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New releases
Jan 19, 2024

Available now:

See Releases for further details.


Usurper - The Big Two CD
Dec 1, 2023

Usurper - The Big Two CD (KK-15) is available to order now. See Releases for further details.

Available soon:


New releases
Aug 12, 2023

Available now:

See Releases for further details.


LDSN & Yakkida gig, 16th Aug
Aug 8, 2023
LDSN Yakkida gig

Launch gig for forthcoming LDSN & Yakkida 'Can Yr Ysgol' CS in Plugd Records: Wed 16th Aug, 7pm. Also playing on the night are the duo of Claire Guerin and Eamon Ivri.

Tickets available from Plugd Records.


New releases
May 5, 2023

Available now:

See Releases for further details.


Henrik Nørstebø gig, 24th Apr
Apr 10, 2023
Henrik gig

Upcoming gig in Plugd Records: Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø, Aonghus McEvoy & Adam Campbell duo.

Monday 24th April, 7:30pm.

Tickets available from Plugd Records.

HENRIK MUNKEBY NØRSTEBØ - phantom orchestra (2021) from BZ on Vimeo.


Knurl gig, 24th Feb
Feb 7, 2023
Knurl gig

Upcoming gig in Unit 44, Dublin: Knurl, Dressing and -[HF]-.

Friday 24th February, 7:30pm.

Tickets at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/knurl-dressing-hf--tickets-536124070527

New Knurl CD due on Krim Kram later in 2023.


Declan Synnott launch gigs
Nov 11, 2022
DS Cork launch gig
DS Dublin launch gig

Launch gigs for Declan Synnott - Everything Lost In The Image CS:

Tickets for Cork show available from Plugd Records. Dublin show is free entry.


Upcoming releases
Nov 11, 2022

Due shortly:

See Releases for further details.


Launch gig: Sat 30th April
Apr 26, 2022
Launch gig

Tickets available from Plugd Records.

Tracks from the first three CDs were featured on Dylan Nyoukis' Resonance EXTRA show, Fae Ma Bit Tae Ur Bit, on April 21st. Listen back here.


DDR Guest Mix
Apr 7, 2022

Guest mix for Sources of Uncertainty on Dublin Digital Radio:

Tracklist:

01. Bren't Lewiis Ensemble - Clarence Bison Triggers Mullet Apocalypse [Krim Kram 2022]
02. Smegma - Front Row Llyod [Krim Kram 2022]
03. Dressing - Enduring Mercy / Warm Routine [Krim Kram 2022]
04. Rick Potts - Coyote Squash [Chocolate Monk 2012]
05. Robert Ashley - The Bar (excerpt) [Lovely Music 1980]
06. Duncan Harrison - Preamble to Nihil (excerpt) [self released 2017]
07. Ida K - Pterodactyl Graveyard (excerpt) [Chocolate Monk 2022]
08. Intersystems - Changing Colours (They Go For A Walk) [self released 1968]
09. Mass Marriage - Fawn Licks From Puddle [New Forces 2021]
10. Leah P - Grinds Of Gears [Oxen 2021]
11. Aaron Dilloway - Shatter All Organized Activities (Eat The Rich) (excerpt) [Hanson Records 2012]
12. Rudolf Eb.er - "Animist Hum Papa" [Tochnit Aleph 2011]
13. Charmaine Lee - Monstas' Marriage [Erratum 2021]
14. Bryan Lewis Saunders - PCP Poetry [Erratum 2010]
15. GG Allin - Snakemans Dance [Beast 666 Tapes 1991]
16. Tomokawa Kazuki - 一切合財世も末だ [P.S.F. Records 1993]
17. Richard Youngs - Currency [Forced Exposure/No Fans 1993]


First releases + launch gig
Apr 6, 2022

Due April 2022:

Launch gig in Plugd Records on Saturday April 30th with Dressing and Declan Synnott. Further details to follow.


