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Axebreaker – Vigilance + Live Assault V: Power electronics’ unfiltered trawl through transgression has at its best produced provocative and unbiased looks into aspects of humanity and society most prefer to leave unexplored, and at its worst has stagnated with vapid attempts at shock and distressing affinities for poisonous ideologies (fascism, racism, misogyny). In light of the disturbing normalization of far-right extremism in the Trump era, Terence Hannum of experimental metal/noise powerhouse Locrian and darkwave trio The Holy Circle started Axebreaker as an explicitly anti-fascist power electronics project, one aiming its attack deliberately at the rise of white nationalist violence and rhetoric in the West. On Vigilance, Hannum’s aural arsenal is one of unrelenting low churn, barely-controlled feedback, and throat-lacerating vocals, crated with a keen ear that evokes elements of PE cornerstones like Con-Dom, Ramleh, The Grey Wolves, and Genocide Organ etched with his own distinctive sonority that informs his diverse and prolific catalog. Vigilance comes packaged with a live CDR showcasing a gritty, uncompromising recording of his fifth “live assault” and an Axebreaker pin. A powerfully relevant and passionate statement of resistance that’s been long overdue. Edition of 50. Comes with download code.
Cassette + CDR + pin
Price: $18.00

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Unsustainable Social Condition – Veiled Trash: There’s an irony in genres offering infinite freedoms falling prey to generic formulas, and what’s designated harsh noise can too often suffer at the behest of stubbornly rigid approaches. Hence the work of Unsustainable Social Condition has felt particularly refreshing and revitalizing these past years, with its mastermind Matt Purse discharging an unabated series of releases reveling in the impenetrable, ear-bleeding rapture set forth by pioneers like Incapacitants, Pain Jerk, Skin Crime, and Richard Ramirez. The impassioned, immaculate curation behind his label Oxen Records is embodied in Veiled Trash, an uncompromising, unrestrained, and annihilating pandemonium spread over 20 minutes. Purse has cultivated his voice with potent releases through Oxen, New Forces, and Phage Tapes as well as performances both national and international alongside noise legends like K2, The Rita, and Government Alpha; Veiled Trash is a continued advancement of USC’s stature as one of the unequivocal titans of U.S. noise. Edition of 50. Comes with download code.
Cassette
Price: $8.00



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Christian Lovers – Negative Liberty: Hailing frenetically out of Long Beach, the anomalous, berserk Christian Lovers have been tearing through Southern California the past few years, brandishing their teetering-towards-oblivion noise-rock alongside a disparate multitude of grindcore, noisecore, noise, and hardcore allies. Befitting their capacity to intermingle among numerous circles, the band’s sonic palate is a dizzying, breakneck stunt drive through Load and Freedom From-era obsessions, an unhindered splatter of grind climaxes, free jazz catharsis, power electronics terror, improvised squall, and their total diversion of expected conventions. Noise-rock that does not fear losing itself in the hazy tethers of complete discord. One side of ruthless drums-and-all full-band attack, the other a punishing harsh noise/PE tête-à-tête with guest sax from comrade Chip Lionel. Appropriately hideous artwork for maximum collision. Edition of 50. Comes with download code.
Cassette
Price: $8.00



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Rust Worship – Predecession II (Last Bay Purge): The second of two Rust Worship cassettes released on Obsolete Units at the beginning of 2019, Predecession II (Last Bay Purge) is a companion tape to last year’s Predecession on Skin Trade Recordings. Both recordings here are also from live performances in the Bay Area circa 2014, these from earlier that year than those appearing on the first tape. Each of the sets here share much of the same source material, and though both take a considered restraint to the evolution of the viscous tape loops and teeming samples, each became its own unusual affair. Supposedly an attendee at the performance at my friend Amy’s apartment in San Francisco experience synesthesia. Both Predecession tapes along with 2015’s Routine cassette on Mistake By The Lake act as a fine window into what I was doing in 2014 before I took a break of a couple years from performing. Edition of 50. Comes with download code.
Cassette
Price: $8.00



