Tales from the Attic
Volume XXXI
Revolutions of a 33 and 45 kind…..
This missive features sounds from….
Hello observers, unicity, ash fallen brightly, Dalmatian rex and the eigentones, Mathieu belanger, claude lassonde, Christopher short, amonism, the theory unit, resource centre, the geography trip, igores tamborista, 18 carat affair, diamond family archive, stone tape records, nancy Wallace, lost harbours, lorelle meets the obsolete, quiet marauder, brace / choir, soft hills, tapete, Ulrich schnauss, mark peters, pyrolator, kreidler, Schneider TM, automat, dieter moebius, mani neumeier, jurgen engler, genesis breyer p orridge, lady jaye
Now for two tracks currently being adored in the Sunday experience sound shed. First up from Hello Observers – better known to all as New Jersey resident Matt Carafello whose brief description of a recently released self titled debut full length was greeted with the following self depreciating greeting ‘as ten songs, 8 good ones and a whole lot of debauchery’. new single – debuting if you like – ‘look up’ – incidentally not on that self titled set – is a glorious cosmic carnival that imagines some chill waved orbital outpost being home to a gathering of analogue knob twiddling sonic boffins such as Gulliver, Landshipping and Add N to X crafting out oceanic exploring snoozing post psychedelicised trip experiencing lunar lullabies from the contents of long lost and dust caked Radiophonic tape boxes. Gorgeous in a word. http://www.helloobservers1.bandcamp.com/track/look-up-single
Second of those currently cherished cuts in the Sunday experience sound shed comes from Ash Fallen Brightly – who from what we gather are a duo Erik and Aviya who are currently – we assume – putting to finishing touches to a debut set planned for release by way of somehow recordings / vent sounds. Indelibly informed by all things early 4AD – ‘eternals’ is a chill tipped porcelain slice of ice sculptured beauty, the kind of thing admittedly that you’d expect to fanfare your crossing through the veil as you left the physical to become the spiritual, an ethereal meditative mirage sweetly sighed in all manner of spectral chorals, bowed orbs and airless vapour wave kisses, in short the equivalent of an out of body aural astral plane trip and on that note something certainly worth investigating further. http://www.soundcloud.com/anzeigen/eternals-for-timo
Currently sporting their finest full length to date in ‘the order of the dolphin’, those impish dudes Dalmatian Rex and the Eigentones have just released ‘singing rule Britannia in my union jack pyjamas’ from that set as a single – a name checking foray into Englishness peculiarities hardwired onto a chord coda ripped straight from the post Rotten Pistols songbook – mischievous Half Man Half Biscuit-isms aplenty…….
Something else we tripped across whilst voyaging the band camp airwaves, ‘the pearl – reflections in glassine subliminality’ is a nine suite aural trip crafted by Matthieu Belanger, Claude Lassonde and Christopher Short – a most intoxicating work it is to. Out via cosmic dream-spaceship authors describe ‘the pearl’ as ‘when free jazz reaches the outer edges of the sonic universe, the space between the abstract becomes softer, angular becomes rounded and we fin a primordial spirit warmly welcoming us home’. in truth and to contextualise the trio have created a deeply mesmerising and amorphous dream space, so far since appearing on our radar we’ve dipped in and out sampling its richly exotic and hallucinogenic flavourings with the parting ’cloudy geometrics’ having teased and demurred us enough to, as were, put digital pen to digital paper. In short will appeal principally to admirers of both Ariel Kalma and legendary experimental kraut rockers Embryo, simply put this is 8 minutes of the most arresting trance wave groove you’ll hear in such an age, oceanic swathes of dissipating ambient apparitions swooned in whispering spectral flotillas of woozy clarinets create a floaty inner space cosmic calm where realities blur, disappear and reform in dream drift dissolving detail. Arresting stuff. http://www.christophergray.bandcamp.com/the-pearl-reflections-in-glassine-subliminality
