Bavarian Fire Drill - British Space Programme (Milgram Records - ambient synth)

A new Bavarian Fire Drill EP. More ambient synth gurgle. Loosely based around the history of the British Space Programme. An interesting short piece about that is here - http://lapsedhistorian.com/an-empire-of-stars/.

Basic House - Oats (Alter)

Murky electronics on Alter from blokey from Opal Tapes/Drunk In Hell. The album is called Oats so am I allowed to make a godawful pun about how the house might have a hall in it? Screw you.

Boomkat are selling the FLAC. Here's their blurb:-

Opal Taper, Stephen Bishop's intrepid Basic House project is steadily becoming one of the most fascinating off-road electronic projects around. 'Oats', for Luke Younger's highly esteemed Alter imprint, places him in good company alongside textural and rhythmic explorers such as Jamal Moss, Helm and Damien Dubrovnik. It's his 2nd album of 2013 after the crumbling deconstructions of 'Caim In Bird Form' for Digitalis, and finds his sound at once congealing and diffusing with a unique sonic syntax. Textural decay demarcates its six tracks, flowing from the buckled tape loops and guttural bass thump of 'AR II' to the soiled grunge techno of 'Child Confession' by way of a trans-temporal fag break of porno lite keys and a gasping vocal fragment before heading back into the concrète workshop ambience of 'Interiors' to close the first side. On the second, 'Est Oan' features a chamber group of swirling shapes and acephalic voices, before the grotty expanse of 'B.G. Feathers' crackins with distortion before the sinkhole of 'Dry Contact' slowly swallows its contents in a gurgling muck soup. Like any good and properly *new* music, Basic House is breaking down convention and rebuilding new forms with each subsequent release...

Vladislav Delay

Fact Mag have a rather good run down of the essential Vladislav Delay.. From that, I discovered that Vladislav Delay has a bandcamp page with loads of his albums and EPs on.

Vladislav Delay is pretty much essential if you're into electronic music and the more experimental end of techno. it's all ridiculously well produced and thought out.

Worth tracking down the issue of The Wire with a massive interview with him. Just look at these pictures of his studio!

Orgone Accumulators - august 2013 demo

THE GREATEST MUSIC YOU WILL EVER HEAR IN YOUR LIFE!!!!!

Yeah, I'm a bit biased cos I made it but it is worth a listen. Started as an attempt to make an electronica version of Man Or Astroman? Ended up as some kind of synth-y lo-fi indie thing?

Meridian Brothers - Desesperanza (Soundway)

One of those bands that's impossible to describe. Think a mix of The Residents, Ethiopiques compilations, 60s surf instrumentals, old 60s electronics and Latin American psych stuff like Os Mutantes and that Tropicalia compilation Soul Jazz put out.

This Colombian band are dead tuneful but in a really bizarre way. Highly recommended though.





Oh, and they've also done one of the strangest covers of Purple Haze I've heard



Boomkat is the place for FLAC of this

Richard Pinhas - Desolation Row

Two awesome things to note. Firstly, there's a new Richard Pinhas album and it's sounding pretty damn good. Secondly, Cuneiform Records have put tons of their back catalogue up on bandcamp.

If you're unaware of who Richard Pinhas is then you need to get your lugholes around Stand By by Heldon. Wild 70s French prog rock band. King Crimson and Magma type freakouts. Essential stuff.



Richard Pinhas's solo stuff is a bit Fripp & Eno but minus any kind of 'ambient' Eno influence. He did a collaboration record with Merzbow for fucks sake.

Anyway, if you love genuinely innovative and unique guitar stuff then you need to at least check out some of his stuff.

Perturbator - I Am The Night

 

This is absolutely superb! This album is described as "80s" and one of the tracks is titled "Technoir"... so you can probably guess by now what to expect from this. Yes, total 80s scifi movie soundtrack worship! Really solid stuff; driving, pumping, sexy, synthy, utterly evocative of every 80s trashy scifi/action film I grew up absolutely loving.

To every person who grew up in the 80s and has seen The Terminator about ten million times (so, me then) you will fucking love this!

