The Sound Projector

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With additional banter from contributor John Bagnall

1. Starving Weirdos, ‘Invocation By Fire’
   From Into An Energy, UK BO’WEAVIL RECORDINGS WEAVIL38CD (2009)
2. World Sanguine Report, ‘Nine Tango Fuck’
   From Third One Rises, UK GRAVID HANDS GRVH002 CD (2009)
3. Necro Deathmort, ‘Spilth’
   From This Beat Is Necrotronic, UK DISTRACTION RECORDS DIST 19 CD (2009)
4. Bernard Bonnier, ‘Vero-la-Toto’
   From Casse-Tête, CANADA ORAL CD 23 (2008)
5. The Guilty Connector and Tabata Mitsuru, ‘Acta Est Fabula, Plaudite!’
   From The Guilty C. and Tabata Mitsuru, JAPAN EVEN STILTE RECORDS ES106 CD (2008)
6. Wicked Witch, ‘Erratic Behaviour’
   From Chaos: 1978-86, JAPAN EM RECORDS EM1080CD (2008)
7. Kinit Her, ‘Hierophant Pentadrome’
   From Glyms or Beame of Radicall Truthes, SWITZERLAND HINTERZIMMER RECORDS HINT 06 CD (2008)
8. Ilyas Ahmed, ‘Earn Your Blood’
   From Goner, USA ROOT STRATA RS30 CD (2009)
9. Harappian Night Recordings, ‘Lila Derderba’
   From The Glorious Gongs of Hainuwele, UK BO’WEAVIL RECORDINGS WEAVIL3yCD (2009)
10. Good Noise Bad Noise, ‘Donated Howl Show’
    From Joist Hounds, UK EARTH MONKEY PRODUCTIONS EMC001 3″ CDR (2008)
11. Nate Young, ‘Trapped’
    From Regression, SWEDEN iDEAL RECORDINGS iDEAL076 CD (2009)
12. The XX Committee, ‘Damarc’
    From Network, POLAND IMPULSY STETOSKOPU 002 CD (2008)
13. Brown Wing Overdrive, ‘ESP Organism’
    From ESP Organism, USA TZADIK TZ 7410 CD (2008)
14. Black Lodge Ensemble, ‘French Quarter’
    From Jim-Bum, USA BLACK LODGE PRODUCTIONS NO NUMBER CD
15. Daniel Padden, ‘Crow Crow Growth’
    From Pause for the Jet, GERMANY DEKORDER 026 CD (2008)
16. él-G, ‘Ce Russe Blanc’
    From tout ploie, NETHERLANDS KRAAK KED04 LP (2008)
17. Jim O’Rourke, ‘I’m Happy’
    From I’m Happy, And I’m Singing and a 1, 2, 3, 4, AUSTRIA EDITIONS MEGO 50 2 x CD (2009)

Goodly bundle of items arrived in October 09 from the Swedish Kalligrammofon label, including two excellent seven-inchers…Solo Senza Testa offers us his unique take on dub music with Skull of Sade II (KALLIGRAMMOFON #11), an action which apparently continues a thread begun many years ago by its creator Jonas Rosén, when he recorded a dub track on an album for his previous band The Female Anchor of Sade. Spun at 33 revolutions, this record filters dub mixing through a wall of lightly distorted electronic noise and uses echo and reverb effects with a sparing, delicate touch. Flip it over for a ‘version’, which if anything is even more minimal than the A-side…this fine record, imbued I might add with a few puzzling overtones from its maker (something about an ‘enormous Red Elephant’), is not derived from the school of King Tubby and Lee Perry so much as post-punk records from 1978-1979 that attempted to emulate dub effects. I was also reminded of French 1980s cult electronic band Metal Boys, whose ‘Love In Dub’ on their sole LP Tokio Airport is a firm fave of mine.

Tsukimono is represented on the other seven-incher, Gotta Sing / Gotta Dance (KALLIGRAMMOFON #13), a superb little slice of improvised electric guitar which shimmers with distortion and harmonics, and is played with all the restraint and economy we are learning to expect from the very talented Johan Gustavsson. The front cover shows, in monochrome black and silver, a small and intense audience reacting with dream-like puzzlement (and digital cameras) before Tsukimono’s hypnotic work with the axe. 100 copies only of this, a joint release with Lady Godiva Operations. We also received his gorgeous avant meta-blues CD Heart Attack Money, noted here in December.

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words meanwhile has put out a little EP called Sally Hill (KALLIGRAMMOFON #9) onto a 20-minute cassette tape, a re-release of one of his very first records from 2005. As you may know we devote much ear-time to this heroic and depressive Swede, whose records do much to speculate about the afterlife while also exploring the furthest extremes of the mental whirlpool in which its creator often finds himself embroiled. Sally Hill, including an opening track which is inspired by girl-group records of the 1960s, is filled with delicate, mournful, layered drones which express an insatiable longing and wistfulness, carefully worked through over long periods of time.

