both hailing from Blackburn. West Lothian,,, a shitsville village in Scotlands central belt, these tubes relocated and married in Brighton, England.. Lungs full of sea air and bellys full of wine fuel much of the scab sounds of Blood Stereo... Outside of this unholy union Karen performs solo as Smack Music 7, as well as leading an ever changing all female outsider noise group The Polly Shang Kuan Band. Dylan also records solo (under the imaginative umbrella of Dylan Nyoukis), previously he performed in Decaer Pinga (the artists formerly known as Prick decay) with his sister Dora Doll.
"Anal fins tucked in tight behind them, Blood Stereo look like a pair of ill-kempt roosters, fighting over a dougnut. The guy rooster is jibbering in some unknown tongue, turning his face inside out, while shoving the microphone slowly through a hole in his cheek. the girl rooster appears to be pecking at him, either that or she's picking at various trash they have strewn around the stage. Every time she ducks her head there is the sound of a jet passing overhead. But when you look up at the sky there is no sign of a comtrail. After a while you think you are starting to get a handle on what they are doing, but the guy falls down and starts doing a spazz dance so utterly convincing you begin to worry about him. Then the girls starts screaming and itseems as though something is really profoundly wrong. And it is. But it's not like they're in any kind of trouble. They're just wrong, y'know? So savagely wrong from every angle that it's really tough to imagine there 's anything you could do to really help them. As if they'd even want in. In their masks or out, they sow confussion like wheat." - Byron Coley
*FT001 SICK LLAMA "thrown down a well / sentenced to be quartered" cassette *FT002 CONNELLY "failing lights 3" cassette *FT003 KJELD DOKNER "fuck americans" cassette *FT004 FUNKY PANDEMONIUMS "toxic velveeta" cassette *FT005 DEATH COMM cassette *FT006 WAVES "jaws parts 1 & 2" cassette *FT007 IT "involuntary transcript" cassette *FT008 DEATH COMM 2 cassette *FT009 THE DEAD MACHINES "the change" cassette *FT010 DEATH COMM LIVE cassette *FT011 SUPER STREET "you had to be there" live comp. cassette *FT012 HZMT / TAPE DECK split cassette *FT013 DEATH KCOMM / THE STEEL FOREST "the crippling ring broadcast / the sad story of the coffin builder" split cassette *FT014 CUTLASS & KJELD "songs to sleep with" cassette *FT015 SICK LLAMA "barf throat" cassette *FT016 WM cassette *FT017 SICK LLAMA "barf thoth" cassette *FT018 DEATH KCOMM "thudder" cassette *FT019 DEAD MACHINES / HAIR POLICE "illegal the raw" live split cassette *FT020 JACOB ALLEN BONDAR "collage organ solo" cassette *FT021 SUPER STREET 2 "street freaks" live comp. cassette *FT022 HUMAN LOOP cassette *FT023 SHRIEKS & CREAKS "creature cassette" cassette *FT024 SUPER STREET 3 "diamonds in th' ruff" live comp. cassette *FT025 FULL MEAT JACKET "my war" cassette *FT026 ODD CLOUDS sick llama remixxx cassette *FT027 SICK LLAMA "pain is life's messenger" cassette FT028 THE CASES Action Mono #1 cassette *FT029 SICK LLAMA "holy ghost" double cassette *FT030 IT "identity theft" sick llama remixxx cassette *FT031 SICK LLAMA "death kit" cassette FT032 SUPER STREET 4 "rude dogs" live comp. cassette *FT033 REALLY DEPRESSING cassette *FT034 FULL MEAT JACKET cassette *FT035 YOU'LL FREAK OUT WH
xNoBBQx Skewer 10" LP (Ltd to 300 copies) - Out May 12th
We first came across xNoBBQx (just call them No Barbeque, I guess) in Piccadilly Records last year when the Siltbreeze vinyl reissue of their first CD-r appeared on its shelves. The Siltbreeze label being a bastion of all that is great in terms of dirgy, lo-fi, transcendental unmusicality, we were thus intrigued to hear this slab. And, we have to say, it was one of the greatest shop-listening experiences of all time. Here was a duo, probably of fully grown men, bashing away at their instruments in a manner that suggested they had never really learned any 'proper' technique. We later read a review, in fact, that put it thus:
"So what exactly is the difference between an xNoBBQx recording and a couple of 14 year olds bashing instruments in the garage with record pressed down on one of their mum’s old tape recorders? Probably not a whole lot, actually, but I get the feeling that’s precisely the point. " (Cyclic Defrost)
Well, yes, that does largely seem to be the point. But it's a helluva point. The duo, in spite of their unabashed simplicity, manage to create sounds that are warm as an old-fashioned blanket, each piece having the ability to induce a state of complete, dribbling mental stasis. It's disjointed, scratchy and 'difficult', yes. But it also manages to be completely absorbing. If you like your rock deconstructed to the nth degree, we highly recommend you dig this.
xNoBBQx will be touring the UK from 10th May 2009. We'll be putting them on in Manchester on 12th May (venue TBC), so keep yr eyes on this page.
We've never been able to quite pin down exactly what it is that The Hunter Gracchus do, which is a wonderful thing. A shifting unit with Syed Kamran Ali, Fiona Marshall and Jon Marshall at the core, they have recently settled into a fairly stable unit of six, but it's hard to know how long that'll last. Still, while it does, it's producing all manner of magical and highly unexpected performances. The one captured here was recorded at the band's practice room cum gig space, Fagin's Hideout/The Furniture Makers and is a less blistering freakout than some of their recent output, preferring to quietly explore every nook of tonal space. It simmers rather than erupts and, the longer you become immersed in it, the less aware you become of the passage of time. It's a recording that feels like it should go on forever and, when it does come to a close, the silence is shocking. In a time when it's all too easy for a group of improvisers to just go full-tilt in some euphoric pursuit, the Hunter Gracchus provides us with a glowing alternative that draws us slowly in and drowns our senses. This is truly awesome.
Peeesseye I Woke Up and Drank a Bottle of Cheap Kojak CDR
Peeesseye made the scene at Dylan Nyoukis's Colour Out of Space festival last summer and hopped over to Manchester to play a show at the Town Hall Tavern, the recording of which forms the content of this incredible slab of dense droning harmonium, scraping, buzzing, subtly soloing guitar and pulse-free, scatter-drumming. We can't recommend this enough. Limited to 80 copies.
This beautiful super-heavyweight LP, which comes packaged in a sweet full-colour sleeve reunites the UK's premier free drummer Alex Neilson, who's played, amongst others, with Motor Ghost, Directing Hand, Trembling Bells, Tight Meat Duo, Josephine Foster, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Jandek, MV&EE, Richard Youngs, Baby Dee and Alastair Galbraith, with Nmperign member Greg Kelley, whose reinvention of the trumpet is as crucial now as Anthony Braxton's was 30 years ago. A screeching, soaring, scattergun array of noises come maniacally out of Greg's horn, unlike anything we've ever heard and he successfully straddles no wave, concrete and free jazz in a way that makes those genres seem like trite pigeonholes.
