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The Caretaker/Leyland Kirby (and V/Vm, to a lesser extent)

Started by Subtle Mocking, January 27, 2012, 11:21:59 AM

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Subtle Mocking

Thought about starting this thread after listening to his new album Patience (After Sebald), the soundtrack to the film of the same name. Whole album is streaming (sort of) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edWk-theSZc&list=FLAw06DiIbibGzHZi8haZd9Q&index=1&feature=plpp_video

He's been around for over a decade putting out some excellent work, but he's really started to get noticed with his wealth of new material from 2011. An Empty Bliss Beyond This World seems to have taken a lot of people by surprise, although it's entirely deserved for such a well constructed album. I'm about to get round to listening to his Intrigue and Stuff series under the Leyland Kirby moniker.

What's your thoughts on this guy?

I've been intrigued by Kirby since hearing 1999's 'AuralOffalWaffle' -  a challenging (as annoying and unlistenable as it was invigorating and entertaining) compilation of fucked-up editing, butchery and savage white noise, ably assisted by an amusingly cavalier sampling policy 'made possible thanks to V/VM's special copyright law'.  Bizarrely, the CD revealed that he lived (at that point) five minutes away from me in a quiet, unassuming, suburban house that seemed totally at odds with the racket I'd acquired from within.

Much as I love his wholesale warping of other artist's songs (look up the more-than-faintly disturbing rendition of 'Only You' on YouTube), I prefer his more ambient 'Caretaker' stuff - always absorbing and, at its best, able to uplift the soul and chill the marrow at one and the same time.  Not an easy trick to pull off. The last I heard he'd de-camped to Germany and was dabbling heavily in the dark arts of Belgian New Beat, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a new 'Caretaker' release. I particularly like the way he's shrugged off the problem of badly worn source recordings by amplifying every snap, crackle and pop to the point where they almost dominate the music itself.

You have to wonder what would have become of him if this infamous (worldwide) TV advert for Sony's PlayStation had ever found its way on air, featuring a (fairly restrained by his standards) mangling of Alphaville's 'Forever Young'. 'Top Of The Pops' could only have benefited from the appearance of a man rolling around on the floor in a pig mask.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec5ybQiMmmA

For me, something of an unsung pioneer in the realms of making and dispensing music outside the confines of established record industry channels. This is, after all, the man who once recorded and uploaded a free piece of audio onto his website every day for a year. I seriously doubt he's made much of a living from it all, but I'm damn sure he's had a better time than I have in my so-called career. 

marquis_de_sad

Here's a good piece by Mark Fisher on The Shining that touches on The Caretaker's Selected Memories From the Haunted Ballroom.


Famous Mortimer

I wish I had access to his old stuff - I remember having many a happy listen to his 20-CD thing which was remixes of dance tunes, apparently, but just slowed down to the point of complete unrecognisability; lost it all when all my hard drives went tits up, and by the time I'd got one back he closed down the site.

Gradual Decline


marquis_de_sad

Noddy Holder has let himself go blossomed into a beautiful angel. [fixed]



Shoulders?-Stomach!

I downloaded Memories by The Caretaker and got 46 similar sounding pieces of old bits of reverb. Periodically interesting but also too large abd similar to take on in one go.



holyzombiejesus

Has anyone been checking out the Everywhere At The End Of Time LPs? A release in 6 parts, they soundtrack a (fictional) descent in to dementia. He's just released the 3rd LP and all the releases so far have been collated on to a 3CD box set.


Also, he's just given an album away for free on Bandcamp.

https://leylandkirby.bandcamp.com/

jobotic

Cheers!

Haven't got the dementia ones. I bought A Stairway to the Stars when it was released - the first track is still one of my favourite tracks by anyone - and the 3 CD version of Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was, and I've downloaded a lot more besides. Some of it is breathtaking but the shear amount (and to be honest, the repetition) makes it hard to find the stand outs sometimes.

The Sebald albums are wonderful though.

Here's a beautiful old one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZdU6MGuqic

Gradual Decline

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on October 13, 2017, 11:37:40 PM
Also, he's just given an album away for free on Bandcamp.

https://leylandkirby.bandcamp.com/

Very nice. Had 'Oblivion of experience' on repeat play all yesterday.


Porter Dimi

Stage 3 of Everywhere at the end of time is heartbreaking and genuinely unnerving. A must-listen.

(It helps if you're familiar with An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, I find)

Rocket Surgery


purlieu


Porter Dimi

A few months on and I'm a little bit obsessed with Stages 2 and 3. Definitely my favourite releases of the past year.

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: Porter Dimi on November 24, 2017, 09:24:46 PM
A few months on and I'm a little bit obsessed with Stages 2 and 3. Definitely my favourite releases of the past year.

