wired for sound part 18: ashtray navigations – human wrecktronics / too few notes

September 22, 2011 at 8:16 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a comment
Tags: ashtray navigations, drone, medusa, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, phil todd, tapes

Ashtray Navigations – Human Wrecktronics/Too Few Notes (Medusa #102)

Occasionally, dear reader, I find myself struck by the certain knowledge that a particular release, as yet unheard by me, is bound to be truly wonderful.  I then quiver with anticipation until said object is in my possession.  The reliability of this knack is uncanny.

And so it proves here.  I started to covet this tape when I saw a photo of a box full of them on the Ashtray Navigations blog and I was mighty delighted when Phil slid me a copy under the pub table a couple of weeks later.  In-between those two events the usual object of my covetous desires - my neighbour’s ox Flossy - stood glumly at the garden fence not getting a look in.  Ahhh… lovely Flossy – forgive my infidelity, one day you will be mine!

Anyway, the spec is as follows: double sided tape in fold-out cardboard sleeve fastened with a Velcro button.  The Medusa website lists this as a C22 but that is not correct: the red side lasts 20 minutes and the green side only a couple of minutes less.  Each side features one track and each track is an authentically inauthentic jam created by Phil Todd from various mysterious sources and swaddled in overdubs.  Side one guest stars Neil Campbell and side two features Ashtray regular Mel and the irregular Phil Legard.

The music returns us to the company of the Interstellar Buddha mentioned in the Cinderella Stamps review.  This time our intrepid hero finds himself in the court of a decadent androgynous God-King – I’m picturing a cross between Mick Jagger in Performance and that green chick in her underwear in the Star Trek reboot.  The God-King listens amused as Interstellar Buddha preaches the noble truth that all existence is suffering and then, rather missing the point, orders a three day bacchanalian orgy to prove him wrong.  Interstellar Buddha tries to protest but someone/thing spikes his drink and he ends up joining in.  The proceedings are sound-tracked here, sometimes in high definition, sometimes in slow motion.  It is glorious – I’ve been flipping it from side to side in my walkman non-freakin’-stop.

Treat yourself to a copy via AshNav here or why not go direct to Medusa here.