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Rust Worship – Live Coaxial: The is the first release of Rust Worship material recorded since my move to Los Angeles at the end of 2016. Recorded last year at Coaxial Arts on a bill with Compactor, Jason Walton of Agalloch, Misery Ritual, and Dendera Bloodbath, this performance is an unvarnished document of the direction that my live sets have taken since my return to performing in 2017. Taking a more resolute and unwavering focus on the tape loops and processed samples with a refreshed patience overseeing the chaotic effusion of the intermingling audio sources, this is probably as effective a representation as any of what I hope to build off for Rust Worship in the near future. Recorded and mixed by Derek Rush (Compactor) from both board and audience recordings, uncut and unedited. The artwork is my blatant homage to the legendary Broken Flag label, which continues to be a profound source of inspiration for this project. Edition of 50. Comes with download code.
Cassette
Price: $8.00



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Rogue Squares – Rogue Squares: Two NYC transplants who ended up crossing paths years later in Los Angeles, both Carlos Giffoni and Elaine Carey had forged renowned bodies of work on their own before joining forces as the duo Rogue Squares. Improvising around Giffoni’s studious modular synth figures and Carey’s preternatural prepared guitar manipulations, the six compact pieces on their self-titled debut imparts a collaboration steeped in an innate synergy. Expanding upon Carey’s lauded work in the duo Telecaves and Giffoni’s plentiful solo and collaborative recordings (with Merzbow, The Rita, Marcia Bassett, Thurston Moore, among many others) on labels such as Important Records, Hospital Productions, and his own No Fun Productions, Rogue Squares is the initial missive in what is sure to be a fruitful partnership. Edition of 50. Comes with download code.
Cassette
Price: $8.00



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Misery Ritual – Searing Blood: Hailing out of the flourishing Southern California noise community, Misery Ritual is Kyle Ferguson, whose confrontational, cathartic, and unrestrained live performances have soldered an immediate imprint on anyone fortunate enough to bear witness. An intensely personal, unfiltered purge of negative emotion, Searing Blood divides its sides with perfect cohesion between Fergurson’s studio and live incarnations. The first half is some of Ferguson’s most concise and punishing studio work, an compellingly bleak cacophony that is complemented seamlessly by the live performance on the flip, recorded in spring 2018 at Coaxial in Los Angeles. An unflinchingly unique and arresting young voice in harsh noise and power-electronics. Edition of 50. Comes with insert and download code.
Cassette
Price: $8.00



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Peter Kalisch – Empty Mirror: Empty Mirror is Peter Kalisch’s long-in-formation proper solo introduction, succeeding a profuse streak of live performances that have vigorously blurred the lines between a variant string of genres within the extreme music underground. With is unnervingly sparse sonics moving in marked navigation around death industrial, power electronics, harsh noise, and even minimal techno, Empty Mirror traverses a profoundly personal dominion of depression, self-critique, and queer identity. A fully-realized and exceptional debut of brutal honesty from an artist to set your attention to. Edition of 50. Comes with insert and download code.
Cassette
Price: $8.00



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Kelly Moran – Optimist: Kelly Moran is a pianist, composer, and producer based in New York. Constructing opulent formations of prepared-piano, electronics, and synths, she yields profoundly personal works of elysian harmony that bear the studied mark of a wide-range of experimental and ambient giants from Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto to Pauline Oliveros to John Cage to Tim Hecker to Lubomyr Melnyk. Her album Optimist cultivates an ornate motion that’s inviting and poignant, an intimate rebuke of omnipresent turmoil and turbulance. Moran has already received enthusiastic recognition for her international performances, including most recently as a keyboardist in Daniel Lopatin’s (Oneohtrix Point Never) MYRIAD Ensemble, and the self-recorded Optimist reveals an intrepid artist already cresting the apex of her gifts. Digipack edition of 100.
CD
Price: $12.00



