Fixture Records

new blog

2010-02-16T01:33:00.004-05:00

We're moving blog...

>> >> fixture-records.tumblr.com << <<

Check it out. Isn't it nice looking?

While we do a bit of behind-the-scenes work on our website to make it easier to use and more secure, we wanted to make the blog visually more a part of our site. Blogspot makes that impossible, so we're switching to tumblr. When the new site design goes up, the blog will be connected to the site and make it seamless to go between the blog, shop, and info pages.

We'll leave the old posts here as an archive, but all new updates will be posted over at the new blog.

Note: If you're reading this through a feed reader, like Google Reader, you don't need to do anything to start getting our new posts. Just sit on it. We've transferred the feed over to the new blog so it will automatically bring you all the posts as usual.

Send us an email if you have any questions or want to give some feedback: contact at fixture-records point com

Mailorder updates and Postcards download album

2009-12-19T19:38:00.005-05:00

Our first three releases are out of print. Thanks for buying them guys!

There's been a lot of interest in Postcards' self-titled cassette lately, so we decided to make it available as an mp3 download package. Listen and download it here: http://www.fixture-records.com/postcards-sampler.html

Halifax Pop Explosion Zine and Record Fair

2009-10-20T11:13:00.003-04:00

Halifax Pop Explosion starts tonight and we happen to be in Halifax for the week, so....Fixture will have a table at the Halifax Zine Fair this Saturday, October 24th from noon-5pm at St. David’s Church Hall (1537 Brunswick Street).

Come meet us and pick up some records!

Vendors include:

Anchor Archive Zine Library, Conundrum Press, Noyes Records, Peer a Mid Printing, whostolemybike prints, little foible comics, Strange Adventures, Brainscan zine, Kyla Francis Pottery, Divorce Records and Distro, CKDU FM, Ink Storm Screenprinting Collective, Grey Scale Press, Art Art Craft Collective, Wa’Ou, Tindercmx, DadaPomo, Random Paper and Fabric, Punkasaurus zine, Pistacia Ink, Go It Alone (Together), Eyelevel Gallery bookstore and more more more!

Admission is free.

More details on their website.

Label profile on CKUT

2009-10-12T14:10:00.000-04:00

CKUT radio did a profile on Fixture Records last Monday for their show, New Shit.

The host, Andrea-Jane played an hour of music from different releases on the label, including multiple tracks by Cresting, Brave Radar, Dirty Beaches, Omon Ra, and Freelove Fenner.

Big thanks to A-J and everyone who helped put together this show!

>> Listen <<

(Download the show by right clicking on Listen (ctrl click on a mac) and saving the link to your computer)

Fixture at Pop Montreal

2009-10-01T13:06:00.009-04:00

Pop Montreal started last night and here's where you can find us during the festival...

Thurs, Oct 1st:
3:30pm | Brave Radar @ Phonopolis (5403A ave du Parc) FREE
10pm | Omon Ra @ Cagibi (5490 St-Laurent) for Youth Club Records showcase
11pm | Mavo @ Jupiter Room (3874 St-Laurent)

Fri, Oct 2nd:
Noon | Dirty Beaches @ Friendship cove (215A Murray) for PLC/BSTB Matinee BBQ
1am | Postcards @ Le Milieu (#200-6545 Durocher)

Sat, Oct 3rd and Sun, Oct 4th:
11am-6pm | Record Sale and Gear Swap @ The Ukrainian Federation (5213 Hutchison)

We'll have all of our cd-rs and cassettes available to listen to and buy from our table at the Puces Pop Record Sale on Saturday and Sunday. It's free to get in and other vendors include local cassette labels, vinyl collectors, cd shops, gear builders, instrument repairs, plus a listening booth, free performances, snacks and drinks, and a gear swap. Come say hi!

Full schedule and venues at Pop Montreal.

In The Bottle Garden with Freelove Fenner

2009-07-12T22:19:00.012-04:00

"Call it what you like; rhythm and blues, or rock-a-billy, but the the beat is here to stay" Sandy Nelson

The long awaited mini album from Freelove Fenner will be available from this tuesday the 14th of July. (You can pre-order right now). Highly recomended for fans of the beat, well coiffed hooks and the fine pop song. Tight and efficient. Marvelous and velvety.

Tracklist:

1. New Direction
2. Mr. Rotcelloc
3. Song for a New Elf
4. Henrietta
5. Spirit
6. Felix
7. Out of Town
8. There is just no talking to you
9. Backwards-facing line

Freelove Fenner's myspace page.

*UPDATE. Freelove Fenner playing with Jason Lytle tonight! (Petit Campus)

Dirty Cassettes

2009-07-12T22:00:00.001-04:00

Dirty Beaches has a new six song tape coming out on the Night People label sometime in August. We were lucky enough to have an advance listen and its safe to say it includes some real talk. I would recommend keeping an eye out.

