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News:
WIND BLOWN GUITAR
5:32pm EST 2009/06/22
David Tagg's long-awaited
follow-up to last year's Fundamentals Of Orchid
Biology has finally arrived. Wind Blown Guitar carries solemn white
hymns
of warped wooden harmonies through cobwebbed hallways and down porch
steps, into the open air of a hot summer. The whir and hum of aged
reel-to-reel tapes bathes David's guitar in a humid shroud, and pools of
raw reverb steam his amp like a hot bath in a cavern. Musically similar
to
things like "A Kingdom Of Dusk" from the 21MG Series or even Skin
Diagram
at times, Wind Blown Guitar contains some of David's most
straightforward
guitar playing yet, presented over a stately backdrop of loops and
drones
and woven together like an old family scrapbook. This release also
features the track "Nautical Dusk", which was originally featured on
Attacknine's "13 Weeks Of Summer" compilation. The definitive summer
album
from us at SSR, and limited to 100 copies with beautiful photography and
design by David.
Order
Here.
NEW PILLS AND ONLINE RELEASES
1:18pm EST 2009/05/30
It's been a long time
since we've updated SSR, surely you thought we were
dead. We're happy to say we were merely in hibernation and we now have
lots of new music to share! With this update, we have four new 21MG
Series
pill-discs and the first new webreleases in well over a year.
Starting the 2009-chapter of the 21MG Series off with PILL-N1 is David Tagg's contemplative drone "A Spindle Of Regret". At times sounding
melodic and familiar, and other times completely disembodied, this
21-minute trip would definitely appeal to fans of David's darker ambient
works within VCV or his releases at Install. Frail and horizontal
tonalities stretched across an uneven, unending landscape. Light and
heavy
all at once.
Order
Here.
Continuing on with PILL-N2 is Brian Grainger's "Winter Triptych", a hazy
cloud of seemingly dissonant loops that actually yield monochromatic
harmonies as the piece swells up. This piece focuses primarily on the
procedural generation of decayed bass loops in the style of something
like
Eight Thousander, only much darker, and with minimal droning
improvisations over the top. A gaseous accumulation of gloom.
Order
Here.
PILL-O1 offers a much lighter atmosphere, titled "Carolina Allspice".
David builds a very open and friendly mood with wobbly flutters of lead
guitar and reel-to-reel looping. Using this as a backdrop he plays the
occasional lazy guitar line to mesmerizing effect. This is the sound of
Spring in limbo, or a very humid climate with birdlike melodies floating
through the air like smoke.
Order
Here.
PILL-O2 brings the dark back with Brian's "Sunken Swamp Widsoms". A
heavy,
pregnant bass drone creaks and groans in the belly of a warped wooden
container. The chord's muffled joints bend like wet dinosaur bones and
eerie archs of humming midrange tower above your head. Deep, murky and
almost slightly scary, and a very dynamic companion piece to PILL-O1.
Order
Here.
Bringing it back to the beginning, we have sorely neglected our online
catalog of free releases. With lots more still unreleased in this
catalog,
we hope you like our two newest offerings:
David's "Angry Weekend" is an Obscurist-document that feels so empty it
almost sounds sad. This was the last field recording David did at his
previous home, eight months before he moved. The air is filled with
birdsong and the occasional sound of nails dropping, though the
atmosphere
is tense, as if two people are ignoring each other while in the same
room.
As if on cue, thunderstorms and rain break the piercing silence and bear
down on the listener with a different kind of weight.
Download
Here.
Brian's "Naked Sound Seven" is the seventh volume of his ongoing Naked
Sound series of found sound, field recordings and musique-concrete
experiments. Four 10-minute pieces creating using only numerical
frequencies of sine tones to create mathematically-harmonic chord
drones.
Very warm and bassy, but incredibly monochromatic, and probably better
suited to a "room listening" presentation where the sound is allowed to
merely color the physical environment rather than surround it. This is
incredibly minimal, dissonance-free ambience that would be best enjoyed
in
the evening as the listener relaxes with other activities such as
reading
a book or taking a warm bath.
Download
Here.
