TOTES FORMAT

COLDSORE - ZERO ABSTRACTION

In the current phases of severe C-PTSD flare-ups, when the terror of the previous existence transcends space and time to get me and i become a traveler into past and future at the same time, battling memory demons and specters of the abyss ahead, the desire for a disruption of the continuum is overwhelming. sometimes listening to my own sound-pain-tings helps to calm and sooth for a moment.

[intended to be listened in horizontal position in the dark.]

Sound + artwork by GRM for TotesFormat.

COLDSORE - POLLUTANT8

This one is a heartbreaker, for the heartbroken.

X-press Feeders already sounds like greed. Billions of plastique pearls are not the worst of it. A temporally broken weapon manufacturing supporting chemistry supply-chain on the cost of the coast and it's inhabitants and the live-sustaining ocean. This is global capitalism, it's nothing but a POLLUTANT. The ship carried 1486 containers with around 42 chemicals in over 700. Low and high-density polyethene nurdles, caustic soda, methanol, sodium methoxide, nitric acid, urea, vinyl acetate, epoxy resin (349 containers), lubricant oil (39 containers), and other chemical containers were among the compounds. There were also 81 dangerous containers, including lithium-ion batteries, copper slags, lead ingots, and electronic items that typically contained hazardous compounds. Following the disaster, it was found that there was still a risk of bunker oil leaking from the ship. The disaster’s most immediate and substantial impact was raw material, plastic pellets and other debris washing up on the beach several days after the major fire broke out on May 25, 2021.

---

these days and nights my C-PTSD has been a heavy burden on me, together with very recent expriences that are shattering my remaining heart fragments into dust, listening to my own recordings are my sleep-crutches. i listen to them when my mind boils over and the heart-aches need numbing. to be listened to in the dark, horizontal + loud.

All sound sources are METSÄÄN machines, build and played by GRM, recorded in the by now destroyed METSÄÄN studio in 2021. Artwork and mastering by GRM for TOTES FORMAT.

COLDSORE - SINK SANK SUNK

in my lifetime the place i grew up in will be submerged.
i am not aware, if i have got ancestors, who are not to blame for it.
those that are alive have the illusion that their offspring will still float.

Mastering and artwork by GRM for TOTES FORMAT.

totes-format.weebly.com

RADIO FREE UL-QUOMA / COLDSORE

C40 tape in faintly marbled seaweed green shell made from recycled plastique in teal tinted transparent standard cassette case, that looks like the water in the holiday resort pool, where some rather go for a refreshing dip, because the beach is full of black corpses. also, a greyscale foldout j-card cover and some stickers. the first edition is limited to 20 hand-numbered copies.

'the governments of the global north choose to build walls & barriers, by these actions sanction murder of those worst affected by climate change. this is genocide by choice. my thanks to GRM for compiling this collection.' (radiofreeul-quoma.bandcamp)

'we stand against murderous white supremacist borders, that kill so many. we stand for the destruction of the state, that oppresses us, while keeping us over-feed, comfortable - silenced in the face of it’s murders. often when we are silent, it is equally reason for, as well as a result of the multitude of horrors that colonial extraction + destruction has flooded the world with for the profits we consume. we have to break the loop, challenge privileges of all kind, be they based on the fantasy of white supremacy, patriarchy, class structures, … this challenge will and cannot be comfortable for those who are privileged. to take part of the liberation of the world + it’s peoples from the said horrors, we will have to leave the silence of our comfort zone + start to make some noise.' (coldsore-sound.tumblr)

All of the profits from this release will be donated to sea-watch.org in solidarity.

"Sea-Watch e.V. is a non-profit organization that conducts civil search and rescue operations in the Central Med. In the presence of the humanitarian crisis, Sea-Watch provides emergency relief capacities, demands and pushes for rescue operations by the european institutions and stands up publicly for legal escape routes. Since a political solution in the sense of a #SafePassage is not on the horizon, we have expanded our field of operation and made new plans. We are politically and religiously independent and are financed solely through donations."

Layout and mastering by grm for Totes Format.

COLDSORE - SOOT GROWTH

SOOT GROWTH SLOWLY CHOKES.
CRAWLING SMOKE INVADING LUNGS.
CURSED BE EVERY EMPIRE.

SOOT GROWTH EXTENDING ZONES.
INVADED LUNGS COUGH UP ASHES.
DEATH TO EVERY EMPIRE.

SOOT GROWTH ON SCORCHED EARTH.
WE CARRY FIRE INTO YOUR EMPIRE.
WE WILL IGNITE THE END PYRE.

this was the last recording made in my last lost home. the cover is a picture of a found post-war map of berlin, that had a lot of blanks, which i stained with soot raising from a piece of burning juniper tree root from sápmi/laplad. the map was pasted to my ceiling to keep the insulating sawdust and mouse shit from raining down on me. the place i was born in - germany - is also the cradle of war in so called europe. ever since fueling the fires with it's ceaseless mass production of weapons of war. some of these tanks are manned by fascist grey wolves destroying land and people in kurdistan in an imperial ottoman expansion, while other german tanks roll up against a rusisct invasion in ukraine, claiming to cleanse it's territorial claim from fascism, while nothing else can be said the russian state itself. we are mostly collateral damage of the crossfire of propaganda so delicate and subtle we hardly sense it when it passes us through. post truth paradoxxig turns some of US into 'war boys', others into 'crazies' and many just die. all this, while the general colonial destruction of land and people goes on uninterrupted since centuries all over the world, in all the places we rarely look at and where the color of peoples skin is different, than what is constructed as white. we chose to ignore their ongoing resistance, unless it is served to us in massive PR campaigns and hence we fetishize them. we dwell in the privilege of consuming the cruel harvests of resources, that our encapsulating systems feed us. extracted without mercy or regard of the misery, grief and death it causes, we don't taste the bitterness, when we drink from the blood chalice of this death-cult everyday. call it capitalism, call it white supremacy, call it fascism, call it patriarchy - we must destroy the seed of the imperial beast that is EVERY state, the best way to do that is from within.
ERODE [SABOTAGE] EMPIRE

coldsore-sound.tumblr.com

DULL BOYS

sometimes we sing.
sometimes we don't.

2 long-form found tape assemblages of military experiences, market research calls, product testing, telephone therapy sessions + religious indoctrination choirs - the dull absolutely normal nightmare.

Released on found (recycled) tape cassettes of various lenghts, some of them will contain the original sounds after the DULL BOYS tracks. The covers are laser-printed fold out J-cards.

A joint release by HYSTER TAPES + TOTES FORMAT with KING TAPES.

Download/stream available here:
totesformat.itch.io/dull-boys

Tape also available from:
http://www.pcuf.fi/~plaa/hyster.html

COLDSORE - betonkopf

sinking lower + lower
with my heavy heart
+ concrete head first ...

[ COLDSORE ]

2 longform drone environs created from a heavy heart + a head full of concrete. Based on recordings with METSÄÄN machines.
Rubber-stamped white CDr in slim plastique case painted with a very raw matte grey concrete paint. Rubber-stamped copy number and artwork label on the inside of the case. Limited edition of 20 numbered copies.

Also available from:
totesformat.itch.io/coldsore-betonkopf

1Ö / COLDSORE / HEALTH WORKER CRISIS

Black 'vinyl style' CDr in full-color cardboard stock 'gate-fold' cover, wrapped in a resealable plastique envelope. Limited rubber-stamped edition of 32 copies.

A 3-way split release of 1Ö, HEALTH WORKER CRISIS + COLDSORE. Each projects provides more or less rhythmic long form experiMENTAL drone/noise tunes that sonify mental anguish in a so called civilization that de-/oppresses and only offers help to get back in line of the workforce that keeps the sickening system running.
What better way to wrap these sounds up, than a cover depicting part of the psychiatric hospital in helsinki, barricaded with just a tiny funnel gate that looks like a human sized meat-grinder with a punch-clock.
File under: #antiwork, #antipsychiatry + #madpride.
Mastering, production, photograph+ artwork by GRM.
Check out + support the other releases by:

Also available here:
https://totesformat.itch.io/

THERE ARE NO BIRDS HERE / COLDSORE

Black 'vinyl style' CDr, handstamped, in recycled 'frozen pizza' cardstock with a B/W 'broken laser printer' cover in transparent plastique envelope with text inlay sheet. Limited 1st edition of 10 copies.

grey recycled shell C-40 tape (a few of them have marbel patterns), handstamped label sticker, in recycled 'frozen pizza' cardstock with B/W 'broken laser printer' cover in transparent plastique envelope with text inlay sheet. Limited 1st edition of 23 copies.

The complete (tapes+CDrs) 1st edition have numberstamps from 1-33.
A few of the copies will be available directly from therearenobirdshere.bandcamp.com for the UK based orderers at a later point.

