Fast shipping. UK orders over £50 ship free!
according to ANT on 17th May 2013
It doesn’t look like Ramadan man is coming back anytime soon as David Kennedy continues to focus on his output as Pearson Sound. ‘REM’ is the second release on his own label and consists of four short but sweet tracks so you’ll need to be nimble on the decks.
First cut ‘REM’ is a slow motion stripped to the bone exercise in thunderous bass, sparse percussion. A really spacious and simple tune filled out with cavernous effects. As we know though David has really mastered this take on minimalism and in terms of Bass music has really made it his own. Imagine you favourite hoover jungle record pitched down to minus 64.
‘Gridlock’ has a very mechanical sounding rhythm with shuffling, funky drums and an almighty big booming heavy kick that really pounds hard. The groove kinda sounds like it’s struggling along and it has a cool off-kilter funk to it. ‘Figment’ is a melancholy loop which gradually changes with a smattering of pretty electronics in the background. Nothing flash, keeping things simple yet effective. ‘Crimson (Beat Ritual Mix)’ closes the EP with some filtered snares, lush strings and a really sweet longing feeling emanating from the grooves. This one reminds me of Carl Craig. A tidy little EP.
according to ANT on 16th May 2013
Bleep roll out the third instalment in their desirable Green Series of techno 12"s. The man in the red mask Redshape AKA Sebastian Kramer's contribution 'Focus' kicks off with a clonky bassline and some spaced out synth action, gradually becoming ever so slightly acid tinged with funky hi-hats and clicky kicks. It's one of those tunes to bring it down a bit and get the dancefloor plodding along while keeping their minds busy with some futuristic bleeps and dark atmospherics giving it a mysterious/ tech-noir edge.
On the flip Klakson head girl, Dutch lady and Berlin resident Steffi has a tune called 'Attacke' which also has a really spaced out feel which is in keeping with some of her output on Ostgut Ton and it also compliments Redshape's side. This however ups the tempo with 909 claps, rattling shakers and a really mesmerising hypnotic groove, building subtly it never really reaches the peak it suggests, rather it's more of a tease, building the tension. It's all finely tooled and well polished for the trendier dance floors / clubs as opposed to grubbier warehouses. Both tunes are alright but no secret weapons here.
according to ANT on 16th May 2013
First Jim Lowe, The Cramps then Shakin' Stevens and now Laurel Halo is having a thing with the green door. I think it's probably safe to say that gigging with her Hyperdub label mates has rubbed off on Miss Halo. For her dreamy, experimental, ethereal future cyber-pop appears to be on the back burner.
Here she offers up her take on bass infused techno and house with the rolling drums, bass wobbles and piano loops of opener 'Throw'. Which to be honest fails to spark any kind of physical or mental response from me. 'UHF F/O' goes at it with tough, pounding kicks and skittering percussion and a really free/ live sounding synth weaving in and around the groove, the kind of which could have come from the studio of Jamal Moss. It feels like she could be jamming/ improvising at first but then things seem to click into place.
'NOYFB' has a UK Funky thing happening with galloping drums. There's certainly more of an emphasis on rhythm throughout this EP. Then a big squelchy, rubbery stuttering sound enters the mix, perhaps recalling early Rustie. Things continue to build, simultaneously managing to be both experimental/ weird and floor friendly. In the sense that some of the sounds don't sound like they belong / fit properly into the track but with her magic she somehow pulls it off. Finally 'Sex Mission' is a no nonsense techno tune aimed squarely at the dancefloor with obligatory breakdowns, more stuttering squelches, metallic housey keys funky snares and a real sense of what will go off on the dancefloor.
All the tracks have a really good sound; as we know this lady knows her way around her machines but they also have a rawness in their construction that's not overworked. Everyone seems to be making techno these days, don't they?
according to ANT on 16th May 2013
This might just be the record Forest Swords would have made had he been on a really bad trip while the prince of darkness was pushing his face into a meat grinder. 'Primal Spheres' kicks off with 'Stagnant Venom' sounding like a RZA production caked in mud and dripping with slime. A heavy, bombastic marching beat, distorted horn and wailing guitar make for a gloomy post apocalyptic fantasy soundtrack. These guys have really come into their own in recent years. Gone are the days when they sounded like they really wanted to be Skullflower. The dub drenched vocals really add an extra dimension to the fuzzed out stoned grooves.
'Blasted Orb' goes to work with a menacing drone, ritualistic chants and slow building heavy drums then becomes smothered in swells of gritty distorted noise and unholy atmospherics, again all dubbed out with reverb and delay. It's one dark swampy, smoked out mother with searing guitar and an air of demonic menace.
A swift flip reveals the psychedelic doom of 'Flannel Shroud' which has a more rigid song based construction, although the drone-scapes remain intact the emphasis is on the heavily effected vocal some fine riffs and even an epic guitar solo. There's a brief breakdown midway for a breather then they really go for it, I like to imagine sparks flying from the guitar at this point as things really hot up. The final quarter of this tar filled pie is 'Concrete Brother' a hypnotic slow motion noise rock dirge that sounds like a lost space rock classic being played 20,000 leagues under the sea.
I kinda lost touch a little with what these guys were up to for a bit after following them for a while in the earlier days. They're in fine form here and 'Primal Sphere' has really sparked the urge in me to start digging back, see what I've missed and start flying the friendly skies with these guys again. Edition of 400 copies with download.
according to ANT on 16th May 2013
Back in 1987 Nik Bullen and friends were responsible for a musical revolution with Napalm Death's debut album 'Scum'. Later he would contribute to early Scorn Material but this is actually his debut solo album.
'Element Configuration III' is first up sounding like classic early avant-electronics/ electro-acoustic/ musique concrète beamed from the 60's into the future and back to present day for our delectation. I literally have no idea what's going on here. This is acousmatic audio in the truest sense, save the obvious role of the computer. The sounds are stark, cold and futuristic making me feel like I've been abducted; blindfolded aboard some alien craft. There's a real clarity and sense of space to the sounds as they seemingly map out a kind of sterile white box type environment but this illusion quickly becomes broken by the introduction of some snippets of more organic, non synthetic sounds.
