A cover of Tears For Fears by Emerson Snowe
Sunday the 13th of March, 2022

Head Over Heels

Livings: I, II, III

livings: I, II, III

ORDER
Suction Shop: suction.shop
Suction Shop Europe: suction-eu.shop
Bandcamp: suctionrecords.bandcamp.com

Our Ice Machine sublabel is thrilled to present a new, deluxe reissue of “Pow Wow”, the debut 1982 solo LP from Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder. Now expanded to a double-LP, and also released on CD/digital, it’s a definitive reissue which now includes Mallinder’s early solo discography in its entirety. This collection of mutant dub/funk/postpunk sounds just as fresh and contemporary in 2020 as it did in 1982 (note Autechre’s inclusion of standout cut “Del Sol” in a mix earlier this year), and highlights Mallinder’s crucial contributions to Cabaret Voltaire.

Some words from Mr.Mallinder on the scene and era from which “Pow Wow” was born: “It was an interesting, and inspiring, time. The primal caterwaul of punk was dying and lots of really significant things were emerging from the fires. Much looser vibes were in the air and there was a much more exploratory feel. Punk had championed a visceral, anti-intellectual approach but in truth the real characters brought so much more to the table, and what began to happen - from people like The Pop Group to Throbbing Gristle, and emerging scenes from No New York to Factory Records - is we began to embrace the art of it all. There was acknowledgement of the importance of books, films, graphic art, and experimentation with all those mediums. We were just as interested in turning over rocks to see what lay beneath, as throwing them. There was a sense of new magik emerging.”

“Pow Wow” was commissioned by the Fetish Records label, and recorded at the Cabs’ Western Works studio, where Mallinder would spend his days recording with Cabaret Voltaire, and continue on alone into night recording his debut solo material. “I slept very little in those days,” he adds, continuing: “It was done on 8 track and very multi-tracked, so lots of recording, then bouncing, and overdubbing, to get the integrated feel of the tracks. I became very adept at pressing record then jumping onto equipment to play it - it was actually a very 'live' record in that sense. I've always seen rhythm at the core of what I do so I loved the layering of counter rhythms. The sequence/arpeggiator parts were all drum machine triggers that were played live. It was about creating a distinct groove so arrangements came from weaving in and out of those linear grooves. It was fun to play everything from drums, guitars, keys, trumpet, percussion, tapes… and record and produce it all. Prince got it from me!”

Surprisingly, Mallinder’s first solo LP would also prove to be his last - that is, until last year’s critically-acclaimed solo return “Um Dada”, on Dais.

This new edition of “Pow Wow” contains 14 songs, and is housed in a recreation of the original, iconic Neville Brody jacket, painstakingly recreated using scans of Brody’s original artwork elements. The 2LP vinyl edition (with the direct-order-exclusive BABY-BLUE-VINYL edition limited to 300 copies) is in a reverse board, thick-spine jacket, and adds a 12”x24” folded poster/insert, featuring unused elements from Brody’s original designs, sketches, and instructions for the LP. The CD edition comes in a reverse board, 6-panel digipack.

Tracklisting:

1 - Cool Down (edit)
2 - The Devil In Me
3 - 0-58
4 - Pow-Wow
5 - Three Piece Swing
6 - 1-20
7 - 1-37
8 - In Smoke
9 - 1-59
10 - Length Of Time
11 - Going Out
12 - Del Sol
13 - Temperature Drop
14 - Cool Down

2-11 from the Pow-Wow LP on Fetish Records, 1982.
13-14 from the Temperature Drop / Cool Down 12” on Fetish Records, 1981.
12 from the Fetish Records compilation The Last Testament, 1983.
1 edit from the Pow-Wow Plus LP on Fetish Records (Japanese pressing), 1984.

Stephen Mallinder - "Cool Down (Edit)" (iMach004)

Bandcamp [only] https://rubber-denhaag.bandcamp.com/album/bakara

UVB76 — BAKARA | RUBBER007

UVB76 on RUBBER sees Parisians Gaëtan Bizien and Tioma Tchoulanov transposing their sonic con­coctions into the outskirts of club music. Re-thinking industrial reductionism, the duo presents us an experimental signature of clattering tones, field-recordings, and rapidly fluctuating effects. Breakneck rhythms in an ever-shifting dream phase—this is musique concrète at full speed.

