Bark Psychosis: C or D

Q: "Couldn't you have afforded to put Andy in an urn?"

A: "Yes but he insisted..."

But not on this one - ponderous atmospherics adding up to very little: dud.

Bark Psychosis
http://gd.times.lv/bark.htm

PS; Got bored of waiting for Independancy and have ordered an Amazon Marketplace copy of Game Over.

Excuse me; I had a pint at lunchtime.

yes, i hope they haven't quite all been snapped up and i'm too late

(any pointers along the lines of, "if you like this then you'll like Bark Psychosis" -- oh, i know such comparisons are a bit shaky, but help !)

Hex is easy enough to triangulate. A.R. Kane, Laughing Stock, Astral Weeks. but it's so much more than the sum of its influences.

Of all the bands branded with the nebulous "post-rock" tag, England's Bark Psychosis achieved the rarest balance between group musicality and post-production programming. Recorded with a large ensemble of musicians but pieced together with a computer and a sampler, Hex is a seamless tapestry—-a miraculous album that never forfeits its supernatural aura to the sterility of digital design. Principals Graham Sutton and Daniel Gish elaborate on such timeless models as A.R. Kane's 69, The Blue Nile's A Walk Across the Rooftops and especially Talk Talk's Laughing Stock, filling Hex's wide-screen canvas with emotional song-craft and technological refinement. Hex favors the elegant and the understated, presenting an extraordinarily filmic backdrop against which piano, guitar and vocal phrases, wisps of instrumentation and Mark Simnett's percussive cascades fall like December snow. The secret tensions that underscore Bark Psychosis' shimmering quiescence first manifest themselves in John Ling's sinuous, dub-modulated basslines, occasionally erupting in such rapturous displays of bittersweet beauty as "A Street Scene" and "Eyes & Smiles." Other breathtaking flourishes include ribbon-fine feedback, quenching showers of vibes and Del Crabtree's electrifying Miles-style trumpet. Alas, even Bark Psychosis couldn't top Hex. The group disbanded, with Sutton finding minor fame in the drum n' bass arena as Boymerang.

i hope to be proved oh-so-wrong on this last point. will be able to let you know very soon. (-;

grrr.

Nick I can burn you Independency if you want, it's next to impossible to find now (check musicstack.com or gemm, I guess).

i miss john ling though. *crying over loss of dub*

Bark Psychosis: NEW ALBUM: MARCH 2004

The release of the much delayed: CODENAME: dustsucker album by Bark Psychosis has been set for March 2004.

It will be released on Fire Records

From the Bark Psychosis forum:

Personnel on the new album consists of:

Pete Beresford - Vibraphone
Anja Buechele – Vocals
Rachel Dreyer – Piano, Vocals, Wood Flute
Shaun Hyder – Sindhi Tamboura
Lee Harris – Drums
Alice Kemp – Bowed Guitar
T.J. Mackenzie – Trumpet
David Panos – Bass
Graham Sutton– Guitar,Piano, Melodica, Bass, Emulator,Vocals

The record was engineered and produced by Graham Sutton at DustSuckerSound, Hackney, London.

Like, THE Lee Harris??? Of Talk Talk???

Hmmm... March 2004. So, I should expect to hear it around February or so?? heh heh heh.

the two cheree eps were collected on one cd. it's over there (points 5ft to his left). discogs doesn't list anything else.

https://www.discogs.com/Bark-Psychosis-Nothing-Feels-I-Know/release/690188

ah, there was a track on the flexi

B1 –Bark Psychosis Clawhammer

Never much cared for Codename: Dustsucker. Hex and Independency are mostly classic, though.

dustsucker was the first one i heard (courtesy of a nick southall review, i think!), and i still love it and connect to it a bit more than their earlier albums (which i also like)

This is a rather random little essay but has a few tidbits about early BP.

https://christopherothen.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/the-bark-psychosis-stanley-kubrick-connection/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j09xsVXSuUk

JUst reading that bark psychosis/kubrick thing and the writer's wrong, they didn't go to Bancrofts which was the other local public school in the area. they went to Forest School. Certainly from the age of about 11 to when they left school.

Piece in stereogum on hex’s 25th birthday:
https://www.stereogum.com/2031861/bark-psychosis-hex-turns-25/franchises/sounding-board/

i never understood the fuss about hex. nothing special really, nice to listen to but quite boring. codename dustsucker on the other hand totally knocked me out. they reached another level on that album.

BUYER BEWARE: RSD issue of Bark Psychosis “Independency” is unapproved and made despite being asked not to.
No approval of tracklisting.
No approval of artwork.
No approval of mastering.
No approval of pressings.
Can't vouch for veracity of masters used.
You get the picture.

