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IT'S LIVE! RATSKIN RECORDS is proud to announce our 84th release, JOEL SHANAHAN "Frozen Clock Hovering" Double Cassette Album Art Edition Preorder!
We are beyond excited to be releasing this breathtakingly stunning and heart-felt work of contemporary/future electronic music from Portland-based producer Joel Shanahan (Golden Donna, Auscultation, Puritan Waste, et al.) “Frozen Clock Hovering” takes the form of two sixty-minute cassettes housed in an elaborate box-set / art-edition style packaging, as well as digital download.
For his first release for Ratskin, Shanahan presents a prescient double full length cassette album spanning mixed genre electronics with heavy cinematic overtones. Fresh off his LP as Auscultation for the 100% Silk label, Shanahan's newest release under his own name, "Frozen Clock Hovering" explores complex, esoteric rhythmic zones, sewing dense forests of electronic drones all in crescendo, heavily mixed with lush, otherworldly ambient spaces which, in harmony, act as a guide for the previously uncharted sonic journey that is "Frozen Clock Hovering".
“Frozen Clock Hovering' was simultaneously an attempt to seek comfort through creation, as well as raise the question—"When will this all end?" Musically, this work was inspired by early intersections of jazz and electronic music—like collaborations between jazz superheroes like Joe Henderson and Herbie Hancock and legendary synth explorer Dr. Patrick Gleason. It also draws from other early electronic music and music concrete works, as well as meditative synth work, and the patient passages of folks like Andrew Chalk and Drunjus. I'm sure that to most listeners, this work will likely and rightfully pale in comparison to the aforementioned references, but this is definitely what I was listening to and feeling inspired by when I recorded this work, also Mike at Ratskin asked me to write a blurb, otherwise I would probably say very little, as I'm usually not one for "artist statements." From an emotional standpoint, this collection was created in the shadow of lingering pain, trauma, and general futility in tandem with the heartbreak of a failing and now finished relationship with someone I was very in love with. It sits in a contemplative purgatory, as I try to figure out how to scale its towering walls and pull myself out.” - Joel Shanahan
“Frozen Clock Hovering” is at once both dark and hopeful, disorienting and insightful, melancholy and victorious. Through a meticulously idiosyncratic creative process, Shanahan has created a contemporary electronic music masterwork, bridging ambient and modern dance music. The nuance, care, and intentionality put into these compositions help solidify a psychedelic musical offering worth engaging in completely. The sounds of Frozen Clock Hovering oscillate just underneath our eyelids to sew warm beds as temporary respite. Electronic pulses trigger huge electronic events, shooting us into space and slowly recoiling back through the cold atmosphere. plunging into the cold barren sea, leaving a faint crease in the sky, like brushes painting a sonic map to unknown futures, when you look back up into an unknown space all you can see is one, isolated Frozen Clock Hovering,
Frozen Clock Hovering is available for preorder July 3rd, 2020 and released Sep 4, 2020.
We will also be donating 50% of our sales from this entire weekend to Black Trans Travel Fund and Survived and Punished. Follow their links for more about the vital and very specific work bot of these organizations are doing for Ttans centered Black Liberation as well as Abuse Survivor Liberation!
NEW RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT - FRIDAY JULY 3, 6AM EST!
the preorder for our newest release goes live Friday July 3, 2020 on our bandcamp page and here at ratskin.org. We're not going to tell you what it is yet, so you're going to have to come back here and find out or make sure to subscribe to our email lust above for first crack, this will also be limited to 50 copies and will only be a single presssing, though it is a double album, nearly 120 minutes of music is the only hint we're gicing, oh and a sneak at PARTIAL cover art.
For Juneteenth we were able to raise $120 in donations for the Black Trans Travel Fund. Please read about why this is an important and necessary project from the founders here. : https://www.blacktranstravelfund.com
We also raised $1155 for the Black Youth Project BYP 100 , $250 for National Bailout and $250 for Black Trans Travel Fund. These, and organizations like these are the types of orginazitions we will be supporting in the future,
Outsider Sounds And Visions - RADIO SHOW ARCHIVE UP NOW! Radio Show { STREAMING ARCHIVES }
https://www.mixcloud.com/ratskin-records/
***The First and now THIRD Monday Of Every Month*** 5-7pm PST on Sutrofm.net
Featuring Ratskin Records Music, sounds, interviews and the works of friends, peers, and influences
TWO SURPRISE RELEASES OUT NOW! RAT083: HILLBOGGLE / NERFBAU CS/DL RAT087: TYLER HOLMES "NOTHING" CS/DL
We decided to drop two surprise releases and do a sale thats happening from right now until Sunday May3rd on our Bandcamp Page
RAT087: TYLER HOLMES "NOTHING" CS/DL
For their new two song EP, “Nothing” Oakland, CA based producer and multi-disciplinary artist and Ratskin Records collective member Tyler Holmes offers us two brand new compositions “Nothing” and “ Rinse [Breath Play]” Through intense voice and breath manipulation backed with their minimal yet powerfully presented electronic based compositions, nodding to Holly Herndon, Xiu Xiu, and Cocorosie, Holmes offers two forcefully elegant and haunting tracks both separate from but in dialogue with their upcoming full length LP “Nightmare In Paradise” on Ratskin in Fall 2020. Holmes once again tightropes a complex web of emotion, sound and movement within their own sonic world into a pair of sonically powerful worlds. We hope you appreciate these beautiful electronic compositions as much as we do.
RAT083: HILLBOGGLE / NERFBAU "Onyx One" CS/DL
"Onyx Split Series One" is the first installment of the next iteration of our split single series. The first was the GOLD BOX which featured twenty artists featured across ten cassettes, all doing 2:30 tracks. The first is Hillboggle on the A side and Nerfbau (RK/MD) lineup on the B side. This is the first new NERFBAU material since co-founder and brother Jsun Adrian McCarty tragically left this mortal coil in the ghostship fire on Dec 2 , 2019. This release is for him.
Hillboggle is the nascent "noise-grass collaboration" of San Francisco recorder Derek Gedalecia and his father David on banjo and dobro, debuted in 2013 as a cassette b-side through Derek's prolific Headboggle project. Imagined as a way to explore the elder Gedalecia's own experiments with unconventional sounds in the 60s -- Dwight Pavlovic, Crash Symbols
Nerfbau are wrestling foam-choked streams and sunless oil-slicked oceans back into cataracts of blinding consciousness. Theorems are laid forth herein as "Error Swarms” and proofs conducted using custom sequencers, laryngopharynx, reprocessed wind instruments, guitars, sound-object graphical processors and Dow Chemical's styrenefoam modified with Cyanoacrylate. - Resipiscent Records
Use code "GUILLOTINE" for 30% off all weekend, including these new releases. We also have some special one off items on the bandcamp page which ae veryu very limited so act fast if you want in on those. <3 Big official updates coming soon thanks for your patience and please stay as safe as you can.
NEWEST AVAILABLE RELEASES: Click on album cover to order!
BIG UPDATES THE WORLD IS IN CHAOS - Please #StayTheFuckHome
For the time being we will be keeping mailorder open. All orders will be packed in as sanitary as a way as possible.n Any support in this time is huge for us and our artists, we also encourage you to buy digital albums, or you can purchase the physical and select a later shipping date. We appreciate all the support everyone has given us throughout the label, know is is a time to support the arts more than ever es well as those most at risk from the violent jaws of late stage runaway capitalism.
Also this Tueaday April 7th we're taking over BFF.FM's Instagram Account so make sure to follow them and keep a lookout.
BANDCAMP QUARANTINE SALE - Begins Thrs March 19 through subday March 22nd - 30% off our entire catalog, digital and physical
Please Head over to our bandcamp page and consider picking up a few digital or physical copies. due to COVID-19 we will be changing our mailorder to once a week, every Wednesday. You can also purchase physical items, and select to have them shipped at a later date. All mailorder will be packed with cauton above and beyond what is being recommended. Any and all support means the world. Head over to our Bandcamp Store and use code STAYHOME for 35% off of your purchase. Any and all support is appreciated so much more than you know. We will be splitting the net of the weekends sales with the respective artists so please consider picking up a few different releases.
KK NULL "GREAT ATTRACTOR" reviewed in The Wire : Adventures In Modern Music
HEADBOGGLE "Polyphonic Demo" 2nd edition CD repress is here
"In Space" Shirt + Download Available Now. Order here
(Updated: 11/22/19)
KK NULL "GREAT ATTRACTOR" is out today, our 85th release on CD and Cassette
Note the digital is svailable here: www.kknull1.bandcamp.com
Read a review of "Great Attractor" at X ACTION MUSIC
"Great Attractor 1 and Great Attractor 2 gel and mutate within the great lexicon of noise. A true visual and aural landscape to convey – a story of terror and energy – you will feel the heat from the mechanical hardware as the distorted percussive sequences bludgeon your soul; pushing sounds and energy to their limits and using variety as an extension to abrasive techniques; blending perfectly dark, throbbing sound glitches and electronic explorations of grinding noise and a powerful dance-like craze." - X ACTION MUSIC
Review of "Great Attractor" at YEAH I KNOW IT SUCKS
"It will be beaming the curious attractors into the great sky of the terrorising unknowns, a place where ghosts of harsh noise biggies are going hand in hand with the powers of destruction, excitement, excellent alienation, frantic nut cases and militant industrialism. The more that I’m here the more I imagine that being simply electrocuted might be less exciting than being all the way in the middle of this excellently thrilling sound show! It might be on the hard edge of life, but it for sure is the one that will give thrill seekers the ride of their lives! The Great Attractor? Hell yes! Let this magnet of sound pull you in:" - Y I K I S
PURCHASE" GREAT ATTRACTOR" by KK Null on CD or cassette HERE:
https://ratskinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/great-attractor
in other news TYLER HOLMES "DEVIL" was just reviewed in TINY MIX TAPES. Read it here!