Pat Gillis wrote to us from Alexandria in VA earlier this month. As owner-operator of the HC3 Music label, he also sent a copy of his new release of unkempt electronic devilry released under his TL0741 guise. Magnetic Injuries (HC₃TLCd₂) is a new edition of a work previously out on Panic Research Audio with new tracks; Gillis does everything using synths, effects and tape manipulation, impressively performed in real time. This risky approach does much to add tension and crackle to his highly-abstracted concoctions, which can work very nicely when spread out to over 15 minutes as on the impressive ‘Auricle’ here, although some may prefer the pop-tune economy of ‘Ur Chokt’ and ‘Through Blast Radius’, which make their respective points in around three minutes. TL0741’s splurgy, paintbrush charged-up approach to electronic music is refreshing; he won’t bludgeon the listener with airless noise, even if he risks getting his gumboots sucked into the mud and murk that swirls around the feet of those who dare to flirt with analogue equipment.

However for those listeners who feel that they would enjoy a nice spell of bludgeoning, we have just the thing for you. Wicked King Wicker is part of a shipment of new goodies from UK label Cold Spring Records, home to many a depressive and dismal blast of grimness. God Is Busy…Save Yourself (CSR125CD) is the 6th release from this American project whose extreme take on avant-garde Black Metal results in overpowering blocks of distorted monstrosity, which cannot possibly have been created merely through the use of guitars, mics and amplifiers, save such equipment were purchased from a music store owned by Mephistopheles himself, using a scorched credit card issued in Chorazin. Three ultra-long workouts are filled to the brim with sheer poisonous hatred which billows out into the atmosphere like irradiated gas every time you spin this bloated beast. Themed vaguely on a concept to do with the Crucifixion, the record’s artworks use old engravings on an all-black field to increase the general sense of futility and despair, and the inserted instruction ‘Nails Not Included’ directly implicates all those who buy this item, urging us to join in the abominable persecution of Christ. ‘Buffet and scoff, scourge, and crucify me’, from John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XI, seems an appropriate verse to utter under the circumstances.

From Apop Records, we have Duchesses with their Estupet CD (APOP033) which I think landed here several months ago. This all-female group fling themselves headlong into their work with fiendish relish and gusto, producing an uncanny hybrid of Black Metal, punk, noise and primordial drumming-chanting racket that is, at times, scorchingly unforgettable. What these gals do with their massed catty vocalising will leave you mentally scarred for many a moon, so don’t risk playing it after midnight. Their regular production sounds eerie enough, but this release is weirded-up to an even more extreme degree through the inclusion of several far-out remixes of selected tracks, courtesy of the mutated hands of Weasel Walter, Sunshine Militant Childrens Hour, Ops Spirits, Qulfus, and Blanketship. I’m far from surprised to learn that this diabolic quartet emanate from California, home to many a Satanic dabbler, and it’s troubling to learn their average age is 19, considering the depths of depravity they so convincingly plumb in sound.

We nearly overlooked this fine sound-art item from Scott Foust, who sent us Jungle Fever (SWILL RADIO 030), his first ever solo record which he published under his Foust! alias some months ago. It’s a single 77-minute piece which may have derived from field recordings in his home area of Amherst. but its origins are deliberately kept obscure. There is a vaguely mechanical element chuntering away inside what could be a miasma of open-air, clouds and bird song, and the release is wrapped with Rousseau-like images of palm trees and a still-life photography cover that manages to suggest a Dutch painting while it combines various common domestic objects to create the suggestion of indoor wild-life. Speculate freely as to what Foust intends with this highly cryptic, encoded and extended minimalist statement; it may be an attempt to confound the ideas of “indoors” and “outdoors”, or tell us something about the ongoing encroachment of modern industrialisation on the wilderness. It’s a challenging listen, but I found it very compelling – one of those static soundworks that keeps occupying the same interesting space for a very long time without really developing or going anywhere. To stay in one place is often one of the hardest things for a musician to do. “I had been thinking about and working on this piece for three years and I am very happy with the way it turned out,” reports Foust in the latest edition of his newsletter. “Alas, so far it has sold 51 copies. If you can’t sell your age, perhaps it is time to find something better to do.”

