n e w s 03/19/09 Hail once again tUMULtuous ones! I usually start these WAY too infrequent updates with some mention of the insane amount of time that has passed since the last one, and apologies for failing to deliver a steady stream of peritnent tUMULt news, so consider this that. Yep, another year and change has passed, and the dearth of news on the tUMULt site is no way indicitive of what's been going on around these parts, which is as always A LOT. Most fans of the label realize that i also own and run aQuarius recOrds, so anyone who subscribes to the aQ new arrivals list has no doubt been privvy to all the exciting tUMULt action and all the new tUMULt stuff that's come out over the last year. But just in case, here's a recap and a quick rundown for folks who may have somehow missed out. One new development of note, is an in-the-works redisign of the website, which will hopefully make updating and adding stuff WAY easier, incorportaing all that new fangled crap like blogs and twitters and myspaces... i know i know... but i also know how important it is for you to get your tUMULt, in every way, shape and form imaginable. It always seems to me that these news transmissions need to be looooooong, mostly cuz i'm making up for a year plus of near silence, but besides a couple important items, and a list of new releases, everything you need can be found on the just fully updated tUMULt site. So no need to ramble, let's get right to it, here's what's BRAND new: OUT RIGHT NOW!! OVENS "s/t" SF based grind pop wunderkinds. Minute long bursts of total perfect power pop genius. Heavy and shredding and hook filled and melodic, easily one of the two best pop records you'll here this year (or any year). Weezer meets Guided By Voices meets The Beatles meets old Bee Gees meets the Fucking Champs, with a singer who sounds like the skinny guy from They Might Be Giants, catchy and funny and crunchy and punky and totally insanely addictive. 44 songs (3 albums) packed onto one cd, maybe my moist listened to record recently, and for good reason, check it out HERE. THE MEMORIES ATTACK "s/t" What's with all this pop?!?! What can I say, tUMULt may get pegged as a black metal label, but long before there was BM, there was pop, and few do it better than these guys, the OTHER of the two best pop records you'll here this year or any year, hailing from the pop mecca Halifax, Nova Scotia, and featuring one member of Eric's Trip, TMA are buzzy, catchy, lo-fi pop straight out of 1995, big crushing choruses, lots of jangle, hooks hooks hooks, all tripped out and blissy and druggy and slightly psychedelic, but so goddamn catchy, a total thrill and an honor to be able to put this out. A split release with Canadian label NoYEs Records, read more about it HERE. HABSYLL "MMVIII" Crushing slow motion, abstract ultra mega doooooooom from France. Khanate, Moss, Monarch, Bunkur, take those bands and slooooow the sound down even further, pull it apart, spread it out like some fucked up exapanse of plodding, barely propulsive heaviness, some sort of 21st century doomic minimalism, lumbering, pummeling and incredibly HEAVY, but somehow sort of beuatiful as well. Difficult listening for sure, but everything truly great is. Featuring members of one of my OTHER favorite bands THE FANTASTIKOL HOLE. A co-release with FIVE other labels: At War With False Noise, Obscure Sombre, PsycheDOOMelic, Skyr and Odio Sonoro! Submit HERE. OUT SINCE THE LAST UPDATE!! CREBAIN "night of stormcrow" SF one man black metal outfit. Shared a split with Leviathan. The first demo finally available on cd, remastered, with all new artwork, and bonus tracks in the form of rehearsals from a pre-Crebain Gauderon Dherg. Where as lots of tUMULt black metal is freaked out and bizarre, Crebain is buzzing and furious, intense and technical. It's a crime this guy doesn't rule the BM underground. Check it out HERE. PYHA "The Haunted House " The debut recording from this Korean one man black metal band. Who just so happened to be a 14 year old seventh grader when this was recorded. Unbelievably grim Burzumic buzz. The demo received a TEN in terrorizer and you'll understand why. Burzum meets Abruptum but even more harsh and atmospheric. Anti war, anti military outsider individualistic blackness that destroys any other BM you've heard. What the fuck were YOU doing when you were 14 years old?! And three more records in the can, hopefully coming soon... More HERE. LIKE A KIND OF MATADOR "Halfway To Dangerous " A mysterious doom prog juggernaut from the UK. Epic, crushing ambience, flutes and gongs and sleigh bells and of course soul crushing riffs. Long overdue but well worth the wait. Go HERE. VARGHKOGHARGASMAL "Drowned In Lakes " Wooden metal from Germany. Stumbling and confusional. Not so much metal as some strange woodland surf flecked krautrock, but wrapped in blackness and stange FX. Still haven't quite figured out how to accurately describe this, other than to say it fucking destroys. Read about it HERE. AND STILL COMING SOON!! (LOTS OF NEW ADDITIONS!!) AMOCOMA "go to hell " Reissue of this out of print cd-r, murky and muddy washed out WOLD like black metal from this SF one man horde. Blurred and bleary and shoegazey and shimmery, a gloriously washed out hypnotic buzz, more entrancing and mesmerizing than blasting and thrashing, still plenty black and buzzy. New artwork and two bonus tracks, more HERE. DIAMATREGON "crossroad " Record number three from this French black metal horde. A concept record of sorts, influenced heavily by THE BLUES, hence, Crossroad. Buzzing, blasting, blurred black metal fury, but with a strange melodic undercurrent, close listening does in fact reveal some blues, but those blues are buried beneath a roiling black sea of furious guitars, wild drum blasts and howled vokills, gloriously grim, noise drenched and black. Whow ould have thought that members of distorto psych rockers the Gunslingers and avant alchemical post rockers Aluk Todolo were capable of such black brutality... IT'S HERE. TOMB OF... "...the first funeral " Piano driven blackened