Discography

PPR16 - Monsturo "POB66" - Cassette
— sold out —
Los Angeles based Monsturo. Minimal, focused, consistent, and masterful modular synth. Hand-dubbed C-10 in classic PPR style.

Letterpressed, duplexed wrap-around sleeve and letterpressed insert. Edition of 100.

Excerpts
Monsturo POB66 - side A (excerpt)

PPR15 - BORG "IA" - CD
— Sold Out —
Chances are you will hate this. Anonymous, heroin-trance techno from the occult propietors of classic and futurist purity. collective mindz.

Packaged in a Letterpress fold-over with insert and cd jacket. Edition of 200.

Excerpts
BORG I:A - track 1 (excerpt) | BORG I:A - track 7 (excerpt)

PPR14 - PULSE EMITTER | GRASSLUNG split CD (cover)

PPR14 - Pulse Emitter / Grasslung split - CD
— sold out —
Three long tracks of Analog Modular synth, made in accordance with the winged eye of the oval.

Packaged in a letterpress, diecut, duplexed, fold-over sleeve with insert, and diecut CD folder. Pro-printed discs. Edition of 200.

Excerpts
Pulse Emitter - track 1 (excerpt) | Grasslung - track 2 (excerpt)

PPR13 - RISK REPORTING book
— available soon —
"Unwillkürlich verlor ich mich tiefer in den Wald. Auf dem Wege fiel mir ein, daß der Entleibte sonst eine Taschenuhr besessen hätte. Ich brauchte Geld, um die Grenze zu erreichen – und doch fehlte mir der Mut, nach dem Platze umzuwenden, wo der Tote lag. Hier erschreckte mich ein Gedanke an den Teufel und eine Allgegenwart Gottes. Ich raffte meine ganze Kühnheit zusammen; entschlossen, es mit der ganzen Hölle aufzunehmen, ging ich nach der Stelle zurück. Ich fand, was ich erwartet hatte, und in einer grünen Börse noch etwas weniges über einen Taler an Gelde. Eben da ich beides zu mir stecken wollte, hielt ich plötzlich ein und überlegte. Es war keine Anwandlung von Scham, auch nicht Furcht, mein Verbrechen durch Plünderung zu vergrößern — Trotz, glaube ich, war es, daß ich die Uhr wieder von mir warf und von dem Gelde nur die Hälfte behielt."

Letterpressed black on black cover, laser-printed inner pages. Edition 30.

PPR08 - SYNB / HSDOM split - CD
— sold out —
A tangled mess of SYNB (Matt Brinkman, i.e Meerk Puffy) reworking HSDOM materials and HSDOM reworking SYNB's 'BLACK/GOLD CHIP'. Modular synthesizers, deeply processed audio, puddles of destroyed samples feature with heavy bassdrum beats, white noise washes and a gnome clapping in the abandoned freight elevator tunnel.

Packaged in a self assembled, razor scored, letterpressed silver on black, blind embossed, gatefold with insert. One of our Favorite releases of the new century. Edition of 200.

Excerpts
SYNB [HSDOM] I (excerpt) | SYNB [HSDOM] III (excerpt) | HSDOM [SYNB] II (excerpt) | HSDOM [SYNB] III (excerpt)

Reviews
Animal Psi »

SYNB/HSDOM

Finally, from collaboration to cooperative to a final configuration of agents as (re)interpreters, Jochen as HSDOM (née HsDOM) and kindred spirit Matt Brinkman (of Meerk Puffy and Mindflayer) as SYNB take turns retooling each other's works Ð 'Fullmoon' and 'Black/Gold Chip', respectively - in nine non-sequential parts. Notated as simply "SYNB [[HSDOM]]" or "HSDOM [[SYNB]]", it is difficult to determine who's remixing who per track without knowing the original text; I suppose it doesn't matter much, however, as the pair share with Jonas and McCusker a hive mind (lowercase this time) approach to populating vast planes of sound with electric pulses, the former pair creating a filter for brain leakage only slightly more concrete (no accent this time), and with Throbbing Gristle rhythms of note. No where is this more defined than in the emerging bounce of track one, an additive industrial percussion of repeating samples, dissolved bass beats, cracked knuckles and a skewed rhythm of lolling static which loses form as climax, stuttering and blinking with panicked frequency. The blistered surface of the following drum and bass follows an Oval pattern of sequenced samples Ð claps, glitch, whistles, and conventional snares Ð in a holding pattern rhythm with another slight flourish of sine weirdness. Swapping duties momentarily, the second second author takes control of the tools, revising a 12 minutes stretch of wayward phases, alien detunings, and buzzing electronics: if I were to guess, this is HSDOM at work, recalling the bizarre terrains of his previous 'VOMC' full-length Ð like a Total Recall terminal of alien interaction, with intercoms alighting in all corners, squeaks and chatter of conversation, and steady mechanism of movement all around. For want of descriptors not befitting a UFO landing, I will jump ahead to suggest that each track follows through with increasingly engaging (re)constructions, quickened by diminishing durations, and prone to growing segments of definitely danceable bust-outs; added are new permutations of voice, added drum effects, and evolving beat textures. A ripe reward follows in the final two turns with an uncharacteristically warm dub (aided by the exaggerated crackle of a dusty phonograph) of glitchy bass and chopped, albeit live percussion couched in a thin slipstream of seething fuzz, and into a clubbable heavy drum and bass throb processed through an array of effects, and fitted with bells and whistles. Along with the recent, agreeable techno minimalism of Borg, the album comes as yet another far-fetched stamp in the Phaserprone passbook, solidifying the boys' new lease on musical life; and though I must admit no idea of what they're up to, I am entirely enamored and wait with baited breath for another rune to expound this convolution. Fully-printed disc comes in a crushing, razor-cut handmade digipak with black/silver print and recessed design and text, plus insert; bagged for safe keeping, and limited to 200 copies.
— [Animal Psi] | » read original review

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Julian Cope »

