Mauve Zone Recordings Day

This weekend, Dennis Cooper's blog is hosting a special article I wrote celebrating the ten year anniversary of Mauve Zone Recordings, a non-profit Internet Archive netlabel devoted to weird/esoteric music that I created back in 2007. For those who have never heard of Mauve Zone Recordings (or MZR for short), it is a good introduction. The entry may be found here (warning: a few images on it are NSFW):

http://denniscooperblog.com/sypha-pr...ic-surrealism/

OUT NOW: Various: Beyond The Mauve Zone [MZR040]

 

 

Mauve Zone Recordings is thrilled to announce the long-awaited release of Beyond The Mauve Zone, our label's 40th release and second compilation album (following 2008's acclaimed A Dream as White as the Death of a Seagull). Featuring 15 songs and running to over 70 minutes, this compilation album (which has been months in the making) is surely one of the most epic creations to yet spring forth from the nightmare factories of the Mauve Zone.

 

As with all MZR releases, it may be listened to/downloaded for free here:

https://archive.org/details/MZR040

 

Track listing:

1. Orchestra 23: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (Intro) 3:37
2. Boy Destroyer: Leonardo 4:38
3. ▼RIL Y▲: We Are The Void We Worship 8:08
4. Cadaver Synod: Five Billion Years of Hell-Engineering 5:52
5. The People’s Tongue: Shooby Laboof Propulsion 2:09
6. Thomas Moore: Sling 9:09
7. James Champagne: Beyond the Mauve Zone 7:19
8. Orchestra 23: Intermission 2016 1:54
9. M. Karo: Tiempo Peligroso 7:47
10. Zyklon Vagina: Bass Decay 3:19
11. Bryce Clayton Eiman: My Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist 4:27
12. Death Head Moths: Eraser (Polite) 2:29
13. Sypha Nadon: Melenkurion Skyweir 4:28
14. Orchestra 23: Dark House (Outro) 3:37
15. Mystery Guest: The Grand Feline-ale 3:19

Total Running Time: 72:15

Album Concept: Arthur Limbo
Art Direction + Design: James Champagne
Front cover illustration by James Champagne
Back cover illustration by Steffi Grant, extracted from the back cover of Kenneth Grant’s book Beyond the Mauve Zone (and further modified by James Champagne)

Artist/track information:

Orchestra 23
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Boy Destroyer is:
Sypha Nadon: Rhythm
Isabelle Ducasse: Electronics, Noises
Ray Pissed: Samples

▼RIL Y▲ is Choronzon as music, post- post -apocalypse bass. Identity vampirism thru genre raping time signature sigils and rerun ritual atavism. Chopped and Screwed cough syrup time dislocation. We are dancing across the abyss asleep on the basement floor of the neverending party. Ecstasy to dynamite the Daathian prison gate and return to ourselves beyond the stars.

Cadaver Synod
“Sounds are rabies, spread by rat tails.”
-Reza Negarestani, Cyclonopedia

The People's Tongue are two people who exist in Indianapolis, Indiana and Portland, Oregon. They crawled onto the scene in 2002 and deposited their first LP "Speedwalk Fantasy." That was followed by "Saturday Night Fever" and the MZR international hit "Sonny Bono's Favorites." "Shooby Leboof Propulsion" is an unreleased single created using the Five Obstructions method. Neither participate can recall the details of the Obstructions. They are at work on their fourth album.

Thomas Moore
"I don't make music anymore so this was fun. I tried to make a track that I'd like to hear in a cruise bar or a darkroom at a sex club, because more often than not, the music I hear in those places isn't my thing".

James Champagne
“…when in doubt, surrealism.”
-Quentin S. Crisp, “The Haunted Bicycle”

M. Karo
m. karo has been making music on and off for 30 years. His current projects are:
http://darkerthennormal.tumblr.com
http://admiral-byrd-the-band.tumblr.com
Many of his songs may also be heard on his YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/mkaro/videos

Zyklon Vagina
CLASSIFIED

Bryce Eiman (b. 1956) grew up on a farm a few miles outside St Joseph, MO. He learned the rudiments of music in public school and received instruction in piano and baritone horn, but was influenced mostly by the sound of farm equipment. He does not consider his own work music but rather therapy. His first release appeared in 1987, followed by a few handfuls of others.
Played in WOMB (with Peter Keller), Dirt Log (with Craig Hilton), Bicameral Mind (with Shaun Sandor), and Weather Machine (with Joe Hendrix). 

