Nocturnal Emissions

The  last few days (great band) have been dedicated to the work of Nigel Ayers here at Hartop Towers. The live performance in Polruan where I managed to pick up a copy of the Nigel Ayers, John Everall, Mick Harris collaboration CD "Mesmeric Enabling Device" on Solielmoon and now the 12"EP "Accumulator" that comes with a bonus CDR of Nocturnal Emissions live at the Brixton Ritzy 1983. Beautiful stuff. The 12"EP is the first piece of "new" Emissions vinyl in quite a few years. The three tracks being recorded in 1982.
Interview with Nigel Ayers:
MM: (me) Why have you released something from so many years ago?
NA: The guys at the label asked me if I had anything unreleased from that period and I gave them those   tracks.
Fair enough. I think the tracks come from around the time of "Drowning In A Sea Of Bliss". The sound is raw. Side A is the 8 or so minute track "Accumulator 2". It is the sound of a Roland sequencer. A programmed pattern of bass pulse and throbbing beat with snare snaps and hand claps woven in. Skeletal spine. Work In Progress and sounding very much of its time. That's the technology of 1982. There were others experimenting with the same sound / equipment at this time. Chris & Cosey with their Conspiracy International project and S.P.K. with tracks around their SeppKu period. Nigel had a side project around this time called Spanner Thru' Ma Beatbox, this 12" reminds me of that project (although I haven't heard the LP in twenty odd years). Side two features a "dub version" of "Accumulator 2" called "Accumulator 1". Very (early) On-U Sound with added drums rolling over the rhythm and lots of reverb / echo FX. "So Darn' Hot"  is a slow atmospheric instrumental piece with an underlying sense of menace. Again, sounds like work in progress, I am lead to believe  that parts of this track are on the "Duty Experiments" cassette that Solielmoon released in 1988.
The 12" is on We Can Elude Control a London based label of whom I know nowt about. There is a free CDR that comes with the record, a piece of "Thatcher Memerobilia". Nocturnal Emissions live on Election Night 1983. This has already been released as a vinyl LP back in 1983, perhaps the greatest live LP ever released. Tracks from the "Viral Shedding" era with classics such as "No Seperation" and "Smash With Love" it's a great document to how live and powerful the Emissions were back then. Essential.
The 12" is available from Boomkat, it is also available as an Mp3 download from the same people.

Pictures.
1: "Accumulator" 12" Sleeve.
2: "Chaos" LP (Cause For Concern Records) 1983.
3: Flyer for the Brixton Ritzy Election Night gig. (Whatever happened to The Avant Gardeners)?

Nigel Ayers: The wheels on the bus go round and round

Nigel Ayers: The wheels on the bus go round and round

Edgar at the Open Provocation Festival in Polruan.

Open Provocation Festival: The Final Night. 20 April 2013.

                            

  

  

It was the surreality that appealed. 

In my time here down in the South West I have seen some pretty strange things in villages halls. Magic lantern shows, finger puppetry, wooden skittles knockout contests and appreciation to the work of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, but last night at the Polruan Village Hall took the surreality to a new level. Nigel Ayers and Nicholas Bullen live as part of the Open Provocation Festival. 

Open Provocation was a four day festival situated in the harbour village of Polruan. A small ville across the estuary from Fowey, in between Polperro and St. Austell if you want to look it up on a map. It is scenic heaven. 2013 saw the second Open Provocation Festival organised By artist / composer and local resident Robert Curgenwen. The three days previous saw performances from Robert, Lee Patterson, Matt Davis, Company Fuck, Alexander Wendt and Iris Garreifs amongst others but the final night was the big draw for me.  

