Dissonant Plane

John Wiese played the Josephine last night and came by the store today.  We did a bit of exchange and have some fine product to show for it.  In addition to his better known work with Sunn 0)))) and Bastard Noise, John has an impressive solo discography and is involved in several other groups such as LHD (with Phil from The Cherry Point) and Sissy Spacek.  Of what we got the smaller portion was on CD, so let’s start there.  First is the solo disc “Teenage Hallucinations: 1992-1999″ with fast cut heavy noise similar to early Pain Jerk and featuring a guest appearance by G.X. Jupitter-Larsen of The Haters.  Then we have a duo CD with C. Spencer Yeh of Burning Star Core called “Cincinnati”.  Just one of their many collaborations, this being more experimental.  Yeh also makes a guest appearance on “French Record” by Sissy Spacek, which is actually released by an Australian label.  Also appearing on this disc are Kevin Drumm, Kate Hall, and Sam Ott.  Last of the CD is “Limbs of the Fawn” by LHD - a full on power blast of noise.  LHD are also responsible for one of the 7″ we got called “Lock Up”, limited to 100 copies on John’s own Helicopter label, again full on noise, but different from the CD.  The other 7″ on his label that we got is John’s collaboration with Ju Suk Reet Meate and Oblivia of Smegma serving up some of the delicious weirdness in a slightly larger edition of 300 copies.  John tells me there are now quite a number of hours of sessions he’s done with these two, as well as the full Smegma group, so expect more from this in the future.  Back to vinyl, we got 4 titles on LP.  2 are on Helicopter and limited to 100 copies.  The first is Sissy Spacek “Devils Cone and Palm” a single side LP recorded in 2005/6 with Jesse Jackson (guitar), Corydon Ronnau (vocals) and John Wiese (mix/bass/drums/guitar/junks).  Heavy playing edited together to focus on the most noisy aspects.  Second is “General Assurance” by Dead Machine & John Wiese.  Shortest in supply is John Wiese’s “Soft Punk” LP on Troubleman Unlimited, which he only had a single of to give us.  Last of the LP is “Dramatic Accessories”, a John Wiese solo LP released by Ultra Eczema in Belgium in an edition of 300 copies with a gorgeous screen printed cover.  This LP has more silence and emphasis on small sounds rather than continuous heavy noise.  Last John brought back a few copies of the Franz Fjöder CD from Holland which is an interesting mix of dark ambient, folk and noise.

Stringboard builder, board certified music therapist, musical game writer and guitar picker Dave Knott and field recording, analog electronic enthusiast, computer composer Matt Shoemaker once were house mates.  Despite coming from different musical areas aesthetically, they started playing together and came up with a whole new beautiful mutant.  Initially a secret project appearing live in only very disguised form, the Omake & Johnson’s real identities are now publicly known and have finally made a recorded document available.  Packaged in beautiful handmade paper envelopes (each of which is an entirely different color), “Headiferous Unctabulum is a twisted ride of industrial-neo-free-folk-drone wrapped in analogue tape hiss and reverberated field recordings” according to one blogger who has heard it.  Apparently limited to only 40 copies with a number already distributed, this looks to be a quickly desirable item.

Back in stock!  The Hellgrammitt demo is a 12 minute cassette of lo-fi black metal.  Hellgrammitt is a trio including Josephine resident Chad Allen, although way different his other projects Wind Swept Plans and Forrest Friends.  I think I even hear a touch of influence from early Swans on the B side of this.  Limited to 100 copies, so come down and pick up a copy soon.

For those who missed the S.M.S. listening party on the 20th (or did and need some notes), Emily Pothast has written this excellent recap of the evening: http://emilypothast.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/sms-listening-party-recap/ which nicely incorporates the best of Eric’s recollections. 

Thanks to everyone who came down to hear Stuart Dempster last night, and thanks to Stuart for playing!  Both sets very impressive and an honor to present here.  It was a unique occasion to hear Stuart and Tanith in a duet after playing together in large groups only in previous years.  Since he was here, Stuart restocked our CD supply bringing us more of the ever popular “Underground Overlays in the Cistern Chapel“, which is the disc that he played along with the in the first half of last night.  Also, he brought us copies of two more titles from the Deep Listening label featuring himself along with Joe McPhee.  The first is a recording of The Joe McPhee Quintet at the Tractor Tavern from Earshot Jazz in 1995 where Joe and Stuart are joined by Eyvind Kang, Michael Bisio and Stuart’s son Loren Dempster.  The second is a 2003 collaboration between Deep Listening Band (with Pauline Oliveros) and Joe McPhee Quartet where they provide a backing to Rachel Pollack’s text.  Like Dempster, McPhee has a long history of creative music, but instead comes from the realm of 1960’s free jazz playing with Clifford Thornton, and continues to collaborate with a wide range of musicians including The Nihilist Spasm Band and Peter Brotzmann.

