TOTAL VERMIN

Core of the Coalman, Hobo Sonn, Serfs and Cabbage Rosette live in Manchester!

2011-08-17T01:18:00.000+01:00

Golden Lab Records and Total Vermin present...

CORE OF THE COALMAN

Jorge Boehringer studied composition under Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveiros and Alvin Curran. He served an apprenticeship in legendary bluegrass noisers Caroliner, and now plays massive minimalism under the Core of the Coalman moniker, utilising viola and devices to create an intriguing and engulfing pattern music; shifting rhythms and timbre, and constant MASTERY.

HOBO SONN

Brighton resident and former hip-hop producer Ian Murphy sculpts an exquisitely atmospheric drone from his Akai; like a swan carved from concrete, brought to life and swooping around the cathedral. One of the finest 'noise' proponents operating in the UK, with a unique take on the drone that it is psychedelic and engagingly nuanced.

SERFS

Serfs is the all too seldomly seen duo of Jon Collin and Tom Settle, the best Manchester band of the last however-many years. The playing seems to fall between John Fahey, Loren Conners, The Dead C and Crazy Horse, while remaining far enough from all points to inhabit a space all of its own, and can contort itself into many shapes; from lugubrious drone through avant-folk and wild psych to Chicago Soul.

CABBAGE ROSETTE

A new duo of Stuart Arnot and Luke Hall, seen previously performing as a trio with Phil Minton in London's Cafe Oto. Expect mong-mouthed sound poetry, spiced up with dysfunctional tape noise and electronics.

Monday, September 5 · 8:00pm - 11:00pm

The Ducie Bridge

152 Corporation Street

Manchester

£5/£4 entry on the door.

New Releases August 2011

2011-08-14T12:38:00.000+01:00

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!"

Sound Sample

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.

Sound Sample

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'.

Sound Sample

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.

Sound Sample

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.

Sound Sample

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.

Sound Sample

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...

Total Vermin Update May 2011 + + +

2011-05-24T22:31:00.000+01:00

Still £2.50 each, plus postage... Orders to smearcampaign@hotmail.com

Total Vermin #49: Very Rich Lexicon - Smoke You (Dickhead) C34

Hot young duo, straight outta Hull, way-into-the-red tape mangling and remedial sound poetry; the crumble of the industrial North viewed through an hydroponic kaleidoscope. For more and related recordings, pay a visit to POOT. There's also a compilation fresh out on RAYON.

You can sample a snatch of the release here.

Total Vermin #50: Ghost of an Octopus - 33, 32 C43

Joincey and me in an uncharacteristically downer session. Two long jams, stretching our legs. There are still moments of freneticism, but also a lot of ring-modulated drone flying around, and the overloaded tape blurs the movements into psychedelic confusion.

Get a wee bit here.

Total Vermin #51: Chris Dadge - Disappear out of Nowhere CD-R

This is the first of three offerings in this batch from Canadian percussion maestro Chris Dadge. Dadge's playing has elegance and finesse, rare and refreshing qualities in free play in our post-genral musical sphere. That is not to say, though, that it is without heart or vigour. Quite the contrary; Dadge is capable of hammering away as willfully as the next chap. This, the solo cassette Once or Every Day and the Bent Spoon duo cassette are all excellent additions to the canon of hale, timbral improv that he has built up. For further examples of his work (and other fine works by contemporary improvisation luminaries), curious listeners should check out his label, Bug Incision.

Here is a short clip from this expansive (five tracks, forty-five minutes) release.

Total Vermin #52: Joinconker and the Soupcon of Knowledgeable Phorceeeez CD-R

Another Joincey solo project to add to the list; this time a queasy amalgam of dream-pop and power electronics (by my reckoning), delivered with the usual casual conviction.

Here's a track from the CD, entitled 'White Nancey'

Total Vermin #53: Chris Dadge - Once or Every Day C19

The second Dadge solo release. See the description of Disappear out of Nowhere for further musings.

Here is an audio sample.

Total Vermin #54: Bent Spoon Duo - On WFMU C30

Another project from Dadge, this time a duo with Scott Munro. Here are CD's notes on it:

"This was a session myself and scott munro, the bent spoon duo, recorded at home in calgary, at 308, in december of 2009. it was broadcast on wmfu, on scott mcdowell's The Long Rally, weeks after, along with a live interview.

The session was recorded live to four tracks of a four-track, each player taking two tracks each to send a stereo mix from each of our mixers. also, there were no room mics used, so the only sounds you are hearing are direct, except for the odd time when a mic is used specifically. this accounts for the odd, tight sound, and panning effects. definitely not how we usually sound, but we're both quite pleased with the results after hearing it again last night.

The original session included a few extra minutes at the end of side a, and a shorter, middle track, but upon re-evaluation, we scrapped these small bits.

Instruments used include percussion, strings, sk-1 keyboards, cuatro, voice, and other things."

Here is a sound sample.

