Thursday, February 21, 2008

[ach.du.liebe] 2008 releases

13 moons/heavywater c60 (soon)
kanada70/blasphemous mockery c60 'remake' (soon)
kanada70 cdr (soon)
ropes of maui cdr (soon)
heavywater dvd (may)
bloodhoney cdr (summer)

...... and more to come!!!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Upcoming Toronto Label Releases everyone needs to hear...

[inyrdisk]
has new releases from the following hopefully dropping this year:
Kapali Carsi, Death Drive, All Under Heaven, Ghostlight, Matthew "Doc" Dunn,
Kanada 70, William Davison, Hooker's Revenge, Blake Hargreaves / Alex Moskos split.

[LSD-OTB]
Coming very soon:
Fossils/Oblong Box split cassette C-20
Juhyo - Land Area full-length cd-r

Coming not as soon:
Jacob Horwood/Gmackrr split cassette C-30
Disguises live cassette


[freemarket records]

Solo Piano Pieces by Schoenberg by Glenn Gould by Mani Mazinani - Mani
Mazinani (Forthcoming 2008)
At least three more releases forthcoming from the FMR camp in 2008.


[beniffer editions]
blood stereo/pod blotz cassette/book (february)
bad boy butch batson LP (february)
schimpfluch-gruppe LP (june?)
oxbow meads cassette (tim sheldon of fat worm of error)
sisrum vish cassette (glamorous pat)
brian ruryk 10 cdr boxset (sometime soonish?)
deepkiss 720 cassette (tall cassette for tallest possible noise artist)
jabbering trout reissue cassette
v/a cassette with orphan fairytale, sudden infant, crown now, crank sturgeon, etc...

[???]
transcedental rodeo/high colour LP (???)

Monday, January 7, 2008

more goodness of list from the goodness of list makers

[neil haverty] aka [bruce peninsula//bruce trail//boston letter]

no order... all washed over me...
yeasayer
newsom
battles
wooden stars
iron & wine
heidi hazleton
the acorn
marissa nadler
tinariwen
timber timbre
sandro perri
the youngest

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[matt collins] aka [ninja high school (rip)//jenniferlopezknife//robocopp/&more]
1. Rabies- Test Your Might
2. Crossexamination- The Hung Jury EP
3. Holy Shit! - s/t
4. No Bullshit! vol. 2
5. Jay Reatard- I know a Place b/w Don't Let Him Come Back
6. Crossexamination/Spring Break - Awesome Party Bros. split 10"
7. The Doers- Gaiety
8. Yah Mos Def- Yah Mos Def Is A Gang
9. Iron Bitchface- We Are Trolls
10. Chris Yang- May All Yr Children Be Dragons

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[marco landini] aka [all under heaven//ghostlight//mean red spiders//bloodhoney]

MLDOOMS TOP 10 FOR 2007 (MOST LISTEND TO)

1. TOWER RECORDINGS- FOLK SCENE
2. AUGUSTBORN- S/T
3. L- HOLY LETTER
4. SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE- DARK NOONTIDE
5. BARDO POND- ON THE ELLIPSE
6. DIABEL- OST
7. IGNATZ- THEY ARE QUIET AS MICE
8. DEAD C- HARSH 70'S REALITY
9. SLEEP- HOLY MOUNTAIN
10. NEIL YOUNG- COMES A TIME

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[aaron lumley] aka [wodwos]

Here's a list of some of the records, performances, discoveries which enhanced my experience of 2007:

Wilbert de Joode's solo concert on Toronto Island at St. Andrew-by-the-Lake Church in April

Pablo Casals' performances of Bach's cello suites on vinyl

Paal Nilssen-Love and John Butcher - "Concentric"

John Butcher - "The Geometry of Sentiment"

Many, many things Mingus (especially the sextet live at Cornell in 1964)

William Parker laying it down the first night of the Interface series (and also a special mention of the masterclass given at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music)

Mats Gustafsson and Paal Nilssen-Love - "Splatter"

