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SPACEHADS :
low pressure
(Bleep 14)
Low Pressure, is the new album from UK
duo Spaceheads. It is their 7th album, and features 10 new tracks.
On Low Pressure, Andy Diagram (trumpet) and Richard Harrison (drums),
take their unique sound, based on live trumpet loops, drums and
electronics, to even greater sonic extremes.
The album hangs on lazy grooves and thick harmonised trumpet chords;
sleazy deep beat brass and crushed up metallic drumbeats. Spaceheads
mix the raw emotional sound of breath with the banging of wood
on skin, and push it through the blips, crackle and distortion
of pixelated electronic noise.
Low Pressure is about impending danger, the coming storm. We live
in uneasy times, in a world with invisible enemies. Environmental
destruction is no longer just a dangerous possibility but is happening
now. Our weather systems have been turned upside down. Science
and technologies’ potential to liberate us, grows greater
by the day. Contrasting more and more with its use to manipulate
and control us.
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| tracks |
realaudio
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32kb |
| 1)
low pressure |
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| 2)
on a clear day |
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| 3) the lugano affair |
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| 4) astro temple |
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| 5) pressure point |
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| 6) fog |
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| 7) the hut |
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| 8) storm force 8 |
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| 9)
red shift |
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| 10)
over the moon |
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The cover
features a toy drummer and a toy trumpet superimposed on weather
charts. The cover also features a straw bale mud hut built by Richard
during the recording of the album.
Is it a case of old technologies offering us all a hope for the
future?
The Hut is a low pressure building, built using local materials
and recycled wood. Low impact, Lo-Fi, Eco–housing.
The Trumpet and Drums are ancient sound machines, battling their
way through electronic webs. The hot-wired, super charged, electro-panic
of modern living.
The album opens with the title track, Low Pressure. Thick velvet
layers of harmonised trumpet hang like brass slabs over the crunched
up metallic drumbeats. A heavy sensuous and uneasy beauty overwhelms
the listener.
An inside out, upside down, backward drum pattern sucks you into
the next track,
On a clear day. Galloping multi-speed drums emerge from a dark brooding
brass loop. The track builds up to a fiesta of trumpet fanfares,
before settling back into the dark swamp. On a clear day is a re-mix
of a spaceheads jam by the Bleach Boys, one of three re-mixes on
the album.
The sound of fingers being dragged down a chalkboard opens The Bleach
Boys second contribution, Pressure Point, a re-mix of Low pressure.
The Bleach Boys are Richard Harrison and Mick Routledge (of Twelve
Tone). They are based in Manchester and are soon to release their
first album.
Graham Massey, contributes the album’s third remix, Storm Force
8. Graham is a long time associate of Andy and Richard, and like
them, was active in the early 80s Manchester music scene. He made
his name in the late 80s / early 90s with techno pioneers 808 state,
and re-mixing for the likes of Bjork. He plays regularly with Richard
in the Manchester based bands Homelife and Toolshed.
Other guests on the album include Paddy Steer also from Manchester’s
Homelife. His pounding electric bass on Lugano Affair pushes this
mysterious track through its many thematic twists and turns. It
wouldn’t be a proper Spaceheads album without an appearance
by Chris Cornetto, a regular guest on Spaceheads albums. He contributes
the heavy synth bass line on the ecstatic trance of Fog, a favourite
in the Spaceheads live set.
Low Pressure ends up taking us through the shimmering curtain of
deep space on Red Shift, evoking soundscapes of cinematic proportions,
before drawing us to the albums escapist conclusion.
There is a sigh of relief and a twinkle of love as Over the moon
emerges with a heavenly brass loop. A lonely trumpet floats over
a lazy funk beat and loping tuba bass line. Has the storm passed?
Or have the spaceheads simply left this troubled planet and escaped
to the stars.
The Spaceheads have been hurtling down a unique path of their own
for many years now.
The Spaceheads are :
Andy Diagram - Trumpet and voice through harmoniser and echo loops
Richard Harrison - Drums and percussion and sheets of metal through
electronics.
The spaceheads have been touring regularly across the globe for
the last five years. They have recorded five
albums the latest "Angel Station" was released in 1999
on pandemonium records (europe) and merge records
(USA).
THE PRESS LOVE THE SPACEHEADS !
intergalactic groove merchants - music that hits you between the
ears and below the waist - Melody Maker.
a few acts fit into no category, including the spaceheads, who made
bewitching abstract dance music using just trumpet and drums - New
York Times
the spaceheads have long been flies in the ointment - The Wire.
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how to order