Since the very first time i heard something from THERE ARE NO BIRDS HERE, i could very much relate to the sounds and the atmospheres they created in my mind. I’m sure it is also related to the project’s name and aspects of the layout, they have touched me and i am glad that they did. There are sound landscapes into which i can dig my roots, that can become something like a home. For lost seekers like me, those terrains are important, even when they are partly hostile, polluted and not inhabitable for long stretches of time. All of these aspects are also crucial for my own sound making/production/work from the very beginning. My first project was called TOTSTELLEN (ger. dead places, but also describing zones untouched/spoiled by humans, or the areas a radio signal does not reach) and now, since i live in finland the project is called COLDSORE, which is mostly describing the effect of living in KALTLAND (ger. cold country, a common term for germany used by people who don’t like it there). These ‘sores’ can be obtained everywhere and by everyone, nation-states are polluting the world with their structures all over the world and i think what is common for releases on TOTES FORMAT are the environmental factors, not just field recordings, but the creation/description of worlds, existing or not, in sound: distorted, filtered, mangled, ruined and beautifully broken. The inspiration stemming from environs, a world we have inherited and will leave for others to deal with. One title of a previous THERE ARE NO BIRDS HERE release is ‘Another Ruined Landscape’ and that just fits so well with the environmental disaster motive of so many COLDSORE releases.

‘We are not the least afraid of ruins, we carry a whole new world in our hearts.’ B.Durruti

I’m very glad to present you a split-release of THERE ARE NO BIRDS HERE and COLDSORE, which combines recordings, that coincidentally and almost magically reflect each other in their compositions. It has baffled me when i first listened to the TANBH recordings that i have been sent for this release. Patterns re-occur in our tracks, field recordings have similarities, no matter that some are recorded on a shale beach on the east coast at felixstowe and others in a wintry (-24) forest camp protesting a planned uranium mine in Sápmi (lapland). It does not matter that some recordings are the bubbling of a ‘seriously hot veggie lasagne’ in suffolk or me creepy crawling through half flooded drain tunnels under a soon to be gentrified ex-industrial area in helsinki. We create/destroy worlds, we enter and leave them behind. In our sounds we combine utopia and dystopia. In the way we act and think we decide how we want to live.

Artwork, production + mastering by GRM for TOTES FORMAT.

Also available here: totesformat.itch.io/there-are-no-birds-here-coldsore

THERE ARE NO BIRDS HERE: therearenobirdshere.bandcamp.com
COLDSORE: coldsore.tk

1Ö / COLDSORE - EMPTY SPACE CRAFT DRIFTS

Black 'vinyl-style' CDr in recycled bitumen paper envelopes (made from coldwar wastebags found in an abandoned bunker in helsinki) with a glossy full color photo print glued to front and back and a rubber number stamp in plastique foil envelope. Limited numbered edition of 30 copies.

the vessel is abandoned, it seems. crew status unknown.
the hull severely damaged and in some sectors breached.
how can this happen in heavily surveilled territory?
where is the humanity? who are the hostiles?
you parade razor-wired empathy in over-saturated egos,
watching the desperate sink to the ground or
freeze to death while being battered by hollow men.

A NEW WORLD FROM THE RUINS OF €MPIRE.
ALL BORDERS ERASED FROM THE MINDS.
NO ONE LEFT BEHIND.

150€ of the profits from this release will be donated to sea-watch.org.

"Sea-Watch e.V. is a non-profit organization that conducts civil search and rescue operations in the Central Med. In the presence of the humanitarian crisis, Sea-Watch provides emergency relief capacities, demands and pushes for rescue operations by the european institutions and stands up publicly for legal escape routes. Since a political solution in the sense of a #SafePassage is not on the horizon, we have expanded our field of operation and made new plans. We are politically and religiously independent and are financed solely through donations."

1Ö: yksioyksio.bandcamp.com
COLDSORE: coldsore.tk

Layout and mastering by GRM.

COLDSORE - POLLUTANT VI

Black 'vinyl-style' CDr in recycled bitumen paper envelopes (made from coldwar wastebags found in an abandoned bunker in helsinki) with a B/W print image glued to front and back and a rubber number stamp in plastique foil envelope. Limited numbered edition of 30 copies.

This is the 6th installment of the ongoing POLLUTANT series by COLDSORE. This time with two vintage crude oilfield recordings in the usual long-form.

Black gold lines the pockets of the invaders with sticky fingers.
They first try to steal the land, by murdering and raping those it belongs to followed by extractinon and poisoning of the earth, the water, the animals and the sky. All that to fuel machines and make things, that cause even more havoc to the rest of the world, which they dream of escaping from after 500years.

It is the concept of white supremacy and it's implementation,
that is the worst
POLLUTANT.

200€ of the profits of this release will be donated in solidarity with the indigenous water- and land-protectors of the Wet'suwet'en people and their allies, who have been violently attacked by the colonial forces of white supremacy, in form of the state of so called canada and the industries that finance the genocidal project of building a pipeline for extracted resources through unceded indigenous territories.

You will find more information and ways of how you can support the struggle here: www.yintahaccess.com

END WHITE SUPREMACY!

April Larson / Coldsore - SWING LOW

Black 'vinyl style' CDr, laser-printed cardboard cover, rubber stamped and hand numbered in plastique foil envelope. Limited edition of 15 CDRs.

Green C40 tape made from recycled plastique with rubber stamped sticker, laser-printed cardboard cover, rubber stamped and hand numbered in plastique foil envelope. Limited edition of 15 tapes.

The longing for liberation of all oppressed runs deep in my (grm's) mind/life and often reflects in the releases of my projects. The idea to work with the traditional SWING LOW tune and it's symbolic(?) connection to the abolitionist UNDERGROUND RAILROAD in the so called USA, was originally a concept for THE BIG SLEEP (a long night of drones) event in 2020 in Helsinki. For a release of a reworked and much shorter version, i invited April Larson from Louisiana to contribute a topical track for a long due split-tape with COLDSORE. And here we finally have it, after quite a delay - before a global pandemic has hit us all and another hurricane has caused havoc, not only on April's home, but all the while the horrors of white supremacy have been a hegemonic principle of opression of all BIPOC people.

In memory of Harriet Tubman and the countless organizers and supporters of the abolitionist struggle, back then and now. The struggle continues!

200€ of the possible income will be donated to SOUTHERN SOLIDARITY:

"Southern Solidarity is a grassroots, community-based group of volunteers in solidarity with the unhoused in their quest toward liberation. We organize the delivery of food, medical resources and basic needs directly to the unhoused in the downtown area of New Orleans because the government has not filled this need. We are influenced by anti-imperialist principles and mobilized by a black queer woman.

As a group of 30, we organize the daily delivery of food, medical resources, and other basic needs directly to hundreds of unhoused people in the downtown area of New Orleans because the government has failed to meet needs. Southern Solidarity is involved in both direct relief and consciousness raising efforts of members and recipients in our collective struggle for liberation. Some among us are undocumented, formerly incarcerated, unhoused, trans, activists but more importantly, all among us are anti-imperialist."

---

Disclaimer: TOTES FORMAT is an anarchist project, it does not fully align with marxist and absolutely not with most mao-leninist (or worse mutations of so called communism) ideologies, but that does not mean there shall be no solidartity with the crucial material work SOUTHERN SOLIDARITY has been and is doing. I write this, because i find points like this important to be transparent. Onwards!

April Larson:
aprillarson.bandcamp.com

Coldsore:
coldsore.tk

Artwork & physical production by GRM.

COLDORE - EN DOLOR Y RÈBELION [live]

An recording from the audience of COLDSORE performing in the dark backyard of Squat Makamik in Helsinki at the Zapatista benefit gig on the 13th of august 2021. The title EN DOLOR Y REBÈLION (engl. in pain and revolt) and some samples are something picked up from the documentary about the struggle of the Zapatista with the title 'People without faces', that you can find here ( youtu.be/NqlZOa7DMiU ).

Before it started grm raised the question how the people, with maybe the highest level of privileges in the world can become rebels, when so many are endlessly sated by the exploits of colonialisation, that they profit from very directly in almost all aspects of their existence. Raising the question of how our solidarity can look like, if not going to #chiapas or #oaxaca to be a white human shield for the oppressed. Rest in power, Yri.

All profits will go to the local organizing for the Zapatista delegation visiting finland during 'A Journey for life'. (viajezapatista.eu/en/)

TO THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
TO PEOPLE FIGHTING IN EUROPE:
viajezapatista.eu/en/part-one-a-declaration-for-life/

Thanks for S. for inviting me.
Thanks for picture and recording to:
yksioyksio.bandcamp.com

HAWTHONN / COLDSORE&1Ö

Black 'vinyl style' CDr with rubber-stamp in recycled cardboard cover, hand-printed with tree bark and rubber stamps in plastique foil envelope. Numbered edition of 20 tapes and 10 CDRs.

Raw experiments and improvisations beneath the earth.

The background to this split-release is that by chance we went into a cave on the same day, but in very different locations as we later found out. So we decided to make a split release with the edited material of our excursions. Underground music in the speleological sense.

Layla of HAWTHONN went into the Greater Kelcow cave in Giggleswick Scar in the Yorkshire Dales, UK and recorded some shrieks, returnjng with Phil as the other part of HAWTHONN a bit later to record more chants and instruments under the moonmilk crusted rocks shimmering in the torchlight. While COLDSORE&1Ö went into the Torhola on Karkalinniemi in Lohja, Finland with a backpack full of instruments, that had to be dragged through mud and layers of ice on the ground to the deepest part of the cave, where they first boiled a cup of tea and then played some sad tunes until getting to cold to sit still anymore.

