NEWS: Buried Treasure Records release 'The Shout' OST

"The Shout is one of the great films about sound." - Suzy Mangion

Adapted in 1978 from a Robert Graves short story, director Jerzy Skolimowski's 'The Shout' is a stunning exploration of avarice, obsession, lust, and cruelty as the quiet, idyllic lives of Anthony and Rachel Fielding (John Hurt & Susannah York) are subsumed by the machinations of an interloper, Crossley (Alan Bates).

It is sound though that is very much the focus of the film; from Anthony's sonic experimentation to Crossley's mortiferous shout, and the two short progish pieces by Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks of Genesis but it's the score by Rupert Hine married to the sound design by Alan Bell that is the shining jewel at the heart of the movie.

From the press release...

"The film’s score and audio effects were almost entirely created by the songwriter and record producer Rupert Hine (Thinkman, Quantum Jump, Rush, Stevie Nicks, Kevin Ayers, Nico, Howard Jones, Underworld, Tina Turner & more). Rupert recorded reels of ideas and experiments for the film between 1977 and 1978 using an EMS VCS3, Yamaha CS80, Eventide Harmoniser and Roland Space Echo. He also created Crossley‘s terrifying shout and other foley effects such as the musique concrète for John Hurt’s home studio scenes.

Listen closely and you’ll hear Rupert's sounds scattered throughout the film, discreetly mixed by award-winning sound editor Alan Bell (The Man Who Fell To Earth, The Bounty) and Tony Jackson who use them to establish the film’s creeping dread. At other times Rupert’s effects are used to startling effect, violently jolting viewers as the occult drama unfolds." 

Released on 5th December by Buried Treasure Records, with pre-orders available from the 28th of November on their Bandcamp page at

https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/the-shout

'The Shout' is a testimony to the creativity of Rupert Hine, who sadly passed before the completion of this long overdue release.

A neglected milestone in the history of electronic music, a perfect companion piece to the work of those beavering away in the Dark depths of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and an essential item for devotees of both.

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NEWS: Buried Treasure to release Tim Hill's 'Leviathan Whispers'

On the 14th of November, Buried Treasure will be releasing, 'Leviathan Whispers' the deeply spiritual and majestically folkloric new album from Tim Hill.

From the press release:

Leviathan Whispers is an album of longings, laments, deleriums, and drones, both savage and sublime. Brass and woodwind instruments sing over and through autumnal netherlands, heralding ancient spirits and mysterious creatures. There are breaths, hums, and bone songs for shadows and flames to dance to.

Tim Hill is an inspirational figure within the UK arts, jazz, noise, and improv world. Since the 1980's he's operated as a shapeshitfing maverik, fearlessly exploring Britain's diverse musical traditions, from rough music to industrial folk, free jazz to dub, post-punk to avant-rock, incorporating electronics, hymn, noise and drone.

I've got to admit that, despite his formidable pedigree, Hill is new to me, but on the evidence of what I hear here, I need to rectify that.  

The music, built using saxophones, tape loops, synths, woodwind and reed instruments, and with the assistance of Nurse With Wound's Colin Potter and drone maestro Jonathan Coleclough, maintains a deeply esoteric quality that exists in both the spiritual jazz realms of the likes of Pharoah Sanders or, more recently. Shabaka Hutchings and the mystical sidereality of the Blakeian Albion of the imagination expressed by the likes of Coil or Cyclobe.  It's a fascinating combination, a uniquely British interpretation of spiritual jazz that's born from the hedgerows and holloways, and from standing stones and stories told, and it rewards deep, immersive listening that slowly reveal its more hermetical dimensions.

'Leviathan Whispers' will be released on "recycled and randomly coloured vinyl" and is available in stores from Friday 14th November.

Alternatively, preorders are currently being taken on the Buried Treasure Bandcamp here...

https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/leviathan-whispers

Additionally, to celebrate the launch, there will be a live performance and talk by Tim Hill on Sat, 15th Nov in the Victorian chapel beneath Royal Berks Hospital, Reading. 

email - info@thedelawareroad.com - for details.

