oTo archive complete
March 15, 2014 at 5:01 pm | Posted in blog info, fencing flatworm, midwich, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: drone, electronica, fencing flatworm recordings, ffr, julian bradley, midwich, mp3, no audience underground, noise, ordnance tape only, oTo, shameless self-congratulation, tapes
(oTo) – Ordnance, Tape Only
About a fortnight ago I announced the launch of the oTo tape archive project. Today, much to my surprise, I am delighted to declare it complete. That is: all fifty tapes that comprise the oTo catalogue, originally released in limited numbers more than a decade ago, have been digitized and are available to listen to and/or download for free here on this blog. Haven’t I been a busy bee, eh? Actually, hooking up a decent tape deck, via my little midwich mixer, to the laptop has made the task a breeze. I’ve enjoyed chugging through it very much.
For further information about what this tape label was all about see the preamble on the archive’s own page. This page is also where you’ll find all the links. There are many gems hidden amongst the names you’ll recognize so please take the opportunity to dip your toes. How about a terrific hiss-drone by The Dead Body? Or the mutation of recordings made during the refurbishment of Leeds Railway Station into a Basic Channel-ish jackhammer dub by TK94? I could go on: noise, electronics, folk-psych, dada collage – it’s all there for the taking.
May I ask a favour? I’m usually loathe to ‘promote’ RFM, figuring that the right people will find it eventually, but I’m quite proud of the work done in presenting this bounty. So… if you find something you like would you mind passing the link on to someone else you think might be interested, or doing one of them tweets or a facebooking? Many thanks to those that did so following the initial announcement – your support is, as always, much appreciated.
The normal reviews based service you’ve come to expect from RFM will resume shortly with some great stuff dictated by Joe Murray to his children from the bouncy castle he uses as his office. Scott is up to something calculated and evil in his mysterious undersea lair. Me? Well, having begun a phased return to work following my recent bout of depression I find myself in a near-constant state of bewilderment. The muse is finding this most unattractive. Hopefully inspiration will return as my energy levels increase as I am looking forward to doing justice to some exceptional releases on the review pile.
the oto tape archive
March 2, 2014 at 4:47 pm | Posted in blog info, fencing flatworm, midwich, no audience underground | 10 CommentsTags: drone, electronica, fencing flatworm recordings, ffr, julian bradley, midwich, mp3, no audience underground, noise, ordnance tape only, oTo, shameless self-congratulation, tapes
(oTo) – Ordnance, Tape Only
‘Ordnance, Tape Only’, or oTo to its friends, was a sound-art off-shoot project from fencing flatworm recordings, the micro-label I co-ran with Sean Keeble in the early years of this century. There were fifty oTo releases, with each release limited to a numbered fifty copies, all on one-sided cassette tapes. Apart from the artist name and the catalogue number no other information was included. Inlay cards were made by chopping up various Ordnance Survey maps of this fair country. Thus you got a random square of Britain, five miles on a side, to look at whilst listening to your near-anonymous tape. Oh, and it is nowt to do with London’s Cafe OTO, which it predates by several years.
To my surprise, this insane enterprise caught the collective imagination and I had no trouble filling up the 50 slots. It became a cross section of the UK noise underground at the time (2001-ish) and even attracted the attention of the international experimental jet-set with, for example, Thurston Moore donating some skronking. Julian Bradley, who encouraged me to get started with the project, had tape number T01 and I took last one. 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 25 square miles of water.
In a lengthy interview with me conducted by Bang the Bore (read the whole thing here) I was asked a bunch of questions about oTo including this one:
Are you planning on giving oTo a digital after-life? It seems more suited to that format than the ffr releases, possibly… for one thing you can construct the eternally looping playlist implied by how the original releases were structured. It’s also easy to give it that “check it out then move on” response that you mention.
