***Amish Records is proud to release the vinyl edition of Fractures on the Horizon, the latest album from British fingerstyle guitar virtuoso James Blackshaw. Originally digitally self-released on Bandcamp by James in February 2026, Fractures on the Horizon comprises two compositions totaling nearly 40 minutes of music. The title track—a sweeping 25-minute piece performed in an open tuning—finds Blackshaw at his most commanding, weaving hammered arpeggios and resonant melody into something at once technically staggering and deeply felt. The second piece, "Three Interlopers," shifts into hypnotic drone territory, rounding out the record with an unexpected and unsettling power.The album marks Blackshaw's second release since his return from a near-decade-long hiatus, following Unraveling in Your Hands, which arrived on Amish Records in 2025. Written, performed, and recorded entirely by Blackshaw, Fractures on the Horizon confirms his place as one of the most singular voices in contemporary acoustic music.“...the 25-minute title song might be his most boldly beautiful composition yet, a bravura performance for guitar alternating between slow, Aching melody and dazzling streams of strings” - UNCUT 8/10“These two compositions add up to a gorgeous odyssey, showing off not just Blackshaw's technical prowess but his ear for drama and dynamics. And when you realize the second track is an incredible drone exercise, your appreciation for Blackshaw might grow deeper still”. - Stereogum
LP $27.75
09/04/2026
***"Amish Records is pleased to announce the first recorded collaboration between David Watson and Bill Nace, entitled On Bats.Historically, ensembles combining taishōgoto and bagpipes (at least inside the milieu of “jazz”) have been on the tame side. The Winkler Twins, Dagnabbit, CUZ and other such units pandered to the bowtie set so exclusively that many people have all but dismissed the instruments as hopelessly moldy or even (in the words of critic Milo Fine) “tools of fascism and complacency.” That said, it is my pleasure to announce that the duo of William “Bill” Nace and Dave “David” Watson has made a mighty effort hereon to liberate these instruments from the yoke of yokelism.Nace is a Philadelphia-based wizard of avant-string tomfoolery with a recording history stretching back to Vampire Belt (with Chris Corsano) in the early Oughts. Watson is an NYC-based New Zealand ex-pat whose multi-instrumental genius was first evidenced with the Primitive Art Group in the '80s. Now, with On Bats, the pair have set out to right the wrongs of generations of the dull ass taishōgoto/bagpipes artists who preceded them.The taishōgoto is, of course, a Japanese stringed instrument perhaps best described as a cross between a zither and a typewriter. Bagpipes are...well...pipes with a bag attached. Using their respective instruments to create both long-form tones and berserk machine-like squeedles, Nace and Watson create a varied and surreal aural landscape that shifts contours and colors with ease. The way they combine voices here often manifests as a sonic analogy to...
LP $27.75
05/22/2026
***"Amish Records is excited to announce an October 24th release date for wet glass, the stately sophomore album from Carrboro, NC-based Verity Den. This eagerly awaited new record follows their 2024 debut, which was built from early demo recordings and quickly attracted a passionate following despite the raw origins.The new album was self-recorded and self-produced over the last year and is built upon the same foundational elements as their first album, noise, texture, ambience and simple songcraft, but wet glass has a wider ranging landscape. A bigger frame brings a bigger picture, but fear not, Verity Den has not forgotten what we’ve come to love about their sound. Just because it’s groomed doesn’t mean it’s 'clear'. It’s 2025, clarity is downright embarrassing and Verity Den has expertly mastered the skill of translating the current mind-fuck zeitgeist into a sonic snapshot. They are equally inner-political journalists as they are musicians. Casey Proctor, Trevor Reece, Mike Wallace and Reed Benjamin's musical simpatico is natural.wet glass flows between multiple zones including, but not limited to, the melodic Yo La Tengo Painful era drive of 'wet glass' and 'green drag', the loopy Flying Saucer Attack haze of 'unsolved mystery' and 'highway fifty four' or the loner neo-Fred Neil devotional 'to trees'. Impressionistic lyrics, effective songs and jams that sound warm and familiar. The make-up of wet glass is dense, yet simply beautiful. Unintentionally cinematic. Verity Den conjure a sound that soaks in like an Epsom salt bath after a long day of being pummeled...