Total Vermin #55: Acrid Lactations - We Had Joy, We Had Fun, We Had Seasons in the Abyss C28

The recording debut of the duo of myself and Dr. Soosan. Partly in concert, in St. Margaret's church, Whalley Range, partly at home; bent strings, overdriven synth, electronic squall, whistles and frictional potterings. The featured concert perfomance was descibed by Manchester's leading authority on such things, Mr Gary Robert Kelly, as the best thing he'd seen either of us do...

Here's a sample for you to listen to.

Total Vermin #56: Dead Labour Process & Kommissar Hjuler und Frau - The Hamburg Tapes C37

Live hook-ups between Edinburgh's DLP, also to be found in noise rock shitkickers Muscletusk and certifiable droolers Brittle Hammer Trio, and Germany's Mr and Mrs Dada. They weave together an unremittingly strange noise, from sources familiar and unknown, simultaneously alien and as human as snot. As unhinged, confusing and ultimately beautiful as you could hope for.

A snippet of sound should be locatable here.

In addition to the above releases, I also have available some items from other labels that I have hereto neglected to list for sale. Some may be of interest.

Winebox11. Plum Slate - The Loathsome Bough c36 £5

Some no-effects acoustic guitar recordings that I made at home and straight to ghetto blaster. Here's the label blurb:

"Plum Slate is the sensitive solo side of Stuart J Arnot, who can also be found eating fried feedback for breakfast as Smear Campaign, pounding the electronic drums in The Gamecock and psyching out with Nackt Insecten in Mid Leopard Violet Prism, as well as bossing the label Total Vermin. 'The Loathsome Bough', however, consists of five tracks of straight-up no-effects prepared acoustic guitar, with atonal chords plucked and arpeggiated in a way that's sometimes sparse, sometimes frantic, and so hauntingly lonesome that it reminds of Jandek - which is funny 'cause when I first saw that video of Jandek grinding with the Sugar Hill rhythm section it reminded me of Stuart."

Sick Head #25. Smear Campaign - The Blood of the Martyrs Will Make Fine Black Pudding C40 £4

My favourite Smear Campaign album. Includes a cover of Jon and Vangelis' "I'll Find My Way Home". Tuukka says:

"Two bottles of Tyskie on a Tuesday night in a house full of sheets of metal and too-few-stringed acoustic guitars. The bleeding hands belong to the legendary Smear man, no son of mere man. Heavy expression of everyday emotions and the anger of endless discovery and loss. What’s for tea, love? Back pud! Some things aren’t meant to change. Outside the house, life goes on. Dance with me, you battered old fool."

Sound samples for this and MLVP, below, can be found at the Sick Head site.

Sick Head #28. Mid Leopard Violet Prism - Deadly Ochre Brain Residue C30 £4

Ruaraidh nursing a port hangover, and me fresh as a daisy despite imbibing large amounts of gin. There are actually three tracks, all of indeterminate title:

"Desert brothers Ruaraidh Insecten and Stuart Campaign continue their duo journey on the long since vanished foot steps of ZZ Top. Rattled snakes hide under heavy rumble while the sun burns a cheap six-string into a useless fuck of bent wood. Scrape that bolder, big boy, and don’t you show your face in this here town again until you have some real desert sand between those pretty teeth! Tracks: “Deadly Ochre” and “Brain Residue”."

Giant Tank GTNK020. Smear Campaign - Do Let's Hang the Aristocracy C20 £2.50

Wrapped in comic book pages and a wraparound with drawings by Malcy Duff. Short SC tape of solo percussion malfunctioning electronics and The Frog Chorus.

Singing Knives Records. v/a - Thoughts From Screeching Lake CD £5

Excellent compilation, put together by those nice people at Singing Knives, and including a Plum Slate track. Here's a review from The Wire magazine:

"17 tracks from the gloriously active Singing Knives label, home of the new Sheffield underground, as explored in The Wire issue 310. There's nothing here from Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides, probably the best thing on the Knives roster, but this is still a good haul, and the net is cast wider than you might expect. Pekko Käppi's velvety drones on his Finnish-Karelian bowed lyre are at the pure folky end of the spectrum, while two tracks feature the Beirut Improv crowd: Mazen Kerbaj's gritty BAO trio, and Christine Sehnaoui's astonishing, hyper-calm sax multiphonics. If there's a devotional quality to Sehnaoui's solo sax playing, the ritual vibe is still more apparent on Infinite Light's spacious metallic ululation, and U Boat's mysterious vocals, like an Amazon tribal heads-down. Groups like these certainly seem to extend what's allowed in Improv, till we tip over into Alberorovesciato's organ and drums freakout, an Italian homage to Brazilian vampire movies.

An earlier generation of Sheffield improvisers is represented by John Jasnoch's Navigators, skittish and intense. The electric guitar duo of Serfs could not be more different, and their stoned, aimless quality is also attractive. Essex based Helhesten are great too, with their twinkling dulcimers and hooting humans, while Ross Parfitt's quadruple-sax drone is an Industrial riposte to Pekko Käppi's folk fiddle.

Overall, there's less of the naked instrumentality I would expect from other Knives associates like Part Wild Horses or The Hunter Gracchus, but there's plenty here to get teeth and knives stuck into."

