Steven Ball - Middle Footscray

1.Take One 03:48

2. Down the Dip 02:07

3. Morning Folds 04:09

4. Bloody Hell Good Boy 02:10

5. Shelf Stacker 00:49

6. Man Overboard 02:53

7. Coffee Bean Ant 02:24

8. Wooden Piano 01:12

9. Seddon Junction 00:30

10. Deep Problem 00:27

11. Failure of Nerve 03:09

12. Umbel 13:47

13. Up the Sides 02:51

 

Credits:

Format: Bandcamp download

Release Date: 2016

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: None

Sleeve Design: Steven Ball

 

Notes:

All tracks by Steven Ball recorded in Footscray, Melbourne, Australia, 1997 - 1999. Tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8 recorded 1997 tracks 2, 9, 10, & 11 recorded 1998 track 13 recorded 1999. All tracks constructed using various shareware, sampled found sound, ambient room and field recordings. Tracks 1, 4, & 6 constructed entirely from found audio rushes from an unidentified Australian film. Track 12 is the soundtrack to the super 8 film ‘Umbel' by Ooni Peh. Lomograph by Steven Ball 1997.

   

MESSTHETICS GREATEST HISS: the DIY cassette-scene vol.1

1. Jelly Babies - 'Soylent Green'

2. 391 - 'Jet Plane'

3. Instant Automatons - 'Gillian is Normal'

4. Event Group - 'Concussion Edit'

5. Missing Persons - 'Sign of The Times'

6. Danny & The Dressmakers - 'Eggs on Legs'

7. Gravity Craze - 'Song For M'

8. Farming Jim - 'Cats in The Kitchen'

9. Chromosomes - 'Hi Fi Know How'

10. Mike Jones - 'Reckless Policies'

11. Living Dead No.5 - 'Never Give In'

12. Storm Bugs - 'Car Situations (Nasal Passage)'

13. Colin Potter - 'Power'

14. Digital Dinosaurs - 'Baby Snakes'

15. Twizlers - 'We are The Twizlers'

16. Casual Labourers - 'A Lapse is Due'

17. Midnight Circus - 'Suburbia Nervosa'

18. Aconite - 'The Truth about Cable'

19. Milkshake Melon - 'Walk Oates Walk!'

20. Cultural Amnesia - 'Repetition for This World'

21. The Get - 'The Leaders'

22. Stripey Zebras - 'Walking Home'

23. Funhouse - 'Teenage Bedrooms'

24. Danny & The Dressmakers - 'Kif Kif's Magic Hat'

25. Chimp Eats Bananas - 'Shopping List'

 

Bonus MP3's

Chromosomes - 'Rot all Rulers'

Dean Johnson - 'Another Letter'

Digital Dinosaurs - 'Elephant Germs'

Farming Jim - 'New Years Eve'

Jelly Babies - 'Candy Bricks'

 

Credits:

Format: CD. 500 copies

Release Date: 2008

Label: Hyped to Death

Catalogue Number: Messthetics 10

 

Notes:

Includes a 24-page booklet with histories, photos, artifacts and an essay from Mick Sinclair, who wrote the original Cassette Pets column for Sounds.

 

The Storm Bugs track is 'Car Situations (Nasal Passage)' from the A Safe Substitute Cassette.

 

Storm Bugs - Metamorphose (Tin/Car Situations)

Side A 

Tin 

 

Side B

Car Situations

Both tracks by Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball. Philip Sanderson: loops, vocals, treatments. Steven Ball: guitar, bass, lead vocals.

