TQ Zine # 23 & 24

Previous TQ issue was a double on with a focus on the Australian and New Zealand scenes , of which I should recommend Independent Woman Records, which has released stuff by Chow Mwng, Witchblood, and Smut. There's also an interview (conducted by Charlie Ulyatt) of Dylan Carlson, in the occasion of the new Earth album, which is incredibly shit in my opinion, and this is the first time I feel like this about a new Earth album, especially after such an amazing cd like Primitive And Deadly.

The offerings include a download of the cdr by Chris Whitehead's project Cursus, which drifts between dark ambient, psychedelic guitar music, and isolationism somewhat. It's a great album that you can support with a mere 0,50 gbp on TQ's bandcamp.There's also a cd called Buzzing Minds I A Sydney Noise Compilation, documenting various artists from the Sydney music scene that live in boarding houses and experience a variety of social and mental problems, and have been encouraged to create their own noise/electronic music by a guy called Jay Simonit working at such a boarding house.

Great reviews include the new highly recommended recording by the excellent Helicopter Quartet (free to download on their bandcamp) and awesome percussion-based EP by The Master Musicians of Dyffryn Moor focusing on Brexit, discrimination against immigrants and Conservatives' policies.

The new issue celebrates two years of publication and comes with two cds or free downloads in a random manner (I was lucky enough to get both physicals!), one is Fin by Sinnen (released by TQ) playing some weird combination of atmospheric shoegaze metal that remind me somewhat of Pyramids combined with suicidal black metal act Ghost Bath. The other one is Strange Altars by Ade Hodges, which I haven't heard yet, but I remembered having checked out his bandcamp to see that he plays astral lo-fi dark ambient. Plus, there's a free download for subscribers of Nat Lyon's Canine Codebook. There are various reviews and interviews in the new issue but I haven't had time to check all of them, but there's a nice written piece by Joe Posset, plus a review of a gig of his.

I think there are copies of the new issue left, so do yourself a favor and get it at http://tqzine.blogspot.com/.

TQ zine #21

While waiting for the new TQ issue I though to post a rather belated writing on the previous issue, which includes an interview with Darren Holoway, the mastermind behind Damselfy who plays really interesting synth-based ambient that reminds me of late70s/early 80s sci-fi synth and even Soviet music, but with a touch of noise and even medieval sounds! I took a listen of his album In Southern Darkness and  I found it really cool. There's also a feature on Panurus Productions, a label I have mentioned from Newcastle, and which I will write about in forthcoming posts, run by James Watts of the amazing Möbius.

There's also a free cd by the improv/sound-making collective Blanc Sceol, who make site- and instrument-specific recordings with reproductions of ancient instruments and record while exploring natural environments. Very interesting sounds that require full attention.

Download the Blanc Sceol cd

and don't forget to make a subscription to the always commendable TQ zine.!

TQ Zine # 18, 19 & 20

Time's very limited for reading the latest TQ issues in depth, let alone write about them, but there's been some cool that is worth mentioning.

On #18 the most interesting piece was the interview with Bloxham tapes, which has released the stellar All Is Quiet At the Ancient Theatre by Alison Cotton, a superb album of pagan drone. There's also an interview of Graham Thrower of alt.vinyl, in which I discovered the amazing Vampire Blues tape Knocking on the Dragon's Door, an offering of ecstatic guitar drone folk. The free cd offered with the issue is a label sampler from Bloxham Tapes and its sister label Stars, Dots and the New Junk, showcasing experimental folk, drone, and ambient. Some tracks are really good; I distinguished Greenidge Lambourne's track. Check it out here.

#19 is dedicated to minimalism and is centered around Tone Quanta, a double-disc compilation of minimalist tracks offered by artists worshipped in the blog such as Posset, Chow Mwng, and Xqui. Proceeds from the cd's sales will go the Westgate Ark, an action providing homes for stray cats. Half of the issue is filled with artists reflecting on the tracks they created for the compilation, something TQ had done with its previous compilation, too, and I think it's a great way to get into the working styles of noise musicians. The most important part of the issue is a piece on Arvo Pärt, plus an interview with legendary French experimental composer Éliane Radigue, whose Triptych album I completely adore and crave for when I feel sleepy.