Tracks include two currently streaming on Dirty Beaches myspace, White Sands and Coast to Coast.

An e.p. from CRESTING

2009-06-16T00:16:00.011-04:00

Today marks the release of the debut album from Cresting. In some ways its a cd of mood; emotions locked in rays and waves of sound but I think the true joy in this collection of seven songs is its playfullness. It sounds like Cresting's man, Gabe Ng, had fun and in the process made many interesting moments for a listener. Non hooks abound (is there any sweeter kind of hook?).

Some more words about the album:

An e.p. is the debut album from Montreal-based recording artist, Cresting. This collection of pop compositions, meditations, and variations sits somewhere in the Dust Bowl of electronic music. The songs share in the warm glow of analog instruments and live lo-fi recording techniques, creating the fuzz, hiss, and hum that Cresting's Gabriel Ng treats like raw matter.

His melodies are sometimes nostalgic and always bright, floating around with clouds of colour that recall the sound collages of Valet or Belong. Rhythmically, Cresting brings to mind the modern minimalism of Steve Reich with the occasional injection of roughly sewn hip hop beats.

Listen and purchase the CD here.

A Building from Brave Radar out now

2009-05-26T17:07:00.009-04:00

It took us a year and then some. So many songs were recorded, so many beads sweated. I think it's the best thing brave radar have done. We're proud. Now we can start the next one!

You can check out tracks on our myspace or stream samples of the whole album (and order the album) on the fixture site here.

Dirty Beaches - West Coast Bird

2009-05-16T12:55:00.003-04:00

Detective story part 1.

All aboard?

The ghost train.

2009-05-14T15:10:00.003-04:00

If you are in Halifax on the 22nd, please make sure to check out Omon Ra's set as a part of this year's Obey Convention Festival. They are doing a 3-way-collaborative-set with Gown (Bark Haze with Thurston Moore) and Amanda Dawn Christie (Visual improvisations), they will also be putting out a tape! DO NOT MISS!!!

Show starts at 7pm and tickets are $8 while festival passes are $30.

More info here...

www.divorcerecords.ca
www.obeyconvention.blogspot.com

New Releases - Coming Soon - New Releases

2009-05-13T13:21:00.011-04:00

We have some new albums coming out on Fixture in the following months to get jazzed about.

Brave Radar - A Building (CD) May 18th

Cresting - Cresting (Debut Album) (CD and Cassette) June 15th

Freelove Fenner (highly anticipated new album) (CD) Mid July

There's going to be a a double release for the Brave Radar and Cresting albums taking place Playhouse (5656 Parc Ave) on Friday the 19th of June, featuring both bands and hopefully some special guests. More on this soon.

UPDATE: The release show includes special guests Beaver and Elenora Thompson (Caila from Shapes & Sizes). $6 at the door, show starts at 9pm.

Omon Ra Tapes!

2009-04-13T18:30:00.010-04:00

May is turning out to big a big month for Omon Ra, we have two tapes coming out, as well as collaborative set planned with Gown for Obey Convention III.

Both tapes are splits with fellow Halifax artists, the first being a release on Retirement Records with the band The Hostas, featuring more of our "out-there" experimentations! We are psyched to be doing a record with the Hostas and the artwork is fantastic.

The other, a split with Chris d'Eon on Divorce Records, features yet again a new direction in song writing and approach. The album is co-produced with Evan Cardwell, now a member of Husband and Knife and the man behind Secret Colours. Recorded in his studio with many instruments, mics, and channels, we pinned some our most ambitious, lush, and lovely sounding songs yet, we know you'll dig em. These tapes will be limited runs, so get 'em quick! Here's a video we made to help promote the release, much thanks to Joseph Mclaughlin for his awesome artwork he contributed. For those not familiar with Joe, he is an Omon Ra member at large, his poetry graces the back of our album "The Halls of Medicine," he has played and recorded with us numerous times, and is the drummer for the excellent band The Ether!

Alright that's all for now!

-Zachary Fairbrother

More Horror Reviews and Dirty Beaches in Shanghai

2009-03-18T17:30:00.004-04:00

Here are two new reviews of Dirty Beaches' Horror LP and one review of his recent show in Shanghai.

Steve Guimond for Ottawa XPress:

A neato, small-run release from Montreal's most excellent Fixture Records, home to the non-hits and all-originals. Dirty Beaches is Alex Zhang Hungtai and vice versa, a local experimental musician who hides in the shadows of the bigger players in town. The Horror LP is his second album proper, a collage of guests and noise and loose beats and sounds found, sampled and birthed, no words to be heard save for the nameless voices that float in and out from radio wave land. Cinematic at heart, this is the soundtrack to those lean, lonely, long nights.