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue, then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

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NEWS: Buried Treasure release 'They Came From Beyond Space' OST

On Friday 3rd October, Buried Treasure Records will be releasing the James Stevens score to the 1967 Amicus science fiction movie, 'They Came From Beyond Space', on 10' vinyl.

The soundtrack will be available via the label's Bandcsmp page at...

https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/music

For those unfamiliar 'They Came From Beyond Space' was Amicus boss Milton Subotsky's attempt to resurrect the alien invasion movies of the 1950s.  Made using sets left over from the Doctor Who movie 'Dalek's Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.' it tells the story of mind controlling moon rocks come to Earth to recruit slaves to help them rebuild their crashed rocket.  It's a gloriously terrible movie - read the Wyrd Britain review here - with little to recommend it beyond it's awfulness and it's music.

Buried Treasure are doing the Wyrd God's work recently, having only last month released the soundtrack to 'Sky'  and still have the soundtrack of 'The Shout' to come.

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

Zyklus - Gumbo Gulag

Zyklus is one of a number of nom de plumes adopted by Buried Treasure's head honcho Alan Gubby perhaps better known to Wyrd Britain readers as the person behind one of our favourites, Revbjelde.

This newest release is a lockdown compilation of some of Alan's older recordings, a collection of various tunes and tinkerings from the early 1980s through to the early 2000s.  The music here is considerably more synth led (dominated) than his more recent projects with a more overtly industrial vibe of the Cabaret Voltaire, early Coil and the harder edged synth pop varieties rather than the Throbbing Gristle soundscapes or Einsturzende Neubauten scrap iron clattery.  Equally I picked up a library music vibe and at various points of listening I could imagine this gracing the soundtrack of a dystopian early 90s cyberpunk movie and at others you can hear the influence of Alan's beloved BBC Radiophonic Workshop as the music offers a hazy glimpse of a futuristic technopolis of neon signs and milk bars.

I've a fair bit of Alan's music in my collection both from his Buried Treasure label and his previous Nanny Tango label and this one came as a real - and very pleasant - surprise.  My listening tastes are pretty eclectic now but I grew up listening to grindcore, anarcho punk and industrial so a darker edge is always welcome and it's definitely here. With the exception of Coil, who are never far from my CD player, I haven't really taken a stroll down these particular streets for a good long while and it was great fun to do so.



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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Buried Treasure - Rare Psych, Moogs & Brass - Remixed

Over the past few years Wyrd Britain's good friend Alan Gubby has been responsible for unearthing and releasing some stunning artefacts from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop archives both in conjunction with Jonny Trunk over at Trunk Records (Alan was instrumental in their two John Baker releases and the more recent Delia Derbyshire 'Circle of Light') and on his own Buried Treasure label where he's released another John Baker collection - the astonishing 'Vendetta Tapes' - and various other neglected gems such as electronic music pioneer Alan Sutcliffe's EMS Synthi explorations.

One of the first things we bought from Buried Treasure was another of their archive digs of electronic music of a slightly different form in the shape of 'Rare Psych, Moogs & Brass' a collection of undeniably funky and downright groovy 'big band grooves, moog synths, psychedelic funk, dub disco & more produced between 1969 & 1981' collected from the Sonoton Music Library.  We're suckers for library music here at Wyrd Britain and this collection of rarities became a fast favourite.

Now we are very pleased to tell you that Buried Treasure has released a companion volume to that album of remixes featuring tunes by the amazing folktronic ensemble Revbjelde, Jung Collective, Zyklus, Monoslapper, Buff Plaza & the frankly gloriously named Jazz Spanky (most - if not all - of which involve Alan in some form or other).  Just like it's parent volume this set is a toe tapping, bum wiggling, head noodling assemblage of tumescent delights that twist and turn the originals into various flavoured cocktails of sleazy, loungey, dancey, acidy, groovy, psychy gold.

If that's got your tastebuds tingling then hit the player below to have a listen or click through to the bandcamp page where you can download the remixes for a paltry £3 or the original CD with the remixes download thrown in for the bargain price of £8 - be quick though at the time of writing there were only 6 left.



