Almost New Beginnings

Another fairly quiet spell here during the past month or two, really, but this (as usual) is partly due to there permanently being things afoot. To begin with, a new Fourth Dimension Records website is beginning to roll into shape, and this itself includes Adverse Effect's blog (thus replacing the AE profile at blogger.com, which is linked to from my page here) and, indeed, all the previous posts otherwise found on the former one. Some new reviews have just been posted there of releases by Paul Baran, Blind Cave Salamander, Chapelle Nitrique, Cindytalk, Piotr Kurek, Remora, Steven Severin, Sum Of R and others. If interested, please visit: http://www.fourth-dimension.net/index.php/ae-blog and, of course, take note of the new FD website address, too. The FD website is still being developed, but should have a fully functioning Shop facility soon enough. Meanwhile, news can at least be found of currently available releases and the forthcoming new album from Japan's highly talented Tabata Mitsuru...

Also, since last writing here, my own group Theme have likewise been working towards the fourth album, which should be ready later this year and will most likely appear vinyl-only on Stuart Carter's own Betaphonic label. Four, although unfinished, new songs can be found on our MySpace page for now, anyway: 'Dream Your Dreams', 'Turn to Light', 'Hope On These Words' and 'No Face To Speak Of'. Please visit www.myspace.com/themeukpoland if interested. What with our Valentine (Lost) Forever CD album released by Israel's HCB Recordings in September 2009, I strongly feel Theme are beginning to reach the corner we've long anticipated turning. I feel especially proud of three of these new songs (despite their presently incomplete state).

Outside all of this, Lumberton Trading Company will commence activities again soon, too. The website itself is shortly due to undergo some long, long overdue surgery (which will see the Shop finally working) and, indeed, a Steven Severin CDEP, Sleepercell, will help get the release schedule back on track. It's hoped that developments on this front will commence before the end of the month.

Not much else to report right now, though. Other endeavours are, naturally, being continually worked on, but I'll save any reporting on them until there's actually something worth doing so.

Whatever, I hope you'll keep checking here from time to time to see what, if anything, is happening. And, of course, all the best to everybody for 2010. Let's hope it's better than the last twelve months...

Curtains

Been rather quiet here lately, due to all kinds of outside factors. Mostly, however, I am extremely busy with getting a new Fourth Dimension/Adverse Effect website ready to launch in the New Year, plus the Lumberton Trading Company one is also about to be given a complete, and long overdue, overhaul as well. Both labels have been commanding such attention for a long, long time now, and both will finally have fully functioning Shop facilities and shall be maintained on a regular basis. To state the situation regarding these websites has been embarrassing this year would be an understatement...

Otherwise, as the year draws to its inevitable close, I should also make use of this opportunity to point out what else is happening. Firstly, more Theme recordings are on the cards for the very end of this month (hopefully amounting to the first towards a double-album set) and, secondly, Splintered will finally break away from their hiatus to set about some new recordings, too. At this stage, it's difficult to say exactly how these latter recordings will take shape, but I personally anticipate our taking ideas from the last collaborative album with RLW somewhere further, possibly with the aid of several guests.

Beyond this, plans for next year include releasing a CDEP by Steven Severin, on LTCo, and a new album by Tabata on FD. There are, of course, other things afoot, but it's probably best I don't jump the gun just yet.

Just keep watching this space for further news.

Thanks.

Exit Wounds

Around 18 months ago, I began sketching ideas for a book devoted to Punk's transition into post-punk; an area itself extremely wide given its dovetailing with industrial music, art-rock, synth-pop and so on during the early '80s. However, since then the idea's simply been smouldering away at a standstill due to my not knowing exactly which direction to push it in after my own account/introduction. The only thing I was clear about was not dwelling on its becoming increasingly sanitised pop music (think: New Romantics) and, instead, focusing rather more on its sprawling into the '80s underground (exceptions aside, no less)...

Whatever, mulling over this during more recent weeks has led me to return to the premise of interviewing a large and diverse number of people who were either involved (whether musicians, writers or label owners, etc.) or simply were old enough to both experience it and be inspired by it (akin to myself). Although it will be mostly based on what was happening in the UK, I hope to also include some impressions by others from elsewhere.

I am in the throes of arranging interviews at the moment, but I'd also welcome, at this stage, anybody simply contacting me with accounts of their own experiences surrounding Punk becoming, I feel, far more progressive around the same time people such as Rotten and Devoto left their first groups.

If you feel that you have something to share, please contact me. Thanks.