SYNB/HSDOM

... "Next, all you fans of Anal should please check out Phaserprone Records' wonderful split CD by SYNB and HSDOM, the former being one of the many obscure projects by Rhode Island's Matt Brinkman, the latter being a solo project of Brooklyn-based musician Jochen Hartmann. Herein, both artists have re-worked the other's music to create a totally coherent mash of weather formations-meets- heavy industry. Enormous cranes teeter in the wind, massive radio antennae fizz in the rain, and girders crash unnoticed from massively high gantries, the overall experience being somewhat like taking mushrooms and shivering at the great North Walean Neolithic temple of Tal-y-Fan just at the spot where the National Electricity grid cuts right across the valley (though without the threat of death that such an act would entail). Better still, and like all of Phaserprone's exquisitely packaged releases, SYNB/HSDOM arrives in what their press dept calls 'a self-assembled, razor-scored, letter-pressed silver on black, blind embossed, gatefold with insert'. Cop this sucker from www.phaserprone.com, but do make sure you check out their entire catalogue while yooz at it." ...
— [Head Heritage] | » read original review

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PPR07 - Grasslung / Pelerine "Power Visions" Cassette
— sold out —
Yet, when they entered the corridor, there was only darkness with no hope for light. So we looked one handed with unpleasant concept for an area of permanence. Unpopular schizms supplied a flimsy insulation, and then a spark. The pursuit of construction with a deathly chill in its veins, and all will be destroyed by fire of its own dynamism. Modular constructs of raw synthesis by Jonas Asher and John McCusker

Hand dubbed C-30 with letterpressed wrap-around cover.

Excerpts
Grasslung - Splendors and Miseries (mp3) | Pelerine - Auchenor (mp3)

Reviews
Animal Psi »

GRASSLUNG/PELERINE - Power Visions

Though the sole project of Jonas as referenced above, the Grasslung contribution "Splendors and Miseries" on the split-release 'Power Visions' reproduces the narcotic vibration of the latest U W Owl, though now compelled by a busied twilight of mechanical patterns etched of track-long tonal striations, phasing whirs, and vocal noises which seem to appear from inside the narrow pillars of noise. A thick, ribbed serpent of Hive Mind grumble threads itself between the bars of sound, puncturing the ethereal fabric by tooth and scale, the favored tweeter of tiny movements flecking the space around these larger, blustery streaks. Guest accomplice John McCusker of Phaserprone's Southern Man appears on the compliment as Pelerine, crafting an entirely commiserate piece called "Auchenor" from warbled phasers on a bed of wispy hiss and the occasional clatter of striking objects. A breath of unseen tension is released at odd intervals, warping the page and bringing attention from new sounds (moisture, propeller-plane) with each appearance. A booming hum like side A's snake revolves around the clearing of the final moments, choking out some final sustained strains before coiling the cassette to rest. With less narrative than its admittedly cloudier predecessor, the tape offers slightly less for being more straightforwardly ambient; just the same, the sentiments are too married to be ranked or even cleaved, and to consume 'Power Visions' with the lot would offer the greatest palette of sensation. Another black print on fine paper, the cassette comes with more fantastic art on heavy slip sleeve. Limited to 100 copies. [Animal Psi] | » read original review

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PPR06 - BORG CD
— sold out —
The borg is born when white smoke go off in black rooms. Heroin-trance fills your veins like a hydrogen bomb going up in slow motion. Deep dark techno, modular-analogue basslines and distorted leads that build without mercy. Leave your laptops at home. 100% hand-made razor madness.

Packaged in a One Color Letterpressed, 140lb Foldover. Bagged, with Inner Blank Sleeve, and Insert. Edition of 100.

Excerpts
Nancy Sang (mp3) | Borg Rage (mp3)

Reviews
The Wire »

BORG - The Wire -- # 289

Part Techno futurism and part technological dystopia, this ultra-limited CD on Brooklyn micro-label Phaserprone succeeds in cloning a roughshod mutant music from the scraps of Techno, House and other subgenres. Who or what is the Borg remains obscure; what is for certain is that mystery, and its attendant anxiety, are part of the message.

The mood throughout is bleak: a stubborn jittery minimalism permeating everything, in form and instrumental colour. The drum machines sputter and spit accents on the upbeat or tap out bleeding permutations; the bass is big but marshy and the kick drum's dead thuds; in the background, analogue synths wheeze and buzz tattered melodies, distended voices drift in and out. The single-note bassline on "V-Hammer" drills its message into your head. The bass on "Plastic Baggage" is more active, but less manic. "Plane of Hate" is a study in disintegration, as the rhythm cannot hold and a heap of voices mutter under a throbbing headache of low end.

What ultimately keeps Borg from being an exercise in misanthropy is that while it lingers in dark places, it avoids noisy extremes. The tracks here stalk the bpm comfort zone between 80 and 120, the skeleton rhythms wavering between mechanical repetition and futuristic groove. Voice samples are deployed with precision for maximum effect. In other contexts, the high female voices of "Nancy Sang" would be anthemic; here they breathe menace. On "Borg Rage", fragmented lines of dialogue coalesce into an oblique narrative. Without destroying them, Borg turns dance music tropes against themselves, lending the album an unsettling hypnotic sway. [The Wire - # 289]

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PPR05 - UW OWL "New Birth of Old Death" Cassette
— sold out —
First in a four-part series of recordings based on Gene Wolfe's four-part "Book of the New Sun" series. Torture-meditation drones, spatial field recordings, acoustic guitar, gothic synthesizer washes, fragmented spoken-word, and a deeper investigation into the longer format.

Hand dubbed C-36 with letterpressed wrap-around cover in metallic gold ink. Edition of 100.

Excerpts
Corpse Candles (mp3) | We Are Strong (mp3)

Reviews
Animal Psi »

UW OWL - New Birth of Old Death

Reshuffling the deck entirely, the bouncing baby Gristle of 'Thorn Elemental' by U W Owl has seeped like so much oil into the soil, now leaving just a stain of sound across the six tracks of 'New Birth of Old Death'. A faint electronic chanting accompanies heavy ozone and sea change on the blowing "Corpse Candles", a wickedly opaque introduction dominated by concrète noise and understated compositions, a cross-wired brain slurring in tongues the possible combination to this arrested scene; the eternal drone of the chant reemerges as the track dissolves into a whistle of mechanical wings and a mile of billowing noise which covers ominous foot-falls as "Ultan's Maze Speaks" in alien dialect surrounded by a chirping, whirling stillness. Familiar the recent rituals of Burial Hex, these constructions refuse dark ambience in requesting Ð no, throttling - the earÕs attention, and recreating a moment of pure uncertainty and uneasiness. The reverse side's "Drugs" unfurls a deceptively musical Om of looping, sailing drones stranded in a heavy fog like buoys off a northern coast. More vocal interference enters "At Dawn", now tuned to a tedious, almost articulate clarity, but immediately engulfed in a gust of melted garble; what should fill the space lying before "Amidst a Fuligin Cloak" is a vacancy of life marked only by a whirring motor and the distant clatter of metal like a fabric, making the icy entrŽe of the track that much more devastating: with full depressions of synth notes, the soundtrack ambience of JonasÕ solo work materializes with mute delicacy, sawing the sonic space with natural erosion. "Folded Eyes" continues this solidification with the creeping strum of bass strings, harping an eerie apparition of a Tom Carter solo, regrettably clipped by the snap of the tape. The study comes wrapped in brutal black letterpressing by Jonas on fancy paper, art by Jochen, and heavy, gilded slip sleeve. Limited to 100 copies, and the first installment of a four-part series. [Animal Psi] | » read original review

