever growing nation wide fan base, the Akimbo juggernaut is bent on leaving audiences a stunned, deaf, shuddering mass. Headed overseas to terrorize Europe in September and October 2006 with Jade Tree artists Young Widows (ex-Breather Resist). ===========EUROPEAN TOUR DATES===========9/20/2006    Acu    Utrecht, Netherlands9/21/2006    TBA    Den Helder, North Holland, Netherlands9/22/2006    Lintfabriek    Kontich, Antwerp, Belgium9/23/2006    Le Batofar    Paris, France9/24/2006    Le Caravan Serail    Toulouse, France9/25/2006    TBA    Basque Country, Spain9/26/2006    Dublin    Carballo, A Coruna, Spain9/27/2006    TBA    TBA, Portugal9/28/2006    Iroquai    Jaen, Spain9/29/2006    Arrebato    Zaragoza, Spain9/30/2006    TBA    Lyon, France10/01/2006    Le Brooklyn Cafe    Rouen, France10/02/2006    TBA    Amsterdam, Netherlands10/03/2006    TBA    Caen, France10/04/2006    Votre Choix    Schifflingen, Luxembourg10/05/2006    ExHaus    Trier, Germany10/06/2006    Exzess    Frankfurt, Germany10/07/2006    Komma    Esslingen, Germany10/08/2006    Stadtwerkstatt    Linz, Austria10/09/2006    Yacht Club    Brno, Czech Republic10/10/2006    007    Prag, Czech Republic10/11/2006    Immerhin    Wurzburg, Germany10/12/2006    TwH    Berlin, Germany10/13/2006    Juzi    Göttingen, Germany10/14/2006    Ungdomshuset    Copenhagen, Denmark10/16/2006    Juze Treff 9    Heidenheim, Germany10/17/2006    TBA    Amsterdam, Netherlands ===========official band site: http://www.livetocrush.com/   myspace: http://myspace.com/akimbo    photos by Lars Knudson: http://www.pbase.com/pistolswing/akimbo     YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn_u78Ye_58     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VVg1dBcJ94

artist: Fe-Mail/Carlos Giffoni
title: Northern Stains
catalog #: IMPREC112
format: cd
upc: 793447511221
release date: Sept. 26, 2006

Northern Stains is the result of a collaboration between experimental phenomenon Carlos Giffoni and Spunk/Fe-Mail members Maja Ratkje & Hild Tafjord. This trio finally met when Giffoni booked Fe-Mail to headline the sunday night of his genere defining Brooklyn based 3 day No Fun Festival in 2005. Early in 2006 Giffoni boarded a flight to Norway and Northern Stains was born in Spunk's Oslo studio.

Individualy and together, Carlos Giffoni and Fe-Mail make records that are rich, detailed, dense and complex, constantly straddling the line between improvised noise and modern composition. It's this attention to detail and warmth that make Fe-Mail & Carlos Giffoni such celebrated artists and kindred collaborators. Northern Stains is often absurd combination of live sounds, feedback, hilarious sampling with a genuine sentimental touch, which nods towards both the northern glaciers and the beauty and brutality of nature. Tomorrow's music today.
The album was recorded live in SPUNK studio in Oslo. Cover artwork by Maya Miller of The Double Leopards.

artist: KK Null
title: Kosmista Noisea
catalog #: IMPREC111
format: cd
upc: 793447511125
release date: Sept. 26, 2006

Kosmista Noisea is a brand new full length from Japanese legend KK Null (ANP/Zeni Geva). Packaged in a jewel box with a metallic print on a vellum tray card, this was lavishly designed by Stephen O'Malley (Sunn 0)))/Khanate).
Kosmista Noisea (Finnish for Cosmic Noise) consists of live recordings from 3 different locations during the European tour in 2003-2004. Kosmista Noisea 1 is taken from 2 separate live recordings and uniquely combined in the studio into one piece with Talcent, Italy on the left channel and St.Etienne, France on the right channel. This technique is designed to give more depth and multiple dimensions. Kosmista Noisea 2 is a 45 minutes long non-edit of an entire live performance in Antwerpen/Belgium, showing the diversity of KK Null's music from intense clashing wave of noise to structured electro-acoustic ambience, droning isolationist material.

