SILENT RECORDS CATALOG

Winter 1995




As our followers in the northern hemisphere breathe a welcoming sigh with the arrival of the cool breezes of Fall, we here at Silent continue about our task. You see, we've been chilling here for quite a while. Over the past months Silent has birthed a steady stream of unique ambient waves; the Silent vision takes form, a form that is becoming increasingly recognizable and prominent. Still, we elude the formulaic, as the depth-tanks of our oh-so-fertile lab may have been plumbed, but they most certainly haven't been exhausted. We invite you to sample the multitude of forms Silent assumes, whether it be in the dark convulsions of Furnace, in the seductive pulse of Flask, or in the aqueous depths of Silent's trademark ambient.


Our brand-new website, which should be robust on Christmas Day, will continue to be constantly updated and will be an ideal compliment to the comprehensiveness of this plain vanilla catalog. There you will find full color cover art and 15 - 30 second long MPEG sound bites so that you can sample our releases before you buy.

We encourage you to linger about and explore all that entices you.




AMBIENT




Heavenly Music Corporation - Anechoic
This CD is the fourth in the series of experiments into musical spirituality and introspection. Recording in a room that once housed a mainframe computer, Kim Cascone evokes the attitude of his roots in the mainframe computer. "Morton Subotnik meets Entropica" is how Cascone describes this beatless yet culturally amazing array of sounds.


Mantaray - Numinous Island
In an essay titled "On Numinous Objects and their Manufacture" Peter Blegvasd describes a numinous object as being a "mirror of the spirit" and the "radiant focus of the entire world." Both are true in the case of this sensuous new ambient work by Susumu Yokota and DJ Ray. Yokota is a prolific and well-known electronic composer who has released work on the Harthouse and Space Teddy labels, and DJ Ray spins at parties in Goa, Sydney, and Tokyo. Together they bring you on a journey to an island that radiates with the harmonic patterns of nature that gently discharge themselves in to you subconscious.


Spice Barons - Future Perfect State
As their first release since "Spice of God" on From Here to Tranquility I and their only full-lenth cd, the Barons assemble their disparate and advanced talents together to unleash an ambient salve upon the post-industrial world. From beginning to end, Future Perfect State is a moon-walk, evoking motion without weight as you move through an ambient landscape that oscillates between soothing complacency and spiralling inspiration.


Arthur Dent and Deeper than Space - Drift
Turning their vision away from the techno/trance of Brilliance for a Better Future and even the gorgeous ambient of DTS' Earth Rise and Spaceship Melody, the two collaborators in Drift burrow deep into the minimal and frozen world of vast space. Reminiscent of Cosmic Trigger in its ability to transmit the suprematist radiation that burns luminously without heat, Drift is ice-olationist ambient and all of its stripped-down riches. It is the enactment of the very same theories of physics that postulate the absence of matter in favor of fields of energy and potential.


Vuemorph - In Expectancy of the Monumental Awe
Working under many other project guises and previously only releasing one track as Vuemorph entitled "Mindtime" on Silent's From Here to Tranquility 2, Handrabur again dons the Voemorph cloak this time to create a full-length composition of patterned textures and floating substance. Indistinct and cyclical, In Expectancy is Dan Handrabur's emotional gesture that irrigates the senses with non-menacing cerebral pulses and melodies.


Alaura - Sacred Dreams
The latest collaborative project of the once-core Psychic TV member Alaura is a documentation of text and context, one in which a two histories -- both of the San Francisco ambient scene and of an artist whose backgroud is so very complex as to be nearly untraceable -- are captured in the coruscate flash of this work. It is a record that meanders from deep-fathom synth washes to trance-like ritualistic rhythms, bolstering and transforming Alaura's Cosey-like oneiric vocals, while gesturing towards what once was -- and what may be. (SR9575)


Heavenly Music Corporation - Lunar Phase
Following two critically acclaimed releases, HMC's newest material recalls the more liquid state of In a Garden of Eden and "Riding Windhorse (Buddhafields)," a track from Consciousness III In this realm where the organic meshes with the synthetic and waking thought morphs into a dream state, HMC describes its music as an environment and views its evolution within the ambient community as meta-designers who prefer "context" to "content." Lunar Phase itself was inspired by the satellite-broadcast radio station in St. Giga, Japan, which transmits ambient music 24-hours a day in conjunction with the movement of the tides. (SR9571)


