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Last copies from Ace’s personal archives, from an edition of 500.

"Recorded in 1982 at the band's final sessions, this two-song single finds the singer sounding less like The Fugs and more like The Mentors' El Duce, and the band in a less offensive and more serious mood.... Still, the title track is exquisite, with a bass line stolen from Vince Guaraldi's 'Linus & Lucy,' some of the queasiest tremelo-bar-damaged guitarwork on record, and a scraggly sick sound that may not be pretty but sure is interesting! High-speed high-end guitar diddling is also featured in perhaps the artiest (and most Captain Beefheart-esque) track the band ever recorded."--Mark Prindle

These copies are not in Mint condition, but they are all in excellent condition, never been played, and include an insert with photo and lyrics.

Two previously unreleased tracks from the first album sessions.

The Ace & Duce/Transparency label has released a CD documenting Ace’s noise music historical past.

This compilation is pompously titled “Artificial Artist” and features several recordings of improvisational tweedlings from the years 1981-1987 for no particular reason, and features such luminaries as Dr. Odd, Ju Suk Reet Meate and Oblivia from Smegma, Phil Irwin and Marla Vee of Rancid Vat, M.T. Lubotamy & the Spudbub of the Child Molesters and the notorious Allergy Three, as well as John Paul Bormann, Donald Byrnes (South Pasadena Free Music Ensemble alumni), Karen Fowler, and Anne Harney. This threatens to be the first of several CDs from the archives of field recordings and not-so-field recordings from the Ace & Duce vaults.

One of three in a series of deluxe packaged reissues of extremely rare and unreleased material from LAFMS. Each comes in a heavy duty full color gatefold 7” jacket, with inserts, etc., numbered and limited to 700 copies each: “state of the art packaging quality and attention to detail.” “Airway started in 1977 as a plot by Joe Potts to subliminally program audiences behind the cover of a chaotic wall of sound. To create the wash of ear-splitting noise, all of the instruments, Vetza’s vocals, and the subliminal implants are mixed together and processed through a daisy-chain of flangers, phase-shifters, delays and distortions. Then the super-charged signal is blasted through guitar amps carefully placed to maximize the ricochet of sound from wall to wall. Airway kicks the notion of ‘loud’ up to a whole new level.”

Includes a CD recording of Airway live at Beyond The Pink festival from 1998 with the LAFMS alumni, including Jerry Bishop, Don Bolles, Dennis Duck, John Duncan, Pierre Bamboo Dupuy, Ace Farren Ford, Kevin Laffey, Mike Kelley, Don Lewis, Fredrik Nilsen, Rick Potts, Joe Potts, Tom Recchion, Melinda Ring, Captain Alan Schuck, Richard Snyder, Vetza, Liz Young. Also includes a reproduction Airway 7” from 1977 (with separate sleeve) and a CD-ROM movie of “Airway at Beyond The Pink” and “Mother/Daughter”, plus Airway documentation (flyers, ephemera, etc.) in PDF format.

LP version of the now out of print CD reissue of this scarce LAFMS title, limited to 500 copies, and with a portfolio of Airway gig flyer reproductions. This album was originally recorded and released in 1978; Airway was a group featuring Joe Potts, Chip Chapman, Rick Potts, Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez and Tom Recchion. Live At LACE was later included in the out of print 10 CD LAFMS box “The Lowest Form of Music” from 1995, but this version has been remastered, using the original tapes for the LP. It is considered to exhibit a “pretty different feeling of sound” and features unique artwork that was only used on Japanese-export copies of the LP when it was first released. It is a crucial early-noise document from the LAFMS heyday.

Takuya Sakaguchi (LAFMS supporter in Japan since 1978) says about Airway:
“AIRWAY is a brainchild of Joe Potts. Here are COMMANDMENTS OF AIRWAY: AIRWAY is a hole through which our conscious passes. Sound of AIRWAY is not an object. Sound of AIRWAY has no fixed location. Sound of AIRWAY has no fixed meaning. Sound of AIRWAY has no dimensions. Meaning and dimensions of AIRWAY sound constantly change in relation to the universe inside and outside listeners. Sound of AIRWAY has no fixed time. The ‘flow of time’ in AIRWAY sound is psychological not physical. Sound of AIRWAY is a representation of the ‘whole’ of sound existing inside and outside us. Because all sound of AIRWAY is interrelated, there is no such thing as innovative sound at AIRWAY performance. Sound of AIRWAY is an unfolded manifestation of hidden (enfolded) universe, consisting of all sound which will ever exist and has ever consisted inside and outside us.

And about this LP:
“The monster is back in its original nature! Human synthesizers!! Hijokaidan in its early days was heavily under its influence. Definitely a must for everyone in this era!”

