Father Murphy

Farther Murphy - And He Told Us To Turn to the Sun

Boring Machines CD

Contact: onga [at] boringmachines.it

Xmas and New Year descended upon Idwal Towers like a heavy horse blanket muffling all sound and making movement impossible. I lay there like a coma patient, eyes shut wanting to make it all go away and for normality to return. Eventually, days later, I turned on the computer and stared at my junk mail, I walked for hours in the blinding winter sun trying to get the circulation going, I watched TV and I spun some 45’s that I bought in Oxfam. I read my book, I read the Radio Times, I did the crossword, the washing up, I made meals, I hung a picture, I lit the fire and eventually escaped to Bruges for three nights of heavenly beer drinking - except that the three best bars in Bruges were shut and the only portals of escape were a crammed tourist bar off the main square and a hostel bar where cigarette smoke hung a foot off the egg yellow ceiling. In the end I did lots of things that didn’t involve listening to music.

On return I was hoping that Father Murphy would drag me from this lassitude but their quirky, off kilter, Italian prog pop as recorded in a church eventually left me feeling baffled and annoyed with myself. Annoyed because I should like this but I don’t. It has lots of things going for it; nine short tracks over thirty five minutes, Beefheart like structure, toy keyboards, guitars that sound like they’ve been wound down an octave, medieval drums, male and female vocals and some quirky songs and yet and yet and yet after many a listen I find that these songs are still strangers to me. Its like picking up a decent looking pint only to drink it and find it tastes of nothing. It could be the avant garde Smashing Pumpkins approach, the spaghetti era Morricone musings, the Sonic Youth lite dabblings at one remove I thought I heard glimpses of Belgian outfit dEUS [although this was a long time ago your honour and I was very bored - wrings cap tightly in hands whilst walking backwards out of the room]. Maybe I just don’t get it any more. Ten years ago I’d have thought that Father Murphy were bold and edgy, a door to rooms full of other great sounding bands and now I think that they’re just an interesting sounding band, one of probably hundreds all with a song to sing and a story to tell. For all I know they could be grooving to this down the cat walks of Paris and Milan and New York but to these ears it just sounds, well, quirky. But if you like quirky and records recorded in churches where the strings twang and cymbals bosh and the singers sing in weird [English] voices then this may be the one for you.

Stratvm Terror/Human Larvae

Stratvm Terror - This Is My Own Hell

Reverse Alignment/Existence Establishment 1000 copies. CD digipak

Human Larvae - Home Is Where The Hurt Is.

Existence Establishment 500 copies. CD digipak

After tormenting myself for a whole week on these two discs I began to question my own sanity. Why do I write these reviews? Here I am trying to decide whether I like Stratvm Terror and their ‘atmosphere of pure desolation’ or not while two feet away from me lies a dozen other more palatable and entertaining platters. John Peel used to say that it was the records he wasn’t quite sure of that he liked best and this has always been something I can relate to but after sitting through This Is My Own Hell this last week I decided to get down off the fence and tell it as it is. It occurred to me that what we have here may be just about the most formulaic piece of crud to pass through these hands since the last Merzbow by numbers CD.

Press release mentions a certain Peter Andersson and my hackles are raised. Same Andersson who manages to find time to front several ‘dark ambient bleak industrial sit and listen in a dark room for full effect call them what you will outfits’ the most recognisable of which is Raison d’etre. I’ve listened to Raison d’etre and some of the stuff that leaks out of the Cold Meat Industry label and I find it too formulaic for my tastes. Trying to recreate the sound of everlasting hell seems to be their thing and once you’ve heard it, you’ve heard it and you don’t want to hear it again. Ever. It’s boring, repetitive, cold, un-involving, shiny on the outside dull in the middle ambient pap for people who think that music getting louder is scary. I like to think that Andersson has some kind of ‘bleak industrial sound’ software running where you can drag and drop the elements that constitute such a record; say clanking steel, anguished vocals, church bells and layer them on top of droning machinery and ritualistic drums. Make sure that each track begins at a barely audible level before getting louder and more TERRIFYING before disappearing into oblivion and you get the general idea. You need the artwork to go with it too don’t forget, hence a pastiche on Hieronymus Bosch which is yet another box ticked off. Call me a miserable cynic but I’ve had more rewarding listening experiences in supermarkets.

You could aim the same arrow at Human Larvae except that what we have here is made with so much more feeling and contains so much more passion that it makes Stratvm Terror sound like Burl Ives. Yes its a power electronics/Industrial ambience album and yes it contains plenty of PE clichés but its all done with such professionalism and with such care that you just cant help being impressed.

This is Human Larvae’s first full length release and there seems to have been a great feasting on classic PE albums. Track titles such as “I Do This Because I Love You’, ‘A Loss Too Great To Bear’ and ‘To Hide In Her Uterus And Hopefully Suffocate In Absolute Tranquility’ reveal a deep thinker at large thus elevating this from being just another misogynistic, misanthropic outing. Home Is Where The Hurt Is also contains some genuinely unsettling moments. The sound of a womans terrified screams on the aforementioned ‘I Do This ..’ is enough to bring comparison to darker Runzelstirn and Gurgelstock moments. My only complaint is that a lot of these tracks tend to outstay their welcome. There’s nine tracks here spanning an hour which, given the material and subject matter is heavy going. Still, crank up your stereo, get out your snuff mags and indulge in some solid PE. It sure beats replicating hell in your living room.

