Seth Nehil - Knives

The samples of this record (on Mimaroglu - linked below as 'buy' - and Boomkat) had me completely absorbed last week. I'd argue that the sample - third track of side A - is the best piece on the record but I couldn't help but continually flip the record over once I'd reached 'the end'. If you're into musique concrete or just generally willing to try something new, which I suspect you are, then be sure to check this out.

Seth Nehil - Knives

This is the first release on Senufo Editions - released alongside an extremely limited Alessandro Brivio record - and only has an edition of 180 copies. Lovely clear vinyl, simple but attractive artwork and a nice letterpressed insert.

"Included herein are a series of short musique concrète pieces from composer seth nehil, featuring input from 20-odd instrumentalists (including Matt marble & JP Jenkins) whose individual contributions are transformed into micro-events, yielding a quite detailed & very edit-heavy array of sound."

"Knives has been influenced by cinematic sound design, hip hop music production, musique concrete and noir films, among other things. These days, I am interested in making music that is equal parts dramatic and abstract, songs with all of the regularity removed. I want to incorporate room tone, accidents, lack of control, mimicry, suggestion, tangentiality."

Download / Buy

------------------------
Plus Tapes: Montoyan Artesian Connection
Ill Professor – Miracle of Luck

If you missed out on those Dara Puspita tapes Plus released at the very start, Sublime Frequencies are meant to be officially re-releasing the material soon.

Catholic Tapes (Email): Wasteland Jazz Unit
Josh Burke - Shared Lucidity
Running - Running Tape #2

Peasant Magik: Chapels - All Voids
Anla Courtis - Becasa Quiula
Glass Coffin / One Master - Split
Hoor-paar-Kraat - Handy Feet
Annapurna Illusion - The Fifth Veda

Under the Spire: Coldstream - South Island

Milieu Music: Milieu - Bell'n Dither
Milieu - Reverb Microcoma (part 2)
Brian Grainger - Sunburnt under the eyes
Brian Grainger - White Kingdoms

Install Sound: David Tagg - Pentecoste
bit disappointed to see the JCL / Tagg split sold out

Not Not Fun: Sun Araw - On Patrol
Magic Lantern - Platoon
Magic Lantern - Show Stopper

Editions Mego: Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (pre-order)

Blackest Rainbow (pre-orders): Isengrind - Modlitewnik
Celer - Dwell In Possibility
Lobster Priest - Cat Food
Deas & Denton - s/t

Morc Tapes are having a small sale and have released the third MorcZine (interviews with black flowers, sharron kraus, jessica bailiff, richard youngs and signal).

Great Pop Supplement: Yair Yona - Remember
CWK Joynes and the Restless Dead - 6 selections and premonitions from the Tower, vol.1

Spirit of Orr listed three new MV & EE bootlegs - Not Only Wine But It's Oblivion I Pour; (Bad) Blood On The Doozers Guitar; Electric Wharf: Coventrian - if you can keep up. $7 each.

Holy Mountain are re-releasing the Voice of the Seven Thunders album despite the original not being sold out (as confused as I am?). There's also a new VotST t-shirt available from Tchantinler.

Reverb Worship: Pete Fosco - Byzantium

Record Store Day was on Saturday. If you went and bought a copy of the Blur single I recommend flogging it to the nutcases on ebay paying £200. Maybe next year the shops will press up 100 copies of records and put them on ebay themselves - I suspect at least a few of the listings have been record store employees, but that's the cynic in me.

Weird Forest: Love Cry Want - s/t (re-press)
The re-press of 'Wide' by Grouper sold out on pre-order so check the usual distros


Tuesday additions

Apollolaan Recordings: Susan Matthews & Clutter - Silence Alright

'Honest Strings: A tribute to the life and work of Jack Rose' is now available from Fina as a download. Features MV & EE, Bardo Pond, C Joynes, Hush Arbors, Six Organs, Rick Tomlinson and loads others. Literally hours of music for $15.

Jooklo Duo are playing at Aquarius Records (San Fran) tonight at 6pm. If you're in the area be sure to go. Also check the Trogloblog linked above (just under the picture title) as there have been quite a lot of uploads going on. And check out their tour disc. I got a copy through (from Aquarius) last week and can confirm that it's mental.

