Paineful Feedback

"A Scotland / US postal collaboration that sounds like it captured a piece of the sky while it was going on from one continent to the other. Some huge but transient (if you can call 31 minutes transient) processed psychedelic / drone thing.

Each to Each... sees the two Paine's circling the sky and smelted into one. There are passages that gently open tears in this solid cloud of swirling sound, pipe parts and feedback that come around again and again - making the parts into a somehow flickering whole." Scott McKeating / Rock a Rolla

"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)

Weather Reports

Space Weather (Space Weather Recordings, BwbW 01) - Space Weather

"With Space Weather’s music you can either choose to descend into the gentle flicker patterns of Lakia’s cabin or float above the nightscapes of Scotland’s glittering and smoky towns. Alistair Crosbie, Brian Lavelle and Andrew Paine, a trio of Glasgow/Edinburgh experimentalists, have created a disc of synth/bass/guitar works that summon up (the best parts of) mid 70s Eno back with an affecting centre. The most striking element here is undoubtedly the synth work, and even with Lavelle credited solely on synthesizer, it’d still be presumptuous to place that instruments melodies as his sole creation. “Space Weather” has the feel of a truly collaborative effort, neither of the players overwhelming the project’s music with ego or easily identifiable contributions. With much synth lead stuff that’s doing the rounds nowadays, it’s possible to become inured to predictable passages of sound; this isn’t an issue here. The title track brings to fulfilment a sea-shanty ambience, synths shifting from true string instruments and back again – even the track’s drum machine can’t settle the virtual roll of the waves/sounds. There’s more observable guitar drone work on “Ardrahan Battalions”, but it owes more to the blissful end of progressive than pretension. They also make way for motornik fuzzed-out-pop on “They Turned Left”, Andrew Paine doing a gentle bass line that positions the piece and its momentum. “Another Green World” might well be a comparatively distant relative, but there’s little anyone/thing can do to pull the stars from this album’s trails."
(Scott McKeating, Foxy Digitalis, 17 September 2009)

"Space Weather is a different kind of collaboration entirely, the debut from an improvising trio with [Alistair] Crosbie playing guitar alongside Brian Lavelle's synthesizer and Andrew Paine's bass, making weightless space-Prog reminiscent of Ash Ra Tempel's more dreamy excursions, such as 'Traummaschine'."
(Daniel Spicer, The Wire, Issue 308, October 2009)

"Debut album from a new psychedelic Scottish trio featuring Andrew Paine (of Sonic Oyster Records and frequent Richard Youngs collaborator), Alistair Crosbie and Brian Lavelle (another one-time Youngs collaborator). This project has more of a ‘group’ atmosphere than anything the three have done before, with Crosbie on electric guitar, Lavelle on synth and Paine on electric bass. The feel is of hazy, synthesized space rock, with aspects drawn from early-Coil colliding with the soft, padding style of Neu circa ’75 and devotional Popol Vuh."
(Volcanic Tongue).

After Wednesday

My good friend Brian Lavelle is to release a recent project of mine called 'After Wednesday' on his excellent dust-unsettled label. Brian writes:

"This new release from Andrew Paine will surprise those who've heard his other releases - either as a solo artist, or recording together with Richard Youngs, Alistair Crosbie and others.

'After Wednesday' is a single composition, a contemplative, yet haunting, soundscape, composed only from several layers of minimalistic piano and subtle, processed field recordings. Recorded in Glasgow and on Holy Isle, it represents a turning point, a looking-outwards-and-onwards, and not just in musical terms. A very personal release, stunning in its simplicity."

One track.
Running time: 26:49

Catalogue number: DU05.
Release date: September 2009 (TBC).
Limitation: 100 copies.
Photography by Andrew Paine Design by Brian Lavelle. Professionally duplicated colour print disc, packaged in a printed 4 panel colour and black and white booklet, inside a plastic outer sleeve.

You can find more details, and a 4 minute excerpt of the piece, here:

http://www.dust-unsettled.com/du05.htm

You can also pre-order the disc here:

http://www.dust-unsettled.com/shop.htm

Copies will be available in a week or two and pre-orders will be sent out before the official release date.

It's just £5.00 in the UK; £6.00 elsewhere, including postage. Payment is by PayPal and you can send payment to bjlavelle@gmail.com rather than go through the website, if you prefer. Contact Brian if you're interested in taking a few copies for distribution at trade rates.

New Releases

‘Learning to Draw’ - Alistair Crosbie (SOR28)

A fantastic 17 track song based album from Alistair Crosbie:

"I have always written songs but it didn't really occur to me to make an album of them until earlier this year - sent home from work due to a heavy snowfall (which was causing intermittent power shortages), I blew the distinctly non-metaphorical dust from my acoustic guitar and wrote "Count Your Quiet Homes".

Over the next week or so, this and a further 4 songs were recorded, two newly written and two from the pile I had accumulated. I mentioned this in passing to Andrew Paine and he expressed an interest in hearing the results.

So, over the following three or four months, "Learning To Draw" was created with my usual succession of rejects, re-recordings, re-workings, remixes, remasters and the like - the change in musical format certainly didn't change my recording habits...There are 17 songs and they pass in a little under 39 minutes.

In a way, this is the most experimental album I've made."

‘Learning to Draw’ is available from Monday 24 August 2009

‘Each to Each… Exclaims’ - AP / AP (SOR27)

I came across the artist and musician, Andrew Paine, on my space in 2008: a serendipitous encounter which led to an emailed conversation and the offer to collaborate on a musical project.

The idea seemed so… naughty, that I couldn’t really resist it and over the last 12 months or so, we have traded pieces of music and processed accordingly.

Earlier this year, Andrew sent over a CD of remixes and edits to evaluate, including what he referred to as a ‘horrendous guitar noise’. Well… I was intrigued.

The ‘guitar noise’ was anything but horrendous: blasting it out through my headphones, I was instantly smitten by its energy, verve and freshness. I decided to put the other material we had completed to one side and began working on producing something which might frame this torrent of six stringed fizz and feedback.

‘Each to Each… Exclaims’ is the result: it’s not pretty and it’s not particularly clever. It’s heavy and I might argue, one of the more cohesive pieces I’ve completed. Think ‘Mekonium Reaktor’ with band.

Brian Lavelle calls it ‘ferocious and psychedelic’. Brian Lavelle is a very wise man.

‘Each to Each… Exclaims’ is unleashed upon this world on 24^th August.

Tracks from 'Learning to Draw' and 'Each to Each... Exclaims' can be heard at www.myspace.com/sonicoysterrecords

PAYMENT

The CDR releases cost 4GBP each.

IMPORTANT - as CDRs can be copied very easily, SOR does not offer a money-back guarantee but we will, of course, replace faulty product. NEW 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.

I always get proof of posting for my parcels but I cannot be held responsible for anything that goes missing in the mail - UK customers can add 85p onto the total cost for recorded delivery if they wish. Overseas customer’s who want insurance etc on their parcels, contact me in advance to arrange this. If you require a quantity of any title(s), please contact me.

Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. This is also the address if you wish to make contact for any other reason or you can message me here.