 

artist: ANP
title: Metacompound
catalog #: IMPREC110
format: cd
upc: 93557511023
release date: Sept. 26, 2006

Metacompound is the first full length studio album from ANP in 19 years. Lavish metallic ink on vellum packaging by ANP fan and Sunn O))) member Stephen O'Malley. .
ANP was formed in 1984 by KK Null & Seijiro Murayama. In 1987 ANP broke up. 17 years later they reformed for some live performances and released the singular Live In Japan on Important Records. Metacompound, their first studio recordings in over 19 years, is as undescibable as Live In Japan was. Combining free jazz, heavy rock, industrial noise, glitch and free improvised dynamics, ANP creates a sound that is intirely unprecidented.

 

artist: Steven R. Smith
title: The Anchorite
catalog #: IMPREC108
format: cd
upc: 793447510828
release date: Sept. 26, 2006

This is the 7th release in Important Records' ongoing Arts & Crafts Series. The Anchorite is a full length vinyl only release packaged in a hand made linocut created,printed, signed and numbered by Steven R. Smith. Limited edition of 500

Eleventh full-length solo release from multi-instrumentalist, instrument builder Steven R. Smith. In contrast to the more labored arrangements of many of his solo records, The Anchorite was recorded in the winter of 2005 without the use of overdubs straight to stereo 2-track using three separate amplifiers and a combination of loops, tapes and live performance. As the title suggests, the record focuses on the nature of solitude and draws upon a black spaciousness seemingly born in the spirit of Popul Vuh, Arvo Part, and Medieval troubadour music.

Steven R. Smith also releases records under the Hala Strana moniker which focus on the traditional music of Eastern Europe, and is a member of the San Francisco improvisational group Thuja. He has recorded for numerous labels including Catsup Plate, Soft Abuse, Emperor Jones, Last Visible Dog, Jewelled Antler, and Darla.

Important's Arts & Crafts series combines hand made packaging created by the artists featured on the recordings that the packaging contains. Previous artists in the series have been Lee Ranaldo, The Dresden Dolls, Jad Fair, The Hafler Trio & My Cat Is An Alien.

AKRON/FAMILY:  MEEK WARRIOR  (YG33) Release: September 25 / ‘06

Since the debut Akron/Family album came out in March ’05 they’ve
played hundreds (and hundreds) of shows across the known world,
recorded / released and toured for a split album with Angels of Light
(also serving as backing band in the latter, both in studio and on
tour), recorded a few home brewed albums they sell on the road, and
have generally worked themselves to death, or at least into a new
entity they themselves maybe don’t even recognize. And now this: a
new “special”  album that has been blaring in my office constantly,
obsessively, for weeks now and that once again shows them morphing
into something simultaneously unfamiliar, wild, gentle, raging,
hilarious, elated and meditative - riddled with chaos and sonic
contradiction, and sometimes just simply beautiful – the song “Gone
Beyond” is the sort of palliative hymn I want to hear while suddenly
finding myself drifting through the universe having unexpectedly
jettisoned the meat-grinder of earthly existence - where perhaps
songs like “Blessing Force” , played repeatedly at full volume, have
pummeled me into hapless insensibility. All of this ultimately gets
sorted out and makes for a stunning document, in my opinion. At the
time of this writing they’re ensconced in the mountains somewhere on
a much-needed recuperative retreat. Good thing, because this fall and
winter they’ll be touring again and also recording another new album
for YGR, to be released early next year, when they’ll tour again, and
on to infinity... I hope you enjoy the music!  - Michael Gira/Young
God Records