1 – Hong
2 – Gauze
3 – Bakara
4 - Kong

All tracks recorded, mixed and produced by Gaëtan Bizien and Tioma Tchoulanov @uvbsoixanteseize
Mastering by Rupert Clervaux @cvx
Graphic design by Ruben Verkuylen
Words by Luke Cohlen

BAKARA

Bandcamp only

UVB76 - BAKARA | RUBBER007

Saint Abdullah // “In God’s Image” // 2xCD on Psychic Liberation // 
Release date: August 21, 2020

Saint Abdullah, composed of Tehran-born brothers Mohammad and Mehdi, have fine-tuned their vision of conceptual, blown-out dub and free jazz with “In God’s Image,” an ambitious twenty-song double CD on Psychic Liberation. The opus by the two Iranians living in New York, is full of mourning and rage, but these affects only scratch the surface of the work’s emotional and formal heterogeneity. 

Like the image gracing its cover—a tiny, dusty peykan, its roof fitted with an image of Ruhollah Khomeini and cone speakers—Saint Abdullah uses DIY minimalism to deliver maximal messaging. On “Problem,” distorted percussion, Shia oration, and a sample of the late Nipsy Hussle meld into a cathartic club burner, while the rhythms and lifted string arpeggiations on “Potion for sorrow” induce hazy cinematics, the duo’s attempt at Persian stoner boom bap. 

Elsewhere are instances of improvised jamming, melancholic twinkling, and pensive restraint. The powerfully eclectic statement by Saint Abdullah includes appearances by saxophonist Travis Laplante, who blows a spiralling noir line over feedbacking cacophony. On another track, Moor Mother delivers a poetic lashing on Western imperialists who rain missiles on hospitals, grieves the bodies piling up as capital gets sucked from the Earth. 

The sample work on “In God’s Image” draws heavily from Iranian documentaries, and includes the brothers’ field recordings from Tehran and New York. Heretical combinations collide senses of antiquity and contemporaneity, resisting the many orientalist reads on Iranian culture and politics. In this struggle, Saint Abdullah conveys many emotional registers, from exhausted depression to righteous indignation. 

Among many things, the image of Khomeini on the cover, which often scandalizes American audiences, represents the overthrow of a 2,500-year-long monarchy. All forms of dehumanization receive the sonic snakebite of Saint Abdullah, and “In God’s Image” resuscitates the revolutionary potential of music that pulls from the traditions of oppressed peoples in both the East and West. 

Psychic Liberation, in operation since 2018, is an experimental music label started in Brooklyn, New York, currently based in The Hague, Netherlands. The label is distributed in North America by Fantastique, and in EU/UK by Boomkat.
Mastered by Glyn Maier
Layout by Sara Abruña 
credits
releases August 21, 2020

psychicliberation.net

Audio by Saint Abdullah
Mastered by Glyn Maier
Layout by Sara Abruña

PLIB007 - SAINT ABDULLAH - A5. Of Us (CIENFUEGOS EDIT)

Support the compilation on Bandcamp! All profits go towards The Lebanese Red Cross and The Beirut Musicians' Fund

Hiro Kone - Between Breath And Rage

ISHAM KOUIDRI “ALL I SEE IS BLUE” (ENXPL03)

Paris based artist Isham Kouidri presents his debut release “All I See Is Blue” for the Enmossed and Psychic Liberation collaboration series. On “All I See Is Blue”, the artist extrapolates a sonic environment from a single piano loop. As the recording progresses through it’s respective acts, A side “Through The Window” and B side “Now He’s Gone”, tension and the sublime interplay compositionally. Isham Kouidri uses his time on “All I See Is Blue” to allow for his process to subvert the reverie he has created, but the light is always right around the bend.

Mastered by Glyn Maier
Art by Pierre Roy-Camille
purchase : https://psychicliberation.bandcamp.com/album/enxpl03-all-i-see-is-blue

ENXPL03 - ISHAM KOUIDRI - B3. NOW HE'S GONE PT.3

Nick Klein has released a fine line of killer vinyls through labels like Bank Records NYC, L.I.E.S, Viewlexx and recently the tasty "No Shortage of Rope" on Helm's Alter. His record for us is called "Actor Network Theory" and is a monumental trip touching down in darker ambient stuff and slower techno for that party you need to go to when all this lockdown bullshit is over. Klein is based in Holland nowadays.

300 copies. OUT IN NOVEMBER 2020!!! 
Distro through Boomkat. Digital will be available.

NICK KLEIN - SPIDER IN BROWN POWDER (iDEAL190 LP)

taken from "perfect stranger" cs on Trust Collective

00

ted F.