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Nick Forté – Overdoes It: Coming along almost concurrently with his recent Primordial Forms LP, Nick Forté’s Overdoes It is another bewildering and potent solo shot from this underground mainstay. Forté previously appeared on Obsolete Units years back with his drone/noise ensemble Hells Hills, and much like his intrinsic talent for tackling numerous forms of music (he was an original member of legendary hardcore ensemble Rorschach and currently plays in acclaimed black metal/punk project Raspberry Bulbs), Overdoes It operates by its own uncommon logic. A scrupulously crafted series of vignettes recalling luminaries such as Pierre Henry, Steven Stapleton, and Christina Kubisch, Forté’s command of his intermingling synth, tape, and voice (to name a few) sources is astonishingly faultless. An unshakable and mindful masterpiece. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Anla Courtis – El Raspiarero: One of the most prolific and multifarious musicians within the avant underground, Argentinian artist Anla Courtis has constructed an uncompromising and uninhibited body of work since the early 90’s, whether through his involvement in the legendary outsider-rock outfit Reynols to his impressive array of solo missives. El Raspiarero finds Courtis deep into the nether-reaches of hazy, hissing analog fidelity, presenting two long-form pieces ambiguously generated from remnants of warbling tape, mangled guitar, and other as-yet-unidentified instruments of dissonance. It’s an unrepentantly delirious presentation, the queasy yet confident sensory treatments generating action most acute. El Raspiarero maintains Courtis’s place as an endlessly captivating presence in experimental sound. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Dreamcrusher – Katatonia: Starting in the 2000’s, Luwayne Glass has operated as Dreamcrusher, garnering considerable acclaim for what Glass designates as “Nihlist Queer Revolt Muzik.” The incredibly personal and uninhibited cacophony of Dreamcrusher’s music runs through copious touchstones of underground music, taking the stark drum machine throb of Front 242 and Underground Resistance and filtering it through the unsettling sheets of noise inspired equally from early industrial music pioneers like SPK as well as the tumultuous and disquieting bedlam of Ramleh and the Broken Flag label. While a lot of heavies in the noise scene have recently made explicit endeavors within beat-driven electronics, Glass does not renounce the sonic extremity, allowing for their dynamic songs to crunch, crumble, and gestate within the blown-out torrents of static and fuzz. Katatonia is another powerful statement from this young artist, a startling and potent statement of catharsis. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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AMK – Bungalow: Anthony Michael King is one of the true originals of U.S. noise, who since the 80’s has been responsible for both the incredibly influential Banned Production label and his mystifying and singular solo and collaborative work under the AMK alias. The torrents of delirious, bewildering discord in which King specializes involves the reappropriation of old records, flexi-discs and other damaged vinyl noise, taking the pioneering turntable experiments of artists like Christian Marclay into distinctly more lawless and raucous dimensions. In 2014, King is still a master of his awe-inspiring vision, with Bungalow arranging a mix of his distinctive vinyl clutter as well as field recordings and electronics into eight distinct pieces of alternating uproar and even occasional calm. Bungalow is an unimpeachable testament to AMK’s steadfast perch among the vanguard of noise. Essential pandemonium for devotees of The Haters, Smegma, Emil Beaulieau, and of course, AMK himself. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Chapels – Night Thoughts: In addition to operating the esteemed House Of Alchemy label, a home for experimental travelers from HOA’s homebase of Buffalo and beyond, Adam Richards has also crafted a considerably diverse discography of his own under the solo alias Chapels. Much like the diversity of sounds stretched across his label’s discography, which has released everything from drone to free improv to harsh noise, Richards’ work as Chapels has never fit comfortably into any narrow genre paradigm, instead gestating as its freedom allows, from euphoric washes to desolate tape experiments. Night Thoughts appropriately highlights these disparate talents with flourishingly harmonious assurance. While the side-long title piece observes dawn-like tranquility, with almost choral synth drones mingling with lightly crunching rumbles, the second side is all creeping, alien sonics, from muffled radio/tape transmissions to hazes of white noise. Another sublimely realized sojourn from one of Buffalo’s best. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Howard Stelzer – Narrow Escape: Starting in the late 90’s, Howard Stelzer consistently advanced and refined his prowess at tape-composition, a move that has thus far granted him a position as one of the most revered and acclaimed cult personas in the noise underground. Having worked both solo and in collaboration with everyone from Jason Talbot to The Cherry Point to Jazzkammer, as well as for many years running the stellar (and now defunct) Intransitive Recordings label, Stelzer thoughtfully maintains a deft and skilled hand in the manipulation of disparate sources rendered on the magnetic spool, generating tapestries of uninhibited, powerful expression. Narrow Escape finds Stelzer carefully and meticulously rendering 54 minutes of unbroken drone, working from a starting point of an almost Basinski-esque monolith of gorgeous ambiance into a deft attack of severe low-end and fierce static. A masterpiece of the controlled burn, Narrow Escape is no doubt another high-point in Stelzer’s diverse and storied discography. Pro-pressed and printed in a digipack. Edition of 100.
CD-R
Price: $8.00



