Tickets to the Void

For the rest of the month/year, get 70% off at the no part of it bandcamp with the discount code:  no

The only release on the no part of it label for 2017 is a very limited split c40 cassette between long-standing Seattle collective FHTAGN and Arvo Zylo.  The FHTAGN side features layers of string instruments ranging from orchestral and spatial swells to chaotic skronk.  Arvo Zylo's side is an unfinished alternate soundtrack to the film Killer Klowns from Outer Space.  It can be played in sequence for the first 20 minutes of the movie, including a screwed up mess where the Dickies' original song would be in the opening credits.  Think early Boredoms meets electro-Jandek meets a 19 year old with a sequencer and without a week of sleep and you'd have a vaguely reasonable approximation.  Tapes are dubbed by Bob Bucko Jr, and are clear with lovely yellow leader tape.  They come with a hand-numbered insert, a hand-stamped piece of vintage wallpaper, and an old black and white photograph.  Limited to 25 copies, these are already almost gone here.  A few copies remain.  Get in touch if interested.  Otherwise, RRRECORDS may still have some, or maybe talk to PERSONAL ARCHIVES. 

Sequencer Works Volume Three was placed at #17 for Tabs Out's top 200 cassettes of 2017.  The tape itself can be heard here, but physical copies are still available from ka-rye-eye tapes here.  

Wilt was reviewed track for track by Memory Wave Transmission.  Here is an excerpt:  

 Nocturnal Requiem is my first Wilt experience, but based on the dark ambient material offered here, I would love to check out more. This duo is able to conjure up eerie tones, but the album shows their range with a couple of dynamic tracks that sees Wilt stepping out of its comfort zone.

Drone Records in Germany is now carrying copies of Blood Rhythms' "Heuristics".  

 Arvo's call in interview from October with Mid Valley Mutations about ghost stories and psychic phenomena was archived HERE

Feel Free

An unreleased track by Arvo Zylo is featured on a 2 year anniversary podcast from Otomo Hava.   Also featured are Dave Phillips, Hari Hardman, Crank Sturgeon, Richard Ramirez, Crank Sturgeon, PBK, and many others. 



 Sharlyn Evertsz's side from the split cassette with Arvo Zylo and Wyatt Howland was aired on Tabs Out Podcast. 

Arvo has donated a good chunk of his collection to WZRD's music catalog.  Well over a thousand items are slowly being entered into this historic library.  Feel free to call and request something with this sticker on it.  773-442-4578.  Recent archives from this Wizard have featured Arvo's donations prominently.

Arvo will be telling a ghost story on Mid Valley Mutations radio show on October 27 (event page).   Arvo has in the past contributed guest podcasts to this excellent program, hosted by writer and all-around great guy Austin Rich.

Arvo will be DJing halloween music at an undisclosed location on October 28th.

Arvo has contributed a collage to HALZINE #10, the last of the series of art zines curated by Hal McGee.

Evacuation Post

Arvo contributed to a benefit compilation for victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston.  AMK, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, and 40 others are featured.



"Sequencer Works Volume Three" was reviewed at Raised by Gypsies.  Here is an excerpt:
".....Shots are fired and there is electronic laughing now.    It grows quieter, sounds coming out in random intervals.   The percussion sounds like horse clopping and then it goes back into this rhythm, a pattern of sorts I cannot describe but do enjoy ever so much.    Big distorted beats bring out a sound I've always been a fan of and then we find grooves and beats on the final track on Side A, which features the most powerful and soulful voice of Atalee Judy.    Wow.  Just wow on that last track.

....  It's quite unique in terms of other drone music out there and since I haven't mentioned it yet, this isn't actually from 2017 or recorded more recently it's actually over a decade old and as such is rather ahead of its time.   It has those sci-fi movie from the 1950's feels to it as well.    ....

