For just about a year now I’ve been obsessing over the heady cloud rap stylings of Main Attrakionz and the rest of Green Ova. In that year I’ve gotten to know the crews producers, managers and of course members; and much to my jealousy, Dwight and Liz have even hung out with some of the fam since their move to Oakland. When Oliver over at Dream Collabo hit us up about teaming up to do a tape release of MondreM.A.N.’s recent M A N EP it was a no-brainer. As if the list of producers on the EP isn’t exciting enough (Beautiful Lou, Silky Johnson and Nem270 to name a few), we decided to pack the b-side of the tape with a remix to each track. We’ve got alternate cuts from Yalls, Ryan Hemsworth, Julian Wass, Shady Blaze, Blissed Out, ZachG, Sea Things, Blue Sky Black Death; and even I did a brief edit of the first track.
As per our usual, the M A N tape is limited to 100 copies and the digital is free. Get your fix at the Crash Symbols Bandcamp.
12:24 pm |
January 24 2012
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Liz and I made this for an upcoming release. We thought you’d enjoy seeing it in the meantime! -Dwight
11:38 am |
January 20 2012
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A few months ago at
Crash Symbols HQ, in our underground volcano/waterfall lair (currently on display in Kunstkammern all across Germany), we got to talking about how much we love “Web Walk”, from
Featureless Ghost’s
Biologically-Sound Cyber-Bodies EP, ultimately resolving to ensure that all future listeners would be subjected to no fewer than three different versions. According to Whitney Gould, aka
Heart Island (also the command module for
SPORTS), this is his him “reflecting on his robot self that used to be a man self”, and really what more elaboration do you need. Insisting on recording his own vocals for the remix, Whitney brings the song’s lyrics into greater focus, making for a far more intimate experience than the original. With their own remix, the band goes the opposite direction; taking a song that sounds best suited to accompanying cyborg calisthenics, picking up the pace and sucking out most of the bass.
Featureless Ghost - Web Walk (Heart Island Remix)
Featureless Ghost - Web Walk (Featureless Ghost’s Same-As-Before Remix)
Download the entire
Biologically-Sound Cyber-Bodies EP, along with the band and Gould’s new remixes,
here. Image courtesy of
Fantastic Lands.
6:08 pm |
January 17 2012
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A rhizome is the main stem of some plants, usually those growing underground, extending new limbs from various nodes of growth. Many can still propagate if damaged - it’s fundamentally a growing thing and perhaps at least part of the inspiration for Rhizome, the new EP from our own Jheri Evans, aka
Pariah Carey. Five tracks of fast paced, almost claustrophobic mycology-themed electronica trace the story of a mind consuming fungus (originally growing on a rhizome) in a far future earth, where only the freedom fighter Garghul & Co. and local scientist Dr. Rah-soo have the wherewithal to oppose it.
Pariah Carey - Basidiomycota
Download the entire Rhizome EP for free over at the Crash Symbols bandcamp. Jheri’s also making a limited number of hand dubbed copies (only 20) which, knowing him, will surely be gorgeous. Also, here’s some fun bedtime reading; “Basidiomycota”.
3:36 pm |
January 17 2012
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Tape Trade #2: Full of Nothing
As far as we’re concerned, everyone should have a pen pal in the Republic of Karelia - bedroom tape label Full of Nothing is ours. Last month, we passed on some of our wares in exchange for theirs, and these are what we ended up with at the end, each one exemplifying the vein of “contemporary psychedelic underground, adventurous drone and warm experimental music” that the label has made its purview.
1. Polypus Acephalous - The Outcast Tribes, I actually reviewed this one a couple of months ago for Get Off the Coast: “evokes the ghost of Rimsky-Korsakov, one Russia’s master orchestral composers and a prime resuscitator of its native folklore, united in the 21st-century to conjure up the uniquely weird players that populate the former’s latest album, The Outcast Tribes. They shamble in a slow rise, spontaneously creating some perverse funeral march, each voice possessed by what the band’s label calls a sort of ‘eskimo disco’.” (Original Post)
2. Suburban Howl - Lady Hate, only one of the latest additions to the Italian psych collective’s growing back catalog on a laundry list of great international tape imprints. As Full of Nothing observes, “the listener will find the Italian collective in an unusual shape. Somehow, the industrial noise walls have disappeared; there are more acoustic instruments. Crooked improv. Thick, raw and damaged free folk. Out for blood.”