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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Revbjelde LP

As regular readers of Wyrd Britain may know I've spent large chunks of the last 2 years fairly immobile having badly broken the same leg twice within a year which in both cases has required surgery, metalwork and months of physio.  This being the case I've had plenty of time to do three things.  I watched an awful lot of really crappy daytime TV until my television mercifully died and I decided not to replace it - please trust me when I say not even morphine can make most of it watchable.  The other two things were to read copious amounts of books and listen to a hell of a lot of music.

As I'm sure is the case with many of you I have shelves full of books here waiting to be read so each morning  my partner would put a few of them on the table next to a thermos of tea and head off to work leaving me to work my way through them.  Music was a different problem though.  I've always been a magpie for music, constantly looking for the next shiny thing to catch my eye, and so I quickly got bored of the few CDs that were to hand and had no way of getting to the record player - or even the room it was in for that matter - so I started trawling eBay and the like for new CDs to buy.

I started by filling gaps in my collection like Einsturzende Neubauten's 'Lament', Boards of Canada's 'In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country', solo albums by members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop such as Peter Howell & John Ferdinando's 'Alice Through The Looking Glass', Trunk Records releases that I didn't have, Adrian Corker's 'The Way of the Morris' OST being the stand out which sent me down a long and winding path of soundtracks including Bullet's 'The Hanged Man' and a whole clutch of fantastic ITC multi-disc sets of things like 'The Prisoner', 'Strange Report', 'Jason King' and 'Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)'.  I grabbed a few jazz classics that I'd neglected over the years, a couple of folk things and a whole bunch of the weird and wonderful experimental extravaganzas that have been my aural bread and butter for the last 20 odd years.

In amongst this all, via hearing about an upcoming John Baker album called 'The Vendetta Tapes', I was pointed in the direction of a label I'd not heard of before by the name of Buried Treasure and oh what a day that was.  There was only a few things available at the time and within half an hour (and with one exception because I'm a sucker for 7" singles)  I'd bought everything they had that didn't require me to climb stairs to the record player.  It was all gold - and Buried Treasure dominated the Wyrd Britain Best of 2015 - but the one I kept returning to again and again was 'The Weeping Tree' ep by the implausibly named Revbjelde.  It's gently exploratory electronic folk music seemed to encapsulate the type of things I'd been buying and listening to all the time I'd been laid up.

2016 saw them release another ep - 'Buccaboo' - with it's slightly more aggressive and experimental bent it was a more intense experience than it's predecessor and again proved that it's makers were a prospect well worth keeping an eye on.

Now, as we slowly emerge from what seemed like a particularly grey winter Revbjelde have blessed us with a full album that is bursting with colour.  For those of you who've grabbed the ep's a few of the tunes here are going to sound a tad familiar as the album features tracks from both of it's predecessors alongside some shiny new tunes but you're not going to mind because they all sound so damned good together.

'Revbjelde' - the album - is a pot pouri, a smorgasbord even, a veritable cornucopia of styles and sounds.  Revbjelde - the band - wear their influences proudly and the album shifts from ethereal (almost Clannadish) folk - 'The Weeping Tree' - to Volcano the Bear style freak-folk experimental improvisation - 'Port of Arundel'.  They bring a laid back and filmic lounge jazz vibe to 'Out of the Unknown',  there's a fantastic Angelo Badalamenti feel to 'Buccaboo' and 'Tidworth Drums' is Neu!-tastic krautrock gold.

The end result is that rarest of things, an album that effortlessly crosses boundaries and blurs distinctions without ever feeling like it's forcing itself into ill-suited or poorly conceived shapes, it has a flow and an internal logic that feels both natural and honest and above all it's beautifully played, immaculately presented and just a frankly ridiculous amount of fun to listen to.

Wyrd Britain Mix 10: Alan Gubby guest mix - Buried Treasures Albion

I'm very pleased to be able to bring to you the next in our series of guest mixes with this frankly stunning set of the Wyrdest of British musical delights compiled by Alan Gubby.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Alan he is a musician, with the band Revbjelde, and head honcho of the really very wonderful Buried Treasure label which over the last few years has released a string of fabulous records both new and old.  Indeed, if memory serves, last years Wyrd Britain's 'Best of 2015' list featured 3 of their releases and the 'Best of 2016' one already has one of theirs on it, the phenomenal 'A Thousand Strands' album by The Dandelion Set.

