Wyrm + Nocturnal Emissions

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release from the American label Roil Noise Offensive. "Symmetrical Ecstasy" by Wyrm + Nocturnal Emissions. Released in a 5" metal tin (a la PIL "Metal Box") and limited to 100 copies. This was my first forage into the work of Wyrm, the solo project of multi-media artist Allan Zane. I do have the Zane / G.X. Jupitter-Larson collaboration CD "Banjax" that Somnimage put out in 2006 and I love that, so with that and the lure of hearing new recordings from Nocturnal Emissions I snapped up a copy straight away. The first 33 copies come with a "bonus" 3"CDr, I have number 18.
The "main" CD has two tracks "Symmetrical Ecstasy 1 & 2". The sound begins rather lo-fi, sounding like a wash of noise recorded live on a two-track Tandy tape recorder, but a clear sonambulistic drone comes through and picks the piece up to create a beautiful wall of dreamy like electronica. Loops appear and disappear in the ethereal. Track 2 is track 1 in reverse.
The 3" CDr also has two tracks. The same wall is manipulated but this time the track has a rhythms mixed in. Polynesian sounding rhythms. Track 2 is track 1 in reverse. The 3" tracks are preferable to the "main" CD release. My only beef is that the tracks aren't long enough, making it like a Drone Records release or a 7" single by Lull, perhaps this release is a pre-cursor to a full length release? That would be nice.
This release is available through the Roil Noise Offensive Website and (I would guess) essential for Nocturnal Emissions collectors.

Enjoyable.

Pictures:
1: Wyrm + Nocturnal Emissions "Symmetrical Ecstasy" Tin.
2: The "bonus" 3"CDr.
3: Allan Zane.

Lighten Up Sounds

Just spent a pleasant while listening to two releases from the US label, Lighten Up Sounds. A new label to me, but then again..most labels are.
It was their recent release by Andreas Brandal that got me interested and parting with my well earned paypal and the label MC kindly slipped a tape by Neon Sea into the package.
The cassettes are usually limited to a 50 copy run and cost six dollars a piece and come in full colour sleeves / printing and coloured tapes. We are talking professional outfit here.
Neon Sea are a new one on me. I am sensing a three-piece project here but I am prepared to be laughed out of the water. "Fading Light" is a 40 minute ride that begins with some really fine electronic noise, HNW and trapped circuit bending style noise, then into the mix comes drums. Cymbals and bass drum, it took me by surprise. Pleasant surprise as the journey took a whole new turn. Side two has more electronics and drums with (what sounds like) bass guitar. This kind of construct / approach is new to me...it had me thinking of Hair Police but then again Hair Police is all I know. Cracking stuff and a repeated play tape.
Andreas Brandal I know and like and I'm always prepared to listen. My favourite Brandal is the "Shipwrecked" tape released by Licht Und Stahl label, this release "Autumn Drama" sounds very similar. More "broken" and/or "unconceptual" as previous stuff I have heard this tape plays like a sampler or compilation of Demos and out-takes. Short tracks of acoustic guitar patterns, drones and FX pieces. If you're unaware of the work of this Norweigan artist "Autumn Drama" is a great tape to start with....then move onto "Shipwrecked", if it hasn't sold out!

Lighten Up Sounds is a great American label. they have a blogspot and are worthy of discovering. (And for the Neon Sea tape - I thank them).

Pictures:
1: The Lighten Up Sounds Logo.
2: Neon Sea cassette (inner).
3: Andreas Brandal cassette cover.

Out Of Control

If it only takes me a week to read a book then it is either:
A: A bloody good book and unputdownable or
B: Only about 4 pages long.
"Out Of Control" by Tony Beesley is 165 pages long and it took me a week to read. An excellent book. From the opening foreword by Paul Bower (of 2.3 fame) I was hooked. He beautifully paints a picture of life in a Northern town mid 1970's.

"Computers are the size of twenty school lockers. The Internet has not been imagined. Social networking is going to the 'Dial House Working Men's Club' for six pints of Tetley's and a game of billiards. last orders are 10:30 p.m. If you want a job you got one. The National Coal Board; Shardlows; The River Don Works; or even night shifts at Bachelors packing cartons of Vesta Chow Mein. Wages come in notes and coins in a small brown paper envelope on a Friday. You feel a rush when you discover that the double shift you worked on a Tuesday has pushed you above £35 to take home. Hardly anyone you know has a bank account".

