Broken Spine

Nadja

Labyrinthine

Broken Spine

Nadja’s latest full-length offering Labyrinthine, recorded during the pandemic and concurrently with their Southern Lord album Luminous Rot, finally sees a CD release on the band’s own label, Broken Spine. Labyrinthine explores themes of identity and loss, monstrosity and regret, extreme asceticism, the differences between labyrinths and mazes, taking inspiration from Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore, Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Tombs Of Atuan, and Victor Pelevin’s reinterpretation of the story of the minotaur and Ariadne, The Helmet Of Horror. While this might be Nadja’s heaviest, doomiest album to date, it is unique in the band’s extensive catalogue as each track features a guest vocalist: Alan Dubin, legendary American vocalist from O.L.D., Khanate currently Gnaw; Rachel Davies, vocalist and bassist from the British band, Esben & The Witch; Lane Shi Otayanii, a Chinese multi-media artist and vocalist in Elizabeth Colour Wheel; and Dylan Walker, American vocalist from grindcore / noise band Full Of Hell. Nadja has released numerous albums on many different underground labels—Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Robotic Empire, Hydrahead Records, Gizeh Records, and Important Records, to name a few. The duo has toured extensively around the world, including performances at such festivals as SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn, Donaufest, Le Guess Who, Incubate, and Unsound, and has shared the stage with such artists as Earth, OM, Khanate, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, and Godflesh.

Nadja

Sonnborner

Broken Spine

Sonnborner is Nadja's 20th full-length release. The title track showcases their habitual slow-motion, atmospheric, ambient doom, with guest string players Julia Kent (Antony & The Johnsons), Agathe Max (Kuro, Mésange), and Simon Goff (Molecular) lending a certain neo-classical element to the song. The album closes with four faster, more aggressive tracks in the band's so-called 'grindgaze' style, as previously explored on their 2014 ep Tangled (Broken Spine/Tokyo Jupiter). A CD version of Sonnborner is also forthcoming with the Japanese label, Daymare Recordings.  Nadja is a duo of multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker and bassist Leah Buckareff, active since 2005 and credited as one of the progenitors of the genres ‘drone doom’ or ‘metalgaze’—heavy atmospheric music which combines the darkness and volume of doom metal and industrial with the textures and melodicism of shoegaze and ambient/electronic music.  The band has released numerous albums on many different underground labels—Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Robotic Empire, Hydrahead Records, Gizeh Records, and Important Records, to name a few—and have toured extensively with performances in Europe, Japan, Russia, North and South America, and Australia/New Zealand, including appearances at such festivals as SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn, Le Guess Who, Incubate, and Unsound.  Originally from Toronto, Canada, the duo now resides in Berlin, Germany.

Baker, Aidan

Aberration

Broken Spine

Werl

HH 2016.09.08

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

The Silent World

Broken Spine

Whisper Room

Rawpovver

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

Ecliptic Plane

Broken Spine

The phrase 'ecliptic plane' refers to the sun's apparent path or orbit around the Earth, as seen from a terrestrial perspective. As such, the music contained on Aidan Baker's Ecliptic Plane explores orbits and perspective, with multi-layered guitar loops slowly evolving and gradually changing through the course of their repetition. All sounds produced by electric guitar, all recorded live to 2-track summer of 2015 at Broken Spine Studios in Berlin, Germany.

Baker, Aidan

Stimmt

Broken Spine

Aidan Baker's Stimmt moves (somewhat) away from his typical ambient/drone style, featuring songs which combine noise-rock, psych, shoegaze, and a hint of dub. Angular guitars mix with spacey synths, under-pinned by sludgy bass and clattering drums, in a collection of songs that alternately groove and churn, drift and swirl.

Nadja

Songs For Wong Kar-wai

Broken Spine

Nadja's EP Songs for Wong Kar-wai is part of Wist Records biographical fanzine series, musical releases inspired by influential figures and accompanied by a booklet with artwork by the Liechtenstein artist, Manfred Naescher (currently based in Berlin). For this entry in the series, Nadja was inspired by the work of Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, with Naescher's paintings based on stills from Wong's films Chungking Express, In The Mood For Love, and 2046.

