Adverse Effect

12/09/2024

A few more reviews uploaded to Adverse Effect of releases by and also the trees, A Produce, Doc Wör Mirran/The Beatles, Margarida Garcia & Manuel Mota and more. As always, if interested in having anything reviewed at AE please note we only accept physical formats. There's no time for links to digital releases, plus such links just get lost and forgotten about in the daily deluge of emails. The address for sending CDs, vinyl or cassettes can be found at Adverse Effect.

NOTE: The reviews are all below. Facebook won't allow the link for some fu***ng ridiculous reason.

REVIEWS 2024

No more front covers with the reviews. Let's keep to the text. All reviews (so far) by Richard Johnson. If you want Adverse Effect to review anything of yours please note we only accept physical formats sent to the address noted elsewhere. No time for unsolicited links and downloads, plus they get lost in the daily deluge of emails. Vinyl, CDs and cassettes at least get placed in the review stack and (eventually) get listened to. Tastes/interests are broad here as well.

AMIGO THE DEVIL Yours Until the War is Over CD (Liars Club Records, USA, 2024)

Third album by Texas singer-songwriter Danny Kiranos, a.k.a. Amigo the Devil, who here brings together another thirteen cuts of southern-gothic-flavoured tales of black-humoured woe. Fiery at times and at others more restrained yet still possessed of a tumbling, slightly rickety and raw nature, everything is sprinkled with enough grit to keep the arrangements interesting. At times, I’m reminded of earlier Nick Cave, Tom Waits or even Leonard Cohen, especially when it comes to Amigo’s wordplay and tight command of his often bleeding vocals, but that all points to something pretty damn exceptional to me. (RJ)

AMP Echoesfromtheholocene CD (Ampbase, 2023)

Amp appear to have gone full circle since they were founded by Richard Walker at the beginning of the 1990s. Following several years creating minor waves via labels such as Kranky and Darla, they are now back to self-releasing their music exactly as on their very first album and, indeed, not unlike countless others of a similar stature these days. It’s a testament to the truly independent, though. Firm proof that the very spirit which drove certain artists to start in the first place can still be found if one looks close enough. On Echoesfromtheholocene, however, the duo of Richard and vocalist Karine proffer nine cuts based on the notion of future visitors to our planet finding little but desolation and the merest remnant of mankind’s existence following the ecological disaster long portended by mainstream media. Through the use of electronic swirls, sci-fi rhythms, miasmic clouds of sulphuric psychedelia, distressed textures, fragmented melodies, dramatic undertow and despairing vocals, everything points to a time tragically lost and never to be seen again. It is a setting that at least produces interesting enough music, anyway. Nice hand-assembled sleeve including a piece of art, too. (RJ)

AND ALSO THE TREES Mother-of-Pearl Moon CD (AATT, 2024)

My introduction to this much overlooked group came via former bassist Steve Burrows sending me a copy of the debut 7”, ’Shantell’, to review in Grim Humour in 1983. Since then, I got to know them a little more and have kept up with most of their subsequent material, which has always worked best over the course of an album. Mother-of-Pearl Moon is the latest and brings together eleven songs bound to And Also The Trees’ own unique blend of poetry, drama and ravaged romanticism. Simon’s words, replete with references to meadows, the sea, dark skies and butchers’ knives, always seem like they could stand alone in an old and dusty leather-bound tome yet serve as the rich narrative accompaniment to arrangements that don’t sound like they belong to anybody else. Augmented by brother and co-founder Justin Jones’ distinctive mandolin-style guitar on many of the songs, there’s a taut rhythmic underpinning that pulls the songs through passages of stark beauty, a carefully dressed rawness and huge swells conjuring powerful waterfalls and a relentless swim against the current at its base. And Also The Trees’ music has always existed in its own space without any regard for trends or pressure to do anything beyond furrowing towards the group’s own artistic vision. It could be argued that the songs only deliver on what we’ve long loved about And Also The Trees, but it would be unfair given the sheer craft always in evidence. Every song, powerful and majestic regardless of how understated or brazen its temperament, sounds like the product of a lot of hard work where attention to all those components that make the group’s music so special is never allowed to wander. Comparing their music to anybody else is quite ridiculous because it so unique. They’ve come a long way since their roots as an arty post-punk group set apart by the very same rural imagery that still partly defines them. While I’ve always said that anybody who likes Tindersticks might find much to also savour in the work of And Also The Trees, the worlds both traverse only meet at those junctures where Scott Walker and cinematic soundtracks ebb and flow into the psyche. Mother-of-Pearl Moon, the group’s eighteenth album in little more 40 years, catches them at the height of their powers. Triumphs don’t come much richer and more evocative than this. (RJ)

A PRODUCE Land of a Thousand Trances 2CD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2023)

