v

DateAdded	Artist	Title	Format	Price	Label	Description
7/10/2008	"V"	Standing Still In the Celestial Sphere	CDR	$7.99	Peasant Magik	"From France, members of Monks of The Balhill, releases on Rural Faune, Akoustic Desease, etc... Limited to 100 copies, hand numbered / stamped. Black cdrs with full color labels, packaged with hand marbled paper and full color wrap around art."
8/2/2008	'V'	The Chanting Path	CDR	$12.99	Blackest Rainbow	"Whilst chilling on a train I got an email from this guy Vincent who is "V" about maybe doing a release for him and I checked it out and damn it sounded good... like some kinda folk-spectral-ether drone, really nice... after many disasters with masters and file downloads, and months on this is finally coming out... its one helluva hazy starry summer night trip."
	Vajra	Ring	CD	$16.99	PSF	"Second album from the amazing supergroup of Haino, Mikami and Ishitsuka Toshi (from Cinorama, etc.). Following on from last year's Tsugaru, this is a lot closer to Vajra's stunning live sound. Ishitsuka's martial power drumming provides the perfect foundation for Haino's soaring, roaring flights into the infinite abyss, which in turn combine in rare grace and (sub) conscious empathy with Mikami's improvised vocals (Mikami sings entirely in his native Tsugaru dialect which is totally incomprehensible to speakers of regular Japanese). The raw invention and communication here are honestly on a par with anything you care to think of. There's something very very special about this group - three masters at the peak of their powers, playing with total commitment, total sensitivity, total passion."
12/29/2001	Vajra	Sravaka	CD	$16.99	PSF	"Fourth album by the power-improv trio of frightening instinctional authority. It seems entirely appropriate that the one hundredth release on PSF should be by Vajra. Appropriate, of course, because the group contains two of the most legendary talents that the label has introduced to an unsuspecting world Kan Mikami and Keiji Haino (who between them have appeared on almost a third of PSF's releases). But also appropriate because there is no group on the label that better sums up the PSF aesthetic breathtaking sounds of mystery that somehow never fail to move on a deeply human level. Experimentation and 'progress' but possessed of a wide knowledge and love of all music and a soul (if that that were not too much of a cliche). This fourth album see Vajra scaling yet higher peaks of collective individuality. I can only pray that both they and PSF continue to enlighten the world as to the meaning of committed and genuine music for as long as (a few) ears remain open." - Alan Cummings.
9/29/2005	Valentine, Matt	Small as Life and Infinitesimally as Pure	Book	$27.99	Child of Microtones / Radical Readout Press	"Of interest to the literati out there, Radical Readout Press, the publishing arm of the autonomous battleship collective, in conjunction with Child of Microtones, is ecstatic to announce the publication of a new, slightly expanded second edition of Matt Valentine's psychoactive pulp novella, Small as Life and Infinitesimally as Pure...Shazam to that! The book has cloth covered boards, foil stamping and a letter pressed demi-jacket...no stops left unpulled for this mother!" So nice!
4/16/2007	Valentine, Matt & Erika Elder	Goodbye Moonface	CDR	$14.99	Wabana	"Here's the most recent volume in Wabana's skull and cross bones CDR series. On this outing we have MV & EE (Matt Valentine and Erika Elder) performing live in Cambridge, England from 11/14/06. The show was a follow up to their performance at the All Tomorrow's Parties "Nightmare Before Christmas" festival. There are elements on this recording that evoke a sense of spiritual awakening...a channel yet traveled by these two...until this point. Six tracks clocking in at over 66 minutes. Limited to 300 copies." Highly recommended!
11/17/2007	Valentine, Matt - MV & EE with The Golden Road	Getting' Gone	CD	$11.99	Ecstatic Peace	"Still riding high on the glorious steed that was Green Blues (heads are still processing its smoked grooves and wild-at-heart paeans to love and kosmiche carnality), Matt Valentine and Erika Elder entered a Western Mass studio armed with enough fresh material to choke a whole team of horses. You may ask, 'how can this be?' Well, since recording their Ecstatic Peace! debut, the duo has toured extensively, all the while writing tunes, scavenging esoteric guitar equipment & revamping their backing band to suit the environment of Gettin' Gone. A new sound has organically evolved that will most certainly astonish listeners new & old, but still find a special place on the formidable shelf of their back catalog. So rejoice in this disc, which boasts some of MV & EE's most finely-crafted songs to date and along with The Golden Road present a feast of tones & riffs that will stick to your ribs for a long time. Like its predecessor, Gettin' Gone is a family affair of like-minded freak and friendly hair waves. Most fascinating is the Ecstatic Peace! soundboard premier of Zuma, one of the coolest dog minds north of New York City. Also the one part golden addition of Doc Dunn and the harmonium magic of Luisa, she of Mascis child. Oh and J his self blams some mountain heavy drumming on a few of these tracks. Matt and Erika's devotional dharma is open to all true vibes of rock n' roll and folk n' roots ramble both tender and tuff."
6/11/2006	Valentine, Matt - MV/EE & The Bummer Road	Mother of Thousands	DBL LP	$27.99	Time-Lag	"After piles of privately released CDRs and long gone vinyl-only releases, here's the MV/EE (MATT VALENTINE and ERIKA ELDER) album for the masses. Don't be fooled though, this is neither the MEDICINE SHOW zone of recent years, nor a mere echo of the TOWER RECORDINGS flame, but a new beast stirring awake in the beaming sun of now. Aided by the bummer road and Elder, MV has pushed his cosmic sounds beyond the apex of high. No doubt there's plenty of lifted rural raga vibrations, and big woozy doses of haunted folk-blues as well, but the mix of flat-out killer 'songs' and extended electric psych-outs is something of a revelation. Throughout the album both MV & EE's vocals are more present & stronger then ever, and the harmonies have a real sweet lonesome glow. Includes contributions from MO' JIGGS, SPARROW WILDCHILD, NEMO BIDSTRUP, TIM BARNS, and SAMARA LUBELSKI. LP is packaged in beautiful heavy old-style gatefold covers with glossy laminated photo outside and silver on white interior, and pressed on two slabs of audiophile grade 180-gram virgin vinyl in an edition of 1,000 copies."
11/17/2007	Valerie Project	Valerie Project	CD	$14.99	Drag City	"Joseph Gervasi and I had been talking about doing a synergistic film/music project for some time, and both of us brought up Valerie. It so happened that Joseph owned a 16mm print of the film. I was blown away by its dreamlike imagery, old-world purity, psychedelic candor and mesmerizing soundtrack." Greg Weeks (of Espers) is describing the genesis of a new musical project entitled The Valerie Project. Inspired by a classic of Czech New Wave cinema, Jaromir Jires' Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (1970), Greg, joined by members of Espers and other Philadelphia groups Fern Knight, Grass, Fursaxa, Timesbold, Woodrose, and Rake (as enigmatic electronicist Charles Cohen), conceived a new soundtrack the film. Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders is allegorical coming of age work populated by bewitched earrings, weasels, vampires, frisky maidens, friskier huntsmen, wicked aunts, bespectacled eagles and the handsomest mustache this side of 1970, the year the film debuted. Key to The Valerie Project's conception is how reframing the film's with an alternate soundtrack draws new interpretations from a work depth and changeable meaning. Lubos Fiser's original score is lovingly recalled and ambitiously targeted by the group as a sound cycle to equaled every time they play it. The tone is dense and ornate, expansively acid-charged - "a symphonic version of Magma" at its zenith."
5/15/2007	Valet	Blood Is Clean	CD	$13.99	kranky	"Debut release for Valet (Honey Owens - Jackie-O, Nudge, World). Dreamlike trances channeled down and processed via guitar effects, laptop. Moving thru the disc there a drum clusters, clouds of static guitars, layers upon layers of breathy vocals - all in all it's a real trip. Spirit drone meets shoegaze blues soundscapes."
