Tales from the Attic
Volume XXXV
Revolutions of a 45 and 33 kind.
Something strange happened these last few days in so far as we managed at long last to move to the next stage of the process, that being picking up a copy of Bido Lito from our local record emporium, bringing said publication home in a record bag provided by said record emporium and then actually remembering to take out the blighter and read it. Its not that I have anything against Bido Lito, certainly haven’t, I just put it down to distractions and an inordinate inability to focus, find time and remember. That said – we normally run a mile from editorial content but found ourselves nodding sagely to commentaries made upon the way we consume music these days particularly with the advent of the digital age. The argument runs thus, can we really pass on our memories through the medium of a digital play list and what will our off spring make of the songs we have downloaded. Can they really replace that joy and sense of expectant enjoyment rifling through your mum and dads record collection, finding little notes scribbled on sleeves, that smell of age that old vinyl gives off, that knowledge that someone actually cued up in a shop and with a deal of thought had purchased said artefact over the counter rather than thoughtlessly clicking a button and having it appear in your portable library in the time it takes to blink an eyelid without ever having to leave your comfort zone or for that matter talk to a real human being. Okay I’ll admit it might take away the pain of being ridiculed for your choices – as a youngster there were certain shops you’d avoid for certain purchases for fear of being ostracized, sometimes you’d emerge from said establishments with a whole armful of releases you never knew you wanted or needed and still failed to summon up the courage to nab the release you really wanted in the first place. But can digital ever replace your actual physical content – arguments aside over bit rates and the questionable rip off therein – but what memories does such a purchase pass on. I remember as a child rifling through my mums fairly extensive and well stocked seven inch collection, in her youth she would buy at least one record every weekly payday, I marvelled at the multi coloured eye catching sleeves, the fading labels, some even had record shop stamps indicating where they’d been purchased, some had price tags and I loved the crackle and hiss as the stylus dropped onto the run in groove providing evidence of a collection much loved and well played. Records were for life and if prodded my mum would fondly recall everything about the purchase right down to the weather, the time and the reason why. Whilst shopping my mum would always take time out to drag me into a record shop and muse through the racks my very earliest memories being phoenix records in Liverpool – it was a regular Saturday afternoon treat – or if we were ever in town Blacklers. This musing and fond recollecting was again recalled when watching the hugely enjoyable ’last shop standing’ documentary / feaurette on the Arts channel yesterday, the book of the same name by Graham Jones was an often remarkable though sadly depressing survey of the independent record store charting its rise, fall and subsequent slow rise from its heyday in the 60’s and its decline and purge in the 90’s. aside the arguments over the apparent death of vinyl, the onset of the CD, the decline of the CD and the rise of the download – all factors responsible – agreed – for the extinction of the local record shop, not to mention chain stores, business rates and various other overheads and the emergence of the internet record shops – one thing that was missed on the show and something which for me was the crucial attraction of the record shop – was its identity, that badge of cool, the record bags etc….it identified you as being part of a tribe much like being a punk, a goth or an indie kid. Now tell me honestly do your downloads come with the same cool kudos. I suspect not.
How about this for a feel good story, fast approaching mid life crisis and group of ladies and gents decide they want to form a band, so they start practicing a small repertoire of covers and hit upon the name exit through the gift shop. So far so good, only a local journalist having seen the band at a local watering hole points out that isn’t it a coincidence that they’ve chosen the same name as a proposed film in the editing by artist Banksy. Emails reach Banksy of the occurrences and being a tad concerned that they might steal some of his thunder in the search engine department he mails the band asking them to consider changing their name in return for him doing a one off painting for them. Uncertain as to whether the mail is a hoax but erring on the side of caution the band undecided in their choice of a new name leave it to Banksy to select – thereupon the name Brace Yourself is chosen. Nothing more is heard for a few weeks, with no evidence that it was actually Banksy who contacted them, the band simply put it down to experience in assuming they’ve been had – until that is one day a white van pulls up with an oversized parcel inside out of which a massive 8’ x 6’ tumbles portraying the grim reaper driving a dodgem.
Stereophonic selections currently seasoning our stylus this time of asking……..