Sealed archival copies of this out of print LP by the art-rock-punk ensemble Bpeople from Los Angeles. Bpeople, who existed between 1978 and 1982, featured LAFMSers Tom Recchion and Fredrik Nilsen, and also featured Alex Gibson and Pat Delaney (formerly of the Deadbeats). Originally formed in 1978 as Curtain with future Swans leader Mike Gira, the band quickly changed their name to Little Cripples, then to Strict IDs, and finally settled on Bpeople in 1979.  They played tons of shows and had the privilege of playing with many of the leading art-rock, punk rock, and post-rock musicians and groups of the day: Captain Beefheart, B-52’s, Gang of Four, Suicide, New Order, DNA, Cabaret Voltaire, Dead Kennedys, DOA, Sleepers, Middle Class, and the Germs among others and formed the core of the legendary ASB, a loose affiliation of like-minded Los Angeles bands that included Human Hands, Monitor, and NON. Little know factoid: They were tapped to open for Joy Division in 1980 before Ian Curtis committed suicide on the eve of that bands US tour.

“Petrified Conditions—a full album of original recordings (some, but not all, previously issued on Bpeople EP and other vinyl) remixed in 1984-'85 by Alex Gibson and Paul B. Cutler—is a…convincing introduction to Bpeople's artsy sophistication. The sonic and stylistic variety is impressive, and Gibson's songwriting displays structural abilities far beyond the punk club milieu in which the band existed. A worthwhile archaeological find.”—Trouser Press

Now out of stock, last remaining copies.

Originally released September 11th, 1981 in a limited vinyl edition of 300 copies. This remastered CD edition is limited to 500 copies, 474 of which are hand-numbered. In a mini-LP style sleeve. Tracks 3 to 6 are previously unreleased bonus tracks. The 12 page booklet gives the entire, true history of the LAFMS-related Decayes.

Dimmer is a duo comprising live sampling pioneer Thomas Dimuzio and tape-loop maestro Joseph Hammer. Swallowing audiences with their dark explorations of sound, Dimmer specializes in a symbiotic sound process as they continually loop, reloop, sample and resample within an interactive feedback circuit linking both artists. For their debut CD, Dimmer melds their recursive circuits into rich and seething sonic masses with subtle waves pulsing sound within sound. Ripe with theme and variation, The Shining Path suspends the listener over dim and dank planes on an aural trip spanning and scanning from a celestial vista. Nearly every aspect of Dimmer's live performances grace The Shining Path, yet this is not a live document, but rather a pastiche and reworking of everything Dimmer has accomplished in their years of performing as a duo.

“...music heavy with a sense of foreboding, but alive with slow motion detail...”—The Wire

Group improvisations intended to accompany a film on the Viking space probe in 1975. Includes the original Doo-Dooettes lineup; Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Fredrik Nilsen, Tom Recchion, Harold Schroeder. The package includes a 7”  with a Doo-Dooettes version of Faust’s “Picnic On A Frozen River” recorded in 1978, a CD of “Think Space”, plus three inserts.

The 7” tracks recorded live at “Synthetic Eligunts”, a fashion show hosted by Kee Ran Sala, January 17, 1978 in Pasadena, California. One side of the 7” is 45 rpm, while the other is 33 rpm. CD tracks were recorded at 35 S. Raymond, Pasadena, on August 8 & 9, 1976. These improvisations were created originally for a film by video art pioneer David Em, while he was doing his residency at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) in Pasadena, about the Viking Space Probe to Mars. The film was never completed. Hand numbered edition of 700 copies.
 

Extended Organ is a “supergroup” of experimental sound artists whose members are culled from the ranks of the. The four members of Extended Organ have been improvising with sound for over three decades and although they have played together in various configurations in the past, this CD marks the first time the quartet ever played together as a total entity. The foursome all have active and well established careers on their own: Paul McCarthy is a world-renowned art superstar. His work in Extended Organ consists of free form vocal/lyrical improvisations that play off the instrumental improvisations of the other three members while at the simultaneously setting a mood, telling a story and responding to the general ambiance of the performance situation. Fredrik Nilsen is a founder of the LAFMS and a noted photographer. Nilsen conceptually founded Extended Organ in which he plays prepared acoustic guitar and both an antique analog organ and a modern digital keyboard, all in an especially unorthodox style. Fredrik’s approach spins equally from gothic horror movie soundtracks. Joe Potts is a founder of the LAFMS and mastermind of Airway, which has been called “the gnarliest noise band of all time”. Potts is omnipresent on his chopped optigans--instruments he crafts from dismantled 70s optical samplers. With up to 64 simultaneous samples per instrument, the chopped optigan is the ultimate drone machine. Tom Recchion is a founder of the LAFMS, a Grammy winner art director, and member of the Doo-Dooettes, The Rodney Forest, and Bpeople. Recchion uses Kurzweil, guitar, radio, CDs, etc. to accent the other instruments as well add the occasional lush crescendo. Tom also acted as producer on the record and mixed and processed the sound of the entire ensemble live during the recording. Three years in the making, XOXO is creepy and wonderful.

