rfm’s 2011 round-up: the zellaby awards
December 1, 2011 at 6:31 pm | Posted in musings, new music, no audience underground | 2 CommentsTags: andrew perry, ashtray navigations, astral social club, bang the bore, bells hill, best of 2011, ceramic hobs, cinderella stamps, culver, dddd, drone, electronica, eyeballs, foldhead, hiroshima yeah!, idwal fisher, improv, infinite exchange, inseminoid, julian bradley, medusa, memoirs of an aesthete, neil campbell, new luddism, new music, no audience underground, noise, perpeteia, phil todd, plurals, posset, sanity muffin, seabuckthorn, seth cooke, spon, striate cortex, the piss superstition, the zero map, Waz Hoola, zellaby awards, zines
An end of year list is irresistible isn’t it? No matter how fallacious and arbitrary, it is nigh on impossible not to flick forward or scroll down to the number one slot. And who am I to deny you that festive pleasure, eh? They can also be incredibly useful. For example, The Wire assigning top spot last year to that awful album by Actress finally freed me from any obligation to read that silly publication again. What a time-saver!
Last year my round-up was all encompassing and fairly hefty. This year I’m keeping it to the point and, as far as music goes at least, well within the no-audience underground. This adds a bonus frisson to proceedings as many of you reading this will have reason to take my meaningless judgements personally. Mmmm… what could be more delicious? Maybe a warm mince pie with brandy butter…
And hasn’t it been a cracking year? Along with the people and releases detailed below I have to mention a few other non-categorizable inspirations. The consistently great writing to be found at Idwal Fisher is such a huge influence on this blog that I’m hoping Mark believes imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. I’ve been delighted by the return of the paper fanzine to my doormat in the form of indescribable packages from Spon and Hiroshima Yeah! I have been awestruck by the all-or-nowt work ethic and decision making of Simon DDDD who not only created DDDD’s unfathomable online presence but then deleted the lot in a breath-taking act of self-immolation once he decided it had run its course. There then followed the even more jaw-dropping New Luddite Tapes project during which he created 72 releases – all recorded himself – within four months. This has now also imploded, though some remains can still be picked over at the website. Who knows what will come next? Not me, that’s for sure. And on that bewildering note, on with the show…
(Methodological aside: the music mentioned below may not have been released this year, although most of it was. To qualify it just had to be heard by me for the first time in the calendar year 2011. There are five award categories ending with a prize, yes you heard right: an actual prize, for the album of the year.)
5. The “I’d never heard of you 10 minutes ago but now desperately need your whole back catalogue” New-to-RFM Award is shared by…
Of Plurals, RFM said: “…one of the most striking things I’ve heard this year…” (full review here) and the verdict was similar for Eyeballs “…intelligent, wryly humourous and unashamedly ambitious…” (see here and here and here). If you ever feel inclined to pay attention to what I say, I urge you to check these guys out.
4. The “Astral Social Club” Award, given for maintaining quality control over a huge body of work making it impossible to pick individual releases in an end of year round up goes to…
Of course it does. Neil’s ability to crank out such class at such a fierce pace remains inspirational. Honourable mentions must also go to those snorting workhorses Culver/Inseminoid, Andrew Perry and Posset.
3. The Special Contribution to Radio Free Midwich Award is shared between Andy Robinson of Striate Cortex, Seth Cooke of Bang the Bore and RFM’s North East correspondent Joe Posset.
Andy has generously provided review copies of some of the most intriguing and involving music that I have heard in years. His brain food has nourished a selection of my most baroque, gushingly lyrical and borderline nonsensical reviews.
By agreeing to publish the lovely article Pete Coward had written about FFR then expertly conducting the interview that followed, Seth Cooke not only helped me put that era to bed – the definitive account is now on record – but inspired me to reactivate midwich too. New releases and live appearances are in the works and it is, to a large extent, his fault.
Finally, I would like to officially acknowledge the work of Joe Posset, RFM’s North East correspondent. As well as providing a stream of his own terrific recordings, Joe’s tiggerish enthusiasm and selfless generosity have hipped me to many great acts and labels, including Fuckin’ Amateurs and Andrew Perry. His efforts have been very much appreciated.
2. The Label of the Year Award
Well, given what I said above, it will come as no surprise to hear that the winner is… Striate Cortex. I needn’t say any more. Everything I have written about Andy’s enterprise can be read by clicking here.
