Original post by Joshua at Raised By Gypsies
If this is news to you in any way (and it really shouldn’t be) I am a big fan of both Screen Vinyl Image and bloody knives. Both have interviews up on this site as well as other reviews than this, but this does mark the first time that they will be reviewed on cassette. You know, there are three different types of split cassettes. There are those with two artists you’ve never heard before, those with one artist you have heard and that helps bring you to the other which you haven’t heard yet and then there is this. It’s that pairing that just makes you go, “Wow, really?”
I first found out about this cassette because of a post I saw floating around on Facebook. It caught me kind of off guard because I guess I expected one of these artists to be partnered with some young upstart instead. It’s like the pairing of a great tour except I don’t have to leave the comfort of my own home. Really, I would have sought this out to hear had it been released on record, compact disc, digitally, 8track, smoke stack, whatever… I am no stranger to buying a record of bloody knives because it was the only way to hear those particular songs and I’d do the same for Screen Vinyl Image.
Now all of that being said I feel the need to point out something else that might seem obvious to someone who is familiar with these artists, but I’m writing this under the impression that those reading it may have never heard of them before somehow by, you know, ignoring the rest of this site and a good chunk of the internet on a whole. Anyway, this is an interesting pairing to me because Screen Vinyl Image sounds such a certain way while bloody knives sounds such a different way, even though they often end up running in the same circles.
The sounds of Screen Vinyl Image destructive beats that could provide enough dreaminess to create a classic soundtrack to a movie from the 1990’s such as “Breakfast Club” only not because this just operates on its own level. At the same time, bloody knives has a certain amount of destruction in the sound but it’s more of a kicking down a keyboard stand during a live performance feel.
While I still feel like bloody knives could be somewhere between Nine Inch Nails or Stabbing Westward and Screen Vinyl Image channels New Order on here at times I suppose the point of mutual sound could come from that time Trent Reznor covered a New Order song, but you know, that’s kind of stretching it a bit thin don’t you think? Just put this one on, turn it up and prepare to dance and most likely also break stuff. It’s just so much fun from two of my favorite artists I just simply cannot say enough good things about.
Jake talked to Bandwidth this week about writing the new track I’m Not for the upcoming split with Bloody Knives.
View the interview here and check out the track below.
August 18, 2014
A limited edition cassette-only release.
- Bloody Knives tracks:
- Fader
- Servitude
- Breathing Walls
- Too Far Gone
- Empty Room
- Never Was
- Screen Vinyl Image tracks:
- Void
- Edge of forever
- The Great Beyond
- I’m Not
- Closing In
- Drifting
Check out a remix we did for We Miss The Earth’s single Eyes to the Creature.
Our friend Renato, who runs The Blog That Celebrates Itself did a tribute to the Cocteau Twins for his radio show, and asked us to be a part of it. We’ve been wanting to do a cover of the CT’s for a long time, specifically In Our Angelhood off of Head Over Heels so this was the perfect opportunity to finally take a stab at the cover. Listen to it below along with some other great bands doing their favorites too!
Autumn Songs – Mix
We put together a mix for autumn and winter, perfect for traveling or late headphone nights. Download or listen at Soundcloud.
Track list:
Sam – Readymade
Love Is Lighter Than Air – Magnetic Fields
Seeing Voices – James Booth
Our Discovery (Orgue Electronique Remix) – Henry Saiz
Skyscraper Kills My Ghost In Your Memory – My Dead Girlfriend
She Leaves You No Less – My Bloody Valentine
Minor Times – Frankie Rose
I Know – Sally Shapiro
The Only Path – Neville Watson
Annie (Oh Muse You) – Austra
The Future – Innershades
Azurian Sunset – Legowelt
Jetee – Fort Romeau
E10 @ 182 – South Pacific
DJ Event in DC – Thursday, Dec 12
Jake will be DJ’ing in December at Tropicalia (DC) for a Show List DC and Hometown Sounds show, all of the details are below.
ShowlistDC and Hometown Sounds present
Heavy Breathing
the Jet Age
Tereu Tereu
plus DJ sets from Screen Vinyl Image and Paul Vodra of Hometown Sounds
Tropcalia: 2001 14th St NW, Washington, DC
$10 – Tickets available here
Doors @ 7 PM; 21+
Facebook event here
Sansyou – The Dilettane EP
Jake worked with our friends Sansyou to mix and master their EP, The Dilettante, available at Moon Sounds Records. Listen to a track over at the Ice Station site.
Beyond Inversion
Also mastered at the Ice Station is the upcoming Beyond Inversion compilation coming out on Accidental Guest Recordings. BEYOND INVERSION, a compilation of contemporary noises sprawling across punk and post-punk landscapes curated by Sean Gray and Jes Skolnik.
All proceeds will benefit Rachael’s Women’s Center in DC, a nonprofit agency which provides resources and opportunities for homeless and formerly homeless women.