3/2/2008	Valet	Naked Acid	CD	$13.99	Kranky	"Naked Acid is the second solo release from Portland artist Valet, aka Honey Owens. She states: 'These songs were Inspired by the Pacific Northwest landscape, semi-conscious dream states and the idea of one's DNA code being accessed as eternal memory. I started off with the idea to make a "songs" record but it really didn't turn out that way. Instead, the record became its own story. Track one is a static beach journey duet with Adrian Orange, and tracks 3, 4 and 5 are collaborations with Mark Evan Burden (Silentist) on drums.' From the gentle narcotic haze of the album opener 'We Went There,' which is dissected by Honey's trademark incendiary guitar work, to the lazy alien country blues of 'Fuck It,' and through the hyperventilating rhythmic distortion of the closer 'Streets,' Naked Acid is a fever dream of ghostly incantation and smudged psychedelia."
3/24/2008	Valet	Naked Acid	LP	$16.99	Marriage Records	"Naked Acid is the second solo release from Portland artist Valet, aka Honey Owens. She states: 'These songs were Inspired by the Pacific Northwest landscape, semi-conscious dream states and the idea of one's DNA code being accessed as eternal memory. I started off with the idea to make a "songs" record but it really didn't turn out that way. Instead, the record became its own story. Track one is a static beach journey duet with Adrian Orange, and tracks 3, 4 and 5 are collaborations with Mark Evan Burden (Silentist) on drums.' From the gentle narcotic haze of the album opener 'We Went There,' which is dissected by Honey's trademark incendiary guitar work, to the lazy alien country blues of 'Fuck It,' and through the hyperventilating rhythmic distortion of the closer 'Streets,' Naked Acid is a fever dream of ghostly incantation and smudged psychedelia."
8/31/2008	Vampire Belt / Magik Markers	split	7"	$5.99	Not Not Fun	"The mythically incommunicado West Mass Nace/Corsano duo break a half-decade hiatus with two trashed tracks of psychic free-shred. Feel alive. Elsewhere, boss poets Magik Markers collapse in beanbags and tape down synth notes for the smoky tangerine dreamer, "Tango & Cash." Out of print.
1/1/2008	van Luijk, Timo / Kris Vanderstraeten	Costa del Luna	LP	$29.99	La Scie Dorée	"Over the many years Timo van Luijk showed his interest in vinyl and nothing else. There is perhaps an odd CDR release by him, but in general he likes vinyl. Wether releasing music as Af Ursin, Asra (with Raymond Dijkstra - see also elsewhere), In Camera (with Christoph Heeman), it's on vinyl. Here he releases two new records, the first being a work with the for me unknown Kris Vanderstraeten. He plays percussion on this record, whereas Van Luijk gets credit for zither, flute, keys and tape. It's a record of improvisation, but certainly a bit of an odd one. They play carefully, but without silence. Things are being hit, strummed, blown in an endless stream, rather than in small blocks, as is perhaps more usual in the field of improvisation. But in the endless stream nothing jumps above it, it stays on the same dynamic level. That I found a bit dull. Certainly this record has some nice moments, but perhaps also a bit too psychedelic for me. Without the right substances it seems to hard to enter the world of Van Luijk/Vanderstraeten. The cover certainly hints at this psychedelic element. Like said, it's surely a nice record, but the mixing could have been more adventurous." - Frans de Waard
6/19/2007	Vanadium	The Existance 1	CDR	$7.99	Hoopty	"Pre-curser to Run-J.M.C., recorded with actual 4 and 8 track machines, features the guitar work of Byl Cote. Monstrous fuzz rock jams - campfire intimacy meets unearthed membranes of the Dinosaur Jr generation."
3/21/2007	Vanishing Voice	Stone Tablet	CD	$14.99	Important Records	"Total Can-style audacity from Brooklyn drone stew Edward Goreyian broken house Sufic wanderers the Vanishing Voice. Whatever Kraut or Swede compatriots that may be a part time relation the Vanishing Voice are mining the sound of the naughties in a subterranean part of Brooklyn, as reprehensible as that place might be the beast still roams Gotham and these fuckers got him by the tail. Stone Tablet is a trip to be sure. Mother Mark Ospovat cracks the whip of dogsled Imandi while snarling bad dog Pete Nolan kept a forward propulsion on skins and molten guitar spew. Mad man Steve J Taveniere of local faves Meneguar lent a cool head and a popular sensibility to the proceedings with skills on the acoustic axe to be sure. Non horse Crane, magnetic wizard and DJ let loose his usual bag of hidden charms and H. 'Reality' Diehl, with a voice said to make many a grown man cry, a magik trash harp and the mind of the other, kept us all in the ethereal realm."
3/27/2008	Vanishing Voice	The Morning After	CD	$10.99	Three Lobed Recordings	"The Morning After is a Wooden Wand-free affair that sticks with the same lineup heard on their strong, kraut-inspired Stone Tablet and Nordic Visions albums. Totally freewheelin’ into the joint, in The Morning After, Vanishing Voice have assembled a wonderfully understated snapshot of the band’s current artistic status. Whether it is through the near-hypnotic groove of "2029," the grace-via-dissonance of "crystal peak" or the gracefully subdued "weapons cache," the entire disc is one completely absorbing experience. after a flurry of potent, expansive releases over the course of 2007, The Morning After demonstrates that the band demands your attention *now*." Originally released as a "bonus" disc to the label’s latest subscription CD series.
3/26/2006	Vanishing Voice, The	Nordic Visions	LP	$17.99	Gipsy Sphinx	"While Wooden Wand and Satya Sai jammed with the Sky High Band in beautiful California, the Vanishing Voice dug in deep in the frozen northeast. Snowed in with utopian texts and mounting paranoia, Steven the Harvester, Heidi White Diamond Diehl, and Pete Wolfy Nolan joined Nonhorse in an abandoned textile factory, boiling out these ballads of suspended disbelief and hope for the better world." - Vanishing Voice. Originally released as a limited edition cdr, a new Belgian label has issued this on heavy vinyl with color artwork and a nice insert. The pressing sounds great and is limited to 525 numbered copies. Recommended!
9/14/2004	Vapaa	Iluei Antil	CDR	$9.99	Outa	“Vapaa means free in Finnish, and this improvising unit explores some of Sun Ra’s more frenzied territory. Blistering sax, explosive drumming, dark piano clusters and clattering percussion move in fits and starts, tiny storms of dissonance balanced by swathes of silence. The six short improvisations are disquieting and restless, but in their brevity, pointed attacks. Live the group experiments with string textures, electronics and even more silence, promising an intriguing, probing future.”
3/1/2007	Vapaa	Jamit Tai ei Mitään	CDR	$7.99	Foxglove	"Vapaa, the pawnpins of tampere, finland, turn in absolutely expansive and enchanting live set that will soak through your skin like poison. recorded during the first signs of spring in april 2006 in vaasa, on this session the trio are joined by the kingpin himself, keijo virtanen. a massive squall of hypnotic, organic tones flow underneath keijo's trademark guitar. it is a spaced-out amalgamation of drones, blues, and free jazz, with no epicenter in sight. the build-up is slow, but the payoff from this freakshow is bliss." Edition of 100 copies.
12/24/2005	Vapaa	Koneitten Siritys	CDR	$12.99	Imvated	"Live tracks ranging from heavy Fin-fun to quieter drones. The cdr is attached to a painted cardboard with cover art by the band!"
7/16/2004	Vapaa	Vuomo	CDR	$9.99	267 Lattajjaa	"Their first album was ambient improvisations, the next was free jazz but this time it's 30 minutes of forest folk, a bit like walking in the Finnish meadows and forests, all the songs have titles from the plants and trees, Another great release from this Jyväskylä collective."
