Latest release: 23 Oct 2020
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MONOLORD - 'EMPRESS RISING'
Formats
EZRDR-021 - 2xLPs
6-03111-98601-2EZRDR-021CD - CD
6-03111-98602-9EZRDR021INST - 2xLPs
603111986098
Details
**INSTRUMENTAL VERSION NOW AVAILABLE** "Without vocals, Empress Rising suddenly becomes a post-metal, stoner epic in the vein of Sleep's Dopesmoker and Monster Magnet's 30-minute opus 'Tab.' Arguably Monolord's most atmospheric work, the instrumental treatment gives the album a new life and listening experience." -- Consequence of Sound The sleeves are printed on premium chrome jackets limited to 1000 copies each album. Begun as a digital-only release for Empress Rising - instrumental, the response was so overwhelming the band and RidingEasy Records decided to release both revised albums on vinyl as well. Monolord formed in 2013, quickly recording their 2xLP debut Empress Rising, which RidingEasy Records released on April 1st, 2014. The second album, Vænir, followed April 28th, 2015. The band's third album, Rust, released September 29th, 2017, was a critical and commercial breakthrough. It would be the band's last for RidingEasy, though the band remain managed by label head Daniel Hall, elevating them to the Relapse Records roster for their 2019 full length No Comfort. *****200 COPIES FOR EUROPEAN SALE ONLY
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MONOLORD - 'VAENIR'
Formats
EZRDR044 - 2xLPs
603111987712EZRDR044CD - CD
603111987729EZRDR044INST - 2xLPs
603111987798
Details
*INSTRUMENTAL VERSION NOW AVAILABLE* Limited edition vinyl pressings of the instrumental mixes of Vænir and the band's debut Empress Rising are also available today. These are mailorder-only, with sleeves printed on premium chrome jackets limited to 1000 copies each album. Begun as a digital-only release for Empress Rising - instrumental, the response was so overwhelming the band and RidingEasy Records decided to release both revised albums on vinyl as well. About the release, Esben Willems, Monolord drummer and recording & mixing engineer for the original album and this version, says, "Listening to the mixes for the instrumental version of Vænir opened an unexpected door. We seriously didn't expect that the album would take such a different shape and feel in an instrumental version. Really stoked to see how our fans will experience this release. Also, getting both instrumental versions (Vænir & Empress Rising) released on LP adds another layer. Hope you like it."
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FUZZ - 'III'
Formats
ITR348 - LP
759718534818ITR348CD - CD
759718534825
Details
One only knows one. Two is balanced therefore stagnant. III both active and reactive. Charles Moothart, Ty Segall and Chad Ubovich are Fuzz. Fuzz is three. And III has returned. Songs for all, and music for one. III was recorded and mixed at United Recording under the sonic lordship of Steve Albini. Keeping the focus on the live sounds of the band, the use of overdubs and studio tricks were kept to a minimum. Albini’s mastery in capturing sound gave the trio the ability to focus entirely on the playing while knowing the natural sounds would land. It takes the essential ingredients of “guitar-based music” and “rock and roll power trio” and puts them right out on the chopping block. It was a much more honest approach for the band—three humans getting primitive, staying primitive. The goal was never to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes it’s just about seeing how long one can hold on before getting thrown off. Three points reflected in three mirrors; a pyramid of sonic destruction and psychic creation. Nothing people feed the roots while the freaks fly free in the treetops—blind to vines, eyes closed, stuck in spit, triumphing the returning of beginnings and ends returning while beginning to see the time collapse. Love is the only way to annihilate hate, and sketchy freaks live to bleed. All shades of color, truth and lies, III is the pillar of unity and singularity. All is nothing, and only nothing can generate everything. Log out, drop thought, turn up.
Tracks
1. Returning
2. Nothing People
3. Spit
4. Time Collapse
5. Mirror
6. Close Your Eyes
7. Blind To Vines
8. End Returning
Press
Super group featuring Ty Segall, Charles
Moothart (CFM, G?GGS, etc) and Chad
Ubovich (Meatbodies) returns!