Click on the Accidental Guest link above to listen to tunes, learn more, and order the compilation.
Compilation features:
Bad Idea
Good Throb
Longings
Perfect Pussy
Jail Solidarity
Roomrunner
Hunger
In School
Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz)
Clean Girls
Bad News
Split Feet
Failed Mutation
Fake Limbs
Technicolor Teeth
Stillsuit
Hive Bent
Household
Bret Lanahan (Roomrunner)
A Guide To Rational Living
Potty Mouth
Download it here
setlist:
Roaming Spirit Freedom / Screen Vinyl Image
Finale / Die Klopferbande
Cargo / Mika Vainio
Nexus / Young Echo
Presumption / Die Form
Destination Lost / Beta Evers
Bondage / Airam
Please / Rats
Walk Like a Man / Near Paris
Being Home Tonight / Muziekkamer
Reassurance Ritual / Das Ding
Cetus Circinus / Hot Victory
***********
guest mix by screen vinyl image:
Pitted / Pharmakon
Nothing Can Save You Now / Bloody Knives
Isolation / Baz Reznik
Devils Dancers / Oppenheimer Analysis
Ultravaca / Ashrae Fax
July / Weekend
Someday / Ceremony
Horror House / Psychic TV
Rain of Ruin / Suicide
Gods Representative on Earth / Vatican Shadow
Fear of Gods / Simple Minds
Turned Back / Alberich
Smog / Rude 66
51:21 Review by Joshua Macala
One of the secrets of music is that a lot of bands within the same genres end up having similar sounds but they have to do things slightly different than other bands to establish themselves as individuals. To go completely in the other direction here, let’s look at punk rock bands for example. Punk bands are all the same at their roots- they play fast, simple music with lyrics that are typically rebellious. So how has punk rock managed to stay around so long and how have bands from Ramones and Sex Pistols to NOFX and Pennywise managed to stay relevant?
Shoegaze is no different and to some Screen Vinyl Image could be lost in the shuffle with a number of other bands. To the trained ear though, you have to listen for the little things that can come out in the music to make you realize you are indeed listening to SVI and not another shoegaze band.
While a song like “Stay Asleep” has a very Breakfast Club feel to it, “The Midnight Sun” takes us to that certain era of U2. Prior to “Roaming Spirit Freedom” we feel as if we are about enter some great western. It’s just these little intricacies that can really make any band familiar enough to welcome them into your musical fold almost immediately, yet not so similar that they are just taking up space reserved for a band already in your playlist.
And if that isn’t enough to make you listen to this album through your earbuds, the last song is also just over a half hour long and, well, that’s pretty damn trippy.
On a side note: “51:21” was released as a cassette and it is forever sold out. If anyone has a copy of this cassette they are willing to give it a better home to (i.e. us here at Raised by Gypsies) shoot us an email. No foolin’.
Two excellent reviews came in for 51:21. The cassette is now out of print, but you can still download it from Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, or stream it on Spotify
This is not new, Screen Vinyl Image, or one of my favorite pairs is not the type to meet smoke curtains when it comes to delivering the dope. Instead, why not stamp armored van with nitroglycerin and all the paraphernalia that goes with war: to what kraut psyche Crackwhore panic, which pulverizes Soft Moon 2 drum machines very heavy (they always I know, it’s funny in force), the villain of shoegaze raven-blo cated between post-punk and coldwave, as in Place To Bury Strangers, inevitably, except that the overdose of LSD is very close and a bit more epileptic. Screen Vinyl Image, as I’ve said often enough, it is the seizure, then the crisis of paranoia, then the crisis of dementia that ends in a shootout in the mall, there’s imagine that instead of ads wholesale “kill’em all” and that makes subliminal immediately; it stress, urge it, it chokes, it transpires, and then there’s this extraordinary effect GTA: it flees NON-STOP, a little as if you had 5 stars and the whole army was in your ass, you know? And I’m not talking about raids acid good hardcore mouth inserted into the toilet bowl when not embedded in the wall, with the sole companion of his fortune this bastard bounce and accompanies each of your contractions.
Finally almost the same orgy that Interceptors in just more “coherent” . A treat, yes. And I confess I do not dare list of groups that will dress forthwith. Allow at least Black Marble, The VLA, and APTBS Violens, and plenty of others, which is already quite heavy, I think.
Deceptive.
Something about Screen Vinyl Image is unambiguously vintage.
It could be the name – its resemblance to the authentically ancient Ultra Vivid Scene.
But more likely its the sound. Born out of the far ‘nu’-er Alcian Blue, SVI are unashamedly not so. Ignore any/all reviews/bios calling SVI ‘futuristic’ or ‘contemporary’ or any synonym thereof. Look – they’ve got Bernard Sumner to do vox on ‘Stay Asleep’ – the second track of their latest release*, 51:21, presumably named for the duration of the album (which, fyi, is 51:59)
51:21 opens with the immensely likeable ‘Too Much Speed’ – released as a single a couple of years ago if you were paying attention. A pleasantly noisy pop-tart with a tambourine and a hook, dancing with each other against a backdrop of fuzzy-coarse guitar noise that remains politely out of the way.
