Look what we sneaked online while you were sleeping…
Transmission 19.0….w/e 13/05/2017
Revolutions of a 33 and 45 kind….
This edition features……
the lancashire hustlers, needle in a bug, spacemen 3, worzel gummidge, catweazle, scott william urquhart, tau, babal, alessandro parisi, quimper, ulrika spacek, napoleon IIIrd, dctv, hologram teen, Thet Liturgiske Owäsendet, stereocilla, rob clarke and the wooltones, the electric lazarus, is bliss, misty coast, snail, Tod Dockstader, jon Gibson, Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Haruomi Hosono, Lossy and strangers are people too, ean, eliza carthy, the memory band, disraeli
As we were just mentioning the Lancashire Hustlers during the course of the last missive with regard to Lee Southall, we’ll include this little gem by way of an apology to the band, we should have been all over this ages ago, this is ‘at the handover’ a track taken from their quietly acclaimed ‘adventure’ full length released at the tail end of last year. Wonderfully woozy as it takes you by the hand guiding you to places both mystical and spell crafted in fleeting visions of classically toned progressive rock, the sounds lush, hypnotic and magically eerie, bow gracefully to a creatively potent palette were lurk a youthful Owl Service and Thumpermonkey, found here thumbing through a ghost lit carnival of an early 70’s tuneage adorned in heraldry, custom and myth whilst straying in the shadows of musical realms occasionally visited by Radiohead and Porcupine Tree.
Eyed this on the Reverb Worship web site, quite something, from the mysterious Needle into a Bug who apart from hailing from Russia somewhere, the label is unable to offer anything else to fuel the clue casting chase. Ripped from a 40 only CD set entitled ‘stolen dream songs’ this is the shadowy majesty that is ‘Hexenring’. Beautifully macabre and eerily spell charmed, a forest dwelling sonic sprite crafting the most alluring ghost lit symphonia, it’s glooming classical curvatures creaking and crackling, crookedly usher forth to worlds that haunt the sleeping state, here amid the bowed chime recitals and spectral choruses an age old ritual is at play whereupon a supernatural fantasia impishly waltzes somewhat in search of a cinematic chiller to gruesomely grace. https://soundcloud.com/needleintoabug/hexenring
And it’s with many thanks to Scott William Urquhart who sent over a freshly pressed copy of his latest that we swiftly move on to mention. A most unexpected treat, for there lurking on our doormat yesterday was a new limited CD set entitled ‘lenten dawn chorus’. Only 40 hand numbered copies are around of this, so be fast, each comes accompanied and indeed wrapped in its own unique hand painted card, our copy – which is in fact #18 – you can see it in the band camp photo images – also contains a personalised message from Scott alerting to the fact that he’s playing a show tomorrow night – 8/5/17 – with Daniel Bachman and Jake Xerxes Fussell, we’ll also add to the fact that he underplays this collection referring them, in his own words as ‘a collection of guitar tunes’ – such self-depreciation often goes far here. Now those of you regularly tuning into these musings, the name Scott William Urquhart will surely be in no need of introductions, clearly schooled in the finger plucking intricacies of both John Fahey and Jack Rose, this alchemist of the lost and archaic is possessed of a rare craft of touch that’s equipped and book pressed with an unfailing rich beauty and fluency that draws upon and indeed, channels the very hum and toning of nature and which within its narrowing prism of sound is at once deeply expressive and vividly detailed. Featured here are eight such murmurs captured from an age not so much forgotten, rather more buried deep in our pop psyche, ‘Lenton Dawn Chorus’ arrives charmed in a woody resonance, the sounds liberated and delicately spared come free and unperturbed by the modern-day rush, secret hidey holes as were offering serene sanctuary and perchance for a moment to kick back, destress and dream away the days. ‘sweet Cecilia grace’ and ‘springtime drone’ open this exquisite sonic study, ghosts of the aforementioned Fahey and Rose are apparent, the artistry sublime, a canvas cooled in undulating