Deep In Ocean Sunk The Lamp Of Light
(VHF) Used LP $10.00
Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))))), Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo), and Vincent de Roguin (Shora) scratching that NWW Spiral Insana / Schulze Cyborg itch in 2006. Screen-printed jacket by Alan Sherry of SIWA. Sealed
Astral Social Club
(VHF - VHF100) CD $12.00
Selections, edits, radical re-works and remixes of tracks from Neil Campbell and Tirath Singh Nirmala’s instantly sold-out, limited edition CDRs. This dense mega-mix of continually peaking sound-flow, shimmering and throbbing in a truly psychedelic manner, works a tricky hybrid ground between contemporary UK teams like Sunroof! and Vibracathedral Orchestra, and the influence of Kompakt-style pulsating electronic techno.
MATTHEW BOWER / RICHARD YOUNGS
Site / Realm
(VHF) LP $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
Elemental guitar noise, feedback washes, bowed cymbals from 1994. Silkscreened fold-over jacket.
MATTHEW BOWER / RICHARD YOUNGS
Relayer
(VHF) Used CD $5.00 (Out-of-stock)
“A dense set of layered studio recordings from 2002 where rainbows of color and textures — string drone, percussion, bleeps, and the unidentifiable — compete in a mix devoid of the traditional “lead with backing” schema. Many tracks have the kind of welcoming electronic bed seldom heard since the demise of Harmonia, with ring modulated fuzz bleeping away over a chugging but non-oppressive beat. Elsewhere, there’s Youngs’s Riley-style organ ping-pong, a little virtuoso kalimba, thick wads of analog synth.... You know where this is going.”
DOUBLE U / GLANDS OF EXTERNAL SECRETION
Double U / Glands of External Secretion
(VHF - VHF31) 2xCD $12.00
An ambitious 30 minutes of pristine Double U klank und sturm, hailing their fjordic past while heralding their arrival at a new underwater home where mermaids play magic tubas and ghostly mariners dream of the four winds thousands of leagues above, plus a track-by-track demix of the same length, colliding the Glands’ kerflump with the Double U’s structure. Your music box will be coated with a sweet amber resin of wholly illogical proportions.
Four Aims
(VHF - VHF115) 2xLP $10.00
Mick Flower (Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof, Michael Flower Band) and Chris Corsano (Flaherty/Corsano, Jandek, Bjork, Sunburned) collaborate on a mind-boggling array of free sound. Electrifying, heavily amplified, and free-wheeling yet subtle improv, with both players using extended techniques to generate a wide range of unusual sounds.
FLYING SAUCER ATTACK / ROY MONTGOMERY
Goodbye
(VHF) Used LP $10.00
Foggy beauty by the UK gazers with the towering New Zealander who walked the line with Pin Group, Dadamah, Dissolve. Sealed
In Search Of Spaces
(VHF) Used 2xLP $20.00
First ever reissue and first time on vinyl for this unique Flying Saucer Attack live album, expanded with additional material and a new side-four mix from Jim O’Rourke. Produced in collaboration with Dave Pearce and Bruce Russell (compiler of the original CD release for his Corpus Hermeticum label), featuring new artwork by Russell as well. While known for folk-influenced songs and spacey instrumentals, the briefly active live version of FSA delivered a blistering wave of electric sound. Recorded at various shows in 1994, In Search Of Spaces heaves with long passages of feedback guitar racket, broken up by sections of surging rock music. The live band focused almost exclusively on visceral, trebly guitar noise. Includes download card. Sealed
Canticle
(VHF) Used CD $4.00
Prog rock from 2005 by Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine, draped in production tricks, vocal layers, Steve Howe-style leads, synth bleeps, and other racket in beautifully intricate arrangements.