Reissue of A Produce’s third album, originally released in 1994 and then later reissued as a limited edition expanded CDr, which this particular version is based on. Over the course of the two discs, we are treated to a vast array of electronic driftworks by late Californian composer Barry Craig, an artist previously unfamiliar to me yet traversing similar realms to Pete Namlook or perhaps, from more recent times, Rod Modell. While many of the tracks unite flotation tank textures with subtle melodies, slow motion pulses and gentle string arrangements created by guitar or sitar, a number also deploy the kinda rhythms Rapoon often toy with to considerable effect. Shakers, bells, tablas, African mallets and so on often enter the fray to lend a more hypnotic angle to what’s otherwise largely a collection of pieces rather more panoramic in nature than overly moody or dramatic. I have no idea how this album compares to the other seven albums Craig produced before his untimely death at the age of 59, but if you enjoy the breezier end of ambient music then you’ll find much to savour here. (RJ)

BRUME La Violence Du Néant CD (EE Tapes, Belgium, 2023)

Christian Renou’s Brume project has been operating since the mid-1980s. Despite a break for around 8 years beginning in 2000 it is another one of those endeavours that is prolific and has a significant amount of cassette and CDr releases behind it as well as several albums on CD and vinyl. Over the course of all this output, Christian has explored abstract music, electroacoustic works, compositions sculpted from drones and tones, collaged sound, post-industrial weirdscapes and just about everything else which does not conform with most people’s idea of regular music. Itself also exploratory and somewhat restless, La Violence Du Néant furnishes the listener with a neat insight into the choppy waters Brume conjures its own sound art from. Using electronics, toys, wind instruments, guitar, metal percussion, voice and other sources as a springboard, the album presents a compellingly dynamic journey from more serene passages to those that are positively convoluted, grizzled and apparently wrenched from a place of utter torment. Given the fact a rather apt quote by N**i propagandist-cum-charred co**se Joseph Goebbels can also be found inside the gatefold cover, I daresay there’s some political or social commentary embedded here, too, but unless it’s to be found directly in the French track titles I don’t have the time to translate I’d contend it is not immediately obvious in the actual music. (RJ)

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS Surge CD (Dirter Promotions, 2024)

With an overwhelming sense of dread and violence long having been part of its driving force, Philip Best’s Consumer Electronics once again delivers on this with Surge, the first album since 2019’s Airless Space (on the now defunct Harbinger Sound) and the first to see the project scaled back to a duo where longstanding collaborator Russell Haswell provides all the electronic accompaniment to Best’s vocals. Represented by seven mostly shortish pieces, the first good thing to leap out is that Best’s ex-wife Sarah Froeleh’s vocals are thankfully absent. I’ve said it before, but I could never stand her flayed harpie wail rendering otherwise generally strong music to a level hard to take seriously. The next thing to stand out is the stark minimalism of the work. This is nothing new for Consumer Electronics, of course, but almost all of the tracks make use of sinewy yet ravaged electronic lines resembling the sound of overloaded pylons buzzing with broken and frayed cables while either subdued tones ring in the background or a rhythm pulses to help provide shape or colour. Beginning with a rasping looped electronic surge itself giving way to something more explosive at regular intervals on ‘Michael’, while Philip recounts preparations for the torture and murder in an ex*****on style, the atmosphere of Surge is heavily set. Over the course of the next six tracks, two of which are meandering instrumentals, Philip’s mostly spoken vocals waver somewhere between creepy old man and a reading of a report in a detectives’ boardroom as more electronics crackle and spit like the burst innards of a plane’s still smoking fuselage. Portrayals of misery and suffering perfectly suit the atmosphere until sixth cut ‘Contaminant’ cranks a solid rhythm upfront and sees Philip foaming about who knows what as words like ‘virus’, ‘pathogens’ and ‘biological’ help justify the title as Russell does his utmost to recall the spirit of prime Tresor at their most unforgiving. Musically at odds with all else on the album, it still acts like it wouldn’t belong elsewhere before the final cut that bears the album’s title once more returns to moody atmospherics which also hint at John Carpenter as the unsettling aura of desolation unfolds. Old friend and collaborator Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Kleistwahr, etc.) also contributes some feedback to ’Side Blaster’, making for a nice touch I wouldn’t have minded hearing more of. While I very much doubt Surge will ever make anybody’s list of favourite so-called ‘noise’ albums, it does at least catch a return to form for one of the best groups to have emanated from the genre. More, please. (RJ)

THE DEAD MAURIACS Le Parc, Rapport d’Observations CD (Sublime Retreat, Poland, 2023)

The Dead Mauriacs are a project revolving around Olivier Prieur who appear to have done an excessive amount of releases in the past fifteen years or so, mostly on CDr or lathe-cuts but occasionally as a vinyl or CD album. The three lengthy tracks here operate in that smudged twilight space where haphazard cosmic churn collides with neatly rendered collage work, musique concrete and the kind of drifting tones and textures that thankfully avoid their usual more predictable deployment. Very nicely packaged, plus I think only 100 of these were made. Well worth tracking down. (RJ)

DELPHIUM Everything is Lost CDr (Aquese Recordings, 2024)

