YOKO ONO TRIBUTE WEEKEND
	SMOKERS PLEASE - Flensing/Grey Christmas    vinyl 7" YOTW 001 It took moving to the UK for it happen but, with this debut release from new project Smokers Please, Ben Spiers (Glory Fckn Sun, Seen Through, Empty Mirror) has gotten over an aversion to overdubs and embraced the classic “New Zealand solo four-track thing” (think past collaborators A.M, 1/3 Octave Band and Birchville Cat Motel, along with the likes of Alastair Galbraith, early Lovely Midget, Chris Knox, RST, etc.). The A side is a hot blast of vicious/euphoric viola and massively distorted guitar while the B sets a stylophone melody and dreary/dreamy strum against argumentative noise guitar. 250 copies on black vinyl. UK: £5.50 ppd Europe: £6.00 ppd Rest of World: £6.50 ppd reviews
transient recordings (YOTW's predecessor, 2001-2008)
TR 011	BEN SPIERS - And Then    CDR    Long-time-coming album initially slated for release on a US label but as it turns out it feels much better having this one close to home. These 2004 recordings run parallel to early Glory Fckn Sun sessions but show a more grounded and intimate approach than that band. Here you’ll find me getting all “man alone” with a guitar, violin (briefly), and an amplifier audibly on its last legs. There’s a melodic warmth in places which has been remarked upon by those who’ve heard it. While still improvised and fairly noisy, the pieces have the feel of lost, damaged or embryonic songs. £5.00 (UK) / £5.50 (Europe) / £6.00 (RoW) ppd
TR 010	BLACK WINDOW - Gunwales    3" CDR   Debut release from the duo of US guitarist Andrew Weeks and Ben Spiers. Black Window formed following a late night acoustic busking session at Wellington Railway Station ….. “Gunwales” couldn’t be much further from those beginnings as a bed of garage doom explodes into punked-up mass projection guitar, then collapses into tape warble. 3” CDR housed in an oversized gatefold sleeve with pro-printed outer and hand-painted inner. Edition of 60 copies. £4.00 (UK) / £4.50 (Europe) / £5.00 (RoW) ppd
TR 009	TIM COSTER & MARK SADGROVE - Untitled (35:20)    CDR Last recordings from this great Auckland duo prior to Sadgrove’s departure for Tokyo in 2006. There’s a fine balance between meditative stasis and purposeful activity in these computer/guitar/electronics recordings, conjuring images of a living-dead Douglas Lilburn dropping in to jam with the Improvised Music From Japan crew. Both Coster and Sadgrove are members of the minimalist supergroup Plains (with Rosy Parlane, Richard Francis, Paul Winstanley and Clinton Watkins) and run their own very fine labels (CLaudia and A Binary Datum, respectively). £5.00 (UK) / £5.50 (Europe) / £6.00 (RoW) ppd
TR 008	BEN SPIERS - Artwork Temporarily Removed    3" CDR A woozy guitar-and-breath meditation on emptiness. “Like a time-condensed recording of a guitar being decimated by age, tumbling out of tune, and finally breathing out it's lasts gasps of amplitude on the ground” (Foxy Digitalis). Packaged in individually block-printed manila sleeves. Second edition of 50 copies. £4.00 (UK) / £4.50 (Europe) / £5.00 (RoW) ppd
TR 007	SAM HAMILTON - The Borders of the Garden Paths Are Overgrown    CDR The unofficial Mayor of Auckland City has created a real pleasure garden of the mind with this new work (co-released with the artist’s own Tumbling Strain label). Sam is one of the most gifted sound artists working in New Zealand today and this is yet another fascinating example of the eclectic, restless approach and extraordinary sense of structure that made the “Low Hill” 3” such a stunner. At once highly personal and earth-bound, yet totally out of its skull in the most magical way, at times this sounds as if the guitar, piano and electronics are gently playing themselves while the composer is off sleeping under a tree somewhere. Dreamy and joyous! (27 minutes, hence “mid-price”). £4.50 (UK) / £5.00 (Europe) / £5.50 (RoW) ppd