Heavenly Music Corporation - Consciousness III
In an attempt to rekindle the psychedelic qualities inherent in ambient music, the Heavenly Music Corporation has re-invented itself as a 'tweaked' version of ambient for the second release, Consciousness III. Never satisfied with the narrow definitions of ambient, the Heavenly Music Corporation wants to keep ambient music in a progressive state of evolution. In its will to evolve, Consciousness III is a gentle kick against the aural amb-niotic sack that encloses us all. Drawing on influences from Aphex Twin, Ken Ishii, and Sun Electric, HMC invites you into their system, to explore, to dream, and to expand your consciousness. (SR9458)


Heavenly Music Corporation - In a Garden of Eden
Originally created for the Space Age Lounge, a technomystical chill room in Goa, India, the Heavenly Music Corporation's first release is a tranquilizing hybrid of ambient ambient electronics and oscillating trance tones. With comparisons to the Orb, Brian Eno, and Tangerine Dream, In a Garden of Eden quietly shatters the preconceptions of what ambient is supposed to be. HMC "revels in undulating synths and sheets of synth flowing over the brain." --Creem Magazine (SR9335)


Psychic TV - Kondole
Always in a state of flux, Psychic TV's extensive discography acts as a series of cultural signposts from the conception of industrial experimentation through psychedelic pop songs to acid house. Kondole is a mysterious and fantastic release of experimental ambience originally released incomplete with only two parts. This reissue contains the final movement inspired by the plight of two captive dolphins in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. (SR9332)


Deeper Than Space - Earthrise
Earthrise was conceived and channeled by Adam Douglas (Deeper Than Space) after experiencing UFO sightings and alien contact during the summer of 1993. Perfect for the chill room or personal relaxation, Deeper Than Space has created an ambient epic of trance inducing bliss. "Earthrise is a liberator, it has lifted you up, elevated your attitude and raised the ambient ante to new altitudes where whole lifetimes are packed into one single song." --Hypno. Be sure to look out for the soon-to-be-released Spaceship Melody Remixes, a full-length Flask CD release of reworkings of one of the most elusive and haunting tracks from Earthrise. (SR9344)


Cosmic Trigger - Polar Regions
After 20 years of meditative mining, Tor Af Storvatten and Piitu Lintunen embarked on a spiritual quest through Northern wastelands and Norse mythologies that led them to Chalmers University in Gotenburg, Sweden. According to the liner notes, these two Nordic visionaries coincidentally met up with A.M. McKenzie (The Hafler Trio) and Zbigniew Karkowski, who were working in Chalmers and agreed to help record this album. Af Storvatten and Lintunen's research has led to this austere collection of shimmering ambience and profound ascesis that is capable of elevating one's state of being on all levels. (SR9345)


Michael Mantra - Sonic Alter
After numerous cassette-only releases, Michael Mantra brings his "brain synchronization" techniques to compact disc. In utilizing recording techniques that help synchronize the frequencies of the left and right sides of the brain, Mantra creates a medium for electronic meditation for relaxation and improved health. Headphones necessary for full-effect. (SR9449)


John C. Lilly - E.C.C.O.
John C. Lilly is one of the most important trailblazers of fringe science as a neuro-scientist, the inventor of the isolation tank, an interspecies communicator, a psychedelic pioneer, and inspiration for "Altered States" and "Day of the Dolphin". His philosophical musings are presented here in his own voice over the breathtaking production from Yasuhiko Suga, Tetra Tanizaki, and Tetsuya Ishikawa, along side the luminous soundscapes by Spice Barons and Heavenly Music Corporation. "As there is so much to write on Lilly alone, the CD is something that is a must for those willing to open their minds to new ideas." --Net Magazine (SR9452)


Various Artists - Unidentified Floating Ambience
The title says it all, as an outstanding collection of tracks from Spice Barons, Patternclear, Hydrosphere, and Astralfish. Beatless swirls of euphoric sound stimulation hover above and ambient backdrop culled from the sounds of life. Kim Cascone (Heavenly Music Corporation), Don Falcone, and Paul Neyrick (all working with Spice Barons & Thessalonians) have orchestrated this unhurried and beautiful disc that stimulates the landscape of the mind. (SR9454)


