Musée imaginaire

Peepholes - 'The Overspill!' [Upset the Rhythm]

They are a one part Brighton (via Northern Ireland via Bahrain) and one part London team that have been brewing something special since 2006 with their warbling synthetic explorations into sound. On and off they have played inspiring live shows, released cassettes, an EP on defunct Brighton indie label Hungry for Power, mini album ‘Caligula’ and now their first full length sees the dark of the night, powered by ingeniously innovative music catalogger Upset the Rhythm. This is their third outing with UtR, but this release goes one stage further and makes a bold statement. Now their sound is firmly formulated, the tea bag has been drained, leaving an unexpected pungent Peepholes concentrate behind and is ready to serve.

In the past they worked with sound engineer extraordinaire Shelley Ostapovitch best known for her involvement with Throbbing Gristle and Hidden Cameras to create mini ‘Caligula’, but this time round Peepholes synth operator Nick Carlisle takes the reins. And the fact it is Nick is testament to the new confidence Peepholes must have found with this LP. The distant rattle and explorations of the previous releases fade in into the background and the new sound rears a concoction of visceral 80s post punk synth stylings mixed with tufts of tribal witchiness and a tab of krautrock to rocket along. More simply put its like Factory Floor just let their hair down.

On the surface the general construction of songs appears to consist of a filthy pulsating electronic bass, intricately placed rhythmical smatterings from the drums provided by Katia Barrett, layered with sweeter synth sounds and haunting delayed vocals. If this music was a place it would be an abandoned warehouse ravished by paganic miscreants aka the Aztec zone meets the Industrial zone. These overarching feelings soon become irrelevant when each individual track is savoured for its own unique twists and turns. And if that all sounds too chaotic, at times the aural outpourings converge, they become aqueous; stand out songs form that are ready for a right remixing or formulated for the dancefloor? There is the second track 'Conversation' with its lyrical mantra: 'hustler, gaylord, his law, conversation' packed up against militant drums, haunting layered male/female vocals and 80s science program synths. Then there is the machine generated pan pipe jump up of 'Keyhain', with ghostly vocals singing: 'how did you break the keychain, don't ever change the lock'. And lastly marching title track ' The Overspill!', dragging along traces of delayed bass and undercover media whoring lyric 'saw your face on a poster'. This is preceded by album closer 'Living in Qatar', that keeps the pop treadmill alive for a time before dissolving into a hypnotic haunted kraut inspired ramble.

The Overspill! With it's one exclamation (could have easily been three or four), reflects the new found sound ideals of it's label UtR and provides evidence of a band in it's hey day. Here are of some of the most atmospherically interesting, creative and original sounds around, yeah they have been in and out of the wash a few times, but its enough to get that perfect faded look, where their ear catching aloofness has crystallised to leave behind an intriguing formation.

The Repeat Prescriptions, Green Door Store, 22 January 2012

The Self Help Group, Green Door Store, Brighton

They're a six piece, got 2 guitars, banjo, xylophone and one of those skiffle box drums. They have sad songs, happy songs and gorgeous folky 3 way harmonies and each song has an interesting story behind it ... There's the one about a Seattle based crime solving super hero Phoenix Jones. Then there's the one about some 1930s Glasgow school kids that read a comic book about a vampire that lives in a graveyard, this in turn leads to 200 school kids spending a night in their local cemetery together looking out for said vampire. And then there is the twisted one about the kid that celebrated the end of the world by swimming in a river but then drowned. It's all enough to keep the audience well entertained tonight and for the band to go home having sold some cds and made a few new fans. A Brighton collective worth looking out for.

The Self Help Group on Facebook

The Self Help Group on Twitter

The Self Help Group on Band Camp

The Self Help Group on mySpace

Favourite songs for the first half of 2011

true widow - skull eyes
This song (and band) just took me by surprise. One day it somehow showed itself up amongst all the usual inbox drivel, I was drawn in and clicked. And I got what one could describe as The Kills gone sludge or Yuck slowed down. It was melancholy vocals with a solid yet sleepy warm fuzziness that won me over.    

yuck - get away
This song is a pop song and it just sticks.

peaking lights - all the sun that shines
Lo fi indie dub psych out, something new and interesting.

fear of men - spirit house (cassette mix)
Released in August 2011 on Italian Beach Babes and underhyped. But there it is an eerily catchy guitar song about liars and dreaming with pretty backing vocals reminiscent of old style 4AD outputtings.

