Sunday 6 November 2011

The Sonic Oyster... Tongued


"Fantastic new compilation celebrating the fiftieth release on Andrew Paine’s consistently excellent Sonic Oyster imprint, with exclusive unreleased tracks from Richard Youngs (a song from his unreleased B Sides for Ultrahits project!), Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine, a beautiful drone work from Alistair Crosbie, The Zero Map with Wellington Squares (A Band related), Buddha On The Moon, Andrew Paine (US), Susan Matthews, Bolide, Clutter, Matthew Shaw, Brian Lavelle, Astral Social Club, Andrew Paine (UK), Will Klingenmeier, Book Of Shadows, Sindre and a final amazing blow-out from Glasgow’s Smoke Jaguar that pretty much justifies the entrance fee on its own. Edition of only 50 copies, immediately sold out at source" Volcanic Tongue

Tuesday 25 October 2011

SOR50: SOLD OUT!



Strictly Limited to 50 copies on CD-R
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 7th November 2011

To celebrate the 50th Sonic Oyster CD-R release, I asked all the collaborators, artists, groups, chancers and shysters associated with the label to dip into their archives and choose a curio for a compilation.

What we have here, ladies and gentlemen... is a 17 track album, featuring exclusive cuts by:

Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
Alistair Crosbie
Buddha on the Moon
The Zero Map
Susan Matthews
Bolide
Astral Social Club
Will Klingenmeier (Soliloquy Sun)
Sindre
Andrew Paine (US)
Matthew Shaw
Book of Shadows
Brian Lavelle
Richard Youngs
Smoke Jaguar
Andrew Paine (UK)
Clutter

This is a strictly limited release of 50... and an essential must-have for any serious SOR fan.


Sunday 2 October 2011

Volcanic Tongue... on... Clachan Flats


"Stunning new cassette from the duo of Stuart Crutchfield and Kevin McCarvel that pretty much cements their reputation as the best ‘rock’ band in the UK right now, with six tracks of devolved drums/guitar/vocals/electronics that come over like the early Royal Trux cassette that Xpressway never released. McCarvel’s vocals exist on the very limits of subliminal sound with the feel of a more beatific Michael Morley hovering over raggedy guitar kinetics that stagger in and out of clipped melodies w/a martial aspect that is totally exhilarating. Throw in the collapsing universe feel of your favourite South Island satellite and the kind of epic fuzz/ reverb excursions that could easily be Japanese and you got alla the ingredients for the cassette release of the year thus far. And, sure, they may feature a baldy, but there ain’t no laptops in sight. This is bloodied freeform rock at some kind of deformed tactile apex and easily their most accomplished release to date. Edition of only 50 copies, already sold out at source, highly recommended!" David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Smoke Jaguar - Clachan Flats: SOLD OUT!



Strictly Limited to 50 copies on Cassette
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 3rd October 2011

Smoke Jaguar are that rare thing: a guitar / drum / vocal / duo who embrace instant form with honesty and authenticity: embellishing on the kind of myth, legend and folklore first lain bare by the likes of early Fushitsusha and Skullflower.

‘Clachan Flats’ introduces a wholly new narrative: six pieces unfolding through improvisation and raw instinct: complex electrical storms of spit and spunk: rudimentary free-drones, carving themselves onto your brain, like sonic cave drawings.

Essential. Seriously, what are you waiting for?

You can listen to 'the inside of both of his hands' at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/smoke-jaguar-the-inside-of

Sunday 14 August 2011

Brian Lavelle - Empty Transmissions


Strictly Limited to 50 copies on Cassette
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 29 August 2011

Brian Lavelle has gifted the Sonic Oyster estate with possibly its finest release of the year:

‘Empty Transmissions’ builds on a melodic synthesizer groove and heads into space, bound for the cosmic territories last orbited by Manuel Gottsching’s ‘E2-E4’.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - Casette - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one cassette, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one cassette, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.


