New Shop at Fourth Dimension & Other Stuff

The Shop at my Fourth Dimension website is being expanded on almost daily, if interested. Besides finding several releases from the label itself you will also find those that are still available from Lumberton Trading Company and various others by artists operating in approximately the same sphere(s), affiliates and friends. Over the next few weeks, I hope the Shop will have more titles but, meantime, the first lucky few customers who use this Shop will receive a CD of my choice from one of my labels. Do please visit:

www.fourth-dimension.net

Otherwise, a new Lumberton Trading Company website is also on the way and will likewise have a new Shop facility there soon. Although it is still being worked on and won't be finished for another few weeks, please check in on:

www.lumberton-trading.com

At both websites, you will find news of imminent new releases by Tabata and Steven Severin, but other titles are also presently being discussed, including the long mooted limited edition version of the Faust 'Live in Krakow' 2LP, which may well now also be co-released with Dirter Promotions. Please visit the websites for more information during the next few weeks, anyway.

Onto other matters, you may or may not be aware of the fact I've been helping with Rafal Kochan's Encyclopaedia of Industrial Music book, at the proofreading stage. Although two or three volumes have so far appeared in Polish, the first one in English, collecting entries 'A' to 'C', is now out in a limited edition and arrives heartily recommended to not only fans of industrial music but those who enjoy its own crossing over with, or having arrived from, different areas of music and culture. Or, indeed, those whose interest in underground music may touch on all of this. Well-researched and put together, the book is a both a testament to Rafal's own hard work during the past few years and a triumph for the genre. If interested in getting this, please contact me for the ordering information.

What else? Theme are slowly hammering away at the next album, plus will play live later this year, whilst Splintered's long mooted resurgence of activity may at least soon manifest via one or two other ideas presently being discussed. More news on both groups, however, can be found on the relevant pages at MySpace. Look for SplinteredUK or ThemeUKPoland if interested.

Am still adding material to the Adverse Effect blog as and when I can, too. This can be found on the FD website. One day, perhaps I'll return to a properly published version again as well. It's certainly an idea I keep entertaining. Just unfortunate that the bank balance is never in a good enough condition to greet such ideas warmly...

Also still beavering away at a book dedicated to post-punk music, but due its reliance on contributions from others is taking even longer to roll into shape than first anticipated. But I'll get there. In the end.

Beyond all of this, enjoying the fact the snow has finally disappeared here in Krakow and that my mountains of music, films and books appear to be as endless as ever. Life could be worse.

New Blog Post at Adverse Effect

New post at: http://www.fourth-dimension.net/index.php/ae-blog

More, otherwise, here in due course.

Unimaginatively Titled Brief Update

Thankfully, this year seems to be picking up slightly for me. Which is just as well, really, as if things were to continue akin to the last one, I have no idea where I'd be during the next few. Destitute and laying in a gutter face-down, no less, and certainly no looking up at even imaginary stars. Well, perhaps I am being slightly dramatic here, but...

To begin with, the new Fourth Dimension website is ready: www.fourth-dimension.net This now houses my Adverse Effect blog, includes all back catalogue information, plus a Shop section (presently unfinished) dedicated to those releases that are still available and a number of other titles from labels and artists treading similar ground (whatever that may be). News of the next release, by Japan's Mitsuru Tabata, can also be found there. Entitled Mankind Spree, this CD album should be ready to go into production this month and pre-order details will be announced soon.

With the FD website now almost back on track, it's simply a matter of now getting a new Lumberton Trading Company one going. Of which, the Steven Severin SleeperCell CDEP for LTCo will likewise go into production this month and details will be announced shortly (both via the new website and the LTCo profile at MySpace: www.myspace.com/lumbertontradingcompany). Other releases planned for LTCo include an album by Blue Rats. This features one of the late Jhonn Balance's last ever vocal performances and Sion Orgon, amongst others.

Theme, my group, have been confirmed to appear at this year's Industrial Festival in Wroclaw, at the beginning of November, by the way. Not entirely sure who else will play there yet, but Whitehouse are confirmed. We have also recorded about half the next album. New songs can be found on the Theme profile at MySpace, if interested; www.myspace.com/themeukpoland. Personally, I feel very proud of them and am pleased with where we are heading. Which is precisely how it should be.

Outside all of this, I'm still (slowly and haphazardly) pressing on with a book dedicated to post-punk music and another one concerning my Grim Humour magazines, plus have been involved (at the proofreading stage) with the English version of another written by a Polish friend, called The Encyclopaedia of Industrial Music. The first volume (A to C) is presently being printed at this very moment. If interested in purchasing it, please contact me for further details.

Otherwise, a recent thread about some of my activities has commenced here at a Polish website. If you can read Polish and are interested, please visit:

http://www.harshnoise.art.pl/viewtopic.p..hp?id=1555

I am also just about to be interviewed for a national Polish music magazine, M/I, too. Looking forward to that, even though, conversely, I've never really been one for talking about everything I do too much.

Hopefully, more news soon.

Steps Forward

Thankfully, this year seems to be picking up slightly for me. Which is just as well, really, as if things were to continue akin to the last one, I have no idea where I'd be during the next few. Destitute and laying in a gutter face-down, no less, and certainly no looking up at even imaginary stars...

To begin with, the new Fourth Dimension website is ready: www.fourth-dimension.net This now houses my Adverse Effect blog, includes all back catalogue information, plus a Shop section (presently unfinished) dedicated to those releases that are still available and a number of other titles from labels and artists treading similar ground (whatever that may be). News of the next release, by Japan's Mitsuru Tabata, can also be found there. Entitled 'Mankind Spree', this CD album should be ready to go into production this month and pre-order details will be announced soon.

With the FD website now almost back on track, it's simply a matter of now getting a new Lumberton Trading Company one going. Of which, the Steven Severin 'SleeperCell' CDEP for LTCo will likewise go into production this month and details will be announced soon (both via the new website and the LTCo profile here at MySpace). Other releases planned for LTCo include an album by Blue Rats. This features one of the late Jhonn Balance's last ever vocal performances and Sion Orgon, amongst others.

Theme, my group, have been confirmed to appear at this year's Industrial Festival in Wroclaw, at the beginning of November, by the way. Not entirely sure who else will play there yet, but Whitehouse are confirmed. We have also recorded about half the next album. New songs can be found on the MySpace profile, if interested. Personally, I feel very proud of them and am pleased with where we are heading. Which is precisely how it should be.

Outside all of this, I'm still pressing on with a book dedicated to post-punk music and another one concerning my Grim Humour magazines, plus have been involved (at the proofreading stage) with the English version of another written by a Polish friend, called The Encyclopaedia of Industrial Music. The first volume (A to C) is presently being printed now. If interested in purchasing it, please contact me for further details.

Otherwise, a recent thread about some of my activities has commenced here at a Polish website. If you can read Polish and are interested, please visit:

http://www.harshnoise.art.pl/viewtopic.p..hp?id=1555

I am also just about to be interviewed for a national Polish music magazine, Mi, too. Looking forward to that, even though, conversely, I've never really been one for talking about everything I do too much.

Thanks for reading.

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.