2006-2011: FIVE YEARS OF BRAIN OFFERINGS

TWO NEW LIMITED ANALOG RELEASES
[brainshadows 7", oracle offering cs]

  

Well, here we are folks... five years.

In early-December 2006 we announced the first-ever L'animaux Tryst release, and since then, we've had the privilege to bring to light some of the most far-out esoteric music being quietly recorded in and around Portland, Maine. We can't thank you enough for all the support throughout the years; suffice it to say we wouldn't still be here without the continued enthusiasm of you all, near and far.

Earlier this summer we quietly celebrated the 5-year anniversary of the release of Cursillistas' Thrush Chimes in the Field Haunt on Time-Lag Records; this was the CD-R that put the gears in motion for the L'animaux micro-label enterprise in the first place. The entire album is streaming online for free for the next few months, with the option to buy lossless audio download of the whole thing for $5.

In other news, we are working on finally revamping the entire dot-com website - the first update in over two years, during which the site had lapsed into total obsolescence. What you see over there now is an interim solution until we launch something all-new in 2012. It's a very necessary update; thank you all for your patience while the site got so bad we nearly abandoned it completely a few times.

We've been hustlin, tryin to get the Cursillistas Observe Ember Weeks limited edition LP ready before the end of the year, but it looks like it'll be delayed until January or February. All the records have arrived but we're waiting on the 4-layer silkscreened covers. Pre-orders will ship as soon as they're ready, and we've set the new tentative release date at January 31, 2012.

For now, we are excited to announce two new limited edition releases to close out the year:

LTFR-714-MONO: BRAINSHADOWS: "WILD CHERRY" b/w "RIPE"

FORMAT: 7" [45 RPM]   //   EDITION: 200   //   RELEASED: 12.01.11   //   $5.50 + shipping

BRAINSHADOWS is the new hard-pop duo of M.Lajoie & D.Aquarius, exploring a love of trash cinema, echo-chamber mono 45s, pulp sci-fi paperbacks, adults-only comix, Detroitrock, and Rockers. This debut 7” smothers space-echo pop with the psychedelic technicolor grit and grime of a Bakshi / Corman urban sewer. Wah'ed synths and fuzz guitars lift up heavy basslines and off-kit percussion, with nice & ruff soft-focus vocals appearing like phantoms, all produced in engulfing heavy MONO. A-side "Wild Cherry" brings home some tuff teenage motorcycle love-in vibrations; an intravenous alternate soundtrack to a Beyond the Valley of the Dolls party scene. On the flip, "Ripe" is genuine lovers rock dub-pop, with plenty of wah and hazed & hushed come-ons: an abstracted ode to the magick of early Keith Hudson and Horace Andy sides.” Recycled black vinyl 45rpm 7" held in a pro-printed full-color sleeve. Limited to 200.
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LTFR 034: ORACLE OFFERING: HOWL'S ANGELS

FORMAT: CS [c40]   //   EDITION: 50   //   RELEASED: 12.01.11   //   SOLD OUT

Following last year’s soft-focus stunner Beyond Aquaria on the Cabin Floor Esoterica label, Oracle Offering serves up a full-length cassette steeped in the audio nexus of supernatural horror and Gnostic pagan ritual. An altar built in honor of tape-hiss, vedic synth meditation, and full-moon white witchcraft receives a visitation from a gnarly half-human gang with a taste for female flesh. Lurking behind the sympathetic string reverberation, airy synth atmospheres, and cool-breath choral incantation is the heavy hand here to crash the party: engines rattle, howls are emitted, the coven shrieks, a far-off church bell chimes. A fully-formed VHS [oc]cult classic with all the dialogue removed, this cassette is the last thing you want to meet at the end of a dark alley; a nightmare treasure in the basement of an abandoned cabin in the woods. Recorded, mixed, and dubbed in a 100% analog process from start to finish. Hand-labeled opaque lavender cassettes with full-color pro-printed double-sided j-card, held in a green-tinted case.  Limited to 50.

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These new titles--as well as all currently-in-print L'animaux-and-related releases--are now available at the new L'animaux Storefront.

Anybody who pre-ordered the Brainshadows 7" and would like to add the Oracle Offering tape to their order, please contact lanimaux @ gmail.com as soon as possible to combine shipping. Any questions, just send an email and we'll get it sorted out.

