neshening: new from neil campbell
January 21, 2016 at 12:21 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | 3 CommentsTags: 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—
through the city, undetected: luke vollar on sheepscar light industrial and daniel thomas
March 16, 2015 at 1:59 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | 2 CommentsTags: ap martlet, astral social club, cherry row recordings, daniel thomas, dave thomas, drone, electronica, extraction music, field recording, hagman, luke vollar, michael clough, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, noise dads, sheepscar light industrial
Neil Campbell – Oystercatcher Salad (3” CD-r, Sheepscar Light Industrial, SLI.029, edition of 50 or download)
Michael Clough – MetaMachineMusic (3” CD-r, Sheepscar Light Industrial, SLI.028, edition of 50 or download)
Hagman – Inundation (3” CD-r, Sheepscar Light Industrial, SLI.030, edition of 50 or download)
Daniel Thomas – Visitors (CD-r, Cherry Row Recordings, CRR006, edition of 25 or download)
Here’s a common theme at Radio Free Midwich: middle aged dads with a burning passion for exotic ear wax carried from their formative years but with less time to listen. Gone (for now at least) are the days of staring out of the window, watching the trees sway, cradling a warming goblet of spiced absinthe and spinning the latest 13 inch lathe cut by Arse Bracket [Editor’s note: remember them, eh?], letting the sounds seep into your subconscious while the alcohol and powdered Arabian monkey husk seep into your blood stream…
…and so it is that I come to review four releases from the orbit of Daniel Thomas, not as the libertine dandy I (never) was but as a regular bloke with small children. Thus the quadruple offering is heard as a soundtrack to loading the dishwasher, unloading the washing machine and so on. I fear that if I were to pop a three inch CD-r in my car stereo (my guaranteed listening window en route to work) I wouldn’t see it again and so I grab opportunities when I can to listen, mostly on my small tablet. Wanting to do these discs the justice they deserve I have taken my time and returned to them whenever possible.
We’ll start with Neil Campbell’s Oystercatcher Salad. Birdsong, muffled chatter and guitars that wail like, erm…, whales make this an enjoyable twenty minutes from the original chatty man. I’m a big fan of electric guitars being left to do their own thing aside from being occasionally nudged and that is what we get here. Perhaps this is Campbell’s love song to The Dead C. Having said that, Neil seems to be aiming for a wide open vista, beach at sunset vibe and there’s part of me that thinks cutting back on the unnecessary clutter (the avian chatter gets a bit much) would improve the view.
Onwards to Michael Clough’s MetaMachineMusic and this is the kinda jus I know I’m gonna dig in seconds. Clough confounds with some very real audio trickery as we descend through a serpentine drone tunnel into the catacombs. Are we listening to a sleek silver panglobuloid insectular robovore as it flits through the city undetected (it can go invisible, ya dummy) picking up information through its unfeeling eyes to feed back to some dark overlord via a bank of TV screens and software that processes the data for the impending meltdown of civilization as we know it? Probably.
Inundation by Hagman is the best thing that the Thomas Brothers [Editor’s note: no relation] have produced thus far [Editor’s note: bold claim, comrade]. Delivered with exquisite economy and steely determination, the two patiently mould a glowing ember of sound into a pulsing ball of ectopic expression that radiates a nocturnal glow like a sleeping power plant in the rain. No bucolic birdsong or babbling brooks here – more an urban soundtrack to a concrete sprawl pulsing with electricity. It’s the kind of thing that our very own editor might instruct his chauffeur to play whilst being driven to Wharf Chambers, the slow methodical whump in time with the passing street lights reflected in his mirrored sunglasses. He surveys the city in transit: his face a mask, his grip on his ivory tipped cane steady and fixed.
Daniel Thomas’s Visitors maintains the high quality with a collection of stately pieces that are making my eyelids heavy as I try to write this (in the best possible way). Simple humming noises are left to run as smoke like tendrils escape into the aether, flickering machine sounds give birth to pure beams of light and ticker tape melodies play out to deserted car parks and services stations. Seems this CD-r is already gone and the other discs mentioned are, if not sold out then dwindling to their final copies. An indication of the growing audience for Sheepscar Light Industrial and Daniel Thomas’s own brand of extraction music and hardly surprising given the winning combination of low prices and immensely gratifying ear mung. Judging by this latest batch the quality remains on an upward trajectory.
—ooOoo—
best gig poster ever, innit?
November 25, 2014 at 11:10 am | Posted in live music, midwich, new music, no audience underground | 1 CommentTags: ashtray navigations, astral social club, daniel thomas, dave thomas, drone, electronica, forgets, hagman, human combustion engine, john clyde-evans, kroyd, mel o'dubhslaine, midwich, mitch, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, phil todd, shameless self-congratulation, trowser carrier, uk muzzlers, wharf chambers
Hey folks – just a final reminder that the above is happening this Saturday. Only midwich show of 2014! (Un)official RFM 5th birthday shindig! Also, rehijacked by Phil and Mel of Ashtray Navigations as their joint birthday party too! Check out this poster from gig promoter Mitch! It’s a design classic! Can you believe it only took him 15 minutes to make?! See y’all there!
eye for detail: a long month passes quickly
November 2, 2014 at 10:09 pm | Posted in midwich, new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ap martlet, aqua dentata, astral social club, bbblood, breather, brian lavelle, chrissie caulfield, clive henry, dale cornish, daniel thomas, devotional hooligan, dr:wr, drone, dsic, eddie nuttall, electronica, foldhead, gerado picho, hagman, hardworking families, helicopter quartet, improv, in fog, joe murray, john tuffen, julian bradley, karl mv waugh, la mancha del pecado, michael clough, michael gillham, midwich, miguel perez, neil campbell, new music, nick allen, no audience underground, noise, orlando ferguson, panelak, pascal ansell, paul walsh, paul watson, posset, psychedelia, pyongyang plastics, scott mckeating, shameless self-congratulation, simon aulman, the piss superstition, the red cross, the zero map, tom bench, van appears, yol, zn
It is now a month since eye for detail, the midwich remixes album, was released as a Bandcamp download. In that time there have been 35 purchases and well over a thousand plays of the individual tracks. More than £150 has been raised for The Red Cross as a result. I can only repeat how grateful and touched I am to those that contributed and to those that have supported it. Keep spreading the word.
Now that a little time has passed some critical reaction has started to bubble to the surface. Opinion first popped into being via Twitter, of course, and friends of RFM like Miguel Pérez and Paul Watson used their 140 characters to praise favourite pieces. Others have stepped out of the limelight to send me personal emails, such as the enigmatic Daniel Thomas. Paul Margree posted a welcome summary over at We need no swords – grinning and shrugging at the enormity of it and shooing his readership in this direction. Andy Wild has played extracts on the 81st edition of the Crow Versus Crow radio show too. The ‘scene’ has rallied around in a most heart-warming fashion.
