Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 08:52:37 +0100 From: Andrew Norman (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: Re: main at Aug 31, 95 03:53:42 pm Andrew Dean wrote: > > a) who are they? loop have been mentioned but... Robert from Loop, plus at least one other. The other two from Loop (wasn't the drummer Robert's brother?) formed Hair and Skin Trading Company. > b) are they releasing a single a month? certainly looks that way Yes, six singles. > c) is the other lp i saw (firmament) more like the first single (by which > i mean corona, hertz 1) than motion pool (which was a bit disappointing > at first but which i have grown to like lots, er, i mean my friend likes > it) It is two long tracks (25 min each?) of very sparse, arid ambience - the sound actually stops for fairly long periods. *Very* strange, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it unless you find it for three quid (as I did). It's a bit like "Metal Machine Music", I'm pleased I have it but I don't listen to it very much. > d) there is no d, sorry But there is an e. > e) anything else by them i, er, he should pick up. Discography as far as I know: Hydra-Calm (Hour-long collection of two EPs and a long track, a bit like Loop's quiet side). Dry Stone Feed Firmament (These two EPs were issued simultaneously, and I'm annoyed I didn't buy them, as I haven't seen them for ages). Motion Pool (Album) Firmament II (This is the one you saw. Firmament I had half a dozen tracks, I seem to remember) Ligature (Vinyl only, remixes) Hertz singles: Corona, Terminus, Maser (so far) (Two tracks, three tracks, four tracks...) > f) firmament only seems to have two tracks on it. is this a misfiled, > mispriced ep or are they as long as, say, scum or an evening of > contempory sitar music. -- Andrew Norman, Leicester, England // nja@le.ac.uk // 01/09/95 On my walkman this morning : Scott Walker With tremulous cadence slow, and bring Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 09:09:00 +0100 From: Andrew Norman (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: Cocteaus, Main, FSA Main - Ligature (remixes) (Beggars Banquet, BBQM43CD) Now available on CD, with three extra remixes of "Motion Pool" tracks, all by Main (the five original remixes included a couple by Main, and one each from Paul Schutze, Jim O'Rourke, and Paul Kendall). A bargain, at five quid for over an hour of music. I bought Paul Schutze's "Apart" at the weekend, and was not over-impressed - "Ambient" in the tinkly Eno sense rather than the darker, dronier stuff I was expecting. Not bad, but nothing to write home about either. The fourth installment in the Hertz singles series is also out now, "Haloform", in three parts. It's far and away the best of the bunch so far - part 1 features all sorts of odd noises (is that a frog sitting in a disused sewer pipe?), parts 2 and 3 are closer to the "Motion Pool" sound, droning instrumentals with treated guitar noises added. Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 11:34:47 +0000 From: Andrew Norman (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: St Etienne & Main Andrew Massey wrote: > > What exactly are Main like? I mean, what's their closest > comparison group wise? I've been tempted to try them out just > because of the sexy sleeves - very (badly?) early 4AD-ish, what > with the Bodoni Ultra and textural photos. Difficult to make comparisons - if you have Virgin's "Ambient 4 - Isolationism" compilation, there is a Main track (rather more ambient than their normal stuff) and some of the less ambient tracks on that compilation are similar to Main. Plus it's a great collection of strange ambient music, so buy it now. Basically, Main use guitars (mostly) to make non-guitar sounds, though their earlier EPs ("Dry Stone Feed", or the "Hydra-Calm" compilation) are like a slowed-down Loop. "Motion Pool" is probably the place to start, it has a range of styles from almost-songs (these usually consist of Robert mumbling something barely audible over a plodding bass) to the click/rumble/buzz/hiss sound that most of the Hertz singles feature, and a couple of more conventional tracks where the guitars actually sound almost like guitars. "Firmament" and "Firmament II" are the more experimental side, and "Ligature" is a collection of remixes - that's not a bad one to get, either, as it's about an hour long and the remixes are by Main themselves or close associates, so you don't get the sort of thing on Scorn's remix album where the "remix" is basically a track by the remixer which sounds vaguely like the original artist. Oh, and those of you who like that sort of thing should check out Stars of the Lid - they have been mentioned a lot on the droneon list, and I found an album, "Music for Nitrous Oxide" dirt cheap in a second hand shop this weekend - it sounds like the more minimalist/noisy tracks on Labradford's first album, very lo-fi (one of the tracks is actually called something like "Tape hiss is my friend"). Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 09:41:44 +0100 From: Andrew Norman Subject: Re: MAIN _Firmament IV_ "JS (Jim) Adams" wrote on Tue, 26 May 1998 (Subject: MAIN _Firmament IV_) > Anyone heard it yet? Belated response since I mail-ordered it and it only turned up yesterday. I believe it's the last in the series, 11 parts and just under 70 minutes long, with the final part (XXVI) being more than a quarter of that. Starts very quiet with a couple of excruciating screeches, but most of it is calm, drone/rumble/buzz. No surprises, the sound's a bit of a return to the more abstract parts of "Motion Pool", with echoes of "Firmament II", almost none of the more organic, chaotic sound of "Hertz" or the last Firmament album. Reminds me a bit of the recent Windy and Carl album, or Stars of the Lid, sometimes. I wish they would release parts V and VI somehow - they were scheduled to appear on a cancelled single, I have heard, and were never released. Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 17:34:06 -0400 From: "JS (Jim) Adams" Subject: Re: Main release(s) On Wed, 5 Aug 1998, Jeremy L Orr wrote: > ---from JS (Jim) Adams: > > > Also, seems Beggars Banquet US has scheudled Main "Firmament III" > > and "IV" as a double CD, 08 September. > > Speaking of score cards, I need one for these "Firmament" things. Have > either of these been released before, or will this be all-new material? >From the Main website FIRMAMENT III 1996 (CD) Beggars Banquet: BBQMCD 179 FIRMAMENT IV 1998 (CD) Beggars Banquet: BBQMCD 202 Both issued in the UK; final installments in the series. UK also got DELIQUESCENCE 1997 (CD) Beggars Banquet: BBQM CD 196 which it appears is not going to have a USA release. [Wonder when we will see the promised M.A.S.S. - Main Active Sound System - release?] Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 16:33:29 +0100 From: nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK Subject: Re: Main release(s) "Deliquescence" is rather poor anyway, in my opinion. It's a live album, the live "Firmament" on one of the Sub Rosa Sessions albums is far better. Beggars Banquet had the MASS release listed as being due early this year, last year - but it seems to have disappeared from their schedule. What I'd really like to see is the release of the missing two parts of "Firmament" (IV and V if I remember correctly) which should have been on a single between the first EP and "Motion Pool". Perhaps they'll be on the "Main's Greatest Hits" album alongside all the top twenty singles.