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PROTEUS
FILMS-September Song
One
knock-down drag-out 30-minute side in which the Films show off some
new pedals and old instruments. "...mesmerising subaudible tinklefestage
of the noblest rankage" said one critic who knows. |
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TYRANNY
OF THE SHOULD
All of us here
at High-Knee are very excited about this, our first "hardcore" release.
Less than 30 minutes but packed with material, featuring not only
six tracks from I'm So Lonely Studios but also the entirety of a
memorable concert in the living room of High-Knee HQ.
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CHEYNTARA-"^^^^^^^66666^^^^^^^"
"The
title symbol is supposed to represent some sort of demonic bird that
will appear on Judgement Day. That sort of Hollywood scenario in which
Judgment Day consists of demons rising up to destroy the world and
God is suddenly called into action to save only the most important
people. Like one hundred dignitaries for every one-hundred-thousand
people. It's a recasting of the Noah myth. Considered now, the Noah
myth naturally leads to some sort of spaceship scenario, in which
people get on spaceships and get whisked away to God, or you know,
some sort of utopian domed civilization. So the music is supposed
to represent demonic birds, cityscapes being destroyed, and Earth
people, who may or may not be members of a suicidal UFO cult, hoping
to be one of the chosen ones escaping in spaceships." |
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THE
BEST OF WORDS cdr
A
compilation of insane moments in public broadcasting, 1996-1998,
as realized on 90.3 KRNU FM when none of the authorities were listening.
(There were complaints, but the authorities, god bless 'em, didn't
really care. Beer was drunk in the studio more than once, and no
one ever got in trouble for that either.) Featuring the Words posse
(DJ Wanna Be A Big Star, Mr. Egomix, Professor Krackpipe) and assorted
guests, this landmark radio show featured taboo-breaking media crinkle
noise-jamming at a peak not heard before or since in this here cowtown.
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DAWN
RICKLES--Live in Rochester
Comedy by P.
Snaker, recorded in a van in Rochester, NY. "Musique concrete" by
DJ Dawn Rickles, recorded at High-Knee HQ.
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MCMS--Factory
in Heaven
Still a few copies
of the cassette edition of this act's debut platter--sounds "different"
than the CDR reissue on Last Visible Dog. |
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NAT
SHAMROCK--Night Games
cdr
Tired of waiting
for his hero, Prince, to finally make another good album, Mr. Shamrock
took matters into his own hands with his 4-track. The result is
the best Prince album since Graffiti Bridge.
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THE CARROT PEELERS--Jazz
Tangent EP
Quasi-flamenco
acoustic guitar duets, lo-fi and zoned-out. Both Peelers admit to
having listened to the Robbie Basho Guitar Soli CD on the night
they recorded this. Ends with a mood-changing surprise appearance
by the Transmaniacon MC. |
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CHEYNTARA-Great
Plains Music
. . . the plains
of Saturn, that is!!! Via the (late) Owl House basement, GE dictaphone,
and the amplification technology of Peavey. |
CHEYNTARA-Live in
Lincoln
one-sided
C90
Improvisational
smoke and late-night quiet-city dada. Mostly recorded outdoors
on a summer night in1996. (The night of the Olympics bombing in
Atlanta, as documented.) A personal favorite here in the
office.
mp3
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JAY
BAYLES/MATT SILCOCK-Duo
2/3 of High-Knee
flagship band Think/Ozona Getaway/Skyboxed/???. 40 minutes worth
of boom-box tape documenting about 45 minutes of guitar/drums freakout/flow.
9 or 10 shorter numbers that pile up to create a spacey 'burning
Morricone' sound.
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STILL BARELY AVAILABLE:
THINK-Music
for Student Films
Gtr/bs/drums free punk
with secret classic rock influence. Recommended only to those who are
fans of both Jimi Hendrix and SST Records, not just one or the
other. Recorded in 1993, issued in 1994. Something of a legend, at least
to the band members.
In the works:
THE FREE BIRDS--"Double
LP" C90
DJ DRUNK--Rocks CS
JUICE NEWTON--The Arguments CS
TV CITY--S/T CS
NAT SHAMROCK--Songs:Nebrasko CDR
THINK--Skyboxed 3CDR
THE JAZZ HESSIAN--Session CS
On other labels:
MCMS-Festum Asinorum
CS
outofprint (CELEBRATE
PSI PHENOMENON)
CHEYNTARA CDR
pending (FREEDOM
FROM)
MCMS/YERMO: The Womb
That Gives Birth To Itself CDR (CELEBRATE
PSI...)
