Look what we sneaked online while you were sleeping…
Transmission 28.0….w/e 15/07/2017
Revolutions of a 33 and 45 kind….
Features…..orphax, gary numan, el goodo, machinefabriek, mountie, WWWater, arrows of love, metz, tablets, Jennifer, Tashaki Miyaki, martin Jenkins, Casandra Jenkins, d’Animal, benoit b, pink Floyd, anton barbeau, fuchsia, sidewalk society, mirror house, cary grace, poppy Ackroyd, good morning, Hannah peel, thot, ummagma, Kirsten dunst, bouquet, dj supermarkt, nikta, Hesperius Draco, m is we, le main bleue, the black watch, gothic chicken, you the night and the music, Teleplasmiste, the twelve hour foundation, tim hill, revbjelde, howlround, loose capacitor, concretism, simon james, akiha den den, alas smith and jones…..
We were going to start this missive with the track that’ll follow this, but hey it’s Sunday and if like me you are a little worse for wear and having a lazy one, then may we suggest that this be your gentle wake up into the day. From the Champion Version stable, I think you know the deal on these releases, cut to order lathe presses available within a brief – I think – one-week window before being deleted. Two releases have just been passed our way, Machinefabriek we’ll be featuring later, first up for now though, something a little special from Orphax. Better known to kith n kin as Amsterdam resident Sietse van Eve, this ultra-limited 7-inch outing features a brace of cuts that are applied with such soothing, dare we say, celestial allure as to have you thinking some heavenly visitation is upon you. ‘organs’ as the title might give hint, is an organ led recital, its reverence and sense of minimalist majesty endows the space to which it fills, with a divine like hypnotic radiance, its presence almost spiritual its effect as exacting as it is enigmatic. In contrast, the thawing ‘horns’ over on the flip is a more earthbound if not, starrily snoozing affair, a lunar fantasia yawned in sepia trimmings and a teasingly tailored lullaby detailing, all quite adorable if you are asking me. http://store.championversion.com/album/studies-in-dissonance
New album looming on the near horizon by the name ‘Savage – songs from a broken world’ due for critical attention this coming September. By way of a teaser taste, ’my name is ruin’ has been sent ahead on a covert scouting detail, it continues an ever darkening and brooding line taken up by Numan that’s been in situ since ‘splinter’. This dark soul snakes ominously beneath fire scarred skies to emerge from out of an apocalyptic mist of a Nine Inch Nails variety, all at once tight and immediate, a ravaged and battle-scarred storm calling anthem it be, scabbed in waves of sultrily Arabesque sirens.
We lifted this off the Shindig website, new thing from El Goodo, really has been way too long since they last troubled these pages, that said easily forgiven when you realise they haven’t been putting their feet up and spending their royalties and advances and into the bargain forgetting their fans, instead they’ve been busy hatching nuggets in the studio much like ‘sit and wonder’ as it happens. This has some flair and gusto, the sound indelibly soaked in a 60’s classicism the likes of whose creative reach we’ve struggled to hear since the days of Ooberman. All at once stirring, dramatic and hazily hypnotic, if we here didn’t know any better we’d have hazarded a guess that it was borne of a secret studio alliance that had for just one special night found Love in cahoots with both the Left Banke and the Zombies under the watchful arrangements of Ennio Morricone. Certainly, the best thing we’ve heard of its ilk around these here parts since the Hanging Stars started dropping gems aplenty for sheer fun.
