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7"
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UTR 134EP
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When Upset The Rhythm released Normil Hawaiians' lost album Return of the Ranters back in 2015 (UTR 076CD/LP), the band members got back in touch with each other after a 30-year break and starting playing music together again. Out of this the group played a launch show for the album and followed that up with more concerts, including an appearance at Supernormal, a residency at the Edinburgh Festival, gigs at Cafe OTO, and supporting Richard Dawson in London too. Throughout this time, Normil Hawaiians revisited their original songs for these live performances. However, for a group always so interested in evolving their sound and seeking nuance, it comes as no surprise that they shirked the idea of a faithful retread of old material in favor of reimagining their songs. The group experimented by pushing their songs into new inventive dimensions, still progressive at heart, but now imbued with a cosmic uncanny. A cinematic, even pastoral approach that was always quietly present has come to the fore. The quaint weirdness of folk song, the humanity of communal practice and the group's ecological mindedness have all found a place in Normil Hawaiians' current sound world. With this conducive atmosphere brewing, the band's first new songs in decades started to emerge. Being far-flung across the UK, the Family Hawaii encamped to Tayinloan, a small village on the west coast of the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland with the intention of recording new music. They set up their own studio in an isolated, windswept house overlooking the sea and started the tape rolling. From loose, improvised sessions and reflective periods of listening in Tayinloan, Normil Hawaiians captured the moment. "In The Stone" is a motorik thrill of distorted guitars, locked rhythms, and morphic resonance. Guy Smith is joined by Zinta Egle on vocals, skillfully sharing lyrics informed by Alan Garner and Nigel Kneale's ideas around recurring events being linked to place and historical artifact; a kind of residual haunting known as "Stone Tape" theory. In keeping with the context of the song, sounds from several previous live recordings of the track were woven into its present being. Flipside "Where Is Living?" is a decidedly more delicate affair of questioning lyrics and eerie traces, droning strings, and impressions smudged. This resultant 7" is a tantalizing glimpse of Normil Hawaiians now, an echo from the past, an echo from the future.
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LP
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UTR 121LP
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LP version. Glossy, printed gatefold sleeve; offset (matte) paper inner sleeve; includes booklet; Edition of 500. Upset The Rhythm present a reissue of Normil Hawaiians' What's Going On?, originally released in 1984. To Normil Hawaiians, getting out of lockstep with Thatcherism seemed imperative. Adding to an overriding sense of anxiety, close friend and band associate Martin Pawson took his life in July 1983. Following More Wealth Than Money, released on Illuminated Records in 1982, there was an impetus to make good on hard won achievements. Rehearsal and writing sessions resumed in the early months of 1983 at Intergalactic Arts Studios. IGA was a ramshackle, semi-residential rehearsal space. Illuminated Records had been sending artists to Foel Studios in Powys, Wales for years, and it had become a kind of refuge for the Hawaiians. Studio owner/manager Dave Anderson (Hawkwind/Amon Düül II) was welcoming, unruffled, and accommodating when around a dozen band members, friends, and family emerged from the "mini-peace convoy" of vehicles into the hazy, pastoral care of the warm, Welsh countryside. Whereas More Wealth Than Money had evolved in the recording studio, What's Going On began to develop as a more pre-meditated, albeit piecemeal work. "Quiet Village" and the unreleased "Outpost" had already been finished at Foel in February 1983. Recording Engineer Brian Snelling recalls how the Hawaiians approach to making the album was unconventional and spontaneous, reveling in chance and openness. Rehearsal tapes from IGA were played along to, and improvisations allowed to develop, with further layers of sound accreting (as can be heard on "Big Lies"). "Free Tibet" was created by the band playing together exploratively with Snelling waiting to hit "Record" until he heard that something interesting was coalescing. He recalls the sessions being initially unorthodox, but eventually settling into a friendly, productive, and very familial affair. Mixed tapes were then taken by Dave Andersen and Guy Smith to Charly Records' editing studio in London. Here they spliced the recordings into an irregular yet coherent, flowing work. Final masters were then EQ'd and cut by Graeme Durham at the newly opened Exchange Mastering Studios in Camden. And then nothing happened. Unbeknownst to the band, Illuminated Records were getting into deep financial problems. The label gave the band 250 copies, but the record shops wouldn't touch them -- the company had been blacklisted. This intricate, challenging and engaging work had been failed by poor circumstance.