MCMS: Angels CS (UNREAD
RECORDS)
ALSO IN STOCK:
LAST
VISIBLE DOG (CD-Rs)
 #1 MCMS: Factory
in Heaven
Wild debut features guitars, un-Godz-ly percussion rattle,
sub-Doyle reed grindage, home-fried electro-tinker, etc.
 #4 YERMO:
S/T
"Fucking amazing."--Bon Mots, prop., Freedom
From Media. A real heavy composition; I think of it as Xenakis meets
Black Sabbath meets Bernhard Gunter, but I tend to overuse those "x meets
y" descriptions because I used to read Rolling Stone when I was
a kid.
 #5 MCMS:
MCMS3
Live-in-a-basement technicolor jams; a lot of guitar, some
rock, a lot of meltdown drift music, nicely underpinned by the always-impeccable
'musical radio' of Steve Rolfsmeier.
#8 OHM: Live at the Crown
NZ 'supergroup' featuring Campbell Kneale, a Sandoz Lab
Technician, and more. One long track that evolves into a spacious "krautrock"
jam. I liked this the first time I heard it, and then with each successive
listen it got better and better, and on the 40th listen it REALLY kicked
in.
 #10
THINK: The Drift
"The past has found Lincoln, Nebraska's free-est rock band
all over the map, going from sloppy Ornette Coleman tributes to noisy
King Crimson destructions. Now, with The Drift, Think get focused.
Side One is 30 minutes of wind-swept all-instrumental trance-jamming,
like a lickless Carlos Santana recording a trio date for ESP-Disk. Side
Two is Think's skewed idea of a pop album, featuring their legendary live
staple, the 12-minute 'Fucked Up By The Sun'; the eerie 'Lucie'; a folk-stumble;
a found-sound collage; a nude Morricone tribute; and an inexplicable gust
of Borbetomagian squall."--George Harrison, The Lincoln Reader.
 #17 MERTHIOLATE
45 straight minutes
of ecstatic trance music from 1995 by a creative writing professor, a
co-op grocery store manager, a pizza delivery guy, and some other goofball.
Reissue
of a High Knee cassette.
 #20
MCMS: Always Cop To Love
[aka "self-titled" aka "untitled" aka "4th"
aka "The Love Album"]
"Although spanning over an incredibly large musical map this record
holds together amazingly well. If you ever looked for the lost link between
Ghost, Don Cherry and Pelt you may very well have found it." -- Mats
Gustafsson, The Broken Face. Kris "Furisubi" Lapke joins
the ranks and adds an ethereal musicianship that points towards extended
psychedelic quarters....
#21 ENTRANCE: Information/Reference
Entrance are a transportational electric guitar quartet
from Minneapolis. The first time they played together, they recorded two
20-minute-plus tracks that now comprise Information/Reference, a heavy-ass
CDR guaranteed to fill your world with deep drunken waves of hum and buzz
(the first track) and crash and crunch (the second track). (At least it
makes me feel drunk.) Entrance is: "Jesse Petersen (ex-Nature). Solo percussive/free
guitar player, utilizing more feedback than say Derek Bailey. Jesse has
been around since the early 90's playing in different circles around MPLS.
Matt St-Germain (Late, New Port, White American, etc). Abstract off-kilter
free guitar/organic drone using no fx pedals. Ever. Got his start ruining
Cock E.S.P. performances in 1997. Erik Wivinus (Skyeklad, Salamander,
Gentle Tasaday, etc). Member of various heralded heavy psych/drone/rock
groups featured most vividly on Camera Obscura records of Australia. Also
has played around MPLS for quite some time. Josh Wodarz (ex-The Teeth).
Abstract pop/drone guitarist known only for personal duets with late and
solo works. The 'Maverick' of the group."
 #22
BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL: Vespertine
One 40+ minute track that does the same near-antarctic
thing for its entire duration without even a hint of disruption. "Ghosty"
was how Campbell himself described it, which says it pretty well. Besides,
any piece that credits "vacuums" as one of the instruments is
a keeper in our books....
 #25
SHUJI INABA: Yoenzange
After one mysterious release on PSF, this contemporary
folk performer from rural Japan reappears with a solo acoustic concert.
Heavy, intense, and elemental. Includes a lyric sheet with both the original
Japanese and an English translation by Alan Cummings, who also contributes
original liner notes. "At $10, the cheapest way anyone's gonna hear
current Japanese folk music." -- Chris Moon
 #31
NATURALISTE: "plays LVD 31"
First release by this Omaha, Nebraska quartet after shows
for die-hard audiences of 10-20 and maybe a secretive cassette or two.
