Gerry and the Holograms interview taken from Feral Debris issue 5.

‘Meet the Dissidents’ by Gerry and the Holograms is a very odd record indeed. Released in 1979 on Manchester’s Absurd Records it’s eponymously titled a-side is a sea sick slab of electro with Gerry slurring like a pissed up, Manc Davros; “Did I say there were 16 of me? / I'm sorry, there's only 1 / The others are just fragments / Of Gerry and The Holograms...” whilst the b-side is an unnerving rhythmic pulse that slips into a doomy post-punk groove with ominous visions of the “foolish young”. Coupled with a great cover it’s pretty much a perfect 7”.

CP Lee was one of the fragments involved in the creation of this record, not to mention a member of Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias and is now a renowned author and filmmaker amongst other things.

Who was involved in Gerry and the Holograms and how did you meet and decide to form the group?
 
There were two of us, John Scott and me. We were in the Albertos together and when we were touring we would fantasize about doing different forms of music than we were playing with the Berts.

What were your intentions behind the band, what were your influences? I know a couple of the reviews of the record mention the Residents as a possible influence- any truth in that?

One intention was to be incognito, not linked to the Albertos - hence the cover ...
We'd heard of the Residents because we were friends of Phil and I had been for years before but Red Crayola and 13th floor Elevators were as much in the mix of influences as were others in a more pop vein, if you can call Zappa pop.

Increased Resistance took its percussive riff from the master musicians of Jajouka. The harmony basses idea was from Andy McCullouch who played with Free who occasionally double-tracked his bass in harmony - this idea had been borrowed by Martin Hannet for John Cooper Clarke's 'Sleepwalk'. We took the same idea and put one bass in one speaker and the other bass in the other speaker. The seagull guitar came from an idea of Syd Barrett's that was from a story told to us by our manager Andrew King. Instead of a slide we rolled marbles up and down the fretboard by tilting the guitar. The studio engineer, a guy called Andy Mac, thought we were mad when we told him what we wanted to do but after about half an hour of experimenting he would say things like, "wow that's fantastic, let's put it through a flanger".

Gerry and the Holograms was musically composed, originally for bass. Guitars weren't going to figure at all, but when we got to the studio there was I think it was a Korg synthesiser, one of the first, and John, being a master musician started plinking around on it. We immediately realized that the electronica noises perfectly matched the theme of the lyrics' modernity and we dropped all other ideas of musical accompaniment.

Do you have any overriding memories of recording the first single? And how did Absurd Records come to release the 7”?
 
John and I started at 10 in the morning and finished at 6 at night with a one-hour gap for the pub. It was completely finished that day the cover had been done before we had even written the song because we just knew that Gerry and the Holograms had to exist. We knew Lawrence who ran Absurd and he was up for putting out anything we did. As we were signed with the Albertos to Logo Records we probably weren't supposed to record for other labels and so the Gerry persona incognito seemed perfect...

There’s a real Philip K Dick feel to the lyrics… 'Did I say there were 16 of me? / I'm sorry, there's only 1 / The others are just fragments / Of Gerry and The Holograms...' was that the kind of effect you were going for/interested in?
 
Moorcock, Dick, Sheldon, loved them all but no influences there - when we were doing Sleak the stage show, the Pink Floyd's special effects man lent us a laser and a hologram. He explained that if you smashed a hologram, all the fragments would contain the same image. A few months later I was in Edinburgh discussing a project with a tv company and when wandering around I found myself in a hologram shop ... I bought a bunch of pendant-sized holograms - pyramids, eyes, etc. That night I was telling Paul Davis of the Crystal Theatre that if you smashed one the image would be in all the fragments and we decided to try it - it was true! So came the idea of Gerry- you could never get rid of him - no matter how many pieces you smashed him into, he'd always be there!

All these years on it’s a strange and unique record so what was the reaction locally at the time? Were you aware of Zappa championing your record on the radio?
 
John Peel championed it - presume Absurd Records sent it to him. It was also used on a BBC2 documentary at the time but there were only 5 thousand pressed and they went very quickly and it was always Absurd’s idea to delete upon sellout and never repress - everything was a limited edition (in order to enhance their mystique).

I was sat at home in Manchester listening to Frank Zappa's personal top twenty on Radio 1 when up came Gerry and the Holograms. It would be about 4 on a Sunday afternoon and we couldn't believe it - it was like being blessed by the pope. Up until last year 2009 I had no idea that Zappa had championed it beyond that ...wow!

Did you ever play live?
 