They're so good, aren't they? Already feeling trepidatious about what stage 4 has to offer.

Porter Dimi

A new single-track album in memory of Mark Fisher, which has yet to be released on Bandcamp. The limited CD release has already sold out on Boomkat with 100% of the proceeds going to MIND. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zStMy1ORJek

marquis_de_sad

They were giving that away at the Barbican gig. The visuals by Weirdcore were amazing, really beautiful.

Grouper's video was dogshit, however.

alan nagsworth

Sigh. I've got that CD, but my fucking housemate's asshole piece of shit cat knocked a glass of water onto it and the slipcase is fucking ruined. I've no doubt the disc is probably shagged as well. I love all cats but I absolutely abhor this one.

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on December 21, 2017, 03:29:56 AM
Grouper's video was dogshit, however.

IT WAS, WASN'T IT? Really surprised that people were actually whooping and cheering at the end, when I was bored to tears by the whole thing. Yeah, I get it. Snow's pretty. Look at these people who live where there's loads of snow. Snow.

marquis_de_sad

Quote from: alan nagsworth on December 21, 2017, 09:49:59 AMIT WAS, WASN'T IT? Really surprised that people were actually whooping and cheering at the end, when I was bored to tears by the whole thing. Yeah, I get it. Snow's pretty. Look at these people who live where there's loads of snow. Snow.

It started off ok — I thought it was going for a post-apocalypse type theme — but then the people started gawping at the camera and it became this shit A Level project, complete with naff time lapse. Depressing £45 Taschen Coffee Table Photobook: The Movie. The only shot I liked was that playground thing made of arches of lights.

Because I'm a cunt I didn't clap at the end.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on December 21, 2017, 09:15:34 PM
Because I'm a cunt I didn't clap at the end.

Neither did I. You should have sat with us, I had spare seats.

Also during that performance a drunk man stumbled into our row and knocked into us as he was passing, so I pricked up an air of total snobbery from seemingly nowhere - possibly spurned by the garbage art I was being subjected to - and loudly whispered "DO YOU MIND" in his face. He backed off and slumped into a nearby empty seat and I spent a large portion of remainder of the set laughing at myself.

Bobby Treetops

Quote from: alan nagsworth on December 21, 2017, 10:41:29 PM
Neither did I. You should have sat with us, I had spare seats.

Also during that performance a drunk man stumbled into our row and knocked into us as he was passing, so I pricked up an air of total snobbery from seemingly nowhere - possibly spurned by the garbage art I was being subjected to - and loudly whispered "DO YOU MIND" in his face. He backed off and slumped into a nearby empty seat and I spent a large portion of remainder of the set laughing at myself.

Good to see you there Nags, sorry I didn't chat with you for longer.

I agree that Grouper was disappointing, the music seemed a bit lost in such a big space and I found the film of bleak winter urban landscapes pretty dull viewing. But Caretaker was loud and intense and what I was hoping for although annoyingly I didn't get my hands on the free CD.

Did your drunken mate have a beard? (although there were a lot of beards in attendance that evening). If it was then he seemed to spend the entire evening pissing people off by sitting in their seats. 

alan nagsworth

Quote from: Bobby Treetops on December 22, 2017, 11:31:38 AM
Good to see you there Nags, sorry I didn't chat with you for longer.

I agree that Grouper was disappointing, the music seemed a bit lost in such a big space and I found the film of bleak winter urban landscapes pretty dull viewing. But Caretaker was loud and intense and what I was hoping for although annoyingly I didn't get my hands on the free CD.

Did your drunken mate have a beard? (although there were a lot of beards in attendance that evening). If it was then he seemed to spend the entire evening pissing people off by sitting in their seats. 

Aye no worries, it was nice to see you all the same! I was knackered that day anyway and wrangling several mates at the last minute to get in before the doors closed. Was all a bit stressful so I was glad of a good sit down and getting immersed in Kirby's set. It was bloody great.

Re: the drunkard. I've no idea, but I seem to recall he may have had a beanie hat and glasses.


Twed

I find this hard to listen to and I really love bleak things. I mean this as the biggest compliment possible; this is incredibly moving to me, and invokes exactly the feelings it's supposed to. I hope I can feel brave enough to sit through it sometime.

Porter Dimi

Everywhere at the End of Time Stage 4 is due out on Thursday. No vinyl/CD release has been announced yet, but it might be worth keeping your eyes peeled in the coming days.

Porter Dimi

Update: bloody hell, it's a double album! Out at 5pm today:

Stage 4 - April 2018 (G+H+I+J)
Post-Awareness Stage 4 is where serenity and the ability to recall singular memories gives way to confusions and horror. It's the beginning of an eventual process where all memories begin to become more fluid through entanglements, repetition and rupture.