rgt #18: Amalgamated - Bulbing, Cricket, Splash C40

True to their name, Amalgamated’s “Bulbing, Cricket, Splash” fuses free-improv electronics, rhythm-bolstered drones, field recordings, & heaps of who knows what else into three flowing tracks of air & movement.  Great stuff for come-ups, come-downs & all-arounds.

Type II, high bias chrome tapes.  Edition of 50.

 

Buy.
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rgt #15: Kraken Mare - Outer Resonance C19

Two side-long missives here, the first a traveling concrète exploration of uninhabited zones & outlying places.  The second employs intersecting melodies as a monument to distant objects & ocurrances from now to the early times.

Type II, high bias chrome plus tapes.  Edition of 50.

 

Buy.
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rgt #14: Buried In The Basement - Lye Over Truth

rgt #14: Buried In The Basement - Lie Over Truth C36

Nate Buker offers up a wealth of scorched-circuit writhe & cold-void misanthropy, cracked fried & multiplied.  Clanging, chattering, subterranean sounds hemorrhage from this grizzled DIY-maker's buzzing lair onto tape.

Type II, high bias cobalt tapes.  Edition of 50. 

Buy.

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11.23.14 Update

Now available:

· M. Akers - Deleted Scenes c50 repress
· Den - Exhausted LP (BLVD Records)
· M. Akers - Bayern c34 (Musica Originale)

· Parashi LP orders shipping.
· Next tape batch out soon.

rgt #17: Parashi - Pilot's Salt LP

rgt #17: Parashi - Pilot's Salt LP

    Since 2009 Mike Griffin has been exploring sound by steadily releasing Parashi missives on a slew of tape labels including Tape Drift, GNS, Stunned, and his own Skell Records as well as playing in Burnt Hills, Urkas, and Mensheviks.  Busy guy, for sure.  Though prolific his mounting body of work continues to evolve & expand in new ways with each release, broadening the bleak & often ominous abyssal planes he’s become known for.  Still, a distinct signature naturally permeates into his sound: every dark corner & shrill tone is uniquely & unmistakably Parashi and Pilot’s Salt is no exception.
 
    Pilot’s Salt finds Parashi utilizing modular synths, tape, metal objects, & noise generators to further his technique of improvised sound as defined by the interactions of the sonic elements within.  Perhaps more than ever a sense of abstract narrative & development emerges from each patiently evolving track as Parashi freely explores the limits of his rigs.  As Griffin himself states, “the goal is to create something with as little conscious method of control or composition as possible, to rely upon the unconscious mind to drift through the setup and produce something before it's all over.”  Restrained or intense, ominous or outright hostile, the raw gristle of Pilot’s Salt transports the listener to the dark recesses of improv noise & leaves it up to them to find their own way back.

    Pilot’s Salt is limited to 300 copies with original art by Jacob Van Loon, the first 100 of which come on white & black marble-mixed vinyl.




Buy.
==================================================================
Review:
· Brainwashed
· OMG Vinyl
· Secret Decoder

Bandcamp

Older releases available for stream/download on Bandcamp.  More soon:

http://retrogradetapes.bandcamp.com/

New to distro: Akers's "La Puntura Velenosa Della Notte" 7"

Copies of Akers's new banger from Death Wish Zine are available in the distro.

 

"Little is known about this film, aside from the fact is began production and quickly fell apart. Aside from a few press sheets and a partial script, much of the film has been speculated on and forgotten to history. Taken from a press sheet found in a warehouse in Rome, the tale unfolds as this:

"ROME, A CITY OF OVER TWO MILLION PEOPLE. WHAT SECRETS DOES THE CITY HIDE, IN ITS ALLEYWAYS, DISCOTHEQUES AND BEDROOMS? SECRETS, ARE BEST KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY...AND LEFT TO THE DARKNESS OF THE NIGHT!

NOT ALL SECRETS CAN BE KEPT FOREVER: A DEAD SUPER MODEL, A SALESGIRL AND A PHOTOGRAPHER, WILL SOON BE TRAPPED, CUNNINGLY ENSNARED IN A WEB OF MURDER, SADISM AND LUST. THIS TALE WILL SHOCK YOU TO YOUR LIMITS! DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES. OR YOU TOO, WILL FEEL . . .
“THE VENEMOUS STING OF THE NIGHT!”

