new from empire ashnav: recent ashtray navigations
April 21, 2013 at 6:55 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ashtray navigations, mel delaney, melanie o'dubhslaine, memoirs of an aesthete, new music, no audience underground, pelktopia, phil todd, psychedelia, yogoh record
Ashtray Navigations / Pelktopia – split (vinyl album, YŌGOH RECORD, YGH001)
Ashtray Navigations – Cloud Come Cadaver (CD-r, Memoirs of an Aesthete, MOA 2013-2)
Comrades! Sound the alarums and light the beacons! Blow those long thin trumpet things with banners hanging off them! Kill something and roast it! For here we have emanations from the very throne room of Empire AshNav itself! In summary: two new releases by Ashtray Navigations, at length: see below.
The split album with Pelktopia is presented on the heritage medium of 12″ vinyl as the first release from fledgling Japanese label YŌGOH RECORD. It is packaged in a white-on-black illustrated sleeve that will infuriate collectors as it is impossible to keep free of finger marks, even if your hand washing routine is insane. That quibble aside: lovely object. Phil was paid for his contribution, apparently, as well as being sent plentiful freebies and has acknowledged this largesse by providing work of the highest quality in return.
The opener, ‘Soft Sculpture Mountain Machine’, is a brief, optimistic scene-setter. Excited but laid-back, it acknowledges that cool things are afoot by pulling its sunglasses down its nose slightly and winking at our hero, the Faun. Faun turns to the window and sees the bay, jewelled with sparkling sunshine, as the plane comes in to land at Naples International Airport. The centrepiece, ‘Afternoon of a Yorkshire Faun’, is part Debussy homage, part music concrete, part psych-ambient-mini-epic. The Faun finds herself sunbathing on the deck of a yacht (the good ship ‘Marginalia’ presumably – heh, heh – a reference for the long-term fans there) as it sails purposefully along the Amalfi coast. Phil is at the wheel, cap at a jaunty angle. The lapping of the Mediterranean against the hull sounds suspiciously like the traffic on Kirkstall Road recorded on a microphone dangled out of a bathroom window. But that can’t be right, eh? Faun drifts in and out of sleep listening to the sounds of the boat, the sea, the blood in her ears. The third and final track, ‘The Car Ears’, joins Faun in a Capri nightclub later, a 1960s-style psychedelic ‘happening’ in full swing. Todd’s tropical guitar is frying the chemically augmented crowd. Guys lean at louche angles, girls – including Faun – dance, ignoring their sunburn, abandoned in the ego dissolving rhythmic crackle.
The Pelktopia side is really good too. Minimal, haunted, ambient guitar-scapes that could well be the dehydrated dreams of Faun as she sleeps off the night and rubs mascara onto her pillow.
Terrific stuff, highly recommended. Details of how to get hold of it on the Ashtray Navigations blog (though ask before sending money – it may be sold out).
Cloud Come Cadaver is a four track album, self-released on Phil’s own Memoirs of an Aesthete label, available on the space-age medium of CD-r and/or download from that Bandcamp. It is packaged in an attractively bling silver cover adorned with Phil’s unmistakeable cartoon artwork (of which I am a big fan). The vibe is less sun-baked than the above. The fuzz, whilst remaining thoroughly psychedelic, is more insistent, has more bite to it. The blue here is not the luxurious azure of the warm Mediterranean but rather the grey-tinged shade of the morning sky.
The opener, ‘Mushfinger Cadaver’, starts loud, unignorable, like an alarm clock, but soon settles as we throw back the covers and adjourn to the balcony for breakfast. The gathering pulse documents the waking of the alien city spread out below our vantage point. Gulls eating yesterday’s scraps in the market square are chased away and fly over the walls towards the port.
‘Granite Phalli’ is driven and irresistible but has the lightness of touch you’d find in some of my favourite Krautrock. It shares the retro-futurist vibe of that genre too: a sort of nostalgia for the idea of a technological idyll that we are now too old and wise (or cynical) to believe will ever come to pass. Its groove suggests a journey towards this unreachable destination and we end up agreeing with Kraftwerk (‘fun, fun, fun on the autobahn’) that to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive. The third track is the joker in the pack: ‘Like 12 Xmas Dinners Stacked On Top of Each Other’ could be the soundtrack to a five-minute long claymation remake of Blade Runner.
Lastly, we have the appropriately named ‘The Final Hit’. This track takes us back to the nightclub in Capri where Faun was dancing. This time, though, we are in the head of one the guys propped in a corner. The psychedelic guitar is still raging but it barely penetrates the pharmacological cocoon that this well dressed burn-out has spun around himself. He looks like an extra from a Fellini film. Halfway through the track the scene changes to an indeterminate but luxurious new venue. Is this the hotel? The hospital? The after party? The afterlife? Who can tell? It’s like a ‘Comfortably Numb’ for the psych/noise underground but defiant, without a trace of self pity. It could accompany the ‘ages of man’ sequence at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Did I mention that Ashtray Navigations are my favourite band? This is why.
To acquire your copy, and to check out the swelling back catalogue now available via the same means, visit the Ashtray Navigations Bandcamp site.
new from empire ashnav: knurr & spell
April 3, 2013 at 8:38 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: absurd records, ashtray navigations, drone, foldhead, mel delaney, melanie o'dubhslaine, memoirs of an aesthete, moral holiday, new music, no audience underground, noise, noise below, ocelocelot, paul walsh, phil todd, psychedelia, shem, shemboid, smokers gifts
Knurr & Spell. being psychedelic sounds from Yorkshire.
