tirsdag den 21. maj 2019

Black Crown - S/T



Black Crown was delivered in my mailbox some months ago. I had an idea where this tape was from (but I wasn´t sure!). The project/act calls itself Black Crown, which is written/printed on thin, light-brown and plain cardboard-like paper (love the font!). No notes regarding who did the recording, no notes about when this recording was created and where. No information regarding... well anything!. The tape does reveal some kind of information, which is as follows: Limited to only 7 limited copies, a & b side + track-title. The track titles are really hard to read, the handwriting doesn't look clumsy but strangely... mysterious and automatic. Like the kind of handwriting, one might do after being possessed by some ghost/spirit who wants to deliver some kind of message on a piece of brown and thin cardboard paper. 

Now again, we are talking about a two-track cassette tape release. Self-released from the artist himself )I think). The first track on the A-side opens the doors wide-open for anything being completely enshrouded in obscurity. Strange mesmerizing ritualistic words being uttered (German language maybe?), heavily reverbed sampled vintage music going (Early rockabilly, blues, Motown, etc). And that is it, it all sounds very simple.... but it really isn't. Try to imagine that you are in a damp cellar, and this strange ghost-like band from days-gone-by are playing upstairs in the school's gym. That is exactly how it sounds and feel like. Very, very ... interesting!. Never heard anything like it! It just has to be heard to really understand it. The way the sound and the reverb has been treated is really... otherworldly. Kind of ... David Lynch/Twin Peaks soundtrack in psychedelic and strangely erotic haze.


Next track continues the same moldy-aesthetic psychedelic vintage mood. And then you are asking yourself, is that a bad thing?. No, because you seriously enjoyed the A-side and would like to have that feel continue. I would say that when you get to the B-side you would then be utterly hypnotized. When you have finished the tape/B-side, you will then flip it over and continue with the A-side once again!. And yes, it is that damn good and interesting. Avant-Gard aesthetics with a touch of ghostly vintage rock music, pure mood music for those obsessed with it! (fans of early C93, Nurse With Wound, Zoviet France etc). Go seek it! (if you can!). Note for this release, there is no Bandcamp or Discogs link (to be a detective and seek this rarity out!). 

onsdag den 15. maj 2019

Anonymous Masturbaudioum & Tuffo



Our favorite nylon fetish project Anonymous Masturbaudioum did an older split release (On Marbre Negre) back in 2017 with another project called Tuffo. A 2 two track cassette+digital release, capturing almost 70 minutes of raw and moody noise-wall material.

Each project works on doing a kind of noise-tribute to one of their favorite flicks. With Anonymous Masturbaudioum we´re dealing with a flick by Tinto Brass called The Key. If you do not know who Tinto Brass is, then I can reveal to you that he is the guy who did the infamous Caligula movie! In his early days, he was dealing in avant-garde movies, but later on, he began working with erotic themes incorporated in his movies. Here is information could be obtained about the Key on the world wide web:

The Key (Italian: La chiave) is a 1983 Italian erotic film directed by Tinto Brass. Set in Venice under the fascist regime in the early months of 1940, it recounts a tale of a voluptuous woman in her forties who is unable to respond to her husband but undergoes a belated sexual awakening with her daughter's fiancé, which enables her to please her husband at last. The film caused a scandal in some quarters because it contains several explicit shots of nudity (characterized by certain critics as "gynecological") and sex scenes involving the well-known actress Stefania Sandrelli. However, the film ultimately obtained a decent level of commercial success.

A blistering stereo-stimulating pain and pleasure experience with occasional samples from the movie running in the background. The whole noise-wall sounds like something cracking from above and then moving further down, microscopic shredding of a paper in slow-motion would be one way to describe it. Hypnotic suggestions of looped ambient moods are also present. Sheer delicate brutality to the point of extasy! 


