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Witcyst

Celebrate Psi Phenomenon

Celebrate Psi Phenomenon is a drone, noise and experimental music-focused label from Upper Hutt’s Campbell Kneale, the prolific performer behind Birchville Cat Motel and Black Boned Angel. The label often utilises a distinctive wallpaper aesthetic to their cover designs.

The label was particularly prolific from the mid 1990s until around 2008.

#nzmusic #experimentalmusic #dronemusic #celebratepsiphenomenon

Root Don Lonie For Cash

Prolific cassette, CDr and lathe-cut label run by Clayton Noone (aka CJA) and utilised by a fair few New Zealand (and some overseas) artists since the mid 1990s. Their first few years of releases had distinctive spray-painted covers. The original Don Lonie was billed as ‘America’s No. 1 high-school assembly speaker’, who recorded several albums for popular Christian record labels in the early 1960s.

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Apoplexy

Fine formerly Christchurch-based (their first release was a 7″ Lathe by Atonal Death in 1998), that released 18 experimental or ambient productions between 1998 and 2003, before label-head Peter Wright moved to London in 2003.

Ever-linked with the similarly-focused kRkRkRk label (who also release Wright’s material), Apoplexy has a less industrial focus, releasing artists such as Polio, Antony Milton, and with a back-catalog that includes material as varied as Atonal Death and Nick Hodgsons’ CM Ensemble material.

1/3 Octave Band

A Bill Wood and Jules Desmond ambient/noise/drone duo from Wellington, sometimes with contributions from Ben Spiers. Quite a pleasant listen as far as drone recordings go – their recordings often posses a haunting quality.

Crawlspace

Not-quite defunct label based out of an Auckland record store that put out several limited edition underground releases in the 90s and early 00s. One compilation of this material (Fit for Kings) was actually issued on well-known US indie Drunken Fish.

Since the closure of the Crawlspace record store, Crawlspace have been limited to short one-off 7″ releases and casually distribution through mail-order and the K-road market. Truly worth visiting, the market is the place to go to find one-off Snapper and Victor Dimisich Band 7″s, and a variety of abstract low run vinyl releases and even imports.

Witcyst

Perhaps the most prolific artist new zealand has ever produced, Michael Veet Ruiliude has produced as Witcyst, or as an number of his other mysterious alias, Veetjist, M. W. Vit, Wytcystallio, Mxvxwx, Thighte Whistle, or a handful of groups –… Read More »Witcyst

Armpit

Biography Hugely prolific duo CJA (aka Clayton Noone) and Sugar Jon, who have released a never-ending stack of albums for the likes of Root Don Lonie For Cash, PseduoArcana, Own Recordings, Freedom From… Members Clayton Noone (Guitar/Keyboard/Vocals/Drums/Tapes, 1993? -) Sugar Jon (Guitar/Keyboard/Vocals/Drums/Clarinette,… Read More »Armpit

Atonal Death

Biography An alias of Apoplexy‘s Peter Wright, utilized during the late 90’s (often for treated guitar pieces). Members Peter Wright (Guitar/Production/Electronics) Discography Olympic / Duress (Parts 1 & 2) 7″ Lathe EP (1998, Apoplexy, APX01) Plasma Cassette (1998, Apoplexy, APX02) Hinter… Read More »Atonal Death