9/17/2003	Vapour Theories	Decant	CDR	$14.99		“Vapour Theories is aka the Gibbons brothers, Michael and John (Bardo Pond) both on guitars and synthesizers. Old friend Isobel Sollenberger lends her flute talents to ‘Sediment Pt. 2’. All tracks were recorded in the Lemur House 2001 - 2003.”
8/4/2007	Vapour Theories	Joint Chiefs	CD	$13.99	The Lotus Sound	"The Vapour Theories radiate into the world, and make themselves evident in various ways according to the substance in which they manifest. Therefore they manifest tone in a threefold manner; by instinct, as animal sound, and in advanced Spiritual tones. The Vapours which they derive from the physical and animal elements are temporal; that which they derive from the Spirit is eternal. Vapours are the Father of Wisdom, and the means to gain all Wisdom is from Vapours." Vapour Theories is Michael and John Gibbons of Bardo Pond.
12/25/2005	Varricchio, Daniel	Daniel Varricchio	CDR EP	$7.99	Rhizome	"Live recording from screaming soul master, where elevated Haino-esque electronics give way to super-intricate Steve-Reich-goes-metal guitar filligree. Completely unique. Terry Riley's "In C" fed through Slayer's amps. Ltd to 50, no repress."
6/17/2004	Vectorscope	Monitoring The Blind	CD	$13.99	Maor Appelbaum Productions	"Vectorscope is a one-man project, showcasing unique musicianship and experimentation . The album was created by experimental artist Maor Appelbaum using eclectic instrumentation and numerous sound techniques. Walking the thin line between space age electro music and old school avant-garde, Vectorscope creates its very own musical cubicle, existing as a unique, independent musical experience. While its roots are deep in experimental music, the album lends its unparalleled creativity from other, multi-disciplined genres, thus creating a truly magnificent piece of sound and atmosphere. With our world in chaos, and mankind on the brink of destruction, Vectorscope is the obvious musical outcome.” File this under experimental / avant-garde.
9/30/2005	Vegas Martyrs	Choking Doberman	7"	$5.99	Kitty Play	Conceived in the heart of Brooklyn, but born in New Brunswick, NJ, VEGAS MARTYRS recorded this gem straight to walkman to capture their sheer wall of noise being cut by razor sharp guitars along with minimalist drumming and black metal vocals. Vegas Martyrs features DOMINICK FERNOW (PRURIENT) on guitar, RICHARD DUNN (F.F.H.) on electronics and vocals, and JOE POTTS (DRUMS OF MYRRH). In the few months Vegas Martyrs have been together they have already shared the stage with Lightning Bolt, Aaron Dilloway (Wolf Eyes), Mouthus, and Jessica Rylan. This record is limited to 500 copies on white vinyl."
9/16/2007	Vegas Martyrs	The Female Mind	LP	$11.99	Troubleman	"Vegas Martyrs is another proper "band" featuring members of FFH and Dominick Furnow of Prurient on drums. Total blown out hardcore destruction. Very ugly. Will not be on tour with the Arcade Fire any time soon. 750 pressed."
2/16/2003	Veliotis, Nikos / Dan Warburton	VW	CD	$9.99	Absurd	"Veliotis & Warburton played a live set together in Paris in June 01. But they weren’t that satisfied from the result so each of them afterwards isolated from this recording the sounds of his instrument (cello & violin) and worked on loops of these recordings. The result of this effort can be heard in the 2 tracks they came up with. Veliotis with his cello loops is in a more minimalist yet haunting lowercase atmosphere though Warburton makes a really impressive electroacoustic piece." Edition of 150 copies packaged in beautifully printed cardboard covers.
7/10/2008	Velvet Underground	Live at the Gymnasium	LP	$19.99		"After decades of rumor and a few tempting glimpses, this legendary April 1967 live recording (at a long-forgotten New York City disco called The Gymnasium) is finally available! Opening with the never-before-released song "I'm Not a Young Man Anymore," side 1 continues with great versions of "Guess I'm Falling in Love," "I'm Waiting for My Man," and "Run Run Run," while Lou spends the whole of side 2 searchin' for his mainline on what is supposed to be the first-ever public performance of "Sister Ray," all with very good sound. Great artwork too, with a very nice band photo on the front and the show poster and a Verve Records/Velvet Underground promotional contest entry blank on the back! UK import."
7/29/2004	Velvet Underground	More from Max's	LP	$17.99		“The remaining previously unreleased songs from the ‘Live at Max's Kansas City’ tapes, recorded on August 23, 1970, this was also Lou Reed's final live performance with the band. A good quality recording, this includes ‘White Light White Heat,’ ‘I'm Set Free,’ ‘Candy Says,’ ‘Who Loves the Sun,’ ‘Sweet Jane,’ and ‘Some Kinda Love,’ with Warhol-esque artwork. Euro import.”
2/12/2008	Velvet Underground	Unripened	LP	$19.99		"Complete with a green banana on the cover, this is the original version of their first album, recorded in April 1966 and rejected by Columbia Records. Darker, more primitive and abrasive than the version eventually released, this features either different recordings or different mixes of each song, some with different lyrics, and in a completely different running order. And since this was made from the original acetate masters, you'll hear some glitches, scratches, pops and clicks along the way, so while not perfect, it's certainly very listenable and the first chance we've had to hear the album as originally intended. With liner notes. Euro import. Colored vinyl."
11/9/2004	Velvet Underground, The	The Velvet Underground	LP	$15.99	Verve	“Upon first release, The Velvet Underground's self-titled third album must have surprised their fans nearly as much as their first two albums shocked the few mainstream music fans who heard them. After testing the limits of how musically and thematically challenging rock could be on The Velvet Underground and Nico and White Light/White Heat, this 1969 release sounded spare, quiet, and contemplative, as if the previous albums documented some manic speed-fueled party and this was the subdued morning after. (The album's relative calm has often been attributed to the departure of the band's most committed avant-gardist, John Cale, in the fall of 1968; the arrival of new bassist Doug Yule; and the theft of the band's amplifiers shortly before they began recording.) But Lou Reed's lyrical exploration of the demimonde is as keen here as on any album he ever made, while displaying a warmth and compassion he sometimes denied his characters. ‘Candy Says,’ ‘Pale Blue Eyes,’ and ‘I'm Set Free’ may be more muted in approach than what the band had done in the past, but ‘What Goes On’ and ‘Beginning to See the Light’ made it clear the VU still loved rock & roll, and ‘The Murder Mystery’ (which mixes and matches four separate poetic narratives) is as brave and uncompromising as anything on White Light/White Heat. This album sounds less like The Velvet Underground than any of their studio albums, but it's as personal, honest, and moving as anything Lou Reed ever committed to tape.” 180 gram vinyl reissue of 3rd LP from 1969.
11/9/2004	Velvet Underground, The	The Velvet Underground & Nico	LP	$15.99	Verve	“One would be hard pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as The Velvet Underground and Nico. While it reportedly took over a decade for the album's sales to crack six figures, glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set. While The Velvet Underground had as distinctive a sound as any band, what's most surprising about this album is its diversity. Here, the Velvets dipped their toes into dreamy pop (‘Sunday Morning’), tough garage rock (‘Waiting for the Man’), stripped-down R&B (‘There She Goes Again’), and understated love songs (‘I'll Be Your Mirror’) when they weren't busy creating sounds without pop precedent. Lou Reed's lyrical exploration of drugs and kinky sex (then risky stuff in film and literature, let alone ‘teen music’) always received the most press attention, but the music Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker played was as radical as the words they accompanied. The bracing discord of ‘European Son,’ the troubling beauty of ‘All Tomorrow's Parties,’ and the expressive dynamics of ‘Heroin,’ all remain as compelling as the day they were recorded. While the significance of Nico's contributions have been debated over the years, she meshes with the band's outlook in that she hardly sounds like a typical rock vocalist, and if Andy Warhol's presence as producer was primarily a matter of signing the checks, his notoriety allowed The Velvet Underground to record their material without compromise, which would have been impossible under most other circumstances. Few rock albums are as important as The Velvet Underground and Nico, and fewer still have lost so little of their power to surprise and intrigue more than 30 years after first hitting the racks.” – Mark Deming, All Music Guide. 180 gram vinyl reissue of debut LP from 1967.