Om Unit - Aeolian EP

Some top notch post dubstep/UK garage underground beat stuff.

Bits of it even remind me of things like Tricky and Massive Attack. Particularly Dark Sunrise with Tamara Blessa. It's worth posting the video for that as well.



Shifts in between kind of dark down tempo stuff like that to full on drum and bass spliced up breaks. Kind of a nice surprise as you don't hear them too often now. At least not in stuff like this.

Boomkat are also selling it - http://boomkat.com/downloads/549904-om-unit-aeolian-reso-sweatson-klank-mixes

and this is their blurb which is probably a better description:-

Something of a producer's producer, Jim Om Unit rarely disappoints in his releases, but recently he seems to have found a particularly rich vein of form and is producing some of the most confident, club-destroying and ear-kissing gear of his career. 'Ulysses' is a more delicate take on the juke-jungle hybridising of he and Machinedrum's Dream Continuum project, with nods to the original garage ravers but moreover the rain-slicked cityscapes evoked by Kuedo and the sighing, synthed-out R&B vistas of Clams Casino et al. 'Dark Sunrise' is an out-and-out dubstep killer, with irresistible vamps, ruffneck subs and spry, impeccably LDNish vocals courtesy of Tamara Blessa. 'Fumes' and 'Lightworkers Call' (a Kromestar collaboration) are satisfying syntheses of dreamy instrumentation and rudeboy stoppage, and as with 'Dark Sunrise' the rhythms deftly suggest that hip-hop and dubstep might be closer cousins than is usually admitted. The footwork futurism returns for 'Slowfast Matrix' and Sweatson Clank's remix of 'Ulysses', and the same track gets a fabulous, unexpected d'n'b makeover - with shades of circuit-fried Rephlex/Warp braindance - by Reso.

Pye Corner Audio - Sleep Games (Ghost Box)

FLAC available from Boomkat for £6.99

A synth soundtrack to a memory of 60s & 70s concrete Britain.Somewhere between the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and John Carpenter. John Carpenter at his most restrained though. Not in a bad way, just it's not bombastic soundtrack stuff. More like if John Carpenter wore tweed and did a soundtrack for Kes.

It's on Ghost Box so you know full well it's going to be high quality. It fits quite nicely into the whole hauntological Ghost Box thing besides Belbury Poly and The Advisory Circle. The artwork is typically top notch. Maintains that 60s/70s Open University look. Also has some great liner notes. I always like an album with liner notes. Feels like there's a bit more thought gone into it.

The liner notes are all about "parapsychological disturbances" are public buildings made of concrete. There's JG Ballard quotes and something about "inorganic demons" infiltrating people by Reza Negarestani from something called Cyclonopedia: Complicity With Anonymous Materials. All very odd but all a very perfect fit the music and the artwork.

It's a step up from the Black Mill Tapes double LP we reviewed earlier this year - http://spoonfuloftar.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/pye-corner-audio.html. The music on those was fantastic but this feels more complete as a conceptual whole. Music is still fantastic though.

Definitely on my "best albums of the year" list.

FLAC available from Boomkat for £6.99

And here's their blurb which should entice you even more (oh, and it also made The Wire's Top 50 of the year as well):-

Pye Corner Audio's darkling synthetic transmissions had been hovering under the radar for a couple of years before 2012's Black Mill Tapes collection on Type brought them to a wider and grateful audience. Now, Martin Jenkins finds himself equally lauded by the likes of Sandwell District's Juan Mendez and Minimal Wave's Veronica Vasicka as by the UK hauntological set - a testament to the scope and adaptability of his stygian productions. Nonetheless, this album release feels right at home on Ghost Box, and it follows Jenkins' contribution to the label's 7" Study Series last year. If The Black Mill Tapes focussed on the unheimlich but decidedly driving meta-techno side of the Pye sound, Sleep Games gives as much time to exploring its more abstract and oneiric peripheries. Nonetheless, rhythm is foregrounded throughout: from the woozy, tape-warped Boards of Canada-ism of 'Sleep Games', via the Xander Harris/Umberto-esque giallo-disco chug of 'The Black Mill Video Tape' through to the distant, dubby pulse of 'Palais Spectres' and the rolling toms of 'Underneath The Dancefloor'. Eschewing the tweeness which has arguably softened the impact of recent Ghost Box releases, Sleep Games is refreshingly drug-hazed and zonked-out yet shark-eyed, minimalist and full of post-apocalyptic, cold-wave menace: you can more easily imagine this stuff soundtracking a car ride through the deserted industrial zones of coastal America than a ramble round the Belbury parish and its bucolic environs. At the same time, this feels like a Ghost Box release through and through: 'Print Through' is a radiophonic seance right from the grimoire of Eric Zann, 'Deep End' has the school textbook sci-fi sigh of classic Belbury Poly and 'Yesterday's Enemy' the occult public service broadcasting vibe of early Advisory Circle.