HAWTHONN:
hawthonn.wordpress.com
xetb.bandcamp.com

1Ö:
yksioyksio.bandcamp.com

COLDSORE:
coldsore-sound.tumblr.com

JUNKYARD SHAMAN - phantoms of the future events imprinted in the past collapsing all around the empty spaces I used to call my mind, but no longer recognize...

This item is deleted from the list of our releases.

TOTES FORMAT does not support or wants to be associated with artist that work with labels run by fascists (FREAK ANIMAL
in this case), Working with fascists (among other very related ideas, like the propagation of sexual child abuse), even more so when you do not share their ideals, helps them to push their agenda more and more into the accepted realm (middle) of our societies, be it an underground art/noise scene or like we can see almost everywhere else on a macro scale in all (capitalist) societies. If we would not be blinded by our privilege, we would be able to recognize patterns from the past of fascism on many different levels today. When TOTES FORMAT is an anarchist project and anti-fascism is a logical part of it. it is more than a hashtag or hollow description in your profile. We firmly believe that we should not look away from fascism and it's tendencies, but to actively fight back.

TOTES FORMAT is located in what is called finland, a region dominated by white privilege holders, in zones like this white supremacy goes way to often unchecked, because it just does not concern most people here, it seems. Of course almost everywhere in europe the experimental/noise scene is dominated by predominantly white cis-males mostly widely ignorant to the mutitude forms of oppression. But here i am referring to many finnish noise acts who work for example with aspa of FA. If you compare for example the line up of many recent noise-showsand the release list of aspa's FA label, you will find much overlap. and because this is always the first response critical voices get: i do not claim that any of these artist share the fascist agenda (as such) either personal or through their art/noise projects (some even claim the opposite, while collaborating with fascists), The critique here is that people (most likely unknowingly) play an important role in normalizing fascism. If i am friendly i would say it is based on white privilege and utter ignorance towards the reality and the history of fascism, if i am honest and based on the conversations i had, it is mostly because artist just don't care and are rather interested in their own art than anyting else (which has of course also many examples in the history of fascism). and hence apsa and co are actively getting more and more into the so called art spaces by means of the label's artist as proxies. 'THOSE WHO DO NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.' which for most people involved here, wouldn't really make a big difference of course.

We believe that people can change and grow and continue to learn, therefore we think that for example mistakes that artist/labels/projects/showorganizers have done in the past can be dealt with by accountability in form of determined, clear statements made in public, about what was the mistake and what has changed in the opinion or attitude for them. And this should go hand in hand with an ongoing positioning on the matter.

Stay angry! Stay loud!

(this text is written very fast and i might update or edit it later.)

TOTSTELLEN - WORKING WRECK / WRECKING WORK (repurpossessed)

White CDr with rubber stamped title and label name in hand painted cover/envelope made from found cardboard of files from a rusty file cabinet in an abandoned building with a hand embossed (probably ephemeral) aluminum insulation sticker and an inlay info sheet printed on found blueprints found in hamburg's now gone 'afrika hafen'. Limited numbered edition of 25 copies.

This is a 'repurpossessed' version of an old recording of a journey. It has not been accessible here before. I can imagine that a few of the listeners / downloaders here could like it as much as i still do. AND since some of you sometimes also spend some money on my releases, all profit of this release will be used to support the criminalized crew members of the IUVENTA, a rescue ship and project in solidarity with refugees on the mediterranean sea, that are purposefully left to drown (not just) by EU border agencies and policies, who shirk their responsibilities, while it is them, who are among the top exploiters and profiteers of wars in regions that are now too unstable to survive in for the people who flee from there and who risk their lives on their way to find safe harbors. More information about the work of and the case against the IUVENTA crew can be found here: iuventa10.org

SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!

---

Here's a slightly overworked text that was part of the original release:

"working wreck / wrecking work is based on concrete field recordings of a journey through germany, the netherlands, france and ireland; climaxing in a massive car crash, followed by a night in the overcrowded ER (track 05) of cork hospital. sounds from places like parking lots next to the freight train tracks, the ruins of nazi bunkers, sewage drains, crew-elevators to the engine room and park decks of the channel ferry, welding on the van before the journey and nightly bonfires in the bogs, etc. audible documents of the way damaged things / beings try to function (working wreck), slow and heavy movements and paralyzed static drones, self-destructive overloads / burnouts (wrecking work), harsh cuts in the static of hypnotizing sounds. strange / unhealthy results of a sickening production (work wrecks), deep depression, bitter frustration, draining tiredness. non-motivated progress + the urge to sabotage and disrupt the continuum (wreck works)."

The original material was recorded on mini-disc, edited, mixed and manipulated on a 4-track tape machine in 2003 until this broke as well, then i managed to digitally resurrect it in the beginning of 2004.

Released in 2005 by REDUKTIVE MUSIKEN, as a limited CD-r in a modified jewel case with screen-printed cover on transparent found + stolen material, limited to 75 copies. Later it was digitally re-released by AFFRONT DIGITAL in 2013.

Track 5 is only available in the album download and was not on the original CD-r.

This is a link to the by now abandoned dead end of the TOTSTELLEN webpage: www.telenautik.de/grimm/totstellen

KEMIA - MELANCHOLIE

Silver mini-CDr in individual handmade cover made from recycled light green cardboard stock with ink stencil spray artwork and rubberstamped title, logo and numbering in transparent plastique envelope. Limited edition of 20 copies.

KEMIA recorded this live-set among friends in plague times, 2020.

TOTES FORMAT breaks the circle and spreads this melancholic emonoise set further into the the realm of the open horizon of remote listeners.

Play loud,
with bass,
horizontally,
in the dark,
alone.

Support KEMIA directly here:
kemia.bandcamp.com

Used devices:
Dirty Drone #5
Controller Push 2
Electribe 2SR Sampler
Roland pdx-6 v-pad Snare
AKAI MPK Mini MK3
Samples & Loops
Ableton LIVE.

Master, layout & physical production by GRM / TOTES FORMAT.

KEMIA / COLDSORE

This is the 3rd release KEMIA is involved in on TOTES FORMAT. This time on a split release with COLDSORE, in which both projects explore the lower realms of experimental electronic music. Nothing really new for both of us, but still, it feels like we managed to dive a little deeper with sounds emerging from elevated levels of (de-)pressions. Fragments of forgotten field recordings mangled and/or layered into [myzik kɔ̃kʁɛt] burdening, menacing and melancholic, loops and minimal melodies creating pulsating mazes, opening up into vast horizons, just to cave in to claustrophobic spheres in which breathing seems impossible. Capturing moments and freezing time to make it possible to connect and try to make sense(s). Decoding resonances to physical and psychological environments into a conserved acoustic signal.

[a tape version is in the making.]

here’s some field-notes for the COLDSORE track: The work of memory collapses time.

the first ever recording of me playing (with) a guitar - the musical instrument of the colonizers - as i used to call it, when people, usual white men have grabbed the communal guitar in the main house of the anti-motorway protest camp in the squatted forest, i used to live in. they started to play without asking, if any of the ears around want to listen. most were ok, it seemed, but i was bored to death by the ever repeating tunes (it took decades for me to be positively touched by BELLA CIAO again). sometimes, when sitting alone, on the rat-infested sofas, i took the instrument myself, to play it my way, for my ears. much to the annoyance of people who came in, thinking someone plays a conventional song. i don’t recall one time i was not asked to stop or pass the instrument to someone who can actually play. we also hear field recordings of a ‘harvester’, a multi-purpose forest destruction machine, that has been part of the vast clear cut around my forest exile. there are also sounds of a unconventional strong and out of season hail fall, that has destroyed parts of my vegetable plants this year, one of those mass-produced shruti-boxes and a big electrical turbine that is used to dry grain in an old wooden barn. the title is a quote of the text 'On the Concept of History’ by Walter Benjamin, of which you can find an english translation over here and if you prefer the original german version here.

this work is inspired (a result of?)) by many traumatic experiences of mine, that i wanted to write about more here, but failed. it is mostly about the eviction of my above mentioned home, which has been in '98 and got me fall into the deep end of my anyway heavy depressions and added up some serious PTSD on top of that. in the recent years that really kicks in hard and a bunch of serious re-trigger moments have made me realize how bad i am actually doing. the re-triggering occurred while following the recent evictions and destruction of other occupied forests that people try to save from the greed for money made by coal mining or by building motorways, but at the same time create places to live lives in common, based on anarchic ideals. something that is in most parts of society not exactly possible and which poses a danger to the status quo, in which a dominant system based on capitalism, white supremacy and patriarchy and it’s resulting forms of oppression, like anthropocentrism choke every non-conforming act either under a boot or in a deadly embrace.

FULL SOLIDARITY WITH THE STRUGGLE IN ALL OCCUPIED FORESTS (especially HAMBACHER WALD & DANNENRÖEDER WALD)!

MAY THE RAIN OF SHIT ON COPS AND ALL STATE HENCHMEN NEVER STOP! THEY ARE ALL BASTARDS!

