Lighten Up Sounds

23/07/2024

New arrivals now in stock from Australia’s great . Ripe cosmic choogle, free-impro grit, deep Humboldt psych, feedback strum from Fenghua, raw anti-capitalist pummel, and so much more! Check the bio to go digging.

10/06/2024

Thanks to Industrial Complexx for featuring the new album from Thomas Boettner!

Review:
Thomas Boettner - Gaspée [Lighten Up Sounds]
https://industrialcomplexx.com/thomas-boettner-gaspee-lighten-up-sounds/

With Gaspée, Thomas Boettner explores elemental forces in new ways, creating a soundscape that reflects our own gruesome reality. Using cello, synthesizers, wave organ and modulated feedback, Boettner creates two full-length tracks that take listeners on a journey through tension and intensity, landing in a final state of pure, blissful nothingness.

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Con Gaspée, Thomas Boettner explora fuerzas elementales de nuevas formas, creando un paisaje sonoro que refleja nuestra propia realidad truculenta. Utilizando violonchelo, sintetizadores, órgano de ondas y retroalimentación modulada, Boettner crea dos temas de larga duración que llevan a los oyentes en un viaje a través de la tensión y la intensidad, aterrizando en un estado final de pura y feliz nada. Una visión sombría de un mundo sombrío.

09/06/2024

We’re happy to share a new label release this weekend with “Gaspée”, the latest offering of crumbling texture and harsh drone from Thomas Boettner.

Boettner is a seasoned artist who has been making waves in the underground music scene for years. Hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, he has gained recognition for his powerful performances and mind-bending noise releases on labels around the world.

Notably, Boettner’s project .panic has been pushing boundaries for over a decade, producing harsh power electronics focused on themes of radical leftist rebellion, q***r theory, and misanthropy. However, Boettner shows a versatility through several various aliases and variations of his work.

In his new album “Gaspée”, T.B. explores elemental forces in new ways, creating a sonic landscape that reflects our own gruesome reality. Utilizing cello, synthesizers, wave organ, and modulated feedback, Boettner crafts two long-form tracks that take listeners on a journey through tension and intensity, landing in a final state of pure, blissful nothingness.

A grim view of a grim world, what else could you possibly expect?

Limited cassettes available now.
Thanks for listening!

06/06/2024

New noise today from T. Boettner aka Straight Panic. A grim view of a grim world, what else could you possibly expect?

21/05/2024

The Green Path returns to CAMP Radio for May, w/ deep ecological drone, ethereal sound science, water-borne mechanisms, therapeutic chamber jazz, and synapse scorching synthesis.

31/01/2024

The Green Path continues to expand beyond dimensional time and space. Our latest broadcast breathes straight oxygen, with the light of ten suns simultaneously reflected from bronze-plated vibration. Now wide angle Nimbus, witness the elliptical, humming lullabilia of the crumbling magnetic. Together we absorb a cool, clean blast of real world chlorophyll. A strange, cascading cradlesong from the inner Universe, provided here for home personal use.

03/01/2024

The Green Path grows into the future and beyond. Our latest broadcast boasts a holy harvest of fresh fruit, passing through glowing Earth vibration, eternal string resonance, pure analog warble, questionable UFO theory, and actual cosmic tonalities extracted from the expansive ether.

Originally broadcast 01.01.24 via CAMP Radio
Archived now on Mixcloud, link in comments below. Thanks for listening!

03/01/2024

It's an honor to have Andreas Brandal's "Trapdoor Crucifix" named in this killer tape list from Tabs Out Podcast. Thanks everyone for listening and supporting the label this year, more cooking. https://tabsout.com/?p=29672

16/12/2023

Many thanks to Petal Motel for including John Swanke’s album “Sounding in Fathoms” in their excellent Albums of the Year list. We’re in great company, alongside some of the deepest vibes in the scene. Hit their site to dig in and soak it all up.

It’s been a wild year! We’re down to the last few copies of the cassette btw. Thanks for listening.✌️🌸🩷

11/10/2023

The new October episode of The Green Path Radio has been broadcast via and is now archived for streaming.

Tune in for a seasonal sniff of smooth astral swing, deep rustic twang, rare elemental groove, and warm acoustic hypnosis.

Link below for a fresh hour of sweet sonic escapism.