…and I replied:
Well, I can see the appeal for the reasons you mention but, no, I am not planning a digital reanimation for oTo. Difficulty in finding the time would be a major hindrance – many of the masters are on tape themselves and would therefore need recording onto my laptop and mastering before acceptable mp3 versions could be created. The bigger problem though is that I no longer have all the masters. When ffr/oTo was wound up I offered to return masters to artists so they could reissue their work elsewhere and a few took me up on it. Phil reissued the Zen Nuns tape (a collaboration he did with Lasse Marhaug) on BWCD, for example. I realise that most of these reissues are now themselves unavailable but still… I returned this stuff on the understanding that oTo was over. I’d also not feel happy about releasing mp3s of this stuff without the permission of the artists themselves and I’ve completely lost touch with quite a few of them. No, reanimating oTo would be a logistical nightmare. Best just to accept that the moment has passed.
Solid reasoning, I’m sure you’ll agree, but then I found myself shifting a stereo upstairs to the RFM offices here at Midwich Mansions and my thinking began to change… My current opinion is as follows:
Ahh… fuck it!
So, with that in mind, please see the oTo tape archive page (also tabbed above) for a list of the fifty tapes. The blurbs are from the original FFR website. I thought about putting it on Bandcamp or doing something like Jeff did at Union Pole but neither of those options felt quite right. Let’s keep it a private affair for readers of this blog.
The page is being launched containing a random selection of about half of the catalogue (mainly those I had CD-r masters for) in best quality mp3 format. In due course I will add more until all, or as close to all as I can manage, are archived here. Your patience requested – this archive is a work in progress and progress may be glacial.
Apologies in advance if some of the sound quality isn’t crystal sharp – such is the nature of the exercise. Amazingly, I am digitizing tapes via the Pioneer tape deck that I originally duped these tapes on. It is still working fine – <appreciative whistle> – they don’t make ’em like that anymore, eh? Where I’ve created mp3s from a CD-r master there may be multiple tracks, mp3s from tapes will be in one lump. Playing and/or downloading options are both available.
Comments welcome. Much more to come…
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.
what does a dollar buy you nowadays, eh?
May 23, 2013 at 9:44 am | Posted in new music, no audience underground | 3 CommentsTags: ashtray navigations, cock esp, dancing test tubes, dogliveroil, drone, expose your eyes, improv, inca eyeball, jackie-o motherfucker, mp3, neil campbell, new music, no audience underground, noise, phil todd, prick decay, tapes, trumans water, union pole
Union Pole cassettes: UP01 – UP76
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to draw your attention to something remarkable.
Jeffrey Fuccillo of legendary 1990s tape label Union Pole has made its back catalogue available to download. Nowt noteworthy there, you might think, such is the way of the world nowadays. The kick in the head is that digital versions of all 76 tapes can be had for the minimum payment of ONE DOLLAR! To clarify: that’s not one dollar each, I mean one dollar in total for the LOT. Somehow this is more exciting than the files being free. Despite doing it all the time, I still feel a little shamed by putting ‘0’ in the ‘name your price’ box on Bandcamp and downloading stuff from sites like mediafire is a sordid, unsatisfactory business. Make it a dollar, however, and it becomes a delightful bargain that everyone can enjoy. I paid five – what the hell, eh?
Am I going to review it all? Am I bollocks (Scott? Joe? Fancy it? I’m joking…). I doubt I’ll even listen to it all, to be honest, but I am salivating at the thought of some of the dishes served at this feast. There are tapes by ‘big’ names like Jackie-O Motherfucker and Trumans Water, vintage releases by Neil Campbell, Expose Your Eyes and Ashtray Navigations, more Phil Todd related oddities such as Inca Eyeball (with the inimitable Joincey), Dogliveroil and Dancing Test Tubes and other old favourites from back in the day such as Cock ESP, Prick Decay and other acts with, er…, non-penis related names.
