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Simeon Abbott + Chris Dadge Longtime collaborators Abbott (prepared electric guitar + electronics) and Dadge (percussion + electronics) release their first album together. There's a lot of movement in these two tracks, but there's a similarity in their approaches that streamlines the proceedings. The duo tosses a dizzying array of ideas and sounds at one another, and they are caught, tossed back, and(/or) sidestepped entirely, as only a duo can do. Abbott's playing occasionally recalls a handful of his predecessors (Frith, Kaiser, Rowe, Chadbourne, et al) in the guitar mangling tradition, but we are mostly exposed to his own rapidly developing voice on the instrument, further evidenced on his recent solo album, Zebra Wood, and the wonderful Lamp Chops album (bim-24). Dadge (fresh of a year of playing with the likes of Mats Gustafsson, Eugene Chadbourne, and Eric Chenaux) is in full kaleidoscopic mode, adding bags of junk and amplification to his drums & cymbals. Recorded by Brad Hawkins at the monthly Bug Incision concert series in the summer of 2009. |
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Simeon Abbott with Bent Spoon Duo In October of 2008, nomoreshapes and Bent Spoon Duo took a trip to the eastern side of Canada to hock their wares and mingle with their displaced neighbours, one of which included ex-Calgarian Simeon Abbott. The days were just packed on this trip. After completing this session at Aaron Leaney's old apartment on Bloor Street, the duo carried their gear to Somewhere There, where they recorded what would become Fossils of Slumber (on Holy Cheever Church), their most focused release to date. After languishing in the vaults for a stretch, this recording is finally being made available. Two dense, 20-minute tracks of very physical, visceral playing. This is the era in which the duo began playing on the floor, each others' gear in close proximity, allowing them to make rapid and odd instrument switches, further confusing their sound. Their heady mix of small keyboards, percussion, objects, strings, tapes, and vocals, in concert with Abbott's prepared guitar extrapolations suggest a louder, more aggressive Three/Four Pullovers. Extra material from this session appears on this trio's self-titled 3" disc (bimm-05), also on Bug Incision. |
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Mike Khoury Five new tracks of solo violin improvisations by our friend Mike Khoury, a familiar face to the Detroit-area improvisation scene (his duos with Ben Hall and Chris Riggs are well worth seeking out). These tracks were all recorded live at various radio stations, legit and not-so-legit, around the US. Khoury on his own emits carefully wrought ribbons of lyrical, stream-of-consciousness violin playing, alternately leaving tons of space, letting his notes really hang, then obsessing over small, scratchy sounds or dissonant harmonies. It's worth mentioning his huge, full-bodied sound on the violin, reminding one of the his beautiful duet with Ben Hall (bim-09), one of the high points in Bug Incision's catalogue. A lovely, unified addition to his ever-expanding body of work. |
| coming soon | bim-30 |
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Ulher/Perkis/Robair Birgit Ulher: trumpet, radio, mutes, speaker The excellent Robair-Ulher tag-team (previous releases on Creative Sources and Rastacan are killers) is here bolstered by the presence of Tim Perkis, frequent Robair collaborator and Bay Area fixture (he's also put in time as a member of the recently-archived League of Automatic Music Composers). The Robair-Ulher discs are sparse and taut, all tension and no release, but Pogiff features a slightly more expansive sound palette, largely due to the nature of Perkis' laptop + electronics contributions. Processed field recordings, subtle electronic grit, and swoops of sound intermingle with Ulher's tight, ultra-controlled, lip-smacking trumpet playing (with radio!) and Robair's trademark appraoch to analog synth and percussion (his 'voltage made audible' often sounds like, alternately, a computer trying to sound like a field recording of crickets in the night or a dentist's spit-sucking machine). This is a record that demands your attention, constantly bubbling under the surface, trading bluster for little gestures. |
