Australian Experimental Music and Beyond – label, mailorder, archive
Shame File Music and Albert’s Basement follow up the critically-acclaimed 2022 reissue of seminal Melbourne band Ad Hoc’s Distance cassette with the band’s obscure barely-released (perhaps six home-dubbed copies) live cassette Corpse – available digitally and on a limited edition of 100 cassettes from September 2023.
Very excited to present the first Shame File Music release for 2023 – Ross Manning’s “Some Technical Drawings” LP, his first album in about 4 years. His debut release for Shame File is a bespoke unique object; a limited edition of 100 copies on clear vinyl with hand-made/hand-ripped covers, and custom locked grooves – shipping now.
Ross Manning is a contemporary new media artist from Brisbane, Australia. He focuses on live instrument practises, kinetic and sound composition. He is an obsessive creator of systems that are driven by their own logic, exploring the rhythm and the recycling energy of them.
Manning’s new album is a collection of four new works created by his kinetic sound sculptures, sometimes solo, sometimes in concert with each other. The effect is of being in the room with these machines, as their compositional output resolves itself around you. The pieces range from industrial drone to delicate brush-like percussion, and the final piece approximates an automated string quartet; all cultivate close and compulsive listening.
At The Salt Museum is now available in full on Bandcamp for streaming and download.
The tracks that made this album were originally recorded on 4 December 2015, at the Murray Sunset National Park in North West Victoria. That will be 7 years ago on Sunday 4 December 2022, when Clinton Green & Michael McNab will be playing a duo in support of a rare Melbourne performance from Astasie-abasie.
A small amount of the original CD are still available.
Chun-liang Liu’s long-awaited follow up to her debut Friction album (2016) is out today. I Thought It Was Colourful, But They Said It Was BLACK is out now on a limited edition of 100 cassettes with full colour cover, and digitally.
Read Liu’s reflection on the album here.
Ian Andrews of Astasie-abasie was recently interviewed about his work by Clinton Green for this special: Plateaus of intensity. In it, Andrews discusses his interest in sound in childhood, early projects, the development of Astasie-abasie, as well as his interests including turntablism, aleatoric art, and phenomenology.
Astasie-abasie will visit Melbourne in early December 2022 for two rare live performances, to celebrate the recent release of his Elliptical Gamelan LP:
Chun-liang Liu’s new album I Thought It Was Colourful, But They Said It Was BLACK is out on November 17, available to pre-order on limited edition cassette and digital
The Archive series comprises ten volumes, issued on CDR from 2002-2013. The series collects out-of-print, rare and previously-unreleased material from Clinton Green’s Undecisive God project, beginning with nascent recordings made from 1991 through to 2007.
Primarily a private archival project, it has only been issued via on-demand CDRs. The CDR format will now be discontinued as the series moves to Bandcamp over coming months. The first two editions are now available on that platform, along with original liner notes:
Archive 1: 1991-4 (sham017) includes the debut cassette The Difference Between Light and Shadow in its entirety, plus some previously unreleased material and compilation tracks.
Archive 2: 1994-5 (sham019) features Undecisive God’s second release The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, plus 3 other compilation tracks and an early version unreleased of “Hallowed Be Thy Name”.
Preview tracks are available for free streaming (these are what I rate as the most-listenable tracks, the rest are really only for completists and the curious).
Taiwanese performing & sound artist, Chun-liang-Liu’s, follow-up her 2016 debut Friction album is a further development of her intimate vocal and sound works into more complex and layered sonic experiences. I Thought It Was Colourful, But They Said It Was BLACK was mostly recorded in Liu’s home, often in bed late at night, with multiple vocalisations added to create a polyphonic effect akin to a choir of interior voices or inner dialogue. Such an approach could easily be overwhelming for listeners, yet Liu crafts her work with a deft touch that offers a unique sonic, musical, and emotional experience.
Preview tracks and pre-orders here – shipping mid-November 2022.
Read Liu’s reflection on the album here.
Limited edition of 100 pro-produced cassettes with full colour covers.
The limited edition reissue of Ad Hoc’s 1980 “Distance” cassette is out today on Shame File Music and Albert’s Basement.
Ad Hoc (James Clayden, Chris Knowles & David Wadelton, and at times David Brown) were an obscure Melbourne outfit of the late 1970s/early 80s who stood curiously apart of from many of their more-storied contemporaries, but whose haunting ambient instrumentals sound remarkably contemporary four decades later.
“Distance”, their sole release besides some compilation tracks, has been sourced from the original 4 channel master reel tape, and is now available digitally and on a limited edition of 100 replica pro-produced cassettes with risograph cover. Read more about Ad Hoc here.