Chinstrap Music

Chin32: Oblivian Substanshall - Live in Bridport

2012-01-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

What can I say about this recording? Cut direct to cassette tape, at the end of our tour of my opera The Third Policeman, immediately prior to Oblivian and I being very naughty boys indeed (courtesy of the good man Monkton Wylde) and staying up all night, it presents the vast majority of Oblivian Substanshall's triumphant and devilishly exciting performance at Howtosaytwo - an event I curated (or rather slapped together amid the million other things that were happening at the time) with Martha Moopette.

Aswell as being probably the best entertainment happening on the planet that night - it featured, as well as the last ever performance of The Third Policeman, live sets from Pete Um, Angela Valid, Elvis Herod, Vulnavia Vanity, The Gale, Martha Moopette as a Christmas Tree-cum-Satanic-Ritual, and of course Oblivian, plus Jonny Anyway's mime, a gingerbread house, a forest of children's art, and an audience of about 10 people - it was also the night where Oblivian pulled out this random fucker of a live show. Usually he will sit with his guitar, weave his little tales, and gently serenade us with his masterful, nonsensical pop songs. On this night, after months of hard slog on a tour of variable rewards, far too many intoxicants, and some high emotions and tempers (particularly from me), Oblivian decided to use, for the first time, some playback in his show. He described the performance-to-be as his "crooner set".

After initial technical problems and me sweating for the umpteenth time that night as a miniature audience waited to see what the cuddly, bespectacled, gentleman in front of them was going to deliver and I fumbled about hopelessly, finally the playback and microphone worked at the same time, and I ran into the other room to check that all was running smoothly (it wasn't).

When after a few minutes I returned to the small room where Captain Substanshall was stationed, I walked into a tiny audience enraptured at Oblivian, who had become the rotund rock frontman to end all rotund front rockmen (the guy from Pere Ubu would quake in his boots and probably spontaneously combust, or at least pull out his own willy and chop it off). Wearing a curly wig over his bald pate and darting between my Ivor Cutler foldy-harmonium, an electric guitar perched on a chair (an audience member said to me "Open string guitar solo! Never seen that before."), and, of course, the microphone, Obliv performed two numbers - "At the Same Time Maybe", and "On and On". Each was an explosion of jaggedy, peculiar beats, heavy bass, and Oblivian variously chanting the repetitive phrases and improvising on whatever was to hand. It was a singularly brave and brilliant performance and the small audience knew that every fucker who'd gone to whatever the fuck else was happening in town that night had missed something very special indeed.

So here it is, recorded direct to the internal microphone of a Coomber 393 cassette recorder, the great Oblivian Substanshall live in Bridport. If I had lots of money (or even just a spare few hundred quid), I would cut this recording to a 10" record straight away. But sadly I don't, and neither does Obliv. That's the price of not playing the idiot game.

I've lost faith completely in the "music should be free" thing. Kenneth Goldsmith's Wire article about "collecting mp3s you've always wanted and not listening to them just so you can say you have them for your sense of self satisfaction" was the final nail in the coffin for me. It does, it seems, cause a devaluing of music and sound-art, but at the moment there is no way else to be heard, so I don't see an alternative. When I'm very rich (and you'd better fucking bet your life I will be, soon enough) then I will release gems like this on beautiful vinyl in beautiful packaging, for as low cost as I can manage to sell them, but for now you'll have to make do with these 320kbps of utter joy.

I haven't known Obliv long, he's become very quickly my close friend and ally, and he ought to be yours too. Download this, then download all his other work on Chinstrap. And why on earth aren't you listening to his weekly show on one of the best, most unpredictable, vital and alive radio stations in the world, Soundart Radio? Go on! Get thee to the radio and FEED THYSELF!

The cover art of this release features Oblivian (centre), Elvis Herod (gurning on the left), and me for some reason touching my cheek (on the right). The image is superimposed with Martha Moopette dressed as a Christmas Tree (hence the pretty lights).

All my love and kisses,

Ergo Phizmiz

x

Chin30 & Chin31: Elvis Herod "Arab Justice" and "Orson Welles' Dinner"

2011-12-30T07:46:00.000-08:00

Two new albums from the behemoth that is Elvis Herod, one half of the mighty Plushgoolash.

This release comprises a retrospective of sorts, with previously unreleased work from 2000-2011, a wash of electronic UNart sound(e)scapes, songs about chickens, songs about dinners, obscene cover versions, micro-epics. It also contains snippets of his forthcoming opera about Mike the Headless Chicken. What more can you ask?

Another album from the king of (c)Hip (s)Hop, you say? Well then ..........

"Orson Welles' Dinner" is Elvis Herod's piano epic, with one piece of decimated piano per course of Orson's table. Recorded December 2011, and followed by a comprehensive trip to the lavatory which is best left to your extremely vivid scatologimagination.

These are the first of a slew of forthcoming Chinstrap releases for 2012. Keep those eyes and ears peeled, and your chin thoroughly strapped.

Chin29: "Chinstrap Christmas Party"

2011-12-30T06:16:00.000-08:00

'Nuff said...

Chin28: Vulnavia Vanity & Ergo Phizmiz "BUFFETINFANTIL"

2011-10-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

Performed on voice, electric guitar, bass guitar, organ, harmonium, mandolin, wheel, turntable, drums, digital-delay, tape recorder, in an evening of extreme decadence and a sorry, slightly painful morning.

We like to call this music Decadence'n'Roll (thanks Christopher Lee).

With deepest apologies to everyone Vulnavia phoned during the recording sessions. And to Benny & Bjorn.

And big thanks to Lady SD.

Sponsored (unofficially) by Smirnoff Vodka.

Dedicated to Kerry Katona & Chuck Berry.

Recorded 27th-28th October 2011 at Grindia, Bridport.

"Honey honey, Lich Me Baby, aha!"

More Vulnavia here, and on Facebook here.

More Ergo here.