Not quite so approachable is the aforementioned ‘Stay Asleep’ which features Gary Chadwick**. There is not a shred of doubt that this track was recorded around the time I was born (probably earlier).
BUT WAIT WHAT’S THIS.
Cross the four minute mark and it’s the scene from Alien – an entirely new creature bursting out of a familiar character. Relentless (analogue) synths push their way out of the placid electropop and drill their way mercilessly into your subconscious. You’ll hear the echoes in your dreams, your veins will throb to the percussion and your ears will tingle with what may be white noise or may be tinnitus.
Barring the closer, we’ve met the rest of these songs before, on The Midnight Sun EP, but they’re worth revisiting. These are the tracks you can see played live while you listen – lights swaying and melting into each other, voices soaked up by carpet and bouncing off concrete, heads bobbing or swaying, eyelids closing, bodies staying rigid.
I’m especially fond of ‘Passing Through Mirrors’ – atypical, no doubt, it lacks the blackness of its comrades, its guitar is very nearly acoustic, it’s got ‘shimmer’ and ‘sparkle’ (are those chimes?), it whistles and it coos, and before it can hypnotise us completely, it curls up into itself and slinks away, leaving us with the unforgiving intro of ’16mm Shrine’ to jolt us back into the dark.
Thinkpiece? Jam session? Composition? Who knows what ’51:21′ was meant to be but its 32 minutes are what take up the 51:21 (51:59?) it’s named after. Live and unedited, it’s whirlpool synths, marching beats, metallic echos, a racing pulse, and even some 8 bit ideas. Our alien friend from ‘Stay Asleep’ also makes an appearance around the 25 minute mark, this time with a classic reverby ‘gaze guitar serving as its foil.
If I had been more timely, I’d have been able to lead you to their bandcamp page so you could pick up 51:21 in Ye Olde Cassette Formatte. Now, however, you’re left with no choice but to direct venomous curses at me as you grudgingly download the digital album.
We got a review in for our cassette 51:21. It’s available on our Bandcamp page, but quantity is very low, these are going super fast! You can, however, order it digitally from Bandcamp or iTunes, Amazon, etc.
Let’s get right to it, in order to satisfy me with your guitars (i.e. make me stare like a moron), the best thing is to basically do the most wrong and extreme things with them, as loud as possible. This is what I enjoy doing and what I enjoy listening to. My father would be so proud. 51:21
is a compilation put together by Screen Vinyl Image, a group of people
from Washington, DC who seem to take pride in this strange practice for
strange people. “Another bunch of dropouts with too many fuzz pedals”,
you might say, but SVI seem to be part of that group who give that scene
a good name.
From the get-go, 51:21
intoxicates me. “Too Much Speed” is a manic blend of steady, smooth
vocals, sampled beats, keyboard harmonies and noise guitars working as
an undercurrent. It’s almost like a hazy explosion, but firmly held
together. “Stay Asleep” is a mellower, New Order-ish take on the same
formula, but turns into a pulsating, organic wall of noise and samples
that lasts longer than the actual song, very meditative.
The remainder of the album is the inclusion of their debut EP, The Midnight Sun,
which is a fresh blend of Manchester scene-influenced electronica and
shoegaze. Overall it’s a throbbing, noisy package of programming and
screaming instruments, with space for more mellow numbers like “Roaming
Spirit Freedom”. However, “The Midnight Sun” would have to be the
highlight here. It’s a sexy, druggy blend of sampling, a strange bass
line, and guitars that actually seem to only feedback. Two minutes into
the track I kind of forgot what I was doing in the first place, and
started playing visions of streetlights and open fires in my head. Take
that completely as you will. The EP ends with a short punk length number
called “Black Leather Jacket”, in which the guitars have completely
resorted to sounding more like a machine than an instrument, leaving a
taste of blood in my mouth and ears.
The
title track that ends the album is a live recording in which the band
resort into full-blown jam mode. It sounds a lot more like Throbbing
Gristle than Grateful Dead, however. It starts out nice enough with a
bit of industrial sounding percussion loops and organs, but then the
first attack of feedback erupts. From that moment forward, we are
in deep, murky territory. Sometimes there’s an actual song being played,
and it’s always beautiful and on par with the rest of the album, but in
between them there’s a lot of blissful noise; see Skullflower or
Birchville Cat Motel. There’s obviously no way that I wouldn’t like
that.
Look,
I already stated that there’s nothing new whatsoever with the whole
“pop music through massive noise” thing that’s been going on for over 20
years now, but it works, dammit. At its best, it completely numbs all
of my senses, and 51:21 did a pretty good job of this.