Honourable mentions must also go to: Sanity Muffin (on hiatus, but I’ve heard some great stuff due up next), Memoirs of an Aesthete, Medusa (more great tapes), Bells Hill, Infinite Exchange and our Mexican cousins Oracle.
1. The Album of the Year Award
This is the biggie so I’m going to do a proper reverse-order run-down for added anticipation. It goes without saying that everything by the artists mentioned above automatically makes the longlist for this award. In addition to that cavalcade of excellence honourable mention must also be made, in no particular order, of the following:
- Seabuckthorn – A Mantra Pulled Apart
- Waz Hoola – Multiply Reality by Infinity
- Perpeteia – Music for Mesmer
- Foldhead – Drugs Paint Alcohol
- The Zero Map – Felis Cattus Domesticus
All terrific. Click on a title to be taken to my review. Now on to the big three:
The 3rd best album of year is:
The Piss Superstition – A Themepark for Whatever Happened Before
I wrote: “For me, Julian’s work has always called to mind machinery, often on an unimaginable scale, working to some forgotten purpose, on the brink of being overwhelmed by entropy and halting altogether … It is an absolutely brilliant way of conveying the devastating effort it takes to feel something – anything – in this alienating world we live in.” Full review and article here.
The 2nd best album of the year is:
Ceramic Hobs – Oz Oz Alice
I wrote: “This band is not only ‘going there’ but doing so willingly and, whilst there, using some voodoo power to create this music for the rest of us. My mind boggles – rather them than me. Simon suggests that this might be the last Ceramic Hobs album. I very much hope it isn’t but, if so, it would be a magnificent way to bow out.” Full review and article here (wierdly, still my most popular post ever).
..and finally, The Zellaby Award for Album of the Year goes to:
Ashtray Navigations – Cinderella Stamps
I wrote (in a post titled, fittingly, ‘ashtray navigations are my favourite band: empirical fact’): “…it is almost comical to me how perfectly it ensures that I get my groove on. Pretty much every musical element I dig is there, distilled and combined. One finger piano? Check. Expansively tangerine wob-wob synths? Check. Red-hot tropical guitar? Check … Imagine Phil and Mel soundtracking the adventures of an interstellar Buddha, preaching the eternal truths to bewildered alien races on Chris Foss style space-arks…” Full review and article here.
To be honest, given the quality of their work, Ashtray Navigations and associated projects could have featured heavily in every category (except ‘newcomer’, of course) but I kept ’em out of it knowing that the most glittering of prizes would be theirs in the end. Speaking of which…
The Award Ceremony
Some background: in early November I gave up drinking diet coke and in late November it was my dear Grandmother’s 92nd birthday and the combination of the two factors led to the first Zellaby Award for Album of the Year. Now, I realise that last sentence doesn’t make any sense at all, so allow me to join the dots.
For years I have drunk at least half a litre of that nastily acidic, highly caffeinated ‘delicious beverage’ (original phrase removed at the insistence of RFM’s legal team) every day. Finally, I convinced myself that this was a foolish thing for a grown man to be addicted to and ‘may have been’ (lawyers again) detrimental to my health. So I went cold turkey. The caffeine withdrawal not only gave me a bitchin’ headache for days but also led to a few decaffeinated moments of clumsiness and doziness. For example: I dropped a load of eggs on the kitchen floor whilst attempting to open the fridge with my elbow, I put some delicate bedding in the tumble drier and it is now no longer King size (or even Queen or Jack size, more like Nine of Clubs size. The pillowcases look like crocheted iPhone covers.) and then I made a mistake in Marks and Spencers…
I was in the process of assembling a parcel of birthday goodies to send to my Grandmother. It was to contain a long handwritten letter, some photos, a birthday card and some easily postable presents, one of which was to be a M&S voucher. I dutifully trotted down to the shop, made my purchase and it wasn’t until I got on the bus home that I realised I’d picked a card that said ‘Merry Christmas’ on it. “Bollocks,” I said out loud to my fellow passengers and went back the next day for a ‘Happy Birthday’ one.
