MuhMur

BBBlood #4

2012-02-15T19:27:00.014Z

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest BBBlood release, a split cassette release with Tinnitustimulus. As with most BBBlood releases information is at a minimum, but I can tell you that this is a C30 tape on the "not on label" label. What is it with folk not wanting to put stuff out on a label...with a catalogue number! BBBlood has his own label, Trans-Dimensional Sushi. I know next to nothing (good song) about Tinnitustimulus but a look on the Discogs site shows that he has released a lot of stuff on Deaf Culture Music. Couldn't the two labels have combined, even if this was just a one-off project? Would it have been that difficult? Then us cataloguers and anal retentives would be happier.
Side A starts with BBBlood and "Crippled". A piece of phazed sonic electronics that (I think) fits in with the HNW movement. It sounded like Cheapmachines to me...which is not a bad thing. The second track is called "Reduced Sentence". A more experimental and acoustic side to the BBBlood sound. Intricate sounds and clever looping and delay effects of metal scraping, doors slamming, objects thrown and general shifting move around the speakers constructing in to a final build and ultimate confusion. Good stuff, the way some of the sounds are looped and repeated to build and fade is listening pleasure. Hopefully the impending BBBlood vinyl LP will be an extension of "Reduced Sentence".
Like I mentioned earlier, I know next to nothing (good song) about Tinnitustimulus. There is a MySpace page, but I can't be arsed with that site anymore. Can anyone? I used to have a page up there, but I went to it one day and found that I was advertising a fucking Tinchy Stryder album as well as the latest Dieter Muh news...I was off there straight away! Anyway. Back to Tinnitustimulus. A guy called Tom from New York State. Here he provides three tracks. "Winter Night Barefoot" opens with radio dial static. Dead air space through a multitude of effects. "Ahnighito" follows. A long piece named after the largest iron meteorite to fall to Earth ... Greenland to be precise. This is a classic slice of mid 1980's power electronica - it is in to you like a train. A noise that at times reaches celestial levels...voices of angels can be heard through the madness. I shall play "Ahnighito" once in a while just to remind myself why I like listening to noise. Put "Reduced Sentence" and "Ahnighito" on a 7" piece of vinyl (and a bloody label) and you've got a classic single of the noise genre.
Tinnitustimulus ends with the brief "High Tension Lines". High frequency synth noodles and amp-noise, not a cover of The Fall classic.

So great release from both projects concerned. It is limited to only 100 copies, professionally duplicated and necessary. I got my copy for £4 from www.bbblood.blogspot.com

Pictures.
1: Tape Cover.
2: Tape.

Infernal Proteus:A Musical He'rbal

2012-02-14T20:06:00.008Z

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the four CD compilation album "Infernal Proteus" on the Ajna Offensive label. OK, so it is ten years old, but I knew nothing about the release until I read a review (of sorts) recently on the excellent Thee Intergalatik Beard Dropout blog and even if the album is ten years old, alot of the bands/projects involved are new to me.
The four CD's are housed in a book, a hardback book full of colour plates depicting different plants and herbs.
The concept of the album is one of the power of plants, their use in everyday life, for food, clothing, magickal purpose, healing properties etc and each of the 40 projects involved are given a plant/herb to represent. The book is a beautiful item - the sounds accompany the book beautifully, I am mightily impressed with this release.

Rather than go through the album track by track let me just say that the album features a broad scope of musical genre from some of the best in their field.
The first CD is mainly neofolk and neo-classical music. It has a very medieval feel to it with excellent tracks from Allerseelen, Alio Die, In Gowan Ring and Endvra. New names to me and bands with sounds worth discovering are Alraune and Circe. The second CD has a more drone, dark ambient feel to it, and I was thinking...ahh they have split the CD's in to genres...very good. Apoptose start the CD with the excellent "Eichensiechtum". I saw Apoptose live in their native Leipzig in 2006, superb sound. Ultra follow with "Yohimbe". Ultra's participation was a major factor in buying this album. From the first time I heard "Spray/Death/Ultra" album twenty years ago I have liked Ultra. A beautiful drone from Jonathan Coleclough & Tim Hill follows leading in to a fairly dark and eerie number from Troum ( another leading factor in to the purchase of this beauty). Inade end the CD with one of their best tracks, "Dues Aderit". A great Teutonic voice over stretched electrics. A joy.
CD three begins with The Red King and "Opium Poppy". The Red King sound like Laibach. Now the idea of each CD representing a different genre hits the fan as what follows is Gothic darkwave and musique concret along with neo-classical tracks. "Her Inaccessible Reaches" by MNortham sticks out, a great irritable sound - insectual. Mania start CD number 4 with their Whitehouse sounding power electronics, a strange choice for the project but the former Taint man keeps it short and simple. Igor 18 follows - a very weak piece that doesn't really know what it wants to be, and a shame because every track up until now has been exemplary. Who are Igor 18? Aube really starts CD#4 with the excellent minimal shuffle of "Ki-Ku". I love Aube, like Ultra, Troum, and Inade the fact that Aube is on here made the album a must have.

The most enjoyable CD is the first with its' great poetry and song. It does border on folk, but then sometimes I want to listen to some good (sing-a-long) folk tunes. I bought an Albion Dance Band album in 1976 y'know! CD#2 and the dark ambient/drone pieces is a great listen too, but CD's #3&#4 are a little "all over the shop" for my liking....but there are some great sounds held within which make the release a must.

Inner City Sound

2012-02-12T14:29:00.011Z

(Finally I have my scanner/printer back in good health)!

A few weeks ago I found myself listening to a couple of early Severed Heads albums, "Clean" and "Blubberknife" and I sat there amazed at the quality of sound and sheer brilliance of rhythms and sampling. Amazed because these albums are over 30 years old, but still sound relevant and fresh today. A mark of genius. Then I began to wonder if there had been any books written about Severed Heads and/or the underground electronic scene in Australia. Severed Heads have been a far too important outfit in electronic music over the past 30 years for there not to be a book about them. And what about the surrounding sound? Harbinger Sound released a double CD of Slugfuckers a few years back, and I have cassettes of bands such as Scattered Order, Bleeding Arseholes, Voigt/465 and Negative Reaction ...there must be some documentation about all of this?
I began to realise I know little and nowt about Australian experimental electronic/independent music. Certainly I have read the Nick Cave autobiography (who hasn't)? and I know a little bit about SPK in the late 1970's-early 1980's and have a copy of Trevor Blake's "Krankheit Im Recht" book, but what about the others? I posted a query on some forum boards and the names of Harry Butler and his magazine "DNA" and the writings of Clinton Walker kept being mentioned, then I found (on Amazon of all places) the book "Inner City Sound" by Clinton Walker, published by Voice Chorus Press. "Inner City Sound" is a collection of writings, reviews, overviews and interviews culled from fanzines/magazines written about punk and post-punk in Australia from 1976-1985. Clinton is the books editor as well as main contributor. The book first came out in the early 1980's, what is available now is the 2006 re-press.

The book is 190 pages thick and is full of excellent pictures. It all begins in 1976 and the story of Radio Birdman and The Saints. I must admit to not having heard Radio Birdman and I could never quite get The Saints. Others raved about them at the time (1977), with their "I'm Stranded" single, but to me they were just Pub Rock, ah well. Another big Australian band at this time were Last Words. Last Words released the excellent single "Animal World" on Rough Trade Records in 1977. A cross between Metal Urbain and Generation X. I never knew they were Australian!
The book does concentrate on the more "popular" bands of the time like Boys Next Door, The Hitmen, Jab, The Thought Criminals, Crime & City Solution, Scientists in the 1970's through to bands such as The Birthday Party, Laughing Clowns, Go Betweens and The Models in the early 1980's before ending with writings on The Triffids, Hunter & Collectors, The Moodists and The Sunnyboys. Again, bands that (on the whole) I know nothing about but found their interviews and reviews fascinating. By now most groups were heading off to post-punk Britain, having a modicum of success and returning back to Australia to split and carry on their newly found drug addiction! I remember seeing Laughing Clowns support Sisters Of Mercy at the Boat Club in Nottingham. I think it was 1982. They were bland, as bland as brown corduroy curtains.

There are small chapters on experimental Australia, a really good piece written about Terse Tapes - the label set up by Tom Ellard of Severed Heads, and interviews with Pel Mel - but the bands I really wanted to read about are only in this book in picture form. Great pictures though, and loads of gig flyers and posters that make the book worth buying...it is a great read.
Strange in their absence are SPK. Only mentioned in a couple of sentences and one picture - a publicity shot of Graeme and Sinan in their "Machine Age Voodoo" days. Another band I was interested in finding out about; Sekret Sekret are only there in picture form too. Members of this group were original members of SPK, but next to nothing is mentioned about them. There's a couple of nice pictures of John Murphy (with hair) playing with Whirlywirld that made me smile.

So. Now I need to find a book written about the "real" Australian underground, about bands like Scattered Order, Severed Heads, Bleeding Arseholes and Slugfuckers (who are not mentioned in this book). Is there one out there? Can anyone help? Is there no book on Extreme Music label and/or John Watermann?

Pictures.
1: "Inner City Sound" Book Cover.
2: Danny Virgin of SPK/Sekret Sekret.
3: Severed Heads in the studio,
4: Voigt/465 with Ne/H/il of SPK.
5: Tom Ellard of Severed Heads live at Sheffield Leadmill 1985. (personal collection)

Kufuki

2012-02-09T18:20:00.005Z

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest album from Japanese outfit Kufuki - seriously, it has not been out of the CD player for the last three days. It is infectious.
It came to me via Sir Idwal of Fisher, who frequently mails me stuff to run past my ears, and I am eternally grateful because I don't think I would have ventured out and bought this one blind...despite the involvement of Astral Social Club.
The album is entitled "Kufuki" and is on the Japanese (naturally) label Wonderyou. The sound is pure Japanese psychedelic-prog-pop-rock. There is no noise, no wild experimentalisations, just pure Japanese style psychedelic-prog-pop-rock. I think (I don't speak or understand Japanese so I can only think) the album tells of an adventure - the songs feature many voices (characters) and there are spoken word pieces in between tracks (the voices are more Richard Burton "War Of The Worlds" than Jordi Valls and "Psychopathia Sexualis") which keep the story flowing.
The sound varies too, beginning with the most "noncommercial" piece; "Dai-Haku-Ryoku". This is all fast spliced rhythms and cut up instrumentation before the album kicks off with "Traveller In Asia". The sound reminds me of Flaming Lips along with Circle and the Hyperdelic Psychedelic period of Psychic TV. There is the sound associated with Japanese TV commercials in there, as well as a great guitar riff that lasts over three tracks evoking Link Wray or even Hank Marvin.
I think the closest album I have to this at Hartop Towers is Smell & Quim's "Spaceshit" album from 2000. And that is canny because the album finishes with a bonus piece - a remix of "Dai-Haky-Ryoku" by Astral Social Club. And it is a bonus track too, it has no place on the album really...it sounds slightly out of place, that's not to say it is a bad track just slightly unnecessary on the CD.

I remember hearing the Smell & Quim CDr "Spaceshit" for the first time. I was stopping over at Daniel Lowenbruck's flat in Berlin and he put the album on...and it simply blew my socks off. I HAVE TO HAVE THIS ALBUM! At first I found it hard to believe that it was Smell & Quim. I had almost kind of given up on them (for a while) after years of Tit Wanking and Stinky Horse Fucking I was giving the Quim sound a sabbatical and then they come out with "Spaceshit". Classic! Here was a non-noise album constructed of clever rhythms, loops, hooks and voice samples to die for. It is an album that requires a Hawaiian shirt for listening.
Anyway - back to Kufuki. Recommended. The CD comes in a gatefold poster, a colourful design with dragons and insignia..and Idwal - if you get any more Kufuki through your letterbox, please send it my way!

Pictures:
1: "Kufuki" sleeve.
2: Kufuki - the band.

Anenzephalia

2012-02-05T20:07:00.007Z

I have been on a little bit of a Tesco tip today, preparing for the arrival of the latest Genocide Organ LP - the "Live In Tokyo 2007" LP, OK I already have the DVD and CD but I am a bit of a GO nut!
A Tesco Org release that I hadn't heard in a long time was the 1991 Anenzephalia 7"EP "Lyse". Catalogue number Tesco 003. I remember buying it in Leeds many years ago - probably 20 years ago (great song). I was living in the very small Yorkshire village of Thorganby at the time (in between Selby & York) and the Red Rhino Records shop in York had closed, then someone recommended a trip to Leeds to look at Bad Records.
Finally I made it to Leeds and the Bad Records shop...not far from Leeds train station. It was a little basement beneath a clothes shop, a clothes shop designed for Goths, Punks and leather fetishists. Bad Records was full of stuff I wanted to buy, stuff I had seen at Red Rhino, stuff that I had read about in "Music From The Empty Quarter" magazine and stuff that just looked down right bloody interesting. Problem was that I had arrived when Bad Records was closing down. Bad news! On the "up-side" they were having a "closing down sale" so I managed to pick up some great stuff at a very cheap price. Some Smell & Quim, Intrinsic Action, Merzbow, Con-Dom, Illusion Of Safety and "Lyse" by Anenzephalia.
I had never heard of Anenzephalia before. The idea that there was an industrial label called Tesco Org intrigued. Welcome to the Tesco Disco. The guy behind the counter pointed the record out by saying something along the lines of - if you like Con-Dom you'll love this - god bless him! I think it cost £3, and he said that it had a razor blade attached to the sleeve that if you pulled out the vinyl you would cut yourself so they removed it before a customer cut themselves and filed suit!
I play the EP at 45 RPM, except for the first track "Infarkt" which (obviously) sounds better at 33 RPM. At a slower speed it becomes more atmospheric, the sequencer pattern works better - more depth. "Mechanical Rape" is pure power electronics with its' distorted Bennettesque vocals over an electronic pulsing drone. In 1992 this could have been my first exposure to the genre?
Side 2 has more clarity in sound, less distortion effect. "Mindcancer" has a rhythm that wouldn't be amiss on Soviet France's "Mohonomische" album. It's the 1980's analog equipment - I hear the Korg MS sound. "Induratio Penis Plastica" has a sequencer rhythm pattern going through flange and phase effects similar to early Club Moral except here the vocals are distorted, moving in and out with various other electric signals.
Anenzephalia is the project of B. Moloch. Also on this EP are Fri Von B. Und D. (Undoubtedly Klaus and another member of Genocide Organ). B. Moloch is now a member of Genocide Organ and since then Anenzephalia releases have become less experimental than this 7". Perhaps B. Moloch (or Michael to his friends)! has found his sound?
I still listen to and buy Anenzephalia stuff - I like it, I like it a lot but non have pleasured me more than the "Lyse" 7"EP.

As a member of Dieter Muh I have supported Anenzephalia a couple of times in the UK and played with Genocide Organ in Germany. It has been an honour and a privilege to get to meet and know Anenzephalia.

If you see a copy of "Lyse" floating about - BUY!

Pictures:
1+2: "Lyse" Sleeve.
3: "Lyse" vinyl.
4: Anenzephalia Live at The Red Rose, London. (I forget the year)!

Dave Phillips #2

2012-02-04T14:16:00.005Z

Over the last few days (great band) I have been ill. Very ill. No idea what the illness was but it made me shit and vomit a lot - violently, then it made me shiver and shake and come out in strange lumps and rashes, like my upper body was a braille map of the Polynesian Isles. It wasn't pleasant. Trouble is that here in the UK when you are ill and have a hint, a hue, a whisper of diarrhoea and/or vomiting the local GP will not entertain you at the local practice nor will the hospital admit you - can't have a hospital full of sick people for fucks sake...they might spread something! So I've been indoors catching up on some recently arrived sounds, reading the excellent "Inner City Sounds" book by Clinton Walker and catching up on some DVD's. I can recommend "Buried" but leave the new "Inbetweeners" movie alone.

So, through the door at the start of the week came the latest release from Dave Phillips. "Video Action 100901" on the German based Scrotum Records label. (Catalogue No:Hode 156). "Video Action 100901" is a 17 minute 3"CDr packaged in a slimline case with a sleeve art by Muennich.
I have said it before - so I'll say it again, releasing recordings of live performance art is a very hit or miss affair. Sometimes the releases are only relevant to those involved and not really necessary. I mentioned this about the last Dave Phillips LP I heard, the excellent "They Live" on RRRecords. Here the action is short, extremely punchy. Recorded live by Coelacanth member Jim Haynes at The Lab in San Francisco on September 1st, 2010...here we have a collage of sounds made from the human body, from animals from acoustic paraphernalia and electronics. A fascinating picture / pattern evolves in the mind whilst listening (I suggest loud and headphones), I would have loved to have been there. It does remind me of Sudden Infant, but seeing that Dave Phillips is part of the Schimpfluch-Gruppe that can't be helped. The Raionbashi sound is also not too far away.

A great release, a fine document and necessary. Available from Scrotum Records direct for only 5 Euro's...paypal available...you have no excuse!! www.scrotumrecords.de/releases.html

Utmarken

2012-02-03T14:39:00.010Z

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the 2011 compilation "Utmarken" on the Swedish based Utmarken label. The compilation is packaged in an over sized video case with 3xC20 cassettes and a glossy (black & white) 24 page tract. Ten out of ten for packaging.
Released towards the end of last year this release marked the end of the Utmarken label, although limited to only 200 there are a few copies floating about available for a reasonable price. I was drawn to the tracks by Attestupa. rather like Burial Hex, Cheapmachines and Re-Clip (amongst others) Attestupa are a sound I have heard in the last couple years and I now need to hear their entire catalogue. Attestupa start the compilation with two pieces that sound like one. An opening sound of guitar over noise sounding like a film theme builds to a song, yes song! with lyrics, that has a sound similar to what was being released by 4AD records at the start of the 1980's. Sort Sol, Mass & My Captains are all in there with a psychedelic organ and swirling guitars. Beautiful, and a far better quality recording than their vinyl LP "Begraven Mot Norr". Arv & Miljo bring us crunching static noise leading to ambient feedback with some analog knob crunching. It's a pleasant listen without leaping out of the speakers and grabbing my ears. Arv & Miljo are based in Gothenburg, I would love to hear more. Same goes for Lust For Youth (the wanting to hear more bit...not the from Gothenburg bit...although they maybe, I don't know...but Sweden is a big country). Lust For Youth is an awful name but they provide a great slice of aural moribundia. Heavy droning electronics over a dull thudding (heart)beat. It builds, swirls and then collapses ending with some pointless synth noodles - but it is an excellent track. The Lust For Youth track is coupled with "En Foglig Slav" by Blodvite. (Bloodshed to us English speakers). It is 10 minutes of experimental noise. My notes (I make notes!) whilst listening read: Nothing to sing along with but plenty to listen to. The final cassette starts with Skuggor. Skuggor is the project of David Eng. His track is ultimate lo-fi sampler looping - excellent and (again) more is needed.
Another lure of the compilation was the inclusion of Sewer Election. Sewer Election is Dan Johansson, the man behind the Utmarken label and also a member of Attestupa. Over the past couple of years the name Sewer Election has been mentioned by friends and colleagues, and reading reviews and interviews in various magazines and forum board links I have thought of Sewer Election to be in the same camp as (say) The Rita and The Cherry Point spearheading this new movement in electronic sound called HNW. What I have heard by The Rita has disappointed and Sewer Election is not what I expected. (great song)! "Lamslagen" sounds like The Gerogerigegege morphing into early 90's Smell & Quim and finishing on a sample from "Total Sex". Whereas I don't care if I hear another track by The Rita, I think I'll give Sewer Election another listen - any one recommend a release?

This is a great sounding compilation from a now defunct label, so get it whilst it is still available. Try www.releasethebats.com the Swedish label and distro outlet.

Pictures:
1: "Utmarken" Box Cover.
2: "Utmarken" Box Spine and magazine page.
3: "Utmarken" magazine cover.
4: Sewer Election page from magazine.

Aaron Dilloway #6

2012-01-31T22:12:00.002Z

Umgekehrt

2012-01-30T15:44:00.001Z

The London Punk Tapes #2

2012-01-30T12:24:00.008Z

"Vagina Dentata Organ Presents:The London Punk Tapes" by Jordi Valls is a great companion to John Savage's "England's Dreaming" and "England's Dreaming Tapes" books as well as the Mark Perry tome "Sniffin' Glue & Other Rock n' Roll Habits", which I read over the Christmas holidays. 94 pages of the collected thoughts, experience and artwork of the Spanish artist Jordi Valls. I think the book was published to accompany an exhibition by Jordi where the tapes he made of punk bands performing in London during 1976 and accompanying live films were played. I could be wrong, I could be right (as John Lydon once said).
The book contains interviews of The Clash, Generation X, The Damned, Slits and Subway Sect culled from various fanzines of the time. "Sniffin' Glue", "48 Thrills" and "Jolt". There are some excellent Kodachrome photo's of The Clash and Sex Pistols as well as paper cuttings, tickets and zerox's made into collages. The emphasis is on the Sex Pistols, with lyrics reprinted and a full list of Pistols live gigs. It is a great document for reference.
The book finishes with a report on Spanish punk band D'Ultimo Resorte, their live gigs in Spain and a chance meeting with Sid Vicious at a Johnny Moped gig. Excellent stuff.

Despite being a notoriously slow reader I read the book in a couple of hours. It's unputdownable and I could skip the "'Glue" interviews as I'd just bloody read them. The book is essential as the above mentioned and captures the sight and attitude of youth at the birth of punk beautifully. It is written in both Spanish and English and published by Actar Books. (I found my copy through Amazon).

Pictures:
1: Cover.
2: Reverse.
3: Inner Sleeve.

Notes From The "Popside"

2012-01-29T12:43:00.007Z

"Sport, Sport, I like Sport. Running and Jumping I'm The Physical Sort" as mighty Stukas once sang.....
Number two son (Oscar M) has just started football training at his school and he's quite taken to the sport so I decided to take him to watch the local team in action. When I was six years old my father (I know that will surprise a few people...I actually do have one) used to take me to watch Lincoln City FC a couple of times a month, so I suppose it only correct that Oscar gets the same opportunity - to watch lower league football that is!
Torquay United play their home matches at Plainmoor, a ten minute walk from Hartop Towers, and yesterday they were hosts to bottom of the league Northampton Town. I paid the £23 entrance and we stood amongst the home fans in (what is known as...but I have no idea why) The Popside. Oscar was delighted that he could drink Coca-Cola and eat chocolate whilst watching football!
This was the first football match I have been to since watching Notts County take on Lincoln City at Meadow Lane in 1997. Not exactly a regular! Torquay United are doing well, heading for an automatic promotion place whereas Northampton Town are heading for the Conference league and football oblivion. They both played like it too. The ball seemed to spend a lot of time in the air, and the times it was on the ground it was being kicked up into the air. Torquay have one of those centre forwards (Rene Howe) who holds up the ball before passing it to the oncoming midfielders, but (in this game) the midfielders didn't seem to want to come. Eunan O'Kane and Ian Morris tried a couple of times to run with the ball, take on Northampton's defence but they just weren't too good at it. Northampton Town had an awful player called Lewis Young. He kept making shitty passes and losing headers and then staring at other players as if it was their fault and not his. He'll probably go far! Torquay won by the single goal, a header from a set piece by Mark (Man o' the Match) Ellis.
It was bloody cold stood in The Popside, and I felt sorry for the linesman who was getting stick from the "Yellow Army" every time he made a decision against Torquay United. He was slightly red haired so was getting the "Ginger Cunt", "Blind Bastard" and "Scottish Twat" (?) comments shouted at him. Luckily the shouting went (literally) over Oscar's head!

Next time we go - and we will go again because both Oscar and I had a great time - I'll buy a ticket for a seat in the family stand.

Pictures:
1: Oscar and his booty from the pie shop! (Didn't quite cater for vegetarians on a low cholesterol diet).
2: Kick Off.
3: Goal mouth action.

"Yellow Army".

Kogumaza

2012-01-27T20:41:00.005Z

Just spent a pleasant while listening to Nottingham based trio Kogumaza (Japanese for the "Little Bear" constellation). I was exploring the list of the artistes lined up for the Rammel Club/Harbinger Sound weekend and came across the sound of Kogumaza. They have their own label called Low Point Records, based in Crossman Street, Sherwood, Nottingham - same street where Harbinger Sound began all those years ago. (File that last sentence under "useless information").
I was intrigued by the sound samples on the Low Point and Lancashire & Somerset web sites links that I went and bought an LP and 7" package for £13. Bargain.
At the moment I am trapped on the 7". "Sevens" was released in March last year. The title track is playable at all speeds - I love at 45 as much as the recommended 33 rpm. It has a glistening guitar sound, all very similar to / or evocative of the twenty years ago sound of Splintered or Ramleh. Fuzztone guitar cranked up to such a high level that they sound like someone is breathing over the pick ups whilst running their fingers up and down the fret board. There is a set of cardboard drums and a second guitar playing the fill-ins throughout and it all adds up to a motherfuckin' classic. The flipside is called "Mara" and (again) has that Ramleh sound from the early 1990's (only better)...but a hint of Glenn Branca and Jimmy Page floating across.

The single is essential. No picture sleeve, but glorious blood red vinyl and a must bloody see at the Rammel/Harbinger Sound weekend. I shall be playing the eponymous LP over the next few days.

Pictures:
1 & 2: "Sevens".
3: Kogumaza Live at the Rammel Club, Nottingham.