Before it all comes to an end, we have some vocals come out including on a cover of Flipper's "Life is Cheap" and, yeah, this is one of the greatest cassettes I've ever heard and I'm already looking into more music by Arvo Zylo.   I suggest you do the same. "  

Hal McGee has mounted a collage (not pictured) by Arvo Zylo, that will be featured in his next HalZine (#10), which is expected some time this September, except that Hal is preparing to either evacuate or assist in Florida Hurricane relief.   Feel free to contact Hal to support he and his zine!

Sale, Recap, Disengage

Photo courtesy of N. Vilches

The Blood Rhythms show at the Mutiny was mentioned in the Chicago Reader's Gossip Wolf: Gossip Wolf loves Assembly, the 2015 album by Arvo Zylo's colossal experimental group Blood Rhythms—"colossal" describes both its ominous sound and its shifting lineup, which has included up to 15 people (including five drummers). The group has been pretty quiet since Assembly, though the Bandcamp page for Zylo's label, No Part of It, lists two Blood Rhythms releases uploaded last year—a reissue of the 2009 live cassette Cutting Teeth and a compilation called Heuristics. On Thursday, July 13, Blood Rhythms return to the stage at Logan Square dive the Mutiny, joined by Gas Mask Horse, Spare Change, and Silver Abuse. Zylo says this may be Blood Rhythms' final Chicago show—he's moving away! The noise starts at 9 PM. 

*Thanks to all who came out, by the way!  It was great.  Blood Rhythms (finally!) featured Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Bloodiest, Corrections House, etc), Josh Piotrowski (Gas Mask Horse), and Alexander Adams (GALAXXU, Lurker Bias).  A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER!  

The label will continue, but slow down.  We don't go on the internet as much.  For the next couple of weeks, there will be a 30% discount at bandcamp, with the code "ukulele", as well as any orders at discogs will come with a free pro CDR or DVD.  In this case though, I have to note to international buyers, that I'm just going to assume a CD is $15 to ship, and I will refund the difference if not, etc etc.  Please trust that I will be honest, even if I am aloof!  ARVO's DISCOGS SELLER PAGE but please allow extra shipping time as things are hectic!!!!

Arvo contributed to a compilation curated by Tom Smith of To Live and Shave in LA, initially for the purpose of raising money for Dakota Access Pipeline Activism.  Also featured are Wolf Eyes, Three Legged Race, Gregory Jacobsen, ONO, Robert Turman, Alan Courtis, Howard Stelzer, Aaron Dilloway, Sharlyn Evertsz, Lucas Abela, IDM Theftable, and more.  

  Blood Rhythms and Machine Listener were aired on WZRD on July 11, alongside Silver Abuse, Pierre Henry (RIP), Black Pus, Nancy Sinatra, et al.  LISTEN HERE

Neil Jendon runs a podcast called "5 Minutes of Sound", and Arvo contributed some glitches from around 10 years ago that were used for an art exhibit/installation regarding "autonomous art made by machines".  LISTEN HERE. 

Blood Rhythms was aired on Wm. Berger's My Castle of Quiet Radio Show (WFMU) within the ranks of Alessandro Alessandroni, Fire Toolz, The Stranglers, Incapacitants, Haare, Butthole Surfers, Goblin, and more!  LISTEN 

UPDATE:  Arvo Zylo's "Upheaval" series comes to an end with a 4 hour long version (100), which has been aired on Sound Art Radio for their "DRONE WEEK" this week.  Versions 93-99 will come out on cassette eventually, on an exciting new label in Europe to be named later.  





Arvo contributed to a benefit compilation for victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston.  AMK, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, and 40 others are featured.  

And....  it might get quiet around here.  Thanks to all for their support over the years!

BLOOD RHYTHMS' Last Chicago Show at the Mutiny

We're going to do our part to support the longstanding scum-punk hole in the wall venue, The Mutiny and keep the owner Ed and the world's largest urinal in tact. The Mutiny has been an important institution since many of us were too young to drink.  There is still a phone booth inside, and free pool.  They serve half pitchers of beer (and mixed drinks if you want).  In terms of utilitarianism, it's also one of the last venues still willing to be LOUD.   God bless 'em.   