Lee Gamble - Diversions 1994-1996 LP (Pan)

Lee Gamble 'Diversions 1994-1996' (PAN 33) from PAN on Vimeo.

Buy here - http://boomkat.com/downloads/593097-lee-gamble-diversions-1994-1996

It's on Pan so you know you're in for some top notch experimental electronic music. It's had rave reviews everywhere and I'm not going to dissent here. It's definitely one of the most interesting things I've heard in a while. Both the idea and the execution are spot on.

Basically, it's a cut up mix of the ambient bits on old jungle mixtapes. As a teenager this guy collected them (presumably between 1994 and 1996). He takes the bits where the million mile an hour drums stopped. The calm in the middle of the storm bits. And turns them into something new.

Musically it stands up without needing to know the concept as well. All woozey and hazy.

Give the video above a spin. If you like that you'll like the whole thing. Bought the vinyl as Pan's record packaging is always spot on but Boomkat are selling the FLAC for a quite reasonable £4.99 - http://boomkat.com/downloads/593097-lee-gamble-diversions-1994-1996

Mark Fell - Sentielle Objectif Actualite (Editions Mego)

Bought this from Boomkat this morning. Go get it here - http://boomkat.com/downloads/550998-mark-fell-sentielle-objectif-actualit

This is Mark Fell who is one half of SND who've put plenty of stuff out on Mille Plateux and Raster Noton. We're talking super chin scratchy abstract electronic stuff. With this project he's gone a bit more house.

According to Resident Advisor:- The package centres on remixes of the three 12-inch singles so far (3.333... should drop shortly) on Sensate Focus, the Editions Mego sub-label set-up at the start of 2012 to house off-kilter house explorations from the Snd member. While traditional genre tropes were fully utilized on the recordings, Fell tampered heavily with house's rhythmic structure to evoke "slightly unusual beats," sounded out by Roland drum machines and the like.

And yes, even by underground house standards this is "unusual".

It has a really nice effect though. You get the clinical, cerebral Raster Noton thing but with nice washes of sound and hints of an actual tune. Definitely something for repeated listens.

Old Apparatus - Realise

AVAILABLE FROM BOOMKAT HERE - http://boomkat.com/downloads/564011-old-apparatus-realise-ep

Creepy and dusty electronic music. Maybe a bit like Burial. Definitely not d*b s**p though. All a bit odd.

The Boomkat write up explains it reasonably well:-

The second EP salvo on the Old Apparatus collective's recently minted Sullen Tone label, and it's quality all the way, this time credited as the solo work (more or less) of LTO . 'Chicago' ain't no acid house jam, rather it's a grave little number propelled by maudlin piano arpeggios and chopped-up steppers' drums - if you've been digging Four Tet and Burial's recent gear, you'll dig this, it has a similar balance of melodic drama and dancefloor fire. 'Found' and the more subdued 'Realise' nod to second generation IDM and Warp Records, numerous acoustic and electronic elements woven into expansive, beautifully textured tapestries, at once contributing to and buffeted by compellingly abstract, unpredictable rhythms. The scuttling, crepuscular electro of 'Holding' provides the highlight for us: it has a truly sinister edge to it, with hints of the more low-slung among AFX's Analord productions, and even some well-turned noir-jazz flourishes a la Photek.

