Touch Newsletter #289
Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #289. The Tapeworm announces two new tapes and a London event.
Marsha Fisher is a Minneapolis based composer and sound artist. Originally from Nebraska, they participated heavily in the Lincoln DIY scene. They bring the DIY ethos into their experimental music practice by using consumer tape players and cassettes to replicate musique concrète techniques in a context more similar to harsh noise. Their tape is titled “Psychic Architecture”.
Itchy Spots are James Main (former singer and lyricist with Wild Daughter) and Ansgar Wilken (Ilse Lau, Feedbackorchester, Happy Zloty). “Grooving skeletons of songs, rituals and shamanism.” Their self-titled debut is available now.
On 4 November at London’s The Horse Hospital, The Tapeworm presents “MEMOREX” – an evening of misremembering… Words, pictures, music and magnetic reels with The Pathfinders, Cathi Unsworth and Opal X, hosted by Travis Elborough. Tickets on sale now: thehorsehospital.com
The Tapeworm presents… MEMOREX
The Horse Hospital, London
4 November 2022
An evening of misremembering… In conversation and alive: The Pathfinders’ Roger Cleghorn and Malcolm Garrett. In her own words: Cathi Unsworth. Into the future: Opal X. All hosted by Travis Elborough. Illustration by SavX, of course. Further info and tickets: thehorsehospital.com
Friday 4 November 2022
7:00pm – 11:00pm
The Horse Hospital
Colonnade, London WC1N 1JD
The Pathfinders’ Roger Cleghorn and Malcolm Garrett met in the late 70s when studying art and design at Manchester Polytechnic. Moving to London they shared a flat on the 15th floor of a tower block in the Isle of Dogs. Here they recorded a series of experiments, captured directly on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. The Pathfinders could hardly be described as being musicians who jammed together and with almost 40 years having elapsed since recording, memories are sketchy with regard to who made what noise where. Travis Elborough will interview Cleghorn and Garrett to see what can be recalled and The Pathfinders will share unheard archive material in their live debut.
Cathi Unsworth’s “Johnny Remember Me” was originally commissioned by Brighton's Literary Loogster Jay Clifton for his “Peripheral Vision” series of live screen talks, in which authors were requested to pick a movie and spin off a character or situation from the film into an original short story. Cathi writes: ‘I have always been somewhat obsessed with the John Leyton song, and while researching the life and times of its producer and co-writer Joe Meek for “Bad Penny Blues”, had pause to wonder why it was that he ended up with Johnny Kidd's band as The Tornados – but without Johnny. The song being so evocative of curses and ghosts, I wove a little urban myth of my own.
To close the evening, to shoot us into the future: a live performance by Opal X. Opal X is the latest project of London based electronic musician Astrud Steehouder, fusing a sound that is equally inspired by early Mute, Sähkö & American noise metal. Recent projects include the “Twister” album for The Tapeworm described by Boomkat as ‘a sort of dank hypnagogic sound mulched from zonked electronics, gynoid vox and graveyard atmospheres’ and as one third of the NONEXISTENT drone project released by legendary UK industrial label Downwards in 2020. The show at The Horse Hospital will be the London live debut of the Opal X project and promises to engulf the evening in a crushing cold wave of Goth ASMR Hardcore.
Remember, remember – the 4th of November…
Further info and tickets: thehorsehospital.com
Marsha Fisher
“Psychic Architecture”
TTW#157
Cassette in an edition of 100 copies. Buy “Psychic Architecture” on Bandcamp. Illustration – Lars McCoy.
A1: Psychic Architecture
A2: Judgement
A3: With Envy
A4: Pet Flies
B1: New Moon
B2: Libra
B3: Fig Wasp
B4: Zircon
B5: Nuclear Family
Marsha Fisher is a Minneapolis based composer and sound artist. Originally from Nebraska, they participated heavily in the Lincoln DIY scene. They bring the DIY ethos into their experimental music practice by using consumer tape players and cassettes to replicate musique concrète techniques in a context more similar to harsh noise. Fisher also runs the tape labels Gay Hippie Vampire and Activated Skeleton and has recent releases on Orb Tapes, Falt, and Full Spectrum Records.
Buy “Psychic Architecture” on Bandcamp
Itchy Spots
“Itchy Spots”
TTW#158
Cassette in an edition of 100 copies. Buy “Itchy Spots” on Bandcamp. Illustration – Matthew Pagett.
A1: Find His Invisible Hand
A2: Bass Thing
A3: A Lonely Soul
A4: Beyond The Floor I Dance
B1: Geisterstadt
B2: Uranian Bill
B3: Hand In Hand
The Berlin based duo Itchy Spots combine falling words with tricky rhythms. Their music concerns the simultaneity of intensity and nonchalance, feverish high speed drumming, static sounds and tribal hypnosis. The vocal performance seems to stand alone, it is independent from whats happening rhythmically, yet it all melts together perfectly. Grooving skeletons of songs, rituals and shamanism. Itchy Spots are James Main (former singer and lyricist with Wild Daughter) and Ansgar Wilken (Ilse Lau, Feedbackorchester, Happy Zloty).
Buy “Itchy Spots” 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 fifth year and have just posted episode 173…
Guerrilla Audio
Long Wave
“Suspending time and immersing the listener in a widescreen of sound.”
Each month on the second Friday, Mike Harding and Bana Haffar present two hours of audio for dublab, Los Angeles.
You can catch up with the dublab archive on dublab.com, and for the entire Long Wave history (12 series so far for dublab and resonancefm) visit mscharding.net
Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
Twitter - @touchmusic | @ash10_3 |
@the_tapeworm
Instagram - @toucharchive |
@the.tapeworm
Touch on Facebook |
The Tapeworm on Facebook
Click here to unsubscribe
The previous Touch NewsLetter can be found here