RELEASES

DISCOGRAPHY


KK-01 Bren't Lewiis Ensemble Hand Signals CD
KK-02 Smegma Dives Headfirst Into Punk Rock 1978/79 CDsold out
KK-03 Dressing Dressing CDsold out
KK-04 Andy Heck Boyd blondie - thanks for sharing CD
KK-05 Declan Synnott Everything Lost In The Image CSsold out
KK-06 Daniel Löwenbrück & Fabian Löwenbrück Das Lebacher Orgelwerk - Weihnachtsoratorium (LWV 156) CD
KK-07 Cyess Afxzs No Bull One Left Behind CD
KK-08 Rick Potts Don't Think 2CD
KK-09 LDSN & Yakkida Can Yr Ysgol CS
KK-10 Ted Byrnes Roads CD
KK-11 Luciano Maggiore & Michael Speers necesse est numquam revelare stercorem tuum CD
KK-12 Arv & Miljö Samling 2CD
KK-15 Usurper The Big Two CD
KK-16 Kapotte Muziek Discon CD
Hand Signals
KK-01 Bren't Lewiis Ensemble Hand Signals CD €11

Since reactivating in the wake of the essential 2009 archival BUFMS box set, 'Induced Musical Spasticity', Bren't Lewiis Ensemble have released more than 40 titles of the finest avant ear wonk around. Much of this activity has proceeded with relatively little fanfare. Perhaps the number of releases is intimidating to some, or maybe well-adjusted society simply has little need for (in their own words) "screeches, recitations, injured vocalizations, inexplicable flurries of bleeps, bloops 'n' splats, and general oh-my-god-how-long-does-this-go-on-for" (personally, I find this latter scenario difficult to accept; hence the desire to release yet more of these bleeps, bloops 'n' splats into the world). Or, and this is the hypothesis that I am advancing, it may be due to the fact that much of this material has been released on that most maligned of formats, the humble CDr (the disdain for which, I emphatically do not share by the way). So, to test this hypothesis, here is a brand new Bren't Lewiis Ensemble album on the Mark Knopfler approved "real" CD format.

The sound of this CD is classic latter day Bren't Lewiis Ensemble: heavily edited sound collage; plenty of Orchid Spangiafora style word play; the sound of malfunctioning, sputtering machines; instruments/objects that are blown, shaken, scraped, and generally sabotaged in various ways; et cetera. If the CIA had access to this kind of arsenal during MKUltra, who knows what kind of damage they could have inflicted.

Further reading/listening:

Krim Kram · Bren't Lewiis Ensemble - Hand Signals (KK-01)

Smegma Punk Rock
KK-02 Smegma Dives Headfirst Into Punk Rock 1978/79 CD €11 sold out

Formed in 1973, Smegma have spent the past 49 years proudly flying the freakdom flag, influencing several generations of underground communities in the process. They've been a mainstay of every vital incarnation of noise for the past five decades - outsider free improvisation, punk, 80's cassette underground, 90's/00's weirdo noise underground, etc. While resolutely forward looking, their sound is also deeply informed by the rich history of 20th century American music. Their brand of vernacular avant-garde draws as much from the likes of Charley Patton, Art Tatum and Sidney Bechet, as it does from Harry Partch and John Cage.

This CD is an expanded reissue of the cassette first issued on Pigface Records in 2015, which documented the earliest recordings of Smegma performing live as part of the Portland punk rock / new wave scene (Myrtle Tickner, Jerry A. and Pig Champion from Poison Idea would all later go on to play with the band at various stages throughout the 80's and 90's). Also included are the complete Flashcards and Disco Diarrhea 7"s, both originally self-released on Pigface Records in 1979.

Krim Kram · Smegma Dives Headfirst Into Punk Rock 1978/79 (KK-02)

Dressing
KK-03 Dressing Dressing CD €11 sold out

Dressing is the experimental noise project of Dublin based artist Kevin Kirwan. Active in visual arts for the past decade or so, Kirwan has recently begun recording noise using field recordings, found objects, feedback and tape manipulation. His noise is restrained and textural with occasional melodic undercurrents. He recently performed live as Dressing for the first time at the closing of Aleana Egan's exhibition 'Sampler' at Void Gallery, Derry.

This CD is a reissue of two cassettes originally self-released in editions of 15 in 2021. A CD of new material is due later this year on the excellent L.A. based harsh noise label, Oxen Records.

On the original cassette releases comprising this CD, S.Grey wrote:

"Four concise explorations of materiality and physicality via hard-panned lumbering slow-burn buzz and cut up blasts of spidery frequencies. Ghostly, distressed ferric melodies occasionally emerge from the mucky undertow of ground-hum that all keeps you on your toes, edging the threshold. What's on display here is an exquisite sense of timing: rather than going for durational workouts, things change up at precisely the right moment. And when you hit the wall, or more succinctly when it hits you - a glorious fist-pump in the air of release."

