Issue 31 / 23 August 2024
This week's essential DIY electronic releases... Track Of The Week: Liquid Liquid + Good Stuff round-up... Mordant Music, Veryan, Phexioenesystems and more + Moon Unit Zappa's 'Earth To Moon' memoir
We’re back! Have you missed us? We had a lovely week sunning ourselves “abroad” although by all accounts we could’ve done that at home. Still, the Med isn’t at the bottom of our garden, nor is there an Italian restaurant where the owner will bring your table everything on the menu, everything. That was an interesting evening.
So how’s it going? How have you been? Hopefully you’ve all got the new issue of Moonbuilding by now. Once it’s sold out I can shut up about it. Just in case you haven’t got the print version of all this, a lovely 48-page A5 zine full of interviews, reviews, release rounds ups as well as an all-new Polypores album, it is available at moonbuilding.bandcamp.com
Neil Mason, editor
moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Issue 31 Playlist: bndcmpr.co/a30256e5
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LIQUID LIQUID ‘Bellhead’ (DFA)
It’s always good to discover that people you like also like bands that you like. Even better when that band happens to be New York’s legendary 99 Records recording artists Liquid Liquid. It was their bassline that Grandmaster Flash used in ‘The Message’ (see the almighty ‘Cavern’) and the influence of the early 80s no-wave frontrunners just keeps rippling outwards. And rightly so.
It’s no surprise that James Murphy and his DFA label are huge fans, you can hear the ghost of Liquid Liquid in almost everything they do. Back in the early-ish 00s, 2005 to be precise, the band regrouped and went into the studio with Murphy and his DFA partner in crime Tim Goldsworthy and produced a whole new version of their 1981 percussion slab, ‘Bellhead’. It is, as the label says, a “torrentially fast version” and describe it as “bursting at the seams with marimba, drums, and bells, like the slacker train sound funk of the original went off the rails”. It snuck out at the time, buried on DFA’s mighty fine ‘Compilation #2’. Anyway, the label felt it was a little overlooked and deserved some limelight in its own right. So here it is, better late than never, getting that attention. It comes on a 12-inch backed with Glasgow’s Optimo remixing the cowbell meltdown of a track they named themselves after.
Liquid Liquid’s new-ish version of ‘Bellhead’ is released on 12-inch by DFA on 5 October. Oh and the artwork is by the band’s bassist Richard McGuire, who is a renowned graphic artist these days.
Got an upcoming release? We’re all ears. Find us at moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Words: Neil Mason
GOOD STUFF #1
MORDANT MUSIC ‘KPMM – 20 Signs You Have A Thyroid Problem’ (Castles In Space)
Five years after he announced the shutters were coming down on his Mordant Music label, Hastings-based library music composer Ian Hicks is back for one last hurrah or another hurrah, who knows? Releasing his final offering, Baron Mordant’s ‘Mark Of The Mould’, in those heady pre-Covid days, Ian worked up a chunk of library tunes during the various lockdowns for what he thought would be a release on KPM “until my contact there vamoosed and corporate ‘reshuffles’ left the music abandoned and huddled in a folder on my desktop”… until CiS stepped in. One classic KPM 1000 series cover and a couple of delicious-looking vinyl variants later and here we have that fresh fruit. As always, Ian’s work stands a head and a couple of shoulders above being just library music. There’s nothing here over three minutes and feel the quality. But first take a moment to soak up the titles, which are as brilliant as ever. There’s the shimmery backwards sounds of ‘End Of Side One’, which is, well, the end of side one, the EDM squall of ‘Trench Welfare’ and the kids’ TV whimsey of ‘Wipe That Smile On Your Face’. You should also revel for a moment in the cryptic “remarks” that accompany each track. ‘SMG 643Y’ comes with the line “Announcement at an early New Order gig”, while ‘Mordant Has The Right To Children’ is “Dedicated to the peerless 90s Warp Records”. There is so much to enjoy here, current favourite track is the gorgeous blips, beeps and swirls of ‘Soft Plastics’ (“Ballet For the bonce”).