Trancendental Anarchists - Cluster Zone
If you didn't get a chance to hear Trancendental Anarchists' track on From Here to Tranquility II, your next window of opportunity has arrived. Emerging from the Sydney underground in Australia, Trancendental Anarchists lull the listener into the mysterious dream like otherworld of the Cluster Zone. Occasional rhythm tracks pulse along side trippy sound effects for a slow mystic journey of sound and imagination. (SR9462)




FROM HERE TO TRANQUILITY SERIES




Various Artists - From Here to Tranquility Volume I
From Here to Tranquility delivers a fantastic mix of ambient music from some of San Francisco's greatest masters of sedation, including Psychic TV, Michael Mantra, The Heavenly Music Corporation, Space Time Continuum, and many more. "When the majority of 'ambient' material is lazily indulgent and ill-conceived, there is a clear need for music that is pursuitist, instead of escapist. To find it, you should start looking here." --Generator (SR9336)


Various Artists - From Here to Tranquility Volume II
Proving true that the ambient movement has gained momentum beyond the chill room, Tranquility II picks up where volume one left off, presenting spacious ambient and trance tones from Pelican Daughters, Trancendental Anarchists, Air, Single Cell Orchestra, and many more! (SR9343)


Various Artists - From Here to Tranquility Volume III
It's time for another journey From Here to Tranquility. Following in the brilliant series, Tranquility III will chill your soul with heavy ambient attitude. From the entrancing sounds of Dialux Rouge and Ohmegatribe to the trance inductions of Anti House and Entrancing Iris. This CD will take you to tranquility and back again. "Volume 3's artists uphold the great tradition of conscious neurological experimentation with a nice variety of different percussion, thoughts, and transmissions." - XLR8R Magazine. (SR9460)


Various Artists - From Here to Tranquility, Volume IV
The latest Tranquility transmission assembles the global ambient community in a single plush harbor of aural bliss. With artists from France, Japan, Italy, the UK, Los Angeles, and - of course - San Francisco, Tranquility 4 is not only a tour of ambient states, but also of styles ranging from ambient collages to trance to the ethereal ambience that are the trademark of the Tranquilit> series. (SR9473)




ISOLATIONIST / EXPERIMENTAL




Skozey Fetisch - Momma:Key
A project composed in the old school "musique concrete" technique, which means that the entire piece was constructed using razor blades and standard cut & paste editing on 1/4" tape -- a painstaking process which is even more impressive considering this piece is over an hour in length. The composition is a mature first outing for this young composer who draws as much inspiration from fine art as he does the sound of contruction sites.


Operation Mindwipe - Instrumental Transkommunikation
"The science of transforming the energy of the dead into an audible and visible image." This release combines the roots of experimental industrial with creeping subsonic lyering. This brainchild of Darryl Hell assisted by Mike Roberts (both of Abstinence) and Rob Psychotrope (Syntax Error) is a must-buy for those weary of the worn-out repetition of bass drums.


PGR - The Morning Book of Serpents
Lost and forgotten tracks that have been gathering dust in PGR's tape vault. The material here runs the range from dark and brooding soundscapes that conjur up English Moors at night to the more experimental difficult material that PGR has been known for. Three of these tracks were supposed to come out on the Japanese PGR CD entitled "The Hole of Unknown Depth" but never saw the light of day. An interesting item for collectors and people interested in the historical roots of "Isolationism." "This CD is so ambient it makes all others shrivel up and decay." -Obin Robinson, WSUC-FM.


PGR - A Hole of Unknown Depth
Right after the release of Morning Book of Serpents, we received a fax from Noctovision in Japan saying that, after five years, they were finally releasing this CD! We only have a limited supply, so order now.


Mariann Kafer - Animalfarm
MK is an electronic/experimental duo initiated in 1991 within the Franch experimental underground. The music is similar to Operation:Mindwipe and PGR and is designed to remove you from your comfort zone of aural safety and introduce you to the various regions of Mariann Kafer's reality. Exuding frenetic frequencies as diverse as the animals that inhabit our planet, the audible words of the animals of land and sea coalesce. We invite you to the Animalfarm.


