Issue 9 / 15 March 2024
This week's DIY electronic goodness... Album Of The Week: Electribe 101 + Billie Ray Martin interview, Track Of The Week: Dawn Chorus And The Infallible Sea + new release round-up + more more more
It’s been slow work putting together this week’s newsletter. I tend to do it on a Thursday so I don’t wake up on Friday morning in a cold sweat. Got distracted this week by SpaceX’s Starship launch. I mean Elon Musk blah blah blah, but you have to love SpaceX. The live coverage is great. There was a bit where Starship was cruising, nothing to report until it started re-entry, so the live feed turned into a long shot of mission control complete with lounge music. Just brilliant. It’s what Thunderbirds would have done.
Anyway, that aside, our spring sale is helping clear the shelves for the new print issue of Moonbuilding, which will be landing after Easter. April-ish anyway. You will be the first to know. Grab a copy of Issue 4 plus CD for £5 at moonbuilding.bandcamp.com. Our bookshop is also filling up nicely, there are just so many great titles around. I was at The London Book Fair this week and I can tell you there’s some unmissable stuff coming up this year.
The new playlist went down well last week. Well, Phillip Read liked it. He said, “Loving the addition of the issue playlist”. Did you know you can comment on each issue? There’s a link just above this section, in the header I think. Little speech bubble. It’d be great to hear from you – let me know the stuff you like, what else you’d like to see, we could talk about breakfast, that sort of thing. I do tend to be around on Friday mornings. It’s a date then?
Neil Mason, editor
moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Oh, the issue playlist. Here it is, just for you Phil… bndcmpr.co/121c2cf0
***ADVERTISE WITH US***
Your ad here? Email moonbuildingmag@gmail.com for details
ELECTRIBE 101 ‘Electribal Memories’ (Demon Music)
Can’t say that I was much of a fan of the early 90s soul end of things, artists like Brand New Heavies and the like. Electribe 101 were often labelled “soulful”, which I never really understood. I mean, I guess they were, but to me they were more like One Dove. They had an edge, a sound that was drawn from all over the place.
The new sounds coming out of Detroit and Chicago were in there, but there was also a heady mix of Birmingham and Berlin in the mix. The band Billie Ray Martin found via the small ads in the back of Melody Maker had a studio in Birmingham’s reggae heartland, which must’ve rubbed off, while Billie’s time in Berlin, her obsession with Motown and love of British electronic trailblazers such as Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle is telling. Its all these threads that make Electribe 101 such an irresistible package. This was no chart wallpaper that’s for sure.
They also stood out because of Billie herself. You knew who she was before you found out she was in Electribe 101. A sometime member of S’Express, that’s her on ‘Hey Music Lover’, and that’s her on ‘Top Of The Pops’ when the track landed in the charts in February 1989. She wasted not one second in our living rooms that night, her chic 60s chick look combined with pipes to die for, she was every inch the star. And yup, by November 1989 there she was in her own right, back on ‘TOTP’ with Electribe and their first hit, ‘Tell Me When the Fever Ended’.
And of course, Billie turned out to be a whole lot more than a showstopping voice. She wrote ‘Your Loving Arms’ for starters. And do check out The Opiates, a cracking all electronic project she did with Norwegian producer Robert Solheim in 2008. But 35-ish years ago, you can only imagine the slack jaws when she turned up for her first meeting with the band clutching a copy of Julian Jonah’s ‘Jealously And Lies’ and a song she’d written called ‘Talking with Myself’. They mashed up the two and the rest, as Billie points out, is history.
It’s only right that we should doff caps to the gents, the band, without who none of this would have been possible – Joe Stevens, Les Fleming, Brian Nordhoff and the late Roberto Cimarosti went on to work as The Groove Corporation when Electribe imploded before their second album could be released. All of which is a story for another time, but without them it’d only be half a tale.
So anyway, what we have here is a definitive version of their classic 1990 debut album. It comes as a half-speed mastered 180g vinyl with fresh liner notes from the excellent Pete Paphides and from Billie herself. And then there’s the must-have 4CD edition, which is packed full of remixes, extended versions, demos and radio edits.
