The Thousands

Online mail order service Cloth Ear Music is a boon for fans of lo-fi psychedelia, drone experimentation and handmade recordings. Operated anonymously from Sydney with orders taken via email only, the site is a mainline for local and overseas releases of the most ethereal, under-the-radar kind; limited edition LPs, 7s, CDRs and tapes of Noise-fallout otherwise unavailable in Australia. More a collectors’ blog with secondary sales function than a regular online shop, Cloth Ear is a true glimpse of future meta-labels; sustained by independents, for independents, with the generous spirit of mp3 ar(t)chive bloggers.

Local representatives include TwoThousand favourites Sabbatical Records, Sean Bailey’s Inverted Crux and black-doom antiquarians Bunyip Trax. From Sydney there’s Head Worse Records, The Spring Press, Pulled Out Records and Casting‘s imprint Spanish Magic. The US-import stock is where things get really mysterious, though, with a packet of releases from Eagle Rock label Not Not Fun – home of the astonishing Barn Owl – tons of stuff from the resurgent, Australian-friendly Siltbreeze, Louisville’s unknown Black Velvet Fukere and fast-selling singles from LA’s DNT.