Psychic Ills

CAT #: FRKWYS04
September 21st, 2010

The fourth volume of FRKWYS sees the work of Psychic Ills reinterpreted by an ancestry of artists that reflect the New York City group’s artistic trajectory over the last seven years of avant exploration.

True to the FRKWYS series, each artist selected to collaborate with Psychic Ills helped pioneer a new realm in electronic music. This volume is as much a testament to Psychic Ills’ effort to push their sound forward through new eyes and ears as it is their interest linking the lineage of the artists involved. The record reads like a family tree, its roots firmly planted in psychedelic German soils, the trunk a techno pillar, and branches tangled in the experimental ether.

Almost a year in the making, FRKWYS Vol. 4 is a detailed document of like-minded communication from afar and close. Psychic Ills first initiated contact with Hans-Joachim Irmler, founding member of German kraut-fathers Faust, who delivers a primal / industrial strength double take on “Witchcraft Breaker” from Dins, the band’s first full length. Detroit techno progenitor Juan Atkins was contacted on an unlikely whim and immediately responded to “Mantis”, from Ills’ second album Mirror Eye, with a boiler room deep mix that whumps to a soulful bass line and scans 180 phase fields. Psychic Ills tour companion Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers grips “I Take You As My Wife Again”, another track from Mirror Eye, and hypnotically oscillates it into dark dimensions of synthesized rhythm.

This volume of FRKWYS is limited to 550 vinyl copies, packaged in thick black jackets with a two color adhesive wrap. 50 subscriber copies come in leatherette jackets. Digital available at igetrvng.com and through the usual storefront suspects.

Pressing details:

5 test pressings
550 copies, black & silver labels
Mastered at Finyl Tweek.
Pressed at Brooklyn Phono.
500 jackets w/ adhesive. 50 subscriber jackets w/ adhesive tip on leatherette.