JIGOKU

Sometime back in the mists of time a while after SLAB

I became involved in a little project with my friend Jon

and Gareth Goddard from Cherrystones

it usually involved copious amounts of substance abuse

and lots of audiovisual noise.

Jigoku was the probably the first of the underground audiovisual mashups in London

starting in the very early 90s....

usually playing the most drugged out and darkest of clubs.

The films were seriously nasty and pyschedelic....

Jon and Gareth are releasing a DVD

check it out

SLAB Leviathan

Leviathan

An ode to the Sea.... touched up since first recorded in 1989..... the final version is huge.... a return to our heavier side.....

http://rapidshare.com/files/370078528/SLAB_Leviathan_excerpt_.wav

SLAB Wipe The Floor

For those who like our more esoteric side.... afterall it gets a little wearing being brutal all the time... and lets face it ...it sorta lacks imagination if all you wanna do is kick people in the throat all day long..... sometimes you just gotta be a little more subtle.... y'know pins in the eyes...... sometimes you need a little variety...

so here she is... a little oddball recorded in 1989

an excerpt from Wipe the Floor.... a story of love....

where Tom Waits meets Prince.... in Marrakesh..... strung out on smack.....

"You been playing swimming pools, hanging out with shallow fools".....

its basic, as were we at the time and i make little or no apology for the way it sounds... cos it sounds like we did at the time.... strung out..... but hey ho....

http://rapidshare.com/files/370084333/SLAB_Wipe_The_Floor_excerpt.wav

SLAB - Buried Alive

Buried Alive

Another extract from unreleased 3rd album

Music Dray / Lyrics Jarvis

Recorded late 1988 in Shoreditch..... penultimate lineup.... just after Scott and Lou had left to go to the States so about 3 months or so after Sanity Allergy

http://rapidshare.com/files/366424725/SLAB_Buried_Alive_extract.wav

Voice and samples Dray

Gtr Paul Jarvis

Gtr Nick Page

Bass Boleslaw Usarzewski

Drums Rob Allum

Doesnt have a vocal on it... but will do.... was a fixture of the final bands live set

Rob Allum remains a friend to this day, played with many many people including being part of Stereolab, Add N to X, and played for Brian Wilson and Arthur Lee.... if we gig again he's on drums

Nick Page was a short term member who went on to form Transglobal Underground

SLAB - You're Not Alone

You're Not Alone

Recorded late 1988 excerpt from the unreleased 3rd album

Music Dray, Lyrics Jarvis

Voice and programming Dray

Gtr Paul Jarvis

Bass Boleslaw Usarzewski

http://rapidshare.com/files/366411835/SLAB_-_Youre_Not_Alone_excerpt.wav

SLAB- another taster for you... I Unseen

I Unseen

Recorded 1988, instruments and voice Dray, lyrics Paul Jarvis, from the unreleased 3rd album.

Myself a giant peering down at continents and cities

Through the poles my fingers pierce and stop the world from spinning.....

http://rapidshare.com/files/366395564/SLAB_-_I_Unseen_excerpt.wav

chrysallid people with no faces in some kind of dark underground hell

Paul Jarvis writes of the lyrics to Hushed Prayers

Hushed Prayers , and it really does read like a spoken prayer ... inspired most definately by Henry Moore's sketches of people sleeping in Tube stations during the Blitz . I went to an exhibition of them which made me write the lyric , although I updated it for our times : "radiation-clear" . Google Image them - they're incredibly haunting - chrysallid people with no faces in some kind of dark underground hell ...

I just read that some Tube stations did receive direct hits from bombs - Marble Arch , Balham and Bank saw many people die but Bethnal Green saw the biggest loss of life when there was a stampede and 173 people were crushed to death . So that would explain the cold , eerie feeling that station has then ! To bring the lyric up to date , I edited a documentary once about the 2nd Iraq war called The Fight For Baghdad . That war opened with the infamous Shock And Awe night bombing of Baghdad . The iconic images of Saddam's Palace going up in a fireball were actually filmed by a BBC reporter from his hotel window . I got to see the unedited rushes ( may have been Brian Barron , can't remember ) and they made me feel sick to the pit of my stomach - just the almost evil beauty in the way the missiles hit buildings in clusters of flame ... you could see civilians running for their lives down the street , and cars careering off the road in blind panic ... they weren't hitting military targets that's for sure as at least a couple of blocks of flats nearby went up . It was murder , pure and simple . So Hushed Prayers is for any race creed or colour at any time , trying to survive and keep calm in the onslaught of murderous bombing . I think I have to say Amen now ...

SLAB- a little taster for you... Hushed Prayers

A snippet from the SLAB unreleased 3rd album.... a song called Hushed Prayers.... go get it here:

SLAB_-_Hushed_Prayers_extract.wav

Dray

Catherine Ribeiro

If you've never heard her then do it now

go here

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2007/01/catherine-ribeiro-2bis-same-lp-1969.html

absolutely astonishing stuff

The return from the grave...

For a long time now I've been meaning to post but just wasnt sure where to take this.... anyhow during this apparent hiatus we have been rather busy, working on old songs, working on a horde of new material and chatting online to Stephen O'Malley and Steven Wilson amongst others.

The idea is still to release the first two albums plus the unreleased third. Unfortunately I have always found it very difficult going back to old material.... I never can stand still so just write new stuff all the time.

So apologies for lack of updates anywhere lately, the website seems to have become a little sickly of late so hasnt been updated for a couple of weeks.

I WILL post some shit up here somewhere soon

Dray