Archive for the Experimental Category
Masayuki Takayanagi “April Is The Cruellest Month” (Blank Forms)
Masayuki “Jojo” Takayanagi (1932 – 1991) was a maverick Japanese guitarist, a revolutionary spirit whose oeuvre embodied the radical political movements of late ’60s Japan. Having cut his teeth as an accomplished Lennie Tristano disciple playing cool jazz in the late ’50s, Takayanagi had his mind blown by the Chicago […]
Les Rallizes Denudes “There’s No Heaven Like Hell” (Alternative Fox)
One of the strangest and most enigmatic groups in the history of rock n’ roll, Les Rallizes Denudes, also known as Hadaka no Rallizes or Hadaka no Rarizu, were a Japanese experimental rock band that is often cited as a pioneering force of the noise rock movement. The story of […]
Rainer Veil “Vanity” (Modern Love)
After a five-year pause for breath, last releasing in 2014, Rainer Veil return with their debut full-length for Modern Love; an immersive, kinematic tumble through electronic forms from hyper trance to tape dub experiments and loose polyrhythms — a summoning of ‘ardcore spirits in flux. A hypnotic sound world tempered […]
Thomas Hamilton “Pieces For Kohn” (Mental Experience)
Mental Experience present the first ever vinyl reissue of Thomas Hamilton’s Pieces For Kohn, originally released in 1976. Pieces For Kohn, as the title suggests, included four electronic pieces composed by Tom Hamilton as musical responses to 3D geometric paintings by artist Bill Kohn. A renowned audio producer and electronic […]
Coil “Live At The London Convay Hall, October 12 2002” (Planet Claire)
Long standing influential British experimental group Coil began performing live again in 1999 after a 15-year hiatus. These now legendary performances included many pieces that were never released on album, including this album-length epic version of “The Universe Is A Haunted House”, captured live on October 12th, 2002 at London’s […]
Peter Brotzmann “Nipples” (Cien Fuegos)
This legendary rare Brötzmann album finally gets re-released on vinyl, as a one-time pressing of 1.0000 copies and including the special fold-out leporello on the front. The track on Side 1, the almost 18-minute ‘Nipples’, was recorded in 1969 and features a.o. Peter Brötzmann and Evan Parker on tenor sax, […]
Coil “Swanyard” (Infinite Fog)
Nearly 150 minutes of unreleased Coil recordings from 1993 to 1996, from Danny Hyde’s studio archives. The cover art is by Steven Stapleton and was specially commissioned for this album. It was inspired by a dream recalled by Jhon Balance. Audio mastering by Martin Bowes (Attrition) at The Cage Studios. […]
Makoto Kawashima “Homo Sacer” (Black Editions)
Makoto Kawashima was born in Saitama, a prefecture of the Greater Tokyo Area, in 1981. He picked up the alto sax in 2008, and started playing solo in 2010. He is the founder of the Homosacer (Sacredhuman) label. Homo Sacer was originally released in 2015. It was Kawashima’s second solo […]
Various Artists “Tokyo Flashback Psychedelic Speed Freaks” (Black Editions)
Black Editions present a monumental collection of 22 exclusive tracks by 22 of the most important artists to emerge from the Japanese underground over the last 40 years. Directed by Ghost’s Masaki Batoh and produced in tribute to the late Hideo Ikeezumi, founder of P.S.F. Records, the Modern Music record […]
P.S.F. “Psychedelic Speed Freaks” (Black Editions)
Psychedelic Speed Freaks is a new power trio led by Munehiro Narita, founding member of Japan’s legendary High Rise and easily one of the wildest, most original guitarists in rock history. Blazing in total hyper-saturated glory, Psychedelic Speed Freaks centers on the raw, unrelenting attack of Narita’s “motorcycle fuzztone guitar” […]
Caterina Barbieri “Ecstatic Computation” (Editions Mego)
Caterina Barbieri is an Italian composer who explores themes related to machine intelligence and object-oriented perception in sound through a focus on minimalism. Following 2017’s acclaimed double-LP Patterns Of Consciousness (IMPREC 449LP), Ecstatic Computation is the new full-length LP by Caterina Barbieri. The album revolves around the creative use of […]
Harry Pussy “Ride A Dove” (PALILALIA)
Reissue of Harry Pussy’s Ride A Dove, originally released on Siltbreeze in 1996. “By 1996, with one LP, a handful of 7″s, and a couple dozen gigs under their collective belts, Harry Pussy had thoroughly scrambled the mid-90s scuzz-rock ecosystem. Their acclaimed first LP, described by David Keenan as ‘a […]