Krim Kram · Dressing - Enduring Mercy / Warm Routine

blondie - thanks for sharing
KK-04 Andy Heck Boyd blondie - thanks for sharing CD €11

bio, andy heck boyd, b 1981, lived in new hampshire for 40 years, permanently moved to kentucky in 2021, attended college in boston for tv/film production and filmmaking in maine dropped out of both classes in spring and then winter 2001, diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2002, worked at a gas station for several years before going on disability in 2010, took up drawing and painting and video making and began making cassette tape recordings in 2017, living hermit type life in small room in exeter nh for 11 years before moving to kentucky, took up tape recording to "be a writer" to write novels, chronic tendinitis from overuse of computer mouse making animation and daily painting and drawing with no stretching exercising etc, wanted to write but typing caused too much pain, and began to experiment with tape recording after getting into it around early 2017, never performed live, has had some painting exhibitions with galleries, a few in seattle wa at season gallery, a few with buoy gallery in kittery maine, a few in nyc one with serving the people ran by lucien smith, has a few comics published, casper the french inquisition named blob, and my name is greg, dracula citgo a screenplay, and slot of banji 2 by wilt press in maine, currently lives in mt sterling kentucky with his wife, kasper heck

On 'blondie - thanks for sharing':

i go out every day with a tape recorder and a new tape all the time, i record daily things, but i also give it a little break every now and again and switch tools to my super 8 camera or drawing or collages etc, and come back to tape recording with fresh perspective and new ideas etc, for this album its a mix of different things, the first two tracks were part of a five song recording i made in june 2022 using an amp and sk-1 keyboard, and microphone, i came up with lyrics on the spot and picked samples on the spot too

for the song woody, the day before i was in the kitchen while kasper and i had been staying with a friend cacia at her place (cacia's birthday song we sing to her in another track) and her cat wyrmwood or wyrm, so wyrm caught a woodpecker, he usually catches lizards, but brought the woodpecker in the living room and i heard a lot of crashing and banging and commotion, i went into there and a small red headed woodpecker was flying around, bloody and on the window awning, the cat was watching, and i got the bird close to the door opened it, and nudged it with a broom and it flew off, i cleaned up the blood after in the room

for back bunny road track behind the apartment was a short dead end road i walked to a lot for some quiet nature time and saw a lot of bunnies around, lots of briars for them to live in, that track is partially taped at back bunny road, the other part is kasper and i going around a hiking trail in red river gorge area and i recorded my thoughts and improvised ideas, i like to perform in a sense, embellish or exaggerate things i see and observe and i like to analyze layers wherever i go, layers of things that require looking at one thing or area slowly for a little bit, in the supermarket that day i was looking around the produce section at people smiling and some gathered in small groups talking and stuff, and saw glittery cheap usa flags adorned everywhere around the bread and donuts near the bakery

i did some recording with kasper on the couch using her sk-1 and later i continued on my own and recorded the ferrari song and the sisters song, sampling them and thats about it, the ferrari song is a sample from the end of the movie 'american graffiti' slowed down and looped etc

the white rabbit song, i had been into doing covers and edits of it for a few years, the acapellla version i did in february 2022, and the edited song i recorded with a large early 80s marantz tape recorder

buddha points at the moon, i got the title when visiting with a friends house who had a poster on the wall about buddhist circle i forget what it was, the tape of me repeating the audiobook on tape was the sequel to catch-22, just playing around a game with myself to try it out

with the song lightwood i had been trying to find a good sample from tv scene in thx 1138, and found the sample from a track from kaspers listening library i dont remember the band

- andy heck boyd

Further reading:

Krim Kram · Andy Heck Boyd - blondie - thanks for sharing (KK-04)

Everything Lost In The Image
KK-05 Declan Synnott Everything Lost In The Image CS €7 sold out

Declan Synnott is a Wexford-born, Cork-based musician, prodigiously active in the Irish underground since the mid-2000's. Current activities include noise/dirge-rock Band of Synnotts Síoraí Geimhreadh, hardcore arm wrestling champions Horse, synth noise project Mvestle, insurrectionary electronic duo Bodycam, and no-fi noise trio Power Acoustics. In his solo guise, he makes primarily analogue synthesiser based music with an emphasis on low resonant bass tones and slow sound progressions.

