***Appa—meaning “father” in Dzongkha—is Bhutan-by-way-of Asheville, NC guitarist TASHI DORJI’s debut release for Bathetic Records. With Appa, Dorji paints winding and expansive images with both patient and dizzying guitar movements. Intricate and delicate, strong and poetic; Appa comes across as a record brimming with energy, vitality and life while expressing emotions of loss and strength and family and distance.
LP $15.50
04/28/2015
***ROSS GENTRY returns to Bathetic under his VILLAGES moniker to present his sophomore LP, Procession Acts. Procession Acts carries on Villages’ debut LP’s grand expanse of ambient glory, while carrying the sound to a heightened level. Procession Acts comes across as much more cinematic. It is a denser record, more precise in its attack and its immersion.
LP $11.35
04/28/2015
***The mysterious and enchanting CLARE HUBBARD strides slowly out of the forest, guitar in hand ready to make her presence felt, finite and powerful, with Red Moon. While Red Moon can be classified as a folk record, it packs a punch. This is a record that swells as well as it swaggers. Hubbard brings to mind classics such as Karen Dalton and Judee Sill, while managing to even cross the boundaries and bring to mind even PJ Harvey. There’s moments of wonderful dissonance packed between the fuzzy ruckus and burners. Deep droners that Hubbard can chant and moan incantations atop of. In a way, it’s a hard album to exactly define, while it resides under the blanket genre folk. It falls right in line with Bathetic’s musical presence and list of musical weirdos standing out, doing their own thing. Hubbard is a pioneer, stalwart and striding. She’s brought a wonderful rock and roll album to the table, folky and weird and psychedelic. This album will stand head and shoulders above a lot of so-called folk-rockers. Hubbard’s been in this game for a long time now, and she’s spent a lot of time tucked away, perfecting a beautiful record.
LP $14.25
10/28/2014
***ELIJAH FORREST returns to the Bathetic stable once more for an LP of vaporous burners, signature of his TERRORS moniker. Ensorcell Qori is a diminutive as well as it is wild and cosmic. Forrest can’t be left to simply bend the light psychic and just float some guitar strings into the woods. No, he’s got to pack a crystalline serenity behind the wire and show us the light coming through. This album, sure, it can be classified as downtrodden, on such tracks as “Without After Life” or “Two Words (6 Jan 2013)”—the latter of which sounding like a acid-damaged and ice-submerged Bonnie “Prince” Billy—but there’s always more to the celestial sludge Forrest is concocting. “Twist Form and Memory” with it’s Everyday Loneliness origins or opener “Betrothal Patterning End” show us the side of Forrest that is not just hushed guitar and warbled croon. It’s these tracks that show how Forrest’s angel-hair ambient dirge hangs from the ceilings in his palace of ghostly folk. Ensorcell Qori is the type of weary loner folk we’ve come to love from Elijah, and if you like listening to abstract music that lifts you as much as it splits you, vibe on it. Let it swallow you whole and feel the water shake from your psyche as your surface.
LP $14.25
10/28/2014
***We reside on a planet, in a time, where it feels as though nearly every avenue, artistically, has been explored. But every now and again, and artist or group of artists comes along and shakes things up, breaks in new ground, and allows a different view of the art at hand. FORM A LOG’s members’ (REN SCHOFIELD, NOAH ANTHONY and RICK WEAVER) projects, such as GOD WILLING, CONTAINER, PROLIFIGATE, THE NEW FISH and DINNER MUSIC have been highly revered over the years for their ability to stand out from the crowd. Form A Log is no exception, and takes the member’s abilities to carve their own niche to the next level. Form A Log doesn’t come across like they’re developing a certain brand, instead they make moves more akin to forefathers Captain Beefheart, Butthole Surfers, or even Kraftwerk; fearlessly making imaginative music that soars above classification. Form A Log‘s debut album for Bathetic isn’t something that can be casually explained, it’s more for the listener to delve into and explore in their own headspace.
