Erosion of the Analogous Eye
(Helen Scarsdale - HMS015) Used CD $10.00
The studio of Matt Shoemaker is alive with electricity: impossibly complex wirings channeling signals in and out of analog synth modules; an array of curious aluminum boxes with unmarked knobs; Slinkies strung from ceiling to floor creating a set of giant spring reverb units; accelerometers attached to consumer electronic errata; and even a few conventional tools like guitar stomp boxes and a bruised computer. Yet for all the convoluted engineering that goes into his equipment, the resulting mesmerism seems effortless and strangely organic. Shoemaker's ever-evolving album of mutant dronemuzik and electrical seas of synthetic bristling undulate with placid regularity. Brain-melting psychedelics contort into cancerous, atonal bellows. Out of his allotropic shifts, irradiated static transforms into the graceful chime of temple bells; and electrical phase patterns slip into deep forest murmurings dotted with narcoleptic birds calls. On one hand, this album is prescient of the revival for progressive electronics currently underway in the flood of US post-noise projects; it's easy to triangulate this between Emeralds and Heldon. But on the other hand, Erosion of the Analogous Eye is the continuation of Shoemaker's early work on Trente Oiseaux, with its grotesques exaggerations of field recording. Artwork features unique, hand-dyed abstractions mounted on letterpressed paper. Limited edition of 300 copies.
Isolated Agent / Stranding Behavior
(Elevator Bath - eeaoa031) LP picture disc $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
A two-part sculpture / puzzle, multi-layered and almost entirely electronic, lending vivid color to a description of blackest space. Mysterious, unsettling examples of Shoemaker’s attention to detail, mood and tension. Edition of 233.
Soundtrack for Dislocation
(Elevator Bath - EEAOA034) CD $8.00 (Out-of-stock)
An entirely self-contained account of a fantastically abstract and intensely personal vision, permeated with potent unease. Enigmatic cover and interior images, the cryptic track titles, and the recordings themselves -- densely packed and elaborately evolved aberrancies. Edition of 509. That's right, Stonehange, 509.
Spots On The Sun
(Helen Scarsdale) Used CD $5.00
A grotesque, sonic landscape with details exaggerated out of proportion and narratives folded upon themselves in a magnificent abstraction of electro-acoustics, rarefied field recordings, and particulate matter plucked from ether. While the familiar sounds of encircling birds, turbulent weather, and temple bells litter Shoemaker’s recordings, the sonic topography describes a vulgar and hostile landscape where fits of delirium and circadian arrhythmia are common human responses. In many ways, Shoemaker’s Spots in the Sun could be mistaken for Bernard Parmegiani at his most focused or even John Duncan at his most gracefully brutal. Letterpress second edition of 400