MAY THE BRIBED POLITICIANS CHOKE WITH THE NEXT BREATH THEY TRY TO TAKE! THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE!

TOTES FORMAT in solidarity with indigenous anti-colonial struggle:

All benefits of TOTES FORMAT releases on bandcamp friday
[06/11/20] will go to the TINY HOUSE WORRIORS legal fee fundraiser: fundrazr.com/e1j5of?ref=ab_8CGSIBJ2TOa8CGSIBJ2TOa

Canada and it’s Trans Mountain pipeline has failed to receive the free, prior informed consent of the Secwepemc whose territory this tar sands pipeline would bisect. Some of the most pristine water and salmon bearing rivers and tributaries are being threatened right now in order to transport some of the dirtiest oil in the world from land-locked Alberta to tidewater, to the global market. Secwepemc have joined in a Secwepemc National Assembly in 2017 at Clearwater, Secwepemc Territory where Secwepemc passed a nation wide declaration in opposition to the Trans Mountain pipelines and its man camps from being built in Secwepemculecw. Find full declaration at www.secwepemculecw.org

COLDSORE - POLLUTANT 5

Self-dubbed recycled C90 tape with stenciled markings in transparent plastique envelope with folded full color card stock inlay / cover. Approximately postcard sized. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.

The 5th installment of the POLLUTANT series brings us to the endless amounts of spilled oil and the devastating effects it has on all life. As a kid of a sailor, i grew up with the saying, that one drop of spilled oil poisons 10l of water, while huge solid clusters of raw oil were washing up on the beaches of my childhood. I never thought i would make a maritime themed album and that it would sound like it does.

Recorded in nuuksio at metsään studio in a stormy autumn night in 2020 with battery powered equipment and mostly handmade electronic machines.

COLDSORE - THROUGH THE WIRES

Silver mini CDr in special circular package made from recycled tar cardboard stock scavenged from an about 100 year old log house. Stamped and wrapped in wire. Limited edition of 20 copies.

through the wires
we invite the ghosts
of the fossilized past
into our homes every night
we worship their radiation
in the dark that surrounds

Recorded in nuuksio at metsään studio by grm in autumn 2020.
Layout by GRM, based on a video still from a video performance of THROUGH THE WIRES (below).

It was premiered in the ISOLATED MESS #3 - HELLOWEEN online event: youtu.be/Xgidvlokj1Q

SUBVERSIVE INTENTIONS - Not the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to the Anthropocene

CDr in full color cover card wrapped a plastique envelope. Approximately postcard size. Limited numbered edition of 30 copies. This is a 'other side of the pacific ocean' TOTES FORMAT version of the limited edition tape release by HISTAMINE TAPES.

TOTES FORMAT is re-releasing this recent work by SUBVERSIVE INTENTIONS, who have previously contributed to the SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON anti-repression benefit compilation. This new work suits our general approach to the world very well and i am happy to make it available on this side of the pacific as well. Thanks to SUBVERSIVE INTENTIONS and HISTAMINE TAPES.

Original release notes:

A few years ago I got all nostalgic for the early Subversive Intentions sound. I set out to recreate that lo fi characteristic by doing an album only using my cell phones internal mic to capture sound. It turned out that those mics (this albums production spanned the life of two phones) turned out to be much better than I had anticipated but I was still quite pleased with the sound.

I began to assemble these sounds in the spring of 2019. A constant in the back drop of this albums production was news of climate changes very apparent impact on the globe. The world got the news from the top climate scientists at the U.N. that we have less than a decade to change the tide of climate change, Greta Thunberg and Autumn Peltier made international headlines for their activism to raise awareness. In the mean time I was running a label using reclaimed cassette tapes, and spending all of my free time designing and implementing a permaculture design on my land. Clearly the climate was on my mind. So I needed to make this album about climate change. This influenced all the track titles and the samples I used.

This album collages field recordings made over the span of 2017 - 2019. Most of the recordings were done in while traveling in Maine, Utah, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Costa Rica.

originlally released: released September 25, 2020

nd dentico: All sounds, music, mixing, mastering
subversiveintentions.wordpress.com

grm: layout for the TOTES FORMAT re-release

CONCRETE/FIELD * COLDSORE [splittape]

grey (some marbled) C-40 tape with a shell made from recycled material, hand-dubbed, in plastique film envelope and an inlay card cut from a found roll of a two color screen print with mysterious faces. found in the attic of an abandoned hotel in hamburg about 18 years ago . limited run of 30 stamped and numbered copies (only the first 20 copies have the original print, the others are color copies).

This is the second splittape collaboration of CONCRETE/FIELD and COLDSORE. This time we were working with the concept of various forms of isolation in mind. Some are ALL-ONE in midst a crowd, others are bunkered-up in the DISTANCE, seemingly protected from even the heaviest of consequences.

CAROLINE MCKENZIE / COLDSORE [splittape]

green grayish C-40 tape with a shell made from recycled material (some slightly marbled), hand-dubbed, in plastique film envelope and printed full color inlay card. limited run of 30 stamped and numbered copies.

All profits of this release on the 03/07/20 and 50% of it after that date will go to BLACK TRANS PROTESTORS EMERGENCY FUND.

www.artsbusinesscollaborative.org/asp-products/black-trans-protestors-emergency-fund/

"Black trans people often face a specific set of structural, institutional, and personal barriers to accessing basic needs like housing, employment, and safety due to the intersections of their identities. According to 2012 data from Lambda legal, nearly one in two Black transgender people has been to prison, and Black trans people are also much more likely to face discriminatory policies and threats of sexual assault once behind bars. Black transgender individuals are also at higher risk of experiencing homelessness and poor mental health. In 2019 alone, at least 19 Black trans women were killed by fatal violence. As Black transgender people live at the nexus of two of the most economically and politically disadvantaged groups in this country [ameriKKA], they are in need of specific and ongoing support." quoted from this article (www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7wnbb/tony-mcdade-nina-pop-how-to-help) that gives further insight and information on other projects that need our support and solidarity.

Caroline McKenzie:
"the temperature of the stars" was recorded April-June 2020 and is dedicated to all who have seen the need for change and are working towards those changes.
carolinemckenzie.bandcamp.com

Coldsore:
"wench with scythe" was recorded in the winter of 2019/20 and is dedicated to everybody standing up against injustice and the sheer endless forms of oppression white male supremacy is based on.
coldsore-sound.tumblr.com

COLDSORE - POLLUTANT 4 [🜆]

grey C-40 tape with a shell made from recycled material (some marbled), hand-dubbed, in plastique film envelope and printed full color inlay card. limited run of 30 stamped and numbered copies.

Aqua regia dissolves gold, though neither constituent acid will do so alone, because, in combination, each acid performs a different task. Nitric acid is a powerful oxidizer, which will actually dissolve a virtually undetectable amount of gold, forming gold ions. The hydrochloric acid provides a ready supply of chloride ions, which react with the gold ions to produce tetrachloroaurate anions, also in solution. The reaction with hydrochloric acid is an equilibrium reaction that favors formation of chloroaurate anions. This results in a removal of gold ions from solution and allows further oxidation of gold to take place. The gold dissolves to become chloroauric acid. In addition, gold may be dissolved by the chlorine present in aqua regia. Appropriate equations are:If the aqua regia solution only contains gold, solid tetrachloroauric acid may be prepared by boiling off excess aqua regia, and removing residual nitric acid by repeatedly heating with hydrochloric acid. That step reduces nitric acid (see decomposition of aqua regia). If elemental gold is desired, it may be selectively reduced with sulfur dioxide, hydrazine, oxalic acid, etc.

WHITE (MALE) SUPREMACY IS THE WORST POLLUTANT.

[TOTFORM08]

SCHRANKAFFE - 87-93

Remastered vinyl re-release of the CD-r version released by TOTES FORMAT, TIM TIM TONTRÄGER, SOZIALISTISCHER PLATTENBAU & ATOMICTITCORPORATION in 2009.
Includes 12" lyric sheet and just like with the CD-r no stickers.
Pressing of 300 copies.

SCHRANKAFFE were an (Ex-DDR) Punkband from Hamburg that existed for 3 gigs. punk's just an experimental set-up was their motto:

Itty auf Ex - vocals + melodica ( Itty Minchesta / AtomicTitCorporation, You Killed Me First, Omi and the Mommy Boys )
Tim Tim - bass + screams ( Radiator 865, Java Delle, Infantillerie, Elektrisches Ich, Krawallerie, Dead Depression, Time Trap, Schuppen )
Ernie Verflixt guitar (+ synth »letzte pizza«) ( Istari Lasterfahrer, Heimatglück, Blind Fold Babies, PAF )
Paul Schokomöhle - drums (+ vocals & guitar »junge bärte«) ( Jeniger, AtomicTitCorporation, Alte Sau, Neuvoksi )

Recorded at 'probebunker mundsburg' with a handful of shure mics on 4 tracks.
Except »klappe zu« at rehearsalroom at rote flora & »junge bärte« in the trailerpark borrowpils (RIP).

New mix in 2019 by ernie verflixt.
Vinyl master & cut by herr weber in leipzig.
Artwork by Paul Schokomöhle

Original Released 2009.
Vinyl Re-Release 2020.