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Super Deluxe Gas Jockey janet turner, words, vocals and oddities It would be difficult to imagine Bug Incision and the current Calgary scene of players without the foundation set by this trio, along with the late Dan Meichel, the recipient of this album's dedication and an integral figure in the development of improvised music in the city. Dicey, Turner, and Pisio (along with Meichel and a handful of others) formed a constellation of bands throughout the 80s to the present day, including Scum de Terre, tokyosexwhale, Book Lily Dead Posie, tomato tomato, and Street of Crocodiles. This show, recorded live at Weeds (the home of the current Bug Incision concert series) by Brad Hawkins, presents a fantastic set from what would have been Scum de Terre, minus Meichel. The music includes the trademark elements of each player's approach, but also sees them moving in new directions. Dicey's extremely visceral approach to junk/object-based percussion is in full flight, but his kit playing has taken on a new fluidity and more overt sense of group interaction. Turner's vocals, as always, seem to find new ways to integrate themselves, and a (first-time?) dose of toy keyboards keeps things suitably off-kilter. Pisio's restless alto playing is beautifully dispersed with typical elegance and economy. A valuable addition to the Bug Incision catalogue. edition of 50 copies, color covers in plastic sleeves, in print |
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Pink Saliva gordon allen, trumpet Hardcore: La Brique is a live recording of a bizzarrely rude trio of Montreal-based musicians. For the most part, St-Onge and Côté neatly sidestep any conventional bass & drum roles. Their playing is split between casting dark swaths of sound, which provide churning, dirty backdrops for Allen's trumpet, and occasionally allowing skeletal rhythmic and melodic fragments to spill forth, here betraying a more rock-informed approach to their instruments. Allen's masterful, unadorned playing constitutes a similar refuting of his instrument's known voice, often rendering the trumpet indistinguishable from the laptop & feedback noise. This is some strange, excellent, head-scratching group playing. edition of 100 copies, color covers in plastic sleeves, in print |
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Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides The duo of Pascal Nichols and Kelly Jones delivers another new slab of zoned duo improv. The latest chapter of their ongoing series of reconciliations of the flute/drums/electronics relationship comes out sounding like an beautifully mangled soundtrack to a Ducks Unlimited commercial or an garbled old videocassette of an '80s educational nature film. As has been noted in previous reviews of this duo, they make stunning use of a relatively basic setup, and it's a long ways away from those bizzarre Jarrett/Dejohnette jams on Ruta & Daitya. edition of 64 copies, color covers in plastic sleeves, sold out |
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Jack Wright/Ben Wright/Mike Pride/Nate Wooley This is a 2006 recording of a quartet featuring Jack Wrigh (saxes)t, Ben Wright (upright bass), Mike Pride (percussion), and Nate Wooley (trumpet). The music is tightly coiled, coming across as an unsettled focusing and unfocusing of a variety of intersecting sounds and extended playing techniques. The players all possess masterful control of their instruments, and exhibit a fine sense of balance and pacing. Nobody overplays and the role(s) of background/foreground is constantly shifting, creating an uncluttered, thoughtful unfolding of events. Another fine slice of Wright and his ever-shifting company. edition of 100 copies, color covers in plastic sleeves, sold out |
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lamp chops Four tracks of string-saturated improvisation from Toronto's Colin Fisher and Simeon Abbott. Both players are serious multi-instrumentalists, but this set features them exclusively on ghuzeng and prepared guitar, respectively. Sounds like what might've happened if Strange Strings had been more fully fleshed-out and stripped down. Recorded to cassette four-track by Aaron Leaney at Somewhere There in Toronto, late 2008. edition of 50 copies, color covers in plastic sleeves, in print |
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fossils Another slab of basement strangeness from this Hamilton, Ontario-based trio/duo. The consistent element is David Payne, and he's joined by a mixture of Steve Smith and Daniel Farr. The sound quality here is out of step with the majority of Fossils' boombox-recorded catalogue, but the relatively crisp, bright recording yields a new attention to detail and smaller sounds. The enhanced fidelity doesn't, however, make it any easier to tell what the fuck is happening. Another basement baffler. Recorded in early 2009, at mjc HQ. edition of 50 copies, color covers in plastic sleeves, in print |
