Cassette Store Day 2015

Cassette fans! Saturday 17th October is the third International Cassette Store Day, a celebration of tape culture. Are Keshco involved? Of course!

So, it's come round again, and this time more countries have tightened their azimuth and engaged their Dolby. We're on the official stock list for Germany, and again the UK, with nearly 100 copies of Bleak House's "Music From The Middle Room".

Confirmed stockists for this year:

UK
Pebble Records, Eastbourne
Derelict Music, Hitchin
Crash Records, Leeds
Lion Coffee and Records, London
VOD Music, Mold
Reflex, Newcastle
The Inkwell, York

Denmark
Insula Music, Copenhagen

France
Balades Sonores, Paris

Germany
Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus, Berlin
Kassettentag, ACUD, Berlin
Marleen Records, Fulda

USA
Burger Records, Fullerton, CA

More info is available here:
http://cassettestoreday.de/
http://cassettestoreday.co.uk/

Here's what you could buy for around £5:

Live and psychedelic in Todmorden 19th September

Kesh-chums! Would you like to see Keshco put on a psychedelic show, in a library? Well, for one night only, you can do just that:

As it says on the poster ably designed by Bob Art Models, we'll be playing as part of a mini-festival of psychedelia entitled Destroy All Rational Thought. The set should be rather lavish - we're aiming to put on a feast for the eyes, ears and mouth. The Keshco performance is on Saturday 19th September, with doors from 7pm, films (including a new 10 min band biography) from 7.30pm, and music starting at 8pm. We should be on stage for about 75 min.

Tickets are £4 in advance, or £5 on the door. You can buy tickets here: www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/EMEHML, or in person via:

Todmorden Library, Strand, Rochdale Road, Todmorden OL14 7LB

Telephone: 01706 815600 / Fax: 01706 819025 / Email: todmorden.library@calderdale.gov.uk

Come along and see wonders like this:

Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, et al

You are a human being. You listen to recorded music. As this is the modern age, you consume this music digitally, via the big paid content providers: Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, et al. But what of Keshco? I have news for you. As of summer 2015, you can now consume Keshco music digitally, via the big paid content providers:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_seeall_2?rh=k%3Akeshco%2Ci%3Adigital-music&keywords=keshco&ie=UTF8&qid=1440413681

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/keshco/id312496623

Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/artist/7d0wPHbHFUXnwnP3BQVqaV?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

...et al.

Our Bandcamp is, as always, a better option: https://keshco.bandcamp.com/

Get Out And Vote: liner notes

"Get Out And Vote" front cover artwork (Bob Follen)

A recent Keshco release which may have passed you by is the election-themed "Get Out And Vote". This
six-track EP was released with satirical intent on the night before the UK General Election, and due to the FMA servers neither allowing it to be downloaded for the first week, nor displaying it on their list of recent uploads, and also I suspect the political theme and therefore people's parochial assumptions, it got very few plays. That's a shame, as it's no less deserving than the 110,000-time-downloaded "Accountants By Day" (still available here!).

So yes, the theme. In the UK we're still recovering from the poll-busting disappointment of May's General Election. "Get Out And Vote" commemorates this sad fart of a campaign with some brief dissections of the characters involved.

The opener, "Oh What A Ding-Dong", is hosted by a rambunctious ringmaster reeling off the candidates in a local by-election. This is bedded into a springy circus theme tune that Bob came up with a long while ago, to which I've added some layers with our favourite nostalgic synth, the Yamaha VSS-200.

What does the figure 1% make you think of? Perhaps the public sector pay constraints for the next four years. But generally it's shorthand for those who accumulate money and influence, when everyone else is short of both. Wherever there is unchecked power, there is corruption. "Stock Share Shuffle" is a skiffle-feel good-time tune about the crooks at the top, whether that's the local council or the IMF. They're not all at it, but you'd be hard-pressed to find the ethical ones. As well as my acoustic guitars, Luke adds bottle (literally - blowing across miniature bottles filled to different depths, carefully tuned at the kitchen sink) and Bob adds two mono drum kits, recorded at Goldwave's tiniest (and tinniest) of file rates: 11 kHz. Lo-fi heaven!