First Impressions

Never fails to be busy around here, to be honest, but besides having just seen Circle's 2CD reissue of my Triumph release into production for Fourth Dimension, and still overseeing matters surrounding the Autumn Blood (Constructions) compilation CD release on Lumberton Trading Company last month, I have just begun a collaboration with a chap here in Poland, Rafal, who has dedicated a few years so far to putting together a book, The Encyclopaedia of Industrial Music. My role is simply to proofread the translated text (from Polish to English, no less), but I must confess that it's quite an undertaking. The book amounts to an 'A to Z'-type reference book, similar in style to The Crack in the Cosmic Egg one published by Ultima Thule several years ago that itself was devoted to 'krautrock'. My own interest in industrial music doesn't actually extend so far, though. I like several groups associated with it or who themselves were motivated by it but, beyond this, what generally passes for it or its cousins in 'noise' and 'power electronics' or so-called 'dark ambient' these days does extremely little for me. All the same, because of my deep interest in music's corpulent underbelly, and the fact Rafal's research has delved deep into other realms related to the genre, I'm happy to be involved. No idea when it will be completed, unfortunately. I received the 'A' section two weeks ago (now proofread and returned to Rafal) and this alone was 40 pages on a regular Word document. If we're lucky, the book will be ready to publish late next year, but it's going to require a lot dedication to the work. Watch this space for developments, anyway.

Otherwise, Theme's Valentine (Lost) Forever CD is now out (on HCB Recordings) and has so far garnered two reviews. These can be found at:

www.crucialblastshop.net and www.vitalweekly.net (edition 697)

As noted on a blog not long ago posted on Theme's MySpace page: "The idea with Theme, as with Splintered beforehand, is to keep trying out different approaches and push ourselves as much as possible within our limitations. Some of these approaches may well be bound to those we've explored previously, but from a different angle, and some might spiral completely elsewhere. I have personally never considered Theme an 'industrial' group, either. Very little such music has motivated me, and even less so Stuart (who is mostly a post-Revolver Beatles/'60s psychedelic rock fan, believe it or not). Theme is simply a continuation of an interest in exploring sounds whilst simulaneously keeping things both personal and able to translate beyond. The idea of pushing Theme into more 'song'-based territory was touched upon on the first album and, of course, by Splintered. Within this framework, however, we set ourselves new challenges. We will never compromise this."

Whilst I can fully understand the rudimentary 'need' for crutches (reference points) in reviews, I
would still contend those responsible for writing them (myself included, given that I also do this on the Adverse Effect blogspot) should look beyond the surface and exercise a little research. It's very easily done with the help of the internet these days, so there's little reason not to.

Those Factors Behind

Something I got asked by a close friend a few nights ago was why I am doing everything that I do. Neeedless to say, it's a question I have addressed myself plenty of the times over the years too, but it's one that rarely comes from either anybody around me or from somebody who may actually give a fuck about my response. The stock answer to the latter, although partly cemented in truth, is that I do everything to ultimately please myself. And by this I don't simply mean that all the music I either put my name to or help to realise exists solely for the purpose of pleasing me. Without wishing to bore you with all of the details behind a release, I do honestly personally enjoy the whole process of seeing something through from beginning to end, and playing a creative part in it. When I released all these singles back in the '90s, for example, I truly felt like I was a real part of them through my physically assembling them to order. Not only did I print the covers and inserts myself but I'd also spend hours sweating it out putting everything together before attending to the orders and promos and suchlike. The satisfaction from this has never waned since, regardless of how inconvenient things may be when weighed next to all of those other huge demands life throws our way. Yes, spending time slaving over a few orders with old jiffy bags and parcel tape may not be 'fun', but I do derive a certain modicum of pleasure in getting these same said packages sent out to people who may well then, in turn, appreciate them. A simple pleasure, perhaps, but enhanced much further by my being active in the previous proceedings.

Returning to the original question, however, and answering it without the need for those crutches afforded by being physically involved, I'd say that I'm very much interested in relationships. With Theme, the group I'm presently involved in with Stuart Carter, this concern is draped in metaphor and allegory (at least for me, in my writing...Stuart may well derive something completely different from what we do). I'm interested in those bridges between the subjective and the objective, the 'artist' and the listener, the areas I'm exploring and their 'context' or 'meaning' and their perception, and so on. With my labels, I'm essentially interested in the same thing. Relationships, in this instance, between artists I feel are doing something interesting and people who may be interested in their work. Once more, there are a number of levels attached to this, though. And, of course, I'm pleasing myself along the way.