11/9/2004	Velvet Underground, The	White Light / White Heat	LP	$15.99	Verve	“The world of pop music was hardly ready for The Velvet Underground's first album when it appeared in the spring of 1967, but while The Velvet Underground and Nico sounded like an open challenge to conventional notions of what rock music could sound like (or what it could discuss), 1967's White Light/White Heat was a no-holds-barred frontal assault on cultural and aesthetic propriety. Recorded without the input of either Nico or Andy Warhol, White Light/White Heat was the purest and rawest document of the key Velvets lineup of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker, capturing the group at their toughest and most abrasive. The album opens with an open and enthusiastic endorsement of amphetamines (startling even from this group of noted drug enthusiasts), and side one continues with an amusing shaggy-dog story set to a slab of lurching mutant R&B (‘The Gift’), a perverse variation on an old folktale (‘Lady Godiva's Operation’), and the album's sole ‘pretty’ song, the mildly disquieting ‘Here She Comes Now.’ While side one was a good bit darker in tone than the Velvets' first album, side two was where they truly threw down the gauntlet with the manic, free-jazz implosion of ‘I Heard Her Call My Name’ (featuring Reed's guitar work at its most gloriously fractured), and the epic noise jam ‘Sister Ray,’ 17 minutes of sex, drugs, violence, and other non-wholesome fun with the loudest rock group in the history of Western Civilization as the house band. White Light/White Heat is easily the least accessible of The Velvet Underground's studio albums, but anyone wanting to hear their guitar-mauling tribal frenzy straight with no chaser will love it, and those benighted souls who think of the Velvets as some sort of folk-rock band are advised to crank their stereo up to ten and give side two a spin.” – Mark Deming, All Music Guide. 180 gram vinyl reissue of 2nd LP from 1967.
5/14/2007	Venison Whirled	Deaf Spongue	CDR	$8.99	Curor	"In the vast grey sea of plumber cracks looming over Line-6 pedals that is the meathead noise underground, Venison Whirled stands out like a glorious yellow rose. Easier said than explained perhaps (and harder still to explain why you shouldn't just skip over this and hit play already), but given that 'musicality' and 'noise' are ultimately useless as signposts depending on your vantage point, how to define the parameters of these glorious straight lines? Lisa is an alchemist of no small skill on any instrument, but how she squeezes the mercury from tiny piezo mikes and drum heads is quite beyond little ol' gtr lunkhead me. I can say this is a bit fuzzier and sculpted compared to the unattended processes of her earlier CDR, but ultimately she might as well be dropping mikes deep into the Edwards aquifer for all I can tell. So lets just say this is rippled shimmering drizzle drawn out of a cloudless TX sky (OK)? And what really counts is the lasered focus, the infinite roads to the horizon, the wide-eyed journey to the clear light beyond. As Tommy Hall once said, "Know naught!/ All ways are lawful to innocence" (or was that Merrell Fankhauser)?" - Tom Carter (wholly other/charalmbides etc)
1/13/2004	Venrooy, Esther	To Shape Volumes, Repeat	CD	$15.99	Robo Records	"Esther Venrooy resides in a constant snakepit of modular movements and sonic acupuncture. An imaginary, almost filmic world where gameboys morph into howling wherewolves, ravening the shattered bits of saxophone sounds with vague buzzing and popping crackles. Anchored by the subtle use of harmony and dynamism, she opts for processed meditations in maze examples, combining more traditional electro-acoustic composer techniques with frigid, slightly harsher shots of deconstructed digital fuckery. She sure sharps some sonic pencils with swirling layers that are cut up, mangled and dragged into the present. Not your average run of the mill cocktail waitress becomes Hollywood coddle story but pretty goddamn addictive blackened ambience. Bathing in a self-consciously dense atmosphere, loaded with contrasting metallic chunks of noise, she manipulates the rumbles with rich expression and acute arrangements that develop into a desolate electronic landscape. The balancing cord between audio and visual thundering she aspires towards. Her approach never wears out and diving into the realms of film fragments and striking field recordings, she pursues a journey where the source material is anything but traceable. All that megaton sonic alchemy weighs up and shows this is way more than an angry lady that turned her back on academic audio processing, the kind of sweaty dust that belongs in retirement homes. Next thing you know you are fragmented into a non-executable floorplan. The storm has spent itself."
2/10/2004	Verdure	Cross & Satellite Station	CD	$14.99	Lexicon Devil	"Yes, you may ask yourself this very question - Who in the goddamn heck is Verdure? - but that's why I'm here. Verdure is one man: Donovan Quinn. He resides in Walnut Creek, deep in the East Bay of San Francisco and is a 'member', so to speak, of the mysterious Jewelled Antler Collective (detailed heavily in issue #219 of The Wire from 2002). Verdure is not a JAC artist. Verdure is simply Verdure. Although a fairly prolific recording outlet for Quinn, Verdure has never, until now, released anything beyond CD-Rs for a rather immediate circle of fans and friends. The music of Verdure is a strange beast to pin down. Sure it's got your trappings of what socially-challenged collector types like to term 'acid-folk', though Verdure never succumbs to the gloomy, death-fixated clichés of the genre, with the incredibly strong song-writing and, dare I say, awe-inspiring pop hooks being far too invigorating to be tamed by the death-folk chorus. Of course, that's not to say that there isn't a charmingly ramshackle approach on display here. The lo-fi mix of aching vocals, strummed guitars, tape loops, thundering organ, scattered percussion and the odd sample here and there is a sound for the ages, and I swear that when the electric guitar breaks into that fuzzed-out solo on 'Pope Innocent X', or when Donovan bursts into the chorus on the mesmerising 'Sun's Gonna Come Take Over My Sky', it even made a believer out of an old crank like me. Donovan Quinn is a major goddamn talent, of that I am convinced, and that's why Cross & Satellite Station is here on Lexicon Devil for your general perusal. If you've ever dug the sounds of Marc Bolan's Tyrannosaurus Rex, Skip Spence's Oar , Nikki Sudden/Epic Soundtracks, Syd Barrett at his most eccentric or Jandek at just about any point in his recorded life, then you owe it to yourself to discover the music of Verdure."
9/29/2005	Vertonen	One Telescoping Spine	3" CDR	$7.99	Chondritic Sound	"you may know vertonen as an ever-changing fixture in the chicago scene.. you might be familiar with him as head of crippled intellect productions, a label that has churned out stuff by wolf eyes, crawl unit and z'ev. this release finds him moving through both harsh and minimal territory with his own brand of noise. blake should have some of these on his current tour, so pick one up from him if you're gonna check out his live show. full-color artwork, full-color insert and painted cdrs." Edition of 133 copies.
7/10/2008	Vestigial Limb	Lung Fluid	cassette	$5.99	905 Tapes	"True story: the exact second i popped the master for "lung fluid" into my stereo my entire block lost power, which stayed off for just over twelve hours. now maybe the cause was the huge storm raging outside, i don't know, i'm not a scientist. all i'm saying is that i wouldn't be surprised if vestigial limb blacked out the town. ray shinn continues his slow motion menacing with two more tracks of rumbling taunts. both sides keep a similar audio aesthetic, haunting and crackling their way through a grey mess, while keeping separate moods. side a focuses on a total bleak atmosphere. the flip side drools out shards of panning waves and thick static. utterly sick."
