Sounds Are Active » Soul-Junk

therefore- The Bomb Grant (SAA1133)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:15:00 +0000

An overwhelming listen, The Bomb Grant is the final album from Michael Kaufmann (ex-Soul-Junk) and Wayne Feldman. Upwards of two years time was spent crafting the edge of noise into a kind of technological voodoo. The impulse to give a circuit board a soul exists and is abandoned. However soft ears will bear out the Spirit inside.

Presented in two epic compositions therefore eclipses last years L.G.F.C.A. with an even more challenging, esoteric masterwork. Patience not included.

Track Listing
01. Texas Radio
02. Plausible Binding [mp3]

Press
“However, this isn’t a perfect record, as perfection would only ruin the idea here… When the listening experience is over, and all the pieces fall into place, there’s still a large degree of uncertainty as to whether the experience was enjoyable, enlightening, or even worthwhile. Neither bad, nor good, nor indifferent, it has a coldness which overwhelms the pockets of raw feeling that emerge unexpectedly. The Bomb Grant is good way to put an amicable end to Therefore’s long partnership, even if it won’t necessarily put them on the music map for the rest of eternity. For the experimentally inclined, however, it makes for an interesting 36 minutes and two seconds, and would probably make a good soundtrack for cleaning the house.”- Urban Pollution

“Rather than being a mere spontaneous combustion sort of recording, this album is a combination of spontaneity and precise detail. Considering the fact that most folks would consider this random noise, this may seem confusing. But it is the attention to detail that makes this collection of noise entertaining and credible. An interesting twist is that cellos are sifted into the mixture on occasion. Perplexing music with depth.”- Baby Sue

Strata- A Young Person’s Guide To Experimental Music (SAA1125)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:43:47 +0000

An ambitious compilation of noise, electronic, hip-hop, free jazz, prog and experimental music, Strata- A Young Person’s Guide To Experimental Music is a primer for those of any age. Featuring rare, new and unreleased tracks from: Create (!), Bizzart, Melk The G6-49, Lafcadio, Soul-Junk, MakeShift:Shelter, Manners For Husbands, Receptor Sight, Electric iLL and others.

Collected from the Sounds Are Active and Joyful Noise record labels, Strata- A Young Person’s Guide To Experimental Music, presents both previously unreleased and downloadable tracks with album cuts.

Produced by Chris Schlarb and Karl Hofstetter
Artwork by Tim McMullen

Track Listing
01. Philippians- New Inspiration
02. Melk The G6-49- The Instantaneous Mobilization of All the Resources in the BURROW and All the Forces of My Body and Soul
03. Deneir- Charting Oblivion
04. Soul-Junk- Genesis 15
05. MakeShift:Shelter- Faux Hawk
06. Lafcadio- Noticing Drastic Changes in Individuality and Enlightenment at Such a Young Age
07. Bizzart- Nivek (outputmessage remix)
08. Patagonian- Cage
09. Create (!)- Durindana
10. Electric iLL- Funaise
11. Gratis- Means and Ends (instrumental version)
12. Abner Trio- One
13. Manners for Husbands- Lions
14. I Heart Lung- Moving Through Colour (excerpt)
15. Receptor Sight- Bagel & Green

Press
“A co-release between the Sounds Are Active and Joyful Noise labels, Strata: A Young Person’s Guide to Experimental Music lives up to its title pretty well — even if not a kid’s album in a classic sense, there’s often a gentle, merry playfulness about this 15-track selection which gives a number of creative groups a chance to show what they can do in a post-indie/IDM/everything else vein. The most well-known would doubtless be Soul-Junk, whose pursuit of any number of musical muses over the years has turned out to be a quiet triumph of dedication and art — their retelling of “Genesis 15″ makes most attempts at indie rap seem like the lazy mess it is; lead man Glen’s voice sounds like he’s broadcasting from the outer planets. But things are hardly limited to that, as everything from grinding feedback freneticism into haunted drone from Melk the G6-49 to Lafcadio’s semi-math/rap rock and I Heart Lung’s Mogwai-leaning instrumental mini-epic “Moving Through Colour.” Track times are all over the map as well — Deneir’s brief tone/beat collage “Charting Oblivion” is under a minute, Receptor Sight’s own take on post-rock reach and majesty, “Bagel & Green,” is almost a quarter-of-an-hour. The slyest track — Patagonian’s “Cage (Reenactment of More Encores)” — sounds about like what one would expect.”- All Music Guide

