COLD SPRING NEWSLETTER

NEWS
+ SHIPPING UPDATES, SPECIAL NEWS ETC... +

COLD SPRING RELEASES

We have three new titles arriving over the next few weeks! If you are overseas and want to combine any pre-order shipments, please email us: info@coldspring.co.uk to let us know. We'll refund any postage saving upon shipment.

SHE SPREAD SORROW 'Huntress' CD / Ltd LP
- out 1st October
CD | Ltd LP | Combo Deal | Bandcamp

THE CIRCULAR RUINS and MYSTIFIED 'Fantastic Journey' CD - out 8th October
CD | Bandcamp

TREPANERINGSRITUALEN 'Veil The World' Ltd LP / CD
- out 22nd October
LP Bone White | CD | Combo Deal | Bandcamp

UK > USA SHIPPING

The majority of Cold Spring label titles (inc vinyl) are available at domestic prices from our U.S. distributor Forced Exposure.

UK > EU SHIPPING

The majority of Cold Spring label titles (inc vinyl) are available from our usual European distributors / mailorder partners. Email us to find out who stocks us in your country.

NEW IMPORTS
+ NEW ADDITIONS TO OUR MAILORDER CATALOGUE +

ABORYM - 'Hostile' CD (Dead Seed Productions) - £12

Italian post-industrial electronic metallers Aborym present their definitive magnum opus. Unarguably heavy, "Hostile" is a kaleidoscopic mix of post-industrial, post-rock, psychedelia, and experimental music. Bursts of rage and coldness give way to creeping anxiety, startling roughness give way to scenarios of loneliness and anguish. Harmonic noise predominates. Melodic motifs recur like the whole thing's being hammered out as the tape rolls. Aborym succeed in bringing themselves full circle, in the search for the melody, the coldness of the machines and the industrial influences that surfaced on their "Shifting.negative" album. "The new atheism. The ardent wish to finally forget about God: to discard the cherished illusion of God and definitively break away from the images and thoughts". Darkness, brightness, discomfort, equilibrium and loathing. 6-panel digipak.

ABORYM - 'Hostile' 2 x LP (Dead Seed Productions) - £24

Deluxe double vinyl edition of the above release. Ltd x 100 copies on 'Saharan Dust' splatter vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.

ÆVANGELIST - 'Dream An Evil Dream III' CD (Dead Seed Productions) - £12

Dark esoteric Black Metal entity Ævangelist present "Dream An Evil Dream III" - a 46-minute singular excursion into the darkest realm of gloomy Black Metal, dripping in horror-infused melancholia within the outer dark. Along with no clean singing and no whole chords, there is also no optimism, light, or comfort. Founded in 1999 by mastermind and visionary Matron Thorn (Benighted In Sodom, ex-Bethlemem) founded Ævangelist's augmented line-up includes new permanent vocalist Stephane Gerbaud (ex-Anorexia Nervosa). Features a guest appearance by Laurent Clément (The Reptilian Session, ex-Christicide) providing further inward hell-synthesis. The artwork is crafted by occult artist Carlos Andrés Eckhardt. Mastered by Jeremie Bezier (Emptiness, ex-Enthroned). 6-panel digipak.

ASMUS TIETCHENS - 'Seuchengebiete 4' CD (Auf Abwegen) - £13.50

Part 4 in the legendary immersive hydrophonic series by Asmus Tietchens has arrived. "Seuchengebiete 4" consists of six Hydrophonies - treated water sounds. The sonic palette ranges from deep gurgling bass pulses to fragile movements of showering bright particles. The overall mood is earnest, contemplative and dark. "Seuchengebiete 4" is perhaps the ultimate soundtrack for our crises-ridden times. Hamburg musician Asmus Tietchens has been working as an independent musician since 1975, specialising in irregular patterns of sonic abstractions that are suspended in gray drones to create cold textural voids from external references. Through "absolute music" he explores the possibilities presented to him by specific sound sources, ranging from water sounds to pure sine wave tones. Ltd x 300 copies in a digipak.

ASTRO - 'Far In The Distance' CD (Abhorrent Creation Tapes) - £11.50

The brand new album from legendary Japanese Noise duo ASTRO: Hiroshi Hasegawa (C.C.C.C., South Southern Delta, Shroud Of Vapour, Galax, etc), and Hiroki Hasegawa (aka ROHCO, also of C.C.C.C. and Shroud Of Vapour). Recorded in Toyko earlier this year, "Far In The Distance" features walls of blistering harsh noise and blissful glitchy electronics, spread across two colossal tracks (21 and 25 mins apiece), with the second track involving heavier, power electronics elements. Hiroshi on electronics, field recordings and samples; ROHCO on electronics and devices. Ltd x 500 copies.

