This year's Voks album "Astra & Knyst" has been nominated in the Discovery category for the french Qwartz awards. It's a public voting system and you can (and should) vote for him on the Qwartz website:

http://www.qwartz.org/

You can stream the whole album from their website!

Friday November 13, 2009 A.D. 9PM
WOODEN VEIL: Album Unveiling Ceremony.
Alte Kindl Brauerei Neukölln. Werbellinstrasse 50, Berlin.

Special Guests include Rashad Becker, Kakawaka and Schneider TM.

In celebration of the release of their first album on Dekorder, they will be conducting an evening of spacial baptism upon ancient cisterns of mead… the rebirth of the red sky in the Temple of Wooden Veil.
Shrines to the future, ceremonial dress, ritual madness. Wooden Veil performances and installations in the insane future-past of the alte Kindl Brauerei. Come.

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KUUPUU / SAMARA LUBELSKI:

10.11. GRRRRRND ZERO / LYON
11.11. MISCELANEA /BARCELONA
12.11. MERCADO DE FUENCARRAL / VALENCIA
14.11. MUSEO DO CHIADO / LISSABON
15.11. TANNED TIN FESTIVAL / MADRID
17.11. CAVE12 / GENEVA
18.11. TBA / PARIS
19.11. UNROCK / KREFELD
20.11. OCCII / AMSTERDAM
21.11. KUNSTENCENTRUM BELGIE / HASSELT
22.11. OETINGER VILLA / DARMSTADT
23.11. ESCHO / COPENHAGEN
24.11. KOLONI / GOTHENBURG
25.11. BLA / OSLO
26.11. STRAND/STOCKHOLM
28.11. VON KRAHL / TALLINN
29.11. TELAKKA / TAMPERE
30.11. SEMIFINAL / HELSINKI

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FELIX KUBIN:

10.11. Centre de Cultura sa Nostra, Mallorca
13.11. Échos Sonores 77 w/ Holger Hiller, La Plateforme, Lyon
20.11. MassArt, Boston, Massachusetts
21.11. Montague Phantom Brain Exchange Montague, MA, Massachusetts
22.11. ISSUE Project Room (experimental set w/Scott Haggart & Larry 7), NYC, New York
23.11. Artist Lecture at Brooklyn College, Woody Tanger Auditorium, NYC, New York
24.11. Santos Party House (sci-fi pop), NYC, New York
04.12. Madeiradig Festival, www.madeiradig.net, Madeira Island

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DANIEL PADDEN:

13.11. Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh
14.11. Panopticon, Glasgow
15.11. Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen

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MACHINEFABRIEK:

06.11. Lab30 Festival, Augsburg

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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB:

18.11. Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

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GUIDO MÖBIUS:

20.11. New New Festival, Brno

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The vinyl version of the new Black To Comm album "Alphabet 1968" on Type Records is now available from Boomkat (it's Record of the Week over there):
http://boomkat.com/
It should be available in the rest of the world within the next two or three weeks. We already have the CD in stock and will have LP copies in our mailorder sometime this week.

We are moving to a new place next month. We need money and room for new releases. So we're giving a 50% discount (!) on all distributed titles in our Mailorder section (except for our own Dekorder releases)!!! You can simply deduct 50% from the listed prices (shipping NOT included though).

We usually only have 1 - 3 copies of each title in stock so you have to act fast.

We stock records by artists such as Kemialliset Ystavat, Aaron Dilloway, Yellow Swans, Wolf Eyes, Asmus Tietchens, Janek Schaefer, Circle, Felix Kubin, Skullflower, Hair Police, Burning Star Core, Dat Politics, Der Plan, Jazzkammer, John Hudak, Merzbow, My Cat Is An Alien , Faust, Can't, Destroy All Monsters, Islaja, Lawrence English, Aidan Baker/Nadja, Lasse Marhaug, Mouse on Mars, Thurston Moore, Sunburned and many others....

We will add a few free CD's (of our choice) to your order as well if you wish! 1st come 1st served....

dekorder.com/mailorder.html

We do accept Paypal!
Please ask for shipping costs.

Best,
Marc

Three brand new releases have been shipped to our distributors in the last few weeks and should be available from them by now: The debut album by Our Love Will Destroy The World (aka BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL), a brand new Xela LP and a very limited Stephan Mathieu 10". And the 3rd pressings of the Machinefabriek CD and Kuupuu "Yökehrä" LP have just arrived here so these are back in stock as well. We're already down to the last 100 copies on all these releases so you should better act fast!

