Look what we sneaked online while you were sleeping…
Transmission 16.0….w/e 22/4/2017
Revolutions of a 33 and 45 kind….
This edition features……
Listening center, fel santos, dalham, wy, peter Perrett, Scottish post punk, hardcore, yellow6., martin newell, the offering, static daydream, skating polly, rob Clarke, Suzanne ciani, tristram cary, the bordellos, mau, orange alabaster mushroom, captain crunch and the crew, the attack, the syn, the pyramid, the april fool’s, rupert’s people, Piccadilly line, cracky, the whitley cock, publicist, otto riita, Schneider Kacirek, the telescopes, the corrupting sea, recards, beremy jets, taffy, las cobras, lia pamina, Hermetic Brotherhood of Lux-Or, clymtn, Os Peregrinos, uncondemning monks, hector collectors
Word has it that this is off to the pressing plant after the Easter recess for a wax re-issue. This is the long out of print ‘example one’ debut from the Listening Center, originally available in limited numbers on cassette via this is care of, is shortly due for vinyl treatment via the polytechnic youth imprint, from that set we’ve opted for the simply arresting and dare we say aptly titled ‘main reading room’ – beautifully dreamy and turned in with a dash of Plone and ISAN to boot, there’s a misty eyed lost 70’s summers nostalgic woozily weaving amid its sonic coding, all sepia flavoured beach promenade dissipates and faded holiday postcards, a kind of monochrome musical photo album, quite touching. https://listeningcenter.bandcamp.com/track/main-reading-room
moving swiftly to more recent Listening Center happenings, sometime last year a limited edition cassette – 100 copies in circulation with poster to boot, found him collaborating with Paolo Javier as Fel Santos for a set entitled ‘aklopolis / ur’lyeh’ – this pairing finding poet Mr Javier reading extracts atop electronic soundscapes, now obviously too much gnashing of teeth this event somehow managed to sneak beneath our radar, it was a wonderfully disconnected union which the label described in its press release as ‘an exploratory assemblage of clangorous sounds and mysterious fragments of speech. Field recordings of a shadowy Filipino poet are the starting point for a darkened journey through an underworld of language and postcolonial haunting’. Several months on and listening center renews his acquaintance with Paolo Javier for what they refer to as a 17 minute ‘radiophonic sound poetry’ odyssey entitled ‘maybe the sweet honey pours’, a curious listening experience it should be said wherefrom an abstract notebook, streams of punctuated prose consciousness drift with a stark abrasively insular edginess to form a disorientating and somewhat disconnected relationship with the fluid flow of the silvery dream weaving analogue accents shimmering beneath, the effect very much recalling Duke St Workshop’s recent collaboration with Laurence R Harvey on ‘tales of HP Lovecraft’. https://felsantos.bandcamp.com/track/maybe-the-sweet-honey-pours
arriving as a limited issue on the public house recordings in house imprint of norman records, this is quite magnificent ‘diesl’ by Dalham from a full-length set entitled ‘waves’. A slow burning cinematic soundtrack for a day break one might imagine heralding the ascent of some hitherto post-apocalyptic sunrise emerging through the radioactive haze, its snaking majesty at once skin burnt in a lilting euphoric dystopian rapture and very much schooled by an early 80’s VHS film school mindset where elements of Fiedel and Carpenter curdle with the darkening shadow play tones of Pye Corner Audio, quite essential i wouldn’t wonder. https://soundcloud.com/artcorvelay/diesl
accidentally stumbled over this gem, by Wy this is ‘bathrooms’ just out through hybris. You know how it is, occasionally a very rare musical moment is upon you, a track that just stops you in your tracks equipped with the ability to both humble and destroy at its briefest appearance upon your chosen listening medium and with that, simply leaves you jaws agape quietly mouthing WTF was that. Well this is it, so far ahead of the peer chasing pack that it makes you wince, just love its fragile and spectral noir hollowness not to mention the sympathetic sighs of the opining crystalline riffs, quite a hurter if you ask me, and that voice, quivered in emotional crush, the overall effect pitched in a sonic configuration that finds the head bowed union of Mazzy Star, the Delgados and the Sundays types the fleeting sublime kiss of the Cocteau’s turning their face in ache folded resolve at its clawing majesty. One of those ‘Geek love’ (Bang Bang Machine) moments i shouldn’t wonder.