Eric Hill for Exclaim.ca:

There is a peculiar strain of haunted electronics popping up lately that seem bent on exorcising the ghosts from the machines. Its proponents owe a debt to the deteriorating ambience of William Basinski and the abandoned industrial soundscapes of David Lynch. Artists like V/VM's James Kirby (recording as the Caretaker) and the Opalio brothers of Italy and their My Cat is an Alien project reach into the decaying guts of sound's mechanisms. Montreal's Alex Zhang Hungtai joins their ranks with his Dirty Beaches project. Like MCIAA, he follows a strict code of single takes but builds corroded layers of musical elements. Unlike the Opalios, he uses guitars, harmonica, drums and other actual instruments alongside his less identifiable noises and found sounds. While Horror's brief scenes strike a consistent mood closer to lassitude than actual horror, it feels like they need more bone and less of the pulverized meat that fell from it.

m. e. seeley for Layabozi:

[It] opened with Montreal-based Dirty Beaches, a lo-fi ‘call-it-pop’ project of Alex Zhang Hungtai. The space at YuYinTang was relatively empty when I pulled in and took a seat at the bar. Hungtai slipped the strap of his guitar around his neck and slapped the strings a few times, clicking at his pedals. He laid out a little riff over the drone of his guitar and let it loop, setting down his guitar and picking up the microphone. He unwound the cord. His step seemed light, relaxed, even bouncy, as if the stage were actually a hard mattress. The loop that he had thrown together was simple, a few slaps of the guitar and a quick riff, but it was enough of a backdrop. When Hungtai put the microphone close to his lips and began to croon, the sad turnout for the show seemed a good thing: it gave Dirty Beaches the intimate space that Hungtai’s sultry baritone and swaying, Lou Reed hips needed.

“I prefer to play alone. It’s easier,” says Hungtai. “ I only have to deal with myself.”
Hungtai began playing a few years ago and has released a string of EPs and LPs with Fixture Records. A number of his albums are available online.

“My music is pretty straightforward,” Hungtai tells me. “It’s pop. Verse-chorus-verse-chorus.”
That may be so, but, unlike pop, Dirty Beaches’ sound has a roughness to it, a reality that some of us—ye music elitists—have come to love and can only find in the scratchy records of Skip James and Pink Anderson (etcetera), but nowhere else. Dirty Beaches is a reminder that music is an attempt at communication—an imperfect attempt perhaps, but a heartfelt one. As I see it, the current trend of mass-produced, choreographed and contrived art is an assault on the creative impulse that stands as the last—and perhaps the only—distinction between us and them.

Dirty Beaches’ melodies are sparse and the lyrics unintelligible, but they are moving and pulsate with sex and longing and saltwater (Hungtai is a self-proclaimed ‘sailor at heart’). I found myself applauding a bit too loudly. I tried to whistle. If the goal of RESO is to spread the word about experimental music to the masses, then their invitation to Dirty Beaches was another step in the right direction.

Order Horror LP online.

Previously, Horror LP reviewed by Warren Ellis and Said The Gramophone.

Watch Horror LP music videos here.

Another side of Omon Ra

2009-02-27T18:18:00.005-05:00

From tomorrow, 28th of Feb 2009, you will be able to buy Omon Ra's first CD, Monolith 1, from Fixture Records. It's a fantastic album and will now come with 6 damn fine bonus tracks. Here is the tracklist:

1. Wabbi Sabbi
2. 200 Miles
3. Aubade
4. Don't be a Tack
5. Watch Me Start Fires
6. Hotel
7. Rice in a Bag on the Counter
8. Countrymen
9. Sleeve
10. How High the Moon
11. Little Flower
12. At Martinique
13. Simorgh

Bonus Tracks

1. Miniatures and Dumb Animals
2. Whilhelmsen (Alternate Take)
3. Runny Nose
4. Missing the Benzene
5. Illullaby
6. Bloody Nose

Here are two of my many favourite tracks:

Sleeve
How High the Moon

BACK to the FUTURE: Monolith 1

2009-02-22T22:50:00.005-05:00

Omon Ra will be re-releasing their first CD, Monolith 1, on Fixture. It will be available from February 28th and it's mighty. The songs from Monolith 1 are what first won us over to the band. Zach and Dan's freewheeling pop sensibilites really stand out. I'm going to post more on this tomorrow with an mp3 or two.

