SUSAN ALCORN / CHRIS CORSANO / BILL NACE
Live at Rotunda
(Open Mouth - OM59) LP $22.50 (Out-of-stock)
Susan Alcorn on pedal steel. Drummer Chris Corsano. Guitarist Bill Nace. Cover silkscreened by Alan Sherry. Number six in Open Mouth’s Live At series. Numbered edition of 200.
The Dishwasher
(Open Mouth) LP $25.00
“Though there are separate and distinct tracks, they flow into each other organically,” explains Greg Kelley. Acoustic guitar, cymbal, tapes, voices, birds, a room, the outside world, and bow are the elements out of which the album is constructed — “not without some jagged interruptions…, but the field recording aspects (passing cars, a siren, some banter) act as a leitmotif holding things together…. As much as it doesn’t exclude the sounds of the outside world, it also lies open to interpretation. Themes recur just enough to create a connective tissue that frames some of the more seemingly disparate elements. Brief fragments of conversation invite the mind to try to understand and create its own narrative; a pizzicato, modal folksong played on guitar, then played back on tape at the end of Side A has a reprise midway through Side B…. This is not a tapestry without thread, but you’ve also got to bring some of your own.”
Partial Infinite Sequence
(Open Mouth) LP $20.00
“The tension contained in each sound on Partial Infinite Sequence is not disturbing or stressed. That kind of sound is satisfying, but too easy. Instead, it feels like that split second after you trip on the sidewalk. Your body could go in any direction, and every outcome is possible…. And yet…, [t]he tense feeling of elation lives distinctly side-by-side with a knowledge that this music is correct and fits that gap in your world that has been carved out exactly for it.” Worth comparing to Ellen Fullman’s The Long String Instrument or Charles Curtis playing Naldjorlak I, “[t]hese … special recordings [are] examples of a sensitive human being coming to a deep understanding of what they want to say with an instrument, while exposing that instrument’s essence in sound.” Edition of 250
Department of Heraldry
(Open Mouth - OM56) LP $25.50
You are more than welcome to disagree with Julia Cafritz when she says that the Sightings guitarist “has always had this really great guitar sound, only partly courtesy of all those shitty pedals he insists on using,” an option which if exercised will earn the holder a swift punch in the throat. “He’s not coming at this from a Pharoah Sanders-worshipping, free jazz-loving sensibility. Rather, I hear his home town, Detroit. Department of Heraldry is scuzzy and raw-sounding, punctuated with … utter desolation. Moments build, only to collapse again. There are even funky grooves but, of course, they fall apart. It’s fucking great.” The first volume in Open Mouth's solo guitar series. Edition of 300
Bridle Path
(Open Mouth) LP $20.00
Using a mini brute and Korg synthesizer, Truscinski ventures inward. Tones travel through effect pedals and out of speakers, filling up the solitary space with shifting waves, magnifying the energy of the ocean. Drone slabs and microtones bend and waver, slipping beneath the surface of sound. A focused void. Edition of 232