Goatherder - Music For Promenades

 

TOR088. Released July 2022.

01 Sea Barn

02 Dubmill Point

03 Piano #1

04 Lapse

05 Music for Promenades

06 The Hayton Tapes (Vocal Drone)

07 Chichester House

08 W. Rag

09 New Years Day

10 Postmodern Grief Possibilities

Another release from the Cumbrian label of artists and friends. This time, it's my own music.

All music performed, recorded, edited and produced by Stephen Benson, October 2020 to October 2021.

Guitar, voice and effects on 'Music for Promenades' and piano on

'Postmodern Grief Possibilities' by Emily Ford.

Drums on 'Postmodern Grief Possibilities' by Steve Orchiton.

Voices on 'The Hayton Tapes' by Felicity Cromack, Emily Ford,

Stephanie Gardner, Gareth Hodgson, Ricardo Marzo, Camille Matton,

Asha Nicholson, Nick Taylor and Samantha Staniforth.

Mastered by Jonathan Sharp.

Cover art by Stephen Benson.

"Recorded during a pretty awful period...a collage of sounds and ideas that document that time. An avant-garde meditation on loss and grief." - Stephen.

Available for free streaming/download or as extremely limited vinyl pressing from Bandcamp.

Sunforest - Sound Of Sunforest

 

Deram 1970

01 Overture To The Sun

02 Where Are You

03 Bonny River

04 Be Like Me

05 Mr. Bumble

06 And I Was Blue

07 Lighthouse Keeper

08 Old Cluck

09 Lady Next Door

10 Peppermint Store

11 Magician In The Mountain

12 Lovely Day

13 Give Me All Your Loving

14 Garden Rug

15 All In Good Time

1970's 'Sound Of Sunforest' is the only album this American/English trio produced.

This is a baffling album; half of it has mind blowing psych folk the other half can be fairly terrible. The good stuff really makes it worth though.

I made an E.P. of the tracks I like, this really is a strange one.

The Byrds - Tomorrow's The Day

 

Self made compilation 2021 (Recorded 1968)

A1 You Ain't Going Nowhere

A2 I Am a Pilgrim

A3 Lazy Days

A4 Hickory Wind

A5 Pretty Polly

A6 All I Have Are Memories

B1 One Hundred Years from Now

B2 You Don't Miss Your Water

B3 Reputation

B4 You're Still on My Mind

B5 Pretty Boy Floyd

B6 Nothing Was Delivered

The alternate Byrds history continues. This time, its my re-imagining of the Gram Parsons era and the late 1968 recordings.

I've maintained a lot of the original album, but favour some of the outtakes. These tracks have a little more of the 'original' Byrds sound. That being said, I am a huge fan of the original 'Sweetheart Of The Rodeo'.

I made a cover using the same Jo Mora illustration the Sweetheart image was taken from.

If you're interested, here are my other Byrds albums, recompiled:

1966 - Byrds '66

1967 - Ideas As Maps

1968 - Universal Mind Decoder

1968 - Tomorrow's The Day

1969 - Byrds '69

1969 - The Ballads Of Easy Rider

The Nightowl Sings - These Dislocated Isles

 

TOR087. Released June 2022.

01 These Dislocated Isles (Part 1)

02 These Dislocated Isles (Part 2)

The latest release from Treehouse Orchestra Recordings.

Marc Gillen - Vocals, Drum Machine, Electric Guitars, Keyboards, sounds & samples.

All music and words written by Marc Gillen except ‘Lighthouse’ written by Marc Gillen and Alastair Popple. 

Version of ‘Lighthouse’ sample used prepared by Alastair Popple.

Recorded at home October 2021 to January 2022.

Mixed and edited by Stephen Benson.

Mastered by Jonathan Sharp.

Artwork and design by Emily Ford.

"These Dislocated Isles, and the lighthouse is broken. The last several years has been a heady trip, sometimes dark and long, sometimes baffling and strange, always surprising, always changing. Strange times indeed as I often hear people say. 

