This week Brainwashed is pleased to premiere Dylan Cameron’s “Graceless Gods”, part of the massive digital compilation the Holodeck label is releasing this week to commemorate their 50th release. "Graceless Gods" is a fitting teaser for the release, capturing everything he (as well as the label) excels at: heavy danceable beats, prickly, pulsating analog synths, and immaculate attention to sonic detail and production.

Holodeck Vision One features 30 artists from the label's past and present, as well as close associates such as Troller, Drab Majesty, and Michael Stein, and is available digitally on March 9. Dylan Cameron will also performing at both of the upcoming Holodeck SXSW showcases on March 15 at Hotel Vegas and March 17 at Central Presbyterian.

Preorder Holodeck Vision One at Holodeck's Bandcamp

Brainwashed and Holodeck Recordings are proud to premiere "Fandeath," from Austin, Texas duo LACHANE’s self-titled debut. "Fandeath" captures the debut’s slow, lurching pace punctuated with heavy, industrial strength beats, rich synthesizers, and sinister guitars. Vocalist and producer Melissa Cha's beautiful vocals glide through the funereal backing track as guitarist Ryan Garl delivers a wonderfully distorted performance that adds just the right amount of organic grime to the complex electronic arrangements.

The self-titled debut LACHANE will be released on cassette and digital on Friday, February 9th.

Pre-orders are available at holodeckrecords.com now.

Brainwashed and Holodeck are proud to premiere "Never Enough Time" by Sungod member and Austin resident Michael C. Sharp here, as well as on the latest Brainwashed podcast episode. The song appears on the upcoming limited edition cassette, also titled Never Enough Time, and is one of five beautiful tracks of lush synthesizer expanse and heavily processed guitar work. Sharp may be a percussionist, but his work here is centered on tone and mood, rather than beats. "Never Enough Time" begins from shimmering layers and loops, which he then merges with dream-like synth patterns and delicate effects. Indicative of the album as a whole, it is an entrancing, engaging blending of melody, loops, and experimentation that is as complex as it is gorgeous.

Pre-order Never Enough Time (HD041) by Michael C. Sharp

Never Enough Time will be released on October 20, 2017 as a cassette on the Holodeck label and is limited to 200 copies.

Brainwashed is happy to premiere the first song (and video) from Scratched Glass's new release, Two, due out July 7 on Negative Capability. The duo of Nicol Eltzroth Rosendorf and Jonathan Lukens are both multimedia artists, and this is evident on "Duet". The video's pulsating, digital/organic hybrid visuals perfectly accompany the sound: a lush mixture of warm, surging tones and skeletal beats that are hypnotic from beginning to end. The nine song album will be released on cassette (limited to 100 copies) and digital, and mastered by Lawrence English.

Check out the video here.

An exclusive preview of the album is available to stream here.

Physical and digital pre-orders are available now through Bandcamp.

We at Brainwashed are delighted to pair with Medical Records to debut "Follow It Down" from Marker. For his first full-length release under that name, New Orleans' own Mike Wilkinson takes the standard guitar/bass/drum sound, mutates it, and then reassembles it brilliantly on this self-titled debut. "Follow It Down" is an excellent sampler of what will be on next month’s album. Blissfully demolished guitar sounds are mixed with upfront bass lines to create a hazy fog in which a steady drum machine and Wilkinson's lonely, isolated vocals slowly glide through. He brilliantly shuffles the mix around, and allows it to dissolve into an ecstatic wall of sound, with shards of melody still shining through the otherwise comfortable, yet impenetrable abyss. Look for the full album from Marker in mid-July.

Click here to stream "Follow It Down" via SoundCloud

Brainwashed is proud to premiere "See Your Door", the first song from the new Circa Tapes album Love and Venom, due July 21st on Medical Records. Hear the song here, or in the most recent Brainwashed Podcast (Episode 351).

This is the third album by Adam Killing (the solo artist behind Circa Tapes), with previous releases on Ghostly International and DKA. "See Your Door" is the first song to be released from the album: a pensive, gloomy song of midtempo drum machine and analog synth pulse. The cold, robotic backing tracks contrast beautifully with haunting vocals and dour keyboard leads. It is the perfect teaser for the upcoming album, full of dark moods. The song is propelled by vintage synths and drum machines that nod toward a dance-tinged industrial past, but looks forward towards a distinctly modern and distinct future. Look for the full record, Love and Venom, coming July 21st, 2017 on Medical Records.