No

Does any unreleased Gerry and The Holograms material exist?
 
No but we went to America and.... One was Gerry meets Charlie the Cheeseplant - apparently the book Super Nature said you could rig up a device to a plant to hear its emotions. We thought we'd record a cheese plant with Gerry backing it. We even took a photograph of a cheese plant with sunglasses in the back of a car being driven to a gig.

Another undone project was "a day in the life of a house". We were going to put microphones in every room and record for 24 hours then we were going to mix it all together and speed it up to 3 and a half minutes long. Gerry was going to introduce it.

The reason these never got made was simply the Berts went to America, all other plans were shelved, and when we came back we were busy doing the tv series Gibberish and that was that ...

Can you tell us a bit about your second single? Was it really a blank 7” glued to a random sleeve? Dare I ask what the concept was behind this and how did it go down?
 
Yeah. When John Lydon and PIL made whatever that came in a metal box we decided that exclusivity was going a step too far! We decided to release the Emperor's New Music which would be so exclusive that it would be unplayable - the idea being that someone would say, "this is fantastic, even though it was obvious they could not even ever hear it" - we did 500 and they went overnight. By an oversight to this very day I have never had a copy if it, not that it would be of much use! PS they weren't blanks they were returned 45s.

Can you tell us what your previous bands Jacko Ogg and The Head People (1967) and Greasy Bear (1968) were like? I expect they were quite different from the Holograms? 
 
Jacko Ogg was fairly straightforward until the last 20 minutes of the set when it exploded into a freeform psychedelic massacre ... Greasy Bear on the other hand was 4-part harmonies and twanging 12-strings, one in a sense was imagining what drugs were like and the other one was drugs. The Holograms were fully fledged experimenteurs who never lost their sense of humour.

Hacker Farm- Dreamware Reboot C60 out now.

Homebrewed electronics from the Yeovil cell. 8 tracks of corroded signals that build and extend upon their Exotic Pylon LP UHF.

Beautiful gold on purple artwork from Sian Macfarlane expertly letter press printed, as usual, by The Print Project

80 copies with insert. £6ppd UK £8ppd R.O.W.

SOLD OUT. THANKS.

Cheapmachines/Dieter Müh split C50 tape out now.

The long delayed Cheapmachines and Dieter Müh split tape is now upon us. The Cheapmachines side is a writhing wall of precise noise, intricate and pummeling in equal measures. With recent releases on discerning labels such as En'tracte and The Tapeworm Phil Julian has created a pretty impressive body of work of late and this slab only adds to it.

The Dieter Müh side is a (good quality) live recording of his set from the now infamous Rammel Weekender in 2012. Try and imagine Luc Ferrari's 'Presque Rien' relocated to the puke drenched streets of a Nottingham Saturday night with all the jollity, paranoia and threats of imminent violence that that entails.

Cover photograph by Steve Cammack. Pro-duped blue cassettes with insert. Limited to 80 copies.

Postage

UK ppd £5.00 GBP R.O.W ppd £7.00 GBP

Clive Fencott- restringing a rotary clothesline C40 out now.

Our first release for 2014 is 'Restringing a rotary clothesline' by Clive (aka PC) Fencott. Four slabs of sound poetry wrapped up in a tasty Print Project sleeve.

I first heard Clive at the Colour out of Space festival in 2011. It was one of those performances which i sat down to with no prior expectations and left, along with the rest of the audience, with a stupid grin on my face.You can watch a clip at Clive's website.

I eagerly purchased a copy of Clive's 1980 split LP with Paul Dutton "Blues, Roots, Legends, Shouts and Hollers". It made the Wire magazine's primer on sound poetry back in 2012 and this is what Julian Cowley had to say;

"On the flipside is a rare opportunity to hear Gloucestershire-born Clive Fencott, who in the early 1980's formed Oral Complex, a brilliant alliance with Bob Cobbing; their voices processed live by sound engineer John Whiting. When the solo performances on this LP were recorded, Fencott had only been reading in public for a couple of years and again a sense of excitement and urgency comes through, especially on "The Legends of Jack O'Kent", recorded live (and not well)in London in 1978.Fencott may lack the projection of Cobbing (or Dutton), but as he intones his fractured, referential text, lapsing into machine-like stuttering, then straining to sing Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil", enacting a struggle to elude diabolic possession, the cumalative effect is riveting."

'Restringing a rotary clothes line'takes a variety of approaches to words and the human voice and is an equally thrilling ride.

Limited to 40 copies. Letter press printed two panel cover by The Print Project. Green tapes with insert. No digital edition.

