ok, here it’s much more understandable how i’d miss these as phase! had the good sense of announcing their two latest editions on the evening of december 29 out of all days. Maybe they were trying to beat the clock and not release anything on a jinxed year such as 2012 -though i doubt that. Anyway, two greek projects, beaTol & the Eagol‘s ‘Ολντ Σκουλ’ is an idiosyncratic plunderphonic pop something, certainly a curio. Proper pop music for the dazed and terminally sane. On ΤΟ ΔΥΟ ΕΥΡΩ‘s ‘Το Βασίλειο του Χοντρού’ i have very little to say cause i’m not familiar with the project, suffice to say though that the credits (vocals / chant / prose by one member, and musical accompaniment by the other) are promising. They are also described as a ‘greek transvestite duo’, don’t know if that’s an actual description or if it’s meant to suggest something in the music. Both discs come in lovingly packaged and severely limited cdr editions.

specifics on phase!’s page here

Tags: beaTol & the Eagol, phase!records, To Dyo Eyrw

out now on phase!records:

ok, here’s a monster of release somewhat. Double cassette release between a duo project and the two people it sprang from. Which means one cassette features Betty Loop Loop, while the other is itself a split release between Angelos kyriou (Άγγελος κυρίου) and Buildings at Night (Κτίρια τη Νύχτα) -the two people who are behind Betty Loop Loop anyway…

Panos of phase! describes this as THE 10′s athens artefact and he has a point there, both Angelos and the Buildings come from a singer-songwriter perspective, but have managed to lodge themselves pretty well into the consciense and the “now” of the experimental community and the forward-thinking pop audience in athens alike (and the rest of greece to some extent). Angelos is a familiar face in these pages as well, owing to his 7″ on organized music a few months back.

to the music then. The split solo tape features the usual marathon of erratic pop and living-for-the-moment miniatures from Angelos and a pretty eye-opening stray-sound-collage/fuzzfest from Buildings at Night on the other. Both sides very short, both very tasty. And then the Betty tape, 36 minutes of live “highlights” for your summer haze pleasure. THE release for this summer.

http://phasemag.blogspot.com/2011/08/phr-84-betty-loop-loop-split-2xcs.html

Tags: angelos kyriou, betty loop loop, ktiria ti nyxta, phase!records

phase! records does it again:

A stunning new album including 5 long jams (23 minutes each side) which balance perfectly between the homey “Strange Maine” sound, the collage aesthetic of “The Grove” and the extraordinary singer/songwriter approach as heard on “Dead Songs”. If it wasn’t released by Phase!, it would certainly top a position in the 2011 TOP-13 albums!
Comes in an edition of 350 copies w/ 2-color awesome screenprinted jacket + insert.

excellent new LP from Big Blood, the Maine, US -based freak/psych-folk outfit of Caleb Mulkerin and Colleen Kinsella (here also with Brother Oak on drums), out now on the greek phase! label

http://phasemag.blogspot.com/
http://dontrusttheruin.blogspot.com/

Tags: big blood, phase!records

the fabulous Big Blood (US) are doing a small tour of greece in the first days of july. Hosted by Phase!, there are three stops on their callendar, athens, xanthi and finally thessaloniki. Betty Loop Loop will be opening in athens, Dead Gum in the other two dates. Expect this post to be updated with more info in the coming days, until then:

friday, july 1st @ six d.o.g.s, athens. Big Blood, Betty Loop Loop
sunday, july 3rd @ xanthi folk museum. Big Blood, Dead Gum
monday, july 4th @ fuzz bar, thessaloniki. Big Blood, Dead Gum

also: Colleen Kinsella solo art exhibition “Leviathan Song”
Athens, Six D.O.G.S. Gallery Space (1-8 July)

http://dontrusttheruin.blogspot.com/
http://bettylooploop.blogspot.com/
http://phasemag.blogspot.com/

posters:

Tags: athens, betty loop loop, big blood, dead gum, FEX, fuzz bar, phase!records, six d.o.g.s, thessaloniki, xanthi

phase! records is moving onto some tasty vinyl productions we’ve heard, here’s the first one:

