SEMEN PRIEST: Pink Skyline

Artist: SEMEN PRIEST
Album: Pink Skyline
Label: Arachnidiscs Recordings
Format: C30 Cassette, real-time dubbed,
Styles: Dub, post-punk, electro, vaporwave, industrial vapopdub
RIYL: Adrian Sherwood / On-U Sound; PiL; Egyptian Lover as a reanimated mummy; Cabaret Voltaire; Bob from Twin Peaks’ 1985 rap album

>>>>>>>>ORDER HERE<<<<<<<<

Toronto’s electronic/post-punk outfit SEMEN PRIEST return with a reinvigorated sound on Pink Skyline thanks to production by KING PONG DUB SYSTEM. The Etobicoke producer cut the tempos of the tracks they’d be working on by half, creating a chilled-out environment for their menacing vocals a discordant guitars to take root.

Features the single ‘Police, Thieves & Private Armies’ — a mash-up cover of Junior Murvin’s ‘Police & Thieves’ and Vivien Goldman’s ‘Private Armies’.

SEMEN PRIEST: Third Testament

C50 – High-bias tape, toxic green shell. $6.66! (plus regional shipping)

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⇒CLICK HERE TO ORDER⇐

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THIRD TESTAMENT is, fittingly, the third album by Canadian post-punk/electronic duo SEMEN PRIEST. Evolving from the “industrial vapor wave” of their debut, the duo’s previous tape, Disco Horribilis, dallied with EBM tones. On their latest outing Epididymis Rex and Zsa Zsa La Borg dilly with a harder-edged sound inspired by classic ’80s and ’90s Wax Trax! records bands.

CALL IT: Post-Punk, Disco, Industrial. Electronic, Vapour Wave
SONIC COUSIN TO: PiL, Revolting Cocks, Underworld, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

“Toronto’s Semen Priest make some of the best gothic infused disco/post-punk this side of Silent Shout favourite Femminielli. Those of you who follow the blog know that a comparison to the Montreal italo-disco king is one of the highest honours that we can bestow on a band, and ‘Person Suit’ hits all the notes: an epically long song, half-sung spoken-word vocals over funky synths and a bass-line made for a late-night after-party … This album is an excellent foray into a dark underbelly of Canadian electronic music.” ~ Silent Shout

“Spraying us with another blast of sludgy … ‘Wrong Number’ is a crunchy post-punk stomper … “ ~ Quick Before It Melts

SEMEN PRIEST: Disco Horribilis

C46. high-bias tape. Limited to 30 copies. ($7 plus regional shipping)

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⇒CLICK HERE TO ORDER⇐

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Disco Horribilis: Latin. “To Learn of the terrible”; “Horrible dance music”

Canadian dark disco provocateurs SEMEN PRIEST (remember when they sent us a blood-filled condom?) are back with their second album. More groove and less blood this time out, but no less bile. In support of self-abuse/love, in protest of rape culture & violence against women. Rex and Zsa Zsa call for the downfall of crack-smoking mayors and burning the perpetrators of acid attacks.

TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE IT RIGHT. TWO WRONGS MAKE IT EVEN.

CALL IT: EBM, acid house, disco, ’90s house, industrial
SONIC COUSIN TO: Underworld, Soft Cell, any two Acid House compilations playing at the same time, Skinny Puppy, Nitzer Ebb, Thrill Kill Kult, 1000 Homo DJs, Man Made Hill, Bile Sister.

That SEMEN PRIEST interview

So, our favourite electro-lunatics Semen Priest were interviewed by the blog Raised by Gypsies. And apparently they’re not huge Arachnidiscs fans and have some “interesting” ideas about how the music business works. Anyway, though it’s entertaining as all heck, I do feel the need to clarify a few inaccuracies in the Q&A. I’ve highlighted my clarifications in orange. You can read the full interview HERE.

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3)     What is your relationship like with Arachnidiscs?

 

What relationship? Pretty sure Jakob hates us. And the feeling isn’t unmutual. They’ve done shit for us. Our album is fucking amazing and they just sat on it. It’s like we spend all our time kicking his ass to do shit and nothing gets done. He keeps pushing us to tour but isn’t giving us $$$ to tour. And no money to do a proper video. We have all these ideas and we can’t do them becau$$$e. Anyway, he never sent cops after us about the bloody condom thang, so… it’s all good? He knows we’re not serious about shit. Whatevs. 

