Blog : Doorbuster Frenzy Begins Now!!! ( & Prizes To Be Had!!)

doorbuster frenzy begins now!!! ( & prizes to be had!!)

there's been a veritable shitload of items arriving in the half/theory shop recently, so i thought it might be high time to do a quick round up and say a few words about items added recently... and a competition... right after these messages....

firstly, we welcome one of nz's choicest cdr imprints, CLaudia, to the half/theory party.  they said a quick hello earlier, so we say hi back, and say a few kind words about them; to wit: while i haven't heard all CLaudia items currently in the catalogue, i've heard a few, and they're all of the highest quality.  We can particularly recommend to those who like quiet, subtle drone musics the utterly gorgeous (in a quiet, subtle way) tim coster & mark sadgrove cd.  enthusiasts of pointing microphones at stuff will greatly enjoy "the witching hour" collections of field recordings of night time, with particularly fine contributions from un ciego, tim coster, anthony milton (a beautiful recording of a town in india waking with the dawn), finland's lau nau, and ermmmm, phil dadson.  fans of audio oddity will also get some mileage out of the "spoken & field" compilation of field recordings featuring voices.   you can check them out, plus the other items in the CLaudia range here http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&string=CLaudia don't forget tim also produced the fine album 'landing' for halftheory, which you should hear if you haven't already. you can taste that here: http://www.halftheory.com/data/downloads/shop/timcoster_landing_3landing.mp3

speaking of free shit from halftheory, our currently freewheeling (but no less harassed with technical questions relating to this site than ever) webmaster scott sinclair has a large, laviscious lump of smouldering sonic lurve syrup for y'all.  it's called wethintuse salahbea ("because it's fun to say") and it's scott's latest collection of edited recording for prepared guitar & electronics. tasty. get y' self some: http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&id=36 oh, did i forget to mention that's a free download?

ross manning has a batch of items available, covering in their scope the gamut of his work, solo & collaborative, noise, improvisation, cut up electronica, homemade & hacked gadgetry and general abuse of things that make sound, either willingly or under duress.  going variously under the radar in the guises of meatwave, 4 layers of 9 & faber castell (his brutalist improv duo with alan nguyen, coming soon to a sound art festival near you - stay tuned), these releases all feature handmade packaging (faber castell release also possibly comes with a unique prepared lp!!!) and are probably very limited for that reason. check em out: http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&string=Own

there's been a couple of half/theory related releases through kyogle's musicyourmindwillloveyou in the last little while.  biffplex & no guru both feature on the most recent, 5th, installment of the "sound surrounds us" compilation series, alongside little head big body (michael donnelly (& friends?) in diguise) & nz's ray off, of unitedfairymoons.  the terrain here shifts from ray off's blend of late night guitar, bizarre vocals & unnidentifiable background noise, to the clatter & drone of no guru, and the shimmering haze of biffplex.  
the self titled "sunshine has blown" cd is also available.  based around the fractured, uneven tape loops of adam park & the delicate electronics of joel stern (augmented by velvet pesu, joe musgrove & scott sinclair), this is a beautiful trip through an opiated haze of slightly off kilter loops, hovering tones and a clattering underbelly of 'small' percussion and other unidentified floating sound objects.  comes in lush handmade paper sleeve with gorgeous insert featuring art by velvet, it's both very sexy & very limited, and highly, highly recommended. get in quick for that one..  http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&string=Musicyourmindwillloveyou
also check: http://mymwly.blogspot.com/ more to come from half/theory artists on mymwly, with the perfect lovers slated for inclusion on the next sound surrounds us installment, & more in the pipeline

adam park of sunshine has blown, the perfect lovers & impromptulons has also just released a tape under the name unique oil free air.  it's a reissue of a bunch of unissued recordings from 1989-91, and he describes them to me as i write this as "noise collages made on four track tape".  limited to 30 copies http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&id=53

a few releases by/ involving xnobbqx have also been slowly trickling in on labels with such hilarious names as "smell the stench", "the seedy r" & (with just about the best name for a cdr lable ever) "root don lonie for cash".  the seedy r and root don lonie for cash are both nz based lables, so it seems that xnobbqx's totally damaged take on 'blues' is finding an audience there, at least among new zealanders who run cdr lables.  that seems to be about 20% of the nz population, from what i can gather, so they'll no doubt be doing alright out of that.  xnobbqx have been said to make "jandek sound like joe satriani", which is either total condemnation, or highest praise imaginable, depending on perspective.  i'll elaborate on that a little, and see if i can try and coin a new genre name into the bargin. check this shit out.  " if jandek & keiji haino (in his most glacial mode) were to grow to the size of neon genesis evangelion style whole-planet threatening manga entities crazed on cosmic destruction one day, for no apparent reason, and were to have one of those earth destroying manga style cosmic battles sending vast waves of blackblackblack death energy at each other (which keiji haino would of course win, and subsequently fly dramatically into the infinitely black void, in search of new, and more cosmic adventures) destroying the earth (more or less) in the process. xnobbqx would be like the beatles of the 'civilisation' that would emerge from the grim & frostbitten, blackened ashes" so, i'll see that on xnobbqx's promo sheets before i know it, and i humbly submit that what they are doing, and other artists exploring similar ideas shall henceforth be called "the blacks".  any objections? you 'd better make sure you know what you're talking about first... see them play 'the blacks' here http://pulledout.org/xNoBBQxAKEMI.mov then go here, to get yourself some of that kinda gear http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&string=xNoBBQx
there has also been rumour reach my ears of a  very sexy & limited 1 sided/ etched lp by antipan..... (if memory serves...)