"Duality of being, rhythmic dissonance; the decision of indecision. Pine trees scrape the sky, line roads dizzy, double back, lead to amber sunsets over dusty horizons. Run breathless between landscapes, never sure where to stop, neither quite certain enough to be home. Run through memory, sun-bleached and too bright. This time, do not shield your eyes from them; why is it that the sunlight makes you feel too exposed? A lifetime of praying for the safety of shadows, gone unanswered, but not fallen upon deaf ears. Some landscapes are not meant to change; a home can only belong if you let it. "
Mia Antoinette -Tiny Mix Tapes
"DEVIL" was also reviewed in the December 2019 Issue Of The WIRE: Adventures In Modern Music: Read it here!
Also, we will be at BAY AREA RECORD FEST (B.A.R.F.) This Saturday at 7th West in Oakland. We will have all of our releases plus some special items. Tyler Holmes performs at 1pm sharp and we have a dj set at 4pm! RSVP HERE
We will also be annoucing our end of the year sale and giveaway starting December 5th, 2019 so stay tuned for that. New special releases only available during the sale as well as a massive giveaway. Make sure to follow our Instagram and Twitter accounts to sign up and enter.
www.twitter.com/ratskinrecords / www.instagram.com/ratskinrecords
Thats it for now. Please make sure to follow our email list for quickest and speediest updates.
(Updated: 10/25/19)
Japanese underground music legend Kazuyuki Kishino aka KK NULL of Zeni Geva fame announces “Great Attractor” via Ratskin Records: Preorder CD and CASSETTE through Ratskin, Digital through www.kknull1.bandcamp.com
ORDER THE GREAT ATTRACTOR HERE on CD / CASSETTE
ORDER DIGITAL Exclusively at KK NULL's BANDCAMP PAGE : www.kknull1.bandcamp.com
For his Ratskin Records debut, Japanese underground music legend Kazuyuki Kishino aka KK NULL of Zeni Geva fame announces “The Great Attractor”. Slated for release this November 2019 on CD, cassette and digital, KK NULL’s newest full-length album blends two ”live”performances into a cinematic, sonically diverse sandstorm of electronic chaos. “The Great Attractor” pulls from numerous compositional and sonic strategies, including Japanese harsh noise, “high-speed” industrial, dance music, free-jazz and musique concrete. Throughout the sixty-minute journey, NULL creates a mirror-world look into the unknown; a post-apocalyptic sonic journey into the epicenter of an erupting volcano. Through complex use of a wide scope of instrumentation, NULL synthesizes slithering, hypnotic rhythms, reminicinent of robotic snakes giant pools of boiling magma; pulsing and bubbling, the splitting of crystalline shards stab through the mix and send a piercing shiver into bone. Controlled chaotic blasts of twisting drum machines slice through walls of spastic, sputtering synthesizers, choking blasts of noise, and sharp stabs of vocal-percussion manipulations. On “The Great Attractor” NULL has channeled both the nuances and chaos of the void, compressing it into a near hour-long cinematic representation of the darkness and psychedelic breath of outer space."
ALL PREORDERS will ship one week early on November 20th. Album releases November 22th!
"Great Attractor" Review in X ACTION MUSIC ZINE : Read it here: https://xactionmusic.wordpress.com/2019/11/19/great-attractor-kk-null/
(Updated: 10/10/19)
DISTRIBUTION PARTNER NEWS: OK this is big news for us, we are now offering all our newest releases through our distribution partner REVOLVER / MIDHEAVEN. Check out our label section on their site now and pick something up! Ok on to more music related news.
TYLER HOLMES "DEVIL" OUT NOW!
Tyler Holmes "DEVIL" is out now! You can order it though our bandcamp store or through our distributor REVOLVER / MIDHEAVEN. Check out our label catalog from Midheaven HERE.
Also you can read a review of "DEVIL" in the longstanding esteemed Cassette Gods. Theres also a review of the new WIZARD APPRENTICE "Dig A Pit" on CG as well. Read the Wiz App Review here! Thanks to Jacob An Kittenplan for the beautiful reviews on Cassette Gods!
In other review news you can read about Dax Pierson "Live In Oakland" in Pitchfork - "Great Records You May Have Missed - Summer 2019"
We also reissued two of our out of print cassettes: LAS SUCIAS "Salte Del Medio" and SPELLLING "Pantheon Of Me" Both on cassette in very limited numbers. You can order them both as a package from our bandcamp store!
New shirts coming soon!
(Updated: 8/9/19)
TYLER HOLMES "DEVIL" PREORDER AVAILABLE NOW! OUT AUG 30, 2019 ON CS/DL
Tyler Holmes has crafted another deep, nuanced, and starkly honest EP titled “DEVIL” which is out on Ratskin Records August 30, 2019. The first visual “Two Tylers” recently premiered via The Bay Bridged to critical acclaim. “Two Tylers” is a visually stunning and conceptually complex execution of the minimally stark track, telling the story of the dualities of life and all of it’s intricate complexities. Holmes pulls from Chris and Cosey, Bjork and FKA Twigs for a soft and hypnotic vocal delivery backed with minimal, murmuring synths, selective percussion and a haunting tension gluing the tracks together. “DEVIL” is the next evolution in Holmes constant refining of their sonic palette, stripping out the maximalist approach that was used on previous releases and focuses on sonic archteypes that twist and turn the production into a beautiful, albeit slightly unsettling EP. Their three previous releases, “Invisible Island” , “DEMO” and “SPORT: Deluxe” all displayed uniquely varied styles of experimental electronic offerings, blending electro pop, noise, industrial, hip hop, and neo-classical, all uniquely gelled within radicalized, queer framework, exploring both the self and the community that they artistically operate within. “DEVIL” is the sonic continuum of all three of these works, distilled down to their strongest components, which give “DEVIL” a refreshing yet familiar sonic palette for Holmes fans to grasp onto. The first single, “Everything (Will Be Destroyed)” was commissioned and written for the series “CAMP CHAOS’ featuring Matthew Camp.
“DEVIL” serves as the prologue to the forthcoming LP “Nightmare In Paradise” due out on Ratskin Records in Spring 2020
XUXA SANTAMARIA "River Neva" Video + Feature Interview in THE FADER "Conceptual dance duo XUXA SANTAMARIA are imagining revolution" Today!
"Despite these heady concepts, you won’t be hard pressed to find a rhythm to bounce to in XXSM’s music. On their latest output, Kirkland’s imaginative, synth-heavy production, which pulls from a wealth sounds across Latin America and the Caribean as well as rock mood points, is a natural fit for Córdova’s maneuvers between melodic verses and ominous recitals in English and Spanish. Moody and lush, Chancletas D’Oro plays both as a dance record and a soundtrack for femme-led revolutions, a concept that underscores the 10-track album. “Color of the Dark,” for example, is the song that’ll pull any beating heart to the dancefloor whereas the album’s closer, “¿Quien Lleva Los Pantalones?” featuring another Oakland experimental music duo, Las Sucias, is a beautiful, melancholic tribute to Puerto Rican labor and civil rights activist Luisa Capatillo." - The FADER
TYLER HOLMES "DEVIL" CS/DL Preorder Goes Live 8/16/19.
You can listen / buy the first single "Everything" (Will Be Destroyed}" here.
XUXA SANTAMARIA "XXSM" Shirts Now Available!
(Updated: 8/2/19)
Dax Pierson "Live In Oakland makes "Best Electronic Music On Bandcamp - Jul 2019"
"The history behind this record is dramatic. Among various other roles, Bay Area musician Dax Pierson is an affiliate of the Anticon collective—he was in Subtle with Adam “Doseone” Drucker and Jeffrey “Jel” Logan. In 2005, he was severely paralyzed following a road accident on tour with that group. His work since then has been an experimental process of finding out what he can do with his limited movement, using iPad apps and other tools, and this extraordinary document shows just how sonically ambitious he’s become in those intervening 14 years. He references this history directly on the record’s opener, which revolves around a layered voice intoning, “Don’t take your physical abilities for granted, for you can lose them with a snap of the neck,” before building up an orchestra of disjointed sounds. And through the following seven, mostly lengthy, tracks he creates a very personal vision through drones, distorted hip-hop beats and disembodied voices; clearly, this is a talent that can’t be contained." - Bandcamp
Dax Pierson feature on KQED ARTS: "Dax Pierson's New Album Confronts a Near-Death Experience and Turbulent Recovery"
"Visceral and stirring, Live in Oakland is Pierson's way of clearing his throat and letting people know that he's still here—and why he's been laying low. It doesn't paint a falsely inspirational portrait of surviving a near-death experience or living with disabilities. Instead, the album allows listeners to course through the messy, uncomfortable and sometimes ugly emotions that have been part of his recovery process.
