sounds all around

(in the studio with mamiffer/photo: kelly akashi)



it's been a while since i've made an mention of musical activities, and there has been an excess of that lately, so here are some updates:

ISIS - we have been steadily whacking away at songs for the next album. in october of last year we started toying with a few bits and pieces we had lying around, and continued to do so through parts of november and december. however, the floodgates seemed unwilling to truly open until we reconvened in january after our holiday excursions/adventures. since then we've managed to complete the skeletons of 4 songs, and it seems things are finally starting to take shape. i'm not sure how to assess our work so far, but things are certainly moving at the moment. we're going to keep our heads down for the time being and keep chiseling away til we feel we've accumulated a satisfactory amount of material before we even consider going into the studio. in the meantime we're working on correcting the recently recalled "holy tears" single as well as the companion single for "not in rivers, but in drops", amongst other things....

GREY MACHINE - not sure where justin and co are at with this, but i've nearly completed my tracking for this project - hopefully they're not just waiting on me! i have no idea what'll happen to it all once i pass it back to JKB for the mixing process, but i feel fairly certain the results will be monstrous. there is no definitive plan for this project as of yet (at least to my knowledge), but i suspect that it will see the light of day late this year or early next. there maybe further updates in the near future: avalanche inc

MAMIFFER - new band centering around the efforts of faith coloccia, otherwise known as 1/2 of the core of everlovely lightningheart. i recently contributed some guitar work and a lot of noise to 2 tracks on a forthcoming mamiffer album, which also featured contributions from chris common, ryan frederikson, and brian cook (aka 3/4ths of these arms are snakes), as well as annie and ben from helms alee (another new band, with forthcoming 7" and album on hydra head). there may have been some other folks involved as well, but i'm not entirely certain. in any event for those of you that are familiar with the work of everlovely, that might be a good place to start as far as what this band actually sounds like, but that is certainly not the totality of its personality....

PLOTKIN/TURNER/WYSKIDA: this still unnamed project is nearing completion. tracking is done and the pieces are now in the very adept hands of james plotkin for the mixing process. the sound of this project will likely take lot of people by surprise, which in my estimation is a very good thing. i won't give away too much, but there may already be some clips on james' site: plotkinworks if there isn't there should be soon. no fixed info on release date or label as of this precise moment.

PUSCIFER - also known as the solo project from maynard keenan (yes, the tool guy). i have been drafted as a remixer for an upcoming EP from puscifer, tackling the track "trekka", originally produced by mr. lustmord. i completed my track two days ago (i actually made it one day before the given deadline, sort of unbelievable), and sent it off to the puscifer camp. again, i have no idea when this thing will see the light of day, but i imagine there will be further info here: puscifer website

..and there's actually more, but i'll leave it at that for now since this has already become way longer than intended.....
oh, and for those of you that didn't catch it: OLD MAN GLOOM tour has been cancelled due to a family related matter concerning one of our members, that greatly surpassed the importance of doing a tour....

ART IN LOS ANGELES - attendance encouraged

from the keyboard of tom neely:

This Saturday night (Feb 23rd) is the opening reception for The Igloo Tornado at Black Maria Gallery.

The Igloo Tornado is an Art Fraternity that includes Scot Nobles, Levon Jihanian, Gin Stevens and Me.

I have 15 new pieces in the show. My new work is a series of Comic Strip Poems.
I've been running them as a weekly comic strip on my blog every Wednesday.

Igloo Tornado http://www.iglootornado.com/
Saturday, February 23rd
Opening Reception 7-10:30 pm
Black Maria Gallery
3137 Glendale Blvd (in Atwater Village)
Los Angeles, CA 90039
323-660-9393
http://blackmariagallery.com/

Show runs through March 22nd.

Aaron Turner (of ISIS) will be DJing the party.

Links:

Igloo Tornado http://www.iglootornado.com/
Scot Nobles: http://www.losergoes1st.com/
Levon Jihanian: http://www.levonjihanian.com/
Tom Neely: http://www.iwilldestroyyou.com/
Aaron Turner: http://aaronbturner.blogspot.com/

Check my blog and the Igloo Tornado Blog all week for updates and preview photos.
http://iglootornado.blogspot.com/

For images from my first 6 comic strip poems go to my blog: http://www.iwilldestroyyounews.blogspot.com/

Press release for the show: http://blackmariagallery.com/exhibitions/igloo_tornado_2008/press_release

PYRAMIDS logo etc

just too many things to do these days, thus the long silence. trying to catch up on and complete a number of projects at the moment and then i'll get back to posting a little more regularly. quickly, i wanted to tell those of you that missed out on the ISIS box set through the conspiracy website that robotic empire will be posting their copies for sale in the next 2 weeks or so. in addition ISIS will be selling some of our copies on the road and through our own webstore, so you still have a chance to get one.

above is a new logo/emblem i designed for the newly-signed-to-hydra-head-band pyramids. i think their debut is going to throw listeners for a loop once it is unleashed - i suggest checking out their myspace page in the mean time. certainly opened my ears in a major way, thus the decision to work with them...

more soon. in the mean time try: the new black mountain album, "the sea" by john banville, the new omega man comic book series, and especially "don't go where i can't follow" by anders nilsen - a truly humble and magnificent piece of work - i believe it may be out of print now but it's worth the effort of tracking down. oh yeah, and the recently reissued 2xCD of the first 2 kraftwerk albums....

a

FIVESEVENTENTWELVE

just discovered this excellent and cryptic site dedicated to esoteric album sleeves and have fallen in love with it. felt the need to share:
http://www.fivesevententwelve.com/
if anyone knows who's behind this site please let me know. i've been trying to contact them through the site to no avail - seems there is some sort technical glitch in their comments section. hope you enjoy.

more substantial posts coming this weekend - updates on musical activities, forthcoming releases, old man gloom tour dates, etc...

THE BEAST pt. 2

...it's finally here, and i can't really believe it actually exists...
below are some pictures of the isis "shades of the swarm" 12xLP box and it's contents. there was no practical way to photograph the whole thing as it's so expansive, so i just tried to capture some of the interesting details, albeit poorly. it's hard to tell from the photos, but the monochromatic sleeves have images and text printed in what is essentially high gloss clear ink - which you have to see in person to be able to detect/decipher properly.

anyway, these shots will give a bit of an idea as to what result the box experiment rendered.

this thing has be made possible by conspiracy records in europe and robotic empire in the u.s., and we (isis) are all grateful they were crazy enough to take this on. i would suggest checking out their websites for updates, info on price, release date, etc.

special thanks to andy, joris, dave, james o'mara, james plotkin, and aaron horkey for helping pull this shit together and makin' it shine.

THE BEAST pt 1

ISIS VIDEO, SINGLE, ETC

as some of you may already know, the ISIS "holy tears" single that was scheduled to come out today, has been cancelled. we discovered at the last minute that the first song on the finished version of the single was the wrong song. what should've been "holy tears" was actually "wrists of kings". now while we like both songs, we figured we couldn't very well release a "holy tears" single with out that particular song being on the damn disc. oh well - it'll still come out, we're just not sure when.

in the meantime check out:
http://www.myspace.com/dominichailstone
this is the myspace page for the guy who directed the video for "holy tears", which is to be included as CD-rom content on the single (assuming it ever comes out), and eventually as part of a future ISIS dvd. the video itself is incredible, at least in my estimation, and dominic has done a lot of other great work, some of which may be sampled via his myspace page.

in other ISIS news, i received one copy of the completed ISIS 12xLP box set today, and i must say i think it turned out splendidly. i'll try to create another post dedicated to that in the next day or so. very excited about that....

a