VCV - 3753 Cruithne (Second Sun Recordings, 2006)

1 611 Valeria 7:58
2 17305 Caniff 8:50
3 1478 Vihuri 7:41
4 815 Coppelia 8:35
5 6871 Verlaine 14:34
6 11101 Ceskafilharmonie 11:16
7 29133 Vargas 5:26
8 952 Caia 2:34
9 13897 Vesuvius 12:13

3753 Cruithne, for those who might not know, is the name of an asteroid that happens to share its orbital path with that of Earth. It sounds dangerous, that we would be sharing our orbit with an asteroid, but it seems that the actual path of 3753 Cruithne, its irregular orbit constantly influenced by the various celestial bodies that it nears, is in no danger of actually impacting earth for millions of years to come. This backdrop is perfect for the sort of patient, beautiful ambience that VCV supplies on their album named after this benign, fascinating asteroid. Created entirely with guitars, the music is extremely appealing to the ear, the sort of stuff that fades easily into the background, enhancing the environment in which it appears. The drones stretch endlessly, the album lasts 79 minutes… honestly, all of the components of the prototypically perfect ambient album are present. Of course, the audience for this sort of thing is very much limited, which hurts its potential as the sort of thing that could break a band into the big time. Perhaps that’s for the best—one gets the sense that 3753 Cruithne is better suited to being a hidden treasure anyway.
PopMatters

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Some new releases from Brian Grainger

MILIEU
BELL’N DITHER
MMD009
CD-R ALBUM / 100 COPIES

Needing something soft, moody and bittersweet for those humid Summer nights on the way? Look no further. Bell'n Dither is a spiritual follow-up to 2006's dusky electronic effort Night Currents, and probably the most electronic Milieu album yet. Dither is overloaded with skittering, microscopically manipulated beats and spacious pools of warm chords. Droplets of sad, rainy melodies cover a hulking rusted sub-bass contraption while you roll the windows down in your car just so you can smell the air before a thunderstorm. Dither could be considered both a return to form as well as exploratory and new for Milieu, and should satisfy even the most discriminating of Milieu listeners. Limited to 100 copies packaged in a lovely design by David Tagg, who also appears as a guest on one of the album’s tracks.

NOTE: THIS IS A PREORDER! ALL ORDERS WILL SHIP ON OR BEFORE THE WEEK OF MAY 3RD. INITIAL ORDERS MAY INCLUDE A BONUS SURPRISE…

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MILIEU
REVERB MICROCOMA (PART TWO)
MML068
3” CD-R EP / 50 COPIES

Following the previous part one of this Milieu EP miniseries, Reverb Microcoma returns with even more "classic" Milieu sounds, ready to go in your Spring travels. While the first EP was set more in the Colortone universe, this one could fit squarely into the realm of Swaying Palms. Tracks like "Archipelagos" and "Blue Breeze" are total tropical Milieu, while "Melted Radio Tape" spits back a fuzzy space transmission, straight from Jupiter's moon Europa to your stereo. Five solid Milieu jams to rock your block with! Limited to 50.

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BRIAN GRAINGER
SUNBURNT UNDER THE EYES
WORKINGMAN’S DRONE SERIES / WD3
3” CD-R EP / 50 COPIES

Being a little late on the Workingman's Drone series this time around, "Sunburnt" should satisfy all of your needs for dense suburban drones. Probably the prettiest one in the series thus far, with a swelling guitar chord reminiscent of Ballasted-era SOTL set over a bubbling field recording that wouldn't be out of place on an early Coppice Halifax record. Warm and drifting, and limited to 50.

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BRIAN GRAINGER
WHITE KINGDOMS
SOUND & FURY / SF022
CD-R ALBUM / 75 COPIES

Having received my copies of this album from Sound & Fury, I have posted only ten copies for sale in the Milieu Music shop. As I understand it, Sound & Fury are nearly sold out of the record already, so anyone who wants to pick this epic drone record up, now would be the time! When these are gone, they’re gone!

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DAVID TAGG
PENTECOST
INSTALL / INST010

My longtime collaborator, friend and all-around partner in crime David Tagg has just released his first CD ever, Pentecost (all prior releases were CD-Rs). Being the huge devotee of David’s work that I am, it came as nothing short of an honor that he asked me personally to master and sequence the album for him. I can assuredly say that anyone who likes our work together as VCV or even some of my deeper ambient things like Leaves Painted Purple or some of the Eufloria soundtrack will LOVE this album. Beautiful cathedral drones from a true master of the form! Here’s what AC Fellig at Install had to say about it:

When the hard work of the day is done, and you go home and begin your nightly routine of winding down, there are only so many things that reciprocate that relaxed stillness. Here at Install, we're happy to say that we have the exact soundtrack for many of your sleepy evenings to come: David Tagg's newest album PENTECOST. Following in the wake of his Cold Spring Harbor EP, and utilizing a process that included using his grandfather's reel-to-reel tapes of organ playing for source sound, David has created what could be described as an "ambient novel". A superbly vivid work of musical nonfiction that tells the stories of 1000 photographs, long since forgotten memories and a crackling, eroded legacy, now exhumed from the dusty wine cellars of Tagg's sentimental estate. What all this wholly amounts to is a landmark recording, full of cool, subdued tones and soft shadowy movements. PENTECOST could be David's strongest ambient moment, if not only for consistency, but also for potency.

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VCV - The Star Of The King Of The Dead (Second Sun Recordings, 2008)

01 The Star Of The King Of The Dead (56:41)

Drone monolithique à deux guitares...

This month at SSR we're happy to finally unveil a record that was recorded as far back as late 2006: VCV's hourlong space-doom opus The Star Of The King Of The Dead. Long kept in the cool shadowy vault at SSR HQ, "Star King" has arrived in the form of 100 CD-Rs, continuing the minimal yet striking design aesthetic of the two previous VCV albums. The music documents VCV at their most minimal yet - two statuesque guitars stay their positions in each end of the stereo field, like soldiers at a castle gate, and slowly but certainly the sound that grows from your speakers begins to swell into an epic mass of distorted harmonies. Chunks of liquid-cement chords give way to glimpses of melodies that move at the speed of planets, and in the space of an hour, VCV have built a towering monolith of improvisational guitar work. This is the band at their most majestic, and the next chapter in their macrocosmic oeuvre.
Second Sun Recordings

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VCV - VCV (Second Sun Recordings, 2007)

1 Valley Drone (25:20)
2 Crater Drone (27:42)
3 Volcanic Drone (16:31)

Duo habitué des identités multiples, David Tagg et Brian Grainger utilisent ici seulement une basse et une guitare, micro-mélodies noyées sous des drones monolithiques....

David Tagg and Brian Grainger formed VCV in Autumn, 2006. The band focuses on live improvisation for most of it's works. They usually only employ dual guitars (one positioned in the left stereo channel, and one positioned in the right) to give the listener the feeling that they are in the same room as the two performers. Since their initial formation, VCV have begun to use bass, dulcimer, harp and a variety of other stringed instruments in their recordings.

The band's "single" (as they refer to it) offers three longform tracks that sonically reach a little closer to home than 3753 Cruithne. Subtle nuances and intricate micro-melodies are buried under humming, monolithic drones, only to flow free of time and space. Crafted entirely on one bass and one guitar, this is the sound of VCV hunting and gathering on the black earth 1000 years into a desolate nuclear future. Unbreathable smoke atmospheres permeate while sultry siren songs in foreign keys can be traced through the fog. An infected yellow sun bleeds through the burlap sky, and this long buried time-capsule spews its rotted message. Is it heaven or hell?

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