Low: Live In Chicago
(Maple Death Records - MDR005) Cassette $7.55 (Out-of-stock)
Yes, a complete cover of David Bowie’s 1977 album Low recorded live at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago. While quite faithful to the original, Disappears’ rhythm section — Noah Leger and Damon Carruesco — injects Side A with steroids: seven buzzing songs, muscular and ferocious. On the more avant-garde Side B, “Warszawa” is an intense battleground between Brian Case’s and Jonathan van Herik’s treated guitars, while “Subterraneans” swaps saxophones for Rother-esque kosmiche curlicues, and “Weeping Wall” builds to an appropriate and fearsome Berlin wall of noise. Includes download coupon.
Listen to “Breaking Glass” here: https://soundcloud.com/mapledeathrecords/disappears-breaking-glass
Underrated Glances At The Edge Of Town
(Maple Death Records - MDR012) Cassette $7.75 (Out-of-stock)
Stealing his stage name from an old sage picker encountered on a summer journey through the Albanian rocky landscape, Dominique Vaccaro now resides in Bologna where he wrote and recorded his debut for Maple Death Records, an album that wanders down the path created by Takoma and Vanguard guitar legends. A fire-in-the-belly, sweat-drenched soul, J.H. Guraj soaks in cultures from far away in order to build a new sense of home and belonging. Vaccaro’s work over the last ten years as a visual artist and electro-acoustic musician (musique concrète with analog devices and tape recorders) certainly informs his approach, but Underrated Glances At The Edge Of Town creates space and dimension solely through the use of his fingerpicking and cinematic attitude.
HAVAH / HIS ELECTRO BLUE DEATH
Havah / His Electro Blue Death
(Maple Death Records - MDR001) split LP $18.00 (Out-of-stock)
Thirty loud and gnarly minutes of blissful tension. Five cold-as-ice tracks on one side by Michele Camorani of La Quiete and Raein, who showcases some deep, deep love for Romagna‐made ’70s Lombardi amplifiers. On the flip, the Italian trio’s side-long “Tartlas” combines mind‐warping loops, death cries and venomous hatred. Artwork by Meg Remy of U.S. Girls. Includes free download.
Isolation Culture
(Maple Death Records - MDR011) LP $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
Twelve anti-hits by this tour-hardened, minimal noise-pop machine which features Jacopo Beta’s propulsive drumming, Giulia Mazza’s alien synthesizers, the commanding low thump of Nico Pasquini’s bass-playing, along with Jonathan Clancy’s trademark fidgeting guitar work and his usual stirring lyrical resolve. Isolation Culture is a record from another place: from a wormhole to a parallel universe where weathered Bowie statues pepper the abandoned city streets and Swell Maps is piped into empty runaway subway cars; maybe it’s the final psychedelic transmission from a radio station in flames, or it turned up on the lawn, delivered by an overnight tornado from somewhere that no longer exists. Curious sonic investigations, inspired compositions, late-night four-track experiments, all wrestled into its final form as succinct art-pop.
Requiescat In Plavem
(Maple Death Records - MDR004) CD $13.25 (Out-of-stock)
(Maple Death Records - MDR004) LP $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
A psychedelic country masterpiece coming from an Italian true original and one-time member of Vermillion Sands. In the hills behind Valdobbiadene, birds watched and whistled night and day during the recording of Krano’s “damaged minimal folk from Veneto” that swirls and rolls, replicating the beauty, wilderness, history and fever of the Prosecco-fueled valley. A lone rider singing about loss, love, money and friendship is the foundation here. Honky-tonk detuned pianos echo from a wine saloon. ’70s-era Neil Young-ish ballads mix with tinges of Skip Spence’s psych folk golden touch and Randy Newman’s dark humor. Acoustic and fuzz guitars, harmonica, piano, drums and bass conjure sleepy swamp devils crawling out from the river banks, venturing into murder-ballad territory, and the fury of cow-punk freaks Meat Puppets and Country Teasers. If you are coming down from a tough night and the sun starts shining through, you might catch a glimpse of Morricone’s whistling, Brian Wilson’s decaying universe, or Robbie Basho’s spiritual acoustic mystic. Liner notes by Mike Donovan of Sic Alps and Peacers.
LP includes insert and MP3 download. Listen to “Me E Ti” here: https://soundcloud.com/mapledeathrecords
Lune Spettrali
(Maple Death Records - MDR006) Cassette $7.50 (Out-of-stock)
The Weird Moons album (Castle Face 2015) on the A Side — true synthetic pop and pure lost-planet paranoid-night-calming songs by this veteran of the shadowy Los Angeles underground (White Fence, Ariel Pink, Cass McCombs). The B Side was recorded live to tape on a hot summer night in a tiny Bologna gallery hidden by one of the many porticos looming intensely in the city. Includes download coupon. C60
Stromboli
(Maple Death Records - MDR002) Cassette $8.00 (Out-of-stock)
Stromboli’s dense, ambient, propulsive opera, created over the course of two years in Bologna, hints at the harsh noise isolationist toiling over four-track tape machine, lap steel guitar and ancient analog organ. It describes boundaries and territories through drones, city-dwelling rhythms, noise landscapes and elegant melodies, defying what is traditionally associated with the ambient genre by creating a beautiful dark psychedelic rotating world. Includes free download. Edition of 100.