Eric Ostrowski - Twinkle 3" DVD £2.50

Excellent companion piece to the cassette released on Total Vermin at the tail end of last year. Amazing visuals and sounds, I recommend it very highly.

Blackest Rainbow/Recollections of Knulp. Ben Nash & Sophie Cooper - Alchemy CD £3

Susan did the (beautiful) artwork for this 'real' CD, and so has a few copies to sell... Here is the Blackest Rainbow description...

"Recorded over a weekend back in the early months of 2009, here are 2 tracks of multi instrumental composition from Ben Nash and Sophie Cooper (CooperJones). The music here is truly beautiful, personally I think this is some of the best work to come from both Ben and Sophie so far. Total late night guitar meanderings blurred with a haze of deep churning scrapes from various instruments and layered drone bliss, creating 2 totally immersive and beautiful psychedelic drone. Some of the guitar playing here has a beautiful Loren Connors mets Ry Cooder Paris Texas era sound, and then when both Ben and Sophie reach for the gee-tars you have the beautiful mix of Ben's reflective electric blues and Sophie's purely relaxed acoustic musings, totally fantastic. This really has it down for me as something truly different, lets hope that they continue to record as this duo. I certainly cannot wait for more..."

December 2010 New Releases!

2010-12-12T19:01:00.001Z

Finally ready to roll, there are details below. £2.50 per cassette, plus postage and packing. Please email smearcampaign@hotmail.com for a quote. New non-Vermin releases to be added in the next few days.

Total Vermin #48: Taco Bells - Talviunelmia C30

2010-12-12T18:59:00.000Z

There are but a handful of copies left of these astonishing and under-documented free-jazz Finns' latest, released primarily for their UK tour in November. This cassette finds them in trio formation of drums, double bass and tenor saxophone, wringing more ruckus from those instruments than is strictly decent. The Taco Bells do not indulge in simple blowhard, disconnected Europeanisms, though; a righteous fire burns here, and its a fire that heals as it burns. Act now, or miss out.

Try some here.

Total Vermin #47: CKDH - Summer Trance C41

2010-12-12T18:57:00.000Z

This is Hockyfrilla and Barbarians' Rhian Thompson's summer album. That being the case, I can only assume that her aestival activities consist of whiting out and falling into paranoid, delusional sleep under bushes in the ornamental gardens of power stations. Insectoid-acoustic scrape and scratch and a dissonant cloud of generator drone unsettle and disturb. The more I listen, the surer I am that it is her best work so far, and imbued with a certain beauty... but not the kind that I'd ever like to look at.

Hear some here.

Total Vermin #46: Ocelocelot - The Umbragechord C30

2010-12-12T18:56:00.000Z

Another excellent addition to the rich and varied catalogue of Ocelocelot. This cassette finds M. O'Dhubshláine building a post-industrial trance from the
wreckage of the Enlightenment, a Keytar and an Evolver, which internet research reveals to be a synthesiser. The A is pretty sprightly, a sheer electric
blanket that belly-dances you comatose. The flip is darker, a tangerine dream gone sour, with bitter cadences interrogating and a whipcrack precluding escape
or refuge.

Listen to a bit here.

Total Vermin #45: Boom Edan C41

2010-12-12T18:53:00.000Z

Expatriated Finn, wandering around Scotland in a drunken stupor, records awestruck/disgusted paean to his adoptive home. The A side is a humdinger of tonal electronics, with unexpected welcome-weirdo vocal pomp, recorded live in concert. The B side is also recorded live, but is quite different... you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll punch yourself in the head.

Sound sample here

Total Vermin #44: Servants of Culture, Drinkers of Pearls Volume III C39

2010-12-12T18:52:00.000Z

Volume III of what people are starting to call the 'Now That's What I Call Music' for people who are sick of music. Collects heavy electronics from CKDH, Ananas Pyramidalis' elegaic synth crescendo, overdriven post-jazz solo percussion from Pascal Nichols (PWHMOBS et al), exhibitionist tension from Bess Keloid, Plum Slate's bent acoustic guitar pluck and shoot 'em up quasi-drone electronics from Luke Vollar of Lanterns' Brohawk project.

A snifter of each here.

Total Vermin #43: Servants of Culture, Drinkers of Pearls Volume II C39

2010-12-12T18:51:00.001Z

The second volume of Total Vermin's survey of sub-underground auteurism, this cassette collects cranial-mole overprocessed something from Oawre (Joincey of Coits, Inca Eyeball, Stuckometer, etc), a majestic tape fuckup from Gaz Myles of Spoils and Relics, bedroom late-Kraut ponder from King Rib, savage trumpet and drum machine tribalism from Smear Campaign, Irma Vep's (not just emotionally) damaged guitar and vocals and Lovely Honkey's airless pummel and screech.

Dial through the elements here.

Total Vermin #42: Mid Leopard Violet Prism - Carbohydrate Somnambulism C33

2010-12-12T18:44:00.000Z

In contrast to the recent release on Sick Head, this cassette captures the Prism boys (Ruaraidh Sanachan (Nackt Insecten, Moon Unit) and me) in overloaded electric mode, wresting demons from the wires and threatening the sky. Reverb-heavy guitar lead circles above a static, fluttering organ. A mixer feeds solemnly back to the scorched earth. Heathens seek redemption in ritual.

