Helhesten/Darkness in Concrete split on Rayon Spring 2009
Tour recordings from a five-headed Helhesten featuring Kelly and Pascal from Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides. On the other side is a collaboration recorded in a Dijon warehouse on the same tour, in Spring 2007, between Hannah Ellul (clarinet), Kelly-Jayne Jones (flute) and Rob Lye from Chora (soprano sax).
"There is a great joining of free-folk and fire music that elevates this act above the crowd. There is also some challenging moments that take all you might to digest, as one might do whilst cowering frightened to a Prurient record. Often the percussion notches into an intricate rhythm that rescues the din, and allows for an anchor of focus. This is a massive set, that one can return to again and again. Great stuff...
At times [Darkness in Concrete] feels like a dawn chorus, veering from over-excited twittering that leap like frightened sparrows under the menace of some large shadowed prey. The scaling of notes in small pockets of action reduces in intensity as the exploration thickens. Self reflective solo expeditions quiver with a disobedience that simmers with taut fervour as duets fleetingly find common ground."
Peter Taylor, Foxy Digitalis
"Factoring in aspects of drone, sound poetry, small instrument improvisation and free jazz, the group work pointillist levitations that would strip the whole Double Leopards/Taj Mahal Travellers stormcloud style of its aura of fug, replacing it with a sum of electro-acoustic sound events that are as individually detailed as they are overtly group-minded. The violin and reed work feels particularly lucid and Anglo-drone focussed. Seems like a buncha next generation UK style has come of age of late and this is another one to add to the pot." Volcanic Tongue
Long-awaited split 12" with Chops in rather smashing purple & white vinyl.
Helhesten's side-long "Dithyramb" is a rumble/ramble through a sonic landscape of screams, twitterings and rustles. Rarely staying in one place and clearly sensitive to their surroundings - ...both city and countryside are reflected in their music - they know how to pace themselves."
Wire review January 2009 here.
Past releases
The Dance & Spasm of the Snake in Trance; collaboration with Chora on cassette on Lotus Birth.
"Sultry stratospheric vibrations rock this one skyward... the process of the improvisation becomes a joy to experience... Hannah Ellul's clarinet tracing the most translucent ribbons of sublime threat over Ben Knight's increasingly urgent vocalisations as he struggles to understand his own body in the flux of sound and colour... the effect is fearful, itchy, worried, and makes for wonderfully uncomfortable listening. At one point what sounds like a saw cuts into the totality, not long before Knight's vocal wrenches transport the music by pained gasps into a mesmerising intensity, the almost horrific momentum lurching forward with sarcastic glee until the sides crack and the flesh falls out, a sickening spectacle. Ace."
From the review on Foxy Digitalis.
'Only the Sun of Folk Songs Visits Your Grave', on Paris based Cook an Egg. It's one of our collaborative outings featuring Kelly Jayne Jones & Pascal Nichols (Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides), and Lye AND Morris from Chora.
"vagrant sounds launching through both ether and mud...free jazz and European improv roots."
Foxy Digitalis
'Helhesten', on Barcelona's joyous noise makers Discos Compulsivos/LUV LUV.
"reflects the chaotic, gritty, south-of-the-Thames feel I remember coupled with an insane Boredoms-style anything-can-happen free-jazz attitude"
according to Funeral Pudding.
Split (as On Fire) on Curor Recordings with the magnificent CHORA.
"On fire... really do it for me here, particularly with the sheer transgressive weirdness and lovely melodic freaksome moments of the penultimate track on the disc - the changes of pace and undulations of vocal and instrumental action give it by turns an addictive despondency and a weird cultic charm."
From the review on Foxy Digitalis.
Other helhesten-related activities (click names for links):
UBOAT - Duo made up of Ben and Pascal utilising strange vocal huffs, plus Pascal's found object scatter-percussion. 'Condor Song' is out now on Chocolate Monk.
Psykick Dancehall Recordings - Our label. First release a handmade 4 disc set - with a book of full-colour artwork - featuring Blood Stereo, Partwildhorsesmane..., Usurper, Nackt Insecten and more. Now sold out - but go and have a look, instalment 2 is due this September. A new Towering Breaker LP also due very soon!
