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a red guide to the coastal quicksands of the british isles

by Dave Clarkson

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    Includes bonus PDF booklet with stunning photographs and sleeve notes.
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about

Released on the Linear Obsessional Recordings label on 11 Mar 2017 as a download and a limited numbered edition of 100 CDs. Each CD is enclosed in a plastic flexible case with a quicksand warning liner insert. Also includes pdf book.

Catalogue Number: LOR087
More information, availability and CD purchase and download: linearobsessional.bandcamp.com/album/a-red-guide-to-the-coastal-quicksand-of-the-british-isles


Written and Produced by Dave Clarkson between January and November 2016 at Cavendish House studios.

All sound recordings, treatments and production by Dave Clarkson:

Field recordings recorded at following locations:
Cumbria coast (Barrow/ Ulverston) - Track 1.
Talacre beach (Wales) / Morecambe Bay - Track 2.
Wirral coast - Track 3.
Talacre beach (Wales) / Morecambe Bay -Track 4.
Port Isaac / Land’s End (Cornwall) – Track 5.

with additional instrumentation on Track 2 and 4:
Roland JD-xi, Korg MS20, EMS iVCS3.



REVIEWS:

"This is the follow-up to 'Music For Lighthouses', which was reviewed in Vital Weekly 965, here again Clarkson stays close to the coast, here using field recordings from various coastal locations. The previous release seemed to hint towards the use of percussion and guitar, here there is mention of Roland JD-xi, Korg MS-20 and EMS iVCS3, so all electronic and obviously, I'd say, the field recordings are heavily processed, effectively in a melt-down into some deep drone rumble. Clarkson produces some excellent deep ripples of music
here, with a heavy low bass sound and on top he waves all of these electronic sounds, which in the longest piece, 'Quicksands - Low Tide' has a vaguely melodic touch and is the best piece of the lot, even at thirteen minutes. Dark, mysterious and nocturnal this particular trip to the coast. If pieces are shorter, such as 'Desolate Links' it works less well. Clarkson needs his time to tell a story, and that's what he best in the longer pieces. The bass frequencies on this release are quite massive, and caution is advised when playing this loud. Five pieces only, and at thirty-five minutes I thought this was all a bit on the short side. I wouldn't have minded another longer piece to top this journey off. I thought this was the best release by Clarkson so far."
FRANS DE WAARD / VITAL WEEKLY, 04 Apr 2017


"Those who are affected by a high arousal, we seek in leisure and in art a counterpoint to hyperstimulation. In an excessive simplification, we choose works with few elements, since this guarantees us peace and quiet. But when there is a real talent, the amount of elements are not relevant, but how to combine them. This is the case of this "Guide" by Dave Clarkson, where there are many field recordings and many electronic sounds, where we find multiplicity without praising, like speaking clearly."
COMPUTERMUSICNEIX, 31 Mar 2017


"The primary source material for each of this album's five tracks is field recordings from coastal areas and beaches around the UK - the Wirral, Morecambe Bay and Land's End among others. It's safe to assume that the recordings were made in bleak, windswept winter conditions rather than at the peak of the holiday season, given the register of unease and disquiet which dominates. Their sense of location is diluted, however, through processing and counterpointed with instrumental detailing".
NICK CAIN / THE WIRE Magazine, June 2017


"Last heard from Manchester-based Dave Clarkson with his 2014 album Music For Lighthouses…he’s followed it up with a continuation of sorts called A Red Guide To The Coastal Quicksands of the British Isles (LINEAR OBSESSIONAL RECORDINGS LOR087), in which we hear further electronic portraits of the lonely and horrifying seasides of the UK, rendered as abstract/ambient sounds, low key drones and murmurs, occasionally offset with field recordings of the lapping sea. These location recordings included such inhospitable places as Morecambe Bay, The Cumbria coast, and Port Isaac in Cornwall, all of them evidently rich sites for psycho-geographers such as Clarkson seeking pools of negative energy, buckets of despair, and suicidal thoughts. Clarkson is not intent on annihilating the human race, I would hope, but he is clearly drawn to these empty and vacant vistas, and succeeds in capturing and expressing a certain essence that confirms his bleak take on life. The work is further enhanced with his highly subtle electronic interventions, and succeeds admirably in conveying “the understated but immense power of the sea”, as the press notes would have it. An English writer who understood all of these themes very well was M.R. James, and he expressed them in literary form very well in the ghost story ‘O Whistle And I’ll Come To You My Lad’, a story which some readers may know better through the Jonathan Miller filmed version starring Michael Hordern. Dave Clarkson’s Red Guide is perfectly aligned with same, and while I wouldn’t be so crass as to suggest his CD would make a “great soundtrack” to the Miller film, I hope I am understood. The cover art, with its landscape-orientation photos of the beach under heavy clouds (all shot in black and white, of course), further advances the themes, as does the inclusion of various “Danger” stickers in the package. I would be very interested if Mr Clarkson would be pleased to continue his work by looking next at the problems of beach pollution in the UK, for instance making an album that looks into the lamentable fact that our bathing water ranks as one of the all-time worst in the EU beach league table. A chilling delight of artistic-ambient cold electronics….from 27th March 2017".
ED PINSENT / THE SOUND PROJECTOR Magazine, Dec 2017


"Dave Clarkson comes from the experimental / indie scene in Manchester and has played in the experimental field. With his "Guides", of which there are currently two, Clarkson is dedicated to the theme of landscape and is based by colourings on certain classifications that apply in nature conservation. On this CDR, Dave Clarkson has taken very detailed shots of sand movements at coastal areas in the UK, especially in the southwest, and combined them with flat electronic sounds. Bass and easy gyrating tracks have come out, which look quite static on the surface, but in their interior are lively. The Red Guide ... has the overall impression of autodidactic research, as we know it from the post-industrial scene of the mid-1980s - think of the then made insect research or cave exploration. Clarkson joins this episode".
TILL / AUF ABWEGEN Magazine, Koln, Germany, June 2018



BROADCASTS:

'Coastal Footpath, South' on Towards the Margins 104 / Shaun Blezard - 19 Mar 2017.
'Quicksands - High Tide' on WFMU / Brian Turner (US) - 04 Apr 2017.
'Coastal Footpath, North' on Reform Radio / Kelvin Brown & Graham Massey - 12 April 2017.
'Quicksands - Low Tide' on WFMU / Stan (US) - 14 Apr 2017.
'Quicksands - Low Tide' on WFMU / Nick Name (US) - 21 Apr 2017.
'Quicksands - High Tide' on WFMU / Carol - Serious Moonlight - 04 Jun 2017.
'Coastal Footpath, North' on Freak Zone / Stuart Maconie / BBC 6 Music - 04 Jun 2017.
'Coastal Footpath, North' on Sonic Imperfections / ResonanceFM - 24 Jul 2017.
'Quicksands - Low Tide' on 'On The Wire' / Steve Barker / BBC Radio Lancashire - 02 Sep 2017.

credits

released March 11, 2017

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cavendish house Manchester, UK

Cavendish House is home to music involving Dave Clarkson - either solo, in collaborations or in bands. Links to individual project pages....
electronicsound.co.uk/interviews/dave-clarkson/
daveclarkson.bandcamp.com
scissorgun.bandcamp.com
spectralbazaar.bandcamp.com/releases
www.linearobsessional.org
www.discogs.com/artist/3821168-Dave-Clarkson
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