VARIOUS ARTISTS - 'Электронная Музыка АНС (ANS Electronic Music)
CD £8.50 Adv - OUT 28 FEBRUARY

  

Available on CD (or any other format) for the first time outside USSR, Soviet composers perform their works on the legendary ANS synthesizer.

Recorded in 1969, "Электронная Музыка АНС (ANS Electronic Music)' features 6 tracks of experiments on the unique machine by: Eduard Artemiev, Stanislav Kreitchi, Sándor Kallós, and Alexander Nemtin. A 'musical' machine unlike any other which has long fascinated cutting edge, modern electronic composers, notably COIL and THE ANTI GROUP COMMUNICATIONS (TAGC) / CLOCK DVA, that have both released recordings utilising the ANS.

Try to imagine a score sounding by itself without a conductor; an orchestra without musical instruments. This magic is possible by using the musical ANS synthesizer. Created by Soviet scientist Evgeny Murzin over the course of 20 years, ANS is an instrument with which a composer can not only create but also draw their music without notes. You can see the twinkling of different lamps, the rotation of grooved glass discs... The drawings on the glass are 'sounding notes'. To listen to the drawn picture, press the button and a wonderful transformation will begin.

Inside the ANS are five rotating glass discs with 144 tones printed (by hand) on each one. Light is projected through the discs and onto photovoltaic cellbank which converts the light into electricity and sends signals to the ANS's amplifiers and bandpass filters. The ANS can generate 720 tones this way and, unlike a human musician, play them all at the same time.

Murzin dedicated his photoelectronic apparatus to Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, hence the name ANS. Scriabin, the creator of the 'Poem of Ecstasy', and a famous explorer of synesthesia, used in his works a highly chromatic, new type of harmonic style designed to express his beliefs, views and wishes.

Soviet music lovers will already know recordings made on ANS from Tarkovsky's films Solaris, The Mirror, and Stalker, Konchalovsky's film Siberiade, and others.

• CD in full colour matt-laminate digipak with the new artwork by Abby Helasdottir, complimenting the ANS process perfectly.

IGGOR CAVALERA / SHANE EMBURY - 'Neon Gods / Own Your Darkness'
CD £9.50 Adv | LP Black £20 Adv | LP White £22 Adv - OUT 21 MARCH


   

Two legendary titans of the extreme metal scene - IGGOR CAVALERA (Cavalera Conspiracy / Petbrick / founding member of Sepultura) and SHANE EMBURY (Napalm Death / Dark Sky Burial) - join forces for this unique split of brooding dark ambient, industrial strength noise, and heavy synth-laden electronics, creating what feels like the lost soundtrack to some dystopian fever dream.

Setting the tone for this double-headed behemoth with creeping, cinematic dark ambience, IGGOR CAVALERA's side-long 'Neon Gods' unfolds into a brutal sonic nightmare. Equal measures of dread and anguish come together with the occasional reprieve of slow, pulsating drones and almost meditative waves of static. The crescendo of harsh industrial noise with heavy Death Industrial vocalisation is nothing short of pummelling.

"Neon Gods is a bit of a sonic trip, with different layers of atmospheric vibrations, from darkness to light. It's an absolute pleasure to do this split release with Shane, I believe we share a lot of similar ideas when it comes to opening our mind to different styles of sounds" (IC).

SHANE EMBURY's 'Own Your Darkness' merges menacing, pitch-black dark ambient and hypnotic bass swells with celestial synth lines that subtly lurk around the peripheries. Rising and falling, ebbing and flowing - until finally the all-encompassing apocalyptic bleakness, the enveloping darkness, closes in around you.

"Iggor and I have been good friends for decades and this is a record very different for us both but amazing! A very interesting track to make, it was my first experiment with the Solar 42. An excellent synth for those eternal drones of despair and was assisted my long time colleague Russ Russell. As I journey ever onward in through my individuation it's imperative that I own my own darkness... hence the title. We all need to strive for balance and to kindle a light in the darkness of being" (SE).

• CD in matt-laminate digipak

• Ltd Ed 300 copies on white heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve (via Cold Spring only!)

• Black heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve.

LTD WHITE LP £22	BLACK LP £20	CD £9.50

T.A.G.C. - 'Iso-Erotic Calibration'
CD £11.50 | LP Black £21 | LP Brown £23 - OUT NOW!

