Unconfirmed Reports
(Hand-Held Recordings - HHR001) CD + DVDr $12.00
The second full-length release from Hiroshima-based Scots musician, filmmaker, and photographer Paul Kirk (ex-Twisted Nerve, ex-Bigshot) is an in-depth, electronic-based, audio/visual travelogue of late autumn through to early spring. Dark, brooding, occasionally menacing, deeply seductive, Unconfirmed Reports carries on the urban alienation and social exclusion first heard on Akatombo’s Trace Elements, released by Colin Newman’s Swim label. By skimming the surface and trawling the dank underbelly, Kirk presents the daily minutiae of life in a large Japanese city in all its garish hues and faded glories. Mix engineered by Makoto Kubota (Les Rallizes Denudes). The DVDr contains three films with music from the album. Hand-numbered edition in oversized printed envelope, containing two photographic art-prints, two random newspaper cuttings.
Cemetary Archive Works
(Von Archives - VON009) DVD $20.00
Research for a future film about a cemetery of elephants, part of which experiments with archive film material as visual and sound matter. Based on classic adventure films, documentaries, Lost World literature adaptations and exotic adventure films from the golden period of adventure film. An overwhelming experiment with the audiovisual matter. Edition of 500
CARLOS CASAS / NICO VASCELLARI
Choir
(Von Archives - VON000) DVD $10.50
Conceived as a Von Archives manifesto, this audiovisual experiment takes the shape of an installation and live media event, as well as a limited edition video work. The image and sound is a superimposition of source material selected and overlaid by the artists in order to produce ghostly images and, to quote some of the first viewers of the piece, an “hypnotic tantric metal experience.” Edition of 500.
Vezdekhod
(Von Archives - VON008) DVD $20.00
Field recordings from the northeastern extremity of Asia in the northern part of the Russian Far East, radio frequency scans, ambient landscapes. Apropos of one of the planet’s most desolate and extreme environments.
Wrack Light In Copper Ruin
(Seal Pool) CD + DVD $15.00
Jim Haynes and Loren Chasse collaborated with Keith Evans to create Coelacanth’s fourth and most complex record. Culled from two performances -- a five-hour recording session during Matmos’s 96 hours at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and an audio/visual performance with Keith Evans -- Wrack Light in Copper Ruin is more delicate than Coelacanth’s previous recordings, inhabiting a space where artists such as Jonathan Coleclough, Andrew Chalk, Mirror, and MNortham can be found, yet it maintains the mysterious, oceanic nature its name implies. Their sound illustrates a constant evolution of decay, encroachment, and repossession of the border space between the natural and the man-made.
The Tailing
(Von Archives - VON010) DVD $20.00
A microscopical audiovisual study on pornography by the legendary American sound artist who describes The Tailing thus: “Slow writhing in near-total darkness. Intertwining drones from a church organ. Movement and sound heavy, thick as oil. Erotic and forbidden.”
Obitorio Veneto
(Von Archives - VON007) LP + DVD $25.00
Italian band -– “a social punk sculpture” -- conceived by artist Nico Vascellari as a contribution to the Diedrich Diedrichsen-curated exhibition Rock Scissors Paper at Kunsthaus Graz. Lago Morto is “about things that casting calls usually exclude -- targeted aggression, unpredictable social effects and local politics.” The band performed for fifteen days in Vittorio Veneto in nonmusical venues such as bars, hotels, pizzerias, laundrettes, video stores, etc. All fourteen of the band’s songs are on the LP. The DVD contains a video from each of the sixteen locations of the tour, plus an extra montage of sixteen videos simultaneously. Edition of 200
Twist of Fate
(Monotype - MONO035) CD + DVD $30.00
A provocative journey into the dark groove of endless night where possibility, mystery and mania entwine the listener in a deep cocoon of sound and voice. Processed acoustics, field recordings, found sounds, electronics, turntables, percussion, synth, organ, piano, inflatable balloons and knives by Petit; vocals, guitar and found sounds by Lunch. Six-page digipak, case, and thirty-two-page, full-color book. CAVEAT EMPTOR: THE DVD IS PAL FORMAT (not playable in all US DVD players).
