Fourier Transform Records || News

2008-04-30T00:12:00.003Z

If you live in (or happen to be visiting) the South Wales area, you can now buy Brave New Wales from the wonderful people at Spillers Records, the oldest record shop in the entire world. It could be argued (although perhaps not very convincingly) that Spillers was in fact set up in 1894 by Henry Spiller specifically in order to sell Brave New Wales 114 years in the future, and the past 114 years have all been the groundwork necessary to get the shop into a position whereby it can take on a few copies of this exciting and desirable compilation. Had Borges been from Grangetown rather than Buenos Aires, he might have had a few things to say about that.

2008-04-24T17:21:00.003Z

Progress report on Brave New Wales (this was intended to be a PowerPoint presentation with pie charts, histograms and clip-art (I was thinking specifically of those black stick figures with sticks for noses, the ones that dance and stuff), but believe it or not I've got better things to do with my time).

Airplay so far:

Huw Stephens, BBC Radio Cymru
Eirwyn Llwyd Roberts : Beicio
Angharad Davies/Rhodri Davies : Live at St. Giles

Lisa Gwilym, BBC Radio Cymru
Carphology Collective : Moving A Pile Of Bricks... (to the left)

Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales
Carphology Collective : Moving A Pile Of Bricks... (to the left)
Jim Knight, Fiona Owen & Gorwel Owen : Six Minutes
Y Phthwng : Cyfnos

Audition, Resonance FM
The 14th Century : Ei Thwyll a'i Hystryw
Angharad Davies/Rhodri Davies : Live at St. Giles
Chuch : Snorkel
Ian Watson/Mark Jolliffe : #3
Jacob Whittaker : Classic Mix 02
Simon Proffitt : The Ringing Rocks

Battle Flutes & Sideways Skulls, KUSF
WHITENOISESOUND : Sunset

Viva La Trance!, WJFF Radio Catskill
Chuch : Snorkel
Y Phthwng : Cyfnos

Reviews so far:

"...this is an excellent introduction to Wales and its musical undercurrent"
Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly. Read the whole review - including reference to everyone's favourite Dutch town, Nijmegen, in the Vital Weekly archive.

"Play the CDs through a decent sound system and make time for it, it deserves your full attention..."
Emma Louis, Snowdonia Nights Out Gazette. Read the whole review at Snogonline

Other stuff

An interview with Simon P about the compilation at Snogonline

If you want to walk into an actual shop in order to buy your copy, and see it and fondle it first before parting with your spending money rather than relying on newfangled digital technology to transmit virtual cash from your computer to ours, you can visit the following places:

Cob Records, Bangor: even if there were loads more record shops in the Bangor area, this would still be the best.
Sound 323, London: even though there are loads more record shops in the greater London area, this is still the best.
Aquarius, San Francisco: still the best.

Have you seen or heard reference to the compilation elsewhere? Is someone championing it/slating it unbeknownst to us? Leave a comment! We're greedy for more information.

2008-03-06T10:29:00.003Z

It's here.

[read more] [buy one from the shop]

2008-01-23T22:37:00.000Z

YES. BELIEVE YOUR EYES.

IT'S TIME TO PREORDER YOUR COPY OF BRAVE NEW WALES

2007-08-26T03:49:00.000Z

2007-08-25T09:30:00.000Z

The Welsh division of the Fourier Transform empire has moved office, and is now located in the beautiful rural idyll of the Conwy Valley. Please don't send anything to the old Cardiff address, there's no-one there any more.

2007-07-25T01:20:00.000Z

Submissions are now closed for Crania Draft Massif. Hold on tight while we prepare the tracklist and ready the artwork! Brace yourselves for some truly disgusting music...

2007-05-12T15:20:00.000Z

Here's a typical thing: you put out a call for submissions for a compilation, and hardly anyone bothers responding because you forget to put any kind of submission deadline on the initial call, and so everyone's thinking, hmmm, well, I've got ages to do this - no point worrying about it yet.

So I guess I'd better put a deadline on the Crania Draft Massif project (see previous blog entry for details), and then I can sit back and watch the flood of submissions overwhelm our tiny office. Ha ha.

The National Samaritans Awareness Day is on 24th July (24/7 - representing the 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service), so it seems wholly appropriate to use this as the deadline. There we are, that gives you all over two months to produce some beautiful/deranged/copyright infringing music. Want that in big bold writing for clarity? Here, then:

Crania Draft Massif submission deadline: 24th July 2007

Need some inspiration? Here's an excellent list of charity singles. I also have some of these hidden online as mp3s - email us if you need a link.