The original album itself is just eight tracks, five of them singles. Much “dance music” at the time was the preserve of the 12-inch, there were few LPs that stood up, this is very much one. ‘Electribal Memories’ is a record that has a beginning (the keyboard pimping, seven-minute ‘Talking With Myself’), a middle (it’s hard to tell whether A-side closer ‘Inside Out’, a slinky cover of the Odyssey hit, or the super funky swirl of B-side opener ‘Diamond Dove’ hits the hardest) and an end (‘Talking 2’, a splendid Frankie Knuckles reworking of the opening track).
Frankie Knuckles you say? The remixers they had onboard were almighty, chief among them Knuckles but they also had Mantronix (his ‘Mix 2’ of ‘Inside Out’ is banging) and Larry Heard whose eight-minute plus ‘After Dark Mix’ of ‘Tell Me When The Fever Ends’ is very, very cool indeed. Hearing all this stuff at the time felt exotic, I guess it was because you were clocking these sounds without fully realising they were coming in on the first wave of a musical revolution. Youth I tell you, wasted on the young.
There’s some real curios here too. The title track wasn’t on the original vinyl, but it was on the CD. I dunno. It’s over 10 minutes and with Billie’s talky lyrics it’s a mesmeric treat. The demos here are great, ‘The Spell’ is what The Human League should’ve sounded like post-Martin Rushent, while ‘Non Doctor’ is what Pet Shop Boys wished they sounded like.
You’ve got to respect the classics and ‘Electribal Memories’ has more than earned its stripes.
‘Electribal Memories’ is out now on Demon Music
electribe101.lnk.to/memories
BILLIE RAY MARTIN
Join us for a chat about her labels (count ’em), her new albums (count them too), the good old days of the music press and the storming reissue of Electribe 101’s stone-cold classic debut album…
Image: Joern Hartmann
Interview: Neil Mason
Hello Billie, how’s things? What are you up to today?
“Hello! I’ve just uploaded the Electribe 101 John Peel Session for a digital release on my Bandcamp page. That, and a bit of admin and planning my next album mix sessions too.”
Sure it’s probably online, but were you born a Billie? Is Billie is short for something?
”No, but when I started out, I wanted a name like Bobby Gentry. I thought she had the coolest name. And voice.”
The last time we spoke your were up to your eyes packing copies of ‘Electribal Soul’, Electribe 101’s “lost” second album, for a trip to the post office. Did you learn any good lessons from releasing it on your own label?
“It wasn’t my first release, but I have changed the way I’ll release my upcoming albums. My distributor SRD UK, who are just fabulous, will do all of the physical shipping in future. No more packing for me. It became too much.”
You have three labels – Disco Activiso, Gezeitenraum and Electribal Soul – how are they going? Anything coming up we should know about?
”There is another, Stahl2, for the Electribe 101 stuff. I’ve recorded three new albums, so the label for all future releases is Gezeitenraum Records. I need a few more months for finalising mixing, but it’s going to be the most important work I’ve ever done.
What can you tell me about them?
”Each album has a theme, one is about my childhood in the Hamburg Red Light District, gentrification, homelessness, growing up and trying to make sense of the way it has been destroyed, changed… and trying to find some sort of meaning in it all. There are some ambient style songs with atmospheric guitars, but also fast jazzy songs and some electronic soul songs too. Then there is an album inspired by French film soundtracks of the 1970’s. It’s totally whacky and contains my compositions as well as cover versions of Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. The third is an album of poems put to music. There is a fourth which will be recorded ASAP.”
When do you think they might be seeing light of day?
”I hope the first of the new albums will be released at the end of the year, with any luck. But who knows? It’ll be when I can finalise it all. It has to be perfect, and I don’t compromise. Also raising money is a thing…”
Let’s talk ‘Electribal Memories’… was it always the plan to reissue it?
”Yes, but Universal were not helpful in my efforts to re-release it. They either didn’t respond, blocked my efforts, then didn’t respond again, then wanted money from me upfront. Demon Records, who are releasing it now, are much better at dealing with them as they do it regularly.”
