Here is the lead-off video for the new Grapefruit album done by Grapefruit himself, Charlie Salas Humara. Fall into that for a while…

RIYL: Tangerine Dream, music so kraut it’s still cabbage & synths creamy enough to attract cats

What happens when you get Klaus Shulze into some American jeans? Yes I know, the perennial question – well we here at Field Hymns have the answer – Grapefruit. Muscular and fluid, Grapefruit speaks a brogue of 70′s Kosmisch and 80′s action flick scores, woven into a rich expanse of arpeggiated streams, analog sunsets and cosmic beaches. Recommended for all lovers of analog synth artistry.

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1. Science Wars
2. End Scene
3. Phase Accidents
4. Arp 2
5. Split Horizons
6. Zone Sourcing
7. Many Fades
8. High Strings
9. Aleatoric Tone Tunnels

RIYL: Ghost Box, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, brisk walks on an analog plain

Spawned from a barroom conversation light on recall but heavy on purpose, The Cutting Room is a collection of incidental music from scenes that never made the cut, more specifically, “underscores” – soft, unobtrusive background music that accompanies the action in a performance. This collection of underscores (not all soft) from the mind of Adderall Canyonly and Oxykitten are imagined for a Michael Caine 1971 absurdist sci-fi romance flick that was never made.

Or so they tell us.

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1 Dog-Fisting My Unicorn
2 I’ll Crush Your Tiny Brain
3 Perry Combover
4 Cruising For A Losing
5 Evil Things Brought Down By The Storm
6 Sibbed To Get This, Chedda
7 Slip Into Something More Pharm
8 Painter Of Horses
9 Cadaver Lab
10 Better Fred Than Dead
11 Watch Your Mouth – Put Your Lips On It
12 The Bionic Teat

RIYL: grimy synths, cold beats, a morose feeling of nostalgia for black denim

In 1991 Capcom USA, in a bold move to reclaim market share lost to rival video developers and taking advantage of the new 16 bit processors in the Sega Genesis and its rival, the Super NES, commissioned of Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode to develop a more modern soundtrack for a game in development with a working title “Vital Organs”. The project was eventually scrapped, the music forgotten and the world moved on.

This is what that music would have sounded like.

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1 Speed Demon
2 The Great Escape
3 Basement Party
4 California
5 Coma
6 Galaxy
7 California (Remix)
8 Speed Reason

RIYL: Drone with a capital D, headphones

Susurrus filters through the cracks of the city buildings and blocks broken only by the sharp, static pangs of decay – chaos begets order which begets chaos again – this is the root of all languages and is audible and accessible to all who have the patience to stop and listen…

Susurrus is a 31 minute piece in two parts, composed of feedback, ground-loops and other various unintended ephemera endemic to electronic instruments and the recording process. Taken singly these defects are purposefully avoided but when joined a remarkable synthesis can sometimes be observed. From an almost imperceptible beginning it rises in complexity until electrical arcs are almost visible…

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1 Mvt. 1
2 Mvt. 2

While I am getting caught up on all these unfinished posts about the great music I have been listening too I’d like to share a good article I read today on the always informative Decoder Mag site ( and super pumped about the physical issue that’s coming out this summer ). It’s a response to an  article on Weed Temple ( which I also adore ) that comments upon the merits vs. hipster value of the cassette “revival” over at  Pop Matters.  that started innocently enough with a question about ripping tapes. Hyperlink galore, I know. Regardless, fascinating. Anyhow here is the Decoder post – enjoy!

As was recommended – full screen, sound up.  Pretty amazing – the fellows on the track are these guys .
Damned international shipping…

The boys from EYES have dropped an EP of outtakes and jams from the Dust sessions called White Ash - if you dont’ know EYES yet, well get on it!

In their words “initial improvisational tracks (guitar, bass and drums) recorded during the “dust” session, additional overdubs added later.”

