Aaron Dilloway #6

Umgekehrt

The London Punk Tapes #2

"Vagina Dentata Organ Presents:The London Punk Tapes" by Jordi Valls is a great companion to John Savage's "England's Dreaming" and "England's Dreaming Tapes" books as well as the Mark Perry tome "Sniffin' Glue & Other Rock n' Roll Habits", which I read over the Christmas holidays. 94 pages of the collected thoughts, experience and artwork of the Spanish artist Jordi Valls. I think the book was published to accompany an exhibition by Jordi where the tapes he made of punk bands performing in London during 1976 and accompanying live films were played. I could be wrong, I could be right (as John Lydon once said).
The book contains interviews of The Clash, Generation X, The Damned, Slits and Subway Sect culled from various fanzines of the time. "Sniffin' Glue", "48 Thrills" and "Jolt". There are some excellent Kodachrome photo's of The Clash and Sex Pistols as well as paper cuttings, tickets and zerox's made into collages. The emphasis is on the Sex Pistols, with lyrics reprinted and a full list of Pistols live gigs. It is a great document for reference.
The book finishes with a report on Spanish punk band D'Ultimo Resorte, their live gigs in Spain and a chance meeting with Sid Vicious at a Johnny Moped gig. Excellent stuff.

Despite being a notoriously slow reader I read the book in a couple of hours. It's unputdownable and I could skip the "'Glue" interviews as I'd just bloody read them. The book is essential as the above mentioned and captures the sight and attitude of youth at the birth of punk beautifully. It is written in both Spanish and English and published by Actar Books. (I found my copy through Amazon).

Pictures:
1: Cover.
2: Reverse.
3: Inner Sleeve.

Notes From The "Popside"

"Sport, Sport, I like Sport. Running and Jumping I'm The Physical Sort" as mighty Stukas once sang.....
Number two son (Oscar M) has just started football training at his school and he's quite taken to the sport so I decided to take him to watch the local team in action. When I was six years old my father (I know that will surprise a few people...I actually do have one) used to take me to watch Lincoln City FC a couple of times a month, so I suppose it only correct that Oscar gets the same opportunity - to watch lower league football that is!
Torquay United play their home matches at Plainmoor, a ten minute walk from Hartop Towers, and yesterday they were hosts to bottom of the league Northampton Town. I paid the £23 entrance and we stood amongst the home fans in (what is known as...but I have no idea why) The Popside. Oscar was delighted that he could drink Coca-Cola and eat chocolate whilst watching football!
This was the first football match I have been to since watching Notts County take on Lincoln City at Meadow Lane in 1997. Not exactly a regular! Torquay United are doing well, heading for an automatic promotion place whereas Northampton Town are heading for the Conference league and football oblivion. They both played like it too. The ball seemed to spend a lot of time in the air, and the times it was on the ground it was being kicked up into the air. Torquay have one of those centre forwards (Rene Howe) who holds up the ball before passing it to the oncoming midfielders, but (in this game) the midfielders didn't seem to want to come. Eunan O'Kane and Ian Morris tried a couple of times to run with the ball, take on Northampton's defence but they just weren't too good at it. Northampton Town had an awful player called Lewis Young. He kept making shitty passes and losing headers and then staring at other players as if it was their fault and not his. He'll probably go far! Torquay won by the single goal, a header from a set piece by Mark (Man o' the Match) Ellis.
It was bloody cold stood in The Popside, and I felt sorry for the linesman who was getting stick from the "Yellow Army" every time he made a decision against Torquay United. He was slightly red haired so was getting the "Ginger Cunt", "Blind Bastard" and "Scottish Twat" (?) comments shouted at him. Luckily the shouting went (literally) over Oscar's head!

Next time we go - and we will go again because both Oscar and I had a great time - I'll buy a ticket for a seat in the family stand.

Pictures:
1: Oscar and his booty from the pie shop! (Didn't quite cater for vegetarians on a low cholesterol diet).
2: Kick Off.
3: Goal mouth action.

"Yellow Army".

Kogumaza

Just spent a pleasant while listening to Nottingham based trio Kogumaza (Japanese for the "Little Bear" constellation). I was exploring the list of the artistes lined up for the Rammel Club/Harbinger Sound weekend and came across the sound of Kogumaza. They have their own label called Low Point Records, based in Crossman Street, Sherwood, Nottingham - same street where Harbinger Sound began all those years ago. (File that last sentence under "useless information").
I was intrigued by the sound samples on the Low Point and Lancashire & Somerset web sites links that I went and bought an LP and 7" package for £13. Bargain.
At the moment I am trapped on the 7". "Sevens" was released in March last year. The title track is playable at all speeds - I love at 45 as much as the recommended 33 rpm. It has a glistening guitar sound, all very similar to / or evocative of the twenty years ago sound of Splintered or Ramleh. Fuzztone guitar cranked up to such a high level that they sound like someone is breathing over the pick ups whilst running their fingers up and down the fret board. There is a set of cardboard drums and a second guitar playing the fill-ins throughout and it all adds up to a motherfuckin' classic. The flipside is called "Mara" and (again) has that Ramleh sound from the early 1990's (only better)...but a hint of Glenn Branca and Jimmy Page floating across.

