Nico - I'm Not Sayin' / The Last Mile

 

Immediate Records 1965

01 I'm Not Sayin'

02 The Last Mile

Before Velvet Underground, Nico had a go at pop with this one off single from 1965. The doom is already there in her voice, but this is comparatively radio friendly.

'I'm Not Sayin' is an Andrew Loog Oldham production of a Gordon Lightfoot song. 'The Last Mile' was arranged and produced by none other than Jimmy Page, written with Oldham.

Brian Jones may or may not appear on these recordings.

Immediate Records 1982 re-issue.

Munster Records 2003 re-issue.

Sergius Golowin - Lord Krishna Von Goloka

 

Die Kosmischen Kuriere 1973

01 Der Reigen

02 Die Weiße Alm

03 Die Hoch-Zeit

Sergius Golowin was a Bern writer, myths researcher, librarian, recording artist and publicist. In 1973, Golowin teamed up with (among others) Klaus Schulze and Walter Westrupp to record an album for Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's Die Kosmischen Kuriere label.

Sergius chants and invocates over experimental electronica and stoner krautfolk. A Kosmische classic.

Glücksfall - Carnival in Denton Holme

 

TOR08. Released March 2022.

01 Track One

02 Track Two

03 Track Three

04 Track Four

05 Track Five

06 Track Six

07 Track Seven

Glücksfall make their live return with 77 minutes of spontaneously composed noise recorded live at The Source Cafe, Carlisle 21/01/22.

Stephen Benson - Guitar

Asha Nicholson - Vocals

Adam Robson - Drums

Mike Roper - Bass

Jonathan Sharp - Synth & Electronics

Amy Tweddle - Guitar

Steve Wilson - Drums

with

Tom Hepburn - Drums

Jon Ny - Vocals

Dan Russell - Saxophone

David Thompson - Vocals

Loki Thompson - Violin & Synth

Mastered by Jonathan Sharp

Cover art by Stephen Benson

Free streaming and pay-what-you-can download from Bandcamp.

Video highlights reel available here.

Chocolate Watchband - The Inner Mystique

 

Tower Records 1968

01 Voyage Of The Trieste

02 In The Past

03 Inner Mystique

04 I'm Not Like Everybody Else

05 Medication

06 Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go

07 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

08 I Ain't No Miracle Worker

Bonus tracks:

09 She Weaves A Tender Trap [B-Side 'Misty Lane']

10 Misty Lane [Uptown Records 1967 Single]

11 Baby Blue [B-Side 'Sweet Young Thing']

12 Sweet Young Thing  [Uptown Records 1966 Single]

A second Chocolate Watchband album was issued in 1968 and this one contained even less tracks by the original band. They can be heard on 'I Ain't No Miracle Worker', 'I'm Not Like Everybody Else' and the original single version of 'Baby Blue' included here as a bonus track.

The remaining songs are a new formation of the band, but the first three tracks are again a production team ensemble of session players.

What may seem like barrel scraping on the surface again provides an excellent psych album.

This is the Sundazed reissue, with the A and B sides of  contemporary singles added as bonus tracks.

Shelterland - At the Serpent Solstice

 

TOR084. Released February 2022.

01 A Crack in the Lake

02 Rites of Presage

03 The Scorpion and the Seahorse

04 The Girl and the Glass Ocean

05 The Prettiest Corpse

06 Shades from the Witching Well

07 Night Falls

08 Circle

09 The Lesley Experiment

10 Winter of the Red Queen

11 Parliament of Tears

12 Cadexe

13 The Leph

14 The Sun Chimes

15 The Sentinel and the Ferryman

16 Another Dawn

The players were:-

Al: atmospherics (3, 4, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16), bass (3, 15), cello (1, 3), chant (2), chimes (4, 16), choir (2), drill (3, 11), drones (1, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16), drums (3, 9, 15), field recordings (2, 3, 8, 9, 15), fridge (2), glass (2, 3, 4), keys (4), organ (4, 15), percussion (3, 4, 11, 15, 16), piano (1, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15), shamisen (15), strings (4)

plus lephertronics on everything except (9), on which there are no lephertronics.