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Rootstrata »

UW OWL - New Birth of Old Death

Definitely one of my favorite new labels around these days is Phaserprone. Based in the Baltimore & Brooklyn, they traffic a strain of dark underground synth / analog / found sound / rhythm weirdness that I've recently found highly addictive. And they look AMAZING. Mostly thick hand done letterpress stuff that is a rare treat to see around these days. The recent UW OWL tape 'New Birth Of Old Death' is a must haveÉreminding me at times of some of the more abstract / tone poem splicing This Heat stuff. But less British and more basement. It could easily be a soundtrack to one of Phillip K. Dick's drug induced paranoid dream worlds. Yea, absolutely recommended!

— Jefre Cantu-Ledesma [Rootstrata]

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PPR04 - GRASSLUNG "Psychic Venom" Cassette
— sold out —
Jonas Asher of UW OWL presents two tracks of slow scraping and smothering Bushwick grime. Secluded and hypnotized, low end constant throb. Two tracks recorded in 2005 in Brooklyn, NY.

30+ minute cassette, packaged in a ink-jet slip case, with scanned inner rendering of solvent and ink letterpress experiment on paper. Edition of 45.

Excerpts
Untitled (mp3) | Der Luftkrieg (mp3)

Reviews
Animal Psi »

U W OWL, HsDOM, Southern Man / Pykrete, Grasslung

Phaserprone is a young label run by two swell guys, Jochen and Jonas, who also made the label's first release as UW OWL; Grasslung is just Jonas, while HsDOM is just Jochen. The label's first outsider release comes as a very fine collaboration between Southern Man and Pykrete. Sticking it to everyone, you cannot ignore Phaserprone's insane album couture: thick vinyl in die-cut jackets with letterpress art; cassette with printed labels, cardstock inserts and custom sleeves; and CDrs come in thick, thick paper digipaks with trays, letterpress and photo art. All this and in batches of little more than 100 copies; the prices may be a touch steep, but the product will certainly recompense.

A heavy, abandon-the-bunker throb pumping with industrial whips and accumulating layers of effects opens "Black Flag", the first of ten tracks on UW OWL's 'Thorn Elemental'. The 'ghost, but not really' cover art reminds me of a couple different Sun City Girls LPs for obvious reasons, but the laser-tag battles inside bare no resemblance at all. There seems to be a disparity between sides, with A being a bit darker, sparser, and eightiesier. The next track, "Aero Birdhaus" bounces on springy percussion with light rhythmic themes, and is the first indication of the latter-day Black Dice comparisons to come; somewhere the track melts-down into a drip tempo with a variety of organic beats applied, some hints of acoustic guitar, and a momentary tape impression of guitar thrash. The tracks flow together like oil-swirls and in due time "All Have Hooves" appears with gunky, didgeridoo rhythm to close out the first side of this dark dancehall. "Thorn Face" on side B is a busier track, still mid-tempo but with fills and a waving guitar/feedback loop running behind it - reminding me of how Nine Inch Nails played that Joy Division song on the Crow soundtrack. The next track, "Hearth & Salamander" breaks the formula with a totally psychedelic jam of clean, electric strum and tap, and reverb vocals; half-way through they flip it, inducing that bouncy beat we love and heading into "Asylum", another 'Creature Comforts'-type creation which beats your head into a nod as you dodge hi-end lateral beams in time. "Forbidden Ones" is an exit of sorts, blending vocal samples into an almost beatless soundtrack of long horror shrieks and thick globs of bass. All told, this record is very nicely recorded and mastered, with bright blacks and rich tones; and again, sure to please fans of Black Dice and those who like a little casual gloom with their beats. On 140g vinyl, packaged in a self-assembled, die-cut and letter-pressed jacket by Jonas himself. Limited to 333 copies. $15ppd

Listening to each of the boys' individual releases, it is evident who brings what to the UW OWL table: as HsDOM, Jochen uses 'VOMC' to reach beyond the collaborative limits of 'Thorn Elemental', pushing further the erotic circuitry the latter only hints at. The cover framing two portraits of micro-processed man and the inserts a digital melt-down of human obsolescence, the album opens on the sound of the last analog device destroying itself: its moving parts (ha!) melting from friction and a lifespan of limited potential. "Elevator Action 2" vibrates loose into "Ausflug ans Wasser", sounding like a Terminator nightmare, with helicopter beats hovering just above your head and screaming sheet metal being torn from the streets. "Seewege" tests the threshold of the disc, shredding way-trashed bass and digital bubbles into a swelling dance beat. Things begin to dissipate at this point, with the Black Dice vibe entering as sounds come in little packets strategically placed over thick blasts of bass. "Eulen Flug" is almost sweet by comparison, with up-tempo beats and cheery synths skipping away like a Mouse on Mars allusion. "VOMC Track" and "Finnen Siedlung" combine for a wicked experiment with layers, pulsing like an alien EKG with light trails dissolving in all directions - the whole album has keyboards set to 'Vangelis'. The center of the album is the most sparse and experimental, with later tracks like "Zweig am Ufer" and the manic highlight "ASCii" returning to techno-nightmare dance beats and invisible crowds of screaming fans; in fact, the back end of this album holds an unexpectedly diverse batch of gems like these, including the scary/fun/bouncy "MOT/9,596,700" and the space-madness reverie of outro "Mercadian Masques." Jochen's all-in-one production is tops, as the album bumps, grinds, and seers in all the right places. Very nice! Packaged in a self-assembled, razor-scored, photo-tipped, letter-pressed CD gatefold with sexy insert. Edition of 135. $13ppd -- Get this!