braids - lemonade
crystal slits - through the floor
factory floor - (REALLOVE) - Optimo Remix
teeth - shawty
craft spells - after the moment

Ulrich Schnauss: Missing Deadlines - Selected Remixes (Rocket Girl)

These are ephemeral twilight till dawn sound constructions flowing down River Melancholy. These are remix highlights of German born Ulrich Schnauss, for the first time collated on this Rocket Girl (powered by Spacemen 3) release. Schnauss is known for his atmospheric synth outings that combine the spirits of shoegaze, krautrock and dreamy electronica: On the one hand he is inspired by Chapterhouse and My Bloody Valentine, on the other you have Tangerine Dream, the Orb and 808 State. He stretches these influences out and fuses them back together with contemporary music to create amorphous agitated ambient tracks littered with jagged beats.

Schnauss: You may have heard of him from his keyboard contributions as part of the Engineers and Longview, or you may have noticed his production talents at work with Kirsty Hawkshaw (of ‘It’s A Fine Day’ fame) and Exit Calm. Even if his CV doesn’t sound familiar his work may have infiltrated your consciousness through the medium of car adverts or computer games. Maybe you heard about 2 of his past record labels suing Guns N’ Roses for alleged copyright infringement? Hmmm.

Anyway, here is the sound of a producer/musician accomplished in his original brief of creating otherworldly headphone music. And it opens with, former Bella Union belles, Howling Bells’ reworked ‘Setting Sun’ that slowly dissolves into ‘Ghost in the Graveyard’ by ‘A Sunny Day in Glasgow’, full of backwards reverb and Linda Lamb like vocals. And just in case you thought the carrier bag sunshine sparkle of shoegaze was well over, there are artists cloaked within this collection that show this is not the case. For instance, there are new gazers Asobi Seksu, off of One Little Indian, presenting their reworked ‘Strawberries’ single, along with a made over ‘Coastline’ from Rachel Goswell, singer from seminal shoegazers Slowdive. Yep, old and new they are all present and still drifting.

This is a collection of tracks that are worth exploring and dreaming to. In Schnauss’ own words “ the original songs are already great in their own right -  which made it really inspiring to work with them”. And it shows.

Oberman Knocks – 13th Smallest [Aperture] 9 March 2009

How about some scattered beats? How about some mysteriously warped vocal samples and persistent atmospheric stops and starts? How about Andrea Parker’s new label adventure? Yep it’s been a while since we heard what Parker was up to. From her early trip hop heritage on Mo’ Wax to her electro and

Miami bass investigations, this lady has shown us the darkside of electronic experimentation. Now her path mysteriously unravels in a new unchartered direction, as always, keeping ahead of mainstream trends. Here on offer is the first release on Aperture and it defies easy catergorisation falling somewhere between dubstep warriorism and WARP’s sci fi oscillations.

 

And what of Oberman Knocks?

Real name: Nigel Truswell.

Origin: Sheffield.

Occupation: Graphic designer.

Mission: using three pieces of software, a minidisc recorder and a cheap mic, to creatively dodge the painstaking technical talk of the usual electronic artist.

Result: he has delved into an unconscious realm of concrete jungles and back street laboratories to produce haunting, deep rumbling, sounds where each irregularity unveils a new area of soundscape. Nigel has been identified as being under the influence of Mira Calix and Autechre’s techno manglings.

With song titles like ‘Indomine Rhittiger Plans By Four’ and ‘Holtzen Anger Mine’ you can begin to imagine what to unexpect. Just when you think a groove is building up, the bottom drops out and the musical configuration resets and flows into another space like on ‘Beckerton First Draft’. And there are no lyrics here, no vocal harmonies but cybernetic mutterings and mutations like on ‘Motor Sepple Freak’ - the music on offer here wouldn’t be out of place as a backdrop to an early Cronenberg remake.

 

This is a complete antithesis to the status quo and refreshingly so. Push the ‘venture forth’ button and experience a strange new world.

Punx Soundcheck – Dookie Rope EP [Hotwerk Records] 02 February 2009

If you could step back in time to 1998 using quantum information processing it would become apparent that the Punx, John Taylor and Arif Salih, were popping out remixes under the moniker Natural Born Chillers. Fast forward a few years to 2002 and the emerging Berlin electronic music scene mixed with the upsurge of electroclash in London and New York spurred them on to form Punx Soundtrack, leave the breaks behind and go all out on the handbagtechnodiscoelectro front of the 00s.

