mism records no.10 | 12" vinyl | out now

might we most jubilantly announce that our highly-esteemed dear brothers over at mism records have gladly released their fifth anniversary celebration vinyl compilation, in the form of a beautiful 12" record, containing six tracks of pure musical wonder for your listening pleasure.

featuring contributions from papervehicle, bleubird, babelfishh, reindeer, tenshun, glen porter, maki, and soso, the release is awash with soon-to-be classic bangers for your eternal entertainment. be sure to fix yourself a copy as soon as time and funds permit, only 200 pieces exist worldwide.

get involved

jamesreindeer

leipzig, germany

november, 2014

ستة ستة سبعة | hand-crafted cd edition | coming monday

due to the unexpected popularity of my recent 'six six seven' tape release via the mighty mism records, and due to the fact that i am about to begin embarking on touring in support of the release without any copies for the merch table, i have taken it upon myself to prepare a limited edition, hand-crafted cd version of the album.

currently existing in an edition of forty-four more copies, carefully constructed from highest-quality slate-grey card, featuring a unique array of images on the discs themselves and containing a few extra little treats, they are rather smart. in addition to making them available on tour, i will also make a small number available to order online, for those who shalln't be able to attend a performance.

please expect them to be available from this monday via my bandcamp page

keep warm

jamesreindeer

leipzig, germany

accolades 2013

slowly, as we step into this new series of twelve moons, i feel that my first order of business ought well be taking a moment to celebrate and cherish the appearance of my still recently released 'six six seven' album on a goodly number of 'end of year' lists. how it means so very much to me to even be able to share my music at all, but for it to receive such wonderful and considered praise is a real honour.

so, here is a list of the accolades that were bestowed as 2013 drew to a close:

best albums of 2013 - brzowski

best albums of 2013 - impatto sonoro

best releases of 2013 - bill van cutten

top thirty hip hop albums of 2013 - indie rock mag

top ten overall hip hop albums of 2013 - indie rock mag

top twenty albums of 2013 - indie rock mag

i would very much like to take a moment to thank all those responsible for my appearance on these lists, and would very much like to extend that thanks to everyone who has supported this release, simply by helping spread the word, offering praise and encouragement or to have secured themselves a copy, whether it be a simple download or a copy of the hand-crafted tape itself. i am so very grateful for your support, enthusiasm and continued encouragement.

so, here's to the days, weeks and months to come; and how much is on the horizon...

wishing you all a very happy new year, and sending all the love

jamesreindeer

leipzig, germany

8th january 2014

european tour - 2014 - now booking

it is with much keen anticipation that i can announce that i am now officially 'booking shows' in preparation for my european touring activities from the new year onwards. having had the good fortune of finding myself much more back in the field during that last twelve months i am very much chewing at the bit to get back out on the road, not least of all with my new set-list filled with as many songs from my recent mism tape release as i can manage.

i have already confirmed six shows, some of which i shall be announcing very shortly, and am in the thick of trying to secure myself as many more as possible, the first wave being between the new year and the dawn of next summer. so, should you be in a position to be of any assistance, i would be so very grateful indeed. it can be a very slow struggle to chase shows, and so helping hands along the way are dearly, dearly welcome. then, here's to the open road, and to impending communions.

keep safe and warm

jamesreindeer

leipzig, deutschland

ستة ستة سبعة | tape out now | vi . vi . vii

after some twenty-one years of making beats and writing rhymes, and after almost ten years of releasing records, i can finally unveil my first official self-produced solo album, entitled 'six six seven' and out now via the wonderful mism records family as a highly limited-edition, lovingly hand-crafted cassette tape, as well as digital download, available from both the mism records online store, as well as my own bandcamp page.

how it has been a long road to find myself at this point, but how i can wholeheartedly say that i feel i have put together a release which encompasses all one might hope to expect from a 'jamesreindeer solo release', but also bringing a good deal more into the equation, in pursuit of developing my own unique sound. please do be sure to investigate this release, it is the culmination of many years of work, and it would mean so very much to me indeed if you would choose to investigate.

keep safe, all the love

jamesreindeer

leipzig, deutschland

9th december 2013

ستة ستة سبعة | tape coming 9th december | vi . vi . vii

might i gladly take this moment to officially present the astonishingly beautiful physical cassette tape release of my forthcoming debut self-produced solo release, entitled 'six six seven' and coming this monday, 9th december via the wonderful mism records.

the actual tape release is a thing of astonishing beauty. hand-crafted by the near-legendary mich and manu in a quantity of only 44 copies, it is a monolith in miniature form, resembling some dark stone stelae on a spectral plane, and a thing to behold and handle indeed.

