slip away into the great digital night: the midwich review pile and nine clumsy haiku offerings
April 23, 2017 at 3:39 pm | Posted in musings, new music, no audience underground | Leave a commentTags: aetheric records, alan courtis, algobabez, anla courtis, chris corsano, david greenberger, don't drone alone, epiphora, ewa justka, fabrica records, fells, fractal meat cuts, glenn jones, listening pile, mattin, okraina records, review pile, sad_rave, sdz records, traven
Fells – Menhir (Self Release)
Traven – ЯTLLCTЯNCS (Aetheric Records)
Sad_Rave – Add Red (Don’t Drone Alone)
Algobabez- Burning Circuits (Fractal Meat Cuts)
Ewa Justka – Acid Smut (Fractal Meat Cuts)
Epipohra – Love Songs (Self Released)
Mattin “Songbook #6 (Munster Records/Crudités Tapes/SDZ/Insulin Addicted)
David Greenberger, Glenn Jones, Chris Corsano – An Idea in Everything (Okraïna)
Alan Courtis – Los Galpones (Fabrica Records)
Life! It’s all a bit of a balancing act eh?
On one hand I’ve been bemoaning poor attendance at live shows. Is a crowd of 6 people at a gig still worthy of the title ‘crowd’? But, on the other hand the amount of downloads, tapes and CD-Rs that we in the N-AU put out seems to be increasing exponentially.
I get it. Sometimes getting out the house can take military planning and a frugal counting of pennies. For many of us life is a careful juggling act with work, family, artistic practice, economics, study and health just a few of the balls in the air at any one time.
Or, leaving the house could even be a very reasonable reaction to world affairs. Things are so fucking fucked pulling the covers back over my head in the morning sometimes seems to be the only sane thing to do.
For many of us staying in results in getting more done. There’s more time to plan/plot and record. Using free software to create, edit and distribute your work means a project can move from brain-spark to universally available download in an afternoon. And while the N-AU has always had a prolific work-rate, releasing something every couple of months is becoming the new norm.
Hoorah and good gravy eh?
But herein lies the rub. For the last 3 or 4 months we at RFM have been staggering under an increasingly huge listening pile – close to 150 releases. Try as we might; the regular chipping away from us old hands and even taking on a clutch of talented and exciting new writers is not making a huge difference because each passing day adds another multi-album download or set of (generally wonderful looking) links to the pile. And of course we’re human too and all juggle work, family, artistic practice, economics, study and health along with this extra listening and writing.
We’ve reached a point where something has to give.
So apologies to anyone who has been waiting 6 months plus for a review – it’s probably not going to happen – but I suppose you guessed that already. We are going to keep the 50 or so recordings we have personally agreed to, but the rest of the pile will respectfully slip away into the great digital night.
Nothing happens at Midwich Towers without debate and this is not a decision that we arrived at lightly. But it does mean we can get back to doing what we set out to do: share passionate and energetic writing about the music that matters to us as it happens.
In the meantime here’s some snatches from the notebook hoofed into a clumsy haiku format…
Fells – Menhir (Self Release) tape and digital album
Wonderful breathing:
Granite sighs with great effort.
A bright moon looks on
Traven – ЯTLLCTЯNCS (Aetheric Records) 3” CD-r and digital album
Spanish moss hangs low –
hissing tape, werewolf’s foul breath
no silver bullets…
Sad_Rave – Add Red (Don’t Drone Alone) CD-r and digital album
Flickering notes from
a faithful Pisaro score.
Chat. Sine-wave edits.
Algobabez- Burning Circuits (Fractal Meat Cuts) tape and digital album
Real-time coding act.
Beats liquefy into goo,
Brain-melt soon follows.
Ewa Justka – Acid Smut (Fractal Meat Cuts) tape and digital album
Sid James – “Haw, Haw, Haw”
dripped with a caustic liquid.
Dancing feet scrubbed up.
Epipohra – Love Songs (Self Released) non-physical release
Mashed through dark velvet.
Maybe a jealous lover
bent up your best shades?
Mattin “Songbook #6 (Munster Records/Crudités Tapes/SDZ/Insulin Addicted) 12” vinyl and digital album
Severe warp and fuxx
Genre-free rock played like jizz
Don’t resist – give in!
David Greenberger, Glenn Jones, Chris Corsano – An Idea in Everything (Okraïna) double 10” vinyl and digital album
More Duplex stories
Banjo and drum improvise
Lost wisdom and joy.
Alan Courtis – Los Galpones (Fabrica Records) limited edition vinyl LP and digital album
Overlook Hotel.
Evil lives in the walls here.
Guitars drive them out!
-ooOOoo-
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