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Silver Bullets — Free Radical c48 (Stunned no. 42) — out of stock —William Giacchi of Magic Lantern/Super Minerals reports: "While visiting family in southern Sicily last December, I caught up with an old friend who has shared a very similar trajectory with me in interests of psychedelic music both newer and vintage, local and global. Much to my elated surprise, he has been equally busy producing new sounds of his own, having lately assembled a mysterious psychedelic groove ensemble known as Silver Bullets. I sat in on a recording session and realized I was in the presence of psychic brethren, and that Stunned Records would be the perfect platform to introduce their brand of tonal gyration. Both the Silver Bullets and Phil & Myste were thrilled about the partnership, and thus we present ‘Free Radical’ — two sides, eleven tracks of kraut-funk, coned-out drone rock, and assorted experiments with space and time. Wade through bluesy head-nodders, Italian fuzz contests, interplanetary bleeps and blips, and liberated dance songs for anti-environments. Taking spiritual cues from Don Cherry's Eternal Rhythm, ‘Free Radical’ is a statement of unity through musical expression and an ecstatic celebration of existence. Play this tape at full moon and brace yourself for the unforeseen happenings." Limited & hand numbered edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted c48 tapes in oversized single-cassette vinyl album.
_______________________reviews:
— Foxy Digitalis
— Raven Sings the Blues
— Tiny Mix Tapes
— Auxiliary Out— Ear Conditioned Nightmare
— Animal Psi
Vakhchav — In Embers (Stunned no. 41) — out of stock —Sophomore release by Vakhchav after his ’08 debut on Abandoned Ship, and there are no signs of a slump in sight. NY city artist Nickolas Mohanna has been self-releasing his guitar/electronics work in mini-editions since ’05. Now this deliberation in refining an entirely original voice over the years pays off in a big way. ‘In Embers’ is trim and to-the-point, conveying strange symmetrical realms & whole worlds of weird in half the time most musicians might take. This is a journey into the direct center of the strobe, white and black crackles and hums form the absorptive blanket in which to lay out our gray matter and drift headlong into sidereal expanses of sound. The Vakhchav orb is bound to continue cresting our horizon – watch the dark skies. Hand numbered edition of 100 painted cdrs with transparent sleeve & insert card in vinyl jacket.
_______________________reviews:
— Foxy Digitalis — ECN
ALTAR EAGLE / Pillars of Heaven / Caligine / High Wolf — Essential Elements c35 + c52 (Stunned no. 40) — out of stock —Four heavy-hitters converge here in totally complimentary energies on Stunned’s 40th release and 1st double cassette edition.
TAPE 1: Things start off right with FIRE as can only be thrown by the Digitalis dynasty’s duo of Brad & Eden Rose. ALTAR EAGLE retains the warm tactility of their previous Corsican Paintbrush project while also bumping it into wildly higher dimensional states. Hot waves of alien electronics, guitars, and voice layer like magma into a thick mix, retaining an admirable delicacy to such chemically volatile process. Countering this initial heat-swell, Sal Giorgi’s solo endeavor blows in some seriously fresh AIR on the c35’s flipside. Many are familiar with Sal’s exquisitely curated & designed Peasant Magik label, but fewer seem privy to the mega dreamscape weaving enterprise that his Pillars of Heaven project serves. This piece is for those devoted to pure lateral synth-escape. A heavy pleasant dream we don’t want to wake from ever, and another good reason why they invented rewind. TAPE 2: According to Gabriele of the Rome-based Monstres par Excès label, the pieces that comprise his Caligine projects’ half of this c52 were improvised “with the aid of fingernails, iron strings, tough woods and the eternal flow of Every-Thing above our horizons.” The perfect approach for such visionary skeletal raag which deftly spins in and out of synchromystic EARTH orbit — an unfolk matrix that’s rich as the best soil around. By the final side of this double tape set, we have certainly been primed for High Wolf’s contribution of cultural boundary dissolution. Following up his Not Not Fun debut jammer, the question lingers on the origins of this Amazonian/African/French/?/? electro-maverick. Meanwhile, as we’re scratching our heads, he’s continuing to summon the musical equivalent of Gaia’s clearest WATER & lights of her aurora borealis. Under amorphous forms of guitar, angel choir, and synthesizer emerges the pulse of a hidden heartbeat, the only identity necessary for apprehending High Wolf’s true nature.
Many thanks to these four artists of unique distinction who, for the very reason of their differences, united as unlikely Essential Elements. Limited & hand numbered edition of 100 c35 + c52 silver tapes in double-cassette vinyl album with transparent covers and insert.
_______________________review:
— ECN
Black Eagle Child — Seeds That Sprout In Summer c50 (Stunned no. 39) —out of stock—This follow-up full length to editions on such labels as Blackest Rainbow and Housecraft finds Black Eagle Child rowing his boat ashore and sparking the campfire wide and bright. Let’s stretch out our legs, because we have a nearly hour long psychfolk excursion of delight on our hands here. Once BEC’s Michael Jantz starts dronin’ and fingerpicking his acoustic around the flames, things chill way out and the ears get a good cleanse. Just crack a brew and mind you don’t get sick on the s’mores. This release happily marks Black Eagle Child having created a child of his own. Along with Mike & Celeste, we welcome Mary Jantz into the world, the newest and most special sprout of summer. Hand numbered edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted c50 yellow tapes with matching jcard.
_______________________reviews:
— Foxy Digitalis — ECN
Rambutan — Broken Infinity (Stunned no. 38) — out of stock —Sometimes an album comes along that just sweeps us right to those endless summer nights where lying back on the still-warm grass, we realize the scope of inverted abyss in the sky above and breathe deep in awe. Rambutan’s ‘Broken Infinity’ is just such a listening experience. Crafted by the hands of the poly-talented Eric Hardiman of the Tape Drift label & Century Plants/Burnt Hills fame, this solo release is filled with aching intention and eye opening wanderlust. Past Rambutan releases tend toward carving out crushing scoops of night-tinged tones with his nimbly-processed six string. That wall-of-guitar power is also found here, but additionally Eric investigates stretches of glassy vibrato downpour & spooked twilight sustain. It’s relieving to find compositions willing to breathe like this, balancing dark and dominant outer forces with the levity of an inner infinite impulse, broken as it may temporarily be. Hand numbered edition of 100 painted cdrs with full color sleeve & insert card in vinyl jacket.
_______________________reviews:
— Foxy Digitalis
— ECN
Bjerga / Iversen — Magnetic Colours of the Electric Rainbow (Stunned no. 37) —out of stock—Sindre Bjerga & Jan-Morten Iversen give the impression that they could just as easily be suited in some futuristic medical lab as they are in the venues and galleries they’ve ceaselessly toured since '04 as a duo. We’re on the job here with Norway’s serious nano-sculptors of the aural. These guys open their scalpel sets over tape spools & modular panels and go for the daring micro incisions that make the junior techs gasp. As fans of such heroic sound operation, Stunned is proud to present this official release of Bjerga / Iversen’s epic live 2007 performance at La Generale, captured in pristine fidelity by Radio WNE, Paris. It’s a determined procedure, nearly causing all attendants to faint in the sweaty focus of high register nerve-splicing and infrared plasma spurt. Thank God for the experts. Hand numbered edition of 120 painted cdrs with full color sleeve & insert card in vinyl jacket.
_______________________reviews:
— Foxy Digitalis— ECN