Electric iLL/Vla Hemia- split CD (SAA1124)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:22:15 +0000

Long awaited, this split release collects two amazing EP’s from Viva Voce’s Kevin Robinson as Electric iLL and the Siamese Sisters produced Vla Hemia project.

The first half collects the five sought after tracks from the much whispered of Vla Hemia (MC Vinch Kashmir and Siamese Sisters). Think Golden Age Hip-Hop (Blowout Comb, Midnight Marauders, Juggaknots EP) without a retro-wish to be fresh in ‘94. These tracks lack the stale same-ness of much of mainstream boom-bap.

Electric iLL is a sound for sore ears. Recruiting Soul-Junk’s Galaxalag and Slo-Ro for phoned in (literally) raps and NY’s JSRockit, who delivers a hilariously whimsical verse on “Non-Moley Yease”, the husband-half of the fantastical Viva Voce, Kevin Robinson lets his freak flag fly. On tracks like “Nurban Gowns” he duets with a Speak-N-Spell, and constructs lunchtray turntablism, elsewhere live saw and drumkit breaks collide and fedback guitars mask unwholesome lyrical patterns. Not to be missed.

Tracks 1-5 Recorded and Produced by Siamese Sisters
Tracks 6-10 Recorded and Produced by k.Rza
Mastered by Accident
Artwork by Jonathan Dueck

Track Listing
01. Today Tomorrow
02. Break Loose [mp3]
03. Sky Driftn
04. Stash Blvd
05. Stash Blvd (Remix)
06. Nurban Gowns [mp3]
07. Trodtadot
08. Au Yu Yae
09. Non Moley Yease
10. Funaise

Press
“One of my favorite hip hop releases this year, up there with Cyne’s Evolution Fight and Dangerdoom’s The Mouse and The Mask.”- Gorilla Vs. Bear

Golden Poultry Error- s/t (SAA1123)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:08:02 +0000

FREE ALBUM DOWNLOAD [MP3]

Once random, now immediately rhythmic, GPE is a sonic broth of radical reconstruction and reinterpretation of recorded improv by Soul-Junk’s Glen Galaxy and Slo-Ro. The linearity is smashed but then eloquently rebuilt into something digitally swarming, yet equally spontaneous and alive. The resulting sound is free-style cyber-primitivist, somewhere between abstract hip-hop and free improv with crystalline purpose and chaotic flirting.

Originally released on Stop Pause Play Record (cat#SPPR001SD) in July of 2003.

Produced and Engineered by Ero Thompson
Artwork by Paul Goode
All tracks are presented in 192kps.

Track Listing
01. It’s Raining Fingers [mp3]
02. Cold Funks [mp3]
03. Troomps [mp3]
04. Microconcussionss [mp3]
05. Prole Bonks [mp3]
06. Old Monks [mp3]
07. 4-02s [mp3]
08. Screechs [mp3]

Press
None at this time.

Soul-Junk- 1937 (SAA1120)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:03:58 +0000

Years in the making 1937 utterly destroys the rubble left behind from the previous two Soul-Junk full length records. With no place left to go the tracks on 1937 are the final deconstruction which leaves Mssrs. Galaxalag and Slo-Ro at proverbial forks in the road. Galaxalag has set upon a course which will see him record the entire Bible word for word and beat for beat; while Slo-Ro walks hand in hand with new identity M.C. Ponderosa and refines the hoagie charm of kidnastypup’s splatter raps.