    

Carefully constructed aural rituals from T.A.G.C., this album maps new realms in the area of sensual electronic music. Founder Adi Newton (CLOCK DVA) uses The Anti Group as an outlet for his research in psycho-acoustic music.

"Iso-Erotic Calibration" explores the potent topic of human sexuality. Recorded over a period of three years, this could be considered on of their more "accessible" albums.

Originally released in 1994 (Side Effects, the label of Lustmord, Musica Maxima Magnetica, and Adi's own Anterior Research Recordings), we are proud to present the album for the first time on vinyl, as well as the first official CD reissue, fleshed out with four bonus tracks: two were bonus digital-only tracks (2013); one track is taken from the soundtrack to the 2011 T.A.G.C. film 'Given'; one is a remix of the title track.

The Anti Group Communications (T.A.G.C.) was devised by Adi Newton and Steven James Turner as early as 1978 as a multi-dimensional research & development project. TAGC are not affiliated to any one system of philosophy or epistemological paradigm or occult fraternity but are open more to individual systems and innovative thinkers. Science, Art, Music Sonology, Literature, Research & Publication are its main areas.

The artwork is filled with text and illustrations supporting the different songs.

• CD in matt-laminate 6-panel digipak

• Ltd Ed 300 copies on brown heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve

• Black heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve

LTD BROWN LP £23	BLACK LP £21	CD £11.50

VARIOUS ARTISTS - 'Noise Forest'
CD £11.50 | 2LP Black £26 | 2LP Forest Green £28 - OUT NOW!

      

A classic compilation that emanated out of Osaka, "Noise Forest" brings together a powerhouse of early 90's Japanese noise stalwarts: MERZBOW, C.C.C.C., SOLMANIA, DISLOCATION, MONDE BRUITS, MASONNA, VIOLENT ONSEN GEISHA, and INCAPACITANTS.

The ultimate Japanoise collection, originally released in 1992 on the cult Les Disques Du Soleil label / record store on CD-only, and now impossible to find. Remastered and presented here on deluxe 2LP in matt-laminate gatefold sleeve (first time on vinyl) and new CD edition, all with new artwork.

A forest isn't something normally associated with noise; it brings to mind silence and solitude. However, the ominous cover art here - and the artists within - bring to mind the notorious suicide forest Aokigahara. Despite all tracks falling into the Japanoise genre, the tracks are very diverse, yet every track is so distinct it could only be by that artist.

"One of the most unique and stand-out noise comps of the 90's".

For mini-reviews of each track, please visit the release pages, or listen to Noisextra's 'Noise Forest' special!

• CD in matt-laminate 6-panel digipak

• 2LP Ltd Ed 250 copies on forest green heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate gatefold sleeve

• 2LP Black heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate gatefold sleeve

LTD FOREST GREEN 2LP £28	BLACK 2LP £26	CD £11.50

PITCHSHIFTER - 'Peel Sessions 1991-93'
CD £12 | LP Black £22 | LP White £25 - OUT NOW!

    

We proudly present the first ever release of PITCHSHIFTER's legendary BBC sessions for the late, great John Peel.

These ultra heavy industrial metal tracks were recorded over two sessions at the iconic Maida Vale studios: 28th April 1991 and 30th March 1993 and were sourced directly from the BBC Archives (with thanks), with careful remastering for CD and vinyl. The 1991 session was recorded during the same period as "Industrial" (Deaf Records / Peaceville), with the 1993 session recorded around the time of "Desensitized" (Earache), with the massive EP "Submit" in between.

PREMIERE AT CVLT NATION

"If you look on your PITCHSHIFTER albums you will see that we always credit John Peel. He was instrumental in getting the band out there and often played our music on the radio when no one else dared. The 'Peel Sessions' we did were a great honour and every time I met John he was always such a great guy... a legend" (JS).

Founded in Nottingham in 1989, PITCHSHIFTER's early style was heavy industrial metal, being cited as one of the originators of the genre along with Godflesh - a style which they termed "Death Industrial". These sessions and albums mark the end of that classic period, before a shift towards the more commercial, beat-driven Industrial style from the mid-90's onward that they are still known for.