"Extended Organ, appropriately enough, have their roots in the LAFMS, the foursome having performed over many years in many different combinations, but never in this incarnation. Who are they all then? Well, there's artist Paul McCarthy, whose FXed vocals give Mike Patton (in Fantomas mode) a run for his money in the scary, splatter movie stakes; and Fredrik Nilsen, an LAFMS founder, specialist in prepared guitar and dildo, apparently. Then there's Joe Potts, inventor of the chopped optigan, instruments cannibalised from 70s optical samplers. And last but not least, another LAFMS founder, and Nilsen's compadre in the Doo-Dooettes, Tom Recchion. Recchion was most recently heard as one of the contributors to David Toop's spoken word collection Hot Pants Idol (his was the best piece on the album, imho), and previously on the extraordinary Chaotica (also on Birdman), an album of exotica cut-ups whose end results way outstrip its methodology. So there's about a century's worth of radical music history between these guys, and, boy, does it show. XOXO's press release describes it as three years in the making, and at once it sounds like that and an afternoon's work. For this is radically Free music, which has its roots in improv but eschews any music-making dogma. EO will grab a cornball pop riff as soon as they'll turn in a psych-organ solo. Or scream a lot. Or drone eerily for an hour or so (subjective time). Actually, this music genuinely comes closer than any I've heard to the sounds of my recurring infant nightmare (it involved swimming pools and hands, I seem to recall, but let's not go there... ), but don't let that put you off. This is masterful stuff, a sound world rendered as physical as any can be. Great start to the year, I reckon."--Simon Hopkins, sonomu.net

Hard to find even when it was new, these are some of the last remaining copies of this amazing piece of music from the duo of Joe Potts and Joseph Hammer. Rubber stamped labels and clear plastic sleeves adorn the otherwise spartan packaging containing approximately 20 minutes of music per side.  The price reflects the very limited nature of these records; your purchase goes  directly to help fund future LAFMS projects—so buy a lot!  And we’re still cheaper than Discogs!

Please limit one per customer.

Created from Potts bent version of the “Optigan”, a primitive optical “parlor organ sampler” made by the Optigan Corporation and marketed by Mattel Toys in the early Seventies. The recording additionally makes use of mixed subliminal audio.

Joseph Hammer cites AM radio station mixing (receiving more than one station at the same time) and an episode of the '70s TV show “Land of the Giants”, where astronauts used tape loops to thwart alien tyrants as a couple of his musical influences. He has developed his own way of making music utilizing consumer audio technology, tape loops, samplers and analog synthesizers to create compelling and varied musical expressions. Since 1980, he has performed and recorded with Points of Friction, Dinosaurs With Horns, Solid Eye, Blue Daisies, Steaming Coils, Debt of Nature (which became Medicine), Vector 3 Niner, Paramecial Wedding, Kitten Sparkles and Dimmer. Dynasty Suites is Joseph’s first solo CD, 51 minutes of real-time tape loop manipulation recorded live at KXLU 88.9 fm 2/14/01 & 12/19/01 on Professor Cantaloupe's Glossolalia program.

"Joseph has kept busy creating cerebral sounds in Los Angeles for over 20 years using the tape loop as his main voice. His first major project, Points of Friction (with Damian Bisciglia, Kenny Ryman and Tim Alexander) began in 1980 with the intention of creating a surreal transportational environment via unidentifiable sounds fused with abstract visual projections. In the mid 80's he worked with LAFMS alumni Rick Potts to form Dinosaurs With Horns. Equally as tweaked as P.O.F., but with a different busier feel. Almost a pop-song structure with a stumbling-down-the-stairs pace. This led to the formation of Solid Eye in the early 90's (Hammer, Potts, and Steve Thomsen), a much more ether-like, hallucinatory voyage which is still active today. 'Dynasty Suites' is Joseph's first solo release. In this he utilizes similar magnetic tape manipulation techniques as in Solid Eye, but it clearly has an instant composition feel as he is recording onto one tape loop in real time. Very organically cerebral, it takes many listens to realize just what the heck is going on here. Unfolding as if the listener was on a gravity-free balloon animal ride through a shape-shifting landscape. 'Dynasty Suites' pieces are 2 separate live performances recorded in 2001 over the airwaves of KLXU radio in Los Angeles. 51 minutes." - label description.