The Hafler Trio - Intoutof

Soleilmoon SOL14CD. 1998

More dark (even though the first half of it is clearly made with those whirly tube doofers) drone delight. Second half is harsh.

This is slower than the original vinyl, as they had to speed the tapes up to make it fit on each side of a record. Those crazy cats.

Lock the doors.

The Hafler Trio - Masturbatorium

Touch TONE1CD. 1991

The soundtrack to the Annie Sprinkle performance.

Eerie, and anything but erotic.

The Hafler Trio - Four Ways Of Saying Five

Soleilmoon KUT4. 1995

First track is a lengthy (48min) edit of lectures given in the Netherlands in the 80s, on the theories and writings of Robert Spridgeon. Though embelished with Hafler Trio drones and clickety-clacks, not exactly recreational listening. The subject matter is a bit too indepth to really grasp by listening, so I don't really see the point.

Second and final track is a montage of snippets of installation soundtracks and performances, and is easier (????) on the ear.

Difficult.

The Hafler Trio - Play The Hafler Trio

Staalplaat SPCD031. 1991

I've always had a lot of time for the work of Andrew McKenzie, though I'd stop short of the hero worship and labelling of 'genius' that some arseholes bestow all too lightly.

That was until he let myself and a colleague down badly by pulling out of a performance at the 11th hour, making us look shit and costing us a four-figure sum on non-refundable airfares, hotel bookings and publicity material. For no good reason. Twat.

This is THT in typical slow-building drone loop mode. No surprises, but very listenable.

Heligoland - Heligoland

Calcium Chloride CaCl003CD. 2000

My favourite band of all time was Talk Talk. Oh, what a sad day it was when they eventually split.

They couldn't have gone in much further directions than they did. While Mark Hollis stuck with the overall minimalistic, bleak feel of their last album, Laughing Stock, for his solo effort, Tim Friese-Green has picked up a guitar or two and some cheap keyboards, setting free his alt-rock alter-ego.

This is a beautiful record. Understated, seemingly effort-free. It sounds home-recorded, which it was, and has an honesty about it that would be hard to emulate in the studio. It sticks with the melancholia and general doom of Talk Talk's final foray ('We're all here to die. Put your head on the altar. Can you swear you've lived enough?'), but who needs happy-happy-joy-joy all the time?

Remind me a lot of The Auteurs, and his voice is often a bit John Lennon-ish - all good. There's a pointless version of Purple Haze hidden at the end which isn't worth waiting for. Other than that (and we probably can't count that since it isn't on the track list), 9 out of 10. Gold star.

Not to be mixed up with the Aussies who've nicked the name.

Holger Hiller - Demixed

Mute CDSTUMM102. 1992

All the greatness of the original tracks, shoved through a mangle and given a bit of a squeeze. I wouldn't say any of these are better than the starting material, but nothing comes across as too tragic, though track 8, XXX remixed by A.J. is a bit annoying and unnecessary.

I just noticed a sample from World Destruction by Timezone on this listen, which I've not made out before. There you go - I've achieved something today.

For fans of squeaky door samples.

Holger Hiller - As Is

Mute CDSTUMM60. 1991

Coming on like the bastard offspring of The Art of Noise and Coldcut. Twisted, but funny rather than bitter. Lots of interesting sample use and groovy throughout.

Andrew Hodson - In Your Heart You Will Find Your Dreams

(No label info) TR00001. 2005

More masterful musicality from the Shandy. This was the result of a project at Royal Bolton Hospital's mental health unit, using found sound and recordings of performances of 'service users' and staff.

The result is quite diverse, but always enjoyable. So much so I considered releasing it myself to give it exposure beyond the 1000 copies produced for press, funders, friends and hospital use. It seemed to be getting a bit complicated with all the money people involved, so it never happened. Shame.

Andrew Hodson - Map Music

Beautiful Pigeon EON10. 2003

A soundtrack to a journey on the Tyne and Wear Metro system by Newcastle-based nice guy and all round musical wunderkind Mr Andy H (also responsible for The Matinee Orchestra).

Lots of manipulated field recordings, squeeky bleeps and all round pleasantness. Worth digging out, though I haven't made the train journey with the headphones on yet.

BeautifulPigeon.co.uk

A Hawk And A Hacksaw - The Way The Wind Blows

Leaf BAY51CD. 2006

More of the same, and what's wrong with that. Very bleak feel to this.

Sex For Ollie / Random Felch - tracks from 'Killed By The Machinery Of Sorrow' compilation CD

MORE OF MY MUSICAL MAYHEM.

Ecocentric Records ER103CD. 1991

This German label asked me for some tracks to go on this comp, and I obliged.

This was very early Sex For Ollie. In fact, the first track is a re-recording of the very first SFO track ever. Once again, this was all a bit hurried as he needed them straight away. Pretty simplistic stuff with very obvious sample sources, but I wasn't trying to be clever. Just mucking about really.