• CD in matt-laminate 6-panel digipak

• Ltd Ed 500 copies on white heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve

• Black heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve

• Ltd 100 copies on Black & White swirl heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve (via Pitchshifter only)

LTD WHITE LP £25	BLACK LP £22	CD £12

BASS COMMUNION - 'The Itself Of Itself' 2 x LP (Lumberton Trading Company) - £34

Deluxe vinyl reissue of 2024's "The Itself Of Itself" - Bass Communion's first album for 12 years. Long established as a purveyor of mostly atmospheric or ambient textures, the seven cuts here take detours from this approach in order to draw as much from musique concrete, noise music, abstract electronics and uneasy listening. Whilst still rippled with the same shades of light and dark that can be found throughout all of Steven Wilson's (Porcupine Tree) work, "The Itself Of Itself" reveals a fascination with analogue sounds and artefacts like tape hiss, wow and flutter, static noise, and sonic break-up, taking the music into a space at once different yet familiar. A dynamic listening experience where unease, dread and comparatively claustrophobic torrents of sound make (un)natural bedfellows to moments of enchantment and serenity. "The Itself Of Itself" sees Bass Communion cutting his teeth on an album that's at once cinematic and moody whilst proving him to be a master in electronic music craftsmanship, spreading its weather-beaten wings to embrace new strategies and a strong desire to journey elsewhere. Ltd x 1000 copies with obi strip in a wonderful Carl Glover designed deluxe gatefold sleeve and 24pp booklet of his photographs. VERY FEW IN STOCK - ACT FAST!

FINAL (JUSTIN K. BROADRICK) - 'I Am The Dirt Under Your Fingernails' 2 x LP (Fourth Dimension) - £25

Since 1983, Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh, Council Estate Electronics, Techno Animal, Zonal, etc.) has been producing largely solo, but sometimes collaborative, work under the FINAL moniker. Beginning as a more obviously power electronics-inspired project it has during the past two decades or so evolved into one which still retains that sonic intensity but has a more expansive sound. "I Am the Dirt Under Your Fingernails" is the latest album, comprising nine tracks each named and numbered after the album's title. "IATDUYF" violently pushes us through a murky world of suffocating textures, crepuscular guitars, serrated noise and what appear to be random bursts of sawmill grind which together create the perfect backdrop to today's newscape. This is a relentless sound that's absolutely unforgiving as it hammers home anger and despair with little respite, illustrating very clearly that JK Broadrick has been one of the very few to contort the uncompromising approach of early power electronics into wholly new and contemporary forms rife with greater possibilities. Ltd x 300 copies.

MICHAEL CASHMORE - 'Until The End Of Vibration' CD (Lumberton Trading Company) - £11.50

The latest album from Michael Cashmore (Nature And Organisation, and the main guitarist and composer for CURRENT 93 from 1990 until around 2006) collects 23 vignettes woven into each other to create a piece of work that appears like the soundtrack to a drama seeped in melancholy yet rich in surprising twists and turns. Using piano, electronics, organ, electronics, rhythm, guitar and orchestral sweeps, "Until The End Of Vibration" draws from a variety of sources of inspiration to ultimately end up at a place ashmore has long been chiselling at with a solo career that commenced in the early 1980s. While there's definitely a strong classical aura at work here, there are occasional embellishments and detours which wouldn't seem at all out of place on the shifting shades of a '70s prog or krautrock obscurity, or even leftfield electronic pop. Arguably, his most accomplished album yet. "Every time I work with sacred audio frequencies I am learning from them and they are also an expression of my personal transformation of my physical consciousness. It is also a documentation of my experimentation with the unequivocal connection between music and mysticism; how they accentuate each other and how they become more powerful because of this and more intense... This album is about the journey of life to death, returning home in childhood consciousness once again, transforming from physical consciousness into cosmic consciousness and finally finding contentment and a sense of serenity. The album consists of 23 pieces that should be regarded as one piece" (Michael Cashmore). Ltd x 300 copies in a digipak.

MUSLIMGAUZE - 'Citadel' 2 x LP (Other Voices Records) - £25

Originally released by the revered Australian label Extreme, this is the first ever reissue since its original CD-only press in 1994. "Citadel" is an album of exotic Arabic textures where traditional instruments intermesh with technology, found sounds and voices meld with drones and synthesizers. The album uses both eastern and western rhythmic patterns embedded in layers of shifting soundscapes: incessant tablas piercing through swirling cymbals, haunting, machine-gun rhythms, traditional strings, the interplay of rhythm and voice, and mesmerizing chants. "Muslimgauze produce a raga music for the technological post-cyber age. Shifting cultures out of ancient history into the current day, transcending those traditional forms. "Citadel" has a voice of what is now and perhaps what is to come. In these troubled political times, peace through people being unified in harmony whilst maintaining their own strength and cultural identity is a vision to strive towards" (Extreme). The original tracks were perfectly remastered (receiving high praise from the Extreme Music owner Roger Richards). Double LP in deluxe extra heavy cardboard with spot UV finish and inside print, with new sleeve design were created by Oleg Galay. **SLIGHT DAMAGE!** Please note that all copies arrived to us with 1-2" spine splits, hence the reduced price. Still sealed.