Death Head Moths is James Champagne
It was a Coil remix of the Nine Inch Nails song “Closer” (which appeared during the opening credits of the film Se7en) that served as my primary inspiration to begin recording electronic music of my own. It seems only fitting, then, that now I do this song, a cover of Coil doing a remix of the Nine Inch Nails song “Eraser” (as heard on the NIN remix album “Further Down the Spiral,” where it was known as the “Polite” mix). Lyrics by Trent Reznor.

Sypha Nadon
“What is your will?
To meet with Choronzon, between the Worlds.
To what end?
That I may be the Needle’s Eye for Chaos itself.”
-Maggie Cook, The Magickal Record of Nema 1975-1977: An Initiatory Journal For Admittance To The Typhonian Order

 

 

A big thank you to all the artists who contributed to this incarnation of the Mauve Zone.

Coming Soon From Mauve Zone Recordings: Beyond The Mauve Zone [MZR040]

This weekend (most likely on Saturday) will see the release of the long-awaited Beyond The Mauve Zone album, the label's 40th release (and second compilation album overall). The release of this album shall bring to a triumphant conclusion the tenth year of Mauve Zone Recordings' temporal existence.

Track listing:

1. Orchestra 23: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (Intro) 3:37
2. Boy Destroyer: Leonardo 4:38
3. ▼RIL Y▲: We Are The Void We Worship 8:08
4. Cadaver Synod: Five Billion Years of Hell-Engineering 5:52
5. The People’s Tongue: Shooby Laboof Propulsion 2:09
6. Thomas Moore: Sling 9:09
7. James Champagne: Beyond the Mauve Zone 7:19
8. Orchestra 23: Intermission 2016 1:54
9. M. Karo: Tiempo Peligroso 7:47
10. Zyklon Vagina: Bass Decay 3:19
11. Bryce Clayton Eiman: My Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist 4:27
12. Death Head Moths: Eraser (Polite) 2:29
13. Sypha Nadon: Melenkurion Skyweir 4:28
14. Orchestra 23: Dark House (Outro) 3:37
15. Mystery Guest: The Grand Feline-ale 3:19

Total Running Time: 72:15

Stay tuned for further details...

 

New artists added to Beyond the Mauve Zone

Mauve Zone Recordings is pleased to announce some new artists have been added to next month's BEYOND THE MAUVE ZONE compilation album. These artists are Thomas Moore, M. Karo (both of whom have previously appeared on MZR products in the past), and the newcomer ▼RIL Y▲. They will be joining Orchestra 23, Boy Destroyer, Cadaver Synod, Death Head Moths, Zyklon Vagina, James Champagne, and (of course) Sypha Nadon. We are also in negotiations with The People's Tongue to get something on there as well. Hopefully we'll be able to post a finalized track listing soon.

OUT NOW: James Champagne: Experiment XX [MZR039]

Mauve Zone Recordings is pleased to announce the release of James Champagne's Experiment XX [MZR039]. As always, it may be listened to/downloaded for free at our Internet Archive page:

https://archive.org/details/MZR039

 

This is not really a new album but a "lost" one. It was recorded at Mauve Zone Studios in October of 2009, when I was just beginning to use the FL Studio program for the first time and familiarizing myself with its operational procedures. Because back then I hadn't yet paid for the program and was only using the demo version, I was thus unable to save my work, so I recorded a number of songs (around six) as first... takes (this was also how the Boy Destroyer album Socialist Boy Scouts was created, as it was recorded shortly after these initial experiments). At the time I considered releasing these six songs on MZR under the Sypha Nadon name (with the working album title being either Experiment XX or Xperiment XX), but as I got better using FL Studio I began to see these tracks as very primitive and decided to not release them. This year I was bored one day and gave the album another listen, and to my surprise I found that I liked what I was hearing: it's true that as one-and-done tracks these are quite raw and glitchy, yet at the same time they have a sort of experimental/improvised psychedelic repetitive style that meets my favor: they really sound unlike anything else I've done. So I've decided to release them now, 7 years later, under my own name.

