HOLODECK Records

• • • ALL HOLODECK releases available digitally @ HOLODECK Bandcamp

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MARIE DAVIDSON – s/t EP CS26 (HD017)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 200]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

Montréal is a hotbed these days for forward-thinking music. Marie Davidson is a local mainstay, a member of Essaie Pas, Les Momies de Palerme, & Hotel Monochrome, but on her self-titled debut still manages to take an adventurous turn. Cold electronics ride shotgun with minimal, stripped-down beats providing the ideal counterpoint to Davidson’s always potent vocal delivery.

Half sung, half spoken, and all in French, Davidson’s vocals ride darkly along the same current as Nico’s, twisting obtuse melodies through synthetic cracks. “Ma vie sans toi” is steeped with rhythmic stomp and electronic flourishes while her voice rises in confident detachment, as with words read from a book; the bewitching effect of a true chanteuse, which Davidson surely is. The only instrumental cut on the album, “L’unique” looms like a menacing spire in the distance, swimming in Carpenter-esque soundtrack tones. The album ends with “A l’interieur”, a seven-minute long excursion through cavernous synth echoes that still manages to stand out through every listen. Taken together, Marie Davidson’s debut is a surreal document, cryptic but full of endless promise.

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TROLLER – Troller (HD003LP/LLR007)

[12" LP | Edt. of 300 (2nd Pressing)]
$18 +shipping (US / WORLD)

VINYL REISSUE (2nd pressing of 300 w/ BLACK dust sleeves) of Troller’s quickly sold-out CS. Troller (HD003LP/LLR007, co-released with LIGHT LODGE, reissue of HD003 CS) was, and still is, the most song-driven of HOLODECK’s releases. By tapping into the underworlds of drone, noise, various ‘waves’ of dark electronica, while simultaneously reaching upwards into the realms of ethereal pop-idiosyncrasy, Troller achieve more than one marriage of irreconcilable opposites, though never owing allegiance to any one influence or inclination in particular.

US – +$4 s/h

CA – +$12 s/h

WORLD – +$19 s/h

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S U R V I V E – HDXV CS45 (HD015)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 200]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

Electronic quartet S U R V I V E return to HOLODECK with a cassette reissue of their debut album (Mannequin Records, May 2012). The Austin-based synth musicians have more than met the expectations of this highly anticipated premier full length. Finally, S U R V I V E’s entire arsenal of electronics & expertise is on full display: hyper-choreographed programming and deftly executed musicianship keeps the middle path between reserved minimalism and gorgeous crystalline song structures of the highest order. Every element has been designed and placed to fulfill it’s microscopic purpose in the band’s macroscopic grand scheme: all fragments of sound have been exhaustively scrutinized, dissected, and modulated before being allowed to join the mix. This rigorous process of sound design and discretion is reflected on all levels of the album, resulting in a masterfully accomplished and thorough work.

HDXV, at times breath-takingly gorgeous, also possesses a beautifully damaged quality with precisely gnarled analog tones that milk every drop of character out of each key, triggered beat, and sequence. Besides being an inspiring technical feat (apparent to anyone that has seen the band’s electronic-fortress of a live set-up) HDXV is rife with magnificent songwriting and disturbingly emotive tracks. The melodies and moods seem to chemically bond with the brain and skillfully balance catchy tunes with deep explorations of the more enigmatic realms of ambient electronica. It is rare to find and album that is so utterly dense and mangled while maintaining such grace and fragility.

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SMOKEY EMERY – Soundtracks for Invisibility Vol. II: You Take the High Road CS49 (HD014)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

HOLODECK veteran Daniel Hipolito, a.k.a. Smokey Emery, is back with the second volume in his Soundtracks for Invisibility series (originally released on Hipolito’s own Kiamesha Drive). You Take the High Road shows Smokey Emery further honing his admixture of field recordings, samples, and live instrumentation as the raw materials for his various tape machines to chew up, process, and spit back out into ambivalent forms. Home spliced loops and delay work together to form unstable grooves that constantly modulate and devolve into increasingly hysteric configurations, both haunting and sublime. The haze compounds and suffocates the mix until the breaking point is reached, unraveling into distant disintegrating echoes that dissolve away as the next wave begins to amass.

