Cosmic Primitive Records
Welcome to Cosmic Primitive
a record label of chaos and gnarl
time is irrelevant, space is hard to find
time is irrelevant, space is hard to find
ongoing process-project in progress
It's Andrew Woods's's Unscheduled Return, and he's sending it to us in pieces ...
01/21/2012 — 1st day of spring in SoCal — archival release
"Egypt" by El Grande Conquistador
Celebrating the subtle-weather/very-early-spring phenomena, best understood by observant Los Angeles residents, with an archival issue from snowbound Seattle.
(Tongues in cheeks, everyone — ready? go!) El Grande Conquistador features iconoclastic pan-disciplinary visual artist Whiting Tennis and iconoclastic proto-grunge pioneer John Leighton Beezer. The EGYPT single is a little slice of improvised rocknroll heaven, right here on Earth. Think of Neil Young fronting Sonic Youth. Then put the referents out of your mind and listen with an open soul. The camel is talkin. Recorded in 2008, but doubtless as relevant today as it was then. The trees were so generous.
01/11/2012 — new-release-in-progress
Here's another thought experiment for ya ...
What if Andrew Woods sent us a new track every few weeks and we posted it to a blog-page on John Leighton Beezer's new experimental pre-beta music-distro platform, Gemini.fm?
Happy friends, you need not strain your brains, for the results are happening in real live time before your very eyes, right over here ::
http://www.gemini.fm/CosmicPrimitive
... and lo, it is called Andrew Woods's's Unscheduled Return!
01/02/2012 — new release — HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
presenting for your endtimes enjoyment, the debut release from
... featuring Cantlins Anthony (drums), Chris (bass), Marc 2 (guitar) & Meggan (singing). If you are accustomed to this family's sensibilities, then you already know if you are going to enjoy this music.
If you aren't sure what you're getting into, try the following thought experiment:
• Go over to Goodwill or Out Of The Closet and get yourself a blender.
• Throw in a bunch of Black Sabbath cassettes, John Zorn's morning breath, a snapshot of Frank Zappa testifying against the soccer-moms of Washington DC, ticket stubs from Tool and Mars Volta concerts that your roommate left on the kitchen counter three years ago, Steve Albini, Mastodon, the bloody-minded do-it-my-way cryptophilosophical obstinacy of the Grateful Dead, shrapnel from the Volume Wars, and Joan Jett's left sock (or equivalent source of righteous stank).
• Unplug the blender.
• Go away.
Mostly, Albino Rhino is all about "pummeling" and "heavy" and things like that. Mostly.
There's also a lovely little tune called "Eternal Sunshine" which might be a nice place to start if you're feeling tentative. And then there's "Perfectly Normal Beasts", for those who aren't.
12/22/2011 — new Binary Star split single — HAPPY SOLSTICE!!
"TEXAS TEA" by Andrew Woods & 5-Track
Here's the third installment in our Binary Stars series of split singles ... wherein talented musician-types show their mutual respect by interpreting each other's songs.
In this case, it's the intensely mellifluous Andrew Woods (solo artist, heEnd and neon brown catalyst, leader of the WEGO) and the determinedly atemporal 5-Track (Glass Goblins, Chocolate Covered Fungus, chill songsmith and unleasher of noisome improvisations) paying tribute respectively to "Texas" and "Aphid Tea" ... it's a little thing we like to call TEXAS TEA.
12/12/2011 — new release
"While My Bass Guitar Projectile Vomits" by Evan Strauss
Three themed improvisations for electric bass, amps, effects and tape machine. The third and final entry in our twilight-of-2011 trilogy of improv releases. Answers to questions you never wanted to ask. Music with the power to make it rain in your mind.*
*verified by independent bystander
11/29/2011 — new release
"After The Effect" by Michael Beggs
They say that in the future, everyone will have 15 minutes of solo trumpet improvisations.
