Brand new big-band line-up release from Blood Stereo, recorded live in Leeds in April 2005. The duo of Dylan Nyoukis and Karen Constance are joined by Julian Bradley, Neil Campbell and Sticky Foster for an Ur-primitive UK underground freak-out that jams signals with electro-flesh conceptions that are as occult as Heathen Erath-era Throbbing Gristle and as ecstatically damaged as anything from the tongue of yr favourite dope-dosing guru. A whole mess of smeared vocals, slow helium of electronics, loops, reeds and - crucially - plenty of doof. Killer.

Rare vinyl outing for Phil Todd of Ashtray Navigations’ Memoirs Of An Aesthete imprint with a solo album from Julian Bradley. Bradley has been a mainstay of the UK underground for a while, a member of Vibracathedral Orchestra as well as the name behind diverse projects like The Negative Kite, A Companion As Glamorous As Sleeping On Wheels etc... this is Bradley’s first vinyl outing since his mid-90s Giardia LP and it’s just as enigmatic, with massive guitar compositions that move from static gravities of doom/drone through Matthew Bower-esque ecstasies and odd string tectonics that would dissolve the fact of the guitar altogether. A great side from a consistently interesting UK underground player. Edition of only 250 copies with full colour sleeves. 

“A new set of studio recordings from the latter day version of the A Band. As noted in previous musings (check out David Keenan's article on The Wire site) on this collective, the A Band follows in the tradition of the People Band, Scratch Orchestra, and Portsmouth Sinfonia (and oddly enough, Calgary's own Street of Crocodiles), ditching traditional notions of instrumentation and ability for a more disparate and unique flow of ideas and sounds. Standard instruments (piano, clarinet, electric guitar) sit alongside makeshift/found percussion, weird electronics, and vocal utterances, the elements shifting in and out of focus, often seeming as if players are walking in and out of the studio at their leisure, adding something then moving along. The first track is largely acoustic, featuring a swirling marriage of its rag-tag odd and ends, while the second main track (actually the third) features a much different feel and heavier usage of electric sounds. Totally bizarre, singular, and unlike anything else on Bug Incision. Treated white card sleeves with colour & b&w stick-on art, edition of 119.” – BI. 

Limited edition of 500 copies on blue vinyl featuring alchemically re-worked live and studio jams from Neil Campbell (A-Band/Vibracathedral Orchestra et al). Lucid electronic minimalism combines with a feel for elaborate technicolour architectures, illuminated circuitry and the application of ritualised trance moves to punk primitive drones for a series of gorgeous psychedelic constructs. The sister album to the Neon Pibroch CD, also on Important.

Duo punk magic from these two UK underground stalwarts central to the whole Vibracathedral Orchestra/A-Band axis. Uncut 8" lathe in an edition of 150 hand-numbered copies, part of Alt Vinyl's new lathe-only series. Featuring John Olson (Wolf Eyes) as MC on side 1.

Edition of 80 copies CD-R from Bridget Hayden of Vibracathedral Orchestra/Telescopes et al. Recorded while on tour with Marcia Bassett (Zaimph/Hototogisu et al) in November 2008, the set sounds very much influenced by Bassett, particularly her work in Zaika with Tom Carter (Charalambides). Hayden sings and plays overdriven electric guitar with a slide, combining hovering fuzz drones with travelling steel in a pugilistic Industrial-blues style. 

Massively limited self-released CD-R from Neil Campbell’s (Vibracathedral Orchestra et al) solo ecstatic electronics project: Campbell’s vision of eternal music, as articulated in a post-Velvets rock context with Vibracathedral Orchestra, moves into a more headily synthesized and rhythmically complex zone here, with early tracks dissolving in a torrent of lucid circuitry, wormhole beats and soaring/peaking harmonics in a way that would marry Sunroof, Cabaret Voltaire and early Aphex Twin. But it’s the massive closer, the appropriately titled “Brizzle Fflllyyyy”, that lies at the heart of this release, an amazing earth-quaking psych rock monster that feels like the twin guitar attack of The Savage Resurrection chopped and screwed and set to infinite repeat. A monster. 

Very limited self-released CD-R from Neil Campbell’s (Vibracathedral Orchestra et al) solo ecstatic electronics project: the set starts out with some massively strangulated beats in an attempt at a live ‘electronic seance’ that give way to high chattering tones that come over like a Kaoru Abe solo before settling into the kind of occult electronica of Coil’s ELpH channelings. The second track takes off on smeared fourth world loops courtesy of High Wolf while “Wiwo-Issa-Wah” features Phil Smith, who sounds like his contribution involves being smothered by Campbell while attempting to fight back. From there on in the electronics start to levitate, creating a music of eternal expansion that accrues fuzz and from only dissolve into itself all over again. Another great one from Neil. 

Fantastic career-spanning collection from this UK improvising collective, taking in the ‘classic’ original line-up featuring Richard Youngs, Neil Campbell, Stream Angel and Sticky Foster, all previously unreleased live jams that move from Outside The Dream Syndicate-styled caveman string drones through single guitar note metal mantras, a great Richard Youngs-led song complete with Godz-play-Velvets backing track, scattershot conversations broadcast through droning tannoys... a great set that comes with a large fold-out insert that re-prints David Keenan’s in-depth history of The A Band originally commissioned by The Wire as part of their 30^th anniversary celebrations and only previously available online. Edition of 100 copies. Recommended!