Look what we sneaked online while you were sleeping…
Transmission 22.0….w/e 03/06/2017
Revolutions of a 33 and 45 kind….
For London……
Featured…….
The bordellos, recordiau prin, stu kidd, Edinburgh of the seven seas, equinox, dementio 13, rift / fault, pulco, radio Europa, andy schauf, hunx and his punx, Johnny Hawaii and Francois Atlas, iona fortune, human league, autumn, logic system, isolierband, Plexiglas, plastix, disturbed furniture, the submarines, middex, mondtraume, the charlatans, le superhomard, lake ruth, dj trump, death kneel, the buttertones, Cio D’Or, annie hall, john lennon, the beatles……
Just twenty copies, are you kidding me. Now I’m not about to go on a tirade about this being a disappointing indictment on current music scene, I’m tempted mind, but that a band who can magic up a track like ‘starcrossed radio’ can remain the preserve of the outsider scene is, well, beyond incredulity. We refer of course to St Helens based sore thumbs the Bordellos whose ‘life, love and Billy Fury’ is about the get a strictly limited outing via the much admired Recordiau Prin imprint. These dudes have been on our radar as long as I care to remember, they’ve weathered with maturity over the years assuming a lo-fi grittiness and steadfast refusal to play the pop game, preferring instead one assumes, to lob the occasional musical Molotov, with the result that often you just have to stand back and admire their nerve and verve. Two tracks sit on the preview player, both featured here previously, the threadbare and decidedly delightful punch drunk sounding ‘brief taste’ still have a curious aura as to suggest its channelling Louden Wainwright III all of which I’m sure you’ll agree if no bad thing, however the main event here is the aforementioned ‘Starcrossed Radio’. As noted in previous dispatches this cut provides one of those high-water marks in the bands considerable canon, both homely and hymnal it’s smoked in a lushly arresting sepia toned nostalgia that finds Queen’s ‘radio gaga’ indeed being its close reference point, all at once quietly majestic and disturbed in tearful reflection, a masterclass in emotion stirring pop classicism. https://recordiauprin.bandcamp.com/album/life-love-billy-fury
Previous citations –
https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/the-bordellos-18/
https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/the-bordellos-28/
https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/the-bordellos-29/
staying with Recordiau Prin, two more releases up for adoration, the first being a rather nifty anniversary compilation marking the labels first year in existence. ‘the hills are alive with the sound of Prin’ provides a treasure trove of happenings been and to come and provides sneak peeks of releases heading down the conveyor belt, the set opening to a rather faithful cover by Stu Kidd of GZM’s ‘if fingers were xylophones’ here adorably redrawn with an irresistible hint of the High Llamas as were guiding the crookedly lolloping summery zest-i-ness. I’m fairly certain we’ve mention Edinburgh of the Seven Seas previously, ‘Les Isolés’ arrives kissed with a mystique and intricacy that suggests its fallen foolishly from a Grails or Black Heart Procession. Like EotSS, I’ve a sneaking feeling that Dementio 13 may have ghosted through these musings in recent times, here paired with Equinox for the hollowed and harrowing ‘goodbye’ – an ice forming chamber chilled epitaph gloomed in an eerie finality sumptuously traced in a loose jazz noir seasoning, quite touching if you ask me even if I am reaching for my Arab Strap and Rooney records of yore for close comparison. All we’ll say about Radio Europa’s ‘jolly lad’ is, stick with it, agreed it takes a while to catch light but once it does a slow burning dust ravaged apocalyptic growl emerges into view scowled and heavily weighted in the grizzled image of a classic era godspeed. Last up on this brief overview a mention for the parting treat ‘variation 1’ by Rift / Fault, a track that’s liable to have you somewhat bruised and sometime adrift in melancholy given its grace fallen in the aching arc of mourning strings which i must admit had us a tad filled with a want for reacquainting our turntable with the sounds of Set Fire to Flames. https://recordiauprin.bandcamp.com/album/the-hills-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-prin
