Look what we sneaked online while you were sleeping…
Transmission 21.0….w/e 27/05/2017
Revolutions of a 33 and 45 kind….
For Manchester…..love and respect…..
Features….
circle / temple, david colohan, depatterning, field lines cartographer, grey frequency, keith seatman, listening center, polypores, pulselovers, sharron kraus, sproatly smith, the hare and the moon, time attendant, roger moore, allman brothers, soundgarden, alan Sutcliffe, the black angels, the rippers, clever thing, adam strangler, gospelbeach, the molochs, aqueuous, roedelius heath and chaplin, Andrew heath, chromatics, goldfrapp, cigarettes after sex, the veldt, dusty mush, a year in the country, mau, chxfx, esmark, xerxes the dark, deepdark, listening center, the stone tapes, lia pamina, diagnos, jon brooks, aux luna, autumn chorus, casual strangers, oo, viceroy, Anthony j reynolds, dead husband, bleib modern, phosphor, soma sema, future holograms, file not found, bruit fantome…
Been a wee while since anything ghost box related troubled our player, this one we’ve briefly mentioned previously headed out of the adored clay pipe imprint on vinyl, I’m guessing all sold out as is the way of these things, anyhow before we get all grumble some this is Jon Brooks with ‘le chateau’ – a track taken from his recent ‘Autres Directions’ set. A wonderfully fragile flecked twilight apparition all caressed in a frostily stilled elegance that’s possessed of a ghostly woodcut charm, the symphonics purr allures with a quietly graceful siren call radiance as though a murmuring forest lighthouse guiding in the passage of an awakening daybreak. https://cafekaput.bandcamp.com/album/autres-directions
Those of you with a want for your listening dozed in disorientation and weighted in the tripping, the hypnotic and the macabre, might do well to reset your ears radar in the general direction of Aux Luna’s ‘Witches & Their Craft’. The story goes being its author happening across a box of strange delights when cleaning out their parent’s home following the death of their mother. Among the items, a littering of supernatural magazines and books, a cassette bearing the name ‘Hannah’ within which, according to its beneficiary, upon the tape there ‘contained long recordings of a single classical guitar recorded rather badly in mono’ where discovered, these sounds forming the basis of the two extended suites you hear here. All very strange, as were akin to a mystical séance performed by a gathering of Villa9 studio types, Keith Seatman and Melmoth the Wanderer, for here amid the shuffling beats disturbances from beyond weave in and out of consciousness, communications from behind the grail of reality casting age old spells, performing rituals as old as time. It’s all very trippy and a tad disquietingly disconnected and detached, without doubt in awe of the wares of Reverb Worship and more besides one strongly suspects, for here strange worlds beckon and darkening deeds unfurl in hallucinogenic hazes seducing from unseen shadows, side 2 particularly coming flavoured in shimmering tones of arcane mysticism and woozy transcendentalism. https://auxluna.bandcamp.com/album/witches-their-craft
Absolutely emotionally flooring, the way it glides from hurtful to euphoric, at once reflective and introspective, softly soured in a tear stricken sepia / monochrome framing, this is ‘bye bye now’ by Autumn Chorus, a crushing statement of such hymnal beauty that across its four-minute visitation its liable to both reduce and rebuild you anew, within are memories frozen in time, a deeply personal and a touching epitaph marking the passing of its authors mother all murmured in an aching bruising that’s crippled by the shock of loss that towards its end burns bright and radiantly. It’s author Robert Lloyd-Wilson tragically passed away himself last December, his wife and friends invite you to celebrate his life and creativity with a memorial show to be held at the Lexington on 4th of June wherein an invited cast of musicians will perform to pay respect to this talented spirit – among those in attendance will be the Real Tuesday Weld, The Irrepressibles, Fyfe Dangerfield, Richard Walters, Nutfield Choral Quartet and more. Proceeds from the event going to assist the sterling work done by the children’s cancer charity – Kidscan. In addition, there will be an auction to claim a one-off lathe pressing of the aforementioned track hand cut by the folk over at 345rpm. For further details – go to https://www.facebook.com/autumnchorus/
