Planet Municipal

My second review from the latest Nutshaft. I'm listening to Rossini's Armida, of which I'd never heard before. I think I know why, it's not essential. Still, Callas, innit?

WARRINGTON-RUNCORN NEW TOWN DEVELOPMENT PLAN/ U/ CITIES & MEMORY, Divine Schism, Bully, 19/3/26 

Cities & Memory is more a global field recording fellowship than a musical act, though founder Stuart Fowkes (previously of The Evenings, Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element, Listing Ships and other inventive bands) shares his own material from the vast archive. The tagline is “remixing the world one sound at a time”, but this set might surprise casual listeners with its smooth cohesive electronica: yes, the stories behind the sampled elements are fascinating, but the elegantly spangling synths would work in isolation, from the controlled crunch of B12-style techno at one end of the set to the 80s Tangerine Dream sequencer swirls at the other. 

Turns out we’re not the only people who missed U’s presence on the posters for this gig, mistaking their credit for a painterly squiggle in Divine Schism’s house style. Anonymity probably suits them, though, as the shadowy U controls the sonics from the darkness of the crowd, whilst a laptop independently projects some impressive visuals. Musically it’s one long collage of folk tunes, archival documentary discussions, abstract tones, and a few oddities – we certainly don’t expect extracts from 14th-century allegorical poem Piers Plowman at electronica gigs – with similarly smooshed together vintage images giving a Ghost Box vibe. There’s a spectral feel throughout, both from the hauntological vintage TV snippets and the tales of actual paranormal jiggery-pokery, and the set is somewhere between a British take on Irish folk-doomers From The Bogs Of Aughiska and a 70s schools programme broadcast from Borley Rectory. 

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan continue the visual immersion, treating us to a non-stop barrage of colour-saturated film clips showing that brief period of Modernist urban optimism from the 60s and 70s: brutalist architecture, shiny automated factories, and social projects, many of which are now crumbling, literally or otherwise. Fittingly, the music is all Tomorrow’s World techno, big clunky beats underneath stately and slightly sinister synth lines and arpeggios. At its best the music captures the retro-futurist mystery of Aphex Twin’s ‘On’, or sounds like the Radiophonic Workshop having a crack at EBM, but by the end of a very long set one more slab of mid-paced John Carpenter industrial plodding does become wearing and we feel like we’re stuck on an endless concrete ring road . The austere aesthetic is strong, but we wish that this plan had included a bit more development.  

  

 

 

 

 

 

Now I'm A Receiver

I just saw a little clip on YouTube entitled 'David Jason explains where the famous Only Fools And Horses lines came from'. The answer is that John Sullivan wrote them. So I've saved you two minutes if you ever feel tempted to click that link.

HUDSON SCOTT/ APRIL MAGAZINE/ CITIES & MEMORY/ BAT BLOOD PUDDING/ ANDREW HYKEL MEARS, Divine Schism, Fusion Arts, 8/11/24 

Bat Blood Pudding sounds like an unlikely recipe, and the music that Tom Dowse of the excellent Dry Cleaning makes under the name is equally oddly constructed. Half of his set is very good, based on murky prerecorded sounds from a vintage 4-track sprinkled with samples and some surprisingly sweet hushed vocals, the charming dusty grooves coming on like Boards Of Canada remixing Loop Guru. But he also picks out some Bert Jansch/Nick Drake parts on an acoustic, which would be great if they weren’t preposterously over-amplified, tinny and plain ugly. We respect artists with a strong sonic signature exploring a new approach, but sometimes conventional technique exists for a reason. 

Cities & Memory are far lighter on the ear, Stuart Fowkes’s compositions based on global field recordings being big on soft textures, synth pads and mellifluous sequenced melodies, recalling early 90s ambient acts like Global Communication or Pete Namlook; this chimes with the mutating computer-generated projections of bright green never-ending tunnels preceding the set, which resemble a Future Sound Of London video (or a Chernobyl endoscopy). Don’t let these 30-year-old references fool you into expecting something moribund, though, this music is intelligent and engrossing, with fascinating insights into the source material. 

San Franciscan duo April Magazine are more organic, just sparse bass, guitar and vocals, with a warm cloak of low feedback (though this last part may not be intentional, judging by their faces). It’s gorgeously woozy stuff, sounding by turns like Yo La Tengo at their most introspective, the Velvets at their most subtle, and Spacemen 3 at their most stoned (which is saying something). Occasionally they lose focus and stumble, as if someone had tied together the laces of the shoes they’re gazing at, but overall it’s a warm hug of a set. 

As tonight is a launch for Ambient Receiver, a periodical edited by Andrew Hykel Mears, who opens the night with some poetry, it’s no surprise to find his old Youthmovies bandmate Hudson Scott on the bill. Previous recordings dipped from the well of urbane late-80s pop that nourished the erstwhile Blessing Force movement, and were impeccably made but too freeze-dried and knowing to excite. Tonight, he plays trumpet and synths through layers of treatments and effects. There’s a wistful Miles feel to the spacious music – imagine In A Silent Way losing its way and ending up in a deserted misty valley – or perhaps it’s a glitchy, introspective version of Mark Isham’s widescreen soundscapes, with some of Rhys Chatham’s experimental melding of horn and electronics. A quite lovely set: ambience received, gratefully.