Herewith, a collection of solo multitrack improvisations for (mostly) trumpet, a sumptious platter of auditory now-speak from Mr Michael Beggs. Those of you who have been paying especially close attention might recognize Michael from his work with Yggdrasil IN The Skunk Ape Moment (visible here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaCgbtoq8Bw) and on Evan Strauss' Bear Country Concert.
MB: "Multi-tracking, and the concomitant possibilities of harmonic and rhythmic complexity is an exciting and inspiring way to work with the trumpet, as it neutralizes the natural inability of a single trumpet to be an effective chordal or polyphonic instrument." These recordings are not considered as finished works, nor are they demos, but can be usefully thought of as quickly sketched ideas about process & content & relations between those two.
11/21/2011 — new release
"Floating Others (duets)" by 5-Track
FLOATING OTHERS (duets) is the first fruits of an ongoing series of recorded improvisations based on temporal and environmental materials. Some are very short, and one is very long. Many portions are busily angular. Some were harvested from 4-track cassette, others from various lo-fidelity digital assemblages. Generators include Banana, Complaint and Chopping Wood In Cold Weather.
The cast of players on this collection of cosmic goo is equal to the following ::
5-Track ... guitars
Evan Strauss ... bass (Chopping Wood)
Zlicious ... piano (Complaint)
Jennifer Ng ... percussion (Banana, That Thing, Jen's Breath)
... that all should be enough to tell if you'll like this music or not!
8/16/2011 — new release
"Rock N Roll Dream" by Volita Pearl
Volita Pearl, eternally in motion, is the singer and songwriter for New Zealand's The Neo-Kalashnikovs. The Neos mine that thickly-chorded territory between The Wipers, Eugenius, Kurdt & Courtney, and the icing on the radiocative munge is Volita's clear-n-powerful voice soaring like a magic bulldozer, unlikely above the trees, dipping and whirling in more dimensions than we can ordinarily see.
Rock N Roll Dream is a solo EP from Volita, recorded on a shiny new acoustic guitar made of metal (so ... HEAVY) to mungy old reel-to-reel tape in the Cat Valley living room studio on a chilly November afternoon in Echo Park, Los Angeles, Earth (ie the 9th circle of buddhist hell). If there is a line to be drawn between the Delta Blues and the Puget Sound, then Rock N Roll Dream is a big lipstick-red smear along that line.
8/09/2011 — new release
"Shines Like Gold" by Horse Thieves
Shines Like Gold is the new live recording by Horse Thieves. Horse Thieves is a loose and rollicking darkly-country-ish assemblage led by Alex Maslansky. Alex Maslansky also currently plays electric guitar for Amanda Jo Williams and electric bass for Glass Goblins.
Nothing loose about Alex's songs, though. They are built of brick & blood and they are held together by evil spirits and Alex sings them like he'll die if he doesn't ... or maybe like they'll let him die if he does.
Horse Thieves SHINES LIKE GOLD was recorded at (the renowned) McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. For this recording, the band includes Zander Schloss (bouzouki, 12-string acoustic guitar) and 5-Track (electric slide guitar) as well as Alex Maslansky on acoustic guitar, songs & singing.
6/21/2011 — new releases x 2 !!
"3 Moments Til Dawn" by 5-Track & Marc Cantlin II
&
"BEAR COUNTRY: The Concert" by Evan Strauss
3 Moments Til Dawn is Marc Cantlin II and 5-Track's first major collaboration since 2005's GUSTY WINDS may exist, and they don't even play together on it.
Instead, they (we) have contributed an entry to our (their) BINARY STARS series, in which our friends (or ourselves) cover each other's songs, for fun and for art's sake and to demonstrate tangibly or at least audibly the love and respect we all feel for each other's muse(s).
For this release, Marc has chosen to re-intepret 5-Track's rocknroll set opener "I Don't Want To Lose This Moment", in the acid-soul vein; in return, 5-Track (& Glass Goblins) has taken Marc's liminal psych-ballad "3 Til Dawn" back to the garage, where it belongs.