Everything Lost In The Image was recorded and edited over a three year period, from 2019 to 2022, and employs analogue synthesiser, piano, and room recordings. The album continues threads explored by Synnott in previous solo works - subtlety rendered to near inertia, meditation on mundanity, intuitive composition in avoidance of stylistic models. It is sometimes austere, sometimes visceral, often beautiful.

All proceeds after production costs go to MASI - the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (www.masi.ie).

Krim Kram · Declan Synnott - Everything Lost In The Image (KK-05)

Weihnachtsoratorium
KK-06 Daniel & Fabian Löwenbrück Das Lebacher Orgelwerk - Weihnachtsoratorium (LWV 156) CD €11

Recording of the premiere performance of the "Weihnachtsoratorium" (Christmas Oratorio), an organ concert composed and played by the four hands of Daniel Löwenbrück & Fabian Löwenbrück. Performed December 26th, 2006 on the Hugo Meyer organ of the Evangelische Kirche in Lebach, Germany.

Daniel Löwenbrück (b.1974) is a German performance- and sound-artist, creator of tape-music, curator and (sometimes) visual-artist.

As a performance artist and composer of tape-music he performed internationally since the late 90's as part of the Schimpfluch-Gruppe (with Rudolf Eb.er, Dave Phillips, Joke Lanz), as a duo with singer and performance artist Doreen Kutzke, as part of Ohne (with Tom Smith, Dave Phillips, Reto Mäder), with Swedish conceptual artist Leif Elggren, with Brazilian video- and sound-artist Marcellvs L. as Stallgewitter, and solo as Raionbashi and under his own name. He performed in New York, Sao Paulo, Bordeaux, Paris, Moscow, Minsk, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Chiang Mai, Tokyo, Osaka, Rotterdam, Vienna etc.

In 1994 Daniel Löwenbrück founded the label Tochnit Aleph publishing music, conceptual sound-art and editions by (visual) artists, sound-poets and composers. He works with / published works by artists like Hermann Nitsch, Artur Zmijewski, Dorothy Iannone, Rudolf Eb.er, Gerhard Rühm, Otto Muehl, Christina Kubisch, Wolf Vostell, Jean Dubuffet, Asger Jorn, Marc Zeier, Roman Signer, Henri Chopin, Dieter Roth, Franz Mon, Michael Barthel, Dominik Steiger, Toine Horvers, and many others.

Between 2008 and 2021 Löwenbrück curated Rumpsti Pumsti (Musik) in Berlin, a store specialized in Artist-Records, Sound Poetry, Conceptual Sound Art, Contemporary Classical Music and the Noise Subculture.

Until January 2017 Rumpsti Pumsti (Musik) also presented performances and exhibitions of visual works by Wolf Vostell, Toine Horvers, Roman Signer, Michael Barthel, Jürgen Eckloff, Franz Graf, Martin Riches, Gerhard Rühm, Valeri Scherstjanoi, Hartmut Geerken, Hermann Nitsch, Christina Kubisch, Seiji Morimoto, Stephen Cornford, Mario de Vega, and many others.

http://www.tochnit-aleph.com/DL/bio.html/

Krim Kram · Daniel & Fabian Löwenbrück - Das Lebacher Orgelwerk (Excerpt)

No Bull One Left Behind
KK-07 Cyess Afxzs No Bull One Left Behind CD €11

Cyess Afxzs is a relatively new harsh noise project from Belfast-born, Swiss-based artist, Stuart McCune. Over the past year, McCune has released a string of highly acclaimed tapes and CDs on many of the most vital noise labels currently active, including Rural Isolation Project, Satatuhatta, Abhorrent A.D., and White Centipede Noise. Much has been made of McCune's use of sounds and structural elements not commonly associated with contemporary harsh noise, and the project's conceptual alignment with abstract art (most obviously through releases directly referencing Max Ernst, Antoni Tàpies, Alfred Kubin, and Daniel Richter). While it is true that contemporary harsh noise has mostly shied away from overt art world influence (with some obvious exceptions), it is worth remembering that noise has a long and existential relationship with abstract art, Merzbow being perhaps the most obvious and literal example. And, although occupying a very different sonic terrain, the likes of P16.D4, Achim Wollscheid, and Rudolf Eb.er, to name just a few examples, all have long histories of incorporating conceptual or abstract art practices in their work. All that is to say that there is nothing that warms my cockles quite as much as when this lowly genre called "noise" that we love so dearly (with all its inherent contradictions) reaches out of the gutter and pulls influence from otherwise "respectable" art forms. Whether that elevates noise or debases art is open to interpretation.

