wired for sound part 5: crochet – like a diamond in the sigh

July 20, 2010 at 7:49 am | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a comment
Tags: drone, no audience underground, tapes

Over the months I’ve come to notice that a sudden spike in my viewing figures usually means one thing: that another alumni of the no-audience underground has stumbled across my blog and has been catching up whilst skiving at work or inbetween baby feeds.

And so it was last week when none-other than Rob Galpin, formerly of the zine/label Sunny Days Out, dropped me a line.  He had discovered his mention in the first part of ‘wired for sound’.  I used to really dig his zine, which came on thin sheets of dried wood pulp and had to be downloaded directly into your brain via your eyes.  I also grooved on being invited to appear on his tape compilation folksoulnoise 2001 alongside such luminaries as…, well see for yourself:

Here’s my track: cheap food.  Hmmm… not sure about this now but see what you think.  If bubbles could also be spikey, I guess it might sound like this.

Anyway, Rob tells me that after a spell recording with Lee ‘Culver’ Stokoe he has spent the last coupla years doing the right thing and focusing on family life (hello to Nicola and Arlo).  However, tasting the air like a snake, he has caught the scent of ferric oxide and reckons the time is right for some new Galpin tape-aktion.  A copy of which has obligingly found its way into my hands.

‘Like a Diamond in the Sigh’ by Crochet is a one-sided tape of roughly half-an-hour’s duration.  The first of two tracks sounds like someone playing an 8-bit arcade machine in the flat above yours.  Compressed, metallic and bassy at first, this starts to meander until it calls to mind those spiders from Tron spending an afternoon off making melancholy improv.  Track two continues the theme by starting like the soundtrack to a Grimm’s fairy tale for androids.  Perhaps robo-hansel and robo-gretel have been abducted by the robo-witch.  This is gradually smeared out by a pulsing hum, seemingly created from that satisfying ‘tchummmm’ noise you get when tapping a jack to make sure the lead is plugged into the amp.  I dig this: involving, lo-fi, very tape.

Limited to 35 copies, self-released.  If you’d like a copy I know Rob prefers trading, otherwise I’m sure some crass financial arrangement could be made.  Contact him at: robgalpin@btinternet.com