TR 006	ANTONY MILTON - Live @ the Cake Shop, August 2005    CDR Gorgeously intimate live set which joins some of the dots between Antony’s earlier song-based work (as heard on Last Visible Dog’s “Sirens …” reissue, the title track of which appears here) and the brain-rotating psychedelia of current projects such as The Nether Dawn, The Stumps and Glory Fckn Sun. A songwriting voice as unique as that of contemporaries Pumice and GFrenzy emerges out of this modest, yet hugely significant release. (28 minutes, hence “mid-price”). £4.50 (UK) / £5.00 (Europe) / £5.50 (RoW) ppd
TR 005	BEN SPIERS - Spin You    CDR A round thing with round things on the cover. Expect to hear strings being struck, bowed, fanned …. and strummed (!). This one distinguishes itself from previous discs by being 75% electricity-free, including a duet for violin and empty bedroom. All in all? A lot of wood with some concrete & electricity. “More late night string caressing from Mr Spiers: title track … is gorgeous - solitary notes dropped into a gloom of taut scraping” (Boa Melody Bar). £5.00 (UK) / £5.50 (Europe) / £6.00 (RoW) ppd
TR 004	A.M - Small Engine Funk Tantra    CDR LAST COPIES Antony Milton becomes the first interloper to enter the Transient camp. Described by A.M as “autistic”, at times this is challenging almost in the way that the likes of Sachiko M. can be. It’s also pretty damn engrossing and …. entertaining. This sounds somewhat like what you might have produced with that electronic junk you found in the basement as a teenager (if only you’d had a lot more experience, flair and skill). £5.00 (UK) / £5.50 (Europe) / £6.00 (RoW) ppd
TR 003	BEN SPIERS - Again    CDR 2000 solo guitar (and a little violin) recordings. Shimmery, hazy and “late night”. Mats Gustafsson called it “a true headswimmer that floats somewhere between the Celebrate Psi Phenomenon gang, Pseudo Arcana and Metonymic” (The Broken Face #17). £5.00 (UK) / £5.50 (Europe) / £6.00 (RoW) ppd
OTHER LABELS
	GLORY FCKN SUN - Spectra (Tipped Bowler Tapes, USA)    LP LAST COPIES "The sky done clouded over after Glory Fckn Sun's debut album, yielding this brooding and corrosive follow-up. The New Zealand sorta-super group of Antony Milton, Ben Spiers, and Simon O'Rorke concoct a slow-burning behemoth of metallic shivers and distortion churn, dark enough to invoke the dread name Haino. Spectra is an unsettling mind-meld: Spiers' desolate soundscapes bleed into Milton's heavy drones, which are complemented perfectly by O'Rorke's restless percussion. Group improvisation is the natural language of these three; even listing their solo and collaborative albums over the past decade would take way more effort than I can muster. Suffice to say this is a stellar and unique record to add to their massive discographies. In an edition of 300 red records, housed in silk-screened, heavy-gauge recycled stock jackets." - Tipped Bowler. £13.00 (UK) / £13.50 (Europe) / £14.50 (RoW) ppd
	GLORY FCKN SUN - Vision Scorched (PseudoArcana, NZ)    CD ”Reissue in new packaging! Formed in 2003 as a conduit for intense ritualistic sonic exploration Glory Fckn Sun is the ecstatic psyche-noise trio of Antony Milton (guitar/electronics), Ben Spiers (guitar/violin/electronic) and improv percussionist Simon O'Rorke (gongs/percussion). 'Vision Scorched' collects together one studio track and two live pieces. These range through long form rumbling distorted deep space explorations (complete with supernova and the odd blackhole), intense yet ethereal harsh noise to close with a droning metaphysical raga-esque paean to the great cosmic inevitable of the collapse of the sun, And of light itself. Glory Fckn Sun have been described as having a sound that is like a cross between Flies Inside the Sun and Keiji Haino. The 1st edition of this release sold out in a matter of weeks and gained rave reviews. This 2nd edition is also limited. There are 250 copies.” - PseudoArcana. £8.00 (UK) / £8.50 (Europe) / £9.00 (RoW) ppd
ORDERS: Email mr.ben.spiers [‘[at]’]’] gmail [‘[‘[dot]’] com You can pay by PayPal or bank deposit (in GBP or NZD). Distribution: Boa Melody Bar (UK), Second Layer Records (UK), The High Seas (NZ), Ikuisuus (Finland), Eclipse Records (USA), Modern Music (Japan)
FURTHER READING: Ben Spiers discography Transient Recordings discography