Dieter Muh #47

2012-01-26T20:37:00.001Z

Segerhuva & Fetish 23 presents:

SWEETNESS OVERDUE
with

CONTRASTATE [uk]
DIETER MÜH [uk]
DUSA [swe]
+ more to be announced

At Fylkingen (Stockholm, Sweden)
Saturday the 28th of April 2012
Admission 100 SEK / Open hours 19-01

More information coming soon.
Any questions etc. can be forwarded to segerhuva@yahoo.com

Colin Potter

2012-01-25T20:12:00.018Z

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release of Colin Potter by Hong Kong based label Ultra Mail Productions. "Ancient History" is a 5xCD compilation box set limited to 200 copies. The box contains remasterings of old cassette releases from Colin's Integrated Circuit Records back catalogue, as well as a bonus CD ("Deja Vu") of odds and sods.
Six years ago the excellent Vinyl On Demand label put out a Colin Potter LP of old 1980's recordings called "A Skeleton/Cupboard Situation", it is an essential album...recommended, so I bought this release hoping for more of the same, although a high percentage of stuff contained here is top drawer a lot of it does hit the mediocre button and 5 CD's could have been brought down to two, but the package is superb, excellent liner notes and a signed postcard to boot makes this release essential as a document if not ear witness.

"A Gain" was originally released in 1982 and the tracks do wear its influences on its sleeve a bit. Colin has always been an electronic wizard, building synthesizers, using old synths, building loop machines and recording devices. Here the tracks sound like Tangerine Dream, Terry Riley and Ian Boddy, in parts they sound like really early Throbbing Gristle. 1975 and all that stuff. It all has a 1980's DIY feel to it, and in the case of "All Reel" a great 1970's proggy feel with fuzz tone guitar playing a medieval guitar riff - "harlequin rock"!
"Two Nights" was released a year earlier in 1981 and still has a Tangerine Dream feel to it. guitar improv. over sequencer/synth patterns. It brought to mind the work of Astral Social Club. The CD contains a bonus piece called "One Million Blades Of Grass". An excellent electronic wall of patterned sonics that builds and de-constructs. Amazing for a piece that is over 30 years old and still sounds fresh and relevant.
"Recent History Volume One" plays like a soundtrack to the unmade film. Large, desolate, visual synthesized vignettes. The titles sound like they belong on a soundtrack album too; "Nine Months", "Ships That Pass In the Night", "Marsh Fog" etc. Despite being recorded over a three year period the CD does play like a cognitive album with Tangerine Dream (again) being a reference point. "The Sorcerer" and "The Keep" being Colin's favourites?
"Recent History Volume Two" is compiled of more "sketches" from the 1980's and plays like a disjointed compilation. A lot of the stuff sounds like Lincoln's synth pop-meister Kev Kettle and his Cacophony '3.3' project. If you are familiar with (and like) "The Elephant Table" album and/or the "Rising From The Red Sand" series of tapes then this CD is essential.
And so the box set finishes with the bonus CD "Deja Vu" - tracks from the mid 1980's through to the mid 1990's. Whilst playing the CD ( a couple of times) I was reminded of Coil, especially the Coil Vs. Eskaton 12" "Nasa-Arab" with its' electro-techno-dancefloor-12" remix type beat. I remember buying "Nasa-Arab" when it was released and thinking "If King Crimson were alive today, this is the kind of record they would be releasing". I wrote it down in my diary! By the time I reached "Lost" (track #4) I was thinking of my old friend Dave Uden and his pre-Dieter Muh projects such as The Matrix and Eighth Circuit. Exploring the possibilities of new technology, but with rhythms and in a 12" remix stylee. Track six is "Drone for JC", a beautiful piece of music. Layered EBow guitars and didgeridoo. The stand out track of the CD. There is an awful track that is a collaboration with Colin's brother-in-law, Jon Cafferey - he used to run Breton Records and manage Einsturzende Neubauten, and then it moves into Psychic TV territory. PTV circa The Magickal Mystery D Tour era.
The release sounds dated which the "Skeleton/Cupboard Situation" LP didn't.

I would not go as far as to say I know Colin, but in the mid 1990's I got to know Colin and record at his Integrated Circuit Studio when it was based in Tollerton, North Yorkshire. At the very first Dieter Muh gig Colin introduced himself to me and complimented the sound - he was also the only paying customer on the night! Over the next two / three years I met up with Colin in York, and arranged to record the first "proper" Dieter Muh album at his studio with him producing. The result being the 1997 CD "Black Square". Alongside Tim Bayes & Dave Uden I interviewed Colin for ND magazine...our paths have crossed a few times since. Muh have supported Colin as a solo artist and as a member of Ora, and I have also spun discs at a Colin Potter gig! The last time our paths crossed was at the Current 93 / Nurse With Wound bash in Kentish Town, 2010 - either he was drunk or I was....I forget.
This package is good because the cassettes don't exist anymore, but if you want to experience Colin outside of Nurse With Wound or Ora...then go for the Vinyl On demand LP.

Pictures:
1&2: "Ancinet History" CD Box Set.
3: Colin & Steve Stapleton 2010.

Music In Dreamland

2012-01-22T18:47:00.023Z

I have just finished reading the excellent Bill Nelson biography "Music In Dreamland" by Paul Sutton Reeves, published by Helter Skelter books. As far as (music) biographies go this one is unputdownable. A page turner. Mainly due to the subject but also in part to the fine penmanship and research of Paul Sutton Reeves. No stone unturned, no collaborator left unmentioned type of research. Fascinating from page one onwards.
Bill Nelson, the musician's musician. I first became aware of Bill Nelson through his work in Be Bop Deluxe. My (elder) sister used to like Be Bop Deluxe (I think she even went to see them in 1977/78 in Liecester)....she had a couple of albums, they were a little bit too complicated for me, like, at the time, Uriah Heep, Grateful Dead or Caravan but I knew they were good. I preferred the short, sharp, snappy tunes like "Maid In Heaven", "Fair Exchange" and "Ships in the Night". I saw Be Bop Deluxe on ITV's "So It Goes" back in August 1976 - I know it was August because this book tells me so, also on the programme were The Animals, Allan Stivell and Soft Machine but I remember nothing of them just Bill Nelson looking like the Australian actor James Laurenson (anyone remember "Boney"?) and me wanting a pair of blue suede brothel creepers to look like a member of Be Bop Deluxe. (I was 15)! I got the shoes.
The onset of punk saw alot of art/prog bands fall by the road-side injured (No Dice, Lone Star, Widowmaker) and a lot of prog rock dinosaurs simply lay down and die...but Bill was cool, it was still OK to like Bill because he liked the up and coming groups too, and he cut his cloth accordingly.

The book begins in Wakefield (Yorkshire) 1948 and the birth of William and his developing love for guitar music at the turn of the 1960's. Hank Marvin, Duane Eddy etc. Then his rise through 60's beat combo's like The Teenagers, The Midnight Creepers and The Untouchables through the working men's clubs of the North with Global Village, and becoming part of a Pentecostal Church band called Gentle Revolution. Excellent reading with recollections and soundbites from all those involved in this period. Research is par none. Gentle Revolution break into the "prog rock" scene and slowly become Be Bop Deluxe.
The story of Be Bop Deluxe is one of great misunderstanding between artist and label. Rather like fellow EMI sufferers Wire, Be Bop Deluxe were always one album ahead, so touring to promote the latest LP didn't really work, and EMI (well, the subsidiary Harvest records...which I always thought was the "prog" arm of EMI set up to promote Barclay James Harvest...but I could be wrong) wanting to sell Be Bop Deluxe as some Glam-Pop group. Their biggest "hit" "Ships In the Night" does sound rather like 10cc to me. Attention to detail is (again) spot on here with times and dates of releases, TV appearances and supports. It was great to see Burlesque get a mention!

The story becomes more relevant to me when Bill disassembles Be Bop Deluxe and forms Red Noise. I bought the Be Bop Deluxe LP "Live In The Air Age" in 1977, and decided to keep it when 99% of my record collection was purged. Out went Judas Priest, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Frank Zappa, Greenslade, Colosseum 2 etc..and I started year zero with The Damned and Be Bop Deluxe! In February 1979 Bill Nelson's Red Noise released "Sound On Sound" - fast New Wave "rock" a la XTC, Talking Heads, Television, Wire etc. Excellent stuff...and image wise spot on. Red Noise all dressed in Chinese (Communist) jackets, like the Gang Of Four but with a burning red circle on the left breast pocket. Powerful stuff back in 1979. The same year I saw Com-Sat Angels at Lincoln Art College (supporting The Piranhas, X-S Energy & Collide) and they dressed exactly the same. Chicken and the egg? Poor album sales and the refusal of the American arm of EMI to distribute the album (too communist?) saw Bill being thrown out of the EMI doors and setting up his own label Cocteau Records.
On the 25th of May 1981 I went to see Bill Nelson & The Practical Dreamers live at Retford Porterhouse. I know it was the 25th of May, not because of the book but because I have a bootleg of the gig. Cracking gig...a full and rowdy audience and Bill on stage for over an hour. I had forgotten that Don Snow played keyboards. Don was the keyboard player on The Vibrators "Judy Says" single. He was also in The Sinceros who I may or may not have seen at Lincoln AJ's in 1978. It could have been The Dodgems or Comic Romance...long story but the support was definitely Whizz Kids! Support at the Porterhouse was The Yorkshire Actors performing "Das Kabinett", Bill Nelson released the soundtrack LP in the same year and that was the last Bill Nelson album I bought. A friend at the time became a huge Nelson fan and bought anything and everything so I just got everything given to me on TDK AD cassettes, but that stopped by request after 1983's "Chimera" Mini-LP.
By now Bill is truly a solo artist working out of his home studio in North Yorkshire, collaborating with a variety of artists. A surprise collaboration with author, radio personality and ex-Skrewdriver drummer Mark Radcliffe is mentioned. (I do fully recommend Mark's first book "That's Showbusiness" an excellent and funny read). In the 1980's the book concentrates on Bill's relationships with his wives and lovers as well as his practices with magick and interest in Rosicrucianism. The book speeds up somewhat, it remains in depth in its research and stories but just gets lighter in time passages. Bill's work is largely of instrumental sketches a la Durutti Column (I imagine) releasing album after album on his own Cocteau label.
In 1990 I went to see Bill Nelson live at York Arts Centre, he was performing a piece called "Altar Pieces" with his brother Ian on saxophone. Also on the bill was Harold Budd, and together they performed an improvised piece. It was a beautiful evening, highly sophisticated music. I managed to grab a chat with Bill and Ian (I was interested in the whereabouts of Ada Wilson and ex members of Fiat Lux, I managed to get a copy of the cassette "Altar Pieces" on the night, which I gave to a friend as a birthday present - I would love to have that cassette again...so if anyone reading this knows the whereabouts etc).
The book enters the 1990's with the awfully named project Channel Light Vessel and failed Be Bop Deluxe reunion attempts, and again Bill releasing album after album of instrumental sketches. I must admit to not hearing anything of Bills work after the "Altar Pieces" release. The book mentions Bill dabbling with Drum n' Bass. Oh dear.

The book ends with a great "Where Are they Now" chapter..a nice touch to a great book.
I watched Bill being interviewed on Cherry Red TV the other day, it tells the same story (naturally), so if you can't be bothered to read the book - watch the "film" instead. I am now on a hunt for some old Be Bop Deluxe vinyl and Bill Nelson/Red Noise singles. I found an old 80's compilation "Bop To The Red Noise" for £1 not so long back and I've just got hold of the 7" Box Set "Permanent Flame". I bought this years ago for 50 pence in York...now I have parted with a tenner.

Pictures:
1: "Music In Dreamland" Cover.
2: Bop To the Red Noise Cover.

Sleaford Mods Double Diamond (Spectre 2011)

2012-01-15T16:14:00.001Z

Thanks to Steve for tuning me into this....

"And I Like Puddin's"

Kinit Her

2012-01-15T15:29:00.006Z

The start of the year and another great release from Kinit Her. OK, I know this cassette came out during the autumn of 2011...but it takes time to catch up in Devon!
"Mosaic Of the Hyacinths" is a limited (100 copies) cassette release on UK based Paradigms Recordings label. Packaged neatly in a "Brad Pack" sleeve. A kind of brown card envelope..the same Small Doses used for their Trepaneringsritualen cassette release.
Since "discovering" the sound of Kinit Her about three years ago their sound has drifted into the neo-folk arena, a drifting away for conventional instruments and sound into the experimentation with acoustic sound and "folk" (pagan/Wicca) music. Their interest into the occult deepens. Their CD/CDEP release last year (co-incidentally on Small Doses) "Gratitudes" paved the way for this cassette.
Side A begins with "His Traces In Us". An incantation/invocation that has drawn chanting vocals over lute, bellowed organ and percussion. "A Nightingale Crosses Our path" is an instrumental piece. Incredibly haunting and moribund. Bowed strings, acoustic 12-string guitar and rudimentary drums create a dark, nocturnal fanfare - cinematic sound...excellent stuff.
Side B has a very large presence of Dave Tibet about it - with a touch of Laibach. The Laibach is in the vocal presentation and militaristic snare patterns used, the Tibet (also) in vocal style and violins. The final track "Storm Of Radiance" is music for a dark ritual with its' drawn out vocals and staccato strings building up to a swirling dervish cacophony. A whorle of sound which ends up looped and crescendoing before decay. Excellent piece.

US neo-folk in its' ascendancy.

If unfamiliar with Kinit Her this is a good tape to start at. It is available for £5.99 post paid (worldwide) from paradigms direct - www.paradigms-recordings.com. Surprisingly there are still copies available. Also a note to the folk at Strange Rules, who mailed two cheap tapes recently for £11 - this tape came with stickers, fliers and a little tract explaining the motive and releases of the label. Just a little hint there.....Value For Money!

The London Punk Tapes

2012-01-14T17:58:00.003Z

Big thanks to Mr. Aaron Dilloway for alerting me about this publication; "Vagina Dentata Organ Presents...The London Punk Tapes". I am still reading the excellent "Music In Dreamland" at the moment, but as soon as that is finished I am in to this! A quick skim through - it looks the business.

Dieter Muh #46

2012-01-12T20:14:00.007Z

Dieter Muh will be making a live outing at the Harbinger Sound / Rammel Club "weekend of deranged sound blah..." happening between Friday March 9th and Sunday March 11th in Nottingham.

Also playing at the weekend are; Patrik Fitzgerald, Astral Social Club, John Wiese, Cheapmachines, Stormbugs, Sleaford Mods, Con-Dom, Bong, Mark Durgan & John Wall, Spoils And Relics, Blood Stereo. Heatsick, Bill Kouligas, Ekoplekz, Kogumaza...with a few more TBC. DJ'ing sets throughout the weekend from Harbinger Sound, Feral Debris & Idwal Fisher.

I will post more details when I get them, but check out www.rammelclub.org for more information & tickets etc.

Strange Rules

2012-01-11T19:35:00.004Z

Trawling the Internet the other week, follow link upon link etc I found the UK based cassette label Strange Rules. A new name on me. (I'll just say that whilst doing this trawling I also found a picture of my "bedroom" in Hulme 1984...just the room with a 400 Blows poster...why on earth any one would want to post that I have no idea...still - strange world). Anyway, back to Strange Rules. They have a couple of cassette releases for sale and the name Royal Tropical Institute intrigued me. Good name, don't know why, but...good name. The "blurb" mentions "archival club industrial, a dreary look at European minimalism". My ears were twitching as fast as my finger over the paypal button so I bought a copy, and went for the Curative Measures cassette as well. This cassette offered death industrial and power electronics (for which some times I am a sucker for). Again Curative Measures are a new name on me.
Slightly feel short-changed. The cassettes were four pound each and an additional three pounds p+p. £11 all in. The Royal Tropical Institute is a C10 - a poorly duplicated C10 too. The sound is interesting - a rhythmic loop accompanied by "flute" sounding keyboards and a bit of "synthing", but it is too damn short. The tracks (one a side) have a beginning but no end - the tape runs out after five minutes. No where on the Strange Days site does it mention that the £4 tape is a C10. I would like to hear more Royal Tropical Institute, but more than this cassette can offer.
Curative Measures offer a slice of HNW, Power Electronics and (I suppose) Death Industrial. They have a sound that doesn't really do anything for me. It is badly duplicated..very murky. Slightly longer than a C10 - "An Unconventional Method Of Circumcision" is a C30! Again a track a side where the tape runs out before the noise does. Poor, very poor.

Two tapes certainly not worth the money. To make up for this I played Soldergeist's "Terror" CD (on Pure) very loud!

Pictures.
1: Royal Tropical Institute.
2: Curative Measures.

Culver

2012-01-10T22:55:00.006Z

It is great when you re-discover great slabs of vinyl again, bring them out of the vaults (so to speak) and give them a spin and realise what a gem that record is. Happened to me today with Culver. Earlier in the day I was continually playing the Culver cassette release "They Killed Suzie Carter". This album was released by Hyster Tapes in 2008 but only found its' way to Hartop Towers at the weekend. The album is comprised of two long (twenty minuteish) drones. "Girl In The Mirror" is lo-fi rumbling drone with guitar fiddling and found sound stuff, whereas "Girl On The Floor" is more prominent guitar/ampnoise with some keyboard sound drone. Both sides are a great listen and sound fresh even when repeatedly (just) turning the tape over for a few hours. I have no idea who Suzie Carter is or (indeed) was. Any clues?
When I got home I wanted to hear more Culver...I've a few releases littered across a variety of formats, the 2008 7" release on UK label Turgid Animal "Cherry Blossom Girls" more often than not makes it on to the turntable, but tonight I went for the 8" lathe cut single that Harbinger Sound put out a few years back. Two pieces that are very similar to the "Suzie Carter" album. No titles, just track lengths (33rpm). The shortest of the two pieces is a rumbling lo-fi recording of guitar strings being fidgeted with....it sounds like half a dozen copies of Organum's "In Extremis" 12" being played through cheap Tandy 1970's car speakers...a bloody clever sound if you ask me! The longer piece has a more bowed stringed effect and a clearer sound. Meditative stuff. It is a fantastic release limited to only 20 copies and cut onto transparent vinyl. Beauty.

Culver is the solo project of Lee Stokoe. Lee is an extremely busy fellow, running the incredibly hip cassette label Matching Head Recordings and appearing as second guitar to Matthew Bower in Skullflower, as well as being part of Mazuraan and Culver. Culver's discography is immense and I would like to know if anyone has (apart from Lee) every Culver release out there? Like I mentioned earlier, I have a handful and there's not a bad release in there.
I met Lee once, when Dieter Muh played with Skullflower in London in 2009. Quiet chap but busy with Skullflower on the night.....
"They Killed Suzie Carter" is available for 1.5 euro from Hyster Tapes, and if you see a copy of the Harbinger Sound 8" lathe for sale - well done! BUY IT.

Pictures.
1: Culver 8" Lathe Cut Single on Harbinger Sound.
2: Culver "They Killed Suzie Carter" cassette on Hyster Tapes.

Suomi Sounds

2012-01-09T20:11:00.004Z

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the split cassette from Kanttoripoika and Re-Clip on the Finnish Tarjous-Edits label. It was released in 2009 and copies are still available from the Hyster Tapes distro' page. (www.pcuf.fi/~plaa/hyster.html).
One of the highlights of last year was getting the Kanttoripoika/Re-Clip split 7" on the Finnish Record Deals label - a classic from 2010. (I'm behind the beat, I know.....). The single is best described as "Mutant Disco".
Now, I maybe wrong but I am to believe that Kanttoripoika is a solo project from a member of a "rock" band called Witch Christ, and their name is actually Kapo. But, I could be wrong. Kanttoripoika present five instrumental tracks all with Suomi titles, so I have no idea how to pronounce them never mind knowing what they mean. All five pieces are different. Electro-noise opens the tape which blends into "Majesteetti (Hidas)" a sub Martin Denny lounge jazz style piece with electronic marimbas and vibes. Excellent listening. "Sulkapallo" sounds like Aavikko in their "Derek" / Bad Vugum stage. Think of the club band in "Phoenix Nights" if it was set in Turku and the band were on speed! I love Aavikko so Kanttoripoika can do no wrong here. The side ends on sub psychedelic-jam style piece called "Vasten Auringon Siltaa". 20 minutes or so of excellent listening....with this cassette came the Kanttoripoika and Deva Planeta split cassette on Planet City, tomorrows listening...looking forward.
Re-Clip is a member of Grey Park, who for the past twelve / thirteen years have been putting out some of the best sounds around. FACT. Here Re-Clip presents seven sketches, short pieces - like a work in progress piece. Re-Clip's sound is one of spaces and fitting electronic noises and beats around them. The closest description I can think of is "glitch-musik". Like Raster-Noton stuff, or Oval and even fellow countrymen Pan Sonic, but a little bit more lo-fi and analogue. Make sense? It's a great sound and I'd love to hear more, but I'm finding Re-Clip stuff sells out pretty damn quick!
Anyway, this beauty is still available and costs 4 euro - the split 7" is only 3.5 euro and both from the Hyster Tapes distro.

Grey Park #3

2012-01-07T20:28:00.007Z

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release from Grey Park. "Three Notes On Stockholm Palindrome" released by Finland's finest - 267 Lattajjaa.
The packaging remains true to the "Secret Agent" series that 267 and Grey Park have been putting out over the past five years...this could be part of that series? I could be wrong though...usually am.
I have been listening to Grey Park for nearly twelve years now, after a chance meeting at a Dieter Muh gig in the outbacks of East Finland in 2000 I have become a friend and correspondent to members of Grey Park. They will be one of those great "unrecognised" bands of the 21st Century - I don't think that this will concern them...in fact I am damn sure it won't but their sound, their aural / sonic experimentation is a necessity - at Hartop Towers anyway.
"Three Notes On Stockholm Palindrome" is about half an hour of enjoyable listening. It starts with "M.T.T2010". A track compromising of; Industrial hum. synthesizer bursts, shortwave radio, found sound, field recordings, amp noise and what sounds like someone walking around Helsinki market on a very windy day. It's very involving stuff and a times very reminiscent of This Heat. Track 2; "2.2.T.P.A." is a short four minute piece of tonality. A drone that could have done without the pitch shifting. Strangely enough listening to this track reminded me of old I.B.F. tracks where Tim and I were "jamming / improv'ing" along and everything was just right and for some reason I'd modulate the speed button on the Korg Synth' and that would be it (for me)....track ruined. "2.2.T.P.A." has one of those moments. The third and final track is called "F.A.F.O.D." and begins like a Mariachi Band descending into madness - it crumbles into a sound-piece of multi-layered radio broadcasts...spoken word...a new face in hell. Before over complicating itself, verges on breakdown and unlistenability and decays into a noise that can only be described as "interference". Absolutely brilliant and why I listen to Grey Park.
Their last CD "Wet Amen" was a tad of a let down. Grey Park are a collective with a constant of Plaa, Tommi and Nosfe. "Wet Amen" had a few more collaborators on board. Perhaps Grey park work best when they are down to their bare bones?

Re-Clip has become an addition to the Grey Park line up and I have just been listening to a track of his called "Easy Dub" from the split cassette release with Kanttoripoika on the Tarjous-Edits label and my god it sounds like "Small Black Paris" - an early track by Grey Park.

CD is available from 267 Lattajjaa at : www.dlc.fi/~hhaahti/267 lattajjaa/ worth getting!

Sniffin' Glue + Other Rock 'N' Roll Habits

2012-01-06T21:16:00.014Z

I love music biogs. Be it about a genre, an artist, a movement, a town or whatever - I just love a good music biog. I could quite happily read an autobiography by David Cassidy or Gary Glitter or the excess stories of Lemmy or Led Zeppelin...and have, but it is the books on punk, post-punk, new wave noise (call it what you must) I like the best.
At this moment in time I am devouring the Bill Nelson/Be Bop Deluxe biography "Music In Dreamland", it really is an unputdownable page turner...but I digress. This Christmas holiday I read "Sniffin' Glue + Other Rock 'N' Roll Habits" by Mark Perry. I have mentioned earlier how much I admire the musical/lyrical work of Mark Perry - be it with Alternative TV, The Reflections, The Door + The Window or simply as a solo artist - so I thought it was time I sat and read one of the "things" he is most famous for; "Sniffin' Glue" fanzine.
The story of "Sniffin' Glue" is known by all (surely)? The summer of 1976, Mark Perry a London based music fan is bored of the music weekly so decides to start his own little "'zine" about the London music scene and report on his favourite records (mainly US imports) and gigs that he goes and sees. "Issue 1" sells well, and Mark enjoys the experience so carries on .... Punk Rock explodes in London and Mark is there to report on it all. The bands, the music, the clothes, the venues etc....stuff that the weekly music papers just did not want to know.
In 2009, 31 years after the last "Sniffin' Glue" Mark decides to put all 12 issues together in a big A4 sized book...and write the introduction. Good stuff. The cover claims the book to be "The essential punk accessory", a fair claim but I don't think the book is any more essential as (say) Bob George's "International Discography Of The New Wave" or "No More Heroes" by Alex Ogg. The "The" is a bit strong.
Before starting this book I had never read a copy of "Sniffin' Glue" (or "Ripped & Torn" or "Kill Your Pet Puppy" come to think of it). 1976/1977 fanzines never made it North to Lincoln. I think buying "Chainsaw" through the classifieds in "Sounds" was my first foray into the fanzine. I read this book in the voice of Mark Perry. I read it with a Sarf' Lahndan drawl. I read Bill Burrough's books in his voice too - can't help it. The first few issues deal with Mark's admiration of The Ramones and The Flamin' Groovies and MC5 and The Stooges....East Coast US rock, Issue 2 and Mark is catching onto Eddie & The Hot Rods and The Damned and starting to enjoy live gigs. The Stranglers, Sex Pistols etc. The writing is blunt - say what you see style writing, no waxing romantic or lyrical like the journo's on the "Melody Maker" or (worse still) "NME" payroll. Fun to read.
As the 'zine starts selling Mark gets a writer called Steve Mick to assist in interviews and reviews, and Harry Murlowski becomes the "Glue" photographer, and bands like The Clash and Models and Buzzcocks appear on the circuit and they all get interviewed and reviewed and the "Sniffin' Glue" offices move from Mark's house in Deptford to the Rough Trade Record shop, then Mark gets asked to run a record label by Miles Copeland and the offices move again to Soho and Miles Copeland's office and the magazine takes on full page adverts from Mile's record labels such as Step Forward, and Illegal and Phonogram get adverts in there and Mark hands the editorship to Danny "Pets Win Prizes" Baker and unfortunately within twelve months the 'zine has run out of spunk...still it's a fast and furious story and (as I keep on bloody saying) a good read.
I did think that there would be more information on Alternative TV...I thought Mark Perry would have used the 'zine to forward his musical project...but no..and fair play to that. I also thought that there would be some Throbbing Gristle live reviews or news but apart from a one-page advert for the "2nd Annual Report" album there's nowt. Never mind.
Also I would like to say that I have nothing against Danny Baker, I like him and I never missed an episode of "Win, Lose Or Draw" when he was the host. (Didn't Bob Mills take over from Danny)? and I still listen to his Radio 5 Saturday morning show when I can - the guy invented "6-0-6" - unmissable radio! Anyway to save going off on a tangent - if you want to know the history of punk rock in the UK then this book is a necessity and it cheered up my Christmas.

