No more front covers with the reviews. Let’s keep to the text. All reviews (so far) by Richard Johnson and Steve Pescott (SP). If you want Adverse Effect to review anything of yours please note we only accept physical formats sent to the address noted elsewhere. No time for unsolicited links and downloads, plus they get lost in the daily deluge of emails. Vinyl, CDs and cassettes at least get placed in the review stack and (eventually) get listened to. Tastes/interests are broad here as well.

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AFTERIMAGE Faces to Hide CD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2024)

Extensive enough collection of studio, demo and live recordings by a US post-punk group active from the start of the ‘80s until, I think, around ’87 or so, when it’d appear they went into a hiatus until another album appeared in 2001. Faces to Hide focuses, however, on the ‘80s material, which draws heavily from what was going on in the UK a few years before via groups such as Joy Division, Gang of Four or even, on one song, The Ruts (fine by me as I love The Ruts!), although a smidge of homegrown fare like Talking Heads or Wall of Voodoo can also be found in the proceedings. ‘The Long Walk’ even sounds like mid-’70s Iggy, so I believe it’s fair to surmise Afterimage very much seem like the product of all their influences yet, like so many such groups at the time, are elevated by a raw energy and obvious enthusiasm to at least try to go beyond the usual expectations. The use of keyboards and a saxophone lend a distinctive edge as well. What with the typically distinctive IPR screen-printed packaging, this is quite a treat for all of those still hunting for treasure in these golden years. (RJ)

AMIGO THE DEVIL Yours Until the War is Over CD (Liars Club Records, USA, 2024)

Third album by Texas singer-songwriter Danny Kiranos, a.k.a. Amigo the Devil, who here brings together another thirteen cuts of southern-gothic-flavoured tales of black-humoured woe. Fiery at times and at others more restrained yet still possessed of a tumbling, slightly rickety and raw nature, everything is sprinkled with enough grit to keep the arrangements interesting. At times, I’m reminded of earlier Nick Cave, Tom Waits or even Leonard Cohen, especially when it comes to Amigo’s wordplay and tight command of his often bleeding vocals, but that all points to something pretty damn exceptional to me. (RJ)

AMP Echoesfromtheholocene CD (Ampbase, 2023)

Amp appear to have gone full circle since they were founded by Richard Walker at the beginning of the 1990s. Following several years creating minor waves via labels such as Kranky and Darla, they are now back to self-releasing their music exactly as on their very first album and, indeed, not unlike countless others of a similar stature these days. It’s a testament to the truly independent, though. Firm proof that the very spirit which drove certain artists to start in the first place can still be found if one looks close enough. On Echoesfromtheholocene, however, the duo of Richard and vocalist Karine proffer nine cuts based on the notion of future visitors to our planet finding little but desolation and the merest remnant of mankind’s existence following the ecological disaster long portended by mainstream media. Through the use of electronic swirls, sci-fi rhythms, miasmic clouds of sulphuric psychedelia, distressed textures, fragmented melodies, dramatic undertow and despairing vocals, everything points to a time tragically lost and never to be seen again. It is a setting that at least produces interesting enough music, anyway. Nice hand-assembled sleeve including a piece of art, too. (RJ)

AND ALSO THE TREES Mother-of-Pearl Moon CD (AATT, 2024)

My introduction to this much overlooked group came via former bassist Steve Burrows sending me a copy of the debut 7”, ’Shantell’, to review in Grim Humour in 1983. Since then, I got to know them a little more and have kept up with most of their subsequent material, which has always worked best over the course of an album. Mother-of-Pearl Moon is the latest and brings together eleven songs bound to And Also The Trees’ own unique blend of poetry, drama and ravaged romanticism. Simon’s words, replete with references to meadows, the sea, dark skies and butchers’ knives, always seem like they could stand alone in an old and dusty leather-bound tome yet serve as the rich narrative accompaniment to arrangements that don’t sound like they belong to anybody else. Augmented by brother and co-founder Justin Jones’ distinctive mandolin-style guitar on many of the songs, there’s a taut rhythmic underpinning that pulls the songs through passages of stark beauty, a carefully dressed rawness and huge swells conjuring powerful waterfalls and a relentless swim against the current at its base. And Also The Trees’ music has always existed in its own space without any regard for trends or pressure to do anything beyond furrowing towards the group’s own artistic vision. It could be argued that the songs only deliver on what we’ve long loved about And Also The Trees, but it would be unfair given the sheer craft always in evidence. Every song, powerful and majestic regardless of how understated or brazen its temperament, sounds like the product of a lot of hard work where attention to all those components that make the group’s music so special is never allowed to wander. Comparing their music to anybody else is quite ridiculous because it so unique. They’ve come a long way since their roots as an arty post-punk group set apart by the very same rural imagery that still partly defines them. While I’ve always said that anybody who likes Tindersticks might find much to also savour in the work of And Also The Trees, the worlds both traverse only meet at those junctures where Scott Walker and cinematic soundtracks ebb and flow into the psyche. Mother-of-Pearl Moon, the group’s eighteenth album in little more 40 years, catches them at the height of their powers. Triumphs don’t come much richer and more evocative than this. (RJ)

A PRODUCE Land of a Thousand Trances 2CD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2023)

Reissue of A Produce’s third album, originally released in 1994 and then later reissued as a limited edition expanded CDr, which this particular version is based on. Over the course of the two discs, we are treated to a vast array of electronic driftworks by late Californian composer Barry Craig, an artist previously unfamiliar to me yet traversing similar realms to Pete Namlook or perhaps, from more recent times, Rod Modell. While many of the tracks unite flotation tank textures with subtle melodies, slow motion pulses and gentle string arrangements created by guitar or sitar, a number also deploy the kinda rhythms Rapoon often toy with to considerable effect. Shakers, bells, tablas, African mallets and so on often enter the fray to lend a more hypnotic angle to what’s otherwise largely a collection of pieces rather more panoramic in nature than overly moody or dramatic. I have no idea how this album compares to the other seven albums Craig produced before his untimely death at the age of 59, but if you enjoy the breezier end of ambient music then you’ll find much to savour here. (RJ)

BRUME La Violence Du Néant CD (EE Tapes, Belgium, 2023) 

Christian Renou’s Brume project has been operating since the mid-1980s. Despite a break for around 8 years beginning in 2000 it is another one of those endeavours that is prolific and has a significant amount of cassette and CDr releases behind it as well as several albums on CD and vinyl. Over the course of all this output, Christian has explored abstract music, electroacoustic works, compositions sculpted from drones and tones, collaged sound, post-industrial weirdscapes and just about everything else which does not conform with most people’s idea of regular music. Itself also exploratory and somewhat restless, La Violence Du Néant furnishes the listener with a neat insight into the choppy waters Brume conjures its own sound art from. Using electronics, toys, wind instruments, guitar, metal percussion, voice and other sources as a springboard, the album presents a compellingly dynamic journey from more serene passages to those that are positively convoluted, grizzled and apparently wrenched from a place of utter torment. Given the fact a rather apt quote by Nazi propagandist-cum-charred corpse Joseph Goebbels can also be found inside the gatefold cover, I daresay there’s some political or social commentary embedded here, too, but unless it’s to be found directly in the French track titles I don’t have the time to translate I’d contend it is not immediately obvious in the actual music. (RJ)

