Unit Structure Sound Recordings
Unit Structure is a record label based in Vancouver and Calgary, run by Whitney Ota, Carter Gilchrist, Matt Read, and Joe Smiglicki. To date, USSR has released albums by Natural, PoLPOT, The Church of Jeffrey Adams (CoJA), Wild & Majestic, Castle Excellent, Family Studies, Country & Western, Yankee Yankee, Dundas, Haunted Beard, Hobo Cubes, Mongst, Cadillac Spring, Dada Centauri, Lord Something, Burro, Fraser-Sereda and Glass Armonica.
News & Upcoming Releases:
New Releases: CoJa - Circus Bukkake (CS), Dada Centauri - II (CS), and Glass Armonica (CS) were all released on November 3rd. Family Studies 7" EP to be released Spring 2013.
Releases (29)
Our growing catalogue is listed below. Email us for special pricing on larger orders!
USSR028CS
CoJA
Circus Bukkake
Released November 3rd, 2012
The Gentlemen of Leisure: Brothers Bjorn, Mattias, and Joze
Track Listing
- Hell Is Under Construction
- Touch My Sludge
- A Story Fit For Children
- Lick My Toad
- Gasoline Bath
- Ejaculation Snuggle
- Baboon Heart
- In The Wrong Hole
- Born With A Tail
- Circus Bukkake
- Chewie's Death Ballad
- Cosmic Tantrum
- Dead I-VI (Napalm Death)
USSR029CS
USSR027CS
Glass Armonica
Glass Armonica
Released November 3rd, 2012
Track Listing
- Who Came Here?
- II
- Strange Figures
- Carries Like a Disease
- I
- Sold World
USSR026CD
A USSR Compilation CD
PIXXX 3
Released June 10th, 2012
Track Listing
- Hobo Cubes - Lightspeed
- Dada Centauri - Untitled
- Yankee Yankee - Memory Fades
- Country & Western - You Fang Genuine
- Cadillac Spring - Acrid Tone
- Burro - Drone Castle
- Mongst - Fly with Perfect Clouds
- Glass Armonica - Drone 2
- Lord Something - In Seattle, Marijuana Smokes You
- Family Studies - Gypsy Trapezoid Mobile
- Sons of Bullwinkle - The Caretaker is on Fire
- Valiska - Storm/Cave
- Fraser/Sereda - Untitled
USSR022CD
Lord Something
Lord Something
Released March 17th, 2011
Lord Something is:
- Chris Dadge - Guitar
- Scott Munro - Bass
- Mark Fleischhaker - Drums
Track Listing
- Searching for Something
- The Hermit Groove
- I Clean Up Nice
- Can I Get Less Metallica in the Monitors
- Swift Love Justice
- Olivia Newton John is my Favourite Band
- Panty Magic
- Death Due to Dynamite Scenario
- Lord Something
- In Seattle, Marijuana Smokes YOU
- My Entire Life is a Jesus Audition
USSR021CS
Mongst
We Ain't Got Nothing Yet
Released March 17th, 2011
Mongst is a solo project from Vancouver vet Jeremy Van Wyck. Mongst has done tapes for Isolated Now Waves, Prairie Fire Tapes and now Unit Structure Sound Recordings. Mongst differs from Van Wyck’s better known project Shearing Pinx as with Mongst he creates carefully detailed drones, at times meditative, at times terrifying. Many others attempt this same dynamic, but few can end up with results as captivating, beautiful and horrible all at the same time.
Track Listing
- Side A
- Dead Hands
- An Ocean of Insects
- Side B
- Fly with Perfect Clouds
- Like the Eye of the Cyclops
USSR019CD
Fraser/Sereda
Fraser/Sereda
Released March 17th, 2011
Fraser/Sereda is Josh Fraser (aka Suicide Bomber) and Aaron Sereda (aka nR, and runner of the No Face concert series in Calgary)
USSR018CS
Cadillac Spring
Cadillac Spring
Released March 17th, 2011
Possibly Tom Whalen’s strangest project. Schizophrenic sketches in pop-form unfold as he releases some freakishly diverse sounds. At times late 70s New York No Wave swagger, sometimes cool California surf, other times the musical version of a Videodrome nightmare.
Track Listing
- Side A
- Real Weird
- I Never Noticed
- The Mysteries of 1000 Hairdressers
- Saturday Alternator
- Side B
- Cadillac Spring
- Acrid Tone
- Studded Duvet
- Burnout Warrior
USSR025CS
Recorded live in Montreal, January 09 2011.
