Issue 17b / 10 May 2024
In part two of this week's blast of DIY electronic goodness... Track Of The Week: Simon Fisher Turner + bumper Good Stuff release round-up including Listening Centre + more, more, more
Hello again. Friday afternoon already. The weeks don’t half flash by. Welcome to Part Two of this week’s mailout. Just to warn you, there is some seriously good music out today. Don’t know why but this week seems especially ripe. So hold onto your wallets or whatever it is you use to buy stuff with, this newsletter could get expensive.
If you missed part one this morning, there’s a lovely interview with author Ben Murphy about his new field recording book ‘Ears To The Ground’. You’ll find it here…
moonbuilding.substack.com/p/issue-17a-10-may-2024
Onwards.
Neil Mason, editor
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SIMON FISHER TURNER ‘Barefeet’ (Mute)
The always brilliant Simon Fisher Turner returns with a new album, ‘Instability Of The Signal’ on 2 August. The opener ‘Barefeet’ popped up online the other week and comes with a delightful video by documentary filmmaker Sebastian Sharples, which is utterly captivating.
What is also a bit of showstopper is the album features SFT on vocals. He was a teen actor/pop star in the early 70s, a kind of UK answer to David Cassidy, but he hasn’t sung in years. I mean, he probably has in the shower, but not recorded. That said, he is a prolific field recordist, so you know.
Anyway, ‘Instability of The Signal’ is the sort of thoughtful offering you expect from SFT. It pulls together four strands of his sonic experimentation – slivers, sound, strings and singing. The slivers are tiny snippets of audio created by Salford Electronics’ Dave Padbury, which Simon used as foundations for the tracks. The sounds come from his field recordings and includes a hand-made mechanical pencil sharpener made by Tilda Swinton's dad. The strings come from The Elysian Collective and the singing you know about.
simonfisherturner.bandcamp.com
Got an upcoming release? We’re all ears. Find us at moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Words: Neil Mason
GOOD STUFF #1
LISTENING CENTRE ‘Sight And Scene’ (Castles In Space)
Beaming in from the Hudson Valley in New York, Irishman David Mason returns with his dozenth long-player and his first for CiS. Is “dozenth” a word? Probably not. Anyway, ‘Sight And Scene’ explores the 1970’s film and TV sci-fi aesthetic. Using analogue synths and recording directly to cassette or 1/4-inch tape, it is packed with those lush trademark LC melodies. It’s a cracking release, love the drama of the soaring synths on a track like ‘Capture Errors’. There are also a bunch of “interludes”, more experimental offers, scattered across the record, which is a nice touch. I very much like David’s aesthetic, there’s two videos accompanying tracks. The first ‘The Death of Group D Meter’ is shot on Super 8 and the second, ‘We’ll Use Each Other, Won’t We’, features Polaroid photography filmed on analogue video. We’ve talked about Super 8 here before. I used it extensively in the old days and love the quality of image. The shame is all this image-making kit is pretty much out of reach of most people. Sure, you can make cool film on your phone but it’s somehow not the same as loading up a camera and shooting actual film. Which we could do it for very little not all that long ago.
GOOD STUFF #2
THE GALAXY ELECTRIC & DROOG MULHOLLAND ‘Muzak From The Korova Milkbar’ (SubExotic)
The first of two mentions for ‘A Clockwork Orange’ today as this collaboration between US retro-futurist duo The Galaxy Electric and Drew “Mount Vernon Arts Lab” Mulholland bring you music fit to grace The Korova Milkbar. The project started with The Galaxy Electric’s Jacqueline Caruso and Augustus Green escaping the reality of the Covid lockdowns by indulging their obsession for shows like ‘Doctor Who’, ‘The X-Files’ and films like ‘Forbidden Planet’ and ‘A Clockwork Orange’. The result was they were conjuring up melodies and arrangements like they’d never made before. While it’s not entirely clear how Drew Mulholland got involved the pair say they began “reaching out, connecting online with other obsessives” and “through a shared love of BBC Radiophonic Workshop” they “connected instantly and deeply” with Drew. The result is rather brilliant. And does indeed sound like its emanating from the famous Krova Milkbar. Loving this.
GOOD STUFF #3
BEN UNDERWOOD ‘Outdoor Work’ (Woodford Halse)
OK, so sometimes guitars do creep in now and again. This wonderfully poignant offering from Ben Underwood has really got under my skin. It’s an album about his late mum. The dedication is “For Bev Underwood – I still miss you”, which is enough to melt the stoniest of hearts. Ben explains that the album started life as a place where he sought solace following his mum’s death. He’d build the pieces over days, weeks, adding and layering using a couple of trusty guitars and a limited pallete of effects. While the pieces were written using a loop pedal, the actual recordings were made live, with Ben repeating the motifs over and over as he committed them to his four-track. ‘Cloud Train’ is particularly beautiful. All of which is fitting because the “outdoor work” was repetitive piece work that his mum undertook for local factories. Along with his sister, Ben would help out with all three of them sitting and watching soaps on TV while completing the menial tasks night after night. It’s truly lovely stuff made all the more so for its backstory.