last up from recordiau prin, new groove from label head honcho / main man Pulco, sad to say we missed out the ultra -limited lathe cut 7-inch variation so prepare for grumbles throughout – ahem. ‘silex’ EP features four newly forged cuts of warping oddness, our favourite of the quartet being ‘stupid films’ which mooches around slightly worsened for ware before straying seriously off road and getting a tad skewif, wired and a just bit barking which all said had us wondering whether the colliding influence of both Beefheart and Henry Cow had bedevilled the Pulco listening decks. Also worth checking out while you’re in the vicinity, the angular ‘a design for dogs’ comes clearly under the wonky influence of Crispy Ambulance albeit as though held in a headlock by the Beatnik Filmstars. https://recordiauprin.bandcamp.com/album/silex-ep
newly cut video adoring the latest from Andy Shauf, a surreal and oddly uncomfortable watching experience that underpins ‘early to the party’ – a track lifted from his critically acclaimed ‘the party’ set. Cooled with a smoky velour inscribed with a baroque classicism, there’s a seamless perfection purring through this bitter sweetly toned master class in timeless symphonia as its lushly graced arrangements sigh, pause and sting with a forlorn crush reminiscent of a gathering of Ashley Parks, the Brigadier and the Heartstrings talent.
JUNE
June 3rd, 2017 London, Field Day (UK)
June 4th, 2017 – Gent, Dok (BE)
June 6th, 2017 – Amiens, Lune Des Pirates (FR)
June 7th, 2017 – Orléans, L’Astrolabe, (FR)
June 8th, 2017 – Clermont Ferrand, Cooperative de Mai (FR)
June 9th, 2017 – Nimes, This is not a Love Song Festival, La Paloma (FR)
June 10th, 2017 – Parma, Teatro Regio (IT)
June 11th, 2017 – Galzignano, Anfiteatro del Venda (IT)
June 13th, 2017 – Rome, Monk (IT)
June 15th, 2017 – Annecy, Brise Glace (FR)
June 16th, 2017 – Reims, Cryptoportique (FR)
June 17th, 2017 – Hilvarenbeek, Best Kept Secret Festival (NL)
June 18th, 2017 – Mannheim, Maifeld Derby Festival (DE)
AUGUST
August 18th, 2017 – Paredes de Coura, Vodafone Paredes de Coura (PT)
August 19th, 2017 – Winterthur, Steinberggasse (CH)
August 20th, 2017 – Green Man Festival, UK
Fancy a spot a time travelling 60’s Spector-esque sh-bop all sprinkled and sparkled in oodles of glam glazed teen crush 50’s bubblegum pop, course you do, just as well really because there’s a hardly art compilation about to surface on limited cassette shortly entitled ‘Hardly Released: Bedroom Recordings, Demos, Rarities, Unreleased, and Widely-Ignored Material’. A gathering of 17 lost and oft forgotten n’ overlooked moments plucked from the labels cutting room floor, among the roll call of wannabe talents are rare treats from Seapony, Ian Sweet, grave babies, shannon and the clams and this little gem from Hunx and his Punx going by the name ‘baby of the band’ – clearly not influenced the Shangri-La’s then, no no no whatever gave you that idea. https://soundcloud.com/hardlyartrecords/hunx-his-punx-baby-of-the-band
Available on a limited 100 only cassette and I think on CD-r, this is the latest from the la station radar sound house courtesy of Johnny Hawaii and Francois Atlas, this being we assume the flip side of the tape entitled ‘face b’ – a wonderful sonically terraforming odyssey which across its 16 minutes life span manages to dreamily touch base with the kind of euphoric grace falls so beloved of a ‘loveless’ era My Bloody Valentine before retuning its headspace into mutant morphs of lushly trip toned Balearic house of the type that might have one time tummy touch / touch tones admirers cooing fondly over before rounding matters out somewhat suitably satiated and beguiled in the serene play of lilting oceanic drifts and demurring dissipates. Exquisite if you ask me. https://soundcloud.com/lastationradar/johnny-hawaii-francois-atlas-oscille-divague-faceb
