x

DateAdded	Artist	Title	Format	Price	Label	Description
3/1/2007	x.o.4	Cataracts	LP	$11.99	Ecstatic Peace	"Debut vinyl release by the Western Massachusetts drone/scrape trio of Bill Nace, John Truscinski and Jake Meginsky. These guys have developed into one of the most soul-glowing sound/improv units out there today. And we mean out there – sparkling shards of guitar/amp/file machinations dance and intercede with rolling thundercloud dreamdrum dramatics. Nace you know from his killer duo throwdowns with Chris Corsano as Vampire Belt as well as the more recent weirdness with Dylan Nyoukis and Karen Lollypop as Ceylon Mange and in duo with Thurston Moore as Northampton Wools. Truscinski and Meginsky are the fine gentleman who’ve recorded as Slaughterhouse Percussion, Meginsky a student of, and fellow professor with Milford Graves at Bennington College." Edition of 500 copies.
2/5/2011	x.o.4	Exile	LP	$13.99	Open Mouth	"This record has been a while coming. First recorded in 2008 and worked on for some time after that, it is high time that Exile makes its appearance. Nauseatingly austere compositions cover both sides of this near perfect record. At moments (like the way side A begins for instance) one hardly feels as if they are listening to anything other than the room they are sitting in, much less sound that has been organized intentionally, much less a musical composition. And then, out of the blue of this disarming zone, the x.o.4 trio emits meticulously framed slices and fragments of electronic intrusion. They come suddenly, these pieces - I don't quite know what to call them - samples or techniques - and vanish invisibly. Side A rings true from the beginning. Breaking cleanly and spacious scuffling before the tide starts rising. Deep to chirp and infinitely suppressed explosions. And then the mouth starts. Jaws of electro-lust slobbering for pockets of air. We are drilled for a while, stretched, scratched and thinned. It is tempting to call it "textural" so that you know what I am talking about. But it is not "textures" because "textures" don't dig into your body and invade your mind like this. This record marks decidedly new territory for x.o.4. The work here is obviously more refined, but it is also somehow more intricate, passionate and dangerous than their past releases. There is a terrible insect positioned just out of sight. It never strikes, but it kills sharply and accurately nonetheless. One becomes so transfixed, so utterly lost in the inevitability of death by insect (this particular one) that all hope is crippled and reduced to zero. The project of life is over. We've been kicked out. ...And then something changes. Suddenly that impossibly seductive tone is over and it has been replaced by a sound so thin, so fragil and irregular that it resists nearly every kind of contact. The group snap in and out of these singular zones, dragging our consciousness with them. You hear people talk about the "space" of a musical composition - how such and such a composer sends us "from here to over there" or how this or that piece is "expansive". Well, I can catch that ride - I like the think about music in spatial terms. And one of the things that makes the material on Exile exceptional is the way in which these guys deal with perspective. I get the distinct feeling while listening to this recording that I am observing the inaudible world with a microscope. Things that appear too minuscule to be heard get amplified to the point where they become sizable structures full of detail and complexity - up close for the ear to examine. And then (to heighten this sense of perspective) events that seem as if they should overwhelm the composition are sent to linger in the background - compressed or filtered or squished so much that they are reduced to their bare minimum. What we are presented with feels both familiar and utterly alien at the same time. Another thing that sets this record apart from other x.o.4 is the degree to which it is produced. From what I understand, Nace and Meginsky spent a good deal of time working with the sessions that they initially recorded to get the material into this final state. That, and the record was mastered by Bhob Rainey. Bhob's ears are all over this stuff. You can expect sustained focus on pure air, as well as various subtle deviations from pure air. And then be ready to have your mind suddenly opened. Blown."
6/4/2010	Xela	The Divine	LP	$15.99	Dekorder	"The Divine" marks the second phase in the trilogy proposed by John Twells aka Xela. Crawling out of a castle dungeon in pursuit of its predecessor, "The Illuminated", this LP finds itself trapped in an abandoned church somewhere in a damp Southern wilderness. Church bells chime and rattle through the record's first piece, echoing and distorting through a fog of chattering voices and prayers. Tape loops stumble over tape loops and the solemn, ecclesiastical drone slowly decomposes into thick, crackling noise. Through the mists choirs sing, heralding the introduction of the second side of "The Divine" which takes the human voice into cavernous and smudged, yet strangely alluring territories. There is almost a Basinski-like charm to this work as the choirs effortlessly degrade into an unrecognisable mud of harmony and abrasiveness. This is music informed by a religious world; Xela has edged from the scriptures of cults and secret societies to the spires of organisation and power. God is in the detail." Limited edition of 500 copies!
