Storming the Base: Latest News

The Top 10 Reasons to attend Kinetik 5.5

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:58:05 +0000

10. This year's festival is a short walk from Schwartz's, probably the best deli restaurant in the world.

9. The Kinetik Festival compilation will be on sale for only five bucks.

8. A smaller festival is a more intimate festival. Think Prince small shows, but with Suicide Commando.

7. Kinetik side-event! Our friends at Plastic Wrap have organized a Bazaar of the Bizarre parallel with the festival. We highly recommend you check it out!

6. Suicide Commando does a special 2 hour set on the Friday.

5. More woman musicians you say? Ayria, Tonikom, Decoded Feedback...

4. More Canadian musicians you say? Displacer, Nitro/Noise, DYM, Encephalon...

3. This year, Storming the Base is bringing EVEN MORE vinyl than in previous years. SHIT LOADS OF 12" WICKEDNESS.

2. All the Montreal museums will be FREE on the Sunday. Amazing opportunity to experience culture!

1. Honestly, the coolest t-shirt ever will be on sale there. JUST GO GODDAMIT!

Another Stab at Genre

Fri, 10 May 2013 07:19:48 +0000

So part of the problem with genre comes from the fact that different genres use different parameters to make classifications. The detective novel is classified as such by its plot or main characters and so is a tragedy broadly speaking, but there is still something much more specific about "detective" when compared to "tragedy." And if you look at the historical novel, that is not defined by plot at all but rather by its relationship to history.

In a way, some genres are defined by what they contain (characters that are detectives), while other genres are defined by what's out there in the world (history). And it is this interplay between inner-world characteristic and outer-world references that makes genre so slippery.

But slippery shouldn't be taken to mean threatening or silly.

Industrial music could be characterized by its form, the sounds it uses, or a general tendency (in its original guises) to experimentation. While "old school" purists suggest that the genre has lost its spark, many simply take the different sounds in today's industrial world to be simply a widening of the inner-world characteristics of the genre.

But it's also easy to see that industrial music has (or had) outer-world references that are also key to its definition. Some of these had to do with politics, or a kind of anti-establishment ethos. I think to some extent the We Demand Better movement of 2012 spoke to this kind of outer feature of industrial. And it is arguable that, to a large extent, this feature is less prominent than it used to be.

I think this kind of two-minute analysis is useful. Let's not be rid of genre as a topic of talk on forums. Sure it's complicated and ever-changing, but that gives us a challenge, not a threat. It's not about defining what is and what is not industrial, but rather of having a sense (tentative though it may be) of what it is that we're so interested in.

INDUSTRIAL MUSIC VOLUME 2, available FREE here:

amzn.com/B00BO2WC72

What Is Industrial Music, Anyway?

Fri, 03 May 2013 06:53:36 +0000

I spent the better part of this week listening to a really cool history podcast in which the speaker devoted a good deal of time to discussing the question of definitions when studying history. You know, the kinds of things like "what does Middle Eastern" in Middle Eastern History mean?" --- or: "when does the Old English period end?". Well, these are interesting questions, but they also got me to thinking about the question of genre, and the by-now well-known question (wait for it)...

WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL MUSIC?

The historian gave me some food for thought: while questions about definitions are often followed by a collective groan, the fact that such questions pop up and won't go away, within a group or sub-culture, indicates rather that that group or sub-culture is thriving, engaged in something meaningful and (most importantly) has some self-awareness about what it's about and where it's going.

That's a mouthful, but it's a positive mouthful.

The question of genre is a vexed one, and I think it might take a handful of rants to go over it. But perhaps that will be worth the time invested (also the time to read it). First off, genre often gets confused with some kind of post-modern/post-structural idea about control. I'll put my cards on the table face up on this one and say I think that's a bit of Koolaid that we should all drink less of. In other words, I don't think the impulse to classify one's record collection, group one's favourite bands, or the styles into which Coil's albums fall into is in some way a secret mask for a nasty impulse to control art.