pastures and a breath-taking scenery of wide screened rolling mountains as far as the eye can see call easily to mind, the latter of the brace particularly cut from a timeless tapestry chimed to such legendary blues masters as Skip James and Son House. Yet scratch beneath the surface and allow these miniatures to breath and what you quickly find, especially encountering the likes of ‘am I only dreaming’ and ‘total peace’, is that Mr Urquhart is more than adequately versed in the ways of Nick Drake whose frailly tender summer blown signatures beautifully haunt this brace of tracks not least the latter mentioned which freefalls with a ‘pink moon’ eloquence ghosting between ‘from the morning’ and ‘things behind the sun’. elsewhere the cantering and lolloping ‘time out of joint’ might well raise an appreciable eyebrow from those Terrascopic folk given how it ploughs terrains most would immediately associate with the likes of a youthful David A Jaycock channelling as were, Roy Montgomery while ‘high anxiety blues’ is cut with such feel good airy vintage radiance that you can smell the moonshine vapours rising from in porch trimmed turning, leaving the spirit of Bert Jansch to sit in on the parting opus ‘enda kwa miguu ‘. Class and very essential should you not have already guessed for yourselves. https://scotturquhart.bandcamp.com/
Heading out of the slimer imprint in a strictly ultra-limited 40 only pressing, the much-admired Tau team up with Lebanese singer Nadia Daou for an ‘in between albums’ blink and its gone square marble lathe 7 inch featuring hand painted artwork by Leonardo Pedron. Entitled ‘Ana Inta Inta Ana’, it’s a head fusing mesmeric mantra set around an Arabic greeting that roughly translates “I am you and you are the other me”, this hazily hued deeply spaced out psych hymn is sultrily grooved in all manner of woozy snake charming arabesques with a kind of bonged out bliss kissed glazing that imagines Goat channelling Spacemen 3. https://slimerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tau-ana-inta-inta-ana-7-square-marble-lathe-cut
staying with Slimer records a little while longer, we eyed this gem lurking on their web site, again a strictly limited lathe outing from Alessandro Parisi entitled ‘HellPort 1060’ which i’ll be honest in saying is wonderfully moulded in a vintage macabre manicuring that on first hearing might well have you thinking you’ve stumbled upon Zombi’s Steve Moore holed up in some subterranean cold war sound bunker scoring ice creeped tense trembling ghost lit soundtracks for imaginary 70’s horror Giallo flicks very much inspired by the likes of Goblin and Bruno Nicolai. https://slimerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/alessandro-parisi-hellport-1060-7-lathe-cut
i’m fairly certain you’ll welcome a dose of bad tripping hallucinogenic hocus pocus, this is the clearly bonged out bizarro happenings of the surrealist psychedelicists Babal who by all accounts will be wrapping up proceedings at this year’s forthcoming 15th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus festival. Dare you succumb to the acid psych prog alchemy of ‘the crooked path’ – think Jefferson Airplane spliced with a particularly chilling and tormented fusion of night tremored Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland motifs all tripped theatrically in macabre enchantment.
On previous visitations to these pages, we’ve had rightful cause to compare Quimper to the folk of both horror pop sounds and Villa9 with the addition of passing nods to the much missed FortDax and the Assembled Minds, last outing ‘retrieval’ was a most curious cornucopia of forgotten 70’s children’s TV theme waltzes rescued from broadcasting house basements and eerily lit half way worlds existing between reality, dream and the beyond. New EP ‘midnight snack’ continues their dalliance with all things borne of dark manifestations, the surreal and the obscurely outsider, for a twisted beauty resonates from the sweet soft psyche macabre that is its title track, at once warped and woozy, ethereal and eerily enchanted, its crooked framing and slightly off centred persona whispering like a fleeting apparition dancing and flickering upon a lilting lullaby motif. Quite odd and decidedly becoming if you ask me.