'Signal Filament Extensions' begins with a tinnitus threatening tone which gradually is joined by a counterpart at differing pitch and as the two overlap the effect becomes disorientating, no surprise really as they ears are a key component to ones equilibrium. As they continue to mess with the mind a deep drone fills out the sound and eventually some bleeping digital birds and crickets show up, again really transforming the space and shattering the illusion. It's not exactly grindcore yet in a sense it's sound that's equally extreme.
according to ANT on 16th May 2013
This is one of those records where you can clearly identify influences and yet the finished product is entirely their own. 'I'm So Cold' is the debut LP from Los Angeles duo Erik Frydenborg and Ernest Gibson and what a glorious mess it is. From the primitive/ crude but functional drum machine rhythms to the stuttering Suicide circa Frankie Teardrop stylings of 'Clear Thing'.
There's a real warm DIY basement spirit to these jams coupled with some excellent songwriting. Both grubby and psychedelic it has a very organic feel despite the electronic sounds. I think the industrial rhythms give it a really appealing fucked up caveman quality. The pace of the record is really laid back too, it has a dubby head nodding stoner vibe and although they use a ton of effects they still manage to find space and keep things from getting too cluttered, letting the effects complement the sounds rather than swamping them. This is totally well worth checking out if you seek some weird druggy psychedelic post industrial goo with the odd catchy tune.
according to ANT on 16th May 2013
I tell you I almost shit myself when news of this came to me through the cables. I completely fell in love with Frederick Charles Judd's posthumous 'Electronics Without Tears' record. Public Information have assembled an absolute corker of a line-up to rework the original material: Ian Helliwell, Perc, Chris Carter, Holly Herndon, Mordant Music, The Boats, Pye Corner Audio, Leyland Kirby, Karen Gwyer, Peter Rehberg, Bandshell and Ekoplekz!!! Need I say more?
Well Ian Helliwell is the chap responsible for curating the original release and he opens the set with a mangled and scrambled reworking of original sounds, radio static and Fred's endearing vocal narrations. Helliwell's not the only artist to include the vocals on here which is great as often they are integral to the charm of the originals. Perc resists the obvious route of turning out a banging industrial tinged techno number and instead comes up with a dark and mysterious clanking interpretation. Chris Carter goes with an intentionally retro sounding work that's sonically in keeping with the time period of the original. Holly Herndon's 'Control Sample' mangles and warps vocal samples over some spook-scapes. Mordant Music uses large chunks of dialogue, smartly looping up a key phrase giving it new connotations, while all manner of unsettling machinations and future bleeps and blips shift across the sound spectrum. Pye Corner Audio's 'Splice Block' oozes paranoia with irregular muffled heartbeat percussion.
At half way through the album it becomes apparent that this is actually a pretty dark sounding record. Leyland Kirby's interpretation is drenched in tape hiss, thunderous booming and unsettling erratic ticks that come together to create a gloomy but inviting dark ambient piece. Peter Rehberg's 'FJUDDmix 032013' sounds like it could have been beamed from the INA GRM studio. Bandshell serves up big chunky distorted beats and a fuzzed up wailing siren accompaniment. Meanwhile last but not least the mighty Ekoplekz closes the set with the amusingly titled 'Fredwrek' squeezing Fred's sounds through his collection of gizmos and effects to create a real head rinser.
Throughout, the precious source material is handled sensitively yet each contributor manages to put their own stamp on things. I wonder if old Fred could have envisaged his work being revisited and re-worked some 50 years down the line? Perhaps so as he was a real future thinker. Highly recommended.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
I sometimes think we at Norman Records live in a parallel musical universe to the mainstream movers and shakers. So many albums praised to the hilt elsewhere get very short shrift among our ears. And I know you won’t believe me when we say we are NOT music snobs...well, not much.
It’s happening time and time again, Vampire Weekend last week, The National this. I remember my pre-record store working days before I was lucky enough to hear records before they came out; pre-internet, pre-Radio 6, when you had to take the word of the scribes, and the amount of records I sold months after buying, desperately disappointed that the music did not live up to the hype. This is why, despite one of our main aims of bringing you the underground music that can’t afford to pay for generating hype, we must continue to give you honest appraisals of the ‘big’ releases because...basically...no-one else will.
I have so little interest in Daft Punk that they barely pass by my musical radar. Over the past month or so, I keep noting excited postings on Facebook about their new album, possibly sponsored by the Sony corporation. It’s difficult to see how Daft Punk have made it to the level they are at, their last couple of albums weren’t particularly critically praised but now after the regulation five year gap they are being talked of as legends. Opener ‘Give Life Back to Music’ is a plasticy Chic impersonation with horrid vocoder slathered over. The same vocoder irritates ‘The Game of Love’ which otherwise is a sleek, disco weeper with some gorgeous descending keys. It’s safe to say that if, like me, you hate vocoder, you are going to struggle.
‘Giorgio by Moroder’ samples the great man,yet the irony is that when Moroder originally came along he made music that sounded like nothing else. It was genuinely futuristic, sexy and slightly scary, but the track that follows is a sleek interpretation of ‘Magic Fly’ by Space. The raft of collaborators is impressive - Julian Casablancas, Pharrell Williams, Panda Bear, Nile Rodgers - the most obvious influence is that of the latter. The sleek, Chic grooves are everywhere and thumping single ‘Get Lucky’ is genuinely brilliantly catchy, you’ll have heard it...well...everywhere already. Yet it magnifies the thought rolling around my head. There isn’t that much difference between Daft Punk and Jamiroquai. Both authentically steal music from the late part of the ‘70s, often to the point of near plagiarism. Yet one is the future of music and the other a twat in a hat. It’s a funny old (hype driven) world.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
There’s a dog that lives down our street, they put it out to bark at night. Sometimes for several hours at a time. It drives me mad. Gentle folkie Nancy Elizabeth has a voice that reaches enough dizzy Kate Bush levels of high pitch to prick the ear of 99% of dogs. Her voice is like a flute, it flutters around, it has a very soft timbre like it has been wrapped in towelling. Her music seems to have got a lot more complex since I last listened. It’s less fireside folk and more flitting prog-folk with complex melodies and Jethro Tull-like wooded glade pretensions.