If Jochen is UWO's Timbaland, then Jonas is the band's Eno: 'Psychic Venom' is two side-long tracks (maybe 40 minutes total) of pure atmosphere. Heavy synth foot-prints pace up and down this tape as swirls of electronics cloud the sky. Never abrasive, but definitely intense, this is no ambient recording. Long sold-out at home, the Grasslung 'Psychic Venom' cassette has been in scarce supply, with just the Troubleman distro coddling a few copies. However: of late, Phaserprone has taken mercy and unleashed a second batch of 45 (legal?), and the cassette is again available through the label. Packaged in an ink-jet slip case, with "scanned inner rendering of solvent and ink letterpress experiment on paper." Second pressing limited to 45 copies. $7ppd

*The Phaserprone SITE crashed a while ago and is still in disrepair; for now contact them through EMAIL, and check out UW OWL's new page HERE. Those guys are cool - get in touch! [Animal Psi] | » read original review

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Outerspace Gamelan: Grasslung »

Grasslung - psychic venom

A while ago I reviewed a bunch of Phaserprone stuff - a U W OWL LP, and HsDOM CD-R and a Southern Man/Pykrete CD-R. And they were good. But Jonas of PP also sent me a cassette which unfortunately refused to play more than 10 minutes of music. A shame since it had gotten good reviews elsewhere. Well to Mr. Jonas' credit he was on the ball and sent me a replacement tape within weeks, much to my elation. So here it is, the review that never was, Grasslung's "Psychic Venom". Grasslung is Brooklyn's Jonas Asher himself and this the books are closed on this little edition after 45 copies. I checked the Google cache of the Phaserprone website (since it seems to be down) and they're sold out but it seems like a bunch of distros around have copies so I suggest you hurry. As I learned upon receiving the other goodies, Phaserprone do a top-notch packaging job and "Psychic Venom" is no exception with the plastic tape case enclosed in a wraparound cardboard sleeve with some beautifully/ugly-rendered artwork to boot...always nice to see.

Side A is untitled and does feature those hornet swarms I was talking you up on in the non-review I linked to above but man, lemme tell you - a super-sinister vibe is afoot courtesy the Grasslung's claws. All sorts of evil loner basement vibes, bare-light in the middle of the room/myriad of photographs type jamming. And this is coming out of Bushwick, not say Oslo or Hungary or something like that. This is the sound of Joe Davola kicking the opera and and giving in to the synth-drone urge. Pagliacci out, de Deyster/Schnitzler/Radigue et al in. As a matter of fact, this whole side makes for a nice companion spool to all those Creel Pones I've been talking up recently, specifically the Jurgen Karg one which could possible be my favorite one of all I've heard...and that should at least say something about how much I'm feeling this one. Scores of whooshing cosmic-style heavy-hitting, in and out with a very drugged air, bombed psychedelics, all those good charms that I guess do brew and spawn in Bushwick basements...I can't think of too much to say about it because it's late and it's already fried my dome from the inside-out, but I get a feeling here like the last man on earth is creating aural documents for the vapor trails of the very same comets that did the rest of us in. Oh dear.

The B does have a title, and it's "Der Luftkrieg" (where you at Karg!). Gave me a scare when I flipped it because it played for like 5 seconds and then short-circuited on me. But a little fast-forward magic and it was love on the rocks again (just in case I didn't think of it last time, I tried the first one they sent me and it still wouldn't play...phew! Imagine me owning 2/45 copies?). This here flip is more into the drone, less swirling fog and vessels and all that. Moreso than anything just a heady, fare-forward jrone, massively stretched like a bright summer harmony buzzing inside your ear...same kind of sound as when the ham radio's playing in the background and it ain't loud enough to catch anything but the pops and crackles coming through. Well take all those sounds, mash em up and string em together and you're kind of on the right track. Whatever it sounds like to you I can bet you'll find it as fully intoxicating as I did. And when it's finally extinguished, man it just gives you that cleansing rush like a spring-water enema. Well, not like I would know but you get the idea. I'm executing hell of yawns here at the desktop so it's time to switch off but thank god I heard this tape beforehand because I think I'll be dozing to it every night for the rest of the week. Killer nightmare lullabies, we're talking. Freddy Krueger filling in on harp for the Dream Syndicate, we're talking. My face embedded in the keyboard, we're talking - no, seriously. So on that note I'll say good night. [Matt McKeogh/Outer Space Gamelan] | » read original review

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Other Music »

PPR03 - Southern Man / Pykrete "No More Love" CD
— sold out —
Recorded sometime in 2005. Collaboration between the awkardly unknown North Carolina / Berlin duo Southern Man, and fellow caroliner, Pykrete. Five tracks of melancholy, unorganized, mangled and unknown electronic devices. Radiators, broken refrigerators, dilapidated architecture, fishing in a dead sea.

Packaged in a self assembled, hand razor scored, letterpressed CD gatefold, with insert. Edition of 135.

Excerpts
Treason Mode (mp3) | Curretage (mp3)

Reviews
Animal Psi »

U W OWL, HsDOM, Southern Man / Pykrete, Grasslung

Phaserprone is a young label run by two swell guys, Jochen and Jonas, who also made the label's first release as UW OWL; Grasslung is just Jonas, while HsDOM is just Jochen. The label's first outsider release comes as a very fine collaboration between Southern Man and Pykrete. Sticking it to everyone, you cannot ignore Phaserprone's insane album couture: thick vinyl in die-cut jackets with letterpress art; cassette with printed labels, cardstock inserts and custom sleeves; and CDrs come in thick, thick paper digipaks with trays, letterpress and photo art. All this and in batches of little more than 100 copies; the prices may be a touch steep, but the product will certainly recompense.

