Slow Listener / Century Plants / Terrortank - My Mind Is Blind (Spread The Disease, 2008)

1 Slow Listener - Untitled 19:57
2 Terrortank - Untitled 12:51
3 Century Plants - Untitled 15:39
4 Terrortank - Untitled 13:19

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Slow Listener - Untitled (JK Tapes, 2007)

1 Untitled
2 Untitled

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Slow Listener - Bruise Journal (First Person, 2007)

1 Bruise Journal

Bruise Journal by Slow Listener a.k.a. Robin Dickinson, one supplier of the Curor label. You may remember a while back, I fell head over heels for the Slow Listener JK tape, I think I called it “lovely zombie murk” or something to that effect. This one has bit different, rougher, less expansive sound to it, part of which I attribute to its digital format. There also appears to be less looping going on, but maybe I just can’t pick them all out. I might apply the term “roughnecking drone” here (which I totally stole from some place I can’t remember). Distorted drones are manipulated almost in a way like kneading dough (that pops into my mind for some reason) and gather intensity. Around a third of the way through everything coalesces into a sweet climactic thicket of overtones and with a blink of an eye it’s all gone, replaced by a single high pitched tone. Come on Robin, give me a minute to bask in the splendor before you move on to a new idea. Thanks :) The next part of the track moves pretty slowly (I guess that’s the operative word today) but has a much fuller aesthetic than the first part.
Auxiliary Out blog

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Slow Listener - Sundowner (Epicene Sound Replica, 2007)

1 I'm Unanimous In That 11:51
2 When Was Yesterday 6:55
3 In Case Of A Fire Or Amnesia 12:42
4 Shouldn't Take Very Long... Actually I Have No Concept Of Time" 11:34
5 Untitled 12:50

With releases on Peasant Magik, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Ruralfaune and Students of Decay all within a few months, Slow Listener from Brighton, UK, are one of the most prominent new names in the free-noise field. And this cdr on the Epicene imprint proves once more why so many good labels are into this dynamic blend of guitar feedback and electronic drones.

The stunning opener I'm unanimous in that starts on an Earthen note, with some of the very first chords taking their hat off to Harvey from the Phase 3 album. When, after just under 12 minutes, the opener comes to an abrupt halt as if someone had pulled the plug, it has become clear that the reference to the pioneers of metallic drone is somewhat programmatic. If compared to the Ruralfaune cdr, for example, Sundowner is heavier, less electronic. Even if the following track, When Was Yesterday, is dominated by forlorn synth jingling. That track, however, is only an interlude before In Case Of a Fire or Amnesia with its shredding feedback and braying distortion takes over. Yes, Slow Listener are slow. Yes, to describe their sound " as Campbell Kneale has " as "slumberpunk" is not totally inadequate. And yet what really intrigues me is how utterly dynamic, how polymorph and animate the better Slow Listener tracks are, proving that simplicity doesn?t have to be boring.

I have to admit, though, that I find it difficult to listen to the 56 minutes of Sundowner in one session. I guess that's because I don't like the hidden track that is based on shrill electronic noise and getting on my nerves. But it might also be because most of the tracks are so intense on a micro-level and at the same time so good at creating tension over a distance of more than ten minutes that you are practically floored after some 30 minutes. I do wonder, therefore, if two separate 3's or a cassette with its obligatory intermission wouldn't reflect Slow Listener's momentum more effectively. It should be mentioned that this cdr is limited to 30 copies. A ridiculous number, really. Let's hope there'll be reissues of some of the rarer Slow Listener releases, soon.
Foxy Digitalis

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Slow Listener - Son Of The Man Of The Year (Housecraft Records, 2008)

1 Untitled
2 Untitled

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Slow Listener - Enthusiastic Pursuit Of The Pointless (Students of Decay, 2007)

1 Appreciate All Around, Hits Me Deep 13:37
2 "Do You Know How I Know? It's Because I Think So" 15:57
3 Las Vegas Origami 8:00

Following up simply stellar releases on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon and Ruralfaune, Slow Listener returns with"Enthusiastic Pursuit of the Pointless." Campbell Kneale's descriptor 'slumberpunk' for the SL C/PSI/P release proves germane on this album as well, with Slow Listener spewing forth deep, velvety pools of fractured, yet soothing, analog sound. Great stuff to play late into the night or early in the morning while rubbing the sleep out of your weary eyes.
Foxy Digitalis

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Oneohtrix Point Never / Slow Listener - Untitled (Archivo De Sangre De Dios, 2008)

