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viewing 1 To 12 of 12 items
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INTR 017CD
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"In the two years since the release of his spectacular début, A Hundred Dry Trees, Brussels based Jérôme Deuson (aka aMute) has toured the width and breadth of Europe several times, started his own superb label, Stilll, and created a new body of work that is as original as it is beautiful. The Sea Horse Limbo sees aMute expanding his blend of guitars and glitches to include drums (Stéphane Fedèle), cello (Jean-Paul Dessy of the world renowned contemporary music ensemble, Musiques Nouvelles), and voice (Deuson, Jenna Robertson of Avia Gardner, and others). Deuson's new work breaks with the frosty, crystalline quality of A Hundred Dry Trees, coming up with a collection that is luminous and sun-baked. It is a lush and epic work that is as moving as it is challenging. At times as sprawling and spacy as Do Make Say Think, at others dense and textured like the work of Tim Hecker or Fennesz. One can note a confluence of styles without putting one's finger on The Horse Limbo's fragile beauty and sometimes almost abrasive energy. A record to be listened to with the volume turned up as loud as the neighbors will allow and with sun shining on your closed eyelids."
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INTR 018CD
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"On their Avia Gardner début, More Than Tongue Can Tell, Mitchell Akiyama and Jenna Robertson invited listeners into a world of sepia-toned melodies and delicate instrumentation. The Montreal group's follow-up, recorded in the isolation of the Massachusetts countryside, leaves most of the Baroque frills and digital intervention behind. Mill Farm's spare, lo-fi beauty reflects a process of withdrawal into a hidden room where instruments were the only furniture. In this, Mill Farm is as much ritual as music. Mill Farm tells its stories with the eyes-closed throb of Animal Collective, the lyrical spider-webs of Joanna Newsom, the front-porch lilt of Akron/Family, and the acoustic unhinging of Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice. It pulses with the sound of acoustic instruments played with no one watching -- guitar, harmonium, autoharp, instruments borrowed from a baby brother -- with the thump and flutter of drum machines and computer mystery. Its lyrics walk down roads without sidewalks, climb cherry trees without low branches, and scribble letters that will never be sent. Mill Farm is the sound of two musicians leaving home. It is a letting go of in order to move closer. It is an invitation to come and see for yourself."
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INTR 016CD
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"Both a product of Winnipeg's rich experimental electronic music community and its uncompromising indie-rock scene, Bryce Kushnier under the guise of vitaminsforyou has been creating music for all contexts since 1998. His unique sing-along sound might evoke whispers of the Postal Service, Manitoba/Caribou, or Schneider TM, but 99% of listeners agree that they've never heard anything resembling his shy plundering of pop, psychedelia, fey techno, and folk. The Legend of Bird's Hill is his most intricate and dizzying work yet and a nod to one Manitoba's most beautiful, diverse and inspiring parks just minutes north of the Winnipeg perimeter. Featuring contributions from Ghislain Poirier, Emm Gryner, his occasional band the Wednesday Afternoon Players, and other members of the Canadian music landscape, this album dives deeper into the psychedelic waters Vitaminsforyou has been testing for some time. Carrying over are the lush arrangements, shy vocals, and intoxicating melodies that make Vitaminsforyou a unique and indispensable element of Canadian music."
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INTR 015CD
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"Avia Gardner was born before either of its members were. She is a persona teased out of a photograph, a story that has been given a voice. Jenna Robertson and Mitchell Akiyama first brought Avia to life on intr_version records' compilation Saturday Morning Empires. 'Urban Gravity' set Robertson's delicate voice and subtle lyrics against a backdrop of fractured strings, guitar and other acoustic instruments giving a premonition of ethereal and beautiful things to come. Avia Gardner's debut mini-album, More Than Tongue Can Tell, is as lush and listenable as it is hard to pin down. Jenna Robertson's voice might call to mind an airier Tujiko Noriko or an English-speaking cousin of Juana Molina but it has windiness all its own. Her finely wrought words are embedded in vast multi-instrumental folds that combine quirky quasi-symphonic arrangements in the spirit of Sufjan Stevens and murky dub bass lines that might have been pulled from Avey Tare and Panda Bear's early records, all filtered and fragmented in a way that might be best compared to Akiyama's other project, Désormais. More Than Tongue Can Tell smells like old, yellowed pages, it is faded sepia but sharp in focus. It is Victorian wallpaper on a Macintosh screensaver. It is delicate lace cut out of rusting metal with a drill press. Despite its small size, it is a sprawling work that is gorgeous without being cloying, intricate without being baroque, and is sure to carve out a place for Avia Gardner in the not-so-pop world."
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INTR 014CD
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"It's been over two years since Désormais -- Mitchell Akiyama and Tony Boggs (aka Joshua Treble) -- released their fractured and poetic album iambrokenandremadeiambroken?. Once again, Montreal and Cincinnati were the landing and sketch pads for a collaboration written in black ink and whiskey. Some droning and fluttering crosstalk from iambroken? has bled into this latest work -- the guitars are still damaged, the strings still splintered, the drums still clapping like thunder? Intentionally and incidentally entitled Dead Letters To Lost Friends, Désormais's third album flits between nostalgic lilt and joyful explosion and elaborates on the group's instrumental palette. The result is less a pile of sand than a piece of sandpaper, a cohesive surface that holds several styles of disorder."
