L.A. Lungs - Rrest
Rrest is the first vinyl release for Olympia, Washington-based L.A. Lungs. Known for creating deeply personal connections with their audiences, the married duo, Afterthought Lung and Leeward Lung, are longtime mainstays of the capital city’s storied underground scene, as well as an integral part of the Debacle Records story. With two previous CDs in our back catalog, amid several releases from other NW labels, the pair have won the hearts of those in the local underground scene since 2005, particularly through their involvement with Debacle Fest and Olympia Experimental Music Festival.
Debacle Records is excited to share the best kept secret of the Northwest with the larger world; it’s time for L.A. Lungs to step into the light.
L.A.Lungs have the ability to, in a single track, evoke both a dusky summer evening and the white, white light of a winter morning. Employing an army of instruments such as guitar, violin, Roland Juno 60, plus toys and noisemakers, L.A. Lungs are able to move from disquieting cryptic sound fields to warm embracing drones. Their songs would be home next to those of Motion Sickness of Time Travel, Mountains, and Lau Nau.
Rrest is the most faithful representation of the L.A. Lungs we know from stage. Hushed conversation at one in the morning, shaking pine needles, condensation on glass, creaking floorboards, sunning cats, puddles filling from heavy drops--Rrest feels like all of these things yet without the aid of field recordings. Empty spaces hold on to your attention. Clicks and strums brush up against you and retreat. Tones that had once felt disconnected and stark, sneak and braid into crescendos of dreamy urgency.
We’re pleased L.A. Lungs will be once again be gracing the stage of Debacle Fest May 31st at LoFi Performance Gallery in Seattle, an event at which they’ve performed nearly every year since 2008, often giving us their best moments. They will also take part in the Olympia Experimental Music Festival later in 2014.
$18 LP & Digital
$8 Digital
King Tears Bat Trip
After tape and digital editions of the album on Hanged Man and Table & Chairs, respectively, Debacle Records is proud to release the King Tears Bat Trip album as a limited edition picture-disc, with art by KTBT member Kristian Garrard. The album has been remastered by Scott Colburn, who has produced albums for Animal Collective and Sun City Girls. We’re also ecstatic to present a rare performance by the septet at this year’s Debacle Fest, on Saturday May 31st in Seattle.
A favorite among the emerging bands of the Northwest DIY scene, King Tears Bat Trip is the vision of Seattle bassist, guitarist, and composer Luke Bergman. Performed in two massive compositions, KTBT’s self-titled debut album is a torrent of sound from the get-go, featuring Thomas Campbell, Kristian Garrard, Chris Icasiano, and Evan Woodle on drums; Neil Welch on distortion-heavy tenor saxophone; Luke Bergman on de-tuned noise guitar; and Brandon Lucia on the Chango, a computer-generated sound interface created by Lucia himself in April 2011.
KTBT can be a ferocious, power-violent beast, but their catchy song forms and hypnotizing beats make this music extremely approachable. The folksy melodies seem as much like Haitian Vodou music as they do an Albert Ayler spirit song. Barking saxophone improvisations shout over Bergman’s washed-out, metallic guitar lines, and twangy, rolling percussion instruments sound in the radius. The band’s tightly-woven rhythmic patterns and careful control of pacing sound both raw and fully assured. King Tears Bat Trip was recorded in unedited, live studio takes, retaining all the energy of their adrenaline-inducing shows.
$18 LP & Digital
$8 Digital
Chris Davis - Live at Post Terrestrial
Chris Davis is a member of Seattle’s kraut-synth jammers Brain Fruit, also a key member of the psychedelic dance collective MOTOR. This release is the first under his given name, and the first to dive into his abstract improvisations on modular synthesizer. Taken from a performance at the local experimental meet-up series Post Terrestrial, this new CD is Davis stepping away from the tightly controlled and clever structures of Brain Fruit and out, even further from the improv techno of his MOTOR live sets. This is live improv synth work in the recent tradition of Greg Davis, Matt Carlson or Keith Fullerton Whitman.
Note: Chris has decided all forthcoming work in this vein will retain the Chris Davis moniker, while Chris will return to MOTOR shows and releases with a new project name.
Mastered by Phil Petrocelli
100 copies - Limited Edition
$8 - CD & Digital
$5 - Digital
Timm Mason - The Lost Levels
You may know Timm Mason from his work in psych overlords Midday Veil, disco strategists TJ Max or most notably his long running solo project Mood Organ. The Lost Levels is his first release under his own name, having decided to take Mood Organ into the direction of his recent “Missile Silo Disco” sets for MOTOR and forthcoming 12” EP. The Lost Levels could be seen as a sequel to his early release on Debacle Records Visiting a Burning Museum. Like that release The Lost Levels trades in slow moving and slightly tension filled drones. Unlike his previous release, the album feels much more diverse in sound sources and features almost a cut and paste style of composition that reminds me of a darker Sean McCann. There is a dramatic narrative tone here that is rare in most sound sculptures like these.
Mastered by James Plotkin
100 copies - Limited Edition