Touch Newsletter #241

Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #241. “Migrations” by Simon Scott is now shipping. The vinyl is limited to 300 copies and comes with two bonus tracks, “Borderlands", and “Fen(ce)”.

“Clear Your Screens” is a series of battle re-enactments from Manchester’s least celebrated post-punk group Biting Tongues. Their tritone tribalism, mixed with intense language flow and layers of tape concrète, was perhaps a bit too much for the early 1980s when they released records with New Hormones, Factory and Beggars Banquet. This CD and Digital release features the group in performance at ICA, London, 29 May 2003; Islington Mill, Salford, 23 February 2007; Shunt Vaults 1, London, 19 November 2008; Shunt Vaults 2, London, 20 November 2008; The Moon Landing, Salford, 19 July 2009; Plan K, Brussels, 12 December 2009. Preorder now, shipping 10 July 2020.

“ROMTYZ” by NYZ is an 11-track CD in an edition of 250, and Digital release. Preorder now, shipping 10 July 2020. David Burraston writes: “Those wonderful people at The Wormhole recently got in touch and invited me to send them a CD album. So I had a bit of a think and then rummaged around in the studio and laboratory where I found a bunch of stuff done with cheap old ROMplers and my MANIAC cellular automata sequencer…”. Further details below…

Each month, on the second Friday at 2pm PST, Mike Harding hosts a two hour radio show on Dublab in Los Angeles, called “Long Wave”. In its 9th series, (the 1st series was on Resonance.fm), the show is archived on dublab.com – more information is available at mscharding.net

“Touch: Isolation” is now available to purchase as a complete album – 28 new and exclusive tracks recorded by Touch artists: Jana Winderen, Chris Watson, Bana Haffar, Mark Van Hoen, Richard Chartier, Zachary Paul, fennesz sakamoto, farmersmanual, ELEH, Anthony Moore, Daniel Menche, Geneva Skeen, Simon Scott, Oren Ambarchi, UnicaZürn, Bethan Kellough, Strafe F.R., Yann Novak, Howlround, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Philip Jeck, Rosy Parlane, OZMOTIC, Claire M Singer, Heitor Alvelos, Sohrab, Fennesz and Charlie Campagna. Photography by Jon Wozencroft, Hampstead Heath, March to May 2020. There is still time to support independent music, its artists and its fragile support systems.

Simon Scott
“Migrations”
Tone 70

Vinyl in an edition of 300 copies plus digital – with two digital bonus tracks when purchasing from our Bandcamp. Vinyl mastered at SPS Mastering. Cut by Jason @ Transition. Digital mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio (NY). Photography and design by Jon Wozencroft. Buy on Bandcamp.

A. Red Square 14’ 14”

Field recordings captured during a day under Moscow’s Red Square in the underground metro in 2015. It has a narrative of motion as my microphones move with me through a vast sounding environment. The space reveals the aural diversity of the people moving beneath the Russian city of Moscow, the complex acoustics, and complex rhythms mixed together in a subterranean space. These communitive sonic events transformed my perception of space and time as reverberant boundaries led my ear into unknown acoustic destinations.

AA. Murmurations 18’ 53”

Recorded in March 2018 at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen in, Norfolk, UK using DPA 4061 microphones. I was showing Australian sound artist Lawrence English around the Fens of East Anglia, when he requested we head to Buckenham to find a flock of crows roosting. I recorded the spectacular murmurations of thousands of crows, rooks and jackdaws, as the spring sun slowly set at dusk, and deer ran across the marshes. The field recordings are accompanied by a gradually shifting modular synth tone, that musically represents the slow change colours, until the light fell off the horizon.

Download only: The Borderlands 6’ 30” and Fen(ce) 7’ 06”

Both compositions were recorded in Holme Fen nature reserve, Cambridgeshire, with two JrF contact microphones on 22nd to 25thMay 2020. The long lines of wires and wooden posts stretched across the sunken landscape of the Fens follow the man-made drainage canals and rivers for hundreds of miles. Bowed, plucked and struck by natural phenomena (strong winds caused by climate change) and indigenous flora, reveals dynamic sonic intra-events and hidden acoustic ecologies.

Buy “Migrations” on Bandcamp

NYZ
“ROMTYZ”
WHO#18

CD in an edition of 250 copies plus digital. Written and produced by David Burraston. Recorded at Noyzelab, 2016-2018. Random artwork generated from seed 0xAF30F0843192FC4 by Matthew Petty. Preorder on Bandcamp.

1. NYZ-1_vocM [MONO]
2. Kay4gmg::du-daardle-teeeeeeee [MONO]
3. Kay4gmg::PNOgrainz
4. Kay4gmg::du-daardle-dhaaaaaaaa-de
5. PTSx r60Subtree119c 31tORWLL GTRHPZCHD
6. PTSx r60Subtree119c 31tORWLL MDLTD
7. SRi M12 SCHISM17t
8. RLD SEMANTIC M12 PLK10
9. SRi M12 SCHISM17t DRN24
10. SRi M12 SCHISM17t DRN7
11. NYZ-1_PBdigitM view

“Those wonderful people at The Wormhole recently got in touch and invited me to send them a CD album. So I had a bit of a think and then rummaged around in the studio and laboratory where I found a bunch of stuff done with cheap old ROMplers and my MANIAC cellular automata sequencer. After sifting through a few sessions I selected a variety of tracks and put them together for this release. For process-inquisitive types, the generative composition techniques with cellular automata used various MIDI events including => note, velocity, mono / poly aftertouch, pitch bend, mod wheel, continuous controllers and various custom system exclusive encodings to change microtuning tables and various synth patch parameters. Sequences were generated and manipulated live at the sequencer interface and recorded direct to hard disc.” – David Burraston, New South Wales, 11 April 2020.