Next in life is Tuffo, who will be doing the tribute to one of the greatest horror flicks ever made. Yes, we are talking about the Ed Gein inspired cult-flick the Texas Chainsaw Massacre from 1974 by Tope Hooper (R.I.P). Atmospheric, heavy and ritualistic drone-based distortions start the lovely B-side. Almost to the point of being drone-metal actually! Interesting flesh scraping knife-to-the-guitar-strings-sound (or something similar) going on. Screaming and sutle-expressive distortion pedals join up as well, starting off in a gentle way and evolve further on to more classic (and aggressive) harsh-noise territory. Interesting metallic steel-like bangings going on,  which also can be heard on the soundtrack for the movie. The whole recording is a soundtrack journey through sun-scorched murderous madness. Very breathtaking and intense!

So what are you waiting for?!. Classic and weird vintage cult movies bash up with the sound of modern noise artists! It works! And yes, we need more of this. Way more!. Go around Marbre Negre and acquire this excellent concept split cassette of a beast!.


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torsdag den 9. maj 2019

Anaru - Cold Zero



Long time since last time. Kalteldur reviewed the cult only-digital debut-album release named Rising Storm with Anaru way back in 2017. It was a VERY great debut, and I couldn´t help looking forward to hearing new material from this mysterious cyberpunk inspired Lithuanian electro-based project. This time we are facing a physical cassette-tape release via our favorite U.S industrial label Black Ring Rituals (see former releases!). Only 25 copies, but there is STILL some left at Black Ring Rituals (So be fast!).

First track Operacija Cold Zero enters cold soundtrack-based ritual music, very metallic... very hypnotic intro. Try to imagine sedatives being injected into you before an operation, that kind of touch!. Next track Vienintelė opcija - į pražūtį! works around the same hypnotic (and darkly futuristic) mood. Digital computer noises, train-like screams, whispering and echoed east-European voices and an exquisite and eerie rain-dropping on sheets kind of rhythm. The third track enters a more technoid isolated-feel. The coldness of the rhythms plus the almost psychedelic eerieness of the mood makes me think of U.S-based Illusion of Safety. I also can´t help thinking of Autechre´s classic Basscadet from their early years, you´ll know what I mean when you hear this track. The warped and multilayered samples here works REALLY good with the skeletal rhythms. Fourth track Ascetique Inhumane expands the eerieness even further, adding tribal rhythms, howling from a wolf... with a VERY weird and interesting soundtrack background recording which I cannot identify. I know that it does sound weird with a wolf howling with tribal rhythms on something being... cyberpunk inspired (BUT) I think it works for some reason unknown! Fifth track with it clinal aggressive drummings and vacuum-like soundscapes ends the A-side of the tape very nicely.


The B-side starts off with ėnomąsapisaižreV {system_reboots}, the longest track on the album (7 minutes). Static electrocution-sounds, deep ambient-synths, looped echoed voices and with a haunting and ghost-like tv-sample mood playing backward... actually kind of disturbing (in a good way of course!). The second on the B-side offers post-war-themed shellshock aesthetics of utter doom. Imagining a huge city being in total ruins, the radioactive matter cannot be avoided. Third track starts off with the alarm sounding (as if it wasn't enough standing in a ruined radioactive city!). Rhythms are added here, with something on the synth sounding like a melody. Almost being a jolly track with a danceable melody attached to it. I know I know, most people would probably think that the electronic drums are too primitive sounding... but I think that in the overall context it does have a certain charm. Next track Ordo welcomes the listener with the sound of diving German Stuka bombers (I think). The last you would hear before... well... The alarms are still ringing with this track. No doubt about it that a world war is close by. Last two tracks on this album being Club Bonus tracks, extra tracks for the thirsty. First one working as an outro sort of, resampling the intro track on the A-side of the album. Second (and last) track on the album closes it all up with an upbeat psychedelic treat, time to wake up from your sedative/operation?. Let us hope that the operation has been a success!.     

If you like the first album with Anaru, then this second release is a must to check up on. Functioning as a sort of continuation of the first Anaru release. Need a decent and unique cyberpunk mood, here is a good place to start! Remember to be QUICK on the cassette (link below). 

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torsdag den 2. maj 2019

Doménico Vecchio - Untitled



Sure looks like a sick release... some twisted fantasy idea from a masturbating and masochistic teenage boy who has nightmarish necrophiliac dreams? Nevertheless, the cover-art is splendid and it hits you like a razor... or as a very sharp knife (like in the picture). A thick and lovely texturized sheet of cardboard paper with the sick bunny on, and a red piece of blood-colored paper with the tracklisting plus notes on. The cassette has been sandwiched between, and it all has been firmly slid into a transparent plastic cassette-tape bag (VERY sexy!). Are we dealing with a sicko release here?... absolutely! 