It’s not like we are not working or anything, we just are not sharing our daily thoughts at the moment! 2012 is going to be a big year for us at FH – we are relishing the quiet here for just a little bit longer…. On a somewhat related note – back from vacation was waiting for me the Goaty release of Hammer of Hathor’s The Ineluctable Modality of the Visible that was so kindly sent by Mark of said band. If you recall, HOH graced Field Hymns with an excellent album titled Vroom Psycho a while back and I was terribly excited to see what they had been up to in the meantime.

Once again what strikes me about this band is how ethnically non-specific their music is – what I mean by that is I have no idea how to approach this album from my North American background.  It is an amalgamation, a synthesis of so many forms of music – I have no mental divider in my internal Rolodex in which to file this, which makes writing about it tricky. Hammer of Hathor are conversing in a musical language that excludes my understanding – I am fascinated by it but I cannot respond in turn, forever to be an outsider. And unlike many of their contemporaries it is always musical – even at it’s most un-hinged. It’s like a free-jazz Gamalen Kentucky minimalist banjo workshop in North Africa.  No, it’s like Sun Ra re-interpreting the score to Badlands.  See?  A better writer could explain this better. I feel like this is truly original piece of work and encourage you to seek out the rest of their catalog.

Luckily Hammer of Hathor have just posted this album and a great deal of their work  at the Free Music Archive (which I seriously recommend checking out if have not before).  If you need the tape you can pick one up at the fabulous EGGY ( and I will always recommend the tape) and our release can be gotten here.

RIYL: analog oceans, virtual wombs, droney drone drone

Korgoleum is a 33:33 improvisational drone in C by Garth  Klippert
Equipment: Korg Microkorg digital synthesizer

The construction job site is a meditative space. The creative process of building can be stimulated by “music” that is still “under construction.”

In 1917, Erik Satie coined the term Musique D’ameublement, or “Furniture Music.” The term describes music as a component in a physical environment rather than as an object of attention. John Cage championed this view, and faithfully performed many of Satie’s compositions. In the 1970s, the departure from thinking of music as strictly “art for its own sake” (or for the sake of the artist’s ego) begat Brian Eno’s Ambient music. It also, with the help of technology, begat Muzak–the safe, beige backdrop for shopping environments and elevators. Muzak, incidentally, employs its own force of skilled contractors to install their equipment–it is literally “installed music”. With the advent of subsequent technological advances, human beings have been able to experience a perpetual soundtrack to their own lives (if they so desire). Over the last four or five decades, sound installation has emerged as a viable and important form of public sculpture–viz. The Audium, San Francisco (1967), Brian Eno’s Music For Airports, LaGuardia Marine terminal, New York City (1980), and La Monte Young’s Dreamhouse, New York City (1992), to name just a few.

It is my intention to take this concept of “music as environment” one degree further into the abstract, and to make music that is not only a component in an environment, but is in fact a raw material to be used in the construction of an environment. Korgoleum is intended to function for the listener as literally as a building material (plywood, steel, or tile) functions for the builder. The name suggests a product akin to flooring, made of Korg. It is not organic, it is not analog, it is not natural. It is the bespoke product of a musical artisan whose personal choices determine its one-of-a-kind sonic texture. It can be fabricated by any qualified artisan with the proper equipment. It is intended to be used by the listener as-is, for whatever purpose the listener decides. It can be cut into pieces, manipulated into other forms, bought, sold, distributed, and re-sold, just like any other building material. It can also be looked at and listened to, all by itself. With Korgoleum, you do whatever you want with it.

To me, it’s music for drywall - GSK 8/11

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1. Korgoleum 33:33

RIYL: A Silver Apples, Can and Hawkwind sandwich

An astute observer will recognize within the first seconds of the crackling drums that open A Candle in the Crown of the Dawn that this record is supercharged, blown out and stripped down. With the intensity of Black Mountain soaring over a splashing, hypnotic rhythm section, San Francisco’s EYES bypass to the center, to a place beyond knowledge, beyond rock, where human batteries are charged by a Dionysus crystal, where the shimmering organs read your mind, and the sun and shadow voices dwell.