This is colloboration release with:
timtimtontraeger.bandcamp.com
sozialistischer-plattenbau.org
atombusentransporte.de

Schrankaffen-fanklub:
myspace.com/schrankaffe

CAROLINE MC KENZIE - (the first snow from soon)

hand-stamped matte silver CDr in thick hand-numbered glossy full color folding card cover in transparent plastique envelope. limited to 25 copies.

Please check out and support this and the the many other wonderful releases here: carolinemckenzie.bandcamp.com

"this album is drawn from music originally made to calm and soothe me, particularly when trying to sleep. i have long had recurring insomnia and this often peaks during periods of particular anxiety." CJM - 3rd February 2019.

Thanks to caroline for the music and kalle for the prints.

Buy CDr.

[TOTFORM40]

OLLIJOHANNA / COLDSORE

transparent chrome C40 tapes with a handstamped sticker indicating side A, thick hand numbered and stamped full color fold-out cover with a glossy print. the cases are all slightly different, since they are recycled, some are a bit scratched or have some residue of stickers on them. limited to 20 copies.

two 'anti-gravity' themed long form pieces of bass heavy drones
by my dear friend ollijohanna and me, grm as coldsore.

i think our first recording together has been improvised the drone noise in end of september 2011, in the by now torn down lippajärvi-house, a place that has been the home and hangout of anarcho-punks for some decades. OJ has edited the sounds into this video.
coldsore-sound.tumblr.com/post/123469278872

we have been recording some of our many chaotic 'distorted beat' jams, but never really made anything out of it. we have also been organizing cozy little noise gigs in the living room of the local 'squat makamik' for a while. there is a tape compilation of some of those gigs available here, on which OJ plays as one third of PANAOSORMET(2/3).
totstellen-grmmsk.bandcamp.com/album/live-m-k-mixtape

ollijohanna:
ollijohanna.bandcamp.com
additional vocalizations by R.

coldsore:
coldsore.tk
additional voice by Phyllis.

Thanks to Emmi for printing.

Buy tape or download.

[TOTFORM39]

WIZARDS TELL LIES / STAPPERTON / COLDSORE

Some black and some silver CDrs with a hand stamped matte silver surface, hand numbered thick glossy full color cover card in plastique envelope. limited to 27 copies.

The WIZARDS TELL LIES and the COLDSORE tracks were supposed to be released on the defuct AETHERIC RECORDS (aetheric-records.bandcamp.com). We wish you all the best, A. To give our siren calls a new chance to be heard, Totes Format shanghaied STAPPERTON into the crew of our drifting raft and then we were three. Hoist the rag!

TAKE CARE AND PLAY LOUD.

---

WIZARDS TELL LIES:
@ForestofDark
simimansound.bandcamp.com

STAPPERTON:
@stapperton
soundcloud.com/stapperton/

COLDSORE:
@G_R_M_M_S_K
coldsore.tk

also[TOTFORM37]

COLDSORE - POLLUTANT 3

The tapes will be available soon.

In the 3rd installment of the POLLUTANT series COLDSORE delivers processed environment recordings of the rain in the fall-out zone of russian NPPs and bees defending their hive; or is it buzzing insects eager to find soft, leaky spots on a corpse - as a crib for the next generation of death profiteers, hungry for rot and decay. Prospering in the wake of others misery. In a world like the one, some humanimals have been deciding to create, corpse eaters will rise. The top of the food chain has the highest tolerance to any POLLUTANT.

[TOTFORM37]

CLOAK+CLOACA - A COMMON CAVITY

CDr with rubber stamps in an laser-engraved, machine sewn envelope made from ancient tar-paper (scavenged from a 100yrs old blockhouse). it contains a full color slip-in cover printed on thick glossy paper. each envelove contains one hand-numbered random postcard of CLOAK+CLOACA's de-motivational selection. Limited edition of 40 copies.

Special edition:
+ one of each postcards
+ a full color ABYSS SMILE patch (iron-on transfer on thick black cotton)
+ a ABYSS SMILE button (full color, 3.5cm diameter)

Everything comes to an end. Every undertaking is ultimately thwarted by either physics or human nature. Things fall apart, run out of kinetic energy or good will, fall foul of the Second Law of Emotional Thermodynamics, so we might as well just, I dunno, give up now.

If the basic building block of the universe is stupidity, then its background radiation is probably some form of quiet despair. In which case, if our destination is already a given, why not use that knowledge as 'fuel' to take us somewhere else?

“Anger is an energy,” the landlord, John Lydon, once famously sang. But he was probably suing his manager at the time. No, Landlord John, misery and despair are the 2-star unleaded of the 21c – free, plentiful and sustainable – ours for the taking.

If the philosophy of C+C seems shot through with weary fatalism, it's because experience has taught us that acknowledging our own frailties and limitations – knowing when to give up – is the first tentative step towards liberation and self-propulsion. “We do not fear the ruins, we welcome them.”

C+C is as much an experiment in micro-mutalism as anything else. Tiny acts of solidarity within a common cavity. The threat of failure – of imminent collapse – is never far away. It surrounds us like a blanket, a womb. A shroud that keeps us warm at 4am. “Beneath the pavement, the void.” Puns and wordplay are our chosen weapons. Cross-associations and idea-pollination our sex. Sour, self-mocking humour our religion. We like to laugh a lot, us.

And so, it's time to roll out of bed once more. To walk downstairs on stiff, aching legs, blank-eyed and sleepless, and face another day. It's cold; there's no heating, of course. There never is. The sky is a uniform grey, yet it possesses a sombre inner beauty. It pulses with expectation, like an old television set warming up. What picture will form? What will the world show us today? The wait is killing me.

There is victory in defeat, unity in despair.

“One more sunset, my friends! One more sunrise!”

CLOAK+CLOACA is Kek-W, Matt & Grm.
cloak-and-cloaca.weebly.com/about

also[TOTFORM36]

RENE KITA - STILLE NACHT

Hand-stamped mini-CDR with full color cover slip in a transparent strangely formatted wrapper. Including a hand-numbered mini-print of one of RENE KITA's "ONE MILLION FACES BEFORE I DIE" series . Limited edition of 20 copies.

This is a slightly edited version of the RENE KITA release previously known as: A LAIDBACK NOISE. You can find it here: archive.org/details/ReneKitaALaidbackNoise

RENE KITA has been using a METSÄÄN ECHOBLENDER and other devices to create this track during the night of Xmess 2018.
STILLE NACHT is german for SILENT NIGHT, so please play this tune during all coming Xmasses as loud as you can and don't forget to sing along.

The 20 copies of this release contain one of 20 faces of RENE's ONE MILLION FACES BEFORE I DIE series. You will find all of the ones so far here: renekita.tumblr.com

RENE KITA has been describing himself a while ago in these words:

"The Finnish underground is a loose collection of networks with some individuals providing connections between the hippies, the laptop and junk electronics nerds, the free improvisers and the noise monsters. Me? I'm the last vague echo of the 1980s Geniale Dilletanten movement of Berlin, celebrating clumsiness and dissonance as a source of creativity, a mad hermit, raised in Germany, living in Finland since 1984, in occasional contact with people from all those 'scenes'."

[TOTFORM36]

CLOAK+CLOACA - CROAK

Black hand-stamped mini-CDr with full color cover slip in a transparent strangely formatted wrapper. Including a hand-numbered and stamped piece of stenography practice-paper found in an abandoned venetian navy fortress. Limited edition of 30 copies.

This is CLOAK+CLOACA ’s debut

LEAKING INTO THE VOID
PHLEGM OOZES
SLUDGE SEEPS
DROOP DRIPS

CELEBRATING DEMOTIVATIONAL BODY HORROR.
A SPINNING VORTEX OF BROKEN CYCLES
FROM DEEP INSIDE DISRUPTED LUNGS
INTO THE FUTURE OF
A COMMON CAVITY.

WE ARE MANY.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

[TOTFORM35]

LUKE LUND - DUBS EP

White mini CDr in a special format cover, pro printed on 300g stock paper in plastique wrapper, the item can be ordered with nails, pulled from the walls of an 100yrs old finnish blockhouse, by paying more than the minimum asked price.
Limited hand numbered and stamped edition of 20 copies.

Get all wound up by Luke Lund's
Asymmetrically Twisted Dub Versions.

Production and live mix by Luke Lund at Solace, June 2018.
Mastering and design by Luke Lund.

lukelund.bandcamp.com
soundcloud.com/weight-less
twitter.com/telakone

[TOTFORM34]

WIZARDS TELL LIES / COLDSORE [split]

Engraved transparent C50 tape in dark tinted transparent case, with full color J-card, including download code. Limited edition of 10 hand numbered copies.

Black CD-R with ephemeral rubber stamp in a slim black DVD-case with full-color cover. Includes download code. Limited edition of 12 hand numbered copies.

What are wakemares?
The [t]errors of our dreams, seeping into our daily life.

WIZARDS TELL LIES > simimansound.bandcamp.com
COLDSORE > coldsore.tk

Picture and layout by GRM.

[TOTFORM33]

LAICA - YOU KEEP ALL FUTURE SUNSETS.

