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Reviews, quotes and airplay: Utopia International (SUPER DISTORTION)
Our
Rating:
9/10
Yes
folks, Pete Bradley, the man who goes under the name of SUPER
DISTORTION is back, and back in a big way! Last year I reviewed
‘Autocue/Super Bug’ and then I stated “if Pete Bradley continues to
turn out songs as clever and tuneful as this, then I think he will
become very well known”. Well, he has certainly developed beyond that
single with this album. Using his own studio and playing all his own
instruments, this long player is a testament to Pete’s inventiveness
and innovation.
There
are ten tracks on the album, which opens with the superheavy fuzz of
‘Beautiful Life’: a track that the publicity blurb states was ‘inspired
by the tracks Down by the River and Cowgirl in the sand by Neil Young’.
To my ears, it seems a bit more akin to Young’s ‘Like a Hurricane’ in
the way the guitar line circles and builds. The lyrics are concerned
with displacement, both of people and of art itself, and with the
chorus of: - “We led a beautiful life.” This is a track which at over
seven minutes long, you can immerse and lose yourself in.
‘Think
Only Good Things’ which follows takes a different slant, folky,
whimsical and uniquely English it has a real 1960s feel to it: - “Think
only good things, of chocolate éclair things, no not sad things, or bad
things/ Only good things and maybe it could bring good things to you.”
I liked the way the lyrics flowed on this one and the clever rhymes –
“Think only young things, of curranty bun things”, which brought a
smile to my lips. This was reminiscent of The Kinks' Village Green
Preservation Society, and showed a different side to Pete’s work.
‘Mr
Spock’ is a sort of fuzz classic, sounding very early 1970s prog
psyche, and with some brilliant rhymes on TV and cartoon characters:
“Do you know Mr. Spock? If you do Join the flock” and
“Do you know Elmer Fudd? If you do, join the club/ Shooting at anything
that moves, blowing a hole in his shoes.” However, the one that most
tickled me was: - “Do you know Dick Dastardly? He’s setting traps for
you and me.”
Other
tracks that really shook me were ‘Can You See The Patterns?’ with its
disturbing, distorted intro before crashing into something that isn’t a
million miles away from The Move, when they were at their best: -
“Maybe we’re just cogs in a green machine/ We think we’re clever cogs,
but beneath the sheen,
We’re running round and round with no plan to be seen.”
Highlight
of the album is ‘Living Thing’ which is a perfect example of garage
rock, featuring organ, fuzz guitar and drums, this track is just
perfect and so fits the garage genre, that were it to be added into
either one of the Nuggets or pebbles compilations without anyone’s
knowledge, then I’d challenge anyone to spot the difference. It is that
good.
In short this is a must have album. Whilst we are only just into March, this for me is without doubt album of the year so far.
Nick Browne
http://www.whisperinandhollerin.com
UNPEELED
Review by Christian Watson
SUPER DISTORTION ''UTOPIA INTERNATIONAL'' (POINTY BIRD RECORDS)
RELEASED? Out now.
SOUNDS LIKE? Kind of like Syd Barrett if he was on less acid and hung out round T-Rex’s chalet- you know, the one they have down at the Butlins in Bognor) and George Harrison popped around to borrow some change for the arcades where Radish are playing Skeeball with one third of Len Price 3 and a couple of roadies from Led Zepplin’s 1973 tour of North America.
IS IT ANY GOOD? I like it. That’s my opinion today. There is a massive difference between being a knowing twat who likes to show their musical inspirations in some kind of post-modern, aren’t-I-intelligent, ball sucking* kind of way, and someone who makes good music that would be able to compete with the bastards who were having a go at it back when everything didn’t give you cancer.