The book is the second part of the trilogy written by Tony about his youth as a punk rocker, a teenage punk rocker. I enjoyed the first part: "Our Generation" (mentioned in December 2010's blog pages), and bought this one as soon as I had finished it...about a month later! Tony doesn't feature in this tome though, he lets others tell the story of two years in the life of two influential venues in South Yorkshire. The Outlook in Doncaster and The Windmill in Rotherham.
In 1978 I used to frequent a similar venue, AJ's in Lincoln. The same bands at the same time where playing the Outlook. The Lurkers, Ultravox! (with John Foxx), UK Subs, Cyanide, The Skunks, Patrik Fitzgerald, Rich Kids etc. It makes me smile every time Ultravox! is mentioned it has (with John Foxx) in brackets afterwards. It is difficult telling folk nowadays that one of my all time favourite groups is Ultravox!, quickly followed by "before Midge Ure". Same when I tell folk I like Adam & The Ants....before he went shite. So the book hits an immediate chord. (Just the one). Folk in Doncaster were up to the same tricks as me...being 14/15 years old and trying to get into an over 18's venue...turning up outside the venue at around sixish and waiting for the battered white transit van to show up from across the Market Square. Offering to carry amps, drums, whatever up three flights of stairs to the stage area (what was it with clubs and stairs)? Then disappearing in to the shadows and praying the bouncers don't notice.
There is also a piece by Nigel Lockwood (of Gun Rubber Fanzine) about the Adverts gig at Lincoln Tech College that ended up as one great big bloody battle between punks and "local in-breeds" as he calls them. I mentioned this gig in my blog about the TV Smith diaries, and I'd forgotten that the ENTS folk belatedly locked the doors so half the in-breeds were already in the place and we couldn't get out! No where to run, nowhere to hide. Ahhhh, great days, eh?

Tony has got quotes from bands that played the venues too. Most interestingly from members of The Skunks and Strangeways. I never knew Strangeways (never saw them, never had their single) but I do know they had Ada Wilson as their lead singer. I'm a big fan of Ada Wilson, his "I'm In Control Here" 7" on Barn Records is one of my all time favourite songs...ever. I must admit to have never heard of The Windmill, a club situated in Rotherham United's Football Stand, but for a year or so it too was on the "punk" circuit. Not as famous or as long lasting as The Outlook (or AJ's or The Porterhouse in Retford) but then again it had no stairs to lug the gear up.
The book beautifully captures the age, the era, the violence, the fun, the thrill...just what is like to be a teenager back in the mid 1970's and discovering live fast music and punk rock. For all those who were part of it then and nearing 50 now...buy this book. The book can be bought via Amazon, or direct from Tony at www.ourgenerationpunkandmod.co.uk . No excuse.

It does finish on a where are they now section but fails to mention the whereabouts of Ada Wilson. Does anybody know? Back in the early 1990's I went to see Bill Nelson and Harold Budd play at York Arts Centre where I found myself standing in an adjacent urinal to Ian Nelson (Bill's brother and saxophonist in Ada Wilson's band Tattoo Hosts Vision On). I asked Ian on the whereabouts of Ada then and apparently he was playing karaoke pubs in Wakefield as an Elvis impersonator. Can this be true? I'd love to know.

Pictures:
1: "Out Of Control" book cover.
2: Probably one of the greatest singles ever made.

Voice Of Eye

The next blog I was going to write (I do plan this thing out y'know) was to be about secondhand record buying in the Devonshire town of Tiverton. I went there last Saturday. But unfortunately Tiverton let me down, there are no secondhand vinyl emporiums in the town. There was an Oxfam "Music & Books" shop but that was closing down and bereft of stock. They built a motorway to by-pass Tiverton and now I know why. If ever in the South West (of the UK) don't bother turning off at Junction (whatever) drive straight through..I shall not be returning to Tiverton (the town was closed by 3pm on the Saturday) I trust you to do the same. Twinned with Gainsborough. (That's a bit unfair I haven't been to Gainsborough in ages, in fact the last time I was there (late 1990's) I was passing through on a train towards Lincoln and some guy got on at Gainsborough Lea Road Station carrying a shotgun under his arm and no-one battered an eyelid)!
So. I have had a pleasant while listening to the latest release on Stefan Knappe's Transgredient Records label (Their first non Troum release) "Anthology Two:1992-1996" by Voice Of Eye.
Voice Of Eye are one of those bands that have been in my radar for quite a while now but I just have not bought/got anything by them. I think it was Dan Plunkett of ND Magazine that first told me about them about 20 years ago, then there was Steve Underwood and Mick McDaid telling me all about them 10 years later but still I never adventured in to their wares. I have their "Mariner Sonique" LP taped but I can't say I gave it my uppermost attention.
And then Voice Of Eye become a band who have too much discog. Where do I start? And if I fall in love with the sound I'll have to get everything (I do become obsessive), so I have left them alone. Until now. Thanks to Tom Newell (Thee Intergalactick Beard) I have this CD. A double CD, and it hasn't been off the hi-fi for a week. (And this is a week when the Psychic TV Vinyl-On-Demand Box Set was delivered).
Disc One contains tracks covering three years of work either unreleased or appearances on obscure compilation projects and it plays like one album. That is some mean feat. A dedicated driven direction in sound. The sound is very akin to Soviet France and (early) Throbbing Gristle. There's one track in particular "I Have A Dream" that really took me back to "After Cease To Exist". Loved it! I played Disc One 4 or 5 times before venturing on to disc two. Disc Two is more diverse in sound beginning with a 1996 "rehearsal" for a performance called "Sonic Works", again, imagine Soviet France teaming with Throbbing Gristle and that is what you'll be hearing. For an old "industrial head" like me, it is a great listen. Chilled out blissed and stoked as the Americans would say. Disc Two ends with two short pieces and after the 40 or so minutes of track one are slightly disappointing, but I'm not complaining. If there was one complaint about this release it would be the poor packaging. A bad digipack style case (but that's just me I know).
"Anthology Two" is a necessary release and every home should have a copy. I am certain that both Second Layer and Cold Spring Records in the UK will be stocking it.
I will now be after Voice Of Eye releases where ever I see them listed and for sale. The "Anthology One" double LP and Drone 7" "Sprockets" go to the top of the list.

