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Dreamcolour — Inner Worship c60 (Stunned no. 50) —out of stock—
If there is one group that has emerged from 2009 which best embodies the Future, in our mind it would be California’s Dreamcolour. We were hooked ever since first checking their righteous live actions, their early cdr & taped treats, and their uncontainable offerings of jazz and drone’s most mystical sides. ‘Inner Worship’ finds this intrepid tribe bloomed out to a 9-piece at times, shooting for nothing less than Sacredelica in the raw. Yes, an entirely new genre seems ripe for carving here after one gets wet with this hour long wave. Dreamcolour operates with such an impressively cohesive front that they take the meaning of “unity through sound” to the next fractal notch. The sweaty saxophone bop, orbital viola lines, and holy hollers of Side A impressively distill to a pinpoint of mass mind mantra on Side B. Like hearing all individual parts of an explosion reach their expressive boundaries and then implode into a singular, refined meditation. When these sun-risen modes of the Inner are visited here (and that’s quite often) don’t be surprised if you find yourself grabbing the nearest instrument at hand, becoming a temporary 10th member of Dreamcolour, and worshiping right along. Limited special edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted c60 tapes with double-sided color art in vinyl album.
_______________________reviews:
— Impose Magazine— Electronic Voice Phenomenon
— Ear Conditioned Nightmare
— Foxy Digitalis
— Olive Music
Sagas — Root Structures & Private Dementias c58 (Stunned no. 49) —out of stock—With a discography that spans nearly a decade of collaborative and solo journeying, Matt McDowell has put in his time on the road for sure. This newest project of Matt’s splits its recorded time between US poles of Portland & Pittsburgh, providing the flavor of a genuine american saga. Beyond being simply a collection of songs, ‘Root Structures & Private Dementias’ is a wonderfully complex and multi-tiered travel experience. With taught melodies that fork off distinctly from the point where Ennio Morricone and Michael Flower meet on the path, Sagas always seems to be pushing the capacity of his six-string guitar ever higher. Pervasive in the background throughout this release are sounds harkening escape to distant lands and the motion required to get there. Train wheel creaks, auto revs, airplane cabin hum, steamstacks, blimp buzz — all these merge nearly subliminally with the technical finesse of one ripping jam after another. How many times can one man make us go “woah”? All aboard, this ride’s limit is beyond the sky. Limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted c58 tapes with double-sided color jcard.
Magnetic North Duo — Midnight Safari Blues cdr (Stunned no. 48) —out of stock—Sindre Bjerga and Nils Rostad hunt down roomfuls of skittish warbles & waves over 3 separate live performances collected here for their sophomore offering ‘Midnight Safari Blues.’ Having debuted together as a duo earlier this year on Tape Drift with the excellent ‘Static Fields Forever’, the two indicated a shift in Norway’s free-noise priorities. This is resonance that wants to be held and sculpted like soft clay. One might suggest Bjerga’s minimalist electronic peppering and Rostad’s dream-drunk guitar act like handfuls of yeast thrown into the otherwise limp loaf of roomtone that’s encountered by every performer upon first stepping into their show space. Every contrasting string pluck and layered sinusoid create a little air pocket allowing the listener to breathe moment-to-moment, unsure of when the next alignment will arrive. This welcomes in an ever-evolving interplay of active & passive improv structures, and a reflection of an audile world which folds organically into night’s magnetic center. Hand numbered edition of 100 stamped cdrs with full color sleeve & double sided insert card in vinyl jacket.