Hobo Cubes
Molecular Geometry
Released Dec 12th, 2011
Francesco (Frank) Ouellette is one of the most prolific and consistently inspiring synth-based musicians around. Based out of Montreal, QC Ouellette's Hobo Cubes project has made a name for itself gaining international recognition amongst hardcore cassette collectors, releasing things under his own Hobo Cult record label, as well as other amazing labels like: Digitalis, 905 Tapes, Ginjoha, Sicsic Tapes, Los Discos Enfantasmes, NNA Tapes, Hooker Vision and many others. This would be saying a lot, but we haven’t even begun talking about his other projects, ie, Dozens, Velvet Chrome, Escapists and others.
Molecular Geometry has Hobo Cubes tending towards some more experimental territory than usual, opting for synthetic blips almost as if this were a free-improvised sound art experiment rather than the usual altered-states, parallel universe synth drone that has been sculpted on other releases. A unique gem of an album in a stellar catalog.
Track Listing
- Side A
- Inside the Body of Eternity
- Side B
- Reproductive Chemistry
USSR024CD
Music by: Matt Read & Carter Gilchrist
Family Studies
Life Cycles Vol.4: Animal Incomes
Released Dec 12th, 2011
The mind-expanding duo of Carter Gilchrist and Matthew Read continue their sonic journeys, leaping out of the warped noise-infused experiments of Torch of Heuristics and landing them in more subtle, carefully toned psychedelic and free-improvised tunes.
Featuring sounds of all sorts, Animal Incomes features the duo on a plethora of instruments, leading them down tunnels, pathways and sometimes into the stratosphere. At times trance-inducing, other times completely unpredictable. Impulsive gestures lead to unexpected places, carrying tunes/tones into uncharted territory. An interesting documentation of a duo in continual growth.
Track Listing
- Animal Incomes
- Outer Space is Vast and Perilous
- A State-of-the-art Adventure
- A Crimson Fail (for one guitar)
- Thrillingly Accessible
- Oh! Yeah! Frisbee!
- Consider My Back Watched
- Hate the Future
- Girls Gong Bath
- Manimal
USSR023CS
Whitney Ota: guitar, Stew Elton: bass, Andrew Hume: drums
Burro
Macy's Trip
Released Dec 12th, 2011
Stumbling through the desert for days, you’ll drink any fluid that comes your way. Coming across a small pool of water, you drop to your knees, cup your hands and splash the water up into your mouth and face. Instantly refreshing, you know that this may have just saved your life, but it may have also been your biggest mistake. What choice did you have? You were only walking towards your own demise anyway. You feel a strange sensation in your stomach. You feel your head getting tighter. Your vision starts to blur. A loud ringing in your ears causes you to fall to the ground. This is Macy’s Trip.
Track Listing
- Side A
- Mirage
- Dark Side of the Moon
- Breath of Smoke
- Side B
- Heroes
- Reflexión
- Crystal Dreams
- No End to the Desert
USSR020CS
Music by: Whitney Ota
Yankee Yankee
Ecstatic Dreamer
Released Dec 12th, 2011
Ecstatic/Drone/Trance pulsating, building, exploding and imploding into sparks of life. Fireworks ignite leaving magic dust in the air settling gently in the violent waves of the sea. Beams of rainbows are thrown through the air like javelins from the Thunder Gods. When struck by these beams, you become instantly stunned causing a sense of stasis in your mind. White light/ecstatic dreams.
Track Listing
- River Waves
- White Caps
- Rocks
- Branches in the Wind
- Predators
- Hot Day on the Lake
- Outsiders
- Cheap Tricks
- Predators II
- Ecstatic Revival
- Blue Rainbow
USSR017CS (3 tape boxset)
Music by: Whitney Ota, Carter Gilchrist, Matt Read and sometimes Paul Levesque
Natural
Psychic Tribute: Spirit of Ecstasy
Released Dec 12th, 2011
These are the spiritual cleansing rituals designed to rid the body of ghost spirits that haunt us and guide souls into darkness. Spirits must be dispelled from our bodies and souls by taking part in these ceremonies designed to spew the ghost spirits out of our mouths/hands/eyes/ears. Dances and at times extreme body gyrations, screaming and the frantic playing of instruments helps to purge these unwanted spirits and demons. These are all battles from within.