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chris dadge Recorded to two tracks of a Tascam 246, fall 2008. Follow-up to 2006's I'd Drive Your Ass Across The World, If I Had To. Shorter tracks, much less contained than that album, though similar in its simplicity and intent. Second solo drums album from Dadge, who's played with Bent Spoon Duo, Raw Kites, Musk Cup, Eric Chenaux, Mats Gustafsson & Christian Munthe, Peter Evans, and others. |
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pedromonkeyfinger Surreal slabs of processed sound float by each other in brilliant high fidelity, from the man behind much of the documentation of Bug Incision's live activites (hear his recording prowess on the forthcoming Bent Spoon Trio +3 album). First solo recording. edition of 50 copies, color covers in plastic sleeves, in print |
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christopher riggs This new slab from Chris Riggs (Traum/Trauma, Holy Cheever Church, etc) features assemblages of highly abstracted guitar improvisations and silence. The most challenging Bug Incision release yet. limited edition of 50, in print, barely "Seemingly coming from a stance aligned more with the classically-based sound experimentalists of the twentieth century than the noise practitioners he often plays with, Riggs nevertheless walks the borders with aplomb, at once translating both sides into one another until any cultural delineation disappears and the sounds are left to do as they will." Henry Smith, Ear-Conditioned Nightmare |
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jay crocker Crocker discards his usual array of guitars, homemade pedals, and keyboards, in favour of six years' worth of home recordings of himself. Mostly recorded on single track cassette tape, and patched through a larger system, these sketches and mini-improvs are woven together on one 'take', an acceptable one of which we have here. Moments here recall the denser sides of Richard Youngs or NWW. A strange one, for sure. tour-only edition of 30, sold out |
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musk cup duo chris dadge, dan meichel This recording captures a Musk Cup gig to which Scott Munro could not make it. The duo moves cleanly through a gamut of approaches and instrumentation, epitomizing the MC method. Post-set ambience provides a taste of the Soda crowd. japan-only tour edition of 30, sold out |
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raw kites chris dadge / percussion, violin, amplified objects Dadge and Krause met in 2006 and began playing together the following year in a trio called Hidden Fortress, with Thom Golub. In August of 2007, they toured with trumpet-whiz Peter Evans for his first Canadian jaunt and recorded these sides while they were at it. This collection features the choicest chunks of what went on in a living room and in a dance studio in Edmonton. Released in Vancouver (Krause's home) in February 2009. limited edition of 75, with 2 color photos, in print. "... [displays] the duo's chops at something resembling straight free jazz, though certainly a bare and explorative example of that genre." Henry Smith, Ear-Conditioned NIghtmare |
| coming soon | musk cup |
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bayal with arnaud riviere John Boyle and Aya Onishi (of Nihilist Spasm Band) play an arsenal of drums, modified thumb pianos & kazoos, with guest Arnaud Riviere (of Textile Orchestra, among other things) on destroyed turntables. The music was recorded live in France, documenting their set at Sonic Protest from a few years back. It consists of a half hour of unrelenting primal improvisation, underpinned by some early-man-style drumming and skittering cascades of feedback and heavily amplified, tactile interplay. limited edition of 100, with b&w photo, in print |
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dryer/heule/wright tony dryer / double bass Another standout, cracking trio session with Wright on this label. Jack Wright is known for his extensive exploration of the ad hoc musical meeting, having logged many hours with artists such as Andrea Neumann, Axel Dorner, Reuben Radding, and Tatsuya Nakatani. He's joined by the extremely active duo of Jacob Felix Heule and Tony Dryer. The two have been playing extensively as a duo (as Dryer/Heule and Basshaters), and in groups such as Dryer/Heule/Lindsay, Storm of Corpses, and Heule/Dryer/Korber. The sounds this time are raw and jagged. A fantastically tactile-sounding recording. March 2008. limited edition of 100, with insert, in print. |
