An incredible document of an incredible set - the first-time trio of Oren Ambarchi, Neil Campbell and Mick Flower was a truly transcendent thing to behold at TUSK Festival 2013. Now you can hear it on vinyl too. Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia. Illustrations by Karen Constance (front) and Graeme Ross (back). "It's the clash of the improv-rock titans! Antipodean outsider guitar god Oren Ambarchi joined forces with Vibracathedralites Michael "Michael Flower" Flower and Neil "Astral Social Club" Campbell at last year's TUSK Festival and the resulting jams were snatched out of the air and imprisoned on this vinyl disc.
There's no track titles...in fact the music only stops for you to turn the record over. The formula is fairly simple as you'd expect, although split into two clearly-defined halves. The first is a beatless affair with the two guitarists twiddling and churning in heavily processed buzz-drones and wobbling wet reverbed vibrato shudders over Campbell's fizzing, seething bed of psychedelic electronics. At one point on the first side Flower (I think) is dropping in some almost boogie-ish repetitive guitar shapes while the other two drone away against one another in gleeful sputter'n'glide concord.
On side B Ambarchi moves onto drums for a far more rock-ish jam, with him and Flower settling into an elastic, time-stretching riff while Campbell gets a chance to go "full Hawkwind" with his electronics. Cerebral stoner vibes. Despite being improvised and many of the tones being quite harsh and distorted, this is actually a spirited, likeable and very accessible exploration, free of meandering dead ends or alienating skronk-outs. Side A is particularly satisfying - just two guitars and a synth reaching ever-upwards towards the cosmos in screeching harmony." Norman Records
Recorded live at TUSK Festival at Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, in October 2013.
LP includes download code.