Issue 14b / 19 April 2024
In part two of this week's blast of DIY electronic goodness... Track Of The Week: Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman + an action-packed Good Stuff new release round-up, a playlist and a bit more...
Righto. Done. Here’s part two of this week’s newsletter. If you missed part one this morning, it’s here… moonbuilding.substack.com/p/issue-14a-19-april-2024
I know I brought this on myself by being too busy to even write, but do let me know what you think about the newsletter coming in two parts. I quite like the idea. I like the possibilities it opens up. And it might help you too by breaking things down into readable chunks!
Anyway, it’s 3.30pm on a Friday. I’ve got a weekend being delivered.
Neil Mason, editor
moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Issue 14 Playlist: bndcmpr.co/95bab268
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ANDREW WASYLYK | TOMMY PERMAN ‘Communal Imagination’ (Clay Pipe)
Two artists whose work is always worth making a beeline for on their own, gang up for a collaborative project and this new single. I’m not sure I would have readily put them together, which is part of the joy of ‘Communal Imagination’. It says here that the fellow Scots have “orbited each other’s worlds for a number of years through audio-visual collaborations spanning record releases, films and sound installations”, which sounds interesting.
You should already know them both, Tommy from his releases and design work on the Blackford Hill label, Andrew from his very outings on Frances Castles’ Clay Pipe label, which is the obvious home for this project.
This first fruit is a fine piece of work. Wasylyk’s jaunty piano picks out a warm melody while Perman weighs in with the beats as the track builds to its crescendo with choral tones and saxophones. I feel like I might have got all poetic there for a moment.
Frances says we can expect an album from the duo later in the year. This taster and the fact it comes backed by Clay Pipe all bodes well. We’ll be first in the queue when it lands.
Got an upcoming release? We’re all ears. Find us at moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Words: Neil Mason
GOOD STUFF #1
MARINE EYES ‘To Belong’ (Past Inside The Present)
We’re fast becoming very big fans of LA-based Cynthia Bernard here at Moonbuilding HQ. Her monthly ‘Women Of Ambient’ mixtapes have become essential listening, each one is full of new and familiar names and is always a voyage of discovery. Do also check out her Cloud Collecting SubStack too. Here she takes centre stage with her third full-length as Marine Eyes and her second for the excellent Past Inside The Present label, which in itself is such a seal of approval. ‘To Belong’ is a record about, as the title suggests, belonging. For example, ‘Bridges’ is intended for her children as they “navigate the confusion and complexities of young adulthood”. Current favourite track, ‘Timeshifting’ with its sweet, ghostly vocal, or the beautiful ‘Mended Own’, a full-blown vocal track that kind of stopped me in my tracks. It’s something that could have sat on 4AD, a kind of 21st century This Mortal Coil vibe. While the release comes on CD (no complaints, CD sounds great) there’s a version that’s described as “the limited seven-inch edition… distilling the original 14-track record down to just four selections”. I mean, it’s an EP, but that very idea of it being a distilled version of the album is such a nice touch.
GOOD STUFF #2
SEABUCKTHORN ‘The Warm, This Late’ (quiet details)
And talking of big fans, it’s that quiet details time of month. Andy Cartwright’s Seabuckthorn are in the crosshairs for this latest release. Here he works with double bassist and trombonist Phil Cassel and serves up something a little different for the label. Not so much electronic as an electroacoustic, it’s guitar-led record with measures of ukulele, banjo, clarinet and field recordings, all of which meet bass and brass and everything gets treated with effects and processed before it hits our ears. We’ve talked before about the way electronics and brass work so well together, here it’s the way in which everything is fed through a filter and how it changes what would have been fairly regular into something very beautiful. As a whole it really stands out not just on its own, but as part of the quiet details family.