As is our usual practice, all shipments will cease between December 11th and January 1st. Any orders placed during that time will ship immediately on January 2nd, 2012.

Many thanks, as always, to all of you far and wide! 2011 was a great comeback year for L'animaux, and we still have a handful of copies available for many of the releases (Concord Ballet Orchestra Players, Planets Around the Sun, Altered Gee, Pete Fosco) so head on over to the new storefront and catch up on what you might've missed out on.

See ya in 2012...

☮MLJ

Lightning strike Lightning's Creepy Power art edition cassette is now sold out. As such the "any 3 tapes" special has been transformed into a three-tape package of the remaining new releases (Pete Fosco, Planets Around the Sun, Altered Gee) for just $13 + shipping. Order now at the storefront. 

Orders have begun shipping; any orders placed prior to September 27th will be shipped out by the end of the week.

Thanks everyone! 

TONY CLIFTON'S RANCH = DUB PALACE OF SIN
FOUR NEW LIMITED CASSETTES
[pete fosco, planets around the sun, altered gee, lightning strike lightning]
+ TWO NEW VINYL PRE-ORDERS
[cursillistas,  brainshadows]

Been awhile, friends... been kept busy on the Herbcraft tip, had a great summer in support of Ashram to the Stars LP, thanks to everyone who helped set up gigs or stump'd for the record...

Breakin' the L'animaux silence here with four brand-new limited-edition tapes, home-dubbed, hand-assembled, etc. These are mostly ready to go except that we're waitin on the inserts to come back from the print shoppe... so we're taking orders now and they should be ready to ship in about a week.

In the longer-run, we've got two new vinyl projects at the pressing plant, which will be released in late-October. They are both extremely limited editions of around 200 copies, so we're starting to take pre-orders now for folks who want to reserve a copy. All pre-orders taken will be for a discounted price up until release day, and for a limited time we're offering a special combo deal: just $17 + shipping for both the upcoming Cursillistas 12" LP and Brainshadows 7" single. Scroll furthur for more info...

And... get your feet wet with the new L'animaux Tryst podcast, "Way Far Out", available for stream and free download. 10 tracks from the past, present, and future...  

L'animaux Tryst's 33rd Congressional Report vol.2: "Way Far Out" by L'animaux Tryst

With love,

MLJ

NEW RELEASES:

LTFR 028: PETE FOSCO: VACATIONLANDED
FORMAT: CS [c43]   //   EDITION: 75   //   RELEASED: 09.13.11   //   $5.00 + shipping

While electric guitar mangler / vibe-generator Pete Fosco may call Kentucky home, he is nonetheless a man smitten with Maine. After a trip up the coast to Acadia and Belfast last summer (which included a show with MV & EE and Herbcraft at the now-sadly-defunt Roots & Tendrils), Fosco was so inspired that when he returned home he sat down in front of some warm tubes, strapp’d on a six-string, and let rip on some true Vacationland meditations. What we’ve got here are four extended improvisations/compositions for solo electric guitar, with Fosco bending, growling, coaxing, and summoning tones with fingers, slides, and other mystery implements. The sounds evoke dusty winds streaking across the Desert of Maine, Northern Lights shimmering from atop Cadillac Mountain, and vertiginous views from Pemetic. Sometimes sparse (Fosco is a master at the pregnant pause), sometimes as swirling and dense as a January blizzard, the soundtrack Fosco creates is a heavy homage to the dark mystery and latent wonder of exploration in the Maine wilds.

Black shell cassettes with hand-painted and typed labels, held in polybox with full-color, pro-printed insert on vellum, enclosed in a piece of a vintage map of Maine. Limited to 75.