Although Delphium has released a couple of other albums during the past few years, the project was largely dormant from 2003, after having been active for around ten years beforehand. When Delphium began in the early ’90s it served as founder Jonathan Forde’s own platform for exploring a plethora of ideas in contemporary electronic music that took a lot from the likes of Mick Harris’ Scorn and Aphex Twin’s ambient works. While it soon became clear Delphium had its own voice, itself buoyed heavily by minimalist loop-bound pieces and flirtations with different forms of abstract sound, the fact that it never found a home on a suitable label such as Warp, FatCat or Mille Plateaux doubtlessly went against it ever being anything other than a deeply underground concern. Nothing wrong with that, of course, since that’s where most of my own releases on Fourth Dimension also reside, but I always felt Delphium always had the potential to go further. On Everything is Lost, however, the fifteen cuts gathered from between 2021 and 2024 broadly seem to hark back to the combination of rhythmic and atmospheric compositions Delphium was creating in its first decade of existence. Although well executed, most of the pieces come across like they’re revisiting the ’90s as they navigate their way through a series of moody textures and crisp yet sometimes stilted or stuttering beats. It’s pleasant and hard to fault for what it is, but it seems to yearn for a time when the term ‘isolationism’ almost meant something. When compared to a similarly technology-bound project such as Bass Communion, one can understand why the latter took a 12 year break due to disillusionment with where it was going artistically before returning with an album more avant-garde and wider-ranging in its scope. It would be good to hear Delphium likewise pushing the tools it uses to try and create entirely new shapes from them. Track 14, ’Shift’, shakily points towards this with its amalgamation of loops and guitar, although could have been pushed further, I feel. Let’s see where Delphium goes next because, as it stands and as listenable as it is, Everything is Lost mostly amounts to a comfortable cementing of its previous position. (RJ)

DOC WöR MIRRAN/THE BEATLES ‘Cry for a Shadow’ 7” (Empty Records, Germany, 2023)

Limited edition reissue of this split single first released in 2017 featuring an original Beatles’ live recording of ‘Cry for a Shadow’ from their Hamburg days in 1961 on one side and a DWM rendition of it on the other. The Beatles’ song, of course, is from the time they were still a raw rock ’n’ roll outfit, dripping in black leather and attitude, whilst DWM slows things down a tad, lifts the song’s signature guitar refrain and later implodes into a mess of molten sound. 197 of these only, plus on gold vinyl. No idea if it’s legit or not, but it’s certainly fun enough. (RJ)

factor X At-Rocity Exhibition CD (Cheeses International, 2023)

Was a time, back in the day (meaning mid-1980s in this case), when I’d receive lots of flyers in the post for tape labels and mail order places dedicated to them that’d include releases by Shaun Robert’s factor X. I’m pretty certain I even had a tape or two myself as well, including the one from the early ’90s on Portugal’s recently reactivated SPH label. I cannot comment on how different each of the releases were to each other, however. Conceptually, I believe they were all bound to the notion of lacing crude loops together with rough-edged electronics, primitive collage techniques and other forms of abstract sound in a manner not far removed from Cabaret Voltaire before they learnt how to make music. While factor X apparently ended in the mid-’90s, however, it would appear that a lot of work has subsequently appeared digitally or on CDr. At-Rocity Exhibition, of course partly inspired by the J.G. Ballard novel of the same name, is noted as a reissue yet includes no direct reference to where the original material was first made available. Collecting eight short pieces that together span less than 30 minutes, it makes for a neat insight into the basement sonics Robert specialised in but could have benefitted from being expanded by a few tracks and even some brief liner notes. I’m not sure how much factor X one actually needs, but a document such as this release is at least worth having if interested in, or partly weaned on, the DIY cassette culture that was once a vital component of post-industrial and experimental electronic music. (RJ)

BERTRAND GAUGUET Encerclements CD (In Girum, France, 2024)

Alto sax player Gauguet has also been creating electronic music for a number of years now and between both that sphere and his work in an improv setting with his main instrument has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including John Tilbury, Eric La Casa, Eliane Radigue, Franz Hautzinger, Robin Hayward, Eddie Prevost and many more. Encerclements, however, collects eight pieces which pluck away at an entanglement of dishevelled electronic sounds and field recordings before blending them together in a manner that’s at once organic, sober and carefully teased into some surprising corners. On the surface it may appear rather studious and academic, but the wide scope of sounds veer healthily between deep space noodling, psycho-ambient and ravaged electroacoustic atmospherics that never stray far from holding one’s attention. Only 100 of these on this new label, too. Get to it. (RJ)

DAVID J Tracks from the Attic 3CD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2024)

The most striking thing about this 3CD set by the former Bauhaus/Love and Rockets mainstay is the incredible IPR packaging which, true to form, illustrates a sense of care and attention to detail rarely seen adorning an album. Beyond that, this collection amounts to David J with an acoustic guitar and an approach to songwriting that isn’t far removed from Bowie in his early folk singer phase. Although they are demos, these songs are laid bare and without any embellishments whatsoever for the most part. While the set may be of interest to completists, it just makes me feel his work needs the extra nourishment of a group to bring it to life. (RJ)