MUSLIMGAUZE - 'United States Of Islam' 2 x LP (Other Voices Records) - £25

Originally released by the cult Australian label Extreme, this is the first ever reissue since its original CD-only press in 1991. Armed with a cleverly provocative title, USoI showcases a moodier side of Muslimgauze. While the trademark blend of driving percussion and minimalism reigns supreme as always, the general feel is much more dreamy and mysterious than on some of Bryn Jones' more forthright pieces. The original tracks were perfectly remastered (receiving high praise from the Extreme Music owner Roger Richards). Formed in Manchester in the post-industrial early 80's Muslimgauze is a world music based on western rhythms, integrated with ethnic instruments and atmospheres. The music is a minimal, polyrhythmic soundscape. Double LP in deluxe extra heavy cardboard with spot UV finish and inside print, with new sleeve design were created by Oleg Galay. **SLIGHT DAMAGE!** Please note that all copies arrived to us with 1-2" spine splits, hence the reduced price. Still sealed.

MUSLIMGAUZE - 'Zul'm' 2 x LP (Other Voices Records) - £25

Originally released by the lauded Extreme label out of Australia, this is the first ever reissue since its original CD-only press in 1994. "Zul'm" is an album of contrasts. It is evocative of a culture caught up in a web of local and global politics. The narrative appears as a slice of urbanity - up tempo, carefree soundscapes of human activity interspersed with digitised spatial rhythms. The boundary between East and West coalesces, melding and jutting into a changing whole. A vision of unresolved cultural change. "Zul'm" sees a further step in the interaction of two very different nations, with guest musicians Said Nasser on Arabic percussion and voice and Zorawar Singh on Indian percussion and voice. Also appearing on the album is Mark Lawrence on keyboards. The title "Zul'm" is derived from the name of the Muslim prophet "Zulkifl", meaning fate. The plight of the Palestinian people continued to inspire the music of Muslimgauze, until Bryn Jones' death in 1999. The original tracks were perfectly remastered (receiving high praise from the Extreme Music owner Roger Richards). Double LP in deluxe extra heavy cardboard with spot UV finish and inside print, with new sleeve design were created by Oleg Galay. **SLIGHT DAMAGE!** Please note that all copies arrived to us with 1-2" spine splits, hence the reduced price. Still sealed.

MUSLIMGAUZE OFFER! - 'Citadel' 2LP + 'United States Of Islam' 2LP + 'Zul'm' 2LP (Other Voices Records) - £65

Buy all 3 of the MUSLIMGAUZE vinyl releases above and get £10 off!

MUSLIMGAUZE - 'Citadel' 2 x LP
MUSLIMGAUZE - 'United States Of Islam' 2 x LP
MUSLIMGAUZE - 'Zul'm' 2 x LP

**SLIGHT DAMAGE!** Please note that all copies arrived to us with 1-2" spine splits, hence the reduced price. Still sealed.

REVERSE IMAGE - 'Towards The Nocturnal Sun' CD (Fourth Dimension) - £11.50

"Towards The Nocturnal Sun" is the second solo album from Malaysian artist Reverse Image, aka Siew Y'ng-Yin, who also records as noise project Fallen Sun. Reverse Image's approach to sound making is defined by measured crystalline shimmer, iridescent patterns formed on a Martian sunset, indiscernible clangs, gentle tones weaving in and out of each other, warm textural glaze, vast swathes of dilated hum, and undulating bridges that sometimes hint at the intensity of Yin's other project. Ranging from compositions that furrow a moody ambience to others that could either sit easily alongside contemporary academic music or soundtrack a thoughtful (or thought-provoking) film, the nine pieces presented on this album shine a light onto an artist possessed of a deep understanding of her craft and the many wonderful avenues it can explore. Overtly, the material forming this album takes everything on the 2023 debut, "The Silence That Does Not Exist", to an even greater height where promises are fulfilled yet continue to suggest many more. Ltd x 300 copies in a digipak.

