EARTH CALLING /

HAWKFAN (UK)

Brian Tawn is another one we seem to have been friends with forever, long the official voice of Hawkwind Feedback and publisher of the Hawkfan zine, both of which would often include a plug for things M&E and MMATT. We actually used to get considerable feedback (no pun intended) from those plugs too, Hawkwind fans tend to be quite open-minded when it comes to experiencing new sounds (and I have counted myself in their number for over 40 years now, ever since a 14 year old me watched them performing "Silver Machine" on "Top Of The Pops" in 1972... and never saw the world the same way again!), so were always muchly appreciated amongst the realms of M&E supporters. Sadly, times change. Brian is no longer the only voice; information flows freely on cyberspace, instantly and effortlessly (unless you're still using Microsoft Front Page 2002, just saying) disseminated to all the four corners of the globe, so the zines tend to be less frequent, smaller and almost exclusively Hawk-related. And poor Brian just feels all redundant and gets under his wife's feet all day instead. However, though politely declining a promo himself (hopefully not coz he's gone off us!), he did invite me to post about "Flashbax Ω Ultimate" to the HAWKFAN #BRIAN TAWN# FACEBOOK GROUP. Nice man. Fellow tram fan too. It's our age. Bless us, eh? He also pointed me in the direction of one Barry Mart, aka DJ Bazza, who does the Earth Calling radioshow (which playlists the like of Tanglemist, Omnia Opera, Dead Horse One, Korai Orom, Seid, Jesus Hooligan, The Lucid Dream and Krom Lek, as well as the mighty Hawks) on TBFM ONLINE, as well as live DJ-ing. He was kind enough to give some airplay to "Story X" and "Psychojolting" back in December, so many thanks to Brian for that one. You can make contact with Barry via his DJ BAZZA FACEBOOK PAGE (and hopefully via TBFM as well, coz not everyone uses Facebook), and do say hi from us. Brian continues to do regular Hawkwind Feedback newsletters via e-mail, if you'd like to get added to the list, buy a zine, chew the fat or whatever, you can contact him by E-MAIL, or you can also find him on FACEBOOK, and in the photo below, of course. DOWNLOAD: HAWKWIND FEEDBACK - AUGUST 2016 (MS Word)

KLAPPSTUHL RECORDS

(GERMANY)

Oh fuck, you know you're getting old when you realise that you've been friends with everyone you're writing about for 20 years at least! Carsten S too, he and I first made contact in the mid 90's. Klappstuhl have roots in the late 80's, when Carsten started releasing material by his own band, Leichenschrei Hyper Drive (check out the 2014 LHD "Transitions" EP, tis a work of industrial experimentalist genius). MMATT first had a track on a Klappstuhl compilation in 1996, "IV Victor - Lost In Europe" (Trism 9). Like ourselves, they had something of a 'sabbatical', returning to the fold in 2012 when there seemed to be that real resurgence of interest in the 80's/90's international underground scene. Klappstuhl have done some great remasters from that golden age cassette period, not least of a tape

that also appeared on M&E, Solanaceae Tau's Irre Tapes classic, "Outdoor Expressions". Early last year, Carsten mentioned to me that he was thinking about reissuing our "Flashbax Vol. 4", originally released in Germany on Neuzeitliche Tonkonstruktionen. I said it seemed a little pointless just to pick one of the ten-strong Flashbax series randomly and why didn't I put a special edition together for him? After much discussion, this evolved into a 'best of Flashbax', effectively a 'best of MMATT - the cassette years'. Now, as Flashbax Vol. 10 was released as "The Last Flashbax", the new one could only be something after that, thus was born "Flashbax Ω Ultimate" (does that sound final enough?), the 12 tracks on the main album being selected from a fan's poll taken in 1992, the Mmatterial on the bonus album being chosen by me to tell the band's story. You know, the going back in time in the Ford Escortron bit, changing how we all met and ending up with a new debut album and history. I'm sure it's much the same for most bands. Klappstuhl is a label very worth checking out, it's mantra being to release "music that does not fit into categories", we like that, pigeonholes are for pigeons, not music. You'll find them on BANDCAMP (Klappstuhl, not pigeons), where you can listen to and/or purchase the download versions (I can't get this image of downloadable pigeons out of my head now), or follow the contact link on the page if you prefer hard copies (which are nicer, let's be honest). Stop it. Hard pigeons. Coo coo! You want some?

DOWNLOAD >>> KLAPPSTUHL NEWSLETTER - MAY 2016 (PDF)