Found in the same warehouse were pieces of a score for the aforementioned film. Available to listeners for the first time and brilliantly composed in a bone chilling re-imagining of cinema's greatest mystery...
-----" -DWZ

September 2013 update (new tapes, Elders repress, Beta Decay)

Three new (long overdue) tapes are available now along with Aker's Elders repress, as well as copies of Andrew Jackson King's always excellent strange fiction Beta Decay zines are now available in the store.

rgt #13: Crodar - Movie

 

rgt #13: Crodar - Movie C23

E-Mu synths, samples, and other filtered sounds compose Corey Mahaney’s latest solo work: six scenes of an imagined film, each written with a deft sense of musicality & an uncommon organic quality that belies its sources.  From powerful Eastern-tinged drone to more subdued synth glow, each track represents a shifting audio backdrop of varying vibes, often displaying a reflective quality while always retaining a feeling of raw sincerity & thoughtful contemplation.  

Type II, high bias chrome tapes.  Edition of 50 with mini-poster included from the artist.

Buy.
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rgt #11: Kevolych - Abstract Frame

rgt #11: Kevolych - Abstract Frame C26

    Working with a stockpile of homemade synths & noise generators, Joseph Connelly jams out layers of circuits on circuits in exploration of texture, contrasts in intensity, and contemplative ohm-drone sans any sort of forced spiritual connotation.  Starting in a godless synth temple, the atmosphere initially seems devoid of life until other writhing layers find their way in.  Things take a turn for the worse & a wall of harsh noise buries the place with the listener inside it.  Negative Nostalgia unfolds in similar fashion but in place of harsh noise the open air swells into the morass of a stirring insect jungle, dense with a squall of evolving noise & burnt-circuit clamor.

Type II, high bias chrome tapes.  Edition of 50.

 

 

Buy.
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rgt #10: Zonal Taste Wand/ZX-9 - Negative Space/Partition Function Part 2

rgt #10: Zonal Taste Wand/ZX-9 - Negative Space/Partition Function Part 2 C47

Two of Australia’s finest synth manglers, Ben Lynch and Luke Morris comprise a dual-Aussie split on Negative Space/Partition Function Part 2.  Zonal Taste Wand starts us off with a lumbering, beat-driven electronic sandstorm that dissolves into a tense relative stasis just long enough to make the eventual paranoia of a bad trip hit even harder.  Meditation follows.  On the flip, ZX-9 creates minimal & mechanical test tube drippings spoon-fed to you by automatons in six short experiments, the results transmitted from a robotic lab deep underground directly into your lab rat brain.

Type II, high bias chrome tapes.  Edition of 50.

Buy.
==================================================================

Review:
· Raised By Gypsies

Postage rate hikes/2013 update

  Chances are if you're reading this you're already aware of the ridiculous new USPS rates that went into effect yesterday.  The price increase for domestic shipping isn't outrageous, but the new rates for shipping out of the country are pretty fucking insane.  LPs especially.

  A new (and hopefully easier) ordering format is implemented in the store. Prices in the paypal buttons have been adjusted to reflect the new rates, many apologies to the number of overseas weirdos that support Retrograde.  I'm looking for a better, smoother, and cheaper solution but until I find one I'm at the mercy of USPS & the lobbyists who shout the loudest.  As always, feel free to hit me up if you're looking to order in volume, have questions, or just want to bitch about how goddamn retarded this is.

---

  For 2013, the next batch of tapes is just about done, an Elders repress will likely surface with it, and some interesting new distro items will be showing up in the shop before the spring.

  A bit slow on the draw with this one, but the entirety of Den's Electric Eyes 7" can be streamed in this article.  Akers also has Tough To Kill & some of his previous releases available on his Bandcamp for your wanton ears.

  30 minutes of new Kraken Mare material will birth via Luke Morris's excellent Rocket Machine imprint sometime in the near-to-distant future.

  Lastly, Den is plodding along writing an LP for BLVD Records that will likely be recorded sometime in the spring & released in the summer if all goes well.  


That's all for now.  Stay spaced.