A heavy, abandon-the-bunker throb pumping with industrial whips and accumulating layers of effects opens "Black Flag", the first of ten tracks on UW OWL's 'Thorn Elemental'. The 'ghost, but not really' cover art reminds me of a couple different Sun City Girls LPs for obvious reasons, but the laser-tag battles inside bare no resemblance at all. There seems to be a disparity between sides, with A being a bit darker, sparser, and eightiesier. The next track, "Aero Birdhaus" bounces on springy percussion with light rhythmic themes, and is the first indication of the latter-day Black Dice comparisons to come; somewhere the track melts-down into a drip tempo with a variety of organic beats applied, some hints of acoustic guitar, and a momentary tape impression of guitar thrash. The tracks flow together like oil-swirls and in due time "All Have Hooves" appears with gunky, didgeridoo rhythm to close out the first side of this dark dancehall. "Thorn Face" on side B is a busier track, still mid-tempo but with fills and a waving guitar/feedback loop running behind it - reminding me of how Nine Inch Nails played that Joy Division song on the Crow soundtrack. The next track, "Hearth & Salamander" breaks the formula with a totally psychedelic jam of clean, electric strum and tap, and reverb vocals; half-way through they flip it, inducing that bouncy beat we love and heading into "Asylum", another 'Creature Comforts'-type creation which beats your head into a nod as you dodge hi-end lateral beams in time. "Forbidden Ones" is an exit of sorts, blending vocal samples into an almost beatless soundtrack of long horror shrieks and thick globs of bass. All told, this record is very nicely recorded and mastered, with bright blacks and rich tones; and again, sure to please fans of Black Dice and those who like a little casual gloom with their beats. On 140g vinyl, packaged in a self-assembled, die-cut and letter-pressed jacket by Jonas himself. Limited to 333 copies. $15ppd

Listening to each of the boys' individual releases, it is evident who brings what to the UW OWL table: as HsDOM, Jochen uses 'VOMC' to reach beyond the collaborative limits of 'Thorn Elemental', pushing further the erotic circuitry the latter only hints at. The cover framing two portraits of micro-processed man and the inserts a digital melt-down of human obsolescence, the album opens on the sound of the last analog device destroying itself: its moving parts (ha!) melting from friction and a lifespan of limited potential. "Elevator Action 2" vibrates loose into "Ausflug ans Wasser", sounding like a Terminator nightmare, with helicopter beats hovering just above your head and screaming sheet metal being torn from the streets. "Seewege" tests the threshold of the disc, shredding way-trashed bass and digital bubbles into a swelling dance beat. Things begin to dissipate at this point, with the Black Dice vibe entering as sounds come in little packets strategically placed over thick blasts of bass. "Eulen Flug" is almost sweet by comparison, with up-tempo beats and cheery synths skipping away like a Mouse on Mars allusion. "VOMC Track" and "Finnen Siedlung" combine for a wicked experiment with layers, pulsing like an alien EKG with light trails dissolving in all directions - the whole album has keyboards set to 'Vangelis'. The center of the album is the most sparse and experimental, with later tracks like "Zweig am Ufer" and the manic highlight "ASCii" returning to techno-nightmare dance beats and invisible crowds of screaming fans; in fact, the back end of this album holds an unexpectedly diverse batch of gems like these, including the scary/fun/bouncy "MOT/9,596,700" and the space-madness reverie of outro "Mercadian Masques." Jochen's all-in-one production is tops, as the album bumps, grinds, and seers in all the right places. Very nice! Packaged in a self-assembled, razor-scored, photo-tipped, letter-pressed CD gatefold with sexy insert. Edition of 135. $13ppd. Get this!

If Jochen is UWO's Timbaland, then Jonas is the band's Eno: 'Psychic Venom' is two side-long tracks (maybe 40 minutes total) of pure atmosphere. Heavy synth foot-prints pace up and down this tape as swirls of electronics cloud the sky. Never abrasive, but definitely intense, this is no ambient recording. Long sold-out at home, the Grasslung 'Psychic Venom' cassette has been in scarce supply, with just the Troubleman distro coddling a few copies. However: of late, Phaserprone has taken mercy and unleashed a second batch of 45 (legal?), and the cassette is again available through the label. Packaged in an ink-jet slip case, with "scanned inner rendering of solvent and ink letterpress experiment on paper." Second pressing limited to 45 copies. $7ppd

*The Phaserprone SITE crashed a while ago and is still in disrepair; for now contact them through EMAIL, and check out UW OWL's new page HERE. Those guys are cool - get in touch! [Animal Psi] | » read original review

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Outerspace Gamelan »

OUTER SPACE GAMELAN Reviews

When Jonas of the New York born and bred Phaserprone label wrote to me asking if he could send some stuff in for review, I didn't hesitate to accept. Because I'm a leech. No actually it's because a quick glance at the Phaserprone website revealed four very slick-looking albums that anybody should love to get their hands on. But I was completely unprepared for when the day came to crack open that box and unleash these four (I know I only listed three, more on that later) gems. I don't know if there's government money at work or if the Phaserprone guys were art students and have access to all kinds of fancy machinery but the packaging here is totally decadent - the CD-Rs come packaged in super thick, heavy cardboard gatefolds with letter-pressed art, glossy photos and really weird quasi-dot-matrix-style print outs and Xeroxes (and the CD-Rs themselves have some professionally-printed art going on too). The tape they sent is housed in a cardboard wrap-around with great silver inked artwork and the LP features more letter-press, more photos, and more inserts. I know it's ultimately the music that matters man but isn't it just a billion times better when it comes in such lovely, eye-pleasing formats? I think so.

The bizarrely monikered U W OWL released their debut LP "Thorn Elemental" last year, and as it turns out they're also the same guys who run the label, Jonas and Jochen. What's strange about this record is that it doesn't actually say the title anywhere, so I'm just going by what their website tells me. The first track on the first side is called "Black Flag" but actually reminds me a lot more of Black Dice circa their latest record. It's quite a bit bouncier than the dark cover art would suggest, although there sure are plenty of industrial/dark ambient shadows afoot. I could easily throw some rhymes over this track. Okay not me. But somebody with talent could. There are four more tracks on the side but it's not altogether clear when one stops and the other begins - or I just wasn't paying enough attention. Besides, sometimes it's more fun to just float along with their super thick bass throbs like mega-slowed versions of Coil's "Panic" or perhaps something from a non-shitty Skinny Puppy. At times the duo's synth and keyboard (and who knows what else) squelchs err a bit too much on the side of electro/goth pastiche for my liking, but that only really happens at the beginning. Near the end of the first side they're sounding like a strange combo of Wolf Eyes in their come-down moments (or their quieter phases like on parts of "Dread") and a psychedelia-laden shoegaze band by way of laptop. The second side pushes their sound a bit more "out there", with unplaceable samples, scrap metal, digital drones, moans and foreign alien jazz chants. I don't think "Thorn Elemental" would be at all out of place alongside bands like Supersilent and MoHa! on Rune Grammofon. I'm not in love with every part of this record at every time of the day but I think that's part of its charm - I certainly want to revisit it a few more times and try and crack the black magick code Jochen and Jonas are weaving here. The website and insert claims these tracks were selected from a series of improvisations spread out across the past few years, something which I'm altogether suspicious of (the improvisation thing I mean - these pieces often sound so coherant I'm beginning to wonder if the two U W OWL men aren't attached at the brain).