Contact: www.reverse-alignment.se www.existest.org www.myspace.com/existenceestablishment

Evil Moisture + Hantarash

Evil Moisture + Hantarash - Fat Anarchy On Air Tube

2x12” test pressing

Harbinger Sound 033-12

Being a diligent researcher I decided to unearth the CD version of this monster that appeared via Harbinger and Tochnit Aleph a year or so ago so that I could cross reference, take notes, compare, contrast and re-listen ... except I couldn’t find it. I did come across a rather obscure release of Evil Moisture’s called ‘Sausage Tunneling With Fuckwhittakers Drape Curler [Live]’ a shabby affair comprising two shitty Chinese C60’s held together with a hair curler and a scrap piece of paper for a cover. But after listening to nothing but hiss for the last hour or so I deduce that this was a live show so brief as to be virtually non existent. Either that or the sounds on here have degraded into nothing-ness courtesy of the sub standard strips of Sellotape scattered with iron filings that passes muster for Chinese cassette tape or that this was the only time Evil Moisture ventured into John Cage territory.

In a review I wrote at the time I mentioned that this was earmarked for a double vinyl excursion and so it would appear. Or does it? No sign of it on the horizon as yet and If this stays at a 15 run test press it will no doubt become extremely collectible [sealed bids to my email address please].

According to the Evil Moisture website five copies of this test press have been inserted into hand made covers and will become available soon, so a tiny amount is out there. If it does appear then you will get a remixed version of the CD and something almost entirely new. Sort of.

Expect the manic of course; quiz bell buzzers, revving mopeds, the Eye of the Tiger, a never ending cascade of screams, gurgles, cartoon endings and Amiga bleeps going in 45 degree angles in an attempt to run over its all tail. Its a dodgem car ride on acid, 20 years of noise chopped up into tiny bits, thrown into the air and glued back together at random whilst reading Finnegans Wake after no sleep.

If you put Andy Bolus [English noise mangler resident in France ergo Evil Moisture] and Yamantaka EyE/ƎyE/eYǝ/aye/aye [Japanese noise god resident everywhere ergo Hanatarash] together then your going to get fireworks and this is what you have here. Tape hiss it is not.

Contact:

http://www.geocities.com/xevilmoisturex/xevilmoisturex.html

http://www.myspace.com/doomation

Aaron Dilloway, Nate Young, Mutant Ape, Ashtray Navigations

Aaron Dilloway, Nate Young, Mutant Ape, Ashtray Navigations

The Common Place, Leeds. Thursday, April 9th 2009

Underwood’s in town and wants to meet up in The Duncan but since the smoking ban The Duncan now exudes the kinds of air that makes you think the whole place is an undercover experiment into how long people are willing to endure the smell of putrid body odors and stale beer. Besides that, your elbows stick to the tables and the stuffing from the long saddle beneath your arse sprouts like mushrooms creating some surreal scene of Blue Meanie proportions. It’s not exactly the most welcoming tavern in town. There is also the fact that at 7.30 on a Thursday evening the tables will be covered in sticky beer residue and damp beer mats. It will also be dead seeing as how the majority of its clientele get all their drinking done between the hours of 9 am and 6 pm. So it’s to The Duck and Drake - one small step from the Common Place and the sight of Timothy Taylors pumps and wooden floors. The smell isn’t quite as keen but the jukebox is worth it for the bizarre mix of wartime sing-a-longs, hip-hop and David Bowie.

Across the road and down a cobbled street lies The Common Place; a non profit, smash the state collective run by volunteers who flip tops off Sam Smiths bottles for a reasonable price and have a projector suspended from the ceiling, cradled in a plastic supermarket bread basket. The floor is cracked tile and stone, the PA is pretty good and everybody disappears outside for a smoke in-between sets. There are no scenesters, people are there for the music and a goodly few have turned out rather than go to Brid for their Easter holidays.

It’s a night of table top gadgetry noise, drone and psychedelic guitar fuzz with local heroes Ashtray Navigations turning in a fine psych fuzz performance. The Toddmeisters guitar is the spring from which sprouts many a psychedelic note, all of them designed to fizz into your skull and explode in a sun like fashion. Abetted tonight by the Melster who plays a purple toy trumpet through what must be some kind of effect, they layer masses of head drench onto a buried thump that towers into Timothy Leary territory. That explains the smell of skunk coming through the door. Beats the smell of piss in the Duncan I suppose. Mutant Ape appears to have matured since I last saw him kick his toys out of the cot on a TNB bill. There’s some high end ear popping that sounds like a zillion Chinese New Year crackers coming at you but the lack of an all out noise assault makes for once makes a refreshing change.

Nate Young has some initial trouble with his equipment which isn't surprising seeing as it all looks like it was made in 1971. His tapes are swelling apparently but once he finds one that isn’t he works it into some dense loops which judging by the sparse vocals could be called songs. Dilloway’s tape loops spill everywhere and one loop box has a transparent section so you can see them wriggle. He finds a groove, builds on it to deafening levels and then brings it down. He finds a frequency from somewhere thats of such painful dimensions that one punter who has already got his ears stuffed with ear plugs finds himself having to push his fingers in on top of them. Mid set he sticks a contact mic in his gob and really pushes for it, this only makes things worse/better depending on your bent and with an 8-track augmenting things it always leaves me wondering how they get all that gear over the pond and through customs. The only lap top in sight is someone checking their emails. Lets keep it that way. The sight of analogue equipment getting an airing lifts the soul. Once upon a time it looked as if lap tops and email checking performances would become the norm, with people like Young and Dilloway to the fore there’s no need of them.