Chin27: Vernon Lenoir "The Rites of Sausage"

2011-07-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

The very strange, enchanted composer, sampler-meister and fez wearer who goes by the moniker of Vernon Lenoir has spent the best part of the last decade knocking out consistently inventive and entertaining music on some of the world's most delicious netlabels including UpItUp, WM Recordings, and Egotwister.

He makes uberpopinexcelsis, tearing apart his own angle on pop cultures and slapping them back into his own forms. A sort of Buxtehude of beats, there is profound and irrestible cinematic musicality to the shapes Mr Lenoir makes.

"The Rites of Sausage" is a party album for a hallucinatory end of the world, when everybody has lost their minds and all they see before them are sausages, and visions within those sausages. Inspector Gadget and the Macarena make appearances. The latter transforms by Vernon's alchemy into a Balkan knees-up, while Rome burns. Ozzy Osbourne goes wild in a shopping mall. Simeon of Stylites gives in and throws shapes atop his pillar. The world fragments all around, with joy.

The album features collaborations with Roglok, Ergo Phizmiz, and Satanicpornocultshop. The beautiful artwork is by La Roll, which you can download a hi-res copy of here (6.86mb).

"The Rites of Sausage" is also available in FLAC, right here (204mb).

Chin26: V/A "Ergo Phizmiz 'The Third Policeman' Remixes"

2011-07-19T02:16:00.000-07:00

Mixes and mashes of the music from Ergo Phizmiz's electronic neur-opera vaudeville machine of Flann O'Brien's absurdist classic "The Third Policeman".

Remixers are Jacques Malchance, The Superfools, Erik Bumbledonk, Oblivian Substanshall, Elvis Herod, Lezet, David Fenech, and Blax Box.

"The Third Policeman" opens at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival on August 20th-21st 2011 with more dates in the UK & Europe October - December 2011. Full details of performances (with more to be added) can be found here.

Chin25: Plushgoolash "Soup Tennis"

2011-07-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

The absolute blinding UBERPOP legend that is Plushgoolash returns for a second Chinstrap release, following on from their eponymous slab of joy in 2010.

The brainchild of Erik Bumbledonk & Bambi Racheed, Plushgoolash produce unforgettable and superbly crafted, playful pop music, infused with the sort of mischief that has been known to take place in Mick Hucknall's jockstrap.

From the gorgeous melody of "Martin Walmsley", the ebullience of "Big Gay Water Fight", to the hilarious simplicity of "Love Song For a Caveman" and the naughty-boy-sets-fire-to-the-nursery spirit of "Fairy Tale", Plushgoolash have created a parallel universe where the laws of pop are turned upside down, inside out, chewed up, and spat out, spattered onto the wall in lovely, lovely shapes.

The Goolash boys also have a finely tuned ear for such delightful sonic desserts as "Weymouth", a gorgeous synth adventure by the sea, "What The Rabbit Said", a sort of Klezmer from hell slowly melting, and the title track "Soup Tennis", which sounds like something akin to an abominable disco falling to pieces, backwards.

So dive in to the world of Bumbledonk & Racheed, the poptastic brilliance that is PLUSHGOOLASH.

Please note: This album does feature some fucks and what-not, so if you don't like the kids to hear words like it, listen to it after they've gone to bed.....

Like this? Try Plushgoolash "Plushgoolash" (2010) , and Erik Bumbledonk's solo project Elvis Herod "Keep It Regal".

Chin24: The Superfools "Aristophonics 1 - Sentimental Fields"

2011-07-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

"Aristophonics" is a new series on the Chinstrap netaudio gallery of sound-works about the history of comedy, from composers, writers, and comedians around the world.

The first installment "Sentimental Fields" comes courtesy of New Mexican sampling-composer The Superfools, who serves up an impressionistic and melancholy fantasia around the great W.C. Fields.

Like this? Check out The Superfools self-titled previous release on Chinstrap.

Chin23: Nic Blu & The Travoltings "Disgrace Off"

2011-07-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

AKA Now That's What I Call Defilement of 1990s club classics.

A fiesta of filth made by a group of naughties.

Nic Blu & The Travoltings are, quite obviously, the greatest band to have ever existed in the known universe.

We're sure, after listening to this party of horrible-beauty, that you'll definitely agree.

Chin22: Elvis Herod "Keep It Regal"

2011-07-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

Elvis Herod is the towering behemoth of the fat beat, the stinking bitch of the power rhyme, the oily residue that sits atop the subtle moustache of Snoop Dogg. He presents a new dawn in hip-hop, for which his majesty has coined the apt term (c)hip-(s)hop, a stunning compendium of fat beat, bat feet, fat bass, and bat face.

So delve into hip-hops new and glorious morning, pull down the roof of your convertible, and bang the bangin' tunage of the high Lord of deep shit pimp bassfuck, Elvis Herod.

Written by Elvis Herod

Guest dentist Oblivian Substanshall

Produced by Ergo Phizmiz

Recorded at Grindia, June-July 2011.

Chin21: Oblivian Substanshall "Oh What a Novelty"

2011-06-11T03:27:00.000-07:00

The new album from the gentleman, poet, comic and raconteur who goes by the curious moniker of Oblivian Substanshall is resplendent with unforgettable melodies that delight in songcraft, wordplay, and the joy of subverting and playing with the English language like a ping-pong ball on elastic. “Oh What a Novelty” at once looks back to a starry-skied past of straw boaters and gramophone horns, whilst also containing a timelessness that could plonk it anywhere from the present day back to the 1920s.

The album contains a nostalgia that is not remotely melancholy. Mr Substanshall is a genuine eccentric who revels in the creation of his own distinctive art, suffused with wit, playfulness, and an unpretentiousness that is as endearing as it is refreshing.

If you're looking for references to hang this album from, think of a gentle whirlpool, like a washing machine gracefully on its last legs, in which the ghosts of Ivor Cutler, Waring's Pennsylvanians, Spike Jones, Vivian Stanshall & Keith Moon, Kurt Schwitters, Kurt Cobain, and Max Ernst swim gently in circles on their phantom backs.