 

Credits:

Format,: 7 inch single, 1,470 copies

Release Date: 1981

Label: L'invitation au Suicide 

Catalogue Number: L'invitation 0100

Sleeve and label Design: Yann Farcy

 

Notes:

Whereas the first Storm Bugs single was recorded by Sanderson on a two-track Revox tape machine the second Storm Bugs single was a collaborative affair between Sanderson and Ball using a multitrack recorder. Sanderson first created a drum loop from a bongo using various tape collage techniques. Over this he developed a rough guitar part and the vocal line.  Ball honed the guitar part into a more formal chord sequence and wrote a bass part. The two then recorded and mixed the song on an 8-track multitrack tape machine in an afternoon. The music for side B was built up from layers of tape loops made by Sanderson on top of which the vocal line was added by Ball. The lyrics to Car Situations had been written by Sanderson and Ball in Paddington using cut-up phrases from sources such as John Cage's book Silence. The release was the first on the French L'invitation au Suicide label. The single came in a 10-inch sleeve entitled Metamorphose. The design differed considerably from that which the band had agreed with the label and was disowned by them.

Various - Telephone Music

 

Side A

1 Maps (Philip Sanderson)

2 Thief (Philip Sanderson/Michael Denton)

3 Merry Christmas Adolf (Michael Denton)

4 Drinks and Aeroplanes (Philip Sanderson)

 

Side B 

1 Ups and Downs (Philip Sanderson/Michael Denton)

2 Apostrophe S (Philip Sanderson/Steven Ball/David Jackman)

3 Spy Garden (Philip Sanderson)

4 Mr. Sound (Michael Denton)

 

Credits

Format: Cassette, 5 copies.

Release Date: 1986

Label: Telephone Music

Catalogue Number: tel 001

Sleeve Design: Michael Denton & Philip Sanderson. Photo by Michael Denton

Compiled and produced by: Philip Sanderson

 

Notes: 

The tape compiled collaborative and solo tracks by PhilipSanderson & Michael Denton from bertween 1981 and 1986, plus the track 'Apostrophe S' by Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball (with flute by David Jackman). The tape came in two sleeves, a white 7-inch single sleeve (sealed using brown parcel tape) with a grey photocopied label on the front and back and a design with the camouflage plyers. 'Maps', 'Drinks and Aeroplanes', and 'Spy Garden' (retitled as 'Tale Chase') were re-issued in 2018 on the LP On One of These Bends.

Storm Bugs - Table Matters

Side 1

Cash Wash

Eat Good Beans

Make Customers Matter

 

Side 2

Window Shopping 

Our Main Objective

 

All tracks by Philip Sanderson.

 

Credits:

Format: 7-inch EP. 500 copies.

Release Date: 1980

Label: Loop records

Catalogue Number: 

Sleeve Design & Photography: Steven Ball

 

Notes:

The Storm Bugs 7-inch EP on black vinyl in a printed cover with white labels featuring a small sticker. The cut up sleeve shows photographs taken in and around Charring Cross Rd circa 1979. The image of the mannequins in the top left and right corner was used for the labels of Up the Middle Down the Sides. The image at the top of the page is of the printed sleeve but there were two other alternate photocopied sleeve designs. The records were pressed a couple of months before the printed sleeves were ready thus the first 50 copies (or so) came with a folded screen printed insert. One or two copies were also sold with one-off collages by Sanderson. The remaining 450 copies have the printed sleeve.

Snatch 3

 

Side 1

Steven Ball - 60/60

Mental - Sound 2 

Ice Yacht - 0 North

Nigel Jacklin - Song

Philip Sanderson - Under Press of Sail

David Jackman - World

 

Side 2

Claire Thomas - Ashes & Diamonds

Steven Ball - Dressing for the Party

David Jackman - Blues

Alien Brains & Instruments

Orior - Call

Michael Denton - Part 3

 

Credits:

Format: Cassette, 100 copies (approx)

Release Date: 1981

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: TCH 300

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson & David Jackman. Printed sleeve and white inlay card, screen printed turquoise and pink cassette labels,

 

Notes:

The third and last Snatch Tapes complation. The tracks 'O North' and 'Ashes and Diamonds', here credited to Ice Yacht and Claire Thomas respectively, were later to appear on the Sanderson/Jackman O North tape (AR4). 'Ashes & Diamonds' was mixed by Sanderson using a flute loop made with David Jackman, snippets of vocals by Nancy Slessinger (who sang on 'Bright Waves') all fed through a Revox tape delay. '0 North' is a mix of the drum loop from the Storm Bugs single 'Tin' with Esraj by David Jackman (a slowed down version of the 'Blues' track also found on the tape. Orior were an ambient electronic duo comprising 'Clip' and Phil Hollins who released one single on the Crystal Groove label, and recorded an LP which was not released until 2016 as Strange Beauty. Nigel Jacklin released a number of tapes under the Alien Brains title many of whcih were subsequently re-issued by Vinly on Demand as as a boxset. To accompany Snatch 3 there was a screenprinted A0 poster by Philip Sandersom & Michael Denton. The Orior, David Jackman ('Blues'), and Nigel Jacklin tracks were re-issued on the Snatch Paste LP in 2006. Also included on the LP was an alternative version of the 'Ashes & Diamonds' track called 'Diamonds & Ashes'.

 

Snatch 2

Side 1

Orchestral Introduction 

Beach Surgeons: Graham Massey & Friends

Mannequin Moves: John Arnold, Brian McCarthy

Vote Police: Sarah Pomeroy, Vivienne DeVoy

Orchestral Interlude

Mountain Stream

Sea of Wires: 2 Teas & A Funny Hat

 

Side 2

David Jackman

Scratch Dub: Beach Surgeons, John Cage, Scratch Orchestra with rhythm & loops by David Jackman, Philip Sanderson and Storm Bugs

Lemon Kittens: Danielle Dax, Karl Blake

Storm Bugs: Philip Sanderson, Sarah Pomeroy, Steve Ball

David Jackman

Cultural Amnesia Dub: G. Greenway, B. Norland

Garden Dwarves Dub

 

Credits:

Format: Cassette, 100 copies

Release Date: 1980

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: None

Sleeve Design: Photocopy onto white paper, design by Philip Sanderson & David Jackman, Alternate cover with floorplan design by Philip Sanderson (only one or two copies exist of the alternate cover)

 

Notes: 

Sanderson had already started work on Snatch 2 when he met David Jackman in spring 1980. Jackman was drafted in to help with the compilation of the tape, with the two creating the loops and assembling the tape in Sanderson's basement flat in Paddington.

 

As with Snatch 1 the tape cover lists the names of the artists but not the track titles, further details were included on a small booklet sent out with the tape. Here are some further notes.

 

Side 1

Orchestral Introduction 

A short tape loop made by Sanderson & Jackman

Beach Surgeons: Graham Massey & Friends

The Beach Surgeons was one of the many bands that Massey formed including: 808 State, Biting Tongues, and Danny And The Dressmakers. No know track title, not known either who the 'friends' are.

Mannequin Moves: John Arnold, Brian McCarthy

The track is called 'Think Of The Girls You Left Behind was also featured on the compilation Healthy Feet/Murky Depths (1981). The track was re-issued on the Snatch Paste (2006) LP on Vinyl on Demand as 'The Girls You Left Behind':

Vote Police: Sarah Pomeroy, Vivienne DeVoy

Vote Police was a Sanderson 'band'. A tape by Vote Police was released in 1978/79 (around 10 copies). One copy was sent to Indutstrial Records and was included in a list of "tapes received" in Industrial News. No copies of the tape are known to exist. Sarah Pomeroy was briefly a member of Storm Bugs and plays guitar on this track (via a VCS3) the synths and loops etc, are by Sanderson. The track is a mix/version of the Storm Bugs track 'Objective' which was later to feature on A Safe Substitute (1981), re-issued in 2011 on vinyl by Harbinger. Vivienne DeVoy is a Sanderson pseudonym.

