Back in the early ‘00s, when I began freaking out over releases by assorted heavy hitters in the sphere of proper psyche / drone / UK underground / whatever, Ashtray Navigations always passed me by for some reason. I certainly remember seeing tons and tons of CD-Rs and the like by him/them doing the rounds via distros etc, but for whatever reason, I just never bit.

Then, earlier this year, I found I already had two other VHF releases in my virtual shopping basket, and, grokking the link for ‘A Shimmering Replica’ sitting next to them, I found myself pathologically unable to resist the label’s promise of “100 minutes of exotic fuzz raga moods”, and decided what the hell – better late than never.

So then – what delights are available for the Ashtray Navigations first-timer within this visually appealing and budget conscious LP plus CD package? Well, if they don’t exactly match up the press snippet above (I hear very little raga going on here), the tracks on the LP certainly do represent a rollicking compendium of jerry-rigged, punk-minded homemade frippertronics, which certainly does me nicely. Piled up, jammed out wreckage of fuzz guitar, eerily bright synth swooshes and chronic delay knob twisting all sit astride minimal, Suicide-esque drum loops, side #1 showcases a sound that resembles ‘No Pussyfooting’ recreated by a gang of MDMA-abusing unemployed garage mechanics, before side # 2 blunders into the realm of some kinda deconstructed mutant disco, like Peaking Lights hunkering down in the shadow of some druidic megalith.

So that’s all quite lovely really.

True revelation though came when I finally got tired of revelling in the glories of my renovated hi-fi speakers and slouched over to the computer to check out the tracks n the CD. Here it seems, Phil Todd and Melanie O’Dubhshlaine have stuck some of their slightly more unglued, less crowd-pleasing pieces, and whatdoyaknow, I liked them even better. ‘Quite Village’ and the magnificently titled ‘Seventies Concorde Proboscis’ in particular are some of the most enthralling, synapse-tickling psyche/noise tracks I’ve heard in years – strange collages of scruff and noise that sound, at least in part, like fragments of an audio diary of a trip to Kathmandu, a badly warped Amon Düül album and the soundtrack to an old BBC Quatermass serial, as chopped up and reconstructed by some dangerous yet visionary lunatic.

So that’s even lovelier.

With this all fresh in my mind when I was visiting Japan back in September, I found myself purchasing a limited edition Ashtray Navigations triple LP entitled ‘A Tribute To British Rock’ for the equivalent of about four quid, no doubt contributing considerably to the destruction of our suitcase’s wheels as I dragged the bloody thing back to its original home here in blighty (sorry Satori). And lo, the catch-up begins.

VHF are here. Ashtray Navigations are here. Your preferred independent record vendors may still be holding copies of ‘A Shimmering Replica’.

Labels: Ashtray Navigations, best of 2015