NEIL FEATHER - 'SOUND MECHANIC'

Formats

• VG+08 - LP

  657628446903

Details

Neil Feather has spent decades creating a musical world of his own through dozens of one-of-a-kind instruments he invented and built himself. His work as an instrument inventor, improviser, musical iconoclast, and stalwart of the idiosyncratic Baltimore experimental scene culminated in the late 2010s when filmmaker Skizz Cyzyk shot hours of footage of Feather taking stock of his workshop and his collaborations with musicians from Baltimore and beyond as he prepared to relocate permanently to New Zealand. That period produced Sound Mechanic, Skizz’s 2022 feature-length documentary about Feather’s work and music. It also produced an album-length collection of recordings of Feather’s music from the film that captures the spectrum of his unique sonic vision. Uninterested in the traditional rules and roles of music from his early years, Feather began constructing noisemakers out of what was around him—pieces of metal, spare parts from bikes and other gadgets, discarded traditional instruments, various electronics, ball bearings, and so on. By the time he moved to Baltimore in 1985, his work had become more codified into a practice of instruments and families of instruments, such as the Nondo, the Vibrawheel, and the Former Guitars. At the same time, he became a mainstay of the burgeoning experimental / improvised music scene that erupted from the Red Room and the internationally renowned High Zero Festival. Sound Mechanic the album serves as an ideal audio entry point into Neil’s music. Skizz, who recorded and co-produced, captured a variety of solo demonstrations and improvised performances with long-time collaborators including Kristin Toedtman, Rupert Wondolowski, and his now-spouse Rosie Langabeer. Tracks such as “Untitled 1” and “Untitled 3” find Neil performing solo on the Wiggler and the Vibrowheel, instruments whose agitated strings and spinning oscillators, respectively, mimic some of the timbres of more recognizable instruments but bend and distort them in alien ways. “Unititled 4,” one of two duo improvisations with Langabeer under the banner Popular Organ Fun Party, channels a Venusian jazz combo in its wild exclamations and percolating rhythms. “Personal Space,” from an impromptu trio with Zula Wildheart and Robert Beamer, puts Neil’s attack in the context of contemporary hardcore. A special bundle offers a chance to capture both the music and the film in one package—as close as you’re going to get to the full Neil Feather experience outside of a live show.

Tracks

Press

Audio & Video

MELT BANANA - '3 + 5'

Formats

• AZ11 - LP (COLOURED)

  657628444817

• AZ11CD - CD

  657628444824

Details

**ON METALLIC SILVER VINYL** Presenting 3+5, the long-awaited eighth album from Tokyo-based noise-rockers Melt-Banana on their own A-Zap label! The album showcases the duo’s visionary musical approach and extraordinary abilities as performers: Yasuko Onuki’s giddy, hyperactive vocalizing and Ichiro Agata’s glitchy, cyberpunk guitar, delivered at dizzying speed, bathed in aggressive electronic sounds. Their aesthetic approach is exultantly experimental, fusing diverse genres imbued with chaotic energy. As on their previous works, the music on 3+5 is unpredictable, always filled with surprises and excitement. 3+5 synthesizes elements of a variety of extreme music, hyper-pop, classic punk, vintage metal, and noise. It partakes of Japanese culture overall, especially the subcultures of gaming, anime and underground music. Melt-Banana seek to offer possibilities to musicians who won’t start a band if they can’t find a drummer, young women afraid to express themselves in their own unfiltered and unique voices, bedroom musicians and egg punks seeking to blend electronic noise with live instrumentation. 3+5 provides a fresh experience and perhaps inspiration for all. While Melt-Banana hasn’t explicitly explained the meaning behind the album’s title, 3+5, prime numbers symbolize mathematical integrity and independence, which could represent the band’s uniqueness and freedom. Why “3+5” and not “1 + 7”? One is left to ponder.