I missed the first set but arrive just in time to catch the next - an outfit unfamiliar to me. Three huddled over a table full of gadgets, bits of metal that get scraped, little boxes that get talked into, snippets of shortwave radio, all very austere and reminding me of the Bohman set from last years Colour Out of Space fest and even though it doesn't travel any further than its original boundaries it’s meditative enough to warrant a few silent nods of approval during its course.

Boom Edan

Boom Edan - Hangman Pulley [w/ Smell The Rope]

no label CDR

The Crown versus Boom Edan

The scene: an English court room, Oak panels, dust motes, a scattering of assembled functionaries and in the dock PC Tone Deaf who is looking down at a flip top note book whilst scratching his ear with a Bic. The judge looks down at him ...

Judge: So you’re saying that this noise CD is a crime against the Crown PC Tone Deaf?

PC Tone Deaf: Yus, you Honour.

Judge: Could you explain to the court exactly why it is you feel this release should receive a custodial sentence.

PC Tone Deaf [adjusting stance to face the jury whilst reading from his notebook]. Well, your Honor ... it’s rubbish.

Judge [sounding a little exasperated]. I’m afraid you’ll have to be a little more detailed in your evidence PC Tone Deaf. I can hardly pass sentence just because you say its rubbish can I? I What is it that offends your ears so?

PC Tone Deaf; [nervously casting a look across the courtroom to a thin youth who’s sat arms folded with a scowl] it was about five minutes into the first track and I thought [reads carefully from notebook] that this sounds almost like The Incapacitants except its rubbish.

Judge; Now we’re getting somewhere. To me The incapacitants are the epitome of what psychedelic noise is all about; transcendental phases of mind altering bliss that carry the listener along as if in some kind of drugged fug and you’re saying that this, this [picks up CD from bench] this isn’t like The Incapacitants at all and that it’s rubbish?

PC Tone Deaf: [triumphantly] Yes, your Honour.

Judge: Let me get this right. All of this release sounds like a crap version of The Incapacitants?

PC Tone Deaf: [nervously] er ... no your Honour.

Judge: Explain yourself then.

PC Tone Deaf: [more confidently now] The second track of this two track release tries to be Neil Campbell when he was setting off in search of the early drone mother lode in the early nineties.

Judge [looking quizzical] So I’d hear lots of buzzing and the keys of a cheap keyboard pressed into clumps in a bid to secure a certain levitation of the soul?

PC Tone Deaf: [more triumphantly now] yes, your Honour!

Judge: Its a game of two halves then Tone Deaf. Do you feel that the better second track outweighs the, as you call it ‘rubbish’ on the first?

PC Tone Deaf: Only slightly your Honour. It’s not as if we’re entering new territory here and as good as it is, it’s not going to get the noise/drone punters all that excited.

Judge: [squinting at the tiny writing on a CD sleeve over the top of his half moon glasses]. and who is this Smell The Rope?

PC Tone Deaf: I’ve no idea your Honour. An extensive search was taken of the Myspace website but no person of that name was forthcoming. I can only assume that Smell The Rope is a collaborator in the so called Scottish noise scene thats now taken root in certain Scottish cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Judge; [having now taken his glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his noise with thumb and forefinger, eyes shut, pondering his next question] … From what I can gather then Tone Deaf this is neither one thing or the other?

PC Tone Deaf: [seriously, with jutting chin] That about sums it up yes.

Judge: [To clerk of Court] Please bring forward the defendant. Thank you for your evidence PC Tone Deaf. What you do is of great service to us. [then almost to himself] I shudder to think of the crap that comes out of your speakers. [ then to the defendant who’s now stood in the dock staring down at his shoes hands behind back]. Boom Edan you are charged with bringing into this world a ‘rubbish’ noise/drone CD of uncertain provenance. It is granted that the burgeoning Scottish noise scene needs all the help it can get but as has been shown, your release is what could be coined ‘a bit dodgy’ and remedial only in patches. I sentence you to one week of listening to the Der Blutharsch without breaks.

[Defendant leaves the dock screaming whilst having to be restrained by PC Tone Deaf].

Contact http://www.myspace.com/tuckerock

Adrian T Lakey

Adrian T Lakey - On My Way Out

no label CD

Contact: adrianlakey [at] yahoo.com

I take no great pleasure from dishing out venomous reviews. I’d much prefer to receive material of the highest quality, composed by artists who have a well rounded view on life, have natural talent and an ability to explore the nether regions of the experimental noise drone world and come back with a work that stands the test of time, leads the listener down different genre avenues, becomes a classic, an oft repeated spinner that brings tears of joy to dreamy eyes.

Unfortunately none of this will apply to Adrian T Lakey and On My Way Out.

Why? because this is the biggest pile of shit it has ever been my displeasure to listen to. It’s not often I have to recourse to such rudimentary language but in this instance there really is no other word that will suffice. Think of the worst release you ever heard in your life and multiply it by 28 bazillion and you may come close to On My Way Out. But don’t take my word for it. Get hold of this CD skip straight to track seven [it’ll be far less painful believe me] and imagine the soundtrack to a SNES game, say Zelda: Links Awakening over which someone sings in a deep voice a load of bollock lyrics and you have the title track. Dear reader to say that I listened to this mish mash of styles and pap with ever growing incredulity is to do this release an injustice. It is so bad, I have to say, without a shadow of a doubt, that its the worst thing I have ever listened to in my entire life and I have listened to plenty of shit.

Things begin ominously enough with some strummed acoustic guitar and singing, not exactly singing but more like the devil talking in a deep scary voice kind of way. Next track begins with piano and a voice sung in a ‘I’m so sad’ kind of way, there’s background synth swirls too to add that extra special doomy kind of atmosphere and then for no explicable reason some field recordings taken in what sounds like a car compacting scrap yard.