I don’t rightly recall whether or not we got prodded onto this via an email recommendation from well-tuned in press folk or else stumbled across it under our own volition by way of one of our regular rambles across sound cloud world. Whatever the case, this is just the ticket especially if you are fancying of your sounds dinked dreamily and mellowed. Again seemingly continuing unintentional with a musical theme that imagines melodies rolled in on sheens of twilight fog, this is Casual Strangers with the rather becoming and quietly affecting ‘time before last’, an absolutely blissful moment of opining exquisiteness, true that it be sparsely toned, there’s no head rush here neither fuss or hysteria, just calming precision as the spectral arrangements flitter and flutter to fill the canvas with their soft smoky psychedelic lilt. https://soundcloud.com/casualstrangers/time-before-last
Weaving a dark psychedelic seduction purred in a distractive shade adorned coolness all snaked in spectral hazes of fuzzing shadow traced 60’s mosaics, this dream dazed happening comes culled from what we assume to be a debuting set due for stereophonic swooning sometime October. By OO, a French collective, this is ‘not my man’ a track that near knocked us off our listening perch arriving as it does chicly calibrated in a svelte smoking austere gouging upon which a soulful hollowing desperation peels and prickles with brooding panache across a rumbling and primitive, spidery chill twanging riff howl. Essential in case you hadn’t already guessed.
Shocked and saddened that we are to discover that all the ‘super limited cassettes’ have long since flown, we must admit something of a fondness for these vault find sessions from Viceroy. Described by the band themselves as ‘the musical equivalent of cave painting’, ‘First Transmissions CS’ gathers together recordings made way back in 2005, 6 tracks feature on this angular 11-minute soiree, between moments of skedaddled impishness they blaze with the kind of swamp dragged discordance that several years earlier may well have had the folk over at touch n’ go raising appreciable eyebrows and scratching their collective chins with interest. At other times, freeform noise and a liberal slab of contortionist sonic noodling is the order of the day not to mention a healthy appearance of some rather nifty trip toned spacey occurrences lighten the load of the art gouged waywardness found freely wiring at will across this archive retrospective. https://viceroy.bandcamp.com/album/first-transmissions-cs
If like us you are late to the party with this one, then I’m sad to say that by all accounts this has long sold out of its strictly limited 50 only pressing on 10 inch slabs of lathe cut vinyl via Static Caravan all hand cut by the 345rpm folk. A high art neo classicist soundtrack phrasing by Anthony J Reynolds backdropping ‘Adrift in Soho’ – the Pablo Behrens film based on the Colin Wilson 1961 novel. The set features three variations of the films theme – in essence the main theme sub divided into string and vocal re-enactments. Beautifully expressive, ‘Adrift in Soho’ is dulled in melancholic forlorn, the interplay between the opining strings and the pirouetting keys cultivates a panoramic overview of a smoky rain soaked night lit landscape aglow in the shadow fall of a sullen moon, really is most alluring in the way it captures both the mood and the time particularly the subtle jazz shuffles that sign it out. More intimate and closer in perspective the ‘string’ variation courts a hitherto more ghostly resonance that’s shimmered in svelte noire serenades, the stripped back arrangements both reflective and bitter sweetly romantic caress with graceful elegance. The fracturing ‘vocal’ mix brings up the rear, bruised and ached in regret and veering close in the footsteps of Brel and Scott.
Musical Interlude – lost cold wave / electronica nuggets…..dead husband, bleib modern, phosphor, soma sema, future holograms, file not found, bruit fantome
Dead husband…..info on these folk would be extremely welcomed……
bleib modern – indeed as the comments so rightly reflect, vocals are very Ian Curtis like……
Phosphor – quite coolly stunning – sounds as though it’s been drop kicked from out of the early 80’s…sadly it seems they gave up the ghost in 2013….
soma sema – one for the cold wave polytechnic youth folk out there…..
future holograms – i could be wrong, but i’m certain we’ve an email somewhere about our person relating to these dudes……simply exquisite in a OMD first album type way…..
bruit fantome – more about these soon…..