Take a sip here.

Total Vermin #41: Ali Robertson's Ludd Quest - "Just Leave It" C33

2010-12-12T18:39:00.000Z

Now that he's sorted his hearing out (absolving him from ever having to learn the word 'pardon'), and been forced to confront the other halves of conversations in which he is participating , Usurper knuckle-dragger Ali Robertson has had to find new ways to express his rudeness. How about using the kindly offer of a release of his material as an opportunity to take the piss out of his benefactor? Nice one. Elsewhere on this cassette there is plenty to be joyful about, outside the boundaries of one's expectations, at both ends, of his previous output; from a contemplative and almost stately attitude towards the wee knick-knacks doing their things to a tribal stomp. No shit!

Tear off a hunk here.

Total Vermin #40: Plum Slate - Blues For Death C33

2010-12-12T18:38:00.001Z

Outsider acoustic guitar moves, with (mostly) subtle electronics. Much more actual guitar-playing than previous Plum Slate outings, and a new approach to tuning and harmony place this cassette some way east and south of Coits; somewhere between Jandek, Elliot Sharp and Istanbul. Not as good as that suggests, obviously. I don't want to get a reputation for being a bighead.

Check it out here

Total Vermin #39: Scrim - Squubble and Beak / Nettles Soup C29

2010-12-12T18:36:00.000Z

The strongest release yet from Edinburgh loverband Scrim. Beguiling tape-churn, the breathing of human and machine, and contact mics submerged in jelly produce, on the A side, a morphine dream of a faraway building site, and on the reverse, an arts-and-crafts cantilever on the verge of collapse.

Have a wee listen here.

Total Vermin #38: Early Hominids - Alkali / Dilate C33

2010-12-12T18:34:00.001Z

Early Hominids is the duo of Neil Campbell (Astral Social Club, Vibracathedral Orchestra) and his former Smell and Quim cohort Paul Walsh (nee Nonnen). The Early Hominids material seems something like a more industrial, and yet more abstract, aggro sister to ASC. The music on this cassette is a latticed squelch; the recording of a thousand laser guided automata exploring the Mariana Trench.

Here you may have a listen.

Total Vermin #37: Eric Ostrowski - Tinkle C39

2010-12-12T18:28:00.000Z

Eric was one half of Noggin, whose records of dizzying, string-damaging improv have floored and rejuvinated me more times than I care to mention. This new solo tape is made up of a series of multi-layered compositions for guitar, violin and electronics, balancing the chaotic with the structured, and paying no mind to sub-genre signposts; preferring to hack its way through the undergrowth to where the most exotic of species can be found.

There is a 3" companion DVD called 'Twinkle" that I have a few copies of, too, listed separately here, while they last.

Here is a sound sample for your enjoyment.

Taco Bells, Pekko Käppi in Manchester, The Gamecock tour, etc.

2010-10-29T23:22:00.000+01:00

Total Vermin is humbled to present...

TACO BELLS
http://www.myspace.com/darkjazzz

...Amazing, ecstatic, wild, high-energy Finnish free jazz quartet, check these reviews:

"These guys can play for REAL. There’s some genuine emotion going on here, it’s a goddamn microcosmos of feeling waiting for you. No, drop the micro-, that’s making it sound like an understatement – how many expressions can one face make? It’s all here." - Tyrone D.C. Washington

"Totally blazing breakneck free jazz brut from a buncha Finns with a connection to the source. [Taco Bells] whip up the kind of energy storm that would take Brotzmann’s Machine Gun session as a propulsive model while factoring in snatches of raggedy folk melody, the kind of hallelujah overtone style of the post-Ayler choir and odd breakdowns that combine scrabbling strings with knotty drones and wildman grunts." - David Keenan/Volcanic Tongue

PEKKO KÄPPI
http://pekkokappi.com/

Had the privilege of seein Pekko play earlier this year. Jaw-droppingly beautiful Finnish folk music, played on a Jouhikko, a kind of bowed lyre, and sung in a language you don't understand.

"Pekko Kappi (who the hell is this?) is completely amazing--mind blowing in fact. I suppose it's traditional, but its the kind of traditional that makes you wonder why they bothered inventing high fidelity. It's like that track on the nonesuch collection of African music--there was this Ghana woman singing, absolutely nothing else. It completely burned everything else to the ground, and it was just a woman singing. Pekko Kappi makes me feel like some kind of barbarian in regards to my taste in music. Recording this sort of thing even seems rather pointless, since we're all too white to understand (I'm sure Pekko is white too, but I speak of the soul!)" Chris Moon, Blastitude

"This is a solo work on a Finnish "fiddle," called a jouhikko. It could find comparison with Jewelled Antler's more elegant whorl and it also has the quality of a song intoned in a tavern or on a forgotten gypsy byway. Hardcore throat singing, too. The feel of traditional music. Jaw harp over fiddle and the player's movements are caught on mic: like trees rustling or dust kicking. The tracks often have a Tony Conrad feel-- working within a repetitious pattern that opens up more and more each time he repeats it, allowing the listener a moment to step inside the note and look eke out its nuance. The androgynous vocalizations could be a woman or a man mumbling in falsetto. Everything trembles: pine cones, earthy soil. Fireside incantations. Could be a field recording from a century ago. Stunning intensity from such a minimal set-up." Brandon Stosuy, Pitchfork

PART WILD HORSES MANE ON BOTH SIDES
http://www.myspace.com/partwildhorsesmaneonbothsides

Manchester's incredible abstract/beautiful flute and percussion duo, who've rightly picked up plaudits and fans across the globe.

"Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides occupy the same liminal zone between free jazz and abstract sound as Flaherty/Corsano. The duo of drummer Pascal Nichols and flautist Kelly Jones play a form of improvised music that refernces many totemic fire music sources - John Coltrane's LSD-inspired masterpiece Om, the classic Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell Mu sessions or, more specifically, Cherry's soundtrack to Alejandro Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain - while subverting them with a punk primitive attack that owes as much to Leeds's drone pioneers Vibracathedral Orchestra as it does to the Fluxus-inspired ritual of Japan's Taj Mahal Travellers" The Wire magazine

PLUM SLATE

Picked and plucked non-diatonic improvisation for prepared acoustic guitar.

£6 pounds entry. 8.00pm start.

Taco Bells and Pekko Käppi are also playing...

11.11.10 - Glasgow, 13th Note w/ Rictus
12.11.10 - Edinburgh, The Roxy Art House w/ Usurper
14.11.10 - Leeds, Cardigan Arms
15.11.10 - London, The Miller (London Bridge) w/ Alan Wilkinson
16.11.10 - Brighton, The Cowley Club w/ Bolide, Sunshine Variety

PLUS! The Gamecock are going on tour!

Read this lovely description,

"Duo of Stuart Arnot (Smear Campaign; Plum Slate) and Nick Mitchell (Beach Fuzz; A Wake). They play a kind of arrhythmic, un-danceable funk of high-end frequencies and low-end drum machines, fed through a wah-wah and rammed forcefully into the listener's cerebral cortex. Pitch-shifted casio crap and unadorned Roland Juno shimmer are melded to form what is at once both sweet and listenable and yet still, somehow, horribly repellant. Sitting somewhere uncomfortably, painfully and way away from the hypnogogic pop bandwagon, where the drum machines have bronchitis and the synthesizers sneeze, they are brutally loud, joyfully all-consuming and epic in their prolongation of the crescendo."

30.10.10 - Salford, Islington Mill
31.10.10 - Hull, The Boathouse
1.11.10 - Edinburgh, Sunbear Gallery
2.11.10 - Glasgow, 13th Note
3.11.10 - Leeds, Cardigan Arms

PLUS! Massive new batch of tapes about to drop. Bigger than ever. Will be available initially on The Gamecock tour above.

New batch - mp3s

2010-06-25T21:48:00.000+01:00

Lanterns
Ghost Of An Octopus
Asymptotem
Aviflorae
Spoils and Relics
The Gamecock
Smear Campaign

Enjoy!

June 2010 New Releases

2010-06-21T14:23:00.000+01:00

Total Vermin #31: Lanterns - Aphotic Zones 1 & 2 C29

Autofluorescent and beautiful drone from wigged-out Leodiensian/Glaswegian/Swedish Kraut-facing duo, weaving guitar and keyboard lines into deep soul trance.

Total Vermin #32: Ghost of an Octopus/Asymptotem split C34

The song remains the same (although perhaps with more warmth?) for GOAO in the first new recording for some time. Asymptotem is an occasional post-Sculptress big drone ensemble, comprised on this recording of Andy Jarvis (guitar), Joincey (bass), Nick Mitchell (drums) and Stuart Arnot (trumpet).

Total Vermin #33: Aviflorae - Journey in Schlaraffenland Parts I - IV C43

Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides + Acrid Lactations = Aviflorae. Swooping keyboards and frenetic bass fill out and further discombobulate PWHMOBS' punk jazz. Echoes of Airway in these abstract and obliterated jams.

Total Vermin #34: Spoils and Relics - Reconstituted Monowhere C28

Churning tapes, nauseous electronics, unexpected sounds and swampish shifts in focus from the hottest new properties in UK underground noise, following up their split LP on Harbinger Sound.

Total Vermin #35: The Gamecock - Reflect Only The Light That Blinds C38

Debut release of arrhythmic drum machine misfirings and laser keyboard drone from new Manchester duo of Nick Mitchell and Stuart Arnot.

Total Vermin #36: Smear Campaign - Funky Cold Demeanour C30

Queasy broken-Dansette and ghetto blaster remix of remix of Tone-Loc's dreadful classic.

£2.50 each, plus postage. Email smearcampaign@hotmail.com for a quote. New releases are the top row in the photo above. Mp3 samples to follow.

Coming to a town near me...