Digitalis have re-released the Roll the Dice album on CD.

Deep TapesL Olympus Mons - Aural alchemy
Earthsurfers - Ryderz of the wyld wave

Mimaroglu have copies of the Golden Retriever disc on Root Strata and I think I read somewhere that they may have some more of Scott Wells 'Day Songs' at some point. Check the New page for the GR disc though.

Did anyone go to Hospital Productions in New York on Records Store Day? The first 100 people were meant to be allowed to make their own 1 minute noise tapes.

Issue 4 of Mountain Fold is available.

Nurse Tapes: Neuntoter der Plage - Swine
Dog Lady - Strung for Her Turning
Ride At Dawn - Aktion Report I
White Boss - Guidelines at Third Stone

Autumn Records: John Clyde-Evans - Go Gracious Kiki Change

Calypso Hum: Early Tunnels - Cold drain
Derek Rogers - Concealed weapon
Lavender Scented Dreamfield

Pony Boy Cassettes: Backwards Sleep - Live at O.Y

Green Records (email): Knox Mitchell - You Chopped My Block Off
Knox Mitchell - Yarns
Five Finger Discount - Life On A Rough Surface
Knox Mitchell - After Music
Five Finger Discount - Eliminate The Bad
Bree Party - Live at Portage Park

If you wanted the Sovetskaya Gone tape on Anathema Sound but missed out, there are some available direct.

905 Tapes: Roman Wolfe - Ylem
Dogbox - s/t
Mick Barr - Brave Grave 2: Guitar
Totem Mold Growth - Straight-internet-copy
Family Treasures / Hunted Creatures - Split

Semata Productions: Bowed Metal Music - Untitled
Asher - Interference
Vic Rawlings / Liz Tonne - Truck Krone

Pete von Petrin is looking for support to fund a 7" via Kickstarter. Julianna Barwick managed it through the site a few months back, and deservedly so, will Pete? I can't find any samples...

One copy left (edition of 15) of 2 cassette split 'Smokestacks' by Sean Gadoury and Scott Johnson - info here.

2:00 AM Tapes: Vestigial Limb - Velo-Dog Dissuader
Palatial - Tierkorperbeseitigungsanstalt (thank God for copy & paste!)
Vales - Tosser
Mike Shiflet - Omen Chaser
Corpse Candle - Into Dust

Munitions Family: Reptile Brain - Dinosaur

Pug Records: V/A - Mekulele, Ukulele, Wekulele
Cave Babies - Green
Math the Band - Don't Worry
Iji - Sorry Seashells

Sonic Meditations: Expo 70 - Psychic Funeral
Breathing Flowers - Magical Order of the Seven Sacred Planets
Matt Hill - Untitled
Also has the coloured vinyl edition of the Umberto record (on Permanent Records) available at the bottom of the page.

The long slow death of cassette players

Hope everyone has had a nice couple of weeks this Easter. I'll get around to answering any comments and a proper post on the weekend - assuming everything goes as planned. A lot of updates are cheekily taken from people kindly posting them in the Promotion section of Fangs & Arrows so check there if you want to get ahead (and join anyway).

-----------------------------
The long slow death of cassette players

Cassette player 1:

This was (technically still is) my parents cassette player. It's part of a small stack system bought in the late 70s / early 80s that has a turntable on top and a CD player below. I sequestered it around 2003/4 and have had it in my room since 2005/6. The turntable, CD player and radio still work perfectly - only the drive belt for the turntable has needed replacing (this year) - but the cassette player died a couple of years ago and emits a constant sharp tone from one of the speakers.


Cassette player 2:

An old birthday present of mine. Probably from 1992/3 - I still have copies of 'History' by Michael Jackson, 'Things can only get better' by D:ream and 'Come on you reds' by Man Utd - and had been working perfectly until a month ago. Now it has started to regularly chew tapes. It often needed a bit of a warm up, by pressing play for 5 seconds with no tape in, but that no longer works and it has been going mid-tape. This is the player used for most tape rips on this blog.


