Amish Records (Required Wreckers)

18/12/2024

Verity Den 2024

18/12/2024

#1!!

Congratulations to for clocking in at the top spot on the Best Albums of 2024.

Massive thank you to Doug Mosurock for the support and kind words for the album. Many lament the death of true music editorial but Doug represents the absolute best of what remains. Mainlined straight to your inbox every other week, great music, whip smart and thoughtful writing, community building, no bu****it. Well worth the copy of bucks he’s asking to support this endeavor.

VERITY DEN ‘Verity Den’ (AMI057)
LP / Digital available now.

Here’s an excerpt of the album review from earlier this year.

“Challengers arising from the Research Triangle to claw shoegaze/dream pop back from the playlist era, and they’ve done a hell of a job with this debut album, seven songs that sublimate as the tracklist lolls along, but never give out on actual songcraft (even in the all-noise closer) nor traffic in mood-booster riff wars. Nope, this thing is just perfect, patient, and pretty revelatory for any band playing in this puddle decades after the fact, and the little-recognized high card they’re playing with is texture…

— reminds that the best bands don’t fall into a stylistic trap so much they rebuild the trap altogether, and let others do the falling. This is self-produced effort too, from an internal member of the band, and thay understand the sound and the greater causes of this work better than anyone else. Putting them in a more expensive studio or in someone else’s hands would just feel wrong at this point. Not even trying to oversell this; I don’t know how they managed to nail the short game so well, but this is the stuff; other bands, like those that take the names of other bands and get real uptight about it when called out, there’s too many of you — maybe it’s time to do something else. I hear Warhammer figurines can take up a lot of dudes’ time. Go paint those and clear a path for the real thing.”

17/12/2024

As 2024 draws to a close, we quietly acknowledge our 30 years of slinging music via Amish Records and Required Wreckers.

We are forever grateful to those who have supported/wrote/played/purchased/listened to any of our wares.

We’ve only ever done this for the opportunity to engage with the creative community around us and to work with some of the best musicians/artists out there (certainly, not for the money or notoriety.) We are absolutely nothing without the folks mentioned here.

We have a few surprises for early 2025 and some big changes coming.

Big love and never-ending gratitude


.bones .duzen

17/12/2024

Just had a visit with and he brought us a little gift from his recent trip to New Zealand.

FUTURE JAW-CLAP
The Primitive Art Group and the Braille Collective Story

Written by
Published by

Super deep oral history and extensive archival research with an incredible trove of photos, flyers and ephemera. Cannot wait to dive in!

PRIMITIVE ART GROUP 1981-1985
2XLP / Digital available now

Working on something special with the band for 2025

12/12/2024

DAVID WATSON/BILL NACE DUO, MB + MP & BLOODY STOMA

Saturday, December 14, 2024 | 8:00pm


607 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia, PA

10/12/2024

This Saturday, our dear friend and collaborator, David Watson is playing in Philadelphia in a duo performance with Bill Nace.

DAVID WATSON/BILL NACE DUO
MB + MP
BLOODY STOMA

Saturday, December 14, 2024 | 8:00pm


607 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia, PA

04/12/2024

PRIMITIVE ART GROUP 1981-1986 2xLP/DL review in double issue of

2024 Rewind: the Year in Underground Music (The Wire 491/492) January 2025 OUT NOW

Reviewed by Bruce Russell

For a long time, New Zealand jazz had a mostly unexceptional history, at least in terms of genuine sonic innovation. This double LP represents one of the first significant moments when it could be said we had an antipodean jazz avant garde. Bursting out of the post-punk undergrowth in the capital city, Primitive Art Group (PAG) were an amalgamation of absurdly talented players, mostly from provincial towns, who found each other at a moment when anything seemed possible. The combination of disintegrating social and political conservatism, economic stagnation and relatively generous welfare provision which allowed New Zealand’s post-punk bands to flourish also supported the nascent efforts of PAG. That the adventurous end of Wellington’s musical underground swung in a jazz direction in the 1980s was largely due to PAG and their self-directed Braille Records….

(Slide for full review)

02/12/2024

Originally published in The Listener, New Zealand, 1986

“Just one more peril of everyday life in Wellington”

25/11/2024

Neill Duncan (March 9, 1957 - December 28, 2021).

