Quim Campell biography, Quim Campell discography
Neil Campbell (born 19 May 1966 in Scotland) is a British musician, notable for his vast catalogue and his many collaborations.In 1984, he first made contact with Richard Youngs when his Kettering based group ESP Kinetic applied to appear on a cassette compilation on Youngs' Jabberwok label.In 2007 Campbell was again involved in the revived A Band's recording and live activities.Prick Decay on several occasions.He has released several CDRs, with a "best of" CD compilation culled from the first 7 volumes released on VHF Records last year.LP for Qbico entitled Star Guzzlers.He also performs live under this name, securing the services of his friends Richard Youngs and Tirath Singh Nirmala for a performance in Glasgow in April 2006, and those of Arttu Partinen for a performance in Manchester.Music Mundane
In 2007, Campbell launched Music Mundane, a new label, with the first two releases being an expanded CD reissue of his "Sol Powr" album and a revised CDR edition of his friend Stewart Walden's limited edition cassette "Cucumber Sandwich", the first 25 copies of which come with a 3" CDR containing remixes of the album by Astral Social Club.As Neil was a core member of the A Band, their discography should be referred to also.Campbell features on the majority of their releases and a discography appears on their page.Campbell placed a boxed set of ESP Kinetic cassettes on the shelves of Kettering Library when he worked there.NOR" and "Songs for Drowning Men".Merzbow) (Sterlized Decay 1997)
Eternity's Beautiful Frontispiece CD (VHF 2000)
Campbell appears on the following reordings by Sunroof!TC (Union Pole 1995)
"Vachement Click with Turntable Editions" on Studies For Postal Orgies TC (Chocolate Monk)
Rate of CHB is in TC (Union Pole) Big Band Xerox TC (Chocolate Monk)
"He'll Look Like Moses" on Studies For Postal Orgies Vol.Schimpfluch Personnel CD (Germany) CD credited to Rudolf Eb.Tape Hiss (Tape Hiss (Neil, Richard Youngs and Stewart Walden.No Fans 1994)
Big band Xerox (PD (Dylan Nyoukis, Neil, Richard Youngs, Sticky Foster, Tim Moulder.Cassette (Chocolate Monk 1996)
"Nice Duo Stewart" (Campbell* Vs Greenwood*)on lathe cut 7" Mary Dickson Says: Just Fucking Calm Down, Right?John Olson of Wolf Eyes as MC on side one).Chatting with Neil Campbell is one of those pleasures that an overseasl fellow like myself can only afford rarely: it's not that there's any point in time at which I would ever not want to speak with Mr.Group sound, yeah: let's get the word from the man his'self.What's the better tack for you, the history thing first, are you bored with the history thing...PSF: I'd like to hear that stuff from the Mick, Bridget and Adam era.So I guess it's as mysterious as ever.We thought when we did the first few that we'd be making thirty of them.We could have pressed up 500 and got shot of most of them if we'd have known.PSF: It's weird but good how VCO seem to have taken off so much.Oh, the bubble will burst!PSF: Don't say that, you're just tempting fate.But I'm intrigued to know why you think it might be.I've read things in magazines saying 'oh, they have so many releases out' when we hadn't actually released anything for a year or so.PSF: Maybe it's because there was that influx of CDR's.All our stuff is usually just live jams edited together.Throbbing Gristle, so I can take it a bit rough (laughs).PSF: There is something nice, though, about VCO pieces being carved out of a longer jam, I suppose.The pieces have this natural flow.PSF: So that's the general approach?I'm not so fussy about what key we play in, as long as we're vaguely in tune, but other members of the band are a bit more discerning about what sounds best on guitars, which are still the base of our sound in the main.And quite a lot of our instruments we can't tune, like the bells and so forth, we have to bang them.We've had people asking us about tunings before, because they obviously felt it was important, but we don't really know what tunings we play in, we just know the open notes.It's not at all scientific.As being in tune, really.Not much major or minor.PSF: But that it does really impact on the outcome, because you do get that really nice ring of open notes and overtones happening without knowing it, which is always nice.Oh sure, yeah, things play themselves, which is great.And being able to play things with one hand, if you're feeling lazy!PSF: Getting those ghost tones is always a really nice thing.Pelt should really ditch the amps and pick up on their folk side.Because they play really well, those guys.And it's good when there's a hybrid of the two things going on.The rolling picking bouncing off the feedback hum.Better than when they do one thing or the other.It just seems more interesting to me.You guys seem to be taking from rock structures, but not be so 'oh, we have to be freeform and destroy what rock was' or whatever.Also, we really like disco music and funk music and stuff.We like to dance and groove.And grooving's a really nice thing.It's not like we play funk or anything.Adam's a big James Brown fan.PSF: So is going for a groove is an important thing for you?There's all these pulses, and if we use effects we really like tremolo and flange and those sort of things, which are regular anyway.They create their own pulses.PSF: That runs through a lot of your solo stuff as well.Again, just things playing themselves.It takes the pressure off you a little.I'll be triggering a synthesizer with my foot, all the while bellowing.Just tapping on a bit