No Bull One Left Behind was recorded between August and October 2022 and expands upon techniques explored in previous releases, offering perhaps the widest palette of sounds and compositional approaches to date. The album opens with what my grandmother, as a lifelong harsh noise aficionado, would have described as an absolute banger, a roaring behemoth of joyous blasting, before subtly shifting gear to more experimental ground. There is a very singular musical quality to each of the tracks, each containing its own distinctive character. And while the album as a whole certainly falls within the harsh noise realm, the lines between noise and musicality are continuously blurred.

Further viewing:

Krim Kram · Cyess Afxzs - No Bull One Left Behind (KK-07)

Don't Think
KK-08 Rick Potts Don't Think 2CD €16

Rick Potts is a founding LAFMS member, active in experimental music since the early 70's, and enormously influential on five decades worth of musical practitioners with a penchant for outer/freakdom sounds. Don't Think is a 2CD compilation of rare and unreleased recordings, spanning 37 tracks and 2.5 hours, and covering the entire range of Potts' musical output - from song-based new wave/art rock to more abstract loop-based noise (note the lowercase 'n') and mutant disco (disco of the Dennis Duck variety that is). Also included is a 12 page booklet of art and notes.

"When I was a teenager I discovered research that the brain had two separate parts, a logical left side and a creative right side. I decided that the left, the logical, rational, critical side was filtering out too much of the right side's intuitive brilliance and cancelling out thoughts before I was aware of them. I wanted to tap into those discarded ideas so I developed ways to avoid the editing that the left side was doing to the right side's mysterious stream of consciousness. Spontaneity and improvisation in the early days of the LAFMS was one way. Making drawings without planning them sometimes brought surprising results. Creatures emerged before my eyes one shape at a time. I practiced speaking backwards, wrote the first thing that popped into my mind and spoke before I knew what I was saying. Experimenting with freeing myself from the critical inner voice let magical things happen. Creating this way puts me into a zone that feels like a high and it's addictive. It feels best when I don't know what I'm doing but I do it anyway. For me, reason is unreasonable."

- Rick Potts

Further reading/listening:

Krim Kram · Rick Potts - Don't Think (KK-08)

Can Yr Ysgol
KK-09 LDSN & Yakkida Can Yr Ysgol CS €8

LDSN is Todmorden-based writer and artist Lauren de Sá Naylor. Over the past number of years, she has released a string of highly hypnotic and intimate recordings on labels such as Chocolate Monk, Invisible Animals, Cardboard Club, and Fort Evil Fruit. Yakkida is Leeds-based artist Hilary Knott, who also performs as Basic Switches and is a member of indie-rock trio, Cowtown. Together, LDSN and Yakkida make rhythmic, dissonant and harmonious sounds using voices, loops, field recordings, bells, drums and harmoniums.

Krim Kram · LDSN & Yakkida - Yn Ofnys O Dwr A Hedfan

Roads
KK-10 Ted Byrnes Roads CD €11

Ted Byrnes: Solo Acoustic Percussion.
Recorded at Seahorse Sound Studios, Los Angeles CA.
Engineered by Samur Khouja and Cameron Acosta.
Mixed by Samur Khouja.
Mastered by Grant Richardson.
Dedicated to: Sean Baxter, Milford Graves, Jon Christensen, Craig Breen.

BLM FTP ACAB

Ted Byrnes is a drummer/percussionist living in Los Angeles. An alumnus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, he comes from a jazz background and has since made his home in the worlds of free improvisation, new music, electro-acoustic music, and noise.

Ted primarily works in ad hoc improvisational settings, but has long standing improvisational groups including duos with Jeff Parker, Chris Cooper, Charlie Mumma, Sam McKinlay, William Hutson, and a trio with Jacob Wick and Michael Foster, among others. Additionally, Ted has played in duo, trio, or ensemble settings with Mazen Kerbaj, Matt Weston, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Charlemagne Palestine, Alfred 23 Harth, Arrington de Dionyso, Jaap Blonk, Torsten Muller, Kim Myhr, Jim Denley, Lloyd Honeybrook, Chris Schlarb, Mike Watt, Paul Masvidal, the LAFMS (including Smegma, Airway, Ace Farren Ford's Artificial Art Ensemble, Rick and Joe Potts, Fredrik Nilsen, Tom Recchion, Vetza, etc.), Sissy Spacek, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, and more.