ALEX KELLER Sleep Room CD (Elevator Bath, USA, 2024)

Something like the fifth or sixth album ‘proper’ from this Texas sound artist who presents seven cuts of serpentine crackle, hum and spit each using electromagnetic transducers and sources such as a vacuum cleaner, a modem, oscillators, location recordings and suchlike. While it comes over as an immersive enough adventure in electronic sound my biggest gripe with such music is that it’s so generic that little ever leaps beyond expectations. I must have dozens of albums which sound similar to this already, so can’t say that Alex is bringing anything new to the table. Maybe that’s not the point? The embossed six-panel digipak packaging looks pretty classy, though. (RJ)

KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK To Dream is to Destroy CD (Base Station, NL, 2023)

Kryptogen Rundfunk is the name given by Russian artist Artyom Ostapchuk to his solo project producing analogue electronics, found sounds, guitar, field recordings and the like to weave ‘morphic blankets of deep space hum, frazzled noise, guttural drone, voice snatches, whir and machine chatter together like his life depended on it. The six cuts here are rich and pretty engaging as they tug the listener along a place akin to an old sci-fi film soundtrack married to a ravaged post-industrial landscape given a healthy nudge into a contemporary setting. As I write, I must’ve listened to this several times over, so that should say something in itself. Neat. (RJ)

LULL Journey Through Underworlds CD (Cold Spring, 2024)

Reissue of Mick Harris’ second foray into moody electronic ‘scaping, scrapes and ‘spherics from, originally, 1993 (on the late John Everall’s Sentrax imprint, no less). Three lengthy tracks apparently designed to caress the inside of your cranium with a rusty blade from a time when such music was termed ‘isolationist’ and Harris wasn’t known as a troublemaker for publicly espousing different views to just about everybody else in the ‘biz’. Regardless of one’s thoughts on the latter, there’s no denying that Lull catches him as a master of his craft and Journey Through Underworlds not only compounds this early on but stands up to repeated listens even now. Mighty. (RJ)

MARGARIDA GARCIA & MANUEL MOTA Domestic Scene LP (Feeding Tube, USA, 2024)

While I’m familiar with some of Manuel Mota’s work, and have reviewed a couple of albums before, Margarida Garcia is a new name for me. Part of the same improv circuit Mota is part of in Lisbon, Portugal, she uses a bass next to his guitar. Over the four pieces that form Domestic Scene, both tease their respective instruments into shadowy swirls that undulate and gently fold over each other like the beckoning chasm they’re at the precipice of simply didn’t matter. As with all such music, however, it’s particularly rewarding when we learn it’s generated by real instruments and is as much about the control of the sounds as the organic interplaying and chemistry of the artists. In this respect, there’s a rich flow here that suggests Garcia and Mota have worked together before and are firmly locked on the same trajectory. Ultimately, and like all great improvised music, it is the result of something deeply intuitive and connected. A marvellous feat and one, indeed, that I’m finding difficult to stop listening to. (RJ)

MATHS BALANCE VOLUMES Cycles of Tonite LP (Penultimate Press, 2023)

I know nothing about this duo, but one of the charming factors about Mark Harwood’s Penultimate Press imprint is its putting out mostly obscure music of a wildly esoteric nature that appears to then have a captive audience courtesy of the label’s rather boutique appeal. I have been known to criticise the hipster aura of boutique labels, but there’s no denying Mark’s commitment to digging up some real gems overrides such pettiness and, f**k, maybe I’m way off anyway. Mark’s done many trades with me in recent times and appears to be, above all else, somebody whose passion for music has taken him to some fantastic releases that have earned a loyal set of supporters. More power to him, especially if able to put out wonderful fare such as Cycles of Tonite. The bizarrely named Maths Balance Volumes appear to have cut their teeth on the DIY circuit where CDRs and lo-fi recordings tend to hold court, but in over 20 years of existence they’ve had a number of vinyl and CD albums out as well. The eleven songs here exude a basement feel where one can almost feel the dust swirling and stirring between the cracks of these creaking ’n’ broken minimalist settings where guitar strings are gently plucked to accompany found sounds and a voice at once haunted and nostalgic. This is deeply reflective and insular folk of a ravaged nature, although ‘Forming a Round’ resembles something more archaic and wouldn’t feel at all out of place on The Wicker Man OST. The original film that is. The remake doesn’t count. (RJ)

MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO & MERZBOW ////Extinct LP (Cold Spring, 2024)

Two side-long forays into a heady and nicely tumultuous collision of rhythms ’n’ noise from Jack Dangers and Masami Akita. This is a powerful collaboration that actually makes a lot of sense given both artists’ prowess in sculpting polished and crystalline shards of sound from the end of the spectrum that has its eye on high production values. Not convinced anybody could dance appropriately to this without first hitting a line of Special K, though. (RJ)

MODELBAU Blackout LP (Love Earth Music, USA, 2024)

