B.C.E. was recorded during home sessions from January to April of 2006, with one number, “Ziggurat,” recorded live on a rooftop overlooking Denton’s Fry Street.

Recorded with the tried-and-true method of “push button and go,” B.C.E. is an interconnected series of moments where chemistry, spontaneity, and thrill override all else. From occasionally melodic pieces highlighting the incredible range of sax player Forbes (“GNU,” “Ziggurat”) to equipment-abusing incidental noise-scapes (“Cro Magnon,” “Carbide”), the heart of B.C.E.’s glistening darkness are rising/falling dreamscapes and chemical hayrides like “Coelacant” and “GNU II.”  With only 33 original pressings, and a dubious “no-fi” recording technique, B.C.E. nevertheless garnered an inordinate amount of enthusiasm and rave reviews.  Although iDi*amin remains on hard hiatus while Chamy, Hill and Forbes continue on as the Zanzibar Snails, Mayyrh Records has reissued B.C.E. as a second limited edition, an alternate version of Hill’s menacing original foldout design, which   “unfolds like a funeral invitation,” as one local scribe aptly posited.

“One can imagine from the filtered and flanged pops and belches, the bubbling primordial goo that the savage sounds of this record seem to have arisen from … from the quiet brooding and buildup of "GNU" and "Pomba Gira" to the all out tribal warfare of scathing noise and scattershot percussion in "Angioplasma" and "Cro Magnon." - Frenetic Love

"... the dream is still alive for iDi*amin if today's gals are into bleak, apocalyptic, and atonal nightmares. ... if I had any power to change DFW's shitty rock history, "Ziggurat" this would replace "Possum Kingdom" as our most widely known local hit. ... 4 stars, - We Shot J.R.

"... this will be one of those bands that 15 years from now addicts looking for new kicks will revere this art project as smack de jour. And a hundred years from now? Well they will be heroes. ... We are Italy, iDi*amin is Marco Polo, and their sound is the noodle. Eat it don’t just hear it. " - New Century Art

“iDi*amin shares some members with the Zanzibar Snails and given its sound I’d call them their slightly more rocking cousin that spends most of his time lying down staring at the Big Dipper. That means that we get squealing and drifting guitars going for the stars but this one doesn’t just follow the usual intergalactic track, as oscillator, keys and sax also are important components of the mix. In every crossing and in every bend these guys are loosing the most convenient track and are diving deep into bubbling hotpools filled with corroded noise destruction. The result is a damaged extended sound sculpture spread out over a dusted sonic plane suggestive of many a fine New Zealand free noise/rock/drone champions.” - Mats Gustaffson, The Broken Face, 6/27/07

 

“The cover unfolds to white line drawings of intestines on a nice beige paper four part gatefold sleeve. The music a free fusion of droning free jazzy murk and tribal thumping. Gargling guitar next to tootling saxophone, hazy sheen of guitar trembling, drum kit speaking in tongues. Supernatural atmospheric hoodoo and mellow chaotic seances in the rain. Lots of space and room for everyone to communicate, and taken as a whole an utterly irresistable organic psychedelically inclusive improvisational flow.” - George Parsons, Dream Magazine #8

 

 

“Albums from Chris Garver, The Theater Fire and Midlake were all in heavy rotation around the headquarters throughout 2006, but the two that probably received the most attention amongst our crew were idi Amin's B.C.E. and Current Leaves' Pastense, which sounded like they were made on different planets. Realizing that we could listen to one great local album of Bakersfield informed psychedelic rock immediately before another album of sax driven ethereal noise explorations was probably one of the most telling signs of the exciting diversity to be found in the DFWd underground, and one of the best indicators of the talent to be found in the area.” - We Shot J.R. 2006 Year-end roundup by stonedranger. Pt. I, Jan. 8, 2007.

GNU              

Carbide         

Angioplasma 

Sargasso

Coelacant

Pomba Gira

GNU II

Ziggurat

Cro Magnon

5:28

2:39

1:09

4:11

9:55

1:28

5:33

3:28

4:44

Michael Chamy -- oscillator, keys

Mike Forbes - sax, percussion

Nevada Hill - guitar, drones, vox

Paul Overbay - guitar, percussion

Jared Stone - drums

Produced by Michael Chamy w/ Paul Overbey.

Design by Nevada Hill.

currently out of stock