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storm of corpses tony dryer / electric double bass An excellent large group recording from April 2008 at the Art Damage Lodge in Cincinnati, Ohio. Features C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core, Wiese/Yeh duo, etc), Ryan Jewell (plays with Nate Wooley, Mike Khoury, Psychedelic Horseshit), Jacob Felix Heule (of Ettrick, Basshaters, Soft Teeth (with Ava Mendoza), etc) , and Jay Korber (Ettrick, Heule/Dryer/Korber) ), Tony Dryer (Basshaters, Michel Doneda, Jack Wright), and Jon Lorenz and John Rich of Wasteland Jazz Unit. Recorded beautifully by JFH during '08 spring tour. limited edition of 100, with poster repro & insert, in print. "Horns whinny, fart, hiccup, pick off news copters like frogs zapping flies; a violin squeaks in protest; percussionists mime teletype machines and avalanches. Just for good measure, somebody slams the bejesus out of a kennel door." Ray Cummings, Citypages.com |
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bent spoon trio The definitive document of 2008's midnight tunnel shows. Features the trio in a mode with is more easily aligned with the recent Dadge/Munro BSD music. Laing's sax playing is extremely spacious and restrained. Dadge and Munro play violin, viola, trumpet, cuatro, trombone, and sparse percussion. limited edition of 50, with insert, sold out |
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bent spoon trio + Two prime BST tracks, complete with string+sax sexctions, vocals, and some fine straight-up trio moments. Third track adds Thom Golub on the double bass. The final cut is a quintet, adding Jay Crocker on guitar and pink dolphin, and Dan Meichel on tenor sax. Recorded by Brad Hawkins, culled from the monthly series at Theatre Junction. limited edition of 50, with insert, in print, sold out "...scrape and drape sound exploration that sees Munro's electronics taking center stage while fluttering reeds and Laing's alto sputter atop like some grandfatherly cartoon engine trying to turn over. Cool beans. When everyone gets back on it, Munro's trombone lazily drawling about atop Dadge's fluttering percussion, it really comes together as its own unique improvisational sound." Henry Smith, Ear-Conditioned Nightmare |
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fleischhaker-munro mark fleischhaker & scott munro: The debut studio recordings from Calgary's Mark Fleischhaker and Scott Munro, both vocalists with a loose sense of the word. This is 9 tracks of their work, completely undiluted. limited edition of 75, in print. |
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khoury + hall mike khoury / violin In what appears to be the first entry in this duo's discography, Detroit's Mike Khoury and Ben Hall create very sparse music that somehow occupies a formidable density. Impossibly long tones from strings, drums that sound like you're inside of them, enhanced percussion, bell tones that hang. This is a huge-sounding album. It will fill the room. limited edition of 150, in print, in print "This is one of those minor releases that function as a necessary anti-coagulant within the field of improvised music....unassuming in character but rich in implication." Julian Cowley, The Wire "There's this hyper-tense strain running throughout as the two tightly interlock their styles and paly off one another. It doesn't get much more intimate than this. One of the best so far this year in my book." Henry Smith, Ear-Conditioned Nightmare |
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jack wright with hell & bunny jack wright / saxophones The well-traveled saxophonist Jack Wright in an excellently balanced trio with cellist Hans Buetow and percussionist Ben Hall. This set was recorded in Easton, PA in 2007. Features impressive playing from all, but noteworthy for its inclination towards mind-meld. A united effort throughout. limited edition of 150, in print. "Hall uses gongs and down-tuned, tympani-like toms, his playing perhaps resembling a Paul Lytton track broken down and played segment-by-segment, like the Zapruder film. The cello sounds largely blend with the long ringing tones of the cymbals and gongs. Hall and Buetow often sonically meld to the point at which they seem to be a single player." Wyman Brantley, Squidsear |
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traum chris riggs / guitar The latest installment of this Detroit-based trio finds them continuing the post-Davis mode they've occupied since guitarist Chris Riggs' arrival earlier this year. This version of the band, along with Hans Buetow and Ben Hall (Graveyards, Melee) is much fleeter; lighter punches, more of them. Sounds, at times, like a sped-up AMM. limited edition of 150, in print.