Pictures:
1: "Anthology Two" Cover.
2: Jim Wilson & Bonnie McNairn are Voice Of Eye. (Picture taken from their website).

A Treasured Tape #2

A treasured tape, one which plays beautifully and holds great memory. "Musick" by Glenn Michael Wallis is such a tape.
1998 and I get to play my first ever gig on foreign soil. Belgian soil, the small town of Sint-Niklaas. How we got the gig, how we played the gig...that is another story, but for three nights and four days I was in Sint-Niklaas, a small Belgian town north of Antwerpen. Eriek Van Havere was the organiser of the gig and our host for : The Eleventh Festival For Independent Music & Arts. (Eriek is one of the founders of the great label KK Records and even greater EE Tapes).
Eriek was also playing host to Glenn Micheal Wallis who was performing with Dutch collective Amy Love as well as performing a short "impromptu + unadvertised" solo set as Konstruktivist.
It was a bizarre situation to be in. To be playing my first ever "away game" and spending the weekend with the mighty Glenn, the former Throbbing Gristle "roadie", the guy behind Konstruktivists and N.K.V.D. Early '80's experimental synth, Third Mind Records, Conspiracy International.. the list of great works is ..... all there to see.
And Glenn can talk and talk he did. Fascinating stories of being on the road with Whitehouse and Vagina Dentata Organ, being in Sheffield with DVA. (This one always fascinated me as I thought that the N.K.V.D. project had some DVA input and at the end of the Clock DVA (bootleg) tape "The Alternative Soundtrack To The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" there are some Konstruktivists "demos". Interesting stuff). There was this bizarre moment when I was sat at a bar of a Country & Western themed pub on a Sunday Morning in a sleepy mid-Belgian town hungover but drinking listening to Glenn talk about TG and his thoughts on the (then) upcoming "Wreckers Of Civilisation" book, and Charlie Rich played on.....beautiful.
On returning I contacted Glenn. There was talk of a Dieter Muh / Konstruktivists gig in London, but nothing came of it, then I got this tape through the post with a thank you for a time well spent in Sint-Niklaas. I am uncertain to whether or not the tape contains released or rare material or what became of Glenn's "Kandyman" project but it is a treasured tape and one that gets played alot at Hartop Towers.
Side A is nearly all "vocal" tracks. "For You" reminds me of the great Phones B. Sportsman single (on Rather Records) "I Really Love You", faux Elvis croon sounding like The Grumbleweeds. The Kandyman material is raw synth pop. Side B is all instrumentals varying from "Kraut-Synth" style meanderings to violent noise. Easy listening to these ears. Unfortunately I have lost the letters that Glenn wrote, and the one that came with this tape. Too many moves.

It was good to know that Glenn recently performed as Konstruktivists again in Austria with Nocturnal Emissions, after the excellent "Flowmotion Years" double LP release on Vinyl-On-Demand it'll be nice to see Glenn get the recognition he deserves.

Pictures:
1: "Musick" by Glenn Michael Wallis.
2: Amy Love live at The OJC Kompas, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. 1998. (Glenn standing).