5 tracks, 28 minutes long journey into a depraved dimension which lies between self-destructive harsh noise and radio pop music? An atypical and weird harsh-noise with a... intriguing surrealistic aesthetic attached to it. It would be stupid to namedrop some of the hotshots here of course, but try to imagine early (and noisy) Nurse With Wound together with British Smell & Quimm? That kind of sick, surreal seductive and just ... sick. Having a very experimental and direct aesthetic, while having a focus on retrospective pop culture/music (the samples within). Very action-driven and very abrasive also. 


I am not really a great fan of harsh-noise, but this one I do like. It does have GREAT "entertainment" value, a lot of sick/interesting things are happening in the recording. Not just a guy pressing the distortion button and feeling like a noise artist. It feels genuine and honest from the start and to the end. 

The material was made by a Doménico Vecchio and this (supposed) mini-album has been released by Spanish Marbre Negre. I suppose you check it out if you need something being...depraved!.


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lørdag den 27. april 2019

Empty Chalice - Mother Destruction




A new physical Compact Disc digipack album with Empty Chalice is on its way, limited to 100 copies and is released and distributed by Italian-based label Toten Schwan Records. 

Empty Chalice is no stranger to Kalteldur (or me). Having made a huge and positive impact with the strained and sorrow-filled dark-ambient ritualistic masterpiece Emerging Is Submerging album (see/read the former review and link below!) I was kind of hyped to check up what this act has come up with.

The album follows in the same vein of haunted ruins of gothic-cathedrals like the previous album, which is a good thing because.... it is a good thing/idea (Empty Chalice does this thing REALLY good!). Let me try to explain!  

Unholy Light being the first track of the album welcomes the listener into mystical and ancient Orthodox-based ritual rites. The sound and mood are just right in the eye. Ritualistic gentle tappings on an esoteric metal-based instrument (a bit like How to Destroy Angels with Coil), ghostly drones waves in and out and caressed your mind while hidden and strained melodies lurk in the shadows. It sounds like something from the very best era of Swedish Raison d´être with a touch of Brian Eno, and there is nothing wrong about that!. Everything works in perfection with the first track.

The second track called Treblinka Snow, being a more ... mysterious and eerie piece. Treblinka, a concentration camp will, of course, pop up into the mind. A track with also... a more melodic approach with female spoken words/lyrics attached to it. Why I am thinking of neo-folk pop act Rome here, I don´t know why. A dark-ambient version of Rome done by Swedish Coph Nia maybe? The whole track feels like a black hole sucking away life dry as we know it, same thing with the concentration camps. A very heavy-ambient atmospheric track (which should/could have been longer, I think they could do a long 1-track mini-album out of this one excellent track!). 

Third track Rest In Pain... suicidal drone-doom anyone. Traces of guitar/bass-string instruments here and there and real looped drums slowed down to a crawling tempo. Scary human-voices trying to push a melodramatic mood into place, it sounds cool because it sounds like if the voices (which have been recorded) were pushed into the farthest end of the corridor and were just left there to do the vocal parts. Acoustic guitar parts take over from there and let the listener feel a touch of loneliness... the kind of loneliness when everyone is gone (or dead!). Icy drones keep on looping here to lull you in a melancholic trance. 


Fourth track has a very strange and esoteric title (Qua Resurgent Ex Favilla). The most occult-like atmospheric one and it has that... funeral ambient feels to it as well. Funeral thing like... something being finally at peace? A very pleasant dark and romantic piece I think. Excellent evocative and archaic religious-sounding vocal parts are done here. A very spiritual one... might just be my favorite piece on this album. 

The last lamb to the slaughter on this album is simply called Mother Destruction (like the album!). Sound of a hissing gramophone sound looping, endless and beautiful ambient voids, undercurrents of synth-based melodies. The track made me think of my father (R.I.P), he always used to say that after Dresden was bombed in WW2 you could practically stand on a beer crate and watch over the entire town! That is exactly the feeling you get with this track, it feels completely empty with tiny human traces here and there!. And yes, I do mean it in a good way!.