Further to the above I have also, amazingly, had not one but two track-by-track accounts sent to me. The first of which is a collection of one-liners from the over-clocked, fizzing metaphor engine that is RFM’s own Joe Murray, the second a lengthier effort from my friend Nick Allen.
Joe needs little introduction but Nick is a new name here. We have been friends and work colleagues for many years. He is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic music fan and a frequent gig-goer but is by no means a noise head. He has listened in a tolerant, amused and open minded manner to me gabbing on about it all the while we’ve been sat in an office together and has done me the courtesy of coming to see me play live at Wharf Chambers. In return I have suffered no worse than occasional piss-taking which I consider fair exchange. Being a good sort he donated a tenner to the cause and, after dipping his toe in once or twice, decided that he was going to spend a Saturday afternoon immersed: listening to the whole lot, in order and making notes as he did so. Blimey.
Both sets of reactions are posted in full below. Why not open the eye for detail Bandcamp page in another window and listen along as you read?
Oh, and finally, Nick is an occasional writer of poetry and the combination of a glorious Yorkshire sunrise experienced whilst listening to the track by ZN inspired him to write ‘Juego de la Luz’ – also posted below. Should you enjoy it, Nick has a terrific 32 page, A6, self-published booklet of his work (called, with admirable brevity, ‘Poems’) available for nowt much so email him at the address at the foot of this post and make arrangements. I’m on my fourth copy because I keep wanting to pass them on to others I think will be interested – high praise.
First up – Joe:
Various Artists – Eye for Detail (The Midwich affair)
Micro-reviews/descriptions/impressions of each piece from the Now That’s What I Call Midwich smash hit.
Dale Cornish – Management. Hissing clicks like freshwater shrimps gone loco. Wonderfully sparse.
Aqua Denta – Natural Wastage. A glassy shroud wrapped round a tin body. After time rusty horns blow.
In Fog – Verdigris. A Mynah Bird enrols at IRCAM. This is her final project (informed by heartbreak).
Dsic – Procedures. The gods throw road mending equipment through a black hole.
Clive Henry – Witch Mania, Mend Gem. Scrabble tiles become sentient and form one-note Tangerine Dream tribute act.
Brian Lavelle – Slowly, we illuminate future truths. New Star Wars theme slowed down 1000 times.
Van Appears – Molluscs. Undersea skat. SCUBA improv. Oxygen/Nitrogen mix set to high
AP Martlet – New Plateaus. Elegy for out-of-date School Atlas (circa 1951).
Foldhead – Glacier. Super minimal like pink frost.
Chrissie Caulfield – oTo T50. A sharp intake of robot’s breath. Klezmer exhale.
DR:WR – Left Unresolved. Prison riot as heard through battered brass ear-trumpet.
Hardworking Families – Be to under weather to be. Sunshine distilled into individual waves, pickled then shook in a jar.
John Tuffen from Orlando Fergusson – Weather to be Under. As above but dubbed like On-U Sound.
Panelak – Irnwrks. Chipped-crockery-core! Salty blood runs over teeth staining them pink. Sharp to the touch.
Simon Aulamn – Too Early. A spitting porpoise (of course).
Paul Watson – Midwich. Sneak into the chapel. Stuff the organ pipe with potato. Hit the keys for chips.
Posset – A Moment of Stillness. Dictaphone frottage in Lovecraftian word jam.
The Piss Superstition – tinymuscle. The Detroit mass transport system scored for bic pens and pocket fluff.
Michael Clough – Left Unresolved. Thomas Tallis jumps in the Tardis and demands sexy-android motet.
Neil Campbell – MidwichMIX. Sly Stone comes round to polish yr Horsebrasses? Beware excessive Brasso fumes.
Devotionalhallucinatic – August in Ribblehead. Severe throttling. Barbed Wire snogs. Not a great first date.
Michael Gilham – oTo T22 Part II. Tractor beam vibrations, asteroid mining, dirty spacecracft.
Daniel Thomas – Striking Flint. Cast Iron Cello rubbed till the rivets pop out.
Breather – Floating. The real Pirate Radio material…stick that up your Skinner!
Yol – Stoma 2. Real-live stutter gob vs Jojouka horns (acid remix)
ZN – La Industria De La Luz. The Museum of Misery opens its doors. Churning machinery whirrs inside with dismal efficiency. In your pocket, an invitation…
Andy Jarvis – Bosky. Shit. Wish I’d thought of this. Pure vocal drone like some Pandit Pran Nath dude. Heavy vocal sludge gets more and more looped and freaky. God damn perfect!
