Dissonant Plane

Matt Shoemaker grew up over on Mercer Island and has lived in the Seattle area his entire life.  That’s all about to change as his better half is going to grad school in San Francisco and they are moving in August.  I’ve known Matt for a long time as he used to be a regular customer at the Anomalous Records shop on Capital Hill back in the mid-1990’s.  We’ve become good friends and played music together many times.  In his free time, Matt has devoted himself to creation of beautiful sound worlds.  First released on bernhard günter’s trente oiseaux label in the early part of this decade, Matt’s solo works have found a steadily building fan base leading to more releases around the world.  Matt has brought us a few of these latest releases for the shop.  The oldest is 2008’s “Mutable Depth“, a 3″ CD released on the French label Ferns.  Using only ice as source material Matt created a 20 minute work exploring aural textures.  Following this have come two full length releases in rapid succession.  In May, the Belgian CDR label Mystery Sea released “The Sunken Plethora Consumes All“.  Limited to only 120 copies in full color package, this disc blends field recordings with rich ambient sounds.  In June this was followed by “Erosion of the Analogous Eye” on Jim Haynes’ Helen Scarsdale Agency label.  Here the sounds play out more delicately.  “Sunken Plethora” has deep washes of sound whereas “Erosion” strikes me as more of a composed work with highs and lows.  Though in a slightly larger edition, “Erosion” is limited to only 300 copies due to the unique artwork on each cover.  Matt has been one of Seattle’s silent masters, playing out rarely.  He will be playing at least one last show at the Chapel Performance Space on July 18th.  And of course there will be more releases, such as the limited edition picture disc coming from Elevator Bath.

Thunder Grey Pilgrim makes heavy doom laden sounds.  It will fit in the dark atmosphere as Sunn0))), but unlike that group Thunder Grey Pilgrim seems to stay away from rock instrumentation.  “Demogorgon” is the name of the brand new CDR on Debacle Records that showcases this sound.  The two times I’ve played it in the store so far, its gotten attention.  Three long track of thick and ominous atmosphere slowly dredge the air.  Of course Sam of Debacle is thrilled about the release, and that is one thing that makes this label so good - Sam loves the stuff he works with.  This is another chapter in his documentation of Seattle noise artists, and like the others is limited to 100 copies.

While getting this new disc, we also got copies of the recent Summon Thrull title.  This self-titled release is the creation of Dustin Kochel of Physical Demon (you might remember them for their recent set opening for Wolf Eyes and Black Dice).  This one has all kinds of crazy electronic noises which are in constant motion.  There are some harsh moments here, but the majority of the disc is more in the strange territory.  As above, this one is limited to 100 numbered copies.

- Eric

Wednesday night that was a great show at the Josephine.  Local synth duo Brother Raven, and out of town solo acts Magneticring, Pete Swanson and Zaïmph.  Brother Raven used old analog tools to evoke the atmosphere of the Sky Records’ 1970’s output.  Magneticring’s LP is in a similar vein, but this performance he used the EMS Synthi to create some sounds reminenscent of early electronic pioneers.  Pete Swanson, one half of the now defunct Yellow Swans, used an old open reel tape deck to build up lovely noise loops on top of which he added heavily distorted and processed guitar and vocals to great effect.  Zaïmph played three pieces focusing more on vocals than her in store performance here at Dissonant Plane last week.  While each piece was distinctive, the whole set glowed with a slow motion noise bliss.
The following day, Pete and Marcia (a.k.a. Zaïmph) stopped in the shop on the way to Vancouver, B.C.  This gave us a chance to expand our selection of Yellow Swans in the shop, which was actually at nil since we had sold out of everything.  As I alluded to above, Yellow Swans are no longer a going concern, but apparently have only recently finished their last studio album and will have a few more recordings coming out.  As anyone who has looked into them should know, they discography is vast, but only a small number of titles are available at any given time as most are very limited.  We were able to get CDs released under the names Descension Yellow Swans, Doubled Yellow Swans, Drowner Yellow Swans, and just plain old Yellow Swans by themselves and in collaboration with The Cherry Point, Mouthus, and John Wiese.  The CD “Portable Dunes” with Wiese is the newest of the bunch.  So new that is not actually released yet. as it is on John’s Helicopter label and John is currently in Poland where he is playing the Musica Genera festival this weekend.  Of course that was the first thing I threw on and I found it opens with a serious roar of sound and through its five tracks becames progressive more calm and meditative.  Of course variety courses through the veins of the Yellow Swans catalog.  It is all more or less “noise music”, but one disc will be droning while another will add active element on top of this bed or push the sounds the further extremes.
In the past there have been a handful of Pete Swanson solo releases, and now he’s got two really limited tapes.  He says they are essentially for sale at shows only, so we were only able to get one copy each of “Denim Life” and “Unlimited Options”.  Meant to get around more at the two CDs releases on Pete’s new label Freedom To Spend.  The first is by Bulbs a guitar and drums duo that sounds nothing like their instrumentation would suggest.  Pete himself compares this group’s sound to the releases on the Kompakt label as their music is very glitchy and experimental with rhythms and sounds you might expect from a laptop artist, but obviously with more life in them.  The second release on the label  is by Dragging An Ox Through Water.  This one is a weird mix of folky guitar and vocals with homebuilt electronics.  It’s got songs, and you could sing along to it, but its plenty strange too and makes for a unique and enjoyable album.
Eric