3/21/2009	Xela	The Illuminated	LP	$15.99	Dekorder	"The music of Xela is not easily described. The alias of Type Records main-man John Twells, he has over the last decade moved through a dense fog of musical styles from abstract electronics to rusty soundscapes. In recent years his output has allied itself with darker realms, taking a liberal dose of influence from Norway's darker exponents, but retaining a deep and measured experimental focus. 'The Illuminated' was originally released on cassette, a format very fitting to the gloomy, waterlogged sounds; but having sold out in a matter of days it now recieves the much needed deluxe re-issue treatment. Taking cues from the cracked black metal of Burzum and Striborg and fusing this with heavy, synthesized noise 'The Illuminated' is possibly Xela's darkest, most spine-chilling work to date. We are taken through chiming Nurse With Wound-inspired soundscapes into Middle Eastern marketplaces and through caverns of thick, buzzing synthesized noise on the album's first piece. Entitled 'Black Scripture' this takes the dank religious themes of 'In Bocca Al Lupo' and goes even deeper into the Church dungeons, digging up lost artifacts and the angry spirits that accompany them. The flipside extends this heresy with a throaty vocal and distorted electric guitar, leaving blackened corpses and the traces of a sleepy village in its wake. Devastating and dark material, listen if you dare..."
11/15/2008	Xela / The North Sea	Electronic Music Vol. 1	LP	$19.99	Rite	"Limited hand-stamped vinyl-only edition of 300 copies for the world. Much in the same vein as the 12th Chapel LP that introduced Type-offshoot Rite, this collector's vinyl finds label boss John Twells as Xela in collaborative mode, this time splitting a record with Digitalis founder Brad Rose (aka The North Sea). Each artist contributes a side's worth of new material inspired by the electronic music of the mid-20th century. Far from being a foray into fusty academic experimentation, this album brings together primordial oscillator drones and ancient-sounding effects, the sort of thing that ties together the soundscapes of Aaron Dilloway with Radiophonic Workshop-inspired sonic resourcefulness. From the introductory drones of Xela's opening piece, you're instantly transported to the timeline-blurring recesses of Sub Rosa's Anthology Of Noise compilations, or the mighty OHM boxset, slowly morphing from fogged-over, ambiguous tonalities to a more corrosive, distorted sound, thanks to some subtle use of prepared electric guitar. Next up, "Masculine Guilt" takes the formula a couple of steps further, encroaching upon a more timbrally-sophisticated blend of auditory decay. In keeping with the album's theme, the music sounds aged and somehow smeared, as if the various sound sources had seeped into one another over time, leaving only sporadic oscillations to cut through the air of obfuscation. That account might make it sound a little harsh on the ears, but it must be radio-friendly to some degree: BBC Radio One's Mary Anne Hobbs has already given this a spin on air. On the flipside, The North Sea takes over, unleashing a single, side-long composition held in place by a bedrock of undulating synthesis and Forbidden Planet-style stray signals, vaguely resembling Theremins. By its end, the piece only seems to accumulate greater density, becoming a solid, humming sound mass before dissipating reluctantly into nothing. The cover art features the artist name and tracklisting in Romanian." - FE
6/11/2006	Xenis Emputae Travelling Band	Heard Gripe Hrusan	CDR	$9.99	23 Productions	"Heard Gripe Hrusan collects together archival recordings made in Yorkshire between June 2004 and October 2005. Locales for the recordings include Little Almscliffe Crag, Ilkley Moor, the ruined church of Wharram Percy and the Thornborough Henges. XETB makes beautiful droning 'British primitive music' played with accordion, dulcimer, flutes, guitar, violin and banjo. XETB was formed in Summer 2001 at the prehistoric site of Men-an-Tol in Cornwall. Heard Gripe Hrusan will be the twelfth CDr release." Edition of 129 copies.