Things start to go really downhill though around track three [Bad Skin Forever] when a rapid Eurotrash synth pop intro gives way to the lyric ‘Bad skin forever, germs will focus in between icicles and oil’ ‘Outsider’ was lifted straight from an eighties computer game in which you’re a little elf looking for hidden coins in a forest littered with friendly crocodiles [er.. that’ll be Zelda again]. It was around this time that I began to wonder if this was a joke release sent to me with the intention of seeing just how far my spleen could vent when faced with such utter ridiculous garbage. If it was then it worked. This is worse than bad. Its the work of someone who has no grasp on reality. They think adding samples of spacemen communicating whilst singing in a deep scary voice is somehow entertaining. And what’s with the eighties computer game soundtracks? Is this retro and avant garde at the same time? It sounds like Schloss Tegal made and album using a SNES. It’s awful, every last second of it and I never want to hear it ever, ever, ever again

Above all I fear for Adrian’s mental well being. No, I really do. I shudder to think what may be behind the person that put this together. At least they have a sense of humour as evinced in the press release; a satirical affair that was a template on how to construct a press release and then there’s the word search puzzle entitled ‘Something to do n the Bathroom’ in which you could search for everything from Mahmoud Ahmandinejad to Whitehouse to Black Sabbath, So far so good and then and then and then …

It sounds as if Arian T Lakey once spent too much time with early Nintendo games before going on to discover indie strum and maybe somewhere along the line Illusion of Safety and Schloss Tegal. Thats not the end of the world of course but if I had to listen to On My Way Out again it could be the end of mine.

BRB/Voicecall//Spoils And Relics

BRB/Voicecall - Valmara 69

Spoils And Relics - Alsation Download

Harbinger Sound Split LP

The UK practitioners of electro-acoustic minimalist experimental fluxus music concrète [if thats not too convoluted a term] has, by its very nature, never had a massive audience. But that doesn’t mean that their work should be underestimated or taken lightly. The likes of Morphogenesis and The Bohman Brothers play to audiences whose rapt attention and appreciation bely the fact that this kind of music can, at times, be very hard to listen to and I don’t mean that because its difficult music. I dare say watching The Bohman Brothers play The Tate Modern is a vastly different experience from listening to one of their releases in a council flat with thin walls and noisy neighbours. Quite often your electro-acoustic minimalist experimental fluxus music concrète journey is likely to be interrupted by the sound of the outside world passing you by. I remember spending a pleasant summers afternoon listening to early Jim O’Rourke stuff through my Walkman only to realise halfway through the experience that most of what I was actually listening to was ambience; hedge clippers, birds, slamming doors, aircraft.

A new breed of people working in this arena is coming to light though. Usurper spring easily to mind and you could find any number of small run CDR labels kicking out material that could fit into one of those neatly phrased pigeon holes too. The spill is spreading.

A year or so back I stumbled blindly into the dark confines of the Common Place in Leeds to be met by what could have been a Spoils and Relics gig. Jonny Scarr’s neatly clipped mustache was the giveaway. They played a barely audible set to the light of candles and very good it was too. Scarr is joined here by Myles and Piercy for the 17 minutes that is Alsation Download. The vast majority of which appears to be tape manipulation with a bit of gadgetry thrown in for good measure. Tape spools appear to be pulled through with merry gusto, symphonies go in reverse, voices Pinky and Perky quick to Mogodon slow, then radios, static, ethereal voices, someone rubbing a balloon with wet fingers, someone trying to get a heavy box down some stairs.

BRB/Voicecall hail from the North East and have the 3” CDR label MuzzeDia Verhead with which to exhibit their wares. A region rich in the history of challenging music keeps on producing interesting and challenging work. Valmara 69 sounds like it was recorded using a disused concrete multistory car park as an instrument. The TNB influence must run freely through the North East like piss down a urinal on a Friday night in Gateshead. A flapping of broken belts on flywheels serves as an intro before we settle into dropped iron bars, ominously clanged pipes and an undertow of rumble. The final section is scored by picture frame glass being marked by a six inch nail and the echo of a large rubber ball being s-l-o-w-l-y bounced in the distance. As desolation goes it sums it up pretty well.

I have my caveats though. Both sides want to end on high so we get a slow build of noise before a cut and silence. It sounds impressive but it feels almost cliched. You wouldn’t catch The Bohman Brothers doing climaxes.

Usual paste on covers from Harbinger Sound but once again a label that makes its mark by giving valuable vinyl air time to outfits who may otherwise languish forever on CDR.

Contact:

BRB/Voicecall http://www.myspace.com/muzzediaverhead

Spoils And Relics - http://www.myspace.com/spoilsandrelics

Smell & Quim/Priest in Shit

Smell & Quim/Priest In Shit - Rough Skin

Little Mafia Records

If this record had some point of sale material it would be an arse with the record shoved between its cheeks. If it was a bad stain it would be one you found in the gusset of your knickers. If it was a disease it would be flesh eating bacteria. If it was a pain it would be kidney stones. I don’t think Richard Ramirez has ever been involved in an LP of ballads and I don’t suspect he’s going to start soon. Having said that Ramirez had been involved in literally dozens of projects and maybe buried in there somewhere lies the Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood covers LP … but I doubt it. His involvement with Priest in Shit, like most of his other work is confrontational. Smell & Quim then are ideal bedfellows.