Arcane Device/PGR - Fetish
Reconstructed noise through feedback and sampler techniques to amazingly subtle ends, PGR and Arcane Device have compiled a swirling collection of electronics. "I have rarely been as excited about a CD as the Arcane Device/PGR CD... Both Arcane Device and PGR have taken 'industrial' music out of the ghetto and given it fresh substance, new direction." (Edward Ka-Spel/_The Legendary Pink Dots_) (SR9009)


PGR/Merzbow/Asmus Tietchens - GRAV
Not unlike the Surrealist parlor game of exquisite corpse, GRAV is the end result of an uncharted collaboration between three prolific experimental sound artists. GRAV is a haunting trip into the internal combustion of modern industry as seen from the three cultural contexts of Japan, U.S., and Germany. (SR9114)


Phauss/Karkowski/Bilting
John Cage would smile upon the intensity boiling through these five aural sculptures by Phauss, Zbigniew Karkowski, and Ulf Bilting. The harsh minimalism of Karkowski and Bilting's compositions counterpoint the subtle yet complex musique concrete delivered by Phauss. The result is a compelling conceptual play between sound and thought. (SR9217)


PGR - The Chemical Bride
As the last documentation of PGR, which has now evolved into the Heavenly Music Corporation, The Chemical Bride is an aural equivalent of alchemy, the transmutation of sound through light and dark forces. "PGR's Kim Cascone consistently creates distinctive and appealing ambient works. This disc, with its beautiful otherworldly sounds and interesting compositions, is no exception." --Option (SR9218)


Arcane Device - Trout
The tenth and final report from David Meyers (Arcane Device) exemplifies the limitlessness of Arcane Device's feedback machines quietly running amok. i/e Magazine describes as "totally absorbing, with even more mysterious textures and sound flowing out from the moster cables and diodes of Meyer's humble bank of generators." (SR9331)


Various Artists - Come Again II
Featuring many of the pioneers of Japanoise (Merzbow, Null, Violent Onsen Geisha, Solmania, and 19 other artists), demonstrates the flexibility of brute force as performed under the clever disguise of music. AA guaranteed kick in the head compliments of The Land of the Rising Sun. On the Furnace imprint. (SR9342)


Illusion of Safety - Water Seeks Its Own Level
Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke pool their talents as the sole members of Illusion of Safety, choosing familiar themes to the I.O.S. catalog. Water Seeks Its Own Level bitterly documents the absurdist American fascination with violence through harsh electronics and dark ambience. "Mr. Burke is really starting to explore the studio as a weapon to create frighteningly murky textures." --ND Magazine (SR9351)


King Felix - Owl Plane Crash
King Felix, the self-proclaimed premier new music composer of Miami, has painted upon aural canvases void of size or shape, mixing ambient, experimental, and industrial genres onto his palette of noises for a vastly intriguing collection of songs. (SR9450)


Phauss - GodTPhauss
As "a short history of acceleration and deceleration, of distortion and purification, and of autocratic ethnic and religious harmony", GodTPhauss is a journey of reworked material from live performances. Phauss' minimalist experiments of ambient concrete display disturbingly subtle shifts, similar to the current work of the Hafler Trio (not surprising that the members of Phauss have worked with the Hafler Trio.) (SR9459)




ORGANIC AMBIENT




Jeff Grienke - Lost Terrain
Greinke's music is of ghosts, of shimmering reflections, and of ethereal radiance. Lost Terrain creates mysterious aural images that as i/e Magazine noted, "react, collapse, fold inward, and arise gradually like a slowly-awakened phoenix." (SR9219)


Jorge Reyes - Neirika
This is a breakthrough release for Jorge Reyes as he has bridged the ancient shamanic elements of pre-historic culture and modern electronics. Reyes hosts a trance inducing ritualistic ceremony for the listener. His music is a timeless cultural imprint of a civilization near extinction. (SR9326)


Solitaire - Ritual Ground
Solitaire is the collaborative project between the music ambient masters Steve Roach and Elmar Schulte. Ritual Ground's seven deep and languid compositions resonate from the Earth itself, swelling and sweeping through ancient landscapes; these are ambient tapestries for the mind's eye. "This is serious, important instrumental music, certainly worthy of deep listening" --Downbeat (SR9341)




ELECTRONICA




Deeper Than Space - Current
DTS takes you through the worlds of ambient and electronica and even touches on a little trip-hop and ambient jungle. Parts of sound like Aphex twin, while the ambient trip-hop track sounds like a piece from the Ninja Tunes catalog. This is the kind of diversity that defines ambient music.