Facebook event page

SILVER ABUSE

From WFMU's Beware of the BLOG:

"While the original No-Wave groups in New York defined the term, there were many other bands around the country and across the ocean that shared a similar mindset. While artists on the West Coast such as Nervous Gender and Johanna Went and European weirdos Malaria and Blurt are relatively well known, there isn’t much documentation on the darker, demented and art-damaged side of early Chicago punk-inspired music.

Silver Abuse is sometimes credited as being Chicago’s first punk band... ....The Chicago punk scene at the time wasn't yet segregated with genre-labels...the scene was still small and everyone knew each other. I use the term No-Wave to loosely describe Silver Abuse as they took a more nihilistic “fuck it” approach than the straight-forward punk that dominated the scene at the time. They delighted in irritating crowds with a deliberately experimental and atonal sound that was shat out with intentionally offensive titles. Their songs were mostly Dada-like nonsense (Cuban-Homo Farm, Pink Port Please and Dogs Laughed At Us) which were, as keyboardist Dave Purdie puts it, "mostly inspired by stumbling across three words that rhymed and slapping a few chords around them." 

SPARE CHANGE

Spare Change was originally formed on the south-side of Chicago in 1989. The band plays their own unique style of raw hardcore punk / metal crossover. Through hard time and many lineup changes singer Bryan 'Chump Change' Robertson has managed to keep the beast alive, putting out over 20 releases in the process. 

Spare Change has had the pleasure to share the stage with the likes of D.R.I., Dead Kennedys, Grim Reaper, Riot, Black Death, Iron Reagan (Municiple Waste), The Adicts, The Casualties, Verbal Abuse, Fang, Toxic Reasons, Raw Power, The Effigies, CJ Ramone, The Mentors, Macabre, Helstar, Poison Idea, M.D.C., Necrophagia, Venom (inc.) and many others. 

GAS MASK HORSE

GMH is Josh Piotrowski, formerly of Disrobe and in the 90s, a project called "Urethra and the Ghetto Children". Every year, Josh sets up a DIY haunted house in a basement of someone's house, and one year he made soundtrack music for it. The music fuses horror / sci fi sounds with a punk / hardcore background. This project became a live entity for his one man band vision, complete with model zombies and optical theremins. 

BLOOD RHYTHMS

Blood Rhythms is the collaborative moniker of Arvo Zylo. Based on a project that began doing drones with as many precocious brass players as possible, it has evolved into an industrial noise cadre of revolving friends and guests of various ilks. Although Blood Rhythms has performed with configurations of as many as 15 players at a time, including as many as 5 drummers, the unit is now doing a series of trios, having returned from a significant hiatus since 2015's "Assembly" LP. 

Released on Zylo's own "NO PART OF IT" imprint, in collaboration with legendary noise label RRRECORDS, "Assembly" is culled entirely from dozens of layers of brass and wind in a meat locker, but as The Chicago Reader's Philip Montoro put it: "...but they sometimes sound like an electric piano or accordion, a Dremel tool on glass, a steam vent at a steel mill, or a close-miked vacuum cleaner—at their peak, they could pass for the stampeding offspring of a wildebeest and a locomotive." 

This may very well be the last Blood Rhythms show in Chicago.

Facebook event page

The Mutiny
2428 N. Western
9pm  FREE

773-486-7774

"Not Necessarily Bad"

Dig this photo of Tim from SPLEENCOFFIN cruisin' to the sounds of ARVO PLAYS FERRANTE & TEICHER in a 1964 CORVAIR!!!  A little bird told me that PERSONAL ARCHIVES label is doing a BUY ONE GET ONE deal, and this would be a good time to get one of the last TWO COPIES of this 2XCS plus Arvo's SEQUENCER WORKS VOLUME THREE from this label!!  

Arvo Zylo's collaboration with Architeuthis Dux was aired on WZRD  along with Christian Marclay, Labi Siffre, Asmus Tiechens, Yannick Dauby, Dead Boys, Xavier Cugat, Suzi Quatro, Tuxedomoon, and more.  Listen HERE.