Pierson is already working on his next album—which he says could take a more poppy form, gesturing to an entire shelf of Prince vinyl he's been collecting since the age of 12.
"[Music] has kept my head out of the shit. And there’s a lot of shit," says Pierson with a sarcastic laugh. "Music has been a real lifesaver."
Order DAX PIERSON "LIVE IN OAKLAND" Cassette
Order XUXA SANTAMARIA "CHANCLETAS D'ORO" LP and BRAND NEW :xxsm" SHIRT
Order WIZARD APPRENTICE "DIG A PIT" Cassette
We will be at Fault Records "Shiftimg Plates" Record Fair Saturday, Aug 17, 2019 with a whole table of Ratskin goodies, pull up! We will have a bunch of new shirts, posters and some event exclusive cassettes and merch.
(Updated: 7/20/19)
Our two newest releases are out as of today! , XUXA SANTAMARIA "Chancletas D'Oro" LP is up for order as well as DAX PIERSON 'Live In Oakland" Cassette. Order both and save on shipping- Email us for a discount!
Dax Pierson "Live In Oakland" Full Album Stream via The Big Takeover Magazine.
Wizard Apprentice "I Am Invisible" Chosen As KEXP's Song Of The Day 6/24/2019 for the "Music That Matters" Podcast.
Xuxa Santamaria "Rudos Del Mar" Track reviewed in MooKid Magazine
Also right now our digital discograpjy is a whopping 85% off on bandcamp so why don't you head on over and pick up the nearly complete archive, thats over 70 releases for less than $40!
XXSM and Ratskin Records new shirt designs coming this week!
(Updated: 6/26/19)
Our newest release, XUXA SANTAMARIA "Chancletas D'Oro" is up for preorder now!
Chancletas D’Oro, XUXA SANTAMARIA’s third release and second full-length LP, is a loose concept album focused on exploring femme and womxn narratives drawn from both history and works of fiction. Side A employs reimagined myths, fables, and original fictional narratives to create songs that challenge or obfuscate the received ideas around feminine agency, motivations, and desire. In Puro Animal and King Marsile, Córdova recasts fictional characters (from “Dracula” and “The Song of Roland” respectively) who originally were little more than victims or mute accomplices within their narratives as willing participants in their own corruption or liberation; White Pine uses the text of an early 20th century poem about tribal life in the Pacific Northwest, written by a white trapper, as a means to simultaneously twist and redirect the white gaze in on itself while still celebrating the knowledge of land and sea possessed by this continent’s first peoples. The Borges-inspired Rudos Del Mar, written while Córdova was traveling along the coast of Chile, details the odyssey of a group of pirates patrolling the seas beyond the edges of language, reason, and time; closing out the side, Color Of The Dark is a (comparatively) straightforward ode to lust, love, and ego disintegration between bodies of color within the darkness of a dance club.
Side B pulls from historical narratives, with subjects ranging from queer silent film star Alla Nazimova in Jardin de Alla to the Puerto Rican syndicalist and feminist pioneer Luisa Capetillo in ¿Quien Lleva Los Pantalones? The last three tracks of the album follow the stories of collective and individual revolutionary womxn; in River Neva, the International Women’s Day March in 1917 which kickstarted the Russian Revolution and the massacre on Bloody Sunday over a decade earlier drift into each other, as the lyrics imagine the march morphing into a psychedelic battleground on a frozen river covered with blood. Heaven’s Gate Path dramatizes the work of the womxn truck drivers of the North Vietnamese army, who risked life and limb to transport vital goods during the American War of Imperial Aggression (known in the U.S. as ‘the Vietnam War’), following them through humid jungles bombarded by artillery and fire, while ¿Quien Lleva Los Pantalones? closes out the album by using the story of the Puerto Rican syndicalist movement and Luisa Capetillo to meditate on the struggle for freedom, not only from the injustices of US empire but from the confines of gender roles and tradition.
Preorder here:
https://ratskinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/chancletas-doro
(Updated: 6/17/19)
DAX PIERSON "Live In Oakland" Cassette/Digital Preorder Up Now + East Bay Express Cover Story: "The Musical Reinvention Of Dax Pierson"
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PREORDER "LIVE IN OAKLAND" Cassette / Digital HERE!
Aesthetically, Live In Oakland blends heavy, multi-layered polyrhythmic percussion with sharp, mechanized, arpeggiated synth lines, meticulously sequenced transitions and geometric time changes which dramatically stop, start and pivot on an invisible dime. Field recordings, manipulated voice samples, and swelling synthesizers create unexplored caverns of ambient textures accentuated by bright percussion and synth leads. The A side was recorded at the legendary Oakland DIY venue LCM (Life Changing Ministries) and the B-side was captured more recently at the 3-day Stasis Festival at Pro Arts Gallery in downtown Oakland. While studio productions of many of these tracks exist, this live pairing of Pierson's work serves as an intimate and focused glimpse into the intensity and veracity that the tracks possess, especially within a live, free-form setting. The performances stand both on their own as individual live sets, but they also operate as continuum, and the result is a sonically deep, compositionally and conceptually complex offering from one of the bay area's most hardworking, esoteric and innovative producers.
BIOGRAPHY
Dax Pierson is a musician/producer who has called the East Bay home for 20 years. He was co-founder of the bands Subtle and 13 & God, a touring member of left of center hip-hop group Themselves and an associate of the Anticon collective. In 2005 Subtle encountered black ice in the middle of the country while on tour and flipped over, leaving Dax with a spinal cord injury in the 5th and 6th vertebrae. Since his individual fingers are now paralyzed, Dax has switched to using a laptop controlled with iPad apps in order to produce. The last 12 years have been spent exploring the possibilities that technology could offer, often with time-consuming learning curves. His work is currently informed by limitations, college radio segues, hip-hop, ‘90s post-rock, odd time signatures, new techno, ambient drones, bobbing head beats and sentimentality.
(Updated: 6/1/19)
WIZARD APPRENTICE Feature On Bandcamp Daily: The Intimate Experimentalism Of Wizard Apprentice" 
WIZARD APPRENTICE Feature in the East Bay Express: "Wizard Apprentice Searches for the Sound Of Betrayal"
TYLER HOLMES "Everything (Will Be Destroyed" Single Reviewed at UNDERSCORE MUSIC MAGAZINE and also premiered at HOUDINI MANSIONS. Take a listen and pick up the single now at our bandcamp!
HEADBOGGLE / MALOCCULSION Official Ratskin Records Tour: June 2019-July 2019.
Select Dates and cities available HERE: http://www.ratskin.org/phonictour.html
(Updated: 5/17/19)
New TYLER HOLMES SINGLE OUT NOW!
Tyler Holmes "Everything (Will be Destroyed)" from the "DEVIL" EP to be released this July!
(Updated: 5/10/19)
ALERT::: You can now order our records through MIDHEAVEN / REVOLVER! Check it out here!
WIZARD APPRENTICE Dig A Pit" OUT NOW! 
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Wizard Apprentice Feature In KQED ARTS"Wizard Apprentice Gets Real About Emotional Abuse on Their New Album"
HEADBOGGLE "Polyphonic Demo" Reviewed At: Tiny Mix Tapes READ IT HERE
HEADBOGGLE "Polyphonic Demo" Reviewed At: Yeah I Know It Sucks! READ IT HERE
(Updated: 4/1/19)
New Release Announcement: RAT081: WIZARD APPRENTICE "Dig A Pit" PREORDER is LIVE NOW! BUY IT HERE!
"Dig a Pit is an autobiography based on a personal experience of intimate partner violence. It focuses on the psychologically damaging impact of narcissistic abuse, an elusive form of emotional abuse rooted in manipulation, control, well-concealed cruelty, and humiliation. Each song examines different stages of recovery, including the process of healing from gaslighting, trauma bonding, and victimization to practices of self-protection and honoring anger"
WIZARD APPRENTICE "Dig A Pit" Reviewed in The Wire Magazine : Issue #423 May 2019
"Tieraney Carter aka Wizard Apprentice purveys a form of electronically enhanced post-industrial folk ( neatly reclaiming the concept from the shower of fools with whom it is usually associated incorporating elements of noise, dub, and straight up pop. On this six track follow up to last year's impressive I Am Invisible (also released via Oakland based label Ratskin) she surveys the wreckage of an abusive relationship in unflinching diaristic detail. Not an easy listen, then- but a rewarding one. The most immediate track, "Desire To Learn" is simultaneously abrasive and addictive, its loops drilling into the brain and heart like the disapproval of a loved one. For the most part however, Carter conveys a sense of emotional disquiet and danger via plaintive, precise vocals, - tonally similar to Low's Mimi Parker and spare arrangements that generate an atmosphere of measured menace" - The Wire Magazine Issue #423
LP Available via Cruisin Records 5/10/19, Cassettes released through us the same day.
