Ana / Kata
(Beta Lactam Ring) Used 10-inch $10.00
Two long tracks from 2002 that trade in the currency of stratosphere, sounding like distant decayed echoes of supernovas. “Ana” rings out with phased vocals that dance within quartertones of each other, an extended intro to spacious guitar double helixes swimming through plasma. On the flip, “Kata” resembles lost soundtrack material to a Maya Deren film. Numbered edition of 500
CHRISTOPHER / VAS DEFERENS ORGANIZATION
Suspension
(Beta Lactam Ring) Used LP $15.00
1997 collaboration by Matt Castille and Eric Lumbleau with Christopher Moock (their second). Psychedelia-from-hell, krautrock studio manipulation, freakily pitched drones, Suspiria witch screams, bubbly acoustic guitar and whatever seems handy in derailing detached meditation.
So Close Yet So Far Out
(Beta Lactam Ring) Used 2xLP $22.00
De Kleer’s initial solo offering from 2002 outside the chemical playschool of The Legendary Pink Dots reveals the depth and profundity of his own visions, obsessions and flashbacks. Nods to psychedelia, krautrock, industrial and electronica are all evident. And de Kleer’s fuzz-driven guitar is at the heart of it all. ‘Once upon a Guitar’ is an acid freak-out worthy of Ash Ra Tempel and early Neu. ‘You Are…’ roils with the submerged psychosis of Barrett-era Floyd welded to the manic axe-grinding of Helios Creed. ‘Jet Lag,” with its organ-driven trancescape is a blissful, mind-numbing anthem for psychonauts everywhere. The utterly bizarre ‘What Happened to a Young Man in a Place Where He Turned to Water’ is the kind of Zen parable one might expect a cyber acidhead to put to music, or in this case sound decomposed and reconstituted as music. But the album’s centerpiece is clearly the epic length ‘The Apple Crumble Trail,’ a nearly 30-minute voyage through the inner spaces of Eastern-tinged psychedelia to the outer limits of kosmische rock. Evolving out of a primal drone, waves of shimmering organ rise and fall in a mantra of coalescing exotica, from Tibetan chants and natural sounds to metallic percussion and looping bass. Moving through successive cycles of stasis, hypnosis and pathos, it climaxes with de Kleer’s mutated guitar soaring raga-like over an ocean of sound, before decelerating into a terrestrial orbit filled with the echoing remnants of what has turned out to be a phantasmagoric astral trip.” 220-gram vinyl. Edition 500.
Sonic Messenger
(Beta Lactam Ring - mt225b) Used 2xLP $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
Dark matter squeaks and moans in wave forms, like the Doppler buzz of an armada of flying fortresses piercing through the black vacuum. A fiery comet tail of piercing Kraut flavored psych trails behind. The whistles of cosmic winds commingle with acid fury. 180-gram vinyl, heavy-duty gatefold jacket. Edition of 300.
O’er A Shalabast’r Tyde Strolt Ay
(Beta Lactam Ring) Used LP $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
Three tracks of restrained experimental cosmic electronics orbited by Ka-spel’s deepening voice.
She And Me Fall Together In Free Death
(Beta Lactam Ring - mt040b) LP $25.00
(Beta Lactam Ring - mt040b) Used CD $15.00
Six tracks from 2003, another super-freaked, avant-gone experience. Includes all the creepy, sex-vibed sounds and psyched-out grooves one would expect, plus a cover of "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair."
Used CD is third edition from 2005 with negative image cover art..
Despite The Cloak
(Beta Lactam Ring - BLR058a) Used LP $10.00 (Out-of-stock)
Aaron Moore and Nick Mott, both of Volcano The Bear, are joined by Stewart Brackley and VTB’s Daniel Padden in this dynamic use of space, noise and texture. Their improv moves from disparate, thin conversations to solid swingers, performed with brilliant drumming, strings, guitar, and more. Pressed on 220-gram vinyl (way too heavy for the thin jacket, unfortunately, which bears the evidence with creases up and down the left side). Vinyl is pristine, but we’re listing as used because of the jacket. With two color inserts. Edition of 400.
Offrendas de Luz a Los Muertos
(Beta Lactam Ring - NEGRO33) Used CD $12.50
Noise technician Power Circus slices old bones into Soriah's power electronics scrimshaw. "Sonically devastating," and comparable in its "operatic qualities" to MB, Hafler Trio and New Blockaders. Edition of 300 numbered and signed copies.
Screaming Zenith
(Beta Lactam Ring) Used 2xLP $17.50
A quivering gelatin of sinister whimsy by Eric Lumbleau of Vas Deferens Organization and Joel Zoch. Aphex-style beat sequencing rubs shoulders with Numan-esque keyboards, fuzzy Western guitars, creepy voice loops and sudden, terrifying plunges into ring-modulated, echo-chambered oblivion. Edition of 300
Tomutonttu
(Beta Lactam Ring) Used LP $10.00 (Out-of-stock)
Kemialliset Ystävät’s Jan Anderzén strips it down to the frame and blows a minimal synth breeze through it. Intriguing, beautifully lyrical and layered abstractions combine with a finely hewn composite of experimental dada electronics (à la early Die Todliche Doris or P16.D4). 220g vinyl. Edition of 300. Sealed
Guess The Birds
(Beta Lactam Ring) 10-inch $12.00
Odd vocalizations and intercom talk, snoring, electronics, Arabic overtones, vocal wailing, contemplative droning and plenty of blown, bowed, plucked and struck stuff from 2001.
Classic Erasmus Fusion
(Beta Lactam Ring - MT092a) Used 2xCD $15.00
The strange geometry in Volcano The Bear's musique concrete lurks between celestial duck honks and what sounds like a flood in the living room. Disc number one births gently into a lo-fi-adelic Comus-like saline. Song becomes fever dream and then pitches into a barren place of low estate. With typical minimalist pageantry, VTB mutates from piece to piece: melodious tales are subliminally hooky, after a fashion, spiritual and surreal; quiet ritualism queues with dada and progressive harmonies, together on the same fractured, out world, sing-along journey. Disc number two crawls slowly from the echo-y ooze, grows legs and then presents a different, more dramatic creature. A long, shifting organ drone becomes a deeply psychedelic statement that bleats loud and strong like an acid bleached Spiral Insana or a sneaky This Heat.
All The Paint I Can Breathe
(Beta Lactam Ring - MT059A) 10-inch $12.00
This 2004 selection of tracks originally appearing on Volcano The Bear’s first cassette release Vol One. (Volucan 1996) reveals the crack improv ensemble’s obsession with small sounds. Their pigment-soaked inventions are equal parts surrealist / dada sound sculptures and minimal wave / prog canvases. Gatefold sleeve with color insert. Edition of 500
Amidst The Noise And Twigs
(Beta Lactam Ring) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
This album pours slowly and resolutely like a folk-psych dream urn, loaded with full metal banjoes, crumhorns at 12 o’clock, and autoharps at DefCon 5.The experimentalism is couched in shifting tides of self-spun acidic harvest ballads that noisily well up into proto-Kraut thrums and tribal night trips around the pyre. A rural, squelchy, DIY delicacy which stinks of occidental embouchure so crystal crisp that every skkrrrr, pphaaapph and brrruuuummmm resonates like a small, sound-specific god, intertwined with beautifully skewed notes, voices and rhythms. Amidst The Noise And Twigs plays like a recently discovered field recording of an obscured Celtic clan who accidentally stumbled onto psychedelia 600 years ahead of its time. Gatefold jacket eight-page booklet. Sealed