Super Distortion are not knowing or ironic. Utopia International moves through various styles that are very firmly rooted in the late sixties and early seventies, but at no time does it feel like a simple pastiche. This isn’t a nostalgia trip, a love letter ode to the past dripping in rose tinted crotch saliva. Neither is it a parody or simple reproduction of past hits regurgitated for want of an imagination as each song feels authentic and unique. Listen to it. If you like new shit that sounds like old shit then this is the shit for you. It’s like old shit if it was done today by people today doing the same shit they were doing back in the day and knowing what has happened yesterday and all days preceeding until that day back when the old shit was new shit. This is new shit, but mature like the old shit aged nicely. What you should do is buy this record and an old record- or bring them both up in different tabs using youtube- whatever’s easier, and play them both to a friend and ask him to pick out the old shit. Your friend would have trouble. He’d be saying, “They both sound old as shit, how am I supposed to decide?” Your friend would have to decide. You would make him decide, by force if necessary. When he finally decides, under threat of baseball bat, he will choose the old shit. You know why? Well, let him tell you, “Yeah, I’ll tell you, just put the bat away. Yeah, well, it was because they both sounded old as shit, but the one I chose sounder older than the other shit, not by much, maybe a year or two, I don’t know how it works. Anyway, they both sound old as shit, just that one sounds less older than that shit right there.” And there we have it. An expert witness.
*not that I dislike having my balls sucked, I’m not disparaging ball sucking in any kind of way. Though it can be argued some people are better at it than others- where most use teeth, I’m feeling the wet suction of Super Distortion- so there- favouritism)
Shindig!
iO Pages
De
bandnaam Super Distortion slaat op het gitaarspel en dat betekent dat
fans van Neil Youngs gitaargeros als hij samen met zijn
begeleidingsband Crazy Horse
speelt, helemaal goed zitten. Opener
Beautiful Life had zomaar Like A Hurricane, part II kunnen heten en dit
soort gitaarspel komt in de overige negen tracks
ook
nog geregeld terug. Beautiful Life is met zeven minuten en met de
meerstemmige zang die lekker retro klinkt, meteen de beste track. Het
is net Crosby, Stills & Nash die prog zingen. De korte track Think
Only Good Things is zuiver Eels met dat lekkere tamboerijntje met
‘Ringo Starr’ die de achtergrondvocalen verzorgt. Mr. Spock is
retrorock gespeeld door Black Sabbath die een bandlid mist. Het moge
duidelijk zijn dat Utopia International een gevarieerd en lekker cd’tje
is, maar waarom bespreken we dit album in iO Pages? Nou, omdat er wel
degelijk psychedelische muziek op staat, zoals The Golden Rule dat
klinkt als een akoestische Hawkwind uit midden jaren zeventig, terwijl
Can You See The Patterns? een volleerde Hawkwind-song is, maar wel met
Neil Young als gastgitarist. Kortom, Utopia International is een
ratjetoe van schaamteloze retro, maar als die zó goed wordt uitgevoerd,
mag dat best wel eens.
Thanks to Kerry, Paul, Angela and Nadia for this translation...
The band name Super Distortion refers to the guitar sounds and that means that fans of Neil Young’s rough jamming style like he did with Crazy Horse will be wholly contented. The opening song "Beautiful Life" could just as easily have been called "Like A Hurricane, part II' and this kind of guitar-playing frequently returns in the other nine tracks. "Beautiful Life" is, with its seven minutes, harmonised singing and nice retro sound, immediately the best track. It's like Crosby, Stills and Nash singing prog. The short track "Think Only Good Things" is untainted Eels with some nice tambourine and [what sounds like] "Ringo Starr" taking care of the backing vocals. "Mr. Spock" is retro rock played by Black Sabbath with a missing group member. It should go without saying that Utopia International happens to be a varied and nice little CD but why are we discussing this album in iO Pages? Well, because it certainly includes psychedelic music, like "The Golden Rule" that sounds like an acoustic Hawkwind from the mid-1970's, whilst "Can You See The Patterns?" is a total Hawkwind song, but with Neil Young as 'guest guitarist'. In short, Utopia International is a huge blend of shameless retro but, if it’s done this well, it’s allowed.
Psychotropic Zone
The
album begins with the seven-minute, beautiful, touching and slow
”Beautiful Life” that also has some acoustic guitar and could well be
taken from some The Bevis Frond album. Even the guitar solos remind me
of Nick Saloman. The acoustic “Think Only Good Things” is a positive,
short piece and the following number “Mr- Spock” is one of the albums
heaviest songs and rocks hard bringing to mind Blue Öyster Cult a bit.