Tracks

1. Code 2. Puzzle 3. Case D 4. Stopgap 5. Scar 6. Flipside 7. Hex 8. Whisperer 9. Seeds

Press

Iconic Japanese noise-rock band return with first new album in seven years

#4 PITCHFORK'S BEST ROCK ALBUMS 2024 |
#37 METAL HAMMER'S AOTY 2024

Audio & Video

36 - 'DREAMLOOPS'

Formats

• BING207 - 4LP

  600197020715

Details

Presenting the first vinyl release of Dreamloops, a collection of long-form tracks that form a stunning two-and-a-half-hour suite over four LPs. The box set has been created, mixed, and designed by Dennis Huddleston, who, as 36 (“three-six”), is among the most celebrated electronic musicians operating today. Praised for his ability to imbue songs with strong, relatable undercurrents, Huddleston achieves a new level of subconscious connection with Dreamloops. First appearing in 2019 as a series of cassettes, Dreamloops was revisited by Huddleston in 2023 to bring newfound clarity, focus, and cohesion. There are eight pieces, each an 18:00 minute standalone self-contained work. In each song, time slows as an ensemble of sounds builds on themes and develops emotional power. Much like epic works such as The Sinking Of The Titanic by Gavin Bryars, LaMonte Young’s Well-Tuned Piano, Daughters Of Darkness by Natural Snow Buildings and Morton Feldman’s String Quartet II, each fragment of Dreamloops culls developing melodies towards hauntological steps forward. Sound spectrums don’t spread wide but instead focus on a precise musical statement, exploring its absolute potential. That said, Dreamloops does not exist in its own idealized sphere. Deep listening reveals tape hiss, oversaturation, wow and flutter, and similar imperfections. The fingerprints deepen part of these tracks’ emotional impact. Henryk Gorecki’s humanity meets Max Richter’s sense of grandeur meets Deathprod’s absolute sound mining, as Huddleston deftly maneuvers his songs toward momentous epic impact. “Emotions get tied in our mind with specific sounds,” Huddleston says. “The whole point of creating music is to explore and discover those frequencies.” A simmering nostalgia is ever present. “There is a beauty in this sound…[where] you can truly glimpse into the soul of the composer.” —Headphone Commute “Warm, hugely emotive loop-based compositions, with particular emphasis on melody and atmosphere.” —The Rest Is Noise

Tracks

A1. Invisible Sunrise
B2. Coalescence Cascade
C3. Broken Chroma
D4. Know Your Shadow
E5. Trench Heart
F6. Dopesick Lament
G7. LVHT
H8. Last Wake Dreamout

Press

For fans of Seefeel, GAS, Popol Vuh, Natural Snow Buildings, Stars Of The Lid

Audio & Video

REFRIGERATOR - 'GET LOST'

Formats

• SHR214/GY14-5 - LP

  657628443810

Details

The fifteenth record by Refrigerator marries the two worlds that the band has come to be known for: the wild improvisational strings caught by drums on a vocal harmony and that of their minimal torch song balladering. The core line up for over thirty years of Chris Jones on drums and the Callaci brothers remains intact, as does bass player Daniel Brodo’s bass playing which has been a part of the Refrigerator sound for over twenty-five years. Joined on the previous record, 2021’s So Long To Farewell by Wckr Spgt guitarist Mark Givens, the five piece’s dual guitar attack is on full display on side one of the new record Get Lost, the sky clearing for a more studied, quieter side two that features saxophone and trombone, a live-to-one track recording and Mott The Hoople heartache. Recorded once again by Steve Folta, the new record book ends the band’s previous effort both audibly and visually as Jean Smith’s previous cover art gives way to Jad Fair’s work for the sleeve of the new record. This is a limited edition vinyl pressing to be followed by a CD and some sort of wind up nickel-and-dime, tin-can-string version in the years to come. Members of Refrigerator will be doing pop-up surprise dates in Japan, Norway, Scotland, Canada and Mexico as well as dates scattered throughout the US as a five piece in support of the new record.

Tracks

1. Fire On 12th Street 2. Get Lost
3. No Chance Of Clouds
4. Look How Far We?ve Come
5. Texas 6. Hey Natalie
7. The New You
8. Glendora Gone Refrain
(William Wegman)
9. The Other Night
10. The Monster Dawn
11. Glendora Gone
12. On Bloodied Knee
13. Forty Days 14. Marionettes

Press

Audio & Video