Touch Newsletter #221

Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #221. Three new tapes on The Tapeworm are now on sale, shipping on 24 January 2020. The first is by enigmatic duo Iceman Junglist Kru, whose “Mashed On Pills” release features tracks titled “Could Jandek Exist In This Day And Age?” and “Five Minutes Of Static For Robbie Basho”…

The second sees Black Spirituals’ Zachary James Watkins return to The Tapeworm, this time with Mwahaha’s Ross Peacock. Their debut collaboration is titled “Acid Escape (Volume One)”.

The third release is “Revox, Paper, Scissors” by Jérôme Noetinger and Liz Rácz. Using a singular repetitive gesture, Liz Rácz draws on a 10 metre-long roll of paper that she gradually unfurls, revealing a mass of regular strokes. Jérôme Noetinger records this gesture on magnetic tape, capturing, repeating, and transforming it.

The Tapeworm has also scoured its stock-room and is now offering a handful of spare copies of long-deleted releases. Available in ones or twos only… Do not hesitate!

Iceman Junglist Kru
“Mashed On Pills”
TTW#121

Cassette only – limited edition of 100 copies. Written and produced by Lil Schemer and DJ Financial Ruin. Mixed at The Ladywell Grime Lab. Releases 24 January 2020 – pre-order now.

Tracklist:
A1: Cold War Surveillance State 2-Step
A2: Mashed On Pills!
A3. Could Jandek Exist In This Day And Age?
B1: Leningrad Cowboy
B2: The Rave At The End Of The Universe
B3: Five Minutes Of Static For Robbie Basho

Formed from a bond that stretches across time and space, from the rain-soaked Lancastrian hills of Manchester over towards the icy shores of Stockholm, via North down South London and a shared admiration for the hidden reverse of Nurse With Wound and Coil, the concrete surrealism of dead air time grime from the turn of the Millennium and an unhealthy drop of teeth-chattering ecstasy. The Iceman Junglist Kru's debut recording proper distills the influence of all of these sectors of sound, each as important as the other. If you see a cop, throw this tape out of the car window…

Pre-order Iceman Junglist Kru “Mashed On Pills” on Bandcamp
More information on www.tapeworm.org.uk

Watkins/Peacock
“Acid Escape (Volume One)”
TTW#122

Cassette only – limited edition of 100 copies. Zachary James Watkins: drum and synth machines. Ross Peacock: Korg MS-20. Recorded by Zachary James Watkins at Santo Recording, Oakland, CA. Mastered by Adam Gonsalvez at Telegraph Mastering, Portland, OR. Illustration: SavX. Releases 24 January 2020 – pre-order now.

Tracklist:
A: Holves
B: Vibration

“Two serpent synths… Liquid sky… Two tonal tails traveling together and ripping apart… Fragments of notes creating a sky full of treasures…Galloping rhythms in drenched chords and shimmering sine waves…”

The new duo of Zachary James Watkins and Ross Peacock conjures a new possibility of tone, rhythm and light. Influenced by the likes of Dub, Krautrock and experimental pioneers Cluster, Brian Eno and Scientist, their live improvised blend of psychedelic electronica embraces the fragility of analog and digital hardware systems.

Watkins has recently returned from Carnegie Hall, where Kronos Quartet performed his original composition “Peace Be Till”. In 2017, he composed and performed an hour long score for the 35mm film “Black Field”, collaborating with acclaimed filmmaker, Paul Clipson. His duo, Black Spirituals, has released records on SIGE and The Tapeworm and toured Europe extensively including a six week stint with Earth.

Ross Peacock with his band, Mwahaha, have performed extensively in the U.S. performing a live Boiler Room set following the release of their first full length on Plug Research. They were invited by Warp Records to perform at their SXSW showcase where NPR’s “All Songs Considered” named them one of their Favorite Discoveries of SXSW.

The Watkins/Peacock duo have since performed a live film score at the third annual Haxan Film Festival, opened for the Fred Frith Trio and in May 2018 appeared at MUTEK San Francisco.

