New Faces...

Coming soon... and in no particular order...

I. Sindre Bjerga - Live in Warsaw
II. Clutter - Live At The Bombed Out Church
III. Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine - It's Gonna DISCO (tape)
IV. ILK - Orchestral Works (vinyl)
V. Sky Station Z4: The Second Coming - Andrew Paine (3")
VI. A Band - tbc (3")
VII. Zero Map - tbc
VIII. Astral Social Club - tbc

The Retirement Home

The following items will be 'retired' from the 1st January 2011...

I. Lambent - Brian Lavelle
II. Guide to Music - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
III. Tokyo Garden Suite - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
IV. Earthrod - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
V. The Great Level - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
VI. Panegyric Territories; Volume I - ILK
VII. English Channel - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
VIII. Snapshots of Rural England - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
IX. Hot Canyon Butter - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
X. Collodion Positives: Volume 3 - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
XI. Treenails - Alistair Crosbie & Andrew Paine
XII. Collodion Positives: Volume 2 - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
XIII. Mekonium Reaktor - Andrew Paine
XIV. The Starling Post - Andrew Paine
XV. Roman Concrete: Volume I - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine

XII for MMX

The music that moved me or just made me smile. I salute them all...

1. Alistair Crosbie - I've Never Had A Face
2. Autechre - Oversteps
3. Boris & Ian Astbury - BXI
4. Buddha on the Moon - Between Seasons
5. Fougou - Atlantis (for John Michell)
6. IEM - Complete Box Set
7. Susan Matthews & Clint Newton - Harme
8. Toshimaru Nakamua - Egrets
9. Suckle - Against Nature
10. Richard Youngs & Simon Wickham-Smith - Songphase
11. Richard Youngs - Atlas of Hearts
12. Sorley Youngs - I Am The Music Guy (e.p. 1/1)

Corner of the Season

Over a period of six years (2000 - 2006, I think), Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs would meet in October / November and record a xmas single.

The a-side would be an original composition, the b-side a take on a traditional English carol or 'folk' song.

Each single was released in a very limited edition to family and friends.

'Corner of the Season' was the first and I think the best of our original compositions and is still a favorite with the 'kids' at the holiday season.

It appeared on the 'Glasgow Wassail' compilation (Sonic Oyster Records (SOR15) in 2007, in a limited release of 100 cdrs.

All proceeds from sales of the CD went to the Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow.

Download and enjoy.

http://andrewpaine.bandcamp.com/track/corner-of-the-season

And Here's Norman With The Weather...

"I like the name Space Weather. If nothing else 'cos it reminds me of the weather guy from Family Guy who shouts "space weather" in one of the Star Wars episodes. If you've not seen it there's possibly nothing funnier than watching a large black man shout space weather at you really loudly. Anyhoo Space Weather are a bunch of Scottish experimentalists who knock about with the Sonic Oyster lot, Richard Youngs etc. from what I can tell. On this cutesy 3" CD you get bass and electric guitar and the now obligitory synth. This is kinda spacey sounding as well... Bits of it remind me of Plight & Premonition (Holger Czukay & David Sylvian) with its weird sounding radio noises and occasional melodic tones. I reckon if you lived in space and took loads of drugs this would be what you'd hear all day and that's a good thing!" Phil from Norman Records

Space Weather - The Weather's Maiden - SOLD OUT

Apollolaan Recordings have just released 'The Weather's Maiden' by Space Weather.

Matthew writes:

"As we approach the Solstice, and are faced with frosts and snow, a wonderful display of the bright moon and stars lighting up the night sky we give you Space Weather as your soundtrack.

The Weather's Maiden" comes in the format of a 3"cdr with original hand painted covers on all 60 hand numbered and assembled copies.

Space Weather are;

Alistair Crosbie - electric guitar
Brian Lavelle - synthesizer
Andrew Paine - electric bass guitar

Scott McKeating has previously described the Space weather sound...

"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."

"Keep watching the skies...." x

Please visit http://apollolaan.blogspot.com/ for information on how to pick up your copy of 'The Weather's Maiden'.

Soliloquy Sun

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.



STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'Soliloquy Sun' is available from 29 November 2010. 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.

'From the Sun', which features on 'Soliloquy Sun' can be heard by visiting www.soliloquysun.com

Space Weather: Low Earth - High Praise

"There seems to have been some rough stellar conditions at the Space Weather satellite for the recording of their second album. Where their bass, synth and guitar debut, “Untitled,” was a relatively warm melancholic drone affair with plenty of clear night sky in its sights, the instrumental Low Earth takes things down a few clicks on the Celsius scale. This Glasgow/Edinburgh-based trio have turned their hand to a much darker record this time around. It’s what you’d imagine the soundtrack to the deep low moods of space station downtime to sound like – the “low” part of the record’s title is right on the money. Where “Untitled” was certainly cut from a similarly instrumental blanket of stars, Low Earth’s five tracks feel a little icier in direction. With “Tramsmute The Black Rock,” a gloriously prog title if ever there was one, there’s even a journey into the instrumental melodic tundrascapes between The Cure’s “Faith” and “Pornography” albums. The introductory “How Far Is It?” sits in a cold orbit around a colder Earth, the sense of a distance come and a distance to go running deep through the track’s minimal electronics. As it fades out into the distance, the closing shots of Silent Running in a forever-loop are the only appropriate visuals. Still too short at nearly nineteen minutes long, the vast “A Brief Swansong” is a wash of drone waves against the mind’s shore. An open space of eddies and bass notes lost in water, the track is a rootless piece of minimalism brooding against the horizon line. Bleaker, but better than their debut." Scott McKeating (writing for foxy digitalis)

Norman Gets Old Skool...

"Andrew Paine & his little-known chum Ricardo Youngster have released a tape! A REAL old-skool DIY tape wot looks it woz made it in a skool for a project to please Miss! Except Miss has had to go home with a suspected borderline mind-aneurysm after she put it on the tape player, like REALLY freakin' loud cause it started all quiet like, then transformed into a load of whacked-out screeing frequency manipulation & lo-fi feedback. Then she started screaming as the distorshun became, like, really evil-loud, like some doom style sludge nightmare. Miss had to cover her ears even harder but then blood and bits of brain started spurting horribly from between her fingers and then she kollapsd all over the floor and we laughed then we got a bit consurned. So we rang Mr Bowers the music teech. He came along & giggled and said he'd sent it to Miss as a joke but it may have backfired. "It's not like this all the way through kids, if you persist it gets real churchy, but in a Satan kind of way" he then said. "But Mr Bowers.." we replied "We're all scared now, what do we do?"..... "There is nothing you can do, children" he solemnly intoned. "You're all damned to hell now". So I'm actually afraid to go home this evening, just in case my Mum & Dad have turned into demonic wolves...." (Brian... at Norman Records)

Volcanic Tongue Cracks the Seal

Edition of only 50 copies cassette from the duo of Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine. This is some of the most aggressive and brutally a-formal of their work together, moving from semi-static blocks of black drone to crude electro-wrassling and the kind of blunt circuit exchanges that characterised the early Akita/Null duos. Comes sealed inside a wraparound paper sleeve – but are you brave enough to crack it. A classy old school release from these two. Very limited supply, obviously.

Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine - 4trackcassettemachine (SOC001) - SOLD OUT

'4trackcassettemachine' is the new album by Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine.

This latest collaboration puts aside the ‘bleeps’ and ‘beats’, which dominated ‘Robot’ and the recent ‘Urban Parable’ sets for something a little more organic. Four distinct tracks of lo-fi experimentation, abstract synth, minimal electronics, slabs of dark stabbing riffs and screaming guitar, make for a highly stylistic release.

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, '4trackcassettemachine' is available from 15 November.

Andrew Paine - The Earth Remains Unshattered

Siren Wire will be releasing a new solo project from Andrew Paine in November 2010.

'Siren Wire Editions' is a series of limited edition releases by carefully selected artists from around the globe. Launching November 2010.