BRUME A Treatise of Ethnography CD (Ferns Recordings, France, 2023)

Christian Renou’s Brume project came out of the post-industrial circuit of the ’80s and while still owing something to this background has come a long way since, hammering and honing musique concrete forms or non-forms into configurations swaying between grizzled ambient music to more rhythmic pieces that are never quite songs. Throughout the course of the 16 cuts here, we’re treated to all of this and more, with Renou having sourced everything from TV and radio to electronics, guitar, percussion, various toys, wind instruments and location recordings in order to weave a convoluted world where sounds pertaining to some lost kosmische classic collide with electroacoustic atmospherics, subdued noise and nightmarish clatter. I could have listened to another 30 minutes of ‘Gefahren Zone’ alone, though. A mighty piece up there with prime NWW or Faust. Worth getting this album for this alone. (RJ)

MISHA CHYLKOVA Dancing the Same Dance CD (Gare Du Nord, 2024)

Skirting that space between what can only be described as intelligent pop and experimental indie, there’s no denying that the debut album by this Czech singer is possessed of a mesmerising appeal that feels at once personal and universal. The songs draw from a late evening sensibility where dream-like atmospheres converge with loss, regret and a vague hope that things will be better the next day. At times, it feels like these songs have sucked on the same air that fostered the early post-punk landscape, but there’s something decidedly more contemporary sounding to their execution. However you look at it, Misha certainly has the right voice to carry everything, anyway. If you like hypnotic and slightly bruised tunes bordering on the melancholic, you might well want to dance the very same dance as everything offered on this album. (RJ)

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS Surge CD (Dirter Promotions, 2024)

With an overwhelming sense of dread and violence long having been part of its driving force, Philip Best’s Consumer Electronics once again delivers on this with Surge, the first album since 2019’s Airless Space (on the now defunct Harbinger Sound) and the first to see the project scaled back to a duo where longstanding collaborator Russell Haswell provides all the electronic accompaniment to Best’s vocals. Represented by seven mostly shortish pieces, the first good thing to leap out is that Best’s ex-wife Sarah Froeleh’s vocals are thankfully absent. I’ve said it before, but I could never stand her flayed harpie wail rendering otherwise generally strong music to a level hard to take seriously. The next thing to stand out is the stark minimalism of the work. This is nothing new for Consumer Electronics, of course, but almost all of the tracks make use of sinewy yet ravaged electronic lines resembling the sound of overloaded pylons buzzing with broken and frayed cables while either subdued tones ring in the background or a rhythm pulses to help provide shape or colour.          Beginning with a rasping looped electronic surge itself giving way to something more explosive at regular intervals on ‘Michael’, while Philip recounts preparations for the torture and murder in an execution style, the atmosphere of Surge is heavily set. Over the course of the next six tracks, two of which are meandering instrumentals, Philip’s mostly spoken vocals waver somewhere between creepy old man and a reading of a report in a detectives’ boardroom as more electronics crackle and spit like the burst innards of a plane’s still smoking fuselage. Portrayals of misery and suffering perfectly suit the atmosphere until sixth cut ‘Contaminant’ cranks a solid rhythm upfront and sees Philip foaming about who knows what as words like ‘virus’, ‘pathogens’ and ‘biological’ help justify the title as Russell does his utmost to recall the spirit of prime Tresor at their most unforgiving. Musically at odds with all else on the album, it still acts like it wouldn’t belong elsewhere before the final cut that bears the album’s title once more returns to moody atmospherics which also hint at John Carpenter as the unsettling aura of desolation unfolds. Old friend and collaborator Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Kleistwahr, etc.) also contributes some feedback to ’Side Blaster’, making for a nice touch I wouldn’t have minded hearing more of. While I very much doubt Surge will ever make anybody’s list of favourite so-called ‘noise’ albums, it does at least catch a return to form for one of the best groups to have emanated from the genre. More, please. (RJ)

THE DEAD MAURIACS Le Parc, Rapport d’Observations CD (Sublime Retreat, Poland, 2023)

The Dead Mauriacs are a project revolving around Olivier Prieur who appear to have done an excessive amount of releases in the past fifteen years or so, mostly on CDr or lathe-cuts but occasionally as a vinyl or CD album. The three lengthy tracks here operate in that smudged twilight space where haphazard cosmic churn collides with neatly rendered collage work, musique concrete and the kind of drifting tones and textures that thankfully avoid their usual more predictable deployment. Very nicely packaged, plus I think only 100 of these were made. Well worth tracking down. (RJ)

JONATHAN DEASY Le Sacre CD (Sublime Retreat, Poland, 2024)

Like soaking in a fantastic foaming bath after a trekking for a day (I imagine), the meshwork of glistening haze and wispy threads that gently fold into and over each other here somewhat belie the noted sources of sine waves and SuperCollider and add up to an almost hour-long ambient piece rife with motion. Le Sacre looks like it’s the first ‘proper’ CD release from this Irish arist now active for several years in the cassette and CDr network. Let’s hope it’s the first of many. (RJ)

DELI KUVVETI In the Summer Dusk CD (Sublime Retreat, Poland, 2023)

Sublime Retreat once again brings out a release by an artist generally only found skirting the outer rings of the tape and CDr network, ultimately meaning another I know very little about beyond whatever’s gleaned from a cursory dive into Discogs. This album comprises two quite lengthy pieces of shimmer, squelch, hum and other such abstract sounds sewn into an environment partly ambient and partly measured noise. Expertly conceived, everything unravels like a kaleidoscope spilling its innards into a magical space carefully chiselled into sonic form. Perfectly disquieting. (RJ)

DELPHIUM Everything is Lost CDr (Aquese Recordings, 2024)