As promised, that Machinefabriek limited issue. As previously, this is coming through Champion Version as a made to order 10-inch lathe, window of opportunity for ordering – just one week. Now this’un really is going to put noses out of joint and have long time admirers sitting bolt upright in utter captivation, for ‘fight score’ really is a sublime masterclass in measured control and the merest use of application. Woven upon a delicately balanced sonic web of silvery silk, each tremble, shake and shimmer is countered by the tiniest shifts in tonality, the arc of these slow miniscule curvatures forged upon a low end inner space spectrum, softly opine to create a mesmeric and deeply tranquil listening experience that’s akin to a visitation or at the very least, some briefly passing ecliptical event, the effect both eerie and ethereal is tinged with a palpable sense of loss as though a moment of reflection frozen in time or an epitaph marking the moment the stars go out. Strangely enough you might have expected ‘flight ambient’ to have been in contrast, a more mellower shadow of the former, how wrong you’d be. In comparison, things are a lot more busy and dare we say, energetic not to mention noisier, more panoramic and cinematic in detail and delivery, the effect all the same is dreamily serene and hitherto sombre in depiction as it curiously charters terrains more readily expected to humble and haunt your turntable by way of platters bearing the name godspeed, labradford, stars of the lid and appliance upon their hides. http://store.championversion.com/album/fight-score
Mentioned recently in despatches, Arrows of Love continue to push the pain ever more with another cut culled from their imminent ‘PRODUCT: Your Soundtrack to the Impending Societal Collapse’ full length through the I’m not from London imprint, this being ‘come with me’ which in all fairness if you fancied a bite size what does it roughly sound like type of short tag line would go thus – ‘imagine what ‘washing machine ‘ / ‘experimental jet set, trash and no star’ era Sonic Youth would have sounded like if they’d been on Touch n’ Go. Wickedly wired, fried, frenzied and skewed, a tad twisted and schizoid, doesn’t so much scab form but picks away at the ones their last single inflicted. https://soundcloud.com/arrows-of-love/08-come-with-me
fancy something a little cute and goofy, do you know there was a time when we used to get oodles of stuff that sounded like this, strangely enough from the Far East or labels such as twisted nerve and My Pal God – who said Emperor Penguin. This is, we think, Mountie – with a track by the name ‘Goddamn banana’ – must admit to loving the frost tipped warped calypso vibes wonkily wafting from its grooves, cosy and strangely warm despite its ice tipped hiccupping, did we say kooky, ah kooky indeed and a tad trippy in a Takako Minekawa type way had she been signed to weird ear dudes bearsuit records. https://soundcloud.com/mountieofficial/goddamn-banana
I’ll be honest when i say, I’m not sure that the video does this justice, that said the imagery is as fleeting as the sounds that initially attracted our ear lobes. Be honest isn’t this the sweetest thing you’ve heard since – er – the last sweet thing you heard. Anyhow this is WWWater with ‘pink letters’ – one of those most distracting moments in pop, all softly majestic, willowy and hitherto otherworldly, okay I’ll admit there were moments when we found ourselves humming along to ‘madam butterfly’ but that aside there’s something adorably spectral and shyly whispish about this which I’d be none too surprised to hazard a guess it’ll work its way into your headspace laying tiny little earworms for the hatching just from the merest of earshot’s.
Now a copy of this we have to have for fear our turntable will go into a prolonged sulk. Out on a limited flexi release via mon amie records this is the Tablets with ‘not a sign’. Admittedly this ‘un has been out a while, described on the sound cloud tags as ‘garage pop’ – really – because what hear is wonderfully wired post punk bubble-gum electro sun burnt with strangely mutant kaleidoscopic essences and fizzing kosmische fractures which unless the same ears do deceive had us much in mind of a fuzzy shoegazed variant of the Silver Apples. Whatever the case – one thing is certain – it’s essential. https://soundcloud.com/thetablets/not-a-sign-2
Another little nugget spotted on a recent rummage around soundcloud, not sure if this is readily available release wise, this is the much admired LA based Tashaki Miyaki with the simply arresting ‘out of my head’ – a beautifully hazily hazelled soft psych toned slice of dream dazed sunny folk, not far off sound wise and love noted effect it should be said to the equally adored Gulp, yet that said scratch a little deeper and what becomes obvious are the affectionate nods sonically leaning forward in the general direction of Damon and Naomi’s brief dalliance with Ghost. Utterly adorable. https://soundcloud.com/tashakimiyaki/out-of-my-head