In two different episodes, Machine Listener's Sentient System release was also aired, alongside Volcano The Bear, Mika Vainio & Joachim Nordwall, Mark Stewart, Machinefabriek, et al.  LISTEN HERE AND HERE

BLOOD RHYTHMS' "Heuristics" was reviewed by HEATHEN HARVEST.  Thanks folks!  Here is an excerpt:

...Zylo exhibits much all-around talent on this release, as well as wide range. Even as the music changes from track to track, it remains mostly engaging with more than a few really fine moments. As it runs through the expected soundscapes and noise constructions, the album also reaches into the realms of vocal blues (as on “Mention This”) and haunted-house theatricality (“Never Fuck in the Woods”). Aside from, possibly, “In a Vacuum (Alternate Version),” which is mostly tape rumble with some vocals mixed down deep enough to be almost inaudible, everything on this CD ought to be enjoyable to any noise fan.

The deceptively unassuming quality of the entire album is encapsulated also in its cover art. A black-and-white figure, covered in thick-lettered writing, is presented in a few different poses on the front, back and inside of the CD. As images, the art is not especially striking, but the CD’s liner notes reveal that the art extends beyond the retinal. The pictures are “inspired by a dream about a child physically growing up in an instant, and the inherent side effects of such a transformation.” The concept behind the cover art is deep and imaginative, but not oversold, just the same as the sonic work on this disc and Zylo’s plentiful output, overall.

Benediction

*BLOOD RHYTHMS is returning in May for the first time in over a year, at a DIY location in Chicago.  Get in touch for details.  There are also a couple of other Chicago shows in the works.  Stay tuned!

Arvo contributed to a compilation benefiting DAPL activists.  Curated by James Keeler of WILT, Hedorah, and other quality projects, it features Thirteen Hurts, PBK, GX Jupitter-Larsen, Paranoid Time, and more.

There is also a track that is probably the final compilation track with Upheaval version (92), although there are chronologically definitely some versions which haven't come out yet.  There will be 100 of these versions, but no more of them  are going to be on compilations in the spirit of the Upheaval series.  Some further versions will probably end up on a cassette and/or a radio installation.

Thirteen Hurts and Arvo remixed by Marlo Eggplant were aired on WZRD by Dirty Moskowitz, along with Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet, Yello, William Basinski, Thomas Dimuzio, and more...  LISTEN HERE....    There is also this archive where the Blood Rhythms ASSEMBLY LP was aired with Robert Turman, Big City Orchestra, Kommissar Hjuler und Mama Baer, Jarboe, Cliff Edwards, and more...  LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN

Arvo was on WZRD for a few hours, with a montage of ethnic pop, tribal rhythms, black metal, and crazed industrial, other things.  Among the artists featured were:  Coil, Recoil, Adult., The Good Rats, Dave Ball + Jon Savage, Pharmakon, Sudden Infant, and more.  LISTEN HERE

Sequencer Works Volume Three was reviewed by CASSETTE GODS 
Here is an excerpt:  Did I say “face-melting”? Sure did. Arvo Zylo’s chaos comes packaged across a wide range of frequencies and patterns, and “confrontational” is certainly a good term to describe the results. Side A is decidedly more industrial-heavy, while side B tracks its muddy boots across the thresholds of noise and drone, but never getting caught in stasis. And while 88 minutes is a heavy slab to devour at once, there’s lots to discover as you maneuver your way through the wreckage. Start here, start at volume one, start on the moon, who cares. For maximum self-flagellation, make it a triple and set your out-of-office for the afternoon. And don’t forget where you put that Yamaha RM1x – despite what I said earlier, you might need it later if you get inspired.

