Life’s been too busy lately with family, work and
studies so I had no time to make a happy birthday post about TQ, so now I’m
posting something about both latest issues. Last month TQ Zine marked its first
anniversary with #12 celebrating it with a 3-cdr compilation of artists making
tracks inspired by three previous issue covers. This is over 3 hours of noise,
ambient, and experimental sounds. I haven’t been able to pay full attention to
the music, but through two listens I have discovered some new stuff which I
might have read about before but didn’t get around to listening to, plus tracks
by artists I had already heard. The tracks I particularly distinguished are: an
amazing jazzy ambient track by Chlorine (must hear more from them), a cacophonous
reed and guitar detuning jam with surreal lyrics from Chow Mwng (congrats for
making a track with lyrics for a cover), beautiful floating droney ambient from
Ghost Signs, vocal drone and throat singing by James Worse, throbbing and
reverberating subterranean drone by Joined By Wire, an amazing combination of
early Swans, Skullflower and My Bloody Valentine by Penance Stare (must find
out more), this blog’s favorite Posset making a great number poem, organ and
string drone by The Daughters of Conceptual Sex Death, and the absolutely best
discovery of recent months called Möbius, a vocal ambient
drone duo from Newcastle offering an AMAZING witch invocation drone that I can’t
stop listening to. How the fuck did these people elude my drone radar? Thank
you TQ for ceaselessly teaching me about good music. The content of # 12 is filled
with descriptions of the tracks’ recording processes by the artists themselves,
and is complete with Rob Hayler’s essay on the origins and characteristics of
the No-Audience Underground. Check out the full compilation here.
#13 is a heartfelt tribute to John Peel with
accounts of getting to know him or recording Peel Sessions by various artists,
and a truly warming comic about him, plus some reviews. I have to say that not
having grown up in the UK or the English-speaking world in general I never had
the chance to really listen to him during his lifetime, although I had read
lots about him through magazine about psychedelic rock as a child. But as I
grew up and I became obsessed with grindcore and crust punk I read about his
promotion of heroes of my adolescence like Napalm Death and Extreme Noise
Terror, and I realize how important it was for someone like him to exist in the
established media. This issue is accompanied by a DVD of the documentary Republic about the city of Blyth being
voted worst town in England in 1992. I was very intrigued about this doc when I
read about a few months ago, but I still haven’t watched it, but looking
forward to it.
Next issue seems to have another good offer
for its subscribers, namely a Posset cd, which is reason enough for someone to
subscribe promptly.
