6 track album

YouTube video by KEXP

Fictional folk music from the post-apocalyptic age. Check full European tour dates here: https://swampbooking.com/akchamel/

Fictional folk music from the post-apocalyptic age. Check full European tour dates here: https://swampbooking.com/akchamel/

10 track album

I've been frightened at a concert twice in my life. The first was in 1987 while regretting my fragile mortality in a sea of shifting humans standing on metal chairs at the Pontiac Silverdome during a U2 concert, and the time in June 2023 at Acme Records when one of the musicians, dressed up like an alien cannibalistic swamp dweller, ran off stage directly at me on his way out of the building, screaming at the top of his lungs the whole time. Outside, on the sidewalk, he kept on screaming for a minute or so. That last moment is captured in surprisingly good fidelity on this recording, where this enigmatic and anonymous duo opened for **Derek Monypeny** at Acme Records. I'm afraid I can't quite explain in mere words how strange Ak'Chamel is. As an illustration of how they might perceive themselves, let me quote in full their promo material for their most recent album That will give you a picture of what we're dealing with: Ak'chamel, The Givers of Illness plunged into truly deranged extremes to summon the decayed, otherworldly essence captured on _Spiritually Unemployed_ , embracing unhinged and esoteric methods during the tracking process. Recorded in a makeshift adobe studio amid liminal border-zone ruins. Nocturnal treks along forgotten stretches near the U.S.-Mexico line, through derelict border outposts and sun-bleached vehicle husks, yielded unique recording opportunities: Ak'chamel dragged tape decks like sacrificial talismans, to capture gravel crunch, distant javalina fights, and unintentional EVP-like anomalies. Harvesting the psychic weight of migration, abandonment, and geopolitical limbo. A half-broken oud, double-reed pipes, a battered hurdy-gurdy, and self-built spike fiddles were "tortured" pre-recording; strings detuned to unstable microtonal chaos, reeds soaked in questionable desert-sourced liquids, and instruments were kept outdoors to absorb ambient dew, dust, and wild temperature swings, ensuring every take carried an unpredictable, haunted instability. Vintage cassette decks and reel-to-reel units were powered through erratic, low-voltage setups (literally dying generators) which introduced random voltage drops, speed fluctuations, and ghostly dropouts mid-take -- turning tracking into unpredictable spirit interventions. Fresh analog takes were dubbed onto tapes previously buried in arid soil throughout the hot day, then exhumed and played back while layering new overdubs; creating a palimpsest of temporal erosion where past decay bleeds into present performance. Live performances were blasted through overloaded, malfunctioning analog chains (cranked cassette walkmans, battered spring reverbs filled with gravel, warped echo units), then physically "mauled" by running the tape through sandpaper-wrapped capstans or crushing segments underfoot before resplicing -- resulting in tracks that feel compressed, twisted, and ruptured. Thus the desert claims its due: instruments tortured into prophecy, tapes interred and exhumed in chapels of malfunction. _Spiritually Unemployed_ is the resulting artifact -- a sonic border autopsy where enlightenment arrives not as a sealed doctrine but as an open infested wound. Honestly, it was an amazing experience. I've thought about this wild show often in the last three years and can't wait to see them again. **Purchase their most recent album here.** Recording information: AK’CHAMEL, THE GIVER OF ILLNESS 2023-06-08 Milwaukee, WI Acme Records The two musicians of Ak’Chamel wish to remain enigmatic and anonymous Setlist: 01 Section One (9:12) 02 Section Two (7:46) 03 Section Three (6:44) 04 Section Four (6:08) Total time = 29:50 Recorded with permission by Richard Hayes for this blog Microphones: Beyerdynamic MC930 in ORTF Additional source: mono mixer feed Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre6ii Software: Audacity, Fission, xAct _**audio downloads**_ _these will automatically download when you click them:_ **** **16bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC files (158 MB)** _these lossless files can be burned to CD, if you are into that sort of thing_ **320 kbps mp3 files (87 MB)** _highest quality mp3 files possible_ _ _ _ _ > _video of a recent performance in the Czech Republic:_

Die Texaner von Ak'chamel haben in den letzten Jahren auf zahlreichen Tapes und der nun dritten Vinylveröffentlichung unter verschiedensten Beinamen agiert, so z.B. The Giver of Illness, The Divinator...

The Giver Of Illness, Ak'chamel · A Mournful Kingdom of Sand · Song · 2023

Ak'Chamel the Giver of Illness at Acme Records in Milwaukee on June 8, 2023 https://www.milwaukeetaper.com/2026/08/akchamel-giver-of-illness-at-acme.html

Fictional folk music from the post-apocalyptic age. Check full European tour dates here: https://swampbooking.com/akchamel/

Rad&Co · Alchemy · Song · 2024

“Ak’chamel are one of the most consistently fascinating and creative bands in the psych scene right now.” - Brainwashed For 15 years the trio of Ak’chamel has buil t a solid reputation as a compelli...

LIMITED TIME / LAST TIME AK'CHAMEL LOS ANGELES, CA @ ZEBULON 2025-03-19 SP-CMC-4U -> A10 -> Soundforge -> FLAC (no setlist) WTF did I jus...