OTHER RECENT NEWS:
Wizard Apprentice "I Am Invisible" reviewed in TINY MIX TAPES
Wizard Apprentice "Betrayal Internalized" Video / writeup via The Bay Bridged.
Headboggle "Polyphonic Demo" Review at Underscore Music Magazine 3/24/19
Headboggle "Suspense Jag" Video Premiere / Review via I HEART NOISE 3/23/19
Headboggle Premiere / Spotlight at FUZZY SUN 3/21/19
Reprinted "DOOR" Shirts. Sizes S-3XL available now! ORDER HERE
CLICK ITEMS TO PURCHASE THROUGH OUR BRAND NEW STOREFRONT BELOW
(Updated: 3/21/19)
New Release Announcement: RAT078: HEADBOGGLE "Polyphonic Demo" PREORDER is LIVE NOW! BUY IT HERE! First 25 Preorders come with a bonus disc "Polyphonic Solo" 3'' CDR.
“Headboggle splinters his typically all-encompassing style of synth composition into tiny one minute morsels & the results play out like fellow Bay Area legends The Residents on their Commercial Album: short and sweet, presenting each idea as a discrete miniature world and moving on. Derek presents a comprehensive taxonomy of the tones and strategies within his arsenal of synths and electronics, finding room for everything from glistening classical-informed harmonies to the bludgeoning rhythmic squelches that have become his signature. Across 44 tracks, Derek dilates time and sketches out some oblique narrative known only to him that seems to contain infinite details”. - Max Allison, Hausu Mountain
(Updated: 2/26/18)
New Release Announcement: RAT078: HEADBOGGLE "Polyphonic Demo" CD / Digital Preorder up 3/22/19. CD / Digital Released 4/22/2019. Check out the Video Premiere for "Blue Guitar"from HOUDINI MANSIONS and pre review from HEATHEN HARVEST
“San Francisco’s Derek Gedalecia’s long-standing Headboggle moniker has boasted over one hundred releases in his twenty-plus years composing and releasing music that spans from dense layered modern electronics, sputtering noise, modular and Buchla-based synthesizer works, and avant-neoclassical to giddy electronics and even ragtime piano. But none of these releases have fully purged the deepest depths of unexplored sonic territories with the inspired urgency and strategic extraction of unheard electronic compositions as his newest record, Polyphonic Demo, to be released on CD and digital on April 22. On Polyphonic Demo, Gedalecia abandons all notions of what experimental music is supposed to sound like to offer a tense, exuberant, and refreshingly idiosyncratic take on synthesizer music. With forty-four one-minute tracks that are meant to be shuffled on CD or remain in their sequenced order, Gedalecia completely reimagines what is possible both compositionally and spatially within the confines of a sixty-second track, or an album for that matter. Gedalecia constructs poignant, cinematic vignettes which offer a glimpse into dense, psychedelic zones. Polyphonic Demo is the listening adventure of abstract yet masterfully grounded electronic music we’ve all been waiting for.”
(Updated: 2/18/18)
Sorry we didn't have a proper Jan update but here we go: The second pressing of Wizard Apprentice "I Am Invisible" is SOLD OUT. But we repressed it already; Third pressing of 150 begins shipping today! Thank you for the overwhelming amount of support for this!
Wizard Apprentice "I Am Invisible" reviewed on Tiny Mix Tapes!
Wizard Apprentice on KQED Arts 10 Bay Area Artists Not To Miss At Noise Pop"
Wizard Apprentice & Tyler Holmes Spring 2019 Tour! Check back for dates and venues!
Updated VIDEOS section of the website!
Announcing two new releases next Tuesday 2/26! Check back here for more info!
(Updated: 12/15/18)
First up, RAT077: SPELLLING "Pantheon of Me"LP OUT NOW + Shipping!
WIZARD APPRENTICE "I Am Invisible" named Top 10 Noise/Experimental/Industrial Albums of 2018 in The Wire: Adventures I Modern Music Magazine!
Ratskin Records Interview on 48 Hills "Buildings Demolished On Your Cellphone"
SPELLLING "Pantheon Of Me" Reviews Published at VINYL EXAMS and also The Critical Masses
Curated STASIS Festival: 3 Day Festival Of Expanded Sound, Art, Film. | "Stasis Mixtape" Premiered At I Heart Noise Click To Listen | SF Station Article On Stasis Festival | KQED on STASIS Festival |
WIZARD APPRENTICE "I Am Invisible" reviewed on KZSU STAMFORDHOUDINi MANSIONS & EVENING OF LIGHT. Click to read the respective reviews.
RAT075: BIG DEBBIE "Ab Ra Ca Deb Ra" LP reviewed at Critical Masses & VINYL EXAMS !
Wizard Apprentice "I Am Invisible" Makes #10 On Tome to The Weather Machine's "Top 50 Albums of 2018" list!
NEXT RELEASES
RAT078 : HEAD BOGGLE "Polyphonic Demo" CD Out 3/2019
RAT076: VICTOR VANKMEN "Lyon Ave" Cassette Out 3/2019
RAT079: YAMA UBA Cassette Out 4/2019
RAT080: Surprise!
Also. FLASH SALE BEGINS TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT! Use code: garbageDay to receive 30% off your entire order on bandcamp! Also any 4 LP's and a poster and sticker for $50 PPD anywhere in US / $60 PPD CAN/MEXICO $75 PPD WORLD. paypal=order@ratskin.org
(Updated: 11/10/18)
RAT077: SPELLLING "Pantheon of Me" LP Preorder UP NOW!
BIG DEBBIE "Ab Ra Ca Dab Ra" LP reviewed from "Tome To The Weather Machine" Blog: READ HERE
Ratskin Records Special On The Hanging Garden Radio Show /// {listen here}
(Updated: 10/29/18)
Wizard Apprentice "I Am Invisible" Cassette Reviewed in Issue #417 (November 2018) of The Wire: Adventures In Modern Music!
BIG DEBBIE "Ab Ra Ca Dab Ra" LP out NOW and shipping! ORDER YOUR COPY HERE
Ratskin Records Is One Of the Featured Labels at Noise Pop's Bay Area Record Fest 2018"- 11/3/2018 + Live Performance by: SPELLLING
SPELLLING "Pantheon Of Me" LP / Digital Pre Orders Available: November 1st!
(Updated: 9/29/18)
WIZARD APPRENTICE "I Am Invisible"Cassette/Digital Out Today! - All preorders ship this coming Monday! ORDER THE ALBUM HERE
"I Am Invisible" Chosen as Best New Cassette Releases on Bandcamp: Sept 2017 via Marc Masters' "Hi Bias" Column. Check out the Review and interview here!
"Combining minimal keyboard lines with calm but expressive vocals, they use the immediacy of homemade recording—done on computer software and four-track tape—to help create radiant melodies that feel like universal vibrations. “I hope to archive my internal realities with music,” they explain. “It really helps me to understand myself and have a clearer sense of my emotional and behavioral patterns. Finding ways to feel deeply understood and seen is a need for me. Life feels so lonely and confusing without that understanding.” In turn, they hope their music can provoke similar internal responses in listeners. “It’s so cool that my own deep listening and vulnerable, often embarrassing, honesty can open other people up to their own emotional realities,” they say. “That’s my favorite thing in the world to discover about music making over the years.”
WIZARD APPRENTICE, TYLER HOLMES, GCFS, SLANTED SQUARE, on 100 Albums To Buy From Black, Brown, & Indigenous Artists On Bandcamp Today!" Published On Decaycast
We did an interview with "For The Love Of Noise" - You can read it here! Thanks to FTLON for the invitation!
(Updated: 9/5/18)
RAT075: BIG DEBBIE "Ab Ra Ca deb Ra" LP Preorder is live. CLICK HERE TO ORDER!
RAT074: WIZARD APPRENTICE "I Am Invisible" Cs Preorder is live. CLICK HERE TO ORDER!
Also beyond excited to say the L.A. RECORD just premiered the first single "Mouth Wide Open (Your Eyes)" > from "Ab Ra Ca deb Ra" LP,
Big Debbie was introduced to—and inspired by—forbidden pop music by a father who doubled as a Soviet navy officer and a media smuggler, and then spent a decade clawing at the limits of punk and noise music in San Francisco before relocating to L.A. and preparing for the vinyl release of the crushing AB RA CA DEB RA full-length. “Mouth Wide Open” starts the album with seething distortion and skullcracking drums—it’s a post-asteroid-impact Mad Max wasteland child of Flipper, Chrome and Suicide. (And this, notes Debbie, is one of the “upbeat” tracks.) “Mouth Wide Open” was recorded live to cassette 4-track, says Debbie, and the song also features Portland’s similarly uncompromising Terror Apart, who’s here to help really push this song into the red. Big Debbie is about to leave for a European tour that starts with a Moscow show with Pussy Riot collaborators A.W.O.T.T., so there aren’t any L.A. shows set yet—but AB RA CA DEB RA is due out on vinyl on Wed., Oct. 10, on Oakland’s Ratskin Records."