SOLD OUT. Check www.volcanictongue.com for remaining copies.

Jose Ramon Larraz

Spanish director Jose Ramon Larrez passed away recently leaving a stash of uniquely warped horror films still yet to be properly rediscovered and whilst I admit they probably wouldn’t feel half as grubby if you could pick them up as digitally re-mastered directors cuts with hours of extraneous blether it’s a real shame that they are currently denied a wider audience whilst less worthy gobbets of ‘70s trash are endlessly repackaged and sold anew to the sweaty horror hordes and exploitation freaks.

Beginning his career in Spain as a comic writer for magazines such as Pilote and Spirou he moved into films, and to England in the late sixties, and made a handful of films here, starting with Whirlpool in 1970, before moving back to Spain in 1976. The handful of his films I have seen all begin with a trip into an English countryside and end in insanity and perversion. The landscape here is anything but bucolic and verdant, instead it’s dank, autumnal and decaying; the ravening hillbilly horde of American exploitation films replaced by the corrupt English upper classes rotting in their dilapidated stately homes, feeding their sick desires and losing their grip on reality. 1971’s sleazefest ‘Deviation’ is a real period piece of sinister hippies, mind altering drugs and gratuitous kaleidoscopic orgies. A middle-aged dirt bag and his gorgeous, under-appreciated mistress (to be honest the idea that this extremely attractive young lady would ever give the time of day to this pallid extra from The Sweeney is the only real point in ‘Deviation’ where I had to really overcome a sense of incredulity) are driving through the woods in the rain when hit someone and careen into a tree. Fortunately a hip young brother and sister are at hand to rescue the couple and offer them shelter in their nearby mansion. Unfortunately for the bruised duo the brother has an unhealthy penchant for taxidermy and his sister is an excitable sex killer. It never rains but it pours, eh? Soon the unfaithful husband is dead in the basement and his young mistress is getting doped up to the eyeballs and indulging in sinister sex orgies with a group of seedy longhairs.

It’s as much fun as it sounds, with wigged out psych rock accompanying the orgies and the film manages to maintain a real level of homely sleaze with dirty, supposedly respectable, old men pawing nubile female flesh and slobbering uncontrollably. The initial drabness of the opening scenes in urban London are only emphasised by the cheap film stock. The dirty pub, the cheaply made car, the shitty clothes of our heroes reek of stale cigarette smoke and local pubs and it’s hardly surprising they make a break for the countryside and Olivia begins to enjoy the wild bohemia of her hosts (although to be fair she doesn’t know her fella is dead and being skinned downstairs). They’re better dressed, better looking and have some killer drugs- what’s not to like? The fancy dress shop Manson Family hippies look a little daft but are played by some genuinely sweaty and ugly characters and are suitably unpleasant. Although no means a masterpiece Deviation is a surprisingly effective and enjoyable slice of salacious delirium.

In comparison, 1974’s ‘Symptoms’ is a far more upmarket and restrained affair and was nominated for Cannes that year. The convalescent Helen (who is recovering from something unmentionable) takes a trip back to her dilapidated stately home in the English countryside accompanied by concerned girlfriend Ann. The friends make themselves at home in the house but there are constant reminders of Helen’s past, a raven haired beauty who is seemingly no longer with us and who in the opening sequences is seen cavorting with the silent and repulsive handy man played by Peter Vaughan. As the voices in the attic increase in volume, Helen becomes increasingly agitated about what’s in the nearby lake. After the cheap thrills of Deviation I was expecting the simmering undertones between Helen and Ann to erupt into something far more explicit but Symptoms is an altogether more restrained and tense film that reminded me of a rural Repulsion at points. Larraz imbues the willows and lakes that surround the house with a hazy, late summer quality that clashes with and exacerbates the growing sense of unease and disgust. Ok, you’ve probably seen a dozen films with similar plots but there’s a claustrophobic sense of intimacy between the three main characters that entraps you and Angela Pleasance (yup, Donald’s daughter) gives Helen an awkward unearthliness that endears as much as it spooks. Unsurprisingly things don’t end well and the film spirals into murderous delusion and bloodshed.

Through both films there’s a standoff between the aged squares and the young, demented main characters. The perverted old chemist covering up the drug abuse in an attempt to sleep with the disturbed but stunning sister in Deviation, the nosy but uncomprehending locals in Symptoms, the old simply cannot understand the problems and perversions of the youth of today...

