driven (paradise is now)

the latest musicians of bremen release is in fact four songs of electronica from a duo howard was in (grange and bell) in the late 90ies. the duo also played as part of a group in improv settings as 46000 fibres.

it is the the first track that does it for horsemouth - driven (though maybe he will warm to the others as he goes on, see he’s already warming to track 3 - proper). it has that soundtrack thing that horsemouth likes, like from a horror movie about a beach holiday gone wrong - slow descending bass, electric piano, a high violin-like melody line. you see horsemouth could imagine this as a musicians of bremen tune with electric piano and melodica. there are of course similarities between how howard makes music now and how he made it then.

ex track - has that future electro feeling (two one swordsmen?) itchy percussions, an insistent (for insistent read repetitive) keyboard motif.

proper has another nice ominous atmosphere - a sustained pad (like a groaning harmonium or organ), a slightly unhitched heartbeat rhythm, a talk box will persist in talking (kind of like the side guitar in persia when you get to hear it), and there’s a rising horn chant, league of gentlemen/ jon hassel style harmonised stabs.

scarper has that fried 2nd gen thing going on - dancehall style distortion (the bug, rephlex that sort). physical impossibilities of sub-bass. it sounds like the snare rattle is made by the unpeeling of sticky tape. tremendous tensions.

all have that post-rave anxiety thing, not quite fully out of the door into electronica and art music (but on the way). musical sounds dissolve in distortion and return.

howard says: 'one thing to note. they were all improvised live, no overdubs, no coming back to tidy them up. what you hear is what we played. on proper you can certainly hear the influence of miles davis' big fun.'


slightly earlier horsemouth is enjoying his 15 seconds of (sampled) fame, his brush with electronica - he plays on crow road by pressure of speech, he impersonates crows on the electric guitar (inspired by adrian belew) and pays a bluesy side guitar part. he’s on his way out of music. horsemouth doesn’t return to it until 2002. horsemouth enjoyed his sojourn among the machines (howard did too, clearly).