LP $27.35
10/31/2025
LP BLUE $30.95
10/23/2026
***Amish Records is happy to release an expanded, gatefold 2xLP version of P.G. Six's second album, The Well of Memory, originally released in 2004. This 2025 expanded edition has beautiful new artwork, re-imagined by Meredyth Sparks and comes with a bonus LP entitled Lost and Live. The LP includes six previously unreleased songs from The Well of Memory sessions and a handful of live versions of songs from the album.Continuing many of the themes introduced on Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites, PG Six's well-received first record, The Well Of Memory made further nods towards 60's folk artists like Bert Jansch, Pentangle, Incredible String Band, and John Fahey, while also fitting in with contemporary musicians like New York psych folk poster- boy Devendra Banhardt, Anglo-folk traditionalist Alasdair Roberts, and West Coast psych guitarist Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance. Pat's lyrics draw on narrative force, spinning mythology in abstract patterns that stretch moments of clarity between dreamlike sequences. His music, composed away from the bustle of the city in upstate New York, breathes as solemn spirituals.
2XLP $32.50
08/08/2025
***As long-time admirers of his six and twelve-string wizardry, Amish Records is very excited to announce the release of James Blackshaw’s (kinda) new album, Unraveling In Your Hands. Originally released digitally in November 2024, solely on James’ Bandcamp.The album marks the first music James has released since his self-imposed hiatus in 2016. After much personal tumult including a broken shoulder, the loss of his job and the death of his beloved dog Dexter, James finally felt the pull back to music. He begun to work, not even knowing if his injury would allow him to play the guitar, and then, late last year Unraveling In Your Hands quietly appeared.The title track is the album’s center piece, a 27-minute meditation of precise guitar phrasings and shimmering harmonics, recorded in a single take. In UNCUT, Jon Dale says it’s “an unrelenting, hypnotic stream of shivering strings, tiny flecks of light dazzling as you plunge deep into the repetition, while following a snaky melody through the thickets—is certainly unforgettable.” “Dexter" is a somber piece with a minimal organ melody enveloped by droning woodwinds and scratching strings provided by multi-instrumentalist and long- time collaborator, Charlotte Glasson. Finally, "Why Keep Still?" moves back into familiar sonic territory with fingerpicked guitar accompanied by rolling piano notes. Pitchfork gave the album an 8.0 rating, stating, "The lucidity and beauty of this music feels hard-won, something to revere and cherish."
LP $27.35
08/01/2025
***Over two days in July 2022, Michael Vallera and Lee Ranaldo improvised at 411 Kent in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a cozy place that felt more like a living room than a concert hall or recording studio. The sweltering July heat cloaked the place in a layer of sweat and humidity. Nevertheless, they took it over to record material and to perform one evening, their fuzzy guitars slicing through the thick air with both the precision of a razor blade and the gentleness of a cloud. Early New York Silver recaptures the renegade spirit and excitement of those days. The album presents material culled from those improvisation sessions, which were made possible by New York-based musician David Watson, who at the time was curating the Shift series at 411 Kent. To record the music, Ranaldo and Vallera spread out throughout the area, taking over its every crevice. Their contrasting, yet similar, approaches to music offered ample space for exploration. “I really appreciate the way Lee approaches improvising because he really dives in immediately,” Vallera said. “I tend to be very measured when composing solo or in collaborations, so I enjoy following and reacting to the vocabulary Lee is exploring in real time.” Early New York Silver highlights that effortless flow. At 411 Kent, the two guitarists were in sync, lost in the world they had created together out of shared curiosity on their instruments. Their melodies tumbled and intertwined into masses that seemed to shapeshift and morph with every strum. There was...