Alan is also a Radiophonic Workshop fanatic and so far has been responsible for the three compilations of Workshopper John Baker's music - the two volumes of the 'John Baker Tapes' on Trunk Records and 'The Vendetta Tapes' on Buried Treasure - all of which are utterly essential purchases for any fan of the BBCRW.

To give you some idea of just how diverse Alan's label is the most recent release is of a warehouse find of original copies of Konstantin Raudive's 7" of his experiments with communicating with the dead via 'electronic voice phenomena' - 'Breakthrough' - which older readers may remember was also issued as a flexidisc with copies of 'The Unexplained' and a sample of which can be heard in the mix.

So without further waffling on my part I invite you to sit back with a glass of something tasty and enjoy this wonderful and eclectic mix.

The Dandelion Set - A Thousand Strands 1975 - 2015

Buried Treasure

So, as some of you know I spent much of the second half of  last year pretty immobile due to numerous broken bones and the ensuing surgical procedures.  Truth to say it wasn't a whole lot of fun.  I was on quite a lot of morphine and as such watching films or reading books was out as I couldn't follow a plot and so I found myself staring at a lot of daytime TV - side note:  not even morphine makes Jeremy Kyle any less noxious - and listening to copious amounts of music, so much in fact that I quickly ran out of what was to hand and so began searching around for new delights to do interesting things in my ears and my opiate addled brain.

Alan Moore

One of the things I stumbled across was the Buried Treasure label whose John Baker Vendetta Tapes became one of my most played albums of last year.  In fact, if you check out my end of year list you'll find several Buried Treasure releases on there with several others not making the list simply due to numerical considerations.  So it was with real excitement that I opened the promo copy sent by label honcho Alan Gubby of this, the first B.T. release of 2016 by psychedelic troubadours The Dandelion Set here ably assisted by one of the spiritual godfathers of what we do here at Wyrd Britain,  Mr. Alan Moore.

Expectation, as we all know, can be a real bitch and I'd heard some Dandelion ditties on the recent B.T. comp, 'The Delaware Road', and I know now that Alan G. has an ear for the wonderful so this had a lot to live up to; an awful lot to live up to.  We've all been down that road of getting all 'kid at xmas' about a new release only for it to turn out to be more of a 'kid at dentist' experience but now and again under the tree, wrapped in some beautifully psychedelic wrapping is that perfect gift and it surpasses all expectations.

From the opening moments of 'Pristina Strawberry Girl' we know that we're in for a trip of a ride as dreamy psyche-pop insinuates itself into the room before the wordy wizard of Northampton weaves a weirdy, wandering narrative over a skronking frug noir soundscape and so the scene is set.

Angular prog excursions make way for forays into the realms of opiated French jazz pop.  Playful dances of electronic fireflies throw themselves through animated radiophonic swirls of psychedelic colour as tales of love, loss, hopes, delusions and a trip to the cinema stand square, stark and unflinching basking in the hallucinatory haze and calling you into this twisting, writhing, mesmerising world.  A technicolour playground of lysergic intensity and intent filled with love and magic.

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'A Thousand Strands 1975 - 2015'  is released on 22nd April and Bandcamp pre-orders of the physical editions - LP / CD / Cassette - are sold out from the label - that's how good this album is - but will be available from an independent music supplier - shop independent and say no to tax avoiding multinationals - near you upon release.

Meanwhile here is a taster featuring the mighty Alan Moore, below that a video montage featuring live footage from 'The Delaware Road' launch gig and later this week you can hear a track on the next Wyrd Britain show on Mixcloud.

Best of 2015 - Music to Heal Bones To

So, happy new year to you all.  I hope 2016 brings you good times aplenty.

For much of the last 6 months of 2015 I was fairly immobile due to the whole broken leg fiasco which finally seems to be properly on the mend and I'm able to get around a lot easier although as you can see my tibia now looks like a meccano set.