Brighton collective Hamilton Yarns sent us their new release Rising (HARK RECORDINGS HARK! 012) which arrived in a charming decorated envelope. This five-piece of gentle English absurdist boys and girls use their voices and retro Wurlitzer keyboards to give us a series of very gentle and twee songs and ditties. They strive to avoid any self-conscious mannerisms in their vocal work, retaining local English accents and personal inflections, so that to them singing is only one step away from talking, telling a story, or reciting a poem. Indeed it seems they formed the band simply from “a desire to tell tales”. Quite often they finish what they have to say in the space of a minute and a half, sometimes managing to insert avant-gardesque electronic doodles into these compressed, sketchy songs. Arrives in a faux-Magritte gouache painted cover with four ascending balloons and the hand of a wistful observer.

Roland P. Young enhances his woodwinds with much electronic and studio treatment, making great use of echoplex and digital delay to create some remarkable effects on Istet Serenade (EM RECORDS EM1087CD). The record reminds one of the 1970s experiments carried out with an echoplex by West Coast player Stan Getz, but Young is far bolder in his reach. These ‘Isophonic Comprovisations’, as much composed as they are improvised, are intended to straddle many musical genres and styles, including jazz, ambient, electronic and classical chamber music. There’s no denying the basic jazz inflection of Young’s confident and intricate phrasing, and though he may occasionally lean towards the saccharine in his melodies, the record has a brilliant glistening surface and is by no means an unpleasant listen. Curious listeners may wish to know that EM Records also put out Isophonic Boogie-Woogie by this man in 2006, but I think it’s sold out. A vinyl edition of this new one has been released however; note the Risa Young artwork printed in powerful red and black amoeba blob-shapes that comes across like a cosmic version of Scottie Wilson.

Torturing Nurse are a terrific underground harsh noise combo from Shanghai. Their music has become something of an obsession for this writer ever since Tamon Mayakita of IllFM played a track on Southwark Anthology of Noise last year, regaling us with a selection from the band’s now impossible-to-get Eerie CDR from 2007. Only active for a few years, these Chinese loons have already built up a formidable back catalogue of dangerous and destructive releases, with an impressive array of live shows and collaborations to boot. Broken (RNF-039) was sent to us by R.O.N.F. Records, a micro-label in Spain specialising in issuing small runs of intense noise infections, including our good friend Vomir from France, many of them decorated with sickening images of death, sex, and torture. This one is a live recording in two halves, about 40 minutes long, and only 50 copies exist; perhaps not an essential example of TN’s craft, but it does convey something of their head-on approach to tackling very extreme dynamics. They’re also represented on the four-CD survey of Chinese experimental music from Sub Rosa, noted here.

Very good to hear from Kacheltisch again who impressed us last year with their formless and brutish synth bursts on their first release on Betong Tonträger, packed in a corrugated card box with a small lead weight. Their new one, Kacheltisch & Niko Tzoukmanis – 30072009 (BETONG TONTRÄGER #005), is mounted on a ceramic tile. I was thinking of buying the entire edition of 70 copies, since my bathroom needs retiling, and wondered if I could somehow activate the music when I take my morning shower. This new release, on which the Frankfurt duo of Becker and Pawlicki team up with Niko T from Audision and Unitary, may not have the same primitive power which so troubled me during the months of 2009, but it does have the shapeless go-anywhere quality like a tram that’s become uncoupled and is being driven by a half-mad operator through the hapless city. I see from their website I’ve already missed at least two releases in this series, but those who don’t collect boxes and simply want to hear the music are invited to download all their work for free from various Mediafire links on their site.

For a more convincing foray into the territory of simplistic electronic music, we can heartily recommend Fred Bigot’s work on Mono/Stereo (HOLY MOUNTAIN 83268 / TLÖN UQBAR TUQ1003). Proudly declaring himself as ‘Pan Sonic meets Rockabilly’, he actually manages to surpass the Finnish electronicists for sheer relentlessness as he pushes his sequencers uphill with numerous unvarying black pulses, and he drives himself with all the determination of a blinkered digital cart-horse. Rockabilly fans expecting twangy guitars and reverb might not want to rush out to buy a copy of this, but true devotees of that genre who own original copies of the entire Meteor label back catalogue will recognise that Fred Bigot is a true brother under the skin. He somehow manages to inflect every note he makes with the pure hamburger grease that we hear on the best examples of 1950s Rockabilly (one of the most genuinely “isolationist” genres ever to have existed on this planet), and by so doing places himself some distance from the clean lines and antisepctic approach of the contemporary German schools of minimal electronica. However, we should not overlook the pioneering work of Alan Vega and Martin Rev, both as Suicide and in their solo careers; if you want to hear a truly modern update on Rockabilly, Vega’s first 1980 solo LP is required listening.