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LTFR 031: PLANETS AROUND THE SUN: WE O WE
FORMAT: CS [c43]   //   EDITION: 75   //   RELEASED: 09.13.11   //   SOLD OUT

Ditching the domestic life for a stint of wild-abandon nomad drift, Planets Around the Sun departed from Maine in July to unplug and roll on down the line… WE O WE is their parting gift to the musical community that launched them into new orbits. Drawing from every era of the band’s career and pointing forward to new phases, it is a carefully crafted full-length mixtape of past trysts and future haunts. From the opening acousto-electro instrumental shimmer we move to a stretched-out heavy drone-folk version of the classic White Light side “Saraswati”, here completely re-figured with the addition of guest baritone guitar and cello from local duo South China. The Ian Paige solo excursion “Agnes” follows, with drones and steel strings lulling raga moves into your atmosphere; once the tablas and electric guitar hits, you’re halfway between Demolition Derby and Country Stash, truly a vapor to be savored and returned to often. The B-side hits with “We Owe”, a possession-ceremony standard with netherworld vocal chants circling around watery bass wobbles and wah’ed synth stabs. This flows into “May Day” and its extended doom-dub treatment “Version”, moving from Velvety melodic guitar-scorched psych to a half-tempo high-stepping astral-funk groove. But enough about the past. Planets point to their present/future with the closing track, a cracked lo-fi country-folk tune that serves as their on-the-road calling card. Sure to be a counterculture hit in 22nd-Century America.

Hand-written (in white paint) cassettes held in a case with full-color pro-printed art, featuring a reproduction of a totally psychedelic needlepoint by Paige’s grandmother. Limited to 75.

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LTFR 032: ALTERED GEE: EUROPEAN GEES
FORMAT: CS [c69]   //   EDITION: 75   //   RELEASED: 09.13.11   //   SOLD OUT

It may be counter-intuitive to think of “G-funk instrumentals” as a possible product of an icy and blizzed-out Maine winter, but holed up at the House of Hits (aka Hit Factory) in Winter 2011 with an array of analog synths (SEIL OR 400 for the highs, Moog Taurus II for the lows) and hip-hop golden-age drum machines (E-mu SP-1200, Drumulator, and Korg DDD-1), Key Jr. Dee Jay and Slouch formed Altered Gee amid a thick cloud of purple smoke and didn’t stop making hits til the tape ran out. Recorded entirely on 8-track cassette(!), the deep-grooved trunk-rattlers on European Gees ride that line between suave Euro electro-futurism and dank, dirty, post-Zapp R&B boogie and G-funk, all stretched out, heavy-lidded and dazed. Weightless, pitch-shifting, portamentoed synth lines arc over and around each other, anchored by heavy-bounce syrupy-thick bass and Slouch’s ace reverbed-out kick’n’clap beats. This is dance music with runtimes long enough (in the case of “Magnum Opus”, 15+minutes of synth-funk ecstasy) to get lost in the transcendence of the groove. The song titles say it all: “Dowsed”, “Funky Airs”, “I Wanna Lay You Down And Feel You Up”… this is some sexy, fonky shit, ideal for sittin low in your Coupe de Ville and gettin scandalous in some sweaty bedsheets.

69-minute white cassettes with individually-chrome-painted and typewriter-engraved labels, held in a case with full-color pro-printed j-card designed by the band. Limited to 75.

Check out the preview on their Bandcamp page.

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LTFR 033: LIGHTNING STRIKE LIGHTNING: CREEPY POWER
FORMAT: CS [c40]   //   ART EDITION: 33   //   RELEASED: 09.13.11   //   SOLD OUT

Way back in 2008, The Wire magazine named Lightning strike Lightning’s “The Moon” 7” single as one of the top 10 of the year, while Foxy Digitalis’ Brad Rose remarked that they were “quickly becoming one of my favorite bands” while naming it the Best 7” of the Year. So what’s been going on since then? Public silence; private Creepy Power. After four long years of hermetic writing, recording, re-recording, editing, mixing, re-mixing, and so on, LsL finally emerges once again with their second full-length, the follow up to their 2007 disc Turn Myself Into The Ocean. Many of the original ingredients remain (worldless female haunt-vox, busted mini-amp guitar growls, tom-violating rhythm tracks, banjo ruffs) but are in service to arrangements that are both tighter and more expansive. Moments of breathless spectral visitation bloom alongside forest-folk recitations, bell loops drawn out to time-bending drone, heavy dirge remembrance, and general free-form folkery. While the murk of of the previous recordings has been dialed back a bit on Creepy Power, the gossamer echo chamber that remains—combined with the slightly-higher-fidelity—makes for a smoother ride and headier drift; this is one to get lost in.