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CD
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UTR 121CD
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Upset The Rhythm present a reissue of Normil Hawaiians' What's Going On?, originally released in 1984. To Normil Hawaiians, getting out of lockstep with Thatcherism seemed imperative. Adding to an overriding sense of anxiety, close friend and band associate Martin Pawson took his life in July 1983. Following More Wealth Than Money, released on Illuminated Records in 1982, there was an impetus to make good on hard won achievements. Rehearsal and writing sessions resumed in the early months of 1983 at Intergalactic Arts Studios. IGA was a ramshackle, semi-residential rehearsal space. Illuminated Records had been sending artists to Foel Studios in Powys, Wales for years, and it had become a kind of refuge for the Hawaiians. Studio owner/manager Dave Anderson (Hawkwind/Amon Düül II) was welcoming, unruffled, and accommodating when around a dozen band members, friends, and family emerged from the "mini-peace convoy" of vehicles into the hazy, pastoral care of the warm, Welsh countryside. Whereas More Wealth Than Money had evolved in the recording studio, What's Going On began to develop as a more pre-meditated, albeit piecemeal work. "Quiet Village" and the unreleased "Outpost" had already been finished at Foel in February 1983. Recording Engineer Brian Snelling recalls how the Hawaiians approach to making the album was unconventional and spontaneous, reveling in chance and openness. Rehearsal tapes from IGA were played along to, and improvisations allowed to develop, with further layers of sound accreting (as can be heard on "Big Lies"). "Free Tibet" was created by the band playing together exploratively with Snelling waiting to hit "Record" until he heard that something interesting was coalescing. He recalls the sessions being initially unorthodox, but eventually settling into a friendly, productive, and very familial affair. Mixed tapes were then taken by Dave Andersen and Guy Smith to Charly Records' editing studio in London. Here they spliced the recordings into an irregular yet coherent, flowing work. Final masters were then EQ'd and cut by Graeme Durham at the newly opened Exchange Mastering Studios in Camden. And then nothing happened. Unbeknownst to the band, Illuminated Records were getting into deep financial problems. The label gave the band 250 copies, but the record shops wouldn't touch them -- the company had been blacklisted. This intricate, challenging and engaging work had been failed by poor circumstance. CD version includes seven bonus tracks; comes in gatefold wallet with booklet; edition of 500.
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2CD
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UTR 096CD
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Upset The Rhythm present a reissue of Normil Hawaiians' debut album More Wealth Than Money, originally released in 1982 on Illuminated Records. Normil Hawaiians had a transformative 1982. With two 7" singles and a 12" EP under their belts, they suddenly found themselves disillusioned, so they forced the hand of change. The band's true constant in Guy Smith soon found himself with a new crew of musicians: Simon Marchant, Noel Blanden, and Mark Tyler. Normil Hawaiians' communal take on post punk quickly sprouted and began carving out a new furrow. Greater emphasis was awarded to group improvisations, resulting in longer, freer journeys; Tape loops, echo boxes, extended percussive sessions, and duteous faith in the tones emanating from a particular old wah-wah pedal were all employed by Normil Hawaiians to stretch their sonic fabric into wild and redolent new dimensions. Normil Hawaiians booked into Foel Studios, and Dave Anderson (Hawkwind, Amon Düül II) managed and engineered. Anderson even joined in on bass for several of those sessions. Normil Hawaiians lived together in a small cottage in the studio's shadow, sharing everything together and working long days. This is how the band's debut album More Wealth Than Money was formed, through trial and close listening, through cultivation and patient growth. Of course there were significant amounts of mushrooms involved too and several UFO sightings. More Wealth Than Money proved a vastly ambitious debut album, sprawling in a way that still feels expansive, brave, cinematic even. From the plaintive pastoralism of "British Warm" to the transcendental vistas of "Other Ways Of Knowing", the album constantly surprises with its ringing trails of guitar, motorik pulse, and synth rambles. Guy Smith's vocal floats through the album in a haunting manner. Described by the press upon its release in 1982 as an "absolutely mesmerising double album travelling through progressive rock, via industrial folk to freaky art-punk whilst sounding delightfully coherent" and "a huge slab of mindblowing dark psychedelia," the album was critically acknowledged for its peculiarly British kosmische. It's curious that More Wealth Than Money never came out officially in the UK. The band's label Illuminated Records were temporarily blacklisted by their distributor because of unpaid debts and so the album was only available from the band at concerts within the UK. Remastered; Includes a booklet full of anecdotes and photos from all band members.
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2LP
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UTR 096LP
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Double LP version. Upset The Rhythm present a reissue of Normil Hawaiians' debut album More Wealth Than Money, originally released in 1982 on Illuminated Records. Normil Hawaiians had a transformative 1982. With two 7" singles and a 12" EP under their belts, they suddenly found themselves disillusioned, so they forced the hand of change. The band's true constant in Guy Smith soon found himself with a new crew of musicians: Simon Marchant, Noel Blanden, and Mark Tyler. Normil Hawaiians' communal take on post punk quickly sprouted and began carving out a new furrow. Greater emphasis was awarded to group improvisations, resulting in longer, freer journeys; Tape loops, echo boxes, extended percussive sessions, and duteous faith in the tones emanating from a particular old wah-wah pedal were all employed by Normil Hawaiians to stretch their sonic fabric into wild and redolent new dimensions. Normil Hawaiians booked into Foel Studios, and Dave Anderson (Hawkwind, Amon Düül II) managed and engineered. Anderson even joined in on bass for several of those sessions. Normil Hawaiians lived together in a small cottage in the studio's shadow, sharing everything together and working long days. This is how the band's debut album More Wealth Than Money was formed, through trial and close listening, through cultivation and patient growth. Of course there were significant amounts of mushrooms involved too and several UFO sightings. More Wealth Than Money proved a vastly ambitious debut album, sprawling in a way that still feels expansive, brave, cinematic even. From the plaintive pastoralism of "British Warm" to the transcendental vistas of "Other Ways Of Knowing", the album constantly surprises with its ringing trails of guitar, motorik pulse, and synth rambles. Guy Smith's vocal floats through the album in a haunting manner. Described by the press upon its release in 1982 as an "absolutely mesmerising double album travelling through progressive rock, via industrial folk to freaky art-punk whilst sounding delightfully coherent" and "a huge slab of mindblowing dark psychedelia," the album was critically acknowledged for its peculiarly British kosmische. It's curious that More Wealth Than Money never came out officially in the UK. The band's label Illuminated Records were temporarily blacklisted by their distributor because of unpaid debts and so the album was only available from the band at concerts within the UK. Remastered; Includes a booklet full of anecdotes and photos from all band members.