BRAÂME - 'The Fourth Room Of Extinction' CD (Breath Sun Bone Blood) - £13

Ethereal noise walls from Paris. Ethereal drones and otherworldly angelic female chants flow through burning noise and elegant static interference. "When you need to hunt out the beautiful in a stream of noise and dirt. When you need to hear a voice that you want to go with and not to feel the vibrations, that you want to run away from. When through the apocalypse and chaos you hear love and beauty... Are we still talking about music? Braâme created what I have been looking for a long time" (Reflexions Of Darkness). The word Braâme refers to the cry of the stag and the steel block; two elements in perfect opposition, but which (hardly) coexist in the twilight of our industrial era. Braâme is Damien of dark fok act Vesperal. Presented in an extra matte A5 gatefold digisleeve with artwork from an analogue collage by Soeur Alice. Highly recommended!

CIRCLE OF SH*T - 'Romance Through The Body' CD (Aussaat) - £12.50

This work could be considered the first full-length album of Finnish Noise / Industrial act Circle Of Sh*t, formed in 2011 and releasing a large body of work consisting of ultra-limited cassettes, recycled tapes, and CDRs - some as little as 8 copies. A work in progress since the beginning of the project, now ceased to progress / regress, "Romance Through The Body" is a concept album without a concept; about the idea of the 20th century being a Body. It is Foley Art for a non-existent motion picture, yet another cliché. The recordings and final mixes have been created over a long period of time. The 8 intense tracks here offer a journey into the weird and surreal Circle Of Sh*t sound cosmos. Circle Of Sh*t also records as Junta (with Edge Of Decay), and HWN act The Aprils. Comes with 8-page booklet and 3.5cm pin badge.

EMERGE + THORSTEN SOLTAU + RALF WEHOWSKY - 'Acker Und Seche' CD (Auf Abwegen) - £12

A three-way collaboration of abstract electronics, very strange and discrete electroacoustic sounds by three German artists: Thorsten Soltau, Emerge and Ralf Wehowsky (aka RLW / P16.D4). The 43+ minutes of "Acker und Seche" takes its starting point from six pieces by Thorsten Soltau which were originally commissioned by Swiss Radio (SFR). The main musical elements of these pieces were the sounds of piano and electronics. These works where enhanced by Soltau by using additional field recordings, concrete sounds, and electronics provided by Emerge. Emerge then further manipulated the works and created a final mix. Ralf Wehowsky / RLW was given the final pieces, constructing a 17+ minute collage / new work with electronics out of it as a sort of commentary on the original music. Ltd x 200 copies in a gatefold ecopak.

GEORGE RAYNER-LAW - 'Cantonese Tapework' Cassette (Brachliegen Tapes) - £7

South London sound worker George Rayner-Law (Schwerpunkt) hits hard and fast with a harsh noise barrage. Tiny snatches of sound hiss, rumble and scream out as one until your ears can't take it any more: head-cleaning improvisation, via abusing cassette play heads. Rotations of tone clank and spin, as groaning layers of saturated frequency collide in an ecstatic cacophony... a broadside of tone churning the stereo spectrum... a mediation on a time past, in a place that no longer exists. A stitched mournful tape loop overlaid with the ghosted field recording of a displaced airport terminal bustle. A reflection on the tailspin of British imperialism; the cloying persistence of the old world. The record reflects on the falsities that the long ignoble history of British orientalism provides, occluding the complex mundanities of actually-existing Chinas. The outcome is an immediate and visceral synapse-firing work of materialist noise. Pro-duplicated C21 cassette on a 'sage green' tape, with a hand dyed j-card and A6 insert.

JOHN BALANCE (COIL) & ANTHONY BLOKDIJK - 'The Abrahadabra Letters' Book (Korm Plastics) - £26

From 1984 to 1988 Anthony Blokdijk frequently visited Threshold House in London and corresponded with John Balance of COIL about playing live, releasing music and personal affairs. This book collects scans of Balance's original handwritten letters, including idiosyncratic decorative flourishes and provides insight into his colourful world. Also included are two articles on Coil from Blokdijk's Abrahadabra magazine, and an interview with Coil he conducted for the Dutch magazine Opscene. Translations included. Foreword by Nick Soulsby. Design by Alfred Boland. A4 hardback book, 136pp.

