“I think Volvox is really outside of most things and most categories. That’s what attracted me to them immediately. You know, what are we listening to? What is this? Who are these people? That’s the stuff that I love and they were just outside of everything, outside of the experimental scene for sure. Even though people in the scene were supportive of them and loved them. I just think they were very very different. It was just very strange.” - Oren Ambarchi
Volvox were one of the most extraordinary bands ever to emerge from Melbourne, or in fact anywhere else. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, during their short existence (1991 to 1996) they never played outside of said city. Luckily for you dualpLOVER and SPILL have taken it upon themselves to re-issue their back catalog in an effort to preserve the recorded history of one of Australia’s true outsider outfits and to help its legacy grow outside of the few who saw them play or brought the original cassettes.
Describing the unsettling nature of the Volvox sound is somewhat difficult without pointing out one unmistakable feature, the vocals style of Anthoney Riddell (aka 'Lester Vat'), their all-stumbling neurologically damaged front-man, whose infamous fall at the Redfern squats in the late 80s left him in a coma for months, and then with a significant movement disorder. However unlike other bands that have had physically or mentally-impaired members, his involvement was in no way token. Anthony was actively involved in the Sydney noise scene long before his accident, most notably with his project The Good Chamber who some Sydneysiders may remember through the Cosmic Conspiracy tape label. The bands line up also included Dave Taskas (GRONG GRONG) , Glenn Norman, Christine Thirkell + various guests.
Ex Used condition
The 'Phonetic poems" were conceived in 1917, simultaneously and without much knowing with the russian futurists discoveries of Khlebnikov et Iliazd - with the cosmic sorcerer and trans-rational language 'Zaoum' (1913), Hugo Ball at Cabaret Voltaire (Karawane, 1916), then Kurt Schwitters (Ursonate, 1922).
All these artists-poets were inventors (or re-discoverers) of an mediumnic ultralanguage where primordial inter-ethnic and mythological sounds precede meanings, in order to redefine human communication and to connect to the multi-dimensional.
Foreshadows of sound poetry and performative action poetry, these 'Phonetic Poems' are still there, miraculously preserved thanks to some recordings made in 1955 by the house of Philips, then 1959 by Bureau and in 1966 by Henri Chopin, in Limoges where Hausmann had settled in 1944.
" A previously unknown shellac recording of the dadaist recording his immortal sound poem, Ursonate, from the 1930s, was apparently recently discovered. And to much amazement has been released here for the first time. Historically, sonically mindblowing." (forcedexposure.com)
"This is a remarkable artifact and a revealing, even moving rendition." (Option, July/August 1995)
Note: According to Ernst Schwitters's testimony, this is the original recording of his father Kurt's performance. We do not wish to conceal the fact that this claim has since been doubted by a third party. WERGO is investigating the matter.
CD - New
Proper and overdue re-issue of a limited edition 12 cassette on Annihilvs released back in 2012. Hubrizine was two years in the making and features source material by Finland's mighty STROM.ec, undoubtedly heralded as masters of the PE oeuvre, as reinterpreted and re-engineered by Theologian, in celebration of a shared appreciation for the works of Philip K. Dick. From the opening moments, what immediately strikes you is that this probably isn't what you thought it was going to be, given the history of both acts. Sure, there are a good deal of passages of volatility and focused intensity as you might expect, but they are complimented by an equal amount of passages of hallucinatory ambience and cold, serene atmospherics. It's this very dichotomy that makes this such a masterful recording, and listening to it one sitting becomes almost mandatory just to wrap your head around the mind fuckery that unravels over its 7 tracks, as celestial drift and horizon filling textures collide with sudden eruptions of militantly hostile vocals, machine clatter, blistering frequency pulsations and writhing distortion. The title track is clearly the centerpiece here...an epic and sprawling 18 minute track of climatic and shimmering drones that disintegrates into corrosive generator hum and contorted loops with an insane vocal outburst that rivals any STROM.ec output ever created. Hubrizine clearly takes heavy electronics in a direction where few have dared go, and few will ever match. In fold out presentation folder with artwork by Andre Coelho
Limited / Numbered CD - Comes in luxurious 5 panel folder with metallic/black print, 19 x 14 cm, packaged in transparent bag
One year after the highly acclaimed "Dream Landscape" CD ANEMONE TUBE returns with the new concept album "Death over China".
No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take, if at all possible, decades to undo. China`s rise as an economic power has no clear parallel in history; thus, its pollution problem has shattered all precedent developments.
"Death over China" is a retaliation of nature against humankind. In the same moment it is a dedication to our untamed curiosity for the essence of death and our (inherent in our collective action) secret death wish. In China`s uncompromising economical and social development we see demonstrated, how we - even with the immolation of our health, environment and tradition - are the servants to material progress. Though we are aware of the approaching ecological disaster, we hazard the consequences. Sustainability is sacrificed on the altar of egoist quest for happiness. We consume, we destroy, we thrive, we conjure: "Deathly kingdom of desire, you sustain the life in me, Black death rise!"