Caudal

Ascension

Broken Spine

Caudal's second LP, their follow up to 2013's Forever In Another World (Oaken Palace), similarly explores the juxtaposition of motorik krautrock and atmospheric spacerock, featuring extended jams of experimental rock songs, interlocking bass and drums overlaid with textured, heavily effected electric guitars. Mastered by James Plotkin and with cover artwork by renowned Irish painter Eoin Llewellyn. Caudal is a trio of Canadian guitarist Aidan Baker (of Nadja), Irish bassist Gareth Sweeney (formerly of Gout), and Colombian drummer Felipe Salazar (of Muerte En Pereira). The group formed in 2012 and is currently based in Berlin, Germany. Baker’s multi-layered, heavily affected guitar overlays Sweeney and Salazar’s driving, propulsive rhythm section creating music equally influenced by motorik krautrock, post-punk, and spacerock.

Nadja & Uochi Toki

Cystema Solari

Broken Spine

Nadja is Aidan Baker (guitar, vocals, woodwinds, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass, accordion, vocals) originally from Toronto, Canada and currently based in Berlin, Germany. Nadja has toured and performed around the world including appearances at such international festivals as Roadburn, SXSW, Unsound, and FIMAV. Active since 2003, the duo creates music which has variously been described as ambient doom, dreamsludge, and metalgaze, combining the atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze and experimental/ambient music with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja has released numerous recordings on such labels as Alien8 Recordings, Hydrahead Records, Robotic Empire, and their own label, Broken Spine Productions. Uochi Toki is an electronic-rap duo from the East of Italy. An obscure sound, magmatic and noise-bass oriented crossed by deserted industrial drumstrips. Words like robot-insects, disgusting, astonishing or both, assembling theirselves to create unknown words and languages. Rico and Napo, machines and voice, use to combine sounds and words with visuals live painted by Napo himself during the performace, while video effects glitch projected images in synchro with drums and pads.

Whisper Room

The Cruelest Month

Broken Spine

Five years after their debut Birch White (Elevation Recordings), Whisper Room returns with The Cruelest Month, six extended tracks of minimalist, electro-ambient, space-rock. The album was recorded live in April 2013 at Toronto's long-running ambient music series, The Ambient Ping, with live sound/processing courtesy of Matt Thibideau, and subsequent mastering by James Plotkin. Whisper Room is a trio of Aidan Baker (of Nadja) on guitar, Jakob Thiesen on drums/effects, and Neil Wiernik (aka Naw) on bass/laptop. The three members were active in similar musical circles in Toronto and Montreal for many years, sporadically playing together and sharing stages, but did not actively come together as a group until December 2006. As an improvisational unit combining their different musical backgrounds, the trio creates music which explores the conjunction of electronic rhythms and textures with the pulsations and psychedelics of shoegaze and krautrock music.

Nadja

Tangled

Broken Spine

Tangled features 6 brief tracks eschewing Nadja's penchant for epic durations and snail-like tempos, variously influenced by grindcore, black-metal, death-metal, and industrial for an EP of what has been called grindgaze. The EP was released on the band's own label on 7inch vinyl and on CD by Tokyo Jupiter Records. Nadja is Aidan Baker (guitar, vocals, woodwinds, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass, accordion, vocals) originally from Toronto, Canada and currently based in Berlin, Germany. Nadja has toured and performed around the world including appearances at such international festivals as Roadburn, SXSW, Unsound, and FIMAV. Active since 2003, the duo creates music which has variously been described as ambient doom, dreamsludge, and metalgaze, combining the atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze and experimental/ambient music with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja has released numerous recordings on such labels as Alien8 Recordings, Hydrahead Records, Robotic Empire, and their own label, Broken Spine Productions.

Nadja

Queller

Broken Spine

** 2016 LP reissue of Queller from Broken Spine Productions. Limited to 300 copies, pressed on 180g vinyl, housed in a single sleeve incorporating a black and white version of the original artwork by Error Design.

