|
|
 |
|
CATALOG: CD: SSRCD-01 VCV - 3753 Cruithne SSRCD-02 VCV - VCV SSRCD-03 VCV - HD 98618 SSRCD-04 David Tagg - No One Came Out Last Night SSRCD-05 Milieu - Of The Apple SSRCD-06 VCV - The Star Of The King Of The Dead SSRCD-07 David Tagg - Waist Deep Seas Of Milk SSRCD-08 Brian Grainger - Eight Thousander SSRCD-09 Brian Grainger - Nine Billion Names SSRCD-10 Various Artists - Exercises in Obscurism SSRCD-11 David Tagg - Fundamentals Of Orchid Biology SSRCD-12 Milieu - Beyond The Stars Lies The Sea SSRCD-13 David Tagg - Wind Blown Guitar TAPE: SSRC-01 Teenager - Teenager WHITE STAR LINE: WSL1 White Star Line - WSL1 CD: SSRCD-13 David Tagg - Wind Blown Guitar 
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.
Tracklist (click for Samples)
01. 10:53
02. Family Afghan
03. Nautical Dusk
04. Picked In Air
05. A Glimpse Of The Valley
06. Wind Blown Guitar
SSRCD-12
Milieu - Beyond the
Stars Lies the Sea
 Over 2 years since it was obscurely released as a bonus disc for the Beyond The Sea Lies The Stars album, Milieu's companion album Beyond The Stars Lies The Sea has been reissued, remastered and redecorated for SSR! An initial run of 150 copies went quickly out of print before the preorder for them was even finished in 2006, and until now the music was left completely unavailable outside of expensive collectors' circles and file sharing networks. This reissue of the album has been completely remastered from Brian's original session tapes, and two songs originally removed from the lineup appear here as well. The sequence is a bit different, and the CD sports all new photography by Brian himself. Altogether it feels more like its own album now rather than an extension of Beyond The Sea. The music has that same dusky nautical feel, however here things get a bit darker. Black monolithic space overtakes salt water and sails until all we're left with are pure colorful memories. The album begins with a ship leaving port and ends somewhere beyond the infinite, after space itself. Tracklist (click for Samples) 01. Christening the Ships at Port 02. Vapor Curtain Monolith 03. Inside the Majestic Hand of God 04. Memory of a Sepia Shoreline 05. The Zenith and the Gate
SSRCD-11
David Tagg -
Fundamentals Of Orchid Biology
Fundamentals Of Orchid
Biology - David Tagg's third full-length album - appears here at the end
of a hot Summer, with hazy flowery photography gracing a jewel-case CD-R
that echoes not only the music and the title,but Tagg's previous
long-player Waist Deep Seas Of Milk. While several of the sweeter
ingredients of David's music recur here (live guitars, untitled pieces,
the color white), followers of his output will no doubt notice the new
things about it. Recorded completely live with a single guitar, vintage
effects boxes and the patience of a hibernating bear, Orchid displays an
impressive level of accuracy in Tagg's playing and execution. Warm
clouds of light drones accumulate together and provide a pillow-soft
backdrop for gentle melodic notes and distant swaying nuances. Possibly
David's strongest guitar performance to date and an absolute must-have
for fans of ambient guitar music.
Tracklist (click for Samples)
01. Orchids 1
02. Orchids 2
03. Orchids 3
04. Orchids 4
05. Orchids 5
SSRCD-10
Various Artists - Exercises
in Obscurism
 Our first-ever compilation at SSR, boasting impressive pieces by Ourson, The Caretaker, Heptangular, Seht, Adam Pacione, Ophibre, Eluder, The White Star Line, Dan Crall and our very own Brian Grainger and David Tagg. A curious museum of sound-design and evocative experimental music that works effectively to define the Obscurist ethos, with beautiful photography by Jason Adams. This compilation works more like an album rather than a collection of tracks by different people, suffusing together the academic approach of obscuring all sounds beyond recognition with each artist's own interpretation of what the musical focus really is. We're honored to be able to work with all of these incredibly talented people and bring this to you here! Limited to 100 copies! Tracklist (click for Samples) 01. Brian Grainger - Plywood Acoustics 02. David Tagg - Withered Trajectories 03. Adam Pacione - Fray 04. Seht - Hand Full Of Sleet 05. Heptangular - Heart Will Fatten 06. Eluder - An Evening’s Advice 07. Dan Crall - The Thinking Room 08. Ophibre - An Apple 09. The White Star Line 10. Ourson - Basement Floor 11. The Caretaker - Stale Dusk Vibrations 12. VCV - Improvisation For Organ And Guitar
SSRCD-09
Brian Grainger - Nine Billion Names of God
The album Brian started
recording as far back as the Eight Thousander sessions, and also the
record he has always intended to be written especially for Second Sun.