Again discovered this on a recent reconnaissance scout amid band camp worlds. Its by Amonism – better known to kith n’ kin as Simon McCorry – with the track taking our initial interest being ‘the secret and unnerving life of plants’. from a set entitled ’archaeology’ which originally appeared in 2012 on the much missed first fold imprint (one of very few releases on that label that we must have missed), this beautifully haunting slice of neo classicism fleets and flutters into the kind of worlds more readily occupied by the hibernate imprint, a dream like overture softly sculptured in sweetly macabre mosaics gracefully aligned in a stilled bewitching elegance that shivers as much as it seduces. http://www.amonism.bandcamp.com/track/the-secret-and-unnerving-life-of-plants
Staying loosely with the first fold collective though information is a little scant, we are assuming that theory unit music services is the work of Matt Saunders one half of Magnetophone and more recently utilising the alter ego Assembled Minds (putting out limited releases via the now defunct First Fold imprint). a design / multi media resource showcasing amongst others sound clips showcasing the work of theory unit and assembled minds. Its theory unit’s ‘theme theory I’ that caught our attentive ear – a full on cinematic soundscape, rich and luxuriant not to say grandly panoramic that finds Saunders forging ahead into classical environs with much the same full blooded sense of drama, pace and mercurial detail as that of Ryuichi Sakamoto. http://www.thetheoryunit.com/music_composition.html
John Hanson – the other part of the Magnetophone equation – these days operates under the guise of the Resource Centre – much admired around these here parts not least with the advent of two outings (if I rightly recall) for the aforementioned and now sadly gone first fold imprint. Weep not though for a new home has been found in the welcoming arms of the geography trip imprint who describe themselves as ’a label dedicated to the weird vortices of the british countryside and beyond’ which oughtn’t prove too outlandish for Mr Hanson who refers to his recently released ’low fantasy’ EP for the label as being of interest to admirers of ‘Terry Riley, bird watching, John Cage, that warm feeling you can on remembering your first school music concrete’. the release itself comes pressed up as a strictly limited 250 only 12 inch package that includes 6 tracks stamped to wax, 4 postcards, a handwritten message, a vintage tea card, and a patch all housed in a by all accounts beautiful looking folk out sleeve. Dare you resist. As to the sounds – much like those previous Resource Centre outings Saunders utilises an array of analogue instrumentation, xylophones, glockenspiels and various wood block symphonics all of which he moulds into serene and dainty musical carousels that sits somewhere between the playful lullaby lilts of Raymond Scott and the twinkling innocence of a youth ISAN and Plone. For now we’ve found ourselves somewhat smitten by the near 12 minute chime recital ’round (music)’ a demurring sleepy headed toy box symphony that slowly unfolds, yawns and stretches to occasion a gorgeously hypnotic motif of bowed orbs and interlocking harmonic progressions seductively at play firing off lilting clock working love noted bows. Rest assured this won’t be the last you’ll hear of this becoming and bewitching beauty. http://www.thegeographytrip.bandcamp.com
Staying with the geography trip just a little while longer for there’s a neat little mix cloud tape that’s been put together by the label going by the name ‘abandoned Edwardian schoolhouse’ featuring all manner of hauntology with pye corner audio and moon wiring club firing up the generator charger, woodland escapism, woozy overtures and strangeness aplenty with various visitations from the quite perfect Broadcast, something from folklore tapes crew who we mentioned a little while back, a killer Zombi meets Moroder slice of future daze disco courtesy of mordant music (are they still around – we’ll have to check) and some sinister chiller-a-rama from sounds and silence who surely deserve closer investigation. Add in Ween’s simply beautiful psychotropically floral kookiness that is the effervescent ‘the mollusk’, the ghostly sepia traced aural apertures of the Caretaker who’ve featured in these pages once upon a recent time ago and some quite alluring – is it a sax or a clarinet – never can tell – noir orchestrations on ‘Sunday’ by Kenny Graham and his Satellites. http://www.mixcloud.com/sugarlord/abandoned-edwardian-schoolhouse/
