VARIOUS ERASED TAPES ARTISTS - '1 + 1 = X'

Formats

• ERATP100CD - 2CD & BOOK

  4050486114957

Details

“I suppose finding words and meaning to describe this release would be next to impossible. This recording was a real joy, to go back to our humble beginnings. To have the freedom to create art only for ourselves was truly sublime” — Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie of A Winged Victory For The Sullen Erased Tapes rounds off a jubilant year of tenth anniversary celebrations with a very special release, 1+1=X, a set of exclusive music from every artist on the label. Featuring never before heard tracks from Nils Frahm, Kiasmos and A Winged Victory For The Sullen, 1+1=X sees Erased Tapes artists come together to make an album as a collective. Sharing the same space, instruments and each others’ capabilities during a residency at Vox-Ton studio in Berlin, they recorded 20 songs to mark the label's 10-year history. Previously only available on limited 3LP vinyl for Record Store Day, 1+1=X — produced by label curator Robert Raths — will be available on 2CD box set and digital download is released on 29th June 2018. “It was important to create something communal and reflective of our time, to capture something of value using traditional recording techniques, experimenting and reacting to each other in real time, sharing the same space,” says Raths. Between August 2016 and 2017, each artist arrived with a new composition or an improvisation to record at Vox-Ton. Run with much love and care by Italian engineer Francesco Donadello – who has worked on many Erased Tapes recordings before including A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Michael Price and Lubomyr Melnyk – it is one of the few studios left where it’s still possible to record fully analogue, isolated from the city noise and in a room that can fit a large ensemble. Reflective of the communal spirit, 1+1=X is the result of an ambitious undertaking; to create a singular record as a collective, not just a compilation of songs, that celebrates the benefits of community over individuality and improvisation over rigorous planning. “As much as Erased Tapes probably wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the digital age, we should also remind ourselves of what we are capable of without it,” adds Raths. “1+1=X is a testament of what can be achieved when we work together as a collective, which is more than the sum of what we can achieve as individuals.” The majority of songs on this album feature contributions from multiple performers, whether it’s Nils Frahm duetting on the keys with Arthur Jeffes of Penguin Cafe, Kiasmos being joined by Högni and a string ensemble, Douglas Dare’s one-take ‘Darling’ featuring Rival Consoles on synths, Masayoshi Fujita on vibes and Raths himself controlling the tremolo on his voice. Peter Broderick’s ‘The Perpetual Glow’ meanwhile, brings in a full big band and choir where everyone present, including the studio staff, was invited to grab any instrument and join in. Every song has a unique story and approach – in-themoment decisions and little accidents that could only come out of these kinds of circumstances where people work together in the same space, sparking off each other and their environment. Even Rival Consoles’ remix of Daniel Brandt’s ‘Blackpool Sands Forever’ was conceived of in the studio kitchen during recording breaks. Japanese vocal performer Hatis Noit decided to bring a field recording of the ocean with her, which she had taken near the Fukushima power plant after participating in a memorial ceremony for the opening of the evacuation area. It is also no coincidence that the album opens with ‘Brutal Moderna’ by Qasim Naqvi (Dawn of Midi) and A Winged Victory For The Sullen’s ‘Long May It Sustain’, which were both recorded on the day the U.S. election results came in. “Qasim asked me to read the news headlines with a stutter over the top of his piece. It was an oddly beautiful experience which brought all of us together on a day when spirits were otherwise a bit low,” says Peter Broderick. “I thought this residency was a wonderful idea. In fact I would have loved to be there for more of it. I made some amazing new friends, some stronger bonds with old friends and some wonderful pieces of music that I’m honoured to be a part of. Robert has often described Erased Tapes as a family, and perhaps above all else this was just his earnest effort to bring the family together. I hope we’ll have some reunions in years to come!” Designed in collaboration with Torsten Posselt at FELD, album is accompanied by a book of photographs documenting the recording process. It is housed in a bespoke, hand-assembled white box.