(CD in card packaging, Smokers Gifts #14/Memoirs of an Aesthete moa CD 14/Noise Below, edition of 250)
I hear that the process leading to the release of this compilation was as troubled and arcane as the Hellenic economic situation (which apparently caused part of the delay). I needn’t go into too much detail – suffice to say that shit happened on an Augean scale and rivers had to be diverted to clear the path. We should all be grateful for the Herculean effort and Stoic patience shown by its co-producers: Mel O’Dubhslaine’s Smokers Gifts, Phil Todd’s Memoirs of an Aesthete and noise, a few decks below – promoters of experimental music in Greece (formerly behind the great label Absurd). Those waiting on this elephantine gestation have been richly rewarded: the album is superb.
The packaging is noteworthy (and getting it right was another cause for delay). A round, card, three-petalled sleeve unfolds to reveal a CD adorned with a full colour cut up of some kind of rhubarb recipe. But the Yorkshireness doesn’t end with these delicious stalks. Also included is an account of the forgotten game Knurr and Spell which originated on the Yorkshire Moors and involves a small wooden ball, the knurr, being sprung into the air by a little mechanism, the spell, and then clobbered by a bloke wielding what looks like a snooker cue with a block at the business end, the pommel. Thus: golf meets clay pigeon shooting. Today you are only likely to see it played by the ghosts you encounter if you venture up onto Ilkley Moor without a hat, and having ingested a heavy dose of magic mushrooms.
So onto the psychedelic sounds. Four tracks, each about twenty minutes long, by four different solo artists. First is veteran Leeds scenester Shem Sharples, recording as his robotic alter ego Shemboid, who kicks things off with ‘myths of the prehistoric future’ – a Ballardian pun well suited to this blistering, splintering track. Shem is an aficionado of the garage psych sound and his skyscraping fuzz/wah guitar illuminates the rubble like harsh Californian sunshine. Whilst enduring some awful hipster nonsense in Wharf Chambers a few weeks ago I mused on the fact that I have been listening to bands tackling the garage punk/psychedelia/krautrock axis for 25 years – from Loop and Spacemen 3 in the late 80s to acts like Moon Duo nowadays – and almost no-one groks the vibe as comprehensively as Shem.
Next is ‘bontempi bastet’ by Ocelocelot, Mel O’Dubhslaine’s noise/drone endeavour. The track is remarkable: an ectoplasmic gumbo, a thick electronic soup spiced and seasoned to make the corners of your eyes twitch. Or is it an evocation of heaven? Not the serene, tree lined avenues in the clouds that we imagine nowadays but instead the impossible floating crush pictured on an epic scale by Tintoretto in his painting of Paradise for the Doge’s palace in Venice. Mel is a serious artist quietly and brilliantly re-purposing music to serve her own mysterious ends. She does this with good humour and modesty and I think she might be my hero.
Third is ‘no forks’ by Moral Holiday, Phil Todd’s affectionate homage to first wave industrial music and its red-faced, politically embarrassing offspring power electronics. It begins menacingly enough, all underground car parks and Sheffield in the late 1970s, and there is a little treated shouting to box the ears. However it soon settles down into an intriguing mixture of deference to its sources and tripped out Toddiana. The backing is brittle, unforgiving, stark. The solos (both synth and guitar I think, though I’ve guessed wrong before) have a trebly, crystalline beauty. Phil has taken the bucolic feel of the most utopian electronic Krautrock, frogmarched it to a grimly urban setting and then recorded it amongst the glass and concrete, mutating to fit its new surroundings. It is a completely convincing Ballardian (that guy again) hybrid, greater than the sum of its parts.
Finally, we have ‘taser delerium’ (sic) from Paul Walsh’s foldhead. This is a 20 minute extract from the dawn chorus in the Metalzoic era: a disorientating onslaught of trilling, squawking, grinding and fuzzing. Perhaps you could imagine spiking the punch at a convention of shortwave radio enthusiasts then getting the fried participants to improvise a jam using nothing but the guttering warbles of atmospheric interference. Life affirming stuff – joyful noise wall. Like an intruder appearing at the foot of your bed, paralysing you with a swift injection to the sole of your foot, then draping his cock across your forehead as you lie prone and immobile, it is a perversely calming experience.
…and that’s your lot. In summary: this album is damn near perfect. Buy here.
new from empire ashnav: human combustion engine vi
March 28, 2013 at 7:59 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ashtray navigations, drone, electronica, human combustion engine, ilse, mel delaney, melanie o'dubhslaine, new music, no audience underground, phil todd
Human Combustion Engine VI: Games Without (CDr, Ilse, Ilse 34)
When asked ‘Rob, what is your favourite band?’ I am happy to reply with frank conviction ‘Ashtray Navigations.’ I admit to being distracted occasionally by acts new to me – witness my fawning adulation of, say, Aqua Dentata or Helicopter Quartet or Spoils & Relics – but it is to Phil and Mel I always return. Even the seemingly irresistible embrace of Culver can be shrugged off in their presence (aside: my devotion is just one of the many traits I apparently share with punk legend Henry Rollins, a fellow Todd collector).
So what a heady delight to be treated in quick succession to three new products from the extended AshNav Empire. The compilation Knurr & Spell and the Ashtray Navigations / Pelktopia split vinyl LP – both excellent – will be dealt with in due course, as fatherhood allows. For now we concern ourselves with a brief account of the release above.