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1. Far and Away
2. Moonwhite Hour
3. Grey Moss
4. That Silence
5. Black Water
6. A Candle in the Crown of the Dawn

2011 was the best year yet for Field Hymns – we released a ton of great music, got picked up by some of our favorite online stores, made lots of new friends and now have a wave of fabulous releases for the spring – Grapefruit, Detainee, Foton, Susurrus, Adderall Canyonly & Oxykitten. I’d like to thank a whole bunch of people but I am terrified of forgetting someone – suffice to say if you are reading this, you are probably one of them. Hugs from the bottom of our hearts!

Lets kick ass together in 2012!

love,  Harry Mann-Balz

Our very own Oxykitten has a new track from the upcoming album “Octagonal Wax” (out this spring) on Crash Symbol’s new mixtape – “Dope Mountain Fuck Vol.2” – just try and tell me that comp is not awesome. Check that shit out and support an excellent label!

Another week brings another crazy-kickass Oxykitten video – check it!

There has been some disagreement in the FH office about the merits of this particular band – I for one am a big fan of this album – French Canadian old-skool metal fronted by a woman? Bring it on I say!
These folks do not seem to like to have their music in embeddable places – this is all I can find and the track is more on the Sabbath side of things – the rest of the album is more galloping…

Listen and buy HERE

PORTLAND, OREGON, NOV. 14, 2011 – What is purported to be the front sleeve art for the forthcoming album “Stop Faking Sense” by the Portland musician Boron has been submitted to the label. In a staunch show of support for the eccentric electronic artist, the lable Field Hymns has decided to make the art public.

The release of the artwork also comes with a quote from the artist himself, who rarely gives interviews or speaks publicly. “People don’t fuckin’ buy fuckin’ physical fuckin’ albums anymore anyfuckin’way, so who gives a flying fuck what the fuckin’ sleeve looks like? How many fuckin’ more fuckin’ bad albums with great fuckin’ graphic fuckin’ design to we have to fuckin’ witness before people fuckin’ learn to stop fuckin’ associating a nice fuckin’ sleeve with the fuckin’ music? Fuckin’ mp3s…upload that shit on my Twitter.”

Although the artist’s views are likely to erode his small by loyal fanbase–and inspire the ire of critics–Boron continued his semi-rant by insisting on the role of sleeve art to capture attention and entertain, rather than to edify and reinforce musical credibility: “Radiohead. Great. Fuckin’ band. But “Pablo Honey”? Have you fuckin’ looked? At that fuckin’ sleeve lately? Come on!”

PORTLAND, OREGON, NOV. 10, 2011 – It has come to light that the forthcoming album “Stop Faking Sense” by the Portland musician Boron will not be the solo affair his fans are used to. The double album will feature a half dozen guest musicians known for their cutting edge work straddling the pop and experimental genres of indie music. The roster reads like a whos-who of cutting edge indie music: MaryClare Brzytwa, Josh Mong, Oxykitten, Crank Sturgeon, Stefan Jecusco, Joel Ricci, Larry Yes, Lexa Walsh, and Nate Lumbard.

The Los Angeles-based composer MaryClare Brzytwa is best known for her work with Fred Frith, William Winant, and Ava Mendoza; Josh Mong is a veteran of the Portland group Smegma; Crank Sturgeon is a noise musician from Maine who integrates video and handmade contact microphones into his brief and abrasive pieces; Joel Ricci and Nate Lumbard, who have appeared with the bands March Fourth and the Dickel Brothers respectively, will supply horns and flamenco guitar respectively, on “Hard Tard” and “Boron Squad” respectively; Stefan Jecusco, who recently finished a trilogy of albums based on Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”, is rumored to be co-producing “Stop Faking Sense”; and sources claim that Portland psych rock luminary Larry Yes has supplied a guitar solo on the track “Mountain Dew’d”; Lexa Walsh is a member of Toychestra and the Czech acapella group Kackala.

It has also been confirmed that Oxykitten has put the finishing touches on his contribution to the track “Tomato Upload.”

