The Communion - A Desired Level of Unease /// one-sided LP; limited, hand-numbered edition of 100
"Some predators are simply too large to avoid," goes the dark-ride barker's lead-in to The Communion's Desired Level of Unease. I don't think this record will meet with much ambivalence, as anyone who's been a fan of grind, black metal and sludge for the last ten or more years, watching those styles evolve, merge and coalesce naturally, will see The Communion for what they are, the right band at the right time. Prison Tatt first saw The Communion play at their memorial show for late guitarist Lee Altomare, and it was such an intense, vital set, charged with both suffering and human vitality, that it immediately became essential that we release a compendium of new material, or ANY material, by the band. It doesn't matter what you call it anymore—it's metal, extreme variety, drawing on hardcore, blast beats, and Lousiana mud that's been traded in for NYC muck—that black, dusty stuff that lives out between the cracks in the NJ Turnpike and the L.I.E. Above all, The Communion are great songwriters; they instinctively know how to put this shit together—music, lyrics and energy, so that not an ounce of the arrangement is wasted and we are left to be swept up in the melée. This is one of the records that we've been wanting to put out for the longest time, and it's very well worth the wait. Sleeve design by singer Nick; heavy-black-stock folding sleeve silkscreened by Seizure Palace. Comes with lyric insert on parchment-style paper, one of our new stickers, and ours and the band's best wishes for a good seat at the apocalypse.
Gash Ladder - Excerpt
Rabid Bats - Excerpt
Haare - Rautapilvi /// one-sided LP; ltd., hand-numbered edition of 100
Finnish occult sound-smasher Haare presents a new work, 20 minutes of ritualistic terror, some sounds taken with kind permission from Circle's Forest LP (a house favorite here at Prison Tatt.) Call it a "collaboration," a "remix," call it Rautapilvi. Listen to this record the way you would Tangerine Dream's Zeit, or your favorite Roland Kayn record—nice and loud, and on a good system (if possible); let Rautapilvi fill the room, the house. We're long-time fans of Haare here at the label, and are honored and grateful to Ilkka for allowing us to bring you this historic release, possessed of great power and creeping dread. Front cover design by the artist; sleeves printed by Seizure Palace.
Rautapilvi - Excerpt
Glass Coffin - Haunted By The Ghosts of the Damned /// one-sided LP; ltd., hand-numbered edition of 100
Cult black metal from black-noise/horrorscape master Josh Lay. Three twisted, hypnotic basement dirges infused with black metal fire, songs that pound like the buried alive, plus a haunting, instrumental outro, to leave the listener shaken and uneasy. Imagine a more-wired Defuntos or Mordheim, high on the opportunity to jam in German Oak's bunker. Great songwriting and a pervasive creepiness lurks in these four tracks of torture-basement ambiance, Glass Coffin's first release on 12" vinyl. Graveyard-ritual sketches by the artist, front and back; silkscreened sleeve printed by Seizure Palace.
My Hammer Will Decide My Fate - Excerpt
Starless Unholy Night - Excerpt
Husere Grav - Myths /// single-sided LP, ltd. 150
A restless, cinematic twilight, shot day-for-night—the funereal calm broken by the electromagnetic energy of troubled spirits. Low rumbles and sub-strata murmurs that conceal much more than is evident on a first listen. Otherworldly, Lovecraftian music that represents a new plateau in cohesiveness for this Texas-based, one-man monster project by black metal and noise veteran Todd W. Prison Tatt proudly brings you Husere Grav's latest and greatest, the sound of haunted souls locked in a desperate eternity, trampling one another in hopes of crossing over. Silkscreened inserts by Seizure Palace; cover design by the artist — a modified image from Brian De Palma's Sisters.
Myths III - Excerpt
Myths IV - Excerpt
Ives - Abandon /// single-sided LP, ltd. 200
One of the best American black-metal demo tapes finds it way onto vinyl, courtesy of Prison Tatt. This 2010 recording, the second release by Florida natives Ives, grabs the listener immediately with its cannibalistic fury and deftly composed bm anthems. Expect the unexpected, as these guys are pros, and work in variant tempos and even an ominous acoustic break. That said, this is an incredibly ferocious record, solid and completely in your face for the duration. Abandon is nothing less than a new milestone in the Prison Tatt catalog. Anyone who can sit still with this record on is not alive. A sleeve insert of moody, vintage photography, designed by the band and assembled by Tom Zahn; silkscreen-printed by Seizure Palace.
Burning the Incense Amanita Virosa - Excerpt
Lost in the Pleasures of Moonlight - Excerpt
Sesso Violento - Pacificador /// single-sided LP, ltd. 100
What sounds like the death of a Doctor Who-style computer, laid over some electric guitar rumble and squeal, heralds the coming of the vinyl debut of Sesso Violento, the second release by this mysterious black metal band with punk propulsion. Brazilians now living in the UK, that's about all I can tell you, and where I hesitate to drop the oft-heard comparison of Bone Awl, in this case the reference is valid, though Sesso V. tend to weave multiple concepts into each brief indulgence, and swap out propulsive blast beats as often as they use them for catchy breakdowns and vocal breaks that sound like orders from sci-fi air command. A throat-grabbing record that breaks new ground as it tastefully mines its influences. If black metal and American International Pictures had somehow thrived at the same time, Sesso Violento would be the house band, as there's something very "garage" about them; all the violence of the new generation of punked-up black metal, with a lunar module half-built in the practice space.
