The Orb, Arch 635, Clapham, London, 10/09/2009

themilkman on Sep 15th 2009 01:10 am

The Orb, Arch 635, Clapham, London, 10/09/2009

Alex Paterson and co are used to huge venues and festivals, playing in front of thousands of people, but it is in the intimist settings of Arch 635 in Clapham, south London, that they chose to introduce their latest effort, Baghdad Batteries, to the world, in front of a crowd of just 250. The dress code du hour was uniformist to say the least: white overalls for all, with strict instruction that they should be worn during the band’s performance, making the place look like an over-busy crime scene of Silent Witness. Support was provided by Maliscious Damage’s Able & Cane and She Is Danger, the latter sounding something like Beth Gibbons submitted to electic shocks.While not really providing anything particularly new or fresh, the girls delivered a pretty sharp electro set. Continue Reading »

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THE ORB: Baghdad Batteries: Orbsessions Vol. 3 – An Illustrated Handbook With Stereo Sound (Malicious Damage)

themilkman on Aug 19th 2009 11:32 pm

The Orb: Baghdad Batteries: Orbsessions Vol. 3 – An Illustrated Handbook With Stereo Sound

THE ORB
Baghdad Batteries: Orbsessions Vol. 3 – An Illustrated Handbook With Stereo Sound
MD645
Malicious Damage 2009
11 Tracks. 53mins33secs

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Always a fluid project, The Orb, led by former Killing Joke roadie Alex Paterson, has gone through many incarnations over the years. Twenty years on from the seminal A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld EP, The Orb are a pretty steady presence on the electronic stage, and has shown no sign of slowing down, the stream of releases remaining pretty constant through the last two decades. The band was however victim of a steady decline during the late nineties and early noughties, culminating with the somewhat lacklustre Cydonia and Bicycles And Tricycles albums. Since, Paterson and long term collaborator Thomas Fehlmann have injected some new life as The Orb joined for a moment the excellent Kompakt imprint and released a handful of EPs, followed by the excellent Okie Dokie, It’s The Orb On Kompakt album in 2005, while Malicious Damage released the first in a program of releases. Continue Reading »

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CANED & ABLE: Smoke… (Malicious Damage)

themilkman on May 23rd 2008 12:43 am

Caned & Able: Smoke...

CANED & ABLE
Smoke…
MD631
Malicious Damage 2008
11 Tracks. 47mins22secs

Caned & Able is the multi-faceted project of Patrick ‘Trickster’ Bird and Martyn Savigar, with additional contribution from drummer Chris Bell and former Siouxsie & The Banshees guitarist John Klein, who once shared stage space as part of eighties glam goth punk band Specimen, and singer Anna Jacyszyn, and the attentive listener will also spot John Peel, Marc Bolan and Billie Holliday visiting from beyond the grave.

Smoke…, released on Malicious Damage, is a vastly eclectic collection which establishes unlikely bridges between densely layered trip hop, psychedelic pop, hypnotic ambient, dub and indie rock. As soon as one begins to feel comfortable in a particular setting, the pair swiftly change pace and direction to establish an entirely different décor, starting all over again and again. Continue Reading »

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BEATUNDERCONTROL: Cosmic Repackage (Malicious Damage)

themilkman on Apr 29th 2008 12:36 am

Beatundercontrol: Cosmic Repackage

BEATUNDERCONTROL
Cosmic Repackage
MD632
Malicious Damage 2008
09 Tracks. 49mins56secs

Swedish bassist Ulf Ivarrson has, in the thirty years he has been around, taken a variety of musical paths which have led him from punk to rock, pop, techno and dub. He first appeared on the music scene in 1981, aged just fifteen, with Swedish outfit The Quiet, where he met drummer Christer Björklund, with whom he has since played very regularly. After leaving the band in 1983, he went on to play with a variety of formations, including rock band Sky High, in 1991, and Swedish world music group Hedningarna, in 1996, before setting up his own project, Beatundercontrol, with which he went on to experiment with electronic instrumental music, combining it with elements of dub, jazz and ethnic music. Ivarrson released his first album as Beatundercontrol, The Introduction, in 2003.

While Ivarrson hasn’t remained inactive since, it is only now, five years on from his first output, that he returns, this time on British imprint Malicious Damage, with Cosmic Repackage. Continue Reading »

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