LP $25.50
03/28/2025
***Primitive Art Group 1981-1986 is being released October 25, 2024. This gatefold 2xLP is a combination of the group’s only two albums, consisting of one LP of Five Tread cuts plus “Cecil Likes to Dance” a never-before-released live recording from Thistle Hall (1984) and the full 1985 LP Future Jaw-Clap. This material that has been unavailable since mid-1980s. It is well documented that in the early ‘80’s New Zealand was awash with adventurous new music. Though sharing the kind of happy isolation and the DIY ethic with contemporaneous outfits like Flying Nun, South Indies and Xpressway, one band cut a decidedly different path. The Primitive Art Group, formed in Wellington, devoted itself to collective improvisation coming out of a jazz tradition. With the line-up of Anthony Donaldson (drums), David Donaldson (bass), Neil Duncan (saxes), Stuart Porter (saxes), David Watson (guitar), and originally with Pam Grey (on cello), the group’s relatively brief existence left a lasting impression on the New Zealand’s free music scene. Musically, there was no precedent in New Zealand for their combination of noise, collective playing and compositional freedom. Gary Steel from the local music rag TOM, wrote “The first time I saw the Primitive Art Group they blew my tiny mind… Great sheets of architectural noise coming at you from the stage. Where else would you see free music in New Zealand in the early 80s? You just didn't.” The band’s five-year lifespan was non-stop activity: rehearsing, touring, the creation of Braille Records (their own record label...
2XLP $33.25
10/25/2024
***Verity Den is comprised of Carrboro-via-Bellingham sound engineer and songwriter Casey Proctor (Harusplex Palace, Holy Sons) with Trevor Reece and Mike Wallace. All spent considerable time in their respective and shared DIY-music communities before converging to form the group in early 2023. Casey and Trevor initially met as members of an ad- hoc improv ensemble performing tape loops, strings, and electronics as part of a multi-disciplinary series hosted on a rooftop in Chapel Hill called Attic 506. Soon after, the three shifted from long-running musical projects to focus on exploring new sonic territories together. The band operates in an ever-evolving dynamic of group improvisation and studio experimentation, capturing moments of coarse circuit completion and bringing to fruition long-gestating ideas and songs. The sound is raw and largely unadorned, transmitting both truth and wildness. Working from a dedicated studio space in Carrboro, NC, songs came together quickly for the group’s debut self- titled album. Engineered and mixed at home by Casey, the LP presents a guitar music refracted through clamor and tenderness, static and hiss, drum machine and synth. The lyrics survey themes of existential exhaustion and impressionistic reflections, all bound with persistent hooks and equally acidic edges. A sense of deep and ego-less collaboration runs through their process, as instruments are exchanged, vocal duties are shared and drum machines meld with live drum kits. The live unit is supplemented with an expanding cast of friends and rippers, that presents the music at its gentlest and most cacophonous.
LP $25.45
03/08/2024
***Since 2016, Chicago’s Luggage has operated according to a less-is-more philosophy, tastefully shuffling spare lyrics in a song space primarily occupied by guitar, bass and drums. This sense of openness and order define Hand Is Bad, their new album released by New York’s Amish Records. Hand Is Bad arrives in succession of their pandemic-toiled 2021 Happiness EP (Husky Pants) and much like that release, the Chicago band picks their vocabulary carefully both with music and words. Michael Vallera presents guitar rotating around MJ Grant’s airy bass rumble, and minimal, metronomic drum thud held down by Luca Cimarusti. Vallera’s more abstract and understated musical and artistic past with projects like Cleared (Immune, Utech, Touch, Digitalis), COIN (Opal Tapes) and Maar (Umor Rex and Entr’acte) find their way into the production, arrangement and recording of Hand Is Bad. Grant and Cimarusti’s musical output as Basic Cable (Permanent Records) adds a spindly post-punk edge. And it’s a definite plus to get Luggage back in at Chicago’s Electrical Audio, a place that enhances the crispness with a very distinct, unfettered mix theology. Jeremy Lemos returns as well-dialed-in engineer, recording and mixing in three days with minimal overdubs. Hand Is Bad is a tonal dream full of surprises, including the band members surprising themselves with some clear new pathways blazed since Happiness. For years there was a lot of challenging gravity going on, and for this outing it seems Hand Is Bad enhanced their own atmosphere to escape the Earth’s.
