Embryonic Heraldry

Listen

Rowan      My Hounds      A Matter of Time      Saison Regal     Down Where Sous-Sol Moans

Buy

One day, when I get my finger out, this will be available as a vinyl LP (as nature intended). But don't hold your breath. In the meantime, probably your only chance to get hold of this is to buy a hand-burned CD copy: a good-looking cottage industry product with a handsome sleeve: numbered, stamped, photocopied at work, etc. No unsightly jewel case. 7 quid / 10 euro. Please e-mail me for further details.

More

Recording notes:

Recorded summer 2003 - summer 2004 in Brussels. Started in basement, was concluded in 2nd floor of adjoining building. An attempt to capture room atmospheres. Extraneous noises from outside became inadvertent field recordings. Recorded onto an analogue 8 track (semi-knackered) and a recording walkman (semi-knackered). Mixed through a Starsound Dynamix 12 channel mixer (properly knackered) and mastered to a Revox A77 (reasonable working order) at 7.5 ips.

Musical notes:

 

It becomes clear you have developed quite an interest in:

Syd Barrett as monarch
Birds
Coats of arms
Putting away the apparatus in the school gymnasium
Blob 59
Other Fall-type tape cuts and Smith style syntax delivery
Swell Maps rehearsal tapes
Drunken English countryside walks (3 bottles of Perry)
The 16th Century
The Mighty Boosh

This is a quite fantastic compendium, a most extraordinary thing... Yes, this one will be coming off the shelf again and again. It is indeed a strange one.

- Mick Sheridan, Writer, Mod and Shen

 

It sort of reminded me of a possessed old time sea captain, walking the corridors of revenge... uniquely original.

- Darryl Read, Beat Existentialist, ex-Crushed Butler

 

...the solo artist that's currently smoking my pole has gotta be John Heron, with his bizarre EMBRYONIC HERALDRY, which comes in sideways like a Donovan'd Barrett doing a Michael Hurley's ARMCHAIR BOOGIE-meets-an-archaic-Robin Williamson type-of-thing.

- Julian Cope, Arch-Drude of Wessex

 

Where can I get a copy? I want my fuckin' pole smoked.

- Jim Parker, Ramsgate

 

It's certainly like nothing else I've ever heard - though the occasional hints of Syd Barrett, Ivor Cutler, Andy Partridge etc provide psychic landmarks through the sonic murk. If Hammer start producing weirdo Wickerman/Witchfinder General type masterpieces again then surely the soundtrack commission is yours for the taking.
- Lemmy Caution, Black Time

 

All the noises, the traffic, the door keys hitting some table, the hiss - all that is very coherent with the "underground river" suggested universe, and in that sense really exquisite... like suddenly waking up from a strange dream...

- Paolo Sacchettini, ex-Strani Cocktail

 

So come on folks, get your wallets out. Beat the Xmas rush.

u.river@gmail.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------