NEW DISTRO ITEM: Phong Tran - A.I.R. Tapes 1 (Excavation Series 5) cassette on Power Moves Library

NEW DISTRO ITEM: Phong Tran - A.I.R. Tapes 1 (Excavation Series 5) cassette on Power Moves Library

Available now via the Crow Versus Crow Bandcamp

With the creation of a new arm of the Crow Versus Crow project, I am very pleased to announce the first Distro title available through the Crow Versus Crow Bandcamp - Phong Tran's A.I.R Tapes 1 cassette, part of the on-going Excavation Series on the excellent Toronto-based label, Power Moves Library.

As a solution to increasing international postage charges, Power Moves Library and Crow Versus Crow will now stock a limited few of the bulk of each other's releases, making the records available to USA/Canada through PML and the UK/Europe through Crow Versus Crow at a much more reasonable price to interested listeners. We both feel that it is vital to help other artists and labels spread the word of their work and hope that this distribution project will go some way to doing so.

So, with that, here is the first Power Moves Library title available through Crow Versus Crow. Phong Tran's A.I.R. Tapes 1 is a mixtape created from recordings taken directly from Indian radio during his travels through the country during 1996-97.

'There are hours and hours of these tapes made from various locations with varying reception levels. I was constantly listening to the little Sony shortwave radio that I had with me. I memorised the timings of certain favourite programmes so I could record them. Otherwise, I always had the machine ready at hand in case something of interest came on. I picked tracks for this mixtape based on performance, duration, rarity and audio quality.'

The result is a beautiful collection of hiss-filled ragas, traditional compositions, interview snippets and English language news broadcasts that amount to a fascinating insight into one person's interactions and experiences of a country, it's socio-political conditions and musical, cultural history, at a particular time.

It's an incredibly strong record that comes very highly recommended.

Having been referred to people keen to pick up a copy by Power Moves Library, I now have just 5 copies of the tape available through the Crow Versus Crow Bandcamp. The tapes are £5 to the UK / £6.50 to Europe, including postage and packaging. I have agreed to only sell to the UK/Europe as both Power Moves Library and Phong Tran can easily, and cost-effectively, cover the rest of the world. But, as both Phong Tran and PML have now sold out of the tapes, if you are beyond the UK/Europe and would like a copy please send me an email and I will try and arrange a copy for you.

Thanks for all of your support with Crow Versus Crow. Now, DIG! You hep cats, you!

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.'

Order a copy now via the Crow Versus Crow Bandcamp