Unreleased discards for the adventurous, no. 1

Howdy folks,

Here at sPLeeNblog we hope to offer the extra adventurous -- those of you who enjoy something a little less polished, a little less masterful -- a glimpse into the abandoned fragments of the creative process.  Take for example this recording from our close associate, The Decapitated Hed.  Known (we've taken the liberty of using this word charitably) primarily for producing heavily saturated, minimally rhythmic works under the abbreviated name of Decapitated Hed (omitting the definite article), the artist also has a long history of dabbling in sound collage experiments and automatic/random forms of sonic (de)composition, a large body of largely unreleased material, some of the earliest examples of which are documented on The Decapitated Hed's debut double cassette released on sPLeeNCoFFiN back in 2005 (long out of print, but D. Hed says you're not missing much).

Such is the case with this short four-track cassette recording recently shared with us.  It dates from April 2010, a time when we were just finishing up the duplication of Decapitated Hed's terrific "Isolation Pulse" cassette.  This amusing little nugget is brought to you courtesy of the Hed's personal archives and is free to be shared via Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/Share Alike licensing.

Please enjoy.

The Decapitated Hed - "Responsibilities, in the classic sense" by sPLeeNCoFFiN

The current crop, late summer '11.

Hey, folks.  We have a trio of fabulous offerings for you here at spleenco., guaranteed to refresh your spirit from injury in light of recent local natural and manmade disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and the Baltimore Grand Prix.  Each and every one is cheap, tasty, and ripe for the plucking from our friendly spleenCat.  Click on the titles below to order, or get in touch about trades and wholesale pricing.

Embarker - "Big Gary" cassette.  $5.

Embarker is the solo project of Brooklyn based audiovisual artist Michael Barker.  "Big Gary" shows a strong taste for the liminal sonic spaces of modified and homemade electronics, synths, and stringed pseudo-instruments in the creation of organic, rhythmic "noise" works. A fine entry in the spleencoffin catalog, and an excellent companion/follow-up to last year's Embarker cassette on I Just Live Here.  Inserts and labels are handmade typewriter text on yellow lined memo paper with a drawing by Thomas Clark. Limited edition of 50 copies. First 20 copies feature special extra-limited edition "Big Gary" rub-on vinyl letters on the cassette shell exterior.

Kreace Peeps - "Asinine Frequncies" cassette.  $5.

Kreace Peeps return from 4 years of obscurity to follow up 2007's classic "Pac Man Ghost Suicide by Shotgun Blast". "Asinine Frequencies" pools together a massive collection of reworked and/or simulated field recordings, utilizing location objects, improperly played non-western instruments, culinary tools, tape loops and tape manipulation, frothed beer cans, contact-miked piles of HVAC equipment, bottle caps strung through tennis rackets, artificial wind, and likely countless other undisclosed examples of "asinine" instrumentation and techniques for a surprisingly cohesive work of anti-genius. Hand-screenprinted covers and labels featuring drawings illustrating the circa 12th century process of harvesting Mandragora. Edition of 50.

Opéra Mort / Decapitated Hed - "Minuit Cerceuil/Zereo Zone" split 7".  $5.

Paris/Brussels duo Opéra Mort team up with Spleencoffin regular Decapitated Hed for this well-paired split vinyl release. Everything you need is here: evil loops, piercing synths, destroyed dance rhythms, maniacal vocals, AND a handful of mesmerizing lock grooves to top it all off.  This is sadistic death disco for the discriminating listener.  Sleeves feature deep black multi-generation xerox shadows on heavy duty black kraft paper with silver hand-screenprinted text, laboriously DIY as always, limited edition of 300 copies.

Here's a blog

Hi there.  This here is a blog for sharing sonic spewings emanating from the spleencoffin "record label" in Baltimore, MD., USA.  It will be infrequently updated with unreliably opportunistic means at varying levels of sobriety.  Stay tuned!