Although Delphium has released a couple of other albums during the past few years, the project was largely dormant from 2003, after having been active for around ten years beforehand. When Delphium began in the early ’90s it served as founder Jonathan Forde’s own platform for exploring a plethora of ideas in contemporary electronic music that took a lot from the likes of Mick Harris’ Scorn and Aphex Twin’s ambient works. While it soon became clear Delphium had its own voice, itself buoyed heavily by minimalist loop-bound pieces and flirtations with different forms of abstract sound, the fact that it never found a home on a suitable label such as Warp, FatCat or Mille Plateaux doubtlessly went against it ever being anything other than a deeply underground concern. Nothing wrong with that, of course, since that’s where most of my own releases on Fourth Dimension also reside, but I always felt Delphium always had the potential to go further. On Everything is Lost, however, the fifteen cuts  gathered from between 2021 and 2024 broadly seem to hark back to the combination of rhythmic and atmospheric compositions Delphium was creating in its first decade of existence. Although well executed, most of the pieces come across like they’re revisiting the ’90s as they navigate their way through a series of moody textures and crisp yet sometimes stilted or stuttering beats. It’s pleasant and hard to fault for what it is, but it seems to yearn for a time when the term ‘isolationism’ almost meant something. When compared to a similarly technology-bound project such as Bass Communion, one can understand why the latter took a 12 year break due to disillusionment with where it was going artistically before returning with an album more avant-garde and wider-ranging in its scope. It would be good to hear Delphium likewise pushing the tools it uses to try and create entirely new shapes from them. Track 14, ’Shift’, shakily points towards this with its amalgamation of loops and guitar, although could have been pushed further, I feel. Let’s see where Delphium goes next because, as it stands and as listenable as it is, Everything is Lost mostly amounts to a comfortable cementing of its previous position. (RJ) 

DELPHIUM Everything is Lost II CDr (Aquese Recordings, 2024)

Hot on the heels of the first collection comes this second one, gathering fifteen more instrumentals recorded throughout 2021 and 2022 by this solo project of Jonathan Forde’s. Like the previous collection, and indeed everything else bearing Dephium’s name, the main thrust behind this music is electronics and their falling somewhere between ambient music and the kinda more rhythm-bound antics once found redefining the landscape by the likes of The Black Dog, Aphex Twin, Locust or even very early Biosphere. Slight touches of Jonathan’s background in more industrial-tainted music add a little crepuscular murk to the proceedings here and there, but as with the previous disc everything ultimately sounds like revisiting an area of music from well over two decades ago. Whilst pleasant enough in and of itself, it’d be good to hear Delphium freshening everything up a little. (RJ)

DOC WöR MIRRAN/THE BEATLES ‘Cry for a Shadow’ 7” (Empty Records, Germany, 2023)

Limited edition reissue of this split single first released in 2017 featuring an original Beatles’ live recording of ‘Cry for a Shadow’ from their Hamburg days in 1961 on one side and a DWM rendition of it on the other. The Beatles’ song, of course, is from the time they were still a raw rock ’n’ roll outfit, dripping in black leather and attitude, whilst DWM slows things down a tad, lifts the song’s signature guitar refrain and later implodes into a mess of molten sound. 197 of these only, plus on gold vinyl. No idea if it’s legit or not, but it’s certainly fun enough. (RJ)

factor X At-Rocity Exhibition CD (Cheeses International, 2023)

Was a time, back in the day (meaning mid-1980s in this case), when I’d receive lots of flyers in the post for tape labels and mail order places dedicated to them that’d include releases by Shaun Robert’s factor X. I’m pretty certain I even had a tape or two myself as well, including the one from the early ’90s on Portugal’s recently reactivated SPH label. I cannot comment on how different each of the releases were to each other, however. Conceptually, I believe they were all bound to the notion of lacing crude loops together with rough-edged electronics, primitive collage techniques and other forms of abstract sound in a manner not far removed from Cabaret Voltaire before they learnt how to make music. While factor X apparently ended in the mid-’90s, however, it would appear that a lot of work has subsequently appeared digitally or on CDr. At-Rocity Exhibition, of course partly inspired by the J.G. Ballard novel of the same name, is noted as a reissue yet includes no direct reference to where the original material was first made available. Collecting eight short pieces that together span less than 30 minutes, it makes for a neat insight into the basement sonics Robert specialised in but could have benefitted from being expanded by a few tracks and even some brief liner notes. I’m not sure how much factor X one actually needs, but a document such as this release is at least worth having if interested in, or partly weaned on, the DIY cassette culture that was once a vital component of post-industrial and experimental electronic music. (RJ)

BERTRAND GAUGUET Encerclements CD (In Girum, France, 2024)

Alto sax player Gauguet has also been creating electronic music for a number of years now and between both that sphere and his work in an improv setting with his main instrument has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including John Tilbury, Eric La Casa, Eliane Radigue, Franz Hautzinger, Robin Hayward, Eddie Prevost and many more. Encerclements, however, collects eight pieces which pluck away at an entanglement of dishevelled electronic sounds and field recordings before blending them together in a manner that’s at once organic, sober and carefully teased into some surprising corners. On the surface it may appear rather studious and academic, but the wide scope of sounds veer healthily between deep space noodling, psycho-ambient and ravaged electroacoustic atmospherics that never stray far from holding one’s attention. Only 100 of these on this new label, too. Get to it. (RJ)

GRAINDELAVOIX/BJORN SCHMELZER/MANUEL MOTA Earthquake Mass CD (Glossa Records, the Netherlands, 2024)

What initially attracted me to the Earthquake Mass was that the image of a large rent/fissure splitting the sleeve art in two recalled the lightning strike front cover of the legendary White Noise debut LP. But that’s where any comparisons grind to a screeching halt. I’ll explain. Graindelavoix is an Antwerp-based ensemble formed in 1999 by anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Bjorn Schmelzer. The prime directive being to unearth/reinterpret vocal repertoires of an historical nature. The featured artist on this occasion is French composer Antoine Brumel, who lived from the mid-fifteenth century to the early sixteenth.

At a time when the European continent was ravaged by flood, famine and plague, Monsieur Brumel upped the ante to what would seem a seismic level. However, the earthquake in question refers to the moving of the huge stone covering the cave opening during the time of Christ’s resurrection. This apparently having way more resonance to the composer than more commonplace visual representations in oils and canvas, even though he was, no doubt, influenced there as well. Centuries later, in Bern, Switzerland, a live rendition was recorded in the early weeks of September 2023. The CD’s itinerary is a little unusual as it sometimes merges the distant past with the present; the industrial dronescapes of Portuguese avant guitarist Manuel Mota on three pieces,  providing a window into century twenty-one. The concept’s timeline ‘kind of’ aligns itself as the multi-layered latinese of the eight-strong vocal chorale is sympathetically augmented by a number of wind instruments from the middle ages, brushing the dust off the Serpent and the Cornett. Grasping at straws obviously, the whole shebang edges towards the scores of Philip Glass and Steve Reich when certain repetitive phrases creep in.