file not found – again info on these folk please……
I promise there’ll be more from this release in the coming days, for now a track from an incoming EP for schoolkids due for Earth entry sometime early June from the adored the Veldt. This is ‘Sanctified’ a cut taken from the bands forthcoming ‘the shocking fuzz of your electric fur’ extended player, it’s something both slick and sophisticated not to mention clipped in the kind of svelte soul sheens that even before we’d had a chance to eye mention of a comparison in the press release, had us with half a mind to go rummaging around for our prized white label copy of AR Kane’s ‘I’. Mix in the trademark dreamy swirls, effects pedalling bliss hazes and ethereal vapour trail wisps and you have the something liable fetch you a seductive burn.
Just what you need first thing Sunday morning, a healthy dollop of insanely impish damaged discordance, wig flipping wiriness from Dusty Mush, this ‘un comes ripped from an imminent set entitled ‘cheap entertainment’ that you’ll find heading out of the collaborative sound houses of howlin banana, stolen body and yippee ki yay later this month, this being the head fracturing ‘bad ideas’. An artful aural paint bomb of super fried scuzzed out detuned twang tripping contortions, an at once angular agit gouged dayglo daubed dragged by the hair roots psychobilly freak pill, absolutely wasted and delightfully wired. Any questions?
The latest audiological research study from A Year in the Country is upon us, a journey into the mysterious worlds of lost transmissions, primarily television and radio. Before the advance of digitalisation techniques, a large part of our youth was wiped for the sake of costly space cutting budgets, footnotes forgotten reduced to distant memory germinating a life of their own in the haze of a fading childhood recall. ‘from the furthest signals’ poses the question as to what happened to these broadcasts, it imagines forever reruns in the ether echoing and reverberating throughout time and space perhaps degraded or fused with other cosmic conversations and as a result part of the creation of an alternative line of history. Perhaps these lost recordings are more earthbound laying undisturbed and unaware in dusty lofts or amid vast unmarked / unlabelled collections in the homes of your neighbours, ghost prints eking from beneath later recordings on redundant ferric cassettes and VHS / Betamax cartridges. ‘from the further signals’ is a fourteen track ghostly gathering that guides the listener by the hand to be sucked by rusty antennae’s and receivers into a twilight world whereupon such transmissions have mutated and evolved anew to inhabit their own sonic ecosystem. These worlds, sometime dreamy though often disquieting, evolve fashioned by their surroundings, their DNA disfigured by white noise burns, damaged and rebuilt from their environment. Among these findings Keith Seatman’s ‘curious noises and distant voices’ finds itself scorched by solar flares, a monastic recital shredded and melted by the high intensity of cosmic blasts while elsewhere and providing a hitherto sharpening contrast the hymnal folk ghost light that is Circle / Temple’s opening ‘the Séance / search for Muspel-Light’ emerges sleepily to fracture and peel to reveal a shimmering symphony of the stars ala FortDax. Those fancying their listening space somewhat graced in vintage visions might be well minded to seek out David Colohan’s quite quietly immense ‘brass rubbings club’ not least because it manages to position itself in a plot of shaded pastoralism somewhere between your usual ghost box delights and that of Pye Corner Audio. Darker still to more foreboding and troubling terrains go A year in the country whose chamber toned and doomy ‘a multitude of tumbling’ has the distinct unease sci-fi-tronic vibe that used to trouble Revenant Sea releases. Then there’s some niftily fried psych folk spell gazing to be had with Sharron Kraus’ ‘Astrope’ immersed as it is with a beguiled church like resonance that imagines a secret studio face-off between Virgin Passages and Glissando. Something ominous looms with the arrival of time attendants seismic future chill ‘the dreaming green’ – assembled partly from discarded and forgotten 80’s straight to VHS shocker themes moulded to a spectral shimmering of folk drone ala Alphane Moon et al, a disquieting and most disorientating experience. Likewise with Depatterning it should be said, who breach the divides between reality and the beyond with the ghost toned silvery