Awkward Objects, by Tom White & Stuart Chalmers

Awkward Objects

by Tom White & Stuart Chalmers

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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tape edition
Cassette + Digital Album
Pro-duplicated blue tapes in an edition of 50.
Handmade doorstop duplicates also available.

Includes unlimited streaming of Awkward Objects via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Flux 03:14	buy track
2.	Ping Pinch 02:28	buy track
3.	Spindle 03:20	buy track
4.	Tip Trap 02:10	buy track
5.	Spring 02:53	buy track
6.	Rotate 05:28	buy track
7.	Recur Recycle 03:33	buy track
8.	Spiral 02:32	buy track
9.	Possible Scales 04:30	buy track
10.	Elliptic Orbit 03:10	buy track

about

Tape-music grandmasters play chess with eternity!

OK (pause)

Phew ... (wipes damp palms, mops shining brow) ... I’m a little excited here OK. (gasp for air, clears throat)

Fans of modern tape wonk will already know the names of the righteous Tom White and Stuart Chalmers. For you lot at the back (and please try and keep up) Tom plays the large reel-to-reel tape machine manipulating the thick vintage tape with electronic effects and spectacularly hands-on physical loop-age systems.

Stuart favours the household compact cassette and carefully takes these fragile babies apart making short micro loops that he magically extends with a dusting of effects pedals, fairy lights and a deep mystical understanding.

Similar set ups for these gentlemen for sure but their work is clear-voiced, distinctive and individual. For Awkward Objects Tom brings a textural crunch that aches with the sound of sound itself. Each subtle click and whirr of the reel-to-reel is elevated to be a star in the show; a gentle hiss is looped into angels gossip, a tidy mechanical clunk becomes the snoring of a sleeping god. Stuart’s gift is for layering fragile sonic time-tissues. Each soft envelope of memory draws electrical activity from my hippocampus triggering flashbacks involving Blake’s Seven, Moonbase Alpha and the hot fug of a sleeping bag.

This is heady stuff; circular, ever moving - a dignified collapse leading to a raw re-birth. Tom and Stuart’s styles merge and mesh perfectly into what some are calling Cubist sound collages. To my cloth ears it’s a great description as the angles are slightly askew, the colours muted and subtle. This recording is a beauty that’s hinted at, inferred, rather than presented as a garish centrefold spread.

Expect to be drawn into a soundworld of new sensations, warm embraces and deft ear-fingering.

So, in my best fairground barkers roar...

”Here they are ladies and gentlemen. Together for the first time, Mister Tom White and Mister Stuart Chalmers proudly present their Awkward Objects for your edification and listening pleasure. Take it away gents...”

credits

released November 19, 2018

Music by Tom White and Stuart Chalmers.
Release notes by Joe Murray.
Mastered by Jac Beloeil.

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about

Fractal Meat Cuts London, UK

Processes & experiments in sound & music.
--
Label & radio show run by Graham Dunning

fractalmeat.wordpress.com

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