Black & Yellow
- Side A
- Dressed Up
- White Squirrel
- Wild Fizz
- Shiver Moon
- Side B
- Unseen Unheard
- A Lesson in Persecution
- Nein
- Fragmented Fantasy
Black, Yellow & Green
- Side A
- Southern White
- Gold Chain Queen Pt. 1, 2, 3, 4
- I Seem Fine
- Side B
- Marine Madness After Dark
- Pin-up Hound
- Rapture Clinic
- Save the Army of Tigers
- Things Inert
Black & Red
- Side A
- Disembodied Consciousness
- Pradator / Prey
- Anthem of the Sun
- 3D Me
- Sulfuric Surf
- The Last Catastrophic Phase of His Life Began Happily Enough
- Side B
- Utopia..Dreams..Chaos
- A Gelatinous Invertebrate Floating Through Cosmic Nebulae
- Switchblade Saltarello
- Rhythm of the Earth
- Dreaming All Day in a Free Nation
USSR016CD
A USSR Compilation CD
PIXXX 2
Released June 3rd, 2011
Track Listing
- Family Studies - Skeleton Power
- The Church of Jeffrey Adams - Crin Skrall
- Yankee Yankee - Stripe
- Dundas - Broken Glass
- Ian Ross - Wardrobe Lights
- Natural - Space is the Place
- Country & Western - Breeze and at Ease
- Burro - Eternal Monolith
- Wild & Majestic - Good Question
- Haunted Beard - Microgeist
- Castle Excellent - Ronald Ruck
USSR015CS
Music by: Whitney Ota and Stewart Elton
Dundas
Explorer Series Vol.1
Released March 26th, 2011
field recordings/
radio signals/
noise/
electronics/
effects
USSR014CS
Music by: Whitney Ota
Yankee Yankee
Empty Room
Released March 26th, 2011
A mélange of synthesizers and guitar masterfully manipulated create the effect of looking at a giant psychedelic cyclorama through a zoetrope. Time is robbed as you delve deeper into the sonic landscape. (A good surrogate soundtrack for the first Star Trek movie.)
USSR013CD
Music by: jared and henry and mitch
Haunted Beard
Video Deathbed
Released April 1st, 2011
Track Listing
- Total Wolf
- Biomenace
- Secret Prison
- White Spider
- Video Deathbed
- Slime World
- Beyond Infinity
- Teenage Wizard
- Prehistoric Breakthrough
USSR012CD
Music by: Matt Read & Carter Gilchrist
Family Studies
Life Cycles Vol.3: Torch of Heuristics
Released March 25th, 2011
Track Listing
- Next Stop, Greenwich Village
- Evil Lord Ganon
- Ophiuchus Rising
- Mt. UunUuuUubUuq
- Not Worthy of Serious Consideration
- Future Fracture
- Torch of Heuristics
- Vulgar, loud... kind of an idiot
- Freak Squad
- Formaldehyde Hairspray
- It Already Happened
- Level 5 Charm Spell
USSR011CD
Music by: Matt Read & Carter Gilchrist
Family Studies
Life Cycles Vol.2: Density Master
Released December 18th, 2010
2nd in a series of improvisatory explorations. Chronicles of our descent into the Sin Bin. Louder and more off-the-wall than Vol.1.
Track Listing
- Join the March
- Hot Rod Sux Deluxe
- I know It Was You
- If You Let Me
- Don't Stare at My Chair
- Built to Drool
- Cut Everybody!
- Underwater Western
- Never Ending Robbery
- Intelligent... and Witty!
- Wizard vs. Sorcerer
- My Corpse Suffers (but how?)
- This Is How I remember It
- Quit Putting Words in my Mouth
- Politika
- Density 51.2
- Endless False
- Frequent Failure Miles
USSR010CD
Music by: Matt Read & Carter Gilchrist
Family Studies
Life Cycles Vol.1: Sexy Creeper
Released December 18th, 2010
First in a series of improv-centric CDs. Laid-back groove jams dance the mazurka with moments of anxiety and introspection. Impressions of summer.
Track Listing
- Sexy Creeper
- Yearbook
- Pig Skin
- Suntan Solution
- Forget about that Emergency from Before
- Socially Awkward Sparrow
- Not to Dispose of Shares
- Frosted Flakes in the Mourning
- Ginger Ale Jeans
- Indecent Explorer
- Morning Wood
- Tropical Wasteland
USSR009CD
Music by: Matt Read
Castle Excellent
Silver Salad of the Moon
Released December 18th, 2010
/ demonic invocations /
Track Listing
- Snakazon Rising
- Sax Stain
- Post-Traumatic Dogma Disorder
- Evocation 1
- You Can't Eat That!
- Silver Salad
- Can You See Space?