percussion.Just to make it sound denser, I think.It kind of destroys any possiblility of virtuosity too.As I said, we've tried that, but we just can't get results that are as good as plain old turn the tape machine on and let rip.I'm very fond of in my solo recordings.It's a bit of a tough listen!Durian I think is pretty tough to eat.You must have it in Australia?PSF: If you're ever in Australia...PSF: You'll have to pick up a job lot of durian, take them home and ...And they really smell bad.No, it tastes like shit.Nature is telling you not to eat that thing.It's big, it's spiny, it's really difficult to get into, it stinks, it looks bad, it tastes bad.PSF: Maybe it's improvised but not 'improv.Which has become such a...PSF: Yeah, from the moment it started it limited itself to that dialect.And I guess that's not really our background or our language, so we 're not going to play that sort of thing.PSF: Which is something that, as much as I like him, Derek Bailey for example doesn't really do.He doesn't do it at all!That really does it, I think.And I like the more jazzy end of it.Phil (Todd) played with Hession recently.It wasn't terrific, but it was okay.PSF: So what are your feelings on AMM?PSF: The weird thing about AMM is that they come from...I've got a tape of their first record somewhere, I should dig it out and have a listen to it.Whereas Sound Pool by MEV really did something for me when I first heard it.PSF: What was it about those things that really grabbed you?And it grooved in a way.The other ones are kind of okay, but I don't know.I'd never heard it before.It's kinda cheesy too, there's a cheesy side to it too, which I really like."The Creator Has A Master Plan" is pretty cheesy...And it's happy and open.AMM, it doesn't sound very happy.I'm making a judgement here, but...Yeah, but there's some good chops going on in our band, though.Bridget's pretty hot, she plays flute and piano really beautifully, but she never touches a keyboard in this band.And it's really difficult to get her to play the flute.Adam and Julain are no slouches either.If asked, I'd say we're much closer to Pharaoh Sanders.Ali asked me last week, 'what if someone asked you what music you like', and I said, I like happy music.PSF: Don't worry, we all had that painful upbringing, (laughter) Although for me it was, like, The Cure, which is so much more embarrassing.Not always, and particularly maybe not on some of the earlier things.It seems more pop to me (laughs)...I'll say something's pop and people will look at me like I'm insane.PSF: Well, it's got good tunes...That seems like pop music to me.And it's short and punchy.Which is fine, I don't mind.We're kinda formulaic in a way.When we play live we often have this really tedious structure.We tended to play just one piece, although of late we might play two or three that meld somehow.And we just start with silence and we build it up from there and it gets louder and louder, (laughs) it gets a bit denser, perhaps it might groove, then it comes to a head, then it comes down and we have ten minutes going down.They started with some songs that were okay, then they peaked with "Tush" and then...But of late we're just naturally messing that up.PSF: And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, ey?What seems really basic and a given to myself may seem really groundbreaking or perverse or unpleasant to someone else.PSF: With that in mind, I wonder how your Low and Stephen Malkmus supports went?We've never had anything thrown at us.People have been pretty well behaved.Dre support, see what happens.Dre were the two main things for you.And that was the truth, that wasn't me being perverse.In fact one of them, Alltag, is the best thing he's ever done.PSF: I just got the new Pop Ambient thing which has got a nice All track on it.Regensburg remix, that's really good.And that's really pop and happy, he just puts a bit stomping beat over it, (laughs) it's very good.PSF: I love it when he does that.It's kind of a recent thing, you know, I thought modern electronic music was really conservative, it just seemed like bad industrial music, (laughs) but there's a few people who are really hitting it, and I think he's one of them.And his stuff's really happy!PSF: Yeah, that last Gas record Pop was really...PSF: A lot of trouble with electronic music these days is it's just formalism really.And it's really easy to do, you can just sit and do it on your computer and you never have to engage with the outside world.There's no air in those records sometimes, it's just an electronic sound and you just put a bunch of digital effects on it, and everyone is using the same digital effects.And, of course, that's probably exactly how Voigt makes his records, but I suppose the difference is that he's good, he's a human being.PSF: There's something nice about the hermetic side of it though, it's vaguely appealing.Also a lot of it seems very unmusical, and they're not really bothered about, again, pleasure and stuff.I'm sure it sounds weird, but it doesn't necessarily sound good.But I always really loved stuff like the Cluster records, they seem to predate all that.That's such a beautiful record.Tired Of Dan Pensyl Yet?If You Don't Know Your Past, How Can You Know Your Future.Nick Jensen and the Art Dump, this Friday night!Happy Birthday to Michael Prince, Marquise Preston, and Brian Wenning!Matix's Lord Of The Lines '08 Results And Videos!Happy Birthday To Jeron Wilson!Win A Signed Berry Video Atmosphere!
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