An Obstacle Soup
installation for Record Store Day
@ Monorail Records,
Glasgow
20th April – 7th
May 2012
Artists
and Band Biogs
1.
Jim Colquhoun
Jaconelli were formed in Glasgow in 1972, in what was already the fag end of
'flower power'. The great political and cultural ferment of the sixties had run
aground on a combination of bad drugs, sexism, excessive guitar solos and
general stupidity, Jaconelli epitomised this trend by cleaving always to the
lowest common denominator, the crass, the aesthetically bankrupt and the worst
excesses of fascistic band dynamics. As musicians and as people they heralded
and embraced the beginnings of a narcissistic stoner culture that engulfed a
generation.
2.
Baldvin Ringsted
Dauð Meinhof is the fourth release by the German black metal artist Gerhard Richter. It was recorded in
September 1990, but not released until May 1992.
Gerhard Richter (real
name, Gerhard Richter born February 9, 1932) is a Black Metal solo project that spans nearly 5 decades of
simultaneously producing both abstract and photorealistic Black Metal.
During 1992 and 1993,
Gerhard Richter recorded four albums; however, in 1994 he was convicted and
imprisoned for the murder of violinist Bruce “tuned to D.E.A.D.” Nauman and the
arson of several galleries.
Some of the buildings were
hundreds of years old and seen as important historical landmarks. One of the
first and most notable was Norway's Gagosian stave-gallery.
3.
Kevin Reid
LONG BALL HOLDER are blistering hard acid rock doomage from singer/drummer Hamish 'Ferret'
Beret and multi instrumentalist Senior Fud! Straight
out of Lumphinans, this two-piece originally signed to 'Earache Records' in the
early 80's returning after nearly 30 years of retreat, alcoholism and psych
wards! “8 tracks written during this hiatus recorded here for you. Plug
in, skin up and stroke your ferret!"
4.
Fiona Danskin
Artist - cnut Album name - uden mønster (without
pattern)
With 'uden mønster'
(without pattern), cnut continues to develop new means of expression on an
instrument not generally associated with innovation and experimentation - the
accordion.
Here he moves into
dubstep territory, much of the album played and sampled from just one
accordion, combining deep, rumbling long-held bass chords with samples and
re-samples of old 78rpm recordings of traditional accordion tunes. The crackles
are cranked up high in the mix adding it's own percussion, the melody left as a
ghostly nod to the accordion's roots. Never before has 'time-stretched'
had such resonance.
5.
Janie Nicoll
HALF FOOL are a
four piece girl band, who have risen sphinx-like from the ashes of Edinburgh
cult post punk band, The Sparrows. Claiming to have left behind their previous
psycho-delic garage sound, this revised incarnation now based in Glasgow, have
produced a fresh new sound that attempts to bridge the gap between upbeat indie
dance, synonymous with the early 90’s, experimental electro and progressive
house claiming to straddle “an eclectic and more sophisticated” set of
influences. Founding member and lead singer Janis Short has confidently stated
“We are the missing link”, releasing the four track 12’ entitled “New Wave” with collaborative remixes
by Kevin Shields, Andrew Weatherall and Keith McIvor (Optimo) as named
compadres.
6. Brian
Hartley
Beyond the haze of
mystery, ‘polyphase’ is a moving,
romantic, almost melancholy listening experience, combined with a searching
sonic futurism, seeking out utterly alien and tinglingly lush harmonic colours
the surreal grasp of possessed, private synth music and deliberately economical
production is delivered with innate confidence and the blackest humour.
By eschewing glossy
production the band cut straight to the essence, or the truth of the matter,
and this is a mighty, mighty beautiful thing.
7.
Douglas Morland
Three Day Week’s eponymous debut LP is one of the lost treasures
of 1973. Darling of the London Glam scene, singer Beaujolais St John formed the
group in a haze of Quaaludes and champagne, writing a brace of
glitter-encrusted, boot-stomp clap-a-longs that wipe the floor with The Sweet
or T Rex. The big difference, however, was St John's use of Tarot Cards in
lyric-writing - accurately predicting the political, economic, moral and
sartorial decline that would grip the UK for the remainder of the decade.
Releasing one more album (1978's pioneering electropop gem Cold Meat
Platter) the band then went into terminal decline due to St John's
increasingly erratic behaviour. Their last engagement before his disappearance
from public life was hampered by St John's insistence on wearing a
medieval physician's costume, his plague mask rendering vocals completely
inaudible. Claims of sightings of St John continue to this day, both with and
without the accompanying physician's protective garb.
8.
Jonnie Wilkes
“ENOUGH LEAD TO MAKE IT HEAVY” (Various Artists)
Previously unreleased
early electronic music, radiophonic material & synth jams from Eastern
Europe.
9.
Ross Sinclair
Ross & the Realifers make music out in the country. It’s sort of a
fiction but not really. The Realifers don’t really exist, but Ross does. He
makes music and sometimes gets other people to sing on it, especially in a
different language, to make it more of a dialogue, a conversation. Sometimes
the music feels like an alter ego, intuitive, emotional, going with the flow,
as it comes, un-thought-out as opposed to art, which sometimes feels like a
fucking job. But maybe that’s why the two go so well together. It comes from
Glasgow, though it’s not made there anymore. It comes from bands, but made solo
now. It doesn’t really make sense but he can’t stop doing it. Sometimes it
feels like the most honest thing he does. Well, at least his children like it,
that’s got to count for something, I think they are his No.1 fans, though
possibly because they are currently his main audience.
