Today sees the release of the uncompromising new album from Hypercube and UNIC6, Binary Planet. It’s a fiercely experimental album, fusing hard glitch electronics and organic, jazz-infused acoustic instruments. Binary Planet is available today as digital download or CD from Bandcamp, with other digital platforms following next week.

Hello you. Happy new year. Enjoy the break? Yeah, not bad. Quite quiet, actually. Mostly family, you know…

Right, so just a quickie to update you all before we go on our spring/summer hiatus/sabbatical/furlough. It looks like there will be three releases before we hibernate: a brilliant new album from Wilfried Hanrath, a career retrospective from Manipulant and first out the blocks will be the superb hard-electronic/acoustic collab from Hypercube and UNIC6, entitled Binary Planet:

We’re aiming for a 19th January release for Binary Planet, to be available on all major digital platforms, plus CD via Bandcamp.

More on this and the other new releases soon.

Hi, Submariner-in-Chief Rob speaking. I just wanted to send a seasonal message and update you on news for next year.

So, what a year! It was, I suppose, SBC’s first full year as “a thing” (we first released stuff in 2017 but I think it was this year that earnt our spurs, carved our niche, twisted our sobriety…?)

We did a lot of stuff, we did a lot right; we did a few things wrong too, but I look on those as part of the learning process and we live to fight another day. Lots of achievements, both artistic and technical:

• Our first cassette release
• A release nominated for the Schallwelle Music Awards
• Three releases available as hardback book/CD packages
• Our first play on BBC 6 Music
• Our first review in “proper” music magazines
• True multimedia, with a series of original paintings in our merch shop
• Launched a monthly playlist, Submerged.
• A new drop-ship CD manufacturer, enabling release of CDs where it would have been cost-prohibitive previously
• Experiments with new streaming services, Choon and MusiCoin

We’ve also raised a shedload of cash for charities (you may recall the initial reason for us existing at all was the One String Inspiration project, which raised money for Syria Relief). Since then we have raised many hundreds of pounds for:

• Depaul International
• Medecins Sans Frontieres 
• The Shaw Mind Foundation
• Make The World Better
• The Petar Radovanović Children’s Home, Užice, Serbia

A huge thank you to all the artists who donated their time and talents to the projects that made this possible.

So with the Christmas season approaching, I think we’ve deserved a rest, so you’ll see the activity and social media posts start dwindle now until the New Year. Regardless of your religious persuasion, I’d like to think we’d all want some peace, and maybe even muster up goodwill to all men. And if you are really stuck for Christmas gift ideas, who doesn’t love a Bandcamp download?

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2019 on the Submarine

So… one of the big lessons that 2018 taught me was not to bite off more than I can chew. A number of artists have approached us regarding potential releases and we’ve had to turn them away, because next year is going to see a change to the rate of releases from the Submarine Broadcasting Company. The reasons are manifold, but the main two are that I’m just not getting time to work on any Beltism material and that Simply Will Not Do! Also, I’m finding it difficult to find time to properly promote a release before the next one is upon me, so something has got to give.

To give you an idea of when things might happen, we have four releases on the slate for January and February: these include a stunning new album from Wilfried Hanrath and a new retrospective from Manipulant, plus other stuff that’s still top secret. But after February, the intention is to slow it right down, with perhaps only another six releases until 2020. Who knows, maybe by April I will be bored out of my mind and be desperate to release more material? But that’s the current plan.

A note to our existing and prospective artists: don’t be afraid to get in touch about anything you would like to release through SBC, but note that we will be making some changes to the way we work. Probably the most material of these changes is that we will be imposing a lead time, so we will need lots of notice prior to release, but there will be some other changes which we’ll discuss at the time.

Aloha. A brief update about two releases we’ve just made available for pre-order. As ever, we’re fashionably late to the party, announcing our first two cassette releases.

First up, we’re delighted to welcome Cousin Silas back to the Submarine Broadcasting Company imprint, on this occasion in tandem with our resident multimedia artist The Glove of Bones. The album is Spirits of Afrodubism, and it’s a glorious combination of Silas’ melodic and lyrical guitars, ambient synth pads, cut-ups and aural collages, found sounds and African iconography, all fused with a dub treatment that fans of King Tubby or Bill Laswell will love.