If you imagine that Earthquake Music is just a one-off operation from a dilettante just occasionally dipping his toe into alien waters… Think again as this is the nineteenth entry in this series (!). This release more than reinforces Bjorn Schmelzer’s total commitment to this somewhat obscurist concept. (SP)

HINODE TAPES Kiki Mori LP (Instant Classic/Kanu Kanu, Poland, 2024)

Utilising guitar, field recordings, samplers, saxophone, electronics and percussion, this incredible second album from Poland’s Hinode Tapes brings together four cuts of near-ambient music carefully embellished with subtle swirls, subterranean dialogue, shimmering tones and tempered clangs to keep everything moving. The second track also features Momose Yasunaga on spoken vocals in her native Japanese. Obviously, most of us will have no idea what she’s saying but it sounds pretty serious as a sax rasps and belches in the background. Highly effective, anyway. Only 100 of these pressed, too. And on orange vinyl at that. Well worth tracking down.  (RJ)

HIZBUT JAMM eponymous CD (Instant Classic, Poland, 2024)

Six wonderful songs by this Warsaw-based group featuring Raphael Rogiński on guitar, Senegalese vocalist Mamadou Ba, Paveł Szpura on percussion and Noums Dembele playing a kora, which is a 12-string instrument from West Africa with a sound as distinctive as it looks. The influence of the latter, and indeed, traditional music from the Republic of Senegal, hangs heavily over everything here, combining evocative vocals with spidery picking, hypnotic rhythms and Rogiński’s own unique mastery of a style itself drawing heavily from some kinda magical ur-folk to a wonderfully enchanting effect. I really hope this was not a one-off because groups this good don’t occur often enough. (RJ)

DAVID J Tracks from the Attic 3CD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2024)

The most striking thing about this 3CD set by the former Bauhaus/Love and Rockets mainstay is the incredible IPR packaging which, true to form, illustrates a sense of care and attention to detail rarely seen adorning an album. Beyond that, this collection amounts to David J with an acoustic guitar and an approach to songwriting that isn’t far removed from Bowie in his early folk singer phase. Although they are demos, these songs are laid bare and without any embellishments whatsoever for the most part. While the set may be of interest to completists, it just makes me feel his work needs the extra nourishment of a group to bring it to life. (RJ)

ALEX KELLER Sleep Room CD (Elevator Bath, USA, 2024)

Something like the fifth or sixth album ‘proper’ from this Texas sound artist who presents seven cuts of serpentine crackle, hum and spit each using electromagnetic transducers and sources such as a vacuum cleaner, a modem, oscillators, location recordings and suchlike. While it comes over as an immersive enough adventure in electronic sound my biggest gripe with such music is that it’s so generic that little ever leaps beyond expectations. I must have dozens of albums which sound similar to this already, so can’t say that Alex is bringing anything new to the table. Maybe that’s not the point? The embossed six-panel digipak packaging looks pretty classy, though. (RJ)

KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK To Dream is to Destroy CD (Base Station, NL, 2023)

Kryptogen Rundfunk is the name given by Russian artist Artyom Ostapchuk to his solo project producing analogue electronics, found sounds, guitar, field recordings and the like to weave ‘morphic blankets of deep space hum, frazzled noise, guttural drone, voice snatches, whir and machine chatter together like his life depended on it. The six cuts here are rich and pretty engaging as they tug the listener along a place akin to an old sci-fi film soundtrack married to a ravaged post-industrial landscape given a healthy nudge into a contemporary setting. As I write, I must’ve listened to this several times over, so that should say something in itself. Neat. (RJ)

LARMO [Alarm] LP (Zoharum, Poland, 2024)

Debut album from Polish artist Miroslaw Matyasik that pulls together demolition ball rhythms, shards of industrial noise, samples and the occasional black metal grunt vocals I personally find hard to take serious. I might be more impressed if I was 18 and had never heard anything like this before, but unfortunately I was 18 a long, long time ago and in all honestly very little actually impresses me now. (RJ)

GREG LISHER Underwater Detection Method CD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2024)

The fourth solo album by Camper Van Beethoven and Monks of Doom co-founder/guitarist Greg Lisher catches him delivering 12 compositions that work around keyboards, light guitar flourishes, sub-Mick Karn bass gestures and the kinda rhythms that don’t require the mopping of the brow with a dry towel. Everything seems cut from that already gaping wound where prog and art rock meet ambient music and is more about prowess than much else. Because of this, the setting is rather staid and compromised heavily by an overwhelming sense of cleverness that could have perhaps gone into more interesting areas if cast into a deep pit and left to rot. There’s probably a good reason why Lisher’s other groups never impacted on my life. (RJ)

LULL Journey Through Underworlds CD (Cold Spring, 2024)

Reissue of Mick Harris’ second foray into moody electronic ‘scaping, scrapes and ‘spherics from, originally, 1993 (on the late John Everall’s Sentrax imprint, no less). Three lengthy tracks apparently designed to caress the inside of your cranium with a rusty blade from a time when such music was termed ‘isolationist’ and Harris wasn’t known as a troublemaker for publicly espousing different views to just about everybody else in the ‘biz’. Regardless of one’s thoughts on the latter, there’s no denying that Lull catches him as a master of his craft and  Journey Through Underworlds not only compounds this early on but stands up to repeated listens even now. Mighty. (RJ)

MARGARIDA GARCIA & MANUEL MOTA Domestic Scene LP (Feeding Tube, USA, 2024)

While I’m familiar with some of Manuel Mota’s work, and have reviewed a couple of albums before, Margarida Garcia is a new name for me. Part of the same improv circuit Mota is part of in Lisbon, Portugal, she uses a bass next to his guitar. Over the four pieces that form Domestic Scene, both tease their respective instruments into shadowy swirls that undulate and gently fold over each other like the beckoning chasm they’re at the precipice of simply didn’t matter. As with all such music, however, it’s particularly rewarding when we learn it’s generated by real instruments and is as much about the control of the sounds as the organic interplaying and chemistry of the artists. In this respect, there’s a rich flow here that suggests Garcia and Mota have worked together before and are firmly locked on the same trajectory. Ultimately, and like all great improvised music, it is the result of something deeply intuitive and connected. A marvellous feat and one, indeed, that I’m finding difficult to stop listening to. (RJ)

NB: Just to add something to the above review, I recently read Nick Soulsby’s book on Thurston Moore’s releases, We Sing a New Language, and found references to both Mota and Garcia there, alongside quotes from each regarding their own work with him. Interesting. While familiar with Mota’s work, I’m certainly intrigued to hear more of Garcia’s now.

MATHS BALANCE VOLUMES Cycles of Tonite LP (Penultimate Press, 2023)

I know nothing about this duo, but one of the charming factors about Mark Harwood’s Penultimate Press imprint is its putting out mostly obscure music of a wildly esoteric nature that appears to then have a captive audience courtesy of the label’s rather boutique appeal. I have been known to criticise the hipster aura of boutique labels, but there’s no denying Mark’s commitment to digging up some real gems overrides such pettiness and, fuck, maybe I’m way off anyway. Mark’s done many trades with me in recent times and appears to be, above all else, somebody whose passion for music has taken him to some fantastic releases that have earned a loyal set of supporters. More power to him, especially if able to put out wonderful fare such as Cycles of Tonite. The bizarrely named Maths Balance Volumes appear to have cut their teeth on the DIY circuit where CDRs and lo-fi recordings tend to hold court, but in over 20 years of existence they’ve had a number of vinyl and CD albums out as well. The eleven songs here exude a basement feel where one can almost feel the dust swirling and stirring between the cracks of these creaking ’n’ broken minimalist settings where guitar strings are gently plucked to accompany found sounds and a voice at once haunted and nostalgic. This is deeply reflective and insular folk of a ravaged nature, although ‘Forming a Round’ resembles something more archaic and wouldn’t feel at all out of place on The Wicker Man OST. The original film that is. The remake doesn’t count. (RJ)

