AdeptSound

One of the good things about the local independent labels in Perth is their variety. While there is a certain amount of crossover, Craig McElhinney has been released on Meupe, Grave New World and Badminton Bandit, while Matt Aitken (aka Gilbert Fawn) has appeared on Frosty You Haunt Me, Grave New World and Badminton Bandit. Other than that, they are all pursuing their own style. This is definitely apparent with the southern suburb based label Adeptsound which from I see as an international label based in Perth, much like Hidden Shoal, as they both have an international focus. I first came across the label when I picked up a postcard from 78's advertising the Zilverhill "+Eotvos+" cd and the Schuster "The Brutal Arc" 7" lathe.

The label is run by Tim Bayes and was started in 2008 to release the first Zilverhill cd . Zilverhill is a collaboration between him and Paul Carr from Sheffield, UK who also goes under the name Present Day Buna  and has resulted in the cd's "+Eotvos+" (ADSBSCD01) and "Latent-Active-Descent" (ADSBSCD02). Tim also records under the name Schuster and has a long history of recording going back to the early 80's UK act Ideas Beyond Filth along with Steve Cammack (of Dieter Muh fame) and Sean Rourke. The trio put out a series of cassette releases from 1985-1986 and had a compilation 12" released on Harbinger Sound in 2008. He is also a collaborator of early and current period Dieter Muh.



 The music of Zilverhill encompasses dark ambient/industial/noise/drone with haunting vocal samples that have been manipulated to give a disembodied approach. The music also has a metallic-apocalyptic soundtrack sound which at some time can be claustrophobic. The thing that stands out is that the music is created by two artists presumably file sharing so it's any ones guess how the material is constructed and who constructs the final track. One of the interesting things to find out about the music is the source/origin of the vocal samples which give the music it's haunting edge. Highlights for me are "Ominous" (Industrial/Noise with what sounds like field recording loops), "Hiding" (Not sure what the guy is saying at the start other than "Hey!" which builds up and a sort of early Severed Heads-ish rhythm) and "Proven" (Clanking Industrial/Drone) from "+Eotvos+", "Corner Stone' (an interesting use of industrial percussion and haunting Drones), "Erebus" (Dark Drone), "Birdtrain" (Electronic pulsing Wasp like sound) and "To Autumn" (Pulsing synth drone) from "Latent-Active-Descent"

Schuster is Tim's solo project and both the  EP releases and 7" are almost concept albums. The first release was "The Brutal Arc" lathe 7" which was limited to 30 copies and housed in a PVC outer sleeve (Sold out at source, though is still available via Cold Spring). The 7" was made of sound sources from an oxyacetylene torch that have then been manipulated and processed. The "Breaking Down Into his Own Oblivion" release is "a reflection on life, decay, murder and death" and is my personal favourite of the Adeptsound releases. It reminds me of Lustmord and Thomas Köner as it has that dark glacial ambient drone sound of "BD's Lament" and "I am living in my own corpse", plus the early Black Lung-ish of  "Your house is marked" and the gong/drone of "Manasarovar". The artwork also stands out as it is a package that has to be broken to access the cd-r. It's like one of those cd mailers that once you seal has to be opened by the perforated strip.It also comes with a #'d postcard. The last few copies are available, so get a copy now.

"1-5 Microns" is the second Schuster release and is described as "a statement on biological logistics in warfare". The difference from this release to the previous Schuster release is that it's a more rhythmic release with emphasis on disturbing audio loops (such as "Why are you playing in this church", "You're going to die, there's no question about that"). All 5 tracks are called "1-5 Microns" but each has a sub name that allows the listener to follow the thread of the release. If this release is about biological logistics in warfare, then the tracks like "1-5 Microns (Attempted) and "1-5 Microns (I was only a fucking kid)" are the start of that warfare with "1-5 Microns (Dispersed)" and the following two tracks "1-5 Microns (Morality)" and "1-5 Microns (Achieved)" being the effect and understanding consequences of this warfare. "Dispersed" and "Morality" are glacial droning tracks, while "Achieved" returns to the rhythmic nature and vocal samples of "I was only a fucking kid". Again this is a limited cd-r release of 50 copies with a few copies still available.

You've got to love Itunes/Gracenote. I mean how many cd's are actually "Alternative and Punk" or "Electronica/Dance"? When put into my computer Itunes describes the compilation release "Bacterium" (or "Bak-tr'e-em") as "Unclassifiable", which is not that far from the truth as with all good compilations there is an amount of different music on this release crossing genre boundaries sometimes within the same track. Compiled by Tim Bayes and Steve Cammack the compilation includes known artists such as Cheapmachines, D.D.A.A., Dieter Muh and Schuster with newer (maybe just to me) names like Maison Close, Praying for Oblivion and Mnem. The scope of the music on this release is Noise, Dark Ambient, Drone, Industrial and Power Electronics. Highlights for me are Cheapmachines "Culture" ( a slow and building noise piece), Joseph Nadek "Yersina Pestis" (reminds me of early 80's Industrial/Noise), Maison Close "Filoviridae Mutatis" (Noise with a disturbing distorted female voice), N. Strahl.N "Plasma-Spaltung (Geburt)" (Sounds like a post-apocalypse film's soundtrack meets scattered electronic squawks of noise), The Psychogeographical Commission "Pathogenic Suspension" (Dark Ambient/Drone with Field Recordings) and Schuster "The Scattering of Bones- Place & Call (Klebsiella) (Low volume soundscaping with gritty loops). The cd comes in a edition of 300 copies with a 12 page booklet which features artwork, info on the artists and information about the tracks. It also comes wiith a #'s postcard.

All available Adeptsound releases can be purchased directly from the label here or you can check out some of their stockists that might be closer to you here. If you want to hear some of their music here its:

Latest tracks by Adeptsound

You can also download some tracks from the Adeptsound page here. Tim's previous band Ideas Beyond Filth (I.B.F) have tracks for download here. You can read an interview with Dieter Muh (who includes Tim Bayes as a member/contributer) here.

OK, Tim was very generous in sending me the above releases and added in an extra copy of the two Zilverhill cd's and a copy of the "Bacterium" compilation and the two postcards that come with "Latent-Active-Descent" and "Bacterium" comps. So, here is the first Twiceremoved competition. Whoever emails me first with the correct answer gets all 3 sealed cd's. I will edit this post when the competition has been won. All answers emailed to twicerememberedtwiceremoved@gmail.com. The question is: Tim Bayes (Schuster/Adeptsound) was a member of Ideas Beyond Filth who had a 12" release on Harbinger Sound. How many copies where originally going to come out as a lathe cut and how many were eventually released by Harbinger Sound.

EDIT: The Cd's have been claimed, congrats to Steve of Columbus, USA.