On arriving, Cornish artist Dom Allen had set up his installation of self made automata. Instruments that played themselves. Fascinating to watch as bells chimed, wheels ran over keys, random patterns were beat out on a drum and a guitar pick up hovered over magnets. I took my three children along and they loved it. Dom himself then performed a half hour set or so of improvised electronica using home made instruments and effects. Toy keyboards and remote control devices. It all sounded very 1960's Soviet if that makes sense? Academic Intellectual DaDaism. Nigel Ayers performed under his own name but the sound was very much Nocturnal Emissions. Whilst a film of coloured drops overplayed on the projection screen Nigel stood by his laptop and performed an act of random-signal-gesture. Lost in the trance like sounds Nigel moved his limbs slowly to the vibrations and pulses. I too closed my eyes and relaxed....missing out on the visuals, but quite happy with my own. Fifteen or so minutes and the sound cut dead and Nigel returned to bring us a wall of noise, sonics that I haven't heard since the hey day of Industrial music, or at lest the first few Nocturnal Emissions albums. The set ended with a loud and hypnotic version of "Never Give Up". 

At this point the Village Hall ran out of "average" strength bottled lager and all that was left was the 6 & 9% bottles of Chimay. The evening was going to get more interesting ... 

Surrounded by a crescent of effects pedals German guitarist Jorg Maria Zeger sat and created a layered sea of drone music. It was at this point that with a head swimming with Chimay lager (I won't tell you which % I chose) I went to stand outside the hall and watch the lights of the boats and water taxi's scuttle between Polruan and Fowey. The deep drones escaping through the walls and rattling the widows and woodwork of the hall made a great soundtrack. This all made the surreality so much more underlined. 

Final artist of the evening was Nicholas Bullen. I know the name through his work in Scorn, but have never heard the solo sound of Nicholas Bullen. Dressed like he was just about to start a round of golf Nicholas performed to film. Highly coloured almost blurred footage of old 1970's super 8 holiday films, landscapes, traffic, random pedestrians all mixed and mashed making it look like a bad trip sequence from an old psychedelic movie from the 1970's. The sort that Beryl Reid or Nick Henson would be in (maybe Dudley Sutton) and the sound, the rising and falling sound, the crescendos and drops into almost silence. Fast edited like a Spiral Insana. Nicholas kept his sound sources secret, hidden in a flight case ... clever stuff .. both Nurse With Wound and Lull were brought to mind. I overheard Nicholas mention a new LP out soon, his first in almost twenty years, it will be well worth a listen.

And there the surreality ended and the short walk back to the B&B. (Hormond House on Fore Street...100% recommended, with a comfy bed and cooked veggie breakfast). 

To promote and fund the festival and hopefully make enough money and create enough interest so there is a third Open Provocation Festival Robert released a double CDR featuring exclusive material from all acts at this years event. They cost £10 and are available from www.recordfields.net/festival If there is a third year I shall be there. 

Pictures.

1: Festival poster.

2: Polruan Village Hall.

3: Dom Allen installation.

4: Dom Allen live.

5: Nigel Ayers.

6: Jorg Maria Zeger.

7: Nicholas Bullen.

8: Pre festival drink outside the Lugger Inn.

MuhMur SoundArt Radio Broadcast: 18/04/2013

Back in the radio station after the Easter break, and now the weather is turning it is a pleasant walk through Totnes and the grounds of Dartington Hall Estate from the bus station to the radio station. I usually have a few tins of Belgium's finest and a microwave curry whilst waiting for "Honey For Your Ears" programme to play out in the Space Studios Cafe, but this treat was ruined by a troupe of ballet dancers occupying the tables and all talking incredibly loud either on their 'phones or to each other. Fuckwits, I mean, how can you have conversations with folk whilst your wearing headphones / earphones and continually texting? Obviously by gesticulations and shouting. Fuckwits, Fuckwits, Fuckwits .. there got that one of my chest...and just when I thought sod it I'll go for a pint in the White Horse (the pub inside the grounds of Dartington Hall) they all start to leave and head towards the pub themselves. Still, it was beautiful weather and thirty minutes of peace and calm before the radio programme.
The programme was supposed to have been broadcast on April 4 but I found out too late (great song) that the station closed for Easter. The only record change was Not Sensibles instead of The Cramps "Surfin' Bird". It features a 40 minute "special" from Human Larvae. Thank you Daniel.

