Representing three years of recording after-hours at the New York radio station where he worked, this is TD’s stunning debut, originally self-released in 1961, and later issued by Folkways.
‘Oscillators pulse and clash with fragments of incidental tape music, leaving collages of sound as tuneful and memorable as they are otherworldly. A visionary debut that presages the abstract ambience of modern IDM and an essential addition to any collection of early electronic music.’

Four unhinged, starkers dashes through the outernational dancehall by Saam Schlamminger (aka Chronomad) and Burnt Friedman. Ace.

‘With Touch, the Tortoise bandmembers — Jeff Parker, Dan Bitney, Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, and John McEntire — harness their collectivist songwriting approach, a slightly anarchistic but resolutely egalitarian process where ideas triumph over ego towards an abstracted muscularity. While there are still excursions into the dusky, elegantly gnarled jazz ambience that flourished on landmark works like Millions Now Living Will Never Die and TNT, Touch is perhaps most remarkable for Tortoise’s unapologetic embrace of grand gesture. Aerodynamically re-engineered Krautrock, hand-cranked techno rave-ups, and pointillist spaghetti western fanfares are all imbued with Tortoise’s now-signature internal logic — equally alluring and confounding, a puzzle to be savored rather than solved.’

A terrific, bountiful seasonal single — with Bonnie Prince Billy in his cups on one side, and Mike Heron from The Incredible String Band on the other, with a Boxing Day ghost story. Beautifully sleeved, limited.

‘New levels of excellence… a poetic incantation of British identity far brighter than Michael Gove’s proposed GCSE history syllabus *****’ (The Sunday Times). ‘Magnificent ****’ (The Guardian).

‘Multiphonic trills and yodels, loops of ululations, sudden percussive outbursts, warbling glissandi… sculptural, oscillating, swirling tone-colours… the human voice dissolving into the sounds of birds, machines, electronics, scraps of otherworldly language.’
Ute was a student of Henning Christiansen and Allan Kaprow; she is a collaborator of Rhodri Davies and Phil Minton, amongst many others.

Wonderful stuff; original, naked, visceral, transfixing, fun. Check it out.

‘Sound collages, bitter laughs, and deranged miniatures based on poetry and percussion recorded in a punk burst, along with field recordings and other oddities.
‘200 copies, screen-printed sleeves, risograph insert.’

Valentina from Holy Tongue together with Koshiro Hino from Goat.
‘Abrasive drums and handcrafted Japanese electronics… bliss carved from bruises.’

His comeback, forty years after Histoire De Melody Nelson, with the same signature mix — Axelrod-style orchestral sensibility and stoner funk-rock framing his own louche vocals, and poeticised and punning verses.

‘A celebration of the ever-expanding and evolving label family, LLI008 comprises an LP, a fifty-odd-page booklet (and eight page photobook and insert), further digital tracks and some web-based stuff contributed by friends new and old from far and wide.’

Half-speed mastering.