There is no real sense of linear time while this record is playing; the environment has been exponentially sped up or slowed down, displaced, spliced, reappropriated and completely reconfigured, resulting in an overall numbing effect of potent disorientation. There is an exquisite balance of chaos and order on You Take the High Road that take turns dominating the listener’s journey: as soon as one’s night vision is fully adapted to Smokey Emery’s inviting dusk, the surroundings begin to dismantle themselves, slowly and methodically making their way into the mind itself, condensating into all sensory perception and experience. The psychic vacation that Hipilito has crafted makes no claims that the way will be easy, or absent of plunges into the endless abyss.

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THOUSAND FOOT WHALE CLAW – Dope Moons Vol. One CS36 (HD013)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

HOLODECK is proud to bring you the cassette edition of TFWC’s debut LP (Monofonus Press, July 2012). Dope Moons Vol. I displays a monumental step of sonic-advancement for this Austin-based quartet who have, until now, been known exclusively for their extended impenetrable walls of drone shredding. Dope Moons is the result of a deeper trip into the studio with a markedly more sophisticated approach to song writing. One can still find Whale Claw sinking their teeth into highly conceived ambient pieces on Deimos and Veritas, which are filled with tape manipulations, outer space samples, minimal percussion, and truly dense melodic structures that collectively unveil much more intricately designed drone compositions.

The rest of Dope Moons introduces Whale Claw’s newly formed penchant for beat driven, kraut-soaked, four-on-the-floor psychedelic vision quests like Phobos and Ganymede, both prolonged excursions that continue to unfold and morph until your consciousness has arrived in Whale Claw’s greater realm. Driving kick drums are carried by rhythmic synth patterns and pulsating bass lines that pull the listener into a sustained, seemingly infinite psychic immersion. Flourishes of organ and guitar leads dissolve and drip feedback onto the mix before instantly vaporizing into spectral fragments, acting as momentary guides along Whale Claw’s ever expanding journey into the unknown.

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Dylan C – Samsara: Causes & Conditions CS63 (HD012)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

Producer Dylan Cameron makes his HOLODECK debut with an epic double album. Samsara: Causes and Conditions displays a wide range of styles and influences across its throbbing hi-fi dance-voyage hemispheres. Cameron’s drum and synth tones show an absolute mastery of sound design and a profound merging of analogue with digital, and hardware with software. The A side, Causes, is a collection of deep house jams that create a warm pocket of four-on-the-floor bass rhythms and hard thumping kick drums. The songs are deeply infectious, pacifying in a way that lulls its listener into a serene locked-groove entrancement. The low-end pulses heavily, forming corporeal sub-frequencies that trade off massaging the mind and body. The high level of production throughout Samsara is immediately apparent even when played on the cheapest computer speakers – all frequencies available to the human ear have been designed, mixed, and placed with an almost surgical precision, creating a rare environment of aural balance and [literally] tangible sinewaves.

The B side, Conditions, goes in a darker and more ambient direction, with processed diva samples, eerie string swells, and two-step beats more reminiscent of South London than Central Texas. Massive bass tones are accented by an assortment of constantly morphing clicks and high-hats that create an overall intoxicating calm while still maintaining a drive that keeps its listener in perpetual motion. The last song is a dance remix of an unreleased Troller track; Dylan C is also the producer/engineer for Troller and Thousand Foot Whale Claw and has mastered most of the HOLODECK releases so far, and hails out of Austin as a part of the Elevator Action DJ crew.

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Sungod – Contackt CS42 (HD011)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

There are few bands that sound truly timeless, however the experience of listening to Sungod is like stepping outside the timeline of modern music. The list of influences that comes to mind throughout the procession of Contackt is daunting, as if the band has absorbed lifetimes of music into their consciousness. Metal, psychedelic-rock, prog, ambient, kraut-rock, and minimalism are all combined and tempered into a single multi-dimensional body. Genuinely gifted musicianship radiates out of this full length, spanning between heavy walls of shredding and refined ambient compositions. Warm beds of tonal harmony form a foundation for elastic-analog synth rhythms to playfully transverse the psyche, while lucid guitar solos slice through the mix with focused aggression, circling around each other in a disorienting cosmic smog. The whole mood of this record breathes with a living energy that is conjured up by the elevated drumming of Sharp, who is known to go into a shamanistic, trance-like state when the band plays live. Perhaps best described as “stoner-kraut”, guitar/synth player Braden Balentine and drummer/guitarist Mike Sharp form the core of one of Austin’s finest psyche outfits. There are few bands from any decade who delve as deep into the abyss of psychedelia like Sungod, but by today’s standards they are an even more endangered species.