Damn fine up and at you rock-a-hula from Jennifer, indeed you are probably all so over ‘black cat’ having bopped till your feet fell off to its primitive huffing and puffing ghost blues chug, but hey we’re not so bullish to admit sometimes nuggets sneak beneath our radar. This bad boy tunes its frenzied radar to a vintage grooving of the type so much adored over at the Dirty Waters sound house to emerge from a vacant shadow left by the Jim Jones Revue. Howling stuff. https://soundcloud.com/jennifer1966-london/black-cat
Is it just me or is this just quite wonderful, sounds as though its stepped from a 50’s silver screen or a Doris Day dream, whatever the case there’s definitely a ghostly sepia framing attaching who’s woozily detailing gives it an adorable spectral effect, sound wise veering on the outer margins of Stealing Sheep’s sound world, everything about oozes enchantment and David Lynch, a curiously beguiling fantasia. Before we forget it’s by Cassandra Jenkins and it’s called ‘hotel lullaby’ though the blurb says its ‘red lips’ – there’s an album out and about called ‘play till you win’ through Cassandra complex, I’m guessing it might be worth a peak. https://soundcloud.com/cassandrajenkins/hotel-lullaby-1
Stepping out of the shadow of his more familiar Pye Corner Audio alter ego, Martin Jenkins explores his more trance toned technoid mindset with a coolly subtronic 4 track set for medical / transfusions. Cut in limited number, the ‘Dance Cave’ EP comes pressed up on heavy slabs of black wax, from it this is the lead title track, a shapeshifting floor rumbler finitely crafted in classicist techno retro varieties of the Detroit school type, in short a falling down the rabbit hole into a misty 90’s clubland scene, trippy and mesmeric not least metered in head expanding subtronic pulses, here elements of the future sound of London, 808 state and wagon Christ collide and crystallise into a full on immersive mind mosaic with a coolly super chilled Jeff mills twiddling the mixing desk dials. https://soundcloud.com/medical-records-llc/a1-dance-cave-m1-master
Okay it seems we might have an email buried somewhere in our inbox parading new Silber ear wear that we’ve thus far either missed or mislaid, such oversight will be remedied in the coming days. In that aforementioned mail missive, we’re assuming there’s talk of new groove from Dan West under one of his many alter egos – on this occasion – ‘d’animal – word has it an album is out and about by the name ‘logic’ from which ‘hear it (creeping down the alley)’ has been sent ahead on scouting detail. The way this amorphously amorous audio apparition infuses a radiant feel good glow upon your listening space really is quite the thing of strange beguilement. An on the button rush of kaleidoscopic euphoria that on one hand has the ethereal wherewithal of C Duncan, while on the other strangely manifests to curiously recall the exuberant pop prowess of a youthful mid 70’s era Sparks, well that’s what our ears do detect and we aren’t shifting from that position any day soon. Add to the woozy lysergic palette a shimmering of 60’s vintage aligned to oodles of disco strobes and a playful panic attacking hysteria and what you have quite frankly is an adoringly affectionate slice of impishly infectious rash forming ear candy.
Alas no information on this one, literally just tripped over it on a rummage around sound cloud but I must admit to loving the way this seemingly hustles about all the time trimmed in an intricately weaved earth beat motif that’s both lulling and devilishly hypnotic, I minded to say recalling Muslim Gauze if truth be told by way of it’s very sparse and minimalist threading, anyhow it be by Benoit B and called ‘Palais d’Hiver’ – goes without saying that any information on it would be most gratefully welcomed. https://soundcloud.com/benoitb/b2-benoit-b-palais-dhiver
many apologies to the Fruits de Mer chaps and belated birthday wishes to head honcho Keith. We’ve had these lovelies on repeat play these last few weeks trying desperately in vain to free up time to mention them in full so hopefully there be Fruits de Mer words aplenty here at the weekend. For now, just a brief hi, hello, how are you meet n’ greet for their latest batch of wax wowers available right now or thereabouts. Also, to start the ball a rolling – here’s a version recorded for the BBC – the John Peel wing ding in fact from ’71 – by Pink Floyd of ‘fat old sun’ – reason for including this – well at the forthcoming ‘15th dream’ FDM summer shindig there’ll be a chance to get your paws on a super limited 12-inch lathe by Cary Grace featuring a rewiring of this very track……
First up Anton Barbeau, much admired around these here parts, his latest EP ‘heaven is in your mind’ has a rather spiffing cover of Mr Bowie’s ‘scary monsters and super creeps’ tucked amid its grooves, always a favourite in our gaff only bettered in the affection stakes by ‘up the hill backwards’ – still before we go off tangent – left in the hands of Mr Barbeau the fracturing psychosis of the original is displaced by a darkly seductive insular / walls closing in shadowy vibe, the angular hysteria smoothed and woozily redecorated into a mind expansive mosaic of soft psych flashings with the effect still eerily pitched at panic attacking level.
