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news archive |
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| Phase: The first FSS release of 2010 |
| February 6, 2010 |
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| FSS is pleased to announce an upcoming release from two experienced sound organizers; Jason Kahn and Jon Mueller. Phase is a 39 minute piece of fluctuating tones created from live recordings. It will be available as a stand alone digital album or as part of a unique set of four silk-screened prints designed by Jason Kahn. There will be 300 of these four print sets, each including a code for a download of the music in high quality wav files and a button. This will be the first of some new formats for FSS releases in 2010. There's an excerpt from Phase on the site's media player now and more details on the release will be available soon. There is special pricing for this release: the print set will be $8 post paid in the USA, $10 in Canada and $12 in the rest of the world with the download album at the usual FSS low, low price of $5. |
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| The Black Box Application for iPhone is Out NOW |
| January 26, 2010 |
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| Now for a measly $2.99 you can turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into The Black Box. Yes, an application now exists that darkens and dominates your iPhone while it emits the loops of your choice. Get it at The iTunes Store. |
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| They Don't Know Unless You Tell Them FREE and Available NOW |
| January 10, 2010 |
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| FSS is excited to announce the release of They Don't Know Unless You Tell Them, a free fifteen track digital compilation. There's almost an hour and a half of music from all the artists on the label plus special guests. Get your copy here. The album is available in MP3 and WAV format. Wrnlrd has designed amazing art in collaboration with the contributing artists. All the tracks are exclusive to this compilation. We're grateful to the incredible artists who have generously taken part in this collaboration. They Don't Know.... is meant to be shared so please pass the music around. |
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| Fading Light of 2009 |
| December 6, 2009 |
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| The cold is setting in over Chicago and FSS HQ is pleased to write that the Wrnlrd "Myrmidon" album continues to garner positive reviews. Aquarius Records ask "What? Really? How does it work? And why does it sound so goddamn amazing? You'll probably be asking yourself that over and over as you dig into Myrmidon." Aversionline writes that "This is absolutely the band's most ambitious work to date, and it's refreshing to see/hear such obvious progression with each subsequent release, as all too many artists are content to stagnate and repeat rather than challenging themselves (and the listener)." Mike McGuirk at Rhapsody includes Wrnlrd with Converge, Khanate, Opeth and Nasum in a list of Best Metal Albums of the Decade The Wrnlrd contribution to The Black Box will be part of a new iPhone app that we'll be alerting you to soon and Wrnlrd will also be contributing music and artwork to a FSS digital compilation called They Don't Know Unless You Tell Them. FSS will be giving away a free download compilation to mark the end of the year and express our gratitude to all of you who have supported the label and artists. Contributors will include all the bands on the label plus some special guests like A Story of Rats, Dead Meat and No Anchor and others. More info will follow soon. |
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| It's There to Get Got - Myrmidon Out Now |
| October 24, 2009 |
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| The final FSS release of 2009 is available now, Wrnlrd's brilliant "Myrmidon". Available on ltd. ed. 180g vinyl LP complete with an insert, sticker and download code. Also available as high quality WAV files with two expansive artwork pdf's for $5. Check out this amazing interview in The Left Hand Path to read about The Tenant, eunuchs, Judas Priest, King Diamond, The Shangri-La's and the making of this remarkable album. Myrmidon is available now right here and will be in stores on Oct. 27. |
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| "Myrmidon" Release Date Approaches |
| October 16, 2009 |
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| The second FSS LP from Wrnlrd will be out on Oct. 27 and the reviews are starting to come in. RCRD LBL says "you will find it to be quite diabolically awesome." Grab a download of "Diamond" there now. Then go over to The Left Hand Path and spend some time deciphering the review offered therein. And finally, enter the contest at Hammer Smashed Jazz by Oct. 20 and you can win a free copy of the album. |
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| Soon Come |
| September 16, 2009 |
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| Some updates happening here at FSS Main, so we will be silent for a time. And you can expect more about the fantastic Wrnlrd album "Myrmidon" when we make noise again. Until then, check out Chronic Youth on The Black Box or ponder the description in Rhapsody of .Grief No Absolution as "Mika Vaino meets Eyehategod meets Metal Machine Music." |
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| Bleak Metal is Bustin' Out All Over |
| August 26, 2009 |