Pacificador
Biped Mane Craze
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T.O.M.B. - Xesse /// single-sided LP, ltd. 100
T.O.M.B.'s one-sided Xesse LP is the scariest music yet by a scary band. Not so much black metal as simply "black." 20 minutes of empowered anguish and haunted souls. Up there with Nurse With Wound's re-imagined sanatorium Krautrock of Spiral Insana for sheer terror points, Xesse was fashioned in such a way as to not allow the listener to passively kick back and take it in; as the saying goes, "you'll pay for the whole seat, but you'll only use the edge." When I first received the master recordings on Xesse, I cautiously wrote back with an "are you sure?" to the band, as some of the frequencies emphasized on Xesse were so tension-producing as to appear at first listen like a possible "mistake." But no, T.O.M.B. had and have a plan, and I came around to personal notions of good fortune and gratitude that I would be releasing one of the more fucked-up and truly original records in recent memory, infused with diseased emotion, via the meticulous field recording the band does in "haunted" or "damned" locations (this time in my birthplace of Essex County, NJ.) Now, Xesse can be all yours, postpaid for $17 within the U.S. Mastered at Aardvark, sleeve inserts screen-printed by Seizure Palace.
Praise for T.O.M.B.
"This is pure aural sound of unsettling malevolence, and done extremely well."
"Industrial drone, haunted noise! ... ability to choose locations with disturbing histories and shape equally disturbing music...."
"...percussive pieces, contact mic investigations, lunar oscillation, ambient acoustics, incantations, a piano, metal surfaces, and natural tunnel reverberations."
"out in 'the wild' ... almost creating a new kind of USBM"
Luciferian Homage - Excerpt
Silence Is Suffering - Excerpt
KILT - Kitchen Sorcery /// digipak CD, ltd. 300
KILT are a real mind-fuck; about as good as two-man noisy improv gets. Their lurching, and wonderfully animate performances are like a giant amoeba, feasting on the nutrition of the spirit. The contrasting elements of high-volume trance/minimalism ala the Theatre of Eternal Music, the churning PE-style "riffs" that appear and then dissipate, and the hi-frequency dancing of Bob Bellerue and Raven Chacon's exuberant communications via sound-shattering are quite a thing to behold as well as hear. KILT are among the natural heirs to a certain brand of humanist, soulful power improvisation. Prison Tatt is proud to present the project's first silver CD, Kitchen Sorcery, combining two phantasmagorical studio sets with a dynamite live performance from 2007. Crisp and loud pro-mastering by Bob, horrifying cover drawing by Matt Minter.
"Harsh but colorful noise/ electro-acoustic squall" — Brian Turner, Music Director/DJ, WFMU-FM
Kitchen Sorcery 1 - Excerpt
Dhampyr - White Fire Laudanum /// digipak CD, ltd. 300
For an American Depressive black metal album, or more accurately a work of the "ambient psychotic," Dhampyr's White Fire Laudanum feels definitive, in a league with the best tracks from Marks of the Masochist and Xasthur; perhaps even surpassing them in terms of song composition (in this humble label's opinion!) It's a record that feels like a walk through a room full of cobwebs, and those thumps on the floor and ceiling are too jarring for one to possibly get a wink of sleep. The sadness is engufing; the melodies are bleak and baroque, while still packing a punch, also bringing vintage Burzum to mind. Songs like "Dans la Souffrance" will haunt you their with absorbing, tortured refrains. Prison Tatt is proud and honored to present the first physical release for this band, consisting of all-new material by Dhampyr, who otherwise eschew most label affiliations, and simply give the work away on the band blog.
Listen to two full tracks here.
OPPONENTS - Together We Will End The Future /// digipak CD, ltd. 300
The first non-CDr, non-tape release for OPPONENTS. Electric "songs" to topple all extant regimes. Grimy electronics rendered on vintage synths, environments reminiscent of Schnitzler, vintage Cabaret Voltaire, and The Golden Hour of the Future. Snatches of baroque melody and fuzzy, left-hand figures tumble in and out of scene, while Aaron's vocals texturize and provoke, and percussive washes reflect the Brooklyn concrete. A proud day for Prison Tatt to bring you this full length release, the sonic equivalent of a great, abstract novel. Unlike any other OPPONENTS release, unlike any other release by anyone. Full-color, high-gloss UV digipak with collage-art cover by OPPONENTS' Joshua Slusher.
Opposition 2 - Excerpt
Opposition 5 - Excerpt
Opposition 6 - Excerpt
Grasshopper - Calling All Creeps /// single-sided LP
Prison Tatt's first liberation. The first release on vinyl by the acclaimed Brooklyn duo. Spine-shuddering drones and subtle melody; improvised electronics and horns that sound through-composed, but aren't. Too often Grasshopper's music is interpreted as composition, perhaps because of Josh and Jesse's background in classical training. Their long-form creations amount to nothing less than the Irrlicht of contemporary noise/electronics (I said this of them long before I knew I'd be releasing their material.) This is a horrid dungeon, no question, but one where hope has not quite died, and pretty things, alluring demons in service to Jon Hassell or Miles Davis, occasionally flutter by the window bars. These things look and sound great; mastered at Aardvark, pressed by Bill Smith, with silkscreened insert by Seizure Palace.
Calling All Creeps - Excerpt
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