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1. Duchesses, ‘The Laughing Faina / Wacko Jackal’
   From Estupet, USA APOP RECORDS APOP033 CD (2009)
2. Wicked King Wicker, ‘Those Who bear Responsibility’
   From God Is Busy…Save Yourself, UK COLD SPRING RECORDS CSR125CD (2009)
3. Hamilton Yarns, ‘Rising’
   From Rising, UK HARK RECORDINGS HARK! 012 CD (2010)
4. Fred Bigot, ‘Stereo’
   From Mono/Stereo, USA HOLY MOUNTAIN 83268 CD (2009)
5. Roland P. Young, ‘Curls’
   From Istet Serenade, JAPAN EM RECORDS EM1087CD (2009)
6. Torturing Nurse, ‘Broken II’ (fade)
   From Broken, SPAIN R.O.N.F. RECORDS RNF-039 CDR (2009)
7. C. Joynes, ‘Skip James On ‘The Triumph of Death”
   From Revenants, Prodigies and The Restless Dead, UK BO’WEAVIL RECORDINGS WEAVIL39CD (2009)
8. Kacheltisch, (Track 3) (fade)
   From Kacheltisch & Niko Tzoukmanis – 30072009, GERMANY BETONG TONTRÄGER #005 CDR (2009)
9. God’s Gift, ‘Then Calm Again’
   From Pathology 1979-1984, USA MESSTHETICS #218 CD (2009)
10. Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn, ‘Break On Through (To the other side of the Rainbow)’
    From Potentials, USA WEST PALM BEOTCH RECORDS NO NUMBER CDR (2009)
11. Pimania, ‘PIMANIA’
    From Pimania, USA FEEDING TUBE RECORDS LP
12. Dreams of Tall Buildings featuring Arve Henriksen, ‘Rope Part I’
    From Dreams of Tall Buildings featuring Arve Henriksen, MUSEUM RECORDS MUS001 CD (2010)

It’s apt that this biopic about Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis should be called Control because, apart from the reference to the famous Joy Division song “She’s Lost Control”, control was the one thing Curtis had very little of over many aspects of his short life: his career and the way it was heading, his relationships, his health and, perhaps most of all, his inner being and security. Directed by long-time Joy Division devotee Anton Corbijn, Control (Momentum / The Weinstein Company 2007) is a beautifully shot film with a black-and-white print and a strictly linear plot structure, that by turns transforms Curtis’s life into a curious mix of 1950s social realist drama, industrial Romanticist tragedy and Impressionist, even existentialist study that brings to the fore in shades of grey Curtis’s anxieties and the pressures weighing on him, and which calls into question where and how people of a sensitive, artistic nature can find their place in modern industrial society. Lead actor Sam Riley portrays the singer with all his contradictions and torments, even his style of performance, to great effect.

Based on the memoir Touch from a Distance by Curtis’s widow Deborah (who was also co-producer), the film relegates the other Joy Division members to minor status, almost to the extent where they aren’t much more than necessary accessories to the plot, and manager Rob Gretton appears as the required comic relief, which perhaps does disservice to him as he died several years ago. Anyone not familiar with Joy Division’s history and output will get at best a hazy idea of what the musicians achieved together and of the band’s significance in the history of British rock and pop music. That means of course that we learn nothing about how Joy Division wrote their songs and developed their particular and distinctive brand of post-punk music, and how and why it resonated with so many people in the UK and elsewhere. Some incidents, such as Factory Records boss Tony Wilson signing the band’s contract with his own blood (supposedly) and the gig riot where Gretton eagerly flies into the audience to punch a heckler, appear for laughs or for sensationalism. However in a biopic such as this, I appreciate there is a need for moments of levity. For all that, the character of Deborah Curtis herself is reduced to the long-suffering, stay-at-home wife / mother forced by circumstances and Curtis himself to remain on the fringes of his career and life, and this, apart from not giving actor Samantha Morton much to do in the role of Deborah, speaks volumes about cultural attitudes towards married women like Deborah at the time, their place in their husbands’ lives and how such notions fed into the myth of the rock star lifestyle. The cruel irony (in the film anyway – we don’t see the band together much in the studio or on tour) is that not only does Curtis himself fall under the spell of this myth, it cuts him off from the one person who could have understood and helped him with his problems, and leads him into situations where he is vulnerable and out of his depth. In the course of the film, interesting questions arise about how artists and musicians view themselves and their work vis-a-vis how their audiences see them and their work – in scenes where Joy Division are performing live and Curtis starts having epileptic seizures, some people in the audience start jeering him on, thinking he is acting for their benefit – and about the contrasts between Deborah and his extramarital lover Annik Honore and what the two women represent for him. Within the film’s narrow narrative framework, these questions can never be fully addressed.