I realise that the social networking world has already been a-twitter with news of this largesse, but for the other slow-pokes like me out there: consider yourselves told.
rfm attends to recent downloads: cthulhu detonator, deceiver, orange annihilator, seth cooke, petals
March 8, 2013 at 10:41 am | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: bells hill, bells hill digital, cthulhu detonator, deceiver, drone, field recording, hairdryer excommunication, impulsive habitat, kev sanders, mp3, new music, no audience underground, noise, orange annihilator, petals, seth cooke
Cthulhu Detonator – Infernal Machines (self-released)
Deceiver – I Will Always Be Dead Inside (Bells Hill Digital)
Orange Annihilator – Scrub (Bells Hill Digital)
Seth Cooke – Intercession (Impulsive Habitat, IHab065)
Kevin Saunders / Petals – various back catalogue items (Hairdryer Excommunication)
My lack of willpower regarding downloads has been extensively documented on this blog before and explains my general attitude of wariness towards this most tempting aspect of modern musical appreciation. Not all music stored on physical objects is good, of course, but to present it as such does indicate a faith in the work and acts as an initial filter to limit an otherwise unprocessable torrent. My preference is to sit with my back to the firmly secured floodgates and listen to them creak as I open my post.
However, what is a boy to do when approached by charming artists touting interesting sounding projects that are only available on that Bandcamp or via netlabels? Or if a known favourites make experiments or long forgotten back catalogue available via the same means? I would hardly be a conscientious editor if I just ignored these leads, now would I? In that spirit there now follows a series of ‘in brief’ accounts of some clickable goodness recently brought to my attention. *Sigh*, one thing no-one dares mention when warning you of a slippery slope is just how much fun it can be to slide down it…
First is Infernal Machines by Cthulhu Detonator. I know what you are thinking: “how dare this impertinent rascal imply that our master, Lord Cthulhu, is the sort of thing that can be detonated?!”, right? Well, I’ve sent this disrespectful heretic an oddly cut purple crystal in an anonymous package and if he looks into it he is fucked. That’ll teach him! Ai, Ai!
Anyway, blasphemy aside, this album is very entertaining. Perhaps, like a lot of debut albums, it is a little over full – RFM recommends keeping it to a tight 40ish minutes and saving the offcuts for an accompanying EP – but who am I to fault exuberance? This is from the computer-constructed/electronica end of noise: ten distinct tracks working through aspects of a coherently defined sound. There is a momentum, a squelching bounce, that is gleefully pummelling interspersed with quieter moments spent exploring cyclopean ruins with faulty batteries in your torch. Nicely balanced and engaging throughout. Ideal background music for an evening spent flicking through your dog-eared copy of Unaussprechlichen Kulten.
Second are two cuts from the recently formed Bells Hill Digital. I Will Always Be Dead Inside by Deceiver is as grim as its title suggests. Part I is a three minute harsh noise blow-out, a planet wide, corrosive hailstorm pitting the black surface of an inhospitable world. Part II is an almighty eleven minute conflagration. About halfway through a mournful tone attempts to rise above the roar – like the one building miraculously left standing in an area otherwise devastated by carpet-bombing – but is soon vandalised, deliberately destroyed by the same spiteful fire. It is utterly without hope and, in my humble opinion, remarkable. Please investigate.
Scrub by Orange Annihilator is so irresistible that I listened to it ten times in a row the other day, non-stop, on my commute to work. No, my bus wasn’t stuck in a snow drift, nor have I been seconded to Aberdeen. The reason this feat was possible is that this five track album is in total three and a half minutes long!
It is electronic noise, best heard at ear-splitting volume for maximum nostril-flaring effect. Plenty happens but this is not a frantic gonzo cut up. Segments are allowed a toehold, are established fleetingly, then tumble into the void and are instantly replaced. Its efficiency and brevity are refreshingly classy.