Jochen also moonlights in a solo project with an even more difficult name, HsDom. His album is called "VOMC" and doesn't sound at all far removed from the U W OWL record except I detect a bit more of a Fennesz or FM3 touch on the near-hour-long disc, specifically on tracks like "Seewege" and "HP Burning Hand". There's still a definite 80's Coil/Nurse with Wound vibe, but Jochen throws plenty of loops like the Aphex Twin/"Selected Ambient Works"-style dream haze found on "Eulen Flug" and "MOT/9,596,700" and the foggy busted rhythm break of "ASCii". The rest of the CD-R locates HsDom in a highly-digital and programmed lair, layering raygun sound effects atop looped dark ambient wing rides.

Finally there's a collaboration between two artists I'm completely unfamiliar with, the North Carolina/Berlin duo of Southern Man and Pykrete, also from North Carolina. The sounds here are quite a bit more difficult to place but the playing shakes out images of taking a bath in the vast outer space landscape, with various stars exploding and fizzling out around you and the gentle weeping of Pluto trying to get over its total scientific smackdown. "No More Love" is a bit too jittery to be classed as straight-up ambient but it sure has those tendencies. There's a lot of broken-electronic clatter cobbling itself together to form some kind of mutant, bent rhythm that the group cultivate for the duration of the track, before moving on to something new. The 9-minute "Apheresis Cathect" is almost catatonic as it shifts subtlely between dead battery gizmo gasps and gentle droning white noise dizzy.

As I mentioned before I also got a tape from the Phaserprone folks by Grasslung, who is Jonas of the U W OWL duo. The tape is called "Psychic Venom" and limited to just 45 copies, but there are two snags here - one, I couldn't get my animated GIF to work if I included the tape cover art (hey fuck you computers are TOUGH) and secondly, the website states this is a 45-minute tape but for some reason my A-side clicks off after about two minutes and my B-side features about five more minutes of sounds followed by a huge whack of silence. Now I didn't play around with the tape to find out if it was my set up causing the technical difficulties since I was already way behind on writing the review, but I'll definitely dig into that later. Anyway the roughly 7 minutes of action I did get were of an impressive, locust swarm/storm sounding throttle, considerably more noisy than anything else featured here. I would've liked to hear more, but alas it was not meant to be this time around. I'm pleased to report at the end of everything that the audio on the Phaserprone releases lived up to the heart-warming packaging, especially on the U W OWL LP which is such a mysterious beast that I encourage you to buy one and then we can have a sleepover where we discuss it at great lengths and try and wrap our grey matters around it (you bring the popcorn). Also try and get the Grasslung tape so I can swap mine for yours when you go to the bathroom. Thanks. [Matt McKeogh/ Outer Space Gamelan] | » read original review

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Foxy Digitalis »

FOXY DIGITALIS - SOUTHERN MAN/PYKRETE

It begins with a discreet wash of ambient noise that quickly morphs into loose strings of distorted frequencies and electronic rattle. A few minutes onwards, a skeletal rhythm track finally emerges from all this. It is barely maintained through a very controlled use of echos and delays. After a while, this somewhat repetive beat finally dissolves, making ample room for various shreds of sounds to move around and grow.

This is a process that will be found throughout the album. Electronically-manipulated sounds come and go as they please their sources all the more unidentifiable as their shapes are constantly mutating. The acoustic space is real and imaginary recorded and manipulated in real time in a live context/ fused in our minds as we listen on.

There are two characteristics that stand out here. First, a tendency to delineate actual sonic constructs whose fragile architectures owe as much to a certain idea of minimal techno (a la Pansonic) as to the early years of industrial music. In this respect, track #3 "Distance Player" is particularly impressive: as a saturated electronic bass line increases the tension, multiple layers of shape-shifting sonic entities are added and subtracted while other conflicting noise exchanges are being pursued all around.

This organic feel remains intriguing throughout. As a matter of fact, a few sources used on this recording have been mentioned on the label website, but they won't tell you much anything, except maybe from the fact that what we are dealing with something that is definitely hard to categorize. These are: "radiators", "broken refrigerators" or what is being referred to as "dilapidated architecture" and even "fishing in the dead sea"!

No doubt, a highly disparate assemblage which is able to display some astonishing, yet understated results. On the epic fourth track "Curretage", free-flowing electronics respond to chopped loops of statics, while the constant presence of some highly stretched lower-frequency moans maintains a particularly tense and intriguing atmosphere all the way.

The second aspect that can be distinguished here is directly related to what has just been written above. This music is so rich and detailed that it is able to display a singular dronesome quality, one that is slightly overactive, always on the verge of becoming overwhelming, but which remains quietly unsettling and utterly fascinating. It's as if streaks of dark, shattered clouds were playing hide and seek with a few isolated rays of sunlight above some bleak, yet constantly-mutating internal landscape.

What I love about this music is that you cannot really describe it however, it can affect you in the most direct way once you begin to listen to it. At times, I'm reminded of the impact the music of some Jyrk recording artists has on me artists like God, Bonus or even the Yellow Swans who are known to explore simultaneously both ends of the noise/silence spectrum.

However the music of Southern Man and Pykrete has a unique kind of vintage electro-acoustic, almost industrial touch that seems to come out of nowhere; as if the cdr had managed to capture some hitherto forgotten pulses that had been beating against the surfaces of the earth for so long.