My grump lifted when I decided that it might be funny to award the spare token as a prize to the artist responsible for RFM’s album of the year and, when I realised I saw that band in the pub most Thursday lunchtimes, the possibility of getting a photo of the ‘ceremony’ for the blog was irresistible. So here we are. I handed over the prize at lunchtime today and the reaction of bewildered delight was exactly what I was aiming for:
The official photo, Phil & Mel remain a little suspicious as to what I’m up to…
…the realisation that they have actually been given something of worth…
…the descent into emotional delirium as the moment proves too much for Phil.
And on that happy note I’d like to call the 2011 Zellaby Awards to a close. Thank you all for being such a beautiful (no-)audience. Goodnight, comrades.
artifacts of the no-audience underground: rfm catches up, part one
July 26, 2011 at 7:40 am | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: astral social club, drone, eyeballs, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, tapenoise, tapes
There now follows an attempt by RFM to catch up a bit with the teetering pile of newness that I was enjoying not writing about during my month of unblogging. These will not be in depth reviews full of attention to detail and flights of metaphorical fancy as most of these items were innocently provided as gifts or actually paid for by me. Either way, they weren’t ‘submitted’ as such. All I am doing here is calling your attention to some interesting stuff. If you would like to take it further then links are provided. I recommend that you do.
Astral Social Club – Wheezy Paradise (Sonic Oyster)
This tape documents an Astral Social Club show in Newcastle last year. It’s a fun package: bright green cassette housed in a bright yellow A4 sheet of paper decorated with photocopies of, er…, cassettes (ha! not only clever – cuts postage costs – but clever-clever too).
The music is uplifting in the usual nostrils-flaring, day-glo way but I’m not going into any detail as it is no longer available to buy. In fact, it appears to have sold out within days of being announced. Sonic Oyster is obviously doing something right so maybe you should visit and get on the mailing list.
Tape Noise – All turn Native
Video snippets of various Tape Noise perfomances knitted together into a disarmingly charming seven minute film. I watched this with a smile on my face throughout, several times over. How much experimental performance can be described as cute? Not much.
Like all Tape Noise ‘product’ I have no idea whether this is ‘available’ in any conventional sense. You are best off contacting Dex directly at tapenoise@gmail.com or via his website.
Eyeballs – The Invisible Castle (Blackest Rainbow)
Very accomplished hour-long drone piece from blog-fave Richard Dawson in his Eyeballs guise. The trick with a lengthy track like this is to be fuzzily meditative enough to be properly ego-dissolving, yet not so featureless that the listener’s attention slips right off. Suffice to say this is a very satisfying success. At the time of writing this (proper) CD is available for a knock-down price at Blackest Rainbow. Get in.
More to come…
artifacts of the no-audience underground: bells hill label review part two
June 19, 2011 at 9:49 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: astral social club, bells hill, drone, eyeballs, improv, jazzfinger, new music, no audience underground, noise, posset
We all live in a classic English womb: a tribute to jazzfinger (Bells hill 99)
I’m ashamed to admit that I know almost nothing about Jazzfinger. I’ve heard, what, two albums and a handful of compilation tracks maybe? I met Ben Jones once at the Cumberland Arms gig that Lee Stokoe invited me and Julian Bradley to play in 2002. He was charm personified, with a tigger-esque energy and enthusiasm, and when he had to leave during my set (to attend another gig elsewhere – over-committing being a typical Ben move apparently) he was all thumbs aloft. Anyway, I’m beginning to plug this shocking gap in my musical learning but am still a callow neophyte amongst adepts.
This compilation is a physical manifestation of the reverence in which they are held. To describe these eleven tracks as Jazzfinger cover versions is perhaps simplistic. Whilst I’m not familiar with the source material I suspect it has been used more as inspiration than blueprint. Three highlights: 1. ‘I Am In Blood’ by The Golden Sores is a tasty drone as satisfying as pouring golden syrup from a tin. 2. ‘Old Goose (The Undying Optimism Of Ben Jones And Overall Splender Of Hasan Gaylani)’ by Murder Book in which a core of quiet violence is smothered in swathes of static. 3. ‘The Quintessential Mars Muffler’ by blog-faves Eyeballs which is grin-inducing, hyper-joyful metal machine music.
In summary: one track is awful, a couple are of little consquence but otherwise quality is top end. The album is coherently sequenced, nicely mastered by Waz of Infinite Exchange, and there are lengthy, entertaining, impressionistic liner notes by Richard Dawson of Eyeballs. He describes his experience of Jazzfinger in terms I could use almost word for word to describe how I felt about Vibracathedral Orchestra ten years ago. Ahh, now I get it!