LP $25.35
09/29/2023
***Amish Records is pleased to finally announce an expanded and remastered edition of P.G. SIX's 2001 debut album, Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites, to be released as a gatefold double LP and digitally on Feb 24, 2023. Fully remastered by GIUSEPPE IELASI, MEREDYTH SPARKS reimagines the beautiful CHRIS KROL cover art in an evocative gatefold design. An eight-song bonus LP entitled Live Cuts and Radio Favorites will be included. Documenting performances from the calendar year just before and after the release of Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites, the bonus album gathers radio and live shows. P.G. Six plays both songs off the debut and the music of others: Pearls Before Swine’s “I Saw the World” (1968) becomes minimalist, approaching modern classical in his repetitive and percussive piano work; X’s “Drunk in My Past” (1983) feels refracted beyond the horizons of Los Angeles punk; PAT GUBLER even looks back to his more recent past with “Cover Art,” from the debut album of Tower Recordings; looking forward, the bonus LP also includes versions of songs that would later appear on the album The Well of Memory (2004), which Amish will release in an forthcoming expanded edition.
2XLP $28.95
03/10/2023
***Amish is pleased to announce a new EP from SUNWATHERS, the band's third Amish-related release. Quick on the heels of the band’s fourth full-length, Oh Yeah? (Trouble in Mind) out April 2020, Brave Rats celebrates Sunwatchers and the EP format, well after the moment of the latter’s extinction. The title track delivers Sunwatchers’ most anthemic pop music to date, while the other five tracks mix the political with the punk, street toughs aligning with the avant-garde. Features covers of Sonny Sharrock's "Blind Willie" and a live version of Alice Coltrane's "Ptah, the El Daoud." One-time pressing of 500 copies housed in die-cut jackets.
12" $21.35
07/10/2020
***TIM BARNES’ latest full-length: DEΔD-LOOP, his first solo release since 2002’s All Acoustics. DEΔD-LOOP offers another arm in Barnes’ wide-ranging body of music and work, as well as supplying an additional thread connecting the House, pop and sound art conversations the album engages. In many ways DEΔD-LOOP is House music that takes a sideways approach to the language of dance music. As both a concept and a practice, Barnes aims to turn House on its side, reconsidering its structure and form. The tracks on DEΔD-LOOP reflect Barnes’ status as a renowned percussionist, offering rhythms and textures that both draw the listener in and maintain a spatial and temporal distance/uncertainty. Since 1995, Tim Barnes has been internationally acclaimed as a musician, having played with a range of artists including Tony Conrad, Ikue Mori, Sonic Youth, Glenn Kotche, P.G. Six, Mike Watt, Royal Trux, Stereolab, Jim O’Rourke, Beth Orton, among others. The 8th installment in the Amish Records / Required Wreckers series. Includes a 10-page art booklet.
LP $21.75
01/10/2020
***SUNWATCHERS teamed up with EUGENE CHADBOURNE for two days of recording in October 2016 which resulted in 3 Characters. These sessions were dedicated exclusively to the music of the MINUTEMEN, DOUG SAHM and HENRY FLYNT. Having never played together before, all the songs were completed in one or two takes and the recordings reflect an urgency and immediacy that audiences have to come to expect from these musicians. The three characters invoked on these recordings offer models for our current political and societal struggles. Creating a music that is both personal and political, artistic and activist, these three figures were/are soulful and practical examples of the artist-as-laborer, addressing a call for social justice and musical spontaneity. Chadbourne and Sunwatchers have taken up this struggle, touring and recording, writing and collaborating, throughout their respective careers. Pushing this ethos out into the field and on this recording, 3 Characters is a reverential labor of love, where musical labor becomes a form of both love and resistance. MIKE WATT joins the conversation with spoken interpretations of lyrics, poetry, speeches and assorted agit-prop.
2XLP $26.25
12/14/2018
***GOSPEL OF MARS’ release their self-titled debut album, Gospel of Mars consists of JEF BROWN, BOB JONES and AARON MOORE, musicians with long individual histories spread across two continents. Regularly playing TROOST in North Brooklyn the band have self-released two live albums digitally but their self-titled debut LP on Amish Records is a culmination of a two year-period of recording. Hundreds of recorded hours allowed ideas to develop organically and the album has a loose ecstatic improvisational feel, leaning in part on jazz, rock and long-form minimalism. From the looping rhythms of “Scarabs” to the plaintive middle-eastern influenced guitar lines of “Octopus” to the bombast of the album’s closing song “Tesla,” Gospel of Mars are a new voice to be reckoned with. Beyond Gospel of Mars, these musicians have played in EATERS, VOLCANO THE BEAR, EVOLUTIONARY JASS BAND, MICRO EAST COLLECTIVE and JACKIE O'MOTHERFUCKER, among others projects. Gospel of Mars plan to tour in early 2018.
