Known for its 808s, Bass, Alligators, & Cocaine Cowboys, Florida is the home of Vanguard Sound's Chris Mitchell, who follows his contribution to Squirrels On Acid with an EP of four absolute Rippers at the intersection of classic booty bass & new-school goth electro.
“Every Asshole” announces its presence with an up-tempo red-lined booty beat that will shake the walls of the Strip Mall Strip Club in any neighborhood. Funk is the key ingredient, and it is added generously, even when the synthesizer melodies bring in a darker texture. “Grippers” is more sinister, but no less funky. Dirty South Cold Wave at full frequency, propulsive & punk rock, but this is strictly party music at its core. The drum patterns stay in perpetual motion, programed with skill & precision. “Sh4” is another banger. The sound of a malfunctioning Fairlight over intricate drums & angular arpeggios. Mitchell's tracks never sit still, and again here, the drum programming shines. This is someone who has put in their 10, 000 hours on the MPC, and it shows. “Land Of Make Believe” slows things down & turns ups the Goth. Cybertron Sci Fi Soundtrack moods, but rump shaking nonetheless, wordless alien vocal textures & synth strings weave with the drums, which here are slightly more sparse than the previous tracks, but programmed with the same attention to detail.
If you're familiar with Chris Mitchell, this EP will not disappoint, & if this is your introduction to his music, you'll be wanting to hear more. This sixth release from the world of Squirrels is NOT for standing around at the party looking cool. This for shaking the tail, sweating with strangers at legendary all-ages club & birthplace of Miami Bass the Pac Jam in hedonistic abandon. More

The fifth release in the sonic saga of San Francisco's electric noise factory Squirrels On Film is the first solo EP from label co-founder C.l.a.w.s., and his first solo release since 2017's “Stygian Morass” on Left Hand Path.His distinctive, idiosyncratic take on Techno has found its way onto the Various Squirrels, and as half of Kit 'n C.l.a.w.s with Joshua Kit Clayton, but “Splat City” is his party, and you're invited. The dance begins with “Into The Eyes Of The Zombie Queen,” its Liquid Sky cold-wave disco throb complete with laser zaps, Simmon's tom fills and drunk punk Moroder bass. This is C.l.a.w.s. in full-on Fun Mode, so feel free to break out the party favors. “Pacific Fog Authority” escalates the mirror-ball Goth Drama to delightfully inappropriate crescendos. “Slug Bait” gets a bit tougher, the motorik, leather-bar shuffle exploding in ecstatic strobe light seizures . “Splat City” keeps things heavy and depraved, a sleazy nightmare smoke-machine Strip Anthem. Your next late-night Cosmic Adventure has a perfect soundtrack. More

Psychedelic sound explorer Its Own infinite Flower, who was
responsible, along with head squirrels Solar & C.l.a.w.s., for San
Francisco underground punk rave/happening Hostile Ambient
Takeover, unleashes his first official release, The Plumes of Love (ARE BLACK!). After contributing a track to 2017’s Spacetime Continuum/ Juju & Jordash curated Air Texture V compilation, this four track EP of abstract tech-noise brings the sounds Its Own Infinite Flower refined in the basements & warehouses of the Bay Area’s underground music scene to the wider world, whether it’s ready or not.
“Drone, Drugs ’n’ Dissonance” creeps into life as a thunderstorm of
white noise, out of which a cold-rave pulse somehow metastasizes into something resembling techno, although this is a deformed, uncivilized, unwanted mutation, separated at birth & raised in a toxic wilderness. It builds slowly before turning up in a rage of digital distortion, a black metal dub party held at the edge of a melting glacier. “Oh, Empire of Roses” is a Dada Phycho Jazz Electro number. Dissonant synth chords snake around each other in a playful ouroboros of manic future funk, never knowing if it’s starting or stopping, coming or going. Relentless bass throbs through the track, which almost threatens to bubble into classic acid electro before fizzling out. On side two there is “Devotion to a Peacock Angel,” an angular breakdance groove for the characters in the bar scene in Star Wars. Electro dub rhythms keep stay grounded as everything else rips apart in all directions over the course of the track. On “Misfortunes of El Dorado” a soundsystem bangs in the next room, only the deepest bass escaping, shaking reality until it’s torn apart in waves of distortion, a classic techno synth string wandering over the top of everything in a full blown Techno Jazz Odyssey.

SQUIRRELS ON FILM continues its adventure at the edges of techno
with the mind bending stylings of Its Own Infinite Flower’s debut EP,
fitted with another beautiful hand-drawn, full color sleeve by New York artist Bert Bergen. The Plumes of Love (ARE BLACK!). More

Distortion, static electricity & drum machines turned up to eleven, your next Punk-E Rave Party can be appropriately soundtracked with SQUIRRELS ON FILM’s 3rd (or 4th, who’s counting?) EP, ready to de-sanitize any dancefloor prepared for the adventures in sweat-drenched HEAVY RAVING contained within. Label Headz Solar & C.l.a.w.s. reach beyond their hometown of San Francisco, to Mexico City’s Yoan Rodriguez LOKIER. Her first full EP for the label, following the appearance of “Headless” on the limited edition Various Squirrels Volume Two, contains four tracks of enthrallingly unkempt body music & neo-goth techno depravity. The Artist & DJ currently based in Berlin is half of She Made Monster with Morgan Hammer, & her remix work appears on Throne of Blood, Ivan Smagghe’s Les Disques de la Mort & elsewhere. “Last One” is first, a gritty workout in horror rave, all overdriven drums, intricately programed to build alongside arpeggiated synth bass and slasher flick strings, at once classic and contemporary. “Not Always Works” is sleazier yet, featuring LOKIER’s distinctive dead-pan distorted vocals, heard recently on Krikor’s LP for L.I.E.S., put to great effect here atop an ear-worm synth riff and again expertly programed drums, never afraid to bleed into the red. Atonal, yet bizarrely melodic strings and pads drift confidently above. “Tmrrw” makes use of vocal samples over a pummeling industrial techno explosion… like a Nitzer Ebb cassette that’s been duplicated too many times, turned up way too loud, with an angry goth banshee queen telling it like it is through a broken fuzzbox. “What Is Truth” rounds things off in the murky dub/electro bog of your most lucid nightmares, the drums and synths awash in tape echo and reverb. LOKIER’s music sits perfectly within SQUIRRELS ON FILM's left of center techno punk aesthetic, albeit with clear intentions on the feral dystopian dance party happening near you. SOF is very excited and honored to unleash this wild squirrel into the civilized world, packaged inside another eye-catching, original hand-drawn full color sleeve by New York artist Bert Bergen. It should be clear by now: SQUIRRELS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN. More

The Squirrels from San Francisco are back and they're wearing white after Labor Day â?? pressing up a limited white-label 12", full of the throbbing electro, altered-states body music, and head-in-the-clouds techno you've come to expect from Squirrels on Film. More