Games Without is the sixth volume in the continuing saga of Human Combustion Engine, Mel and Phil’s krautrock/prog synth incarnation. The package is entirely standard: pro-copied CD-r in jewel case with colour insert. The content is one 45 minute track constructed from subtle tweaking and restrained knob twiddling. The effect is to induce a maximal reverie just as involving as any of the preceding episodes.
I imagine it as a conversation between enormously powerful artificial intelligences. The background buzz and throb being the sound of their daily planet-running business, the pulses being the information-rich exchanges between them. Perhaps they are discussing the relative merits of the civilisations that created them, like demigods comparing worshippers. The banter remains civil until at one point something offensive is said (“those Alpha Centauri twats smell of cabbage,” perhaps) and before tempers can be cooled a giant space rock is thrown at the Urals. The subject is quickly changed and we finish more or less where we started. Lovely.
artifacts of the no-audience underground: recent human combustibles
August 10, 2012 at 7:09 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ashtray navigations, electronica, human combustion engine, human horses, improv, medusa, mel delaney, memoirs of an aesthete, new music, no audience underground, noise, part wild horses mane on both sides, phil todd, tapes, total vermin
Ashtray Navigations – Three Spots Two Circles (Medusa, 014, 2 x 3″ CD-r with poster, edition of 50)
Human Combustion Engine V – Bible Whistle (Total Vermin, #76, cassette)
Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides + Human Combustion Engine = Human Horses (Memoirs Of An Aesthete, CD in digipak, edition of 250)
So, Phil and Mel hand me some new stuff, right, and it is well smart so I decide to write about it, yeah, so I look back through the blog to find my last piece on the AshNav axis to make sure that I repeat any running jokes or overworked metaphors that I’ve annoyed them with before and, to my horror, I discover that I’ve said nothing about Three Spots Two Circles! Nowt!
I’m not sure how/why this dodged the review pile but I suspect it was because I thought it had sold out at source – Medusa – almost instantly. I might have been wrong (please check) but I don’t like to risk upsetting my sensitive readers by singing the praises of an unavailable item. Still, as a terrific release by my favourite band I have to at least note it in passing. From the eye-opening, Pendereckish scraped strings of ‘Forced Orchestra One’, through the more recognizably Ashnavian tropical psych of, well, the rest of it, the level of humour, invention and groove is maintained at a knock-out pitch. The package is exquisite too – a lovely foldout poster in Renaissance gold, black and white hides two individually wrapped 3″ CD-rs. Double mini-CD-r = format of champions. Let’s move swiftly on to two items that are (almost) definitely available…
Human Combustion Engine V – Bible Whistle, is a one-lengthy-track-per-side cassette on the surprisingly-lovely-given-the-name Total Vermin. The cover features the enormously be-conked, perma-grinning plaster face of Mr. Noseybonk – a nightmare-inducing mime from 80s children’s television series Jigsaw. Perhaps the less said about him the better.
Anyway, this be the fifth outing of Phil and Mel’s synth duo incarnation (hence the ‘V’). As you might expect given the instrumentation, there are tangerine passages but it isn’t overly krautish nor does it feel at all like pastiche, or even homage for that matter. If you want layers of low-end robo-dystopian rumble or epic synth washes then you can find ‘em – especially on side two’s ‘The Importance of Whistle Boards’ – but there is also plenty of agile tweakery going on which pushes things forward in an angular and involving fashion. Let’s examine, for example, the opening to side one’s ‘Holiday Bible Week’ which begins in a spacey manner but this isn’t 2001: A Space Odyssey spacey, more knitted-out-of-pink-wool Oliver Postgate spacey. As the atmosphere surrounding the trilling and warbling darkens the new genre of electro-doom-clanger is birthed before our very ears.
An excellent companion piece to the stuff by Cloughy recently reviewed below. At the time of writing this isn’t up on the Total Vermin blog yet but you could always drop Stuart a line at smearcampaign@hotmail.com and enquire as to what is up.
Finally, we have a proper pressed CD in a larily coloured digipak released by Phil’s own label Memoirs of an Aesthete. Usefully, the project is explained by its own title: Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides + Human Combustion Engine = Human Horses so there you go. Pascal Nichols (percussion) and Kelly Jayne Jones (flute, electronics and piano) join the HCE synthers for an improvised 40 minute performance recorded by RFM-chap-of-the-year-contender Andy Jarvis, Heathen Earth style, in front of a select audience.
I was very interested to hear how this was going to fit together. Would the synths of HCE be mobile, reactive and spacious enough to accommodate, say, the delicacy and emotional potency of KJJ’s flute? Would the remarkable, rolling, free drumming of PN really get its claws in or would it just skitter over the surface? Silly me for even asking. All the elements augment and amplify each other, creating a multi-faceted whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Imagine you are about to embark on a giant jigsaw (I’m talking about the tabletop time-killing activity now, not Mr. Noseybonk) of a tropical jungle scene. The picture is always there, in prospect, from the moment you tip the pieces out of the box, before you even start to solve the puzzle. However, it won’t resolve itself until you make some progress in assembling it, then it gradually becomes clearer and clearer until it is fully revealed by the satisfying placement of the last piece.