The remixes here run the gambit: Wobbly’s hilarious remix mush-mouths Slo-Ro into danceable incoherency; Patagonian blip-hops Galaxalag into reverse hip-hop infinity. Elsewhere, DAT Politics‘ Aelters crosses Soul-Junk with R2-D2 and early Sega videogame music and Hairspray or No? do right by 1957’s “Jelly Wings”. Create (!) defers to the rap to keep beat with a bizzare live piano/bass/drums revision of “Horse Posing As Unicorn” while Leafcutter John kling-klangs his way through “Can Hop”.

The wonderful artwork has been remixed and masterfully assembled by Paul Goode and Jonathan Dueck, themselves the original artists for 1957 and 1958 respectively. Wholly strange, rewarding and consistantly difficult, 1937 is the breakup record. 1937 is the reunion record.

Track Listing
01. Slo-Ro Vs. M.C. Ponderosa- opidish
02. Aelters- begollar tempus
03. Create (!) Vs. Accident- Seahorse Posing as Colorform
04. Hairspray or No?- poolfullofstatic
05. Wobbly- aiming narrow
06. [dREKKA]- Jammy July Pike Remix – [dREKKA] battles the Mind Flayer on the 12th Day of Christmas wearing Plus Three Chain Mail
07. Poison Arrows- hornfront
08. Stephen Ruiz- soul structures sourced
09. Professor Kermit w/Ashish Vyas- atari atari [mp3]
10. Matt Davignon- jibjob
11. Soul-Junk w/Evig Poesi- NOVA [mp3]
12. Dev79- ungst func slag collision remix
13. looproad- totale (ruby doomsday remix)
14. Soul-Junk- Creech
15. Jason Talbot- non-linear remix
16. Patagonian- organ air
17. therefore- clarks green
18. Leafcutter John- canhop
19. Soul-Junk- Wack M.C.

Press
“If Captain Beefheart enlisted the glitch-hop enthusiasts from TigerBeat6 to record an album of gospel music, it would probably resemble Soul-Junk’s recent work. 1937 is Soul-Junk’s most ambitious release to date. Though technically a remix album, the record plays out more like a futuristic jam session… this impressive cast of artists deconstructs hip-hop to bizarre new levels… a brand of ambitious artistry that, however difficult to find, is immensely rewarding.”- Prefix Magazine

“The album, despite how disparate the group of remix-ers is, is surprisingly consistant and listenable”- Music For Robots

“Half tribute album, half collaborations, remixes, and mash ups, 1937 is by far one of the strangest albums I will hear this year”- The Phantom Tollbooth

“On the 1937 remix album, they go into some truly rarified air. Gurgling through the meticulous murk lies a sensibility that makes this much more memorable than so much “difficult” music. Dance at your own peril.”-HM Magazine

Sounds Are Active/Asthmatic Kitty Sampler (AS001)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:53:10 +0000

Sounds Are Active and sister label Asthmatic Kitty have pooled their collective talents to put something beautiful into the world: the 2004 Sampler. Over over 74 minutes of music from these two unceasingly original record labels. The Asthmatic Kitty “Side” features songs from Sufjan Stevens’ first three albums, as well as three tracks from the unrelentingly joyous Half-Handed Cloud. Songs by Liz Janes, Castanets and Viva Voce round out the 11 tracks- 3 heretofore unreleased.

The Sounds Are Active “Side” teems with spastic new work from Melk The G6-49, Bizzart and Deneir. New and unreleased tracks from Soul-Junk, Vla Hemia and Create (!). Softer pieces contributed by Xn. (featuring a slick remix from hip-hop producer supreme Omid) and the brooding “Two Planes for Elliott Smith” by the Constantine/Levin/Phillips/Schlarb/Shadduck quintet.

