Issue 25 / 5 July 2024
Your essential DIY electronic music bulletin... Track Of The Week: Patricia Wolf + new release round-up starring 'A Fuctory Sample', Scanner, Kayla Painter + 'Postcards From Scotland' book and more
Did you miss us in your inbox this morning? No a or b today, just the one mailout now we’re on our summer schedule. Think of it like MST, Moonbuilding Summer Time, we’ll be back with Album Of The Week and our in-depth interview in the autumn.
Don’t worry, there is method to the madness. I’m not sitting on my hands. Oh no. There’s a new print edition of Moonbuilding on the way so I am using the time wisely. Looking forward to telling you all about the new issue soon.
Thanks for reading.
Neil Mason, editor
moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Issue 25 Playlist: bndcmpr.co/f1ed126d
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PATRICIA WOLF ‘Bewick’s Wren’ (Nite Hive)
I love stumbling cross labels new to me. Which is handy consider what I do. The Brighton-based Nite Hive is a fledgling cassette imprint set up by Penelope Trappes run by and for “women and gender expansive artists to allow the free exploration of their approach to experimental music”. With Patricia Wolf’s ‘The Secret Life Of Birds’ she’s now three releases deep and all of them excellent.
The debut outing was Penelope’s own hauntingly beautiful yet slightly unsettling ‘Heavenly Spheres’ from last year, which saw some serious experimentation with a her voice, a piano and a reel-to-reel tape deck. Next up, released earlier this year, came Karen Vogt’s ‘Waterlog’, written and recorded after her cat, LUIS, died. Totally chimed with me. “I cried so much during that time,” she says. “I literally felt like I was waterlogged and weighed down with tears.” Incredibly, this release isn’t sold out. Hurry!
This third outing for the label finds Portland-based Patricia Wolf on a wild bird tip. Her avian fascination began alongside her field recording practice when she began to wonder which birds were singing and calling in her recordings. It’s become an all-encompassing passion for her with ‘The Secret Life Of Birds’ being a meeting in the middle of her birdy field recordings and songwriting.
One album about a cat, one about birds. There’s a lesson here, but I’m not quite sure what it is.
Got an upcoming release? We’re all ears. Find us at moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Words: Neil Mason
GOOD STUFF #1
VARIOUS ARTISTS ‘FUC-2 – A Fuctory Sample’ (WIAIWYA)
Released on election day, ‘FUC-2 – A Fuctory Sample’ charts the history of the little-known Fuctory Records, “the most influential label you’ve never heard of”. It comes packing 19 tracks by artists whose names all begin with “H” and is accompanied by a really wonderful 40-page zine that makes you wonder the level of gas-lighting you’re experiencing with this stuff. The whole thing is so well done that you start to wonder if Fuctory was real. Is real. The zine is packed with pages and pages of album artwork, flyers, gig posters, promotional press shots… some of the design work is enviable. I’m keen on acquiring a copy of The Higher Fidelity’s ‘The Sound Of Young Scotland’ on cassette. Their track here, ‘Gentle Confusions’, is a skew-wiff Bontempi waltzer. Do check out the acid arpeggios of Hyponym and their artwork, which is a treat. I love the orderly sleeve of Hawker Demon’s ‘Play’ and the offering from the female trio, ‘Journey’, is like Inspiral Carpets meets Joy Division. Hector’s House’s ‘Oh No… Don’t Smile’ is a hit that never happened. Looking at their blurry press shot they have the look of a band who won a lot of new fans when they supported The Smiths. It’s not until you get to the back of the zine and you come across the FUC51 nightclub that you fully smell the rat. The time, the effort and the sheer inventiveness of all this can only to be admired. This is very high quality clobber, which is only what we have come to expect from WIAIWYA.
GOOD STUFF #2
CLEVELODE ‘Muntjac’ (Fenny Compton)
Following Kitchen Cynics & Grey Malkin’s ‘We Are All Ghosts’ earlier this year, a second long-player arrives from Woodford Halse sister label Fenny Compton.
A collaboration between Paul Newland of the The Lowland Hundred and friends, ‘Muntjac’ is a “paean to Epping Forest and its environs” and offers reflections on “how an individual carries their place of birth – and its cultural identity – with them through life”. A mix of live instruments and some delicious synthesising, the album welcomes double bass player Mike Seal (A Different Thread/Farefield) and Emma Morgan of Brighton folk trio Sairie on backing vocals. Fenny Compton is kind of the folk wing of the Woodford Halse empire, but it’s folk in the very loosest sense, folk adjacent says the big chief. There’s actual singing on this one too, which is something we don’t see much of round here. The classy ‘Outside (The Epping Forest Country Club)’ with its warm drum machine and piano loop comes on like something off ‘Spirit Of Eden’, Paul’s voice has that Hollis sort of quality, while the raspy synth and clanking guitar of tracks like ‘Traffic Jam In The Bell Common Tunnel’ offer instrumental interludes. Although the voices here are rather lovely you don’t really need the break. There’s a really good joke about “a little dear” just waiting to pop out. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Sure it’ll come to me, probably some time tomorrow.