2007-01-08T16:41:00.000Z

It's happening. The floodgates have opened. Slowly but surely, Simon P is cleansing himself of his entire CD collection. Grab yourself some bargains! More stuff will be added often, until it's all gone.

2006-10-13T23:39:00.000Z

CRANIA DRAFT MASSIF: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Are you a kind-hearted sound artist? If you are, read on...

Fourier Transform was established in order to produce small, limited quantities of beautifully and unusually packaged music. In direct contradiction of these founding principles, we are now delighted to announce a call for submissions for our next project, an unlimited edition web-only charity compilation.

We're inviting submissions for CRANIA DRAFT MASSIF: an mp3 compilation of charity song remixes to benefit Cardiff Samaritans (hence the anagrammatical title). Some of the worst music of modern times has arisen from The Charity Single, but we hope to redress the balance slightly here by producing an album of challenging and non-commercial music, all for a good cause.

How it will work: we'll have an album's worth of mp3s available to download. The mp3s will be free, but we'll have a paypal button and recommend/encourage that listeners donate money if they want to. Every penny (or cent) donated goes directly to the charity. Well, minus paypal fees where applicable - which is to say that the paypal button will be the charity's own button - none of it is routed through us.

The music: ideally each track will be (at least vaguely) based on an existing charity record, whether it be a drastic butchered remix, bizarre reworking or unusual cover version. I'm not at all concerned about copyright violation, so any charity song is fair game - Band Aid, Ferry Aid, USA For Africa, Candle In The Wind, whatever. In the unlikely event that we get many more contributions than we can realistically deal with, priority will be given to stuff that totally murders the original while being cool music in its own right. We're big fans of concept, but we also want at least some people to enjoy listening to these tracks.

What we don't want: faithful rock/pop reproductions of the original song. No-one wants to hear an earnest note for note cover version of Do They Know It's Christmas. No-one.

Practical stuff: all contributions will be very gratefully received, but we can't promise to use everythiing for the final tracklist. We're hoping that the mp3 will be donated by the artist, so regrettably we won't be able to offer any payment for contributions (we're not making a penny from this). Artists will obviously still own the copyright to their sound recording though, so it doesn't have to be exclusive material. We'll have extensive 'sleeve notes' to give credit where it's due, more info about the artist, contact details etc. Ideally material will be 256kbps constant bit rate mp3s. Please don't email mp3s directly to us - either email a link to the file, or send a CD/minidisc/wax cylinder, with 'Crania Draft Massif' somewhere on the disc or envelope.

Some official charity blurb:
Cardiff & District Samaritans is staffed and run entirely by volunteers, and is funded entirely by donations. It offers 24 hours-a-day confidential emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those that might lead to suicide. It operates within one of the poorest areas of the UK, the South Wales Valleys, where per-capita anti-depressant use is higher than anywhere else in the country. More info here on their website

In other news, Brave New Wales is on its way, I promise. And it'll be good.

2006-06-08T14:35:00.000Z

It was seemingly 300 years in the making, but John Chantler's THREE SIDES OF SADNESS is NOW AVAILABLE: after all-out nuclear war at the printing plant, recovery teams have salvaged the print job, decontaminated it, and it's now at Fourier Transform HQ ready to send.

transform006 is the third installment of the white box CD-R series - 28 minutes of wonderful, itchy, fuzzy, processed guitar and percussion, released in a limited edition of 100 with awesome accompanying artwork. Listen to audio samples and read more here.

The World Cup starts tomorrow (Friday 9th). For those of you not actually playing, you can still get some of the thrill by joining the Fourier Transform Serie FT Fantasy League. It's hosted by Channel 4, they keep the stats up to date, but we have our own friends league. It's free to join - just sign up at channel4.fantasyleague.com, enter a team, then on your team page, click on Friends League. The PIN required to join the Serie FT league is 12598. Be quick though - you only have until tomorrow to join. Good luck!

Here's some more news: deadline for submissions for the Brave New Wales/Dwy Awr yng Nghymru Fydd compilation is 10th July 2006. So if you haven't yet submitted anything, get busy!