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Derek Rogers/Sindre Bjerga – split: Derek Rogers and Sindre Bjerga are two of the more ubiquitous and exceptional presences in the realm of modern drone composition, with both forging their own prolifically distinctive identifies among the dignitaries of the experimental underground. This split release finds both musicians operating at their strongest, with each crafting their own long-form statement that aptly provides perhaps a definitive entry-point for those who’ve yet to delve into both Rogers’ and Bjerga’s dense and diverse catalogs. Rogers’ side welds his gorgeous and hypnotic guitar work over a platform of excitingly unwieldy digital glitches, resulting in a distinctly gorgeous composition that recalls Christian Fennesz at his most contemplative. Bjerga’s piece documents a live performance from a few years ago in the Ukraine, with dynamic and pulsating electronic drones working a concurrent mood of serenity while also exploring a more abstract intensity that builds throughout underneath. A crucial testimony from this pair of absorbing performers. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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AG Davis – Audio Works: AG Davis has been pursuing his own distinctive and powerfully unpredictable patchwork of avant-garde madness throughout the past decade, from the epileptic grind edits of Boy + Girl through the plunderphonic-punk pastiche of Extra Sexes, and perhaps most infamously the vocal-chord exorcisms he unleashed alongside saxophonist Jamison Williams for a pair of singles. Audio Works devotes focus to yet another set of Davis’ impulsive methods, this time compiling two works released in incredibly limited editions via neo-Dada genius Kommissar Hjuler’s Der Schöne-Hjuler-Memorial-Fund imprint. Hjuler and partner Mama Baer provide source material for the first side, with Davis reigning in their ambiguous declarations with rapid edits and a plethora of cryptic sonics. The flip finds Davis continuing this confrontational force of perverse musique concrete, thus aptly book-ending this confident declaration that calls to mind the pioneering abstractions of pioneers like Pierre Henry as much as it does the absurdist nihilism of Schimpfluch-Gruppe. Davis has declared this to be possibly his final recorded work; for sure, it is one of his very best. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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The Tenses & Guzo – Full-On Rager: Both The Tenses and Guzo devote their energies to the iconoclastic and inimitable improv ensemble Smegma, with The Tenses’ Ju Suk Reet Meate and Jackie Stewart (a.k.a. Oblivia) having devoted 30-plus years to the constantly evolving collective while Guzo’s Madelyn Villano is a relatively new presence to the crew, performing on many of Smegma’s recent recorded and live excursions. The first side finds both projects hitting an astounding communion with the intergenerational partnership surging forth a radical and unified exclamation. Plundered records, mangled electronics, droning strings, and even some surf-styled guitar twang yield an astoundingly surreal mass. The flip sides finds The Tenses on their own manifesting a similar torrent of demented bedlam, proving that both Reet Meate and Stewart are two of the underground’s most consistently unshakable radicals. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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K.M. Toepfer – Instigate: On Instigate, Canadian noise maven K.M. Toepfer has envisioned a particularly personal paean to the cassette tape. Toepfer, working for the first time under his given name after numerous releases as Potier. and some notably obscure wall-blasts as Truchsess, explores the gritty sonic eccentricities of decrepit tape machines, turning these primitive devices into bizarre electronic instruments of their own province. Make no mistake, Instigate is as far from “tape music” as one may get: here, the cassette players themselves are reduced to percolating, blown-out beasts, spewing a burning torrent of gloriously mangled electronic storm. These two sides exhibit the uncomfortable tension of total extremity; this is truly the sound of pure decay. Essential for those seeking the uneasiest of solid analog cacophony. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Lea Bertucci – Resonance Shapes: Resonance Shapes is the much anticipated vinyl debut of New York-based experimental composer, improvisor, and sound artist Lea Bertucci. Over two sides and four compositions, Bertucci weaves a suite of tape-focused compositions which utilize a vast library of sources, including her trademark bass clarinet (which she put to exquisite use at the center of her past work in TwistyCat as well as her many solo and collaborative performances), bowed vibraphone, various percussive implements, and mysterious field recordings take from her homestead of Brooklyn, Southern Utah, and areas unnamed. The compositions embrace an expanse of quietude that’s carefully punctuated by the reverberating progression of her meticulously collaged resonances. The album’s title is thus most apt as Bertucci’s patient focus and eclectic and tolerant ear build beautifully potent and dynamic structures out of the incidental and unexpected. Her art fits confidently and boldly alongside likeminded seekers such as Moniek Darge, Graham Lambkin, Vanessa Rossetto, The Hafler Trio, and Luc Ferrari. A must for anybody interested in modern experimental composition and sound art. Coke-bottle clear vinyl packaged in a translucent sleeve designed and printed by Bertucci herself. Comes with download code. Edition of 300.
LP (clear vinyl)
Price: $16.00
Co-release with Cibachrome Editions.