Orchestral Interlude

A short tape loop made by Sanderson & Jackman

Mountain Stream

A short tape loop made by Sanderson & Jackman

Sea of Wires: 2 Teas & A Funny Hat

This track is called 'Endless Rainy Day', from the cassette Individually Screened (1981). The track was re-issued as part of The Sea Of Wires / Chris Jones (12) _- Recordings 1980-82 (2014) on Vinly on Demand.

 

Side 2

David Jackman

Jackman went on to release much highly regraded material as Organum. This track is called 'Untitled' and ia different mix was to appear on the Cherry Red compilation LP Perspectives And Distortion (1981).

Scratch Dub: Beach Surgeons, John Cage, Scratch Orchestra with rhythm & loops by David Jackman, Philip Sanderson and Storm Bugs

A VCS3 percussive sequence by Sanderson, on top of which was mixed snatches: of Cage (unknown piece), Scratch Orchestra (previously unreleased) and a vocal by Graham Massey, taken from the same Beach Surgeons tape as the previous track.

Lemon Kittens: Danielle Dax, Karl Blake

The track is untitled and was not otherwise issued.

Storm Bugs: Philip Sanderson, Sarah Pomeroy, Steve Ball

The track is called 'Thin Line Flash of Traffic' and is spoken and played by Sanderson, subsequently re-issued on the Storm Bugs LP Up The Middle Down The Sides (2005) on Fusetron.

David Jackman

The track is called 'Pulses', not otherwise released.

Cultural Amnesia Dub: G. Greenway, B. Norland

Notes: the track is a looped/tape delay re-working by Sanderson of an original Cultural Amnesia number called 'Cyberforms', which appears on Video Rideo (1981). The band refer to this version as 'Cyberforms Dub'.

Garden Dwarves Dub

Garden Dwarves were a creation of Leif Thuresson who also appears on the compliation Standard Response (1979).

 

Storm Bugs - Slice of Live

Intro/Portapak/Pity the Small/Dull Sound of Breath/Window Shopping

The first 15 minutes of the Storm Bugs performance recorded live at Limehouse Town Hall on Saturday 7th July 2012.

 

Philip Sanderson/Steven Ball: loops, samples, electronics, vocals

 

Credits:

Format: Digital/Bandcamp

Release Date: 2013

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: none

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball

 

Philip Sanderson - Reprint

Track Listing:

Bright waves

Reprint 1

Nein Nein Nein

Reprint 2

Under Press of Sail

 

All tracks by Philip Sanderson, except 'Nein NeinNein' by Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball. 'Bright Waves' by Philip Sanderson & Nancy Slessinger.

 

Credits

Format: CD, 500 copies

Release Date: 2003

Label: Anomalous

Catalogue Number: NOM 23

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson

 

Notes:

Re-issue of the 1980 cassette originally credited to Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey.

Reviews:

From: the Wire Magazine by Jim Haynes:

"...what may have been consigned to the dustbin of 1980's cassette culture turns out to be a marvellous find, as good as any of the recently recovered cassettes of recordings of Cabaret Voltaire or Throbbing Gristle."

 

From: WFMU a review by Program Director Brian Turner:

"Reprint was originally a cassette under Claire & Susan's moniker, and regardless of what name is on it today it stands as a great marker on the home-brewed experimental/electronic timeline. Glad to see Anomalous brought this back to the surface."

 

Storm Bugs - A Safe Substitute

Side 1

Mesh of Wire

Objective

Car Situations

 

Side 2

Hodge

Solely From

Blackheath Episode

 

Credits:

Format: Cassette, 80 copies

Release Date: 1980

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: TCH110

Sleeve Design: Steven Ball. Photocopy onto red card. The image on the cover is from the Storm Bugs Super 8 film Table Matters

 

Notes

Re-issued on red vinyl in 2011 by Harbinger records. Side 1 of the tape is a long collaged piece, mixed by Philip Sanderson in one take with several Revox reel to reel and VCS3's running simultaneously and much on the fly remixing, filtering and application of treatments. Side 2 features three VCS3 sequencer tracks by Sanderson. The following notes were added to the 2011 LP re-issue.