SPELLLING & WIZARD APPRENTICE on FARM TO TAPE PODCAST #5!
(Updated: 8/28/18) 
. . 
.
RAT074: WIZARD APPRENTICE "I Am Invisible" Cassette/Digital Preorder HERE
RAT075: BIG DEBBIE "AB RA CA DEB RA" LP Preorder: 9/5. Released : 10/10
RAT077: : SPELLLING "Pantheon Of Me" LP Preorder: 10/1. Released : 11/1
"Door" & "logo" shirt designs SOLD OUT, Restocking soon.
Guest DJ mixes for LOWER GRAND RADIO & IHEARTNOISE coming in September.
OUT BEFORE the end of 2018 : HEAD BOGGLE, L A T C H, VICTOR VANKMEN, XUXA SANTAMARIA, PU22LE, GENITAL QUARTZ, CRANK STURGEON, V/A: SENTIENT SOLDER V3 + few more for 2019.
(Updated: 6/15/18)
Welcome XUXA SANTAMARIA to the gang with their "Chancleta d'Oro" LP/Cassette coming 10/2018! Listen to a SAMPLE HERE
First round of shirts is *almost* SOLD OUT! Printing more next week. Patches / stickers / posters avail. while supplies last.
UPCOMING RELEASES:
RAT078: PU22L3 "Supernatural Strategies For Making A Healthy Salad" Cassette + Artist Print (ltd to 50) Out 8/2018
RAT076: VIC VANKMEN "Lyon Ave" Cassette/Poster Out 12/2018
RAT077: SPELLLING "Pantheon of Me" LP / Cassette Out 11/2018
RAT075: BIG DEBBIE "AB RA CA DEB RA" LP / Cassette Out 10/2018
UPCOMING SHOWS:
Sat, July 28. 2018. RATSKIN RECORDS & PSYCHIC EYE Present: MOLTEN EARTH : Fundraiser for Families Trapped at The AZ Border. POSTER HERE
August 4th, 2018 RATSKIN Explastical w/ WHITE BOY SCREAM, WILLIAM HUTSON (Clipping) , THE CREATRIX, JUNGLE JUNK, CYBORG EYE. Pro Arts. Oakland, CA
(Updated: 5/1/18)
CYBORG EYE "Demo 1983" Reviewed over at Houdini Mansions
SABRETEETH "Toxic Prizes" !0 Year Anniversary Digital Reissue Available HERE
COMING SOON: GENITAL QUARTZ, HEAD BOGGLE, WIZARD APPRENTICE, SLANTED SQUARE / MALOCCULSION Split, RELAY FOR DEATH, HANS GRUSEL, BIGAWATT & more.
(Updated: 3/2/18)
PROUD AND HONORED to announce three new artists to the RATSKIN FAMILY : 
SPELLLING, VICTOR VANKMEN & PU22L3!
RAT073: DISAPPEARING "Untitled" Cassette Review at : Houdini Mansions!
PRE ORDER For Two New RATSKIN Records T Shirts Is Live Now HERE or click shirt to pre order. Ships 4/1/18. All Shirts come with 11x17 Poster, Download Codes, & 1'' Pinback Button.
BIG DEBBIE "AB RA CA DEB RA" Test Presses Approved! LP announcement coming soon!
DISAPPEARING, PU22LE, SPELLLING, & VANKMEN tracks featured on Decaycast #35 Mix ; LISTEN HERE
(Updated: 2//2/18)
FEB - MARCH 2018 UPDATES : New Releases, Ratskin Shirts / Buttons , Stickers + More 
.
RAT073: DISAPPEARING "Untitled" Cassette + Artist Print (ltd to 50) - Out March 2 {ORDER NOW}
RAT074: PU22L3 Cassette + Artist Print (ltd to 50) - Out March 31
VICTOR VANKMEN Cassette + Poster (ltd to 100) - Out March 31
BIG DEBBIE "AB RA CA DEB RA" LP (ltd to 300)
Two new shirt designs shipping March 2, 2018. Pre orders up soon.
New batch of 1'' buttons and vinyl stickers. Free with all orders or $2 ppd.
Big Sale Announcement Soon, new merch and DJ mixes soon! Stay tuned here!
(Updated: 1/12/18)
RAT072: TYLER HOLMES "DEMO" Review up at HOUDINI MANSIONS Go check it out! Cassettes still available!
RAT070: ROGUE PULSE/GRAVITY COLLAPSE 10 CD BOXSET officially SOLD OUT! Digital Edition Still available HERE!
ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE raised over $4800.00 which was split between BLACK LIVES MATTER, ST JAMES INFiRMARY, and the OAKLAND IMMEDIATE FIRE RELIEF Fund! Thank you so much for the support.
We curated two shows as part of the BRILLIANT DILLETANTES: Subculture In Germany in 1980's art exhibition at Pro Arts Gallery. Info below!
1/20/18 @ PRO ARTS GALLERY - MOIRA SCAR / CENTRE / DAISY WORLD / ZERO CHARISMA
1/23/18 @ PRO ARTS GALLERY - BONUS BEAST / PANDER / LEXAGON / YAMA UBA
(Updated: 11/29/17)
CORAL REMAINS "Empire Underwater" Film Screening + "Hybrid Veils: The Art Of Jsun Adrian McCarty. 12/1/17 at Pro Arts Gallery. 6-9pm. Free.
Review of <a=href="/releases/rsr070.html">Rogue Pulse / Gravity Collapse
on KQED ARTS"A Year Later, Benefit Releases for Ghost Ship Artists Proliferate" By Sam Lefebvre
Rogue Pulse / Gravity Collapse DJ Mix from Nihar Bhatt (Nine/ Surface Tension) Premieres on DECAYCAST Webzine HERE
(Updated: 11/16/17)
<a=href="/releases/rsr071.html">RSR071: TYLER HOLMES "S P O R T : DELUXE"
+<a=href="/releases/rsr072.html"> RSR072: TYLER HOLMES "DEMO" Cassette + Digital Out Now! 
Review + Interview w/ Tyler Holmes HEREat KQED ARTS. "Tyler Holmes Is Here for Your Inner Freak"
TYLER HOLMES "DEMO" Reviewed on Bandcamp "HI BIAS: Notable Cassette Releases of September 2017" by Marc Masters.
A Mixtape From 10 Bay Area Labels via THE BAY BRIDGED"Great Bay Area Record Labels"
RSR070 UPDATE! Thank you so much to everyone who ordered the "ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE" 10 Disc Boxset. We were able to raise over $4500! split between BLM, St. James Infirmary and The Oakland Immediate Fire Relief Fund. You can still grab a physical copy <a/releases/rsr070.html">HERE , but it's down to less than ten copies, and get the digital download HERE. We will continue to make monthly donations as sales are made.
We are also excited to announce Nihar Bhatt of Left Hand Path / Nine / Surface Tension has crafted an hour long DJ mix from Rogue Pulse Gravity Collapse which premieres this Thursday
Also we will be showing some of Jsun Adrian McCarty's work at Pro Arts Gallery Dec 1-8, 2017. HYBRID VEILS: The Artwork Of Jsun Adrian McCarty: Curated by Michael Daddona and Ratskin Records as well as screening the CORAL REMAINS film, "Empire Underwater"
COMING DECEMBER 2017:
End Of Year Blowout Sale + Two New T-Shirt Designs
COMING JAN 2018: VICTOR VANKMEN Cassette, PUZZLE Cassette, + V/A: SENTIENT SOLDER III CDr + Digital Download
(Updated: 8/12/17)
Wow things have been super busy! Thank you all who have pre ordered. We were lucky enough to receive writeup in The Wire : Adventures In Modern Music and Tiny Mix Tapes HERE
DJ Mix and Interview on Radio Valencia Bunnywhiskers program!
DECODER Mag Writeup here
TYLER HOLMES + REYNA RIPPER "7 Bowls" Single Now Released . Click Here to listen!
Pre orders are almost all sold out, order quickly! All pre order ship August 28, 2017!
Oakland Record Release Show August 26, 2017 at Pro Arts Gallery. POSTER
UP NEXT RELEASES (In no particular order) : BIG DEBBIE, BEAST NEST , VICTOR VANKMEN, GENITAL QUARTZ , ECHO BEDS , DISAPPEARING, WIZARD APPRENTICE, CORAL REMAINS, LAS SUCIAS, DAX PERSON, + Lots more
(Updated: 7/11/17)
"ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE" Review in the East Bay Express!
Beyond elated to announce our biggest project yet and 70th release, V/A: ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE: Artist Edition. 10 CD Boxset + Digital Download + Video Series , featuring over 187 artists and over thirteen hours of almost exclusively unreleased sounds and music! To preorder go HERE or email us at ratskinsound(at)gmail.com. There's only 50 of the special pre order edition so act quickly! Here's the POSTER and VIDEO TRAILER . Officially released August 25th, 2017 in Physical limited edition of 300.
(Updated: 5/22/17)
Two new Tyler Holmes EP's to be released June 25, 2017, "S P O R T : DELUXE" and "DEMO" , both released in an edition of fifty chrome hi bias cassettes with full color J cards and digital downloads. Here's a preview track off of "S P O R T : DELUXE" below!