Audio & Video
R.I.P. - 'DEAD END'
Formats
EZRDR118 - LP
603111741314EZRDR118CD - CD
603111741321
Details
(EU LIMITED VINYL RED 200 COPIES) When R.I.P. came crawling out of the sewers of Portland four years ago, their grimy, sleazy Street Doom was already a fully formed monstrosity that quickly infected the minds of everyone it encountered. At the time, none of us expected its depravity to take such fierce hold, and yet, here were are, sheltering in place and/or stealthily creeping through a nightmare dystopia that the 80s sci-fi/horror movies foretold. Dead End is, ironically, a recharge of the band’s sound, bearing influences ranging from John Carpenter films, post-apocalyptic grunge, pro-wrestling attitude and salty lo-fi hip-hop aesthetics to the band’s ferocious heavy metal. During the three years since the 2017 release of their sophomore album Street Reaper, R.I.P. has been busy tightening their sound and their line up while loosening their grip on sanity — touring the west coast with bands like Electric Wizard and Red Fang, and taking Street Doom overseas for the first time for a month long headlining tour of Europe. These years on the road and the addition of a more aggressive rhythm section have allowed the band to fully break free from their influences and deliver on the promise hinted at on their first two releases. For Dead End, R.I.P. worked with legendary producer Billy Anderson, interring onto wax their heaviest and most ambitious album yet. Continuing to move further away from their classic doom influences like Pentagram and Saint Vitus, the band offers a rare blast of originality in a scene rife with formulaic bands. Dead End is a fast and anxious ride where the very idea of doom is put to the test under duress of manic lyrics about death, insanity, and leather, and hook-laden guitar tracks that draw as equally from Nirvana as Black Sabbath.
Tracks
01. Streets of Death 02. Judgement Night 03. Dead End 04. Nightmare 05. One Foot In The Grave 06. Death Is Coming 07. Moment of Silence 08. Buried Alive 09. Out of Time 10. Dead Of The Night
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WENDY EISENBERG - 'AUTO'
Formats
BING163 - LP
600197016312BING163CD - CD
600197016329
Details
*BOTH FMTS NOW SHIPPING* Drawing the connections between Wendy Eisenberg’s releases feels like undertaking a wide-ranging investigation. Albums of wildly inventive guitar, tempo-shifting avant rock and curiously leftfield pop fit together as offerings of Eisenberg’s curious mind. On Auto, their most innovative and inner-reaching album yet, Eisenberg explores emotional, subjective truth, and how it interacts with an objectivity no person alone can grasp. Inspired by the solo work of Mark Hollis (Talk Talk) and David Sylvian’s Blemish, with playing skills that have already seen them climbing Best Guitarist lists and an unvarnished vocal immediacy, Wendy Eisenberg has created an album of subtle display that resonates with maximal impact. Auto has multiple meanings. First, automobile: “A lot of these songs were written about and mentally take place when I’m in the car on my way to gigs,“ says Eisenberg. Immediate melodies came to them on these trips, to which they’d later add complex guitar parts. And automata: “I make myself into a machine, which is why everything that’s played is precise.” Finally, they frame their work in the literary technique of auto-fiction, “the semi-fictionalized presentation of the self in a narrative form of growth,” as Eisenberg sees it. The album served as a means toward working through emotional conflicts from adolescent trauma and PTSD, and dissects the dissolution and conflict that led towards the breakup of their former band. With much of it written while its events played out, Auto faces the grief of losing what one thinks is their future while experiencing a dramatic reshaping of their past; it delves openly into the limited nature of one person’s narrative. After making a few efforts to record Auto, Eisenberg ultimately chose to collaborate with childhood friend Nick Zanca, who contributes electronic elements and production. Mirroring the personal and organic offered by Eisenberg, synthetic sounds form a kind of boundary or context for everything. They “sound like commentary on songs that were written from an organic or subjective perspective,” says Eisenberg. Their place on the album is integral for Eisenberg’s goal “to outweigh the subjectivity of normal singer-songwriter guitar songs with the objectivity of electronic sound.”