MV & EE Medicine Show at the Music Gallery

Kaufmann, Gratkowski, De Joode live at the Tranzac and at Somewhere There, and on their record "Palae"

Eric Chenaux and Nick Fraser playing a free-flowing, extended version of "However Wildly We Dream" at the Tranzac

Anthony Braxton's keynote speech in Guelph, then witnessing the AIMT Orchestra play his music

Brandon Valdivia's solo drum memorial to Alice Coltrane

Curtis Mayfield - "Curtis Live" and the Impressions' song "Man Oh Man"

Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch (finally finding a copy on vinyl for under $20)

Kyle Brenders - "Flows and Intensities" on cd (and seeing him really dig in to pull it off live)

Malcolm Goldstein's violin playing, music and writing

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[matt cully] aka [bruce peninsula//bruce trails//goin'steady//poor pilgrim]]

My list is in no particular order, these are albums that I (often inexplicably)
I returned to again and again in 2007. For some reason I was not as
searchingly curious and ended up passively consuming a lot of mixed
material (like a child flipping through his father's records...)

Tinariwen - Aman Iman (Water is Life)
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
Bill Callahan - Woke on a Whaleheart
Sandro Perri - Tiny Mirrors
Group Doueh - Guitar Music from the Sahara
Iron and Wine - Shepherd's Dog
Marissa Nadler - Songs III : Bird on the Water
Timber Timbre - Medicinals
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
Joanna Newsom - And The YS Street Band EP

Endless sources of new and old late night thoughts:

Dust to Digital
Ethiopiques
Rough Guides
Sublime Frequencies
www.awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com
Numero Group
Soul Jazz
The Learning Company (on the ipod, walking through snow)
Mississippi Records (Mtl.)

Special Mentions
Paul Simon - Rhythm of the Saints (1990)
Rough Guide to the Music of Mali & Guinea

Other Local Highlights :

The Silt - Cat's Peak
N!FTY - A Sparrow, A Sparrow
DD/MM/YY - Are They Masks?
Do Make Say Think - You, You are a History in Rust
deep dark united - look at/look out

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[jon shapiro] aka [13 moons//almost blue sunshine//disguises//LSD_OTB//C.O.F.O]

Kinda was out of it/broke for most of the year, so there must be tons of stuff I'm leaving out. So an attempt at making some sort of sense of it all:

first off, my fave performances, no particular order:
-Metis Yetis/Charles Balls collab @ the press, may
-Sightings at Dee's the following evening
-Thames @ Casa, June, opening for Failing Lights and Demons, both of whom were good too, but fuckin Thames.....
-Cousins of Reggae @ the Boat, opening for Mouthus, June
-Pon de Replay/Scant Intone collab in Ian's kitchen, November
-Costes @ Cinecycle, Easter weekend
-Nihilist Spasm Band @ Eclectic Electrics, playing as the sun set
-Slither, 2 nights in a row in June, Hamilton and TO both ruled hard
-Gastric @ Bummer Nights
-Dead Machines @ Rancho, august

Music, not necessarily all-new (mostly though) jams rocked seriously this year:
Orphan Fairytale Bennifer cass
Diabel cass (yeah, so I put that out, big deal IT RULES)
Drainolith and Monday Morning Erection cd-rs on Brise-cul
Ice T- Power (LP AND CASSETTE!)
Mouthus- Saw A Halo
The Peace
Selda reissue
complete Die Todliche Doris discography
Pasalymany cassettes: Metis Yeti and Death Drive
Ayal Senior's Space Cakes on Bennifer


And thats about it for now....Although I've really been diggin Body Count too...go figure

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

GOODBYE 2007

HERE'S A FEW RECORDS THAT BROS WE'RE FEELING LAST YEAR!
please email me your list if you haven't yet.....