(Also, there is a bonus track.)
BEAR COUNTRY: The Concert is a live-to-two-track representation of bassist/composer Evan Strauss' Division 3 performance at Hampshire College. The musicians are diverse and highly skilled and include among their number both Michael Beggs (trumpet) and Morgan Greenstreet (drums) from the improvising trio Yggdrasil IN The Skunk-Ape Moment. (BEAR COUNTRY Track 2, "Selection From A Skunk-Ape Is Born", is in fact a re-interpretation of a YSAM piece).
But more to the point, the compositions: Evan wrote his brains out for this crew and they did him proud. There's so many things to like just inside of any one song on this collection, that the word "kaleidoscopic" comes to mind. Everywhere you look are different shades of color and new geometries. You may just want your 3D glasses for this recording.
BEAR COUNTRY: The Concert contains "non-tango" music.
4/01/2011 – new release :: NEON GREY by Andrew Woods
Each song on NEON GREY was recorded in a different room, for reasons of tone. The instrumentation consists of acoustic guitar, human voice, and ankle-shakers. Andrew's lyrical and musical transmissions are lovely and slightly otherworldly, his musicianship stunning, his improvisations deeply transporting. For a prime example, listen to the tune called "Ocean Waves"
NEON GREY is Andrew's first solo release. In the past he has performed and recorded with the post-prog jam-duo Neon Brown, the mighty HEenD, the Woodlands Acoustic Orchestra, and he ran or co-ran the fabled Neon Brown Presents conceptual improv night at the equally-fabled Mr Spot's Chai House in Ballard, Seattle, Earth, for untold years. Among other things.
You can read a new interview with Andrew here ::
http://www.furious.com/perfect/andrewwoods.html
3/03/2011 – circle April 2nd on your calendars if you live in Massachusetts?
Cosmic Primitive Presents:
Letting The Skunk Ape Out Of The Box @ Hampshire College
an evening of chaotic, quixotic, gnarly music at The Prescott Tavern, Hampshire College, 893 West Street, Amherst, MA, Earth, 01002 ...
Musical entertainment will include GLASS GOBLINS (featuring 5-Track & Marc Cantlin 2), AMANDA JO WILLIAMS, and an opening acoustic set from 5-Track/Matthew O'Neill duo. Free admission. Special guests.
2/14/2011 – Happy Valentine's Day from Bruce!
L. A. Record has been kind enough to include BRUCE in their Valentine's Day Mixtape 2011, a track called "Homebody" featuring 5-Track on guitar and singing, Marc Cantlin 2 on bass, and Trevor Best drums. That would be the official first release of new music from Bruce since I-don't-even-want-to-think-about-when. You can listen to it here:
http://larecord.com/radio/2011/02/14/v-day-l-a-record-mixtape-part-1
2/2/2011 – 2 new releases!
SNOOSE JUNCTION – The Echo Parks Department
&
MORNING GLORY REVIVAL – Raindrops
Snoose Junction is an improvised-music collective based primarily in Seattle, WA, USA, Earth. The rules of their performances are: 1) always a different bunch of musicians. 2) no songs. The personnel on this recording (which was made in Echo Park, Los Angeles, at The Duane St Station) consists of Gerry Amandes, "keyboard"; Secret Weapon Woody Frank, guitars; Sir Ian McKagan, guitars; 5-Track, guitars. This recording is 'verbed-out and ambient because the Earth is missing.
Morning Glory Revival features Woody and Ian on guitars (and singing, and songwriting) plus Owen and Zack on drums and bass. Lyrics that scintillate in the particulars, the gentle jousting of twin electric guitars, and grooves to move to. Letters from benevolent friends on the outskirts of time.
oh, and we're on some things now:
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosmicprimitive
facebook: http://listn.to/cosmicprimitive
may you find happiness and the root of all happiness,