New from the Kalma imprint a rather superb sounding three track EP from Russia’s Igores Tamborista. Entitled ‘afterglow’ it marks his second outing via the label following on from last years acclaimed ‘nostalgia’ set. Opening with some darkly absorbing space grooved cosmic kraut dub on the eerily brooding cinema-scoping chamber droned ‘superman’ which sounds to our ears like something emerging from the dark side of Add N to X. What first appears to sound like a cosmic tropicalia veering headstrong with noir engineering into environs once chartered by the adored Tank it soon slips its shackles and mooring to morph into a sublime starlit floorshow sumptuously housed in a hyper driven technoid chassis engaged upon a trajectory occasioned by the kind of lights dimmed suave sophisticat shimmer toned grooving that used to fly out of sound houses such as smallfish and rednetic. All said our favourite moment of the set is the parting ‘filling up ninja (dubfucker version)’ a glorious airy and shadow lined slab of spy theme dubtronic noir coded in a darkly cinematic prowling purr much reminiscent of an old school Gnac rephrasing the dark psyche of John Barry. http://www.soundcloud.com/kalmarecords/sets/igores-tamborista-afterglow-ep
Now when I say this is all over the shop I don’t mean that in an unkind or indignant and dismissive way. It is what it is a disarming and kooky array of disparate styles, sounds and references. To say we were attracted to this in the first place by the albums title might first appear churlish, but hey believe it or not our record buying instincts are forged by an ad hoc selection criteria that goes on band names, song titles, album covers and the names of labels especially those that we’ve thus far previously not encountered. Such blind buying might on first reflection appear hazardous but so far its paid dividends. ’adventures in schizophrenia’ is the albums name, its by 18 carat affair who from what we can gather by way of the tags are a Japanese collective who describe their sound as ’hypnagogic pop late night lo-fi vapour wave’ which broad stroking as it first seems doesn’t really cover all the bases less fully explain how damn deviously good this full length is. Blending lounge (’ups and downs‘), 80’s kitsch electro pop, 70’s easy pop (‘lying in Bermuda’), warping studio 54 weirdness and buzz sawing futuro funk (see ‘immaculate Jheri Curl’ which along with ’the waiting room for Tony’s faggot sim’ is a clearly indebted to the emperor penguin) into a sumptuous though clearly fractured smoking pop jacket. Starting with the best track first and then working matters backwards – ’bobby fischer kinetics’ explores the post punk electro minimalism of the Normal and rewires it with a coolly chill tipped funkiness that cuts somewhere between a laid back a certain ratio sparring with the passage – I kid ye not. Somewhere around ’my buried wife in Nassau’ things get strangely woozy and kaleidoscopic in a Busy Signals type way while ’consequences of misinterpretation’ opts for some buzz sawing uber funkiness a la casino Vs Japan. Expect kraut-ian cosmicalia no doubt as you’d rightly come to imagine from a track entitled ‘kosmiche’ while ‘ferrante & teicher’ freefalls into early 80’s electro pop taking with it a sly affectionate glance at New Musik. Somewhere else the party packing Balearic blistered easy pop of ‘Malibu Barbie’ shows signs its clearly escaped the clutches of the Frank and Wobbly Sons imprint. Which leaves the parting ’what if….’ to sign off sporting all manner of mid 80’s Harold Faltermeyer moves. http://www.fortune500.bandcamp.com/album/adventures-in-schizophrenia