”The Golden Rule” is again lighter, acoustic and pop-like stuff. The
more psychedelic ”Can You See the Patterns?” is one of my favorites and
in the beginning it gets quite close to Hawkwind. This is proper
psychedelic rock! “Mind King” is a slower, marvelous and atmospheric
Neil Young styled song that also has some twanging acoustic guitar in
the mix. The harder rocking and a bit faster ”Walking Down the Street”
would again fit perfectly for some The Bevis Frond album and also
includes organ (like many other songs here). A great song with an
interesting, sort of Irish styled ending! “Living Thing” is a simple,
three-minute 60’s styled number that brings to mind The Beatles or The
Kinks. The album’s more psychedelic side is presented again with the
superb “Open” that has some mystical, Eastern vibes. Great! Finally
we’ve got “Captain Impossible” with its heavy fuzz guitars and this one
rocks in a bit garage rock/punk vein. This is a very good and enjoyable
album in all aspects so check it out!
16.02.12 by Dj Astro
http://www.unimeri.com/PsychotropicZone/
Leicester Bangs
Pete Bradley is Super Distortion; he’s also Man In Formaldehyde, Art Giraffefungal, half of Cephalapod and a quarter of ddjomp – but that’s beside the point. This particular project was named after a favourite fuzzbox pedal and was originally an instrumental venture. The “Into Space/The Mystery Prize” single introduced a songwriting and lyrical element, and subsequent support (and airplay) from Stuart Maconie on his BBC6 Music Freakzone show indicates the change of direction was well judged.Rob F.
http://www.leicesterbangs.co.uk
Thanks to CMJ Music for including Living Thing on their monthly Freeplay compilation and featuring Mr Spock as a "Download This" track.
We are also very grateful for the
many plays on Scrub Radio's
Round at Milligan's.
Very professionally put
together and very
entertaining. With archives here.
Thanks to the ever-wonderful and legendary 
for playing Utopia International (Cheers Martha)
Play thankings also to Mike Riess on Radio WDIY, all at KXLL and at UTA Radio
Also to our island's very own 
show on Vectis Radio
Reviews & quotes: Autocue/Super Bug (SUPER DISTORTION)
whisperinandhollerin
Rating:
8/10
SUPER
DISTORTION is the name taken by Pete Bradley, who uses his own studio,
plays all his own instruments, and along with his wife, Andrea, runs
Pointy Bird Records. This is the sort of one man band effort that I
really like to hear. The tag of Super Distortion runs to his
compositions of lo-fi fuzz pop and psychedelic jams, and this single
firmly falls within this category.
‘Autocue’ is a brilliant track of extreme heavy psychedelia, with a start and finish of dark radio station static, as if the set was not tuned in. Guitar, organ and vocals are all mashed through the fuzz box creating the sort of brilliant noise that you get on tracks like The Fall’s ‘Solicitor in Studio’. The lyrics concerning a beautiful girl who appears on the TV set who issues propaganda: - “She walks and the universe expands. Her thoughts shine like lights in Disneyland/ She talks like a girl from space command, but beware they’re the words of the Man.”
This is excellent and thunders along at a great pace. Besides, who else could come up with the rhyming couplet “Angels are falling down from heaven to bless her/ Her breath smells like an aerosol air freshener”!
The other track on this double A side is ‘Super Bug’ a slice of mellower psychedelic guitar pop. The tone of the lyrics is very Syd Barrett, although the subject matter is not: - “Super Bug lives on your skin, biding his time, waiting, to get in.” After other pestilences are mentioned such as Portuguese Man O’ War, floods, quakes and acts of God, Pete then goes on to tell how equilibrium restores itself, leading to vaccines: - “Super Bug mending your cells, floating about, wishing you well.”
Overall,
I really enjoyed this and if Pete Bradley continues to turn out songs
as clever and tuneful as this, then I think he will become very well
known.