Shortchanging The Muse Volume 1 (BH022)
OK, the provenance of this one is a little convoluted. Despite me quoting a BH cat number above this physical object – double CD-r in half-size DVD case – is actually a product of cidershed which is, I think, an affiliate of Fuckin’ Amateurs. From the liner notes:
Bells Hill and Tarot Formula Recordings produced this digital download of Newcastle bands early in 2010 and cidershed thank scott and mike for sanctioning this hard copy for dish out at the lowest form of music festival 22-24 2010
Its origin as a download is evident from the fact that the tracks are arranged in alphabetical order by band name. This compilation has been sequenced by File Manager. Like most double discs the best of this would make a killer single disc but there is much of quality thoughout. Four highlights: 1. ‘false wonder’ by Cathode – expertly crafted electronica from another lovely guy I met the once at a poorly attended gig, this time one of Matt randomNumber’s Statement of Intent gigs in Leeds. 2. ‘jamaica hospital medical center’ by Gankeenankee which sounds like a field recording of a New Orleans jazz band attempting to play whilst tossed about in a giant cement mixer. 3. ‘the forever well’ by Mariposa which is a wide-open, guitar-and-harmonica drone piece. 4. ‘warm front’ by Warm Digits which is an accomplished piece of pastoral Krautrock.
Anyway, given that my copy is numbered 17 of 20, I’m not sure how ‘available’ this might now be. Worth asking after though.
George Ferguson McKeating (BH001)
And we finish on an unavoidably serious note. Scott started Bells Hill in order to release this double disc compilation of exclusive underground music, its purpose to raise money for pancreatic cancer research. From the sleeve notes:
Pancreatic Cancer came out of the blue on the 2nd of April and within just over three months of the initial diagnosis my dad had passed away. I miss him. This disease has the lowest survival rate of all cancers – approximately 3% of those diagnosed survive five years or more. There is no early detection test, treatment is limited and there is no cure – the average survival time after diagnosis is just six months.
Hence the simple title and the poignant cover photograph. I obviously couldn’t accept this as a freebie so, when prompted, Scott suggested I send the money, a mere 8 quid, as a cheque (made payable to Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund) directly to the PCRF. The address is: PO Box 47432, London, N21 1XP. Perhaps you could drop him a line, order a copy and do the same. More details about the PCRF can be found on their website.
I’m happy to say that you needn’t do this out of a sense of duty as the music you’ll be getting in return is worth twice the donation. I’ll just mention the two biggest names. Astral Social Club’s ‘Ramoon Redux’ on the first disc is six minutes of ecstatic, uplifting, nostril-flaring chaos. Jazzfinger’s fifteen minute ‘Brittle Wood Fallen Stone’ opening disc two is a beautifully subtle, quietly expansive piece of third-eye opening psychedelic noise. The rest is great too – well sequenced, nothing outstays its welcome. You should buy this.
As before, to get hold of this stuff contact Scott at scottjamesbellshill@gmail.com or visit Bells Hill at Blogspot.
artifacts of the no-audience underground: bells hill label review part one
June 18, 2011 at 2:35 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: bells hill, culver, drone, eyeballs, jazzfinger, matching head, new music, no audience underground, noise, popular radiation, tapes
Almost everything I’ve been listening to of late has had some connection to the North East. From the seething metropolis of Newcastle to the windswept beauty of the Heritage Coast, the kids are skronking and droning. There must be something in the Craster Kippers – a breakfast foodstuff made compulsory for everyone North of Durham by medieval edict of the Percys.
As he shares the telepathic link which connects all members of the North-East no-audience underground, Scott McKeating, head honcho of Whitley Bay’s Bells Hill imprint, awoke one morning suddenly aware that radiofreemidwich was mining his scene. He choked down his smoked fish and rushed me a parcel.
As with Infinite Exchange, a label with which Bells Hill shares some of its roster, I’ll be presenting six reviews over two posts. The first will detail the qualities of three single artist releases, the second will be concerned with three various artist compilations.
culver – can you read my mind? (bells hill 06)
Double sided tape in photocopied sleeve pictured above. I have mentioned Culver several times in recent posts. This is because Lee Stokoe’s ever-present rumbling provides a kind of baseline for all the other noise I listen to. Like the background radiation that has been humming since the Big Bang, Culver is ubiquitous yet mysterious and indicative of something ominously apocalyptic.
