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February 20th 2011
We're very pleased to announce the digit-only release of the debut album by "The Earliest Humans"; after a few lost weeks with distribution problems it's now available at iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Napster etc.
The Earliest Humans' eponymous album is an explorative guitar record, seeped in unconventional textures and unexpected harmonics. The project's name suggests approaching a situation fresh, as if never done before, and the album's opening track is music far removed from the conventional notions of guitar playing - a disorientating collage of jack plug buzzes and over-the-bridge twangs - other tracks find the guitar generating clock-like chimes around the ghostly silver-thin sounds of a resonator guitar; American-primitive playing pushed through digital filters and beyond.
The music does come in from these colder experiments though, with some charmingly melodic gems peaking through the haze of half-remembered blues ghosts. There are significant vocal contributions from labelmates Fernanda Monteiro (of Os Dados and the Equipe collective) and renowned improv artist Richard Sanderson which add extra colours (both light and dark) to the palette of string sounds, steel slides, pitch-shifted ukuleles, fuzzed-out banjos and more.
Finally you're left with an experimental album which is surprisingly human, diverse and welcoming.
Fat Ghost releases that are still in-print are available at various download & streaming services.
Over the next couple of months we are planning to release an EP of electronics & improv by Clive Pearman & Richard Sanderson, a solo melodeon EP by Richard Sanderson and a couple of other special exclusives.
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December 17th 2010
For this outing Equipe is centred around Richard Sanderson. Fernanda Monteiro again provides vocals and Brazilian lyrics, with Clive Pearman on guitar and bass.
Sinta blows in with a chill wave of winter, but is also evocative of warm festive evenings, sleigh bells & carols.
Artwork for this release is again by Scott Taylor.
Expect more from Equipe sporadically in the future.
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April 5th 2010
Fat Ghost introduces new artists Equipe.
A studio-based collective formed around Scott Taylor, this recording features Fernanda Monteiro's vocals and Brazilian lyrics and Clive Pearman on guitar and banjo.
Cinema Mudo (which translates approximately as Silent Movies) began life as an improvised abstract piece, before coalescing into a narrative structure around Fernanda's lyrics, albeit a cinematic story with no clear beginning, middle and end.
Expect more from Equipe sporadically in the future.
Artwork for this release is by Scott as well.
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December 20th 2009
We're really proud that we have a special release for the holidays; a 3 track E.P. from Richard Sanderson.
Richard describes: "Three Ings" marks an end to a period of performing songs accompanying myself on laptop. The three songs were all originally composed and performed on the laptop over the last two years.
For these recordings I overdubbed a succession of acoustic instruments - melodeon, accordion, whistle, percussion etc plus stringed instruments (banjo, guitar etc played by The Earliest Humans), before removing the original computer backing. This left the songs with strange intervals and phrasings that I enjoyed, I then re-recorded the vocals.
Although the instrumental arrangements may suggest folk music, they aren't.
"Quill" is a song about songs, and specifically about the Blues and its cheapening into a byword for musical conservatism, masculinity and emotionalism.
"Sunday Air" is a pop song about dancing in the street- something I now do quite regularly.
"Told By Magnets" is a song about electric guitars and how they can still move me.
Special thanks to Clive Pearman for engineering and putting up with my endless faffing about, The Earliest Humans for the stringed instruments, Scott Taylor for the expert mastering, and Pete Farrell (where are you now?) for suggesting the title "Told By Magnets", 30 odd years ago
Ending, Beginning, Remembering. As a small child I lived at 65 Ings Road, the remaining 62 will come later."
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December 1st 2009
We're excited to confirm that our next single will be a double A-side: "Harmony & True" / "Monster" from Timothy C Holehouse (FTS008)...
This exclusive digital split single is the first preview of the new album "In search of the binary star" due for full physical release on Dead Pilot records in early 2010.
Recorded in Leeds by Robert Hobson of Silent City studios; these vocal performances develop ideas from Holehouse's debut album "…to the howls at midnight" using loops & sound effects in song based structures. These are the first recordings to feature Rick of Electric Mud Generator on drums (since then EMG have backed Timothy C Holehouse up on various tours & shows).