GOOD STUFF #3
AUDIO OBSCURA ‘Acid Field Recordings In Dub’ (Subexotic)
Norfolk-based Neil Stringfellow has really upped his output in recent months. Hurrah. Here he returns to SubExotic for the first time since his collaborative outing with Black Sonar in 2022. ‘Acid Field Recordings In Dub’ is such an enticing title it hardly needs me to do any kind of sell to get you to listen. The album came about after Neil was feeling inspired after a field recording introduction weekend with the legendary Chris Watson. “Over the years,” says Neil, “I’ve learned to really listen to the everyday soundscapes and as such I no longer walk down the street listening to a personal stereo, the world can often be more exciting than music.” A personal stereo? Bless him. Want an example if what he means? “Recording the dawn chorus in Lowestoft, the chirping birds sounded intense coming from different trees and walking between the trees seemed to make the classic 303 acid squelch sound.. part of this is in the middle section of the ‘Babyloniacid’ track.” Sold? It should be. It’s also being released on “heritage” black vinyl, which made me laugh.
GOOD STUFF #4
ORBITAL ‘The Green Album’ (London)
I can’t ignore this reissue of Orbital’s 1991 debut album. Their first two albums were both helpfully called ‘Orbital’ so they came to be known by the colour of their sleeves. ‘The Green Album’ was the beginning of one heck of a journey for the brothers Hartnoll. While it’s ‘The Brown Album’, their second, that really blew the doors off, hearing ‘The Green Album’ for the first time in 1991 was pretty seismic as far as I was concerned. That cheeky Tears For Fears sample in the opening track or the origins of that distinctive Orbital stab in ‘Speed Freak’ or, come to that, hearing ‘Chime’ for the first time. Paul and Phil Hartnoll are a prime example of people who soaked up the sounds of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop radiating out of the TV or radio set and let it soak into their own work years later. If you don’t own this album, you really should. It comes in an expanded edition with loads of extra goodies, versions, remixes etc. There’s even a cassette version. Take my money.
GOOD STUFF #5
VARIOUS ARTISTS ‘Fathoms’ (Dustopian Frequencies)
The other week I was really enjoying the science behind Ulrich Krieger’s ‘Aphotic III – Bathyal’ on Room40, which was all about the various depths of the ocean. Here Dustopian Frequencies serve up a 10-track compilation of tracks “that take the listener into the deepest, darkest, unknown depths of the sea”. The idea is each artist creates a piece that tell a story pertaining to the depths of the ocean through the power of their music. Some cracking names here, Pulslovers, Veryan, Swansither and a bunch of new one for me to have a good old dig around in.
dustopianfrequencies.bandcamp.com
THE ROUND-UP IN A ROUND-UP
‘It All Comes Down To This’ (Mute) is the 13th album from A Certain Ratio and it’s something a little different for the Manc legends. Produced by Speedy Wonderground’s Dan Carey, it finds them recording as just the core trio of Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson for the very first time. Carey’s stripped-down sound really suits them. It’s only been a year since their last album, ‘1982’, to keep the quality this high is impressive. But then this is ACR.
acertainratio.bandcamp.com
What is wrong with me? There’s more guitars in this week’s mailout than is sensible. Of course, ain’t none of them just guitars. Claire Rousay’s ‘Sentiment’ (Thrill Jockey) is kind of a straight record, “a meditation of the poignant emotional terrains of loneliness, nostalgia, sentimentality, guilt, and sex” in a sort of emo/pop punk/bedroom pop style. But nothing is straightforward with Claire Rousay. The AutoTune vocal here makes for curious listening, especially when the pensive, lonely guitar follows such a traditional songwriterly path.
clairerousay.bandcamp.com
And talking of interesting, there’s Khôra’s ‘Gestures Of Perception’ (Marionette). The handiwork of Toronto-based Matthew Ramolo, I’ve read the description several times and I’m still none the wiser. Here goes… “Deft handling of modular synthesis is palpably central, while feedback, erhu, keys, flute, contact electronics, guitar, field sounds, and various percussion objects (rattle and frame drums, seed pod sticks, random metal objects, meditation bowls, kalimbas, bells) all serve to provide breathing structures and energetic contours that guide and scaffold inner and outer journeys into the far-near.” A double album, it comes with a 48-page zine of “poetic Mythography”. See what you make of it.