- The Joy Of Being Robbed
- Shipwreck
USSR008CS
Music by: Brother Bjorn, Brother Joseph & Brother Mathias
The Church of Jeffrey Adams
12 Hymns by Gentlemen of Leisure
Released September 17th, 2010
Track Listing:
- Side A
- Junkie
- Baby’s first steps to depression
- Friends until the very end
- Up in them guts
- Autistic Mimic
- Side B
- Tax Donut
- Testimonial 1
- Thunderbolts of Cock
- William Gibson, taste me
- Hajj
- Civility through discourse
- Jumper
Check out these exclusive tracks (not on the tape)!
USSR007CS
Music by: Brother Bjorn, Brother Joseph & Brother Mathias
The Church of Jeffrey Adams
We Want Your Daughters
Released September 17th, 2010
Track Listing:
- Side A
- Mission from God
- Contemplate this Niztche!
- Your thoughts on nihilism?
- A protest song about organized games
- Hardcore 1981
- We all love Kim Gordon
- Children playing
- Neospasm
- Side B
- Some dude...
- Black Metal has sold out
- Forsaken me
- Deathspasm into
- Deathspasm 1
- Deathspasm 2
- Deathspasm Climax
- Sax on the Bitch
- Drone on you Black Emperor
- I told you we were punk
- FUCK THE SYSTEM
- Piss on this grandma!
- 1 2 3 4 what are you crying for?
USSR006CS
Music by: Brother Bjorn, Brother Joseph & Brother Mathias
The Church of Jeffrey Adams
Dirty Snatch
Released September 17th, 2010
Track Listing:
- Side A
- Yeah a vague/vag difference
- Tired of cooking Rice
- A vague sense of self
- Bike couriers aint’ got shit
- Side B
- Hey Kids!
- Gotta get to work
- A treaty in 1780’s geopolitics
- En Vague (with a harpsichord)
- A poem for rachel, that cunt
- Alleycats in heat
- Thoughts to go to sleep too
- The aftermath of a firemission
- Meandering
USSR005CD
Music by: Whitney Ota
Yankee Yankee
Resting Star
Released June 2nd, 2010
Track Listing:
- Resting Star
- Shooting Star
- Field of Stars
USSR004CD
Music by: Matt Read & Whitney Ota
Wild & Majestic
Two Lone Swordsmen
Released May 15th, 2010
Two lone swordsmen in the night
Take their swords out for the fight
Here they are,
Beneath a star
Battle 'til the morning light
Duo exchange. Noise/pastoral/free improv/disgusting battle/dusk vs. dawn.
Track Listing:
- Midnight Air
- Rat Scamper
- Hiding Something
- A Special Delivery and a Broken Compass
- Spilling Something
- Disgusting Rogue
- Dreaming of Midnight
- Awaken and Hide Something Disgusting
- Break Something Special
- Remember Our Beautiful Love/Leaving
- Gather Again or Ethereal Dream and Awakening
- Singing Alone With a Stranger
- Midnight Swordsman
- Truth is Violence
- Leaving the Goddamn Rat
USSR002/003CD
Natural: Carter Gilchrist, Matt Read, Whitney Ota
PoLPOT: Matt Read, Joe Smiglicki, Whitney Ota
Natural & PoLPOT
Natural/PoLPOT 2CD Split
Released June 2nd, 2010
Natural is where it all started. Members of Family Studies and Yankee Yankee join forces once again to bring forth an eclectic multi-directional session of dynamic group playing and deep inter-listening.
PoLPOT is where it all ended. Members of Wild & Majestic and Joe devour everything that their musical forefathers built with amoebic indiscrimination and shit out a gnarly piece of musical purity. Pure insanity that is. The aural equivalent of a colon cleanse.
Recorded over 2 days (Natural on the first, and PoLPOT the second) in Calgary at Canopy Sound Studio.
Natural (White):
- Death to Trio
- Death March
- Grinding Dance
- Sun Lying
- Jungle Chaaaase
- Dancing Flame
- Digging Deeper
- Casting Shadows
- New Born
- Shaky Hands
- Purple Haze
- Journey to the Centre of the…
- Kinky Neck
- Pastoral Hillside
PoLPOT (Black):
- Sea Mist
- Singing Songs
- Killing Songs
- Staying Alive
- The Trip
- Discovering Something Hidden
- Discarded Cut-Off Jeans and a Pile of Drug Paraphernalia
- Youth Slayer
- Rehab – No – No – No
- ...And Now I Wear the Cut-Offs
USSR001CD
Music by Whitney Ota. Track listing as follows:
- Blackness I
- The Sea I
- The Sea II
- Five Symphonies III
- Five Symphonies V
- Academic IV
- Academic III
- Yankee III
- Yankee II
- Cracks III
- Cracks I
- Scrabs II
- Scrabs I
- Painful I
- Murky III
- Murky II
- Palestine IV
Yankee Yankee
Best of the Early Recordings
Released May 4th, 2010
A cornucopia of musical vignettes conceived and performed by a chamber ensemble of one. A synthesis of influences ranging from Debussy, Webern, Cage, minimalism and free improv. Haunting, tranquil, unnerving, meditative, challenging.