MAVERICK PERSONA In the Name Of CD (MarraCult, Italy, 2024)

Looks like the debut album by an Italian duo given to shaking up the indie dancefloor with a blend of electro rhythms, skyward-bound psychedelia, jazzy flourishes, moody trip hop detours and the kinda surreal pop The Flaming Lips have moulded a career from. Although adept and functional, nothing really stands out beyond its shining a light on the kinda music they’re inspired by. (RJ)

MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO & MERZBOW ////Extinct LP (Cold Spring, 2024)

Two side-long forays into a heady and nicely tumultuous collision of rhythms ’n’ noise from Jack Dangers and Masami Akita. This is a powerful collaboration that actually makes a lot of sense given both artists’ prowess in sculpting polished and crystalline shards of sound from the end of the spectrum that has its eye on high production values. Not convinced anybody could dance appropriately to this without first hitting a line of Special K, though. (RJ)

MESMER Terrain Vague CD (Arbitrary, Denmark, 2023)

It looks like this Danish trio, whose background includes other collaborations together or beyond in the worlds of avant-garde, abstract, electronic and improv music, have played together a number of times in this guise before assembling this album from two years’ worth of live recordings then deconstructed and reshaped into its eleven cuts. Assuming a variety of moods sometimes informed by a Jon Hassell-ish approach to trumpet playing or welded to rhythms which wouldn’t be out of place in Seefeel’s work, each of these compositions has a soundtrack-like hue that sways between the serene and comparatively more unsteady. Certain tracks, such as ’Slusen’, appear to draw heavily from an improvisational approach where the alchemical interlocking of crepuscular electronics, measured percussion and vagely mournful trumpet come together like a grand statement, whilst others counter this with a playfulness far lighter in tone. Replete with field recording-helmed pieces such as ‘Oremandsgaard’, the entire album delivers like a group intent on showing us the breadth of their craft whilst proving they have much to offer. It will be interesting to see where they go next. (RJ)

MODELBAU Blackout LP (Love Earth Music, USA, 2024)

Adorned with a couple of photos by Serhiy Ristenko of Kyiv in the winter of 2022 during a Russian bombardment, Blackout collects two lengthy tracks by Frans de Waard’s current project that are suitably understated and refined in nature and actually suggest the unease in the stillness the city has often been locked in ever since. Crisp tones not unlike the one found as TV shut down for the night as a kid commence the proceedings and gently converge before all kinds of other electronic whispers, murmurs and textures enter the fray and tug us along a journey that, towards the end of the second side, concludes with sombre keys and an overwhelming feeling of despair, despondency or helplessness difficult to counter. Having only heard one CD album by Modelbau before, I’m not sure how Blackout stands alongside the mountain of other releases by this concern, but I have to admit being surprised by the strong emotional undertow to a release that’s essentially minimal and near-ambient. Frans has done himself proud with this album. I certainly hope there’ll be more like this to come. (RJ)

MOLJEBKA PVLSE Topography of Frequency and Time CD (Drone Records, Germany, 2024)

Consisting of one piece that spans almost 70 minutes,Topography of Frequency and Time is the latest album by Sweden’s Mathias Josefson, whose work generally falls under the dark ambient umbrella. This work is no exception with its lengthy trawl through foggy textures, moody swells and subtle background sounds woven in for added effect. There’s no denying that it’s well-crafted and listenable, but my problem with such fare is that little of it is possessed of its own identity. I really crave another Contrastate when it comes to such music. While they merely play with some of its tropes, they go way beyond and do so much more than something like this. That’s not to suggest this is bad, either. It’s okay. Just not exceptional. (RJ)

MANUEL MOTA Isocèle CD (Headlights, Portugal, 2023)

During more recent years I seem to have picked up several albums by Portuguese guitarist/sound artist Manuel Mota, the person also behind the prolific Headlights label. Like many others of a similar disposition, it would be somewhat lazy to claim his work is unvarying in its nature, however. Rather, while it often deploys the similar strategy of using a heavily processed guitar as the starting point to improvisations in texture shaded both dark and light, the music is always nuanced and exploratory. Over the three cuts that constitute Isocèle, I am reminded somewhat of Lawrence English’s approach to generating immersive yet impressionistic compositions through what may well be limited means. The overall feel is one that’s assertive and confident rather than hazily half-formed. It’s music that doesn’t necessarily set out to convince anybody of anything yet does so, anyway. This is an artist who deserves to be heard. (RJ)

N(115)/BUND DES DRITTEN AUGES Ohne Titel LP (Auf Abwegen, Germany, 2023)

From what I can gather, N is German soundsmith Hellmut Neidhardt, who numbers every release he does consecutively, while Bund des Dritten Auges (or B.U.D.D.A.) is a collaboration between Sascha Stadlmeier (Emerge, plus Attenuation Circuit head honcho) and Chris Sigdell (B*tong, NID, Leaden Fumes, etc.), who’ve been operating for a few years and have a number of releases behind them already. The three cuts here catch all of them working together on drone-orientated compositions which mostly deploy guitars and a synth in a molten setting where indiscernible sounds and even unobtrusive babbling vocals furnish the proceedings with neatly hewn contours. Everything points to a deeply rewarding and immersive listen which especially pays off on headphones. Wonderful stuff. (RJ)

NAKTYS Liturgia CD (Zoharum, Poland, 2024) 

Debut by a Polish guy who, over the course of the ten cuts here, blends castrated hip hop beats and EBM moves with pulverised electronics, serrated textures and cheesy growling vocals hard to take seriously. The sound of the village scowler. (RJ)

THE ORPHANAGE COMMITTEE Continuities Vol.II. – In the Context of a Room CD (EE Tapes, Belgium, 2024)

Continuities Vol.1. represented The Orphanage Committee’s debut album (also on EE Tapes) in 2022 and saw the project unfurling five well-crafted ambient electronic pieces which set the tone for where this follow-up proceeds. While there’ve been a few other albums during the interim which touch on similar territory, the Continuities volumes released thus far appear to be the most focussed with their drive to tease contemporary ambient music beyond more or less template fare and into a space infused with personality. On one hand, there appear to be clear references to the minimalism of Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine whilst, on the other, there’s a richness of sound that elevates everything to a space partly occupied by the fantastically tempered crystalline sheen of Eliane Radigue. Ultimately, this second volume sits very comfortably alongside all of those exponents of the genre, perfectly illustrating The Orphanage Committee deserves far more recognition than the one presently consigned to very limited CD releases. Fantastic music I only hope at least a few more people will discover. (RJ)

OSLO TAPES Starin’ at the Sun Before Goin’ Blind CD (Peyote Creativity Contamination System, Italy, 2024)