I know we keep saying this, but hand on heart these are very special, a new label to us probably though not to you, you’ve probably been keeping them a little secret from us, go on admit it. Anyhow let me introduce you to the Stone Tapes imprint who themselves have this little sub label series by the name ‘you must listen’ of which if I’ve got my facts right this is its forthcoming fourth release in the series. These babies come bouncing out on limited slabs of 7 inch wax all in hand stamped recycled card die cut sleeves replete with inserts and postcards in a strictly limited 150 only edition. As previously advertised release #4 comes from diamond family archive who arrive described as wyrd folk from the UK and little all beyond that. Alas we only have the flip side from which to judge, it be called ‘the other side of the house’. in short 7 minutes of shimmering bliss, a congregation of snoozing harmoniums and delicate riff reverbs softly emerge out of the haze to gorgeously stretch, yawn and focus in the clear light, from therein a subtle melodic magicalia unfurls in seductive slow motion crafting out a sweetly arresting psych folk spiritual which many might immediately associate with Cheval Sombre or the Galaxie 500, us here of course being awkward as ever prefer to view it as a hymnal love in between Clientele and the Butterflies of Love. Utterly enchanting. http://www.stonetaperecordings.bandcamp.com/album/you-must-listen-series-1-single-4
Staying with the you must listen a little while longer, current addition to this classic in the making series comes from Nancy Wallace who long time readers of these musings first appeared on our radar many years ago courtesy of the midwich cuckoo / hobby horse collective among who ranks the very excellent Owl Service were to be found. This incidentally is the second in the label series, again as previously advertised limited to 150 copies all housed in hand stamped recycled card die cut sleeves replete with inserts and postcards. The two tracks that feature on this 7 inch reveal a voice and art craft so finitely pure in old folk ways that for once the mere uttering of mellow candle and the fairports are deserved and indeed relevant rather than distant navigational points with which to steer the listener, ‘you restless skylines’ with its delicately whittled and sun bathed rustics is scored delicately to the tumble and turn of the landscapes to impart upon the listener something traditional, timeless and attuned to the language of the land. More telling the sweetly yearning love note that is ‘pockets’ tumbles playfully to a gorgeously woodcut madrigal hued in prettified florals and purring pastorals to softly smother all who hear in a free spirited airy Gaelic warmth. http://www.stonetaperecordings.bandcamp.com/album/you-must-listen-series-1-single-2
Last up from stone recordings you must listen series is a forthcoming aural delight on the way from lost harbours – which our mathematical adding up being present and correct – will be the third in the series. Again just the flip side to contend with. Entitled ‘within’ – I must admit this is the most touching, hollowing and melancholic thing we’ve heard in an age which by our reckoning should you escape its clutches without the slightest trace of a tear forming and the desire to seek comfort and solace then frankly your made of stone. Utterly arresting and pretty much on the same wavelength of those old school her name is calla outings from a few years ago, all at once haunting, hymnal and hurting ‘within’ is caressed and crushed in equal measures by the bruising detail of monastic chorals and the spectral hypnosis of a sympathetic canter of a looping crystalline riff snake wind. And then nothing. Utterly soul sucking yet bruisingly beautiful. http://www.stonetaperecordings.bandcamp.com/album/you-must-listen-series-1-single-3
Bugger me this is the dogs knackers, new single from the much adored around here lorelle meets the obsolete who are about to embark on a short UK tour starting tonight in Leeds. Ripped from their current ‘Chambers’ full length, ‘sealed scene’ is a wiring bastardised brew of glam gouged and butchered Sweet-esque mosaics force fed through a kaleidoscopic tumble dryer and then glued on to a growling psych blues sonic footing reminiscent of a youthful Black Angels and left to mainline on the fracturing grooved oblivion of a pre ‘loveless’ My Bloody Valentine which in short translates as the best four minutes of sky parting siren searing euphoria you’ll hear in a fair old while. Out on the esteemed sonic cathedral – further persuasion required – I think not.