it is such an honour for me to be able to present this new collection of songs, and very much to be able to do so in partnership with the mism family; an operation that i am so deeply fond of. might i heartily recommend that you think about securing yourself a copy as soon as time permits.

keep safe and warm

jamesreindeer

leipzig, deutschland

6th december 2013

الحمراء‎ | video out now

lowest-resolution salvaged reels of the second video to accompany my forthcoming tape release on mism records are now available to stream exclusively from my youtube channel; field reports from the projection room. might we present with some trepidation, the alhambra.

sourced and cut using obsolete technology within the iron filings and sellotape compound, the film contains poorly-lit moments of strange psychedelic imagery to the sounds of the second song to be made public from my first official solo full-length release. be sure to investigate when the moment takes you.

keep safe

jamesreindeer

leipzig, deutschland

album coming soon | ستة ستة سبعة

might i most jubilantly unveil my latest release, my first official full-length, self-produced solo release, entitled 'ستة ستة سبعة' | 'six six seven' and coming this december as a limited edition cassette and digital download via the mighty mism records.

containing six tracks and spanning almost 40 minutes, the album is a spiraling mix of arabian-influenced free-jazz doom-rap and features musical contributions from the extended throne burner and iron filings and sellotape families. stay tuned for more details.

keep safe

jamesreindeer

leipzig, deutschland

24th novemeber 2013

amidst the long desert dream - volume one

gladly presenting 'amidst the long desert dream' volume one. a collection of eight songs from a variety of places and times, but all drawing together the threads where western jazz and traditional arabian music collide, and seamlessly woven together to create a long, cohesive whole to draw the listener up in vivid waking dreams of distant lands. 

created in celebration of my 'six.six.seven' / 'field reports from the desert lands' twin releases, scheduled to be unveiled soon via mism records / vi . vi . vii, this is the first of two volumes exploring some of the sounds which have served as an inspiration for the sonic-landscape that the projects encompass. be sure to investigate when time permits.

keep safe

jamesreindeer
leipzig, deutschland

الخزنة‎ | video out now

lowest-resolution salvaged reels of the first video to accompany my forthcoming tape release on mism records are now available to stream exclusively from my youtube channel; field reports from the projection room. might we present with some trepidation, the treasury.

shot and cut using obsolete technology within the iron filings and sellotape compound, the film contains poorly-lit moments of strange psychedelic imagery to the sounds of the first song to be made public from my first official solo full-length release. be sure to investigate when the moment takes you.

keep safe

jamesreindeer

leipzig, deutschland

الخزنة‎ | video coming soon

reporting from connewitz

gentle readers, might i take this opportunity to reveal some of the current facts in the ongoing case, detail my current whereabouts and hint towards all that appears to be growing near on the distant horizon. the short summer and autumn months caught me in a great spiral of chaotic activity and how it prevented me from finding ample time to be able to detail the myriad events which filled the warmer seasons. but now the slow, steady long of the winter is coming upon us, i am gladly finding myself with much more time to be able to word my reports and to be able to devote more attention to studio projects.

having been forced to reduce myself to leaving the rhein-main, my warm home for a little over the last three years, i can now gladly report that i am settled in the connewitz safehouse in leipzig, east germany. a strange series of events over these last four years or so has finally found me residing in the very same compound in which the jamesphoney & jamesreindeer 'mausoleum handout' live album was recorded so many long moons ago now; not long after i first settled in the depths of gut city, leaving sunny england behind me. but how i might reveal that i am very glad to find myself here and so very keen to produce some great work in this most historic of cities.

amidst the duration of the dyxz.born.rndr tour as the cold of the slow spring turned into the sudden warmth of the short summer, i found myself beginning the planning for a new solo release which would fit somewhere within the throne burner canon but that would enable me to explore some ideas which i had been toying around with on a theoretical level since the blackest depths of the summer of last year, whilst i was in close communion with babelfishh. he and i birthed the world of throne burner amidst chaos and turmoil, which soon bore the dyxz.born.rndr extension, and how i wanted this new project to be a further extension, exploring facets of the sonic landscape we have been pursuing as an extended group whilst bringing in some of the themes i wanted to explore individually.

to that end, and upon returning from our touring through germany, switzerland and the czech republic, i found myself setting about the beginnings of a this new solo project, my work being divided between the mainz safehouse and the connewitz compound, which i was by this point regularly travelling between. the first texts for the project came to me in the still of three nights in leipzig as the warm summer breeze blew through the open windows and the muse caught me swiftly. the first glimpses of loops and melodies arriving during the heat of the daylight under the azure summer skies in the mainz safehouse, and after six weeks of steady toil a new release, my first official full-length solo release, and my first 'reindeer' related full-length release in more than four years is almost upon us.