This starts out sounding like an outtake for The Cure’s Disintegration album before then sliding into similar territory to where all from Bitch Magnet to Mogwai and some of the early Kranky mob emanated from. Quite powerful at times, all of the songs by this Italian group are at least charged with a carefully honed dynamism steeped in atmosphere and twilight moodiness. No surprise that Amaury Cambuzat of Ulan Bator produced this, either. A huge sign of approval right there. (RJ)

PINHDAR A Sparkle on the Dark Water CD (Fruits de Mer Records, 2024)

When reading about this Italian duo one will find references to Portishead and trip-hop thrown around like custard pies by circus clowns and while it’s fair to say this second album clearly has both in its DNA, there’s a heavily pronounced hallucinatory yet moonlit pop sensibility also at work that sculpts atmospherics, fragile guitar lines and solid rhythms into the kinda songs agreeable enough when heard on the radio. Brimming with textures, subtle flourishes and enough agility to keep everything interesting the music stealthily affords Cecilia Miradoli’s vocals to hold court as they glide between mournful, despair and disappointment. Far from cheery, A Sparkle on the Dark Water is perfect accompaniment to all signs of humanity being reduced to rubble. (RJ)

SEQUENCES Água Viva CD (Elevator Bath, USA, 2024)

Sequences’ Niels Geybels has been navigating his own way through ambient music’s murkier waters for many years now and has a considerable number of releases behind him. Água Viva, the latest, collects eight pieces titled after chapters in Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector’s experimental novel from 1973 that this album is named after. Each composition, using the sound of water, modular synth, zither, guitar and other sources, presents a well-crafted drift through cinematic ambience enriched with a wide range of subtly hewn clanks, clunks, rumbles and general tumultuousness that add flavour. It’s a fine addition to the canon of such music that succeeds in its ability to draw you along its entire journey before wishing to repeat it. If one must create ambient music these days (and, without doubt, only too many do), then this is how you do it. (RJ)

COLIN ANDREW SHEFFIELD Moments Lost CD (Sublime Retreat, Poland, 2024)

I have to say that Colin Andrew Sheffield is fast becoming one of my favourite contemporary ambient composers. Whilst given to deploying different methods to his soundworks, he is incredible at crafting them into shapes that sit comfortably within his chosen sphere whilst infused with enough of an avant-garde sensibility to keep everything interesting. On Moments Lost, he draws from sounds from “commercially available recordings” to create a piece that’s just over 20 minutes long and only unfortunately let down by this brevity. As with all his work, the piece is defined by a subtle restlessness that embraces an array of contours and light sonic bruising as it shuffles to a conclusion that only comes too quick and commands a firm hit of the repeat button. Lawrence English, who himself gets a mastering credit on this release, needs to make some space at the table for this chap. Incredible stuff. (RJ)

THE STARGAZER’S ASSISTANT Fire Worshipper CD (Zoharum, Poland, 2023)

The fourth album from this London trio who have, between them, a rich pedigree behind them that includes having been involved with Five Or Six, Shock Headed Peters, Coil, The Witching Tale, Current 93 and others. This perhaps goes some way to underlining a mature and confident approach to their brand of mantric psychedelia-drenched songs that come across like how I always hoped Ya Ho Wa or The Incredible String Band would. Added to this are neat comtemporary electronic undercurrents and slightly malignant atmospherics occasionally giving way to something a whole lot lighter, but it all makes for an engaging listen so well executed it’ll pull you to the end and back to the start. Really enjoyed the compilation CD Zoharum released by this group as well. My kinda late evening music and, needless to say, deserving of far more attention. (RJ)

DANIEL SZWED Sun’s Mother LP (Instant Classic, Poland, 2024)

Factory-strength pummel ’n’ pound on this debut by a Polish artist more often found working under the alias of Woody Alien and here aided by a coupla others on vocals and sampler. There might not be any surprises to the marriage of juggernaut rhythms to sawmill grind, angled textures and serrated howl, but it plays out like this guy would cut an impressive enough live show. If you like JFK, Factory Floor and Godflesh, you should enjoy this. (RJ)

TANKS AND TEARS Timewave CD (Swiss Dark Nights, Switzerland, 2024)

Second album by an interestingly named Swiss group clearly inspired by early Depeche Mode and the likes of Front 242 and A Split-Second. Everything is executed well, rendering Timewave akin to being waved back in time to the sounds of a mid-’80s dancefloor at an ‘alternative music’ club. The only real thing holding this back is that certain other contemporary groups blending dark synths and rhythms such as Boy Harsher seem to have brought the sound up to date. All the same, if you happen to be amongst those still yearning for such music, you can do far worse than this. Dust off the leather box jacket and get grooving. (RJ)

THE TELESCOPES Experimental Health CD (Cold Spring, 2023)

This is the second album for Cold Spring by The Telescopes, a group who I tended to ignore in the late ’80s and early ’90s for their being indie darlings much vaunted by the weekly music press. Well, perhaps my music interests were being cast elsewhere as well because plenty of press attention didn’t stop me enjoying Loop, Spacemen 3, Terminal Cheesecake, Godflesh and the like. It might have been that I simply didn’t like the sound of The Telescopes due to their being described as shoegaze. My bad, anyway, as the albums on Cold Spring, both now amounting to pretty much solo releases by Telescopes’ founder Stephen Lawrie, appear to fuse a basement fug with suitably laconic vocals, drone-noise and a contemporary psychedelic sheen that lends itself to neat experimental touches. Experimental Health is no exception and during the course of its ten tracks, including a couple of remixes by artists completely unknown to me, delivers more in the way of hazy, scuffed and occasionally snarling garage tumult spitting at the stars above. I am now hoping Cold Spring will reissue some of the older albums as I believe this is one journey I should have paid more attention to. Curse my ignorance. (RJ)

TORN BOYS 1983 CD + DVD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2024)

Fairly comprehensive document of a group from California who formed in 1982 and only existed for around a year before the members later became the slightly better known (emphasis on slightly!) Shiva Burlesque and Grant Lee Buffalo. Initially formed by a coupla friends once given to doing acoustic covers of songs by Television and the Velvets it’s easy to see how such groups helped inform the material. Although using a modulator, drum machine and synth, the songs are possessed of a dark psychedelic fervour that also feels inspired by the post-punk landscape of the time. Beginning with ‘See Through My Eyes’, which almost sounds like something The 13th Floor Elevators could have written, the songs soon broadly assume a flavour that wouldn’t seem out of place alongside either The Red Crayola or Nice Strong Arm, while a track like ‘Fountain of Blood’ is enriched with an air of menace more befitting the sound of Sheffield, circa 1978. It’s an interesting retrospective that’s often raw or rough around the edges yet catches a group honing a variety of influences into a sound looking at the future whilst adding something to a sonic narrative that really took hold in the late 1960s. Anybody with an interest in post-punk, art rock or the nascent neo-psychedelia sound which especially gripped the US, Australia and NZ during the early ’80s should find much to savour here. The bonus DVD includes four of the songs on the CD, but unfortunately I don’t have a means to play it for now. Stunning IPR presentation once again, though. (RJ)

