Interview to Magic Bullet (2025)

 

Magic Bullet is an experimental, avant-garde duo from England, UK

https://mickmagic.bandcamp.com/

https://www.reverbnation.com/magicbullet8

http://www.mickmagic.net/

https://www.facebook.com/magicbullet8/

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

MM: The Magic Bullet... ah, well that's a twofold answer. Musical origins is the first part of the answer; I spent a decade with Magic Moments At Twilight Time from 1986-96, Skit was making noise with Ehrlich Bullet in the late 80's; so, put the two together, et voila, Magic Bullet. The second part of the answer is that it genuinely WAS a 'magic bullet', in the sense that it was the solution to a problem; in that I hadn't done an album since MMATT's "Creavolution" in 1996, hadn't exactly embraced the transition from analogue tape recording to digital, and had been facing a kind of creative block for most of that time. The decision to start the Magic Bullet project came on October 1st in 2019. Twelve days later, we'd finished our first album, aptly called "Digitalis", commencing a highly creative four year spell. A bit back in the doldrums again this last year though, such is life...

https://mickmagic.bandcamp.com/album/digitalis

- What equipment do you use for create music?

I guess we have something of an unusual approach here, in that nothing is actually 'recorded' in the conventional sense, absolutely everything is assembled from samples, the majority of which we create ourselves, some less conventional than others. "Mi Casa, Su Casa", for example, the whole album was built from samples of household items with added percussion, from boilers and steam irons to printers and shredders. And we don't use conventional recording software, rather the same sound editor that we use to create the samples in the first place, a thing called WavePad by NCH Software.

Let me walk you through our 'theme tune', "The Magic Bullet Song";

1) The opening was captured on a handheld Sony IC Recorder on the jetty where we live (Knott End-On-Sea, north west coast, England), so the sound of waves, a kid playing, then the klaxon that announces the ferry is about to come over the river from Fleetwood. 

2) The electronic tones that follow that were created from samples of a Stylophone, dropped an octave and looped (as were the same things 'in track').

3) The 'rock track' was put together with samples from a MMATT track from "Creavolution" called "Lights Turn Blue" with a little added percussion. The synth FX were from some quite old library samples. 

4) The minimal vocals were created by chanting each word separately, then fitting them on to the finished track.

Embrace the electro-experimental experience!

https://mickmagic.bandcamp.com/track/the-magic-bullet-song

Magic Moments At Twilight Time (1987)

Magic Moments At Twilight Time (Cassette 1991)

MMATT - Creavolution CD (1996)

- Tell us a little biography about your project, when  you started to make music?

I wrote my first song at 8 years old on an acoustic guitar, "Willy The Oak Tree" it was called, be grateful it was never recorded! That started circa 1972, I'd have been 14, started recording things on one of those small cassette recorders that came with a plug-in microphone. That would be guitar, some quite avant garde vocals and anything I could find that made a noise. Nothing survived, that's a shame, I'd love to have heard some of it again, check out the roots as it were. The stuff I became known for was much later, 1986, long after I'd given up all my hopes and dreams of being a rock star. Conformity had arrived, 28 years old neat hair cut, married, working as an office team manager, just suddenly stopped and thought "What the fuck am I doing with my life? This isn't me..."

Serendipity stepped in again. Discovered by chance that our Nicam stereo VHS machine (ask your dad) was capable of 4-track recording. Bought a Casio synth with built in sequencer capability, cheap Fender electric guitar, Peavey Musician amp, microphone, went for it. I still have all that stuff, incidentally! The lion's share of the first MMATT demo , "W20 Advance Guard", came from one single session on a Saturday in the October of 1986. That one is long deleted, but the intro piece was pulled out of mothballs a few years ago...

https://www.reverbnation.com/magicbullet8/song/34550806-w20-advance-guard-1986

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

A lot of this would be the stuff I grew up with, mid teens seems to be a very influential part of one's life, I think. I remember hearing Hawkwind on Top Of The Pops in the summer of 1972 (Silver Machine) and just thinking 'wow'. Anyone who remembers MMATT won't be surprised about that! Some of the music coming out of Germany at the time too; Tangerine Dream, "Phaedra" was like a dream in sound format, incredible. Then where was Faust. Virgin had issued "The Faust Tapes" at a really cheapo budget album price, fascinating cover (an artwork called 'Crest' by Bridget Riley), snapped it up out of curiousity. I had never heard anything like it in my life. Those, I think, are the big three. I know there are many others who have had some influence, but I think that covers 95% at least. There's a best of MMATT (1986-1992) on Klappstuhl, have a listen, I think you'll agree...