What this whole palaver did give me though was time to sit and read some of the books that have been piling up and to explore some new music.  I've written about the books on the blog already but have neglected to mention some of the music so it's time to put things right.

So, with the usual disclaimer of them being in no particular order, here are some of the records that I enjoyed over the last 12 (but particularly 6) months.

John Baker - The Vendetta Tapes
Magnificent radiophonic jazz and ruler twanging archive digging from Alan Gubby at Buried Treasure
https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/the-vendetta-tapes

Keith Seatman - A Rest Before the Walk
Keith mixes folk and electronics to sublime effect to create a natural and human hauntological narrative.
https://keithseatman.bandcamp.com/album/a-rest-before-the-walk

Howlround - Tales from the Black Tangle
Loops as darkly immersive as a dip in the Mariana Trench.
http://thefogsignals.com/album/tales-from-the-black-tangle

Martin Gore - MG
Depeche Mode's Martin Gore guides his enviable collection of modular synths to create a stunning set of vintage sci-fi ambience.
http://mute.com/martin-l-gore/releases-stunning-instrumental-album-mg-out-2728-april-15-on-mute-listen-to-europa-hymn

The Assembled Minds - Creaking Haze and Other Rave-Ghosts
A late addition to 2015 or an early one for 2016 as it's not actually out yet.  Matt Saunders' haunted rave is filled with half remembered techno dreams.
http://patternedair.com/assembled-minds/

The Twelve Hour Foundation - Macaroni Cheese (7")
A hugely enjoyable 2 song set of 1970s style radiophonic pop.
https://thetwelvehourfoundation.bandcamp.com/album/macaroni-cheese

Various - The Delaware Road
A comprehensive and diverse compilation based around a fictional radiophonic narrative.
https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/the-delaware-road

Peter Zinovieff - Electronic Calendar / The EMS Tapes
Beautifully presented two disc retrospective of the low-key career of a core figure in British electronic music.
http://www.adasamshop.com/index.php/record-labels/space-age/peter-zinovieff.html

Cat's Eyes - The Duke of Burgundy OST
A sumptuous soundtrack to the Peter Strickland film that owes a debt to Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks recordings and that's no bad thing.
http://catseyes.store-08.com/the-duke-of-burgundy-presale/

Revbjelde - The Weeping Tree
Yet another appearance on this list from the Buried Treasure label this time from head honcho Alan Gubby's own band.  The EP is a bloody lovely collection of electronic folk featuring some fabulous guest vocals from Emma Churchley.
https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/the-weeping-tree

The Vendetta Tapes

John Baker
Buried Treasure

If I say that much of what you can hear here is typically Baker you will of course understand that by saying that I am by no means deriding anyone or anything and I am, in fact, giving it very high praise indeed.  Perhaps the phrase 'quintessentially Baker' would be more appropriate except what we have here is indeed that but also so much more.

Compiled by Alan Gubby, who was also responsible for the two fantastic 'John Baker Tapes' compilations released on Trunk Records a couple of years back, this newer album is a two part sort of deal.

For the most part it's Baker's contributions to the soundtrack to 'Vendetta' a Mafia thriller produced by the BBC in the 1960s.  On these tracks we get to hear his characteristic processed and layered twangs, clonks and sprongs melded seamlessly with jazz melodies and instruments.  I must admit to having been sceptical when I first heard of this release as to how well these two things would merge and whether they could transcend any novelty factor well, they do, they can and I'm an idiot for thinking otherwise.  The fusion creates music that is a pure delight; an honest, purposeful and extraordinary marriage of Radiophonic Workshop eccentricity with giallo cool.

The rest of the album is where that 'quintessentially Baker' thing I mentioned earlier comes in with a selection of tracks that were left over from the 'John Baker Tapes'.  These show his mastery of rhythm and melody with both showcased through his meticulous cut and paste methodology to produce music that will be as familiar to entire generations of Brits as it is still perplexing, exhilarating, capricious and mesmerising.

Hugely recommended and available digitally (below) with limited numbers of LPs and CDs still available.