Opener ‘The Last Battle’ starts off Morricone and ends up not dissimilar to some of the songs on CBBC’s ‘Horrible Histories’ as if performed by Pentangle - historic storytelling via the medium of folk music. ‘Heart’ flies slightly into Bat For Lashes territory with obvious debts to Kate Bush, piano-led vocal gymnastics abound, some neat drums keeping the whole thing in check. ‘Simon Says Dance’ is another triumph, utilising piano and synth its repetitive refrain disarms. Nancy Elizabeth has really pushed her music on in the last few years and its much wider in scope and ambitious than previously, possibly the increased melodrama pushes away some of the intimacy of yore but this is a much more fully realised record that is unafraid of variation and some grand statements. It’s a bit like a folk-inflected Bat For Lashes whose quirks have yet to be smoothed away by the major label sandpaper.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
Stephen Cracknell has been making folk inflected acoustronica (sorry!) for quite some time with The Memory Band, The Accidental and others and his records have been pleasant affairs, if at times a little straight laced. I’m pleased to see then that this record is a much more ambitious effort incorporating spoken word samples, bleeps...and dare we say, dance music. Opener ‘The Wearing of the Horns (Weyhill on my mind)’ impresses from the very first second, with the sound of tractors, seagulls and farmers incorporated into an intoxicating folk inflected brew that is genuinely arresting. The glacial female vocals just add a delicious cherry on top of the cake. Imagine something somewhere between Disco Inferno, Big Audio Dynamite, Fourtet and Pentangle and you are probably still miles away. It does sound genuinely new and innovative which is a rare thing in the well trodden field of folk inflected music.
‘I See Cuckoo’ continues the cut and paste techniques sounding not unlike Tunng with a BBC library LP of found countryside sounds at their disposal. Much more electronic than earlier efforts like ‘Oh My Days’ there is more of the Fourtet vibe in a lot of the tracks...or more likely the slew of bands and artists that were initially in awe of the folktronica of early Hebden. There were loads of them and it was a big thing for awhile now pretty much old hat but this album takes the best bits from the genre injecting it with a vital new lease of life. At certain points the mixture of gentle soundtracky instrumentation and spoken word samples remind me of a kind of rural farmyard take on the recent phenomenally successful but yet fatally one dimensional Public Service Broadcasting record, ‘Facing the Granite Country’ injecting some much need bassy doom into gentle meanderings.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Wild Nothing’s previous long player ‘Nocturne’; an album which incorporated a lot of the best bits of ‘80s indie (China Crisis, The Lotus Eaters, The Smiths) into a nicely polished piece of glacial modern day pop. I’m slightly less enamoured by this follow up EP not because the tracks are particularly poor but because they lack the sparkle-in-the-rain melancholic Johnny Marr-isms of the previous record, where the guitar chords hit you just there, in that place in your heart that opened up when you first heard The The’s ‘Uncertain Smile’.
Opener ‘The Body in Rainfall’ is very synth based and is more in your Flock of Seagulls vein. ‘Ocean Repeating (Big Eyed Girl)’ is much, much better with a nicely choppy guitar riff and that kind of mystery late night feeling that is felt in the best of Wild Nothings work, the chorus isn’t bad though the synths are a little overdone (studio door ajar, Nick Rhodes sneaks in). ‘On Guyot’ is forgettable, ‘Ride’ sounds quite like Ride. How many songs have been called ‘Ride’ over the years? A lot I’d imagine. It’s a shoegazey M83ish thing. ‘A Dancing Shell’ exemplifies the issue I have with this record, its not bad at all in comparison to a lot of the shit around, it has a nice yearning chorus, I just think that the fluttery synths and hi-end polished production are making Wild Nothing sound like everyone else. Closer ‘Hachiko’ really pushes things in a different direction all Vini Reilly glacial guitars and synth pad ambience.
Not a bad record and it must be remembered that not all of ‘Nocturne’ was great, it just had a handful of absolute killers AND it was a grower so I’ll be giving this plenty more listens. Overall this is a fair and brave attempt to move the Wild Nothing sound along with synths much more to the fore and a much more technoid production style...but...I liked them as they were. Why does stuff always have to change? Maybe all the great stuff will appear on the next LP.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Wild Nothing’s previous long player ‘Nocturne’; an album which incorporated a lot of the best bits of ‘80s indie (China Crisis, The Lotus Eaters, The Smiths) into a nicely polished piece of glacial modern day pop. I’m slightly less enamoured by this follow up EP not because the tracks are particularly poor but because they lack the sparkle-in-the-rain melancholic Johnny Marr-isms of the previous record, where the guitar chords hit you just there, in that place in your heart that opened up when you first heard The The’s ‘Uncertain Smile’.
Opener ‘The Body in Rainfall’ is very synth based and is more in your Flock of Seagulls vein. ‘Ocean Repeating (Big Eyed Girl)’ is much, much better with a nicely choppy guitar riff and that kind of mystery late night feeling that is felt in the best of Wild Nothings work, the chorus isn’t bad though the synths are a little overdone (studio door ajar, Nick Rhodes sneaks in). ‘On Guyot’ is forgettable, ‘Ride’ sounds quite like Ride. How many songs have been called ‘Ride’ over the years? A lot I’d imagine. It’s a shoegazey M83ish thing. ‘A Dancing Shell’ exemplifies the issue I have with this record, its not bad at all in comparison to a lot of the shit around, it has a nice yearning chorus, I just think that the fluttery synths and hi-end polished production are making Wild Nothing sound like everyone else. Closer ‘Hachiko’ really pushes things in a different direction all Vini Reilly glacial guitars and synth pad ambience.
Not a bad record and it must be remembered that not all of ‘Nocturne’ was great, it just had a handful of absolute killers AND it was a grower so I’ll be giving this plenty more listens. Overall this is a fair and brave attempt to move the Wild Nothing sound along with synths much more to the fore and a much more technoid production style...but...I liked them as they were. Why does stuff always have to change? Maybe all the great stuff will appear on the next LP.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
This week’s runner up in the elaborate packaging stakes is this album of minimal drones from the twin behemoths of Machinefabriek and Sanja Harris. Housed in a brown sleeve it contains four beautiful photographs of pipes and two downloads of films. The music is gorgeous - bell like drones and low end buzz which is sleep-inducing to the point of knocking this tired old hack right out cold. Slowly unfurling pieces of slo-mo sounds each squeak intricately prepared, the sound of a factory buzzing in the afternoon sun, wrapped in cotton wool.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
Probably reaching the point where intricately prepared packaging moves from the homespun and lovingly prepared into borderline mental illness. Despite my worries about the obsessiveness of the preparee, I’m still going to award this the coveted packaging of the week award. It’s in a textured white envelope, numbered of 200, inside an elaborate fold out thing tied together with ribbon, and inside that a booklet. Separate to that is a paper pouch containing several postcards.
