Exploded Views this week

The new Conifer Rock EP, Exploded Views, will be released this Tuesday, so to tide you over we've got another little video clip. The song in it is called Cross Sections of You, and you can hear the whole thing at squarerootmusic.com, where it's playing as a nice little mp3.

Conifer Rock Live this Tuesday

Conifer Rock will be performing at the Mixtape Cafe in downtown Grand Rapids this Tuesday (February 17th), in anticipation of his new EP's upcoming release. The show starts at 6:30.

He'll be playing material from the new Exploded Views EP live for the first time, and he's apparently going to be performing some older work. With that in mind, we found this video clip of a 2005 performance from the Modern Exchange near Detroit, filmed by Phil Roth. This was when Conifer Rock was known as the Chauceworth Aif. The track is Pourmadore, off of the Impress/Depress EP (SQR002). You can download the EP from squarerootmusic.com...




Here's another video... The new Conifer Rock EP will be released on February 24th, so here's a clip that Trevor put together to give you a little glimpse of what to expect.

Spring 2009 New Releases

2008 was a busy year for us. We released seven records (SQR008 through SQR014), half of our label's entire catalog. These releases included dynamic new material from label stalwarts Cantilever and Conifer Rock, in which both artists explored new sonic territory -- acoustic songwriting, microscopic instrumentals, etc. We also brought you the debut recordings from Timwarrenmusic (SQR010) and Tokyo Morose (SQR014), two new additions to our artist roster that took our music in unexpected new directions.

2009 is looking to be just as exciting -- we have a number of projects lined up, particularly for the next two months. We're also trying some new things, like getting into short films, experimenting more with packaging design for our albums, and finding new ways to get our music into your hands.

Here are five new releases we have lined up for the next few weeks:

SQR018 - Conifer Rock / Exploded Views
Available February 24th, 2009
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After exploring fuzzy rock on the Show Me Some Heart single and acoustic ballads on the Wood Creaks EP, Conifer Rock turns to gritty glam pop with Exploded Views. This record is a concentrated barrage of dirty synths, guitars, and expertly crafted percussion, with layers of vocals on top. This is Conifer Rock's "pop" album, if you will, but pop like only he could do. Lately he's been listening to a lot of Bowie, T-Rex, Roxy Music, Motown, Ellen Allien, William Basinski, Stevie Wonder... This image isn't the final album cover, by the way -- the CD comes packaged in a hand-crafted chipboard sleeve with a set of posters and other assorted ephemera. We're very excited about this one, which comes out in two weeks...

SQR015 - Centre / Another Year
Available March 2009
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Centre makes his long-anticipated return with two new EPs, Another Year and L'Enfant Coma. Drawing inspiration from post-punk, acid house, ambient guitar, and shoegaze, Centre's music is pop from an alternate universe. Centre contributed two tracks to our Catalog compilation, released way back in 2005, and this is his first new work for the label since then. As such, we're incredibly excited about it. The two new EPs work as companion pieces of sorts. Another Year is the more digital of the two, focusing on synth pulses, drum machines, and delay pedals. The EP is built around the solitary vocal track, Take It or Leave It, an exquisite pop gem up there with the likes of New Order and the Cure. This EP, and that song in particular, really floored us when we first head an early copy, and we can't wait to give other people a chance to hear it.

SQR016 - Centre / L'Enfant Coma
Available March 2009
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While the Another Year EP is connected more to the digital post-punk world, its counterpart, L'Enfant Coma, moves towards atmospheric guitar, somewhat akin to the Durutti Column or R.E.M. The three-track instrumental EP incorporates subtle drum machines, pitched bells, effects loops, and the occasional field recording to create a subdued sense of melancholy, ending with an extended ambient drone version of the title song. If Another Year is a cold, digital affair, then this is its warm, nostalgic sibling. Or is it the other way around?