1/22/2011	Xiphiidae	Equal Phesance	c36 cassette	$5.99	Stunned	"When 'Equal Phesance' was first issued in 2008 as a Housecraft CDr limited to 60 copies, it's maker had this to say: "Seemingly hidden in a sedimentary layer of the collective subconscious, is the ever-more-detectable hum of an arriving world, calling for receptive ears and accessible memory banks upon which to unfurl its banner." Stunned Records has always found 'Equal Phesance' to be one of the more challenging and unique slices from the sturdy Xiphiidae back catalog. Now re-issued on cassette for the first time in an expanded edition size with all new artwork, it's high time to give this jewel a closer listen. In the few years since this deep-ambient dream was shared with us, the hum of the arriving world has nearly become a roar. As mere observers to an annihilative Mystery, we joyously invite its unfurling here at the threshold of a new year. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c36 tapes w/ double-sided color card."
4/27/2011	Xiphiidae	Honeyguise	c21 cassette	$5.99	Rotifer	"Entranced visions take you through each step of creation. A first appearance that's hard to believe, this project started it all for Rotifer." ~special fakir trading card inserts~" Edition of 150, pro-duplicated on type II, chrome cassettes.
3/28/2010	Xiphiidae	Maps in Exodus	c42 cassette	$7.49	NNA Tapes	"New recordings from Housecraft label-man Jeffry Astin's prolific project Xiphiidae. On "Maps In Exodus," Xiphiidae utilizes harmonious noise and texture to create a tense atmosphere of anticipation for the unknown."
3/21/2009	Xiphiidae	Milk from a Feather	3" CDR	$8.99	Ruralfaune	"Overwhelmed tape loops created in a room of radiant plasma. Sinking further into heavy trances and then remembering again the 'milk from a feather" metaphor. Sound source/manipulation, faint whispers/vocal noise and quiet tape recordings through heavy manipulation." Limited edition of 77 copies.
11/27/2010	Xiphiidae	Pisces Muse	c45 cassette	$6.99	Stunned	"Xiphiidae's newest tape 'Pisces Muse' is a mind-clearing alignment in the trance of deep night, beckoning to all edge dwellers & eternal wanderers. It employs psychoelectronic utterance and polyrhythmic forest drums in equal measure - a twinkling chimera at the boundary of our peripheries. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c45 tapes w/ double-sided jcard and insert."
11/6/2010	Xiphiidae	Science Everywhere	c45 cassette	$5.99	Housecraft	Edition of 100 copies.
7/16/2006	XNOBBQX	Blues	CDR	$10.99	Seedy R!	"What can I say... I seriously believe this album takes urban blues to a whole new level. Featuring seriously damaged autistic slo-mo riffage, comatose drumming and line hum the Sydney-side duo of Mat Earle and Nick Dan will have fans of Armpit/CJA lost for hours, their faces lit up in big shit-eating grins as they swim through the glorious murk. The sheer mind numbing deliberation and persistency of these vaguely blues-inflected untuned guitar lines lull one into an hypnotic trance whilst at the same time the seeming randomness of the drummers interjections keep one anxiously on the edge of ones seat...Overall it makes Jandek sound like Joe Satriani!"
4/27/2011	xNoBBQx	Live at Louie's	c30 cassette + download	$6.99	Dub Ditch Picnic	"Free music. Anarchic noise. Live. Love it/Hate it. Pinched from a live set at Louie's in Sydney Nick Dan (percussion) & Matt Earle (guitar) make a biiiiig thuda thuda caveman noise of massive feeeeedbackin' guitarded proportions. More to the point, they make a big fucking racket that is call to arms - to rise up and destroy all mediocrity. If it ain't that then it's an open invitation to live free and smash shit. Thank You. Fuck You." Pro-dubbed w/ Download code. Art/Design by Cole Peters. Edition of 50 copies.
8/31/2010	xNoBBQx	Live In Palermo	CDR	$10.99	Black Petal	"It's a great release of theirs, an entire live show that works well as an album release.. one of their best performances." - Anthony Guerra. Released to coincide with Japanese tour.
11/2/2011	xNoBBQx	Muryoku Muzenji, Koenji, 2010 / Happy, Wellington, 2009	c30 cassette	$7.99	Dungeon Taxis	Flipped reprisal of that 2009 New Zealand incursion, this live Tokyo/Wellington diptych steps to the mic in unruly, xenolinguistic fashion, it's squashy 'drums' and 'guitar' fission the most munchy and hyperventilated of all Matt Earle and Nick Dan's released programmes. Muryoku Muzenji, Koenji, 2010's counterpoint creature squall dovetails with rhizomatic kit blare and toothed glissandi in horn-like confusion. Happy, Wellington, 2009 is such an unreal Bolero - like crazy tormenting 4/4s, gamelan detunes, and poltergeist tempo hassle. Dungeon Taxis 16.