Ultramarine EP reviewed on Exclaim.ca

2009-01-21T19:21:00.005-05:00

Our Ultramarine EP came out kinda quietly last October (in time for the Fixture Records Showcase at Pop Montreal) and we haven't really done much in the way of press for it. It's an album in between albums, a way to get back into the full length record that we started last year and which we've almost finished! (it comes out in March)

Here's a nice review of Ultramarine that we just received on Exclaim.ca:

With a full-length out early last year and another just around the corner, Brave Radar have dropped some mid-album action with the Ultramarine EP, a seven-track, 13-minute burst of loose lo-fi pop. In some ways, this release picks up where the Montreal outfit's debut, Distracting Stranger, left off, further expanding on the innocent sophistication of the Softies and Beat Happening with soft-voiced boy-girl harmonies, jangling guitar lines and homespun tape hiss. However, this time Brave Radar have also taken their sound a little more left-of-centre and injected it with a dose of freeform avant-pop weirdness (think Tori Kudo's Maher Shalal Hash Baz). At times, this makes for some forgettable moments, such as the awkwardly paced "Beast" and "Coffee." But most often Brave Radar get it right, holding together the loose, offbeat structures with just enough hooks, like on clear standout "Sternwall." Ultramarine is by no means perfect but does make Brave Radar's upcoming album worth looking forward to.

- Brock Thiessen, Exclaim.ca

Photo: Emily Deimert

COULEES LIVE!!

2009-01-13T13:16:00.011-05:00

Head & Hands and the Playhouse present:

Faggity Ass Fridays: Teenager Night!

Don’t you wish your teen years could have been spent hangin’ with faggity ass queers? Well now they can! Join us at The Playhouse on January 23rd as we honour the good ole years of adolescence. Teenagers always have the fiercest style. Dress up how you dressed in High School, just without all the angst. And OMG can you believe that bands The Coulees & Nightwood are going to be performing? DJs Taurus and docroot will get you hyped up on the dance floor and out waaay past your curfew.

(source)

Friday, January 23rd, 2008

10pm-3am

The Playhouse (5656 Avenue du Parc)
$10 suggested donation; all money goes to the Sense Project,
Head & Hands’ holistic, queer-friendly sex education program.

Bird EP (Post 2)

2008-12-25T16:42:00.009-05:00

Photo by Velvet Chrome

Happy Holidays!

To kick off 2009, Fixture is very happy to be releasing a brand new album from Dirty Beaches. Bird EP is a wonderful, smokey, film noir day trip and another variation in process and genre for DB. Elements of jazz and orchestration are incorporated but the strongest element as with previous albums is Dirty Beaches gorgeous melodic sensibilities. From the first of January you will be able to download the album for a mere FIVE dollars. See this earlier pos t from Alex (Dirty Beaches) including some mp3s from the EP.

(((Black X-Mas))) Performance Video

2008-12-16T12:04:00.004-05:00

Here's a video kindly taken by Howard Harawitz of me and P.J.'s performance last weekend at the Lost and Found.

-Z

(((Black X-mas)))

2008-12-12T16:36:00.003-05:00

Hello I am participating in a mini "Christmas Music" festival this weekend being hosted by the friendly people and friends of Divorce Records and the Lost & Found.
All for a good cause, sorry for the lateness on this! here's the press release....

-Z

BLACK XMAS

December 12-14th
Lost & Found - 2383 Agricola St.

Celebrate (((Black))) Xmas at Lost & Found with far-out sounds, new art, food+drink, and big time sales. The entire weekend is FREE to attend, but we will be accepting donations for the Canadian Cancer Society.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Friday, December 12th
6PM-9PM

ART OPENING

Recent Works by:

Sojourner Truth
Natalie Howard
Julia Kennedy

performance by : Ghost Bees

promotional support from Eyelevel Gallery

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Saturday, December 13th

SOUNDZZZ

1:45PM- WARGAZ
"Wargaz is the post-industrial folk drone experimentations of Ryan Kirk."

2:30PM- ZACHARY FAIRBROTHER + PJ HARVEY
"Long tones and loose change, two amps, two, guitars, two ebows, mixer, Saxophones...."

3:15PM- SLAYTOR
"computers and delay boxes??"

4:00PM- A.S. PEARSON
"Solo analog synthesizer from D/A A/D front man Alex Pearson, if D/A A/D is the storm this is the calm."

4:45PM- ALBERTASAURUS
"Armed with science and technology, Albertasaurus brings together analog synth, sampled beats and tons of noise in a cacophonous roar that will show you how to get your prehistoric on."

5:30PM- COMBAT
"Skree/skronk deployed to stab ears and dry tears."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sunday, December 14th

MORE SOUNDZZZ

2:30PM- OBLAST
"This minimalist, ambient project uses looped theremin-like tones to make space rock without the rock."

3:15PM- CHIEF THUNDERCLOUD
"chief thundercloud performs/records with himself/his friends at home/somewhere else. At black christmas he plans to play alot of tapes at once."

4:00PM - TROY RICHTER
"Troy Richter is a half decent guitar player working on his first novel, but he won't be playing guitar today."

4:45PM - SECRET COLOURS
"Secret Colours...sound collage, pouring insides out?"

5:30PM - LUKAS PEARSE
"My pic-nic model gramophone and vintage Illustravox amp/turntable combo have been itching to get under the mistletoe with my laptop and kaoss pads..."