Rough Skin is ugly as sin degraded loops of muck ground down to nth degree mulch in which only the bad bits are left stuck between the grooves. I feel that this has been plucked from some unreleased mid 90’s work. It bears similarities with what Smell & Quim were up to then. Side one is a mass of disintegrating loops of run off fluff, a free-fall elevator ride in which you pass various levels of hideousness. Its like having one ear filled with water whilst the others been used as punch bag. Side two is a howling squawk fest in which small piles of dynamite are regularly detonated. The picture disc itself gives you some indication; the distorted face of a leering priest and what looks like a gynecological close up.

I’m assuming that this has laid dormant in someones cupboard for the last 15 years as its nothing like what Smell & Quim are up to these days. As for Ramirez, well who knows. To be honest I’m not that familiar with his work and his back catalogue gives me the horrors. A worthwhile document and a good indicator as to what used to come through your door in jiffy bags circa 1995.

Contact: www.myspace.com/littlemafiarecords

Emeralds

Emeralds

Hanson CD. HN200

Why is it that a group whose sound is so distinctly 70’s synth oriented finds itself at the centre of attention in 2010? Emeralds are regularly compared to Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Harmonia, Ash Ra Tempel and Kluster. I would add Fripp & Eno, Jean Michelle Jarre, Tomita, Terry Riley, the looping guitar work of Mike Oldlfield, the melancholy strumming of Genesis’s Mike Rutherford and even Pink Floyd. Whereas Astro has made the synth sound dated and lumbering Emeralds have revitalised their sound making them sound fresh, melancholy, vibrant, alive, thrilling, sensuous and totally relevant. Be they drenching you with ever increasing drone gushes that spread out over entire sides of vinyl [Allegory of Allergies, Solar Bridge] or drilling for three minute pop perfection, the more recent Mego release Does It Look Like I’m Here contains a couple of shining examples. Emeralds have found for themselves a willing audience for whom puny MP3’s and pick and mix iTunes comps appear about as inviting as a wet weekend in Bognor Regis.

These three young Americans have created quite a stir over the last four or five years. After dabbling with TV sets and getting their hands dirty with the American noise crowd they now find themselves feted by the European cognoscenti. World domination seems within their grasp. Already their ridiculously limited self released cassettes and CDR’s are swapping hands for large sums of money. Hanson has managed to grab three of their releases so far, including this one. And along with Solar Bridge and Under Pressure [also featuring Hanson chief Arron Dilloway on tape manipulation] you could argue it has the best of the bunch. Solar Bridge was a tsunami of crashing drone waves. Two tracks of skull tightening wash that got under the skin like a deep spell. Under Pressure weaved Dilloway’s tape splurges and loops in with the finest celestial drone works you could wish for. The sunburst finish that is the final track is the kind of thing you want to hear on a summers dawn after a memorable night out. If it was the last thing you ever heard in your life you wouldn’t be disappointed.

All of their major works differ slightly in style; What Happened [No Fun] sounds like huge improvised squelching throbs the sound of a dying Swamp Thing, star dust sprinkled over everything, flickering lights, heavy loops of oscillating whorls, fat reverberating echoes that fill up the entire room, desolate wind swept scrubland, aching voids of serenity. Its Mark McGuire’s guitar-work that combines to make the three what they are though. Be it a gentle finger picked melody, a gentle strum or a deftly plucked phrase the end result is always one of exquisite beauty.

On this particular release their is but 35 minutes of music but you’d never feel short changed. The opener [Overboard - Off The Deep End] is a four minute aperitif of bubbling analogue gurgles, Geode is pure pulsing Schulze, Diotima reverberates along like a wobbly mirror with McGuire gently nudging a few strings in accompaniment but the real star is an 18 minute epic. Passing Away is a ghostly Gregorian analogue ohm chant that folds out into a driving pulse beat whereupon McGuire hunches over his Les Paul and works his fingers into knotty shapes delivering a crystal clear note a second fusillade of delight. As the guitar work gets ever more impassioned the synth drone builds and pans out into a huge vista of blinding white light. The whole thing fades to the sound of the Ganges and a Buddhist creation ceremony [again courtesy of Dilloway].

I was lucky enough to catch Emeralds at the 2007 No Fun Fest. A rabid group of noise freaks swamped the meagre stage and took them to their hearts. Last year I saw them play a well attended gallery space and the walls shook. If I was you I’d be seeking them out.

I see Emeralds as one of the few hopes for a music industry keeping itself afloat with a leaking lifejacket that is downloads and ringtones. Listen to any of their work from beginning to end [preferably on vinyl] on a decent stereo stack and you will experience the thrill of hearing music that is genuinely emotional and involving. My only fear is that this good work cannot continue. The recent Mego release contains some splendid shorter outings but for the first time I was left underwhelmed by tracks that appeared to be just plain meandering. Whatever, hopefully the continuing rerelease of their back catalogue will continue apace. I’m here, waiting.

Contact: www.hansonrecords.net

Stählerne Lichter

Various Artists - Stählerne Lichter

Licht Und Stahl CD. Licht006

300 Copies.

I watched The Road last night. Not as good as the book of course, Cormac McCarthy’s bleak prose described a post apocalyptic world in ways that Hollywood will never match but it did get me thinking about Stählerne Lichter and its end of the world soundtrack. 

Post apocalyptic industrial ambience has its fans and I count myself amongst them. In the right hands a sense of foreboding can be a profound experience but when it goes wrong it does so in spectacular style. For every Dieter Müh you can count any number of outfits producing sounds that are tired and cliched. Think role playing computer game soundtracks, hackneyed samples stuck on groaning metal, crap that makes you think its creator has an entirely different concept of the apocalypse than the makers of The Road ever did. 

