Post-Rocktoberfest 2011: UK Post-Rock Vol. 7
UK Post-Rock Vol. 7
This year’s Post-Rocktoberfest festivities will include three new mix CDs! UK Post-Rock Vol. 7, presented here, consists mostly of tracks by acts that have appeared on previous UK Post-Rock compilations. UK Post-Rock Vol. 8 will consist mostly of tracks by acts that have not appeared on previous volumes. US Post-Rock Vol. 1… well, you can work that one out for yourself.
On all of these compilations, some minor post-production has been carried out, in order to provide as close to a seamless listening experience as possible. In some cases, this might mean the tracks have been topped and tailed a bit but it’s all in the interests of a pleasurable overall listening experience. If you want to hear the songs as the artists intended, go buy the original albums. Actually, you should go buy all the original albums anyway because they’re all great!
Of course, finding legit copies of the original albums won’t always be that easy. This is only partly because a lot of UKPR classics are no longer in print. It’s also because this compilation collects some pretty rare tracks from compilations, Peel sessions etc.
Click here to download UK Post-Rock Vol. 7 or click on the links in the track-list below to hear the individual songs.
1. Papa Sprain – “I Got Stop”
Included because it’s their best song and it had somehow failed to appear on any of the previous volumes.
2. Butterfly Child – “We, the Inspired”
A rarity taken from one of those Volume compilations. Remember them?
3. Pram – “Dancing on a Star”
Birmingham post-rock! A surprising amount of post-rock came out of Birmingham.
4. Broadcast – “Pendulum”
Another case in point. Sad that so many of us only recently came to appreciate Broadcast, given the tragic death of Trish Keenan. They had so much more to teach us!
5. Laika – “If You Miss (Laika Virgin Mix)”
A remix of a track from Laika’s debut album (Silver Apples of the Moon). This was created for Kevin Martin’s Macro Dub Infection Vol. 1 compilation, which was released on Virgin Records – hence the punning title.
6. Moonshake – “Coming (Peel Session Version)”
A radio session take on a track from Moonshake’s debut EP, back when they were a borderline shoegaze act. On the officially-released version, Dave Callahan’s vocal borders on the ethereal (someone in the office even misremembered that Margaret Fiedler – later of Laika – sang this one). On the version presented here, Callahan really lets rip – as does the rest of the band, for that matter!
7. Insides – “Further Distractions”
A remix of a track from the classic Euphoria album. This is taken from a rare promo 12″.
8. Bark Psychosis – “Manman”
Like the Papa Sprain track, this is a stone-cold classic that really should have featured on an earlier compilation in this series.
9. Disco Inferno – “Lost in Fog”
From the It’s a Kids World EP. DI at their most intense and chaotic.
10. Flying Saucer Attack – “My Dreaming Hill”
Their finest moment?
11. Fridge – “Lost Time”
Weird that these folks have had so much more success in their solo careers than as a group. Here they are at their lovely, melodic best.
12. Seefeel – “When Face Was Face”
Turns out that Succour is a really great album. Actually, just about everything by Seefeel is pure gold.
13. Main – “Blown”
Traces of Main’s origins in the much-loved hypno-rock act Loop are evident on this track from the early EP Dry Stone Feed.
14. The Hair & Skin Trading Company – “Highbury”
Traces of The Hair & Skin Trading Company’s origin in the much-loved hypno-rock act Loop are not at all evident on this track from their final EP Crouch End.
Post-Rocktoberfest 2011: Kelvox1 – Grazed Red (no label) download
Kelvox1 - Grazed Red
Cambridge seems to be quite the unlikely hive of outsider musical activity right now, what with the hauntological techno of Nochexxx and his gang. Elsewhere on the Cambridge fringe, we have Kelvox1 – absolutely the finest new British post-rock band this here blog has heard in quite a few years. The band’s new album, Grazed Red, is currently available as a free (FREE!) download and it’s an absolute gem.