The single is essential. No picture sleeve, but glorious blood red vinyl and a must bloody see at the Rammel/Harbinger Sound weekend. I shall be playing the eponymous LP over the next few days.

Pictures:
1 & 2: "Sevens".
3: Kogumaza Live at the Rammel Club, Nottingham.

Dieter Muh #47

Segerhuva & Fetish 23 presents:

SWEETNESS OVERDUE
with

CONTRASTATE [uk]
DIETER MÜH [uk]
DUSA [swe]
+ more to be announced

At Fylkingen (Stockholm, Sweden)
Saturday the 28th of April 2012
Admission 100 SEK / Open hours 19-01

More information coming soon.
Any questions etc. can be forwarded to segerhuva@yahoo.com

Colin Potter

Just spent a pleasant while listening to the latest release of Colin Potter by Hong Kong based label Ultra Mail Productions. "Ancient History" is a 5xCD compilation box set limited to 200 copies. The box contains remasterings of old cassette releases from Colin's Integrated Circuit Records back catalogue, as well as a bonus CD ("Deja Vu") of odds and sods.
Six years ago the excellent Vinyl On Demand label put out a Colin Potter LP of old 1980's recordings called "A Skeleton/Cupboard Situation", it is an essential album...recommended, so I bought this release hoping for more of the same, although a high percentage of stuff contained here is top drawer a lot of it does hit the mediocre button and 5 CD's could have been brought down to two, but the package is superb, excellent liner notes and a signed postcard to boot makes this release essential as a document if not ear witness.

"A Gain" was originally released in 1982 and the tracks do wear its influences on its sleeve a bit. Colin has always been an electronic wizard, building synthesizers, using old synths, building loop machines and recording devices. Here the tracks sound like Tangerine Dream, Terry Riley and Ian Boddy, in parts they sound like really early Throbbing Gristle. 1975 and all that stuff. It all has a 1980's DIY feel to it, and in the case of "All Reel" a great 1970's proggy feel with fuzz tone guitar playing a medieval guitar riff - "harlequin rock"!
"Two Nights" was released a year earlier in 1981 and still has a Tangerine Dream feel to it. guitar improv. over sequencer/synth patterns. It brought to mind the work of Astral Social Club. The CD contains a bonus piece called "One Million Blades Of Grass". An excellent electronic wall of patterned sonics that builds and de-constructs. Amazing for a piece that is over 30 years old and still sounds fresh and relevant.
"Recent History Volume One" plays like a soundtrack to the unmade film. Large, desolate, visual synthesized vignettes. The titles sound like they belong on a soundtrack album too; "Nine Months", "Ships That Pass In the Night", "Marsh Fog" etc. Despite being recorded over a three year period the CD does play like a cognitive album with Tangerine Dream (again) being a reference point. "The Sorcerer" and "The Keep" being Colin's favourites?
"Recent History Volume Two" is compiled of more "sketches" from the 1980's and plays like a disjointed compilation. A lot of the stuff sounds like Lincoln's synth pop-meister Kev Kettle and his Cacophony '3.3' project. If you are familiar with (and like) "The Elephant Table" album and/or the "Rising From The Red Sand" series of tapes then this CD is essential.
And so the box set finishes with the bonus CD "Deja Vu" - tracks from the mid 1980's through to the mid 1990's. Whilst playing the CD ( a couple of times) I was reminded of Coil, especially the Coil Vs. Eskaton 12" "Nasa-Arab" with its' electro-techno-dancefloor-12" remix type beat. I remember buying "Nasa-Arab" when it was released and thinking "If King Crimson were alive today, this is the kind of record they would be releasing". I wrote it down in my diary! By the time I reached "Lost" (track #4) I was thinking of my old friend Dave Uden and his pre-Dieter Muh projects such as The Matrix and Eighth Circuit. Exploring the possibilities of new technology, but with rhythms and in a 12" remix stylee. Track six is "Drone for JC", a beautiful piece of music. Layered EBow guitars and didgeridoo. The stand out track of the CD. There is an awful track that is a collaboration with Colin's brother-in-law, Jon Cafferey - he used to run Breton Records and manage Einsturzende Neubauten, and then it moves into Psychic TV territory. PTV circa The Magickal Mystery D Tour era.
The release sounds dated which the "Skeleton/Cupboard Situation" LP didn't.

I would not go as far as to say I know Colin, but in the mid 1990's I got to know Colin and record at his Integrated Circuit Studio when it was based in Tollerton, North Yorkshire. At the very first Dieter Muh gig Colin introduced himself to me and complimented the sound - he was also the only paying customer on the night! Over the next two / three years I met up with Colin in York, and arranged to record the first "proper" Dieter Muh album at his studio with him producing. The result being the 1997 CD "Black Square". Alongside Tim Bayes & Dave Uden I interviewed Colin for ND magazine...our paths have crossed a few times since. Muh have supported Colin as a solo artist and as a member of Ora, and I have also spun discs at a Colin Potter gig! The last time our paths crossed was at the Current 93 / Nurse With Wound bash in Kentish Town, 2010 - either he was drunk or I was....I forget.
This package is good because the cassettes don't exist anymore, but if you want to experience Colin outside of Nurse With Wound or Ora...then go for the Vinyl On demand LP.

Pictures:
1&2: "Ancinet History" CD Box Set.
3: Colin & Steve Stapleton 2010.