NEW ITEMS 12.17.02

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YUZURU SYOGASE + KAISER NEITZSCHE " split "CD An unassuming split disc by two artists that probably only the most avid experimental music fans will have heard of. Starts off with sheets of watery, chiming echoes and mechanical hums, the power and density increase and the pattern holds for a long time, mesmerizing minutes of ever-moving patterns and tones. Harsher moments abound until the last two long tracks, then it's the slow, chilled descent into beautiful darkness, the soothing oddity of collaged, ambient greyscapes. This is experimental with the listener in mind. The organic, concrete style keeps this close and personal. This is mesmerizing, old-school experimental in the vien of Zoviet France, Nurse With Wound and Hafler Trio. Originally released on a vinyl record by the early experimental label Freedom In A Vacuum, Artware in germany noted this unusual work and were wise enough to make cds. $12

SCHLOSS TEGAL " The Grand Guignol Here"CD An excellent descent into dark majesty. This is probably the signature release by this Midwest based power-electronics artist. Is the term even correct? It's hard to say as Schloss Tegal employ media samples, temperate ambient zones and walls of soft or brutal noise to lay out the landscapes they like to inhabit. Grand Guignol explores themes of gore, death, serial killings and sexual perversion, the liner notes reveal the possibility that this one may not be for the squeamish. Absolutely chilling; harsh walls of noise-ambient, morbid oscillations in psyche-damaging frequencies. These are counterpointed by some of the most elegant, melancholy tracks of pure dark-ambient you could hear. And all of it is welded together in one dense, seamless ride down the river of death. $13

V/A " Dedication"CD Very rare early nineties compilation, we keep finding caches of this and try to spread it around at a good price. Classic noise, power electronic and lo-fi ambient experimental with exclusive tracks by Aube, Small Cruel Party, Chop Shop, Andrew ChalkMacrohympha, Nord, Cement Women, Dislocation, Miguel Ruiz, Hijokaidan, DD DObson and Freudwerk. Excellent stuff! Makes you want to break out the compilation cassettes from the late eighties. Twelve page booklet with odd little patchwork of stuff from each artist.$13

ASMUS TIETCHENS + OKKO BEKKER " Stockholmer Totentanz"CD The odd and creepy commisioned set of pieces by Tietchens for a church in Stockholm, it's hard to imagine this strange landscape of varying scenes and sounds being played in or for any church. Careening water sounds change into distant chimes as echoing drift swells and flows in the foreground. Then another piece has graduated drones and mechanical clunks. Many other scenarios. A limited disc, 500 copies, in anice digipack.$15

PHD2 " Resource"CD Now this is a crowd pleaser. Totally dark, strange and intense ambient in the vien of Rich/Lustmords 'Stalker', with a pulsing, rhythmic edge. I can't imagine most Manifold customers NOT digging this, unless it's very important that your dark-ambient be completely lo-fi and without even pulses. There are no beats here, but some surgically applied pulses thunder off into the distnace, running close alongside the listeners space and making the pieces extremely emotional. This is very rich, spacy dark-ambient from the people who are usually known as Phallus Dei. PHD2 must be their total ambient side-project. I hate the Phallus Dei stuff (Euro dance industrial) but this is excellent. I've been playing this for pure enjoyment here and it captivates me the way Lull's 'cold summer' will: like a disturbing nap on a dark, snowy afternoon, you wake up and can't tell what time it is. Dark, drifting and cavernous. Ominous tones, frightening stretches of evil hopelessness, bleak, empty landscapes. Great stuff. $12

ARCHON SATANI " In Shelter"CD A legendary release of minimal black-ambient, In Shelter tones out over dark vistas of desolate madness, stretching the sounds for infinite moments. Long periods of near silence, twinkling with spots of light, gradually gather density until a monstrous plain of greyed nocturne is revealed, the listener left to pace alone across the barren, changing fields of night. This is really one piece of dark-ambient that's a must-have, certainly if you are into Archon Satani. This has a path all it's own. Sure, it's slowly, lulling isolationist, but the creator probably wasn't trying to make that exactly, so the extra unusual touches give it spice. Very nice$13

