The eie Consumer Emporium

Hello All:

I’ve once again found myself needing to stir up a little bit of incoming fiscal flow, so I’ve selected four never-before-released recordings from the irr. live archives, given them a thorough, deep-down-to-the-molecules sprucification and posted them to Bandcamp for the vexation & delight of the befluxified world.

Each of these four shows represents a unique moment in my very scattered history of public performance, and I think I’ve managed to make them all worthwhile & listenable despite the technical problems that seem to be an inevitable part of irr. live performances & any attempts to record them. To this end, I’ve scoured through all of the available rehearsal recordings and used these to help ‘patch up’ the few areas that couldn’t be repaired by other means.  For each of the four shows, I’ve also included rehearsal selections that sounded particularly good to me and captured a (sometimes entirely) distinct version of a performance. Given the loose parameters and improvised nature of much of the material, each attempt tends to give significantly different results; and since I rarely do live shows, most of these variations only take place during rehearsal.

The first selection (PP#21) is the recent(-ish) Imbolc Sleep Concert performance from February 2019 at Azøth in Portland. The event was organised by Soriah’s Enrique Ugalde, and featured continuous evening-to-morning somnifacient exudation by the likes of myself, the aforementioned Soriah, Esperik Glare, Solace, Xambuca (in pre-recorded form) and many others. This was the first live show I’d done since 2012 and also the first since my embolism at the end of 2017, so it was good to have the opportunity to get out in the world and poke bat’s teeth into the bouncy castle of light entertainment once again. As prescribed by the context, it’s the most deliberately minimal and atmospheric set I’ve done to date. What didn’t change at all were the multiple technical snafus, which required a lot of spontaneous re-figuring as I went along. The full recording of my final rehearsal on the afternoon before the show has also been included since the end result turned out to be so different.

The source photos used for the graphics were extracted from a video made by Shelby Kray, who operates as BlueHeronVideo and recorded a large portion of each of the performer’s sets throughout the entire sleep concert. Her video of the last 30 minutes of the irr. set can be found on YouTube here — but I am compelled to mention that the audio is (understandably) very poor: it was just captured from her camera’s microphone, and, since she was standing right up against the stage and not in front of the PA, only a murky, inconsistent blur of what was happening can be heard. Even more embarrassing for me, certain things that are only supposed to be heard after being put through effects (like the haphazard recorder tootling) are clearly audible to the camera. So maybe watch the video with the sound muted and the play the proper audio recording in a different browser window.

The second posting (PP#19) is the only irr. performance to date to take place outside of North America. The show became possible when Nurse With Wound signed on to perform at Leipzig’s Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival in 2010: it’s always been unlikely that any organisers interested in staging a European irr. show would be able to cover my travel expenses, and I can hardly afford to do it myself, so this was a rare occasion where I could get around both of those impediments. Potter, Liles and I each took advantage of the opportunity to arrange solo sets for ourselves at this festival. Listening back to the recording now, I think my set actually turned out pretty good — but at the time I thought it was a complete shambles. A decent albeit cacophonic rendering of Nurse With Wound & Diana Rogerson’s ‘Wisecrack‘ (or ‘Reach For Your Gun’ for the Chrystal Belle Scrodd version) is in there, as is the nearest-to-fully-realised live version of my chart-breaking disco anthem ‘Caniad At Yr Annisgwyl Sbasm’. Fortunately, there were a few very supportive & enthusiastic people in the crowd, but I think overall it was not something that Goth festival-goers wanted to endure. One cheerful person in a sparkly, red-sequined top hat came up later in the day to tell me how much he enjoyed it, and that bolstered my spirits quite a bit. The acerbic response of a different audience member (wearing pseudo-military fatigues, of course) was more typical: “So you vere der von vith the funny puppets, ja?” The real heroes of this show were Nadja Belabidi and Eric Van Wonterghem, who gave Steve & I a comfortable place to stay during the festival, allowed me to take over Eric’s studio space to rehearse a few more times, and were helpful, lovely & supportive throughout.

