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CD
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FD 149CD
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Several years ago, Gary Mundy of Ramleh/Broken Flag (and far more besides) declared to me that he wished to do one new Kleistwahr album every year until he's no longer able to do them. Fourth Dimension Records has subsequently fulfilled a promise to honor this plan as much as possible and is managing to keep up so far. How Gary manages to keep pulling new ideas out of the proverbial hat at this rate is anybody's guess, but the latest album, For the Lives Once Lived illustrates very clearly that the wellspring he draws from has far from dried up. If you have been paying attention to the albums that have been released by Fourth Dimension Records during recent years, you should understand that his solo music has retained the molten intensity it has always been propelled by since Kleistwahr was founded in the early 1980s. While the work occasionally seems as though it draws from the same dusty religious setting as some of Messiaen's wonderful organ compositions, there's still an all-encompassing blanket of ravaged psychedelia firmly laced with blood-flecked barbs to help counter this. When Kleistwahr's music seems poised to elevate the atmospheric gestures towards the sublime and elegiac, there's always a gaping maw lined with razor-edged teeth lurking nearby to help keep all those lofty hopes and expectations from getting above themselves. For the Lives Once Lived may also surprise many with its opening song, "Rotten Boroughs," which both stands out from the rest of the album yet makes sense as part of it. This is another fantastic album from the unstoppable force that is Gary Mundy's Kleistwahr. Long may it continue. For the Lives Once Lived appears packaged in a Broken Flag-style sleeve featuring photos by Chris Low, design by Puppy38, and mastering by Sion Orgon.
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LP
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FD 129LP
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Limited edition reissue of this cassette originally released in 1983 on Broken Flag, gathering five untitled solo pieces by Gary Mundy of Ramleh in full on early power electronics mode, firmly illustrating his place as one of the innovators of this genre yet likewise pushing this confrontational avant-garde sensibility somewhere entirely new. It is a sound that Kleistwahr has continued to explore and add new dimensions to ever since, but never completely untangles itself from this particular root. Raw and seemingly unrestrained, these pieces present a robust, white-hot sonic meltdown up there with the very best from this ultimately fertile period for music from the basement. They last around 17 minutes in total. This release is packaged similarly to the vinyl reissues of the first two full-length Kleistwahr albums released by Harbinger Sound in 2011, Arsonicide and Myth. Released at the same time as the Do Not (FD 130LP) reissue originally released on cassette in 1986.
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LP
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FD 130LP
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Limited edition reissue of this album originally released in 1986 on cassette on Broken Flag. Comprising two untitled side-long pieces, Do Not catches Gary Mundy of Ramleh in peak "noise" mode with his solo endeavor, taking much from his place as one of the innovators of the so-called power electronics genre yet pushing this confrontational avant-garde sensibility somewhere entirely new. It is a sound that Kleistwahr has continued to explore and add new dimensions to since, but never completely untangles itself from this particular root. Raw and seemingly unrestrained, these pieces present a robust, white-hot sonic meltdown up there with the very best from this ultimately fertile period for music from the basement. This LP is packaged similarly to the vinyl reissues of the first two full-length Kleistwahr albums released by Harbinger Sound in 2011, Arsonicide and Myth. It is also being released the same time as the one-sided Mobility (FD 129LP) reissue originally released on cassette in 1983.
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CD
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FD 132CD
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Since 2014 Gary Mundy of Ramleh has been releasing most of his solo work through Fourth Dimension. In the Guts of a Year is his sixth such album for the label (not including a reissue of 2009's The Return album (FD 094CD), originally released as an LP by USA's Noiseville, and the reissues of the Broken Flag LPs Mobility and Do Not and brings together another six lengthy new cuts. Keeping in line with where his work has been going in recent years, these merge atmospheric noise, church-like organ groans, frazzled guitar snatched from the stratosphere and the occasional vocals that would do a wailing spirit proud. Although little like Ramleh themselves, the vehement interest in squeezing new sounds out of the given instruments in order to create vast, immersive blankets to lose oneself in remain a common factor. Defiant, bold and charged with an energy that could power a small country for several months, In the Guts of a Year is another great entry in Gary's continuing quest to make sense of a world forever falling apart at the seams. This is the twelfth Kleistwahr album since 1983's Myth.
