Buried In Sounds

Natural Snow Buildings - Shadow Kingdom Disc 2xCD / 3xLP [Blackest Rainbow] [2009]

2009-10-05T06:59:00.001-07:00

Natural Snow Buildings is a duo from France, consisting of artists Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte. They play music which can be classified as experimental psychedelic folk with drone elements and ambient influences. Formed in 1997, they released numerous albums, many of them in extremely limited quantities. Double album The Dance of the Moon and the Sun is their most popular work so far, ranked on Rate Your Music as the third best album of 2006.

Both members of Natural Snow Buildings release music also as solo artists: Mehdi Ameziane as TwinSisterMoon and Solange Gularte as Isengrind.

Wikipedia

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Evan Caminiti - Psychic Mud Shrine [Digitalis ACE029] [2009]

2009-10-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

ace029: evan caminiti "psychic mud shrine" CD $13
For my money, Barn Owl is the best new band to emerge in the last five years. Their trajectory has been meteoric, progressing musically and conceptually in leaps and bounds. I've been thrilled to be there from the beginning, watching and listening in awe as the duo of Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti have carved out an impressive niche of their own. Heavy doses of guitar savagery and tribal essence have them firmly planted at the top of the mountain. So it makes sense to deconstruct the duo and present each as a solo entity, soaring on their own.

In a perfect world, Evan Caminiti would be a guitar god worshipped by hordes of spike-wearing metalheads. Seriously. Caminiti's newest solo offering (and first large-scale release) is a big, smoldering mass of guitar sacrifices. We're deep down in the hollows now. "Psychic Mud Shrine" is epic in every way. Thick, massive walls of lava-flow guitars bow down at an altar of excess. Caminiti creates jagged drones like no other. Distorted guitars sound simultaneously tortured and energized like it's unsure if this hell on earth brings pleasure or pain. It's just so fucking massive. With titles like "Melting Temple/Plumes of Babylon," you know what direction this is heading and it's a train you don't want to miss.

"Psychic Mud Shrine" is a powerful statement from an artist coming into his own. Over the course of four sprawling masterpieces, you'll be entranced and exalted. This album rings out from the deep valleys carved straight to the fucking core.

Edition of 500 in gatefold jackets with all art designed by Caminiti.

tracklist:
1. frozen plains
2. melting temple/plumes of babylon (excerpt)
3. midnight's road
4. kcalb egdol

listen to "midnight's road" on this digitalis podcast HERE

Try - Link Removed Per Request

Elm - Nemcatacoa [Digitalis ACE028] [2009]

2009-10-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

ace028: elm "nemcatacoa" CD $13

For my money, Barn Owl is the best new band to emerge in the last five years. Their trajectory has been meteoric, progressing musically and conceptually in leaps and bounds. I've been thrilled to be there from the beginning, watching and listening in awe as the duo of Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti have carved out an impressive niche of their own. Heavy doses of guitar savagery and tribal essence have them firmly planted at the top of the mountain. So it makes sense to deconstruct the duo and present each as a solo entity, soaring on their own.

Elm is the name of Porras' solo creations. His music retains the megasonics of Barn Owl, but finds his tutelage deep in the heart of the desert. "Nemcatacoa" is a lonesome, epic journey. Named after one of the deities of his Colombian heritage, his latest full-length (and first large-scale solo release) feels huge and endless. Walls of guitars shatter beneath the weight of the booming percussion blasts that find their way from the caves into the light. An acoustic guitar is mournfully plucked, the beginning of a procession of the dead. "Nemcatacoa" is an album begging for somebody, anybody to find and embrace.

Porras is a master artist. The instrumentation at work here is even more impressive when you consider it's played by a lone soul. Guitars, Rhodes, Harmonium, Trumpet and more echo through the caverns of the ancient Earth. Even though this album is dark and at times bleak, it never overpowers. Traversing similar aural planes as Sunn O))) and Earth, Porras is staking a claim all his own. As his voice wails over blankets of guitars, he never loses sight of the golden life ahead. Incredible.

Edition of 500 CDs in silver-on-black gatefold sleeves.

tracklist:
1. nemcatacoa (audio)
2. in the shadow of red rock
3. silver dust in moonlight
4. arc of wisdom
5. sacrament at dusk
6. breath of midnight still (audio)
7. covered in blankets & moss
8. three rings drawn in sand
9. mirage at the devil's playground

http://www.digitalisindustries.com/ace028.html

Try - Link Removed Per Request

Mike Tamburo and Ken Camden\Of Meisha [3'' CDR] [New American Folk Hero NAFH7]

2009-06-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

[NAFH7] MIKE TAMBURO & KEN CAMDEN - Of Meisha 3"

Reissued, Re-edited and Remastered, this long out of print recording features Ken and Mike together in one of the most reverberant rooms imaginable. Subtle interplay and beautiful ecstatic guitar drones. A very welcome addition to the world of Meisha.

Here is one by request.