Cassette player 3:

Best looking tape player I own but God knows when this was retired. It used to belong to my Grandad and was only recently uncovered. It has a record function and a pretty decent radio - now set to Radio 5 live for the football. Sadly, it will reach its end in 2012 when this country (for invalid reasons, in my opinion) will scrap analogue radio for digital. The rewind function no longer works with a tape in - although a flip and a fast forward does the same job - and the play warbles.


Cassette player 4:

A.k.a. 'The last hope'. Not sure how old this is. I'd guess it was bought for long car journeys to the south of France and Italy we developed a yearly habit of making in the mid-late 90s. It would be fair to say it was superseded by a discman after a couple of years whatever the case. It's the only one I own that still works perfectly on a regular basis.


You're probably now thinking to yourself, 'who cares?', or, 'so?', and you're probably quite right to do so. I guess I'm just wondering about the future of formats in general because once the last of these tape players goes I'm unlikely to buy a new one. Maybe I'll cave eventually but I don't think I love the format enough to bother. It's a shame because I love the music contained on a lot of them.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the future of cassettes?
Do you also just buy them for the music or would you pick it over other formats?

--------------------
Hoping to have the next post up on Saturday with all the usual updates.

Voice of the Seven Woods feast (pt. 2)

The first part was back in December last year (if you missed it). I had intended to follow it up within a month but here we are, four months later and only just getting around to it.
There are four 7" singles here (The Firefly Dusk, Hush Arbors split, Kafamdaki Yangin and The Burning Mountain), one 3" CD (Withering of the Boughs) and a CDr (VVIIW). All are long sold out but I'm sure you could still track most of them down on Ebay or Discogs if you want copies.
A couple of these have been released under alternate names. Yedi Ormanin Sesi was a Turkish alias involving Rick alongside Chris Walmsley and Pete Headley. Voice of the Seven Thunders is again Rick and Chris but with Rory Gibson on bass and is the current project.

As usual, newly ripped at 320kbps mp3. I've checked before uploading this time that they all unzip so fingers crossed there are no problems there.
I'd recommend the first two ('Withering...' and 'Firefly...') - 'Winter's Temper' is especially good. If you're in the mood for something a bit heavier, a psych-rock flavour, then you should definitely check out the Yedi Ormanin Sesi 7" and 'The Burning Mountain'.

Be sure to check out Rick's latest album under the Voice of the Seven Thunders name. CD and vinyl editions were both self released on his Tchantinler Recordings label and are available direct through the site or via shops like Norman Records and Boomkat.

The Withering of the Boughs

1. The Withering of the Boughs

Download

The Firefly Dusk

A. The Firefly Dusk
B. Winter's Temper

Download
Hush Arbors split

A. Voice of the Seven Woods - Mist & Snow
AA. Hush Arbors - Gone on the Way to Know

Download
Kafamdaki Yangin

A. Yedi Ormanin Sesi - Kafamdaki Yangin
B. Yedi Ormanin Sesi - Karanlik Nehir

Download / Buy
VVIIW

1. Quicksand and Wildfire
2. A Meditation Upon Death
3. The Firefly Dusk
4. Isolation

Download
The Burning Mountain

A. The Burning Mountain
B. Dry Leaves (Alt version)

Download / Buy

I'll get around to ripping 'Black Morning' at some point but I don't have copies of 'An Hour Before Dawn' or 'Mareotic Lake' and 'The Journey', 'The Holy Harbour' and the self titled albums are still available from some of the usual shops so won't be posting those.

----------------------
News / Releases

Huge list has gathered this time.

Kning Disk are having a small spring sale - Peter Broderick down to €5, James Blackshaw for €7, Voice of the Seven Woods €8, etc.

As mentioned by Anonymous in the comments, Ikuisuus are also having a sale (until April 15th) - includes a deal for Taco Bells (LP), Monks Of Malaspina (LP), Keijo (CD) + worldwide postage for €30.

Someone over at Fangs and Arrows kindly directed me to Spirit of Orr to buy the latest MV & EE CD ('Liberty Rose').