On the contrary, I think if anything defining genre has more to do with making connections -- and I mean broadly, that is making connections amongst peers, feelings, styles, cultures, countries... well, just about anything. So when an artist or listener reacts on a forum by saying "HEY MAN, IT'S ALL JUST MUSIC STOP TRYING TO PIDGEONHOLE ME," -- I want to say that making connections is in fact the exact opposite of pidgeonholing (literally, too). And therefore I really admire the discussions about genre -- about what is or isn't industrial -- provided they are genuinely about trying to make connections.

More next week.

INDUSTRIAL MUSIC VOLUME 2, available FREE here:

amzn.com/B00BO2WC72

Let's Get Physical: Haujobb Vinyl Redux

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:40:13 +0000

We've all heard this one before: vinyl sales are up. Yup, and now that Record Store Day blew the roof off the all-time vinyl sales record, nearly cracking the quarter-million mark in the one weekend alone, it seems that, at least for now, vinyl is here to stay.

We're happy that many of you are along for the ride, and, at the time of this writing, over half of the limited haujobb 2LPs have been spoken for. Not bad for a--ahem--dead market. We trust the remaining few copies will be gobbled up before long, and we really hope to release more vinyl in the future.

Announcing a haujobb vinyl sure got some strange reactions though, no stranger than the several accusations we received of jumping (or was it falling?) onto some kind of hipster bandwagon. Er... I guess. I mean, it's not as though the "scene" hasn't been releasing vinyl forever: hymen records, hands, and ad noiseam have always released vinyl, and I even own a few Cleopatra vinyls from back in the day. Didn't Possessive Blindfold release vinyl? If I remember right, too, there's a dusty Reconstriction vinyl somewhere in my collection (somewhere...).

I know of at least five **different** Daniel Myer projects that have vinyl releases, so it's pretty fair to say that haujobb was long overdue for one. Yes they are clunky and hard to carry, yes the shipping rates are depressing, and yes the corners will eventually get bent. But vinyl lovers really do have one thing going for them that hands down wins the day: passion. To the not so few people who plunked down one hundred dollars or more to order an album you already own and have it shipped half-way across the world, and to those who ordered two copies (one for the wall?): you are the coolest people on earth.

INDUSTRIAL MUSIC VOLUME 2, available FREE here:

amzn.com/B00BO2WC72

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE ALL STORMING THE BASE VINYL RELEASES.

Kevorkian Death Cycle new album in September!

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 06:04:01 +0000

One of our fave American industrial bands, Kevorkian Death Cycle, is back this September with a new album. God Am I will be released in 3 different formats on Negative Gain with a street date of September 17th.

I Left My Underwear in Jena

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:30:04 +0000

True story: sometime in the mid-90s (if you're curious it was the week haujobb released Matrix), I found myself slumming it in Germany when I caught wind of a show in Jena, a few hundred miles from where I happened to be (but no matter the trains were fast and I was young). The show was: haujobb + Synapscape + Beefcake.

Back in those pre-internet days, I had never heard of Synapscape nor Beefcake, but I had heard Solutions for a Small Planet, and to say I was a fan of the group wouldn't even begin to climb out of the valley of understatement. So I did what any Canadian teenager in Germany would do, I booked myself a one-way ticket to Jena, forgetting, while I climbed aboard, (I was after all staying the night) to bring a change of clean underwear.

Beefcake and Synapscape were impressive to say the least. Beefcake even pre-empted Fischerspooner's outrageous commentary on live performance by a decade by having a member of the band lie mid-stage on a couch for the duration of the gig. But when Daniel Myer and crew got up there, and when they for 60 minutes played what must have been the majority of Solutions------You know, in the 90s, I probably saw 500 concerts, and so pooh on you if you think this is a bit of god awful nostalgia because this was the one concert that made it, so many years later, to the Rant-----in short, it was outstanding.