This release can be purchased at:
http://www.myspace.com/newamericanfolkhero

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Eskimo King - Tooth-Shaped Migration [CDR] [Our Mouth Records #11] [2006]

2008-06-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

Review from Andrew Meehan on Foxy/Digitalis:
http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=1791

Though their discography is still a jungle all its own, the Mouthus duo did catch the entrepreneurial spirit that pervades absolutely through the noise community. Mouthus recently formed their own private press label, Our Mouth, to showcase the band’s latest LPs, as well as related side projects – recently Afternoon Penis and Eskimo King. Yea, this build-your-own ethic is causing quite the flood of releases, but Mouthus isn’t inclined to release every key scrape that hits the tape. So far, Our Mouth has served to treat fans to the band’s fully-baked experiments.

This summer, Brian Sullivan, the axe-wielding Shiva and circuit bender of the duo, made his first release under the moniker of Eskimo King. His first CDR, “Tooth Shaped Migration,” is a veritable short-player, not even hitting the 18 minute mark. That’s quite prudent for a dude that I’ve seen shred a guitar live for damn near a half hour. But as Eskimo King, we are treated to the echoes of a somber and contemplative mind.

Track two begins with some all too familiar grime-drone, hinting of amateurishness, but it soon develops into a transfixing psych-drawl underscored by the percussiveness of a rattling cage and Sullivan’s bleak yet empathetic chants. The following track (all tracks are untitled) is a stunning work of understatement. Rhythmic, mesmerizing, and subdued stomps sound in the background. They sound like tufts of air released by some distant explosions. And then Sullivan’s tense guitar picking enters the track; he plugs a few chords, letting the vibrations of the last note resonate before he plays another set. It’s quite a devastating track, one that I hoped would extended beyond its playing time.

And that’s one problem I had with “Tooth Shaped Migration”: the length of the tracks. Though I’m cautious to criticize an experimental guitar player for brevity, the third and fifth tracks would have benefited from some extra roominess. Still, the restraints of Eskimo King are sometimes laudable. Listen to track two, and then imagine (hating it) if it went on for another three minutes.

Track 5 raids the depths of your headspace before slowly, slowly erupting into the foreground. This is some DEEP tissue massage. Two minutes in, and you are treated to the harmonies of a mouth harp and lifting, layered hums that swirl into some soft aural pillow. Ack! Why did they have to yank it away so soon?

Five songs in, and the disc comes to an abrupt close. I guess I’ll just have to put it on repeat. 7/10
Andrew Meehan (18 September, 2006)

Tracklisting:
1. My 2nd Magnet (1:38)
2. Pinewood Derby (4:19)
3. Ran From Ice (3:18)
4. Bear, Un-Bear (4:59)
5. Take It To The Bus Line (3:08)

Buried N. Sounds gives this album 3 thumbs up!

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Tender Buttons - Tender Buttons [CDR] [Foxglove 174] [2007]

2008-06-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

From the Digitalis/Foxglove website:
http://www.foxydigitalis.com/fg173.html

what do you get when three danes (2 girls and 1 guy) take a trip to sweden with a tape recording, a guitar, and a few other instruments? you get tender buttons. this trio features three members of the exquisite pink luminous invocation, and this one-off project is quite special.tender buttons is named after gertrude stein's impressive book of the same name, and if that wasn't enough, the lyrics are all adapted from her writing. it's a deadly combination and though this release is short, the brevity makes you want to play it over and over again. simple folk melodies complemented with mouth organ, percussion, and other random instruments, and highlighted by (mostly) female vocals. lovely indeed. 100 copies

It appears this album is still available from Digitalis/Foxglove. Support the label and these artists by picking up a copy once you hear this and it seeps into your soul!

From the Cat Box Corp website:
http://www.thecatboxcorp.dk/tenderbuttons.html

Tender Buttons was a one-off - "let's go to Sweden and make a folk record!" - and so it was... Tanja Jessen, Marie A Jensen and yours truly traveling to a litlle cabbin out in the woods with instruments, a 4-track, an old echo-unit and some poems by Gertrude Stein for inspiration. On the second day the 4-track broke, and then we moved into the wood with a mini-disc instead. A limited edition 2x3"-cdr housed in a handmade cover with lino-cut prints was the result. Later we made a track for a forthcomming compilation on BSBTA of covers of songs by David Neuer, called Anybody's Anthems: a Tribute to David Neuer's "Mr. Anybody's Anthems", and that's more or less it. The 2x3" is currently out of print, though it might still be locatable at Sound Station, but a new, criticaly revised and wisely condensed, single (5") cdr version is out on foxglove now. And as for new music...who knows? All of Tender Buttons are currently working together in Pink Luminous Invocation along other projects, but one day we might travel to Sweden again... MK

Tracklisting:
1. A Petticoat / Cold Climate (2:45)
2. A Shallow Rose
3. A Waist
4. Cranberries / It Was Black Book Took
5. A Shave
6. Instrumental
7. Nothing Elegant

Sung, played & recorded by Tender Buttons in the living room and backyard of Eriks little red house, and out in the surrounding Swedish woods, 5-9 July 2004

Marie Helgasjon - Vocals, Melodica
Tanja Helgasjon - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Marc Helgasjon - Tin Flute, Percussion, Blues Harp, Backing Vox

Absolutely haunting & beautiful forest folk. If you enjoy Fursaxa, Christina Carter, Inca Ore, etc... you will love this album - Buried N. Sounds