You can here an excerpt from ‘Corridor of Stars’ at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/brian-lavelle-corridor-of




Tuesday 7 June 2011

Susan Matthews & Richard Moult - Music For Two Pianos Vol 1 (SOR49) SOLD OUT


Strictly Limited to 50 copies on CDR
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 20th June: SOLD OUT

Susan Matthews is a UK based composer/musician, known for her intense, ambitious, hypnotic harmonies and industrial noise creations: Richard Moult is a poet, painter and composer, and a member of Irish psych-folk band United Bible Studies.
‘Music For Two Pianos Vol 1’ is their first collaboration: a ‘classical’ transmission: personal, meaningful, emotive.
The playing is beautiful: the dynamics, tempo and expression of the music located somewhere between creative improvisatory deviation and the discipline of trained musical tradition.

Listen to ‘Aria’ at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/susan-matthews-richard-moult

Astral Social Club - Wheezy Paradise (SOC004) - SOLD OUT



Strictly Limited to 50 copies on Cassette
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 20th June: SOLD OUT at source - copies available from Norman Records & Volcanic Tongue from 20th June

Neil Campbell unleashes a seminal slice of full-on mutant techno ambient metal music: a psychedelic dawn-chorus with all-important critical beats, jarring, distorted electronic soup and a large dose of tongue-in-cheek.

This is fabulous, bonkers and guaranteed to put bird-song on the electro-map. What are you waiting for?

Listen to an extract from ‘Wheezy Paradise’ at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/astral-social-club-wheezy

Sunday 15 May 2011

Volcanic Tongue... reviews the A Band



"Edition of 50 numbered copies 3” CD-R documenting a rare trio performance from long-term UK free/freak ensemble The A Band, here represented by Simon Murphy, Karl M V Waugh and Alasdair Willis. Recorded live at The Iron Duke in November 2010, there’s a great cracked free jazz feel to much of this, with someone slow-dialling cold war electronics beneath an eerie melodic/reeds back and forth that could almost be session players from The TV Personalities’ Mummy You’re Not Watching Me channelling the ghost of Anima Sound during downtime or a more punk-primitive This Heat pitching for a gig with The Shadow Ring. But where’s Walden?" (Volcanic Tongue)

Volcanic Tongue visits the Goetheanum



"Hovering edge-of-the-void style psychedelic drone from Matthew who runs the Apollolaan Recordings label and also records as Tex La Homa and Fougou with Brian Lavelle. Some of the mystery of Thomas Koner’s endlessly bleak gong works, aspects of the sidereal Masami Akita/Christoph Heemann collaboration, all rendered with a reverb heavy/ritual atmosphere that is almost Japanese. Music for guitar, piano, singing bowl and voice. Numbered edition of 50 copies." (Volcanic Tongue)

Volcanic Tongue Lifts Into My Hands



Thanks to Heather and David from the ever excellent Volcanic Tongue, for the lovely review of 'Lift into my Hands' by Andrew Paine:

"New solo piano work from Andrew Paine that operates on the very extremes of volume/fidelity: following on from his earlier solo piano work, The Haunts Of Ancient Peace, Lift Into My Hands dissolves the instrument in foggy blooms of tone that expand with all of the slow-motion majesty of colour into water. The percussive aspect of the keys is completely submerged so that instead there are just sighing clouds of melody that move in forlorn shapes across landscapes shaped like memories. If you’re a fan of Andrew Chalk you need to check in. Numbered edition of only 50 copies. Recommended."

Tuesday 26 April 2011

A Band - Abstruse



The A Band - Abstruse
Abstruse
Sonic Oyster Records (SOR 48)
Strictly limited (numbered) edition of 50 on 3” CDR
£5.00 plus postage & packaging

Simon Murphy
Karl M V Waugh
Alasdair Willis

Recorded live 18th November 2010 @ The Iron Duke

The A-Band deliver a righteous ritual of ‘primitive’, over 22 glorious minutes: fucked up free jazz: unfettered avant-abuse. It is a beautiful thing.

http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/the-a-band-abstruse-edit
to listen to a short extract from 'abstruse'.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.


Andrew Paine - Lift Into My Hands



Andrew Paine – Lift Into My Hands
Three pieces for piano
Sonic Oyster Cassettes (SOR003)
Strictly limited (numbered) edition of 50.
£5.00 plus postage & packaging

Andrew Paine builds on last year’s ‘The Haunts of Ancient Peace’; his farewell to a fallen traveller, with this new solo work.

