Eric Copeland on Calico Records

At this point, there's a long and expansive history of manipulating recorded music to create something new, the hashed out problems with ownership have been resolved at least in terms of whether or not it's possible to come up with something that is truly original from existing recorded music. Not to mention the fact that the very reason I'm still able to sit down at this vinyl disc playing device is because of people using it as an instrument during the lean days in the early 2000's when MP3's were the next big thing, and vinyl was on the verge of being all but abandoned. I remember reading, I think around the time that Scratch came out, that for the first time ever, turntables were outselling guitars in Japan. It's crazy to think of this, appliance basically, being used for self expression. But like graphitti, people will find a way to use anything in new ways... the most boring utilitarian, everyday objects all have insane possibilities if you just mess with them.
I'm thinking about all this stuff as soon as I put on this single from Black Dice's Eric Copeland on Calico Records. I think Black Dice also were pioneering what could be done without traditional instruments. The nightmare kinds of sound that could be created with racks of electronics...they managed to come up with pretty distinct incredible sounds that never verged into dance as far as I could tell. Taking it even further live, they added all kinds of visual elements, that seemed to be re-envisioning where psych was trying to go, literally changing consciousness. It's really impossible to stand there and even think. It's so overwhelming, they want all of your attention.
But this A-Side "Flushing Meats" is Eric's solo work that seems to be exploring his turntablism skills here, with multiple layers of vinyl loops, all manipulated in various speeds, snippets of a lyric, at all different tempos. Sort of salsa, latin rhythms bouncing all around behind a lyric slowed down to the point where it just becomes a sound. But he's not trying to hide the rewinding of the spiral, or the layers of effects washed across the entire piece. It always seemed like the mystery of Black Dice was in how it managed to be pretty simple and still like nothing you've ever heard. This piece eventually breaks down into the lowest possible bit sample of this choppy rhumba, just deep jagged peaks of a sine wave rumbling around. Masters of deconstruction. it's that magic of showing you how it's done, but it's still amazing.
B-Side's "Gutterhouse" sounds more mechanical, taking those samples; a kick here, a phaser snare from another recording. You can imagine the sort of libraries Eric has built up with endless variations on a single half second of an instrument. I'm sure there's differences in the drum construction itself, let alone the microphones used and then placement? You could kind of see going mad in that endless quest for just one more snare hit, I'm just looking for that perfect 'smack'. This is hyptnotic, the layers building up and falling away, making way for new looping elements. The difference from Black Dice here is the focus on vinyl I think, the ways that this format can be manipulated, and by the end of this side he's taken this prerecorded thing to another place entirely. It's completely broken, it's like a pixelated version of that soul jazz phrase. You could sort of look at this as a micro view of music history...instead of taking those recognizable chorus beats and loops from every hit song from the last twenty years like Girl Talk, you rework obscure, forgotten songs into something that would literally be impossible to pick out of that looping primitive chaos. You know if you have to have this. It makes me think, it's inspiring, get it from Canada's Calico Records, reasonable price including shipping of $6 CAD. I'm sure Fusetron or Midheaven has some of these as well. On black vinyl, foldover slick black and white sleeve of equally manipulated imagery with download card.

Eric copeland on Post Present Medium Records

Wow where did the time go? I'm thinking about the holiday weekend almost every minute...it's eating into my 7" time. Here's a single from a really consistently interesting member of Black Dice who have created some truly memorable electronic glitchy collage albums. I don't know if like Quentin Tarrantino he looks cliche because he's been assimilated so completely into visual culture, and in Black Dice's case audio, that they seem average. You had to be there I guess....but give them a listen these days, they've continued to work in extremes and creating really interesting sounds apart from a boring laptop scene, live they keep the performance aspect of summoning these surreal sounds....and they change, let's not forget, you could just hit play on the sequencer and stand there.
I forget sometimes about that huge connection between Black Dice and the Animal Collective guys, and then there's even that direct collaboration with Avery, Terrestrial Tones. When I sit down to think about this period of time and Brooklyn in music, with the woodsist bands/label, captured tracks, paw tracks/animal collective, I mean I get a little excited to have been here and seen little pieces of it, to live down the street from the address on the record, to see these guys at random empty basements...I'm not saying your city isn't awesome either, I'm just appreciating for a second.
Anyway Eric is a great artist on top of this sound insanity and there's a cool poster in this, that's already more than enough reason but guess what, Gun Outfit has a full length out too....remember how you had your eye on that Best Coast single?
Well it's gone.
Lesson learned.