More than worth the £2.95 it costs to buy the FLAC.

Stratus - As The Crow Flies

Pye Audio Corner make up half Stratus so you know it's probably going to be good. There's some real instruments thrown into the mix with the synths. The words folk and psychedelic are mentioned and that's fair enough. Perhaps if the last Belbury Poly LP went a bit Stereolab.

The psychedelic stuff is quite restrained and pleasant. Controls being set for the heart of the living room with a nice cup of tea rather than the centre of the sun.

I can't quite place what other bands this reminds me of. A good thing I suppose. Occasionally it sounds like old film music but not quite to the point of being library music. The fuzzy guitar bits sometimes sound like the really mellow bits on a total funk OST.

Their owns words seem to explain things quite well:-

Stratus are Mat Anthony and Martin Jenkins, two English gents whose love for warped soundtracks, fuzzed-out psychedelia and analog aesthetics is distilled in the bittersweet harmonies and wistful bliss of their songs, taking in everything from sublime pastoral electronics through to string-laden cosmic rock.

Their long-awaited second album 'As the Crow Flies' is the follow-up to their acclaimed debut 'Fear of Magnetism' (which spawned the epic single 'Uplink') and was recorded over the past few years with both parties taking time out along the way - Mat producing psych edits and surf noir for Vintage Rockers and Martin making solo releases for Joakim’s Tigersushi label and the haunting synthesizer transcripts of the Black Mill Tapes trilogy as Pye Corner Audio.

A fascination for French cinematic composers of the 60s and 70s such as Francois de Roubaix and Jean-Claude Vannier was fuelled after remixing Serge Gainsbourg in their early days as a production duo and these influences weigh heavy in lush orchestral arrangements, stripped psych rock rhythms, enigmatic synths and music-box melodies. Fragments of guitar and piano combine with celestial strings while occasional vocals swirl through with pedal steel, driving brass and organ drones drenched in worn spring reverb. As the Crow Flies offers a glimpse into hidden places at the edge of memory... an unhurried, bittersweet soundtrack that revels in elegant disrepair and bucolic delight.

Heatsick - Deviation 12" (Pan)

I'm slightly amazed that all these sounds come out of an old casio keyboard.

Wait, got to start the review again. Made the classic error of playing the record at 45rpm rather than 33rpm. Took a while and then there were some chipmunk vocals. "Wait a second" i thought......

Sounds good at either speed though. Always the sign of a good record! It's kind of outsider techno. Someone from the experimental leftfield doing techno so it's got a weird and woozey feel to it that straight techno doesn't. It's all very intricate and thoughtfully constructed though. Like all techno it's building blocks are repatitive motifs of drum machine and synth parts. But it's all from an old casio keyboard which gives it a very unique sound although not one you'd immediately associate with casio keyboards. At some points it's got a sound reminiscent of the initial 80s electro stuff when the rules of techno hadn't been set in stone. Kind of a more on-the-fly i-wonder-what-this-button-does ooh-that-sounds-good thing.

It's on Pan Records who are becoming an experimental label you can really trust to put out quality stuff. None of that thrown together in 20 minutes shitty noise CDr thing here. They always have great packaging too. This Heatsick 12" looks like some kind of giant mint with the white vinyl and the green design screened onto the clear sleeve.

You can also get a FLAC version of it from Boomkat for the very reasonable price of £2.95 - http://boomkat.com/downloads/547979-heatsick-d-viation. And this is what they had to say about it:-