The album is produced by Ergo Phizmiz, and comes with a new video “Brilliant Bonkers” by Martha Moopette, starring the great Substanshall himself.

Pass it on, spread the novelty like marmalade!

All songs & spoken-word written by Oblivian Substanshall

Oblivian Substanshall: Vocals, Electric guitar, Bass guitar, Ukulele, Percussion

Ergo Phizmiz: Harmonium, Melodica, Glockenspiel, Ukulele, Violin, Bass guitar, Vocal on “Upside Down”

Martha Moopette: Vocal on “Upside Down”

Video and photography by Martha Moopette

Produced by Ergo Phizmiz

More from Oblivian Substanshall on Chinstrap at "Finnish...But Don't Wait Till You Stop" , "Three Elements Hiss" and "The Greatest Hits of Oblivian Substanshall, and So On".

Coming soon on Chinstrap: Vernon Lenoir "The Rites of Sausage"

2011-06-09T01:11:00.001-07:00

Coming soon .... "Aristophonics" - A new series of releases

2011-05-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

"Aristophonics" is a new series of online releases from audio gallery Chinstrap, in which exciting composers and artists from around the world create sound-works reflecting upon the history of comedy and comedians. This series will launch very soon .....

Chin20: "Pitman's Gramophone Course of Typewriter Keyboard Instruction"

2011-04-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

An amazing slice of unintentional avant-garde, minimalism before minimalism, and a kind of motorik version of light orchestral music.

A bizarre audio course for fluency in typing, this recording, which comes from the first decades of the 20th century, consists principally of what can only be described as an unrelenting click track of various tempi, over which an orchestral ensemble plays rigid and tightly locked in versions of popular classical music, occasionally interjected by a tersely voiced narrator repeating the phrase "Carriage Return".

Find out all about Isaac Pitman at Wikipedia.

Discovered in an envelope amid a plethora of 78 RPM records lovingly collected from the rubbish tip by Bryan "the vinyl man" Parker.

Chin19: Various Artists "Sounds to Come"

2011-04-26T03:46:00.000-07:00

"Sounds to Come" is the second installment of a series on Chinstrap of music and sound-design cut from public-domain horror and science-fiction films from c.1930-1970.

The aim of the releases is the reframing of digital artefacts - although the pieces have been recut and equalised, we are not aiming to present definitive versions of these recordings, we rather present the work for the possibility of further investigation into the composers, sound-designers, film-makers, and of course the films themselves, which are available, in the main, for free download at Archive.org.

"Teenagers Battle the Thing" - Director: Don Fields
"The Man Who Changed His Mind" - Director: Robert Stevenson * Music: Louis Levy
"Svengali" - Director: Archie Mayo * Music: Vitaphone Orchestra
"The Phantom Ship" - Director: Denison Clift * Music: Eric Ansell
"Attack of the Giant Leeches" - Director: Bernard L. Kowalski * Music: Alexander Laszlo
"Horrors of Spider Island" - Director: Jaime Nolan

Legal disclaimer: This release is made under the belief that these scores and sound-design are in the public-domain, and is intended to disseminate and raise appreciation of this film music. If you represent the interests of any of the composers and object to this release, we will willingly (though a little grudgingly) remove it.

Chinstrap is a not-for-profit music gallery.

Chin17: Pete Um "Look Sharp! and hear the difference"

2011-04-26T03:37:00.000-07:00

Poet, composer, gentleman, raconteur, and well-dressed person Pete Um has ploughed his own particular, distinctive and very fertile furrow since the heady days of the 20th century. A master of the miniature electro-acoustic song-poem, a form he has more or less invented and crystallised himself, his work displays a sardonic wit combined with a healthy misanthropy, in marvellous micro-collages of voice, instruments, samples, and electronics.

Mr Um is, however, far too inventive and curious a gentleman to isolate himself within one proscribed way of working, all of his work across countless Cdr, vinyl releases, and performances being marked by a ceaselessly exploratory and open-ended approach. This release on Chinstrap presents a cross-section of his work in Reel-to-Reel tape music.

Rather than bang on further, we will hand you over to the responsible hands of Pete Um …

One day a long time ago, way back when I lived in Room 5, my man Loukas Morley fetched up at my door bearing gifts. The college he worked at was chucking out some of their music tech. stuff and he had a 16-track mixer and a Teac reel-to-reel machine with my name on it. My heart nearly blew up with gratitude about the mixer because I needed one bad, although sixteen tracks is spoiling me really. With regards to the Teac, I wasn’t so fussed. It looked a bit complicated, what with the fooling with the spooling and so on. Besides, I had a computer to record stuff on and fuck with etc. I almost didn’t even take the damn thing off him, but they’re such massy motherfuckers that I couldn’t exactly tell to put it back in his titchy A30 or whatever that goofy little car he had was called. Shit, I miss Loukas, and wish he hadn’t joined that damn cult. Once I left a reel to reel at a jumble sale too, which still pains me, but then at that selfsame jumbly I got a vocoder (yah!), a homemade keyboard-rhythm machine-amplifier combo (not that I ever got that to work) a decent Denon tape deck and a nice Technics amp that I still use everyday. Total cost was about ten notes, so beat that. Anyway, Loukas´16 track turned out to be a stiff, and the Teac reel to reel just sat sadly in the room untouched for a few months. Then one night, perhaps because I was having some unexplained computer problems, I decided to have a little fuckaround on the reel to reel, which was surprising easy to use. For a laugh I made
some twatty, loop-based recordings. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the birth of a NEW THING, for me at least. For some reason, probably because I’m a dumbass and I didn’t know anything about reel to reels, it took me a long time to realize that the quality of these experiments, in fidelity terms, was actually quite high. In fact it wasn’t until I recorded some of this tape stuff onto DAT, where it sat next to my PC- birthed music, that I twigged that this woggy analogue jizz had a depth and breadth of sound that I wasn’t even getting close to getting out of my soundcard. This is partly because I had no production values back then, and I was kidding myself that I didn’t want them, but that didn’t seem to matter with the Teac, because I’d recorded my stuff reasonably well almost entirely by accident. Since then I have learned that it is a cliché to talk about the warmth of analogue tape, and it bores the tits off me when people do, but they’re right. Tape is also very forgiving. You can distort something to fuck, whether you want to or not, and tape will just roll with it like a drunk getting punched. Let me tell you an almost completely unrelated story. One night I was getting a lift back from London with some guys in another band. We were listening to some deeply unfashionable rock music and digging the hell out of the stupidity of ting. At some point the guitarist described a certain woman as being ¨the type of girl that starts crying when you’re fucking her¨. I’ll never forget this comment, which seems to me to be the last word in blokeish unfeelingness, but it did kind of strike a chord. Anyway, my point is that you have to know what you’re about when recording to digital, as a certain delicacy is required, whereas tape will never cry when you fuck it.