GOOD STUFF #4
WOLFGANG TILLMANS ‘Build From Here’ (Fragile)
The German artist and photographer is an insanely talent man. He was the first photographer to bag Turner Prize in 2000, in 2003 he was named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. He also makes music and is a man of impeciable taste. In 2014, he curated an exhibition, ‘Music Of the Band (1982-1987) dedicated the Colourbox. I love Colourbox. There was a compilation released to tie in with the exhibition which features artwork by Tillman. Back in the day, we’re talking the 1980s here, he was in a synth duo in his hometown in Germany. His debut EP proper, ‘2016/1986’, featured restored recordings of that band on one side and two new tracks created using recordings of printing press machinery on the other side. Music and sound have since become an important part of Tillman’s work, releasing and performing a raft of music ever since. ‘Build From Here’ is his third long-player and it’s full of curveball pop over spilling with warm melodies, think Pet Shop Boys meets Bill Nelson’s ‘Quit Dreaming…’. Tracks like ‘We Are Not Going Back’ or ‘Morning Light’ are properly uplifting. There’s a track called ‘French Lesson’ which sounds like Ralf Hütter fronting a funky guitar band. It’s really good. It’s super quirky, but I like this stuff a lot.
GOOD STUFF #5
DONNY MAHLMEISTER ‘Paper Glacier’ / ROB LOGAN ‘Explode The Rose’ (Trouble In Mind)
A double bill of cassette releases from the Chicago-based Trouble In Mind label came my way this week. For those who don’t know the label, they released Melenas’ ‘Ahora’, which was one of my favorite albums of last year. When they send me stuff I do tend to listen. They have good ears. First up is Chicagoian Donny Mahlmeister with an improvised eight-tracker called ‘Paper Glacier’. The tracks, say the label, have “a singular sonic imprint that imparts a warm hazy glow”. Can’t argue with that. It’s something you need to make time for to listen from start to finish. It shimmers. Next up there’s a debut solo excursion from Rob Logan of Desert Liminal and Midnight Minds. I’m liking ‘Explode The Rose’ a lot. The spoken word samples on opener ‘This Is A Musical Story’ give it an Orb-y type feel while the music itself does a really nice slow build. I really love the shoegaze-y vocal on ‘No Owner’ too. The accompanying info uses the word “euphoniousness”, which I have to admire. And yes, it is.
R-R-R-R-R-ROUND UP
A third album of free-improvising cosmic synth action from LA-based ambient psych duo, Galecstasy. ‘Stone Flute’ (Lo Recordings) was conceived and recorded in the deserts of the Joshua Tree National Park in southern California. I’ve heard a fair few albums over the years recorded there and you can’t half hear the enormity of the place in them. Here we get two suites, ‘Stone Flute’ and ‘Turquoise’ both stretching out over 20 minutes. This is one that needs playing in the dead of a starry night.
galecstasy.bandcamp.com
Guitars again! I have not much of a clue what this is, but some of the tracks here really do merit further investigation. What I know is it’s a compilation of bands who have recorded with Mexican independent production company Arthur WGW, who are celebrating their their 30th anniversary this year. And, erm, that’s it. I love the growly bass on Blueshit’s ‘Madurar’, the sheer force of Gruno feat Alicia Grimes’ ‘Smile’ and the shimmering synths and theramin-y sound of ‘Especies Que Non Son’ by Paperas. It’s like a Speedy Wondergound scene Mexican style.
theblueshit.bandcamp.com
EP and singles Corner! Ha. The thing people used to say to me the most when I was at Electronic Sound is why don’t you review singles? I would have loved to, but just getting through the albums was hard enough. I’d like to try make space for singles and EP here, I’ll have a think as to how I can do it. Anyway, here’s a couple for you…
Stoke-on-Trent’s Formal Sppeedwear (yes, that’s “pp” and “ee”) are a “wonky new wave teacup ready to be sipped”. Sip away because their self-titled EP on Melodic comes on like Talking Heads meets XTC if you ask me. Ask them and they’ll tell you it’s YMO, NEU! and Devo. Nothing wrong with any of that. It sounds like they’ve got Mick Karn on bass on the excellent ‘Lofty Ash’, which wigs out like a good un. They also talk about “taking creative cues from Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies and Conny Plank’s experimental recording techniques” which is all fine by me. This lot are good. Keep an eye on them.