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LP
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UTR 076LP
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Limited gatefold LP version. Normil Hawaiians have always operated as a collective of musicians rather than a band per se, and for this third album, the group comprised Guy Smith, Simon Marchant, Alun "Wilf" Williams, Noel Blanden, and Jimmy Miller. Recorded at Dave Anderson's Foel Studio in Wales (sonic home of Amon Düül II and Hawkwind) in the winter of 1985 and '86, a time and a place triangulated from political, social, and geographical aspects, Return of the Ranters extended their free experiments in compelling arrhythmia and seemingly organized sound, taking a loose trajectory from their previous albums and earlier, more confrontational approach. The release of this album marks the first step in Upset the Rhythm's plans to produce expanded reissues of the band's other two epic albums, More Wealth Than Money (1982) and What's Going On? (1984). It was during the austere years of the post-punk permafrost that Normil Hawaiians' third album, Return of the Ranters, was written, recorded, and shelved. The album opens amid vast clouds of atmosphere before the tape-looped violin of "Sianne Don't Work in a Factory" starts to drag the song out of itself and into a sparse yet tender love song, full of hope, exalted synths, and mechanized drum patterns. Acoustic guitars and walls of keyboard drone provide a fitting acre of space for the raw polemics of "Slums Still Stand," while "The Search for Um Gris" follows in full head-down, motorik mode with a miraculously hypnotic drum beat and whirling mood. "The Battle of Stonehenge" is a powerful and emotive recording detailing the band's personal experience of the police ransack of the Peace Convoy on June 1, 1985, and as a result provides the rallying point of album. Beginning bravely as a solitary spun-out voice, the song eventually becomes awash with choruses of guitar and reverberating synth, joined finally by adornments of violin and an entrancingly agile beat. "Mouldwarp's Journey" concludes the album with ten minutes of epic improv, drawing on field recordings, murmured vocals, slowly phasing tonal clusters, a miasma of percussion, and wordless rapture. Lucid, candid, politically engaged, rarely metronomic but always humane, tired but still fighting, Normil Hawaiians' third album has waited patiently for 30 years.
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CD
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UTR 076CD
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Normil Hawaiians have always operated as a collective of musicians rather than a band per se, and for this third album, the group comprised Guy Smith, Simon Marchant, Alun "Wilf" Williams, Noel Blanden, and Jimmy Miller. Recorded at Dave Anderson's Foel Studio in Wales (sonic home of Amon Düül II and Hawkwind) in the winter of 1985 and '86, a time and a place triangulated from political, social, and geographical aspects, Return of the Ranters extended their free experiments in compelling arrhythmia and seemingly organized sound, taking a loose trajectory from their previous albums and earlier, more confrontational approach. The release of this album marks the first step in Upset the Rhythm's plans to produce expanded reissues of the band's other two epic albums, More Wealth Than Money (1982) and What's Going On? (1984). It was during the austere years of the post-punk permafrost that Normil Hawaiians' third album, Return of the Ranters, was written, recorded, and shelved. The album opens amid vast clouds of atmosphere before the tape-looped violin of "Sianne Don't Work in a Factory" starts to drag the song out of itself and into a sparse yet tender love song, full of hope, exalted synths, and mechanized drum patterns. Acoustic guitars and walls of keyboard drone provide a fitting acre of space for the raw polemics of "Slums Still Stand," while "The Search for Um Gris" follows in full head-down, motorik mode with a miraculously hypnotic drum beat and whirling mood. "The Battle of Stonehenge" is a powerful and emotive recording detailing the band's personal experience of the police ransack of the Peace Convoy on June 1, 1985, and as a result provides the rallying point of album. Beginning bravely as a solitary spun-out voice, the song eventually becomes awash with choruses of guitar and reverberating synth, joined finally by adornments of violin and an entrancingly agile beat. "Mouldwarp's Journey" concludes the album with ten minutes of epic improv, drawing on field recordings, murmured vocals, slowly phasing tonal clusters, a miasma of percussion, and wordless rapture. Lucid, candid, politically engaged, rarely metronomic but always humane, tired but still fighting, Normil Hawaiians' third album has waited patiently for 30 years.
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