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CD
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FD 125CD
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For a number of years now, Fourth Dimension has been responsible for releasing most of Gary Mundy of Ramleh's solo works under his Kleistwahr guise. Each of these albums is possessed of a thematic approach harboring some of his obsessions, passions and explorations into both pure, unadulterated sonic expression and many of the concerns driving it. Although traces of Gary's longstanding interest in unforgiving and uncompromising music can often be found threaded throughout Kleistwahr's work, it is (rather like Ramleh's own recordings) far more nuanced and subtle. Contorted layers of psychedelic noise converge with tormented vocals, ghostly organ sounds wafting in from a derelict church, life beat pulses, rhythms that fall in on themselves and an avant-garde sensibility apparently drawing from minimalist composition and a crushing feeling of unease itself jarred into all manner of surprising shapes. This is music to fall backwards into whilst understanding vipers lurk somewhere close by. In the Reign of Dying Embers, however, is not entirely wracked by the kind of primal despair best reserved for daily coverage of leading world events, though. There are flecks of light in the mix, some held on to and nurtured more than others, that suggest a reaching out to better things. More than this, Kleistwahr proffers a somewhat more personal take on matters, harnessing a sound that embodies the sheer paradox of existential crises converging with meaning as the world around crumbles and burns. Each and every Kleistwahr album appears akin to Gary's taking another step towards curling into a quiet corner with one defiant fist still raised. Being itself founded on the idea of addiction in all its forms and the colossal pressure upon us to "escape" by varied means, In the Reign of Dying Embers underlines the hope in hopelessness so boldly it might well constitute the strongest statement thus far.
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2LP
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FD 115LP
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Fourth Dimension present a reissue of two critically acclaimed and now sought-after albums from Kleistwahr, This Is Not My World and Over Your Heads Forever, originally released as CDs on Fourth Dimension Records in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Kleistwahr is the ongoing solo endeavor of Gary Mundy of Ramleh. Similar to the group itself, the music explores vast and often searing swathes of sound, sometimes tempered to a more atmospheric approach and at others cranked to the kind of levels bleeding ears make for a perfectly natural response. Typically uncompromising and often confrontational, this is music that doesn't adhere to any notions of comfort for too long. Remastered to help with the overloaded dynamics for the express purpose of this release, all fourteen tracks are unforgiving in their creating an abrasive psychedelic setting that still draws heavily from Gary's roots as a power electronics originator and wonderful for getting lost in. This is sonic self-flagellation at its absolute finest, once again compounding who still wears the brightest crown on this particular throne. Edition of 200.
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CD
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FD 110CD
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Ramleh's Gary Mundy has been rather prolific in recent years with his solo Kleistwahr project. As with his main concern, there's a deep-seated interest in pushing the parameters where certain sonics can fall into a seismic vortex of sheer overload yet remain tethered to a knowing sensibility where greater power can be derived from simply holding back. Since the incredible This World Is Not My Home album in 2014 Kleistwahr has embarked on a single-handed mission to not only take such possibilities as far as possible, but also reach inwards and rip out its core being in order to further attempt to make sense of its doubtlessly tarnished place in the universe. Although in and of itself often tempered to the point restraint assumes new, often disturbed (and disturbing) psychedelic or even filmic, properties, this music arrives like a spitting and foaming scream into the insanity of the void and the myriad challenges and questions it inexorably keeps hurling at us. Kleistwahr is akin to one man having scaled a great height poking out of an infinite chasm and wondering why he bothered.
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CD
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FD 100CD
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Collecting two songs from the long out-of-print, ultra-limited 10" lathe-cut released in spring 2017 on New Zealand Independent Woman Records, "Broken and Beaten in 5/8 Time Part 1. Beaten" and "Broken and Beaten in 5/8 Time Part 2. Broken", plus two previously unreleased tracks exclusive to this release. Generally more refined than previous Kleistwahr work, the pieces here catch Gary Mundy (also of Ramleh and Broken Flag Records) furrowing his distinct and recognizable take on a kind of contemporary psychedelia with dystopian leanings. Also nodding towards the fug generated by certain "krautrock" groups whilst retaining threads of those uncompromising power-noise surges he built his reputation on, this is music guaranteed to take you to new spaces before forcing you to nervously look over your shoulder.