There’s a great 4CD set with so much good bonus material. Did you unearth anything unexpected or anything you’d forgotten about?
”I supplied it! It was just sat in my drawer all these years.”
There’s a really curious acid house-y track called ‘Mummy I’m Sick, I’m Underwater’, tell me about that?
”It was something the guys came up with one evening when I wasn’t around. They would sometimes do grooves and mixes in preparation for our sessions and writing efforts.”
I’ve always loved the ‘Mission: Impossible’ lick on ‘Talking With Myself’, whose idea was that?
”I tried to remove that at the time. I thought, and still think, it’s naff. Roberto played it on the keyboard. It’s not a sample.”
Electribe came together via an ad you placed in the back of Melody Maker. Different times eh? It makes me sad that doesn’t happen anymore. You?
”I even had Glen Matlock respond to that ad! I wish we had something like that now, where people just find each other. It was a magical time and I would always rush out on Tuesday evenings, the evening before they came out, to buy the music papers on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross Road, by the station.”
How important was the weekly music press to you, personally?
”Hugely. It was where I got my inspiration from and the information about what was going on. I met Mark Moore that way. I read an article in NME where he said that anyone who was crazy enough could join S’Express. When I saw him at Shoom the next week I went up to him and told him I fitted the description. He called me soon after.”
Your ad said “Soul rebel seeks musicians – genius only”. Did you get lots of Dexy’s Midnight Runners types replying?
”Ha, I don’t think so. There was a really mixed bunch of musicians.”
The first time you met the others you thought they were “a somewhat strange bunch and so I said no”. That’s a proper ‘Sliding Doors’ moment isn’t it?
”Yes, Brian later convinced me to come to their studio in Birmingham to get my demos done. When I heard the word ‘studio’ I was sold and went. I brought the Julian Jonah record with me and the song ‘Talking with Myself’. The rest is history.”
You say in your sleevenotes you “never did quite come together as a group, but that’s another story”. That’s intriguing! Tell me more…
”There was a lot of pressure on us and I think a lot of insecurity. At first we didn’t think we could write songs together so there was tension. Then after the first album we were sacked from the label and told our second album was crap. During the Depeche Mode tour there was so much pressure and we were bottled of stage each night by mad DM fans. So I think all that, plus a few other things, meant that we thought we were no good. Having said that, there were a lot of great times and huge laughs together.”
You were managed by Tom Watkins early doors. Was that a good idea? What’s your favourite story about him?
”Probably not a good idea, I guess, but it opened doors when he first got on board. We were prioritised for a while. However he soon showed his true colours. My favourite story? We sacked him.”
The remixers you had onboard for this record were gobsmacking – Larry Heard, Mantronix and Frankie Knuckles. Did you meet any of them? What were they like?
“Yes, Frankie became a friend. Some of the other remixers we talked to on the phone, but not Mantronix. We’d call them in Chicago and tell them how much we were inspired by them and they’d reply that the feeling was mutual. We felt so proud about that.”
Given what you know now, would you do anything differently if you could go back to those days?
”A lot. I would trust in the band and help us all to trust each other more and create a unified front. I would trust us to keep producing our own material and not succumb to record company pressure to involve other producers, which did happen and the guys were having none of it, so that created friction. I would keep doing our own mixes and just keep it self-contained. And build each other up during times of pressure.”
For more, see billieraymartin.bandcamp.com / billieraymartin.com
***ADVERTISE WITH US***
Your ad here? Email moonbuildingmag@gmail.com for details
DAWN CHORUS AND THE INFALLIBLE SEA ‘Deus’ (Sonic Cathedral)
A new album by US ambient trio Dawn Chorus And The Infallible Sea landed in the Moonbuilding inbox just as the finishing touches were being put to last week’s newsletter. I mean, Track of The Week was a shoo-in, John Carpenter had just announced ‘Lost Themes IV’, but it was a close second and worth the wait for it to be Track Of The Week I think.