Adorned with a couple of photos by Serhiy Ristenko of Kyiv in the winter of 2022 during a Russian bombardment, Blackout collects two lengthy tracks by Frans de Waard’s current project that are suitably understated and refined in nature and actually suggest the unease in the stillness the city has often been locked in ever since. Crisp tones not unlike the one found as TV shut down for the night as a kid commence the proceedings and gently converge before all kinds of other electronic whispers, murmurs and textures enter the fray and tug us along a journey that, towards the end of the second side, concludes with sombre keys and an overwhelming feeling of despair, despondency or helplessness difficult to counter. Having only heard one CD album by Modelbau before, I’m not sure how Blackout stands alongside the mountain of other releases by this concern, but I have to admit being surprised by the strong emotional undertow to a release that’s essentially minimal and near-ambient. Frans has done himself proud with this album. I certainly hope there’ll be more like this to come. (RJ)

MOLJEBKA PVLSE Topography of Frequency and Time CD (Drone Records, Germany, 2024)

Consisting of one piece that spans almost 70 minutes,Topography of Frequency and Time is the latest album by Sweden’s Mathias Josefson, whose work generally falls under the dark ambient umbrella. This work is no exception with its lengthy trawl through foggy textures, moody swells and subtle background sounds woven in for added effect. There’s no denying that it’s well-crafted and listenable, but my problem with such fare is that little of it is possessed of its own identity. I really crave another Contrastate when it comes to such music. While they merely play with some of its tropes, they go way beyond and do so much more than something like this. That’s not to suggest this is bad, either. It’s okay. Just not exceptional. (RJ)

MANUEL MOTA Isocèle CD (Headlights, Portugal, 2023)

During more recent years I seem to have picked up several albums by Portuguese guitarist/sound artist Manuel Mota, the person also behind the prolific Headlights label. Like many others of a similar disposition, it would be somewhat lazy to claim his work is unvarying in its nature, however. Rather, while it often deploys the similar strategy of using a heavily processed guitar as the starting point to improvisations in texture shaded both dark and light, the music is always nuanced and exploratory. Over the three cuts that constitute Isocèle, I am reminded somewhat of Lawrence English’s approach to generating immersive yet impressionistic compositions through what may well be limited means. The overall feel is one that’s assertive and confident rather than hazily half-formed. It’s music that doesn’t necessarily set out to convince anybody of anything yet does so, anyway. This is an artist who deserves to be heard. (RJ)

N(115)/BUND DES DRITTEN AUGES Ohne Titel LP (Auf Abwegen, Germany, 2023)

From what I can gather, N is German soundsmith Hellmut Neidhardt, who numbers every release he does consecutively, while Bund des Dritten Auges (or B.U.D.D.A.) is a collaboration between Sascha Stadlmeier (Emerge, plus Attenuation Circuit head honcho) and Chris Sigdell (B*tong, NID, Leaden Fumes, etc.), who’ve been operating for a few years and have a number of releases behind them already. The three cuts here catch all of them working together on drone-orientated compositions which mostly deploy guitars and a synth in a molten setting where indiscernible sounds and even unobtrusive babbling vocals furnish the proceedings with neatly hewn contours. Everything points to a deeply rewarding and immersive listen which especially pays off on headphones. Wonderful stuff. (RJ)

NAKTYS Liturgia CD (Zoharum, Poland, 2024)

Debut by a Polish guy who, over the course of the ten cuts here, blends castrated hip hop beats and EBM moves with pulverised electronics, serrated textures and cheesy growling vocals hard to take seriously. The sound of the village scowler. (RJ)

VIDNA OBMANA & PBK Monument of Empty Colours + Depression and Ideal 2CD (Zoharum, Poland, 2023)

This remastered reissue of these two albums originally released on cassette in 1989 actually appeared at the very end of 2022, but who is paying attention? Both albums collect a number of fantastic drone-based compositions, though. Of course, most of us by now have heard just about every drone-orientated piece of music and their various permutations known to man, but what sets both Vidna Obmana and PBK out from the rest is their own sense of craftsmanship. Even by 1989 both had been cultivating loops, tempered dissonance, subtly collaged sounds, tapes and other such sources for several years enough for them to have become adept at moulding them into drawn-out forms with just the right measures of depth and beauty to elevate them to the realms of the majestic. Since then, Vidna Obmana and PBK have only continued to aim even higher with their respective recordings but these collaborative works, meantime, pay testament to a mere couple of points on the journey that still stand head and shoulders over so much presently around. Majestic. (RJ)

THE ORPHANAGE COMMITTEE Continuities Vol.II. - In the Context of a Room CD (EE Tapes, Belgium, 2024)