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Wovoka - Paiste De [CDR] [Holy Room Recordings 003] [2007]

2008-06-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

Aquarius records review:

The return of psychedelic drugfolk alchemists Wovoka. We heavily dug their last disc, and this one is more of the same. A super tripped out, blissy drone-y raga like buzz, drifting through some Autumnal wonderland, the sky full of falling orange leaves, the ground muddy and moist, the sky a burnt copper, the wind warm and smelling of smoke and burning wood. And on the wind drifts a lazily unfurling web of skeletal acoustic guitar strum, little bits of muted guitar leads, silvery strands of banjo, lots of warm warble and tape hiss. It's not until a few tracks in that the band begins to rock, hand drums, electric guitar, some wailing psych leads, but even at their rockiest, these guys are still laid back and stoned, drifting and swaying, letting night fall on their campfire jams. Looped and cyclical, dreamlike and mesmerizing, the strummed steel strings and the sporadic bongo drums turning everything into some warped alien drum circle. You can almost envision this wandering tribe of buzz-and-strum minstrels wandering through some dark Finnish forest, where they stumble upon Avarus or Anaksimandros, who of course welcome them with open arms, for once having heard the sounds coming from the woods, they knew it must be like minded spirits. Who else but musical brethren could be making such hazy, fuzzy, dreamy, druggy forestfolk...No Neck, Sunburned, Tower Recordings, Avarus, you know you the names, add Wovoka to the list if you haven't already....

LIMITED TO 199 COPIES. Already sold out, we seem to have the very last copies. Packaged in a super thick old fashioned mini-lp stylee gatefold sleeve, with the pasted on inside image, and pressed on faux-vinyl cd-r's (complete with inside label and fake grooves!).

MPEG Stream: "Octopus Latitudes"
MPEG Stream: "Knotty Pine Rag"

Get some other Wovoka albums from the magnificent "Grown So Ugly"
Wovoka on MySpace

It appears that Aquarius still has some copies. Use the links under Mail Order to the right and go get one before these disappear forever! Highly recommended!

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Mudsuckers - Self-Titled [CD] [Important Imprec 104] [2007]

2008-06-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

From the Important Records website:
http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec104_release_page.htm

Swamp noise drone. Feedback is layered like mud on the carcass of song structure. Robert uses primitive cassette manipulation as well as digital processing to thicken the sound into a swamp. Think Credence Clearwater Revival without the one chord they knew. On three of the songs, Pete uses his analog reel-to-reel wall-of-sound processing apparatus. Longjaw Mudsuckers was inspired by a mid-eighties cassette where Merzbow mixed John Hudak’s nature sounds into a screaming mass of sonic debris. Robert recorded a stream after the huge New Year’s Day storm and Pete plugged it into his system, making it sound at times like a stream, an ocean, and robots whispering mechanical secrets.

This CD contains some of the first recordings of Tom Carter’s circuit bending. Individual attributes of Gabe Mindel’s guitar roar, Tom Carter’s ebow laptop whirl, and Horton’s clanky homemades merge into the mud stew. Driving the swirl are samples of boogie woogie piano, riffs from the session, and pounding drums of guests Michael Donnelly and Doug “Moonshine” Jin. The last number, SWEET, conjures the bar room sound of Kansas City, 1920, but recorded inside a thermonuclear reactor. The sounds created are so raw and tormented it’s hard to believe they were having a good time. Must have something to do with the times, the war and the general vacuity of that season’s holidays.

How did these recordings happen? During the torrential rains of December 2005, caused by global warming, Robert Horton invited Tom Carter, Gabe and Pete of the Yellow Swans, and Glenn Donaldson up the hill to his home in El Cerrito for food, drink, and music-making. As it turned out, Pete and Glenn couldn’t make it, so Gabe, Tom, and Robert vibrated the peaceful El Cerrito neighborhood to mud. We had beer, wine and much feedback. The turbulence of the sounds matched the late December weather. The following week when Pete came over to overdub his sounds, Robert had found an article on mudsuckers in the Berkeley Daily Planet. The headline was “Mudsuckers may be ugly, but they have value.” A band was born.

A mudsucker is a fish that’s mostly a mouth, which spends its whole life on one patch of mudflat. Scientists use these fish to monitor carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, and other toxic chemicals in coastal waters. The group’s name as well as some of the song titles were taken from this article. The second song, Here Come the Mud Dragons was a phrase spoken by three kids splashing in the mud in a local park. Another song Electric Sunflower, was named by Glenn Donaldson in an email explaining why he couldn’t be at the session.

MP3
Endocrine Disruptors

Tracklisting
1. Endocrine Disrupters (17:35)
2. Here Come The Mud Dragons (9:09)
3. Longjaw Mudsuckers (11:07)
4. Electric Sunflower (6:06)
5. Sweet (16:41)

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Ayuo-Ohta Hiromi - Red Moon [Tzadik 7246] [2004]

2008-06-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

From the Tzadik website:
http://www.tzadik.com/

Ayuo is one of Japan’s great originals, having walked his own unusual path for over twenty years. His second CD for Tzadik is a charming and hypnotic collaboration with one of Japan’s most beautiful vocalists, pop star Ohta Hiromi. Touching upon various world music traditions, beautiful folk ballads and psychedelic raves, Red Moon is a lush and seductive collection of contemporary song.

