Burial Hex #5

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to "Hunger" a single sided 12" single from Burial Hex released by Italian label Holidays Records in 2010. After witnessing Clay Ruby (AKA Burial Hex) perform a blistering live set in London in 2009 I have spent the time collecting his releases. Some disappoint, some don't - this one doesn't. The 12" is also a good case for being "anti-download". The actual physical beauty of this release is enough to go out and buy a fucking turntable and have the sleeve in your hands whilst the record spins on the deck, this is what the sound / the art deserves and not just to be a line on a list on a computer screen. Holidays Records - www.holidaysrecords.it - are selling it at a very reasonable price...buy it! The sleeve is a picture of a sculptured piece by Haitian artist Andre Eugene, whilst the etching on the blank side of the vinyl is taken from a screenshot of Maya Deren's 16mm film "Divine Horsemen:The Living Gods Of Haiti".
As mentioned before, Burial Hex releases are varied...from out and out noise to church organ symphony. "Hunger" provides (partly) an area of Clay's work I have never heard before. "Hunger 1" sounds like an out-take from the split LP he did with Kinit Her; "Vedic Hymns". Nat Ritter of Kinit Her is credited on this LP..along with Shane Verway. It is based around a poem from Arthur Rimbaud but to my ears Clay could be reading the menu from Pizza Hut, it is read in this slow "black metal" like drawl that means nothing to me. (Vienna). Guttural diphthong (which is a good name for a black metal group...you can have that one on me)! The sound is OK, dark and menacing but the voice is totally unnecessary. "Hunger 1" leads into "Hunger 2". The introduction of a slap bass, studio 54 type disco rhythm and electric drums. Superb...it takes part one and leads it to a higher place. Musically it reminds me of Psychic TV during their "Mouth Of The Night" period, it also brought Shriekback and 400 Blows to mind...but mainly Psychic TV. It is brilliance and why you need to hear this record. (It is a record and not a download).
Research leads me to find that Burial Hex play a one-off show in London in November this year. I doubt that I can make it and hopefully there will be other dates in the UK.

Past Present Future Space-Time Festival, Cambridgeshire. 10/09/2011. #2

Disinformation at the Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn. Cambridgeshire.

Philip Julian

I have just spent a pleasant while listening to "Location +", the latest release by Philip Julian (AKA Cheapmachines). "Location +" is a cassette release by London based label Entr'acte and like most Entr'acte releases it comes vacuum wrapped in tin foil. I am not a big fan of this style of packaging, it has a certain beauty that has to be (somewhat) destroyed to appreciate the goods and I can see the thought behind this, but I'm still not a big fan. Bruce Gilbert's 1995 7" "Instant Shed Volume 1" released by Sub Pop Records was my first vacuum packed record - I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. Strangely enough the work of Bruce Gilbert is evoked in this release. Side A plays like an installation accompaniment. A sound for a MOMA. "Computer Algorithms Processed Using Natural Phenomena" is textural tones, the sort of sound that accompanies film of ascending and descending objects, of coloured film and random gesture, the sort of sound that follows you around an installation or exhibition of Scandinavian Art. Again, back to Bruce Gilbert and the sound has a very "Sahko Recordings" feel. The B Side is more cut-up. The same textures but this time they are coming thick and fast and jumping across the spaces.
I am uncertain as to whether or not Philip is keeping his minimalistic glitch textural tones type work for his own moniker whilst saving his "noisier" stuff as Cheapmachines...like Mark Durgan does with his solo and Putrefier projects....or whether Entr'acte approached Philip for a solo release, but it is an idea that I have been toying with for some time - to drop the Dieter Muh moniker and carry on as Steve Cammack or split the releases/performances depending on what is required.

"Location +" is available at cmx.org.uk and limited to 50 copies only, so hurry up!!

Terror #2

Magazine with Muh interview out soon....will update when I know the magazine is available.