Thirteen Hurts was aired on WZRD on April 5 alongside Yannick Dauby, Daniel Menche, Christian Marclay, Psychic TV, Soft Cell, Moondog, Robert Wyatt, and more.... LISTEN HERE

 The deadline for the cat-themed open call compilation PUSSIFICATION is coming to a close on May 1st.  More info HERE and fb event page HERE



Opposite Records is running a benefit compilation for Wm. Berger.  Wm. is a friend who has been very supportive over the years, as well as a staple of NY/NJ underground cultures, and has recently undergone some serious health concerns.  Berger is a WFMU dj on and off since the 80s, head of Prison Tatt label, and former member of Uncle Wiggly, Terrier, and World (Without End).   Featured on the comp are some high profile experimental artists, such as Telecult Powers, Sickness, Theologian, as well as Inappropriate King Live, Zilmrah, Compactor, Rust Worship, and more. 

Try a little Tenderizer

A track from Machine Listener's "Sentient System" reissue on NO PART OF IT, as well as three tracks from 333REDUX (dave phillips, Sudden Infant, and Marlo Eggplant) were aired on Steve Cammack's Muh Mur Radio Show on Sound Art Radio in the UK.  This is a high quality radio show from a long time collector of noise and experimental cassettes since the early 80s.  Highly discerning and caring segments here!

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Arvo Zylo's "Hello Walls" was aired (the final 20 minute track "Phantom Decorum") on WFMU via Wm Berger's My Castle of Quiet Radio Show, alongside Spiteful Womb, Moloch, OvO, and lots of other artists below the radar.

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Arvo's "Sequencer Works Volume Two" was aired on KGNU via Little Fyodor's Under the Floorboards radio show, alongside Martha & The Muffins, Tentatively A Convenience, Rashad Becker, and many others.  LISTEN HERE

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Blood Rhythms' track "Diligent" featuring travis ono, Daniel Burke, Michael Kendrick, and others, was aired on Otomo Hava's "Notes from Chaos" podcast in Greece.  Also aired were Schloss Tegal, Pain Jerk, and Silvum, + more!

dave phillips' "zylovester anfang" track from 333REDUX was aired on WZRD alongside material by Robert Turman, early Depeche Mode, Architects Office, Big City Orchestra & Illusion of Safety, The Residents, Leona Anderson, Neurosis, P16.D4, and more!  LISTEN HERE

Arvo was on WZRD for 6 hours.  He interviewed Cleveland touring band HIRAM-MAXIM, and aired a nice little menagerie of crazy shit from erotic aerobics and funky disco relics to the Gremlins soundtrack and various elements of psychedelic industrial noises such as Annie Gosfield, Tactile (featuring John Balance), Carl Stone, ADULT.'s experimental side, cEvin Key, Alessandro Cortini, The Necks, vintage Russian synth music from Yuri Morozov, newish Arthur Brown, and old Pigface featuring Michael Gira, among other things.....  LISTEN HERE

"Looking Up"

Blood Rhythms was aired on Wm. Berger's My Castle of Quiet radio show on WFMU, alongside Keith Fullerton Whitman, Merzbow, Leah P (formerly of Head Molt), Maledicere, and more.  Listen HERE.  

Architeuthis Dux was aired on Wm. Berger's My Castle of Quiet Radio Show on WFMU along with SAND, Wicked Witch, Cowardice, Sovereign, and the Melvins, among others...  Listen HERE

Arvo was interviewed for an article on Bandcamp's cassette blog "Hi Bias", regarding the new Sequencer Works Volume Three release on Personal Archives / KaRyeEye...

Sequencer Works Volume Three was also reviewed at Decoder:

Prolific experimental recorder and No Part of It proprietor Arvo Zylo recently unveiled the third installment in his aptly titled, two year old Sequencer Works series, out via Midwestern stalwarts KaRyeEye Tapes out of Indiana and Dubuque-based Personal Archives — the latter also home to his 2016 2xCS Heavenly Sounds in Lo​-​Fidelity: Arvo Plays Ferrante & Teicher. Blogger and podcast maven Scott Scholz summarizes in his liner notes: “This is the final volume in a trilogy of Sequencer Works by Arvo Zylo, which together highlight a prolific early period in his work, centered around composing exclusively with a late-90s Yamaha Rmix . . . predating most of the material found in the first two volumes.” According to Zylo’s own notes on the collection, many of these tracks are fleshed out sketches sourced from defunct one-off projects, unrealized or unfinished collaborations; some were made for an industrial project, others for film, and some primarily for performance. While Heavenly Sounds was a heady mishmash adventure, you’ll find the Sequencer Works series more than potent enough to occasionally rouse even the most sedentary neighbors — in all likelihood conducting them straight to your door for a (maybe deserved) bit of remonstration. Expect a healthy gauntlet of friendly pummels and squelching, interspersed with very, very deceptive quiet, and sometimes all at once.

