21 January 2012

[DISCOGRAPHY] Agar Agar



Agar Agar (Blastocoel Sound, 2012)
Blastocoel zero zero One
Format: CD (limited edition of 100), Digital

1. Trees Sweat Heat
2. Cedar Hives
3. Quarry Diving
4. You brought me to the country!
5. Argaarg

this all happened August 2006 at 
Cybelle's hobbit house in Hillsborough, NC
recorded live/no dubs


Wylie Pamplin played bass.
WIlliam J Bratcher played guitar. 
Zachary mastoon plaYed drums
pots and pans. Benjamin T 
played voice, tape and sampler. 
mastered by WJ Bratcher.visuals by
M Hart, W Taylor and B trueblood. 
Thanks to all makers, friend family
season Bellweather MFG and you.
This is Blastocoel zero zero One.

In August of 2006, I was on a break from touring and visited my dear friend Benjamin Trueblood in North Carolina. It was incredibly hot. At night, warm whisky in coffee mugs guided us down the sidewalk-less streets. Cicadas buzzed as if through a humming amplifier, its tubes glowing like glass suns - or the soft light from quiet windows overlooking overgrown, fragrant lawns. By day, driving with the car windows down was our air conditioning and a Spine Scavenger cassette was our soundtrack. We picked fresh mint for juleps, tried to drive out snakes from the walls of a friend's dusty home, and dove in a quarry with screaming teenagers to wash the heat away.

One evening, we wandered to Ben's friend Wiley's house who I had never met. He and his friend William had set up a makeshift studio in the living room. There were guitars, colorful effects pedals, a bass, a drum set with a host of jangly percussion and pans surrounding it on the carpet, and cables winding to microphones and towering speakers. Ben had brought his loop pedal and field recordings captured on his micro cassette recorder, and in the fridge was Yerba Mate soda we mixed with whisky and ice.

I sat down on the drums, instruments were slung over shoulders, Ben knelt on the floor and cued up indescribable sounds to echo and filter through tiny knobs, and someone pressed "record". This is the vestige of that summer night's improvisation, now a limited-edition, hand-numbered release on Ben's Blastocoel Sound.

http://agaragaraga.bandcamp.com/

14 June 2011

[DISCOGRAPHY] Universus Vol. 1



Universus Vol. 1 (Circuitree Records, 2011)
CIRC014
Format: Digital


Misel Quitno - Im Halbhohen Gras (Caural Remix)


(taken from Sleep Over Remixes Vol. 1 (Ehstrawlogy, Ish))

13 April 2011

[DISCOGRAPHY] Die Before You Die


Die Before You Die (Eat Concrete, 2011)
EAT023
Format: 10" EP, Digital

1. Sugar Cane Girlfriend
2. Dragon Top
3. All Doors Open to the Same Room
4. Sunburned
5. Sorry, Underground Hip Hop Happened Ten Years Ago (for Regan)

One-sheet

Over the last ten years, bouncing back and forth from Chicago to NYC, Zachary Mastoon composed a diverse and critically-acclaimed catalog under the alias Caural. Pressing wax for such labels as Chocolate Industries, Mush, Plug Research, Sound in Color and many others, his song-oriented compositions and flair for unique sonic juxtaposition continue to set him apart from his contemporaries in the beat scene. Yet it was only by default - and much to his dismay - that he found himself pigeonholed by any one genre. Having come from a lifetime of recorded music (some of his earliest released work was done when he was 6 years old), a pursuit of jazz guitar studies with avant-garde giant Anthony Braxton (and even a journey sailing around the world playing Javanese Gamelan) Caural engages in SOUND more than form.

However, always in search of the next step, Caural began bidding adieu to the electronic format, but not before finishing his swan song of sorts, 'Sorry, Underground Hip Hop Happened Ten Years Ago (for Regan)'. Titled after the self-deprecating joke his touring mate Busdriver had donned on a tee-shirt, this rhythmic sound piece - constructed entirely out of vocal samples of the word "yo" and the incidental sounds accompanying them - is a brilliant, fragmented journey through some of Mastoon's favorite moments in hip-hop; in some ways, it was also his way of saying goodbye to it.

