some reviews of our releases:
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Mathieu Werchowski & David Chiesa - "Sharp Claws Cats"


"Across five improvised tracks the duo bookend dark pools of silence with thin smears of
light, the strings singing with glissing overtones and the kind of intimately focused
dronework (...) Each movement has a subtle variation in tone and attack that makes the
whole album feel precisely directed, from dense harmonics through cyclical minimalism and
hypnotic raga-esque duets (...) A beautifully conceived set."

- David Keenan, The Wire (www.thewire.co.uk)


"Mathieu Werchowski (violin and viola) and David Chiesa (double bass) offer a set of improvisations recorded in three different churches in Dordogne, France in January 2006. This is high quality string music, complex and detailed, which makes very good use of the acoustics of the recording sites. There are many improvisors who pay particular attention to sound and detail, but Werchowski and Chiesa are way ahead of the pack, away from pseudo-concepts, simply and majestically within the music and the sound."

- Metamkine (www.metamkine.com)

"Both musicians go on an adventurous trip, casting the web of their music as they go along, like a fisherman at sea would cast his nets. They create structures, shades and entities, exploring their contours and substance as if it were a process of nature. All in all, the music is astounding, powerful yet soaring, a ballet of bows that fills the listener with emotional and intellectual joy."

- Pierre Hemptinne - Oh! Que Ça Bouge! (www.lamediatheque.be)

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Spiral Joy Band - "Pores In The Porch And Puddles Beneath"


"(...) Spiral Joy Band, a side project of Pelt members Mikel Dimmick (flute, electronics and shruti) and Mike Gangloff (violin and esraj) (...) This time they team up with John W. Fail (esraj), but the gist of their sound shows little change: a sort of less noisy Pelt, more tuned into the traditions of indo-tibetan and american music. Long drones played on stringed instruments where the echoes of the two different roots evoked by the trio (...) become transfigured and likened to each other, both in mood and structure."

- Stefano I. Bianchi, Blow Up Magazine (www.blowupmagazine.com)

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Herzbeat Hotel - "Eve Of Wide Island Is Not A Child Anymore"


"Damien Yates and Anton van Ringe, the mentors of Herzbeat Hotel (...) see music as something essentially spiritual, regarding each perfomance more as a ritual (...) and less as what has been agreed on as 'art'. 'Eve Of Wide Island...' shows strong influences of European medieval music (...) run through Moondog or Harry Partch filters (...). This is music that needs to be considered in its various levels of meaning, leaving as an afterthought a disconcerting feeling of experimentalism."

- Rui Eduardo Paes (www.rep.no.sapo.pt)

"The whistle kind of percussion instrument which has sounded at your Kyoto temple interwinding gradually, the length which rises (...) The smoke it is - to be, it seems that is felt at atmosphere (and smile) and the temple sound. It is splendid."

- Ove-Naxx - www.accelmuzhik.net (software-rendered translation of original Japanese review)

"(...) a long track supported by a droney and minimalistic sitar line, the emergence of a ritualistic drumbeat, the overlapping of strings into a melody redolent of Eastern European folk, and the arrival of a massed unidentified wind instrument, that multiplies itself in a choral harmony pointing directly to the sky. Not to everybody's liking, but truly beautiful."

- Stefano I. Bianchi, Blow Up Magazine (www.blowupmagazine.com)

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F.R.I.C.S. - "Abraço Vivo"


"For over 50 minutes on February 3, 2007, the 9 musicians of F.R.I.C.S. and their televised conductor, Dr. Hostilino, turned the concert room of Casa Viva into a bandstand where an almost familiar fanfare invoked childhood dreams and nightmares, creating innocent and beautiful melodies in one moment, while exploding into dissonant sections right in the next. This hybrid of noise, funk, jazz, humour and brass music is highly commendable, and one can only hope that this musical tree will bear further fruit. In the meantime, you might just stumble upon F.R.I.C.S. in some forgotten bandstand, in some forgotten park."