Personnel:

Ayuo: Sitar-guitar, Guitars, Electric Bass, Electric "wah-wah" Guitar, Vocals, B4 Organ, Whistles, Guitar-bass, Drum Machine Programming, Percussion, Celtic Harp, Bouzouki, Loops, Sound Effects
Ohta Hiromi: Vocals, Ukulele
Ohta Keisuke: Violin
Ma-To: Tabla
Nonaka Masa Yuichi: Drums

Tracklisting:

1. Tsuki to Mizu (Moon and Water)
2. Yume Utsutsu (Dreaming Away)
3. Takeda no Komori uta (Takeda Lullaby)
4. Haru no Yume (Spring Dream)
5. One Step Further
6. Niwa no Chigusa (A Thousand Different Grasses in the Garden)
7. Yoru wo Koete (Beyond the Night)

Time it once was that
Ohta spit 'moonlit waters'
and Ayuo felt all

- Buried N. Sounds

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Arkpetrel - Arkpetrel [CDR] [Stunned Bonus Release #2] [2008]

2008-06-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

From the Stunned Records website:
http://www.stunnedrecords.blogspot.com/

Arkpetrel — EP (Stunned bonus #2)
The rare collaborative energies of NW blood bros. Phil & John compiled after two separate winter break recording sessions 05/06. Hazy forest meanderings and attic raga, popping off weird lines and stream of consciousness acoustic cycles. Lots of love and laze in this one.
Ltd. 30 handnumbered copies in etched tissue paper with insert.

Unfortunately this one is out-of-stock.

Lo-fi hazy post-apocolyptic psych-folk! Highly recommended!

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Ala Muerte - Max Bondi - Saturday [3'' CDR] [Public Guilt PGL005] [2007].zip

2008-06-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

From the Public Guilt website:
http://www.publicguilt.com/pgl5.php

Ala Muerte & Max Bondi - Saturday 3" CDr

Queens, NY diva (and Destructo Swarmbots guitarist/vocalist) Bianca Ala Muerte teams up with London's Max Bondi for six tracks of "beautiful sadness." A dynamic melding of ethereal vocals, pulsating drones, delicate melodies, and harsh dissonance all put together without having met each other. These tiny songs will fit perfectly in your oversized head.

This limited release for PG is a one time pressing of 100 sale copies, 10 promotional copies. Packaging is a 3 color silkscreen, 3 panel trifold with hand rubber stamping by Bianca!

"I'll be shocked if this doesn't incur at least a minimal buzz from fans of ultra-blissful, metallic shoegazery. The vocals sound almost wordless, breathy male and female voices lilting over sometimes folky guitar strum, a fragile swirl of beautiful circular arpeggios and angelic throats swimming in ephemeral electronic FX, and when they build into the crashing walls of massive distorted riffage and overdriven noise, it's some of the heaviest, most exquisitely beautiful music I've ever heard." - CrucialBlast.net

"...a glistening, sublime world of subtly processed steel string buzz, breathless drift, and occasional bursts of fuzzy softpsych buzz. - Aquarius Records

"...haunting, elliptical drone rock that's heavy on repetition and melancholy moods... Their sound is at once minimalist and vast, with endlessly-repeated melodic phrases enveloped in ambient sound that is often dissonant in nature...an uneasy balance between airy folkiness and ominous, bad-trip psychedelia... Unsettling, psychotronic stuff that's alluring and disturbing at the same time." - Dead Angel

Track Listing

1. What if I just Stayed on the Train? 1:50
2. Still 6:46
3. Yellow Paper 5:02
4. Staring At Orion 1:39
5. Hiding in a Tiny Place 3:33
6. PSR 2:14

Highly recommended!

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Eureka - Trench [3'' CDR] [Stunned Bonus Release #3] [2008]

2008-06-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

Eureka is guitar player William Giacchi of Magic Lantern whose Self-Titled album "Eureka" was the initial release on the newly formed, mind-bendingly , quickly-make-me-forget-other-would-be-micro-labels Stunned Records run by the lightning fast (you click the PayPal button and its in your filthy ears before Obama/McCain mention the word "change") Mr Phil French. Well this isn't that initial release. Instead it is the 'sold out in the twinkling of an eye' bonus disc that shipped with this months new Stunned goodies which are still available here:

Sleepwalkers Local — Better Living Through Science (Stunned no. 8)
Super Minerals — The Pelagics (Stunned no. 7) — final copies! —

Buy them or die of thirst under a hot biased sun!
Support! Support! Support!

Many thanks to Phil and Stunned Records for giving me the green light to upload this one. Let me know if there is anything else I should mention about this release!

From the Stunned Website/Blogue:

Eureka — Trench 3" cdr (Stunned bonus #3) —out of stock—

Recorded in the dark back in summer 06 and seeing light for the first time here two years later, Trench is an uncompromising document of amp violence, stumbling drums, and indeterminate guitar determinism by our magical man William. A werewolf gropes his way back to bed with a mashed Marlboro. Sometimes life’s a trench, dudes. Ltd. 30 copies in polyvinyl sleeve with color art.