Grazed Red clocks in around the 35-minute mark but it features just two epic-length songs. And they really are songs – played by a band! In a room! This sense of organically expanded song-form immediately brings to mind Bark Psychosis’s classic “Scum” single. Kelvox1 certainly have the slow-burning moodiness to justify that comparison but nothing here is quite as dank and nocturnal as “Scum”. That is to say, the arrangements are colourful and vivid, in a fashion that recalls the electronically-enhanced-chaos-in-a-jam-room ambiance of Disco Inferno’s DI Go Pop. The sullen vocals certainly add to this.
Obviously, these comparisons put Kelvox1 very much in the UK post-rock continuum. However, where other bands with the same influences (Epic45 and Hood spring to mind) don’t really add much to the mix, Kelvox1 clearly have their own thing going on. Grazed Red is a genuinely ambitious and singular piece of work – certainly not perfect but all the better for its ragged edges.
A physical release is tentatively planned. It would be an absolute treat to own this thoroughly laudable album on vinyl. Fingers crossed!
(Note: Sorry for repeatedly misspelling the band’s name in the original version of this post. That’s what happens when you operate your blog according to a strict One Draft, No Proofreading policy.
Also, apparently you can’t download the album any more because the plan for a physical release has become a whole lot less tentative. You can still stream it, though – and you should!)
Post-Rocktoberfest 2011: Disco Inferno – The Five EPs, Song-by-Song
Disco Inferno
To celebrate the belated official release of Disco Inferno’s The Five EPs compilation – and to beat Neil Kulkarni to it – Bubblegum Cage III hereby presents a brief song-by-song analysis of five EPs by Disco Inferno. For some really detailed information on all of these songs (and more!), take a look at this Ian Crause interview on Crumbs in the Butter.
Before delving in, though, it might be worth giving a brief explanation of why this here blog considers such and obscure band to be such an important band. It has to do with sound and music.
Didn’t John Cage once say that, in the future, music would be made using machines that could record a sound – any sound – and play it back at any pitch, for any duration? (Seriously, if anyone can find the actual quote, it would be much appreciated!) Maybe, because – in one sense – this is a typically prescient Cage quote. Essentially, it predicts sampling. On the other hand, maybe not. It’s really quite anomalous because it references music in the conventional sense. Cage tended to feel that sounds should be allowed to be themselves, without interference from composers or musicians (hence his famous “silent piece”). This philosophy opened the world up to the musical potential of non-musical sound/noise (and also prefigured any number of “abstract” musical genres – from free improv to ambient).
This is where Disco Inferno come in – they applied Cage’s all-sounds-are-musical philosophy to the traditions of rock and pop music, often pushing themselves towards total abstraction but always pulling back at the last minute. They also made the connection between sound-as-music and the sampler as musical instrument per se. Rather than using clunky sampling keyboards to do this, they used MIDI pick-ups and drum pads to control their samplers, which allowed them to literally play sounds from their immediate environment – and turn them into pop songs! Applying a basically unlimited sound palette (favouring emotionally-evocative environmental sounds and audio puns on song lyrics) to established pop/rock practices, forms and set-ups, they created an astonishingly vivid and visionary body of work that absolutely no other band has had the courage to follow up on.
Disco Inferno - Summer's Last Sound
Summer’s Last Sound (Cheree, 1992)
“Summer’s Last Sound”
So, Disco Inferno were quite possibly the most truly visionary artists in the history of western popular music. Which is not to say that they were best, necessarily because one can’t help feeling they never really hit what they were aiming at. This track was probably the closest they came. It remains their most heroic achievement and their best song.
Before this EP (hardly an EP, really, as it only has two tracks), Disco Inferno were a fairly undistinguished indie trio with pronounced Factory Records influences. Inspired by the sampledelic examples of Public Enemy and The Young Gods, they decided to pool their limited resources to buy the samplers and MIDI pick-ups that were the basis of their classic sound.
From a technical standpoint, this was a nightmare. Singer/guitarist Ian Crause apparently spent quite some time trying to record just the right bird sounds to use for the guitar/sampler parts on “Summer’s Last Sound”. His instrumental parts were created by capturing MIDI data from his guitar onto an Atari ST computer, which kept crashing in response to Crause’s Durruti Column-esque cascades of notes.