Track listing:

1. Industrial Concert for Faceless Dwarves (4:59)
2. The Bion Experiments (9:59)
3. Nude Frolic With Hyperspace Elves (9:59)
4. Et in Arcadia ego (9:51)
5. Masturbating Mugwumps (8:15)
6. Bloodstream of Tiamat (8:45)

COMING SOON TO MZR: James Champagne: Experiment XX (LP) [MZR039]

This is not really a new album but a "lost" one. It was recorded in October of 2009, when I was just beginning to use the FL Studio program for the first time and familiarizing myself with its operational procedures. Because back then I hadn't yet paid for the program and was only using the demo version, I was thus unable to save my work, so I recorded a number of songs (around six) as first... takes (this was also how the Boy Destroyer album Socialist Boy Scouts was created, as it was recorded shortly after these initial experiments). At the time I considered releasing these six songs on MZR under the Sypha Nadon name (with the working album title being either Experiment XX or Xperiment XX), but as I got better using FL Studio I began to see these tracks as very primitive and decided to not release them. This year I was bored one day and gave the album another listen, and to my surprise I found that I liked what I was hearing: it's true that as one-and-done tracks these are quite raw and glitchy, yet at the same time they have a sort of experimental/improvised psychedelic repetitive style that meets my favor: they really sound unlike anything else I've done. So I've decided to release them now, 7 years later, under my own name.

Track listing:

1. Industrial Concert for Faceless Dwarves (4:59)
2. The Bion Experiments (9:59)
3. Nude Frolic With Hyperspace Elves (9:59)
4. Et in Arcadia ego (9:51)
5. Masturbating Mugwumps (8:15)
6. Bloodstream of Tiamat (8:45)

We hope to release this album in early October of this year.

Sneak Preview of "Beyond the Mauve Zone" [MZR040]

In regards to the upcoming Mauve Zone Recordings Beyond the Mauve Zone album due to be released later this year, I've once again employed the mysterious musical entity known as Orchestra 23 (hint: actually just another of my musical pseudonyms) to record an intro, intermission, and outro track for the album, in much the same way they did a similar duty for the1st MZR compilation album. As a preview for the album, here is the opening track, "Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman." ...The song is divided into two parts: part 1 is kind of a bombastic, orchestral, prog rock affair, with chuch organs, timpani, choirs, and so on (of course, it's all MIDI, so it still sounds kind of tame), while part 2 is a more somber and pastoral affair, somewhat heavy on the oboe.

It will be impossible for me to finalize the tracklisting until all the contributers have sent me their songs, but here is a small list of some of the acts to expect (plus their proposed song titles):

Sypha Nadon: Melenkurion Skyweir
Boy Destroyer: Leonardo
Cadaver Synod: Genocide Loop
Zyklon Vagina: Bass Decay
Death Head Moths: Eraser (Polite) Nine Inch Nails/Coil cover
Orchestra 23: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (Intro), Intermission 2016, Dark House (Outro)
The Cat Band: ????

 Plus other mystery acts to be revealed in the coming weeks.

OUT NOW: Death Head Moths: Second Report [MZR038]

Mauve Zone Recordings is pleased to announce our latest release, Second Report by Death Head Moths.

This is an album of all-MIDI music that was recorded during the months of April-June 2016. As this album was entirely created using Voyetra (the first such album I've done in this manner since 2008's The Black Omen LP), I've decided to release it under the Death Head Moths banner: the first album I've done this for since my very first album (First Report) back in the year 2000 (later on it was retconned a...s a Sypha Nadon album). Hence the title. Essentially, Death Head Moths is Sypha Nadon in lepidopteran drag.

Track listing:

1. Crionics 2. Monsters 3. Carnival 4. The House of Chthon 5. DAF 6. The Hollow City 7. Bobby Prince 8. Baroque 9. Borderlands of Sanity 10. The Elder World 11. Spider Mastermind 12. Eco-Gothic

Running time: 46:57

As always the album may be listened to/downloaded for free at the MZR Internet Archive page:

https://archive.org/details/MZR038

Creating an album using just MIDI is tougher then it sounds, so for variety's sake there's a lot of different musical styles utilized in this recording: electronic pop, classical, hard rock/metal, experimental noise, and so on. Something for everyone!

COMING SOON: DEATH HEAD MOTHS: SECOND REPORT (LP) [MZR038]

Coming to Mauve Zone Recordings this July: Death Head Moths: Second Report [MZR038]

An album of all-MIDI music that was recorded during the months of April-June 2016. As this album was entirely created using Voyetra, I've decided to release it under the Death Head Moths banner: the first album I've done this for since my very first album (First Report) wayyyy back in the year 2000 (later on it was retconned as a Sypha Nadon album). Hence the title.

