V/A-AT CLOSE QUARTERS, CD, 1993, UK
A fascinating assemblage of tracks recorded live at the These Records shop in London that in varying assemblages manages to features contributions from the four major movers of the Flying Lizards/ General Strike/ Alterations/49 Americans camp: David Toop, Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack and Max Eastley. Kicking off with a screwy duet of Beresford on casio and low grade consumer electronics and John Butcher on tenor sax, what follows has Charles Hayward of This Heat/Camberwell Now reading the lyrics to a track from his collaboration with Nick Doyne-Ditmas before spending 16 odd minutes lingering in a held organ note purgatory before popping 'round again for another brief recitation, Barbed delivering a lovely slice of spliced and diced plunderphonics glissing out in a reverbed haze, David Toop and Max Eastley processing flutes and bowed metal for 18 gorgeously suspended minutes of suspense, Nicholas Collins splattering his trombone-triggered electronics and samples across a ferociously squealing soundbed of Peter Cusack's massively distorted electric bazouki and Morphogenesis ending the affair by spending 17 minutes splaying out into something that sounds like AMM staging a ritual invocation.
Track listing:
Steve Beresford/John Butcher-The Same Elephant (Dedicated To Nancy Banks-Smith)
Charles Hayward-Hilly Field
Charles Hayward-Risque Verglas
Charles Hayward-Unearthing Fossil Fuels
Barbed-Calling Dick Tracey
David Toop/Max Eastley-Normal Entrance, Abnormal Exit
Nicholas Collins/Peter Cusack-Baby It's You
Morphogenesis-Escape From The Unseen Cracks
Get part one Here
Get part two Here
3 comments:
your review doesn't sound too enthusiastic, vdo - at least this is what i read into it. but with artists like beresford, toop and hayward, i'm really thrilled to found this one shared by you.
i don't know how much thanks you can stand - but i do it again! your record collection must fill quite some space, i think ;)
lucky
lucky-actually, reading back through it, the only one I'm being unenthused about is Hayward's performance. I'm normally a huge fan, but 16+ minutes of a held tone is enough to drive me batty and the text the surrounds it works much better for me when heard sung in the context of Hayward's amazing collaboration with Nick Doyne-Ditmas on My Secret Alphabet. Everything else on here for me ranges from good to outstanding.
i actually heard it for myself - but hayward's tracks didn't put me off, really. the one with the long tone could be embarrassing, i agree! - but it has a similar feeling like 'thames water authority' from his skew-whiff release - droning, too.
my secret alphabet is a great album. a few other tracks of that duo appeared on the bari live session, released by sub rosa - but what i'm babbling, you'll already know. not long ago i posted all that stuff on orang aural.
thanks for your nice reply - you sure have to catch up with all of the comments... :)
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