B/B/S/

Coltre/Manto

Broken Spine

A follow up to their 2013 debut Brick Mask (Miasmah Records), Coltre/Manto documents a live performance at the Christuskirke in Bochum, Germany on January 28, 2013. Mastered by Martin Heynes and featuring cover artwork by the German painter Uwe Behrens. Formed in 2012 in Berlin, Germany, B/B/S/ is a trio of Canadian guitarist Aidan Baker (also of Nadja, Whisper Room, Adoran), Italian drummer and percussionist Andrea Belfi (also of David Grubbs, Hobocombo, Il Sogno del Marinaio), and Norwegian guitarist Erik Skodvin (also of Svarte Greiner, Deaf Center). The group makes improvisational music, combining freeform psychedelica with low-key melodics and experimental drone textures.

Baker, Aidan & Maik Erdas

Cameo

Broken Spine

Adoran

S/t

Broken Spine

Adoran's self-titled debut, featuring two extended tracks of sludgy, atmospheric, drone-doom, recorded live at Polyphasic Studios in Toronto, Canada, mastered by James Plotkin. Adoran is a duo of Aidan Baker (of Nadja) on drums and Dorian Williamson (of Northumbria) on bass. Making largely improvisational music, the duo explores heavy and atmospheric sounds, combining elements of doom and sludge with experimental and avant-garde. Active sporadically since 2008, the project released their self-titled debut album in spring 2013 with the Belgian label Consouling Sounds and are currently working on their second album due to be released fall 2014.

Baker, Aidan

Smudging

Broken Spine

Nadja

Dagdrom

Broken Spine

Dagdrøm is Nadja’s first proper full-length since their 2010 release Autopergamene (Essence Music) and, replacing their habitual drum machine, features live drums courtesy of Mac McNeilly from The Jesus Lizard. While Nadja retains their signature overblown sound and heavily distorted guitars, these songs are more concise and structured, tempering their experimentalism and ambience with a more straightforward “rock” sound and compositional style. As such, Dagdrøm looks both forward and back—a departure from Nadja’s usual sound and style, it also harkens back to the noise rock scene of the ’80s and early ’90s and bands like Big Black, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker and, of course, The Jesus Lizard, all of whom were influential on Nadja’s sonic development.  Originally from Toronto and currently based in Berlin, Aidan Baker (guitars, woodwinds, vocals, drum machine) and Leah Buckareff (bass, vocals, accordion) create music variously dubbed dream sludge, metalgaze and ambient doom—atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze, and experimental / ambient with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja has released numerous recordings on Alien8 Recordings, Hydrahead, Southern Records, Robotic Empire and their own label, Broken Spine Productions (to name a few). The group has toured and performed extensively around the world, appearing at such diverse festivals as Incubate, SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn and Unsound.

Nadja

Thaumogenesis

Broken Spine

This CD release of Thaumogenesis is the second in a series of reissued Nadja albums that have gone out of print or have otherwise limited availability. They are packaged in unique letter-pressed sleeves, custom designed by the band themselves. Thaumogenesis is Nadja’s seventh full-length release, an ambitious one-track, one-song album over an hour in length. It was originally released by Archive Records in 2007 in an initial press of 600 copies, which quickly sold out. Archive released a second edition of 500 in 2008, which also quickly sold out, followed by a Japanese release (paired with the live album Thaumoradiance) on Daymare Recordings. A vinyl edition featuring a remix by James Plotkin (who mastered the album) was released in 2010 by Important Records. Nadja is a Canadian duo made up of Aidan Baker (guitar, vocals, woodwinds, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass, accordion, vocals) alternately based in Toronto, Canada, and Berlin, Germany. Together, the duo creates music which has variously been described as “ambient doom,” “dreamsludge” and “metal-gaze,” combining the atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze and experimental / ambient music with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja toured around the world including appearances at such international festivals as Roadburn, South by Southwest, Unsound and Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville.