https://klappstuhl.bandcamp.com/album/flashbax-ultimate

- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

Oh, how long have you got? I'd be more scared of missing anyone out! Pretty much everyone we've had the pleasure of working with thus far is on our regular playlist, worth checking out the three volume "Communitas" collection, a kind of concept compilation series that many of them were featured on. I guess the stuff I play on the radioshow (Dr. Magic's Audio Lab) will provide some clues as to my personal favourites too. No hiding, is there? 

https://mickmagic.bandcamp.com/album/communitas-volume-i (Magic Bullet, Gypsy, Levente, Shaun Robert, Spam Javelin, M. Nomized)

https://mickmagic.bandcamp.com/album/communitas-volume-ii (r​å​di​ö​v​ö​lnå, Mental Anguish, Michael Ridge, V Poiskah DoDo, John Wills, Invisible Illusion, rADio eNd, Hal McGee)

https://mickmagic.bandcamp.com/album/communitas-volume-iii ({AN} Eel, Humanfobia, Pszren, Terbeschikkingstelling. DJ ANY WAY, Klopsmasjien, EMERGE, Howl in the Typewriter, Gerardo Colin, Conny Plankton)

- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

Not deliberately, but I guess subconcious cultural bias is somewhat inevitable. I'm not particularly the typical Englishman, kind of consider myself a citizen of Planet Earth, I think all those years in the global cassette underground scene got me used to the idea it was a big world and that nationality is little more than an accident of birth. I am quite proud of my Irish heritage though. And who couldn't love the Pogues? 

 - What is your favorite album/ep composed by you? And why?

I don't really listen to my own stuff that much. Not that I don't like it. Well, there's some I'm not keen on, but mostly it's because you hear tracks over and over when you actually create them in the first place. So I mostly enjoy listening to the older material that production memories are more distant from. And then the Magic Bullet project is a bit piecemeal in that we do a lot of individual tracks for compilations and not a huge amount of albums. But if I had to choose, I'd probably take the easy option and go for "Centurion: The Best Of The Magic Bullet", because I got to hand-pick all my own favourites for that one! 

https://mickmagic.bandcamp.com/album/centurion-the-best-of-the-magic-bullet

- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

Sales: Bandcamp - I can't say I'm happy with the way they've closed some of my friends' accounts without explanation, either before or after, but it's free (commisions on sales only), easy to use, plenty of space for artwork and text etc. One improvement I would like to see though is the ability to just scan through track to track on an album, seems odd that you can't do that. Always found support to be fairly quick and helpful. 

https://mickmagic.bandcamp.com

Showcase: Reverbnation - another one with a free basic package, allowing you to upload up to 200 tracks, which you can order as you wish, including playlists and albums. You have an 8MB track limit (circa 8:43 at 128k mp3), but that's fine for most things. 

https://www.reverbnation.com/magicbullet8 

- Any funny anecdote in the composition of a track or an album?

Shaun Robert (Institute For Alien Research label) had this idea for a 'musique concrète for children' compilation. At the time, our Twizz was about 7 and she used to love playing out adventures with a toy plastic cat she called Officer Kitty, as if she were doing a video for You Tube, complete with commentary. We thought it would be quite funny to combine her narrative and sound effects with our own avant garde sound creations and came up with this idea of "The Adventures Of Officer Kitty In Space". So we set up a mic and just told her to go for it, get this brilliantly nonsensical story about evil babies and plankton factories, but it turned out she thought it was just a practise run and went all prima donna precocious seven year old on us;

"Wait, it's on!?" She says. 

"Yeah."

"It's recording right now?"

"Yeah."

"Right, turn it off!"

Needless to say, we used that bit to finish the track! 

https://ifarmusiqueconcretecompilation.bandcamp.com/track/the-adventures-of-officer-kitty-in-space

Magic Moments At Twilight Time (Live 1989)

- Do you play live? How was the experience?

Ah, not for a long time, early 90's, I think. MMATT's live debut was terrifying, we'd written a 40ish minute set that went from start to finish without breaks, so there was no 'between tracks' bit for applause and no way of telling if people were enjoying it or not, all we had to go by was their shocked 'what the fuck is this' looks on their faces! Come the end, much applause and calls for an encore (didn't happen, support act, and hadn't rehearsed anything else!), never suffered with stage nerves again. We used to have quite a good time, but playing to small audiences when you set your own gigs up did grate a bit. Latter days got better, we got to support Here And Now and The Pink Fairies, that was pretty cool. As for today, if I'm perfectly honest, we'd have a lot of grief trying to reproduce Magic Bullet stuff on stage. And anyway, I'm not sure Knott End Working Mens Club is ready for us yet... 

- Any news for this 2025?