LP $22.75
12/15/2017
***THE LLOYD PACK is a project band of transplanted Englishman DAN MELCHIOR. This release follows the full length At Home With The Lloyd Pack (L'Espirit D'lescalier 2013) and the Know Your Lloyd Pack 7” (Siltbreeze 2012). The Lloyd Pack A Tribute initially emerged from a conversation Melchior had with GRAHAM LAMBKIN (SHADOW RING, Kye Records) about the prospect of doing a “Faux African” record. For two British-expats living in the U.S. in the twenty-first century, this LP offers a peculiarly whimsical variation on the “Faux African,” infusing lo-fi tribal rhythms with post-punk dance in the spirit of early Adam Ant, Fun Boy Three and the Fall. If one were to imagine adding Ivor Cutler to this British-mix, it might approach what Melchior delivers on this LP. And for the record, Cutler is a Scot. Lambkin offered some vocal components, alongside a large cast (including the late LETHA-RODMAN MELCHIOR, ANGELA SAWYER aka PREGGY PEGGY, GNARLOS, NICKE HENNIES, LE ANN BACA BARTLETT, and JOHNNY BREWTON), all of whom chimed in on the recording process.
LP $20.95
09/04/2015
***Volume six in Amish’s Required Wreckers LP series, M DWINELL’s (FORMA, BRIGHT) Golden Ratio offers the only documentation of his just intonation organ work, recorded between 2007 and 2008. Golden Ratio focuses exclusively on a natural tuning system generated from the harmonic series. By precise control of his instrument’s tuning, Dwinell sets into moton a dynamic musical system of pressure, intenstiy and calm. Golden Ratio incorporates both static pulsing drones and heavily arpeggiated passages, culminating in melodic lines that epitomize Dwinell’s unique musical vocabulary as developed over the past twenty years. Features a 16-page booklet of RICCI ALBENDA’s artwork. Edition of 300 copies.
LP $20.95
01/13/2015
***SUS is the new 12” from Stuttgart, Germany’s METABOLISMUS. SUS is the third release for Amish from Metabolismus and the twenty-third release in the collective’s twenty-five year existence. SUS is the first in the band’s long-awaited palindrome recordings, when the collective gathers on a day in the calendar year when the numerical date offers a mirror kind of reflection. These dates function as a conceptual parameter for both their process and instrumentation. Metabolismus recorded the basic acoustic material on 21022012 (February 21st 2012) and the playing time (at 45 RPM) is 12:21. The single sidelong track consists of one note on the vibraphone struck by a soft mallet. The same note is then bowed continuously on violin and the sound is processed with an envelope shaper, a narrow-band filter (tube-based) to accentuate some overtones, and some basic tape manipulation techniques like cutting/looping, speed/pitch alterations and change of playback direction. All rhythmic and harmonic processes result from the shifting of vibrato frequencies in the stereo panoramic field. No digital technology was used. The piece is designed to be played at any speed (mainly 33 and 45, but also anything from 16 rpm to 78 rpm). Side 1 plays from the standard outer grooves inward. Side 2 is Side 1 played backwards and plays from the inner groove outward, offering both the composition and the concept another layer of mirror-symmetry. (STREET DATE - 8/05/2014)
LP $24.45
08/05/2014
***Amish Records is pleased to announce the forthcoming release from the CHARLES WATERS QUARTET entitled Chroma Colossus: 13 Visions of the City This release marks an important new contribution to the modern jazz tradition. Among other reevaluations of New York that occurred in the aftermath of 9-11 and Hurricane Sandy, Chroma Colossus: 13 Visions of the City presents an important imagining of our relation to the space, sound, energy and resilience of New York. Beyond Waters (saxophone, clarinet), the quartet consists of ANDREW BARKER (drums), CHRIS MCINTYRE (trombone) and GEORGE RUSH (bass). The album’s song cycle is based on a text by Brooklyn-based author and MacArthur Fellow COLSON WHITEHEAD, who reads a passage from his book The Colossus of New York on the song “Brooklyn Bridge.“
LP $20.65
09/24/2013
***A new release from composer GREGG KOWALSKY, the fourth installment in Amish’s Required Wreckers series features two new pieces recorded live in 2011. While these performances occurred on opposite coasts, the source material is closely aligned in both concept and process. These works highlight Kowalsky’s ongoing preoccupations with sound and setting, incorporating the focused blend of acoustic and electronic sources that he is already well known for.