UGLY ANIMAL Twisting Light from Flesh CD (Foolproof Projects, 2024)

What looks like Ugly Animal’s first album in quite a number of years makes for a remarkable follow up to the debut, Panic Button, which saw Andy Pyne of Brighton’s excellent MAP 71 embarking on a solo project revolving around drums, electronics and samples. This album is no different in that respect, collecting nine songs that are muscular and sprightly as they once more feature rhythms that Charles Hayward might be proud of while electronic passages shimmer ’n’ slide alongside effective vocal samples. In a way, it could be argued that this is exactly how one would imagine MAP 71 to sound if shorn of Lisa’s vocals, but this starker setting also reminds me of The Creatures, Peter Gabriel’s Melt album or even some Peter Hammill if teased on to the dancefloor of a dingy club at 3am. In other words, pretty fantastic. I am only surprised it’s all kept so low-key. (RJ)

UTON What On Earth Are We Doing Here CD (Cheeses International, 2024)

Jani Hirvonen’s Uton project has existed for around 25 years now and is another one of these projects that seems to have amassed an impressive amount of releases in that time on all the usual formats. The five pieces here, similar to the other couple of albums I already own, pursue molten electronics, abstract sounds and the kinda mindbending pops, beeps, hums and crackles one would expect from a pioneering modern composer working with an array of revolutionary devices most now take for granted. Sometimes psychedelic and at others seemingly picking their way through the innards of a malfunctioning computer, there’s much to enjoy as all of the sounds either fold over each other or go off at tangents and pirouette with new ones along the way. While each composition may at first appear formless, patterns, shapes and even a semblance of structure make their presence felt if one locks into everything unfolding. What On Earth Are We Doing Here is, ultimately, an engaging listen with plenty for the more demanding listener to savour. Here’s to many more releases. (RJ)

VIDNA OBMANA & PBK Monument of Empty Colours + Depression and Ideal 2CD (Zoharum, Poland, 2023)

This remastered reissue of these two albums originally released on cassette in 1989 actually appeared at the very end of 2022, but who is paying attention? Both albums collect a number of fantastic drone-based compositions, though. Of course, most of us by now have heard just about every drone-orientated piece of music and their various permutations known to man, but what sets both Vidna Obmana and PBK out from the rest is their own sense of craftsmanship. Even by 1989 both had been cultivating loops, tempered dissonance, subtly collaged sounds, tapes and other such sources for several years enough for them to have become adept at moulding them into drawn-out forms with just the right measures of depth and beauty to elevate them to the realms of the majestic. Since then, Vidna Obmana and PBK have only continued to aim even higher with their respective recordings but these collaborative works, meantime, pay testament to a mere couple of points on the journey that still stand head and shoulders over so much presently around. Majestic. (RJ)

WE FOG Sequence CD (self-released, 2024)

The second album by an Italian power-noise rock trio with Amaury Cambuzat of Ulan Bator doing the production. This features seven songs that if on vinyl would only fill one side, but there’s an urgency at work to the distorto-led pummel that feels like it yearns for the glory days of Amphetamine Reptile and Touch & Go. If you can tell the difference between early Helmet, Tad and Tar, you might find much to relish here. The biggest difference between the likes of those and We Fog is that the English lyrics are spat out with a very clear Italian accent. Make of that whatever you like, but it’s something I suppose. (RJ)

WOO Xylophonics/Robot X 2CD (Independent Project Records, USA, 2024)

This London duo formed by brothers Clive and Mark Ives in the early ’80s began, like so many others at the time, by producing their own music on cassettes nobody else heard. Utilising electronics, keyboards, xylophone, percussion and other instruments, Woo created measured, hypnotic and melodic instrumentals which drew from ambient, breezy jazz and experimental music. Over the course of this double-CD set of previously unreleased material, I was reminded at times of Will Sergeant’s Themes for Grind album, some easier listening later Residents and, especially, Jean-Jacques Perrey. The music hangs softly in the air and permeates with a lounge-like quality that always suggests something richer and more spacey yet never strays from being pretty easy listening. It almost seems postmodern and ironic yet clearly isn’t. Instead, it’s the product of two guys simply dedicated to crafting often meditative music tinged with elements which buoy it beyond becoming dull or one-dimensional. I can’t say it wooed (hoho!) me enough to investigate the rest of their back catalogue, but it’s certainly interesting. Fantastic IPR packaging as usual as well, and if you don’t know what that means then you’re missing out. (RJ)

YPSMAEL Akystret LP (Chocolate Monk, 2024)

Seven more or less ambient pieces that sound like they were recorded live by this German artist who appears to have been active for around fifteen years. There are light and refined electroacoustic touches inflecting everything with a subtle dynamism which typically works well with such music, too. Everything sounds pleasant enough to draw one back for repeated listens, anyway. More than I can say about a lot of such music. White vinyl and very, very limited… naturally. (RJ)

BOOKS

AMERICA’S GREATEST NOISE! by Frans de Waard (Korm Plastics, 146pp, softcover, 2024)

It had been a few years at least since RRRecords appeared on my radar, but from the late ’80s until the end of the following decade Ron Lessard, the owner of the label, shop and mail order behind this moniker, was in touch quite frequently and sometimes trading against releases of my own. These traded packages of records I received from RRRon often included his distinctive catalogues printed on light grey paper and bursting at the seams with often unfamiliar names from the worlds of underground electronic music, noise and general weirdshit. Besides RRRon’s own junk-noise project Emil Beaulieau gracing the pages with numerous cassette, CDr and vinyl releases, one could get lost in similar such fare from all over the globe by luminaries from AMK, John Duncan, Toy Bizarre, Thomas Dimuzio, Crank Sturgeon, The Haters, Prick Decay, P16.D4 and PGR to more established names such as Nurse With Wound and Merzbow. While I didn’t share quite the same passion for so much in the way of non-music and unbridled electronic storm-making, I loved the fact RRRecords existed and created a space for so much of this material to exist. Although there were plenty of others operating in a similar sphere, I also believe it is fair to say that none quite matched RRR’s virtually molten level of intensity. RRRon’s passion and dedication to sounds mostly generated by bedroom terrorists given to assembling their own gizmos or squeezing all kinds of harsh sonics from instruments that no longer resembled them truly was on another level.

America’s Greatest Noise!, put together by a man perfect for the job, Frans de Waard, unpacks where RRRon’s interest in such music first sprang from before then becoming his all-consuming point of focus. Sourced from a collection of interviews, we are treated to a first-person narrative of RRRon’s going from being a music obsessed teenager to his getting a chance to own a shop to beginning the label to travelling all over the place with Emil Beaulieau. Along the way, there are stories galore, anecdotes and plenty of insight into RRRon’s unique position on everything he has done, including how discerning he mostly has been with selecting artists for his label and how he has handled certain others there who’ve been awkward to deal with. Through all these often amusing asides and accounts, one arrives at the impression RRRon is a prime example of somebody serious about his interests while not so serious about life and all the bullshit embedded in it. It is precisely this absurdist take on matters that has partly driven his activities. Equally as importantly, however, he comes over as someone honest, sincere and prone to encouraging others wherever possible. 

