The Long Road: Resurrection

Sometimes it’s interesting when things claw their way out of the graves they lie in…

One of the first albums that was formed as Erstlaub that falls under my current continuum was The Long Road which has just been made available for free as part of the BrokenZero series. Special thanks to Sietse for the archive rip seeing as the physical copies in existence seem to be turning to dross in the sunlight and refusing to become digital.

The Long Road
The Long Road

“Sometime in 2006, Erstlaub finally crawled out from the internal wreckage, fully formed and bristling with very specific intentions. The Long Road marked the end of one journey and the beginning of another. The systems had been honed, the process refined, the trials undertaken, it was time to transmute pure thought and will into sound.

The movements and passages contained within it are generally of a subtle, calmer nature with a focus on texture and interplay between modulations but at times configure themselves into a quite daunting amount of quiet noise. The Long Road was performed once in October 2006 in Augsburg, Germany, the first public appearance of Erstlaub.

The Long Road was created on a Nord Modular G2 using a Evolution UC33 midi controller and a Boss DD20 delay unit, it was recorded in one live take with no additional processing or overdubs.”

Get it here.

Remember you can show us some Broken20 love via facebook, twitter or indeed by the healing power of positive thinking (well maybe just the first two then).

D

On Becoming Invisible

My first ever podcast was posted up last week on the Broken20 site.¬†Loosely mixed without any sort of permissions but done so with the utmost respect and intent.¬†Here’s the tracklisting.

Erstlaub – On Becoming Invisible

For our first podcast Dundee-based artist Erstlaub kicks things off with an hour or more of dark drone, ambient and post-rock textures. It features an exclusive excerpt from the first release on the label.

Basil Kirchin – Once Upon a Time
Oneohtrix Point Never – Physical Memory
The Zephyr Skate Team – Horse Walking
Tim Hecker – Paragon Point
Slowdive – Souvlaki Space Station
Windy & Carl – Lighthouse
Dirty Hope – Turtles
Stars of the Lid – Virginia (20.30)
Throbbing Gristle – Perception Is The Only Reality
TVO – We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (excerpt)
Dopplereffekt – Hyperelliptic Surfaces
Kraftwerk – Kometenmelodie 2
Samoyed – Simmer Lunt
The Caretaker – Friends Past Re-United
Angelo Badalamenti – Blue Frank

Direct link is here on the Broken20 site or here’s the feed so you can subscribe¬†to the series via your iTunes .

The Long Road will be coming very soon as part of the BrokenZero series.

D

A Cog In A Broken Machine

I am pleased to announce that my long term nemesis and occassional techno and sushi partner The Village Orchestra is launching a new label.

Here’s the website chatter

Broken20 is a new label from ruaridhTVO, with assistance from production unit and erstlaub

Broken20 will release all sorts of music. Rather than be genre-tied, we will be releasing music rooted in a particular aesthetic – releases concerned with decay, erosion, entropy, mistakes and errors, line noise and tape hiss, hum and buzz.

We‚Äôll primarily be a digital download label, although there will be forays into highly limited cd- and dvd-r variants of our releases. We hope to eventually release some vinyl editions.”

I’ve already put together a little selection which will appear imminently as a podcast which takes in fizzy electronics, gloomy post-rock, bleeps, the occasional rumble and some other junk that represents the sort of noise that takes place in my head on a daily basis. Also coming very soon will be my album “The Long Road” which was originally a self released CDR back sometimes around, um, 2005 or 6 maybe which was so limited in edition that I’m not even sure I have my own copy anymore. It’ll be coming up on the BrokenZero section of the site for free. I’ll probably post up when they are both avaialble.

In the meantime, you can keep up with the label’s general wackness of chat via its twitter feed.

From me in the relative future then, lookout for:

  • Podcast/The Long Road on Broken20
  • Sleepwalking into the Underworld on HPLL (the delay of which is entirely my own fault)
  • Featured bits appearing within Malin III by Alastair cook (which he’s performing over the coming months, check his site for details).
  • A very special (read utterly random and improvised) live Broken20 team-up between me and TVO (diaries permitting) playing in a glasshouse (no stonethrowing please) in September (details still tbc).
  • A brand new Erstlaub album for Broken20
  • A live collaboration in November with Alastair Cook at the CCA for Cryptic Nights

I’ll see you in the morgue I guess, mine’s a rum and coke.

D