KNIFEDOUTOFEXISTENCE - 'I Find Myself Dwelling On The Sick' Cassette (Brachliegen Tapes) - £7

A heaving tapework from UK outsider electronics artist Knifedoutofexistence. Four longform dirges (40 mins) work through the precariousness of the present, building a tapestry of saturated tone from the rubble of a year claimed by malady and malaise. In this dense work of searing noise, found sound and field recordings from the south coast are gnawed by corroded electronics and submerged in a whirring slipstream of cassette warble. Piercing tones stretch a present left fallow in the wake of pestilence; the hum and clatter of contracting domestic spaces collide with a spewing stream of consciousness, and the hiss of static claims what remains. "I Find Myself Dwelling On The Sick" marks a cryptic entry into the post-industrial plague chronicles, documenting the dark interior of a year embalmed in sickness. Suffused with the faint traces of the ghosted histories stored in objects and places, the recordings are a multi-textured reflection on the present, in the form of billowing sonic exorcism. The material emerged from the same set of recordings as the "God Spits" cassette (Trust Collective), both functioning as an attempt to come to terms with the instability of a present ravaged by sickness and uncertainty. Pro-duplicated C42 cassette on a 'clear frost' tape, with folded A6 insert.

L'ECLIPSE NUE - 'A Defective Man / Torn Spectral Lens' CD + 3" CD Tin Boxset (Aussaat) - £20

New studio album American industrial noise unit with its origins in Tokyo. "A Defective Man is seemingly useless to society. He is a failure. He is a malformed and incomplete. Ultimately, however, the world of form is fleeting and insignificant. In embracing these deficiencies, we release ourselves from the bondage". A vast amount of field recordings of both human and mechanical sounds are poured over, sampled, and treated with effects: some conservatively, while others are mangled beyond recognition. Synthesizers (both digital and analogue) produce deep bass throbs, shrill piercing shrieks and momentary 'musical' elements. Howling feedback and distortion sound like the inner workings of the electronics are being torn to pieces. The album comes on the full-length CD and is bolstered by a bonus live 3" CD (both CD-proper). It was recorded at the magnificently-named Cold Spring Hollow in Massachusetts just prior to the pandemic. With a mood close to the main album, if offers the listener a chance to 'be' in the intimate setting: being awash in frequencies, both exhilarating and damning, on a chilly autumn evening in New England. Ltd x 100 hand-numbered copies presented in a tin box with insert and sticker.

MARIAH - 'Utakata No Hibi' CD (Everland Psych) - £14

Mariah was a Japanese outfit in the field of experimental art pop, way back in the late 70's / early 80's. Originally released in 1983, their sought-after 5th album "Utakata No Hibi" is a fusion of dreamy synthesizer pop and haunting new wave music in the vein of Tears For Fears, more adventurous David Bowie, with a touch of Kraftwerk, spiced up with an atmosphere of Japanese traditionalism / Enka music. The record draws the listener into the darkest and most depraved corners of Tokyo where you find cheap sleazy bars, and unlit alleys; the next moment you're strolling through a beautiful Japanese park surrounded by a sea of blossoms. Solid song structures with substance helped Mariah push the borders of popular music, with repetitive rhythms, silky melodies, and synth piano with female voice. The progressive pop project was led by the Japanese composer and musician Yasuaki Shimizu, a relentlessly exploratory saxophonist. He approved the brand new remastering of this album by assisting a highly professional team of sound engineers who dusted off the ancient tape reels. Presented in a Japanese-style mini LP sleeve with obi strip and 36x36cm poster.

MARIAH - 'Utakata No Hibi' 2 x 12" (Everland Psych) - £30

Double vinyl edition of the above release. Presented in a UV-glossy laminated gatefold sleeve with obi strip, 60x60cm poster and lyric sheet.

MARK DICKER - 'Flyalarm' Cassette (Brachliegen Tapes) - £7

In this thick rhizome of tone, heavy electronics coalesce with dense layers of modular synthesis, field recordings of a Norwegian winter, producing throbbing drones modulated by the murmurs of a primeval forest. Oscillators grind and disperse through the valley bedrock, filtered by the ancient trees, creaking and groaning amongst themselves. Abyssal sounds - like drift ice traversing the frozen river - dredge up from the depths relics belonging to histories both recent and remote. An eerie klaxon resounds periodically across the valley; monolithic, weathered outcroppings cast strange shapes in the half light, enveloping the dark ambience. A wood burning iron stove crackles and spits underneath a great canopy of tone that filters skywards in notched, resonant peaks. Recorded above a church in Oslo, January 2021, with recordings from the Hallingdal Valley. Pro-duplicated C44 cassette on a 'wood green' tape, with a photographic impression of the forest's image printed on semi-transparent j-card.

