Is music falling into a predictable formulaic pattern now? Media is the great homoginizer and the market (even in the so called underground) is steered towards comfort and familiarity by nature of it's adaptation to consumption. So you have yr touch records label whereby stylistically you know what you will get before the press release is written, you have your volcanic tongue so determined to create a niche that it unconciously claims ownership of represented art resulting in an 'individual' being morphed into a 'whole'. I am the great stereotyper, a chronic exagerator, but possibly under all this there are some truths. The Skaters are far removed from the PSF roster but enveloped as a whole under the umbrella 'tongue' the individualism of their work is dissipated to a degree. Maybe i am just jaded maybe i am bored with this scene, maybe I should just go back to hunting down any recordings of Nina Simone's rendition of 'Pirate Jenny' as this seems able to satisfy my need for a 'fix'.

Despite my failure to relate to these commodified movements, recent months have been consumed by a significant obsession with one act, which although respected by various factions of the sub-cultural experimental world, managed over their 10 year history to produce some of the most 'outside' take on this strange beast called music that I have encountered.

The Shadow Ring were a UK outfit that existed from 1993-2003. They are generally lumped in with the prime 'Siltbreeze' years where, along with The Dead C and Harry Pussy, etc pushed forward a 'lo-fi'' punk, art aesthetic that slapped the American indie kids outa their grunge bong haze and injected a significant discourse resulting in a new noise/experimental underground complete with zines, tours and of course, miniscule run lathe cuts.

I knew of the Shadow Ring way back when, I even listed their Corpus Hermeticum release 'Wax Work Echoes' in my first mail order catalogue way back in the pre-internet days of stamp on envelope communication. I listened to this disc back then and no doubt thought it curious but it did not bite (my head was elsewhere) and I found it easier to ride them off as generic Siltbreeze fodder. Whilst I own and love many records released by Lax the Wax over the years I was so wrong with my generic summary of Shadow Ring output and in recent months have been outright embarrassed by just how wrong I was. The Shadow Ring - the band and their entire output would have to be one of the most curious I have ever encountered. As a single creative unit their output has a trajectory that although smooth and transitional is unlikely to have been conceived from the start. It's a beautiful strange world this one and has left me wondering whether any artist/act has produced a more consistently solid body of work in the last 20 years or so.

For simple summary we can break down the output of the band into 3 periods which coincide with labels that issued this material:

Dry Leaf Discs - naive, atonal, kitchen percussion, lyrical themes of the mundane, domestic surrealism and an obsession with aqua life, vermin and various other animals.

Siltbreeze - Similar to that above with more elaborate 'sounds' introduced. Denser, darker, brooding suburban paranoia.

Swill Radio - Isolated, borderline psychotic, electronic.

I like the earlier works, some snappy ditties and domestic humour. One can see the massive influence these chaps have had on the more extreme side of recent lysergic folk explorations, Kemialliset Ystavat certainly come to mind.

Recently a younger workmate of mine saw Wire play live here and was shocked that a band that has been around so long could not play there instruments... she was really shocked. I told her that on occasion people that cannot play their instruments come up with something altogether interesting which cannot be found by those who have perfected a certain technique. She did not buy into this one bit! The Shadow Ring are an example whereby some goons get together with zero skill and create something so other-worldly and unique that one can only be grateful they adopted a practice outside of any self imposed rules.

So the bulk of the first half of their output consists of these dirgy de-tuned strummy songs featuring an array of unusual lyrical matter. More elaborate means of disorientating the listener being introduced on occasion. I recall a press release for 'Wax work' mentioning something along the lines of Xenakis meets The Incredible String Band which although ridiculous given the propensity for complexity both of these acts incorporated into their output is not far off in respect to an ambitious avant garde folk music as viewed through a mundane suburban existence. Many people cite 'The Fall when mentioning The Shadow Ring, the same deadpan vocal delivery, the same comic black observations of the ordinary, the unmistaken 'Britishness' of the whole thing. But any such comparisons can be swiftly dropped as these lads ventured further into a musical world of completely their own devising.

