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SECRET CHIEFS 3
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WEB OF MIMICRY
Artist: SECRET CHIEFS 3 Title: Book M
Format: CD Catalog
Number:		 WOM006
Price: $12.00 Label: Web Of Mimicry
Release
Date:		 9/10/01
***Descriptions of Secret Chiefs 3 habitually begin with the main selling point - the Mr. Bungle tie-in - since four members from that band are involved, and who are we to flaunt convention? Though it's true that thrown-together side projects and uninspired avant-garde supergroups can attract respectable business, the Secret Chiefs 3 is anything but one of those.

An instrumental odyssey, Book M features full string sections, an assortment of Persian, Turkish and Arabic stringed and percussion instruments (played by people who actually know how!), microtonally altered synthesizers, organs and guitars, innovative compositions and truly off-the-map production techniques. The album is deceptively focused and deliberate, making the out-of-control aspects seem perfectly natural. Even moments of violent aggression are merged with the tenderness and subtlety of the band's blatant otherworldly passions. It is a drama of dizzying complexity played out even more explicitly in the glowing artwork and textual rants of the impressive 16-page booklet.

Present still are the unmistakable genius of violinist / Sun City Girls collaborator / Tzadik recording artist Eyvind Kang, percussionist William Winant (who has played and recorded with everyone from John Zorn to Yo Yo Ma to Thurston Moore to Anthony Braxton to John Cage), and the cast from Mr. Bungle (drummer Danny Heifetz, bassist multi-instrumentalist Bar McKinnon and producer / composer / multi-instrumentalist Trey Spruance). The addition of the Persian / Arabic instrumental expertise of Shamou on darbuka, zarb, riq, and zils, and Fatima on santur, take the SC3 to new heights far more impressive than earlier "ethnographic forgeries."

Artist: SECRET CHIEFS 3 Title: Book Of Horizons
Format: CD Catalog
Number:		 WOM14
Price: $12.00 Label: Web Of Mimicry
Release
Date:		 5/17/04
***Book of Horizons is the first release in an elaborate trilogy and meta-composition by Secret Chiefs 3. It's huger than anything the band has ever done: beyond psychedelia, beyond experimentalism, and beyond classification. The Secret Chiefs 3 enhance their usual multiple personalities and divide into seven individual and distinct bands, enabling the overall musical content to be distilled into pure vessels. One band incorporates multi-ethnic instrumentation and seasoned, soulful playing (by Eyvind Kang and Shahzad Ismaily), while the rocking, suprasensory surf band (with full orchestra) bloodies up the waters. John Merriman (Cephalic Carnage) and Unhuman keep the ultra-death metal grind band well within the pummel zone of utter mayhem.

This CD includes hordes of musicians and instrumentation-- real, not sampled-- including saz, rabab, mridangam, dhol, esraj, sarangi, orchestral percussion, male and female choir, violin, viola, cello and contrabass, harp, bowed saw, santur, ghatam, clavinet, organs, electroacoustic treatments, guitar, bass, drums, and tons and tons more.

Artist: SECRET CHIEFS 3 Title: Eyes Of Flesh-- Eyes Of Flame
Format: CD Catalog
Number:		 WOM002
Price: $9.50 Label: Web Of Mimicry
Release
Date:		 5/8/00
***Recorded live at Slim's in San Francisco, 1998, this CD, previously available as a limited edition mailorder-only item, features the touring incarnation of Secret Chiefs 3: Trey Spruance, Danny Heifetz, Eyvind Kang, B 0/00r McKinnon, Phil Franklin, and John Wayne Law. Taking their cue from medieval esoteric Shi'ism and the Ismaili gnostics, the SC3 weave sound tapestries strangely consistent with their unorthodox worldview. The music so passionately pits itself against the banal shit-world of the Apparent, refusing to be pinned down, gentrified or co-opted into any consistent format it can't help but exude that other, more controversial side of mysticism: holy war. No mere ignorant blunder into militant experimental darkness, Secret Chiefs' music is a heroic and Herculean effort that brings real excitement into the world of sound. Go into the light! Packaged in a slim cardboard envelope (no jewelbox) with a gloriously and minimally-graphic'd sticker for artwork.

If you have a recent version of iTunes software on your computer, clicking on the link immediately below should open the iTunes application and take you to that album's iTunes page-- where you can listen to samples and buy this album, or individual tracks:

Go to iTunes to browse downloads for Secret Chiefs 3 "Eyes Of Flesh Eyes Of Flame"

This title is also available for download at AmazonMP3.

For a complete listing of Midheaven exclusive albums available for download from the iTunes Music Service, emusic and Amazon MP3, please visit the Midheaven Mailorder/Revolver USA Downloadables page.
Artist: SECRET CHIEFS 3 Title: First Grand Constitution And Bylaws
Format: CD Catalog
Number:		 WOM003
Price: $12.00 Label: Web Of Mimicry
Release
Date:		 7/17/00
***Mimicry Records, reissues two CDs by Secret Chiefs 3 with previously unreleased bonus tracks:First Grand Constitution and Bylaws and Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws, originally released by Amarillo, currently out of print. Taking their cue from medieval esoteric Shi'ism and the Ismaili gnostics, the SC3 weave sound tapestries strangely consistent with their unorthodox worldview. The music so passionately pits itself against the banal shit-world of the Apparent, refusing to be pinned down, gentrified or co-opted into any consistent format it can't help but exude that other, more controversial side of mysticism: holy war.