Siren Wire Editions 001

Andrew Paine 'The Earth Remains Unshattered'

i) The Earth Remains Unshattered
ii) Matter & Space
iii) Forsake the Sky
iv) So Long As My Pincers Hold
v) Sceadu
vi) A Pulse Around A Circle
vii) Brilliant White
viii) The Storm is Overpast

Recorded in Glasgow, July - September 2010

For more information on Siren Wire and ordering this release http://sirenwire.webs.com/sweditions.htm



"Quietly and without fuss, Andrew Paine has established himself as one of the UK underground’s most progressive thinkers and most diverse operators, his modes ranging from solo voice, through layered howling guitars, gentle piano interludes, oblique electronics and wherever he likes in between. He initially broke cover collaborating with Richard Youngs in their progressive rock group project Ilk. Following their second album “Canticle” (VHF, 2005), he became particularly prolific, releasing many collaborative titles both with Youngs and with fellow Glasgow resident Alistair Crosbie as well as several solo titles. He founded his own Sonic Oyster Records in 2006 to release much of his work and has recently co-founded, Blue Tree, with Matthew Shaw (Tex La Homa, Fougou) and progressive kraut-rock power trio, Space Weather, with Alistair Crosbie and Brian Lavelle."

Norman Goes to Metherell

"This is a really nice piece. 45 minutes of contemplative piano drones which have been recorded in such a way as to render them beautifully ambient. This manipulation removes the occasionally twee & annoying plink of the ivories and instead leaves us with just the sustained drifting waves of the notes in a gorgeous Brian Eno-esque fashion. With just intermittent chirrups of an evening bird chorus to enhance the mood, this is a true minimalist gem. It's a wonderfully emotive & ponderous music we've got here that will almost definitely enrich the lives of fans in awe of Celer's more cerebral works & latter-day Stars of the Lid. Very affecting indeed." Norman Records

Matthew Shaw - Metherell (SOLD OUT)

"Moss, Trees, Lichen, twigs, dead leaves, soil, insects, birds, the wind, the rain and sunshine. Bracken basks in the shade and reaches upwards and outwards. My vision of the horizon broken by forest, the silence broken by birdsong, space, peace and quiet but never complete silence. For now this is my home."

Matthew Shaw (Tex La Homa, Fougou, The Blue Tree) offers us a meditation on place; a quiet valediction to his beloved South West England.

'Metherell' is music born of a perfect moment, the repetitious swell and pitch of piano, our witness to the simple pleasures found in ancient woodland, seen through the half-light.

The reference to geographical place puts one in mind of earlier environmental music; the style and easy posture of the composition owes a quiet word of gratitude to Eno and Basinski. This is all for the good.

Wonderful Wooden Reasons seeks out the Shadow Walker

"Let me start off with an admittance that I wasn't (and indeed am still not) overly taken with the opening track here. The birds are too high in the mix and the music too overtly reminiscent of Current 93 at their most bucolic for me to fall into. It's not bad by any stretch it just isn't for me. The rest of the album on the other hand is fantastic.
This is the first time I've heard Susan follow an entirely instrumental path and (with all due respect to her singing) it's something I'd certainly like to hear more of. She has a fully developed and thoroughly engrossing composition style that, aside from occasional brushes with the familiar (track 4 - Broken - would be perfectly at home on the soundtrack to Amelie), is an absolute delight. She weaves heavy, weighty, almost gothic, tapestries around delicate melodies and a prismatic exoticism.
A beautiful album" (Wonderful Wooden Reasons)

Norman Records shakes the Mighty Hand

This is a limited CDR in a run of 50 and it's 3 tracks running into 34 minutes of free folk madness. My ears can hear people clapping, weird electronics, flutes, bass guitar, bongos, whistling and more things I can't distinguish. I reckon this would be good to see live as it sounds like feral insanity. I also think there would be nudity if you see these guys (and gals?) live as anyone who makes music like this normally gets naked on stage. If you're into free folk jams by people who are just getting up there and doing there own thing then this is for you. It's nothing but entertaining. (Norman Records)

Volcanic Tongue on the Mighty Hand

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.

Bolide - The Mighty Hand

Bolide deliver three slabs of spontaneous accept-and-build with an album that celebrates the notion of 'mind and breath', albeit with a lysergic acid diethylamide chaser and a pint of speckled hen.