This is the first set from the slightly tweaked Beach Fuzz line-up with Fliss Horrocks now playing guitar. Seven tracks of clattering drums, chugging and wailing guitars, screaming keyboards, mellow, lilting pastoral improv and moaned vocals.
Pay by Paypal to goldenlabrecordings@hotmail.co.uk
it takes the collective muscle of WINNERS DON'T SHIVER and GIANT TANK to slop up this much experimental weird-ass sound.....
ELI KESZLER Rhode Island USA solo drummerboy/ alemaster who happily mashes grains from the collected public houses of ecstatic free jazz, modern weirdo composition, no wave blunders and blootered gamelan using an array of gongs, bells, bowed percussives and amplification to brew his own tenacious improv tipple. Jandek, Greg Kelley, Steve Pyne and more have all propped up his bar to slurp that "straight from the barrel taste".
RETAIL UNIT 1990s throwback Sandy Milroy plays some archaic noises using ambidextrous minidisc technique he honed in days before he met them Muscletusk 21st Century boys.
BRITTLE HAMMER FOUR Two parts Usurper sparsecore brothers + one part Peeesseye yodelling traps-man + one part Dead Labour Process drool-tape farmer= all parts WRONG!!!
SCRIM His 'n' hers hiss 'n' hum piss 'n' moan duo wash muddy tones 'n' drones through low-ends 'n' lugs to leave yon mind swamped in free music's murk 'n' mire.
SAT 24TH OCT 2009 A Secret Location In Edinburgh's Old Town (e-mail gianttank@hotmail.com for further details!). doors= 7:30pm. cost= £5. there shouild be beers for sale, but ye can also BRING YR OWN BEVVY!!!
Recorded at The Bowling Green pub in Manchester on 17th November 2008, when Bridget was on tour with Marcia Bassett, this is a maximal 25-minute set of epic guitar brutalising and deep, moaned vocal incantations. Employing a bow and 'metal' effects pedals, the resulting cacophony is orchestral in scope, rendering almost unreliable the memory of one woman and her instrument. Somewhat akin to Bassett's duo with Matthew Bower, Hototogisu, the deeply layered tones created by Hayden offer, upon first exposure, a somewhat icy auditory experience, but as the recording settles in, the richness and sheer breadth of sound wraps around you like a feather quilt and shifts your perception almost 180 degrees. A truly magnificent set from this former Vibracathedral Orchestra member.
Limited to 80 copies with sleeves printed on recycled paper using soya based ink
Pay by Paypal to goldenlabrecordings@hotmail.co.uk
MENTAT - AMARILLO ABISAL (2 LP): NUEVO DISCO A
LA VENTA!!!
¡Saludos!
Ya está disponible nuestro primer 2LP Amarillo
abisal (2009) (56 min.) editado por La crisálida records. Los discos contienen
las canciones Abisal, Crisálida, Lo irrevocable, El cielo se cierra, Un paisaje
(en amarillo) y Vestigios de una derrota. Cuesta 12 €+ Gastos de envio.
Disponemos de 525 copias.
( para gente que le gusta Neurosis, Today is
the day, Type O Negative, Meatjack , Damad etc..)
www.myspace/mentatrock
gracias por agregarnos
un saludo crisálido
HI!
MENTAT - AMARILLO ABISAL (2 LP): OUT NOW!!!
Greetings!
Our first 2 LP Amarillo Abisal (2009) (56
min.) is now available. It has been released by La crisálida records. It
contains the songs Abisal, Crisálida, Lo irrevocable, El cielo se cierra, Un
paisaje (en amarillo) and Vestigios de una derrota. Price: 12 € + Shipping cost.
We have 525 copies
( for people who likes Neurosis, Today is the
day, Type O Negative, Meatjack , Damad etc..)
Broken Ear is an online radio station, streamable online and playing wild and wonderful tunes for the more discerning music listener. This episode features an interview with Tim from Part Chimp! Check it out here:
Hey! Broken Ear is an ONLINE radio show dedicated to outsider and alternative music. You can listen to it anytime, anywhere as long as your on the 'net (which you must be now...) heres the link to the latest show:
SAT 15th AUGUST - 10PM USURPER & FRITZ WELCH/CR:ACC ENSEMBLE/PYRAMIDION/SCRIM + FILMS BY JOHN MORAN & ELAINE KORDYS St. Stephens, Edinburgh - BYOB - pay what you can
Online Now!
..
