Over the past three years Trensmat have released, to no little acclaim, 7"s from some of the most interesting artists operating in underground music such as Astral Social Club, Circle, Our Love will Destroy the World, Acid Mothers Temple, Bardo Pond, Heavy Winged, The Telescopes and many more. We celebrate our 20th release with a twelve track compilation spanning some choice cuts from these first three years. All of the tracks were originally on very limited edition 7"s that have long since sold out.

Kicking off with the A side of Trensmat001, the seven and a half minute AMM meets Suicide groove of "DSM-IV Axis 1:307.46 (Night Terrors)" by the Telescopes which leads into the haze and burn of uber-distortion and grit that is "Be yourself" by White Hills. Mugstar keep the pedal to the floor with 'Bethany heart star', a furious head tripping hybrid of speed freak out sonics welded to a frantic krautrock. Finland's mighty masters of metallic hypno drone rock, Circle, ride a propulsive groove with "Vaahto", a throbbing and suspenseful, mantric, headbanging, minimalist metallic post-krautrock juggernaut. The motorik groove becomes even more supreme via Area C's "Trick with a knife" where looped guitars slither and sway, constructing dark melodies in propulsive rhythms to a mesmerising krautrockscape. Bardo Pond space things out with "Lord of Light" - a psychbliss epic version where guitars swirl and shimmer, drifting lazily across a gauzy sun dappled sonic sky. The lush "Machines & Muscles" from Cave follows & builds with awesome grinding space rock riffage via warbly synth & flurries of percussive splatter. Heavy Winged take the sonic batton and run for the horizon via "Last Forever", a super saturated psychedelic space rock groove, relentless and throbbing and bathed in a haze of fuzzed out guitarnoise. Astral Social Club provide some relative calm via the glistening "Ginnel", full of rich reverberant like technicolor cascades underpinned by wonkey mesmerizing rhythms. Magnetize's "Noise to Signal" drops and captures the raw immediacy of interstellar transmissions crackling with the high energy of cosmic radiation filtered through a particle accelerator hotwired to an amplifier. A live version of "Lonely Hearts" by The Shining Path shows a taste of what can happen when punks get psychedelic - melting minds and destroying speakers. Finally things are eased down to a gentle landing with Cheval Sombre and Britta Philips mix of "Troubled Mind" which creates a bleary cloudy atmosphere which is brilliantly broken and carries along with a languid bluesy swagger.

Limited edition CD in full colour vinyl-style gatefold picture sleeve.

Nov 2009, TR020.

Telescopes - Dsm-1v axis 1307.46 (Night Terrors)
White Hills - Be yourself
Mugstar - Bethany Heart Star
Circle - Vaahto
Area C - Trick with a knife
Bardo Pond - Lord of Light
Cave - Machines & Muscles
Heavy Winged - Last Forever
Astral Social Club - Ginnel
Magnetize - Noise to Signal
The Shining Path - Lonely Hearts
Cheval Sombre - Troubled Mind (Britta Phillips Mix)

 

Trensmat has released some excellent records over the years. The only drawback is that you can't get any of 'em as they were mainly super limited lathe cuts which came and went quicker than Alan Wells (anyone remember him?? boy he was fast!). Anyway now you can wipe those tears away from your faces and be happy that Trensmat have compiled some of the best tunes from their early releases for your face to enjoy. 'Every Noise Has A Note' a totally stellar line up of folks like The Telescopes (their track is like a dark Suicide... well druggy and mongy...), White Hills, Mugstar, Circle, Area C, Bardo Pond, Cave, Heavy Winged, Astral Social Club, Magnetize, The Shining Path and Cheval Sombre. Speaks for itself!! Unlike most comps pretty much every track on here is a total diamond and it's a 'must have compilation'. Three words which often aren't said together but I'll break the habit of a lifetime with this one. A top listen from start to end and it truly showcases a label which has picked some of the best music from the underground quietly over the last few years without many folks noticing. Now's the time to get an erection.
LP of the Week
Norman Records

A wonderful comp, collecting all those 7" high points into one place.
LP of the Week
Piccadilly Records