Here’s what Seth has to say about making this recording: “These songs
were written about a year ago by individual band members and then
hashed out as a band together on the road in hotels and in the van
the few weeks prior to the studio time in Chicago, while we were all
freezing in the winter hinterlands of Canada, wheezing with
bronchitis…The recording in Chicago was nuts. We played in Iowa City
Monday night. Then drove all that night, slept 2 hours on the corner
of 23rd and Michigan in Chicago outside the studio in the van. Then
started setting up to record at 10:00 am and recorded until 8:00 pm.
Then we headed straight to Urbana Illinois to play that same night.
Then drove back to Chicago that same night after the show, started
recording that next morning at 10:00 am, recorded all day again, and
then left again at 8;00 pm to play that same night in Milwaukee. It
was extremely crazy, and i can't remember if we have ever been more
disoriented and tired before…We recorded at Shape Shoppe in Chicago
and it was engineered by Griffin Rodriguez…Griffin also plays upright
bass on track 4, no Space in this realm…The big emphasis on doing
this recording was the chance to record two days in Chicago with our
favorite free jazz master drummer Hamid Drake. He has played on
hundreds of records with jazz luminaries Peter Brotzmann, Don Cherry,
Pharaoh Sanders, William Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark -
the list goes on … We did an additional day of recording with the Do
Make Say Think/ Broken Social Scene guys in Toronto, two days with
Jason La Farge at Seizure’s Palace in Brooklyn, and countless mind
droning moments in my (Seth's) apartment.  Mixed and mastered with
Doug Henderson. Production was Akron/Family and Michael Gira. We
recorded ourselves in Chicago and then a day in Toronto, and then we
went back to NY and did two more studio days and mixing with
Michael.”

 

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: Benoît Pioulard  
title: Précis
catalog #: krank098
formats available: CD   
CD UPC Code: 7 96441 80982 0
Release Date: October 16, 2006

Content: Précis is the first album from Thomas Meluch under his musical pseudonym Benoît Pioulard. Following a series of limited, handmade cassette and CDR releases for friends and family over the last several years, and the well-received Enge EP (Moodgadget 2005), Précis arose as a documentation of a coming to terms with impermanence, marked by analog residue and the imperfections of human influence.

A multi-instrumentalist with an insatiable palette, Pioulard bases most of his songs on treated acoustic guitars and honeyed vocals, backed by carefully layered bells, bass, dulcimer, old tape samples, field recordings and myriad other sources. These sounds, though sculpted roughly into pop songs, have their own delicate patterns of ebb and flow, distortion and disappearance. From the sunny refrain of “Triggering Back” to the descent of nighttime chills on “Needle & Thread”, Précis sighs in time with the seasons.  It’s an album about him, her, and you; it’s an exaltation of the ways these things end.

Context: Thomas Meluch is a 21-year old from Michigan fascinated with the sounds of nature and tape decay. Through almost a decade of recording, he has fostered an infatuation with a sort of sonic density that combines remnants of pop song structures with the lushness of painstakingly assembled overdubs that the home recording process affords him. He was recently featured on the Ghostly International compilation Idol Tryouts Two.
 



Press for Benoît Pioulard’s Enge EP:

 “[Benoit Pioulard] creates crystalline folk-pop teeming with fragile vocals, acoustic guitars, electronics, and percussion in a hazy shoegaze style that’s .. more than a little easy to fall in love with” Textura

“[An] exceptional creative vision...cavernously emotional acoustic recordings by way of [a] penchant for electronic manipulation.” Lost at Sea

Track Listing:
1. la guerre de sept ans  2. together & down  3. ext. leslie park  4. triggering back  5. moth wings  6. alan & dawn  7. corpus chant  8. palimend  9. coup de foudre 10. hirondelle  
11. needle & thread  12. r coloring  13. sous la plage  14. patter  15. ash into the sky

artist:  Tim Hecker  
title:   Harmony in Ultraviolet
catalog #:  krank102
formats available:  CD   
CD UPC Code: 7 96441 81022 2
Release Date:  October 16, 2006

Content: Harmony in Ultraviolet is Tim Hecker’s sixth album. It is a continuation of Hecker’s interest in spectral communications, noise, impressionist musics, thresholds of listening pleasure/pain, and the limits of digital composition. This album is a significant development of his song-craft, challenging the usefulness of descriptors such as ambient, drone, metal, noise and even electronic music. If references are necessary it could be described as a sonata for the elements, songs of crackling embers, tidal pools, spruce skylines and autumn winds. Gerhard Richter’s abstract paintings are also a fair orientation. Materially speaking, it is a record of whirring drones, whispering fissures, dense disintegrating chords, late-night noise and truth-telling harmonics. Yet this record follows no overarching process, no underlying narrative. It is both a homage for the Italian partigiani and also not at all. It is songs about ghost writing and midnight whispers but then again it isn't. In many ways this album can be viewed as a work of total destruction, embracing indeterminacy as an aesthetic ideal.

