40 BANDS/80 MINUTES! DVD (SAA1140)

THE DOCUMENT OF THE NEW L.A. MUSIC SCENE! One night. Forty bands. Two minutes to make their mark. In the tradition of underground rock movies like THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION and URGH! A MUSIC WAR, comes an instant cult-classic: 40 BANDS/80 MINUTES! On one night in Hollywood, over forty of Los Angeles’ most amazing, experimental and eccentric bands join together with one daring goal: to present their uncompromising musical visions to the world in two minute blasts! Using shared equipment, each band has only one chance to get it right. No second takes allowed, everything captured live with multiple cameras and audiophile-quality sound! These bands fuse electronic, rock, dance, metal, jazz, noise and punk within one amazing community. This is your glimpse into the future of music… This is 40 BANDS/80 MINUTES!

Bizzart- Bloodshot Mama (SAA1134)

Between 2003’s Ear Drung and 2006’s Bloodshot Mama, Bizzart became something altogether new. Once a spoken word artist turned M.C. turned abscratch expressionist Bizzart now occupies a circuit-bent performance art hip-hop space that none before him have occupied. A reformed poet who has lost faith in words alone, Bizzart has tucked Alkalyne’s boom bap into bed with Accident’s live noise comprovisations and together they dream of childhood and pray to a distant God. The album features contributions from a staggeringly diverse group of artists including I Heart Lung, Awol One, Yarah Bravo, Justin Vollmar and Dulok Shaman.

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

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.

Sounds Are Active/Asthmatic Kitty Sampler (AS001)

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.

Bizzart- Ear Drung (SAA1116)

Live free-jazz breakouts and lo-fi bass heavy glitch combine with Bizzart’s complex/abstract lyrical patterns. Ear Drung contains over 40 minutes of experimental hip-hop for fans of Bjork, PiL, Squarepusher and CAN. 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”).

Soul-Junk- 1958 (SAA1113)

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).

Bizzart- L.A. Approach 12″ (SAA1108)

This little gem of an E.P. is not the norm from your everyday “Man yo, I’m ill! I’m the hardest! And other such hyperbole!” type M.C. You know what I’m sayin’? Anyhow, what we have here is a 6 track 12″ that features the very catchy and unconventional “L.A. Approach” produced by Fourever and an incredibly dirty digital/analog experimental track from Accident called “Wax.” The Accident Reconstruction of “Wax” is a rare instrumental reworking of the track that would later appear on Bizzart’s groundbreaking album Ear Drung. The 12″ also includes another non-album track with the classic spoken word a cappella “You Suck.”

Bizzart- Everybody’s Mouth (SAA1101)

Built around the unsolved murder of his father, Everybody’s Mouth, is an emotional and raw exchange of sadness, recollections, cinematic translations and introspections. Tracks such as “Stereo-typical” examine the process of predjudice, while “I Felt It!” gives insight into Bizzart’s childhood and relationship with his father. Although not the tour-de-force that would follow with Ear Drung, Everybody’s Mouth is the debut album that started it all. The raw beats and earnest lyrics make for a compelling listen almost a decade later.