Pete Um at Kettle's Yard Pt. 1 from pete um on Vimeo.

Anyway, you can do marvelous things with computers, and over the years I’ve tried again and again to turn all that wonderful digital functionality into something that satisfies my restless poetic soul. Most of the time I succeed, and I couldn’t live without my PC for very long before some kind of horrible REAL LIFE SYNDROME started screwing around with my head. However, it is not unknown, as you may know, for computers to give me a bit of a hard time. I have a spiritual aura that conflicts with binary operations, and no PC I use will stay in GWO for very long whatsoever. Computers die on me, and I grieve their loss hard, for without them I cannot do my ART STUFF, as I say, and my mind starts to turn on itself. That’s when I reach for my recorder (Teac A-3340S). I switch off my PC, which is probably
just a blue screen anyway, or parallel lines of various hues, or says DISK BOOT ERROR-INSERT SYSTEM DISK, or is pretending to be a statue like some irritating street performer (why doesn’t one of them paint themselves up like Windows and act crashed? I feel that people would get the joke) or has switched itself off or restarted itself fifteen times in the last hour, and I vengefully stride towards the reel-to-reel.

Fuck you world, I think, prepare thyself some fucked-up noise. It should be noted that I am typing this on Sam’s laptop because my desktop is all but deceased, and that while I’ve been doing so all the keys on her keyboard that aren’t letters of the alphabet have conspired to swap functions with one another so that they are opposites, so for instance I have to type the ? key to produce a – and vice versa, although, interestingly, the example I was going to give you now won’t let itself be typed at all.
In addition, some keys have moved their functions along the QWERTY board by one key. Suffice to say I’m struggling to relay this information to you if you feel a bit lost as to what I’m on about. This computer has given Sam no problems in the year and a half that she’s owned it, I should add. Je reste ma valise.

Pete Um Godelmingum & Gyldeforda w/ video FX from pete um on Vimeo.

Anyway, what I love about reel-to-reels is not just the quality of the sound; there’s a couple of other important considerations as well. First off, they look cool as fuck. To a music fetishist such as myself, with an evil jones for sick bollocks, the appearance of the reel-to-reel tape recorder is just about as cool as it gets. Only massive ancient synths that bring Raymond Scott and his work to mind rate higher in
the eye candy stakes. The reels themselves are mainly what its all about. They spin, you see. Round and round. And the spinning makes the music, so that when they start to spin the music starts also, and when they stop the music stops. And when they fast- forward the music goes weebleweebleweeble and when they slow down the music goes roarrrrooow.w..w…w. This is a lot better than the graphic on any CD player. This is virtually better than porn. In fact it is a sort of porn. The people that make the tape know what goes on in the heads of the people that buy the tape, which is why they make the metal reels look like the illest shit they can, with beautifully designed holes of many different types cut in them so you can see where you’re at with your tape use. You have to use the tape that requires the nab hub adaptors to fix them to your machine for maximum aesthetic appeal. I got my machine for nowt so I didn’t mind blowing 20 quid on a pair of nabs. I even videoed my answering machine playing back the message saying “Hello. This is Ian from Roll On Tapes calling to tell you that your nab adaptors have arrived.” Jesus, I get emotional just thinking about that day, and Roll On Tapes, and Ian. Whatever happened to Ian? *

So, yeah, and the last cool thing about what a reel-to-reel can do for you is to totally chuck your normal music craft MO out the window. Personally I can’t be arsed to take the time and effort to record proper songs onto my Teac, and in particular those of the verse/chorus/verse variety, with a charming meld of rhythm and melody and so on. I can barely be bothered to attempt that sort of stuff with my professional
digital set-up, so I definitely can’t doing with writing clever lyrics and learning basslines and rewinding everything a hundred times while the pubs are open. Ye Gods! I’m in far too much of a hurry to see the reels spinning and get on with the next song. So, what I do is record any old crap incredibly fast and see if it might just possibly work as art if you were stoned enough. Therefore a “song” might consist of.

1. A track of a looped snatch of audio from and old piece of tape played on another semi-defunct ReVox tape machine I have (at one point I had four reel to reel machines, but these days I have to struggle by with just the two) sampled onto my Line6 DL4 looping pedal, slowed down and reversed.

2. A track of me playing bass so badly that it sounds like someone gave a bass to a goat and pointed at a bag of rotten carrots, through echoey FX. I very rarely practice anything for too long because rewinding is a pain in the nuts, and I almost always just play the first thing that has some vague connection to what I’m hearing.

3. A track of recordings of Guatemalan bees, sped up, from my vast collection of BBC field recordings on 7” single.

4. A track of me producing noises with my mouth through a toy Fisher Price radio (with toy microphone), with the tape being randomly manually manipulated as it is recorded onto by switching the speed button from high (fast) to low (slow).

Let’s face it, it’ll all sound like dogshit, so this is where I rely on what Bobby J and I refer to as THE MICE. Mice music is just music played twice as fast as it ought to be, basically, so the vocals sound like heavy metal mice. Or of course you can slow things down. The basic rule of thumb is to play everything at the wrong speed.