Every wrinkle, squank and poot is accepted with the kind of feral energy early 'Mothers' once gorged on before squandering it all on titties and beer with Eddie and that annoying Phlorescent Leech.

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'The Mighty Hand' is available from 27 September. 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.

http://www.thebolide.tk/
http://www.myspace.com/bolideawkwardstra
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bolide/285710746803?ref=ts

Chapel of Stars - Free Download

I've recently uploaded a new e.p. to my bandcamp site: www.andrewpaine.bandcamp.com

The 'Chapel of Stars' ep was completed over two days at SOR Mansions, Spring 2010.

Nebulae
Fall of Acre
He Was a King

I think my original intention was to record approx. 45 minutes of material and link the pieces with some 'third crusade' conceptual hogwash - hence the title 'Fall of Acre'.

Having recorded five pieces and leaving the material for a week, I took my lack of new ideas or willingness to do battle with the 'axe' as a sign to leave it gathering dust and move on.

Move on I did... recording 'Haunts of Ancient Peace' the following month.

I came back to these 'Crusade' pieces recently and discarded two of them immediately - for they were tosh of the highest order.

However... three slabs of guitar have survived.

I gift to those who are interested in such things, a free download... which welcomes the listener with repeating riffs, looped phrases, scorching guitar melodies over a timeless space drone stasis.

I hope you enjoy it - please let me know what you think

Onward!

Urban Parable - Reviews

Norman Records... hitting the nail on the head

"Couldn't tell you much about the work of Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine as they've kinda passed me by... You probably know their stuff better than I. What we're treated to here is thirty minute astral jam utilizing elements of electro, house, techno, hip-hop, coffee table jazz, drum 'n' bass and freeform improv to create a strange party mix tape that goes on into infinity. The majority of what I've heard so far is relatively tranquil and atmospheric making the most of warm vocal tones and semi-freeform loops and beats but occasionally it kicks off in a relatively vague and inconsistent ways which makes for fun yet frustrating listening. These guys are basically teasing. I guess that's the beauty of this piece, it's a euphoric exploration of dance music and it's technologies without all the usual pay-off moments you'd expect as a punter. Slightly frustrating but worth sticking with for the magic moments." Business Lady

" Where do we even begin with this one? Anyone who thinks they might have finally got their head around the prodigious arc of Richard Young’s recent catalogue is gonna have to throw their hands in the air: Urban Parable is a new group project from Richard and Andrew Paine that masquerades as a mysterious unit coming out of the 90s rave scene (?!?) – think Ilk playing the dance tent dressed in white jump suits, sucking on menthol inhalers and waving glo-sticks. Or don’t. Richard’s soaring vocals are married to euphoric techno, brokedown drum and bass, primitive house and block rocking beats in one of the most unlikely recordings of his entire career. If you thought Ultrahits was a bold step into the pop void then this is really going to confuse you, 90s techno completely misconstrued. Obviously, you need to hear it. Edition of only 50 copies though, so better make it quick. Highest possible confusion." (Volcanic Tongue)

" Urban Parable... I mean, what the fuck?" (Alistair Crosbie)

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.



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)

Urban Parable - SOLD OUT

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" Newton's Third Law of Motion

Urban Parable is a new album and unit by Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine.

It has been said there can be no manual for experimentation and yet... and yet... Youngs & Paine appear to have found one for this project.

Moving on from where 'Robot' left off, 'Urban Parable' takes a sharp left turn down a hidden corridor to reveal euphoric electro stabs, violent techno, swaying rhythms, yearning vocal samples and insane, unexpected drum 'n' bass beats.