-André Gomes - www.bodyspace.net

"F.R.I.C.S. are undoubtedly the most psychedelic musical/social enterprise I've been involved in. Men with a mission which is constantly and progressively revealed, trailing the highways and cheap bars of Portugal in mystical routes - sometimes in a zig-zag - and crossing paths with nymphs, cyclops and other creatures of mental myth. It really is a form of hardworking celebration, with wine and camaraderie mixing with long drives and gas station junk food. Once I heard F.R.I.C.S. being described as a form of social madness; this outer layer of madness encloses a package of invented meta-pagan superstitions, popular ritualism and wine worshipping that makes F.R.I.C.S. continue the ancient and venerable tradition of armies of holy madmen. With "Abraço Vivo", you have a sonic and visual (a lot of our cosmology is contained in the CD's artwork) door that will lead you into this paralel universe."

-Sr. Silva (member of F.R.I.C.S.)

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United Scum Soundclash - "United Scum Soundclash"


"Discreetly ornamental hand-drumming, well-recorded, is how the collective ensemble United Scum Soundclash commences with the opening track on this impressive self-titled release, "And They Welcomed Thy Glory." Then United Scum Soundclash drops down a large, long, dark and resonant shaft into some kind of chamber where electronics are not a drag; rather, they are something dragged along a floor. Wisely, the following track, titled "Ladies and Gentlemen," kicks right in after the other one sounds like it was shot by a crossbow, or simply unplugged.
Perhaps it is actually a cheap boombox malfunctioning in the listener's house, not the recording session. Such a suspicion immediately validates the glowing rating for this effort, as dictated by one of the essential guidelines of record reviewing; the fear of broken equipment is inspired by listening to only the best sides. The setting for this one is Porto, Portugal, but the presence of veteran progressive rock saxophonist Steve Mackay is one of several indications of an international influence. In one sense exuberance is an even more important quality; the track with Mackay goes the all-too familiar route of saxophonist with funky rhythm track, but surprisingly, the view from alongside the road turns out to be of giant robots made out of tin cans. A triumvirate of madcap multi-instrumentalists hiding under silly stage names (Jonathan Cactus hhy, Filipe The Banshee and Miguel Autoblack) is augmented only here and there by Mackay, electronic drummer Scott Nydegger, and the effectively creepy processed vocal tracks credited to Kamil Kruta. The main trio hardly needs all that much help, the blindfolded set of ears treated to "And They Welcomed Thy Radiance" or "Folk You" easily becomes overwhelmed by a barrage of electric and acoustic percussion, harmonica, trumpet, electric keyboards, flute, electric bass, tablas, and guitar. Like the infamous Porto sandwich, "the French lady," combining fried egg, steak, ham, sausage, and cheese, the magic is in the sauce. In this case the players have stirred up a glowing blend of the processed and the natural, distortion and reality, the sampled and the trampled."

-Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide (www.allmusic.com)

"Combining musicians of the Porto-based Soopa collective, one of the most dynamic entities of the Portuguese underground, with international musicians linked to the Radon collective, among them Steve Mackay (tenor saxophone player for the Stooges on "Funhouse", and also a collaborator of the Violent Femmes), "United Scum Soundclash" is a slap in the face of anybody who can't see beyond the horizon of their own musical allegiances. Partly free-jazz, partly electronica and partly rock, this music relates to a diseased urban scenario, albeit an extremely seductive one, always looking in the face of chaos and the forms it creates. A dadaist music, shaped by insanity and excess, with no aesthetic limitations, imponent yet mysterious, invasive but markedly indifferent to the listener's preconceptions.
In these times when most musical creations seem to rest on tried-out strategies, even when they're presented as a new hybrid of formely uncombined forms, "United Scum Soundclash" pulls the rug from under the listener's feet. This record's lack of exposure is, without doubt, due to fact that a lot of people have been suffering from absent-mindedness!"

