15 November 2008

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Albums and Singles

History:  This of course, was our first cd release from all the way back in 1994. Robert Ovetz (Ultrasound) mentioned this guy Adam who was doing amazing 4-track stuff at home. I think the name of the tape he gave me was called “Ombudsman”. The success of this release was a nice surprise and certainly having Joel at Cargo champion it, who was just getting Kranky going as well, certainly put us both out there. Ultimately, SOTL ended up at Kranky and are still making amazing recordings for them. Many say this is still their favorite Lid release, although I am partial to the “Ballested Orchestra” too.  It certainly remains a powerful touchstone for and precursor to, the post-whatever independent music scene and sounds incredibly good still today.

Though Stars founder Adam Wiltzie has admittedly distanced himself from the release in terms of artistic terms he felt it was time to re-visit and re-fresh the work with a new mastering job, as well as having new artwork designed by longtime visual collaborator Craig McCaffrey. Sedimental has always kept the document in print in its original form with a remarkably steady stream of sales, but we welcomed the opportunity to update the release and make it more widely available to a new generation, so to speak.

Sedimental announces the first CD from Austin drone stars Stars of the Lid, an amazing 4-track recording that is created in the spirit of Eno, Main, and Spacemen 3. Produced without keyboards, this lo-fi ambient journey employs predominately guitar, avoiding typical rock elements while still possessing the “home” recorded feel of so much independent music.

Being based in Austin, a town loaded with so many heavy guitar bands, one wonders how they came to make such hypnotic and engaging sounds. Especially when Stars mastermind Adam Wiltzie is involved with so many “rock” bands himself, having recorded Ed Hall’s Motherscratcher and its forthcoming release, the Flaming Lips Peel Sessions, as well as running sound for Bad Livers, and Doo Rag tours. Citing Cage, Spacemen 3, Robert from Main and Loop, nitrous oxide, and Bedhead as artistic inspirations, he also comments the group is a reaction against the “muscle” rock and C&W that dominates the Austin music scene and a way to withdraw from it.

Despite their current unknown status, we at Sedimental were so impressed by the music of Stars of the Lid , we felt it worthy of our first CD release. After giving this a few listens(especially the brilliant trio of tracks 7,8, and 9), we are sure you will think they belong on the same plateau as EAR, Labradford, Main, and Organum.
 

04 November 2008

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Albums and Singles

"The Black Post Society" embraces and accepts the depression of not having anything left to hunt. The mask without a face to hold. The depression of the hunter after the deer is killed. It is better to be hungry than to have eaten. As fantasy shatters under the whip of reality, erotic malaise settles in the nest of the mind inverting this dormant fuel to rekindle the endless cycle of sexual chaos.

Black Industrial / Power Noise from this highly respected US act!

Tracks: 1. Specter Of A Child | 2. Forever Hate | 3. Domina Milking | 4. Egyptian Bondage | 5. Rose Comet |
6. Wooden Weapons | 7. Mask Of The Boys | 8. Months Lengthening Into Years

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | www.coldspring.co.uk

04 November 2008

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Albums and Singles

Split release from Canadian Shoegaze / Droners Nadja (Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff), Manchester Doomers Atavist and UK Fortean Electronics / Dark Ambient act Satori.

Released to coincide with their UK joint tour.

Ltd x 1000 copies in a 6-panel outsized sleeve.


Tracks: 1. Nadja - 'Time Is Our Disease' | 2. Atavist - 'Certitude' | 3. Satori - 'Abyss'

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | www.coldspring.co.uk

04 November 2008

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Albums and Singles

Brand new CD from UK Dark Ambient / Fortean Electronics act Satori - Neil Chaney (Pessary) and Justin Mitchell (Cold Spring boss). This is a collaboration between Satori and Magus Peter H Gilmore, High Priest Of The Church Of Satan. Satori provide their trademark deep, underground, pounding electronics, here with a ritualistic dark soundtrack atmosphere, while Gilmore bestows a seething tirade against the weakness of the modern world!

Two 20+ minute tracks, the 2nd being a deeper, instrumental mix of the title track.

Tracks: 1. Contemptus Mundi | 2. Contemptus Mundi (Nameless Wrath Mix)

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04 November 2008

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Albums and Singles

CD version of the 2007 album from UK Dark Ambient / Fortean Electronics act Satori - Neil Chaney (Pessary) and Justin Mitchell (Cold Spring boss), originally issued on LP by Dogma Chase, Japan.

"Kanashibari" is the Japanese term for sleep paralysis (literally "bound or fastened in metal"). The album explores this phenomena, manipulating Fortean sounds and deep, dark ambience.