'Urban Parable' is SOLD OUT

Terrascopic Rumbles Part 2

Functions of Hedgerow - 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

Terrascopic Rumbles Part 1

Tex La Homa - Driebergen Zeist (SOR32)

"Coming home from work after having a shitty day, feeling down, putting on the one-tracked CDr “Driebergen-Zeist” by Tex la Homa and the rest of the day was saved. Exactly what my inner tensions needed. 30 minutes of reflective, melancholy light, kind of accordion-drone. Those days, do I know it’s an accordion? No, it could be an electronic trick, but I don’t care, it’s mighty beautiful and rich in sound; wide chords flavoured with sampled voices, sounds, treatments and other stuff, just like spices here and there. Tex la Homa could also be recognised as Matthew Shaw, a guy involved in a lot of various collaborations in 230 Divisadero with Nick Grey, The Blue Tree with Andrew Paine, Fougou with Brian Lavelle, Cat Lady with Michael Tanner and Grand Feast of the Dead with Mark Fry. And if that wasn’t enough he’s also the head of Apollolaan Records. Anyone familiar with that label immediately realise we’re talking about a guy who care for quality. And he’s avoiding the narcissistic trap of releasing it on his own label." www.terrascope.co.uk

Andrew Paine - The Haunts of Ancient Peace

'The Haunts of Ancient Peace' (SOR40) 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.

Track Listing:

Island of Oak - The First Path
Ghost Knight
Island of Oak - The Second Path
April Cast A Broad Shadow
Island of Oak - The Third Path
The Haunts of Ancient Peace

'Island of Oak - The Third Path' is available for a limited period at http://andrewpaine.bandcamp.com/

The piano needs tuning :-)

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'Haunts' is available from 19 July. 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.

Susan Matthews - In Search of the Shadow Walker

'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 and is available from 19 July. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

This release is likely to sell out fast and will not be reissued on SOR. Pre-order now to avoid disappointment.

Susan has uploaded four tracks from 'In Search of the Shadow Walker' on http://www.myspace.com/susanmatthews

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.

Uncut Robot

Thanks to Jon Dale for this recent review of 'Robot' in Uncut magazine.

Learning to Draw - Review

A well deserved review for a great album - Scott McKeating gets out the wax crayons and learns to draw for foxy digitalis.

"Alistair Crosbie is a musician better known for soundscapes and guitar dronework, and rightly so as he does them well. So when he releases something that he claims as being ‘the most experimental album I've made’, the big money might well be on that album being something utterly bizarre and industrially heavy. Instead, Crosbie has recorded an album of his own songs, y’know guitar, chorus, melodies and lyrics stuff, which is not something you might readily expect for a dabbler in aural alien art. There are a few deviations throughout (acapella and post-punk kraut vibery), a few sparks of other sound but the central elements are always voice and guitar. No need to worry about how Crosbie handles the gulf between these disciplines though, “Learning To Draw” is an unqualified success and in no way does he get (or need) any kind of pass for being an artist more well known for being from a different musical world. While Crosbie’s songs here work within a certain structural formula, relatively brief songs (17 songs in 38 or so minutes) relying on limited pedal fx, acoustic guitar and keyboard, these are not the fumblings of a beginner.

The blurb that accompanies “Learning To Draw” mentions its origins in some snowbound and electricity-free sessions, but it feels like the record’s true origins are in something deeper and more internal. The whole record feels deeply personal, and its fairly bare bones style really supports its tone and manner. This is definitely heartfelt, lyrically downbeat and personal pop, its lack of a wide instrumental palette not affecting its melodies. Many of the songs seem to fit in with the idea of Crosbie talking/confessing/advising someone, in many places seemingly himself, and lyrically he's singing about personal confusion, loss and moments of occasional redemption. Things do turn a little chilling with some of the disturbed and empty imagery on “Husk”, but it’s followed immediately with “Summer” and the title track, the record’s most positive moments, so this fuller descent is short-lived. “Learning To Draw” is a principally melancholy pop record, but Crosbie’s shaft-of-light optimism comes over loud and clear. Take the gorgeous minute-long piece of positivity “Chinese Handcuffs, one of several slices of simple Glasgow/Creation guitar pop, which rivals any of the usual suspects with its “more you struggle the tighter it becomes” line. As an overall concept and album, this is a very brave, very personal record and reveals Crosbie as having a talent for both the abstract and the traditional. 10/10"

Fougou - Atlantis (for John Michell) - Reviews

Wonderful Wooden Reasons reflect on the Fougou:

"Fougou is the collaborative project of Brian Lavelle and Matthew Shaw. It's my first exposure to Shaw but Lavelle is a regular to these pages and a very welcome one at that. Atlantis is an introspective and ephemeral listen filled with melancholic sighs and slow washes of breathy sound. It's dedicated to John Michell who is described in the sleeve notes as a 'writer & dreamer'. I cannot comment on how the former noun is referenced in the music but the second is all pervasive and the music maintains a satisfyingly oneiric character throughout that I'm sure he would have approved of."