Spurred on by the 'zine scene I did attempt my own back in 1981. It was called "Hamburger Lady" (pause for laughter). I cannot remember much about the content. There would have been a lot of record reviews - perhaps a Retford Porterhouse of Nottingham Rock City live report. Myself and a friend (Drew Cormack) did go and interview some women, some CND women, who were camped outside RAF Waddington because it was the kind of thing that was done back in '81. Greenham Common and all that. Looking back at it I think we were after booze, drugs and maybe a free CND badge! For some reason I typed the thing up on some A3 sized "Gestetner" paper that cost alot of money from Ruddocks (Lincoln's answer to Ryman's or Megson's in its' day - they sold vinyl too), I think my father (who was a solicitor) had a "Gestetner" printer in his office...but because I could not include photo's or free hand graphics I kind of gave up and "Hamburger Lady" died.

2011 - Has It Been A Good Year?

2012-01-02T20:27:00.046Z

Seems that this is becoming a regular item at the start of the year...I thought I'd go with it this year. "Has it been a good year"? Well, re-united with some old gems and found some new exciting sounds can't be all that bad....
A great highlight of 2011 was travelling to Finland with Tamsin and the kids, as well as Simon Kane and his partner Lidya and playing live alongside Grey Park in Helsinki and re-visiting Jyvaskyla with Juri Joensuu (of Mnem).
The AAVE Festival in Helsinki was perhaps one of the most enjoyable live outings I have ever had. The setting (a small studio cinema), the film (Tim Bayes' "Burning Dogs Teeth") and the sound...the seated and appreciative audience. It all just left me with a great sense of awe and belief. A wondrous and magickal night...and like I mentioned I got to see Grey Park live too. The second Dieter Muh performance of the year was a little disappointing, sound and visual wise, but I had prepared the wrong sound for the venue. Great to meet Z'ev though.
Looking at other folks' output through 2011 has made me realise I've been a little slack! Being part of the compilation "Your Playing Like A Fucking Pub Band" to celebrate Independent Record Store Day was fun, as was taking part in Lucas Abela's "Mix Tape" project. Hopefully 2012 will see more releases, the live in 2010 tape should be soon via Hanson Records.

OK.
Anyway - Here is a list (I love lists) of what came through the doors of Hartop Towers in 2011.

Alfarmania "Halogd Insikt" (Autarkeia Vinyl) 10"
Animals & Men "The Terraplane Fixation" (Strange Days) 7"
Animals & Men "Revel In The Static" (Hyped 2 Death) CD
Animals & Men "Never Bought Never Sold" (Mississippi Records) LP
Appliance "Reconditioned" (RROOPP) 3xCD
Appliance "Reconditioned Promo" (RROOPP) CDrEP
Aqua Dentata " 7th Past the Umbrella" (Beartown Records) Tape
Aqua Dentata "Lesbian Semiotics At A Jewellery Table" (Echo Tango) CDr
The Armoury Show "New York City" (Parlophone) 7"
Ashtray Navigations "3 Rockets Thicken" (Trensmat) 7"EP
Ashtray Navigations "Human Wrecktronics" (Not On Label) Tape
Astral Social Club "Smashed Tractor" (Journal Of Belgae Folk Club) 3" CDr
Astral Social Club "Two Slabs" (Beartown Records) Tape
Astral Social Club "Ach/Och" (Astral Social Club) Tape
Astral Social Club "Wheezy Paradise" (Sonic Oystre Cassettes) Tape
Astral Social Club "Snaefell" (Trensmat) 7"
Astral Social Club "Scudding" (Astral Social Club) CDr
Astral Social Club "V.E.N.U.S" (Astral Social Club) CDr
Astral Social Club "Generator" (Dekorder) LP
Astral Social Club/Tomutonttu "Split" (Tippee Bowler Tapes) 12"EP
B Movie "The Dead Good Tapes" (Wax Records) LP
BBBlood "Destroy,Shatter,Stun,Intoxicate" (Void Seance) Tape
BBBlood/Rank Sinatra "Split" (Mourning Glory) 7"EP
Andreas Brandal "Autumn Drama" (Lighten Up Sounds) Tape
Andreas Brandal "Eight Secret Messages" (Ilse) CDr
Gunter Brus "Bodyanalysis Actions 1964-1970" (Edition Krothenhayn) DVD/Book
Burial Hex "MaHa Bone" (Skulls Of Heaven) 2xCDr
Burial Hex "In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni" (Skulls Of Heaven) CDr
Burial Hex "Blood Between Her Lakes" (Turgid Animal) Tape
Burial Hex "A Night With Two Moons" (Aurora Borealis) Tape
Burial Hex "Eschatology 1" (Brave Mysteries) Tape
Burial Hex "Hunger" (Holidays Records) 12"
Burial Hex "Book Of Delusions" (Brave Mysteries) LP+CD
Burial Hex/Kinit Her "Vedic Hymns" (Altvinyl) LP
William Burroughs "Three Allusive Tracks From Breakthrough In Grey Room" (Sub Rosa) 7"
Burzum "Burzum/Aske" (Misanthropy Records/Cymophane Records) CD
Joshua Norton Cabal "Inner Light" (Chimera Records) CD
Cathar Tech "Apis" (Sonic Mutations) 3"CDr
Cheapmachines "Cast" (Beartown Records) Tape
Cheapmachines "Debris" (CMX) 7" Test Pressing
Cheapmachines "Accessory" (CMX) Tape
Cheapmachines "Kept" (Second Layer Records) Tape
Cheapmachines "Fulcrum" (Void Seance) CDr
Cheer "Singing Sand" (At War With False Noise) Tape
Clew Of Theseus "Oran" (Cathartic Process) 2xTape/8" Lathe Cut EP/Book
Clew Of Theseus "The Death Urge" (Verlautbarung) LP
Cloama "Municipality Of Marionettes" (Freak Animal) LP
Club Moral "Instruments Of Attraction 2" (No Basement Is Deep Enough) 10"EP
Club Moral "1981-1986" (Vinyl On Demand) 5xLP/DVD Box Set
Craig Colorusso "Sun Boxes" (Not On Label) 7"
Column One "W. Transmission 1" (A.N.Column Release) Tape/Booklet
Column One "Prasident Der Sonne" (Moloko +) CD
Column One "No One" (90% Wasser) 3xLP/3xCD/Book Box Set
Compass Hour "Compass Hour" (Brave Mysteries) Tape
Coum Transmissions "Sugarmorphoses" (Dais Records) LP
Alistair Crosbie "Music For Lighthouses" (Quinquaginta) Tape
Current 93 "Baalstorm, Sing Omega" (Coptic Cat Records) CD
Dead Wood/Phantom Heron Seas "Sunshine Daily Commercial" (Dirty Demos) 7" Flexi
Dead Wood/Phantom Heron Seas "Microbes 1&2" (Dead Sea Liner) 3"CDr
Death In June "Burial" (Leprosy Discs) CD
Demons Dilloway "Live At The Magic Stick" (AA Records) Tape
Aaron Dilloway "Mousetrap" (Monorail Trespassing) Tape
Aaron Dilloway "Lip Syncing To Verme" (Hunderbiss) LP
Aaron Dilloway "The Rope And The Dogs" (777 Was 666) CD
Aaron Dilloway/John Wiese "Live At The Chiselhurst Caves" (Hanson Records) 7"
Dome "1&2" (Mute Records) CD
Dome "3&4" (Mute Records) CD
John Duncan/Z'ev/Michael Esposito "There Must Be A Way Across This River" (Fragment Factory) LP
E.S.P Kinetic "Want Some Of This?" (Harbinger Sound) LP
Ekca Liena "Slow Music For Rapid Eye Movement" (Dead Pilot Records) DCD
Emaciator "Appease" (Monorail Trespassing) Tape
Emaciator "Defeat" (Monorail Trespassing) Tape
Emeralds "Solar Bridge" (Hanson Records) CD
Erdlicht "Urlicht/Erster Kreis (UFA Muzak) CDr
Michael Esposito/Kevin Drumm "The Icey Echoer" (Fragment Factory) 7"EP
Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim "s/t" (Not On Label) Tape
Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim "Der Legende Vom Heiligen Trinker" (Silken Tofu) CD
Fiat Lux "Aqua Vitae" (Polydor Records) 12"
Patrik Fitzgerald "The Paranoid Ward" (Small Wonder Records) 12"EP
Mick Flowers & Neil Campbell "Live" (Not On Label) CDr
Flutwacht "Veroffentlicht Durcht" (Licht Und Stahl) Tape
Stephane Garin/Sylvestre Gobart "Gurs/Drancy.... (Gruenrekorder) DCD
Gary War "Reality Protest" (Holidays Records/Sacred Bones) 7"
Genocide Organ "Under-Kontrakt" (Tesco Organisation) LP
Carlos Giffoni/Cornucopia "Split" (Sonora) Tape
The Gist "Love At First Sight" (Rough Trade Records) 7"
Glue Pour/Preslav Literary School "Split" (Razzle Dazzle) LP
Duncan Harrison "80 Ghosts" (Soundholes) Tape
Duncan Harrison/BBBlood "Split" (Not On Label) Tape
Duncan Harrison/Hobo Sonn "Split" (Not On Label) Tape
Russell Haswell "Recorded While It Actually Happened" (Tochnit Aleph) Tape
Charles Hayward "Recorded" (1968 Film Group) DVD
Haxan Cloak "Observatory" (Aurora Borealis) 12"
Haxan Cloak "Observatory" (Aurora Borealis) Tape
Haxan Cloak "Haxan Cloak" (Aurora Borealis) CD
Helm "Impasse" (Low-Point) 3"CDr
Helm "Cryptography" (Kye Records) LP
Here & Now "Dog In Hell" (Charly Records) 7"EP
Here & Now "Give And Take" (Esoteric Recordings) CD
Hum Of The Druid "Hum Of The Druid" (Abisko) Tape
Human Larvae "Home Is Where The Hurt Is" (Existence Establishment) CD
I. Corax "Spectral Metabolism" (Kaos Kontrol) CD
Inade "The Flood Of White Light" (Malignant Records) 10"EP
Inade "Antimimon Pneumatos" (LOKI Foundation) CD
Inanna "Signal/Or/Minimal" (Crowd Control Activities) CD
Irgun Z'Wai Leumi "Klirr Faktor" (Verlautbarung) LP
The Joy Of Living/The Apostles "Death To Wacky Pop" (Fight Back Records) 7"EP
Philip Julian "Location" (Entr'acte) Tape
GX Jupitter-Larsen/Muennich "Der Arbeiter Von Wien" (Fragment Factory) 7"
GX Jupitter-Larsen/John Wiese/The New Blockaders "Rip Off" (Helicopter Records) 7"
GX Jupitter-Larsen/Cheapmachines "Continuous Tunnel Clock" (Anarchymoon Recordings) 7"
Kallabris "Music For Very Simple Objects" (Substantia Innominata) 10"EP
Kanttoripoika/Re-Clip "Split" (Record Deals) 7"
Kinit Her "Living Midnight At The Harvest Abbey" (Brave Mysteries) Tape
Kinit Her "The Lord Of Power" (Alt Vinyl) 8" Lathe
Kinit Her "Gratitudes" (Small Doses) CD+3"CDEP
Land Observations "Roman Roads EP" (Enraptured) 7"EP
Lithops "Uni Umit" (Sonig Records) 12"
Magazine "About the Weather" (Virgin Records) 12"EP
Magnetic North Duo/Grey Park "Split" (Ikuisuus) Tape
Martial God Mask "Death's Head" (Dead Wood Recordings) Tape
Max & Malcolm "Max & Malcolm" (Dangerous Rhythm) LP
Megaptera "Staring Back At You" (Malignant Records) CD
Minimal Self "Formula Of Reversal" (Wavetrap) CD
Minimalistic Sweden "Standard Klickmusik" (Mitek) CD
Muennich "Rugged" (Fragment Factory) Tape
Musiikkivyory "Musiikkivyoryn B-Osa" (Ektro Records) 2xTape
N. Strahl. N. "Heroischer Realismus/Amor Fati" (Verato Project) 2xCDr
Neon Sea "Fading Light" (Lighten Up Sounds) Tape
Nicole 12 "First Dance Of The Spring" (Freak Animal Records) 7"EP
Nicole 12 "Black Line" (Freak Animal Records) LP
Not Sensibles "Instant Classics" (Bent Records) LP
Wavis O'Shave "Anna Ford's Bum" (Anti-Pop Entertainment) LP
Olympic Shitman "Supercharge" (Harbinger Sound) 2xLP Test Pressing
Ophibre And Dry Valleys "Split" (Sacred Phrases) Tape
Paavi "Paavi" (Lal Lal Lal) 12"EP
Pestdemon "Helvetesljuset" (Unrest Productions) LP
Plurals "Imagining Perpetual Tower" (Dead Pilot Records) LP
Praying For Oblivion/N. Strahl. N. "Aktion T4" (Phage Tapes) Tape
Preslav Literary School "In Fractals" (Glosses Fur Die Masses) CDr
Preslav Literary School "Le Reflexion Du Tir" (Fall Of Nothing) Tape
Preslav Literary School "Beautiful Was The Time" (Elephant & Castle) CDr
Psychic TV "Stockholm/Jarman Themes/Live (Vinyl On Demand) 4xLP
Psychic TV "Themes" (Cold Spring Records) 7xCD Box Set
Psychogeographical Commission "Widdershins" (Acrobiotic) 3"CDr
Rabbit Girls "Dental Record" (Roil Noise) CDr
Raionbashi & Kutzkelina "Aktion 091216 Berlin" (Harbinger Sound) 12"
Red Electric Rainbow "Oh, What Tangled Web We Weave" (Community College) Tape
The Rita "Predators" (Second Layer Records) 7"
Sabbath Assembly "Restored To One" (The Ajna Offensive) CD
Scars "All About You" (Pre Records) 7"
Schuster "Blac Flies Resplendent On The Blak Moon" (Adeptsound) CDr
Schuster "Blac Flies Resplendent On The Blak Moon" (Licht Und Stahl) Tape
The Secret "The Young Ones" (Arista Records) 7"
Section 25 "The Beast" (Factory Records) 12"EP
Shiver "They Will Feed On Us" (Diazepam) Tape
Sissy Spacek "Epistasis" (A Dear Girl Called Wendy) 7"EP
Slump "Malpas Way" (Beartown Records) Tape
The Sons Of God "The Object" (Firework Edition Records) CD
Mark Stewart "On/Off" (Monitorpop) DVD
Stiff Little Fingers "Alternative Ulster" (Rough Trade Records/Rigid Digits) 7"
Stockholm Monsters "All At Once" (Factory Records) 7"
Storm Bugs "A Safe Substitute" (Harbinger Sound) LP
Stratvm Terror "This Is My Own Hell" (Reverse Allignment/Existence Establishment) CD
Tears Of Ochre "An Eternity In An Infinity Flash Of Grey" (Not On Label) CDr
Tears Of Ochre "Solipstic Apocalypse" (Not On Label) CDr
Textured Bird Transmission "Recycled" (RRRecords) tape
Throbbing Gristle "Journey Through A Body" (Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien) LP
Throbbing Gristle "United-The 7" Singles" (Not On Label) LP
Tidal "Echo Dawn" (Rotifer Cassettes) Tape
Trepaneringsritualen "Matyrium" (Small Doses) Tape
Treriksroset "Venal" (Chefsideologens Bolag) Tape
Troum "Saiws" (Equation Records) 7"
Various Artists "Agdam" (Agdam) CD
Various Artists "East" (Dead Good Records) LP
Various Artists "Feral Debris 5" (Feral Debris) CDr/Magazine
Various Artists "Galactic Hits" (Consart/Vibrations) CD
Various Artists "Incendium 3" (LOKI Foundation) CD
Various Artists "Record Store Record" (RRRecords) LP
Various Artists "Second One" (Hyster) Tape
Various Artists "This Is Our Generation" (Retro Records) CD+Book
Various Artists "You Are Playing Like A Fucking Pub Band" (The 7:17 From West Wittering Is Late Again) 6xTape
Various Artists "Your Song My Foot" (WFMU) CD
Voice Of Eye "Anthology Two 1992-1996" (Transgredient Records) DCD
Chris Watson "The Sea Ice Border" (Corridor8) CDr+Book
Wyrm + Nocturnal Emissions "Symmetrical Ecstacy" (Roil Noise Offensive) CDr+3"CDr
Xiphod Dementia "Might Is Blight" (Existence Extablishment) CD

Happy New Year...!!! .

2012-01-01T10:29:00.001Z

A Happy New Year card from GX Jupitter-Larsen.

Aqua Dentata

2011-12-31T22:13:00.015Z

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release from Aqua Dentata; "Lesbian Semiotics At A Jewellery Table", a CDr on the new Echo Tango label. This 34 minute album is not too dissimilar from the cassette album "7th Past The Umbrella" that Beartown Records put out earlier this year. And not at all dissimilar from the sound I heard Aqua Dentata produce live at the ILLFM December bash last year. A continuation. Good stuff.
For those who do not know, Aqua Dentata is the solo project of Baraclough member Eddie Nuttall.
"Lesbian Semiotics At A Jewellery Table" ( a very tantalizing title) is 34 minutes of drifting waves of glistening tones and frequencies balancing on the rim of aural comfort. It is a very meditative album with the sounds drifting around from ear to ear, small minutiae synthesis weave across the cranium, sometimes building to a mass organ sound...but not for long. It is very clever stuff and highly infectious. Think of Nurse With Wound's 1988 classic "Soliloquy For Lilith" and you are not far from what Aqua Dentata achieves here.
This release is limited to 50 copies only and available for around a fiver from Eddie at www.aquadentata.org. Hurry while stocks last.....

Pictures:
1: Aqua Dentata CDr Cover.
2: "Lesbian Semiotics On Top Of My Bookshelf".

Alternative TV

2011-12-26T21:00:00.013Z

First of all I would like to apologise for not mailing out Christmas cards this year. I have all my details / contacts etc listed in my "Orange Web Mail" address book but two weeks ago Orange Web Mail decided to "crash" and all my contacts were "lost"...hence addresses be them snail mail or E Mither were gone. Christmas Eve and Orange Web Mail restores the address book - but too late to "wish folk" a happy Christmas etc. I apologise. I know I could use an address book - I did have one but Isabel (our youngest) decided to rip it to shreds, I got an address book for Christmas, I shall keep it hidden from prying fingers!
So, I wish you all a belated seasons greetings and hope that Santa brought you all that you wished for..he did me! Amongst the boxer shorts and copious amounts of port came the Mark Perry book "Sniffin' Glue" a collection of all 12 issues of the punk fanzine. I started reading it today. For reading soundtrack I decided to put on some old Alternative TV records. My favourite ATV single is "The Force Is Blind" released on Deptford Fun City Records in 1979. I am very very partial to the 1981 7" "Communicate" (on IRS), but "The Force Is Blind" is special. There is no other single that sounds like this one. The eponymous A-Side tells of the trials and tribulations of touring with Here & Now and the free festival "circuit". The three members of ATV swap instruments and present a sound not too dissimilar of Gong and/or The Mothers Of Invention. Mark Perry bows a violin whilst Dennis "Side" Burns wanders around a synthesizer and Dave George hits the chime bars. Anno of Here & Now warbles and wails before the sound effect of a police raid comes in and the track wanders off with a plodding bass line courtesy of Dennis and tries to enter a "free-jazz" phase but fortunately the track ends before it all happens.
The B-Side is "Lost In Room". A (post) punk classic. It has one of the best intro's ever! It is up there with the Mekons "Where Were You". Yep! It is that good. Mark Perry drums like Genesis P-Orridge - clumpy and plodding but it fits the guitar riff so well. (Like St James Park will always be St James Park, Genesis P-Orridge will always be Genesis P-Orridge). "Lost In Room" is a tightly built punk anthem with Mark Perry spitting out classic Perryisms such as :
"Spittin' On The Guvnors Carpet" + "I'm Already Numb....Not Any Movement"+ "DJ Mandy played records all night whilst I sat in the corner shivering from fright". It is pure poetry. "The exhibition stopped the moment I entered, the artist refused to talk about their work". Genius.
Mark spits out the saying "A Spent Force". I remember loving this saying at the time and wanting to call my first band this name...but So Commercial was the name pulled out of the hat (...as mentioned elsewhere on this blog). Then Skullflower had a single called "Spent Force" and I decided it sounded more like a Norwegian test pilot than a vicious riposte.
The single has a hidden track, a strange version of "Vibing Up The Senile Man" that sounds more like The Pop Group or Rip Rig & Panic than ATV. Jazz blurts on the trumpet and saxophone whilst voices claim that they are vibing up the senile man a la Last Poets....does anyone know who is on this track?
The single is produced by Wally Brill. In 1979 Wally produced this single as well as another great 7"; "Them Or Me" by Medium Medium. Apparently in 1997 Wally released an ambient album as The Covenant...love to hear it.

If you ever get chance to buy this record...please do!

Pictures:
1: "The Force Is Blind" Cover.
2: "The Force Is Blind" Reverse Cover.
3: "The Force Is Blind" Label.

Metabolist

2011-12-21T20:14:00.009Z

One of my all time favourite groups from the past 30 + years are Metabolist. I was playing the recent Storm Bugs re-issue LP "A Safe Substitute" on Harbinger Sound and it put me in mind of Metabolist.
In the past ten years I have managed to pick up the Metabolist 1980 LP "Hansten Klork" and the 7" classic "Identify" both quite cheaply. I am still on the look out for the rest! "Identify" is a classic post-punk period single, independent, catchy, left field and has a great picture sleeve. All of Metabolist's vinyl sleeves look like Rothko paintings.
"Identify" was released in 1980 on their own Dromm Records label. Catalogued DRO-3. "Identify" starts off with bass guitar and drums, sparse/angular - very live...agitated vocals join the mix blurting the chorus "I can't, I can't, I can't identify - I can't identify". Catchy. The verse has a "pub vocal" type lyric. (If you know what I mean)?? Then it all goes off at a tangent. It has a middle eight that sounds all improv. and Recommended Records. All Plain Characters, Transmitters and The Homosexuals before it catches up with itself for one last chant at the chorus. A beauty. I first heard it in 1980 and the delight has never worn away. the B-Side is an instrumental called "Tiz Hoz Nam"...it must mean something? This track is dark, sinister and weird. Imposing guitar notes plucked over a rumbling synth. Think very very early Throbbing Gristle or a 1960's soundtrack to a Hungarian puppet show and you'll be close.
If listing top twenty singles from 1980 then "Identify" would be in there.

At the time I never knew much about Metabolist, In fact I knew nothing! I thought they were Welsh but don't ask me why. I had no idea Metabolist was a style of architecture. They weren't featured much in the NME or Sounds. They did (however) fit in with what I was listening to at the time. Experimental, post-punk, industrial, electronic music like all the comparisons I have made above...and throw in This Heat, Scritti Politti and The Lemon Kittens and we have my 1980 in a nutshell. The joy of the Internet has brought some information. Metabolist band member Mark Rowlett was a member of Camera 3 and went on to be in Shock Headed Peters. I never knew that! I could never "get into" The Shock Headed Peters at the time...they were too rock orientated for me - I am prepared to give them a new ear. And then Malcolm Lane made an LP called Max & Malcolm in 1982 that I have just bought! It just looks like I'll like it.

Anyway. Metabolist (hopefully) will probably get some re-issue treatment soon, their sound deserves it. If you see any Metabolist for sale - buy it!

Sabbath Assembly

2011-12-18T19:53:00.025Z

Years ago, I mean years ago, fucking years ago I was at a sleep over with a couple of friends in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. Andy was looking after his younger brother Richard whilst his folks went abroad so myself and Gary took the trek from Manchester to Lincolnshire to help him out - and to ship in supplies. One night we took to watching the Frank Howard movie "The Other Side Of Madness", the low budget 1970 docu/drama explaining the Manson Family. It was here that the three of us were hearing (for the first time) a couple of original Manson songs. "Mechanical Man" stood out as a classic and we (stoned) decided to learn all the Manson Family songs and do a live gig as "The Family" or "Family Entertainment". Like all great stoned ideas nothing became of it...although a couple of years later Andy, Gary and myself morphed into the three-piece Rise.
(As it happened, in the 1990's folk were covering Manson songs willy-nilly, I used to own the various artist compilation 10" LP "Comin' Down Fast" before I discovered E Bay).