Ted has also collaborated with / worked for a variety of visual artists: he has accompanied a Doug Aitken "happening", scored and performed percussion for an Emily Mast performance, collaborated with Olivia Booth to play her glass artworks, collaborated with Dani Tull on a sound performance, performed with John Knuth and Bret Nicely at an installation in an empty pool, and has performed for FLUXUS artist Jeff Perkins on multiple occasions for his projector/light installations.

https://tedbyrnesdrums.com

Krim Kram · Ted Byrnes - Roads (KK-10)

necesse est numquam
KK-11 Luciano Maggiore & Michael Speers necesse est numquam revelare stercorem tuum CD €11

Michael Speers and Luciano Maggiore make music contemplating the kernel of black metal.

Michael Speers is a musician from Portaferry (NI), currently based in Neuilly-Plaisance (FR), who works with natural & synthetic sound material - using drums, computer, microphones, feedback - towards performance, installation and composition. Collaborations include: John Wall, Louise Le Du, Luciano Maggiore and Paul Abbott (as yPLO). His work has been published by Anòmia, Takuroku, Wasted Capital Since 2013 and C.A.N.V.A.S.

Luciano Maggiore is a Palermo-born, London-based musician whose work is characterised by the use of speakers and several analogue/digital devices (samplers, CD players, walkmans, tape recorders) and addresses the performativity of the musical act, the perception of it, and the obscurity that emanates from it. His main interests include mechanisms of sound diffusion, performance, repetition, endurance, non-human animal languages, dance, and folklore. With Louie Rice, he started NO-PA/PA-ON, a project that deals with performing score-based works, both acoustic and amplified. His works have been published by Balloon & Needle, Consumer Waste, Hideous Replica, Senufo editions, and Xing, among others. The wonderful adhuman label, based out of Brighton UK, very recently released an utterly essential CD of Luciano's long-standing duo with Louie Rice (album of the year, or any other year, round these parts by a long shot).

https://michaelspeers.net
http://lucianomaggiore.blogspot.com

Krim Kram · Luciano Maggiore & Michael Speers - necesse est numquam revelare stercorem tuum (i)

samling
KK-12 Arv & Miljö Samling 2CD €16

Originally compiled as a two cassette release by Archivio Diafònico in 2016, now reissued as a double CD for optimum playback at your next MRI scan. Samling documents the earlier, "noisier" years of Arv & Miljö, collecting all compilation appearances from the project's inception in 2010 up to 2015. The project has since moved to a more ambient sound, having recently completed a stunning tetralogy of seasonal themed LPs (Svensk Sommar I Stilla Frid, 2018; Himmelsvind, 2020; Ensam Är Nattens Rymd Över Vita Vägar, 2021; Vålnad Av Fornskog, 2022). While the release of the first instalment in this series, Svensk Sommar I Stilla Frid, in 2018 seemed to signal a radical departure from the gritty, claustrophobic sound documented here, the use of environmental recordings, primitive melodic synth tones, and fragile failing electronics all remain a defining characteristic of the project, from the early concrète industrial years to the broken new age music explored in more recent times (there were other clear signposts to the direction the project would later take too of course, notably the track 2415 Dagar from The Palermo Protocol 3CS compilation released by Posh Isolation in 2014 and also included in this collection).

Arv & Miljö is the solo project of Gothenburg-based Matthias Andersson, member of the groups Enhet För Fri Musik and Heinz Hopf, and label operator extraordinaire (Discreet Music, Fördämning Arkiv, Förlag För Fri Musik, I Dischi Del Barone).

Krim Kram · Arv & Miljö - Samling (KK-12)
the big two
KK-15 Usurper The Big Two CD €11

Here's the last will and testament of Usurper. The final curtain on two decades of heroic toil in the experimental/noise/improv/no-audience underground. Over the course of their twenty year existence, Usurper developed into one of the most original and uncompromising groups to emerge from the early 2000's sub-sub underground, always pushing themselves (and audiences) to new territory. They were fearlessly experimental, with seemingly limitless reserves of creativity. Their performances were utterly unique, combining elements of post-Fluxus performance art and absurdist theatre with a thoroughly Luddite sound palette (via a veritable flea market's worth of dismantled instruments, household detritus, and recontextualised children's toys). Within their twenty years together, they developed their own colloquial Gesamtkunstwerk, continuously blurring the lines between sound, performance, theatre, and life.