GOOD STUFF #3
SCANNER & NEIL LEONARD ‘The Berklee Sessions’ (Alltagsmusik)
A third release from Robin Rimbaud’s Alltagsmusik finds Scanner jamming with American saxophonist and composer Neil Leonard. Composed by Robin and improvised by a cast of players who have worked with the likes of David Sanborn, John Cale, Cab Calloway and Frank Zappa, the session was captured in a day as part of a residency in the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute at Berklee College of Music in Boston. There was no rehearsal, they just all journeyed into the unknown together. “Jazz embodied with an electronic spirit” is how Robin describes it. He also admits that while it was recorded in March 2014 it has taken 10 years to mix and release. It’s not the only thing he’s been doing in the last decade, but still. I especially like the opening nine-minute ‘Time Code’, which takes a journey on another life with a live reworking by legendary American musician Richard Devine along with Neil Leonard and that version is also included here. Three releases in to this new label and so far each one has been very different. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to the next offering.
GOOD STUFF #4
KAYLA PAINTER ‘Ambient Owl Core Volume 2’
It’s Friday afternoon and this has been on sale since 8am this morning. If the speed that Volume 1 sold out at is anything to go by, Volume 2 isn’t going to be around for too long. I’ll wait if you just want to pop over to Kayla’s Bandcamp and nab a copy… As with Volume 1, these new tracks are inspired by “the world of the night; the secrets shared and stories told, as we lay peacefully asleep”. But not only inspired by, there are field recordings “capturing sounds of night and the moments of life among the stillness”. Which includes hooting owls. It’s lovely stuff, feels very serene. Favourite track is gentle modulations of ‘Questions For Giants’. Kayla says that Volume 2 “twists through some darker shadows compared to ‘AOC 1’ and includes ‘The Bee’, the first track I ever wrote as a producer many moons ago”. The ambient owl core movement rides again. Just need the accompanying club night now with guest owls. There are two tapes available – one with just Vol 2 in a nice purple and the very desirable Vol 1 & 2 in gold. Both are short runs so don’t hang about.
GOOD STUFF #5
XYLITOL ‘Anemones’ (Planet Mu)
The partner of London-based DJ/producer Catherine “Xylitol” Backhouse grew up in the former Yugoslavia, which led Catherine to immerse herself in the country’s pop culture, the result of which was a club night and radio show called… Slav To The Rhythm. How can you not want to listen to the music of someone who comes up with puns that good? She was last spotted on Mu a couple of years back remixing µ-Ziq's ‘Goodbye’ and now her she is with her own full-length ‘Anemones’, which I notice comes on cassette. Love a cassette. There is a lot going on with ‘Anemones’. It’s born out of her fascination with early botanical illustrations and “how the act of taxonomy reveals as much about human psychology, desire and sublimation as it does about the organic specimen”. Her musical starting point is early jungle and garage, which she uses to “connect dots and open up contrasts between dance music and vintage electronics”. She does that to great effect. The way the sub bass meets the melodic synthy goodness on a track like ‘Miha’ or the hectic old school beats rub up against the bright arpeggiating tunefulness of ‘Moebius’ is a pleasure. Enjoying this a lot. And the Yugo influence is felt in “DIY synthesis and Mitteleuropean melody” as well as being evident in titles like ‘Jelena’, ‘Miha’, ‘Daša’ (after novelist Daša Drndič) and ‘Iskria’ (taken from the fictitious Balkan region in Ottessa Moshfegh’s bleak fable ‘Lapvona’). Oh, while you’re visiting Planet Mu’s Bandcamp to buy this, there’s also a 3 for £33 vinyl sale on at the moment with some real bargains to be had.
THE ROUND UP’S ROUND UP
A couple of mixtapes to tell you about. There’s a new edition of Loula Yorke’s monthly offering, now in it’s third edition and bringing you “a fresh 55-minute psychedelic audio offering” that she says takes inspiration from Martha Rosler’s 'Semiotics of the Kitchen’, The KLF’s 'Chill Out' album and the V&A’s ‘ASMR at the museum’. The joy of Loula’s mixtape is the read-along listening notes, which often find her meandering off into other worlds, sometimes connected to the mix, sometimes not so much. For example… “08’53 – I have to stop!! Omgggg!!! I notice a barn owl hunting over the green. I turn my body around really slowly to follow it, I’m witnessing a functioning food chain in action, baby!”.
