You know who just celebrated a birthday last week? Fellow April child John Twells (aka Xela, and co-founder of Type Records). I met John the first night of the Bottling Smoke festival here in Los Angeles back in 2007. I didn’t know who he was at that time, but the night before the festival began there were a couple short performances over at Echo Curio and he was just the amiable British guy who offered me a bottle of Duvel. We spoke very briefly about who we were excited to see during the following couple days. I might have even said something as dumb as “I’m stoked to hear Xela” (likely mispronounced, too) because The Dead Sea was one of my favorite albums to listen to late at night back in New Jersey before I moved across the country. He properly introduced himself, and informed me that he’d be performing with Brad Rose, Gregg Kowalsky and Jefre Cantu as Sea Zombies. Which was awesome. The following day he took the stage as Xela, and I was downright floored by his set.
I’m kind of embarrassed how little of his recorded output is in my collection. I’ve got a CD of The Dead Sea but I never got around to finding a copy on vinyl. I think I missed the pre-order on In Bocca Al Lupo and the prices on Type imports back in the day was a bit steep for someone (like me) who didn’t have a job. I found a cheap used copy of Electronic Music Vol. 1 which is a split alongside Marea Nordului, but other than those couple titles my collection is scant.
When Jefre Cantu told me he was planning a limited edition subscription 7″ series for his record label Root Strata I started checking their website incessantly so that I wouldn’t miss out on a pre-order. I don’t remember what happened with that series, but I know there were some problems with it along the way. It was supposed to be a four-part series of split singles, but there were pressing problems or printing problems and for a long time orders didn’t ship and maybe one of the releases got threatened so there was a chance only three would ever be released? It was so long ago I can’t really remember the specifics. Nevertheless, all four volumes eventually found their way to me , and they are a cherished bloc in my tiny collection of 7″s to this day. Although Islaja/Christina Carter is a solid pairing — and anything involving Zelienople is in my opinion perfect — the pairing of Grouper and Xela made for an auspicious start to the Tskui No Seika series. By the way, Stephen in Japan, does that mean “Pure Summer’s Thrust”? To the best of my Google-ability, that’s what I’ve learned. If I’m wrong, by all means point and laugh at me like Nelson Muntz.
As far as I know, the four installments in the series were pressed in editions of 300 or less. Volume 1 arrived in the mail on November 2nd, 2009. The fourth volume, Zelienople and Hisato Higuchi, was delivered on August 20th, 2011. That should give you some idea about the delay in getting the records to the subscribers. Trust me, I wasn’t bummed about the long wait. All four volumes are incredible, and I’m grateful that I’ve got ’em in my collection.
Grouper / Xela
Tsuki No Seika – Volume 1
(Root Strata – RS-53, 2009)
A1. Grouper – Pale Through
B1. Xela – I Drowned Her In A Dreamless Sleep [MP3]