03/10/2023

“… evokes a vast array of moistures.” - Byron Coley

Congratulations to John Swanke and many thanks to The Wire for publishing a lovely new review of John Swanke’s “Soundings in Fathoms” in the new November issue 477 of the magazine.

Thank you especially to Byron for listening and for writing about the music. 🙏🌀🫠

We’re down to the last five remaining copies of the cassette, grab yours at the Bandcamp shop.

🪲🏵️🪲🏵️🪲🏵️

28/09/2023

The sizzling full length s/t LP from Austin, TX band CAZAYOUX is an expansive beast of raging psych funk, swinging space jazz, and explosive afrobeat.

The band travels through passages of deep propulsive groove and addictive dance floor rhythm, only to lapse into full brain melt mode w/ spikes of electric burn and progressive motion.

The vinyl release is an international collaboration between labels & .bassist.records

Very hot, limited handful of copies available through us stateside. Check our shop to listen and grip.

16/09/2023

Congrats and welcome to the two latest lovelies from Australia’s .

Adele H. is an Italian singer songwriter making intimate neo-classical music with a pop-touched soul and minimal approach. The work is a window, reflecting the state of womanhood in today’s society.

The new “Golden Light” from The Man From Atlantis brings a state of elevated collaborative trance, a guitar drenched episode of spiritual improvisation featuring players from across the globe. The music effectively combines multiple strains of generative thought into a prayer of redemptive sound.

Fresh imports are available now for North American distribution. Limited copies stateside, grip and be glad.

🍭😎🥜

15/09/2023

Our memories of Summer begin to fade, as the temperatures and the colors slowly shift towards the mark of the season.

Travel with us through this landscape of organic rhythm, resonating objects, hypno-drone, ethereal grit, and classic dark adventure sound.

The latest episode of The Green Path has been broadcast via and is now archived for streaming. Featuring fresh tunes from David Edren, Son of Buzzi, Loris S Sarid, Mike Tamburo, Jim Kirkwood, UFOm, Myriad Valley, and Field Lines Cartographer.

Listen at the link below, and thanks for supporting psychedelic radio.

🌿👣✌️

10/09/2023

Happy to share a mind-melting new update, with a huge stack of fresh wax in hand from the great Ramble Records of Australia. Deep zonk, hypno-jazz, nuclear psych, oceanic drift, and free form splat, supreme!

Do dip in, super limited stock on several of these. Hit the link to listen and order.

15/08/2023

The latest episode of The Green Path is now archived for streaming via .

Breathe deeply with a full hour of cosmic jazz, zero gravity aquatone, ethereal space songs, metaphysical motoriks, and elemental acoustics.

Link to listen below!

21/06/2023

The Green Path for June has been broadcast via CAMP Radio and is now archived for streaming. Tune in for a fresh hour of supreme technicolor fritz, twisted croon, fried folk, cosmic swing, classic fuzz & more!!! Support the artists and labels, listen at the link below.

07/06/2023

Thanks to Marc Masters for featuring “Trapdoor Crucifix” by Andreas Brandal in The Best Experimental Music column on Bandcamp for May. Marc wrote a few thoughtful words that capture the elements of juxtaposition and perpetual movement in the work.

“… Brandal never rests, pushing each piece forward with new ideas.”

We’re in great company here, click thru below to read the full review, and absorb the diverse and amazing sounds from this month's column.

27/05/2023

Check out the fresh mix put together by Andreas Brandal for the great Foxy Digitalis, featuring deep cuts from the modern sub-strata.

Regarding Brandal's new album, Foxy D says, " ...terrifying on some level, but viscerally, this music is so satisfying on a base level that I feel entombed and oddly comforted."

Read the full review and blast the new mix at the link below.

23/05/2023

The latest episode of our radio program The Green Path has been broadcast via , and is now archived for streaming at the link in bio.

This round has us looking directly into the sun, with loads of new tunes from the contemporary underground.

Burnt strum, ethereal wiggle, mangled data, melodic thump, cosmic groove, and much, much more.

19/05/2023

"Soundings in Fathoms" by John Swanke is out today! Inspired by strange gifts from the currents and tide.

12/05/2023

Thanks to Foxy Digitalis for premiering the new music video "Dance of the Green Crab" from John Swanke today!

"It’s music that sinks in without a trace, moving through our veins and into our bones with quiet assurance."

12/05/2023

We're happy to share beautiful new music today from John Swanke!

A soundtrack for the grey and green landscape of the Pacific Northwest.