The new issue (#19) offers a cd of Sheer Zed featuring cool ambient soundscapes and field recordings, plus a free download of the album Glass In Your Ear by Robert Weis, which features electronic compositions generated by glass sounds. I like it because it has a Coil quality to it. The mainpiece in this issue is a bio of Eurock zine and label, keeping at promoting experimental music since the 1970s. I got to know Eurock through its collaboration with the amazing Urban Sax/Gilbert Altman, and of course the contributions of owner Archie Patterson to underground music cannot be diminished. His praise of Richard Branson, though, as a "music legend," without referring to his political activities, which now include a financing of a concert aid in Colombia which acts in support of US-backed self-appointed president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, and aims to assist in the overthrow of the government of Venezuela, is kind of too naive and apolitical. Of course, this isn't TQ's fault, I'm just noting that music and politics cannot be completely separated.

As always, TQ Zine is a great endeavor that requires the support of undeground and DIY music fans, so go to http://tqzine.blogspot.com/, and land a subscription!

Charlie Ulyatt - Off Balance

Second (I think) release of of free cello improvisations by Charlie Ulyatt, whose work has been covered before here); fans of this style are going to be delighted at his new offering, in which he also appears to be making somewhat more "musical" statements aside the noisy take a-la Roof or Diktat; on "Nailed The Rooms Up" we can hear some really nice harmonics, the drone on "Hear Them Wearing Out" has an almost classical/Stars Of The Lid take, "From A Certain Distance" features a percussive side at the beginning that could be looped in a nice house music track and continues with wailing cello sounds that resemble a sore throated cornet or something, and in "A Handful of Salt" Charlie makes the cello sound like chewed-up cassette tape. An exquisite release by a very creative artist; I think I've mentioned in one of my TQ posts that the physical release of this comes at a discount for TQ subscribers, while the digital version comes for free at Charlie's bandcamp page. Great job!

TQ #17 & St. James Infirmary - Answers To Questions Unasked

New TQ issue is dedicated at length to the latest edition of the annual Tusk festival in Gateshead. Having never attended it since I live in less developed parts of Europe I like all these reports (one is this, the other one is from the semi-revived Radio Free Midwich); for one, when I was a child living in the non-Western part of Europe, and thus not being able to attend many gigs due to the high costs of transport for artists (= extremely expensive tickets), one of my favorite parts in reading rock and metal magazines was concert reviews. Secondly, with underground experimental music festivals, reading reports is a great way to discover new artists, and to slightly uncover the mystique of the No-Audience Undeground heroes you are never going to see live in your place of residence. A video of Smut during her impeccable Tusk performance was particularly such a good introduction. So we got live reviews of the great Vampyres and Liminal Haze, Lea Bertucci/Double Bass Crossfade, and the NWW Mail Art Action by Andy Wood of TQ and Chow Mwng accompanied by David Howcroft of No-Audience Undeground Tapes (I have referred to this project here), and of the Tusk film programme, interviews with Robert-Ridley Shackleton (check out his latest piece of junk gunk funk on Crow Versus Crow), G.W. Land (aka St. James Infirmary), and Ceramic Hobs, and a review of Drooping Finger's Arthur's Hell cd (Drooping Finger plays heavy ambient electronics, check some tracks here).

As always TQ comes with a giveaway cdr, and this issue carries St. James Infirmary's Answers To Questions Unasked. Never heard of the project before, so the cd and the interview have been enlightening; we're talking diverse experimental music, mainly on the heavy ambient/drone side with a strong psychedelic edge, as well as some surprising moments, as the weird black metal outbreak on track #1, and the fizzy electronic oriental psychedelia of track #3. Good stuff, will need to check out more.

You can land a subscription with TQ here to get all the goodies offered and learn more great stuff straight outta the N-AU.

TQ #15 & #16 & Ivan The Tolerable sampler cd & various links

The two most recent issues of TQ have been among my favorite ones; after a few issues having attained a more retrospective approach on John Peel, kraut rock and TQ's compilation, these two are back packed with interviews and reviews of new underground music that I've been psyched to discover.

#15 sets off with a review of Craig Johnson, head of Invisible City Records and guy behind Death In Scarsdale. ICR from Gateshead is one of the best drone/noise labels around, having released amazing tapes by Witchblood, Culver, Vampyres, Liminal Haze, Posset, Skull Mask, Stuart Chalmers, and many others, and Death In Scarsdale is an exciting new-ish drone project added to the hotbed of drone activities that are so eminent in Gateshead. I've just seen that Depletion has released a new tape on it and I'm listeing to it right now, and it sounds so good.