It was all worth it. “Summer’s Last Sound”, as previously noted, is Disco Inferno’s finest moment. But it’s also perhaps the quintessential DI moment. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the band’s incredibly vivid, almost unbearably bittersweet mixture of pastoral beauty and urban dread, where the two opposing elements become inextricably entwined, staggering along together, never quite collapsing into total chaos.
For a really detailed look into this song, some speculative transcriptions of the words and some recent input from Ian Crause himself take a look at this post on Sit Down Man, You’re a Bloody Tragedy.
“Love Stepping Out”
More of the bittersweet same on the B-side. Not quite as effective as “Summer’s Last Sound” (the sequenced acoustic guitar samples are maybe a little stiff) but pretty bloody beautiful all the same.
Disco Inferno - A Rock to Cling to
A Rock to Cling to (Rough Trade, 1993)
“A Rock to Cling to”
There’s long been a bit of confusion about the track-list of this EP (again, more of a single, really). It begins with a short song with vocals and ends with a long instrumental track. Many sources have listed “A Rock to Cling to” as the latter, rather than the former but that’s incorrect (aside from anything, Crause clearly sings “I still need a rock to cling to” on the first song). Hopefully, the official release of The Five EPs will have cleared up this confusion once and for all.
In any case, “A Rock to Cling to” sounds like a partial step back to the early Disco Inferno sound and it lacks the vividness of the Summer’s Last Sound tracks. It is very beautiful though and makes genuinely haunting, very subtle use of the band’s samplers. The B-side, on the other hand…
“From the Devil to the Deep Blue Sky”
This one is almost like a show-reel for Disco Inferno’s unique rock-band-through-MIDI-into samplers set-up. It really is extraordinary – working wonderfully as a demonstration of the band’s techniques and as a piece of music. Still, without Ian Crause’s flat, bitter little voice cutting through the swirling cascades of sound, it really just tells one side of the story.
Disco Inferno - The Last Dance
The Last Dance (Rough Trade, 1993)
“The Last Dance”
This is one of the more commercially viable tracks on the five EPs (alongside “It’s a Kids World”). Ian Crause was often photographed wearing a New Order T-shirt and that band’s influence is strongly felt here (DI even brought in New Order’s engineer to work on this EP). Lyrically, “The Last Dance” is even more of a statement of intent than “Summer’s Last Sound” – laying out Crause’s resolutely atheistic and forward-looking bruised romanticism in the clearest possible terms (“In the end it’s not the future but the past that will get us”). Musically, the track features some truly astonishing moments, like when the snare drum finally kicks in or when Crause’s guitar bursts into peels of echoplexed exultation. Bloody gorgeous, basically.
“D.I. Go Pop”
DI Go Pop the album represents DI at their most their most chaotic and “DI Go Pop” the song does the same. It really does sound like a discoteque on fire.
“The Long Dance”
Basically a longer and rather different mix of “The Last Dance”. Actually, it sounds like it might be a completely different vocal take. Those “moments” discussed above hit home a bit harder on the shorter version.
“Scattered Showers”
Sounds very much like a better-recorded version of the sound explored on DI Go Pop (the album). Guitars, samples, beauty, chaos. You know the score by now. Crause’s chiming Vini Reilly-esque guitar anchors it all, which sets the scene very nicely for the next EP…
Disco Inferno - Second Language
Second Language (Rough Trade, 1994)
“Second Language”
This EP features some of Crause’s finest guitar playing and this song is perhaps the single best demonstration of his nimble and expressive style. The over-the-top tremolo moves at the song’s climax are bananas.
“The Atheist’s Burden”
Disco Inferno’s sense of humour has rarely been remarked upon but it’s there for anyone to hear – hell, the band’s deeply ironic name should be a dead giveaway. “The Atheist’s Burden” starts off as one of their goofiest numbers, with Crause using his guitars to play pan flute samples over a clod-hopping four-on-the-floor beat. But as he narrates a typical DI story of one man’s oscillations between cynicism and wonder, things start to get much deeper and end up really uncannily beautiful and touching.
“At the End of the Line”
A highpoint – the bit where a massively time-stretched Wilhelm scream kicks in is absolutely chilling. Really sounds like a person drinking in the beauty of the world, just as it all falls to pieces.
