The Juniper # 15 (summer 2012) & # 16 (spring \ summer 2013) (zines)

Those are twelve pages long, half size, black & white, cut & paste, zines about gardening, going back to mother nature and leaving a simple life. In my backyard, I grow rhubarb and chives. I love chives, they go great with egs salads, soups and potatoes. I`m not a gardening expert though. This is an  interesting, philosophical and educational read. There`s articles about: me and my bicycle (the freedom and joy of riding a bike),  Greenwoman magazine (amazing biography of da peanut guy, George Washington Carver), asparagus with chive blossoms recipe (simply mouth watering), variety trials in your personal garden (basic gardening knowledge for beginners), the human experience as a universal trajectory (nice intellectual article), slowing down (a stunningly beautiful piece of positive energy, a welcome change in the usual nihilistic, dark, bleak, sarcastic, no future, negative literature out there), raised bed gardening (never heard of this concept before), and gardening with a greater purpose (never though of gardening that way). Daniel Murphy is passionate about gardening, zining and punk music. Highly recommended. You can contact him here:

Daniel Murphy, P.O. Box 9862, Boise, ID, 83707, USA

His blog: 

www.juniperbug.blogspot.com

A blog about plant geeks: 

www.ankwardbotany.com

more Mark Sonnenfeld stuff

Contact via the good old postal system:
Mark Sonnenfeld
45-08 Old Milestone Drive
East Windsor
New Jersey
08520
USA

Introducing Nick Johnson

I got a small parcel from a gentlemen named Nick Johnson. He does these cool homemade black and white collages. Here's what they look like, enjoy the show!!!

He's not internet friendly, so I recommend contacting him by the good old postal system:
Nick Johnson
P.O. BOX 21635
Eugene 
Or
97402
USA

Mark Sonnenfeld

Mark Sonnenfeld is an experimental poet. I discovered his stuff around 2000, maybe early 2001. He is a fine person but he is also anti technology / internet. It doesn' t matter. I will give him some free exposure courtesy of Mastock da blog. Here's some scans. There will be some more in the upcoming future.

Contact via the good old postal system:
Mark Sonnenfeld
45-08 Old Milestone Drive
East Windsor
New Jersey
08520
USA

Don Haugen – angels with black wings CD-R)

Don Haugen hails from Eugene, Oregon, USA. I got a small parcel containing various trading goodies including this album. Upon the first listen I was pleasantly surprised. This is almost relaxing music. There`s four long tracks in here (total running time = 75.30 minutes, damn!!!). This is low-fi ,drony,  almost chill-out material. Every track evolves slowly, moves slowly, and slowly drifts like a subtle assemblage. It sounds like a mix between field recordings, ambient noise and ambient darkwave. A  peaceful, almost meditative mood, with a highly desolate atmosphere included. Feels like it`s  late at night and I`m caught inside a lifeless, empty factory. I`m slowly agonizing, my soul is freezing, will someone please help me. Feed me more, indeed. More information here:

http://www.obfuscatedrecords.com/ob/

feel free to also check out:

http://www.humanmonster.com/

https://www.facebook.com/don.haugen

http://www.seasonalaffect.com/

Gainmas – ciodiatsr (CD-R)

Gainmas is an experimental noise \ drone \ ambient \ etc project hailing from central Florida, USA. This is a solo project of Dylan Houser (the same guy recording noise under the name Hell Garbage). There`s five untitled tracks on this long (79 minutes)  album. This time around there`s no drones, no ambient stuff just pure noise fuckery. This is an intense recording. The noisescapes are grating, abrasive, unforgiving and relentless. An hardcore sonic assault of the senses. The sound of a raging tornado, a maelstrom of dark frequencies, feddback and distortion pounding my heart and soul non stop. Let me out of here!!!! Recommended to fans of extreme noise ie. Merzbow, Masonna, MSBR and … Flesh For Frank, yes sir. 

more information here:

http://sluggisha.blogspot.com

and email:

ladyanthropophagus@gmail.com

Wrong Number Zine #5 (comes with 60 minutes mixtape)