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[minesh mandoda] aka [ghostlight/mean red spiders/all under heaven/&more]
me picks....for 07

Exploding Star Orchestra - We are all from somewhere else
Sun Ra and his intergalactic Infinity Arkestra- Night of the Purple Moon
Nico - Desertshore
Christine 23 Onna- Acid Eater
Growing- Colorwheel
Tinariwen- Aman Iman
Robert Wyatt- Comicopera
Lichens- Omns
This Heat- Deceit
Sun City Girls - Live at Sala Rossa 05-06-2004

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[David Dacks]
This list is my most recent one. seems like I've been doing best of lists
since October... these are unranked.

tinariwen - aman iman (world village/outside)
ticklah - ticklah vs. axelrod (easy star)
sandro perri - tiny mirrors (constellation)
juba dance - orange (audio 8)
icarus - sylt (rump)
jimi tenor and kabu kabu - joystone (ubiquity)
satanique samba trio - sangrou (amplitude)
les amis au pakistan - espace libidinale (fusion 3)
deep dark united - look at/look out (rat drifting)
john butcher - the geometry of sentiment (emanem)

bonus beats - comps I loved -

various - Colombia! (soundway)
various - the roots of chicha: psychedelic cumbias from peru (barbes)
various - persian electronic music 1966-2006 (sub rosa)
various - twinight's lunar rotation (numero)
various - greensleeves 12" rulers - henry junjo lawes volcano sound 1979-83
various - thai pop spectacular (sublime frequencies)

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[wes allen] aka [doing it to death/james brown is dead/83 til infinty]
not 10 but here's mine i think

UGK - Underground Kingz
Legends return for the comeback of the decade. A deep record that
takes some time to sift through but its worth it. RIP PIMP C

Lil' Wayne - Da Drought 3
Mixtape thats not a mixtape, Wayne is releasing stuff whenever he
feels like it. Again, a lot to sift through and you can say he's not
sayin that much but he's got the best word play. My favourite moments
are when he breaks down into this free form word association style -
look for it! The Crazy version is a misstep though, ah well.

Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Beach Boys are back from the grave

Charlie Louvin - s/t
Living Gospel Legend just keeps going

v/a - Studio One Rub-A-Dub
70s JA, nuff said
v/a - Studio One Dub Vol. 2
again, nuff said

Kanye West - Graduation
His rapping has actually gotten pretty good on this record. Somehow
its a singer/songwriter/folk record mixed with his own brand of emo
hip-hop. Everything is great except Drunk and Hot Girls, just skip
that song. Also the Chris Martin collab isn't bad! Woah

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[louis calabro] aka [the end of the internet/goin' steady/back to the future]
Here are my top albums for 2007 - in no particular order

1) Justice - t
2) Marissa Nadler - Songs iii
3) Magik Markers - Boss
4) Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu - Joystone
5) Health - Health
6) Kathy Diamond - Ms. Diamond to You
7) Blu & Exile - Below the Heavens
8) Robert Strauss - Mr. Feelings
9) Sally Shapiro - Disco Romance
10) Burial - Untrue
11) Chromatics - Night Drive
12) Trans Am - Sex Change
13) Consequence - Don't Quit Your Day Job
14) Kanye West - Graduation
15) Greg Ashley - Painted Garden
16) Panda Bear - Person Pitch
17) Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings
18) John Maus - Love is Real
19) Deer Hoof - Friend Opportunity
20) Liars - Liars
21) Besnard Lakes - Are the Darkhorse
22) The Tough Alliance - New Chance
23) Madlib - Beat Konductor in India
24) The Celebration - The Modern Tribe
25) va - Coming Home - Curated by Tim 'Love' Lee

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[sandro perri] aka [glissandro 70/polmo polpo/continuous dick/&more]
sorry to hog space, but here are 25 records i enjoyed immensely this year:

Caetano Veloso "Joia"
Jorge Ben "Ben"
Daryl Hall & John Oates "s/t"
Andre Ethier "On Blue Fog"
Elodie Lauten "Death Of Don Juan"
Nat Baldwin "Dome Branches/MVP"
John Martyn "Grace and Danger"
Idjah Hadijah "Tonggeret"
Brigitte Fontaine et Areski "Vous et Nous"
Gilberto Gil "Refazenda"
Martin Rev "Strangeworld"
Dirty Projectors "New Attitude"
10 CC "Sheet Music"
Loitering Heroes "Beast Alert"
James Tenney "Music For Violin and Piano"
Stella Chiwese "Trance Hits 2006"
Ann Steel / Roberto Cacciapaglia "The Ann Steel Record"
Bill Callahan "Woke on a Whaleheart"
Alterations "My Favorite Animals"
Nick Brooke "Maquette"
Patrice Rushen "Feels So Real" 12"
David Cunningham "Grey Scale"
Peter Zummo "Experimenting with Household Chemicals"
Tim Buckley "Happy/Sad"
Robert Quine & Jody Harris "Escape"

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[paul mortimer] aka [mortimercy]

dirt farmer (new album) by levon helm
Neil.
ladyhawk.

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[andrew zukerman] aka [gastric female reflex/conspiracy of familiar objects/beniffer/&more]

Luis De Pablo "We (Nosotros)"
Edith Bunker's Demonized Vomit Insurance/ Baz "split LP"
Instant Orange "s/t"
V/A "The New Music: Stockhausen, Penderecki, Brown & Pousseur"
Little Howlin Wolf "Brave Nu World"
Josephine Foster "Little Life"
Sam "the man" Taylor and his Orchestra "Blue Mist"
St. John Green "s/t"
Caroliner "I'm Armed with Quarts of Blood"
Top Gun "OST"
Fugs "Second Album"
The Stench Band "Pray for the Fred"
Luigi Nono "Como Una Ola De Fuerza Y Luz"
Songs and Dances of the Great Lake Indians
Bigfoot Discovered "Location Recordings"

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[craig dunsmuir] aka [the sheet/new jack 70/glissandro 70]
Here's my Top 10

1) BARR-Summary (5RC)
2) Pekos/Yoro Diallo-S/T (Yaala Yaala)
3) Muskox-Fever Dream (self-released)
4) Black Dice-Load Blown (Paw Tracks)
5) Sun Ra-Night of the Purple Moon (Atavistic)
6) VA-Dirty Space Disco (Tigersushi)
7) VA-Computer Incarnations For World Peace (Sonar Kollectiv)
8) Lindstrom-Late Night Tales (Azuli)
9) Sandro Perri-Tiny Mirrors (Constellation)
10) High Llamas-Can Cladders (Drag City)

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[brian hayes] aka [hazy comet]

Best Album: Mudboy “Hungry Ghosts! These Songs are Doors.” (Not Not Fun / Digitalis)

Normally I try to avoid listing Digitalis-related material in these ‘end of year’ lists, so I don’t get accused of conflict of interest. However, I own the Not Not Fun version of this one, so I’m innocent (at least in my mind). Both the artwork and the music on this one are essential, top-notch and nearly indescribable. Horror has never sounded so good!!!

Best Song: MV & EE With the Golden Road “Hammer (The Pacifist)” (from Gettin’ Gone on Ecstatic Peace!)

A work song transformed into quite possibly the most powerful anti-war epic written in the last 20 years. Beauty, power, emotion, and purity: “Hammer” embodies all of it!

Best Debut: RV Paintings “Trinity Rivers” (Root Strata)

This disc contains some seriously mammoth drone-scapes, and features members of Northern California’s Starving Weirdos. Amazing, amazing, amazing!!!

Best Various Artists Compilation: Frannce (Ruralfaune / La Belle Dame Sans Merci)
This totally epic 3-disc compilation of most of your favourite artists features far too many exceptional names to list here. Get it (if you still can) and hear for yourself!

Best Cover Art: Anything from Beniffer Editions
Every release by this Toronto label is unique, often including the materials used to create the packaging! Seriously mental stuff brought to you by seriously mental individuals! Everything they release must be seen (and heard)!