 

Side One

 

Mesh of Wire

2:00

Philip Sanderson: Vocals, tape delay, VCS3

The tape delay system employed two Revox tape recorders placed about 4 feet apart. The first machine recorded the signal onto the tape, which then stretched across the room to a second playbackmachine. By routing the signal back tothe first machine a long delay or feedback loop was set up. The lyrics describe a lysergic-fuelled evening in suburbia.

 

Objective

4:15

Sarah Pomeroy: Guitar/VCS3

Philip Sanderson: VCS3, tape loops, tape delay

Objective features a slow VCS3 sequence overlaid with ring modulated vocal loops (extolling the merits of good quality beans) and a warped woodwind and brass duet. The woodwind part was found on an old tape in the studio cupboard whilst the second part was created by feeding a guitar played by Sarah Pomeroy into an EMS pitch to voltage converter and using the signal to control the sine wave on theVCS3.

Car Situations

7:05

Steven Ball: Vocals, percussion, ring modulator

 

PS: VCS3, tape loops, tape delay

Sanderson and Ball had recorded a track called 'Car Situations' in Sanderson's Paddington flat. The vocal part was fed through the VCS3 ring modulator and combined with a sequencer pattern. The pace of the rhythm is upset by a low frequencyoscillator, which causes the pitch to drop at unexpected moments. As the track progresses percussion sections from the 'Nein Nein Nein' recording are gradually mixed in until they obliterate everything else.

Mesh of Wire (reprise)

3:24

Philip Sanderson: VCS3, vocals, tape delay

 

 

Side Two

Hodge

6:41

Philip Sanderson: VCS3, short wave radio

Hodge features a short wave jamming signal which was being broadcast from somewhere behind the Iron Curtain to block Radio Free Europe transmissions.The radio sound was fed through the VCS3 with the low frequency oscillator chopping the signal up into chunks.

Solely From

6:38

Philip Sanderson:VCS3, sequencer

A straightforward contest between the sequencer and one VCS3 using all three oscillators and pushing the spring reverb into distortion.

Blackheath Episode

4:47

Philip Sanderson: VCS3, sequencer

The last track used all three of the studio's EMS synthesizers. The Synthi A is driven by the sequencer to provide the main rhythm track whilst the other two VCS3s play the background drones.

 

Rewind

Various - Snatch Paste

Side A

1. David Jackman - Blues

2. Storm Bugs - Dull Sound of Breath Inside a Tin

3. Mannequin Moves - The Girls You Left Behind

4. Philip Sanderson - Under Press of Sail

5. Tony Clough - Untitled

Side B

1. The N4s - N4

2. Alien Brains - Song

3. Karl's Empty Body - 1464

4. Oroir - Call

5. Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey - Diamonds & Ashes

Credits:

Format: LP, 500 numbered copies

Release Date: 2006

Label: Vinyl on Demand

Catalogue Number: VOD32

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson

LP compiled and mastered by Philip Sanderson

Notes:

The LP sleeve is in matt reverse card but there also exists 5 copies (hand numbered) with a glossy cover instead of matt. 

A4, A5, B1, B3 origianlly released on Snatch 1.

A3 origianlly released on Snatch 2.

A1, B2, B4 origianlly released on Snatch 3.

A2, origianlly released on the Storm Bugs Gift cassette.

A5, previously unreleased.

Reviews:

From: the Sound Projector 16th Issue by Ed Pinsent

We've been hearing a fair bit from Storm Bugs over the years, so here's this welcome and timely survey of Philip Sanderson's Snatch Tapes imprint that operated in the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He issued three compilation tapes (called Snatch 1-3), and some of the best contributions tothat series are now reissued here on vinyl via a selection made by Sanderson and representing the years 1979-1981.