Track Listing
Asthmatic Kitty Side
01. Sufjan Stevens – All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!
02. Half-Handed Cloud – Let’s Build A Planet
03. Viva Voce – Red D-Lish
04. Liz Janes – Guitar Guitar
05. Castanets – I’ll Be Just Where You Are
06. Sufjan Stevens – Happy Birthday
07. Half-Handed Cloud – Pressing Into It
08. Liz Janes – Vine
09. Viva Voce – Welcome Mat
10. Half-Handed Cloud – Here’s A List
11. Sufjan Stevens – Year of the Tiger
Sounds Are Active Side
12. Deneir – Random Object Subject
13. Patagonian – Hands in the Face of Time
14. Xn. – gone home early (Omid Remix)
15. Vla Hemia – Break Loose
16. Soul-Junk – Nova (Evig Poesi Remix)
17. Bizzart – Pink Summer in Hell
18. Melk the G6-49 – Henry
19. Create(!) – Three Butterflies, Seven Mockingbirds
20. Constantine/Levin/Phillips/Schlarb/Shadduck – Two Planes for Elliot Smith

Press
“Proving that sisterhood is powerful, sibling labels Sounds Are Active and Asthmatic Kitty cram a grab bag of sounds- everything from hip-hop to free jazz to folky weirdness- onto one sampler. The Sounds Are Active half buzzes with new tracks from Soul-Junk, Bizzart, Vla Hemia and others.”- XLR8R

Citizens Against The Space Atrocity- Los Satellites Artificiales (SAA1117)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:46:40 +0000

Newly unearthed recordings from part-time Soul-Junk-er/Danielson Famile member Jon Galaxy. Strange, dark and esoteric electronic music this instrumental 7″ contains equal parts humor and the sonic charactor of early Squarepusher, Cylob or Dial. Conspiracy theories abound on the cover art and diagrams follow on the etchings which grace both sides of this rare release. There will be no repressing. Once sold out this release will be out of print.

Produced and Engineered by Jon Galaxy

Track Listing
01. Benevolent manager of fisheries
02. Grants
03. Vacations for
04. All even
05. Those who miss [mp3]
06. Their quotas

Press
None at this time.

Bizzart- Ear Drung (SAA1116)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:44:11 +0000

Live free-jazz breakouts and lo-fi bass heavy glitch combine with Bizzart’s complex/abstract lyrical patterns. Over a 6 years in the making (yes, six), the album features incredible contributions and collaborations with DJ ESP, who appears on 4 tracks, Soul-Junk who produce “Nivek” and co-produce “Pink Summer in Hell” with Accident. Galaxalag also contributes vocals to “Nivek” along side other M.C.’s Freedom80 (of Non-Conformists), on “Negative Gravity” and Zane (of Tunnel Rats) on the incredibly dirty “Infinite Zero”. Also contributing to the sounds and structures are NOTICE contributors Peter Chan who lays down saxophones and clarinets on 5 cuts, Justice Constantine and Andrew Pompey who play live drums on one track each (”Protocol” and “Infinite Zero” respectively). Create (!) performs on the groove-based deconstruction that is “Stock Options on the Inner Reconstruction of Man” and Slo-Ro (of Soul-Junk) also contributes sounds to two additional tracks (”Ear Drung/Illuminate” and “Infinite Zero”).

Album artwork features all original full colour and hand-drawn art from Jonathan Dueck.

All tracks produced by Accident except:
“Ear Drung/Illuminate” co-produced by Accident and Sam Justice
“Nivek” produced by Soul-Junk
“Protocol” co-produced by Nomadic Urchin and Accident
“Pink Summer in Hell” co-produced by Soul-Junk and Accident

Mastered by Rafter Roberts

All lyrics by Bizzart (Ninja Poetics, ASCAP) except:
“Infinite Zero” lyrics co-written by Accident and Zane
“Stock Options on the Inner Reconstruction of Man” lyrics co-written by Accident
“Hummingbird Feeder” lyrics co-written by Freedom80

All artwork by Jonathan Dueck

Track Listing
01. Ear Drung/Illuminate
02. Nivek
03. Stock Options on the Inner Reconstruction of Man
04. Protocol
05. Wax
06. Pink Summer in Hell [mp3]
07. Infinite Zero
08. Negative Gravity/Hummingbird Feeder