EXSANGUINATE " Inhuman Treatmant"3"CD A very limited 3" cdr release (300 copies) that the label is already out of. We got some here. Nifty little thing, with full-color printing, tiny jewel box. Inhuman Treatment grinds over the ambient power-electronic noise thing: heavy, loud, gritty, but also very textural and pleasing at low volume. $8

MATTIN " Sakada "CD Artist Mattin collaborates with avant-percussionist Eddie Prevost. This slim package with obtuse artwork holds an intense, clever soundscape of percussion and noisescapes. The overall affect isn't percussive at all, but mostly textural, non-rhythmic, odd and surreal. The drums take a sort of drifty attitude, running along the edge of Mattin's electronic complement. At several sections the work begins to slide into anthem; powerful sweeps of sound, walls of fibrous sonic, moving in and out to ever-growing volume and density, like the lungs of a giant growing bigger with each breath. The climax comes and takes a long, wonderfully powerless time to dissolve, pushing the listener into the heart of the performance. This is a very rewarding piece of work, creating something much more complicated and deep than the minimal artwork would suggest. $12

MENDIETAN (Mattin) " S/t"CD This is the sort of timeless, interesting production that I listen to unusual music for. Mattin is a sound and multi-media artists who seems to be based in many places around Europe, Copenhagen, London...i can't tell. But one thing he seems to really love is collaborating. this disc is a masterful combination of location recordings done in the Basque Country with a friend, then drastic affects are worked on different sections of the sounds maybe? It's hard to tell the technique, but who cares? I can sink into this stuff and float along or grab the lengthy, poetic booklet and read about what I'm hearing. Parts are like a journal, some in other languages. There are some sections of the music that come off as straight, clean location recordings, but others are disjointed, looped collections of colliding samples. All of it though manages to be hauntin in some way. One great section sounds like morning...i can almost hear dew, sunshine growing...very odd to say that, but this is the sort of clarity this work posesses when on gets the chance to sit and listen. Great stuff, as crafty as La Casa or Koji Marutani but in a style all it's own. $12

RESOURCE vs. AUGUR " Powerhear "CDR Seattle sound artist ReSource takes the raw materials of Augur and totally reworks it into something thats probably much more active than we would have had if it had been Augur alone. Knowing Augur's penchant for having everything so tiny and minimal these days, it's odd to hear something so dense and worked, yet still so obviously weaved from Augur-style samples. The raw Augur material is distinguishable, the rough, patchwork loops, the grating concrete. So many things going on here, so many possibilities presented and dicarded, or moved into the realm of oddity. One things thats very vital to this record is how it changes so much. The overall motif doesn't stray, we still are a collage of loops, locations and who-knows-what-else, but it is always developing into something else. It reminds me of the very different vocal pieces of Gregory Whitehead. It doesn't sound like that all all, but it does FEEL like it: a chraming and somehow creepy patchwork of this, of that, of something else. By the middle of the disc, even the casual listener will realize they really like this, that it's been feeding their inner ear very well. $10

L. CHASSE " Hedge of Nerves "CD Chasse makes elegance from rough things, makes one pay attention to the "junk" sounds, adorns the every-moment so that it is remarkable and charms the imagination. This record mixes the rough scratches of old 78 RPM records with the sound of fire, surf and the wind through juniper tree branches. The mixing of the elements, the way they seem to be affected (or not?) is astounding. Rarely does the piece sound exactly what it says we're hearing. And how does so much feeling and pathos resonate out of simple origins? Hedge of Nerves is a Rosetta Stone of cryptic but keyed sigils. Touches of noise cast before us as meaningful omens. And as a strict listen it is also captivating, vibrant and imaginative, filling the listeners space with charming nothing-sounds. Excellent sound experimentation that will appeal even to those who just want to listen and could care less about the process.$13

HEATH YONAITES " Rim Of The Sun "CD Heady, empathic ambient with a occasional and intentional rough edges, brilliant settings and all sorts of unexpected little sound ornaments placed at odd intervals. Made for space, like Lustmord or the mystic drones of Voice of Eye. Debut release from Heath Yonaites, a full-length compact disc on the very picky Triumvirate label, So you know this has to be interesting. Possibly the "lightest" work to date on that label, Yonaites likes titanic spaces, billowing cloudlands and shimmering, beautiful noise mixed with the occasional snippet of sound. In a nutshell; rich, precise, heart-tugging ambient. $13