—ooOoo—
OK, that’s that for Joe, over to Nick:
I know almost nothing about this music – so here goes – I have had one run through a week or so ago…in bits…when I picked out Cassie Caulfield and Michael Clough as early front runners, let’s see how they perform now its all in one sitting. It is 1.30pm on Saturday 18 October, press PLAY and let the spontaneous prosody begin:
Management – Dale Cornish
static bursts or restrained pissing…something frying long pauses…a message not reaching me
Natural Wastage – Aqua Dentata
outside…natural atmospheric background…perhaps a distant motorway…higher scratchings…spirals…low-level tinnitus…flying saucers from Plan B from Outer Space…an itching…something more coming into view…more solid…almost expect the screen to wobble a la transportation device of sci-fi TV…nevertheless a peaceful embracing enveloping atmosphere…also something of Sunday morning church bells (I can hear my dishwasher in the background glugging a rapid beat)…entering bat territory…higher higher pitch…like listening to a Turner painting, hearing colours…inside a sensory depravation tank with my eyes open…pulsing…meditative…a note, sustained…riding over, riding over…a crashed car with the horn jammed…a ferry…pulled out of calm…fade…stop
verdigris – In Fog
accidental musicality…placid…measured…sounds like a workshop…with an insect trapped…a guide bell…a mood reminiscent of the White Lunar album (N Cave and W Ellis)…fitfull/restful
Procedures – dsic
clamour…clamour…irregular jerking clamour…opening different doors in an industrial factory one after the other…working with the caffeine to increase heartbeat…I can’t help wondering why…space invaders!…and then a drill…all sent to annoy…some pre-recorded music and bleeping…finished and not sad
witch mania, mend gem – Clive Henry
digging, chipping…low backdrop…the sound of an insect invasion, walking…bricklaying…nothing restful…constantly constant…to a whistledown stop and something…walking on bubblewrap (question mark)…wet finger on a glass rim…paranoia perhaps…this could hurt…two apparently unrelated soundtracks…converging on an incoming tide…the hurricane winds battering the wooden window boards in downtown Florida somewhere
Slowly, we illuminate future truths – Brian Lavelle
revelation, and the clouds part…for the first time I close my eyes…a wider picture…within…too calm to be euphoric…there is a place, there is a place…boats passing boats, unseen – that’s something from Apocalypse Now, I’m sure…
Molluscs – Van Appears
Headunderwaterlistening…high tide perhaps…recorded dolphin speak but the voice has been disguised to protect their identity
New Plateaus – ap martlet
pressure build…irritation…a white noise box to mask traffic and city clamour…in a block of flats above an urban motorway, the JG Ballard flyover, and from the balcony you watch the lights swing following the same path, following the same path, lighted traction from the darkest fraction…a city in all its horror and glory…follow the red lights bead…the blinking white lines…sodium…it must all lead somewhere…repetition, the flow, of repetition…dementia…fractures our habits…the neverending nightcity hum…enter the void…there is a darkness beyond…still falling or climbing, hard to tell…exposure…try not to blink…water pressure builds…the last lost signal is broadcast – END
glacier – foldhead
less glacier, more fog, sea fret…immersion and low frequency vibration…soothe…calm intention…passed through some kind of body scanner…observed…minutely…for some reason whales come to mind…perhaps their song…I see in greens and blues…the Sea of Tranquility is green and bottomless and calm…adrift…dreamlike…slumber beckoning…sleep phantoms loom and pass harmless, soft creatures of the deep withstanding enormous gravity, eyeless blind…take an age, we grow…to achieve
oTo T50 – Chrissie Caulfield
outside or wind or…something landing…musical, structural almost a rhythm…there is a Who intro keyboard, slightly…violin-ish…and then cello…trepidation…a sense of lurking…before the trauma…Hitchcock’s Psycho…and so of course, blood in water…some message tapped out
left unresolved (short) – DR:WR
too many voices calling…cannot pick out a thread…interwoven…a sense of cacophony controlled…layers…no structure but mass…diminish…what will happen…
Be To Under the Weather to be – Hardworking Families
the start, the keyboard, the looping beat, then the skip, move up, shape, an invitation to dance, and to risk a beat, this is the dance track, played backwards, beats meet you out of sequence causing surprise, call and refrain, where are the horns, playful, happyhappy, repeatedly running towards me smiling in the video, definitely a song for spring not autumn
Weather to be Under (five is the number he is bounteous) – John Tuffen from Orlando Ferguson
Ibiza choon…arms waving through lights…risings…sunrise…this could pass for euphoria in a bleak world…where next though where next out of the loop…some scattered thoughts fleet and dash before being grabbed and harnessed…and so the loop, ever on, ever on with the loop…mobius sound…within sight of the place we started…zone in zone out…not boredom but the same effect of inattention…the focus is shattered…no, something softer than shattered…but the centre is nevertheless lost in all the rounding circularity…spirals…concentrated meandering always tethered…I’d like my drugs now please
Irnwks – Panelak
flckng rd sttns…nny nny…no pleasure to be had…Alex in Clockwork Orange had his eyelids pinned open…watching someone operate on a broken bone in your leg in your leg because they forgot the anaesthetic…followed by indecision…not unhinged, just hingeless…why would you…
remix of Midwich’s Too Early from Every Day is the same – Simon Aulman
(at 3 minutes this is the Ramones remix)…channelling paranoia…from a bad bad place…do less…much less…a longed for beat stop
Midwich (Hangover mix) – Paul Watson
lethargic crepuscular start…moving with a heavy heart…a car door?…in darkness water dripping…ripples and swirls…open the hands over the mouth and close again childhood megaphones…movement…through a corridor…listening from inside a cupboard afraid of detection…muffle…hiding, stay hidden…steps overhead, steps overheard…feels like ghosts…when you’re unsure
a moment of stillness – posset
verbal verbal…muttered words overlaid an aural mosaic senseless confusion I hear treacle but this is not glutinous it shatters and cracks and loops insensible a moment of stillness is sought, is noted a moment of stillness a moment a moment it is brave and compulsive I imagine him rocking rocking rocking without stop without eventually reaching for the wall like an exhausted swimmer
tinymuscle – the piss superstition
something organic growing one of those slo-mo shots of plants shoots emerging…the remnnants of a dance loop…an antiquity…dust on the needle…laboured breathing, perhaps emphysema, with an oxygen tank by the side of the chair…old industry…with a light touch…a hope…I start to imagine Ian Curtis’ voice…I’m at a loss as to why…
left unresolved cakemix edit – Michael Clough
a spaceship’s groans as it flexes…who would hear it…is it instead the magnified groanings of our knees as we stand again, cartilage upon cartilage…nevertheless it is a wave of sound that seems to enfold in an understated calm…something derived from the element of things…not quite the Buddhists’ chant of Om…closer less ethereal…I am reminded of the alien goo in Under the Skin, that absorbs men, erections and all…which all seems a long way from “cakemix”…the bringer of peace?
midwichMIX – Neil Campbell
tuning up…layers…not yet distressed enough to be Sonic Youth…as if you were touching a piece of metalwork and hearing the vibrations at its atomic level…there is a cohesive harmony but it is hidden among the density…such weight…occasional shafts of light penetrate
august in ribblehead – devotionalhallucinatic
(I like Ribblehead)…adrummerinthedistance…is the foundation…scraping away (an old Jam song)…an element of something happening over there… a show, a performance to be watched, passively…completely immersive
oTo T22 – Part II – Michael Giliham
gently meditative…not quite pastoral…slowly lifting…could be an interlude…so much scope, so much space…allows steady breathing…we float…unhurried…nothing seems immanent…the Northern Lights
Striking Flint – Daniel Thomas
deep echo…slowed dub electronica…all about the pattern on the cardiogram caused by the waves…the repeat and the variance…the approach and the retreat…the search for the optimal point…benign hypnosis…there must be a centre…standing on the shore of an avatar sea…watching the lights on the boats…knowing that the unknowable teems beneath…shoals…that pulse in light…thin filtered light…all this submerged beauty…beyond reach…beyond…timetracklost of…
throating (stomaching) – Breather
(almost) feedback…return nourishment…non-stomaching…which is of course vomit…not a reflection on the sounds, which are gastric at best…push a gurgle through a re-verb…insistent like an alarm…bike horns, he asks unsure…pleasant enough without cramping…
Stoma 2 – YOL
This sort of noise in a supermarket would make you skip to the next aisle and vow to yourself that next time you’ll do the shop on line.
