::HOT CRITICAL INJECTION FROM THE WORLD'S MUSICAL PRAISERS AND PISS-TAKERS::

:BRG001/INNATURE:

Review from the November issue of The Wire....essential reading....but you knew that.

Innature brings together a disparate selection of artists with various thematic similarities and sequences them in such a way that the collection flows with a conceptual unity, without negating the essential individuality of each of the artists showcased. Some are likely to be more familiar than others, but all operate to some extent on the fringes, even where they're names within their own field. The Fun Years combine limpid electronica with the sharp clarity of minimalist guitar on "Electricity is a Scarce Commodity", a sound complimented by Loren Connors' gently resonating "Outside My Window", where the spatial coolness of guitar chimes meets ambient warmth. Chicagoans The Kallikak Family and Bird Show perform variations on song based material, mixing up vocals and melodies with rougher guitar and electronic textures. Both Polmo Polpo and Tim Hecker produce pulsating drone pieces, an approach more ominously interpreted by Finnish combo Circle, whose "No Battle, No Fire" is an exemplary slab of tension that sounds like it ought to explode at any moment but instead bubbles away in a semi-submerged state. At the noisier end of the spectrum, guitarist Geoff Mullen's "Gold Eyes" mixes piercing, scouring lead guitar with acoustic intricacy, and MGR(Isis guitarist Mike Gallagher) brings the collection to a close with the suspenseful guitar twang and dub pulse of "Neither Here Nor There" - Tom Ridge

Review from Foxy Digitalis, a very prolific web-zine and experimental label.

It is the rare compilation that contains no fat, and that works seamlessly. This is one of them. Barge has assembled quite a lineup of experimental and ambient artists, who have created an entity unto itself with “Innature.”

You expect challenging and compelling work from the likes of guitarists Loren Connors and Geoff Mullen, and they do not disappoint. Their pieces are ripe with lines that thread through the melody and build off each other, creating a web of noise and drone that hypnotizes. Likewise, Tim Hecker and Animal Hospital (Kevin Micka) up the noise factor, but still build their sound one layer at a time,

Also deeply groove-y are The Fun Years and Circle, who both create walls of meditative sound with their contributions. Bird Show’s addition of Ben Vida’s vocals to their piece is jarring in context; it is a reminder of the humanity behind the sound explorations. The goal may be sublime and beyond, but the road starts with the body.—- Mike Wood

Review from Fakejazz.com....make them one of your daily reads...they do great stuff.

If the quality level Barge kicks out for its inaugural release is going to be a staple of their catalog, I just got a new label to follow. Innature is just about as great a first impression as anyone could ask for. The compilation serves up 10 tracks of greatness from the likes of Tim Hecker, Circle, Polmo Polpo, and Loren Connors, who add a little name recognition, and some lesser knowns who are at times even better. Drone is a centerpiece of the disc; vocals are ghostly when they appear. The opening track by The Fun Years, "Electricity Is A Scare Commodity," is my personal favorite track. It crafts several layers of wavering drone over simple guitar loops to amazing hazy effect. The Kallikak Family serves up the stuttering "Purity Music/Purity Sound" which leads into Bird Show's "Stay High." "Stay High" is another highlight, sounding almost like a poppy Storm & Stress; all disjointed melodies and soft-spoken vocals. Polmo Polpo's "Farewell to the Flyer" is a lengthy acoustic drone while Tim Hecker presents the sublime "Dungeoneering." Loren Connor's "Outside My Window" is a simple and gorgeous solo electric guitar lullaby. Animal Hospital has "Late Summertime" that starts simply enough as a night time field recording before a thick distorted riff slices through the track and things get subtly higher pitched as it progresses. The disc's centerpiece is undoubtedly the massive 12 minute Circle track "No Battle, No Fire" with it's percolating backing, clatter percussion, giant voices, and general air of the arcane. Geoff Mullen's "Gold Eyes" and MGR's "Neither Here Nor There" close out the set by doing the seemingly the same thing at opposite ends of the spectrum: A fairly simple guitar piece, repectively crusty and clean. All the tracks have a downbeat, dreamy quality but are distinct. The entire album doesn't suffer the scattershot disparity of many compilations and this is perhaps its greatest strength: Innature is a whole. Its also a fantastic place for any label to start. - Wes Neal

