This is wonderful!
BM does not normally review cassette releases (but does own a few cassettes) but this demands to be heard. You can get it here…
These are old tracks which GWR has now put online. There are 20 tracks here, all good! BM believes that GWR is based in Glasgow, but is hard to pin down!
There are beats, samples, and soundtrack music and it sounds very original, like a West of Scotland version of the Ghostbox releases, with a bit of Leyland Kirby’s ‘The Caretaker’ as well. Some tracks are entirely instrumental, like ‘The Full Shilling’, threatening but strident. Ok so it also reminds BM of Blanck Mass, and some Cabaret Voltaire but there is something a bit different here…are Boards of Canada working under a pseudonym here?
Track 4 ‘Povril’ is all hiphop samples and techno wigout but some other tracks are quite reflective – ‘Barium Meal’ is brutal, more like The Boobs of Doom or Throbbing Gristle, all treated shouts and punishing percussion. Track 8 ‘Fuck Dolby’ (best title ever!) is a bunch of mangled sounds and ‘Fingers’ is even better. ‘Good God, Bad God’ is quite amazing, slow and stealthy, reminiscent of Barry Adamson’s work, and that is high praise indeed!
Last track ‘Millington’ (hmm) is a dark series of beeps and throbs, like a requiem (for Mary?), the words “sleep in silence” over and over….
So GWR, enigmatic, full of static, full of ideas, and off-kilter takes on music – BM salutes you!