 

This latest EP offers up remix highlights from their second album ‘Black and Gold’. With a turn around in tradition, doesn’t it make a change that the Punx are remixed on this EP rather than the remixers? - In the past they have notched up reworking duties for S'Express, Ping Pong Bitches, Ascii.Disko, Atomizer, Dead or Alive and Duran Duran. But this time they have selected their own cast of electronic underground remixers from 2009. And the effect? Some bumping tunes to rock out to on the dancefloor.

 

The EP opens with Dolby Anol’s Humjob remix of ‘Makethatnoise’ emmanating a siren like sound that soon gets cut off by glitchy vocal sampling, rigid b-line twitches and excitable electro zappings. Ascii.Disko’s version has a looser acid feel driven by an alternating octave bass. Tobias Doppleganger on the otherhand interprets the track in more of a minimal garage bass house kind of way. The last two tracks on this EP are remixes of ‘Dress and Shoes’ featuring rising electro house rap star MissOddKidd’s mutated vocals. Run Hide Survive’s version piles up the wooshy electro transmission effects and Tronik Youth closes proceedings with a deeper darker sound than the other four, but still with a banging edge that is constant through out the five tracks. Phew! After all that you are going to need a breather, hear the OddKidd: Everyone, time to leave, the parties over, can everyone make your way to the exit please?

Five are sounding fine for 2009

1Telepathe - Dance Mother [V2] (LP due 26 January 2009)
Another of those electronic duos doing the rounds. But there is something magically alluring about this combo. In the meantime there is floaty, catchy, strangely RnB like but not like that really, more like some kind of shoegazing electronica gem than weaves in and out of consciousness called 'Chrome's On It'.

2Publicist Ian Svenonius from Weird War raises the protest singer stakes with his laidback soulful rock vocals and imagination stretching lyrics on top of beats 'n' blips supplied by Sebastian from Trans Am and Weird War. 

3Ipso Facto - the spirit of Siouxise lives on in the shape of this London four piece to melancholy moodiness and deadpan attitude.

4Joy Formidable - something like Pretty Girls Make Graves.

5We Have Band - the Kitsune phoenix from the ashes of West London electrorockers Headland. 

Bestest albums of 2008

TV on the Radio - Dear Science [4AD]
The Breeders - Mountain Battles [4AD]
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular [SonyBMG]
Prosumer - Serenity [Ostgut]
Marnie Stern - This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That [Touch & Go]
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna [Warp]

The Damned – So Who’s Paranoid? [The English Channel] 08 December 2008

Since the release of ‘Grave Disorder’ in 2001 it appeared that the Damned had been condemned to live off past glories - gigging for 7 years and never releasing a new album. But 32 years on and a carousel of line up changes (mainly bassists and drummers) they roll out 13 more songs and present us with their tenth studio album. With original singer Dave Vanian and red beret  ‘n’ shades wearing, ‘happy talking’ guitarist Captain Sensible still in place, the band stay with familiar themes of dark grandeur, championing a maturer sound.

The album opens with ‘A Nation Fit For Heroes’ and it’s a good choice, it echoes Doors-esque organ sounds with a catchy Strangler like chorus. As foreboding it may be they the start to shimmy into MOR territory with their slow melodic balladry like on ‘Since I Met You’ and ‘Nature’s Dark Passion’ and theatrical late night cabaret feel on ‘Dr Woofenstein’ and ‘Diamonds’. There are no glue fuelled late 70s tunes here: corporate brand, boring and bland sings David Vanian on 14 minute psych out album ender ‘Dark Asteroid’. At times it does feel like they have run out of their special ingredient.

 

But this is the Damned and they can pull it off, can’t they? There are a sprinkling of psych punk songs worthy of a strut to, like the tuneful whirlwind of 2006s single ‘Little Miss Disaster’, the freak out urgency of ‘Danger To Yourself’, seedy sexploits of ‘Maid For Pleasure’ and pop glory of ‘Perfect Sunday’. Here the Damned show they can still create soulful atmospheric rollers to raise the dead.

 

Cause your time passed and you got no class, better walk on by croons Dave on ‘Just Hangin’’ - they could well be happily riding on conjured coat tails of nostalgia. How much longer can they keep it up is open to debate. But for now you can still get a glimpse of their remaining majestical retro active retinal imprint.