Next time somebody asks me why I am doing everything I do, whether music, releasing records or (occasionally) writing, I have a new stock answer. It all boils down to relationships. And I firmly believe this is what I have strived for since first publishing my Grim Humour fanzine in 1983. I don't care so much about noumena or phenomena. I am far more interested in those areas that join them...

Productive Pay-Offs

Out this week, finally, after months and months of varying hurdles and struggles, arrived both the LTCo compilation CD, Autumn Blood (Constructions), and the new Theme CD, Valentine (Lost) Forever, on Israel's HCB Recordings. Although this news in itself brings with it the reality of much work for me via packing orders and endless trips to and from a Post Office some 15 minutes walk away (I could get a bus, but I am neither lazy or afraid of getting the locals to wonder who the hell this flame-haired guy is with all these mysterious packages as he struts past, mind doubtlessly submerged in abstract nonsense), I'm still ultimately pleased that all this toil during the past year or so has come into fruition. Beyond this, I'm satisfied with both releases completely. And, if the response, so far, is anything to go by, I feel I'm beginning to turn a corner with my endeavours. Not that I've ever once been concerned with turning corners in the first place, but it's certainly a welcome, and wholly refreshing, addition to the proceedings.

If interested in either release, you should be able to find them easily enough by using the usual channels.

In My Blood

Some news...

The compilation CD on Lumberton Trading Company, Autumn Blood (Constructions), will be ready for production this week. It, like all compilations, has taken an eternity to assemble and even hit a few last minute hitches before now finally being ready for the manufacturer. As with practically everything else in the present climate, the music industry has been hit quite hard by the recession, resulting in it being more difficult to secure the kind of deals I've been luckily afforded during the past two or three years. Whatever, a jolt or a hurdle of some kind right now will be reduced to the semblance of an already faded blemish over time. Very rare that I've pulled out of any commitments to anything. I beg and borrow if necessary, and that's that. Anyway, the artists on the compilation are: Lawrence English, Peter Christopherson, Birds Build Nests Underground, Steven Severin, Volga, Theme, Andrew Liles, Zenial/Banabila, Formication, Sion Orgon, Human Greed (with LeeDVD) and Colin Potter. Most of the contributions are exclusive and, if I say so myself (and as somebody who doesn't actually like compilations much, generally, if I'm honest), add up to a rather nice whole that flows perfectly, with just enough contours and elements of surprise to keep it positively charged. As an insight to some of the worlds LTCo is personally concerned with, I'm extremely pleased. The CD should appear in about two or three weeks time anyway and, meanwhile, the website itself should be given a long overdue overhaul and feature more information about this.

Otherwise, the third Theme album, Valentine (Lost) Forever, is also going to appear around the same time. Next to the collaborative album between my old group, Splintered, and RLW, released back in 1996, I would contend this as being the one I've felt the happiest about too. Not to slight anything else I've been involved with either, as it's only too easy to pull apart one's own work with the benefit of hindsight, but V(L)F has taken a considerable amount of time to put together and much attention has been paid to the details and overall feel of the album. Following two Theme albums that have seen us exploring different ideas, collaborating with other people, etc., it would appear we've finally found our foothold. Despite presently feeling somewhat over-exposed to the material on the album (which leads to an overwhelming sense of jadedness virtually impossible to untangle oneself from, unfortunately), I feel incredibly proud and, indeed, comfortable with everything on V(L)F. And my collaborator, Stuart Carter, has especially dedicated a lot of effort and man hours to the cause.

Outside of releases, the LTCo website, as already noted, is due to be given an overhaul soon enough, plus the existing Adverse Effect website should shortly be replaced by one focussed on my Fourth Dimension label. A space there for AE matters will operate, and I may then pull down the present blog for this and move everything there. At present, I feel like I'm spread a little too thinly over the internet. Too many profiles, too many pages. Whilst that in itself may serve a purpose, I think objectives can get lost. One of the downsides to the current internet age is the dilution of information, although I still see more advantages than negative points...

Listening round here lately has amounted to dusting off Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Angels Of Light and Ralf Wehowsky albums mostly, but I've also been savouring Pauline Oliveros' The Wanderer, The Plastic Ono Band's first LP, some Tindersticks, a little Eric Cordier, SSAB, Can and an album by a rather sprightly and energetic band called 2L8, whose work makes me think of Radiohead's before they went into Warp Records territory. Am not averse to a little decent pop, if infused with some fucking intelligence.

More soon, I am sure...