Author: Nick Browne
http://www.whisperinandhollerin.com
Losing Today Magazine
Now
I'll admit that there's been - shall we say - something of a stomping
of feet and banging of cups and mugs in the losing today cafeteria
since we found out that we'd missed this lots debut effort 'resonating
world' which aside being hailed as something of a minor classic was
described in passing by blue 6 cadet Mark Radcliffe as a 'psychedelic
'iron man'. welcome then the psyche / glam persona of Peter Bradley
trading under the pseudonym of Super Distortion (by all accounts he
also tweaks with 'strange melodic electronics' as Man in Formaldehyde
and 'stranger still experimental stuff' as Art Giraffefungal - no
prizes for guessing as to whom the pun relates to here - spotters badge
for those who mutter Kevin Ayers - we have to hear more I suspect).
'Autocue' - what can we say - its like finding yourself dozing off and
waking up in the middle of some weird Christmas '73 edition of Top of
the Pops wherein through the haze of dry ice a glitter glammed stew
rears into earshot belching the kind of bliss kissed touch the sky pout
that you'd imagine an assembled crowd of motley suspects of the day -
Wizzard, Bolan and various attendees from the Sabbath ranks - to make
by way of some stage sharing seasonal end of year shindig - all head
expanding fuzziness, big bearded riffage and weirdly wonky wooziness
that in the 70's would probably have sounded like the future while in
that future sounds strangely like the - er - well - 70's as it happens,
bit like the near cancelled 'second coming' Stone Roses spiked by a
playing nice Dandy Warhols and a youthful Brian Jonestown Massacre. And
while 'autocue' will no doubt grab the radio play plaudits by our
reckoning it's the flip side that should be warranting the attention
for 'super bug' is one of those most rare of gems that regales in the
crookedness of English psychedelia's eccentricity - kind of 'laughing
gnome' without the irritating cartoon chuckles and as magical as a wood
chipped sprite playing tic tac toe in the twilight haze to a woozily
hallowed assortment of trippy tuneage featuring the likes of traffic,
freed unit, bevis frond and tomorrow - quite frankly if those
terrascope dudes hear this they'll be shitting lysergic bricks for
weeks to come - oh yea and features the best floaty flute / pipe sounds
to have graced grooves of wax since Flowered Up's ridiculously catchy
'it's on' - how can you resist we wonder.
Unpeeled
SUPERDISTORTION "AUTOCUE" (POINTY BIRD)
RELEASED? 27th June
SOUNDS
LIKE? Okay, if there is nothing new under the sun, then I'd prefer that
the past is rearranged with some style and imagination. Which brings us
neatly to the new Superdistortion single.It sounds like a death squad
machine gunning the 'too heroin for release' McCartney stuff. Dirty
riffs roam around a mix littered with crisp, imperative percussion
while synths beeble and wheep out a smashed up morse code. If the right
people had the courage to release and playlist "Autocue" then us plebs
would buy it. Oh, the flip sweet stitches Peter Sarstedt into World
Party, they're just showing off now.
IS IT ANY GOOD? Probably the best single we'll get until they release another one.
WHERE IS IT? www.pointybirdrecords.co.uk
http://www.unpeeled.net/
TASTY
Super Distortion – Autocue / Superbug (Pointy Bird)
How
can you fail to warm to the music of Pete Bradley, a man whose’ other
nom de plumes include ‘Man in Formaldehyde’ and ‘Art Giraffefungal’?
Autocue is fully played out through a fuzz box which gives the bass a
lovely gruff sound but still doesn’t end up sounding too muddy. It’s a
touch proggy, a touch shoe-gaze. But talk about a contrast, the B-side
‘Superbug’ sees Bradley in more reflective move with a nice jangly
folky song which more than occasionally veers off into 70s druid rock.
It’s certainly not mainstream. 7/10 - SB
http://www.tastyfanzine.org.uk
Reviews & quotes: Resonating World (SUPER DISTORTION)
ORGAN
Is
this hippy nonsense resonating in a world gone orange and blue, or is
it a glorious piece of 70’s retro alive with a Stylophone solo in the
middle of an old-school guitar pop stomp and the flutes and the bits of
ELO and a touch of didgeridoo! Preposterous or preposterously
good?
