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.”
That’s My Deathbed
(Butte County Free Music Society - BuFMS96) 3-inch CDR $4.25
For the third installment of the group’s Dumb Tangerine Dream series, Lucian Tielens extracts from underneath a waterbed in a ’70s skin flick bendy slide guitar wheem (bejeweled with a tasteful quantity of froth, and devoid of exaggerations about length), while loops of cheap electronic burble peer in through the slats in the closet door, rise to the surface and collapse in a haze of lo-fi turntable-and-toys clack-off. Cover art by id m theft able. Includes upholstery swatch courtesy of Kristin Anderson. Edition of 25
Complete Implant Solution
(Butte County Free Music Society - BuFMS94) CDR $8.00
During innumerable hours isolated from each other and the world at large, and having undertaken a variety of new hobbies (such as breathing, binge-watching Ozark and Locked Up, and scraping skin off their shoulders), Bren’t Lewiis dives into this new go-crazy with their customary zeal and willful wrong-headedness. Each individual member of the group exploits assistance from consciousness-depriving substances in order to achieve isolation from him- or herself, an endeavor both effortless and far more difficult than it seems. If nothing else, the practice affords opportunity to consider that Tiffany’s version of “I Think We’re Alone Now” is actually about getting buried alive. Likewise, the despondent wail of Lee Moses in his 1971 cover version of “California Dreamin’ ” reminds us that mere gray skies and brown leaves are nothing to worry about compared to dodging pestilent spittle huffed by joggers as they prance maskless through the opaque silver morning air of West Coast fire season. Probably imminent are dead-frog hailstorms and a slurry of pig blood and bone marrow bubbling up from storm drains. Indeed, our current era may well be remembered by those who survive it as one that not only enshrined bad, vanity-based decisions but immortalized them — from face tattoos and psychedelic dentistry to any online comments section relating to public policy — an expectation hinted at by Karen Constance’s cover art depicting a rogue Moai apparently constructed in a DIY enthusiast’s garage using raw chicken, reclaimed wood, and a kilogram’r two of hijiki congealed in rubber cement. Under a rainbow of red roses, clad in a ballgown of purple roses, the monstrous head either spews celebratory streamers from its sourdough lips and tin pupils or else passively accepts the inevitable penetration of its body by aggressively parasitic space eels. Excerpts from numerous improvised sessions where life itself was squeezed into and out of guitar, synth, turntables, tape players, theremin, radio, thrift store cassettes, and laundry baskets filled with toys and objects have been sutured together tidier than the aftermath of a shopping mall massacre. Several tracks contain grafts courtesy of back-alley amputation of the more psychotic blobs from an old-timey promotional cassette starring Ronald McDonald, while others still attempt blood transfusions served in shot glasses by Stumpo (a duet for passing train and Black Sabbath, and a duet for seagulls and the spacy part of “Whole Lotta Love”). Smart discount shoppers will spot good deals on helium mice, Waylon Jennings versus carpentry, throat crackles, Lucy N’s signature gurn, the now-ubiquitous low-bit ambience of Zoom meetings, low drollery by early ’50s wise-gal Anna Russell, corrupted fife-and-drum loops strong-armed away from slack-jawed antebellum re-enactors, a hypnotism reading, screeching bigots, operatic warbles, and Inger Nilsson croaking the theme to Pippi Långstrump at 16rpm. So here it is, another pestilence-inspired, plague-mandated black hole in which the density of withholding surpasses the atomic structure of the source impulses of the refuseniks-in-chief. Cover by Karen Constance. Includes 16pp industrial expressionist collage.
GLANDS OF EXTERNAL SECRETION / PETER KOLOVOS
Power b/w Helen Said This
(Independent Woman) 10-inch (lathe cut) $20.00
Covers of tunes by antipodean murkmeisters The Dead C by yank devotees. With insert. Edition of 30
Ludo Is Fantastic
(Hypnagogic Films - HYPNO 011) DVD $13.25
Since the early 1960s, wildman Ludo Mich has actively operated on the fringes and the fringes of the fringes of the Antwerp underground art scene. He exists inside a world of his own creation where he has produced a significant body of work across multiple disciplines including visual art, holographic sculpture, Fluxus film, performance, avant garde science and philosophy. The core of his work is always the same: a need to stay pure to his own beliefs, regardless of the consequence. His family and friends know Ludo to be full of love and generosity. Devoted fans know him as a performer who continues to surprise and astonish. But despite 50-plus years of production, Ludo remains practically unknown outside Belgium. "It is his curse to be an outlaw, always," remarks his housemate Frank. Ludo has been banned from numerous bars and cafes in his hometown due to arousing raucous happenings and incidents of nudity. In 2014, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts threatened to sue him over a performance of his that allegedly incited the audience to mishandle works from the Academy’s collection. The police have been called to his home / studio on numerous occasions by neighbors complaining about his loud, barbarous, joyful laughter. Now in his 70s, Ludo’s work continues to gain integrity as he ignores conformity, financial gain and stays one step ahead of conventional and conservative art. Stewart’s mix of archival treasures, interviews with family and friends, and fly-on-the-wall footage immerses the viewer in the Mich Dimension. Seventy minutes in English and Flemish with English subtitles. Includes card for free download of the soundtrack.
Ploughing Furrows Into Rotten Burrows
(Pan - PAN3) LP $13.50
Made up of acoustic and electronic junk sounds, Ploughing Furrows into Rotten Burrows is informed by a caustic patience and steady pacing. With a concentrated approach, Mark Durgan (Putrefier, Birthbiter label) builds tracks with loops, samples or acoustic sounds, which then become automated from the influence of the feedback generated from the electronic devices. For the past twenty years, Durgan has influenced the directions of musique concrete, improvisation, electroacoustic music, power electronics and early ’90s Japanese noise. Limited edition of 330 hand-numbered copies, pressed on 140g vinyl, jacket housed in a two-tone silkscreened PVC sleeve with interweaving geometric designs.
C-Section
(Pan - PAN9) LP $18.00
Pan’s vinyl edition of the CD (Second Layer 2010) contains all the final mixes and edits of the sessions by the British free jazz phenomenon and L.A.’s no-nonsense electronic and tape noise artist. The duo’s real-time, evolving improvisations are intended for maximum volume and have been mastered accordingly. C-Section finds density in scarcity — deep, glacial muck bubbles emerge beneath Parker's inhuman circular breathing, only to plunge into an incessant clatter of industrial landscape. Edition of 330, 140g black-and-white LP jacket in a two-tone silkscreened PVC sleeve with interweaving geometric designs. Artwork by Kathryn Politis and Bill Kouligas.