OK, now picture yourself as retired and therefore a fiend for jigsaws. This is some distance in the future, of course, and now jigsaws are high tech things with shape-shifting pieces that change each time you waggle your iBrain implants. Also, not only does the picture gradually take shape as you put it together but an immersive scene of lush plant life, strange insects, heat haze and exotic bird calls – stuff you can hear and see – is created at the same time. Repeat listens to Human Horses is like that. Buy here.
in celebration: victorian electronics and sheepscar light industrial live in leeds
July 31, 2012 at 5:53 pm | Posted in live music, midwich, new music, no audience underground | 3 CommentsTags: ap martlet, ashtray navigations, astral social club, daniel thomas, dave thomas, drone, foldhead, hagman, improv, live music, marky loo loo, mel delaney, melanie o'dubhslaine, midwich, midwich for sale, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, paul walsh, phil todd, shameless self-congratulation, sheepscar light industrial, striate cortex, victorian electronics
Various Artists – Victorian Electronics
(Striate Cortex, S.C. 50., 4 x 3″ CD-r box-set, edition of 50)
Daniel Thomas & Midwich – Twenty-three Taels
(Sheepscar Light Industrial, SLI.oo1, 3″ CD-r, edition of 50 and download)
Mel O’Dubhslaine – I Can Remember the Faces of All the Grebs at My School
(Sheepscar Light Industrial, SLI.oo2, 3″ CD-r, edition of 50 and download)
Astral Social Club, Ashtray Navigations, Midwich, Mel O’Dubhslaine, Hagman, Foldhead
Live at Wharf Chambers, Leeds, Saturday 28th July, 2012
Never mind the ‘lympiks and the bloody jubilee, here are some genuine reasons to be cheerful: the Victorian Electronics box set is out, the shiny new label Sheepscar Light Industrial has had a champagne bottle smashed over its prow and last Saturday we all played live in the lovely Wharf Chambers here in sunny Leeds to celebrate these events.
Here’s the story. A couple of months ago Andy Robinson, head honcho of blog fave label Striate Cortex, rang me with a proposal (already most irregular – my reluctance to pick up the ‘phone is legendary). He had acquired some 3”(ish) square jewellery boxes similar to those which housed the Star Turbine release and wanted to load ‘em up with something special for SC’s fiftieth release. He suggested a Leeds-noise-themed set of four 3” CD-rs featuring about twenty minutes each from midwich, Daniel Thomas, Astral Social Club and Ashtray Navigations. I was to be his man on the scene tasked with selling the others on the idea, coming up with a title, writing liner notes and nudging elbows when chivvying was required.
I jumped at the idea. Not least because the line-up suggested mapped exactly onto the group of people that tend to meet every Thursday lunchtime at the Victoria Hotel pub in Leeds city centre. Hence the title of the set. This standing appointment has a long and illustrious history which I briefly described in the liner notes you will read once you make your inevitable purchase (or if you are impatient see here on the Striate Cortex site). The others didn’t need much persuading. We got to work.
The resulting object has surpassed all expectations. Andy’s already unrivalled standards of packaging have been raised to a new level of covetable loveliness. OK, deep breath: a hand-painted, cream coloured box sealed with a sash featuring a glamorously blurred view of Sheepscar at night (taken by Dan) contains a square of fluff which holds in place two inserts and four 3” CD-rs. The insides of the box and lid are both decorated; such is the attention to detail. One insert has the photo on one side and our contact details on the other, the second insert folds out to reveal the band names painted in a psychedelic swirl and track details and liner notes by yours truly on the reverse. Each CD-r is housed in its own black window envelope and is printed with the band name and a sexy zebra print. Blimey, right? Please note that Andy has created each one of these by hand and on his own. Think on that for a second… and then go and get your credit card so no time is wasted at the end of this post.
The music is so uniformly excellent that it is almost comical. I think that everyone sensed that something special was in the offing and got their groove on accordingly. Tempted as I am to indulge in a flight of whimsical fancy I think this set simply speaks more loudly, clearly and eloquently than I can. Suffice to say that my own track is perhaps the best thing I’ve done since the reactivation of midwich and I’m very glad it is, otherwise I’d look pretty daft in this exalted company. Hear for yourself: ten minutes of clips can be found on the Striate Cortex Soundcloud page. Then buy here.
Before this all kicked off Dan was already swirling the idea of a 3” CD-r label around his head like calvados in a brandy balloon. Sheepscar, the area in which Dan lives, positioned on a topographically weird spoke poking out of Leeds city centre, is a little Ballardian hinterland filled with anonymous car dealerships and low slung commercial buildings decorated with inept signage. Similar streets can be found in most cities but, as this is ours, we are able to see the strange charm in what others might claim to be featureless. For example, there is a photo essay waiting to be taken just on the walk from the Royal Mail sorting office (very handy) to Kurdish grilled meat specialists Gzing (delicious). This mixture of engaging, intriguing sometimes even humorous detail emerging from the murk of urban alienation has obviously influenced Dan’s work. Hence the label’s perfect name: Sheepscar Light Industrial.
In contrast to the baroque packaging salivated over above, Dan wanted to indulge in fetishism of a radically different kind. His objects would be simple, homogenous, functional, minimal, quick and cheap to produce according to a design template that calls to mind the labels on laboratory chemicals, or the pharmacy labels stuck on prescription medication (‘listen to this three times daily’). They’d also be available as immaculately tagged downloads. Eminently collectable, irresistibly dirt cheap.
