Thanks to everyone who organised, performed at or attended last weekend’s Extraction Music fundraising all-dayer in Cardiff. I thoroughly enjoyed all the performances I was able to catch, including Rhodri Davies, Form Constants and Clive Henry amongst others, all helping to raise money in aid of the current refugee crisis in Calais and elsewhere. My particular gratitude, however, must go to chief protagonist and driving force Ian Watson for just happening to have a spare UHER tape machine on hand when dear old troublesome Daphne failed to make it through the soundcheck. What are the chances of that happening, I wonder? We certainly would’ve been screwed if Daphne had decided to kick the bucket in Portugal, Copenhagen, the US or indeed anywhere else that we’ve played in the last year – Howlround really does have the best kind of bad luck! Anyway, for those of you who couldn’t make it, please enjoy the above short teaser from Howlround’s closing set and do have a look at these rather natty T-shirts produced especially for the event, a limited number of which are still available online, with £10 from each sale going to charity.
Thanks must also go to David for the loan of his sofa and toaster, Ben for tending to the sick Daphne and to Victoria for general fetching, lifting, delivering and precarious balancing skills. Under her suggestion, the new addition to the ranks has been christened Jenyth after one of the lesser-heralded female members of the Radiophonic Workshop. Isn’t she cute? The machine, that is…
On a similar subject, commiserations must go once again to our friend Ian Holloway of The British Space Group who was unable to attend Extraction Music after landing himself back in hospital with yet more broken bones. His latest project, the complete collection of the group’s rather fine Phantasms EPs is now available online as a single album entitled Phantasmagoria. Clocking in at an impressive 42 tracks, I’m convinced t it would speed up his recovery no end if you were to click on the link below and have a listen and a purchase.
Finally, thanks to Mr. Adrian Shenton of Phonospheric Recordings for kindly donating me a copy of his Unseen Landscapes album recorded in collaboration with Banks Bailey. That’s worth a listen, too and I shall be checking this label out further once the dust has settled. He describes Phonosheric’s the output as ‘immersive, atmospheric, experimental and broadly ambient in character – sound that surrounds’, which is exactly what I could have done with on the train home, chock-full as it was with bellowing rugby louts, drunken hen-do princesses blasting tinny iPhone house and a veritable army of screaming children. Hardly what one would expect at 8am on a Sunday, but I guess that’s just how they roll in Cardiff. No wonder it’s such a stronghold for ambient music – how else would people cope?!
Robin The Fog 