Press
“1 out of 10!”- Vice Magazine

“On Ear Drung, Bizzart and producer Accident weave jazz, hip-hop, trip-hop, glitch, spoken word and about a dozen other styles… The six years that went into the album are apparent in the details, like the epic sounds of the bass and percussion on “Infinite Zero”. Who knows what to call this, except fucking good.”- XLR8R

“This succinct album is a comfortable introduction to experimental hip-hop, where off-the-wall sounds merge with more conventional music-making methods- engaging rhymes and solid beats, not to mention optimum production thanks in large part to Accident…[an] honest arrangement of a passionate artist’s deeply personal work.”- Metro.pop

“In a world (hip-hop) so far removed from the conceptual framework of the album, Ear Drung feels like a minor and obscure masterpiece-cohesive, challenging, complete, and mostly unheard.”- MuchoMas.com

“Pink Summer In Hell,” which is as menacing and as strange a hip-hop track you’re likely to hear this year: Cut up voice samples of women mumbling nonsensical words screech out of the right speaker as a horror-film synth sample weaves back and forth in the mix. Glen Galaxy of Soul-Junk has said he’s probably not the guy who’s going to “dial anybody up a hit single,” and “Pink Summer” is proof of that. “Infinite Zero” could almost be the beginning of a new sci-fi-jazz-rap genre. The sound of metallic spaceship doors slam shut and open while a free-jazz ensemble consisting of acoustic piano, clarinet and claribone freak out on the port.”- Stylus Magazine

“a unique, label-defying album… Bizzart’s preference to offer substance rather than ironic plasticity alone makes this record a rare find and worthwhile listen”- Rockpile

“It’s compelling enough to listen to Ear Drung as primarily the work of a producer — production duties are handled in large part by Accident and, as if to confuse, often “by accident” — but Bizzart is a capable MC, sounding like a Bay Area transplant, his style falling somewhere directly between the Hieroglyphics and Anticon camps.”- L.A. Alternative Press

“…utterly unique. Quite possibly the very definition of avant garde but with an emphasis on intelligence rather than random or mindless stupidity. Clever doesn’t cover it—you have to use words like genius, one-of-a-kind, and groundbreaking. Get this album now and experience sound as its now meant to be.”- Smother.net

Soul-Junk- 1958 (SAA1113)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:37:17 +0000

By sheer force of flim-flam genius slight-of-hand, this outing finds Soul-Junk following up the critically acclaimed 1957 with a release that manages to be simultaneously more deconstructed and yet more accessible. This is the crossroads that Soul-Junk delights, dancing across the pavements and avoiding bus rides into the played out regions of the current electronic/hip-hop landscape. But rather they cannonball into pools and puddles unafraid of no diving rules and whistle blowing purists.

With a MUCH wider instrumentation / influence / and an amazing love of noise, Soul-Junk returns after cooking another potluck sized serving of hip-hop, sliced/diced/smothered and covered. From Gamelon influenced choral dizzy-clash, calypso-noise-fusion, baroque chamber music cut-ups, atari glitch funk, and campfire sing-a-longs, the album arrives with a juiced up sample palette and ground breaking production. Disturbing crookedness and collaborations with Kidnastypup, free-jazzer Daniel Carter and avant-trumpeter Greg Kelley, DJ Mizzicah, Bizzart and the ever elusive Prof. Kermit (aka Golden Poultry Error).