A fantastic album with a fantastic depth attached to it. A unique dark ambient album with real instruments, and vocals as well. A journey through the netherworld (or a parallel universe), meeting ghosts/dead-people, existing/caught in a static loop between life and death! My god... This album does give you that!. Go and give it a thorough listen!. Now, we just gonna have to wait till the physical release is out.


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søndag den 7. april 2019

Mörka Skogens Vindar - S/T



Olof S Redig (Fåntratt, Rymdborg, Erdig) has started a new dungeon synth inspired track called Mørka Skogens Vindar (Dark Forrest Winds). A quicky sold-out debut cassette release, but still available for anyone on by digital means on Bandcamp

4 tracks, 30 minutes. All revolving around a cold and dark forest-theme, the very kind people get lost in and end up freezing to certain doom. Not a totally gloomy uncharming forest, but the sort with a certain... magically beauty. Sparkling and glittering snowy frost here and there, breathtaking white mountains, ethereal kind of fog, mesmerizing winter silence... And at that point, you are probably already lost! The whole album has that... it sucks you in and keeps you there kind-of-feel. You have an allowance to enter this secret world, and once you are in there ... you don´t really want to leave. So yes, we are talking about an enchanted but beautiful forest filled with dryads, elves, gnomes, etc etc. Small´ish magical creatures with pointed ears reader to either charm you or throw a bloody curse on you!


It is a wonderful place to explore, the entire album brings your very favorite peace-of-mind forest right into your own living room. It´s Olof´s slightly folksy psychedelic drone dungeon synth, with a little more attention to back-to-basics ambient music. The album contains those classic Brian Eno moments! (Music for Airports era). Most interesting detail about this release is that he even had help from one of his kids doing improvised stuff on his synth. It gives the album and the sound a certain nostalgic charm, very unique!. So what are you waiting for, grab and read your favorite Nordic fairy tale story and have this running in the background!. 


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torsdag den 4. april 2019

HgM - Iridium 192


Obscure field-recording/industrial-noised based project from Portugal, been churning out toxic harshness since 2013. Been active through labels like Cranial Fracture, Big Pharma Records and also through its own label Ho.Gravi.Malattie. This release came out on CD-R through HgM directly and also on cassette (30 copies) via another Portugal-based label called OTA (see link below!). Released back in January 2018. 5 tracks, 25 minutes. So we are dealing with an EP/Mini-album.

It´s a lovely back-to-basics experimental industrial-noise treat. Very drone-based, looped and cold distorted sounds, hypnotic suggestions with almost heavy post-rock´ish psychedelic-textures at some tracks. First track Kill Blast Furnace has that lovely primitive and harsh sound-quality, kind of early death-industrial with atmospheric noise-drones. Signal Steel Explosions welcomes the listener with that old modem sound (the ones we used to get on the Internet back in the day!). This track kind of takes of where the first track ended. Some of the same sound-elements and samples are used, but they are used in a way which makes the track sound like a new one (or just a good and decent continuation of the first track).


Third track Cardio Nickel Alloy puts the listener in the bowels of a deep mine, while monotonic loud machines are churning through the mine. Sounds like screaming rusty machines falling apart literally. Oxygen Gas Fusion is something very interesting for the ambient/soundtrack geeks. Ghost-like whispering, droning and deep echoed human-voices, eerie reversed recordings. Like being trapped somewhere as a ghost between heaven and hell? Very nice!. Last offering Iridium 192 goes further into soundtrack ambiance, almost esoteric ritualistic in nature. Post-rock´ish texture are present here, being fused/mixed together with classic industrial ritualisms like Controlled Bleeding and Nocturnal Emissions. Also very good!. 

A delightful (and interesting) journey through blast furnaces, steel explosions, gas fusions and ending up chilled ritual-moods. If this release was meant to work as a soundtrack from the beginning and to the end, I would say that it has succeeded (VERY MUCH!). Absolutely no reason why you should check this one out!. 