Before seeing Control, I didn’t think I knew Joy Division’s music all that well, not having heard all the band’s studio albums and only ever having owned a compilation set Substance that came out 20 years ago, so I was surprised by the music that does appear in the film’s soundtrack: it turns out that the set I did have is representative of the band’s output and I recognised most of the Joy Division songs in the soundtrack. Excerpts of 1970s songs by David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Kraftwerk, The Buzzcocks and The Sex Pistols also can be heard along with incidental music from New Order. The British performance poet John Cooper Clarke appears as himself declaiming some of his poetry early on in the film.

I like the film but I don’t think it has much appeal beyond an audience already familiar with Joy Division’s music and history. The fact that I saw it on TV on a non-commercial channel at a late hour as I had missed the cinematic release two years ago says as much. Corbijn wisely avoids romanticising Curtis’s life and death by presenting his seizures as depressing and painful rather than as trance-like, vivid and perhaps revelatory, and by portraying the singer’s last hours as rather banal, but for audiences reared on Hollywood-style plots that insist on wringing or manipulating anything offering false hope out of even the most desperate situation, this won’t do. The hero has to grit his teeth and get himself out of trouble by his own devices somehow, overcome all those years of mental, social and cultural conditioning (yeah, fat chance), and not be passive – as the cliché goes: Just Do It! The linear structure doesn’t permit much exploration of any issues and questions that arise as the film progresses. When the film ends, it ends on a tragi-Romantic note, yet if the other members of Joy Division had been treated as more than moving wallpaper, we could have had an ending of hope and rebirth that would have cheered the masses: the guys all went on to form New Order and as far as I’m aware they all still have careers in music.

Some people may see in Control an example of how depression and suicide can devastate families and friends, and how if only people could recognise an individual’s symptoms and behaviours as potentially leading to suicide, they might be able to get help sooner for the person and avoid tragedy. But I’m not sure that had Curtis’s family and friends been able to recognise Curtis’s behaviour as suicidal, they might have been able to get help for him in time as the film does have scenes of Curtis in denial about his problems and preferring to please people rather than upset them or their plans.

Incidentally the screenplay for Control was written by Matt Greenhalgh who also wrote the screenplay for Nowhere Boy which I saw very recently, so it’s no wonder that I see too many similarities between the two films: a main male character based on a real person is torn between two women of contrasting characters and sets of values.

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Here be a podcast of our interview with Charlemagne Palestine, of which a transcript was published in issue 5. This interview took place September 1998 at St John’s Church Waterloo Road, under the organ loft; the sound you can hear is the organ ostinato. Many thanks to Charlemagne for granting his permission to publish this podcast online.

The podcast is also attached to the page for the fifth issue.

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“What the Dickens is this? Burning Star Core?” – Richard Sanderson

1. ‘Bruise’
2. ‘Untitled’ (1990)
3. ‘Funeral March’
4. ‘Delirium Acutum’
5. ‘Renewal’
6. ‘Feed Feel part two’
7. ‘Abortion’
8. ‘Free’
9. ‘Rubbish!’
10. ‘Multimood’ (fade)
11. ‘Anonym Slander’
12. ‘Wish you a Merry Christmas’ (fade)
13. ‘For Backache’
14. ‘I Like Violence’
15. ‘For Stomachache’
16. ‘Untitled’ (1999)
17. ‘Artificial Fertilization’
18. ‘Kommer og Går’
19. ‘Crystalization’

All odd numbers by Government Alpha, from Resolution of Remembrance 1992-1999, NORWAY PICA DISK PICA012 4 x CD (2009)

All even numbers by Lasse Marhaug, from Tapes 1990-1999, NORWAY PICA DISK PICA001 4 x CD (2007)

Thought it was about time to hoover up some of the terriff black plastic consumables that have been sliced from the great musical Chorizo in the sky. Some of these date back to September and October of 2009 as regards when they marched in through the flaps of the Sound Projector tent. Some sound samples can be found on podcasts here and here.

From Belgium, we got a couple nifty 12-inchers courtesy of Timo Van Luijk. Onde describe themselves as a ‘free-form improvising music trio’ active since 2006, all of them emerging from the wreckage of the famed semi-industrial project Noise-Maker’s Fifes. On the LP Purple, (ONDEMUSIC 003) Greg Jacobs, Timo Van Luijk and Marc Wroblewski use just violin, electric guitar, and pieces of metal for percussion, to produce two side-long suites of superb open-ended pulsating instrument-buzziness that are bound to appeal to Krautrock listeners (especially those who favour the spastic walloping of the early Faust). Onde perform with confidence, like seasoned veterans; they contrive to give their music a slightly bizarre and distant vibe, while still weaving a compelling spell over the entranced listener – the constant mesmerising pulse which runs throughout ‘Vloed’ probably helps with this. Comes in a sturdy gatefold cover with a purple picture of the restless ancient ocean and is highly recommended. Timo also sent a copy of Voile Au Vent (EDITIONS LA SCIE DORÉE SCIE 709), a side project of his with Frederick Croene which offers four experiments in perplexing electronic arrangements, not unlike exploring the surface of the moon. Decorated with cover image of an old clipper ship.