La industria de la Luz – ZN
(this was partially responsible for a poem on the first hearing; see end, Juego de la Luz)
builds and builds…slow accumulation…uncertain pressure…pushing…
something below…an expectation builds…waiting…a chrysalis splitting…no clear view yet…never quite in focus…yet intense…perhaps it is a birth…waiting for what…it is breathing, it is everything, it is repetition it is grind and it is the turning day…the sound of white light at the end of the tunnel…
Bosky (AJ vocal remix) – Andrew Jarvis
…and so the last one…tibetan monk chanting lost behind feedback… something bizarre…squalls over mutterings…vague sense of it being something from another time…or unearthly or uninterpretable…an outtake from the White Album…if I hear a scouse twang I’ll believe it…comes a point where a rock song could climb and take off…but instead it meanders and fades…never less than interesting.
…and we’re done – at 17.23 – off to Fanny’s.*
[*Editor’s note: Fanny’s Ale House is a pub in Saltaire near where Nick lives. I thought it best not to leave that ambiguous…]
—ooOoo—
Juego de la Luz
Awash,
The tentative dawn spills gentle and golden
Sweeping the valley like euphoria
This is what I imagine a warm wind
Would look like, or a heart in love
Rising behind the mass of Windhill
As if a great dam is breaching
Making shadow theatre silhouettes of the radio mast
Which lacks only sails to ride out to sea
And the great chimneys of the ex-factories
Blackly loom exclaiming their redundancy
The lambent air is still, the river’s skin
Lies un-nipped and un-blistered
This gold slips warm and soft along
The singing overhead cables
While the melting iron of Dali’s tracks
Lead the sliced eye to flattened horizons
What will today bring. I suspect
The attentive heron knows, the drifting swan
And the bolting deer locked in their moment of
Stillness, will both know. I am gently enraptured
By this timorous dawn, under whispering mists,
That offers a promise of transcendence
On arriving in the city I find
I no longer understand traffic jams
—ooOoo–
Nick Allen: Panic@6haroldplace.co.uk
midwich live! the radio free midwich 5th birthday shindig! saturday 29th november 2014! wharf chambers, leeds!
October 26, 2014 at 9:06 pm | Posted in blog info, live music, midwich, new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ashtray navigations, astral social club, daniel thomas, dave thomas, drone, electronica, forgets, hagman, human combustion engine, joe murray, john clyde-evans, kroyd, mel o'dubhslaine, midwich, mitch, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, phil todd, scott mckeating, shameless self-congratulation, trowser carrier, uk muzzlers, wharf chambers
Announcing an unmissable event to note on every diary and calendar in the house – in fact, best write it in blood and tear out the surrounding days just to be sure…
In summary: that Mitch (of RFM faves forgets) asked if I would grace a gig he was organising with a rare midwich performance and, as he caught me in a gregarious mood, I agreed. This will be a new set of specially prepared material, possibly with an intro by noise-offshoot-project TJ Cuckoo if I (literally) get my act together. It will also be the only midwich show of 2014.
Musing on the date and the RFM-friendly line-up I realised it was within a few days (well, three weeks) of the fifth anniversary of the birth of this blog. I joked to Mitch that I could hijack his efforts and use the show as an unofficial birthday party. Mitch, a canny promoter, sensed that the connection could draw a few extra punters, cheerfully hijacked my hijacking and changed the name of the show accordingly. Who doesn’t love a shindig, eh? Here’s the details ripped from Mitch’s Facebook listing:
Starring!
UK MUZZLERS
UK Muzzlers is Neil Campbell (Vibracathedral Orchestra/Astral Social Club/A Band) and John Clyde-Evans aka Tirath Singh Nirmala (Hood/Ovid Corpse). Bass & drums, all buried beneath a glorious sound collage
http://astralsocialclub.wordpress.com/
http://astralsocialclub.bandcamp.com/MIDWICH
Rob Hayler’s long running noise/drone project based in Leeds. All-enveloping, heart-swelling, fuzz-tone ego- dissolution with spiky interludes.
https://radiofreemidwich.wordpress.com/
HUMAN COMBUSTION ENGINE
Krautrocky synth loveliness from Ashtray Navigations’ Mel & Phil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9LPPMSK9ug
HAGMAN
The Leeds-based pairing of Daniel Thomas and David Thomas (no relation) who have been aptly described by Rob Hayler as “scene-leaders in crescendo management and deep, heavy electronics”.
FORGETS
Spoken word tales and improvised guitar from Kroyd & Mitch
“I find Kroyd’s storytelling to be hypnotizing. The dourness and despairing humour of his observations are perfectly relayed by the rhythm of his delivery and underscored by Mitch’s post-apocalyptic (well, that’s how it feels in some parts of Leeds on a rainy weekday afternoon) chang.”
Rob Haylerhttps://radiofreemidwich.wordpress.com/tag/forgets/
TROWSER CARRIER
Trowser Carrier exist to bring politeness to the harsh noise scene
http://trowsercarrier.bandcamp.com/
£5 OTD
“Wharf Chambers is a members’ club and you need to be a member, or guest of a member, in order to attend. To join, please visit wharfchambers.org.Membership costs £1 and requires a minimum of 48 hours to take effect.”
Cool, eh? And I’m unapologetic about what some might see as immodest self-congratulation. Radio Free Midwich has had 80,000 views during its lifetime, there have been over 400 posts (more than one a week despite becoming a father and long periods of illness during its existence) totalling well over 300,000 words. It has been the catalyst for resurrecting midwich as both a live and recorded concern, for the occasional waking of fencing flatworm recordings and for making freely available not only my own back catalogue but that of the oTo tape project (50 releases!) too.
Then there is the ‘scene’. The music that I write about and the people who make it are constant sources of joy and inspiration. That my phrase ‘no-audience underground‘ seems to have struck a chord – and gone world-wide since my belated arrival on Twitter – never ceases to amuse. Many collaborations and creative endeavours have been inspired by the goings on here, not least eye for detail the recent 27 track compilation of midwich remixes which has raised over £100 for The Red Cross so far. You are all so beautiful.
First by myself then, in the last year and a half, aided by my tireless comrades Joe Murray and Scott McKeating, a metric fuck-ton of musical brilliance has been informatively documented in what I hope is an entertaining manner. This is all worth celebrating and to do so with an oddball noise show at Wharf Chambers could not be more appropriate. I’ve no idea to what extent it will be a ‘party’ – perhaps I’ll buy a balloon.