séance that is ‘Aurora in Andromeda’ into the bargain unleashing an unearthly chill to grace your listening space in a macabre stillness that midway through happily discovers its wherewithal to softly yawn and playfully lilt amid a thawing carousel of dissolving rustic posies. Next up ‘thistle doll’ is a delicate folk lullaby sprinkled in music box pirouettes, spooky sprites and is that the appearance of the sadly underused Theremin stirred in a woozy potion of spectral folk hymnal entrancement, as ever quality ear gear from the mighty Sproatly Smith. Those of you whose recall easily stretches back several years, might well remember our fondness for the Scotch Tapes imprint whose sister label, the name of which for now annoyingly slips our memory, was in its brief but bright stay something of a purveyor in the sonically abstract landscapes crafted by Field Lines Cartographer on ‘the radio window’ – all dronal tides of oceanic white noise corralled into tripping dream draped formations, much likened to, I’m pressed to say, the imagining of a post-apocalyptic nothingness smothering the stars to darkness. More celestial happenings encroach the grooves of Grey Frequency’s leviathan like ‘Ident (IV)’ whereupon the doomy call of foreboding sirens culture a deathly quiet from out of a choking sea fog with a chilling ‘War of the Worlds’ consequence. Somewhere else Polypores tunes his radial dial into the hypnotic drone frequencies of Sonic Boom’s EAR for the eerily fog bound ‘signals caught off the coast’ and sublimely fuses them to the remote toning of Stylus. That said listening loves are evidently weighted with the passing of the collections final three visitations of which none are so eerie as the apparition presided upon by the Hare and the Moon whose softly demurred ‘man of double deed’ comes spirited in sonic tongues as old as the earth itself, primitive raptures riddled upon snaking arabesques spraying a ghostly rituals of an ancient love craft that nods to Dead Can Dance. That said in sharp contrast, none are as beautifully realised as the lunar carousel forged by Pulselovers whose ‘endless repeats / eternal return’ is adored in a twinkle toned orbital phrasing all shepherded and harvested upon a delicately whirling crystal cut sepia fantasia. Listening Center draws this latest report to a close with the aptly titled ‘only the credits remain’, a beautifully serene and widescreen cosmic sea spray dimpled in sleepy headed dream drifts, utterly touching and tender, need I say more. www.ayearinthecountry.co.uk
Latest video to escape the Mau sound house, here’s the moving picture treatment that accompanies the track ‘some elusive’ which we’ve had cause to mention previously – somewhere here in fact https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2016/11/11/mau/ – darkly woven in ice formed paranoiac tension, at once slick, spectral, sensual and seductive, staring from shadowy terrains, as noted on earlier encounters, its forged and bedded upon a sonic compass point that intersects and draws from a gathering of ROC, Musetta and Portishead types, here awash in subtle jazz noir textures and a snaking down tempo sophistication, class if you ask me.
https://www.facebook.com/we.are.mau/videos/1297290810324585/?fref=mentions
We were at this point due to mention new sets by both CHXFX and the Corrupting Sea, well that’s all been delayed perhaps till later or more likely tomorrow, reason for this being we were most taken and frankly blown away by a new brace of albums heading out of the Bureau B stable by Esmark. Now I’ll be totally frank here, for what initially sparked our interest, aside the fact that this set arrives as two companion – yet distinctly separate – albums, is the mere detail that any research undertaken on the net returns nil results, i mean type in any old rubbish and something will come back – but Esmark, not a sausage. More intriguing is the fact that, as i write this, the Bureau B release schedule / shop doesn’t mention it, neither nor a whiff, a hint or a passing acknowledgement, the only reference anywhere as to its impending existence a listing on a German based record outlet, just a listing mind, no detail. Now knowing and being familiar with the Bureau B aesthetic for being ahead of the curve in terms of musical fashioning, styles and experimentalism, duo Esmark (Alsen Rau and Nikolai von Sallwitz) twin pronged sonic delight ‘Mara I’ and ‘Mara II’ are quite frankly out of sight, okay there’s no envelope pushing going on here, that much is obvious, but