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[028] STEPHAN MATHIEU "The Key To The Kingdom" 10"

"The Key to the Kingdom" is Stephan Mathieu's tribute to the great gospel preacher Washington Phillips and the world of raw, early gospel on 78rpm platters. The 2-part suite, presented in the classic 10" vinyl format that comes in an authentic, individually stamped and numbered 78rpm archive sleeve, has been performed on a historic Phonoharp No.2 zither from the 1890s utilizing five E-Bows and entropic and convolution processes. "The Key to the Kingdom" is a spin-off of Mathieu's "Virginals" project, a solo recital of contemporary classics performed on historic instruments.

Stephan Mathieu is a musician and sound artist based in Saarbrücken, Germany. During the last decade his music has been released on 16 critical acclaimed CDs, both solo and in collaboration with Douglas Benford, Ekkehard Ehlers, John Hudak, Janek Schaefer and Akira Rabelais on some of the finest electronic music labels worldwide (Die Schachtel, Häpna, Ritornell, Lucky Kitchen, Headz…).
His sound is largely based on early instruments, environmental sound and obsolete media which are recorded and transformed by means of experimental microphony, re-editing techniques and software processes involving spectral analysis and convolution and has been compared to the landscape paintings of Caspar David Friedrich and the work of Colorfield artists Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly.
Stephan is a collector of 78rpm records from the 1910s and 20s, the era of acoustic and early electronic audio recording.
His most recent album "Radioland" made it into "Best of 2008" lists in The Wire, Dusted, Boomkat, Milkfactory and many others.

Limited numbered edition of 400 copies!


[030] OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD "Stillborn Plague Angels" LP

The gates of Birchville Cat Motel crack, creak wide, and crash, unleashing a gush of soul-fried bleakness and love-damage stained with a defiantly metallic pose. Thats 'METALLIC... as in, has the surface qualities of metal' not 'METAL... as in, has the surface qualities of Metallica'... step back you fucking freaks. Although the broken bricks of BCM are still plain to see amid the burning wreck and ruin, 'Stillborn Plague Angels' represents the first fully formed sentence in a new chapter of Campbell Kneale's ongoing tome of star-spangled, psychedelic, noise-OM. Cholesterol-shaving guitar peeks over the trench to survey an adrenalised landscape of endless roaring catastrophy... Everything louder than everything else!

Our Love Will Destroy The World is the new one-man project by New Zealander Campbell Kneale after disbanding BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL. In the past Kneale has released albums on Ecstatic Peace, Corpus Hermeticum, Last Visible Dog, Conspiracy and his own Celebrate Psi Phenomena label. He has colllaborated with Lee Ranaldo, Neil Campbell, Bruce Russel, John Olson (Wolf Eyes), Yellow Swans, has toured throughout Japan, Europe, America and Australia and also records und the names Black Boned Angel and Ming.

“Stillborn Plague Angels“ is the debut LP by this new project.


[031] XELA "The Illuminated" LP

The music of Xela is not easily described. The alias of Type Records main-man John Twells, he has over the last decade moved through a dense fog of musical styles from abstract electronics to rusty soundscapes. In recent years his output has allied itself with darker realms, taking a liberal dose of influence from Norway's darker exponents, but retaining a deep and measured experimental focus.

'The Illuminated' was originally released on cassette, a format very fitting to the gloomy, waterlogged sounds; but having sold out in a matter of days it now recieves the much needed deluxe re-issue treatment. Taking cues from the cracked black metal of Burzum and Striborg and fusing this with heavy, synthesized noise 'The Illuminated' is possibly Xela's darkest, most spine-chilling work to date. We are taken through chiming Nurse With Wound-inspired soundscapes into Middle Eastern marketplaces and through caverns of thick, buzzing synthesized noise on the album's first piece. Entitled 'Black Scripture' this takes the dank religious themes of 'In Bocca Al Lupo' and goes even deeper into the Church dungeons, digging up lost artifacts and the angry spirits that accompany them. The flipside extends this heresy with a throaty vocal and distorted electric guitar, leaving blackened corpses and the traces of a sleepy village in its wake. Devastating and dark material, listen if you dare...

"Most beautiful record this time is probably the Hasenlove picture disk by Hamburg's Antonia Leukers (Dekorder). Primarily a visual artist, she was emboldened to stretch her brain into musical realms by a theoretical encounter with Die Todliche Doris. Her music is informed by that, but is a unique collage of sap-pop and bizarre inventions. Quite remarkable and a lovely piece of rabbity love by any stretch."

