| 01 | | Stag Horn Mountains (Cernunnos Rising) | | |
| 02 | | Sea Of Rains | | |
| 03 | | The Gibbous Stones | | |
| 04 | | Dark Lowland Plains | | |
| 05 | | Prosper Henry | | |
| 06 | | The Lunar Observatory | | |
| 07 | | Old Moon In The New Moon's Arms |
Noisy and experimental, Birmingham's Swell Maps experienced little commercial success during the course of their chaotic career, but in hindsight they stand as one of the pivotal acts of the new wave: not only was the group an acknowledged inspiration to the likes of Sonic Youth and Pavement, but their alumni -- most notably brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks -- continued on as key players in the underground music community.
Although Sudden (vocals/guitar) and Soundtracks (piano/drums) formed the first incarnation of the Swell Maps (named after the charts used by surfers to gauge wave intensities) as far back as 1972, the group did not begin to truly take shape until 1976, when the siblings enlisted bassist Jowe Head and guitarist Richard Earl. In the spirit of punk's D.I.Y. mentality, they formed their own label, Rather Records, and issued their debut single -- the brief, jarring "Read About Seymour" -- in the early weeks of 1978. Local media support soon won the Swell Maps a distribution pact with Rough Trade, but they did not resurface until over a year later with the single "Dresden Style."
In mid-1979, the band released its full-length debut, A Trip to Marineville, a crazy quilt of punk energy and Krautrock-influenced clatter. After the release of the speaker-shredding single "Let's Build a Car," the group recorded one final studio LP, Jane from Occupied Europe, before breaking up. A series of outtakes and singles collections -- 1981's Whatever Happens Next, 1982's Collision Time, and 1987's Train Out of It -- followed, while the members followed their own career paths: Sudden formed the Jacobites, Soundtracks joined Crime and the City Solution, and Head played with the Television Personalities. All later enjoyed solo careers as well.
"Motion sickness...was the logical forerunner of instant transmission sickness, with the rapid emergence of the 'Net junkies', 'Webaholics' and other forms of cyberpunk struck down with IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder), their memories turned into junkshops - great dumps of images of all kinds and origins, used and shop-soiled symbols, piled up any old how"
"Drops drop, sounds sound - analogies in rhythm. Drops are forms in space. But a "drop" suggests motion; motion and sounds are events in time. Can sounds then be Drops in time? Perhaps.
Dimensions of time and space occupy our physical attention, our physical being. But our conceptual being can warp time and space limitlessly. Fantasy, imagination, emotion - the transformations of the physical order - can interpret, clarify, contradict, affirm or deny, even create. It happens in moments. And musical events are moments strung together, time ordered, mood ordered. During those moments sound can order the sensory being to re-form time, space and their occupants."
Read THIS. Its a good overview of the album and the prank Negatvland pulled after its release. There's also some links to related stuff. For the unfamiliar, Negativland are a bunch of San Francisco subversives, painstakingly sculpting audio collages to scramble our brains. Escape from Noise features guest noises from a who's who of underground superstars including Jello Biafra, Jerry Garcia, Fred Frith, Alexander Hacke (from Einsturzende Neubauten), the Residents and thee Reverend Ivan Stang (mouthpiece of The Church of the Subgenius).
I don't often (ever, would be more accurate) write posts related to contemporary music, I feel a bit old and don't really spend the time or the money trying to keep abreast of what's happening in today's patchwork of cool underground scenes. I've been quite enjoying some of the dubstep (or whatever you like to call it) stuff that's been drifting through my ears, particularly the Purple Wow Sound mix by Bristol producer, Joker. But we won't talk about that.
69 - 4 Jazz Funk Classics (Planet E 1991)
69 - Lite Music (R&S 1994)
Innerzone Orchestra/Shop - Untitled EP (Planet E 1992)
FRS - Harder (Global Cuts 1994)
Carl Craig presents Paperclip People - The Floor (Open 1996)
Fabulous dada audio collage and aberrant queasy listening cut-ups from these mysterious sonic pranksters. This is very odd, very entertaining and displays an unhealthy and irreverant sense of humour, which for an instrumental album is quite a feat.| A1 | Sleep | |
| A2 | Upset | |
| A3 | Ordeal | |
| A4 | Broccoli | |
| A5 | Spot | |
| B1 | Feather | |
| B2 | Gruel | |
| B3 | Würstsaft | |
| B4 | Skipper | |
| B5 | Flagging |
This is Glenn Branca's Symphony Number 3 (Gloria) Music for the First 127 Intervals of the Harmonic Series. Its an extract from a 1983 live performance by one of Branca's early guitar orchestras. This is a relatively small group compared to the ones he was composing for by the early '90s, some of which used up to a hundred guitarists. This particular performance featured a number of musicians who went on to become famous/notorious on the New York no wave/noise scene, including Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth) and Michael Gira (of Swans/Skin). The first 20 minutes of this are pretty beautiful, kind of shimmering modern classical sounds, and quite slow moving and stately. Then the drums kick in and it all gets heavy heavy (but in a good way). If you like this then it might be worth checking out Kick to Kill's blog where you can find uploads of the Rhys Chatham box set (which is also very good).
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