Machine Records is based in Cardiff, a production line of electronic music emanating from South Wales. Their Bandcamp page is a treasure trove of releases, umpteen singles, albums and EPs going back to the mid 00s. Here's two of the more recent ones. Out soon is an EP by Cardiff artist First Third, a three track release called 1, 2. The two main tracks, 1.1 and 2.2, are glitchy electronic pieces, patterns and structures set up and then altered. As well as these two there's a remix by label boss Dan under his Stereo Minus One name. All three tracks can be bought here, in New Zealand dollars. Is there a ley line that connects Cardiff and Wellington? And is First Third named after Neal Cassady's rambling, freewheeling autobiography?
Also on Machine Records, out last month, is Stereo Minus One's Lodestone, a thirteen track album which finds some weird new spaces, sounding a bit like the industrial works of South Wales, coal mines and engineering plants, taken over by computers. Again, glitchy but with some industrial ambient, reminiscent in paces of the 90s/ early 2000s work of Richard D. James. In some places, Other Worlds for example, it's all quite unsettling, in others more contemplative. Miserable Miracle has echoes of Two Lone Swordsmen (the late 90s era output, and Tiny Reminders). Rewind is one minute of repeating, filtered sounds and a rattle. The album is here. It finishes with a mix of Alarums by Cape Canaveral which is in a similar place to a lot of Pye Corner Audio's music from the last couple of years, murky, submerged, experimental but enthralling electronic shapes.
Dunno about ley lines, but Wales is sometimes called the New Zealand of the North and New Zealand is equally dubbed the Wales of the South. The landscapes may have something to do with it, but also probably the fact both are often overlooked in favour of their bigger, more powerful neighbours.
ReplyDeleteAs for Machine Records - not really my kind of music but they're certainly putting Welsh electronic music on the map.
Bill Drummond thinks the only fixed leyline hits the world in Reykjavik, then Matthew Street in Liverpool and then New Guinea. Not sure how much science there is in this but then Drummond probably doesn't care much about the science.
ReplyDeleteI can see your Wales/ New Zealand links Robster.