Musically it covers alot of guitar-heavy territories...an epic 70 minute
record that cycles through somber drone-beds, backwoods acoustics,gigantic distorted slabs of doom and beautiful bent melodies looping forever. Occasionally through the haze you can make out organs, basslines and field recordings that echo the album's cozy home cover art. This is Brian's first full-length at SSR under his own name, and as such we'd like to consider it his first proper solo album here, with unified concepts of art, sound, memories, locations and numbers all planted firmly in place. It's a very sad record that sounds like it's trying to find its way home again, even though it already knows that place no longer exists. Perfect listening for the advent of Autumn. Tracklist (click for Samples) 01. Silver Grass Perfume 02. Porch Swing Blend 03. Light Bent Clouds 04. Backyard Country Romance 05. Blind Forest Family 06. Just In Between 07. Sleeping Honey Ghost 08. Night Smoke Memory 09. Nine Billion Names
SSRCD-08
Brian Grainger - Eight
Thousander
Brian Grainger's first solo
release at SSR comes in the form of another set of eight warm, blissed-out
pieces. Completely improvised on guitar and organ with no overdubs,
Eight Thousander is a hazy, crackly record that evokes thoughts of a
mountain hike towards the end of the Summer. Melodic guitars overlap
with still-life organs in an aged collage wrapped with brittle paper -
the sound that Brian's music has come to be known for. Limited to 24
copies in beautiful printed canvas sleeves.
Tracklist (click for Samples)
01.
Drowned02. Whitecaps 03. Oceanic 04. Above the Sky 05. A Soft White Chamber 06. Lost in the Woods 07. Wind Calmly Bands Our Hair 08. Retuned Minor
SSRCD-07
David Tagg - Waist Deep Seas
of Milk
 David showcases some of the most intricate and gentle guitar playing, equally faithful to traditional ambient composition and his own personal style. Performed completely live on two reel-to-reels at David's cozy home in New York, Waist Deep is totally deserving of it's title - slow-steeping chords ebb and flow at the speed of clouds, with the most harmonious, swooping leads that are just as soft and white. More evocative and sedating than all of his 21MG Series discs combined, and notably the next phase of Tagg's guitar-exploration after his Colors That Vibrate EP. Achingly beautiful and still, David has painted a panoramic scene of motionless, milky white surfaces with no ending or beginning, only comforting, ever-present and white, with beautiful photography by Luke Hazard and David himself. Limited to 100 copies. Tracklist (click for Samples) 01. Untitled 1 02. Untitled 2 03. Untitled 3 04. Untitled 4 05. Untitled 5 06. Untitled 6
SSRCD-06
VCV - The Star Of The
King Of The Dead
This month at SSR we're
happy to finally unveil a record that was recorded as far back as late
2006: VCV's hourlong space-doom opus The Star Of The King Of The Dead.
Long kept in the cool shadowy vault at SSR HQ, "Star King" has arrived
in the form of 100 CD-Rs, continuing the minimal yet striking design
aesthetic of the two previous VCV albums. The music documents VCV at
their most minimal yet - two statuesque guitars stay their positions in
each end of the stereo field, like soldiers at a castle gate, and slowly
but certainly the sound that grows from your speakers begins to swell
into an epic mass of distorted harmonies. Chunks of liquid-cement chords
give way to glimpses of melodies that move at the speed of planets, and
in the space of an hour, VCV have built a towering monolith of
improvisational guitar work. This is the band at their most majestic,
and the next chapter in their macrocosmic oeuvre.