The label website will reveal that Southern Man is actually a North Carolina/ Berlin duo, while Pykrete is a fellow Carolina resident. I don't know anything else about these guys and about this recording in general, except from the fact that it is was recorded live. Simply put, this is excellent stuff. I highly recommend you check it out as well as all the other releases that can be found on this great label from Brooklyn. [Francois Hubert / Foxy Digitalis] | » read original review

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Other Music »

PPR01 - UW OWL - "Thorn Elemental" - LP
— sold out —
UW OWL has finally found their first proper release after making numerous small edition CDRs and contributing a track on United Bamboos They Keep me Smiling compilation curated by Hisham Bharoocha (x- Black Dice, Soft Circle). This LP features ten songs chosen from a mass of recordings between 2003 and 2004. Electrical currents, desolate sound scapes, dark tunnels, late night jams and structured waste recorded on a broken, dust-filled concrete basement floor in Bushwick, NY.

140g Vinyl. Packaged in a self assembled dye-cut and letterpressed jacket with insert. Edition of 333.

Excerpts
Black Flag | Forbidden Ones | Hearth and Salamander | Tank Simulator

Reviews
Animal Psi »

U W OWL, HsDOM, Southern Man / Pykrete, Grasslung

Phaserprone is a young label run by two swell guys, Jochen and Jonas, who also made the label's first release as UW OWL; Grasslung is just Jonas, while HsDOM is just Jochen. The label's first outsider release comes as a very fine collaboration between Southern Man and Pykrete. Sticking it to everyone, you cannot ignore Phaserprone's insane album couture: thick vinyl in die-cut jackets with letterpress art; cassette with printed labels, cardstock inserts and custom sleeves; and CDrs come in thick, thick paper digipaks with trays, letterpress and photo art. All this and in batches of little more than 100 copies; the prices may be a touch steep, but the product will certainly recompense.

A heavy, abandon-the-bunker throb pumping with industrial whips and accumulating layers of effects opens "Black Flag", the first of ten tracks on UW OWL's 'Thorn Elemental'. The 'ghost, but not really' cover art reminds me of a couple different Sun City Girls LPs for obvious reasons, but the laser-tag battles inside bare no resemblance at all. There seems to be a disparity between sides, with A being a bit darker, sparser, and eightiesier. The next track, "Aero Birdhaus" bounces on springy percussion with light rhythmic themes, and is the first indication of the latter-day Black Dice comparisons to come; somewhere the track melts-down into a drip tempo with a variety of organic beats applied, some hints of acoustic guitar, and a momentary tape impression of guitar thrash. The tracks flow together like oil-swirls and in due time "All Have Hooves" appears with gunky, didgeridoo rhythm to close out the first side of this dark dancehall. "Thorn Face" on side B is a busier track, still mid-tempo but with fills and a waving guitar/feedback loop running behind it - reminding me of how Nine Inch Nails played that Joy Division song on the Crow soundtrack. The next track, "Hearth & Salamander" breaks the formula with a totally psychedelic jam of clean, electric strum and tap, and reverb vocals; half-way through they flip it, inducing that bouncy beat we love and heading into "Asylum", another 'Creature Comforts'-type creation which beats your head into a nod as you dodge hi-end lateral beams in time. "Forbidden Ones" is an exit of sorts, blending vocal samples into an almost beatless soundtrack of long horror shrieks and thick globs of bass. All told, this record is very nicely recorded and mastered, with bright blacks and rich tones; and again, sure to please fans of Black Dice and those who like a little casual gloom with their beats. On 140g vinyl, packaged in a self-assembled, die-cut and letter-pressed jacket by Jonas himself. Limited to 333 copies. $15ppd

Listening to each of the boys' individual releases, it is evident who brings what to the UW OWL table: as HsDOM, Jochen uses 'VOMC' to reach beyond the collaborative limits of 'Thorn Elemental', pushing further the erotic circuitry the latter only hints at. The cover framing two portraits of micro-processed man and the inserts a digital melt-down of human obsolescence, the album opens on the sound of the last analog device destroying itself: its moving parts (ha!) melting from friction and a lifespan of limited potential. "Elevator Action 2" vibrates loose into "Ausflug ans Wasser", sounding like a Terminator nightmare, with helicopter beats hovering just above your head and screaming sheet metal being torn from the streets. "Seewege" tests the threshold of the disc, shredding way-trashed bass and digital bubbles into a swelling dance beat. Things begin to dissipate at this point, with the Black Dice vibe entering as sounds come in little packets strategically placed over thick blasts of bass. "Eulen Flug" is almost sweet by comparison, with up-tempo beats and cheery synths skipping away like a Mouse on Mars allusion. "VOMC Track" and "Finnen Siedlung" combine for a wicked experiment with layers, pulsing like an alien EKG with light trails dissolving in all directions - the whole album has keyboards set to 'Vangelis'. The center of the album is the most sparse and experimental, with later tracks like "Zweig am Ufer" and the manic highlight "ASCii" returning to techno-nightmare dance beats and invisible crowds of screaming fans; in fact, the back end of this album holds an unexpectedly diverse batch of gems like these, including the scary/fun/bouncy "MOT/9,596,700" and the space-madness reverie of outro "Mercadian Masques." Jochen's all-in-one production is tops, as the album bumps, grinds, and seers in all the right places. Very nice! Packaged in a self-assembled, razor-scored, photo-tipped, letter-pressed CD gatefold with sexy insert. Edition of 135. $13ppd. Get this!

If Jochen is UWO's Timbaland, then Jonas is the band's Eno: 'Psychic Venom' is two side-long tracks (maybe 40 minutes total) of pure atmosphere. Heavy synth foot-prints pace up and down this tape as swirls of electronics cloud the sky. Never abrasive, but definitely intense, this is no ambient recording. Long sold-out at home, the Grasslung 'Psychic Venom' cassette has been in scarce supply, with just the Troubleman distro coddling a few copies. However: of late, Phaserprone has taken mercy and unleashed a second batch of 45 (legal?), and the cassette is again available through the label. Packaged in an ink-jet slip case, with "scanned inner rendering of solvent and ink letterpress experiment on paper." Second pressing limited to 45 copies. $7ppd

*The Phaserprone SITE crashed a while ago and is still in disrepair; for now contact them through EMAIL, and check out UW OWL's new page HERE. Those guys are cool - get in touch! [Animal Psi] | » read original review

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Outerspace Gamelan »

OUTER SPACE GAMELAN Reviews

When Jonas of the New York born and bred Phaserprone label wrote to me asking if he could send some stuff in for review, I didn't hesitate to accept. Because I'm a leech. No actually it's because a quick glance at the Phaserprone website revealed four very slick-looking albums that anybody should love to get their hands on. But I was completely unprepared for when the day came to crack open that box and unleash these four (I know I only listed three, more on that later) gems. I don't know if there's government money at work or if the Phaserprone guys were art students and have access to all kinds of fancy machinery but the packaging here is totally decadent - the CD-Rs come packaged in super thick, heavy cardboard gatefolds with letter-pressed art, glossy photos and really weird quasi-dot-matrix-style print outs and Xeroxes (and the CD-Rs themselves have some professionally-printed art going on too). The tape they sent is housed in a cardboard wrap-around with great silver inked artwork and the LP features more letter-press, more photos, and more inserts. I know it's ultimately the music that matters man but isn't it just a billion times better when it comes in such lovely, eye-pleasing formats? I think so.

