NECK VS. THROAT

NECK VS. THROAT
Agoraphobia 18. CDR
30 copies.


I once saw Arron Dilloway play a wheelbarrow but it wasn’t half as much fun as watching Yol [or should that be YOL?] play his.

Yol [I’ll stick with the lowercase as I’m a sensitive type] is a Hull based performance/vocal/text artist whose brief performances see him shout words as if he’s in some kind of constant self involved argument. One outdoor performance that took place in Brighton had even those right on, left leaning, salad eating, seen it all before locals take a wide berth as they pondered whether this gesticulating man with a bald head shouting to nobody in particular was in the midst of something important or whether he was a scumbag northerner drunk on overpriced beer struggling with his inner demons.

In a ‘aren’t-we-all-living-in-a-small-world’ moment I discover that on the day I decide to play Neck Vs Throat my erstwhile compatriot Rob Hayler over at RFM posted not one but three reviews of his releases, all of them covered in degenerate Saul Bass like artwork and all of them being extolled to the high heavens by the bearded wonder.

With a vocal delivery that makes William Bennett sound about as angry as Charles Hawtry he spits, shouts and fidgets his way through his performances all of which are there for you to indulge in over at youtube. I particularly like the wheelbarrow shoving but the one where he struggles to shift what looks like an office safe across the floor of the Hull Boathouse, making an annoying squeal as he does so, is a piece of art that matches pure Dada to noise aktion. You can’t help but be entertained. The bearded wonder also picks up on Yol’s mirth inducing lyrics: ‘You’ve got the long arms of a strangler/You’ve got the neck, the fat neck of a murder victim/You should both hook up.”

Neck Vs Throat is a five track collaboration between Yol and ace doodling Derek Baily-esque guitarist from Mexico, Miguel who has himself collaborated with the bearded one and to whom I was less than kind to on a previous release it has to be said. This is better, here his guitar playing is acoustic in nature and wild with gay abandon and somehow, by the mystery of the internet Miguel emails Rob, Yol emails Rob, Yol emails Miguel and out of it comes something that is nothing less than totally sublime. The tourettes like delivery of Yol coupled to the fingers stuck in soundhole strumming of Miguel manages to overcome the miles and seas and continents and produce a work that you’d never in a thousand years would think could emerge from two such divergent talents.

On ‘Nodding Dog’ Yol makes retching noises, choking sounds whilst the abstract guitar is joined by some ferocious metal scrapings that wouldn’t look out of place on a New Blockaders release, metal imitates wild dog yelps whilst Yol manages to outdo Bennett [if Yol hasn’t heard late era Whitehouse then he’s in for a treat, the delivery is almost identical ... only with more feeling]. ‘Made Out of Bone’ begins with a massive throat clearing session before the title words are repeated and mutated. ‘Congenital’ sees the guitar work go into a thousand notes a minute overdrive while Yol spits out the words at a pace to match as steel objects hit the ground making glorious ringing sounds. You get the idea.

I’m hearing Japp Blonk, Phil Milton, William Bennett, Dylan Nyoukis, The New Blockaders, The Schimpfluch Gruppe Derek Bailey, Joe Pass and deep within my head I cant shift the image of a gurning Max Wall. What can all this mean?


If I was Yol I’d be booking tickets for this years Schimpfluch fest


If I was Yol I’d be booking tickets for this years Schimpfluch fest they have lots to talk about. Or shout about as the case may be.


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Miguel/Agoraphobia


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