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LP
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DWR 003LP
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2009 release. Dancing Wayang Records are proud to present the studio-recorded, full-length album by Neil Campbell's Astral Social Club. Featuring two tracks of fearless sonic bliss and two long journeys to a state of sustained ecstasy, Plug Music Ramoon was recorded in one day on analog 2" tape. This limited edition LP comes housed in a gorgeous hand-printed silkscreen sleeve, with insert. Sequenced in chronological order on the LP as the tracks were recorded in the studio, the opener "Flamingo Moon" takes off into outer space. It's a gentle start to the impending Astral chaos as the rambunctious "Punk Rocker/Mug Cracker" noisily propels itself and its passengers forwards. This 14-minute showdown is divided into two parts with the loose, drum-led "Punk Rocker" submerging into the swooping sonics of the "Mug Cracker." Side 2 introduces a playful element into the spiral density with percussive sticks and bells providing a tribal backdrop for resonant electronics, keyboard odysseys and some experimental vocal work from helmsman Neil Campbell. After a wild solar adventure, the album culminates in "Ramoon Ramoon," a considered and tight improvisation that steers the Club homeward. While Club member John Clyde-Evans' laptop contributions provide much of the backbone groove of the album, Stewart Keith adds light and shade on a variety of keyboards and toys. But it's Campbell's dense guitars that thicken the very stem of these four tracks and leads his Astral Social Club to conjure up his dreams and visions. Neil Campbell is a stalwart of the UK experimental music scene who began making music in the early 1980s. Originally a member of loose improvisational collective A-Band, he established himself more firmly in the '90s as a founding member of Vibracathedral Orchestra. Campbell utilizes guitars, electronics, vocals and laptop-generated and manipulated sounds in his freeform improvisations. In 2005, he embarked on his solo project Astral Social Club, often drawing on the talents of kindred spirits. Stewart Keith is a long-time friend and collaborator of Neil Campbell and one of the main members of Nottingham's A-Band, playing free drone and high-energy rock music and championing an un-tutored, elemental and almost primitive approach to music-making. John Clyde-Evans aka Tirath Singh Nirmala, has played with artists such as Richard Youngs and Vibracathedral Orchestra, contributing computer-generated sounds, electronics and violin. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies.
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LP
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QBICO 093LP
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Red-colored vinyl. Neil Campbell & Mel Delaney; recorded winter 2008/09, West Yorkshire. "New ASC effort on Qbico, a duo this time. THIS is the social club for astral spirits..."
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CD
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IMPREC 155CD
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"Neon Pibroch is dedicated to the memory of Textile Records founder, Benoit Sonnette. Astral Social Club is the current project of Neil Campbell, formerly of Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof!, A Band and many more. Campbell has been active since the early '80s, and The Wire magazine has said that, along with his friends Richard Youngs and Matthew Bower, he 'provided the map co-ordinates for much of what passed for a post-punk UK underground during most of the '80s and '90s.' Campbell's approach as Astral Social Club could be seen as both a continuation and a refutal of his work with Vibracathedral Orchestra -- a continuation in that it continues the quest into the unknown stellar regions of improvised drone-based music, and a refutal in its espousal of most of the elemental organic rock modes that made that band so special. The focus here is more on alien electronics and overloaded loop disorientation, sometimes even working with sounds more readily associated with the far end of dance music to produce a truly vast 21st century psychedelic sound."
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