Playlist:
1: Strom E.C. : "Introduction/Retribution" (Freak Animal Records) 2002.
2: Cyclotimia : "New Death Order" (State Art) 2000.
3: Tho-So-Aa : "Archive Number 7" (Art Konkret) 1995.
4: Konstruktivists : "Free Form Fetish" (Third Mind Records) 1983.
5: Con-Dom : "Triumph" (Functional) 2008.
6: Soldnergeist : "Hunting French Tourists" (State Art) 1998.
7: Human Larvae : "Rotting In The Sun" (Not On Label) 2006.
8: Human Larvae : "Theatre Of Open-Heart Surgery" (Not On Label) 2006.
9: Human Larvae : "Bleeding Metal" (Not On Label) 2010.
10: Human Larvae : "Slave To Violence"
11: Human Larvae : "Entwined In The Umbilical Cord"
12: Human Larvae : "Womb Worship"
(The tracks 10,11,12 are from the forthcoming album ob L.White Records).
13: Trepaneringsritualen : "Judas Goat" (Fang Bomb) 2013.
14: Anemone Tube : "Prayer Walk" (Impulsy Stetoskopu) 2010.
15: Portion Control : "Chew You To Bits" (In Phaze Records) 1983.
16: Dr. Mix : "No Fun" (Rough Trade Records) 1979.
17: Turbund Sturmwerk : "Untitled" (Raubauken) 2002.
18: Mind & Flesh : Blodskam" (Force Majeure) 2012.
19: Not Sensibles : "Death To Disco" (Big Bent Records) 1979.
20: Maeror Tri : "Sensory Deprivation" (Impulsy Stetoskopu) 2013.

I have put a picture of me holding the Konstruktivists "Psykho Genetika" LP from 1983, according to the "Encyclopaedia Of Industrial Music Volume 3" this LP on Third Mind Records does not exist, but was released in 1993 as a CD by Jara Discs. That is how bad the discographies are in that book...
I shall upload the programme onto my MixCloud site soon ... I will leave the link below when I do.
Thanks again for listening....

(just having a few technical problems uploading the programme onto MixCloud. Apparently my programme is corrupt)!

Pictures:
1: The SoundArt Studios. (Top Window).
2: I am the DJ!


Listen at : www.mixcloud.com/muhsteve/human-larvae/

U Boat

I was having a conversation the other day, chatting about old bands / artists etc ... and after a few names I kept saying ... "bet they've reformed" ... "I bet they've reformed" (I am not going to mention names) and the answer each time was "yup" ... So when a package came through from Scotland's finest Sound Holes label with a tape by U Boat in it I wondered whether or not Woody Woodmansey had got his old band together and started off releasing ultra limited cassettes on obscure Scottish cassette labels just to test the waters. Unfortunately no ... The tape became an adventure in avant sound poetry, a genre of which up until a few days ago I believe I was a virgin. (Although I have a bad Wounded Knee CDR, and have seen Peter Um live ... does this count)?
The obscurely titled "The Snake Needs A Tatty Cage" is a C20 limited to 61 copies. A track a side. Side A is called "Snake". I think this is a live recording, as ever Sound Holes cassettes are void of information, or should I say private recording as I don't think there was an audience. The first few minutes are OK, with sparse gamelan style percussion, ringing bowls and Tibetan bells etc, but then a voice enters the mix ... at first trying to carry the resonance but soon drops into self-indulgent banter. No language (Unless it is in tongues). Strange play of the mouth. Nurse With Wound did this type of thing a lot better 30 odd years ago.
The second side is entitled "Trough". It has biscuit tin percussion and random snare. Aaargghhh...free jazz! It is ten minutes of awful. Almost childish....
It's good that Sound Holes give this avant sound poetry malarkey an outlet, but at the same time should they encourage such things??
Research tells me that U Boat is a duo made from Pascal Nichols of Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides and Ben Knight of Towering Breaker. I have heard (of) neither,but if they want a decent drummer, they should try and get Woody's number....

