Xazzaz / Space Victim / Inseminoid ‎– Live At Morden Tower 21.04.2013 cdr

Awesome violent guitar dissonance on the Xazzaz set, LOUD psychedelic chaos by Space Victim (Lucy Johnson of Smut/Witchblood, and Mike Vest of Bong), and a return to the icebreaker ship engine room by Inseminoid. 2013 cdr on Turgid Animal.

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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.

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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Witchblood - Ecsed tape

The return of Johnson/Stokoe finds them in a much deeper and heavier mood. No longer does LJ plays multi-note melodies on the piano, just some very sinister and majestic chords, and the droning background is considerably murkier than the thin sound of the first tape. On the flipside, there is a superb 11-minute track dominated by a shimmering organ chord which, in contrast to the crawling descend that usually characterizes LS's music, has a very ascending and floating quality. As for the title, Ecsed is the Hungarian town where Elizabeth Bathory grew up. Essential. 2016 tape on Matching Head.

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Popular Radiation & Witchblood - Live At The Mining Institute split tape

This is an amazing split live tape recorded in Newcastle and shared between Popular Radiation and Witchblood. PR is a solo project of Jazfinger's Hasan Gaylani, so you know you should expect something good. This isn't Jazzfinger-like improvisations but a grinding, climactic drone accompanied by some deep bass noises. It's very good, but the highlight is Witchblood, a project of the omniscient droner Lee Stokoe of Culver and one of the most talented women in noise, Lucy Johnson, whose Smut releases I've just posted. What we have here is one of the most beautiful and enveloping drone recordings ever made, consisting of a maniacal piano melody (played by Lucy?) and a deafening, screaming siren drone (Lee-made?) that sounds like it's played on strings, but I'm not sure. I really can't get enough of this, it has an amazing cathartic quality and must be placed among the classics of modern experimental music. 2014 tape on Boiled Brains Bootlegs.

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Witchblood - Eponine tape

Witchblood is one of the best projects of the omniscient Lee Stokoe of Culver and Lucy Johnson, one of the most talented women in noise, whose work as Smut I've just posted. As noted in Smut's Piano One tape, Lucy is a superb piano player, and Witchblood's music is very much reliant on resonant piano melodies, while Lee probably accompanies here on guitar ambiences and sound manipulations. The result here is less noisy than what both artists usually present and possesses a psychedelic and spectral quality, which sometimes sound very much like 1970s horror movie soundtracks, or nightmarish nursery songs. Indeed, the fifth track has a very musicbox-hazy child dream melody that is just hair-raising. This ghostly, fleeting mood is also highlighted by the sound which is drowned, and a little bit like recorded on chewed-up tape. Amazing music by some of the most creative noise minds at work at the moment. 2013 tape on Matching Head.

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Indian Lady ‎– Help Wanted Female/The Creeper tape

This is another project involving Lee Stokoe (Culver) and Lucy Johnson (Smut) who are playing together as Witchblood, this time joined by George Proctor (Mutant Ape, Karst and Turgid Animal records). Not as deep-bass-laden and heavy as one might expect from a collaboration between these three, this is more like a lo-fi, trebly mess of psychedelic drone rock nodding to Les Rallizes Dénudés, Taj Mahal Travellers and Popol Vuh featuring the sprawling, siren violin of Lucy and some nice fuzzy bass lines. Good stuff, guaranteed by the best droners of the English North-East. 2011 tape on Turgid Animal.

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Smut - Incomplete Chaos CDR

This is the most diverse of Smut's releases, starting with epic foghorn drones and the sound of a marching band in the background in the first track, continuing with guitar abuse and harsh black metal-like noise in tracks 2-4 more similar to the first Smut tape, (the third track in particular is very reminiscent of Skullflower), and ending with the superb "Blood Moon" track, which is an a-m-a-z-i-n-g drone dirge that is the violin equivalent of Sunn O)))'s "bassAliens." Essential release. 2014 cdr on Turgid Animal.

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Smut - Piano One tape

This is one of my favorite pieces of music of all time. No guitars and noise this time, just piano plated with an amazing emotion and abandon that is accentuated further by the low recording quality of a tape that is almost always on the brink of being chewed up. Real classical music from the deep underground by one of the most talented people. 2013 tape on Turgid Animal.

Unfortunately, I don't have the Piano Two tape that was released on Quagga Curious Sounds in 2015, so I'm calling out to any kind person having that to please offer it to the people.

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Smut - Vulgar Tongue tape

On this second Smut tape, Lucy Johnson makes things even bleaker and darker. The religious choir of the beginning gives a way to a muffled drone struggling to emerge from the water depths, while a blood-chilling violin wails on top of it all. Showcasing her multi-instrumentalist talent to the fullest, on the second side she plays a low-key piano line waiting for the release of another underwater guitar abuse, while the violin again reigns above, but this time sounding radioactive and siren-like. Things can't get any more foreboding than this. 2013 tape on Wealth Of Abuse.

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Smut ‎– Scraps

Smut is the solo project of Lucy Johnson, one of the most talented and versatile musicians of the North England underground noise/drone scene. Apart from being a very talented painter, whose works have adorned many of that scene's releases, she has consistently brought out amazing stuff with bands such as the black metal noise of Esk, the psychedelic out-thereness of Space Victim (with Mike Vest of Bong), the post-punk madness of Dark Bargain, and most importantly the sublime piano-and-drone awesomeness of Witchblood, where she is collaborating with the one and only Lee Stokoe of Culver and Matching Head tapes. This is the first (out of five) Smut releases, and here Lucy presents a variety of sounds, from the guitar abuse of the first side that is equal parts screeching black metal noise a-la Skullflower and bass-heavy a-la Sunn O))), to the static mournful drone a-la Culver of the second side, which descends into an amazing piano melody (Lucy is a great piano player as will be obvious in other Smut, as well as Witchblood, releases) only to be lost into a deafening factory machine chaos. 2012 tape on Turgid Animal.

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Voltigeurs / Dark Bargain split 7"

 

Keeping up the Matthew Bower appreciation, here's a split between Voltigeurs (MB and Samantha Davies) and Dark Bargain (Lucy Johnson of amazing Smut and Witchblood, Mike Simpson of Xazzaz and Jamie Stewart of Wrest). Harsh psychedelia by Voltigeurs and a rhythmic psychedelic post-punk noisefest by DB. 2013 7" on Turgid Animal.

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