Continuities Vol.1. represented The Orphanage Committee’s debut album (also on EE Tapes) in 2022 and saw the project unfurling five well-crafted ambient electronic pieces which set the tone for where this follow-up proceeds. While there’ve been a few other albums during the interim which touch on similar territory, the Continuities volumes released thus far appear to be the most focussed with their drive to tease contemporary ambient music beyond more or less template fare and into a space infused with personality. On one hand, there appear to be clear references to the minimalism of Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine whilst, on the other, there’s a richness of sound that elevates everything to a space partly occupied by the fantastically tempered crystalline sheen of Eliane Radigue. Ultimately, this second volume sits very comfortably alongside all of those exponents of the genre, perfectly illustrating The Orphanage Committee deserves far more recognition than the one presently consigned to very limited CD releases. Fantastic music I only hope at least a few more people will discover. (RJ)

OSLO TAPES Starin’ at the Sun Before Goin’ Blind CD (Pe**te Creativity Contamination System, Italy, 2024)

This starts out sounding like an outtake for The Cure’s Disintegration album before then sliding into similar territory to where all from Bitch Magnet to Mogwai and some of the early Kranky mob emanated from. Quite powerful at times, all of the songs by this Italian group are at least charged with a carefully honed dynamism steeped in atmosphere and twilight moodiness. No surprise that Amaury Cambuzat of Ulan Bator produced this, either. A huge sign of approval right there. (RJ)

SEQUENCES Água Viva CD (Elevator Bath, USA, 2024)

Sequences’ Niels Geybels has been navigating his own way through ambient music’s murkier waters for many years now and has a considerable number of releases behind him. Água Viva, the latest, collects eight pieces titled after chapters in Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector’s experimental novel from 1973 that this album is named after. Each composition, using the sound of water, modular synth, zither, guitar and other sources, presents a well-crafted drift through cinematic ambience enriched with a wide range of subtly hewn clanks, clunks, rumbles and general tumultuousness that add flavour. It’s a fine addition to the canon of such music that succeeds in its ability to draw you along its entire journey before wishing to repeat it. If one must create ambient music these days (and, without doubt, only too many do), then this is how you do it. (RJ)

THE STARGAZER’S ASSISTANT Fire Worshipper CD (Zoharum, Poland, 2023)

The fourth album from this London trio who have, between them, a rich pedigree behind them that includes having been involved with Five Or Six, Shock Headed Peters, Coil, The Witching Tale, Current 93 and others. This perhaps goes some way to underlining a mature and confident approach to their brand of mantric psychedelia-drenched songs that come across like how I always hoped Ya Ho Wa or The Incredible String Band would. Added to this are neat comtemporary electronic undercurrents and slightly malignant atmospherics occasionally giving way to something a whole lot lighter, but it all makes for an engaging listen so well executed it’ll pull you to the end and back to the start. Really enjoyed the compilation CD Zoharum released by this group as well. My kinda late evening music and, needless to say, deserving of far more attention. (RJ)

THE TELESCOPES Experimental Health CD (Cold Spring, 2023)

This is the second album for Cold Spring by The Telescopes, a group who I tended to ignore in the late ’80s and early ’90s for their being indie darlings much vaunted by the weekly music press. Well, perhaps my music interests were being cast elsewhere as well because plenty of press attention didn’t stop me enjoying Loop, Spacemen 3, Terminal Cheesecake, Godflesh and the like. It might have been that I simply didn’t like the sound of The Telescopes due to their being described as shoegaze. My bad, anyway, as the albums on Cold Spring, both now amounting to pretty much solo releases by Telescopes’ founder Stephen Lawrie, appear to fuse a basement fug with suitably laconic vocals, drone-noise and a contemporary psychedelic sheen that lends itself to neat experimental touches. Experimental Health is no exception and during the course of its ten tracks, including a couple of remixes by artists completely unknown to me, delivers more in the way of hazy, scuffed and occasionally snarling garage tumult spitting at the stars above. I am now hoping Cold Spring will reissue some of the older albums as I believe this is one journey I should have paid more attention to. Curse my ignorance. (RJ)

TORN BOYS 1983 CD + DVD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2024)

Fairly comprehensive document of a group from California who formed in 1982 and only existed for around a year before the members later became the slightly better known (emphasis on slightly!) Shiva Burlesque and Grant Lee Buffalo. Initially formed by a coupla friends once given to doing acoustic covers of songs by Television and the Velvets it’s easy to see how such groups helped inform the material. Although using a modulator, drum machine and synth, the songs are possessed of a dark psychedelic fervour that also feels inspired by the post-punk landscape of the time. Beginning with ‘See Through My Eyes’, which almost sounds like something The 13th Floor Elevators could have written, the songs soon broadly assume a flavour that wouldn’t seem out of place alongside either The Red Crayola or Nice Strong Arm, while a track like ‘Fountain of Blood’ is enriched with an air of menace more befitting the sound of Sheffield, circa 1978. It’s an interesting retrospective that’s often raw or rough around the edges yet catches a group honing a variety of influences into a sound looking at the future whilst adding something to a sonic narrative that really took hold in the late 1960s. Anybody with an interest in post-punk, art rock or the nascent neo-psychedelia sound which especially gripped the US, Australia and NZ during the early ’80s should find much to savour here. The bonus DVD includes four of the songs on the CD, but unfortunately I don’t have a means to play it for now. Stunning IPR presentation once again, though. (RJ)