See y’all there.
eye for detail, paul watson and a giant cardboard cheque
October 12, 2014 at 8:40 pm | Posted in midwich, new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ap martlet, aqua dentata, astral social club, bbblood, breather, brian lavelle, chrissie caulfield, clive henry, dale cornish, daniel thomas, devotional hooligan, dr:wr, drone, dsic, eddie nuttall, electronica, foldhead, gerado picho, hagman, hardworking families, helicopter quartet, improv, in fog, joe murray, john tuffen, julian bradley, karl mv waugh, la mancha del pecado, michael clough, michael gillham, midwich, miguel perez, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, orlando ferguson, panelak, pascal ansell, paul walsh, paul watson, posset, psychedelia, pyongyang plastics, scott mckeating, shameless self-congratulation, simon aulman, the piss superstition, the red cross, the zero map, tom bench, van appears, yol, zn
Regular readers and Twitter followers will know that the 1st of October saw the release of eye for detail – the midwich remixes album. This Bandcamp download comprises 27 tracks by various no-audience underground luminaries each refiguring some section of my back catalogue. It totals three hours and forty minutes in length and can be bought for the knock-down price of five pounds. All proceeds are being donated to charity. The album has garnered universal love since its birth – making it even better than a royal baby – and has already been hailed as the album of the year by no less an authority than the voices in my head. The total plays for individual tracks topped 1000 in ten days. Further details as to its genesis can be read here and notes on its release can be read here.
The cause I have chosen to support is The British Red Cross. You may be aware of the front line medical help they supply in disaster situations but may not be familiar with the global network they have for tracing missing family members, or the support they provide to refugees in accessing services and adapting to life in a new country. You can read about what they do here. It is vital work.
Paul Watson, best known ’round these parts as BBBlood, contributed a handsome mix himself and then went on to earn limitless karma points by enthusiastically badgering punters into coughing up. In return for his help I somehow agreed to make my initial donation of £100 via one of those giant cheques you see in local newspaper photo opportunities – handshake n’all. I have to admit to being tickled by the idea and thought I could pop into a Red Cross charity shop and have a bit of a laugh with the volunteers there. Alas, a little research revealed that The Red Cross do not have such a business here in sunny Leeds and, in fact, their only office is a refugee assistance centre. A visit was nixed immediately – I’d feel a right knobber interrupting this crucial work by prancing about with my sheet of cardboard.
…and yet I still really wanted to get the felt-tips out and had a giant box that bits of a bed had been delivered in down in the cellar. What the hell, eh? I’d make my fake cheque, my 18 month old son Thomas could be The Red Cross’s representative during a symbolic ceremony and I’d do the actual transaction online.
Here are the stats: 25 sales of eye for detail at the time of writing raising £136.23, removing Bandcamp and PayPal fees leaves a donation of £109.01 which was handed over electronically prior to this post being written. My thanks and gratitude again to all those involved and to all those who have donated money. The compilation will remain available indefinitely and I will continue donating future proceeds on a regular basis.
The cheque measures 20″ by 38″ (piss superstition CD-r included in picture above for scale) and is now for sale. If you’d like to own this historic document in return for a further donation I’ll look into posting it – get in touch.
The Ceremony in pictures:
Visiting dignitaries take their seats.
Thomas takes a few photographs himself whilst waiting for it all to begin.
The presentation! Thomas is amazed at this princely sum.
The ceremonial handshake – Thomas a bit unsure about the etiquette.
…goes for the fistbump first…
…then the full celebratory shake…
…then subverts custom by presenting his foot to be shaken too. Kid has flair.
Worrying (with some justification) that Daddy can’t be trusted with money he is eager to get it safe…
…so immediately deposits it in the Bank of Shove-It-Behind-The-Sofa. Daddy retires to the study to do the real transaction online. A job well done. Thanks to Anne for taking the photos.
—ooOoo—
‘eye for detail’, the midwich remixes album, out now!
October 1, 2014 at 9:22 am | Posted in midwich, new music, no audience underground | 2 CommentsTags: ap martlet, aqua dentata, astral social club, bbblood, breather, brian lavelle, chrissie caulfield, clive henry, dale cornish, daniel thomas, devotional hooligan, dr:wr, drone, dsic, eddie nuttall, electronica, foldhead, gerado picho, hagman, hardworking families, helicopter quartet, improv, in fog, joe murray, john tuffen, julian bradley, karl mv waugh, la mancha del pecado, michael clough, michael gillham, midwich, miguel perez, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, orlando ferguson, panelak, pascal ansell, paul walsh, paul watson, posset, psychedelia, pyongyang plastics, scott mckeating, shameless self-congratulation, simon aulman, the piss superstition, the red cross, the zero map, tom bench, van appears, yol, zn
Comrades! Light the bonfires! Blow those long, thin trumpets with banners hanging off ’em!
Radio Free Midwich is delighted to announce the release of eye for detail – the midwich remixes album.
About six weeks ago a passing comment on Twitter was tossed over the chalet balcony and started to roll down the mountainside. The resulting giant snowball crashed through the doors of my back catalogue and, within hours, a happy band of looters was ransacking the vault. An album was retroactively called into existence with a deadline and a charity cause adding some ‘oomph’ to proceedings. The cut off was the 30th September, the release date today. Such is the unfettered power of the no-audience underground.
I have been delighted with the number of responses, the enthusiasm with which contributors embraced the task and the breadth, quality and imagination shown in the submitted tracks. The artists featured represent a (partial at least) cross section of the ‘scene’ this blog reports on and the gathering of the clan has reminded me, more than once, of the ridiculous oTo tapes project I oversaw a decade ago (indeed, check out the title of Michael Gillham’s track – dude also has a long memory). It has been extremely flattering and morale boosting to see such art inspired by my own meagre output. I am humbled but beaming.
A few words about the album itself. There are 27 tracks in total and the combined running time is over three and a half hours. The artists included are (deep breath):
Andy Jarvis, ap martlet, Aqua Dentata, Breather, Brian Lavelle, Chrissie Caulfield (of RFM faves Helicopter Quartet), Clive Henry, Dale Cornish, Daniel Thomas, devotionalhallucinatic, DR:WR (Karl of The Zero Map), dsic, foldhead (Paul Walsh – who accidentally started it all), Hardworking Families (Tom Bench), In Fog (Scott McKeating of this parish), John Tuffen (of Orlando Ferguson), Michael Clough, Michael Gillham, Neil Campbell (Astral Social Club), Panelak, Paul Watson (BBBlood), posset (Joe Murray also of RFM), Simon Aulman (pyongyang plastics), the piss superstition, Van Appears, Yol, and ZN.
