Sex Lies and Magnetic Tape

Sex Lies And Magnetic Tape
C60 Cassette. 20 copies.




Thanks to the new craze for robbing copper wire from sub stations I’ve been without the internet for a week. The one that caused the power surge here caused half a million pounds worth of damage [not half a million at number 17 of course but in the surrounding area] and all for £50 worth of copper. They caught the person responsible so about now he’ll be tucked up in a comfy cell with an x-box and a flat screen TV to stop him getting bored. At his trial he’ll be offered an equally comfy chair to sit in whilst social workers try to fathom out his Oedipus complex or some such other bollocks. Talking of bollocks, thats what I’d do to him. Cut them off, fry them in a little butter and force feed them to him - fork in one hand gun in the other.

Day one was the worst. ‘No internet’ I said to myself, ‘what am I going to do instead’? By day three I was a little less worried. I’d caught up with some DVD’s, ripped some music on to the PC and almost written a letter. By the time I’d bought the modem, returned it because it was a router, bought a modem router, plumbed it in, managed to configure it, worked a 54 hour week and caught up on some sleep I was less worried. I can get by without the internet I thought. It can be done.  I may not be able to order online from Second Layer and Amazon anymore, I’ll have to rely on the phone and letter writing for keeping in touch, I wont be able to download any more free music, i wont be able to listen to the radio online, no Youtube, no Cricinfo, no more Thursday night RL games on dodgy far east websites, no blog … but I will be able to live without it.

During this internet interregnum I also listened to Sex Lies And Magnetic Tape and when getting back online discovered I’d been listening to Doomstep. There’s the internet for you. Without it I was listening to a tape and with it I was listening to Doomstep. Praise be.

On first listen my spirits were immediately lifted by the sound of some promisingly Dieter Müh-ish ritualistic industrialness but this initial enthusiasm soon waned when I realised I was listening to what I now find is commonly called a ‘mix tape’. Someone, quite cleverly I’ll give you that, has mixed and segued [you’ll have to forgive my ignorance of technical terms here] some of their favourite bits of music into two larger thirty minute pieces of music. I’m probably some way off the mark here but I detected hints of Column One, Muslimgauze, The Orb’s dubbier moments, Godflesh, Tortoise, Primus, Ministry and what I fear was some neo-folklike tambour banging All About Eve wailing. On the second side a curious piece of bachelor pad Moog music appeared and then the whole thing ended with some good old fashioned death metal -  or whatever it is they call it these days.

All well and good if you like that kind of thing and I’m not averse to the dubbier, ritualistic moments that some bands experience. But the more I thought about it the more non-plussed I became. None of the artists involved are given any credit, presumably so as not to draw any kind of legal attention, no label info, no contact info. Someone please enlighten me.

No idea of how many copies exist but they do come with some ridiculously over large, though well prepared, A4 artwork.

And with my trusty modem by my side I shall now embark on a mission to catch up on all the sub genres that may have been invented in the last week.






Contact: http://www.sexliesmagnetictape.co.uk/ [downloads available]


An exchange of emails reveals the following tracklisting for this release:



SIDE A

1. DAVID ROSENBOOM - AND COME UP DRIPPING
2. DEMDIKE STARE - BARDO THODOL
3. FOREST SWORDS - HJURT
4. ULTRALYD - SAPROCHORD
5. AUFGEHOBEN - DOXA CAVEAT
6. SWANS - WEAKLING
7. CINEMA VERITE - SCHNITT
8. ELM - DEEP MIRAGE
9. 23 SKIDOO - THE GOSPEL COMES TO NEW GUINEA

SIDE B

1. PETE SWANSON - F.I.A
2. MENACE RUINE - UTTERLY DESTITUTE
3. ELECTRIC WIZARD - IVAXOR B PHASE INDUCER
4. HARMONIC 313 - DEPARTURE LOUNGE
5. WOLVSERPENT - SERPENT
6. SIMON SCOTT - ASHMA