Mixtape is here
Listening notes are here
We also have some cross pollination this month as the brilliant and long-established Women Of Ambient mixtape by Marine Eyes’ Cynthia Bernard features a track from Loula’s recent quiet details release, ‘Speak, Thou Vast And Venerable Head’. It’s like crossing the streams or something. Should we brace for the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? The best way into this always-excellent monthly mixtape is via Cynthia’s Cloud Collecting Substack, which is here. It’s there you’ll find links for listening via Soundcloud, BNDCMPR and a vast, rolling Spotify playlist.
‘Warm & Safe’ (Lavender Sweep) by Swansea’s post rock experimental noise merchants MINES is described by Ant from the label as a four-track album. It’s their first outing since 2022’s ‘Your Ever Failing Happiness’, which is also called an album and has five tracks. What makes an album an album? Is it one because they say it is, which is fair enough, because of the number of tracks (four is an EP, five is a mini album) or how long it is? This has a runtime of 40 minutes and 40 very good minutes at that. It’s something of a dark ambient rubdown, the 10-minute plus ‘My Heart Is Willing’ is quite the calling card full of electronic swirls, repetitive beats and bubbling synth washes.
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GREAT SCOTS
Staying in Scotland after last week’s Josef K biography, we have Grant McPhee’s ‘Postcards From Scotland – Scottish Independent Music 1983-1995’ (Omnibus). You will probably know the name Grant McPhee from his music documentaries, which are essential viewing. There’s two, 2015’s ‘Big Gold Dream’, which focuses on the legendary Scottish post-punk labels Postcard and Fast Product and is named after The Fire Engines song, and there’s 2017’s ‘Teenage Superstars’ (after The Vaselines’ song), which covers the Scottish indie scene between 1982 and 1992 and zooms in on the early days of two record labels, Creation and 53rd & 3rd. And it’s on this film that ‘Postcards From Scotland’ is loosely based.
Grant is building quite the body of work around Scotland’s rich post-punk scene. A couple of years ago he co-wrote an oral history (with an introduction by Ian Rankin no less) with Creeping Bent’s Douglas MacIntyre called ‘Hungry Beat – The Scottish Independent Pop Underground Movement (1977-1984)’, which came out on White Rabbit.
There’s a list of contributors right at the very front of this latest volume. I love a good pour over a big list of names. Here we get assorted members of bands including BMX Bandits, Teenage Fanclub, The Soup Dragons, The Vaselines, The Pastels, Swell Maps, Jasmine Minks, Shop Assistants, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Finitribe… there’s a good few names here that are pretty obscure, but you have love that kind of deep dig.
What I really like is Grant says the book “is not intended to be a fast-paced series of snappy soundbites. I’ve purposely let interviewees speak at length where it felt appropriate”. He is singing to choir as far as I’m concerned. I was talking to someone the other day and saying that the whole point of the Moonbuilding interviews is to give artists the sort of space and time they just won't get anywhere else and I’m delighted that’s the case here.
As with any scene, there tends to be a flashpoint, and the one for punk arriving in Scotland is more interesting than most. It’s The Clash’s White Riot tour, which turned up at the Edinburgh Playhouse on 7 May 1977. It was like the Pistols at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, except, says Grant, “almost everyone who claims to have been at this gig was actually there”. To many, it was the support acts (Subway Sect, Buzzcocks and The Slits) that were more influential than the headliners. Among those who were there were Edwyn Collins and James Kirk who went on to form Orange Juice and Alan Horne who set up the Postcard label.
The introduction, ‘The beginning and end of the first Scottish DIY wave, 1977-1981’, is about as concise a summing up as you’ll read of what happened to light the touchpaper, the what happened next, the second wave, is fascinating. Altered Images get mentioned a fair bit, not for being especially influential, but for those who passed through the ranks. Alan McGee reveals that Bobby Gillespie was their roadie before he began his own rise.
Presented as an oral history, with plenty of asides and explanations from the author, it’s such a tangled web that it only benefits from a little help ironing it all out. Oral histories do seem to be increasingly popular, I’m a fan, I like a skillfully woven tale told in the words of those who were there and ‘Postcards From Scotland’ is certainly that.
A MESSAGE FROM THE MOTHERSHIP
MOONBUILDING ISSUE 4, £5 (+P&P). GRAB YOURS WHILE STOCKS LAST … MOONBUILDING.BANDCAMP.COM
The latest 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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