And 'Die Before You Die' is exactly that: a collection of some of the last material Caural produced before his signature Yamaha SU700 sampler was stolen from his apartment, which proved to be an ironic epilogue for Mastoon's musical alter-ego. From the driving, futuristic atmosphere of 'Dragon Top' through the head-nodding, warm crackles of 'Sunburned', to 'All Doors Open to the Same Room' (a short and ominous piece based on the beep of his friend Feltbattery's mini-disc recorder capturing a hive of bees), 'Die Before You Die' is a limited edition must-have for any fan of Caural's or music alike. Pressed on 10 inch coloured vinyl.

Quotes

"Sick!!!!!!" - Aardvarck

"'Caural almost died in a plane crash after playing L.A in 2006 and I'm glad he didn't because he makes beautiful fucking music!'' - Kutmah

"Tasty hot weather jams!" - Baconhead

"these are polished representations of his distinct choppy beats" - URB Magazine

"'Sunburned' and 'Sorry, underground hiphop..' are favourites" - Lefto

"..exactly my kind of music, will recommend it for sure! - Fulgeance

"..the music on this EP makes you realize how forward thinking his music has been over the last ten years" - Boomkat

"this is awesome!" - Wassim / Centrifuge

"Really cool and diverse EP and 'Sorry underground hip hop..' is funny as hell!!" - James Barrie / Global Souljah

"'Dragon Top' is the pick of these. Lovely synth work" - David Grinell / Donkey Pitch

29 March 2011

[DISCOGRAPHY] Jed And Lucia - Quiet On The Freeway Mix - Andrew Meza's BTS Radio




Jed And Lucia - Quiet On The Freeway Mix - Andrew Meza's BTS Radio 
(BTS Radio, 2011) 
BTSMX043
Format: Digital Only

"GB – Nocturnal Tribe (Caural Remix)"

Available for download on Andrew Meza's BTS Radio - www.btsradio.com





24 March 2011

Caural X KRTS X Ampsoul By Jay Scarlett

Caural's Afterlife Now Mix by Krts


To promote my upcoming 10" as Caural, Die Before You Die, my good friend Krts put together this fantastic mix of my material from over the last eleven years - check it out:


http://i.mixcloud.com/CUFix



09 March 2011

Upcoming Limited-Edition Caural and Boy King Islands Colored Vinyl Available for Pre-Order!

Caural - Die Before You Die (Available April 15th)

"Die Before You Die" is my farewell to electronic music and the Caural alias for now… The last 12 years have been fun, and this very limited-edition, colored vinyl 10" on Eat Concrete compiles some of the last music I made before I retired my sampler to a closet to be stolen. Oh well.

PRE-ORDER @ Rush Hour: http://rushhour.nl/store_detailed.php?item=58781

A couple full songs to stream:

http://soundcloud.com/caural/dragon-top

http://soundcloud.com/eatconcrete/caural-sugarcane-girlfriend


Boy King Islands - Fall VINYL! (Available May 13th)

While we are hard at work on a new album with Dan Smart of the Field Auxillary on the boards, Eat Concrete is pressing our debut, Fall, on limited edition-colored vinyl!

PRE-ORDER @ Rush Hour: http://rushhour.nl/store_detailed.php?item=58782

The album is also available on iTunes, Amazon, and other fine digital retailers, and of course there are still some copies left on
cassette for you folks with boomboxes and Walkmans:

http://plustapes.com/?p=629

15 February 2011

[DISCOGRAPHY] Four Seasons Series: Summer - EP

Four Seasons Series: Summer - EP (Organik Records, 2011)
ORG7011
Format: 7", Digital

"Sorry, Underground Hip Hop Happened 10 Years Ago (For Regan)"

One-sheet
Caural of Mush Records and Chocolate Industries fame returns with a historical ode to “Golden Era” Hip Hop titled “Sorry, Underground Hip Hop Happened 10 Years Ago (For Regan)”. Taking over 450 samples of the word "YO" from his collection of rap albums (either alone or with snares, kicks, hi-hats, chords and bass tones), Caural builds the piece bar by bar - and beat by beat! - producing a rhythmic experience of memory overload for Hip Hop heads. Ras G utilized this track in his Beat Soup Vol 1 mix CD, and it has laced the sets of many other producers in the exploding L.A. beat scene.