Three pieces explore the themes of emergence and resurrection: ‘Lift Into My Hands’ serving as the perfect counterpoint between ‘The Seeds of Intention’ and ‘Of Rabbits & Horses’: slow, unfolding, sparse, low-volume music.

http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/of-rabbits-horses-edit
to listen to a short extract from 'Of Rabbits & Horses'.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - Cassettes - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one cassette , £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one cassette, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.


Matthew Shaw - Goetheanum - SOLD OUT



Matthew Shaw – Goetheanum
Two pieces for guitar, piano, singing bowl and voice.
Sonic Oyster Cassettes: Strictly Limited (numbered) edition of 50
Release date 9 May 2011… taking pre-orders now.
£5.00 plus postage & packaging

‘Goetheanum’ comprises two beautifully measured slices of drone as cosmic debris: true knowledge falling in and around infinite dimensions in its quest for spiritual wakening.

Two sides of the most haunting and affecting music you will hear this year. Not to be missed.

http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/goetheanum-ii-edit
to listen to an edit of Goetheanum (side 2)

Sunday 13 March 2011

The Zero Map - The Process of Sanitation



'The Zero Map' (Chloe Wallace & Karl M V Waugh), take time away from their jobs in 'The A Band', to bring us fearless experimentation with a hybrid dose of murky ambient and sugared soundscapes: imagine the bastard child of Hawkwind and Faust as conducted by Edgard Varese.

Mechanical, pastoral and relentlessly progressive, 'The Process of Sanitation', is strictly limited to 50 copies and is released on 21 March 2011. Available for pre-order now. The cost of the CD-R is £5.00 plus postage & packaging.

Listen to 'Notre Dame' at soundcloud:

http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/the-zero-map-notre-dame

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.


For further information on 'The Zero Map' go to http://www.thezeromap.wordpress.com/ or email sarcasticmuffin@hotmail.com

Taking Stock - Currently Available



The following titles are still available. Each CDR release costs 5GBP, with the exception of 'Fougou: Atlantis (for John Michell)', which is available for 4GBP.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.



Clutter - Live At the Bombed Out Church

'Live At The Bombed Out Church' is a big shimmering, swirling, electro-acoustic album, full of twisting ambient melodies.

Boasting an enormous range of impressions, Clutter is never afraid to just let things be, to swirl around a groove and let the sonic entropy do the work for him.

'Church' constantly evolves and expands; its path of development building on sumptuous tones, simple loops, multi-field recordings - constantly clashing, complementing and contrasting into a rich yielding electronic soup.

Clutter (Shaun Blezard), works between the fields of electroacoustic improvisation, ambient electronics and music concrete, adding touches of anything from dub, jazz and post rock to his eclectic mix of influences.

He is interested in areas of music where genres meet and finding ways to incorporate this melding of influences back into his music. His working method involves the use of field recordings, both raw and processed, to convey a sense of place and narrative, with the immediate sonic environment at the core of his work. He combines this with electronics and traditional instruments. His current set up involves laptop, I-Phone, Nintendo DS, a number of effects pedals, and guitar and bass.

He is also a regular improviser on the improv circuit where he has been developing ways of working with electronics alongside traditional players on this scene and also with jazz musicians.

Clutter has been involved in a number of recordings since 2001 under his own name and with a variety of other projects, including orfeo 5, Good Noise Bad Noise, Aht-n and with composer Susan Matthews. Recordings include releases on Clinical Archives, Dokuro and Earth Monkey Productions.

Listen to 12 January 1831 from 'Live At The Bombed Out Church' at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/clutter-12th-january-1831






Sindre Bjerga - Nowhere & Nowhere Else

SINDRE BJERGA has been touring the UK every October for the last 5 years, as well as mainland Europe and even Russia, with his cassette player drones and kitchen sink psychedelia... armed with an array of tape players, dictaphones and a pile of less-than-glamourous sound debris from the sonic junkyards, as he tries to juxtapose and melt sound ghosts hidden deep in the molten magnetic tapes, sometimes forcefeeding them with sheets of feedback from dying amps, always aiming for that mind-altering head trip...

He has released over a 100 records as a solo artist and in a variety of collaborations, most notably with Jan Iversen.