The music is slow moving, creepily atmospheric with gently plucked guitars, the quietest of hand-made beats and cellos played so carefully that you can hear the squeak of the hair on the string. It’s quietly impressive in that it has an unusual timbre to it, quite unlike anything else around this week. The second track, however changes tack completely, seemingly the sound of a totally unrelated band to the soft musings of the opener. Post rock guitars take precedence with shoegazer style female vocals and a more strident approach which conversely is less impressive. Some of the atmospheres recall a tranquilised Piano Magic whilst ‘Sunset Eyed’ (it took me 10 minutes to find the titles) reminds me of Scottish Bjork-like electronica duo Conquering Animal Sound. A mixed bag then of atmospheric textures, sometimes ambient to the extreme sometimes more in the experimental post rock vein.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
Hmmm. I don’t know what all this is about. Julia Holter is doing an interpretation of ‘Maria’ sung by Lyudmila Gurchenko (nope me neither). It’s melodramatic Euro-noir that performs the possibly unintentional feat of sounding like an Abba song that I just can’t place. You know that one when they sing in a broken Russian accent? Torrid stuff.
On the B side is something I like a lot more. It’s Holter’s interpretation of the Roxy Music song ‘2HB’ recorded down the phone for a radio programme. I’d say it’s for completists only but neither side particularly sounds like Holter, the B side does have a weird, crackly charm as if beamed from some space station...the A side unfortunately my ears have rejected entirely.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
Debut release on 1800 Dinosaur, a label headed up by Blake himself and the bloke that runs R&S so expect some good things. ‘Voyeur (Dub) is an elongated alternate version of one of the tracks from the occasionally great recent album ‘Overgrown’ and shows Blake at his most Arthur Russell, culminating in a compulsive propulsive dancefloor.
On the flip some lo-end ambience from Blake, eschewing the normal beats and vocals for something much more dark. Coming across like something from Aphex Twin’s ‘Selected Ambient Works’, it adds voice samples sometimes slowed down to the point of inaudibility, with scattershot detritus across the mix. Another string to Blake’s bow and quite unexpectedly gorgeous.
according to CLINTON on 17th May 2013
It’s always a worry when I arrive for reviewing day and am presented with a potential Album of the Week without having heard it. The Focus Group’s previous effort was the collaboration with Broadcast that I ‘couldn’t get into’ but was a massive hit with other ears within this establishment. The Focus Group is the brainchild of James House, graphic designer to the ‘stars’ (Stereolab, Broadcast, Primal Scream and...er Oasis).
The words graphic designer and musical offshoot put together usually fill me with a certain fear as they often result in clinical, sterile records that probably look better sketched out on imac than they are to listen to. Thankfully this is the complete opposite - although the press release suggests the music mirrors his design work, if his graphic work for Oasis reflected this album then Liam’s head would be a satsuma, the ‘O’ in Oasis would be replaced by a hundred tiny mice and the sleeve would be made out of a lava lamp. What I’m trying to say is that it’s all over the bloody place, the seemingly scattershot approach to music making is akin to taking a BBC Radiophonic workshop album, tearing it into a hundred pieces, throwing it up in the air and taping the results.
It makes for a disorientating but mind-blowing listen. Sometimes shards of brilliant melody enter the fray only to be discarded after 30 seconds, tracks often dissolve into a sea of ‘60s reverb. Everything sparkles beautifully, it’s integrated with a kind of ‘60s chaos element. Things squiggle, wibble and squeak in all the wrong (right?) places, theres a topsy turvy magical Lewis Carroll element to it, married with a kind of chopped ‘60s psych bonkers pop. Fans of The United States of America and White Noise are urged to listen to surely what is their most accurate modern day equivalent. Although never really containing any proper ‘songs’ as such, it’s a lot more tuneful and musical than that Broadcast collab and is probably the reason I like it much more despite occasionally feeling just the little bit seasick.
The title kind of sums up the record. If you imagine what a record called ‘Elektrik Karousel’ sounded like then you surely wouldn’t be far off. Ghost Box already have an obsessive nostalgia loving fan base so it will already sell in droves but I think this record will appeal to an even broader range of inquisitive minds.
according to IAN on 16th May 2013
Sixth studio album from critics’ favourite The National. Following the massive success of ‘High Violet’ and a string of festival headlining spots, ‘Trouble Will Find Me’ has got the music press and fans alike salivating. From the offset this sounds like a band that have honed their craft, lush production and well constructed songwriting and yet I find it hard to understand why The National have become so successful, this is a well worn formula of drab indie melancholia for middle class thirtysomethings to play at dinner parties, like a coffee table Joy Division!
Opener ‘I Should Live In Salt’ is an acoustic ballad that even Coldplay wouldn’t touch with a bargepole, ‘Don’t Swallow The Cap’ finds us in typical National territory with singer Matt Berninger in his usual monotone vocal delivery. There are a few half decent moments here as on ‘Graceless’ which could pass as an Interpol B-side but without the post-punk edge and ‘I Need My Girl’ has a nice bit of plinky guitar on it but still doesn’t seem to go anywhere. I’m sure National fans will love this as it doesn’t really stray away from their signature sound but as far as Norman Records album of the week goes...don’t hold your breath!
according to IAN on 16th May 2013
Polyvinyl Records release another gem from gentle lo-fi indie-poppers Saturday Looks Good To Me, this really hits the spot for a sunny afternoon, with classic ‘60s pop songwriting and a sprinkle of modern day indie cool. Twangy jangle guitars and bouncy pop beats make for a winning formula with a little nod to British ‘90s twee pop like Belle & Sebastian and all things Sarah Records related.