“A Little Something”
Booze seems to have played a major roll in every stage of the DI story. Hear, Crause sounds rueful but resigned on the mater” “If I get a little something/I can sleep”. He is, of course, accompanied by a cavalcade of clinking, slopping audio puns.
Disco Inferno - It's a Kid's World
It’s a Kid’s World (Rough Trade, 1994)
“It’s a Kid’s World”
A rare example of Disco Inferno transparently sampling other people’s music – notably Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” and the “Dr. Who” theme. Lyrically, it’s a very apposite foreshadowing of the demonization of youth that has blighted British life over the last decade or so.
“A Night on the Tiles”
Booze again. The most chaotic DI moment since “DI Go Pop” (the song). Totally insane use of an Edith Piaf sample.
“Lost in Fog”
Fucking hell, what a way to end! A similar sci-fi narrative to “At the End of the Line” but with that track’s chiming musical clarity replaced by a dense… well, fog of sound. Towards the end, it sounds like Crause is using his guitar to destroy an upright piano. Which, in a sense, he probably is.
Postscript
Like all Bubblegumcage III posts, this was typed in a hurry by a junior staff member, who then passed it on to an intern who pretended to to (but clearly did not) proofread it. After that, the post was passed on to this here blogs senior editorial team for approval, before being run by a team of extremely expensive lawyers. It was only at this point that someone saw fit to comment: “Didn’t you publish this exact post three years ago?” Oh, yeah.
Still, it’s interesting to see the changes that three years can make to a person’s opinions (and yes, yes it really is just one person, of course). “The Last Dance” better than “Summer’s Last Sound”? Really? Actually, in some cases, it’s interesting to see how little these opinions have changed. Look at the bits on “A Rock to Cling to” and “Scattered Showers” - practically the same wording!
In any case, it seems that Bubblegum Cage III (albeit in its previous incarnation) really did beat Neil Kulkarni to it! Of course, his article will probably be a lot more thought through and well written than anything you’ll see around here. A link will be posted as soon as his thing goes online.
Edit: Here‘s the link to Neil Kulkarni’s excellent piece:
http://thequietus.com/articles/07144-disco-inferno-interview
Oval & Mountains, Vancouver, October 2nd
Mountains
The greatest thing to happen to Vancouver this year. If you live here and you don’t attend this show, you are a bad person.
Here are the details…
Oval & Mountains
October 2nd, show starts at 8pm prompt
The Western Front, 303 East 8th Avenue, Vancouver
Add it to you Last FM calendar
And listen…
Secret Pyramid, Fieldhead, connect_icut & More Live in Vancouver on Sept 30th
Blim Sept 30th 2011
Add it to your Last FM calendar!
Do whatever weird stuff it is that people do on Facebook!
Listen…
- Secret Pyramid – “Milk & Honey”
- Fieldhead – “I’m Fond of Maps”
- No Ufos – “Evidence/Century Park”
- connect_icut – “The Left Hand of Darkness”
And here are the full details…
“Secret Pyramid, No Ufos, connect_icut, Fieldhead & Cloudface
Friday September 30th 2011 at 8pm
Blim, 115 East Pender St., Vancouver BC, Canada
Early show! Starts at 8pm and ends promptly at midnight.
SECRET PYRAMID | http://secretpyramid.blogspot.com/
- “Swirling washes, layers of howling feedback and cosmic buzz, soft whispers giving way to deep, dark ambiance. Creepy drones hover like grey mist, feedback swells echoing like flutes or distant birds, all building up to a gorgeous fuzz-drenched climax, beautifully whirling sound walls akin to the cryptic tones of Kevin Drumm’s ‘Imperial Horizon’, but less industrial. Secret Pyramid offers up something mystical, serene and ephemeral.” -
CONNECT_ICUT | http://csaf-records.com/
– connect_icut is an English artist living in Vancouver, also involved with Interim Lovers, The Bastion Mews and Not Me. connect_icut creates abstract, melodic, highly textured and expansive electronica. -
NO UFO’S | http://soundcloud.com/nice-up
“Pretty dang successful… the lateral aktion is most nod-worthy” Byron Coley, The Wire
FIELDHEAD | www.fieldheadmusic.com
– Fieldhead (P. Elam, Vancouver, BC) delights in tape hiss, geography, bleak landscapes and decaying analogue loops.