Some video snippets of this performance are still lingering on YouTube here and here (and is the source from which I extracted most of the photo images). As always with these live clips, the sound is absolutely dreadful and you can hear too much of the incidental noises I’m making on stage, but it’s nice that someone captured some of it. Probably.

The third show (PP#13) is a peculiar one… it took place in 2007 at the storied Starry Plough pub in Berkeley, and was the last time I had three people in the line-up (and was one show away from the last time I had any other people involved). The Scharpen Brothers and usually Richard Faulhaber had been very helpful live co-horts for the first 8 shows between 2003-2005, but scheduling conflicts and other difficulties impelled some changes in 2006, and for three shows during 2006-2007 the cast was Richard and myself with rustmonger & Helen Scarsdale Agency honcho Jim Haynes (although Greg Scharpen did make a very useful contribution to one of those shows). I can’t remember exactly how this one was set up, but I have a suspicion that either Greg or the endlessly-helpful Jim Kaiser (RIP) was behind it. Larval versions of what would become ‘Annisgwyl Sbasm’ and elements of various other live tracks were debuted with this line-up (something I had entirely forgotten), and the whole thing is capped off with a severely brain-damaged, funk-stained version of The Resident’s pop classic ‘Smelly Tongues’.

This performance definitely was a shambles, but, again, hearing it 12 years later I find a lot to like in the recording. A big part of it is Richard’s always-inspired contribution: his William Burroughs routines (he also did the Burroughs take on the ‘Freaks’ intro for PP#5) and his modified Scottish Toasts never failed to get a laugh (particularly from me), while his mastery of extracting unusual sounds out of prosaic electronic devices — his inventive approach to pretty much anything, really — was a great boon that for many years elevated my clumsy & absurd method of doing live performance. (Richard was also the MC (and a performer) for the NWW shows in San Francisco, for those of you who attended those.) I’ve included an entire set’s worth of extracts from the rehearsals for this show that Richard & I did together at his house mainly because they demonstrate how spontaneous & adaptable Richard’s input could be.

I’ve just noticed that my show numbering had a flaw in it… I initially posted this as #14, but it’s actually #13. I’ve fixed it now, but apologies to those four people who already downloaded the misnumbered version (that means you, Mr. Rash). If any of you four want a free re-download with the right number attached, get in touch.

The final recording added (PP#11) is from the second irr. performance at the Temescal Art Center in Oakland — the first Temescal show also being the very first irr. live performance anywhere back in 2003. This one took place in 2007 as part of a record-release event organised by Greg Scharpen for his debut offering as Thomas Carnacki. Being that Greg and John Scharpen both had their own sets on the evening, this was my initial attempt at doing an irr. show entirely by myself. The execution was rather ungainly (especially being crouched down on the floor as I was), but some useful germ ideas were developed, and a few things were attempted that are entirely unique to this show. This is also the only live use of my 8-string bass guitar, with the exception of a peculiar Nurse With Wound performance (another record-release event) that took place a week later at Ameoba Records in Los Angeles.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention here: I’ve been doing a monthly radio art series on Mixcloud called ‘Stactirrm Radioo’ with my friend William Davison. A new episode is being posted every month during 2019, so we’re already more than halfway through the series. William started his own series called ‘Stactorm Radioo‘ in 2017, which was an half-hour’s worth of one-minute audio excerpts from the extensive & legendary William Davison archives. In late 2018 he asked me to collaborate with him on the project, so the half-hour now alternates between one-minute excerpts from the extensive & legendary William Davison archives and one-minute excerpts from the sordid & uncouth but still pretty darn extensive M S Waldron archives. As basic math will demonstrate, that means 19 excerpts from each of us every month. The results have been quite nice; but still, somehow, the errant ways of humanity continue unchanged despite our best efforts being made in one-minute increments.

Suss out the radioo goodness here: January February March April May June July

Best wishes to you all,

–msw

Posted in News

Hello all:

I hope that everyone out there is having an enjoyable & fulfilling end to their year, in the company of supportive friends and relatives.