The first two releases are out now but, as with the above, I’m not going to say too much about them as you can hear them for yourself at the SLI Bandcamp page. I recommend you head over there and treat yourself – CD-rs for less than the price of a weekend newspaper, an honesty box for downloads…
…Well, I can’t resist saying a little bit. Twenty-three Taels by Dan and me is a delicious squelch through a fragrant alien swamp, sparkling with bioluminescence and buzzing with swarms of iridescent insect life. I love it. I Can Remember the Faces of All the Grebs at My School by Mel O’Dubhslaine is absolutely extraordinary. When reviewing Neck Vs. Throat below I was delighted to be able to say ‘this is nothing like anything else I’ve ever been sent’ and the same applies here. Thirteen tiny tracks, each properly titled, of spiky, squirming surrealism played on bizarre cross-pollinated hybrid instruments. It did call to mind Nurse With Wound’s ‘A Sucked Orange’ but that is unfair to Mel as the NWW collection is a bit sketchy and self-consciously humorous whereas …Grebs… is a unified collection expressing something wonderfully unfathomable. Go get ‘em.
Launch party gigs had always been part of Dan’s plan for SLI so when the overlap with the Victorian Electronics set became clear it was obvious to everyone that a joint celebration of SLI’s birth and Striate Cortex’s fiftieth release was a ‘no brainer’. After the usual faffing and some concerns about rival gigs (we should be grateful the Leeds scene is so healthy, I suppose) a line-up was assembled remarkable both for its quality and its home-grown cheapness.
There now follows a brief illustrated gig report. This is relatively short because a) I know at least one other review from a more reliable source is in the works, b) failing batteries in my camera meant my ‘photojournalism’ was crapper than ever and c) most importantly: nothing went wrong – no snowstorm, no technical problems, no long dark night of the soul driving home from the Pussy Boutique… In fact, every minute of the whole evening was a joy. Links to sound files can be found at the end of the piece…
Astral Social Club, Ashtray Navigations, Midwich, Mel O’Dubhslaine, Hagman, Foldhead, Live at Wharf Chambers, Leeds, Saturday 28th July, 2012
First let me introduce our host: Daniel Thomas and, in the sunglasses, Andy Robinson of Striate Cortex. Andy seemed delighted by the whole event, as you would expect him to be given that the thing had been organised (at least partly) in his honour. He talked to everyone and obviously relished the opportunity to mix with his punters and artists face to face. I was really pleased to have the chance to publicly celebrate all his incredible work and nodded in approval at how drunk he got as the evening progressed. At the end of the night he had forgotten the name of the hotel he was staying at. What a man! Thanks for everything Andy!
Check out the merch! One of the most exciting looking door tables I’ve seen in a while and punters seemed willing to put their hands in their pockets for a few CD-rs too. The SC back catalogue ‘all a quid’ box was very popular. To the left you can see the complicated but crucial tally list. Ah, brings back memories of my time as a promoter. Rather Dan than me…
Setting up with Alex the Sound Guy. Totally sympathetic and unruffled dude who made the experience of checking and playing utterly painless. Little bit of midriff on show there too. Calm yourselves ladies…
Here’s Dan and I laughing nerdily at Dave (Thomas – other half of Hagman) for plugging things in the wrong way around and then wondering why no sound was coming out. Shows how relaxed the atmosphere was that we were sniggering at this and not fretting.
Dan’s half of Hagman. Two mixers! Tsk – what decadence.
I was tempted to caption this: ‘Phil Todd throws a rock and roll tantrum and demands that Dan removes a roofing joist that was getting in his eyeline,’ but the prosaic truth is that it just shows Dan g-clamping his recording device in place whilst we stand around chatting and not being very helpful.
Paul Walsh avec pint. As I’ve sworn off alcohol completely and Dan was keeping a clear head due to driving and being in charge of us all, Paul was our designated drinker for the evening. When most people arrived they were carrying bags of kit, amps etc. Paul entered the gig chamber with a pint in each hand. As William Bennett might say: “ROCK AND ROLL!”
So let the games commence. Here’s foldhead live, producing a satisfyingly scrunchy racket – a bit heavier and more demanding than the electronical squiggles of previous sets I’ve seen and none the worse for it. The bar is set high.
…and now Hagman. I was ‘doing the door’ during their set and chatting to Andy so I have to confess to not paying them as much attention as they deserved. Listening back to the recording though I’m kicking myself – it’s magnificent. An artfully constructed piece with a hypnotising build. Dave told me later that he was stressed by the perfomance, which is a shame, but from that tension came beauty.
Mel’s set was my favourite of the night. With Phil accompanying her on some kind of electro-bongo gadget they whipped out a bunch of delicate but powerful, arhythmical future-jazz using space instruments… from the future! This was similar in style to Mel’s release on SLI, was gloriously left-field and distracted me from my pre-set nerves.
…’cos I was up next. Here’s the new kit. After my problems at the Stoke gig I decided to get a little mixer and take control of the volume away from my erratic and untrustworthy 303. It also allows me to mix in field recordings and other ephemera from my mp3 player whilst ‘performing’. Basically I’m biting the style of both Popular Radiation and Astral Social Club but don’t tell anyone. The scarf-used-as-table-cloth belongs to my beloved, the standard lamp is a fixture of Wharf Chambers.
My set began with a brief spoken intro then a field recording of a bee colony that lived in the eaves of my old house. This was recorded by blu-tacking my mp3 player, which contains a little dictaphone-style recording function, to the outside of our bathroom window. As well as the bees going about their business it also picked up kids playing, lawnmowers, cars and, at the eight minute mark an ambulance siren passing in the distance. All very ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday’. Over the top of this I played a pulsing drone made up of a single tone at different pitches. After pausing to let the ambulance go by I stamped on the pedal and rocked out in the second half. It was great – exactly what I wanted and towards the end I was shaking because I couldn’t believe how well it was going (photo by Paul).