Best Vinyl Only: Black Monk “Flowstone” (Not Not Fun)
Yeah, so the only vinyl I bought this year came courtesy of Not Not Fun. But can you really blame me?? This massive slab of black death features Roy Tatum (Changeling) and seriously slaughters brain cells. Drums, drones... ...dang!

Best CD-R Only: Meursault “Sleeping Debris” (Students of Decay)
This is Shaun Falconer’s 4th CD-R, and his first for the amazing Students of Decay imprint. Gorgeous drones melt their way deep into the subconscious, like contrails wrapped around moonlight.

Best Cassette Only: Ignatz “They are Quiet as Mice” (Beniffer Editions)
Oddball Belgian folk has never sounded this good. Packaged in the remnants of forgotten Canadian mating rituals. What does that last sentence even mean??????

Best Live Show: The Bottled Smoke Festival (Echo Curio and Mr. T’s Bowl – Los Angeles)
Yeah, another Digitalis-related entry, so what??!! Where else could one see (VxPxC), Heavy Winged, Robedoor, Pocahaunted, Xela, and about 100 Brad Rose-related projects in one weekend? This one goes out to Burrito Autopsy, the best band that never was!!

Biggest Surprise:
I lost love, only to find it again five months later. Long story... ...but seriously, I was mostly surprised that I actually like that Dan Deacon Album, “Spiderman of the Rings” (Carpark). All the hype surrounding the guy nearly made me pass this one over. It’s totally worth listening to; especially to soothe the 5-year-old kid that you know still lurks inside you...

Biggest Disappointment:
There were so many deaths this year of important artists. Recently I heard that Stockhausen passed away...

Most Overrated: M.I.A. “Kala” (XL / Interscope)
I’m probably going to be shot for this one, but I just don’t see what all the fuss is about... ....sorry!!!

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[iris fraser]
1 KITES - Hallucination Guillotine
2 GETATCHEW MEKURIA AND THE EX - Moa Anbess
3 BLACK DICE - Load Blown
4 PERIOD - Period
5 BLASPHEMOUS MOCKERY - Quaking Earth Vibrations
6 THE DIRTY PROJECTORS - Rise Above
7 KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT - Kemialliset Ystavat
8 Z'S - Arms
9 OLD TIME RELIJUN - Catharsis In Crisis
10 LADY SAW - Walk Out
11 ERIC COPELAND - Hermaphrodite
12 JOSH THORPE AND ODRADEK - Split
13 PANDA BEAR - Person Pitch
14 WHITE RAINBOW - Prism Of Eternal Now
15 ORGAN STANDARDS - Loach Fillet & IDM

My top 15 reissues of 2007

1 'BLUE' GENE TYRANNY - Out Of The Blue
2 THIS HEAT - Deceit
3 ORIGINAL SILENCE - First Original Silence
4 PEKOS/YORO DIALLO - S/T
5 BOREDOMS - Reissues
6 DAVID BYRNE - The Knee Plays
7 SUN RA - Night Of The Purple Moon
8 POP GROUP - Y
9 DINOSAUR L - 24-24 Music
10 HOLGER CZUKAY - Movies
11 KAREN DALTON - Cotton Eyed Joe
12 SMEGMA - 33 1/3
13 BRENDA RAY - Walatta
14 JOHN MARTYN - Grace In Danger (Deluxe)
15 YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS - Collossal Youth

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[brian koiter] aka [cerebral itch]
musical grades this year
------------------------
A+:
---
Alasehir - The Stone Sentinels [Archive]
Baikal - Baikal [Important]

A:
---
Heliocentrics - Out There [Now-Again]
Sixtoo - Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man [Ninja Tune]

A-:
---
Alva Noto - Xerrox Vol. 1 [Raster-Noton]
Pluramon - The Monstrous Surplus [Karaoke Kalk]
Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline [Kranky]
Vladislav Delay - Whistleblower [Huume]