I am reminded of this (babysitting) weekend (fucking) years ago whilst I am listening to the album "Restored To One" by American band Sabbath Assembly.
I love this album. It came with the recently published book "Propaganda Of The Holy Writ Of The Process Church Of The Final Judgement". A sort of follow on from 2009's "Love Sex Fear Death:The Inside Story Of The Process Church Of The Final Judgement". Both published by Feral House. I have yet to find the time to read "Propaganda" - it is a glossy repress of the Process Church magazines from the late 1960's - but "The Inside Story" was a fascinating read and an unputdownable book. Undoubtedly The Process Church were a cult, and like The Manson Family, David Berg, Jim Jones, Aum Shinrikyo and David Koresh; I find cults and the operation of cults fascinating. So, with the book came a signed postcard from Timothy Wyllie and this CD by Sabbath Assembly, a group I know nothing about. It is on the Ajna Offensive label. The only other release I own on this label is the Ultra 7" "Dedicated To Hans Bellmer", I think I need to discover this label more.
Sabbath Assembly have got hold of some original Process Church songs and arrangements and recorded them as if it was 1969. On the whole the songs sound like The Partridge Family mixed in with The Young Generation / The 2nd Generation and maybe The Swingle Singers. It is fantastic sing-a-long stuff with the touch of cult madness, and of course there are some great lyrics in there. "Come Children Arise".
"And The Phoenix Is Reborn" sounds like a Gloria Mundi song recorded in 1970 by Merrliee Rush whereas "Judge Of Mankind" has a full psychedelic rock-out section that would not be out of place on a live Doors bootleg. The album ends on "The Time Of Abaddon". Not (unfortunately) a paean to the drummer Tony Bray of Venom but a warning about a journey into the pit of hell! It has a great 60's Spaghetti western feeling to it.

I own Charles Manson's "Lie" album as well as the soundtrack to "The Wicker Man" and love and play them both (regularly). I own/have nothing else like these albums in my collection. Sabbath Assembly's "Restored To One" joins this list. I love it. I can imagine myself, Gary and Andy attempting and playing these songs back in the mid 1980's. It's a classic and a welcome addition at Hartop Towers.

Pictures:
1: Sabbath Assembly CD.
2: Process Church paper cutting.
3: "Propaganda" Book.
4: Signed card from Timothy Wyllie.
5: "Love Sex Fear Death" book.

Patrick Simons

2011-12-17T20:25:00.005Z

Always a sad day when you hear about a loss of a friend and today is a sad day. Today I learnt of the passing of Patrick Simons.
In 1986, after a year away, I moved back into Hulme Manchester and met Patrick. He was the bass player with Swivel Hips. Patrick was always funny, the sort of chap for which nowt was too much trouble. He leant Muhviertel equipment and got us rehearsal space. (Metal Monkey Machine's squat in Robert Adam Crescent).
Patrick lived in Whalley Range, by Victoria Park and always looked cool in his beret and long dreads - Patrick was a cool guy! It was Patrick that introduced me to the sound of Hijack (the terrorist group) with the 12" "Hold No Hostage" in 1988, back then it was all Hip-Hop/On-U Sound and Dub Reggae. I still have a copy of "The Horns Of Jericho" LP...the only "rap" record I own. I last saw Patrick in the early 1990's, probably in some swanky bar on Whitworth Street or the Dry Bar in Manchester, I can't remember which or when.
Anyway, Patrick has left the studio, and like when I heard about the murder of "Mad" Dave Hughes a couple of years back I am saddened.

R.I.P. Patrick Simons.

The Haxan Cloak #3

2011-12-14T21:03:00.007Z

In the past seven days (great band, classic 7" "Raindance" on the 4AD label) I have been reminded that as a record and cassette buyer I am bit of an outsider...or at best a relic. A fellow sufferer (that's what I call folk who work at Torbay Hospital) asked me "where do you buy records from"? A strange question. I had to ask what kind of record he was after and he said that he wanted a copy of Deep Purple's "Machine Head" album, but it had to be on vinyl as his Dad was getting back into records again. Records are (apparently) "so retro". It just seemed strange that someone would not know where to buy records from - I told him about Torre Records, Torquays' only secondhand vinyl emporium.
A couple of days earlier a fellow sufferer was telling me about Feeder and how they are releasing their new single on cassette format. Limited edition cassette! "How 80's" he exclaimed! Seems about right for the bastard sons of The Alarm who have played "Slade In Flame" too many times, but there y'go. It is good that a stadium rock troupe are putting stuff out on cassette, but I fear it has a novelty / gimmick value, as the Feeder fan said - he doesn't own a cassette player anymore but he's going to buy the cassette anyway. It just seemed strange that a "music fan" would not know that folk still release on cassettes - there are cassette labels...ah well.

I don't have a turntable set up at the hospital. It's straightforward CD's and cassettes. I would love to have a couple of decks set up, rock the Pathology Department as were but I don't think I'd get away with it. So, thank you to Aurora Borealis label for re-releasing the excellent Haxan Cloak "Observatory" single on cassette. This is the second cassette release by Aurora Borealis this year. 2011 started with the release of "A Night With Two Moons" by Burial Hex, and ends with "The Observatory" by The Haxan Cloak. It is a cracking single. Hypnotic looping electronics and rhythms playing and dancing through the ears. I have mentioned the single a couple of times before in earlier blogs so I won't bore...I just love the fact that the tracks are out on cassette, beautifully packaged with the Joseph Beuys sleeve. The cassette is limited to 50 copies and available by googling Aurora Borealis.

Picture.
1: Oscar and The Haxan Cloak.

Shiver

2011-12-09T16:52:00.008Z

At the start of the month I read about the Italian project Shiver on the (excellent) Dead Formats blog. Damien of Dead Formats was writing about the cassette "They Will Feed On Us." This is what he wrote:
"Pretty creepy stuff. Starts out very minimal with a sparse, lo fi loop. It then builds up with the sounds of crashing and possibly human wails. It has this vintage sound i have been loving that is similar to Pregnant Spore. Where the sound almost feels like it was created in the 1960s but this was recorded this year. The tape continues with grinding concrete, tuned down guitars and short burst of feedback. It's pretty awesome and very hypnotic. I am already impressed with this Italian label, Diazepam. I believe they are related to the great Ur from Italy. They have just started releasing tapes so I would recommend picking these up right away. This cassette comes in a burlap pouch with some actual bones inside. Eerie".
The cassette has to be heard.
"They Will Feed On Us" is a C-30, and comes in two parts. "Parts 1 & 2". "1" starts off with a sound that makes me think that the tape is chewing up inside the machine, or my tapeheads are fucked...slipping and chewing...the effect is looped into a dark wall of noise (DWN), a cacophony of evil before it cuts to silence, and then the sound of a single cymbal...to be joined by a sonic rumble and the voices of the dead. It all ends with beautifully panned ampnoise - the amp sounding like a Roland Jazz Chorus 50. "2" has temple bells and saxophone blurts weaving in and out of a mesmering bass guitar pattern. Riff, for the want of a better word! The piece slows to the point of scratching and blowing of various metals and bone until it builds into a(nother) cacophony of bass and screaming vocals. The whole finale is not too far from the sound of "early" Bodychoke....think "Mindshaft".

Damien was correct. The sound harks back to the early 1980's (not 1960's...unless .... ), the sound of Nekrophile Records and Ain Soph and Metgumbnerbone and also the recent Mazuraan project of Lee Stokoe. It is all in there.
Recommended.
Available from Diazepam, or direct from Shiver - visit shivernoise.blogspot.com it costs roughly 5 euro and my copy came faster than a Christmas card from Hartlepool!

Aaron Dilloway #5

2011-12-08T13:58:00.011Z

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to "The Rope And The Dogs" by Aaron Dilloway. Originally released as an 8-Track cassette in a limited edition of 8 copies back in 2008 and now re-released by Osaka (Japan) based label "777 Was 666" on CD format and in an edition of 100. 9 tracks and 40 or so minutes of prime Dilloway, the reason why I like to listen to and experience the sound of Aaron Dilloway are all here on this album. Fascinating and hypnotic.
"White Hair" is a great opener. The ideal curtain lifter. It has a submarine "blip" (depth charge) sound going through it - voyage to the bottom of the sea - there's treated voice and keyboard thrown into the mix. "A Spell List" is a master of tape loopery, synth noise and masked vocal. A very powerful piece. "Collapse" is a small two minute piece with delicately built loops, made with the care of surgeons. "Prayer Flush:Scum Black Edit" follows. This track sounds like work in progress, or maybe I'm not used to a track shifting on so many levels from Aaron Dilloway? The title track is another short work of tape manipulations and looping before "The Casket Sinker". This excellent 6 minute track is layer upon layer of electronic junk loops and crazy edited saxophone blurts. It takes me beyond pleasure.
"Return To Xanex: Final Days Of Marshall" (any clues to what this title is referring to?) is the albums magnum opus, lasting a whole twelve and a half minutes. It has a Bruce Gilbert feel to it with ampnoise and tape loops, it kind of self disassembles itself before going off on a tangent - I feel it is a conceptual piece but I have no idea what the concept is. "Modern Demonologist" has echoed loops acting in a question / response way. Experiments with a Roland Space Echo. The album finishes on the excellently titled "A Funeral With Music". Putrefier-esque synth destruction and noise. The album ends with a breakdown. Classic.

This is easily the finest Dilloway I have heard since......well since I last played some Aaron Dilloway - but not the "Door With No Handle" CDr on Chocolate Monk...I didn't like this album so much. As mentioned the CD is limited to 100 and available from Hitomi Arimoto via www.777was666.com

The 49th Parallel

2011-12-08T11:26:00.004Z

Thanks for all the cards and birthday wishes! Much appreciated. Got a few nice surpises too ... a copy of the Paul McCarthy "Tidebox/Tidebook" from Tamsin and a Homer Simpson Mug Set from the kids...excellent, and the Shiver cassette came through to post too.
I knew it was going to be a good day thanks to F.C.Basle.

The Here & Now Experiment

2011-12-06T19:57:00.023Z

I love live albums. Ever since I started listening to and collecting records I have loved the live album. Before year zero I had live albums by the likes of Deep Purple, Uriah Heep ("I've got chewing gum on my boot"), Kiss ("Alive 2"...with stickers) and even Lynyrd Skynyrd - and loved them all, then along came Throbbing Gristle and took the live album into another arena. Alongside This Heat and then Nocturnal Emissions these groups were mixing live recordings with studio recordings. Not first track studio/second track live/third & fourth studio etc but mixing them all together into one big whorl of sound.
Then there was the split live LP and none better is 1978's "What You See...Is What You Are", a split LP by Alternative TV and Here & Now on Deptford Fun City Records.
I love the work of Mark Perry. Mark P. From his life after life through to his strange kicks his body of work is genious. I even love his rant at Miles Copeland that is on the (strange) "Mission Is Terminated" double LP. You guessed it - I'm a fan. (I must point out here that I have not seen or heard any ATV or Mark Perry after the 1981 "Strange Kicks" LP). On "What You See....." ATV offer "Action Time Lemon", a bitter lemon, the furious "Going Round In Circles" and the epic "Fellow Sufferer" - classics to a man each and every one of them.
Back in 1978 the LP introduced me to the sound of Here & Now. Here & Now were a strange beast, a carry on from the free festival era of the mid 1970's...like Nik Turner's Inner City Unit and The Pink Fairies - bands that us newbie punk types should be "into" and pay respect. Spawners of Crass and The 012, and yes I did like the Here & Now tracks. They were/are kind of "punky" and sing-a-long and had a touch of humour but (in 1978) I could never bring myself to buy a full studio LP by Here & Now. "What You See.....Is What You Are" cost £1.75, Here & Now LP's were selling for £3.00 plus! And they were filed in the "prog" section in Sanctuary Records (Lincoln's finest) and "prog" was a section that was OK for browsing but not for buying. (Unless it was a Christmas present for a friend).
Earlier this year I found the Here & Now "Floating Anarchy" 7"EP secondhand on a Market Stall in Cambridge. It was unpriced. I already had the B Movie picture disc album "The Dead Good Tapes" in my hand (priced at £7) when I asked the chap "how much"? He said "tenner the both" and I said "sold"! It is a brilliant EP with two studio tracks from the "What You See...." album. Great versions of "Addicted" and "Dog In Hell". I found myself playing "Dog In Hell" repeatedly when I came home from work...I was singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...What You See Is What You Are" to the kids at bedtime. I decided to experiment was it time to buy the album from whence the tracks came?
The album is called "Give & Take" and I remember the sleeve so well from flicking through vinyl in the 1970's. The names associated with the LP were familiar too, Dave Anderson from Rough Trade (Red Crayola/The Pop Group) on the mix with Kif Kif who had worked with The Instant Automatons, 23 Skidoo and The Androids Of Mu. So I bought the CD version on the Cherry Red Records subsidiary Esoteric Recordings because it included the three tracks from the "Floating Anarchy" 7"EP as well as a studio version of "What You See....Is What You Are".

The CD kicks off with a cracking studio version of "What You See...Is What You Are", guitar riff and drumming is superb, and then what follows is 5 tracks of pure self indulgent hippy-trippy sub Barrett era Floyd mixed with the worst Steve Hillage album you can imagine. In my days I have been to many a house/flat/squat (delete as applicable) to score some draw, and there was always one place that was the last resort, the grin and bear it, the bite the fucking bullet we're off to Rainbow Pete's, or Itchy Dave's or Mick Man's pad. You knew you were going to be there a while and you were going to have to listen to endless Gong, Hillage, Hot Tuna and Velvet Underground and say that you love it, just to score the eighth on tick and pray you never see the guy again (even though you owe him a tenner)! This CD is the soundtrack to my early/mid 1980's nightmares. But it contains studio versions of three tracks from one of my all time favourite live albums.
Tracks 1, 7 & 9. Ignore the rest, the experiment was an interesting one.

Pictures:
1: Here & Now "Give & Take" CD Cover.
2: Alternative TV + Here & Now relax, 1978.

Preslav Literary School #3

2011-12-04T20:54:00.001Z

Live at Wysing Festival, Cambridgeshire. September 2011.

Dead Wood / Phantom Heron Seas #2

2011-12-03T20:17:00.009Z

A couple of weeks ago I went to The Great Hall in Dartington to watch Annie Gosfield perform the world premiere of "Floating Messages And Fading Memories". It was a very enjoyable evening in a great venue (the place where 23 Skidoo recorded "The Culling Is Coming") but the sound produced did not live up to the sound promised. "Floating Messages" was to feature the sound of clandestine radio transmissions of European resistance groups alongside radio static, shortwave oscillations and Morse code. And yes the sounds were all there but they were superseded by strings and wind from the Athelas Sinfonietta the minimal guitar work of Roger Kleier and the drums of Chris Cutler. It was a rich and rewarding performance, and to have Chris Cutler play in your back yard so to speak is nowt to complain about...but the sound I was looking for was lost amongst the instruments. "Microbes:Parts 1&2" by Dead Wood and Phantom Heron Seas delivers the goods where Annie Gosfield failed. No masking, no pretensions, the release could easily be called "Floating Messages & Fading Memories".
"Microbes:Part 1&2" is a 3"CDr released by the Dead Sea Liner label in an edition of 45. The major part is "Part One" with its' radio static and crackle and visions of messages lost in the ether. To Arecibo by Brian Williams came to mind as did a track Dieter Muh produced back in the 1990's called "S.O.L.A.S." (Safety Of Life At Sea). With the sounds of the static coming in waves the piece(s) have a very nautical feel. If you like the "Shipwrecks" cassette by Andreas Brandal then you will like this CDr.
"Part One" ends on a great loop, rhythmic, hypnotic before developing into "Part Two" and its' building static / dead air space sound. At times it has an underwater feel about it, the creaking and the oscillations/undulations. Excellent stuff.

"An Underwater Experience Would Come In Handy" (I have had this on the brain since Wednesday night)!

This is the future sound of Dorset and great follow on from the "Sunshine Daily Commercial" 7" flexi-plate release that came out in the autumn on Dirty Demos. Both need to be heard.
Contact www.deadsealiner.co.uk straight away, at 45 copies (mine was #42) this beauty will be gone fast.

Wire: Exeter Phoenix Centre. 30 November 2011

2011-12-01T09:24:00.008Z

Last night Wire brought their "Red Barked Tree" tour to Exeter. Needless to say it was an excellent gig with Wire (on form) mixing the old with the new. Excellent version of "5/10". Support was from New York duo Talk Normal and Dave Myers DJ'ed in the lounge.
And Ross, if you are reading this......hello!

Pictures.
1,2+3. Wire.
4. Dave Myers and friend.
5. Chatting with Colin. (Thanks Michael).

Eden Pure Ale

2011-11-27T12:53:00.005Z

In the interests of bringing you information on new and exotic beers I ventured to the Eden Project in Bodleva, Cornwall and bought some Eden Pure Ale. Eden Pure Ale is brewed at Sharp's Brewery in Rock, Cornwall and I'm not too certain on its' availability outside the Eden Project but it probably isn't worth paying the £22 entrance fee to try it - go to the Sharp's Brewery web site and buy some online. ( www.sharpsbrewery.co.uk).
A 500ml bottle set me back £2.50, so it's not a cheap tipple and runs at only 4.5% Vol. It is however quite tasty - refreshing almost, very light and fruity. Sharps brew another ale called "Doom Bar" and Eden Pure Ale is very similar. There is a new ale by Sharp's called "D.W." brewed for the Xmas drinkers market (hello)! and proceeds go to a Cornish Hospice so I'll try and hunt some down. Drinking for Cancer.

Pictures.
1: Sharp's Eden Pure Ale.
2: Myself entering the Eden Project.

Forced Womanhood

2011-11-24T20:05:00.016Z

I had an E Mail the other day from a friend who had been to the "Colours Out Of Space" weekender in Brighton and his comment on some of the festival was "Everybody thinks they can be a sound artist / poet these days".
"It's not easy, to make you feel uncomfortable, it's not easy....it's not just £1.30" to quote Throbbing Gristle's "Wolverhampton £1.30". I get that feeling whilst playing the compilation release "Forced Womanhood" on 23 Productions. A 2xC60 package put out a few years back. A lot of tracks on this release are bland one dimensional noise efforts, pleasing to neither man nor ear....but there are a few gems. I remember getting it on release and playing it and liking some of the tracks and with this in mind I have been revisiting the release over the past couple of days.
Side A begins with Cleanse. Cleanse are are early incarnation of US "dronesters" Hive Mind. Here they present "Angel's Trumpet" a great slice of Industrial pulse and grind. Clew Of Theseus offer a slice of American Power Electronics with distorted shouting and chaotic electronics. Early doors for Clew here. Prurient follow with "Tailor". Well presented stuff with amplifier feedback and metal percussion. Prurient giving an isolated sparse vibe. Prosexist follow. I remember a few years back reviewing the cassette release "Krimkall" on the Krimljud label for "Idwal Fisher" magazine. On the compilation is a project called Assdestroyer - it was some young chap in his bedroom knocking out "naughty" tracks whilst his mother was downstairs doing the ironing...anyway, I did say then that you should never name yourself after a Whitehouse "song". It is too obvious and Whitehouse stand alone in the field of power electronics...it is pointless. Sure, I've just been talking about Animals & Men and myself naming a band I was in after a This Heat track title but This Heat and Adam & The Ants are not Whitehouse. Anyhow...Prosexist offer amp' feedback (yawn) and shouty shouty vocals. Karlheinz follows with a noise track. Side A ends with "Penal Exile" by Ga-Ne-Tli-Yv-S-Di. (A new name to me). It is layered synth with effects pedals and hidden (subliminal) vocals and probably the best track so far.
Side B starts with Immaculate Grotesque. This is noise that I don't quite understand. I don't understand why anyone would make it or want to listen to it. Eugenics Council follow with two pieces both called "Taint". The first track is horrible noise, the second feature an American voice shouting insults before it all fits around a rhythmic beat and it all seems to fit. Black Leather Jesus hits like a train. Chaos and noise at 125 miles per hour. V.D. give us the excellently titled "No Love For A Bottom". V.D. is a side project of Keith Brewer - he of Taint fame. It begins (again) with insults, and therefore boring...yes I am a motherfucking dicksucker who'll burn in hell...thank you very much...and it is a shame as what follows is a slice of excellent powerful electronics, just a shame it begins all cliched. Loop Retard give a Smegma style tape collage before Sweden's Survival Unit end the side with the best track "Let Me Die A Woman", a dark brooding atmospheric instrumental.
Side C starts with Prosexist (not again!!) with Raquel De Grimstone. "Paint You Up" has a good old industrial noise feel to it, it's not that good, just a pleasant surprise. Moribund offer nothing new with two tracks of slowed down sluggish vocals over distorted noise and The Viodre finish the side with an epic piece of directionless tat called "Phalcam Mancunt".
Side D kicks off with "Slut Torture" by Panicsville. Where do they get these titles from? The sound is forced and poor. A poor de force. Two pieces by Karmanjakan Intonarumori follow and these two slices of innovative, cleverly constructed masterpieces is what makes the compilation worth having. No comparisons to any other artiste / sound can be made here. Slow staggering electronics and spoken madness. K.I. is an early project of Bestializer, and one of Sweden's finest noise makers. Human Is Filth offer up "Penectomic Scission Vivisection", an insane onslaught of pounding electronics and feedback. Concrete Violin follow. It is a strand of thought amongst "noisefolk" that when recording a "noise" track that sticking everything "in the red" sounds good. Misguided fools. A track of tiresome tape splicing tomfoolery ends the compilation. "Bitch Me In" by the strangely titled project Mansfield Deathtrap. Are they from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire?
The release is finely packaged in a DVD type slim case with a booklet of "naughty schoolboy" pictures. Anal penetration, castration, open vagina collage stuff. The tracks were compiled by Clay Ruby and Karen Eliot (the Alan Smithee of noise albums)!
If seen - buy - if just for Karmanjakan Intonarumori, Survival Unit and Prurient.

Animals & Men

2011-11-21T19:41:00.025Z

Have spent a pleasant while listening to the 2008 LP "Never Bought, Never Sold" by Animals & Men on US label Mississippi Records. Animals & Men first existed in 1979 and were based in Frome, Somerset (When in Frome....). They named themselves after the Adam & The Ants song. A lot of that kind of thing went on in the late 1970's. I remember 1979 and trying to chose a name for my first band (band!!...duo more like), we wrote some names on a bit of paper and tossed them into a (bowler) hat, on one piece I had written "Whips & Furs" a favourite track from the first Vibrators LP. I was thinking "well if it works for Stiff Little Fingers then I'll give it a go", luckily it never got pulled from the hat. (The Attempted Rape Of Dave Kirten and The Arrival Of A Train At La Ciotat Station were both drawn before we plumped for So Commercial). In 1982 we (the "we" is Dave Uden & I) did the same again and became Diet Of Worms. A love of the track from the first This Heat LP rather than any Lutherian leanings.
Anyway, back to Animals & Men.
In the summer I was told of a "drummer who used to be in a punk band in the 70's" working in the bowels of Torbay Hospital and lo and behold I met Geoff the guy who tampers with Medical Devices and somesuch. Geoff is the drummer in Animals & Men and he kindly gave me the vinyl LP and CD re-issues to listen to.
The CD is OK. "Revel In The Static" on the Hyped2Death label. I do feel it is the case of the unnecessary CD. A lot of unnecessary CD's have been released of late - by this I mean full over the hour albums by old bands that only released one or two singles in their brief "career" 4 or 5 songs that last under 15 minutes...and now there's a bloody hour of their stuff - unreleased demos, live tracks, alternative versions etc. In some cases the power and mystique is lost. For some reason I am thinking Steve Treatment, Pseudo Existors and Cyanide here...has anyone released a Gaffa CD?? Anyway, "Revel In The Static" falls into that category for me. The early stuff is great but there are too many "fillers" with stuff that sounds like music that could have been heard on a Sunday night in the back room of The White Horse....If you know what I mean? (great song). So, luckily, there is a vinyl LP available that delivers the goods.
"Never Bought, Never Sold" contains the two Animals & Men 7"'s as well as the 7" "Evil Going On" which they released under the moniker of The Terraplanes. Infact The Terraplanes tracks run at 8, whilst there are only 5 Animals & Men tracks.
The LP starts with the instant classic "Don't Misbehave In the New Age", a highly infectious sing-along from 1979. "Waiting For My Stranger" follows, a John Peel favourite which, again, has an infectious rhythm. Two tracks in and we switch to the Terraplanes and a demo version of "I Never Worry". This is from a cassette that Adam Ant heard and wanted to get involved. I can hear why...it has an Amazulu or The Belle Stars feel about it. 1982 and everything was foppish hair, Bananarama and the Funboy 3 on the cover of "The Face", African chic and music like "I Never Worry". A song that hit the zeitgeist rather than charts. "Terraplane Fixation" follows. Back to Animals & Men and the song I remember them for. I used to have the song on a cassette of Peel favourites - along with Bunnydrums, Pere Ubu and Last Words....it fitted beautifully. The next couple of numbers we are back to the Terraplanes sounding like Bow Wow Wow before a Terraplanes version of an old Animals & Men song called "Treasure Of The Damned", a great proto-goth tracks where the bass guitar leads esoteric vocals around a heavy (double) drum beat.
Side two kicks off with sides A and B from the only Terraplanes single "Evil Going On" and "It's Hip". To quote lead Animal Ralph Mitchard's sleeve notes: "(It) was an attempt to create a new genre entirely, fusing blues and punk-we thought we could inspire a movement of blues beatniks digging obscure films but it flopped big time...Even Peeley didn't like it..." It (now) sounds like a strange hybrid of Joy Division jamming with 9 Below Zero and The Young Marble Giants. The B-Side to "Don't Misbehave In The New Age" follows, the excellent teen angst song "We Are Machines". Back in the punk days everyone had their "We Are Machines" song. Factory life, nine to five, white collar working..not for me type of stance. A couple of bluesy pub rock numbers follow before the LP finishes with a demo recording of the Animals & Men track "Headphones" which contains an "Antsian" guitar riff (sounds like "Friends") and then the excellent "Shell Shock", the B-Side to "Terraplane Fixation". Here they sound like Repetition - the band not the Fall song. Beautiful stuff.
The LP is recommended, the CD not so - unless seen for a fiver or less.