Context: Tim Hecker is a Canadian-based musician and sound artist, born in Vancouver. Since 1996, he has produced a range of audio works for Mille Plateaux, Alien8, Force Inc, Staalplaat, and Fat Cat. His works have been described as “structured ambient”, “tectonic color plates” and “cathedral electronic music”.  More to the point, he has focused on exploring the intersection of noise, dissonance and melody, fostering an approach to songcraft which is both physical and emotive. The New York Times has described his work as “foreboding, abstract pieces in which static and sub-bass rumbles open up around slow moving notes and chords, like fissures in the earth waiting to swallow them whole”. His Radio Amor was recognized as a key recording of 2003 by Wire magazine. His work has also included commissions for contemporary dance, sound-art installations, and various writings. He is also an acclaimed producer of techno, having toured and produced under the name Jetone. Tim has presented his work in a live setting around the world, including performances at Sonar (Barcelona), Mutek (Montreal), Impakt Festival (Utrecht), Victoriaville in (Quebec), IDEAL (Nantes), Vancouver New Music Festival (Vancouver), and Transmediale (Berlin). He currently resides in Montreal.

Track Listing:
1. Rainbow Blood  2. Stags, Aircraft, Kings and Secretaries  3. Palimpsest I  4. Chimeras  
5. Dungeoneering  6. Palimpsest II  7. Spring Heeled Jack Flies Tonight  8. Harmony in Blue I  
9. Harmony in Blue II  10. Harmony in Blue III  11. Harmony in Blue IIII  12. Radio Spiricom  
13. Whitecaps of White Noise I  14. Whitecaps of White Noise II  15. Blood Rainbow

Selected Discography:
2005    Mort aux Vaches - Staalplaat (Holland) - Live recording at VPRO Studios, Amsterdam    
2004        Radio Marti / Radio Havana - EN/OF (Germany) Collaboration with Stan Douglas
        Mirages - Alien8 Recordings (Canada)        
2003        Radio Amor - Mille Plateaux (Germany)        
2002    Trade Winds, White Noise - Commissioned by Parachute Arts Journal (Canada)
    My Love is Rotten to the Core - Substractif / Alien8 Recordings (Canada).
2001    Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again - Substractif / Alien8 Recordings (Canada).
        Ultramarin - Force Inc Music Works / Mille Plateaux (Germany)

Artist: Blood Money
Title: Axis of Blood
Label: Killer Pimp
Format: CD
Catalog number: PIMPK003
Release date: August 8, 2006


Track list:
    1. Russolo (8.04)
    2. Delillo (10.23)
    3. April (10.37)
    4. Following Thunder (7.55)
    5. Jet (21.40)

Extras: CR-ROM track with live videos from May 11, 2006, T.T. the Bear's
Place, Cambridge, Mass., to play on computers and video iPods.

Blood Money is: Ken Ueno - vocalist; Jon Whitney - rhythm composer; Tom
Worster - modulator

Blood Money puts experimental music back into a rock music context where
the onslaught of noise can be expressionist rather than intellectual,
where music can be enjoyed simply as entertainment, and where musicians
are allowed to be rock stars. An award winning composer and vocalist
combines extraordinary extended expression with macho beats and extreme
oscillator abuse. Simultaneously channelling the sprit of Throbbing
Gristle, the mayhem of Pan Sonic, the terror of Diamanda Galas, and the
other-worldly artificiality of Xenakis, Blood Money delivers at the
intersection of metal, noise, electro and experimental. Axis of Blood, a
virtuosic feat of derring-do, will satisfy the most rabid of thirsts.

