These ears are burning. "Despite its size and the presence of a university and an art college, [] has relatively few music venues and very little in terms of catering for experimental music" could just as well be said of Bath (except that the art college in LMYE's home town is part of a second university. So even less of a leg to stand on...).
The only real difference from the quote's real object is that Winchester is blessed with The/Ologies - two gents (Joe Evans of Runningonair Music & Matt Poacher of Mountain*7/The Liminal) with the gumption to make something happen locally. This Saturday brings their second happening, Seismology, following last September's Phrenology. With the great John Chantler, Pausal (part of our Furtive 30 - 2012 releases that mattered most to us), Seth Cooke & Dominic Lash, & Regolith's 'sound manipulist' Grohs all on a bill justly blurbed as "ranging from remarkably original analogue synthesis, classically influenced ambient artists and live improvisations...highly contrasting work, both within and between each event",LMYE is girding for the trans-Wiltshire trek. Hope to see you there.
Another week, another Australian heavyweight... If Ben Frost knocks a release out next week, I'll have to dust off the old London buses quip.
Even without that unexpected treat, however (new Frost, not old quip), the arrival of Lawrence English's Lonely Women's Club is a long-awaited highlight of LMYE's year that fully merits its place in our anticipatory Best of 2013 from the start of the year. Surfacing on the knotty, shifty heels of Chris Abrahams's Memory Night(from English's Room40, while LWC is on Important), it is as single-minded in its "gently toasted"excavation of noctural tone as MN is magpie-like in its shuffling of soundscapes... "The room around it is filled with a dusty ash; smoke in haze like proportions. Eyes are blood shot, sunken below the rim of a glass. The organ's speakers cough vibrations into the room, smoke plumes spinning and spiralling into dissipation. No one speaks though the room is crowded, there is nothing to say and no one cares to hear it. Is there ever a time for last drinks? At the Lonely Women's Club it's an undecided question." Cigarette Burn (excerpt) by Lawrence English
A new recreation for evenings in with Mr & Mrs Evans of Lagrange, Georgia: the lulling, blurry CI - either Coyote Image or, after a shape shift for Space Slave (whose "manipulated rhodes and guitar amble in the tall grass" is as spot-on a take on the murky, languid, almost defiantly unfussed CI sound as you're likely to get), Courtly Illusion. Though there's hardly anything from the Evans household that isn't compelling (including the now-late Nova Scotian Arms), these ears have always especially relished Grant & Rachel's combined powers - their faint differences meshed into a richer brew that goes beyond either's seemingly more personal solo aesthetic. Quiet Evenings duly feature prominently in our Bests of 2011 & 2012. A de-synthed version of QE? Quantitatively eased, a finance geek beyond embarrassmentmight say. Don't mind if I do...
& we're back. One of our anticipatory Best of 2013 list at the start of January (only no title had emerged then), Chris Abrahams' Memory Night brims with his knotty intelligence & shifty textures - small wonder that Room40 advise bringing "an attentive ear" to its "unfamiliar sound spaces". Case in point: the initially ratcheting, Buck-ish Stabilised Ruinwith its unexpected lurch into a puffy, burbling crabwalk two minutes in... Chris Abrahams - Stabilised Ruin Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
As promised, a trainspotter's delight to complete the unveiling of & revelling in our Improbably Late 80 - the broader counterpoint to our earlier Furtive 30 & some kind of a conclusion to our end of year-listing for 2012 (though, as noted, there's stilla label profile/interview to come as we explore the outer limits of improbable lateness...). This final batch of pieces from (& previews of) IL80 releases features Celer / Leonardo Rosado / Motion Sickness of Time Travel / Mike Shiflet & Joe Panzner / Mind Over Mirrors / Nicholas Szczepanik / Portraits / Shackleton / Steinbruechel / The Swifter / Tim Hecker & Daniel Lopatin / TVO / Two People in a Room / Windy & Carl / Yann Novak & Robert Crouch.