 

Outside of David Jackman (who opens the comp with an exceptionally strong piece) and Sanderson's projects, all the names here are new to me. The thing that struck me was how unique and distinctive everything sounds here, yet all recognisably part of a very English cassette band scene that seems totally bound to that time and that place. I don't just mean the home-made feel, the use of primitive drum machines and basic synth programming, but the overall polite, cold and strained feelings that seem to emanate from almost all of this music. Every cut is slow and sad, melancholic with a bleached beauty. I'm already starting to get nostalgic for the harsh winter of 1981.

 

Three of the ten cuts are devoted to Sanderson-related projects Storm Bugs, the Claire Thomas and Susan Vezey hoax, and a solo recording. All are excellent in ways that we have already remarked on in previous issues, with the unreleased version of 'Diamond and Ashes' being particularly stunning (true to its title, it has a crystalline beauty). And Storm Bugs' 'Dull Sound of Breath Inside a Tin' exhibits some spectacular inventions in terms of the arrangement of its simple elements, as though the creators were pushing blocks of noise around like playing cards. Jackman's 'Blues' from 1980, heard here in a two-track tape version, is a rugged experiment of cymbals and tape loops generating an embryonic form of the heavy droning that he would later mastermind as Organum.

 

That's pretty much it as far as 'experimental' goes on this LP, however. The remaining cuts are equally attractive, and they are in the main examples of very good UK post-punk bleakness, expressed as instrumental or song; plenty of alienation, mystery and edginess, but nothing radically innovative in the arrangements or playing, which remain grounded in rock music. I think this is true of the tracks by The N4s and Karl's Empty Body, much as I love their wayward gnarly-rock capabilities. Mannequin Moves do a great song 'The Girls You Left Behind', wherein feelings of love have never seemed so futile; their use of cold synth and plodding drum machine is inspired. Orior manages a similar chill on the instrumental 'Call', but it's an oddly pointless exercise. Only Alien Brains, with his 'Song', returns us to slightly more dangerous turf; in just two minutes, he effortlessly combines raw electronics with radio samples to create a real sense of paranoia. The riots in Brixton and Toxteth have left a ghostly but discernible imprint on this track.

 

A perfect 'autumnal' listen for UK music fans, although I am certain this quality music is being lapped up with relish by the fans who subscribe to label owner Frank Maier's aesthetic and enjoy music of this vintage. The rush to explore this cassette era is somehow symbolised by the cryptic cover, but the disembodied hands so eagerly reaching for the tape box appear to be made of wax, or dummy's hands. It's slightly disconcerting.

 

Needless to say, this will appeal to fans of the modern field of limited cd-r label free noise ambient sound makers, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, PseudoArcana, Digitalis, if you've been loving all that stuff, this will absolutely hit the spot.

Rewind

 

 

Storm Bugs - Lets Go Outside and Get it Over

 

Track listing:

1. Eat Good Beans

2. Hodge

3. Dull Sound of Breath

4. He Rose Up Again 

5. And She Blew

6. Slip Slap

7. Car Situations

8. Aboulia

9. Window Shopping 

10. A Safe Substitute

Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 9 by Philip Sanderson, tracks 3, 6, 7,10 by Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball

 

Credits:

Format:CD, 500 copies

Release Date: 2001

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: TCH 213

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball

 

Notes:

A CD compilation of the Bugs finer moments digitally remastered from the original Snatch Tapes cassette and vinyl releases. CD now sold out.

 

Reviews:

From: the Sound Projector, 9th Issue by Ed Pinsent

"Storm Bugs ingeniously exploited the distorted vibrations they could tweak out of domestic hi-fi gear. With such primitive resources it's clear that there was some sharp creative judgement going on, because none of these ten tracks ever sound like two teenage herberts mucking around with biscuit tins and their Dad's stereogram. There are superficial echoes of This Heat and early Cabaret Voltaire but the skilfully layered textures of wireless interference, manipulated voices and faltering rhythmic clumps do justify the claim to a unique Storm Bugs sound. The track Window Shopping sucks you backwards through a time tunnel into the dawning Thatcher era, its clattering voices crowds of consumerist drones bustle through Oxford Street in the 1980 Christmas rush."