Rob clarke and the wool tones, Dalmatian rex and the eigentones, eureka California, forwardman, bernholz, pipers son, charlotte gainsbourg, father Murphy, Maurizio abate, Adriano zanni, noblesse oblige, nope, kaukasus, cozm x, sound carriers, song cycles, iceni, wet secrets, six years, tara th, ovo, sweet apple, chester hawkins, yip deceiver
An oldie but goodie – I say oldie it’s a month or three old, hell why am I trying to justify myself – this is the dog danders Rob Clarke and the Wooltones’ ’butter’ prized from the recent ’brown’ single which all good homes should own, debut psych beat adorned full length is imminent – think LA’s, Stone Roses and the Stairs in a swirly kaleidoscopically hued sixties studio strut shimmered shoe shuffle…..
Buggering hell this is well dandy, ‘twin cities’ comes culled from the soon to be released second album by Eureka California – which note takers goes by the name of ‘crunch’ – which is due for release by happy happy birthday to me records whose press blurb I should warn screams out loud proclaiming this lot to be ‘your new favourite band’. frankly I’m on board with that not least due to the fact that these impish souls – incidentally heading out of Athens, Georgia – have an acute knack of firing out skewed sonic salvos of bent out of shape, frayed and decidedly distressed teen angst gouged radiant power pop at pace as so artfully found on this two minute slam dunking scuzz rocket which dear readers if my ears do deceive sounds like a schizoid squabble between an agit minded Violent Femmes and the sun fried dayglo dalliances of the pooh sticks all overseen by those half Japanese types. http://www.soundcloud.com/crashingthrough/eureka-california-twin-cities
You know how it, sometimes you get a feel for a track in its initial first 10 seconds, as old adages go first impressions do count. And so to an email we received on behalf of a young unsigned act by the name Forwardman whose style the message went on to say was ‘alternative rock’ – an unfortunate descriptive term that conjures images of all manner of potential horrors and evils and principally the reason why I guess we left this in our inbox for a day or two untried and untested. More fool us. Hailing from Helsinki ‘twenty six’ is – I assume – the debuting outing for Forwardman, a ravaged dust swirled epic of returning battle weary delights that’s glazed in a brooding storm passed western styled drive pop glow that initially calls to mind the likes of Stan Ridgeway and Wall of Voodoo and more so while neglected of the punishing political flag bearing content of Justin Sullivan about its wares hints at a vague sonic subtext at work that might appeal to admirers of ‘thunder and consolation’ era New Model Army. However dig a little deeper still and amid the drive pop urgency a shadowy psych underpin drifts forth that recalls succinctly a classic 80’s era REM at full tilt.
<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/91600831″>Twenty-Six Music Video</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/forwardman”>Forwardman</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>Last missive out we mentioned forthcoming treats on the anti ghost moon ray imprint most notably from Bernholz in the guise of a double a sided free download – due April 28th – pairing together ‘my history’ and ‘alive’. well here’s the video for the ‘alive’ track which hearing again still reminds us of a minimalist electro funk rippled Birdpen being seductively rewired by the BEF / Heaven 17 team…….
First of all a huge thanks is owed to Shaun – head honcho over at the Vacilando 68 imprint – for sending over a spare copy of that must have Bob Constant 10 inch just out – which I’m happy to say reached us unmolested, undamaged and in one pristine piece (for those wondering what the fuss is about – check the woes of royal mail ineptness and stupid neighbours documented in the release review last missive out – scandalous to think they still call themselves Royal). Next up from the label and just ahead of a prestigious support slot with Vic Godard this coming Thursday (24/4) where they’ll not only perform a full support set but will accompany Mr Goddard as his backing band while the great man turns in a Lou Reed tribute show, piper’s son have a new EP imminent which has been getting underneath our skin for all the right reasons. For now we’ll restrict ourselves to plugging the lead out track while we fire out missives for a full physical copy that way the label / band will get two bites of the apple – because we are nice like that. The EP is headed up by ‘mining’ – a track culled from last years well received ‘the roar from behind’ full length. A jaunty and distracting blighter that curiously jitterbugs across the grooves in a moist skittish manner refusing to settle into any one pattern, one minute tripping to the breezily light and attractive mooching sway of skanking motifs that in short sound like some lost Specials / Fun Boy 3 flip side the next rippled in subtle art pop mosaics all sun glowed in a most fetching afterglow of sun setting shanty exotica. http://www.pipersson.bandcamp.com/track/mining
Incidentally the show is at the Bar Arty Party, bar and co temple pier, victoria embankment, WCR2 – and includes asides Vic Goddard and Piper’s Son – Matthew Sawyer and his Band, the European and a screening of Geoffrey Taylor’s film ‘close’.