Post Present Medium says:

Eric Copeland is an experimental musician based in New York. He is a core
member of Black Dice and forms half of the duo Terrestrial Tones with Animal Collective’s Avey Tare. This is a 7” of two epic EC solo tracks.The A Side “Doo Doo Run” is a great twisted and mutilated dub like jaunt through the murk. It keeps you moving along in any pace you seem to choose. The B Side “Fundinkdeath” is an almost garage rock gone through the tubes, some would say a pop.

William Burroughs on Sub Rosa via Fusetron

Was in boston this week hanging out with my friend Matt, working on stuff and driving back to catch Explosions in the sky.
I was all set to talk about a couple of Ty Segall singles and then looking at a fusetron email, saw this single from William Burroughs and just had to mention it.

First off, I can't find any info about this release anywhere, not from Sub Rosa, or any other UK singles distro's...tons of searches later and there's not a picture or description to be found. I'm still trying to decide if this actually is a 12"?
But if Fusetron says it has it, then I'm buying.

A long time ago I picked up a single of Burroughs and Gus Van Zandt called Millions of Images...which was crazy...I guess Gus is playing guitar and drum machines under some recorded spoken word Burroughs insanity...it's a document. I always wondered if Van Zandt did this after the fact or they actually got together...did Burroughs know about it? If so that's the only Burroughs 7"....until now.

I bring up Matt because we got into a long conversation driving back from Boston about the Beats and how much they influenced our college years. And I think it wasn't just us. It was the period of our lives when we should be reading that stuff...I mean I was amazed I never heard about any of these characters in high school. It was that combination of this underground scene and that reaction against the 50's let down...it was perfect.
I think I saw Naked Lunch on HBO, but I didn't get it. It just fit into our world view perfectly...we were moving away from home, writing on old typewriters with rolls of paper, taking roadtrips in shitty cars...being completely ridiculous. Documenting everything, who was going to be Neal Cassidy?
We met Allen ginsberg in Washington square park, he signed our copies of Howl. There was a Ginsberg doc at Film Forum...a show at the Whitney...it seemed like it was everywhere. Kerouac GAP kahki ad's.
Anyway, I wonder now if that was us discovering something on our own that then there happened to be a reintrest in this time period by coincidence or we were just into it thanks to these little signifiers. They just seemed cool, how could a couple of art school kids in the 90's connect with this? Does anyone still? Are there kids now as excited about that shit as I was? Completely blowing my tiny mind?

Anyway, these are outtakes from the LP that was released on Sub Rosa, or maybe just tracks off that full length, but I'm going to contact fusetron and pick up a copy and read On The Road again.

From Fusetron

*Artist: BURROUGHS, WILLIAM S.
Title: Three Allusive Tracks From Break Through In Grey Room
Format: 7"
Label: Sub Rosa
Country: Belgium
Price: $14.00
"Three extracts from one of Sub Rosas absolute classics, William S. Burroughs Break Through In Grey Room (SR 008CD/LP), featuring extraordinary, cut-up voices recorded during the mid-60s in hotel rooms in New York, Paris, and London. Available in a very limited edition of 300 copies only, with labels designed by famous French artist, Stéphane Blanquet." -Sub Rosa

plus Fusetron has got copies of that Black Dice tour single I reviewed a little while back.