One of the joys of both releases are the sleeve notes. Funny detail and the story of what it was like to be in a punk/post-punk band in a small town in the late 1970's is hit on the head beautifully by Ralph. Their lack of ambition, their not wanting to move out of Frome, or to London. "Think Art, Act Local" as Grey Park once said. Animals & Men didn't play many gigs but when they supported Toyah and didn't like what they heard or saw they knew the "big time" wasn't for them. They had name changes and dalliances with Adam Ant before packing it all in and deciding to start families and play music to amuse themselves and friends.
And then the Internet happened and interest arose in old punk and post punk bands. I even had an e-mail from Chuck Warner asking if I had any old recordings of ESP Disk-rd (the band I was in after So Commercial that was named after an old Fall song title which got changed to "Psychick Dancehall"...the song title not the band) because I released a cassette back in 1979 and it got a mention in "ZigZag" magazine and "The International Discography Of The New Wave" book. And so, Animals & Men reformed in 2008. They still don't gig much (Paris on December 1) but I would love to see them live, I'd love just to sit around a pub table and share a few pints and chat with them.
The LP is available from Mississippi Records direct (just google it), or via Discogs.

Pictures.
1: Animals & Men, 1979.
2: "Never Bought, Never Sold" Sleeve.
3: "Revel In The Static" Sleeve.
4: Geoff Norcott 2011.

Nigel Ayers: Compost: Live at Tate St Ives

2011-11-20T20:33:00.000Z

Nigel Ayers: Compost: Live at Tate St Ives: Field Club & Friends - late at the Tate St Ives Friday 25 November: FREE ADMISSION Multimedia artist Nigel Ayers, will perform a live psyc...

Mauthausen Orchestra #3

2011-11-16T19:39:00.007Z

Today I resumed my playing through the 12xcassette album "Gravitational Arch Of Sex" (Slaughter Productions) by Mauthausen Orchestra, I have reached #5 : "Bloodyminded". (Good name for a band). Originally released in 1984 on the Italian Aquilifer Sodality label.
With its' beginnings, the sound of microphones being left on a deserted beach to record the lapping of the waves and the winds across the sands to the intermittent bursts of powerful synth to a track that sounds like a project called Mauthausen Orchestra should sound like. Harsh tones that cut through the air with manic male agonising screams morphing into a lyrical attack. No idea what is being communicated here (I speak no Italian) but it does sound like The Sodality track "They Never Learn" and Ultra's "I Can't Stand A Bitchy Chick" rolled into one. Excellent track.
By 1984 Mauthausen Orchestra had released on the UK Broken Flag label and maybe the influence of Gary Mundy's work along with that of Whitehouse is starting to show on "Bloodyminded"?
Side two has two instrumental pieces. It starts with industrial grind and rising and lowering oscillations before the chaos sets in. "Carcrash Electronics" is the best way to describe the sound. Manic/chaotic, all over the bloody shop! Radio space and pink noise calm the side down before a chaotic reprise and fade out.
"Bloodyminded" is a bloody good cassette and well recorded too. I suppose it is pretty daft to say that if you ever see a copy - buy! But you never know....there was an unofficial re-issue on the Australian Zero Cabal label that might be easier to find.

Craig Colorusso

2011-11-15T21:59:00.011Z

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest 7" by Craig Colorusso. "Sun Boxes", which may or may not be on the MUUD label. The single is beautifully packaged in a colourful open out picture sleeve and is on slightly camouflage coloured vinyl. I discovered this release whilst reading the excellent "Dead Formats" blog spot.
Sun Boxes are small boxed speakers generated by solar power. The speakers each contain a different guitar note loop in each box, the guitar notes collectively make a b flat chord. The boxes are then placed in different environs and experienced. Craig Colorusso builds these boxes and installs them across America.
Over the past few days Hartop Towers has been hit by the drone. Firstly with the latest Andreas Brandal album "Eight Secret Messages" on the American Ilse label and then Preslav Literary School's "La Reflexion Du Tir" cassette, this single fits in beautifully. I am playing it at 33rpm. Two pieces recorded at two different locations. "Frozen Pond" in Plymouth Massachusetts and a "Grassy Field" in Newburyport Massachusetts. The sound on both pieces is meditative, calming and all inspiring. Beautiful.
Please go to www.sun-boxes.com to find out more about Craig and his sound, the single is available there as well as (gulp) downloads for those who don't like vinyl!

Pictures.
1: "Sun Boxes" Sleeve.
2: "Sun Boxes" Vinyl.
3: Postcard.

Preslav Literary School #2

2011-11-13T20:13:00.007Z

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release from Preslav Literary School. "La Reflexion Du Tir", a cassette (C40) limited to 75 copies on the Russian Full Of Nothing label (www.fono.tihiiomut.ru) and worth the 7 Euros.
The cassette is inspired by the artwork of Benjamin Laurant Aman and Mathias Enard's novel "Zone". The novel centres around a spy/soldier called Francis Servain Mirkovic and his attempt to escape his past and live a "regular" life as Yuan Deroy. The two pieces on this cassette are named after the character(s). Benjamin is the man behind the excellent German label Razzle Dazzle.
"Francis Servain Mirkovic" starts very quietly and builds into a sixteen minute celestial, harmonious drone. "Yuan Deroy" also has a slow fade in, begining its' fourteen minute journey with a choral feel, the atomosphere of Gregorian Monks before adopting (again) a harmonious drone but this time more meloncholic and inward looking. It plays like an old wax cylinder of pumped organ music. Deep and beautiful stuff.

I am glad that the Preslav School Of Industry that appear on the latest "Feral Debris" compilation CDr are nothing to do with Preslav Literary School. The 'Industry track is so poor. It is hard to believe that someone/persons could name themselves such - they must know of the Literary School's existence? Still, I played the Venn Festival in Bristol a few years back and on the bill were a band from Bristol called Hunting Lodge! Anyway, I wholly recommend this release, get in touch with Full Of Nothing or Preslav Literary School at www.preslavliteraryschool.co.uk buy and enjoy...I even think there is a (gulp) download version!

Picture.
1: Preslav Literary Scool "La Reflexion Du Tir" Cassette.

Sorry about the poor picture....Scanner is still not working.

Metgumbnerbone

2011-11-13T08:44:00.015Z

As those who know me know - I am no fan of the download. It is an alien concept to me. I don't have the equipment to support such a device. Well yes, I have a computer but it is not hooked up through a hi-fi system or the TV, just two little speakers on the monitor...that'll do. I don't watch films or TV channels on the computer either nor do I own an Mp3 Player or an i-pod, I am not keen on headphones or ear-phones either. Another alien concept is the wearing of ear-phones whilst walking, or travelling. I like to have the full scope of hearing. Three hundred and sixty degrees. "It is not only the deaf who cannot hear" to misquote Mark E. Smith.
I was never big on MySpace, I listened to a few tunes but I never downloaded. I uploaded but withdrew quite quickly, although I think my A:A:K page is still up there because I have forgotten the password I used and quite frankly can't be arsed....I have never been on soundcloud or bandcamp. I cannot see reason. I have friends (that may surprise you) that live off the downloads. They have no record collection or tape collection...nowt to play the things on either. Their collection is a list on a computer screen available at a click. Like I said at the start; alien concept.
So far (to my knowledge) there has been one Dieter Muh track available as a download only, a track on the compilation "Squeezing Being Issue 2", put out by Wholeness Recordings. Although where you go to download a copy I do not know. Probably MySpace.
I am not that keen on blog sites that put up old releases for downloading. There was one site (I forget the name) that had the complete catalogue of The Homosexuals and their related off shoots. These releases exist as actual artifacts, as pieces of work / art, OK in 2011 they are pretty hard to come by and probably cost a days wage...but that's not the point. Before I end up infuriating myself and going on a tirade of senseless reiteration - there was a VW advert on TV today whilst I was watching the football (FC Halifax Town did OK, I thought) that stated something along the lines of; Why have something that sounds like a Golf when you can have a Golf , and that is quite similar to my line of thought.

Saying that though, last week I was told of a blog site called "nostalgie-de-le-boue" that had uploaded Metgumbnerbone's "For The Raven" for download. "For The Raven" was Metgumbnerbone's 1984 follow up to the excellent "Ligelahorn" LP on A:Mission Records and was to be released in cassette format on Nekrophile Records, but the release never came about.
Swedish label Styggelse have some how obtained a copy and put it on the site. I put a call out to my good friend Tim and now have a copy on CDr, and a great listen it is too....mind you I would love to have the "bootleg" cassette.
Metgumbnerbone were the Rupenus brothers Richard and Phillip who later created The New Blockaders along with John Mylotte and Sean Breadin who also (with the Rupenus brothers) recorded under the name of Masstishaddu. Although recorded in 1984 "For The Raven" is still highly listenable, probably because I listen to a lot of stuff recorded in the early 1980's? It sounds a lot like Soviet France...the Soviet France of "Garista" and "Mohonomische". There is a lot of rhythm, drums and metal percussion mixing with flutes, gourds, and (probably) trumpets. Large industrial warehouse sounds of scraping and obsolete machinery mixed with wailing and screaming...and at times what sounds like Geordie "Speaking In Tongues". It would have been a perfect release on the Austrian Nekrophile Records label, it fits in ideally with Korpses Katatonik, LasHtaL, Zero Kama etc. It is very 1984. There were a slew of bands/artists around at this time producing "dark industrial", "ritual" and experimental noises. Hunting Lodge, Current 93, Zos-Kia, Coup De Grace, The Anti Group, Seven Horns Da Ho, Devation Social, The Brides Of Christ all spring to mind whilst writing this. I too took inspiration from these and other projects (as well as other sources) and created Muhviertel with Sean Rorke. "For The Raven" brings this all back.
I think it is a shame that Styggelese didn't contact Metgumbnerbone and offer to put it out on CD or cassette with original artwork etc instead of being a download...but I am glad they did, at least, make it available to my ears and alien (conceptual) brain.

On a similar train. I have decided to book a flight and hotel and go and witness what may be a "gig" of a lifetime. The New Blockaders and Vagina Dentata Organ (another one of 1984's great projects) in Berlin. March 2012. I am quite excited about this one.

Pictures.
1: "For The Raven" sleeve (according to Discogs)
2: TNB/VDO Live In Berlin 2012.

Ekca Liena

2011-11-10T20:02:00.011Z

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release from Ekca Liena: "Slow Music For Rapid Eye Movement" a double CDr on Dead Pilot Records. It was after I had played the latest and excellent Plurals LP a few times I thought I'd see what else is out there by Plurals and/or their label (I assume it is their label) Dead Pilot Records and the name Ekca Liena kept appearing. A solo project from Plural member Daniel Mackenzie with a few releases to his name and one on the excellent Small Doses label. I had to explore.
"Slow Music For Rapid Eye Movement" is just that. A concept album. I was pretty uncertain as to what sound Ekca Liena produced as solo releases by another Plurals member; Duncan Harrison sound nothing like Plurals. The album starts with "Unfolding" acting like the introduction round before "Fire Emerging From Mist" comes in all acoustic guitar and drone. Wow, I was not expecting this! "Post Altitude" follows with reverse electric guitar that melds into acoustic...excellent stuff and crystal clear production. I am three tracks in thinking I have discovered a classic. "Reverse Erasing" has a choppy pulse with a Chinese thumb-piano rhythm and bowed strings, it is all beginning to sound rather Eno. "Post Altitude" has an Equatorial feel, as does the following track "Missing Weeks"...like a slow trek through the Amazonian Rain forests, now the sound has become "pleasant". Pleasant music. "Music For A Dream-Catcher" I thought, and then I was put in mind of Horizon 222.
Horizon 222 was an off-shoot from Soviet France (or Zoviet*France for late comers). Back in the early 1990's (1992/93) Andy Eardley of Soviet France put out a couple of LP's and an EP of New Age trip-hop psychedelia. It wasn't cutting edge experimental and raw like Soviet France, it was nice coffee table Guardian reader stuff. I still have the "Spirit Level" 2x12" but it hardly gets a listen.....
Anyway, "Missing Weeks" brought them to mind before it went off on a tangent with some keyboard sound that brought to mind CBeebies and "Waybaloo". Having very young children at Hartop Towers means I see alot of Kiddies TV and I can spot that dreamy keyboard sound anywhere! "We Are Dying Flames" is a cinematic piece of ethereal glistening, it brings to mind fast-frame editing and time span footage which is clever stuff seeing that the concept is "Slow Music For Rapid Eye Movement". Full marks. "Into The Wind" is pleasant with dulcimer tones and an electric guitar through chorus pedals. "Further Longer" is too long by far working on about five different levels - nice looped guitar effect a la Vini Reilly...but it does change too much and seems never-ending. The final piece "Missing Ending/Unfolding Revisited" has an end credit feel with its' "old 45" crackle and ghostly drone.
"Slow Music For Rapid Eye Movement" was originally released as a single CDr on Dead Pilot Records in 2008, this 2011 edition includes a CDr of covers and remixes. Very Fjernlys I thought. Nick Hudson provides a couple of covers of the same song: "Reverse Erasing", where he adds a placid lounge jazz organ and awful vocals to the choppy pulsating rhythm. Clem Leek & Kixotex make tracks sound like The Orb whereas Pupilar complete the 1990's feel with a bit of Meat Beat meets The Orb type remix. I was looking forward to the Duncan Harrison cover of "Into The Wind" but the track just went on for too long and Aidan Baker's remix of "Fire Emerging From Mist" with 1970's prog style guitar had me searching for the skip button. Shame.

The album has its' moments but they are too far between to grab full attention, and for some of us (very old) folk it does sound like stuff I have heard before.

Feral Debris

2011-11-09T19:54:00.012Z

I used to like reading "Just Glittering" then it changed its' name to "Idwal Fisher" and I used to like reading "Idwal Fisher" and then it stopped. Well it stopped being an ink and paper publication and returned as a blog. www.idwalfisher.blogspot.com and it is still a damn good read it's just that you can't take it to the toilet with you to read...unless I printed it off (but the printer/scanner ain't working at the moment) or sat a laptop on my knee (but I don't own a laptop). "Idwal Fisher" (the magazine) used to give the lowdown on all things; reviews of fags that sat on the shelves of tobacconists in Moscow, 30 pence albums bought at the Bingley Mare & Foal Charity Shop, beers from around the Greek Islands sat amongst the pages of reviews of the latest Merzbow CD or Terry Riley reissue or Smell & Quim gig. It was (the magazine) classic reading. I used to smile when I came home from a hard days slog at Torbay Hospital and found an "Idwal" sitting on the mat..the BD19 postcode reassuring me that what lay inside the plain brown paper envelope was the evenings entertainment...slip into something comfortable. A Neil Campbell or maybe an early Nurse With Wound album and spend the next few hours wallowing in the world of Idwal. Then it would sit on a pile of back issues in the crapper until it needed drying on the bathroom radiator and be filed in a box in the gimp room.
I shall never forget sitting on Daniel Lowenbruck's toilet in old East Berlin feeling like a stunned heifer with a hangover of twenty men reading a copy of "Just Glittering" laughing and shitting and quickly feeling like taking on the day. A great hangover cure!
Since the demise of "Idwal Fisher" there has been very little to take its' place. Sure, there are "noise" / "experimental music" based magazines but they are pretty serious stuff. Nothing wrong with that...nothing at all...but nothing to follow Idwal in printed form. "Niche Homo" is pretty good, excellent Bruno Wizard interview in the last issue I saw and coming up to "essential" is the Nottingham based magazine "Feral Debris".
"Feral Debris #5" is out now! There are no reviews in "Feral Debris" just essays, insights and interviews. A big big selling point for me was an interview with Gerry & The Holograms..I thought this may be a rehash of an old Manchester Fanzine interview...but no...this interview with C.P.Lee by an unknown journo brings us up to date with all things Gerry and Absurd. Excellent. There is also an interview with Nate Young and John Olson talking about their new band Stare Case (awful name) and with Graham Lambkin of Kye Records and Shadow Ring. Also featured is an superbly written overview of filmmaker Jose Ramon Larraz and pieces on artists Steve Swarek and Scott Treleaven. There are no CD/LP/gig reviews. The feel of the mag reminds me of when I started reading "Headpress" at the turn of the 1990's. Remember "Headpress"? Is it still going? Will have to do some research.
I originally found out about "Feral Debris" a couple of years ago because one of their issues came with a CDr featuring Astral Social Club. All copies of "Feral Debris" come with a free compilation CDr. Issue 5 is no different. A downside to this is that the magazine neither features or mentions any of the bands/artists/projects on the CDr. I have to find out about these artists myself! And I hate going on MySpace! At least "Impulse" magazine used to write articles or interview the bands they featured on their giveaway cassettes. Issue #5 starts with Nacht Und Nebel and a track called "The Thousand Young". It all begins with looping and locked grooving before drifting off into some lo-fi drone and feedback and then drifting back into a locked loop. Usurper follow with a short attempt at musique-concret and a frequency that would make a dog laugh at fifty yards. Preslav School Of Industry follow. I am at this point uncertain whether or not this project is aligned with Preslav Literary School but I think coincidence would be too strong if not. The track is called "Fever Triangle" and is not very well constructed which did make me think that the world has two Preslav Schools. There's shortwave crackle, slowed down voice, amp hum, radio voices, meandering drone all put to no use. The next three groups / projects are all new to me. Brittle Foundries bring "Homecoming" to the CDr. It is a slow melancholic piece with sounds of escaping gas and piano notes. The whine of an engine brake floats across the speakers like an incoming tide, the track could have been called "Dancing With Robert Haigh". ABYSSES (Their capitals not mine) track is called "Violent Trust" - it is a moribund song (with lyrics) that made me write down (I make notes y'know) that this person/these people own Throbbing Gristle albums, but then again so do I, which is why I have fallen quite partial to this track. I have since found out that half of ABYSSES is Johnny Scarr of Mantile/Spoils & Relics. The track is far too long. Inner City end the CDr with "Space Forest". I thought it a bit of a coup if "Feral Debris" had got an exclusive track from the infamous 1980's Detroit techno crew. (I do remember dancing...yes dancing...to their Big Fun and Good Life tunes in various nightclubs and strip joints in Salford & Manchester in the late 1980's). But no.....this track is awful new age keyboardery that even Dave Greenslade would have been too embarrassed to release! Might be Belgian.
Anyway. "Feral Debris" is worth £3.50 inc P+P (or exchange equivilent anywhere in the world). Get in touch with them at: www.feraldebris.blogspot.com . The folk also run the Rammel Club in Nottingham so if you're in the East Midlands go along and support.

Pictures:
1: Feral Debris #5 Magazine.
2: Feral Debris #5 Cdr.

Apologies for the poor quality of picture...but like I said, the scanner isn't working so i had to take photographs.

Cheapmachines #2

2011-11-07T20:01:00.013Z

Last weekend I received a copy of "Debris" a 7" test pressing by Cheapmachines. Due to the test pressing being unsatisfactory the 7" never was released, a shame because I really like what Cheapmachines were doing here. As a rule, and as far as I understand although let it be known I am no expert, I thought that if one test pressing was unsatisfactory the pressing plant would then run off a few more copies with the problem (hopefully) solved but in the case of "Debris" the single was never released. The project was never realised. A real shame.
I have another "faulty" test pressing, that of Defektro's "Hard Luck Heart" EP...after many moons the single was finally released, maybe that's be the story with "Debris". Anyway, I contacted Phil Julian (AKA Cheapmachines) to a: thank him for the vinyl & b: probe him on the test pressing.

I am playing the single loud and at 33rpm. Is that correct?

It's cut at 45rpm both sides, but I'm not precious about it if you prefer the slowed version :)

You are not happy with the pressing. There are moments when (on side A) it sounds like a pause button is being held in for a micro-second, also there is a massive drop and rise in volume towards the end....was this the problem?

Yes, those are the main problems, along with the mobile phone blips on side 2 from the guy doing the cutting, evidently texting someone while he should have been concentrating...

Side A has some great "old industrial" style sounds and textures, making me think of 1975-76 Throbbing Gristle (the Giftgas CD on Dossier for Eg), what was the instrument line-up for this track?

Thanks, that's a big compliment. Both sides are semi-improvised computer pieces recorded at the same time as the tracks for "Secede": http://www.discogs.com/Cheapmachines-Secede/release/1845512

No "instruments" as such - real-time computer synthesis, granular samples, some pulsar generation, sinewaves, internal feedback...

The two tracks sounded better side-by-side than crow barred into the album so the intention was to make it a 7". Never happened as a proper release, only these test pressings exist. I might come back to it at some point... using a different pressing plant of course.

I like Side 2, it sounds like there are three different levels happening here all at the same time. Abstract textures, drone pieces and contact mic' recordings. HNJW! (Harsh Noise Jazz Wall) - it also sounds like a live recording...care to comment?

Both tracks were improvised, then some layering and then editing mainly for length. Don't recall any direct contact micing but there are a number of samples being yanked about in there which could well have been derived from a contacted mic-ed object or two. Jazzed-up Punk Shit Wall ;)

If you could respond to one or all of these questions, I'll put them on my blog - if you can't be arsed, fair do's.
Thanks (again) for the package.

No problem.

Also with the 7" came a new C20 cassette release "Accessory". This was made to support Cheapmachines live events in October. Left over copies are available directly from Phil at www.cmx.org I've enjoyed a couple of plays but I'm slowly letting it into my psyche....

Pictures:
1&2: Cheapmachines test pressing.
3: Defektro test pressing sleeve.

Carnifex Recordings

2011-11-06T17:33:00.005Z

Just going through a box of old stuff and came across a couple of Carnifex Recordings flyers from 1986/87. Artwork by Sean A. Rorke...it has put me in the mood for listening to some old Rise/Muhviertel tapes....

In A Flat Field

2011-11-06T14:45:00.022Z

Over the last few days (great band) a couple of "field recording"releases have found their way to Hartop Towers. Firstly came the Chris Watson CDr "The Sea Ice Border" released earlier this year as part of issue #2 of art journo book "Corridor8". The book also has an overview of Chris's work in field recordings as well as a short explanation behind the CDr. "The Sea Ice Border" is two recordings made on the Artic Sea Ice at 89 degrees north. The first recording was made overground and has the sound of snow filled bin liners blowing in the polar winds. The bin liners mark the 1Km runway at Ice Camp Barneo. The second recording was made using hydrophones to record the sound 2 metres below the sea ice. Here the sound of sea is cracking ice and minutiae whistles. Fascinating stuff. This the first "album" (it lasts a little over 17 minutes) I have by Chris Watson; I have plenty of Hafler Trio stuff and virtually all of his releases as part of Cabaret Voltaire but his "solo" work has passed me by...this needs correcting.
A few years ago I bumped into Chris in Stockholm, he was performing a few days after Dieter Muh at the Fylkingen and was in town with Mike Harding to take in the atmosphere. I had Bells Palsy at the time so we just exchanged "hello's". I wasn't in the mood.....
Also through the Hartop Towers letterbox this week was the double CD by Stephane Garin & Sylvestre Gobart "Gurs/Drancy/Bobigny's Train Station/Auschitz/Birkenau/Chelmno-Kulmhof/Majdaneck/Sobibor/Treblinka". (Catchy title). Released on the German Gruenrekorder label as part of their "Field Recordings" series. Here is the promotional synopsis.

The extermination perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborationist countries against those undesirable populations (Jews, homosexuals, tziganes, mentally and physically handicapped people…) provoked a real cataclysm within our civilization because of its method, its singularity and its extent. What memory do we keep alive today of those events, at the time of multiple commemorations, memorials and other enclosed memories. Our artistic move aims to break off with the iconography which conditions our collective memory as much by the medium as by the contents of the pictures and the sound. What matters here is to attempt to recover and to reinvest that memory. The distance that separates us from the past tragedies increases the risk of a ritualization or a “monumentalization” of the memory, and that is the reason why we need, through art, to feed the visual memory of extermination. The deliberate choice not to work on any visual element that refers to the systematic iconography of the camps endeavours to create, with the sound, that restraint which is essential to reverence, as it is the signature of what happened.

Stephane recorded the places whilst Sylvestre took photographs, there was then an installation of results. The sound on the CD's are of distant traffic, children playing, trains on tracks, birds in trees etc. The pieces could have been recorded anywhere. The sound has no stigma. Like the Chris Watson release the recordings are fascinating and the accompanying essay and pictures are excellent. I shall be using the CD's as sound source.
Ten years ago I tried to record certain sites on Dartmoor, my extent of "field recording"...some of the results can be heard on the "Tertium Organum" LP.

Pictures:
1: "The Sea Ice Border" by Chris Watson.
2: Corridor8 #2.
3: Myself & Chris Watson at The Fylkingen, Stockholm. 2001.
4: Recording on Dartmoor, Winter 2001.
5: Stephane Garin/Sylvestre Gobart CD Sleeve.
6: Drancy, 2007.
7: Bobigny Train Station, 2006.
8: Auschwitz Krematorium 1, 2006.
9: Sobibor, 2006.

A Treasured Tape #5

2011-11-05T20:13:00.024Z

I have had this cassette for roughly 13 years now and really it should be at the bottom, or at least near the bottom, of the pile of cassettes that rarely get an outing. Non of the groups/artists on the cassette are favourites. I own nothing by the groups/artists on the cassette. I did used to have a Labradford 10"EP back in 1996, but a chap called "Mad" Phil Benton borrowed it from me (along with some Stereolab discs) whilst we were sharing a house in York and I have never seen it since.
In early 1998 Dieter Muh were played on a Spanish radio station called "Radio Banzai", it was early doors for Dieter Muh and a play on a Spanish radio station was an excitement for me, I asked for a cassette of the show on which Dieter Muh were played and true to their word I received a C90 with Dieter Muh on the playlist. It's a great tape. Muh is played in between Contagious Orgasm and (I think) Small Cruel Party. During the broadcast the two DJ's chatted about Dieter Muh and the chosen track; "Morche" from the CD album "Black Square". It became a mission to discover what the two Spanish hombres were saying - did they like it? Were they taking the piss? Were Dieter Muh the new name to drop in post industrial and noise circles? I had to find out!