Tracklist (click for Samples)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
SSRCD-05
Milieu - Of The Apple
The long-awaited release of Milieu's ambient opus for organ and guitar
is finally here. Lush formless melodies intertwine with salt-water
erosion and reverbs that touch the stars, recorded completely with only
guitar, organ and cassette tape. Milieu visits an idyllic landscape
completely removed from all civilization and Of The Apple is the solitary
documentof such a place. Like a lost message in a bottle, a white sun setting over a blue ocean, or a treehouse asleep in a giant sequoia, this album is an absolute essential for anyone fond of Brian Grainger's ambient work. Pressed on 300 colorful digipaks with beautiful photography by Luke Hazard (Ourson, Earstroke Records) and a special guest appearance by David Tagg. Tracklist (click for Samples) 01. Morning Beacon 02. We Live In The Trees 03. Long Droned Summer 04. Sandal Weave 05. Woodland Beacon 06. The Earth As Our Pillow 07. Canopy 08. Stone Chapel / Statuettes 2 09. Stretched Across The Sky 10. Midnight Beacon 11. Oceans
SSRCD-04
David Tagg - No One Came Out
Last Night
David Tagg's debut full-length recording, No One Came
Out Last Night. Culled from several cassette tapes of live shows David
performed years ago, then broken down into several loops to be
reassembled into swelling, tonal drones that mark the definitive
beginning of David's musical oeuvre. Packaged in a unique sleeve made of
soft canvas with two beautiful photographs taken by David printed on
each side. Memorial hymns of the past broadcast through dusty speakers
in a dusty room. This is a landmark.
Tracklist (click for Samples)
01. God02. Blackstone 03. Truffle 04. Southern Song 05. The Station 06. Open Song 07. Madagascar 08. The Lions Den
SSRCD-03
VCV - HD 98618
Recorded live
during David's visit to South Carolina in May, 2007 and
sufficiently aged like a dry red wine in the SSR cellars
since then, HD 98618 is VCV singing in the deep southern
Summer. Open windows, palm trees and humidity, VCV have
never sounded this warm or inviting before. Where you could
say the first three records were transmissions from a
distant planet, light years away, HD 98618 is the sound of a
band in a room next door, playing towering tributes to the
trees and the night air. This record is also a more
diversified sound for VCV, as Brian played more organ and
bass than guitar, and David utilized a more stripped-down
guitar setup as well. Woodshop droning and water-tower bass,
covered in the textural airy production sound from Brian's
Eight Thousander album, which was recorded at the same time.
Packaged in a similar style as David's Wind Blown Guitar
album and limited to 100 copies.
Tracklist (click for Samples)
1.01
1.02
1.03
2.01
3.01
3.02
SSRCD-02
VCV - VCV
 The band's "single" (as they refer to it) offers three longform tracks that sonically reach a little closer to home than 3753 Cruithne. Subtle nuances and intricate micro-melodies are buried under humming, monolithic drones, only to flow free of time and space, like a cosmic magma, warping your plain of existence and making you melt in the craters it leaves behind. Also worth noting here is the fact that all three tracks on VCV were done with the duo swapping bass and guitar playing duties, so the result is a much thicker, heavier sound. Tracklist (click for Samples) 01. Valley Drone 02. Crater Drone 03. Volcanic Drone
SSRCD-01
VCV - 3753 Cruithne
Nine ambient recordings for
nine forgotten planetary bodies. Using only guitars and a strict "no
overdubs" rule, VCV solidify their debut album and establish themselves
as authors of silent hymns broadcast from the unfathomable depths of
space.
Live washes of warm guitar tones lull the listener into a weightless,
inviting atmosphere, beckoning them to abandon everything they know
about how their conscious mind processes sound.
Tracklist (click for Samples)
01.
611
Valeria02. 17305 Caniff 03. 1478 Vihuri 04. 815 Coppelia 05. 6871 Verlaine 06. 11101 Ceskafilharmonie 07. 29133 Vargas 08. 952 Caia 09. 13897 Vesuvius
TAPE:
SSRC-01
Teenager - Teenager
Half an hour of lo-fi
instrumental folk and blues guitar songs that Brian recorded as far back
as 1997. All of it has been harvested from hours and hours of recordings
in various states of wear, most of it on old tapes with little more than
a year or a location written on the labels. The sound of Teenager
largely reflects the bare-bones acoustic songwriting that has always
been at the heart of all of Brian's music, yet nothing this raw and
primitive has ever been released until now. The playing is untrained,
but melodic and endearing in a very homemade way. Recommended listening
for the onset of Autumn and slow aimless driving through the country.
This is intimate music that has been steeped in the southern landscape
and reaches deep from the fading histories of a poor southern boy.
WHITE STAR LINE:
WSL1
The White Star Line -
WSL1
|
 
|