AFFLUX " Bouquetot/Paris/Port-Jerome "CD Grand interjections of open spaces, tunnels, motorways and such in France. Three distinct, long pieces combine pure location recordings, sound effects and object-instrument inflections. Entrancing, strange and subtley breathtaking. Some parts become mesmerizing, hanging in that zone for long, gratifying periods. Places are mixed together it seems, locations flowing into each other, creating dichotomy. But all have the theme of transportation, albeit only the location. Sometimes the sounds are absolutely otherworldly. A brilliant work of concrete ambient, surreal location work. $11

K2 " In The Monotonous Flowers "CD Long overlooked, lumped into the extreme "japanoise" pile, this disc demonstrates what Japanese artist K2 can do with enough room to stretch out in. "Monotonous Flowers" handily explores junk-sound, found-sound and location expanses, layed out in very precise patterns. Arranged just so, with only a few contrasting sounds/loops in each piece. One track can be from whimsical, another sinister. Those in between evoke the melancholy nostalgia similar to 310 or Mandible Chatter. One track has what sounds like a distant jet overhead, while a metallic water sound rings out below someone toying with a small piano. Then the voices come in, wavering, the droning wisdom of conversation. For anyone that likes the Lionel Marchetti discs we carry, the Eric La Casa or Hands To, you'll be glad you picked up this strangely hypnotic record. $11

DANIEL MENCHE " The Face of Vehemence "CD Menche experiments with yet another techniue. Menche's records are always interesting, he is always using some new method for creating his noise-ambient sound sculptures. This single long, changing track is a brilliantly flowing soundscape, an amalgamation of a slowly building pulse, a pattern, a light-but-growing-dense texture beneath. Sometimes the sound approaches powerful climaxes, precipitous drop-offs and strangled arrangements of noise. This is noise-ambient at it's most effective. Engaging, distracting and powerful. But the first ten minutes of the record, the revolving, living machines fill the room with their dounds, a fireworks display of emerging mutations, the hungry heartbeat pulse always underneath. SOmetimes its hard to tell if the sounds are outside my room or if they indeed come from the speakers. $11

CHRISTIAN RENOU " Fragments & Articulations "CD The mastermind behind influential concrete artist Brume, Renou is so adept at manipulating looped, taped, analog sounds. Always an anthem, Renou's pieces reach straight in, resonating with dramatic tension, aspiring to mystic heights, pulling the listener out into the open of some ruined, haunted palace. Also fascinating is Renou's dedication to the process, his interest in finding new ways to work with sound. The liner notes give some description of these endeavours. And then even after all that attention to the technical facilitation, we come out with a sound and landscape that is still full of emotion, interesting, haunting. Fantastic works.$11

ERIC LA CASA " Stones of the Threshold "CD La Casa is master of the storm, the location, it's sound and all-around us power. The feverish monsoon of the first track 'S'ombre' is hard to escape or ignore. The volume increases, the fury of the storm grows. We are caught in the center, dry under a pavilion on the side of a mountain. We can see the wind tear at distant trees, huge themselves but nothing in the face of this elemental event. Then gentle metal strikes on metal come in once, twice then no more. A dull thunking noise is heard under it all too, but only once in a while. La Casa lets the place have it's way, but he is always there too, doing some small thing that sets it apart from just hearing a place. How about being in there...feeling the wind, but having our mind indoors somewhere else, the hauntedness of being in two states at once. This disc probably gratified the artist with it's tchnique and creation, but we can also just bask in the sound of it, get carried away. $11

COLD ELECTRIC FIRE " In Nights We Dream We Are Ghosts"CD From the label that brought you Gruntsplatter and Umbra; Chrionic Mind, comes this mind-blowing work of darkest, grittiest ambient drift. This is the finest caliber drifting black noise material we could possibly offer you. As hearty and hypnotic as Aarktika (though darker), Sleep Research Facility and especially the titanic Beneath The Lake. If you liked any of the latter three at all then you absolutely cannot go wrong with this. Cold Electric Fire is one Gary Tedder. At first listen we weren't captivated, it sounded murky and just drifty, not bad, but it didn't strike. Until one night while writing, slowed down, paying half-attention, one notices the gentle weirdness, the tiny patterns and emotive structures that grow in the background. Like a grand stone mausoleum that was first hidden by crawling vines, the shape starts to be defined, the creepiness, the deliberate atmosphere swooping in and around the listener like carved stone walls, catacombs, wind-swept parapets. 'In Nights...' is a truly engaging, mood-altering experience, grey and huge and final. Excellent. $14

SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY " Nostromo"CD Back in! Here is an example of the best that true isolationist ambient can aspire to. Some of you may know that The Nostromo was the doomed spaceship from the film ALIEN. Put quite simply, this work is an aural interpretation of that environment and the mood of that film through some of the deepest, darkest, most enveloping ambient I have ever heard. Not since Lustmords '...Black Stars Hang', Koners 'Permafrost' or Aarktica 'No solace in sleep' have I been so fully moved by this kind of work. I can't shut this record off, every new piece of the music sucks you along to the next, changing densities, changing textures and color, but always that rumble. Perfectly pitched, perfectly timed, the atmosphere thick and breathing and crafted so well that I am in awe. I will be listening to this disc and trying to get burned out on it for years. The constant, deep rumble of the engines, the hallways filled with steam and darkness, the tense atmosphere of a doomed, floating labyrinth of machines and metal, stalked by some offworld monster we never quite see. For anyone that loved that film, or waits for the best isolationist ambient we only see once in a while, you will find the ultimate journey in this excellent piece of work. $13

CRUELTY CAMPAIGN " Distressed Signals"CD This disc has hit me nicely as it does what the best of Deutsch Nepal or Raison D'Etre could aspire to in their signature records on Cold Meat. Think also of late-90's Tesco...which is the label this is on actually. Cruelty Campaign combines spooky, drifting, often rhythmic backgrounds and media clips from various cinematic sources as well as field recordings gathered from transmitters...numbing, hypnotic, shocking. All the drift and ambience is harsh, pounding, rumbling, scratchy in analogue tone. This disc is incredibly creepy, malignant and dark. They get better and better as he disc progresses too, with the opening tracks not quite pulling the listener in so much as creating a subtle, slippery slope that one is helplessly spinning down by track four. From then on, you just have to hang on and enjoy the ride, hoping this disc doesn't hit you with something to harsh because you are there til' the end. In lush six-panel digipack from Tesco Germany. $14

ISOMER " Serpent Age"CD The heaviest and most important blast of ambient to emerge from Australia since Alan Lambs wire music. With which this has almost nothing in common stylistically. This is dark, mean, nebulous. Like a magnificent, alien death-knell, Isomer rend giant streams of wavering sonicscape. This is darkambient with a slightly occult overtone, not unlike Lustmord's Heresy or Black Stars. Whispering fields of evening end at the horizon, the chanting drift sends a warning, a nameless danger that abides. This will please those who are always on the lookout for quality dark-ambient that doesnt smack of goth or black metal, yet retains a harmful edge. In digipack. $14

DIETER MUH " Cari Saluti "CD Anthemic strangeness like Megaptera, a dark, ugly rhythmic sonicscape from this British project that calls to mind Schloss Tegal or Caul. This is perfect old school Cold Meat or Tesco style power-ambient. Mesmerizing tracks of power and terror build from whispering, gentle bases into thundering walls of pounding sonics, to drop away or crumble into ruin. One track sports the steady heartbeat of motorized throb, a wavering oscillation of pitched siren and the rumble of underground engines. And all through the disc are these little subtle things; whispered voices, media, field recordings, the tremble of machines. In the end, 'Cari Saluti' has squeezed the listener for an hour or more, dragging one through the mechanized horror spectacle of the best industrial-ambient. In didgipack from Tesco Germany.$13

KEROVNIAN " From The Depths of Haron"CD After the first release on Cold Spring, and the long period of silence since, I thought we'd never get another release by this inspiring doom ambient genius. Astounding atmosphere and tension! From The Depths of Haron is a wide, subterranean ocean of quaking fear. This disc is nothing but a creepy, black, droning spector of doom and the extensive booklet that comes with this disc is a must. The writings are astounding, sort of Lovecraftian/Crowley prose about the abyss, death and emptiness that I found fantastic. Each track is a studied, agonizing descent into some soul-chilling vacuum of sound by way of soft, evil drifting texture, strange spoken words in some other language and climactic movements going deeper into whatever end is being crafted for the listener. I keep thinking of The Fall Of The House Of Usher, Dantes Inferno and Tarkovskys film Stalker. Coming out on the other side of Haron is like coming out a theater at night after seeing on of the scariest movies of your life and seeing the streets deserted. $14