I had a long train ride back home and after dancing in that club all night I was mighty sweaty and needed a change of clothes. I had a new t-shirt (realtime communication) but nothing else. And so I found the backstage shower, got myself clean, and left my underwear in Jena.

I asked the crew in haujobb many years later if they remembered meeting a Canadian at that Jena gig, but of course they hadn't.

The loss of underwear I could take but not being remembered is harsh. So I did what any self-respecting Canadian 30-something would do: I said to them, I sez LET'S DROP VINYL INSTEAD.

Dead Milkmen and The Role of Art

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:58:11 +0000

So Rodney Anonymous, he of the Dead Milkmen, won a contest this week in Philadelphia that saw him become mayor of the town. Well, perhaps not the real mayor, but a kind of virtual- "we love this guy" mayor. And what does he do on his first day as mayor? He encourages all Phili citizens to go out there and get themselves some industrial music (Dead When I Found Her and AAIMON included, of course). Good man. Great mayor!

But seriously, this intersection of mayor-politics and the music we love got us thinking, and thinking critically, about the state of today's art-funding, and the place art has in Canadian (and to some extent American) society.

Which is to say: a poor place.

Arts funding, and funding for the humanities in general, is shrinking, and with technology, iPads, and everything else that has a chip in it (except synthesizers of course) drying up the well of public funds, we kind of think it's time to point out the obvious: everyone loves music, books, and film. No one really buys Kindles or mp3 players for the technology; they buy them because they give access to the good stuff: Dead Milkmen, Star Wars, and Dostoyevsky.

Since things like punk rock aren't measurable in the same way as things like computer chips, it's easy for governments and funding agencies to ignore them. But we shouldn't ignore art because nothing gets off the ground without it. We can argue all day about whether video games or cooking skills constitute art (and maybe they do), but why spend so much time and public attention on those kinds of questions when musicians can barely get government support, and art galleries are constantly in danger of closing? When was the last time a mayor or major media outlet actually raised the issue of art in a meaningful way? And is it really the case that the value of the humanities is so questionable, that classics, literature, and fine arts departments are shrinking, while computer science is ballooning?

Perhaps we should consider that what made Rodney's declaration as mayor so unique is in fact a kind of sad and scary thing.

Like a Stab in the Back: The Knife's Shaking the Habitual

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 08:24:50 +0000

Oh man the new Knife rules! No it doesn't, it's crap. Are you kidding me, it's amazing. You mean terrible. No, I mean it's fantastic. It's boring. It's a work of art!

Okay, that was pretty much the conversation that transpired all week about the Knife's new album shaking the Habitual, not only in our office, but also online, in my Facebook feed, and just about everywhere else. It seems that no one can agree about whether the new album from Stockholm's electronic duo is a real stinker or a stroke of genius. We're torn here, and we won't tell you who thinks what, but we will tell you that some heated discussions have already transpired.

Okay, FACT. It's not as instantly accessible and weirdly wonderful as Silent Shout. But, then again, after they put out that opera, who was seriously expecting another Silent Shout? On the other hand, it seems obvious that the Knife has gone out of their way to weird out just about everyone, and perhaps that's not such a bad thing when it comes down to it. After all, it's easy to get comfortable with one's music, and it's easy to become a passive consumer of art. Even if we don't like the album, the effort to create something just that uneasy is to be applauded, if ever so quietly.

The Knife's Shaking the Habitual is available on triple-180-gram vinyl, 2CD, and CD editions.

And that is what I take the title to mean: the Knife wants to shake our habits, whether those be political or artistic, consumer habits or club-goer habits. The album itself may not exactly be the tower of electronic-pop perfection that we all wanted, but perhaps the Knife knew that, and perhaps they won't give us what we want. I'm not convinced that's a bad thing.

