Thee perennial journey into madness - “Muzak For Abattoirs” - the only outing of The Black Phlegm aka Ellis Dee. Daft, painful and probably one of the most inspiring (change your diet?? CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!) records I’ve ever heard. Imagine a completely dilapidated Innovative Communication LP that was recorded in a place called “The Ice House” in Somerset, it’s aim - to harness the true feelings felt by living creatures that are destined to be victim to man’s slaughter. Alternatively “an electronic symphony in memory to the forgotten millions of animals who have died needlessly..”....Heavier than a death in the family?! Pah! There’s an innocence in the humble, low-flying production and an impossible misery and longing in those synthesisers which themselves sound like they have spent their whole life in lightless, gritty captivity.
Have lost hours upon hours getting sucked into the completely unique, crazed and drug addled resolve in which Ellis Dee filters his vision, swerving any sorta wordy, dolphin bothering mantras and dubbing it more of a “Total Bastard Freak Out” and prescribing listeners to get STONED OUT OF YOUR HEAD. Bury me with this record!
In conjunction with the release of "Make Visible The Ghosts", Aki Onda has written a short memorial essay for his friend who very sadly passed away shortly after they completed their collaborative work. Worth a read!
Michael has invited some friends and artists to respond to his latest, triumphant work, encouraging them to maim, dismantle and bastardise it in which ever way they choose. Some more intel on the three executioners listed below, but from what Michael has told us it's gonna sound bloody MAD. He's bringing his own speakers too, thank christ.
Tuesday 24th September. Free / BYOB, performances start around 21.00.
___
masha
masha is a London based Russian fine artist whose work sits at the crossroads of writing, performance and sculpture as an investigation into the power dynamics within which identities are determined through both affective and affected bodies.
Lia Mazzari’s work is often collaborative combining diverse instruments and sound objects, engaging new audiences through encounters with art in non-conventional spaces. She creates live and recorded events that embrace the broader sense of sound in space. The importance of site and developing an extended technique with cello, whips, text and other localised objects form the crux of her practice. Founder of Silver Road, a non-profit arts project devoted to site-specific experimentation in time-based art practices, she performed with Tarek Atoui, Ashley Paul, Takahiro Kawaguchi, Ilan Volkov, Christof Migone, Sarah Davachi and is part of Al Fresco, a new collaboration with artists Sholto Dobie and Tom White.
Keenan McCracken is an artist and musician based in New York, with a particular interest in treading the limits of signal processing as a way to negotiate the confines of equal temperament. This performance will use xtr'cn as a raw material to be deconstructed and folded into elements of his forthcoming EP Every Force Evolves a Form.
A mix put together in a bout of stay-at-home energy - a loose attempt to take off where Kiran’s nappy-changing power hour landed, with some slightly more anaemic but still very much high-spirited songwriting and scrappy, inventive production stuff. Some guys n gals putting pen to paper, having a bash at the bedroom ballad and taking the piss with distortion levels. In short, THE USUAL.
Kinda trips over itself and winds up facedown in some old, spacey favourites and a puddle of arty farty stuff that I don’t know if I necessarily understand but think sounds wicked.
Swerved the whole “summer soundtrack” thing. Easily one of the best in memory but don’t think I or anyone involved would get anything out of hearing Nic Jones or ol’ CSN again quite so soon.
Anyway, SHOP BURNS WHILST STAFF BLOG.
Features music by girlboss, tom scott, sandra bell, slender, noor, genghis cohn, enrico piva, xhol, henning christiensen, moniek darge, xuan ye / chik white, acolytes action squad, ausmus tietchens, video adventures, mouse orchestra, anna mikhailova, oskrallans.
Sean Demdike was in a few weeks ago and among other things alerted us to something we'd completely missed: Hanson Records' recent release of To Live And Shave In L.A.'s profoundly mental "lost" 7" from circa '92, Spatters Of A Royal Sperm, presented as an LP with the B-side given over to never-before-released '77-'80 dub experiments by TLASILA's Tom Smith. Said it reminded him of Chrome, but a hundred times more f****d up (or words to that effect). Aaron Dilloway provides some more background:
"Twenty-Four years ago back in 1994 the first To Live and Shave in L.A. CD 30-Minuten Männercreme was released. Jim Magas, the indie buyer at the local Ann Arbor Borders Books and Music convinced myself and pal Andrew W.K. to buy it…telling us that it’s some of the most fucked up music we would ever hear. He wasn’twrong, it blew our teenage minds….we had NEVER heard ANYTHING that sounded like this…and it remains one of the most influential music releases of my life. It was and is one of the most psychedelic things I’ve ever heard. It was a maximalist blast of pause-button tape 'loops', doubled up rock crooner vocals, noise guitar blasts (supplied by Harry Pussy’s Bill Orcutt), recorded and mixed with mind scrambling hi-fi clarity, by Tom and long time Miami underground music beacon Frank Falestra aka Rat Bastard.
"Before that monumental album was recorded, TLASILA’s main man Tom Smith had recorded 4 songs to be released as a 7 inch back in 1992. The label, afraid of the new name wanted to release the record under Tom’s previous moniker ‘Peach Of Immortality’. This wouldn’t do as it was a new beast all of its own. Alas, the release was shelved..until now.
"The Side A of this LP contains the complete unleaded 4 song 7 inch, recorded by Tom in his very first of many projects with longtime collaborator Rat Bastard. Tape loops of dollar bin garbage reworked into disorienting alien rock music with freak-pop hooks. I challenge you to find me another recording project as freaked out and unlike anything as this. Go for it! No hyperbole…This is the unheard blueprint recordings of one of the most creative projects in the history of underground music."
Sadly, we were too late to procure any copies for the shop - and it is now sold out at source. We urge you to track down a copy however/wherever you can, especially for the Tom Smith dub workouts which are exclusive to the vinyl (fiendish!) but the nub of the release, the four TLASILA tracks, you can obtain digitally from the Hanson Bandcamp for the princely sum of $5.
If your interest in TLASILA is piqued by all this, we can also recommend their tasty recent As Gods Are Skinned CD on Independent Woman, which we have in stock now.