Extraordinary Pigeons are a loose collective of Seattle noisemakers.  They seem to often have the core of Jeremiah Smith, Jason Young and Richard Rehm.  Noise is a decent way to describe them in that that term does really mean too much specifically.  Listening to the selection of releases that Jeremiah brought in Monday, I am happy to find each one a bit different.  They’ve all got the hallmarks of noise - indefinable sounds, lack of concern with melody or rhythm, long sprawling development.  But some are a little heavier, like the “Wasted Tapes” cassette, and some more subdued, like the “Intergalactic Scavengers” CDR, with the nice echoy and spacious opening track “Repeat Procedure”.  A lot of times they are a mix, too rough to be ambient background and not painful like power electronics.  What they do have is lots of great electronics noises and effects which seems to be more of a sit down and enjoy experience.  In addition to the above mentioned 2009 releases, we got the older CDRs “Desghidorah”, “Help Jason Eat”, “Rotten Apple” and the out of print Debacle title “What The Fuck Are You Looking At Sugar Tits???”.  With the exception of the the last title, which was an edition of 100 copies, all of these are in micro editions of 10 to 12 copies.  On a related note, Jeremiah also brought us “The Date Fork Seeps the River Volume Two” a compilation which features Extraordinary Pigeons along with Alvarius B, Sun City Girls, The Haters, Id M Theft Able, and a ton of unknown and very weird acts.

Wow!  Fantastic in store last night from Zaïmph.  Thank you very much Marcia.  If you didn’t come down, you really missed out, but we restocked a lot of Marcia’s wonderful recordings:

Bassett, Marcia & Giffoni,Carlos  “Organized Anatomy”  CD  (Blossoming Noise)  $10  - edition of 300, Basset is in Hototogisu, Double Leopards
Hototogisu  “Green”  CD  (Heavy Blossom)  $10
Hototogisu  “Pale Fatal Sister”  2 x LP  (Important Records)  $19  - M. Bower (Skullflower) & M. Bassett (Double Leopards)
Hototogisu  “Robed in Verdigris”  LP  (Nashazphone)  $19  - discounted due to bent corner (damn post office!!!)
Hototogisu  “Sculpture Built Upon The Graves”  CDR  (Heavy Blossom)  $9  - CDR, edition of 200 copies
Hototogisu + Burning Star Core LP  (Yik Yak)  $11  - discounted due to bent corner (damn post office!!!)
Zaïmph  “Bird of Prey”  7″  (Arbor)  $7  - beautiful dreamy sounds
Zaïmph  “Death Blooming Pleasure”  LP  (No Fun Productions)  $11  - limited to 300 copies, reduced price due to bend corners
Zaïmph  “La Nuit Electrique”  CD  (Utech)  $10  - limited edition of 500 copies
Zaïmph  “Serpent’s Bite”  CD  (Heavy Blossom)  $11  - member of UN, Double Leopards, Hototogisu, GHQ
Zaïmph  “Sexual Infinity”  CD  (Hospital Productions)  $10

“Death Blooming Pleasure” seems to the current as we already sold 3 of the 5 copies we got last night.