We’re positioning this primarily as a cassette release, but it will also be available as a digital download from our Bandcamp store.

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Yes, yes, we know. You wait thirty years for a cassette release and then two come along together. Tres amusant. Our other forthcoming attraction is the new single/EP/maxi-single (that’s still a thing, right?) from Whettman Chelmets.

Alas… The Sun is Shining and You are Still Alive is a tryptych of nostalgia and reinvention. The lead track, The Sun is Shining is gorgeous slice of fuzz-drenched shoegazery that invokes the memory of the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine et al, with nods to the big production techniques of yesteryear.

Whettman says:

Track two takes on acoustic treatments and blends them with 4/4 kick drums, reverberated guitars and chimes that weave to a grandiose apex with nods to the The Tornados’s “Telstar” and other larger-than-life sounds. Track three slows it all down to a glacial pace and unfolds guitar textures over the course of nine minutes, moving from a dreamy yearning to crushing waves of feedback and noise.

Alas… The Sun is Shining and You are Still Alive is available on CD, rubine red cassette (!) and digital download.

We are offering the digital download at the laughably paltry price of £1 (one pound) for a limited period only, so come get some.

So that was July then. But here at Submarine Broadcasting Spires we’ve had no time for the World Cup, Love Island or lounging about in hammocks sipping banana daiquiris, no sirree Clive. No, we’re committed to the making of music, sweet music, and we have served up a summer smorgasbord of aural treats.

We’ve had a fantastic new single from Manipulant, ‘What Good Are The Stars?’. It’s a sweet, down-tempo, romantic number which was been picking up some airplay on the internet radio circuit. There’s also a version with an alternative vocal take by Jennifer Doll which takes the song in a different direction altogether. But if all this is too melodic and accessible for you, don’t worry; we have an album of remixes, re-purposings and re-imaginings coming out in August that will tread the path less travelled.

 

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July also saw our first release from Ippu Mitsui who we have on loan until the end of the season from our friends at Bearsuit Records. Ippu’s delivered a brilliant four-song EP called ‘Shift Down’ and as the title suggests it contains some mellower numbers than on last year’s ‘L + R’. Ippu’s music doesn’t fit any genre easily – he describes himself simply as an electronic musician – and this EP encompasses a number of styles, but if you like your electronic music melodic, with elements of synthwave, synthpop, DnB and everything between, do check it out.

 

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Our final release of July is the third and – as is the convention with trilogies – final part of Martin Neuhold & Friends’ Dialogue series. The music of Dialogue started life as solo improvisations recorded by Martin as part of February Album Writing Month (FAWM); these were then added to, remixed and generally re-jigged by a number of leading ambient and experimental musicians. Artists on this album include Cousin Silas, Volker Lankow, Randy Pytel, Norbert Kutz, Gareth Farmer, Guy Mauseth, Colin Powell, Wilfried Hanrath, Allen Pitts, Siegfried Grundmann amongst others.

All three volumes are available as download or CD, and all proceeds go to Médecins Sans Frontières.

 

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We have lots of new releases slated for August and September, and in order to free up some space for new stock we are attempting to clear some of our existing inventory, so do check the Bandcamp store for reductions on CDs from Manipulant, Crayon Angels, the Klang and Post:Soc compilations and more. We’ve also reduced the price of some downloads – even though these don’t occupy any physical space – just because we’re nice.

So as we announced on the 11th April, Exhibition 2018 is released, and now all tracks are available for download or on CD. To recap:

“The Exhibition compilation is in three overlapping flavours: Red, Green and Blue. Very roughly speaking Red is the most experimental, this is where you’ll find the noise, the field recordings, the zero bpm and so on; Green is mostly ambient, dark ambient, neoclassical and melodic instrumentals; Blue is pop, rock, post-rock, synthwave, electro and other radio-friendly music.”