BEAST NEST & BIG DEBBIE : European Tour 2017 Announced : May 27-July 4th. ::: HI RES POSTER
MAYA SONGBIRD & TYLER HOLMES new Writeup HERE in the Bay City Beacon.
V.E.X , CYBORG EYE, & MOOR MOTHER tracks featured in a new mix from THE CREATRIX for Honey Soundsystem Podcast . LISTEN to the mix HERE!
(Updated: 4/20/17)
SPRING 2016 BATCH : Part One OUT NOW + SHIPPING! 
BONUS BEAST "Mental Decay" LP, Debut LP of longtime recording project BONUS BEAST. Acid/industrial/techno analog hardware mastery into the depths of a frozen dance floor in hell. Ltd to 250 on Black Vinyl. Comes with insert & download code.
CYBORG EYE "Demo 1983", old analog tape masters of a forgotten Italian Horror soundtrack to an aborted industrial film, released in an edition of 50 cassettes. CYBORG EYE 2 x 1'' Button set, available for purchase HERE.
MALOCCLUSION "Collected Works Dead",everything remastered on CD recorded by Malocclusion from 2015-2016. Edition of 25 CDRs. Full color bleed art work on metallic white/gold paper w/ insert.
Spotlight on BEAST NEST & LAS SUCIAS in Bandcamp Daily!
LAS SUCIAS Bay Area Shows & New Releases Announced Soon!
Added lots in the MEDIA and LINKS section.
(Updated: 3/2/16)
BONUS BEAST "Mental Decay" LP Release show Announced
Friday, May 11th @ The Legionnaire Saloon. 2272 Telegraph Ave. Oakland $5-10 9pm
BONUS BEAST
GENITAL QUARTZ
THE CREATRIX
DJ's = VICTOR VANKMEN, SHIZATIN, FLOWER PATTERN
HI RES POSTER
Come out and grip the new LP "Mental Decay"
MALOCCULSION Tribute Mix for Jsun Adrian McCarty.
(Updated: 2/2/16)
With heavy hearts we continue to march into the hellscape that is this current world. We must continue on, and we are finally getting things rolling on the production side of things after the fire. First off....
BONUS BEAST "Mental Decay" LP is out now and shipping, our 75th release. Beautifully crafted 40 minutes of blown out acid/ noise/industrialized rhythms, mastered by Jake Rodriguez and artwork by Adrian Saenz. Edition of 250 on Black Vinyl.
"Amiable agent of pure chaos, Ryan King, moves like an animated line drawing, a high voltage wireframe that arcs easily and often, tazing or enlightening those around him. Musical instruments were invented for characters like this. King will hover towards a table of circuits the way a big bug gravitates to smaller bugs, their mere presence amplifying whatever freak plasma surges through his limbs. Once he sets to work, shedding his chrysalis to reveal wet shuddering wings, the whole living world offers itself up to loving devourment. Present yourself, when Bonus Beast appears live at Second Act ahead of his forthcoming LP release "Mental Decay".
The newest batch of tapes is still available but going quickly : SLANTED SQUARE "Three Sides", MAYA SONGBIRD "Welcome To The Darkside" , TYLER HOLMES "Invisible Island" and LOACHFILLET. Goto the Releases page above to order!
Were down to the last few copies of STYROFOAM SANCHEZ "Empire Underwater" LP , BLACK SPIRITUALS "Black Interiors" cassette and LAS SUCIAS "Salte Del Medio", order quick if interested.
(Updated: 1/1/16)
IWe have been dreading this update for a while bit it comes with teary eyes and a heavy heart that we announce that RATSKIN RECORDS co-founder as well as the co founder of CORAL REMAINS, STYROFOAM SANCHEZ, NERFBAU and a visionary visual artist and all around mind revolutionary Jason Adrian McCarty passed on December 2, 2016 in the Oakland Ghostship Tragedy, along with many other members of the RATSKIN RECORDS immediate family as well as many beautiful peers and fellow musicians and artists. Our hearts are heavy with grief, sorrow and horror but we will continue the label in their honor, fighting even harder against the mountains of injustices and wrong in this toxic ass world, and we hope you all will continue to stand with us in their honor.
(Updated: 10/15/16)
O U T . N O W ::::::
V.E.X. insectsex" Cassette/Digital
MAYA SONGBIRD "Welcome To The Darkside" Cassette/Digital
SLANTED SQUARE "Three Sides" Cassette/Digital
LOACHFILLET "Death & Dissatisfaction" Cassette/Digital
MALOCCLUSION "Walk Of The Dead, Part 1" CDr/Digital
OUT NEXT :
VANKMAN, PUZZLE, FUTURE BLONDES, HOW I QUIT CRACK & more
(Updated: 9/30/16)
RSR067: TYLER HOLMES "Invisible Island" Cassette/Digital Out NOW!
RATSKIN RECORDS "Beyond harsh Noise" Label spotlight Feature in the Easy Bay Express This Week!
LAS SUCIAS Wins "Best Of The Bay" Award from EAST BAY EXPRESS, 2016
V/A: Sentient Solder II CD Reviewed on KFJC
OUT SOON!! (Click on title for more information!) 
RSR060: LOACHFILLET "Death & Dissatisfaction" Cassette (limited to 50):
RSR064: SLANTED SQUARE "Three Sides" Cassette (limited to 100):
RSR066: V.E.X. "Insect Sex" Cassette/Digital limited to 100)
RSR067: TYLER HOLMES "Invisible island" Cassette/Digital (ltd to 100)
(Updated: 7/12/16)
RECENT PRESS & REVIEWS: BLACK SPIRITUALS in Wire Magazine
BEAST NEST "Taste Of India" Cassette reviewed in SF WEEKLY
BLACK SPIRITUALS in New York Times
LAS SUCIAS on KQED ARTS \
BEAST NEST in the EAST BAY EXPRESS "Decolonizing Noise"
CORAL REMAINS "Zero Tour Demo" reviewed at KFJC
MAYA SONGBIRD Review/Interview in EAST BAY EXPRESS
BLACK SPIRITUALS "Black Interiors" reviewed on KFJC
(Updated: 6/12/16)
OUT NOW ON RATSKIN RECORDS! (5/5/2016)
RSR062: BEAST NEST "Taste Of India" Cassette (limited to 150):
RSR061: V/A: FUCKED UP REIGN" Cassette/ CDr (limited to 100)
RSR059: LAS SUCIAS "!Satle Del Medio!" Cassette(limited to 100)
RSR056: THOABATH "The Thirst" (limited to 50)
RSR055: V/A: SENTIENT SOLDER II" CDR (limited to 100)
FRESHLY PRESSED ON RATSKIN RECORDS
RSR054: TRALPHAZ "Vortex" Cassette/Digital (limited to 100)
RSR053: MAYA SONGBIRD "Queen of Darkness EP" CDr/ Cassette Single" (limited to 50)
RSR052: FLOWER PATTERN "Total Drip" VHS + Cassette (limited to 50)
RSR051: BLACK DOG "s/t" Cassette (limited to 100)
Also it was a big week for RATSKIN Records in the Press, first, we are featured in an extensive writeup here in Impose Magazine, as part of their Labelled Series.
Second up we have reviews of the BIG DEBBIE cassette, and the BLACK DOG cassette as well, check it out HERE courtesy of DECODER Magazine
Also, we will be taking over KFJC 90.7 FM coming right up, Monday may 16th from Noon-4pm! Be sure to tune in on kfjc.org!
Also, here's a little writeup on the LAS SUCIAS cassette in Pitchfork right here
Also RATSKIN will be at the Oakland Indie Awards this Thursday at the Oakland Museum!
(Updated: 2/12/16)
STILL LIMITED COPIES AVAILABLE OF THE FOLLOWING CASSETTES:
RSR050: BLACK SPIRITUALS "Black Interiors " c90 (limited to 100)
RSR049: BIG DEBBIE "Abracadebra" c77 (limited to 100)
RSR048: CORAL REMAINS "Zero Tour Demo" c32 (SOLD OUT)
RSR047: MALOCCULSION "Psychosis Industrial Complex" c15(SOLD OUT)
(Updated: 9/5/15)
THREE NEW RELEASES OUT SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 BIG DEBBIE "ABRACADEBRA" , MALOCCULSION "Psychosis Industrial Complex" and CORAL REMAINS "Zero Tour Demo" Cassettes! plus Oakland NOISE and INDUSTRIAL FESTIVAL Announced!