1998 and I was working at Walkers crisp factory in Lincoln. I packed bags into boxes, I put little boxes into larger boxes, I played cards at break-time. It wasn't glamorous but it paid the rent and kept Dieter Muh in business. On the production line was a Spanish chap by the name of Alberto. Alberto was the male part of a trio of Spanish workers who were also training to become language teachers at the time. Alberto was (and indeed is) much younger than me, but he was the only Spanish male I knew and I needed a translation of the DJ speak on the Radio Banzai cassette. During a break along the production line I approached Alberto and asked if he would translate the cassette for me. Luckily he agreed and thus began our friendship.
Let me point out here that food factories are very strange places to work - I should know, I have worked in a few - and to go up to a complete stranger (work colleague or not) and present him with a cassette of "weird noise" and ask for a translation was a very very "risky" thing to do.

Shortly after the translation / getting to know you situation I left Walkers factory and Alberto graduated from teaching school and moved to London. It was during this time that Alberto started to mail me cassettes. A Mogwai tape, an excellent God Speed You Black Emperor tape (I love that name) and the compilation tape "Mu-Sick For S".
I am not a real fan of the genre that is on this cassette, mention the names to me and I would (at the time) probably of retorted cynically about shoe-gazery "Guardian" readers, arty-farty pseudo left-wing students and their chosen style of music and how it is not really my cup of tea but this tape squashes all that and throws it back in my face! Somehow Alberto has mixed all the pieces into one "megamix" so where Tortoise end and Will Oldham begins I have not got much of a clue. Well, Will Oldham sounds a little like a modern day Leonard Cohen and Mogwai songs start off pretty minimal and build in a "Velvetsy" type way to a Swansesque crescendo and The Beta Band are a little Lou Reed meets the Buena Vista Social Club with "Eastenders" drum rolls....so I suppose if I threw a little guess work into the listen I could work it all out. But there is no need to do the guess work, the cassette flows so beautifully it lets the mind wander and become nonchalant! "Death To Everyone" by Will Oldham is a beauty.
A great thing about the cassette, and why it has become a treasured item is that it has given me enough Mogwai, Will Oldham and Lambchop to listen to. It is a beautiful play and anymore songs by the same artists would be (for me) overkill....it's not my genre.

Alberto disappeared at the turn of the millennium, random messages came from Madrid, Dusseldorf and Milan. I did get a brief message at the beginning of 2011, Alberto is now a suit and tie white collar jockey in Madrid. He did mail me some Esplendor Geometrico CD's (the sweety) - hopefully we shall meet again.

Pictures:
1: Tape Sleeve.
2: Tape Traclkistig.
3: Tape.
4: Alberto Munoz in The Windmill, Brixton. 1999.

Sudden Infant:Noise In My Head

2011-11-02T20:59:00.007Z

In the "every home should have one" section comes the book "Noise In My Head", an overview and insight into the workings of Swiss artist/noisician Joke Lanz. The book is packed with photographs from Sudden Infant performances and Joke's art aktions, as well as some of Joke's paintings (in colour). There's a comprehensive interview and some "essays" written by Sudden Infant aficionados and fans. "Road To Ruin" by Steve Underwood is a great piece...there's a book in that guy too! I wish I had a Sudden Infant "story" to tell, but unfortunately not. I have met Joke a couple of times at various gigs in the capital and I sampled his "Broken Glass" 7" to buggery - I think there's still one sample on my Roland SP 404. I have seen Sudden Infant live (on the same bill as The New Blockaders, Merzbow and Putrefier) but I cannot remember it at all (never go for a drink with Steve Fricker before a gig).
The most fascinating part of the book (for me) is the pages and pages of Sudden Infant performance posters and flyers, an excellent collection and a great pictorial "history of noise". I have books that are collections of album sleeves and single sleeves, it would be great to see a book dedicated to the "live" poster / flyer. Is there one out there? There's also a pictorial history of Sudden Infant releases. A great book that once read can be dipped into for pleasure and inspiration. Published in an edition of 300 by Marhaug Forlag (so don't hang about) and available (as all good things are) from Second Layer Records in the UK.

Picture.
1: Isabel F. reads the synopsis of "Noise In My Head".

The Secret

2011-10-30T16:44:00.008Z

In the last few days (great band) there has been some great releases arriving at Hartop Towers. The Column One "No One" Box Set on 90% Wasser, ESP Kinetic & Storm Bugs LP's on Harbinger Sound and the Club Moral "1981-1986" Box Set on Vinyl On Demand label to name a couple but the piece of vinyl that will not leave the turntable at the moment is "The Young Ones" by The Secret.
I originally bought the single back in 1977, lost it in the "burglary that dare not speak its name" in 1983 and have been after a copy ever since...I found a copy at "Wax Factor" in Brighton last weekend, in picture sleeve too which is a bonus as I never had it in picture sleeve originally.
The Secret hold a special place in my (h)ear(t) because they were the first "punk" band I ever saw live. It was either late 1977 or January 1978 that I witnessed The Secret support XTC at Nottingham Polytechnic. The first gig I ever went to was Judas Priest (supported by a then unknown and unsigned Magnum) at Lincoln Drill Hall. I am not counting watching Tab Street Gas play Lincoln Odeon in between cartoons at "The Saturday Club" when I was pre-teen and in love with Scooby Doo & The Partridge Family! XTC/The Secret was my second live gig. I struck a deal with a couple of my friends, Mick Campion and Dave Risebrow that if they came with me to see XTC I would go and watch Judas Priest live in Sheffield in 1978 (I think the "Stained Class" dates had been announced). We travelled by train from Lincoln to Nottingham and caught a bus to the venue - I think I better state I was 15 at the time. It was soon found that both I and Mick could get served watered down lager in plastic pint pots we continued to get drunk. Three 14/15 year old drunks amongst 50/60 odd polytechnic students.
The Secret were all drainpipe trousers, short hair and fast punk songs. The singer was called Benny Leopard and was dressed in leopard skin trousers whereas the guitarist, Shrink, was dressed in a silver foil suit with green and red hair and Elton John style glasses. He played a flying "V" guitar. I loved it. I joined a small pogoing crowd at the front of the stage. Mick and Dave kept their reserve and stayed at the back of the crowd. At some point in the set The Secret played "Handel A Vandal". The song included a chorus where Benny lunged his microphone into the unexpected faces of the front row to reply to his question "You Can't Handle A"? Of course the unexpected voice replied "Vandal"! Benny worked his way along the front row until the mic' was shoved into the face of the guy stood next to me and his response to "You Can't Handel A Vandal" was "FUCK OFF" and Benny retreated to the back of the stage thus curtailing my chance of entering punk rock show business and shouting down the microphone of Benny Leopard. Gutted.
By the time XTC came on stage it was time for us to leave to catch the last train to Lincoln. Whilst Dave went to the loo for one last desperate piss I watched XTC play "Science Friction" then left......we missed the last train and I had to phone my mother to come and collect us in the early hours of the A.M. in her old battered Austin A40.

The B Side of "The Young Ones" is "Handel A Vandal". It is a brilliant single. Really fast, really "tinny" and .... pub rock. It's like when I have re-purchased stuff by The Stukas, The Lurkers, The Depressions and The Flys what I am hearing is speeded up 8 or 12 bar blues a.k.a. pub rock! I am never disappointed.
I'll get the 45 out of my system and carry on with Club Moral.

Plurals #3

2011-10-30T15:03:00.011Z

I have just spent a pleasant while listening to "Imagining Perpetual Tower" the debut vinyl album from Plurals, released earlier this month by Dead Pilot Records (not to be confused with Dead Sea Liner Records or the crap dub/rock band Black Star Liner..a band with whom I once had a huge argument with backstage at York Arts Centre in the late 1990's...but that's another story) catalogue number DPRLP01. The album was released to support the recent UK tour with Nadja (Aiden Baker).
I like Plurals, one of the best live sets I have witnessed in a long time was by Plurals, at Wattsfest in Devon last summer. Side one of the album reminds me of this set. "Exorcist's Limbo" is drone music, it sounds like a live studio recording with no overdubs, it has a raw edge to it all - not comfortable somnambulistic drone like Lull or owt like that, no, Plurals supply the real deal. The sounds heard in the exorcist's limbo are of scraped and bowed strings, keyboards, gourds, oscillators and voices. A journey is created and a trip begins...marvellous stuff. Side two is a track called "Legs Like Apparitions". It has a similar structure to "Exorcist's Limbo" but whereas no one singular sound is heard throughout side one, side two is electric guitar and delay effects. There is a pulse, a throb, and a drone in the swirl but the electric guitar is prominent.
Guitars are like marmite to me in this situation, especially when it is played "raw" like on "Legs Like Apparitions", it can work or .... It's not as off putting as some Nurse With Wound or Karl Blake when he played guitar with Tactile but I do prefer the guitar (in drone) to be used as a sound source rather than an instrument - does this make sense? There are great moments in this piece, the use of a cassette Walkmans is genius and it ends with a beautiful wall of bowed electric strings and looped acoustics.
The artwork (uncredited) is superb.
The LP is limited to 200 copies (I think) and available from www.deadpilotrecords.co.uk and (I should expect Second Layer Records in London). I bought my copy from Edge World in Brighton. An essential piece of vinyl.

Pictures:
1: Plurals LP Cover.
2: Section from the reverse sleeve artwork.

Astral Social Navigations

2011-10-26T19:37:00.013+01:00

A package arrived last weekend from Chez Campbell with a couple of fine releases, and I have spent the last couple of days getting my ears accustomed to them.
"V.E.N.U.S." is a CDr single, the second this year from Astral Social Club. A couple of weeks ago Astral Social Club played at the "Galvanised Event" at Cafe OTO in London. The theme to the evening was "Music Vs Universe: Music Inspired By The 5 Chaldean Pre-Telescopic Planets". The preamble on the festival website sounded interesting, but the evening was too soon (for me) after the Astral Social Club live set in Cambridgeshire. Fortunately for those of us who could not make it to the event Astral Social Club (the label) have released the Astral Social Club (the project) "rehearsal" set, and pretty essential it is too.
The sound begins with a harmonious symphony of chaos, electronic tones, samples (that could be anything from Hot Chocolate to The Who) and sequencer patterns. Holding the sound together is an all droning distortoed echoey guitar....after a time this all drifts into a chugging motorik beat .... the wall of noise remains busy building itself in the background getting higher and higher until it all collapses to a sequential rhythm and a fading guitar. The piece ends (it is all one long track) with the sound of a church organ. Images of Burial Hex for me here. It is a beautiful track full of intrigues and energy and here's the good bit - it's only £4.00 in the UK. Available from Astral Social Club at: www.astralsocialclub.bigcartel.com
Also in the package came a summer 2011 release from Ashtray Navigations, the humorously titled "Human Wrecktronics". Released on a C40 cassette by US label Medusa Tapes.
I have recently reacquainted myself with the sound of Ashtray Navigations after giving them a slightly wide berth since I saw them live in 1998, but a live show last month kind of "blew me" a little (well, as much as a 48 year old man can be blown) so now I am after "stuff". Side one of the tape is the title track and features Phil Todd (head Ashtray) and Neil Campbell indulging themselves in a cosmic 70's fantasy. The piece has a "live studio" improvised feel to it (OK I'll say it..."jam") with the sound built around an undulation, a cosmic wave of spaced out guitar and synthesized keys that float around and out of the speakers. It's a good listen if a tad too long and very somnambulistic. For side two Phil is joined by Mel D and Phil Legers. I think it is Mel that runs the Leeds based label and promotion outfit "The Termite Club". I could be wrong - usually am. Anyway; "Too Few Notes" is a full-on 1970's Kosmiche jam with drone tone, tweaked synthesized oscillations and filigreed piano. It is a little too Gong-a-long and spacey for my taste, but it was an enjoyable listen. I'm still going to discover more Ashtray Navigations before the year is out! I am uncertain about the availability of the tape, but try googling Medusa Tapes and see what turns up.

Pictures:
1: Astral Social Club "V.E.N.U.S." CDr single sleeve.
2: Astral Social Club performing "V.E.N.U.S." at the Cafe OTO, London. 11/10/11.
3: Ashtray Navigations "Human Wrecktronics" sleeve.

Secondhand Records Shops #15: Brighton

2011-10-25T16:54:00.019+01:00

Just spent a few days in East Sussex and spent time to discover the secondhand record emporiums of Brighton. I managed to pick up a couple of choice slices o' vinyl so left happy, but for a first time visitor to the town...I think next time I'll make the next visit a day one.
There are lots of secondhand record shops in Brighton. A gamut. The area to be in is North Laine. It lies between the train station and the Brighton Dome. I was staying in an area known as Kemptown and a trip to North Laine led me down St Jame's Street where there is a small secondhand vinyl shop, a shop that has no name (it's opposite "Superdrug"). The guy had a small table outside full of the usual 70's and 80's bargain stuff - Supertramp, Billy Joel, Haircut 100, Barbara Dickson, that kind of stuff..not really tempting but the proprietor got chatty and so I went in and found a box of "punk" LP's and found a Patrik Fitzgerald 12"EP for a fiver - inside no records seemed to be priced. The shop is very small (compact and bijou), certainly no more than 2 people at the same time. The walk to North Laine took me through an area called The Lanes - all jewellery and antiques but in Brighton Square there is Rounder Records. Rounder Records is more Modern Rock biased (Emo, Coldplay, Muse...I suppose) but has a very small secondhand section. Their "Experimental" section was three Chris & Cosey LP's.
North Laine is Brighton's BoHo Quarter, secondhand clothes, designer clothes, secondhand books, graphic novel shops, mod clothes and be-bop millinery. Fortunately a few secondhand record shops too otherwise it would have been "avoid like the plague"!
Edge World Records on Kensington Gardens is not a secondhand record shop, it is a bloody good shop non the less. I had a chat with the owner - nice chap - he advised me on where to shop for vinyl in Brighton and sold me the latest Plurals LP. Edge World also stocks Astral Social Club and Aaron Dilloway. Full marks and worth a visit.
Take a right at the end of Kensington Gardens and on the corner of Gloucester Road and Sydney Street is Across The Tracks. Shit loads of stuff here to suit all tastes and about an hours worth of browsing. Similar to a Record & Tape Exchange. I didn't see any 7" singles, but I am sure they were there...I just didn't have the time at this point. (Never go secondhand record shopping at lunchtime with a hungry 5 year old). A couple more shops lie on Sydney Street. Punker Bunker who sell 1980's/90's and beyond leather, studs and acne type punk and Wolf & Gypsy. Downstairs Wolf & Gypsy is vintage clothing, upstairs the vinyl. Nice selection of electronica, experimental , new wave, dub and reggae..but a tad expensive. £10 for a non-mint copy of Slits "Earthbeat" 12"? Really?
At the end of Sydney Street is Trafalgar Street and the jewel that is Wax Factor. Two huge rooms dedicated to secondhand books, cd's and vinyl. All fairly priced it must be said. Like Across The Tracks time needs to be put aside to browse in this shop. I found a copy of Section 25's "The Beast" and a picture sleeve copy of The Secret's "The Young Ones" on Arista Records. I have been after both of these since 1983. The Secret 7" holds a special place as they were the first "punk" band I ever saw live, supporting XTC at Nottingham Polytechnic, I think it was December 1977. They had a live showstopper and crowd singalong song called "Handel A Vandal" and I loved it. Benny Leopard on vocals and a guy dressed as an alien called Shrink on guitar. Anyway..."Handel A Vandal" is on the B-Side and the 7" is one I shall be buried with. I could have easily spent a week's wages in Wax Factor. Rare Kind Records is on the corner of Trafalgar Street and York Place. Mainly dub and techno vinyl with a few 1970's/80's new wave rock. Worth a browse.
Finally, by the train station on Surrey Street there is The Record Album. The shop's speciality is classical and film & TV soundtracks but there's a couple of hundred "punk" LP's to look at. Chart punk mainly but like all the secondhand vinyl shops in Brighton it has a lot of Blitz albums. I was hoping to find a copy of local band The DP's "Television Romeo" 7" going for a couple of quid...but no!

I recommend a trip to the secondhand record shops of Brighton, it's just a shame they're in Brighton.

Pictures:
1: The shop with no name.
2: Rounder Records.
3: Edge World Records (Upstairs).
4: Across The Tracks.
5: Punker Bunker.
6: Wolf & Gypsy (Upstairs).
7: Wax Factor.
8: Rare Kind Records.
9: The Record Album.
10: Happy punter at the Pavilion.

Total Strangers

2011-10-20T17:05:00.006+01:00

On the 28th of October there is a Lincoln Band Retrospective happening at The Jolly Brewer pub on Broadgate in Lincoln. At this moment in time I am uncertain as to what this entails but I have been asked by John Stafford if I had any old pictures of the band we were in together back in 1981 / 82. I was the drummer in the "Radical Band For Social Reform" : Total Strangers.
The band compromised of John Stafford (ex-Collide) on vocals & guitar, myself on drums and John Loonam (ex-Pseudo Existors) on bass & vocals.
If you are in or around Lincoln on the 28th, pop into The Brewer and let me know what it's like!

Pictures:-3
1: Total Strangers live at the Pywipe Inn, Saxilby, Lincolnshire. 1982.
2+3: Total Strangers live at The Swiss Cottage, Newland, Lincoln. 1981.

Land Observations

2011-10-20T14:06:00.009+01:00

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the 7" EP "Roman Roads" the debut single by Land Observations. Land Observations is the latest moniker of former Appliance member James Brooks. The EP is made of three instrumental pieces that have been inspired by Roman Roads. All the pieces are of James and his 6-String electric guitar. Like his work with Appliance the sound has a krautarian air about it, the chugging "motorik" rhythm evoking Can and Neu!...but now solo James has a sound not too dissimilar of Robert Fripp and his work in the League Of Gentlemen. The sound is incidental, almost soundtrack and very relaxing...this could quite easily sit alongside a Neil Campbell LP as much as "Exposure" or a Freddie Phillips CD. Great stuff and a great taster for the forthcoming album.
The single is on London based Enraptured Records www.enrapturedrecords.com an limited to 300 copies (I think), initial copies are on clear vinyl with an insert.

Track three on the EP is called "Fosse Way", the old Roman road that linked Lincoln to Exeter. I used to live just off the Fosse Way when I lived in Lincoln and in 1978 travelled the length of the road on my way to Newquay in Cornwall. I'll give time to any track honouring the great Fosse Way!

Pictures:
1: Land Observations sleeve.
2: EP Insert.
3: Enraptured Records logo.
4: James Brooks.

Mauthausen Orchestra #2

2011-10-19T19:54:00.013+01:00

I have been working my way through the Mauthausen Orchestra 12xCassette set this week, and so far made it to number 4.
"From Homicide To Slaughter" is compiled of six tracks..three on each side. From now on we are seeing / hearing a more structured Mauthausen Orchestra sound than to what appeared on "2nd Movement". There is a lot of shortwave radio "crackle" and pink noise / white noise oscillations. Side one contains voice tapes (US Military) and high-pitched tonal frequencies. Side two (along with the shortwave radio static) contains high energy forceful electronics, fast paced stuff with Pierpaolo taking his foot off the pedal so to speak - the final track is crashing power electronics with the sound of repetitive machinery surrounded by howling electronics. Making notes whilst listening I just wrote "Grinder".
"Conflict" was originally released in 1983 on Aquilifer Sodality and re-released in the UK on Broken Flag Records. Side one is a strange play as it has Non littered throughout, probably a live tape or the Mute Records "Rise" 12"EP from 1982. Strange but true. Side two starts off slowly with a 5 note sequencer pattern surrounded by lovely tones. Ten years after and this would be classed as "Illbient", this leads into random synth noodlings before a section from a live performance - I am guessing the "live performance" bit by the loud amp buzz and murky sound. Side two finishes with the sound of a plague of locusts altering the dial of a shortwave radio set. Excellent stuff - sudden end, but highly enjoyable and a sound more suited the the name.
"Murderfuck" was also released in 1983. I can tell now that Pierpaolo is listening to a lot more electronic material as the sound becomes harsher and more direct. "Murderfuck" reminded me of Ramleh from the same period and "Lustmordekay" album. Good stuff, but not as grabbing as "Conflict" side two.

I shall carry on my playing after my short sojourn to Brighton & Lewes.

Mauthausen Orchestra

2011-10-16T17:35:00.009+01:00

With the forthcoming Broken Flag festival just a few months away I thought it about time to reacquaint myself with some early 1980's Power Electronics and industrial music. I don't have the Vinyl-On-Demand Broken Flag Box Set so I have to make do with old tapes that haven't seen the light or a cassette machine for many a year. Sometime in the late 1990's Steve Underwood (of Harbinger Sound) kindly gave me a copy of Mauthausen Orchestra's 12 tape release "Gravitational Arch Of Sex" originally released in 1995 by Italian label Slaughter Productions. Slaughter Productions being the label run by the Atrax Morgue folk. Although not yet listed as a participant in the festival it would be a great shame if Mauthausen Orchestra didn't appear, they did do a couple of excellent tracks for Broken Flag compilations in 1983/84. "Gravitational Arch Of Sex" is a collection of early 1980's cassette releases.

For those who do not know, Mauthausen Orchestra is the moniker of Pierpaolo Zoppo who began making tapes of electronic noise in 1982 releasing cassettes on his own Aquilifer Sodality label. Whether or not he has anything to do with Italian power electronics band The Sodality I do not know...perhaps someone can tell me?
"2nd Movement" is the first cassette in the box set. Two long untitled pieces cover each side. The sound is not harsh, vicious or that powerful. The sound fluctuates between shortwave radio interference and various synthesizer sounds. Bubbling sounds and helicopter rotors litter the pieces. A lot of the sound is improvised and structureless. Pierpaolo experimenting with sound. Interesting enough to make me want to carry on and play all the tapes and dig out the "Kiss The Carpet" 10" I've got but have only played the once in 12 years! (I remember being non-plussed).
With Mauthausen Orchestra I think it is a case of the name and accompanying art work being stronger than the sound at the time.

Pictures:
1: Second Movement Sleeve.
2: Mauthausen Orchestra advert from "Material" fanzine. 1986.

Metal Postcard

2011-10-15T20:36:00.005+01:00

Last week a new fanzine hit the streets; "Metal Postcard : Art, Music, Writing; Notes From The Exeter Underground". It features an interview I did with Dave Goodchild of The Cavern Club last summer (2010). Also in the pages are Deadmen, Sketch, Shaky Kane and Pippa Wragg (MC of Freakscene Records & manager of The Computers). It's A5 sized, 40 pages thick and costs £1.00. Available from hip and trendy shops around Exeter and The Cavern Club or by E Mailing exetercavern@hotmail.com It's not a bad read!

Peter & Me

2011-10-14T19:30:00.017+01:00

Last week I found the book "Voices From An Evil God" by Barbara Jones in the hospital charity shop for a pound. Hardback copy, first edition. I pondered over it for a while and then thought.... mine. It has been a while since I have bought a book like this but the selling point (apart from the price) was the fact that this was Sonia's Story, and the book included interviews with Peter Sutcliffe from inside Broadmoor.
Back in my youth I collected and devoured books on serial killers, mass murderers and social misfits. My interest was in the dark side of the human condition. It is hard to sit here and say why or how this was the case but the stories of The Moors Murderers and Charles Manson came to my attention (probably) via Throbbing Gristle lyrics and their "Industrial News" tract and fascinated me from then on.
The story of the Yorkshire Ripper became part of my life because at his time I was living in the North of England and his crimes saturated the local news bulletins. For a short while I thought it was my (then) next door neighbour Mr. Evans, well they did keep going on about how The Yorkshire Ripper could be the man next door!
Shortly after the arrest and trial of Peter Sutcliffe for the crimes of The Yorkshire Ripper" out came the paperbacks written by a group of Red-Top tabloid journalists. I bought them all "The Yorkshire Ripper" by Roger Cross, "The Yorkshire Ripper Story" by John Beattie. Again, I found reading about this man fascinating...at the same time (1982 onwards) I was reading books by Colin Wilson about sociopaths and killers, "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote and whatever I could find on The Moors Murderers and Charles Manson. When I moved to Manchester in 1983 I made a visit to Southern Cemetery and by 1985 I was living in Sheffield and I tried to find the spot where The Yorkshire Ripper was arrested. I used to visit a dealer called "Stuttering Matt" (he neither stuttered or was called Matt but loose talk costs dealers) and he told me where the spot was...but it looked nothing like the picture in the books. 1985 and I bought David A. Yallop's "Deliver Us From Evil". A masterpiece of writing. I was still in Sheffield at the time and I remember sitting on my bed for a weekend and reading it from cover to cover. Now the story of The Yorkshire Ripper became my "Mastermind" specialist subject. It was in the summer of 1985 that I wrote a couple of songs based on the murders of Peter Sutcliffe. "Halifax" appeared on "Dead Meat Packaging Korps"; a cassette album I released under the pseudonym of The Streetcleaner, and "On Mission" which I.B.F. performed live and released a "disco-mix" version on the cassette album "Hammers Used As Hearts". (Both released by Carnifex Rekordings....note the Special K). It was also around this time that the crimes of Donald Neilson came to the fore through the excellent book by Brian Masters; "Killing For Company".

By 1986 I was back living in Hulme, Manchester and I found a strange cassette book in a corner newsagents in a back street of Moss-Side. Packaged in a video box were two cassettes and the cover proclaimed that "Inside find the truth about the Real Yorkshire Ripper". Ahhhh a conspiracy theory, a police cover up....I had to buy. "The Real Yorkshire Ripper" by Noel O'Gara named an Irish lorry driver as the real ripper and that Peter Sutcliffe only committed 4 of the crimes. Classic conspiracy stuff, and I love conspiracy theories!
By the trail end of the 1980's my interest in serial killers, sociopaths, outsiders etc had wained a little. The floor of my squat was littered with back issues of "True Detective" I'd bought cheap from Paramount Books in Shudehill. I stopped buying the books.