Tracks

Disc 1
1. Qasim Naqvi - Brutal Moderna
2. A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Long May It
Sustain
3. Rival Consoles - Ritual Song
4. Nils Frahm - Frau Dehlholm
5. Daniel Thorne - Iroise
6. Daniel Brandt - Blackpool Sands Forever
7. Douglas Dare - Darling
8. Michael Price - Eyn Hallow
9. Kiasmos & H?gni - Zebra
10. Ben Lukas Boysen - Pending
11. David Allred ? Ahoy
Disc 2
1. Anne Müller - Bel Tono
2. Lubomyr Melnyk - Palisade 1
3. Hatis Noit ? Inori
4. Masayoshi Fujita - Spaceship Magical
5. H?gni - M?ni
6. Peter Broderick - The Perpetual Glow
7. Arthur Jeffes & Nils Frahm - Up Is Good
8. Daniel Brandt - Blackpool Sands Forever
(Rival Consoles Remix)
9. Penguin Cafe - Wheels Within Wheels (Greg
Gives Peter Space Remix)

Press

Extras: Housed in a bespoke, hand-assembled white box with a
recessed X, including photographic book and Download code.

Audio & Video

UNI - 'THE GIRL WHO HAS IT ALL'

Formats

• CHIM45 - 7"

Details

Third single from New York City glam/grunge band - Led by Kemp Muhl (bassist of the GOASTT & Jack White’s new album, Boarding House Reach ) Both songs featured in insane, over-the-top videos - The Girl Who Has It Al l, premiered by the 405 Electric Universe , directed & edited by Kemp Muhl, coming soon Recent West Coast tour with Starcrawler, including appearances at SXSW, Treefort Music Fest, and Canadian Music Week with Mudhoney. East Coast tour with White Denim plus shows with with The Dandy Warhols this summer. More 7” and 10” records to be released throughout 2018. Single includes color lyric insert and free digital download. Uni is pronounced “oon-e” like the Japanese delicacy (raw sea urchin gonads).

Tracks

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Audio & Video

GREGORY TAYLOR - 'RANDSTAD'

Formats

• PoL012018 - CD

  700261465012

Details

Randstad is a kind of hermetic diary of a year living in the randstad—a term the Dutch use to describe their own megalopolis that encompasses Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. In its own way, the work runs contrary to today’s assumed absolute limitlessness of musical possibility, favoring a reduced expatriate sonic toolkit (composed of Cycling ’74’s Max, a modest Eurorack, and a handheld digital recorder). Its entries combine the sounds of a “new home” (house keys, birds on the terrace, fireworks at the New Year) that are stretched / rotated / folded / spindled / annealed into a set of audio vignettes. The results are snapshots of sensation, location, movement, and image: a score for re-orienting yourself in new, changing environments. To paraphrase Roethke, we learn by going not only where to go, but how to go. The CD includes a download card for Randstad and the bonus EP Trajectum. After a hiatus from the cassette culture movement of the 1980s, Gregory Taylor returned to regular recording and live performance as an improviser in the late 1990s. He has studied central Javanese Gamelan and electroacoustic music at Cornell, UW-Madison, New England Conservatory and the Instituut voor Sonologie, and written for publications such as Wired, Recording, Array, and Option, and hosted RTQE—a radio program of contemporary audio on WORT-FM since 1986. He currently works for Cycling ’74. Randstad is his fourth album for PoL.

Tracks

1. To Kijkduin By Monorail
2. Shoulder Alignment
3. Prayer Wheels (Voorschoten)
4. Alchemical Refrigeration
5. Illuminated By Optimism (Teyler)
6. Imagined Anaphora
Trajectum EP - digital bonus tracks
7. Cockpitgebouw
8. Satellite Campus (Cohort)

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Audio & Video

MICKS JAGUAR - 'FAME AND FORTUNE'