it’s the environment the pair operate in that sets them apart from the usual Bureau B brand. Sore thumbs they may be, both volumes of ‘Mara’ seemingly distil, cross weave and reinvigorate old school principles, applying forgotten tech they forge a sound-scape both familiar yet alien, utilising insular sonic hybrids that inhabit ever narrowing sound spectrums they’ve crafted between them a musical vision with its head in dystopian futures backward glancing to the past. Operating on such outer terrains, ‘Mara’ has an unnerving knack for adventure, (and playfulness – see the binary blip chatter on ‘Krav’) there’s no rule book or stated parameters here, you are as likely to be treated to delicately droning pulsars embarking on some hitherto eclipse event (‘Skern A’) as you are in finding yourself inside the biospherical incubator of some space ark (‘Mon’). ‘Esmark’ for instance, opening ‘I’ is pure detached austere chill toned Wagon Christ on a heavy dubtronica setting that calls to mind Muslim Gauze, whilst ‘Sirens’ by sharp contrast emits the kind of subliminal sonic pulsar eeriness you’d rightly expect to fall from the work bench of Sonic Boom with his EAR hat on rephrasing the soundtrack for ‘Quatermass’. For us though it’s ‘Mara II’ that brings home the bread and butter, here the sound sources are micro sourced, ‘husby klit Bk’ in particular culturing an irrefutably icily isolationist incline. Both stark and sparse ‘Lianen’ however is pure Radiophonic psychotropia, looped pulsars eke out a kind of 60’s styled sci-fi brain wash conditioning occasioned beneath the penetrative whirring cycles of flatlining frequency modulated mesmeric mosaics. Far lighter in tonality, and believe me you’ll be thankful for it, ‘Ringen’ purrs to a curious sub-tronic funk motif tripped in repetitive earth beat rhythms, I say earth beat albeit in truth a hybrid representation of earth beat once it’s been scanned into a computerised hive mind while the playfully impish ‘Vrig’ is pure cut n’ paste 8-bit crookedness. Admirers of a very youthful Pimmon and perhaps V/VM might warm to the harmonic hum of the scratchy glitch disquiet of ‘Objekt P62410’ though it does little to prepare you for the darkening claustrophobic futility that’s found brooding on the death head that is ‘Taeller 3981’ as it ominously prowls tuned into the kind of bleak dystopian future visions as found accompanying old 80’s VHS nightmare viewing (ends a little abruptly we should add disappointingly). Shall we settle for recommended then?
Everything about this release just screams freaked – orange splatter vinyl, moments of which spent staring at as it rotates on the turntable are liable to have you feeling a tad trippy, super psychedelicised artwork – think some acid sci-fi fusion of 50’s comic art – say Weird Tales / Tales from the Crypt stirred with the magic stuff found in Steve Ditko’s coffee. And then there’s the sounds – a bonged out sonic ecosystem blending psychedelia and Radiophonica – ( or else see Sub Rosa’s excellent series ‘An Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music for close comparison) ‘with a healthy intake of magic mushrooms. Welcome to the surrealist trip-a-delic world of CHXFX – better known to kith n’ kin as David Henson. In ‘transcranial targets’ he has crafted a freakishly fried fantasia that’s as ingenious as it is impish, as abstract as it is absurd and as dark as it is disturbed, a serious head scrambler fired with forgotten frazzled hardware and borne of a creativity determined to provoke and pinch you out of your happy slumber. Clearly the work of a mind reared and lost to animated story boards drawn in 2000AD comics of old, Henson’s extensive palette is coloured in a mosaic of sound styles, sometime ambient, occasionally progressive, dare I say new age – oh dear I fear I’m losing you briefly, but hang on for here paranoiac echoes of a cold war age reverberate through the shadowy fog of eeriness, previous mentions here have found us comparing its ominous reach to that of a musical pastiche of Naked Lunch and Videodrome references and that still stands not least because between the momentary dream dazed sepia toned ghost carousels of say ‘Delirium Yellow’, chaos is afoot delightfully freefalling and gleefully fracturing in a woozy and isolationist psychotronic haze (‘turns’) whilst peeking with a cautious eye at fleeting visions of futures to come and waiting nightmares lurking with anticipation in tomorrow worlds which all said make this a frightening, fun and fried listening experience.