Firstly, the last of the 2018 Monthly Digital Singles has been posted! You can find the December single here.  I haven’t posted links to the singles since August, so links for the singles from September to November are listed below:

September

October

November

Endless thanks to everyone who has supported this MDS series! It made a tremendous difference in what was otherwise a relentlessly stressful & difficult year. For a more concrete way to thank you, I’ve created a bonus, 13th single for the series, which will be made available for free to anyone who purchased the full set of 12. Throughout January, I’ll be sending out download codes for the bonus single via email; if, by chance, there is anyone who did buy all 12 but hasn’t received a code by mid-January, please get in touch with me at irrappext@gmail.com so I can remedy the oversight. I’ll try to be thorough, but mistakes are sometimes made.

(Bonus 13!)

Secondly, I’ve also listed 5 items from the irr. archives to Bandcamp; 4 which are out-of-print, and one of which has never been released.

‘Neornithes Rex Imperator‘ collects two long-form tracks originally released as separate limited 3″ CDRs (‘Neognath In Machina’ in 2012 & ‘Neognathæ Portentosus’ in 2013) by the much-missed Petit Mal Music label. The first release paid homage to the beauty & variety of birds by taking mechanical & other non-avian sources and altering them to sound bird-like, while conversely taking bird sources and altering them to sound more like machines. The second release continued this tribute by utilising the extensive archive of bird recordings I’ve been accumulating for 25+ years and modifying them (but also sometimes not modifying them) in as many ways as I could come up with at the time. ‘Orny ‘Arry says ‘allo!

This combined & remastered version was going to be released on vinyl, but that plan fell through. With luck, I’ll eventually find another way to make it happen. I decided to make the tracks available digitally in the meantime. This reissue is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend James Kaiser, who manufactured the original 3″s and provided the motivation for the whole idea in the first place. Sadly, he died just after we had discussed the idea of having a third installment in the series.

‘While Unconscious In Compost I Was Temporarily A Motile Vesicular Cluster‘ is another long-form track that was originally released by Nihilist Records as half of a split LP with Panicsville back in 2007. The guiding concept behind it is no doubt completely explained by the title. The track has been fully reconstructed from the original audio sources, each of which has been individually scrubbed, polished & sonically optimised.

“This is probably the most astonishing work ever created in the entire history of recorded sound” — Heinrich Hertz, 1887.

“I use it to lull my earthworms to sleep every night” — Jean-Paul Sartre, 1967.

“The perfect party record! I never stage an orgy without it! The ideal soundtrack for salad tossing” — Phyllis Diller, 1979.

‘Tellurium-Ergot-Contingency‘ is yet another long-form track originally released by Nihilist Records, this one in 2010 as part of the 3-cassette box set ‘New Directions In Experimental Music’. Again, I’m sure the title makes the concept behind it obvious enough to make any further explanation unnecessary — except perhaps to say it reflects on the nature of mass delusion being assimilated as profound truth, the unnecessary being regarded as indispensable. (Thanks for that, Captain Obvious.)

Extensive remastering was done in 2011 when I had plans to include it as part of a CD collection; in keeping with a long-standing trend, that release never came to pass. Some additional audio polishing has been done, but the heavy lifting was already taken care of with the 2011 revision.

‘Blue Tongues Ignite/To Render The Chalaza‘ is an unreleased track (“a long-form track?” I hear you ask; why, yes, indeed it is!) from 2008 that was intended for release as a 3″ CD on the Ferns Recordings label. Ferns had invited me to contribute to their 3″ series, so I created this track and artwork, sent it to them, and subsequently never heard another word from the label in reply. They didn’t acknowledge receiving the material, but also never asked after the status of my contribution, nor responded to any of my inquiries, so I can only assume they were so unimpressed that they chose to pretend they had never made the invitation. This had already happened often enough (with what would have been the 2nd full-length irr. album ‘Foreign Matter, Nor Frequency Carrier’, and with what would have been the 5th full-length album ‘Not Hidden, But Concealed’, and with what have been the 6th full-length album ‘Radiant Black Future’, to name a few examples) that it wasn’t too unexpected; but it was discouraging enough for me to abandon the material. However, I did adapt & integrate re-recorded versions of some of the techniques developed on ‘Blue Tongues’ into later projects (like the layered prepared guitar percussion, which was re-recorded for ‘Tellurium-Ergot-Contingency’).