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JU4N – Vaporware CS32 (HD010)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

Austin based solo artist Juan Cisneros has been a vital staple of the local synth scene for several years under the name VC Childkraft. Cisneros has always been known for having superb mastery of analog sequencing and a tendency to induce sensations of mind/body separation, but has now reinvented himself and further honed his skill under the new name JU4N. Much like being suspended in an isolation tank, his music effectively cancels-out any sense of time and space, lulling the listener into zero-buoyancy with sonic frequencies alone. On Vaporware, JU4N draws from his background of programming and harmonic intuition to perform similar, but heightened, acts of electro psychic-hygiene. JU4N’s musical remedies are edifying, dawn-of-the-information-age visions of what Utopia would look like in the year 2000 – future scaped washes of synth cascade over tranquil sequencing and sampling. Last Night in Cyberia even sees understated saxophone jump into the mix, which plays out over the track’s serene synth phrasing and indistinguishable vocal samples.

Though Vaporware projects its own “new age” into its listeners’ minds, the term falls very short of capturing the advanced sound design that is on holographic display here. There is an undeniable shimmer of nostalgia and innocence throughout JU4N’s debut, a fragile, yet evocative optimism in the form of a beautiful electronic dream.

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S U R V I V E – HD009 CS45 (HD009)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

Originally self released by the band in an instantly sold-out batch of 30 tapes, HD009 from SURVIVE finds the quartet again in their analog control-room. Side A is an extended demo-version of the post new-age opus Deserted Skies, from SURVIVE’s debut LP out on Mannequin Records. Unidentifiable mechanical voices give way to washes of static drones at the onset of Side B, eventually being swallowed in pulses of dreary prog-ambience.

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SILENT LAND TIME MACHINE – I am no longer alone with myself…EP CS27 (HD008)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

There exist only subtle threads of aesthetic continuity from Silent Land Time Machine’s debut &hope still (TIME-LAG Records), where guitar dominates in the main, with the music shifting its emphasis toward micro electronic assemblages – at times damaged, turbulent, and percussive, at others lulling, plaintive, and melodic – with naïve, organic, and lucidly processed string arrangements woven throughout. This is a reissue of the 180g vinyl edition out on Indian Queen Records, and also available from HOLODECK below.

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M.GEDDES GENGRAS – Beyond the Curtain CS40 (HD007)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

Former member of Robedoor and Pocahaunted, but more recently known for his collaborative album with Sun Araw and the Congos, M. Geddes Gengras’s incredibly prolific solo work continues with a glitchy, spritely collection of modular synth pieces. Sometimes a bit crunched-sometimes submerged in an acid-bath, one idea transforms lucidly into the next, like nano-machines constructing fractal architecture and, at once, tearing it back down again. Beyond the Curtain spastically insists on being a simultaneous expression of both construction and deterioration.

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AMASA•GANA – Untitled CS30 (HD006)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

Debut from amorphous Austin-based quintet: AMASA GANA make ample use of folk instruments, field recordings, analog & digital synthesis technology, as well as carefully maneuvered, and perfectly destroyed, effects processing. Untitled (006) is a release of polar-opposite soundscapes, both ethereal and covered in shadow.

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THOUSAND FOOT WHALE CLAW – Time Brothers CS60 (HD005)

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100, 50 YELLOW/BLACK and 50 PURPLE/WHITE tapes]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

These recordings are artifacts from the psychic birth of Thousand Foot Whale Claw: unhinged and unconscious voyages through slow-burning clouds of both inner and outer landscapes. Fleshcave, which comprises the entirety of Side A, is the demo-version of Fleshwave on Lost in Those Dunes (HD002). Slobos is the demo-version of Phobos, a track from TFWC’s Dope Moons Vol.1 LP, out now on Monofonus Press. Time Brothers closes with its title-track, which was recorded during the bands’ Lost in Those Dunes studio sessions.

