Catalog
A Million Corpses of Dead Bees b/w High Road
Nova Scotia / Eye
Tipped Bowler returns to the fertile soil of New Zealand to cull two choice improvisations. On the A-side, Wellington’s Nova Scotia delivers “A Million Corpses of Dead Bees,” an eighteen minute free-rock burner. Growing from violin sine-squeak and distant shortwave, the piece gains momentum with its patient drumming and resolves into a saxophone swarm shot through with synthetic scrabble. On the reverse, Dunedin’s Eye comes off colder and more aggressive. “High Road” throttles the listener with Schnitzler-ian electronics, militant percussion, and guitar strangulation before collapsing into coda of cymbal taps and glassy string-work. Rigorous yet unbound, these pieces shine a light on a musical community few of us can witness firsthand.
Issued in an edition of 250 150-gram black LPs in elegant black-and-white matte sleeves screened with consummate skill by Siwa.
Ornate Shroud
Mrtyu
Hopefully Mrtyu requires little introduction, because the project evades easy description. An odd compound of Vedic imagery, metal misanthropy, and violin agony, this music moves away from any particular fan base in pursuit of its distant, darkened idols. Ornate Shroud is Mrtyu's most potent spawn to date. Hewing closer to song form than previous releases, the album conceals Antony Milton's violent guitar and violin work behind Mrtyu's characteristic murk. Its pieces transition from jagged riffs to eerie ambient scrapes through wooly feedback, approaching the uncanny. Although the year is yet young, 2009 will likely not produce a bleaker aggraga record.
Edition of 350 180 gm. LPs in heavy-stock linen-paper sleeves hand-screened, -cut, and -glued by Reuben Little of 43rd Parallel Press.
Available from Tipped Bowler in the US and Faunasabbatha in France.