Also incoming on the Fruits de Mer imprint a superb full length set from the Sidewalk Society entitled ‘strange roads – the songs of rolled gold’ – the collection, a faithful revisiting and re-recording of the Action at the height of their powers is superbly finessed in such a classiscist vintage that might suggest the band themselves were loitering in the famous Abbey Road studios out of shot of the watchful eye of George Martin hiding beneath the mixing desk whilst these lost heroes were laying down their sonic threads. This wee video showcases excerpts from this sublime set into the bargain revealing an acutely tuned turn of retro phrasing that effervescently fizzes with a savvy, a swagger and a coolly cut vibrant strut from which out of its grooves permeate rekindled moments from a faded golden age.
Last up for this summer batch of Fruits nuggets, a double disc set from the legendary Fuchsia. A smattering of career spanning cuts feature on this essential limited pressing with rare cuts from the vaults – an early recording by Louise – a pre-Fuchsia adventure whose line up featured future Henry Cow man Chris Cutler, also featured a rare Fuchsia demo predating the recordings for the first album plus a smattering of cuts from his recent ‘Fuchsia II’ set. As said earlier fuller mentions arriving soon.
Unusually we’ll start this particular mention with a brief description taken straight from the press release – it goes as follows ‘…..‘Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia’, released 22nd September via My Own Pleasure, explores one person’s journey to outer space, by recounting the story of an unknown, elderly, pioneering, electronic musical stargazer and her lifelong dream to leave her terraced home in the mining town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to see Cassiopeia for herself.’ Digested – yes, taken on board – yes, I mean let’s face it from all the press bluff you’d expect something seismic both in terms of sonic composition and its reach. Better sit down then because this really is something else for ‘sunrise through the dusty nebula’ really does escape the mere description immaculate. Out of time, beyond fashion and irrefutably refusing a populist genre narrowing, what you have here is a five-minute masterclass in the exquisite, the breath-taking and the euphoric. Aided and abetted by Tubular Brass whose recent retreatment of Mike Oldfield’s ‘tubular bells’ you should be both familiar with and indeed possess as your own, Hannah Peel has revealed herself as a very rare talent for the crafting of dreams and visions into a vividly vibrant fantasia for here the blending of the heavens and the heavenly seamlessly fuse. On one level, the space context is adeptly dispatched with a sublimely freewheeling adoring whose exquisite expression sighs between solace, hope and arrival. Beneath this, the ecclesiastical or more so religious aspect swirls with a divine detailing that demurs to a point that the brassy beguiles hushly halo like shimmering choral cascades amid the glazing of heart stopping ethereal majesty. Beyond enchantment.