Pre-order Watkins/Peacock “Acid Escape (Volume One)” on Bandcamp
More information on www.tapeworm.org.uk

Jérôme Noetinger and Liz Rácz
“Revox, Paper, Scissors”
TTW#124

Cassette only – limited edition of 100 copies. Jérôme Noetinger: Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape recorder. Liz Rácz: paper, pencil. Edited from recordings made during performances in Melbourne, February 2017 and Poitiers, September 2017. Releases 24 January 2020 – pre-order now.

Tracklist:
A: Part I
B: Part II

Using a singular repetitive gesture, Liz Rácz draws on a 10 metre-long roll of paper that she gradually unfurls, revealing a mass of regular strokes. Jérôme Noetinger records this gesture on magnetic tape, capturing, repeating, and transforming it. An auscultation of detail in a magnetic tape loop continuum.

Jérôme Noetinger is a composer, improviser and sound artist who works with electroacoustic devices such as the Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape recorder and magnetic tape, analogue synthesisers, mixing desks, speakers, microphones, various electronic household/everyday objects and home-made electronica. He performs both solo and in ensembles (Cellule d’Intervention Metamkine, Le Un, Hrundi Bakshi, Les Sirènes, Proton…), and collaborates often (Sophie Agnel, Lionel Marchetti, Aude Romary, Angelica Castello, Antoine Chessex, Anthony Pateras, Anne-Laure Pigache…). From 1987 to 2018, he was the director of Metamkine, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the distribution of improvised and electroacoustic music.

Originally from Melbourne, Australia, now based in the Grenoble region in France since 2009, Liz Rácz is an artist working across different media: installation, drawing, printmaking, painting, writing, comics, and performance. She interrogates perception, repetition, mise en abyme, gesture and translation, feedback and language modes through such works as “La Persistence Reptilienne” (2017) which is based on principles of pre-cinema optical toys, but animated by stroboscopic light; or project-in-progress “Drawchestra” (2019), a participative and auditive drawing event using home-made electronics and contact mics; and, in collaboration with Richard B., “Furcsañata” (2018), a noise performance smashable sculpture, filled with adult-themed goodies. She is the vocalist in the punk group Plaine Crasse since 2018 and is also in the collective that organises gigs, Archipel Urbain, at le 102, Grenoble.

Pre-order Jérôme Noetinger and Liz Rácz “Revox, Paper, Scissors” on Bandcamp
More information on www.tapeworm.org.uk

Discoveries from The Tapeworm’s Stockroom

During a recent stocktake, The Tapeworm uncovered a handful of long-deleted and rare tapes. We only have a couple of each of these to sell…

Baraclough “The Lampshade is not a Past Tense”	Cathi Unsworth “Johnny Remember Me”
Peter Hope-Evans “Cast-Offerings…”	Othon “Silky Hands of a Rough Piano Boy”
Burning Tree “Stinger”	Dr. Fleischbrittel “The 7th Synphonie…”
Infinite Livez “@ Glockenbachwerkstatt”	The Automatics Group “Ammo A Mass A Mat”
Maranata “Royal Hex”	Dale Cornish “Fleshpile Thematic”
Phil Julian “Live Flux”	Millimetre “Sex Dreams Of The I Ching”
Amy Winedeath “Speakeasy”	Hanno Leichtmann “Unfinished Portrait Of Youth Today”
Where Is This “Infinite Hum”	SGR^CAV “Moved By Magnets”
Antifluffy featuring Bruce Geduldig “Before Before Surgery”	Black Spirituals “High Vibration Resonance Vol. 1”
Ken Hollings “Works For Magnetic Tape”	Nothing “The Wrong Answer Became Right”
Lori E Allen “Tears Of The Material Vulture”	Nigel Wrench “ZA86”
Acid Fountain “Sabina”	Le Forbici di Manitù “Saliva Calda”
Rishaug Marhaug “Corneal Clouds”	Damo Suzuki / Château Laut “Ausland”
Hanno Leichtmann “SY-4”	The Dead Mauriacs “Divertissements et malaises…”
Saturn and the Sun “A Complete History of Mind Stimulations”	Kumo “Day/Night”