Previous notes…..
https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/05/14/chxfx-2/
https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/chxfx/
what promises to be a handsomely packaged set heading out of the Russian based imprint Black Mara shortly, features a groove splitting head to head between DeepDark and Xerxes the Dark, dark being the operative word for description here. Two tracks currently on showcase via the labels band camp page, the aptly titled ‘the doomed’ by DeepDark spirited upon a light sucking post-apocalyptic mistral, just a stilled nothingness or so you might first think, edge up a little closer though and what you are hearing, or at least imagining, is the sound of the stars slowly being put out while world’s in their final death throes acquiesce to their fate. Continuing the post-apocalyptic theme, Xerxes the Dark’s ‘Apperceive State‘ approaches matters from an opposing perspective, monastic choral corteges and sheens of celestial radiance sigh this levianthan like brooding drone colossus with a stilled majesty, all the same still oppressively dark, eerie and something you might want to consider for daytime listening. https://blackmara.bandcamp.com/album/inner-mystery
heading out of polytechnic youth shortly (alas we missed that XAM Duo / the Au Fait split grrrrr), two incoming albums from Vic Mars and the Listening Center, alas no sound links on the former but this old school scratchy video on the latter adoring the track ‘Catherine B Playalong’ – the album – incidentally titled ‘example one’ is a 500 only wax pressing of a super limited and much sought after cassette only release from a few years back. Wonderfully wonky, a tad screwball in a goofy and gloopy Radiophonic vintage, personally I’m having Atari / Spectrum / Commodore flashbacks from the 80’s.
We here are still kicking ourselves silly in missing a unique one off master tape release by these folk last week. Second album currently being prepped hopefully funded by kick starter, here’s a wee flavouring of ominous things cooking in the collective mind of the Stone Tapes, ‘the kingdom of mercia’ is the promise of dark rituals afoot, doors to portals opened and from the beyond manifestations breaching the grail of reality, eerie stuff. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thestonetapesproject/the-stone-tapes-the-kingdom-of-mercia/
Up next a very special historical document that serves as something of a precursor to a fuller release heading out via Trunk later this year. A pioneer in the world of computer arts, lurking in the shadows, an unseen guiding hand if you like, promoting the value, the capability and reach of technology. While many lesser names have been become more familiar over the prevailing years whilst similarly operating in insular environs, Alan Sutcliffe was for want of a better description, the glue – or rather more the catalyst for opening up a dialogue for the sharing of ideas and principles in setting up the Computer Arts Society. A visionary, he was quick to foresee to role of computers in the media arts – in a late 60’s perspective these notably related to film, visual arts, dance and music. A mathematician and computer programmer by training, he studied beneath a post Radiophonic Workshop Daphne Oram and forged a unique creative alliance with Peter Zinovieff, primarily concentrating his skills to music and computer graphics (the cover of the release features computer generated graphics used in the film ‘Alien’), active up until his death in 2014 he provided inspiration to many in both the academic and art circles. Recorded in 1972 and 1973 at home, ‘EMS SYNTHI AKS improv 1972 – 1973’ are as the title suggests, 30 minutes worth of experiments in sound distillation and mutation, the melodies both eerie and primitive draw direct parallels to the early electronic work of Louis and Bebe Barron whilst taking a leaf and nodding to the tape cutting manipulations of Pierre Schaeffer. Available on cassette, the release is strictly limited to just 50 copies. https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/ems-synthi-aks-improv-1972-1973
Raved about this album (‘death song’) to the point of being boring, yet we’ve only just realised that due to some serious mind lapse that we’ve so far actually omitted to track a copy down for ourselves, even missing out on the super duper – (was it fluorescent) – vinyl happening they pressed up for record store day love and adoration. Anyhow they’ve finally gotten around to cobbling up a video to accompany a track ‘currency’ which as it happens we mentioned way back here – https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/the-black-angels/ – still sounds the dog danders – it be the Black Angels in case you hadn’t already figured.