Dreams Without Number - Logarithmic
Fresh from collaborative work with Deeper Than Space's Adam Douglas, DWN's Darren Cutlip summons in Logarithmic a forge fiery enough to fuse together his own disparate influences (ranging from experimental noise to My Bloody Valentine and Coil) in series of heady atmopheric ambient swells.


Ambient Temple of Imagination - Sonic Acupuncture
Richard Sun and Seofon return again as A.T.O.I. to exhume the wisdom of the ancients and pass their apocryphal secrets into the eager and burning hearts of mortals. This double cd has two components: "Sonic Acupuncture," which is a continuation of Mystery School and "Elusinia," which was recorded live at a performance in San Francisco. A devout believer in occult spirituality and non-western methods of mind expansion, Sun forges a portal through the aureole that envelops our cosmos into the eternal ecstasy of the divine. Be a part of it.


Ambient Temple of Imagination - Mystery School
A.T.O.I. bring a spritual knowledge through magick, shamanism, and alchemy to a series of intense ritualistic ambient tracks. "A.T.O.I. have been responsible for some of the most innovative and successfully experimental ambient environments we've had the pleasure of experiencing." --Clublife (SR9466)


Thessalonians - Soulcraft
Thessalonians have woven an other worldly fabric with the threads of the present and past influences: ethnic, industrial, experimental, jazz, ambient, trance, and acid house. Soulcraft is a dynamic hybrid traveling from the landscapes of the Orb to the throbbing trance of Coil. "On Soulcraft... we are given a glimpse of a new frontier unfolding in their music, where matters of the spirit are reflected in the manipulation of the machine." --CMJ (SR9334)


Pelican Daughters - Fishbones and Wishbones
Hailing from the flourishing experimental sound scene in Sydney, Australia, the Pelican Daughters have brought to the U.S. a stunning hybrid of industrial dance, psychedelia, ethnic musics, and ambient noise. Their music exists without boundaries as P.D. member Andy Rantzen explains: "The goal of good music is always the same: to deny the existence of moral stricture and insist on the primacy of the most basic human feelings and fantasies." (SR9115)


Pelican Daughters - Bliss
Pelican Daughters speak without words exploring the Surreal world beyond articulation through a rich collage of ambient dub, psychedelia, and trance. Bliss also features chillingly beautiful reworkings of fellow Australians Wrong Kind of Stone Age. "This is definitely thinking person's ambient, extremely profitable for those willing to put forth the effort." --BAM Magazine (SR9456)


Various Artists - Tox Uthat II
The brilliant follow up to the critically acclaimed Tox Uthat compilation featuring Drome, Nuf, der Spyra, Alpine Vortex, Tapeworm, and Capslock. "This compilation is a completely consuming listening experience with intricate layers of sound and harmonies that weave absolutely beautiful textures. There are no disappointments on the disk, only discoveries." --Net Magazine. #3 on KSFR Santa Fe's "SUPER HOT ABSOLUTE BEST TOP FIVE" list. "The best compilation of ambient trance music to date. Not a bad cut on this CD." --Dwight Loop, DJ (SR9465)


INDIE AMBIENT




Closedown - Nearfield
Experimental walls of guitars and distortion are decorated by bass, drums, and (surprise!) vocals. Mixed and produced by Kim Cascone of Heavenly Music Corporation. "Emerging from the gaping currents of pure-drenching spectral etherialism, Closedown's newest material will pin you down permanently with swelling whirlpools of brilliant sound." -BLOW Magazine. (SR9469)


AMBIENT DUB




23 Degrees - Born of Earth's Torment
Another piece of dub artistry from the authentic ambience and reggae revelations of 23 Degrees. Their second album expands on powerful trance melodies, surging Afro-Cuban drumbeats and souldful ethnic vocals. A contemporary style of combining slow repetitive rhythms with hypnotic, deep bass. _Wired_ magazine writes that 23 Degrees "offers superbly crafted ambient landscapes." (SR9597)