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INEP 001
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24 minute CD EP pressed on of those CoolDiscTM's; screenprinted sleeve, limited to 500 copies. "Vitaminsforyou returns to Intr_version after recovering from a hangover caused by all the love and attention that his début, I'm Sorry Forever and for Always, earned. This first EP in Intr_version's first collection of twilit pet projects by our friends and eagerly hounded heroes, is an eclectic and ravishing little bento box. Including a breathtakingly beautiful and unhinged remake of it's only snow it's only sunshine with the Wawa International Brass and Wind Ensemble, remixes of material from I'm Sorry... from Venetian Snares (who needs no introduction) and Blunderspublik (member of the vitaminsforyou band and freelance romantic), and a cover of Montreal's international darlings the Arcade Fire's 'No Cars Go'. A compact and essential collection of instant classics that will make you salivate in anticipation of the next helping..."
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INTR 013CD
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"Vancouver based The Beans have emerged as one of the premier post-rock groups in Canada since their formation in 1995. Along with kindred spirits such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene they've helped to bring attention to Canada's vibrant left of rock scene. Influenced by artists as diverse as Lamonte Young, Terry Riley, Neil Young and Dirty Three, their epic instrumental compositions are as breathtakingly beautiful as they are imaginative and intricate. Their fifth album, Bassplayer, is a riot in soft focus -- a tumbling, complex series of instrumental shards. An album as delicate as it is dense, Bassplayer is a revelation."
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INTR 012CD
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"Every so often a work of stunning beauty and maturity masquerades as a début. Belgian artist Jérome Deuson's (aka aMute) first full-length is a wind-swept, moonlit tapestry of delicate guitar-work. aMute's gentle articulate songs recall Mogwai's quieter slow-burn moments, Tarantelle's elegant understatement, Tim Hecker's attention to the life of every hiss and crackle. After his appearance on last year's Saturday Morning Empires compilation left hopes high, A Hundred Dry Trees' effortless symphonies and tiny smoldering epics are indications that an important new artist has arrived."
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INTR 011CD
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"Cincinnati based Joshua Treble (aka Tony Boggs) has quietly been making beautiful, delicate and enduring music for the past four years. Author of the sublime Cold Filthy Techniques to Keep you Close on American label Pitchcadet (a label responsible for early records by Jetone and Accelera Deck, among others) Treble, along with Mitchell Akiyama also makes up half of the instrumental deconstructionist duo Désormais. The group's two albums of sublime post-rock/post-classical compositions have received almost unanimous critical praise, earning them comparisons to Fennesz and My Bloody Valentine, among others. Five Points Fincastle, Joshua Treble's second solo full length, is an album of delicate fragments and little epics. Smeared guitars, obscured strings and ghostly field recordings are woven into melancholy tapestries. Treble's compositions are full of a blurry majesty -- enormous in ambition and instrumentation, but far away, somewhere on the horizon, enshrouded in mist. An essential album for fans of Tim Hecker, Gas and those interested in the future of instrumental electronic music."
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INTR 009CD
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"Montrealer Ghislain Poirier returns with a followup to last year's stunning Sous le Manguier. Following hot on the heels his mini-album for Chicago's Chocolate Industries, Conflits explores the same offkilter hip hop beats while further exploring Poirier's geopolitical québequois rantings. Dense layers of cascading horns; sticky, twisted beats; lush melodies; Conflits is a new mutation in the ever changing hip hop organism."
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INTR 008CD
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"Since its beginnings in 1999 Intr_version records has emerged as one of the premier Canadian experimental electronic labels. Formed while the fledgling Canadian scene was finding its feet, Intr_version has played an important role in attracting international attention to this country's active and fertile electronic music scene. Saturday Morning Empires, Intr_version's first compilation since 2000's With Naïve Assurance..., includes new work from artists on the label's current roster as well as music from artists that either have a strong affiliation with the label or will be releasing work in the near future. This collection of music includes some of Canada's best and most compelling artists as well a couple of international collaborators. Curated to reflect Intr_version's eclectic span, Saturday Morning Empires ranges from Tomas Jirku's icy dub to Tim Hecker's melancholic treated guitar works to Beans' dreamy post-rock driftscapes to Avia Gardner's off-kilter dream pop. All tracks are exclusive to this compilation." Artists: Palomino Falls, Vitamins for You, Mitchell Akiyama, Joshua Treble, aMute, Loscil, Ghislain Poirier, Polmo Polpo, Tomas Jirku, Avia Gardner, Tim Hecker, Beans.
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INTR 002CD
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"Roster-spanning-plus comp from this new Montreal-based label, run by visual artist/composer Mitch Akiyama. An impressive lot of sound, some reverb/thump oriented examples, some rhythmic trickery , a bit of the digital signal processing abound, and Richie's case, a smooth one with Detroitian strings clearly not of THIS era. Features Richard Devine, Sutekh, David Kristian, Hermann & Kleine, Thomas Jirku, Tim Koch (aka Thug), Mitchell Akiyama, (sic), Deadbeat, Mateo, Pheek, Dacka, and Jet One. Some to watch, others to listen." -- Hrvatski.
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