Violin, guitar that is barely there, bass that is barely there, or has
that been it the whole time? Very subtle synthesizer playing.....recorder
flute....bells? Either way, a pretty sweet haze. 65 minutes. On the two
shorter tracks they get this pace going like the Vibracathedral Orchestra
on downs, or a REALLY laid-back Godspeed You Black Emperor. On the two
long tracks, both live performances at Omaha's Shock, they sit there in
a way that's as calm and hushed as cotton. C'mon and order it, it's the
Naturaliste thing to do..................
PUBLIC EYESORE (Decorah,
Iowa)
 VARIOUS
ARTISTS: Analagous Indirect LP
Pretty stellar collection
of post-noise experimental music. Artists: Ando Kunihiro, Monotract, New
Port, Solmania, Flying Luttenbachers, Fukktron, Thurston Moore, Jonas Lindgren,
Billy?, Laced Blue, Kazumoto Endo/Yoko Sato, Cornucopia, John Wiese, Sickness,
Automobile. As good as a Bananafish comp, and it even comes on a big hearty
slab of real live vinyl. $10 ppd.
 JORGE
CASTRO / CARLOS GIFFONI: Guitarras del Olvido y Pensamientos Dimensionales
cd-r
Jorge Castro is from
San Juan, Puerto Rico and the band Cornucopia. Carlos Giffoni is from
Miami, lives in New York, and plays in Monotract. He's a pretty wild player
in that band, but for this 30-minute instrumental it seems Castro (known
for "guitar ambient improvisations") reined him in to create
a soft evolving mysterious piece. Or was it the other way around? $6
ppd.
 FUKKTRON
& HAIR AND NAILS cd-r
Brad Sonder liked this
disc so much he wrote a cut-up poem about it: "funky scrambled-beat
chant hip-hop kinda female vocals emerge over the noise-funk from a background
haze no-wavey lurch-huzz and extended garbage rumble sped up beyond gender
over a warping guitar jam like The Melvins playing under a pillow lots
of garbled garbage-burrowing sound experiments manic minutes of hazy super-abstract
burrowing crunching microcircuitry jamming." Not Sonder's best work,
but it does describe these two bands very well. Fukktron is "Vanessa
& Dino" and Hair and Nails is "Walenska & Dino."
I think they're all from Miami, but don't quote me on that. The difference
between the two isn't huge, though Fukktron is more vocal-oriented, very
adequately giving off that "P.J. Harvey and Renee Scroggins overdubbed
onto Twin Infinitives" vibe... $6 ppd.
 KANGAROO
NOTE: Soundness cd-r
From remote Sapporo,
Japan comes a post-jazz improv trio featuring Aso Takashi on electronics,
Ando Kunihiro on contrabass, and Kimura Masaya on tenor saxophone and
"breath controlled synthesizer." 12 shorter tracks that mix
rather traditionally "smoky" jazz sounds with alien rumblings
and frightening wailings. Another interesting release from the global
underground on Bryan Day's always-expanding label.
$6 ppd.
 SHLOMO
ARTZI ORCHESTRA: Pizza
Little Party cd-r
"Even for a PE release
this is bizarre shit. I know absolutely nothing about this band and the
cryptic packaging does not reveal much else, but the band is coming from
a lot of different directions using tape loops, samples, and heavily mutated
orchestration to create something... something... um, different...Lots
of groaning tapes in the background and what sound like devolved and processed
wind-chimes turning in the wind in the foreground, with plenty of other
peculiar bits drifting about in the space between." -- Dead Angel.
$6 ppd.
HAIR AND NAILS: III cd-r
Another satisfying/dizzying release from this great junk/noise/pop
duo. $6
ppd.
 360
SOUND: Scratching the Surface cd-r
The Des Moines, IA-based duo of Brian Noring and Shawn
Kerby make up a strange free-form rock/improv/quasikraut/newwave act.
How about.....a collaboration between Cluster and the L.A.F.M.S., recording
for Ralph Records???
UNREAD RECORDS (Omaha,
NE)
 MCMS:
Angels
"The key word is calm here. Matt Silcock puts forth
30 minutes of (very) minimal drone/skree noise safeguard. Very diffrent
from previous MCMS impromtu. add guitar solos."
TV CITY PRODUCTIONS
 TV
CITY: Funk Shui
The duo of Shane Aspegren
and Matt Silcock, in both their basement warehouse practice space and
a Pro Tools studio, concoct strange, feel-good/feel-sad, airy, 98% instrumental
electro-rock. As this is essentially a no label 'demo CD' (-R), you can
get it for $5 ppd.