I wish! Just trying to get some existing projects finished. As I said earlier, bit of a creative vacuum this last year, only recorded three new tracks in the whole of 2024, and one of them was only 50 milliseconds long! Sure, there were reissues and some decent collections released, but that was it. The monthly radioshow, which I started doing for KOWS in November 2023, took up a lot more time than I had thought it would. But then that's me to the core, I have Asperger's and I'm a touch OCD, thus I can do nothing by half-measures, and the show has become something of an all-consuming monster! But I love doing it. Sure, I could make my life easier, just play a track, chat about it briefly, leave it at that. But what fun would that be? Nah, set it on a starship, include special effects and background sounds, add other characters, include a storyline and plenty of humour, do web features and a regular Facebook event for it. Yeah, who needs free time anyway? 

- Do you want to say anything else to your listeners?

Thanks for listening! I hope you'll come visit the website, currently celebrating 38 years in the music world, more than 600 pages of it. There's sections on the current Magic Bullet project, playlists and features about the Dr. Magic's Audio Lab radioshow; plus plenty of history of the heady days of Magic Moments At Twilight Time, Music & Elsewhere (the label I ran from 1992) and the wider world of cassette culture, complete with over 40 hours of  music from the well over 200 bands and artistes we released, all free to stream and download at your leisure. Enjoy the trip... 

http://www.mickmagic.net

LATEST RELEASE: "FRATERNITAS":

https://mickmagic.bandcamp.com/album/fraternitas

Interview to Hell Is Carbon (2025)

Hell is Carbon is an experimental, ritual noise, psychedelic, dark ambient  artist

 from South Bend, Indiana, US.

https://helliscarbon.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/hell-is-carbon

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

Well, the meaning and concept of Hell is Carbon is based on the carbon molecule

which has 6 protons, 6 neutrons, and 6 electrons.  So maybe hell (or evil) isn’t outside of us, maybe

it is in us.

- What equipment do you use for create music?

I use an old Epiphone Les Paul custom guitar, an Ibanez GIO guitar (recently purchased), a

Roland jdxi synthesizer as a midi controller for a Deepmind 12. Also, a pagan drum, which was

made for me by a friend.  And a DrumBrute Imapct drum machine.

- Tell us a little biography about your project, when  you started to make music?

I was very late to the party on making music.  I was about 35/36 when i first started playing. And then a couple years later created Hell is Carbon.

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

I have very eclectic influences: from Tom Waits to jazz greats like Miles Davis, Nina Simone, The Flaming Lips, Sunn 0))), and recently Canadian musician Devin Townsend, Dengue Fever, Taksim Trio. Also, as far as books go, Phillip K. Dick, Stephen King, Haruki Murakami, The Beat Generation.

- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

Antoine Trauma, Mean Flow, Rauppwar, IO, Bode Gustav MA Bodes, Pete Swinton, Mike Benoit, Cousin Silas, Humanfobia.

- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

Yes. The Flaming Lips, The Doors, Sunn 0))), Tomahawk, Mr. Bungle, Animal Collective, John Zorn, Frank Zappa.

 - What is your favorite album/ep composed by yours? And why?

If I had to pick one, I think it would be Thus Breaketh! The World Body! (pt. 2). Why? Because I had a lot of fun making it and was working with other artists’ voices.  It was also a challenge to satisfy those artists who gave me permission to use their voices.

- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

I'm in Bandcamp & Soundcloud. 

About labels I lean more toward the darker stuff. So, Shadowtears, Mist label, Church Of The Noisy Goat, Grimm Goat, Slithering Black Records, Sombre Soniks, weareallghosts, Petroglyph Music, Plataforma Records, to name a few.

- Any funny anecdote in the composition of a track or an album?

Yeah. If I was working on an album and didn’t have any self doubt, I’d be worried.

- Do you play live? How was the experience?

I do not play live. Hell is Carbon is strictly, for now, an in studio project. But I hope to someday.

- Any news for 2025?

Not right now. My music usually doesn’t have a schedule.  And as of this date, there isn’t anything on the horizon. Hopefully, though, I’ll be able to collaborate with someone that I haven’t before.

- Do you want to say anything else to your listeners?

I want to thank them all for taking the time to listen to my music. And for making it a part of their life. I hope I live up to their expectations.

 LATEST RELEASE: "The Jesus Egg Breaks":

https://helliscarbon.bandcamp.com/album/the-jesus-egg-breaks

https://soundcloud.com/hell-is-carbon/sets/the-jesus-egg-breaks

Interview to David Zuzelo (Black Market Brains) (2024)

 

David Zuzelo is a guy that loves weird cinema. Weird sounds. Strict EBM. And spooky ambiences in every form. He makes his own. Sometimes as himself. Sometimes as Black Market Brains, AtmosFEROX or Desecrator Of Dunwich. Soundtracks for the films in his head and sometimes the ones you can see as well... he doesn’t plan on stopping. Ever. 

https://soundcloud.com/blackmarketbrains

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

The name was a happy accident of reading through old pulp magazines and seeing the pitch for a market of stolen minds... it was a suitable phrase when I was starting out. Taking the bits of sounds and genres I loved and filtering through the constant risk of randomness to find my own black market brain. You might get a genius. Or a killer. Or a mix of both!