“Stop Faking Sense” will be released in late December on the Field Hymns label, which releases electronic, experimental, krautrock, lo-fi, psychedelic, musique concrete, and soundtrack music, mostly on cassette. For more information, contact marketing director Dan Nelson at nelson@fieldhymns.com.

- END -

Is that fucking great or what?

PORTLAND, OREGON, NOV. 7, 2011 – The title of a forthcoming album by the Portland musician Boron has been announced. Despite earlier rumors that it retain its working title of “The Beige Album,” the double album has been entitled “Stop Faking Sense”. The musician’s label had no further comment on the title, which presumably alludes to the concert film “Stop Making Sense” by the group Talking Heads. The leader of that group, David Byrne, was also unavailable for comment.

Field Hymns also announced that the album will be released–in what is either an ingenious or simply puzzling marketing strategy–on December 26, the day after Christmas. “With this unorthodox release date, we’re hoping to capitalize on a market that has received little attention so far, that of the holiday shopper who ventures forth to the shopping center to return or exchange gift merchandise,” stated Field Hymns president Dylan McConnell.

RIYL: Shoegazing, electric blankets, waves

Maybe it’s a bad idea to start a description of a piece of music by admitting you don’t know how to describe it. But we’ll be honest with you: this album synthesizes so much of our taste that it’s like trying to describe the taste of water to a fish. Part crooning electro-pop, part drone, half found-sound and all unique, Towards Your Own Worlds from this deliciously prolific artist is a remarkable achievement in both the abstract and the tangible.

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1. Glassy
2. Labendolla
3. Head Held Erect
4. Human Strength Giving Itself Up Has Inspired That Cry
5. Borne By Tropical Waves Within Their Foamy Bosoms
6. Scooch Over Presence

I think Lou Reed is a no-talent ass clown. In fact I am in a heated IM debate on whether or not he was the Huey Louis of the late 60′s. Regardless on your take of the man this article is interesting. I can only imagine ( I will not listen to this) that the album is everything I hate about aging vanity projects of the super-famous – clinging to whatever semblance of street cred they once stumbled upon & trying to keep relevant they windmill about besmirching whatever creative output they once had, creating terrible, soulless, un-inspired music that no one will ever bear to listen to three years later. Call me a hater – whatevs.

It’s balance man.

ARTICLE HERE

HMB

PORTLAND, OREGON, OCT. 26, 2011 – A source that has direct contact with the experimental electronic musician Boron has revealed what may be the definitive track list for his third release for the Field Hymns record label. Information in an earlier press release contained incomplete information, with some of the tracks differing slightly from those below. The source also describe using blood and other bodily fluids to copy the song titles onto cocktail napkins smuggled into the studio, which is under tight security.

Nonsensebeard
Evening Bog
Hamburger Touchdown
German Engineering
Hard Tard
Ralph Cracchio, il Vagina Virtuoso
Good Morning, Asshat
Clamburglar
Moons Over My Panamax
Borong
Boroner’s Report
Boron Squad
Mountain Dew’d
Boron & Boroner
Tomato Upload
Viking Ballet
The Flying Wedge
Be a Schlepper
Stop Faking Sense
Sunset Tunnel
Entertain Me Tonight
G-Rated Grope
Boron on the Fourth of July

Neither the source responsible for the leak or the record label have named the studio where the current Boron work is being recorded. It is widely believed to be located on the east side of Portland.

Portland Label Boomarm Nation has re-mixed Sahel Sounds album “Music From Saharan Cellphones” – if you recall this release was compiled from tracks recorded in North Africa and passed from sim to sim, essentially as a poor man’s iPod. If you have not purchased that album do it now! Get the Boomarm album here - and it’s free.

Read about the cell phone music sharing industry here at Sahel Sounds – and buy an album

Big old hat tip to OMG VINYL once again – I had never heard of Murmuüre until today and not not only can I not stop listening to it, I must find everything I can by them. Brooding and gorgeous black metal heavy on atmosphere – a must have.