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bent spoon duo chris dadge / violin, sk-1, vocals A totally left-field move from the Dadge/Munro faction of the BSD. This 30 minute disc features Monty's recent BSD stylings on voice, electronics, and trombone, and a drum-less Dadge holding it down with violin, sk-1, vocals, and crackle box. Recorded the same week as bim-05, this time live at the CJSR studios at UBC. volume 2 of 2. limited edition of 50, sold out |
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bent spoon duo chris dadge / drumset, violin, sk-1, etc this faction of the bent spoon triangle visited vancouver in february of 2008. everything was recorded and is now starting to see the light of day. this is a live recording of the duo at 1067 granville, recorded on cassette tape. extended drumset, sk-1, and violin, upright bass, electronics, trombone, and vocals. volume 1 of 2. limited edition of 100, in print. "There's the very vague sense, here, of clattering stick-on-stick percussion, drum-kit fury, and steam-swollen electronics being boiled down, incrementally, to a focal point. Then you realize they're fucking with you, and that you're actually kind of okay with that." Raymond Cummings, Citypages
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bent spoon trio (w/ danny meichel) chris dadge / violin, percussion, amplification, etc every summer david laing and chris dadge host sporadic shows in an undergound tunnel in calgary. the concerts are announced the day before, usually, and take place at midnight. the bent spoon trio is a consistent presence in these shows, and on this particular july night they added danny meichel to the ranks. unnumbered edition, sold out "[they] are able to keep that density and their ideas flowing throughout. Simple repeated sound gestures give way to densely packed mosaics of sound shards, rattles..." Glen Hall, Exclaim.ca |
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chris dadge solo drumset & percussion debut solo recording from calgary drummer/percussionist. two medium-length tracks culled from monday, tuesday, wednesday, and thursday morning recording sessions. solo drumset improvisations with subtle and occasional amplification. unnumbered edition, sold out. "He’s also intelligent enough to leave space for consideration, avoiding deplorable free-for-alls and pseudo-intrepid attempts ending in utter tediousness typical of the large part of percussion-only improvisational efforts." Massimo Ricci, Temporary Fault |
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the musk cup chris dadge, dan meichel, scott munro the first-ever session from this long-in-the-pipeline calgary improv supergroup. recorded on cassette using drums, saxes, clarinets, flutes, trombones, basses, voices, noise, objects, and a bunch of other stuff. first pressing of 50 copies, sold out. "The general sound is somehow associable to several projects related to Bryan Day’s Public Eyesore imprint: erratic turns and hasty reports from the galaxy of dirty overtones often making room for quite a few moments of deadpan expurgation of noise, a never-overfastidious rationalization of an otherwise extremely unmanageable creative flux." Massimo Ricci, Temporary Fault |
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bent spoon trio david laing / alto sax, laingdon The first micro-edition, a tour-only edition made for and sold on the Bent Spoon Duo 2007 UK tour. It's a live recording of the BST in Victoria from 2006. Long gone. edition of 30, sold out |
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a band treated white card sleeves with color & b&w stick-on art, edition of 119
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Simeon Abbott with Bent Spoon Duo The remaining chunk of music from this trio's collaboration in Aaron Leaney's old apartment on Bloor street. See bim-32 for more info. |
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Darren Williams with Bent Spoon Duo Darren Williams is an important piece of the Bug Incision puzzle. Previous to the BI activities, which began in 2005, Calgary's hook-up for far-out sounds was largely Nach Hause, Williams' concert production series, which brought in heavies from around the world, and blew a number of young minds in the process. When Darren left for Vancouver in 2004, there was a clear and admirable model for what needed to appear in its wake. As a musician, Williams plays the tenor sax, and his blasted approach is firmly located in the fire-breathing tradition of Brotzmann, Charles Gayle, Paul Flaherty, and the like. Calgary's Bent Spoon Duo (this time: Dadge on straight drumkit, Munro on upright bass & DS) found themselves in Vancouver as a part of a larger touring unit, and the trip ended with an evening of ad hoc groupings at the venerable 1067, the long-running hub of city's creative music community. This super rough, 20-odd-minute mono recording is fairly unrelenting, more akin to the music BSD made as their early days as a trio, but way more violent. Good to finally get this trio out there. |