Listening to it again a full decade later, I think it’s actually a rather good track — although, as with all tracks I recorded that long ago, it was in serious need of some deep cleaning, EQ and remixing. Since it never was released, I took the liberty of also adding some new sources to give certain sections the oomf that was lacking in the original.

‘Observation Affects The Outcome‘ is the first collaboration between myself and Pentti Dassum’s experimental project Umpio. I’ve been a fan of Pentti’s since discovering his old band Deep Turtle back in the days of the Bad Vugum label, and it was great to have an opportunity to collaborate with him. ‘Observation’ was released on CD in 2013 by the Monochrome Vision label in Russia; my own copies sold out years ago, and following the tragic accidental death of label boss Dmitry Vasilyev earlier this year, the physical version is now definitively out-of-print.

On a happier note, the second Umpio + irr collaboration ‘Permutable Schema’ (a double CD this time) is now in production, and should be available in January. More news on that when news on that has more news.

Lastly, a bit of an update on my personal situation. This part doesn’t contain any release news, so you can skip it without missing any irr-relevant information.

My current living circumstances are in a state of disintegration, which means having a functional studio space, and perhaps even private computer access, will be coming to an end before long. I’ve got a grace period of perhaps a year, although nothing is completely certain at this point. I’m a bit overwhelmed by everything that’s been happening… a year and a few days ago I nearly dropped dead without any warning, and while still in the process of trying to piece myself back together physically & psychologically, I learned that the one thing I thought was stable in my life — my housing situation — was coming to an unexpected end. I’ve spent the past few months exploring what options are available, and the realities are turning out to be pretty grim.

I’ve been fully self-employed as a musician & artist for the past 12 years, and this was only possible due to the inexpensive housing I’ve been lucky enough to have during that time. My self-employed work has required a lot of different skills: audio recording, production, mixing & mastering; graphic & design work in a variety of media and creating printer-ready layouts; business accounting to figure my self-employment taxes every year; creating & maintaining my web shops & social media profiles. Unfortunately, I don’t have any outside credentials for any of these skills, so, as far as the job market is concerned, I could almost have been doing absolutely nothing for the past 12 years. My resume has always been rather feeble, but, at this point in time, none of the places I’ve been employed in the past exist anymore, so I have no references. This is also the case with my unusual living situation: I have no ‘official’ renter’s history or references, which puts my ability to secure a place to live (even if I can manage to find one I can afford) into question.

I’ve registered with several job search services, and next month I’m signed up for a slew of employment assistance seminars: ‘career exploration’, ‘resume writing’, ‘interview technique’, etc; but the early indications are that the only jobs I’m likely to get right now pay at minimum wage or very close to it, which (I’m sure some of you already know well enough) are not actually living wage jobs — that is, aren’t jobs that provide enough money to keep up with the cost of rent & basic living expenses. I’ve also been exploring the possibility of moving to the UK or the EU, but the financial & bureaucratic obstacles are overwhelming… and of course the timing of that could hardly be worse with both poised on the brink of the Brexit abyss.

I find myself as a car-less, mobile phone-less, college degree-less, job & housing reference-less, functionally resume-less, unmarried & child-less nearly-50-year-old trying to figure out how to move forward in an area where I don’t have a social network… I’ve spent all my time shut up in my studio working on my own, so I still barely know anyone here in Oregon. Honestly, the situation scares the piss out of me. I’m running out of ideas. So I’m throwing my net as wide as possible to bring in as many good ideas & strategies as I can before things become dire.

If anyone out there has some useful information they can share in regards to how to find reasonably-paid work & affordable housing, or know of any resources that can help with this kind of thing, please contact me at irrappext@gmail.com.

best wishes to all,

–msw

Posted in News

Hello All:

It’s been a tumultuous time here, with lots of different projects being juggled and lots of unexpected developments trying to prevent me from finishing them. I keep inching them forward regardless, and hope to have more news to report on that before long.