Every song’s a winner here like ‘Invisible Friend’ with the power to make anyone get up and jump around at your local indie disco and ‘Empty Beach’ is like The Smiths do Motown. ‘New City’ has a great horn section that gives it a classic ‘70s Christmas song sound and the Motown theme pops up quite a lot like on ‘Break In’ with its Spector-esque echo. ‘One Kiss Ends It All’ is chock full of breezy pop that really brightens up the day and reminds us that the simple pop tune does still exist out there somewhere!
according to IAN on 16th May 2013
IDM legends The Black Dog return with a new album, now consisting of founding member Ken Downie along with Richard and Martin Dust of Dust Science Recordings, ‘Tranklements’ is their latest in a lengthy 20-odd year career and it’s great to see them still putting out amazing records.
This is IDM from the masters that pretty much started the whole genre, along with the likes of LFO, Autechre and Aphex Twin (back when he was just a wee scamp!). ‘Alien Boys’ is a warm bass driven tune that soothes you into the album slowly and gently, ‘Atavistic Resurgence’ is an acid squelch with a little bit of soul and just a hint of lush strings. The Black Dog ride that fine line between ambient and dancefloor with tracks like ‘Hymn For Soyo’ and ‘Pray Crash I and II’ giving it the full-on four to the floor treatment, there are also a few blissed out moments like ‘Internal Collapse’ which has a Global Communication vibe to it and ‘Death Bingo’ has a similar chill out sound. ‘Tranklements’ doesn’t really hold any surprises but it’s The Black Dog at what they do best and that’s good enough for me!
according to IAN on 16th May 2013
Portland, Oregon-based ambient musician Matthew Robert Cooper releases his seventh studio album, ‘Nightmare Ending’ is a double CD concept that Cooper has had shelved for several years as he didn’t think it was worthy of a release at the time, with a few tweaks and new ideas it has finally seen the light of day. This is an ambient dream of epic proportions, waves of synth strings engulf the listener endlessly while momentary flourishes of piano drift in and out to create a real sense of sadness and longing. Although split into tracks of 6 to 10 minutes, each piece segues perfectly into one long theme, even from one disc to the second.
With a few clever collaborations from Mark T. Smith of Explosions In The Sky on ‘Envenom Mettle’ and Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo on ‘Happiness’ this is a beautiful piece of work, ‘Nightmare Ending’ sits easily alongside Cooper’s contemporaries like Tim Hecker and Hammock but still stands alone as a very important album in the world of experimental music.
according to MIKE on 22nd May 2013
The Cosmic Dead’s debut tape recently got a vinyl pressing on Leeds’s insta-cult new psych label Cardinal Fuzz and sold like hot cakes, so I’m sure many of you will be excited to discover that we now have vinyl copies of their second excursion, ‘The Exalted King’ - another 80-minute journey into the dark psychedelic wastelands through bubbling drums and saturated Headsy guitar tones. On the first disc we’ve got the title track over two sides (cut precisely in half - 17.09 per side), starting slow and ritualistic before building to a mind-melting space rock clamour which dips and soars intuitively, sucking the listener into its far-out time vortex where 40 minutes passes in moments. Particularly enjoying the walky bass when things get more restrained at the end of the first side. Towards the end of the track things gradually get faster, building to a panicky climax, and then there’s a passage of crazy bonged out tribal ambience to close.
Exhausting as that may have been, we still have one LP to go! Over on disque deux, ‘Anatta’ opens with some twangy Bong-esque sitar drones before a head-nodding mystical rhythm section groove and some harsh wah guitar touches come in, it slowly builds in intensity as it goes along but is generally quite restrained, somewhere between Om, Gnod and the aforementioned Bong. Then ‘Khartomb’ has a shivery 5/6 groove and slightly Arabic sounding melodies - the organ which has been subtly present from the start really comes into its own on this number. There’s some distant babbling vocals towards the end which sound dead cool too.
Finally there’s the 20-minute ‘Anaphora’ spread over side D, which opens with a lengthy spaced out swirl of echoed vocals and synth squiggles, bathing you in trippy dark ambient textures before the bass and drums fade in with a patient desert groove reminiscent of Mugstar, which patiently plods along while blown out guitar interruptions tease out weird little feedback melodies and tasteful ornamentation before ending as it began, fading out into otherworldly clamouring ambience. I’ve enjoyed this greatly - a crisper and more professional recording than the first, to these ears at least, with their patiently grooving hypno-psych side dominating over their blown-out abandon side for much of the duration. Thumbs up!
according to MIKE on 21st May 2013
Ian Hawgood’s ‘Wolfskin’ was Hibernate’s inaugural release way back in the heady days of 2009, with seven tracks documenting Hawgood’s nocturnal visions through the medium of drone. I never heard that one but Phil thought it was good. Anyway, that means I’m hearing this double album of re-interpretations with fresh ears, as Ian enlists a high calibre troupe of buddies to help him out over the course of the first disc - Dag Rosenqvist, Spheruleus, Pillowdiver, yoto, Hakobune, and cello throughout courtesy of Aaron Martin. That’s quite the line-up I’m sure you’ll agree.
The first disc starts out with some peaceful, warm drones, before opening up into patient, slightly post-rocky guitar and piano, distant waves of indistinct melodies, and crystal clear neoclassical mournfulness, in a slow-flowing blur of dense, calming ambience. There’s plenty going on here but it’s making me feel very sleepy nonetheless. The other disc won’t make you any less sleepy, with Brock van Wey in full drifty mode over three lengthy tracks of drone-laden ethereal ambience. It doesn’t matter what I say about it really, though - the ensemble cast alone on this 2CD set should be enough for all you ambient heads to be reaching for the “Add to cart” button.
according to MIKE on 21st May 2013
Here’s the latest offering from leading Leeds space-head Dave Lazonby’s Geese offshoot Frozen Geese, with eight brand new tracks of palatable krauty psychedelia to massage your earholes with after a stressful day on the treadmill. It opens with a couple of pulsating numbers of Neu!-ish krautrock which keeps things mid-paced and bouncy and ever so slightly funky, before ‘Let Me Go’ and ‘The Dolphins’ take us into an even calmer working men’s club lounge jazz environ, with the latter boasting some particularly lovely plaintive trumpet honking.