SMELL & QUIM - 'Spacesh*t' CD (Cheeses International) - £11

Originally released as a CDR in 2000 (Mental Guru), this is the first CD-proper edition of this album from Leeds absurdist-noisers Smell & Quim. "Spacesh*t" was originally conceived as the millennial year of 2000 was approaching. At the time, Smell & Quim was a multi-limbed flailing collective animal with many members, under the leadership and guidance of S&Q founder Milovan Srdenovic. These members included the technical recording Wizzardess Holly Hero, Candy Nook, Expose Your Eyes, Sam (drums), Mark, Pig, the late Diz Willis, the late San DK, the late Simon Morris (Ceramic Hobs), Carol, Paul Holmes, Shack, and Chad. The author Stewart Home also provided clips of his prank phone-calls to prostitutes. The idea was to create an hour-long stream of sound and music designed to both entertain and confound the occupants of any alien craft that might tune-in whilst passing in earshot of Planet Earth audio emanations. Much of it was recording during real-time social interaction. Despite a dizzying array of lewd / smutty / violent track titles, the CD plays as one continuous track (52 minutes and 57 seconds long). Ltd x 300 copies in a 6-panel digipak with artwork by FAO (Fan Assisted Oven).

ZERO KAMA - 'What Is A Body?' LP BLACK (Infinite Fog Productions) - £26

Black vinyl edition of the above release. Presented with a large 8-page booklet about the record conception and the lecture by Zoe Dewitt. Ltd x 300 copies.

ZERO KAMA - 'What Is A Body?' LP BLUE MARBLED (Infinite Fog Productions) - £29

Deluxe blue/black marbled vinyl edition of the above release. Presented with a large 8-page booklet about the record conception and the lecture by Zoe Dewitt. Ltd x 200 copies.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - 'Prophecy + Progress: UK Electronics 1978-1990 Volumes I + II' 2 x CD (Peripheral Minimal) - £18

Following on from 2018's V/A "Prophecy + Progress: UK Electronics 1978-1990" LP, this double CD contains all the original tracks from Volume I and a further 13-tracks for Volume II. Both discs also contain a bonus track. This compilation represents the burgeoning Electronic music scene in the UK. An eclectic mix of acts that were experimenting with newly available technology during the years 1978-1990. Although electronic experimentation had been explored in the decades before, a myriad of experimenters were recording 'alien, eerie, sterile, austere and vaguely menacing' music in Industrial cities like Sheffield or post-war London. The antidote to the Thatcher government at the time seemed to be a quiet rebellion in the shape of dark and alienating soundscapes by acts that are now considered pioneers, or have achieved cult status. It's an attempt to rekindle those heady days of experimentation and to encourage new generations to rebel and forgo the fashionable posturing that comes with anything vaguely 'interesting'. CD1 features: Clock DVA, Vice Versa (pre-ABC), Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound, Monos), Konstruktivists, Naked Lunch, Five Times Of Dust, Schleimer K, V-Sor X, Attrition, Peter Hope + David Harrow, John Costello (Engram), T.A.G.C., John Avery (Hula), plus Peter Hope & Russ Deluxe. CD2 features: The Future (Adi Newton of Clock DVA / The Anti Group, Ian Craig Marsh, and Martyn Ware of The Human League / Heaven 17, B.E.F.), Neu Electrikk, Colin Potter + Steve Parry, Eric Random, Illustration, Final Program, Ian Boddy (ARC), Malcolm Brown, Stress, Red Fetish, UVPØP, Hula, Bourbonese Qualk, and Steve Parry. Ltd x 500 copies in a 6-panel double digipak with 8-page photographic booklet of UK Brutalist buildings.

ASMUS TIETCHENS - 'Fast Ohne Titel, Korrosion' CD (Black Rose Recordings) - £11

An exceptional album by Asmus Tietchens. Corrosion is a degradation mechanism. It is an insidious process often difficult to recognise until deterioration is well advanced. Are these new pieces a comment on the current state of noise music, serious music or both? As a pioneer of electronic composition his work spans over three decades and doesn't fit easily into any one category. Early recordings ranged from experiments with tape machines and electronic sound through to experimental pop. Later works were a more sculptural blend of abstract micro-electronics, industrial sounds and musique concrete. Digipak.