The final line-up is:

Red Volume 1

1. God Cancer – Traffic
2. Noise Cluster – Poor Little Hag
3. James Hoehl – All the Unheard Voices
4. CjaBand-uk – Ghosts on the Cilcennin Hillfort, Samhain
5. Cousin Silas – And That Very Day All The Metal Turned To Powder
6. Feasibility Study – Incubus
7. Hans Castrup – Phantrolyse
8. Lucidbeaming – Grizzl
9. Rauppwar – Bizarre Birds in my Home
10. Mean Flow – Drosoulites (The Ghosts Of Frangokastello)
11. Pisse-Larve – The Ghost Nose
12. Zumaia – Champ de Bataille

Red Volume 2

1. Hypercube and Mario Lino Stancati – Spectral Anomaly
2. Almark – Eclipse
3. Alwin van der Linde – Sprinkle Twit Of Unknown Love
4. Glenn R Sogge – Catacombs of Green
5. T. R. Hand – Red Shift Dragon (Amongst The Stars)
6. Devotionalhallucinatic – Swallowed a bird
7. Dream Sequins/Christopher Petkus/{AN} EeL – The Forest’s Other Entrance
8. Humanfobia – Talking with a Ghost Girl in Rancagua Cemetery
9. Zumaia – Nevar
10. Janusz Brudniewicz – Design – MZSO5841
11. precocious mouse – funayurei
12. Rauppwar – Guitar Player Dogs

Red Volume 3

1. Myrh & DesuEx – The Ride of the Valkyrs
2. idle potentiate – xH[5128AA]
3. Feasibility Study – Angel
4. Valerio Orlandini – Flows of Uncertainty
5. Rauppwar – Dark Home Memories
6. Glenn Sogge – Slow Slush of Red-Shifted Frogs
7. Zumaia – Ritual
8. Schtummm – Feed III Alien Psycho Blues
9. Glauber K. de Souza – Robot Ranger vs The Chupacabras
10. BlindººCoyote – Second Sight: Ancestors in Pantomime

Green Volume 1

1. ikjoyce – Cantre’r Gwaelod
2. Earthborn Visions – The Ninth Wave
3. Icy Rainbows – Slippery Slope
4. Mean Flow – Gionis Lament
5. 3SBAT – Impromptu 11.11
6. Cousin Silas – Memories from May
7. Raas – Water
8. LEZET – January Sun
9. Peri Esvultras – Fakir
10. Ryliss – Shaman’s Dream
11. Tim Kays – Auroral Kilometric Radiation

Green Volume 2

1. Baci Grigore & DesuEx – neoTransylvanian postBallad
2. Carbonates On Mars – Will-O’-The Wisp
3. Intersonic Subformation – Failed Prophecy
4. Phono Input – Dreamtime (悲しいモール周囲の蒸気 – Kanashī mōru shūi no jōki)
5. Andrulian – Onryo
6. Derek Soto – Red Sky
7. Ian Haygreen – The Black Dog
8. Somta – Mother Shipton’s Apparition
9. idle Devotee – i An [å3]
10. Martin Neuhold – Untersberg
11. Jaime Munárriz – no Nemo Dream
12. Raas – Salt
13. Mixtaped Monk – The Mermaid’s Tears

Blue Volume 1

1. Manipulant – SandS
2. Alan Morse Davies – The Grey Lads
3. Cja Band – Summer’s End
4. Cosmic Colonel – Mechanized Destruction
5. Cousin Silas – The Return Of The Son Of The Kidney Thief
6. Crayon Angels – Headed This Way
7. Feasibility Study – Orange
8. Mixtaped Monk – Legend of Finn and the Fianna
9. Bridget Wishart and The Band Of Doctors – If You Call
10. The Moth Poets – Black Squirrel Pelt Collector
11. Ruido – Santa Ana Do Barroso
12. Shice Squad – National Supply
13. Spartan Jet-Plex – Alright
14. The Blank Holidays – I Always Knew

Blue Volume 2

1. Hyperbiped – Pezedemuth B
2. Bridget Wishart & Everling – Hope
3. Merge – Free All
4. The Mild East – The Widow Maker [Alt]
5. The Black Hundred – Thought and Memory
6. ÆVEM & Pampered Fists – Seer
7. Myrh & DesuEx – When The Stars Shift
8. Nurse Predator – Apple Eyed Owl
9. Mangabros. – Weissmuller’s Ghost
10. Autonomaton feat. Chudomir – It’s none of my business, personally I’m not like that
11. m.t. Scott – bloom.bruise.heaven.hearse
12. Mixtaped Monk – The Morrigan’s Fate
13. Pork Bolters – Midsummer Tree