“…paints atmosphere better than a whole ream of his electronica comtemporaries ever could, creating unhealthy amounts of awe with his string slices and distortion washes…” -
CLOUDFACE | http://soundcloud.com/dssr
– Hypnotic synth driven scattering loveliness. -”
New Free Download EP from Not Me Featuring a Fieldhead Remix
Here are the details from the CSAF Records website…
Not Me - nwt 2011
Vol. 4: nwt 2011 (CSAF132DL)
This volume begins with a typically excellent mix from Fieldhead (aka Paul Elam of The Declining Winter). Probably the most melodically developed and rhythmically solid track in the whole series so far, this is an ideal entry point for newcomers. If you were so inclined, you could even “skank” to this.
The next comes a mix from Ross Birdwise of Vancouver’s legendary EDR (don’t ask what it stands for) and hmbkr. Ross adds a virtual choir of extended vocal techniques to the mix. Scary and brilliant in equal measure, this will appeal to folks who enjoyed Carsten Nicolai and Blixa Bargeld’s anbb project.
The EP is rounded off by two new mixes from CSAF stalwart connect_icut. These are in a post-Basic Channel dub-techno style that fans of Deepchord Presents Echospace will appreciate.
Side A
1. Fieldhead Remix (3:30)
2. Ross Birdwise Nicotine Stain Banshee Mix (4:05)
Side B
1. connect_icut 2011 Mix (5:20)
2. connect_icut Infinite Mix (10:00)
DOWNLOAD 2011 12s VOL. 4
Dream Rock & Noise Pop in Videos: Slowdive – “When the Sun Hits”
Who knew there was a promo video for this? Who even knew it was a single? The final track from volume two.
Dream Rock & Noise Pop in Videos: Drop Nineteens – “Winona”
Another promo video recorded from 120 Minutes. Track 16 from volume two.
Coming Soon to a Venue Near You (As Long as You Live in Vancouver)
Oval
Vancouver, BC, obviously. Not the one in Washington. If you live there, you probably have to drive into Portland when you want to see a show.
Aaaaanyway, the point is there are some very, very exciting shows happening in Vancouver over the next few months. The big news is that Oval is coming to town, with support from label-mates Mountains! Quite the Bubblegum Cage-friendly double bill (just as long as those Mountains fellas don’t play too much stuff from their rather disappointing new album – LEAVE THE ANALOGUE SYNTHESIZERS IN BROOKLYN! THEY ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!)
Ahem, anyway… Here’s a round-up of shows this here blog is excited about, for one reason or another…
Fieldhead, Thomas Jirku, Gunshae, Hong Kong Soap Operas
A superb line-up of local electronica artists, as part of TKG’s Panambient series. Wonder if there’ll be food at this one.
Saturday August 27th (in the afternoon)
At Blim
James Blake, Teengirl Fantasy
He’s supposed to be rubbish live, isn’t he? Mind you, he’s supposed to be rubbish full-stop and he clearly isn’t. Teengirl Fantasy are said to be very good too.
Sunday September 25th
At the stinky Commodore, unfortunately
Secret Pyramid, No Ufos, connect_icut, Fieldhead & Cloudface
A real friends-and-family affair this one. More details closer to the time.
Friday September 30th
At Blim
- Secret Pyramid – “Milk & Honey”
- No Ufos – “Evidence/Century Park”
- connect_icut – “The Left Hand of Darkness”
Oval, Mountains
This is the big one. Absolutely the most important musical event to happen in Vancouver all year. If you live here and you don’t go to this, you must have cloth ears and a heart of stone. No excuses!
Sunday October 2nd
At the Western Front
Gang Gang Dance
A phenomenal live band. Probably worth braving a shitty venue for.
Saturday October 15th
At this here blog’s least favourite venue on the planet Earth, unfortunately
Portishead
Don’t get too excited – the tickets for this one are prohibitively expensive (and quite possibly sold out, at this stage).
Monday October 24th
At the PNE Forum