Stumbled accidently over this ‘un, quite something else, the first of a planned 8 album series that seeks to explore the symbols of the I Ching. Anyhow heading out of the optimo music stable this is Iona Fortune herewith a sampler taster from her limited issue release ‘Tao of I’ – at once spellbinding, dreamy and at times etched in the eerie, Ms Fortune utilises a range of instruments to include the Guzheng, Gamelan and EMS Synthi AKS with the result that she creates a deeply alluring and sonically shifting multi layered palette which whilst crafted in a neo classical touching is pierced in a timeless mystique both spiritually enchanting and sensitively gauged in reverence. It’s a sampler set that seemingly swerves, turns and reforms anew at each passing crossroad creating an ever deepening labyrinth of sound / texture and mood, the balance between the demurring tones of the bowed instrumentation, the Oriental phrasings and the sense of quiet grandeur are simply a thing of jaw dropped bewitchment. https://soundcloud.com/optimo-music/om-10-lp-iona-fortune-tao-of-i-album-sampler
interlude……cold wave and other curios…human league, autumn, logic system, isolierband, Plexiglas, plastix, disturbed furniture, the submarines….
human league
autumn
logic system
isolierband
Plexiglas
Plastix
Disturbed furniture
The submarines
More fractures in the time dimensional vortex, splintered echoes from a forgotten alternative past with the latest serving of post thermonuclear dystopia from Middex. An incoming happening via polytechnic youth, ‘wayward tor’ chills starkly like a distress call emerging from out of an atomic winter, trimmed in Geiger counter bleeps and the watchful whirring oppression of surveillance mapping there’s a remote and clinical emptiness attaching to its brutal lab-tech chassis that phrases its cold war environment in a cold, coolly austere micro minimalist isolationism. Any questions?
Admittedly it’s been out for a while, but tripping over this we did find ourselves somewhat smitten by the dark macabre glamour and the shadowy cabaret of it all, this is Mondtraume with a track entitled ‘life is short’ – agreed it is glazed in the darkening appeal of a gothique chic, yet undercutting the hollowing touch of the electronic pulsars and that sense of brooding theatre, would i be right in detecting elements of a youthful Propaganda c. ‘Dr Mabuse’ chilled to the cold cool of an equally inspired Noblesse Oblige.
As yet I’m still to hear the latest Charlatans full length ‘different days’ but here’s a sneak teaser that thus far has managed to avoid our radar. ‘plastic machinery’ features guest appearances from Messrs Marr and Salisbury – former Smiths and Verve respectively, the track – an insidious blighter that manages to worm its way beneath your radar just when you least expect it comes coolly smouldered in a crafty casualness that burns and stings with a slow to burn effervescent defiance replete with an ear tugged gliding pop symmetry that’s blessed with the kind of sleight of hand melodic radiance that’ll more than likely take up residence in your headspace and have you whistling at intervening unguarded moments.
Could have sworn we’d mentioned these folk in passing, disappointingly it appears not, anyhow this is Death Kneel with a newly peeled track by the name ‘cowards die many times’ through – we think – total black, not quite pitched on the disquieting spectrum but glazed enough in a shadow toned ghost lit aura as to have you perhaps considering the merits of daytime listening. Scarred in claustrophobic tension, the bleak portrayal of what sounds like some unwitting victim entombed in a subterranean prison might not be the favoured listening cop o’ tea for most but stay with it for amidst the encroaching walls closing in darkness, the appearance of fracture lines of light rise as the melodies softly shift into focus singing a strangely beguiling hope hued hymnal. https://soundcloud.com/totalblack/death-kneel-cowards-die-many-times
fell head over heels adoring their turntable burning ‘Sadie’s a sadist’ from a few weeks back, somehow this one – their latest has thus far managed to sneak beneath our radar, the latest from the Buttertones. This be ‘Matador’ a much looser toning than their last outing but still slicked with enough kool kudos to have the most right-minded disciples of Gallon Drunk and the Flaming Stars flocking to their shade adorned swamp gouged church and that’s before we’ve had a chance to mention the snaking twang and the hang dog last chance saloon vintage scarring attaching to it, total badness.