I like Sound Holes, they have released some classic tapes along the way. U Boat just isn't one of them.

Pictures.
1: U Boat cassette Sleeve.
2: U Boat cassette.
3: Inner Sleeve Artwork.

Trepaneringsritualen / Anemone Tube / Human Larvae Live In Exeter #3

 

Sometimes you have to put on Harvey Goldsmith's jacket. Anemone Tube were in the UK performing a rare live concert in Birmingham, no other gigs ... and Trepaneringsritualen were in the country at the same time playing London and Birmingham only. A live date had to be organised for the South-West, this was too good an opportunity to let slip, fortunately Dave Goodchild of Exeter venue, the Cavern agreed and a night was organised. Assisting Stefan Hanser with his Anemone Tube live sound was Daniel Burfoot of Human Larvae, Daniel agreed to make his live UK debut in Exeter. Good man! 

In the past 5 years I have organised a few shows in Exeter, a couple at The Cavern, the turn out has been usually small but last night a fair few interested souls made it to the venue, and for that .. I thank them. 

Human Larvae kicked off the evening with a great slice of power electronics. Heavy looping mixed with crushed metal sounds and growling vocals. Daniel plays a metal box mic'ed up, in that box are stones and chains and Daniel rattles them about and at times bows the tin with a metal rod, it creates a wonderful sound, and through the Cavern's mighty rig it really made the body shake. (Word up here to the Cavern sound engineer, Mick. Good man). Daniel carried on his metal box antics throughout the Anemone Tube set. Concentrated drones, powerful loops and layering of electronica. Stefan ( a hooded figure with his face wrapped in cloth) manipulated a metal chain, dragging it across a mic'ed up metal plate then dropped metal shard on the plate - again the sound was bombastic. Explosion after explosion all in time to the pulsing drone and the bowed box...superb, and high energy stuff. There were vocals putting the performance into a personal realm, hairs stood up on the back of my knees.

Trepaneringsritualen finished the evening with a set on the sticky dance floor with just a floor light for atmosphere. The audience seemed to be glued to the wall as Trepaneringsritualen offered up 20 or so minutes of powerful noise, Thomas prowling his area, his domain spitting out slogans, litanies and rhetoric through a multitude of vocal effects. I think I heard the new 7" "Judas Goat" but I may be wrong. A Trepaneringsritualen performance is compelling .. a few more on the dance floor would have probably made it more imposing...but I ain't complaining.

A special night in Exeter. Harvey Goldsmith's jacket has now been put back in the wardrobe ... 

Pictures:

1: Thomas of Trepaneringsritualen arrives at The Cavern.

2: Stefan, Daniel and Thomas man the Merch' table.

3: Human Larvae.

4 & 5: Anemone Tube.

6: Trepaneringsritualen. 

    

Trepaneringsritualen / Human Larvae / Anemone Tube Live in Exeter #2

              

Trepaneringsritualen #4

Preparing myself for tomorrow nights gig in Exeter, Devon with Human Larvae, Anemone Tube and Trepaneringsritualen, I have been immersing myself in their sounds...top of the pile is the new 7" single by Trepaneringsritualen. "Judas Goat" was released a few weeks ago by excellent Swedish label Fang Bomb. "Judas Goat" is the ideal sampler for the sound of Trepaneringsritualen. It is constructed like a "pop" song with verse chorus verse chorus build and lasts just three and a half (or so) minutes. An instant classic. "Judas Goat"...a throbbing pulsebeat and howling wolf screams (all low key), then a mechanical snare break (sounds like a Roland Drumatix) and chaos reigns with feedback and indecipherable vocals,before returning to the throbbing pulsebeat and wolf howls (could be hunting horns). This is a pattern that repeats three times before finishing...like I said, a beautifully constructed 7" single. The B side is "Didymus Christ". I don't know much about the bible but I think Didymus was translated to Thomas in the King John version. (Please note: I could be way off here) and Trepaneringsritualen is the solo project of Thomas Ekelund, so .. "Didymus Christ" is the "weaker" track, again falling into the ideal 7" construct. With the sound of sharpening knives reversed and a rhythm that would not be amiss on a 1970's SPK bootleg Trepaneringsritualen sound like Con-Dom. The vocal hook I think is "My Words...Your Salvation". (Very Con-Dom).
This is a great single, a great slab of vinyl - white vinyl too! The picture sleeve opens out into a poster of the crucified Christ, I would have preferred a lyric sheet!  
Undoubtedly limited, try www.fangbomb.com for a copy.
And so onto tomorrow night ...