Why El Paso Sky is the upcoming mixtape on Holodeck by Austin, Texas’ own VVV (Shawhin Izaddoost), serving as a way to whet the appetite for his upcoming full length record later this year. Here we present the premiere of "Talking in the Dark," both in the recent Brainwashed Podcast (Episode 341) and here directly.

Preorder Why El Paso Sky (HD038) by VVV

"Talking in the Dark" is an excellent teaser for what Izaddoost will be delivering on both the tape and his release later in 2017. From its sweeping opening synths that herald the foundation rattling beats and rapid melodic lead that quickly follow, VVV covers an infinitely complex array of sounds and vibes in the span of a few short minutes. With a lush, ambient breakdown that quickly jumps right back into the rhythms, both Izaddoost's prowess in building memorable rhythms and his nuanced, complex approach to production and mixing are clearly at the forefront. Look for the limited mixtape Why El Paso Sky to be released on March 10, 2017 on the Holodeck label, and more new work to follow later this year.

Although dormant for a number of years, Paul Douglas has leapt back into activity on this brief, but effective 7" single. With heavy use of electronics and processing, these two pieces are shaped into fully fleshed out and complicated works that bear the mark of an expert.

A loving tribute to experimental percussionist Matt Weston's collaborator Teri Morris (of Crystallized Moments and Tizzy), the two pieces that make up this 7" showcase his strengths as a one-man band, while crafting a pair of songs that are as independently captivating as they are touching.

Originally an accompanying piece for the vinyl release of A Static Place, this afterward to that album utilizes the same archaic gramophones paired with computer processing approach, resulting in a similarly dynamic, understated piece of minimalist composition.

While Yasutoshi Yoshida is not nearly as prolific as he was in the early days of Government Alpha, the result has been a "quality over quantity" approach, much like the Incapacitants, and the opposite extreme from the likes of Merzbow and Dissecting Table. This not only makes each new release something I look forward to, but also seems to ensure what he does put out stays of exceptional quality. Exemplified by this single: no shtick, no pretense, just a great 7" from one of the masters.

While he has been an extremely active artist in the past 20 years as the leader of Circle, as well as a member of Split Cranium, Pharaoh Overlord, and a multitude of other projects, Interlude for Prepared Beast is only his second solo work. Both of the chaotic, hyperactive sides of this tape are unquestionably unique and fit into no existing category.

Probably the Italian trio’s longest release, while still clocking in at under a half hour, this 12" EP brings some excellently grimy punky rock music, with a good helping of bizarre tape loop noises and electric outbursts. With a familiar, but fresh sound, the worst thing is it simply is too short.

On their debut EP, Relations deliver four tracks that could come across as hipster synth-pop nostalgia, but the earnestness and catchiness of the songs make that a non-issue, resulting in a set of tracks that sound familiar, yet new to anyone who grew up with the music of the early 1980s.

Mark McGee, formerly of To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie, has partnered up with a new female vocalist, Nicole Tollefson, to follow the path he pioneered in his previous band, combining harsh, noisy electronics and guitar with pure, delicate female vocals to excellent effect, although it seems that the harsher end of the spectrum has been reigned in somewhat.

Following up their acclaimed debut LP The Persistence of Meaning, this Brooklyn duo of Joshua Convey and Luke Krnkr serve up another release of dark, mysterious murk that channels krautrock as much as harsh noise. With an A side that goes for more musical elements, and a harsher, disjointed B side, the combination works wonderfully.

Functioning nicely as a teaser for the upcoming Half Blood full length on Relapse, this two track 7" sees Jenks Miller further indulging in the traditional minimalist sound that has underscored much of his previous work, but also a more overt embracing of his southern rock roots.

There is a great deal of experimentation in these short tracks—though only an EP in length, and also available on 10" vinyl—that, unlike a lot of experimental electronic recordings, make it more of a relaxing listen rather than a protracted endurance test or an exercise requiring the full attention and focus of the listener.

 

Type

Joke Lanz has been a constant in the worldwide noise scene for over two decades and has always stood alone as a unique and inventive artist, impossible to pin down but always innovative.  This book presents the history of the project, as well as a massive documentation of Lanz's life and prolific performance art career, of which I was less familiar, but found captivated nonetheless.

Using only the sound of manipulated AM radios, Fages creates washes of slow, seemingly unchanging studies of frigid sound. Not unlike the asceticism of Eleh, these deliberately static pieces require intensive listening to fully unravel.