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onsdag den 3. april 2019

Lá Ùltima Mirada



Something new and something unknown has just been released from Spanish Marbre Negre. No one yet has proclaimed being the creator/creators behind this mysterious release. It´s a dark cassette cover showing the known and fiendish visage of child molester Albert Fish, with a sort of mystical free-masonry´ish esoteric symbol on his forehead. It comes in two limited cassette editions. One that comes in a cardboard box with inserts and download codes, plus having professionally engraved Chromo cassettes. The other being the cassette, without the cardboard box, etc. It´s a two-track release with almost 60 minutes of pure hellish delight.


Brutal atmospheric ambiance, cold ritualistic undercurrents, merciless noise-scapes at the same time! Sounds like a recording from a pure imaginative hell, but don´t go away!. This stuff is very interesting! Being multilayered, and having sounds that switch from one speaker to the other. Soundwise it is VERY decent made, sounds even professional (if you ask me). Not just another cellar harsh-noise treatment with a kid trying (by desperate means) to scratch a knife into a microphone, while jumping on a 1000 guitar-pedals. A lot of brain-power has been put into use for this one, and I suggest that the listener should open their ears widely and let the mind absorb the hellish (but also delightful) heavy and expressive soundscapes. 

I am not sure what the album means, other than being something about Mirada being the very last one. Albert Fish hasn´t had a Mirada on his victims-list, so... who knows?? The track titles are also just called track A and B.

Either way, a release worth anyone´s attention. For fans of MZ.412, Whitehouse and Zoloft Evra. 


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mandag den 25. marts 2019

Phantoms vs Fire - WLDFE



Phantom VS Fire hails from Brazil, and it out with its second album which has been released on cassette and CD via German-based label Blackjack Illuminist Records. Purely electronic-act which makes a lovely fusion between chilled retro-wave and dreamish ambient electro-pop. Think Boards of Canada, Electric Youth, and touches of Daft Punk here and there.

It´s a bloody well-executed piece of work I say. Kind of thing that retro-wave fans might enjoy since the album/act tries something new with the nostalgic synth-formula. An excellent example of this would be to give the second track Mirage a listen (or two for that matter). The first thing you´ll notice would be the strange nostalgic (and slightly sound-altered) beat starting the track, a kind of beat which takes me back to the late 80s to early 90s. Rap-groups and other pop acts have used this similar beat. This beat gets joined up with a lovely warped heavy synth-bass and a futuristic and dreamish melody straight from heaven. The mood gets slightly more dark and dramatic later on with angelic church-like organs! One of those lovely kinds of tracks which just kind of... grows on you. I have heard this track... maybe 20 times so far?. Third track A Beautiful Madness lives up to its title. Reminds me of something apocalyptic from one of those old Japanese RPG-typed games which you played on your NES or the Sega Masterdrive. (Phantasy Star, Final Fantasy etc). 


A kind of storytelling quality if you please. Retro-wave with gothic/dark-wave elements are explored on the fifth track Electric Cross, has that almost early Italian zombie-flick drama attached to it! The best elements we have heard from French Daft Punk are further exposed to us on the sixth track Cave Dreams, sounds like a lovely dream that shouldn't end.

And that is that rest of the tracks/album are also worth the exploring. As mentioned earlier, the album shines of storytelling like quality which makes the album hold from the start to the very end. If you put on Tangerine Dream´s Stratosfear, then you know that u should listen to that entire album to the end of it. Same way works with this! A lovely underground indietronica release which deserves attention. 



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torsdag den 14. marts 2019

Compactor - Total Data Control


Have not heard much about this project, which actually has been active since 2011. 100% pure minimalist brutality of a solo project! And Total Data Control is the very latest. Also being out on cassette via Phage Tapes (see link below). 

You got 8 tracks of pure digital sound brutality. Every micro-second made of pure ear-candy delight. Somewhere between the electronic armchair feel of Autechre to the industrial rhythmic abstraction of Synapscape. The sound volume goes up and down in a split second, distorted-sounds jumps from the left speaker and right back to the right speaker, almost feeling a physical presence of an organic rhythmic beast in the heart of this. I can even taste the sounds on the edge of my tongue, tastes like something between corroded and rusted wires and welded steel!