To say this release is similar to other Culver releases is true but misses the point. To all but the hardcore fan Lee’s tapes may appear perplexingly alike. However, this doesn’t really matter for two reasons. Firstly, Lee is painstakingly, obsessively, documenting every possible nuance of his project, exploring each barely perceptible shift in a heavy atmosphere. Secondly, he doesn’t give a shit what you think – if you can’t tell the difference between these various shades of dark then that is your problem, not his.
This particular tape starts with a simple, mournful acoustic guitar. The final lament of a hapless trekker out of their depth in a hostile wildnerness. This cuts to the sound of a light aircraft overhead, possibly searching for this very missing person, who is now too injured, dehydrated or starving to attract its attention. On the second side this unlucky individual wakes from their delirium to find themselves hooded and with their hands and feet bound, straining to hear the muffled and echoing sounds of a blood rite happening somewhere nearby. Apologies for the troubling image, dear reader, but given Lee’s comprehensive appreciation of horror, this may be exactly the picture he intends to paint.
Popular Radiation – ‘Saitana Sarkasa’ (Bells Hill BH 023)
Single track by that Hasan Gaylani of Jazzfinger on a 3″ CD-r featuring a collage cover by Kevin Anderson – the guy who did the great trilobite cover for Infinite Exchange’s otherwise sub-par Mechanical Children album.
This is a really enjoyable oddity. What you get is about 12 minutes of epic, non-verbal choral music overlaid with almost unintelligible snippets of, apparently, everyday conversation and music radio. Thus: the human voice at its most noble and impressive interrupted by the human voice at its most banal and functional. The snippets are so poorly recorded as to be little more than distorted bursts of trebly static, though the odd word is occasionally decipherable. ‘Blood’ someone might say at one point, ‘footstool’ (?!) at another.
It’s like settling down to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey on your massive telly with super-surround speakers only for interference from a mini-cab dispatcher’s radio to crash in whenever the soundtrack features a tasty bit of Ligeti. I admit this might sound irritating but there is something strangely soothing about the whole package. I’ve listened to it over and over again.
Eyeballs – The Quest (Bells Hill BH017)
As is customary I have saved the best until last. Scott isn’t one for formulaic, er…, formats so this time we have a full size CD-r printed with a picture of a many-eyed, beaked, tentacle creature (Kraken? Spawn of Cthulhu?) housed in a 12” cardboard sleeve. The sleeve features the tremendous, if gruesome, illustration above. Also included is a print, hand signed and numbered by artist Ant Macari, of a drawing of Odysseus tied to the mast of his ship whilst the Sirens attempt his seduction. However, the bird-women of this famous scene have been re-imagined as the personification of Google and Facebook. “Circe tagged you in a photo,” says one. “For we know all that happens on the fruitful Earth…” says another, the line taking on an amusing (or perhaps ominous) spin in this contemporary context. A cheeky cursor arrow-point hovers discretely in one corner…
The music is similarly intelligent, wryly humourous and unashamedly ambitious. It could be read as the soundtrack to a fantasy adventure though don’t start rolling those D20s – this is not a Tolkienesque quest. Instead we are in a surreal, colour-saturated place more akin to the Yellow Submarine than to Middle Earth. Maybe a little darker than that – if you can imagine a world where Babs Santini is considered to be a dryly realistic painter of landscapes then you’ve got it.
The first track, ‘Invisible Horses Drink Giant Water’, sets the scene with church bells, some Nurse With Wound-ish groaning, running water, the whinnying of the invisible horses and a gentle motorik groove to get us underway. ‘A Silver Pea in Every Nostril’ is an ignorable two minutes of bibbling then it is on to the two tracks which form the main event. ‘The Secret Volcano/The Alien Village’ is 22 minutes of pulsating rhythm overlaid with a deliciously fuzzy drone which shatters into a shimmering, tumbling mass of splinters. If this was one side of a tape by Astral Social Club I would not be at all surprised or disappointed. Very high quality and, if the release finished there it would already be a triumph. However the next track, ‘Galleon of Leaf’ might be even better. A strangely hypnotic loop of wonkytronics is dissected; each of the component parts hums and squeals on its own, then the lot recombines to play us out with renewed vigour. Simple, elegant. The final track could be a noisy single-prop aircraft returning our adventurers home, it could be the static from their abandoned radios, batteries fading…
Eyeballs are fast becoming a RFM blog fave. That everything about this release is so high-end, so considered and so much fun shows just what can be achieved with a budget of bugger-all down here in the no-audience underground. A scene in rude health, eh?