Most comps usually carry the odd dud and its no disgrace, tastes will vary of course. The duds on Stählerne Lichter stand out like sore thumbs though. Not even fifteen tracks spread across eighty minutes of CD is enough camouflage for some.

Maybe thats the way forward? Fill your comp to bursting with similar sounding material and hope nobody notices? Alas Erdlicht, Le Syndicate and Galerie Schallschutz protruded too far for these seasoned ears. Le Syndicate’s track is the twin to Nurse With Wound’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Station; lolloping beats which inexplicably speed up towards their conclusion. Erdlicht go for the Nintendo 90’s role playing game experience in which you try to find the key to a door in a lonely castle. Terrible. The title of Galerie Schallschutz track is ‘Electro Convulsive Therapy’ which I think tells you everything you need to know about that track. Nothing wrong with going for the 1990’s Cold Meat dollar but amongst this sea of industrial ambience it just doesn’t sit right. 

Thats the bad stuff out of the way though. The rest sails by in a sea of surreptitious ethnic drumming, Z’ev like spring clangings, meditative atmospherics and a delightful ditty containing simple strummed guitar, birdsong and the chimes of small xylophone. Standout tracks belong to Dieter Müh, Atrox, Wach and Fieberflug with maybe a few other contenders thrown in for good measure as well. 

Dieter Müh’s five minutes of fame is a sublime mind sweep of treated samples covered in Arctic waste. Their use of a barely audible vocal sample is perfectly crafted and should be used as an example to all those who litter their work willy-nilly with every Charlie Manson soundbite they can lay their hands on - it could be a serial killer mumbling their most inner thoughts but likewise it could also quite easily be your mum leaving a shopping list on your voicemail. Flutwacht follow it up with some splendid treated clangings. A little like hitting a five mile long piece of six inch steel pipe with a wrench. N.Strahl.N contribute two tracks which causes me no end of confusion, the second track isn’t credited and appears as the last track thus throwing my meticulous research into chaos - am I crediting Fieberflug with the strumming ditty or is it Sturmkind? Have I wronged Le Syndicate when I should be nailing some uncredited bald headed bloke with a funny beard in Cologne? I work it out, eventually, but minus two points to Licht und Stahl for making me do the leg work. Back at N.Strahl.N’s first offering, the ritual drumming of ‘Blutleuchte’ is sublime, the last ‘Inwedig’ a desolate symphony of reverberating junk, not dissimilar to early Neubauten. The strumming belongs to Sturmkind. It shouldn’t work but it does. It should have been the last track too and it would have saved me all the head scratching. Pick the rest out yourself. Its worth the investment, despite the duds.

Contact: www.lichtundstahl.blogspot.com

Milovan Srdenovic

Milovan

In an era where noise releases appear with all the regularity of sliced salami, its refreshing to have a new Smell & Quim release around. Powerfuck is seminal Smell & Quim and a massive return to form. Original and surviving member Milovan Srdenovic has put together a band that has already caused controversy by getting the 2007 Deaf Forever all day noise festival in Leeds abandoned after complaints about misuse of a pigs head [this in a venue only a couple of hundred yards away from a mosque] they were the first and last act.

I’ve been a fan ever since I saw them play the Bradford 1 in 12 Club back in the mid 90’s. An epiphany for me and a loss of hearing for many. Couple the noise with a sense of humour that is British postcard surreal dipped in shit and you have one of THE great English noise bands and one that I hope is around for a while longer yet.

Tracking Srdenovic down to his West Yorks bolt hole I asked him about what inspired Powerfuck and to how big a debt it owed to an ancient 72 year old mad cap English comic called Ken Dodd.

IT WAS THE COMING TOGETHER OF THE CURRENT SMELL & QUIM LINE-UP IN 2007, AND THE SUBSEQUENT LIVE OUTINGS IN THAT YEAR THAT PLANTED THE SEEDS OF DESIRE TO RECORD NEW MATERIAL. THE ENSUING NOISE THAT WE MADE WHEN WE CAME TOGETHER IS "POWERFUCK" THE CULMINATION OF OUR UNION THUS FAR.

THE FIRST TRACK ON THE ALBUM IS TITLED "DODDY'S COCK" AND IT WAS INDEED INSPIRED BY A DREAM I HAD, WHEREIN I REALISED THE TRUE MEANING OF THE KEN DODD HIT FROM THE 1960's "HAPPINESS". DODD (HE IS ACTUALLY 81 YEARS OLD) IS PROBABLY OUR ONLY REMAINING LIVING CONNECTION TO THE BRITISH MUSIC-HALL TRADITION, AND THE USE OF THE DOUBLE ENTENDRE IS LEGENDARY IN THAT TRADITION.

The recent Smell & Quim live shows have been pretty spectacular, even by Smell & Quim standards. Everybody goes on about the pigs head at Deaf Forever but for me the sight of Gillham swinging a ten pound lump hammer in a confined space was equally as disquieting. Then there was the fish incident supporting Citizen Fish and the last time I saw you Gillham cut himself quite badly and managed to spray blood everywhere via his drums. Is the live craft still important to Smell & Quim and how hard is it to get gigs with the reputation Smell & Quim have - I’m reminded of the time you were booked to play in Belgium as a duo and about twelve people turned up.

INDEED. I COULDNT SEE WHAT ALL THE HOOHAR WAS ABOUT THE FUCKING PIGS HEAD.

WE JUST HAD A PIG THEME GOING ON. WE WERE WEARING PIG MASKS AND WE HAD A PIGS HEAD THERE.

GILLHAM WITH A SLEDGE-HAMMER IS FAR MORE DANGEROUS THAN ANY DEAD PIG-PART THAT YOURE GONNA ENCOUNTER, BUT HIS BLOOD IS GOOD.