Ste: acoustic guitar (3, 4, 10, 14), bass guitar (3, 9, 13), field recordings (3, 5, 9, 15), mandolin (7), sitar (15)

Marc: acoustic guitar (2, 13), bass guitar (4, 6, 13, 14), inverted vocal (15)

Steve: Drums (3, 9, 15)

Brian: fuffing (15)

Catherine: violin (2, 7, 13, 14, 15)

Dave: vocals (10, 15, 16)

Tim: vocals (1)

Anna: spoken word (2, 4, 10, 11, 12)

and

Robin: flaneurettes (5, 6) - scannerdot.com/2020/04/the-birth-of-flaneur-electronique/

Free to use without copyright

"neatonk": "MISStereoPiano" (1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13) - freesound.org/people/neatonk/packs/9133/

"khunseng": "DR000723" (2) - freesound.org/s/112141/

"Satoration": "mass in croatian cathedral" (2) - freesound.org/s/54753/

"Kaiho": "Sitar long.aiff" (15) - freesound.org/s/37715/

All players performed by Shelterland; all music written by Shelterland

words on (11) adapted from «Людей теряют только раз» by Геннадий Шпаликов

Design & photography by Al

(except image #7 adapted from a photograph taken by Joy & Alf in Soweto, January 13th, 1976)

Box design by Al

Mixed at the Kitchen Sync between 2014 and 2022

freesound.org samples adapted and edited under Creative Commons Attribution license

Summary: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode)

© Shelterland, 2022 ℗ Treehouse Orchestra Recordings, 2022

Thanks for their (sometimes unwitting) involvement goes to Alastair Popple, Stephen Benson, Marc Gillen, Steve Orchiton, Catherine Reding, Dave Thompson, and Tim Popple.

Circle is for Anna, a friend in need.

Brian was a pheasant, by now long since lunch.

Also thanks to Robin Rimbaud for his free flaneur sample pack, and to the uploaders at freesound.org.

Handmade double CDR edition in engraved wooden box with photo booklet, plus USB drive containing the album in various digital formats, an 'Isolated Versions' edition of the album, and a bonus EP of exclusive tracks.

Streaming, download and limited edition box available from Bandcamp.

Various Artists - Winter 2021/22

 

01 Chieko Mori - Spiral Wave

02 Mildred Maude - Trevena

03 Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel 2

04 The Neighb'rhood Childr'n - Chocolate Angel

05 Sonic Boom - Tawkin Tekno (Remix)

06 Obay Alsharani - Speak Your Truth

07 The Afghan Women's Orchestra 'Zohra' - Homeland

08 Brad Fiedel - Just Before Dawn (Main Theme)

09 Ana Roxanne - It's a Rainy Day On The Cosmic Shore

10 The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Fuck You For Fucking Me

11 Ros Seresyothea - Penh Chet Tae Bong Mouy (I Love Only You)

12 Ultimate Spinach - Sacrifice Of The Moon (In Four Parts)

13 Pefkin - Numenius Borealis

14 Paper Dollhouse - Piano 3

Twin Beaks - Mechanically Reclaimed Slaughterhouse Floor Scrapings

 

TOR083. Released January 2022.

01 Troll Hatchery, or the Cathedral of Diminishing Returns

02 Happy Drill Time

03 Masala Disaster

Another music project with my involvement...

In the Autumn of 2015, I was the bass player in Asian Babes and we were rehearsing for upcoming winter gigs. One particular rehearsal was nearly cancelled as Kate Thorburn (vocals) and Neil Armstrong (drums) couldn't attend. Myself and Bob Cuthbertson (guitar) decided to keep the slot and record some improvisations.

We produced over 2 hours of recordings using mainly synth and drums with some guitar and handed these over to Alastair Popple for remixing and recreating.

An initial idea was to have guest vocalists on each track, but only one of these came to fruition. Chili Nasti is a Ghanaian rapper and provides the vocals on 'Happy Drill Time'. This came about because the Asian Babes producers at Green Door Studios in Glasgow were running an exchange program with the ultimate aim of having a fully functioning recording studio built in Ghana. At this time, the studio was nearly complete and they were about to start recording tests. Chili Nasti was asked to come in to test microphones and recording in general. We requested that he do his vocal tests to a fixed tempo with the intention of using them on one of our tracks.

A few Bass guitar overdubs were scheduled, and recorded in November, but these morphed into its own track, 'Masala Disaster'.

Al worked away on these tracks and even provided rough mixes, but the project came to a halt to accommodate other projects, and within a couple of years was (nearly) forgotten.

At the very end of 2021, Al, in rescuing old music projects after a particularly drastic technological systems upgrade, recovered these tracks, blew off the dust, and produced new versions - this time complete - and presented them as a finished article.

I was happy to hear these live improvised recordings had been finally transformed into the bizarre, surreal, and unique music that is Twin Beaks, nearly 7 years after they were recorded. - Ste.

Improvised jams performed by Stephen Benson and Bob Cuthbertson at Scott's Self Storage on the 14th of October and at home on the 20th of November 2015. 

Mechanically reclaimed by Alastair Popple off and on between then and now.

Vocals on #2 by Chilli Nasti. Recorded at the Tafi Cultural Institute Studios, Tafi Atome, Ghana.

Photography by Stephen Benson, design by Alastair Popple.

Streaming, download and limited edition CD available from the Treehouse Orchestra Recordings Bandcamp.