Then things get properly psychedelic as we move on to ‘Red Fish’ and the following ‘Blue Fish’, with the former’s moody low key Motorpsycho-esque guitar atmospheres and puttering drums building a shivering tension which swells and recedes nervously without ever breaking out into the violence it threatens, while the latter is more psychedelic with drones and whooshes over a half-buried female speech sample. ‘Let Me Go’, then, is the only proper vocal track of the record, a lovely little psych-pop dreamer with Dave singing a breathy and melodic line over some warm and wibbly pop with nice soft Matthew E White-esque arrangements. Finally, to close, they enlist progeny Herb Lazonby on foot pump for the slow groove’n’squeak of the aptly titled ‘Herb’s Pump’. It’s good stuff, resolutely chilled throughout and taking us through a series of atmospheres from kraut to lounge jazz to psych-pop without ever going anywhere too uncomfortable. Great laid-back summer psychedelia.
according to MIKE on 21st May 2013
Here’s something I didn’t expect. It’s a limited one-sided 12” featuring my teenage idols At The Drive-In dismantled by Swedish ambient techno master Axel “The Field” Willner. What we get from him is entirely unrecognisable from the source material - densely layered drones and shimmers amid a lively technoid bounce, with cosmic synths whirling and fluttering in a deeply psychedelic techno thumper which later cuts back to a subtle bass pulse and gradually layered polyrhythms to superb effect, warm and supremely danceable. Fans of the original will probably be disappointed by the lack of resemblance to the actual song, but if you’re into The Field you will be highly entertained by this.
according to MIKE on 17th May 2013
This is a picture disc which comes in a picture sleeve (and a very cool postcard as well) - you’ve got to admire the effort but an opaque sleeve does render the picture disc a little bit pointless. Still, who’s to quibble? It looks very nice, the price isn’t stupid, and what’s more it actually sounds good too! SQÜRL is Jim Jarmusch’s new band, a stoner-psych trio also featuring Carter Logan and Shane Stoneback, who mix slow, doomy drumbeats with crackling sheets of molten sustained guitar fuzz on the cinematic opener ‘Pink Dust’ with a churning intent, before ‘Dead Naked Hippies’ quietens things down and brings in vocals for a dusky Americana-doom slow burner somewhere between Mark Lanegan, Earth and Om.
Over on the other side ‘Little Sister’ is slow, soulful, drunken blues like Harvey Milk gone country, or S ND Y P RL RS playing a Teenage Fanclub song, the bright melody tempered by a slow, distorted guitar which sounds like it’s in the process of giving up on life. Excellent. Then to close there’s ‘Some Feedback For Jozef Van Wissem’. I won’t describe that one so it can be a surprise. There’s four minutes of it. Very good EP!
according to PHIL on 22nd May 2013
Here’s a new record on Trunk by Carl Orff who is more famously known as the composer of ‘Carmina Burana’ (theme from ‘The Omen’) and Gunild Keetman (I don’t know who that is). It’s an important archival reissue which has been out of print since 1958. On the album you get 85 miniature tracks (48 on the LP) of miniature human beings singing and talking and being genuinely creepy.
Orff has written a massive selection of simple pieces and rounds, often based on existing nursery rhymes, which are simple enough to be performed by children as educational exercises, and the recordings of those are collected here for your listening convenience. The instrumental pieces are especially enjoyable but not quite as creepy as the vocal numbers. If you like nursery rhymes or nursery crimes then this is the record for you!
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 22nd May 2013
A year or so back we got a mysterious tape labelled ‘Cop Music’ in the office, full of crazy experimental lo-fi madness that had us right intrigued, so it did. That one was limited to 33 copies and claimed to have been “Found by Oli and Joel on Chatsworth Road in the back of a cop car”. This time round there are 44 copies and three more names on the list of people who “found” it - Owain, Rosie and Nick - so I’m guessing the ensemble has expanded this time around to encompass the rest of their other Giant Burger band.
The basic premise is the same, though. Through a mess of crumbling analogue detritus you get a blast of anarchic free noise, then some sludgy, snotty doom rock, then they venture down a crazy broken electronic route for a while like a bedroom punk Hacker Farm, then add some tinny primitivist guitar moves over this rumbling, churning mass of horror bleeps and static...it’s gleefully unrestrained, genre-defying experimental lo-fi which, for all its rough edges and untrained delivery, hasn’t lost touch with the fact that all this shit is ultimately supposed to be fun! Oh and it’s really long, too, so you very much get your three quid’s worth.
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 22nd May 2013
The reliable Justin “Expo ‘70” Wright is back this week with ‘Virtually From The Unknown’, his latest 12” slab with three lengthy tracks exploring his rise to universal fame and adoration through the medium of that slow psychedelic drone-rock choogling he’s so good at. On the back of the eye-popping sleeve we discover that he’s joined here by Aaron Osborne on bass and stuff and Mike Vera on drums and stuff, and it was recorded live at FOKL on May 12, 2012, which is where I presume the accompanying picture of a very shiny-looking Wright rocking out comes from.
On side A there’s ‘Figures In Black Turn Night Back Into Day’, which is heavy and straightforward psych rock jamming in the vein of The Cosmic Dead, White Hills, early Gnod or The Heads at their most frazzled, slowly building into a screeching, crunching momentum while the bass and drums carve out a hypnotic rumbling groove - good old-fashioned psych rock how it’s meant to be done, basically. I enjoyed the full stoner rock direction he took in that recent four-way split so it’s nice to see him making further inroads into that area.
Over on the other side ‘Closet Full of Candles’ has a pummelling repeato riff that’s part-Sabbath, part-Uncle Acid, with some mystical blown-out guitar shapes spidering around on top of it in a classy Desert Sessions-esque workout. Then in closer ‘Planet Ego, The Astral Return To Yourself’, Expo returns to familiar ambient territory with chirping, blooping analogue synth soundscapes accompanied by cymbal scrapes and low throbbing drones which go on for miles - it’s dark, spacey stuff, venturing into new territory whilst still remaining resolutely Expo ‘70. Fans of his will no doubt love it, and if you’re into dark, slow cosmic psychedelia and haven’t yet investigated his work, this is a great starting point.
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 22nd May 2013
Moshimoss, aka Kosuke Anamizu, is a Japanese musician and producer who makes gentle drifty melodic ambience. I’ve not encountered his sleepy tones before but it turns out one of his videos has attracted a massive 500,000 views on Youtube so he must be doing something right!
