Beach Fuzz - untitled c54 tape (ROWF 17)
Ltd to 70 copies
Out now
This is the first set from the slightly tweaked Beach Fuzz line-up with Fliss Horrocks now playing guitar alongside Tom Settle and Nick Mitchell. Seven tracks of clattering drums, chugging and wailing guitars, screaming keyboards, mellow, lilting pastoral improv and moaned vocals.
Pay by Paypal to goldenlabrecordings@hotmail.co.uk
£4 (UK)
£5 (Europe)
£6 (USA/Canada/R.o.W.)
xNoBBQx Skewer 10" LP (Ltd to 300 copies) - Out May 12th
We first came across xNoBBQx (just call them No Barbeque, I guess) in Piccadilly Records last year when the Siltbreeze vinyl reissue of their first CD-r appeared on its shelves. The Siltbreeze label being a bastion of all that is great in terms of dirgy, lo-fi, transcendental unmusicality, we were thus intrigued to hear this slab. And, we have to say, it was one of the greatest shop-listening experiences of all time. Here was a duo, probably of fully grown men, bashing away at their instruments in a manner that suggested they had never really learned any 'proper' technique. We later read a review, in fact, that put it thus:
"So what exactly is the difference between an xNoBBQx recording and a couple of 14 year olds bashing instruments in the garage with record pressed down on one of their mum’s old tape recorders? Probably not a whole lot, actually, but I get the feeling that’s precisely the point." (Cyclic Defrost)
Well, yes, that does largely seem to be the point. But it's a helluva point. The Australian duo, in spite of their unabashed simplicity, manage to create sounds that are warm as an old-fashioned blanket, each piece having the ability to induce a state of complete, dribbling mental stasis. It's disjointed, scratchy and 'difficult', yes. But it also manages to be completely absorbing. If you like your rock deconstructed to the nth degree, we highly recommend you dig this.
xNoBBQx will be touring the UK from 10th May 2009. We'll be putting them on in Manchester on 12th May (venue TBC), so keep yr eyes on this page.
For now, you can pre-order your copy of this stellar new 23 minute masterpiece at myspace.com/goldenlabrecords