Lucky for me, I’m still here to hear them call out, still enjoying the glimpses of light and euphoria when they bolt from the earth and sky.

Feelings and events (personal and communal) have come and gone like quicksands on a ghost beach. Themes emerge and permeate in the ether.

Divorce, bouts of loneliness, falling madly in love and re-marrying, the joy of DIY and punk noise, depression (mostly of dear others) have all featured as constants in my mind casting a tangled web. STICKY.

Add to this constant social and political upheaval, Myopia (everywhere), attacks on the common good, serious illness, lucid dreaming, near death flirtations and explosions of art, song, love and future fever dreams and you have a cerebral headfuck.

This thirty-minute (or so…) TONE POEM (HA!) is a reflection on our personal and shared dislocations, mentally, physically, politically, socially, geographically, economically and spiritually. I pieced it together at the end of 2021 intending to perform it live. Alas, illness has prevented this as yet.

For now, here is A version of These Dislocated Isles for prosperity, bundled up inside tape and digital space, making little sense but holding onto something…. for something (people). 

Thanks for listening, everything is possible.

xx 

Whoever you are, no one belongs here more than you." - Marc

Free download and extremely limited cassette available from our Bandcamp.

Grouper - Rarities 2002-2014

 

Self made compilation 2022.

01 Untitled [1st CDr, self released, 2004]

02 Rising Height [Split 7'' with Pumice, Soft Abuse, 2009]

03 Pale Through [from 'Tsuiki No Seika Vol. 1', Split 7'' with Xela, Root Strata, 2009]

04 False Horizon [Split 7'' with City Center, self released, 2009]

05 A-D (Excerpt) [from '10', Room 40-Wire Magazine, 2010]

06 Dice Airlock [from 'The Tropics Of Phenomenon', Sweet Dreams, 2010]

07 Alien Observer (Live in Vigeland Mausoleum) [Wire Magazine compilation, 2011]

08 He Knows (Live at St. Lukes Cathedral) [from 'RQ EQ Christchurch Earthquake Relief', 2011]

09 Hollow Tone [from '10', Room 40, 2011]

10 Quiet Eyes [from 'Neon Marshmallow NYC 2011', Neon Marshmallow cassette, 2011]

11 Demona [from 'Yeti Twelve' 7'',Yeti Publishing, 2012]

12 Cassiopeia [from 'Benefit For The Recovery In Japan', Antiopic, 2012]

13 Headache (MEMORYREMEDYMIX) [from 'The Remix Collection', Recycle Culture, 2014]

Les Rallizes Dénudés - December's Black Children

 

Not On Label 1989

01 Flames Of Ice

02 Romance Of Black Grief

03 A Memory Is Far

04 Untitled

05 Night Of The Assassins

06 White Waking

07 Enter The Mirror

08 Untitled

09 The Last One

Another unofficial release of noise terror from Japan's mighty Les Rallizes Dénudés. This release was originally pressed in 1989 (limited to 100 copies) and features a performance from Shibuya Yaneura, Tokyo, December 13th 1980.

Can - Can '68

 

Self made compilation 2022

01 Agilok & Blubbo

02 Im Tempel

03 Indisches Panorama I

04 EFS No 7

05 Kamerasong

06 In Kalkutta III

07 EFS No 8

08 Pre-Historic Future (Part One)

09 I'm Hiding My Nightingale

Just a note before the details of this entry; this posts marks ten years of doing this blog. Ten years. Every month. A massive thank you to everyone that has followed, commented and enjoyed the music here. Since I started, a lot of these albums have been remastered, re-issued etc...the entire point of this blog was to highlight the rare, experimental, hard to find and alternative music that I love.

Thanks everyone. x

Anyway, CAN.

This is a compilation of predominantly pre 'Delay 1968' material. I wanted a compilation in an album format to play before the debut.