"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."
- William Blake
"To know who I am I have to write about an elephant."
- Haruki Murakami
Awakening from the Common Dream
The human race is tethered to a cultural and social construct. There are many who can’t shake the feeling of anxiety and alienation that comes from living within the imaginary bonds of a pre-fabricated world everyday. Floating around in the ambient decadent state that is the collective conscious they know something’s up, but they don’t know what. Despair if you like but there are methods of stepping outside the illusory fog that consumes us all in order to see the big picture. The medium to which one applies their intense concentration can reveal universal truths that transcend the medium itself. Possibilities will be exploding all around you.
These sound recordings are the result of one particular exercise - you could call it a ritual - that resembles a type of hermetic theatre. A process of playing out a drama that takes the participant on a free associative trek through an environment created out of their own subconscious divorced from the influence of outside stimuli, free of neurotic goals, allowing their impulses free reign in dictating which direction to follow while they morph, mutate and tamper with this raw universe as they discover it along the way. Moral or ethical dilemmas, distinctions between beauty and abomination and common sense in general are psychic barriers that must be purged. What are these other than the by-product of the common dream? Let nothing prevent you from embracing every notion, even if you end up in absurd, extreme or objectionable places by ordinary standards.
Subjugating oneself to the process in which you are immersed you become an audience of your own creation and can analyze it with objectivity, recognize the direction the piece is following, what the ideal end result will be and in so doing become conscious of where your values really lie in the corporeal world.
Afterwards you’ll have a neat little souvenir of your excursion, a manifestation of your journey to the centre of your mind.
USSR000CD
Track Listing:
- The Church of Jeffrey Adams - Fumbling Through Faded Tape at the Pick Up Frontier
- PoLPOT - Discarded Cut-Off Jeans and a Pile of Drug Paraphernalia
- Natural - Dressed Up
- Wild & Majestic - Poison Room
- Castle Excellent - feb192010002
- Family Studies - Concussion
- Country + Western - Drowning in a Swimming Lake
- Yankee Yankee - Painful
100 limited edition copies available with Feedback Magazine
A USSR Compilation CD
PIXXX
Released May 15, 2010 with Feedback Magazine
I'll be honest, I don't know anything about these songs or bands. I barely know these kids. They promised me a bottle of wine if I wrote something for them. They saw me carrying some records home and they've been like flies on shit ever since. They look up to me I guess. I don't know why. Sometimes I feel bad for brushing them off so I invite them in for a few drinks. They keep on asking me if I have any La Monte Young or Cage records. I have a few. I'm not some old prude. I know my shit. I even listen to some of the records they bring over. Nursing with Wounds or some nonsense like that. I ripped the LP right off the table and threw it out the window. Fucking NOISE. what the hell is wrong with these kids? So I tell them to look up Mahler, Shostakovich and Brahms. REAL music. Not some heartless mush that gets peddled nowadays. I don't know if they got it.
Anyways, I guess I need to write this thing up to earn that bottle of wine. They keep on bringing over tapes and CDs with some pretty far out stuff this side of the brain. Just check out the song titles, you can understand these kids have no regard for social politeness or trying to sell a million records. That takes a lotta gusto you gotta admit. The projects right now are created by the same Calgary and Vancouver kids that run the label and they cover a wide array of musical tastes and tastelessness. A bunch of kids have too much time on their hands and record their projects. Now they're putting out tapes and CD-rs of the stuff.
Eight different ensembles with eight different visions. Ranging from beautiful drones to harsh spasms to serious compositions to downright wankfucking. I'm not going to describe all the bands or songs, I don't have the time or patience. Plus they haven't given me that bottle of wine yet, so fuck it. Listen to the tracks yourself. You’ll get the gist of it. They are looking into putting out other artists’ compositions now too. Drop them a line if you're sonically on the same page. Hopefully they put out some vinyl soon so I can actually listen to it at my place. Give them a listen.
NOW WHERE’S MY BOTTLE OF WINE YOU LITTLE PUKES
Hank.