#2 : ( Notice #15 ) Organ of Species : " Random Selection " (C30)
Organ of Species is the newest musical incarnation of Scott Cloud (Thoughts On Air; Cloud Valley Recordings). For OOS’ debut release, Scott focuses on documenting, or even mirroring, natural processes through his organic and unhurried pieces. The bases for these tracks are woolly, thick organ drones and heavy outdoor ambience that are constantly, subtly regenerating. There is the path, and there are constant divergences from the path. Overgrown textures roll along with occasional mutations, interruptions, and overtakings. Just as suddenly, things cut and shift entirely, forming a series of non-narrative snapshots into a process that is constantly occurring, resolutely alive. With minimal human interference, the music breathes on its own. A few foreboding elements toward the end of each side point to a disturbance, but we can’t read too much into it—this is just the nature of things.
- Artwork by E. Lindorff-Ellery. Foil stamp overlay on pro-printed, full-color card stock
- An edition of 100
- Pro-dubbed, imprinted cassettes with classic Notice attire
Samples :
Godseye and Dense Reduction tapes are still available. Let us know if you want all 4, and we'll do a discount.
Frans de Waard over at Vital Weekly, with his superhuman turnaround, has posted reviews for 3 tapes, including two which have not been released yet. If anyone by chance has arrived at this site with the intention of purchasing Organ Of Species - " Random Selection " or Nathan Mclaughlin - " Echolocation #5 ", you may certainly place a pre-order right now. Both of those tapes will be officially announced when we get to it, no later than the end of this week. The Godseye tape, " No More Cake Here " is also still available. Please email us : noticerecordings [at] gmail [dot] com 
Dense Reduction performing an apparently Feldman-esque piece (thank you Hubble) during Tuesday's concert at Glowsticks, in Chicago. 
Notice Recordings artists Nathan McLaughlin and Dense Reduction will be playing a show in Chicago next Tuesday, the 22nd of March. Nathan's forthcoming Notice Recordings release, "Echolocation #5" will be released on this date, as well. In addition to this release, we will also be releasing the Organ of Species tape, "Random Selection". Organ of Species is a project of Scott Cloud, owner of Cloud Valley / Maggot Valley Recordings.
Information :
Glowsticks
1376 N. Dean St., # 3F
(Near Milwaukee & Wood)
Nathan McLaughlin (MN)
Joe Houpert (MN)
Toby Aronson (VT)
Hubble (NYC)
Tooth Ache (VT)
Jason Soliday
Dense Reduction
DJ sets by Joel Gardner, Ryan Chupick & Daniel Smith
Party @ 8pm / Music @ 8:30
$5 (for the touring artists)
Joe Houpert & Nathan McLaughlin
The Slow Burn Tour 2011
Performances of Prayer & Echolocation
More on this soon.As the winter slowly thaws and the local squirrels reappear in increasing numbers, we are proud to offer our first releases of 2011—two new tapes by Godseye and Dense Reduction. We also have some newly available back stock.
Godseye (Eden Hemming Rose, Brad Rose, and Nathan Young) has wowed us with their first two releases focused on spoken-word readings. With No More Cake Here, texts from Natalie Diaz, Edward Kuznetsov, Emma Goldman, and Seth Abramson are read over beautifully crafted synth textures. From the opening words of the title track, the intensity present in the slow, even readings and barely concealed chaos is unmistakable. Beneath wells of feedback and roiling synths, occasional bursts of light emerge on “Prison Diaries 20th December.” “A Menace To Liberty” delivers a pointedly defiant text from Goldman, and “Gideon Asleep By The River” is contemplative and yearning, almost like a requiem, but perhaps hopeful. This tape mines beauty in the darkness lurking in all corners. Unique and very compelling.
- Artwork by E. Lindorff-Ellery. Foil stamped on heavy stock.
- An edition of 100.
Notice Recordings house band Dense Reduction have explored much new territory recently (mostly yet-to-be released), but they return to their signature sounds on Shadows Of Shipwrecks In Napkins on Shore. The A-side delivers their unique brand of texture and energy, shifting through AM radio, synthesizer squeals, looped bells and Theremin, and no-input mixing. The B-side shows off the extremes of Dense Reduction, building from a quiet, ambiguous synth figure to a wave of noise that simmers, lying in wait until the very last seconds. Recorded almost one year ago, and initially slated for release in 2010, Shadows of Shipwrecks can now be seen as a summation of Dense Reduction’s early-period work.
- Artwork by E. Lindorff-Ellery. Foil stamped on heavy stock.
We have also uncovered some copies of previously sold-out titles. Copies of the following tapes are now available—
NTR001 – Dense Reduction, Dense Reduction (only 1)
NTR003 – Dense Reduction, Hobbes Diamond (only 4)
NTR004 – Dense Reduction, Cornerstone Mill (only 4)
NTR008 – Leavitt Ours, Movement (only 2)
NTR010 – The North Sea, Relinquished Sparks (only 3)
NTR011 – Yellow Crystal Star, Pathway To Celestial Towers (only 8)
NTR012 – Red Electric Rainbow, Sky Underneath (only 11)
NTR-R-IOS01 – Illusion of Safety, Repairs (only 2)
If you’re interested in any of these, let us know. They are available at discounted prices.
Notice Recordings' Year End “Best Of” List, 2010. And some reflections/reviews.
In no order :
EVAN LINDORFF-ELLERY :
Graham Lambkin / Jason Lescalleet - Air Supply (Erstwhile)
Once again these two (Gentleman) have created something completely unique, despite a similar textural palette used from Breadwinner -- (but maybe they can't help that). I am completely taken into and within these sounds. All the miniature atmospherics coalesce into something slightly industrious and unfamiliar while remaining mostly pastoral and domestic. Everything works in conflict and compliment. Furthermore, the compositional placement of sound is flawless to my ears -- certainly a subjective analysis -- but I feel every sound fares better based on what came before and what is to come.