CD version contains a bonus track 'Pavor Nocturnus', not available on the LP version.

Tracks: 1. Hypnagogic State | 2. Nocturnal Fury | 3. Unseen Force | 4. Entity | 5. Paralysis | 6. Pavor Nocturnus |
7. Threshold Consciousness | 8. Kanashibari

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | www.coldspring.co.uk

26 October 2008

Albums and Singles

Read more …

26 October 2008

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Albums and Singles

Deception Island
 
"Woe Is the Transgression I" reminds me of Ridley Scott's Alien. Lopatin's textured drones howl and moan in an eerie fashion, sounding half organic and half synthetic. I can picture Ripley sneaking down long, unlit corridors with a murderous stalker close at hand; its shape, its movements, and its utterances also a hybrid of the natural and the technological. Lopatin's opening song for Betrayed in the Octagon could've been used as the score for the scenes in that movie where we're first introduced to the planet's surface. Or perhaps it would've better fit the scene where we see an enormous, alien "gunner" dead in a room to which he is seemingly fused. The trembling synthesizers on this album emulate such desolate locations and conjure up images of static, almost too-still environments wrecked by the passage of time. Lopatin's preference for severe austerity and decaying textures is perhaps not totally unique, but he handles them well and utilizes them to affect feelings of fear and uncertainty.

Contrasting this pseudo-industrial, desolate sound is Point Never's more melodious side. Songs like "Behind the Bank" and "Betrayed in the Octagon" are nothing more than pleasing, synthetic sonatas. I mean that quite literally. They're not composed of multiple movements, but they are solo pieces for the synthesizer or for synthesizer and sequencer. These more lively pieces tend to be calming; they do not lack intensity, but are generally less anxious. I find it difficult not to mention Vangelis and the Blade Runner soundtrack at this point. Lopatin's work isn't as ornate as Vangelis' nor is it as slinky/sexy, but there is a shared aesthetic present. The sci-fi connotations in Lopatin's abstract pieces bleed into these more conventional songs, bringing to mind data banks or overly-complex hovercraft controls alive with blinking lights and useless displays. If they weren't situated next to more menacing songs, it would be tempting to think of them as future-pastoral pieces meant to accompany or detail the racket of every day life. In any case, they're alluring songs that serve to alleviate the brooding quality of the rest of the record. They also increase the sinister atmosphere of the noisier songs by providing an extreme contrast.

If all the references to soundtracks or films seems extraneous, I bring them up for a reason: Lopatin's music is highly cinematic. Though no narrative is provided by Lopatin, his music suggests the presence of one. The constant shifting between highly structured music and abstract noise provides a sense of character, environment, and struggle. It's impossible not to imagine sinister atmospheres or alien creatures when listening to the chirps and wails of Lopatin's machines and loops. Betrayed in the Octagon escapes being incidental music, however. In this case, the music is the occasion for the film. It is so full of life and so evocative that it demands some flight of fancy. This music aims straight for the imagination and manipulates it as deftly as the best filmmaker or novelist.

Betrayed in the Octagon might be a difficult record to find. It was produced in severely limited quantity and, so far as I can tell, flew off the shelves. In addition to that, it was only available on cassette. Yet, Lopatin has developed quite a name for himself and it's not difficult to see why: his music tends to be of the highest quality. Lopatin also records with Infinity Window and Astronaut and has a number of releases under some variation of the Magic Oneohtrix Point Never name. Google might be the best way to search him out, but the last time I checked there were more than a few releases available through various well-known distributors.

samples:

• Eyeballs
• Betrayed in the Octagon
• Laser to Laser

26 October 2008

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Albums and Singles

Kranky

While the anticipation of this album has deprived it of the element of surprise that caught audiences pleasantly off-guard with their previous album, the band immediately disarms listeners with greater emotional involvement. The voice of guitarist Lockett Pundt is first heard on "Agoraphobia" asking for cover and comfort, while later vocalist Bradford Cox sings about children wanting to grow older on "Little Kids" and the redemptive power of nostalgia on "Saved By Old Times." Cox's presence is more noticeable on this album, but the whole band's playing at a high level.

Although there is a more laid-back atmosphere on many of these songs, the band still strike up the volume when it suits them. The title track perfectly epitomizes this duality. Starting with quiet introspections, it erupts into a blissful despair that makes it the album's most immediately memorable track. The band also tosses lightning on the fiery finale of "Nothing Ever Happened" and uses cathartic feedback on "Never Stops." These single-worthy tracks are set at intervals throughout the album to keep things moving in all the right places. There is a small section that might be too quiet for some, beginning with "Calvary Scars" and ending with "Activa," but the tracks are decent and brief enough that it's more of a pause for breath than a delay. Otherwise, the pacing is just about perfect.