I hear huge Lassigue Bendthaus beats all over Full of Fire, and there are moments in the album that sound like JG Thirwell, Coil, and Raison D'Etre. Not that that makes it a good album, but those are pretty strong influences...

Perhaps the best call was made earlier this week by The Line of Best Fit: Shaking the Habitual is "an admirable pool of ideas, thrilling noises, rare, unpredictable melodies and a huge amount of imagination but to be brutally frank, it doesn’t encourage repeat listens." But then again, if we want to be serious about habit shaking, maybe repeat listens isn't what The Knife is after.

Grave Babies Crush us with the Awesome of their New Album

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:19:44 +0000

We don't do many rants on specific bands, but I think this year that's going to change. I mean, why rant only about political-business type stuff, when the reason we're all gathered in this room to begin with is that we love music? And that's what knocked us out this week when a colleague tipped us off to a band with serious edge.

We're talking about Seattle's own Grave Babies, who have put out several vinyls since 2009 and now release their self-described "nuclear~power~violence" in the form of their first full-length, Crusher. And by Crusher, they mean CRUSHER, cause this is seriously ballsy noise-rock meets goth meets post-punk, in a way that we, at least, have not heard before.

The video for Grave Babies "Fuck Off", from the superb Gothdammit vinyl.

Okay, for sure every band nowadays is either witch house or post-punk (or EBM, right)... but, to steal Grave Babies' own phrase, GOTHdammit they're great!

INDUSTRIAL MUSIC VOLUME 2, available FREE here:

amzn.com/B00BO2WC72

Here's a band that starts their album off with a 10 second wall of pulsating guitar sound, and quickly switches to a menacing weird backwards-tape voice that hints at exactly what they're about to give us for the next half hour or so: distorted (they call it blown-out) goth that sounds like it was recorded in a room with wet paint.

Crusher is such a great record because it's so blatantly weird, it revels in its weirdness, but at the same time it's not afraid to be totally indebted to some of the usual post-punk greats. A track like Breeding, one of the best on the record, constantly sounds like something I've heard before but then again it doesn't. Pain Cycle is another example: so messy, so dirty and all wrong, but it works really (really) well, so well that we are putting this up as our so-far album of the year...for real!

The video for Grave Babies "Skulls", from the new album Crusher.

One more thing: the good folks at Hardly Art really know how to break a band: charge a good price, even for vinyl, keep things in the reasonable category. Thus: even for import CDs and vinyl you're in the $15 to $20 range for this stuff. Smart.

3D Printing Your Own Music

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 07:43:31 +0000

YOU'RE READING THE RANT OF A DEAD MAN: the newsletter rant

So we ranted some weeks ago about 3D printing and what it might all mean for the concept of downloading, piracy, and internet culture. In that rant, we argued that once a physical object becomes encodeable, that is, once we cross the physical-digital divide, arguments about the benefits of sharing and piracy become more complicated.

In other words, the mere fact that something is piratable is not sufficient to make piracy, file-sharing, and code-swapping an on-balance good thing. In fact, the danger of downloading was brought home this week at SXSW when Cody Wilson gave his presentation about Wiki Weapon, his personal mission to create the world's first functioning 3D printed gun.

INDUSTRIAL MUSIC VOLUME 2, available FREE here:

amzn.com/B00BO2WC72

GUN? Yes, gun. The technology is here to be able to 3D print pretty much whatever, and nearly half a million people have already downloaded Wilson's freely available source code. Perhaps this is the price we pay for technological progress, or perhaps, as some have stated, this really is a question about freedom from state control. Call me medieval, though, but I'm not sure I like the idea that people can print guns.

Meanwhile, over here where issues are of a less life-threatening nature, we're happy that others are using 3D printing to do other fun stuff, like printing vinyl records. On the other hand, I think back to that first rant again when I said that 3D printing could mean the end for the entire concept of the store. And if you happen to be a store that sells vinyl, well, your end seems pretty darn close now. Seems like no matter what people print, the end is nigh.