Low Point: Gareth Hardwick - Of the sea and shore (pre-order)

Under the Spire: Gareth Hardwick - London 22/01/09

Digitalis Ltd: Jouurney - Dancers in the time flux
Sorc'henn - Shadow is ov silver, phantom is ov gold
Indian Weapons - Perousia

Anathema Sound: Black Eagle Child / Thoughts on Air - Split
Sean McCann & Greg Manata - Ornaments
Sovetskaya Gone - Sashweights & Bags of Birdshot

Motljud has copies of 'Orosvisor', the second album by Sveriges Kommuner & Landsting. An art edition will be made in May but the prices will obviously be higher. It's meant to have quite a few of the same songs - some re-recorded - as the first album but I'm not sure of the track listing to be able to give further details.

Davy Graham's favourite guitar was sold this week on ebay for £5,600.

Singing Knives: Pekko Kappi - Vuonna '86

Joy de Vivre: Being - Immaculate steel casket (not listed on the website, send them an email because it is available)

Ark Tarp: Shiggajon
Jørgen Teller & The Empty Stairs w/ PEWTR - Burn Sugar
Inhibitionists - Trapezoid Man
Donato Epiro - Three Different Kinds Of Poison

Synth Series (RuralFaune): Innercity - Visions from dream state
Magina - Nazca Lines
Mark Bradley - Godspeed
Easy Rider - Eternia beach
Marc-Henri Arfeux - Blossom

RuralFaune: The Driftwood Manor - The Same Figure, leaving
Sparkling Wide Pressure - In a new Mouth
Dylan Ettinger - Cutters (LP co-released with Digitalis)

Three Lobed Recordings: Heavy Winged — Fields Within Fields

Stunned Records: Torture Corpse - Stop the Mind
Talisman - Initiate Into the Mysteries
Sparkling Wide Pressure - Facing the Nothing World
Lunar Miasma - Three Legged Elephant
Mortuus Auris & The Black Hand - Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden
Husere Grav
Slam Fucking Dunk (Stunned bonus)

Dream Root Recordings (email): Moth Cock - Ronnie James Geode
Derek Rogers & Interstates (etc.) - collaboration
Gammaciphers - Near Distance

Bum Tapes: Lee Noble - Loaded Image
Dream Colour / Lasers from Atlantis - Split
Al Qaeda - Hundreds of wives, only a few are dead

For Noise's Sake: Plonk Moist - Plonk Moist
Shalocins - Trains going by
Teeth Collection
Wicked Rot - The Rotten Flute

Abandon Ship Records: Blue Sabbath Black Fiji - Night Hawk (CD)
Mea'l (CD)
Flesh Coffin - Veil of snakes (CD)
Excepter - Steps: La Sala Rossa (CD)
Nervous Sex / Drums Like Machine Guns (cassette)
Christian Science Minotaur - Maps 4 (cassette)
Moutus - Eskimo King / Afternoon Penis (vinyl)

Tape Drift: Jeremy Kelly - Facing Space
Lee Noble - Infinity Bore
Family Treasures - Altars of Ashes
Cruudeuces - Exile Digs
Book of Shadows - Twelve Degree Chandelier

Astral Social Club - Happy Horse (available from Japan - here - and should be in distros soon)

Two new (I think) Mississippi Records re-issues: The Ex & Tom Cora - Scrabbling At The Lock
Uke of Phillips - Peppermint Birdhouse Tea Shanty Shack

Jugular Forest: 1958-2009 - Live
Human Hands - Palus Nectaris
Earn - In a year
Yellow Crystal Star - Rainbow bridge to dream mirror orb
Pale Blue Sky - Souvenir
Caged Soprano - The newspaper

Editions Mego: Cindytalk / Robert Hampson - Five Mountains Of Fire / Antarctica Ends Here
Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here? (CD & 2LP pre-order)

Blossoming Noise: Merzbow - Collection 4
Merzbow - Collection 5
Merzbow - Normal Music
Merzbow - Flesh Metal Orgasm

Existential Cloth: Lee Noble - Twin Language
Siddhi - Cuttlefish Bone
Aghori / Kedamaian - Split

I Just Live Here: V/A - Fake Sound Routine

Sacred Phrases: Dry Valleys / Mohave Triangles - Split

Reverb Worship: Lady Space - Long Lost In A Twilight Head
Yoshino - Sun, Moon

Moving Furniture: A Vibrant Struggle – Between The Woods And Frozen Lake

Tapeworm: Fennesz - Szampler
Leslie Winer - & That Dead Horse