Review fron Textura. A fantastic Canada based web-zine that covers all the music you and I care about in a well designed and easy to navigate website...Oh Canada!...how we love thee:

Brooklyn-based Barge Recordings makes an auspicious debut with a finely-wrought collection of experimental music-making entitled Innature. No dance tracks, no hellish psychosis, just ten provocative forays into ambient, folk-psychedelia, and drone soundscaping from reigning stars and lesser-knowns. In fact, the release could pass for a joint kranky-Constellation compilation and not just because it includes tracks by kranky artists Bird Show (Ben Vida) and Tim Hecker and Constellation's Polmo Polpo but because stylistically Innature aligns itself so closely to its label brethren.

Opening pieces like “Electricity is a Scarce Commodity,” a lulling meditation by turntable-baritone guitar outfit The Fun Years, establish a low-key start but the intensity escalates as the album progresses, culminating in scalding guitar escapades by Animal Hospital (“Late Summertime”) and Geoff Mullen (“Gold Eyes”) before MGR (Isis guitarist Mike Gallagher) eases the tension with “Neither Here Nor There.” Also noteworthy: Circle, a Finnish four-piece, opts for the road less traveled on a 12-minute sojourn that disorients and bewilders in equally measure (“No Battle, No Fire”), Polmo Polpo (Sandro Perri) contributes an hypnotic space-drone (“Farewell To The Flyer”), and Tim Hecker provides a predictably fantastic sampling of mesmerizing blur (“Dungeoneering”). Interestingly, though, the album's most beautiful piece, Loren Connors' stirring guitar meditation “Outside My Window,” is also its most stark and simple.

October 2006

Review from Boomkat.com....an amazing mailorder site out of the UK:

Another day, another compilation so why should you all take notice of this one? Well the lineup for a start. Brooklyn’s Barge Recordings have somehow managed to pull together a roster of exclusive tracks that would have the world’s most respected indies quivering with jealous rage. I’m not sure how they could have done that without some heavy artillery and/or a rather attractive looking carrot to dangle in front of their noses… but however they managed it, we’re reaping the rich benefits. Across the course of one hour we are treated to the sublime sounds of Polmo Polpo, Loren Connors, Geoff Mullen, The Kallikak Family, Birdshow, Tim Hecker, Circle and ISIS offshoot MGR alongside less known (but equally appealing) artists The Fun Years and Animal Hospital. Are you excited yet? Well you damn well should be – this is one of the most carefully and perfectly executed selections of experimental tracks I’ve heard for a long time and easily sums up the current obsession with droney guitar sessions. I don’t think there’s a good compilation to compare ‘Innature’ to actually, there’s no folk here, no free psychedelia, no idm, no noisecore… this is a niche collection that expresses its chosen scene in the best possible way. The compilation opens with a track from The Fun Years (who are due to release a full length very soon also on the Barge label), merging crumbling vinyl loops with lightly plucked guitar and building into a harmonious and cavernous droning wall of ambient sound this is a startling track from an incredible new act sure to garner praise from fans of Fennesz et al. Canadian chap Polmo Polpo (aka Sandro Perri) donates an almost 10 minute slice of bubbling textured experimentation, closest probably to his ‘Like Hearts Swelling’ album before fellow Canuck Tim Hecker weighs in with a devastating piece of dense textured noise working as a nice introduction to his forthcoming masterwork ‘Harmony in Ultraviolet’. Quite surprisingly though the piece that stands out most is the final track from ISIS’s Mike Gallagher under his MGR (Mustard Gas and Roses) moniker. Clearly taking a large portion of influence from doom merchants Bohren und der Club of Gore, Gallagher spins a seven minute tale of low-slung windswept darkness that Badalamenti would be proud of. If you have any interest at all in any of the artists mentioned or featured on this epic compilation then there should be no reason not to invest, you won’t be disappointed.