2006-05-24T16:23:00.000Z

It appears that there's been an all-out nuclear war in Oxfordshire (or if not the whole of Oxfordshire, then certainly the part of it that's responsible for printing the inserts for transform006). Three Sides of Sadness is therefore still not actually ready yet, but will be with us as soon as radiation levels in the area have dropped sufficiently to allow the recovery team in to retrieve and decontaminate the necessary items. Our sincere apologies.

2006-05-15T16:08:00.000Z

I discovered today that the first two chapters of Yevgeny Zamyatin's controversial 1920 masterpiece We form an acrostic - taking the first letter of every sentence and writing them in order gives you the following two paragraphs of text (I've added spaces and punctuation for clarity). He really was way ahead of his time:

John Chantler's awesome contribution to the Fourier Transform White Box Series, Three Sides of Sadness, is now available for pre-order. The inserts are at the printers right now, and barring all-out nuclear war or solar death, we'll have the finished thing available to post on the 22nd May. There will only be 100 of these for sale to the public, so to make sure you get one, hop on over to the shop, place your order and we'll get one in the post to you as soon as they're ripe.

Live action: we're pleased and honoured to be bringing Dennis McNulty, Paul Vogel and David Lacey over to Cardiff from Dublin for an evening of improvised music at Chapter Arts Centre on Sunday 21st May. Three of Ireland's most important exponents of new music, they create strange and complex sounds with percussion and electronics. Also on the bill, celebrated harpist Rhodri Davies, who has been pushing the boundaries of his instrument for many years and has worked with some of the world's finest improvisors. Rhodri will play solo, and in a quartet with Traw, local sound sculptors and recent White Box releasees. More details here.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

For those of you wondering what's happened to the Buried Treasure project, well, we're still working on it. It'll happen eventually. In the meantime though, if you're desperately thirsty for digging action, there's a treasure hunt going on in North Wales right now: Helfa Gelf is an open studios and treasure hunt in Conwy county. Artists' studios are open from Wednesday 17th May until Sunday 21st May; the treasure (£3000 worth of gold jewellery) was buried in April and gets to be kept by the first person to solve the clues to its whereabouts and dig it up. More details here.

2006-04-24T13:32:00.000Z

I'm too tired to think of anything witty or clever to say about this, so I'll just present you with the FACTS:

Fourier Transform & Pin Drop Promotions proudly present an afternoon of improvised music, featuring
LUM COL CON PIX | multi-turntable plunderphonic glitchscapes
BOLOGNA PONY | huge, plate-tectonic slabs of guitar noise
TRAW & GARY SMITH | angular guitar chaos with live sampling/processing

Port Mahon, Oxford | Sunday 30th April | 5pm - 8pm | £5
For maps and posters, see our live page.

2006-03-20T05:59:00.000Z

Young people get a bad press these days, always being blamed for something. Well, enough is enough - Congratulations to the Young Men of Nelson.

2006-02-13T04:03:00.000Z

The casual observer might assume that 2006 has so far been spectacularly uneventful for all the staff at Fourier Transform UK, seeing as the last news item was back in November, but that same casual observer would be advised not to make such assumptions in future. Here are some things we'd like you to know about:

If, like us, you've grown tired of candlelit dinners in Paris or moonlight walks along secluded Hawaiian beaches, and have been searching for the past few years for the ultimate romantic Valentine's Day experience, then look no further than Aufgehoben's forthcoming live studio session on ResonanceFM, broadcast to lovestruck couples around the world at 19.00GMT.

John Chantler's increasingly forthcoming CD (Three Sides Of Sadness, transform006) has been mixed and mastered, and sounds fantastic. We're just sorting the artwork out, and then it'll be ready to be declared available to the first 100 paying customers.

Also coming soon, the debut release by Cardiff based improv sound manipulators Traw, who create warm, fuzzy and alien soundscapes from unusual source material. Congratulations to the Young Men of Nelson was made from the processed sounds of egg whisks, spoons, kebab skewers and a selection of wooden toys. It's an edition of 50 white boxed CD-Rs, and will be available as soon as we've prepared the artwork.

We're pleased to announce that Oxford electro art-punk experimentalists Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element have unearthed almost 5 hours of 'early material' from their cobwebbed vaults, originally recorded in 2000, which they've passed on to the Fourier Transform Waste Treatment Plant for analysis. A team of top international environmental scientists will, when they get chance, sift through the tapes to 'see what they can find'. Any valuable material will be reclaimed and put on display in one of our white boxes. More news on this as we get it.