SQR017 - Spectral Mornings / Spring Rain
Available Now
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This is a new single from Spectral Mornings. A nice traditional single -- the A-side is Spring Rain, the B-side is a song called Ballroom Beaches. This is the first new material from Spectral Mornings since their EP in the middle of 2007, and the band has undergone some radical changes since then. The old ten-minute epic post-techno song structures have been replaced with sleek minimalism, a reductionist approach to instrumentation, and a flirtation with pop sensibilities. The history of Spectral Mornings is really fodder for a blog post (or three) in and of itself, really. Spring Rain was the first song that the band wrote in this new framework, back in the beginning of 2008. Therefore, we thought it would make a fitting single, a first step towards the full-length album that's looming on the horizon. The song Spring Rain is based around drum machine, bass, and synth, and features the band's first prominent use of vocals. What's with all our bands turning towards pop these days? The B-side Ballroom Beaches is a rather stately affair, built on hushed electronic percussion, off-kilter synth loops, and a globular chorus that might have Vangelis or Klaus Schulze turning their heads. Spring Rain is available now to download from squarerootmusic.com, or you can buy it on a CD in hand-assembled packaging with a poster.

SQR019 - Sean Patrick / Flight
Available March 24, 2009
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Finally, we come to Flight. After the pop obsession of the previous four records, we turn to Sean Patrick's Flight project, a study in distorted ambient music, white noise and tape loops. Sean's been experimenting with these sorts of sound manipulations for the past few years, and we think this is some of his strongest work yet. Flight is a joint release between Square Root and Andras Klang, Sean's own label, and it will be a CD/DVD release. That's right, we're getting into films. Again, that image isn't the final album artwork. We haven't seen the packaging yet, but we've been told that we're in for a treat...

Conifer Rock

Good afternoon... On February 24, we'll be releasing Exploded Views, a new EP from Conifer Rock. We're very excited about this record, so we thought we would take a look back at Conifer Rock's previous work for Square Root Records.

SQR001 - The Catalog Compilation
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Conifer Rock, otherwise known as Trevor Edmonds, has been recording for Square Root since the label started back in 2005. Back then, he recorded as the Chauceworth Aif. The first thing Square Root released was a compilation CD entitled Catalog, containing two tracks from each of the seven artists associated with the label back then. The first two tracks on the album were from the Chauceworth Aif, entitled "Semblance" and "Alltec V2.0." The songs were based on Edmonds' interests in synthesizers and computer drum programming, and they laid the groundwork for his future output. "Semblance" in particular featured early experiments with vocal processing, an idea that's appeared quite a few times in his music since then.

SQR002 - The Chauceworth Aif / Impress/Depress
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The first artist record on Square Root was, appropriately enough, the Impress/Depress EP by the Chauceworth Aif, released in November, 2005. The album is full of exquisitely precise electronic creations, ranging from the pitch-shifted choirs of "BoyGirlParty" to the finely-crafted percussion and bass of "Trisect." Programmed drums and live drum kits go head to head throughout the album, and melodies are created by combining sequenced vocal noises with lush, sleep-deprived synthesizer arrangements. The album doesn't include any guitar work until the last track, which is somewhat interesting, because the guitar has played a prominent role in Edmonds' music ever since.

Impress/Depress leads off with a song called "Trophy Wives," which is notable because it is the first of what I'd like to think of as Edmonds' single-worthy tracks. Edmonds has a knack for writing great melodic hooks, and, if Square Root existed twenty (or ten) years ago, we'd be releasing songs like "Trophy Wives," "Droid in a Void," and "Show Me Some Heart" as twelve-inches. One day... Impress/Depress closes with three very different remixes of "Trophy Wives" by Cantilever and the two members of a Ferret Named Polo, marking the spirit of collaboration that we like to think is central to Square Root.

SQR004 - The Chauceworth Aif / Conifer Rock
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We released the next Chauceworth Aif EP, entitled Conifer Rock, in April 2007, originally just on a limited CD instead of as a digital release. The Conifer Rock EP serves as a transition of sorts in Edmonds' musical career. Indeed, following the release of this EP, Edmonds decided to record music under the name "Conifer Rock" instead of as the Chauceworth Aif. This EP, then, marks a turning point for Edmonds, since it now shares its name with his musical project as a whole. While the Impress/Depress EP was a largely digital affair, the Conifer Rock"EP is much more varied in its approach, as Edmonds turned to new recording techniques, embracing more acoustic and live instrumentation, and experimenting with tape effects.