-Rui Eduardo Paes ( www.rep.no.sapo.pt)

"What we have here is a quirky and original jam from Portugal that combines the attitude of the most antisocial kinds of free jazz experimentation with the sounds and tools of industrial noise. Unlike many bands, however, United Scum Soundclash use computers to break up the structure of the raw material, deliberately subverting the usual role of the sequencer as enforcer of motoric authority. This kind of thing clearly won't be to everyone's taste, but I have a soft spot for people like Bladder Flask and Steven Stapleton and the musical celebration of all things Dadaist and unpredictable, and United Scum Soundclash are clearly in the same tradition."

-www.connexionbizarre.net

""United Scum Soundclash" presents music as an universal language through an association of sounds with profoundly urban experiences, combining insane free-jazz with extremely experimental electronics. If not for anything else, this album would be commendable for the experience it grants the listener; it becomes even more relevant if you manage to stay lucid enough to contemplate the wonderful process of construction and deconstruction present throughout its length."

-Samuel Jerónimo (www.phono.com.sapo.pt)

"To Portugal the session album by the metamorphosis which is collected from in the world. Scum of all the 9 tune entering 40 parts. As for participation artist, Jonathan Cactus Man, Miguel Autoblack, Filipe The Banshee, Scott Nydegger, Steve Mackay, Kamil Kruta. Truth it is strange."

 -Ove-Naxx - www.accelmuzhik.net (software-rendered translation of original Japanese review)

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V/A - "Kix Shake 01"


"This is what the underground is supposed to be: spontaneity, energy, creativity, discovery, and a total dismissal of accepted rules. This release will be especially appealing to those who are into breakcore and IDM, and even more so for people who like anarchic-punk-electronic dancefloors where both the mind and the music business are confronted.
The music on this release is difficult to file; it could be called acid-noise or mash-up-techno, but it's mostly a surge of creative freedom from Portugal that makes the usual labeling process a rather difficult task. A second volume, darker and more intense, is rumoured to be in the works. I choose to believe it will happen!"

-www.chilicomcarne.blogspot.com

"[gutsudokonpi] which gathered the [bureikukoa] artists of Portugal. [erekutoronika] - acid techno to."

-Ove-Naxx - www.accelmuzhik.net (software-rendered translation of original Japanese review)

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Hototogisu - "Brooming Mephitic Blast"
(co-released with Esquilo Records) - SOLD OUT

"Matthew Bower and Marcia Bassett channel gigantic chasms of stratospheric feedback from the middle of a pentagram of FX pedals, generating a devastating black hole blues. Highly recommended."

-www.volcanictongue.co.uk

"An unforgettable show for all who were there, its memory lasting well after the ring in the audience's ears had faded (which "only" took a couple of days). Besides the unbelievable sound entity that they created, like Dr. Frankenstein with a big P.A., one of the strongest impressions was, in the set's closing minutes, Marcia and Matthew abandoning the stage and the music to its own devices, and sitting calmly in the front row, just listening and staring at the sound. Holy."

- DJBeatnik a.k.a. The Banshee, "Random-Access-Memories"

"Hototogisu, while not necessarily better than their members’ other projects (Skullflower and Double Leopards), are certainly more violent and animalistic. However, judging by this live document, after so many offerings of sonic brutality, the band seems to have become more stable (…) The abrasive sound that characterizes some the band’s best known releases his, this time, been transformed in long passages of drones (…) For a while, “Brooming Mephitic Blast” even seems pleasant (…) but only apparently so. The dizzying spiral that the duo take as their path grows in volume and intensity, becoming the eye of a furious hurricane for the rest of the record’s duration. Unfortunately limited to 100 copies (…) it is a tremendous addition to the body of work of a consistently fascinating project. Rumour has it that the sound technician turned off the P.A. halfway through the set (…) What is recorded is, therefore, the sound coming directly from the amps onstage; it’s easy to imagine the whole building shaking…"

- Sergio Sanchez, Ruido Horrible (www. ruidohorrible.blogspot.com)

"Some months later the sound technician told us she turned off the P.A. halfway through the set. Nobody noticed!"