Emissions from our favourite French noisemonger Jean Gateau continue unabated, with a slew of recent self-released CD-Rs. If, like us, you have a perverse fondness for gloriously nauseating tales of sex, meat, sexy meat, meaty sex and camping trips gone very wrong set to dentist drill accompaniment, then contact him via his dead cousin John Cake.

Finally, here's a Fourier Transform endorsed competition to win an iPod and a Panasonic Digital Video Camera. Some friends of ours run a Canadian non-profit group dedicated to giving a voice to underprivileged young Canadian immigrants, and they're running a quiz designed to get you to watch some health awareness ads they've just made. More about the project here.

2005-11-19T15:22:00.000Z

We don't normally get involved with gigs, but here's some gig related news regardless:
Bologna Pony make their Cardiff debut on Sunday 20th November at Chapter Arts Centre, supporting the awesome scrap-metal-core trio Neptune. Doors open at 7pm, and it'll cost you £5 to get in. More details at the Chapter website.

Simon P's new Fushitsusha-inspired improv power-trio, Sumomo Mo Momo*, will make their first appearence anywhere, in public or private, on Friday 16th December at Chapter, as part of the Jacuzzi Junta event.
*the name is subject to change. Not that it matters.

Totally unrelated to Fourier Transform, but exciting news nonetheless, Hella are coming to the UK, and are playing in Cardiff on 5th December with the band responsible for Simon P's favourite album of 2005 so far, The Psychic Paramount. Keep your eyes on Lesson No.1 for details.

2005-11-02T22:51:00.000Z

Times are hard, and Simon P is forced to start selling his record collection on eBay.
See if there's anything you fancy. New items will be added fairly regularly.

2005-10-27T00:55:00.000Z

Here's a collection of small news items in handy tablet form:

The Live At Audioscope04 10" is selling well and getting some good reviews. If you don't have a copy yet, you might like to consider getting one.

Audioscope05, the fifth annual charity music festival co-run by Simon M, takes place in Oxford this coming weekend, over two days: Saturday 29th October and Sunday 30th October. The line up is awesome and the money raised is donated to Shelter, the UK's homeless charity.

If you're Welsh or live in Wales (or ideally both), and you make music, then you'll do well to look at our call for submissions for a compilation of contemporary Welsh experimental music: Brave New Wales / Dwy Awr yng Nghymru Fydd.

John Cake, recent star of our demo page, appears to have died in a freak amateur auto-dentistry accident. Fortunately, his Gallic cousin, Jean Gateau, has taken John's death as a sign to start making music himself, albeit some of the most throughly deranged and stomach churning music we've ever heard. Midlands label Birmingham Nihilism is set to release some of it - contact iain.fraser57[at]ntlworld[dot]com for more information.

Fourier Transform is and always will be advert free, but after his recent trip to the States, Simon P would like to personally endorse the following products and services:
Gold Million Records, Bryn Mawr PA
Jim's Steaks, 400 South St, Philadelphia PA
Jozart Studios, California PA
Llanerch Diner, Upper Darby PA
Yuengling Beers (particularly the Black & Tan)

2005-09-20T14:06:00.000Z

Good news! The Telescopes/Vibracathedral Orchestra split 10" will be available to buy for the first time on 30th September, at the launch gig:

The Telescopes
Hypnotic drones, free improvisation and pulsing white noise. Creation Records legends The Telescopes are as important and visionary a band as ever.

Füxa & Sonic Boom
Spacemen 3 legend Sonic Boom joins Detroit's post-rock pioneers for a unique collaboration of shimmering space rock.

Zelega
Beautiful instrumental rock, recalling Explosions in the Sky, Dirty Three and Bardo Pond.

Friday 30th September | 8pm | The Wheatsheaf, Oxford [map] | £5 | buy tickets online
Visit the release page to see the EP cover, and to listen to two short mp3 previews.

2005-08-24T04:36:00.000Z

Our cheeks are still flushed from delivering Bologna Pony's Early Summer, but the hopelessly delayed Lum Col Con Pix album, initially scheduled for release sometime around the third century AD, will at last be available to buy on Friday 26th August 2005.