ASMOROD " Derelict"CD If this had been the next Lull record after Cold Summer, people would have called it Mick Harris' best ever. It would have set a benchmark by which all other isolationism was measured by. As it is, Asmorod are one of many little-known EU dark-drifters for which we have no face. Derelict does not need a face. This monolith of powerful drone and terror creates an expanse so rapid and consuming that it never stops growing in our minds. The chilling tones and noises are set into structures that amaze and defy prediction. Quite simply, this is really one of the best darkambient records you could ever hear. In unusual, long, full-color folder and cardboard sleeve, from Tesco in germany. $14

KENOTAPH " Promise"CD Sideproject of tesco artist Skalp, Kenotaph 'Promise' amazed us more than the artists main project by miles! This sleeper record is dark, cavernous ambient drift with noise undertones. The mood is somber, melancholy, like peacefully drowning in a cold underground river as it flows deeper and deeper into the earth, somehow still filled with light. Unlike many dark-ambient records, the tracks on this disc are very distinctive from one another, each engaging a different pattern, tone and style on its face. They all move in this one disturbing daydream though, uninterrupted miasma of happy hopelessness. $13

ANTENNA FARM + MAIN " s/t "CD Robert Hampson and the virtually unknown Antenna Farm collaborate on a set of soundscapes that sound like the space-age drift of Main combined with static, clicks, pops and the abundant use of near-silence as in Bernard Gunther. This isn't going to blow anyones mind I think, but it does have some rather nice, spacious passages. And the material that's not drift is interesting and engaging. It seems like it would have been more suited as a live show. But anyone who likes Main will not doubt that it is Main they are hearing, albeit somewhat meddled with. Comes in this origami style folding multi-paper package. $12

SHOW OF EXAGGERATION " s/t"CD The perfect release for Tesco or Cold Meat Industry, Show Of Exaggeration are deep, unsettling noise-ambient by two German artists. Straight out of the power-ambient camp of Europe, this drift is thus suitably harsh, with rhythms and tribal heart. Think Megaptera, only louder...early Maeror Tri. Wind and heartbeats and faraway tones create a cocoon of sound. Rather than expanding out into a vast deep like much ambient, this disc wraps the listener into a tighter and tighter space, shrinking him into nothing. There is also the idea of being on a boat on a dark river, fog-bound and sightless, moving through places with monstrous sounds, powerful explosions and moanings on all sides but nothing is visible, not even the land. Before it's end, we are delivered into a black wall of vacuous silence, drifting until the edge of the disc comes, ones and zeros tipping off the end into oblivion. $10

ELLENDE " s/t "CDR Cdr releases are a dime a dozen, really. So it's rare that we actually find one that interests, much less floors us as this one did. We had to get this for you guys too, so here it is, straight from a micro-label in Japan. Limited to 75 copies only, the first 35 come with a small, business card sized cdr with a slideshow on it. Please don't order it expecting to get that, though the first few orders will. The music is amazing. A sort of combination field recordings, drift, sound collage a la Randy Grief and musical interludes by way of sad ages gone by. The toy machine sounds and elliptical artwork are sewn together by strange text on the disc itself. Think of a spooky, mesmeric Big City Orchestra. The humor a drained, sulphurous music flitting through the river of texture and collage. Ellende manage to mix all the elements that go into their bizarre soup in just the right amounts, so the spell is never broken, the wierd daydream doesnt slip away. A creepy sort of instrumental swell is here too, much like the foggy, lo-fi notions found on early Mandible Chatter. Great stuff! Look for real releases by this project later, no doubt, and get in on the rarities while they are here. Quality CDR components.$10