A Joyful Noise

A while ago I managed to find a copy of the Sterile Records compilation tape "A Joyful Noise" on a trade list and snapped up the chance of owning a copy. I am a Schuster completest y'see, and a lover of the compilation.
Compiled by Nocturnal Emission and Sterile Records supremo Nigel Ayers from 5 years of tapes being mailed to his PO Box the release is a great guide, an aural window if you like, to the underground / sub-culture tape/mail-art "scene" of the mid to late 1980's. Many of the protagonists are on here.
There is a great sweep ( a choice) of styles on the tape. There's the "Eastern Feel" almost New-Age and Ambient artists, the Avant-Garde collageists, the 80's synth pop artists and the "Old School" Industrialist. In the mid 1980's I remember a lot of magazines coming with attached compilations like these and spanning a five year construction period the tape does sound dated in parts. (For some reason "Beyond The Pale" + "ND" just came into my head - 2 great American magazines that released the odd compilation tape).
Side A kicks off with an Eastern feel, with auto-harps, dulcimers and pianos all there in the mix. Sue Ann Harvey, Xaliman and Equivalent Insecurity Waspish (who?) are the first three artists before the Welsh project Plant Bach Ofnus change the mood slightly with a track that is akin to S.P.K.'s "Songs Of Byzantine Flowers" LP. Track 5: Psyclones with Pacific 231 mercilessly steals a Cabaret Voltaire drum machine pattern and sticks a violin over the top. Front Line Assembly and Club Dil Dough provide early EBM / 80's disco tracks. (Pretty poor) before Blackhouse come in with some great piano & voice experimentation and the track "Stairway 2 Heaven (Version)". NE side project Spanner Thru' Ma Beatbox slip in with a short two minute track before side A finishes with a great five minutes of tape crunching and looping from The Haters.
Side B begins with Collectif Et Cie, a French outfit I am completely in the dark with. The track "Snow Games" sounds like some Soviet/Eastern European animation soundtrack, the ones where the tall monochrome rectangle blocks of flats chase the small white mouse through triangular forests. The sound is random, angled electronics and extremely avant-garde. Lieutenant Caramel follow. Next comes two tracks of very dated nonsense, trouble is I haven't got a track listing to that tape and the track listing supplied by the "Discogs" web site is wrong. Track 5 on side B is Schuster with a remix of the piece "Floor" which was originally released in 1987 on the tape LP "Persecution Of Mistakes". "Floor" is a building / layering of hypnotic loops over a metallic drum machine and nightmare induced vocals. A tapestry of patterns. Next is Nocturnal Emissions with an extract from "Mouth Of Babes". Again, hypnotic loopery. Beautiful.
The last track is by Webcore, who I seem to remember had some TOPY link (but I could be totally wrong), anyway their submission is probably thee worst track on the tape. "Crusty Funk"! Awful.

Like I mentioned, the tape does sound very dated. It is...some tracks are over 23 years old but as a guide / a document of the times it is a great release. It lasts just under an hour and a half and comes in a small plastic case with booklet. I don't know where the track listing went but my secondhand copy never had one.
Worth buying for Schuster, Blackhouse and The Haters tracks alone.

Pictures:
1: A Joyful Noise tape sleeve.
2: A Joyful Noise Booklet cover
3: A Joyful Noise Booklet Page 1.

Beartown Records

Last year I managed to pick up a couple of releases from the Manchester based Beartown Records label. Baraclough and BBBlood tapes, and excellent releases they are too. A recent release of theirs is by London visual / sound artist Eddie Nuttall under the name of Aqua Dentata and after witnessing Aqua Dentata live last December in London this release was a must have!
Cryptically entitled "Seventh Past the Umbrella" the cassette is a 35 minute exploration of glistening drones. Crystal clear and sharp harmonious drones play and entwine around the senses, the sound is wide open and really attentive. Ideal for installation purposes. Good stuff and whilst playing I kept thinking, I've got something like this at home...I played the cassette a couple of times at work today....but I can't put my finger on what. Early Jackman, This Heat - think "Graphic/Varispeed" from the "Health & Efficiency" 12". I do like the name Aqua Dentata - if toothpaste could have a sound then it should be called Aqua Dentata, giving your teeth that refreshing "drone" feeling.
Impressed with the Beartown Records catalogue I also bought the Cheapmachines "Cast" tape. C20. 10-a-side. Flipping marvellous. (A C20 pun there). "Cast" is a 20 minute drone piece. More warm and comforting than the Aqua Dentata release and an ideal taster for the work of Phil Julian.

I shall keep an ear and eye out for further Beartown Records releases this year, like Matching Head and Fencing Flatworm of old it is becoming a great recorder of grass roots / underground sound art in the 21st Century. That is why I think it is Beartown Records as in documents rather than Beartown Records as in releasing slabs of vinyl....because they don't.
Google Beartown Records and you'll get there.

Pictures:
1: Not the Beartown Logo!
2: Aqua Dentata sleeve.
3: Cheapmachines sleeve.