Reviews 23/08/00

 

AUDIO

Ceramic Hobs - 72 Hour Drinking Binge Alcopop Madness 7" e.p.
Bonkers Butthole Surfer Psychosis. Kinda swampy, kinda grungy. Kinda
disturbed. Cheesy listening samples and spacey synths collide with some
choice ranting and that tried and tested guitars and drums combo.
'Trilaterals Killed Cornelius Cardew' seems to feature the riff off 'I
Wanna Be Your Dog' and some avant garde plinky plonk screech business.
'Scotch Mist' gets all six-six-sixties wah wah on us: "I AM BLACKPOOL...
scotch mist around the big blackpool cock/soctch mist around my sticky
stick of rock... we are the real illuminati".
Other tracks feature more
punk psychosis and may be dangerous to small children or operators of
heavy machinery. There are also some lyrics on the sleeve for a track
called 'The Yellow Race Dead-Fucks Mary Jo Kopechine" in which Esther
Rantzen tells all about vampires. Regrettably this doesn't seem to
feature on the record, but it's definitely a winner. Ceremic Hobs are
part of the emerging Mad Pride movement, and are probably well worth
checking out live. Always read the label.

PUMF Records, 25 Ivy Avenue, Blackpool FY4 3QF, UK

delphium - our tribe of nothingness 7" clear vinyl e.p.
More from delphium, who still haven't found the 'shift' key on their
keyboard. Some very satisfying dark tracks. The title is nice and
evocative with some bassy choral samples and tribal beats ("I like this
one!" - Lorna). 'a.s.i.' is more mellow and dream-like, with the occasional
big boshing beat inna ceremonial stylee. 'never dream never feel' covers
the whole of one side and is pretty funky. It's got a synth stab on it
that reminds me of all those hard-beat records. Some nice choppy
breakbeats (again - at head-nodding pace - mmmmm nice!) that catch you
slightly off balance.

delphium - amplifier (amplified), bruised/Big City Orchestra - Fire As Solution (split 7")
delphium's first track starts with an orchestra tuning up and continues
on a dark orchestral loops tip. It has a hesitant quality to it, but in
some ways that's better than something gleamingly polished. 'bruised' is
a right old groover - trip hoppy beats and some marvelous dark synth
loops. Lorna says "this is pretty good for a DIY record. Much better
than the other side!"
Big City Orchestra kick off with a kitch spoken word intro, following it
up with an ambient crackle punctuated with the odd beep. The track
builds up gradually, making the crackle more slurpy. At its climax there
are some great drones. One for the dark ambient crew - it's all made up
of old records and so on, apparently. Lorna says "this is terrible and
goes on for about twenty minutes longer than it should - it's really
bad"

aquese records, 13 warren close, sandhurst, berkshire, gu4 9el

 

Association of Autonmous Astronauts - Rave In Space CD
Man, that AAA CD is hardcore. 'rave in space' - this rave was in the engine room, not the zero G dock! no chillout anywhere in this solar system...

available from us - soundclips now up!

[dnyl]

PRINT

King Mob Echo - English Section of the Situationist International
Nicely produced anthology of ye olde English Situtionist Texts put together by Tom Vague. Lots of this has been floating around in bits and pieces for a while (well, since the 60s I guess) but this is a pretty comprehensive collection. Some pretty good analysis of the times (Chicago Riots, Provos, The Who, youth cults etc) and some overviews of deviant culture that are well worth a go - Blake, Surrealism, etc. Plus texts from the SI, Up Against The Wall Motherfucker, etc. Nice graphics and photos of King Mob grafitti. They shouldn't have typset the whole thing in bold though.
There's also a companion volume of Tom's "speed history", which like his Notting Hill psychogeography booklets is basically a list of dates and events.

Vague/Dark Star £6.00


Street Rat 1 & 2
Vermin of the world unite! Nice thick zine from Baltimore. The first issue has some good political bits and bobs (Mumia, Zapatistas, etc) and a brilliant long piece by tENTAVIELY, a cONVENIENCE on "Low Classical Usic" which gets deep into the high/low culture divide and doing it yourself.
Two is bigger and comes with a nice envelope full of stickers ("bananas not cars" is my favourite!). Tentacon checks out a local pyramid selling scheme, there's more stuff on the Zaps, a Seattle black-bloc report, some other stuff on tent's projects and a cool neoist cartoon. All topped off with some great graphics. I'm not really doing it justice here because of a terrific all-day hangover, but it's a great read. It manages to be enthusiastic in all the right places and carries off the more serious aspects with a righteous sense of humour.

Street Rat Liberation Front, POB 71245, Pittsburgh PA 15213, USA
willrat@hotmail.com

 


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