So, enough carping, you want policy, eh? Well here's one for you: "Lend For Free". An easy-to-understand policy, in easily-digestible micro-song form. Drop the debt. Eliminate compound interest. This brief tune has, as well as my vocals and guitars, Luke on slide Gretsch and keyboard swells, and Bob on progtastic but low-res 11 kHz drums.

One of the many embarrassing sights during the campaign is the battle bus, careering around the country to disgorge stuffy caffeinated ministers, aides and hopefuls, eager to press the sweaty flesh before squeezing back on for another motorway lunch. "Circus Wagons" recaps the opening theme with a series of campaign buzzwords. Luke's using a 'backwards' setting on his amp, I'm drumming on a biscuit tin, and trainee Keshcologist Alex Sample assists with the fluttery keyboard backing.

After the campaign comes the interminable twilit repetition of "The Count". Imagine yourself with a massive stack of voting forms. All you have to do is log them correctly. Again and again. For hours. Long hours. This instrumental, based around Luke's delay-soaked guitar, overlaid with yawning crunching synth burps and a heap of rapid-fire mini percussion (weighing scales, teacups), conjures up the filmy-eyed feeling at the end of election night.

So, the results are out, and who is the winner? Not most of us, that's for sure. Life goes on across the country, and for most of us that means getting by in cramped conditions. So here's a dance especially for those moments when it's all a little too cooped up. The Kitchen Shuffle started with a set of lyrics by poet and strident Socialist campaigner Drew Walton (go read his fervent blog here!), written in about 2002. After re-discovering them in an old folder, I've juggled them round a bit and added some extra lines. For the shuffle beat, the Yamaha and Amstrad options in the arsenal just wouldn't do, so I took advantage of the Casio MT-100. The electronics (from slider to speaker) sound like they're slowly perishing; I hope it keeps going a while yet. The sparse, echoey feel of this track recalls Gary Numan, or perhaps Soft Cell's 'Bedsitter'. Overlaid is some dense human beatboxing, and an extended instrumental section featuring Luke's brainwave of an entirely different melody which comes off his Yamaha PSS380.

Do you recognise Bob's front cover image? That's the old Labour icon Tony Benn, and you can select from a massive range of Bob's other portraits on his eBay page here.

So, a new Keshco release - six tracks released for election-time, but worth a listen any time. You can download the EP via Bandcamp: https://keshco.bandcamp.com/album/get-out-and-vote

Unaccentuated: liner notes

"Unaccentuated" front cover (Gareth Monger/Andy Brain)

April 2015 sees the release of a 10-track Keshco EP, "Unaccentuated", courtesy of Chicago netlabel Pan y Rosas Discos. It's already had nice reviews at the Modern Folk Music Of America blog and Decoder Magazine. How did it come about? And what do we mean with the name?

Keshco these days is a remote recording project, something to be squeezed in between busy lives in different cities/countries. It's also a tad more streamlined stylistically. So, the title refers not only to the rushed and fragmentary recordings enforced by this geographic separation (and having things to do, almost as if we're proper adults now), but also to the absence of comedy moments and silly voices, one of our hallmarks that's been divisive since day one. Does humour belong in music? Well yes, undoubtedly, but on a collection like this, you can enjoy Kesh music unencumbered by lyrical concerns. Don't worry, everything has its day and we'll have some songs for you soon.

The cover art by noted dinosaur sketcher and grand old Keshcologist, Gareth Monger, plays on the title with a microscope's view of assorted protozoa - unaccentuated life forms.

Film-makers and remixers should enjoy these soundtrack-worthy selections, which are released under Creative Commons licensing for ease of use (with attribution) in your own projects.

As it turned out, Luke and Bob were unavailable for the hectic overdub process, and what was to be a brief EP expanded when Ines contributed three pieces recorded in her Buenos Aires apartment block, in which there is an empty residence containing only an upright piano, and a few photographs. To fill out the sound, Caroline stepped up with recorder and (broken) clarinet, and I've got back into beatboxing and scraping on the violin.