Well, the bar has been raised now for 3D printing: vinyl records, baby! Do-it-yourself takes on a whole new meaning...

Pankow releases video for great minds against themselves conspire & dirty old men!

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:33:22 +0000

New video released to support Pankow's excellent new album And Shun The Cure They Most Desire. Album of the year 2013 (so far)!

EBM Day 24/2 - $5 Fixed Shipping all weekend!

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:16:23 +0000

Canadian and US customers can enjoy $5 flat-rate shipping on all orders this weekend. This means today, tomorrow, and Sunday on International EBM Day.

Just check-out as usual and the option for flat-rate shipping will appear at the top of the shipping options list:

♥ FLAT RATE! ♥ $5.00

There are no product exceptions, minimum orders, or format restrictions here. Order 2 CDs, or 5 vinyls, or even a massive boxset. No matter what you order, shipping is only $5.

Note: Flat-rate orders will not be part-shipped. If you order 6 items, and 2 of them won't be in stock for three weeks, your entire order will ship when all items are in stock.

Pirate Bay Documentary TPB AFK Released

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 06:24:33 +0000

Awesome documentary on the court case surrounding The Pirate Bay in Sweden. I watched this this morning and it's definitely highly recommended. No matter your politics on the issue, the film is beautifully shot, and the score is amazing. Watch now!

$5 Flat-Rate Shipping for Valentine's!

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 06:24:12 +0000

Canadian and US customers can enjoy $5 flat-rate shipping on all orders today. Just check-out as usual and the option for flat-rate shipping will appear at the top of the shipping options list:

♥ FLAT RATE! ♥ $5.00

There are no product exceptions, minimum orders, or format restrictions here. Order 2 CDs, or 5 vinyls, or even a massive boxset. No matter what you order, shipping is only $5.

Note: Flat-rate orders will not be part-shipped. If you order 6 items, and 2 of them won't be in stock for three weeks, your entire order will ship when all items are in stock.
Note 2: Due to ridiculous shipping rates to Northern Canada, flat-rate shipping is not available to the Yukon, NW Territories, or Nunavut. Sorry guys!

5 Items In Our Sale You've Probably Never Heard Of

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:27:26 +0000

This really isn't a cheap attempt to get rid of overstock, because most of these we have 1 copy of, so it doesn't really matter. But it's fun to share good music so here goes:

1. Chromosphere. Red Candy. This poor thing has been sitting in our warehouse for YEARS. It's so rare and unknown outside of Toronto that I cannot even find a decent cover image for it online. It was released on Plan 11 (raise your hand if you remember that label!!!), and it's actually Kristian Helstrom, ex-Bang Elektronika. Truly one of the coolest electro-pop releases to come from Toronto basically ever. I freaking LOVE this album!

2. Crash Tokio. Heads, We're Dancing. Released on one of Germany's coolest labels for indie-rock and pop, Crash Tokio's "Heads, We're Dancing" is slickly produced, amazing electronic-indie-rock stuff. Their keyboardist was also in Missouri, a rock band that Artoffact Records worked with for one album. But Crash Tokio is super catchy, and deserves to be listened to. The album is on Spotify, so give it a shot this week. Amazing stuff!

3. Das Weeth Experience. The Accentric Sounds Of.... Although we get accused of over-hyping our artists (which always amuses us, isn't that what labels should be doing?), we can unequivocally say that Das Weeth is the best release Artoffact ever put out. So there: it's been said! Quote of the century: "Someone faded Hank Williams' songs into some old school industrial stuff... LIKE SPKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK or something like that."

4. Kuu. Suomi Or The Well Of Impossible Wishes. CD. "Kuu" means moon in Finnish, and this strange electronic-ambient opus is a love-letter (but more of a hate-letter) to Kuu's native land. It works very well, even if you've never set foot in Suomi.