SPECIAL ONE-TIME-ONLY ART EDITION: Clear cassettes with in-house screen-printed labels, held in a case with double-sided reversible pro-printed j-card, each with a one-of-a-kind Land camera photograph taken by band member S.Turley with tracklisting handwritten on back, held in a sewn fabric sleeve. Limited to 33.

_____________________________________________________________ NEW VINYL PRE-ORDERS

LTFR 1204:
CURSILLISTAS OBSERVE EMBER WEEKS 12" LP

PRE-ORDER SPECIAL: $14
Long-delayed "lost" Cursillistas album, begun recording in January 2007 (post-Les Biches; pre-Wasp Stings) and originally conceived of as the proper follow-up to the more song-based Thrush Chimes CD-R from 2006. After two-and-a-half years of writing and recording, the album was abandoned, only to be completely remixed, remastered, and re-sequenced from heaps of cassettes and zip disks in 2010-11. Many songs were previously only available on tour-only CD-Rs & tapes in demo form - this is the only proper release of the mostly-unheard "studio versions" of this material, which made up much of Cursillistas' live set between 2007 and 2009. Pressed onto deluxe 150-gram black vinyl and housed in a heavy cotton stock art paper sleeve, with five-layer silkscreen print and two-sided insert. Limited to 225 copies. 

 

LTFR 714:
BRAINSHADOWS "WILD CHERRY b/w RIPE" 7"
Debut single from this new "hard pop" duo of D. Aquarius and M. Lajoie, which smothers Spector-era space-echo pop in the psychedelic technicolor grit and grime of a Bakshi / Corman urban sewer. Wah'ed synths and fuzz guitars lift up heavy basslines and off-kit percussion, with nice & ruff soft-focus vocals appearing like phantoms, all produced in engulfing heavy MONO. A-side "Wild Cherry" brings home some tuff teenage motorcycle love-in vibrations; an intravenous alternate soundtrack to a Beyond the Valley of the Dolls party scene. On the flip, "Ripe" is genuine lovers rock dub-pop, with plenty of wah and hazed & hushed come-ons: an abstracted ode to the magick of early Keith Hudson and Horace Andy sides. Recycled black vinyl 45rpm 7" held in a pro-printed full-color sleeve. Limited to 200 copies.

PLANETS AROUND THE SUN: TOWER CS and WHITE LIGHT & CURSILLISTAS: TRAVEL LIGHT CS now SOLD OUT.
Eclipse Mailorder (USA), Tomentosa (USA), and Norman Records (UK) will have copies available in the coming weeks.

Only two copies left of the Concord Ballet Orchestra Players 2xCS art edition as of Thursday afternoon. Email lanimaux@gmail.com to grab one before they're gone!

Thanks everyone for the orders! They'll start hitting the mail on Monday.

MLJ

L'ANIMAUX HQ = ICE PLANET HOTH

THREE NEW LIMITED CASSETTES

[planets around the sun, concord ballet orchestra players, white light & cursillistas]

With the ever-present danger of being permanently snowed-in, it's a fairly typical January  here in Maine... And while actual windows-down road-trip days seem pretty far off at the moment, we can at least offer a variety of new soundtracks to your favorite metaphorical/metaphysical trip of choice...

Deep waters beneath the floe:

LTFR 026: PLANETS AROUND THE SUN: TOWER

FORMAT: CS [C-32]  //  EDITION: 45  //  RELEASED: 01.25.11  //  SOLD OUT

WITH AN OUT-OF-PRINT DEBUT CASSETTE [GOLD, DIGITALIS LTD.] UNDER THEIR ASTEROID BELT (AND A DOUBLE-LP WAITING IN THE WINGS), PLANETS AROUND THE SUN EMERGE FROM THEIR PSYCHIC SABBATICAL TO PRESENT THE TOWER CASSETTE. SELECTED FROM NEARLY THREE YEARS OF DOCUMENTED EXPERIMENTATION, THESE FOUR TRACKS PLAY LIKE RADIO TRANSMISSIONS FROM EXTENDED TRIPS INTO A STARLESS VOID, RETURNING WITH THE MESSAGE THAT PSYCHEDELIA ISN'T ALL PAISLEY AND PEPPERMINT SWIRL. THE CURIOUS PSILOCYBIN-NAVIGATING OPENER WINDS INTO THE RITUAL DOOM-MARCH OF LONG-TIME LIVE STAPLE "SLOW HORSE", HERE CAPTURED IN ALL ITS BLOWN-OUT LIVE-FI GLORY. A TAPE-FLIP REVEALS EVEN DARKER ROADS AHEAD: WAILING ECSTATICS PULLED SUBTERRANEAN, SURFACING FOR AIR  TO THE OBEAHICALLY-WARPED INNER-GROOVES OF A POSSESSED BLACK ARK DUBPLATE. THE TAPE RUNS OUT ON AN ORGAN-AND-WAH-PEDAL-STOMPING FREE-PSYCH JAM, AMBIENTLY RECORDED AMONGST THE BLIPS AND WHIRS OF THE SPACE VESSEL'S ELECTRONICS RUNNING ON ZERO-GRAVITY AUTOPILOT. A MIXTAPE FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP ALONG INNERSPACE HIGHWAYS, TOWER IS STRICTLY LIMITED TO 45 HAND-NUMBERED HOME-DUBBED BLACK FOIL CASSETTES, PACKAGED IN FULL-COLOR PRO-PRINTED HEAVY STOCK J-CARDS IN NORELCO CASE.  

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LTFR 027: CONCORD BALLET ORCHESTRA PLAYERS: FIRST ANNUAL NORTH FALMOUTH ORGAN SLAUGHTER
FORMAT: 2xCS [CHROME C-49 & C-55]  //  EDITION: 75  //  RELEASED: 01.25.11  //  PRICE: $8.00 + SHIPPING

AFTER BEARING WITNESS TO A COUPLE MIND-BLOWING LIVE SETS BY THESE PSYCHEDELIC TRUTH-SEEKERS, WE ARE COMPLETE CONVERTS TO CONCORD BALLET ORCHESTRA PLAYERS' CAUSE AND ARE PROUD TO BRING THEIR EPIC ANALOG DEBUT DOUBLE-CASSETTE AUDIO-TOME FANFOS TO THE PHYSICAL REALM. CONCORD BALLET GATHERS TOGETHER A CREW OF THE BOSTON-AREA'S FINEST KRAUT-WORSHIPERS, SPACE-ROCK PSYCHONAUTS, AND IN-THE-MOMENT FREE-IMPROV EXPERIMENTALISTS ONTO A SINGLE SPRAWLING STAGE, RESULTING IN A WIDE VARIETY OF HEADY CINEMASCOPE-WORTHY JAMS. DOCUMENTING CBOP RELATIVELY EARLY IN ITS EXISTENCE, FANFOS SUGGESTS A PARTICULARLY WIDE-OPEN CANVAS AND TECHNICOLOR PALETTE OF POSSIBILITIES (GHOSTLY THEREMIN, FLUTE, CASIO BANKS, ELECTRIC GUITAR DIVINATIONS, GROOVING BASSLINES AND EDGE-OF-SEAT DRUMS), LEADING THE LISTENER DOWN PRISMATICALLY-VARIED PATHS AS THE BAND NAVIGATES THRU THE PERPETUALLY-MANIFESTING "NOW". RANGING FROM BRIEF MYSTERIOUS VIGNETTES  TO MAJESTIC SIDE-LONG MINDSCAPES, THESE TRACKS WERE RECORDED WITH A FLY-ON-THE-WALL LIVE QUALITY THAT DOESN'T OMIT TRIPPED FIRE ALARMS,  OFF-MIC SNEEZES, OR STUMBLES, ALL OF WHICH REVEAL CONCORD BALLET TO BE DEVOUT BELIEVERS IN AUTHENTIC IMPROVISATION AND PSYCHEDELIA. EXPERTLY MASTERED BY GREG DAVIS AND PRO-DUPED ONTO PREMIUM CHROME TAPE, FANFOS IS LIMITED TO 75 COPIES AND PACKAGED "AUDIO-BOOK STYLE" IN A WHITE VINYL FOLDER, WITH PRO-PRINTED FULL-COLOR COVER ART.  ALSO INCLUDES A DOWNLOAD CODE FOR A COMPLEMENTARY DIGITAL COPY, FOR EASIER TRACK-BY-TRACK PARSING OF THIS MASSIVE MISSIVE.