- What equipment do you use for creating music?

I started with a Volca Sample... a little 16 step sequencer that opened up my mind to the joy of limitations. I’ve added and subtracted gear over the last few years but my home base will always be an UnoDrum, Volcas (Sample, the amazing Drum and some of the others on occasion) and Arturia’s deceptively powerful Micro and Mini Freak machines. I’ve never used midi, only a sync pulse to keep things in line and only use onboard sequencers and features to keep those limits and challenge me every time I approach them. And those little Behringer micro synths are a load of fun with the keyboards smaller than a fingernail and janky sequencers. And Audacity... a lovely little free DAW that gets a lot of flack but I find it simple and flexible.

- Tell us a little biography about your project, when you started to make music?

I’ve been writing essays, comics and more for decades but music was a real love. For many years I was doing movie reviews and processing out my thoughts about the films I was obsessed with. I needed a challenge and music presented itself as an option. I decided I would do it every day in 2020 and just never stopped. Lots of film inspirations and my love of industrial and electronic music would become my pen and paper. I also dreamed of scoring a film and I now have even been able to see photos of my name on a drive-in screen as “music by” which is the thrill of a lifetime. 2300 tracks on soundcloud later, here we are. I never stop. It brings me joy be it in dark drones or karate kicking around making EBM, horror synth or just building up a drum pattern.

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

For music it ranges from the amazing Wax Trax! Catalog to European horror and action scores by artists such as Goblin or Fabio Frizzi and a healthy love of thrash metal stirred around with Italo Disco and of course EBM which I’d say is my favorite. I want to mix all that stuff up and make something that is mine from all the bones and gristle. And Skinny Puppy blew my mind in 1985. Never got it back. I’m deeply influenced by European exploitation films ranging from horror to post apocalyptic and New Wave / Punk porn of the 80s of course. The world needed my covers of various Dark Bros. theme songs, right?

Probably not but I have fun with them!

- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

I discovered a few via my soundcloud posting and doing open collaborations. Humanfobia is my favorite as they are accessible and experimental and gothic and horror and beautiful all at once. I’ve run into so many though! I love all the works coming from Brutal Forms and Synthicide and for individuals I’m always happy to see noxpox, Insatiable Void, Tea R. Sea and many many more.

- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

The US has been in a crazed flux for the last decade and how could any music not reflect the unease of it all?

- What is your favorite album/ep composed by you? And why?

With so much to choose from and compounded by my rarely listening back I’d say the soundtrack to DREAMS OF THE DEAD is my proudest work and for scope and single minded achievement I’d say AND YOU WILL FACE THE SEA OF DARKNESS. It’s a six hour tribute to Lucio Fulci’s films and the artists that made them possible with over 130 tracks.

- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

For simplicity sake I only use soundcloud and have not monetized my work as I am anxious that I will begin to overthink the work. To become more interested in perfection than evolution is something I grapple with a lot. It does make one heck of a library though!

- Any funny anecdote in the composition of a track or an album?

On WORLD GOTH DAY this year I was reminded to celebrate by Tiffany Helm via her Facebook. Tiffany played Violet, the gothy dancer killed by Jason in FRIDAY THE 13th Part V! So, I did a little post punk piece using the microfreak’s voice synth to say “VIOLET” into the beat. That track ended up on a radioshow I could share with her! If you had told either of us that someone would be writing songs about her work in 1985 or that I’d be sharing them with her because I made it back in those days I bet we both would have laughed.

- Do you play live? How was the experience?

I have not though I’ve built up a custom batch of patches and patterns that I’d love to improv over some kind of interesting exhibition. I also enjoy improvisational live scoring over random weird regional horror films and gritty hardcore XXX loops of the 1970s... and that would be fun to share.

- Any news for 2025?

More music. Every day. Learning new techniques or just making up my own! And hopefully more movie scores to spook you!

- Do you want to say anything else to your listeners?

I know the robots of soundcloud like me and if you enjoy what I do I appreciate you more than you could possibly imagine. Make art yourself or reach out to me and we can do it together!!

Interview to The Implicit Order (2024)

The Implicit Order is an experimental composer from Kentucky, US.

https://theimplicitorder.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/theimplicitorder

https://www.instagram.com/theimplicitorder

https://www.facebook.com/implicitorder/

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

"Implicit" means implied or hidden. Not revealing all the facts or information. And

that's exactly what I love to do, keep people guessing.

- What equipment do you use for create music?

Analog tape recorder,digital audio recorder, mini Korg Univox synth,various cheap synths found at thrift stores, various DAWs.