From the Aurora Borealis listing “All Murmuure material is based on a one hour guitar improvisation from November 2006. Selected parts were further edited to fit a rythmic structure, and merged with additional layers of sound. This process of mixing & endless re-writing took 3 years until final completion. The percussions are a mixture of the original programmed drums, and some (extremely re-edited) additional live drumming. Vocals were recorded during a cathartic trance at a sacred place in the forest, with a mini-disc recorder. Being almost inaudible in the music, they’re strictly conceived as a vocal sigil technique, a vehicle for intent. The 30 minutes long, self-titled release is possibly the first and last Murmuure record. I’ve put so much in it that it will be hard to match, and there would be no point in doing something more just for the sake of it.”

Dig the cover riff too! BUY here.

Pretty amazing sounding Kraut-esque propulsive minimal library synth from Seattle – gonna buys me some right now!

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, OCT. 16, 2011 – The elusive electronic musician who goes by the moniker of Boron was recently sighted publicly in Seattle, Washington. Photographs obtained by Field Hymns show Boron in conference with an individual on a Seattle street, his back to the camera. Another photograph depicts Boron exchanging what appears to be wires with the same individual, while a third portrays the artist fleeing the camera, his face shielded by an LP record.

The record has been identified by a member of SPIN magazine’s blogging staff to be the inner gatefold sleeve of Diana Ross’s self-titled 1980 LP. This would seem to be confirmed by a reference made by Boron, in a rare 1996 interview, to the Diana Ross song “My Old Piano,” which is featured on the 1980 Motown record.

No photograph of Boron showing his full face is known to exist.

The purpose of the Oregon musician’s presence in Seattle is unknown. Field Hymns has recently stated that Boron is at work on his third release for the independent label

FIELD HYMNS REVEALS PARTIAL TRACK LIST OF FORTHCOMING BORON ALBUM

PORTLAND, OREGON, OCT. 13, 2011 – Executives at Field Hymns Records close to experimental electronic musician Boron have revealed what is thought to be a partial track list for his third release for the label. The titles, some bawdy and jocular, suggest a departure from the artist’s familiar approach of abstract and cool soundscapes.

Nonsensebeard
Assbag
Hamburger Touchdown
German Engineering
Ralph Cracchio
Vagina Virtuoso
Clamburglar
Moons Over the Panamax
Borong
Boroner’s Report
Boron Squad
Mountain Dew’d
Boron & Boroner
Sunflower Tunnel
Be a Schlepper

It is believed that Boron has been working on the album for close a year, but facts about the elusive artist are few and far between. Suggestions that the same individual(s) behind Field Hymns artist Adderall Canyonly–whose titles range from “Dog-Fisting My Unicorn” to “Driving Parker Posey to the Mall”–produces Boron’s music have largely been discredited, and continue to be vigorously denied by label head Dylan McConnell.

I really thought this project was some sort of hipster dance-off novelty act due to the adjective-noun variant of their name but finally bent under the relentless name dropping and blanket coverage I have been subjected to since its release and I am glad I did – much to my surprise it is not synth /drum machine but sublime and ecstatic drone music & right up my alley.

Once again Digitalis has made a delightful dent in my otherwise solid frontal lobe…

GET IT HERE

Speaking of stuff we like – it is well past time that I declared my love for the excellently curated skwee comp Skwee Cruise by local label Poisonous Gases. I have listened to this about thirty times I bet in the past couple of months and I am still finding cool moments on this. I believe most of these tracks are by european artists, as skwee is not very big on this side of the pond, but I could be wrong. Regardless it is an excellent listen and a couple of this tracks are the funkiest, stuttering fucking things I have heard in a long time – listen and buy the double vinyl HERE

I thought I would post this while I am again listening to all these great tracks. This is Ricky from the excellent label Sound Of Cobra and friends…real great stuff – like if Godspeed! You Black Emperor was fronted by a shaman in mid trance – actually that is a poor description – I don’t know what it sounds like really – Zaire Art Ensemble? Sun Rhodesia? Pharaoh Sahara? Albert Algiers?

listen and download some HERE and tell me what you think it sounds like… and all albums are free downloads too – what luck!