I think this is a clever example of what imaginative types can do with the Bandcamp model. I’d argue that this really is an album – it is coherent, complete, self contained – but its length makes it very difficult to present physically. A 7” single maybe? Expensive to produce, difficult to distribute. A credit card CD-r? A fiddly format that has never really caught on. Neither of these formats suggest ‘real’ album anyway. However, on Bandcamp its format is just the same as for everybody else. Brilliant.
Next is Intercession by Seth Cooke released on intriguing netlabel Impulsive Habitat. This is one 21 minute track constructed with Seth’s customary attention to detail from sound sources found ‘singing in the wires’ at his place of work. It starts with a frantic chirruping and buzzing – an orchestra of locusts conducted by Steve Reich – before settling into a shifting pattern of hums, ticks, throbs and gentle feedback tones. It suggests the micro-climate of self-storage warehouses, server farms, aluminium tubing, ducts in the crawlspace. In the last five minutes birdsong and traffic can be heard alongside a scything overload in the cables, reminding us of the natural world replicated by the landscaping of the science park outside. I find this intensely absorbing. It has a kind of fractal geometry that pulls the listener into the recording. Despite being as cool as air conditioning and as alienating as fluorescent light I’m sure I can hear a very human yearning behind the machine buzz too. Exemplary.
Finally, I need to mention the archival project ongoing at the hairdryer excommunication Bandcamp page. Kev is making as much of the Kevin Sanders / Petals back catalogue as he can find freely available via this resource. I guarantee that any fruit you pick from this vine will be delicious. The more I hear of Kev’s work, the more I want to hear and there is no higher praise than that.
All this stuff is freely downloadable:
rfm attends to recent downloads: ap martlet and black leather cop
October 24, 2012 at 3:40 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ap martlet, bells hill, black leather cop, dave thomas, drone, electronica, grindcore karaoke, hagman, improv, joe murray, mp3, new music, no audience underground, noise, posset, scott mckeating
ap martlet – Flags (download)
Black Leather Cop – Kindaguy (Grindcore Karaoke, GK#271, download)
A new track from ap martlet is a thing to be savoured and celebrated. Dave Thomas – 50% of Hagman, constructor of home-made musical apparatus, family man – makes his work available by unobtrusively placing it on Soundcloud, coughing politely on facebook, then standing back, job done. Flags validates, yet again, his meticulous working methods and ruthlessly discerning quality control. Really, this is essential listening and that it can be downloaded for free two clicks from here is a life-affirming thought.
The piece is about fifteen minutes long and this is what it sounds like. Imagine electricity was sold in tins. Levering off the lid would reveal a neon blue syrup which would need to be scooped out into a saucepan and gently heated before it could be poured into your appliances. Now imagine being distracted whist warming your electricity by something you see outside through the kitchen window. A gloriously fluid flying ‘V’ of migrating geese, say, or a squirrel bounding triumphantly across the back yard holding an entire slice of burnt toast between its clenched teeth. During this moment the unwatched electricity boils over the side of the pan and sizzles on the surface of the hob. An audio description of this whole process is offered by Flags.
Kindaguy by Black Leather Cop is a very different fish. This is a collaboration between Scott McKeating of the mighty Bells Hill and Joe Posset: maestro of the dictaphone and RFM’s North East correspondent. It has been released by the magnificently named Grindcore Karaoke (“tonight Matthew I’m going to be… Carcass!”) and is freely downloadable from that Bandcamp.
This piece is also about 15 minutes long and this is what it sounds like. Imagine a prolonged and severe aerial bombardment as heard permeating through the concrete walls of an underground command bunker. The creatures working in this HQ look and sound like a cross between gremlins (the cool, evil version, not the fluffy kind) and a scaly breed of those green things that worship ‘the claw’ in Toy Story. The mood is wretched because they are losing the war. The time for pushing model tanks around a map with sticks is long over and evacuation is the only option. As they trudge wearily through the vibrating corridors they bicker with squabbling gurgles. A brief attempt to raise the spirits with some music is instantly (and literally) squashed flat by a harmonica-activated booby trap. The atmosphere is both comic and dire. It is grimly compelling.
