Brocken Spectre - Live Bootleg Cassette

 

TOR078. Released January 2021.

01 Drive-by Election

02 Beyond Nostalgia

03 Corkscrew

04 Stockholm Cancelled

05 We Vs. The Bastards

06 Art Defacer

07 Out Of Range

08 Unwound

09 UYA

10 Terror

11 Feature Length

12 Downtown Abstractions

13 Moscow

14 I Am Your Fuel

15 Colour Fucker

16 Ended Here

17 Fireworks Thrower

When Brocken Spectre reformed in April 2017 with Steve Orchiton on drums, we began rehearsing for live gigs immediately. In its previous incarnation, the band had only rehearsed to record, not once venturing out to play in front of a crowd.

We made our live debut a few months later, at a party for my birthday. Shortly after this, we were offered our first gig in front of a paying audience. Those first few gigs were nerve wracking affairs; getting used to a crowd, the variable on stage sound and the obligatory stage fright.

By mid 2018, we had several live performances under our collective belt and we received more offers on a regular basis, including festival appearances.

Our sound had really begun to develop too, songs with psychedelic touches or with melody at the forefront were swapped out for newer material featuring the live sound we now had; a band driven, violent, brutal sound. All members were contributing to the compositions and the dynamics and it was this sound that became our identity.

We enjoyed playing live and we were surprised to find how comfortable we had became on stage. It now felt like the natural home for the band.

We played our final gig (to date) on the 7th of December 2019, before the pandemic quashed our plans for more festival appearances and the offer of gigs around the country.

During the various lockdown periods of 2020, we managed a few rehearsals and even recorded a single ('Interference Overhead/Fireworks Thrower', which can be found here). However, we look forward to a time when we can play live again.

The concept behind this release was a stop gap until live music can resume again. It also provides a home to songs that have went unrecorded and other songs that rarely got an outing. It documents a period of the band that we all got a lot out of and hopefully gets across some of our visceral live sound. 

The material was recorded on a variety of devices and is of a distinctly lo-fi quality, this is reflected in the artwork, which is a homage to the live bootlegs so loved by myself and Marc. We would purchase bootlegs of our favourite artists from record fairs, markets and from the back pages of music publications. - Ste.

The line up for this album was Stephen Benson (Guitars, Vocals), Marc Gillen (Vocals, Guitars), Steve Orchiton (Drums) and Jill Wallace (Bass). The locations for the recordings were; The Brickyard, The Source, Warwick Bazaar, Fell Bar Penrith, Fell Bar Kendal, Solfest, Wild on the Wall Festival, Kendal Calling and The Fisher Street Festival.

Brocken Spectre - Interference Overhead / Fireworks Thrower

 

Treehouse Orchestra Recordings. TOR077. 2020.

01 Interference Overhead

02 Fireworks Thrower

Stephen Benson - Guitars & Bass.

Marc Gillen - Guitars & Vocals.

Steve Orchiton - Drums.

Recorded at Scott's Self Storage, September 2020.

Mixed and mastered by Jonathan Sharp, October 2020.

TOR077.

Brocken Spectre - EP 1

TOR069. 2019.

01 We Vs. The Bastards
02 Feature Length
03 I Am Your Fuel
04 Corkscrew

It's been a year since the last release from Brocken Spectre. In that time we have honed our sound, evolved and played new venues and festivals.

This E.P. represents where we are today. There are no more re-records or dipping into the TOR back catalogue for songs. The four tracks here come directly from the sessions we have in the tiny room at the top of a vintage shop.

This time around, we recorded live (with vocals overdubbed) and produced ourselves.

The four songs here are mainstays in our set and another E. P. of new material will follow next year.

Thanks to Jonathan Sharp for mastering.

Free download and physical copies available from Bandcamp.

Brocken Spectre - Abstractions//Attractions

Treehouse Orchestra Recordings 2018

01 Beyond Nostalgia

02 Clap Hands

03 Downtown Abstractions

04 Art Defacer

05 Colour Fucker

06 Stockholm Cancelled

07 Ended Here

08 (In) Dreams

09 UYA

The latest release from the stable of musicians and artists to which I belong; the new Brocken Spectre album is post punk, art rock, alt-rock noise. I play guitar and sometimes sing.

Free download and limited CD available at Bandcamp.

Brocken Spectre - Drive By Election

Treehouse Orchestra Recordings 2018

01 Drive By Election

The first release in over a year from TOR. 

The re-formed Brocken Spectre (in which I play guitar) release this single ahead of a new album which is due in the Autumn.

Stream or free download at Bandcamp.

BROCKEN SPECTRE - TERROR

Released April 2017. TOR54.

01. TERROR
02. Flux et Reflux (Excerpts from The Flood Tape)


The first release of 2017 is a posthumous one.

Last spring, Brocken Spectre released their only record and split. During the summer months, I went through hours of recordings of rehearsals, demos, jams and so on.

There were two reasons for this; the first was to collect together all the versions of a song called 'TERROR'.

Once we had moved into the space above Warwick Bazaar, we had microphones permanently set up, we could then roughly record all of our activities. 'TERROR' was played every rehearsal, sometimes it was three minutes in length, sometimes thirty. It had a loose arrangement and allowed us to explore what we could do. Recording it as a take alongside the other material never seemed an option; it relied on improvisation and a definitive recorded version didn't seem plausible.

The version on this cassette is compiled from various rehearsal takes, recorded December 2015 to January 2016.

The second reason for this archival release is to highlight an aspect of the band not represented on the self titled mini album.

During it's brief existence, Brocken Spectre played around 25-30 songs. Tracks by The Nightowl Sings, The Dead West, Hills! Werewolves! Run! and We Are the Wooden Houses were all tried out, but ultimately gave way to new band compositions. One song that stayed however was 'Angels of the Rain', from The Nightowl Sings album, "All Hail the Town to Town Troubadour".

We never recorded it as Brocken Spectre, it finished several early versions of our set and was always played as an additional song if we had time. It differed from the NOS version in that it had two moments of improvised noise which I have taken from the rehearsal recordings and added them to various moments of other noise, more improvisation, jams etc.

Running through this second cut up compilation is an extended jam from the legendary 'Flood Tape'.

Together, these two compiled tracks and the self titled debut represent Brocken Spectre. This cassette contains the strange, psychedelic and brutal noise element, played to no one and heard only by the band themselves.

Mixed by Alastair and myself in the Autumn and released a year since the band split.