LP $14.00
07/29/2014
***As we here at Bathetic Records have been uber-fans of the massive MOUTHUS for years, it comes with great pride to release this record from UNITED WATERS, headed up by BRIAN SULLIVAN and rounded out by CHRIS SHIELDS and PATRICK COLE. While this is a quieter, more subtle beast than Mouthus, there’s still the same type of burned, frayed energy at work here. What this record is is a unique brand of challenging psychedelia, equal parts pop and cement truck. Each track is approached with a true-blue pop styling, melodic vocals, hooky guitar licks… but when filtered through the gray and tan haze, it comes out warped and warbled, drifting at its own accord. It’s always hard to compare artists to other artists, and the act of doing so is always a little silly, but people like having reference points… The way United Waters works, it’s almost if you took a Kurt Vile, The Dead C, and Grouper and locked them all in a room full of incense smoke and Old Style and said “do the damn thing.” A burner collage of loner riffs, detached vocals, and meandering beats comes forth. When it all links up, wraps around each other, and flow from the speakers. Received a 7.7 rating from Pitchfork.
LP $14.00
07/29/2014
***On Orange Co. Serenade, Bathetic’s first release from the rising guitar savant DANIEL BACHMAN, we’re introduced to a veritable landscape of winding guitar. Bachman treats his guitar lines and licks in a way that resembles the earth itself, at its most pristine, delicate, yet also primal and overpowering. Pieces move, ascending and descending in the same way that the clouds roll through blue skies, the same way brooks babble down rocky fronts carving their paths in the land. There’s a solemn, rustic tone to the album, in that it feels classic. It’s cinematic in the way it works, a lost soundtrack to some forgotten Terrence Malick or Win Wenders film. But, really, it’s so much more than that. It’s a beautiful record, not haunting and not engrossing, not overtly melancholic nor pretentious. It’s a record that lasts. Bachman knows his merits behind the guitar and he never falters. The record traverses the landscapes, falling in and out of terrains, but never losing sight of its purpose. It’s driving and immersive. Seldom does a record support such a variety of track titles that hit the nail on the head. You can read a title like “Coming Home” or “And Now I Am Born To Die” and when that guitar opens up and runs the course, you know fully you’re headed right where Bachman told you.
LP $15.50
07/29/2014
CD $13.50
07/28/2014
***With Hell On Earth, MATTHEW SULLIVAN embraces the foggy symbolism of great tribulation. Weaving the streets of Los Angeles, signs pointing to a rapturous date. The album is a dense offering that embraces grit to create a pure ambient recording, nothing less. As a record, it is absolute, sonically blown out and powerful; never background music. Hell On Earth sits in the middle of the room and pulls everything into it. Free from the trappings of the typical minimalistic, droning output many artists serve up, EARN Hell On Earth moves boldly and seems to sweep through an entire city like a strong wind. The melodies, while meditative, are never reserved—they move steadfast with grace. There’s nothing light or sparse in these recordings—they are of substance, rigorous, and fluid. Hell On Earth is a jump in character, a swift change of pace, and an exercise in bending the innate into ominous immersion. Edition of 300 copies on white vinyl, includes a download.
LP $15.50
08/27/2013
***The Philly-stewed COUGH COOL return with their sophomore long-player for Bathetic with 29, and with it further perfect their bedroom burnout bliss. Cough Cool has always stroked an edgy toss of the hair through their washes of gritty pop. This is an act not afraid to embrace a charismatic flow to their music, while keeping things shifty and weird. They've made their pies with flavors of Ween, Suicide, and ‘90s alternative and they taste really fucking good. 29 is a natural maturation of their sound, with all the peaks getting a little loftier. They haven't lost their hazy state, their eyes still tingling and morning-shocked, but there's an urgency that persists throughout tracks like "Misfits 4x4" and "Disclosure." This album drifts a bit, offering nods to Slowdive and Bark Psychosis with "Hail Mary" and taking the sketched out approach with "It's Night" and "Velvet." "Intro To Regret" sounds like a missing ‘90s compilation track that would've settled nicely between Guided By Voices and Sebadoh. Cough Cool is good like that, mixing something familiar, classic feeling, nostalgic—but not specific. We're greeted by as much lo-fi ‘90s brilliance as we are with alternative rock radio influence and a massive smooch in the direction of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Spiritualized. They never settle in the past with their sound or their influences, and so they manage to enhance their own style with the sound of something very modern that belongs in 2013. Cough Cool brewed a sound that was entirely their own...
