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LP
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VHF 076LP
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"VHF presents the first time on vinyl for Pearls From The River, the all acoustic epics album from the 'classic' Pelt trio lineup of Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff, and Patrick Best. Recorded in a single March 2003 session in Virginia by Mikel Dimmick, this was a superb distillation of their interests at the time (both alone and together -- Rose's first solo records, the emergence of the Black Twigs as a busy working band, etc). 'Up the North Fork' is a trio for banjo, baritone banjo, and cello -- after the snakey bowed introduction, the fast thwacking of the banjos and forcefully strummed cello take over and whip up a storm. The other two tracks are lengthy ragas (one in C, one in D) with the virtuoso modal guitar of Rose front and center. The title track features Rose on twelve-string, dueling with Mike Gangloff on esraj. Best's thick, sonorous double-bass bowing anchors the duet between the lightning thrumming/plucking of Rose's guitar and Gangloff's arcing, sharply bowed half-time melody. 'Road To Catawba' has Rose on six-string, with Gangloff moving to tamboura. Best's bass is again the foundation, with whistling overtones rising from his bow over the low drone. Liner notes by Byron Coley. 'Join Pelt in celebrating the ecstatic joy that results from refusing to accept the alleged primacy of shit-culture. It does not exist if we will not believe in it. And we must refuse it on all levels always. The proof of its surrender is at hand. Yr hand. Right now, motherfucker!' --Byron Coley"
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2LP
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MIE 015LP
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2013 repress. MIE Records are unbelievably honored to present Effigy by Pelt, the first album recorded since 2007 by the acoustic-only droners. Recorded live in June 2011 in an old yoga studio in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin and a decommissioned synagogue called the Gates of Heaven in nearby Madison, the band have laid down their most accomplished and fully-realized work to date. Epic in every sense of the word, Effigy is a sprawling journey through their singular plan on the musical map. Layer upon layer of droning strings melt over never-ending harmoniums which threaten to engulf you while peals of gongs ring out to mesmerizing effect. Effigy sees Pelt reaching their blissful sonic enlightenment. Effigy is a testament to the ancient animal-shaped mounds called "effigy mounds" which dot the landscape in and around Madison, Wisconsin. No one has yet managed to work out who built these creations. Over the centuries they have greatly reduced in size but still the largest can measure up to 400 feet in length, and the outlines of birds, lizards, deer and bears are all clearly visible to the observer. Soil would have been carried from afar to construct these huge monuments with only crude implements at hand. The erection of the monuments would have surely been carried out by practically an army of workers or inhabitants and taken a very long time to build, indeed. Effigy comes as a 2LP with stunning gatefold artwork by Jake Blanchard. Mastered by James Plotkin. The first edition was limited to a run of 500 2LPs. Repressed in 2013 in a second run of 500 2LPs.
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LP
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PELT 001LP
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Recorded during the same home blasts that produced Dauphin Elegies (VHF Records, 2008), this 2007 trio session for harmonium, singing bowl, gong and esraj is one of the most ecstatic recordings in Pelt's vast oeuvre. Like the legendary poet/musician for whom this album is named, Pelt have never gotten hung up on the epistemology of drones. The generation of meditative trance states is as valid when produced by Roscoe Holcomb's banjo as by La Monte Young's well-tuned piano. Hints of both lurk deep in the wells of sound Pelt produces. Two side-long slabs of aural bliss. Best heard behind a few bowls of your very best kif. Edition of 500 with stickered cover and insert.
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CD
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VHF 090CD
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"(untitled) is a devastating set of almost pure white light from the newly upgraded Pelt lineup. The album's intense drone music represents a return to 'sonic-ism' for the quartet of Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff, Patrick Best, and Mikel Dimmick. Like 2003's effort Pearls from the River, (untitled) is an all-acoustic affair. The group concentrates on producing dense clouds of overtones from guitar, cello, Tibetan bowls, gongs, sruti, and esraj. Track one is an overpowering straight line a la the Theatre of Eternal Music, an atmosphere of stasis with gong and bowl flickering subtly over the massive track bed. Track two is a 32-minute epic that begins with the soft strains of Jack Rose's 12 string, picks up dueling cello and esraj and gradually builds in intensity with the sounds of gongs and other unusual percussion. Track three is the live staple 'Sundogs,' where Rose's Weissenborn lap guitar and Gangloff's resonator guitar produce a stream of unearthly high, singing overtones in an uncanny acoustic impression of electric feedback. The final track is an epilogue of Best's keening cello, again ignoring the usual technique associated with the instrument in the pursuit of pure weirdness."
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CD
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VHF 036CD
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2010 repress, originally released in 1997. "Pelt's mix of traditional (acoustic instruments, folk and ethnic music) and contemporary (about one million super-weird noise and avant-garde records) reaches a peak on Techeod (pronounced 'Teyhood'). Using tamboura, guitar, violin, tabla, banjo, flute, lap steel, oscillator, voice, organ and a variety of other instruments both conventional and homemade, Pelt issues forth a massive and extraordinary gust of sound. Recorded both at home and live in Washington, DC, it's a sound extravaganza complete with Indian-inspired modal trance, wall-of-sound layered melodica, and tape-loop exotica in the vein of compositional explorers like Terry Riley and Steve Reich."
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