Fragments Suspended In Time
(Opax - OPX32A) LP + CDr + DVDr $27.00
Recorded after the brothers Opalio spent a long period of self-imposed isolation in the Western Alps, far from everything but their own spirits. Side A ( the “alba” or “sunrise” side) overwhelms immediately with delicate grace, melodic texture, and Roberto's intimate, wordless vocalizations. Side B ( the “tramonto” or “sunset” side) increases the sweet, anti-gravitational sweet mood. One-time pressing of 250 copies on multicolor vinyl. Handmade, heavy cardboard jacket with paste-on silver artwork and 12-inch insert. A professionally duplicated CDr is included as a digital version of the album. The region-free DVDr (limited to 100 copies) contains a film by Roberto Opalio, inspired by the alba side.
Fragments Suspended In Time
(Opax - OPX32A) LP + CDr + DVDr Box $120.00
This art box edition adds to the regular edition the following: original art work by Roberto Opalio on six-page hand-bound booklet, mounted on 12" panel, numbered and signed; hand-lettered LP labels; hand-crafted box, numbered, hand-stamped and signed. Edition of 20.
Silent Movie
(Hospital - HOS142) LP + DVD $20.00
Documents the only known live performance (at No Fun Fest) of the alias of The New Blockaders. The DVD contains silent footage only and one must spin the vinyl simultaneously in order to hear the sound while witnessing this futile destruction. DVD also features additional commentary by G.X. Jupiter-Larsen of The Haters.
Message From The Dead
(Vinyl on Demand - VOD64) 2xLP + DVD $60.00
Unreleased demos, rehearsals, live and unreleased tracks by French cold wave / goth legends, founded in 1981 by Usher and Chelsea. In 1984 they formed the CPM label (which released an EP of so-called “psychoanalytic rock” called Psychic Altercation, and also developed a philosophy which centralized different activities of the group (photography and graphics, literature, video, dance, etc.). LP1: Frustration / Welcome to CPM / XMas 2 / Crazy (first recording ever) / Skandinavian Erotica (rehearsal) / Memories (rehearsal) / Glance for your eyes (Live April 30,1983) / Mental (outtake 1984 church and voice) / Belinda's dead friends (outtake 1988) / Power of Spirit (demo 1987) / Dead in the Bed (demo 1987) / Shiny (Venus in Furs) LP2: Forever Gone (1999) / Chinese Puzzle / Fly Away Song (demo) / Memory Train (rehearsal) / Obsession / The Cellar (unreleased 1990) / The Murder (unreleased 1990) / TV Domination (unreleased demo 1988) / Love Song / L'age D'or (rehearsal) DVD: Video Live at Atheneum 87 Immaculate / 1964 Shadows / Hell Night / Romance / T-Vision / Bitchy Boy / TV Friends / Died In The Bedroom / We Shall Win / Disconnected
Ambiguism (1983-87)
(Vinyl on Demand - VOD72) 4xLP + 7-inch + DVD $100.00 (Out-of-stock)
Between 1983 and 1987, this UK ambient group, formed in 1982 by Tim Horberry, Roger Horberry, Clare Elliott and Andrew Hulme, released two vinyl albums -- Scene in Mirage (A-Mission, 1984) and Into Dark Water (Final Image, 1987) -- and recorded numerous soundtracks, experimental projects and solo works. This retrospective document of the era tells the definitive story of the emergence and development of the group’s sound. Includes their first two albums with bonus tracks, two additional full-length LPs of unreleased material, and a seven-inch single of their first-ever recordings. The DVD features excepts from their Scenes in Mirage and Peripheral Vision videos. With large poster and detailed listening notes. More than fifty tracks, around half of which have never been released in any form.
Live at UFO Club May 20, 2006
(Music Atlach - MA001) DVD $16.50
Heavy, psychedelic, emotional rock'n'roll with loud guitar feedback, as only the Japanese can filter (come, on, you know the drill). Includes 40-minute bonus footage of Michel Henritzi (Dustbreeders) and Overhang Party' leader Rinji Fukuoka in a dual-guitar fluid-swap, with photographer / projectionist Kumiko Karino on visuals.