WOO Xylophonics/Robot X 2CD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2024)

This London duo formed by brothers Clive and Mark Ives in the early ’80s began, like so many others at the time, by producing their own music on cassettes nobody else heard. Utilising electronics, keyboards, xylophone, percussion and other instruments, Woo created measured, hypnotic and melodic instrumentals which drew from ambient, breezy jazz and experimental music. Over the course of this double-CD set of previously unreleased material, I was reminded at times of Will Sergeant’s Themes for Grind album, some easier listening later Residents and, especially, Jean-Jacques Perrey. The music hangs softly in the air and permeates with a lounge-like quality that always suggests something richer and more spacey yet never strays from being pretty easy listening. It almost seems postmodern and ironic yet clearly isn’t. Instead, it’s the product of two guys simply dedicated to crafting often meditative music tinged with elements which buoy it beyond becoming dull or one-dimensional. I can’t say it wooed (hoho!) me enough to investigate the rest of their back catalogue, but it’s certainly interesting. Fantastic IPR packaging as usual as well, and if you don’t know what that means then you’re missing out. (RJ)

BOOKS

AMERICA'S GREATEST NOISE! by Frans de Waard (Korm Plastics, 146pp, softcover, 2024)

It had been a few years at least since RRRecords appeared on my radar, but from the late ’80s until the end of the following decade Ron Lessard, the owner of the label, shop and mail order behind this moniker, was in touch quite frequently and sometimes trading against releases of my own. These traded packages of records I received from RRRon often included his distinctive catalogues printed on light grey paper and bursting at the seams with often unfamiliar names from the worlds of underground electronic music, noise and general weirdsh*t. Besides RRRon’s own junk-noise project Emil Beaulieau gracing the pages with numerous cassette, CDr and vinyl releases, one could get lost in similar such fare from all over the globe by luminaries from AMK, John Duncan, Toy Bizarre, Thomas Dimuzio, Crank Sturgeon, The Haters, Prick Decay, P16.D4 and PGR to more established names such as Nurse With Wound and Merzbow. While I didn’t share quite the same passion for so much in the way of non-music and unbridled electronic storm-making, I loved the fact RRRecords existed and created a space for so much of this material to exist. Although there were plenty of others operating in a similar sphere, I also believe it is fair to say that none quite matched RRR’s virtually molten level of intensity. RRRon’s passion and dedication to sounds mostly generated by bedroom terrorists given to assembling their own gizmos or squeezing all kinds of harsh sonics from instruments that no longer resembled them truly was on another level.

America’s Greatest Noise!, put together by a man perfect for the job, Frans de Waard, unpacks where RRRon’s interest in such music first sprang from before then becoming his all-consuming point of focus. Sourced from a collection of interviews, we are treated to a first-person narrative of RRRon’s going from being a music obsessed teenager to his getting a chance to own a shop to beginning the label to travelling all over the place with Emil Beaulieau. Along the way, there are stories galore, anecdotes and plenty of insight into RRRon’s unique position on everything he has done, including how discerning he mostly has been with selecting artists for his label and how he has handled certain others there who’ve been awkward to deal with. Through all these often amusing asides and accounts, one arrives at the impression RRRon is a prime example of somebody serious about his interests while not so serious about life and all the bu****it embedded in it. It is precisely this absurdist take on matters that has partly driven his activities. Equally as importantly, however, he comes over as someone honest, sincere and prone to encouraging others wherever possible.

The book takes us from the beginning to the position RRR is at now, whereby it presently functions mostly as a record shop that operates for a few hours a day and the label’s activities have largely wound down, while Emil Beaulieau hasn’t performed live for well over a decade and rarely releases anything new. Given that RRRon is now at retirement age this is hardly surprising, though.

It is an interesting story, anyway. I only sense that it could have been longer as, with fewer than 85 pages dedicated to RRRon’s activities in his own words, the reader is left feeling that perhaps more could have been said. These pages, however, are further fleshed out by flyers, old label ads and reprinted ‘zine interviews (that, to be fair, don’t add much to the main dish served here), overtly helping to add a little extra weight to a book which ultimately feels deserved. Labels such as RRRecords are from a time when the more aberrant ends of underground music truly needed the oxygen of their enthusiasm and commitment. While there are plenty of others still around or even springing up to replace those no longer active, few have scaled quite the same heights as RRRecords.

The book arrives with half a flexi disc featuring some convo between Frans de Waard and RRRon which slots easily alongside the latter’s dedication to what he deemed ‘anti-records’ (records treated in a way they’re either unplayable or can only be used to create noise), capturing the spirit brilliantly.