We’ve momentarily mislaid the email that this came attached to, so if you are after all the information gubbins you might just have to hang fire a little wee moment. New full length incoming from off which the title track ‘how the west was won’ is coolly smouldering, a family affair that finds Peter Perrett returning to the fray via Domino for an album that features both his sons helping out on guitar and bass. Channelling both Reed and Dylan through both Television and the Modern Lovers, there’s a smoking lazy eyed Velveteen grooving attaching to ‘how the west was one’ as it snakes casually amid a bliss toning haze of sighing slide riffola and a warming off centred Americana kiss all impeccably nailed to an impish conversation about the land of the free.
Stuff…..
Excellent documentary about Scottish post punk…..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08n8q3f/big-gold-dream
interlude……time for some hardcore…..a few notable compilations….
Another of those pressed to order releases from the Champion Version imprint who you might recall were fondly mentioned a missive or five ago when Machinefabriek’s ‘Snoepgoed’ passed our way. This time it’s a limited 10 inch release, I say limited with regard to the week-long ordering window which I suspect the clock started ticking on yesterday, after which the physical option on the release will be deleted. This time around the celebrated artist in the chair is Yellow6. Surely in no need of introduction here, Mr Atwood nee Yellow6 has for over twenty years crafted for himself a most enviable repute in the sound schools where apply the disciplines of ambience, drone and cinematic soundscapes. Pensive, brooding and often intimate, Atwood’s artistry is awash with expression and emotional stock, at once euphoric and crushing, his miniature detailing oft sources silence as an unseen instrument. Upon this latest Champion Version outing are groove stamped two extended, delicately lilting overtures that reveal both the light and shadowy shadings of the Y6 sonic palette. Led out by ‘a journey home’ – its classic old school Y6 fodder, bitter sweetly smothered in sepia, a reflective nostalgia is called to mind, its slo-mo swathes of softly sighing shimmer-tones teased in silvery haloes of feedback hint, as the title might suggest, a younger self on a family drive back home by night, to the droning hum of the car in motion, the flickering cat’s eye and the passing motorway lights and signs blurring by, its passenger lulls dreamy in and out of consciousness. As though missing some flawed shadowy protagonist from a 70’s cold war spy noir film with which to share the moments of lonesome desperation and double dealing with, ‘the first day (version 2)’ navigates terrains daubed in a vintage whose listening references owe to Budd, Mancini and Barry, both hypnotic and darkly sensitive, Atwood utilises with immense effect the introspective brush to craft a sonic suite whose wherewithal sees through eyes bruised with regret, memory and loss. http://store.championversion.com/album/a-journey-home
‘the first day’ also appears on another Yellow6 release, this time a free to download outing which I must admit we did have prepped for mention at one point before being bedevilled by glitches and gremlins, as a result losing for now, a whole load of partly completed reviews which i dare say will turn up in the fullness of time, if that is, we stop threatening our laptop with imminent cosmetic updates by way of a soldering iron, a trusty screwdriver and fierce looking hammer. Anyhow the release goes by the name ‘Silent Strategies 120317’ – a three track outing capturing a recently rare live appearance in Wolverhampton, worth the entrance fee just hearing the rather sublimely jaw agape provoking ‘custom’. https://yellow6.bandcamp.com/album/yellow6-live-silent-strategies-120317
A little note from the soft bodies crew pointing us in the general direction of early video rushes for a planned musical by Cleaners from Venus main man Martin Newell. ‘provincial town’ steps out from the usual Venus fayre instead opting for something intimately honed and gushed in a softly bruising bitter sweet introspection, mournfully reflective and ghosted in a genteel canter, there’s a fading autumnal lull twinkling tenderly amid the poetic vulnerability that nods to the crushing sigh of a youthful Oddfellows Casino colluding with both the Brigadier and the Heartstrings.