2010-03-29T16:42:00.000+01:00

Idwal Fisher Reviews

2009-11-22T16:01:00.000Z

Reprinted without permission, but I'm sure he won't mind...

"Total Vermin’s unstoppable, drone, fluxus, nether regions UK underground documentation process shows no sign of abating and with this batch proves that if you need to know whats happening beneath the Wire radar you need to be getting in touch. Total immersion over the last few days coupled with a real under the skin session on a wet and dank November Saturday afternoon had all the benefits of drug overdose without any of the side effects. Listening to whats left of the Ceramic Hobs in their MPO/LERM guise is a startling experience and fills me with the kind of hope for music I once had back in ’78. Leaving Stan Batcow to his own devices the drink seems to have taken hold of the rest of them and in OZ OZ Alice 1 they carve out a rock seam that fits in somewhere between the Velvet’s The Gift and Nurse With Wound circa A Sucked Orange. Morris’s spoken word delivery makes Charles Manson sound about as scary as a the speaking clock, add in juxtaposed and ill fitting samples [cheerily sung Christmas carols and Wurlitzer organs?] and you have probably the only group in the UK worth following. There are songs on here the spines of which are a thudding bass plod or a chugging riff but each becomes buried under some detritus or other whilst Morris sings/talks through a series of diatribes that coalesce into something that could be termed a ranting manifesto against normality. They left the cake out in the rain. Maybe the drugs are stronger in Blackpool or the beer is cheaper or they have too much time on their hands but something is definitely happening on the Fylde coast and it needs to be heard. This is the first in a series of 11 OZ OZ Alice release, the rest are eagerly awaited.

Dragging myself away from such dementia is hard but the drone must go on. Phil Todd’s solo project Moral Holiday sounds like Popol Vuh meets Smell & Quim. Andy Jarvis, a long time favourite here reappears for the first time in a long time and comes over all wailing electronica built around a hacking guitar refrain. Smear Campaign as you would surmise is a collaboration twixt Filthy Turd and Smear Campaign resulting in the soundtrack to a Friday night kicking on the hard, damp streets of Stoke. Imagine you just spent fifty quid getting pissed in the worst bars in Stoke and you wake up in the morning with a two day hangover and your jeans are stained with piss and you have bruises on your face that you don’t remember receiving and you’re bent over the toilet bowl retching green bile into the abyss, well thats Filthy Smear. About as ugly and deformed as its possible to get inside a plastic shell. Bad Orb is looped mumbled vocals, whiny squeal, tinkly toy piano creating a spacious drone. Plum State is a hum of sorts in which a vibrating string hits the rim in spaghetti western Morricone style. The Vermin comp Servants Of Culture, Drinkers of Pearls finds Littlecreature Courses Thorough Content in Ribald Constance rubbing shoulders with easier gobfulls such as DK720, Dead Labour Process, Shareholder, Plum State and Sindre Bjerga. DK720 fill the room with emetic bass end noise farts the rest lies somewhere between leaning on a keyboard with your forearms and radio signals picked up by orbiting manned space modules."

Total Vermin October Update

2009-10-19T19:12:00.000+01:00

New tapes, fifty copies each. £2.50 each, plus postage. Orders to be emailed to smearcampaign@hotmail.com, as ever.

TOTAL VERMIN #26: FILTHY SMEAR - CONSTIPATED ALBION C26

Dirty protest/remote collaboration between muckers Turd and Campaign. Tape noise, traffic noise, trumpet noise, bashing and crooning. Artwork by Ms Susan Fitzpatrick.

TOTAL VERMIN #27: MORAL HOLIDAY/A JARVIS C20

Moral Holiday is a synth-based solo project from Ashtray Navigations mainman Phil Todd. All swooping flourishes and animal yelps, like a caged Harmonia. Todd's former bandmate in A Warm Palindrome, Andy Jarvis (also of Sculptress, Saboteuse, et al), takes the other side. He uses guitar and synthesizers to steer his craft through these lunar waters.

TOTAL VERMIN #28: BAD ORB/PLUM SLATE C20

More in the way of eerie disembodied voices and creeping electronics from Bad Orb, a la the previous Total Vermin tape. Plum Slate in acoustic mode; feedback hum and occasional twanged strings.

TOTAL VERMIN #29: MPO/LERM - OZ OZ ALICE 1 C43

MPO/LERM is, in fact, none other than the Ceramic Hobs, with the first motion of the Oz Oz Alice Project. A potted history of the Hobs, should you need it, can be found here. This astounding document shows that Phase Eight of the Hobs is as brilliantly cracked as ever, with energy and ideas gushing out at every turn of the spool.

TOTAL VERMIN #30: SERVANTS OF CULTURE, DRINKERS OF PEARLS VOLUME I C40

The first in a series of 6 artiste compilations, this cassette comprises Dead Labour Process, Littlecreature Courses Thorough Content in Ribald Constance, Shareholder, Deepkiss 720, Plum Slate and Sindre Bjerga.

Ashtray Sold Out

2009-07-21T13:42:00.000+01:00

The Ashtray Navigations disc has now sold out...