formalsppeedwear.bandcamp.com
This is interesting from British/Nigerian experimental composer Tony Njoku. A self taught pianist, he started out making clubby tunes in his bedroom but it was only on 2022’s ‘Sketches A& Noodles Of Bloom’ EP where he stripped his work back to a solo piano that he embraced the idea of being a composer. Listening to this EP he has the skills, for sure. “Sailing under the same winds as Jóhann Jóhannsson and Phillip Glass” his people say. Which is bold talk. But then this is Prah, they have form. Anna Meredith started out there, Haiku Salut passed through, so you know.
tonynjoku.bandcamp.com
Made By John who we last spotted making acid-y lo-fi house on his ‘Music For Waiting Rooms’ outing on Waxing Crescent. ‘Retail Simulator™’ sees him “delve into the world of 1980s easy listening with a dash of disco”. A dash? Opener ‘Beach Walk’ is stuffed to the gills with it. He also comes packing a bunch of Fender guitars, and MC 202 and TR606 which find him coming on like Axel F on ‘Gulfsdream’. I guess people would call this yacht rock if they needed a neat drawer to put it in. It is very well made. If the sun is still out where you are get the windows open, get this on and turn it up loud.
madebyjohn.bandcamp.com
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MACHINE LEARNING
Matthew Collin, whose excellent ‘Dream Machines – Electronic Music In Britain From Doctor Who To Acid House’ was our Book Of The Week the other week, is the gift that keeps on giving. I spend some time with him while he was promoting the book a few weeks back and we talked about how he did over 100 interviews with the good and the great of electronic music world for the book. The thing is, with a far-reaching project like this, you’re only ever going to use a fraction of those chats, the bare bones that make a point or move the narrative needle in the right direction before you have to move on to tell another story. So what do you do with these often lengthy interviews? To support his post-punk opus ‘Rip It Up’, Simon Reynolds published ‘Totally Wired’, a whole other book that was full of raw interviews. Here Matthew goes one step further and has launched a free blog where he’s going to be uploading the full interviews he conducted and used as the basis for his fine book. “A lot of the material couldn’t fit into ‘Dream Machines’,” says Matthew, “and there were lots of good quotes and anecdotes left over that could possibly be of interest so I decided to publish some of the raw Q&As as a resource for readers, researchers and anyone else who might be interested.” I suspect if you’re reading this you are going to be interested. There’s two interviews up on the site right now – Chris and Cosey, and Dennis Bovell. Do keep an eye on progress as this is going to build into a very rich resource.
dreammachinesinterviews.blogspot.com
WILD THING
Dom Martin’s Feral Child label strikes again. As if the last release, the one-sided, hexagonal clear lathe cut, ‘Mark E Smith Reads The Football Results On Final Score 19.11.05’ wasn’t showstopping enough, the latest offering tops them all. Known only as ‘MSFI#13’, the release is an edition of 200 seven-inch singles containing the exact same two tracks. But each copy is credited to a different artist with unique song titles and a fictitious record label. The artwork and packaging is also unique to each release, which makes each copy a one-of-a-kind object. It fair blows the mind quite how much time has been spent on this. My copy of Poleshift’s one and only release arrived this week. Other artist names include Black Index Society, The Ashen Empire, Bildbenz, Horometry, Kaos Dome, Sethrone and Incantphase. It strikes me that once all this sinks in ‘MSFI#13’ will become part of folklore like the music chart in the record shop in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ or the Nurse With Wound list. How many acts will pop up having borrowed their name from this Feral Child release? “Musically,” says Dom, “the release contains minimal electronic music improvised and recorded live on analogue equipment.” As to who has recorded these two tracks no one is saying. It will, I’m sure, all come out in the fullness of time. Have a listen here and here…
WOULD I LIE TO YOU
If you’re at a loose end next Saturday and you happen to be in London, get yourself down to the latest Bleep43 deep listening session in the delightful surroundings of Jackson Lane, a beautiful converted church in glamorous Highgate in north London. On the bill is the legendary Krust, who will be debuting a quadraphonic ambient set, Jo Johnson, who has a brilliant new LP incoming on Castles In Space, and all the way from Australia there’s the debut UK live performance from mellow psychedelicsist (not sure that’s a word) Material Object, while Frequency Domain big chief Ali Wade will be DJing between the live sets. Bleep43 runs from 4-8pm so you can be home and in your pyjamas by 9pm if you worry about that sort of thing and anyway, the organisers describe it as a “horizontal” event, which means you are welcome to lie down. Yup. “There will be a number of mats available,” say Bleep43, “but we’d also encourage you to bring your own mats and cushions so that you can be as comfortable as possible.” Doesn’t get much better, eh? These events are few and far between, happening once or twice a year, so when they do happen they’re pretty special. Don’t miss out. Info and tickets are here… bio.site/bleep43
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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.
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