1974’s ‘Vampyres’ is perhaps Larraz’s most well known flick and certainly the only one readily available in the UK. In the film’s prelude two beautiful women (Marianne Morris and Playboy centrefold Anulka) are shot and murdered by a mysterious stranger whilst in the throes of a passionate embrace. This act of random violence seemingly transforms them into the eponymous vampires and we next meet them roaming the countryside in rather conspicuous black cloaks flagging down passing male motorists. Once these unpleasant specimens of ‘70s chauvinistic manhood are lured back to the crumbling castle in the hope of a fumble they are quickly plied with wine and drained of blood. Into this bedlam stumble a dull young couple on a caravanning holiday, parking up in the castle grounds. It’s almost as if the main characters from a particularly dull 70’s sitcom had escaped their studio bound set and unknowingly careened into a bloodbath. The young wife becomes intrigued by the comings and goings of the black clad vampires and their constant stream of male visitors whilst her husband is only really interested in fishing. Our heroine’s growing fascination in the nocturnal goings on of her neighbours reflects the boredom of her dull, suburban lifestyle and links her with the heroine of Deviation, both sick of the monotony of the straight lifestyle and both yearning to break out into the other side; sick, wild and exciting!

I won’t spoil anything for you, potential viewer, but let’s just say that the ensuing Scooby Doo styled investigations lead to mass bloodshed and an oddly gruelling and cruel end to the film in which our heroine finds that excitement she’s been looking for and most assuredly regrets it. Vampyres is a strange film by all accounts; whilst certainly camp in places it still maintains a dislocated, eerie feel that is unsettling. The subtlety of Symptoms has gone (“They shared the pleasures of the flesh and the horrors of the grave!” bawls the one-sheet) and is replaced with no holds barred sleaze. Whilst somewhat reminiscent of Jean Rollins or Franco in places, it’s closer to Norman J Warren (Satan’s Slave) brand of suburban trash. Hypnotic and ethereal this isn’t. Larraz created a strange vision of 1970s Britain where characters attempt to escape their humdrum grotty soap opera confines into a countryside that’s dripping filth and violence. It’s an oddly compelling vision and one that I think still entices. Compared with many directors lurking under the surface he was absurdly talented and with the advent of the 2011 documentary, Of Vampyres and other Symptoms, I can only hope that his films are soon to claw their way from the crypt and get the attention they deserve.

New tapes available now!

Stuart Chalmers/Nick Edwards- split C60

A black hole of a split from Stuart Chalmers (aka Skarabee) and Nick Edwards (aka Ekoplekz, Ensemble Skalectrick). One almost thirty minute track, Reflectograph Suite, from Nick which is so phenomenally heavy it may start to drag objects into your speakers.Serious negative space dub. Here's his own words on the piece;

"Originally recorded in January 2011, 'Reflectograph suite' first appeared in a collaborative installation with video artist Jade Boyd, exhibited at Unsound Festival, Krakow and The Wassaic Project, New York (both 2011). This expanded version includes additional material recorded during that year, specially compiled and edited for release in January 2013."

Stuart Chalmers presents Subterranea Parts1-4 which was "improvised/recorded using 3 cassette tape players and pedals." I'm struggling to describe the eerie vibe that Subterranea conjures, it has the feel of a soundtrack that is miles away from the heavy handed synth hackjobs that are currently prevalent. Curdled strings and spooling tapes make for an unnerving and captivating listen. Wouldn't advise listening to this at dusk in an abandoned carpark.

Silver on black covers designed by Dan Ward and printed by the Print Project. Includes insert and is limited to 80 copies. There will be no digital release of this album.

SOLD OUT. Thanks.

Skeksi- liveness 2008-2012 C30

Icasea label boss Tom Knapp has compiled four years of sweaty live abstract electronics from around the world and condensed and manipulated them to create a piece in which the clink of beer bottles and screams of fist pumping punters blend and meld with jagged beats that reminds, in hedonistic atmosphere at least, of Lee Gamble's recent Diversions LP for PAN. It's impossible to listen to this warped purple beauty and not be transported to a dimly remembered sweat box, pushed up against strangers with the bass buffeting your lugholes and ribcage.

40 copies. Fluroescent purple tapes with insert. Cover art by Dan Ward and printed by the Print Project. Owing to the random nature of the universe we have 30 purple covers and 10 manilla. Both look great but let us know if you want a specific colour when ordering. No digital version of this album will be available.

SOLD OUT. Thanks. Handful of copies will be available at Norman Records and Rewind Forward in Bristol.

SEXXXY CHXFX PHOTOS

Thanks to Thorsten for the pictures. Check out the MM label here.