9/30/2008	Vesuvan	Swamp Doctor	cassette	$7.99	Open Range Records	"After a number of silly set-backs this monster is ready to eat your boombox from the inside out. Melting it with algae too thick to squeeze through the speaker holes and vocal sounds so sludgy they'll get the insides all fried up. You won't even know what you're listening to anymore. The sound of being thrown out of your giant fan-powered boat right into the mouth of a gator. In a good way. Hand painted tapes and Art by SDReed. Limited to 50."
7/10/2008	Vetiver	Thing of the Past	LP	$13.99	Gnomonsong	"Two years after the highly acclaimed To Find Me Gone, Andy Cabic and Vetiver return with a new album of old songs, all hidden treasures, entitled Thing of the Past. Think of it as Cabic's fully realized mix tape to the world--a collection of some of his favorite songs from some of his favorite records--but presented, sequenced, and in this case performed by Cabic himself, with a little help from his friends far and wide. Produced by Thom Monahan and Cabic, Thing Of The Past was recorded in 2007 in Sacramento and Los Angeles. The basic tracks were done live in the studio, with the resultant record clearly showcasing a tight-knit band of hugely talented musicians. As witnesses to their live shows over the past year will attest, this is a group in full mastery of their craft--fluid yet fully aligned, intuitively opening out or reigning in their power as the mood dictates. Featuring core Vetiver members Cabic, Brent Dunn, Sanders Trippe, Otto Hauser, and Kevin Barker, the album includes contributions from two of Cabic's heroes, Vashti Bunyan (who duets on "Sleep A Million Years") and Michael Hurley (who does likewise on his own "Blue Driver"). Other players include "Farmer" Dave Scher, Jason Quever, Ben Kunin, Jonathan Wilson, Emma Smith, and vocalists Meara O'Reilly and Abigail and Lily Chapin. Upcoming five-song EP of additional cover tunes to be released in late summer/autumn."
6/11/2006	Vetiver	To Find Me Gone	CD	$13.99	DiCristina	"To Find Me Gone is the second album by Andy Cabic's ever-evolving band Vetiver, released two years after the debut self-titled release. Andy has since toured the world, usually as a member of Devendra Banhart's band, and sometimes even with Vetiver. In those two years, Vetiver has expanded into a full-on singer-songwriter band/project, aided and abetted by some of the best players (and usually his best friends) in the extended family of which Cabic finds himself a member. Musically, there's a dreamy Topanga Canyon vibe on select songs (maybe that's the pedal steel calling on 'No One Word'), and there's also plenty of crunchy candy for those who have appreciated Cabic's recent nod toward the magic of '70s-era Fleetwood Mac."
7/16/2004	Veulemans, Dirk	The Weasel Is Living On The Lofts Now	CD	$14.99	Robo Records	"Dirk Veulemans focuses on the composition of multichannel tape compositions and measures the inside of the human ear with daunting extremes of electro-acoustic music. As composing is often based on the sound parameters (timbre, pitch, texture, etc.) shifting in function of time, there still remain oceans of difference between experimenting with computer aided composing. The bile and colossal sound manipulations, raining down like napalm, are dished out in monstruous proportions. A grandiose declaration of radical electronic music that flows and ebbs with both power and grace. Dirk Veulemans has unleashed an exhausting vehicle to pollute souls into electro-acoustic sound territories. May his ‘unbegrenzten’ sound spectrum grab you by the throat. His melancholic inspired songcrafting stings like a bee. Flemish folk-tinged clusters hustle on board and harmonic clouds pirate the airwaves – as if mysterious unexplainable forces of nature have emerged from the woods. An almost deliciously summery record, though it’s uniqueness and competence make it work during all seasons. He has more than one true color. An uncompromising gradually dawning epic, that dabbles in behemothic melancholy and flashes of lightning. I make no bones about it. This is pure turbulent intensity. Start digging your grave. This works well six feet deep… This is the first available production of his amazing compositional abilities. His studio consists of a digital part for audio production and an analogue part for monitoring. This monitoring passes trough an 8 channel sound installation with 8 Dynaudio Audience40 speakers and 2 subwoofers. "Driven by my musical interest and my sensitivity for the physical properties of sound, I started controlling sound parameters about 1987 when I came in contact with the electronic features of the analog synthesizers and when I bought my first computer in 1981. This gave rise to my musical experiments." Packaged in a DVD box including booklet with extensive liner-notes and background information for each individual track. For fans of Luc Ferrari, Bernard Parmegiani etc…."
11/24/2003	Vibracathedral Orchestra	Live in Manchester / Leeds	CDR	$12.99	U-Sound	"Released for Vibracathedral's Fall 2003 east coast tour we bring you a live document of Vibracathedral live in their cozy home town of Leeds, England & also Manchester. High quality stereo recording from the fall of 2002, 2 pieces / over 60 minutes of their unique style of ecstatic drone to carry you onto the other side."
2/10/2004	Vibracathedral Orchestra	My Gate's Open, Tremble By My Side	CD	$14.99	Lexicon Devil	"Yep, you heard us right: that roving bunch of wacky minstrels, Vibracathedral Orchestra, have finally succumbed to our shameless begging and allowed Lexicon Devil to put back - and properly - into print their obscenely rare (250 copies) 1999 vinyl-only album on the Roaratorio label, My Gate's Open, Tremble By My Side. Scramble to ebay now if you wish to blow a small fortune getting the thing. The slightly less obsessive might want to stick to the CD reissue. Not only is the album considered by many fans (and even the band itself! Wow!) to be their finest work, but the CD contains a bonus three tracks from the same recording session that until now have remained unissued. Musically, it all scorches in that patented Vibracathedral style: monolithic sheets of organic, repetitive drones that arch into quieter, more subtle territory, rhythms and grooves never outstaying their welcome."
6/17/2004	Vibracathedral Orchestra	Royal Park 260902 b/w Brudenell 160103	7"	$6.99	Gold Soundz	“Two new and great live slabs from the ever-charming free clank-rock / free float orchestra. For a full whatever-many years, they have been unleashing loads of great albums, many self-released and many on the fine VHF label, in addition to several vinyl outings on Textile, Tonschacht, Roaratortio and Safe as milk. In my book Vibracathedral Orchestra are always great, and this is no exception. This might be their ‘Live at Leeds’ (so to speak...) Numbered edition of 420 copies.” Recommended!
12/24/2005	Vibracathedral Orchestra	Tuning to the Rooster	CD	$13.99	Important Records	So far the first and only record ever made by The Vibracathedral Orchestra using a 24-track mixing board. Typically the group records on 2 tracks despite the fact that their eccentric and complexly arranged sound practically requires 24 tracks. "This is music as a shamanic aid, made as much for the players themselves as for the listeners. But as I'm writing from the listening perspective, I have to inform y'all that this is music to get you there. Every track sounds as though it has always just 'been there,' it's just you ain't quite tuned into its peculiar frequency until now. The 12-and-a-half minute 'Wearing Clothes of Ash' is like a piano-led 'Paradieswarts Duul-period drone-a-thon with John Cale and Terry Riley guesting on viola and keys. Following this, the sublime 'Baptism Bar Blues' is proof positive that they can rock the riot house with pure adrenaline rush when the decision is made. Indeed, this track is magnificent and should be available to the masses free or in pill form." - Julian Cope.
2/10/2004	Vibrasonic	Instrumental Vibrations	CD	$13.99	Yep! Records	"1997 private press album of whacked out psychedelic instrumentals with an Elevators edge and a surf flavour. Fuzz guitar and keyboards ride through a maze of psychedelic electronic effects. Crazy '60s acid a-go-go music made today. Excellent stuff!"