khora.bandcamp.com
You’ll have no doubt seen releases by Dominic Turgood’s Phexioenesystems on labels such as Salmon Universe and Castles In Space. Here he just pops up with ‘White Cotton Octagonal’, no label, just him and some sounds. In fact, that’s the idea behind it. He says he’s “endeavouring to make music that sounds like it just exists, having made itself. Nothing really happens, and that's ok.” Which I really like the idea of. And you know what? It does sound like it’s making itself. Liking this a lot.
phexioenesystems.bandcamp.com
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PAPERBACK READER
Happy paperback publication day to Richard Evans’ ‘Listening to the Music the Machines Make – Inventing Electronic Pop 1978-1983’ (Omnibus), It is, it says here, “the revolutionary story of electronic pop from 1978 to 1983, a true golden age of British music”. You’ve heard all that before, right? Well, yes and no.
The thing I like the most about books like this, books that chart some sort of musical history, is the tilt put on them by the author. So while it seems that the history of electronic music is extremely well covered – heck, Matthew Collin and Simon Reynolds both published history-type books in the last week – I can’t get enough of stuff like this. The facts are the facts, but it’s the connections the assorted authors draw that fascinate. Even seeing things like the time frame they set is intriguing.
Evans starts his tale in 1978, although before he gets to all that he drops the Bowie bomb. There are a number of ‘Top Of The Pops’ performances that could be seen epicentres, but David Bowie’s appearance performing ‘Starman’ with his Ziggy Stardust head on in 1972 sent out the sort of ripples that the Doctor Who theme did when it radiated out from TV sets a decade earlier. The idea that these cultural touchstones were seen by a generation who then went on to make their own mark is thrilling.
Anyway, needless to say it’s yet ANOTHER cracking book that deals with the history of electronic music, which is made much the richer for Evans’ choice to draw his quotes not from new interviews, but from extensive archival interviews given in the white-heat of the moment. For those who’ve not picked up this tome since it was first published a year ago, or those who’ve not seen it all, this paperback version is the perfect excuse.
omnibuspress.com / Moonbuilding bookshop
SPACE STATION(ARY)
Who isn’t a sucker for stationary? I have several work notebooks, actual analogue notebooks. It took me ages to find the perfect A5 jotter, turns out Paperchase did these three-packs of plain paper books, craft covers… and then they went bust. The bastards. I bought piles of those notebooks in their closing down sale so should be ok for quite a bit.
Anyway, the old social media voodoo means I do see a lot of stationary ads and at the moment I’m being absolutely battered by one for Atoms To Astronauts who makes “notebooks for those who love science”, or maybe notebooks for those who love notebooks. There’s 17 designs – maths, chemistry, botany, lots of various words that end in “ology” and space, obviously.
It all claims to be the lockdown project of a chemistry teacher called Damian who designed a notebook cover for himself and, he says, “now here we are”. Indeed we are. Could be true, or not, the heavy heavy sales push makes me suspicious. Or maybe I’m just a soft touch. The truth is out there, as they used to say. Anyway, the notebooks are the best size, A5, hard cover with a lay-flat binding. The paper is milled in Cumbria and is 100gsm off white. They’re sooooo nice. £23.95 a pop.
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The current issue of MOONBUILDING is full to the gills with the good stuff. On the cover, star-in-the-making Maria Uzor, we profile label-of-the-moment quiet details, there’s an incredible interview with Captain Star creator Steven Appleby, and Ghost Box’s Jim Jupp gets busy with our There’s A First Time For Everything questions.
We review a big pile of releases from labels including Castles In Space, Woodford Halse, Persistence Of Sound, Assai, Ahora, DiN, Werra Foxma, Ghost Box and many more. There’s a column from The Orb’s Alex Paterson and the world-famous Captain Star cartoon strip.
This issue’s CD is ‘The Moonbuilding Miscellany – Volume One’, which is put together by CiS supremo Colin Morrison. It’s a belter featuring tracks from the likes of Lo Five, Lone Bison, Twilight Sequence, Ojn, NCHX and more.
Moonbuilding Weekly is a Castles In Space publication.
Copyright © 2024 Moonbuilding
This 2-part format could grow on me. It certainly pulled me out of that late-afternoon end-of-the-week slump when one’s thought would normally drift towards knocking off early and heading for the pub. Good work 👍
Thanks for the support, Neil. Lots to explore on here!