A Oneothrix Point Never - Bipeds With Devalued Faces 9:54
B Slow Listener - Undiagnosed Sleep Disorder 9:50

Oneohtrix Point Never seem to be on the path to super plaudits at the moment, their recent run of releases getting spattered with glitter and the underground’s finest champagne. “Bipeds with Devalued Faces” is synth music that’s been brundlized, analogue on the margin of an error. What’s most interesting about this cut is the way it feels like particles are competing against other, there’s a strain in the sound. This is the (electrical) stormiest material that OPN have dropped to date. Like the Oneohtrix Point Never side, Slow Listener’s track comes in at under ten minutes. If these two had to go at each other in some kind of alternate reality drone dog fight, you’d be better banking on Slow Listener. Their track, “Undiagnosed Sleep Disorder”, beckons visions of a special place through the tones. Although it’s live, and despite a few sniffles from the audience, this sounds like it was recorded away somewhere safe and hidden – there’s a great atmosphere on this too short piece. There’s a conscious pleasure in both this, and much of Slow Listener’s other output, its simplicity its strength. Transmissions from Radio Dusk.
Foxy Digitalis

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Slow Listener - Bad Coffee Day (Peasant Magik, 2007 (2008 reissue))

A1 Terrible Down
A2 Ondras
B1 Roessler K
B2 Holidays Are For People Who Hate Their Lives

I love music that starts with simple tools to create profound effects, both tonally and emotionally. I guess you'd have to if you end up writing for a webzine like Foxy D. But I often wonder if the well will run dry one day. Soon. The idea of simplicity has been taken to such extremes in the underground these days, it begs the question: How do you retain an individual sound if your oeuvre consists of one or two tones played on consumer-grade electronics? But when I get tapes like Slow Listener's Bad Coffee Day, I'm reminded it's best to shut the hell up and pay attention for a change.

Yes, the palette is rather simple on this cassette: plenty of feedback from unknown sources, electronic effects, maybe a synthesizer or two I cannot confirm. And while this set-up may conjure images of the latest batch of uninspired pedal noise, Slow Listener lives up to the improbable moniker as his tonal creations unfold with patience and a keen ear for effect.

The A-side is split into two songs which flow together seamlessly for twenty outstanding minutes. Terrible Down begins with a few light tones and a bit of grinding distortion, each element inexorably connected as they are subtly manipulated. For every passing minute, new sounds join into the interplay, as old sounds reemerge, slightly altered, to counteract. Carefully, the mix thickens in volume and as the familiar elements give the composition definition and the new elements push the track forward. This track abruptly cuts into Ondras, which opens with shortwave radio styled electronics that are acerbic to the ear but are soon diluted by humming feedback tones that oscillate to dimensional prominence. There is an incredible sense of balance on the A-side between the abrasiveness and serenity that only unsubtle feedback can create, executed to perfection by Slow Listener.

But the balance on the A-side gradually diminishes throughout the duration of the B. You?d expect a coffee-referencing title to be heavy on the bitterness and that seems to be the modus operandi for these twenty minutes, sounding like a photo negative in contrast to the clarity of the A. Coincidentally, I tried listening to this while drinking bad coffee this morning. The abrasive ambience of Roessler K and Folgers flavor crystals (who bought this shit?) did little to sour my initial impressions. This track is composed with similar techniques as Terrible Down, but comes off just a little harder on the ears. We close with the awesomely-titled Holidays Are For People Who Hate Their Life. It may sound as though your cable came slightly unplugged, but the tones never reach complete stasis before they are chopped into slivers and twisted through space. This track may lack in some of the dynamics that so impressed on the rest of the tape, but still holds weight as expertly-manipulated feedback experiment that produces an awesome array of noise textures.

Props to Salvatore Giorgi, label head for Peasant Magik, for putting together this awesome tape package with nice artwork by cartoonist James Ulmer on heavy card stock insert. You should start buying this stuff now because it looks like Slow Listener is getting up in a big way with a ton of releases slated for the coming year on a ton of awesome labels including Ruralfaune and Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. This tape certainly proves his pedigree as an awesome new talent in the perpetually-engaging, never-endangered sphere of free-noise.
Foxy Digitalis

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Slow Listener - Desolation Sound (Tape Drift Records, 2008)

1 Tempts Fate 23:36
2 Lack Thereof 16:15

UK-based Slow Listener is the one man drone project of Robin Dickinson, whose slowly churning and burning works are in great demand, having earned him releases on labels including Ruralfaune, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon and Students of Decay. Where so many drone artists today opt for a dense fog of sound through which they can shoot pieces of melody or texture though, Slow Listener opts for a far more demanding, and ultimately viscerally effective take on the medium.