"Monster" written in New York while on tour with "USA is a Monster" (& dedicated to them) captures the childhood fears of monsters in the closet & the later acceptance that those fears aren't real...or are they?
"Harmony & True" encapsulates the contradiction of being wrapped up warm inside whilst the cold crisp winter is evident from your window. It’s a song about contentment. The triggered samples & beats at the end of the track were conjured up through the wizardry of Mr. Robert Hobson.
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November 17th 2009
We're really pleased that we're able to add an exclusive release from Stephen Meixner to our growing list of Fat Ghost singles.
srmeixner "I am your Pallbearer" (FTS007)...
Stephen Meixner was formerly part of the group Contrastate, who during the late 80’s and 90’s were one of the UK’s most innovative and challenging experimental groups. They received critical acclaim across Europe and the USA for their album releases and rave reviews for their live, often theatrical, performances.
After three solo album releases this is his first download single. One reviewer described his music as resembling minimal modern architecture that is a perfect aural example of the ‘less-is-more’ principle, not in a sterile and solitary manner, but always in touch with the world and the human emotional spectrum.
This track is taken from a forthcoming album influenced by the themes and ideas behind “spaghetti western” films and features contributions from Jonathan Grieve (from Contrastate) and Ralf Wehowsky (currently one of the most respected electronic composers of our day whose groundbreaking releases influenced many working in today’s experimental music scene).
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September 27th 2009
Aloha ! We're uke'd that our next single is the debut release from The Richwoods "Snow on the Sea [pts 1 &2" (FTS005)...
"Snow On The Sea pts 1 & 2" melds together two distinctly different versions of this highly catchy tune.
Pt 1 is the original demo with Dan delicately picking all 3 parts, having incorrectly remembered the chord pattern written by Tracey.
Pt 2 swoops in like an icy Siberian wind and features Dave & Tracey's infectious dual rhythm underpinning Dan's double picked lead line.
Pt 3 shifts the pace up another gear or two and features the thundering avalanche of Tracey's 8 string ukulele. It will be made exclusively available for free to subscribers to the Fat Ghost Singles Club.
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September 1st 2009
We're very privileged that our next single will be the new release from Richard Sanderson "19th/20th C" (FTS004)...
"19th/20th C" is a free improvisation for melodeon and and electronics played by Richard. He writes of this piece-
"For some time I've been trying to find a way of integrating my melodeon (on which I mainly play traditional music) and the electronics I use in free improvisation.
Initially I was using the melodeon to play acoustically over the electronics, but this proved unsatisfactory. Eventually I settled on amplifying both ends of the melodeon and then sending the signals through two separate sets of electronics to create a stereo effect which mirrors the innate duality of the acoustic instrument.
Whilst preparing for a live performance at Cafe Oto, I recorded some improvisations directly to a TEAC stereo cassette deck. "19th/20th C" is the last 9 minutes of one improvisation.
This recording was then mastered by Scott Taylor. Apart from the initial edit, no other editing or overdubbing was employed. The title refers to the technology used - 19th Century in the case of the melodeon, 20th in the case of the cassette deck."
Richard Sanderson's website is at: BagRecLiveJournal
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July 16th 2009
We're very excited that our next single will be the debut release from The Earliest Humans "The Singing Bridge on Harp Street [part 2]" (FTS003)...
The Earliest Humans is the working name for a London based experimental musician working with guitar and electronics in free-form electronica and improv.
Assembled from multiple recording layers, "The Singing Bridge" has a disquieting undertow, a background drawl of restlessness while the main theme captures an ancient blues riff from out of the static.
With a nod towards John Fahey's Vanguard era albums and Fahey's later work with Jim O'Rourke, "The Singing Bridge" appears here in edited form, the full version will appear on The Earliest Humans debut album sometime in 2010.
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May 16th 2009
We're very proud to say that the second release in our series of singles is White Out by The Flowers of Hell (FTS002)...
