Geir Tore Holm
Muohttagis čallime / Writing in Snow / Vi skriver i snøen

The Wormhole: ...Side A: ‘Vodou’. Head priest: Gran Sèvitè Jean-Daniel Lafontant. Vodou priests: Oungan Eddy Saint-Jean and Anperè Jean Céus. Vodou priestesses: Manbo Françoise Célestin, Manbo Christine Lamour, Manbo Marie-Marthe Similien and Manbo Jacqueline Thélus. Other participants: Ounsi and members of Sosyete Na-Ri-VéH. Percussionists: Ountògi and the drummers of The Sacred Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777.Side B: ‘Rara’. All-female rara band: Forever Rara Fanm of Belair.Grand Rue recordings made by AMé in front of the Atis Rezistans, Port-au-Prince on 21 December 2015, 4:54pm to 5:18pm. Vodou ceremony and all-female rara band recorded by AMé at Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777 in Port-au-Prince, 16 December 2015, 9pm to 1am. Edited by Philip Marshall with AMé in Cologne, 16 May 2016. Mastered by Zachary James Watkins at Stank House, 3 August 2016. Artwork by Stefan Fähler. AD&D by Don Wyrm.

boomkat: ...Lyrically taking aim at Arts Council/Trust-funded lightweights, capitalist realism, and the precarious insecurity of working class life, and set to a mix of rugged, lo-fi breaks, visceral electronics and textured field recordings, the record draws listeners perhaps uncomfortably close into Mike’s street-level worldview.Across 11 songs he grasps the pissy nettle of modern life on a low wage, oppressed by massive, unanswerable corporations and forced to work around a Tory logic that’s at Victorian levels of patronisation and disregard for social welfare - made all the more acute by the fact he hails from within hollering distance of the original slums and overcrowded housing that influenced Marx and Engels’ philosophy. He’s the articulate inheritor of generations of proud, necessary social resistance, the latest vessel for a spirit that runs from the Peterloo Massacre to Emeline Pankhurst, Mike Leigh and John Cooper Clarke.Most distinctively, purposefully enunciated in Mike’s vowel-stressing Manc accent, the lyrics observe a perpetually gloomy state of affairs with the same poetically rhyming meter, unflinching honesty and conviction that makes his live performances so transfixing. Opening with the rising rage of ‘Bleak Northern Roads’ where he zooms out from street-dealing scenes and increasing food prices, to the politics of whit hall, his voice steady but seething, Sam Weaver’s knackered breaks and atonal, slimy electronics bitterly underline the sentiment, using samples of archaic Monarchistic announcements to punctuate the fury leading into cranky highlights such as the hardcore ’89 style UK hip hop of ‘Breakneck Pace’ and ‘Cultural Capital’ - think The Criminal Minds before they went fast - while he excels at a form of modern folk reality in the narration and inclement, skeletal sonic scenery of ‘Modern Industry’, and the pranged dancehall noise torque and warning barbs of ‘Citizen 107’.

BUNKER sideMesa of the Lost Women was Yves Botz (guitar, vox), Christophe Sorro (drums, effects), with Thierry Delles (perc.)Live at the Bunker (Metz) / 1st of july 2005from a video by Guillaume Mariettamastered by Julien LouvetCAVEAU sideMesa of the Lost Women was Yves Botz (guitar, vox), Christophe Sorro (drums, effects), with Junko (voice)Live at Caveau des Trinitaires (Metz) / 30th of october 2007from a video by Alexandra Gérardmastered by Kevin Le Quellec

Editions Mego: ...If you have heard any of Thighpaulsandra's previous albums, you will know that you'd best approach this record with no fixed set of expectations, because once again he changes genres and defies easy classification, sometimes more than once within one song. Drawing on his long-time background as a key member in such diverse groups as Coil, Spiritualized and Julian Cope's band (in each case arguably at the height of their creative prowess) and his work as producer and sound engineer for an even larger variety of customers, you'll find classical passages next to hard rock riffing, krauty experimental work-outs turning into super catchy, almost radio-friendly songs and more.Many adjectives have been used to describe Thighpaulsandra’s work: epic, challenging, timeless, idiosyncratic, but certainly never predictable or boring.Possibly his most rewarding album yet and a welcome and unusual entry, in the Mego catalogue, which will entertain and astonish listeners who are fond of having their mind severely altered by sound.