It may seem quiet here at ratskin.org headquarters, but we've been busy plotting our next moves! We are beyond elated to announce the release of three new cassettes, all available September 5th as part of the Oakland Noise & Industrial Festival! First up is BIG DEBBIE "Abracadebra" C77, Almost eighty minutes of dark no wave, synth, post industrial/electro offerings from the artist formerly known as Lil' Debbie. We heard this master and we're just blown away on every level. Cassette to be released in an edition of 100 chrome hi bias cassettes. Preorder now! Next we have CORAL REMAINS "Zero Tour Demo" c30, which was released (without a peep) from us right before the act's summer 2015 US tour. The first 50 are gone, so we're releasing another 50 copies. More dense, more rhythmic, more heavyness, yet more polished works than the Styrofoam Sanchez "Empire Underwater" LP, "Zero Tour Demo" is one of our sleekest looking releases to date, and last but not least is "Psychosis Industrial Complex", a c15 from MALOCCULSION . Seven minutes per side of heavy, throbbing, post industrial musique concrete with vocals, released in an edition of 50. bandcamp links to follow! Also excited to announce upcoming releases from FLOWER PATTERN, SEXORCYST, BLACK DOG, TRALPHAZ, LAS SUCIAS, FUTURE BLONDES, HOW I QUIT CRACK, PANICSVILLE, MAYAARMA, & lots more which we can't spill the beans out yet yet! Stay tuned for lots more details on the next three releases from SEXORCYST, FLOWER PATTERN , and a surprise release, all due out at the end of September
www.ratskinrecords.bamdcamp.com
www.facebook.com/RATSKINRecords
twitter, instagram, tumblr = @ratskinrecords
(Updated: 6/12/15)
RSR045: STYROFOAM SANCHEZ "Empire Underwater" LP/DVD/Book and RSR043: STYROFOAM SANCHEZ "Coastal Ruin" Cassette! SECOND PRESSINGS OUT NOW!
RSR045: STYROFOM SANCHEZ "Empire Underwater" LP / DVD / Book
. 
SIX NEW RELEASES OUT NOW!!!
RSR033: NERFBAU / PETIT SAC Split 5'' lathe (ltd to 51)
RSR034: VERTONEN "Fait a la machine" 12" Picture Disc LP + Cdr (ltd to 300)
RSR035: LOACHFILLET / YURT YURT. "Gold 7" Split Cassette (ltd to 50)
RSR036: DIFFERENT DENTIST / WAXY TOMB "Gold Eight" Split Cassette (ltd to 50)
RSR037: BONUS BEAST "Hardcore Brain Damage" Cassette (ltd to 50)
RSR039 : MURDER MURDER "Crime Scene Stylee" Japanese Tour Cassette (ltd to 60)
2 NEW TAPES RELEASED NOVEMBER 2, 2012 - Dia de Los Muertos!!. First up,
RSR031: SKINGRAFT "Ill Will"
c32 & 
first up "ILL WILL" from Cleveland, OH harsh master SKIN GRAFT. "ILL WILL" is just that - a dark, spiraling hole of the cathedral of memory that will never come to reality - what is your intention ? dark nauseous spirals of decaying consciousness blast the rear quadran of the brain in the form of crushing blasts - climbing feedback mountains of shredded speaker memory- pulsing machines - scraping , screeching at the shockra down the spine and through the shattered ankles of a dream- you are being haunted ad manipulated--- This album keeps the appearances of your own corpse strobing in front of your very own bloodied eyeballs- viscrally in tact at times minimal- but never without intent - ILL WILL brings the listener down a deep dark churning path of self Doubt into the breakdown and maiming of constructed sonic reality ----- good luck ????? Limited to 77. Chrome hi bias tapes - artwork by Patrick "VOKE" Jacobson & MD3
SKIN GRAFT "Ill Will" mp3 sample
RSR032: SKULLCASTER "Cognitive Infiltration" c32.
Next up a real busted brain wave manipulation samurai of time from SKULLCASTER Distortions and severed ears- top notch frontal lobe surgeries are brought forth - tools even after cut chord ---- Emitting sound and air, the earlobe loops back to the hollow resonant skull. Austin, TX brings the demented doctoral narrative of SKULLCASTER. Through custom noise-synth patterns, preps the surgical devices not known in the industry for aural nerve surgery. Shorted radio waves burn with the ashes of battery acid splashing in through your pores to scratch test the importance of your molecules. Crude synths, tape manipulations, squawks of hammering bone - resonate to walls Of ripping noise. Distant sputtering mechanical Distorted rhythms crawling from a grave- the rogue surgery echo is pumped into the frontal lobe / all hooked in for Mind control. Occult brainwave manipulation- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MIND CONTROL ALBUM for a process of self mutilation.- ear fetish device experiments and fine machine tunings- Limited to 77. Chrome hi bias tapes
SKULLCASTER "Cognitive Infiltration" MP3 Excerpt
OUT NOW __________ as of Feb 4, 2012 :::
RSR027: ALIENSLANG "Hazmat Cape" CDr<(ed of 103) + ltd ed tape
RSR028: TERROR'ISH "Weak Stance" c40 (ed of 66)
ALIENSLANG "Hazmat Cape" CDr Eighteen tracks of blip blotter radar scan exorcisms mapping the future failure of Nanotechnologies of the spinal colum. This album is the hazmat blanket for 2012 hybrid dying season- synth swells, radar spoken vocals, dense percussion patterns, thwarted broken techno riffs, morced code love letters to a machine, etc Get your cloaked laugh plastic sonic protection suit here first folks. Preorders come with a limited edition "audio grafitti" cassette only available systematically pasted to the sequenced infrastructure of the United States and elsewhere via a to be released schematix. for fans Of : Oval, Nerfbau, Controlled Bleeding
$7 / $10
TERROR'ISH "Weak Stance" Twenty minutes of chopped visceral beat hope hyped through cassette Tape rapid fire triggers for the blind, and maybe even the depth. Rhythmic and precision chop and paste style aesthetics is all over this thing, and yet it still has spacing and PACING , a rarity these days. dense dense frequencies coupled with the gurgling sounds of tape machines eating their own organs and maybe some of yours. Theres plenty of tape based music bubbling to the undergrpund surface these days, but WEAK STANCE is some of the best we have come across. Chrome tapes with snaxzy artwork by Mr. Terrorish himself. Grip it now, a must for analog heads. $6 / $8
PLUS ::::: RATSKIN TITLES CAN NOW BE FOUND FROM THESE KIND FOLKS :
HEART & CROSSBONE (Isreal)
1,2,3,4 GO RECORDS (Oakland, CA)
REDSCROLL RECORDS (Wallingford,CT)
ON THE HORIZON = SKIN GRAFT cs, SKULLCASTER cs, LOACHFILLT /HECO split, SHARKIFACE/DIFFERENT DENTIST split, STYROFOAM SANCHEZ LP/DVD, LESLIE KEFFER, PANICSVILLE LP + more!! Check the mailing list signup below! Over and out!
OUT NOW!!!!(Updated: 10/11/11)
+++++OUR BIGGEST BATCH YET == 5 NEW TAPES AND ONE PRO PRESSED CDR!!!
FOR THE NEXT 2 WEEKS WE GOT A SPECIAL GOIN>>>>>>
GET ALL 6 FOR 30.00 ppd in the US, $35.00 world.+ extra goodies. {{{{{{{{{{{{
PAYPAL = ORDER{AT}RATSKIN.ORG }}}}}}}}}}}} 
RSR021: TERROR APART "Beyond The Blue" c40
RSR022: VERTONEN "Le Coeur Mecanique" CDr
RSR023: JERK "Some Trauma" c20
RSR024: CHROME GENIE "Beyond Normal" c30
RSR025: XOME/JOLTHROWER "Gold Five" c5
RSR026: HANS GRUSEL'S KRANKENKABINET/HEADBOGGLE "Gold Six" c5
Drip yer email in the rat box below::we send 1 per month maxx
PAYPAL = ORDER{AT}RATSKIN.ORG
....... soon on the horizon.....
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"Gold Box" 9xC5 BOXSET Preorder/Subscription:
Nine split five minute tapes in a handmade box with extentions..Very quite proud of this one. Peep the info... $36.00 ppd in US/Can / $42.00 ppd world. All nine five minute cassettes in a custom handmade case with a bonus c5 only available in the box set. Edition of 19. (7 RESERVED ALREADY)
Sleekly packaged classy renditions of your favorite time pop structures regurgitated through tippity top brain lobe digestions from the likes of....
Horseflesh / Skozey Fetisch (3 copies left, excluding boxset!)
Sharkiface / Different Dentist
Coagulator / Collapsed Arc (OUT NOW!)
Horaflora / Julia Mazawa (OUT NOW!)
Loachfillet / HECO's Music Machine
Bran(...)Pos / Anti Ear( 1 copy left, excluding boxset!)
Hans Grusel / Headboggle(OUT NOW!)
Riververb / Crisperion Fett
Xome / Jolthrower(OUT NOW!)
...All these tapes released in editions of 50 chrome hi bias C5's in gold foil shells in custom designed gold cassingle cases.
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STIL FRREEESSSSHHHH...., up first, RSR019: COAGULATOR / COLLAPSED ARC "Gold Four" (8 copies left???) 
split.