MUSLIMGAUZE - 'Uzi' CD (Other Voices Records / Kontakt Audio) - £13

Muslimgauze's gem from 1989, originally released by Parade Amoureuse. Cinematic, minimal, noisy, hypnotic, and gloomy. Probably not so overtly Middle Eastern as his later works, though definitely bearing an influence. Backed by electric drones, percussion forms a living, breathing atmosphere of impending menace. This album was not included in VOD's "Chasing The Shadow Of Bryn Jones" 10LP boxset, making this a great artefact for collectors and the curious alike. Remastered and presented on CD for the first time since its original release. Ltd x 300 copies in a reverse board mini-LP sleeve, with printed inner sleeve and a fold-out poster insert. ACT FAST!

SCHWERPUNKT - 'The Lion Hunt' Cassette (Brachliegen Tapes) - £7

"The Lion Hunt" is named for the series of relief sculptures from the palace of Ashurbanipal, held by the British Museum. "The artwork depicts the King partaking in mechanised slaughter - there is an infrastructure of trappers, cages and charioteers involved in killing the giant cats. There are multiple wounded, crippled lions, some vomiting blood, some clearly already drained and dead. When I was making this record, I had a moment of absolute terrifying clarity in front of the panel that is the cover of this tape. I was the lion, and the lion was me - only my infrastructure was the grinding, slow wheel of capital-induced mental disorder, rather than the skipping fast wheel of the chariot" (George Rayner-Law). "The Lion Hunt" is an exercise in reflection and reanimation. The tracks lurch from discrete meditations on the nature of grief, to harsh feedback drones, which cave in on themselves under the weight of heavy saturation, dissolved in the acid rain of personal history. They creak and heave in a sonic palette of austere synthesis and manipulated feedback loops - an exercise in working with limitations. Comparable to the early industrial tape experiments of T.G. and Cabaret Voltaire, as drum machine led minimal wave lurches into gut churning drones. Pro-duplicated C30 cassette on a 'brick red' tape in a printed natural card sleeve, with separate detailed liner notes, all bound in twine.

SLIM VIC - 'Mörkrets Narr' CD (Lamour Records) - £12

The Fool Of Darkness (Mörkrets Narr) steps into your consciousness, he feels your fear and happiness and reflects it all back in an endless flow of soundtracks. From the abyss of anxiety to the hopeful joy. The cinematic soundworlds capture or intimidate the listener into a deep-seated listening session. We get a metamorphosis of emotional states here, including two collaborations with frequent musical partners Oestergaards (Dovle Records) and Plasmafuse (Fierce Transmission). The album can be placed in a musical variant of the literary genre Scandinavian Noir; a dark and almost objective style with layers upon layers of cinematic content. "Darkness is indeed the operative word here. Either working out in a very spacious setting, but also at times noisy and alienating... [it] could have come straight out of the book of Cold Meat Industry. Many songs here have a creepy, uneasy feeling, obviously of the variety that I enjoy... This is music for depth of autumn, torrential rainfall and such, darkness from early morning to early evening, fading into evening... music to be played on dark and doomy winter days with rain and thunder" (Vital Weekly). Ltd x 200 copies in a DVD size digipak with copper foilblock lettering.

THE BLUE HOUR - 'Lore' CD (Dark Vinyl) - £13.50

The Blue Hour is a Seattle-based duo that blends elements of ethereal, electronic, and neoclassical music to create a haunting dreampop-noir that is reminiscent of classic 4AD artists, while retaining a fresh vision that is unique to Marselle and Brian Hodges. Marselle's ethereal yet soulful vocal delivery often draws comparison to Kate Bush. Meanwhile, Brian's songwriting and production, which focuses on finding that rare balance between the melancholy and the sublime, is frequently likened to This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance. "Lore" features contributions from Barry Galvin (Mephisto Walz, Christian Death), John Fryer (This Mortal Coil, NiN, Depeche Mode), Pieter Nooten (ex-Clan Of Xymox), Mark Gemini Thwaite (Peter Murphy, The Mission), and Wade Alin (Christ Analogue). Comes in a 6-panel ecopak.