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Ashtray Navigations – Insect Descent: Phil Todd’s Ashtray Navigations has endured in numerous multifarious formations since the mid-90’s, operating as both a solo and group enterprise that has recorded for an extensive list of crucial experimental labels (Siltbreeze, Chocolate Monk, and Celebrate Psi Phenomenon to name a few, as well as Todd’s own Memoirs Of An Aesthete) while having conquered all approaches to subterranean psychedelia: gargantuan deep-drones, endless minimalism, pastoral improvisations. A long-unreleased full-length recorded circa 2008, Insect Descent sees Todd generating his music in isolation, yet the sonics suggest some of Ash Nav’s most densely constructed and meticulously overlapped torrents of noise, a tumult that recalls Matthew Bower’s various guitar-and-electronics masterworks as well as the piercingly gorgeous instrumental chants of Vibracathedral Orchestra and the meditative mantras of LaMonte Young. From the bombastic feedback symphony of “One Millions Pleasurecards All Painted White” to the tranquilizing serenity of “Fake Aeroplanes,” these five works intertwine into a seamless fusion of cathartic eruption and trance-inducing edification. One of Todd’s most immediate and paramount recordings by far. Pro-pressed/pro-printed CDR housed in a pro-printed digipack. Edition of 100.
CD-R
Price: $8.00