This is a 8.5 by 11 inches full color 8 pages zine

After reading this I truly believe that Ms Belka Belochka is a fan of recycling. Theres some found pictures, found notes, some street stickers, thrift store book reviews, zine reviews, a poem, a tale of cassette love \ dubbing. I like the nice, kinda naïve but sincere, deeply honest writing style. After reading this I felt like going to the Salvation Army or any thrift store to scope up stuff. The mixtape is a collection of her favorite songs culled from various thrift stores cassettes. Upon reading this I couldn`t help myself. I though oh no not a collection of crappy one hit wonders \ bad pop songs. Boy was I wrong this tape is like an international world music extravaganza. Let`s see. There`s Japanese pop (Chiemi Hori, Seiko Matsuda, Akina Nakamori and Iyo Matsumoto), traditional Greek music (M.Hadjidakis), disco from the Philippines (Boyfriends), fiddle music (Hawks And Eagles), a funny and moronic cartoon song (Ren & Stimpy), experimental music from Ukraine (PlasticFantastic And Electric Psychedelic Pussycat), Hawaiian ukulele (Ohta-San), Hawaiian music (Makaha Sons Of Ni`Hau, Ledward Kaapana), an old school English punk band (X-Ray Spex), and some German zither music (Joseph `Sepp` Diepolder). I can`t wait to read more issues of this amazing zine and I hope she does another amazing mixtape. Write her godammit!

Ms. Belka Belochka

1021 Lowella Ave

Pearl City, 
Hi

96782, 
USA

email: bisforbelka@etsy.com

Psionic Plastic Joy # 17 (fall 2012) (zine)

Here`s another fine issue of Jason Rodgers amazing counterculture , anti technology \ internet zine. There`s 32 pages  of  half-size, cut and paste, black and white material. PPJ is one of my favorite zines, along with the R.I.P. old Nightwaves (New Brunswick`s own publication covering electronic music). There`s a good mix of weird ass articles along various collages and artworks. My favorite articles where: `introduction – further notes on technology`( I understand Jaoson`s point of view but I feel that the internet, if used properly is just another  tool for free publicity), and `covert black-ops mission against Reality Impaired Recordings fails – bring the noise` (conspiracy theory anyone ?) and `Neo-Neoist Tenets`( this brought back a lot of old memories from the defunct and Montréal`s own Total Zero recordings, rmemeber Phycys? Vermiform Front? Trondant?). I like his choice of artists \ collagists. Let`s see, there is Malok (a standout piece of abstract psychedelism), Haddock, Lena Samo , Yves Albrechts (from Belgium), Reed Altemus, Thompson, François Marceau (yes that`s me, hey, I`m everywhere) and Stuart Stratu (from Australia). 

And how much does this cost ? It`s simple, 2.00 $ USA or 3.00 $ worldwide. Forget about digital era, let`s get physical:

Jason Rodgers

PO Box 63, 

Lawrence, 

Ma,

01842, 

USA

Dollmeat – rabid (bootleg tape)

From Tampa Bay, Florida, USA comes the lovely \ wild \ strange \ bizarre Dollmeat. I got this as a trade. It says that the music is experimental, gothic and other (me think the real definition is out there). This mini album (22.50 minutes) is a mix of voice, low- fi voice, screams, minimal electronics (with ambient undertones), percussions, percussive noise, violin, found sound mixed with lots of unidentifiable samples. The vox is the instrument of choice here. It generates, creates the mood and the ambience all along the listen. I can feel consciously or unconsciously various influences at work: This Mortal Coil, Cocteau Twins, Aghast (track 3), and GREENman (PPFR era, on track 4). This is not a user friendly album. Normality is so boring (insert here your flavor of the day, forgettable, one hit wonder band or artist), so I really like this. This is original because Dollmeat does her own thing and doesn`t seem to follow trends. This album is scary, it`s a  non stop scary, hazy, schizophrenic hellride. It would be the perfect soundtrack to Nekromantic and Guinea Pig movies, yes it`s that good. And it`s true, it`s damn true. More info on her website:

http://www.myspace.com/dollmeatmusic                       

This time around, mailart from USA

I received recently those amazing mailart pieces, courtesy of Node Pajomo and Thompson. The following pieces are from Node Pajomo:

Look at the nice black and white almost foggy 'atmosphere' on that one.

This last piece comes from Thompson (who needs no introduction). Look at those details. It's pretty amazing stuff indeed.