First track Pervasive Intrusion starts the track with a lovely back-to-basics industrial/power-noise beat, looped steel bar tunes, fingertipped-controlled pedal-distortion effects (almost sounds like a mechanical guitar!). All of this gets warped in and out of focus, hint of Aphex Twin madness here and there. Really brutal and abstract at the same time.

Second track Location / Identification offers 8-bit Commodore 64 sounds being totally exploited and mutilated in a lovely rhythmic soundscape. The sounds of steel-spiders crawling all over this track. More of a creepy paranoia piece, very enjoyable!


Fourth track lets the listener understand the creepiness behind a Security Camara Stream. A more of an experimental and non-rhythmic noise piece. Again, we are dealing with a sound-brutality that u just want to dive into. Very stimulating material, almost feeling my brain is starting to itch (in a good way!). 

Another track that should be mentioned is the last track on the album, called Listen Learn Predict. A heart-rhythmic death-industrial machine pounding slowly, telegram bleeps, old-school modem noises, screaming digital-ghosts... I mean really, this is good!

There is (or can be) a ghost inside a machine after all. And Compactor has just proven that. A frightening cold and merciless old-school mechanical machine with human faults and feelings?. The cold technoid aesthetics has a lot of souls ok?!. You have got to give this one a good listen, this is great! Additional (and official) info below :


Total Data Control is a 40-minute audio document recently licensed on US underground label Phage Tapes. The collection turns the lens and microphone around on Surveillance Capitalism, the commodification of consumer information. The cover art was created from the actual code for an open platform video surveillance program. Each of the eight tracks points to a different aspect of how ubiquitous these practices have become in society, especially since the increasing shift towards everything being done online. Further sentence fragments inside the insert trace the steps of a path of commands that leads to increased compromises in the humanity of our societal structures. There is also a simplified GPS map to one of the sources of this.





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mandag den 11. marts 2019

Human Vault - Primordial



Think this is the... 4th time I am listening to this. Received it via post 4 days ago. An older project (1999) which is one of the numerous side-projects of Gyorgy Turoczy (Stone Wired, Odour Sonour). This album is the latest Human Vault album. I will suggest for you readers (who are curious) about older releases, check the Discogs link below. And yes, this project has a lot of releases to check up on! 

Most of the work done by Gyorgy has been in the vein of death-industrial/dark-ambient, where Human Vault moves towards a more EBM-inspired sound. An almost old-school/retro sound not that far away from early Skinny Puppy, FLA, and Delirium. A kind of slow and murky EBM with a kind of ambient-soundtrack on top of it. And this album offers about 50 minutes of that EBM-ambient industrial fusion-delight! 

The first track offers that Initial Command (FLA) murky creepiness of sound with fantastic evocative distorted vocals. Really love the cold and clinical rhythms here, and the (almost) X-files´ish melodic soundtrack synth. Epic without the unnecessary drama, love it!. 

Second track convinces you thoroughly about the intention of the album. A strange and warped rhythmic electronica industrial-doom instrumental treat, the snare-drum on this ... a pure experimental ear-candy track here! Again with incredible icy synths on top. Fans of Doubting Thomas, take notice!


The third track has the samples once used by My Life With A Thrill Kill Kult ´And this is what the devil does´. The only difference is that this track doesn't take you out on the disco-EBM dancefloor. A kind of apocalyptic-heresies-on-the-burning-stake In Slaughter Natives kind of feel here! Pounding and thick metallic ritualistic rhythms just getting more and more intense as the track continues. Something about this track makes me think of Carpenter´s ´Prince of Darkness´movie, damn sure it could fit perfectly into that old soundtrack!  

More to discover on this album, and every track on the album is worth the exploring. But my favorite track on this album must be ever seductive So I Just Fly Away (8th track). Almost reaching angelic ambiance here, with perfectly executed and down-tempo steel-like electronica drums. And with those dark and slightly futuristic retro synths (X-files?). A really beautiful track here!.

This excellent release has been released on a beautiful cassette, while also being digital available on the official Bandcamp site. Cassette-box being enclosed in a black (and thick) illustrated cardboard (LOVE THAT!). 66 physical copies, act fast!.


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