Happy birthday me + SOON ! /// Reissue of Huata's two tapes.

Zugzwang Productions is now officially one year old ! Thanks to all the artists and people with whom I worked with/sold or traded stuff. Plenty of releases are planned for the months to come, with more retarded packagings. Stay tuned !

Working on the Open The Gates... packaging. My bedroom is a sweatshop. 

I can also announce that the two most famous ZZP releases are being reissued : Huata's Open The Gates Of Shambhala and Atavist Of Mann, both on tape with their original packaging. Listen here (EP and LP) and see pics of the tapes here (EP and LP). Those are still pretty limited so preorder yours now at the shop !

Mad props.

Did you know that both artists involved in ZZP next split release are involved at different levels of the music scene ? That's true. Zmajevdah (proto-post-grind) is also behind CEPHALOCHROMOSCOPE, a ten-headed beast of a blogspot.

Music reviews, DL links and interviews of wide range of artists. Grindcore, doom, punk, hardcore, more grindcore, and some out-of-the-usual-spectrum of genres you usually find on blogspot using a black colored background. You can also find some of his other musical projects, such as antiétat and Kikurachiyo, the latter being described by the man itself as sketchgrind. Hint : it goes hella fast. So I guess   we're starting to see a pattern emerge here.

Since 2009, dirt, the man behind Emotion Of Loss (sick industrial doom/sludge) is also the head of QUAGMIRE, a 100% DIY label dedicated to noisy, creeping and lobotomizing sounds such as Sete Star Sept, Loinen, Rape-X, Fistula or Ointment.

All of his release are completely handmade, with crazy attention to details and great packaging ideas that perfectly fit the music. We traded some records, so you can find some of his quags at our shop. But be sure to keep an eye on his newsfeed (as confusing as it could get, but hey, THAT is DIY), as this man seems to never stop releasing crazy stuff !

More infos (and hopefully audio links) about the split really soon !

SOON ! /// Zmajevdah & Emotion Of Loss - Split Tape

After producing a bunch of tapes for the impoverished hipsters, ZZP is back in the digital era with a CDr release. Nope, back to tape ! This will also be our first split album, between two solo acts : Emotion Of Loss from Russia (doom/indus/noise) and Zmajevdah from Croatia (blackened shoegazy grind).

Two Internet friends, and more importantly two great artists that push the boundaries of their sound and their respective genre, their tunes sweating with heart, lo-fi and DIY ethics.

If you followed ZZP from the beginning, you are no stranger to Emotion Of Loss bleak, desperate and crushing sound. His "Demo 2007" was ZZP first release. Jump in the time machine to learn about this incredible first effort by clicking here, or listen to the demo here. However, on this split EoL explore new territories in his sound, lurking toward ambiant and even darker atmospheres, so expect some surprises !

Zmajevdah take on grindcore has always been special. Never over-saturated blastbeatitude lo-finess has been so alive and heartwarming, as you can take into account here. But with the two unreleased tracks Zmajevdah offers on this record, his post-proto-prog-grind evolves into some more exciting. More surprises to come, yay !

Previews for these tracks should be available soon, such as hints of the handcrafted packaging that will embody them.

Stay tuned for preorders and more !

Resonances Of Spiral & Zalhietzli reviews

New reviews for two of our releases !

A french chronique for Zalhietzli - Sainte Rita on Ambiant Churches. A new blog already filled to the brim with reviews of dark, ambiant and experimental sounds from across the globe. Updated at a stakhanovist pace, thanks to Elie. Keep an eye on it !

Some well deserved praise for Resonance Of Spiral - DEVBLU, on Cephalochromoscope. This blog is a gem for all extreme and weird music lovers. Mainly grindcore (Discordance Axis 4eva <3), metal, but also some not-so-weird music like blues, hip-hop and all that jazz. And actual jazz too. Thanks to my good friend Karlo for this !


Two quality blogs. Bookmark now, friend.

A lot of news.

Dinosaurs are ALWAYS cool. Don't ask.