Dirty Beaches Bird EP

2008-12-09T00:49:00.008-05:00

hey folks, been working on this EP over the past 2 months, finally transfered it from tape to digital, it will be available for download pretty soon. Here are some sample tracks. Gonna take a mini break from music after this one and tackle the short story and short films I've been working on, and resume back to finishing the 3rd LP since its been giving me heart burns through out the past 2 months. Can't wait to leave this shit ass weather behind.

alex

Dirty Beaches- West Coast Bird
Dirty Beaches- O'Farrell

2008-11-30T11:36:00.003-05:00

Hello all just to let you know I will be playing in a really neat concert coming up. I'll be playing in two classics of the minimalist school, so if you're around check it out! I'll include some links to videos of the works if you are not fimilar. I call Worker's Union the math rock one and In C the post rock one. In C interestingly enough has been played by some rock bands including Acid Mothers Temple. Anyways here's the press release...

"suddenlyLISTEN Music and Kumquat New Music team up to present a concert of classic new music by Louis Andriessen, and Terry Riley; brand new music by Jerome Blais and old but new music by Mozart.

7pm Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The Music Room
5181 Lady Hammond Road
$15, available at the door

Simon Docking, piano
Suzanne Lemieux, oboe
Susan Sayle, viola
Norman Adams, cello
PJ Harvey, and Mike MacKenzie, saxophones
Zachary Fairbrother, guitar
Alex Cook, percussion

What ties all this music together? Good question.

All these composers used improvisation or chance in their pieces.

Louis Andriessen wrote Workers Union in 1975, at a time when the Labour Movement in the Netherlands was beginning. In this piece he dictates the rhythms but only gives the performers a suggestion of the notes they can play. He tells performers: "Only in the case of every player playing with such an intention that their part is an essential one, the work will succeed; just as in the political work." It’s scored for "any loud sounding group of instruments".

At the opposite end of the scale is Terry Riley and his piece In C. This is a seminal piece of minimalism where the performers are given a series of cells, of a few notes. The performers are instructed to play the cells and repeat them, stop and start as they please working through the series to find a common end. It is a harmonious and fun piece with changing textures and grooves and melodies that emerge and recede spontaneously.

Halifax composer and Dalhousie Music Professor Jérôme Blais, composes music that generally leaves a lot to the performer, he gives instructions and suggestions but rarely dictates to the performers. In Conductus 1 the composer usually conducts an improvisation based on his vision. In our performance, I’m not sure how much he’s going to do!

In 1787, Mozart wrote the measures and instructions for a musical composition dice game. The idea is to cut and paste pre-written measures of music together to create a Minuet. We select the measures by rolling a dice to put the measures in order, and play the result: A little luck, a little Mozart.

Performers are Kumquat Curator Simon Docking, piano; SNS principal oboist Suzanne Lemieux; SNS principal violist Susan Sayle; SNS principal cellist and suddenlyLISTEN Artistic Director Norman Adams. Also participating are four Dalhousie Music students: PJ Harvey, and Mike MacKenzie, saxophones; Zachary Fairbrother, guitar, and Alex Cook, percussion."

Videos

Worker's Union
In C

-Zachary Fairbrother

Astral Projection Radio Show

2008-11-25T15:12:00.003-05:00

I have started a new radio show on CKDU entitled Astral Projection. The plan is to mix genres such as electro-acoustic, noise, drone, black metal, doom, experimental, and avant-garde musics much like a dance dj would. I try to create a sound world encouraging the audience to leave their physical body and into the depths of the imagination. Read all about it here.

The first mix is up for download so have a listen!!!

-Zachary Fairbrother

Mixtapes Mess

2008-11-14T18:09:00.003-05:00

Fixture is taking part in the next Indyish monthly show on Monday, December 1st. The theme is mixtapes, so bring your own song or sound piece on a usb and we'll be burning mix cds with everyone's contributions live from the show.

Entrance is pay-what-you-can and you get a free mix cd if you bring a song. Mix cds are $1 if you just come for the show.

Performers include Dr. Will Straw (words) with DJ Opositive (beats, visuals), Dr. Tina Piper with George Blott (live illustrations), and Emilie Marzinotto from Receivers and Fraser Macdougal from FM Hi Low playing short musical sets.

Monday, December 1st
Show starts 9:30pm
at Blizzarts (3956-A St. Laurent)

More details and links for performers on the Indyish blog

BeatRoute reviews Halls of Medicine

2008-11-13T14:04:00.004-05:00

Calgary's monthly, BeatRoute Magazine reviewed Omon Ra's The Halls of Medicine in their October issue.