I'm immensely proud to be releasing this CD. When I asked Ali and Malcy to do a release on the label, I couldn't have foreseen that it would be their swansong. I'm biased of course but I think this collection of improvised ditties and radio play miniatures is as good a way to clock out as can be. I hope it brings you as much joy and smiles as it has brought to me.

Farewell

usurper summerhall
Photo: Alejandro Basterrechea
Krim Kram · Usurper - The Big Two (KK-15)

dison
KK-16 Kapotte Muziek Discon CD €11

Since its formation in 1984, there have been several distinct phases of Kapotte Muziek in which the group changed. The group commenced as a duo of Frans de Waard and Christian Nijs, and operated as such until 1987 when Nijs left and started to learn to play the guitar. Then followed a phase in which De Waard actively searched for other musicians to contribute sounds to be used as source material. In 1993 a new phase commenced when the group were invited to play a series of concerts in the USA. Initially, this was a tour with the Dutch group THU20, and Kapotte Muziek planned a show with pre-recorded tapes and slides. One by one, the members of THU20 backed out of the tour, leaving only Peter Duimelinks in the end, at which point it was decided to play as a duo under the name Kapotte Muziek. Having spent the first week of the tour in New York purchasing equipment and rehearsing, a general plan of '15 minutes of drone, 15 minutes collage-like music and 15 minutes of noise' was formulated. As the tour (17 concerts) progressed, however, new elements were incorporated into the music, with the lineup for the first number of performances expanded to include Daniel Burke's long-running post-industrial group, Illusion of Safety. In 1995, the duo became a trio, adding Roel Meelkop (also from THU20). Since then, the trio (sometimes duo, once solo) has played 121 concerts in Europe, the USA, Canada, Russia and Japan. The group took something of an informal hiatus in 2017 after a duo concert by Peter and Frans in Norway, but regrouped on December 30th 2023 to perform as a trio again (for the first time since 2012) in Germany.

Until 2004, Kapotte Muziek also released studio recordings by Frans de Waard, although these recordings had very little connection with the live sound. It was decided to stop these studio-based activities, and Kapotte Muziek would exclusively play live. Recordings of concerts would be released, with very minimal editing in most cases, on CD, cassette or vinyl.

The 2017 concert in Trondheim, Norway mentioned above is particularly significant in the Kapotte Muziek trajectory, not only as it marked the beginning of a period of live inactivity. The concert took place at Klubb Kanin on its 20th anniversary, the group also having performed at the opening of the venue in 1997. To mark the event, the group were asked to do a cassette to document these two concerts. To fit both performances onto a single cassette, the 1997 recording was heavily cut up, leading to the current phase of Kapotte Muziek. One thing that has been a constant factor for Kapotte Muziek is the recycling of sound - in concert, by using junk from the streets, and in the studio, through the continuous re-use of sounds. In the first phase, Christian Nijs recorded sounds and instruments, and Frans de Waard created collages using these recordings. The intensive editing of the 1997 Trondheim recording led Frans to a natural conclusion, that live recordings from the group's history could be used as source material for future releases. After three trial pieces for compilations, an entire album came to life. The result is 'Discon', a made-up word for 'distilled from concerts'. Each of the 13 pieces is created by cutting, pasting, superimposing, and editing one concert. No other electronic treatments were used, no granular synthesis, etc. The cover is a collage from the booklet that came with Kapotte Muziek's release, 'Columbus, Ohio', from 2004, which was created from a black and white painting Frans exchanged with an unknown painter for some merchandise at that concert.

Krim Kram · Kapotte Muziek - Discon (KK-16)
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1 CD / tape €2.95 €4.00 €6.00
2 - 3 CDs / tapes €2.95 €5.50 €9.00
4 - 7 CDs / tapes €2.95 €7.00 €11.00

Payment accepted by Bank Transfer, PayPal, Revolut, Wise, or Monero*.

*Monero is a private and decentralised cryptocurrency with more or less negligible transaction fees. If paying by Monero, email for a quote and deposit address. The current XMR-EUR exchange rate is:

CONTACT

info@krimkram.com

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