Releases

Matt Krefting - QuaranTunes Series No.016 ( / )

12″ Lathe. Edition of 37. Numbered. Riso Looseleaf cover / back art printed at Looky Here in Greenfield, MA. OUT OF STOCK – Few available at our bandcamp  Mr. Krefting is a long-time friend of the FTR label. He has recorded a solo 10” lathe (FTR122), and albums with both Believers (FTR247) and Dead Girls Party (FTR279). We would happily welcome him into our homes any-dang-time-at-all, and so it was he appeared playing a Zoom concert on Friday July 31, 2020. Matt’s musical approach knows many alleys. But most recently this has involved sound generation using cassettes and perhaps also doo-dads of some sort (although it’s always the cassettes that provide the theater of the event). You might think there wouldn’t… Read more »

Village Of Spaces - QuaranTunes Series No.029 ( / )

12″ Lathe. Edition of 28. Numbered. Riso Looseleaf cover / back art printed at Looky Here in Greenfield, MA. Available on the bandcamp page In Western Massachusetts, the evening of Friday October 30, 2020 was cold and wet. But this Village of Spaces performance (with Dan Beckman-Moon, Amy Moon O.S., Kaethe Hostetter and Sean Breidenthal) took place in the lush backyard of a sun-dappled Santa Cruz house, with flowers and colors bursting everywhere. It was enough, just visually, for all of us to wish for instantaneous transportation 3000 miles west. That feeling was only amplified when the music started. The set began with “Song for Moon” (calling to mind the classicism of early Pearls Before Swine) and rambled through a variety… Read more »

Mozzaleum - QuaranTunes Series No.020 ( / )

12″ Lathe. Edition of 26. Numbered. Riso Looseleaf cover / back art printed at Looky Here in Greenfield, MA. OUT OF STOCK – few available at our bandcamp page… On Friday the 28th of August (sometimes known as “Holyoke Halloween”), 2020, the three members of Mozzaleum broadcast this amazing Zoom concert from their basement lair in The Paper City. Three layers of sound, created by synth and synth-like objects wafted through the air like smoke from a gunfight in some Italian horror-western hybrid. As on the trio’s 2019 debut LP, Dark Ride (FTR444), the sound of Mozzaleum has certain Italianate prog flourishes, although on this evening there was a large gush of Germanic Cosmic Creationism in the breeze as well. And… Read more »

Horse Boys - III/IV ()

CS-60 Edition of 200. Pro-dubbed. 2010. No download included. $6 Brattleboro wunderkind Zach Phillips wows us again with an hour long journey through modernist piano fugues, half-exhumed pop oddities and sound collages.  This is Phillips third and final album as Horse Boys, as recent shifts in recording technology have enabled him to produce audio missives of shimmering beauty*.  Until these newer works get issued, this tape is the best available view into this prolific youngsters magical universe

Monocot - Direction We Know ()

LP Edition of 200. OUT OF STOCK In one sense all collaborations and recordings thereof  have a certain surprise factor. Any time two or more people get together to create something from nothing, the exact contours of the resulting experiment are likely to contain at least a few unknown elements. This notion is especially true when the people collaborating are coming from not obviously congruent places. And (at least to me) this makes Monocot a project that was guaranteed to toss a curve.  Monocot is an improvising instrumental duo comprised of drummer Jayson Gerycz and guitarist Rosali Middleman. Jayson’ work I know mostly from the Cleveland rock band, Cloud Nothings, and cool sessions with Matthew J Rolin and Tony Pasquarosa…. Read more »

Magic Tuber Stringband - When Sorrows Encompass Me ‘Round ()

CS Edition of 200 Pro-Dubbed Cassettes. Bandcamp $8 Magic Tuber Stringband is Durham NC-based duo, made up of Evan Morgan and Courtney Werner. Their primary instruments are guitar and fiddle, but they are not married to these particular axes and follow their instincts when they feel other instruments are called for. Playing music with its bite rooted in the Piedmont tradition, Magic Tuber mostly write their own material, while exploring and expanding dynamics of string interaction that are as old as the hills. Treading a line that begins in equal parts of blues and Anglo-Scottish lineage, they introduce different motific elements at points. “Teo’s Farewell” has a central portion with a very Middle Eastern feel. “Wood Thrush Song” is a… Read more »

Kass Richards - The Language Shadow ()

LP Edition of 300 Re-issue / Co-Release with Good Cry Records $20 Reissue of the very limited debut LP by this Massachusetts-based musician. We first ran into Kass’s Good Cry label when she put out Jordan Perry’s eponymous debut, which we promptly reissued (FTR 376). And we are well pleased to be able to do the same for The Language Shadow — a most excellent album by all known metrics. Kass (who works with Meg Remy’s U.S. Girls) sings and plays guitar, dulcimer and small instrument-style percussion. Recorded at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango, her music has the clean, hard bite of a Northern Spy apple. Some of the songs are performed as elegant solos, but there are additional instrumental touches by several… Read more »

Jonny Kosmo - Pastry ()

LP Edition of 300. Co-Released with Dinosaur City Records OUT OF STOCK Jonny Kosmo, the Los Angeles (via New England) registered therapist and home recordist is a card carrying expert in the shape of your desire & the horizon of meanings your dreams catalyze. In his briefcase lives his weapons grade kaleidoscope, a 1972 mayfair recorder, and a neatly folded pair of pants that fits seamlessly to the shape of your longing. His armchair prescriptions for the zeitgeist hover ever present on his most recent LP Pastry which hits you Like 69 cc of heady nostalgia for a time he never lived in. The album is like if David Lynch’s Dr Jacobi and Stevie Wonder teamed up to make a… Read more »

PG Six - Live at the Tavern ()

LP Edition of 150. Bandcamp OUT OF PRINT While we wait for Aaron Rosenblum to finish up his album of field recordings, we sometimes ask him about various tapes he has recorded of other artists. These, he tends to provide more quickly. Thus, here is the first of what we hope to be a series of live shows by various artists, documented by Mr. Aaron. The artist in Pat Gubler, aka PG Six. The venue is The Tavern at Hampshire College. The date is March 30, 2001. This was still an early point in Pat’s solo journey, but the aesthetic documented here appears to be fully formed, and his playing is great on both harp and guitar. The set is… Read more »

Kohoutek - Jurad ()

LP Edition of 350 Co-Released with Cardinal Fuzz $21 While they have released a decent number of cassettes & CDs, Jurad is only the fourth vinyl album released by this long-running DC-to-Philly-based space-juggernaut. Recorded by a quartet iteration of the always mutating ensemble, the music on this one veers between the kind of psych-prog wallow for which Kohoutek is most often celebrated, and the less formally rockoid improvisational proclivities they sometimes display. The session for Jurad went down at Philadelphia’s Sex Dungeon studio in 2012 and resulted in three long tracks. The shortest one, “Cosmic Grease,” opens the B side in classic Kohoutek style. John Stanton’s guitar balances on the cusp of scum and space, spewing fat raw gobs of… Read more »