CDr in a special package made from heavy recycled cardboard stiched up with transparent plastique tarp. Painted with pencil, marker, ink and spraypaint, then laser engraved and cut. Rubberstamps on the inside. Artwork by GRM.
Limited edition of 20 handnumbered copies.

A raw textured long-form drone piece by LAICA.
To be played loud in one sitting / laying.
Immerse yourself in a shifting void / space.

[TOTFORM32]

COLDSORE - proDUCT#1

Mini-CDr in transparent mini-DVD case with individual material collage artwork, including recycled paint, stamps, tape, electronic component list and lichens that fell off the trees around METSÄÄN studion during the last storm. Limited edition of 4 hand-numbered copies.

Marketing Deception: proDUCT FLOOD

What's the difference between a consumer good and bad art?
What unites bad consumers and art gods?

First installment of a of the proDUCT FLOOD series of super limited and extra expensive releases by COLDSORE. A bargain for collectors and an affront to others, including the producer aka bloated artist.

When the accumulation of produce and profit has reached a level of consumer satisfaction, the tracks of the series will be made available in a compiled form at a dumping price for all cultural bottom-feeders. One of us.

Soundsources: Dirty Drone X3 (prototype), Dirty CYdrone, Tremshifter, Ekko, Tone Control, LXR, Echoblender, Micro Granny, MMHazarai, MZ2, Fieldrecordings of a demolition of a power-plant in Colonge many years ago and a TV-sample.

[TOTFORM31]

SLEEPMASSK

Transparent C60 tape with laser engraving, in a murky gray-brown case with laser engraving and full-color J card cover. Includes download code.
Limited edition of 20 hand-numbered copies.

Black CD-R with ephemeral rubberstamp in a slim black DVD-case with full-color cover. Includes download code. Limited edition of 10 hand numbered copies.

Some circadian clocks tick different than others.
All will stop eventually.

A collaboration by KEK-W & GRM.
Recorded and arranged in Yeovil & Nuuksio in 2017/18.
A MASS for all cellSLEEPERS laying DOORmant in wakeMARES.
"Music that simulates that uneasy, queasy, spaced-out feeling when you've been running on zero-REM for 2 or 3 days. Slooow, dubbed-out, low-slung dark drone."

[TOTFORM30]

GRMMSK - REALITY ASYLUM [tape]

Pink C30 tape with a color sticker in a green case with full color J-card and download code. Hand-numbered limited edition of 30 copies. The first 8 copies sold from here will include a red screen printed patch.

Tape version of GRMMSK’s 1st release in 2018. Another 30min of condensed DoomDub-Versions. All of the tunes have been deranged and recorded at METSÄÄN STUDIO in midst of the finnish forest in 2017. they summon urban dread and voice the desire to escape the grinding concrete molars of babylon towards an utopic ZONE that provides freedom for all. We came a long way, but are still far away.

Here are two preview videos. #1 #2

[TOTFORM28] + [TOTFORM29]

ANARCHIST BLACK CROSS HELSINKI BENEFIT COMPILATION - SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON AGAINST ALL PRISONS

TOTES FORMAT has been gathering a bunch of artist and projects from different sectors of the experimental music spectrum to take a united stand against all forms of systematic repression of anarchist and antifascist actions. The profit of this compilation will go to the ANARCHIST BLACK CROSS in Helsinki. Thanks to all contributors and spreaders.

Anarchist Black Cross Helsinki

ABC Helsinki was founded in August 2012 to fill the need for long-term prisoner support and to get internationally networked. Our most common ways of action are spreading the information, collecting funds and getting lawyers for prisoners all around the world. Analyzing and criticizing the prison system and the society surrounding it is part of our field, too.
We support all anti-authoritarians, and their supporters, who are persecuted due to their political activities or acts which do not contradict with the ideal of anarchism. Whenever possible, we support prisoners who became anti- authoritarians during their sentences - so-called "social prisoners" who were forced to break laws for subsistence, or fighting against the despotism of the ruling class - and prisoners who fight against the prison-industrial complex from within. As anarchists we are against all prisons. We believe in direct action against capitalism and the State. We are not a human rights organization, since our goal is not to defend laws but to destroy them. In some cases we may support prisoners for purely humanitarian reasons. Different ABC groups decide their own policies independently.
The origin of Anarchist Black Cross dates back to late 19th century Russia, where revolutionaries started to help their comrades who were in trouble for actions against the Czar. In 1919 the group settled with the name Anarchist Black Cross. The prison and legal support activities spread around the Europe and Unites States with activists emigrating from Russia. All the ABC-groups disappeared from Russia as well from the other parts of Europe during the Second World War, but activity was revived with supporting opposers of the Franco regime in the 1960s.
There are many ways to participate in supporting the prisoners and taking down the prison system, from writing and translating the material to organizing support gigs, from painting banners to having performances. Even the smallest input can have a huge impact. www.amrhelsinki.org

[TOTFORM27]

GRMMSK - REALITY ASYLUM [vinyl]

Black 12" vinyl, black label with sticker on the A-side in black disco bag and full color cover. The record includes a download code slip and a screen printed patch (only in the artist's share of the collaboration release!) The whole pressing is limited to 200 copies.

This is GRMMSK’s 2nd 12" vinyl release. Another 30min of condensed DoomDub-Versions. All of the tunes have been deranged and recorded at METSÄÄN STUDIO in midst of the finnish forest in 2017. they summon urban dread and voice the desire to escape the grinding concrete molars of Babylon towards an utopic ZONE that provides freedom for all. We came a long way, but are still far away.

This record has been a label collaboration release, please check here to find the others, you might save some postal traffic by choosing wisely.

Here are two preview videos. #1 #2

[TOTFORM26]

COLDSORE - POLLUTANT 2

Hand-dubbed transparent C-50 cassette with laser-engravings in transparent case with full-color 3 panel J-card cover. Limited to 24 hand-numbered copies.

New recordings from a recycled wood shelter in the woods of the finnish fall-out zone. Mostly handmade instruments have been used to mentally and sonically project into the steam-filled cooling towers of ancient NPPs all over the globe. Following the traces of failures we float amid the H2O molecules that have just touched the radioactive cores of human error. We want to fly free like THE CLOUD and rain down onto everyone.

[TOTFORM25]

CLUN¥ - COFFIN SURFBOARDS

C-48, hand-dubbed transparent cassette with laser-engravings in recycled transparent TDK-case with full-color 3 panel J-card cover, limited to 25 numbered copies.

CLUN¥ - COFFIN SURFBOARDS another beautiful sonically dusty project by P.WRECKS from Seattle. Visit pwrecks.bandcamp.com for download and more.

This is creepy-crawl basement hip-hop.
Let yourself get lured into debris ridden back-yards,
where the black-clad kids are crouching around trash fires.
Hooded they are spitting slow motion rhymes into the raising fumes,
while the environment is humming with muffled industrial noises.
Revisit them in forgotten space-stations with all air-scrubbers broken,
drifting through the abyss of the universe like a DARK STAR.
Time to put on your walkmensch's headphones
and take a nap in a malfunctioning cryo-tank,
contemplating "insect politics".

---

"Take laudanum with our tea to easel
the leaves reason to each other their own convincing
diluted illusions of future prediction
luminaries, leagues under living quarters
death and resurrection are your own invention."

A familiar landmark, forgotten per occurrence

Surfs up.

[Download directly from P.WRECKS.]

[TOTFORM24]

CONCRETE/FIELD + COLDSORE - LOSING GROUND

C-30, hand-dubbed transparent chrome cassette with laser-engravings in transparent case with full-color 3 panel J-card cover. Limited to 25 numbered copies. (The first 5 orders come with a heat-pressed high definition patch!)

raw surface
bruised
inside
the cavities
of our chests
we are
falling
into an abyss
downwards
into a void
hollow
endless
zero sight
gravity gone
under our feet
we have been
losing
ground

COLDSORE: coldsore.tk
CONCRETE/FIELD: concretefield.wordpress.com

[TOTFORM23]

COLDSORE - POLLUTANT

Transparent C-50 tape in handsewn slipbag made from found material with a stenciled logo containing a handnumbered postcardsized coverprint. The first 20 copies include) a screenprinted patch. Limited to 30 copies.

Recorded in 2016, while digging out from the ruins of TEPCO's Daiichi NPP. We hear the sounds from under the debis inside the slowly collapsing sarcophagus containing reactor 4. COLDSORE uses mostly handmade electronic equipment: Soundgenerators and -deformers powered by disastrous memories of the future and dirty electricity.

While the state of finland and their affiliates are actively building and defending the construction of new nuclear powerplants and a terminal nuclear waste deposit, today's flora and fauna is still very radiated by the fall-out from past achievements.

While the highly radioactive artifacts of looted shinto shrines make good dollars in online marketplaces, tradition and government is still in business.

While we have been beaten, shot and imprisoned for resisting the repetition of old mistakes, the people of the future call for more disasters and concrete solutions.

While the matsutake mushroom grows in finnish fall-out areas, it is still exported to japan's gourmet markets, as the harvests in forests around hiroshima have weakened.

