Winter

Winter hit Chicago during the night.
It is a good time to create subterranean analog synth music.
The view from the front porch:

December Update

The December 2006 Update has been posted on the catalog page.

December cassettes - The Fortieth Day + Envenomist

As I am preparing the December releases, it seemed like a good time to post these images:


BloodLust! 071 Envenomist "Hidden" cassette




BloodLust! 072 Fortieth Day "III" cassette

The Fortieth Day "II" - Sold Out

Now Sold Out:

BloodLust! 070 The Fortieth Day "II" Cassette

Catching up...

The long holiday weekend and out-of-town guests made it difficult to post much over the last week. Aside from playing the radio show on Sunday, I made it out to a number of shows over the past few days, with Paolo and Kyle, and last night, with Isidro. On Saturday, we briefly stopped into Enemy to see the last Crippled Insectual show prior to Julia of Insect Deli's departure to the west coast and then Hawaii. Afterwards, we went to see Dead Meadow. Pinebender played before them, and while I cannot completely get into them, there is something about their style that I like when I see them live. Dead Meadow is another story. I am a total fan, and once again, they blew me away with their live show. On Monday, we were at the Empty Bottle for a while. The Magic had a really nice sound, sort of reminiscent of The Birthday Party. The Party Downers had a pretty interesting front man, and their sound was a bit "SST meets Dead Kennedys," or something... I had actually not seen Rabid Rabbit before, and their two bass + drums doomy combination mixed elements of Jucifer, Earth, Sunn O))), Thrones, etc. They ended with a heavy, droned-out piece that capped-off the night quite nicely. Last night, after Kyle and I had a fun but frustrating walk through the West Loop gallery area, which was badly timed due to numerous shows having just closed and several galleries packing up for the Miami fairs, we were back at the Empty Bottle to see Robert Lowe (Lichens, etc.) and Daniel Higgs. Robert played an intense acoustic guitar set with simple and effective resonating drone moments. It was really stripped down and in-the-moment compared to his electric Lichens sets, and it was quite beautiful to listen to. Daniel Higgs was accompanied by Chiara Giovando (who played here last June - as part of Harrius, with Jenny from Metalux - when Jason Soliday and I played with Religious Knives, Zodiac Mountain, and Locrian), and while their set was far from the usual type of thing that I seek out, they are both very compelling performers and I really enjoyed the performance.

The Fortieth Day radio recap

The Fortieth Day with Sshe Retina Stimulants
Sunday November 26, 2006
Something Else - WLUW - 88.7 FM

Things went very smoothly for our debut performance, last night. We played a 30-minute set that, at least for us, went by very quickly and it was really great to have Sshe Retina Stimulants involved in the mix! We recorded the set on MiniDisc, from within the small live room, which was filled with amps and instruments. Upon initial review, it is a dense-sounding, "live" recording, totally in line with the sound of our weekly sessions. The set was also recorded on CD, from the control room, utilizing two microphones that were placed in the live room. The initial impression is of a slightly less in-your-face, and of a more nuanced recording, where all of the sound elements have a more balanced feel. It will be interesting to review the two distictly different recordings more over the next week. It is almost certain that this material will feature in an upcoming The Fortieth Day release.

Major thanks to our host, Philip von Zweck, for inviting us to play his show, for helping us with the recording, and for devoting so much airtime to our live and our recorded sound. Thanks to Kyle Wright from Dysthymia and Diophantine Discs, for the extremely enthusiastic support, and for helping us at the studio, with gear, with set up, etc. Thanks, so much, to Paolo, for his willingness to be a part of the show, and for his excellent contribution. Thanks also, to Olivia, for the much needed transportation assistance!

The Fortieth Day debuts

Sunday November 26, 2006

"Something Else"
Hosted by Philip von Zweck

WLUW 88.7 FM
http://www.wluw.org/
(Live stream)

Time: 10:00 PM

The debut performance of The Fortieth Day
(Isidro Reyes and Mark Solotroff of BLOODYMINDED)

with special guest:
Sshe Retina Stimulants (NG5361 of Sigillum S, Italy)