Aguirre Records Low Down…

Aguirre Records writes in with four new releases:

High & Upon reissue, by Mind Over Mirrors

This sold-out 2011 cassette, now offered as a vinyl reissue, featured 40 minutes of entrancing, cosmic, gene-treated harmonium and piano. Mind Over Mirrors is Jaime Fennely (Peeesseye, Acid Birds), whose The Voice Rolling was ranked as one of Pitchfork’s Overlooked Records 2011. The standout track here is “Mountain Convalescence,” both halves of which set out with slightly angular piano, dwarfed with reverb and little sympathy for time signatures. In each case the cease-fire lasts only briefly, until a distorted organ fills the canvas with an unruly, psychedelic, noisy, yet somehow curative arrangement. Fennely composed the album over a four-year span on an island off of the coast of Washington state. Mountain convalescence, indeed.

(split LP) by Tidal & Rambutan

Drone artists Jimmy Billingham and Eric Hardiman – recording as Tidal and Rambutan – join for a split LP. Side A features the enigmatic Tidal composition “Sounds of the Future,” built around an elemental synthesizer loop, crackling found sounds, the occasional vocal sample, and, fittingly, the ebb and flow of instrumentation. Side B offers the Rambutan track “Trapdoor to Infinity,” and it is not nearly the threat implied by the title. Nostalgic analog synth and distant tape noise serve as lining for Hardiman’s curious freehand sketches and warm, gradual takeover. Two 20-minute tracks, offering awe and enlightenment, respectively.

Realiser, by CVLTS

The CVLTS Facebook page lists “brutalist architecture” and “singularity” among their influences, and scarcity-free construction is a good way to think of their work. Their perched-from-the-floor, guitar-as-modem approach most succeeds in tracks like “Velvet Dreams,” an analog toggle from one note to the other and back, adorned with the tapping of space chimes and powered by the sparsest of drum kits. The main synthesizer feature of “Atm City” is almost vocal in its timbre: pulsing, contrasted, an answer to the spheres overhead. The Kansas-based ensemble nods to their home state, if only ambiguously, with “Wamego Fluff.” An abstract and squishy echo gains frequency until tumbles upward into the rabbit hole, leaving behind a clinking, muffled synth and remotely far eastern guitar.

Ou Du Monde reissue, by Mpala Garoo

Another vinyl reissue of an out-of-print cassette, Ou Du Monde is the mid-tundra night’s Caribbean daydream of Moscow-based Ivan Karib (Kon Tiki Gemini). “Primiriirii” accepts its charge literally, featuring syncopated drums, sunbleached production, and electric guitar reconfigured as tuned percussion. “Summer’s Always Coming” overtakes the noise-pop movement on its home turf, with fuzzy, indecipherable vocals, endless yonder guitar, and bird chirps. Maybe it’s the title, but “Kid Island” sounds rather like a low-volume rockabilly band performing for a school gymnasium dance. Karib offers up a deft alternative to Russian art’s chess-shark bookishness, without coming off as eat-your-vegetables preachy. Sunscreen recommended.

- Fred Nolan for Fluid Radio

www.aguirrecords.com