Description:	Split 12" in the Fat Cat series
	Format:	12" (vinyl)
	Genre(s):	Experimental / Abstract
	Label:	FatCat
	Price:	£5.29
	Availability:	Sold out / currently unavailable. Sorry!

5
...according to our Brian on 06 November 2009.

Had to stick this in, it got slightly overlooked for some reason, perhaps because you can't tell what it is due to the fact some idiot has drilled holes in it to look like some piece of highbrow contemporary art. It's a split series type affair on old Fat Cat records of London town. The first track is by Alog, two enigmatic Norsk types who specialise here this tranced out/fucked up kraut-disco/bleeding edge minimal techno-pulse hybrid. It's kind of how i'd imagine Faust sounding if they recorded for Raster-Noton and is an incredible head shagging odyssey into the bargain. This is supposed to be Ant's review but his hands fell off from frostbite. He has imagined this scenario for you in lieu of his typing skills. "A tribal space vortex opens up on the dancefloor & these two cyber viking voices start yelling incomprehensible fragments at you, gets well dark. I want me Ma!!" Astral Social Club's Neil Campbell i've learnt (again) this afternoon hails from Mirfield - that is where the derelict club he's attributed his group's name originates. His 3 tracks on the flip veer from filthy, squelchy, dubby tribal techno that sounds like a rave in a cyber zoo to more tranquil, organic pastures on the chilled but murky 'Vurt Chorale'. The final track, 'Corby Kiss' has our Ant totally fantasising about raving along to it playing through the Berghain sound system in Berlin, this stuttering mechanical technoid beast with some of the most thrilling acid-y frequencies & wild tweaking going on, a pure riot of looming sound. Finishes criminally quickly, leaving you begging for more. A superb double header for sure!!

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What their label says...

Twentieth release in Fat Cat’s famed Split Series compilations,
this record combines Norway’s Alog with Sunroof! member Astral Social Club.

Active since 1997 and one of Norway’s leading exponents of experimental
electronic music, Alog is the duo of Espen Sommer Eide and Dag-Are
Haugan, mainstays at the Rune Grammofon label.

Alog’s unique, hybrid sound has since developed through four albums that
have unfurled a series of abstract yet accessible, self-contained sound worlds,
each animated with their own internal logic, mixing a wide variety of both
electronic and acoustic sources into something warm, intricate and
organic.

Alog embrace the freedom to flit and root in the cracks between strands of
minimalism, electronica, post-rock, improv and vernacular music, merging
woozy, stuttering electronica (a la Oval or Nobukazu Takemura), with rich,
shoegazey guitars, freeform improvisation, Scandinavian folk, field recording
and the masterful editing and soundscaping of electroacoustic composition.

Astral Social Club is the project of prolific Scottish-born Neil Campbell, a
pivotal figure on the UK post-punk underground, with a vast catalogue and
numerous collaborations.

A member of both Matthew Bower’s Total and Sunroof! projects, he
appeared on three of the latter’s albums before helping to form the hugely
influential and prolific (over 40 releases) Leeds-based drone/psych-rock outfit
Vibracathedral Orchestra in 1998.

Campbell left VCO in 2006 to go solo as Astral Social Club, under which
moniker he’s released a number of albums (on labels like VHF, Important,
Qbico, Textile) and an ever-increasing stream of self-released CDRs in a
limited edition series of volumes (currently up to #19).

The three tracks here were recorded by Campbell, John Clyde-Evans, Paul
Walsh and Spider Stacy.

Tracklisting:

Alog ‘Every Word Was Once An Animal’
Astral Social Club ‘Clarion Super-Cortex’
Astral Social Club ‘Vurt Chorale #1’
Astral Social Club ‘Corby Kiss’