SCREENPRINTED BY HAND from gorgeous designs by John Mathias. WE MADE 250 handnumbered copies of these? 3 SONGS by Flaming Fire recorded with Martin Bisi, and one long song by ALEPH NOUGHT (Lou and Patrick doing space noise.)

THE ONE TRUE DEAD ANGEL zine said:

Flaming Fire / Aleph Nought -- split cd [Perhaps Transparent]

The aleph nought is a magical number (which is about all you'll get out of me on the subject, since I barely understand how to add up my checkbook), but in this context, it's also a side project featuring Flaming Fire vocalist / noisemaker Patrick Hambrecht. Flaming Fire, as always, are the lunatic-sounding and spiritually inclined band spearheaded by Hambrecht, his wife Kate and Laura Weinstein on vocals, and various other pals providing the whacked-out music.

This cd, packaged in a lovely letter-pressed sleeve and limited to 250 copies, features three new songs by Flaming Fire and one lengthy one by Aleph Nought. Flaming Fire opens with "Celesticide Anthem," an ambient and psychedelic journey reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, and a far cry from the devolved-pop of the band's previous full-length.

On "It Was A Dark Night," though, the similiar sound that starts off the track soon abruptly segues into a bizarre beat and song, which becomes catchier by the measure -- classic Flaming Fire, especially the way it turns into a completely different sound again by the middle of the song. And again! (Etc.) "Listen" is simpler and more contemplative, but there are plenty of surprises lurking in the background behind Kate and Laura. Puzzling, cryptic stuff, just the way you know you like it.

The Aleph Nought track, aka ALEPH NOUGHT, TRANSMISSION ONE, aka "The Transdimensional Ooze of the Electric Space Amoeba," is some seriously demented psychedelic noise, courtesy of Louis Underwood on the left channel and Patrick on the right. If these participants weren't such God-fearing people, I'd think they were smoking crack or something before they started banging on stuff. It certainly sounds like they were having fun...! Once the novelty of hitting things wears off, though, there are some rumbling, ambient moments with minimal clattering that are actually kind of contemplative. As the track progresses, it gets increasingly spacier, moving away from noise as the primary focus to zoned-out trance-psych as the hypnotizing force. The spirit of Sun Ra favors these proceedings with a roll of the white dice and a cryptic sign, if you know what I mean. (And if you don't, well, you probably won't understand this eccentric sonic feast either.)