Daniel Thomas - That Which Sometimes Falls Between Us/As Light Fades
Kirkstall Dark Matter. 2 X CDR/DL. 39 copies [including 9 ‘flower press’ copies].
Daniel Thomas - Enemy Territory
Cherry Row Recordings. CDR/DL CRR005.
Daniel Thomas & Kevin Sanders - I Am A Moment Illuminating Eternity
Hairdryer Excommunication. CDR/DL 25 copies.
Midwich & The Skull Mask - Six Angles
Cherry Row Recordings. CDR/DL CRR004
Midwich - Inertia Crocodile
Cherry Row Recordings. CDR/DL CRR003
TST - The Spoken Truth
Hairdryer Excommunication. CDR/DL
It would appear that half of what lies in front of me is what Rob Hayler would term ‘Extraction Music’. Thats him in the Midwich guise, making contemplative sounds or writing about such matters via his Radio Free Midwich blog or releasing such things via his Fencing Flatworm label. He expresses himself most clearly with words and sounds and when he claims something as his own [see the term ‘no audience underground’] it sticks.
Which brings us, once again within a short space of time, to Extraction Music, or as I prefer, having already shortened it for my own amusement ‘Extraction’. I’ve written about it recently and thanks to the efforts of Daniel Thomas, David Thomas, Kevin Sanders, Hayler and others on the periphery of this newly minted sub genre there’s lots to listen to. It would seem that every time I visit a gig in Leeds my pockets are further stuffed with the rich pickings of this ‘vibrant underground music scene’ [cf The Guardian and any other media outlet who realises that after a quick Google search that there is such a thing].
On my last visit Daniel Thomas gave me what could be seen as Extractions defining moment so far. In much the same way that Striate Cortex’s Victorian Electronics four disc set gave Leeds its flag in the ground moment a few years back, this limited to nine copies two disc set of his work comes housed in a flower press made from defunct beehives. Not only does it look good and smell good but the contents work too.
It is effortlessly listenable material. I’ve been at it for weeks now and find it hard to tear myself away such is the ease with which it fills your space. But you do need space within which to experience it. Extraction demands your attention and you should give it by listening in a quiet room on a still day when the neighbours are all out and the phone is muted or off the hook. Thus armed you can immerse yourself in this new found world where things move more slowly and where tracks can runs into the thirty minute mark giving you plenty of time to hear things evolve and mutate.
Thomas’s ‘That Which Sometimes Falls Between Us/As Light Fades’ is the place to start [via download too as I’m guessing these small runs will already have gone]. Eleven tracks spread over two discs give rise to the gently hum of a droning prop driven aircraft as heard from the comfort of your seat [this being Monday Off], next track Cabin is a near fifteen minute float of discrete circling, cycling, swelling synth patterns. More ominous fare appears on the untitled tracks of the first disc where single notes reverberate into cranial gaps setting up vibrating resonances that play havoc with your sinuses, track three is more urgent, more vibrant but still with that undertow of throbbing pulse that permeates much of what Thomas creates.
What all of the above people are doing is collaborating, cross pollinating, swapping and sharing, finding themselves in a space that is rewarding for all parties. Hayler explains:
‘the leading exponents of the sub-genre I’ve defined as ‘extraction music‘ are very busy guys indeed ... Dave Thomas (solo as ap martlet, half of Hagman, one third of TST, label boss of Kirkstall Dark Matter), Daniel Thomas (solo under his own name, the other half of Hagman, a further third of TST, as a duo with Kevin and label boss of Sheepscar Light Industrial and Cherry Row Recordings) and Kevin Sanders (solo under his own name and as petals, as a duo with Dan, the final third of TST, label boss of hairdryer excommunication)’
That's what happens when you put but three very creative, talented and enthusiastic people together. When you add to this list like minded travelers and those that hover on the fringes of Extraction such as Seth Cooke, Stuart Chalmers, Ian Watson, Eddie Nutall [Aqua Dentata], Andie Brown [These Feathers Have Plumes] and Plurals, not to mention a small number of enthusiastic labels, you have what is amounting to a significant amount of highly rewarding and listenable music, the vast majority of which is of tremendous quality. My mind doth boggle.
When Thomas [Daniel] teams up with Sanders you have a nigh on single 40 minute track that's a slow build made from [no doubt] crusty old analogue boxes and field recordings. Here the mood is a sombre one made from flatulent crop sprayers, distant irrigation pumps and rubbed bowls. It eventually peters out to the sound of a muted helicopter, crows and shortwave static. As invigorating as as lung enhancing long walk on a cold, damp winters morning.
The TST release ‘The Spoken Truth’ has a much fuller, thicker sound which is what you'd expect when the attendance rises to three. Here we have a single eighteen minute machine throb drone with the controls set firmly towards planet Ambient Industrial. A piece that barely shifts from its original settings until its final dying seconds. A piece where the sounds of passing cars on wet roads and the gentle crash of waves upon pebble beach vie to be heard. A powerful, resonant drone and one I found somewhat unsettling in an ominous, stuck in a dark underground car park at one in the morning kind of way. The way it exits leaving that last fizzing box as evidence of its existence is pure delight.
Which leaves the three Cherry Row releases. Cherry Row exists to allow Daniel Thomas an outlet for those releases that surpass the recording limits set by his three inch only CDR label Sheepscar Light Industrial. Which leaves plenty of room for Thomas to stretch his legs on Enemy Territory. A more lively release in that the pulses almost become beats especially on first track ‘1016’ which tips its hat to some of Tangerine Dream’s more pulsing ecstatic moments and is without doubt the most energetic, head bobbing track to be found amongst all of these releases. ‘Vampierkasteel’ is more in keeping with what has gone before, minimalist, inching, shuffling, throbbing, a microphone placed within an extraction duct, ‘Lincoln Towers’ is fifteen minutes worth of deep sonar sounding pulses whilst the title and last track is rawer with flapping overloaded woofers farting their analogue hearts out.
Rob Hayler’s Midwich project takes over where Enemy Territory leaves off with some equally engaging head throbbing, bobbing synth stabs as recycled through some kind of effect that makes it sound like its losing its signal and finding it again. The less than two minute track ‘Piped’ is an oscillating frequency leaving ‘The Sure’ to see us out with a less frantic take on Terry Riley’s Poppy Nogood in which Midwich goes for the cycling overtones jugular.
His collaboration with the Mexican guitarist cum experimenter Miguel Pérez is perhaps not so Extractionist with the title track seeing Pérez’s droning dissonance segueing into Hayler’s climbing overtones. The longer ‘Written in Sand’ is cut from the same cloth with each artist layering their sounds over each other making for a jarring listen.
I could have added more to this list from whats in front of me now; the new Piss Superstition on Fencing Flatworm, the three Sheepscar Light Industrial releases, the two releases I have featuring Stuart Chalmers. Where Extraction ends and drone and improv begins is a moot point but it hardly bears pondering over for long. With such a wealth of material available its best just to enjoy the moment and worry about semantics later.
Sheepscar Light Industrial
Cherry Row
Kirkstall Dark Matter
Radio Free Midwich
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