We are taking a two week leave of absence from the shop – all orders placed before today, the 2nd, have gone out – orders placed in the interim will be on their way after the 17th. In the meantime, you should watch this…
Not technically a Field Hymns release but an offering from Oxykitten: “Fugue State is a collection of 4 and 8 track tape recordings from Oxykitten’s past. Previously floating around as the spirits of albums never requited, these killer but odd cuts are newly assembled in a shiny and happy home. Hope you enjoy….”
So the cassette/small run/net label world is a pretty incestuous thing – because we don’t have to wait until we sell 1000 CDs or 500 records to release another album, artists like us tend to be prolific. This really is the benefit of tapes – burn bright and fast, and leave them wanting more. Make 100 tapes for a label move on…
Here are some current albums by folks who have released albums with us and what they do when they are not here.
Joe Bastardo is also one half of Looks Realistic which just put out a kickass cassette/VHS combo on the great Constellation Tatsu. He also has project called Homeowner which will have a release on the incomparable Orange Milk in April or May and then another title as Bastian Void on Architects + Heroes a month later. In case you didn’t know, he is also head honcho at Moss Archive which has a full slate of great albums coming out this year. Joe Bastardo = awesome, just in case you are bad at math.
Grapefruit (Charlie Salas Humara – also of Pinks Quieter, Sun Angle and Regular Music ) has three albums out currently on Golden Cloud, Gnar, a digital release on AmDiscs + a Sloow tape that is now sold out. The man is too brilliant to sleep, luckily for us all. I have heard a copy of the Sun Angle album recently and it blew my mind – best band in Portland right now.
An amalgam of both projects Charlatan and The North Sea, Brad Rose the man over at Digitalis should have prolific engraved on his headstone. In fact, were I to type out all he has recorded I’d weep with frustration, but lately he has put out excellent work on vinyl over at Type and Rubber City Noise. And Digitalis has just been killing it lately with their releases – super kudos from us.
Andreas has current releases on Lighten Up Sounds, Hair On My Food and a now out of print tape on Tranquility Tapes. I am sure he has great stuff cooking as we speak…
Zac has been a busy bee: a full length vinyl release over on Debacle, a cassette on Goldtimers, and another on Further – there is more no doubt but the internet is blank to your intrepid reporter.
Michele Scariot is not only prolific, he also runs Dokuro, a most excellent label out of Italy. Instead of typing this out I will just direct you to the wiki of the small-run world, Discogs – but I feel like there are probably some missing titles here…
AdCan has an album on Tranquility Tapes, Rubber City Noise and a release soon on Under the Spire. Also in the meantime was a release as The Dept. of Harmonic Integrity over at Beest.
And the award for the most prolific of the year goes to Garth: his band Old Light is planning five cassette releases recorded and released in one year on PDX label Curly Cassettes . That is a lot of old dinosaur guts but will surely worth it. Rumor is that there is also a vinyl release slated for this year too…
Man, it has been a stellar year for Field Hymns, the best yet. We released an ass-load of great music – in fact, it’s kind of unbelievable that we released 13 albums this year, all A+ caliber :
Bastian Void – Fluorescent Bells
Boron – The Beige Album
Jonathan James Carr – Well Tempered Ignorance
Andreas Brandal – Staying Is Nowhere
Charlatan Meets The North Sea
Foton – Omega
Oxykitten – Octagonal Wax
Grapefruit
Adderall Canyonly & Oxykitten – The Cutting Room
Detainee – Vital Organs
Susurrus
Garth Steel Klippert – Korgoleum
Eyes – A Candle in the Crown of the Dawn
Pretty remarkable for a rickety, shoe-string operation like this one. Thanks to all the artists who were willing to potentially doom their music to obscurity and take a chance with us – you guys are fucking awesome. Thanks to all the fans and/or curious folk who bought tapes (what remarkable taste you have). Thanks to all the writers who listened and wrote about our albums – the world is completely saturated with music, more so than ever it seems. To take time out of your busy schedules and listen to a Field Hymns record means a damn great deal to us. And it goes without saying, all you chumps who didn’t listen to our music – your loss. Catch us in 2013 when even MORE great stuff is going to be happening, as we have some truly mind-boggling stuff lined up.
Stay tuned to this station for more news! And Happy New Year if we don’t talk before then…
mwah,
us
Portland label extraordinaire Audio Dregs is having a huge vinyl sale – 10 records for $50! From the website -
“We’re having a massive vinyl blowout sale for the next couple weeks (or until things run out): everything on vinyl that’s still in print must go and I am putting as much extra goodies in the box as I can fit.
10 LPs, + 2 DVDs, +2 zines, + stickers, + free shipping! $49.99!
this includes
Audio Dregs has been consistently on the forefront of experimental beat shaping & has been molding the sound of modern electronica in real-time since its inception, although that bland genre classification falls woefully short of explaining anything. For a measly $50 though you can get a primer on not only a great label but get an early peek on a sound and space your grandchildren will be taking drugs to.
Where does the time go, really? I’ll be damned if I know. If I could save time it a bottle I’d probably drink that too but I digress…
We have now reached outside of the US – today we are excited to announce that we have distribution in Japan via the excellent S.O.L Sound – give them some love, for they are a hella ace shop. Are you a European shop looking for some chrome sonic bombast? Hit us up. Time to hit the other side of the pond!
We had an excellent article written about a tape trade we did a while back over at Amour & Discipline and a whole host of others you can find by scrolling through here. All and all it’s been quite a summer run – the fall releases are going to rip your ears off and deposit them softly into fur lined reliquaries with albums by Brad Rose (Charlatan & The North Sea), Andreas Brandal, Jonathan James Carr (Brainfuit & Particle Being ensemble) Bastion Void, Nodolby, The Cats’ Orchestra, Boron and Portland’s own experimental synth super group Regular Music. And that’s just what we have at the plant – we have had assurances of releases to come by Panabrite, Lunar Miasma, Giant Claw, Mattress, Garth Steel Klippert, Cane Swords and Black Unicorn. So it’s a good time to be us.
Thanks for all the terrific support and keep being awesome…
