Electronic / Experimental Releases Out Now
For ordering info

Prices are in Canadian dollars (which is around 60% of US money).

All descriptions in "quotes" are from press/wholesale releases or other sources.
Statements not in quotes are my opinions/reviews, or are facts verified by me.



Aube
Substructural Penetration
Iris Light UK 2CD $35

Collection of tracks from compilations - don't you hate that...

Aube
Pages From The Book
E+J Recordings US CD $24

" Peaceful release of epic proportions using only the Bible as a sound source. Slowly building layers of noise texture."

Coil
Moon's Milk Or Under An Unquiet Skull
Eskaton UK CD $16 7" $19

2 ten minute drone pieces with Hammer horror-sounding organs, percusors to Time Machines material. The first of four quarterly releases. "This is the Coil Spring Equinox single on Eskaton. Eskaton 011 is the 7" and Eskaton 012 is the CD. There are 1000 7"s and the CD is available until the Summer solstice."

Die Form
Duality
Metropolis US CD $18

Re-issue of the CD without the box and the photo-book.

Extreme label:

Ed Pias

Ancestor's Halo

Can CD $18

Percussion-based project from American musicologist who has played with Jeff Grienke. Frame drums, tabla, Asian instruments. Half way between ritualistic and composed music.

Hands To
Egress
Anamist US LP $18

" this album is a song cycle of tracks recorded on the remains of dead cactus found in the Arizona desert."
"Hands To have been around since ages with tons of interesting releases on all sorts of formats. This LP uses 'the remains of dead cactus'. The rest on the insert is not very well readable, but it explains how these remains were played. Hands To use a kind of lo-fi recording techniques, like hand held cassette recorders, which result in a somewhat more noisy, primitive version of works such as can be compared with Small Cruel Party, Michael Northam or even to some extent F. Lopez and Bernard Gunther. For me this rawness is the signature that sets Hands To apart from the other blokes (who, in some way, sound the same in that respect that they use the high end digitalized sound). It is good to have the opposite. Hands To's sound of improvised rubbing and bowing, adding no effects, hints to his work with the improv group Blowhole, but in a musique concrete way."

Jesse Paul Miller
Secret Records
Fire Breathing Turtle US 7" $8

" The sound of records being destroyed turned into a record. The analogue equivalent to Oval."

Thomas Koner
Kaamos
Mille Plateaux Ger CD $35

Subtitled "total atmospheric ambience". Recorded live in 97 in Paris.

Koner & Various
Modulation & Transformation 3
Mille Plateaux Ger 2CD $30

Great price for the latest exclusive collection of experimenters and left-field rhythm producers. Generally CD 1 is the more experimental and CD 2 is the more rhythm-oriented. Great tracks as usual from the Germans: Jammin Unit, 4E, Steel and Kerosene.
CD #1 12 trax, 72m
1. Oval "Indirekt 4"
2. Curd Duca "Mod 6" quiet techno doodling
3. Jim O'Rourke "Divided" Oval-esque squiggles & clicks to whining noise
4. Blue Byte "Divine 8" distorted beats and fuckt house breaks
5. Arno Peters "Into Spherical Structures" flutey synth tones, morse code beeps, metallic percussion - like an ambient Autechre track
6. DJ Spooky "Nodal Flux" early industrial-sounding reverb effects
7. Terre Thaemlitz "What Is Between Missing" voice samples from a Sally Jesse Raphael talk show about transgendered people and quiet techno
8. Scanner "Veliascane" rhythm and drone
9. Gas "1912" string synths and pulse-y beats
10. Andy Mellwig "Fade To Blue" ambient drone to organ drone from Porter Ricks member
11. Max Eastley & Thomas Koner "In Concert 4/97" chain-like rattles and background drone
12. Jamie Lidell "Auwv Fehrque 7" Zorn-ish quaking noise and electronix

CD #2 11 trax, 74m
1. The Sidewinder "Skull Probe" distorted bass drums, pounding tribal beats and synth effects
2. 4E "Canibalism Version 1" noisey eq'ed beats and drill-ish ones with Cabaret Voltaire-ish Doppler effects
3. DJ Spooky & Panacea "Kool Stereo Arc Pt 2" an interlude for djs featuring slow percussion, stereo test announcer sample and a computer voice
4. Steel "The Mailman" funky hip hop w/ rap bytes about the "mail man"
5. Pluramon "Flex" Oval-ish sounds to Can-ish funky drumming and Terry Riley-ish organ sounds
6. Heinrich at Hart "Mosha" d&b w/ Panacea-style bass blasts and squeaky treble sounds
7. Thomas P. Heckmann "Soon" techno-funk bassline w/ tinkle-y piano, works well
8. Cristian Vogel "My Bird In The Attic" more avant techno breaks from CV, this time with electronic drone
9. Fetischpark "Scrub" avant electronic funk like their recent Extreme cd
10. Kerosene "Old Time Religion" electro-techno, bass funk and eerie atmospherics - female vocals of title, trash can percussion
11. Jammin Unit "Downtown Bommershime" more of his great electro funk

Namanax
Monstrous
Release US CD $24

4 trax w/ James Plotkin

Shifts
Pangaea
Elsie & Jack Recordings US CD $24

Shifts is the Staalplaat label's Frans De Waard, who has a number of musical projects including Kapotte Muziek (noise), Quest (electronic) and Goem (techno). As Shifts he explores Main-style guitar-generated textures, previewing this debut full-length release with three limited edition 7"s from Staalplaat's Korm Plastics label. Now in the four sections of this 44 minute work he makes his most complete statement about the drone possibilities of guitar strings and its resultant tones. "Part I" begins like an ambient remix of one of Remko Scha's guitar machines, as strummed and hammered strings build into up a grinding drone in "Part II." Here the harmonics create a thick lattice of overtones that whine on the top and groan on the bottom, and only get more complex when a constant bowing adds more chords. "Part III" again drones quietly, preparing a base for "Part IV"'s closing percussive jangle. Pangaea is certainly the most experimental release to be released by an American 'industrial' label this year, and one that deserves the attention of the New Music scene.

Throbbing Gristle
Live Box Set
Mute UK 4CD $104.00

Repress of 1993 box set with remastered live recordings from their 36 gigs. Box features camouflage design.

Zoviet France
Mortes Aux Vaches: Feedback
Staalplaat UK CD $30

9 trax, 77m. The latest in the live radio performance series finds the ZF duo in Amsterdam in August of 1996. They begin on an atypical electronic, oscillating side, before getting into their trademark delayed looping and spacey chants by the third track. Comes in a numbered, limited edition of 1000 copies in a nice, textured paper folder with a dark orange swirl on the front. CD is a picture disc.