Thurston Moore & Byron Coley, "Bull Tongue", Arthur Magazine # 32

http://www.arthurmag.com/

*QUITE POSSIBLY ONE OF THE FINEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR - AND A CAREER BEST FROM MACHINEFABRIEK*
I know what you're thinking, and I admit the same thoughts were rushing through my head. It's yet another Machinefabriek album - the umpteenth this year and probably his hundredth record by now, so why on earth should we stop what we're doing and pay attention? Well, maybe because 'DAUW' is probably the best thing he's done (up there with the peerless 'Marijn'), and certainly stands as his most complete body of work blending all the elements he has been chiselling to perfection over the last few years. In the past his records have largely been anthologies of disparate ideas to some degree, explorations and collaborations some of which have been hugely successful and some less so - but what we have with 'DAUW' is a truly earth-shaking artist record, an apt realisation of the Machinefabriek sound and something which will no doubt stand the test of time. Packaged in a typically beautiful fashion 'DAUW' comes with an assertion from the label that it sounds something like Arvo Part, something like Mogwai, something like Philip Jeck and something like Fennesz and for once these comparisons are pretty much spot on. Rutger Zuydervelt has married the smart post rock sensibility of Mogwai with something far more experimental and the crunchy turntablism of Jeck with something far more accessible. The resulting sound is a deeply immersive collection of experiments, populist sounds with a noisy bent, or post rock without the rock. It's harder to explain than you'd think but when you listen to the album's truly stand-out title track (probably the best piece Zuydervelt has written) you'll understand - it manages to blend the subtle grandeur and awe of Arvo Part with the space and economy of Mogwai's early material (think 'Tracy') which is no mean feat. From a series of relatively short, arresting pieces Zuydervelt ends the journey with a half-hour ambient symphony which takes the ideas of the album's first two acts and blurs them into the final third to come up with the perfect conclusion to a haunting and dare I say breathtaking journey. A truly gorgeous record that stands out as a bright beacon amongst a mire of great Machinefabriek records - if you buy one Machinefabriek album this year make sure it's this one. Huge recommendation. (John Twells/Xela/Type Records)

http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=114426

Machinefabriek is the alias for Rutger Zuydervelt currently residing in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Since 2004 Zuydervelt has unleashed an uncountable number of self-released 3"CD's (his format of choice) in lovingly designed sleeves (all made by himself). In the past years some of these releases have been compiled into amazing albums such as "Slaapzucht" on the Root Strata label, "Weleer" on Lampse, the "Cello Recycling" 10"/CD on Type Records and "Bijeen" on Kning Disk. Recent collaborations with Stephen Vietiello (on the 12K label), Freiband, Steinbrüchel and other likeminded artists have expanded the horizon veritably. Machinefabriek's music has been remixed by the likes of Xela, Lesser, Svarte Greiner, Alva Noto, Pita, Kim Cascone, Ben Frost, Black To Comm and others.

Only few Machinefabriek material has been recorded specifically for an album release but these have always been stand-outs in the vast catalogue. Both "Marijn" on Lampse and "Ranonkel" on Burning World Records were classic recordings, squeezing a large amount of what people love about Zuydervelt's music into one album, at the same time giving him the space to expand on new ideas. Likewise "Dauw" is one of Zuydervelt's most subtle & quiet yet refined works. Mainly built around small but gorgeous melodies of piano and guitar playing and the crackling sound of dusty vinyl samples, these songs slowly build into intensive hymn-like angel choirs of sheer heavenly beauty.

Zuydervelt's output often has drawn comparisons to the likes of Fennesz, Godspeed, Arvo Pärt, Basinski, Tim Hecker, Phillip Jeck, Mogwai and Earth, which is certainly not all wrong and some of these have been influences in the early stages of his career but he has since developed a strong and individual language all of his own.

Mastered by Guiseppe Ielasi with elegant artwork by Zuydervelt himself; metallic print on grey cardboard stock.

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Review by John Twells (Xela) for Boomkat:

I know what you're thinking, and I admit the same thoughts were rushing through my head. It's yet another Machinefabriek album - the umpteenth this year and probably his hundredth record by now, so why on earth should we stop what we're doing and pay attention? Well, maybe because 'DAUW' is probably the best thing he's done (up there with the peerless 'Marijn'), and certainly stands as his most complete body of work blending all the elements he has been chiselling to perfection over the last few years. In the past his records have largely been anthologies of disparate ideas to some degree, explorations and collaborations some of which have been hugely successful and some less so - but what we have with 'DAUW' is a truly earth-shaking artist record, an apt realisation of the Machinefabriek sound and something which will no doubt stand the test of time.