_______________________review:
— Foxy Digitalis
Torture Corpse — Particular Sufferings c46 (Stunned no. 47) —out of stock—It’s close to a few minutes before the end of Side A that you might sense it. A true sonic confrontation with the Big One. That’s right — death. The ol’ grim reaper, grasping his sharpened scythe. Dust to dust, worm’s food. Mortified matter oozing from the stereo speakers. And so, our first confrontation with Torture Corpse’s debut release ‘Particular Sufferings’ was a heavy, heavy affair indeed. We felt beauty and awe, we felt dread, we laughed, we damn nearly cried. In addition to such visceral gut reactions, we became increasingly convinced that very few musicians maintain such master-level control as TC’s Robert Kroos displays over these weighty 46 minutes. This is deep bardo death bliss from Holland hung on a thematic scaffolding of the Buddhist hell realms and their respective inhabitants. Torture Corpse could have merely crafted a depressing literal interpretation of these dim zones even the grimmest of us rarely glimpse at. But instead he infuses these prickly places with an insightful, affirming poise. It’s a bold testament to fearless artistry which wields the flame of creative consciousness through both blistering noise blackness & ambient White Light floating. Funny all this talk of the dead, then, for something so thrilling and ultimately lifelike at the end of the day. Limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed and imprinted c46 tapes with double-sided color jcard.
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Mortuus Auris & the Black Hand / Emuul — Omicida Della Regina / Songs for a Solo Piano c80 (Stunned no. 46) —out of stock—Two deep-earth journeyers knock heads on this mega-split and out spills an hour and twenty of the good shit. SIDE A: Mortuus Auris & the Black Hand rev things into motion, and by motion we meant of the perpetual, unrelenting sort. We can think of very few projects like this that are able to so effortlessly corral together such widely variant bits upon bits of trans-terrestrial energy. Never is the ear overwhelmed, but from behind the psychic veil march out characters strange and rarely glimpsed with an eerily patient formality. ‘Omicida Della Regina’ reaches zenith after carefully examining each of these composite forms in turn. Their sounds are unrecognizably alien, yet somehow exclusive to our human experience on Earth. Is the Other they hint at to be embraced or repelled? Can’t decide? Hit rewind and buy a little more time. SIDE B: The white & black key strikes of a Fender Rhodes blur into grey-speckled piano comas here on Kyle Iman’s second release under the Emuul tag. When Kyle first told us he was developing ‘Songs for a Solo Piano’, our ears already began to tingle and it was still weeks before the master was to arrive. At this point it might as well be admitted publically Stunned’s absolute fetish for anything piano. Whether Emuul knew this or not, he still delivered a final forty-minute side that exceeded any fetishistic expectations. Maybe we weren’t prepared for its spaciousness, its bejeweled drift that articulates so much while speaking so little. Keyed contemplations like these allow the listener to plough their own mindfield beside the composition’s skilled soliloquy. For this reason and more we eagerly welcome Seattle’s Emuul aboard. This split c80 is a limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted tapes with collaged double-sided jcard and cardstock insert.
Pummeler / Derek Rogers — Juggernaut / Simmer c60 (Stunned no. 45) —out of stock—
SIDE A: Denmark’s Pummeler wants nothing more than to tug at your arm like Virgil and then drop down together into an underworld of intrigue lit by rows of meter-tall candles. His ‘Juggernaut’ is a relic remaining from some ancient struggle between maddened monks and shadowy succubae for turf within an alternative purgatory. Here, lava-thick vocals of abandon fume in spires toward an unresponsive midnight. Navigation through the columns of rotted wire & dank-as-hell electronic mantra of Pummeler may be tricky at times, but between us and Dante, we have some good guides on both sides of the historical divide. Look for Pummeler on tour through the UK this September with Shiggajon & Claus Haxholm! SIDE B: I first met Derek Rogers while on tour through Austin with Magic Lantern in March. We found ourselves mutually stoked to be in a city that rightly prides itself as a mecca of southwest american weirdness, and the demo he passed on seems like the perfect reflection of that time & place. Rogers’ noise/synth jamz can either be scorching as a Texas brushfire, or glimmering in crystal refracted oasis-stasis. Either way, the casios are coolly bent, the tape loops are locked, and things go straight into gummy unreality in the plastic-melting mirage of ‘Simmer’. Look for Derek on tour in California this August playing with Al Qaeda & Mike Watt! This split c60 is a limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted tapes with collaged double-sided jcard and cardstock insert.