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Press
Innovative guitarist following up their
releases on Feeding Tube and
Vin Du Select
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THE DEAD C - 'UNKNOWNS'
Formats
BING162 - LP
600197016213BING162CD - CD
600197016220
Details
*BOTH FMTS NOW SHIPPING*Some bands struggle to transcend their initial mythos, those stories that introduce them to the public eye. But The Dead C is a notable exception. They appeared in 1986 under a cloud of mystery, their unconventional location (South Island, New Zealand) helping to fuel their erratic sound. Name-dropped through the nineties by groups like Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo, they gained influence and acclaim but never strayed from their original mainlined performing technique, which can sound like chaos to the casual listener.What kind of a world greets them and their new album Unknowns in 2020? New Zealand culture is better known throughout the world, not to mention a low-virus paradise. Yes, isolated as in the past, but this time for being a nation of efficacy in tackling a public health crisis. But what about the rest of the world? The music of Mssrs. Robbie Yates, Bruce Russell and Michael Morley endures, partially because their errant sounds, once so alienating, now feel like they’ve been made flesh in a large part of the modern day world.Continuing to delve inwards for inspiration with tin ears towards trends, styles and technique, The Dead C forge onward. Unpolished, dusty and gritty, these three have again taken two guitars and drums, a combo which has less to say than ever, and leave the listener stunned. Unknowns has Morley slurring over spiraling dissemblance, with tracks ricocheting from intense to assaultive to drained, yet consistently magnificent. As reliable as ever, The Dead C are firmly grounded as an unassailable Truth.
Tracks
1. Grunt Machine2. Still3. The Sky Above4. Glitterness5. The Field
Press
Mythical noise rock trio from NZ, active since the mid-80s, return undiminished in their intense assault on the ears
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JOHNNY THUNDERS - 'LIVE FROM ZURICH '85'
Formats
JTA01 - LP
767870660917
Details
From Johnny Thunders’ personal tape archive, this recording is among hundreds of live, studio and writing session tapes he stored away for safe keeping in a box simply labeled “Thunders Tapes”. Cleaned up and mastered, the attempt is to reveal the recordings Thunders felt worthy of keeping and to release only the best audio quality and performances that live up to his musical legacy. In this debut release, Live From Zurich ’85, one hears Thunders and his band performing at a Swiss radio station in 1985. Spectacular sound. Great set.
Tracks
1. Blame It On Mom
2. MIA
3. Personality Crisis
4. Countdown Love
5. Little Bit Of Whore
6. Sad Vacation
7. Disappointed In You
8. Just Another Girl
9. Too Much Junkie Business/Pills
10. Wipe Out
11. Born To Lose
Press
? Launch of archival series, pulled from the
artist?s own ?Thunder Tapes?, begins with
a great set from a Swiss radio station in
1985
? Cleaned up and mastered
Audio & Video
ELKHORN - 'ACOUSTIC STORM'
Formats
CFUL174 - LP
Details
Centripetal Force (North America), in conjunction with Cardinal Fuzz (UK/Europe), is excited to announce the upcoming release of Elkhorn’s The Acoustic Storm Sessions, the sister album to the much-lauded The Storm Sessions released earlier this year on Beyond Beyond Is Beyond. The album is being presented in a 500 copy vinyl pressing and will be made available for preorder on September 14th. The Acoustic Storm Sessions’ release date is October 2nd. Elkhorn is known for their unique blend of psych/folk guitar music, with Jesse Sheppard on fingerstyle twelve-string acoustic and Drew Gardner on six-string electric. The Acoustic Storm Sessions, recorded the evening before The Storm Sessions, also features Turner Williams (Ramble Tamble, Guardian Alien) on guitar and marks the first time Elkhorn has created an entirely acoustic album. The Acoustic Storm Sessions is comprised of two side-long tracks drawing on the trio’s intimate knowledge of each others’ playing as they immerse themselves in the spirit of improvisation and allow it to guide the music’s course. As a result, there are raga-like qualities to these pieces, a revolving array of melodies, rhythmic flourishes