- DJBeatnik a.k.a. The Banshee, "Random-Access-Memories"

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Wolf Eyes - "Six Arms And Sucks"
(co-released with Esquilo Records) - SOLD OUT

"Follow-up to the great live Hototogisu set is this beautifully rendered live set from Wolf Eyes, rocking the bandstand in Porto in 2005. Heard a bunch of live recordings from that tour but this is one of the most creepily obliterated, opening with a long, snaking jam that moves through slow, glue-huffing modes into full-on form-gouging attack. Followed up with two pounding drum-machine nod-outs. Also features some awkward intro banter (a silent, seated audience) and a great Def Leppard joke from Olson. Limited to only 200 copies and all-but sold-out already. Comes in a gatefold cardboard sleeve with silkscreened original art. Highly recommended."

-www.volcanictongue.co.uk

"Clearly uncomfortable playing to a seated audience, the band throws an unsettling 30 minute-long improvised track ranging from quiet moments – where scrapped metal, electronics and horns melt – to the most explosive harsh noise and guttural vocals. But this was not the end. Without warning, Wolf Eyes start a 2 song medley, both well known tracks for Wolf Eyes fans. Minimal beats, distorted guitars, cracked-up electronics and noisy vocals fill the remaining 20 minutes."

-www.secondlayer.co.uk

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Mécanosphère - "Limb Shop"

"Mécanosphère are masters of morbid paranoia, and their third release, "Limb Shop," engenders fascination with the body and its many separable parts. Imagine an emporium of human limbs, organs, tissue and bone, stacked high and ready to wear. Regard the body as an organic mechanism with interchangeable parts, a living metaphor for instruments and their functions. "Limb Shop" shivers and crawls, entwining harsh, grooving dub/hip-hop rhythms with whispers, screams and exhortations. Heavy downtempo breaks seethe and crash over lyrics delivered in Portuguese, French and English. Percussive elements (often live drums) pin together grinding guitars, overdriven synths and jazzy saxophone embellishments. Striations of noise lash out and drone threateningly as protesting parts are rearranged ("Coagulate"), and bass hits drop to treacherous, bowel-shaking depths ("Types of Aberration Dub"). On "Limb Shop," Mécanosphère's rough tendencies regularly retreat into mournful dirges. "Mutilation Site" begins with unsettling atmospherics, growling voices and plucked strings that eventually explode into demonic rage. The death-march pacing of "Radial Light" is buttressed with classic Cold War samples. Schizophrenic, cut-up vocal nonsense and nervous strings in "Khlebnikov" offer a funerary tribute to Russian Futurism. Several tracks on "Limb Shop," subdued and moody at their beginnings, transform into aggressive and discomfiting arrays of power, beats and noise. Variations on the human voice inevitably carry an integral role, from the crying that becomes hysterical laughing at the end of "Diagram of Bones," to the whispered dementia of "Circus Gone I."
"Limb Shop" is an enterprise in anatomical repurposing, a shifting array of pieces ghosting through the jumbled strata of funneled energy. The album imparts a bleak aura, as if there is no escape from its fragmented malignancy. Steeped in textures of noise, breaks and jazz, Mécanosphère freely experiments with amputation and prosthetics; cutting off and making whole."

-Dutton Hauhart, Connexion Bizarre (www.connexionbizarre.com)

“The production of this record was based on the recycling and transmutation of various generations of Mécanosphère studio sessions, interspersed with new recordings. Like a Frankenstein creature made up of corpses, the record is the result of a cut’n’paste process (…) While there are traces of Industrial dub, hip-hop noise, free rock/jazz, the dismemberment to which the music was subjected made the end product stronger than the sum of its aesthetic fragments – and wasn’t Frankenstein’s monster stronger than a normal human?”

-www.chilicomcarne.blogspot.com

“From Portugal demon - heavy dark sound. All the compilation session 1 departure sound recordings. They are the contents which the GOOD selected part and were compiled. Considerably it is [rohuai] music. Colliding of chaos and [erekutoronika]. Quite it is the space music like whether it did session around Saturn of.”

-Ove-Naxx - www.accelmuzhik.net (software-rendered translation of original Japanese review)

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Most People Have Been Trained To Be Bored - "Success In Cheap Prices"

Reviews coming soon.

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