We happened upon this via the Probe stereophonic player on RSD14 from a 10 hour play list put together by John behind the counter – quite frankly the best thing played all day by a huge distance – this is so unreal – the female equivalent of Cheval Sombre – a duet between the two and I’d die a very happy man. Anyway this is Charlotte Gainsbourg apparently backed by Beck from something or other – which if anyone can tell us exactly from where we’d be most grateful – Hendrix for once actually blown clean out of the water which be honest just does not happen and a celestial and spectral variant of ‘Hey Joe’…..absolutely gorgeous, elegiac and ethereal…and with that I feel a swooning faint coming on……
Just eyed this on the boring machines face book page, a specially commissioned animation to accompany the track ‘let the wrong rise with you’ by Father Murphy from their recently released ‘pain is on our side now’ set for aagoo and boring machines which if memory serves right we tipped over ourselves in fondness for in an earlier missive dispatch….
Its with boring machines that we stay a little while longer for Italy’s finest has three planned releases soon to be vying for attention in the coming weeks. Due for May release Maurizio Abate’s ‘a way to nowhere’ get an airing in a collaboration with black sweat of whom whose mailing list we mysteriously appeared and disappeared in double quick time following our approving reviews of both their Piotr Kudek and Embryo releases – how strange – given we are now miffed at missing their current crop of outings which includes ‘first electronic chill out music’ which gathers together ‘music out of the moon’ and ‘perfume set to music’ both originally released in 1947 and 1948. After that Boring Machines first non music outing is a collection of images gathered together by Adriano Zanni – better known as Punck – which meant to serve as a visual aid for his 2008 ‘pialassa’ set. On the release horizon looms Dream Weapon Ritual – a duo comprising of Simon Balestrazzi and Monica Serra collaborating on a suite that promises to defy easy categorization. All said up next – release date April 30th – will see the appearance of Torino based seven piece psychedelicists La Pyramid di Sangue’s ‘sette’ full length. A colossal seven suite set which admittedly we’ve only just got onto – so while we delve a little deeper and a little longer into its multi disciplined genre bending grooving we couldn’t just leave it there without a brief mention for the parting cut ‘la Guerra non Finira’ – arguably the most chilled moment from a set that at turns dives headlong into some seriously heavily tripped out progian stoner grooving to which admirers of Supersister may do well to pencil onto their must listen to lists. This babe goes for the brooding atmospheric route which reference wise catches the blindside of the Grails and the master musicians of the bukake for an 8 minute bonged out slice of dust scarred that comes rippled in the kind of archaic melodic mosaics that for all the world sound as though they were discovered on a Tibetan archaeological trip and of whom whose jazzy detours allure with the kind of mystical wooziness usually encountered on releases by Moondog, add in some divinely crafted Mediterranean musing of which old school fans of the much missed Le Mans will lap up and you have a terraforming headtrip of a cut that shape shifts sumptuously like sands caught in a sultry mistral. Expect further visitations in future musings. http://www.boringmachines.bandcamp.com/album/la-piramide-di-sangue-sette
As to that portrait collection by Adriano Zanni – here’s a short montage….