And there we were just casual running the critical thumb over a release that escaped our usually well-oiled radar by Ulrika Spacek just a day or two ago when along comes this newly peeled video adoring a track ‘full of men’ – the first single in fact – prized from their incoming ‘modern English decoration’ for tough love due early June time. The video incidentally portrays 70’s cookery icon, the late Fanny Craddock, one time televisual star along with her husband Johnnie – well we’ll leave the band to explain the video’s concept – ‘”This song is a swipe at masculinity and we were going to make a video quite literally full of men but we didn’t want to make something too obvious so ended up flipping the idea to play on the traditional female/housewife gender role in the setting of a cookery show, cutting up quite phallic things whilst under the male gaze of a camera man.” – as to the track itself, ‘full of men’ is graced with a touchingly forlorn bitter sweetness, its mournful casing shimmered in a softly speckled quiet grandeur amid who pulsing post rock framing a vulnerability peers with the kind of bruised and hollowed seduction that once upon a time graced and ghosted through the grooves of Quickspace’s bowing out ‘death of quickspace’ set. A good ‘un by our reckoning.
Tour dates……
May 16th – Nuits Botanique, Brussels, Belgium
June 2nd – 02 Academy, Oxford, UK w/Slowdive
June 6th – Rough Trade instore, Nottingham, UK
June 8th – Rise Music instore, Bristol, UK
June 14th – The Lexington, London UK
July 23rd – Zanne Festival, Nicolosi, Italy
August 3rd – Kantine am Berghain, Berlin w/ The Men
August 4th – OFF Festival, Katowice
August 20th – Doune the Rabbit Hole, Doune, UK
August 27th – This Must Be The Place, Leeds, UK
Sept 15th – Levitation, Angers, France
A quick heads up / reminder for this ‘un, new from the returning Napoleon IIIrd. Yes we did mention this way back at https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/03/16/napoleon-iiird/ – the track taken from a very imminent full length entitled ‘the great lake’ heading out of the hatch imprint, downloads of which have literally just dropped, reviews will follow soon not least because amid its five track gathering you’ll find yourself somewhat seduced by the epic centrepiece ‘and the you in between the space’ – a colossal 19 minute odyssey whose graceful awareness is pitched with the kind of tender application and forward thinking emotionally stirring grandiose pop symmetry more commonly found on platters bearing the names her name is calla, shady bard and swimmer one upon their hides though here cut with a classicism that nods at times ever so eloquently to Robert Wyatt / Soft Machine. For now though here teaser taster ‘the scrape’
Sneak preview time, those of you itching for an earful of hologram teen’s forthcoming full length through polytechnic youth will do well to hook yourselves up to https://www.facebook.com/polytechnicyouth/posts/1533713639995063 for a wee instagram upload type thing by Morgane giving hint of what to expect, okay admittedly not your usual PY fodder, this honey instead taking to the dance floor with much gusto arriving adored in string seduction aplenty attached delectably in an early 80’s fashioning and sounding not unlike the kind of toe tapping groove that sits between Edwin Moses and Stex with Cornelius at the mixing decks with a certain momus twiddling away in the shadows sharpening his remix impishness, just love the Afrobeat swing on the thing.
And talking of Momus…..time for an oldie….i think….
Interlude…….lost moments….momus, Jarvis cocker, nick cave and the bad seeds….