Many thanks to Allison of Lake Ruth for pointing us in the direction of a new EP that features a gathering of talents all applying their individualist craft to re-interpreting Le SuperHomard’s quite wonderful ‘dry salt in our hair’ – a track that if I recall rightly appeared on limited quantities of white 10-inch vinyl this time last year via the ever-essential mega dodo imprint. The set – incidentally heading out via echo orange – includes an enviable array of taste makers – GUM, Remington Super 60, le Panama Club, Mother Tereco and of course Lake Ruth whose rephrasing angelically harnesses dreamy dissipates of soft psych 60’s flower pop braiding upon the svelte vapour drift of murmuring motorik mosaics to forge a whirling and woozy shimmering of kaleidoscopic kosmiche that one imagines ought to be high on the listening radar of admirers of Broadcast. https://soundcloud.com/lakeruth/dry-salt-in-our-hair-le-superhomard-cover
those of you previously unfamiliar with Le SuperHomard’s original version might be happy to know a new video has been cut to adore it, think mid 90’s era Stereolab shimmied up to Le Mans and free design – in fact we might well have hinted as to their mercurial craft somewhere here https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/le-super-homard/ and https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/le-super-homard-2/
now i’ll be the first to admit that we don’t feature enough house tracks here in these pages, in fact er correct that, we just don’t feature them period, mainly because we never get sent any, but that’s the grumbling aside and done. Hooked up to this on a recent sound cloud stroll, can’t beat a bit of Trump cheerleading – just as well because there’s plenty afoot here on this new repeat button pressing platter from DJ Trump entitled – we gather – ‘make house great again’, a dizzying flashback to lost club nights is this here floor throbbing cute thing all coiled upon the kind of quick stepping line dancing motifs that recall the Cuban Boys with the Don one sermonising from the fore. https://soundcloud.com/user-418632339/make-house-great-again
up next a brace of tracks from Spanish based imprint Semantica who I think i’m right in saying haven’t as yet troubled these pages, first up of which is a video accompanying a track by Cio D’Or – it’s the first one on the player entitled ‘IX’ which annoyingly to many failed attempts, we have tried to isolate as a standalone, still – beautifully graceful, fragile, intimate if not a touch melancholic whilst alluringly phrased in the kind classicist delicacy that we here have come to expect and adore from the likes of Antonymes. https://semanticarecords.bandcamp.com/video
staying with Cio D’Or there’s a killer DJ set to be marvelled at over on the Boiler Room which we strongly recommend you check out, a frankly trip-a-delic performance amounting to an hours-worth of shape cutting bliss out…….
while if you dig around a little deeper you’ll unearth a quite dizzying bliss toned collaborative set that finds her paired up with Donato Dozzy for ‘J’….
Promised second mention for Semantica is a cut culled from a newly peeled set compilation gathering entitled ‘10.X Semantica 10.X’ – this ‘un being a track by the name ‘Kanji’ by Annie Hall – now this is quite something, this glitch scratched slice of loveliness is best described as an opining orbital sumptuously fashioned in a sepia trimming that suggests it be woven from a sonic fabric cut from the stuff that holds the stars in the night sky, something which sound spectrum wise site on an axis whereupon a youthful Plaid sit one end balanced out on the other by a shimmering of Expanding and Rednetic releases of yore. https://semanticarecords.bandcamp.com/track/kanji
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
…..and finally the end groove….it was 50 years ago this week……
the sunday experience 