The Outsiders: Vol. 14

Not all of Stereogum's favorite sounds conform to what folks expect us to cover. In this space, resident Bananafish fetishist Brandon Stosuy focuses on bands, albums, singles, and villages in Sweden that may otherwise pass by unnoticed. This installment's virtual milk crate contains Pumice, Nurse With Wound, DJ Scotch Egg, more from Hayvanlar Alemi, and something from Ulver

Pumice is New Zealander Stefan Neville. His new album QUO is my favorite of his dozens of releases, which go back to 1994 -- he's added a heavier rock 'n' roll kick to the usual melancholic folk and off-kilter noisy pop. It feels like he's really leaning into it this time, allowing punk and hardcore shambles to abut the blues, loner psychedelia, and lo-fi hiss. He definitely went noisier with 2007's Pebbles, but this is a darker racket. At this point, Neville has me thinking of my favorite NZ bands from the height of Xpressway and Flying Nun -- Terminals, Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, the Jefferies brothers, Dead C, etc. Pumice is a one-man band, so the sound's insular, though not claustrophobic. This is what he sounds like some of the time.

[Photo by Blink]

Pumice - "Pumice Quo" (MP3)
Pumice - "Fort" (MP3)

"Battersby," which I didn't post, really hits me like the Terminals. "Pebbles," another standout, is up at the label site. You can get a few other examples of his work at his MySpace. Also over there, Stefan explains what went into QUO:

-seeing napalm death at the kings arms sept.07
-two different accordians that i got for consecutive birthdays.
-living in morningside with shaun jury who has a nice synth, and bass guitar and brenda dwayne who has a nice nylon string acoustic.
-in 1974 status quo released "Quo" thats the year i was born.
-haka
-a $1 doo wop comp. from the warehouse.
-my dads death.
-a proper summer holiday new years 07/08 on great barrier island.
-the parasite museum in tokyo.
-mixing in a flash studio with quality speakers.
-lead guitar/organ on endless cassette.
-crate of waikato draught on the lawn.
-finding out les battersby from coronation st. found the body of a yorkshire ripper victim.
-keeping a thermos of tea close by.

QUO is out via Soft Abuse. It's recommended.

Legendary UK goat farmer, industrial pioneer, and improvisational demon Stephen Stapleton, aka Nurse With Wound, shouldn't need an introduction, but if he does, here goes:

Nurse With Wound - "Ketamineaphonia" (MP3)

That's a misleading introduction. Here's more. It's impossible to represent NWW with one track or nut graph, but you can do research here, and if you're in the mood for summer reading material pickup David Keenan's England's Hidden Reverse, which tells the story of Coil, NWW, and Current 93, among others (and comes with a handy CD sampler). In the same breath, crack the spine on Drew Daniel's Throbbing Gristle book 20 Jazz Funk Greats, too. For now, Huffin' Rag Blues is out 6/24 on Stapleton's United Dairies/Jnana. (Ever read the Nurse With Wound list?)

I also wanted to revisit Turkish psych-mongers Hayvanlar Alemi, who have new material up at their MySpace. You can also download some of their tracks at last.fm. Additionally, the band released a CDR today:

We have released the first CDR of the "Hayvanthropological Field Recordings Series." In these series, there will be recordings going back as far as our first recording sessions in 1999, recorded in all kinds of places with all kinds of recording qualities: Concert recordings, home recordings, street recordings, different versions of our songs from albums and demos, songs that were recorded with precision but didn't make it, stage shows, songs that didn't fit anywhere else, very long drunken improvisations, the birth moments of the songs that later tuned into compositions, demos that have been waiting in the vault as one-copy casettes, stuff recorded with our older line-ups, dialogues and stuff that captures Hayvanlar Alemi at it's private, maybe some videos, some more improvisations, etc.

Some of these CDR's will have an assortment of these stuff, and some of them will focus on a particular place or time, like "Home Recordings 2008." At the moment we are not planning to put them up on the internet in full. They will be released only on CDR with detailed liner notes and will be mailed FOR FREE to anyone who wishes...

Read more here. They're definitely worth investigating.

I recently spoke about Shit & Shine, who have a great new album out on Load. With Load on the mind, also check out "Scotch Stoner" from DJ Scotch Egg, aka Shigeru Ishihara's Drumized at Load's label site. Before you go, though, more fitting with today's other sounds, here's DJ Scotch Egg's "Scotch Jazz Featuring Anders Hana On Guitar" from the same record:

DJ Scotch Egg - "Scotch Jazz Featuring Anders Hana On Guitar" (MP3)

There are a couple other short tracks at the previously linked DJ Scotch Egg MySpace, but this stuff's best heard in succession, so drop some bucks on it.

Just before I pressed "save," I found ex-black metallers Ulver covering Prince's "Thieves In The Temple." I sorta can't handle the female parts, but check it out here. Finally, a longish interview I did with Ulver main man Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg a ways back.

Posted at 6:52 PM by brandon in MP3, The Outsiders
Tags: DJ Scotch Egg | Hayvanlar Alemi | Nurse With Wound | Pumice | Ulver

1 Comments

I really liked Pumice Quo. The percussion was soothing and rhythmic. Together with the haunting and fleeting melody, they created a beautiful contrast for the rather industrial ambient noise.

Posted by: Kimberlee Morrison at 06/16/08 9:01 PM | Reply
Score = 0