Read more reviews of The Halls of Medicine here and here

Listen to The Halls of Medicine

Omon Ra Live Recordings for Download

2008-11-11T23:05:00.008-05:00

picture taken by Elana Mayers

Hello all! I have begun to upload some of the Omon Ra live catalogue for all of you to download and listen online. We currently have 7 up right now but I hope to get as many as possible up dating back to almost our first show! Lots of drunk, sloppy, bombastic performances, too weird spiritual jams and quiet folk sets, to sheets of noise. So check it out and judge for yourself and in honor of this occasion I have uploaded a rather rock n' roll version of an unreleased song called "Tongues." I think that was probably the second or third song me and Dan wrote together. Anyways its from our Live at Tribecca gig along side Scribbler and we got a Magician to go around the audience. It features long time Ra collaborator and close friend Ryan Kirk on Trumpet, Aaron Mangle from the very good project "A Helpful Diagram" and at one time he drummed for hippy rock group "A Band of Owls" and Newsomites "The Ghost Bees", and our crazy friend Matthew Gallant who plays extra percussion including roto-toms... its absolutely ridiculous and we had way too much beer but its awesome, I particularly like my guitar solo! Anyways enjoy! And keep posted for more updates!

-Z

November 24, 2007 at Erin's House

Live at Reflections December 12, 2007

Live at Tribecca February 6, 2008

August 19, 2008 at Gus' Pub

Live at the Fjort August 23, 2008

August 27, 2008 at Reflections

CKDU Benefit Show September 24, 2008

Reviews of Horror

2008-11-10T22:54:00.013-05:00

Dirty Beaches' new album, Horror LP has been getting some blog love recently.

Warren Ellis posted the video for "In Dreams" and described the album as:

Grainy nightmare drones and clanks creeping out of a radio tuned to somewhere we’re not supposed to know about. On "In Dreams," you can hear other frequencies spilling over into it, and can begin to imagine a wrong time where this sort of dissociating, pulsing noise actually emanates from car stereos and in-store sound systems. This is one of the great powers of music, for me — it activates the imagination.

From Sean at Said the Gramophone:

Fifteen thousand years from now & every human being is dead. Waves play on an empty sand. Lizards lie on rocks, blinking. Dragonflies weave round raspberry brambles. A cocker spaniel stands knee-deep in saltwater and feels like she's forgotten something important.

Sean described the songs on Horror as, "the best dream instrumentals since William Basinski's Disintegration Loops and Vincent Gallo's When."

* * *

Watch all the videos for Horror in this playlist. You can listen to 30 seconds of every song before you order your copy of Horror for only $7 direct from us.

Brenden Orange Album

2008-10-16T14:05:00.004-04:00

On the 21st of October you will be able to download a whole album (14 songs) that Brenden has recorded over the last year or so. I am very excited about it. It's a bit of a magic album that works both great as a whole, with songs falling in and out of each other, hugging and laughing and as a compilation of singles that fall in and out of themselves hugging and dancing. And it's going to be free. FREE! it should cost a lot more than that. Here are some preview tracks.

Brenden Orange - The Saddest Prose
Brenden Orange - Red Bricks Burgundy

Modern Mummies:

Dirty Beaches at Pop Montreal

2008-10-14T19:22:00.002-04:00

Postcards at Pop Montreal

2008-10-14T19:22:00.001-04:00

Freelove Fenner at Pop Montreal

2008-10-14T19:19:00.000-04:00

2008-10-10T15:53:00.004-04:00

Hello all, just an update. Tomorrow night Omon Ra will be playing the Husband and Knife LP release show. Husband and Knife is the one man band of Casey Spidel known for playing in groups such as Dog Day, The Hold, and Attack Mode. He is releasing his second album called "An End" on Divorce Records.

Also we are really excited to be playing with Andrew MacGreger aka Gown. Andrew is a long time Thurston Moore Collaborator. He plays in the improvising guitar duo (sometimes trio) Bark Haze along side Mr. Moore. Last year Andrew did a highly acclaimed collaborative record with psychedelic free-k rock group Sunburned Hand of The Man as a sort of goodbye to his former home in Massachusetts. Andrew's music has been described as "noise" but he even finds this too easy of a description. Anyways I am very excited to hear what he will play and this show can be seen as a sort of hello to his new home, Andrew moved to Nova Scotia a little over a year ago and this will be his first show in his new home. He also will be releasing a record on Halifax's Divorce Records. I emailed him and he is very excited to play and happy in his new home so let's hope he sticks around, maybe he'll a collab record with us!

And speaking of us, Omon Ra, this show will be our last for awhile to come, me and Dan really want to focus on recording and getting another solid record together. We have right now 8 songs we want to record and tons of new gear and tools to try out. Tomorrow's show will for sure be our most ambitious, we will be joined by 7 other musicians (4 percussionists, string bass, french horn, and organ) and doing a very intricate set, including two covers, one by Leonard Cohen and the other by the Swans. We will be recording this show and probably posting it. We have a ton of past live recordings I hope to upload to archive.org. Anyways if any of you are out east check out the show, info is on the poster just click it!