It is on the last release for Siltbreeze 'Hold on to I.D' that things start to get really interesting — a strange assed disc that started this obsession of mine after finally deciding to check out what this lambkin character was involved with after many, many repeated spins of his last solo cd 'Salmon Run'. I nicked 'I.D' from a blog, I then found the cd on ebay cheap. It was still in print, suffice to say — sold! This record sees a shift into more introverted terrain. With the assistant of more synth (employed in the same super basic, simplistic fashion as guitars were used previously), the thick British accent spoken lyrics are present as ever, the domestic themes are here — washing vegetables, opening windows, "Problems of basic everyday life" etc... A trip is taken overseas and precautions are taken to ensure all documents are in order. It's totally fucked, and higher praise I cannot muster.

I was obsessing over 'I.D' and thought it one of the most original records ever produced in this country, that is until I heard the 'Lighthouse' LP. Initial thoughts... how on earth did they come up with this? I have a fairly large record collection back home and after many years running a record shop and working in this wretched music industry I have heard a lot of music, but never have I encountered anything like this. Text heavy (these cats are apparently fairly big Robert Ashley fans) — simple pitch shifted melodies played on shitty keyboards, piano, feedback and the unidentifiable are used sparingly to back up the lyrics which bounce from Cobra's, King Arthur, the last lighthouse keeper in the UK, work placements etc.... my favorite line "I'm having a baby, I will watch it develop into an adult, it will take approximately 18 years". These guys are funny and this is a funny record but lordy it's creepy as well. I am not sure I can figure how one can sit down and come up with this. The reference points elude me and the degree of unhinged exploration I find engaging on repeated listens. I feel like a total goose for only hearing lighthouse this year but at the same time it says something for this that it can sound so alarmingly outside still to this day many moons after its initial release. Lighthouse provides the kind of radical dislocation that I have seldom experienced with music in the past. Their unique mix of vaudevillian frivolity, radio play dramaturge, monty python absurdity and playful sonic experimentation make this a record I would highly endorse to anyone who prefers the unfamiliar against re-iteration.


Behold the wonderful odd packed wax that is this contemporary classic of head questions - 'The Lighthouse' 2LP

Having panted and puffed and ranted and raved about these releases to any schmo that came my way for weeks following I was pleased to see a 2cd was being released which documented the history of the band. I immediately ordered this and on request Graham Lambkin was kind enough to also send me a cdr of the Lindus lp which I needed to fill the gap in this world. I am glad I asked for this and again I was floored with what I heard.

'Lindus' takes the band even further out resulting in a lonesome paranoid psychologically unsettling work. A wonderfully damaged record on par with nothing I can recall. What the hell is this record—? I read somewhere that the goal was to make an intimate documentation of someone's private life, as if a tape was found on the street and the contents within provided some insight into a world which is firstly very private and quite possibly rather 'wrong'. With very minimal musical backing (sparse electronics, some field recordings, some wind instruments?) and text (this time slowed down) Lindus is a masterpiece of beautifully unsettling abstraction. 'We're complex piss' features some of the most stunning lyrics i have heard in a long time... a sad tale of a sunken ship, a grieving widow and alcoholism unravelled through a few evocative phrases. The naivety of the bands search by this point has resulted in a band that not only created their own language but then translated this into 5 other languages all of their own devising. Lindus is such a perfectly destroyed record it makes me weep that many touted experimental 'stars' offer zero ingenuity in this current age.

If you have an interest in just how far music and song can be stretched then I would immediately suggest you listen to the works by this band at this time. If you are interested in text as an experimental musical form... this is totally essential. If you are looking for music that will quite simply fuck with your head in the kindest way possible then this is the shit for you. Never would I have guessed that a Siltbreeze act would make records like this!

The Shadow Ring 'Life Review (1993-2003) 2CD is out and about now from the usual outlets stocking the gold freak.