Recently most of his releases have been live recordings taken from his many concerts and tours around Europe: 'nowhereandnowhereelse' is taken from a performance in the Art Academy in Warsaw, 2010.

For further information about Sindre visit him at www.myspace.com/sindrebjerga


A blast from the past...

ILK - Zenith

"We managed to score some copies of this out of print disc from Richard youngs. Holy shit what on earth is going on???? A sort of new age spoken word intro gives way to what I can only describe as what it might sound like if Rick Wakeman was playing a crystal organ somewhere in the hills of Transylvania! Oh yes for this is Richard Youngs' one man progressive rock band. Multi-tracking and building up various layers and channels it does really sound like a fully formed group project. To be honest this has completely blown me away. The passion, skill, vision and creativity on this record is mind blowing; Richard plays bass, guitar, flute, keyboard, sleigh-bells and violin as well as singing. Recorded back in 1997 the record still sounds relevant and sounds like it could have been recorded much earlier but will doubtlessly age with grace. Brimming with the mans trademark folk magic, this is a great opportunity to fill a gap in your Youngs collection (Norman Records)"



Soliloquy Sun - Soliloquy Sun (SOR44)

Soliloquy Sun is an ambient and experimental outfit comprised of varying members and instruments. It was created out of an idea Will Klingenmeier (Burning Shutter, Still Light) had to gather various musicians to play improvised music based around simple chord progressions and/or spontaneously create music.

These recordings drift out into the room: sombre, reflective, nocturnal, deeply personal: this is a highly original work, owing much to the techniques of jazz improvisation and the early pioneering minimalist composers.

Recorded in Spring 2010, this is simply one of the most evocative recordings Sonic Oyster has put out to date.




Bolide - The Mighty Hand (SOR 42)

Edition of 50 copies CD-R on Andrew Paine’s Sonic Oyster imprint with a new blat from Brighton’s Bolide aka Bolide Awkwardstra. Bolide play freak free jazz in the tradition of The Art Ensemble, Le Forte Four and The Mothers Of Invention with a goofy communal style that moves from cosmo-shakedowns through wall-destroying breakout brass.



The Haunts of Ancient Peace (SOR40) Andrew Paine


'The Haunts of Ancient Peace' is the result of a one hour session at my piano, recorded directly onto an iphone mic.

Free and indeterminate in nature, these simple compositions chart loss and friendship through quiet, slowly evolving patterns.

The album is dedicated to AKN 1963 - 2010.

STRCTLY limited to 50 copies


In Search of the Shadow Walker (SOR39) Susan Matthews

'In Search of the Shadow Walker' is Susan's first solo release for two years and is described as an album of 'classically inspired vignettes and piano compositions'.

Susan Matthews meditates on ancient landscapes & personal histories with a keening cragged honesty - beautiful and sad.

Haunting harmonies, melancholic piano patterns, violent stabbing entreaties all unfold with unresolved tension, drama and subtle poignancy.

The album is STRICTLY limited to 80 copies


Atlantis (for John Michell) (SOR37) Fougou

'Fougou' are Brian Lavelle (Space Weather, Richard Youngs) and Matthew Shaw (Tex La Homa). The name derives from a peculiar type of subterranean structure only found in Cornwall in the extreme southwest of the United Kingdom.

'Athantis (for John Michell)' released on Sonic Oyster Records on 24 May is the next stage in Fougou's sonic descent into subterranean chambers.

Following on from their stunning debut "Reversed Dreams of this Nature', the duo offer up a meditative love letter to the English writer, John Michell, using dense textural electronics, processed acoustic instruments, vocals and field recordings conjuring up a kind of megalithic valediction to Michell's vision of fortean phenomena.

Functions of Hedgerow (SOR31) Andrew Paine

"The EP "Functions Of Hedgerow" by Andrew Paine of Scottish label Sonic Oyster Records is an all-too-brief excursion into minimal, spectral sonic tapestries. Opening with the title track, the mood is very eerie; ghostly piano chords haunted by whispering voices. 'Scent Of Green' matches resonant bass notes with whistling synths (or sounds - difficult to tell, which is a good sign), while 'Year Of Rabbit, Year Of Cat' sounds like an out-take from Tangerine Dream's "Atem" - an outstanding track.