Eight minutes of psychedelic
freak-out pop rock: Jethro Tull meets a Lighting Seeds take on
psychedelic Beatles. Excellent no messing ‘proper’ guitar sound that
leads almost immediately to a Seventies stomp and a Tull flute or maybe
a touch of some Mike Oldfield. All good then? The psychedelic
folk rock of the hurdy gurdy man comes singing songs of joy…
Steve Hillage meets Roy Wood meets some strange TV advert with a car
full of sunshine, jelly beans and Dalmatian dogs are running around.
Sounds like a guilty pleasure of a classic 70’s one-off single. “Pete
strives to provide some contrast to current trends…” reads the press
release as he sings about how maybe he should just run away and live in
a wood. Actually, this is a preposterously good slice of 70’s pop rock…
UNPEELED
SOUNDS
LIKE? When you marry menace, feedback and flute you get some kind of
slithering, pictures of matchstick men take on the previously
undiscovered Black Sabbath / Jethro Tull fusion. I mean, if you took
everything that was vile out of Primal Scream and Chemical Brothers,
I'd lend you a match and the goodness left gleaming in the ashes would
be this.
IS IT ANY GOOD? It's what we top reviewers call fucking
perfect. Droning, spitting, fuzzing, banging, echoes that have echoes,
a mix that sends the guitars circling between speakers like dinosaurs
with lasers and there's a didgeridoo, but why, as their label ask, read
waffle when you can just listen? Right, off you fuck then.
http://www.unpeeled.net
From The Radcliffe and Maconie Show
"We both really liked this one" - Stuart
"Sounds like a sort of psychedelic Iron Man by Black Sabbath" - Mark
"Yes and there's all sorts of things going on in there - far out!" - Stuart
From Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone
“Here's a single I'm absolutely loving” - Stuart Maconie (he played all 8.39 minutes! - Thanks Stuart)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/freak-zone/biography/
And how about this for a really bad review!....We especially like the "singer Pete Bradley never particularly exerting himself all that much" bit. Real X-Factor stuff!
Hmm.
I’ve heard a good few confusing records in my time. Enter Shikari’s
debut, Icky Thump by The White Stripes, anything by Dillinger Escape
Plan, but this… occupies a space entirely on it’s own when it comes to
oddness, because what it seems to be is a standard rock song stuffed
with an enormous amount of other stuff, namely, a recorder playing its
main hook, a guitar solo that goes on for a good three minutes, a
stylophone bursting into the track after the second chorus like a
startled duck, and then a didgeridoo shows up, basically unaccompanied,
for the last minute and a half of the track. Seriously, you can’t make
this shit up. But the oddest thing is that this baffling
experimentation is stuck on to a relatively straightforward, Dessert
Sessions meets Dandy Warhols three chord stomp. Which gives an odd
sense of familiarity to the proceedings, which in turn, makes it all
the more weird. It’s a vicious cycle of strange that entirely distracts
from the song itself which, I’m sad to say, is probably for the best.
Once
you get past the “what the shiny hell is that!” novelty factor of the
track, there is a pretty uninspiring song underneath it all, it plods
along, singer Pete Bradley never particularly exerting himself all that
much, which gives the songs eccentricities a nagging feeling that
they’re not much more than gimmicks. So in all, listen once for the
sheer, batshit lunacy of it all, perhaps twice if you really can’t get
your head around it, but then avoid.
Author: Will Howard
Big thanks to all radio folk who have played Resonating World including...
Bobby Friction - BBC Asian Network
The Radcliffe and Maconie Show - BBC Radio 2
Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone - BBC Radio 2
Totally Radio - The Daily Show
Reviews of Black Porridge Kaleidoscope (ART GIRAFFEFUNGAL)
We are pleased to have had some very nice reviews of Black Porridge Kaleidoscope. Here is a selection of reviews and quotes, including a very entertaining 1/5 review from Musique Machine. When you read this review keep in mind that Art built/programmed almost all the software instruments from scratch and that this was explained in the press release. Seeing as the vast majority of musicians buy instruments ready-made and never attempt to write custom software, we thought this review was particularly strange. Maybe we should have said "limited programming skills relative to professional software engineers" in the press release instead of "limited computer skills"!!