A couple things that have been finished:

The new irr. album ‘A Transfigured System‘ has been posted to Bandcamp. The album was actually started in 2015 based on some unused material originally generated for ‘I Made This For Someone Else’, and then occasionally tinkered with between other projects before almost (but not quite) being completed in mid-2017. After that, I got distracted by others things and forgot it was there. I stumbled across it again earlier this month, was happy with the shape it was taking, and decided to finish it up and make it public without any further delay. I’ll sort out a physical-format release later, but there’s already a long queue of physical-format releases and I didn’t want drop this one back in limbo at the end of that slowly-moving list.

Also, the Monthly Digital Single for August was posted to Bandcamp at the end of (wait for it…) August, and is available here. The single for September is just about ready to go and will be posted on schedule at the end of (you guessed it) September.

I’ve recently learned that my housing situation — the main ingredient that has allowed me to pursue my music full-time for the past several years — might be coming to an end very soon. If this happens, it throws a big, sinister question mark over how (but hopefully not if) I can continue pursing my creative work. Sinking back into the time-devouring day job quagmire seems inevitable, but first I’m going to attempt to find part-time work and see if I can keep a music career and a day job going at the same time. There is the added question of who will be willing to hire an approaching-50 experimental musician without a car, a mobile phone or a college degree, and who’s official resume is underwhelming at best. I might need to brush up on my dish-washing skills. On the other hand, the whole situation might turn out for the best: some degree of stable income might allow me to be more productive, and free me to concentrate better on specific projects rather than having to scramble every month to pay the bills and then start over again at zero the following month.

I’ll take a moment here once again to say a big thank you to all of you who have been so supportive over the years! You have allowed me to spend the last 12 years pursuing what I love to do, and that is a rare & beautiful thing that a lot of people never get to experience.

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I’m working to put together a few sale items to raise some funds to prepare for whatever situation might await at the end of the year. The first of these has become possible thanks to the generosity of Mr. Bill Bailey at Equation Records, who kindly send me his three archive copies of the limited single-sided LP + single-sided 7″ irr. release ‘The Other Side Is Blank’, which has been out of print since 2013. To try to make the copies more appealing, I’ve added 2 things:

First, a CDR with all the original audio for the LP & 7” before it was edited to fit on vinyl (a couple of the LP tracks had to be slightly trimmed down), housed in a handmade gatefold sleeve. The sleeve includes an 8-page booklet, and between the gatefold and the booklet reproduces all of the artwork used for the LP sleeve & inserts from the vinyl release. The booklet also includes a surplus collage that was not used. Each copy will be signed, numbered & personalised to the recipient. These handmade gatefold sleeves were designed especially for this, and are something I plan to develop further for future projects to avoid any more drab jewel-case packaging.

Second, one of the collage inserts from each of the LPs has been hand-tinted, using scintillatingly handsome hand tints derived from genuine tinted hands (but applied by foot). Examples are below. The coloured inserts will also be signed and numbered. The full set of original, non-tinted inserts is still included in the package (in the event you are unmoved by my tinting skills).

I’m asking $120 per copy for the ss-LP + ss-7″ + gatefold sleeve CDR + hand-coloured insert set. It’s a hefty amount, to be sure, but I think the full package is worth it — and, also, the whole point is to raise a useful sum of money before the apocalypse arrives. I have 3 copies from Mr. Bailey to sell: #22 of 100, #66 of 100 and a xxx numbered promotional copy. On the off-chance there are 4 interested buyers, I have an extra copy from my own archive that I can sell  (#4 of 100). Only 3 of the hand-coloured inserts have been made, so there will be a delay before shipping if someone buys the fourth copy (I didn’t want to take to time to colour another insert when I’m not yet sure anyone will be interested in any of these sets). The package weighs 32 ounces, so in the U.S. Media Mail shipping is $4 and Priority Mail is $13. For overseas destinations, First Class International shipping is the predictably horrendous $23.50 (with Priority International an absurd $46).