Desolation Sound is made up of two tracks. The first, "Tempts Fate," is a near twenty-five minute epic. Opening with the sound of a bellowing fog horn, the piece moves on from that point as if it is breaking that sound into its smaller and simpler constituent parts, from which he further extracts sounds, layering one upon another until they become a thing of stark and lurching beauty. It's not happy music to be sure, but as the work moves through its various stages--which include densely cluttered miniature works all their own, harsher industrial landscapes or high frequency buzzing riding above mid-tone oscillations, to name a few--it develops a strange balance between meditative and massive. No one sound can not be derived from the last it seems, making for a contiguous heap requiring in its present all that has come before. By the end, it is nearly too much to keep track of.

The second track, "Lack Thereof," is a slightly more manageable sixteen minutes, although this too is heavy and slow, a black hole of a piece. Opening with high bird-like calls, the piece eventually adds what sounds like one of those electric hair razors trimming away at shreds of tiny follicles, as if trying to get to the real heart of the matter one piece at a time. These sounds further mutate, the birds eventually dissolving into the background before the guitar razor spends the next ten minutes or so just shaping and reshaping itself against faint high notes or distant echoing low-end bellows. It's beautifully intricate and paced masterfully so as to leave enough time to highlight each and every subtle difference.

Released on Eric Hardiman's (of Century Plants) own Tape Drift label a while back, but maybe still available. Beautiful little package with a big big sound.
The Ear-Conditioned Nightmare

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Slow Listener - Snow Falling From A Blue Clear Sky (Ruralfaune, 2007)

1 Wall Of Sand 5:49
2 White Moth 13:03
3 Compromise I Hate That Word 7:52
4 Polarity Magnetics 14:10
5 Jaggernaut 12:22

I haven't concealed my deep love for the beautifully presented Ruralfaune label, but here's where it gets really special. Slow Listener come from Brighton, but you couldn't guess from the music - he manages to produce a shockingly beautiful long-form pieces of hissing, degraded beauty which defies easy comparison although I guess the most obvious link would be to William Basinski, who shares a similar love for the slow and degraded sounds of old tapes. Slow Listener also has much in common with the Skaters (or side project Vodka Soap) or even Tim Hecker with the carefully harmonized clouds of gorgeous sound. Even the artist name itself gives a hint at what you might expect - this is slow music to be listened to slowly, you have to give it time and attention, you have to ignore the pace of the modern world for almost an hour and just listen. Cassette recorded drones trip over dense waves of tempered distortion and shimmering, hissing breaths - it is almost impossible to recognise exactly where the sounds are coming from but the source becomes unimportant, all that's required is the gorgeous sound itself which wraps us up in a blanket of alluring haze. There are links to so many sprawling genres in here from shoegaze to academic minimal electronics, but really I must urge you to check it out for yourself, it's one of those records you just need to hear and let wash over you. Fans of any of the aforementioned artists need to act quickly, this won't be around long - as with all these small run releases they are made in very limited numbers! Huge recommendation.
Boomkat

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Slow Listener - Only On My Own Am I Truly Loved (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, 2007)

1 One Coffee Short Of Intelligence
2 Bad Santanna
3 Sarcasm My Old Friend
4 Random Harvest
5 "..............Of Water And Salt"

First in a new batch of releases from Campbell Kneale and his Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. This one from some mysterious UK outfit called Slow Listener. Kneale has dubbed them slumberpunk which is as good a descriptor as any. Five tracks, the shortest 7 minutes, the longest 14, each an expansive sonic sprawl, from distantly drifting soft fuzzy warbles, to silvery slivers of high end twinkle and glimmer, from full on lo-fi vacuum cleaner hum, to crumbling soundscapes of muted melody and mumbled industrial clatter, from cavernous scrape and shriek, to effulgent streaks of white hot guitar grind, from gauzy soft focus melodic whir, to thick swirling shimmer, from dense blistering abstract space psych blow outs, to upper register sun dappled ur-drones, a gorgeous and utterly dreamy cacophony of sound.
Birchville, Skaters, Yellow Swans, Quetzolcoatl, Bonecloud, Bonus, Ghosting, you can now add Slow Listener to that ever growing list...
Aquarius Records

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