Packaged in a typically beautiful fashion 'DAUW' comes with an assertion from the label that it sounds something like Arvo Part, something like Mogwai, something like Philip Jeck and something like Fennesz and for once these comparisons are pretty much spot on. Rutger Zuydervelt has married the smart post rock sensibility of Mogwai with something far more experimental and the crunchy turntablism of Jeck with something far more accessible. The resulting sound is a deeply immersive collection of experiments, populist sounds with a noisy bent, or post rock without the rock. It's harder to explain than you'd think but when you listen to the album's truly stand-out title track (probably the best piece Zuydervelt has written) you'll understand - it manages to blend the subtle grandeur and awe of Arvo Part with the space and economy of Mogwai's early material (think 'Tracy') which is no mean feat. From a series of relatively short, arresting pieces Zuydervelt ends the journey with a half-hour ambient symphony which takes the ideas of the album's first two acts and blurs them into the final third to come up with the perfect conclusion to a haunting and dare I say breathtaking journey.

A truly gorgeous record that stands out as a bright beacon amongst a mire of great Machinefabriek records - if you buy one Machinefabriek album this year make sure it's this one. Huge recommendation.

Black To Comm is the solo venture of Dekorder label boss Marc Richter. Having released two and a half albums on his own label he is slowly establishing himself as one of the more prolific drone artists out there with a forthcoming album on the American Digitalis label, a collaborative CD with Datashock on Ikuisuus, a 7" on the Irish Trensmat label and a collaboration with Xela in the works

"Fractal Hair Geometry" is Richter's most refined and original work to date, picking up where the electrifying drone works of his monumental Double-LP left off. Like the last records this album is centered around recordings of a variety of vintage organs. While "Wir können leider..." often featured pure harmonium sounds and spacious recordings of chuch organ and mellotron, the new album opts for a more electronic, effects-laden sound, sending an old Farfisa Compact Deluxe and Casio SK-5 through an armada of analogue & digital effects pedals. The results are massive one-chord drones layered into dense & ecstatic, flickering & pulsating clusters of psychedelic electronic sound. Additional wordless vocal effects, hyperventilating & sizzling drum machines and hypnotic violin and guitar noises make for a hyperactive sound that never stands still even though most of the music is pure drones (sometimes consisting of more than 50 recording layers). Decidedly simple but gorgeous melodies shine through the mist from time to time, making a Black To Comm record always much more accessible than your average drone album.

There's even a heavy 4/4 bass drum smuggled into a track dedicated to the late Leigh Bowery, one of the most enigmatic creative figures of the mid-80's UK club scene (and singer of Minty).

Guests include Jonna Karanka (aka Kuupuu) on piano, Guido Möbius on trumpet and current Black To Comm (live) band members Renate Nikolaus on violin and Ulf Schütte (of Datashock, Aosuke, etc.) adding electronic sounds.

Along the lines of the music, seminal German artist Oliver Ross has created a massive multi-layered neon-coloured collage artwork which is printed on special ultra-heavy cardboard stock.

Since 1995 Daniel Padden has been a member of Volcano The Bear, with several highly regarded album releases on Nurse With Wound's United Diaries label, Textile and Beta-Lactam Ring Records. After his move to Glasgow he started The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden as an outlet for his solo recordings with releases on Catsup Plate, Secret Eye and Textile. When The One Ensemble slowly metamorphosed into a band of its own, Padden started to record his solo output under his birth name, with last year's "The Isaac Storm" on the Ultra Exzema label being the first seminal result.

Over the years Padden has developed a strong fascination for obscure musics from all over the world (re his recent "Epiphanies" article for The Wire magazine): mouth organ love-songs from Thailand, The Ramayana Monkey Chant from Bali, Khene pieces from Laos; so-called world music from Burundi to Bulgaria.

Combining these interests with his love for British Folk and Art Rock (This Heat, Robert Wyatt), Kraut Rock (Faust), Free Jazz, the surreal collage techniques of Nurse With Wound and the odd humour of The Residents, he has developed a totally unique and highly personal musical vision without ever sounding overambitious or directionless. Gorgeous song-writing is seamlessly transformed into pure fuzz or string drones, suddenly interrupted by some improvised reeds or collapsing percussion, all within the blink of an eye, and never losing its natural flow, "Pause for the Jet" is already an auspicious aspirant for our "Record of the Year".