Track listing:

1. Crionics 2. Monsters 3. Carnival 4. The House of Chthon 5. DAF 6. The Hollow City 7. Bobby Prince 8. Baroque 9. Borderlands of Sanity 10. The Elder World 11. Spider Mastermind 12. Eco-Gothic

Running time: 46:57

Later on this year will see the release of MZR039, the content of which I'm still undecided on. And at the year's end will be MZR040, the big compilation album that might end up being entitled Beyond the Mauve Zone. A fine way to celebrate the label's 10th year of operation, though after that I see it as going on hiatus for a bit because it's become a bit of a time sink this year.

OUT NOW: SYPHA NADON: SELECTED AMBIENT TWERKS (LP) [MZR037]

Mauve Zone Recordings is pleased to announce the release of Selected Ambient Twerks: A Sypha Nadon Retrospective 2009-2016.

Selected Ambient Twerks: A Sypha Nadon Retrospective 2009-2016 is the second “greatest hits” Sypha Nadon album, a companion album to 2009’s The Nightmare Factory collection. Whereas the former album collected music from the years 2000-2009, this new collection assembles tracks from the years 2009-2016, focusing on the following albums: Our Lady of the Flowers of the Red Night, Orheculegenias, 4NIC8, Litch, Canadian Atheist, and last year’s Monolith. It also includes a new, never-before released track, “A New Circle of Hell,” which was created shortly after the Monolith sessions. Once again, I would like to thank anyone who has listened to and appreciated my work over the last 16 or so years.

As always, the album may be downloaded/listened to for free at the Mauve Zone Recordings' Internet Archive page:

https://archive.org/details/MZR037

Track listing:

1. A New Circle of Hell (4:32)
2. Bleeding Edge 2016 Mix (3:24)
3. Ritual (3:11)
4. Everything Dies (4:49)
5. Ghost Mountains (3:42)
6. Tangerine Nightmare (7:12)
7. STRIPPER (3:04)
8. Interzone (4:57)
9. One Thousand Years (4:27)
10. Black Insect Laughter (6:23)
11. Coiled Horizons (3:01)
12. Dark Enlightenment (4:04)
13. The Acknowledged (4:24)
14. Yotsuba Corporation (2:57)
15. Piano Piece for Cocksucking (2:40)
16. America After the Rain (3:46)
17. Witnesses (2:15)
18. The Devil You Know (5:59)
19. Receiving the Logos (4:00)

Total Running Time: 78:56

Track one, “A New Circle of Hell,” is an entirely new Sypha Nadon song created specifically for this collection: it was written in 2015 and recorded in 2015/2016. With the exception of this track, all of the other tracks on the album have previously appeared elsewhere:

Tracks 2, 6, 11 off the “Litch” LP (2013) (Although track 2 has been re-recorded and re-mixed)
Tracks 3, 9, 12, 16 off the “Monolith” LP (2015)
Tracks 4, 10, 14, 18 off the “Orheculegenias” LP (2010)
Tracks 5, 13, 17 off the “Canadian Atheist” LP (2014)
Tracks 7, 15 off the “4NIC8” LP (2011)
Tracks 8, 19 off the “Our Lady of the Flowers of the Red Night” LP (2009)

All songs by Sypha Nadon
Produced by James Champagne
Vocals on tracks 1, 3, 5, and 9 provided by James Champagne

The majority of these tracks were programmed and arranged using FL Studio 10 Producer Edition, save for tracks 8 and 19, which were arranged via the Voyetra Digital Orchestrator. All of the tracks were recorded using Goldwave v.5.65.

Cover illustration from a 1972 textbook entitled "Biology Today," done by the artist Masami Teraoka: the name of the illustration is “Human Possibilities.” The back cover illustration is taken from the manga “Monster Musume.”

Cover design by James Champagne.

All songs recorded in the period from 2009 to 2016.

A NEW CIRCLE OF HELL LYRICS

The Moon reveals a gremlin face
That leers at us from outer space
The Sun grows an unblinking eye
That rains destruction from its throne in the sky
CHORUS:
This is not the Earth
This is a new circle of Hell
Circle of Hell
Circle of
This is not the Earth
This is a new circle of Hell
Circle of Hell
Circle of
I can hear the riots in the streets
We realized we’re just dreaming meat
We stepped into the alien’s trap
Now we’re on the brink of a psychic collapse
CHORUS REPEAT

Coming soon: an announcement on MZR038, which will hopefully be available later on this summer.