3. Preslav Literary School - La Réflexion Du Tir, “Preslav Literary School’s music is a bit like exploring the space right under the roof of an old cathedral…” (Source: Weed Temple) Although this description was partly written with the tape’s artwork (which sports a cathedral) in mind, it still resonates with me as a description of the music, which amounts to lengthy, droning treatments of found sounds and warped loops.
All of these releases and (oh goodness) more, can be gotten here. The fourth tape in the pic has since sold out, so we won’t tempt you more by describing it at length.
4:34 pm |
January 16 2012
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In case you hadn’t heard, yesterday we murdered Get Off The Coast in cold blood and pulled from it’s seeping wound the first inklings of Decoder, and today we bring you the magazine version. Like so many of our friends and peers, we’ve decided to use Kickstarter to initially fund the project. Decoder will begin as a semi-annual publication, with a new issue coming every 6 months. We aim to be more than just a source of music; featuring tons of artwork, culture pieces, and even a few short stories. We’ve lined up contributions from Henning Lahmann (NFOP), Michael McGregor (The Report), Claire Pestaille, Malachi Ward, an interview with DJ Quikfrom Peter Marrack and so much more. Dwight, Liz and I have worked for the better part of 2011 on this project, making it very much a labor of love. We’ve had contributors drop in and out (and we anticipate that may continue to happen), but we’re wickedly proud of where we’ve gotten, and now we just need your help to really make this thing happen. So go ahead and pop on over to the Kickstarter page, mosey around, check out the contributors, and if you feel so inclined throw us a donation for whatever you feel comfortable with. We’ve got a few incentives up now and will be adding more in the coming weeks. While you’re browsing give a listen to the first Decoder mixtape, twenty tracks that can downloaded with just a $1 donation.
4:51 pm |
January 3 2012
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A couple of months ago
Kam3L3iN hit me up about doing some album art for his new EP, and even gave me the pleasure of naming said EP. At that point I figured why stop there, let’s go ahead and add the
Crash Symbols stamp to this bad boy. I’ve been a fan of Kam3L3iN’s work since I first laid ears on it, so it’s a great privelege to put out such a stellar EP chock full of dance-floor bangers. So without further ado, here is Kam3L3iN’s
Parks & Rock Creation EP.
4:39 pm |
January 3 2012
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About a year-and-a-half ago I first met Dwight and his then girlfriend Liz while touring with Born Gold (then Gobble Gobble). It was obvious from the first handshake that I had just discovered two of my best friends in the most unlikely of places, West Virginia. It was upon this first meeting while smoking a bowl on the front porch that the idea of Crash Symbols was born. Fast forward to now; we’ve released around twenty tapes, our first vinyl release (both a 12” and a 7”), plus Dwight and Liz got married! The three of us couldn’t be happier with everything we’ve accomplished in so little time. To celebrate we bring to you today the second volume of our inaugural mixtape, Dope Mountain Fuck. With just as much energy and twice the confidence, DMFv2 is a symbol of achievement for us. It features new bangers from Main Attrakionz, Oxykitten, Ghibli, changemod, Gahza, Ricky Eat Acid & more; as well as remixes from Emily Reo & Ryan Hemsworth and a Deniro Farrar cut over a previously unreleased Clams Casino beat. This is potentially our most ambitious mixtape to date and we’re pretty damn proud of it. 2012 belongs to us and ours.
Head over to the Crash Symbols bandcamp to snag all twenty-five glorious tracks from Dope Mountain Fuck Vol. 2!
1:46 pm |
December 19 2011
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Christian Filardo, aka
Good Amount, is more than just a friend, he’s a blinking glowing media being… an internet chrysalid waiting to plug into the supermind.
Opening Eye is a new manifesto of Filardo’s ever shifting anticipation of that union; ambient soundscapes littered with clustered bell tones, projecting a sense of monoliths. Big ideas and big narratives to draw them out, from our digital hierophant, Christian Filardo.
Preorder the limited edition cassette
here.
4:05 pm |
December 14 2011
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The
Nomadic Firs exude “
chill vibes and rainbow colored squawk”, though the vibes from their upbeat psych-pop aren’t particularly
chilly. If anything, the Nomadic Firs are among the most aggressively positive people I’ve ever (not really in person) met, even more so because they would stalwartly deny insight into why I think they’re so upsettingly nice. They even made a
protest song for the 99%. “Vines” is the first single from their upcoming debut album on our very own
Crash Symbols, so mosey on up to the video and get acquainted.
12:58 pm |
December 9 2011
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