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| More positive (or positively negative) reviews on Grief No Absolution are coming in, with a Guardian piece on Bleak Metal and Boomkat saying that GNA "takes notions of noise, fury and heaviness to what might be new levels." We love Hammer Smashed Jazz for stating simply that "If Khanate and the Exorcist aren't scary enough for you, then this just might be your new favorite record." The 10 inch and 7 Inch vinyl pack and digital album are available now. |
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| Your Hard Times Just Got Harder |
| July 29, 2009 |
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| The Black Box is here. Each handheld, tombstone-shaped soundbox contains loops from Cristal, Haptic and Wrnlrd plus two chilling spoken word pieces. Subscribers will be getting their copies soon and we're taking pre-orders here. As the Orange County Weekly writes, "Before you die, you hear the Black Box." Finer stores everywhere will be selling The Black Box beginning Sept. 1. We'll have information on a Black Box iPhone application for you soon. |
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| Bleak Metal trends up for Summer |
| July 21, 2009 |
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| The first review of the upcoming Grief No Absolution release is up on The Decibel Tolls now. "Chicago’s FSS label just dropped a new doosey" it says and who are we to argue. Release date is coming up in August. Sometime this week FSS Mission Control will be receiving The Black Box. More soon on that. |
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| Grief No Absolution 10 inch-7 inch Vinyl Set out in August |
| June 19, 2009 |
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| Grief No Absolution will be releasing a combo 10 inch/ 7 inch vinyl set and digital album on FSS in August. A track is on the media player right now for your pleasure and pain. This mysterious entity sent over tracks to FSS Mission Control via a file sharing service. One EP is made up of short, vicious stabs and the other is like long immersions in a lava flow. See the band page for the minimal information we have on GNA. |
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| They like us, they really like us |
| May 18, 2009 |
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| Some nice reviews have come in recently. Haptic were covered in Tiny Mix Tapes, who noted that "The Medium" album "may still provide the first glimpse of Haptic becoming an important voice within the American avant-garde community."
Brainwashed says that "Over All of Spain" from Interbellum is "100% unique and free from any preoccupations with familiar techniques or tired fads." |
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| FSS in May issue of The Wire |
| April 20, 2009 |
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| The Feb. Flingco Sight and Sound extravaganza at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center has been reviewed in the May issue of The Wire. We're hoping to arrange similar performances in the future. The spring issue of Signal To Noise also contains a review of the Cristal, Gore and Haptic albums. In other news, FSS has gotten word from Grief No Absolution that their combined 7"-10" release is now recorded. We're awaiting the arrival of the music with a trembling mix of dread and anticipation. |
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| Haptic, Interbellum press update |
| March 18, 2009 |
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| Haptic is referred to as "the Broken Social Scene of its demographic" in this new review on Bagatellen and Just Outside has called The Medium "the most enjoyable new release I've heard thus far in 2009". Textura calls the Haptic LP/DVD pairing "one of those all-too-rare instances where the music and visuals work perfectly together." Headphone Commute interviews Interbellum here and adds a review. Interbellum CDs should be showing up in stores at the beginning of April, anyone who orders a download from FSS can get a free CD. |
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| FSS is Cheap and Easy |
| February 18, 2009 |
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| Some people seem to think that Wrnlrd LPs are rare and valuable things. Fear not. You can get any of the limited edition FSS LPs from this site, many online sources and fine record stores across the globe. Interbellum has given us a supply of compact disc copies of "Over All of Spain The Sky is Clear" that the band has pressed up. FSS is distributing the CD through our partners at CTD, Ltd. and the CD will be in stores soon. In the meantime, anyone who orders a download copy of the Interbellum CD from FSS can get a free copy of the compact disc. Just let us know when you order your download and we'll send a CD to you. |
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| Haptic OUT NOW |
| February 8, 2009 |
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| Haptic's debut album "The Medium" is out now on limited edition180 gram vinyl LP and as a $5 digital download. Textura calls the album "molasses-thick, slowly-mutating drones of spellbinding character". The first 100 copies of the LP come with a DVD featuring Lisa Slodki's album length video accompaniment. The Chicago trio of Joe Mills, Steven Hess and Adam Sonderberg are joined by Boris Hauf, Olivia Block and Tony Buck of The Necks on this recording. Just Outside describes the music as "a very mysterious, enormously evocative sound world, dark and mist-laden, filled with large objects just on the edge of identification." |
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| New Prices for 2009: $5 Album Downloads! |
| January 30, 2009 |