FREE IN STORE PERFORMANCE
ZAIMPH
THURSDAY, JUNE 18th, 2009
7:00 PM

Zaïmph is the solo project of Marcia Bassett, a New York City artist and musician. Flaubert, in his novel Salammbô, fabricated the Zaïmph. Bassett appropriated the name in 2003, releasing a handful of CD-rs on Heavy Blossom. Later CD and LP releases have appeared on numerous independent labels such as Hospital Productions, W.M.O.r, Utech Records, Gypsy Sphinx, Volcanic Tongue, and No Fun Productions.

A drop out from the music school elite, Zaïmph uses guitar and vocals to transform traditions of song writing and noise music. After spending years of ethonographical culture studies living within the decaying framework of the USA and Europe, she currently chooses to live in an ill-coded building perched above the streets of delicately arranged trash in New York City. Zaïmph conveys an environment of industrial grit and pleasure. The sound is both seductive and laden with the doom of the coming storm.

Marcia is also a member of Hototogisu (with Matthew Bower of Skullflower), GHQ, Double Leopards, Zaika (with Tom Carter of Charalambides) and defunct Siltbreeze band un.

http://www.zaimph.org/

The last week has seen a lot of vinyl arrive in the store - our vinyl bins are considerable more full now.  Nonesuch Explorer Series, Table of the Elements guitar series, Robbie Basho, Boris with Merzbow, Tim Buckley, The Bug, Vashti Bunyan, John Cage, Ornette Coleman, Dirty Projectors, Pierre Henry, Daniel Johnston, Kraftwerk, Ennio Morricone, Nico, Nurse With Wound, Odetta, Om, Radiohead, Terry Riley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Messiaen, Iannis Xenakis, Frank Zappa, Rune Grammophon, Devendra Banhart, Carla Bley, Bröselmaschine, Karen Dalton, Dungen, Heldon, Matthew Herbert, Gary Higgins, Emmanuelle Parrenin, Popol Vuh, Wayne Shorter, Suarasama, Vainicia Doble, Scott Walker and more!

