With the exception of the abstract gut-ripping black metal of the Ehnahre cassette, this batch is a quiet, reflective one. Seems appropriate as spring showers have coated Washington, D.C. in a grey haze. We picked up the latest two releases from Nick Hennies (there are still a few physical copies of Paths available, as well as digital downloads) — he interprets minimalist composer Alvin Lucier on one and beds longing, natural drones to field recordings of his late grandfather on the other. We highly suggest getting both. Also in this update, more beautiful Tangerine Dream-style synth nightmares courtesy of Mark Bradley — seriously, we love everything this guy is putting out. And while ordering goods from Quiet Design, we also picked up Live at Roulette by Duane Pitre, who more and more is convincing us that he’s a disciple of La Monte Young who gets it.

Quiet Design
Nick Hennies / Alvin Lucier- Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas CDr
Duane Pitre- Live at Roulette CDr

SRA
Nick Hennies- Lineal CDr

Semata
Ehnahre- Pipeline c21

Striate Cortex
Mark Bradley- Sanctity CDr

HIT THE DISTRO

Musique Machine reviews Robe.’s Remains of a Burning World c76:

…six lo-fi, industrial movements position the listener outside, in bad weather, struggling to discern the sounds within a nearby warehouse… the ominous billowing of a coastal wind dominates the mid-range creating a churning fog of white noise that obscures a dirty, encrusted bass playing atonal chords.

Purchase cassette here.

Our favorite thing this week are the covers Beru has been posting to her tumblr: a minimal dub warp on Extreme’s “More Than Words,” a pretty faithful rendition of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl,” a cosmic-synth take on “If I Never Knew You” from Disney’s Pocahontas soundtrack and a defeated “I Want to Know What Love Is” by, uh, Foreigner.

Can’t wait for the rest!

The last copies of Beru’s What Would I Do Without You cassette are here.

Luke Stewart at local Washington, D.C., radio station WPFW (”serving jazz and justice”) has been trying to get Thor’s Rubber Hammer in the studio for an interview since last fall. The avant-angels finally smiled upon us and we spent a good hour playing cuts from and talking about the Ecstatic Jazz Duos series, the label’s mission statement and why jazz duos are like roommates. I also managed to sneak in a song from my man Marion Brown.

Download The Interview (MP3)

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Playlist
I Heart Lung “Conflagration,” Ecstatic Jazz Duos
Mothguts “Krazyglued into Broken Glass Boxing Gloves,” III
Talibam! “The Geometric Mophometrics of P.P.P.P.P. McNasticals,” Ecstatic Jazz Duos
DWMTG “Untitled, No. 1,” Ecstatic Jazz Duos
Wasteland Jazz Unit “Termite Prayer,” Ecstatic Jazz Duos
Marion Brown “Sweet Earth Flying, pt. 3,” Sweet Earth Flying

by Lars Gotrich

Almost three months late for sure, but glad that I had a little more time to think about what made 2009 a really outstanding year for music — there are even a couple after-the-fact adds that have snuck in.

I think more than ever, my attention span has shortened due to the nature of my job as an online music producer for a major news organization. Audio comes at me from all sides — in spurts, in depth, cut from rough drafts and heard in every format imaginable. It’s a rare chance that I have to spend real time with an album these days, which, at times, can be frustrating, but I also realize just how fortunate I am to be exposed to so much greatness in the midst of greatness.

[I should be clear that the majority, though not all, of the text for these blurbs comes from a variety of articles I wrote for NPR Music: Viking's Choice: Metal And Outer Sound In '09, Take Five's Top 10 Jazz Records Of 2009, and my review of Fever Ray's Live at Lulea.]

1. Fever Ray- Fever Ray [Mute]
Fever Ray is an electronic pop record, dripping in plastic beats and gorgeous production but shot through with haunted fragility. Dreijer-Andersson comes out of a certain darkness — that space between dusk and total blackness. When she pitch-shifts her vocals in “Now’s the Only Time I Know” and “If I Had a Heart,” it’s an alarming ambiguity that drives her electro-voodoo magic. It’s as if every song has been sprinkled with crow’s blood.

[Read more →]

Besides This American Life and Radiolab, Art for Spastics (KDVS) is our most-jammed podcast at TRHP HQ. It’s two hours of primo weirdo-rock, garage, drone, punk and plenty of other out-there junk every week. So we were pretty excited when DJ Rick spun Beru’s What Would I Be Without You cassette. Here’s what DJ Rick says:

Beru really raises the bar for haunting beauty and power at the intersection of exp. psych/folk!

We agree. Download the podcast here.

Did inventory tonight and found some hidden tapes and records now back in the distro.

Long Legged Woman- Nobody Knows This is Nowhere LP (Pollen Season, 2 copies)
throuRoof- Throught the Book of Lambspring 3″ CDr (Stunned, 2 copies)
Sagas- Root Structures & Private Dementias c58 (Stunned, last copy!)
Chartreuse / I Married An Astronaut- split CS (self-released, last copy!)

While I’m at it, there’s now an infrequently-updated used section of the store. Too lazy to list on eBay and even lazier to write real descriptions, so get movin’.

Double Leopards / Sunroof! / Mouthus- Crippled Rosebud Binding 2xLP
Sissy Spacek- Devils Come and Palm CD
Landing- Gravitational IV LP
Furze- UTD CD
Wolf Eyes With John Wiese- Equinox CD

The post offices are now open with some regularity and I just got back from a weekend of cheesesteaks, cannolis and good beer plus the Jack Rose memorial concert in Philly. Time to update the distro with new titles from Stunned, which just came on Friday, so I’ve only had a chance to listen to the Andrea Brandal tape — lovely drone with lots of peaceful field recordings woven throughout. Can’t wait to dig in. As always, sold out at the source.

Stunned Records

Sudden Oak- Banquet Years c30
Sean McCann- Open Resolve c43
Yek Koo- I Saw Myself c27
Andreas Brandal- Secrets of the Snow c43
Wether- Here’s the Bet c32
Granitkorridor- III c60

Also in: Originally released on CDr, here’s the “official” version of The Green Knight’s Half Pipe. We put out The Eternal OM, a bong-hit of noise, in 2008, but this new collab between Jeff Rahuba (Long Legged Woman) and Doug Patterson (better people) is all ugly no-fi blackened punk rock and bummer folk. Really gnarly, gut-scraping stuff. Pro-dubbed and imprinted green tapes with xerox inserts and spraypainted cases.

Pollen Season

The Green Knight- Half Pipe cs

Get thee to the distro.

Credit: gorilla polka via Flickr

If you haven’t been following the news, it’s been Snowmaggedon out on the east coast, so mail has been slow coming in and out of Washington, D.C. Thanks for your patience.

Foxy Digitalis reviews Robe.’s Remains of a Burning World:

Minimal subtle variations of a lo-fi drone, the squeal of old hinges on a windswept night. The noise of all the little accumulated scratches of super 8mm film and the slight wobble of the spinning reel. Apocalyptic high-tension towers played at alternate tempos. A waterfall of jagged stone and glass that drowns out all other sounds, as if you’ve been placed in a perfectly hellish acoustic environment.