Additional cheap art can be obtained if you finish recording at different points on the tape, so that at the mixing stage the audio from whatever was on the tape when you bought it cheap at Resale will suddenly leap into one channel like some demented communication from another dimension. If you’re very lucky it’ll be Madonna, backwards, sounding like a man and in rhythmic sync with the nonsense you produced yourself. Lately I’ve been experimenting with adding additional FX at mixdown stage too, and it does sound pretty sweet. OK, so when you’ve finished with your labours do you thoughtfully review the fruit obtained, just to check on what the fuck you’ve actually recorded? No, that would be folly, for it is as plain as the nose on your own face that it will sound like a random clash of harsh noises, so you just get on with the next song. Now, in the fullness of time you’ll have done a whole tape of four tracks of audio recorded at varying speeds. You will also be drunk and stoned as a motherfucker. Play the fucking tape, for this is where the gold comes. OK, chances are that it still sounds a bit like fucked-up noise, but…maybe, just maybe, it will have a mercurial quality to it that appeals to the true seeker of the one true fucked-up noise. I think this magick quantity has a lot to do with the fact that the music has been created almost automatically, so that the artist barely recognizes themself in the work. The alien and strange quality of the tape music appeals to the poet’s sick lust for surprise kicks. This can be very refreshing if you’ve ever sat listening to a loop over and over again in Cubase or whatever. Your girlfriend may not dig it, and you can’t stick it on at work, but it is a pure and unspoiled and wild sound.

These are the reasons why I love reel-to-reel tape recorders.

So dip your toes into the tape music of a singular chap, who always Looks Sharp.

You can listen to the long-form works from which this album was extracted at http://peteum.podomatic.com/

Coming soon on Chinstrap .....

2011-04-16T09:01:00.001-07:00

Exciting releases lined up and imminent ....

Chin17: Pete Um "Look Sharp! and hear the difference"

Chin19: Various Artists "Sounds to Come"

Also in the works is Chin18, a retrospective of the first year of Chinstrap releases, with some special treats thrown in ....

Chin16 : DJ North by Northwest "Dan Bale"

2011-04-12T05:31:00.000-07:00

Straight out of Cumbria, DJ North by Northwest brings an instant singalong sampladelic classic in the form of "Dan Bale (I Don't Know)", an ode to a man he transparently doesn't know.

Working the underground scene in North-West England for the past ten years, DJ North by Northwest has constantly pushed the boundaries of the club going public. For him a week without a gig is a week without breathing. Going under various aliases, DJ North by Northwest is his moniker for his sampling and mash-up work. For his other names, you'll have to hunt. The virtual B-side here comes in the form of "The Full Moon Party", a collaboration with the Ambleside based band Hot Barn.

Chin15: Albert Glasser "Confessions of an Opium Eater"

2010-12-12T09:57:00.000-08:00

A new projected series of releases on Chinstrap is music & sound-design of interest extracted from public-domain films. Not claiming to be the definitive packaging of the music and sound enclosed, we rather present the work for the possibility of further investigation into the composers and sound-designers featured.

Albert Zugsmith's "Confessions of an Opium Eater" is a strange, flawed, but ultimately fascinating film, a truly weird adventure story which sees Vincent Price attempting to free trafficked women in Chinatown, smoking a healthy dose of opium along the way. The score, by incredibly prolific B-movie composer Albert Glasser, combines classically-tinged orchestral music with elements of jazz & rock'n'roll, traditional chinese music, electronic polyrhythmic pulses, and theremins. We are also served up some delightfully strange monologues from the dulcet tones of Vincent Price, in the midst of a very, very bad opium trip. The sound design is equally peculiar and disorientating, awash with ear piercing screams of smuggled Chinese ladies, squawking parrots, a myriad crashes and bashes, running water, and creaking ships.

You can download Zugsmith's "Confessions of an Opium Eater", starring Vincent Price, as an AVI here.

Legal disclaimer: This release is made under the belief that this score and sound-design are in the public-domain, and is intended to disseminate and raise appreciation of this film music. The Albert Zugsmith film "Confessions of an Opium Eater" is, to the best of our awareness, in the public-domain, and we are proceeding on the presumption that the score is also. If you represent the interests of Albert Glasser and object to this release, we will willingly remove it.

Chinstrap is a not-for-profit music gallery.

Edited & Mastered by Ergo Phizmiz

Chin14: Vulnavia Vanity "Worse Things Happen at Sea"

2010-12-06T03:21:00.000-08:00

Chinstrap are delighted to present the debut single from young philanderer, explorer and hedonist Vulnavia Vanity.

"Worse Things Happen At Sea" is one of the catchiest coming-out songs ever to pop out of the proverbial musical oceans. Complete with a very blue video by Martha Moopette, "Worse Things Happen At Sea" is the first will and testicle of a young wizard of songcraft, a magnetic performer and surely the sexiest unknown Pop Star to grace the obscurantist seas Chinstrap sails. *

This single is presented alongside remixes by Oblivian Substanshall, Ergo Phizmiz and The Superfools.

Written & Performed by Vulnavia Vanity. Video by Martha Moopette. Produced by Ergo Phizmiz.

* Here at Chinstrap we believe, wholeheartedly, that the greatest pop stars in the world are generally unknown and working under the pretence of being experimentalists. The culture spearheaded by Lord Simon of Cowell has destroyed the genuine pop star. A true, born pop star is, by nature, a maverick, a vagabond and an outsider, and wouldn't consider appearing on a talent show to be judged and put down by a bunch of idiots who can't hold a tune themselves. That's why all pop stars today appear to be pretending, because they are pretend. They want to be pop stars, rather than naturally just being pop stars. Vulnavia Vanity is a pop star. Simon Cowell's eyeballs and testicles would disintegrate if he sat and watched him for more than a minute.*

* How's that for a press release that uses the world "testicle" twice?

Chin13: Oblivian Substanshall "Finnish....But Don't Wait Till You Stop"

2010-11-11T08:13:00.000-08:00

Surrealism as a method of art has become almost synonymous with advertising over the past 20 years, the original movement's power to disturb and shock eaten away by the overuse of images of talking fish, lobsters in spats, and coat-hanger headed people to sell Tampons, Baked Beans and Spandex trousers.