Phew, champion line up, eh? I have made a stab at organising a coherent running order but please feel free to chop and change according to your own mood. Over such a long time, and with so many different styles in play, some juxtapositions are going to grate for some listeners. I have done a little light-touch mastering – mainly just amping up a couple of tracks – but not much, most tracks are presented as they arrived. There are some variations in volume but SO BE IT – no unnecessary compression/loudness war crap here.
The cover photograph was donated by Michael Clough and I encourage all readers to regularly check his tumblr site for a stream of similar observational genius. The download includes a portfolio of a further seven photographs from Clough to accompany the release. Also in the bonus items is a document listing links to further information about the featured artists and, where possible, links to the midwich material that was the source for their track.
Finally then: the cause. It seemed appropriate to me to make this a charity release and chose the Red Cross as the beneficiary. You may be aware of the front line medical help they supply in disaster situations but may not be familiar with the global network they have for tracing missing family members, or the support they provide to refugees in accessing services and adapting to life in a new country. You can read about what they do here. All proceeds from this album will be heading their way.
—ooOoo—
guest post (sort of)! neil campbell on taming power
May 23, 2014 at 3:45 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: askild haugland, astral social club, early morning records, electronica, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, taming power, vibracathedral orchestra
Taming Power – Selected Works 2001 (CD-r, Early Morning Records)
That Neil Campbell is an inspiring chap, isn’t he? I had dabbled in noise and free music prior to becoming friends with him but he was one of a gang of outlaw preachers that baptised me in its torrent. Without him: none of this. His enthusiasms are infectious, despite occasionally being for the godawful, and his breadth of knowledge is impeccable. Not only has he heard everything, but he knows it off by heart and can usually recommend six albums that are even better. I’ve never known anyone radiate such joie de vivre, nor anyone who could translate that feeling so effectively into a delirious, psychedelic, nostrils-flaring, life-affirming racket. Well… I have to admit to not being a fan of his recent solo work as Astral Social Club (and I risked excommunication from the Church of Noise for expressing this heretical opinion in public) but his back catalogue, three decades wide, is a treasure chest bulging with exotic gems. He is also hilarious after a few drinks.
Which brings me to the subject of today’s (partly) guest written post. Our paths were due to cross recently but because of my brain-related medical adventures I had to knock it on the head (pun intended). Turns out that Neil was looking forward to the opportunity for a bit of face time as he was itching to tell me a story. Undaunted, he opened a bottle of wine on his return to Astral Towers and hand-wrote a six page letter. An edited transcript here follows. Over to Neil…
…waaaay back in the day when we released the Vibracathedral 10″ (1999? 2000?), and we had few places who would carry the record, one of the best places to unload it was Bruce Russell’s Corpus Hermeticum distro in New Zealand. Bruce was pretty select in what he would carry (i.e. what he liked/approved of) and upfront about being unable to pay any money for records: trade only!
Well, this was OK, cuz it meant we could pick up loads of Dead C and other NZ stuff for the price of posting a few 10″s across the world. Wondering what to use our Corpus Hermeticum credit up on, I took a punt on 3 10″s by a totally unknown Norwegian, Taming Power, who sounded interesting: self-released, tape recorder and shortwave feedback as only sound sources. Big package of stuff came back from NZ, we spread the records between the 5 of us and I kept the 3 x 10″s.
They sounded great: kinda rough, very singular, not tied to any stylistic thing (i.e. they were gritty and noisy but definitely not ‘Noise’ and had no truck whatsoever with ‘Industrial’ or Power Electronics, even though some of the sonics touched on this). The years went on, and every once in a while I’d dig the records out, give them a whirl, and always be utterly charmed by them. Towards the end of last year I did this again, and I must have had my computer on at the time, so I could (almost) answer the question “Whatever happened to Taming Power?”
I found out these 10″s were only the tip of a very intriguing iceberg: looked like he recorded constantly, had little contact with outside scenes, and every year or so would release a record or two (sometimes LPs, more often 10″s, sometimes even 7″s or tapes), to universal indifference, and they’d mainly gather dust in a cupboard in Norway. I looked at his discography: it was pretty big so surely he must have one or two items still available? I found an email address for Askild Haugland (for it is he!) fired off an email asking if I could buy any of his records. Got a reply the next day saying that ALL his records were still available (even though some had only been done in editions of 100) and that he’d really like to trade. Money, it seems, isn’t something that drives his desire to release records. But yeah, full circle with the trade thing…
I quickly grabbed everything that I could send him, posted it off and quickly got a HUGE parcel of new (to me) Taming Power 10″s. Then a few days later some LPs and 7″s. They all looked great, obviously the work of someone whose heart was totally in it: simple black and white sleeves with a photograph generally pasted on the front (often from Askild’s trips to Nepal) and colour photocopies on the back of always handwritten titles and credits. Simple ‘corporate’ look but you could get a real feel for the person just by leafing through these covers.
It was such a joy listening to these records too: most of them took one or two sound sources (mainly guitars but a few were just shortwave radio manipulations or tape recorder feedback) and gently, seriously probed them to come up with sounds that were simple, beautiful and intensely personal. I was floored. This was exactly the appeal of ‘underground music’ for me as a young man (an appeal that is hard to come by via a lot of current ‘underground’ music, which sounds like people with a script, a predefined notion): someone totally, confidently out in their zone. Nothing fancy, no gimmicks, doing it because they have to, no audience, no encouragement…
[Neil then explains that he would have made me a mixtape from the 20 or so Taming Power releases he’s gathered but his turntable is currently dismantled. Instead he passes on the CD-r above, three copies of which were sent to him by Askild out of the blue last week]
…I think this is real No Audience Underground stuff (with no good reason other than self-imposed isolation), right up there with Ian Middleton and Lee Stokoe (both of whom I think Askild’s music has much in common with). So hope you enjoy the CD-r: I do and it’s quite different from his much earlier recordings with tape feedback but, as you may imagine, it’s only a small part of The Big Picture…
Intriguing, eh? This is not one of those tiresome ‘I heard it first!’ bleats that make me want to give smug hipsters a good cock-punching. This is a beautiful example of the joy to be had in discovery and the unique appeal of outsider art – driven by a compulsion to create above all other considerations. With apologies to those releases languishing on the review pile, I hope you can understand my rush into ‘print’: this is what the no-audience underground is all about.