UK / EU TOUR DATES
June
01 – Primavera Sound – Barcelona, Spain
03 – La Sirene – La Rochelle, France
04 – Art Rock Festival -Saint Brieuc, France
06 – Mascotte – Zurich, Switzerland
07 – Latteria Molloy – Brescia, Italy
08 – Locomotiv – Bologna, Italy
10 – Primavera Sound – Porto, Portugal
11 – This is Not A Love Song – Nimes, France
September
06 – Piraeus Academy – Athens, Greece
07 – Principal Club– Thessalonik, Greece
09 – Tavastia – Helsinki, Finland
11 – Debaser Strand – Stockholm, Sweden
12 – Parkteatret – Oslo, Norway
13 – Pumpehuset – Copenhagen, Denmark
15 – Muziekgieterij – Massricht, Netherlands
18 – Venue Les Docks – Lausanne, Switzerland
19 – AB Ballroom – Brussels, Belgium
20 – Paradiso – Amsterdam, Netherlands
22 – Forum – London, UK
23 – Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia – Liverpool, UK
25 – SWG3 – Glasgow, UK
26 – Institute 2 – Birmingham, UK
27 – Trinity – Bristol, UK
29 – La Cigale – Paris, France
30 – Luxor – Cologne, Germany
October
01 – Colombiatheatre – Berlin, Germany
Begging requests have been duly sent to the Slovenly folk for downloads of an incoming full length nugget from the Rippers going by the name ‘a gut feeling’ which is due to land sometime June end, I mean how could we resist when they namecheck in the press release an uber cool roll call of references from Billy Childish to Buddy Holly to Slim Harpo. We’ve had a sneak listen and blimey, the blighter near knocked us off our perch with its classically toned mid 60’s garage swagger with ‘so loud’ currently hogging the affections here not least because it’s a dust caked ghost rider spirited in on an authentically primitive twang rumble that to these ears sounds like a DNA splicing of the Dead Boys and the Gun Club at the hand of Joe Meek. Quite possibly the coolest thing out in record world right now.
I’ll warn you now that you might benefit from a cold shower after a taster of this babe. Screaming decadence, seduction and sleaze with oodles of glam gouged pouts, this bedazzled blues beauty snakes to a swing which the press release rightly attributes to the overriding influence of the White Stripes, yet this is Jack n’ Meg under the street sassy swaggering spell of Hendrix fused and refracted through the lens of Bolan. Oh and before we forget it’s by Clever Thing and it’s called ‘Fixer Upper’, in short, the sexiest thing in record world right now.
Tripped over this on you tube, by Adam Strangler called ‘crossed’ and something which arrives ripped from a newly released EP by the name ‘Key West’ through the groups own band camp page, now is just me or does this darkly brooding behemoth scalped and detuned as it is in lacerating opines and fired upon the menacing approach of warring storm calls, have something of Soundgarden about its wares, just me then eh?
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Used to be a time way back, when we always got promos from Alive records, somewhere along the line, communications broke, they fell out of sight and outta of listening sphere. So happy then to trip over this little nugget, by Gospelbeach this is ‘strange days’, all wonderfully smoked and mellowed in a hazy 70’s vintage that much recalls the ever cool Goodnight Lenin basking in the afterglow of a classically laid back Neil Young all seasoned with a subtle stoking of soft psych inclines for good measure which I must say at times stray ever so distantly into first album Stone Roses terrains. Blissful stuff.
Fairly certain we’ve featured these dudes previously, probably this very track as it happens. Anyhow loveliness abound from the Molochs with ‘you and me’ and yes I know it’s been out for a while and you’ve probably all played and loved it to the point of destruction, still can’t keep such a distractive nugget down not when it sounds not unlike an imagining of a smoky countrified Modern Lovers channelling a particularly blissfully toned Velvets. Does it for us.