….and back with slimmer records, hell these dudes might well in time end up being our most favourite label if they continue to knock out nuggets like this. Found lurking on last December’s listings and again pressed up on limited numbers of lathe cut wax, this is DTCV with ‘le vampire’ – a kind of b-movie Beach Boy-ing spooked out surfer sortie, not unlike it has to be said Zombina and the Skeletones huddled together and shimmying up to Shonen Knife in a secret sonic basement beneath 1313 mockingbird lane. https://slimerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dtcv-le-vampire-7-picture-lathe-cut
Been an absolute age since we featured anything heading out of the low point imprint. Those occasional rummages through past missives which we’ve been posting up here had us wondering whatever had become of the label. We feared the worst and then by chance happened upon them by sheer accident on that there twitter, still happily putting out releases, the latest a limited cassette from Bristol based musician John Scott here under his alter ego Stereocilla with a track entitled ‘lucid dream’ from a four track EP by the name ‘a late spring never lies’. A masterclass of poise and elegance set over 8 minutes of exquisitely honed serene beauty and something that seductively lilts to the echo of those early days releases heading out of the Kranky imprint – here i’m thinking particularly of LaBradford, Stars of the Lid and Roy Montgomery all beautifully harnessed and kissed in a wonderfully statuesque framing that delicately dissolves with a bitter sweet thawing. Quietly immense stuff. https://lowpoint.bandcamp.com/album/a-late-spring-never-lies
Staying with low point a little while longer, our ears found themselves hooked upon the dream droned demur of the ice sculptured ‘Nordatlanten’ from another limited cassette outing this time courtesy of duo Thet Liturgiske Owäsendet entitled ‘hafvet’. In short, the quietest of the quartet found here, it’s stilled soft burn grandeur extending a chance for 10 minutes to step away from the maddening clatter and chatter of modern day hysteria into a safe place – just you, your inner space and the sounds trickling away in the background like some softly radiant redeeming shower. https://lowpoint.bandcamp.com/album/hafvet
A remodelled and rewired version of a cut you can find lurking over on the flip of their current essential ear candy turntable dandy ‘death valley Sunday’, we do of course refer to the Electric Lazarus, anyhow this is version 2 of the quite devastatingly cool ‘sometimes i wonder’ which just between you and me really does sound like the fuzzy strum sun charmed love child of the Velvets and Reid brothers as delivered by Joe Meek, so blissed the blighter ought by rights to come packed with freebie shades. https://theelectriclazarus.bandcamp.com/track/sometimes-i-wonder-version-2
Mentioned in passing just a week or three ago – somewhere here in fact https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/is-bliss-3/, second platter from Is Bliss is due to cause bliss out swoons aplenty shortly through the adored Club AC30 imprint with the arrival of the ‘the honeymoon explosion’ EP – from that set ‘into a dream’ has been sent ahead on scouting details replete with trip-a-delic moving picture show……
Many thanks to the Snails – specifically Dan – who following our tear stricken review of their recent gone in a blink lathe cut 7 inch ‘starting with mine’ – see https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/snails-6/ – was in touch to say they were down to their very last copy, 45 in all – with a hand written stating that the band were now busy recording a follow up to their much adored ‘safe in silence’ through feral child. https://snails.bandcamp.com/album/our-third-7-starting-with-mine-ep
….and back with Club AC30 – who we suspect are breeding these beauties under secret laboratory conditions, quite smitten by this i don’t mind saying, this is the latest from Misty Coast entitled ‘leap year’ – just love its almost crestfallen sigh twinkled upon an alluring lazy eyed arrest, the way it peels away to radiant coo all the time purred in the soft euphoria yearn of lunar pulsars, utterly faultless and adorably demurring.
Interlude…….strange and future sounds……Tod Dockstader, jon Gibson, Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Haruomi Hosono
Tod Dockstader…..from ’61 would you believe, head over to the trunk site for ‘organized sounds’……
Jon Gibson from ’77 – really quite wonderful this……
Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan…..
Hiroshi Yoshimura……
Vladimir Ussachevsky…..
Haruomi Hosono…
I’ll be honest in saying, not what we were expecting from a new Rob Clarke and the Wooltones happening. ‘walking on the water’ finds the Wooltones brethren camped in mellower tones, wounded and bruised, amid it’s delicately dressed grooves a revealing of a subdued vulnerable steeling is apparent from out of which a classically pop textured awareness rises to the fore, the song craft both thoughtful and reflective at once cuts and caresses, its softly shaded ebbing and flowing psych folk shelling ghosted in an intimacy that’s distantly flavoured in a Memory Band seasoning. Over on the flip, the now trademark instrumental retuning of the lead cut, now re-floated as ‘walking on the waves’ is a moment of serenely lazy eyed watching the clouds pass by overhead bliss that has all the twinkling imagining of Tunng and the Owl Service tasked with rescoring ‘the adventures of \Robinson Crusoe’. Essential in case you hadn’t already figured.