Black Dice - Tour only single on Catsup Plate

Last night I caught Black Dice at Bowery Ballroom, after a pretty exhausting weekend of Northside fest shows, and I just happened to check the merch table because ....you never know there just might a single...even from an opening band, I'll always pick it up.
I asked the guy behind the table if this weirdo camouflage was Black Dice and sure enough it was. He pointed to a tiny stack of about 50 on a shelf next to him. "That's a tour only single and we only have this many left and then they are completely gone...forever. "
You already had me at 7"...
I was so excited this made it home ok and I put it on this morning to check it out.
The show was impressive, I've seen these guys in the past, but I don't remember it being this intense. So completely overwhelming, it takes everything over in volume and just continuous pummeling of sound and experience. There's nothing else but Black Dice making noise.
It's also weird to hear this live and I get self conscious I'm actually at a techno show, and everyone is on E or something. But just when that bass snare bass gets too repetitive they're on to the next idea.
They must have some kind of copyrighted processor because they just have this particular fucked up sinister sound. I think that's the other thing that saves them from ever crossing that terrible line. They want to rock you a little bit dance, but you're too scared to move...it's a nice combination. So I think 'What the fuck, this is good' and that's the end of it.

This single is completely unlabeled except for the Catsup plate CPR726 in the lower front corner.
Let me just say this is a different direction from the pure sound glitches on Beaches and Canyons. 'Chocolate Cherry': Right away they've sampled something and pitch shift it up and down with some vocals on top really slow. Then it works into an electric guitar chord, slowed down into another sound. There's warbly waves of high pitch ear splitting sound, but this doesn't really go anywhere. Maybe this is a unlicensed sample and someone could tell me that's the catch here...that would explain why it's so limited.
The B-Side 'Pop STD' is more manipulated samples, it sounds like the source could have been slightly reggae or dub, it's got that slightly delayed. An acoustic guitar is pitch shifted to create a new chord progression. I'm into pasting their sound on top of samples like this, but I've gotten this from Girl Talk, Panda Bear and a thousand others. I like when there's no frame of reference...they do that so well, it's weird to use a crutch like this. The last track 'Bob' does more of the same briefly...I guess they are evolving...and maybe like animal collective came to this otherworldly pop place after years of pure sound collage, Black Dice is finding something new in DJ mixing culture after going as far as humanly possible with pure sound.

From Catsup Plate records:

Ordering info
All copies currently with Black Dice on tour.

Black Dice's "Chocolate Cherry" seven inch comes hot on the heels of their album Repo (which is Catsup Plate's favorite Black Dice record) and finds the band pushing themselves further "out" and paradoxically making some of the poppiest sounds to come from their camp in some time.

If Repo was the sound of Black Dice making a funk record then "Chocolate Cherry" veers more towards soul, if you can believe that. The title track is all clipped ecstatic vocals and stuttering disco soul. "POP STD" pins a laconic guitar line and backmasked vocals onto a plodding drum line. And the record closes with the amazingly titled "Bob" which somehow merges insect like buzzing, an incessantly lazy rhythm and what this writer likes to think is a sitar drone (but probably isn't) into a piece of druggy brilliance.

Silkscreened on heavy chipboard in four colors by the fine folks at VG Kids.

Single edition of 500 copies only. All initial copies are to be sold on the band's Spring 2009 US tour. Any remaining copies will be made available upon the band's return.

Parts and Labor / Big A Little a split 7"

I really just randomly picked this up at Eat records a while back and haven't gotten around to it until a few nights ago. I've been seeing parts and labor are playing around, and have released a full length, and then Aa (Big A, little a), have been on my list to go see also. Weird. Anyway the parts and labor side is a a lot of frantic drumming, bordering on spinning out of control, then there are a lot of low, low electronic bursts which are so alien, my cats look over at the record player in fear. The best part is that it ends in an endless loop, which I swear keeps changing every time. But I love the little piece of fuzz/tempest shooting sound it plays over and over.
The Aa side is a backwards underground cavern exploration. A little more electronic, this sounds very black dice, destroy the sound, to create something new. Then turns into full on kraftwerk/field recording...then throw in some freestyle? It's enjoyable, I just don't know if I like it yet to fully get behind it. I could hear it pumping out of a warehouse. This side also ends awesomely in a keyboard loop. It's $6 from applecore records, which is affiliated with brooklyn beats I think.

Parts and Labor / Big A Little a split 7" (Cardboard Rec.) Two local Brooklyn bands with strong underground followings join to make a dope little 7". Parts and Labor do a power electronics Husker Du thang with good songwriting and plenty of noise. These guys rule! Big A Little a do more of a tribal Boredoms thing with plenty of spacey effects and big drums. Both sides are loud and clear for DJing and on green vinyl.

Highly recommended.