Black Zone Magick Chant “Voyage Sacrifice” (Shelter Press)
The latest liminal low-end odyssey from French shape-shifter Maxime Primault’s Black Zone Magick Chant entity swaps the screwed alien dancehall of past outings in favor of miasmic subterranean ritual, with compelling results. Born of “a few very intense sessions, in altered states of consciousness,” the three sprawling compositions comprising Voyage […]
Bob Bell “Necropolis” (Telephone Explosion)
“Canadian private press mega-rarity/obscurity from the artistically schizophrenic Bob Bell. Recorded in 1978, Bell splits the difference between his love of basement psych splatter/pummel and squalling free jazz ramble, the former occupying side A with a stunning four-part suite of wasted guitar scuzz and churning Krautrock-like drama with an akin […]
Earth “Full Upon her Burning Lips” (Sargent House)
With their latest album Full Upon Her Burning Lips, Earth have stripped away the layers and auxiliary instrumentation that embellished some of their previous records and have deconstructed their dynamic to the core duo of Dylan Carlson on guitar and bass and Adrienne Davies on drums and percussion. The ten […]
Tim Hecker “Anoyo” (Kranky)
Anoyo (“the world over there”) draws from the same sessions which led to the 2018 work Konoyo but rendered starker, solemn, and stripped back, with more of a naturalist tint. Tim Hecker’s processing here moves in veiled ways, soft refractions and whispered shrouds woven within improvisational sessions of traditional gagaku […]
Craig Leon “Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon” (RVNG Intl)
Comprising all new material recorded over the past 2 years, and made using similar technology and tekkers as his ‘80s classics, Leon’s sequel finds him riff deeper on the cosmic lore of Mali’s Dogon tribe of Mali, whose exhibition of art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1973 first inspired him […]
Les Yper Sound “Explorations in Drums & Sax” (Figure & Ground)
Explorations in Drums & Sax, an all-instrumental journey through numerous genre-crossing worlds. Comprised of 14 original tracks by Les Yper Sound, the album pulls from the group’s eclectic influences. Surrounded by an array of acoustic and electronic sounds—all rooted in rhythms and pop melodies—it showcases the versatility of percussion and […]
Sonmi451 “Nachtmuziek” (Astral Industries)
Belgian artist Bernard Zwijzen, aka Sonmi451, has for over a decade now been quietly making some of the most luscious ambient we’ve heard here at AI-HQ. We are delighted to announce him as part of the Astral family with this six-track EP – Nachtmuziek – sit back, tune in and […]
Hardijs Ledins “Tiny Crabs Of Deep Waters” (Musique Electroniques Actuelles)
After STROOM latvian releases serie… Here’s presented 1999’s solo work of NSRD founder, Hardijs Ledi?š. A soft solo ambient album drawing water energies amongst different sources of spirituality. Dive into a timeless LP, going from folklore to inspired rhythmical jazz language.
Varg “Sky City: A Weak Heart to Break (Spit)” (Northern Electronic)
Part curse, part declaration, part Rorschach test, Varg’s new collection of EPs is a barely balanced inferno. Side by side, raw club burners arrive from the wretched plateaus levelled out by chaotic neurotransmissions, while sweet and soft anthems take the pain away. The first EP, Sky City: Even in the […]
Varg” Sky City: Even in the Heart of Heaven, Angels Can Still Feel Fear” (Northern Electronics)
Part curse, part declaration, part Rorschach test, Varg’s new collection of EPs is a barely balanced inferno. Side by side, raw club burners arrive from the wretched plateaus levelled out by chaotic neurotransmissions, while sweet and soft anthems take the pain away. The first EP, Sky City: Even in the […]
Bill Laswell “City Of Light” (Sub Rosa)
First time ever on vinyl, re-released in our Sub Rosa Blackcore series. City of Light is the sixth solo album by American composer Bill Laswell, released on July 29, 1997. While it may appear an anachronism in his catalog, fans of Bill Laswell will find City of Light an extension […]
Amnesia Scanner & Bill Kouligas “Lexachast” (Pan)
Lexachast is an ongoing collaborative work by Amnesia Scanner, Bill Kouligas, and Harm van den Dorpel. Initially birthed as a joint, improvised performance between Amnesia Scanner and Kouligas at the ICA, London in 2015, it was later recreated and extended with visual artist van den Dorpel into a 15-minute online-only […]