Can't Cheat Karma

21/10/2024

We executive produced this great new tape from Scotland based hauntological krautrock artist Singh. Get in touch if you'd like a copy! Xx

13/10/2024

CCK003 is the debut EP from q***r garage punx Grunt Work available on tape from 20/10/24

14/06/2024

Tomorrow!!!!

27/04/2024

All NEVER WORK zines, books, badges now available from our bandcamp shop -

17 track album

22/03/2024

Forthcoming on CCK in 2024 -

Singh - Spirit (tape/digital)

Fidge Bibblyotek - Significant Nothings; Selected Creative Works 2012-2024 (book)

Austerity - Monumental Bonus Time (tape/digital)

DOLE FAM - Hommages Supplémentaires (tape/digital)

NEVER WORK #4 (zine)

Alphaville Quartet - EP (tape/digital)

20/02/2024

Fresh off the press... we now have more stock of issues 1-3 of Never Work zine
3 quid each or all 3 for 8 incl. UK postage. DM to buy! PEACE X

15/02/2024

Zines! Get in touch to buy! X

All three zines now back in stock. 3 quid each or all three for 8 quid including postage. DM if u want one. PEACE ###X

16/12/2023

New tape available now. Tenner including postage.

Holy Clang – Hook, Line, Sinker (tape album)
(cat. no. - CCK002)

Side A -
1/ Leap Seconds
2/ Concentrate
3/ Don't Forget
4/ Slip and Slide
5/ No Evolution
6/ The Doctor
7/ Regression Session
8/ Oppose This
9/ Clean Up
10/ Disrupt
11/ Now Yr Talkin'
12/ Too Wavy

Side B -
1/ What Fresh Hell Is This?
2/ Headshrinker
3/ Listening Booth
4/ Vivienne
5/ Dog Track
6/ Calm Before the Kill
7/ Wicked Flee
8/ Ghost
9/ Eat Your Brains, Gain Your Knowledge

'Hook, Line, Sinker' collects the first five EPs by Brighton-based post-punk bass/drums two-piece; Holy Clang. This release on Can't Cheat Karma Records is available as a gorgeous limited edition cassette tape.

If punk-rock means three chords and the truth, Holy Clang evolve this dictum with their unique DIY racket. A more accurate appraisal of their work would be; a rhythm section you need an enigma machine to understand (and the truth).

One of the things I love most about post punk is that it contains all the passion, subversion and dissent of punk rock, but the rebellion isn't curtailed in the music itself. There is even room for a little virtuosity as long as it serves the song and isn't simply masturbatory narcissism. Post punk is a vessel which won't die, and with each new example, the church evolves. There's plenty of dissent and spitting fury in Holy Clang's music, but there is real boundary pushing playing on display too.

Sometimes the hyperactive drumming brings to mind Tony Allen, occasionally it veers into the far whiter but no less impressive territory of bands like Don Caballero. The bass is wonky, angular, and drenched in fuzz. Thomas's scattergun and frantic approach to the instrument creates a sound which fizzes with bubbling energy and Holy Clang's compositions accordingly revel in the raw excitement of primal innovation

The vocals are basic and un-adorned, and delivered in a brilliantly deadpan manner which has it's roots inescapably forged out of the sprechgesang experiments of Mark E Smith and the first wave of post-punk dilettantes.

The combination of these elements results in a wiry loud groove-laden assault peppered with casually thrown in octave notes and frenetic, insistent polyrhythms. The music on display here is interesting, and challenging, but you can fu***ng dance to it. It almost feels like Holy Clang's sound is involuntarily cerebral; a musical sudoku appealing to the hips and – against their better judgement – the mind. The artistic territory explored in these songs is situated somewhere in-between fellow bass/drums duos Traps and Instant Bin.

It is genuinely awe-inspiring how Thomas and Dave manage to wring so much musical content out of such a basic set-up. Sometimes the presence of enforced limitations can lead artists to be more innovative and creative, and that is certainly the case here with the duo's maximalist-minimalism creating more noise and brimming with more ideas than it has any right to.

Holy Clang will appeal to fans of - fuzz, groove, noise, math, punk, awkward dancing, Minutemen, Shellac, The Fall, The Ex, Dischord Records (Faraquet, Nation of Ulysses, Fugazi, E.D. Sedgwick), Devo, Oxes, ESG, Delta 5, Blurt, Gang of Four, Lightning Bolt, Public Image Ltd, !!!, Sonic Youth, No Wave NYC, the first Rapture EP, Black Flag

PRESS -
“Holy Clang are an impressive live band. Imagine Steve Albini on Adderall at a provincial discotheque with sticky floors, populated by teenagers drunk on luke-warm tins of Carlsberg and trading hand-jobs in the bathroom cubicles”
- Jez Campbell

“A new two piece of bass and drums delivering agit jazz punk vibes. The longer the set goes on, the better these newcomers get”
- Cris Watkins

PERSONNEL -
Thomas Himsworth – Bass/Vocals/Synth
Dave Osborne – Drums/Production

11/12/2023

The debut Grunt Work single is out now. Feminist garage punk feat. members of Austerity, Mules, Ünhang, and Be Kind Cadaver. FFO Hot Snakes, Nirvana, Surf Bort, Amyl and the Sniffers, the Hives etc. Tape EP will be out on CCK next year. Have a listen!

Debut release from Brighton based garage punk five piece Grunt WorkSong recorded at Southsea Sound Video made by 7000 TreesContact:[email protected] in...