A former ski patrol and West Point cadet, Ken holds degrees from Berklee
College of Music, Boston University, the Yale School of Music, and a Ph.D.
from Harvard University. He is a co-founder/co-director of the Minimum
Security Composers Collective and is the vocalist in the experimental
improvisation group Onda. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor and the
Director of the Electronic Music Studios at the University of
Massachusetts Dartmouth. As a vocalist, he sings sub-tones, multiphonics
and overtones and practices circular breathing techniques. Awards and
grants that Ken has received include those from the American Academy in
Rome, the Fromm Music Foundation (2), the Aaron Copland House, Meet the
Composer (3), the Belgian-American Education Foundation, Sonic Circuits X,
First Prize in the 25th .Luigi Russolo. competition, and Harvard
University. Current projects include a multimedia theatre work for Kim
Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky (a companion piece to Berio.s Naturale);
and a chamber orchestra work for the Netherlands Youth Orchestra to be
conducted by Stefan Asbury in the summer of 2007.
Ensembles and performers who have played Ken.s music include the Bang on a
Can All-Stars, eighth blackbird, Frances-Marie Uitti, the Boston Modern
Orchestra Project, the American Composers Orchestra (Whitaker Reading
Session), the New York New Music Ensemble, the Prism Saxophone Quartet,
Relâche, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Pro Arte
Chamber Orchestra, Dogs of Desire, the Orkest de Ereprijs, and the So
Percussion Ensemble.

Jon Whitney has played various instruments in various bands since his
teenage years but is far too embarrassed to own up to being in any of
them. He's more known for being a DJ, VJ, web developer, video documentor,
aspiring screenwriter, festival curator, teacher, professional driver, and
founder of Brainwashed.com. He has infrequently performed in New England
and Canada as R since 2000.

Tom Worster's first solo experimental music performance took place in
1984, the same year he first heard the Arditti Quartet perform Xenakis and
one year before he bought his first Derek Bailey record (Notes, Incus).
After that gig he kept his music under wraps until 1997, when he began
performing and recording as the fsb. He is also hosts a weekly radio
program in Boston called New Adventures, rides bicycles a lot, and holds
both ambitions for the 2006 Boston-Montreal-Boston 1200k Randonnée and a
day job as communications system architect.

SHADOWPLAYERS
FACTORY RECORDS & MANCHESTER POST-PUNK 1978-81
a film by james nice

LTM are proud to present Shadowplayers, a feature-length documentary tracing the early history of iconic Manchester record label Factory Records between 1978 and 1981.  For screening enquiries click here.


Cat No: LTMDVD 2391

The Facts and fictions are explored through candid interviews with 22 key participants, including Anthony H. Wilson (founder) and Peter Saville (designer), as well as musicians including Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order), Vini Reilly (Durutti Column), Simon Topping and Martin Moscrop (A Certain Ratio), Chris Watson (Cabaret Voltaire) and Howard Devoto (Buzzcocks/Magazine).

Other interviews include members of Section 25, Crispy Ambulance, The Names, Minny Pops, Swamp Children and Thick Pigeon, as well as other eyewitnesses and insiders such as Richard Boon, Annik Honore, Lindsay Reade, Richard Jobson, Graham Massey and Killing Joke.

The film runs for 2 hours 15 minutes and is divided into 19 chapters, covering subjects such as The Factory Club, sleeve art and graphic design, genius producer Martin Hannett, the riot at the Joy Division concert at Bury in April 1980, the Factory Benelux connection, the tragic suicide of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, the beginnings of New Order, and the decline of the post-punk culture in 1981.

Shadowplayers is based exclusively on new spoken word interviews, with soundtrack music by Section 25 and New Order, and rare images and graphics. The cover art is based on the first Factory design (Fac 1) by Peter Saville from 1978.

The DVD is available as a Region 0 NTSC disc. DVD extras include individual profiles for each interviewee. To read auto-interview with film maker James Nice click here.


