Total Vermin #57: Hetero Skeleton - Make Peace C28
First release since 2008 from these Finnish weirdos. Sami Pekkola from the band explains it better than I'd be able to: "I finally managed to select two juicy moments from Hetero Skeleton's police themed session. It's pretty nice. There's pretty strong narrative feeling all the time even it was just played as usually without any plans. It's like opening part, the 3D helicopter sound, on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon... but not 3D and not that good. But it's longer, almost 30 mins! Classic detective stuff and John Carpenter on acid. I could tell the whole story about the man and different moments of it but it's better if you just follow the sounds and "see" it yourself!"
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Total Vermin #58: Asymptotem - Four Lines Cross C37
Recorded on a balmy early-summer Sunday evening in Stoke-on-Trent, without talisman Joincey, robbed by the national rail network. Large ensemble drone approaching beauty at times, especially on the opening flute duet between Mikarla de Oliveira (Sculptress) and Kelly Jones (Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides). Blossoms into a blast of flute, cello, trumpet, guitar, bass, synthesizer, vocals and percussion, with the line-up completed by Andrew Jarvis, Jim Brindley, Michael Walsh and Stuart Arnot.
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Total Vermin #59: Smear Campaign - Rapunzel Let Down My Tyres C29
Third part (but first to be released) in the Rapunzel trilogy. Heavy on drum machine, synth and sampler, and less overdriven than one may have come to expect from previous SC albums. The first part, "Rapunzel, Let Down Your Guard" is forthcoming on Piped-In From Head Office, and the second, "Rapunzel, Let Down Your Mother" will be released on Beartown Records. There
is an intricate concept and a narrative arc, but for the moment let's leave it at 'Futuro-Mediaevalism'.
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Total Vermin #60: Stuckometer - Rainbow Beads Excretion CD-R
The first recordings from phase three Stuckometer (David Birchall and Karl Sveinsson on guitars). Two mammoth jams (32:41 and 26:10), recorded really sweetly by in-house producer Sveinsson, with a guitar in each channel and Pascal driving his traps straight through the middle. But where's Joincey? AWOL again! Nevertheless, absolutely massive return from the Stucko troupe.
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Total Vermin #61: Drooping Eyelid Octet - Spectre Inspector [Visiting Presence] CD-R
Recorded in St. Margaret's church, Manchester, the ensemble formerly known as the Open Eye Quartet filled the temple with a resonant and solemn invocation. The spirits of those buried in the cemetery around the church rose up as one and entered the building, wresting control of the music from its players (Dave Birchall on guitar, Joincey on Bass, Kelly Jones on flute and Pascal Nichols on drums) , twisting the sound into unearthly shapes to beam phantasmal radiance into the by-now gaping third eyes of all in attendance. That's the last I remember. When we came to, bleary and confused, we found ourselves each a stone lighter, and cured of any ailments that had previously befallen us. The spirits were gone, and all that was left was this recording.
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Total Vermin #62: Hard Pan Trio - The Salvage of Our Guts CD-R
Hard Pan is a trio of Pascal Nichols (Stuckometer, Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides), Luke Poot (Lovely Honkey, Very Rich Lexicon) and Stuart Arnot (Smear Campaign, Plum Slate). This first document of the ensemble is an intricate, shifting weave of textured drone, noise abrasion, bizarro free vocalising and overloaded polyrhythms, using a battery of misused electronics, percussion and microphones.
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Price remains £2.50 per tape/cd-r. Email smearcampaign@hotmail.com for a postage quote. I promise not to rip you off. Check below for older releases.
Coming next: Vampire Blues, Fordell Research Unit, Acrid Lactations, etc...