MAKOTO KAWABATA / RICHARD YOUNGS
Makoto Kawabata / Richard Youngs
(VHF - VHF64) Used CD $5.00 (Out-of-stock)
Duets by the leader of Acid Mothers Temple and the slightly less available Glasgow librarian in a relaxed yet psychedelic mood. Throughout the five untitled tracks, simple modal melodies are performed on acoustic guitar, autoharp, organ, voice and other instruments rubbing against the swirling production and layers of shifting haze. Youngs’s identifiable voice, guitar and autoharp greet Kawabata’s echo treatments on the first track, while track three reverses the process with Youngs’s minor key picking cutting against Kawabata’s thick, visceral drones. Tracks two, four and five all use a base of fingerpicked guitar melodies, layering organ, synth, tape effects and echo.
SUNROOF / VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
Wings Over America
(VHF) Used Split CD $8.00
Eight tracks by Sunroof, a mix of archetypical drone and shimmer, and wild, jarring sampler-analog-bloop-driven action. VCO weigh in with an eclectic mix, including the delicate “Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom,” a clip from a gig at the Royal Festival Hall, and Bridget Hayden blowing up a storm on the flute. Released in 2003 in conjuction with first-ever US tour both groups. Chipboard jacket.
Cloudz
(VHF - VHF75) Used CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)
Layers of twinkling keyboard, guitar, unidentified fuzz, short wave, etc., very much in the style of Harmonia and Cluster in spots. There are a couple of amped-up moments here and there, including surprise lead guitar action on "Tornado Rose Canoe," and the excellent fuzz-grilled rock of "Primavera." According to no less of an authority than Neil Campbell, Cloudz is "the best Sunroof ever."
Eternity's Beautiful Frontispiece
(VHF) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
Using a droning electric guitar and organ in a variety of tones ranging from the excoriating to elegiac, Total envelops the listener in a haze of overtones variously evoking Indian music, machine noise, nature sounds, and monolithic power. Carefully edited and saturated with hallucinogenic juice.
Freak On!
(VHF - VHF63) Used CDR $10.00
Limited edition disc from 2002 originally made for sale at shows in UK. With “Pink Horse Sweat” and “Pillow Made Of Stereo” by Sunroof, “Worse Than Pug” by Richard Youngs, “Live in Glasgow 28 July 2000,” by Vibracathedral Orchestra. Copper folder with paste-on artwork.
Wisdom Thunderbolt
(VHF) Used CD $5.00
A rocking dispatch neatly combining the Ra-like collage of the title track with the insistent jams of the pulsing “A Natural Fact” and “Order of the Broad Eraser.” More old-school VCO thick blanket of sound are “Ochre Dust” and “Rainbow Whirlwind,” tuned-percussion melody peeking out from the fog. Music by Mick Flower, Bridget Hayden, Neil Campbell, and Adam Davenport. Guest appearances by Chris Corsano, Pete Nolan, John Godbert, and Matthew Bower.
Versatile Arab Chord Chart
(VHF) Used CD $8.00
Led by Neil Campbell’s sawing violin, tracks like “Wearing Quid Frock” and the epic “Japan Banjo” build up arcs of lingering overtones beneath an undercurrent of melody. They cut the drones with extremely effective bursts of near rock, in a style reminiscent of the Velvet Underground, circa 1966. The band’s combination of clattering percussion, droning strings, and considerable sense of where to put the “groove” on tracks like “Catching Loners With Blank Arms” makes them unique among their peers. Sealed
Pontiac Lady
(VHF) Used 3xCDR $12.00
2003 tour document with live recordings from WMBR (Cambridge MA), Ecstatic Yod / New Grass (Florence, MA), Free 103 (Brooklyn NY), Orbits (Fredericksburg, VA), Carhole (Belchertown, MA), and Khyber Pass (Philadelphia PA). Edition of 300
Dabbling With Gravity And Who You Are
(VHF) Used CD $5.00
Assembled from recordings of their weekly sessions in Michael Flower’s kitchen, the tracks here represent the joyous, celebratory side of the VCO — all forward motion, massed strings, percussion, horns, and little instruments rocketing in a swirl of sound, taking off from where the loose hippie-chant-and-drum action of collectives like Amon Düül intersects with the polygot instrumental approach of mid-’60s Sun Ra.
