Malwen Row

Running Time: 8:38 / 35:00

Released On: "RPM Challenge 2023" - Various Artists (22 tracks)

Labels: Ensemble For Sound Poetry And Contemporary Music / Bromtol Largesse

Release Date: 28th February 2023

Format: Download

Buy Links: EFSPACM   /   Bromtol Largesse   (Both Bandcamp - Free)

 < RPM Special Less Than 35 Minute Ear-Bleeder Edit - 8:38

/ Full Version On Alonetone - 35:00 >

When the EFSPACM group, of which we are proud members, announced they wanted to do an album for this year's RPM Challenge, we were hit with a wave of nostalgia. We'd first done it in February 2021, creating the 35 minute sonic attack that was R.F.A. (Really Fucking Annoying), continuing to do something similar for their 'Record Every Month' extension challenge for the whole year. We ended up with a collection of a dozen 35 minute noise based works, ultimately released as the Ratione Personae Mentalis seven hour mega-album on The Church Of Noisy Goat label in Brazil. Go, Bode! So one more time for old time's sake? Why not...

Probably many reasons when we came to think of it. For example, there were some pangs of guilt; the organiser, one Elling Lien, seemed everso nice, it's not like he'd done anything to us, and that promise we made, so what had he done to deserve this? Absolutely nothing, but when has that ever stopped Skit's love of power tools? Lawnmowers, that's what he's obsessed with at the moment.

"What sounds should we include on this next project, Skit?" I would ask him.

"LAWNMOWER! LAWNMOWER!" He would shout, jumping around the living room in his wellies. And he knows he's not allowed in the living room in his wellies.

"But," I would take a deep breath, "don't you think we may have over-used lawnmower samples this year? Hackensall Road, Come The Dreamquake, both released this month? They may be quite different, but both have lawnmower samples, no?"

"No lawnmowers on S.T.A.C.," he would counter, "that last track released this month. Lawnmowers turn again."

"Only if you promise no more lawnmowers. Ever." I would sigh, reluctantly conceding to his compelling logic.

"Skit promise." He would smile smugly in victory, even though he was most likely aware that I almost certainly knew his fingers were crossed behind his back.

So Lawnmowers III: The Search For Stripes it is. This time it's personal. Again, a bit different to the first two, no drums, just an ever undulating wall of sound, a textured ear-battering 35 minute drone, with a bit of clever (in our own humble opinion) electronic processing to boot. And, as this one is an EFSPACM team effort, we also created a special under ten minute version for the album. It's not an edit of the full one as we have done previously for the RPM Challenge, it's actually a separate recording of the same piece. Perfectionists, I know, it's our curse.

Oh, and while I think of it; the track title, Malwen Row, by some strange coincidence, just happens to be an anagram of lawnmower. Small world...

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