New goodies from the much admired constellation tatsu imprint. No doubt ridiculously limited in nature first up in their self advertised spring batch is a self titled cassette release from Unicity who may or may not, as the case may be, hail from Oakland. A gorgeous 19 minute lunar odyssey with which we thoroughly recommend the donning of space visors and cosmic headphones cranked up to maximum volume that way you get to participate in a spot of out of body space walking amid these two lengthy ambient suites – titled simply Side A and Side B. Imagination eh. Side A is the floatier of the two, for the best part the experience might be best described as that akin to emerging in the afterglow of a Jean Michel Jarre eclipse, schooled in meditative murmurs and awash in oceanic orbital swathes I must admit to being a tad smitten at the way it gently terra-forms throughout its 9 minute dream cycle all the time haloed in bliss kissed curvatures and tangerine dream vapour trails. Side B is a more porcelain crafted listening event, shimmering orbs, genuflecting aural arcs and celestial sighs give it something of a divine tasting as though the voyage had exited the cosmic divide and entering the heavenly beyond. http://www.ctatsu.bandcamp.com/album/self-titled
How we howled with a mix of horror and hilarity, Cardiff’s premier loons Quiet Marauder return to the fray following the release of their exhaustive 111 (yes you read right – 111) song epic ’Men’ with a new single ’wake up Bono’. now we here have a tendency to run at a fairly rapid pace in the opposite direction from anything U2 related let alone being drawn into the egotistical almost saintly devotion that some people see fit lavish upon Bonio but I must admit to a sneaking admiration for this. Concerned at the male half of the species’ losing its moral compass, identity and being seen to somewhat dumb down in recent years with a growing unhealthy reliance – nay obsession – on dubious figures for role models, Quiet Marauder have seen fit to address the question of ’what makes a man a man’ head on in this disturbingly surreal video that finds Bonio comically disembowelled with the band taking bite sized portions – guess the point being that they are savouring his essences in the hope that what makes him him rubs off on them which in turn makes matters more horrific at the thought of armies of Bonios afoot on the high street. As to the song itself a rowdy roustabout of punk pop pub rock delights replete with moments of sinister weirdness Do you think they are up for a list of random targets for ridicule……
For a sampler listening of that epic 111 set ‘men’ go here….
http://www.soundcloud.com/bubblewrapcollective/sets/quiet-marauder-men-sampler
While elsewhere there’s a hilarious documentary on the making of men to be found here…..
Video accompanying that drop dead killer Brace / Choir single ‘satisfier’ from their ‘turning o your double’ set for tapete records – both of which much enthused about in earlier missives……
How did we miss this, take from the current Soft Hills full length for tapete records entitled ‘departure’ which I’m suspecting we must be a little light on. This is the video accompanying the track ‘white queen’ from that set, a beautifully disarming and spectral ghost light which unless our ears do deceive sounds as though its emerged from the blurring twilight passages separating Porcupine Tree and Radiohead……entrancing in short….
Staying with Tapete / Bureau B for three quite superb releases emerging the Hamburg based sound house in readiness for RSD14. Alas no information though I do believe these all come pressed on strictly limited 12 inch editions – quite possibly on coloured vinyl though don’t quote me on that. First up a three way gathering of Ulrich Schnauss / Mark Peters and Pyrolator. As said the info – is – well none existent so I might be shooting in the dark here but opening cut appears to be the Rainbirds’ ‘wind was playing with my hair’ here rephrased by Schnauss and Peters into a demurring ethereal and woozily sun bathed and lazy eyed psychedelicised folk gem whose fragile vapour teased murmur coos and caresses to nod in the general direction of Linda Perhacs legendary ’parallelograms’ set. Pyrolator steps in with the tearfully glacial and grand nocturnally framed ‘im nachtbus’ blending neo classicism with purring soft lit electronica all hushed and lushly cradled in spectral starry eyed lilts that sound like lost lunar opines tapping out homeward bound love notes. Must admit that it’s the third and final cut that gets our vote mainly for the fact at the way it shape shifts and unfurls in depth, dimension and stature – Fehlfarben’s ‘herbs wind’ gets the Pyrolator makeover and emerges from the experience traced with a subtly funky undercut that appears to take Fleetwood Mac’s ‘tusk’ as its reference marker before adding a tri-party dash of Ozrics, Laswell and Embryo to the mix to create a full on intoxicating and sultry floorshow.