The album, ‘Reveries’, released on Sonic Cathedral on 26 April, is the band’s first long-player since their 2020 debut album ‘Liberamente’ on Danish label Azure Vista. Their stuff is just so peaceful. It just kind of unfurls, slowly, like a flower opening up. Although not that slowly, we’d be here all night. That said, there’s a pot of daffodils here at Moonbuilding HQ and we’ve almost been watching them flower. Blink and you miss ’em.
Anyway, Dawn Chorus And The Infallible Sea. ‘Deus’ is a little taster of what to expect when the album lands. It is all very lovely I have to say.
Got an upcoming release? We’re all ears. Find us at moonbuildingmag@gmail.com
Words: Neil Mason
GOOD STUFF #1
Dohnavùr//Kl(aüs) ‘Dohnavùr//Kl(aüs)’ (Castles In Space)
From the far too active brain of the CiS big chief comes this nugget of musical genius. “Early 2022,” writes our Colin, “I started to get a few tracks in from Dohnavùr and Kl(aüs). ‘This is what we’re working on, but the album’s not ready yet.’ I had an idea. Let’s open the portal between Edinburgh and Sydney and let two of Castles in Space’s longest-standing artists loose on each other’s tracks and see what we get.” What we get is a 16-track CD release because what they turned in was way too long for vinyl. The tracklisting flip-flops from original Kl(aüs) track followed by Dohnavùr remix x4 to original Dohnavùr track followed by Kl(aüs) remix x4. The opener, ‘A Patch Of Sky Visible Through A Lace Of Spiderweb’ is 10 minutes long… as is the remix. You’ve got to love the scale of this thing. It’s all rather brilliant as you will know if you’ve invested in either artist over the years. And if I’m not mistaken that’s artwork by Electronic Sound’s very skilled art editor Mark Hall.
GOOD STUFF #2
SCANNER ‘The Phenol Tapes’ (Alltagsmusik)
LP number two on Mr Rimbaud’s new label, which we chatted about at some length in the very first issue of Moonbuilding Weekly. ‘The Phenol Tapes’ is a solo Scanner album that Robin reveals was recorded in a wooden fisherman’s hut with one small synthesiser and one guitar pedal. “As simple as that,” he says. This happened in 2017 when he was fortunate enough to spent six weeks as part of the Robert Rauschenberg interdisciplinary artists' residency programme on Captiva Island, Florida. “In the morning, I worked on a book I’ve been writing,” says Robin, “then in the afternoon I recorded, every day, for the duration. The results are this series of serene and fluid soundscapes.” The small synth? I’m glad you asked, it was the Kilpatrick Phenol and the effects pedal was an Eventide H9. All bases covered there. Please note the clever artwork, release number two has a neat Post-It on the cover saying as much.
GOOD STUFF #3
BEAM WEAPONS ‘You Can’t Keep Blaming Everything On Ergot Poisoning’ (Spirit Duplicator)
So. Paul “Beam Weapons” Bareham and Nick “I do amazing album artwork and those brilliant Moonbuilding magazine covers” Taylor, have a label called Miracle Pond that’s been on hiatus for a while. Thing is, the stuff they would have released has been appearing through the London-based print shop/tape label Spirit Duplicator and I’m delighted to have an all-new cassette double bill for you today. First up is Beam Weapons with ‘You Can’t Keep Blaming Everything On Ergot Poisoning’. The band, Paul and Gary Zammit, say that last year they became obsessed with ‘The Book Of Revelation’ by St John The Divine, which being unreligious I had to look up. Turns out it’s from the New Testament and deals with eschatological topics, you know, the final fate of the world and peoplekind, the Antichrist, the second coming, kicking Antichrist ass and the final judgment. The big stuff. Anyway, the Weapons say the album was recorded fast and loose and that “We think this is out best work to date”. I’m a big fan of their work. It’s properly out there. Think of it like leaving a radio on in the shed while cutting the grass. Here it’s like the shed is full of malfunctioning electronics and a saxophone. Favourite track title: ‘Earth Beast – False Prophet’.
