Vile Plumage - Live at Pearl Assurance House
Self released 3” CDR.
People-Eaters - Hinterland
Aetheric Records 20 copies.
Hagman - TKT and TMS
Sheepscar Light Industrial.
SLI.019. 3”CDR 50 Copies
Seth Cooke - Run For Cover
Sheepscar Light Industrial.
SLI.020. 3”CDR 50 Copies
These Feathers Have Plumes - Untitled
Sheepscar Light Industrial.
SLI.021. 3”CDR 50 Copies
The collective noun for a group of 3 inch CDR’s is now known as a scattering. For that is what happens tot hem when you try and place them upon one another. Its impossible to stack them higher than three due to the nature of the plastic sleeves in which all but the most outre three inch CDR’s arrive. Sheepscar Light Industrial release their 3 inchers in groups of three and that's plenty. I rest my case.
And so to Burslem and some more fine dictaphone conflagrations courtesy of those two fine upstanding member of the community Wyngarde and Jarvis. Who can be found most quiet Sunday mornings conducting their rituals and lamentations outside places like Pearl Assurance. A place that I assume is a place of trade and commerce and not some fancy dan nightspot in darkest Stoke-on-Trent. I’m only surmising of course, I've never been to Burslem, but from the sounds herein you can hear the passing of traffic and other ambient sounds as associated with a town center. A transformation has taken place though - thanks to the numerous trips betwixt dictaphone and ghetto blaster and back and back and back and forward and back again speech, footsteps and the general comings and goings are rendered into some kind of middle England EVP. Here we have ghost voices, turnstiles clicking and the debris from a Saturday afternoon shopping session being swept down the street with a stiff besom brush. Tape is abused in all manners of ways with judicial use of the stop/record button being distinctly audible. The densely layered, looped, thick coda that see this thing on its way is a most unsettling and disturbing ride indeed and a fitting emission from people whose interest in all things Hammer horror looms large. A splendid achievement from these two devil may care modern day troubadours. The Alvin Lucier twins of Burslem, the derring do-ers of downtown Stoke.
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Thanks to the detailed press release that came with Hinterland I can make up for my own lack of research by telling you that these two tracks of cranial drift were made by two people using numerous instruments which included; electric guitar, thumb piano, prayer bowl, mute synth, e-bows and contact mics amongst many others. There’s also a long list of influences ranging from mental illness to Butoh dance to Horror films [see above] to reverb and noises. All this translates into two tracks of slowly moving drone of the kind that hovers in mid vision, a darker version of a heat haze shimmer. For there are murky depths here as evinced by all manner of horror film icons on the Soundcloud page and track titles like ‘Vu-Ni-Diuva’ and 'Amai-Te-Rangi’ both of which are either obscure anagrams or some kind of made up language. Both tracks are the kind that phase along in a heavily processed way in which all the instruments listed [I counted twelve] become reduced to a thick syrup where the original instrumentation has all but disappeared. A hum here a hum there, a tad of thick throb as if the lowest key on the Cologne cathedrals organ was left depressed for two minutes and left to ring within its vast chamber. I’m undecided as to whether these pieces would work better if stretched from their eight minute originals or best left as is. As they stand now they sort of waft over your head leaving barely a trace but with deeper immersion a better trip may be had.
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Back in Leeds we find Daniel Sheepscar emitting another fine hat trick of releases. This time around the laurels are wreathed over These Feathers Have Plumes with two tracks of deeply sonorous drone. The first ‘Between Earth and Air’ beginning with some deft Arvo Pärt like tintinnabulation where tiny bells ring out into deep space - deep, deep space. These are tubular bell like resonances made with oversized glasses [if what I’ve seen is anything to go by] where each singular dink is ridden out until the next one appears and a finale which is one glorious luscious drone. ‘Don’t Wish Your Life Away’ is far more new age. In that I can see this being the soundtrack de jour for one of those West Coast better life gurus who like to play something soothing as they tell you your treatment is going to run into the thousands. Pure tones that rise and fall like a gentle tide and are guaranteed to have you drifting off should you be feeling the exertions of the day.
After such bliss its back down to earth with Seth Cook and the aptly titled ‘Run For Cover’ where our man seems to be drilling a hole in a piece of tin thats not being properly secured. Anyone familiar with such a DIY faux pas [and the odd TNB live action] will instantly recognise the godawful incessant buzz that this creates. Of course I could be completely mistaken and Cooke is instead trying to get his Jetex toy model plane to take off whilst dropping dried peas on a bass drum. A live track I assume or a piece played live to mic. An electro-acoustic thing which certainly has its moments not least of which is a kazoo being blown by an asthmatic waif and some rustling sounds that could be the springs on a snare drum being amplified. Last we heard from Cooke he was making drones from the drilling sounds caused by next doors workmen, that was a more lonesome thing, here the tension mounts as the volume increases until a solitary hit piano key and then timpanic drum roll. Ta-Da.
Daniel Thomas’ involvement with Hagman ensures plenty of field recordings [presumably culled from Sheepscar environs?] are used in a suitably austere and sombre electro-acoustic fashion. This is minimalist composer country, tiny sounds, all coming together creating pylon hums, urban murk, overcast skies, wet tarmac and cold black puddles. Its the very heart of Leeds, a heart the tourist board never see or fail to mention. A grimy passionless sound - in the most positive of ways. A scattering of noises, all of them quite wonderful.
Contact:
SLI
People-Eaters
Vile Plumage