'Walk the Field' features heavily effected voices over a spooky soundscape, while EP closer 'Corners Of Canterbury' sounds like an audio description of a macabre nocturnal world. This is an evocative and peaceful work, notable not least for the track titles. Highly recommended for those into the ambient side of things." www.terrascope.co.uk

Each to Each... Exclaims (SOR27) AP/AP

"Collaboration album between two different guys with the same name, one an artist based in the USA and the other the CEO of Sonic Oyster and frequent Richard Youngs collaborator. One 31 minute track, recorded in a series of back-and-forth mail shots. The guitar has some of the Japanese amp worshipping form of Paine’s Mekonium Reaktor, albeit processed through the bedroom fuzz-monster style of UK units like Spacemen 3 and Flying Saucer Attack. Electric guitar, bass, keyboard, radios and subliminal vocals." (Volcanic Tongue)

Monday 28 February 2011

Clutter - Review



Norman looks beyond the clutter and reports:

"A kind of dark, swirling chamber kosmiche/ambient tangent, Clutter has created something organic & cerebral from contributed noises & sounds which he has re-arranged & processed to create something quite wonderful. I don't particularly want to rattle on too much about this as the music is of a rich, fascinating quality, 'Live at the Bombed Out Church' takes you right off on a dream-like astral plain. Does this church exist? If so, I want to go." Norman Records

Saturday 12 February 2011

Norman is Nowhere... and... Nowhere Else



"This single piece was recorded live in Warsaw in 2010 and clocks in at just under thirty minutes. Here Sindre is summoning ghosts buried deep in magnetic tape, using Dictaphones, feedback and lord knows what. The results are unsettling drones and hums, distant creaks, strange frequencies and the sounds of plankton having a rave while toucans try and battle them off the decks armed with blowpipes that shoot out ever-lasting gobstoppers. Bizarre samples/ loops are employed/ deployed creating strange and mysterious audio environs. Some things are really deep in the mix and sometimes I'm wondering if what I'm hearing is just my imagination... Who Knows??? Edition of 50 copies." (Norman Records

Clutter - Live At The Bombed Out Church (SOR46)



'Live At The Bombed Out Church' is a big shimmering, swirling, electro-acoustic album, full of twisting ambient melodies.

Boasting an enormous range of impressions, Clutter is never afraid to just let things be, to swirl around a groove and let the sonic entropy do the work for him.

'Church' constantly evolves and expands; its path of development building on sumptuous tones, simple loops, multi-field recordings - constantly clashing, complementing and contrasting into a rich yielding electronic soup.

Clutter (Shaun Blezard), works between the fields of electroacoustic improvisation, ambient electronics and music concrete, adding touches of anything from dub, jazz and post rock to his eclectic mix of influences.

He is interested in areas of music where genres meet and finding ways to incorporate this melding of influences back into his music. His working method involves the use of field recordings, both raw and processed, to convey a sense of place and narrative, with the immediate sonic environment at the core of his work. He combines this with electronics and traditional instruments. His current set up involves laptop, I-Phone, Nintendo DS, a number of effects pedals, and guitar and bass.

He is also a regular improviser on the improv circuit where he has been developing ways of working with electronics alongside traditional players on this scene and also with jazz musicians.

Clutter has been involved in a number of recordings since 2001 under his own name and with a variety of other projects, including orfeo 5, Good Noise Bad Noise, Aht-n and with composer Susan Matthews. Recordings include releases on Clinical Archives, Dokuro and Earth Monkey Productions.

Listen to 12 January 1831 from 'Live At The Bombed Out Church' at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/clutter-12th-january-1831



STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'Live At The Bombed Out Church' is available from 21 February 2011. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

If you want to see what is happening in the wider Clutter universe visit www.cluttermusic.com or www.myspace.com/clutterearthmp - got a couple of new releases coming out as soon as I master them and some more remasters of old net label stuff

Friday 28 January 2011

ILK - Zenith... a resurrection


A blast from the past...

