Friday 27 January 2017

New Release: 'States' - Photographs and Field Recordings by Crow Versus Crow



I'm very pleased to be able to present you with a new release of the Crow Versus Crow Editions imprint: States - a collection of photographs and field recordings taken by Crow Versus Crow whilst travelling through some of the southern states of North America during August 2016.

This is presented as a 48 page A5 landscape zine featuring 22 full colour photographs printed on 130gsm silk stock, with a 300gsm recycled card cover, which houses a 3" CDr featuring a single 17 minute composition of raw field recordings.
There are 25 copies available at the cost price of £5 per copy from the Crow Versus Crow Bandcamp.

A digital version, comprised of the States audio and a .pdf version of the zine, for those who prefer their wares ephemeral, is also available priced at £3.

Further contextual material for States can be found below the images.

Thank you for all of your continued support with Crow Versus Crow. It is very much appreciated.


Order a copy now via the Crow Versus Crow Bandcamp




States is not intended as an objective environmental document, rather it is a depiction of an experience of travelling through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia during August 2016, as a tourist, an outsider.

Culturally conditioned experience, a pre-conceived notion of 'America', versus the aesthetic experience of being there in the moment. Simultaneously exotic and familiar. the two overlap uncannily.

Travelling through this part of the country was, very literally, an awesome experience. Expansive, sublime landscapes ripped from the pages of a John Steinbeck novel, the romanticism sharply punctured by anti-abortion billboards and ‘Vote Trump’ bumper stickers, hinting at the incredibly complex layers of history and contemporary socio-political flux beyond, or rather within, the beatific plains.

Overwhelmed by the vastness of the land, following the traces of old Bluesmen and -women through poverty ravaged states. Industry built on exploitation erased, leaving oppressed, isolated inhabitants in it’s wake.

Metronomic broken lines stretch into ephemeral, wavering pools. An eagles soars. ‘Think God’. Static hiss. Cellulose Nitrate film clicks, scratched, bubbled in heat.

'..and they ran in that resonance which is the world itself
and which cannot be spoken but only praised.'


Monday 16 January 2017

The Crow Versus Crow Live Sessions: Stuart Chalmers


As part of the on-going Crow Versus Crow Live Sessions series, I'm very pleased to announce the availability of a set of recordings by Stuart Chalmers to download via the Crow Versus Crow Bandcamp
This set of six improvisations were made specifically for the Crow Versus Crow Radio Show by Stuart, using prepared swarmandal, tape loops and effects pedals. Untitled #3, #4, #5 and #6 were originally broadcast within Episode #108 of the Crow Versus Crow Radio Show on 18th December 2016. Untitled #1 and #2 are previously un-broadcast and are exclusive to the digital download of the Live Session.

Thank you very,very much to Stuart for taking the time to record this set of works for Crow Versus Crow.
Many of Stuart's previous releases can be heard via Stuart's own Bandcamp site.

Enjoy!



Sunday 15 January 2017

The Crow Versus Crow Radio Show #109


The 109th  episode of The Crow Versus Crow Radio Show, featuring an exclusive mix of cuts from tape-only releases, The Beast Tapes of 2016, from NE's dicta-God, Posset.

Recorded at Crow Versus Crow Haus using a Zoom H1 recorder as a microphone. Stitched together using outdated software. Please listen to this on headphones. 

If you are at all interested in the work of the artists featured in this episode, please support the artists and labels through purchasing their records and attending their shows where possible.


This episode originally aired in a far inferior mono form on 96.7 Phoenix FM (Calderdale) on Sunday 15th January 2017 between 6 and 8pm.

1. Alabama Sacred Heart Singers - Religion is a Fortune (Epic Americana - Folk / Floating World, 2016)
2. Kink Gong - Le Double Vent Traverse Les Orielles (Imer Zeillos - Asian Variations for Saz, Cura and Tanbur / Discrepant, 2017)
3. Vile Plumage - Bread and Dripping (Terrible Things Happen In Nice Houses / Burselm Crypt Recordings, 2017)
4. Unknown Artist - Uzbek Rhythms (Afghanistan et Iran / Disques Vogues, 1969)
5. Andrey Popovskiy - Untitled (Works For Voice Recorders 2011, 2016 / Spina!Rec, 2016)
6. Achileas Poulos - Nedem Geldem Amerikaya (Epic Americana - Folk / Floating World, 2016)

7. Posset - Beast Tapes 2016 (A Mix for the Crow Versus Crow Radio Show, 2017)

8. Paul Carr - I'm Not Fantasy Man (Big Carsey / Build Music, 2017)
9. Daniel Thomas - Plimsolls (Small Hour / Not on Label, 2016)
10. Ani & Nimmo - Ani & Nimmo: Quixotic Interlude (Ani & Nimmo 2 / Chocolate Monk, 2016)
11. Guttersnipe - Phosphene Gamine Forcipule (B'rxvaiww Vgr-aiz'vst Eicaeqcyxy L'vranndkhb'vorr Vts'aicraexxth / Not on Label, 2016)

12. Uniform - Night Of The Fear (Wake In Fright / Sacred Bones, 2017)
13. The Cray Twins - Harbour (The Pier / Fang Bomb, 2016)

14. Noah Howard - Mount Fuji (The Black Ark / Freedom, Polydor, 1972)



Thank You

Saturday 7 January 2017

Grey Guides' 'Beast Mask Supremacist' Reviews



As starts of new years go, two reviews of Grey Guides' Beast Mask Supremacist cassette arriving within a couple of days of each other a mere seven days in, this one is alright with me...

First up, Cassette Gods:

'...the manipulation and experimentation of tracks like “One Eye Lower than the Other” and “Just Burned Down a Care Home,” where sounds are warped and layered to unsettling effect, are the stars of the awesomely titled Beast Mask Supremacist. What are these sources, and how are the deployed? No idea. That’s part of the fun.'

Thank you Cassette Gods! Read the full review here.

And another from ATTN:magazine:

'I picture this: a gigantic, industry-grade cassette player spewing chunks of tape at random intervals. It bunches up in the spokes and stops the mechanism from turning properly, creased and knotted and torn to shreds, spilling over the chassis like the explosive regurgitations of ten brown party poppers. The situation is beyond repair. I can discern tiny remnants of the original tape contents (voices in ritualistic wail and jeers of lunacy, abstract guitar experiments) but they flicker and fold over themselves, tattered and dying in the wake of some dreadful act of vandalism.'

Thank you ATTN:magazine! Read the full review here

Tape copies are still available via the Crow Versus Crow Bandcamp, as are digital downloads, if you prefer.

Thank you to everybody who has picked up copies so far. Your support means a great deal and affects the existence of this here Crow Versus Crow project a great deal. Onwards through 2017...