It might seem obvious that underpinning Posset’s squirming racket with some seriously ominous rumble would be a winning idea (bass is not the dictaphone’s strong point, after all) but nevertheless it still took me a while to warm to this. Its charms are not immediately evident but repeated exposure can lead to addictive behaviour. I’m currently taking it at least twice a day. It’s good medicine.
rfm attends to recent downloads: petals, hagman, clough
July 29, 2012 at 5:02 pm | Posted in new music, no audience underground | 3 CommentsTags: ap martlet, bandcamp, daniel thomas, dave thomas, downloads, drone, electronica, hagman, improv, kev sanders, michael clough, mp3, new music, no audience underground, noise, petals, soundcloud
Although I have written about such things before, I tend to avoid comment on downloads, especially those to be found on Soundcloud or Bandcamp. I fear, I suppose, opening a floodgate and being swamped by the sloshing enormity of unmediated reality.
For instance: a friend recently tipped me off to a band they thought I would dig and included a link in their email. I downloaded the file it pointed to and liked it very much. A quick nose about the internet revealed many of trustworthy opinion are keen on this crew too. Their back catalogue beckoned seductively. Reason to rejoice? Time to crank up the metaphor engine and get posting, eh? Well, no. On visiting the band’s own website I found stacks of files named only for their dates of composition – many, many hours worth – and if there is one thing guaranteed to shrivel my organs of musical appreciation it is the prospect of vast quantities of undifferentiated stuff. Ugh.
(As an aside: everyone is going crazy for the Lost Tapes box set by Can, and rightly so. The question I have heard several times, always accompanied by an amazed shake of the head, is ‘why didn’t they think this stuff was worthy of release first time around?’ This illustrates the times we are living in. Ah, for the days when an album had to be vinyl-sized and thus quality control had to be exercised. To my undisciplined brethren I say: cut it to 40 minutes and, if people are still interested 40 years later, it might be worth digging up the outtakes then…).
Now, we all know from bitter experience that being presented on a physical object is no guarantee of musical quality. However, it does indicate that someone had some faith in the work, enough at least to make the extra effort required to birth a thing. If a jiffy bag arrives on my doormat its contents generally imply a level of filtering, distillation, care and perhaps even pride that ensures I treat it with respect and accord it a fair hearing. I can’t help but feel that a download doesn’t deserve the same attention.
Is this position defensible in these post-everything, internet-enabled times? Probably not: you are reading this on a blog that contains almost my entire back catalogue available for download just one click from here. I also have recent releases available to buy and download via Bandcamp myself (see below). But, even leaving my hypocrisy to one side, you have to admit I’m at least part right. Our time available for music has not increased in step with our exponentially increasing access to music. You have to discriminate. Thus the answer to the question ‘how much attention does a download deserve?’ is: maybe some. How much depends on the context: who made it, who recommended it, where it originates and so on.
So… Bearing all that in mind, and acknowledging that your ears are busy organs, I am now going to recommend several hours worth of stuff all of which is available via Soundcloud or Bandcamp and, further, I’m going to insist that it is some of the best stuff I have heard all year. Do not worry that your personal bandwidth will be wasted following these links. The recommendations of Radio Free Midwich are entirely trustworthy.
First up: Hagman, the duo of Dave Thomas and Daniel Thomas (no relation). I wrote the following description as a gig blurb for Dan but it didn’t get used, presumably due to its ponciness. Still, this is my blog and I can do what I like so check this out:
Hagman present a hard-won equilibrium teetering between power line hum and the rhythmic clatter of early 80s electro-industrial. As sinuously alien as a millipede clambering over tree bark, yet as warm as a cat asleep on your chest.
Cool, eh? Soundcloud contains documents of their recent live appearances and I highly recommend you check them out. I’m particularly fond of the two versions of Primer (one live, one ‘studio’) as it kicks off from the soliloquy that opens the film of the same name, which is a favourite of mine.