ELLENDE " Compositions of Fluctuations of 2 Degrees Celsius"CDR From the first bursts of 'Fretblanket', a five-minute opus of swirling, turning and suspended non-chime noises and electric textures, we know what sort of ride we're in for. The first tones are creepy, surreal black and white film soundtrack stuff, ornamented with the little sounds that give a real good collage of sound its spice. You want to be able to listen to something like this over and over again, so it's got to be crafted well. Other tracks carry the epoymous names of 'Mirror, tiles, handbag' and '40.8' and so forth. Ambiguous labels for startlingly varied landscapes of sound. One is a piece made by echoing drips of water, as if in a subterranean pond, distant gurgles bellow occasionally. Then the changes come, the tracks evolve, but each setting having center stage for moment. The entire show climaxes in several places, evoking an energy and pure force of will one doesnt anticipate in cut-up, ambient, noisy musics. Great stuff. Limited to 75 numbered copies. $10

STYLUS " Pedwar"CD A record of audio stories, sentimental attractions by the roadside. Phonic prayers to mundane scenes in everyday lives. Stylus is a project by Dafydd Morgan, UK native and apparent sentimentalist supreme. The sounds in Pedwar are looped, cut-up, cyclic textures and field recordings, invoking scenes that can feel like reading an encyclopedia but only by looking at those tiny black and white pictures in the margins next to the descriptions. A heady injection of mechanical sounds, birdsound and woofing dogs in the background, also flute, wind, organ and many other sources are laid in for periods, pulled out, replaced, changed. Tracks fade out as individual experiments in memory and scenery. A warm, strange and somehow nostalgic retreat, delicately crafted. See the Pedwar website for more info on this very unique project. Hope to hear more. Fourth Dimension, UK. $13

NOVATRON " New Rising Sun"CD Subsonic bass rumbles, harsh drift and percussive rhythm are the hallmark of this project from an ex-member of Ramleh and Skullflower. Like the harsher cousin to Lustmords 'Where The Black Stars Hang', New Rising Sun puts power into context, with brilliant sonics that reach to the core. Magic. From Cold Spring UK. $15

GOEM " Disco "CD Frans De Waard, Roel Meelkop and Peter Duimelinks make up this digital mockery supergroup. Working in scented studs of clicking pulses and stuttered bleeps, Disco seems to propel itself along on the broken tailbone of modern audio technology. The glitch becomes the note, the malfunction becomes the masterpiece as entire assemblies of Oval-style clickery meld into straight instrumentation and a strange, hallucinatory dose of your enviroment. Some of the structures have this great, low-end tone that cycles in appealing patterns. The vast broken landscape becomes soothing, heady. A tonic for the ordered mind. $13

AUBE " Howling Obsession "CD More fittingly titled 'Howling Obsession Revised' as this existed previously as a limited 20 copy CDR edition from the Newsonic label. The material on that release was so good that it seemed a shame to keep all but twenty people from ever hearing it and this includes tons of extra material, namely Howling Obsession Performed live. The mix of volumes, nosie, ambient and patterned structures is remarkable here. For solid stretches you'll hit that moment of transfixion that really good Aube or Lull work can facilitate, where that one dark ear you have focuses on the depths within the sound, trying to puzzle it out, watching the pieces move and weave and change in unusual formations. Powerful stuff. Dark, heavy, noisy walls of reverbrating sonics. Monstrous worlds of hammer-heavy noise ambient building into chilled landscapes. One of the most intriguing "loud" Aube works one will ever hear. Packaged in conventional jewel box with artwork by Akifumi Nakajima. $11

OCOSI " Here And Loathing "CD Step into the frenzied, rhythmic nightmare, ornamented scenes from living life in the blurred shadows. From the wierd, small opening of the disc, we fall deeper into 'Carrier', a strained, surreal signal from the depths that dissolves into the horror-movie scenery of 'Insex'. About seven other heavily crafted and chosen pieces flow and blast and dissolve out into a lake of fire, the conclusion leaving the listener hanging onto the edge of nothingness. Ocosi, for those who haven't been sucked in yet, make creeping, sublime darkhop like Scorn but with faster, edgier beats and more ambient downturns. Unexpected changes and catchy patterns collide into unique forms. Those who enjoyed the Radius Suck compilation, or Economi$ed will want to know that Ocosi or artists in Ocosi probably made half of the tracks on the former and a quarter of the sounds on the latter. These guys, Paul Molyneaux and Simon Smerdon are probably the absolute best at this darkhop right now. Their releases unfairly few and far between. Here's one of the best you will ever find. $11