Jazzfinger - Bad Timing I

 

 This really was a double cd called Bad Timing I & II, but the box I received had twice the same disc with a different cd cover. Meh. So if anyone has the second disc, please send it over here. Anyway, this is an IMMERSIVE mix of Jazzfinger live performances at their absolute best = not extremely noisy or badly recorded, but with a hypnotic and outright devotional approach. The gigs themselves must have been amazing for the audiences. 2007 cdr on Fuckin' Amateurs.

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Various ‎– Sage Rage

Live gig recorded in Gateshead in 2007 featuring Jazzfinger, Marzuraan, Monoblock, Byron Coley/Alex Neilson, Culver and Noisebastard. 2007 cdr on Fuckin' Amateurs.

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Various ‎– A Chance Meeting With An Uncle Pt. 1 & 2

The last existing recording of Harm is this live performance of heavy guitar drone in Newcastle in 2007, along with an intense performance by Jazzfinger, as well as Chalfont, and Putrefier/Romance. 2007 2 X Cdr on Fuckin' Amateurs.

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Newt Extinction ‎– Everything I Say Is Of The Utmost Importance

Criminally-insane synth/field recording muzak, like old James Ferraro on really bad drugs trying to play Jean-Michelle Jarre or some 80s arcade space battle game. Pure evil 2009 cdr on the always unpredictable Fuckin' Amateurs.

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Jazzfinger - Our Friends In the North 4 X CDR

Three-and-a-half hours of dissonant green-ish free drone by the inimitable Jazzfinger recorded live across North England from 2001 to 2008 and three studio tracks. What else do you need for a hot Sunday? All hails to Posset for sharing this monumental piece of NE sickness! 2011 4 X CDR on Fuckin' Amateurs.

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Helictite ‎– Nicked tape

Part free skronk jazz, part high-energy motorik motherfuck, and part Les Rallizes Denudes-like brain melt, Helictite was one of NE England No-Audience Undeground's biggest secret. This was unfortunately their last recording, played live in - where else - Gateshead - as well as the last tape release of  Fuckin' Amateurs in 2017. RIP.

(For some stupid reason I ripped also the blank sound of side 2, you might as well never listen to it, sorry for the additional data, but at this moment I'm kind of too busy to re-zip and re-upload it)

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Wasp Bomb / Female Borstal ‎– Live At The Dog And Parrot 28.3.14 (Fuckin' Amateurs)

Another obscurity brought to your family's entertainment by Blyth's finest record label is this live recording of Wasp Bomb and Female Borstal. Wasp Bomb was a (one-off I gather) project of Lucy Johnson (Smut, Witchblood, Indian Lady, Dark Bargain), Jamie Stewart (Fuckin' Amateurs, Wrest, Oppenheimer, Satanhartalt) along with two other people and played feedback-fog-heavy screaming punk/noise rock, and I'm not sure if I separated the tracks correctly. Female Borstal was one of the myriad projects of Lee Stokoe, accompanied by George Proctor (Mutant Ape, Karst, Turgid Animal) and Jerome Smith (Oppenheimer, Charles Dexter Ward). One of the most band-like musically ones at that, since they played a more psychedelic and energetic version of Marzuraan, that is, lysergic doom metal/drone. Expect much noise and intensity, proceed with caution. 2014 tape on Fuckin' Amateurs.

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Various ‎– Fuckin' Fifty? (Fuckin' Amateurs compilation 6 X cdr)