and subtle embellishments that not only entrance the performers but the listener as well. There is no doubt that the group’s meditative intensity on The Acoustic Storm Sessions is at an unprecedented level. The nature of these spontaneously composed pieces offers audiences an endless number of experiences and interpretations. A listen to either side of The Acoustic Storm Sessions today could sound completely different tomorrow. What seems like a page taken from the tomes of American Primitivism during one sitting recalls the motorik rhythms of early 70s Germany on the next. And, thanks to the constant intertwining of three spiraling guitars, the music on this album takes on an ever-shifting visual aspect. The perspectives are in flux, each guitar mercurially switching between foreground, middle and background, creating sharp and linear textures before receding to a more atmospheric realm. The experience is an ongoing kaleidoscopic shift in sound that adds detail and depth and colors the mind. Perhaps the most important elements of The Acoustic Storm Sessions can be found in the circumstances behind its recording. Finding themselves snowed in to Gardner’s home studio after a massive storm forced the cancelation of a highly anticipated gig in Brooklyn, the trio decided to turn an unfortunate occasion into an opportunity to create and were able to record material for two records. Such endeavors are never easy, for mental and emotional release often requires a major shift in mindset. Instead of reaching outward for such release, one must find a way to reach within. These are the moments in which music becomes most valuable as a positive force for self-healing, and this album not only exemplifies the degree to which Elkhorn was able to make the necessary mental adjustments, it also serves as a tool for listeners to use in their own lives. In a pandemic year of isolation and turmoil, we are often left to our own devices to see ourselves through each day. The Acoustic Storm Sessions provides the kind of deep listening experience that can help transcend the noise and tumult of everyday life and make the necessary reach inward that much easier. Formed in 2013, Elkhorn has released six albums and toured both coasts and the midwest. This is their first collaboration with Centripetal Force and Cardinal Fuzz.
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Audio & Video
HERBCRAFT - 'TRASH HEAP'
Formats
CFUL173 - LP
Details
In the fall of 2012, Matt LaJoie began work on a set of lo-fi solo 4-track cassette home recordings that were intended to become Herbcraft's fourth album, Wot Oz. As a bridge from the full-band Woodsist debut The Astral Body Electric, the songs and sketches of the Highland Ranch year represented a quickly and vastly shifting world of sonic inspiration: heavy Japanese psych, American free-jazz and proto-punk, and heady Velvet Underground bootlegs supplanted the flowing, folky, hippie-cult jams of yore. Several songs and sketches from this era were demoed and scrapped before the band's trio lineup solidified around drummer/producer Aaron Neveu and bassist/organist Joe Lindsey in summer 2013 to record Wot Oz proper. Meanwhile, the 4-track cassette masters and crudely mixed 2-track bounce tapes from Highland Ranch were trucked from home to home in more than a dozen moves since 2013, eventually becoming lost in a mislabeled box for a couple years before finally being found in March. Now digitally transferred, remastered, and finished where left incomplete seven years ago, this previously apocryphal book of the Herbcraft story is being shared for the first time. The patron saint of the collection is the titular Trash Heap - the anthropomorphic all-knowing, raw-blues-belting, filth-loving, Kali-alluding mystical compost mound of Fraggle Rock. Feeding on the fears, grief, and refuse of the land's inhabitants, she dispenses light and abstract wisdom: a vehicle for transforming low vibration manifestations to higher octaves with wonder and mystery. LaJoie approaches the material on Trash Heap as a disciple of this mission, infiltrating scuzzy rock riffs with third eye chants and appeals to ascended masters. Inspiration arose via the grimy psych-punk of early Stooges, MC5, Back From the Grave comps, and local legends The Migs, as well as the greasy DIY rock n roll of Royal Trux and Don Gere's Werewolves on Wheels