Tower Of Babylon

Andy Bell (Ride/ GLOK) and Masal promo-ed a new album (Common Primitives) two months ago with a new track called The Morning Of The Trip. They've followed it recently with the next one, Tower Of Babylon. Andy plays guitar and with GLOK and maybe Masal too some synths/ keys. Masal are an Anglo- Turkish duo, Al Johnson and Oslem Simsek, who blend synths, found sounds and electronics with harp, theremin and Oslems's Turkish folk influences, a fairly unique and interesting coming together of three musicians.

That being said I sometimes get to the point where I listen to instrumental music- ambient/ cosmische/ shoegaze/ psychedelia- and am blown away by it and then come here to try to describe it and.... end up repeating myself, using the same old phrases and imagery. 

Tower Of Babylon has fluttering harp, a sharp and bumping rhythm, distorted guitars and/ or synths. The music builds and loops, breaks down and re- assembles. The harp returns and then the buzzing starts again, the drums return. It's a trip of its own making, a dreamlike detour. 

Oslem grew up in Turkey studying classical harp and when she moved to England met Johnson who found common ground in ambient/ electronics and world sounds. They supported Andy at a gig in 2020 and began to work together after that. In Turkish the word Masal means fairy tale or folk story which feels relevant to the music that they make. Al has referenced Pharoah Saunders and Vini Reilly as key influences (as well as a Turkish folk song Oslem remembered from growing up) on the forthcoming album, which comes out in October, nine tracks on vinyl or digital. 

The Morning Of The Trip

In 2023 Andy Bell and Masal released an album, called Tidal Love Numbers- four long ambient pieces that wandered into psyche, folk, jazz and blissed out noisy drones and back again, Andy's guitar and Masal's harp and synths all blurring into a greater whole. Andy and Masal have a new album out in October called Common Primitives and ahead of it this single, The Morning Of The Trip...

The Morning Of The Trip is the soundtrack to something- a slow film about the passage of time perhaps, time lapse photography of the start of a new day, a long descent from the heavens by balloon. A theme tune. Visual music. Shoegaze/ ambient and harp. 

You can buy it and pre- order the album at Bandcamp

In a handy moment of coincidence this is the morning of my trip too- I'm off to Glasgow for a couple of days where I shall meet up with JC (The Vinyl Villain) and a few other like minded folk. When I booked my train a few weeks ago I wasn't really thinking about the World Cup and which teams might have made it to the semi- final stage. It has transpired that tonight I shall be in Glasgow when England play their semi- final against Argentina, a place where an Englishman supporting England is unlikely to be particularly popular. 

I have been drawn in by the World Cup despite my misgivings about it- about Trump's USA being the hosts, about the advert/ hydration breaks, about Infantino and FIFA (and some of those misgivings have been very much realised such as Trump pressuring FIFA to rescind a US player's red card not to mention their treatment of the Iranian team and Omar Artan, the Somali referee who was barred from entering the country). 

The sheer variety the World Cup brings- teams and fans from countries as far afield as Japan, Morocco, Belgium and Mexico, the collision of styles and cultures, the colour and the spectacle- is very much to be applauded and soaked up. The world in all its varieties. 

I often have an unease about supporting England- the flag, the national anthem, the fans dressed as crusaders, the endless recycling of that song and of 'football coming home'. It's all so, as the kids say, cringe. But in the current climate, a multi- cultural team of young men from a variety of backgrounds doing well is a good thing (three examples- Bukayo Saka, Nigerian parents, born in Ealing; Jude Bellingham, Irish and Jamaican parents, born in Birmingham; Djed Spence Jamaican and Kenyan parents, born in London; this is England and the racists, the Reform voters and the lamppost flaggers are having to deal with it. It's the England most of us are actually happy to be part of and to live in). When Jude Bellingham scored against Norway in extra time late on on Saturday night I was leaping round the living room like a lunatic. Fingers crossed we find a pub in Glasgow where we can watch England go one step further. 

England's Irie

An Hour For Tak Tent Radio

Last Sunday Tak Tent Radio hosted an hour long mix of mine, my tenth for the radio station. You can listen to it at Mixcloud and or at Tak Tent. It's mainly made up of music from 2023 with a couple of older (but still fairly recent) ones, almost all having featured at this blog at some point in the past. The Jezebell track is unavailable elsewhere and was sent out to people who pre- ordered the double vinyl edition of Jezebellearic Beats Vol 1(and although Jesse and Darren said the track would never be made available from them they were happy for other people to share it- I thought this mix was a good place for it and luckily Jesse and Darren agree). The Khidja track has become a minor Bagging Area obsession- this is the third mix its appeared on, previously making it onto my end of 2023 mix and the David Holmes at The Golden Lion one a few weeks ago.  