I have to admit the Ashtray Navigations set was a bit of a blur to me because I was still buzzing from my show. I wandered about, drank ginger beer, packed, unpacked and repacked my stuff and finally calmed down enough to dig the last few minutes of their set. It was great – some hard rockin’ punk/psych guitar with electric bubbling, sandpaper fuzz and splatter drums.
Last on were Astral Social Club. Neil treated us to an entertaining spoken introduction in which he described shooing the pigeons from the ruins of the band’s namesake building, sleeping there and recording the larks that came to roost instead. I like these intros very much (see also the hilarious ‘electronic séance’ on ASC #23) and Neil and I talked afterwards about what a shame it is that so few acts use this opportunity to set the vibe/create a world in the room prior to their performance.
For the set itself Neil was joined by Seth Cooke who played what looked like a contact-miked drum stand fed through some electronics which he hit with beaters and seemed to sing into (apologies for not getting close enough to be more specific). It sounded great though, whatever was going on.
Given the totally obliterating nature of the last couple of ASC performances I’ve seen, the relatively calm, pastoral nature of this one was a not unpleasant surprise. Pulses, sparkles, slowly descending wails were placed in service of the underlying field recordings, accompanying and augmenting the vibe. It was, to use a word I don’t often call for when describing ASC live, lovely.
And that was that. There then followed the long goodbye that I usually dodge by sloping off for the bus, the delighted discovery that costs were covered and, exactly as with the Stoke gig, my evening ended with a lift home from the ever-generous Seth.
A triumph.
—ooOoo—
Some links:
Dan has kindly made available the first four minutes of each set via Soundcloud and, if you like that, there are mediafire downloads of the whole thing. See the Sheepscar Light Industrial blog for details.
Andy’s verdict on the night, plus some photos, can be seen on the Striate Cortex site here.
victorian electronics/sheepscar light industrial live on saturday!
July 26, 2012 at 1:05 pm | Posted in live music, midwich, new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ashtray navigations, astral social club, daniel thomas, drone, electronica, hagman, improv, live music, mel delaney, melanie o'dubhslaine, midwich, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, phil todd, shameless self-congratulation, sheepscar light industrial, striate cortex, wharf chambers
Roll up, roll up – final call for the must-see show of the Summer so far. Now with added Foldhead! Please note that the ‘artists’ are listed alphabetically above and this may not be the actual running order (I think I’m on in the middle sometime). Hope to see y’all there – it will be super-good throughout. Check out the amazing line-up! For more on Sheepscar Light Industrial see here, for more on the Victorian Electronics box – now available – see here, for more on Wharf Chambers see here and for details on how to become a member see here.
midwich playing live! wharf chambers, leeds, 28th July 2012
June 30, 2012 at 11:17 am | Posted in live music, midwich, new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ashtray navigations, daniel thomas, drone, electronica, hagman, improv, live music, mel delaney, melanie o'dubhslaine, midwich, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, phil todd, shameless self-congratulation, sheepscar light industrial, striate cortex, wharf chambers
Well, I’m glad to say the house move has been super-smooth and aside from the gold leaf on a few of the ceiling bosses needing renovation and some ‘issues’ with the servants’ quarters we’re totally settled in Midwich Mansions. Many thanks for the best wishes that some of you have sent and I’ve already received a couple of tapes and CD-rs at the new address – fast work! Normal service is still a way off due to holidays and other trifles but in the meantime check this out:
Crazy, eh? You wait seven years for a midwich show then three come (relatively) at once. Here’s the blurb from Daniel Thomas:
Sheepscar Light Industrial & Striate Cortex present Ashtray Navigations, Astral Social Club, Hagman, Mel O’Dubhslaine and Midwich performing live for an evening of celebration to mark the release of the Victorian Electronics box-set on Striate Cortex and the launch of Sheepscar Light Industrial.
Since 2009 Andy Robinson has been releasing limited runs of beautifully packaged experimental, ambient, drone and noise on his Striate Cortex label. To mark a half century of releases, he is releasing the Victorian Electronics box-set: packaged in a hand-decorated box, this release will contain four 3″ discs, one each from Astray Navigations, Astral Social Club, Daniel Thomas and Midwich.
And, as Striate Cortex reaches a milestone, Sheepscar Light Industrial is born. Daniel Thomas’ Leeds based label has been bubbling under the surface for a few months and is now ready to deliver its first three releases; Daniel Thomas & Midwich, Mel O’Dubhslaine and Azores. The latter will feature remixes by Ap Martlet, Daniel Thomas and Phil Todd.
All three Sheepscar Light Industrial releases and the Victorian Electronics box-set will be available on the evening, there will also be live performances from Ashtray Navigations, Astral Social Club, Hagman, Mel O’Dubhslaine, Midwich and, hopefully, a couple of others too…
Originally started as a solo project back in 1994, Phil Todd’s Ashtray Navigations have been consistently turning out high quality, psychedelic, experimental, noise. Here, longevity is most definitely an assurance of quality.
Astral Social Club is the (usually) solo project of former Vibracathedral Orchestra member and veteran experimental musicalist Neil Campbell. As was recently said – “The undisputed granddaddy of underground noise/improv/drone/whatever who has been exploring these murky waters for close to 30 years.”