The LP by Yoke & Yohs is called The Myth of the Totem (YOYOOYOY YOKE & YOHS LP 001). Naturally one’s attention is mainly grabbed by the outlandish cover, a screenprinted eye-scalder produced by the great Danish visual lunatic Zven Balslev, using intense full-strength colours, scattered collage, mad lettering methods and faux-primitive daubs to lasting effect. The music is fantastic too. When I first spun a few of these blistering belters, I was convinced I was hearing a souped-up customised electric guitar of such magnitude that you could cheerfully use it to crack open a few skulls. Turns out the whole LP (using distortion in the way that some painters use red paint) was made with just saxophone and drums, but produced with zero regard for good taste, common decency, or public health, and to judge by the energy levels captured on this beautifully disgraceful release, one assumes that Yoke & Yohs are only permitted near musical instruments in between wearing of their respective straitjackets. Titles such as ‘Skeletor Pop’, ‘Zombie Attack’, ‘Zoomglub’ and ‘Wolf Cream’ should give you some idea of the range of high genius-idiocy impulses sparking through their deep-fried brain cells. A total must!

Decapitated Hed’s Subversive Club Processes (SPLEEN COFFIN SP-16) is a 45rpm avant-garde techno bruiser sent to us by Tim from the Spleen Coffin label in Baltimore. Five essential cuts of snarling, mechanised low-range bass-pulsations that instantly transform the dancefloor into a warzone; you’ve rarely heard such naked, brooding hostility pouring off th’ grooves of an innocent disco-biscuit. Leaving no room for its victims to breath, this self-assured little monster sets about the grisly task of nibbling away your ligaments and tendons with its sharp little rodent teeth. Note cover art, printed on flimsy brown paper, which suggests by overprinted lines the pseudo-scientific processes that will be used to carve up our collective anatomy and implant such unwanted devices as ‘Cranial Styli’ and ‘Glowstick Fluid’ into our bio-systems. Just great! I’m tempted now to investigate their Looped Holes CDR, or the double-cassette box of their early recordings…

Dean McPhee’s Brown Bear (HOOD FAIRE HDFR002V) is a lovely 45rpm record from this great Yorkshire guitarist whose beautiful music can persuade you in less than two minutes that all is perfect with the world. His superb Water Burial split seven-inch (noted in the current ish) made me an instant convert to this man’s very direct and simple work. 500 copies only of this beaut were issued in October 2009.

Uton’s Unexplained Objects (DEKORDER 037) has renewed my interest in this mysterious droney Finn. Recent releases by Jani Hirvonen of Tampere have struck me as interesting, but a little cluttered in their use of overdubbage and layerings. This one leaves a lot more ‘white space’ and room to breathe, and allows Uton’s unusual sound treatments to really shine. Apparently the record has an ‘outer space’ theme, though you wouldn’t really have guessed that from the enclosed and intimate sound of this LP.

The duo of John Edwards and Chris Corsano can be heard on Tsktsking (DANCING WAYANG RECORDS DWR004), the latest LP from Anna Tjan’s home-made label. A live document of acoustic double bass and drumming from these two high-profile improvisers from the UK and USA respectively. I was initially taken aback by the very restrained tone of this quiet record, but listen carefully at appropriate volumes and you can reveal the detail of their craft; every sound is stitched into place like fine needlework, nimble fingers moving at lightning speeds. Screenprinted art cover and a sleeve note by Evan Parker enclosed.

New Zealand player Peter Wright overdubs everything he possibly can on top of his open-tuned 12 string guitar on Bright Falling Star (RELEASE THE BATS RTB #51). This ponderous and slow droner was made under trying circumstances in a squalid London flat and its title is taken from a David Bowie lyric on the Low LP; Wright intends to convey something about ‘glittering decay’.

A true curio is this instrumental record by James Beckett, called 14 Years in the Fond Company of: The Frèderyck Nùyegen Seaside Memorial Band (EDITION KÜNSTLERHÄUSER WORPSWEDE). British South African artist Beckett seems to have a background in installation art, with numerous exhibitions, residencies and publications under his belt dating back to 1999; only recently has he started making inroads into sound-art. What we hear on the record is some astonishing music made with hurdy-gurdy and percussion, apparently recorded in a Berlin studio last year. Very little information on the cover; it’s not clear if Beckett is playing the music himself, or simply offering us a distillation of recordings he made in the field, but it’s a fantastic listen. 200 copies only from this German arthouse publisher, who also sent us a fairly nice LP of minimal electronics by Ignaz Schick in a box.