for now, i shall hold back further details until i can be sure of informing you of an accurate release date and all the other pertinent facts therein. but i can indeed reveal that it will be a cassette release on the mighty mism records, that it shall contain forty minutes of material, that i would describe it as some kind of arabian-psychedelic-free-jazz-doom-rap, that it features the impossible talents of j.mason, now revealing himself as a member of the iron filings and sellotape collective, the masterful clarinet of m.born, the sonic architecture of dyxz, the swarming trumpet of babelfishh and that there shall be a series of videos to accompany the release, the first of which shall be emerging imminently. stay tuned, indeed.

so now, here i sit in the safe confines of the connewitz compound, sipping black tea by candlelight and preparing the various final strands of this upcoming release, along with a host of other materials. again, insisting on being vague, i can also reveal that i am currently working with a series of beats from a host of staggering producers in the form of a number of 'features' to be released on a variety of formats in the steadily approaching future. i shall say no more, other than that it is a varied selection and how all of which are particularly inspiring for me to write and record to, so i am expecting good results from myself over the course of the coming moons.

perhaps needless to say, there are countless other strands slowly drawing themselves out withing the whole, and how i shall attempt to find time to be able to detail as much of them as possible. the winter is surely the time when one finds oneself huddled up by lamplight more than not, and what better way to utilise the time than be able to set ones thoughts in the direction of this strange and long ongoing. i shall be sure to word more on the myriad strands as soon as the next window of opportunity affords me to do so. until then, might i thank you for your interest and promise that there are many upcoming ventures which i am wholly confident shall bring strange new worlds of thought into keen focus as the dark of the winter extends long and frozen across the grey realms of the western lands.

jamesreindeer

connewitz, leipzig

29th october, 2013

dyxz.born.rndr - european tour 2013 - eight-hundred years on the banks of the aare

we followed the autobahn on its curve south-west through the myriad delights of the swiss landscapes on our path towards the always-stunning second-home of bern and the twin mism and luana headquarters of the living legend that is mich moser. how the storm-clouds still loomed ominous on the horizon but the rain kept its distance as we followed the winding path into the city, through its magnificent streets, shrouded in such stunning architecture and across the always beatuiful aare flowing through its whole before reaching the always-welcoming safehouse of captain mich; directly at the door ready to greet us with welcoming hugs and talk of what we could only immediately realise would be a stunning dinner at the broadspectrum surrounding compound already waiting for us. we directly grabbed what we needed from the car and then headed off by foot into the stunning depths of the city.

having ascended the steep hill from mich's place into the city center, it was only a brief excursion for beverages before we made our way to the wonderfully cosy apartment and broadspectrum surrounding compound of the absolutely wonderful can and nicole; a truly wonderfully kind-hearted couple indeed. we were welcomed immediately with the warmest of hugs, hot tea and much marvelous conversation before soon sitting down to an epic meal of home-baked pizzas and salat, wine, saft, coffee, yet more tea before we then found ourselves magically gazing out over the skyline diorama of the city center from their astonishing rooftop vantage point, a spell-binding instant to frame an outrageous series of developments of our evening indeed.

still, how the night held much more in store for us besides. we gathered ourselves up as a group and headed out into the cool of the evening to meet with some of the legendary everest records family over at the mighty reitschule complex; a stunning location which really needs to be on the list of essential spots to visit, and the perfect location to meet up with such marvelous souls indeed. still, how the night was a little cool and the spot a little too chaotic with some kind of minimal-chemical-party occurring out the front of the complex and so how we all retired to the magnificently cosy apartment and kitchen of captain matu to spend the last of the evening sharing drinks and ever-more amusing conversation til the early hours began to beckon. with weary heads we began to wend our ways back to our sleeping places, ready to get some sleep before the show tomorrow.

for my own part, i had the honour of sleeping at the mism/luana safehouse and slept long indeed, not awakening until it was almost time to take to the day to begin our busy schedule. mich and i walked back up into the city to collect dyxz and martin from the compound and how we made our way to the splendid raum to set-up and get a healthy soundcheck happening and to shake hands with the tastatur captains before taking a most-relaxed walk over to the everest records safehouse to chill and take tea with captain matu a while longer and generally take in their whole operation which, was certainly most-impressive indeed. but how the day was racing-by indeed and how we soon found ourself safely back at can and nicole's place for a staggeringly epic home-cooked indian meal with the extended bern family circle. shockingly fantastic tasty treats indeed.