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The other item I’m offering for sale is the original charcoal drawing used for the 2005 ‘Perekluchenie’ album cover. The drawing was made in 2003, and marked a significant development in my drawing style at the time. The piece has been very nicely framed (as pictured above) using high-end, archival materials: acid-free double matting with a textured mat on the top and a fully acid-free, archival backing. I’ll keep the glass in place, and will add multiple layers of padding and protection to insure as much as possible that is stays intact during shipping. If you’d like to buy it but would prefer the glass be removed, just let me know. The back is sealed with black paper which is signed, titled & dated, and this will have to be sliced open if I remove the glass.

I’m asking $800 for this piece… the total is inflated a bit by the expensive framing materials used. I know it’s a long shot that anyone will be able to afford to hand over such a sum for something like this, but I thought I’d give it a try. I’ve held back this piece for a long time due to the personal significance it has for me, and if I let it go I want it to be worthwhile. The package looks like it will weigh around 70 ounces; for U.S. destinations, this is too heavy for First Class and original artwork doesn’t classify for Media Mail, so I’ll have to send it either Retail Ground ($23) or Priority (which ranges up to $47 depending on location; I’ll figure the exact amount from your zip code). Unfortunately, due to size & weight I also have to use Priority International for overseas shipping, and that will be a dreadful $57.

Questions about any of these things are welcome, and can be directed at irrappext@gmail.com.

thanks for your time, and best wishes to all

-msw

Posted in News

Firstly, I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who bought an Orphan: it’s been an enormous help during a difficult time! Your support, as always, is sincerely appreciated. Now I have a proper bit of breathing room to continue work on the next project, which I promise will be a doozy.

The first 48 copies (plus a couple later ones that needed to go in the UK bundle) have all shipped. For those of you in the States or who paid for direct overseas postage: if you haven’t received it yet, it should arrive soon. For those of you who had copies going in the UK bundle: Colin Potter has received the bundle and mailed out all of the individual packages today, so you also should be receiving your copy soon. Huge thanks to Colin for helping out in such a significant way!

There are still 25 copies available. If anyone else is interested in purchasing one, please read the previous news posting to get a full explanation about the release, how to get it, and to see some images of what you’ll be getting.

I’ve been working hard to finish the last 35 copies, but there have been a lot of interruptions. I’m still hoping to get all of the remaining copies assembled by the end of next week and mailed out soon after that. There are 9 pending overseas orders towards another UK bundle (again, take a look at the previous news post if you need the details), so I just need another 6 UK or EU orders to make that work. Colin has graciously agreed to play intermediary a second time.

Secondly, I’d like to thank everyone who has been supporting the Monthly Digital Single series (and any of the other Bandcamp releases): this also has been a considerable help, particularly since ‘4 Orphans’ took about 3 months longer for me to complete than I had planned. The single for May was posted a week ago, and can be found here.

more soon(-ish)

–msw

Posted in News

Hello all:

I’m still working to get the copies of ‘4 Orphans’ assembled, but there are a few brief bits of news to mention in the meantime.

I will have little or no computer access between April 25th and May 3rd, so any messages or orders will have to be dealt with after the 3rd.

To keep on schedule with the monthly digital single series, I posted April’s entry a little bit early. You can find it here.

Also newly posted to Bandcamp: a freshly-scrubbed and slightly augmented version of the third irr. app. (ext.) album ‘Their Little Bones…‘, originally released way back in 1999. This was my first handmade project, packaged in a frame box with a unique little bone arrangement and hand-modified photograph. You can view a sample of both in the graphics files that have been included with the download. I made 108 of these villains before running out of materials and retiring the box version for good.

Added to this digital version of the album is the rare track ‘Whittling Little Crosses For A Half-Sleeping Heresiarch‘, recorded around the same time as ‘Bones’ and released by Plate Lunch in 2000 as half of a super-scarce split 7″ with the Australian project Rats With Wings. This 7″ was so scarce that for years I didn’t possess a single copy of my own (the record label never sent me any) until Christoph Heemann found one at a record swap in Bern and kindly passed it along to me. The quality of the original track was pretty dreadful, so this version has been fully reconstructed from all of the constituent sources for optimal audio fidelity (at least as much fidelity as old cassette sources will allow).

Full details about ‘4 Orphans’ in the next post, probably around May 10th.

–m

Posted in News