Next up from Tapete a frankly awesome split 12 inch pairing together Kreidler and Automat on opposite sides of the wax. 5 exclusive cuts appear on this limited RSD14 outing Kreidler by the far providing the most playful side to the proceedings with ‘snowblind’ offering the kind of off centred loosely dub-centric and funky shoe shuffling electro razzmatazz that you suspect your kitchen appliances cook up when the rest of the house is at rest, an intricate multi layered cornucopia of mooching groove that if I didn’t know better would say was the handiwork of d_rradio smoking out with a seriously chilled Cabaret Voltaire – recommended for headphonic action. Built around a clock working motif the cosmic futuro flotilla that is ‘escaped’ should appeal at once to those much admiring of Raymond Scott, Resource Centre and ISAN as it recalibrates or so it seems the back catalogue of John Carpenter into binary blips. Somewhere about us no doubt lost in our inbox I swear we have a digital copy of Automat’s self titled debut full length. Mentioned in passing in previous dispatches these dudes feature among their ranks various members of die haut, prag and sovetskoe foto and can count among their extended family the likes of Lydia Lunch, Blixa Bargeld and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge the latter mentioned of whom appears on ‘Berlin Wall’ doing his best William S Burroughs impersonations over a deeply ice cold and sparsely minimal electronic bedding that makes early career Suicide sound positively effervescent (as it mooches along in a lock grooved mutant PIL dialect) and something which if our memory recalls rightly doesn’t sound a million miles from Mark E Smith’s cosying up with DOSE in the 90’s. ‘MTV’ is indelibly in awe of Cabaret Voltaire albeit here caught in a locked grooving Dadaist trance wired hypno state which all said should find admiring glances aplenty from the Gnod network community. ‘CUL’ wraps up matters with some neatly cross fused 70 Gwen Party meets Arthur Baker mutant sub-tronic technoid funk but I’m guessing by this stage your heads are so mashed they could be playing Trio’s ‘da da da’ and you’d still lurch mechanically across the beat floor.
Perfect for those that think that Krautrock can be a little to chin strokingly serious at times, 9 minutes of wired tongue in cheek madness, a deranged and chaotic Raymond Scott twiddling gloopy electronics and classroom toys in an imagined lullabies series for pre-schoolers or the work of the bonzo dog doo-dah band let loose in the Radiophonic Workshop with Joe Meek on hand having been fed a chemical diet of fringe parting substances. Liable to delight or dement – there is no happy medium, the maxi version of ‘Wohlauf’ exclusive to this release (the original comes as part of the ’other places’ album via the same label – Tapete) finds Dieter Moebius, Mani Neumeier and Jurgen Engler in cahoots for a spot of hi-jinx, should warn you this features kazoos, squeaky toys and Gerry Anderson styled woozy futuro twanginess. Absolutely freakish. Over on the flip of this special RSD14 limited 12 inch ’WFMU screen test’ from Schneider TM – a superb accompanying piece for his recent acclaimed ’guitar sounds’ set – much loved and fondly mentioned around these here parts. A lulling dronal overture voyaging into environs previously navigated by Aidan Baker and powered upon the silvered transcendental orbs of Bill Horist – need I say more, by a hair’s breadth the best of the three Tapete specials.
I think it’s the measure and mark of a person to open him / her self up warts n’ all revealing all their frailties, faults and strengths. ’the ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye’ is one such intense and intimate portrayal that serves as a double edged sword in that its gives an insight into one of this nations leading creative spirits and simultaneously serves as a fitting and beautifully crafted account and indeed epitaph of one of rocks most consuming love affairs….
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As ever take care of yourselves…..xx
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