From the environs around Everett come Aural Antithesis and Gohger.  They have released two CDRs: “Ghryztopia” (a  live collaboration) and “Kneebrace” (a split with solo tracks by each).  Gohger provides prepared violin and loops while Aural Antithesis lays down beats and bents.  On “Ghryztopia” they combine to create a creepy atmosphere with plenty of echo, bent sounds and slow rhythms.  The brand new “Kneebrace” separates the two.  Aural Antithesis serves up more experimental pieces collaging electronics with found sound and only forays into beats on one track.  Gohger here has three distinct pieces starting with a nice violin focused piece like a very calm Agencement and ends his half of the disc with tabla accompaniment. Both are released in numbered editions of only 100 copies.

Wally Shoup is another long standing Seattle treasure, although he he is originally from Alabama.  Wally’s been here long enough to be a founder of the Seattle Improvised Music Festival (now in its 24th year) and for a while curated a regular series in the back room at the old Speakeasy before it burned down.  Wally is best know for playing the alto saxophone which he continues to play with fiery ferocity to the current day.  Wally brought us a wonderful selection of his recordings going all the way back to his 1981 LP with Ross Rabin.  This early recording is one of the few to feature Wally playing other instruments.  It became a favorite of Thurston Moore - a self described Wally completist who had Wally open up for Sonic Youth in the mid-1990’s and has played with him many times since.  Among the 12 different LPs and CDs we got are recordings matching Wally with Neils Cline, Greg Campbell, Toshi Makihara, Thurston Moore, Chris Corsano, Paul Flaherty, Jeph Jerman, and Brent Arnold, plus releases by the trios Ghidra (with Bill Horist and Mike Peterson), Project W (with Brent Arnold and Ed Pias) and Spider Trio (with Jeffery Taylor and Dave Abramson).  While a lot of improvisers have recently turned to toning down there sound, Wally keeps alive the blistering ferocity of old fashioned free jazz.  Some of these titles are destined to disappear into the fields of rarity (the Project W CD and 7″ are on long defunct Apraxia label), so grab these hot goodies while you can.  As a special added bonus, the first 6 customers will get a free copy of the Wally Shoup Gust Burns Duo CDR with their purchase of any other Wally Shoup title!

• African Head Charge Great Vintage Volume 1 CD
• Ambarchi, Oren In The Pendulum’s Embrace CD
• Ammer · Einheit · Haage Apocalypse Live CD - members of Einstürzende Neubauten
• Asva What You Don’t Know Is Frontier CD
• Bevis Frond, The New River Head CD
• Birds, The Birds Birds Birds In The World CD - neat cover, features Cotton Casino of Acid Mothers Tempel
• Braxton, Anthony Quartet (Coventry) 1985 2 x CD
• Brennan,John Wolf / Doran, Christy / Héral,Patrice Triangulation CD
• Brotherhood of Breath Travelling Somewhere CD - unrelease 1973 live with Evan Parker
• Bryars, Gavin Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet CD - 1993 version with Tom Waits
• Burroughs,William S. & Van Sant,Gus Elvis of Letters CD EP - long out of print
• Butcher, John / Durrant,Phil / Lee,Peggy Intentions CD
• Can Unlimited Edition CD
• Carter, Christina Original Darkness CD
• Chadbourne, Eugene Corpses of Foreign War CD
• Circle Katapult CD
• Coleman, Ornette & Prime Time Tone Dialing CD
• Cymerman,Jeremiah In Memory of The Labyrinth System CD
• Diabolical Masquerade Death’s Design CD
• DNA DNA on DNA CD
• Electric Wizard Witchcult Today CD
• Fahey, John Railroad 1 CD
• Frith, Fred Step Across The Border CD
• Goatlord Reflections of the Solstice CD
• Hawkwind Glastonbury 90 CD
• Horovitz, Wayne Film Music 1998-2001 CD
• Kirk,Roland Rahsaan Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color CD
• Kowalsky, Gregg Through The Cardial Window CD
• Laswell, Bill Invisible Design CD
• Mahler, Gustav Symphonie Nr. 8 2 x CD
• Menche, Daniel Jugularis CD
• Miller, Paul D. Viral Sonata CD
• Morricone, Ennio Morricone Kill CD
• Morricone, Ennio Psycho Morricone CD
• Mueller, John / Kahn,Jason Topography CD
• Negativeland Free CD
• Neumeier, Mani Privat CD - solo by Guru Guru drummer
• Novatron New Rising Sun CD
• Pinhas, Richard Metatron 2 x CD
• Popol Vuh Nosferatu CD
• Psychic TV / PTV3 Mr. Alien Brain vs. The Skinwalkers CD & DVD
• Samael Era One 2 x CD
• Samael Eternal CD
• Seefeel Succour CD
• Seven That Spells Black Om Rising CD/DVD
• Sharrock, Sonny Guitar CD
• Shea, David Satyricon CD
• Six Organs of Admittance Dark Noontide CD
• Six Organs of Admittance For Octavio Paz CD
• Six Organs of Admittance Sun Awakens CD
• Tabata, Mitsuru Brainsville CD
• Various Dead & Gone #2: Totenlieder - Songs of Death CD
• Various Imaginational Anthem Volume Two CD
• Various JazzCD.no 3rd Set Jazz from Norway 2008 3 x CD
• Various Musique Expérimentale LP - classic musique concrète comp from the old days
• Various Nart Nibbles 2 x CD
• Various RE/Search: Incredibly Strange Music Volume I CD
• Various Tokyo Flashback 4 CD
• Various Tokyo Flashback 5 CD
• Various Waves in the Ether - The Magical World of the Theremin CD
• von Essen,Eric Music of Eric von Essen Vol. I CD
• von Essen,Eric Music of Eric von Essen Vol. II CD
• West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Part One CD
• Wire Scottish Play: 2004 CD & DVD
• Wyatt, Robert Dondestan (Revisited) CD
• Wyatt, Robert Old Rottenhat CD