SHADOWPLAYERS: detailed content (19 chapters):

1. USE HEARING PROTECTION - The Factory Club, May 1978- April 1980
2. A FACTORY SAMPLE - 2x 7" single (Fac 2) released January 1979, featuring Durutti Column, Cabaret Voltaire, John Dowie and Joy Division
3. FACTORY FOREMEN -Five heterosexual directors: Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus, Peter Saville, Rob Gretton and Martin Hannett.
4. UNKNOWN PLEASURES - Joy Division's debut album (Fact 10) was released in May 1979, produced by Martin Hannett
5. ZERO - Martin Hannett, record producer
6. SITUATIONIST GROUP - Vini Reilly and The Durutti Column
7. THE THIN BOYS - The first single by A Certain Ratio, All Night Party (Fac 5), appeared in May 1979. With no drummer
8. LARRY AND VINNY - Section 25 are from Blackpool, Lancashire
9. GET IN THE VAN - Heads, tales, Cocks and Jokers on the road
10. RUE DE MANCHESTER - Joy Division and Cabaret Voltaire play Plan K, Brussels, 16 October 1979
11. THE RAINBOW - On 4 April 1980 Joy Division played two London venues, The Rainbow and The Moonlight Club
12. FACTORY BENELUX - Friends in Belgium (and Holland)
13. DISORDER - Bury Derby Hall, 8 April 1980
14. IN A LONELY PLACE - 18 May 1980. On the eve of Joy Division's first American tour, Ian Curtis hangs himself at home in Macclesfield
15. BENEATH THE PAVEMENT - New Order debut at The Beach Club, Manchester, on 29 July 1980
16. OF FACTORY AMERICA - New Order and A Certain Ratio in New York, September 1980
17. FUTURISTS - The first New Order album, Movement (Fact 18), was released in November 1981
18. CHOIR BOYS - Schoolboy lyrics and timbales: Simon Topping and Vini Reilly
19. LIKE PUNK NEVER HAPPENED - 1981: new pop, old ways

artist:  Chris Herbert  
title:   Mezzotint
catalog #:  krank101
formats available:  CD   
Release Date:  September 18, 2006

Content: Mezzotint is a collection of digital, textured pieces assembled through the extensive manipulation of found sounds and environmental sources. A dedicated non-musician, Chris Herbert has a long-standing interest in intuitive composition and the elastic nature of sound as a resource, influenced by the collage ethic and the instantaneous capture of performance. Working with decidedly low-tech methods (Chris uses minidiscs, a battle-worn desktop PC and a badly-behaved delay pedal), many of the tracks came into being through guerrilla sessions during his day job. The pieces are essentially improvisations created by extended rehearsal and juxtaposition. Mezzotint is the consequence of a continual process of subtraction and composting, leaving just a trace of melody or the implication of rhythm. The result is a spontaneous, embracing the mystery of faraway broadcasts and the internal experience: a clouded, busy music of vertical activity and blended, indistinct color as opposed to narrative uni-direction. Chris' signature swampy, gaseous, and even dirty, crumpled sound is a welcome contrast to the clean, edgeless granular cloud aesthetic employed by an increasing number of artists.

Context: This is Chris Herbert's debut release. He lives and works in Birmingham, UK and has performed live at a series of one-off electronica events organized by the Modulate A/V collective (one of the city's key avant garde digital arts organizations.). He has also worked alongside local artists in creating sound installations reclaiming the city's post-industrial spaces. In addition to Mezzotint's sequel, Chris is currently at work on a sequence of pieces inspired by urban field recordings, to be broadcast on Resonance FM.

Track Listing:
1. Stab City  2. Elisa  3. Chlorophyll  4. Suashi  5. Horse Latitudes  6. Cassino  7. Let’s Get Boring!  

