Scott McKeating Interviews Number None at Cvltnation.com

Here's what CN has to say: "Land of Decay is a tape label that you can trust to release shit that will numb your brain! Their most recent tape by Number None entitled Strategies Against Agriculture is a testament to how this label is in a universe of it’s own. Created by Chris Miller and Noah Opponent, this tape examines the different textures of feedback bent around various shades of noise! Listening to Number None inspires me to ask questions about the creation of humanity and the destruction of humanity at the same. This is the kind of music that will affect everyone in different ways. This is why CVLT Nation is streaming Strategies Against Agriculture in full below, so that you can find your own meaning in Number None. Also check out the in-depth interview between Scott McKeating below and number none after the jump!" Read the interview here. Order one of the last few tapes here.

Anti-Gravity Bunny on Number None Tape

Very nice review from Justin Snow. Thanks! Link here. "Such a shame, this Chicago duo continues to be one of the most under-appreciated bands around. And you may say, “If they’re so under-appreciated, how come you haven’t written about them before?” Well, I have, but for some inexplicable reason, I can’t find the review I did for Urmerica a few years back. I dunno. Blame Google? It’s a strange world. Anyway, Strategies Against Agriculture (yes, it’s a Neubauten reference) is their latest, a tape courtesy of Land Of Decay. Apparently this one’s been sitting in the vaults for a number of years, which is another goddamn shame because this shit is brilliant. Absolute destruction on here, Skullflowery apocalyptic feedback with brief and deeply buried moments of bliss. This is Satan’s tinnitus, a white hot static drone, caustic and penetrating, boring deep into your brain until your vision turns black & red, a maelstrom of electronics, harsh putrid noise without the powerfully violent bursts, a monotonous skullfuck that will make your eyes roll back and see Truth. No reason to skip out on this, and if it’s your first foray into the Number None fold, you’ve got a helluva back catalog to work through.

Ninehrtz UK Reviews Number None

Link here. "Land of Decay have released this long-delayed recording of duo Number None after it was meant to be released on a defunct label in around 2007. The duo of Chris Miller and Noah Opponent (what a name!?) make a blissful, yet foreboding noise on this four-track tape. What is clear is that there is an underlying drone of awareness plaintively spread out below the tape's surface, providing a thin ice-like sheet for the duo to explore various avenues of sound over the top. There's hints of harmonium, wind-like whistles of nuclear winter and an ambient hum that tie it together, giving it an oppressive, 80s documentary feel. It's almost like the synth-led soundtracks to Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker era Dr Who, almost nothing, then sections of horror. You can imagine the Doctor and his assistants hunched up by some polystyrene rocks while a dalek or some hideous mutant walks by. Often, the pulsing notes sound like breathing, a weak, dying giant, giving up the ghost in a freezing landscape, the last of the mammoths perhaps? Intended as a comment on the destructive consumption of humanity, the release reflects the desperate situation not only of hunter gatherers in neolithic times, but also the waste of food we commit daily. In the packaging is a quote espousing the greed of humanity in relation to living off the land, something we all take for granted. The title mimics the Einstürzende Neubauten album title Strategies Against Architecture, but that's where the humour ends. This is a highly affecting release that's intended, it seems, to make you consider how ruination of natural resources has become commonplace in the world." Order here.

The Inarguable on LOD April Releases

Link here.

Brainwashed also reviewed the Eolomea and Kwaidan tapes here.

OMG Vinyl on New LOD Releases

Link here.

"Land of Decay has got 4 new tapes up for sale in their webstore, along with two Locrian-related tapes that you definitely need to pay some mind. Newly minted on the LOD imprint are Ithi, Number None, The Fortieth Day/Terence Hannum/Sshe Sshe Retina Stimulants and Wraiths. The release of this batch pushes the catalog numbers firmly into the 20s, and the overall din and aesthetic feels much like a label hitting their stride. I won’t go into great detail about each release, they deserve exploration, but if you care to dig deeper, Hammer Smashed Sound did a pretty fantastic writeup of these last week, and you can stream a song from each tape below. Also up in the LOD distro are new tapes from Eolomea and Kwaidan, both featuring Andre Foisy from Locrian; and both equally worthy of your attention. So peck around a little, find something you like, but if we had one suggestion for you: it would be to just go ahead and buy all six of these tapes at landofdecay.bigcartel.com."

Old Photos of André Foisy Performing With Number None (The Number None)

I found these old photos of when I performed with Number None at the Fugue State festival a few years ago.







These tapes are selling steadily! Get one here while you can.

Land of Decay April 2012 Update

Artist: Wraiths
Title: Edinburgh/Glasgow
Format: Cassette
Catalog Number: LOD 020
Edition Size: 100 Copies
Release Date: Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

Track Titles:

Side A) Edinburgh

Side B) Glasgow

I first heard of Wraiths in 2009, after they released their beautifully packages “The Grey Emperor” CD on At War With False Noise. It was amazing to hear the range of sounds on the recording give the fact that they only use found and restructured equipment, location acoustics, and human vocals to make their music. Apparently, during their live sets, Wraiths wear monastic robes and identity cloaking masks. According to them, all of their recordings are made live as well.

This release is made up of two live sets: Edinburgh, and Glasgow. These recordings are disturbing, bleak, and hypnotic. This is improvised, experimental music made by masters of their craft. The dynamics in the release let the group lure the listener in just enough to Pierce You From Within (to quote the title of my favorite Suffocation album). This release is cold and murky. Wraiths are masters at their craft.

