WE ARE ENTERTAINERS FOR GODS SAKE.

THE PERFORMANCE ASPECT OF A SMELL & QUIM GIG IS INTRINSIC TO THE WHOLE. HOW LONG CAN PEOPLE ACCEPT SOME GADGER SAT INPUTTING DATA INTO A LAPTOP AS PERFORMANCE. PEDALS AND LAPTOPS ARE USEFUL TOOLS, BUT TWIDDLING ALONE DOESNT MAKE A SHOW. COME ON. WE ALL KNOW THIS!

IT IS TRUE THAT IN THE PAST PEOPLE BOOKING SMELL AND QUIM LIVE HAVE EXPECTED A DUO TO TURN UP, ONLY TO FIND 15 PEOPLE ON THEIR DOORSTEP. THIS IS NO LONGER THE CASE. S&Q ARE CURRENTLY A MERE 5 PIECE OUTFIT, AND WE COME CHEAP. WE SEEK ONLY EXPENSES AND A BIT OF HOSPITALITY FOR THE MOST PART. WE ARE FRIENDLY AND EASY TO GET ON WITH. ENTERTAINING TO HAVE AROUND EVEN. PROBABLY BETTER THAN YOUR REGULAR MATES.

BUT YES, PEOPLE SEEM RETICENT TO BOOK US.

IT IS A BIG WORRY. WE REALLY WANT TO PLAY SOME FUCKING GIGS, BECAUSE WE'RE DOING THE BEST SHIT THAT WE'VE EVER DONE, AND THERES CRAP LOADS OF NEW STUFF IN THE PIPELINE MAN.

Along with Whitehouse, Smell & Quim are creating work which is instantly recognisable and has song like structure to it. Would it be fair to say you draw inspiration from Whitehouse and would that explain the appearance of Sweet Tooth and Fuckseed on the new album?

EMBARKING ON THE NEW RECORDINGS WE DECIDED THAT WE WANTED TO REALLY GET BACK TO SMELL & QUIM BASICS. WE WANTED FULL-ON BRUTAL NOISE, POWER-ELECTRONICS, AND THE ELEMENTS OF VARIATION AND HUMOUR THAT ARE UNIQUE TO OUR BEST WORK. YOU ARE CORRECT TO PERCEIVE SONG-LIKE STRUCTURES, AND EVEN IN THE TRACKS WITHOUT WORDS, THERE IS ALWAYS A DYNAMIC AND A DEVELOPMENT ALONG THESE LINES. OFTEN A THEME, OR A BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND AN END.

I THINK PRETTY MUCH EVERY BAND WORKING IN THE NOISE AREA HAS GAINED AT LEAST SOME INSPIRATION FROM WHITEHOUSE. THEIR BEST STUFF IS SO ARCHETYPAL. IN RECORDING "POWERFUCK" AND THE MATERIAL THAT IS TO FOLLOW WE JUST SET OUT TO PRODUCE THE BEST THAT WE COULD COME UP WITH, AND WE'RE VERY PLEASED WITH THE RESULTS.

Do you draw any inspiration from the current noise scene?

I DO PERCEIVE A RESURGENCE IN THE NOISE GENRE, AND THIS IN ITSELF IS INSPIRATIONAL, BUT I'D HAVE TO ADMIT QUITE A LEVEL OF IGNORANCE AS TO WHAT EXACTLY IS OUT THERE, AND WHY IT IS RISING AGAIN. THERES A WHOLE NEW GENERATION OF ACTS THAT I KNOW NEXT TO NOTHING ABOUT.

NOISE IS A THING BEST EXPERIENCED IN THE LIVE ARENA, AND ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT PLAYING ON A LIVE NOISE BILL IS THAT YOU GET TO SEE OTHER PROJECTS, AND I GUESS S&Q DONT REALLY GET TO PLAY ENOUGH SHOWS, SO OUR INSPIRATION IS LARGELY SELF GENERATED.

There seems to be a lot of interest in re-issuing cassette material from the mid 90’s and beyond. I have here Goldenrod; a collaboration between Smell & Quim and Streicher which has appeared on the Freak Animal spin off Industrial Recollections and captures perfectly that fertile mid 90’s industrial noise period. Is there any other S&Q back catalogue material destined for re-issue?

INDEED THERE IS, AND UNDERSTANDABLY SO. IT WAS REFRESHING TO LEARN THAT THE THREE GOLDENROD CASSETTES WERE GOING TO BE RE-ISSUED ON INDUSTRIAL RECOLLECTIONS. I MUST SAY THAT I LIKED THE STREICHER/MACRONYMPHA ONE BEST OUT OF THE THREE.

THERE ISNT ANYTHING FIRMLY ARRANGED AS REGARDS S&Q RE-ISSUES, BUT I THINK IT COULD WELL BE OVERDUE. IF NOT RE-ISSUES OF WHOLE ALBUMS, THEN MAYBE AT LEAST SOME KIND OF BEST OF COMPENDIUM, AS A SORT OF RETROSPECTIVE. MEANWHILE WE ARE REALLY CONCENTRATING ON THE NEW STUFF.

When relaxing in my Shackletons high seat chair on a night, I like to slip on a Smell & Quim platter and pour myself a drink. I find digestifs such as Unicum or Jagermiester a fine post prandial snifter when soaking up the vibes and if its earlier in the day then a fine Belgian ale such as Westmalle or Kwak always hits the spot. I wondered if you favoured any particular form of John Barleycorn and whether alcohol plays a major part in the recording or live Smell & Quim situation?

