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Underground > Radio & Music >

World Serpent Distribution - what's good?

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:23 / 19.03.03

Stoatie, I'm looking at you.

This is World Serpent Distribution's homepage. I've heard a lot about stuff off here: particularly Nurse With Wound's Homotopy For Marie - but I haven't actually heard it. The prices seem OK - can someone give me the good oil on what's good, what's shit, what's wanky - and what's a must-have. Explain, so I can explore. Something more than a list, if possible - who's got some reviews?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

05:31 / 20.03.03

Coil, of course. Current 93.
I'm a bit busy today but I'll post you some links to reviews when I get a chance (some of them possibly even by me).

12:30 / 20.03.03

Related question: If I liked Coil (which I do) am I likely to like Current 93? My local second hand record shop has got a few Current 93 CD's I'm tempted to check out, but I'm a bit wary. What Current 93 would you reccomend?

--

15:36 / 20.03.03

Well, it's been said already, but: COIL COIL COIL COIL COIL COIL COIL COIL COIL COIL COIL!

Yeah, I love Coil, especially the first two albums (Scatology & Horse Rotorvator). In fact "Horse Rotorvator" is in my top 3 CDs of all time. Their discography can be daunting so if you check them out I recommend maybe getting their 3 main albums (the above mentioned two and "Love's Secret Domain") and, if those interest you, branch out to their rarities/compilations (The "Unnatural History" trilogy. "Unnatural History 1" was the firs Coil CD I ever got). From then on I'd recommend Time Macines, their 2 remix albums, and the 2 Musick to Play in the Dark CDs. Their Blacklight District CD is well worth investigating too. It's taken me years to build up my Coil collection but I'm almost there, the only major one I'm missing is their ELPH project "Worship the Glitch", which I'm working on getting.

Current 93? Another band with a daunting discography. I'd recommend their first two albums, "Nature Unveiled" (which also includes early singles and live tracks) and the incredible "Dogs Blood Rising", their second album. In my opinion these are the only Current 93 albums anyone really needs to have, IMO the later albums they did never reached the levels of darkness that their earlier work achieved. But that's just my opinion.

Nurse With Wound is a band I'm still working on collecting, their CDs I have trouble finding and they're so exspensive. I did like "Merzbild Schwet" (sic) but I'm still working on getting more stuff from these guys.

Chris & Cosey: Another TG offshoot. IMO these guys don't really stack up when you place them next to bands like Psychic TV or Coil. Still, if you like primitive 80's synth-pop with slightly experimental overtones, I guess you'd like this. "Exotika" ain't bad and I liked their first album "Heartbeat". Avoid "Techno Primitive", the title says it all. Can't comment much on their post 80's work as I haven't really explored that.

I'm surprised Whitehouse ain't in the catalogue, they used to be, same for Throbbing Gristle (2 more of my favorite bands). Ah well.

Goodness Gracious Meme

21:32 / 20.03.03

could copy you some stuff if you like? (have custody of a friends cd collection;quite alot of WS in it.)

I'm in no way an expert, but having heard quite alot of world serpent stuff, I'd say these were good starters/ on the more accessible end.

Which definitely where i'd say to start. Current 93, NWW and Coil and WS in general all have very definite aesthetics (Coil actually seem to have a new aesthetic with each album.) which take a while to get used to. I think it's C93 who call their stuff 'Apocalyptic Folk Music' which is reasonably apt for NWW as well.

Love's Secret Domain - Coil. Just great. everyone likes this. errrr....
Thunder Perfect Mind (C93&NWW. WS - incestuous? naaah)/Soft Black Stars - C93

Think if you haven't already heard it already, you'd probably like Thighpulsandra's stuff.

Oh, and, you're into free/abstract jazz, aren't you? try The Basement Tapes Arthur Doyle/Dan Warburton, Edward Perraud.

And don't, for fucks' sake go near Death In June, Douglas P's Nazi Apocalyptic Folk.

*spit*

I don't like 'em meself and am not quote sure why, but Antony and the Johnsons sound like Tindersticks would if they were a WS band...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

01:49 / 26.03.03

The recent C93/NWW collaboration "Bright Yellow Moon" is particularly ace- it's all about David Tibet's GM-style near-death experience.
I think you'd probably find C93's "All The Pretty Little Horses" worth checking out, featuring as it does guest appearances from a Mr N Cave.

20:12 / 26.03.03

Don't forget Stolen and Contaminated-Coil [again] but as has been stated clearly above Coil Coil Coil Coil. I really rated two of their gig only cds Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil, and Remote Viewer which are probably bloody hard to get hold of but superlative. Incidentally they really are rather good live........

The Return Of Rothkoid

20:56 / 26.03.03

BIP: thanks. Would be interested in hearing whatever's burnable - can do you a Nitsch trade if you like. I've not heard Thighpaulsandra's stuff, other than the occasional Spiritualized bit, so am interested.
Abstract jazz is good, too - but it's such a fine line between shit/shinola in that camp. Am intrigued, though.