• Acephale  “Mord und Totsclag”  CD  (Aurora Borealis)  USED  $10  - audio CD in DVD case
• Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.  “Electric Heavyland”  CD  (alien8 Recordings)  USED  $8  - zonked out Japanese psychedelia
• Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.  “Never Ending Space Ritual”  2 x DVD  (Swordfish)  USED  $24  - documentary and live footage
• Alatar, Mohammed  “Iron Wall, The”  DVD  (PalestineOnlineStore)  USED  $10  - documentary about Jewish settlements in West Bank
• AMK/GX  “Two Dead Guys”  CDR  (Banned Production)  USED  $3  - CDR, cut-up best of with GX (Haters)
• Andorkappen  “Assorted Live Shits - Vol. 1″  DVDR  (Bastardized)  USED  $3  - DVDR  of crazy vocal noise
• Angel Witch  “2000: Live at the LA2″  CD & DVD  (Zoom Club Records)  USED  $8
• Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra  “Muse”  CD  (Creative Nation Music)  USED  $8
• Bream, Julian  “plays Dowland and Bach”  2 x CD  (Deutsche Grammophon)  USED  $10  - 1950s recordings of master lute & guitar performer
• Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band  “Safe as Milk”  CD  (Buddha Records)  USED  $8  - amazing debut from 1968 with wonderful bonus tracks
• Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band  “The Best Of”  CD  (EMI Gold)  USED  $8
• Cavity  “Laid Insignificant”  CD  (Hydra Head Records)  USED  $8
• Chrystal Belle Scrodd  “Beastings”  CD  (United Dairies)  USED  $15  - out of print anthology of NWW side project
• Clouds  “We Are Above You”  CD  (Hydra Head Records)  USED  $8
• Courtney, Andrew & Perry, Emily  “The Israeli Wall in Palestinian Lands”  DVD  USED  $10  - documentary on the wall separating Jerusalem
• Deathprod  “Morals and Dogma”  CD  (Rune Grammofon)  USED  $8  - deep and solemn music from Norway
• Einstürzende Neubauten  “Drawings of Patient O.T.”  CD  (Thirsty Ear)  USED  $8  - 1983 album of metal percussion and German angst
• Fab Trio  “Live in Amsterdam”  CD  (Porter Records)  USED  $8
• Fennesz  “Endless Summer”  CD  (Editions Mego)  USED  $8
• Fewell, Garrison  “Variable Density Sound Orchestra”  CD  (Creative Nation Music)  USED  $8
• Foreman, Richard  “Sophia: The Cliffs / 35+ Year Retrospective Compilation”  DVD  (Tzadik)  USED  $18  - experimental theater from 1972
• Gas  “Nah und Fern”  4 x CD  (Kompakt)  USED  $22  - 4 CDs of minimal ambient techno
• Gorguts  “From Wisdom to Hate”  CD  (Olymipic)  USED  $8  - Tech avant garde Death
• Gotan Project  “Santa Maria”  CD EP  (XL Recordings)  USED  $4  - downtempo / future jazz
• Haddad, Bassam  “Arabs & Terrorism”  DVD  (Arab Film Distribution)  USED  $10  - neocons vs so-called Arab “terrorists”
• Hakmoun, Hassan  “Fire Within - Gnawa Music of Morocco”  CD  (Music Of The World)  USED  $8
• Health CD  (Lovepump United)  USED  $8  - LA noise rock
• Heavy Lids  “Things are Happening at the Same Time”  CDR  (Dragon’s Eye Recordings)  USED  $4  - audio CDR, 36 minutes of delicate & spacy guitars
• Holy Modal Rounders, The  “Bound to Lose”  DVD  (Carnivalesque)  USED  $14  - crazy psychedelic folk group with LPs on ESP
• International Nothing, The  “Mainstream”  CD  (Ftarri)  USED  $10  - very pure sounds
• irr.app.(ext.)  “An Uncertain Animal, Ruptured; Tissue Expanding In Conversation”  CD  (Errata In Excelsus / Fire Inc.)  USED  $8  - early release from this current NWW collaborator
• Isis  “In the Absence of Truth”  CD  (Ipecac)  USED  $8  - Atmospheric Sludge
• Krokodil  “Krokodil / Swamp”  CD  (Azir)  USED  $8  - Swiss bluesy psych/prog w/sitar from ‘69/’70
• Krokodil  “Sweat and Swim”  CD  (Azir)  USED  $8  - Swiss blue rock; reissue of 1973 Bacillus double LP
• Merzbow  “Space Metalizer”  CD  (alien8 recordings)  USED  $8  - more cosmic noise on this one
• Mitchell, Roscoe  “Solo Concert”  CD  (AECO Products / Katalyst Entertainment)  USED  $8  - Art Ensemble of Chicago member recorded 1973-74
• Möbius, Guido  “Gebirge”  CD  (Karaoke Kalk)  USED  $8  - funky electronic music with plenty of clang & clunk
• Moondog CD  (CBS)  USED  $10  - out of print CD which reissues LPs from 1969 and 1971