5. thebrotherkite. thebrotherkite. Thebrotherkite's debut album (already 10 years old!) is amazingly creative shoegaze and finds its way into my iTunes playlist a lot more than I expected it would when I first heard this. A delicious, unique record.

Will 3D Printing be the Evolution of Piracy?

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 08:40:06 +0000

A good friend recently showed me the below crazy YouTube video about 3D Printing. It's a straight-forward enough concept, and one that, as the video mentions, has been around for some time: if you print enough layers, your 2D printout will become 3D. You can print shapes, objects, and, an infinite number of useful things. Whatever you think of, you can print. Whatever anyone can think of can be sent to your printer.

There is no way of looking at 3D printing without being struck by just how big of a revolution it's going to be when it takes off. And though one of the video interviewees suggests that she cannot really envision a 3D printer in every home, I am not at all hesitant in saying the opposite: every home will have one, and everything you want will be printable, maybe even food.

Of course, the music industry professional in me sees a pretty obvious analogy here, one that follows the logic of "once something is digital, it's sharable." The rhetoric in the video, too, seems pretty similar to the rhetoric used about music copying: "Walls that existed before...are gone"... now "everyone has access." And so in a 3D-printer-filled world, it seems not unplausible that everything from earrings to dresses, and even highrise buildings and organs, would be, to use today's parlance, downloadable.

The implications of this idea cannot be contained in these short rants. But one wonders whether the "music should be free" argument applies across the 3D printer analogy. On the one hand, it would mean the democratisation of goods, which, when you think of printing apples for starving children, is pretty amazing. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that even the most music pro-piracy advocate would be pro-everything-piracy. Or would they? In the future, 3D printing might mean that the whole concept of the "store" goes obsolete, and, with it (maybe) the whole concept of "money". Maybe, maybe not. But the thought in the back of my mind has always been "why can't I just steal this dress from H&M if intellectual property should be in the public domain?" -- is the only thing that separates "can pirate" from "cannot pirate" whether the end product is digitisable?

The Band That Launched Metropolis Records, Love Is Colder Than Death, is Back!!

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:54:40 +0000

Yup, the band that was Metropolis' first release way back in the early 90s is back with a new release. Love Is Colder Than Death will return this year with Tempest, the first album in a long while. Check out an album teaser below!

Combichrist Unleashes No Redemption (DMC Soundtrack)

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 02:03:23 +0000

Check out this preview of the new Combichrist release, No Redemption. The new soundtrack for DMC is out in a couple weeks!

15 Buy 1-Get-1 Free Deals to Kill For on Boxing Week

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 07:57:34 +0000

We continue our Boxing Week Kick-Off with 2 for 1 deals on select Artoffact Records titles and a few from our friends!

Add the main item to you shopping cart.
The FREE item will appear automatically.
All orders receive free stickers and postcards!