The solo stuff by these two chaps is pretty special too. Dave records as Ap Martlet and his recent track Jacquetta Hawkes is very lovely indeed. The fuzz is elegantly balanced and as mournfully life-affirming as Ivor Cutler’s harmonium. The almost-a-melody gives it a misty narrative but isn’t too prescriptive. As befits a named track – it has personality.
Dan is no slouch either. Theme for Freedom is a fuzz-drone homage to the no-audience groove championed by this blog. It’s rise and fall as dizzying as the first gulp of fresh air the morning after a very late night. Even better is the themed pair Hyperbolic/Litotic. Delicate, balanced but with unbelievable core strength, like an accomplished martial artist hosting a tea ceremony. I am envious. Oh and Twitch is a terrific exercise in sustained menace too.
Now onto old friend Michael Clough, whose atem_tanz is a gloriously super-minimal analogue throb. When listened to at the appropriate volume, that is: so loud as to be consciousness threatening, it sounds like the sewing machine that God used when she was stitching up creation. Fucking amazing. STOP PRESS: this track has been taken down from Soundcloud as it has been slated for ‘proper’ release on Sheepscar Light Industrial. More news as it breaks!
…and finally may I recommend the recorded output of Kev Sanders, best known round these parts as Petals. Praised here before, this chap’s work can be found in clearly defined, manageable segments via Bandcamp and the ever-entertaining hairdryer excommunication blog. No will-sapping giganticism here, nor should you be fooled by the lo-fi aesthetic. This is carefully, thoughtfully constructed stuff, varied in style but all obviously expressing aspects of the same vision. Kev is a cartographer, quietly mapping a world which looks just like our own but which on closer examination reveals some unexpected twists in the path…
the infinite betley catalogue, part four: bbblood – rust (digital edition)
May 4, 2012 at 11:24 am | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: bbblood, mp3, new music, no audience underground, noise, paul watson, tapes
In order to subsidise the creation of future releases, London based noise artist Paul Watson, known to his many admirers as BBBlood, has re-released a sold-out, limited edition tape in a digital format.
Rust now comprises four tracks: the original sides A and B plus the previously unreleased sides C and D – newly created with racket reprocessed from the original sessions. 46 minutes in total. I am amused by the idea that because the cassette is no longer a physical object it can now have as many sides as Paul wants (up to a pan-dimensional side Z, presumably).
The content – balls-out noise of the most physical variety – is terrific throughout. It is as gripping and relentless as your favourite zombie film. It is as inventive and anarchic as the best Tom and Jerry cartoon. It is as chaotic and violent as a downhill pile-up in the peloton. It is as nihilistically hilarious as a brick in the spin cycle (please click – you’ll thank me for it – all kicks off at 55 seconds).
It is a welcome reminder of how exhilarating and liberating harsh noise can be. It’s a slate cleaner. So what does Paul want in exchange for this masterclass?
One pound.
Yes, you read that correctly: a quid, singular. Any patron of the arts out there can donate more, of course, but the minimum acceptable payment is only slightly more than fuck all.
In fact, all readers of this blog with an interest in the more brutal end of noise should be frogmarched to bandcamp in order to buy here right now. Failure to do so will result in a visit from the RFM goon squad, two of whom will kick you up and down the stairs whilst the third tapes it to send to Paul for use in the future release you should be helping to fund…
(Editors note: does that last bit sound grumpy and aggressive? It is meant to be a joke. Forgive me – I’m ill and all over the place. The whimsy will be back soon..)
‘running repairs’ repaired: midwich remixed, reviewed
April 24, 2012 at 11:02 am | Posted in midwich, new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: ap martlet, daniel thomas, dave apmartlet, drone, hagman, idwal fisher, midwich, mp3, new music, no audience underground, pyongyang plastics, running repairs, shameless self-congratulation, striate cortex
Poor Robbie is sick. Yes, the feeble editor of this blog has succumbed to one of the numerous bugs currently leaping from face to face. After three weeks of sapping my energy it has obviously had enough of my moaning and decided to put me on my arse good and proper. Bleurgh. Still, I think the gripes about The Wire and criticism in general have had long enough at the top of the page so here’s a distraction to entertain you whilst I recuperate.