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/czuGs8nbJuI” frame border=”0″ allowfullscreen></frame>
Due for release, tomorrow in fact (14th), ‘time’ is one of a quartet of new piano compositions you’ll find sitting amid the grooves of a newly peeled mini-album by Poppy Ackroyd entitled ‘sketches’ through the esteemed one little Indian imprint. The collection offers a chance for listeners both old and new to bask in the classicist touch of this most tenderly traced of musicians with a smattering of previously released tracks being reworked. One thing that immediately strikes you upon hearing ‘time’ is its freewheeling captivating fluency, the crafting is deft, light almost flutterby, a beautified canvas whose colouring and detailing gets ever more intricate, vivid and vibrant with each passing section, its airy vitality and sense of free spirited roving quite impeccable not to mention disarming, its expressionism simply entrancing as it seductively sprays the listening space in the dainty doffing of pastoral posies. https://soundcloud.com/poppyackroyd/time/s-m2k8v
I must admit to being a tad taken by the almost scuffed and out of sync casualness of this nugget, hints of a very youthful Mercury Rev momentarily breeze in and out albeit as though finding themselves signed on the much-missed St Ives imprint. This is Good Morning and ‘to be won’ – a track taken from a new bedroom sucks – kind of retrospective – repackaging of their first two EP’s called ‘glory’ / ‘shawcross’, we just love the whole sparsely smokey vibe that hugs it – very distressed and frail to the point you feel obliged to throw a supporting arm around it, recalling I must say the Microphones. https://soundcloud.com/bedroomsuckrecords/good-morning-to-be-won-1
Soundcloud stuff……..icy chill wave electronica that annoyingly slipped our radar…..
https://soundcloud.com/maisondeconfiance/fracture-ouverte-sortie-de-route
https://soundcloud.com/impersonate-or-die/cosmic-latte
https://soundcloud.com/orchid-e-noire/promenades-1
https://soundcloud.com/ortrotasce/shadow
https://soundcloud.com/ferdinand-carclash/ferdinand-c-rclash-wasting
https://soundcloud.com/softriot/a-scene-from-a-dark-beach
https://soundcloud.com/werner-karloff/verloren
https://soundcloud.com/werner-karloff/verloren
https://soundcloud.com/lust-era/largas-horas
kitsch korner…….
I’m still undecided about this, I kinda like Kirsten Dunst, my head screams no but the heart…..is easily persuaded…….
i’m fairly certain we’ve mentioned this (‘Lama’) in the distant dispatches, lunar loveliness abound from Ummagma from whom a new EP is currently being prepped for release sometime September through the somewherecold imprint (the corrupting sea, Yellow6). ‘LCD’ EP be its name, on strictly limited CD release (Obscura are doing a limited cassette variant), the set features various remixes of the title track by Dean Garcia of SPC ECO / Curve fame with early pre-orders getting an instant fix of oldie ‘Lama’ here found newly spruced and rethreaded by a certain Mr Guthrie, who aside adding his remixing skills, also applies some of his trademark lilting fret flutters to the remodelling, the track itself a yearning celestial love note shimmer tone softly sighed in shoegaze seduction wandering starry environs whilst aboard a cruise controlled hermetically sealed solar bubble fuelled on whispering vapour kisses. Bliss. https://swcummagma.bandcamp.com/album/lcd
spotted on a recent scouting brief on the internet, much embarrassed to admit that this passed us by when it was originally out around this time last year, this is Bouquet with the quite wonderful ‘all living rooms’ – the track taken from a full length ‘spellbreaker’ a copy of which we really must try to track down not least because this track has something of the Damon and Naomi’s about its wares, all shimmering reverbs to die for and that vocal, ghostly seduction with the bruising quotient turned to maximum, very Mazzy Star and very emotionally crushing. https://soundcloud.com/bouquetmusic/all-living-rooms-2
we miss our fix of Sub Pop grizzled grooviness around these here parts, so you well imagine our ears were well and truly pricked and we were bolt upright in attentive adoration at new happenings from Metz. This be ‘Cellophane’ – a super charged distressed dragster blues blow out that’s over you like a rash chewing you up and spitting out ya bones along the way, blessed with a storming hairs prickling urgent anthem gusto, this discordant dandy spikes and spars with a full-on wiring and festering glam gouged white out wallop. Phew.
