Zac Nelson – Charbroile – DBL074

Above all else, Zac Nelson is a strikingly talented and inventive drummer. He is also a very busy guy: you may have caught him in the past under his Hexlove guise on Weird Forest or Holy Mountain, jamming with Zach Hill in CHLL PLL, drumming for Prints on Temporary Residence, or melting hearts with his new band Biosexual; not to mention the 12 solo records he has released since 2008 on such labels as Bathetic, Porter, Goldtimers, Field Hymns and Debacle. Ever the chameleon, Zac’s releases have always been about his huge appetite for mixing and mashing genres. While his last high profile release, "Sound Asleep Sound", on Bathetic was two sidelong, 20 minute tone-float droners, "Charbroile" presents the acme of the psychedelic-drum-pop sound he has been developing over the last few years. 

The A side, a dizzying slideshow of 10 microsongs, was recorded during a transitional period in Zac’s life. Itching with frustration and an undercurrent of anger, and bubbling over with manic effusive energy, the songs tend to start with a distinctive drum pattern. Zac then piles on layers of squiggling synth lines, heavy bass tracks, and multi-tracked layers of his distinctive vocals. Songs fly by in starts and stops with a few beautiful detours, most notably the gorgeous harmonies of “Polish XTC.”  Across the entire album Zac is joined by some very talented friends, including Jocelyn Noir of Biosexual on vocals throughout, and “Be Wilder/Edge Strut”, featuring a world-beating performance from renown guitarist Ava Mendoza.

A bit looser than the flip side, the B side is one man’s version of a psychedelic rave up. Even more layering is on display here, with the depth of sound inviting you to fall deeper and deeper into the maelstrom. If the A side is all outward energy and frustration, then the B side is the inward facing struggle. A 20 minute suite “Texas Cedarwood (beauty hype suite 1)” plays like the proceeding 10 tracks broken down to their component parts and stacked up in new shapes and configurations. 

Mastered by Scott Colburn (Sun City Girls, Animal Collective)

LP edition is on 150 gram clear vinyl.

$15 LP and Digital

$7 Digital

also available at Experimedia, Wall of Sound in Seattle and your preferred digital services.

Black Hat - Spectral Disorder

Black Hat is one Nelson Bean a recent transplant from California, and a most welcome addition to the Seattle music landscape.  Spectral Disorder was originally issued on handmade tapes by Nelson, the reissue has been remastered by Dustin Kochel for digital.  Spectral Disorder is all about the intersection of percussion and huge beautiful tones; the push-pull of rhythmic motion with floating, modulating fuzz.  Comparisons to the Modern Love heavies Demdike Stare and Andy Stott aren’t far off.  An immensely impressive debut. 

$8 CD & Download

$5 Download

Wanted to check in about all the cool stuff that recently came out, remind you of awesome releases from earlier in this year and talk about some future plans from Debacle.

First up we have to talk about this amazing crop of recent releases.  Starting with the Dull Knife LP we dropped 5 releases in July including  ZEPHYRS post hardcore opus “Order of the Arrow” and Particle Being Trio’s  space jazz trombone-zones.  Recently we let slip the combo of a reissue of Daniel Bachman’s “Oh Be Joyful” and the subtle, floating “Closed Eyes” from Deep Magic.

On top of all that business, we have explored damaged variations on hip hop with both Rainbow Lorikeet and Boy Fruit, waded in harrowing tide pools with Vertonen At Jennie Richie, marched to the beat of a cartoon dinosaur with First Dog, listened as Demian Johnston expanded the pallet of his brutal BLSPHM project, and soaked up a triptych of hate with BSBC/Juhyo/Bacteria Cult

In pretty short order we should have some news on both the long coming Zac Nelson masterpiece “Charbroile” and a new solo release from Kevin Doria of Growing under his Total Life project.  Both of those will be on glorious LP editions. 

In addition to all these standard duties Debacle is launching a few new initiatives.  First is the recently revealed Debacle Limited or DBL | LTD clothing and print line. 

LTD is something I have been knocking around in various forms for a while now.  It springs from working with so many great designers, illustrators and artists for Debacle related projects.  I wanted a place to allow these great artists to go wild and have a platform their own work.  The bedrock idea for LTD is the artist edition shirt line.  Every month we will bring you a new exclusive shirt design from an artist I love.  These shirts will be available for preorder for one month only.  If we reach either 50 orders or the end of the month, we will end availability and print and ship the orders.  Our first month is brought to you by one of my favorite people around, the highly regarded underground cartoonist Max Clotfelter.  Next month will be an exclusive design from local illustrator Kyler Martz.  I will announce more artists as details solidify.  These artist edition shirts are not all we have in store though.  Soon I would like to start bringing you guy’s limited edition prints, comic books, and even whole clothing lines from your favorite artists.  Stay tuned.

Finally I am so excited to talk about MOTOR.  MOTOR was recently revealed as a bi-monthly club night I am going to be taking around to various Seattle venues.   MOTOR is a beat focus night mixing old and new ideas of psychedelia and funk.  The idea is to focus on the intersection of krautrock, psych, acid house, Moroder, 70’s synths, Detroit techno, punkfunk, all through the modern lens of the post-noise underground.  That all may sound ambitious and silly, but the number one goal is to shake some hips and bring attention to a core group of Seattle producers.  To that end we are announcing the formation of the MOTOR sub-label.  MOTOR will focus on producing 12” short run singles from our MOTOR-heads.  More on that later but I encourage you to start paying attention to names like Patternmaster, Mood Organ, and Airport.