Encyclopaedia of Industrial Music Volume 3

                               

Years ago, back in the early 1980's the UK music weekly Sounds had a section called (I think) "Wild Planet". It ran for about a couple of months and was an A-Z of experimental DIY / Industrial / Electronic (call it what thou wilt) bands and projects. It was about half a page and was a "cut out and keep" type feature. It was written by, compiled and edited by a chap called Dave Henderson. Dave was himself in one of the "Wild Planet" bands being a member of Club Tango, and later on released a double LP of bands featured in "Wild Planet" called "The Elephant Table". Dave later went on to create a great label called Dead Man's Curve and release classic vinyl by Smegma, Last Few Days and Portion Control...but that's not important right now. I cut out and collected all the "Wild Planet" issues and discovered the sounds of Metamorphosis, Lemon Kittens, O Yuki Conjugate and their like.
Shortly after came the B.George masterpiece "International Discography Of The New Wave". An A-Z listings of just about every independent, major and DIY release from 1976-1983. Project title, sometimes a brief description, band members and (most importantly) a full discography. It is a thick and mighty tome. It is known as "The Bible".
I am addicted to print. I love to read about music, all types. his week I have bought the book "45" by Bill Drummond (99p in Oxfam), "Hooleygan" by Terri Hooley & Richard Sullivan and "Encyclopedia Of Industrial Music Volume 3" by Rafal Kochan.

Encyclopedias on music are a necessity, I have attempted on many occasions to write one myself, always based around my record and tape collection. Now I just catalogue. The last half decent encyclopaedia I got was the "All Music Guide To Electronic Music:The Definitive Guide To Electronic Music" edited by Vladimir Bogdanov and published by Backbeat Books. It had good informative writings on Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Merzbow etc but also has entries by the likes of Madonna, Herbie Hancock & Michael Jackson. (I am not mentioning books like Alex Ogg's "No More Heroes" or Martin Lilleker's "Beats Working For A Living". Both are excellent tomes but not quite encyclopaedias).
In 2010 came the first volume of "Encyclopaedia Of Industrial Music" by Rafal Kochan (Rafal also runs the Polish based label Impulsy Stetoskopu) and three years later we are on to volume three. Each volume being alphabetical. Volume three lists projects / artists from letters J-N.
As mentioned, encyclopaedias are a necessity especially printed ones, these volumes could so easily of been an appendage on the Impulsy Stetoskopu website. There are a couple of minor faults with these books. The discographies are far too complicated, and they are not full discographies. Rafal also lists former projects, side projects and collaborations in with the main projects body of work. Let me explain. Volume Two features bands / artists / projects lettered D-I and has an entry on Dieter Muh. I supplied some of the information for Rafal including a full discography. Rafal was not going to list the 1999 "Bjorn Tapes" cassette release on Xerxes but instead list the 2003 CDr  re-issue on Italian Balde Records, also our CDr "Cari Saluti" on EE Tapes does not get a mention but the re-release on Functional Tapes does. Why? Because CD rules over vinyl rules over CDr rules over cassette rules over any other format. Also Rafal does not list compilation albums. Not only does the discography feature these oversights (anomalies) but goes on to list my releases from the mid 1980's when I was a solo artist known as The Streetcleaner and A:A:K and as a member of Ideas Beyond Filth and Muhviertel. All these projects had no and bears no relation to the output of Dieter Muh. Dieter Muh is a completely separate entity. It just becomes a mess, a confusing mess. I can't see why Ideas Beyond Filth could not have a separate entry and the cassette label Carnifex Recordings have an entry too. (It is how I would have dome it)...The Dilloway discog is just a bloody mess. Anyway. The print is far too small for it to matter. Industrial Music is probably the wrong umbrella too as some of the entries have no connection to the genre, and then artists that do are noted by their omission. But the aboves are just minor gripes as the encyclopaedias are a mammoth project and one that should be greatly applauded. Its' strengths are in the broad church approach and includes entries by the artists in the fields of experimental, electronic, avant grade, power electronics, noise, HNW, psychedelic, post punk and yes ... industrial. The volumes are packed with great pictures too....I don't think I have ever seen a picture of Metabolist live before.
Each volume comes with a CD. Sort of ironic as the encyclopaedias don't list compilation titles. Volume one has a double CDr.
Now I have the first three volumes I will carry on a collect to the end, I expect Rafal is stuck to a format now that can't change, but if had only had a glance at "The International Discography Of The New Wave" and gone with their format and layout the book(s) would be so more pleasing.