Order Sequencer Works: Volume Three via Personal Archives or KaRyeEye. While you’re at it, Volume Two is streaming via Zylo’s own No Part of It imprint and a few lingering copies of Volume One (2015) are still hanging around at Out of Body Records.

Speaking of...  We have restocked five copies of Sequencer Works Volume Two, and that is the last of them.  Also available are the last 5 copies of "Pleasure Tunnel / Temple of Paradise" by Bryan Lewis Saunders & Arvo Zylo....  These copies came back from Tedium House, a fine establishment which is fully deserving of your support and may not be around for much longer.  Many an odd item can be had at a reasonable price there.






Arvo was on WZRD for around 5 hours.  Two of those hours were playing rare tapes from the library, from a cassette recorder, because the tape deck jammed.   You won't hear some of this stuff anywhere else.  The first three hours featured material from the NNA tapes label, projects related to Gitane Demone, Aaron Dilloway, Dieter Muh, Negativland's CD that comes with cremated ashes, Gorgonized Dorks, and more.  LISTEN HERE. 

Arvo Zylo has contributed to two compilations.  One was based on source material from a broken CNC lathe machine, curated by Ohio machinist Stephen Petrus (Murderous Vision).   It features tracks by Fascist Insect, Insect Deli, Solypsis, Robert Turman, Pauline Lombardo, WILT, and much more...  45 artists in all.

This compilation is curated by Marlo Eggplant of Corpus Callosum and works to benefit BORDER ANGELS and FORWARD TOGETHER.  It features Bob Bucko Jr, Endometrium Cuntplow, Andrew Quitter, Jessica King, and more....  46 artists in all.

Arvo contributed 6 seconds of sound to a themed compilation which is a collage just under 28 minutes long.

A KGNU radio show called "Sleepless Nights" aired Arvo's Sequencer Works Volume Two.  Listen here.  

Sequencer Works Volume Three

The final volume of Arvo Zylo's Sequencer Works series is out now.  Much of it features his earliest, most precocious, raw and isolated material, as well as a couple of pieces he did trying to emulate machine sounds for a hidden cassette collaboration, a very early out-take from "333" that caused a scuffle at a party, a track with vocals by Atalee Judy circa 2001, a couple of song-oriented tracks (including a Flipper cover) that Arvo did for Sonic Coalition, and more, in its 90 minute duration.   The most unusual of the archives were chosen, for those who are enthusiastic about strange happenings within the recorded medium.  The cover art / layout was done by Tiny Little Hammers, and there are liner notes written by Scott Scholz (Tymbal Tapes, Words on Sounds, Tabs Out, etc).  These are professionally duplicated cassettes on Chrome tapes, with two color imprints.  Co-released by Personal Archives and Ka-Rye-Eye.  Limited to 100 copies.

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In other news:

333REDUX and Machine Listener's "Sentient System" were reviewed by Vital Weekly.

It's important to note, I think, that in both the data DVD and the pro menu DVD, there are track lists, and the original "333" album is included in both formats. Also, track lists are included, and easily visible, but I digress. I'm glad these packages finally arrived there after some holiday hoopla. Apparently.

Arvo has contributed to the Necktar annual compilation series for over ten years in a row.  Not your average online compilation, this label goes the extra mile, and the series itself is inspired by Carl Jung's Red Book.

Arvo contributed to a compilation based on public domain sounds, curated by Canadian noise artist Damno Te.

Blood Rhythms was aired on Little Fyodor's Under The Floorboards Radio Show on KGNU.

• BlooLISTEN HERE