A second very enlightening interview/feature is that of Luxury Bucket label, whose owner Lewis Duffy also plays as Shit Creek. Thanks to this feature I discovered Ivonne Van Cleef, a psychedelic western/cabaret/twang/surf solo playing woman from California, who has consistently released a number of awesome tapes that need a lot of attention, plus some good stuff by Shit Creek, mainly this live recording based around violin loops that blew my mind and I had on repeat for several days straight.

There's also an interview with weirdo experimental electronic project Ivan The Tolerable, combined with a "best of" cd containing 22 songs of his. Ivan The Tolerable is a versatile music project focusing mainly on synth-based psychedelic compositions that doesn't sound too far away from mid-80s to mid-90s Coil, but doesn't shy away from featuring more rock-sounding or weirdo synth-pop tunes. I've uploaded the cd for you and you can listen to it here.



Current issue #16 came with two cds; the first is Velvet Teeth by Chlorine, which features experimental electronics ranging from hypnagogic mystery to chewed-up techno, and I recommend listening; the other is Halo Dragonfly's Ticking Clock, which features sample and dictaphone manipulations and throat splurge similar to Posset and Yol; the person/group is inclined to banging stuff like Posset does, and I think that this is a great likening for a new artist. Xqui is being interviewed, talking about his radical recording techniques (check out his recent releases Heterogeneous and Starchild), along with Liquid Library label from Bristol, which had released an exciting tape by Bristol local improvised jazz punk outfit Iceman Furniss that I really loved, plus a sleep-compelling drone epic by Zero Gravity Tea Ceremony, Vorre. But the most revealing thing in this issue was the short review of A-Sun Amissa's Ceremony In the Stillness, a band I knew nothing of which plays something like the correct rock version of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore (fuck Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble), that is massive, towering, monumental drone jazz rock, and now I need to look them up closely. Plus, there's a review of Charlie Ulyatt's forthcoming cello album, about which TQ subscribers are offered a discount. Charlie has been covered on this blog, so you know he's good.

Visit TQ's blog for more info and the necessary subscriptions.

Chow Mwng: The Music of Welsh shapeshifter Ash Cooke

In a recent post on Die Or DIY about Michael Morley's Gate, it was said that Morley gives the impression that he can't play the guitar and that he's quite good at pretending to not be able to do so. Well, if playing the guitar means soloing like Joe Satriani, let's hope that Morley really is paraplegic when it comes to guitar-playing.

The same impression is also passed by Ash Cooke, Welsh guitar player for Derrero (when it comes to lo-fi indie of the more electric variety, you can't get better than them), guitar/keyboard/whatever torturer of solo project Pulco, and more recently in Chow Mwng, as well as designer for the covers of TQ Zine.



Nunavik was the one release that introduced Ash to me and probably most people, as it was a free giveaway with TQ #7. In this recording he emulates the Canadian Inuit peoples throat singing style to challenge Western-centric notions of what correct music stands for, and he mixes it with maddening improvisations for Casio synth, percussive junk and guitar whateverness. In fact it sounds like a really damaged human beat box on avant-garde overdose. Cool!

Get it here for free



In Ah, Alpine! he combines unmusical acoustic guitar strums, apreggios and pinched notes with heavy guitar chorus effect, some drum hi hat doodling and casio synth without any reason.

Download

 

Perforation Function. Amazing work. This is Chow's most melodic/real guitar playing, delivering some pretty acoustic jazz guitar arpeggios while also including his usual synth noise, stream-of-consciousness lyrics, and percussive doodlings. There's a nice concept behind it, too, as this has been his response to David Howcroft's Nurse With Wound mail art action, during which he sent out to volunteers a dismantled tape of a NWW Tusk Festival tape, asking them to destroy/deconstruct it as they saw fit. I understand that most people just smashed it, but Chow Mwng made music around it, resulting in this hereby release, where apart from his live improvisations he includes several samples from said NWW recording. Added to that, he's gonna play live while David will be exhibiting the results of his mail art action during this year's Tusk. I absolutely love this music. (Posset has also made a sound response to the NWW action, producing a tape's worth of a loop of the gig).

Download



Stuttering Hand is my favorite of the lot whereby he focuses exclusively on guitar improvisations and prepared guitar damage.

Download



More of the same prepared guitar nothingness on One Day All This Will Make Sense? Gimme more!

Download for free



Even more guitar nonsense/noise collages accompanying an art zine featuring Chow's great artwork.