<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/67942655″>Postcards from Ravenna</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/punck”>Adriano Zanni</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>Nu age spiritualism to go, latest instalment from the Cozm x collective who appear to be a third way through what seems to be a year long celebration of the inner spirit, mother nature, the cosmos and everything therein with sonic postings at monthly intervals. Turning their backs on materialism this four way mindset provide the means for inward exploration and describe their sounds as imaginal music that’s neither modern nor avant-garde but rather more prehistoric. On this occasion featuring Archangel Gong Amenita on pulsar radio voice and divinations ‘Aprilis’ is an 18 minute dream weaving hypno groove that scouts and skirts the ambient voids, a dronal messenger turned on by mystical folk mosaics and reverberating bowed instrumentation replete with in the womb like flashbacks, at once mesmeric and lulling, close your eyes, drift away and prepare for conditioning. http://www.soundcloud.com/cozm-x-transmissions/universal-dreamtime-calendar-aprilis-feat-archangel-gong-armenita
New listening loveliness from the sound carriers. In readiness for their May released ‘entropicalia’ full length through ghost box the band have just ushered ‘boiling point’ into the sonic consciousness adorned with a Julian House directed video to boot and a bit of darling it is to that comes harvested upon the sun shimmered hippy chick idents of the Free Design woozily wooing with a genteel flightiness the krautian bachelor pad cosmic coos of Stereolab whilst all the time hidden in the shadows finding a plugged in and tuned out Supersister stirring said aural alchemic brew – dare you resist – I‘m guessing not.
Staying loosely with the ghost box community there’s something of a distinctly chilling sound link that we found posted on the café kaput site, absolutely no information on this (even the tags provide no clue or the stirring in of the right direction – ‘study’, ‘timbre’ and ‘tone’ are all the hint) except to say it might be by Song Cycles (though I suspect that’s the actual name of the set) and its called ‘harmonic study no. 1’. safe to say that this ought to appeal first instance to those of you who subscribe to the occasional sonic / radio frequency manipulations once upon a time cut to limited vinyl by Sonic Boom in his EAR guise whilst simultaneously plugging perfectly into the lighter and less perilous aural adventures of Roadside Picnic. In short what you get is a 10 minute monolithic dronal drift stirred and chilled in a sparse and minimalist detailing, coldly atmospheric, quiet to start though builds in tension, grimness and definition to consume your listening space in the kind of stark hollowed edginess that sofas were made for to hide behind. http://www.soundcloud.com/cafekaput/song-cycles-harmonic-study-i
Let’s just say that this nearly slipped the net upon initial hearing, I don’t mind admitting it’s a bit of a grower and with that something of a deceptive blighter, a debut single – forthcoming I should add – by Iceni an all girl three piece – Caroline, Liz and Lindsay – who by all accounts are described as purveyors of disco infused power pop who’ve been variously described as plotting a pop furrow somewhere between Kate Bush, Haim, Vampire Weekend and Fleetwood Mac and who have had on occasion supported the likes of the Stranglers, Aswad and Jamie Cullum. As said ’drive’ is slyly distractive, blessed with three part harmonies and a song craft acutely tamed with a knowing pop nouse about its wares, this honey initially tip toes to a demurring and crystalline folk floral design peppered in the delightful canter of Brontean key pirouettes before side stepping into something elegiac and classically hued not to say emotionally spirited only to further gear change again amid a stormy turbulence before pulse rupturing its way to the end groove by way of a thunderous panic attacking crescendo replete with a Nyman-esque nimbleness and found sitting somewhere between the tenderly spared sound worlds of the Smoke Fairies and the Haight Ashbury’s.
http://www.soundcloud.com/iceni/drive-1
A kooky pop mutation that seamlessly fuses together faux Numan / White Rose Movement electroid disco motifs to a purring studio 54 underpin replete with femme M (of ’pop musik’ fame) / Human League styled backing tracks accompanied by a video of a slightly disconsolate Grandpa Munster looking for nocturnal kicks all sumptuously set off to a acutely cute sassy and mooching strut shimmied snake wind (borrowed we suspect from the Knack’s ‘my sharona’)all coded in a monochrome 50’s bubble grooved persona. Anyhow its by the Wet Secrets and its called ’nightlife’ – incidentally its lifted from their ’free candy’ full length…….