The "Conifer Rock" EP begins with "Like Daylight When it Snows." This track serves as a memorable opening statement, incorporating an ambient introduction and moving through a distinctive chopped-up percussive section. The song finally concludes with a cathartic, melodic sense of released tension. The five songs that follow, including the raucous "Droid in a Void" and the softer cello-based "3-D Goggle Spring Windshield," each contribute something different to create a wide-ranging album that works together as one coherent piece.

SQR007 - Conifer Rock / Show Me Some Heart
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Edmonds' next release was a single, "Show Me Some Heart," which came out in October, 2007. We released this simultaneously with the "Mina" single by Cantilever -- both artists had taken slightly different approaches to the idea of the "single," so we thought they would compliment each other quite well. Conifer Rock's "Show Me Some Heart" consists of an a-side and a b-side, and it is not connected with an album or other body of work; it simply stands alone. Appropriate to its format, the music contained within the single explores different aspects of rock music and live instrumentation. The two tracks on the single are decidedly different, yet they share certain themes through the use of particular instruments and vocals, and there is an undercurrent of potential derailment that unites them.

The track "Show Me Some Heart," is a disjointed feedback-heavy piece in the grand tradition of krautrock and post-punk. This builds on the foundation of early Conifer Rock/Chauceworth Aif songs like "Droid in a Void" and "Trophy Wives," yet it is entirely different in its instrumentation. The b-side, "Cloud's Spit," is a more somber companion piece, featuring cello and trumpet.

SQR008 - Conifer Rock / Wood Creaks, Bellow Sighs & Unionized Hammer Strikes
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The next Conifer Rock record came somewhere out of left field - a collection of subdued, melancholy acoustic ballads, based on guitar, pump organ, and piano. Edmonds' recordings as the Chauceworth Aif focused largely on the precise interplay between electronic and acoustic instruments and percussion, but, since adopting the Conifer Rock name in 2007, his music has become much looser and more free-flowing. Edmonds has, in a sense, stepped away from the grid of primarily electronic sounds and embraced a more human, natural tone in his work.

This progression reaches a conclusion of sorts with "Wood Creaks." The album begins with a faintly nostalgic instrumental entitled "Frederick Nidifer" and ends with the organ tones of "Bookends," with three vocal-based songs in between. I'd like to think that the album's sonic vocabulary takes its a lot of inspiration from the physical and psychological landscape of living in Michigan -- it has a deep connection to snow, forests, and nostalgia.

So, that's an overview of what Conifer Rock has been doing for the past three years. The Exploded Views EP, which will be unleashed on February 24, is a return of sorts to the glam-infused electronic rock of the "Show Me Some Heart" single, drawing inspiration from Bowie, T-Rex, Joy Division, old Motown, and the like. We're very excited about this record...

Hello.....

Since it's practically the future already now, we've decided to join everyone else and start a blog for Square Root Records. We started the label back in 2005 as a way to promote the sort of music that often gets ignored in "local music scenes." However, since then, that idea has basically become irrelevant, because the idea of a relatively isolated "local music scene" has become closer and closer to being obsolete. So, now the goal of our label is simply to act as a showcase for what we think is good, cutting-edge music.

When we began Square Root Records, most of the music being presented by the label was based on electronics in some way or another. While that is still largely the case, we've branched out with some of our recent releases, touching on acoustic ballads and folk-based chamber pop, while still keeping that idea of electronic music as a touchstone.

The first release on Square Root was the Catalog compilation in 2005, and we've released 13 albums, EPs, and singles since then. All of our releases are available for free download from our website, www.squarerootmusic.com, as well as being available for purchase on CD. We recently released two new albums, Idalis/Hadalis by Cantilever and Specific Ocean by Tokyo Morose, as well as a single by Spectral Mornings called Spring Rain. We have four new releases lined up for the spring...

So yeah.