1. Buy Continues. Continues. CD. get VNV Nation. Automatic. CD. FREE!

2. Buy Saltillo. Monocyte. CD. get Mona Mur & En Esch. Do With Me What You Want. FREE!

3. Buy Mindless Faith. Just Defy. CD. get Alice In Videoland. A Million Thoughts and... FREE!

4. Buy Legend. Fearless. CD. get Encephalon. The Transhuman Condition. FREE!

5. Buy Dead When I Found Her. Rag Doll Blues. CD. get Ascii.Disko. Black Orchid: From Airlines To Lifelines. FREE!

6. Buy Chrysalide. Don't Be Scared, It's About Life [Expanded&91;. CD. get Necro Facility. Wintermute. FREE!

7. Buy Jesus On Extasy. No Gods. get Omega Lithium. Dreams In Formaline (Bonus Track). FREE!

8. Buy ∆AIMON. Flatliner. CD. get Prospero. Folie a Deux: The Elements & The Madness. FREE!

9. Buy Various. Kinetik Festival Volume 5. 2CD. get Various. Kinetik Festival Volume 4. FREE!

10. Buy S.P.O.C.K. The Best Of The SubSpace Years. CD. get Vigilante. The New Resistance. FREE!

11. Buy The Horrorist. Joyless Pleasure. CD. get Massiv in Mensch. Niemand weiss, was die Zukunft... FREE!

12. Buy Saltillo. Monocyte: The Lapis Coil. Vinyl. get Psyche. Re-Membering Dwayne. FREE!

13. Buy Distorted Memory. Temple of the Black Star. CD. get Saltillo. Ganglion (Re-issue). FREE!

14. Buy The Rabid Whole. Refuge. CD. get Jet Set Satellite. End Of An Era. CD. FREE!

15. Buy Front Line Assembly. AirMech. CD. get Decree. Fateless. CD. FREE!

It's been a SUPER year for music and also a great year for Artoffact (and our friends!). We cannot think of a better way to get this stuff out there than to give you guys all 2-for-1 pricing on this selection of 30 amazing CDs. Most of the pairs include something great from this year and something great from last year. Even if you own one of the two, they make great gift ideas and the price is unbeatable. Thank you again to our customers and suppliers for making 2012 unforgetable!

Re-Vinylized - new documentary on the resurgence of vinyl

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:10:26 +0000

A new documentary on the resurgence of vinyl is now available from producer John Boston. The 30-minute doc captures today's crazy state of the music industry, the ups and the downs, and best of all the magic of independent record stores. Grab your popcorn!

"Re-Vinylized" is a 30-minute documentary about independent record stores in Chicago. The film celebrates the culture of independent record stores while examining the effects of downloading and the recent resurgence of vinyl record sales. The film profiles a number of Chicago’s independent record stores, and features interviews with store owners, employees and customers as well as insightful commentary from national music critics Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot (of National Public Radio’s Sound Opinions). The film was an official selection of the 2012 Chicago International Reel Shorts Festival.

Browse our vinyl section here.

Holiday Order Cut-off Schedule

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 07:11:42 +0000

We want you to get your orders on time for the holidays so please take note of these cut-off dates for normal deliveries.

For Europe and the USA:

Monday, December 10th is the last day you can place an order using standard (non-express) post and still have it arrive in time for Christmas.

For Canada:

If you are in Ontario, Manitoba, or Quebec, you can order as late as Friday, December 14th for delivery before Christmas, but we still advise that you order earlier. If you are anywhere else in Canada, the cut-off date is Monday, December 10th.

If you are ordering after December 10th, you can select our Fast or Faster shipping options. These will be sent using Canada Post's XpressPost or Priority Delivery services, both of which guarantee delivery within a few days. If in doubt, please contact us, or use our live chat to get in touch with any questions.

Other Options:

Toronto customers can select Free Pickup to pick up their packages in our centrally located office. Please note that our last office day before the holidays will be Friday, December 21st.

All customers worldwide can purchase Gift Certificates for their friends and loved ones. Happy shopping!

Nitzer Ebb Live DVD Track Listing Revealed!

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 08:49:11 +0000

Nitzer Ebb will release a live DVD on the German label Major Records next month and the track listing was just revealed here! Pre-orders have already begun and the DVD is sale priced with a 12% discount!

SAVE BIG! 20% off all store items -- TODAY ONLY!

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 05:39:47 +0000

In celebration of Hallowe'en, we're doing a one-day only sale to get you into the spooky holiday mood!

Use code SPOOKY20 at checkout and get an instant 20% discount on all the items in your order!

Minimum order is only $19, and there are no other restrictions. Offer expires when the ghosts go to bed tonight...

Tell us your favourite Hallowe'en album on Facebook and we'll throw in some extra pins and stickers in your order!

Pankow to Release new MCD Hogre on Out of Line!