GOOD STUFF #2
LIFEISFEEDBACK ‘sado-mechanism’ (GOTO Records)
It’s always a good day when Finlay Shakespeare’s GOTO label releases something new. Here we have the debut release from lifeisfeedback, “a slice of knurled dubbed-out techno from the heart of Bristol”. It’s the work of “the modular fairy godmother” Benjamin Chilton and there are certainly a whole lot of patch cables on his insta page (@lifeisfeedback). Musically, ‘sado-mechanism’ has been getting some heavy spinning this week at Moonbuilding HQ. The accompanying info talks about On-U vs Cabaret Voltaire and you can certainly hear where he’s coming from on a track like ‘Feline Operations’ whose infectious groove had us sticking it on repeat because at three minutes it’s just not long enough. It’s always good to hear spoken-word samples and the frenetic ‘A Right To Violence’ delivers, it also has something of a lick of Aphex. And wait until you get to ‘Behind The Mage’s Blast’, which is a searing slab of after-hours dark beats. A six-tracker clocking in at under 20 minutes, it’s one of those releases that leaves you wanting more and heading for the beginning once it’s come to an end.
GOOD STUFF #3
VERYAN ‘One Universal Breath’ (quiet details)
It’s turning into a day of releases from all our favourite labels, isn’t it? The latest offering from quiet details is a real scorcher. When you rely on guest collaborators like qd there is a danger that the more you release the sooner you’ll run out of quality artists to work with. How wrong can you be? The label is 22 releases in, one every single month, and each one has been of the very highest standard. Recent releases have seen us being treated to contributions from artists who are serving up work that stands alongside their own artist albums, which is quite something. It says much about the integrity of the label and the artists who feature. Like Loula Yorke’s recent qd offering, Veryan’s ‘One Universal Breath’ is right up there with anything the anonymous Scottish-based artist has released to date. It’s beat-driven, which isn’t your usual from Veryan. She talks about the record stemming from a memory of sitting in a Parisian park shortly after the death of her father, who she dedicates this beautiful record to. “I found myself drawn to a solitary lady practicing Tai Chi under one of the trees,” she says. “I recall how much comfort and peace it brought me as I watched her carefully and silently perform each move with precision, focus and care and began to appreciate and accept the duality of life – the yin and yang.” You can feel that peace and calm across the entire album, but especially in the gentle rhythmic thrum of ‘Grasp The Sparrow’s Tail’, while the ghostly Vangelisisms of ‘Diagonal Flying’ is a treat as is the expansive closing title track. The label call the release “melodically enchanting”. Yup. It’s a powerful work, full of warmth and poise, it is also right up there on the mental list of my very favourite albums of the year.
GOOD STUFF #4
EUAN DALGARNO 'Halves' (Frosti)
Edinburgh-based Frosti newcomer Euan Dalgarno arrives on Thomas Ragsdale’s label with 'Halves'. As I’ve said before, Frosti is fast becoming an increasingly valuable label as it builds its catalogue. Take a look at their Bandcamp page and you get a good flavour of what to expect just from the sleeves on display. There’s a look, no doubt, all the artwork is kind of misty, hazy, as you try and glimpse the world beyond. And the sound is much like that too. “As an album with brief bursts of manic euphoria, tense creaks and chattering pianos, it's extremely hard to categorise,” says Thomas of ‘Halves’. Good job I’m here then. It’s a record that fits very neatly into the Frosti catalogue. It’s piano-driven for sure, but there’s a lot else in the mix. The brief orchestral shiver of ‘Vaxkeslic’ gives way to delicate piano, warm sweeps and distance chants of ‘Solitudeath’ while the centrepiece, ‘Ka/phase’, is epic. A track that grows from gentle piano tinkles to bruised, swollen string sweeps. Another feather in the cap of this fine label.
