Bridget Hayden – Record 2 / Seven Beginnings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, hails to Jani from Uton for helping me find this. Most of that early Bridget Hayden solo stuff sounds much more abstract and noisy than her later dirgy beauty. On the first track among all the noises, Puccini's La Boheme can be heard, while the third track is violin improv like her good old Vibracathedral Orchestra days.

 2006 self-released cdr

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Lo Imp - Nosferatu

Yet another project of Bridget Hayden, this time with Sam McLoughlin and Jake Blanchard. This is a live recording of them playing during a screening of Nosferatu in a church. The improvisation ranges from atonal doodlings to unsettling drones. 2017 tape on Was Ist Das?

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Last Night On Earth ‎– Last Night On Earth

Improvised psychedelic ritual noise not that far away from Vibracathedral Orchestra by Bridget Hayden, Melanie Delaney (Ashtray Navigations) and Jani Hirvonen (Uton, Pupil Wah). 2006 cdr on Ikuisuus.

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Bridget Hayden - Pure Touch Only From Now On, They Said So outtakes

The outtakes of an unsurpassable album. 2020 mp3 release on Bandcamp.

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Bridget Hayden - Soil And Song

 

The grimmest of all blues. 2019 tape as part of a zine dedicated to the memory of Karen Dalton by the feminist/queer Synchronise Witches Press.

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Bridget Hayden ‎– A Siren Blares In An Indifferent Ocean LP

An earlier LP to last year's excellent Pure Touch Only From Now On, They Said So, it showcases Bridget Hayden's immense ability in creating different moods within a drone/noise style. Her evil guitar noise tracks are quite similar to Lee Stokoe's Pact Of Ash project, and they sound like what it would sound like if Burzum Filosofem-era played blues (I'm sure Varg Vikernes would cringe if he read this!), while the quieter moments, in which she plays piano and violin as if in an underwater shipwreck, sound to me like African American spirituals played by ghosts. This is another amazing achievement of the North-England no-audience undeground and you must hear it. 2011 LP on (K-RAA-K)³.

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Bridget Hayden - Pure Touch Only From Now On, They Said So LP

Wow, just fucking wow. Bridget Hayden, violin player of Vibracathedral Orchestra, has created what might arguably be the best album of 2018. Employing mainly electric guitars and her mournful voice, she delivers a number of extremely lo-fi but highly evocative tracks full of sorrow and despair, making a very original form of noise blues. The most pertinent comparison would be Grouper, in that they both create a very ghost-like, dense atmosphere with spectral vocals and muffled sound, but this is more on the electric side. For some reason it also brings to my mind Burzum's Filosofem, in its very idiosyncratic low production, greenish arpeggios, and the layers of sorrowful fuzz oozing from everywhere. Don't just download this, go and buy the actual vinyl from Early Music, and then go to her bandcamp and listen to some more awesomeness.

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more Total

ok let's try to approximate the completion of Total's discography. There will still be some releases which I don't have, but with the ones I have posted before (check the tag), we're close to it. NOTE: IF ANY READERS HAVE THE TOTAL/CULVER SPLIT TAPE ON MATCHING HEAD, PLEASE SEND A MESSAGE!

Total - Beyond The Rim

 

 After the initial run of Total in the mid-to-late-80s, Bower went on to form Skullflower, and only got back to releasing more experimentally-oriented material under the Total moniker in 1993 with this amazing 1993 lp on Majora.

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Total - Here, Time Is Space

 

This came out in the same year as Sky Blue Void  (posted already on this blog) and sounds like a mix between more subdued drone and all-out wild noise. 1994 2 X lp on Majora.

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Total - Glassy Warhead



This one seems a little bit more on a traditional noise track, with screeching mic noise and guitar delay attack. 1995 cd on Pure.

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Total - Tanzmusik Der Renaissance

 

Total psychedelic awesomeness. 1995 cd on Freek Records.

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Total - Silver Pillows



This starts deceptively blissfully but descends into guitar amp abuse, only to end up in a mess of guitar wails and some metal percussion jumping. 1995 10" on Majora.


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Total - Clear Factory



Real nice droning noise with guitar, piano and some beautiful background synths. 1996 lp on Majora.

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Total - Buffin' The Celestial Muffin

 

This one showcases the awesome reeds of John Godbert (Vibracathedral Orchestra), as well guest appearances by Neil Campbell (again of Vibracathedral), Stuart Dennison (Skullflower) and Philip Best (Consumer Electronics). 1997 cd on Rural Electrification Program and Format Supremacy.

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Total - Kaspar Hauser



High-pitched feedback invocations and cowbell clang. 1997 cd on Metonymic.

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Total - To Fall Like Cherry Blossoms



Jaw-dropping amp noise/winds/piano drone/free jazz. Bower is once again accompanied by John Godbert, as well as Neil Ireland. 1997 lp on American Tapes.

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Total - Mountain Tasting



Stunning elegiac experimentations with piano, violin, reeds and cymbals. Essential listening. 1997 lathe 7"

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Total - Eternity's Beautiful Frontispiece



Droning psychedelic contemplative awesomeness with John Godbert and Neil Campbell. 1998 cd on VHF Records.

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Total - Solid Objects Cast At Goblins

 

Sadly this was to be the last Total release, though the material was recorded in 1996. Once more this one features Bower and John Godbert on percussion and wind instruments and includes amazing shimmering drones. 2000 cd on VHF Records.

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Total ‎– The Starlit Mire 7"

Another Matthew Bower/John Godbert collaboration on guitar and horns. 1997 7" on the amazingly baptized Rural Electrification Program.

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Total - Dog Throat Sun 7''

Beautiful ritualistic noise by Matthew Bower on guitar and John Godbert (Vibracathedral Orchestra) on chinese horn. 1995 7" on Anomalous Records.

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