Body Blues
(Hospital - HOS182) 7-inch $6.75 (Out-of-stock)
Spencer Yeh’s voice of rapture emerges from the tunnels of noise. Two side-long pieces that drift between driving, nostalgic, road-weary, headlong plunges into human mysteries and sombre, rose-pedal synth write private and voyeuristic existentialism.
Brighter Summer Day
(Thin Wrist - TWB) LP $13.50 (Out-of-stock)
Burning Star Core's first vinyl full-length and first widely available recording after numerous private releases that began surfacing in 1993. Massive layers of sustained sound driven thru violins and electronics direct to climax, backed by broken organs dropped into shifting darkness and cracked computer hypnotics.
Burning Star Core / Del
(Quasi Pop - QPOPREC08) split 7-inch $9.00 (Out-of-stock)
A blend of wild rock energy with anarchic noise weirdness in a complex, explosive, multi-layered sound. Traditional instrumentation (violin, drums + guitars) and noisy, chaos-generating electronics, unified in celebration of the power of primal natural forces and the creative energy of sexual instincts.
Challenger
(Hospital - HOS216) CD $13.75 (Out-of-stock)
(Plastic - P007) LP $16.50 (Out-of-stock)
On this composed work (as opposed to BxC's propensity for improv), each piece revolves around a central melodic theme with field recordings, an audio diary bridging the gaps, ranging from pure tonal mood to huge electronic crescendos. Challenger uses space remarkably, with parts coming and going, dropping, building or receding. When the piano crashes in “Mysteries of the Organ,” it's almost a frustration of paradise, a rejection of perfection or maybe a jolt of inexplicable life, unable to be translated into proper communication. Juxtaposed with the quiet haunting of “Hopelessly Devoted” which sounds like a love letter written to outer space, it makes for an album that is both dynamic yet consistent as a full statement. TEDIUM HOUSE BEST OF 2008
BURNING STAR CORE / COMETS ON FIRE
Comets On Fire / Burning Star Core
(Yik Yak - 005) LP $12.00
Noise-damaged psychedelia from the trippy year of 2005. No roadhouse numbers, just pure expando-band blown-jam sorcery. Shirts were shed, inhibitions were forgotten, magic was made. Silkscreened sleeves. Edition of 1000.
Inside The Shadow
(Hospital - HOS212) CD $13.50 (Out-of-stock)
Unlike the majority of C. Spencer Yeh’s electronic compositions, this reissue of an obscure tour-only recording from 2005 brings three textures to life with violin, chimes and bells. Yeh’s landscape-oriented, linear compositions surpass the limitations of most of his contemporaries’ synth-only exercises.
Let’s Play Wild Like Wildcats Do
(Hospital) Used CD $8.00
Full-on experimental electronics from 1995, with the first track “Mes Soldats Stupides (Demo)” gradually fracturing kraut / funk drums, horns, and white noise into a whirling mess of synthesized mayhem. “Clouds In My Coffee” is a darker piece of devastating, resonating analogue drone. Sealed
Mes Soldats Stupides ’96 -’04
(Cenotaph) 2xCD $13.50
Disc one features primarily vocal/electronics selections from the out-of-print White Swords in a Black Castle, Amelia, and Crystal Castles releases, along with a few choice tracks originally released on Chondritic Sound and Gods of Tundra. Disc two stretches back a bit further into the archives, with some live performances and unreleased tracks in the mix.
The Very Heart of The World
(Thin Wrist - TWG) CD $13.50 (Out-of-stock)
(Thin Wrist - TWG) LP $13.50 (Out-of-stock)
An incredibly heavy record, built on dense, layered drones, pulses, splintered vocals, and deep rhythms that euphorically build to total overload. With a lineup including the Hair Police front line and other luminaries from across the exploding Midwestern psych/noise/folk underground, BXC's C. Spencer Yeh shifts through epic movements and pushes pure electronic/concrete/physical/rock energy to undeniable, massive sound.
BURNING STAR CORE / HOTOTOGISU
Volume One
(DroneDisco) CD $10.50
Five tracks totaling approximately fifty minutes by the time-defying duo of Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Ramleh, Sunroof!, Total) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards, GHQ, Zaimph) collaborating with C. Spencer Yeh, Robert Beatty, and Trevor Tremaine (the latter two of Hair Police, Eyes And Arms Of Smoke, Sick Hour). Originally released as a tour merch CDR, this edited and re-sequenced edition begins with an appropriate invocation and from there punches blindly through one stone cloud after another, coughs and gasps from exhaustion, stumbles and lies motionless. The ritual concludes with a moment of naked acoustic/instinctual spasm. Packaged in a black polycase with black-and-white inserts and a special randomly-selected one-inch button (five button variations in all). All different material from the companion volume HG/BxC II released by the Heavy Blossom label.
BURNING STAR CORE / YELLOW SWANS
Yellow Swans / Burning Star Core
(Blossoming Noise) Used LP $8.00
Collaboration from 2005-2006 by GMS, Pete Swanson, C. Spencer Yeh, and Mike Shiflet. Red marbled vinyl