Best,
-Adam/RGT

rgt# 12: Den - Electric Eyes 7"

rgt #12: Den - Electric Eyes 7"

Den returns on a 7 inch slab with three songs of cosmic thud, interstellar grooves, and dead-planet desolation.  Electric Eyes is a continuing expansion starting with an abduction prayer, followed by a ride on a stream of Kraut photons & finally ending in an Antarctic sludge ritual, all woven together with enough dark matter to fuel your FTL travels well beyond the solar system & out into the distant depths of uncharted space.  

Electric Eyes comes in a two-color silk-screened cover & a full color insert in an edition of 300.



Buy.
==================================================================

Review:
· Boston Hassle
· Still Single
· Tiny Mix Tapes
· Yellow Green Red

November 30th 2012: Electric Eyes 7" Release Show

Kraken Mare - Iapetus Ocean

 Part of the latest (and best-looking to date) Skell batch, I've got a handful of these c30s available in the distro. 

rgt# 09: M. Akers - Tough To Kill LP

 rgt #09: M. Akers - Tough To Kill LP

   Born and raised in the shadow of Detroit, Akers is a native of urban decay and withering cityscapes, political corruption and crime beyond the scope of “normal,” and the general unsettling vibe in the air that somewhere, not far away, some ugly shit is going down.  Around 2009, he picked up a synth & drum machine & taught himself how to channel the settling dust of a crumbling city into the sound of gritty electronic soundtrack scores, influenced by old gods of the genre such as Froese, Carpenter, and Frizzi.  2010 was the year of his first recording, the self-released, The Future Barbarians, followed by The Elders Of New Detroit on Retrograde in 2011.  A handful of releases and a year or so later, Akers has transformed himself from bedroom electronic composer to full-on cinematic-sound mercenary, armed to the teeth with analog gear and the collective years of ingesting OSTs & the work of pioneering electronic musicians.  Culminating into Tough To Kill, this evolution serves as a milestone in the timeline of Akers’s rapidly growing body of work and a benchmark for the burgeoning retro-soundtrack scene.  From dark, brooding ambient to the throb of dance-floor-ready Italo disco, the ominous air and driving rhythms of TTK are presented in classic Carpenter-esque ultra-polish, MIDI-free, sample-free, and on virgin vinyl for maximum clarity.  Retrograde is proud to offer Akers’s latest & greatest for those familiar with his work as well as a shining introduction for listeners hearing the new sounds of past soundtracks for the first time.

From the man himself: “For fans of 80's film scores, krautrock, early techno, italo disco, war-torn jungles, futuristic dystopias, cynical mercenaries, and cops who smoke too much. If you ever find yourself laying low in a motel in some shithole town with only a bottle of whiskey and a loaded .45, light up your last cigarette and turn on your ipod. This is for you.”


Tough To Kill comes housed in a handsome 4 color, split-fountain style screen-printed jacket, each one done painstakingly by hand with an edge-worn look - no two copies are exactly the same.  Also included is a 12x11 poster/insert with liner notes.  

Additionally, the first 50 orders include a bonus c50, Deleted Scenes, culled from material created during the writing of Tough To Kill that serves as a more nebulous companion to TTK for early bird orders.


  Matt Akers - Somewhere In The Dark by Retrograde Tapes



Buy.
==================================================================

Review:
· Still Single
· Weed Temple 

A few copies of Akers's excellent Mythical Abyss added to the distro.

Vinyl ventures coming soon

Tests of "Tough To Kill" LP from Akers & a 7" from Den. 

Congrats NASA

Curiosity touches down on Mars. More.

rgt #08: Nodolby - Untitled

 

rgt #08: Nodolby - Untitled C40

    Italian sound-shredder Nodolby contributes 40 minutes of frantic circuit bent cut-edits & gurgling synth jitter.  Never still and never settled, the A side rewards the close listener with ever-changing texture sheets draped over cold drones that gnaw through frontal lobes like an injection of synthetic termites hungry for your cortex.  The B side breathes considerably heavier after their feast, a dimming, emotionally somber piece that continually sinks deeper into a bleak, dark world until the light has fully faded.


  High bias type II chrome tapes with full-color, double-sided J-cards.  Limited to 50.


  Nodolby - Untitled preview by Retrograde Tapes  



Buy.
================================================================== 
Review: 
· Tiny Mix Tapes 
· DDb