Mere babes in comparison to the aforementioned stalwarts of the experimental noise underground, Hagman are Daniel & David Thomas (no relation); two men with a variety of noise making devices, effects pedals and lots of wires…
Mel explores extended vocalisation and non-verbal language using real and synthesised breath.
Midwich
Midwich is the noise of Rob Hayler; former Fencing Flatworm Records head honcho, documenter and veteran of the no audience underground…
Doors 7pm, £4
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.
I’m really looking forward to this. I will have a shiny new 20 minute(ish) set combining elements of my contributions to the Striate Cortex box and to Sheepscar Light Industrial played AT THE SAME TIME. May involve a recording I made on a sunny afternoon of a bee colony that lives in the eaves of my old house, Midwich Towers.
Oh and I don’t mind being a ‘veteran’ (the wording of this blurb has been entertainingly discussed on the Bang the Bore forum). In fact I’m enjoying my elder statesman status. My tactic of disappearing for five years then coming back with a blog that just says nice things about everyone is paying FAT dividends…
pete cann’s noise+punk alldayer, wharf chambers, leeds, 24-03-2012
March 26, 2012 at 7:52 pm | Posted in live music, new music, no audience underground | 5 CommentsTags: andy jarvis, dogliveroil, drone, duncan harrison, electronica, etai keshiki, foldhead, hobo sonn, idwal fisher, joincey, kev sanders, kieron piercy, live music, mark wharton, mel delaney, melanie o'dubhslaine, new music, no audience underground, noise, ocelocelot, panelak, paul walsh, petals, pete cann, phil todd, plurals, target shoppers, wharf chambers
In belated celebration of his 20th birthday, Leeds noisester Pete Cann organized a day long carnival of punk and racket which took place last Saturday. What vigour these young ‘uns have, eh? I thought it would be convivial to wheel myself down there and suck up some of their lifeforce. And so it proved.
It was originally booked to happen in The Fenton, a notorious shithole, but they got cold feet (apparently those guys are only interested in ‘proper’ music nowadays – don’t they realise what heavy drinkers the noise scene are?) and cancelled. Pete was undeterred and, much to everyone’s relief, the gig was moved to the lovely Wharf Chambers which is run by hep-cats as a co-op and is therefore much more open minded.
I took a camera with me so instead of my usual arch wordiness there now follows some briefly annotated photo-journalism. Apologies for the hard-lit pictures – my camera is only a little snappy one and it insisted on the harshest flash possible. You’ll have to imagine the cool lighting and flashing LEDS. I didn’t correct the red-eyes though because everyone really did have red eyes…
I arrived at about 3.15pm and the first act, Aimmar Cair, was already playing. Alas, I heard nowt of his set as I was too busy chatting with Paul Walsh (foldhead), Mark Wharton (Idwal Fisher) and Andy Jarvis (Asymptotem) who was there to be part of Dogliveroil. Andy is organising the next midwich gig (glamorous Stoke-on-Trent, June 9th – watch this space) and it was a treat to see him face-to-face for the first time in years. Kieron Piercy (Spoils & Relics) was also an early arrival and handed me a few tapes to slip into my hand-tooled, Italian leather man-bag. Our conversation was briefly interrupted by a lad puking in the doorway between bar-room and venue-room. We couldn’t decide whether this showed a pitiful lack of pacing skills or an admirable dedication to making a day of it. Probably both. Anyway, the vom was cleared up and I took a look at the running order:
I was sceptical, but this was adhered to, pretty much. Foldhead swapped with Etai due to the latter arriving late and Heroin Diet swapped with Dogliveroil at 9pm but otherwise all was as planned. When I left 7 hours later the whole thing was only running 15 minutes late. But I get ahead of myself. Paul was on first:
With his strobe-activated squiggling and weevil-bashing crunchiness he was thought to have raised the bar pretty high, pretty early. Check out these guys vibing on his technique and taking mental notes:
Etai Keshiki arrived during Paul’s set and followed with a bunch of high-octane marvellous. I heart them so much. Andy Jarvis and his charming friend Mike were similarly wowed and we dissected their greatness in the bar whilst waiting for Ocelocelot.
During Etai, Mel had been out buying baking soda so we were agog at what was going to occur. Unfortunately, that part of her ‘kit’ – a bottle containing pop and baking soda contact-miked (‘miced’?) to amplify the fizz – didn’t work so well but the rest of her stuff – balloons, wind-up toys etc. – made a joyous din and playfully subverted the tabletop-electronics of the other acts.
In between Ocelocelot and Petals, Paul and I nipped out for chips. You could tell it was a good chippy because the lass behind the counter called us ‘love’ and ‘darling’ about ten times whilst taking our order. We were back in time to see none of Kev’s set-up work properly. We didn’t know that until after his set, of course. At the time it sounded great and we all enjoyed the bit at the end when he leapt up, took his knackered cymbal and length of bent metal and strode defiantly around the venue bashing the former with the latter.
I was flagging a bit during Hobo Sonn – post-chips lethargy, I think – so I sat back and let it wash over me. This was well timed as it was one of the least abrasive of the table-top noise performances, almost electronica in places, and soulfully resonant. I stared at the back of Ian’s head, wondered if the back of my own head looked like that, then got stuck in a very pleasant feedback loop until the applause at the end of his set brought me back.
Target Shoppers were fucking ace. First gig in over a decade, and easily as much fun as this looks:
…then they were joined by Mel (also in bald wig/mask/condom thing) for a completely balls-out finale that was actually the loudest noise of the day so far. Great guitar face from Phil there!