Utterly quiet, with a pulse-soothing beat, it takes several listens to reveal itself, like a dark room slowly brought into focus. First come the contours: a crackle that suggests old vinyl, a warm blanket of earthly hush, and that unwavering but organic beat. Then come the details: little snaps in the sound bed, the vinyl crackle transforming into more of a door creak, thin layers of wisps as simultaneously compact and flaky as fine phyllo. And then there's that beat, so steady that over time, as the other sounds make themselves more apparent, it softens and recedes, becoming the equivalent of invisible.  Marc Weidenbaum  Disquiet  August 11, 2005

artist:  Christina Carter  
title:   Electrice
catalog #:  krank103
formats available:  CD   
CD UPC Code: 7 96441 81032 1
Release Date:  September 18, 2006

Content:
Christina Carter approached her new solo album with the specific idea of recording all of the songs in the same key and using the same guitar tuning. While some artists would be hampered by such self-imposed constraints, Christina uses it to her advantage by exploring seemingly innumerable ways to twist and turn the same basic notes into new shapes, creating just as much a mood as a song cycle. When asked to give her thoughts regarding this new album, Christina Carter responded with fragments rather than linear composition: "continuing with subterranean song writing… eliminating excess elements, at the same time expansive because the 'mixing' of the record doesn't mimic the sound of a 'live' band… more cinematic or sculptural, feeling of being a human body... piano-like guitar... two personal songs, two universal songs… idealization and memory...  songs created instantly, not knowing what i was going to sing about until i sang, but I have a few ideas that I carry around with me for extended periods until they find a place… natural and artificial are two sides of the same coin... often, it is best to do the opposite of what you think you should do... inspired by 60's album art and band photos of floating heads, slight physical 'defects' and skeletal uncoordination, anachronistic futurisms, the idea of 'drone' (4 different songs from the same basic musical elements), dance choreography, and living with chronic pain..."

With Electrice, Christina has created the most cohesive and fully realized version of her unique musical vision to date.

Context:
Electrice is the first widely available album from Christina Carter since the reissue of her Living Contact album by kranky in 2004. The album was recorded, mixed and edited entirely by her. One of the two core members of Charalambides, Christina Carter has been making her own path in both that ensemble as well as with her solo releases for almost 15 years.

Quote:
"She is a singular and important figure inside the context of our era's music, creating rich, mysterious and highly individual carpets for all of us to sail away on." Byron Coley - The Wire

Track Listing:
1. Second Death  2. Moving, Intercepted  3. Yellow Pine 4. Words Are Not My Words

artist: Alasehir
title: Sharing The Sacred
catalog number: imprec101
format: cd
release date: July 25, 2006

 

John Gibbons-Guitar, Tamboura
Michael Gibbons-Guitar, Sitar
Michael Zanghi-Drums, Percussion

Alasehir is the project of Bardo Pond brothers John and Michael Gibbons with drummer Michael Zangha. Unlike the Gibbons' project Alumbrados, also being released on Important at the same time, Alasehir is more rock oriented, establishing a heady, heavy groove and jamming on it throughout.

“The ear of the musician detects a certain musical note in every city which is different from that of another city. He hears in each street a new melody, and to him the sound of wind in the treetops of different forests gives a varying sound. In the Desire World, seemingly, SOUND PROCEEDS FROM FORM. But in the music of ALASEHIR it is different, for while each form occupies and obscures a certain space there, form is nonexistent when viewed from the standpoint of ALASEHIR. Where the form was, a transparent vacuous space is observable. FROM THAT EMPTY VOID COMES A SOUND which is the "keynote" that creates and maintains the form whence it APPEARS to come, as the almost invisible core of a gas-flame is the source of the light we perceive.” Michael Gibbons

artist: Alumbrados
title: A Garden Of Vipers
catalog number: imprec102
format: cd
release date: July 25, 2006

Much different than the lumbering jams of Alasehir are the drenched ethno-drones of Alumbrado. Featuring Bardo Pond's John & Michael Gibbons on guitar, sitar, cumbas and various percussive instruments as well as Michael Zanghi and Aaron Igler with additional electronics and percussion. Alumbrados is a beautiful, rhythmic and tremendously arranged psychedelic experience.

“Alumbrados investigations are as thorough and as reliable as researches by material scientists, but not as easily demonstrable to the general public. Spiritual powers lie dormant within every human being, and when awakened, they compensate for both telescope and microscope, they enable their possessor to investigate, instanter, things beyond the veil of matter, but they are only developed by a patient application and continuance in well doing extended over years, and few are they who have faith to start upon the path to attainment to perseverance to go through with the ordeal. “ Michael Gibbons