Swanke creates his own unique path, using his guitar as a tool to explore the mysteries of the coastal shoreline. The music dissolves the salty air into tiny particles of sand, carving a dynamic pattern of organic erosion.

Much of Swanke's music is built around aspects of the natural world, and here the artist is particularly focused on the intersection between land and water. The album is a tribute to the creatures and spirits that inhabit Lummi Shore.

Pre-orders are open now - Full album and cassettes land next weekend!

05/05/2023

The new album from Andreas Brandal has been unleashed today!

"... both abrasive and oddly beautiful. Thick slabs of bass oscillations growl and snicker in sinking sludge in an endless loop. Andreas Brandal pulls the world apart piece by piece, scattering sonic remnants into deep space where they freeze on contact." - Foxy Digitalis

✞ ✟ ♱ ☥ ♁ ✙

29/04/2023

The Green Path for April has been archived for streaming via Camp FR 🌸🌺🌼

https://www.mixcloud.com/camp_fr/the-green-path-24th-april-2023/

28/04/2023

Thanks to Foxy Digitalis for premiering the intense new music video today from Andreas Brandal!

“Tundra” is both abrasive and oddly beautiful... Black and white collage-like imagery flashes chaotically across the screen, hypnotizing us, lulling us into a state of mind where our fears are lost, and our dreams are shattered."

Read the full review and watch here - https://foxydigitalis.zone/2023/04/28/video-premiere-andreas-brandal-tundra/

✞ ✟ ♱ ☥ ♁ ✙

“Tundra” is both abrasive and oddly beautiful. Thick slabs of bass oscillations growl and snicker in sinking sludge in an endless loop. Andreas Brandal pulls the world apart piece by piece, scatter…

28/04/2023

We're happy to announce a new label release today!

Andreas Brandal is a longtime legend of the underground cassette kingdom, and he's been prolific, creating an expansive catalog of solo and collaborative music on the tape format since 1994, spread across a wealth of small independent labels and publishing houses. This label's first connection with Brandal dates back over 11 years ago with the album "Autumn Drama", released by Lighten Up Sounds in 2012.

The artist's latest work "Trapdoor Crucifix" grinds rhythms into dry, powdery dust, a destructive force shifting through claustrophobic tempo and structure. The compositions travel between blistered drone and broken texture, with flashes of sharp gloom cutting across a bleak, cinematic field. The artist's refined but extreme sensibilities are showcased, organizing a frightening landscape of fractured emotions. Pulsing oscillations swell over clanking tool-shed rhythm and a mass of bubbling static - we each inevitably dissolve into oblivion

Two devastating preview tracks are streaming, and preorders are open now, with the full album and cassettes landing next weekend.

A grim transmission of otherworldly knowledge.

26/04/2023

It’s finally Spring here in Minneapolis, and the label is kicking back into gear with a series of exciting new releases for the warm season.

The action starts this Friday!

13/04/2023

We've got a busy Spring planned - the label is kicking into action with several exciting new releases in the works. Here's a friendly reminder to subscribe to the Lighten Up Sounds newsletter, we only send out updates if it's important!

Be the first to know about upcoming new releases, and receive exclusive member discounts. Good idea!

09/04/2023

The latest double whammy from is a round trip face melter.

The new “Green Ark” album is technically six tracks spread over two LPs, but the proceedings follow the true head chronology of passing through several evolutionary stages per flip, with multiple deep dives plunging headlong into that delicious morphing cosmos. All is balanced just so, with the select perspectives of an infinitely pulsing landscape heard broadcast from outside the common earthbound condition.

Matt Valentine and Erika Elder are both actively levitating, and always seem to appear floating from just above the horizon line. The message is equally harvested from a respective bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables, both sweet and savory. The path is curative, and worn through grooves of care and devotion. This is life music. Light music best viewed through a filter of multiple dimensions.

The Green Ark is now standing open to the public, bidding welcome to all weary travelers. The Ark itself symbolizes a hand-crafted escape, a new golden rebirth, and the work offers a path to safety and all-natural expansion into the future. The Ark is a great oaken protector, a reflective home and transportive blanket, it represents an internal warmth and a helping hand forward into deeper dimensions of existence.

MV & EE es**rt us directly into the path.
Three cheers for , proud purveyors of the most challenging psychedelic music from around the world.

We're stoked to help spread these, a gentle touch from that great glowing index - please phone home!