LP $15.50
06/11/2013
***LEE NOBLE has stepped out from behind his lair walls to unveil Ruiner, the follow-up to 2011's show-stopping Horrorism. Noble is progressing with his vaporous sound, once again turning the idea of pop music elemental and stealing your heart. There's a warbling, home-spun quality to Ruiner, with it's atmosphere soaked in the warmest of fuzzy hiss, guitars woven into and around organs, and Noble's voice, a combination of moans and whispers. Ruiner doesn't just pick up where Horrorism left off, it moves beyond it, with its hooks and with its drive. Ruiner is an album that will dominate you. It's a record that demands full attention, start to finish. It's a full album in every sense of the word; each part compliments the other, but it is absolutely a collection of songs. Noble isn't just walking in fields of ambient air and drone dirges, he's bending and manipulating sounds and textures to craft his art. It straddles between a world of ethereal experimental music and fleshed out indie-rock. Weighing heavier on the former, it finds itself a Grouper-meets-Radiohead in a basement type affair. He has created a sound that feels familiar, comfortable, and lived-in—but it's entirely his own sound. You immediately know when you're listening to Lee Noble. With Ruiner, the sounds are worn well, they've been thought about, they've been executed with Noble's delicate touch, and they've been strung together beautifully. Ruiner is an ardent record, and it's a heavy listen, that'll have you introspective and reflecting. It's unquestionably...
LP $15.50
05/14/2013
St. Louis native ANGEL OLSEN has cut her teeth in Chicago the past four years crafting her music into a sincere form of folk music entirely her own. Taking influences from past artists such as Amalia Rodrigues, Timi Yuro and Helen Shapiro, as well as Persian and Turkish folk, Olsen creates something more than just run-of-the-mill “indie folk.” Her music is a true emotional release: sincere and honest. Recently, Olsen has spent time on the road and working with Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy) and The Cairo gang. New edition includes a digital download and some shiny stickers.
LP $20.95
04/02/2013
MC $11.00
01/27/2017
***As an artifact, a piece of archived music, this feels as if it belongs beyond the earth—or perhaps buried deep within it. What started as something of an ill-fated project, a split 12" with the ethereal forest-dweller Caethua, Acts Without Error took over a year and a half to finish. Spacing out through numerous edits and mixes, the final piece seems squelched straight from the cosmos, balancing itself down onto the earth via energy waves both yellow and neutral, black and beautiful. To say LAZY MAGNET created a sonic spectrum of sound and tone is to suggest they did not practice magic. Surely they did, however, and blessed us in our sleep. You hear a synth call and beckon the light to enter the room, but it's beyond a machine. Many artists push their noggin hard and strain to reach outside the world. They practice the scales and draw lines on paper, and ache for the sonics. Lazy Magnet wrings hands and nods heads—born from the soil is elegant rays, shifting pitch bends that lift your spine out of your body. Did you ever daydream as a child, looking into the clouds for shapes of dinosaurs or pig faced men? Did the clouds ever speak back? Now they do. Edition of 400 copies.