Not only has Deerhunter perfected the qualities that brought them attention in the first place, they've also developed their songwriting further. Cryptograms may indeed be a memorable record, but the songs on its successor are even better.

samples:

• Little Kids
• Neither of Us, Uncertainly
• Nothing Ever Happened

26 October 2008

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Albums and Singles

Syntax

The concept of the film is simple:  the day to day mundane activities that Andreas Baader would have experienced staying at the apartment of Regis Debray.  Each disc is a single track, indexed into five basic activities.  The opening is traditional Ikeda:  a steady cricket like digital chirp and hums that are barely audible.  As “Staring” continues, subtle clicks and ringing tones softly enter the mix until a jarring piece of dark ambient synths and ringing telephones appear, significantly louder than the preceding moments.  The ringing continues on and on, mimicking Ikeda’s approach to tones and textures.

The sounds of water running and physical movement as part of “Cooking” is punctuated by a recurring motif of guitar chords, widely spaced and adding tension to the mix.  As the disc comes to its conclusion in “Listening,” the track becomes more focused on harsh electronic tones and Morse code, fragments of voice and lost radio transmissions before swelling into a lush, traditional film score sound.

The guitar type chords appear again at the opening to the second disc:  as “Tearing” transitions into “Polaroiding”, the obvious physical activities from the title are met with increasing guitar chords and eventually bass notes, creating probably the most conventionally “musical” work Ikeda has done.  After that, an abrupt silence before barely perceptible ambient sounds and the heavy breathing associated with “Masturbation” stays isolated in the mix. 

“Dancing” features treated and sped-up fragments of other recordings which dissolve into walls of digital noise and squeals before dropping out to a clear recording of Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye.”  Eventually the noise swells again, before dropping away for excerpts of political speeches that again are met by noise and finally, the sound of urinating. 

As a soundtrack, See You At Regis Debray can stand on its own as a work of art, allowing listeners to visualize the activities that are clearly represented.  However, as a piece of music, it is lacking the depth and variety that an artist like Ikeda is usually known for.  The actual musical elements are too far apart, and the drastic fluctuation in volume between the actual music and the ambient sounds makes close listening maddeningly difficult.  It is an interesting piece, but those looking for more straight ahead music should probably seek other works in his catalogue.

samples:

• Staring
• Listening
• Tearing

26 October 2008

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Albums and Singles

Raster-Noton

For a label known for its experimentation, Death of a Typographer has a familiar, although icy feel throughout.  The album has the traditional glitchy abnormal rhythms, but also dense, dark, almost industrial synth lines that separate it from just the art gallery scene and into more conventional territory.  “Black is Black” and “Plastic Star (Session)” both bring old-school Detroit electro to the world of Max/MSP, with the former even featuring a classic rudimentary bass synth sequence, while the latter is bathed in digital reverb and even drifts into raw, distorted territory, but never losing its solid rhythm.

“Rocky (Soft)” is one that particularly grabbed my attention, with its extremely stripped down mix of buzzing ambience and analog pulsing kick drum eventually becomes a study in bass synth, having a warmth that is often lacking in work of this style.  Similarly minimal is “Straight,” built on a steady bass line and monotone beat, the occasionally squeaky synth stab cutting through the mix.  Compared to the more electro tracks, it’s less dynamic and more repetitive, but the structural diversity is there, albeit more subtle.

Most of the songs stay in this danceable framework, though the two part “Capture This” opens with vast digital ambience and digitally constructed feedback that never opens up into a rhythm, but instead stays a thick, dense mix.  The second half does include a click and pulse based rhythm track over the tense ambience that resembles Pan Sonic’s best moments. 

The closing tracks provide a notable contrast to each other:  “Grand Style” goes right back to the dance floor, featuring a traditional style of building layers from a minimal opening to a thick, more active mix by the end.  In contrast, “Heart” resembles its title in its low bass drum rhythm, but the darker, almost industrial synth tones build in volume and density until swelling to heavy distortion, then returning to the near silence of a field recording.

For the sterile, equation and computer modeling based soil this release is growing from, it is almost surprisingly conventional and catchy, but retaining a world of microscopic subtlety behind the beats and industrial tinged synth lines.

samples:

• Plastic Star (Session)
• Rocky (Soft)
• Heart