Time to get a little mellow don’t you think, this little nugget of easy listening groove landed on our door mat earlier today, the third volume of how do you are’s rummage through the forgotten record boxes of late 70’s west coast soul for their ongoing ‘too slow to disco’ series. So while we cobble up words of affection here’s a nifty little mix put together by turntable hipster DJ Supermarkt to whet the appetite – smoking as they’d no doubt say on ‘the Fast Show’…….
Alas no information on this brooding sore thumb, heading out of Cleveland’s hollow eyes imprint this is ‘Agalloma’ by Nikta something we are assuming you’ll find on a newly peeled cassette though at present details of their site and ordering instructions has escaped us, safe to say this is brooding stuff, darkly ominous and scabbed with a somewhat post-apocalyptic toning not to mention a shadowy futility that suggests listening alone even in daylight might not be the brightest idea you’ve had all day. All said gouged in an eerily blackened ceremonial unsettling that suggests it being something that ought to appeal to those Arell admiring folk among you. https://soundcloud.com/imprinteyes/nikta-agalloma-he013
Another track we managed to hook up by sheer accident on a recent trawl around sound cloud, this is Hesperius Draco with a cut by the name ‘space machine’ which unless I’m way off the mark is the handiwork of a certain Alessandro Parisi. Anyhow this is heading out of the Slow-Motion imprint, it’s something indelibly crafted in such an 80’s vintage that we half expected a VHS tape with a showing of some hitherto lost cult b-movie flick to mysteriously pop out from the back of our beleaguered laptop. Very much in awe of John Carpenter, ‘space machine’ is finitely cut with a futuro retro glazing that suggests its author might well be an admirer of Zombi. https://soundcloud.com/alessandroparisi/space-machine
The tension palpable, there’s an urgency and a fracturing persona present here tightly coiling itself around you, its magnetic influence growing ever more in reach and precision applying pressure all the time shrouding you in its heaving dark hearted cloak. What first appears finessed in an icily buzz sawed minimalist electro disquiet soon assumes a discordant definition and density as it rapidly sheds its skin to evolve into a surging rush to the senses, the sounds appearing to come at you from all directions, here an unravelling of confusion, collapse and chaos takes free reign as the simmering white hot tension twists and snakes into life to forcefully drag you into the eye of its frenzied black hole core, the effect is a kick to the head at once brutal and seismic. This is Thot. This is ‘odra’.
Before you ask, no we don’t have any info on these dudes. Shame really because here’s a brace of spiffing mind tripping kaleidoscopia from some dudes by the name La Main Bleue. Those of you with a thing for being plagued by the onset of regular night tremors whose gift is an imagining of what Floyd might sound like had they hooked up for a lost studio evening spent in the company of both Hawkwind and a particularly smoked out Blue Cheer, then might we suggest that ‘bouquet de larmes’ might offer a close approximation of those sleep disturbing sounds here found sprayed abundantly in rarefied essences of lysergic hallucinogenia. Equally attaching itself to our affections, ‘avec le temps’ comes possessed of the kind of swirling smoke hazed trip toning that had us imagining a bonged-out love in gathering together the mighty Dungen and a rather youthfully stoned Black Angels.
Surveying terrains more frequently occupied by the much-loved Tomorrow Syndicate, here’s another shot of Mirror House with the emergence of ‘nothing short of total bass war’, a fixed point dark star transmitting on frequencies that both blur with images of future world consequences to come and retro toned cold war surveillance memories from a not so distant past. At once clinically chilled and somewhat isolationist, its silver age trimming purrs with a foreboding eeriness seemingly looking for an early 70’s BBCTV drama foretelling of a dystopian dread to bookend. An album looms on a distant tomorrow horizon.
Message from Silber head honcho Brian alerting us to a new batch of happenings from the label, you might well recall us mentioning d’Animal a little earlier this missive to much adoring fondness. While we prep these nuggets in waiting for feature here, quite possibly over the weekend, here’s M is We with a track pulled from their current split release with thorn1, this one going by the name ‘you can’t get back’. A quickly drilled slice of razor sharpening buzz bleeding angular post punk effervescence blessed with an insidiously infectious hook haloed chorus line whose head space is irrefutably adoring of the overcasting sky siren anthems of the early 80’s, amid its rash forming jagged pop toning a spikey anxious urgency blisters over which a youthful like Robert Smith vocal jabs with panic attacking verve.