LP $16.35
12/11/2012
***Asheville, NC's ROSS GENTRY takes his time fine-tuning his art. Theories Of Ageing is a pinnacle; prime example of the painstaking process a true artist can go through to sculpt a masterpiece. Gentry picks up his VILLAGES mantle and flows beyond himself, taking his delicate sounds to an epic field of staggering, emotional landscapes. Theories Of Ageing takes a sound process, weaving elements together, and in its finality, what's what is left in the wind. Delicate floating synth atmosphere with open-tuned acoustic guitar strums, banjo and piano slide in and out of the spaces, creating an entirely enchanting, if a bit haunting record. As a reference, Villages takes on a level of ambient artistry seen throughout the works of Labradford or Stars Of The Lid; never scared to embrace more than just textural sound layers; but also build, mould, and shape pure music. This is not background art. Recorded in the colder months of 2011 and 2012, snug and secluded, Gentry constructed a timeless piece—nostalgic in feeling, with an underlying optimistic emotion. Setting the overall mood, Theories of Ageing is layered with acoustic instruments at it's foundation—a pump organ, acoustic guitars, banjo, piano. An eclectic group of electric and analog instruments, field and voice recordings are carefully woven throughout. Recorded onto both reel to reel and digital formats, Theories is soaked with texture allowing for its vibrant consciousness to breathe. Villages is a force to be reckoned with, and we expect even more sincere greatness to come. Theories Of Ageing ...
LP $15.75
10/09/2012
***BACK IN STOCK!!! Received an 8.0 rating from Pitchfork. After her highly-acclaimed debut Strange Cacti landed in the hands of listeners, it became very obvious the special presence ANGEL OLSEN offered to listeners. She had a fresh edge to her sound, a warm and wonderful range, and a level of skill and charm out of this world. Obviously, fans ate it up. And now here we are, a mere 2 years since her initial Bathetic release—the original cassette version of Strange Cacti. The release of Half Way Home is something everyone has been excited for. We've always wanted to see and hear what Angel brings out through her music. Half Way Home is a continuation of her elegance brought forth on Strange Cacti, a collection of both new and old music, honed and matured, thoughts revisisted. We're hearing this same beautiful girl with that same beautiful voice, this time brought up to a new level, in no doubt a growth and reach brought on by several roadtrips with the one and only Bonnie Prince Billy and crew. The work of Angel Olsen is entirely her own: a raw, glowing sound that stands out now just as much as it did in 2010. It's an emotional stew with Angel's robust voice up front, bold and engaging, coming out of the background, aching to be heard. With the help of EMMETT KELLY (CAIRO GANG) behind the board and playing throughout the songs, Half Way Home is a natural progression showcasing the wondrous sounds of a songwriter with such a voice that is rarely...
LP $20.95
09/04/2012
MC $11.00
01/27/2017
***Sanguine Futures opens with a slow crawl; the burden of winter crawling across your back, reaching around your throat, grayed hands with frayed nails grip tight and pull you into an isolated realm of blissful purgatory. You're only 2 and a half minutes in and creatures of crawling out of shadows and your breath is hanging heavy. JOHN KOLODIJ has crafted an auditory trip into territories that feel untouched, unmoved by a human hand, packed with ethereal and earthly blackness; a deep and dense wood, a coal-black night, tarry centers where you find the solitude of 100 year old weeping willows. This is not an album crafted to simply listen and reflect, this is heavy slabs of flesh and blood, moaning, bending, warbling to life, groaning out and sucking you in. Shades of Scelsi and Penderecki collage and wind into spacious suites, built atop a foundation of heavy Köner-styled concrete. It's beautiful, but there's a lingering fear of the unknown, and you could lose your leg at your next step. It's breathtaking and beautiful, but you're always careful not to trip too far into these skeletal treescapes.
LP $15.50
07/17/2012
***"[WILLIAM CODY WATSON] presents his most intimate, yearning work yet in the form of eleven movements in tribute to his favourite actor, the perma-cool stoic, Bill Murray. From widescreen pads to incendiary noise harmonics and sweeping synth symphonies it's a genuinely towering achievement bound to be warmly received by fans of Fennesz, Stars Of The Lid, Leyland Kirby, Simon Scott, Kyle Bobby Dunn or Eno."—Boomkat
LP $15.50
07/17/2012