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[HD004] Lumens – Lumens

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

Originally conceived as a project based around healing frequencies, Lumens’ self-titled debut actually manifested into an exorcism of sorts; understated swells of cavernous brass and strings, decaying drum loops, warm-electronic pulses of synth & home-made tape-phrases, and ephemeral layered vocals (more playing out as an instrument than voice) are various expressions of the greater body which is Lumens (HD004).

Lumens’ debut is as understated as it is emotive; the sound of tape machines extend out of their murky aural-bed never to return again; ambiguous samples play out to reveal hidden facets of detail; acausal song structure becomes suddenly coordinated in minimal, yet dense, movements of reserved sonic exploration and focused ambiance.

Opener Sweet Voice and closer When I knew You feature respective visitations of reversed and layered vocals, the former track collapsing into a narcotic kraut-groove halfway through its duration, marked with measured swells of foggy trumpet and viola; the latter leading the album into a final ascension, guided by collisions of brass and effects-laden voice over a primordial pulse of echoing floor-tom. The centerpieces of the album, Fake Time and Valley, recede back into expansive panoramas of minimalism; gradient soundscapes that deliberately journey through wide-open spaces of tonal depth and texture. Space and time shed their former boundaries, and there exists Lumens, embracing the void and bringing form where it was once absent.

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[HD003] Troller – Troller

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

(VINYL REISSUE available above)

For how heavy Troller proves itself to be throughout its debut release, it’s striking that the brooding melodies and gothic song-architecture remain unusually endearing, evocative, and…well, catchy, for such an overall crushing effort. Troller (HD003) is the most song-driven of Holodeck’s releases thus far, tapping into the underworlds of drone, noise, and various ‘waves’ of dark electronica, as well as pop, though never owing allegiance to any one influence in particular.

The clever sensibilities of Troller are consistently married with their dark, harrowing counterparts. A sense of balance is negotiated between sanguine stabs of analog-synth, destructive blown-out bass lines, and screwed tempo drum sequences, narrated by space-soaked siren wails throughout, equal parts sweet & sinister, giving the shadow a voice with which to speak throughout the full-length.

Troller pull off atonal (and nearly demented) freak-outs such as Milk almost too convincingly to also produce bubbly, sequenced naïve-pop like Winter; one may worry that they are enjoying the darkness a little too much. You wouldn’t be the only one.

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[HD002] Thousand Foot Whale Claw – Lost in Those Dunes

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

As the name would imply, Thousand Foot Whale Claw are only concerned with large proportions. This is TFWC’s debut release, though the Austin-based four piece have been mind-controlling live audiences with wave after wave of sub & ultra-sonic psychedelic frequencies for over a year now. Walls of synth(s) and infinitely-sustaining guitar(s) ride the undercurrent of deeply effected bass to create two 11-minute slabs of sound that comprise Lost in Those Dunes (HD002).

The release opens with its self-titled track, patiently smoldering and taking form like a star being born in a cloud of heat and dust: filters open, unintelligible sound sources emerge, a glowing bass-line breaths subtle rhythm into the track, and what was once a barely audible frequency is now a resonance that you are inside of. Fleshwave follows a similar path, though opting for a noisier, more chaotic, and formless nebula of sonics to float through. Order out of chaos, they say.

The overall expansiveness of Lost in Those Dunes brings “spaced out” to a new exponential level; the feeling of being lost is undeniable, though finding out just where you are lost will be a more difficult question to answer.

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[HD001] Smokey Emery – Soundtracks for Invisibility Vol. 1: Youth Burnt While Traveling

[Cassette Tape | Edt. of 100]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

TAPE SOLD OUT

Re-release ​of the ultra limited CD-R on Kiamisha Drive (KIA011, 2003), the imprint of one Daniel Hipolíto, also known as Smokey Emery. Only a handful were released initially, including one exclusive repress for Aquarius Records in San Francisco, who was awfully fond of the album. Now, Holodeck is proud to release the first installment of Smokey Emery’s three part ​Soundtracks for Invisibility ​series on the format that’s most proper: tape.