I’m sure we’ve featured stuff by the Black Watch here, it might well have been a fair few years ago that we did. Latest to their formidable catalogue which if i recall rightly stretches back some three decades is ‘satellite’ – a track pulled from their recently released full length ‘the gospel according to John’ which you can find heading out of the eskimo imprint. In short, a whirling lunar ball very much arcing into the kind of sonic space more accustomed to platters bearing the names Sunray and Stirling Roswell, in truth a bit like imagining a cosmic star watching Wedding Present c. ‘Seamonsters’ replete with oodles of heads down no nonsence motorik powered krautronics, repeat listens may cause mind expansion.
Okay this has been out for a fair old while, but we felt prompted to have a little peek to see if the pink hedgehog imprint was still around and about given it was via that label that we suspect we last had occasion to swoon to the sounds of the black watch. Anyway, we managed to root this little gem out, frankly this is preposterously perfect, by Gothic Chicken through the aforementioned pink hedgehog imprint and peeled we believe, from a set released last year by the name ‘lift the cobweb veil’, this is ‘overthrow’. In short this blighter trips out a mercurial mural of cross weaving musical mosaics across whose palette elements of late 60’s west coast psych, trance toned arabesques and wig flipping sun fried pop fuse into a lysergic listening experience the likes of which has been rarely heard here since the days of Jumbo’s debut full length ‘CB Mamas’ and to top it off all finitely cut with the kind of kookily crooked invention that recalls the Cardiacs.
A very special edition of ‘you, the night and the music’ with transmission #210 providing a showcase for the forthcoming Delaware Road gathering at the end of this month, more details to follow at the end of this mention. Two hours of the esoteric, the ethereal and the eerie is what lies in store, strange sounds emerging from the shadows and apertures of the hidden worlds of hauntology, radiophonics and electronica, here retro futuro mosaics rub shoulders with cold war pop, surveillance sonics and minimalist manipulations for a track listing very much attuned to the spirit, macabre and otherworldliness of the Buried Treasure back catalogue from which you’ll find a smattering of label delights spiriting away amid the playlist. Nothing more chilling to which to open this superbly varied set than with a spot of vintage radio play recitals from Akiha Den Den, very much tapping into the kind of strange twilight worlds of Nigel Kneale, these broadcasts originally available last year drew a nightmarish tone very much symbolic of classic Brit horror fayre – dimensions colliding, isolated rural locations and the terrorphonic impact of the narrated word, these transmissions we believe are being readied for full vinyl appearance soon via Castles in Space. Classic old school electronic abstraction comes in the shape of the wilfully obtuse deconstructivism of Ian Helliwell’s aptly titled ‘playing up’ – a track very much schooled in the ways of freeform manipulation. Those fancying their sounds piloting into the hallucinogenic realms of dream, mind loss and I dare say, chemical hazes might do well to tune your radar to Keith Seatman and Douglas E Powell’s darkening psychedelic void ‘boxes with rhythms in’ – a truly tripping head f*** if you can pardon us the slipping into the colloquial vernacular. Some pastoral lunar pop be your bag, then look no further than the seafaring celestial mirages prettily purring from Listening Center’s demurring ‘main reading room’ – very ISAN. Elsewhere and turning our heads, Agathe Max’s aptly named ‘pagan’ ought to appeal to those of you equally smitten with both Preterite and the Hare and the Moon for here a dance of mystical folk seduction peels through the fractures of time. Still kicking ourselves here for missing that recent Vic Mars full length for polytechnic youth, still, must admit to being a tad taken by the wonderfully nostalgic lilt of the lazy eyed rustic sprays adoring ‘kosmos 582’. Another album in need of immediate acquisition here is buried treasure’s recent vault find from Yuri Morozov, a set so awash in a variance of styles, techniques and genre bending aplomb that it’s so far ahead of the curve that its meeting itself on the way back, all we’ll say is that it’s hard to imagine ‘Avidia’ being a lost 70’s cut – much in the spirit of Komeda. More mentions to come about a year in the country whose new ‘undercurrents’ set we’ve just taken delivery of, here’s a little something from the not so distant past with the tearfully touching and melancholic ‘the filters gone / the last man to play the last piano’, a parting epitaph heralding the cataclysmic event of the stars going out and surely it must be high time for new Assembled Minds groove, for now here’s the haunted musical box mirage that is ‘morris horror’ taking notes, one would imagine, from fortdax. loose capacitor stump up a faithfully dinky cover of the ‘theme from Robin’s Nest’ which if I recall rightly the original of which featured the handiwork of its star Richard O’Sullivan while its left to the pulselovers to round out matters with a rather spiffing take on one of the finest theme tunes to have graced a TV show – we’re talking the John Barry scored ‘the theme from the Persuaders’.