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KILT – Culos Asados: KILT is the evolving noise hellion of dissonance masterminds Raven Chacon and Bob Bellerue, dual forces operating from Albuquerque, NM and Brooklyn, NY respectively. The Culos Asados cassette showcases two remarkable live performances which were dispatched within days of one another back in 2010 via Bellerue’s current turf. Both unrelenting sets show the two esteemed artists’ piercing and inharmonious furry unleashed with a gritty, grating relish. As both recordings took place at two experimental haunts that have since distressingly succumbed to the great New York City area’s expanse of expense (those venues being the Bed Stuy-based DIY cove The Party Expo and the immensely-missed Williamsburg destination Zebulon), Culos is at once a crudely compelling tribute to the amorphous, ephemeral remembrance of powerful performance and a testament to Chacon and Bellerue’s instinctual symmetry as purveyors of overwhelming abrasion and cacophonous enlightenment. Taking both players’ esteemed pedigrees into account (Bellerue is proprietor of the Anarchymoon label and has helped organize the Ende Tymes Festival in Brooklyn since 2010, while Chacon is a member of the Postcommodity art collective as well as having acted Composer-In-Residence for the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project), the success of their collaborative synergy is hardly accidental. Pro-dubbed/pro-printed edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Mike Shiflet – Forgotten Somewhere: It’s a daunting task to think of where to begin when it comes to offering up a succinct summation of Mike Shiflet’s copious and exquisite body of work. Over the past eleven years or so, the Columbus-based musician has investigated a breadth of approaches to sustained sound, from slow-burning microcosmic tones that gradually shift into distinctly unfamiliar forms to more carefully coordinated layers of melodious treatments of guitar, synth, and field recordings that actively extract unorthodox inflections from such familiar sources. Forgotten Somewhere has Shiflet mastering both of these attitudes, the title piece constructing a nebulous, dusky fuzz of subtly gorgeous vibration while “Omicron Meditation” is a textural excursion into crackling, jittering snaps, recalling a piece of warped blank vinyl spinning from damaged speakers. This cassette is a transcendent testimonial from one of the underground’s most celebrated talents, hinting both at territory investigated on 2010’s acclaimed Llanos CD and earlier works such as 2004’s Xenakis Youth CDR. Pro-dubbed/pro-printed edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Rambutan – Surrounded: Eric Hardiman is an upstate NY musician who in addition to operating the superb label Tape Drift Records and performing as a long-time member of both psych-rock ensemble Burnt Hills and as one-half of the prolific Century Plants also records prodigious and multifarious drone compositions under the alias Rambutan. Surroundedhas been on the table for a long while, and its engrossing, captivating constitution manifests as an audacious rearrangement of guitar-focused experimentation. Hardiman constructs these four pieces around intense manipulations of his guitar and various unidentified electronics using a hand and mind that works both patiently and fearlessly. Pieces like “Unfamiliar Moments” and “Trace” inhabit a state of contemplative obscurity, carefully avoiding the easy pay-off of cheap bombast while the title track, along with “Perimeter,” confidently explores the heavy, hazy psychedelia of British experimental legends like Ashtray Navigations and Matthew Bowers’ various projects. A pronounced and striking work of a consistently gifted voice in the American underground. Pro-dubbed/pro-printed edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Phil Julian – Transcript: Under both the Cheapmachines alias and his own name, England’s Phil Julian has been venturing across various strains of unorthodox sound over the past decade or so, with his prolific output encompassing sonic textures that run the gamut from harsh squalls of decaying cacophony to humming spectral tapestries of melodic drone to patiently constructed compositions of hyper-minimalistic timbres. On Transcript, Julian sources tones and reverberation from blank cassettes as well as the actual cassette decks used in this particular process. Allowing the hissing, fuzzy, and clicking mechanics at work in this aural realm to traverse effortlessly across a half hour of ethereal space, Transcript stands as a remarkable work of foreboding and atonal constitution that stands confidently alongside the best works of similarly inclined sound sculptors such as Francisco Lopez and Joe Colley. This is warmly eerie listening that sounds especially exquisite coming from a cassette itself. Pro-dubbed/pro-printed edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Whales – Seibutsu Shigen: A blistering set of impressively reckless and spastic hardcore, Kyoto, Japan’s Whales craft an attack exhibiting forces both distinctively ferocious and ardently uncompromising. Drawing significant influence from numerous legendary purveyors of power-violence (Spazz, Dropdead), the trio shoot through 6 minutes of absurdly accelerated blasts of song before ending this treat with another 6 minutes of the most blistering Incapacitants/MSBR-style walls of noise. The same program runs on both sides, and you’ll probably need to listen to both in one-sitting just to catch-up with what you’ve just heard. Seibutsu Shigen strips bare this expeditious punk template to its most cathartic core; this is no muss, no fuss, and no bullshit. Whales includes on guitar Takahiro Yorifuji, who has released numerous ambient/drone releases as Hakobune on a variety of different labels (Install, Ghetto Naturalist, Tobira). Pro-dubbed/pro-printed edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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The Noise From Ridgewood – A Benefit Compilation For The Silent Barn: The Silent Barn was a D.I.Y. venue that acted as an invaluable resource for New York City’s underground music and arts communities. Since its inception in the mid-2000’s, it developed into a beloved institution in the city, acting as an extremely inviting and supportive space for musical acts of numerous stripes and genres, whether local, national, and international. In addition, the space also acted as an outlet to many local artists in the visual/performance fields, among them the independent video game collective Babycastles. In July of this year, their space, which resided in the Ridgewood neighborhood, was robbed and vandalized days after being subsequently shut down by the authorities. As the Barn was also the place of residence for the folks who helped operate it, these setbacks were especially distressing. This huge blow to the arts community in New York couldn’t come during a more bleak period for artists operating outside of the suffocating spectre of mainstream/corporate outlets, with most other underground venues in the city being shut down in recent years. Though most other D.I.Y. spaces in the area had brief lifespans, the Barn was one of the longest-running, which can no doubt be attributed to their welcoming demeanor and undying passion and motivation for the music and art they helped provide an outlet for. Current plans for the Silent Barn include procurring a permanent space in the region and continuing on with the diligence and enthusiasm that they’re known for. Obsolete Units presents this compilation to help them rebuild and start anew. All proceeds made from the sale of this album will go directly to The Silent Barn. Featuring new and exclusive tracks from Aaron Dilloway, Telecult Powers, Andy Ortmann (Panicsville), Ben Miller, Phil Julian (cheapmachines), Millions, MV Carbon, Tom Smith (To Live And Shave In L.A.), Bunnybrains, C. Spencer Yeh, Excepter, The Tenses (members of Smegma), Pregnant Spore, Chapels, Cellular Chaos, Mike Shiflet, Derek Rogers, Long Distance Poison, Id M Theft Able, WZT Hearts, Fossils, and many more.
2xCD-R
Price: $12.00