One area of artistic practice where Surrealism has remained relatively undisturbed by the influence of advertising, however, is sound and music. This is fortunate for us, because the artist who goes by the curious monikers of variously TOSS, Tengemort, and Oblivian Substanshall is undeniably a dyed-in-the-wool Surrealist. A hugely prolific artist in radio, music, cartoons and painting, he has developed, through his regular broadcasts on Soundart Radio and releases on Chinstrap, built an aesthetic that is as singular as it is unpredictable.

The Surrealism of the mysterious figure of Oblivian Substanshall, who is sometimes seen talking into biscuit tins, is not the Surrealism of advertising, but closer to the comic and disturbing imagery of Max Ernst, whilst also harking back to the English nonsense tradition of Lear & Carroll.

His latest release on Chinstrap "Finnish But Don't Wait Till You Stop" is his most diverse and accomplished release yet. A veritable treasure troves of ideas and creative avenues, Mr Substanshall is just as adept in whipping out an unforgettable pop song as he is in weaving a nonsense narrative or a clanging, Beefheart-esque guitar driven opus. The diverse nature of this release is unified first of all by his distinctive aesthetic, and secondly by his voice, which is instantly recognisable, simultaneously as warming as a cup of tea and disturbing as a naked, wizened, bleeding dog-lady turning up in your bed.

So sit down, pour your favourite beverage, and immerse yourself in the barmy and beautiful world of "Finnish...."

*

This album comes with a new video from Chinstrap's resident film-wizard Martha Moopette, using elements of every track on "Finnish...." to create an intense, strange and hilarious film collage of death and digestion. Featuring Amie Willingale, Talulah Lotus, Autumn Poppy, and a range of dead animals from the streets and fields of Bridport.

*

Cover photography by Martha Moopette. Cover design by Ergo Phizmiz.

Chin12: Talulah Lotus "Robot Sun"

2010-11-10T04:56:00.000-08:00

Improvised, multitrack improvisations by a six year old girl called Talulah Lotus. "The Robots" is a cover of the Kraftwerk classic; "Lullaby" a gentle whirl with melodica and euphonium; "Horrorphone" is an instant punk classic; "Spooky" is an ode to Hallowe'en, shot through 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'.

This is the first of a regular series of releases of improvised music by children on Chinstrap. Here at Chinstrap we are very interested in the mechanics and construction of music, how music works - one of the most direct ways to access the heart of music is through the "untrained" performances of children, who create and conceive music in completely different ways to the more "trained" adult ears.

Look out soon for further releases of children's music on Chinstrap, including a compilation curated by Soundart Radio's director Lucinda Guy, and recordings made across years of workshops in schools and home-education by Ergo Phizmiz.

Coming soon....

2010-11-06T03:50:00.000-07:00

Musical hedonism imminent on Chinstrap includes "Rites of Sausage EP" by sample master Vernon Lenoir, "Worse Things Happen at Sea" by Vulnavia Vanity, and "Finnish But Don't Wait Till You Stop" by Oblivian Substanshall.

Also on the way is a series of music improvised by children, including a compilation curated by Lucinda Guy, and an album of multitrack improvisations by Talulah Lotus, Ergo Phizmiz's 6 year old daughter.

We are also in the process of arranging a compilation of music from contemporary puppet-theatre productions.

Casual Calisthenics

2010-11-06T03:45:00.000-07:00

Casual Calisthenics from Chris Koelsch on Vimeo.

Chris Koelsch recently created this video "Casual Calisthenics", using a track from the most recent Chinstrap release by The Superfools.

Chin11: The Superfools

2010-10-17T02:44:00.000-07:00

16 directions in sample music by James Melendrez, AKA The Superfools....

"There's nothing wrong with emulation", as the track goes. Emulation has become, to a degree, almost inevitable in the world of sample music, where recurring stylistic motifs and juxtaposition techniques have settled into a recognisable, and effective, language. The plunderphonics movement and associated artists created and developed this language through the 1980s-1990s, stylistic innovations often running parallel to technological developments.

The German sample composer Vernon Lenoir (who will also release shortly on Chinstrap), once described the contemporary approach to sample composition, with reference to the effect of versatile sequencing technologies, as "music without limits" - that's to say, music that can be constantly shapeshifted, seamlessly transformed, with endless possible permutations not allied to any stylistic school.

The music on this album, by James Melendrez AKA The Superfools, sits on the border of "traditional" plunderphonics style sample music, and something altogether more personal and idiosyncratic. The "Exercise" pieces are comic juxtapositions of work-out records with easy-listening, but achieved with a grace and finesse that renders them hugely listenable. "Mary's Popins" takes a nostalgic conversation between Julie Andrews and songwriter Robert Sherman and delicately cuts it into a subtle absurdity. Vitally, all of The Superfools recordings hum with the crackle of dusty vinyl.

Altogether more strange and personal is the epic "Getting Along With The People You Love", which takes a field-recording of a language lesson and layers it with circular, melancholy Spanish guitar loops, with occasional interjections of colour from a dizzying array of sources. "Fever (Flu Shot Mix)" slows down an acapella of Peggy Lee's finest moment, combines it with slow delayed, reverb-laden electronic drums, and through these simple means creates something wrought with tension and highly effective as a piece of music.

The Superfools are also adept at the construction of new and interesting melodic material through the processing and juxtaposition of samples, transforming the sources into something unrecognisable. In these areas, the sample music becomes something more abstract, purely "Musical" and not connected with "Context". Vitally, The Superfools is not a particularly satirical samplist - which is what separates this from a lot of plunderphonics. This is music for the sake for music. Which is, of course, no bad thing.

So sit back, pop a bottle of wine, and immerse yourself into some super foolishness courtesy of The Superfools.

Read an interview with The Superfools at Some Assembly Required.

Like this? There's lots more where that came from...