Tracklisting

1. Untitled 12:54
2. Untitled 5:39
3. Untitled 3:05

The first, and my favorite track, begins with a very short percussive intro leading to some strange bizarre unintelligible vocals/chants before the 25 second mark when it blasts into some manic mangled shrieking guitars/electronics and background percussion...this is pure ear bleeding noise...a rain dance or virgin alien sacrifice me thinks....around the the 2:30 mark the manic percussion fades and it settles into a ritualist slow-burning rhythm much calmer then the beginning...picture a trail of ants all psychomatically linked hypnotized by queen commands...another turn around the 5:30 mark when the tribal percussion reenters...perhaps the ants are increasing their pace? is a nearby colony threatening? around 7:30 another shift as the percussion drops away and now its sheer power, dominance & anger...heavy reverberating and shifting sounds fill both ears; the tension builds most certainly but for what its not yet clear....the tension rises, more aggression, rising, rising...a tidal wave of distortion...it pulls me down & under, tugging & tumbling, gasping for air and then the ultimate peace

- Buried N. Sounds

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Big Blood - Space Gallery Jan. 27, 2007 & Sahara Club Jan. 28, 2007 [CDR] [Dontrustheruin #005] [2007]

2008-06-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Big Blood,
the phantom four piece of Asian Mae, Caleb Mulkerin, Rose Philistine and Colleen Kinsella perform only as a duo. An intimately willing team walking blind through each other's songs presenting one of a kind recordings tailor-made to the night's performance.

is Rose Philistine, Colleen Kinsella, Caleb Mulkerin, & Asian Mae

Track Titles:

01 Glory Daze
02 The Rise of Quinnisa Rose
03 A Troublesome Lot I
04 Shrining Light
05 She Said Nothing
06 A Hole in One
07 Don't Trust the Ruin
08 A Troublesome Lot II
09 Sequins

All songs were written and recorded through various form at home except "Sequins" written by Alex Lukashevsky for Earbait #2.

This is dedicated to Gail Mulkerin and Christopher James Kinsella

Many Big Blood related releases can be purchased here http://www.northeastindie.com/bigblood.htm.

Also look for related projects by:

1. Micah Blue Smaldone
2. Fire on Fire
3. Cerberus Shoal
4. Asian Mae

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Axolotl - Memory Theater [CD] [Important Imprec 120] [2007]

2008-06-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

Note: This is an Axolotl not the album cover fool!

From the Important Records website:
http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec120_release_page.htm

Memory Theater is an absolutely essential collection of the best of Axolotl's out of print cdrs and vinyl only releases. Karl Bauer spent quite a bit of time collaborating with acclaimed members of the noise underground before heading off on his own as Axolotl. In the last couple of years Axolotl have released numerous cd, cdr and vinyl releases many of which quickly went out of print and started demanding some serious coin on ebay. Memory Theater collects the best of these out of print releases into one convenient package designed by Karl Bauer.

MP3 Samples

Chemical Theater
Oranur

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=10801430

If you like this Axolotl release the following are still available on Karl's Loci label:

Loci 1 - Axolotl "Trade Ye No Mere Moneyed Art"
Winter 2007 tour cdr. 6 tracks.

Loci 2 - Axolotl and Weyes Bluhd "Sciamacy"
First collaboration between Axolotl and Weyes Bluhd,recorded in Philadelphia 2007. Made for our Winter2007 tour. 2 tracks.

Loci 3 - Axolotl "Live" 7
Live tracks taken from 2007 performances in Europe and California.

These are available from the usual suspects Fusetron, Volcanic Tongue and Tomentosa

Buy them or die.

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Part 1
Part 2

Alumbrados - Generation of Vipers [CD] [Important Imprec 102] [2006]

2008-06-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

From http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec102_release_page.htm

Much different than the lumbering jams of Alasehir are the drenched ethno-drones of Alumbrado. Featuring Bardo Pond's John & Michael Gibbons on guitar, sitar, cumbas and various percussive instruments as well as Michael Zanghi and Aaron Igler with additional electronics and percussion. Alumbrados is a beautiful, rhythmic and tremendously arranged psychedelic experience.

“Alumbrados investigations are as thorough and as reliable as researches by material scientists, but not as easily demonstrable to the general public. Spiritual powers lie dormant within every human being, and when awakened, they compensate for both telescope and microscope, they enable their possessor to investigate, instanter, things beyond the veil of matter, but they are only developed by a patient application and continuance in well doing extended over years, and few are they who have faith to start upon the path to attainment to perseverance to go through with the ordeal. “ Michael Gibbons

Release Notes

Find.Your.Own.Third.Bardo!