Some cool goodies we got today: 

• AMM with John Butcher  ”Trinity”  CD - 2008 recording with AMM as the duo of Eddie Prévost (percussion) and John Tilbury (piano) with guest Butcher on soprano & tenor saxophone exploring restraint in playing
• Astral Social Club  ”Plug Music Ramoon”  LP - vinyl only limited to 500
• Cornelius Cardew “Treatise (Prague 1967)”  2 x CD - recorded live in 1967 with Petr Kotik, this is the earliest recording of this masterwork of graphic scores and we’ve already sold 3 copies of this since it came out a month ago
• FM3  ”Buddha Machine I”  soundbox - we’ve got more of the original, this time in orange and red!  still a classic
• FM3  ”Buddha Machine II” soundbox - all three colors (brown, burgundy and grey) of the new and improved Buddha box with pitch control
• Toshi Ichiyanagi “Drip Music”  CD - unreleased piece for electronics and inside piano from 1974 accompanied by thick booklet of unpublished drawings by early manga / anime artist Yuji Kuri
• Toshi Ichiyanagi “Electronic Field”  CD - one of the most outstanding and experimental recent recordings of this Japanese composer 
• Moha!  ”Jeff Carey’s MoHa!”  7″ - back in stock but for how long?  the last two times we got this, it sold out the day we got it
• Moha!  ”Norwegianism”  LP - vinyl version of 2nd album
• Moha!  ”One-Way Ticket To Candyland”  LP - vinyl version of their latest ”extremist hybrid between free improv, gutter electronics and darkwave scuzz” - recommended!
• Charlemagne Palestine “Sound 1″  LP - unreleased minimal drone on a similar wave length to La Monte Young, released in a limited edition of 500 copies for an event at the national museum in France, most copies were given away that day, less than 200 were left for sale and for a while it looked like we complete missed but we managed to score a few copies - if you dug “Drift Study” at the S.M.S. listening party, don’t sleep on this one
• Prurient  ”Black Post Society”  CD - heavy blown out noise, rhythms and screaming vocals, released by Cold Spring
• Conrad Schnitzler  ”Silver”  LP - unreleased solo synth instrumentals from 1974/75 (around the time of the color albums) - desolate Sci-Fi ambiance on one side while the other throws down some primitive electro rhythms
• Smegma & Wolf Eyes  ”The Beast”  CD - large group experimental weirdness
• Wara  ”El Inca”  LP - rare progressive rock from Bolivia in 1973!  limited to 350 copies in gatefold sleeve
• Wolf Eyes & Anthony Braxton  ”Black Vomit”  CD - surprisingly spare but still very experimental
• Joji Yuasa “Music for Experimental Films”  CD - fantastic old experimental electronic music never before released
• Pari Zangeneh “The Series of Music for Young Adults: Iranian Folk Songs”  LP - deluxe reissue of very rare Iranian folk pop from 1976 on heavy vinyl with heavy textured sleeve - Pari’s vocals are sweet and melodic and the music is slick and just gorgeous; released in a numbered edition of 350 copies and took a bit of waiting before we finally got a copy, but worth the wait and price

Jim Evans just left us with a stack of the official invite to the Soccer Mom Ebonics 14th Anniversary happening this Saturday at the Josephine.  In invite is a Sparkle Girl CDR in large clear bag with the double sided flyer.  We’ve got a stack of them on the counter and they are free to take until Saturday night, so come on down and grab one.  Playing that night will be The Sparkle Girl Orchestra, Yokai No Uta, Slicing Grandpa, Hemingway, Goly Grim, ~Dyna*Girl, and Sparkle Girl (duo).  There have been some changes to the line up, but this appears to be the final version.