GOOD STUFF #5
PHEXIOENESYSTEMS ‘Tone Colour Garden’ (Salmon Universe)
And talking of favourite labels, it’s been a while since we’ve been treated to anything from Richard Pike and JQ’s offbeat cassette label Salmon Universe. It’s funny how certain artists find a home on certain labels. London-based producer Dominic Thurgood’s Phexioenesystems returns to the label following 2021’s ‘Complicities And Entanglements’ and he is right at home here. There’s always a lot going on in a Phexioenesystems release. Here we have “self-performing sonic ecosystems” that “create the sound of imagined natural landscapes”. Which is a trip right up the Salmon Universe street. ‘Tone Colour Garden’ sounds very fluid, watery even. The drips and blips of ‘Suikinkutsu At Enko-Ji’ are a very direct reference the Japanese Zen garden at the Kyoto temple and the sounds of a suikinkutsu, an upside-down pot that water drips through echoing inside. Phexioenesystems has found a natural home, let’s hope he continues to thrive on Salmon Universe.
GOOD STUFF #6
KEITH SEATMAN ‘A Skip And A Song To See Us Along’ (KS Audio)
Goodness, it really is the mailout of favourites today. Here we get an brand-new full-length from Keith Seatman while we’re waiting for for his next Castles In Space offering, the follow-up to the magnificent ‘Sad Old Tatty Bunting’ in early 2025. He also teases a “7-inch remix single” later this year. Here he follows more in the footsteps of his ‘Disjointed Oddities’ collections and serves up 10 new tunes that consist of “odd electronics, psych, radiophonics, drone, quirky melodies, samples and random thoughts”. Which sounds just about the perfect Moonbuilding Weekly tagline. Here Keith doesn’t disappoint. He never does. A lovely sounding tsk-tsk drum machine rattles away on the title track, synths gurgle along like they’re guiding The Clangers in to land on ‘Perhaps All These Things’ and spooks and spectres take over on the nut-nut ‘Hickelty Pickelty’ and it all comes with distant chatter from, well, who knows where? Keith Seatman at his most far out is often Keith Seatman at his very best. Love it when he trawls the outer reaches like this.
GOOD STUFF #7
IAN BODDY & DAVE BESSELL ‘Polarity’ (DiN)
Following hot on the heels of DiN’s 25th anniversary release, a reminder that one of the label’s founding principles was to encourage collaboration. Curiously, the label’s big chief Ian Boddy hasn’t collaborated with Dave Bessell until now. Dave is no stranger to the label who have been host to his solo work as well as his outings with Parallel Worlds and electronic supergroup Node. The opportunity to work together finally arose when the UK-based Awakenings live electronic music series invited Ian and Dave to perform solo sets after which they took to the stage together for the first time. Recorded live at Lea Hall Pavilion in Rugeley, Staffordshire, in November 2023, ‘Polarity’ is that live set in full. The 60-minute performance is a masterclass in modular improvisation. It comes in three parts, ‘Part 1’ and ‘Part 2’ are both 25 minutes plus, while closer, ‘Confluence’, is a pop song in comparison, clocking in at a little over nine minutes. As always with DiN, it’s a captivating listen. ‘Part 1’ builds and builds to an almost chaotic crescendo before letting itself float back down to earth. ‘Part 2’ is a delightful sequencer session that sees swirls of synths build around ever-rising chordal pads, while the closer sees events come to a shimmery conclusion in a very gentle fashion.
THE ROUND UP’S ROUND UP
Have you had enough or do you want some more? More? There’s a few notable releases I’ve missed over the last couple of weeks, first among them is the new one from Nottingham’s Soundcarriers. ‘Through Other Reflections’ (Phosphonic) is their fifth studio album and is a companion release to their 2022 album ‘Wilds’. Their sound is strikingly original, one of those acts you just know is them. There’s something about Nottingham that produces artists who embrace this kind of Brit psyche sound. Think Tindersticks and their keyboarder David Boulter. Anyway, Soundcarriers will be playing at Castles In Space’s Levitation festival in Bedford this October. Sure you’ll be hearing more about that as we edge closer.