• NON  “God & Beast”  CD  (Mute Records)  USED  $8  - noisy album with Douglas P. & Rose McDowell
• Nurse With Wound  “Rock’n Roll Station”  CD  (United Dairies)  USED  $16  - UD edition, features Peat Bog & Chrystal Belle Scrodd
• Popol Vuh  “Aguirre”  CD  (SPV)  USED  $8  - reissue of 1976 LP; soundtrack for Herzog film
• Pyramids 2 x CD  (Hydra Head Records)  USED  $12  - remixes by Blut Aus Nord, Colin Marston, Plotkin, etc
• Quiet American  “Plumbing and Irrigation of South Asia”  CDR  (and/OAR)  USED  $6  - ,CDR field recordings, title really says it all
• Roedelius, Hans-Joachim  “Jardin Au Fou”  CD  (Bureau B)  USED  $8  - ‘79 album of light electronic music from half of Cluster
• Rollins, Sonny  “Saxophone Colossus”  DVD  (Acorn Media)  USED  $10  - legendary jazz improvisor
• Rollins, Sonny  “Silver City”  2 x CD box  (Milestone Records)  USED  $10  - anthology covering 1972 to 1995
• Shalabi Effect  “Pink Abyss”  CD  (alien8 Recordings)  USED  $8  - slow moving, psychedelic & experimental
• Shedding  “What God Doesn’t Bless, You Won’t Love; What You Don’t Love, The Child Won’t Know”  CD  (Hometapes)  USED  $8  - lonely ambient soundtracks
• Skinny Puppy  “Brap (Back & Forth Vol. 3 & 4)”  2 x CD  (Nettwerk)  USED  $10  - unreleased early tracks & “Too Dark Park” outtakes
• Sonic Youth & Yamatsuka Eye  “TV Shit”  CD EP  (Ecstatic Peace!)  USED  $8  - short EP of crazy noise, out of print
• Swans  “Body To Body, Job to Job”  CD  (Young God Records / Sky Records)  USED  $8  - early heavy material
• Theoretical Girls  “Theoterical Record”  CD  (Acute Records)  USED  $8  - unreleased 70’s NYC no wave w/Glenn Branca
• Throne of Katarsis  “An Eternal Dark Horizon”  CD  (Candlelight Cult)  USED  $8  - Norwegian BM
• Trial of the Bow  “Ornamentation”  CD EP  (Release)  USED  $5  - eastern inspired ambient with acoustic instruments
• Urdog  “Eyelid of Moon”  CD  (Secret Eye)  USED  $8  - low key trancey grooves
• Urdog  “Garden of Bones”  CD  (Secret Eye)  USED  $8  - contemporary psych rock from Rhode Island
• Various  “Audible Geography”  CD  (Room 40)  USED  $8  - w/La Casa, Vitiello, Jerman, Tsunoda, Berhens, López
• Various  “I Am The Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey”  CD  (Vanguard)  USED  $8  - covers of Fahey by Devandra Banhart, Pelt, Peter Case
• Various  “In Formation - A Tribute to Throbbing Gristle”  CD  (Attention Deficit Recordings)  USED  $8  - 2000 album of TG covers w/Non, Melvins, MSBR, etc.
• Windy & Carl  “Songs for the Broken Hearted”  CD  (Kranky)  USED  $8  - ethereal female voice, guitars & wash of sound
• Woman Year  “Aeon Centers Faded”  CD  (Porter Records)  USED  $8  - weird songs
• X, Malcolm  “In His Own Words…”  CD  (KRB Music Companies)  USED  $6  - black power straight from the source
• Zenlo  “Skelethal Antics”  CD  (Porter Records)  USED  $8  - archival 1983 minimal synth / experimental recordings
• Zivich, Alivia & Young, Nate  “Video Madness IV”  DVDR  (AA Records)  USED  $8  - DVDR, Nate is in Wolf Eyes & Demons, 19 minutes

FREE IN STORE PERFORMANCE

6:00 PM

The second Saturday of every month is the Ballard Art Walk. Since we have been staying open for the art walk, we thought we would make it more interesting by having some live music. So come join us from 6 to 8 this Saturday. We have a little something for everyone. Sparkle Girl will do a field recording and shortwave set. Hellgrammite present their underground black metal sound. Aural Antithesis & Gohger bring prepared violin and electronics. Amphetamine Virus mix dark beat and noise. All are local acts represented on the shelves of Dissonant Plane. It is a great way to check out a variety of local underground weirdness.

Zaïmph is the awesome solo noise project of Marcia Bassett.  Heavy mysterious noise drones.  She is half of Hototogisu (with Matthew Bower), one-third of GHQ one-quarter of Double Leopards, half of Zaika (with Tom Carter) and was in Siltbreeze band un.  Marcia’s Zaimph has released some fantastic vinyl, CDs and tapes on her own Heavy Blossom label as well as great labels like No Fun, Utech, Arbor, Volcanic Tongue, and Heavy Tapes.