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Following the original, digital only, release of Goat’s score for ‘The Gallows Pole’ TV series, we are now thrilled to announce an expanded, ltd edition vinyl version, which will be released as part of Record Store Day 2024.
‘The Gallows Pole’ is a three-part Element Pictures production, written and directed by Shane Meadows which was aired in the UK on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
This new vinyl version of the ‘The Gallows Pole: Original Score’ differs from the previous digital release as it now only features the music which was specifically written for the series itself – it doesn’t include the three, previously released back catalogue tracks. Instead, this vinyl edition contains three ‘unused/unreleased’ tracks: ‘Goat Witch’, ‘Timeless Awareness’ and ‘Kampsång (Instrumental)’.
These tracks have not, up-to-now, been heard by anyone apart from Shane Meadows himself. The themes and imagery of Benjamin Myers’ source novel are the perfect fit for Goat’s mystical, pagan aesthetic. The story, based in rural 18th century Yorkshire, tells a fictionalised, psychedelic tale based on the true story of David Hartley and the Cragg Vale Coiners, which became the biggest fraud in British history.
Rather than 'writing to picture' in the traditional way, Goat approached the creative process differently, explaining: “In the beginning, we would get inspiration just through reading the book, trying to get a sense of its vibration and then translate that into music, with passages from the book as a springboard for the initial jams.”
Goat were already fans of Meadows’ work, in particular ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ and the various iterations of ‘This Is England’, and understood the importance of music to him, noting that: “Music is a central part to everything Shane has created” and describing the opportunity as a “blessing” when they were approached about the project. Working on the score for ‘The Gallows Pole’ also provided an ongoing inspiration for Goat, resulting in the germs of music that formed the bands most recent album, the critically acclaimed ‘Medicine’.
“Although it may seem an abstract or unorthodox way to work with film, a lot of interesting new ideas and music came out of those sessions that went beyond just the score.” said the band. Sometimes, the results of musical exploration are best heard (and seen). As Goat themselves conclude, “music is never easily explained with words”.
‘The Gallows Pole: Original Score’ is ltd to only 3,000 copies worldwide – the package comes as a colour vinyl LP + 7” and is housed in a special gatefold sleeve.
Tracklisting:
Vinyl LP
Side A
1. Mind is Like the Sky
2. Field Raga
3. Jazzman
Side B
4. The Gate Is Open (The Temple Lies Within)
5. Vallåt
6. Goat Witch
Vinyl 7"
Side C
7. Timeless Awareness
Side D
8. Kampsång (Instrumental)
Release Date: 14/06/2024
Theme: collaboration. Or how to remain creative in the modern world.
Nanocluster started as a bespoke one off pop up gig that turned into an album series.
Built around Colin Newman from acclaimed UK post-punk band Wire and his partner in life and sound Malka Spigel from Minimal Compact with various guests, they define collaboration.
Colin met Malka when he produced her band in 1985.The collaboration started there.
They became a couple and created their own projects like the instrumental electronic duo Immersion in 1994 and Githead in 2004 - spaces where they both ‘feel really comfortable.’
Growing out of Immersion, Nanocluster was birthed as a series of one-off gigs at the Rosehill in their new hometown of Brighton in 2017 with an added cast of influential and cutting edge musicians.
These were not ad hoc jams.
The songs had been written and rehearsed prior to each performance. This adventure led to a debut album, Nanocluster Vol 1, released in 2021 with Stereolab singer/guitarist Laetitia Sadier, German post-rock duo Tarwater, electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss and experimental artist Robin Rimbaud (Scanner).
Released again as double 10 inch with each collaboration taking up each disc, the new album Nanocluster Vol 2 has further developed this idea with a stark beauty that sounds like a future pop with sleek lines and unexpected great melodies.
Disc one is built around Thor Harris, the charismatic percussion player from Swans and many other projects, who they met and performed with at South By South West in Austin, Texas in 2023. Thor adds ideas, his tuned percussion instruments, clarinet and trumpet to the sessions.
Disc two is built around Cubzoa (Jack Wolter from the band Penelope Isles) who brings his musical craft, beguiling voice, guitar and much more.
Meanwhile Matt Schulz from Holy Fuck plays drums across both combinations helping the resulting music become a third entity.
What results is a true collaboration that, enhanced via Immersion’s production, merges its elements to develop a new harmony.
Key to the process is Colin and Malka’s radio show for Slack City radio, ‘Swimming In Sound’ with its entertainingly diverse playlist that has widened their horizons. It’s also helped build relationships not only with these collaborators but also musicians like ambient country masters SUSS, with whom they plan an extended Nanocluster tour in the USA with in 2025 and Brighton via Falmouth’s “jangly pop punk” Holiday Ghosts with whom they will perform the next Nanocluster event in their home town, as well as many more in the pipeline.