Using field recordings, collected in Nanjing and Shanghai in 2007, ANEMONE TUBE creates an unsettling yet intriguing, apocalyptic soundtrack with a sinister atmosphere and a depressive undertone - a unique blend of dark ambient, post industrial and power electronics in the tradition of European industrial music.
"Death over China" is the second part of "The Suicide Series", for which field recordings provide a conceptional basis. In a poetic way ANEMONE TUBE combines analytical realism of the phenomenal world with buddhist psychology and nihilist rhetoric influenced by the works of Michael Haneke, Hayao Miyazaki, H.P. Lovecraft and Yukio Mishima.
All music recorded between July 2007 and December 2009. Mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN 2010.
Definitely ANEMONE TUBE`s best and most mature album yet.
Released as part of the Crucial Blaze series, limited to four hundred hand-numbered copies. Comes in a plastic DVD-size library case with full sleeve art, a booklet with liner notes from Hal Hutchinson, and a set of six black and white photography prints.
Ultra limited CD box originally issued on Murder Release in a 8 cassettes box set hand-made by Moreno Daldosso back in 1994. Hand pasted cardboard box including a numbered insert. All artworks are reproductions of 1994 originals. CDs are remastered from original tapes.
The style of the magazine was a mix of interviews, articles, fiction, and music reviews, often written in Glass's absurdist, stream-of-consciousness writing style, which at times bordered on nonsense. The text was complemented by bizarre artwork and photographs, frequently unrelated to the articles they accompanied. One trademark of the magazine was its use of appropriated text and images from uncredited or unknown sources, taken from found objects picked up by Glass, other contributors, or readers. Another regular feature was the inclusion of a compilation 7" record or CD of music by artists profiled in the corresponding issue. Bananafish is often credited with giving many Americans their first exposure to Japanese noise musicians such as Merzbow and Solmania, as well as domestic noisemakers like Emil Beaulieau
Front Cover by Christine Shields from Bananafish Issue #15
Disturbing, Spoken Word, Interview, True Crime, Underground; Limited Edition CDr - New
Mysterious CDr release from Magik Crowbar Deplorable Editions. Dennis Rader (BTK Killer) gave a dramatic, televised confession on June 27, 2005 in which he described killing 10 people.
(Dennis Lynn Rader, better know as the BTK Killer, is an American serial killer who murdered ten people between 1974 and 1991.)
Disturbing, Interview, Spoken Word, True Crime, Underground; Limited Edition CDr - New
Mysterious release on Magik Crowbar Deplorable Editions. Interviews with various sexual sadists. I believe the prisoners were from an Alabama prison in the early 90's. These people were mentioned in Anna Salter's book: Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders....This is quite bloody horrible
Garage, Punk, Psych, Pop, Nuggets, Boxset, Spanish, South America, Mexico; 4xCD and Hardcover Book
4 CD's housed in a wonderful hardbound book with full color scans, photos and authoritative text of "Latin American" 60's punk, pop and psychedelia". It's title is something of a misnomer as there are actually quite a few tracks by Spanish 60's bands as well (Los Salvajes, Los Bravos, Los Sirex etc). Regardless, it's an amazing collection of a variety stuff in Spanish from the 1960's from carbon copy British invasion covers, to Latin American Sonics impersonators to way out acid eating full blown psychedelia it's a delight from start to finish (with lots of amusing radio/TV commercials in Spanish from the 60's thrown in). "Nuggets II" scratched the surface on this genre with a few inclusions, this set digs up the treasure chest!
Cult, Underground, Outsider, Folk, Psychedelic, Lo-fi, Acid, Free Form, Underground; CD - Ex Used condition
YOU USED TO THINK is one of those rarities of pure inspiration that rates up there with first platters by the MC5, Stooges, Fugs, Velvet Underground, Silver Apples, Godz, Pearls Before Swine, etc... a classic ‘68 underground album: a collage of fucked-up eastern ragas, jazz, and atonal folk rock, delivered in a beautiful, raspy, feverish, drug-induced howl, featuring the poetry and singular voice of Erica Pomerance. ESP produced more than its share of outsider visions and here was an album more like a situation, that peeked inside and outside the bullcrap of the music world and the various genres it endlessly pumps out. The album goes in and out of consciousness, presenting an oblique postmodern Caligarian world, teetering on destruction, possession, beauty and revolt. Pomerance will make you think. She is the real fairy godmother of free-rock and the acid-folk movement. Her global post-rock attitude is bold and triumphant, unpredictable, spitting out ironic anthems, anti-anthems, zen metaphors, surrealist flower-power, humor, knowledge and razorblade street slang.
