aereogramme: box set: chemikal underground
so the vaguely related lesson for today is konsumterror. ulrike meinhof’s defense of the red army factions terrorist shenanigans. the real terror being, capitalism, consumption, the need forced upon us to consume constantly. the terror of consumption; not being able to get, being too late to get, or being unable to afford what’s on the market.
the irony being that this is exploited (for the right? reasons usually) by bedroom labels and nonmainstream and underground musicians as a way to sell records, keep up demand, interest. exclusivity. a nice club if you can join.
what am i getting at here?
well mainly my inability (did anybody get one?) to procure the cheater slicks bats in the dead trees lp recently.
and it leads me (does it?!) to the abject failure of humanity to get a hold of aereogramme over their ten years in existance. why do the evils of capitalism never seem to work evilly in favour of the good?
was it their inclusivity that buggered them? covering slayer and michael jackson and pj harvey and flaming lips. chucking in bits of pop, metal, hardcore, prog, noise, electronics, acoustics, piano, field recordings, bells and whistles.
too left-field? too shouty and noisy? too poppy? too guitarary? too electronicky? too gloomy? too serious? too heartfelt? too beautiful? too complex? too heavy?
“we could barely have been less pitchable if we were registered sex offenders”
yes goddammit. all of these things (apart from maybe the sex offenders thing) and so much more. and praise jeebus for their schizophrenia. this easy switch from chaos to calm, ugly to beauty is what made aereogramme so special.
so anyway it’s finally here among us, like quatermasses insects. not five million years in the making. maybe five months. a suitably protracted tale. but fitting that this epitaph should be a tortuously produced big black tombstone-like box.
aereogramme were:
the saviours of the underground.
a scottish alternative/post-rock rock band from glasgow ie a typically meaningless wikipedia reduction (wasn’t every band in glasgow at one point alternative/post-rock?).
a potent mix of wonder ignorance and fear.
bearded.
the earth, the sky and the moon above and inbetween.
pretty much all and none of the above.
what they certainly were/are: one of my favourite bands (there’s not that many). and everything wanky and boring that statement entails. like the flaming lipses ouvre, records i can listen to pretty much anytime no matter what. with that same curious mix of the physical and the intellectual.
the twelve inches of box includes: a glossy booklet containing a funny/sad/angry/despairing/joyous obituary by campbell that is singularly scottish and all very aereogramme, and an introduction by hardeep phull:
“when a band like aereogramme falls in the forest and no one is there to hear them, they definitely do make a noise – and a singularly wonderful one at that.”
oh and every ep and album released by chemikal underground. starting with the aereofoetus that is the fukd id glam cripple record and finishing with the cinematic swansong that was my heart has a wish that you would not go. all on lovely vinyl. no seclusion, since it came out on undergroove. which is a shame since dreams and bridges is a four and a half minute encapsulation of everything i love about aereogramme.
sleep and release is still a work of maddening majesty - their lanark, their no. 5 1948, their eraserhead, their lift your skinny fists… why it didn’t bloody sell them to you fuckmonkeys i’ll never know. proof, if any were needed, that the world is a soulless empty place full of empty soulless people.
anyway i feel a little sad and a little angry listening to this just now. you bastards…
there’s a thousand of the buggers. there may be some left here.
“my heart has a wish father, that you would not go”
