Citipati
Citipati
UK HYPNAGOGIA GOG04 LP (2024)
Paul Coates sent us a copy of this LP, which features the performing skills of John Mylotte, Paul Coates, Sean Breadin, Richard Rupenus, Philip Rupenus and Clive Powell – in short, some key names in the history of UK underground noise and dark ambient, and in this case “ritualistic” drone.
Two or three members of Metgumbnerbone are here, along with the creative forces behind The New Blockaders. Both Mylotte and Breadin were recently “revealed” as part of the group that created the notorious Bladder Flask record from 1981, a time when most of the key players were still teenagers or 20-somethings; even a year ago this seemed quite interesting to me, after I’d so long assumed Bladder Flask was a Rupenus solo thing. Some two years after that, we find all the six players in Morden Tower in Newcastle Upon Type (home, I need hardly mention, to many notorious New Blockaders performances), where they recorded these pieces over two days in April 1983. There follows a murky story about lost recordings being found again, circulated between various interested parties, and in the steps leading up to this release there’s evidently been some fallings-out and bad feelings between the six former buddies. Although Coates has put out this version as a Citipati release with its Skullflower-esque cover and Tibetan artworks on the back, John Mylotte has also claimed it’s actually a Metgumbnerbone record, and he’s put it out as The Morden Tower Conjurations, with cover art of hideous dancing skeletal animals in a dark wood.
These circumstances have led to much public vituperation and jealousy between some of the above personalities, which seems sad, but we won’t repeat it here. At least both parties seem to share some common ground, which is that these performance pieces should be perceived as “ritualistic” and “secret”, where the dark forces that were unleashed on the world in 1983 may now be bringing forth many forms of unwelcome chaos and mayhem. There’s even some doubt as to whether what we hear was indeed recorded at Morden Tower, but the very noticeable echo effects might have been added post-production by Coates. If all of that rumour and infighting has intrigued you, feel free to bend an ear to these unsettling recordings of percussion and metallic rattles, somehow transformed into something vaguely uncanny with a ghoulish hue. While not as outright aggressive as TNB would become, the roots of non-specific object-mauling and chain-clanking are already showing through. For some reason, the whole record feels like it was taking place in total darkness, and maybe it was; the cold, clammy cloak of night is very hard to shake off. (26/04/2024)