neshening: new from neil campbell

January 21, 2016 at 12:21 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | 3 Comments
Tags: astral social club, neil campbell

neil campbell – GOTH / NESH (self-released CD-r, edition of 20 or download)

So, in brief, it goes like this: I’ve known Neil since, what?, 1999 or something. His music, solo and with Vibracathedral Orchestra, taught me that noise didn’t need to be shrouded in a three-quarter length leather coat but instead could be a joyous, delirious, life-affirming experience. I cribbed shamelessly from his example – everything from my overall attitude to noise to the way I bob and weave whilst performing as midwich is, in part, due to his influence. Then, what?, in 2011 or something his work as Astral Social Club took a turn I didn’t approve of – the swirl of incense was replaced by a fug of burning plastic – and, like every entitled fanboy does when their hero moves on, I got the hump. This culminated in a falling out around Christmas 2014 due to me acting like a right bulb-end on Twitter and since then, whilst relations have been restored and we remain as friendly as we ever were, I’ve maintained a respectful distance from the music just, y’know, in case…

The upshot is that this CD-r (edition of 20, given away at a show celebrating the contribution of Pascal Ansell to the Leeds scene and wishing him well with his move to Lisbon) is the first release actually put into my hands by Neil in years. I accepted with gratitude/trepidation and had to ask what ‘nesh’ means (slang for ‘soft’ apparently). I saw that it was a ‘collage of unreleased/unfinished neil campbell music’ but nevertheless thought: I’m going to listen the fuck out of this.

I’m glad I did. Edited into one 42 minute piece, these various blobs of hand-made gelato melt and merge into a proper treat. There are (I presume) outtakes from the James Joyce project (more on that to come from Joe), a charming spoken dream about looking for the moon, some ominous radiophonics to chase you behind the sofa, a muezzin call accompanied by Cabaret Voltaireish elecktroplinkage and a beautiful, keening psych guitar outro worthy of that Phil Todd. Indeed, a question I ask myself when reviewing in order to counter any pre-existing bias is:

If this were on an Ashtray Navigations album how would I react?

…and the honest answer in this case is I’d be in raptures. Of particular note is a two minute section beginning around the 18 minute mark which seems to me the perfect bridge between the organic psychedelia I so loved and the robokrunch of Astral Social Club that so did my head in. I have sat re-re-rewinding this bit whilst staring out the window in amused bewilderment. It’s ace.

In conclusion: the second time I heard this all the way through it was just finishing as I arrived at work. I walked into the bogs, removed my ear buds and, at that very moment, the tail end spattering of the urinal’s auto-flush sounded like a round of applause.

That’s me told,

I thought. Now I’m telling you.

—ooOoo—

Neil Campbell