soundtrack, all wrapped in a fidelity guided by Les Rallizes Denudes live bootlegs. The results were warped further via DIY production experiments that incorporated psychedelic dub and Free Your Mind-style knob twistery, granting a further layer of hallucinatory mystery to the no-budget sessions. The opening title track peels out right from the gate, coming at full blast before the tape has fully turned over from leader to ferric. More succinct and punk-referencing than anything LaJoie's turned in this side of S.S. Cretins, it gang-voxes its way through a classic teenage punk stomp, presenting something like a theme song for an alternate universe sewer-city animated series. "Below Your Mind" follows with a slight Anatolian touch in rhythm and scale; palm-muted electric guitar riffs interlock with a dancing bass, and tunnel-reverberated monastic vocals chant and croon a message of heart-centered self-reflection. The abstract noise-sound collage "All's Burnt" features light space-drums backing a duet for bass guitar and a pair of sneakers in a clothes dryer, before a thickly tremoloed electric guitar enters to usher in the instrumental garage rock jam "Highland". Followers of Herbcraft's past work will note that this is the original 4-track demo version of the song that would become Wot Oz's "Fit Ur-Head"; here, the instrumental "Highland" motors with a full tank toward the ultimate vanishing point in the sky, dual electric guitar leads reaching ever higher until the dome is pierced and gone beyond. First single "Eon Rd" closes the A-side and is a prime example of the lane Herbcraft was cruising down throughout 2012, particularly in duo live settings (with Dawn Aquarius on organ/synth): cassette backing tracks featuring hand drums and dubby, funk-indebted bass lines laying the pavement, with delayed wah guitar and fuzzed out tremolo leads trading off with vocal mantra and free-wail. The track builds fiery electric guitar into a wall of echoing feedback, approximating Royal Truxian lo-fi psychedelia moves before finally collapsing back into the rhythm bed from whence it grew. The rhythm backing cassette approach is explored further on the twin longform improvisations comprising the entire B-side. Here, with only the 2-track rhythm tapes used at live Herbcraft performances available, LaJoie laid down new guitar, percussion, and vocal takes in the style of those solo and duo Herbcraft shows of the era to complete the picture. "Docet Up" drifts through light space-funk cloud cover, kosmische and earthy at once, while the closing "Last Words" drives a simple, swinging, handclap-led beat behind chugging half-step chords and harmonized bumblebee guitar leads, culminating in a towering psychedelic group chant.
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Audio & Video
DEMOLITION DOLL RODS - 'INTO THE BRAVE'
Formats
ITR355 - LP
759718535518
Details
“The Demolition Doll Rods are back, Jack. Those masters of Motor City mayhem have returned. Perhaps the only band to be asked by a promoter to keep their clothes on, the Demolition Doll Rods—who have not been in a studio together in fourteen years—are set to unleash Into The Brave in October 2020. “Formed in a Detroit basement in 1993, the Demolition Doll Rods are infamous for their rude, crude two-guitars-drumsno- extra-stuff rock ’n’ roll, not to mention those minimal matching Doll Rod outfits, which included wearing hubcaps, doll heads and even swiss cheese. They recorded four very singular albums together—starting with their outrageous debut Tasty in 1997 (coproduced by Jon Spencer and Mick Collins)— but called it quits in 2007 when co-founders Margaret Doll Rod and Danny Kroha went their separate ways. Until last year, that is, when out of the blue Margaret suddenly reunited with Danny to perform some scorching live shows alongside new drummer Shelby Murphy. “Any doubts that the Doll Rods still have it are blown away mere seconds into listening to Into The Brave, for this collection of twelve songs is as loud, crazy and demented as anything they have ever created). “So here it is—Into The Brave, another collection of nutbucket numbers only the Doll Rods could concoct.” —Jimmy McDonough
Tracks
1. Cloud
2. Humble Bow
3. Intergalactic Friend
4. Baby Sis
5. Believe
6. Smokin? Hot Hair Day
7. That?s Insane
8. Sweet Leash
9. I Wanna Go
10. Bitch Kickin?
11. We Are One
12. There?s A Light