It’s not really in my nature to “push” anyone to do anything. When they asked my why more blogs and websites weren’t writing about them, I suggested that they should play live and that if they played a show somewhere like Toronto that’d probably help with exposure. Though they’d voiced displeasure at the “cheap” and “shitty” Another Bad Day video I’d put together for them, producing another video was never discussed. I also SET UP THIS VERY INTERVIEW.

 

4)     You’ve released a split and a collaboration with Tranzmit.  What is your relationship like with Tranzmit?

 

Well, that’s fucking Jakob again. He’s TRANZMIT so the relationship is pretty much the same pile. But better. Which is super weird. Like schizophrenic weird. We like working with him as a musician more than as a label. He actually seems interested in doing the music stuff. Which WE DIDN’T EVEN ASK HIM TO DO. He fucking took our new single and “improved” it without asking. Removed our vocals and added all that radio shit and made it longer. The result is kind of amazing, so it’s fine, I guess. But, that fucking guy… GOTTA LUV HIS AZZ.

I was under the impression that when they sent me the project files, they wanted me to remix the track. The email only said, and I quote, “DU SUMPTIN WIT DIZZZZ YO!” I realized, later, my mistake in not clarifying their intentions.

 

5)     Who else would you be interested in collaborating with or sharing a split with in the future?

 

Dream collab? I dunno. DAFT PUNK, but that’ll never happen. *sadface* UNDERWORLD, Xcept they suddenly started to suck. *double-plus SADFACE*. How does that happen? A band makes amazing records for what? 15 years? Then they just turn to shit with that last one? I guess their first two records were crimes against hearing too. *shrug*…. That leaves Lady Gaga. I think we could perform CPR on her career. Call us. We’re ready to let you vomit cum on us.

 

But realistically? Maybe DOOMSQUAD? We heard one of those dude’s liked our tape. Which is probably a complete fucking lie. Or, what’s that girl called? Vile Bitch? No, Bile Sister? Yeah, I just googlized it and that’s her. Zsa Zsa’s a fan. Bile Sister. That’s a good name. Not as good as SEMEN PRIEST, but good name. All those assholes are in Toronto and we’re not in Toronto. And, you know what? Fuck smug-ass Toronto. I guess we could do email collabs like with TRANZMIT but… 

I’d like to apologize to Julie (Bile Sister), in advance, if they contact her. In that conversation about playing shows in Toronto, I suggested they get in touch with some “like minded” bands. Doomsquad and Bile Sister were part of the list I gave them. Ooops.

 

6)     Will “Grung Grindr” see a physical release?

 

Fucked if we know. Wanted it to be a 12″ but Arachnidiscs won’t do it. $$$ issues. We’re feeling out other labels. We’ll never self-release because only assholes self-release. It’s like literal figurative musical masturbation to put your own shit out. We didn’t even want to do Bandcamp but Arachnidiscs said we had to. 

At no time did we ever discus a 12″. At one point the track was going to be part of a future TRANZMIT tape, but they wanted it for themselves. I also never said they “had” to set up a Bandcamp, I just said it made more sense if the money for digital downloads went straight to them.

 

 

9)     Final thoughts, shout outs, etc… ??

 

EVERYONE SHOULD CHECK OUT R ALBUM BECAUSE ITZ THE BEST THING IN 4EVER. 4SRSLY.

I do have to agree it’s a good album.

SEMEN PRIEST RELEASED

C40 // w/DOWNLOAD // $6.66 (CAD +$3.34 int’l shipping)

CLICK HERE TO ORDER (Direct Paypal link)

Or HERE w/instant DL (Bandcamp)

Electro-funk, post-punk dystopian dub nightmares. Chilled psychedelic pop daydreams. Futuristic streams of anime unconsciousness. Gothic bubblegum doom fantasies. Romance. Violence. Action. Wealth. Decay.

