Dwoogie is a gentleman of the highest order. Described by Pete Um as the "ever tumescent honorary Pole", I was fortunate to spend a decadent few days supping Vodka Zolodzkowa Gorzka in Warsaw, discussing, amongst a myriad other delights, the insertion of chairlegs into the desiring bum-bums of aged avant-gardists, and Alvin Lucier going to the supermarket in a thong.
Not so long ago, possibly during my sojourn in Warsaw, he mentioned to me his project-in-progress working with the voices of lovely lady friends via Twitter.
This is that project, and that is this project. "Texticals Allowed Vol 1" is an hallucinogenic love letter to the female voice, filtered through layers of memory, explosions of terror, half-awake dreams, and half asleep waking. Like a message at the end of the universe sent from a space station in an erotic abyss.
Listen to it.
We'll let Sir Dwoogie of the Never Fading Banana explain further....
The idea: About a year ago, I had the idea of using women's voices in a project. They were to be speaking voices, reading whatever they wanted to read, as long as it wasn't poetry. Poetry and music have been done. To death, some might say. I thought I would do some cutups and some weird music. So, I asked a few Twitter friends who happen to be women if they were interested. Some were, and sent me recordings.
The execution: For a long time, nothing happened, but I did finally start working with what I was sent. These are the first complete results. I was, and am, impressed by how beautiful the voices are, and my initial concept changed as a result. I decided to keep the recordings whole and present the voices more or less as they came to me. Mostly more. I hope the voice artists aren't disappointed with what I've done. There are more to come!
Thanks: At this moment, I'd very much like to thank @Pani_Bufetowa, @The3rdGirl, and @TheLastHatGirl for making these tracks possible. I will, of course, give the other contributors their dues when I've, ahem, finished with them. And I'd also like to thank my GREAT friend @ergophizmiz for releasing my dabblings.
16 directions in sample music by James Melendrez, AKA The Superfools....
"There's nothing wrong with emulation", as the track goes. Emulation has become, to a degree, almost inevitable in the world of sample music, where recurring stylistic motifs and juxtaposition techniques have settled into a recognisable, and effective, language. The plunderphonics movement and associated artists created and developed this language through the 1980s-1990s, stylistic innovations often running parallel to technological developments.
The German sample composer Vernon Lenoir (who will also release shortly on Chinstrap), once described the contemporary approach to sample composition, with reference to the effect of versatile sequencing technologies, as "music without limits" - that's to say, music that can be constantly shapeshifted, seamlessly transformed, with endless possible permutations not allied to any stylistic school.
The music on this album, by James Melendrez AKA The Superfools, sits on the border of "traditional" plunderphonics style sample music, and something altogether more personal and idiosyncratic. The "Exercise" pieces are comic juxtapositions of work-out records with easy-listening, but achieved with a grace and finesse that renders them hugely listenable. "Mary's Popins" takes a nostalgic conversation between Julie Andrews and songwriter Robert Sherman and delicately cuts it into a subtle absurdity. Vitally, all of The Superfools recordings hum with the crackle of dusty vinyl.
Altogether more strange and personal is the epic "Getting Along With The People You Love", which takes a field-recording of a language lesson and layers it with circular, melancholy Spanish guitar loops, with occasional interjections of colour from a dizzying array of sources. "Fever (Flu Shot Mix)" slows down an acapella of Peggy Lee's finest moment, combines it with slow delayed, reverb-laden electronic drums, and through these simple means creates something wrought with tension and highly effective as a piece of music.
The Superfools are also adept at the construction of new and interesting melodic material through the processing and juxtaposition of samples, transforming the sources into something unrecognisable. In these areas, the sample music becomes something more abstract, purely "Musical" and not connected with "Context". Vitally, The Superfools is not a particularly satirical samplist - which is what separates this from a lot of plunderphonics. This is music for the sake for music. Which is, of course, no bad thing.
So sit back, pop a bottle of wine, and immerse yourself into some super foolishness courtesy of The Superfools.
Chinstrap are delighted to present a new piece from Angela Valid:
"Iain Chambers and Alexander Jones have been working under the name Angela Valid since 2002.
At irregular intervals.
Additional, somewhat regular members are often drafted in to collaborate in a live environment.
Their most recent activities include a blah blah blah soundtrack, a session on a radio show, a couple of blah blah blah (Arts Council funded) releases and blah fuckin blah piece for Ergo Phizmiz's Faust Cycle.
Chinstrap proudly presents "The Greatest Hits of Oblivian Substanshall, and So On", three versatile volumes of audio delight from a fine gentleman's imagination.
Volume 1: "If You Can't Help It"
Twelve slices of off-kilter pop from Mr Substanshall's prolific oeuvre. Imagine the worlds of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear & Vivian Stanshall colliding with the spirit of 50s rock'n'roll, who's just taken a crash course in musique-concrete and sound-art. This brings us somewhere close to where Oblivian Substanshall is leaping off from, let's complete the picture with words from the man himself...
"The so called pop and cutting-edge cultural approach I most definitely give a good straddling too. Indeed, it gives me a lot of freedom to exploit and play around with these idioms to my hearts content. And like you pointed out, it's the fragments of these styles of expression which one can re-work, and try and achieve something fresh and amusing with, and hopefully interesting to listen to, or view. It's this looking back to move forward approach that I enjoy or, perhaps that's all there is anyway. It's nostalgic to some extent with a hint to the homage with an idiosyncratic slant. Some people may call this approach post-modern, but I see it as, yes, mixed up alright, and a little schizophrenic, but at the same time, entirely 'contemporary' in its make over, boasting no actual and definite rules to hold you back... It's an elastic art form that can be stretched and stretched and so on... But in saying all that, I don't really like to analyse things too much, I think its better to just get on with it and play,play,play, happily immersing oneself within this 'contemporary landscape', and to be as creative and as inventive as one can possibly be within it." And .... download a PDF of Oblivian Substanshall's rather smashing drawings, selected for the "If You Can't Help It" release RIGHT HERE.
Volume 2: "Tengemort & Other Absurdities" - Monologues by Oblivian Substanshall
Volume 3: "Let's Talk Art" - Oblivian Substanshall takes on the history of 20th century art
And if that all wasn't Substanshall enough for you, find out more at ....
"Hedgehogs & Honeybeads" was a collaboration with film-maker Martha Moopette, musician Heather McCallum, and choreographer Rosalind Noctor, crossing film, sound-design, dance, and installation art. Created in 2006, the project went on to acclaim, most prominently at Motion Plymouth Film Festival (where it won Best Artistic Merit), and Art-Bereg film festival, St Petersburg.
This release, the third on Ergo Phizmiz's netlabel Chinstrap, comprises a remastered version of the film soundtrack, and four alternate edits created for simultaneous looping in installation form.
The project was devised and created by Martha Moopette & Rosalind Noctor
An evocative collage of sound-recordings made during 2009 by UK based sound-artist, filmmaker, and designer The Travelling Mongoose. A multitracked journey through natural and artificial sonic environments, the juxtapositions produce a strange narrative through subtle incongruities, with compositional sense of movement and reflection. "Singin' in The" is an almost theatrical, "mood" piece of sound-art, containing a very quiet Surrealist edge, creating an audio picture of the natural world that doesn't quite behave how we expect it to.
The Travelling Mongoose produces field-recordings, electroacoustic music, electronic music, foley, radio, and rock'n'roll, who has worked extensively across a wide range of contexts across the past fifteen years, including short films, children's animations, rock'n'roll bands, live sound-collage, and mash-up radio.
This is the first release on Chinstrap, the new netlabel from Ergo Phizmiz.