Hi everyone ! Zugzwang Productions is almost one year old now, and I am very excited to see how things are going for 2012. As the title points out (because that's what titles are for, duh), we have a lot of ZZP related news ! Here's what's coming for the next months :

NEW RELEASES ANNOUNCEMENTS !

Yep, that's plural. More about that in a future post.

HUATA : First, thanks to anyone who bought a tape of Huata - Atavist Of Mann. With only 50 copies, we underestimated the success this album would meet, so the tapes are already sold out ! A reissue of 50 copies is coming soon, PLUS a reissue of 33 copies of their first EP Open The Gates Of Shambhala. Both reissues will be made with their original ZZP packagings. Another color of paper will be used, to help distinguish the two series.

PROUD FATHER : This release is a bit different from the others, as it wasn't me but Proud Father who took charge of the production process. I'm supposed to receive them soon, hopefully at the beginning of march (but you know what happens when I start setting deadlines). For those waiting for this release, be sure that I'll keep you updated.

LOCAL NEWS : ZZP is starting to infect the real world ! For the French lads and ladies living near Angers, France, you can find some of my products at Biblio Graphik, a small shop dedicated to posters, screenprints, alternative books and exposition. At the moment, only ZZP-003 // Resonance Of Spiral - DEVBLU EP and ZZP-004 // Zalhietzli - Sainte Rita are available there, but hopefully I intend to put a small amount of each release. Click the link above for address and contact.

Plenty of good stuff here ! Yummy for the eyes !

Also, on Feb. 10th I had the pleasure to be invited to the radio show Hors Cadre, aired on Radio G, and independent radio from Angers. The show is hosted by Simon Batardière, a very nice guy and great artist, performing with Jérôme Leclair under the moniker JLSB. Saxophone, field recordings, sound manipulations, improvisations.

You can hear the radio show here (in french). We talk about Zugzwang Productions and my solo musical project Zalhietzli. Concerning ZLTZ, I hope to release something for 2012, but I can't tell much more yet.

Stay tuned !

ZZP-006 /// Huata - Atavist Of Mann

This tape is sold out ! Thanks to everyone !

Quiver, mortals ! Quiver, impious ! The End is coming, and Huata is its herald. Accept its Light, or be crushed under the weight of its Doom !

Yes, I know, this is the cheesiest intro ever, but I was tired of starting all my release announcements with "finally".

But yes, FINALLY (dammit), the tapes of Huata long awaited debut Atavist Of Mann are available through Zugzwang Productions. This has been one all of ride with the fifth horseman of the Apocalypse, the one devoted to fuck up your deadlines. But, at last, here they are in my feeble hands, and hopefully soon in yours.

I am also tired of writing endless tirades about Huata music, so I will sum it up for you. Compared to their first EP : more Doom, more Satan, and the addition of a real church organ that brings a whole new dimension to their sound and songwriting. Or you could listen to the whole deal here.

The tape comes in a paper-made "book", with a witchboard. This handmade packaging is the most ambitious to date on ZZP, and the drawing on the witchboard is the work of our friend Zero Pixel Grind, who worked on the previous EP.

Along with the tape version, the album is also released on LP abd CD through De Arte Magica, a consortium of labels.

Here's a video showcasing the packaging, because "a blurry video is better than a thousand blurry pictures"* !

*Yes I know I am quoting myself. Now go away.

Cheap chouchenn all around !

ZZP is (slowly) gaining momentum ! 968 views on the blogspot this month, thanks mainly to the release of Huata's Atavist Of Mann ! From what I could gather, their january tour went smoothly (mainly thanks to some unholy honey-based beverage), and you have probably heard about their recent addition to the line up of Roadburn 2012 ! Hurray for them !

For all those who preordered some Atavist Of Mann tapes, please be patient. I know this release suffered some delay, but hopefully the wait won't be much longer now.

Same goes for Proud Father full length tape. The process of making these tapes has been pretty long and convoluted in both cases.

February should hopefully see the official release of those two albums, and maybe even some additional surprises... Stay tuned !