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LP
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NP 023LP
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Music For Zeitgeist Fighters is the new album by the much revered solo project of Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Broken Flag). Two pieces of intense, emotional, and purgative electronics miles away from audiophile realms. "Welcome to 2017. I'm laughing because I'm thinking of music and I'm thinking of death. Welcome to the Captagon, the room is dizzy and moving. The DJ's turntables are on fire and the heat hits me full on as I walk onto the dancefloor. Distorted sounds like the bass rumbles or high frequencies are moving from one wall to another, tracer fire and the screams of soldiers in makeshift cages. Perilous geography. Some coded references to sobbing teenagers on tape or scattered corpses in plazas. I'm laughing because of what we all must look like. You perhaps with a biro scrawled note pinned to your chest. Not taped to the front of your shirt, but actually securely pinned to your flesh. Imagine us all like that. Not fucking photoshopped or some shit like that. Maybe a painting, with flames in the distance and the howling of the dogs. Can't see in or out. Fucked forever in mountains and cellars and attics and seas. Really don't want to ruin the fun and generally I'm up for anything but this fucking shit cannot go on, can it?" --Philip Best, Austin, Texas USA, January 2017.
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CD
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FD 095CD
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Eight new solo works from Gary Mundy, whose latest Ramleh album, Circular Time, received a lot of praise when released in late 2015. At times taking on a slightly more tempered approach this album still arrives stamped with Gary's own take on a descent into a black-hole where screaming can definitely be heard. Kaleidoscopic noise has rarely sounded so triumphant or majestic whilst paradoxically resigning to the flaws of the human condition. This album will complete the present trilogy of Kleistwahr releases for Fourth Dimension and is to be once again housed in an oversized gatefold sleeve based on the original Broken Flag style. Edition of 300.
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CD
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FD 094CD
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Following the 2014 release of Kleistwahr's album This World Is Not My Home (FD 091CD), Fourth Dimension Records presents a remastered reissue of The Return, originally released as a limited-edition LP by Noiseville in 2009 and long out of print. Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Breathless, Broken Flag founder, etc.) never felt completely satisfied with the Noiseville release, so he digitally remastered the album for this edition, which also includes two previously unreleased bonus cuts. This release captures Mundy's original intention to render the music at once powerful and dynamic in a setting where volume is a significant part of the sound. As with Mundy's long-running group Ramleh, the music of Kleistwahr stems from a place both angry and anguished. Underpinned by a huge sense of existential despair, a sense of urgency and frustration likewise screams from this music. Long known for his part, along with Whitehouse and Consumer Electronics, in creating a music subsequently known as "power electronics," itself copied by hundreds of groups to lesser effect or seen as a wellspring of inspiration by countless others often removed from this form, Mundy's own forays have always ventured far beyond such convenient trappings. Kleistwahr, his solo enterprise, testifies to this exploration and, more importantly, to Mundy's place as a progressive and highly accomplished visionary artist deserving of far more than his status as merely a cult concern. The Return witnesses electronic music once more teased and reshaped into something highly original by one of the genre's master craftsmen. Listen to it as loud as your ears can take. Packaged in gatefold Broken Flag-style sleeve.
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CD
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FD 091CD
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The latest album from Gary Mundy (Ramleh), who has been using this moniker since the early '80s to further furrow the worlds of intense electronics, harrowing psychedelia and violent or claustrophobic atmospherics he is already known for. Less prolific than Ramleh, Kleistwahr began with several cassette releases on Gary's own much-revered Broken Flag imprint and has subsequently been afforded more releases by labels such as Noise War, Noiseville and Harbinger Sound. This World Is Not My Home collects seven pieces recorded between 2013 and 2014 of mostly instrumental sprawling guitar and electronic works. Edition of 300 in a classy Broken Flag-type sleeve.
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LP
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NOISE 086LP
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"Gary Mundy from Ramleh/Broken Flag records fame returns with the ressurection of Kleistwahr, a project whose previous material is impossible to find these days. Just as you'd hope and expect, this is a completely saturated mesh of tortured guitar, tormented vocals and extra noise added just to round things off. Brilliantly painful. As good as anything Ramleh has ever done, really. Outer Bounds Of Sound is an experimental LP series in an edition of 300 copies with a hand-made cover." Last copies.
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