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lab coast chris dadge & david laing Before becoming the song-based pop group that it is today, Lab Coast was, first, a rethink of a handful of old Scottish folk tunes David used to sing as a lad, and second, or possibly first and then also second, it was a one-off cassette recording of a very odd jam in Dadge's old basement. This is a recording of that second incarnation, in edits. Perversely, this also serves as the debut release under the name Lab Coast. 3" cdr w/ plastic sleeve, 2 cover variations, edition of 33, in print |
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bent spoon duo chris dadge, violin & acoustic guitar Monty & Dadge once again hit the road with Crocker & Hamelin from nomoreshapes to play some shows outside of town. Jim Vaughan set up a show for the dual bill along with a Dadge/Vaughan set. They played to some strangers and an old friend of Dadge's, and her friends. They paid for their food and decided to play through Crocker's guitar amp. This is the show from BSD with the most stripped down instrumentation thus far. More recordings of string duo to come. live in edmonton, november 2009 3" cdr w/ plastic sleeve, 2 cover variations, edition of 30, in print |
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jazz snob eat shit dan meichel, reeds & moog prodigy Sole live recording of the wonderful, late Dan Meichel, who passed away in April of 2009. Recorded at the Bug Incision End of August Festival in Calgary, in 2008. live at emmedia, august 29, 2008 3" cdr w/ plastic sleeve, edition of 30, sold out |
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v/a the musk cup, fleischhaker-munro, no more shapes, malleagle In 2007, between the '06 and '07 monthly improv nights, four on-air performances/recording sessions took place on CJSW 90.9, in Calgary. This disc culls the best of those shows. Comes with extensive liner notes. edition of 150, in print. |
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chris dadge & rachael wadham chris dadge / percussion, violin A series of sparkling duet improvisations for percussion, piano, junk, and violin. Recorded in 1067, in Vancouver, on a Monday afternoon. edition of 150, in print. "Discerning scrutiny of percussive colors without a hint of exaggeration – everything strictly in check, not an ounce of noodling to be found – and a few instants of anecdotal portrayals. A pictorial representation of egomaniacal modesty, 42 highly enjoyable minutes of never-exasperating questions designed to remain unanswered. Great stuff." Massimo Ricci, Temporary Fault |
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aaron leaney & chris dadge aaron leaney / tenor sax, clarinet A duo at the height of their powers. Three tracks recorded live in Calgary during 2006. Liner notes by Leaney and Dadge. edition 150, in print. "These are clearly two players who understand that free improvising is not all hue and cry but that subtle shading makes for a richer, more multifaceted and effective music. And if I ever find myself in Calgary, at least now I know there may be some live music to seek out." Robert Iannapollo, Cadence |
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bent spoon trio david laing, chris dadge, scott munro Second BST disc, this time dealing with shorter track lengths and various recording techniques. Recorded in the smoking stairwell at ACAD in Calgary. edition of 155, out of print. |
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jay crocker & chris dadge jay crocker / banjo, percussion "Why can't a banjo sound like a tree full of Honeycreepers in the Peruvian lower amazon? Why can't Dadge and Crocker combine to sound like the future looking back on the ancient now?" - B. Buckingham, liner notes. edition of 150, out of print. |
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bent spoon trio david laing, chris dadge, scott munro The first release from the then-recently birthed Bent Spoon Trio. One 35 minute improvisation, recorded on said date, in living room. Printed discs. edition of 100, out of print. |
