Northwest Music News — 11 Feb | Ten Mouth Electron Video Premiere, New Music from Outfit side project + more

VIDEO PREMIERE: TEN MOUTH ELECTRON — YOUNG NUNS

In late 2012 the most excellent Finders Keepers Records put out a curio of a compilation in the form of Man Chest Hair — an iluminating selection of tracks from longlost (and in some cases barely ever found) 70s rock groups from within the M60 circular, who existed in their own closed-in world, blissfully unaware of the overly-neat narrative that would soon begin to unfurl over the city from the explosion of punk onwards. Why does this chime with Ten Mouth Electron? Because Young Nuns echoes that gloriously primitive time when rock in itself was still a thrill and affixes such as 'psych' and 'garage' still promised experimentation and wild abandon rather than genre box ticking. The chest hair's moved north to the chin and the pubs have become faux-bohemian bars these days, but that gritty, gristled core has remained a constant within the city, and the five-piece — who appeared last year as part of Liverpool International Music Festival's and The Quietus' collaborative Minor Characters project — are among its finest current exponents.

Ten Mouth Electron play Islington Mill in Salford on Fri 6 Mar and Star & Garter in Manchester on Sat 7 Mar.  

NEW ALBUM FROM OUTFIT'S ANDREW.P.M.HUNT

Going under the moniker Dialect, Andrew P.M.Hunt is setting free a new collection of work titled Advanced Myth, released digitally this Saturday, 14 Feb, via excellent digital label Tasty Morsels. This week, he revealed the video for preview track Chroma which, made by Deep Hedonia visual artist Thom Isom around the winter Valencia countryside, compliments and contrasts in equal measure, the clip's glaring bright colour and images of gentle rolling waves matching the effortless tranquility of Hunt's hypnagogic meditations — sharing spirtual connotations with Glassworks-era Glass and latter-day Talk Talk — its sharp VHS grain conflicting with the hi-fi of the track's deft arrangements. The full album promises to be quite something, but for now you can download Chroma here.

SANKEYS RESIDENTS DROP NEW EP 

Their backstory is unremarkable to the point of cliche in producer circles — meet in the Berghain, realise a shared love of techno, decide to send some tracks back and forth to each other — but Winter Son and Jozef K's music offers far more intrigue when digging a little further into what they were doing (and continue to do) before that union. The latter has long been a Sankeys resident, regularly mining his extensive house and techno knowledge for the masses at the veteran Manchester club, as well as in their US and Ibiza offshoots. That comes into sharp contrast when coming up against his partner's more insular meanderings, however, with Winter Son — real name Thom Ragsdale — working at the darkly cinematic end of introspective, brooding electronica as part of worriedaboutsatan/Ghosting Season alongside Gavin Miller. Brave EP, their debut for Rebirth, following last year's LP on Sacha's Last NIght On Earth label, results in a fascinating tension between the two, possessing all the required 4/4 stomp of the dancefloor, but with elements pulled apart and away from each other in cold isolation.

DIGITAL CRATE DIGGING — NEW MUSIC PICKS

Tooms — Misophonia EP

An initially rough, unsettling listen, there is beauty trying to break through Manchester-based solo artist Tooms' looped lo-fi squall. It's on Oscillate, the fourth track, where the vocals are allowed to roam naked and detached from the rest of the EP's see-saw drone, only to plummet again during Misophonia's foreboding coda Flesh & Veins.

Eir Vár — Invisible Partner

Details are sparse for Liverpool-based ambient project Eir Vár, not — we suspect — because of any great attempt at guiding its would-be audience through smokes and mirrors, more because of the brand spanking newness of it all. What is known though are these four tracks that make up Invisible Partner, which surfaced on Bandcamp at the beginning of the month. A glistening high definition quality imbues each, though not quite clear enough to reveal the skipping speech samples and pooling textures that float around the most minimal of percussive approaches. 

ELSEWHERE ON THE SKINNY

• February's recommended gigs across the Northwest. Read here. 
• We profiled Tombed Visions label founder, Gnod/Naked (On Drugs) collaborator and solo artist David McLean. Read here.
• Gary Kaill takes in Viet Cong live and gives Last Harbour's newest LP some love, Chris McCall and Katie Hawthorne aren't quite as enamoured with Black Rivers and Dutch Uncles. Read more in our Reviews section.