- Tell us a little biography about your project, when you started to make music?

In 1989 I started cutting & splicing tapes. Late in 1989 I put out my 1st homemade tape "Rural Experiment". I got a 4track recorder in 1990 and started releasing more.

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

The early Musique Concrete composers, the Plunderphonics of People Like Us, the avant garde touch of Nurse With Wound, and mentor De Fabriek. The cut-up method is also a big influence.

- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

There are so many. I like A LOT of music and styles. The Witchhouse movement is really very interesting and Im watching to see what it turns into as it evolves quickly.

- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

I love the pop and rock music from the 1960s-1980s. All my work is just little pop songs pulled from another upside-down mirror universe.

- What is your favorite album/ep composed by you? And why?

"A Good Lie" with Mary Shelly as it exposed my work to a lot of people. "Mountain Music" is my fav on my own. It really defines my "style".

- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

Bandcamp for its simplicity and Soundcloud for convenience.

- Any funny anecdote in the composition of a track or an album?

While recording "Cults" I had a lot of computer crashes, songs disappearing and other weirdness. I can't explain it.

- Do you play live? How was the experience?

No I don't but Im always open about it. I've had requests from local places and invites from Europe. All at the wrong time as I couldn't get away.

- Any news for 2025?

Im compiling the "Singles Four" album. A collection of new, unreleased recordings and remastering a rare album from the past.

- Do you want to say anything else to your listeners?

YES. I really, really do appreciate all of you that took time to listen to my work. Even if it was for 15 minutes, or for 15 years. I hope you found something interesting, heard an odd or familiar sound, or the work evoked some sort of emotional response. I sure have fun doing it and I can only hope it struck someone to start their own work in music, sound reproduction, production or ANY kind of Art they want to do. Art is a part of our lives, its NOT a hobby.

LATEST RELEASE: "Unbeknownst To Me":

https://theimplicitorder.bandcamp.com/album/unbeknownst-to-me

Interview to John Lithium (2024)

John Lithium is an experimental, industrial, noise artist from US.

https://lithiumindustries.bandcamp.com/

https://johnlithium.com/

https://argalirecordsnetlabel.com/

https://argalirecordsnetlabel.bandcamp.com/

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

To be completely honest, there isn't a really deep meaning behind "John Lithium", apart from being a (hopefully) catchy pseudonym. From what I can remember, I probably came up with the name about twenty years ago following the punk/industrial tradition of a 'regular' name and the last name being an object/concept/etc. Later on, I felt there was some significance in the fact that "Lithium" can be indicative of emotional and mental stability (though I should stress that I have never taken it myself, despite suffering from long-lasting depression and anxiety throughout much of my life).

- What equipment do you use for create music?

Currently I use FL Studio for the DAW. As far as soft synths, I mainly use about 95% soft synths, mostly Native Instruments these days, including the Kontakt Komplete suite (which features too many instruments to completely list, although Straylight/Ashlight frequently get a lot of usage in my music). Reaktor, Massive/Massive X, Absynth, and Battery 4 also gets used on a fairly regular basis. Other than that, I use Omnisphere 2 on occasion. I do still use freeware synths sometimes, although as the software gets older and older, more unexpected bugs and errors can pop up, and often the UI cannot be scaled up for modern computer screens, which can make them harder to use. 

I have been slowly getting into hardware recently, including getting a Sonicware Ambient0 ambient synth and the Blackbox Compact Sampling Studio unit recently, but it may be a while before I can integrate them into my workflow on a regular basis. 

-Tell us a little biography about your project, when you started to make music?

Like a lot of people, I have been musically active for most of my life, including piano lessons during grade school and middle school, and alto sax in high school in college. While I enjoyed those instruments, I probably never really thought I would pursue ac career with them or perform live. 

My parents got me Acid Music 2.0d around 2000 or so towards the end of high school. Despite it probably seeming somewhat primitive by today's standards, it was a good way to learn how to sequence song elements, mixing, FX, etc. I created a few albums under one or two project names, but these were mostly just for friends and interested people. I started using FL Studio around 2007 around the end of college and was instantly hooked. It could just be by virtue of it being the first, but I have yet to find a UI and workflow in other DAWS that works as well as FL Studio, at least for me (my choice of being a mostly dark ambient and soundscape/cinematic composer may have something to do with that). 

After a few small releases around 2007 that were never publicly released, I started recording 'professionally' around 2009 under the "John Lithium" title. Had one album released on a third-party label, but due to poor communication and other issues, I have basically self-released most of my material, apart from compilation appearances and the rare collab album.

Also, in 2009, I founded my netlabel Argali Records Netlabel with my friend Reon Moebius, partially as a response to the bad experiences I have had with other labels at the time, both with regard to full releases and compilation appearances. Thus, over the years I have had less time overall to focus on music but feel that when I can work on music it has turned out better over all. 