Latest release from the can do no wrong the blog that celebrates itself folk features a track swapping twinset from Static Daydream and the Offering. An echoing homage to the much loved, back in the day, Clawfist imprint and their well-heeled series of limited singles that paired together two bands each covering a track of the others, with this particular release finding shoegaze oblivion riders Static Daydream going all bliss haloed and into the bargain re-wiring the Offerings’ ‘return uncertain’ in the style of an immaculately chilled late 70’s Joy Division as though here retooling elements of both ‘procession’ and ‘ceremony’ into the mix. Returning the favour likewise flirting with a shadowy post punk palette, the Offering trim something of a darkly alluring hollowing upon Static Daydream’s ‘blue tambourine girl’ to its glowering tapestry threading a sonic aura that recalls both the youthful personas of the Church and the Chameleons. https://theblogthatcelebratesitself.bandcamp.com/album/who-covers-who-volume-ii
Let’s just say we here are a little overly fond of this, hells teeth we get a rash each and every time the blighter rears into ear shot. That said you might have to excuse us a second for we’ve lost the press release gubbins that came heralding its arrival on our sound player. I’m suspecting this is heading out from the same EP from which that spiffing ‘hail Mary’ cut is taken, what we do know is that this is Skating Polly with ‘louder in outer space’. more of that loud / quiet grunge-y purr prowled popness I’m afraid drizzled in all manner of Breeders, Belly and Throwing Muses spikiness though on this occasion given an ear prickling infectiously effervescent fizziness and a healthy side serving of teen spirited schizoid Suzi Q bubble grooving. So remind me again, what exactly is there not to love?
Ultra wigness happenings from Rob Clarke and the Wooltones…….lead n’ flip grooviness a go-go….mentioned here – https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/04/11/rob-clarke-and-the-wooltones-14/
Oh my, amid the decadent haze why do I hear the toxic seduction of PTV3, not that I’m complaining mind. Newly peeled video / track from Mau entitled ‘e bomb’ is sure to have most a little hot beneath the collar, indecently groomed in a darkening savage lust, its shadowy rapture gouged upon a down tempo glitch industrial grooving from which a sleazy sickness seeps to imagine a spectral Nico and Noblesse Oblige desperately lost in the fractured and frayed winter land of Bowie’s ‘earthling’.
https://www.facebook.com/we.are.mau/videos/1337746656279000/
interlude – 60’s loveliness….
Opening matters with something 60’s sounding, this initially appeared on earworm records way back in the early 00’s – due we believe for a re-release on feral child we believe, may already be, in fact not even sure whether we are meant to be blabbing about this….still – a killer track….
the orange alabaster mushroom
captain crunch and the crew
the attack
the Syn
The pyramid
The April fools
Rupert’s people
Piccadilly line
And you thought the Residents and the Flying Lizards were weird kookies, must admit to being a tad embarrassed to say that we’ve never heard before, an oddity that first made its appearance way back in 1980 would you believe, this is Cracky with ‘pack a punch’ – certainly something that ought to appeal to both admirers of Gary Wilson and the Frank Wobbly and Sons imprint while simultaneously freewheeling into the surreal sound worlds of both the soft bodies and those eurnovision folk. https://soundcloud.com/beachfreaksrecords/17-pack-a-punch-7-by-cracky
Talking of Soft Bodies, there’s something of that Midwich Youth Club dude Allan Murphy impishly running nostalgically amok in this curious ear worm from the Whitley Cock of whom we have absolutely diddly information on other than to say that this particular cut is entitled ‘Danzig’ and heads out from a living room indelibly decorated in eye frazzling 70’s flock wallpaper all daubed in gloopy analogue keys and a strangely becoming toe tapping coolness which hasn’t quite made up its mind whether it wants to be Space, Moroder in a Vison On stylee or a Dusseldorf-ian variant of Van McCoy. https://soundcloud.com/whitley-cock/danzig
Fancy some chicly cut Italo rave, well i say Italo it is in fact a remix by Brooklyn based Publicist better known to kith n’ kin as Sebastian Thomson who might be more familiar to older listeners as one of the founding members of Trans Am, here found applying his retooling expertise to new groove heading out of the Rock to the Beat sound house by duo Otto Riita. Utilising classic Detroit techno motifs, Publicist crafts a full-on head tripping Sensurround floor slam that likely to leave the coolest underground club floor reduced to swooned waste. https://soundcloud.com/44100hzsocialclub/premiere-otto-riita-azul-piscina-publicist-remix-rock-to-the-beat-2017