Produced by Galaxalang and Slo-Ro
Mastered by Rafter Roberts
Engineered by Tim Coffman and Prof. Kermit
Recorded at Singing Serpent Studios
CD artwork by Jonathan Dueck

Track Listing
Track Listing:
01. Hezekiah & the Sad Cobras
02. Moonpie Eating
03. Autosmuddling [mp3]
04. Thy Dark Streets Shineth
05. Tasmanian Pork
06. Buzzards
07. Geolinguistics
08. Hogging All the Islands
09. The Nerve & Gall
10. Sabor
11. World’s Loudest Vintriloquist
12. Long of Tooth
13. Mesa Dixie
14. Shots from the Master’s Eye
15. Brougham

Press
“1958 contains hip-hop so out-there, so deconstructed, so avant-garde, so every-other-term-for-radically-pioneering that all geeks seeking that sacred “next level” will consider it a harbinger of rapture deserving Pitchfork’s sacred 10.0.”- Pitchforkmedia.com

“9 out of 10… cacophonic-free-form-noise-rap release, 1958, he has the lead on all his peers and can now safely look over his shoulder at the other cut-up figures behind him: namely Prefuse 73 and Arrhythmia”- Stylus Magazine

“unarguably groundbreaking”- slatch.com

“this is a perfect combination if we are talking about fresh moments in new music. really inventive approach and balanced to the end. music that must be heard.”- fakezine.tk

“1958 is, with Prefuse 73’s One World Extinguisher and Mad-Lib’s Blue Note album, one of the best hip-hop albums to come out this year”- ClinkMagazine

“In short, this album is complete and beautiful nonsense.”- Action Man Magazine

“another brilliant avant-electro-dada-hip-hop car wreck- and they are still way over our heads.”- 7Ball Magazine

“filled from top to bottom with samples of anything under the sun of audio history”- staalplaat.com

“each successive listening reveals new layers and textures to the mess”- The Phantom Tollbooth

Soul-Junk- 1957 (SAA1105)

Chris Schlarb — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:09:58 +0000

With a concentration on giving hip-hop stretch marks Soul-Junk chime in with their own version of the underground. Skip-hop experimentalism with spastic vocals speaking in tongues. MC’s Galaxalag and Slo-Ro have produced a cohesive album of sparkling originality. Building of the scattered catalog that Soul-Junk has accumulated, this new extension finds us squarely in the middle of the verbal freakout with some of the more challenging lyrics in the Soul-Junk compendium.
A logical progression from the critically lauded 1956 this new album is the first under the reign of the two man show of Galaxalag and Slo-Ro. Tracks such as “Horse Posing As Unicorn” with it’s familiar sing-song delivery stutters and step over itself with ambient and jutting sounds shooting out your speakers.

The vinyl release of 1957 features hand collaged art work from the group, unique to each record sleeve. Also included in the vinyl release is a silver Soul-Junk sticker with an insert listing all tracks and credits which can also be found below. The CD release features original artwork from Paul Goode.

Produced by Galaxalang and Slo-Ro
Mastered by Rafter Roberts
Engineered by Tim Coffman and Ero Thompson
Recorded at Singing Serpent Studios
CD artwork by Paul Goode
Vinyl art by Soul-Junk
Female vocals by OBM

Track Listing
01. Phalanx
02. Non-Linear
03. Jelly Wings
04. Gotham
05. Ungst Func Slag Collision
06. Innerspacemen
07. Droptop Floride
08. Horse Posing As Unicorn [mp3]
09. Ruby Doomsday
10. Mercury
11. Jammy July Pike
12. Rap City Ark
13. Uqbar Orbis
14. Vesuvius

Press
“They make Anticon sound Neptunes smooth.”- Pitchforkmedia.com

“One of the best albums Soul-Junk has put out.”- The Phantom Tollbooth

“A collision of blipped breakbeats, samples galore and other rumblings. Beats that would make the Neptunes blush with envy.”- CMJ

“Brings the noise in a far more literal way than Chuck D could have imagined, shambling forward like the drunker GBV tracks.”- Splendidezine.com

“Electronics meet hard rap and rocks it out, in a rather lovely, avant-garde sort of way. Hugely impressive.”- Ink 19

“Made for the hardcore underground and open-minded music lovers.”- MeanStreet

“There is something redeeming about it that is really creeping me out and keeping me up at night.”- Slatch.com