Writing for foxy digitalis, Scott McKeating reviews the latest Fougou release on SOR:

"Fougou make journeys. The kind of journeys that see the owner sinking into a soundscape. And while it’s certainly not uncommon for experimental music to seek to take its listener somewhere on a journey, Fougou make the Fantastic Voyage movie look like a paper boat sightseeing trip in six-inch puddle. Starting with the measured swell of waters, like waves through alloy aqueducts, there’s an underpinning of delicate structures ringing – picture the construction of aural sugar cages through fog (if you know what I mean). Fougou’s subtle sunken psychedelia is a descent into, and through, the watery world of this 3”s title – moving through a society that’s unaware of the listener’s presence. This, only their second release, is truly a halcyon slice of music and layered like dust mites in intermittent sunshine. Their blending together of denseness, visual/aural trails and finger dab rushes beckons the kind of worlds usually found on new age/SF book covers - a world of verdant green and silver crystal. Their sound id anything but new age though, there's a gracefulness and an obscurity that's far beyond that sonic garishness. Atlantis is a interswirling of the normally disparate ‘istics’ – the mystic and futuristic. 9/10 -- Scott McKeating (2 June, 2010)"

Book of Shadows - Tea in the Sidhe... SOLD OUT

Well done everybody... onward!

Buddha on the Moon - Between Seasons - SOLD OUT

Nothing else to see... move along, please

Buddha on the Moon - Norman Speaks!

Norman Records writes:

"Buddha On The Moon were about when I was obsessively buying 7"'s back in the
mid-90's. Back in the heydays of Wurlitzer Jukebox and Earworm etc.... Buddha On The Moon were tinkering around then, tackling the world with small low-key releases and a name to worry Buddhists. Here they are with a brand new album on Sonic Oyster, limited to a paltry 50 copies and it's their 1st album for 12 years. Craziness! It's pretty immense sounding stuff and I'm sure by the time you read this they'll have all gone. Beautiful drones and ambience mingled in with proper instruments and proper songs. Remember all that drifty space rock from the late 90's ala Windy & Carl, Fuxa etc?? There's elements of that here but it's well epic-sounding in scale. I can't believe there's only 50 of these!"

Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine - Collodion Error

Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine have a free download available courtesy of the good people at Workbench Recordings. http://www.workbenchrecordings.com/

Daniel Spicer writes:

"Just how close to the edge is it possible to get? Zeno's paradox would suggest that no matter how hard one tries, it can never be reached. Achilles spends eternity trying to catch a tortoise but only ever getting part of the way, the distance between the hero and the reptile shattered into an infinitude of tiny spaces to be traversed first one then another, with no ending in sight. Just the same, there's a whole universe to be travelled before we get truly close to the edge.

Glasgow-based musicians Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine keep on trying to reach that edge - separately and together. Youngs is a humble bastion of UK experimental music: as a solo artist of dizzying diversity, as an erstwhile member of underground free-music originals The A Band and, more lately, as bassist in Jandek's live trio with drummer Alex Nielsen. Paine is a quietly determined generator of avant-sounds, documented and distributed through his CD-R label Sonic Oyster. The two have recorded together since the end of the 20th century, sometimes under their own names, and sometimes as Ilk, a project that takes the baroque narrative stylings of classic British Prog as a starting point from which to explore psychedelic Noise, drone and Improv.

With Collodion Error, it's as though they're trying to sneak up on the edge, pretending not to look as they spiral round, trying to catch it on the outswing, the outer arm of the Golden Mean. The galaxy spins down into a beach-stranded mollusc shell, into an atom of stone, down further into a galactic supercluster, You can hear the energy thrumming as your identity slips away. A minute and a half can be enough to see it all. Time enough to get close to the edge, anyway."