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Almaden - The Dream Continues in 1,000,000 Roads [CDR] [267 Lattajjaa LTJ-63] [2007]

2008-06-02T17:21:00.000-07:00

From the 267 Lattajjaa website:
http://www.dlc.fi/~hhaahti/267lattajjaa/ltj-63.htm

Tracklisting:
--------------------------------------------------------------------

1. buffalo and daughter (13:05)
2. black swan (3:56)
3. buffalo forever (4:32)
4. prayers for fingers (4:28)
5. goodbye boat, hello star (7:34)
6. kill me again (3:22)
7. paean: kitteridge sam (5:13)
8. north country queen (4:01)
9. song of sorrow (3:56)
10. the golden road (5:24)
11. dan kubiek's dream (1:33)
12. white shroud (3:56)

Starry cowboy acid folk, released 29.8.2007.

~ Lyrics ~

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Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Shining Skull Breath [CDR] [Students of Decay SOD-40] [2007]

2008-05-30T17:11:00.001-07:00

First here is a description of the Yoga breathing technique Skull Shining Breath for which the album is named.

http://www.yoga.net.au/kapalabhati_breathing

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is both a member of Tarentel and the head-cheese and late night curator of the tiny but impressionable Root Strata label.

He has also done several projects with Super 8 mm film-maker Paul Clipson. Here is a portion of a film entitled Micro-Insect Cinema: Moth & Moon that was shown in full at The Exploratorium in San Francisco on March 15, 2008:

Micro-Insect Cinema: Moth & Moon by Paul Clipson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma

An experimental visual menagerie of insects, arachnids and minute arthropod life, seen through images and sounds of curiosity and contemplation. In the stillness of a pond or forest, a steady record of unknowable activity is repeated in variation, within terrestrial and aquatic environments by a myriad of tiny beings, as silence and sound, darkness and light, surrounds. Paul Clipson works with Super-8 film, capturing lush colors, reflections, and movements of natural landscape, in collaboration with sound artist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, to create "a journey into nature, via music, sound and image, within the intimate immensity of a daydream."

The complete film was shown at the Exploratorium on March 15, 2008. http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Well enough background. Here is the description of the album from the Students of Decay website.
http://www.studentsofdecay.com/SoD40.htm

SoD-40
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - "Shining Skull Breath"
Audio Clip

"Shining Skull Breath" documents the latest solo recordings by RootStrata label head and founding Tarentel member Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Those familiar with Jefre's recent solo outings, such as "The Garden of Forking Paths" and"Floating Weeds," will recognize the stunning, wistful, barely-there melodies which abound on those albums. However, this time around these slow orbits of somber, evocative tone are submerged in boiling vats of molten fuzz and static making for an increasingly dynamic and bewitching listen. This truly is brilliant, potent, deep listening of the highest order.

5'' cdr
(ltd. 100)

SOLD OUT

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Burnt Hills - Cloud Nine [CDR] [Tape Drift TD03] [2007]

2008-05-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

From the Tape Drift website

http://www.tapedrift.com/

Burnt Hills "Cloud Nine" cdr (TD03)

The latest missive from our intrepid heroes from the wilds of Albany, NY. Easily their loudest and most PURE assault on the senses yet. Wild, wooly, and singular-minded in its pursuit of psychedelic Krautrock-inspired oblivion. We can't say it any better than the good folks at Aquarius: "Another glorious blast of blown out bong smoke free rock dope jams the way only these Burnt Hills cats can do it... Burnt Hills, on this particular evening in May of 2007 consisted of NINE members, seven guitars, five drummers, one bass, folks obviously swapping back and forth, and it sounds like it. A super fluid, chaotic confluence of sound. Like some lost subterranean Crash Worship Drum jam wrapped in thick sheets of Haino-like guitar skree, everything enveloped in thick clouds of smoky FX, like some musical opium den. The bass and the guitars are thick and slippery, swooping amidst the relentless percussion, and the wild squalls of psychedelic freakout. At times it almost sounds like some DJ rocking multiple turntables, playing several different No Neck and Sunburned Hand records as the same time, a blurry, drugged out free folk tribal mash up... Awesome." Boa Melody Bar says "Bruising 4 drummer / 7 guitars outsider rock that prowls with malevolent intent and gathering hurricane-like intensity." Volcanic Tongue says "Heavy Dead C/Trapdoor feel to the latest album by this cultic American guitar army". Read more full reviews of this essential slab on Auxiliary Out and Foxy Digitalis.

Tape Drift is a record label run by Eric Hardiman 1/2 of the amazing Century Plants from Albany, NY. They currently have a lot of great music looking for a good home. I would recommend any of these which can be picked up here http://www.tapedrift.com/:

Century Plants "Sound System Sound" cdr (TD01
Burnt Soil - s/t (TD05)
Fossils From the Sun - "From Another Sun" (TD06)

Other Century Plants releases out right now (and still available):

Century Plants - "Bloodrise" - Peasant Magik
Century Plants - "Fingers" cd-r - Phantom Limb

Here is an interesting interview with Ray Hare and Eric Hardiman
http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/features.php?which=300

Tribal skull-bending turn up the volume and melt mind-fuck!
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Tau Emerald - Travellers Two [CD] [Important Imprec 172] [2008]

2008-05-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

From the Important Records Website
http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec172_release_page.htm

Travellers Two is a full length recording from the duo of Tara Burke (Fursaxa) and Sharron Kraus. Togerther Kraus & Burke create an ethereal record of dark-folk magic. Tara Burke and Sharron Kraus were due to travel to Finland together for a week but missed the flight, so instead they decided to spend the week recording together and Travellers Two is the result. The time was spent out in the fields, visiting burial mounds, and then coming back to Sharron's home studio to work. They had played previously together and done some recording but this is the first time an album was conceived.