While the honor-medals of the liquidators gather dust in the attics of the deceased, THE ZONE is the cause of lucid touristic dreams and territorial playground of SONY entertainment platforms.

While the japanese dogs hunt pigs in abandoned supermarkets, macrobiotics become a curse word in the european health food sector.

[TOTFORM22]

RST - HAIKUS

Handstamped one-sided recycled C-90 black tape, numbered fullcolor postcard-sized package, limited to 15 numbered copies.

Two live recordings plus one exclusive track of somehow broken experimental noises by RST from Helsinki/Berlin. The B-side of the tape contains it's original content (most likely) recorded telephone conversations about medical topics in finnish or discussions about movies in swedish.

[TOTFORM21]

KEMIA / OLLIJOHANNA

Clear C50 split-tape in handsewn slipbag made from recycled handnumbered postcards and found material. Limited edition of 15 copies.

KEMIA from germany serves three untitled pieces of dark experimental electronics, treated fieldrecordings from sri lanka and a generally very melancholic atmosphere here.

OLLIJOHANNA from finland brings us two elegiac spacious no-input mixer dronescapes described as a tribute to the grandmaster of frequencies, may he rest forever peaceful in the æther.

[TOTFORM20]

(LIVE) MÖKÄMIXTAPE

Handstamped recycled C-90 black tape, spraypainted, with a J-card cover, limited to 15 numbered copies.

The tape contains 4 live recordings from the NOISECAFE at MÖKÄMIK in Helsinki from 2015 by PANAOSORMET(2/3), VLLTN, SYYS + COLDSORE.

[TOTFORM19]

COLDSORE - HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS

Handstamped transparent C-19 chrome tape in light blue snapcase with full-color fold-out cover J-card limited to 40 numbered copies.

All sounds on this recording have been made with selfmade electronic + electromechanic generators + manipulators. The voicesamples have been ripped from other sources. These have been recorded + edited in metsään studio
in Nuuksio.

LIVING HUNGRY has been released on the [we saw human guinea pigs explode] benefit compilation for the Simonn community, a London based homeless support group, released by CUTWAIL RECORDS in 2015, support the project and download from www.cutwail.bandcamp.com

BUILDING WALLS is inspired by recent borderpolitics, not only in europe. after fear tactics have been effectively used on wide parts of the population, the masses follow their leaders in demanding what they have been offered: to shut themselves in + others out. nationalism + racism go hand in hand. we strongly oppose both, plus all states, (not only the hate-mongering postfascist ones described here).

We believe to [make room] is not achieved by building walls. We demand space + freedom of movement for all.

[TOTFORM18]

LIBBE MATZ GANG / COLDSORE - [0+0=0]

Handstamped white c-30 chrome tape cassette in white snap-case with professionally printed double sided J-card cover (one side per project) and handstamped banderole made from recycled blueprints. Numbered edition of 50 copies, released by [TOTES FORMAT] & LIBERTATIA OVERSEAS TRADING in 2016. [Don't get confused by the pictures. this is just ONE tape.]

LMG - still hanging on out of pure spite, Q3 2015.
Pacific Trash Vortex = Island home for California spectres.
Manipulator / Adaptor / Pacifier
For the Bullwood Hall kids.
Thanks to Coldsore for sharing the virus.

COLDSORE - handmade trash electronics / doomdrones from the depths of soon to be cut down forests / nightmares of the concrete jungle / ashes of molten-down motherboards / acrid smoke darkens the burning skies / toxic gold teeth harvest in former diamond mines turned wastelands / thanks to L.M.G. for struggling with us.

Buy tape from LIBERTATIA OVERSEAS TRADING.

[TOTFORM17]

GRMMSK / KEMIA - TRUE LOWS

Handstamped grey transparent C-40 chrome split-tape with 20 minutes of new material from both artists. Doomdub Versions by GRMMSK and Pitchblack Tunes by KEMIA. The tape comes in a black backed snapcase with a fullcolor 2-panel J-card and 2 GRMMSK stickers.
Limited Edition of 50 copies.

[TOTFORM16]

TOTSTELLEN - KALTLAND

Handstamped grey c-40 tape cassette in white snap-case with full-color fold-out cover, numbered edition of 30 copies.

All sounds generated with handmade electronic & electromechanical devices. Recorded in winter 2013/14 at the “misery farm” in Waldeck.
---
at the peak of total
growth, the ultimate
expansion of an
omnivorous principle,
in accordance to the
laws of thermo-dynamics,
the cool-down process
awaits. when all the
energy is consumed, only
all-embracing coldness
remains. a frozen stasis.
[grimm 2014]

[TOTFORM15]

GRMM$K / M€NTAL HELL - GHETT OKIDZ

Hand-stamped white c-19 chrome tape cassette in white snap-case with transparent fold-out cover, numbered edition of 50 copies.

After GRMMSK and MENTAL HELL (aka LFO DEMON) played the fog-screened FROZEN BABYLON show in berlin's BEI RUTH in 2013, they now provide DOOMDUB variations on each side of this split-tape. GRMMSK's crawling versions / mutations of classic reggae tunes collide with the menacing vapours of MENTAL HELL's bass heavy exhaustions, resulting in a half-hardened slag-landfill oozing from the speakers...Welcome to the hostile world of GHETT OKIDZ.

[private release / no TOTFORM cat.nr]

müllGRMM - TÜTEsk

Handmade cover artworks, including spraypainted stencils, rubberstamps and screenprint on recycled material. The 1st 100 copies printed on blueprints & the 2nd 100 copies printed on cardboard folders, both scavenged from the old "africa harbour" in hamburg. Limited edition of 200 numbered copies on black vinyl with black label.

After GRMMSK debut "PUNK ON KOULLUT" from 2007 (free download link below), this is another DOOM[dub]-resurrection ov the still undead punk genre. Similar to the evolution ov zombie's mobility in movies these days, on the collaboration ov GRMMSK + MÜLLTÜTE you'll find not only slow motion crawling and staggering steps, but also rather aggressive and hectic attacks. That's when they've found you! Feel the sting ov this toothed-up VERSIONS.

[TOTFORM14]

GRMMSK - unfrei

3rd edition tape. 1st and 2nd edition are sold out.

Clear C-16 chrome cassette tape,limited to 9 copies, with inlaycard made from original pages of a finnish passport, handstamped and -inked. the stamps on the tape are lightgreen wet oilpaint.

Two brand new tunes in the praised DOOM[dub] style. Oozing rebelmusic, from the depths of babylon's sub-zero zones. "unfrei" is german and means "unfree". This states the general situation from which this sound emerges. The still chained-up roots, that are not only downpressed by racism and colonialism, but by a UNITY OF OPPRESSION with many faces.

[TOTFORM13]

GRMMSK - [dirty] SNOW

Black C-24 chrome cassette, first 30 tapes come in special handmade styrofoam-case, with aerosol etching, 1st edition limited to 50 copies. 2nd GRMMSK release with freshly exhumed and reanimated DOOM[dub] tunes from Helsinki. Jamaican steel rhythms in frozen echo-spaces.

[TOTFORM12]

TOTSTELLEN - live @ wendel (berlin 2006)

White C-22 cassette in cardboard case, each with one of 12 different coverdesigns, limited to 25 copies, handnumbered.

New tape-release with an archive live-recording from 2006, based on the material from the tunnel bruecke audio/video-instalation accompanied with a selfbuild string instrument, played with a handdrill. The instrument has been build from found material of the same location as the sound sources: the insides of a motorwaybridge crossing river elbe.

[TOTFORM011]

TOTSTELLEN - KOMASCHINE

Black mini-CD-r in mini-DVD case with inlaycard, limited to 30 copies, handnumbered.

Rather quiet and dreamy / nightmarish coma-drones based on sound- and voicesamples of the movie INSTITUTE BENJAMINATA by the quay bros.

[inside]
nobody ever wanted this, it was just one of many possibilities, some are attached to cables and tubes, others are attached to other things. everything runs smoothly, the dying and the less dying work deliberately together for an eternal life of something else, that no one even knows by name...

[outside]
there is no escape, no way out. no hope. even the passive / active element is part of the machinery. on = off. out = in. the last stage of the development of the omnipresent on / off switch makes this painfully clear.

[TOTFORM11]

GRMMSK - [the end] PROPHECIES

Black CD-r in handmade full-colour sleeve with additional inlay sheet, limited edition of 30 copies.

First re-release of [the end] ₱Ʀ▲₱ĦΣ₡‡€$ after the original tape by BEMBÖLE CASSETTES has sold out. After this LIBERTATIA OVERSEAS TRADING has released a "proper" CD, get it here.

Imagine winter in frosted hellsinki...stalking the dirty grey snowscapes of an urban nightmare with oldschool JA dub-classics in my ears, playing on my low-battery run walkman...the rhythm of reinforced concrete tombstones rammed into the hardned soil mixes with the off-beat, the foundation of new buildings... helves for the livestock of this system, slaves of moloch, white material...the only lights are synthesized but very soon they will fade to black. this is white babylon and instead of burning, it will freeze and shatter, then melt like the rest of the horrid white world into a greygoo apocalypse.

Buy Re-release from LIBERTATIA OVERSEAS TRADING.