Though this may seem like a lot, we're not planning on taking another
extended break anytime soon - next month you can look forward to David Tagg's brand new album Wind Blown Guitar and the much anticipated second
album by the White Star Line!
PILL BOX H-M OUT NOW
5:21pm EST 2009/01/31
Pill Series Box H-M is
now available. We have a limit of about 50 of these which are
sure to go fast. Orders will ship on or around February 16th.
Order
Here.
NEW PILLS & 2008 PILL BOX INFO
11:23am EST 2008/12/26
So it's dead-center of
the Winter season, and you just want to sleep your way out of 2008 and
into the new year you say? We can relate. Giving you the last two doses
of the 21MG Series in the 2008 year, this should be just enough to keep
you in your toasty bed for forty more minutes...
PILL-M1 is David Tagg's muted guitar improvisation "Deception On The
Mountain". Bearing immediate resemblance to his Skin Diagram EP, this
could almost be old-school David Tagg. Deep and warm like a steaming
clear bath in a dimly lit cavern, so quiet that you can actually hear
yourself think. It is the sound of absolute reflection, both physical
and mental. David's craft continues an inward path that charts almost
painfully sad waters like these, but it's difficult not to get lulled in
to the warmth. This is a beautiful year-ender for David, and a longing
glance back at the smiles and sorrows of the past.
Order
Here.
The last Pill of the year is Brian Grainger's "Wind Speech", a cozy
acoustic guitar piece that carries a similar sadness to David's previous
Pill. Wispy, bedroom string tones fill with musty air and Winter
solitude, forming a pillar of pure gaseous melancholy. A three-note
bassline eventually makes itself audible, and small sections of ringing
loops cascade in and out of the mix. Almost a bookend piece with Brian's
first Pill of 2008, "Sun Trails", and a stately finale to this year's
twelve Pills.
Order
Here.
*IMPORTANT*
A small word of advice - these two Pills, while brand new, will only be
available for individual purchase until the end of January 2009. After
that, you will ONLY be able to buy them as part of the 2008 PILL BOX
(H-M). We're aware that some of you have purchased the Pills
individually throughout the year and so this is your deadline for
filling out your collections, should you decide to do so. We apologize
for any inconveniences this causes, but please understand we are unable
to continually manufacture all twelve discs on top of our regular
catalog items and the 2009 Pills.
For those seeking the PILL BOX - look for the 2008 PILL BOX to become
available in January, either filled with all 12 Pills (H-M) or empty.
These boxes will be limited in number as well, so as always watch this
space for updates. See you next year!
*REPRESS* Finally, David Tagg's first
full length album 'No One Came Out Last Night' is back in stock for a
limited time.
Order
Here.
21MG Series Update 12:12am EST 2008/11/09
So it's finally November,
and here at SSR we've been pretty silent since "Nine Billion Names" was
released. We're sure some of you are wondering where September's 21MG
Series installment is, and, in short, we've decided to release the
Pill-discs in bi-monthly batches. That is to say, couples of coinciding
Pills, such as this months L1 and L2, will hereafter be released at the
same time. This will make it easier for us, as far as updating the site
goes, and probably easier for those of you who would rather buy them
that way too.
September's Pill-L1 is a wonderful musty 20 minute walk through Autumn,
guided by none other than David Tagg. A murky wobbly tape surface
transparently wraps David's ebbing drones, and the effect is a beautiful
phased out piece that is both colorful and gracefully aged. Possibly
David's most low-fi recording yet, and a little bit of a precursor to
his next album, "Wind Blown Guitar". This piece is titled "A Kingdom Of
Dusk" and your Autumn wouldn't be the same without it.
October's 21MG-installment is a mountainous, granite-thick drone by
Brian Grainger named "Tenth Glowing Arch". The title is refers to this
being Brian's tenth contribution to this series, and an epic one at
that. Conceived and improvised in the vein of his recent 3CD album
"Porous Variations", this piece is twenty minutes of humming
hallway-tonalities, buzzing ever so slightly, like an endless
fluorescent overhead light in a corridor ten miles long. Muted movements
inside the drone subtly shift it from its otherwise straight-lined path,
while a sub bassline manages to warm up the stereo field. Perfect
isolationist listening for the colder months.
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