The two recent posts about Xazzaz and TQ Zine were more or less related to Fuckin' Amateurs, so I thought to post this. In short, F#A was a ten-year-long project started by Martin Gregory and Jamie Stewart, documenting the life of the North-East English no-audience underground, mainly by bootlegging gigs of those artists and bands located or playing there, many of whom have received posts about here, or are going to get! That scene is really vibrant, diverse and creative and F#A did an amazing job keeping the light alive, until its folding of operations last year, which has fortunately been taken over by No-Audience Underground tapes. In this mammoth six-cdr compilation celebrating the fiftieth release of the label, a long series of artists ranging from drone, noise, punk, dictaphone and free jazz are compiled. Some are blog favorites, such as Jazzfinger, Posset, Waz Hoola, Culver, Wrest, Basilica, MC Blazin, Mechanical Children, Hapsburg Braganza, Lobster Priest, Charles Dexter Ward, as well as enigmatic car-race radio broadcast dictaphone worshipper Chris "Pause" Richardson. The highlight, though, is the last track of the last cdr, which is a band called The Nice People From Straightsville doing a cacophonous lo-fi castrato-voice cover of Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" renamed "I'm Going to Ashington." 2009 6-cdr set on Fuckin' Amateurs.

Disc 1
Disc 2
Disc 3
Disc 4
Disc 5
Disc 6

TQ Zine 10 & 11 / Charlie Ulyatt - Inaudible Gestures

With each issue TQ Zine gets better and better and gradually fills up adequately the slumber of Radio Free Midwich, which we still invoke to wake up when the stars are right. The last few issues have seen a shift into high gears, with offering of cdrs to subscribers and extremely interesting interviews, which seem to get even better with the oncoming issues that will celebrate a year since the first light of day.

#10 comes with a cdr sampler of the superb Linear Obsessional label, featuring released, as well as exclusive, tracks from the label's 2017 output, which has now been posted as non-subscriber earcandy. Everything sounds great, but I especially dig the tracks by Kassia Flux (also reviewed and interviewed in issue 11), Steven Ball, Far Rainbow, as well as Lost Robots. The latter band is given an extensive feature in said issue to mark their recording return after nine years with the album Arms in which they offer a stunning combination of kraut rock, This Heat-style madness and the sound of Canterbury. Also included, aside from expected reviews, is a free download coupon for Nat Lyon's nice Slant Front Desk (expect dark pop with a hint of western), and the highlight, which is the first part of an interview with Jamie Stewart, aka harsh noise artist Wrest, co-founder of the important NE England label Fuckin' Amateurs, and member of Satanhartalt and Oppenheimer, whose works have been covered here. In this interview he talks extensively about the town of Blyth and noise and it's a great read.

I've just received #11 in the mail, and it's a fantastic job. Aside from the second part of Jamie's interview, where he recounts the founding and course of Fuckin' Amateurs, followed by a list of notable Fuckin' Amateurs releases, as well as an extensive feature of Charlie Ulyatt's music, consisting of two reviews, an interview and a free cdr of his latest release, Inaudible Gestures.

Charlie Ulyatt seems to be a relative newcomer to the experimental underground, with his earliest outings dating from 2016. In his interview he states that he drew large inspiration from Earth/Dylan Carlson, which is reason enough to give his music a chance. He also cites Dean McPhee and John Fahey, though I would also point to Slint and late Talk Talk as referential points to his guitar playing. On his first release, Dead Birds, there is indeed a lot of leaning on Earth's reform material, especially Hex, as well as Carlson's solo material. Shifting is a much more experimental affair, offering a string of prepared guitar/e-bow offerings, creating an electric/drone counterpart to Jon Collin's guitar experiments. On his most recent release, Inaudible Gestures, (which is as I said offered free to TQ subscribers) he abandons the guitar for a molestation of the cello (which he says has recently started taking lessons on) creating highly entertaining avant-drone/free-jazz, with referential points possibly being Roof, Revolutionary Ensemble, and modern-day masters Diktat.

I wanna thank TQ for introducing me to Charlie, whose music can be found on Bandcamp, is offered for free, and deserves financial support. TQ in itself deserves our support and subscriptions for the great work that must continue, so head over to the blog and get in touch!

Xazzaz - The Candle Is Lit tape

Xazzaz playing "happy droneday to you" on the occasion of Lee Stokoe's birthday (as can be seen on the tape inlay). Having read reviews of his live appearances, I gotta say that they were pretty accurate in their raving: deadening/deafening drone with a more industrial-Throbbing Gristle vibe here, and as always with the greyness of NE England ever-present. Essential listening released in 2014 on the sadly missed Fuckin' Amateurs.

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