All-new limited volume of forlorn, laminal string drone and phantom landscape construction from this close associate of Emeralds et al. Already sold out at source.

Debut edition of this new USA underground zine in fold-around newspaper style. Featuring interviews with John Olson, Henry Rollins (on noise, American Tapes etc), Emeralds, Sun Araw, Wet Hair, Thurston Moore, scene report and more.

Edition of 500 copies solo album from Mark McGuire of Emeralds, the second volume of the Steve Lownethal (Swingset) curated VDSQ Solo Acoustic series. This one presents five solo acoustic dreamworks from McGuire that expand on previous works – “Burning Leaves” references the phased polyrhythmic loop work of Amethyst Waves, “At First Sight” rescores the electric/vocal version from Carefully Choosing Words – while pushing off into a bunch of luminous new directions. Some of McGuire’s playing here is so basement-psych focussed that it almost sounds like Wayne Rogers of Major Stars et al cutting a solo kosmische bomb. But the presiding influence would seem to be Daniel Fichelscher of Popol Vuh, that same lightness of touch and that same ability to intimate otherworldly ascensions using only clean, overlapping strings. McGuire is a master of the poignantly staggered loop and most of the material here unwinds in heavenly cogs of multi-part guitar constructs, with melodic statements exploded in slow wheels of harmonics and endless motorik rhythms generated from flashes of repeat chords. There’s a clarity to the album that gives a great insight into the mechanics of McGuire’s personal universe and an ornate purity to the sonics that is as striking and complex as any mid-period Popol Vuh LP. And when he sets up one of those endlessly pulsing bleeding-straight-into-the future acid jams that sound like walls of keyboards using nothing but a series of acoustic loops, well, it’s pretty staggering. A major release from Mark. Silkscreened sleeves. Highly recommended.

Edition of 300 copies LP from Emeralds associate Sam Goldberg. The A side revisits his track from the split Emeralds/Sam Goldberg tour cassette that came out a while back while the flip is a new side-long piece that utilizes orchestral arcs of dreamtone guitar to generate the kind of hallucinatory vistas of Andrew Chalk, Klaus Schulze and even early Grouper. Frozen landscapes and achingly slo-mo drone, the perfect soundtrack for barren winter days.

New limited double disc set from Mark McGuire of Emeralds on his own imprint. The second instalment in his on-going Guitar Meditations series, this set was recorded in September and October 2009 in Belgium and features six tracks. This is some of McGuire’s most extended instrumental work and works to isolate his contribution to Emeralds in a way that’s really effective. The tracks sound less like guitar settings and more like smears of eerie synth and electronics fed through the most delicate eternal delay so that the pieces feel highly organic and seem to give birth to constant fractal restatements of themselves. When the sound of the strings does come to the fore they evoke the kind of clipped, motorik style of Neu ’75, travelling endless tonal freeways beneath a slow droning sunrise. Another great one from Mark. 

Limited edition of 50 copies from this Emeralds associate, with a series of guitar improvisations given further gravity by evocative laminal stylings, dense layering and inspired manipulations that push the whole deal into a heavy-drug realm that is extremely addictive.