Artist: Number None
Title: Strategies Against Agriculture
Format: Cassette
Catalog Number: LOD 023
Edition Size: 100 Copies
Release Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Track Titles [Program Repeats on Both Sides]:

1) Vile Gnarl
2) Viagra/Lunesta
3) ID-Vision
4) KKKamera

Number None is a duo of Chris Miller and Noah Opponent. This group were some of Locrian’s early supporters and we were particularly inspired by their performances when they played regularly around Chicago. This recording was originally scheduled to be released on the now defunct American Grizzly label (in 2007/2008, I think). We were elated to find out that this amazing group had some material remaining in their vaults.

Using many instruments (analog synthesizers, violin, harmonium, found sounds, and other sources) processed through myriad effects pedals and digital patches, the group created sounds that Scott McKeating, one of the music critics that we highly respect, described as “where even open-ended words like ‘free’ and ‘drone’ are limiting.”

I will never forget walking into one of the Free Monday night shows at the Empty Bottle in Chicago in mid-2005 on a whim. I walked in and saw two guys with instruments and pedals sprawled over the stage making sounds that were mesmerizing. Some of these sounds much more punishing and interesting than any of the metal that I was listening to at the time. Watching Number None on this night was a musical turning point for me that helped to inspire the two of us to start Locrian and now, the Land of Decay label. For that reason, we can’t tell you how excited we are to release this tape.

The title of the release pays a tongue-in-cheek homage to Einstürzende Neubauten’s Strategies Against Architecture and also points to the social inequalities and human caused environmental destruction that were brought about by the Neolithic Revolution, or when humans started growing our own food. [For more information on this, check out John Zerzan’s “Agriculture: Demon Engine of Civilization."] Although humans have lived as hunter-gatherers for most of our existence as a species, fewer and fewer people in the world are able to live this way. At the same time, there are more and more of us—7 billion and snowballing. [Get it? The population of hunter-gatherers tends to increase very slowly over time and the population of agricultural and industrial agricultural societies tends to increase rapidly over time.] Since the end of World War II, humans have used up more of the planet’s resources than all of humanity before that time! “Strategies Against Agriculture” is a testament to the limits of our civilization and the world that we live in.

To me, this album is one of the most inspiring and thought provoking that we have released on our label. The problem of our time is a cultural problem and there is no simple solution. “Strategies Against Agriculture” helps to put the problem of our epoch into perspective, but it provides no solutions, and that’s what makes it so unsettling.

You can pick up some of Number None’s older releases here.




















Artist: Ithi
Title: Within
Format: Cassette
Catalog Number: LOD 024
Edition Size: 100 Copies
Artwork/Design: Shawn Convey
Release Date: Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

Track Titles :

Side A) Go Forth and Die, Roses in the Snow

Side B) NoWHere

When I first heard that Luck Krnkr of Servile Sect and Joshua Convey, two of my favorite musicians around, had started the Ithi project last year, I tried not to expect anything from them. Certainly, I would be let down if I were to expect anything. Their album “The Persistence of Meaning” (Utech Records 2011) was one of the releases that I listened to most frequently. Demian Johnston called it a “huge chunk of grim, belligerent krautrock.” Sadly, this release didn’t get the attention that it deserved last year.

Even since this first release, Ithi have moved on to really embody their voice. This album is really intense, but entirely listenable. The release is cold, dark, and distant. It’s definitely some of the strongest stuff that I’ve heard from these artists. The synths create loops that are harsh, yet soothing and Krnkr’s chanted vocals are distant, ethereal and drenched in reverb. Oh and the group covers “Roses in the Snow” from Nico’s “The Marble Index” album. How can you go wrong here?

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Ithi will be the band to watch in 2012/2013. Don’t miss this release!

















Artist: The Fortieth Day/Sshe Sshe Retina Stimulants/Terence Hannum
Title: S/t
Format: Cassette
Catalog Number: LOD 027
Edition Size: 100 Copies
Release Date: Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
Art& Design: Terence Hannum

Track Titles:

1) Surveillance
2) Efficiency
3) Ectomorph
4) Surface
5) Intermodal
6) Transportation

This release marks the rare, one-time only, collaboration of The Fortieth Day, the Chicago duo of Mark Solotroff and Isidro Reyes (also of influential power-electronics group Bloodyminded), Sshe Sshe Retina Stimulants (the solo project of P.NG5361.B, or Paolo Bandera, a founding member of Sigillum S), and Terence Hannum. The recording took place during a late night session at WLUW on Loyola University’s campus for Phil von Zweck’s “Something Else” radio show on November 29th, 2009.

The group created these six tracks live using guitar, bass, synthesizers, and vocals. The live recordings were then processed in Milan, Italy by P.NG5361.B. The group uses these instruments to create burned out industrial drones made up of looped feedback, percussion throbs and the sounds of machines dying. Hypnotizing repeating layers tactfully shift into blasts of angular high-pitched mechanical frenzy. There are implicit melodies in the chaos. Strong material from this unique collaboration.

Excerpt from LOD 023: Number None

Coming on Tuesday!

LOD Update

So we will have four new tapes available next week. We promise!

I just got the covers for these so they are finished.

More news on these soon!

Update and Stuff

Steven and I met with Jamie Ludwig from Uneasy Listening last night at the Map Room.

We drank some great beer. Apparently, it's the only place in the city that has unfiltered Stiegl. Look for an interview posted on Uneasy Listening soon.

Also, Utech Records has the Locrian & Mamiffer 2xLP album for sale now here: http://www.utechrecords.com/Releases3.html

Profound Lore should have the CDs for sale later today at: http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/

Land of Decay will have copies of this stuff for sale soon, but I'm waiting on my tape covers for the next Land of Decay releases to arrive. I'm planning to have everything up for sale on March 6th.