We are expecting a lot of people at the show because You Say Party We Say Die will be playing above us along with a couple of other electro rock bands.

Here are some links of interest.

Gown interview and CBC radio 3 page.

Husband and Knife interview and myspace.

-Z

Brave radar at Pop montreal

2008-10-08T13:43:00.001-04:00

Cresting at pop montreal

2008-10-08T13:42:00.000-04:00

Coulees at pop montreal

2008-10-08T13:41:00.000-04:00

Thank you!!

2008-10-07T14:41:00.006-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came to our Pop showcase on Friday and visited us over the weekend at our table at the Puces Pop record sale!

We're really sorry that the live-stream didn't come together for those who may have been watching from abroad. Internet at the venue ended up being too unreliable, but we're definitely going to try again next time.

We've got video of most of show, which we'll be uploading along with photos today and tomorrow.

New Review

2008-10-06T14:43:00.006-04:00

Well we have another fantastic review for our album "The Halls of Medicine." This one appears in the October 2 version of the Dal Gazette. As far as I know there is no online location so I had to rip it out and scan it, but here it is in all its glory!

-Zachary Fairbrother

Watch our showcase LIVE online

2008-10-01T16:38:00.004-04:00

So here's the deal: On Friday, six of our bands are playing a Fixture Records Showcase at Pop Montreal. If you're in Montreal, you should come! It's $6, so that's $1 per band. $1 for each hour of musical entertainment. Not bad.

Listen to some of the bands playing in this podcast.

If you can't be in Montreal for the festival (you're missing out) we've set things up so you can still watch the show! I can say with 94% confidence that we're the only show at Pop Montreal this year that will be BROADCAST LIVE to the internet. Be a part of future internet history!

In between acts, we'll try to do some exciting interviews and behind-the-scenes coverage. Write us a comment if you have ideas about what we should film.

---

To watch live:

Visit [www.fixture-records.com]

Friday, October 3rd

8pm Eastern Time

---

To make things easier on our potential audience (ie. our parents), here are some handy conversions for time zones where people are likely to be watching.

Hi Halifax, Nova Scotia! 9pm-3am
Hey Sydney, Australia! 10am-4pm (Saturday)

Many many thanks to *safesolvent for helping us set up the live-stream.

Fixture Podcast #2: Pop Montreal 2008 preview

2008-09-30T17:57:00.008-04:00

A podcast of brand new tracks from our fall releases, plus a few unreleased exclusives, and an interview with Gabriel Ng of Cresting and Brave Radar.

>> Listen to the podcast!

Track listing:

Omon Ra - “Cakes of Light” (from the album The Halls of Medicine, available here)

Dirty Beaches - “Sea Drift” (from Horror LP, which comes out today!)

Brave Radar - “Beasts” (from Ultramarina EP, will be available at Pop Montreal)

Cresting - “Cardiacal” (unreleased)

Interview with Cresting

Freelove Fenner - “Song for the new elf” (unreleased)

U.S. Girls - “A day at the races” (myspace)

Brenden Orange - “Red bricks burgundy” (from download-only release, coming out October 21st)

See these bands and more at the Fixture Records Showcase at Pop Montreal

Watch live from home on: Fixture-Records.com

Feats of Strength Compilation CD

2008-09-29T14:25:00.003-04:00

Brave Radar has two tracks on a new Feats of Strength compilation. Download the 20 song album with artwork by Tyler K. Rauman for free by clicking the cover.

01 Valleys - Killer Legs
02 Tune-Yards - Sunlight
03 Paper Tiger - Better Now
04 Mussaver f. RCG - Daredevil
05 Elfin Saddle - Kaila’s Song
06 Aww Shucks - Tearin’ it Up
07 Weather Weather - Coat Check
08 Brave Radar - Lava and Magma
09 Hi, Lonely Oak - My Baby with her Castanets
10 My People Sleeping - Blue Dust
11 Aww Shucks - Badabum
12 The Orange Gates - A Bloody Trail
13 Brave Radar - The Hills are on Fire
14 Sarah Mangle f. Richard Laviolette - Dave End Song
15 Abigail Lapell - Shoes
16 Weather Weather - Bees
17 Hi, Lonely Oak - Let Me Die in the Morning
18 Brian Seeger - Baked Apples
19 Sarah Mangle - Rain
20 Reversing Falls - Oh Guitar

Fixture at the Puces Pop Record Sale

2008-09-25T11:43:00.003-04:00

We'll be tabling all next weekend (Oct 4th and 5th) at the Puces Pop Record Sale and Gear Swap, as part of Pop Montreal. We'll have copies of all our releases, plus 2 brand new albums (Horror by Dirty Beaches and a Brave Radar EP) and a comp we made over the summer.

From 1-4, bring your old amps and guitars and trade with other people for new gear!