Neill Duncan was a legend of New Zealand and Australian music. A founding member of the Braille Collective, member of the free jazz ensemble Primitive Art Group among other groups, The Four Volts, The Six Volts, Rabbitlock, The Front Lawn, The Spines and many more.

Neill lost his arm to an aggressive sarcoma in 2012. He didn’t let that stop him, having both a one-handed tenor and one-handed soprano saxophone custom made. He continued to play and recorded until he sadly passed due to a lymphoma in 2021.

Here is a picture of him from the cover of his the last album he recorded in 2020, Neill Duncan with Devils Gate Outfits “Phantom Tones” (Kiwijahzz, 2023)

13/11/2024

THE AZUSA PLANE
Jacques Offenbach’s Opera Efforts (Amish 010)

Released Feb 17, 1998

Music: The Azusa Plane
Mastering: Greg Vaughn/Frankford Wayne
Layout: Marlon Hernandez
Jackets: Workhorse Printing (Baltimore, MD

One-color screen print
Edition of 500

The Azusa Plane was the music recording and performance project of Jason DiEmilio (1970 – 2006) of Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania. Performing almost exclusively on a Fender guitar and usually through echo effects, DiEmilio released three full-length studio efforts, a live disc, several EPs and a large number of singles, compilation contributions and split releases between the years 1995 and 2001.

Amish Records was fortunate to have worked with Jason early on after bringing him to New York twice for shows. This collaboration resulted in the release of the four-song EP “Jacques Offenbach’s Opera Efforts” (AMI010). The prolific and unpredictable Azusa Plane continued to amaze with this 12”. This record is in keeping with AP’s diverse material on seven inches and compilations which together stands independent of the beautiful full lengths (on Camera Obscura and Colorful Clouds for Acoustics, respectively).

“Jacques Offenbach’s Opera Efforts falls at points to pure sound. “1863” is a low hum which sounds like air escaping. However, “1872” turns guitar slides into propulsions through the atmosphere, random pockets of Stockhausen-inspired noises slapped together. The second of two tracks entitled “1875” is the only thing here which actually sounds like a guitar-strings are tuned low and repeatedly strummed, achieving a menacing and moody result” - TROUSER PRESS

13/11/2024

Braille Collective c.1986.

L-R: Anthony Donaldson, Gerard Crewdson, David Watson, Janet Roddick, David Long, David Donaldson, Stuart Porter, Richard Sedger and Neill Duncan.

Photo credit: Marcel Tromp

11/11/2024

back in the studio

08/11/2024

NEW ZEALAND PRESS UPDATE

Primitive Art Group is featured in this week’s addition of THE LISTENER which is the weekly politics+ music+ culture magazine from The New Zealand Herald.

Huge thanks to Graham Reid for his thoughtful take on the band.

07/11/2024

CHARLES WATERS QUARTET
“Times Square”

… from the album ‘Chroma Colossus - 13 Visions of the City” (Amish 045)

This 2013 release marked an important contribution to the modern jazz tradition. Among other reevaluations of New York that occurred in the aftermath of 9-11 and Hurricane Sandy, Chroma Colossus—13 Visions of the City presents a (re) imagining of our relation to the space, sound, energy and resilience of New York. Beyond Waters, the quartet consists of Andrew Barker (drums), Chris McIntyre (trombone) and George Rush (Bass/Tuba). The album’s song cycle is based on the dynamic text by Brooklyn-based novelist, Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow, Colson Whitehead, who reads a passage from his book The Colossus of Brooklyn on the song “Brooklyn Bridge“.

05/11/2024

RADIO INTERVIEW

Wed, Nov 6th 10:30AM PT / 1:30PM ET David Watson (Primitive Art Group) will be appearing live on the Bill Chen vs. Dennis Callaci radio show on KSPC Claremont 88.7FM.

LISTEN HERE: https://kspc.org

04/11/2024

PRIMITIVE ART GROUP 1981-1986
Double LP / Digital out now

04/11/2024

Verity Den
529 EAV, Atlanta, GA
11.3.24

📷:

01/11/2024

Primitive Art Group review on Sun 13 !

Featuring Matchess, Deep Fade, Andrew PM Hunt, Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka, and more.