The featured players as follows – Jacques Lasry – Akiha Den Den – Konstantin Raudive – Children of Alice – Fred und Luna – Ian Helliwell – Keith Seatman & Douglas E Powell – Listening Center – René Halkett – CHXFX – Agathe Max – Pulselovers – Luke Mawdsley – Art of the Memory Palace – Vic Mars – Julius Vanderbilt – Grey Frequency – Jon Brooks – The Asistent – Howlround – Laker Herzog – The Soulless Party – Yuri Morozov – Broadcast – A Year In The Country – John Baker – Dolly Dolly – Teleplasmiste – Delia Derbyshire – Revbjelde – Jo Quail – Freddie Phillips – Mat Handley – Boards Of Canada – Ian Humberstone – Assembled Minds – Helen Tookey & Sharron Kraus – The Future – Concretism – Loose Capacitor – Robin’s Nest Theme.
As to the Delaware Road event, an evening of film, sounds and theatre from the Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker. The event to be held on Friday 28th July 2017 will feature a very special gathering of folk among the roll call the likes of Dolly Dolly, Concretism, the Mummers and the Pappers, Radionics Radio, Simon James, Glitch Saunders and Hill, DJ Food and many more……for an ethereal evening of strange, sometimes surreal and sinister sonic delights……
More details…. www.thedelawareroad.weebly.com
http://www.simonsound.co.uk/blog/2017/6/5/delaware-road-at-kelvedon-hatch-nuclear-bunker
interlude……Delaware Road……Teleplasmiste, the twelve-hour foundation, tim hill, revbjelde, howlround, loose capacitor, concretism, simon james, akiha den den…..
Teleplasmiste……
The twelve hour foundation…
Tim hill…..
Revbjelde…..
Howlround…..
Loose capicator…..
Concretism…..
Simon james……
Akiha den den…..
Many thanks to Keith over at Fruits de Mer for sending over advance copies of a rather spiffing single sided clear lathe cut 12 inch that’ll be available in limited quantities and ready to grab by all those of you attending the three day 15th dream of Dr Sardonicus festival at Cardigan this coming August. Alas our copy isn’t your actual must have vinyl version but a CD pressing and features a wonderfully blissed out rephrasing of Floyd’s ‘fat old sun’ by Cary Grace. A fifteen minute head happening smoked in the finest essences that mystic progressive folk has to offer and something with which I must say I’m in totally agreement with regards to the bands cautious suggestion that they’d made it their own per the attaching press release, for here they perfectly capture both the spirit and vintage of the era to remould this oft overlooked Floyd gem into a superbly mellowed tie dyed turn on replete with a head expanding array of astral fantasias and all manner of tripping wooziness, in short totally far out.
transistor listening…….
Marathon man – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08xx9tn
the ipcress file – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01697h2
cassette nostalgia……
a demonstration tape from the early 70’s……
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
End grooves…..
….a little light relief in the hands of Alas Smith and Jones…..
the sunday experience 