No way around it, this is an amazing comp, culled from limited the singles Trensmat released over the last three years, just check out the lineup: Circle, White Hills, Telescopes, Bardo Pond, Cave, Heavy Winged, Astral Social Club, The Shining Path, Area C, Cheval Sombre, Mugstar, and Magnetize, probably couldn't assemble a more bad ass, or more aQ sounding comp if we tried! But, the bummer is, that this collects only ONE song from each single, which while keeping the 7"s special, and relevant, it is sort of a bummer, might have opted for a double disc with ALL the songs, plus a few of these tracks are taken from the series Trensmat did of bands covering Hawkwind, complete with killer Hawkwind style cover art, seems weird to pluck one or two at random, when that series was begging for a proper cd release with ALL the covers, but really, small complaints, once you dig into this comp, and niggling doubts will be quickly washed way by all the amazing tripped out sonics contained within. Some highlights include:
The Telescopes deliver a droning, buzzing raga-like dreamscape, flitting bird-like flutes that swirl and float over a blackened drift of guitar rumble and pulled apart riffs, until the drums kick in, and then it's like you've been launched into space, a full on drug drenched, FX heavy psychedelic space rock jam, with a thick bassy organ groove, wild flutes and effects EVERYWHERE. Dirge-y and groovy and dreamlike.
White Hills ditch much of their usual spaceiness for something a bit harder, and tackle Hawkwind's "Be Yourself" with crunchy chugging guitars, pounding drums, wild tangles of distortion drenched leads over the top, the band not so much covering the original, as transforming it into an endless psychedelic hard rock loop, the band churning and grinding out a steady stream of psychedelia over that endless main riff, before drifting off into a cloud of glittering soft psych shimmer.
Mugstar's track is a super synth heavy, weird sort of post punk noise rock, almost kind of mathy, a bit like a supercharged, way more metallic Stereolab, which intensifies until it explodes into wild psychedelic squalls of acid fried synths and freaked out guitarnoise.
Circle's track finds them at their most stripped down, the drums and guitars locked into a constant loop, the bass following right along, so mesmerizing and seemingly endless, the vocals a barely there whisper, while off in the distance lurk all manner of random clatter and mysterious percussive events. Right in the middle there's an awesome stumbling atonal guitar 'solo' before the band slips right back into that same groove.
Bardo Pond add female vocals to their take on Hawkwind's "Lord Of Light", the vocals drifting ethereally, over a roiling black cloud of FX drenched guitars and some seriously pounding drums, even a bit of flute (we think), and maybe more than any of the others managing to meld the sound of the original with their own, plenty of wah wah guitar, loads of effects, most of the track spent drifting through space, cloaked in blown out super distorted psych guitar and shimmering outer space ambience. Surprisingly heavy and totally blissed out.
Cave contribute "Machines & Muscles" with its Circle-like guitar groove, some hand drums, very tribal and looped sounding, suspended in a field of space streakings and smears of soft effects in the background, the drums get a little more obtuse, a bit busier, but that main riff stays LOCKED in, until it begins to get ALL tripped out, distorted, effects drenched, swinging from speaker to speaker, dizzyingly tripped out, and then finally, the drums kick in proper, and we're in total hynorock bliss, little bits of keyboard pepper, the stuttery rhythm, the main riff staying solid and unwavering, while all around it various other sounds swoop and shimmer.
Astral Social Club surprised us with their jam, total minimal house music, sort of. The main beat a stripped down pulse and squelch, with synthy basslines, and some haunting disembodied piano drifting over the top, making for a truly creepy mash up. Maybe one of our favorite Astral tracks ever!
The Shining Path's contribution is seriously rocking, the drums and bass locked into a motorik groove, while the guitar, super distorted and blown out, spits out riffs in sudden bursts, eventually coalescing into one constant stream of psychfuzz, pelted by fragments of super effected vocals, strange little squalls of FX, and then the bass gets all dubbed out, bouncing back and forth beneath the buzz and fuzz.
We could go on, but why bother, this collection is pretty fucking kick ass, here's hoping they decide to do a second volume that gathers up the rest of those 7"s tracks, but hell, for now, this is definitely hitting the spot.
Aquarius Records

Trensmat was an Irish record label releasing drone, noise and kraut rock and groove on 7” in tiny quantities between 2006 and 2009. Some of the singles came with a CD-R with some extra material. Personally I’m very sad that they closed down, since I’ve been enjoying their output very much, especially the Hawkwind tribute trilogy that had Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Temple, White Hills, Kinski and Bardo Pond doing their versions of songs by their favorite artist. Nearly all the 19 singles are now of course sold out, for example Circle’s Vaahto 7” is very hard to find. To a blessing for all those who were too late or don’t own a vinyl player the final release on Trensmat combines 12 tracks’ worth of the best pieces from these singles.
The album starts with the Telescopes number ”Dsm-1 v axis 1307.46 (Night Terrors)” taken from the very first Trensmat release. Some of the recent Telescopes stuff has been just pure ear-splitting noise but this song is actually a really good, hypnotic and psychedelic drone. I don’t have this single… Next one of my current favorites White Hills does a wild and distorted version of Hawkwind’s “Be Yourself”… Wow! Mugstar’s hard rocking ”Bethany Heart Star” is one of the best tracks on the album, as well as of course Circle’s ultra hypnotic “Vaahto”. Area C offers electronic, motorik loop-based kraut rock with their number ”Trick With A Knife” and the majestic version of Hawkwind’s “Lord of Light” by Bardo Pond is the heaviest track on the CD. Previously totally unknown to me, Cave is a Chicago-based band led by two drummers and their piece ”Machines & Muscles” brings to mind at least Neu! and works splendidly. Heavy Winged plays some kind of noise rock and Area C experimental ambient. Trensmat’s fellow countrymen Magnetize give us some noise-drone and the wildly rocking ”Lonely Hearts” by The Shining Path is some kind of a combination of space rock, kraut, punk and Suicide. The album ends in a very pleasant way with Cheval Sombre’s soft and sleepy “Troubled Mind”. I’m very happy that Trensmat decided to put out this kind of compilation, although a double CD would have been even better… Now there is still a chance to get hold of some of these rare gems.
Psychotropic Zone

Between 2006-09, Trensmat issued a series of 19 one-of 7" vinyl releases in elaborate and tiny editions, and this release compiles 12 of the best tracks. These include an unusually structured riff-out from Heavy Winged, an expectedly great 'Status Quo play space rock boogie' from the usually austere Circle, a tumbling slab of cosmic surf from veterans The Telescopes, a breakneck wah-wah onslaught from White Hills, and a smart dose of instrumental garage funk-punk from Mugstar. There's also an edge-of-the-galaxy pips 'n' pulses opera from Area C, a lo-fi, low-frequency throb of deviant dance music provided by Cave, and an eclectic stuck-needle glitch groove by Astral Social Club, a feedback drone from Magnetize called "Noise To Signal", which is mostly noise and little signal, Shining Path in a monumental and iconoclastic rocking mood and an outlying piece of gentle balladry from Cheval Sombre.
A great compilation from a great label.
The Wire