A digital download can also be purchased here.
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Rodent – Dully Pop: Garrett W. Anderson is Rodent, a former Ypsilanti sound constructor recently transplanted to Chicago who sent this masterpiece to me last year wrapped in intriguingly cryptic art with the most scant of information. What I experienced sonically was a singularly odd and ominous statement of collaged wonderment, an electro-acoustic/drone/un-pop series of pieces that magnificently complement and meld into one another with the utmost craft. Having spent time as part of improv-obscurities Puberty, Anderson’s Rodent takes a more attentive approach, crafting layers of patchworked guitar drones, synth studies, field recordings, and unverified sound shards into a patiently impassioned conceptual excursion. Regarding the concept at hand, every piece on Dully Pop is 2 minutes and 42 seconds, based on the notion that this span of time supposedly elicits the perfect pop song. But Dully Pop is definitely not pop as you, I, or anyone knows it; Anderson’s soundscapes of ambiguous form peak with a density unknown to such brevity. If these nuggets ever found their way onto terrestrial airwaves, our world will surely find itself in a better state. Pro-dubbed/pro-printed edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Other Vultures – Carrion/Campbeltown: From this proudly elusive duo comes Carrion/Campbeltown, two separate releases sitting side-by-side; not a double album, mind you, but two distinct entities forging for their individual ground in spite of their sonic comradery. Delayed for too long due in great part to the industries’ war on dual-cassette storage, this nihilistically perplexing and gleefully frustrating noise-rock opus has finally manifested as intended with both cassettes featuring unrehearsed no-wave improvisations from two established and studious vets of the sound-art and academic avant netherworld. Hearing them regress into pure anti-rock primitivism is quite a wonder to behold, but I’ll let the boys describe it themselves: “Other Vultures describe their aesthetic as ‘proudly-inept noisecore’ and the work that emerges aptly seems a continual failure of aggression: wavering intensity, relenting beats, and lyrics more likely to be about going out dancing than beating people up.” You’re either for against this one. No in-betweens. Delve in, my savages. Edition of 40.
2xCassette
Price: $8.00