Where Were You?

I suppose the question in years to come will be; "Where were you when you heard that Thatcher had died"? Like a JFK assassination or a TG split situation .... Well, I was walking past a secondhand electrical shop at the top of Fore Street in St. Marychurch (Torquay) and saw John Major's face on the 28" Screen of a TV set situated in the shop window. I often glance in as the TV's are all set to Sky News and it is handy to check the time (tricks of the trade for non watch wearers there) ... anyhoo .. I had to take a second look as the banner at the bottom of the page said "Thatcher Dies".
Uncontrollable joy fell upon me as did a beam across my face. Hey Ho The Witch Is Dead. I rushed straight home cracked a can of Holstens finest and slapped some Not Sensibles on the turntable.

There will no doubt be tributes and eulogies written, I'm not listening to the radio or watching TV tonight as history will be re-written and lies will be told as fact ... and `I never want to hear the woman's  voice again.
I have been waiting for this day for so long.

Spoils And Relics

Managed to pick up this 7" single on one of my stealth and mistral trips to the East Midlands. "Turner" by Spoils & Relics is only available at The Chameleon Arts Centre in Nottingham. No mail order, no shops...just over the bar of one of Nottingham's finest.
The sleeve reminds me of an old punk 7" or even (bizarrely...but I can't help it) a single by The Wedding Present. It hides the sounds that lie therein.
Tape is manually handled through magnetic heads, 1970's synthesizers are plundered, toys are smashed, a right handed man blows a left handed tuba, Radio 2 is a constant, varispeed knobs are twiddled and conversations on the Leeds to Batley night bus are illicitly taped and played back through a multitude of effects. This all happens over two sides of untitled vinyl. I have been spinning at 33rpm ... it probably sounds completely different at 45.
Spoils & Relics are masters of their trade, manipulating and collaging found sounds and built instruments into a beautiful / fascinating audio documentary.
They are regulars at the Chameleon Arts Centre, especially on Rammel Club nights, hence this releases exclusivity.

Whilst I was about I joined the "Harbinger Sound Executive Club" .. the first club I have joined since signing up to be a member of the Gloria Mundi Fan Club.

Burial Hex #7

After the disappointment of the "Six Wings" LP and double cassette that the Nostilevo label put out last year I vowed to curtail my Burial Hex listening. "Six Wings" was a great let down after the "For Granted Was His Will" cassette on Sangoplasmo. All lo-fi sludge and drudge, it seemed totally unnecessary, I could not quite understand what Clay (Ruby...Mr. Burial Hex) was trying to achieve or project. The 7" single "Bach Eingeschaltet...Funfter Band" on the German Reue Um Reue label was too tempting though. Clear green vinyl. I love coloured vinyl. Limited to 200 copies and going quite cheaply direct from label.
Two tracks with a completely "new" sound. A new sound for Burial Hex that is. "Fantasie" kicks off Side A(after). Great orchestral timpani manoeuvres awaken the beast. The growling beast..it all starts off very Laibach before morphing into sequencer lead techno, again with a nod to the old sound of say Crash Course In Science or Duet Emmo. Clever stuff .. more tappy toe than dancey. Side B (before) gives us "...Und Fuge". Fast edited sequencer patterns immediately put me in mind of Phil Glass's "Koyaanisqatsi" soundtrack, before (again) morphing / evolving into a techno beat / rhythm with the beast settling beneath it all. By the end it has all lost the plot and descended into chaos with some "mad organist" style keyboards.
Excellent stuff, excellent single with a sound I hope Burial Hex explore.
Visit www.tutrur.com and buy before they all sell out.

