Chin48: Autumn Poppy "A Good Lullaby: A Six Year Old Improvises at the Harmonium"

A recording of 6 year old Autumn Poppy improvising on a Summer's afternoon on an early 20th century portable foot harmonium.

Chin47: Greater Than Or Equal To "And In That World I Feel No Pain"

Chinstrap are delighted to present "And In That World I Feel No Pain", four slabs of primal, noisy order and chaos from the minds and fingertips of the thorn in Billy Bragg's side, Bridport's own Greater Than Or Equal To.

Greater Than Or Equal To are the improvising behemoth of Simon "Robodub" Mathewson and Flora Cavalino Bertolli, joined on this release by Jane Saunders, Leon Lord, and Ergo Phizmiz. Recorded over 2012-2013, "And In That World I Feel No Pain" is choice cuts and edits of sessions by two prolific improvisers.

Veering between tribal rhythms, intense polyphony, electronic nightmares, and woozy opium den soundtracks, these recordings variously bring to mind King Crimson, Sun Ra, and electroacoustic scores to Eastern European animation films. From the minds of two very different yet highly compatible musicians, Greater Than or Equal To produce a distinctive and timeless sound. 

Crack open a bottle of your favourite beverage, maybe roll something naughty, lay back, and allow these two motorcyclists of the apocalypse to take your ears on an adventure.

And here's Greater Than Or Equal To in a live improvised soundtrack to Piotr Kamler's remarkable film "Chronopolis" ....




Keep your eyes peeled for a plethora of new and marvellous releases on Chinstrap shortly, including Modersohn-Becker, Federsel, Elvis Herod, improvised music by children, and more Greater Than Or Equal To.

Chin46: Elvis Herod "The Pork Belly Rumble"

Elvis Herod is a gentleman whose belly rumbles like no other. A host of African tribesmen undulate in the pulsating ripples of his epic gut, where the memory of pounding rhythm lives in eternal vibrations.

He is a prime Knight of the Realm, a well of flame, hair and flesh in a world of damp squibs.

In this collection, from both his solo and Plushgoolash projects (in collaboration with that gorgeous chubbybub Bambi Racheed), Elvis Herod serves up a feast of delights.

"Clutterbuck" is an electronic reverie, half dreamed by Al Bowlly.

"Glitter is the Devil's Spice" reveals the truth about this evil ingredient.

"The Swine Disco" takes the best of Plushgoolash and feeds it to MDMA'd up pigs.

"Choke" is a radioplay that makes you feel ill.

"A Heightened Sensitivity to Beauty" takes us right back to Elvis' beautiful stomach.

Ladies and Gentleman, ELVIS LIVES!

Woo.

Chin45: The Travelling Mongoose "Field Recordings from GARGANTUA Tour"

Unedited, unprocessed field recordings by The Travelling Mongoose, from the UK tour of Ergo Phizmiz's Excessive Entertainment "GARGANTUA".

Chin44: Ergo Phizmiz GARGANTUA: An Excessive Entertainment - REMIXES

Cover montage by Simon Mathewson

Chin43: Dwoogie "Babble Off"

Chinstrap are delighted to present "Babble Off", 11 nuggets of gold from the vaults of the marvellous gentleman who goes by the name of Dwoogie, made between 2000-2003. It is an album for an extremely decadent electronic party at the apocalypse. Frantic rhythms and a reservoir of textures fly about like pinballs, competing for space with unforgettable melodic hooks, revealing a wild clatter of twenty-thousand stocks of kitchenware thrown down a vast staircase into a digital abyss from which delicious popgasmic flowers bloom. 



This release comes with artwork designed by another prime slice of gent, the great Oblivian Substanshall.

And direct from Kraków via Dwoogie mail come the following safety announcements...

1. Bloo. The title came from bluegrass, as I wanted to make as stupid a bluegrass piece as I could. Reckon it worked, personally.

2. Bieszczady. A region of Poland in the very southeastern corner. The oldest people who live there have been inhabitants of 5 countries during their lifetimes without moving house. The area was depopulated of its local minority inhabitants in a murderous campaign by the Polish authorities. It’s still mostly empty. I like it.

3. Fox On The Run. Play on words. The original “Fox On The Run” was by The Sweet, of course. But that’s irrelevant. The voice you hear on the track is Polish newsreader and now editor of Polish Newsweek, Tomasz Lis. Lis is the Polish word for “fox”. In the extracts you hear, Lis is cursing like a soldier, on mic, about how fucking shit a particular news item is. “Kurwa” is the Polish equivalent of “fuck”. It appears frequently on this track.

4. Last Train to Bemblow. “Bemblow” is a very poor transliteration of Polish “Bębło”, which is a village outside Kraków. My ex used to work there. It hasn’t got a rail link, but the track sounds trainy, so there you are.

5. Diana’s Chauffeur. An aural representation of what driving into a tunnel at 100mph might sound like.

6. Touch. Just a silly piece of scrap. No idea where the “Can I touch it?” sample came from.

7. The Last Snowman. This was written around one Christmas, when I sent it to members of my family as a present. The title is designed to mislead. It has nothing to do with winter. It’s a direct translation of the Polish epithet “ostatni bałwan”, which means something like “total idiot”. This may change your view of the song. It may not. Who cares anyway?

8. Soukup in Babylon. Named after a crazy Czech bus driver I came across outside Plzeń – one Pavel Soukup. We were staying at a campsite called, for reasons unknown, Babylon. That’s the title of the track. “Babble Off” is also a reference to this stay.

9. United State. At the time this track was being written I was working on a grammatical analysis of a foreigner learner’s English. In certain contexts, they said “United State” rather than “United States”. It was my job to find out what those contexts were. An interesting task, surprisingly enough. Unlike this note.

10. Mood. I found an online version of Frank Herbert reading “Dune”. A book I enjoyed very much as a teenager. The section I used for the recording is about Paul Atreides being trained by his weapons master Gurney Halleck. “Mood” is not important in this context.

11. Smackin’. Who doesn’t like “Smoke On The Water”? Well, me, for one, so I did a version with the stupidest sounding synths I could find. Incidentally the increasingly loud drone in the first section is a sample of King Crimson’s “Elephant Talk” slowed down and played backwards.

Chinmix 04 - Simon "Robodub" Mathewson mashes the Chinstrap Back Catalogue

A delicious mash-up of the Chinstrap Back Catalogue by Simon Mathewson, the cheeky chappie behind the recent ROBODUB release.