I'd already been warned off DIJ, so no risks there.

What I have already: two Coil Albums. Horserotorvator (thanks to a barbelegend) and the Unnatural Selections II disc (if that's what it's called - the one with the Hellraiser stuff on it. Basically, I'm kinda interested in Lustmordy-stylee creepiness, but am up for anything, really. Keep on with the write-ups. Stoatie: maybe you could do a couple of yer picks in a "24 Hrs of TG"-stylee? Those reviews really helped get over what the sound was like...

20:04 / 04.04.03

World Serpent put out the Nature and Organization CD EP I mentioned in one of the other threads. also if you like traditional folk (not yer sensitive whiners!) I would check out the Shirley Collins compilation you get from them.

20:04 / 04.04.03

World Serpent put out the Nature and Organization CD EP I mentioned in one of the other threads. also if you like traditional folk (not yer sensitive whiners!) I would check out the Shirley Collins compilation you get from them.

18:40 / 08.04.03

"I'd already been warned off DIJ, so no risks there."

So...why don't you try to make your own opinion then?

About C93: The first albums are more experimental but i don't think that the oppressing and mystic darkness of the beginning is now lost. I don't know one bad album of C93! Some are just less accessible."Thunder Perfect Mind" is generally considered as the best folk album of C93 so...majority rules! "Nature unveiled", "soft black stars" "Dawn" are the great chef d'oeuvre from the experimental period (even if they tried later some great pieces, "Faust" for exemple).

Nurse With Wound: Hard to find and beware! The earlier productions are very inspired by the germanic & experimental bands from the 60s 70s!So it's lot of frequencies torn with synths. "Thunder Perfect Mind" (the twin album of c93's one) is very good.

Coil: "Four seasons" are great!

Down

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:42 / 14.04.03

So...why don't you try to make your own opinion then?
Well, I've heard a bit and it hasn't sock-rocked. They are playing at a hotel about 10 minutes away sometime soon - but I am a little scared that if they sucked, I'd be standing there going "COCKHEADS!" at high volume. Which might become part of the show. I dunno.

To be honest, the extortionate import prices (we're talking upwards of $45 Australian for a single CD) make it difficult for me to take the plunge.

19:10 / 14.04.03

"To be honest, the extortionate import prices (we're talking upwards of $45 Australian for a single CD) make it difficult for me to take the plunge."

Well, I don't know if the import prices are generally too high (i mean more than usual

in Australia but i know that WS distribution are not cheap! ("But you know our artists are well payed...bla bla bla ").

Personnaly i have good prices because i'm used to buy in shop owned by a label! So they have some agreement with other label/distributors for fair (& low) prices. It's may be a solution i think...if your seller is right!

19:12 / 14.04.03

Ouch!
What i said is still right but a bit out of topic: DIJ is no more distributed by WS!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

06:50 / 15.04.03

As far as I remember, Douglas P claimed he'd left the label because Tiny Tim was homophobic. David Tibet said Mr P'd been kicked off for being a Nazi. In the end it turned out to be all about money, Douglas P proving that not only does he hold some objectionable political beliefs, he's really none too bright either. (He'd released a bunch of his stuff on another label, breaking his contract, and just figured that nobody would notice.)

I can again heartily recommend "Bright Yellow Moon"- the C93/NWW collaboration, which I just bought last week, being unable to find the copy someone did for me a couple of years ago. It's truly awesome, going from nice plinky folk to grating industrial noise, helicopters, trains, found tape loops, and all that good stuff, and back again.

I'm also quite partial to Sol Invictus- Tony Wakeford, ex of Death In June but who, according to Stewart Home, has abandoned any links with the far right. Still fairly misanthropic, but their more recent stuff has moved away from the minimalism of their earlier work, and is quite an epic take on the apocalyptic folk sound. (Especially "Eve"- a fucking brilliant track).

The Return Of Rothkoid

07:12 / 20.07.03

Well, given that I'm listening to Unnatural History II: Smiling in the Face of Perversity by Coil this afternoon, I thought I'd revisit this thread. I've a couple of things arriving in the mail soon - NWW's Homotopy To Marie being one of them - and have been slowly moving forward in this area, and wanted to see if anyone else had anything more to say about the WS crew.

I scored (ridiculously cheap, as it turns out) the four-EPs-done-at-solstices-and-equinoxes-but-put-on-2CDs compile Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) and have found it to be pretty good, some really ropey poetics aside. Something feels a bit... alive... in some of the tracks, and I'm really enjoying. Ditto, NWW's Salt Marie Celeste, which is rightfully compares with Gavin Bryars' The Sinking Of The Titanic, but with more of a minimalist, dirge feel.