2/10/2004	Vibrasonic	Instrumental Vibrations	LP	$13.99	Yep! Records	"1997 private press album of whacked out psychedelic instrumentals with an Elevators edge and a surf flavour. Fuzz guitar and keyboards ride through a maze of psychedelic electronic effects. Crazy '60s acid a-go-go music made today. Excellent stuff!"
	Vibrasonic	Into Sunshine	7"	$4.99	Yep	4 trax on CDS / 2 on 7"
2/10/2004	Vibrasonic	Vibrasonic	CD	$13.99	Yep! Records	"Absolutely incredible!!! '66 styled psych influenced by Prunes / Elevators, Ravi Shankar, Ventures etc. Thunderbirds on Acid! As essential as Dukes of Stratosphear / Tyrnaround etc. Psychedelic to the extreme in a kinda plastic bubble kind of way."
1/1/2008	Vibravoid	Triptamine Vol. 2	12" EP	$24.99	Nasoni	"clear vinyl - only - strictly limited to 300 / Vibravoid performed music for the american 1910 film 'Wonderful Wizard Of Oz'."
5/14/2007	Villa Valley / Treetops	split	cassette	$5.99	Arbor	"The suburbs can be kinda weird. Villa Valley and Treetops both come from the highly forested sub-urban areas of Detroit and Chicago, respectively. Villa Valley occupy the A side with teeth bared. Tape manipulations, contact mic-ery, and feedback create a cacophony at times boarding on full out free jazz (Midwestern style of course). This is what Wolf Eyes sounded like before they had double picture discs pressed in editions of 1000(not like that's a bad thing, though). Treetops is Mike Pollard (of Arbor); Guitar incantations float around the highest peaks of forgotten mounts. Fuzzed out pyschedelia; primitive percussion and subtle vocal drones occasionally emanate through the haze. In a numbered edition of 100 tapes in sprayed purple cases with art by Ola Vasiljeva."
	Village of Savoonga	Thought Loop	7"	$4.99	Little Brother	Dark and brooding German group
4/24/2006	Ville A.E. Suopajärven Puiset Heilat	Ville A.E. Suopajärven Puiset Heilat	3" CDR	$7.99	267 Lattajjaa	"Folky songs about bubblegum girls and soft explosions."
7/30/2006	Ville Moskiitto	Kaikki Mitäunohdin Sanoa	CDR	$7.99	Foxglove	"Finnish troubadour ville moskiitto returns with his second full-length for foxglove. "kaikki" is quite different than his previous efforts, though, focusing more on acoustic and organic sounds to get through the long winter nights. from soil-soaked whimisical folk roots to angular forest squawk, moskiitto's alter-ego is pure magic. whispered vocals and accordians create sonic depth and push "kaikki mitäunohdin sanoa" further out toward the midnight sun. 100 copies." - label
3/11/2005	Ville Moskiitto	Ylistyksiä	CDR	$9.99	267 Lattajjaa	"Crackling mumbling free-association drone recorded in the deep and dark caves of Turku: drawing inspiration from the dim and snowless winter, sleep deprivation, sickness and alcohol. Try and catch the wind."
3/2/2005	Violence Beyond The Snowline	Hollow Shit For Dull Suburb Witches	3" CDR	$7.99	Firstperson	"Abstract & labour intensive electronic manipulation of the dearly held tool of 'rock' and 'pop' - the electric guitar. Jamie Stephenson continues upon his quest to strip all resemblance from the 'staff' by which so many stars of tomorrow cling to & in the process document the minute sounds he glimpses inside his inner ear & eminating between the cracks of the yellow & peeling fabric of (.....) a fine addition to a growing catalogue of releases on such esteemed labels as evelyn, fencing flatworm, matchinghead, kolorform, euth, traqueto, nid nod and sunny days out." 3" cdr housed in hand-made clear acetate covers with information printed on one side and an image on the other.
1/20/2002	Violence Fog / Jerusalem	SWF Sessions Volume 6	CD	$17.99	Long Hair	"SWF Sessions Vol 6. presents the 2 bands, Violence Fog and Jerusalem - 30 minutes of unreleased music by each band. Jerusalem is Westcoast influenced with 2 guitars (great jams) 3 long tracks. Violence Fog is Heavy Psychedelic Krautrock with trippy flute, 5 tracks. Both Sessions were recorded in 1971."
11/4/2006	Virgin Eye Blood Brothers	Tucky Mud	CDR	$9.99	Veglia	"New limited to 80 copies disc from the Virgin Eye duo of Pete Nolan (Magik Markers et al) and Kris Abplanalp (Valley Of Ashes/Sapat et al). First track is a phenomenal short burst of Sauter-esque sax and keening acid guitar waste. Moves into further, profoundly pre-lapsarian sonic environs on a drift of tongue-tone and a muzz of elegantly splatted electronics. Totally crude packaging too." - Volcanic Tongue
4/24/2006	Virgin Insanity	Toad Frog & Fish Friends/The Odometer Suite	CD	$24.99	P-Vine	"After releasing Illusion of Maintenance Man in 1971, Virgin Insanity evidently went on to record 2 more albums that never saw the light of day: Toad Frog & Fish Friends, also from 1971, and The Odometer Suite from 1973. This Japanese-only CD conveniently compiles the 2 together and throws on 2 bonus tracks of new 2005 recordings by the currently revitalized group. In a similar style to Illusion, but perhaps more freaked out, this is beautifully shambolic folk-rock from the edge of time, with parts of Toad Frog coming across like Texas' answer to the Godz. The Odometer Suite is a lot more '73 than '71 (guess that "makes sense") - the naivete is a little wobbly for today's sophisticates. But the now easily achievable completeness that P-vine makes possible with these 2 CDs is hard to beat."
9/16/2007	Visitations	untitled	LP	$24.99	Time-Lag	"Well, here you have it. maine's cosmic mystery trio captured in vinyl for eternity, just for you... while everyone & their mother seems to have some sort of bedroom folk/psych project going these days, you'd be hard pressed to find another unit as pure in spirit & process as these here bodies/buddies. one of those rare vortexes of creation existing totally apart from all hype, pressure or pretense; in other words, timeless. always balanced on that fine and beautiful line between cosmic joke & aching depth. a simple & unadorned unfurling of strummed & fingered instruments, heartaching female vocals, woodland creatures, earthy male vocals, contrasting half written & totally spontaneous songs, twisting lyrics, haunted melancholy, lysergic joy, and a heavy dose of spooked new england lore. in a way, the recording scene itself is an almost perfect parallel to the sounds & vibes captured here: three shadowy figures laugh & sing around a dim campfire. no ones slept in days. they're nestled amidst ancient stone buildings, creeping foliage, and mounds of exotic flowers. the sun is setting over the mountains. but its all frozen in time. the clouds aren't moving. and that campfire, it's a microphone, isn't it? and all those flowers: plastic. the stone: paint. is it all fake? well, it is an ancient stone church. and those three really are making some very sweet sounds. in fact, its almost hyper real. almost impossibly so... is that reel-to-reel rolling? yes, it sure is... exquisitely packaged with a fold out double thick duotone art paper cover. outside is white paper with edge to edge antique letterpress printed eyeball melting hyper detailed art by the band. inside is black paper with red/orange screen printing. 180gm virgin vinyl. numbered edition of 500 copies. zero info of course, but take a peak at the cover in total darkness for a special surprise!"