Tripping out of the Bureau B factory sometime early July, a new set by Schneider Kacirek entitled ‘Radius Walk’ really does stretch their precocious sonic palette, heavily absorbed in ethnic dialects both ‘back’ and ‘duett’ are feats in rhythmic intricacy, the latter with its pulsing sonars snaking out a devilishly ice framed minimalistic hypno-grooving with the latter courted upon a mushrooming head expanding industrial Australasian tuning. However courtesy of these brief sneak peek excerpts we suggest that it’s ‘I Antlanten’ that ought to be snaring your attention, featuring guest vocals from Swedish singer Sofia Jernberg there’s a wonderfully ice cooled sparse majesty reverberating with a spectral hymnal hush that had us here imagining some hitherto secret studio soiree featuring Melys and Mum. https://soundcloud.com/bureau-1/sets/schneider-kacirek-radius-walk-snippets
Emerging from out of bureau b’s sister label Tapete on the same day, new happenings from the Telescopes. Proving the age-old theory that no two telescopes albums sound remotely alike, ‘as light return’ reveals a further facet of the Lawrie sonic persona, with members of St Deluxe onboard again for the ride, these snippets reveal a creative darkness that draw deep down into psychedelia’s fractured and fried depths. This is dark, very dark, three featured excerpts feature here, the best by a country mile being the haze haloed shade adorning Velveteen bliss kiss of ‘you can’t reach what you hunger’ which veers ever so sublimely into sonic environs once traversed by Bowie’s ‘heroes’ albeit detuned by a very youthful Jesus and Mary Chain. Somewhere else there’s the paranoiac mind twisting oblivion of the snarling ‘something in my brain’ while bringing up the rear some nifty primordial psych unhinged-ness courtesy of ‘handful of ashes’, very damaged and very menacing. https://soundcloud.com/tapete-records/sets/the-telescopes-as-light-return-preview
stuff….
ear candy delights……
getting to be a regular visitor to the pages, latest outing from the Corrupting Sea is a personalised sonic birthday card for his friend Paul Saarnak of the Malmo based Beremy Jets. Heading out via somewherecold records and aptly titled ‘An Ode to Paul Saarnak on His 44th’ it marks a momentary shift in sound, texture and mood for Mr Lamoreaux that hitherto reveals an overtly genteel tuning that sees a vapour trailing celestial visitation emerging into view softly bathed in choral hazes and euphoric snow bursts all demurred in the kind of crystalline caress that we here have grown accustomed to hearing upon the grooves of each passing release heading out of the much adored Hidden Shoal imprint. Nuff said. https://soundcloud.com/the-corrupting-sea/and-ode-to-paul-saarnak-on-his-44th
those of you wondering what the Beremy Jets sound like, count us among that number, latest from the solo shoe gazer is an EP entitled ‘backup friend’ from off which we’ve found ourselves just a tad taken by the lazy eyed lilt of ‘scandi sneakers’ hitting a dream drift airy bliss kissed point somewhere between Adam Franklin and Tex La Homa. That said ‘feedback over talent’ is no slouch in the affection stakes recalling as it does a mid-career Flying Saucer Attack, at least it does for the best part before dissolving itself in trip toning kaleidoscopic hazes, the type of which might well prickle the ear of old school Spectrum admirers. https://theberemyjets.bandcamp.com/album/backup-friend-e-p
mentioned this over at https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/03/11/taffy-4/ a little wee while ago, here’s a moving picture show to accompany that quite adorably rash forming new thing from Taffy entitled ‘murkiii’ out via purveyors of shoegaze loveliness club ac30, this shimmering honey hiccups and coos tastily freefalling into more affectionately playful Melys terrains.
Incoming on the ultra hip fuzz club imprint, hallucinogenic happenings from las cobras courtesy of an arriving full length going by the name ‘temporal’ from off which has been peeled ‘so much love’ here with its own moving picture show to boot. Fried and out there, this tripping bad dude is dark, very dark, tapping upon a head shrooming dissolving mantra, we here are hearing elements of Suicide getting bug eyed and freaked by Psychic TV, absolutely wasted stuff.