Now we were well aware that this lot had tenderness and spectral in their locker but rarely have we heard Six Years (nee Rubicks) sounding so wide open, vulnerable and yearnful. New single ‘this is the day’ – just ahead of their debuting full length – a copy of which we’ll have to nab before we get any older – is a delicately fragile thing that arrives cradled in a bruising mellowed faraway melt of introspection and hymnal hope all teased in spectral riff inclines and a bare boned stripped away backdrop which despite its near non existent monochrome dusting manages to dig deep and hold your heartstrings to ransom whilst simultaneously hitting a musical mark somewhere between a distressed Sundays and the sparsely woven ache of Bang Bang Machine’s ’geek love’.
http://www.soundcloud.com/sixyears/this-is-the-day
Is this not gorgeous or what. We’ve been banging on about Tara th for what seems like an age having recently graced the moon glyph imprint. Here’s an acoustic reading of ‘l’enquete’ and beautifully lulling it is to, ghosting in scribed upon a timeless tapestry of bewitching spectral noir folk which if anything ought to have admirers of men an tol, the owl service and their collective extended family not to mention those dudes over at reverb worship positively swooning at its feet not to mention proving something of a must listen to experience for Ana D fans, in truth if we had our way they’d hatch a new song each and every day. http://www.soundcloud.com/rayborneo/tara-king-th-lenquete-acoustic
Mentioned in passing a missive or two ago, new 12 inch from OvO features two cuts culled from the same sessions that gave birth to their recent full length ‘Abisso’ – alas we only appear to have one side of the twinset – something to do with a cock up at the sound cloud upload centre – anyhow we are assuming the track we’ve heard is ‘Averno’ as opposed to the flip cut ‘oblio’. in short an unflinching four minute dark electro mass distressed and traumatised by choking thick curdling tides of stoner industrial goo and all at once ominous, distinctly unearthly and very much emerging from the post apocalyptic wasteland of some mutant helios creed meets helmet face off. The EP appears in a limited 500 pressing in screen printed sleeves via CorPoc – the band are shortly to embark on a European tour taking in dates with Gnaw.
Here’s video footage of them performing ‘I cannibali’ live….
Pretty much caught on the hop with this softly ethereal love charm. Latest from the much adored Noblesse Oblige, ‘voices in the head’ provides something of a sweetly murmured erotic rapture fixed upon the spacious cosmic voids, an oscillating overture dimpled and caressed in the faintest detailing of frost sculptured clock working melodica all delicately bedded upon a minimalist electro yearn emitting pulsar purred love noted distress calls from beyond the heavens, refined, elegant and seductively sly in a nutshell.
Can’t recall from where or how we came across this, I’m suspecting via some Cardinal Fuzz related link / heads up. Incoming from Nope, a super group collective drawn upon the musical talents of Leeds and Bradford and featuring members of the frankly awesome that fucking tank, return with ’walker’ the follow up to 2012’s critically acclaimed ’revision’ debut. Due to square up to the competition this coming June wherein it’ll come pressed up on limited edition 500 only wax with the first 200 early birds coming specially draped in swirly blue vinyl. A mammoth four track salvo it is to, previewing cut the 12 minute lunar odyssey that is ’walker (part 2)’ emerges through the woozy twilight haze rippled in a heads down krautian groove that slowly unfurls with a measured purpose, definition and density forging a progressive big bearded beatnik trajectory jet streaming into the cosmic nothingness, from therein matters take on a decidedly more free flowing and fluid psychotropic grooving culminating at the mid way point in a super psyched freak out, add in the cross weaving atmospherics and the lysergic flashbacks and you have yourself a rupturing riff rumbling head trip that sets its controls directly for the core of classic heyday Neu! – incidentally out via obscene baby auction. http://www.obscenebabyauction.bandcamp.com/album/walker
Must admit to having something of soft spot for anything with guitar god J Mascis on it which I’ll further own up to saying is causing something of an embarrassing dilemma at our gaff at present mainly due to the fact that – one – we haven’t got the new Sweet Apples full length ‘the golden age of glitter’ and worse still – two – we haven’t as yet heard anything from it. Well not up to now that is. New single (out via tee pee) ‘boys in her fan club’ is your full on radio radiating return to pop’s golden age, a four minute flamboyant flash back to the 70’s stereophonically spraying a sweetly effervescent sighing crush cooed in strut sassy power pop motifs, glittered glam pouts and a 50’s bubble grooved haloing that imagines a studio summit meeting between the raspberries, the dB’s, cheap trick and Todd Rundgren.