TONY TEARS - 'The Atlantean Afterlife (... Living Beyond)' LP (Bloodrock Records) - £19

Tony Tears - aka Antonio Polidori (ex-Abysmal Grief) one of the founding fathers of the Italian esoteric, dark doom scene - returns as a revamped quintet on the band's eighth full-length album. Expect a daring opus vaguely akin to "Demons Crawl..." albeit elevated to a significantly higher plane. Superior compositions, personal performances and production values accentuate their collective vision. This is an exploration of Cult, Magic and Reincarnation. The epitome of Italian Dark Sound in 2021! "The story of an imperishable myth linked to an infinite knowledge that goes far beyond earthly life". Ltd x 100 copies on gold / black splatter vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with insert.

USURPATOR - 'Spear Of Psychosis' LP (Dead Seed Productions / Church Of Eradication) - £18

Debut album from Austrian dissonant Black Metal act Usurpator. "Usurpator makes unpredictable black metal, convulsing at a scathingly fast pace, shrieking like a dying animal... This one is mandatory" (Ailes Sanglantes). White vinyl housed in deluxe reverse board sleeve with 12-page booklet.

VINEGAR TOM - 'Do Not Lose Sight Of The Sea' Cassette (Brachliegen Tapes) - £7

Two 7-minute meditations on coastal living, chiseled out from a permanent residence in the histrionic battleground of England. Taking field recordings of the country's dark edges as its genesis, it dials into the frequencies of the cursed isle as it continues its process of unending erosion. Power electronics corrode the broadcast of a failing behemoth as it sinks into the murky depths - transmitting a distress signal to no-one, blaming all those but itself. Pummelling kicks, knifing bass pulses and layers of feedback compete for space, as the landscape descends into the moan and groan of decay. Side A, "A Petition Of Cruelty", is a heaving egression of death industrial which rends the ground from underneath the listener, torn up by some great tunnelling beast. Feedback, an uncaring rhythm chittering sounds, a warped death rattle, a bestial rumble, treading wind, turned stubborn. The titular Side B opens with rolling swells of shoreline static, and mocking seabirds, carried breathlessly on a hungry wind. Electrical tones diffuse themselves, mingling with the tides of an uneven pulse. A fractured landscape, stretched and distorted by the pathos of national myth. A hum of distant possibilities from some far off installation washes up on the shore of the present. But this oarless vessel drifts out to sea, careening airlessly through the waves; indifferent to hope, it bobs on, to its squalid conclusion. Pro-duplicated C15 cassette on a 'pastel pink' tape, with a hand dyed j-card and A6 insert.

BACK IN STOCK!

BLACKHOUSE - '5 Minutes After I Die' CD (Dark Vinyl) - £13.50

Repressing of an absolute cult album from 1986. "5 Minutes After I Die" was the third Blackhouse release, focusing on rhythmical noise and a pure feedback driven beat with enlightening vocals. Blackhouse are the godfathers of Rhythmic Industrial. Limited repress of 200 copies only!

BRUTA NON CALCULANT - 'Instinct' CD (Dark Vinyl) - £12.50

German minimal synthpop from members of Le Syndicat Electronique, with a message: "Instinct leads animals all their lives. It is the same process for humans until their death. Belief that humans are superior to animals is an error. A human kills and procreates for survival... without conscious! He speaks about his rights or his free will, but in truth, he is a slave of his heredity. The results of his millennium of ignorance are: misery, war and suffering on earth. The human strikes his own nature to survive. The only one to kill and eat... is ourself, our heredity, our ignorance: our own "pig" inside. And the old religion and its heavy laws will die, naturally. INSTINCT will give away to intuition... and the return to our tradition will be possible. These words are for les hommes de bonne volonté!". Comes in a 6-panel ecopak.

JOHN WATERMANN - 'Babel #1' CD (Stille Andacht / Dark Vinyl) - £11

1993 CD from late Australian experimentalist and visionary John Watermann. Features an incredible recombinant use of English verbal phonemes to simulate natural speech, but babelised. The tower of babel as the source of communication problems. An engaging world of sonic and natural sounds processed and used in dramatic variations. File next to Asmus Tietchens.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - 'What Sound Vol 2' CD (Sound Factory) - £11

Legendary Noise / Experimental compilation from Hong Kong label Sound Factory. Features: Art Decade, Asmus Tietchens & Arcane Device, Delir Noir, Ground Zero (2 tracks), Illuminated 6.6.6., John Watermann, Nelson Hiu, Otomo Yoshihide (2 tracks), Phallus Dei, PNF, Premature Ejaculation, Spinal Machine (John Watermann), TATs Lau (2 tracks), and ZSLO. Second edition in jewelcase - purposefully presented with front insert only (no back insert).