radio free midwich

dental tang: rfm on aqua dentata, gareth js thomas, kwc, yaca, microdeform

Aqua Dentata – One Day You Will Be a Painter (Echo Tango)

Gareth JS Thomas – Wandsworth Sports (Aphelion Editions)

KWC – Fruit Rosary Sacred Hour Service (Power Moves Library)

Yaca  – I (Ce chemin est le bon / Manjar Records)

Microdeform – Neural Regression (Aphelion Editions)

Aqua Dentata – One Day You Will Be a Painter (Echo Tango) cassette

There’s not an ounce of flab on this whippet-like tape.

I’m not sure if such timeless music conceptually has a side one or side two (and the tape case is teasingly naked) but when I click ‘play’ a sinuous wave slowly oozes out the speakers like runny honey.

The gentlest shake (a greasy blue bag of salt perhaps) accompanies the sticky snake until “snip” it cuts out all sudden like.  What a tease you are Mr Nuttall!

But fear not Dentata-followers as complex coils of zinc-coated drones poke around my listening room like anxious lizards.

Slowly they build, blindly they roam.  Slick muscle slips over steel bone in concentric arcs.

Oddly the decaying dreams of each lizard/tone/wave can be viewed as plain as day.  A dull halo of images flicker at the leading edge of each sound.  At first they form a sort of pressure wave – the brooding bruise of a storm cloud.  After time they dry out and rattle as arthritic knuckle shuffles.

Finally my ears register the electronics tones as haw frost shimmering on silver birch or endless exhalations roaring from bronze lips.

‘Krak…’

…the tape judders to a halt and I’m back in the room; feeling fresh as an egg-cup full of lime juice.

Gareth JS Thomas – Wandsworth Sports (Aphelion Editions) cassette, CD and digital album

An intriguing tape that runs from Assault on Precinct 13 gang-synth-pulses to Neighbourhood Watch whimsy via the Australian Soap Opera.

The superb ranting on the opener ‘Lurk On My Block Get Hurt On My Block’ is both semi-comprehensible and threatening as it phases in-and-out of the great sleazy wings of drone-synth heaving left to right.

Surveillance and security is pumped-up on steroids for ‘Go Home’ a throbbing bassline whacked through some form of effect that multiplies things by very many factors. If I’m not mistaken ‘the plod’ riddim mimics Juliet Bravo’s heavy footfall into the gloomy incident room.  The back-room boys huff on that ether they found in the lock-up causing everything to

s—-l——–o————w                                                       d—-o——-w—————–n.

Elsewhere a sampler ‘trips’ down the stairs making things as messy as court drawings – amateurish pastels over which renewed street ranting (a new field recording genre – the new dawn chorus?) explodes briefly.

Mrs Jarret causes trouble for our Australian teenage sweethearts and is carefully mashed beneath an electric avalanche, whirring flywheel and more ‘plod’ rhythms.

But what I get most of all is a sense of dangerous fun…almost a Dada-esque approach, daring you not to listen.

KWC – Fruit Rosary Sacred Hour Service (Power Moves Library) CDr with smart postcards, sold out cassette and free digital album

Another vital PML release!

“Another vital release,” you say, “are you sure?”

Reader…I am.

great dictaphonic swoops of sepia-tinted sound / the initial source material is religious, baptist I believe / the spiritual weight is felt with heavy presence / like a riot of bees in my ear / constant re-ordering and waggling / deep, deep found recordings are pushed through the condenser mic miracle / transforming them not to angels on a pin head / but the vengeful ones with claymores / snatches of melody gently float on occasion / chopped and screwed becomes slowed-down and fucked-with / sound morphs into one melancholic wave / dusted / out-of-focus but undeniably there / pulling and pushing / subtle…a powerful tide, a hectic blues / repetitious spoken word become brain mangles / breaking words and meanings into grey shifting pebbles / piled up in to a precarious cairn / hail marys and ritualistic bingo / self-help becomes text-sound gumbo / fylkingen with lap steel blunts

Yaca – I (Ce chemin est le bon / Manjar Records) CD and digital album

Oh…beautiful rattle!

One new duo from two wise voices: Rodrigo Montoya (Brazil) on Shamisen and Ignacio Moreno-Fluxa (Chile) on e-guitar/electronics mesh their sounds together into a rich savoury lattice.

The aptly named ‘Vertigo’, sets the course towards a dizzying sense of panic and loss of control but each step is very carefully measured.  Flickering, dry crackles and pops are wrenched from the slack strings while a cloud-deep strumming soars overhead.  The final moment explores the submission of freefall in detail…the final acceptance of eternal nothingness.

Phew!

The other lengthy piece ‘Power’ starts with the gentlest whirr of machinery and a slight dental tang.  Soon I’m lost in a listening swamp; thick drone leaves brushing my face as roots catch in my battered Converse.

Toothy dolphins blow pinched squeals from rubbery blowholes – thick oil is spread across the water and soon full of sonic detritus.

(note: there is a reassuring ‘liveness’ to these recordings with the unmistakable ‘clunk’ of picking up and putting down various doodads and gizmos)

At the twelve minute mark things settle (the oil – the troubled water) into a patient thrum with banjo-like Shamisen accompaniment peaking and building into stiff ecstatic peaks – Loaded era V.U. though a min’yo lens.

Oh…beautiful shimmer!

Microdeform – Neural Regression (Aphelion Editions) CDr and digital album

Turntablist (L McConaghy) ploughs straight into a surface noise symphony on this handsome disc.  The fuxxing scutter of the vinyl becomes a star.

>>>   <<<<      >>>>>>   >>>> <><>><>><>    >>>>>>    >>>>>    <<<<>><>>><><>>><>>>   ><>

Ghostly echoes of otherness sound like distant fog horns muted and damp.

///////////\//\/\\/\\////\\///\\\\\\ \\\\\\\   \\\\\   \\////\/\/\  /\////\\/\/\\///\\\                                        \///\//\\\\//\/\

Place the horns on a spinning disc of sandpaper to smooth off the edges; sweep iron-filings into the groove.

//\\/\/\\//\\/\/\/\/////\\\////\/\\/\/\\/////      \/\/\/\/\\\\\\\/\/\\/\\\           \/\\/\\\/\\\\\\/\/\///\/\/

A series of smears and smudges

\/\///\  /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\\\\/\/\//\/////\\/\/\\\\/\\\\///\/\\\\\\//\/\////\/\/\/\/\\/\\\/\/\/

Do you need me to spell it out?

Aphelion Editions

Aqua Dentata/Echo Tango

Power Moves Library

Ce Chemin est le Bon / Manjar Records

-ooOOoo-