Utmarken (RELEASE THE BATS RTB#50) is a dandy ten-inch LP which Matthias Andersson has put together to celebrate the 50th release on his Release The Bats label. Over seven years, Utmarken has seen service as a venue, a record shop and a rehearsal space in Gothenburg, doubtless playing a key role in the development of that city’s currently thriving musical activity. The album compiles a track each by Street Drinkers, Källarbarnen, White and Ättestupa, respective members of whom can be seen on back cover (and there is a little overlap between two of these projects). The one I keep playing so far is ‘Daily Bread’ by Street Drinkers, which is a kind of skeletal reinvention of pop music, using repetition, loops and minimal arrangements to support a wistful echoed vocal. A splendid item with a heart-warming colour insert; Andersson is far too modest about his achievements.

Nernes / Skagen are a Norwegian duo, Kjetil Nernes and Stian Skagen who use just bass guitar and synth (plus some vocals and other devilish devices) to produce four sides of heaving sub-sonic filth now unleashed on the world as Ad Undas (FYSISK FORMAT FY011). Lavishly packaged double LP which in its look and sound is somewhat indebted to the past works of Sunn O))), but listeners looking for exciting variants on the avant-death metal sludge formula in their diet can purchase this growling beast with confidence. I suppose their real secret weapon is to use a stack of amplifiers roughly the size of downtown Manhattan, as evidenced by their live tour of the US east coast in 2008 which required the services of many a haulage truck. One need only imagine the flattening effects of such a PA, which may not translate seamlessly onto vinyl, but they certainly have a good shot at it. The duo see themselves as guardians to the entrance of the underworld, and align themselves with minimal art / deep listening music as much as they do with stoner, doom and the magick songs of Current 93.

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“Are you sure this is music? How do you know?” – Professor Brian Cox

1. Nitkowski, ‘Gukurahundi’
   From Chauffeurs, UK FUNCTION RECORDS FUNC020 CD (2009)
2. Uran, ‘Onormal’
   From Uran, AUSTRIA SULATRON RECORDS ST 0904 CD (2009)
3. Joinedbywire, ‘Black Axis 2′
   From Black Axis 1-4, UK LF RECORDS LF008 CDR (2009)
4. Ramleh, ‘Valediction IV’
   From Valediction, UK SECOND LAYER RECORDS SLR004 CD (2009)
5. Sturqen, ‘Facce’
   From Piranha, UKRAINE KVITNU 8 CD (2009)
6. Musiikkivyöry, ‘Tulemme Kreivin Luota’
   From Tulemmer Sokeiksi, FINLAND EKTRO RECORDS EKTRO-059 CD (2009)
7. Utarm, ‘Panic Chamber Tomb’
   From Panic Chamber, NORWAY ROGGBIF RECORDS ROGGBIF 022 CD (2009)
8. Lovely Little Girls, ‘Little Debbie Garbage Can Sugar Lips’
   From Glamorous Piles & Puffy Saddlebags, USA APOP RECORDS #030 CD (2009)
9. dsic, (Track 5)
   From Twig, UK LF RECORDS LF0100 CDR (2009)
10. Heal, ‘Le déjeuner de l’ogresse’
    From Supernatural, FRANCE SOUND ON PROBATION LP SOP 011 (2009)
11. Le Syndicat, ‘Sex Und Vomit’ (1987)
    From Timespace Losses 1982/1987, RUSSIA MONOCHROME VISION MV30 CD (2009)
12. Bruce Gilbert, ‘Oblivio Agitatum’
    From Oblivio Agitatum, AUSTRIA EDITIONS MEGO 096 CD (2009)
13. Kato Hideki / Tetuzi Akiyama / Toshimaru Nakamura, (Track 2)
    From Omni, FRANCE PRESQU’ÎLE RECORDS PSQ003 CD (2009)
14. The Pickle Factory, ‘Free Thinker’ (1996)
    From Our Anthems, USA LESSONS ABOUT HISTORY LAH 002 CD (2009)
15. Bernard Donzel-Gargand, ‘L’Olivier’
    From Still to be a Storyteller, RUSSIA MONOCHROME VISION MV29 CD (2009)
16. Acre, (Track 1)
    From Isolationist, USA ISOUNDERSCORE ISO_14 CD (2009)

Noveller is the Brooklyn-based musician and film-maker Sarah Lipstate, whose groovy approach to minimalist guitar-growlage we note in our current issue with her vinyl LP Paint On The Shadows. Now here she be once more with Red Rainbows (NO FUN PRODUCTIONS NFP-50), a CD packaged like a miniature gatefold LP as is the wont of No Fun Productions. This release is a more maximal statement, a series of high-tower juddering tones where the very air is thickened up with rich layers of electronic sound, allowing space for textured drones, mysterious moanings, and distorted gruntamaroons that makes for a highly varied listen. ‘Rainbows’ and ‘Brilliant Colors’ are packed with soaring observations like some raving holyman from the Bowery, while ‘St Powers’ and ‘Tunnels’ return us to the introverted, reflective mode which Lipstate knows so well as she contemplates the peeling wallpaper and enormous windows of her (I hope) wonderful apartment. There’s also a short film ‘Interior Variations’ burned into the micro-piles of this enhanced digital throbber, and once again some very tasty full-colour artworks from Caroline Contillo decorating th’ pack.