Mp3s

2009-06-18T01:52:00.000+01:00

ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS
MID LEOPARD VIOLET PRISM
TOWERING MANE ON BOTH SIDES
JOHNNY SCARR
BAD ORB
KYLIE MINOISE
THE WHOLE VOYALD
GHOST OF AN OCTOPUS

Try before you buy!

NEW RELEASES

2009-06-15T18:11:00.000+01:00

Check them out!

Two pounds fifty each, plus postage and packing. Email smearcampaign@hotmail.com for a quote. Sorry for raising prices. My costs went up.

TOTAL VERMIN #18: ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS - THE NIGHT TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME CD-R.

You should need no introduction to Ashtray Navigations. Phil Todd has been sailing this beautiful vessel since the early 90s. However, I for one have never heard an Ashtray release as HARD as this. Seriously tough stuff. The night time is the right time to listen... if you want to wake up having suffered complete mental collapse. You do? Then there are fifty copies on spray-painted CD-Rs. 3 tracks, 39 minutes. Artwork by Phil himself. SOLD OUT

TOTAL VERMIN #19: MID LEOPARD VIOLET PRISM - ELIMINATED CD-R

MLVP is the damaged new duo of Ruaraidh Sanachan, aka Nackt Insecten, and Stuart Arnot. Electronics and contact mic'd acoustic guitar conjure stormclouds and drought-scarred plains. Fifty copies on spray-painted CD-Rs. 3 tracks, 41 minutes. SOLD OUT

TOTAL VERMIN #20: TOWERING MANE ON BOTH SIDES CD-R

Live collaboration between Towering Breaker and Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides, two of the finest duos operating at the coalface of showbusiness today. Flute, drums, electronics and garbled vocals combine to blow the cobwebs from the recesses of your mind. 50 copies on sprayed CD-Rs, 1 track, 24 minutes. SOLD OUT

TOTAL VERMIN #21: JOHNNY SCARR - NEOZIVEN/UERO AVA C28

Sometime Fossils member Johnny lays down some substantial ritualist electronics. Hypnotises your brain zone. 50 copies on green tapes, in blue boxes, with colour inlays.

TOTAL VERMIN #22: BAD ORB C26

Bad Orb is the solo project of Sarah from Polly Shang Kuan Band and Jettatura, so it should come as no surprise that this tape sings with woozy electronics and disembodied voices. 50 copies on lilac tapes, in green boxes, with colour inlays.

TOTAL VERMIN #23: KYLIE MINOISE - PAJAMA PARTY! C19

Ill-tempered, bludgeoning, searing and ripping noise from one of the best in town. 50 copies on pink tapes, in yellow boxes, with colour inlays.

TOTAL VERMIN #24: THE WHOLE VOYALD - IN REPOSE CD-R

Gang improvisation built around the Serfs guitar duo of Jon Collin and Tom Settle, augmented on this live recording by Pascal Nichols on drums, Stuart Arnot on trumpet and Jon Marshall on harmonium. Burns like Santana circa '74, but with a hangover. 50 copies on sprayed CD-Rs. 1 track, 18 minutes.

TOTAL VERMIN #25 GHOST OF AN OCTOPUS - 12, 13, 26 CD-R

More furious guitar/bass ructions, recorded live at some of the hippest nitespots in England's glorious north-west. 50 copies on sprayed CD-Rs. 3 tracks, 40 minutes.

Sell Out Bastards

2009-04-30T17:01:00.000+01:00

Serfs 'At Victoria Baths' has now sold out. You snoozed, you lost, but fear not! The Whole Voyald 'In Repose' will be ready soon.

OLD STUFF, plus OTHER LABELS

2009-04-25T08:45:00.000+01:00

These recordings are currently available for £2 each, plus postage...

TOTAL VERMIN #6: PUFF - "PUT DOWN" CD-R

Latest work in Joincey's Puff continuum. Unworldly pop, power electronics and bubble wrap abuse, tinged with the desolation of a perverted rainbow. Spraypainted CD-R (5 tracks, 21 minutes) in card sleeve adorned in Joincey's vague visage, with photocopied insert. 50 copies.

TOTAL VERMIN #7: SMEAR CAMPAIGN - "ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT, ANOTHER JOYLESS WANK" C20

Recorded one lonely weekend in May, the unsightly and stinking produce of a navel-gazing loser with too much time on his hands. 50 copies on red tapes in red boxes with red photocopied sleeves.

TOTAL VERMIN #9: FORD MADDOX BROWN/SMEAR CAMPAIGN C30

Manchester's Ford Maddox Brown's new age synth mask hides an ugly brute of an ogre, threatening and cajoling, and fitfully sticking his scabby coarse tongue through their shiny strawberry lips. The other side is some kind of electric wall, crackling and buzzing and shocking our weaselly protagonist as his pathetic naked frame slides flaccid from repeated attempts to mount it. Lilac tapes and inlays, with artwork from Burial Suit. 50 copies.