Fursaxa is Tara Burke. Formerly a member of the Silbreeze band UN, Tara started her Fursaxa project in 1999 after UN disbanded. After being a long time resident of Philadelphia, Tara decided to leave the "city of brotherly love" for the touring life. So from April 2005-April 2006 she toured extensively throughout the UK, the USA, and Europe with friends and fellow musicians Jack Rose, Sharron Kraus, Alexander Tucker, Christina Carter, Marcia Bassett, and the Spires that in the Sunset rise, to name a few. For her live performances she uses mostly looped vocals, flutes, and percussion, a casio keyboard, guitar, and mandolin, in an attempt to transport her audience into the ethereal realms. On her forthcoming album Alone in the Dark Wood she employs a myriad of instruments such as mandolin, guitar, violin, banjo, balalaika, organ, bells,, flute, percussion, and voice. This album was recorded and mixed in Finland and Pennsylvania.

Tara has recently been collaborating with several other musicians. Espers member Helena Espvall and Tara have a duo called Anahita, and in 2006 released Arcana en Cantos on the Deserted Village label from Ireland. They are currently working on their second release. Currently, Fursaxa is playing and recording her music in the rural hills of Pennsylvania.

Sharron Kraus is a singer/musician/songwriter who creates music rooted in the folk traditions of England and Appalachia. Her work is characterized by soil-rich vocals, haunting banjo, fine acoustic guitar and visionary wordcraft. Her songs are populated by a carnival array of fatally charismatic characters, telling tales of enslavement, perversion, incest, obsession, love and death. Sharron’s live performances are stark, compelling, and delicate. As with her music, her performance continues the tradition of the balladeer. She is like the roving storyteller, bringing tales of terror, sadness and joy to a stranger’s hearth on a dark and stormy night.Sharron’s debut album Beautiful Twisted was released by Australian psych label Camera Obscura in 2002 and received rave reviews around the world. It was listed in Rolling Stone Magazine’s Critics’ Top Albums of 2002. After touring with US psychedelic folk band The Iditarod, she collaborated with them on an album of wintry songs and soundscapes entitled Yuletide and released by avant/experimental label Elsie and Jack in 2003

Sharron’s second solo album, Songs of Love and Loss, was recorded at home in Oxford and at Dungeon Studios in the Cotswolds. The album features Jane Griffiths on fiddle and viola, Jon Fletcher on harmonica and occasional guitar, banjo and vocals, Colin Fletcher on bass, as well as BBC Folk Award-winning fiddler Jon Boden and Grammy-nominated early music violinist Giles Lewin. The album was finished in Providence and mixed with Jeffrey Alexander (The Iditarod, Black Forest/Black Sea). Songs of Love and Loss is a natural follow-up to Beautiful Twisted, in places darker and more discordant, in others gentler and sweeter.

Other recent and ongoing collaborations include The Black Dove, an album written and recorded with Californian folk songsmith Christian Kiefer; Tau Emerald, a duo with Tara Burke (Fursaxa) and Leaves From Off the Tree, an album of traditional songs recorded with Meg Baird and Helena Espvall released on Bo’ Weavil Recordings.

Sharron has been featured in The Wire, Dirty Linen, New Folk Sounds, Arthur Magazine, Ptolemaic Terrascope and Broken Face. She has been interviewed on BBC Radio 3 for ‘A Place Called England’ discussing the future of English folk music and recorded sessions for BBC Radio Scotland, Freakzone on Radio 6, and independent radio stations across the US. Her fanbase includes veteran folkies Shirley Collins and Archie Fisher as well as indie figureheads Michael Gira, David Tibet and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore.

*MP3
Travellers Two
Stoikite
Henbane

Anyone familiar with Fursaxa knows they need to hear this. For the rest of you if you are a fan of Psych Folk music then you have to hear and subsequently buy this album. I have not heard anything in the genre any better then this so far this year. Absolutely stunning and haunting beauty.

If you enjoy this check out this Live Journal community dedicated to Psych Folk: http://community.livejournal.com/psych_folk

The good folks of this community have introduced me to so much great music. Thanks!

Also please help support Important Records (simply one of the best record labels at this stitch in time). They have lots of great new releases out. I enjoyed these particularly:

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Cloaks - Serene [CDR] [Students Of Decay SOD-39] [2008]

2008-05-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Cloaks - Serene [CDR] [Students Of Decay SOD-39] [2008]

From the Students of Decay Website...

http://www.studentsofdecay.com/SoD39.htm

Audio Clip

Cloaks is the nom-de-plume of Spencer Doran, a Portland based musician who also moonlights as a member of RV Paintings. Doran employs acoustic piano, guitars and various electronics to sublime effect. Obvious comparisons can be made to the flurries of overtone piano that Charlemagne Palestine has pioneered, but Doran truly has crafted an unique and inspired voice of his own, weaving clouds of piano with spiralling plumes of FX and warm gushes of plaintive guitar. Positively magical.