still, showtime beckoned and how we made our way en mass back down to the raum and started to relax with the splendid folk who slowly began to gather in the cosy half-light of this most-intimate and wonderful of locations as the mighty mich began to spin a sinister collection of vinyl for our listening pleasure. still before long we did indeed take to the stage and slowly concocted a drone-heavy invocation filled with as many subtle hues as we could filter through the sound-system, building a steadily rising hymn to fill the raum with a slow and permeating unease of blackened arid lands. in truth, some technical difficulties on our part sadly plagued the performance a little, but how we did indeed muster over the length of the performance and managed to satisfy the ungods with a suitably darkened tone poem of careful duration.

but the night was still so young and how we were subsequently treated to the rhythmic tones of the local masters tastatur as we gladly began to spend the rest of the evening putting our feet up, chatting cheerily, watching the party-madness unfold and eventually taking to the dancefloor as the killer broadspectrum surrounding dj-team took their rightful place on the 1210's and treated us to endless party sounds as the night wore steadily on into the long early hours. how it was a great night indeed and an honour to be finding ourselves again rubbing shoulders with the mighty everest records family members matu and mich meienberg, no less. but how we slowly grew weary and ready for the sleeping, and how myself, mich and the lovely soumy bid farewell to the others and made our weary way back to the mism/luana safehouse for some much-needed sleep. still, how there was indeed enough time for one last tea in the still of his kitchen as we chatted cheerily for a few last minutes to the sounds of the true legend that is fbcfabric, the horror... into the dreaming then.

i greeted the sunday morning with the weariest of eyes to find mich and suomy ready for action and how we made a weary walk back to the broadspectrum surrounding safehouse once more, to link up for some splendid breakfast action with the others and to think about one last stroll through the city before we would have to think about gathering ourselves up for the drive back north across the border. how we were blessed with a sunny afternoon for it though and gladly bore ourselves a suitably relaxed path through the architectural delights of the altstadt, within the myriad wonders of the berner münster, up to the steadily widening views of the magnificent rosengarten for a spot of tea and relaxing, then back along the aare to our starting point; a marvelous sunday-afternoon jaunt indeed. but time had defeated us, and how we were forced to bid the gang the dearest of farewells before taking ourselves back to the car and making the steady drive back to the rhein-main after such a truly wonderful weekend indeed.

so, might we once again take the opportunity to offer our most-sincerest of thanks and so much love to the dear captain mich, the mism/luana family, the wonderful, wonderful broadspectrum surrounding family, the effortlessly kind everest records family, miss soumy, the tastatur captains and everyone who made it down to the show, a truly magical time indeed.

next field report - returning to the steel heart of the republic

jamesreindeer
connewitz, leipzig, deutschland
23rd june, 2013

dyxz.born.rndr - european tour 2013 - low dronings from below the abandoned freight-cars drowning in the heavy rain

we drove south out of karlsruhe as the gloomy rainy weather began to set in and followed the autobahn with the throne burning spire of cathédrale notre-dame de strasbourg and the dark extents of the schwarzwald laying ominous in the east, the observatory and japanese guy to detail the ongoing soundtrack of the droning road and the steady concrete skyline of zürich with its fields of cranes ready to greet us as we finally rolled into the city under heavy rains, the prime tower looming resplendent in its shimmering hues as we found our way to the mism zürich headquarters and the wonderfully cosy residence of the ever-magnificent captain manu and his incredibly kind-hearted girlfriend lena. how they welcomed us in out of the rain, immediately had earl grey brewing and detailed the plan for the evenings schedule over the warming brew.

before long we took to the street once more and made our way down to the klubi under the steadily-building rainstorm to load in our equipment and set about the soundcheck process. the venue can certainly be described as something very special indeed. a cavern sunken in a tree-lined spot below the abandoned trailines running beside the river, an old carriage still standing lifeless above a small cavern-club replete with open stone walls and mysterious hieroglyphs in the water-etched granite walls. we soon got some really great sound happening with the aid of the marvelous patrick and also quickly managed to exchange the glad-hand with the mighty borut savski, with whom we would be sharing the performance along with ueli the super-nice manager of the site; a marvelous set of gentlemen indeed.

with all in hand we made our way back to manu's place under what had become incessant rain, the dark of the night already threatening to set in and a cool chill within the breeze that had us think we were being drawn back into the autumn once more. still, how lena, now accompanied by the wonderful alicia had set about preparing us such a fantastic vegan dinner for us all which i could not hope to do justice to with these humble lines. needless to say we took our fill, along with a host of always fascinating and illuminating conversations, our anticipation building for heading back to the venue, taking in the work of borut, not to mention our own humble performance. we wrapped ourselves up against the dismal elements and returning to the klubi on foot and under umbrellas and the blanket of the night having since fallen.