Over the last few years, I have been a bit more active, mainly because due to being much less depressed and, without getting too specific, having to constantly deal with curve balls being thrown constantly by life.

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

Quite a few, but some of the main ones include Bad Sector, Atrium Carceri, Lustmord, Nadja, Yellow Swans, IRM, Ulvtharm, Strapping Young Lad, Coil, Drew McDowall, Lead Into Gold/Paul Barker, Beyond Sensory Experience, K. Meizter, Horologium, Illusion Of Safety, Tim Hecker, Skinny Puppy, Controlled Bleeding, Scott Walker, Pan Sonic, Cyclobe, Bones Of Seabirds, Aphex Twin, Mika Vainio, Inade. Could probably go on but this sums up most of the direct influences. 

-What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

As a label head I try not to play favorites. John7 (aka John M Myres III) from Timetheory Netlabel was a HUGE influence in what Argali Records would become as well as how to make a good Archive.org album release. Other than that, I would be remiss if I did not also mention Cousin Silas and Neal D Retke have been hugely supportive over the years, which is always so appreciated given they are both respectively titans in the experimental music community.

Typing this reminds me that in the early 2000s, I was fairly active in the StillStream internet radio community. As far as I know, most of those people have gone their separate ways, as well as StillStream itself closing up shop late last year due to ongoing health issues with the owner.

-Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

Not in particular. As someone who lives in the USA, this is probably not too surprising, although the theme of "industrial society" shows up in my music every once in a while.

- What is your favorite album/ep composed by you? And why?

This changes on a fairly frequent basis, but more often than not, the album "Insomnia" from 2010 tends to be the album that I have the most regard for, both on a compositional and content level. It comes as no surprise that I have had insomnia on a regular basis, and this album was basically my attempt to sort of capture the dark feelings that can come about when experiencing that state of mind. It is also one of the first albums I really focused on having a specific sound and aesthetic after mixing and mastering the tracks.

-What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

With regards to distribution, I mainly relied on Internet Archives for the first few years. To be honest, while I appreciated the platform to distribute both my work and that of others on there, it never struck me as particularly suited for musical works.

Bandcamp was a huge boon to the music scene, and in short basically addressed most of the issues I had with hosting on Internet Archive. I seem to recall that there were one or two platforms that preceded Bandcamp, but they fizzled out fairly quickly. One of them might have started with a 'C'.

When it comes to promotion, I really enjoyed Myspace in it's heyday. People forget but there really was a thriving experimental music scene there at the time, and while I do not know if algorithms were much of a thing at that point, but I feel people could get way more exposure for their music then they can now. These days, one has to utilize up to half a dozen platforms, with most of them punishing your reach one way or another for daring to include a link that directs off the platform. Quite frankly, it sucks and it's definitely anti-artistic, which is a huge shame given that these days, it is easier than ever to learn the basics of electronic music through DAW demo trial periods etc. At the end of the day, music promotion is a huge grind, but it is a burden one has to bear if one does not have the backing of a major music label that can shill your work on Spotify for a pittance.

-Any funny anecdote in the composition of a track or an album?

Not as many as I would like. The sad truth is, a lot of my earlier composition was directly connected to the amount of depression, insomnia, and life turmoil I was experiencing at the time. Throughout the 2010s, this gradually improved to the point where I am now, in a mostly good place. There was one time, back in 2009, where the noted experimental musician Frans de Waard trashed an album of my noise side-project Nihil Obstat in his long running music review zine "Vital Weekly". Honestly, I didn't mind the criticism as much as the fact that he mocked me and another project for being on a recent compilation. Thankfully, the label head at Twilight Luggage was a good chap at the time and included one of my tracks along with Waard's on a subsequently released compilation. The 'funny' result of this series of events is that it extended the lifetime of Nihil Obstat as a project for another year or two, as criticism and a desire to mock naysayers can be a potent catalyst for inspiration.

-Do you play live? How was the experience?

Never played live, for better or for worse. All of my projects are a strictly studio experience. I'll never say never, although it probably isn't on the radar for the foreseeable future. 

Any news for 2025?

As far as my own musical projects, I rarely plan them out in advance. There are always a few compilation appearances every few months or so. Would love to do another full length album in the near-future, but it may be a while before that happens. Also, over the last few years, a lot of my spare time has been spent on Argali, with compilations happening every quarter or so. Will let everyone know when inspiration strikes again.

Do you want to say anything else to your listeners? 

This isn't so much to my listeners, but anyone who read this, but a reminder that, more often than not, you (yes YOU) have more agency in your life than you may think. Yes, this isn't always the case, and yes I am speaking from personal experience. It's a bit of a sobering experience to realize that I wasted huge swaths of my life thinking I was being helplessly carried down the stream of life and fate, when I could have at least dodged the incoming obstacles and even attempted to move to safer shores. Thus, I am doing my best to spend my time in a more productive and creative manner, at least some of the time. Hope you are all doing well. Take care and stay safe out there. 

