Four marginal CDRs from the Finnish label Harha-askel will intrigue the questing mind. Talugung (ie Canadian genius Ryan Waldron) expresses clearly the feelings of living Under Humid Light (HA-5) with 11 instrumentals of strange exotic drone, plucked and percussive sounds. Sing With Me (HA-4) is a compilation of unusual music made with human voices – this survey of international underground performers has as many craggy features as the landscapes they are born in. Norwegian electronics duo Bjerga and Iversen are represented on Shortest Way to the Moon (HA-2), a sadly rather half-baked live document from their 2006 UK tour which is filled with pallid, meandering drones and pulses. Lastly American singer Andy Futreal laments how Ophelia Wanders (HA-3) on his very average collection of bedroom acoustic guitar folk-blues improvisations. Our UK customers can order these very limited pressings from Boa Melody Bar. Many thanks to Ville Forss for sending these.
Another micro label is LF Records run by Greg in Bristol. In this envelope from the thin end of the Western wedge, we got Dsic with Bush Psychedelia (lf004), a 3-inch CDR whose opening track of intensely disrupted fizzing electronic gibberish is decidedly tasty. Said Dsic (his monicker is sometimes rendered with a pirated version of the copyright Compact Disc logo) also collaborated with Cardiff’s Ian Watson to produce Phantom Dsic, a joint release with Phantomhead Recordings. Three tracks of insane hoover-noises and unremitting sequenced digital blather will soon clear out your mental-mush! Nice package on this one too – a strange photo of an anatomical head mounted with photo-corners in a black card wallet. Ahh, and here is the second companion disc to this project – it’s housed in a black clamshell with same x-ray head image adhering as a postage stamp. Further unrestrained electronic burbling and shredded sound pours out of Dsic on his Love City full-lengther (lf003), which presents a very paranoid and sprawling urban portrait of the decaying, over-developed city which spawned it. Very little love in this city selon Dsic. Can you resist a title like ‘Ambient Deathbed’? Lastly, a clear clamshell is unpopped to release the incoherent horrors of New Zealander Duncan Bruce and his New Glass Tapu (lf005). A densely varied set of sound collages, horror-movie instrumentals and upsetting ambiences await you here. What must Bristol be like these days? No longer the sunny dreamland that it was 20 years ago, that’s for sure. Be sure to check out this label for further psycho-geographic reports and ‘Western thunder blasts’ from the front line.