Malka:
‘Nanocluster is collaboration but in a very specific form. We don't have rules. It’s a series of creative snapshots. We start as the gig with our collaborators with tracks that we rehearse because this is not a jam and where it stops is an album.’
Colin:
‘It’s chemistry & music. Malka & I operate as a team and now we’ve taken it to another level. Malka comes from a band where they would stand in a room together and work out the material. In Wire, I would present the songs, so when Malka and I first started working together, we had to find a third path, and that was the concept behind our collaboration.’
Nanocluster Volume 2 is a 21st century collusion of shared ideas, creating a momentary extended musical family.
It’s about musical and personal relationships and the meeting place in the middle.
A temporary band of house guests.
The place where Immersion happens.
Tracklisting:
2 X 10” VWM58LP
Immersion | Thor Harris
A1. As Long As
A2. Just Close Your Eyes
A3. Rotations
B1. The House Of Thor
B2. In Snow
B3. At The Wizard’s House
Immersion | Cubzoa
C1. I’m Barely Here
C2. In The Universe
C3. Other Ways
D1. Not About Me
D2. Neptune
CD WM58CD
Immersion | Cubzoa
1. I’m Barely Here
2. In The Universe
3. Other Ways
4. Not About Me
5. Neptune
Immersion | Thor Harris
6. As Long As
7. Just Close Your Eyes
8. Rotations
9. The House Of Thor 1
0. In Snow
11. At The Wizard’s House
Release Date: 28/06/2024
Alter is proud to present the debut full length release from devotional music outfit Unstern, a collaborative effort between deep ambient artist Arzat Skia and prodigal pianist Leo Svirsky.
Co-mixed by Swedish electronic music luminary Civilistjävel! and mastered to tape by Stefan Betke, the album features lush electronics, two pianos refracting across the stereo field, processed recordings from the Peruvian Amazon, bowed percussion by Greg Stuart, alongside strings and renaissance meantone organ recorded at Orgelpark in Amsterdam.
The results are an abundant audio illusion where what seemingly repeats slowly over time morphs in a manner where the destination escapes the departure point with extreme discretion, a reverent nod to Morton Feldman's compositional method of "Crippled Symmetry."
Throughout Es Geht Der Tag there is a muted, refined melancholy imbued with a constantly fluctuating pulse which generates a sense of temporal disorientation, leaving the listener lost in a strange yet not at all unfamiliar sonic labyrinth. It is a journey whereby a glorious subtle tension exists between the grandiose and the restrained.
This is environmental music, not in the sense of capturing nature itself, more with regards to an unfolding of audio elements which move in a manner in tune with the multitude of flows in the world.
Unstern’s Es Geht Der Tag is a deep mental journey, rich in subtle transcendental tendencies and psychic liberation.
RIYL: Gas, Arvo Part, Charlemagne Palestine, Hoedh, His Divine Grace, Die Sonne Satan, Werkbund, Asmus Tietchens
Tracklisting:
1. All the Kingdoms Of The World In A Moment Of Time
2. Of Fire And The Many-Eyed Wheels
3. Malign Star
4. In The Roar Of Your Channels
5. Es Geht Der Tag Zur Neige
Release Date: 21/06/2024
Moon Diagrams – the solo project of Deerhunter co-founder and drummer Moses Archuleta – returns with a second album, Cemetery Classics, on June 21.
The 12-track album is a co-release between Sonic Cathedral (in the UK and Europe) and Angus Andrew from Liars’ new label No Gold (in the US and the ROW) and was mixed by James Ford. It features guests including Anastasia Coope, Patrick Flegel (Cindy Lee) and Josh Diamond (Gang Gang Dance).
It’s Moses’ first new music since 2019’s Trappy Bats mini-album and the follow-up to 2017’s acclaimed debut Lifetime of Love and everything seems a bit more extreme – from the Basinski-esque degradation of ‘Neptune’ to the Faustian industrial noise of ‘Listen To Me’ via Art of Noise-style postmodern pop (the first single ‘Very Much My Promise to You’), Daft Punk bangers (‘Fifteen Shows at One Time’), trip-hop, shoegaze, Jan Hammer, Depeche Mode, late Leonard Cohen and more.
“It’s about finding out your arms are too short to box with god,” says Moses of the emotional force that courses through Cemetery Classics. “It’s the inverse of a desert island disc – a graveyard disc. Songs to take into the afterlife.”
Tracklisting:
1. NRG
2. Mousetrap
3. Fifteen Shows at One Time
4. Metallics in Fur
5. Big Ref
6. Rewop
7. Brand New Effie
8. Neptune
9. Very Much My Promise to You
10. Listen to Me
11. Left Hand of God
12. Fragment Rock