SEMEN PRIEST came to our attention when we received a demo package, mailed from somewhere in Canada, containing a blood-filled condom and a vaguely threatening letter (“You should do our tape. xoxo Semen Priest. PS- We know where you live.”). Easily the most unusual demo-package the label has ever received (full story HERE), the CD-R of SEMEN PRIEST’s album that accompanied it prompted us to sign the band instead of notifying the RCMP. Even if we still don’t know who they are. Worst case scenario: Doing a run of pretty awesome cassettes is relatively inexpensive way to ensure your house doesn’t get burned down.

SEMEN PRIEST pre-order is open

PRE-ORDER HERE

 

Pre-orders for the debut cassette from mysterious Canadian electro-funk shockers SEMEN PRIEST are now being taken through the just launched ARACHNIDISCS RECORDINGS Bandcamp site.

Pre-orders come with immediate download of three tracks and a link to the full album will be emailed the moment it’s officially released on August 6th, 2013. Of course, the tape will be shipped on or before the 6th. Pre-orders come with special packaging.

Listen to the pre-release tracks, Another Bad Day and two mixes of Taste The Beast, below.

Or watch the video for Another Bad Day.

Upcoming Releases Summer/Fall 2013

2013 has been pretty quiet for us so far but when it rains, it pours. Summer and fall are looking stormy for us. Here’s a brief list of the releases we’re currently prepping.

AD091 – SEMEN PRIEST – s/t – Cassette

Psychedelic industrial funk pop.

AD092 – A SACRED CLOUD – ENSOLEILLÉ, 1972 – Cassette

In conjunction with Jeunesse Cosmique LP release. Analogue soundscapes, musique concrete collages, severe art drones.

AD093 – PARTLI CLOUDI – Two Moron Ever Nose – CD

New solo album by Summer Amp (and fOLKwASTE Library) dude. A deep folkloric journey into the library of the transcendental mind. Spoken word collages, tribal percussions, primal psychedelia.

AD094 – Ѫΰϯᶓԃ Ʀѧϊᵰѣѻὦ – Intuitions – CD

Michelle Proksell resides in Beijing and loves/lives China as a dream machine of animated .gif images, weird montages and awesome t-shirts. Deaf improvisation based on colors and hues, blue(s) gospels in unknown languages, seas of shimmering drones, electro-acoustic processing and outdated acid folk. Classical without class, psychedelic without psyche, songwriting without writing. “Intuitions” is the result of sparse improvisational sessions conjured in Shanghai bedrooms and living rooms during 2012. Hours worth of recordings were trimmed, mixed and mastered with poetic freedom at Zulmàt studio in Rome, Italy. 

AD095 – BEARD CLOSET / PRIMATE PYRAMID – Cassette

Split tape series sides 17 & 18. Two sides of essential Skullflower-esque doom-gaze guitar improvisations.

AD096 – ROSS BAKER / BABEL – Cassette

Split tape series sides 19 & 20. A combined hour’s worth of ambient VCR jams from two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Sound collage dudes abide.

Mysterious SEMEN PRIEST Demo Submission

Most of our demo submissions come via email. As a rule these submission are pretty vague, usually containing no more than “I have some music I’d like to release on your label” and link to a Soundcloud. A lot of these just end up in the trash folder since I’m not much interested putting out music by people who don’t even bother to introduce themselves.

This didn’t prepare me, however, for a physical submission we received in the mail a few months ago from a band or artist who appeared to be called Semen Priest. I wasn’t sure if it was a joke or a legitimate submission and, either way, if it was something more sinister.

Perhaps it’s best to start with a complete inventory of the padded mailer:

1. A crushed, desiccated rose.
2. An unmarked CD-R in a (protective) Zip-lock baggie.
3. A condom which APPEARED TO CONTAIN BLOOD.
4. And a computer-printed letter (in Comic Sans, no less) which read, “You should do our tape. xoxo Semen Priest. PS- We know where you live.”

Well, that last line was disconcerting. Then I noticed the mailing label was addressed to me personally so I decided this was clearly a friend who’s having me on. I chose to ignore the voice in my head that was telling me: Your name is well documented online as being the guy who runs Arachnidiscs, it’d be reasonable to put your name on the envelope and assume you live there.