Some might call it laziness, we prefer to call it ‘look we’ve been here before and if it our ears said it was a good un then that’s fine by us’. Prompted by a lengthy message from mischief maker Brian of the Bordellos, we’ve managed to rummage through the archives to unearth variously cobbled together critical prose, without punctuation mind, of reviews related to the Bordellos third full length ‘debt sounds’. Now why would you want to do that I hear you enthusiastically enquiring from the back. Simple really, released way back in that golden year of 2009, the album marks something of a turning point in both style and song craft, arguably the bands finest moment, it’s never been available on their band camp site and apart from a very limited cd-r pressing back in the day, has till now, largely remained forgotten. However this being the eve of Record Store Day, cue coughs, grumbles and some shaking of disappointed heads and what with the impish wag Brian being a firm champion on this flag waving independent store equivalent of Christmas days and birthdays rolled into one – not, has decided to release to release a sampler set / EP featuring cuts pulled from the album – a kind of un-celebration of Record Store Day with a promise that the actual album, in full, will get a much deserved release later in the year from the Small Bear label. Anyhow the all-important links are here https://bordellos.bandcamp.com/album/debt-sounds-sampler-ep
like we said though, we went on a scavenger hunt to see if we still had old reviews of the album and ended up, not with one, nor two, but three related mentions. Here you’ll find reviews of ‘debt sounds’ in addition to a curio entitled ‘the Friday night sessions’, some references made to an ultra-limited outing going by the name ‘nobody wants to shag the Bordellos’ and a pre-release ‘Debt Sounds’ teaser set. Anyway enough waffling….here’s those mentions, from various Singled Out missives – notably 199, 200 and 241 all from 2009…….
‘http://www.myspace.com/welshcakerecords – I think we might be right in saying that this is a newly formed imprint (in fact so new that the colours on the MS page are still wet) headed up by the Bordellos – a band hailing from the heady rock ‘n’ roll lights of er – St Helens a place to which I’d sometimes frequent on Saturday afternoons with a former and much missed missus and whereupon to whose much annoyance I’d spend valuable shopping time and monetary resources buying various pop platters from a stand in the local market. Anyway enough of the idle reminisces, as said we think this is headed up by the Bordellos – who I should add here and now are much admired round these parts though we do feel we always let them down by forgetting to either review records or check out tracks they’ve posted – all this lads will be remedied in the all singing all dancing loads of words, reviews and the usual waffling bumper extravaganza type celebratory missive number 200 (more details at the foot of this missive – if we are arsed and indeed remember). Shall we start again. Okay new label – first release will be the (by our reckoning) third full length from the Bordellos entitled ’debt sounds’ which should be hitting the racks late spring. One track posted on the player by way of a little teaser called ’I may be reborn’ – a lo-fi cutie subtly bathed in the ever so drifting essences of the Velvets though strangely sounding like ’gigglegoo’ era Freed Unit rewiring a slightly bruised and shy eyed late 60’s Stones – just listen and see if I’m not wrong. More from the Bordellos as said in the next missive dispatch.’
‘http://www.myspace.com/welshcakerecords – think I’m right in saying that we mentioned the newly conceived Welshcakes imprint via missive 199 when we checked out the Bordellos cut ‘I may be reborn’. indeed the label is run by those Bordellos types and is based in the little known Mecca of all things psychedelic – St Helens (kids you are just reading the wrong rock music history books, its all lies I tell you). If not its first release then certainly one of the first things that will appear on Welsh Cakes will be the third full length from the Bordellos which in the current climate of comedic childlike like fiscal budgets and ship sinking financial turmoil is topically titled ‘debt sounds’ a suitably skewiff play no doubt on the Beach Boys immortal ‘pet sounds’ and as was Wilson and Co’s opus awash in the kind of lush tonalities that were a fanfare of those optimistic free spirited and economic growth inspired days so to the Bordellos set mirrors the times-a-changing and is suitably treated with the kind of minimalist lo-fi austerity of a ration book. Including the aforementioned ’I may be reborn’ five specially selected prime slices are gathered from that forthcoming set on this their MS player. As previously noted there’s more than a whiff of Freed Unit’s equally lo-fi laden ’gigglegoo’ set from a few years back – especially on ‘I dream of Jimmy’, that same kind of punched and bent out of shape distant and dusty soft psych application though scratch a little deeper and you’ll find a veritable mixed grill of reference points where the palette touches base to varying degrees with the likes of Eugene Chadbourne and Jad Fair and the Stones whose influence is notable on the wasted and trip wired ’rolf harris’ which unless our ears are seriously deceiving us sounds like its recently awoken from the result of a Woodstock frequented spiked drug induced coma some 40 years on. Can’t wait for the album and I suspect you can’t either.’