LATEST RELEASE: Sounds In Clouds:

https://lithiumindustries.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-in-clouds-2024-remaster

Interview to Cumsleg Borenail (2024)

Cumsleg Borenail is an experimental, IDM, Noise, vaporwave artist from UK. 

Also he is the founder of Borenail Records.

https://cumslegborenail.bandcamp.com/

https://borenailrecords.bandcamp.com/

https://linktr.ee/cumslegborenail

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Lkq6hB2nbtf3G4Bbg7R3A

https://archive.org/details/@borenail_entertainment

https://whatjoyisthereinliving.bandcamp.com/

https://frishprence.bandcamp.com/

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

Hey, the original name was Ploist Drencrom, but it just didn't sound right to me. Drencrom from Clockwork Orange?? I think? It lacked that punch I was looking for. I came up with Cumsleg Borenail and I think it has a better flow. I had a remix track on BBC Radio 6, they couldn’t bring themselves to say the word ‘Cumsleg’ so settled on ‘Seesleg”. Plus, Borenail; kind of reminds me of Withnail from that classic British film Withnail & I;. You know, the eccentric and alcoholic actor? It gives the name a bit of that same kind of quirky, unpredictable vibe. Most tracks I wrote jump from genre to merging with another genre.

- What equipment do you use for create music?

Gear4music Fretless bass, Eagleton electric bass, Akai MPC One, Elevation acoustics guitar, Violin, Serum vst, reaper, Tx16wx, mooer harmonic square, korg kaoscilltor, Donner electric guitar, Saxophone

Yamaha PSR-340 as midi keyboard. All of the above are sampled, chopped up, repitched into something new. The running theme of cheap hardware, the MPC an exception, runs through Cumsleg Borenail.

Cheap, British, Pay as you go, nasty.

- Tell us a little biography about your project, when you started to make music?

I began with classical piano training from the age of seven to eleven. I eventually became obsessed with the electric guitar, from exposure to Nirvana and Guns ‘n’ Roses. Even though I was raised on Godley & Creme. Then finding myself in the derivative world of metal bands for the next decade. This period,while partly fulfilling, followed a secret history of 15 years, culminating in the birth of Cumsleg Borenail around 2022. I’m nearly old.

Initially, I experimented with popular genres like Vaporwave and Ambient, but found my attempts consistently sounding nowhere near the confines of these established styles. My work, though attempting unique, struggled to find its place within these existing frameworks. I couldn’t stay ambient for more than a single track and in vaporwave hated going through 80s city pop samples. 

Kept plugging away, I embraced a more balanced approach, seamlessly blending samples, analog and digital equipment, and even incorporating AI-generated sound effects. This layered approach allows me to explore uncharted sonic territories and cultivate a fairly distinctive sound. Not ambient!

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

Throbbing Gristle (The use of imagery and sound are inspirational and I always have an album on in the mix of everything else I consume. Albums like Mission Of Dead Souls are perfect. It is something I plan to do when playing live. All original and improvised), Coil (A Throbbing Gristle offshoot never fail to reach a new level with every release, even post mortem. I do think about the look of their corpses, not sure if they were cremated), Van Der Graaf Generator (mostly their 70’s output but the reform in the 2000’s was even more complex. Recently saw them in Bath forum. My back ached in the seats.), Nine Inch Nails (Only the downward spiral and broken. The rest is just nostalgia to those albums), Psychic Tv (First two albums are superb, the acid house and beyond not so much so), Giacinto Scelsi (The structure and space of all compositions are masterpieces).

- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

So pretty much anything off Irregular Patterns ( https://irregularpatterns.bandcamp.com/ ), just started getting into Mortality Tables (https://mortalitytables.bandcamp.com/) and Third Kind records (https://thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/ ) and finally Adventurous Music (https://adventurousmusic.bandcamp.com/ ) who don’t have a bad release. Underground work has waymore heart. More perceived meaning and context.

- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

The grey British skies crush my soul in a temporary body and I am fine with that until I am reborn in a future genealogical slant. An equivalent to Adonai operates a frequency that holds our body parts together. Hobbs leviathan provides me a system of worship and taxation.

- What is your favorite album/ep composed by yours? And why?

“An Occidental Felo-De-Se” due to the leaps in my confidence in vocals, production and the general “quality” of the work. Which, from my home studio, seems great to me. Granted me an assurance overall that I could produce a piece listenable to my ears if not anyone else’s. The earlier work on 60th listen seems a great task. Tiring. 