Preorder “ROMTYZ” on Bandcamp

Biting Tongues
“Clear Your Screens”
WHO#19

CD in an edition of 250 copies plus digital. Tapes remixed and produced by Graham Massey. Compiled by Ken Hollings. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering, June 2019. Preorder on Bandcamp.

1. First Use All The Gs (Moon Landing)
2. Evening State (ICA)
3. Iyahbhoone (Plan K)
4. The Reflector (Shunt Vaults 2)
5. Denture Beach (Moon Landing)
6. Glorious Stranger (Moon Landing)
7. Heart Disease (Shunt Vaults 1)
8. Where The Birdlands (Moon Landing)
9. Unhook That Boy (Islington Mill)
10. Everywhere But Here (ICA)
11. Aair Care (Islington Mill)
12. When It Breaks On You (Islington Mill)

Always an astonishing experience live, the classic early line-up returned to the stage near the start of the 21st century with the musical and performance experience accumulated over another twenty years working apart. Applying modern digital mixing techniques ten years later to these live recordings reveals the rare blood chemistry of a team of specialists who have only grown more passionate over time.

Surely a worthy part the 20th century musical canon even if they have handed in their homework late.

“Clear Your Screens” features Biting Tongues in performance at: ICA, London, 29 May 2003; Islington Mill, Salford, 23 February 2007; Shunt Vaults 1, London, 19 November 2008; Shunt Vaults 2, London, 20 November 2008; The Moon Landing, Salford, 19 July 2009; Plan K, Brussels, 12 December 2009.

Biting Tongues were: Ken Hollings: celebrated author, academic and broadcaster #exorcist #cut_up_oracle. Graham Massey: electronic music pioneer, 808 State, music producer and broadcaster #pre_and_post_guitar_landscapes #weird_woodwind #shit_trumpet. Colin Seddon: band leader and music educator #biblical_bass lines #lord_of_the_trichord. Howard Walmsley: film director/producer #muscular_beef_sax #transistor_organ_fist. Eddie Sherwood: music educator and band leader #reverse-wired-bespoke_voodoo_drumming

Preorder “Clear Your Screens” on Bandcamp

“Touch: Isolation”
V33:40

“Touch: Isolation” – 28 new and exclusive tracks recorded by Touch artists: Jana Winderen, Chris Watson, Bana Haffar, Mark Van Hoen, Richard Chartier, Zachary Paul, fennesz sakamoto, farmersmanual, ELEH, Anthony Moore, Daniel Menche, Geneva Skeen, Simon Scott, Oren Ambarchi, UnicaZürn, Bethan Kellough, Strafe F.R., Yann Novak, Howlround, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Philip Jeck, Rosy Parlane, OZMOTIC, Claire M Singer, Heitor Alvelos, Sohrab, Fennesz and Charlie Campagna. Photography by Jon Wozencroft, Hampstead Heath, March to May 2020.

The cancellation of gigs and festivals has already severely impacted our artists creatively and financially. In addition it has denied you, our audience, the opportunity to see them play and support them. The notion of ‘independent music’ might, in effect, be pushed deeper into the self-isolation mode it is already struggling to break free from. We don’t need studios to the same extent, but we do need a stage, a physical reference and if not, a mental space with which to question the drive to online existence.

We set out to respond to these challenging times in a creative and helpful way. From March to May we published new pieces twice weekly every Monday and Thursday – a new exclusive track from one of our artists, each with a bespoke photograph/cover image. All the income received is collected from sales and put in a kitty, the proceeds of which are then divided up between the contributing artists.

We trust you will see this as a whole work; it’s never too late to catch up. We view it as a narrative hoping that ecology and the future of this earth is going to win through against the dreadful political and mediated mendacity that can only worsen the situation.

“Touch: Isolation” is now available to purchase as a complete album, so there is still time to support independent music, its artists and its fragile support systems. Thank you to everyone who has taken the plunge.

Buy from touchisolation.bandcamp.com

Not Now
“Within the Beyond”
TTW#130

Cassette only – limited edition of 100 copies. Written and produced by Not Now between Aqui and I reira 2019. Peter Hope: voice, SP75+DL4. Henri Sizaret: computer generated instrumentation. Mastering engineer: Kuvera B. Collage: D.M. Nagu. Buy on Bandcamp.

A1: Cage Glow
A2: Basilica
A3: P8 Sister
B1: Fleixh
B2: Dth@Wsh
B3: K Haut

Over three decades of pursuing an uncompromising path of innovative musical juxtaposing and singular vocal stylings, Peter Hope’s latest Not Now project pushes industrial techno into unchartered territories with the inspired collaborative input of electronic precisionist Henri Sizaret. In search of creative liberty the pair adopt spontaneous composition techniques in the construction of their other-worldly voodoo machinations, resulting in a wild ride through caustically sharp electronic mutations, intriguingly tarnished with the disturbed spirits of mangled blues and depersonalised dada vocal proclamations.

Buy “Within the Beyond” on Bandcamp

Guerrilla Audio

Guerrilla Audio is a series of audio raids by Simon Fisher Turner.

guer·ril·la
ɡəˈrilə/
noun
noun: guerilla
a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces.

Each audio edit will be posted for 14 days and then removed from the site, although the information about each guerrilla activity will be archived, but without the audio. There will be two postings per month with the first (also featuring Klara Lewis & Rainier Lericolais) on 1st August 2015, so please check in regularly to listen to the latest offering. We are well into the third year and have just posted episode 118…

Guerrilla Audio
www.simonfisherturner.com