Coming Soon from MZR: Selected Ambient Twerks (A Sypha Nadon Retrospective 2009-2016) MZR037

 

Coming June 17th, 2016:

Selected Ambient Twerks: A Sypha Nadon Retrospective 2009-2016 [MZR037]

A companion volume to 2009's The Nightmare Factory collection, this second "greatest hits" album will feature a total of 19 songs, including highlights from the following albums: Our Lady of the Flowers of the Red Night, Orheculegenias, 4NIC8, Litch, Canadian Atheist, and last year's Monolith: effectively covering a 7 year period. There will also be one bonus track made especially for the collection, the name of this song being "A New Circle of Hell."

potential tracklisting:

1. A New Circle of Hell
2. Bleeding Edge (2016 re-recording)
3. Ritual
4. Everything Dies
5. Ghost Mountains
6. Tangerine Nightmare
7. STRIPPER
8. Interzone
9. One Thousand Years
10. Black Insect Laughter
11. Coiled Horizons
12. Dark Enlightenment
13. The Acknowledged
14. Yotsuba Corporation
15. Piano Piece for Cocksucking
16. America After the Rain
17. Witnesses
18. The Devil You Know
19. Receiving the Logos

More details to follow...

 

 

In related news, last year's First Report anthology album was today updated with some further archival material: the songs "World's End," "Catpotty," "Bach Nightmare Zone," and "Computer Death" have all been added to the tracklisting, to the extent that now all but three tracks from the first Sypha Nadon cassette tape are now available for one's listening pleasure. As a bonus track, I've also added another very old SN song, "Misery Fucker," to the very end of the album. 

Mauve Zone Recordings Anniversary: Ten Years

Hard as it is to believe, but 2016 marks the tenth year of operation for the Mauve Zone Recordings netlabel (which began operating in February of 2007). To commemorate this historic milestone, we have a number of exciting releases lined up for this year.

On June 17th, MZR is planning on releasing a second Sypha Nadon "greatest hits" collection, a sequel of sorts to 2009's The Nightmare Factory collection. This new collection (which is tentatively being called Selected Ambient Twerks at the moment) will features some of the best tracks off the SN albums Our Lady of the Flowers of the Red Night, Orheculegenias, 4NIC8, Litch, Canadian Atheist, and last year's Monolith: effectively covering a 7 year period). The tracklist is still being finalized (more details on that in the weeks to come), but it is expected to feature around 17 tracks, plus a brand new song entitled "A New Circle of Hell." This release will most likely be MZR037.

This summer/fall will also see two smaller releases, the details of which must remain mysterious for the time being. They will be MZR038 and MZR039.

This fall/winter, MZR is also hoping to release a new compilation album, a sequel of sorts to the label's first compilation album released back in October of 2008, the groundbreaking A Dream as White as the Death of a Seagull. All of the groups that contributed to that initial release are invited for this new album (indeed, I hope to start sending out formal invitations in preparation for it soon), though we hope to have some new groups on this one as well. At the moment, all of this is very sketchy, but more details will follow: it is hoped that this release, the netlabel's 40th, will be catalogued as MZR040.

Watch this space!

-Arthur Limbo

OUT NOW: Cadaver Synod: "The Great Filter" [MZR035] LP

 

 

Mauve Zone Recordings is pleased to announce the release of our newest album, The Great Filter by Cadaver Synod [MZR035]. The debut album by this Italian-based progressive noise band, it features two long (and improvised) tracks of experimental electronic noise. Inspired by the music of both MB and the lesser-known Basilio Micheli, it could best be described as Meon Music, chilly soundtracks for mutilated landscapes. As with all MZR releases, it may be downloaded from our Internet Archive page. Here's the link:

 

https://archive.org/details/MZR035CadaverSynodTheGreatFilter01AbstractHorror

 

Track listing:

1. Abstract Horror (22:42)
2. X-Risk (21:48)

Total Running Time: 44:33

All songs written, arranged, programmed and performed by Cadaver Synod Produced, engineered and mixed by JC
Recorded and mixed at Mauve Zone Studios (January 2016)
Art direction + design: James Champagne

Dedicated to MB