The EP begins with 'First Flush', an aching piano melody from Bob played in Sowerby Bridge. I've added a pair of synth lines played on the band's favourite school-age keyboard, the Yamaha VSS-200.

'To Reach The Outpost' is the kind of Andy synth tinkling that feels a natural extension from 1990s Kesh. In a parallel universe this could have been our main style of output.

'Blocked Signals' began with some washes of a brittle, dusty keyboard sample. This was augmented by Ines with guitar harmonics, which were further treated, and some guitar hum that rumbles up from the depths to overwhelm the fragile melody line.

"Unaccentuated" back cover (Gareth Monger/Andy Brain)

An instrument sample, once inside the VSS-200, was found to have a percussive blip, which became the foundation of 'Tiny Transmission', and to which my other layers are gamely trying to maintain a grip. Cold funk.

The mysterious piano makes its first appearance in the downbeat 'Unaccentuated Motive', occasionally backed with the sounds of Buenos Aires, and against Caroline's recorder and (broken) clarinet. In the far distance I scrape on violins. The reverb is a mixture of the big room sound and the favourite Buzz plugin, Sonic Verb.

'Wipe My Face Away' was nearly a song, so you can consider yourself blessed. It's an incidental Andy, apparently channelling Simon The Sorcerer.

Life on Earth. From out of the swamps, out of the trees. 'Borneo' began as a fine flute improvisation by Luke, with me playing pedals. Caroline was tasked with negotiating the rocky harmonic path alongside this, with recorder and (broken) clarinet, making up alternate fingerings to keep the thing in tune.

'Royal Flush' brings back that opening piano melody from Bob, in a longer meditation. The piano is surrounded by the woozy swirls of the take itself having been elongated via the paulstretch program, then re-compressed to the correct length. In the middle distance, I scrape on violins.

'Busted Flush' is the final bar of Bob's previous take, stretched out, wobbled and reverbed.

We end with an upbeat, open-hearted, open-minded, bombastic stomper - Ines' piano leads the way on 'Lunar Accent', a refreshing closer. I've added a pair of VSS-200 lines, wind chimes, percussion (pizza base, pound shop drum) and reasonably distant violins.

We're very happy if you enjoy the EP, which can also be downloaded via the Free Music Archive. Gobble to your heart's content. Hope to hear from you all soon.

February news

Dear Keshcologist,

The darkest months are over, whew. Have a couple of tunes to celebrate...

Going Dutch (from the Filmmaker's Reference Kit Vol 1) is now available here in a shorter edit:


That's https://soundcloud.com/keshco/going-dutch-perverted-groove-7-inch-edit
...and it's also freely usable in your creative projects. Why not take a camera into the clubs of Amsterdam and then soundtrack them with this?

A micro-song for your delectation:

Also downloadable from:
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Keshco/microSong_Challenge_Entries/Son_Of_A_Systems_Engineer

Short enough to use as a ringtone, say on your work phone.

The next Keshco release is due out in late March courtesy of Pan y Rosas Discos, a Chicago netlabel.

Before that, another home concert is planned for February 22nd, to be streamed live on the Beware! Vision uStream channel.

Beware! The Zine continues, with regular features including the ongoing adventures of bit demon Nase and telegraphic pal Abel; Johnny Cocktail's Private Investigatory Masterclass; and the Encyclopaedia of International Celebrity, already boasting highly accurate entries on The Smiths and Germaine Greer. You can signup by email to receive updates direct to your inbox.

Bob Art Models has a travelling library exhibition, which will be in the following locations:
23/1 - 7/2 Todmorden Library
14/2 - 28/2 Hebden Bridge Library
9/3 - 21/3 King Cross Library
28/3 - 11/4 Brighouse Library
20/4 - 5/5 Sowerby Bridge Library
11/5 - 1/6 Central Library Halifax
8/6 - 20/6 Elland Library

Support your local artists and support your local libraries! Who knows, maybe Bob Art Models will come to your town next...