6/5/2009	xNoBBQx	Skewer	10"	$13.99	Golden Lab Records	"We first came across Australian two-piece xNoBBQx in Piccadilly Records last year when the Siltbreeze vinyl reissue of their first CD-r appeared on its shelves. The Siltbreeze label being a bastion of all that is great in terms of dirgy, lo-fi, transcendental unmusicality, we were thus intrigued to hear this slab. And, we have to say, it was one of the greatest shop-listening experiences of all time. Here was a duo, probably of fully grown men, bashing away at their instruments in a manner that suggested they had never really learned any 'proper' technique and it was all the more mind-bendingly good for it. We later read a review, in fact, that put it thus: "So what exactly is the difference between an xNoBBQx recording and a couple of 14 year olds bashing instruments in the garage with record pressed down on one of their mum's old tape recorders? Probably not a whole lot, actually, but I get the feeling that's precisely the point." (Cyclic Defrost). Well, it's a helluva point. The duo, in spite of or, perhaps, due to their unabashed simplicity, manage to create sounds that are warm as an old-fashioned blanket, each piece having the ability to induce a state of complete, dribbling mental stasis. It's disjointed, scratchy and 'difficult', yes. But it also manages to be completely absorbing. If you like your rock deconstructed to the nth degree, we highly recommend you dig this stellar new 23 minute masterpiece right here." Edition of 300 copies.
3/21/2009	Xochipilli	Xochipilli	3" CDR	$8.99	Ruralfaune	"Recorded at the "Centre de découverte du Son" (Center of sound discovery), north Britain France. A magic path to listen to and make noise between magic world populated of mysterious beings, calm of nature and discovered sound phenomena. The musical path is a place where small and large are invited to include/understand, listen, produce and play with the sounds. 21 minutes, 15 shortcuts, - play random mode - build your own path and go on it." Limited edition of 62 copies.
12/24/2005	Xombie	Deathdrip	3" CDR	$8.99	Chondritic Sound	"this time the rotbrain shows a more aggressive style than shown on the split 3" w/ hive mind with heavy mind-melting electronic moans. vintage xombie culled from an unreleased double cassette! green & black artwork on disgusting green paper, painted cdrs." Edition of 132 copies.
12/24/2005	Xombie / Hive Mind	Last Blood Into Soil	3" CDR	$8.99	Chondritic Sound	"slow-motion loop mutation and synth swells from redrot alter-ego xombie while hive mind brings classic synth shudder and uncomfortable tones. a nightmare in stereo. brown & black artwork on dark red paper, painted cdrs." Edition of 133 copies.
5/1/2009	XV Parówek / Fossils	Innards Out	LP	$17.99	Middle James Co.	"XV Parówek side contains spontaneous recording made before one of first Noise Wastes(*), a dose of maniacal harsh noise with vocals, metal and synth/pedals abuse. Fossils are a brutal trio from around Ontario, who even use some "musical" instruments, but manage to play meaner, louder noise than XVP." Operational since 1994, XV Parówek is the solo output of Bartek Kalinka, Polish experimental noise project and the namesake of his label. Fossils began in 2005, spearheaded by David Payne, and has included a revolving door of members, mostly Hamilton locals or like-unminded folk. 'Innards Out' is two unedited freedom explosions. XVP side= Recorded August 6 2008 in Warsaw, Poland as a rehearsal for Noise Waste (a bi-monthly experimental gig), XV Parówek gives us maniacal electronics and distorted vocal rips, chirps complimented by low-end rumble tumbling crumbling to a groan blasted by rusted metal winds down in the well feeling unwell. Fossils side= Fossils as Daniel Farr, Rob Michalchuk, Steve Smith and David Payne. Recorded sometime 2008 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Farr, Smith and Payne build a buzzing battlefield of junk jackhammers while Michalchuk's sax dances round landmines, bombing sheets of feedback boiling down to a sputtering whiny and a strung-out guitar scattering. skating needles sticking with four lock grooves (placed randomly on the record during the mastering process). yet another WTF to add to the Fossils mammoth discography. Record is housed in a black sleeve with pasted color cover art by Polish artist Ratz, b/w 2-sided xeroxed insert by David Payne." Limited edition of 223 copies.