SKYLIGHT (GREECE)

Billy Yfantis was one of the early birds when it came to webzines, starting up Skylight at the turn of the millennium. Unfortunately, that was just as M&E started winding down, so our contact back then was brief. Impressed by what I'd seen, however, I sought him out again on my return from the dead. This is a fine magazine, covering a sweeping variety of leftfield sounds; all the way from jazz and prog though to alternative and rock. When I sent Billy the promo info about "Decadion 2" a couple of years back, he kindly reproduced the whole thing (including the full list of the 162 bands that appeared on it!), nice man. I won't reprint that here, because that would be my reprint of his reprint and that would be silly. Of course, his website was always going to be better than mine, he has an MSc in IT (oh yeah? I have a PsD in Psychotronics, so there). But I digress, which is hugely unlike me, as you'll undoubtedly have realised by now. Billy has recently reviewed our "Flashbax Ω Ultimate" album, very nice man, and that I will reprint here, of course...

Magic Moments At Twilight Time - Flashbax Ω Ultimate (Klappstuhl Records)

Written by Administrator

Sunday, 27 March 2016 16:43

This is an M.M.A.T.T. compilation that gathers digitally remastered versions of the most popular tracks of the cassette underground years that were recorded between 1987 and 1992. For those that feel strangers to the band's strange catalogue, I have to warn you of the experimentation and the exploration that takes place in the music field. The band is exploring the early days of New Wave and the post punk guitars of the 1980s era with an extra femininity due to the female vocals of the band's singers. This is a futuristic concept where each member of the band plays a special role and filters their dreams through an analogue electronic atmosphere that reminds me a bit of the Hawkwind psychedelia. There is an impressive 25 pages booklet inside the album which explains the story behind each song, accompanied by nostalgia photos and a cartoonish storyboard of the band. In general, I have to say that this is an obscure band which delivers a fair soundtrack of the early 1980s era and I hope that they will find their position in the digital era of the 2010s by releasing this collection. Consequently, if you enjoy the analogue sound and the "old romantic atmosphere", have a look at the band's old catalogue.

Info: http://klappstuhl.bandcamp.com/

Worth mentioning that Billy also produces sounds of his own, very much inside our fields of endeavour. Currently, he's playing around in the electronic/avant garde arenas, making noise with a vacuum and a blender. Fellow Faust fan to boot. He has some 15 years of what he describes as "tape mixing and sound design" under his belt, including the Hanoi Cocks project circa 2003/04, not to mention some stuff he says is "more groovy" (cool, we speak the same language). I've had as much of a listen as Twizz would allow (anyone wanna buy a 3 year old?) to some of his material online, so I'll pop some links in here and encourage you to explore yourself (behave) and enjoy muchly. Billy can be contacted via the SKYLIGHT WEBSITE (say hi from us) and listened to on SOUNDCLOUD and CDBABY.

STARSHIP OVERFLOW (OUTER SPACE)

Well, Essex, but if you've ever been there, you'll realise that's pretty much the same thing. Ah, what can we say about Captain Garry Lee? Colchester's answer to Smashy and Nicey - he's fantabulous, mate. I think we're back on the 'best part of 25 years' friends list again now, as you can tell, I'd never get away with saying that about someone who wasn't well used to me. When we first made contact, Overflow was a small pirate station broadcasting from a semi, taking it's name from the fact the transmitter was placed on the overflow! The Captain has been a hugely supportive fan of MMATT across the quarter of a century that's passed since and done several mad things as a result of it, like; broadcasting an entire night as 'Mmattland Community Radio FM' and playing nothing but MMATT and related, actually having me in his house for a Bank Holiday weekend, and trying to interview me live on his show. Out of pure guilt, we did write and record "Freedom Overflow" as a theme tune for the station (that being its name at the time) for five years. I'd have liked it to stay their theme tune longer, but apparently John Bartles is better than us. Hmmph. However, apart from the occasional error of judgement like that, the Overflow plays a fine selection of sounds for your aural self-pleasuring. There's quite a list of places you can hear the station, schedules and everything, so do check out their OFFICIAL WEBSITE for all of that. Great scope of material, mostly new releases (but there's an archive show too), from rock and prog through to psyche and space, comes highly recommended. Many thanks to Garry for his support for "Flashbax Ω Ultimate", playing several tracks through November and December last year, including us in the Pick Of The Year show (dead cool to get listed with the likes of Marilyn Manson, Hawklords, Motorhead and the Ozrics!) and even picking us as a 'CD Of The Week' (though we were probably knocked off after five days by John Bartles). Tune in, turn on, drop out...