23 Degrees - An Endless Searching for Substance
Quickly becomming an underground classic of the ambient dub scene, An Endless Searching for Substance progresses from expansive waves of sound behind catchy melodic decorations into a classic ambient dub release of ethno beats and deep bass lines. (SR9467)


TECHNO/TRANCE




Ohmega Tribe - Anodyne Wisdom
A configuration of Italy's Lost Legion Alien Collective, Ohmega Tribe produces hypnotic sounds and trans-dimensional rhythms that eloquently enlighten us to the true significance of the word trance. Employing a wide variety of ethnic voices and sounds within the system of western harmonic structure, Ohmega Tribe reconcile the timeless and the technological with a rare directness and simplicity.


Various Artists - Lost Legion Sampler
Compilation featuring hypnotic ambient/trance from Italy. "Fluid, gaseous, aqueous, telekinetic and extra-sensorial, the Lost Legion Alien Collective works and creates with the same rhythm and movement of cloud formations and stalactites. It's and ever-mutating working process with an unerring, mathematical structure of absorption: digitized stream of consciousness through psychological osmosis and physical impulses." -Lost Legion Collective. (SR9470)


Various Artists - Metro Tekno
Featuring Toronto's best in electro-industrial, Metro Tekno delivers a hard hitting array of industrial strength beats and rhythms from Digital Poodle, Din, Mona Lisa Mescaline, Parade, Attack Squad, !Bang Elektronica!, and Command Co. (SR9216)


Drome - Anachronism
Anachronism is the first release from Drome, who apply the cyberactive manipulations of their alter-ego Some More Crime to a more techno mindset. Unhurried ambient passages of metallic melodies compete with dense industrial beats to form this eclectic and infectious release. (SR9224)


Various Artists - Tox Uthat
Compiled by the DJ's at Toxikktrackks in Germany, Tox Uthat is a well-engineered collection of cutting-edge dance tracks featuring stunning works by Horizon 222, Orange Sky, Cirrus Minor, Nonplace Urban Field, Cosmic Breeze, Mindope, and Brain Unlimited. "This CD provides an appealing mix of textures, timbres, rhythms, and vocal samples and supplies the subliminal under context of mystery which can make this type of music rewarding as a pure listening experience." --Option (SR9329)


Various Artists - 199303
This "collection of technologically advanced trax", compiled by techno wizards Adam Douglas and Thad Jones, features the best techno/acid artists from the San Francisco Bay Area. From pounding break beats to bleepy acid trance, 199303 has been described by Generator as "the current soundtrack to urban western existence." On the Flask imprint. (SR9337)


Earth to Infinity
Licensed from Source Records in Germany, Earth to Infinity is a brilliant ambient techno disc that floats from Orb-esque ambient soundscapes to Psychick Warrior ov Gaia styled trance progressions. This CD is limited edition, so grab them before they're gone or you'll be stuck with import prices! (SR9448)


Various Artists - Brilliance for a Better Future
Created in the hi-tech computerland of silicon valley, Brilliance for a Better Future is a sign post in the technological continuum of "state of the art" sounds, resulting in an infectious collection of lo-fi intelligent techno. Shaping new sounds out of the old, Adam Douglas and Thad Jones have delved into the bedrooms and garages of the San Francisco Bay Area to expose the creative forces previously unheard. On the Flask imprint. (SR9455)




CYBER-INDUSTRIAL




Syntax Error
A unique vision of Cyber-Industrial music that pushes the boundaries of the stereotypical gloom and doom that permeates the marketplace. Syntax Error maps the unexplored recesses of the human psyche. The audio manipulation techniques employed by SE work towards reconciliation of the man/machine paradigm, fusing the analog and the digital, the synapse and the circuit into a seamless whole.


Dismembered Quietly - Exquisite Tenderness
Thick rolling bass and driving danceable beats toppeed with heavy synthesizers, more like the early years before there arose a formula in the U. S. for industrial music. DQ hail from Norway and bring us European industrial in the vein of early Front 242, Front Line Assembly and Nitzer Ebb, laced with modern concepts, beats and experimental sounds.