Occidental : “Is an adjective that means "of, relating to, or characteristic of the Occident or its natives and inhabitants"; The Occident refers to the western part of the world, especially the countries of Europe and America. The term occidental is often used in contrast to oriental, which refers to the eastern part of the world.”

I am here, raised here, stuck here.

Felo-De-Se: “Is an obsolete legal term derived from Latin, meaning "felon of oneself"; It referred to a person who had committed suicide. Under English common law, suicide was considered a felony and was punished by forfeiture of property and an ignominious burial. The concept of felo-de-se was abolished in England and Wales in 1961 with the passage of the Suicide Act 1961. However, the term is still sometimes used colloquially to refer to suicide.”

Humorous that post mortem your punishment still stands. That’s very British.

- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

All the music platforms and streaming sites bring someone from somewhere.

- Any news for 2025?

One definite live gig and my usual album a month.

LATEST RELEASE: "Birds With Vertigo"(with Sammy J Matthews):

https://cumslegborenail.bandcamp.com/album/birds-with-vertigo

Interview to Cosmic Disruption Orchestra (2024)

 

CDO (Cosmic Diruption Orchestra) is an experimental, dark noise, industrial, lovecraftian 

ritual dark ambient artist from UK. 

https://cosmicdisruptionorchestra.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/CDOritual/

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

CDO (Cosmic Disruption Orchestra) started out as a response to my interest in the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. This changed into a Noise project (more of this in the next answer): the interaction between different noise elements such as rhythm and/or texture. Now it is about a more ‘traditional’ approach looking at different styles like Metal and Jungle. But next year may be different as I feel I’ve covered what I can so far this year.

- What equipment do you use for create music?

I started using Adobe Audition but it was limited (by bad programming) regarding the plugins it was able to accept which was limited. Since the start of this year, I have been using Tracktion Waveform. I am able to record with a couple of digital interfaces but that has been limited so far.

- Tell us a little biography about your project, when  you started to make music?

In 2016 I recorded my first EP experimenting with something close to Cold Wave and Minimal Electronica. A second EP followed in the next year showing that I had advanced my creativity (listening to it now feels strange but refreshing). A longer release ‘Awakening Through Dream’ appeared in 2018, where I start using glitch techniques as an integral part of the music creation process along with longer track times. ‘Unnameable Vistas’ was released in the same year showing an affinity for surrealism. ‘From The Stars’ in 2019 is unmistakably  (both visually and in music) a nod to Lovecraft and film soundtracks (including the use of lower frequencies) on top of the surrealist tone. Also in the same year, I released ‘The Longed For Journey’ continuing on from the previous album. And in 2020 before the hiatus ‘Beyond Dreams And Wastelands’ was released where noise was used as something to be imposed on the listener where frequencies clash amongst each other. In late 2023 ‘Caressed By Angel Wings’ appeared marking a new interest in making music by myself and the last album on which I would use Adobe Audition. In 2024 there were the albums ‘House of Curiosities’, ‘Aion’, ‘ Fall of the Digital Empire’ and ‘Ramshackle, misfits and malarkey’ (the last here being a collection of unused ideas and tracks which didn’t seem to fit). Closing the year was a compilation of remixes/interpretations ‘Shadows and Like Grains of Sand REMIXES’ where 2 tunes from ’Ramshackle..’ were used and abused.

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

In no particular order: Aphex Twin/AFX/Polygon Window/The Tuss, Nurse With Wound, Nine Inch Nails, Rock/Metal, Autechre, Kryztof Penderecki, early Jungle, there are many others.

- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

I listen to artists whenever I can although there’s nothing specific as I have either wanted to create music like that which I’ve heard or I’m amazed by the creativity of these artists and I feel that I could improve what I’m creating.

- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

Yes, as I mentioned earlier, there’s the music but also the social and political landscape which doesn’t look so stable as it should to me: I’ve never been a fan of authority figures who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near positions where they can negatively affect the majority.

- What is your favorite album/ep composed by you? And why?

That’s a difficult question to answer as each release has paved the way for where I am at the current time.

- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

Bandcamp as it offers a free service but also a paid version. Also, they appear to like promoting artists who are less well known and they are not taking alot of money for themselves when it should go to the artists instead.

- Do you play live? How was the experience?

I had been in groups that played live before but even though it was fun and exciting I always felt like the songwriting process didn’t let ideas move the group forward. I prefer CDO as a studio only project.

- Any news for 2025?

I’m starting production on a new album trying to use a different approach but I’m not sure how it will turn out (I don’t work to a plan as such, just create what I feel at the time and it can be a very spontaneous way of making music or any type of art). 

I would like to make an actual collaboration album where ideas are exchanged and both or all musicians turn the others ideas into something away from the original idea. That would provide a different creative environment for me in that it would be a challenge and provoke a new and exciting way to work.