GOOD STUFF #4
TECHNICOLOUR SEWER ‘Technicolor Sewer’ (Spirit Duplicator)
Technicolor Sewer’s eponymous LP is two 25-minute psyche/prog cuts “recorded between 2015 and 2022 in Rotterdam, Belgrade and the Carpathian foothills” by Sanja and George (no surnames). In this corner of the world I’m never sure what to believe, but it seems these people do actually exist and aren’t just a cover story for say, Radiohead moonlighting, which it absolutely isn’t before the rumours start. There’s scant info though, there’s a Facebook page with 45 likes, some mysterious photos and some info – it says “analog electronic music recorded live, monosynths, organs, tape echos & other toys”. Sounds great, right? There’s also an LP released in February 2016 called ‘Superluminal Communication’ that I will be investigating shortly. I also know that in 2015 they were a trio with someone called Dimitris. Anyway, whoever it is, it took them a long time to make this and it is rather mad in a very wonderful way. It is 50 minutes well spent if you ask me.
GOOD STUFF #5
Dave Bessell ‘Chromatic Lightning Cage’ (DiN)
The DiN appreciation society is in session once again. Did anyone bring the tea and biscuits? So this is the final part of a quartet of albums based loosely on the four elements – fire, water, earth and Yorkshire Tea… I mean air. So which one is this? Looking at the cover you’d say it’s probably fire? It’s quite a piece of work when you consider it started out with water on ‘Analogue’, Dave’s debut solo album back in 2010. That’s a series which has been nearly a quarter of a century in the making. Musically, it’s not so much the synth riffing of his work with Parallel World (we reviewed their latest one only the other week) and as a member of Node, nope, this is more about the progressions and the “interlocking delicate arpeggios”. It’s cracking stuff, course it is.
So to the round-up’s round-up then. You need to be stood by your inboxes on Monday (18 March) because it’s the return of the almighty Polytechnic Youth, a label that doesn't release bad records. It’s been on sabbatical while Dom Martin concentrates on Feral Child, but now it’s back, back, back. It might just be a one-off release before it resumes its slumbering, who knows. The release in question is Self Modifier’s ‘Lozells Drone Survey’, the work of Peter Duggal who has been Wolfgang Flur’s righthand man for a while. The record is described as “Four intensely beautiful slow-building pieces of electronica, rhythmic and richly melodic”. Prime PY real estate by the sounds. You need to have you name on Dom’s mailing list to bag a copy. It’s a bunfight, but get your name down by emailing Dom at thegreatpopsupplement [at] hotmail [dot] com. Good luck.
The WeWantSounds label really does serve up releases like no one else. Their latest compile is ‘Funk Tide – Tokyo Jazz-Funk From Electric Bird 1978-87’ features a selection, as the title says very clearly, of retro jazz-funk tracks from the cult Electric Bird label, hand-picked by DJ Notoya. Favourite track is the opener Shunzo Ohno’s ‘In The Sky’, which I’m pretty sure was our track of the week at some point.
wewantsounds.bandcamp.com
North Londoner Paul Cheshire serves up Language Field’s ‘At Odds’, a collection of “clattering breaks, eerie synths, dusty 80s echoes and crystalline peaks” as a digital-only release on the always excellent Waxing Crescent. Proceeds to homeless charity Centrepoint.
waxingcrescentrecords.bandcamp.com
Sometimes you don’t half feel like you’re just saying the bleeding obvious, which is a ringing endorsement for the the sort of people like WHI Recordings top cat Tim “Secret Nuclear” Spear who knows how to get a job done when it comes to album titles. Here he is with ‘General Purpose Electronic Sound Vol.3’, a third volume of his live, improvised session from Blast Radio.
whirecordings.bandcamp.com
There’s a lot of stuff around today, but you just wait until next week! So last but not least, there’s Belfast-born, Manchester-raised, Welsh Wales-dwelling Bruce Magill who records as Low Altitude. He dropped me a very nice email about his new album, ‘Boat’, which is rather lovely. He rediscovered his appetite for making music during the lockdowns after a break of, oh, 14 years. Gentle synthy drifts and coastal field recordings feature. Are they called field recordings if they’re made on water? He’s also done a very peaceful mixtape for the label, which is here. Are they called mixtapes if they’re not actually on tape?
whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com
***ADVERTISE WITH US***
Your ad here? Email moonbuildingmag@gmail.com for details
OBJECTS OF DESIRE
I don’t think this book is going to take much selling to Moonbuilding Weekly readers. ‘Analogue – A Field Guide’ by Deyan Sudjic (Frances Lincoln/Quarto) is a rather swish hardback book that is full of analogue goodies and it’s utterly brilliant. Deyan Sudjic is billed as a leading design historian, he’s actually Director Emeritus of London’s Design Museum and Professor of Design Studies at the University Of Lancashire, so you know. Here he profiles over 250 items from radios to record players, TVs, cameras, telephones and, perhaps my favourite, typewriters. I have a lovely old Olivetti I use for the print version of Moonbuilding. Anyway…
In his introduction, the author talks about how it’s only now that, in his words, “the analogue world is over that we can grasp its extraordinarily rich legacy”. I’ve got a lump in my throat just reading that. The book isn’t so much about what all this fabulous stuff did for us, but a celebration of the ingenuity of the engineers who developed it and the designers who made it so flipping desirable.
The book is split into four chapters, ‘Sound’, ‘Vision’, ‘Communication’ and ‘Information’ (which is clocks, calculators, watches etc), and I warn you each one will steal about a week of your life as you pour over it. There’s a Product Directory at the beginning and then a blow-by-blow history of each item with some incredible photos. Let’s take a look at ‘Sound’ as an example. It starts with the 78rpm record, moves through turntables (the Beogram 4000 from 1972 still looks like the future), there’s a section on album art, there’s speakers, radios (lots of gorgeous radios), radiograms, reel-to-reels (the portable Nagra IV-S from 1971 is lip-smacking), cassette players (the Marantz PMD 430, the Sony Walkman WM2 with the orange headphones, sigh) and finally, boomboxes. And that’s just the first 100 pages or so.
This is a truly glorious piece of work, one that will make you miss the old days even more than you do already. You don’t miss the old days? Get out of here.
Quarto / Moonbuilding bookshop
LAST ORDERS
Werra Foxma’s final hurrah, its WFR Central all-dayer in Derby, is almost upon us. As you will know, the label has hung up its gloves after an almighty four years fighting the good fight. They’ve released some great albums and made quite an impact during their time. But if you’re going to go, go out with a bang. And WFR Central on 23 March is quite a bang.
Curated by the West Lothian-based label along with music writer/promoter James Thornhill, they’ve come up with one heck of a line-up. It’s a veritable who’s who of the DIY electronic scene. Headlined by rave legends Altern 8, the event will see live performances from Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Polypores, Sulk Rooms, Field Lines Cartographer, Dohnavùr, Cholly, Matters, Maria Uzor, Pearling, Kimber, Bethan Lloyd and probably more. There’s also a stage showcasing the best of Derby’s Electronic Music Open Mic night, which should be worth a look.
The final release from the label is a compilation CD packed with many of the artists playing on the day. It’s available now from the label’s Bandcamp site and I dare say there will be copies at the event itself. A cool reminder of what promises to be an excellent event full of incredible music. WFR Central runs across three stages in two venues – Deda and Dubrek Studios – in the heart of Derby from 2pm until midnight. Tickets are still available, but I’d hurry if you want to avoid disappointment.
werrafoxmarecords.bandcamp.com / skiddle.com
A MESSAGE FROM THE MOTHERSHIP
SPRING SALE…SPRING SALE…SPRING SALE…SPRING SALE…SPRING SALE...
MOONBUILDING ISSUE 4, WAS £10 NOW £5 (+P&P). GRAB YOURS WHILE STOCKS LAST … MOONBUILDING.BANDCAMP.COM
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
Hello! Morning. How is everyone? I'll be here until 11.30am if anyone has any questions/wants to talk about their breakfast...