Soundtracks for Invisibility Vol 1: Youth Burnt While Traveling​ (HD001) is an arresting listen: symphonic drones and tape-loops are captured and constructed, and subsequently manipulated, on a series of reel-to-reel recorders, passed through effects & multiple generations of pitch-shifts, then allowed to loop over each other and explore the natural decay and idiosyncrasies of their respective formats. The machines feel as if they are given their own voices, like overhearing the hushed conversations between the components of a drenched city in the dead of night. Hipolíto acts as a medium between these voices, invisibly orchestrating an experimental narrative that facilitates the pulses of mechanical drones with plucks of timeless music boxes and other field recordings into a coherent and emotive whole.

The end result is incredibly intimate, and undeniably personal; even if Smokey Emery remains decidedly unseen, his fingerprints are on every single facet of this album, and we are all better for it.

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D I S T R I B U T E D – - – V I N Y L

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SMOKEY EMERY – QUARTZ EP

[7" vinyl, edt. of 300, by INDIAN QUEEN RECORDS
$8 +shipping (US / WORLD)

Smokey Emery’s vinyl debut – an especially potent 7″ EP released by Indian Queen Records on beautiful b&w duotone art card-stock, covered in duel catastrophe-collages by Smokey Emery (Daniel Hipolito) himeself. “…a collection of ambient drone pieces made up of carefully selected loops, samples, and recordings that have then been constructed into gorgeous sound collages of their own…a sound that is cavernous yet claustrophobic and is lonely as it is timeless.” – PORTALS

US / +$2.5 s/h

WORLD / +$14 s/h

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SILENT LAND TIME MACHINE – I am no longer alone with myself…EP

[12" 180g (clear) vinyl, edt. of 500, by INDIAN QUEEN RECORDS
$16 +shipping (US / WORLD)

180g clear vinyl edition of Silent Land Time Machine’s I am no longer alone with myself…EP. Solo-effort of HOLODECK co-founder, and member of Lumens and AMASA•GANA – distributed c/o Indian Queen Records, jon’s bedroom label – edt. of 500 with expanded art, full-bleed dust sleeves, and full color reverse matte jackets.

US / +$4 s/h

WORLD / +$19 s/h

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S U R V I V E – LLR002

[10" by LIGHT LODGE RECORDS]
$10 +shipping (US / WORLD)

We thought we were sold out, but there was ONE more box left of S U R V I V E’s debut vinyl from LIGHT LODGE RECORDS – killer 10″ of the band, and these are the very last copies of the 2nd pressing (edition of 150) – get them while they exist, y’all.

US / +$3 s/h

WORLD / +$15 s/h

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NIKE7UP – LUCKY! NIKE7UP THIEF IN THE NIGHT MIX

[7" | Edt. of 150 by LIGHT LODGE RECORDS]
$7 +shipping (US / WORLD)

VINYL SOLD OUT

HOLODECK is proud to have the last remaining copies of NIKE7UP’s 7” LUCKY! NIKE7UP THIEF IN THE NIGHT MIX, originally released by LIGHT LODGE Records in an edition of 150 hot pink 7”s. The LUCKY! 7” is a pathologically reconstructed pair of mixes, radio-pop ephemera set to amphetamine-paced beats and completely blown-out monolithic beds of synth. LUCKY! begins with diced phonetics against skittering percussion, rising in intensity with each successive tectonic sheet of keys and omnipresent, yet isolated, vocal phrasings. Swallowed moves even more relentlessly, dismembering more familiar sounds into increasingly alien, and endearing, forms. The alchemical mixture propels the pair of tracks into revelatory peaks of utterly demolished modern synth-pop that defies categorization of any sort.

“First time we heard about this our brains more or less exploded…Basically the dude takes wildly popular songs and slows them down, cuts them up, blends them with other songs into a twisted world where any pop song can turn melancholy and just a tiny snippet of Britney Spears’ voice holds the weight of an entire career burnout when paired with rising bass swells.” – The Fader