I'VE TRIED THE SHACKLETON MYSELF, BUT FOUND THAT IT GAVE ME KNOTS IN THE TRAPESIUS, SO NOWADAYS I FAVOUR A CHAISE LONGUE WHILST QUAFFING DIGESTIFS IN MY NEGLIGEE.

ALCOHOL HAS INDEED PLAYED AN INTRINSIC PART IN THE SMELL & QUIM HISTORY. INFACT BOTH LIVE, AND RECORDING ASPECTS OF THE BAND ONCE VERITABLY SWAM IN THE STUFF. NOWADAYS JOHN BARLEYCORN STILL PLAYS AN IMPORTANT PART IN ACTIVITIES, BUT IS USUALLY ADMINISTERED IN A MORE CONTROLLED MANNER. I MYSELF FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN PLAYING LIVE, LIKE TO GET MY MISE EN PLACE FULLY ORGANISED BEFORE HITTING THE STAGE, SO WILL ONLY HAVE A FEW GRAILFULS OF ESSENCE WHILST ACHIEVING THIS. WHEN THE SHOW HAS BEGUN, THE PROCEEDINGS CAN BE URGED ALONG FURTHER BY VARIOUS OTHER STIFFENERS AND REFRESHMENTS. AFTERWARDS IT IS ALWAYS NICE TO RELAX WITH A FEW POST-GIG WIND-DOWN BEVERAGES WHILST SOCIALISING AND SCHMOOZING WITH WHOEVER IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS PURPOSE.

RECORDING.

THESE DAYS IT IS A MUCH MORE GENTEEL PROCESS, WITH ONLY CIVILISED LIBATION BEING EMPLOYED AT THE CAPTURE STAGES, AND COMPLETE SOBRIETY AT THE MIXING STAGE.

RECENTLY I WAS INFORMED THAT THERE EXISTS SOME KIND OF FORUM ON THE INTERNET WHERE A FEW TALES OF MY DRINKING ESCAPADES HAVE BEEN POSTED. IF I MANAGE TO FIND THIS RESOURCE I MAY AT LAST MANAGE TO PIECE TOGETHER SOME MISSING CHUNKS OF MY PAST.

FAVOURITE DRINKS.

ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME WILL CONFIRM MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH TEQUILA AND MEZCAL. AS APERTIFS I FAVOUR ANY PASTIS, ABSINTHE, OR BECHEROVKA. GOOD RED WINE IS AN EVERYDAY STAPLE, AND WILD TURKEY, AND WRAY AND NEPHEWS RUM ARE FINE POST PRANDIALS. AS TO BEER, MY PREFERENCE IS FOR THE FINE BELGIAN ALES, ESPECIALLY THE TRAPPIST ONES. IN MY ESTIMATION WESTMALLE TRIPEL IS THE FINEST BEER IN THE WORLD. RECENTLY I HAVE ALSO BEEN ENJOYING LA TRAPPE DUBBEL

(NETHERLANDS TRAPPIST ALE) ON DRAUGHT.

There are rumoured sightings of you having been spotted propping the bar up in the Grove at Huddersfield. Has The Duncan [once favoured haunt of Smell & Quim in nearby Leeds] been shut down or has the smell of stale ale and pie farts driven you away?

IN RECENT YEARS PUBS IN THE UK HAVE BEEN CLOSING AT A RAPID RATE. THE GROVE IS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF HOW TO MAKE A PUB A SUCCESS. THAT IS, HAVE LOTS OF DIFFERENT DRINK. YOU COULD GO IN THERE EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR AND HAVE A DIFFERENT BEER EACH TIME WITHOUT EXHAUSTING THE MENU. THERES NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT THE AMBIENCE OF THE PLACE, INFACT ITS QUITE NAFF IN MANY RESPECTS, ITS JUST THE QUALITY AND RANGE OF GOODS ON OFFER THAT PUT IT IN SPOT NUMERO UNO (PERHAPS IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY) FOR A SWALLY. THE RANGE OF BEERS MEANS THAT YOU GET BORING CAMRA FUCKERS TALKING INCESSANT SHITE ABOUT BEER TRAINSPOTTING, BUT YOU ALSO GET THE ODD INTERESTING CHARACTER IN THERE FROM TIME TO TIME.

AS FOR THE DUNCAN, I DO NOT KNOW. I SELDOM GET TO LEEDS ANYMORE AS IT SEEMS TO BE A PLACE DEVOID OF ANY SOUL AT ALL. IN GENERAL SAM SMITHS (THE DUNCAN IS/WAS OF COURSE A SAM SMITHS HOUSE) PUBS ARE WORTH LOOKING OUT FOR DUE TO THE SENSIBLE PRICING. IF YOURE EVER IN LONDON CHECK OUT THE PRINCESS LOUISE IN HOLBORN WHICH IS A WONDERFULLY UNSPOILED ARCHITECTURAL GEM.

Anything else you’d like to add before I copy and paste all this into the websphere? Favourite grapes? Cities? West Yorkshire towns? [I always favour Batley due to the bat sculpture - I’m a sucker for modern gargoyles].

ALL FRUIT IS REPUGNANT UNTIL FERMENTED OR DISTILLED. ALL WEST YORKSHIRE TOWNS SHOULD ALSO BE FERMENTED OR DISTILLED. AS FOR CITIES, GENERALLY THEY ARE PRETTY GOOD IF THEY ARE, OR THEIR ORIGINS WERE, AS PORTS. A RIVER FLOWING THROUGH A CITY IS USUALLY A GOOD SIGN FOR ME, AS I HAVE A THING FOR RUNNING WATER.