The book takes us from the beginning to the position RRR is at now, whereby it presently functions mostly as a record shop that operates for a few hours a day and the label’s activities have largely wound down, while Emil Beaulieau hasn’t performed live for well over a decade and rarely releases anything new. Given that RRRon is now at retirement age this is hardly surprising, though.

It is an interesting story, anyway. I only sense that it could have been longer as, with fewer than 85 pages dedicated to RRRon’s activities in his own words, the reader is left feeling that perhaps more could have been said. These pages, however, are further fleshed out by flyers, old label ads and reprinted ‘zine interviews (that, to be fair, don’t add much to the main dish served here), overtly helping to add a little extra weight to a book which ultimately feels deserved. Labels such as RRRecords are from a time when the more aberrant ends of underground music truly needed the oxygen of their enthusiasm and commitment. While there are plenty of others still around or even springing up to replace those no longer active, few have scaled quite the same heights as RRRecords. 

The book arrives with half a flexi disc featuring some convo between Frans de Waard and RRRon which slots easily alongside the latter’s dedication to what he deemed ‘anti-records’ (records treated in a way they’re either unplayable or can only be used to create noise), capturing the spirit brilliantly.

If you have any interest in noise and experimental music, or more importantly own at least a few releases on RRR (as I do!), then this book comes highly recommended. (RJ)

MENACE: PROG, PUNK, SKINHEADS & SERENDIPITY by Paul Marko softcover book, 506pp (Punk77, 2023)

Whilst punk now seems so historic most references to it outside that context are broadly meaningless, it’s fair to say there are still plenty of people around who were initially inspired by it to do something that’s been an integral part of their lives ever since. One of the things so great about it was its wide reach, attracting all from council estate oiks to middle-class art snobs and beyond. This in itself has led to countless debates ever since concerning whether something or someone was authentically ‘punk’ or not, or indeed how ‘punk’ should be defined in the first place. I always preferred to remain outside such puerile squabbling, however, as I accepted decades ago that part of punk’s appeal was its being open to interpretation and meaning something different to everybody who took something from it. The very fact it inspired everybody from Joy Division, Killing Joke and Modern English to The Damned, Menace, UK Subs and The Ruts, to name but a few, is what helped make it so unique. To that end, my own interest in it didn’t generally gravitate towards the more directly rock ’n’ roll side of things, but that’s not to suggest I didn’t dabble with any or could never appreciate a solid song or the sheer energy at large. I bought all kinds of 7” singles as a teen navigating my way through punk and its cousins in electronic and post-industrial music, anyway, and certainly picked up a number on Small Wonder, including Menace’s ‘GLC’, a blistering rabble-rouser that should have seen the group reach the top of the charts when it was first released in 1978. Instead, like countless others, the group were unjustly sidelined and never really made it beyond the pub and small venue circuit they cut their teeth on (at least until annual punk festivals became popular).

It is probably fair to say my interest in the group didn’t extend much further than that one single, but last year I was kindly offered a copy of this book and only recently had a chance to finally read it. Well researched, it assembles an extensive collection of anecdotes, interview quotes (mostly from material conducted exclusively for the book), archive material and suchlike that then maps out the history of the band from their early incarnation as ’70s hippie rockers Stonehenge, through their transmogrification to poppy new wavers The Aces as the ’70s tailed off and all the way through every incarnation leading to the very latest version of the group where only founder and drummer/vocalist Noel Martin is the surviving original member. Mostly centred around Noel, the book includes contributions from others involved in the group, old and new, as well as those who’ve worked with them at different points throughout a career that’s now well into its fifth decade. Amongst those included are Jill Furmanovsky, Mark Perry, Nicky Tesco (The Members), Pete Stennett (Small Wonder Records), various members of early support regulars Rottin’ Klitz, Garry Bushell, Alan Hauser (Fresh Records), Jennie Russell-Smith (Rebellion festival) and many more besides. Everything heads towards painting a picture of an earnest and hardworking group whose appeal should have perhaps reached further than those simply into so-called street punk or working class chantalongs purely on account of both their commitment to crafting often abrasive yet highly melodic songs and, indeed, having been a huge inspiration for oi and some hardcore punk. Once more, none of this especially touches on my own interests in music, but I believe Menace and some of their immediate peers deserve their place for having cranked a basic rock ’n’ roll formula into somewhere new and exciting as punk took hold in the late ’70s. It’s too easy to sit back and sneer at the many shortcomings afforded by punk now that we’re all older and more jaded, but the fact of the matter is that songs such as Menace’s ‘Last Year’s Youth’ or ‘I’m Civilised’ sit pretty comfortably near the cream of the ’77/’78 crop before the likes of PiL, the Banshees, Gang of Four, Alternative TV, Wire, Crisis, the Bunnymen, etc. remapped everything. I always liked the fact that punk energised urban youths who’d otherwise just get lost in hopeless jobs with little future as well as ‘arty wankers’ whose pretentious concepts attempted to tear apart rock music’s straitjacket. For myself as a teen, it was all exciting and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. 

As the story of Menace unfolds, replete with its own tragedies and many setbacks (including the loss of original vocalist Morgan to a suspected drug overdose), it’s hard not to feel moved by Noel’s plight and, more importantly, his sheer determination to keep everything moving forward regardless. Between him and the other reflections sewn into the book, we get quite a vivid picture of how things were in ‘70s London and, indeed, the nascent punk scene they instantly felt belonged to them and compelled them to be a part of. Paul Marko’s own setbacks include an apparent need for an editor and several proofreads, but he still successfully pulls together a story of a person clearly on a very singular quest that’s realised by many collaborators and helpers along the way. To that end, it is an enjoyable book that pays a long overdue tribute to a group that doubtlessly always deserved a bigger slice of the cake. I might not get the literary references and suchlike I always craved in music as well from it (I have the latest Lol Tolhurst book for that!), but I do have a greater understanding of the resolve driving Noel and his gang. From skinhead to rocker to punk and on to family man still very much on a mission, it’s difficult for me to not appreciate Noel as somebody never once unprepared to try and do something with his life. On a rudimentary level, I like that quality whenever I see it, generally. Even more so, I can thoroughly enjoy a book that helps to paint another corner of the picture I was also initially inspired by when fortified by the very same passion and drive that took countless people in all manner of different directions.

The book also arrives with a CDr featuring some Stonehenge, early Menace demos and a few tracks by The Aces. You might not imagine so from the questionable name, but Stonehenge are surprisingly good as well. Would have been good if it’d been a proper CD, though.  (RJ)