1.16.19 by Mike Haley
I Hate My Records? That sure sounds awfully negative. I thought Londoners were supposed to be jolly. It’s frigging called Jolly Old London, right? We just did another Mary Poppins, didn’t we? So why the disMay from this tape label, run by Edwin and George from Werk? As an American, and therefore one who knows, I’m pretty sure the gloom has something to do with a thing they call “brexit.” They are tits over pudding for this brexit thing, which I believe is a sandwich that has beans on it.
No beans on the two cassette tapes IHMR released in 2018, which appear to be their first offerings since a 2016 tape by Tourist Fashion + Jake Wyatt. Welcome back! Nope, no beans. Just greasy, massive highways of catastrophe electronics. A double dose of slow-mo death cycles from freshman Bootlicker and sophomore Schwerpunkt (the title of their tape is the only positive take going on here: DON’T GIVE UP YOU CAN DO IT.)
Bootlicker – Burial Practices
Burial Practices is the first release from Bootlicker.
30 minutes of buzzing, droning oscillators; choking; bass pressure; juddering feedback; metal percussion; unidentified mechanical static; Hamburgerisms; digital ebb and flow.
We’re all trapped in the abyss – capitalism has made the world an ossuary. The landscape is haunted by ancestral modes of living that have lost meaning in the post-penicillin world.
Schwerpunkt – Don’t Give Up You Can Do It
‘Don’t Give Up You Can Do It’ is the second solo release from Schwerpunkt.
Following in the mould of previous release, ‘How To Be Saved And Know It’, this tape consists of two extended, freeform, pieces, one on each side. The tape finds Schwerpunkt, AKA George Rayner-Law, continuing the process based approach to sound common between Shwerpunkt relates and his contributions to his band, Werk.
Both of these pieces were improvised. Track A, ‘Don’t Give Up’, consists of a synthesised pulse running through a range of delays to create a dry, harsh, abyssal sound. Track B, ‘Your Success Is Guaranteed’, was made by gaffa taping a Bontempi organ to produce a constant drone, then micing the organ through delay, EQ and straight into a tape deck, to create a hyper-saturated sound – a quavering, dense block of noise. The contrast between the two pieces is very sharp – ideology of approach is the strongest link.
Both recordings sat in George’s archive, until enlivened by a new context – the trip to Tesco. Track A came on shuffle while in Elephant & Castle Tesco, and quickly became the preferred soundtrack to the threatened shopping centre. Indeed, both pieces are rapidly hasten the Gruen Transfer – the moment of confusion in a shopping centre where a consumer forgets their original intention and gets lost in retail. Sound best experienced as a soundtrack to the capitalism’s death rattle.
The artwork is based on a religious pamphlet, drawn from the artist’s extensive collection. The current trend in religious pamphlets is a co-option of ‘wellness’ culture and imagery – ‘wellness’ itself being part of the same death rattle of capitalism. This artwork is part of that trend – originally designed to look like a health pamphlet, then a flyer about God, now a record cover.
Both tape are still available, so go on! Go on!
