ADR 2014 in review

At a label fair last night, while perusing our table with a friend, I noted, “Shit… I had a pretty good year!”

In 2014 we released 15 physical albums and 9 videos. That is three more releases than we planned to do and six fewer videos (calculating that we’d meant to create some form of video for every release). We got 24 (to our knowledge) positive reviews on various blogs and print publications. Two titles sold out. We put on a small handful of shows and relaunched the NO LOVE imprint (just today, actually). And I indulged in our most excessive package to date for one of my own pet projects.

As we were at the start of 2014, we’re planning to drastically scale back operations in 2015. As with 2014, we’ll see how that goes (we already have two releases scheduled for January and one in February).

2014 Year End Top 5

(of Arachnidiscs Recordings 2014 releases according to Arachnidiscs Recordings)

#1. Dominic Marion: Totenbaum Träger / Projet Muet

Creeping drones and cinematic post-jazz improvisations.

#2. Uvesen: III

Creepinger drones and dark, reverb-drenched noise improvisations.

#3. Clara Engel: Ashes & Tangerines

Something like the haunting folkiness of Vashti Bunyan corrupted by the bombastic gloom of Nick Cave.

#4. Nite Audit: The Audiot

Apparently the Ween brothers, Beck and Lou Barlow had an orgy and Nite Audit is their love child. There’s something wonderfully ’90s yet incredibly current about Kyle’s music.

#5. Colin Fisher & Mike Gennaro: Sine Qua Non

It’s like Rashied Ali and John Coltrane on bath salts. Free jazz that breaks the chains of your mind.

NO LOVE in 2015 and RAINBOARD too

 A little under a year ago we announced the intention of definitely possibly maybe resurrecting our previous incarnation, NO LOVE, as an “indie-rock” imprint. This was pretty much for the sole purpose of releasing a cassette by a friend’s band, but that discussion sort of faded away somehow and now they seem to have broken-up.

In the meantime we jumped on the chance to give an ecstatic “yes” (instead of the regretful “no” we’d prepared) to Rainboard as we were doing this thing anyway.

And thank heavens because The Midnight Slide is a corker set of ’90s alt inspired noisy shoegaze and space-rock, fuzzily psychedelic with no waves to be found. Not entirely a throw-back to the pre-grunge post-punk era of youths who were sonic or dinosaurs who were junior, it’s current to the noise-rock scene. It has the seasoned, mature sound of alt-rock veterans and the visceral edge of upstart indie-punks.

We’re releasing it, and launching the imprint, on December 31st, 2014. You can “pre-order” it now (inverted commas because we’ll ship immediately, holidays allowing) and take a listen below.