AUBE - 'Hydrophobia 1993' SINGLE-SIDED LP Blue (Cheeses International) - £10

Fully authorised release of an unreleased and extended mix of the very first cassette by the late Akifumi Nakajima aka AUBE on Vanilla, composed in 1993 using water sounds only. "Originally, the plan was to re-release the Hydrophobia tape as a CD, this was around 2001-2. When Akifumi came back to me he said the tape was only a one-sided C-30, so he sent me the remix he did of the piece from 1993 that he never released, to make it a better length for a CD. He titled the original piece Hydrophobia 1991 and the remix Hydrophobia 1993 and sent me the artwork for the CD. A little while after this I decided to stop Cheeses Int., so the project was shelved. Last year I restarted my activities but as Akifumi had sadly died in the interim I thought that it would never see the light of day. However, I found the guy to ask for permission and he said yes. My only regret is that Akifumi isn't here to see it" (Steve Fricker). As the original 1991 Vanilla cassette was still available, the 1993 remix gets its own deluxe edition, re-mastered by Phil Julian with covers designed by Abby Helasdottir (Gydja) based on the original artwork supplied by Akifumi Nakajima. Ltd x 319 copies on blue vinyl.

FINAL (JUSTIN K. BROADRICK) - 'I Am The Dirt Under Your Fingernails' CD (Fourth Dimension) - £11.50

Since 1983, Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh, Council Estate Electronics, Techno Animal, Zonal, etc.) has been producing largely solo, but sometimes collaborative, work under the FINAL moniker. Beginning as a more obviously power electronics-inspired project it has during the past two decades or so evolved into one which still retains that sonic intensity but has a more expansive sound. "I Am the Dirt Under Your Fingernails" is the latest album, comprising nine tracks each named and numbered after the album's title. "IATDUYF" violently pushes us through a murky world of suffocating textures, crepuscular guitars, serrated noise and what appear to be random bursts of sawmill grind which together create the perfect backdrop to today's newscape. This is a relentless sound that's absolutely unforgiving as it hammers home anger and despair with little respite, illustrating very clearly that JK Broadrick has been one of the very few to contort the uncompromising approach of early power electronics into wholly new and contemporary forms rife with greater possibilities. Ltd x 400 copies in a digipak.

RALF WEHOWSKY - 'Flurry Of Delusion' CD (Black Rose Recordings / Dirter) - £11

The basic recordings for "Flurry Of Delusion" were made in February 2010 using instruments like guitar, oud, saz, harmophone, motors, weevil, turntables and percussion. The starting point was an improvised recording session with Giuseppe Ielasi (Bellows, Rain Text), but as with all RLW works nothing is quite what it seems to be. Cutting out the moments of "glory" and recombining them, Ralf Wehowsky (P16.D4) reassembles them into new more detailed compositions. Further improvised sounds were treated and added to the mix. An unrelenting rush of bent noises, buzzing glitches, and sweeping tones. A whirling mass of buzzing chaos, bizarre sounds, and metallic resonating drones. A vibrant mix of improvised industrial and shimmering electronic music. The result may seem like an authentic representation of a real time improvisation, but in reality the pieces are nothing like that. Ltd x 500 copies in a digipak.

RALF WEHOWSKY - 'The Pleasure Of Burning Down Churches' CD (Black Rose Recordings) - £11

A dark and misanthropic solo CD from Germany's Ralf Wehowsky (P16.D4), whose work moves on the edge of musique concrete, but never loses touch with industrial music on hand and with microsound on the other. "The title of the CD dates back to the mid 90s when I was travelling around Vietnam. One of the most impressive things there was meeting an American veteran soldier who had returned to the places of former glory. He was talking about the churches he bombed during the War, (high buildings are the best targets), with great enthusiasm and was extremely pleased to show us some of the ruins. When I decided to use some of the recordings I had made there for one of the pieces (# 2), I found "The Pleasure Of Burning Down Churches" an appropriate title for this release. The 4 pieces were composed between April 2006 and January 2007. Some of the sounds came from my archives of unissued materials (especially from the mid 90's travel to Vietnam as heard in # 2), but most of the sounds were recorded in 2005/06. Kouhei Matsunaga took part in one of the paper string actions as used on # 3" (RLW January 2007). Digipak.