Pictures:
1: Burial Hex "cloth" that came with the "Six Wings" LP
2: Burial Hex 7" Picture Sleeve.

Sleaford Mods

I can't remember when I first heard about Sleaford Mods, I remember who told me about them...but I can't remember when but as soon as I heard the name I knew I had to hear them. Back in my youth when my dad was a solicitor he worked in Sleaford, my mum used to work the market there, Sleaford is a lovely little Lincolnshire market town built around the River Slea. I had a mate who lived on the Boston Road, we used to creep into Bass Maltings, an old abandoned brewery and muck about. Shout and chuck things, beat metal on metal .. should have recorded it, eh? (We weren't under curfew).
And now there's Sleaford Mods and Steve Underwood loves them enough to tell me about them. Quite obvious that I was not going to be hearing some Purple Hearts, Lambrettas, Secret Affair type o' shite, but I wasn't quite expecting this.

Lest we forget the days when record label following was fun and exploratory. Labels such as Small Wonder who would put out Crass, Bauhaus and Murder The Disturbed or the beginning of Rough Trade when one week it's Metal Urbain, then a slice of Cabaret Voltaire and then File Under Pop. Great days. Harbinger Sound is a label worth following, so far this year they have released new stuff by Cremation Lily, Spoils & Relics and Sleaford Mods (and I'll put in the Vagina Dentata Organ live LP at the end of 2012) releases that are diverse as they are essential. Harbinger Sound is not a "noise" label. Admittedly the Sleaford Mods LP has "thrown" a few people ... after a slew of "noise" re-issues from the Broken Flag back catalogue this is quite understandable .. but let's reiterate here. Harbinger Sound is not a "noise" label.

Sleaford Mods are a two-piece. Jason & Fearny. One has a voice the other a laptop. The album also features the bass guitar of R.J.Chisholm. It's the bass lines that grab me, punk driven punching riffs that are infectious and get my head moving and the feet tapping. Bass lines around a snappy snare with a techno-style beat. The sound is unique, and more so because of the voice. Jason Williamson. Witty dry lines of vitriol and "everyday life" spat out with an East Midlands drawl by a guy with tourettes. This is not John Cooper-Clarke territory, this is not funny haha like Alexei Sayle and "Hello John, Got A New Motor", this is reality speaking, the zeitgeist, the now, the Nottingham sink estate, the voice from Ladbrooke's. I could reel off the titles or quote some lines from the tracks but it won't read or capture the brilliance of this LP ... for that you need to hear Jason's voice. The songs will stick with you, I've had them going around in my head for the past few months.
I was lucky enough to catch Sleaford Mods live last year. It's a frightening sight, like watching Sham 69 back in '78...the feeling that at any moment something would spark a riot and that the band would just love to join in. Tense - that best way to describe their live approach. After one song some of the audience laughed..."What yer laughing at? ... This ain't meant to be funny.. I'm not telling yer jokes". Polite applause ! I've recently seen Sleaford Mods billed as Hip-Hop for a future live gig .. I would argue that. Sleaford Mods are punk.

This is an important album, it'll probably get in The Wire's top ten and we'll hear Sleaford Mods on "Loose Ends" ... hey...weirder shit has happened. It needs to be heard and you need to listen and just to reiterate Harbinger Sound is not a "noise" label. The LP should be available from all decent distributors, but if you're daft enough to be on a Facebook then check out both Sleaford Mods and Harbinger Sound that way.