xnobbqx have also been releaed through matt earle's "breakdance the dawn" cassette lable, making them lable mates of folks such as impromptulons, stasis duo, white petunias & tofutron.  none of these have reached my ears in full, but most of the items in the shop have an mp3 you can check out before forking over cold, hard cash. http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&string=Breakdance%20the%20Dawn & more http://halftheory.com/bdtd there.  tofutron's "we are your djs" sounds particularly amusing , as "historic meeting between two serious improvisors turns into destructive decadent post acid-house farce"

if you saw & enjoyed ernie althoff's recent performance at the ima in brisbane, but you weren't on the ball enough to buy some of his cd's, fear not, we can hook you up, because he's put out a cd on antboy. if you didn't see it, but a music based around small hand made battery powered acoustic music machines/ sound sculptures sounds like your cuppa tea, you'll want to check it out too. look, here it is: http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&string=Ernie%20Althoff

mshing have recently released the cdr bloodyard, which i haven't heard yet, but it promises "throbbing machinery drones, faintly audible dancehall loops & bird noises".  an intriguing blend, to say the least.... you'll be able to see mshing & emesis in action in support of wolf eyes towards the end of the month.  check out bloodyard here in the meantime: http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&id=44

yours truly has also just acquired a few copies of some shame file releases, including the complete undecisive god recordings of 1991-2004 (on mp3 cd), and copies of the undertow compilation, featuring diaspora, scott sinclair, undecisive god, kettle, themi soddell, sue harding & many more... very few copies though..... http://www.halftheory.com/index.php?go=shop&string=Shame%20file

whoa. and because too much music is never enough...

as i've mentioned before, lloyd barrett's mise en scene is now as imminent as all fuck. you'll have  your first chance to get you grubby little mitts on it later today (fri 9th june), at stephen vitello's performance (judith wright center, brisbane, 8pm).  lloyd has this to say for himself: 'defining my current project as any particular thing is as difficult as defining the term, mise en scene. Check out this wikipedia article for an elaboration on the difficulties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_scene . theoretically speaking the project is informed by thefollowing key assumptions:
- abstraction of sonic realities into virtual environments creates a "schizophonic" experience.
- synchronous perception is the very human ability to make sense out of nonsense when multiple senses are stimulatedconcurrently by media deployed through a set of formal guidelines and expectations (no matter how ridiculous).
informed, but not defined by these theories (expounded/ explored/ debunked variously by michel chion, hildegarde westcamp, r. murray schaefer, et al) 'mise en scene' uses these theories to explore the kind of sound design that I enjoy.  While the styles I employ certainly have their origins with the work of mavericks like tod dockstader and bernard parmegiani these are not specific touch-stones that will ensure listener empathy through generic compliance - the end result being akin to a strange dream open to interpretation'. sounds 'beardy' in the truest & most enjoyable sense of the word - can't wait!

new album by biffplex is at the fighting over titles & cover art stage.  these affairs are bloody & brutal, but tend to be fairly swift, so expect its ass to be upon you soon....

now.
the competition. prizes, prizes, pr-zizes!! for the first person who can tell me....
how in the fuck does this innocuous looking book cover relate to nurse with wound?
the first person who can either email me the correct answer (to pleasing_everyone (atsymbol) yarhoo (dot) comm (spell that like it's a proper yahoo email address or i won't get it)  or harass me in person with the answer will get something nice, i promise. mark your email "shopping with mother, i know, i know pick me pick me oh i'm ever so smart"
clue. they go hardware shopping on behalf of a parent, amongst other things....


the mp3 i've posted here is from an old 'special recording services' type library lp i found posted on some free music site or other, i forget which now, but i thank all sites that have ever posted music i downloaded, so consider my obligations to netiquette discharged you mothers.  this is just the most "shoppingest" music i have ever heard.  i admit i wasn't alive in the high tide of the baby boom era but i mean, i didn't think music like this existed outside cartoons!!! which i suppose it doesn't anymore.  listen to it repeatedly while browsing all of these fine products (at your bank balance's peril).

Added by jpeatt on 9 June 2006