Duncan Harrison, known to me as a member of RFM-faves Plurals, performed a very entertaining solo set of cassette racket and gurglecore. He’s a charismatic guy with great comic timing and had the crowd grinning and laughing and grooving on a deceptively lo-fi din. A standard lamp appeared at the side of his table too which gave it a magic show/séance feel. I praised his showmanship when talking to him later and, interestingly, he admitted it was something he was tempted to hide behind because he lacked the confidence in his sound to just sit there and let the noise do it all. I think it would be a shame if he did.
Next up was due to be Seth Cooke but he was rinsed out after a twelve hour performance in an art gallery in Bradford the previous day. It was one of those high concept, ultra-long things that Bang the Bore likes to cook up. See here for details – it’s about car parks, apparently. So instead we had Pascal Ansell (Panelak) and event organiser Pete Cann (Half an Abortion) taking up the slack. Confidence was not an issue here as, for reasons known only to themselves, the boys stripped to their boxer shorts for a bit of man-to-man weevil-bashing. I only took one photo – partly because the flash was very unforgiving of partial nudity, partly because I feared being put on some kind of register. Paul described it – unforgettably – as twinktronics.
Us oldsters were taken back to the good ol’ days of noise when you couldn’t go to an all-dayer of this sort without some cocks-out action…
I apologise to Heroin Diet, who were on next, as I spent their entire set outside recovering from the hot-flush provoked by boy flesh. I chatted to Kieron about the health of the scene and hating The Wire magazine – a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. I spoke to Ian (Murphy, Hobo Sonn) and Duncan at some length about Brighton, physicality in noise (versus laptops) and growing up down South. Duncan was very gracious when I mistakenly attributed an album to him that he had nothing to do with (I later remembered it was by Eyeballs – It had been a long afternoon/evening). I should also mention that I spent a lot of the day talking with Kev Sanders (Petals) – a charming and witty guy who is disarmingly enthusiastic and wears his obvious erudition and seriousness very lightly. A gentleman.
And here we come to the way my evening finishes: Dogliveroil. The joke during the day was that you were presumed to be in Dogliveroil unless you had opted out, but in the end it was a mere seven people that made up the band, arranged to surround the audience on three sides. Amusingly, it was Joincey’s role to sit on the stage in the middle of this maelstrom and look as bored as possible. He picked at a cuticle, he stared at his foot. It was riveting. The whole business was topped off by a guest appearance from Simon Morris (Ceramic Hobs) who’d come over for the day and was happy to add a little high-security-wing karaoke (a reel on the theme of Stupid Hoe by Nicki Minaj).
Apologies to Sump and Cementimental who were still to play but that was enough for me. I left on a high and trotted out to my bus back to the leafy suburbs. I hope everything ended well – I’ve heard no stories of police raids since – and thanks again to Pete for organizing such a consistently fun event. Happy Birthday, man.
P.S. If I haven’t linked your name and you’d like me to then send me a URL. If I have but you’d prefer I use a different URL then just let me know and I’ll update matters.
wired for sound part 22: ocelocelot and asymptotem
February 20, 2012 at 1:12 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ashtray navigations, asymptotem, drone, mel delaney, melanie o'dubhslaine, new music, no audience underground, noise, ocelocelot, tapes, total vermin
Ocelocelot – The Umbragechord (Total Vermin #46)
Asymptotem – Four Lines Cross (Total Vermin #58)
Slavishly following Mark Wharton’s impeccable Idwal Fisher blog – as I do, as you must – led me to pick up these two tapes from the exquisitely named Total Vermin: a lo-fi, hi-quality tape and CD-r label that you should definitely be acquainted with. I even handed over hard cash as Stuart Vermin was in a state of post-Christmas skintness and unable to countenance a trade. At first I wasn’t going to write this piece: Mark had done a bang-up job already, I’d paid and was therefore free of moral obligation and the review pile is teetering again but, but, but… they are both so great that I had to at least mention them in passing.
Four Lines Cross by Asymptotem is described on the Total Vermin blog as follows:
Recorded on a balmy early-summer Sunday evening in Stoke-on-Trent, without talisman Joincey, robbed by the national rail network. Large ensemble drone approaching beauty at times, especially on the opening flute duet between Mikarla de Oliveira (Sculptress) and Kelly Jones (Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides). Blossoms into a blast of flute, cello, trumpet, guitar, bass, synthesizer, vocals and percussion, with the line-up completed by Andrew Jarvis, Jim Brindley, Michael Walsh and Stuart Arnot.
…but this is overly humble and modestly literal. This (mostly) acoustic, English pastoral improvisation sounds like a medieval Vibracathedral Orchestra. It is exactly as delightful as Mark asserts so, in a shockingly lazy piece of blogjacking, I insist that you read his full account here.
Ocelocelot is Melanie O’Dubhslaine, better known ‘round these parts as that Mel from Ashtray Navigations, and her tape is even better than Mark suggests. The Umbragechord gets the short final section of a lengthy and entertaining post which first castigates the idiocy of The Wire magazine then praises the genius of the aforementioned AshNav. All that I need to add is an explanation of how jealous I am of Mel’s achievement here. Side one, ‘inaudible frequencies being removed’, throbs and side two, ‘Nobody knows this is everywhere’, drones both with a cool fury that I have attempted to achieve with midwich many times. I have rarely been as successful.
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