So. For a pound I bought "Voices From An Evil God" by Barbara Jones. Hardback copy, first edition (1992). The book itself stinks of old tobacco. Each page is nicotine stained and reading a chapter is like smoking 10 Park Drive and having a chug on a pipe of St. Bruno. I had to wash my hands after each reading! I read the book in six days, which for me means it must be a good read. (I am a notoriously slow reader). It was great to go over his story once again, relive the crimes and become reacquainted with the names again as it were. The author struck up a friendship with Sonia Sutcliffe so she could get an "exclusive" for her paper (The "Mail On Sunday") or a book deal and then fell out with her as she found out A: She didn't really like Sonia, and B: She was being manipulated by The Sutcliffes.
From what I can surmise Peter is a nice honest kind of bloke who was under the spell of voices that made him kill, the voice of God told him to kill prostitutes-and he did, and that person was the Yorkshire Ripper (a non-de-plume that Sutcliffe hates) not Peter Sutcliffe, Peter is a kind, warm, do anything for anybody person - the person that Sonia married.
There's stories of escape attempts, Sonia's Greek holidays and her court trials...but in the back of my mind is the knowledge that he is "probably" not The Yorkshire Ripper, rather like Al Qaeda didn't bring down the Twin Towers and Osama Bin Laden was killed earlier this year in his Pakistan apartment.

I have brought Peter Sutcliffe back into my world after 20 or so years, and unless there is some great revelation in the foreseeable future it will be longer before he does so again - don't expect a Sutcliffe paean on the next Dieter Muh album.

This Made Me Smile....

2011-10-12T08:23:00.000+01:00

This made me smile.....

Anthony More

2011-10-10T20:31:00.001+01:00

Been playing a bit of Anthony lately....thought I would share this track...perhaps the best single of 1979?

Burial Hex #5

2011-10-08T20:46:00.018+01:00

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to "Hunger" a single sided 12" single from Burial Hex released by Italian label Holidays Records in 2010. After witnessing Clay Ruby (AKA Burial Hex) perform a blistering live set in London in 2009 I have spent the time collecting his releases. Some disappoint, some don't - this one doesn't. The 12" is also a good case for being "anti-download". The actual physical beauty of this release is enough to go out and buy a fucking turntable and have the sleeve in your hands whilst the record spins on the deck, this is what the sound / the art deserves and not just to be a line on a list on a computer screen. Holidays Records - www.holidaysrecords.it - are selling it at a very reasonable price...buy it! The sleeve is a picture of a sculptured piece by Haitian artist Andre Eugene, whilst the etching on the blank side of the vinyl is taken from a screenshot of Maya Deren's 16mm film "Divine Horsemen:The Living Gods Of Haiti".
As mentioned before, Burial Hex releases are varied...from out and out noise to church organ symphony. "Hunger" provides (partly) an area of Clay's work I have never heard before. "Hunger 1" sounds like an out-take from the split LP he did with Kinit Her; "Vedic Hymns". Nat Ritter of Kinit Her is credited on this LP..along with Shane Verway. It is based around a poem from Arthur Rimbaud but to my ears Clay could be reading the menu from Pizza Hut, it is read in this slow "black metal" like drawl that means nothing to me. (Vienna). Guttural diphthong (which is a good name for a black metal group...you can have that one on me)! The sound is OK, dark and menacing but the voice is totally unnecessary. "Hunger 1" leads into "Hunger 2". The introduction of a slap bass, studio 54 type disco rhythm and electric drums. Superb...it takes part one and leads it to a higher place. Musically it reminds me of Psychic TV during their "Mouth Of The Night" period, it also brought Shriekback and 400 Blows to mind...but mainly Psychic TV. It is brilliance and why you need to hear this record. (It is a record and not a download).
Research leads me to find that Burial Hex play a one-off show in London in November this year. I doubt that I can make it and hopefully there will be other dates in the UK.

Past Present Future Space-Time Festival, Cambridgeshire. 10/09/2011. #2

2011-10-05T21:06:00.002+01:00

Disinformation at the Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn. Cambridgeshire.

Philip Julian

2011-10-05T19:45:00.011+01:00

I have just spent a pleasant while listening to "Location +", the latest release by Philip Julian (AKA Cheapmachines). "Location +" is a cassette release by London based label Entr'acte and like most Entr'acte releases it comes vacuum wrapped in tin foil. I am not a big fan of this style of packaging, it has a certain beauty that has to be (somewhat) destroyed to appreciate the goods and I can see the thought behind this, but I'm still not a big fan. Bruce Gilbert's 1995 7" "Instant Shed Volume 1" released by Sub Pop Records was my first vacuum packed record - I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. Strangely enough the work of Bruce Gilbert is evoked in this release. Side A plays like an installation accompaniment. A sound for a MOMA. "Computer Algorithms Processed Using Natural Phenomena" is textural tones, the sort of sound that accompanies film of ascending and descending objects, of coloured film and random gesture, the sort of sound that follows you around an installation or exhibition of Scandinavian Art. Again, back to Bruce Gilbert and the sound has a very "Sahko Recordings" feel. The B Side is more cut-up. The same textures but this time they are coming thick and fast and jumping across the spaces.
I am uncertain as to whether or not Philip is keeping his minimalistic glitch textural tones type work for his own moniker whilst saving his "noisier" stuff as Cheapmachines...like Mark Durgan does with his solo and Putrefier projects....or whether Entr'acte approached Philip for a solo release, but it is an idea that I have been toying with for some time - to drop the Dieter Muh moniker and carry on as Steve Cammack or split the releases/performances depending on what is required.

"Location +" is available at cmx.org.uk and limited to 50 copies only, so hurry up!!

Terror #2

2011-10-05T07:42:00.003+01:00

Magazine with Muh interview out soon....will update when I know the magazine is available.

GX Jupitter-Larsen

2011-10-04T21:28:00.001+01:00

The work of GX Jupitter-Larsen (or Castrol Jupitter-GTX as he is known at Hartop Towers) has been part of my aural consciousness since the early 1980's. It was most likely to have been Dan Plunkett of ND Magazine mailing me over tapes from Texas that I first heard The Haters. In 1986 I appeared on a compilation album with The Haters (amongst others) and ever since I have kept an ear out for their (his) work. I haven't bought everything, that would border on stupidity! but I have a few choice releases, the stuff I have heard and liked and subsequently bought and random stuff I have chanced upon. I managed to get the limited Flexi-Disc "Fuchait" from a shop closing down sale.
2011 has been a prolific year so far for GX. and has seen the release of three mighty collaboration singles. The collaboration 7" with Muennich I have mentioned earlier, but shortly after the release of this single came "Rip Off", a 7" on the American Helicopter Records label. "Rip Off" is a collaboration between GX, The New Blockaders and John Wiese. "Rip Off" is the sound of tearing paper. Open microphones, contact microphones record the sound of paper. It is hard to say whether or not the sound is treated in any way or just multi-layered. There is the sound of kerfuffle and some off-mic' grunting...but it is a great artifact and slice of entertainment. A couple of years back I bought a CD by The Hafler Trio called "Where Are You"? The pitch of this release was that it includes sounds originated from the voice and blown instruments of David Tibet recorded in 1982. Sounds interesting...so I bought. The album sounds like a microphone picking up wind, or one of those plastic tubes that you swing about to make a whooshing sound. It is not a bad album..it is very listenable but just doesn't do what it says on the tin (so to speak), "Rip Off" does.
September saw the release of the collaboration with Phil Julian (AKA Cheapmachines). "Continuous Tunnel Clock" on Anarchymoon Recordings. This 7" sounds more like a Haters single of old. No hint as to what speed I should be playing this slab o' beauty so I have been mix and matching. "Continuous Tunnel Clock" sounds better at 33rpm, it becomes a great sonic bass wall of noise, a full 360 degree sound. "Self Propelled Wrinkle" is best at 45rpm. High speed wreckage, sonic collapse. Exquisite noise. An error at the pressing plant limited this 7" to 100 copies only - on yellowy/orange vinyl.

All three GX Juppiter-Larsen 2011 singles are essential.

Pictures.
1: "Rip Off".
2: "Continuous Tunnel Clock".

Salvatore Arancio At The Spacex. Autumn 2011

2011-10-02T16:05:00.013+01:00

Sicilian born artist Salvatore Arancio has his first solo exhibition in the UK at The Spacex Gallery in Exeter. The exhibition; "An Arrangement Of The Materials Ejected" is featuring a newly commissioned piece "Everything Keeps Dissolving". This is a three metre high drawing inspired by the geological phenomenon known as Folded Strata. A lot of Salvatore's work is inspired by geological phenomena, mainly volcanoes. Salvatore's childhood was spent close to Mount Etna. "Everything Keeps Dissolving" is accompanied by a sound loop by Coil. (A section from the 1998 album "Time Machines"). Salvatore draws alien landscapes beautifully, small detailed monochrome photo etchings on paper. The picture "View Of Cabin Partly Buried By Lava And A Parasitic Cone" is fascinating. Also in the exhibition is the split screen film "Shasta", a film inspired by Mount Shasta in California, and a small animation piece called "Nuee Ardente", as well as a dozen or so drawings and a sculpture piece.
It was the lure of an installation featuring the sound of Coil that drew me to this exhibition, and I was not disappointed. Salvatore's work, which included some photographic art inspired by stones on Dartmoor, deals with myth and magick merging with science and nature and deserves to be seen and heard, so, if in Devon I recommend a visit to the Spacex Gallery. The exhibition runs until the 26th November.

Pictures.
1: The Spacex Gallery, Preston Street, Exeter.
2: Exhibition Booklet featuring "Bowerman's Nose".
3: Salvatore Arancio.
4: "Everything Keeps Dissolving".
5: "Shasta" Screening.
6: "View Of Cabin Partly Buried By Lava And A Parasitic Cone".

Dead Wood / Phantom Heron Seas

2011-10-02T15:47:00.007+01:00

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release from Dorset based label Dirty Demos: "Sunshine Daily Commercial" by Dead Wood and Phantom Heron Seas. "Sunshine Daily Commercial" is a five (or so) minute track of oscillation and drone, it is (on this sunny day) a great listen. The record is a lathe-cut ocean blue flexi disc that started life out as a Safeway picnic plate. It is the first record that once was a plate I have, I do have a few that would be better off as plates, but this is my first plate/record...and it plays, for a lathe-cut and flexi the sound is very good. There's a split CDr on Dead Pilot Records that I will now have to hunt down as this record tells me something very listenable is happening between Dead Wood and Phantom Heron Seas. *Do not get Dead Wood mixed up with Deadwood. Deadwood are an awful band who release on Cold Spring Records* The record is limited to 26 copies only and costs £5.50 in the UK - I have checked the website www.dirtydemos.co.uk and it is still listed, so there is no excuse.

Pictures.
1: Dead Wood / Phantom Heron Seas 7" Cover.
2: Dead Wood / Phantom Heron Seas 7" Reverse.
3: Dirty Demos Logo.

Illuminated 666 No. 1

2011-09-30T20:20:00.011+01:00

With the Broken Flag Festival coming up next year in London I thought it was about time I dug out some old tapes to refresh the ears and get used to that old 1980's noise sound again. I dug out Kliestwahr's "Myth", but wasn't in the mood for the chorus pedal/phaser sound. I played the compilation release "Harsh Ears Now!!" the triple cassette that Midas Music released but after 3 sides I found it hard to listen to. Nice tracks by Kapotte Muziek, Club Rialto and S*Core, but a lot of poor stuff even from the likes of Tools You Can Trust...hunting out Le Syndicat's "Rectal Struggle" I found the compilation "Illuminated 666 No.1", a C22 from 1984 (I think) on the German Illuminated 666 label. Le Syndicat'll have to wait....
The tape starts of with Ltn. Murnau, a project I know very little about. French? (I know I am thinking of Lt. Caramel here....are they related)? "Rumort-Random Excerpts" is an instruction on how to use a power drill; DC whilst mobile, AC whilst hooked up to a generator. It is the sound of a power drill. The beautifully named FaLX cerebRi follow. FaLX cerebRi was the project of mail and sound artist Karsten Rodemann who ran Graf Haufen Tapes. Back in the 1980's I used to trade tapes with Graf Haufen Tapes. Here FaLX have stood the test of time with two pieces. "Thee Orgaasm (femaale)" is classic industrial music. An electronic throb over/under/around a female German voice going through a digital delay. Side two has a long piece by Mauthausen Orchestra. "Block 10". A great symphonic noise. The sound is "muddy" in parts and sounds like it was recorded live on a 2-track, but it still has power and that is what is important here....sounds like Esplendor Geometrico around the same period. I am now going to work through the"Gravitational Arch Of Sex" box. I am not too sure but I think Mauthausen Orchestra are playing at the Broken Flag Festival. Certainly a crowd puller for me! The tape finishes with a short Non like piece from Synthetisches Mischgewebe (AKA Das Synthetische Mischgewebe). Excellent sharp sound loop. "Illuminated 666 No. 1" is a great release. I have no idea if there was a "No. 2" or what happened to the label.

Trepaneringsritualen

2011-09-30T19:49:00.013+01:00

Sometimes I see a name of a band / project and I know I just have to hear what that name sounds like. Praying For Oblivion, Blod, Pestdemon have all been such names in the (recent) past...and now Trepaneringsritualen. Excellent name. I have been too late to get some of the releases - ultra limited tapes, just last week I missed out getting the "Veil The World" tape on some Polish label limited to 40 only...so I was overjoyed when I managed to get a copy of the tape "Martyrium" on American label Small Doses. (Snapped up the new Kinit Her CD album at the same time). The cassette is a C40, packaged in a fold out sleeve, it comes allegedly with a 10 sided fold-out insert with artwork and info....but my copy didn't. The release is limited to 136 copies.
Are Trepaneringsritualen as good as their name? Hell, yes! Research tells me that Trepaneringsritualen is the solo project of Thomas Ekelund formerly of Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words...which (let's face it) is an awful name. Still, I saw a band called How Much Wood Could A Woodchuck Chuck If A Woodchuck Could Chuck Wood listed on some noise site the other day...bloody awful name. OK, it's a Herzog film...but it's still a bloody awful name.
The tape starts with "Death Reveler" (I'm getting titles from Discogs). A pounding bass and base rhythm with distorted vocals. Metal percussion leads the track into madness. The sound is immediate and grabbing. "The Blood Of the New Covenant" has a more claustrophobic sound. An infested pulse beat and swarming insect sound lead us into a flat field. A voice tape evokes old school power electronics, Genocide Organ etc. It all ends on the sound of sharpening knives. Like track one "Plague Of Persecution" reminds me of Hunting Lodge. Not a bad thing. This track (the longest on the cassette) is built around low frequencies meeting electronic rumblings with controlled feedback. We're in a dark ambient place here. "Eucharist Of Piss And Shit" ends the tape. A short blast of throbbing noise and shouting, with metal percussion thrown about for maximum pleasure. Cracking stuff. I knew a band / project with such an excellent name wouldn't let me down.
If you can find any Trepaneringsritualen releases my advice is to get them.

Pictures:
1: Trepaneringsritualen Logo.
2: "Matyrium" Cover.
3: "Matyrium" Inner Artwork.

Mark Stewart : On/Off

2011-09-29T20:33:00.013+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by a fanzine to list my top ten "essential" releases. Not desert island discs but records/releases that had influenced my way of life. Politics, listening, approach, attitude etc. I thought about this a lot and if I had been asked for a top 11 then The Pop Group's "Y" LP would be in there.
I have just got a copy of the Mark Stewart documentary "On/Off" on DVD. It is an excellent film. Back in the 1970's The Pop Group were a marmite band, and I love marmite. Shameless sloganeering set against cold white funk, angular free form jazz and punk all rolled into one. Fantastic. "Y" still sounds fresh today. The CD re-issue includes the 7" "She Is Beyond Good And Evil" and its' B Side "3.38" (which always sounded like Wire's "Former Airline" to me - or was it the other way round?) and is well worth hunting out.
The film starts off with Mark at home with his mother in Portland, Dorset and Mark talking about his life in Bristol in the early 1970's. Mark is a very chatty chappy and therefore makes the film come alive. His two brothers are included talking about life in the Stewart household. Punk and The Cortinas stirred Mark and his friends into action. Gareth Sager, Dan Catsis and John Waddington all give their accounts against promo footage and live performance footage.
....back in 1997 I showed my friend (at the time) John Everall a video clip of The Pop Group live on Dutch TV, he in turn told Mark who then rang my parents' asking if I could "dub" a copy for him and mail it to his home in Dorset which I duly did. I got a lovely thank you postcard a few days later...this clip appears in the DVD, although the director could have sourced it from elsewhere it is exactly the same 17 second clip of "Rob A Bank" I mailed him.....
Nick Cave, Fritz Catlin and Janine Rainforth are all talking heads in this section but strangely not Simon Underwood or Dennis Bovell. Mark then talks about the artwork that accompanied the records and how after they had toured with "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder" LP he got bored and left the band. Promo videos for second LP tracks I have never seen before litter this part of the film.
I never did see The Pop Group live, they played close by at the Porterhouse in Retford with The Good Missionaries and Linton Kwesi Johnson but for some reason I never went...I did see Pigbag at the Porterhouse a few years later though.
The film is 88 minutes long and the split between The Pop Group and his solo work is roughly 50/50. After The Pop Group split I followed all the immediate splinter groups. Pigbag, Maximum Joy, (my favourite) Rip Rig And Panic and Maffia. I think the first LP is the better of all Maffia albums, it captures the early 80's zeitgeist beautifully. The film has some great live footage of Maffia performing "Jerusalem" in Bristol.
There is no mention of Mark as part of New Age Steppers or his work with Gary Clail and The On-U Sound System.
Enter Mark's second stage as performer and enter LeBlanc, Wimbish and McDonald. The film keeps up the energy with an enthusiastic Mark and Adrian Sherwood and members of Massive Attack (and Chicks On Speed) but my liking of Maffia has now all but disappeared. "Hypnotized" being the last Mark Stewart release I bought. After that it all sounds very "samey" to me.
"On/Off" is an excellent film and a necessary story told really well. Mark Stewart comes across likeable, lovable and really fascinating...like an old English eccentric. Any "fan" of The Pop Group should own this DVD. There are 70 minutes of extras - live footage and gallery stills and a set of postcards with the first 1000 copies.

Picture:
1: DVD Cover.

Ashtray Navigations

2011-09-26T21:12:00.006+01:00

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest single by Ashtray Navigations. "Three Rockets Thicken" on Trensmat Records. Earlier in the month I saw the Ashtrays (as we call them at Hartop Towers) live at the Wysing Festival in Cambridgeshire and they were the hit of the day for me (besides Preslav Literary School and Astral Social Club and Disinformation), OK they were the surprise of the day for me. I liked the sound so much I bought this EP there and then.
13 years ago I played on the same bill as the Ashtrays in Nottingham, and that night had tainted my ears somewhat to their sound. They seemed to play for ever that night, a sort of improv. of zither and acoustic guitar. I got hold of the album "Four Raga Moods" but it did nothing for me. That is why, on this night in Cambridgeshire they hit me between the eyes with a great live sound.

The EP has three tracks, three short jams. Not extracts from longer pieces (something that I dislike) but three pieces recorded specifically for this 7" release. They have beginnings and ends.
"Monkey Music/Throw Money at the Monkeys" has an awakening of guitar and synthesizers. The sound is not too far from Section 25 and their "Key Of Dreams" LP. The synthesizer rush blossoms into....krautrock, moments later tablas work their way around the drifting guitar. It is beautifully uplifting. "Dinshan F Ghadali" is a short piece of floating guitars and keyboard drone. "Rocket Dust Slipping Out Of Your Mouth Some Afternoon" is a fantastic instrumental piece. It is 1970's prog rock sped up a few revolutions. The works of Greenslade came to mind whilst listening to this beauty. (is that a bad thing)?
How long have the Ashtrays sounded like this? Is their a full album of this material? Can anyone out there help?

Buy from www.trensmat.com or http://ashtraynavigations.wordpress.com you will not regret it.

Pictures:
1: "Three Rockets Thicken" Sleeve.
2: Ashtray Navigation live in Cambridgeshire, September 2011.
3: Flyer from 1998.

Lyme Regis

2011-09-24T19:57:00.007+01:00

"Crossing the border....Changing the menu" (Dome).

In the interests of research, my endless research in finding and reporting on secondhand record shops I travelled across borders and into Dorset and the coastal town of Lyme Regis. Sad to report that there are no secondhand vinyl emporiums in Lyme Regis, but there are plenty of pubs, fish & chip shops and a great secondhand book shop (at the bottom of the High Street).
Lyme Regis boasts to be the gateway to the Jurassic Coast which means pebbly beach. There is an artificial beach further down the coastline, if you're prepared to walk. Lovely soft sand and (today) the sea was swimmable. If you're after a pint and a great view of the Dorset coast, Lyme Regis is the place...just a shame about the secondhand record shops.

Pictures:
1: Old fossil on Jurassic Coast.
2: Oscar being a sand-angel.
3: Isabel F. (Reverse Ostrich...she buries her feet in the sand).

Cheapmachines

2011-09-23T19:54:00.012+01:00

There seems to be a penchant for labels to be re-releasing / re-packaging old material from the 1980's and 1990's these days. Stuff that was ultra limited when it first came out now rediscovered and presented to a new audience...and a few of the old audience who have lost their originals or are on a path of youthful rediscovery. I am not complaining, personally I think it is great, especially when it works. (I am thinking of Harbinger Sounds' release of old Olympic Shitman recordings and live work). Second Layer Records have put out a cassette of the early recordings of Phil Julian, AKA Cheapmachines. The recordings were made 17 years ago; that's before HNW. 1994 when all noiseniks were Japanese crazy. There is no doubt that "Kept:1994-96" is a noise album. Blistering noise recorded and presented at a blistering pace. Side one is loud decay. "Damaged Electronics" as Phil puts it. Quite often the sound verges on implosion, a collapsed wall, but it is always brought back from the brink for another attack. A scholar from the legendary school of Putrefier. Side two starts off with a denser sound with hidden vocals in a morass of distortion. This is more Power Electronics than before. Track two is Musique-Concret. Durgan Country. Tape spool manipulation and kitchen implements contact mic'd through effect. Luc Ferrari. Excellent stuff. The second half of side two brings us back full circle and the sound / style /approach of side one. (No track listing here). There's a track with lyrics..not vocals, but lyrics. Can't tell what they are as they are masked by static noise surges and distortion but I'm certain they are lyrics. The tape ends on a tinnitus loop. Classic.
The cassette is gold and housed in a Richard Rupenus designed glossy sleeve. I'm not to sure of the edition run..probably 100 and available from Phil at www.cmx.org.uk and Second Layer Records.
Buy!

Pictures.
1: Kept Sleeve.
2: "Gold" as Tony Hadley once said.
3: Kept Inner Sleeve.

Tears Of Ochre (Unune)

2011-09-20T20:33:00.010+01:00

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to Tears Of Ochre (Unune). In July I wrote my thoughts on an old compilation cassette release called "Power To Destroy" on the Lebensborn label, one of the bands on there was Agony For Pleasure whom I likened to Konstruktivists and whose track I like very much. Transpires that the guy behind Agony For Pleasure is still recording but under the moniker of Tears Of Ochre (Unune) and Agony For Pleasure has gone from project name to project label. Googling Tears Of Ochre (and I suggest you do) brings up loads of video footage on You Tube. Through this I contacted Mr. Ochre (aka Stephen Hopkins) and received this CDr album shortly after.
The album is titled ""An Eternity In An Infinite Flash Of Grey". Track One: "A Tenuous Link In Thee Endless Knot" begins with oscillations, random bleeps and synthesized sweeps. The sound of communication amongst machines. A great opener. slowly paced and leads into "Arable Grazing For Parable Sheep" perfectly. A sense of Coil is building with varispeeded and effected voices and a slow dragging beat. The mood / style changes with "When Things Fall Apart", repetitive loops / locked grooves provide an annoying track - could be a style/genre called glitch. Will have to check that out! Track 4 is the Tears Of Ochre (Unune) magnum opus with "Harmony/Disharmony/Illusion/Disillusion/Urge/Demiurge". The track sounds like a Novocaine nightmare with its angular synth attacks, sharp and piercing and floating around the speakers. Power surges and rumblings complete the sound. Sucks you in beautifully. "Revenge In The Spirit Realm" sounds like looped EVP Recordings accompanied by floating electronics. "Blood Comes In Spurts" plays like a homage to Monte Cazazza's "Kick That Habit Man" with a strong pulse beat and distorted vocals. The Novacaine nightmare returns with "Cerebral Incursions", madness in the vocals and keyboards. With "Fatal Romance (Judas As Homosexual)" looped electronics create a dancing rhythm which bounces around superbly. The sound phases and modulates to create a sound pattern not too far from what Neil Campbell produces. "A Subconscious Repercussion" slows the sound down. A slow wall of sound. (SNW as I call it). The album ends on a slight "novelty" track called "Under My Skin (Like Rabies)". Guitar, lyrics and cardboard drums.
An eclectic album, but I think one that was compiled over a period of time, maybe years, (Could be wrong) but as a taster to the sound and talent of Tears Of Ochre (Unune) it makes me want to discover more. Hopefully Stephen will create an Agony For Pleasure base soon.
Recommended.

Pictures:
1: CDr Cover.
2: Tears Of Ochre (Unune) art work.
3: CDr Back Cover.

COUM Transmissions At The Tate, 2011

2011-09-19T21:20:00.008+01:00

I have spent the last couple of weekends passing through and staying in London so I made time to see the small Coum Transmissions exhibition at Tate Britain.
Billed under "COUM Transmissions In Context:Performance 1969-1977" what there is on display is art from the "Prostitution" show at the ICA in 1977, plus handwritten notes by Genesis on the set-up. Posters from COUM performances, a collage of Cosey's work for adult magazines and photographs from COUM's European shows. Bloody fascinating stuff to see up close and in the flesh, so to speak. I have only seen the work of COUM Transmissions in books before. The exhibition is part of a larger piece featuring work of Gilbert & George, Cerith Wyn Evans and Bruce McLean amongst others and is there until 15 January 2012.
Strangely enough after being out of Hartop Towers for a few days I came back to a pile of mail including the latest COUM Transmissions vinyl release "Sugarmorphoses" on the Dais label. Yet to play.