Download for free

Möbius - Above The Clouds, Night cdr

Those readers who remember the TQ anniversary post will remember my raving about a track featured on the compilation that accompanied that issue contributed by Möbius. This is a vocal drone duo from Newcastle consisting of a guy doing very low pitched hums and occasional death grunts similar to background synthesizers or a Tibetan monk and a woman singing, moaning and mourning above with a gorgeous voice. Their approach is narrative and generating images of demons, witches, cauldrons and Cthulhu. Möbius is really the new breaking out unit from the ever prolific and inspiring North-East  English/Tyneside womb of drone/noise. From what I see in this video they also have a ritualistic aspect to them that reminds me a little bit of Phurpa, something that makes them even more adorable in my eyes and mind. And to make things even better, I saw that an oncoming TQ issue will be coming with the new Möbius recording for free, so I hope that more people will become exposed to them; this means that a subscription to TQ to get the cd is a pressing necessity! And for those who still haven't made the right move to contact David Howcroft of No-Audience Underground for live tapes of the great artists of the North-East region, I think that this cdr will convince you to do so, as David has already recorded and generated four Möbius gigs on tape along with other great people such as Death In Scarsdale, Womb, MP Wood! Admire this amazing cdr and do any necessary action now! 2017 cdr on Inverted Grim-Mill Recordings (cool name).

Download

TQ #14/ No-Audience Underground Tapes/ Posset - Another Forever Tomorrow cdr

New TQ issue continues in a more retrospective note as in the previous John Peel issue, with the main part of the zine focusing on accounts of kraut rock giants such as Can, Holger Czukay, first Faust, and Kraftwerk.

The most important part, though, is an interview with David Howcroft, the person behind No-Audience Underground Tapes, which I have talked about here; in the interview David talks about his connection to Blyth and Fuckin' Amateurs, the formation of N-AuT, consideration on its future, and the story behind the Another Headache For the NHS compilation, which was released in order to gather financial aid for a shockingly serious accident David had had. I already knew that that comp was released in aid of David, but I wasn't aware of how dangerous his condition was, and I wholeheartedly wish him the best.

I grasp the opportunity to remind readers of the blog that No-Audience Underground Tapes is an important effort to document the life of the North-East England drone/noise/experimental scene, recording and releasing gigs by such amazing musicians and groups like Vampyres, Posset, Smut, Fells, Witchblood, Möbius, Death In Scarsdale, Wrest, Noize Choir, and so many others. More than 50 tapes have been released so far, and I really hope that David will keep at it for as long as it takes. I would offer the full list here, but I highly recommend that all of you drop David an email, ask for the list, get some stuff and give him your support; after all he is doing it for free, without charging for the tapes, which is an important aspect of the underground.

Finally, this most recent issue of TQ comes with a free cdr of Posset's Another Forever Tomorrow. Posset is obviously one of my favorite artists ever, and on this release he proves again his expansive vision of electronic music, from his patent dictaphone manipulation of vocals and voices to an amazing gamelan-like tune called "Rubber Whiskey Decisions," and from a dictaphone blues anthem called "Dub Touch (Two)" to more ambient/drone incursions with the cd's intro and outro. Great stuff as usual, you can listen to it here.

TQ Zine # 12 & # 13: Belated Happy Birthday!

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.

For info about TQ go here.

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!

TQ Zine

With the Radio Free Midwich website going into hibernation mode, the no-audience underground (the very punctual term coined by Rob Hayler) has lost (hopefully temporarily) a great source of information and promotion of extremely talented and attention-deserving artists. Of course there are other superb platforms for getting to know new noise and experimental music such as Idwal Fisher, but RFM's gap may to a certain extent be additionally filled by the TQ Zine. Now being in its eighth issue (if I'm not mistaken) this zine headed by Andy Wood covers similar musical interests as RFM, with an attention to the North-East English scene focusing on Gateshead and other towns, with well-written record reviews, the very-short-review column of Hashtag Noizelife, reports from gigs, classic album retrospectives, as well as interviews, both with musicians and other artists. And this is done in the beloved form of a printed, A5-size effort, to remind us of the importance of the physicality of the noise we adore. Furthermore, the editor of the zine has been kind enough to send to subscribers a free copy of the Chow Mwng Nunavik cd, and from what I see he has more free stuff in store for anyone having decided to spend their hard-earned money on this worthwhile attempt. As such, I highly recommend that everyone take a look at the zine's blog and consider making a subscription. Thanks to Andy Wood!