Berlin's Steven Warwick aka Heatsick brings his sultry, sexy hypno-disco back to PAN on this kaleidoscopic four-track EP. An exercise in making the most of what you've got, 'Déviation' explores all of his Casio keyboard's moistest functions to create glistening lo-fi dance tracks that glow with a smudged rainbow of influences spanning Fela Kuti to Todd Terry while reminding of everyone from his peer Design A Wave, right thru to Omar Souleyman. That title track finds pure pleasure in tweaking the Casio's basest Caribbean rhythms until their dry frictions drip, evolving from a skeletal Dancehall-Disco grind into slow-motion synth cascade with illusive sleight of hand. This is followed by the perambulating 'C'était un Rendez-vous', a slack-hipped strutter locked into a lather of decelerated House chords and walking bassline creating a balmy atmosphere for your boy's drawled vocal and smooth-to-free sax licks from André Vida. Flipside they boost the BPM's by ooh, at least 10, for the grubbily mesmerising 'Stars Down To Earth' and the concluding jack of 'No Fixed Address', the 12"'s most obvious nod to Todd Terry's blocky party jams. For fans of 100% Silk, Ron Hardy or Jamal Moss, this is just on-it.

There will probably be more stuff getting reviewed with links to buy it from Boomkat. The electronic music world seems to have it's shit together so much better in terms of having independent digital shops.

Nurse With Wound - Homotopy To Marie

Nurse With Wound are one of the classics of British experimental music. Often lumped in with industrial as they were from the same era and their paths crossed quite often in the whole early 80s noisey tape release thing. However, they were slightly more 'arty' or 'highbrow' or at least they weren't into the whole shock value/let's be extreme as possible thing.

It was all tape cut ups and sound experiments from people who'd immersed themselves in experimental music in the 70s. The Nurse With Wound List is an infamous list of obscure experimental music that was included in their first album. It's now almost a '101 Things You Must Hear If You're Into Experimental Music Before You Die' book.

Homotopy To Marie is their fifth album I think. It was one of the only ones Nurse With Wound had put on their bandcamp that I'd actually heard so that's why I'm posting it. It's as good an example of their stuff that you'll come across so worth checking out.

It's also good to see older independent musicians who may have been old-fogey-ish embracing digital stuff. It's also good that the money will be going straight to the artist as I believe Nurse With Wound got shafted when World Serpent Distribution collapsed.

Forward Strategy Group - Labour Division

Apologies but I'm not that good at describing techno. If my description fails to convince then let it be known that this album is my favourite techno thing in ages and I've been listening to it constantly for the past month or two. It's essential stuff.

It's got a stripped down industrial feel to it. I think I first read about Forward Strategy Group in an article describing them as bringing in elements of old industrial music and bleak British post-punk stuff. It's a fair point. Coil, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire and all that other good stuff. Inevitably that'll also bring up comparisons with the likes of Surgeon and Regis and all that Birmingham techno stuff but that's a compliment in my book.

At points it almost sounds like the clanking and scraping of machines making the sounds. It's incredibly well produced though and does that magic thing that the best techno does of being utterly complex without you realising it. It's definitely not from the recent scene of harsh noise heads dabbling with making techno. It's definitely folk who know exactly what they're doing.

As I said, I'm shite at describing techno but this is bloody brilliant.

Pye Corner Audio

Well, I'll be damned. I've always read their name as Pye Audio Corner but it's actually Pye Corner Audio. I guess it must have been some hauntological trick their music has played with my mind.



Now I haven't bought this digitally but that's because I've got the rather splendid limited double LP on Type Records. I think it might be hard to track down now though.

Pye Corner Audio exist in a similar space to all the Ghost Box stuff like Belbury Poly and The Advisory Circle. Kind of 70s library and synth music but very British. The name Black Mill Tapes makes me think of Yorkshire. Perhaps the soundtrack to a public information film about Shipley Market.

Sadly, I think that sign has now been removed. *angry fist waved at local councillors*

You know the rest of the deal - school television programmes, local radio theme tunes and warning films about drowning in reservoirs or electrocuted in substations. Actually, scratch the radio theme tunes because Pye Corner Audio don't go in for the chintzy melodic thing.

Basically, if you're into the whole Ghost Box thing then it'll be right up your street. I believe there's an LP on Ghost Box in the offing. Splendid stuff.