 

From: Gullboy

"Storm Bugs are an anomaly. How could such sounds, radically challenging the accepted texture of electronic music, have been recorded over 20 years ago? And how come nobody has ever heard of them? The tracks on Let's Go Outside and Get It Over... exhibit Storm Bugs' spacious, reverberating grittiness. Howled vocals shift from front to background in the midst of industrial pounding percussion loops, urgent echoing monotones and an array of tinny sound effects. The quiet moments on these songs are underlayed by disturbing mechanical creeks and muted primal thuds that evoke the cynical futurism of Fritz Lang or George Orwell. As complex and foreign as much of these recordings sound, the hand-made, DIY ethic of the group's production is distinctly present.".

 

From: Other Music

"I first became aware of the Storm Bugs due to their inclusion on the recent (and wonderfully dodgy) I Hate The Pop Group compilation... ...they were spiritual forefathers to Oval and today's Clicks & Cuts generation... ...I thrive on this kind of stuff and this is like uncovering a lost NWW album; my only complaint would be that these guys probably have enough material to fill five CDs.

 

Philip Sanderson - Hollow Gravity

Side A

Introduction

Prefabrication

Chance Operation

Tooting Broadway

The Secret Of The Fountain

Low Flying Branches

Bodysnatcher

 

Side B

Mr. Electrico's Revenge

Crystal Set

Pickle Pin

Hard Shoulder

Spaghetti Tension

 

Credits:

Format: Vinyl LP, 100 copies

Release Date: 2012

Label: Puer Garvy

Catalogue Number: PG002

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson

 

Notes:

Limited to 100 numbered copiesd each with laser etched labels and silk screened sleeves. All tracks by Philip Sanderson.

 

Review:

From: the Wire magazine, September 2012 by Edwin Pouncey

Philip Sanderson, electronic musician, installation artist, co-founder of Storm Bugs and founder of underground British tape label Snatch Tapes, returns with Hollow Gravity, a beautiful slab of vinyl with laser etched labels that flicker gently on the turntable as the disc rotates and the sounds pulse. This latest solo release from Sanderson follows 2005's album Seal Pool Sounds, a melancholic portrait of zoos that was also spiced with a mischievous erratic humour.

 

Hollow Gravity is sombre but still playful, as Sanderson bolts together an imaginary science fiction soundtrack with his collection of analogue synthesizers, delay pedals and any other electronic junk that comes to hand from the pile. The results are zany and mysterious, occasionally flecked with a hint of menace, a sense of danger, a boiling vat of electronic music that occasionally sounds like the work of a mad scientist.

 

From: Aural Innovations blog by Jerry Kranitz

 

Puer Gravy is the vinyl only label run by Eric and Matt of Vas Deferens Organization and Philip Sanderson's Hollow Gravity is the label's second release. Let's start with some historical notes…

 

Philip Sanderson was in the thick of the UK post-punk DIY homemade music/cassette culture scene that enjoyed a brief period of visibility (if not significant sales) in the late 70s and earliest of 80s, with regular coverage of hometaper releases in the nationally distributed New Musical Express and Sounds, airplay by John Peel, and even some distribution through Rough Trade. It was a heady period when people believed that DIY releases could actually break the stranglehold of, or at least subvert to some extent, the major record companies.

 

From 1978-81 Sanderson's Snatch Tapes label released compilations, the first recordings of David Jackman (Organum), and tapes by the Storm Bugs, Sanderson's recording project with Steven Ball, which encompassed noise, soundscapes, cut-ups and collage, songs… all manner of sonic exploration. In fact, Sanderson had a leg up on most of his peers, explaining in a Sound Projector interview (issue #16, 2007-08) how he had access to the electronic music studio at Goldsmiths, University of London, the result being that Storm Bugs releases often consisted of both bedroom studio recordings and those done in the electronic music studio at Goldsmiths. In the same interview Sanderson also describes how during this brief window of time he could take Snatch Tapes releases to the Rough Trade warehouse and they would buy copies without even listening to them, and had a Snatch Tapes display in the Rough Trade shop, all pretty remarkable when you stop and think about it.