Tea in the Sidhe - Reviewed by the One True Dead Angel

Book of Shadows -- TEA IN THE SIDHE [Sonic Oyster Records]

More whole-grain psychedelic drone goodness, this time featuring two lengthy workouts and three shorter ones. "Terrastock Tea Party," clocking in at over 31 minutes, is one of their more chaotic offerings -- the bedrock drone and ghostlike, wailing vocals are present as always, but there's a lot more activity happening in the background, in the form of springy guitar lines that come and go, erratic bursts of percussion, and a plethora of strange, usually unidentifiable noises that point the song perilously close to the land of improv free jazz... except this is the slowest and most sporadic free jazz you'll ever hear. Some of it sounds like a free jazz combo workout that's been slowed down to half speed and swaddled in gauzy sheets of drone. Screeching, wailing noises that might be a saxophone or something sampled from a keyboard rise up through the fog now and then as well. The density of sound ebbs and flows over time, as does the intensity. The considerably shorter five-minute title track is one of the most peculiar tracks I've heard from the band -- what sounds like a kazoo or wheezing keyboard provides a sawtooth drone over which discordant voices babble while squeaks and skronks abound. "Midsummer w / Verdi" is another long one (over 27 minutes), and this is closer to what most would expect from the band -- long, swirling drones, beatific disembodied vocals, and pulsing waves of cosmic sound. The volume increases as the piece goes on and the playing activity grows more restless as well, but eventually gives way to a more languid sensibility that continues to the end, with a sound that's still heavy on the cosmic vibe but far more spacious and restrained, at least up until the end (where there's a brief burst of electronic frippery designed to roust you from your tranced-out bliss). "Ion" is another short one -- just four minutes exactly -- and one of the more esoteric ones, filled with bass-heavy rumble and sci-fi noises, like a snippet from a soundtrack to an obscure science fiction B-movie; the twelve-minute "Major Cerridwen" continues the sci-fi theme, sort of, with the occasional bits that sound like alpha waves bouncing off satellites, but this is rooted more in their traditional affinity for dreamy, floating dronescapes. This is certainly one of their more enigmatic and unusual albums, but fans of the band (and of cosmic drone-rock in general) will nevertheless find this a worthy addition to their album collections.

Buddha on the Moon - Between Seasons

Simply put, "Between Seasons' is one of the most uplifting and beautiful albums I've heard in years.

It is the third album from Buddha on the Moon, a Texas-based sonic escapist exploring and obfuscating the gray boundaries of song, drone, and soundscape.

BotM's previous album, ‘The Last Autumn Day,’ came out in 1998, and the near-dozen intervening years should have been sufficient for at least a half-dozen more albums; but not existing as a proper band, with no time tables for rehearsals, shows or tours has a way of stretching time and so conventional norms of schedule or agenda become obsolete.


As such, 'Between Seasons' came about at its own pace, on its own time and space, recorded, sampled, processed and tweaked, mixed and remixed, forgotten and rediscovered over a period of four years using a wide array of digital and analog media, mountain dulcimer, kantele, guitars and basses acoustic and electric, various synthesizers, and a collection of 'modestly-priced microphones'.

The album is STRICTLY limited to 50 copies & available from 24 May. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

I have uploaded 'When They Were Close (for friends estranged)' on to andrewpaine.bandcamp.com for a limited period only.

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.

Fougou - Atlantis (for John Michell)

'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.

'Atlantis' is available on 3" CD-R and strictly limited to 50 copies. The CDR release costs 4GBP 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.

The Quietus Review: Robot

Thanks to Scott McKeating for this review recently posted in 'The Quietus':

For such a near-mythic (and allegedly reclusive figure), Richard Youngs still manages to be a very busy man. From the mid 80s onwards he's played a pivotal role in the diy/experimental underground moving between exploratory improvisation, drone, gorgeous songscapes and post-pop pieces. Having long since graduated from the legendary A Band collective, Youngs is known as both a solo artist and a discerning, but keen, collaborator via his releases with Skullflower's Matthew Bower and drummer-in-demand Alex Neilson.