the-soundcarriers.bandcamp.com
I got a lovely email from Yellow Belly’s Dominique Finnegan while I was away. Her debut album ‘Ghostwriter’ is rather lovely in a ‘Twin Peaks’/’Paris Texas’ kind of way. “The term ‘ghostwriter’ typically implies anonymity,” says Cardiff-based Dominique, “but here it signifies a past self, now distant”. She talks about how her “evolving perspective makes it seem as if a different self wrote these songs” and adds that the record is one for those who “appreciate thought-provoking, atmospheric music”. It is that. Her voice is a haunting whisper sat among much synthy goodness, like the with melodic swirls of ‘Signal’ or warm, rich chords of ‘Luna Sea’. Favourite track is the string/synth face-off of ‘Focus Inward’. Looking forward to seeing where Yellow Belly takes all this I have to say.
yellow-belly.bandcamp.com
Spun Out Of Control was one of the very first DIY labels I noticed and began writing about on the pages of Electronic Sound all those years ago. They were at the forefront of the new school of indie labels and it’s great to see they’re still going great guns. Rupert Lally’s ‘Profiler’ is their second release in quick succession, and follows Nicolas Langley’s ‘Cinema Du Look’ in casting back to the 80s. Here Rupert pays homage to the scorching 80s synth scores of his formative years. Think Thomas Harris novels, Michael Mann films and Harold Faltermeyer synth scores. And it all comes on tape, if you can find one. The releases on this trailblazing label do tend to sell out fast.
spunoutofcontrol.bandcamp.com
The last one today is ensemble 0’s ‘Always The Same, Never The Same’ (Farpoint Recordings), which is an utterly lovely record by the Brussels-based outfit whose members shift “according to the repertoire performed”. Here they’re a trio of Jean-François Brohée, Florent Garnier and Sylvain Chauveau who cook up such a beautifully delicate brew of acoustic instruments performed with shimmers of Terry Riley overseeing proceedings. There’s not a synth in sight, but it doesn’t feel or sound like it’s not a record that is plugged into a wall somehow. Really beautiful stuff.
ensemble0.bandcamp.com
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‘EARTH TO MOON’ Moon Unit Zappa (Orion)
Along with Zowie Bowie, or Duncan Jones as he is these these days, Frank Zappa’s offspring are world-wide famous for the names bestowed on them by the oddball rocker and his second wife Gail. Moon Unit, the firstborn, and her oldest brother Dweezil especially are folkloric on the name front.
For most, their names are about as far as they go when it comes to a working knowledge of family live round the Zappa house. Well, no more because Moon, now 56, lifts the lid in this cracking memoir. And what a story it is. She comes across as enormously likeable and tells her compelling tale with charm and style not to mention an easy wit. What stands out is how this raft of incredible stories are presented as if what happened was completely normal, which to Moon of course they were. Their upbringing was anything but.
When Frank was home, the house would be full of people he collected on tour. “A diverse array of horny dreamers, oddballs, misfits and sycophants freeload on heavy rotation” writes Moon, adding that “the house smells of pungent men and women who dance on our kitchen countertops”.
These days we’d call it a safeguarding issue, back then Moon writes that her formative years consisted of “never knowing who’s safe and who isn’t”, but it wasn’t this litany of strangers who seemed to pose the most threat. The abuse at the hands of her own mother is detailed and horrifying.
There’s two incidents that stand out. Moon describes having a tantrum over a nothing argument and her mother dragging her into the bathroom, holding her fully clothed under a cold shower until she was quiet. On another occasion, Moon and Dweezil are having a noisy fight, pinching and pulling hair. Gail arrives with a pair of handcuffs and attaches the children by their ankles dragging them into the bathroom again. She leaves them there and returns with a tape recorder, capturing their screams and then playing them back, shouting “See how you like it”.
Life in the Zappa household, you will learn, could go either way. It could be terrific fun or utter horror. There was clearly a lot of love, but there was also considerable pain. It didn’t help that aged 14, Moon was thrust into the limelight herself when she sang on the Zappa song ‘Valley Girl’ and it became a massive hit. Frank’s biggest hit in fact. Moon was suddenly in the spotlight. When she drops out of school to pursue an acting career, her headmaster asked for a meeting. “Is there trouble at home?” he asked. Moon is affronted at the suggestion and when she tells her mother “a silence grips her. Her jaw tightens”.