2/20/2008	Vizusa	Vizusa	LP	$15.99	Seres	"Caitlin Cook and Calder Martin, formerly vocalist/players in EXCEPTER, resurface as a rock duo with Martin weaving holographic guitar riffs around Cooks wails and gloomy poems. The pair spent two years living in the skylight studio of the historic Matthew Brady Daguerreotype Building at 359 Broadway NYC, recording in the same vaulted rooms where Abe Lincoln, Felicita Vestvali, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglas, and Sitting Bull voluntarily screwed their heads into iron stabilizers in order to be photographed. The resulting album conveys a falsely two-sided pattern of epic American triumph, contemplative groovyness, and crumbling disaster in the guise of hyperactive fun. Cameo drum appearances blast through at key moments, courtesy of Spencer Herbst (Matta Llama), Nathan Corbin (Excepter), and the inimitable Fiz. Released on SERES, a longstanding label cohort of the NO-NECK BLUES BAND. At the right volume, the crackle of the amps will make your ass ripple."
6/11/2006	Vluba	The Green Lion Great Tapes Vol. 1	cassette	$8.99	Imvated	"wild lo-fi Argentinian noise-psych of distant squalling and vocal moans that teeters on the edge of breakdown. Great packaging: spray-painted tape, coloured beads and insert in a plastic bag."
10/25/2008	Vluba	The Green Lion Great Tapes Vol. 4	CDR	$8.99	Ikuisuus	"New set of hypnotic aural disobedience from Argentina's new kings of confusion Vluba. Two tracks of cartoon sci-fi ritual, moaning electro-drones, analog electronics and a heavy cultic vibe that's somewhere between Acid Mothers Temple, Amon Duul and a helium-powered Can. Comes packaged in a green DVD case with Black Sabbath tribute art." - Volcanic Tongue
7/16/2006	Vlubä	^'¨´^` ´´¨´¨¨¨¨¨'	CDR	$9.99	23 Productions	"Damn near indescribable collection of musics from the Argentinian astral warriors Vlubä. Each song it's own journey, from spin dizzy hallucinations to psychic nightmares. One more piece in the all out sensory assault that Vlubä has recently waged on this world."
12/26/2005	Vlubä	…	CDR	$12.99	Seedy R!	"We are Vlubä, posted at Buenos Aires at now, but borned in the chrome moon circa (since) 1965...Our music works consist at no music, drone music, freak rock, acid rock, cosmic music, conceptual art music, free improvisation, magical music for the high kings from the high spheres and extreme experimental music or whatever... some from this side of the planet, or the other planet? Crazy lo-fi Argentininian Psychedelia. Fans of Armpit will LOVE this..."
9/16/2007	Vlubä	Inventions For Inflatable Guitar	CDR	$11.99	Chocolate Monk	"Argentina's self proclaimed "Prehistoric Magical Psychic Band" blast off into the inner space void on this one. Electro-Accoustic brain burps ringing out through the cosmic ocean. Oh Mama!"
3/1/2007	Vocokesh, The	ŠAll This and Hieronymus Bosch	CD	$12.99	Strange Attractors Audio House	The Vocokesh formed in 1991 when guitarist Richard Franecki spun out of orbit from F/i, the legendary Milwaukee psychedelic veterans he co-founded. ŠAll This and Hieronymous Bosch, The Vocokesh's eighth long player, displays some departures from previous formulas, resulting in some of their finest and freshest sonics yet. Synthesizers and electronics, prominent throughout The Vocokesh's catalog, adopt more of a backseat role while the sitar, only sparingly used in the past, bubbles strongly to the surface.Masterful guitar work is still in rich abundance, but many of the dark psych passages The Vocokesh regularly navigate is offset by sunnier trajectories. As implied by the title, ŠAll This and Hieronymus Bosch hosts a surrealistic depth rarely matched in instrumental rock these days-a fantastic entry into The Vocokesh's ongoing psychedelic experiments." - label. "Vocokesh continue with the Pink Floyd swirl, krautrock bleeps, and Tangerine Dream's sense of cinematic dynamics. People digging the joys of Ash Ra Temple and SubArachanoid Space are going to love this-strictly for headphone heads!" - Montreal Mirror
7/10/2008	Vodka Soap	Oceansion Island	CDR	$9.99	New Age Cassettes	"Brand new CD-R upgrade for this excellent 2007 solo cassette from Spencer Clarke of The Skaters that teleports straight into the nowhere zone with Native American rhythms and power visions, sudden spurts of percussive tape spool, choirs of alien visitation and what sounds like gamelan works scored for tiny pulses of light. With every jump cut the whole thing just seems to devolve into deeper, more primal alphabets until it sounds like the first music you ever heard, while your auditory canals were still connected to the source. Aspects of Cluster and Harmonia, Sun Ra's wiggiest keyboard visions, Terry Riley, early choral music, Nico and even Fripp and Eno combine in a fog-shrouded paean to black exotica. Profoundly beautiful and another monster from Vodka Soap. Colour covers with insert. Highly recommended." - Volcanic Tongue
8/22/2008	Vodka Soap	Shee-Ro Gateway Temples	cassette	$9.99	Pacific City	"Major new limited self-released cassette from Spencer Clark of The Skaters in solo Vodka Soap guise. Shee-Ro Gateway Temples represents the apex of his Voudon ritual-inspired trance navigations, with jungle sounds, bird calls, zoned synthesizers and overlapping, firewalking rhythms combining to generate legions of beautifully-formed mandalas that cross dark, primal energies with future-as-junk scenarios and an extremely minimal, though confoundingly dense approach to personal revelation. This is some of the deepest psychedelic sound to come out of the underground since Angus MacLise's skull exploded in Kathmandu. Liner notes from Charles Berlitz. Highly recommended." - Volcanic Tongue
2/19/2007	Vodka Sparrows	Death A Thousand Times Over	CDR	$11.99	Black Petal	Anthony Guerra with Mark Leacy of Castings. heavy reverb soaked guitar music.. for drinkers, very elaborate cord-bound cover.
5/29/2008	Volcano The Bear	Mountains Among Us	CD	$21.99	BLR	"It's like that weird wind harp record from the '70s with a mid period NWW and Mauve Sideshow marching up opposite sides of the hill to claim the giant harp. And that's just in the first 19 minutes!. Afterwards, there is a slo-mo interlude battle between rarified VTB brand chamber music and the sounds of...things. As promised, the denouement is a brief, dare I say, pretty little whisper of pizzicato and drone. So pretty and little, in fact, that it caught the attention of my otherwise weirdness deaf partner. A real symphony of the spheres that showcases this Volcano's ability to blow its top and rain sweet tweeky kittens on the valley below." Edition of 500 copies packaged in full-color book bound CD cases.
3/11/2004	Volcano the Bear	The Idea of Wood	CD	$16.99	Textile	"Is it rock? Is it folk? Is it sane??? Textile records is proud to release the new challenging musical adventures from the British improvisational quartet Volcano The Bear. Formed with the constant idea of being a group with uncompromising and boundless ideas, the quartet (Laurence Coleman, Nick Mott, Aaron Moore and Daniel Padden) is utterly beyond classification. This radical and unique music brought VTB to the attention of the more discerning. (Steven Stapleton asked the band to join the United Dairies family.) Drawing on the work of Robert Wyatt, Faust or This Heat, the music of Volcano The Bear is the perfect combination of music and non music, melodies and free expression. The band creates a musical environment crossing composition with improvisation. Filled with crackling electronics, rumbling percussion, unconventionally played guitars, manipulated vocal noises, distorted piano 'The Idea of Wood' is an ideal mix of primitive folk, art rock and filmic sound sculpting. Eccentric, hypnotic, mystic, but most of all truly incredible."
6/17/2004	Volcano The Bear	Tunnels and Wheels b/w Shake Your Crow	7"	$6.99	Gold Soundz	“The first 7" from this very, very great Leicester, UK combo (apart from 2 bonus 7"s on the Beta Lactam Ring label). Volcano the Bear has released a number of records on such fine labels as Steven Stapleton’s United Dairies, Pickled Egg, Textile and Beta Lactam Ring. As usual they go out of their way to create great pieces of full sonic surrealist splendour..... Numbered edition of 310 copies.”