No mere ignorant blunder into militant experimental darkness, Secret Chiefs' music is a heroic and Herculean effort that brings real excitement into the world of sound. Go into the light!

Artist: SECRET CHIEFS 3 Title: Hurqalya - Second Grand Constitution And Bylaws
Format: CD Catalog
Number:		 WOM004
Price: $12.00 Label: Web Of Mimicry
Release
Date:		 7/17/00
***Mimicry Records reissues two CDs by Secret Chiefs 3 with previously unreleased bonus tracks: First Grand Constitution and Bylaws and Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws, originally released by Amarillo, currently out of print. Taking their cue from medieval esoteric Shi'ism and the Ismaili gnostics, the SC3 weave sound tapestries strangely consistent with their unorthodox worldview. The music so passionately pits itself against the banal shit-world of the Apparent, refusing to be pinned down, gentrified or co-opted into any consistent format it can't help but exude that other, more controversial side of mysticism: holy war. No mere ignorant blunder into militant experimental darkness, Secret Chiefs' music is a heroic and Herculean effort that brings real excitement into the world of sound. Go into the light!

Artist: SECRET CHIEFS 3 Title: Live At The Great American Music Hall
Format: DVD Catalog
Number:		 WOM036
Price: $16.00 Label: Web Of Mimicry
Release
Date:		 2/23/09
***Live at the Great American Music Hall captures Secret Chiefs 3 in concert with what many consider to be the best of their many lineups in fourteen years of playing. Shot in 2007 at one of the band's favorite haunts, this DVD does justice to a group whose live energy usually exceeds the recorded medium.

Renowned for their ultra-elaborate CD productions, Secret Chiefs 3 has also garnered a reputation for the power and immediacy of their live shows. Their fanbase has swelled in recent years and grown accustomed to this live incarnation (the Secret Chiefs 3 bootleg scene is thriving), and they demand an official release! Not just some audience-hand-cam and stereo-mic-job thing, this DVD boasts a pro six-camera shoot with live sound mixed by Billy Anderson, with the multi-channel outs mixed for DVD by Trey Spruance and Randall Dunn (producer of Earth, SUNNO))), Kinski, Wolves in the Throne Room, etc). And it comes with a really nice six-panel gatefold digi-pack with original artwork.

At the show, Secret Chiefs 3 performs a set of both familiar and as-yet-unreleased music. The line-up includes Ches Smith (Xiu Xiu, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog), Shahzad Ismaili (who also plays with Graham Haynes, Laurie Anderson, and Tom Waits), Timb Harris (Estradasphere), Rich Doucette, Peijman Kouretchian, and Jai Young Kim. Live at the Great American Music Hall also has an award-winning and seriously dimensionally altered 80-minute stop-motion animation feature film directed by Tawd Dornfeld that uses Secret Chiefs 3's live show as a soundtrack.
Artist: SECRET CHIEFS 3 Title: Path Of Most Resistance
Format: CD Catalog
Number:		 WOM027CD
Price: $12.00 Label: Web Of Mimicry
Release
Date:		 5/7/07
***Secret Chiefs 3 have been running covert operations for twelve years now. For a band that tosses their releases out into the mirage of human civilization with little or no fanfare, it's no wonder that Secret Chiefs 3 have remained off the music media's radar, and have weathered innumerable musical fads without so much as a flinch. History has shown that the bulldozers will eventually come to break up cults like this, destroying their compound and seizing their weapons cache. Secret Chiefs 3 have therefore recognized the need to publicly gather some of their most universally recognizable doctrines into one affirming document. Path of Most Resistance is just such an offering to the public.

Unbeknownst to too many, this music is lush, gigantic, heartfelt, and organic, and can't be written off as mere musical gymnastics. People who may not be so geeked-out on the sophisticated hologram of ancient Pythago-quasi-Dastgah or modern western poly-tonal temperaments going on in this music, who judge things more on just whether it's good listening or not, now have a clean welcome mat rolled out, and bodyguards to usher them past the scowling elites, past the annoying zealots, and straight to the garden where the heart of this music beats. Culled from SC3's four main studio recordings, plus some enhanced CD bonus material (out-of-print live tracks, obscure cover versions, and two live videos), Path of Most Resistance will delight new and seasoned SC3 listeners alike.

30-second MP3 excerpts:

Book T: Exodus
The 4 (Great Ishraqi Sun)
Ship of Fools (Stone of Exile)
Renunciation
The Owl in Daylight
Combat for the Angel
Zulfiqar III
The End Times
Jabalqa/Jabarsa
Mera Pyar Shalimar
Ciocarlia (live)
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Good Vibrations
Heroes and Villains

If you have a recent version of iTunes software on your computer, clicking on the link immediately below should open the iTunes application and take you to that album's iTunes page-- where you can listen to samples and buy this album, or individual tracks:

Go to iTunes to browse downloads for Secret Chiefs 3 "Path of Most Resistance - Secret Chiefs 3 In History and Presence"

This title is also available for download at AmazonMP3.

For a complete listing of Midheaven exclusive albums available for download from the iTunes Music Service, emusic and Amazon MP3, please visit the Midheaven Mailorder/Revolver USA Downloadables page.

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