Baker, Aidan

Variations On A Loop

Broken Spine

Picastro + Nadja

Fool, Redeemer

Broken Spine

Fool, Redeemer is a semi-collaborative split release between Picastro and Nadja. Having toured together and shared a stage many times in the past half-decade, the two bands finally release something together. Nominally a split album, with side A featuring tracks by Picastro and side B a sidelong track by Nadja, Fool, Redeemer sees members of both groups contributing to each other’s songs. And a certain mutual influence seeped into the compositions—Picastro’s dark folk appears at the beginning of Nadja’s track “Venom,” and Nadja’s trademark drone / dirge tendencies lend a heavier, noisier edge to Picastro’s songs. Nadja’s Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, woodwinds, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass, accordion, vocals) alternately are based in Toronto, Canada, and Berlin, Germany. The project, originally formed in 2003, has variously been described as “ambient doom,” “dreamsludge,” and “metal-gaze,” and released numerous recordings on such labels as Alien8 Recordings, Hydrahead Records, Beta-Lactam Ring Records, Blocks Recording Club and their own fledgling label, Broken Spine Productions.  Toronto-based vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Liz Hysen’s Picastro has existed since 1997 in various forms with various players (including members of Final Fantasy and Rockets Red Glare). The group is currently active as a trio including Brandon Miguel Valdivia (drums, percussion) and Nick Storring (cello, guitars, woodwinds, electronics). Picastro’s stark, brooding, discordant songs draw on folk and psych traditions, noise and post-rock. The band has released four full-length albums on such labels as Pehr Records, Polyvinyl and Blocks Recording Club.

Baker, Aidan

Tonstreifen

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

Green Figures

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

Still Life

Broken Spine

Nadja

Bodycage

Broken Spine

This CD edition of Nadja's 2005 Bodycage album marks the first in a quartet of reissued Nadja albums that have gone out of print or have otherwise limited availability. These re-releases feature unique letter-pressed packaging, custom-designed by the band themselves. Bodycage, the band's second proper album after their debut Truth Becomes Death, was initially released on Belgium's Nothingness Records in two small editions (111 copies and 66 copies), both of which rapidly sold out. The album was then picked up by Profound Lore Records for a CD reissue, followed by a deluxe vinyl edition on Equation Records. Both the CD and LP versions are now out of print. Bodycage is a concept album, its lyrical themes revolving around a rare congenital disorder called Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, a disease in which the body produces an extra skeleton that immobilizes the joints of the body.  "Bodycage drips pure emotion... Nadja's unabashed love of atonal classical music beams (albeit dully) throughout, stressing lack-of-form over function, making something normally scary into something wholly frightening." --Kory Grow, Decibel  "This is epic ultradoom metal, but with the metal replaced by soft billowy clouds of fuzzy distortion, the howling fury twisted into dreamlike tranquility, the blasting beats pulled apart and sprinkled here and there like percussive raindrops. This is as soft and pretty as a dirge-y drone can get while still retaining its inherent doomic mass. Utter and absolute loveliness drenched in a thick patina of crushing heaviness. Impossible but perfect." --Aquarius Records

Baker, Aidan

Rictus: Ep Collection

Broken Spine

Nadja

Autopergamene

Broken Spine

Nadja

Ruins Of Morning

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

Blue Figures

Broken Spine

Nadja

When I See The Sun Always Shines On Tv

Broken Spine

Nadja

Skin Turns To Glass

Broken Spine

Nadja

Radiance Of Shadows

Broken Spine

This CD reissue of Nadja’s Radiance of Shadows is the third in a series of the group’s albums that have gone out of print or are otherwise limited. Radiance of Shadows is Nadja’s eighth full-length release and consists of three lengthy tracks exploring post-apocalyptic and post-nuclear themes. The album was originally released on CD by Alien8 Recordings in 2007 and on vinyl by Conspiracy Records in 2008. The reissue features a newly designed cover with Canadian winter landscape photographs from Guylaine Bedard. Originally from Toronto and currently based in Berlin, Aidan Baker (guitars, woodwinds, vocals, drum machine) and Leah Buckareff (bass, vocals, accordion) create music variously dubbed dream sludge, metalgaze and ambient doom—atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze, and experimental / ambient with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja has released numerous recordings on Hydrahead, Southern Records, Robotic Empire and their own label, Broken Spine Productions (to name a few). The group has toured and performed extensively around the world, appearing at such diverse festivals as Incubate, SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn and Unsound.

Baker, Aidan

Conversations With Myself

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

Pendulum

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

Figures

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

At The Base Of The Mind Is Coiled A Serpent

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

At The Fountain Of Thirst

Broken Spine

Baker, Aidan

Concretion

Broken Spine