So, this is my opportunity to say a massive and heart-felt thank you to all the above artists who have given their time and their art so generously. This compilation is way bigger than any of our previous releases, and I would be lying if I said it was without difficulties and compromises along the way, but you know what… it’s a great body of work. There are some stunning tracks on there and I’m immensely proud of what everyone has achieved. I’m also delighted that we’ve widened our net and snagged some new talent – I hope we can do it again some time.

We’ve had a very respectable volume of downloads, and a reasonable number of purchases. As you probably know, we don’t keep a penny, all the proceeds go to our chosen charity, The Shaw Mind Foundation, who not only do fantastic work, but are also top people too (they’ve invited me to tea!) so please get out there and push this compilation and let’s raise some cold hard cash.

Rob
Submariner-in-chief

Wednesday 11th April sees the release of our major compilation for 2018, Exhibition.

The Exhibition compilation is in three overlapping flavours: Red, Green and Blue. Very roughly speaking Red is the most experimental, this is where you’ll find the noise, the field recordings, the zero bpm and so on; Green is mostly ambient, dark ambient, neo-classical and melodic instrumentals; Blue is pop, rock, post-rock, synthwave, electro and other radio-friendly music.

Currently weighing in at approximately eight hours of music by more than sixty artists, the compilation will be available as seven individual volumes (3 x Red, 2 x Green, 2 x Blue). Each volume will be available as a ‘name your price’ digital download or as an inexpensive CD from our Bandcamp store, here. The cover art is once again by the lovely Glove of Bones.

As with our previous compilations, there is a charity benefitting from our work. On this occasion all proceeds will go to the international mental health charity, the Shaw Mind Foundation. We chose them as we wanted an international charity, to reflect the international constituency of our artists, and we liked the way Shaw Mind Foundation tackle not only mental health but also the stigma surrounding mental illness.

We’re using a new CD manufacturer for this project; they use a ‘just in time’ drop-shipping model which removes the requirement for us to hold inventory. It’s a bit of an experiment for us, but if it works it opens up a lot of flexibility for future releases. This does mean that much of the shipping is out of our control, but if customers do have any weird and wonderful requirements we will do our best to fulfil them.

Any questions?

 

I am an artist who submitted a track. Can I have a discount on the CDs? Email us and we’ll sort you out a discount code.

Does the CD purchase include the digital download? Yes

I accidentally bought the download when I really wanted the CD. Can I change my order? Probably. Email us and we’ll sort it out.

I represent a blog/radio station. Can I have some CDs for review or airplay? Probably. Email us to discuss.

I note you say Exhibition 2018. Does that mean you’ll do it again next year? Yes! No. Maybe

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Sombre Moon are UK-based electronic duo Amanda Jane Rogers and Steve Loxley.

Their first single ‘Blurred Reality’ received considerable acclaim on its release in October, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a delicious slice of synth-pop; the song is exquisite, with great melodic hooks. Of course, the electronica space is a crowded one at the moment, but the two key features that really set this single apart are the quality of arrangement – the track crams dozens of ideas into its sub-4-minute running time – and Amanda Jane’s dreamy vocals (stylistically she reminds me of Sarah Blackwood of Dubstar fame, and that’s high praise in my book).

The follow up ‘Hereafter’ is more driven; it’s a denser and darker affair. It’s still immediately accessible and every bit as catchy as ‘Blurred Reality’, but there’s an increased sense of directness; the synths are less ornamented here and Amanda Jane’s vocals have a note of urgency and perhaps some vitriol. It’s another great pop song, and like all great pop songs it’s able to connect at an emotional level.

‘Hereafter’ is the lead track of the eponymous EP, which also contains remixes of ‘Blurred Reality’ and the dancefloor-centric ‘Recovery’. Both ‘Blurred Reality’ and ‘Hereafter’ are available directly from Sombre Moon on Bandcamp.