Totally original and innovative yet folkish and firmly grounded in the "high-class" of the contemporary music tradition, whatever that is.
Rhodri Davies / John Butcher - Carliol (Ftarri)
Annette Krebs / Taku Unami - Motubachii (Erstwhile)
Harley Gaber - Indra's Net (Edition RZ)
John Cage / (Ulrich Krieger) - A Cage of Saxophones, Vols. 3 & 4 (Mode Records)
Although seeming a bit sonically disconnected from what John Cage might have intended, I'm sure that's far from an issue. The performances and sounds on this CD are complete perfection and a fantastic display of the saxophone's capabilities, especially on the Number Pieces. Fittingly comfortable amongst modern "contemporary" releases, and an interesting contribution to John Cage's recorded history.
John Cage / Terry Jennings (perf. by John Tilbury / Sebastian Lexer) - Lost Daylight (Another Timbre)
John Cage (perf. by Friedrich Gauwerky / Mark Knoop) - Etudes Boreales / Harmonies / 10'40.3'' (Wergo)
John Cage (perf. by Annelie Gahl / Klaus Lang) - Melodies & Harmonies (Col Legno)
I'm unsure how I feel about this release. The compositions presented, Six Melodies and Thirteen Harmonies (taken from Apartment House 1776), are some of my favourite Cage pieces, and their respective histories are fascinating. That's another story. I question, however, the choice of the Fender Rhodes as the "keyboard" accompaniment to Annelie Gahl's vibrato-less violin. Klaus Lang's playing is lovingly sparse and well-paced, but it at times displaces and isolates the violin's more homey, traditional sound. There are wonderful moments, however, which somehow work, such as during the nearly epic Harmony 5. I have conflicting feelings in the end. At times I feel that the monochromatic spherical shapes produced by the Rhodes allow the violin to freely wander throughout the remaining spaces -- and yet sometimes the Rhodes is so pure and unforgiving that the amorphous resonance of the sounds produced by the violin's wooden chamber have no reasonable place to go. Lastly, I feel the sequencing of the tracks is all wrong. Scattering Six Melodies into disconnected parts makes their small movements seem less like miniature fascinations with melody and more like fragments of something far greater. The disc is lovingly presented, very well recorded by Christoph Amann, and I have the utmost respect for approaching these pieces in this way. However, my issues still hold precedence.
Rolf Julius - Music For The Ears - ( Small Music No. 1 ) (Western Vinyl)
Michael Pisaro, Barry Chabala - Black, White, Red, Green, Blue (Voyelles) (Winds Measure Recordings)
John Butcher - Trace (Tapeworm)
This is why the cassette tape medium can often function so well. These are glimpses into Butcher's experiments with the saxophone body's resonance, controlled feedback and breathing techniques. I don't find these ready for the traditional LP format, but it's wonderful that they're available and moreover relegated to specific "sides" of physical media. Cassette tapes allow artists to put forth examples of experiments in sound without worrying about the conceptual baggage of the finished, often overworked LP, and this release is a fine example of that.
Eleh - Location Momentum (Touch)
Jana Winderen - Energy Field (Touch)
Infinite Body - Carve Out The Face Of My God (Post Present Medium)
Mark Fell - Multistability (Raster Noton)
Still confounding, monumental, arrogant and beautiful. Thanks for this one.
Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (Editions Mego)
Hecker - 3 Track 12" (Editions Mego)
Various - Monkeytek Hi-fi Volume 1 (Mississippi Records)
Ada Van Hoorebeke / L.R.J. Martens - De Eeuwige Jachtvelden (Cetacean Nation Cassettes)
Mirror to Mirror - Heart (Ekhein)
Talugung - Mole Crickets ( House of Sun)
Thoughts on Air - Mallo Yallo (Cloud Valley)
Harmonizer - [ Self-titled ] (NNA Tapes)
Thank you Jon Hassell for laying the other-worldly sonic groundwork for releases like this.
Marcel Türkowsky / Dolphins Into The Future - In Search Of The Miraculous / Fourth Possible Musics (Stenze Quo Musik)
My favourite tape of the year.
Tuluum Shimmering - Heart Of Sky Heart Of Earth (Housecraft Records)
During the past year I have been wholeheartedly enjoying an extensive (re)-discovery of the music of John Cage, exploring through and within his presence as a composer and an extraordinarily intelligent and warm individual. Thanks to such labels as Mode, Wergo, Hathut, and Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm (MDG), I have been provided enlightening and revelatory means to no end with this man's work. His compositions are as unending as the cosmos and as grounded as the roots below us. Thank you John Cage.
I didn't listen to a whole lot of new pop-oriented music, let alone anything "rock"-oriented this year. In the past, I tend to enjoy a great deal of Techno and some Dubstep, but even that was far from my musical radar for some reason. In this area, however, I was quite impressed by records from Broken Social Scene, Real Estate, Matthew Dear, Robyn, James Blake, Joy Orbison (extraordinary tracks from this one), and Oneohtrix Point Never (including Antony's gripping version of the track "Returnal" (not so much the Fennesz version), and Dan's amazing Games tracks with Joel Ford and Laurel Halo). I mean, seriously, I cannot stop listening to Strawberry Skies. Perfection.
Despite the complete rubbish in the current mainstream music industry, I am still hopeful for the state of things. Not sure why exactly.
TRAVIS BIRD :
