***Hey!Tonal is the first album by HEY!TONAL, a project helmed by the guitarists, multi-instrumentalists and sound designers Mitch Cheney (Rumah Sakit, Sweep the Leg Johnny) and Alan Mills (Chiisai-oto). Each member constructed the album instrument-by-instrument between 2006 and 2008 over a vast geographical area from NYC, Chicago, Florida, San Diego and Nantes in France. Main collaborators included Kevin Shea (Storm & Stress), Theo Katsaounis (Joan of Arc, Dead Rider), and Dave Davison (Maps & Atlases). Kenseth Thibideau (Rumah Sakit, Sleeping People) and Julien Fernandez (Chevreuil) joined the group for a song as well. In 2009 the album was released by Africantape on CD format; now, Hey!Tonal has been remastered by Carl Saff and pressed to vinyl for the first time. Cheney initially conceived HEY!TONAL as a project to be called “Drummers’ Perspectives”, and that working title sums up its ethos. He came up with the idea in 2006 while using the application Reason to program beats, substituting drum samples with guitar and dulcimer sounds. He became inspired to write melodies based on the drumbeat being the starting point of composition, opposed to the other way around. A providential meeting with Alan Mills meant another collaborator would try his hand at the resultant rhythmic and melodic tangle. The two quickly came to form the nucleus of HEY!TONAL. The basic concept for their compositional process stemmed from Cheney's experience with television editing. The two manipulated all the catalogued sounds as if they were visual elements. The result of this unusual approach is...
2XLP $31.95
10/08/2021
***OXES, (1998-2011) was an experimental, instrumental trio hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, comprising of guitarists Marc Miller and Nat Fowler, and drummer Christopher Freeland. With performance-art tinged of instrumentals that incorporated wireless guitars and stand-up comedy, they describe their music as “heavy metal tone poems.” Now they commemorate the 20-year anniversary of their first LP with a gatefold double vinyl remastered by Sarah Register. The new release The Fourth Wall features the original self titled album and the group’s first Peel Session—which was previously unavailable in high fidelity—as well as a booklet featuring never-before-seen photos and texts about their history. The cover, which was painted by Christopher Freeland, reinterprets OXES’ original cover photograph by Eric Wareheim. With cosmic synchronicity, the band’s guitarists being born on the birth and death days of Jimi Hendrix respectively, they immanentize the eschaton this year; on the day of the record’s release, as the number 42 presents itself as the age of guitarist Marc Miller and the year in which Hendrix was born. Pressed on double vinyl in a superb gatefold cover with a matte finish and a 12-page booklet, all housed in a futuristic aluminum sleeve.
2XLP $21.50
11/27/2020
***DROSE is an experimental rock band from Columbus, Ohio, featuring the songwriting and voice of DUSTIN ROSE. Their fevered, nihilistic new release, boy man machine+, combines their 2016 album of the same name with their debut 7”, “a voice”, and an assemblage of unreleased tracks—all freshly remastered by veteran engineer CARL SAFF. Dustin Rose calls boy man machine+ “an indictment of human consciousness.” The music explores the torments of sentience through the sound of machines across four uncompromising sides of vinyl, featuring slashing lines from guitarist GREGORY PACKET and bizarre drum patterns from JOHN MENGERINK. The results are harsh, bewildering and strangely beautiful. The first release in Computer Students; Anatomical Reissues Series, which reissues albums with highly conceptual design, presentation and packaging. 2xLP inside gatefold jackets and 12-page codes guide, all housed in unique heat-sealed aluminum foil bags. CD with artwork and info printed directly on the transparent super jewel case. This album was written and recorded during the design and construction of a race car at the Center for Automotive Research in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The facility was home to constant manufacturing activity and cavernous ambient spaces where the machines, instruments and vocals were recorded. The main studio for live instruments and vocals was underneath a sectioned steel floor in a heavy-duty chassis dynamometer facility. Accessing the under side of the floor required a forklift to move one of the floor sections. This confined space was affectionately referred to as “the hole.” The album also showcases CNC mills...
CD $11.00
11/15/2019
2XLP $21.75
11/15/2019