{"id":6655,"date":"2022-10-18T20:17:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T20:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hausumountain.com\/?page_id=6655"},"modified":"2022-10-18T21:29:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T21:29:02","slug":"10th-anniversary-reissue-series","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hausumountain.com\/?page_id=6655","title":{"rendered":"10th Anniversary Reissue Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Doug Kaplan<\/b> and Max Allison<\/b> formed Hausu Mountain<\/b> together in Chicago in 2012, initially as an outlet to release the music of their projects Good Willsmith<\/b> (along with Natalie Chami aka TALsounds<\/b>) and The Big Ship<\/b> (co-led with Kaplan by guitarist Aeron Small). Over the next ten years, the label spiraled outward to encompass dozens of artists and over 125 distinct releases. Kaplan and Allison approach the label with the goal to highlight the work of dear friends devoted to evolving their own practices and chasing new ideas and sounds that continue to keep listeners equally challenged and entertained. This ethos carries on the spirit of forebears and direct influences including Ralph Records, Editions Mego, the music and culture surrounding the Grateful Dead, and the diaspora of underground experimental music writ large, carried across short-run physical editions and DIY practices, that has manifested across the US and beyond. Often featuring dense pixel-art collages designed by Allison, or else similarly surreal cover art and packaging designed by like-minded artists or the musicians themselves, Hausu Mountain<\/b> releases carry a signature visual style that thematically aligns with the character of the label and its founders: knowingly goofy, yet seriously devoted to expanding minds and branching into new artistic territories; tie-dyed and gaudy in appearance and spirit, yet always aiming to defy boundaries and challenge tastes and expectations.<\/p>\n

On the occasion of Hausu Mountain<\/b>\u2019s tenth anniversary, Kaplan and Allison have selected six albums, all long-since unavailable on the cassette format, that represent the deep-seated relationships that have come to define key tenets of the label as a whole. Three of the five artists who appear among these reissues \u2014 Moth Cock<\/b>, M. Geddes Gengras<\/b>, and RXM Reality<\/b> \u2014 have each released new albums in the catalog as recently as this year. The other two projects, Eartheater<\/b> and Good Willsmith<\/b>, occupy foundational roles in the label\u2019s initial development and serve as keystones to unlocking the essence of Hausu Mountain<\/b> as we have come to know it today. The reissues bear the new tenth anniversary insignia designed by Elliot Bech, the artist behind the label\u2019s redesigned logo that premiered in 2020.<\/p>\n

The six albums reissued in honor of Hausu Mountain\u2019s tenth anniversary are:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Good Willsmith<\/b> – Is the Food Your Family Eats Slowly<\/i><\/b> (HAUSMO2, 2012)<\/span><\/p>\n

The very first cassette issued by Hausu Mountain, the album catches the then-Chicago-based trio of Natalie Chami and HausMo co-founders Doug Kaplan and Max Allison in one of their earliest incarnations as a free-improv unit. ItFYFES<\/i><\/b> contains the seeds of many branches of what would come to be the Good Willsmith<\/b> sound, including slow-building drones, synths, stringed instruments, and voices that overlap onto each other through loop-pedal layering, cosmic electronic zones, and hints of distortion that approach the realm of metal. Recorded live from their sprawling tables of analog electronics in a single session and presented without overdubs, the album embodies the philosophies that would come to define the band and many other live-music-oriented artists in the Hausu Mountain catalog \u2014 as well as serving as a launching point for each band member\u2019s then-developing, now long-running solo practices: Chami as TALsounds<\/b>, Kaplan as MrDougDoug<\/b>, and Allison as Mukqs<\/b>.<\/p>\n