‘The Bordellos
Debt sounds – the Friday night sessions
Welsh cake
Think I’m right in saying that this mighty fine slab of wasted out there creaking psyche blues minimalism is the first outing for the newly fashioned Welshcake imprint which is basically an outlet set up by St Helens finest psychedelic talismen in order to turn you on to some of the finer and more head expanding sounds currently to be found across the globe.
We here at the mop top mopping parlour of dayglo ditties are a tad fond of the Bordellos. These last few months our radar has been summarily tweaked and stirred into life by the distant buzz of happenings emanating from the Bordellos studio bunker wherein it seems a hive of activity has been set into motion, such activity has promised the arrival of two albums at an eclectic turntable near you during the course of the next few months kick started in earnest by a release schedule that saw the recent unearthing of a stash of demo tapes packed with rare thought lost vintage recordings by the band which hitherto found themselves gathered together and pressed up as the ’nobody wants to shag the bordellos’ CD (limited to just 4 copies – three of which we’re offered up as competition prizes). In addition to that armed with a four track and a week spare while spouses visited various in laws both Brian and Dan from the band managed to nail an albums worth of material under the collective guise as Huckleberry in the Kingdom of the Broken Hearted – a sample of whose sounds you can hear by redirecting various pointy mouse like devices in the general direction of http://www.myspace.com/huckleberryinthekingdom
And so to ‘debt sounds’ – laid down over 10 consecutive Friday nights last summer – hence the subtitled ‘the Friday night sessions’ and recorded on a 4 track cassette with the promise of no harmful overdubs having been used in the recording process, this set – as with the aforementioned ’nobody’ rarity finds the Bordellos stripped back to the core, raw and dishevelled yet sounding strangely primitive and dare we say soulfully better for the experience. ‘debt sounds’ is a bit of a gem – collecting together 17 treats its title perhaps an obvious play on the Beach Boys ’pet sounds’ is unlike Wilson and Co’s well weathered lushly productive classic of yesteryear something a little more Spartan in design and texture. Right from the unique hand drawn labels – each one individual – this album wreaks lovingly of a DIY ethos, the sounds drilled with lo-fi frailness at times come across with the air of lost swamp dragged nuggets that have been left on a window ledge exposed to the elements and scratched by a decades old skin of dust.
Primarily ‘debt sounds’ finds its comparable roots in the early work of Daniel Johnston and the Palace Brothers though happily removed of the depression and in its place filleted by a sense of unhinged verve, it makes for a compulsive blend of battered and bruised road blues montages (‘Spirograph’ being the prime example with its Richman imprints and bliss fuelled and lilting harmonica breezes); Dylan-esque motifs as on the lazy eyed homeliness of er- ‘homeless bound’; flowery kaleidoscopic bubblegum (with ‘you better run’ proving to be a worthwhile listening spectacle for admirers of Freed Unit’s ‘gigglegoo’ set); darkly brooding and deeply set frazzled shanty opines (as on the off balanced and off kilter dissipating austere tinged opener ’fading honey’ and its sibling ’honey pie’ which neatly act as the sets book-ends – the latter a seriously charred slab of Jad Fair meets Eugene Chadbourne dizziness) and some Elephant 6 quirkiness via ’???’.
Trawl a little further for the simply smoked and chilled distressed freak beat mirages of the subtly sultry and seriously shit faced wasted psych drifts found on the sets best moment by far ’Rolf Harris’ – hell one listen of this and you’ll feel as though you’ve been toking on something mildly illegal – all frazzled and out of it atmospheric riff fragments and prowling Jagger-esque vocals – not so sure about dear old Rolf being offered up as a sexual hero though – still each to their own. Elsewhere ‘Crocodiles’ era Bunnymen are recalled on ‘Mersey beat memories’ albeit as though recalibrated by Ellery Bop, then there’s the fractured John Cooper Clarke meets Richard Hell wiring that scars ‘she’s an art form’, some woody fog bound mountain folk haziness looming on the decidedly unsettling waywardness of the lysergic wraps that freewheel throughout ‘sealhead’ while lets be honest no Bordellos release would be complete without the appearance of the odd psych soaked sortie here happily provided by the GBV / Southall Riot inspired ‘Captain Coma’ and ‘Fine’ not to mention the tripped out and warped 60’s Arabesque mantras of ‘she in the sun’. Think that pretty much covers it – any questions at the back.
