New Releases January 2014
[BAR001] Baraclough – Esta Sideways Etc
I was known as the “weird guy from Ireland” to the Baracloughians for a while. Especially when I told them that one of the reasons I had decided to visit the UK at that time was to see them play live at their album launch. Flash-forward a while and we discussed them putting out a record on Bored Bear.
When I heard the record the first time, I told everyone in the house not to disturb me for 45 minutes. And what a perfect 45 minutes. Dale’s unique vocals lilt in and out of certain tracks, his phrasing as precise as a finely-tuned guitar, adding layers to the already intricately composed music therein. Electronics swirl and pulse throughout the record with field recordings occasionally peeking through, sometimes with humour, sometimes sounding more sinister. A Baraclough record, to me, is always instantly recognisable for not only its musical meldings and occasional cut-up poetry but for the senses and images it evokes; London, being in one’s 20’s and pissed off, fucked off, done with it, of Industry, of a world outside ours, of a continuation and expansion of the work started with innovators like Coil (who if Geoff and Jhonn were alive would, I feel, be the boys’ biggest fans).
The depth of composition and harmony between the three band members is apparent all over this record, for example in longest track Lichfield to Tamworth where multiple layers of processed electronics are collated in something terribly evocative and powerful. This is not your grandmother’s electronic 101 drone record. Another example is apparent in 55 A Deflection, whose pounding synth lines perfectly complements the subtle waves of electronics and the concréte phrases. Also, a test of songwriting ability is to write a track, or an interlude, that comes in at well under a minute but that doesn’t feel like a throwaway tune and the three short tracks on the album all feel well-rounded and in their own right.
Perfectly sequenced, each track is killer and a standout in its own right and I’m going to stop this review now because I could write another 10,000 words about this album. This is the record that has always been behind at the back of my mind, more than all the others, even my own, that went You haven’t released this yet. Get to it. And it’s finally, after many, many delays here.
And since they submitted the record to me, the BCGH boys have been largely focusing on their solo work with Dale Cornish creating quite a splash on labels like The Tapeworm and Entr’acte and Eddie Nuttall contuining and expanding upon the drone elements found in BCGH with his Aqua Dentata project. So although I hope otherwise, this may be, for now at least, the last Baraclough record. But as Dale said to me recently, it is “fit, even in apparent death!”
Cdr, 45 copies. €4 + postage
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[ASP101] – W>A>S>P>S – Accelerone Curves
Head honcho at KIKS/GFR that’s been putting out something quality tapes and records lately, Benjamin Hallet’s W>A>S>P>S is a relatively new HNW that put out its first release in 2012.
Two short tracks, clocking in at just under 20 minutes, is all Benjamin needs on this release. Opener Curves has very distorted dynamic bass wall shuddering and jerking its way through the track, like the wall itself is being shook. A circular looping motion of distortion, repetition and tone. Closer Tracking is tonally at the other end of the spectrum; high, treble-based frequencies cut and glitch in and out like glass being cut far away in a tunnel. Two clear and concise walls to be commended.
3″cdr, 12 copies. €2.50 plus postage
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[VOM001] Vomir – Winter
Fuck the cold. Fuck your cold snap. Fuck this dead season. Winter. Winter will burn your skin off. I’ve heard a lot of Vomir but never anything as fiery or corruscating. Fucking essential.
Cdr, 15 copies. Pro-printed sleeves. €4.50 plus postage
First in a series of four (Yes, it is that obvious)
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Postage for one, two or three records is €3.50.
Postage for the 3″ on its own is €2.
Order/contact/email: anotherthreewordbandname [at] gmail [dot] com
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Next:
[SIC001] Slavoj Seasick – Slowly filling up Rancière’s ass (cdr, 20 copies)
[ION001] Inanition – Torschlusspanik (cdr, 12 copies)
[NON001] Anonymous – Gaines’s Mill (cdr, 12 copies)
[STL001] Nightmare Castle – Potential Psycho (cdr, 12 copies)
[PAN001] Panic – The Ring (cdr, 12 copies)
[GRY001] Grey Smoke – Cold Waters / Withering Life (cdr, 12 copies)
Bored Bear Recordings 