GX Jupitter-Larsen

The work of GX Jupitter-Larsen (or Castrol Jupitter-GTX as he is known at Hartop Towers) has been part of my aural consciousness since the early 1980's. It was most likely to have been Dan Plunkett of ND Magazine mailing me over tapes from Texas that I first heard The Haters. In 1986 I appeared on a compilation album with The Haters (amongst others) and ever since I have kept an ear out for their (his) work. I haven't bought everything, that would border on stupidity! but I have a few choice releases, the stuff I have heard and liked and subsequently bought and random stuff I have chanced upon. I managed to get the limited Flexi-Disc "Fuchait" from a shop closing down sale.
2011 has been a prolific year so far for GX. and has seen the release of three mighty collaboration singles. The collaboration 7" with Muennich I have mentioned earlier, but shortly after the release of this single came "Rip Off", a 7" on the American Helicopter Records label. "Rip Off" is a collaboration between GX, The New Blockaders and John Wiese. "Rip Off" is the sound of tearing paper. Open microphones, contact microphones record the sound of paper. It is hard to say whether or not the sound is treated in any way or just multi-layered. There is the sound of kerfuffle and some off-mic' grunting...but it is a great artifact and slice of entertainment. A couple of years back I bought a CD by The Hafler Trio called "Where Are You"? The pitch of this release was that it includes sounds originated from the voice and blown instruments of David Tibet recorded in 1982. Sounds interesting...so I bought. The album sounds like a microphone picking up wind, or one of those plastic tubes that you swing about to make a whooshing sound. It is not a bad album..it is very listenable but just doesn't do what it says on the tin (so to speak), "Rip Off" does.
September saw the release of the collaboration with Phil Julian (AKA Cheapmachines). "Continuous Tunnel Clock" on Anarchymoon Recordings. This 7" sounds more like a Haters single of old. No hint as to what speed I should be playing this slab o' beauty so I have been mix and matching. "Continuous Tunnel Clock" sounds better at 33rpm, it becomes a great sonic bass wall of noise, a full 360 degree sound. "Self Propelled Wrinkle" is best at 45rpm. High speed wreckage, sonic collapse. Exquisite noise. An error at the pressing plant limited this 7" to 100 copies only - on yellowy/orange vinyl.

All three GX Juppiter-Larsen 2011 singles are essential.

Pictures.
1: "Rip Off".
2: "Continuous Tunnel Clock". 

Salvatore Arancio At The Spacex. Autumn 2011

Sicilian born artist Salvatore Arancio has his first solo exhibition in the UK at The Spacex Gallery in Exeter. The exhibition; "An Arrangement Of The Materials Ejected" is featuring a newly commissioned piece "Everything Keeps Dissolving". This is a three metre high drawing inspired by the geological phenomenon known as Folded Strata. A lot of Salvatore's work is inspired by geological phenomena, mainly volcanoes. Salvatore's childhood was spent close to Mount Etna. "Everything Keeps Dissolving" is accompanied by a sound loop by Coil. (A section from the 1998 album "Time Machines"). Salvatore draws alien landscapes beautifully, small detailed monochrome photo etchings on paper. The picture "View Of Cabin Partly Buried By Lava And A Parasitic Cone" is fascinating. Also in the exhibition is the split screen film "Shasta", a film inspired by Mount Shasta in California, and a small animation piece called "Nuee Ardente", as well as a dozen or so drawings and a sculpture piece.
It was the lure of an installation featuring the sound of Coil that drew me to this exhibition, and I was not disappointed. Salvatore's work, which included some photographic art inspired by stones on Dartmoor, deals with myth and magick merging with science and nature and deserves to be seen and heard, so, if in Devon I recommend a visit to the Spacex Gallery. The exhibition runs until the 26th November.

Pictures.
1: The Spacex Gallery, Preston Street, Exeter.
2: Exhibition Booklet featuring "Bowerman's Nose".
3: Salvatore Arancio.
4: "Everything Keeps Dissolving".
5: "Shasta" Screening.
6: "View Of Cabin Partly Buried By Lava And A Parasitic Cone".

Dead Wood / Phantom Heron Seas

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release from Dorset based label Dirty Demos: "Sunshine Daily Commercial" by Dead Wood and Phantom Heron Seas. "Sunshine Daily Commercial" is a five (or so) minute track of oscillation and drone, it is (on this sunny day) a great listen. The record is a lathe-cut ocean blue flexi disc that started life out as a Safeway picnic plate. It is the first record that once was a plate I have, I do have a few that would be better off as plates, but this is my first plate/record...and it plays, for a lathe-cut and flexi the sound is very good. There's a split CDr on Dead Pilot Records that I will now have to hunt down as this record tells me something very listenable is happening between Dead Wood and Phantom Heron Seas. *Do not get Dead Wood mixed up with Deadwood. Deadwood are an awful band who release on Cold Spring Records* The record is limited to 26 copies only and costs £5.50 in the UK - I have checked the website www.dirtydemos.co.uk and it is still listed, so there is no excuse.

Pictures.
1: Dead Wood / Phantom Heron Seas 7" Cover.
2: Dead Wood / Phantom Heron Seas 7" Reverse.
3: Dirty Demos Logo.