Oblivian Substanshall "Three Elements Hiss"

2010-08-22T05:21:00.000-07:00

The new release from Chinstrap regular Oblivian Substanshall, "Three Elements Hiss" is a genuinely mad and scattershot collage of techniques, games, riddles, and wordplay. Fragments of songs bounce off ludicrous puns, instrumental music crashes into musique-concrete and audio-verite. Mr Substanshall is one of the most intriguing and prolific artists working today, his work, like all the most interesting contemporary art, is difficult to pinpoint, simultaneously with the potential to be hugely popular and also fiercely avant-garde.

From the man himself....

"Suddenly, or thereabouts, James Joyce meets Edward Lear in a dream instigated by a whole bunch of surrealists set inside the mind of a man by the name of Avida Dollars. Viv Stanshall is busy arm wrestling Spike Milligan for a sausage suspended by strings attached to a liver and an avant -garde hat with mute bells, and reference points to Freud and Wittgenstein."

CHIN09 - Plushgoolash

2010-07-05T06:33:00.001-07:00

Chinstrap are delighted to present the first release by the genius pop-music-machine that is Plushgoolash. Recorded over almost ten years, and selected from a massive archive of uberpop, this album contains some of the most finely crafted songwriting of recent times.

It is also very, very funny. Plushgoolash are living proof that great pop music needn't be po-faced and self-importantly earnest. Here are superb songs about dogs, cats, testicles, monkeys, Michael Jackson, terrible Lions, and brown rainbows. By turns dreamlike, scatological, hysterical, and suffused with a strange melancholy, every song has instantly hummable ear-worm potential.

Plushgoolash is the collaborative project of Erik Bumbledonk and Bambie Racheed. Those familiar with Ergo Phizmiz's work will be no stranger to Mr Bumbledonk, writer, raconteur, film-maker, songwriter, comedian, actor and prostitute. Mr Racheed, film-maker, musician, sensual escort for animals, and actor, is a long-term collaborator with Mr Bumbledonk, through Plushgoolash and the acclaimed comedy troupe Smuglybeige, who recently opened Prague Fringe Festival, many of whom guest in elegant castrati stylings on the final track of this album.

This is the first of a series of projected Bumbledonk releases on the Chinstrap label. Look out shortly for the MNJ Club, and an Erik Bumbledonk solo album of songs, comedy and spoken-word.

And don't forget, cannibalism is illegal, Bobo...

CHIN08 - Angela Valid - (1) A ball. The invention of a ball. (2) For the home or for the body

2010-05-25T04:52:00.000-07:00

Chinstrap are delighted to present a new piece from Angela Valid:

"Iain Chambers and Alexander Jones have been working under the name Angela Valid since 2002.

At irregular intervals.

Additional, somewhat regular members are often drafted in to collaborate in a live environment.

Their most recent activities include a blah blah blah soundtrack, a session on a radio show, a couple of blah blah blah (Arts Council funded) releases and blah fuckin blah piece for Ergo Phizmiz's Faust Cycle.

More info on the internet (link to something)."

And if that's not exciting enough, look how beautiful these two gentlemen are....

Obviously both liberally sprinkled with finest Layamon's Brut....

CHIN07 - The Travelling Mongoose "Amusements"

2010-03-13T08:55:00.001-08:00

Edited field-recordings of English amusements arcades by The Travelling Mongoose.

CHIN06 - TOSS "Fran Ken & Stein"

2010-03-13T07:45:00.000-08:00

From the same warped brain that brought Oblivian Substanshall, we are jolly well stoked to present a mutant of sound-artertainment ....

"I would describe the seven works on the album as a kind of manic hybridisation of styles where one attempts to embrace an avant-garde sensibility expressing immediate and spontaneous concepts with feelings of chaos, psychedelic interpretation, punk energy and noise, alongside large doses of nonsense and surprise. The title of the album is also a play on such ideas, hence the fractured treatment of the albums title FRAN KEN & STEIN. I set out to treat all the tracks on the album as a kind of audio monster of several different parts, dynamics, intensities, colours and moods."

Chinstrap - January - March 2010

2010-03-09T01:33:00.000-08:00

All the first Chinstrap releases, in one convenient post....

CHIN05 - Various Artists
"Cyclic Bits : The Raymond Scott Variations"
Remixes of Raymond Scott by some of the most inventive composers around.

CHIN04 - Oblivian Substanshall "The Greatest Hits of Oblivian Substanshall....and so on"
Pop songs, spoken-word, radio-art, and drawings from a unique purveyor of timeless English nonsense abstraction. Triple album.

CHIN03 - Martha Moopette, Heather McCallum & Rosalind Noctor "Hedgehogs & Honeybeads"
Electroacoustic soundtrack to award winning dance & animation film.

CHIN02 - Various Artists "Windpipe Moods"
Re-issue of sound-poetry compilation, first released on Mukow CD 2004.

CHIN01 - The Travelling Mongoose
"Singin' In The"
Field-recording sound-collage from a Mongoose who perpetually travels with a sound-recorder.

CHIN05 - Cyclic Bits: The Raymond Scott Variations

2010-03-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

"Cyclic Bits" is the first remix album of the music of remarkable composer and inventor Raymond Scott.

This album is a series of reinventions of the work of a true musical maverick, remixed by a host of today's most inventive musical mavericks. The diversity of the release reflects the profound influence Scott's work has had on composers working across the board of styles and approaches.

Originally created as a special for Ergo Phizmiz's Phuj Phactory on WFMU, a projected release never happened. This, at last, is it.

Although this work is FMA licensed, please contact the individual artists regarding any usage permissions.

More Chinstrap releases at http://chinstrapmusic.blogspot.com

More Raymond Scott at http://www.raymondscott.com

Tracky Birthday http://www.trackybirthday.com

Bebe del Banco / Satanicpornocultshop http://www.nunulaxnulan.biz

4,000,000 Telephones http://www.4000000telephones.com

Orionza http://www.orionza.net

Listen With Sarah http://www.listenwithsarah.org

David Fenech http://demosaurus.free.fr

Fireworks Ensemble http://www.fireworksensemble.org

Ego Plum http://www.ebolamusic.com

Vernon Lenoir http://www.vernonlenoir.com

DJPE http://www.djpe.com

Automated Acoustics http://www.myspace.com/automatedacoustics

Felix Kubin http://www.felixkubin.com

Curator: Ergo Phizmiz http://www.ergophizmiz.net

Big, big thanks to all the contributing artists.