Another sinister utterance from those scowling maestros of doomy art-rock, The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation. Succubus (AD NOISEAM ADN 112) offers up 13 dripping tracks of sepulchral gore recorded live in Rotterdam in early 2009, and through images, track titles, costume and make-up, the band let it be widely known that their taste runs freely to all that is gothick, macabre, and flavoured by the occult. I’ve always hoped for a little more bottom-end in the sound from their lugubrious workouts, but a stoner-death metal band they ain’t, rather preferring to summon up cloudy atmospheres of a haunted nature, and dwelling in them for as long as necessary until all personal demons are either exorcised, or start to join in the fun.

The good people at Hyped To Death CDs in Massachusetts have been engaged in a mind-boggling archival project for many years now, rescuing and reissuing incredible collections of post-punk singles and cassettes on CD in a systematic and thorough manner. One installment in the ongoing Messthetics series has reached us recently, this one (MESSTHETICS #107) concentrating on D.I.Y. and indie post-punk music from 1978-1981. When I tell you that all 22 tracks come exclusively from bands based in London, and that it’s the third volume in the London series, you’ll have some idea of the richness of treasures that this label are dealing with. The CD comes with a 24-pp booklet packed with informative historical notes and photos, and there are some drool-worthy seven-inch sleeves reproduced on the cover. I can’t single out any one band as to me the whole CD is equally thrilling from start to finish, but a few names include Jelly Babies, Avocados, Six Minute War, Stolen Power, Steppes, Disco Zombies, The Milkmen, and Design for Living – plus of course The 49 Americans, everyone’s favourite art-pop combo that were the missing link between the LMC improvisation scene and post-punk. If like me you feel that post-punk is one of this country’s more important and overlooked contributions to mass culture, or even if you just love seeking out obscure and little-known bands, you’ll be as happy as Larry with this comp and others in the series.

The same label has also put out a terrific compilation of the skeletal music of God’s Gift, and Pathology 1979-84 (MESSTHETICS #218) will tell you much of what you need to know about this brilliant Manchester guitar-sax-vocal group who were active at the time when Joy Division were getting all the column inches. Based on first-hand knowledge from Prestwich Asylum, they sang with a painful honesty about the problems of mental illness, with an edgy vocal style that’ll make your flesh crawl. Highly recommended, this comp is taken from rare releases on the New Hormones and Newmarket labels, plus cassettes and unreleased live tapes.

Post-punk fans will also want to bend an ear to contemporary band Nitkowski, a vivacious grunge trio from London whose debut Chauffeurs CD (FUNCTION RECORDS FUNC020) came out in September last year. It’s great to hear players tearing into the guitar-bass-drums set-up with such loose-lipped enthusiasm and still finding new things to say, in much the same vein as Shield Your Eyes, another unkempt and noisy London combo who likewise saw roughly into their tunes with the ferocious abandon of a cannibal. Nitkowski may want to do something about beefing up the thin screamy vocals in their songs, but their instrumental interlockage is just about dead-on for this listener, and I like the straightforward way the record has been produced to preserve a sizzling live studio sound. It reminds me of the time in the mid-1980s when a small coterie of UK indie bands (such as Stump) were aping the sound of The Magic Band’s atonalities, although Nitkowski have a melodic-ish poppy edge to what they’re doing too. Plus it’s interesting to hear them experiment with eerie noise-compositions like ‘Mutha Terracist’. A nice one!

Obscure item of the week is The Death of a Samplesman, a home-made CDR sent to us by Walter Gross wherein Mr Gross (formerly member of LA band Youth:Kill) enjoys much sport with his beatboxes and computers, throwing together extremely unlikely and ill-fitting music samples on top of his twisted trip-hop beats. He works with all the restraint of a pizza-man who’s decided to lavish all the toppings he can fit onto one 12-inch slab of hot dough, and he’s got a fascinating way with varispeed that causes instant aural nausea. While the record seems unfinished and tentative in places, Gross is capable of occasional flashes of lunatic creativity where everything just seems to be spinning apart in a self-destructive whirl of excess, insanity and bad acid. No website; email waltergross84@gmail.com.