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| The cost of a full length album in high quality, DRM-free WAV files from this site is now a measly five bucks. The subscription series will feature the new Haptic album "The Medium", the upcoming Wrnlrd album "Mrymidon", a to-be-titled Cristal album and an EP from the cryptic band Grief No Absolution. Get a digital or vinyl subscription and you guarantee yourself early delivery of the albums in question plus exclusive non-album music over the course of the year and a free t-shirt designed by Wrnlrd itself. When you order a subscription you get the immediate gratifaction of having a download code sent to you and the smug satisfaction that limited edition vinyl will follow. The 2008 FSS releases are available as packages, in either digital or vinyl formats, and priced at a discount. All LP and subscription prices include postage costs. We take payments via Paypal, which can also process credit cards. Prices can be found on the catalog page. |
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| 2009 Plan |
| January 17, 2009 |
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| Here is what is happening in 2009 at FSS. First up is an LP from the Chicago trio Haptic called "The Medium". Release date is Feb. 16. 2009 will also see a new Wrnlrd LP/digital album called "Myrmidon", a new album from Cristal, an EP from Grief No Absolution and The Black Box. Due to the increased number of releases we will be increasing our subscription fee. New prices soon. 2008 subscribers received free music and a limited edition silkscreened poster, FSS 2009 subscribers will get more added value (in addition to getting music before release date) including a limited edition FSS t-shirt designed by Wrnlrd. And the price of downloads from FSS is going DOWN. |
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| Interbellum Video |
| December 11, 2008 |
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| Check out the video for Mansfield Louisiana from the new Interbellum album. It is a high quality file and takes time to load. Worth the wait.
Boomkat says "These compositions subtly weave thorny electronic treatments into a slow-burning exchange of melody between the two performers, ensuring that the lyrical, thoughtful instrumentation never spills out into cumbersome sentimentality." Washington City Paper profiled Interbellum and notes that "the record, filled with sprawling but sparse instrumentals, is the musical equivalent of a fugue state." |
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| FSS on Earplug |
| October 24, 2008 |
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| The Earplug
newsletter has run a feature on FSS. The sordid past of the founder is revealed and the future is glimpsed. I'm particularly taken by author Michael Byrne's description of Cristal's "placate-and-slash dynamic".
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| Pitchfork Reviews Wrnlrd |
| October 13, 2008 |
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| Pitchfork reviewed the debut FSS recording from the one and only Wrnlrd. Marc Masters notes that "Wrnlrd's distortion chimes more than it drills, buzzes more than it burrows, and creates a texture that has been rightly compared to the ambient sheens of Fennesz and Tim Hecker." |
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| FSS is an independent label that concentrates on skull capture in the soundworld |
| July 2, 2008 |
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| Flingcosound.com sells high quality WAV files that are DRM-free as downloads and selected albums available as limited edition, 180 gram vinyl LPs. Vinyl releases come with coupons enclosed so vinyl buyers can download the digital version, too. There will be four releases in 2008. Listeners can also subscribe to the label's offerings and guarantee themselves early delivery of releases, bonus subscriber-only music and tasty treats.
Digital outlets like iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, EMusic and others carry FSS releases and a number of high quality stores and mail order services around the world stock the LPs.
FSS can stand for any number of things. Right now it's Flingco Sound System. |
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new releases |
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Phase
April 12, 2010
Phase is an edition of 300 sets of four prints designed by Jason Kahn and printed on 5x5 inch heavy card stock. A digital download code on a letter pressed card comes with each set. A button is also included.
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Myrmidon
October 27, 2009
Myrmidon Is the seventh and most ambitious album from Wrnlrd. Taking in collaborators and a host of new instruments, the reclusive Wrnlrd has devised a crushing and intrepid recording.
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Eurostopodus Argus//Crypsis
August 24, 2009
Grief No Absolution is a crushing abandonment of frilly technique that has seeped into the darkest edges of metal, a reversion to a harrowing, bleak sound -decayed, scorched - and utterly unredeemed.
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The Medium
February 16, 2009
Signal To Noise: "Wonderful music in which to lose yourself, like sinking through something thick and oily" 100 copies of the LP include a dvd.
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Over All of Spain the Sky is Clear
December 8, 2008
Long form music that gazes across smoldering ruins, troubled waters and deserted shores. Piano and cello play treacly melodies accompanied by treated sounds. Furthernoise: "A languid, melancholy soundtrack for rainy afternoons and Sunday mornings."
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Re-Ups
August 18, 2008
..this trio seems to break the sound down into the smallest possible parts, creating, hyper detailed microscopic droneworlds that virtually REQUIRE headphones... Aquarius Records
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