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Fabric / Sparkling Wide Pressure — Late Clothes / Blue Doorways c62 (Stunned no. 44) —out of stock—
SIDE A: An ear tuned toward the miniature sounds that form the larger patchwork of heard Existence. A summoning of the shadows that hang everywhere, yet are never noticed. Hard describing what is ultimately an indescribable and most welcome collection of enviro-tactile play here by Cleveland’s best kept secret. Matthew Mullane is the polymathic alter ego behind Fabric, who delivers ‘Late Clothes’ as an integral part of a broader stroke in the approach to his craft. This includes museum curation & advocacy, live performance, academic writing and publishing poetry. This side also arrives after 4 years of field recording and six-string development, working from a spectrum of sound sources that stake out common ground in REM sleep-syntax. Carefully experiencing each successive piece on ‘Late Clothes’ reveals the simultaneous presence of distant memories and intimate sounds, co-operating toward truly hypnagogic ends. SIDE B: ‘Blue Doorways’ feels like a new escalator on the cosmic scene – always in gliding ascent, paced for those who like the ride up stoney, but not stoned. Hazed, but not crazy. Just lifting through the smog of civilization’s concerns, then past the satellite litter ring around our globe, through a swiss cheese ozone, and finally into deep space. Tilt on back. Sparkling Wide Pressure has done this before (see: Stunned no. 20). He will continue to do it again. Much like Fabric who shares this cassette, SWP’s Frank Baugh has his finger in a number of pies juicy-n-large. He’s an art educator, Kimberly Dawn label leader, accomplished painter, and all-around contact man for any badass haps in Tennessee. Yes, this was a set-up. ‘Blue Doorways’, along with ‘Late Clothes’, is the yin-yang pill we’ve been dying to pop all summer. This split c62 is a limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted tapes with collaged double-sided jcard and cardstock insert.
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Analog Concept — Listen Already Today to the Music of Past! (Stunned no. 43) —out of stock—Don’t just stand there waiting for those 90s electro compilations in your old CD wallet to become cool again. You got to dust them off and pump them once more as if they were the freshest shit around. It’s in this way, as our Russian friend Alexey’s Analog Concept seems to suggest, that you can get ahead of the ‘revival of the fittest’ curve in modern music. So we’re taking his advice and just listening already, by the minute becoming happier at accepting this prompt. Where Analog Concept’s sound steps into the category of ‘the fittest’ has much to do with his deft detroit techno licks grinding their lil’ hips against the pillars of great, late-period Zoviet France and Tangerine Dream. Caffeine-infected beats gurgle to the fore of an hour-long continuous current bearing a strong scent of vintage synthesizer candies. We’re transported to the nightclub of dreams, but not necessarily to its dance floor. It’s more like leaning over in the corner –loaded– pumping drowsy fists to a schizoid groove which forms the bridge back to 1989 or forward to 2089: your call. Limited edition of 100 painted cdrs with double-sided insert and cardstock cover housed in vinyl jacket.
_______________________reviews:
— Brainwashed— Foxy Digitalis
— Animal Psi
Historians — Proof (Stunned bonus #7) — out of stock —Malthusian Corrections come around only so rarely in society, so when they’re sensed in the road ahead, the real historians are called in. This was last done in May '08, when a little package of Bush-era bile called the Historians EP initiated this Stunned bonus series. Well they may be back in the time of Barack, and the bile may be a little closer to sour wine now, but our Historians still want PROOF that we’re not returning to former ways. ‘Til then, the message remains the same for these Portland, OR dub-punk troubadours: drop the eff out & dance! Hand numbered & limited to 50 painted cdrs in vinyl case with collaged cover and insert.
_______________________reviews:
— Auxiliary Out
— ECN