CHIN04 - Oblivian Substanshall "The Greatest Hits of Oblivian Substanshall, and So On"

2010-02-18T07:39:00.001-08:00

Chinstrap proudly presents "The Greatest Hits of Oblivian Substanshall, and So On", three versatile volumes of audio delight from a fine gentleman's imagination.

Volume 1: "If You Can't Help It"

Twelve slices of off-kilter pop from Mr Substanshall's prolific oeuvre. Imagine the worlds of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear & Vivian Stanshall colliding with the spirit of 50s rock'n'roll, who's just taken a crash course in musique-concrete and sound-art. This brings us somewhere close to where Oblivian Substanshall is leaping off from, let's complete the picture with words from the man himself...

"The so called pop and cutting-edge cultural approach I most definitely give a good straddling too. Indeed, it gives me a lot of freedom to exploit and play around with these idioms to my hearts content. And like you pointed out, it's the fragments of these styles of expression which one can re-work, and try and achieve something fresh and amusing with, and hopefully interesting to listen to, or view. It's this looking back to move forward approach that I enjoy or, perhaps that's all there is anyway. It's nostalgic to some extent with a hint to the homage with an idiosyncratic slant. Some people may call this approach post-modern, but I see it as, yes, mixed up alright, and a little schizophrenic, but at the same time, entirely 'contemporary' in its make over, boasting no actual and definite rules to hold you back... It's an elastic art form that can be stretched and stretched and so on... But in saying all that, I don't really like to analyse things too much, I think its better to just get on with it and play,play,play, happily immersing oneself within this 'contemporary landscape', and to be as creative and as inventive as one can possibly be within it."

And .... download a PDF of Oblivian Substanshall's rather smashing drawings, selected for the "If You Can't Help It" release RIGHT HERE.

Volume 2: "Tengemort & Other Absurdities" - Monologues by Oblivian Substanshall

Volume 3: "Let's Talk Art" - Oblivian Substanshall takes on the history of 20th century art

And if that all wasn't Substanshall enough for you, find out more at ....

www.myspace.com/obliviansubstanshall
www.myspace.com/tosstossos

Chinstrap / Automata Recordings : Invitation for Participation

2010-02-15T14:57:00.001-08:00

You are cordially invited to join the Chinstrap Automata Recordings project, an ongoing Creative Commons licensed archive of unprocessed recordings of automata, machines, mechanisms, mechanical musical instruments, mechanical toys and music-boxes.

The recordings will comprise a series of Chinstrap releases, and we anticipate putting out a series of albums made of sounds from the archive.

If you fancy joining the mechanical fun and submitting some recordings of anything you might have lying around, from Dancing Ballerinas to Dot Matrix Printers, drop us an e-mail on ergophizmiz at gmail dot com, and you shall be furnished with upload details!

CHIN03 - Martha Moopette, Heather McCallum & Rosalind Noctor "Hedgehogs & Honeybeads"

2010-02-15T12:03:00.000-08:00

"Hedgehogs & Honeybeads" was a collaboration with film-maker Martha Moopette, musician Heather McCallum, and choreographer Rosalind Noctor, crossing film, sound-design, dance, and installation art. Created in 2006, the project went on to acclaim, most prominently at Motion Plymouth Film Festival (where it won Best Artistic Merit), and Art-Bereg film festival, St Petersburg.

This release, the third on Ergo Phizmiz's netlabel Chinstrap, comprises a remastered version of the film soundtrack, and four alternate edits created for simultaneous looping in installation form.

The project was devised and created by Martha Moopette & Rosalind Noctor

Flute & Guitar improvised by Heather McCallum

Edited & Produced by Martha Moopette

And here is the film ....

CHIN02 - V/A "Windpipe Moods"

2010-01-28T05:38:00.001-08:00

"The compilation eventually passes on a feeling of distanced unreality, of dreams coming true before your very eyes .... this comp is so vital and alive it's practically raw and bleeding. Impossible to package it, put a spin on it; it doesn't seem to represent a single 'scene' that dumb Sunday Times journalists could figure out; sometimes it's impossible to understand. Potentially, this could make you see things anew, renew your own world." - Sound Projector Magazine

A compilation of contemporary sound-poetry and voice/text/phonetic based sound-art, featuring otherwise unreleased tracks by some of the world's leading practitioners, including Jaap Blonk, C Spencer Yeh, Sue Tompkins, Erik Belgum, Penn Kemp, Joerg Piringer, and many more.

Originally released on Mukow CD in 2004, this Ergo Phizmiz curated compilation is available now, free, Creative Commons, 320kbps mp3.

CHIN01 - The Travelling Mongoose "Singin' In The"

2010-01-24T06:54:00.000-08:00

An evocative collage of sound-recordings made during 2009 by UK based sound-artist, filmmaker, and designer The Travelling Mongoose. A multitracked journey through natural and artificial sonic environments, the juxtapositions produce a strange narrative through subtle incongruities, with compositional sense of movement and reflection. "Singin' in The" is an almost theatrical, "mood" piece of sound-art, containing a very quiet Surrealist edge, creating an audio picture of the natural world that doesn't quite behave how we expect it to.

The Travelling Mongoose produces field-recordings, electroacoustic music, electronic music, foley, radio, and rock'n'roll, who has worked extensively across a wide range of contexts across the past fifteen years, including short films, children's animations, rock'n'roll bands, live sound-collage, and mash-up radio.

This is the first release on Chinstrap, the new netlabel from Ergo Phizmiz.

Download album (Archive.org)

Download album artwork:
CD cover - Print 1 - Print 2 - Print 3 - Print 4