Long time readers of the these musings will have no need for introductions where Rhys Marsh is concerned, past endeavours have seen him emerge variously heading up such guises as Autumn Ghost in recent years whilst last time out he was clearly captivating us with an enigmatic covers set headed up by a demurring rephrasing of Nick Drake’s immortal ‘things behind the sun’. due very shortly is the debuting set from kaukasus – a three piece Scandinavian progressive supercollider of sorts featuring the gathering talents of Marsh, Mattias Olsson and Ketil Vestrum Einarsen. The album ‘I’ promises a progian permutation of Genesis, Gabriel, Eno, Can and Japan references though we here having been seduced by the taster track ‘lift the memory’ are of the mind that this lot are playing down their potential, for amid this colourful and tempestuous tapestry looms something tailored in Crimson-ian delights, nu age psych prog delicacies crafted in classic Delirium records pageantry and 70’s rock-a-rama classicism which on first encounter ought to blow the minds of those much attuned in the criminally overlooked sonic craft of No-Man. Album review to follow next missive out.
Just ripped this from an alrealon musique posting, described by its author Chester Hawkins – he who brought our way that immense ‘semisolids’ set via intangible arts – as an Easter Sunday improvisation for modular synth and devices recorded at the weekend – on Easter Sunday as it happens at Strange Matter – ‘mass’ does pretty much what it says on the tin though as impish as he chooses to be ‘mass’ in this context utilises both of its literal meanings – those being loosely – a religious celebration and an expanse of an undefined object. A thirteen minute headtrip into the unknown, a Dadaist slab of mid locking chamber drone shape shifting anew undiscovered sonic spectrums, what first sounds like a monochromatic cathedral fugue soon blazes in intensity with the onset of flat lining skree shards and pulsing reverberations converging to change its tonality into something decidedly darker and sinister. From therein hyper galactic siren calls scramble to bend realities and usher in what can only be described as something akin to going supernova. http://www.soundcloud.com/intangiblearts/chester-hawkins-mass
Fancy a little something crafted upon a Studio 54 chassis, with Sylvester styled v8 cylinders, Moroder turbos, Jamiroquia trims all blessed with a pulsing purr that’ll dance your legs off as you cut shapes alongside your adoring turntable when its seduced stylus hits its waxen grooves. Then we suggest you bag yourself a copy of the debut single ‘presets’ from Yip Deceiver who feature among their ranks ex Of Montreal members Nicolas Dobbratz and Davey Pierce an uber slinky n’ sexy sassy strut grooved space hopper finessed in fat funky flashings all haloed in honey hugging hot n’ horny hyper glides. Nuff said….
Just eyed this via Dalmatian Rex and the Eigentones – an acoustic version of ‘the folk rock national aeronautics and space administration’ which as you all should know the full on version of which can be found on their quite fantastic ‘the order of the dolphin’ – copies of which found their way into a select few lucky goodie bags at Probe on RSD14. Goonery aplenty here, typically wonky Rex strangeness that tips its hat ever so slightly towards those pillars – or should that be pillocks – of national greatness Half Man Half Biscuit – the full on version is worth an earful or three given it comes razored upon Ramones riffola and a knowing nod to those old school punk tricksters peter and the test tube babies…..
We love records, cassettes and even CD’s so should you feel the desire to contact you can get in touch in the following ways –
For archives and other happening gubbins – http://www.marklosingtoday.wordpress.com
For email – marklosingtoday@gmail.com
Networking – http://www.facebook.com/thesundayexperience
Or finally – good old fashioned snail mail –
71 Pennsylvania Road, Liverpool, L13 9BA, UK
We’re also on sound cloud and twitter but I’ll be buggered I know the address that said if you really need them then send an interesting record or tape and we’ll root out the details.
As ever take care of yourselves…..xx
All rights reserved – Marklosingtoday ©
the sunday experience 