The CD-r is, to my relief, great. It’s pretty much exactly what I like: disciplined, thorough, obviously created with passion and intelligence. As Neil suggests, this is the sound of an artist really interrogating the source material. However, there is nothing aloof or academic about it – it has a lightness of touch and a robogroove that is engaging and fun. It is like a fan of coloured shadows cast by multiple, pulsing light sources all pointed at the same ebony block. I don’t usually offer algorithmic (‘if you like that then you’ll like this’) comparisons in my reviews but maybe a couple wouldn’t be inappropriate in the circumstances. Thus it reminded me a little of the steppin’ electronics of Dave Thomas’s ap martlet recordings or perhaps the smeared ur-music of blog faves The Piss Superstition. High praise.
Neil told me that another copy of this CD-r has gone to Uncle Mark over at Idwal Fisher and that he has also mentioned Taming Power in an interview with Phil Smith soon to be published in, of all places, Record Collector magazine. A flurry of publicity, relatively speaking, approaches. So hop to it, readers – this is clearly the ideal moment to drop Askild a line, say hello and secure yourself some of his back catalogue.
—ooOoo—
Email address for Askild Haugland of Taming Power / Early Morning Records:
earlymrecords@yahoo.no
Early Morning Records (sort of)
six winter warmerz: more midwich back-catalogue on bandcamp
January 10, 2014 at 10:50 pm | Posted in midwich, new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: astral social club, bandcamp, celebrate psi phenomena, drone, electronica, evelyn records, fencing flatworm recordings, ffr, midwich, midwich for sale, mp3, neil campbell, new music, nid nod, no audience underground, noise, oTo, shameless self-congratulation, trademarked industries
OK, one more self-serving plug then normal programming will resume, I promise…
Inspired by the Stakhanovite work rate of Neil Campbell as he mines the rich seam of his back-catalogue and shovels wav files onto Bandcamp (as Astral Social Club here, under his own name here. More on this in due course.), I decided to add to my own little rockery.
Another six midwich releases – four long-form single track affairs, two sort-of-albums – from the early years of this century can now be found on the midwich Bandcamp site. All are way, way out of print but have been written about and made available here at RFM before. However, now you can own them as juicy fat wavs (or in many other formats), offered for download in a convenient one-stop location. I’m not expecting anyone to pay for these but donations are most welcome and would be spent on other no-audience-underground-related activities. Honest.
Here’s the skinny (click on title to be taken to the appropriate page):
‘Ordnance, Tape Only’, or oTo to its friends, was a sound-art off-shoot project of FFR. Fifty releases, with each release limited to a numbered fifty copies, all on one-sided C90 cassette tapes. Aside from the artist name and the catalogue number no other information was included and each tape had an inlay card cut from an Ordnance Survey map of the UK.
Whilst chopping up maps I was often left with some wholly blue squares containing just sea. I kept those to one side and the 50 inlay cards for the midwich tape each cover a 25 square mile section of water.
This is one of those long, single-track midwich releases. Electro-cicadas slowly descend into a Cthuloid temple, then think better of it. I really like this one, especially at around 25 minutes or so when it gets proper deep and dirty.
A single piece in eight parts. Released originally on CD-r by the legendary New Zealand label celebrate psi phenomena (now, apparently, called Dont Fuck With Magic, or maybe Our Love Will Destroy The World – I can’t keep up with these crazy hobbits). Anyway, lots of different styles in this one and, as such, a unique midwich product – I really like it.
This was released by the short-lived and much-missed cdr label nid nod and came lovingly parcelled in brown paper and string. Each parcel was jewelled with a stamp from somewhere exotic – click on cover image to see whole thing.
The music is a single piece but is a shorter than most of my other long-form tracks. It is also noticeably more upbeat – some might even hazard to say life-affirming. I think this has a refreshing fizz and clarity which tempers the usual melancholy. The mood is meant to reflect the grateful state of mind I was enjoying at the time it was recorded. Ironically, this was one of the last midwich releases before depression got the better of me and led to the shelving of FFR. Oh well, layer a bit of cheap poignancy over it and it sounds even better…
If you’ve not bothered with my long-form stuff before I recommend this as ‘entry-level’.
This is a single, half-hour track, comprising two movements underpinned by an ever-present fuzztone. Part one is a field recording of a gelatinous, foot-long woodlouse eating strange white fungi on an otherwise deserted Pacific island. Part two documents the arrival of a storm-blown flock of robo-finches. They eat the woodlouse and, in so doing, activate an age-old curse which causes the island to sink. Why are you looking at me like that? It does.
Originally released in 2002 by Chris Gowers as a cdr on his lovely label evelyn records (not to be confused with the Copenhagen based Evelyn Records). Chris had the smart idea of issuing cdrs in series thus encouraging repeat custom via subscription. Mine was part of series two.
Released on CDr in 2002 (with the great cover above) by the now sadly defunct Trademarked Industries.
I’ve always been in two minds about this one. The title is unusually upbeat, as is the quick opener, ‘mysterious parcel’, which lumbers comically from foot to foot for 40 seconds. The closer, ‘gradual, new’, is a 14 minute fuzz-drone that radiates blissed-out happiness and contentment. Odd, I know – what was I thinking?
The trouble comes in between. ‘Stomaching’ is a minimal, splintering, battle-of-the-car-alarms that I now find too gruelling to get through. ‘Doubled over’ is a muscular analogue throb that remains satisfyingly pummelling at high volume but is hardly easy listening. I’m guessing these tracks were inspired by a bout of gut-churning illness – alcohol related – that I endured in the squalid, slug-infested hovel where I was then living…
This 34 minute track originally featured as an extra disc exclusive to the ‘box set’ that was the sixth fencing flatworm release. fencing flatworm presents: ff006 neo-radiophonics comprised a cardboard cd-holding book thing from muji containing the first five ffr releases, plus this, and was released in an edition of fifteen. However, I ruined the mystique eventually by including it in the unlimited in brine mp3 set.
The track is simple: mainly muddy bubbling as if diving in a silt and seaweed choked bay. This gradually clears until – what this? am I dreaming? – a drexciyan underwater city of perfect beauty is briefly revealed, then, inevitably, it is back to the mud…
…and there you have it.
I think this will be last milking of the midwich back-catalogue. There is more that I am proud of – the collaboration with Neil, with Ayr Unit, ‘this whole process’, everything on Matching Head etc. – but, for my own reasons, I’m not putting any more of it up on Bandcamp. Remaining items in the discography can be downloaded here (see tab above), or from their original source, or still need to be paid for, or properly exist solely as physical objects, or have long gone. Even in these internet enabled times you can’t have everything. Thus, following this tranche, all future Bandcamp releases will be of brand new material.