If you have any interest in noise and experimental music, or more importantly own at least a few releases on RRR (as I do!), then this book comes highly recommended. (RJ)

MENACE: PROG, PUNK, SKINHEADS & SERENDIPITY by Paul Marko softcover book, 506pp (Punk77, 2023)

Whilst punk now seems so historic most references to it outside that context are broadly meaningless, it’s fair to say there are still plenty of people around who were initially inspired by it to do something that’s been an integral part of their lives ever since. One of the things so great about it was its wide reach, attracting all from council estate oiks to middle-class art snobs and beyond. This in itself has led to countless debates ever since concerning whether something or someone was authentically ‘punk’ or not, or indeed how ‘punk’ should be defined in the first place. I always preferred to remain outside such puerile squabbling, however, as I accepted decades ago that part of punk’s appeal was its being open to interpretation and meaning something different to everybody who took something from it. The very fact it inspired everybody from Joy Division, Killing Joke and Modern English to The Damned, Menace, UK Subs and The Ruts, to name but a few, is what helped make it so unique. To that end, my own interest in it didn’t generally gravitate towards the more directly rock ’n’ roll side of things, but that’s not to suggest I didn’t dabble with any or could never appreciate a solid song or the sheer energy at large. I bought all kinds of 7” singles as a teen navigating my way through punk and its cousins in electronic and post-industrial music, anyway, and certainly picked up a number on Small Wonder, including Menace’s ‘GLC’, a blistering rabble-rouser that should have seen the group reach the top of the charts when it was first released in 1978. Instead, like countless others, the group were unjustly sidelined and never really made it beyond the pub and small venue circuit they cut their teeth on (at least until annual punk festivals became popular).

It is probably fair to say my interest in the group didn’t extend much further than that one single, but last year I was kindly offered a copy of this book and only recently had a chance to finally read it. Well researched, it assembles an extensive collection of anecdotes, interview quotes (mostly from material conducted exclusively for the book), archive material and suchlike that then maps out the history of the band from their early incarnation as ’70s hippie rockers Stonehenge, through their transmogrification to poppy new wavers The Aces as the ’70s tailed off and all the way through every incarnation leading to the very latest version of the group where only founder and drummer/vocalist Noel Martin is the surviving original member. Mostly centred around Noel, the book includes contributions from others involved in the group, old and new, as well as those who’ve worked with them at different points throughout a career that’s now well into its fifth decade. Amongst those included are Jill Furmanovsky, Mark Perry, Nicky Tesco (The Members), Pete Stennett (Small Wonder Records), various members of early support regulars Rottin’ Klitz, Garry Bushell, Alan Hauser (Fresh Records), Jennie Russell-Smith (Rebellion festival) and many more besides. Everything heads towards painting a picture of an earnest and hardworking group whose appeal should have perhaps reached further than those simply into so-called street punk or working class chantalongs purely on account of both their commitment to crafting often abrasive yet highly melodic songs and, indeed, having been a huge inspiration for oi and some hardcore punk. Once more, none of this especially touches on my own interests in music, but I believe Menace and some of their immediate peers deserve their place for having cranked a basic rock ’n’ roll formula into somewhere new and exciting as punk took hold in the late ’70s. It’s too easy to sit back and sneer at the many shortcomings afforded by punk now that we’re all older and more jaded, but the fact of the matter is that songs such as Menace’s ‘Last Year’s Youth’ or ‘I’m Civilised’ sit pretty comfortably near the cream of the ’77/’78 crop before the likes of PiL, the Banshees, Gang of Four, Alternative TV, Wire, Crisis, the Bunnymen, etc. remapped everything. I always liked the fact that punk energised urban youths who’d otherwise just get lost in hopeless jobs with little future as well as ‘arty wankers’ whose pretentious concepts attempted to tear apart rock music’s straitjacket. For myself as a teen, it was all exciting and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

As the story of Menace unfolds, replete with its own tragedies and many setbacks (including the loss of original vocalist Morgan to a suspected drug overdose), it’s hard not to feel moved by Noel’s plight and, more importantly, his sheer determination to keep everything moving forward regardless. Between him and the other reflections sewn into the book, we get quite a vivid picture of how things were in ‘70s London and, indeed, the nascent punk scene they instantly felt belonged to them and compelled them to be a part of. Paul Marko’s own setbacks include an apparent need for an editor and several proofreads, but he still successfully pulls together a story of a person clearly on a very singular quest that’s realised by many collaborators and helpers along the way. To that end, it is an enjoyable book that pays a long overdue tribute to a group that doubtlessly always deserved a bigger slice of the cake. I might not get the literary references and suchlike I always craved in music as well from it (I have the latest Lol Tolhurst book for that!), but I do have a greater understanding of the resolve driving Noel and his gang. From skinhead to rocker to punk and on to family man still very much on a mission, it’s difficult for me to not appreciate Noel as somebody never once unprepared to try and do something with his life. On a rudimentary level, I like that quality whenever I see it, generally. Even more so, I can thoroughly enjoy a book that helps to paint another corner of the picture I was also initially inspired by when fortified by the very same passion and drive that took countless people in all manner of different directions.

The book also arrives with a CDr featuring some Stonehenge, early Menace demos and a few tracks by The Aces. You might not imagine so from the questionable name, but Stonehenge are surprisingly good as well. Would have been good if it’d been a proper CD, though. (RJ)