I strongly suggest you find yourselves a quiet spot free from distraction, interruption or conversational pollution from the outside world for this one. A truly special listening occurrence. Marking or rather more celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of ‘meeting the magus’ by Aqueuous, a collaboration that brought Andrew Heath and Felix Jay into the presence of legend Hans-Joachim Roedelius, ‘triptych in blue’ features recordings taken from a very special evening one night last September, where gathered at the Brunel Goods Shed in Stroud, where Roedelius, Heath and Christopher Chaplin. Alas no sound links on this just yet, however ‘triptych in blue’ features three extended suites of stilled elegance, of which we must admit, ‘Azurite’ has worked its way immediately into our affections. During its 16-minute visitation, what initially appears bespoke in an ice carved sculpturing soon begins to thaw and radiate resplendently assuming the most demurring of light touches. Its phrasing, poise and unfurling softly drifted so that it dreamily fills the canvas in a part spacey, part pastoral and oceanic fantasia that’s both lulled in transcendentalism and somewhat kissed with the celestial. A most beautified listening spectacle that’s reflective and reinvigorating, the crystalline curvatures and angel sighed arcs approaching dare we say hymnal, hushed and irrefutably as though touched by a higher hand. This immense set is due for record counter adoring early July through disco gecko recordings. Perfection.
Staying with disco gecko just a wee bit longer, latest release by the aforementioned Andrew Heath finds him continuing his sourcing of found sounds in places of quietness, the spectrum now extending beyond churches and cathedrals to incorporate tunnels and train stations, he utilises these spectral ghost echoes as a primary base over which he crafts a most expressive array of tones predominantly forged upon with the addition of a piano. However, on his latest release – incidentally titled ‘’found. Assemble’ – he is joined by Bill Howgego and Stephane Marlot who each apply their individual artistry with reference to the bass clarinet and cello respectively. For us personally it’s the parting ‘a stillness of place where he hits his stride, applied with a quietly measured sense of grandeur, this string bathed elegiac beauty softly stretches and unfurls rising from its lonesome slumber mourned in bruised reflection whilst all the time arced and grace fallen by the lilting ghost lit tremble of sepia toned key motifs, quite beguiling though emotionally withering if you ask me. https://andrewheath.bandcamp.com/album/found-assemble
Candy kissed in an ever so cutesy and radiant 60’s French pop kookiness, kind of Sandie Shaw meets France Gall if you are looking for reference markers, latest heading out of the elefant sound house is the teasingly playful and adorably twinkling innocence that is Lia Pamina with ‘sycamore tree’. Just two minutes long but how she fills that brief space in an abundantly vivid spray of sun kissed loveliness and soft pop easiness which if I didn’t know any better would have sworn it had been cut in the prettified image of the free design.
Still working on getting links for this, from Diagnos this is ‘so good’ which we mentioned here – https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/diagnos/ – the track lifted from their forthcoming self titled control freak kitten set due early July is being made available as a teaser download single in mid June.
Are these the same Chromatics who used to grace these pages several years ago, was it via the Italy imprint – I can’t recall exactly just this moment, I’m kinda guessing from the no side of the fence unless they’ve undertaken some serious revamp in both terms of sound and stylising. Anyhow this is something new entitled ‘shadows’ by the Chromatics, which we must admit had us much imagining it gracing a hitherto forgotten soundtrack recorded for an as yet or fabled David Lynch film. It was only then that we bothered to read the info bit whereupon it turns out thoughts weren’t misplaced and that this is indeed culled from a set that pays tribute to both Mr Lynch’s ‘blue velvet’ and Julee Cruise, adorably dreamy if you ask me.
Staying with things kissed with the wow factor and liable to have you a tad giddy, seems Cigarettes After Sex are shortly to release a self-titled full length via partisan shortly, we’ve got our eye on the bumper bundle package – vinyl, picture disc, screen prints. T-shirts and all manner of loveliness. For now though with the seductive setting switched to the maxima dial this is ‘Apocalypse’ – frankly crushing, ethereal and quite devastating beautifully not to mention sitting somewhere on the sound spectrum between Cheval Sombre, Galaxie 500 and No Ceremony.
Newly peeled moving picture show to accompany the latest track culled from Goldfrapp’s recently released ‘silver eye’ full length – anyhow this is ‘Systemagic’ – mentioned here a little while back as it happens……. https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/goldfrapp-4/
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The end groove……
Roger Moore – missed……
The allman brothers…..
Finally…….Soundgarden…..
the sunday experience 