Nicely-presented lathe-cut LP is The Spirit Of Gravity: A Poem in Six Parts (THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY GRAV 150), limited to 75 copies; although we were sent this in August 2023, it seems like the lathe version is still on sale at time of writing.
Spirit Of Gravity is a Brighton platform for experimental music which has been a great success – in fact it’s been running for 21 years, hence the idea behind this audio celebration of the thriving experimental culture in that part of the UK, manifesting at such venues as The Komedia and the Brighton Dome. At a time when London is struggling to support experimental music and venues are closing down everywhere, it’s encouraging to bear witness to the efforts of the “SoG” crew, although having said that I’m not sure exactly who deserves the credit, although one possibility is Geoff Cheesemaster; he is the McCloud of Noteherder and McCloud, a sax-and-synth noise duo whose consistently great records we always enjoy. Matter of fact he contributes ‘Ear Graff’ to side A; also here are Ensemble 1, Andrew Greaves, This Sound Bureaucracy, Gun Boiler, and Alien Alarms with Ieva Dubova. Give yourself 25 extra credits in your digital wallet if you’ve heard of any of them, and you can double that if you’re been to see them live in the sparkling seaside town full of seagulls, vegan restaurants, hundreds of used records and blokes walking around on stilts.
I think the compilers of this record realise it’s probably impossible to truly “represent the history” of what’s gone down over the years at this friendly £5-on-the-door performance space, but it’s a fair selection and there are photos of the performers on the back cover, along with excerpts from a book by John Higgs, and notes on the origins of the SoG – it seems to have started with Nick Rilke and Tony Rimbaud and a thing called Maphead. Other names besides these and Geoff to consider are Simon Peacock, Jim Purbrick, and Andrew Greaves (again) – besides being a musician, he’s also a photographer and did the cover design for this item. And you don’t have to start your investigations with this comp – there are plenty of fine releases going back many years on the label’s Bandcamp page. While we also have a passing familiarity with The Static Memories (Gus Garside and Dan Powell), that particular duo are coming from more of an acoustic free improvisation stance, whereas today’s comp is pretty much all electronica – synths, keyboards, loops, and samples.
Musically, the contents are mostly OK, but largely too “nice” for these ears on today’s spin with its friendly smiles, bright colours, moderate tempos and saccharine flavours. McCloud’s track has a nice discordant mood, but it’s marred for me by the sampled voice segments from the mouth of that lamentable art fraudster Banksy. Gun Boiler’s ‘Lets Get Cancelled’ has an urgency in its minimal beats and groinkular synth noises, which is kinda enjoyable, but unlikely to ripple the waters in Cologne or Vienna avant-techno circles. By the way, I learn from the enclosed letter that Chris Noteherder has now left Brighton to live in Wales – this might not mean he’s quitting showbusiness permanently, but it seems “there will be a lot less Noteherder and McCloud stuff going on”. Many thanks to Geoff for sending this. From 25th August 2023.