As an aside to that incident, Moon writes that “years from now, I will think, WOW. What did my school headmaster see that he was willing to take a chance and intervene on my behalf? How brave. How kind.”
But the abuse at the hands of her mother isn’t even the saddest part of all this. Between Zappa’s death in 1993, aged 52, and her own demise in 2013, Gail changed the family trust, the will, so that the youngest children, Ahmet and Diva, inherited 60 per cent of the estate between them making them “the sole and exclusive managers of all business”. You can imagine what that did the relationship between the children. A final cruel act, the cruelest perhaps.
“What parent does this? What mother does this? What the fuck did I do? What mother chooses some kids over others? What mother divides a family into a them and an us? What siblings allow that? Who are these people?”
The end of the book is a tough read. In ‘Going Gigantic’ Moon tries to piece together what happened next. Unfathomably, Ahmet and Diva dig in to protect their position and even file a petition against Moon and Dweezil. The situation is, sadly, ongoing. The final section, ‘Earth To Moon, 2019-now’, is what Moon is doing about it. “Earth to Moon” is an expression Gail used continually when communicating with her daughter. Yet another cruelty.
Moon is a product of the people and places and experiences that shaped her. The book is written in snapshots, which works wonderfully well. A new story is never far away, and you never know whether to laugh or cry when they arrive. Laying your family out like this is incredibly bold. This is such a brave book to write and it’s a great read because of it.
‘Earth To Moon’ is published by White Rabbit and is out now
A MESSAGE FROM THE MOTHERSHIP
***THE NEW ISSUE OF MOONBUILDING IS OUT NOW***
Bloody hell! Will you look at that? The new issue of MOONBUILDING, Issue 5 for those of you who are counting, is here. Yes, we’ve taken our sweet time, but it is very much worth the wait.
On the cover, with another cracking illustration from the untouchable Nick Taylor, is the awesome Polypores. In our free-wheeling chat we get right under the hood of Stephen James Buckley’s musical operation, offer up a listening guide to help you safely navigate his extensive back catalogue and we also have an whole new Polypores album exclusively for you.
Yes, you read that right. We are giving you a freshly minted, not available anywhere else new album called ‘The Album I Would Have Released In An Alternate Universe’, which happens to be the sister recording to his forthcoming Castles In Space album ‘There Are Other Worlds’. Read all about it in the new issue where Stephen talks you though it track by track.
If you’d like an extract from our Polypores cover feature interview where Stephen Buckley talks about his formative influences, which probably aren’t what you’d image, you can do that here… moonbuilding.substack.com/p/issue-28a-26-july-2024
Elsewhere in the new issue, there’s a profile of our new favourite label Mortality Tables, Pye Corner Audio gets in on the There’s A First Time For Everything act, we round up an absolute mountain of recent releases and serve up our thoughts on the best albums from the last few months, including Loula Yorke and Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan. There’s a column from The Orb’s Alex Paterson, which starts off about Jah Wobble and ends up about Andrew Weatherall, and an all-new instalment of the brilliant Captain Star cartoon strip.
We’ve gone book crazy of late and this issue features a shit-tonne of great book reviews (that’s great books, reviewed, rather than the reviews being great, although they are pretty good). There’s a cracking chat with Justin Patrick Moore, the author of ‘The Radio Phonic Laboratory’, and a bonus chinwag with the world’s finest music journalist, Mr Simon Reynolds.
You will be kicking yourself and quite hard if you miss out on this issue. The virtual shop doors are open now at moonbuilding.bandcamp.com for your purchasing pleasure. Don’t delay, this magazine ain’t going to buy itself. Call it scarcity marketing if you like, but snooze and you lose.
Moonbuilding Weekly is a Castles In Space publication.
Copyright © 2024 Moonbuilding
Great edition Neil! Thanks for including qd23 Veryan, so pleased you like it so much :) x