Phew

Vertigo KO

Vertigo KO is a collection of both new Phew tracks and material which was recorded around the same time as the Japanese artist’s LPs Light Sleep (2017) and Voice Hardcore (2018). As such, the record runs with the highly original sound of its predecessors, channeling the avant-punk energy that Phew has displayed since her career began in the 1970s through a set of experimental electronic soundscapes, ultra-leftfield songcraft and industrial vocal music.

The artists who spring to mind as points of comparison for Vertigo KO are those figures who advanced the very notion of what popular music was in the 1970s and 1980s. The influence of Laurie Anderson, This Heat, Throbbing Gristle and Lou Reed in his Metal Machine Music mode can all be discerned in these strange and beguiling tracks. Some of the numbers here provide rhythmic thrust, though tracks such as ‘The Void’ still have an unusually lopsided feel to their beats. Others dive full-on into abstraction, offering either grainy drones or scuffed-up manipulations based around Phew’s voice. Indeed, vocals are at once part of and apart from these textures - Phew’s frequently spoken musings often murmur away of their own accord but sometimes also find themselves subsumed into the drift of these tracks.

Bringing together new material and unreleased work from the Light Sleep/Voice Hardcore sessions, Phew’s Vertigo KO is another brilliantly idiosyncratic industrial record from the former Aunt Sally member and all-round Japanese avant-garde legend.

Vertical Jamming

Vertical Jamming, Disciples’ new release from the Japanese punk/avant-garde legend Phew, is an expanded edition of a CD that was only previously available on the artist’s 2016 tour. This is a generous offering indeed - the original run of ‘Cheers’ and ‘Encore’ already clocked in at almost an hour, and that barrier is now firmly broken by the addition of the eleven-minute-long ‘Drone’ (please note that, for the cassette version of Vertical Jamming, ‘Drone’ has been included as a downloadable bonus track rather than on the tape itself).

‘Drone’ is, largely, an apt title for this track. Building from a faraway-sounding oscillation, the piece coalesces into a strangely beatific bit of metal machine music, one that comes off almost like a more distorted, industrial version of new age. Around halfway in the track begins to fluctuate, its air of serenity compromised by strange arpeggiated screeching sounds. It is at once beautiful and troubling.

Though ‘Drone’ is a new addition to this Vertical Jamming release, Phew says that ‘Cheers’ and ‘Encore’ are effectively sequels to ‘Drone’. One can hear this when listening back to them - these tracks expand on ‘Drone’s second half, their concrete-like atmospheres flitting between a series of quixotic and alien vignettes. The overall effect makes one think of a sort of bedroom rendering of Einstürzende Neubauten.

Disciples continue their fabulous run of rare treats with a new set of avant-drone from former Aunt Sally vocalist Phew.

Vertigo KO T-Shirt

Bleep exclusive

Limited edition T-Shirt designed by Studio Tape-Echo and printed using vegan inks at Vino Sangre on organic and ethical Stanley & Stella T-Shirts.