FREE shows both days:

Saturday Oct. 4
3pm Laura Barrett
4pm Aleks and the Drummer (Chicago)
5pm Heidi Mortenson (Berlin)
6pm 215: The Freshest Kidz (Chicago)

Sunday Oct. 5th
2pm Hi lonely Oak
3pm Echoes Still Singing Limbs
4pm Lucy and the Popsonics (Brazil)
5pm Tuneyards
6pm Ladyfingers (NYC)

Details:
Puces Pop Record Sale and Gear Swap
at Sport Montreal Benfica - 100 Bernard West
11am-7pm
FREE

HORROR LP - An Interview with Dirty Beaches

2008-09-22T00:41:00.015-04:00

We recently put a few questions to Dirty Beaches about his upcoming album Horror LP.

FIXTURE: Your new album is completely instrumental but it doesn’t feel like a drastic departure from your last CD, Old Blood, some of the same musical themes and tones are present here. It was recorded very differently though, live, no multitracking. How did the recording process and instrumental approach affect the songwriting? And could you explain the recording process briefly?

DIRTY BEACHES: At the time I was really into the idea of the live takes being irreversible, most of the tracks I used on the album were the first or second takes. I was obsessed with the idea of not looking back. In a sense, its very much like the process of accumulating experience. I was more interested in capturing certain moods, rather than constructing songs with vocals, so in that sense the writing was limited to a stripped down, bare ass minimal approach, which creates space and characterizes the sound. The sound becomes your leading man.

FIXTURE: The album is called Horror LP, I was wondering if you considered Horror to be fully fledged theme for the album or more of a starting point? If it is a theme, do you see it as a cinematic reference? The song titles seem to suggest scenes and vignettes.

DIRTY BEACHES: The whole album was an experience of horror. Like therapy.

I wanted to record it.

There were no particular references to a certain film, the album was to be billed as HORROR, and was designed to be like road music, something that you can pop into your car stereo when your driving on the road at night, or when your riding a train going somewhere far by yourself. I made up track titles after the completion of the album in order to give it some sense of narration. Which is a very film like approach. And it was fun doing it. So now its kind of like a road movie.

Horror LP will be available on the 30th of September. Preview some tracks (accompanied by great videos also by Dirty Beaches): In Dreams, Love is a fog, and Boxcar.

Omon Ra review in The Coast

2008-09-20T15:10:00.004-04:00

Halifax's arts weekly, The Coast, published a review of Omon Ra's The Halls of Medicine in this week's paper:

Read the review online.

Dirty Beaches Horror Preview #3

2008-09-15T15:08:00.004-04:00

The Halls of Medicine by Omon Ra out now!

2008-09-12T12:24:00.008-04:00

Start scrambling kids.

Omon Ra's excellent second album "The Halls of Medicine" is officially in stores this week!

We put previews of every song up on our website, so you can listen here:
----> Mmmm

If you're in Halifax, stop by Lost and Found, Taz Records, and CD Plus to buy a copy for around $10.

Mailorders (Canada, U.S., Int'l) are available on our site
----> http://www.fixture-records.releases.html/

You can also order the CD through Divorce Distro and Indyish.com

Dirty Beaches Horror Music Video part 2

2008-08-25T22:15:00.000-04:00

Omon Ra at house show in Halifax

2008-08-24T23:59:00.001-04:00

I'm visiting my family in Halifax so I got a chance to see Omon Ra play a house show last night. This is a video I took of the last song of their set, Pearl of Peru. They were joined by three friends on (really zealous) percussion. There was air organ and throat chanting and intensity. At the end of their set they got up and sang and drummed their way out of the room and into the backyard.

Dirty Beaches Horror Video

2008-08-21T12:05:00.001-04:00

U.S Girls show at Friendship Cove

2008-08-17T18:47:00.003-04:00

The videos for these are just black since it was pretty dark at Friendship Cove. The audio is there though. The show itself was wicked. It was an early show with Love Like Deloreans, Cresting, Triceratreetops, and our new buddie, U.S. Girls (Megan).

Cresting

U.S. Girls

The rooftop show

2008-08-17T15:22:00.004-04:00

Here are my videos from the rooftop show at Alex and Andrew's on Friday. The photos are Megan's.

Brave Radar

Dirty Beaches

U.S. Girls

I stopped filming this next one right as U.S. Girls stopped playing because the landlord called the cops...

Videos from Omon Ra visit

2008-08-11T16:49:00.004-04:00

Here are a few videos I took of Omon Ra practicing with Alex (Dirty Beaches) and Conor (Brave Radar, Coulees, Fixture). This was the day before their cd release show at Divan Orange. I thought the sound in our apartment was incredible, but my camera doesn't really capture it.

First post

2008-08-11T16:15:00.003-04:00

Hey, ok so we got the blog set up! Fun-ness is sure to follow.

-T