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 06:48:33 +0000

The Italian electro/industrial/EBM pioneers will be back in November with an all new EP on Out of Line (followed by a new album in early 2013. ‘Hogre’ features 3 tracks from the upcoming album, but in EXCLUSIVE versions and a total of 4 remixes of classic AND new tracks by Binary Park, Plastic Noise Experience, Die-6, P.A.L. and Marc Urselli. PANKOW’s ‘Kunst & Wahnsinn’ CD in Infacted’s ‘EBM Kult Klassiker’-series last year stayed in German DAC alternative Charts for 5 weeks. ‘Hogre’ contains the first all new material by PANKOW since their latest album ‘Great Minds Against Themselves Conspire’ (2007).

Check out our Pankow section here.

Unreleased SKINNY PUPPY track covered on new DEAD WHEN I FOUND HER

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:24:35 +0000

SKINNY PUPPY wrote and played "Kill To Cure" live a lot in the 80s, and although it appeared on some bootlegs and on a cassette compilation (not sure if legit) for Provoke Magazine in 1988, the track never made it to any Puppy albums.

Enter 2012: Portland's DEAD WHEN I FOUND HER, who cite Skinny Puppy as a great influence, cover the track on their new release RAG DOLL BLUES. The track appears on disc 2 of the limited edition of Rag Doll Blues and on the digital-only iTunes release Stitches & Cover Ups.

The album was released on October 9th and cracked the iTunes top 200 electronic chart in the US. The 2CD limited edition, initially limited to 100 copies and recently reprinted by Artoffact Records, is only available at Storming the Base.

More info: http://dwifh.com/home/

http://www.stormingthebase.com/dead-when-i-found-her-rag-doll-blues-fan-pack-2cd-mens-t-shirt/

FREE SHIPPING sale! Today only!

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 02:29:06 +0000

This is the deal: you eat the turkey, we eat the shipping. Good?

In Canada, get FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $49 (that's like 3 CDs!). Use code CanadianTurkey.

In the US, get FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $59. Use code AmericanTurkey.

Valid only today. Valid on all items, even pre-orders and sale titles! If you order titles that are on pre-order or not in stock, we will ship your free-shipping order once all items are in.

If you have any questions, please contact us!

Create An Account, Get A Discount!

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 03:40:53 +0000

Announcing...repeat customer discounts!

Repeat customers will now receive a standard (and automatic) 1.5% discount when ordering from Storming the Base.com. The discount will appear at checkout. The discount will not be valid for customers who checkout as Guest, and it only kicks in after your first order. We hope this encourages customers to create accounts, because although Guest checkout is fast and convenient, it makes life more difficult when we need to track your order status or get in touch with you for other reasons.

We hope our existing customers enjoy the early Christmas present :) You can create an account by going to the Checkout page or the Create An Account page.

Infrastition To Reprint Asylum Party 2CD Collections

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:07:49 +0000

One of France's most popular coldwave bands, Asylum Party, got 2CD reissues some years back and those went out of print. With the entire band's catalogue hard to find, Infrastition has decided to make the two "Grey Years" collections available once more. Listen at Grooveshark, but don't forget to come back here to preorder the physicals :)

Back to School 15% off sale!

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 07:21:31 +0000

THIS WEEKEND ONLY!!

Take 15% off your entire order by using code BACK2SCHOOL at checkout. You've been stuck in some cabin all summer, or exploring South America, or canoeing down the Nile... and all the while you've been dreaming about those additions to your CD and vinyl collection. Well, now's your chance to grab all the releases you missed this summer for 15% off. Why not? Deal good only this weekend!

Valid on all store products, including MP3 downloads, vinyl, clothing, and of course CDs.
Not valid on pre-order titles or clearance titles.
Enter code BACK2SCHOOL at checkout, and you will see the discount instantly.
$20 minimum order.

Unitary Reveal Cover for New Album Misanthropy

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 07:21:24 +0000

One of our favourite newcomers in the past little while, Unitary, just revealed the cover to their newest album Misanthropy. Not sure when this will be out, but we expect something grand!