Come check out the second MOTOR on August 18^th at the Lo Fi in Seattle.

Whew!

That’s not even including the super secret new festival I am planning with some buds for November!

Thanks for all your support!

-Sam    

 

ZEPHYRS – Order of the Arrow

It’s difficult to describe all the things going on in the background of new ZEPHYRS album from long time besties Cameron Case (drums) and Pierce Adler (guitar).   Setting the scene: The young duo finds themselves on the brink of college, the brink of indefinite hiatus, the brink of manhood, the brink of change.  Written cooperatively between the two, “Order of the Arrow” seems to act as a final monument to growing up in the Pacific Northwest.  Breaking down what it means to be a young man, what it means to be friends.  Also bubbling under the surface is carrying the torch for PNW indie-punk heroes, invigorating the guitar/drum template with a level of honest righteousness that only youth can bring.   Some would say this album falls outside the normal purview of Debacle, but one does not come across this level of talent, heart, and songwriting and just let it slip away. 

Mastered by Phil Petrocelli

$8 CD & MP3

$5 MP3

or pick it up on iTunes/Emusic/Amazon MP3 etc...

Particle Being Trio – Post Terrestrial Vol. 1

The first missive from the newly formed Particle Being Ensemble, “Post Terrestrial Vol. 1” is psychedelic treat, Balancing free-form freakouts and syncopated song forms in one cohesive release. The ensemble is paired back to a trio for this release.  Weaving in members from various Seattle groups the trio showcases core members Jon Carr (Patternmaster, Brain Fruit), Garrett Moore (Brain Fruit), and Nils Petersen (Rose Windows).

The three Seattleites have produced a multidimensional release featuring Petersen’s swirling processed trombone amid Moore’s jazzy percussion and Carr’s staccato synthesizers. Droning synthesizer and trombone gently peak and build as the opening seven minutes, on “Free Energy”. From there, the album takes you on a seamless journey through driving “Action and the Orbital Horn”, straight into explosive “Aggregate Resilience” with an overdrive straight to the album’s pinnacle. The final track, “Relative to Light”, smoothes things down, melding all the elements of the album into a bubbling, floating conclusion.

$8 CD & MP3

$5 MP3

Garek Druss (A Story of Rats,Tecumseh, Stenskogen) and Adam Svenson (Karnak Temples Little Claw, Du Hexen Hase) have been members of Dull Knife for over 6 years. Originating as a super-jam between key players of the drone/noise/weird scene of Seattle, Dull Knife has been paired down to the nucleus of Druss and Svenson. They maintain the original vision of deep dusky organic drones that reflect the wet and mossy vision of Seattle’s grey skies and open waters. 

Dull Knife seem to approach their pieces with a studied patience, focusing on improvisation and organic touches. Chords and timbre’s naturally build over time, allowing individual instruments to separate and become identifiable in the mix. Side A’s “Excavating” begins from a NNCK-style free-jam into the stacked fuzz of Tim Hecker-like maelstrom in the latter half of the piece. The mournful drones introducing side B’s “The Fallow Field of Vision” slowly break away into an almost uplifting bass line seeming to evoke the heart of a resolute man stumbling towards the horizon. It is precisely this amount of freedom the two players allow themselves that makes this LP so magical. Freedom of instrumentation, freedom of form, freedom of tonality, freedom of vision.

Purchase LP

ITUNES 

DULL KNIFE: Excavating (detail) from Earplug Video on Vimeo.

super stoked to bring you two new releases.

 Bacteria Cult, Juhyo, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer

Three way split between three of the best noisers working today.   I personally can't believe how great these three tracks are.  Bacteria Cult turn in a fuzzy scum trip.  Juhyo spins up a clanking wirring industrial synth zoner.  BSBC throw a BRUTAL high end driller to clean the pallet.  Plus, three amazing pieces of artwork from Demian Johnston in a 6 panel wallet.  Mastered by Scott Colburn.

Vertonen At Jennie Richie - Leaving the Ocean for Land

Blake Edwards teams up with the mysterious At Jennie Richie for a 45 minute piece of slowly moving musique concrete and sculpted half-memory.   The album is very much a narrative piece, but of what I do not know.  This vessel has run aground.

For fans of irr.apt.(ext), Nurse With Wound, cold handshakes, japanese tsunami ghost ships, and licorice. Mastered by Matt Waldron.

Wanted to direct you to the page for our annual March Super Sale!

Full details about our crazy deals are laid out on the page, but in short -- get our entire catalog in print (50 CDs!) for a mere $75, or scoop up everything we released last year (21 CDs!) for $45. There’s also insane deals all over our bandcamp ! By far, the best discounts ever offered on our merch and you only have 31 days, so don’t miss out!

Sam

Hopefully this site will become a place where you can see label updates and cool things more frequently.

I believe I will still use FACEBOOK for linking to cool reviews and shows and whatnot so make sure you follow us there.

In the next week or so expect annoucements around our upcoming slate of releases, Debacle Fest 2012, and our Annual March Super Sale.

Cheers!
Sam