The fourth in an edition of nine c5's that will come housed in a handmade box set. Two Cleveland born projects who deploy starkingly different means to the same DISMAL END. The second of three new tapes,
RSR020: GUMBALL RIMPOCHE "Epic Fail" 
by one of the bay area's numero uno surrealist collage masters. Fourty minutes of schitzo music concrete roped/raped by the best (worst) that popular culture to offer. EACH COVER is HAND COLLAGED and uniquely different,(( it took the artist nearly a year to complete the edition of 57!??)) Click here to see ALL OF THE COVERS!!!!
from the LEWCID JOOSEBOX label, from the glock block print synth master
FSLUX, 
another Oakland project.Dark and subtle textures explore bleak urban landscapes through the eye of the listener, time is stopped and your stuck in a permanent blood red feedback looped onto your brain. Ltd to 44 with block printed covers and inserts by the artist herself. Distroed here exclusively! Get all three for $15.00 ppd. USA / $19.00 PPD WORLD
PAYPAL = ORDER{AT}RATSKIN.ORG
ALSO, WANT TO cUM SEE US IN PERSON = HUGE DISTRO IN HOUSE STYLE ONLY. WRITE US FOR APPOINTMENTS AT OUR WEST OAKLAND, CA headquarters.....
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SLIGHTLY OLDER BUT STILL NEW NEWS...
OUT now!! : HATERS/CRANK STURGEON/PCRV/STYROFOAM SANCHEZ split CDr, BRAN (...) POS / ANTI EAT split c5, + DENTAL WORK CDr +
feast your eyes and ears upon ..........
RSR017:THE HATERS/CRANK STURGEON/PCRV/STYROFOAM SANCHEZ split CDr
. 
, Specially made for the April 2011 Northwest/Mountain Noisey Outings tour, consisting of , you guessed it, the legendary HATERS, PCRV (Matt Taggart), CRANK STURGEON, and some hacks STYROFOAM SANCHEZ. One track from each project offers a great balance of chaos and insanity. For this late night driving disk, voraciously loouuuddd master makes this rare gem extra sweat your speaker cone pulses for true sonic tactile mayhem. About 40 left after tour...Get ummm nowwww...
annnnnndddddd,
RSR018: BRAN (...) POS / ANTI EAR split c5, 
. 
On side A the Bran (...) Pos opens up with exploading head synthesizer face through cervex rumbling pulses, whisps, crawls, blips, and scrapes chopped and screwed into a hyperspeed teleportation into the future of your decaying skin particles, that force your face to drip back into place. Slow low synth rumbles switch into high speed shriek blasts ina psuedo collage sounding style of sonic madness. Side B, Anti Ear offers up chirpy, chattered, nervnous ryhthmic blasts of symthesized tone warble that pushes one's ear skin to the outer limits of flesh peak audio limiters. A Must have for fans of strange outings along the beach where the sand critters infect innear ear sexual teases of wave peaks and troughs... Jams best with a cold beer. annnnnnnnddddd lastly,
RSR016: DENTAL WORK "Rostov's Breakthrough of A Multitextured Turbulent Forcefield" CDr 
. 
Michigan/Chicago's DENTAL WORK brings us a wild sonic ride on RSR016: "Rostov's Breakthrough Of A Multitextured Turbulent Forcefield" CDr.
GOTO THE RELEASES page for ordering info, mp3 samples and images of the releases, as always....
STILL FRESH::::: RSR014: SKOZEY FETISCH / HORSEFLESH split as well as RSR015: HORAFLORA / JULIA MAZAWA "split" both come in editions of 50, on chrome hi bias cassettes in handmade cassingle cases.
Click on above links for audio samples.
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Old news / Why bother./.......
RECENT PAST HAPPENINGS FOR THE CURIOUS AFOOT::::::
(Updated: 12/26/10)
WHISPS OF DOCUMENTS for JAN/FEB 2011 : FIRST UP::::SKOZEY FETISCH/HORSEFLESH c5, SHARKIFACE/DIFFERENT DENTIST c5, and...
OK,Best in the coming time shifts from all hear at Ratskin documents...Much love to all our friends and family...We live in a perpetually shifting anti-landscape/new communications mindfuck we call life,it's almost time to start living fast, time is shrinking..so is sound..dont forget to write letters and cook real food..
(Updated: 11/16/10)
CRANK STURGEON and NERFBAU TAPES OUT NOW..PLUS LOTS MORE COMING SOON!
FIRST UP, CRANK STURGEON's new album, "LASTING WHIP". 
>
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Sixty minutes of structured schizophrenia magnified through inpeccable structures of sturgeon philosophies. Some of this fish's MOST structured/dynamic recordings to date. Come along on this deep sea audio tour of a british fish's nervous system. There's even real songs on here! Edition of 140 hi bias chrome cassettes, with a mini zine, sealed in recycled tape by Crank himself.
AUDIO SAMPLE: LastingWhipexcerpt.mp3
Also out now a 42 minute cassette from NERFBAU, titled, "Dr. Meniere's Sideshow".
Recorded in early 2009, but still fresh. An edition of 111 on chrome hi bias tapes with transparent cover art of the band sixty years into the future. Six tracks of spine crunching acoustics, demonic voices filtered through homemade weather modification devices, glass bottles reverberating foreheads, and evp.
AUDIO SAMPLE:Claws.mp3
Both tapes are $6 ppd in US, $8 ppd world. Paypal = mfdthree@yahoo.com
Plus lots of new stuff in the distro from Cold Spring Recordings, Ground Fault, Placenta Recordings, and more+ lots more coming soon.
,
Still Fresh////// 
.... Oakland's BONUS BEAST titled, "Just Because You're Paranoid, Doesen't Mean There Not Out To Get You"
No, but in this case, if you own this tape, he's guaranteed to track you down , and extrapilate your consciousness via bone drill bullseyes. This album presents a dense, meticulously crafted psychoatropic landscape of bulging
eyeballs which see only the bleakest snakes of history, chattering teeth which will gnaw at your spine, and ears that leak brain grey radiation into your desk, amplified through the skillful destruction of magnetic tape, brainwave oscillation studies, and readymade sonic tragedies. There's no point to fight it, just jack in and achieve enlightment, because its more peaceful when you don't have to think, and can just fucking listen.
Vertigo/insanity pretty much guaranteed if listened to with headphones/proper stereo field. Comes with real XRay of the artist's teeth...grosss....Ltd to 120 chrome cassettes.
AUDIO SAMPLE: Terminally Yours.mp3
$6 ppd in US. $7 ppd World.
and also SALSA PILE's "Memory Apprehension Goggles" c60
Fifty seven minutes stuck in a liquified conspiracy blender, gassily crafted by members of Soup Purse, Bonus Beast, Nerfbau (both), and Crisperion Fett.Side A offers up just over twenty eight minutes of a push and pull harder landscape of gelatin microbials, skillfully shifted through a master mixer that fell into the stew for extra dynamic benefit.One sound triggers another which triggers twelve more and then back down to silence, or so you think, Endless display of contextualizing seemingly unrelated sounds into a well oiled salsa machine, Some super dense sonic landscape is layed forth on Side A, where Side B , will decimate your orientation...as it slowly and curdily wraps itself around your ears and ankles and slowly pulls you into the veggie gutter of slime where you belong. This epic mess was improvised on gov't land in San Diego, CA at the beginning of 2010 @ la Casa de Soup. Uncannily dynamic for a buncha big-man bruisers. Ltd to 130 on blood red chrome cassettes.
AUDIO SAMPLE: Side A Excerpt.mp3
$6 ppd in US. $7 ppd World.
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NERFBAU "Weaponized Weather" CDr ltd to;54 (first edition SOLD OUT!, Just dubbed 25 more)----8 left????
These were handmade for the Nerfbau/Take Up Serpents West Coast Axtions
Movements from Dec 30-Jan 10th. Order Now. $6 ppd un US. $7 ppd World
HAUNTING HUMAN REMAINS!!!!!!!!!
Also please note, All mailorders etc: should now be sent to the new address.
1131 24th st. APT 104. Oakland, CA 94607.
CHHHECK THESE (oldish) RELEASES..
V/A: (TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA) 13,000 MilliSeconds
CD, Limited to 900 (only 100 left!)
215+ plus bands doing 13 second songs, featuring tracks from< MATMOS. VENETIAN SNARES. COCK ESP. RICHARD DEVINE. WHITE MICE. I AM SPOONBENDER. PANICSVILLE. THRONES. SWORD HEAVEN. NO DOCTORS. DAVID SCOTT STONE. EVIL MOISTURE. TO LIVE AND SHAVE IN L.A. TARANTISM. RUBBER O CEMENT. ASTRO. GREENMIST. DAVE PHILLIPS. PIGS IN THE GROUND. SHARKIFACE. ANALOG SUICIDE. NO DOCTORS. LAETITIA SONAMI. WOBBLY. BLEVIN BLECTUM. LOACHFILLET. ANTENNA FARM. and tons more.. ++++ get it from us...
$9.00 ppd. in the US. $10.00 ppd. in Canada
$12.00 ppd. World To:
ratskin. c/o m.d. 2833 taraval ave. san francisco, ca 94116 usa
paypal to ; Order@ratskin.org CLICK HERE for order info. ++++
Now You can order from these fine places..
The Norman Records Emporium{UK}
Ear/Rational {UK}
TOCHNIT-ALEPH{Germany}
Aquarius Records {USA}
RRRecords{USA}
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