06/12/2023

Holy Clang tape out Friday, launch party at the Pipeline...

HOLY CLANG ALBUM LAUNCH!

16/11/2023

New collection of short stories by Fidge Bibblyotek. Physical pamphlets in the new year, PDF is here -

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17SkaRpcW3C4H8HHGr7ryBc-rQ8tVekZ1/view?usp=sharing

14/11/2023

We're excited to announce that CCK003 will be a limited edition tape by Brighton DIY punx; Grunt Work (members of Mules, Ünhang, Austerity, Be Kind Cadaver). Grunt Work play ramshackle, noisy, feminist, garage punk. They've been compared to early Nirvana, Hot Snakes, The Hives, and Devo. The EP will feature seven songs which were recorded live this autumn by Tim Greaves (You Me and the Atom Bomb) at Southsea Sound Studio. The tape is scheduled for release in April 2024. Details soon. PEACE XX

03/11/2023

There are still a few copies of the Never Work zine book available from Difficult Art and Music - https://difficultartandmusic.bandcamp.com/merch/never-work-a-book-by-fidge-bibliyotek

24/10/2023

We've now got a v limited number of 'Deux Homages' the latest DOLE FAM tape (released by DAAM). I'm doing a bundle deal... for 15 quid you'll get the DOLE FAM tape plus all three Singh (synthy krautrock from Scotland) albums, including UK postage. Get on it before they sell out! X

14/10/2023

Forthcoming on CCK -

Holy Clang - Hook, Line, Sinker (CCK002 - limited edition tape/digital album)

Holy Clang are a noisy bass/drums two-piece piece from Brighton. They play angular post-punk for the dance-floor. Will appeal to fans of Minutemen, The Fall, Shellac, Gang of Four etc.

This release for the first time collects Holy Clang's first five EPs all in one place.

The launch party is on Friday 8th December at The Pipeline, Brighton. Support comes from Austerity and Expedient Self. Join us to celebrate, event link below...

https://facebook.com/events/s/holy-clang-album-launch/633992628645971/

05/10/2023

Can you guess what our next tape is yet?

27/09/2023

Forthcoming on Can't Cheat Karma -

Holy Clang - Hook, Line, Sinker (tape/digital)

We're delighted to announce that CCK002 will be a collection of the first five EPs from noisey Brighton post-punk band Holy Clang.

Cant wait to put this labour of love out into the world. More details soon!

PEACE XX

27/09/2023

If u missed out on issues 1-3 of NEVER WORK zine fear not cos they're coming out as a book courtesy of our pals at Difficult Art and Music!

Never Work: a book by Fidge Bibliyotek from Difficult Art And Music

20/09/2023

Our next tape release (CCK002) will be a noisy post-punk treat from these gentlemen.

19/09/2023

17/09/2023

Our next release is confirmed w/ the band and work has started on the release. Super excited for this one. More info on here when we have news.

15/09/2023

Tommy (DOLE FAM) has a solo tape coming out thru a great little label. It's minimalist, experimental, ambient, and a bit noisy. The work is a tribute to John Cage and Luciano Berio, it's primarily made from cutups of found audio. If that sounds interesting to you pls consider pre-ordering the release thru the label's bandcamp page -

2 track album

22/08/2023

FORTHCOMING ON CAN'T CHEAT KARMA -

THE END OF EVERYTHING
Psychogeographical vignettes of tory Britain
By Fidge Bibblyotek

In his first proper prose collection since 2013's 'Stumbling Towards the Flames', Fidge presents a collection of short pieces based on six months of tipsy-brained psychogeographical derives in Brighton and London.

This limited edition pamphlet will be out soon!

Be well!
###X

14/08/2023

Autumn this year we will publish a collection of short stories by Fidge Bibblyotek. It's his first serious work of prose since 2012's 'Stumbling Towards the Flames'. Info below -

THE END OF EVERYTHING
and other stories

Psychogeographical vignettes of tory Britain

by Fidge Bibblyotek

1/ WEEPING FERNSEHER
2/ HONDURAN DEBUSSY
3/ THE MOST ARCHETYPAL OF BASIC DICKS
4/ GREYSCALE PSEUDO-RAINBOW
5/ CAPRI-PANTS, DICKENS AND VIVALDI
6/ "BLOODCLART P***Y"
7/ THE END OF EVERYTHING

15/06/2023

Special offer - three synth-driven krautrock tapes for a tenner.

Singh is the impossible to Google solo project of Greg Singh. Greg is an old friend of mine; hes a legend, an academic, a wine-drinker, a parent, and a veteran of the UK experimental music scene.

Singh's discography is a hauntological synth-laden mosaic of sounds which elegantly combine the familiar with the arresting. Greg's music owes heavy debts to the greats of krautrock, alongside subtle nods to outsider electronica, and some references to the more out there elements of the hippie/counter-culture scene.

We've released three full length Singh albums; Memories of a Passing Cloud, Magnet and Steele, and Onesie Apocalypse. It's a really powerful and emotionally resonant body of work. These albums are all available on sexy limited edition tapes.

The tapes cost a Fiver each but we're currently offering all three for a tenner (UK postage included).

Do you remember ever going to a record shop, taking a risk, and going home with something you'd never heard of, then loving it. Why not take a similar chance on this, send us a tenner and you'll own three brilliant tapes. Do it, go on, do it...

DM me if interested.

PEACE ###X