[TOTFORM10]

TOTSTELLEN - mein licht beleuchtet nur abgruende

CD-r in handmade silkscreened sewn tarpaper envelope with 24-paged laserprinted booklet, limited to 50 copies.

Processed fieldrecordings of a journey through the baltic states, finland + lapland. reflections on constructed nature + disruption as utopia.

Notes from the booklet:

a radical difference is possible
+ a break is necessary.
disruption = utopia.
there is no alternative to the system.
no future promised after the break.
the break is the promise.
disruption - our utopia.
---
ein radikaler unterschied ist moeglich
+ ein bruch notwendig.
abbruch = utopia.
es gibt keine alternative zum system.
keine zukunft nach dem bruch versichert.
der bruch ist das versprechen.
abbruch - unsere utopie.

Poem from the booklet:

voraus kaum sicht, die strasze voller schnee, also hellgrau. seitlich davon, graue gelaender, die durch den hohen schnee auf den fuszwegen viel zu niedrig erscheinen. in die hoehe ragende laternen, die sich ueber die strasze neigen und nach oben hin im schneenebel verblaszen. SIE LEUCHTEN NICHT. der gesammte hintergrund der erkennbaren objekte ist weisz, die fahrt geradeaus, doch das bild scheint zu stehen und die gewiszheit, dasz es sich auch nicht mehr aendern wird manifestiert sich, wie eiskristalle in meinem herzen, ... bis nach einer unbestimmten zeit hellgraue silhouetten von kleinen inseln und im eis eingefrorener segelboote vorbeiziehen, viel spaeter erst einige einzelne baeume und dann auch wieder bauten der stadt.
---
almost no sight ahead, the road full of snow, thus grey. sideways grey railings, which look like they are way to low, because of the high snow on the boardwalk behind them. lamppost raising high, bending over the street and fadeing out in the haze of the blizzard. THEY DON'T SHINE. the whole background of every visible object is white, the ride straight forward, but the image seems to be still and the certitude, that this is how it's going to be maifests itself, like icecrystals in my heart, ... until after a non-estimated time brightgrey silhouettes of small islands and sailingboats frozen put into the ice drift by, after a much longer period of time some separate trees and finally the buildings of the city.

[TOTFORM09]

SCHUPPEN - haupsache (ein) dach über dem kopf.

(2010), cd-r in simple transparent foil envelope with black + white cover

experimental trio with an attitude:
drums: RZA AKA BOBBY DIGITAL
bass: JZA THE GENIOUS
handdrill + electronics: BILL "MOTHERFUCKING" MURRAY.

schuppen sind meist in einfacher bauweise aus möglichst preiswertem baumaterial errichtete gebäude, die als abstellplatz oder lagerraum verwendet werden und den im inneren befindlichen dingen schutz vor äußeren einflüssen bieten sollen.

[TOTFORM07]

TOTSTELLEN - KSR

Split-release with 1000+1 TiLt, cd-R in screenprinted cover made from found construction blueprints + a videofile, recorded in 2002/3, limited to 175 copies.

a narrative journey through the ruins of utopian architecture.

"the fragmented architecture of the ruins of capitalism, is to be taken as a completly new and unknown landscape. a nutrient medium, freed from its past „logic“ force, it can be the breeding ground for an evolving & to be developed utopia in which profit is not the only value. ksr10 & ksr8, were two abandoned office buildings. both have been a resort, a precious null, in a system devoted to the increase of profit. such places are confronted with the strong law of large numbers, which decreases the possibility of their existence, the longer you seek for them."

"utopias seem much more attainable than one may have previously thought. and we are now faced with a much more frightening thought: how do we prevent their permanent fulfillment?" ( nicolas berdiaeff )

01 - KSR10 (20:55)
02 - KSR8 (32:13)
03 - KSR8 VIDEO (07:44)
04 - KSR10 VIDEO (03:31) > only online

[TOTFORM06]

GRMMSK / NEUVOKSI - PUNK ON KOULLUT

DVD-R in dvd-slimcase with cover and inlaycard.

Video-documentation GRMMSK and NEUVOKSI's finlandtour in 2007 plus additional experimental videos (SPAKKI).

Contains material from:
29.09.07 vallatutalo / tampere
30.09.07 vastavirta / tampere
02.10.07 paska kaupunni / oulu
03.09.07 tupsuklubi / rovaniemi
06.10.07 nyrjaehdysklub / lahti

[TOTFORM05]

TOTSTELLEN - TUNNEL BRUECKE

(2007), splitrelease with REDUKTIVE MUSIKEN, cd-R in black plastic case with fullcolour cover with inlaycards, limited to 100 copies.

a study of architecture and the perspectives it implies. an acoustic reflection of the so called civilisation. entirely recorded inside the structure of a motorwaybridge, which is simulaneous a tunnel + even a labyrith underneath the droning traffic stream. originally the sounds were part of an experimental audio/visual installation with videomaterial shoot in the same location.

"hope for a change in vain, if it is focused on mankind and it's idea of the world, the founding behaviour, present in every cell. REPRODUCTION. the permanent spurting of semen, the wish for growth and the caring and nursing of the own, the grasping to patterns and the unability to let them dissolve. the longing for a change leads to an abhorrence of the moment, or the other way round. the attempt to escape is a movement into a distance, an unknown structure to the body, which triggers the longing for known forms and nearness. the longing is turning back. a new hope grows. the circle is closing. no escape."

[TOTFORM04]

GRMMSK - PUNK ON KUOLLUT

(2007), mini-cd-r, in handmade cardboard fold-out cover that unfolds into a inverted cross. around 30 copies in different shades of grey.

punk is dead.
and grmmsk is exhuming the decomposed corpses. repetitive fragments, a cacophonic choir of nullified voices and zombified noises. growing flowers in the soiled earth of punk's burialground, while the funeral march of a deceased culture / fashion is ringing in your ears.

[TOTFORM03]

TOTSTELLEN / EVAPORI - DRIFT

(2005), splitrelease with ANTIINFORMATION, split double mini-cd-R, special styrofoam meat-box filled with material(?) wrapped in cellophane, A4 inlaycard, limited to 50 copies.

two works referring to the passive or active state of drifting. being part of a mass implies a lack of self-controlled movement, the mass inertness is part of every individual, even if you try to change direction the code of the old movement still cannot be escaped.

"The face of the one most widely used CPR dummy, was modeled on that of an anonymous young woman whose body was fished from the Seine around the turn of the 20th century. It was believed she had taken her own life, but since she was never identified, no details of her life were known and the events leading to her demise remain a mystery. The unknown girl was entered in the books at the Paris morgue as "ecadavre feminin inconnu" (unknown female cadaver) before her remains were disposed of in an unmarked pauper's grave. A death mask was made of her features, but it is unclear if this was done in furtherance of attempts to establish her identity or because an unnamed morgue attendant was so taken by her visage that he took it upon himself to craft a memento of her beauty. (It is not true that death masks were routinely made of all decedents who graced the Paris morgue with their presence. Instead, beginning in 1881, the bodies of up to fourteen unknown persons would be laid out in a chilled room fronted by a plate glass window before which an endless train of the curious would pass, in hopes that some of the passersby would recognize some of the morgue's unidentified guests."

[TOTFORM02]

TOTSTELLEN (GRIMM) - SCHWINDEL

(2005), split release with ANTIINFORMATION, vhs-tape, with full colour cover and inlaycard, limited edition of 30 copies.

a constant movement and yet somehow still stagnant. there is no forwards. in the end, all of the linear tangents create an area. painting black (ger. schwarzmalen) in every sense. even if, on the first / superficial glance, there are no obstacles / walls / borders, it does not mean that there is freedom of movement. my movements in the surrounding structure is similar to the intoxicated rodent, not put into a physical maze, but is instead limited by the poison it has been fed. the question if my "poisoning" and the resulting patterns of movement are chosen or forced, can not be answered by my intoxicated mind. but there is a definite longing to turn away from the given path. to make / walk a negation of (a way of) life.
---
Audio/Visual work by GRIMM/TOTSTELLEN from 2005, remastered in 2020.
VHS tape released by TOTES FORMAT + ANTIINFORMATION.
---
This was recorded in my hood in scumburg, city nord. Close to my home for over a decade, by now destroyed for new yuppie condos and their kindergardens. I used to live there on an old pile of buried debris from bombed out buildings in a wooden 2X7m box. Besides painting black at night, i went also out to destroy rat traps filled with poison. It was placed everywhere. Sometimes i found animals who had just eaten the bait, their nervous system damaged they were only able to move in small circles - until they croaked in cramps. The toxiCITY had infested their minds. My mind has still not completly recovered from all the poison i've been fed and still feed of way to often.

[TOTFORM01]

TOTSTELLEN - FLIEHKRAFT

Mini-CD-R + inlaycard in a special package made of found material with individualy painted covers, the cd-R contains about 70 digital imagefiles of work by the artist OZ from hamburg, limited to 50 copies.

"for some the ripping force of social rotation is like the suction of a vortex into its centre, for others it's like the power a spinning platform has: one false move and you are thrown into the beyond. a few are confronted with both powers and and torn apart."