— Graham • Sutton (@GPSutton) March 1, 2019

Did anyone pick this up despite it not being legit? I saw a copy yesterday that had somehow not been purchased on RSD, but given Graham's tweet above and the $40 price tag, I ultimately decided to pass it up. I hope this wasn't a mistake. Hopefully there will be a proper reissue at some point?

I did. Listened to it last night and it actually sounds pretty great!!

Guessing, despite Graham’s comments, that they must’ve had some sort of decent masters to work with.

Picked it up but not listened to it yet. Also sent me off to finally order the “Blue” and “A Street Scene” CD singles which have now arrived.

I was so conflicted about this one. As well as your comment about the quality of the sound Alan, a few people on Discogs have said it sounds excellent. As soon as it was announced it was at the top of my list, but Graham's comments stopped me from getting it. We have one copy left at work and it's calling my name.

I asked Graham if he’d ever remaster Independency and he suggested there were significant legal issues with doing so, iirc. No idea what.

The legal issue will be Gerald Palmer’s ownership of the masters.

I ended up picking up this reissue and have to say, it sounds really great. Just as good as the recent Hex and Codename vinyl reissues.

So Independency, Game Over and Replay have now hit streaming services? Really didn't expect this at all.

nice!

Files were upped on Boomkat a couple of months ago but Graham asked them to take them down and they complied almost immediately, so I guess Third Stone were responsible.

well, i'm happy to hear independency again.

Is there any plans to reissue the non-album stuff?

Struggled to decide which thread to flag this on ...

https://acerecords.co.uk/in-the-light-of-time

Great track listing.

This looks great but I feel picky about a couple of the inclusions on here.

Hate to nit pick as all these tracks are great but no Butterfly Child or Papa Sprain?

Appliance are not great imho, or relevant, ESoJ too.

Yes, surprising that Butterfly Child weren't on there.

I felt strangely enthused about this last night - just glad to see those bands being documented together - without ever having a need to buy the album (as I'd have every track on there that I'd want).

Made this a few years ago (probably with wine). Surprised I omitted Piano Magic and Hood and not sure Montgolfier Brothers and Bitter Springs quite fit the timeline:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0WNCUK2moLElB1CeOkMxVm

I felt strangely enthused about this last night - just glad to see those bands being documented together - without ever having a need to buy the album (as I'd have every track on there that I'd want).

Yeah, would agree with this (while simultaneously being very irritated that Butterfly Child/Joe is not on there).

Surprised that O'Rang are not on that comp as well, or Long Fin Killie for that matter. Would have been nice if it went all in on the mid-90's era post-rock stuff.

Then again, licensing etc. Probably good (and mundane) reasons why the obvious artists aren't repped. (See also: MBV/When You're Awake You're Still in a Dream.)

x-posts. Butterfly Child seems an omission and there might be a practical reason for it (or the compiler might just not have liked). But, regardless, it's a better version of those years than any other compilation trying to recall the UK nineties, I'd reckon.

Casts a wider net and obviously lacks some of the key UK bands but this is still the benchmark comp of the first wave postrock era imo:

https://www.discogs.com/release/178563-Various-Monsters-Robots-And-Bug-Men-A-Users-Guide-To-The-Rock-Hinterland

Virgin Ambient was on a roll there, for a while.

Yes, great compilation but with a slightly different perspective. Have in my head that Simon Hopkins was behind some awesome compilations.

Yes, and Kodwo Eshun did the amazing Routes From The Jungle comp which I believe was part of the Ambient series.

think Kevin Martin did the Monsters one. David Toop was behind lots of the others

oh no you're quite right, was Hopkins my apologies!

Tangentally related, I'd check out the two Southeast Of Saturn comps too.

Yes! Will stan for Majesty Crush all the livelong day.

Random Monday night thought: did "In The Light of Time" get much coverage and/or prompt any interesting writing/interviews?

Nothing seen on any of the stops that I frequented since it was released. Maybe it's not yet the right moment for a UK post-rock / lost generation resurgence? Despite the stupidly accelerated culture in the West, some music just needs time to get properly lost before it can be rediscovered.

Just checked and yeah, it's been less than 15 years since Biggie Samuels did those excellent "Post-Rocktoberfest" compilations on his Bubblegumcage blog.

somewhat tangential but … the distance between the quality of the music and quality of album title with “code name: dustsucker” remains astonishing

30th anniversary of Hex, apparently.

Hell of an album still.

Absolutely.

A massive album. And Dustsucker will turn 20 in July of this year. Still holding on for one more BP album but yeah, so much time has passed

The Boymerang album turned 25 a couple years back, with little to no fanfare.

wonder if there's a place in the US I can order these reissues, shipping from the uk is crazy

https://christopherothen.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/the-bark-psychosis-stanley-kubrick-connection/

As someone who lived in Wanstead/South Woodford in the Che and early Rocket Girl years (distinct from the Cheree ones), I enjoyed reading that.