Firstly, Dave Thomas, Daniel Thomas’s bandmate in Hagman (no relation), has taken it upon himself to remix ‘new territories’ the first track on latest midwich CD-r running repairs. The consensus seems to be that it ‘fizzes’, which is true, but I think it is a lot more considered than that implies. Listen to and/or download his take, retitled ‘New Plateaus’, on SoundCloud here.
Secondly, also worthy of your time is Daniel’s deliciously golden remix of midwich’s ‘river apples‘ in a blissed out, Basic Channel style. Listen to and/or download his take, retitled ‘Pommes De Rivière’, on SoundCloud here. I know that I have mentioned this in passing before but it is very lovely so I wouldn’t want you to miss it.
Whilst you are enjoying this music you could cleanse your palette of the unpleasant taste left by The Wire by reading two totally impartial accounts of my recent activity. Firstly a review of running repairs and the Midwich/The Skull Mask split over at Idwal Fisher. Secondly, a piece about radiofreemidwich and running repairs on the Pyongyang Plastics anti-blog (scroll down to the section labelled ‘PYONGYANG PLASTICS’ WEBSITE OF THE WEEKEND # 1 + MUSIC’). Both are very nice about me and thus can be trusted as writing of the highest quality.
Next up: the marvel that is the photocopier, plus reviews of stuff on Agorafobia, Matching Head and Fuckin’ Amateurs.
the infinite betley catalogue, part 3: castro – youngmotherfucker
February 21, 2012 at 8:48 am | Posted in new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: castro, miguel perez, mp3, new music, no audience underground, noise, oracle netlabel, pablo mejia
CASTRO – YOUNGMOTHERFUCKER (Oracle Netlabel, ORE075)
CASTRO is a solo project of Pablo Mejia from the Dominican Republic, a guy significant to the editor of this blog due to being the founder of Oracle Netlabel (now co-run with Miguel Pérez). The name is not an homage to the seemingly immortal Cuban (ex-)Head of State. Instead, Miguel tells me the word was chosen because it is “crude and concise, nothing beyond that!” and, if that it is the case, then it is most apt indeed.
YOUNGMOTHERFUCKER shares some points of comparison with the Michael Clough stuff and with Peopling‘s self-titled EP, both reviewed below. Like Clough it uses minimal electronic resources to relentless, rhythmic, percussive effect. However, like Peopling, these tracks are much shorter – seven in eighteen minutes – and flare with swaggering aggression.
‘Hpstr: Electronic Tap Dancing’ records an arachnid virtuoso deftly prodding and rubbing a giant party balloon. Then all pretence at delicacy is dismissed by the pile-driving pulse of ‘whateverthefuckiwant’ and its slower companion piece, inevitably titled ‘wheneverthefuckiwantit’. The pummelling brutality of the latter almost beats itself unconscious, like Ash’s demonically possessed hand smashing plates over his own head…
‘Sex Tape Machine’ slaps us back with a crunchy gabba rush before ‘take me to the people in charge’ crashes the car into a white-painted, breeze-block wall of noise. ‘Kamikaze pizza’ documents the resulting fire – it must have been a battered delivery van driven by a speeding teenager. The title track then sees the youngmotherfucker drag himself clear of the wreckage, unsure as to whether the throbbing he is feeling and hearing is a result of his injuries or an artefact of the cheap meth he took back in the kitchen. This finale has the thrilling, balls-out intensity of industrial techno and power electronics – smeared together like the blood, oil, broken glass and extra pepperoni now adorning the ripped black t-shirt of our ‘hero’…
I liked this very much. Download here.
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