To get hold of this stuff contact Scott at scottjamesbellshill@gmail.com or visit Bells Hill at Blogspot.
artifacts of the no-audience underground: infinite exchange label review part two
May 30, 2011 at 1:19 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: drone, eyeballs, improv, infinite exchange, new music, no audience underground, posset, the zero map
Three more reviews of releases on Waz Hoola’s Infinite Exchange Records. No reservations this time, instead radiofreemidwich somehow holds three thumbs aloft. Neat trick, eh? As before, if you want to get hold of this stuff then please email Waz at theinfiniteexchange@hotmail.co.uk for details.
Eyeballs – Thief of Men (IECDR019)
This starts with rain. Cold, unforgiving, battering the moss covered stones of an ancient castle. As we drift through the impossibly thick walls, the pounding of the rain is subsumed into the noise of fires, machinery. Possibly we are now in some hellish corner of a gargantuan kitchen. Far above, in the opulent living quarters, a rite, a wake perhaps, is in progress. Snatches of the sombre processional music can occasionally be heard over the roar.
I wasn’t sure about this release at first but it has grown in stature with repeat listens. I am now quietly impressed. The music, a single track of 32 minutes, has coherence, a narrative drive and the commitment to work through its ideas at an appropriate pace. I like it.
Posset – Mump Grumpy (IECDR017)
Another half-hour of dictaphone-improv and brown ale fueled musique concrète from blog fave Joe Posset, RFM’s North East correspondent. Compared to other Posset releases I’ve reviewed, these seven tracks present a slightly edgier, more ambitious take on Joe’s the-world-is-my-fisher-price-activity-centre modus operandi.
There are, inevitably, laugh out loud moments – for example the priceless elastic band solo in ‘coleslaw surfeit’ – but, dare I say it, some of this comes close to expressing a Posset philosophy. In the 13 minute epic ‘verunk bluaghh’ a tape of mournful strings gets increasingly nobbled until it gives out and is replaced by a field recording of birds singing. How’s that for a critique of ‘proper’ music? Like the beatnik outsider hep-cat that he is, Joe champions spontaneity, possibility, humour and enthusiasm. That the cover features a mess of destroyed magnetic tape, a gleeful surrender to chaos, could not be more perfect. I bloody love Posset, me.
The Zero Map – Felis Cattus Domesticus (IECDR021)
And something special for dessert. You may have noticed that several of IE’s releases induced a narrative reverie in me and that I’ve been tempted to call on various wierd tales in order to explain the effect. Well, now it is time to reference the master…
Immediately prior to listening to this disc for the first time I had been enjoying a reading of At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft. The fit with ‘Sentience’, the first track, could not be more snug. This feels like a field recording of the relentless Arctic wind whistling and groaning as it whips around the non-euclidean angles of a long-abandoned alien city. Or is it deserted? There are strange vibrations emanating from far beneath the snow…
The second track, ‘Giving Birth’, is a cool drone piece suggesting the experience is far more placid and meditative than I had been led to believe.
The third and final track, ‘The Voices In My Head’, is a remarkable 20 minutes of layered, shifting textures that is as beguiling and unnerving as, well, having voices in your head.
Last night I woke from a nightmare and found myself trapped in that panic-inducing moment between sleep and consciousness. The universe was inexplicable and malevolent. Reduced, in fact, to Lovecraftian cosmic horror. As this is a regular occurence, I keep my mp3 player handy in order that I may distract myself back to sleep by listening to some music. Last night this track happened to be cued up and I found it strangely soothing. Not because it is at all soporific, it isn’t, but because it acknowledged the truth of my fears. Yes, it said to me, we get it…
What the music has to do with the title of the release, or the sweet snapshots of cats on the cover, is beyond me – perhaps they are The Cats of Ulthar? – but who cares? This is one of the best releases I’ve heard this year so far – the equal of the Jazzfinger disc reviewed in part one.
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