One Eleven Heavy presents Nick Mitchell-Maioto

So the Nick LPs are here and looking/sounding good! Don’t take our word for it, though:

Raven Sings The Blues said it reminded them of “the buoyant tangle of guitar that’s rooted in Crazy Horse’s grit, Canned Heat’s heartbeat boogie, and Satana’s playful willingness to experiment with rhythm” and concluded ” Its a sunshine-scrubbed delight that keeps the listener on their toes”

Record Crates United wisely suggested “if you need a break from the doom and gloom from the outside world, just slap this record on your turntable and groove the night away”

Heads Lifestyle said “an impressive one-man band effort flush with crazy time changes and a deep jammy undercurrent of cosmic choogle”

There’s more great reviews too but I can’t find them right now and I need to go!

Mix CD on sale now with bag!

Latest release on our Bandcamp page is a special bundle of a special anniversary mix “Owl Temple Session” that’s actually a lossless remake of an old mix from 2011 made from low res mp3s. It comes encased in a tote bag and with a sticker. Cause its the anniversary year.

Get it here

Not really much of a one for nostalgia but I had fond memories of this mix and especially of the response from the few who had a copy. I never kept one for myself and the mix was lost between computers.

Just recently my friend Jonathan Dennis mentioned the mix and when he found out I didnt have it anymore, kindly did me a rip of the CD. I was blown away but couldn’t help wondering how much better it would sound if I made it from higher quality music files (most of it was stuff I’d been sent to review and especially back then the mp3s sent were often low quality).

So, I went back and redid it. It’s something I’m really proud of and I’m glad to share it as a free gift inside the anniversary tote bag.

15 BLOODY YEARS

Well, I don’t know what to say! The site is now 15 years old. Usually I just trot out a DJ set and I tried twice. The first, a digital creation ended up evolving into an album instead. A strange drone odyssey with time stretched sounds matched to classic acapellas and subliminal remixes then dubbed to aged country compilations tapes is now availble in small quantities here

The second mix was an astonishingly lucky, fist pumping, vinyl only krautrock session but the app recording it crashed. And you can’t bottle lighting. So, just trust me that it was awesome. I worked up a sweat and danced round my room even with only 1 cup in me. You would have loved it. Ah well.

We’ve got our a vinyl release from Nick Mitchell-Maiato of One Eleven Heavy now up for pre-order on vinyl, digital and t-shirt right here

And we got a 15th anniversary tote bag! From here

And special freebies: stickers & mix CDs from our US store, exclusive digital mixes form the UK store. I could go on all night, but it’s late already. You got questions then post ’em and I’ll reply tomorrow after my 2nd cup of tea. I promise, ask anything!

Bandcamp Day (our t-shirts are alright)

Bandcamp is once again wavering all fees for artists/labels today. Hooray! Not got anything new really to offer just yet so just put up a special bundle deal. Only 5 available and today only https://wasistdas.bandcamp.com/merch/bandcamp-day-bundle

My wife thinks it was remiss of me not to mention that our Kawabata Makoto t-shirts are eco-friendly and fair trade. I dunno, I’d assumed everyone did that nowadays but sadly seems not to be the case. So there, they are. And here’s me wearing one

Available with a download of Makoto’s stunning solo album or a special bundle that comes with a Was Ist Das? beer coaster and a download code for the greatest live bootleg of all time.

We are just 12 days away from the 15th birthday of Was Ist Das? and that’s when we’ll start pre-orders for the Nick Mitchell-Maioto LP. Should have some other stuff to put up for pre order that day too but more about then.

In the meantime, here’s our Bandcamp Day recommendations, these are things I personally bought already and listen to a lot: Roadtested and maximum endorsement

New Kawabata Makoto CD now taking pre-orders

You can now order the new Kawabata Makoto CD from our Bandcamp page. The speed guru eschews his normally meditative approach to solo recordings to instead create hypno rock of the most cosmic order. We are also doing a short run of t-shirts of the cover art by Sarah Coppen (shirts only shipping from the US, though. CDs available to ship from UK)

Vinyl coming! Tapes shipping! Krautrock reviews!

Nick Mitchell Maiato of One Eleven Heavy is doing a vinyl album for Was Ist Das? We will be taking pre orders and giving you your first taste on August 19th. Why then? It’s the 15th birthday of Was Ist Das? Some of the songs were for the third One Eleven Heavy album but due to the Corona situation they can’t get together and instead a series of solo albums under the One Eleven Heavy presents banner are on the horizon.

In other news, the United BIble Studies and Bird People albums arrived unexpected early and begin shipping today instead of in 2 months time. Also coming out before Nick’s vinyl will be an astonishing solo CD from Kawabata Makoto and a mind-melting blu-ray. And general merch seen as how its our 15th year.

In review news we have quality entries to the Krautrock album review database. I’ve tackled the delicious compilation of vintage, unreleased Roedelius , James Jackson Toth [of One Eleven Heavy/Wooden Wand] has taken on Edgar Froese’s solo gem “Episilon in Malaysian Pale” which sounds like a craft beer but is actually a tropical wig out classic whilst Stuart Douglas [Obverse Books main man and Sherlock Holmes writer] has bravely tackled Can’s “Out of Reach”

New stuff! Free stuff! Cheap shipping!

It’s all been happening lately. Where to begin? New freebie for you all to download. It’s Willie from Woven Skull’s solo project, here giving it a wrong take on techno:

If you prefer cassette, there’s still a small number left (2 at the time of typing). Speaking of cassettes, we’re now taking preorders for our next two tapes. First up is the return of Bird People but this time for a full-band jam of beautiful, blissed out psychedelic rock.

Or you can buy a download if you prefer that sort of thing. Our second tape is the Was Ist Das? debut of United Bible Studies. David Colohan of the band being no stranger to Was Ist Das? with three previous albums for us. Here they go exploring roman graveyards and thinking of MR James but makes me think of Alan Garner.

One source of frustration since moving to the US has been the ridiculously high cost of international shipping here. So these tapes are being made in Yorkshire and half my allocation are going to our friends Obverse Books to distribute on our behalf so now wherever you are on this big, beautiful world of ours, you can buy these two tapes and not worry that the shipping is going to cost more than the tapes!!

More free stuff (and it’s damn good)

Hope everyone’s staying safe and not losing all faith in humanity. Since the last post there’s been two more freebies added to the Bandcamp.

This one’s a cosmic, glacial solo guitar set from Acid Mothers main main Kawabata Makoto live in Hebden Bridge’s Masonic Hall. It’s a very strange venue and I think that seeped into his improvisations!

…and speaking of strange venues this one is from a meeting room above but adjacent to the Robin Hood at Cragg Vale. It was midsummer, the lights were off and the band played in front of small windows overlooking the whole valley. As they played the room slowly melted into near darkness. I think that DEFINITELY seeped into their performance!

Still waiting on the One Eleven Heavy CDs but I’m sure they’ll be along sooner or later.