 

I could go on as hometaper/cassette culture history is a fascination of mine but I felt a little Sanderson background was important. So… on to the new Philip Sanderson LP, his first album of new material since 2005_s Seal Pool Sounds CD. Hollow Gravity consists of 12 tracks and Sanderson employs an arsenal of gear, including Korg Montron, Yamaha CS-15, Circuit bent Casio PT-280, Long and Short Wave Radio, Guitar, Evans EchoPet EP-100m WBL 4014, NDA Plug-ins, Soundforum Synth, SoundEdit 16, and Sound Studio 3.

 

The album includes an intriguing variety of electronic, spaced out, and creatively tape manipulated concoctions. Among the highlights is Prefabrication, on which Sanderson lays down a strange electro guitar-ish/percussive pattern that reminded me of a track from Goblin's Suspiria soundtrack, and indeed the music has an intense sci-fi/horror flick vibe, and even develops an oddball rhythmic groove. The titles on the back of the LP include little descriptive blurbs, and Chance Operation is described as “For circuit bent piano and cut-up Cage”, featuring a sparse piano melody, eerie soundscapes, narrative voice samples, and other effects. Cut-ups… Chance Operation indeed.

 

Among the more whimsical fun-with-tape tracks is the jazz band tape manipulation of Tooting Broadway, mixing wild sounds and voice samples from some old advertising or educational recording on The Secret Of The Fountain, the captivating combination of angelic ambient waves and bleepy blurpy electronics on Low Flying Branches, the fun strange spaced out bouncy electro melody of Crystal Set, and the Residents Goosebumps toy instrument style of Pickle Pin.

 

We've also got some really cool and off-the-beaten-path space excursions. Bodysnatcher is like early Tangerine Dream remixed to inject a melodramatic orchestral edge. Described as “A ballad for J.G. Ballard”, Hard Shoulder consists of spaced out soundscapes that starts off with a claustrophobic feel, but slowly adds layers until I felt like the sole passenger on a space station. And Spaghetti Tension has similarly spaced out soundscapes, but with more sound experimentation plus a strange and hypnotic sense of melody.

 

In summary, Hollow Gravity serves up a creative and often fun blend of electronics and sounds, all cleverly tape manipulated to create music covering of range of spaced out and experimental realms. Note that the LP has been released in an edition of only 100 copies and is pressed on 180-gram laser etched vinyl (which vinyl junkies will dig for sure).

Various - I Hate the Pop Group

Side A

A1 Prats - Prats 2 

A2 The Janet And The Johns - Let Bygones Be Bygones 

A3 Brent Wilcox - 8 Parts Leisure 

A4 Noh Mercy - Caucasian Guilt 

A5 Storm Bugs - Cash Wash / Eat Good Bean 

A6 The Door And The Window - I Hate Sound 

A7 AK Process - Post Town

  

Side B

B1 Men/Eject -Draw 

B2 Sellouts - Ballad Off The Fuck Off Records 

B3 Danny And The Dressmakers -Truth About Unemployment 

B4 E.g Oblique Graph - Black Cloth Behind De Gaulle's Wax Head 

B5 File Under Pop -Heathrow 

B6 Band T Plus Instruments - Words 

B7 Orchid Spangiafora -Trapped Heir Suite Part One 

B8 Doof (2) - (Treat Me Like) The Man I Am / Brighton Pt One

 

Credits:

Format: LP, 300 copies

Release Date: 2000

Label: Vertical Slum Records

Catalogue Number: R-44

Sleeve Design: Unknown

 

Notes:

Bootleg compilation of UK & US DIY singles from the 70s and early 80s