The music on this plastic disc right here is a supremely relaxing mixture of Mum-esque delicate electronic twinkles and chimes, gentle fingerpicked guitar and distant fractured falsetto - the resemblance is really striking at times - along with defeated slow-flowing melodic ambience, drones and blurred dreamlike soundscapes. Towards the end Lily and Fox from Roskkurro chip in with some ethereal Stina Nordenstam-esque vocals on ‘Hvert Sem Er’. It all makes for a meditative and cleansing listening experience which will soothe your hard, embittered heart. I bet it sounds particularly good while soaking in the bath.
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 22nd May 2013
After Chile’s WatchOut! received lots of love with very little exposure for their insanely limited debut album (previously only available on CD and super-ltd lathe cut), the record finally gets a proper vinyl release courtesy of the nice people at Permanent Records. I’m having terrible trouble pinning down exactly what it is they’re doing though...the press release describes it as “the lovechild proof that Os Mutantes and Popol Vuh had an elicit rendezvous in mid ‘70s Santiago”.
What that means for you the listener is a curious mixture of South American tropical rhythms, organ-drenched psychedelic pop and even warm, repetitive raga-influenced pieces like the epic title track. All the tones here are very organic, with droning organ, springy guitar tones and breezily physical, understated drumming, with repetition being a particularly key ingredient in the instrumental numbers. Really intriguing stuff - I hope to hear more from this band in the future!
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 21st May 2013
Ah, Animal Collective, where did it all go wrong? They started out so positively, with albums like ‘Sung Tongs’ and ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ still standing out while many of their contemporaries of the time have fallen by the wayside, but I really struggled with ‘Centipede Hz’, whose technicolour digital sheen and hyperactive, messy production left it attention-grabbing in small doses but terribly hard work over the course of an entire double LP. Here’s an EP, then, with three reworks of that album’s ‘Monkey Riches’ by Brian DeGraw (Gang Gang Dance), Traxman and Teengirl Fantasy as well as a Shabazz Palaces take on ‘New Town Burnout’.
DeGraw introduces some much-needed space to the track in his mix, which starts slow with alien, disjointed beats before getting a bit more poppy when the vocal line comes in intact, then Traxman turns it into a hard juke workout with repeated high-pitched squiggles and a pacey beat with a booming kick drum sound, which after its initial adrenaline rush settles down to a cool tripped out groove with some intermittent spluttering glitch bass action. Over on the other side Shabazz Palaces have a dark and pulsating digi-hop remix of ‘New Town Burnout’ with subtle processed vocals and weird bright synth touches, it’s got a kind of dystopian mechanical feel which I’m liking. The best is left for last with Teengirl Fantasy’s squelchy synth odyssey, with the vocals reduced to little more than the occasional chopped up snippet alongside some creative beatmaking and plenty of bright synth swirls and modular bloops, understated 303 bass and rapidfire percussion. These are all decent efforts considering the source material but nothing mindblowing here.
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 21st May 2013
Majical Cloudz is the alter-ego of Montreal’s Devon Welsh and Matthew Otto, who play minimal electronic pop with bold vocals and understated rhythmic patterns and synth melodies. The two of them seem to have a kind of Pet Shop Boysy symbiosis, with Welsh taking care of the vocals and Otto dealing with the music, and the results are like a stripped back Future Islands with a rich Patrick Wolf-esque baritone (sometimes erring into Chris Martin territory) instead of Sam Herring’s husky theatrics.
It does dip a little into the plodding territory of the most recent Darkstar album at times, but at its most effective this is potent and intense pop music, with the empty space creating a brooding intensity which the Nationals of this world only aspire to. A mixed bag for sure, and your enjoyment will depend heavily on your tolerance for Devon Welsh’s voice, which is very much front and centre throughout, but for those who like their synthpop stripped right down to its smalls, this record is for you!
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 21st May 2013
The new Holden album was spinning on the office stereo when I turned up this morning and I can report that it is very good, with Phil boldly announcing that it will be “album of whatever week it comes out”, such is the universal enthusiasm for his adventurous technoid soundscapes round these parts. He’s putting out a series of 12”s of tracks from the album with isolated drum and synth mixes for DJ use on the other side, and the first getting this treatment is the head-fucking primitive techno blast of the aptly-named ‘Gone Feral’, with a stumbling modular synth loop queasily repeating and a stompingly aggressive techno beat and subtle filters and phasers and synth touches, building to a spluttering mechanoid intensity towards the end after some booming bass enters the fray.
It’s good but an unusual choice for a first single from the album since it seems quite aggressive out of context, and of course you’re unlikely to have any use at all for the isolated drum and synth tracks unless you’re a DJ, but it’s a nice little appetite-whetter for what will doubtless be one of the truly essential electronic albums of 2013!
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 17th May 2013
The infamous Father Yod and his Ya Who Ha 13, or The Source Family, were an enigmatic cult who self-released a series of nine albums recorded over an eleven-month period in ‘73-’74 which melded shamanistic tribal gospel and raw psychedelic funk rock in a manner which continues to fascinate and delight music historians to this day. Now someone’s made a documentary film about the intriguing Father and his tribe of happy clappy followers, and this soundtrack LP contains a selection of 14 cuts cropped from their brief but vast back-catalogue.
It’s truly wild stuff, with trance-like repetition, electric guitars slathered in wah and reverb, shamanistic gospel vocals, spy movie funk and spiritual jazz all flying around together in a breathless free-spirited romp of synchronised abandonment. It’s like Sun Ra and Funkadelic jamming with urban hippie nature boy Eden Ahbez on the set of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’. Great musicianship, and the well-sequenced mixture of calculated cinematic beat jazz weirdness and lively gospel-funk action makes this is a great introduction to the band for those who aren’t yet acquainted with the original LPs, and even those in the know will have their appetites whetted for the upcoming film by this supremely psychedelic slice of the ‘70s. I know I’m looking forward to seeing it!
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 17th May 2013
My dinner parties are legendary. Full of the most erudite doctors, dentists and lawyers hobnobbing on my polished wooden floors as I mingle, flirt outrageously and pass round the vol au vents. Echoing around the drawing room will be the most beautiful sounds. “Clinton,” they’ll say, “my, you do have the most exquisite taste, now tell me again the name of this most charming long player?”. “Oh my, thank you for asking, it’s ‘I Like it When You Die’ by Anal Cunt.” Only joking. Instead I might say “this is ‘Duo’ by Akira Kosemura”.
