new for the new year! ‘the swift’ by midwich on altar of waste

January 7, 2014 at 9:23 am | Posted in midwich, new music, no audience underground | 4 Comments
Tags: altar of waste, cory strand, drone, midwich, midwich for sale, new music, no audience underground, noise, shameless self-congratulation

Midwich – The Swift (CD-r in DVD case, Altar of Waste, AOW 145, edition of 15)

Hmmm… never thought of myself as a curly font sort of act but that cover is lovely isn’t it?  RFM is very proud to kick off 2014 by announcing the availability of some new midwich material.  The Swift comprises one 65 minute track, on CD-r, presented in a beautifully designed cover, in a tiny hand-made edition, by highly-regarded American noise label Altar of Waste.  Here is the very flattering blurb written by AoW head-honcho Cory Strand:

Gorgeous and tidal cascade of gentle droning sounds that become something akin to a crushing roar from the between the cracks in the sky and the broken limbs of trees, Midwich’s epic construction “The Swift” is a piece that flirts with both natural ambience and HNW severity without fulling giving over to either.  Created from field recordings of swarms of swifts procured by the artist, the sounds here recall both the bleak pastoral harmony of the English landscape and the encroaching rumbles of black clouds swarming the sky.  Similar in tone to the work of Richard Skelton with a goodly dose of Daniel Menche’s and Clive Henry’s approaches to manipulated field recordings, “The Swift” is an amazing composition that demonstrates both the awesome power of the natural world around us and the possibilities inherent within electronic manipulation.  An incredibly creative work that blurs whatever genre lines you’d care to draw.

Altar Of Waste is very pleased to release this latest missive from one of the UK’s finest practitioners of underground drone.  Succumb to the swarm and feel the tense beating of thousands of wings buzzing around you.  Breathe in the awe.

I’m blushing! Still, I have to admit I’m very pleased with this.  Although it builds on previous ‘augmented field recording’ pieces like ‘Eaves‘ and ‘Seasonal Adjustment‘ I think it is a notable step forward for midwich.  It is built from a number of sources – synth drones, domestic and backyard recordings – and at over an hour long easily my lengthiest and most ambitious piece.

A quick word about pricing.  For those in the USA this is a steal at ten bucks all in and there are no excuses for not gracing Cory with your custom.  For those here in the UK, or elsewhere in the world, you may blink a bit to discover that this will set you back $23 (about £14 at time of writing) including postage.  This is because US international postal rates have risen to an absolutely brutal level.  Cory has taken some stick for his prices, and defends himself eloquently here.  To paraphrase: postal charges are beyond his control, he makes a loss on almost every item he sends abroad but does it anyway because, like the rest of us, he loves the music.  Think about it like this: what you’ll be getting is a new and intriguing piece by “one of the UK’s finest practitioners of underground drone” at a high-value length in a beautiful package from a tiny edition.  There is no digital afterlife planned for it either.  If it helps, all purchasers may download everything from my Bandcamp page whilst paying nowt and feeling no guilt for doing so…

[EDIT: you lot have done me proud – nine days after release and six days after the post above and there are only three copies left!  Many thanks, comrades.  If you want one – and of course you do – better not sleep on it… RH – 13/01/2014.]

The Swift on Altar of Waste blog.

Buy The Swift from Altar of Waste store.