There’s an overtly humorous and brutally honest track by track account by Brian Bordello over at http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=98981160&blogId=507850945 while I should tell you that this little beauty is currently retailing for a paltry 4 pounds – the words ‘stare‘‘gift horse’ and ’face’ readily come to mind.
http://www.myspace.com/thebordellos
Key tracks –
Rolf harris
Captain coma
Spirograph
I dream of jimmy Campbell
Mentioned in previous despatches though i’m not readily certain for sure that we’ve actually featured this particular video, this is the Hermetic Brotherhood of Lux-Or with ‘phantasms of the living’ – a very chilling and somewhat macabre sonic account adored with an equally bleak filmic treatment by Laura Dem, the track incidentally comes untimely ripped from a full length through boring machines entitled ‘Anacalypsis’
First of two sweet things adorably decorating the Elefant imprint, first up the softly twinkled affectionate pop musings of Lia Pamina who you may recall we mentioned a little while back when our lobes hooked upon the delightfully delicate pop bouquet ‘walking away’. Anyhow here’s more of her sunny sided 60’s Francophile homages in the shape of ‘Better Off Without You’ – a wonderfully willowy cut typically purred in lush lilts and a fondly fragile spraying of sparsely spared effervescence which in another time and space might well have been mistaken for some hitherto secret studio meeting between somewhat shy and retiring Ladybug Transistor and Camera Obscura types.
Same label, different artist yet equally arresting is ‘Pulpo Á Mugardesa’ by Os Peregrinos, a track lifted from a new 500 only grey wax 10-inch mini album entitled ‘Canto Peregrino’ – delicate crafted, mellow and teased in a wonderfully alluring bossa nova lounge soul vintage, this is the kind of groove best enjoyed in the fading light of a sultry late summers evening, admirers of Le Mans will adore and swoon.
Due to unforeseen financial setbacks this year, we had to depressingly curb our RSD 17 selection / wants list. It proved to be a no brainer in the end for when the dust and shock settled, we did eye a brace of releases from Silva Screen celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Hammer studios release of ‘Quatermass and the Pit’ upon the big screen. ‘Quatermass and the Pit’ had long been considered for the silver screen since the early 60’s, the third of, what turned out to be, four Quatermass stories, written by Nigel Kneale who would later go on to pen the acclaimed ‘the Stone Tape’, its origins can be traced back over a decade earlier whereupon ‘Quatermass Xperiment’, ‘Quatermass II’ and of course, ‘Quatermass and the Pit’ where all commissioned and made for 50’s television by the BBC. This collection, an RSD17 exclusive, is the first time the full ‘Quatermass and the Pit’ score has been set to official vinyl release, available on four different coloured wax variants, ours is on red in case you were taking notes, features liner notes and photographic pull out featuring stills from this legendary cult film which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. For those unaware of its existence, the story goes, building works to extend the underground line unearth initially, bones of a prehistoric man and then a saucer shaped object, scientific tests and deductions estimate all have lain undisturbed for over 5 million years, its discovery sets off a chain of events whereupon it soon becomes clear that the objects origin is not of Earth but Mars and that the course of humankind as we know it has been shaped by the Martians to the point that our own evolution and even our beliefs, customs and folklore has been to an extent been intrinsically linked and guided, worse still is that this influence is still apparent despite the occupants of the craft having lain long dead for millions of years and that somehow the craft itself has soaked up all the hate, the fear and the memories of its crew acting as were as a psychic sponge. As to the soundtrack itself, composed by Tristram Cary, it mixes bombastic symphonic arrangements akin to Hermann and Goldsmith with electronic musique concrete, both disciplines bringing to the score their own unique element of suspense with the sweeping arcs of the string / wind swirling orchestral elements initiating both something as equally evocative as it is stirring and pitched with tension – the end credits in particular coming possessed of a classic Hammer House toning traced in beautifully lush pastorals – while the sparse though shadowy minimalist electronic suites with their scabbing pulsars and heavy hypno-grooving accentuate perfectly the oppressive nature of the psychic attacks pressing down upon the mind. We’d say essential but i’m gathering you’ve already worked that out for yourself.