Formats

• EZRDR091 - LP

  603111729817

• EZRDR091CD - CD

  603111729824

Details

Rock and roll is dead in New York City. Long live New York City rock and roll. Mick's Jaguar is bringing noisy, wild, unafraid big rock back to NYC. Crazy rents, corporatized venues, and kids listening to DJ's: it's hard being a band in this town. This isn't LA and Mick's Jaguar is a product of their environment: a windowless dungeon practice space 20 feet below the trash covered sidewalk of the Lower East Side. Rats, grime, the sounds of the city; Mick's Jaguar gleefully pillages the history of rock music to create thoroughly modern, but classic rock and roll. Not quite punk, but not metal either, this is hard rock and roll that's been put through the brain blenders of 6 musicians who pair their Judas Priest shirts with Steely Dan hats. They claim no musical lineage to New York - they just live there. If you need to compare them to something, the night AC/DC played CBGB's would be about as close as you can get. The group formed as a drunken Rolling Stones cover band, and after a few years of mainlining Stones songs and playing sporadic shows marred by violence and sprayed by beer, they started writing originals that attracted the attention of RidingEasy Records. And their new album, Fame and Fortune, sounds absolutely nothing like the Stones. The three guitarists — yes three guitars — open the album with a riff of buzzsaw intensity that would make a Ramoneproud. But then like Jim Morrison sashaying into a wine shop, it drunkenly careens into a big sounding rock and roll album somewhere in between Van Halen and Tres Hombres. Guitar solos abound, Thin Lizzy harmonies soar, the bass and drums make a groove that will shake the asses on the dance floor and put a rumble in your loins. Songs about life, death, cars, blood, murder, sex, drugs and booze are the world of Mick's Jaguar. Don't forget - this is what rock and roll is all about. Listen close and you'll hear hat tips to your bands, Mick's Jag knows their history and likes to rip it apart. Recorded in Brooklyn at Figure 8 Recording by engineering wizard Philip Weinrobe, and fueled by a steady diet of Allen’s Coffee Brandy, the Fame And Fortune sessions resulted in only one hospital visit and it just might be your favorite album of 1978, 1988, or 2018. This is music that's made for listening to while driving fast in your car, and while relaxing at the local strip club. It's okay to have fun. Cute indie bands make everyone puke. That shit stops now. Let there be rock. Limited colour vinyl FOR FIRST pressing

Tracks

1. The Real Boss
? 2. Pay to Play
? 3. Where We Go
? 4. Here Comes the Night
? 5. Blood On the Snow
? 6. Hellride
? 7. Damnation
? 8. Country & Punk
? 9. Call The Guy
? 10. New Orleans Blues

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Audio & Video

HAMISH KILGOUR - 'FINKELSTEIN'

Formats

• BING128 - LP

  600197012819

• BING128CD - CD

  600197012826

Details

The Clean member Hamish Kilgour’s second-ever solo album, Finklestein, flips the singer / guitarist / drummer’s path taken on All Of It And Nothing. Having previously gone for intimate, minimalistic performances, this album displays a chock-full production quality akin to a fairytale. It’s a fitting change, seeing as the songs are based around a children’s story Kilgour conceived for his son about a kingdom that invents a way of dealing with their depleting gold resources. The songs include organ, saxophone, pedal steel, piano, vibraphone, harmonica, even footsteps (Kilgour is renowned for his stepping), most of it performed by him and his producer / collaborator Gary Olsen at Olsen’s studio, Marlborough Farms, in Brooklyn. Originally conceived as being a children’s book as well as album, it rides roughshod through this fairytale world with grace. Finklestein took a year to record, as Kilgour’s involvement with a large part of the Brooklyn music scene, as well as dates with recent New Zealand Music Hall of Fame inductees The Clean, split his time. His songs benefit from this elongated recording period, as each track creates its own space within the album’s world, mixing instruments and melodies in a rainbow of ways. Yet it’s Kilgour’s songwriting sensibilities that hold the album together, his charismatic and loose arrangements within a congenial environment of musical play.

