Pumice: Worldwide Welts (Dubbed Tapes/bandcamp)

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Pumice: Worldwide Welts (Dubbed Tapes/bandcamp)

This will be brief and quick for a few reasons; some aspects of Pumice's sonic landscapes of synths, guitar, organ, violin etc will perhaps only appeal to those with an affection for Fripp/Eno, early work by David Hykes, the Eraserhead soundtrack, circular breathing drones and other similar waves of sound; and that if you want the artefact you have to be in quick because there were only 34 cassettes dubbed off – with download code – and right now only three remain untaken at bandcamp here. (You can buy a download separately however, just name your price.)

But we here at Elsewhere are quite taken with this release for its dark ambience, subtle sensibilities and how New Zealand's Pumice – Stefan Neville and Jade Farley, currently touring in Europe – cleverly shift the sonics from aural intensity to eerily melodic drones and minimalism.

The almost stately Necklace on a Necklace of guitars and what sounds like slightly distorted organ is almost Elizabethan (in a kinda cyberpunk world, of course) and the drone quality and violin on Ridge are Celtic in their allusions.

The 12 minute closing track Bolus etc was recorded at Chris Knox's on a very old cassette recorder.

A couple of plays and these five instrumentals start to take shape as a whole but each with an internal life and logic of its own.

And there's something to be said for the Dubbed Tapes label/concept out of the UK too: each cassette is dubbed over a pre-existing tape so no two of these are the same.

A very limited edition indeed.

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