3/26/2006	Von Harmonson, Noel	Born on the 4th of July	CD	$10.99	Resipiscent	"Bringing horror home to roost, NVH jellies your knees with this stripped down, no-place-to-hide assault. Masterful improvisations and the unadorned appeal of shredding sound viscera, fear will find your heart for you. If ever you've wanted to see the rest of Comets on Fire lying quietly dead in a pile while NVH goes completely off, now's your chance."
8/7/2002	Voodoo Mechanics	Chaotika	CD	$9.99	Mandragora Records	"Can Mandragora Records do no wrong? This is the fifth release of their's that I have reviewed, and I have not been let down once as of yet. Voodoo Mechanics is the label owner's solo sampler project, circa 1998-1999. Although some parts can be somewhat abrasive, most of the album is less harsh, favouring a calm, even ambient, sound. I suppose this point can be argued, but I think it is a general concensus that even Voodoo Mechanics at his harshest comes nowhere near the likes of Merzbow and Prurient. This psychedelic ambience, however, is a nice break from the cacophony, and it definitely provides a nice soundtrack for a mind-trip, if that's what you're looking for. In order to help explain how this album fits together, I like to call Voodoo Mechanics the Godspeed You Black Emperor! of noise music. The album fluctuates between so many styles and emotions throughout its entirety that, by the end, you almost feel weary. And that's what noise music is all about. If you're a noise fan, and you're looking for some diversity in your musical diet, you may want to consider getting this album. And while it's by no means another 'Rainbow Electronics', it's an enjoyable noise album anyway." - Matt Shimmer, indieville.com "Constructed entirely from samples and found sound, Chaotika is an intense meditation on the mysteries of drone and loop. Astral brutality as crippled beats juggle icy strings, alien orchestras wage battle, and freaks come alive. Pagan muzak meets lounge terror in a sonic Rorschach Test."
9/30/2008	Vorg Vessel	The Queen of Fish Mountain / Illuminated by Stripes	CDR + 3" CDR	$14.99	Cut Hands	"Another stunning project courtesy of psychfiend Adam Kriney (La Otracina, Dragonfrynd). This man does not sleep, nor shouldn't he. Just like on the Dragonfrynd album there's no drums on this double album. No guitars either this time. Just miles and miles of tripped out organ jams. Straight lines get transformed into a sprawling, blurry ocean of dubby overtones. Space age slowjams..this must be what shroomheads in love dance to. Sweet. 50 copies in slimline dvd cases with six page booklet and art by Peter Friel."
	Vortex Naviagtion Company	Things Make Patterns as They Fall	CD	$14.99	Camera Obscura	"This is Salamander singer-guitarist Sean Connaughty's other band, in conjunction with guitarist Wes Morden and a rotating group of instrumentalists on percussion, bass and keyboards. Expansive improvisations and dark folk, not a million miles away from Salamander, but pushing further into the swirling cloud formations of sky-trance improvised drone rock on one axis, and deeper into dark backwoods folk on the other." Recommended.
12/30/2002	Vote Robot	Five Score Six Bicycle	LP	$17.99	Catsup Plate	"The third proper album from our favorite antiquated electronics experimentalists. Continues in their particular vein of warm and hazy homemade electronic sounds. Melodies bubble up through the murk and recede, bits of static crackle and flare, and warm tones ooze out through the speakers, enveloping the listener's ears. The music is abstract, but almost melancholic, like the gears of an old rusted-out clock tower slowly decaying or a broken wind-up toy that's been set in motion one last time. There's definitely air of familiarity here, too: these sounds and melodies seem to have existed at some point in the past, now long-buried in the clutter of the subconscious. Edition of 300 copies in 4-color silkscreened jackets."
	Vote Robot	In Meorm NA	LP	$11.99	Scratch	"The second album proper, from Canada's Vote Robot. Standing quite defiantly far apart from the endless crop of current electro experimenters in that they work exclusively with tapes, turntables, mixers, and analog synths; creating a subtle, and engulfing flow that is uneasing and pleasing both. No laptops, no sequencers, no Pro-Tools, no drum machines, nothing high tech, or barely even a product of the 1990's present here; yet the music of Vote Robot manages to stand alongside the latest batch of technicians found in the Wire, yet boasting a key additional ingredient found less commonly in their well celebrated contemporaries. That key ingredient being the murky and essential intangible better known as warmth. By near definition, most electronic music cannot be warm, yet the two young men of Vote Robot just have it, and in spades owing I suppose to their methods and equipment, strange and easily amusable personalities, and the fact they have good good ears that influence everything they do through editing, composition, and ruthless quality control. It seems more and more people everywhere are seeing the difference, and indeed more and more people are prepared to Vote Robot."
7/14/2007	VxPxC	Porchmass	CD	$12.99	Digitalis	"In the past two years, (VxPxC) has grown from a Golden State oddity to a Los Angeles institution. The trio of Grant Capes, Tim Goodwillie, and Justin McInteer have churned out an entire catalog of blissed-out improvisations that range from the organic and melodic to overblown chaos. There's never a dirth of new ideas flowing out of their collective minds, and on "Porchmass," their first proper CD release after a slew of CDRs and cassettes, they push the envelope into a whole new realm. Recorded entirely on Goodwillie's porch in City Terrace, in East LA, "Porchmass" is a ramshackle choir singing in effigy to the orange polluted sunsets of Southern California. (VxPxC) only use a small arsenal of acoustic and battery-powered instruments, singing bowls, and pots & pans as makeshift-percussion, but it is magic junkyard orchestra. This is also the first appearance of the now-trademark accordian that graces recent (VxPxC) sessions. By using this array, the group traverses new territory somewhere near the islands of Jewelled Antler or The Vanishing Voice. Despite the minimal setup, the songs on "Porchmass" are incredibly rich and diverse. Between the solemn notes of the accordian, washes of droning keyboards, and turbulent acoustic guitars rises a heartbroken voice that acts as a torch. The wordless vocals flicker like volcanic ash falling from a sunkissed sky. There's so many things at odds with each other throughout these pieces that the resulting dichotomies and trichotomies create an entirely new sound. (VxPxC) is Los Angeles through-and-through. But this is not your grandfather's LA of Hollywood glam and cocaine binge weekends. Capes, Goodwillie, and McInteer are blessed by the sun and palm trees, but when you dig deeper you find the warm, inviting underbelly that keeps such an enormous city afloat. "Porchmass" is a quiet hymn for the populations that the outside world has forgotten."
7/14/2007	VxPxC	Reticent to Manifest	cassette	$6.99	Abandon Ship Records	"Reticent to Manifest was made on a cold summer's night in Los Angeles... High on salsa verde and the thick brown air, three men went in and one long string of sound came out. (VxPxC) has been known for pulling some legs and some hair in the past, but this tape is the start of a very long apology of sorts... a way to say "Hey, we like music too... maybe just not the same stuff as you, but you know..." Not a particularly heart-felt apology, mind you, but a start..." C40 Cassette Edition of 100.
6/19/2007	VxPxC	Stoned To Death	CDR	$11.99	Leaf Trail	"(VxPxC) are an LA trio that skillfully and seamlessly blend multiple styles from psych, drone, pop, shoegaze, dislocated rock and the undescribable to create an evolved entity, a beautiful "otherworldly being" presented in the form of a hand crafted cd. They create music projected straight from the heart with the purest of intentions and the simple joy of playing and releasing music they are passionate about. "Stoned To Death" is a new life (in all regards) among the forest of cassettes, CD-rs and countless future LPs and CDs to be released by this trio. Here they are creating worlds within worlds within worlds within worlds......The sounds are from a distant universe, never our own. They are neither reality nor dream but of some deeper primitive expression that flows from the core of your spirit and rattles it about with pinches of hope, melancholy and out of body explorations."