V/A - Hellscape 2
Volume 2 picks up where volume 1 left off, further distorting the barriers of the elektronik/experimental mindset. This is a worldwide alliance of some of the most interesting E/E projects. From environmental pieces to hard pounding dancefloor, this CD is relentless in its depth and furiousness. Includes Syntax Error, Abstinence, ATD onvention, E. C. M., Dave Scott, Anstalt, Permutation Test, Yarn of the Moonfruit, and Martyr Colony. (SR9598)


Various Artists - Hellscape
Compiled by Darryl Hell of Abstinence, the Hellscape sampler introduces the new face of Silent's Furnace imprint; it is a hellish one indeed. With the likes of Institute of Technology, Abstinence, Industrial heads, Dismembered Quietly, ATD Convention, Pounce International, and Terminal Sect, Hell has assembled an aggressive lineup of hard-core, electro, ambient industrial, and sinister dance tracks that prove we are not in a post-industrial society. (SR9574)


ATD Convention - Cyber Relations
Out of the Canadian electro vanguard emerges ATD Convention to drill a view-hole into the psyche of cyber-psychosis and deliver a foretaste of a dark Baconian future where technology brutally dominates nature. Using cutting-edge production techniques in order to expose technology's own nightmarish viscera, ATD Convention pledges allegiance to the marginal, the prefabricated, the random and, ultimately, the experimental.


Industrial Heads - The Fear and Anguish at The End
No more need to speculate about what today's industrialist will experience during the final seconds before death: The Fear and Anguish at The End records it and makes it accessible on a deceptively simple-looking 4 3/4" compact disc. The Norwegian sextet Industrial Heads hammer together slamming beats with the choked cries of the modern world and its machines in the tragic motion of a desperately outstretched arm.


Abstinence - Theorem Even with the recent explosion of artists on the Furnace sublabel under the aegis of Darryl Hell, Hell proves that he has not sqandered his own creative lifeblood elsewhere, but has saved his vision for Theorem. Again with Mike Roberts and John Bechdel, Hell surgically inserts cruel instrumentation and innovative samples into rhythmic spasms with a skill outdone only by his uncompromised will-to-experimentalism.


Abstinence - Revolt of the Cyberchrist
Loathing the lack of experimentalism that U.S. industrial bands (actually just guitar bands with samplers) regurgitate, Abstinence unleashes a furious assault of pounding rhythms and sample ridden Surrealism with a unique assortment of power tools, metal percussion, and hand made instruments. Spearheaded by Darryl Hell and Mike Roberts with assistance from John Bechdel (of Prong, Killing Joke, Pigface, etc.), Abstinence's debut on the Furnace imprint reinvigorates the industrial genre with a blistering mix of experimentalism and electronics. (SR9440)


AVANT GARDE




Elliott Sharp - Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Yahoos
Melding shards of avant garde, jazz, mainstream pop, etc., Elliott Sharp has concocted a visceral combination between Russ Meyer's phobic visions of American sexuality and violence with 'Gulliver's Travels' in the land of the savage yahoos, resulting in a humorous and excoriating soundtrack to the American landscape. Features Samm Bennett, Eugene Chadbourne, and Anthony Coleman. (SR9220)


Crawling With Tarts - Madaleine
Drawing upon sources ranging from geometrical compositional processes to memory theory, Crawling With Tarts continue to dodge musical categorization as they have done for years. Renowned for their unique sound that is profoundly conceived and executed with naive calculation, CWT shuttle back and forth between the art and the musical world with a worldly mixture of pop, avant garde, jazz, and the physics-based uncertainty principle. (SR9472)




FIFTY YEARS OF SUNSHINE COMPILATION




Various Artists - Fifty Years of Sunshine
On April 16, 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested a minuscule amount of a substance he was researching, and began experiencing strange hallucinations and visions that lasted several hours. The substance was LSD-25, and the experience was the world's first acid trip. Silent Records presents a double CD set celebrating the 50th anniversary of this momentous occasion that led to notable change in the artistic and spiritual arenas of western culture. Fifty Years of Sunshine features 22 visionary artists including Timothy Leary, Psychic TV, Hawkwind, Nurse With Wound, Pelican Daughters, etc. (SR9333)




ORDERING INFORMATION