The bizarrely monikered U W OWL released their debut LP "Thorn Elemental" last year, and as it turns out they're also the same guys who run the label, Jonas and Jochen. What's strange about this record is that it doesn't actually say the title anywhere, so I'm just going by what their website tells me. The first track on the first side is called "Black Flag" but actually reminds me a lot more of Black Dice circa their latest record. It's quite a bit bouncier than the dark cover art would suggest, although there sure are plenty of industrial/dark ambient shadows afoot. I could easily throw some rhymes over this track. Okay not me. But somebody with talent could. There are four more tracks on the side but it's not altogether clear when one stops and the other begins - or I just wasn't paying enough attention. Besides, sometimes it's more fun to just float along with their super thick bass throbs like mega-slowed versions of Coil's "Panic" or perhaps something from a non-shitty Skinny Puppy. At times the duo's synth and keyboard (and who knows what else) squelchs err a bit too much on the side of electro/goth pastiche for my liking, but that only really happens at the beginning. Near the end of the first side they're sounding like a strange combo of Wolf Eyes in their come-down moments (or their quieter phases like on parts of "Dread") and a psychedelia-laden shoegaze band by way of laptop. The second side pushes their sound a bit more "out there", with unplaceable samples, scrap metal, digital drones, moans and foreign alien jazz chants. I don't think "Thorn Elemental" would be at all out of place alongside bands like Supersilent and MoHa! on Rune Grammofon. I'm not in love with every part of this record at every time of the day but I think that's part of its charm - I certainly want to revisit it a few more times and try and crack the black magick code Jochen and Jonas are weaving here. The website and insert claims these tracks were selected from a series of improvisations spread out across the past few years, something which I'm altogether suspicious of (the improvisation thing I mean - these pieces often sound so coherant I'm beginning to wonder if the two U W OWL men aren't attached at the brain).

Jochen also moonlights in a solo project with an even more difficult name, HsDom. His album is called "VOMC" and doesn't sound at all far removed from the U W OWL record except I detect a bit more of a Fennesz or FM3 touch on the near-hour-long disc, specifically on tracks like "Seewege" and "HP Burning Hand". There's still a definite 80's Coil/Nurse with Wound vibe, but Jochen throws plenty of loops like the Aphex Twin/"Selected Ambient Works"-style dream haze found on "Eulen Flug" and "MOT/9,596,700" and the foggy busted rhythm break of "ASCii". The rest of the CD-R locates HsDom in a highly-digital and programmed lair, layering raygun sound effects atop looped dark ambient wing rides.

Finally there's a collaboration between two artists I'm completely unfamiliar with, the North Carolina/Berlin duo of Southern Man and Pykrete, also from North Carolina. The sounds here are quite a bit more difficult to place but the playing shakes out images of taking a bath in the vast outer space landscape, with various stars exploding and fizzling out around you and the gentle weeping of Pluto trying to get over its total scientific smackdown. "No More Love" is a bit too jittery to be classed as straight-up ambient but it sure has those tendencies. There's a lot of broken-electronic clatter cobbling itself together to form some kind of mutant, bent rhythm that the group cultivate for the duration of the track, before moving on to something new. The 9-minute "Apheresis Cathect" is almost catatonic as it shifts subtlely between dead battery gizmo gasps and gentle droning white noise dizzy.

As I mentioned before I also got a tape from the Phaserprone folks by Grasslung, who is Jonas of the U W OWL duo. The tape is called "Psychic Venom" and limited to just 45 copies, but there are two snags here - one, I couldn't get my animated GIF to work if I included the tape cover art (hey fuck you computers are TOUGH) and secondly, the website states this is a 45-minute tape but for some reason my A-side clicks off after about two minutes and my B-side features about five more minutes of sounds followed by a huge whack of silence. Now I didn't play around with the tape to find out if it was my set up causing the technical difficulties since I was already way behind on writing the review, but I'll definitely dig into that later. Anyway the roughly 7 minutes of action I did get were of an impressive, locust swarm/storm sounding throttle, considerably more noisy than anything else featured here. I would've liked to hear more, but alas it was not meant to be this time around. I'm pleased to report at the end of everything that the audio on the Phaserprone releases lived up to the heart-warming packaging, especially on the U W OWL LP which is such a mysterious beast that I encourage you to buy one and then we can have a sleepover where we discuss it at great lengths and try and wrap our grey matters around it (you bring the popcorn). Also try and get the Grasslung tape so I can swap mine for yours when you go to the bathroom. Thanks. [Matt McKeogh/ Outer Space Gamelan] | » read original review

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Other Music »

EM - Seehunde
— unavailable —
Improvised darkness.

CD-R. Originally released on Espen in 1999. Espen 009.

Excerpts
not available at the moment

EM - Detente / HSDOM split
— unavailable —
Side A features an epic 25 minute recording of utter dark dronage, webs of colliding samples, rusty guitar grating and live drums. Side B features eight slow and minimal HSDOM track including live robotussin and bass action.

CD-R. Originally released on Espen/Mycotoxin in 2001.

Excerpts
not available at the moment

EM - Detente in the World of Destructible Characters - Above / Underneath
— unavailable —
Harsh basement recordings featuring various samplers, midi controlled guitar effects and haunted vocals.

CD-R. Originally released on Espen/Mycotoxin in 2001.

Excerpts
not available at the moment

EM - SEEWOLF
— unavailable —
Five extended improvised electronic tracks from Seewolf, ranging from electronic synthesizer destruction blended with processed field recordings of hiking trips (Camera Synthesizer) to modular synthesizer madness (Seenoises). Slated for re-release at some point in the future.

CD-R. Originally released on Espen/Mycotoxin in 2003.

Excerpts
coming soon