IN PRAISE OF THE MIDDLE-SIZED (2024) The pleasures of the 10 inch record

As a vinyl format, the 10'' (10 inch) record was a tasty thing between the 7'' 45rpm single and the 12'' 33rpm album.

And you could get a lot onto the 10'' when the playing speed was 33. In the Forties and Fifties it was the favoured medium for many jazz artists – especially vocalists and bands, not so much the bebop crowd.

And early rock'n'rollers discovered you could get four or five songs, sometimes more, on the 10''.

It was also portable and would have cover art which the 45 single usually didn't. It was kind of an EP before we started to think of EPs as 7'' (and much later 12'').

Elsewhere has a considerable number of 10'' records on shelves – more correctly in a lock-up following last year's floods – but we don't see new ones that often.

Praise be then for the limited edition 10'' which arrived recently from Nigel Russell (Danse Macabre, Car Crash Set *)

With Pains People on one side and Diem Redux on the other – “a double B-side” says Russell – these two lengthy tracks, about six-seven minutes each, even at 45rpm – sound like tasty samplers of dub conscious electronic soundscapes (mixed by Nic Roughan of the Skeptics) and we would hope for more.

But first let's ask a few questions of the perpetrators: Russell and Wes Prince who are Diem Redux and were formerly in Danse Macabre together; and John Pain (Hallelujah Picassos). Warning, lots of very useful links in what follows.

First up to the plate is Mr Pain.

A 10'' 45rpm release? Explain yourself, sir!

I have always been a fan of the 10'' 45 - great sound quality with a longer duration than a 7'' and just nice to handle. I recently illustrated Peter MacLennan’s forthcoming book about the Nineties Auckland label Deepgrooves and was reminded of their fantastic debut release, a double 10'' featuring Riot Riddum Sound System (Bobbylon and Roland with Teremoana), Sound Foundation (Dubhead and Angus McNaughton), DLT Meets The Projector etc, so there was also a format prompt there.

Neither Stebbings or Holiday does them in New Zealand, and Car Crash Set's Dave Bulog (RIP) had previously dealt with Dub Studio in Bristol, so I got in touch with Henry Bainbridge . . . and there you go. 

Let's talk about painspeople. A nice reference there for those old enough to remember British TV pop shows.

Yes, painspeople is a Pan’s People reference. I have vivid memories of these hippie precursors to Hot Gossip and their weekly Hair-esque interludes on the Two Ronnies TV show. 

I haven’t played in the Hallelujah Picassos since 2019 or so. The HP’s are very much a Tamaki Makaurau CBD beast, and I live in Northland, so…

I do get to Auckland a bit, and have recently started getting the electronics out to gigs (most recently support at New Telepathics 25th Anniversary gig at Neck of The Woods).

I bumped into Karl Solve Stevens recently, a nice catch up after a long spell, and he was a little surprised to learn I wasn’t playing in the Picassos. I commented that, like The Sopranos, you can never leave.

He joked in that dry Karl manner, “Tell me about it…”

I started releasing electronic music as painspeople shortly after ‘leaving’ the Picassos in ’95, with a track on both of Stinky Jim’s Sideways compilations and a tune on a Froth 12” alongside Phase 5 and Nonplace Urban Field.

In 2006 I moved to South Asia to work in the animation industry and was away for more than a decade which took me out of the local scene. I played bass in a black metal band in Singapore, and continued composing as painspeople.

I write regularly for Audio Culture. I play music with (cinematographer) Fred Renata a fair bit (usually drums, intermittent piano or bass), he is a great Maungaturoto-based songwriter.

And I have an occasional improv-combo with Waipu-based Ronny Haynes (Show Me Where it Hurts, Serafin, Pash) called Special Filter at bandcamp here.

Happily Whatever After (Sabotage In The Centres Of Imperialism) was a direct response to the currently rampant capitalist climate driven by our dodgy coalition government.

I felt a bit of overtly Marxist pop was in order but ended up with… whatever this is.

There are references to Adam Curtis’ BBC art-doco Can’t Get You Out Of My Head and samples from the soundtrack to the Maoist ballet (written for Nixon’s visit to China) The Red Detachment Of Women, a vinyl copy of which I bought in Singapore a couple of decades ago.

Do you have other material available that might see the light of day . . . on 10'' or any other format?

Thirty-five releases on bandcamp since 2013, of various width and depth.

Okay! Busy man.

Let's turn attention to the other B-side, Diem Redux and bring in Nigel Russell and Wes Prince. This track recent or something from the vaults?

DR is a project that began in 2013. Danse Macabre reformed to do a show at the King Arms as guests of our old label mates Penknife Glides. Having put the work in to rehearsing we decided it might be fun to see what else we could come up with. Originally myself, Wes Prince and Rod Carlson, we’ve been a two piece since late 2016 of Wes and I.

We have a regular meet up/jam at my Auckland office which has a large collection of vintage synths and drum machines. Everything is recorded, and then wrangled in to shape at a latter date … sometimes years later.

Many of these have been sent to my old friend Nick Roughan (Skeptics et al) for a fresh set of ears and a remix.

Diem Redux = Another Day or DM (Danse Macabre) again.

We recorded Perseus in 2017 and Nic Roughan helped out with the mixing and mastering. Rusty Egan liked it and played it on his internet radio show The Electronic Family Tree at the time.

He knew about us from our remixes for Blancmange and Metroland. He played quite a bit of our music on that show.

The 10'' was done pressed by DubStudio in Bristol a place that Dave Bulog (Si Si Es) RIP had used for our Si Si Es releases.

Unlike the two local pressing facilities, they’ll press all formats (7, 10 and 12'') and in short runs …. minimum locally is 150, Dub will do as few as one, as a hand cut acetate or as many as you wish and in any colour.

We felt it’s easier to press more if it sells well than to end up with a load of unsolds.

The 10'' format will do seven minutes a side at 45 rpm as a single or 10 minutes at 33 as an EP with up to three tracks per side.

Dub Studios do the mastering for vinyl, then send a hand cut acetate for approval before pressing the balance.

Do you have other material available that might see the light of day . . . on 10'' or any other format?

Our recent track Kevardhu seems to be garnering a bit of interest on YouTube, so maybe we’ll release that on vinyl. See the clip below

Kevardhu

 

How can collectors get hold of a copy? Will it eventually make it to digital outlets?

Perseus is available now on our Bandcamp site as a digital download or contact us through our Facebook page there are still a few copies left, but as John says, demand will likely prompt another pressing

Anything else you want to say?

Just some links for Diem Redux: Bandcamp: Soundcloud: Mixcloud: 

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* The Car Crash Set's Join the Car Crash Set is being reissued on yellow vinyl, available next week.