5'' cdr

(ltd. 100)

Track Listing

1. Dream Tape Number One

2. Improvisation For Guitar and Piano

Organic dreamy floating on faded sunlight wake me i'm dreaming bliss!

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Eternal Tapestry - Altar of Grass [CDR] [Solar Commune 004] [2008]

2008-05-28T16:22:00.001-07:00

This one arrived in the mail from the wonderful Tomentosa Records earlier this week (thanks Josh!) and after getting to listen through the entire album sitting in traffic on the way into work today I just had to share it. So far its on par with the best Rock albums I have heard in 2008. We will see how it does with repeated listening. If you like what you hear please attend live shows and buy 'schtuff' (or heck just send them cash, food or drugs) from this amazing band from Portand. More details about the band can be found at http://www.myspace.com/eternaltapestry

The Players
Nick Bendeman: Guitar, Vocals
Dewey Mahood: Guitar, Vocals
Bob Jones: Bass
Jed Bindeman: Drums

Track Listing
1. Ancient Temple Light 9:02
2. Woodland Spirit 3:47
3. Altar of Grass 8:16
4. Mystic Induction 4:03
5. Ascent 14:35

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Hush Arbors - Cleaning The Bone [3'' CDR] [267 Lattajjaa 33] [2005]

2008-05-28T08:30:00.001-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush_Arbors

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hush Arbors, whose real name is Keith Wood, is an American folk musician. His music sees traditional folk merged with elements of drone and psychedelic music, in the vein of other modern folk acts such as Six Organs of Admittance. Along with releasing solo material, he is also a regular member of Six Organs of Admittance, Wooden Wand, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Zodiacs, Golden Oaks, and Totem. He has also toured with other folk musicians including James Blackshaw, Espers, and Voice of the Seven Woods.

Cleaning The Bone [3'' CDR] [267 Lattajjaa 33] [2005]

I. Leaves Crackling Under Footstep
II. Hidden Bone Of Old Man
III. Veins Of Oak Leaves.mp3

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Part 1

Heavy Eye Of The Sun III - Digitalis Ltd #5 [2008]

2008-04-28T23:15:00.000-07:00

ltd#5: heavy eye of the sun "iii" cd-r $8 ppd worldwide

i've been wanting to put out something by heavy eye of the sun for years and now, nearly two years after their last self-released cd-r, "iii" is locked & loaded. this montreal-based duo create sprawling, monolithic landscapes of sound, barely held together by the flickering of their voices. this is their most involved and evocative work yet.sparse forests of acoustic instrumentation conjure up ancient spirits that the duo channel without abandon. the hypnotic nature of their collective vocals lull you into a trance. bowed zithers and guitars drone and creak into oblivion. heavy eye of the sun suck you into their world and don't let go until they are good and ready. this is enchanted music. limited to 80 handnumbered copies, packaged in oversized hand-stamped envelopes w/ two inserts & handstamped cd-rs.

tracklist:

1. rayons/sunspokes
2. the sun reflected in your eyes (audio excerpt)
3. green moss & golden bowls heavy eye of the sun

website

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Download

Part 1
Part 2

Barn Owl - Self-Titled [Foxglove 158] [2007]

2008-04-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

Hello All! I just had to upload this one after seeing it had sold-out at the label Foxglove and news of the new LP only release on Not Not Fun can be ordered here http://www.notnotfun.com/presents/present.html. I would hurry because I bet this one will go fast as Barn Owl is picking up a head of steam:

Hey! SUPPORT BOTH THESE LABELS! NOW! now!

Barn Owl
From Our Mouths A Perpetual LightNNF123—LP ($13)

Since first bearing witness to Barn Owl’s mythically desolate amplifier alchemy last year, we’ve been rabid fans/fanatics. But like lots of badass bands, BO are a rolling stone, heavy on the transformation tip, and the BO of today is an altered beast from the one that folkily fingerpicked Bridge To The Clouds and their self-titled disc way back when. And in case we’re not being clear: this is a beautiful thing. From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light burns with the sun-dead majesty of a Death Valley burial ground, all wasted waterless expanse and cracked earth smoke blowing in the dry wind. Heavy western drone revelations bleed into forlorn guitar drift, downcast percussion plods across the plain, a skull on its side lies in the sands. Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras have somehow flawlessly evolved Barn Owl into a blazing new universe, and From Our Mouths… is the first mission statement from their new spectral/aesthetic outpost, a stunning and timeless eight-song suite of grim cinematic electricity. Tune in, drop dead, rot on. In swank matte jackets with ‘four-armed demon warrior-yogi’ artwork by the band. Edition of 435 (275 on white wax, 160 on black).

Barn Owl Tour schedule information can be found at http://www.myspace.com/barnowlband

If you like this be sure to check out these artists/labels/etc... as well

Six Organs of Admittance
Hush Arbors
John Fahey, Robbie Basho + Takoma Records
Mike Tambouro, Andy Futreal + New American Folk Hero Records
The North Sea, Jade Emperor, Ahket, The Golden Oaks + other Brad Rose projects
Headdress
Red Favorite - Jeremy Pisani

Without further ado here are the downloads:

Part 1
Part 2