“It melds the most gorgeous piano chords with some of the finest violin playing this side of the Louisville, Kentucky group Rachel’s yet is so much more linear than that most baroque of collectives, bringing to mind the later work of Richard Clayderman as if transposed to the world of Max Richter. You know Max? Frightfully nice chap. It’s terribly short but as you know my dear from my lovemaking techniques, duration is no substitute for quality and this record is the most hi-end work, captivatingly gentle melodies for viola and piano”.
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 17th May 2013
Fans of minimal electronics will be wetting themselves about this one. Andreas Tillander has collected together a load of classic Roland gear for a selection of tracks whose titles are simply a list of the equipment being used, such as ‘303/303/303/606’ or the more ambitious ‘303/303/303/303/707/808’. All of these tracks have been recorded live in the studio, with the now iconic ‘80s sequencers belching out their tense and distinctive loops and beats with a singular warmth and quirkiness that has made these machines so sought-after over the years.
Musically, the warm, layered plod is making me think of something between acid house and bonged out dub techno. It’s simple and repetitive but always totally chilled and palatable or overly chaotic. Sadly this is another of those times when I’m in too much of a hurry to say anything substantial but fans of experimental synth jiggery-pokery are bound to be impressed by this!
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 16th May 2013
The superb synthpop soundtrack to 2011’s ‘Drive’ has been a resounding success and a strong seller here over the past year or two. It’s already made a minor star of Kavinsky, whose slick debut LP of electro-house synth wizardry is already a highlight of 2013 so far, and now Invada are reissuing the debut album and EP by College, who provided the film’s main theme ‘A Real Hero’.
This album was recorded in 2008 but given all the synthpop/horror synth revival that’s been going on lately it sounds very of the moment. It’s mostly instrumental, with patient beats and gliding, bright synth tones, sort of like something between Kavinsky and the less flashy, more patient stylings of soundtrackers like John Carpenter or Fabio Frizzi and flashes of process-oriented krauty analogue cool. Superb stuff, definitely well worth investigating if you’re into all this French synth house business or were a fan of the ‘Drive’ soundtrack.
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 16th May 2013
Michael Pisaro is, as I gather, Co-chair of the Composition and Experimental Sound Practices department at the California Institute of the Arts, finding himself mentor and collaborator to the likes of John Maus, Ariel Pink and now Julia Holter, the latter of whom appears among the eight-piece ensemble he has put together to accompany him on this album, the underlying concept of which seems to be taking the pop formula and slowing it down as much as possible.
The press release and a sticker on the sleeve both make reference to legendary Houston DJ Screw, one of the true pioneers of slowing music down on the streets, but actually this slowly-unfurling collection of drones and hums and wibbles bears far more resemblance (to these ears at least) to the somnolent, stretched out melodies of Stars of the Lid and Arvo Part, or the electro acoustic minimal gorgeousness of Johann Johannsson’s more recent but no less classic ‘Virthulegu Forsetar’, although the silky vocal hums often have a slightly unsettling effect which reminds me a little of Laurel Halo’s alien slowpop. It’s one of those records you really have to dedicate a little time and most importantly a little silence to, but fans of this type of minimal will find themselves swept away to that magical place where time no longer exists.
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 16th May 2013
Glasgow’s excellent Clan Destine have been at it again, this week sending us this 12” of nocturnal emissions from Ohio’s Petra Schelm (aka Mollie Wells) and Vancouver’s //ZOO (aka Ashlee Luk), who are both solo ladies making haunty electro acoustic post-industrial pop. I’m starting with Schelm's side and her opener ‘Stills’ immediately impresses with some Cure-ish sounding guitar and Heidi Harris-esque harmonies gliding over a patient, plodding rhythm section for a deliciously dusky slice of darkpop, which is followed by the minimalistic pop ritual of ‘Come Over Lover’ with PJ Harvey-ish vocals and a simplistic Ed Schrader-style beat over swelling and receding industrial clamour. It’s reminding me of the darkly exotic repeato-psychedelia of that Mueran Humanos single we had in a few weeks back. The further I go through this side the more I’m enjoying it. It’s like a kind of a chilly goth/industrial angle on labelmate Ela Orleans’s hallucinatory haunt-pop, with plenty of clever details to reward repeated listens.
Over on the other side //ZOO, creates self-proclaimed “fuck music”, with Suicidey electric beats and sexy vocals alongside weird electronic spookiness and sheets of clanking guitar, which buzzes and drones like an angle grinder to particularly good effect in opener ‘Breathe and Fuck’. Luk’s delivery has a spooked and wild-eyed intensity that reminds me of early Patti Smith, but the soundscapes she inhabits are much more futuristic, with grimy machines grinding and clanking against one another, chewing up the ground while swarms of guitars swoop and flutter with a robotic singularity of purpose. I’m particularly liking the dirt and sweat-flecked mechanics of ‘Softcore’; she seems to nail the formula best here. Really impressive split all round though!
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 16th May 2013
‘Be Glamorous’ is taken from The Voyeurs’ upcoming full length album ‘Clarietta’, Side A is a bog-standard glam rock stomp straight out of the Top Of The Pops’ 1970s archive, a bit like a britpop T-Rex, on the flip side is ‘It’s My Wish’ which sounds remarkably like Suede doing a Stranglers cover. Hmm.
according to REVIEWBOT3000 on 16th May 2013
‘Where We Were’ is the latest on Denovali from composer Greg Haines, Haines has veered away from his usual string laden sound to create something intricate and sparse, ‘The Intruder’ is a minimal tip-toeing string plucked sound and ‘Something Happened’ is a beat filled electro synth tune which leads into a heavy dub beat. ‘Trasimeno’ is like a lo-fi Vangelis and ‘The Whole’ is a slow trance-like tune which is also quite dub-heavy.
Recorded in Haines’s studio in Berlin with a little help from Nils Frahm, ‘Where We Were’ is an album that’s very personal sounding, very warm and homemade in its sound without the aid of studio special effects, heavily influenced by the likes of King Tubby and Lee Perry with a splash of synth legends Tangerine Dream, a very pleasant listening experience!
All payment and account functions on this site are encrypted with SSL. Our SSL certificate is provided by Digicert: view our certificate.
This site is regularly audited for security problems by Netcraft. For more information please take a look at our Netcraft Security Seal.
We don't handle credit cards on this site. For card payments we use eWAY (a secure payment service) and Paypal.