GSR 003: Swamp Witch - Gnosis

The wait is over; let the weight fall: Swamp Witch's mighty Gnosis EP is now available on cassette from GSR. Swamp Witch, whose members come from Oakland and California's Central Valley, have been steadily building the ranks of their burgeoning doom cult in recent months, gathering worshipers in a stream of smoke-choked live rites that recall the hedonistic frenzy of Ancient Greek mystery religions. Alongside modern doom lynchpins Corrupted, Moss, and Noothgrush, Swamp Witch tap into the warped legacy of psychedelic and progressive music, from classic groups Flower Traveling Band and King Crimson to contemporary explorers such as SubArachnoid Space. These influences fuse into a dense entanglement of trance-inducing riffs that spiral downwards before crumbling into murky, bongwater-black sludge. Greg Wilkinson of Earhammer Studios once again applies his metallurgical skill to these enigmatic recordings, a meeting of minds (and amps) whose resulting heaviness has rarely been paralleled within the confines of Earth's atmosphere.

In addition, for those of you who have always felt that metal simply does not "slap" enough, the b-side contains a recording exclusive to this release: the entirety of the Gnosis EP, chopped and screwed by Houston's legendary DJ Dreamz. While any attempt at the fusion of doom and hip-hop will quite rightly raise a red flag for discerning listeners, a closer look (and listen) reveals numerous common threads linking these seemingly disparate sonic movements: an emphasis on thick, bass-heavy production, the cultivation of slowness for slowness' sake, and an unapologetic devotion to the use of mind-bending drugs for the cultivation of higher planes of consciousness. Simply flip the tape, light a blunt, and celebrate the memory of the late DJ Screw the way he would have wanted it: with disgusting, detuned doom.

We are offering these tapes for $6 PPD, contact us at gayscientistrecs@gmail.com for distro pricing and international shipping rates. You can stream all three tracks below along with the chopped and screwed version of Novem, and we are also offering the entire A-side of the tape as a free 192kbps MP3 download here.

Gnosis by SwampWitch

GSR 001: Ensorcelor-Urarctica Begins

We over here at the Gay Scientist Recordings HQ are sacrificing goats and shotgunning mead in a frenzied melee of excitement at the release of our very first release: the US edition of the very first offering from Ensorcelor, some of Montreal's finest artisans of blackened, crusty doom. Entitled "Urarctica Begins," this cassette contains three epic forays into the yawning ominousness that is the unfolding of the cosmos, the all-encompassing fecundity and brutality of timeless cycles of birth and death. Creating this dark and massive atmosphere, Ensorcelor's music is at once sparse and crushing. Long, deliberate explorations of atmospheric drones and haunting, distant melodies morph patiently into the heaviest of metals. It is in these sections that Ensorcelor stakes their claim as doom megaliths, with pounding drums and throat-ripping vo-kills interlocking with a thick, ominous fog of complex riffage to create something unusually melodic and evocative, yet undeniably heavy. This release is the most complete example available in the US of Ensorcelor's truly awesome ability to fuse the apocalyptic and visceral atmospherics of black metal with doom's epic enormity, and the result is not to be missed.

We're unbelievably psyched to be releasing this tape and want you to have your very own copy! Cassettes are $6PPD in the US, and come with a legitimately gnarly Ensorcelor poster, whose design you can see in the picture above. If you want this totally kvlt ass shiznit, send us an email at gayscientistrecs@gmail.com so we can figure out shipping costs and a payment method (we do paypal, checks, and well-concealed cash) to get this soul-rippingly brutal tape into your hands as soon as possible.

While we hope to have future GSR releases available for free download, we're not doing that for this release because the venerable imprint Alien8 Recordings is selling digital copies of Urarctica Begins on their site. You can also try before you buy right here on the GSR website by listening to the streams below. Then you can come back when you want to listen again, and then break down and buy the tape...right? Anyway, you'll want to keep checking back because exciting things are going on over here in GSR land...hawt new releases, the first batch of distro titles, stickers and buttons, and a whole table full of rad shit for sale on a table at a Bay Area diy show near you!


01 A Crown of Smoke on the Brow of the Earth

02 Sleep Forever in the Brine

03 This Even Doom

GSR 000: Gorekraken Bongdirge

GREETINGS DIS-EASED HORDES!!

We at Gay Scientist are proud to make available our pre-first release: The Gorekraken Bongdirge cassette split between Sea Legs and Kentucky Fried Doom. Originally self-released by the bands, GSR is in possession of the last 20 existing copies of this document of the Middletown Doom Explosion, which can be yours for a mere $3 a pop.

Spring 2008 saw a short but powerful explosion of doom metal in the city of Middletown, CT. Experts continue to disagree about what caused so many of the city's young residents to translate the frustration of post-industrial, quasi-suburban isolation and boredom into crushing, depressive riffage, but bands like Bright, Kentucky Fried Doom, and Sea Legs stand as a testament to a springtime of melted faces in central Connecticut. Gorekraken Bongdirge is a split that documents the latter two, now defunct bands. Fans of classic, stoned-out sludge will feel right at home with Sea Legs' marriage of massive-yet-groovy stoner riffage to the heavy, soul-crushing sludge. Those with more avant-garde tastes will probably gravitate towards the flip-side: KFD's droning doom attack with amp stacks buttressed by the interminable roar of contact-mic'ed food frying live in an actual deep fryer. While unlike KFD's audiences you will not be fed pieces of fried tofu and sweet potato, you will feel the heat, grease, and crushing heaviness of both bands that scarred the soil of Connecticut just a couple short years ago. Do enjoy.

Samples:

KFD - Captain Canola

Sea Legs - Box Canyon


Want to try before you buy? Head on over here for a free audio download!

And don't forget to keep it here for the soon-to-be-released GSR 001: Urarctica Begins. This glacial crush of sci-fi influenced blackened doom from Montreal slayers Ensorcelor is gonna be a truly brutal inauguration of the Gay Scientist catalog. And, if you're too stoned to remember this (or you're just friendly) go ahead and FOLLOW US!