Tracks

1. Lude
2. Opening (Welcome to Finkels)
3. Strange Angel
4. No Money Train
5. Silver Dollars
6. Hayride
7. Dream Sequence
8. Sidetracked
9. Mary Sunshine
10. Whistle Stop
11. Flip Top Suitcase
12. Brasilia 666
13. Gold
14. Under The Moon
15. Sweet Dreams Reprise

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Audio & Video

PROUD PARENTS - 'S/T'

Formats

• ZZZ154 - LP

  881970015412

Details

Starting in Madison, WI, as the musical culmination of a decade of friendship and playing in punk bands, Claire Nelson-Lifson and Tyler Fassnacht (Fire Heads) began writing the first of Proud Parent’s jangly, garage-infused pop tunes in Nelson-Lifson’s living room. Shortly thereafter Heather Sawyer (The Hussy) joined on drums and vocals, turning the songwriting duo into a trio, and they quickly garnered a devout following both locally and regionally, and gained a reputation throughout the midwest as a live power-pop force to be reckoned with. Now a full fledged four piece, with Maggie Denman on bass, the band has established its own unique dynamic with three lead singers whose voices and songwriting stand strong individually, yet blend together with such comfort and ease that it is hard to imagine them apart. After two live tapes and a full length cassette, the band is ready with their first self-titled album on Dirtnap Records. This record also marks the first release in eighteen years by a band from the label’s hometown of Madison, WI. The album begins and ends with a bang through a dozen tightly wound tunes full of infectious, harmony ladened choruses, ripping guitar solos and hooks for days. The three singers converse, support, and share vocal duties like passing around a bag of Halloween candy. Recorded and mixed by Bobby Hussy (The Hussy, Cave Curse, Fire Heads) at his own Hex Empire, it is about self-reflection, jumping from saccharine adoration to heartfelt confession, isolation, anxiety, loss and moving on.

Tracks

1. Proud Parents
2. Hypnotoad
3. 2 Fast 2 Serious
4. Ducktales
5. Flavordust
6. Something To Talk About
7. Happy
8. T Street Shuffle
9. Dead Wrong
10. Take My Hand
11. Stuck
12. Baby
13. Proud Parents (slow)

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Audio & Video

SKYGREEN LEOPARDS - 'THE JINGLING WORLD OF THE SKYGREEN LEOPARDS'

Formats

• SAB086 - LP

  647603401119

Details

The Jingling World of The Skygreen Leopards is a collection of songs from the first two Skygreen Leopards CDRs on Jewelled Antler ; two mini-albums written and recorded in the distant days of 2001, a year with a name that evokes a psychedelic future but which now seems very much part of the psychedelic past. Guided by Tall Dwarfs, The Monkees and The TVPs, the early SGLs concept was to mix automatic songwriting, two voices, California 12-string and put it on reverb smothered 1/4” tape. The restrictions were that no songs could break the three minute mark, no jamming allowed, and you never went back to fix mistakes . All songs were written and performed by Glenn Donaldson and Donovan Quinn; both switching instruments and overdubbing until Donaldson’s Tascam 388 had run out of open tracks. From the womb of fanzines, flea market record crates of the ’90s and San Francisco’s fading victorians, it’s The Jingling World Of The Skygreen Leopards 

Tracks

1. The Stars Go To Sleep
2. I Dreamt She Rode On A Pink Gazelle
3.I Fell Asleep In The Sunbleached Grass (I?ll Just Pass Away)
4. Mascara Priscilla (Things Get Better)
5. Yellow Is the Color Of Bees
6. Leopard Wings
7. Peppermint Annie
8. Your Face Is Modern Art
9. Wild Bird Songs
10. The Jingling World (The Skygreen Leopards Love You)
11. Eqyptian Circus (Gods of Bantams)
12. Conversations With Mirrors
13. Pinwheels & Circles
14. Hurray For The Beast
15. Soft Dark Birds
16. Sally Orchid I Can?t Help You
17. She Wears A Rainbow Sunday Mornings
18. Josephine I?ve Seen
19. Greenmarsh Tiger
20. Roman Orchards, Part 2
21. Is It Love, Love, Love (Is It)
22. More Fabulous Animals
23. I Don?t Live for Today (I Don?t Know My Name)
24. Roman Orchards

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Audio & Video