Here's a quick description from Boomkat who are also still selling the vinyl if you're that way inclined:-

His spellbinding works, now numbering two whole tapes, are spoken about in hushed tones by Moon Wiring Club, Ghost Box crew, Simon Reynolds and The Wire, and it's very easy to hear why. His music occupies that liminal nether zone at the peripheries of Hauntology and occult sonics, conducting wyrd experiments in the arts of electronic synthesis and memory transcription to create phantasmic Krautrock grooves and unheimlich, hollow drone spaces haunted by flickering tonal apparitions. It's often a lot less cute than the Ghost Box material, and by turns chillingly spooky, recalling bleaker ambient practices akin to Deathprod or Kevin Drumm, albeit with an Eldritch atmosphere siphoning the spirits of Mordant Music. Respect to Further Records for putting this out, it's an excellent release and should be hunted by any hauntologists.

.....they consume the senses with a cool-handed grasp of cinematic narration and mystical analogue production values at once evoking the soundtracks of mid-'60s Doctor Who, half-remembered Giallo missions and the home-smoked ambient techniques of early Boards Of Canada. There's also an underlying propulsion that pushes this collection forward, just perfect for narrowed-eye night drives (you'll want to listen to this alone; put a turntable on the passenger seat); learned and low slung rhythms which almost subliminally motor forward while faded melodies intimate a deeply layered personality which reveals new secrets with every listen. As anyone who knows this sound will cosign: it's an all too often imitated and hackneyed style. But we can sincerely say, this one really is a little bit special.

Tidal - Olympus

More far out underground synth/drone stuff. All under water and gurgly synths with pads reaching on forever.



BOD (2-(2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)-2-methoxyethanamine)

Tidal, the UK based Jimmy Billingham's otherworldly musical project has found a home on a variety of important underground labels from around the globe, we are finally lucky enough for him to join the Chemical Tapes family with his latest work entitled Olympus.

Is this a reference to soaring mountain peaks? If so this is the perfect soundtrack. 4 journeys spanning the c40 cassette take us on a trip of psychoactive shimmering ambience, there is a re-assuring warmth to the synth soundscapes across Olympus, keeping the listener engaged and locked into the eternal bliss.

Necro Deathmort - The Colonial Script

Finally got around to checking this lot out. Basic idea seems to be doom (or if you're Aquarius Records, dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom) but with loads of synths and horrid beats thrown in. We're talking post-Sunn doom and not rocking Black Sabbath riffs. It's got a bit of a Godflesh feel but then if you cross metal type stuff with synths/beats it's kind of inevitable. Reminds me a bit of Legion Of Two as well.



The plaudits continue for London duo Necro Deathmort. After quietly unleashing first album This Beat is Necrotronic onto an unsuspecting but appreciative world back in 2009, the pair released unanimously-praised Music of Bleak Origin in 2010, which saw them refine their doom-meets-heavy bass template to remarkable effect. No wonder that they have supported Ulver, Shining, and d.USK among others, added Roadburn, Sonar, Supersonic, Asymmetry to their ever-expanding festival list, and remixed the likes of Ulver and Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree). And now AJ Cookson and Matthew Rozeik go one step darker into the abyss with undoubtedly their strongest, heaviest and most accomplished album yet: The Colonial Script.

It's all what you expect and then some. Dingy, gritty sounds that creeps, lurks, builds, elongates, teases, and piledrives you in the face with switchblade beats and apocalyptic crescendos. And that's just in the first tune. Over the course of the nine tracks, you can expect to hear grainy, doomy ambience, whirlpools of 23hz low-end scuzz, acidburn waspsynth buzz, thudding and juddering feedback-ridden roars, distorted nihilistic yelps, doomscaping visceral breaks, buzzsawing smackstrung loops, all seamlessly weaved together in a brutal but beautiful tapestry. Maximum volume yields maximum results.

Oh, and you should just generally support Distraction Records. They've got a nice bandcamp page of weirdo sounds here - http://distractionrecords.bandcamp.com/. They also bung on lots of DIY gigs in Newcastle. They once put on one of my old bands, Unicorn Love and it was excellent.

Krampfhaft - Spit Thunder

The title track to this release is superb, like a stabbier Kuedo with a more electro Hip-Hop vibe. But the whole release is really good stuff, definitely worth checking out if you're into the Jamie Vex'd/Beaumont/London-Berlin electro-bass thing.