Bad Alchemy
"Der Schauplatz ist nicht mehr Pepperland, sondern die Propaganda-blase
und das Radioloch, in dem die Gegenwart schimmelt, die Waffenicht Pop,
sondern Antiporridge und ein elektonisches Antimykotikum."
Sound Projector
Art Giraffefungal provides an intriguing array of short electronic
experimental noise-bursts and static attacks on Black Porridge
Kaleidoscope (POINTY BIRD RECORDS PBIRD007). Little is known about this
cunning abstract-a-thon loner genius, although he comes across as an
advanced form of successful bedroom-cassette music. His use of filters
has a sickening ingenuity, although my preference is for those moments
when he keeps affairs as simple as possible and we have to deal with
unadulterated portions of nasty electronic sludge. Not exactly a noise
record, this twisted little gnarlamoon occupies a narrow stretch of its
own choosing and adorns its odd gestural swopes with titular references
to outer space, radios, minerals, geometry, and so forth. The evil twin
of Ian Helliwell at work!
Ed Pinsent
http://www.thesoundprojector.com
Monsieur Delire
Larsen, bruit, électroniques sales, approchées d'une manière presque
rythmique, presque mélodique aussi. Une version pop de Merzbow? Pas
tout à fait. Une musique sombre, viscérale, un peu naïve mais assez
réussie. On sent la tentation d'un formalisme à la Frank Rothkamm, mais
aussi un élan animal qui rappelle Merzbow. Pas mal.
Feedback, noise, dirty electronics, shaped into something almost
rhythmical, even melodic at times. A pop take on Merzbow? Not quite.
Dark, visceral music, slightly naive but artistically successful.
There's a temptation toward formalism a la Frank Rothkamm,
counterbalanced by the animalism of Merzbow. Not bad at all.
http://blog.monsieurdelire.com
Musique Machine
'Black
Porridge Kaleidoscope' offers up a selection of thick, juddering,
slightly noise bound and darkly crude beat-less synth scapes that at
first start out vaguely atmospheric and marginally
intriguing, but
soon becomes more than a little repetitive, bland and samey when spread
out over a full albums length.
The albums made up of sixteen
tracks in all that all hit around the just over the two minute mark to
nearly the three minute mark a picec. And each track consists of a
series of wavering, juddering and at times very badly played
synthesizer textures that's sometimes are fed through effects peddles
for slight more noise or lo-grade dark psychedelic texturing. Mostly
the tracks seem to judder, move and fall along in quite a random and
unstructured manner with ever so often more harmonic or atmospheric
elements appearing; but these are quickly replaced with for more lo-
grade and amateurish button pressing, ham-fisted experimentation and
general uninspired synth dwell.
The press release openly admits
the strangle named Art Giraffefungal has "limited computer
and
synthesizer skills" I think this is more than a little bit of an under
statement as most of this album sounds like it's been made by a bored
teenage who's touched a keyboard maybe once or twice in his life and
has being let lose in a studio for an afternoon with a synthesizer, a
computer and some peddles. Later on in the albums life there
are
attempts to slow down and stretch out the tracks pace but it still
comes across as bland, amateurish and ultimate very dull
Really
a very low grade synthesizer and computer compositions album that's
flawed in concept, execution and has little or no talent attached to
it. This kind of thing gives other synth and computer based composer a
bad name and shows clearly when technology is doing all the work with
an uninspired direction and lack of ideas. 1/5
Roger Batty
Big thanks to all the radio stations who have played Black Porridge Kaleidoscope including...
DÉLIRE MUSICAL on CFLX
http://cflx.qc.ca/
Radio Nacional de España
RNE 3 Sismógrafo
France Musique - Electromania
par David Jisse, Christian Zanési & Christophe Bourseiller
RUM
You can hear RUM Live at mms://stream.radio.com.pt/ROLI-ENC-098!
You can also stream our shows from RUM's archive.
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayern 2
Nachtsession: Die neue Kunstfertigkeit
http://www.br-online.de/bayern2
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