 TV
CITY: The Leaky Roof
Remixes
"Tracks incorporating
the untreated sound of the roof of a rental house leaking in at least
seven different places onto a loudly resonating tarp during the quiet
part of a very dark and rainy spring day." For live shows, TV City
mixed these same tapes into the set via a 4-track running through the
P.A. or a guitar amp. All sorts of remixing went into each live performance
of these tapes, mostly by live-only member Joe Krings. It was what we
in the biz like to call 'set glue,' the bizarre, quite danceable groove
of that leaking roof a reoccuring presence in between songs, and for "Leaky
Roof Blues" from Funk Shui, serving as the rhythm track for
part of it.
cd-r. $5
ppd.
COCKEY HIGHSCHOOL (CD-Rs)
001: THE GLAVLIT AGENCEY
Thad Aerts of Tyranny
of the Should is CEO of the Glavlit Agencey. He enlisted some of his
favorite (of the nine) improv musicians in Lincoln to put together this
exciting murmur of Nebraska free-music. Guitars, saxophone, drum machines,
electronics, in different combinations track to track, all with a great
plugged-direct-into-the-board twinkle-sound to it. Edition of only 20,
so act fast.
002: OVEAROU
Thad Aerts: guitars, effects, Mark Elsener: keyboards.
This represents Elsener's only recorded appearance that I know of. Pretty
primitive. The most 'No Wave' of the Cockey Highschool releases? Maybe,
but track two, "So Sad and Spiritual With a Knife," sounds like
freakin' Hollywood
soundtrack music thanks to Elsener's keyboard approach. Confounding.
 003:
ORIGAMI
For this
one Aerts brought his portastudio over for a visit to semi-reticent Lincoln
guitar genius Eric Bemberger (Rural Route 134, Blandine Cosima, Gabardine,
Bright Eyes, and for one show about five years ago, Truman's Water). Excellent
recording of post-hardcore Incus-label atmospherics. As on all Cockey
Highschool releases, nice use of little graphics and construction paper
to raise the jewel box standard.
 004:
THE WORK ETHIC THESIS
Purportedly the last Cockey Highschool release for
awhile, The Work Ethic Thesis is quite sweetly dedicated by Aerts
to his parents. "Though they are not big fans of this type of music,
it's all I got." The disc is Aerts solo and in duet with primitive
sax improviser Amy Metschke (who also appeared on CH 001), and frankly
doesn't seem like the most appropriate dedication to his parents -- it's
pretty foreboding stuff.
 005:
SPITTING IN THE FACE OF COMMUNICATION
Installment number five opens with the now-familiar blast of Aerts-ian
improv-scatter, but before a minute has gone by he's onto some next shit,
as the track gives way to a slow Melvins-ish drum-machine-and-guitar-riff
grind, which after a few of its 9 minutes becomes strangely calm and trancey.
So trancey that I forgot tracks 2 and 3, though I remember 4, a 17-minute
'plunderphonics' collage utilizing some pre-existing recordings which
I probably shouldn't refer to by name here.
MORE LABELS:
 CLEAN
PLATE CLUB CD (MO-TEL)
Debut CD by this Lincoln-based one-man collision between
Negativland, Yello, and Crash Worship. I'm not usually one for 'industrial'
music, but this baby positively bubbles; easily the most danceable
release in this catalog. Comes with nice graphics and incredible sound
for a home recording.
 PLATYPUS-Top
40 Singles CD (ERGOT)
Released in 1996 (if I remember right), a wobbling window
onto thee frolicking of Lincoln's toadstool-licking underground. A freaky
pop-hippie sound with a hard electronic edge unlike anything emerging
from the Star City before or since. $5.
 ALL-TIME PRESENT
CD (BOTTOM FEEDER)
A Brooklyn, NY guitar trio with Chris Forsyth, Ethan Sklar,
and Rich Gross. Gtr noise at its most soothing. You could take a warm
bath to this.
all cassettes are $3
all CDs and CDRs are $10
EXCEPT doubles, which are $12
all
orders are postage paid in the United States
add a dollar per cassette or two per CD for overseas action
Or e-mail me with a 'package
deal' you might have in mind and I'll quote you a nice price. Make
funds payable to Matt Silcock.
NOTE NEW PERMANENT ADDRESS:
HIGH-KNEE
2158 N. Mozart St. #2
Chicago, IL 60647
USA
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