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Nodolby – Untitled: A title-less missive from Italy’s Nodolby, the solo personage of Dokuro label mind Michele Scariot, this particular cassette brusquely fortifies two sides of gnawing scrape and sibilation. The four pieces manage to etch a natural approximation of early industrial’s rhythmic churn and the mangled feedback fetishization of harsh noise as this quartet of discharges obeys a certain amorphous structure that nevertheless remains unrelenting in its ability to menace. A beautifully conceived album of unbridled disorder. Edition of 60.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Slasher Risk – スラシア リスク: A long time in the making, Obsolete Units is immensely pleased to be bringing you its second silver CD, this time from everyone’s favorite Brooklyn destructionists Slasher Risk. On their first full-length CD, the duo provide an exquisitely diverse and confident set that focuses on the disparate strains of sonics the two are infamous for operating among., Here we’re allowed access to a garage-punk nugget of an opener, a clean-driven psych guitar mantra, an unforgiving blast into harsh electronics, and a 20-minute live assault aptly capturing the id-driven physicality of the band’s performance aesthetic. A powerfully comprehensive overview of Slasher Risk’s growing forcefulness in the past couple years. Comes in beautiful color digipack artwork. Edition of 300.
CD
Price: $6.00



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Fluorescent Vibes – Possibilities: Drone can be a tricky style to tend to without falling prey to monotony and regression, but like fellow Brooklyn master Millions, the Vibes make an exquisite case for the style’s encompassing authority and its continuing evolution into unheard, thrilling entities. The first half documents one of the band’s breakout performances taken from last year’s New York Eye & Ear Fest, with the then trio of Heliotaxis/Arcanode instrumentalist and Cryptic Carousel label-head Corey Bauer and former Miami Beach members Phillip Gerson and Matt Kimmel (he of Acid Marshmellow and Melted Mailbox fame) emitting a consolatory and illusory pastiche of submerged synths and fleeting found sound. A Silent Barn action fills out the second side, finding the Bauer-Gerson duo trudging through notably spare and slightly sinister forms, all the calming surreality in tact. A gorgeous head trip. Edition of 60.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Millions – Static & Distance: David Suss is the sole party behind Millions, and his monstrously dense and overpoweringly gorgeous take on the peaks and valleys of drone is remarkable for a solo project. Overseeing a complex set-up of guitar, synths, and electronics, Suss uses this mini-CD-R as the platform for a 20-minute composition that puts emphasis on the brighter tonalities and absorbing euphoria that inhibits his oeuvre. Layers of unending haze and blissful noise hold power for the whole of this piece; followers of Matthew Bower and the VHF imprint need keep close watch. Edition of 100.
3″ CD-R
Price: $3.00



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Skeleton Warrior – Pornographic Hologram: One of the more secretive acts in the strange terrain of Florida-based noise makers, the always enigmatic Skeleton Warrior allow some more presence to take hold with this epic tape of bewildering glee. Pornographic Hologram very literally veers from speaker-damaging scuzz rock to amphetamine-ruined industrial pop to analog synth caterwauling to everything else in between. No spaces left untouched, and yet a distinct linking thread holds it all in place. A diverse and vigorous long-player made perfect for the adventurous. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Wet Fur – Chimeric: Wet Fur is the solo alias of noise/sound generator Reed Evan Rosenberg. Having already made a name for himself in collaboration with sound artist Richard Kamerman as Tandem Electrics and as part of improv-jazz-noise monster The Groits, Chimeric distills Rosenberg’s single-person digital havoc into 20 minutes of unnerving and relentless laptop destitution. Dynamically diverse and fulfillingly dense, Chimeric crunches disorienting clusters of mechanized fury alongside moments of disquieting extreme minimalism and ominous gaps. Two side-long pieces carefully crafted for the cassette format; a welcome and satisfying audio document of Rosenberg’s acclaimed solo creations. Edition of 100.
Cassette
Price: $6.00



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Totally Dad – Two Hearts: Here it is. The first Obsolete Units silver, factory-made, real-life CD. Two Hearts is a 32-minute document of Totally Dad’s transformation from the filth-punk rabble-rousers on Dad’s Fucked into demented Americana noise rogues of gargantuan hysterical disposition. The guitars battle off into scattered forests while primal screams, toms, and by the end a violin hoot from the treetops. The apt agglomeration of Beefheart, Sun City Girls, U.S. Maple, Harry Pussy, and Warmer Milks sprinkled in the top-soil, and out grows this. Very recommended. Edition of 300.
CD
Price: $6.00



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