Talking of the Memory Band, admit it you thought these missives were thrown together in a haze of hopeful chaos, seamless I tell you. Incoming on the esteemed Static Caravan imprint, in fact one of several well-heeled releases you’ll find dotted here and there here in the coming days, this one we believe readying itself for a limited 7 inch pressing shortly is in fact from EAN who by all accounts splits time between appearing with stick in the wheel with remix work, here with two tasters from his formidable mix vault, well we say he, this is all rough guess work given this promo is so early days that the press release is still, I suspect, being cobbled up. Anyhow all you need know is that this ‘un features rewires of tracks by Eliza Carthy and the Memory Band, the former ‘Aleppo in the sun as it was’ finds her fused with Bristol based MC Disraeli – ghosted in light and dark extremes, a trip-hopula gem with which beneath the breezily hiccupping cut up coos of a crookedly carefree Ms Carthy emerges the stark brutality and bleak alienation of a populace lost, a hymn for a forgotten yesterday before the grieving daily struggle for survival while the worlds political powers sit on their hands and nations turn their back. Over on the flip, the Memory Band’s ‘children of the stones’ is repressed and caressed with a wonderfully lulling glitch-tronic toning which for the second review on the trot has us mentioning the much missed Tunng as a reference point albeit as though re-tweaked after a spin cycle in the Palace of Swords mystical mind morphing machine.
Here’s the Eliza Carthy / Disraeli mix…..
https://soundcloud.com/ean-kraytah/ean-remix-aleppo-in-the-sun-as-it-was-dizraeli-eliza-carthy
Most tasty, but be warned, 20 minutes long you might want to find yourself a little quiet space in order to ease off the gas of a hectic day. This is Lossy and strangers are people too (Sam Sharp and Sarah Culross as they are more readily recognised by family and friends) with the head tripping odyssey that is ‘microverse’. In short a four movement suite that with svelte shape shifting ease manages to terraform across a constantly mutating sound palette that free flows between moments of chill toned kosmiche, jazz tweaked dub and arabesque mysticism, much like one of those hypno-therapy relaxation tapes though here oozed in oodles of third eye wandering trippiness. That said i’m not normally given to commenting about visuals but i must admit there’s been times where i’ve thought i’d been locked in the Tron-sphere forced to watch old school Microsoft screen savers, strangely enough it does add and enhance the sounds your hearing which i’ll admit first off might well strike chords aplenty with those much admiring of Astralasia and Banco de Gaia, the initial moments emerging as though disarming star lilting orbital lullabies much recalling a snoozing ISAN being tucked up by Littlebow. With sumptuously fluent effect matters begin to dissolve and dissipate with the arrival of a more jazz toned quotient that imagines Bill Laswell hanging out with Lalo Schifrin cooking up sounds from a lost score for some pulled at the last moment early 70’s noir film. From therein things get somewhat darker and dizzier attracting a more lights lowered sophistication whereupon come threaded the softly distracting purr of noir mystics before normality resets us full circle to the warm rush smother of ambient awakening.
discovered whilst rummaging around the sound cloud platform, here’s a tape recording of Spacemen at ‘89’s Reading Festival…… https://soundcloud.com/stef-j-c/spacemen-3-live-reading-festival25th-august-1989
Contact resources….
Email – marklosingtoday@gmail.com
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/thesundayexperience
Word press – marklosingtoday.wordpress.com
Twitter – @marklosingtoday
Physical – 46 Webster Avenue, BOOTLE, Merseyside, L20 9JF, UK
The end groove……
In honour of Geoffrey Bayldon……
the sunday experience 