Complete Works 80-83
(Vinyl on Demand - VOD73) 7xLP + DVD $150.00 (Out-of-stock)
Contains official and unreleased material by the godfathers of electronic body music, hard rhythmic electronics, and minimal synth. Includes: Gaining Momentum (Por Con 1981); Dining on the Fresh; (Por Con 1981); Private Illusions No. 1 (Por Con 1981); Private Illusions No. 2 (Por Con 1982); Video Soundtrack (Por Con 1982); Progress Report; With Mixed Emotion (In Phaze 1982); Surface and Be Seen (In Phaze 1982); I Staggered Mentally (In Phaze 1982); “A-Mag” and “Shot in the Belly” (Third Mind 1983); the highly sought-after Assault (For All and None 1986); obscure and unreleased tracks (including demos and alternate versions) from Portion Control’s archives; and compilation tracks. With 60-page book of memorabilia and photos from the era, a DVD with self-made videos from the V-Mag archive, all from 1981–83, and T-shirt. Edition of 600.
I Am Not Artist 1973-1988
(Vinyl on Demand - VOD70) 6xLP + DVD $125.00 (Out-of-stock)
This astonishing set compiles most of Smegma’s long out-of-print and impossible-to-find vinyl releases on the LAFMS, Trap, Dom and Selektion labels, and, of course, their own Pigface Records. The box includes their first three seven inches (Disco Diarrhea, Flashcards, and Pigface Chant), their LPs Pigs for Lepers and Glamour Girl 1941, and their Spontaneaous Sound 1973-82 2xCS. Smegma started collectively by Ju Suk Reet Meate, Cheese it Ritz, Chucko Fats, Dennis Duck, Amazon Bambi and Cheesebro, and continued to lure in a steady stream of avant / free / improv lunos for three-and-a-half decades to come. The least likely folk / primitive / avant band in Pasadena, California, survived Portland, Oregon’s punk rock revitalization and first meltdown, and are today a serious force in weird music. The DVD reissues the 10 Years Wasted videotape from 1983, Mike Lastra’s Smegma The First 10 Years, and two bonus performances from 1978 and 1980.
Cathodic Works
(Von Archives - VON014) 2xDVD $25.00 (Out-of-stock)
COMING SOON. Edition of 500. More info forthcoming.
Unaustralians
(Pulled Out - PULL07) LP + DVD $25.50
Taking their name from Meat & Livestock Australia propaganda, the Melbourne-based duo of Ein and Aus transgress a spiritual reality in which grindcore is subverted toward a path of procratinat-obliteration. Forty-six cranium-fracturing songs featuring wailing Banshee vocals, a drum machine set to over 300bpm, and a possessed, 20th-Century shredder guitarist. On stage, the couple uses chainsaws, exploding corpses, and other visual devices that communicate their ideas about domestic violence and civil disobedience. UnAustralians truly represent the extremely brutal end of improvised music in Australia. “Quite possibly the most insane outsider-weirdo-grind-metal-what-the-fuck record we have ever heard,” marvels Aquarius, “Imagine a super lo-fi grindcore, cobbled together from blasting lightning-fast drum machines, shredding super tech lead guitars, super processed, almost mechanical riffs, and Melt Banana-like high pitched yelping vocals, all tossed in a blender and spat out at a million miles an hour. Only sometimes all you can hear are the vocals, or the drums disappear underneath an avalanche of guitars, or everything is so amped up it becomes a buzzy blur, topped with high pitched squeaks and yowls. Totally nuts.” Limited to 300 on clear red vinyl.
Club Moral 1981-1986
(Vinyl on Demand - VOD93) 5xLP + DVD $115.00 (Out-of-stock)
Selections from Club Moral’s Mit Neuen Waffen cassette (Club Moral 1983), To All Who Are Interested LP (Cthulhu 1989), and assorted compilation tracks; selections from DDV’s A Sound Atlas of Venerology LP (Club Moral 1982), Zeno X cassette (Club Moral 1982), and 4 Sept cassette (Etat Brut / Club Moral 1982); the complete Géometrie d’un Assassinat cassette by Etat Brut (Etat Brut 1982); selections from The Parts’ GBC015 cassette (Gezonde Boerse Copulaties 1984); AMVK’s previously unreleased “Soft Chaos”; and selected live and super-8 film soundtracks. Includes twenty-page book of extensive liner notes, credits, discography, photos. Edition of 600.
Inner Shine
(Von Archives - VON015) DVD $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
COMING SOON. Dense and ethereal layers filtering ritualistic and shamanistic traditions of sound exploration. The mountain and glommy imaginaries, the echo and sound of a millenary cave, unleashed at last. Edition of 500