"We managed to score some copies of this out of print disc from Richard youngs. Holy shit what on earth is going on???? A sort of new age spoken word intro gives way to what I can only describe as what it might sound like if Rick Wakeman was playing a crystal organ somewhere in the hills of Transylvania! Oh yes for this is Richard Youngs' one man progressive rock band. Multi-tracking and building up various layers and channels it does really sound like a fully formed group project. To be honest this has completely blown me away. The passion, skill, vision and creativity on this record is mind blowing; Richard plays bass, guitar, flute, keyboard, sleigh-bells and violin as well as singing. Recorded back in 1997 the record still sounds relevant and sounds like it could have been recorded much earlier but will doubtlessly age with grace. Brimming with the mans trademark folk magic, this is a great opportunity to fill a gap in your Youngs collection (Norman Records)"

The CD release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CD - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Sunday 16 January 2011

Sindre Bjerga is... nowhereandnowhereelse

SINDRE BJERGA has been touring the UK every October for the last 5 years, as well as mainland Europe and even Russia, with his cassette player drones and kitchen sink psychedelia... armed with an array of tape players, dictaphones and a pile of less-than-glamourous sound debris from the sonic junkyards, as he tries to juxtapose and melt sound ghosts hidden deep in the molten magnetic tapes, sometimes forcefeeding them with sheets of feedback from dying amps, always aiming for that mind-altering head trip...

He has released over a 100 records as a solo artist and in a variety of collaborations, most notably with Jan Iversen.

Recently most of his releases have been live recordings taken from his many concerts and tours around Europe: 'nowhereandnowhereelse' is taken from a performance in the Art Academy in Warsaw, 2010.


For further information about Sindre visit him at www.myspace.com/sindrebjerga

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'nowhereandnowhereelse' is available from 24 January 2011. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Thursday 6 January 2011

Shhhh... Urban Parable reviewed in The Quietus


"As peculiar as it sounds, fans of experimental music aren’t known for their unbiased welcomes when it comes to the straighter side of electronic music. Sure, many of these listeners are happy enough to suffer music that sounds like the difficult irradiated birth of some unimaginably structured alien form, but very little from the normal side of town – often regardless of the process or ideas behind it. So despite the fact that Richard Youngs is probably one of the most diverse figures still working in the UK’s folk and drone experimental undergrounds, this duo recording alongside Andrew Paine, a full record of electronica and its numerous 90s subgenres, is probably the most leftfield thing he could ever do.

In the past year or so there has been a distinct shift in this duo’s recorded material, revealing a somewhat branch-hopping style of sideways experimentation. Instead of a just relying on or refining their shared chemistry, there’s been more of a carefree shift in directions. Where nearly all of Youngs’ extensive collaborations with Paine have been under their own names, this disc is out under the Urban Parable moniker. But where their use of the name Ilk feels more like a placeholder for their definite step into the tenets of progressive rock, Urban Parable feels more like a purposeful distancing from the Paine/Youngs brand.

Whether this is a way of avoiding any directly aimed raised eyebrows or screwed up faces isn’t clear, but Urban Parable are unlikely to be hitting the bulls eye of their usual target audience. With its eight separate tracks programmed as a single thirty minute piece, Urban Parable is more capable than it is revelatory. With fairly straight-laced movements in the electronic world covering several subgenres like rubbery up-tempo acid, as-the-crow-flies techno and down-tempo, there were future echoes of this sound on Youngs’ recent ‘pop’ album Beyond The Valley Of The Ultrahits, but little evidence that he’s was going to go all out. Indeed the opening piece here could be a leftover from …Ultrahits, containing a few lines of Youngs vocal over a squiggly bleep synth backing. Those expecting a dose of explosive-minded electronica via the worlds of drone, progressive rock or noise will be disappointed.

However, just when you think that Urban Parable aren’t going to scaring the shit out of Detroit with the frenetic but average acid of the fourth track, they drop a slice of full blown gorgeous house. Probably the simplest of the eight selections, their jiggered electronics don’t appear to be working as well as the simple melodies and structure used here. For those worried that Richard Youngs has been seduced by the dark side of synthetic music, this appears to be more a one-off stop than a destination – take the single-take vocal/guitar genius album for the Volcanic Tongue label or his accapella piece for the recent Root Strata single as evidence. As an exercise in recording this may be a journey into the new for the duo, but as a listening experience this is more of an entertaining but average journey. Now, if only they’d commit to their House album." Scott McKeating (writing for The Quietus)