The editorial, the introduction bit and the Five music things thing for whatever it is all about. Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Do we need to do the editorial bit again? Is there another way? A cure for pulling cats out of hats? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? Was there ever? What do reasons make? Five more, everything must go and same as last time (and the time before) five, and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading. When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter and like we asked last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? We do listen to everything that comes in, we do it so you don’t have to, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or what gets played on the radio or what we hang in a gallery. Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and cut cut slash and cut to the damn chase, who needs an editorial or words in general? Just facts and links then, here you go, grab your five, eat your greens, go eat some art, go eat some dirt…
1: Insect Factory – You can only hear one track from the new Insect Factory tape album from Insect Factory on the Bandcamp page right now but it is a damn fine track, those layers and those textures are worth exploring, those Insect Factory recordings always are. This one is out on Already Dead Tapes and Records, a Los Angeles label we clearly need to explore lots more on the strength of what we just heard from someone or something called Imelda Marcos. Already Dead is an “all genre record label focused on small edition cassette, vinyl, and VHS releases”, what, no eight track cartidges? Never have really got the reborn cassette thing.
“Insect Factory, the long-time solo project of Jeff Barsky, returns with new album ‘Celestial Cycles’; a rich sonic journey of layered guitars and organic textures, each in a constant state of subtle evolution. This is truly headphone music, meant to transport the listener through a wave of atmospheres and contemplation. ‘Celestial Cycles’ is a beautiful and moving album, recommended for fans of drone, meditation, and ambient music. Available August 5th on cassette (100), digital, and all streaming services”. Actually I’m not sure if it is headphone music, we’ve got the track playing rather loudly here in our Hackney bunker, sounds rather good through the East London late night air with the studio door wide open and the small flying creatures and the sound the police cars are adding to the atmosphere, never been a big fan of cutting myself off with headphones, never got medication either, I need my music coming out of speakers, I need it flowing through the air. Found the whole album on Spotify now (not sure why people only put one track on Bandcamp when the whole thing is there on Spotify but hey, what do I know, I long since got myself off the whole releasing records merry-go-round horror show thing), The whole album is rather rather fine, beautifully detailed, a kind of fullbodied less is more affair in you can be full bodied and at the same time be less is more. There’s an almost refined perfection to the sound, to the craft of it all, not too perfect, this is very human, warmly organic, rich, painterly and very easy to listen when far too often this kind of thing can be rather self indulgently annoying. Celestial Cycles is a joy, a warm bath of goodness, a treat for your ears, it does take you up and down, right now the 22 minutes of closing track Become The Birds is start to disturb in just the right way, rather like the cocoon it creates, is it a little like Black Mass? Well maybe not? Wonder what it would be like to paint? I imagine the canvas is quite big. A rather recomended album. Oh, hang on, stop press, last night there was only one track on the Bandcamp page, now, this morning the whole thing is there. Spport the label, support the musicians, don’t do the Spotify thing, do the Bandcamp thing….
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2: Sarah Persephona has a solo album, Sarah Persephona (ex. Angelic Milk Band leader) is a singer-songwriter from Saint-Petersburg, Russia, currently based in Istanbul. “Her music is inspired by romanticism, nostalgia and rock’n’roll spirit, often with a self-ironic and self-critical twist. Her first solo album is about being an anti-heroine and still valuing love above all other things”. Right now, if I’m really being truthful, sharing the art or the music of someone from Russia leaves me just a little conflicted right now (as do a lot of things), and yes i know we can really expect Russians to speak out about the crimes happening in their countty’s name, none of us can really be blamed for the actions of our so called leaders. do rather like her Angelic sound, she certainly can write a wholesome song…
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3 Grave Goods – A second single ahead of the new album that’s out in September, not sure if it is quite as brilliant as the previous one, still rather fine all the same, two tasty bites of things to come…
“Based between Manchester, Belfast and Dublin, GRAVE GOODS today share new single ‘Source’ taken from debut album TUESDAY. NOTHING EXISTS. out 9th September via TULLE Collective.
Featuring current and former members of PINS, Girls Names, and September Girls, they take influence from early post-punk and minimalist rock, their music has been described as urgent and demanding, claustrophobic yet spacious, and they’re guaranteed to grab your attention.
’Source’ is about rewriting narratives that have been pushed on us with something more real and meaningful. The perceived limits of our gender are fictional, we are unique.
On the track, drummer Sarah Grimes said, “This was the second song we wrote. It was written on drums and guitar first, we wanted it to be really minimal in the verse with drums and vocals and contrasted with louder choruses with the guitar and drums working together with bass added later. When we were structuring the song we took the guitar line from the chorus and used it as the intro to hook people in. When we wrote the song initially, I had a mic set up beside me and I whispered “ha ha” at the end of each bar during the verses. Those were dropped as we started to play the song live but while we were recording we decided to add it back in – me whispering “Ha Ha” on my tiptoes trying to reach Lois’ mic.”
Another contemporary video made by singer Lois Macdonald, she used Max MSP to create a virtual environment, as well as pre-existing live footage of the band (recorded by IMPATV at Islington Mill in Salford), plus imagery of opulent deserts and random real life footage, then she programmed 3D shapes to inhabit the space to create visually exciting chaos”.
Once again, more details via Bandcamp
3 and a bit – Gift – Now this is rather nice and yeah, I know, I’ve said it before, nothing more annoying than someone saying “nice”, if someone says something like “nice” about something I’ve painted I want to throw them out of the gallery then throw the piece they thought was “nice” out the door after them. This is “nice” in the nicest of ways, this is a positive “nice” not a lazy halfhearted one, this really is very very (very) nice. “Brooklyn’s Gift open the gates to a technicolour shoegazing fantasy island on “Gumball Garden,” the first single from their debut LP, Momentary Presence, due out October 14, 2022 on Dedstrange.
4: Dead Sheeran – missed this one when it came out back in April, never too late though, here it is (on Bandcamp) and well, he’s said it before, good to hear it being said again, check on your friends now and again, we’ve lost a few in the last couple of years, pretty sure you have to. Got to love the cynical smile of Dead Sheeran, better Dead than Ed…
5: Panic Shack are from from Wales, they’re busy playing the summer festivals right now, Rebellion is happening in Blackpool around about now. Panic Shack are brash, they’re witty, they’ve got bag loads of hooks. They make their own gloriously good for you DIY videos, they’re fun but don’t be thinking they’re throwaway…
And while we’re here, a little more Dead, that one up there made us go take a closer look and listen and Tiswas over Swapshop any day, Swapshop didn’t have Motorhead on…
Whatever happened to that bloke from Medulla Nocte anyway?
THE ORGAN 