But that could all change,
look out for new records out soon like “I Tried to Give Up Drinking With
Guitars Instead of God”
Thank you very much.
Goodnight Glasgow,
See you again next time.
10.
Kevin Hutcheson
‘New Town Blues’ alludes
to being an anthology of mythic art punk groups from South Lanarkshire.
11.
Ronnie Heeps
'Bubblehead' are an English rock band haling from the West
Midlands. A four piece combo, they were one of the earliest military rock
groups. Their lyrics favor national protection issues and futuristic planetary
defense strategies. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock
and now are considered a link between military and civilian cultures.
The critic Ralph Deeson describes their trademark sound as characterised by
"that gargantuan and impenetrable pre-metal/hardcore drone, with
magnificent riffs that provide an inexorable drive to destinations
unknown".
12.
Hrafnhildur Halldórsdóttir (Rafla)
Juan X Jaula (1912-1992).
Very little is known about this respected but largely neglected Spanish
composer. All that remains is a handful of recordings of his later
compositions, this 1973 recording of ‘Siléncios Encontrados’ (Found Silences)
released on Obstacle Soup as a limited edition vinyl of only 150 copies, being
the most well-known.
13.
Nicola Atkinson (Nadfly)
'Pet Tongues' has existed since people decided that animals were not just for
guarding, farming, hunting and /or running free. It was the human desire
for a bit of animal company that started this pet
movement. Collected together here is the celebration of that movement. 'Pet
Tongues' is now being experienced
in one’s home, lap, the park or with other pet lovers. Just close your
eyes and enjoy 'Pet Tongues' here without
boundaries!
14.
Ian Smith
‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ by Monty Cantsin features much loved
classics played entirely ‘on the spoons’ and recorded live at the closing gig
of The Glasgow Apollo 16th June 1985 (supported by Paul
Weller’s Style Council). Monty’s set was received with tumultuous applause, and
the enthusiasm of the crowd is a key component of this historical recording.
The track listing includes just one of Monty’s own cockney compositions -
‘Fanck the Police’, later revised by ‘Niggers With Attitude’ for their
influential 1988 recording ‘Straight Outta Compton’, with slightly
revised lyrics.
15.
Amy Marletta
Self titled debut album (and only album?) from the Underground Pickles, re-issued after
the original master tapes were discovered in someone’s garage.
Sound engineer Lonnie Dupree remembers the original
recording sessions with the band:
“they were a misfit bunch, four of them as I recall,
think a couple were sisters and the other were cousins or some relation. They’d
have to be related to play together, don’t think no one else could have put up
with that caterwauling. I didn’t know what to make of it but it seems some
people like it.”
16.
Chris Biddlecombe
It’s the many wrongs that
make this record by Belgian producers Blancwash
and Clare V, so right. This is a truly strange recording that for the first
time in 75 years allows us to hear again the unnatural utterances of the
Weeping Spinster.
Josephine Tremlett was a
semi-reclusive, backstreet ‘modern soothsayer’, who first came to public
attention through the broadcasts of Ernest Bridgeman’s Night Speaker
Neighbourhood in Stoke in the late 1920s.
What Blancwash and Clare V
have cleverly orchestrated here is a subversion of their usual Lowland club
style by placing Josephine’s rhythmic whispers deep within a liquid score of
sinuous acid lines, generous smudges of reverb and a handful of ghostly beats.
17. Karen Vaughan
In 1984 a bunch of
disparate and somewhat unlikely souls, based in and around the county of Angus,
stumbled into each other at the tech college and formed The High Common. This was their first release, they went on
to release a further six albums with the help of independent record label Round
’O’ Records. They enjoyed cult icon status and success within in the
Indie-folk scene but split up in 1991.
18.
Alexander Violette
Untitled
California are a group of sound artists and
musicians who work under the direction of Steve De Silva and Mary Zodiac who
met at SFAI in 1989. Their first album 10 was released on miniDV in a limited
edition of 200. Their second , Static Empire, Wow, was produced by Japanese
disco legend Fukushima/Fujiwara. This 12" mixed by DJ Autriche is for Mike
Kelley, who committed suicide in 2011; while the B-side is an homage to the now
defunct NY gay bathhouse Lapsed Alaska.
19.
Jason Nelson
Forming in Fife in 1974, ‘Jet-black and Ginger’ oozed onto
Scottish music scene with their own brand of genetically modified Mediaeval
Folk Rock. The album ‘Mince for Fingers’ took twenty two years to write
and is widely regarded to be the second best of their three albums. This
esoteric concept album explored and reflected on the human condition through
the deconstruction of traditional song writing paradigms. Implementing a
series of overly complicated and often pointless rules on the writing process the
band effectively removed all creativity from their creative process. Communicating
exclusively with Morse code and Braille messages delivered by carrier pigeon
each song on the album took an average of two years to write.
Half way through the album
the band effectively split as a result of the stress caused by the writing
process. All consequent Morse and Braille song writing communications
went through the individual band member’s lawyers. Although initially exacerbating the
situation ‘The Legal Half’ as it has now become known proved a crucial turning
point in the albums production and ultimate completion. Predominantly the
looming legal bill steadied the bands resolve and focused their efforts to
complete the album.
20.
Jim Lambie
Boyzilian – My Boyzilian
Boyzilian dedicate this album to the kid with the replaceable head. Boyzilian are
based just around the bend.
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