RSD17 exclusive from Silva Screen, the second of that essential ‘Quatermass and the Pit’ set selection, this one coming pressed on 10 inches of clear wax. A serious curio and something which, like its sibling ought to appeal to those Radiophonic enthusiasts / purists among you. ‘original electronic music cues’ as the title might give hint, gathers together six slabs of psychotronic eeriness, those familiar with the film itself will recall immediately these electronic arrangements being utilised in scenes whereupon the attempts to break into the sealed chamber of the unearthed space craft awaken residual long lain dormant telepathic occurrences reverberating through the craft itself, which once unleased, create a state of frenzied panic and anarchy as the oppressive thought controlling attacks on the mind preside over to create a disturbing ‘cleansing’ of society. This release concentrates itself on Tristram Cary’s more futuristic creative phrasing to draw from a deeply isolationist and bleak sonic vision that draws a parallel to the clinical alien soundscapes created on his score for ‘the Daleks’. Time hasn’t weathered its oddness, heard in isolation like this 50 years on, it still sounds stark, brutal and cold not to mention chillingly ahead of the creative curve.
interlude…….a little rockabilly….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKLR5-U8-n0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnGeqy2CeXk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYDt_1tevD4
Quite distressed to discover that this somehow managed to escape our ever-inquisitive radar when it first loomed large last year. Alas absolutely no information on this, but hells teeth this emerges from a shadow lengthening petrified woodland like some lost moment of surrealist nightmarism from Twin Peaks as happened upon by a retreat weekend gathering of folk made up of Yellow6 and Wizards Tell Lies, all at once pensive, atmospherically chilled and darkly graceful. Anyhow it’s by Clymtn who we believe hails from NY this being ‘ice ferns’ – in fact we’ve just located his bandcamp page so rest assured more to come at some point in the not so distant future. https://soundcloud.com/clymtn/ice-ferns
The links to his bandcamp – https://clymtn.bandcamp.com/
Sitting somewhere on a sonic seesaw with the TV Personalities on one end and the Cleaners from Venus on the other albeit as though rephrased and channelling a clearly stoned out Jerry St Clair doing a new waved day-glo version of his Phoenix Nights cabaret spot, this is the gloriously wonky the Hector Collectors who I’m certain we’ve mentioned in passing in previous musings. optimistically known as ‘the boring album’ it’s a riot of wonkiness, weird ear-ness and impish stone throwing which from the moment the skewiff tones of the bizarrely addictive ’27 check out girls’ kicks into its crooked musical gait has you curiously drawing up your listening pew, for your time and patience rewards aplenty tumble out with tongue in cheek lo-fi daftness, the celebrated and vaguely iconic Channel 4 quiz show 15 to 1, 90’s baggy wannabes Northern Uproar and Oasis via ‘love is high’ all come in for a kicking. Somewhere else the bontempi bedevilled ‘dry slopes’ is your sparsely toned homage to lazy Sundays afternoons stuffed from roast dinner sprawled across the parlour sofa eyeing ski Sunday on grandstand while the outside fries in the summer heat. All said our most favourite moments come in the (bent out of) shape of the waywardly smoking moonshine murmured ‘grim fandango’ which in truth sounds like a slightly tipsy Acker Bilk on kazoo while somewhere else the Half Man Half Biscuit-esque titled ‘she’s lost the remote control’ wonderfully aligns and retunes a ‘Movement’ era New Order into a c. ‘seventeen’ Cure styled minimalist post punk grey. https://thehectorcollectors.bandcamp.com/album/the-boring-album
Again a little something else that we are kicking ourselves silly for missing which appeared sometime around a year ago, this is the brooding chill of the excellently named thee uncondemning monk who thus far have managed to escape our listening gaze, this as it happens is called ‘ground floor and going down’ a prowling watching from the shadows slice of fright wigged sinister goings on very much tuned into the peek a boo VHS horrorphonic obsessed sonic parlance of those macabre folk over at Villa9 studios. Consider yourselves warned. https://soundcloud.com/theeuncondemningmomus/ground-floor-going-down
Farewells……
Bruce Langhorne……
Allan Holdsworth……
http://pitchfork.com/news/72941-allan-holdsworth-dead-at-70/
Contact resources….
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The end groove….
Now for something a little different, here’s Suzanne Ciani discussing and demonstrating the Buchla synthesizer for the Red Bull Academy last year…….
the sunday experience 