The Random Felch tracks were recorded in NF's bedroom, with 6 of us plugged into various devices, trying to be very quiet so's not to disturb his downstairs neighbour. We played both tracks live in one take each. It shows. We were more of a live band really, bordering on cabaret. I loved my CryBaby wah wah pedal.

Sex For Ollie

01 Faucal Dirge Re-revisited (3) (no longer death - almost - not quite)

02 Sex Crash (orgasmic destruction)

03 Plastic Structure Convention (entering the homogenous zones)

Random Felch

01 13

02 Butter

Download. Enjoy. Please comment.

Yin and yang live next door, they're mentally ill and very poor

SFO - Raan (from Sky Flowers and Horse Eggs compilation CD)

ANOTHER BURST OF MY AURAL EMMISSIONS.

Hypnagogia GOG CD01. 1992

T'was early 1992. I'd recently become acquainted with BP. He mentioned he was helping put together a compilation CD, and asked if I wanted to be on it. Fine says I. I need the track tomorrow says he. Oh.

A quick phone call to NF, and I'm round his house the following lunch time. I've got an hour for lunch, including the 20 minutes travel there and back. Here's a cassette loop I made earlier (take it apart, slice it, stick the ends together with sellotape, re-assemble, cross fingers). Into NF's four track deck. A tone generator goes into one of the insert channels on the back, as well as the output from a turntable. One shot straight into DAT and I'm on the bus back to work. 

I quite like the roughness of this. I deliberately didn't filter the bass-heavy loop so it would fuck up and distort.

I'm sitting on the track list in fine company - Blackhouse, Étant Donnés, Nocturnal Emmissions, :zoviet-france:, to name but four. A proud moment for me.

Download my track here. Mind your speakers though.

Spoonfed Venusian Sex Organs - Fuck Mollusk

YET MORE OF MY PAST MUSICAL MERRY MAKING. DOWNLOAD AND ENJOY.

(unreleased). 1995

The dream team behind Projectile Afterbirth joined forces once again on this full length album. 70 minutes of rather eclectic noisy nonsense, mostly guitar based. The whole thing was written and recorded over two evenings at NF's house. Mostly live, straight to four-track or DAT. All first takes.

We thought this was going to be released by Fellatio Productions, along with the second Projectile Afterbirth 7", but nothing ever came of it. We couldn't be bothered to tout it around to anyone else.

We originally planned for it to be chopped into 99 tracks of equal length on the CD to make for some mad listening on random play. This copy is chopped into the actual tracks instead.

No track list - just make it up as you go along. If I remember rightly, the first track was called Nihil, the third was Terminal Flesh Addict. 

Download our slab of madness. Let me know if you like it, thanks.

Terminal flesh addict - wear your sins with pride.

( seksvirOlli ) - vandag se waarheid?190498

COMPILATION OF SOME OF MY EARLY 90'S EXPERIMENTAL/AMBIENT STUFF, REVISITED IN 1998 - DOWNLOAD AND ENJOY

(unreleased). 1998 (1992-3)

I've no idea why I named it in afrikaans. I used to record under the name Sex For Ollie, but must have decided on a slight name change when I revisited these earlyish tracks back in 1998. Who knows why...? Man, what a crazy kid. I think the title roughly translates as 'Today's value?"

All these tracks were recorded on my Fostex X30 four track cassette deck, using nothing more sophisticated than a cd player, 2 cassette decks, locked vinyl grooves (2p coins placed onto records to knock the stylus back on every revolution), a reverb box of some sort and a 1.2 second guitar digital delay pedal. I was making cassette loops at the time as well, and I think I use a couple on lisscom. That involved taking a cassette apart, chopping little bits of the tape and sticking the ends together to form a loop, and some kind of spring with cotton wool to keep it tensioned so it wouldn't just slip on the spools. Quite a haphazard, messy business, but I think they turned out alright.

I was always more creative when faced with the challenge of having so little kit to play with.

01 dphemst (18:26) - recorded 28.02.93

02 lisscom (23:43) - recorded 10.11.92

03 eleth (19:03) - recorded 26.11.92

04 exfremx (4:24) - recorded 18.11.92

Download it here if you so desire. If you like it, please say so. Thanks.

Tokyo Sex Wail - Scatalogically Obsessed 7" EP

ONE OF MY EARLY NINETIES EFFORTS - DOWNLOAD AND ENJOY

(unreleased) 1994.

Thankfully I've not got a copy of the planned cover art. This followed my earlier noisy guitar thrashings, shifting more into electronic noise. I can't remember exactly what I used for the non-guitar based tracks on this, but I'm positive it was acoustic sources which I looped and processed. Sorry about the rather nasty elements of this - there was a market for it! I'm a nice guy really.