B+:
---
Christ - Blue Shift Emissions [Benbecula]
Christopher Willits - Plants and Hearts [Room40]
Deadbeat - Journeyman's Annual [~Scape]
Dinosaur Jr - Beyond [Fat Possum]
Disrupt - Foundation Bit [Werkdiscs]
People Press Play - People Press Play [Morr Music]
M83 - Digital Shades Vol. 1 [EMI]
Odd Nosdam - This is my Element soundtrack [Element]
Peter Broderick - Retreat/Release [Type]
Yesterday's New Quintet - Yesterday's Universe [Stones Throw]

B-:
---
Amon Tobin - Foley Room [Ninja Tune]
David Lynch - Inland Empire soundtrack
Eliot Lipp - City Synthesis [Metatronix]
Gareth Hardwick - Aurora [Low Point]
Luke Vibert - Chicago, Detroit, Redruth [Planet Mu]
Nimoy - Untitled [Bunker]
Nomadic - Trek 19 [Touchin' Bass]
Rafael Anton Irisarri - Daydreaming [Miasmah]
To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie - The Patron [Kranky]
Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye [Domino]

C:
---
Air - Pocket Symphony [Astralwerks]
El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead [Def Jux]
Eluvium - Copia [Temporary Residence]
Flying Lotus - Reset [Warp]
Frank Bretschneider - Rhythm [Raster-Noton]
Joseph Nothing - Shambhala Number One [ROMZ]
Mice Parade - Mice Parade [Fat Cat]
Letters Letters - Letters Letters [Type]
Nina Nastasia & Jim White - You Follow Me [Fat Cat]
Port-Royal - Afraid to Dance [Resonant]
Signal - Robotron [Raster-Noton]
Sincere Trade - Between You and Me [Sublight]
Supersilent - 8 [Rune Grammofon]
Venetian Snares - My Downfall [Planet Mu]

---------------------
Top Canadian Content:
---
Sixtoo - Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man [Ninja Tune]
Deadbeat - Journeyman's Annual [~Scape]
Freida Abtan - Subtle Movements [United Dairies / Jnana Records]
Letters Letters - Letters Letters [Type]
Sincere Trade - Between You and Me [Sublight]
Venetian Snares - My Downfall [Planet Mu]
Buck 65 - Situation [Warner]
Nadja - Radiance of Shadows [Alien8]
Naw - City Saturate [Noise Factory]

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[wolfgang nessel] aka [heavywater//blasphemous mockery//blood honey]

best of 2007

[10]
neil young - live at massey hall 1971
j.d. emmanuel - wizards [1982 private press reissue]
harmonia - live in 1974
pocahaunted - water-born/emerald snake on ruby lake [3"s]
boredoms - super roots 9
flower/corsano - radiant mirror
michael flower - returning to knowing nothing
skulldisco's soundboy punishments [comp]
neil young - chrome dreams II
mv&ee with the golden road - gettin gone

[more]
vladislav delay - whistleblower
tinariwen - aman iman
thomas fehlmann - honigpumpe
stars of the lid - and their refinement of the decline
six organs of admittance - shelter from the ash
the sheeet & new jack 70
richards youngs & alex neilson - electric lotus/lotus edition
richard youngs - autumn response
prurient/kevin drumm - all guests are in the house of the lordpole
pole - steingarten
pinch - underwater dancehall instrumentals
pocahaunted + robedoor - mouth of prayer
pocahaunted - swayed tongue
panda bear - person pitch
mouthus - saw a halo
marissa nadler - songs III
the michael flower band
kemialliset ystavat - s/t
heavy winged - feel inside
heavy winged - we grow
gastric female reflex/ brian ruryk split 12"
the field - from here we go to sublime
eluvium - copia
earth - hibernaculum
disrupt - foundation bit
disguises - chrome sores
disguises - weaponizer
disguises - sand people vol. 1
death unit - infinite death
deepchord presents echospace - the coldest season
burial hex - s/t
black dice - load blown
baikel - s/t
astral social club - neon pibroch
animal collective - strawberry jam
alasehir - the stone sentinels