IDEA / Hobo Press
It's a Great Idea But You Actually Have to Buy It
"I sensed this was about as high as you could reach in the tradition of recorded music as art object." — Lee Henderson, Contemporary Magazine
See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me: The Twilight of Packaging
"These records are so beautiful to look at and touch I can almost say my aesthetic experience is complete without hearing a note of the actual music." — Mark Richardson, Pitchfork Media
Philip Krumm / "Blue" Gene Tyranny: Formations
"Formations is at once mesmerizing and nightmarish..." — Kate Hensley, Dusted Magazine.
Philip Krumm / "Blue" Gene Tyranny: Formations
"This is as essential an example of cosmic exploration as one is likely to hear for quite some time, slotting in very neatly alongside the more interstellar episodes of Sun Ra’s great musical quest, and even foreshadowing the work of current practitioners of all things astral such as the Italian duo My Cat Is an Alien." — Daniel Spicer, PopMatters.
Philip Krumm / "Blue" Gene Tyranny: Formations
"There's nothing diagrammatic in Tyranny's performance, in which a muted microwave roar and fractious metallic tones cascade and collide with densely packed and uneasy meshes of clatter and sibilance.... Tyranny's work with his own legacy in sound has a dimension and potency that shouldn't be overlooked." — Julian Cowley, The Wire.
Philip Krumm / "Blue" Gene Tyranny: Formations
"This breathing, minimal clang exists at some hidden noir crossroads between early industrial noise and the most damaged free jazz. It sounds totally modern, and leaves many current practitioners of such molten space clang far behind.... Idea strikes gold yet again." — Lee Jackson, Foxy Digitalis.
Philip Krumm / "Blue" Gene Tyranny: Formations
"Combining elements of [John] Cage's aleatoric composition, [La Monte] Young's drone sensibilities, and the technical know-how of early electronic pioneers, Formations exceeds the sum of its inspirations.... The boundary-breaking confidence of this record is something to behold." — Bryan Berge, Stylus Magazine.
88 Keys to Freedom: Segues Through the History of American Piano Music
Discusses the work of Philip Krumm alongside other important American avant-garde composers such as La Monte Young and Terry Riley: "The score of Krumm's Formations for piano (1961-1962, recorded on IDEA Records), based on star maps, is unfolded like a long Japanese scroll book and is covered with lattices which connect pitches; the notation looks like some celestial pathway." — "Blue" Gene Tyranny, New Music Box.
Tetuzi Akiyama: Don't Forget to Boogie
"...with Akiyama's fingers, using the concept of the beat-up guitar and amp, the rhythm and blues sound so fresh, so alive, that it feels as if he's brought our attention to an element we forgot existed in rock music.... This kind of magic occurs just frequently enough in the music industry that every year I discover something I never thought could exist so perfectly." — Lee Henderson, PopMatters
Tetuzi Akiyama: Don't Forget to Boogie
"Akiyama's ego trip is, at worst, a guilty pleasure, and at best, a carefree cruise into the rock and roll sunset. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, boys." — Dominique Leone, Pitchfork Media
MV+EE: Ragas and Blues
"...a mind cleansing noise/raga bliss-out of unparalleled beauty and depth." — Lee Jackson, Foxy Digitalis
MV+EE: Ragas and Blues
"...this is a different, more proactive kind of background music, the kind that, if you want it to, will vacate and occupy you — make you disappear." — Nick Sylvester, Pitchfork Media
COH: Seasons
"Seasons is a well-done piece of musical/visual art, a work that doesn't compromise, and allows the beautiful to mix openly with the ugly, or, more precisely, constructs both in the same sounds, irrevocably linked. It's a duality that makes Seasons an alluring statement, and fully worthy of its elegant design and costly packaging." — Adam Strohm, Fake Jazz
Mirror: Solaris
"Solaris goes beyond mere prettiness to sharpen one's senses in a way that once again reminds me of AMM. Here's hoping this record does so well that Mirror have no choice but to reissue their entire back catalog to the masses in all formats." — Bill Meyer, Dusted Magazine
Brendan Walls: Cassia Fistula
"This is not for relaxation, this is not click/cut/glitch, this is not dark ambient. This is discovery, almost improvised, in unfolding beauty, its nature warns of the dark side of the power behind its ornamental exterior." — TJ Norris, Igloo Magazine
Daisuke Suzuki: D.D.D.
"Very enveloping in the higher registers, and hard to believe with each placement of scooter sound and voice that this is just pure field recordings from Mr. Suzuki, and not some expert rendering of Luc Ferrari's "Presque Rien." For those who miss the classic field recordings of the Folkways label." — Andy Beta, Incursion
Oren Ambarchi: Triste
"Triste goes from Thursday Afternoon-style ambience to Mego-ish noise, and then, for a minute or two at the very end, back again. It's a mesmerizing ride." — Mark Richardson, Pitchfork Media