MT003 - Maurizio Bianchi 'SFAG' C47 cassette

Notes by Maurizio Bianchi

"S.F.A.G." is the deliberate and analogic destruction, in whole or in part, of the prepacked sound. As perpetrator of this work, I had the aim to annihilate the modular particles themselves and the objectives of the comformist music with its foolish institutions of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence in order to avoid the annulment of the personal creativity, security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to experimental-underground field. The morbid resonances of this humoral opus will floodlight the chemosurgical delitescence of eliminative genocide in order to knell the downfall of the present mass-media system" - Maurizio Bianchi.

From the private tape of 1981, corresponding to the deleted CD reissue by Tegal Records in 1994, a psycho-specular companion piece to the more widely-known "Symphony for a Genocide".

Pro-duplicated C47 with offset-printed inlay

Limited Edition : 200 copies

David Keenan - Volcanic Tongue

Edition of 200 copies cassette reissue of an obscure 1981 cassette album from Maurizio Bianchi, originally only available direct from the artist. Paralleling his work on Symphony For A Genocide, this is classic Bianchi, with that heavily-delayed organic/electronic sound that makes for some of his blackest psychedelic Industrial ritual. I still think Heather Leigh’s Jailhouse Rock album is the closest comparison to early-80s Bianchi, that same miasma of F/X damaged sound and staggering implosive rhythms that give the impression of haunting foghorns through cotton wool, and SFAG sounds a lot like some of Heather’s most trashed rock/roll.  Some of the keyboard sounds are particularly loopy, almost with an eerie Joe Meek appeal, and the gothic passages of doomy synthesized melody raise it way above the bar.

MT002 - Thomas Bey William Bailey 'Progressive Lycanthropy' C32 cassette + mini-book

Notes by Thomas Bey William Bailey 

Thomas Bey William Bailey is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and cultural re-searcher, whose work has manifested itself as books, articles, music releases, sound installations, experimental radio shows, and completely undocumented or personal creative actions / interventions. He has lived and worked in Japan, Central Europe, and throughout the US, struggling to overcome the psychic fatigue which is unique to our 21st century congestion culture. His work critiques and frames this culture by avoiding the obvious, easily perceptible middle ground and instead focusing on ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ aspects of lived experience in an information-saturated epoch. To this end, Bailey’s work tends towards either ‘atomizing’ life (e.g. making recordings of asthmatic breath and incomprehensible sleep-talking, strobing videos limited to only a couple visual elements) or illuminating its hyper-complexity with intense noise, etc. It is a celebration of ‘life before death’ and a valuation of intimate exploratory nature above mass technological progress. Many of these ideas are further fleshed out in Bailey’s first book-length survey of his influences and allies, ‘Micro Bionic,’ published in 2009. His second book is in the completion stages at the time of this writing.

The Progressive Lycanthropy package includes one professionally duplicated cassette as well as a handsome information booklet (also pro-duplicated), in which TBWB explains his motivations in an exclusive essay “A Weapon For The Wolf Age” (the booklet also includes a number of other illustrations and surprises along the theme of wolves, nature and modern warfare.) The three epic pieces on the cassette were built up from a “feraliminal lycanthropizer” drone, an experimental binaural frequency supposedly used by the military as an “audio truth serum” or as a combat stimulant-  as the name suggests, this technique was meant to hurl individuals into “wolf-like” states where they would careen between poles of focused rage and woozy ecstasy. Complemented with other sonic ornamentation and digitally-manipulated samples, this material is an eerie interpretation of the ‘lycanthropized’ state as it might exist in a hyper-modern, technology-driven society. Conducted in the spirit of the d.i.y. audio research that characterized the ‘industrial music’ era, this material should have a wide range of effects on individual listeners, from restlessness to wild abandon, and as such does come with a disclaimer not to play while experiencing high stress levels or while engaged in potentially dangerous activities (driving motor vehicles, handling firearms.) If you have ever wanted to travel to a world where fur and fangs mesh with integrated circuits to form an invincible hybrid, here is your ticket.

    Pro-duplicated C32 with offset-printed inlay

Plus : Off-set printed booklet of 22-pages written with lycanthropic inspiration

Limited Edition : 200 copies

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And, 23 copies reproduced on Verbatim CD-r with card cover with booklet - only available in Malaysia. 

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Massimo Ricci - Touching Extremes

Not only Thom Bailey produces some of the most invigorating computer-assisted noise music around; he can also write interestingly on hundreds of disparate topics, typically in relation to the effects of certain sounds on the human brain. The booklet accompanying this tape explicates too many unknowable facts to be listed here, but the main objective is that of letting people realize about the potentially nefarious behaviour of individuals subjected to a treatment via the “feraliminal lycanthropizer”. This is an acoustic apparatus that almost nobody knows of, allegedly utilized prior to selected military actions in order to render soldiers able to commit ghastly crimes in times of war. Employing drones derived from that – modified by spectral shaping software – plus samples of black metal and his own violent cries (quite bloodcurdling, even if mixed relatively low), Bailey constructed a work that exudes acumen in the same places where average distortion-mongers attacks the ears inconsiderately, ultimately losing both focus and artistic value. On the contrary, TBWB is creditable for the clobbering lucidity of the overall design, a quality that allows him to sonically expound aspects of brutality and behavioral coercion with the scientific inflexibility of a laboratory analyst. Rarely scathing hostility and harsh droning have sounded so attractive; grab one of the 200 exemplars of this cassette fast and, while you’re at it, find a copy of 2009’s book MicroBionic. It was calculatedly destroyed by Wire (having Bailey previously not been gentle enough with them) hence you know that it’s mandatory reading.

 Frans de Waard - Vital Weekly 

To change into a wolf, that is what this release is about. Not just a piece of music, but it comes with neatly designed and printed pocket book on the subject of wolves. In history, in military and in legends. A well researched work. I don't like wolves, or any canine descendent for that matter, but that didn't stop me from wanting to hear this. Thomas Bey Williams Bailey is someone whose work I respect a lot. He's one of those people who think about noise and do something that is more interesting than what is regular in that field. For this release he works with a 'feraliminal lycanthropizer drone modified with "spectral shaping" plug ins', samples of black metal using the word 'wolf', processed vocals spontaneously captured during fits of rage and 'additional sonic ornamentation, of a too varied nature to list here'. This are put together into a piece of music that lasts almost thirty minutes and that has an unsettling power. Particular loud here, compared to some of his previous work, but Bailey knows how to pull back and add that much needed variation in his work. Brutally loud at times, and unsettling quiet at well chosen times. White static noise, banging metal samples, piercing drones and uncontrolled voices make this both an unsettling and pleasant work. It didn't change me into a wolf, nor did it make them appreciate more (or perhaps even less, come to think of it), but Bailey proofs once again to be a master of intelligent noise. 

 Paul Takahashi - Soleil Noir Mailorder

Surprisingly good and original concrete cut-ups based on a lycanthropic theme. Something reminiscent of KK. Null's electroacoustic noisy staccatos blended with eighties Nurse With Wound's freedom and organic feeling. Very solid release.