Astral Social Club #8

2011-09-16T21:35:00.001+01:00

Live at The Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn, Cambridgeshire. 10/09/11.

Past Present Future Space-Time Festival, Cambridgeshire. 10/09/2011.

2011-09-13T21:04:00.039+01:00

Have just spent a pleasant day at the "Past Present Future Space-Time Festival" in Bourn, Cambridgeshire. The lure for me to travel hundreds of miles to the event was a rare UK performance by Preslav Literary School and the attraction of hearing Astral Social Club loud!
Also along for the ride was my old friend Tim Bayes, recently back from Australia and now living in the wilds of Lincolnshire.
This was the second "Past Present Future Space-Time Festival" to take place at the Wysing Arts Centre so maybe still in its' teething stage, but for organisation and set up I think the festival will be going for a few years to come. There were some issues of "bad timing" vis-a-vis the running bill but I was told (and I am not a regular festival go-er, so I believe what I am told) that this is common place at events "like this". So there y'go.
The Festival began at Mid-Day.
The first few performers/bands on were local. Warm-Up acts. It all sounded a little like "Amateur Hour" whilst folk were milling about getting their bearings and bands were arriving and food stalls and the beer tent were setting up. (All tins of lager were £2).
The festival kicked off for real when The Dead Rat Orchestra played the Amphis Stage at 14:30. The Dead Rat Orchestra are a duo based in Madrid, although originally from Colchester. Their sound is of strings - violin and cello against a percussion of cow bells and the drone of harmonium. There were sections when the two members shouted at each other bringing into (my) mind Mieskuoro Huutajat, the Suomi shouting choir. Excellent stuff...fascinating to watch.
(The Amphis stage was a circular hut built out of reclaimed wood by artists Folke Kobberling annd Martin Kallwasser a unique venue).
With a bit of a lull it was time to catch up with Tim and sample the beer tents' wares and listen to The Invisible Polytechnic Orchestra soundcheck on the Boulder Stage. The Boulder Stage, an outdoor stage built to resemble a boulder sliced in half. The I.P.O. were performing a version of "In C" by Terry Riley. Sitting in a field in Cambridgeshire listen to the repetitive notes of clarinet and bassoon and the plucking of harp strings it was very relaxing.
Disinformation was performing indoors. This is where someone who understands the work of Joe Banks and Preslav Literary School was needed as their performance times clashed. I caught 10 minutes of Disinformation "Barcelona" before scurrying to the Amphis Hut to catch Preslav. For roughly half an hour Adam had me hooked in a trance as he built a soundscape out of prepared cassette loopings and spoken word. Magical. Preslav ran into I.P.O. time whose immense sound was ruined by some idiot in a battered transit van shouting sloguns through a megaphone at blistering volume - art...allegedly.
Simon Scott was interesting. The former Slowdive guitarist performed an ambient piece for laptop and guitar. A lovely raw live sound that fitted somewhere between The Durutti Column & The Cocteau Twins.
Not much happened after Simon's set. An awful noise came from the Matrix Stage. Devilman - a sound stuck in the early 1990's, but the festival crowd loved them. Whatever did happen to Gary Clail? Running times and artists were now overlapping so I am uncertain to whom I was watching, and after a few visits to the beer tent I didn't much care, reminiscing with Tim, Neil Campbell and Joe Banks about 1980's noise and its' place in 2011 was fun enough. Joe was Ashenden y'know.

Neil Campbell played at high speed and loud volume to create a miasmic whorl of noise, all kaos pads and distorted guitar riffs. The Amphis Stage became the Astral Social Club for 30 minutes. I have posted film of Neil live, so watch and enjoy. Ashtray Navigations quickly followed and were the great surprise of the day. I had played on the same bill as Ashtray back in 1998 and I found their sound (then) pretty hard to listen to but in the past 13 years they have changed somewhat in sound and personnel. This time last year I was in Paris watching Aethnor do their thing live and listening to Ashtray Navigations I was brought back to that night...but Ashtray's sound was a whole lot more accomplished, more directional and more bloody listenable. I am now going to have to catch up on Phil's output over the past ten years.
Ashtray Navigations closed the Amphis Stage so it was a slow wander to the Boulder Stage (via the beer tent) to listen to folk play dull and predictable laptop stuff.

The festival was well worth the trip because of Neil, Phil, Joe and Adam and The Dead Rat Orchestra and Simon Scott were a pleasant surprise. Like I mentioned earlier, the festival is still in a "teething stage".

Pictures:
1: Festival Flyer.
2: Festival "programme".
3: Myself (in Aaron Dilloway T-Shirt) watching Peter Um.
4: Dead Rat Orchestra.
5: Disinformation.
6: Preslav Literary School table set-up.
7: Preslav Literary School.
8: The Amphis Stage.
9: Simon Scott.
10: Tim, Neil & Joe. (3 Hippies)!
11: Astral Social Club.
12: Ashtray Navigations.

Secondhand Record Shops #14: Pete's Music, Cambridge.

2011-09-12T20:01:00.007+01:00

Just spent a couple of days discovering the delights of Cambridge, trying (and failing) to find Spaceward Studios and finding the old Corn Exchange where once the late great Birthday Party trod the boards...they had a limiter y'know....anyway. Cambridge is a lovely City in the sun. There's some awesome architecture and plenty of pubs. One thing lacking though is the secondhand vinyl store. There is a Fopp and HMV so that's perhaps the reason why? Friday & Saturday was Market Day and on the market was "Pete's Music". The traditional secondhand record market dealer. Boxes and boxes of old LP's sectioned beautifully in to genres so I was not ploughing through endless Showaddywaddy or Gene Pitney to find a gem. There was also a large selection of CD's and DVD's which I didn't browse.
I managed to find an old Here & Now 7"EP; "Dog In Hell" and the picture disc version of the B.Movie LP "The Dead Good Tapes" and both for a tenner.
I visited a few charity shops in the City, but most vinyl was of classic sorts, to be expected I suppose.
If visiting Cambridge and it is Market Day, head for The Guildhall (signposted as Tourist Information Centre) and you'll find Pete.

Pictures.
1+2 : Pete's stall in Cambridge.

Aural Atrocities (Volume 3)

2011-09-07T20:26:00.000+01:00

I have had this album, this CDr, for a couple of years or more now and I could not remember ever playing it, so I pulled it from the racks and gave it my ears, and time...
The CDr was in a package from Duncan Harrison a couple of years back, so I must have given his contribution a listen, but the rest was all new. The album looks like one of those compilations made by someone requesting material on a forum board, and running off copies on demand. Apart from Duncan the only other artists (using term loosely here) I have heard of are Cracked Dome & Splinter Vs Stalin and that is because they appear on certain noise/experimental sound forum boards. The rest read like a line up at a MySpace Convention for no-hopers. The album was released in 2009 from recordings made between 2006 & 2009 and is on the 412 Recordings label.
The album starts with Gas Chamber and "Deflower". The track has a male /female telephone conversation before blasting in to full on noise. There is no information on Gas Chamber. To me it sounds Japaneses so my guess is that he (it's always a he) is Canadian. Next up is Cracked Dome, within the message Cracked Dome = Blasphemator. "Blessed Coma" is a dark ambient piece, very atmospheric picturing empty vessels and shallow graves etc. The sound builds to a wide open noisesphere before decaying and disappearing. Interesting piece. Novasak provide circuit bending electronics. Not a favourite. Then in comes Slut Kull with "Cunt Kicker". The track actually starts off with an extract from the Derek & Clive "World's Greatest Cunt Kicker Inner" sketch. Unfuckingbelievable. Recorded in 2006 and sounding 20 years out of date - Comedy Power Electronics? (CPE). Stuntcock are from Ross-On-Wye. (Fred) West Country. Hawkwind style synth noodles through a trebly distorto-box. Next up is TGNM, a Japanese project operated by Yokota. Yokota describes his sound as brutal style harsh noise and who am I to disagree?
Duncan Harrison follows with the six minute piece "Honeying". Layering of choral singing and monastic chanting through a variety of echo chambers. It is sort of ambient and quite simply the best so far. It is hard to believe that there is a project called Chav Stabber but he (it is always a he) is up next with "Running With The Kull". Basically it is noise for noise sake rather like the next track by Beaten To A Pulp. "Beaten To A Fucking Pulp" starts with a distressed phone call to the police from a mother who has had her daughter kidnapped. This leads in to old school noise performed by a person called "Skippy" who I think has listened to too much Slogun. Back to CPE again. Splinter Vs Stalin is just bloody awful and proving the title of this compilation correct. The French project N.D.E.K. follow with (back to) noise for noise sake stuff.
The album finishes on a three minute track called "Choke On This!" by A Machine Called Orgasm. The sound of crunching looped electronics. It is quite a good track if it didn't keep stopping and starting with a sound of a female voice faking an orgasm.
The CDr is for sale on Discogs for a pound. Six minutes of Duncan Harrison for a pound? Your choice.

Pestdemon

2011-09-04T16:16:00.002+01:00

The week started with the purchase of the latest LP by Pestdemon. "Helvetesljuset" on UK label Unrest Productions. (I think a rough translation would be " Hell Of Light", but don't quote me). So knowing I had a few days before it arrived in the post I set about reacquainting myself with the sound of Pestdemon via the half a dozen tapes I have bought over the past three years.
It was the name that intrigued me That, and the first cassette was released by a UK label therefore being easy to get hold of. "Esurient & Unwholesome" was released in 2008 by Unrest Productions. Limited to 100 copies. The sound is visceral.There's gristle in the sound. Side one is full of swirling electronics and tinkling Tibetan percussion making a sound of evil amongst the crawling chaos, side two has storm interference on a shortwave radio. The overall sound is of power electronics from the 1990's. Think Cold Meat Industry and Art Konkret. It came across (at the time) as a stunning debut and three years later is still a great listen. "Vexations" followed in the following year. A 48 minute cassette released by the Swedish Stromkarlen label. Stromkarlen is the label set up by Ex-Segerhuva operator Jonas Kellagher. Again the cassette is limited to 100 copies. The tape carries on from where "Esurient" left off with the sound of layered static noise, dropping, building, looping to great effect. HNW I believe it is called. There are hidden vocals that rise and have the trademark black/doom metal grunt but here it doesn't detract...more uplifts. Excellent cassette release. In the same year came "Hidden Temple", a 30 minute cassette (again) on the Unrest Productions label. "Hidden Temple" has a cavernous decaying sound, the electronics throb, grind and oscillate before being looped and layered. Powerful material. Side two is dark. Very dark. Swirling looped electronic noise that has a church choir hiding in the background. Doom Electronics, or Doom Harsh Noise Wall. (DHNW). Think Content Nullity, think Duncan Harrison and if you're old enough think "Lustmordekay".
2010 saw the release of "Natural Destroyer" on the Swedish Utmarken label. This cassette is limited to 50 copies. "Natural Destroyer" is not an immediate favourite, the construction of noise here is lacking. There are no hooks, no loops just a relentless screaming wall of formless noise and not my cup of tea. Four tracks all with a lupined theme. It was at this point that I was thinking "is Pestdemon a spent force"? Had I heard his better material? (I am at this point thinking that the project Pestdemon is the work of one man, probably Swedish, otherwise wouldn't it be The Pestdemons)? The fifth Pestdemon cassette (fifth to my knowledge anyway) was another release by Unrest Productions and this time with a full colour sleeve so I bought a copy. Unrest Productions is not only a fine UK label and distributor but Martin does seem to put the purchase in the next days post. Faultless. "Doppelganger" is another 30 minute cassette released in the strangely limited edition of 141. Side One is of rolling distortion hiding radio broadcasts and spoken word tapes. Side Two begins with piano. Looped piano. Melancholic and funereal Crumbling electronics fluctuate around the sound before becoming continuous and addictive - then the piano returns with a lamenting operatic vocal before the sound becomes full circle. Excellent cassette and it brought me back in to the faith of Pestdemon. Next release was the split cassette with Rannstensungar on the Swedish labels Konsortium Lithopedium and Kafe Kaos - both being new labels on me. Unfortunately my cassette doesn't play, there were labels glued over the spindle holes. I tried to clear the holes but this made the tape jam and jar whilst playing and almost fucking up my tape machine. The cassette is limited to 50 copies and it would be interesting to know if any other folk have had the same problem.
"Helvetesljuset" is a great LP. The sound is low key, and resembling the release "Hidden Temple". It has the sound of shuffling and scraping around an old industrial site or darkplace to quote Garth Merenghi. Again it brought to mind the work of Duncan Harrison...and that in my book is a major plus.
I shall continue to listen to and seek out the releases of Pestdemon.

Pictures:
1: Esurient & Unwholesome.
2: Vexations.
3: Hidden Temple.
4: The Natural Destroyer.
5: Doppelganger.
6: Split cassette with Rannstensungar.
7: Helvetesljuset. (not sleeve, but promotional artwork from Troniks board).

Take It To The Limit

2011-09-01T21:35:00.001+01:00

Have spent the last few days reading Neil Anderson's book "Take It To The Limit" a history of the Sheffield club; The Limit. After reading Tony Beesley's "Out Of Control", a book about two clubs in South Yorkshire - Doncaster Rotters and Rotherham Windmill it seemed to make sense getting this book.
I never went to either of the aforementioned clubs. I did spend a small portion of 1985 living in Sheffield in an area called Meersbrook but The Leadmill was the venue of choice and the watering holes of London Road (Red Lion)? Still, after collecting live tapes in the late 1970's/early 1980's I know that The Limit was a club of some renown and a history of the club would make interesting reading, and in parts I wasn't wrong.

The Limit was created by two entrepreneurs in 1978 - a Rock DJ and an ex-copper. They wanted to create a club with no dress code and therefore be an ideal place for the students and "outsiders" of Sheffield.
The book seems to present the club as some sort of oasis, but in the area there was Retford Porterhouse and Nottingham's Ad Lib Club (later The Garage) and preceding this... The Outlook in Doncaster and The Windmill in Rotherham and most importantly to me: AJ's in Lincoln - the Limit may have been unique to Sheffield but not necessarily to the area. Still, the story of how The Limit was built from The Buccaneer through to The Wapentake Bar and the characters involved is interesting. The book has great pictures from the club, some I haven't seen before - Punishment Of Luxury, Vice Versa, and a strange one of Clock DVA (!), and lists of bands that played...The Human League for 20p!! Good stuff. It quotes NMX too,I used to think it was a bloody miserable fanzine at the time and nothing printed here changes my mind.I much preferred the Leicester based "Y" at the time.
There is an interesting side story too, of the owners buying The Lyceum building, sinking their profits in to the venture and end up losing their "millions". Again, Sheffield Lyceum another venue I have never been to.

The book is a quick read but a worthy one and to all those who went to punk clubs in the late 1970's it will bring back memories.
I do find it interesting how Sheffield is now selling itself as a trail-blazing (musical) city in the late 1970's with videos, books and dedicated websites..at the time the city was no different (to me) from Lincoln or Nottingham. Great local bands with great venues to see them at.

Buy the book, £12.95 from www.acmretro.com or Sheffield Vision, it'll keep you entertained for a few days.

Pictures:
1: Early Clock DVA promotional shot.
2: Book Cover.

And Then She Lied Again: Dieter Müh Doin' It Dresden Style

2011-09-01T07:29:00.000+01:00

And Then She Lied Again: Dieter Müh Doin' It Dresden Style:

Tactile #2

2011-08-28T21:05:00.009+01:00

Thanks to all that posted comments and replied personally to the Tactile piece I posted earlier. I have been sent some pictures of Spacemarker / Tactile live at Fylkingen in 1998, so I thought I would share.

Pictures:
1: Spacemarker Live at Fylkingen. (Tuborg)
2, 3 & 4: Tactile Live at Fylkingen. (White Wine)
5: Post gig drinks with Carl.

The Haxan Cloak #2

2011-08-26T20:02:00.008+01:00

I have just spent a pleasant while listening to the debut album by The Haxan Cloak (not too sure about the "The") on the Aurora Borealis label. (CD:ABX 050). I have been playing the CD for quite a while. Its' sound is one of darkness, of dark empty places, of creakiness and despair. It plays very much like a soundtrack. I bought the album shortly after the 12" "Observatory" and I was completely surprised by the sound. The 12" is very electronic, clever looping a la Bruce Gilbert or Andrew McKenzie mixed with New Age electronics of say Biosphere or CJ Bolland, the CD album is all scraping strings and bass Sensurround. Playing the album today. Listening to the stretched strings of viola of cello of violin it dawned on me that I was listening to an extension on the sound of Last Few Days. Whether Bobby Krilic (Haxan Cloak mainman) has heard (of) Last Few Days I have no idea - but with the sound he has, the desperate strings and harmonious (female) voices droning like a Mauthausen Opera it is like listening to a 21st Century Last Few Days...and I love it. There are a couple of rhythm lead pieces, heavy (acoustic) drums that conjure up Mick Harris stuff of old, but that all adds to the sound of a great album.
Two releases and two completely different sounds, looking forward to the next release and witnessing Haxan Cloak live.

So, what ever happened to Last Few Days? I have the Touch 12" + 7", the retrospective LP on Dead Man's Curve and the live cassette on Staalplaat..but what became of Fritz, Si Gross, Keir Warhead and D.Styme? I know they had a brief and fuck awful dalliance with white funk at the beginning of the 1990's and soon became Fontana bargain bin specialists - but what about the last 20 years? Anyone know?

Pictures:
1&2: Haxan Cloak CD cover and inner sleeve artwork.
2: Last Few Days Cassette.

Astral Social Club #7

2011-08-22T19:47:00.017+01:00

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to a couple of new releases by Astral Social Club.
Firstly comes the self released CDr album "Scudding". A title that intrigued and I had to look up:

scudding
	A sexual activity involving some preparation. One participant among a couple or group eats a high protein diet for a number of days resulting in a rock hard poo. This can then be "fired" up the partners anus, when both are bent over bottom to bottom, in the fashion of a scud missile being launched.

Well there y'go.
It is an excellent album, and different from the last Astral Social Club release I got hold of....which is one of the reasons why I like this project alot. I never know what sounds are going to be coming out of my speakers, in that sense I align Astral Social Club to Column One. "Scudding" starts off quietly with feint knockings and pulses before developing in to a steady rhythm. For those who can think "Still Walking" by Throbbing Gristle and imagine an expansion on that theme....think on. A rapid chopping rhythm plays whilst sequencers, guitars, disembodied voices and magic intertwine throughout - even polyphonic keyboards at the end. It has taken a couple of listens to appreciate this release. It's 45 or so minutes long and a must. Running somewhat shorter is the Astral Social Club release on Beartown Records. A C30 cassette called "Two Slabs". (No searching the Internet to know what this title means). The inner sleeve holds two cryptic titles; "Rare Rare Congletincy" & "6879 6758 000390". The latter maybe a mobile phone number thus following the tradition of naming great songs after phone numbers - The B52's "6060842" and City Boy's "5705" spring to mind. Anyway, Slab #1 has a Seventies sequencer feel to it - again I was taken back to early TG and Cartertronics. Slab #2 has Neil in drone mode, heavy drone mode...both pieces are OK (highly listenable) but I do get the sense that they are taken from longer pieces and that is "something" that annoys me a tad. I also got a copy of Slump's "Malpas Way" the same time as the ASC cassette (another Beartown Records release) and although the cassette is very enjoyable / highly listenable both tracks end suddenly - a journey cut off before its' natural end...and I think that is wrong. it is something that annoyed me back in the 1990's where bands such as Lull were putting out 7" singles of tracks which were obviously longer than four and a half minutes.
Beartown Records get in touch. A fine and reputable cassette label. They say that they want to put out a cassette of two tracks - 15 mins a side, do you record two tracks that are 15 minutes long especuially for the release or just give them something that cuts off after fifteen minutes? I feel Slump go for the latter - a shame as side two builds beautifully...side one is a bit too Terry Riley!
Both releases are recommended and available from Astral Social Club (just google) and try Beartown Records for "Two Slabs". (www.beartownrecords.com). The tape is limited to 49 copies and is £4 postage paid in the UK - fucking bargain. I did notice that Second Layer Records in London were selling the excellent "Skelp" 7"/CDr by Astral Social Club for £4 on their mail order web-page. Another fucking bargain! BUY.

People Who Do Noise

2011-08-21T08:42:00.001+01:00

Just found this whilst trawling around the internet - I have yet to watch it all but thought I'd share...

Dave Haslam:Young Hearts Run Free

2011-08-19T20:44:00.012+01:00

I have spent August reading the book "Young Hearts Run Free" by Dave Haslam. I bought the book as I was keen to read a book by Dave. As I mentioned in the piece about the book "Shadowplayers", I met Dave when he used to write / edit / produce the fanzine Debris in Manchester 1983 - 1984. We used to drink and chat at the Hacienda - before the music there became shite. I knew Dave then went onto DJ at the club (in the late 1980's through to the 1990's) but I did not know he had turned published author. Dave has written books about the DJ culture and the history of Mancunian music, but I chose "Young Hearts Run Free:The Real Story Of The 1970's"...the title appealed.
A lot has been written about the decade and Dave was pissed off of with "Abbafication" of it all. The documentaries that go: "I remember Top Deck Shandy" / "I had a space-hopper" / "I lost my virginity playing Twister" / "Vesta Chow Mein was like eating posh nosh". you know the kind of stuff. Music was Glam Rock - Prog Rock - Top Of the Pops - Punk and that was it. I kind of agree. Dave and I are the same age, and as Dave spent the 1970's in the West Midlands, I was in the East.

I like the title too, taking its' name from a great Candi Staton song. (Pronounced "State-On" not "Statt-On" just in case you didn't know. "Just say State"...poor hip-hop in joke there).
The book surprised me in the way that it wasn't a personal recollection, a personal trip through the decade a la Andrew Collins and his excellent "Where Did It All Go Right", or Mark Radcliffe's "Showbusiness:The Diary Of A Rock N' Roll Nobody". No, Dave has spent time in the research library looking up facts, times and dates of public upheaval of strikes, terrorist attacks and government overthrows. There are recollections from friends and colleagues, Alan Jones and Jayne Casey make an appearance (and thankfully not a mention of Chrissie Hynde - quite a rarity in a book about the 1970's).

The book is a good read, I read it, if it wasn't a good read I would have just put it away and not bothered, but....I was slightly disappointed with what I was reading. I was not reading (as the blurb told me) "The real story of the 70's that has never been told before". But then again the book was published in 2005, six years ago and in that time BBC 4 and the like have been producing documentaries about the 1970's that avoid the "Abbafication" - leave that to BBC 3 and Channel 4. Perhaps Dave and this book acted as a catalyst?

The book has a lot of meaningless throwaway sentences and veers off on tangents that are not really necessary...unless the book is being used by students who have to write a thesis on the 1970's? Bowie is mentioned a lot, as is Jim Morrison, The Real Thing and Iggy Pop. The activities of the RAF and Baader Meinhoff get covered as well as the IRA and UVF, a lot of the time I felt like I was just reading dates, names and facts and no real "story" was coming out - this is how it was...OK? The 1970's of Europe and America is covered (with a little bit of Africa when Rastafarians enter the scene with Bob Marley and Steel Pulse), no Australia, Japan etc.

Like I mentioned earlier, the book is a good read, but don't believe the "blurb".

Dieter Muh #45

2011-08-19T18:26:00.003+01:00

Looking forward to this - uncertain what time Dieter Muh will be performing, will keep you informed.

The Pop Group : She's Beyond Good + Evil

2011-08-12T21:36:00.002+01:00

Probably the best promo video ever!

Mothmen

2011-08-12T20:54:00.009+01:00

A couple of old vinyl releases have come through the door of Hartop Towers this week. Firstly I was given a copy of Stiff Little Fingers 7" "Alternative Ulster" by a friend. A classic slice o' vinyl that I probably wouldn't have bought "again", but gladly received as a gift. It has one of those intro's that used to get me onto the dancefloor of Lincioln AJ's or Retford Porterhouse after hearing the striking of the first three chords. Also include The Mekons "Where Were You?", Killing Joke "Wardance" and Punishment Of Luxury's "Brainbomb" onto this list. Songs where I would enter all flaying arms and legs and end up air guitar and mimed vocals after 90 seconds.
I also got an LP by Mothmen. Mothmen have been recommended to me by a couple of folk, Steve Underwood being one of them. I saw their LP "One Black Dot" from 1982 (and released by Do It Records - home of Adam & The Ants and Antony More) for sale cheaply on the internet, so I bought. (Cheaply being change from a fiver cheaply). This LP comes after their time on Absurd Records and On-U Sound.
The album is produced by Hugh Jones. I have another LP produced by Hugh; Clock DVA's "Advantage", my favourite DVA LP (honest!!), so I was quite intrigued to the Mothmen sound. Mmmmm, sounds like Howard Jones (perhaps a relation)? Sounds like smooth funky pop songs a la Medium Medium (when they put out stuff on obscure Dutch labels), or The Transmitters (when they released that fuck awful "24 Hours" LP). There are two tracks "Waddada" and "Weekend" that sound like Sting in the late 1980's. Yep! That bad. It sounds like 4,000,000 Telephones and that other awful Lincoln "White Funk" band from the 1980's Pulse8.
What happened? These are the musicians who delivered (as Durutti Column) "No Communication" on the Factory Sample EP. Needless to say the bass and drums went in to Simply Red shortly afterwards.

There is one pretty good track on the LP - "Temptation". Poptastic. The LP will be filed as an 80's curio, I think I'll try and hunt out the On-U release.

Pictures:
1: Isabel F. with the Mothmen LP.
2: Mothmen.