SMELL & QUIM AND ONOMATOPOEIA - 'Fanny Batter' CD (Cheeses International) - £10

A fine collaborative mail-art album between two of the Britain's great noise / experimental / absurdist projects, who began late 80's / early 90's. Collaborating by mail only, Leeds' Smell & Quim and Onomatopoeia (aka Steve Fricker, Cheeses Intl. head honcho) mixed and remixed each other's works to create the perfect abomination. Unlike other Smell & Quim releases which rely heavily on smutty and/or violent vocal samples, the first 23+ minute track here is more "traditional" noise: pulsating electronics with low-frequency rumbles and grumbles and only the occasional hellish gurgle. Don't expect a wall-of-noise, though. Fluctuating dynamics evolving rhythmic patterns permeates this piece. Pulverizing, disorienting and discomforting, with transient pounding rhythms and guttural groans. The second track is an act in three parts, each featuring sonic baths of piercing static. Aggressive noise blends into an almost ambient swirl, before painful shrieks signal the middle act. The final part returns to harsher sounds, drastic dynamics and binaural brain-beating but with a whiff of *actual* instruments. Vintage recordings from a great period of the UK's experimental scene. Features NSFW art!

KRISTIAN OLSSON - 'Giftnålen No. 1' Book (The Ajna Offensive) - £42

An incredible hardback book publication spanning a huge 480 pages! Dealing with all kinds of apocalyptic culture, anarchic rants, archaic sorcery, damned poets, esoterrorist tactics, forbidden knowledge, libertine lusts, necromantic collages, oneiric musings, outlaw occultism, perversion, sinister arts and visual expansionism, Giftnålen is the foul arts journal for death-obsessed brutes and society's outcasts. Revel in amoral excesses. Sit back and enjoy reading while this world burns. A total derangement of the senses. Heavily illustrated with tons of exclusive and rarely seen material. Harking back to the days of the late 1980s-early 1990s in terms of diversity of content, drawing inspiration from underground books and publications such as Amok, Esoterra, Exit, Force Mental, Pandemonium, Rapid Eye Movement, Svarta Fanor etc. Giftnålen takes it next level and further into unknown territory. Includes: Throbbing Gristle, The New Blockaders, Organum, Metgumbnerbone, Ramleh, Putrefier, Con-Dom, The Grey Wolves, Vagina Dentata Organ, Genocide Organ, The Sodality, Club Moral, Zero Kama, Vivenza, Monte Cazazza, John Duncan, SPK, Merzbow, and many, many others. 20x29,6cm, B&W, 480pp, English text.

DAVID JACKMAN - 'Flames Of Fire' CD (Die Stadt) - £13.50

"Flames of Fire" from David Jackman (Organum) consists of a 47-minute piece titled 'Flames of Fire & Stars of Lighte the Sun Ariseth'. The opening metallic hum vaguely resembles the vibrations of a sitar; shruti-like drones elongated and sustained into infinity. Unlike his work as Organum Electronics, the composition is clearly organic, retaining some electronic elements. A serpentine slithering tone that consistently flows - swelling and drifting into the lower end of the frequency spectrum - gives this piece a different feel than the ones that preceded it. The focus shifts to the tones, and he brings in the vibrating gong sounds that have featured in most of his recent work, with a noisy undercurrent towards the end. "The drones are heavier on this release... There is an orchestral darkness about this, an enormous cloud without too many details and a more machine-like proposition... This is also very dark music, but with a rather menacing undercurrent... a bleak picture and the soundtrack for a gloomy time" (Vital Weekly). Ltd x 500 copies in a digisleeve with excellent artwork by Jonathan Coleclough.

FABIO ORSI - 'Appunti Sonori Su Infinite Sequenze' 2 x CD (13 / Silentes) - £15.50

If during the early years of his long and prolific artistic activity, Fabio Orsi made extensive use of acoustic and concrete sound sources in his music, often painting very 'earthly' environmental realms, more recently he has definitively 'taken off', abandoning the earth to search for scenarios made of a purely synthetic matrix, building a myriad of dense electronic textures and pulsations, projected into the infinite and unexplored spaces of the universe. This double CD collects a series of "sonic notes" in the form of electronic sequences, alternating dynamic and evocative cosmic excursions with various tapestries of a quieter and more ambient nature, yet always deeply imbued with his incredibly warm electronic vein, which is strong enough to lead, even beyond the intrinsic enthralling and superb sound quality. An astonishing new double album that gives us the best of what the multifaceted Italian artist has been able to put together in this long interstellar journey, aboard his spaceship with its perpetually flashing multicoloured control panel. 6-panel digisleeve.