Based in London and Toronto, the Flowers of Hell are a 16 piece transatlantic space rock orchestra, lead & produced by Greg Jarvis. Fat Ghost is exclusively releasing the epic full length 10 minute version of "White Out", a track that appears in edited form on the groups critically praised new album Come Hell of High Water.
"Stirringly evocative 8/10" NME
"Essential stuff 8/10" Rocksound
"Beauteous quasi-classical folk-blues cum motorik shoegazing pop" Time Out
"Unequivocally the first great album of 2009" The Decibel Tolls
White Out is an instrumental that explores both lush classical sounds and psychedelic blues. The guitar and bass core of the track was developed and recorded by Jarvis and Ivan Kral (Patti Smith Group, Iggy's band, Cale's band, Blondie) in the wee small hours of the morning after the two had caught a Little Richard show in Detroit.
More musicians then added parts in London, Prague, & Toronto, including contributions from the Flowers Of Hell's regular string players Abi Fry (British Sea Power, Bat For Lashes) & Mel Draisey (The Clientele, Primal Scream, Le Volume Courbe), and saxophonist Ray Dickaty (ex-Spiritualized).
After building a dense wall of three to four takes of each of the eleven musicians on the track, Jarvis then applied his timbre-to-shape synaesthetic visions to 'sculpt' out the song. Occuring in 3% of the population, synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where two senses are intermingled. With timbre-to-shape synaesthesia, sounds involuntarily trigger a translucent visual layer of moving shapes which follow a consistent audio-visual language. "I see sounds" Jarvis explains. "When I hear a song, I see all these glorious shapes and patterns that glide and pulse and swirl. Each instrument's timbre appears and behaves differently." The final mix was then honed and wrapped up by Pete 'Sonic Boom' Kember of Spacemen 3 and Spectrum fame.
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April 20th 2009
Hi all, a quick update from Fat Ghost:
Interference by Evil Jack McDeath is still available from all major download and streaming stores and it's already generating some great enthusiasm for the Fat Ghost monthly singles plan. We'll be mailing you details of the next single, an exclusive Flowers of Hell track, in 2-3 weeks.
In the meantime, feast your eyes on this PROMO CLIP of The Charles Napiers (edited together by Napiers' main man Dan Whaley from original footage shot by Jim Mew) on their tour of Germany in 1995. "Eight Minus One" was recorded as the original theme to a film that sadly never got further than a great script; and captures the early Napiers in John Barry / Ennio Morricone mood, rather than their more usual blistering Link Wray & surf sound.
You can get "Eight Minus One" and 17 other original Napiers' tracks from your favourite download stores !
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March 26th 2009
26th March sees the launch of download-only record label FAT GHOST's regular singles club. Throughout 2009 there will be frequent releases of exclusive single tracks from a select, hand-picked group of artists which will be released through iTunes, eMusic, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Napster. Each track will be accompanied by high quality artwork and will cost between 2 0p and 79p, depending on which company you download from. We're planning to release 1 track every month or so, plus if you subscribe to the mailing list there'll be offers of other exclusive tracks for free.
(Go here to subscribe for news on future releases http://www.fatghost.com/Singles.html)
We're very pleased to say that the first release is Interference by Evil Jack McDeath (FTS001), a blisteringly powerful fuzz and wah-drenched instrumental reminiscent of the type of sonic assault that Loop and Spacemen 3 used to specialise in, albeit about quarter the length of one of their songs and with no vocals. The track features Mr McDeath on guitars, bass, drums, harmonium and noise and special guest Vance Palmier providing the backwards guitar solo.
Future Fat Ghost single releases will include:
Trans-Atlantic space rock orchestra The Flowers of Hell
Short, sharp ukulele instrumental trio The Richwoods
Late 80s noise/trash combo The Shockwaves (led by a pre-Alabama 3 LB Dope)
Avant garde folk purist Richard Sanderson
Sinister Stripped Down Instrumental combo The McDeath Trio
plus more....
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