TOTAL VERMIN #10: SERFS - "AT VICTORIA BATHS" CD-R

Strung out twin guitar explorations tying Fahey/Crazy Horse/Dead C venn diagrams into galactic knots of sound, enhanced on this live recording by the atmospherics of the Victoria Baths and the clatter and screech percussion of T. Hardman, P. Nicholls, B. Dean and S. Arnot. 47 copies on stencil-sprayed CD-Rs.

TOTAL VERMIN #11: GHOST OF AN OCTOPUS - "4, 10, 9, 11, 6, 8" C40

Cracked guitar and deadweight bass duo from the minds, guts and sweaty blistered fingers of a Puff/Smear Campaign alliance. Blindfolded sketching in oil and blood. A ghastly nightmare wherein you cannot find that fucking kettle that is boiling over with some horrible goddamned corrosive and you know that the work surfaces will be ruined. 50 copies, pink tapes and inlays.

TOTAL VERMIN #12: MUSCLETUSK/SMEAR CAMPAIGN C24

Heady, and heavy, live aktion from the 'Tusk, pissing off the neighbours of Manchester's Fuel Cafe in October 2006. As powerful as one could wish for, while never falling down onto any 'harsh' cliches. Two Smear Campaign pieces, a cymbal workout, and a trumpet lament. Orange tapes, green cases, colour inlays, 50 copies.

TOTAL VERMIN #14: USURPER TRIO - "PARTY TAPES" C37

"Easily the dumbest thing we've ever recorded". Ali and Malcy are joined by Grant from Muscletusk on this tape, where early japing gives way to some true out sounds. Comparitively low fidelity recording to some other Usurper releases removes the sounds from their sources, giving the listener a thorough brain-bending. Blue tapes, yellow boxes, colour inlays, 50 copies.

TOTAL VERMIN #15: GHOST OF AN OCTOPUS - "19, 21, 23, 14" C47

More heads-down fret fretting from Joincey and I. The first side (19) is one track with the both of us on guitar, a prolonged attack of double-soloing. If you know that John McLaughlin/Carlos Santana record, it's not like that. 21 and 14 see us in traditional guitar/bass mode, and on 23 we both play bass. It struck me the other day that GOAO sounds like an angrier Noggin. Without violins. White tapes, white cases, white inlays, 50 copies.

TOTAL VERMIN #16: PLUM SLATE - "ABRAXXXASS" CD-R

So, is this guy obsessed with Santana? Or what? All electric affair, and dissimilar to recent (and probably future) live outings. If you wish you only had to listen to Joincey in Ghost Of An Octopus (and I do), then pretend he's playing as well, and try to ignore what's actually happening. Or press stop, take the CD out, and put a Coits one in instead. Do what you like, I'm not your dad. Or your carer. 6 track, 35 minute stencil-sprayed CD-R in DVD case, 50 copies.

TOTAL VERMIN #17: SABOTEUSE - "APERÇU" CD-R

Saboteuse is the parts of Sculptress with testes, i.e. Andy Jarvis and Joincey, joined on one track of this release by Pascal Nichols of Stuckometer and that. A disparate clutch of guitar/drum tracks, with your boys swapping duties, I believe. Also includes some nice Stokey vocals from Joinson. 5 track, 30 minute stencil-sprayed CD-R in DVD case, 50 copies.

These recordings, on various other labels are also available...

KOVOROX SOUND #30: SMEAR CAMPAIGN - "STAKES SHARPENED" CD-R £4

"6 tracks of wailing free trumpet, bludgeoning bass, screaming percussive clang and piercing feedback hell from Manchester noise/style guru. Total running time 33:06" Lea's description.

CASUAL SEIZURES no cat: SMEAR CAMPAIGN - "NIT SEASON" CD-R £2.50

"Five tracks of howling voice/feedback/what the fuck? from Barbarians/Plum Slate thumper (Featuring a cover of Leonard Cohen's 'One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong'...worth the price alone!). Sprayed cdr's in slim dvd box." Gareth's description.

UNVERIFIED RECORDS UN006: SMEAR CAMPAIGN - "GAGGED AND BOUND (I WISH I WAS)" CDR £4

"Liverpool – home of The Beatles, and now refuge to exiled Manc style icon Stuart Arnot AKA Smear Campaign. In this fat blurt, he spills the contents of his filthy mind onto yr favourite sheets and turns the Capital of Culture on its head. Enveloping, triumphant skree for trumpet and electrical storm. Tracks: Sigh and Come, Fuck a Fascist, The Mechanisation of Romance pt2: Aroused by Robots, Acid Rain on St Swithuns Day." Euan's description

SINGING KNIVES no cat: THE WHOLE VOYALD - LIVE AT THE HEELEY INSTITUTE CD-R £4

"The Whole Voyald is based around the intimate Dead Man guitar interplay of Serfs Jon Collin and Tom Settle but with Pascal from Stuckometer on drums and Stuart ‘Smear Campaign‘ on trumpet helping it blister into full colour. The name comes from a collection of stories by the humanistic Armenian-American writer William Saroyan, at the start of which he explains that the word 'voyald' is a neat combination of the words 'void','voyage', and 'world'. A recording of the amazing set they played at The Heeley Institute on Friday 27th October 2006 is now available." Label description.

Prices do not include postage.