LP $18.95
09/18/2012
***A new release from Humboldt County’s finest contemporary experimental unit, STARVING WEIRDOS. A couple of years in the making, Land Lines documents a vital step in the evolution and refinement of Starving Weridos’ freeform improrvisational practices, as well as its infamous and highly disciplined studio practices. The recording of these sessions was initiated around the time of the 2010 On Land festival in San Francsico, when the project’s core nucleus of BRIAN PYLE (ENSEMBLE ECONOMIQUE) and MERRICK MCKINALY expanded to include a larger than usual cast of players. Land Lines chronicles Starving Weirdos’ most focused and structured release to date, with pieces that import a distinctly European flavor into the sound of what, until now, has been a uniquely Northern California form of sonic experimentation.
LP $18.95
01/24/2012
CD $14.00
01/24/2012
***NOW AVAILABLE ON CD!!! METAL MOUNTAINS is HELEN RUSH, formerly of the TOWER RECORDINGS, with help from PG SIX (guitar) and SAMARA LUBELSKI (bass and violin). “There’s a sort of haunted architecture to Metal Mountains, they morph 1960’s electric and psychedelic folk rock, the right VU influence, spatial excursions, and whispery dreams into a unique whole. It is a carefully crafted album that is real and intimate, yet has the air of ease and playfulness about it. It is confident in its frailty, if that makes any sense to you. Did I say it is perfectly sequenced? Y’know, that’s the kind of thing a reviewer needs to mention if he wants to be taken at all seriously.”—Jesper Eklow / November 2010
LP $18.95
02/01/2011
CD $14.00
04/26/2011
***BIRD SHOW BAND documents BIRD SHOW’s new collaborative spirit and stands as the culmination of BEN VIDA’s Chicago-based work, featuring a who’s who of the city’s improvisational luminaries, including JOSH ABRAMS, JIM BAKER, DAN BITNEY and JOHN HERNDON. The improvisatory feel of the Bird Show Band sessions function as Vida’s paean to the Windy City. Rather than another Bird Show release that involves guest accompaniment on select tracks, Vida conceived of these recordings as a foray into session playing, tracking the entire album over just two days. While Herndon and Bitney’s percussion invokes German psych, progressive rock, and jazz idioms, Vida’s synth-based experiments, here accompanied by Jim Baker’s ARP 2600, provide the first indication of his recent musical pre-occupations, an interest that relies heavily on the Moog and his own fluid, lyrical melodic lines. (STREET DATE - 1/26/2010)
CD $14.00
01/26/2010
***The second full-length album from TOWER RECORDINGS founding member and new folk favorite PAT GUBLER under the PG SIX moniker. Continuing the many themes introduced on his Parlor Tricks And Porch Favorites debut, Gubler makes nods toward 1960s folk artists like Bert Jansch, Pentangle, Incredible String Band, and John Fahey, while also fitting in with contemporary artists like Devendra Banhart, Alasdair Roberts, and Six Organs of Admittance's Ben Chasny. Abstract, dreamlike, and transcendent.
CD $14.00
04/27/2004
***A brand new solo album from WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY and BIRDWATCHER member, and MICHAEL GIRA collaborator DAN MATZ. A beautifully spare and personal collection of folk-pop, cathartic odes, Germanic waltz, and traditional songcraft recorded in an upstate New York farmhouse during a winter storm. A much more intimate and subdued recording than his usual group efforts, and quite rewarding because of it.
CD $14.00
05/20/2003