I had hoped this would be released on Fellatio Productions, but the guy who ran it just stopped getting in touch so it was shelved.

Recorded on a Fostex X-30 four track cassette deck in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Side A

01 Digital Arse

02 Rectal Mucus

03 Balls (Run-out groove loop)

Side B

04 Bitch 1

05 Enema Rape

06 Bitch 2

07 Arse (Run-out groove loop)

Download it here, and send the kids out of the room.

I've got a digital arse full of digital shit. I don't need to think 'cos my arse does it.

NEW FUN-FILLED FEATURE

Just to keep it interesting I'm going to gradually upload a lot of my own musical endeavours from over the years. It spans many musical(????) styles, and varies greatly in quality.

If you fancy a laugh, give it a go. I ain't chargin'!

A Hawk And A Hacksaw - Darkness At Noon

Leaf BAY43CD. 2005

An altogether more satisfying listen than their first outing. Although there's a phenomenal amount of instrumentation on this, it does have more of a feel of their live presence. I've seen them at least twice, maybe more (once in a tiny room in the tower of a city wall which holds perhaps 40 people, once in the hull of an ex-fishing factory ship). Jeremy on accordian and percussion (playing cymbals with a stick attached to his hat) with Heather Trost on violin. They're great. Very passionate, talented and entertaining. As is this.

Incredible version of Portland Town. Pass the hankies.

A Hawk And A Hacksaw - A Hawk And A Hacksaw

Leaf BAY35CD. 2004

Did anyone survive Neutral Milk Hotel intact? It become apparent after mere moments of pressing play that this album is the fermented fruit of a slightly rotten mind.

I will qualify that. Jeremy Barnes sports, or at least has every time I've seen him, a full beard. As we all know, anyone that favours so much facial fluff is as mad as several fishcakes.

This is an exhausting collection of frenetic masterpieces of the bizarre. It's difficult to keep up with the instrumentation and field recording jammed together in 40 odd minutes, and I can't say it's a pleasant experience.

Interesting enough to hang on to.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven!

Kranky KRANK043. 2000

A great big dose of epic.

There's a few bits where it gets a bit dramatic (I prefer the slow building loveliness rather than the in-your-face onslaught bits), but on the whole jolly super.

I seem to remember they were good live.

Gultskra Artikler - Kasha Iz Topora

Miasmah MIACD006. 2007

I wouldn't know where to start describing this. Erm.... 

If Steve Stapleton met a band of mushroom-tripping eastern european gypsies in a creaky lift, and dropped the resulting soundscape in a bath of milk poured by Brian Eno in 1980.

Any help?

I had this playing when JK's aunt popped round a few months ago. As she was leaving she said 'What would you call this kind of music?'. I had no reasonable response to offer.

Proof that the proliferation of download culture doesn't necessarily have to be damaging to the industry: This was a random online snatch that lay dormant on my ipod for weeks, if not months, before I accidently clicked on it. I listened intently once, twice, thrice, then ordered the CD the next day. I'll eventually get around to ordering this chap's entire back catalogue, though I'd never heard of him before that fate-click.

My album of the year 2007. Please, please buy this.

Gold Chains - Straight From Your Radio EP

Tigerbeat MEOW06. 2002

Big improvement on the GC ep. Turn it up!

Get that coochie over here I want to fuck it (oh yeah!), get that coochie looking tight I want to lick it all night. (ad infinitum)

Gold Chains - Gold Chains EP

Play It Again Sam PIASB078CD. 2001

I'd never heard of him. I was off to see Kid606 play at the Buddle in Wallsend, and Gold Chains was playing too. He's a mad little fella. Cool as fuck.

After the gig we all went back to BP's, ate take-away curry and watched the continuing footage of 9/11 - neither K606 or GC had seen any of it until after the gig. On seeing the planes doing their smashy thing, K606 - "fuck it, that's east coast shit".

File under hispanic bass-party rap. Check out the album Young Miss America, especially the epic Break Or Be Broken.

"Everybody rocks at a Gold Chains party"

Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump

V2 Records VVR1012252. 2000

I probably give this album too much of a hard time. It's ok. I was just disappointed with it after the glory of ...Freeway.

It isn't as dull and one-tempo'd as everything that came after it, but nothing really jumps out.

Grandaddy - Under The Western Freeway

Big Cat ABB152CD. 1997

A.M. 180 has to be a contender for the best keyboard riff ever committed to tape. That track is a work of genius that Mr Lytle has yet to better, or even match. I can't remember where I first heard it, but I knew it was something special immediately.

The rest of the album is good too. Probably the most varied effort they've put out. Not a single filler.

I've just been to yet another funeral, and this sits snuggly between happy and melancholy. Nice.

If you're only going to own one Grandaddy record, make it this one.