doom, like Windham Hill meets ultra depressive doom, hard to explain but this stuff is so dark and haunting and heavy with no guitars, just voice, piano and synthesizers, two long out of print cassettes compiled on once cd, with extra tracks, all remastered and with extra tracks, lots more HERE. MASTERY "Barbaric Usurpation Of The Hypereonic Black Metal Throne " Still more blackness oozes forth from the fertile blood saoked soil beneath the Bay Area. First there was Leviathan, Crebain, Draugar, now comes the one horde known simply as Mastery, who, when not supplying bass and vocals for local black metallers Horn Of Dagoth, spews forth a dizzying, blasting, ultra brutal, ultra raw, old school, frenzied and frenetic blackness, buzzing and Burzumic, thrashing and chaotic, pounding and primitive. Prepare yourself for Mastery's Barbaric Usurpation Of The Hypereonic Black Metal Throne. Two discs collecting every Mastery recording to date! BOW DOWN. SMORZANDO "Smrad " Gorgeous haunting depressive blackness from Switzerland. Twisted and creepy and beautiful and otherworldly. Another out of print tape reissued with extra tracks and all sorts of new stuff, check out more here. TERMINAL CHEESECAKE "box " Heavy, druggy, tripped out, fucked up, dubby, spacey, far out weirdness, Terminal Cheesecake have no peers when it comes to creating damaged psych rock metal dub space rock. Or whatever you want to call it. These guys make some of the most unique, head spinning sounds you've ever heard. Spawned from the same scene that spit out Godflesh, Head Of David, Napalm Death, Skullflower and the like, these guys took the same sort of elements, got super baked, and proceeded to weave some of the most gloriously psychedelic heaviness EVER. A long in the works box set containing EVERYTHING ever released by these guys, as well as tons of extras, live tracks, unreleased jams and whatever else we can dig up... that's all here. OVSKUM "s/t " Breathtaking, mysterious, shoegazey, slowcore-d black metal from Italy, first proper cd, imagine a black metal Mazzy Star and you might be getting close, lots more here. HAVE A NICE LIFE "deathconcsiousnes " Beautiful, weird as fuck and mysterious, heavy and doomy and creepy and a bit blackened... some of the most fucked up far out sounds i've ever heard, Have A Nice Life... Two discs, jam packed with dark blissed out shoegazey, new wave-y, slightly metallic nearly perfect pop flecked black metal abstract beauty. WAY more here. NEMO "discography " Head spinning, confusional, ultra fast, speaker shredding 8bit hyper grind. Lightning speed drum machines, video game samples, crushing riffage, shrieked vokills and all sorts of bizarre bleeps and blips and buzzing, turn Nemo's metallic grind into some sort of grindmetal alien video game soundtrack. This stuff is so nuts it's kind of hard to even describe. If I was making a horror/alien invasion/splatter flick, the is the music I would want as the soundtrack. Think some fucked up mix of the Locust, Orthrelm, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Crom Tech, Man Is The Bastard, Space Invaders, Galaga, Missle Command, Joust and Rastan. Or the best death metal video game they never made for the Commodore 64! Fucking great! Cd compilation collecting everything they ever recorded... that too can be found here. BERKOWITZ LAKE AND DAHMER " MDP " Finally to see the light of day, latest from these electronic experimentalists, drone and buzz, glitch and warble, swoon and shriek, all woven into some organic frightening beautiful thing. Lots more HERE. DEAD REPTILE SHRINE "tbd 2cd " Brand new double disc from these Finnish misanthropes. Bizarre blackness from the forests of Finland. A sprawling confusional epic. You have been warned. Follow the dark path HERE. TIERMES "tbd " The newest release from this mysterious, mystical, magickal, industrial ambient drone outift from Finland, unfurling a gloriously blackened world of glistening shimmer and Krautrock dirge, nestled amidst breathtaking expanses of crystalline drone and hypnotically buzzing rumble. Dark sonic rituals, ceremonies of drifting tribal minimalism, abstract dronefolk sacraments and shamanic explorations of shadowed and starless otherworlds. Fall freely into a swirling, soul swallowing black oblivion... Discover much more HERE. V/A "Unblack and Blessed " A killer compilation of UN-black metal, WHITE metal, Christian black metal, whatever you want to call it, it's twisted and fucked up and buzzy and baffling and amazing. Two discs, the best UNblack metal we've heard in the last few years... HERE. V/A "I'm Sorry And I Miss You... " A black metal reinterpretaion of SLint's SPiderland, Leviathan, Draugar, Nachtmystium and 3 more... read all about it HERE. And yeah, there's some other stuff brewing, but gotta have something to write about next time... Gonna have to cut this short as i'm leaving in about 2 hours for texas, for south by southwest, where aQuarius is having out very first showcase, partnering up with WFMU in new jersey, 14 bands, two stages, including the first ABSU show in nearly 8 years, and an ACTUAL tUMULt band performing live!!! That's right, OVENS!! Who will destroy. Along with Absu and Ovens, we have Obits, Woven Hand, Wildildlife, Elm, Prizehog, Slough Feg, Renderers, Major Stars, Gunslingers, Gary War, XYX and mayyors!! Should be amazing. It's at Spiro's, 611 Red River Street, starting at 7 pm, tomorrow, Friday, March 20th. If you're in Austin definitely come by, and if not, you can listen to it live at WFMU.org! So that's about it for now. Keep an eye out for a revamped tUMULt site,tons of amazing new music, more news and more regular updates (the site is 90% up to date, just the sound page is yet to be updated, but all the tUMULt stuff can be heard here, just do a label search on tUMULt) and some awesome surprises. Thanks for sticking with me, and us, the label loves you, the bands love you, and you know we would be nothing without all of you.! All hail the tM faithful. More soon. I Promise! xoxoxo ...andee tUMULt OverlOrd Old news return to tUMULt main lab