Robot is Youngs' twentieth collaboration with fellow Glasgow based musician Andrew Paine since 2005 (not including their well-received prog rock project Ilk), and it's one of their most instant and unusual so far. To those unfamiliar with the workings of the diy experimental underground, 20 might sound like an insane amount of music. Where other improvisatory-sourced acts, for example the harsher, bleaker but very prolific Wolf Eyes, releases can be read as a kind of documentary process, Youngs and Paine seem to treat each release like a mini project of sorts – an idea investigated.

In essence, Robot is a concept release created using Brian Eno's infamous oblique strategy card system and a further exploration into the duo's chemistry. For a pairing that's been so effective with the ideas of musical improvisation within a small dose of self-imposed direction, their choice of Eno's concept/direction of random selected choices/instructions on Robot might seem a little peculiar. Usually employed in aiding over-emotive stadium rock acts that have hit the skids break the shackles of their own success, Youngs and Paine have adopted this system for Robot more in the spirit of playful exploration.

While the duo are more familiar playing at the left-hand edge of something akin to post-world/post-structure music, the five pieces here are moving beyond even those already hazy limits. Taking in disassociated spoken word, hollow-legged Kosmische, the musical 'summing-up' of landscapes in endless melody lines and more than a dash of prog-rock's audio dalliances, Robot seems to have pushed the pair beyond improv – if such a thing can actually happen. Where improv is often seen as an anything goes environment, it still has the constraint of what a particular artist is comfortable and the added bonus of treading hitherto unexplored paths. The nature of integrating the unknown into this project's working method has undoubtedly pushed the duo into new territory.

Paine and Youngs may have dabbled in synth-work previously but there has never been anything as joyously weird as the classic Acid Techno of 'Bad Shark'. Thanks to The South Bank Show's footage of plastic-bed sheet stadium behemoths playing dreadful sub world music grooves, the oblique strategy series is more of an amusing idea than a system that's produced a massive amount of great music for anyone other than Eno himself. Where many would flounder at directions like commands like "Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them", Youngs and Paine have adapted perfectly to these leaps into the dark.

Robot - SOLD OUT

'Robot' by Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs is now sold out at source. However... copies can be found at Norman Records, Volcanic Tongue, Eclipse Records & Alt.Vinyl.

"New edition of 50 copies CD-R from the tag-team of Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine. Reflecting on the extended electro/prog strategies of their 3” on La Station Radar, the music was created through a series of oblique strategies chosen at random, with vocal narration cut up to the point that it sounds like interrupted shortwave broadcasts, primitive acid house squiggles, vocoder F/X, guitar jams and cheap drum machines. Another perplexing entry from these two cosmonauts." (Volcanic Tongue)

Robot

Sonic Oyster Records presents 'Robot', a new release from Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs.

'Robot' is the result of adhering to every 'oblique strategy' card randomly chosen from the deck.

No compromise; no quarter... no matter how painful, no matter how against the moment, we worked with it and the music flowed through us... a strange new sound, at times liberating... at other times totally ridiculous.

Ultimately, it was a very enjoyable album to make... riddled with surprises... taking the construct and process we first started on ' The Horizon Project' and moving forward to a new experimentation. A progression, if you will.

The album is STRICTLY limited to 50 copies & available from 19 April. 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.

Book of Shadows - Tea in the Sidhe

Book of Shadows began in 1999 when Carlton and Sharon Crutcher began seeking an experimental, magickal outlet from their duties in legendary Austin Texas Space Rock band ST 37 which Carlton founded in 1987.

The artistic vision for Book of Shadows was to combine the best aspects of psychedelia, improvisation and experimental music mixed with a spiritual and magickal life perspective. Each time Book of Shadows gets together to play, music is documented by a recording of that particular magickal and musical experience.

Carlton and Sharon were joined by guitarist, composer Aaron Bennack in 2002 and guitarist Jonathan Horne in 2004. In the last 10 years Book of Shadows has played an endless number of recording sessions and shows with countless musicians in the effort to document the beauty of the eternal present.

Sonic Oyster Records is proud to present 'Tea in the Sidhe', Book of Shadows latest incantation of psychedelic drone and mysticism.



The album is limited to 50 copies & available from 19 April.

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.