New Dumbass Album: Robbing Graves

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Robbing Graves, the new album

Robbing Graves0“The negative form of the self exercises a loosening power as well as a binding power; at any time it can quite arbitrarily start all over again, and no matter how long one idea is pursued, the entire action is within a hypothesis.”

 

Robbing Graves is the new release from Dumbass.

It is an intense expressionist and experimental suite of music in two parts. The first part (the title track), is a 54 minute piece of music that is both sonically and lyrically challenging. It is deeply intertextual, both formalist and freeform, with lyrics in 4 languages, and music that moves from minimal and quiet to brash and noisy.

Robbing Graves weaves the past and present together, figuratively and literally through extensive use of archival recordings and incisive self-reflection.

The second part plays more like a traditional album, with more manageable song lengths, but it is in fact a continuation of an overarching narrative that moves, from bar 1 of part 1 towards its inevitable conclusion in the final song.

The album is available to download for free here at the Dumbass website.

Robbing Graves PortfolioIt is also available in a portfolio edition, with 2 CDs, a liner-book, and 4 hand printed woodcuts. Contact us through the Trash Records Facebook page if you are interested.

Finally, you can also stream the first Part of the album on youtube and vimeo.

New Pin Album: Internet Sarcasm

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P13 Internet SarcasmHere is the new album from Pin, “Internet Sarcasm.” We hope you enjoy it.

TRACKS:

01 FASTER, TASTIER, & ABOVE ALL, EASIER

02 IS THIS TODAY?

03 PRODUCTION IS EASY

04 THE NEW LIES

05 LIFE AT SEA

06 THIS IS THE GAME

07 & WHY NOT TOMORROW

08 & WHY NOT TOMORROW (PART 2)

09 & WHY NOT?

10 INSTRUMENTAL

11 BABYLON

12 CHANGE

13 DESERT

14 GET IT!

15 HAVE WE PROGRESSED?

16 IS THIS ALL IT TAKES?

17 THE PRELUDE

18 PARTY PEOPLE

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Visit the Pin homepage for album art, more information, more downloads, videos, and so on.

pin internet sarcasm poster

New PIN!

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p11_tack“Tack” is the new single from PIN.

“Tack in” is the b-side for the new single (“Tack”) from PIN.

Together, “Tack” and “Tack in” comprise the new release from PIN.

Here is a link to download the new song “Tack” from PIN.

Here is a link to download the new song “Tack in” from PIN.

To the right of this text is the cover art for the single “Tack”, the new release from PIN.

Below this text is the full booklet for the single “Tack”, the new release from PIN.

We hope you enjoy “Tack”, the new release from PIN.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

p11_booklet

New Dumbass Release

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d28-posterThe Execution of Random Actions (2005)

Random Action #1

Random Action #2

Random Action #3

Random Action #4

Random Action #5

Random Action #6

Random Action #7

Random Action #8

Random Action #9

Random Action #10

Random Action #11

Random Action #12

Random Action #13

Random Action #14

Random Action #15

Random Action #16

Random Action #17

Random Action #18

Random Action #19

Random Action #20

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Album Art:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Little History:

In 2002 Dumbass recorded an album called The Execution of Certain Actions, an album based on exploring the concept of ritual… particular actions taking place in particular ways, in particular times and places… As we put it at the time: “Time and space themselves are the instruments here. Recorded at night in scrap yards, railway tunnels, and atop a 40 foot metal tower, the recording process is ritualized and ritual represents the musical score.”

In 2005 we returned to the idea, but this time we decided to explore its opposite pole… we delved into the idea of randomness… if ritual is all about the significance of actions, we wanted to explore the meaninglessness of actions. As I put it in the recent retrospective:

“We explored the notion that human beings are no more able to be truly random than computers. We began each recording session with no pre-decided ideas or plans. We tried to do things randomly:

“I’ll record some drums.”

“I’ll record some bass.”

“I’ll chop up what you just recorded.”

“I’ll chop up what you recorded a week ago.”

“I’ll slow this down.”

“I’ll delete the guitar.”

Etc. etc. etc.

We plugged instruments in or miked them up and just pressed “record.” Lyrics were written the same way: I would randomly decide to lay down a vocal. Sometimes I would open my notebook and just write whatever came out, sometimes I would decide to edit this or that text, sometimes I would just stand at the mike and make it up on the spot. At one point I flipped through my notebook, reading lines and words from songs from previous albums at random. And yet…

And yet, it’s all strangely musical. And yet, lyrical themes developed (a series of song texts that revolve around the seasons, for instance). Random things should surprise you… what surprised us was just how un-random it all sounded. We had an inkling that this is how it would turn out, but not the extent (did this inkling affect the outcome?).

I like this album a lot, but it got a bit lost between the bigger projects that preceded and succeeded it. It’s nice then to put it out now where it can breathe a bit more.

This is a noisy album, it’s sonically harsh at times, but it has, I think, a strangely deep musicality to it that I have a hard time explaining (a result, no doubt, of the “random actions” forcing our musical subconscious, instincts, muscle-memory, etc. to take the wheel as our conscious planning-minds tried to forsake the driver’s seat). It’s also a lively and, I would say, again, strangely joyous album.”

 

I hope you enjoy it,

ZM