Here are the things you need to know about it:
- It's a lathe cut 12" polycarbonate LP.
- Running time is variable, but will be a guaranteed minimum of 34 minutes and 35 seconds.
- It's been pressed in an edition of 65. 15 of these are none of your business, 50 of them are for sale.
- Each copy is absolutely unique, and a work of art: not only has each record been individually cut by Mr Peter King of New Zealand, but they each come in a subversive, hand-made collaged sleeve.
- The music is awesome.
- There will be a Launch Party on Friday 26th August at the Zodiac in Oxford (the band's home town), during which Lum Col Con Pix will play two sets of live and exciting multiple turntable manipulation, possibly even using the very album being released.
- The album is to be released in a number of phases. The first batch of records will be made available at the gig. Any that are not sold will then be made available to anyone and everyone else the following Monday (29th August).
- Although you are free to reserve general copies, it will NOT be possible to reserve specific copies before Monday - if you see one you desperately want from the initial batch, you will need to either attend the gig yourself, send someone else to act on your behalf, or take your chances that no-one buys it on the night and order it on Monday. If you're out of luck, don't worry, there are some even better sleeves to come in batch two.
- You can buy the records from us, but there will also eventually be a small number available from our good friends at White Noise in Hong Kong.
- The second batch of records will be made available as soon as I've got round to making them. They're not as easy as they look.
[transform004] [sleeve gallery] [launch party]

2005-07-31T23:56:00.000Z

fig. 1b. Early Summer

It was starting to get a bit ridiculous, and we were in no small danger of losing all credibility as a label, but finally, finally, we have an exciting new release available.

Early Summer (transform005 - we haven't quite got the hang of sequential numbering systems yet) is the debut recording by Bologna Pony, a Nottingham based duo who mistreat their poor guitars in order to create howling, buzzing, droning slabs of musical concrete. You might be familiar with some of their other work: David is one fifth of exciting young post rock behemoths Souvaris, whose excellent debut album I Felt Nothing At All (Bearos Records, 2004) was a thrilling and spiritual journey through at least 8 of your favourite musical sub-genres. Gareth, meanwhile, also spends time recording haunting Kranky-esque drone music under the Economy Of Motion banner. The self-released eponymous EOM debut is a bewitching addition to any record collection.

Here, David and Gareth have provided us with two monumental 22-minute-long tracks, both improvised live to tape, and because we're in a good mood, we've commissioned the Fourier Transform Geophysics Research Lab to provide a bonus remix, which rounds off the CD.

Early Summer comes as a CD-R, and is limited to 50 copies worldwide. Once they've gone, the master tapes will be taken down to Tremorfa Foreshore, stamped up and down on, set fire to and then buried inside an abandoned fridge. So don't miss out. As for packaging, the CD-R comes in a white padded presentation box with four lovingly crafted art inserts (with photographs by Simon P), all sealed with a translucent paper obi. There are pictures and short mp3 clips available on the Early Summer page.

2005-07-27T17:01:00.000Z

The Retail Sectors, whose excellent demo we recently featured in our Listening Booth, will be releasing their stunning debut album The Starlight Silent Night in November courtesy of Distraction Records. Make sure you buy a copy!

2005-07-16T16:29:00.000Z

A brief update on the Fourier Transform catalogue is in order; as some of the dates on our Releases page are becoming obvious lies, and we have things to tell you.

transform 001 Aufgehoben Anno Fauve is still available, but selling out in a slow yet ongoing fashion. More...

transform 002 Various Artists Buried Treasure is being put together and planned with military precision. It may still be some time, but it'll be worth it. More...

transform 003 Badge is still available. Come on, you know you need one of these. The perfect addition to your natty ensemble. More...

transform 004 Lum Col Con Pix Lum Col Con Pix is coming very soon. The records are pressed, and they're on their way to FTHQ. The sleeves are being individually, lovingly crafted and are a joy to behold.

transform 005 Bologna Pony Early Summer will soon be born. The music is recorded, and the beautifully boxed packaging will make this release the first in an ongoing series of limited CDR releases.

In other news... the aforementioned ongoing series will hopefully include future releases by John Chantler and Traw, and there will be a live 10" featuring Vibracathedral Orchestra and The Telescopes on the way soon.

Here at Fourier Transform we hope you're enjoying the long, hot summer.

2005-05-30T04:18:00.000Z

Shoji Hano vs. Gary Smith [thanks to Owen for the photo]

Shoji Hano vs. Penarth Pier

Huge thanks to Gary and Hano for putting on two awesome, mind expanding shows last week, and huge thanks to everyone that attended and supported. If more acts had even a fraction of the energy and intensity that these two play with, then, well, the world would be a significantly more exciting place.