(phr81) dj mistakes – s/t

“DJ mistakes are two exercise bicycle driven turntables fabricated and ridden by Casey Farnum and Elliot Hess. This project re-introduces spontaneity into the DJ experience and asks how production and industry have assembled to create a listening experience quite different from the hand-cranked turntables it was initially borne from. With a shrug to the practice of crystallizing performances and their reception through vinyl and the audiophile entertainment- center this project re-introduces human touch into the listening experience. It looks back nostalgically to a time when gears and bicycles were the stuff of aural and physical revolutions. Yet it also seeks a contemporary framework in the DJ era where cutting and mixing revolutionized production making it both unpredictable and live. Bikes, turntables, gongs, a mixer, records, and a microphone all mash in this recording live from the Chicken Hut and 1086 Broadway, Brooklyn NY 2006-7.” Phil Schapp, 2011

Limited numbered edition of 200 copies on 1-sided 12”LP, offset covers on mettalic paper + inners.

http://phasemag.blogspot.com/

Tags: casey farnum, dj mistakes, elliot hess, phase!records

(PHR-80) SLICING GRANDPA – The Abstracticator CDR
(PHR-79) ARKLIGHT / DEAD GUM split C60
(PHR-78) COCKS OF THE DEAD – Blowskull Tape 2 C20
(PHR-77) WHAM JAH – Wham Jazz CDR

so far we have little physical evidence of this new PHASE! batch, but lucky for us panagiotis is at the top of his game in terms of documentation. I won’t be betting my dick on what’s inside, having only his casually over-the-top blurbs to go by, but i can tell you for one that PHR-77 has one Lost Body colliding with a Reversed Mouth and that’s something to begin with. The rest i imagine to be at least plain weird with a guaranteed minimum of sonic destruction.

oh and here is the, recently posted, complete (2002-2010) PHASE! discography:
http://phasemag.blogspot.com/2011/01/phase-discography-2002-2010.html
like, wtf??

.

http://phasemag.blogspot.com/

Tags: arklight, cocks of the dead, dead gum, phase!records, slicing grandpa, wham jah

phase!records is yet another world of its own, it would demand tons of research and dozens of posts to boot in order to investigate into its history, so let’s just catch the bus from where we are at this moment for now, ok?

the person behind phase! is panagiotis spoulos, of reverse mouth fame. A strictly-roots man in the athens noise scene, i remember meeting him some years ago and being told by nicolas that he runs a noise label. At the time the possibility of a greek noise label didn’t even register to me, so i just sat back and listened while the two of them went on with the conversation and let all kinds of alternate realities affect my feeble young mind.

fast forward to today and panagiotis is busy doing the same things he was doing back then, baking cdrs, dubbing tapes, blasting godawful noise through guitars and amplifiers. He’s even putting up some mp3 editions on the blog for good measure. And from local scene to international misfits, he carries them all. This one is a label that runs on the love of noise and the people who stand behind it,  so don’t expect any opportunist moves here, just the truth -in an edition of 40 to 60 copies at a time

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(PHR-76) DEAD GUM – Lost Decade CDR
Dead Gum is panagiotis’ solo vehicle and this one is -i think- the second dead gum release. Here, the actual noise is toned down a bit, to let instead in a noise of emotion, building upon “childhood nostalgia, appreciation of then-weird memories or half-remembered feelings”

(PHR-75) Η ΜΑΝΑ ΣΟΥ ΕΙΝΑΙ Ο ΠΑΤΕΡΑΣ ΣΟΥ – Είσαι η Αδερφή Σου CDR
collaboration between members of Placenta Popeye, Slicing Grandpa + Opera Mort. Jams galore with a strange twist, all under a surreal greek title. panagiotis calls it “a dark tale of psychic incest, deform + strangeland blues“. Comes in a special edition, containing a 12-page zine (mid picture), and in a regular cardboard sleeve edition

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more here:
http://www.phasejunk.com/
http://phasemag.blogspot.com

Tags: dead gum, phase!records, η μάνα σου είναι ο πατέρας σου