Articles
Newsletter 2.7
March, 1999
Editorial
Hello, again, and welcome to a New Year, an end to a Millennium and all that. We have a fairly busy year lined up as a label and hopefully Bruce, Colin and Graham will provide us with some entertainment in between. Anyway, please note the UK email address: wmouk@yahoo.com. We finally made it and are open for comments, questions, criticisms etc. The open forum Ideal Copy page also provides us with a platform to reply too.
Bruce
The Bruce Gilbert/Ron West album Frequency Variation was finally released in November 1998. It is only available on vinyl LP on Sähkö (SÄHKÖ LP 017) and distributed in UK through SRD. Mail Order copies available through: Mind Records, P'O Box 101, 20521 Turku, Finland; Hard Wax, Paul-Lincke-Ufer 44a, 10999 Berlin, Germany, Carbon Disks, P'O Box 28, Cromer, Norfolk, NR27 9RG or direct from WMO (US) for $10.
Further news on the Iain Sinclair CD Downriver, its on King Mob (KMOB 1) and is distributed by Sony. Bruce contributed interspersed audio atmospherics totaling about 10 minutes of noise between each spoken passage.
Bruce has reworked one of 25 tracks on the new Thurston Moore compilation Root on Lo Recordings. The track is called Track 23. Other remixers include Blur, Stereolab, Springheel Jack, David Cunningham, Merzbow etc.
Bruce also appears on the 2CD Rude Mechanic (PIANO 200) by Pan Sonic and visual artists David Crawforth and Hayley Newman. This is a document of the month long visualisation of sound event held at Beaconsfield 9 November—7 December 1996 in which over the 5 week period invited artists and musicians were absorbed into the creative process. Other artists include Scanner, Susan Stenger, Simon Fisher Turner, David Cunningham, Put Put and other "naughty children rattling the bars of the music business playground" (The Wire). It can be ordered direct from Beaconsfield, Newport Street, London SE11 6AY, priced £14 (inc P&P).
The second Beaconsfield event took place at the end of January with Bruce performing on 30th.
The Broods appearance at The Barbican Centre, as reported in the last Newsletter, was taken from the publicity material and apparently contained some errors. We have received this eyewitness report, via email, from Anthony Clough (thanks) which puts the record straight:
"I am not sure exactly what was performed, but it was different from the advertised works. Most interesting (for me) Pere Ubu's David Thomas sang Aria simultaneously with another work(s) and performers including an inscrutable row of blokes (described in one paper as looking like a group of sixth-formers) including Bruce, sitting behind a long table producing electronic sounds. Having established that there was more dance on the way I was about to leave when Robert Grey (unless Budgie has had extensive plastic surgery) appeared and set up a percussive device which looked like a couple of tiles mounted on springs to allow them to resonate. He performed a piece with Susan Stenger and Gavin Bryars. The sixth-formers then returned along with a dance group. And the music? Well, it sounded like John Cage."
Graham
Ocsid and Hox will not be released until the end of March.
Swim
First release due up is the Legion of Green Men (aka Incarnate) Floating In Shallow Water CD due on 22nd March, followed by the Lobe CD Hibernation on 19th April.
Due later in the year is a new Swim compilation More Everything-Everything Bollocks, a new Immersion album Low Impact, a new Ronnie & Clyde album and possibly ending the year with a new Colin Newman album. Also planned are a series of limited edition 7" singles starting with Silo and including a Newman one and a Malka Spigel one and a few as yet untitled projects. Phew! They've got their work cut out.
The g label is having a rest and is being replaced by tilde (represented by the symbol ~). Minimal and abstract, with a g-man album Possibly later in the year.
Colin and Malka have remixed one Vapourspace track for a 3x12 Sweep-Remixes on Mark Gages own Knob label.
Colin's remix of Hawkwind's Masters of Universe will be released soon on Bass Ritual—The Original Masters of Universe Remixed on the Liquid label.
Also available from February, but by mail order only, is Colin and Malka's Live—October 1998 CD. Although no live recordings were made of the actual gigs it was felt that this live set versions represented such a stylistic departure from the recorded versions that a record should be made before the material is revised for further appearances. The CD is unique in that they come as custom burnt CD-Rs. This album is not commercially available anywhere else. The cost will be £20 ($34) payable by UK cheque, US cheque, Eurocheque, Postal Order, IMO, Bankers Draft. (please make US$ cheques payable to M.Newman, all others to Swim). Order direct from Swim, P'O Box 3459, London, SW19 6ES. NOTE: Colin actually sings on this!
WMO
Bruce journeyed to Sweden on December 11th for a three day visit. On the 12th he performed live at Lucia A-Go-Go at the Lydmar Hotel, Stockholm. Graham also performed live at this event and the two have created some material towards the Dome CD that WMO are to release this year. Already included will be two versions of Because We Must, one of which was used for the Channel 4 version of Michael Clark's Xmas dance extravaganza at Sadlers Wells Theatre, London, broadcast in December 1989. A further unreleased song, recorded at the Wire In Vivo sessions, is included along with a live excerpt from Making A Meeting at Theater Lantaren, Rotterdam April 1983. Other tracks are being considered.
WMO has finalised negotiations with Mute for the release of gilbertpossstenger manchesterlondon CD (WMO 16CD) and with Cherry Red for the release of MZUI (WMO 17CD).
Release schedules for all of these, along with O'Shea, Vox Pop and Haring2 have yet to be finalised. We will keep you posted.
Coda
Finally, we received the attached essay from Stephen Harper [now in the articles section—Ed] which we felt deserved a wider audience. To us, and members of Wire, this is one of the most astute, perceptive and intelligent pieces of writing we have seen in a long time. Naturally, any comments are welcome and so are essays of your own that you may wish to share with us. See you all in June.
This newsletter ©1999 WMO Limited.