I’m really looking forward to kicking off the new year with the first single from BISON. BISON is made up of Holger Czukay, Ursa Major, Paul Mudd Murphy and Benjamin Smith. The first release takes you on a trippy rock fuelled journey to the west coast of America, via Stuttgart and Holloway. There’s 2 mixes, one from Smith & Mudd and the other from Holger Czukay. Full coloured sleeve 10″.
Hear it here!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/BISON/226444219611?ref=ts
To celebrate all things Sunday and the opening of the Horatia, Claremont brings you some of it’s favourite DJs for a day of eating, drinking and dancing.
Idjut Boys
Sean P
Foolish Felix Dickinson
Mudd
& Silver Bobs Disco Meltdown
31/01/10 at the Horatia, 100 Holloway Road, London N7
Free entry all day
Also – free ‘Jaz – I Played Sports’ CDs for the first 100
Another true result for Claremont 56! This LP will be released as a limited hand numbered gatefold double vinyl and features 3 unheard tracks.
I’ll let Holger take you through the album (released January 2010)
The first piece of electronic music I ever heard was in a conservatory in the middle of the fifties. The audience was laughing during the presentation including myself. Associations came up like toilet flushing in outer space. This was the motivation for me to study under groundbreaking composer Karlheinz Stockhausen who composed the first electronic music in history. Stockhausen also saw that my destiny wouldn’t be to be a typical score writer’ so I left him after 3 years and he finally said to me: “when the bird is able to fly he is leaving its nest”. I understood and founded the group CAN together with guitarist Michael Karoli’ Jaki Liebezeit who also appear on this album.
The first track of this album starts with ‘Maidendeath’ which I performed for the first time in the Roundhouse London 2009. The original music piece was composed by composer Franz Schubert. I joined him as a virtual fifth musician with my small electronic equipment without destroying the original character of this piece of music. Well’ I dared to rename it ‘Maidendeath 1 and 2’ and I hope it doesn’t become a case for Scotland Yard as I confess being the murderer.
The third new piece is ‘Keepsake’ and it reflects the atmosphere in my studio when Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit and guitarist Michael Karoli were playing there together. Their thoughts were always like an open book for me which I only had to read.
When I am making music on my own in the studio a similar situation can appear for example when I am working with a new sampler. This can be definitely surprising. I am talking about ‘Mirage’ where I recorded my first attempts.
Last not least on ‘A Good Morning Story’ you can hear U-She for the first time who later appeared on further projects.
This album also marks my entrance into the world of digital production working with a magneto optical disc recorder. Creating the music over the period of 10 years was also a time of joy and adventure.
Holger Czukay, November 2009
My lovely talented friend, Huw Costin, who sang on ‘Blue river’, ‘Two rivers’ (there’s a theme forming here!) & ‘The secret’ has finally released his album. I’ve had this for a few years and have played it so many times it no longer plays without jumping. The late John Peel was a big fan and It really is worth checking out. I imagine he will be a true star one day.
“Another broken heart reaps musical rewards…Former frontman of Earth The Californian Love Dream, and now at the heart of new project The Cold Light Of Day, Nottingham-based Costin’s solo debut is an emotive recollection of a love gone wrong. But though it opens with the acoustic Jeff Buckley-isms of ‘We Ride’ and ‘I’m gonna Miss You’ is a miserablist’s dream, Regrets is far from Damien Rice-styled self-pity, nodding to Big Star and The Stone Roses in equal measures.‘End It All’ is an unlikely thumper, ‘Leisure And Technology’ an anthem in waiting, with Costin’s rich tenor dominating proceedings throughout”
4 stars Uncut magazine
“It’s like the third Big Star album mixed with the Stone Roses…It’ll make you cry.”
NME
RELEASE DATE: 16 November 2009
AVAILABLE FROM: www.specialsoundunit.com/all good record stores/ITunes
The lovely chaps in the former band of Amaziah have agreed to let me release an über limited one sided 10″ of their wonderful rock track ‘Slowly’. Those that have got the Originals 4 compilation will have heard it and know that it’s definitely one to grab. I’m just waiting on the test presses but it should be in the shops (in tiny quantities) in 3 weeks.
Hand numbered, 300.
We’ve just finished a new EP that ended up a bit darker than our usual happy stuff, but we’re really happy with both sides. It features solos from a wonderful electric violinist called ‘Moon’ and it will be limited to 600. It should be out in less than a month. Hope you like it!
The original released version of Ode to Perfume has always been a big inspiration to me. In the days before the internet it took me ten years to find!
I heard this version when Holger performed at the Roundhouse and have tried to get it ever since. It’s simply incredible. Thankfully, in a world where the majors don’t give a toss, Holger and Ursa seem to understand the struggles of smaller labels and have offered me the chance to release both Ode to perfume and Fragrance.
Here is Holgers sleeve notes:
This part of Ode to Perfume hadn’t been released in the past as the full version became too long to fit on one side of a 12’’ LP. During the preparation of my back catalogue I found this forgotten part on the master tape and presented it on the Short Circuit Festival 2009 in London for the first time.
Together with a first played guitar I sang a new line over a vocoder. Drummer Jaki Liebezeit from Can gave me support. Fragrance also belongs to Ode to Perfume. It was remastered and slightly different mixed than the original from 1981.
Enjoy falling through the clouds of perfume. Only the last inch is dangerous.’
Holger Czukay 2009
This will be released in October and will be 500 x hand numbered 10″s
After many months of prototypes, the unvarnished middles turned up today and they look great. Once they’ve had a coat of matt varnish, they’ll look even better! The 56 has been laser engraved in the top and they’ll be a bag with a 56 woven label attached to it. Sexy.
This is a special item I’m doing with oki ni and will come with a LTD 7″ (100).
An quick update on the Ray Mang mixes of Mudd – 54B… I’ve decided to start a label for slightly more uptempo music called ‘Leng’ and with the test press approved, this will be in the shops by the 26th August. I know a few famous DJs have been rinsing the ‘Acid Reflux mix’ so make sure you check it out… you might have heard it on the floor!
Sorry for not posting for a while, the blog was down and it’s taken a while to work out what was wrong. Sadly this night has passed now, but it was a such a good night that I thought I’d post up a few pictures anyway.
The night reminded me of the early nineties – a warehouse, a good time and a feeling. Felix and Mark Seven played great and the All ends up crew should feel very proud for throwing, in my mind anyway, the best night in London that I’ve been to for many years. Bravo.