• CLAIR: Body Blossom (Extended Mix)
• Psychederek: Test Card Girl
• Andy Bell and Masal: Tidal Love Conversation In That Familiar Golden Orchard (Edit)
• Coyote: We Got Lost
• Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s: Golden Twilight 23
• Cole Odin: Dawn’s Approaching (Psychemagik Remix)
• Jezebell: A Dangerous Side
• C.A.R.: Anzu
• Khidja: Do You Know This Record Marius?
• Bedford Falls Players: Marmite Marimba
• Four Tet: Bubbles At Overlook 25th March 2019

 

Monday's Long Songs

Andy Bell's GLOK side project released a new album last week, eight versions of previously available songs played live in session for Electronic Sound. The album, Gateway Mechanics, is out at Bandcamp digitally and on bright yellow vinyl. He's on tour as GLOK at the moment. The versions on the live album are superb, the synths and guitars flying off over pre- recorded drums, Andy's cosmische/ motorik influences in full flow. This version of Dissident (from the first GLOK album of the same name, released in 2019) is twelve minutes of Michael Rother- esque guitars and pulsing sequencer lines, the fuzzbox seeing some action in the final few minutes. 

As a bonus, a  few weeks ago Andy and Masal put out a cover of Neu!'s Hallogallo, recorded at The Social in May this year, nine minutes of West German by way of Oxford bliss.

Monday's Long Song

Andy Bell's album with Essex duo Masal is a thing of wonder, a four track album that floats in the spaces between ambient, shoegaze and astral jazz. The four instrumental pieces all have long titles- Murmuration Of  Warm Dappled Light On Her Back After Swimming, The Slight Unease Of Seeing A Crescent Moon In A Blue Midday Sky, Tidal Love Conversation In That Familiar Golden Orchard and A Pyramid Hidden By Centuries Of Neon Green Undergrowth- inspired by Felt's long stream of consciousness song titles. The music on the opening track, Murmuration Of Warm Dappled Light On Her Back After Swimming, glides by slowly, drones, waves of sound, sporadic bursts of wandering psychedelic guitar, and on top a harp. Like lying back in a warm bath with the sun on your face, and gently drifting in and out of being awake/ half asleep. 

Murmuration... is the longest track here too at nearly fifteen minutes long with the rest are all coming in between seven and ten minutes long. The album, Tidal Love Numbers, can be bought at Bandcamp although the CD and cassette versions are long since all sold out.

Tidal Love/ Seen From Above

We spent last weekend on the western coast of northern England and the weekend just gone on the east coast, a few days in a caravan north of Hartlepool. The beach north of Hartlepool is dramatic and beautiful, a little wild and both unspoilt and post- industrial. The beach has coal mixed into the sand, the coal seam surfacing in the sea and lumps of coal and coal dust being washed up on the beach. The view above was taken on Monday evening at high tide, standing at the edge of the north sea looking out towards Europe at dusk. The one below was on Saturday morning, much bluer and brighter skies.

I love a beach with bits of the industrial past half buried in the sand, the tide wearing it away slightly more every day. The coast is good for the soul. 

Two new songs for Tuesday. First is new from Andy Bell, a frequent visitor to these pages in solo form, as GLOK and as a member of Ride. He has recorded a four track with Masal, out in May, with the first track from it being available to listen to and buy now. Tidal Love Conversation In That Familiar Golden Orchard is described at Bandcamp as 'ambient, astral jazz' and that fits perfectly. Andy's wandering, cosmische guitar lines are underpinned by brushed drums, analogue synths and harp, a light, floating psychedelic exploration. 

Also out last Friday is the latest from Pye Corner Audio, who has previously worked with Andy, remixing six songs from The View From Halfway Down, with Andy returning the favour by playing guitar on last year's Let's Emerge album. The new Pye Corner Audio track, Seen From Above, is at Bandcamp (a pay what you want deal) and is a return to the darker, dystopic sounds he's known for with a kick drum and hi hat adding some propulsion to the menace. Dark techno, the flipside to Andy and Masal's Tidal Love.