I better get to work.
minced sacred cow on the menu at the astral social club
September 26, 2013 at 7:56 am | Posted in new music, no audience underground | 11 CommentsTags: astral social club, drone, must die records, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, psychedelia, sheepscar light industrial, social suicide, techno, trensmat, vibracathedral orchestra
Astral Social Club – Squeegee Anthem #1 (3″ CD-r, Sheepscar Light Industrial, SLI.015, edition of 50 or download)
Astral Social Club – Metal Guru/Moonage Daydream (limited edition 7” transparent blue vinyl with optional extra CD-r, Must Die Records, MDR 030)
Astral Social Club – Electric Yep (limited edition vinyl LP, Trensmat, TR038)
Regular readers will know RFM is a wholly positive place. This is not accidental, it is a matter of policy. Apart from on very rare occasions, we like everything we write about. We don’t like everything we hear, of course, but those in that unfortunate situation are dispatched politely and, if appropriate, constructively by email. I’ve written at length about how bad reviews are inappropriate down here in the no-audience underground, almost a type of category mistake, but they also bore me. A bad review usually reveals more about the critic than the artefact discussed. They are used as an opportunity for self-aggrandizing blow-hards to preen and strut in front of other pompous know-it-alls. Picture them all chortling, wallowing in schadenfreude. It’s as edifying a spectacle as watching an alpha male ape scratching his arse then inviting the rest of the troop to smell his finger. As a response to creative endeavour it is pathetic.
That said, I will occasionally pay attention if a sacred cow is being dragged to the abattoir. If someone says ‘have you seen that Citizen Kane? What a crock of shit!’ or ‘you know what I can’t stand? The Renaissance,’ then, if I’m in the mood, I’ll stick around for the explanation. As long as the argument is heartfelt (and thus not mere cock-waggling), cogently structured and well written then a little iconoclasm is healthy and can be entertaining. Accepted ‘truths’ of critical consensus needed to be poked with a stick once in a while.
The work of Neil Campbell invites such a consensus. With an all encompassing pedigree stretching back to the 1980s and his well established solo project, Astral Social Club, garnering universal adulation one might be tempted to use the word ‘iconic’ in its daft, modern, near-meaningless sense. His oeuvre is certainly haloed in gold. He couldn’t be more of a holy bovine if he sat around mooing, covered in purple handprints. I presume that by now you have guessed where I’m going with this. It isn’t a comfortable ride I’ve embarked on here – Neil and I have been friends for over a decade – but he has loudly, within my earshot and on several occasions proclaimed that he would rather read a bad review than a good one. I don’t know why, but I assure you that is what he said and today I’m going to take him at his word.
My own adoration of Neil’s music began with Vibracathedral Orchestra back in fin de siècle Leeds and continued unabated until a couple of years ago when a new new sound started to dominate the Astral Social Club vibe: hard gurning, stomping, biomechanical electronics. The shimmering psychedelia that fey Vibra-era fanboys like me had come to expect was being mulched with shredded tyres. If the new sound had an odour, it would smell of melting plastic: hot, choking, artificial. At first I thought, well, I can’t fault the guy for exploring a new direction it’s just a shame it ain’t for me. Likewise with the live performances. I saw many promising starts devolve into overlong, speaker-melting exercises in pushing everything up to ‘11’ but glancing around at the grins and blissed out expressions of my fellow audience members I took refuge in the same thought: shame it ain’t for me. I didn’t get really annoyed until Squeegee Anthem #1.
This 3” CD-r in an insta-sell-out edition on Sheepscar Light Industrial (still available for download) was the last straw. The percussion is plodding, the guitar embarrassing and the grating electronics seemingly lifted from an entirely different recording, so little connection do they have with anything else going on. It was a half-baked, soggy-bottomed disgrace or, if this really was being presented as a finished work for public consumption and not a joke, tragic evidence of a once titanic artist descending into senility. Has, I wondered, Neil become the Willem de Kooning of psychedelic noise? Suspecting this would be a minority opinion I kept it to myself (telling only Daniel Thomas who was most amused). And so it proved. I looked on slack-jawed as the reviews heralded an ‘instant classic’. What were they hearing? Bleed through from Neil’s all conquering back catalogue and reputation? Or perhaps they were actually *cough, splutter* enjoying it? I was flummoxed.
Deciding that maintaining a dignified silence might be the best course of action, I kept quiet about another one or two Neil-related projects that came my way but, at the recent Skullflower show, the man himself pressed these two vinyl releases on me. Trying to make sense of them both has got me bubbling again. Here’s the good news: the 7” single, released by the increasingly impressive Must Die Records, is pressed on transparent blue vinyl and is thus a near perfect way to present music. What a beautiful object. The cover illustration by Neil’s son Magnus is charming too. The album, courtesy of Trensmat, contains one track that is really good and has a jolly photograph of a brick on the cover. And, er…, well… that’s it. I suppose the tracks on the 7″ may not be very interesting but at least they are short. The album, as a whole, feels like taking a cheese grater to your soul.
Much has been made of the influence of Neil’s interest in techno. Sadly the beats which thump ineffectually under some of these tracks are the main reason why it sounds so tethered and inert. Techno is a sinuous, nuanced, silver-eyed genre that I have loved unswervingly my entire adult life. It is by far my favourite form of music outside of the no-audience underground. Thus to see it mentioned in the same paragraph as this lumpen nonsense makes my heart feel all grey and dry.
*Long pause. Theatrical sigh*
Why am I saying these things out loud? Why jeopardise a friendship over something as inconsequential as a blog post? Why swim so perversely against the tide? I can’t imagine a single person reading this agreeing with me and that isn’t a pleasant thought. I don’t even want anyone to agree with me: I don’t want Neil to change what he is doing to suit me, nor am I trying to convince those that love his recent stuff that they are wrong to do so. I recognize the essentially subjective nature of these judgements and if, say, Norman Records want to describe an LP I struggled to get through as ‘an absolute cracker’ then on what basis could I argue? I suspect the fact that most of this was written between the hours of 2am and 4am nursing a baby with chickenpox might explain the frazzled tone. I also suspect that it doesn’t amount to much more than the wailing of a disillusioned fanboy, sick out of love because his hero has moved on to a new sound he neither likes nor understands. See, I told you that bad reviews are mainly about the reviewer.
Normal service, in the selfless joy-casting style RFM is known for, will be resumed in the following posts by Joe and Scott. I’m off to take a hot bath in mentholated ego-solvent before returning to the task. Oh, and in case any loyal subjects wish to spring to Neil’s defence, no need. The fella can look after himself. I ran this past him before posting and he responded thus:
How long have you known me? Do you think I give a shit? Publish + be Damned I say!
…so there you go.
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