Joka Baya
(VHF) Used LP $12.00
Shorter pieces on the A-side in a high-fidelity style contrast the dark, smoky sound of the rest of the tracks. The percussive grooves are overlaid with Sunroof!-like shimmer, stabbing electric leads, gentle acoustic rain, and droning organ peeking through at opportune moments. The roaring side-long epic on the flip is a droning, phasing slice of psychedelia with the drums of Sunburned Hand’s John Moloney battering the tape in between long stretches of humming stasis.
Secret Base
(VHF) Used LP $12.00
Full throttle, straight into a raw-sounding live outing, with Mick Flower’s overdriven guitar occupying the same sonic space that gives his Japan banjo / shaahi baaja workouts with Chris Corsano their urgency. The sound is dark and rough, almost Xpressway-like in its claustrophobic atmosphere. The percolating krautrock stylings of “If You Can’t Smoke ’Em” chugs along hypnotically for over 13 minutes to close out the side. The entire B-side is devoted to the clanging free sound of “Eyes of Wood,” where gamelan-like metal percussion dominates.
Smoke Song
(VHF) Used LP $12.00
Gentle exposition starts with Adam Davenport’s santoor (a type of hammered dulcimer) leading the band into a lengthy mid-tempo groove. The second side’s 17-minute “Get It?” lays down the tremolo and phase in a manner reminiscent of the best Spacemen 3 comedowns, taking a pulse and riding it into organ- and percussion-fueled bliss.
The Queen Of Guess
(VHF) Used CD $6.00
Immense, visceral, rackety, upbeat and percussive, the nine tracks here run through a wide range of styles. “The Slient Socket” has a gamelan-like five-note melody overlaid with a hovering drone. “Magnetic Burn” is the band at its most rock, with “Sister Ray”-style guitar careening along side actual drums. The two twenty-minute epics that bookend the record are a study in contrasts: “Ramshackle Sunrise” has the heavy and excited buzz of the group’s frequent and unpredictable live shows, while the closing “Goodnight Stars Goodnight Air” is a gentler acoustic epilogue, gliding into the rosy future.
SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH / RICHARD YOUNGS
5 Years
(VHF) Used CD $8.00
Five ten-minute tracks recorded a year apart, all of which reflect the duo’s long-established signature mix of “real human” instrumental expression and explosive musique concrète sensibility. “2002” starts with several minutes of looped snippets building up subtle patterns as they slide in and out of phase, changing to a tremulous chord organ driven section. “2003” starts with a drastically filtered base of hand drumming, with full-on hand-on-the-knob tweaking, before giving way to an over the top fuzz organ solo that sounds like Mike Ratledge on 200 rpm. “2004” is a throwback of ululating Metallic-Sonatas-era noise. “2005” is based on electronically treated percussion, the sparest and most minimal track of the bunch. “2006” finishes where we started, with a baffling electronic test pattern drone that segues into a section of beautiful, weird ambience. Sealed
SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH / RICHARD YOUNGS
Red And Blue Bear
(VHF) Used CD $3.00
A simple, charming children’s story (included in the 20-page color booklet) written, illustrated and, on the CD, performed by R!&S! Anglo-folky laments, bizarre improv, Casio madness, found sounds.
Butterfly Dust
(VHF) Used CD $8.00
A strikingly intimate solo performance on organ, voice, Peruvian reed, and Dijeridu, combining virtuosity and exploratory improvisation in gorgeous Australian dronescapes.
Chewyfoot
(VHF) Used LP $7.00
In the style of Wire or Swell Maps, this mid-’90s debut splits devices such as verses and choruses into prickly shards of lyrical sound. Inventive, angular, occasionally angry, and yet possessing an offhand “catchy” charm that so many bands work hard to possess but can’t.” Paste-on art, rubber-stamped with silkscreen poster.
Half Past I’ve Got
(VHF) Used 2x7-inch $3.00 (Out-of-stock)
“A semi-coherent half-hour of head-bobbing angularitites, acoustic balladry with what sounds like dishwashing in the background, a Sun City Girls favorite, and hysterical self-indulgence.” Paper bag jacket with block print front and paste-on back. From 1992