|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
GG 461CD
|
"Originally, Hastings of Malawi were Heman Pathak, David Hodes, and John Grieve. They recorded the album in one night in 1981 with no plan and no idea of what they were doing. They played drums, clarinet, synthesizer and piano but also made use of things that they found lying around the studio -- old records, cookery books, telephone directories and a telephone. The recordings were played down the phone to randomly dialed numbers and the reactions added to the recording. All three had been involved in the recording of the first Nurse with Wound album Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella and had contributed metal scrapings, piano, effects, clarinet and guitar during the session. The band split up after the first album but reformed 35 years later with a string of new albums. In June 2023, Hastings Of Malawi were invited to play the Klang 30 festival in Vienna, Austria. This was only the second time the band graced a stage, 38 years after the first performance. This outstanding rare opportunity was recorded and is now presented on CD."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
SR 529LP
|
Recorded at the height of the global pandemic, and at a time when remote communication was becoming increasingly prevalent, Choreological Exchanges is part of Hastings Of Malawi's continuing investigations into the medium of communication itself. Prior to telephony becoming digital, all phone calls were routed through mechanical telephone exchanges, and the majority of the sounds on side one are the sounds of these exchanges and some of the voices of the engineers who worked with them. Hastings Of Malawi make strange records and this one is no exception although it has a more linear narrative structure in opposition to what critics have described as their Dadaist approach. Their records certainly resist genre classification and do not really fall into the category of music. Hastings Of Malawi have themselves described previous records as films without light, radio plays and as poems. This one is a dance -- a dance that takes place within the chain, or pipe, that is brain -- mouth -- telephone -- telephone exchange -- telephone -- ear -- brain.
"It is a dance record but not in the way that these are usually understood. An invitation to dance appears twelve minutes in on the first side. It is a dance within the wires, movement around noise used as a sculptural material rather than unwanted signals and a joyful exploration of sonic materiality. The second side begins with the voice of a telephone engineer, who states that in the top floor switch room of the exchange is the only vestige of human control. Is this top floor switch room the human brain? The sounds on this side, float between the mechanical telephone exchange and the body where the messages are created and interpreted -- it is an exploration of the relationship between thought and the material devices in which telephone sound is propagated and transformed. Side two ends with a long list of randomly generated words created by digital voice synthesis." --Hastings of Malawi
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
GG 405CD
|
"A classic masterpiece from 1981, never re-released on CD before. Originally 1000 copies pressed on orange/red vinyl. 120 copies were sold through Rough Trade and Virgin Records. 800 copies were bought and later destroyed by the United Dairies label, making this record even more rare. Hastings of Malawi were Heman Pathak, David Hodes and John Grieve. They recorded the album in one night in 1981 with no plan and no idea of what they were doing. They played drums, clarinet, synthesizer and piano but also made use of things that they found lying around the studio -- old records, cookery books, telephone directories and a telephone. The recordings were played down the phone to randomly dialed numbers and the reactions added to the recording. All three had been involved in the recording of the first Nurse with Wound album Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella and had contributed metal scrapings, piano, effects, clarinet and guitar during the session."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
SR 513LP
|
Hastings of Malawi release their third LP. In this bleak vinyl mid-winter, the sleigh bells have been replaced with twelve handsaws, two motors and a dustbin, a duet between a walrus and an autistic child on an airplane, a chorus of pigs and Tasmanian devils, sounds from Japan, China, Africa, Italy, India, and Hawaii, digital voice synthesis, sound sculptures, randomly generated music, Geiger counters, free improvisation, and a rocket engine. As with their first two albums this record continues to explore themes of communication and communication breakdown. Is communication possible? What is the message? What is sound? What is on the surface of a record? What is beneath the surface of a record? Hastings of Malawi provide the answer to these questions in the form of a 38-minute poem called Axial Incidents. Marbled purple vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
SR 449LP
|
35 years after the release of their critically acclaimed 1981 album, Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth (SR 428LP), the British dadaist group Hastings Of Malawi release their second album, an epic sound poem entitled Visceral Underskinnings. It is a 40-minute film without light that reflects on the human condition, on modern society, on the nature of telephony and electricity and an attempt to make sense of the world in which we live that provides no answers. It is a sound collage of diverse elements including the voices of George Washington Johnson ("the whistling coon", 1846-1914) and Dr Hastings Banda, the first president of Malawi. It includes randomly generated computer music, voice synthesis, recordings of cold war number stations, American military sound weaponry, and recordings of the some of the many sound sculptures produced by Hastings Of Malawi over the last 30 years. Hastings of Malawi produce sounds that sit in that grey area where sound art and music meet but they reject both labels and cannot be comfortably placed in either camp. This is not an easy album to listen to, but persevere and you may or may not be able to decipher its meaning. "Rarely has an album so consistently made me question what the actual fuck is going on," is how the Wire magazine described Hastings Of Malawi's first album Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth and the second album makes things no clearer. If you are a fan of the tedious, puerile, repetitive beats that populate the insipid sonic environment that is popular music today, you probably won't like this album. Assembled with no regard for musical convention, Hastings Of Malawi follow their own rules and have created another fascinating journey into their world which makes it no easier to understand our world. Apparently, the Chinese voice that starts the second side of the album translates as "the deaf mutes have so many intimate words they want to share with you" and this perhaps sums up what Hastings Of Malawi are trying to do with Visceral Underskinnings. Another musique concrète jewel created with the same peculiar, disjointed, uncommercial, and totally original Hastings Of Malawi aesthetic. Limited edition yellow vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
SR 428LP
|
First reissue of Hastings Of Malawi's classic masterpiece Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth, originally released on the Papal Products label in 1981. Hastings Of Malawi were Heman Pathak, David Hodes and John Grieve. They recorded Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth in one night in 1981 with no plan and no idea of what they were doing. They played drums, clarinet, synthesizer and piano but also made use of things that they found lying around the studio - old records, cook books, telephone directories and a telephone. The recordings were played down the phone to randomly dialed numbers with the reactions added to the recording. All three had been involved in the recording of the first Nurse With Wound album Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella (1979) and had contributed metal scrapings, piano, effects, clarinet and guitar during the session. The star of the record is Pat Simmons who was the voice of the UK speaking clock between 1963 and 1984. In his book Lipstick Traces (1989) writer Greil Marcus seeks to draw a line from Dada through the Situationist International to punk rock. If this line exists, then Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth sits on the end of it. The only review that the album received was from Steve Stapleton who suggested that "nobody should miss this vinyl disaster" - good or bad are not concepts that can be applied to this recording. The record stands firmly in opposition to the now all pervading concepts of commercialization, celebrity culture and the commodification of creative activity. Originally 1000 copies were pressed on orange/red vinyl. 120 copies were sold through Rough Trade and Virgin Records. 800 copies were bought and later destroyed by the United Dairies label, adding to the elusiveness of this record. This reissue is on red vinyl, just like the original pressing. File under: dada, underground, post-industrial, concrete music, DIY, punk.
|
|
|
|