how the sanctuary of the atmospheric location seemed doubly so as we finally made our way out from under the downpour and into the dark, smokey cavern of the venue, darkly-lit and so welcoming. gladly, goodly number of close friends and strangers began to arrive, and in time to catch the fascinating work of borut savski, who treated us to a peformance and brief lecture on a suitably mind-bending audio-visual project he had been crafting in isolation as an experiment and was demonstrating the principles of for those of us lucky enough to be in attendance. he was essentially using randomly generated audio elements to trigger two-dimensional geometric visual elements to build an ongoing, and very-much trance-inducing sensory experience. fascinating work indeed.

after the hallucinatory depths of borut's work, dyxz, martin and i were ready to take to the stage to invoke some suitably dark sounds for those assembled within the stone walls of our temporary compound and directly set about a forty-five minute set of blackened-drones, monolithic doom-walls and spectral moments of frozen still; creating as atmospheric and enthralling world as we could summon within the limits of our confines. it was an absolute delight to perform indeed and how the kind audience were so very attentive and stayed with us along the course of the journey and offering such kind applause upon the final, grim culmination. a roaring success indeed, and one that we are already so very keen to repeat.

with the live performances handled and the merch-table manned for an adequate amount of time, it was time to spend the rest of the evening propping up the bar, listening to the mighty manu spin endless classic vinyl on the 1210's and chatting cheerily with those dear folk still assembled. but the time raced by as always and how the night slowly began to draw itself to a close. we slowly began to gather our weary selves up and take one last walk back through the still heaviest of rain to the apartment to start to think about falling into the dreaming once more. not before another round of earl grey at the kitchen table, of course. but how we were soon ready to fall back into the sleeping, to dream blissful dreams of drone-lands and sound-fields stretching out into clouds of radio-waves sailing high above farm-lands of antenna masts.

the morning greeting us cheerily, and with perhaps a little respite in the rain situation. we gathered together around the kitchen table and took an ample breakfast together before having to think about heading quickly back to the location to packed our gear into the car and starting the journey towards the mism bern headquarters, luana headquarters and the residence of the utterly-legendary mich moser. all was very much in hand and how we were in good time to take to the road as we bid farewell to the mighty manu and the wonderful lena. how they had been such impeccable hosts and how it had been such an absolute pleasure to visit them in their beautiful apartment and to get to share such a splendid time together; a really wonderful time indeed.

still, we were not quite through with zürich yet, and had one more stop to make before taking the autobahn south-west to bern. a complicated route through the city lead us to the compound of the mighty epilog of the magnificent son kas and postrap familia. he had marvelously managed to find himself in attendance at the show the night before and simply insisted that we must stop by before leaving the city, an offer impossible to refuse. so we soon found ourselves ensconced in his apartment, sipping tea and being stunned by an ongoing series of musical works-in-progress which took in his new collaboratory project with other rappers, his new solo works, self-produced and otherwise, and culminating in an auditioning of the viciously-shocking postrap supergroup armageddonendzeitstress, and how there is nothing quite as shocking as unexpectedly having your faced chewed off by soda as an end-point. this all too brief and all too shocking had to come to a close though and, with farewell hugs aplenty we found ourselves back on the road, back towards the impossibly-staggering beauty that is the city of bern.

might we once again take a moment to offer our most warmest thanks to captain manu, miss lena, ueli, patrick, alicia and the klubi family, the mism family, the postrap family, the whole extended zürich family and indeed captain borut, how it was a magical experience and how we so very much look forward to next time indeed.

next field report - eight-hundred years on the banks of the aare

jamesreindeer,
mülheim an der ruhr, deutschland
18th june 2013

mism split 7" series no.7

gentle readers. might i, slightly-belatedly, but with huge excitement, announce the forthcoming release of mism records split 7" series number seven, soon to be available as a highly limited edition of just 103 individually unique copies in cork sleeves with the titles burned into them.

for our own part, the legendary captain meienberg and i have combined our forces to create the song 'automated sunrise', a bleak, dystopian diorama set within missile test site desert sands and featuring a perfectly-sparse and cold sonic landscape on which i have layered my lines.

the mighty bit-tuner, alongside fai, has also contributed a masterful dark tome to the processdings too, creating something of a towering release. so, be sure to have yourself a listen and keenly start to anticipate fixing yourself a copy as soon as the release date rolls around. get involved.

keep safe

jamesreindeer