UPCOMING RELEASES

Jimmy Whispers - Summer In Pain LP - Pre-Order Here (03/24/15)

"Who is this Jimmy Whispers," you'll ask yourself the first time you hear him, whether he's leaping out at you metaphorically from your speakers or leaping out at you literally from the stage during a live performance fraught with physicality and emotion.

It's a good question, who this guy is, and there's no easy answer. He's been called Chicago's "greatest new homegrown musical enigma" by the Tribune's Jessica Hopper, and a "weirdo loner" by himself. While both of those descriptions are correct, neither one's complete. He's an enigma, true, but one who sings directly from the heart about the broadest of human feelings: the need to love and be loved. Yes, he's a loner, but one who spends his free time organizing basketball tournaments to raise money for community nonprofits, and ends his concerts by mashing audience members together to slow dance to Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World."

Jimmy Whispers is a walking, talking, singing, and dancing bundle of paradoxes. Greatest among them, perhaps, is his ability to transform the most seemingly basic melodies sketched out hastily with an electric organ on an iPhone voice message into such a profound racket, or how this dirty weirdo from Chicago managed to insinuate himself into the tradition of great American sentimental balladeers.

His music will make you laugh and cry and dance and, unless you're terminally jaded and hardhearted, it'll make you genuinely feel something. And no matter how many times you listen you'll keep asking yourself, for a multitude of reasons, "Who is this fucking guy?"

NEW RELEASES

The Pen Test - Interstate LP - Order Here

The mental and physical setting of travel under duress, induced by sleep-deprivation, lack of stimuli, sense of isolation, delusion of grandeur, and destabilized neuro-chemistry. Physically taking place on the I-90 West leaving Billings, MT (or I-XX anywhere). Unlit roads lacking reflective shoulder and center-line markings, unable to discern if the oncoming semi traffic is emerging over hill in your lane, combating the intrusion of gentle theta-wave micro-sleep cycling.
An examination of the decline of car culture in American civic religion and the lose of its romanticism. We no longer act as operators but as a continuation of the machine...the levels of separation are blurred or irrelevant and the resulting master-slave relationship we submit to unwillingly or in totalitarian zen-like acceptance: The Eisenhower Interstate system as a force of self-annihilation, seeking to take without malevolence, duty, or permission.
Inspired by Kraftwerk's Autobahn as both document a theoretic trip on limited access roads, invulnerable to limitation of speed and stoppage. While Autobahn induces a sense of wistful imagination, Interstate is the folding over and collapse of playful and lightly-contemplative thoughts into the purview of delusion. The interstate may act as a facilitator of leisure its demesne includes the erosion of one's self. A chiseler or cleanser, amoral and of supernatural stature (and capability), the Eroder (Interstate) espouses itself with the act of seizure.
Recorded in Olympia, WA at Dub Narcotic Studio under the supervision and capabilities of Ben Hargett (of K Records, The Evergreen State College), mastered by Mikey Young (of Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring), and championed by Bryan Hitchcock and Patrick Scott-­Walsh.

Kraus - Interior Castle CS - Order Here

NZ’s iconoclastic Kraus—hailed as a ‘national treasure’ by the New Zealand Listener
—has always been an intrepid explorer of sonic scenery, and Interior Castle finds him on
the move again, following up his acclaimed Supreme Commander LP (2013) with another
highly adventurous outing. Borrowing recklessly from various epochs—stone-age drums
meet futurist synths; slot-machine electronics are layered, perversely, over what sounds like
a plucked lute; warbling flutes vie with blown-out guitar—his time-traveling brand of exotica
stomps playfully through medieval set-pieces and b-movie locales, conjuring mindscapes and
dreamworlds at once familiar and strange. While much of the current Kiwi crop tends toward
loud and gnarly, Kraus’ inquisitive approach has more in common with mavericks like Arthur
Lyman and Joe Meek. A founding member of onetime space-punk legends the Futurians,
Kraus continues to broadcast sublime, singular weirdness from his corner of the southern
hemisphere.

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Stacian / Gel Set - Voorhees 12in - Order Here

Laura Callier and Dania Luck will tempt with ethereal vocals
and blissful pop, but their lure works best for the dancefloor
on their aggressive electronic split. Gel Set and Stacian combine
forces for the first time on their Moniker Records 12", translating
eternal, lucid longing into catchy synth riffs and repetitive oblivion.
That tempting sound: it's so easy to call this outer space, or
otherworldly, but these grooves are better on earth. Stacian sets the
tone with immediacy and urgency. This synth cadet is refueling,
tarnished and returning to battle. Fragile layers shine through relentless
beats. Gel Set veils this urgency with the inviting fallout, stripping
Stacian's layers to core beats and synth excursions. Yet, those vocals
tempt, again and again, luring listeners with a simple urge: dance.

If you're tempted to dismiss synth pop as space-age posturing, Stacian
and Gel Set answer with a left turn back to earth. Here, their beautiful
language translates into an electronic fantasy: Keep spinning this, keep
dancing.

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Upcoming Releases for 2015

Jimmy Whispers - Summer In Pain LP/CS
Toupee - Leg Toucher LP/CS
Gel Set - LP/CS
Lazy - TXT LP/CS
ONO - Spooks LP/CS

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Out Now

The Pen Test - Interstate LP
Kraus - Interior Castle CS
The Pen Test - Biology 7in
Stacian / Gel Set - Voorhees 12in split
ONO - Diegesis LP/CS
Lazy - Obsession LP/CS
Rollin Hunt - The Phoney LP/CD
Hecks - Trust and Order 7in
Kraus - Supreme Commander LP
ONO - Albino LP
Stacian - Songs for Cadets LP/CD
Lazy - Party City 7in
Hot & Cold - Border Area LP
Dan Melchior - Ghost in the Supermarket RSD 12" (Sold Out)
Yva Las Vegass - I was born in a place of sunshine and the smell of ripe mangoes LP/CD
Jealousy - Viles LP
Stacian - Pul EP
Rollin Hunt - Criminal 7in
Trailblazer - Gut Reaction 7in
John Bellows - Clean Your Clock LP