[LIMITED ART EDITION ALSO AVAILABLE - SEE BELOW]

LTFR 027AE: CONCORD BALLET ORCHESTRA PLAYERS: FIRST ANNUAL NORTH FALMOUTH ORGAN SLAUGHTER ART EDITION

FORMAT: 2xCS [C-49 & C-55]  //  EDITION: 25  //  RELEASED: 01.25.11  //  PRICE: $10.00 + SHIPPING

SAME ALBUM AS ABOVE, BUT ALSO INCLUDES FIVE HAND-NUMBERED ART INSERTS: A FILMSTRIP-STYLE COLLECTION OF 24 PHOTOS FROM THE TITULAR "ORGAN SLAUGHTER" ON A COLD BEACH IN NORTH FALMOUTH, MAINE, FULL-COLOR PRO-PRINTED ONTO TEXTURED ART PAPER. HAND NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION OF 25 COPIES. DUE TO EXTREMELY LIMITED NUMBER OF COPIES AVAILABLE, PLEASE EMAIL LANIMAUX@GMAIL.COM TO ORDER THE ART EDITION.

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LTFR 1203CS: WHITE LIGHT & CURSILLISTAS: TRAVEL LIGHT
FORMAT: CS [CHROME C-40]  //  EDITION: 45  //  RELEASED: 01.25.11  //  SOLD OUT

ORIGINALLY PRESSED AS AN EXTREMELY-LIMITED (150 COPIES) TOUR-ONLY VINYL SPLIT 12" BACK IN JUNE 2009 AND LONG OUT-OF-PRINT, TRAVEL LIGHT MADE A BRIEF RETURN TO CIRCULATION LAST MONTH TO COMMEMORATE A SINGLE WHITE LIGHT REUNION SHOW IN PORTLAND, ME. IT REMAINS A DOCUMENT OF TWO OF L'ANIMAUX'S ORIGINAL FLAGSHIP BANDS DEEP WITHIN TRANSITORY PHASES THAT HAVE--FOR THE MOMENT--FOUND SOME RESOLUTION IN THE REALMS OF PLANETS AROUND THE SUN, HERBCRAFT, AND ENDLESS CAVERNS. HOME-DUBBED NEEDLE-DROP BOOTLEG-STYLE DIRECT FROM THE ORIGINAL VINYL PRESSING, TRAVEL LIGHT IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME TO THE WORLD AT LARGE IN THIS SMALL LIMITED CHROME CASSETTE EDITION.

"[White Light's "We Do True"] somehow manages to capture everything that was great about the golden age of American underground rock: noisy guitars, great melodies, and effortless, disaffected cool. ... Ian Paige is a hell of a songwriter and “We Do True” is one of the best songs I’ve heard this year." - FOXY DIGITALIS

"On "Crutches" [Cursillistas] invoke the spirits of Hapshash or Quintessence, Bells and chants echoing over spacey backing... Centrepiece of side A is "That Great Stone", a glorious example of modern Psychedelia, drifting, spacious and very special, the track containing an ambience that is hard to pin down but beautiful to experience, the guitar flourishes adding depth to the piece. Following on, the music descends into a deep-rooted drone as "Rewa Dokpa" re-wires your soul, the music as cleansing as a mountain spring, just lie back and soak it up. Having recovered sufficiently to turn the disc over, White Light immediately re-align the senses with their particular brand of Psychedelia, the Hapshash vibe in full effect again as "The Root Of All Evil" guides us into their world. On "Five Horses" a mellow bass groove ushers us into a smoky woodland grove, Guitar, Banjo and Percussion weaving together to create a silken tapestry of wonder, possibly my favourite track on the LP." - TERRASCOPE

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In addition to these new titles, we still have a few copies left of Jared Fairfield's Mysteries cassette, the Gorman Trio / Sacred Basil split cassette, and Endless Caverns' Magi Hymnal cassette... grab them from the storefront before they're gone... and as always, out-of-print titles can be purchased via Tomentosa and Eclipse mailorders.

We'll also have copies of the brand-new Endless Caverns cassette Sensei Deprivation Tape on Existential Cloth Recordings by the end of the week... feel free to place an order now at the online store.


If you're interested in keeping up with L'animaux, consider joining the mailing list (email lanimaux [at] gmail.com) or Facebook group.

Keep warm, till next time,
MLJ