Review from Aquarius Records....A Barge approved record shop in San Francisco, CA:

Pretty much all you gotta say about this one is EXCLUSIVE TWELVE MINUTE CIRCLE TRACK!!! Okay, so at least a handful of you already leapt wildly for the click-to-buy button and have already moved on. For the rest of you, this comp, the first release on Barge Recordings, has way more to offer than just one track (although it is a killer... more on that in a minute).
This is one of those compilations that is perfectly balanced between names you know and love, and bands you've never even heard of, but the good thing is, the tracks by the lesser known bands are just as good! You've got Finnish hypnorockers Circle but you've also got Polmo Polpo, Tim Hecker, Loren Connors, MGR, Geoff Mullen, sounds like an AQ dream compilation already. So the tracks by The Fun Years, the Kallikak Family, Bird Show and Animal Hospital are just gravy. But with a comp like this, the only real way to get a feel for it is to go track by track. Needless to say, if you dig Circle, and Tim Hecker and the rest of those, odds are you're gonna dig all of this.
The Fun Years offer up a lovely soundscape of warped melodies, delicate guitar strum and all sorts of staticky record crackle. Much more dreamy and melancholy than the band name might lead you to believe. Next up is the Kallikak Family, whose track is like a glitched up, chopped and screwed version of some classic Appalachian folk tune, steel string guitar, dreamy vocals, all crunched up and stuttered into strange rhythms and droney swirls. Cool! Then it's Bird Show, a Kranky Records outfit which should give you a rough idea, with muted thumb piano melodies, like some drugged out less festive Konono, underneath strummed guitars and haunting monotone vocals, creepy and super pretty. Polmo Polpo follow up with a grainy grinding dronescape constructed from what sounds like sine waves, bird calls, fragments of guitar buzz, shortwave radio and theremin. Tim Hecker is up next and does that thing he does so well, the blown out fuzzy soundscape, melodies and rhythms indistinct and buried under swirls of gauzy hiss and shimmery whir. So goddamned perfect. One of those tracks that should be hours long. Loren Connors follows Hecker's thick swath of sound with a much more spare and somber track, simple plaintive electric guitar, shimmering reverb, lots and lots of space, delicate and elegiac. Then we have Animal Hospital, who unfurl a thick Sunn 0)))-like guitar, a churning glacial throb, over a static field of cricket chirping high end. Like a more moody melodic Skullflower, or Godpeed tackling a track from Earth 2. But way prettier. Finally we get to the Circle track, which eschews there usually propulsive, almost metal, hypnotic krautrock style groove in favor of a weird ambient soundworld, of pulsing low end drones, caveman like grunts, bizarre muttered vocals, abstract guitars, lots of tinkling percussion, thick swirls of ambient sound. It almost sounds like the Orc obsessed soundscapes of Za Frumi, or a more Quest For Fire version of their live sound on the long out of print live Mountain lp. Either way, essential for all you Circle nuts. Hot on Circle's Neanderthal heels is Geoff Mullen, who takes his stringed implements (guitar and banjo usually) and transforms them into a grinding corrosive battery of moans and groans and wails, of buzz and glitch and crunch, a clattery, keening industrial psychedelia, that manages to be harsh and caustic, as well as strangely pretty. And finally, MGR, 1/4 of the mighty Isis, who under the name Mustard Gas And Roses, weaves dreamy, darkly doomy, meanderingly melancholy abstract post rock dronescapes, lovely and mysterious, the track here is no exception, the main difference being a strange Morricone Spaghetti Western vibe, that gives the track a cool, cinematic deserty feel. So nice.
A killer comp for sure, and a whole mess of new bands we're gonna have to track down more music from!
Note: Be warned, it is quite difficult to get the disc out of the sleeve. The inner sleeve is just a little too big. Be careful removing it, best to open it all the way and push from the inside. A bit more work, but it's WELL worth it!

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////////OTHER PRESS////

BRG001 : INNATURE : VARIOUS ARTISTS

BRG002 : THE FUN YEARS : LIFE-SIZED PSYCHOSES

BRG003 : GEOFF MULLEN : ARMORY RADIO

BRG004 : MGR / XELA : BARGE SPLIT SERIES VOL. I