The horn that interested me most of all, was the so-called “Bubbie” tuba, a travel tuba in F (or Eb with the extension slide). Although the photographs on the Wessex website illustrate graphically how small the thing is, nothing prepares you for the experience of holding it and playing it for the first time. It’s roughly the size of a Tenor Horn, with a 9″ bell and four rotary valves.

Obviously, with such a narrow bore, there is a lot of resistance, and it feels stuffy compared with a full-sized bass tuba. With a bit of careful placing of notes, though, it’s possible to get a good tone out of it. It’s much happier in F than it is in Eb, which is to be expected. What I didn’t expect was that the notes below the stave would sound as good as they do. It has a sound of its own – somewhere between a tuba and a bass trombone. Initial blowing suggests that it’s a multiphonic toybox too – I was pleasantly surprised to find that upper partials rang out clear and strong. Notes can be bent a huge distance too.

I’d be reluctant to use the Bubbie for any normal playing purposes when playing out (unless my big Eb happened to be in for repair), but I can see it being really useful in the context of ORE. It’ll also be great for practising late at night with the practice mute. Most importantly, it’s enormous FUN.

Wessex Tubas - "Bubbie" mini-Eb/F

The tuba that impressed me most was the 5/4 CC. For the money I think it’s stunning. Gorgeous tone, easy to play and very well in tune. If I had the room for one and the cash to spare, I’d have one, without question.

The BBb tubas were less to my liking. I’m not really a Bb player, but have owned one in the past. The best of the bunch was the 4/4 rotary BBb, with a really solid, meaty bass tone. It felt great once I’d switched from my normal mouthpiece to an extra-large one supplied by Jonathan. The front-action piston-valved BBb had a massive bore and a wonderfully huge tone, but I found it difficult to fill with enough air. That probably has more to do with me than the instrument. The 3+1 BBb I didn’t like at all. I found its intonation a bit lacking compared with the others in the higher registers, but realistically if it was used as a band instrument it would probably be fine.

The 3+1 EEb plays really well – nice clear tone, and well in tune. For me, the height of the lead pipe was uncomfortably low, as I’m long in the back. Jonathan assured me that that’s something he’s working with the factory in China to set straight, although he will carry on stocking instruments with the lower lead pipe for younger players. That seems eminently sensible to me.

I also tried the (rather unexpected!) saxhorn, the C/Bb tenor tuba, the excellent euphonium, and the tenor horn, all of which I liked.

I’m really excited by what Jonathan is doing. There will always be a market for higher-end instruments, and I’m not about to give up my beloved Sovereign, but for players on a budget, or for players who need more than one instrument, there’s now a sensible way of doing it without heading for bankruptcy. Yes, I have my reservations about the BBb tubas, but I’d still happily recommend them based on their price alone.

As for me, I’ve ordered a silver “Bubbie” and look forward to getting to know it in due course, and I shall be watching Wessex Tubas develop with interest.

What happens when Penny Goring and I collaborate on a words and music project? BOLUS, that’s what. Penny is, as any of you who know her work from her blog and the Year Zero Writers website, a pretty extraordinary writer – and her spoken word delivery marvellously detached and deadpan.

I’ve wanted to do more instrumental backings for spoken word pieces for a while – and when Penny sent me recordings of her works “House” and “Temporary Passport” they seemed ideal. Musically I’ve drawn inspiration from William Basinski’s “Disintegration Loops” plus my beloved doom/drone metal, as well as using some more folky instruments – the Appalachian dulcimer makes an appearance, as does Estragon the deluxe shruti box. There’s even a tuba solo in there somewhere.

Here’s an excerpt from Temporary Passport:

BOLUS – Temporary Passport – excerpt by Stuart Estell

You can buy the mini-album as an MP3 download from Amazon for just £1.38 by clicking here.

It’s also available on iTunes but thanks to a pricing cock-up in the hands of the electronic distributiony people it’s considerably more expensive on there. Plus you can also listen on Spotify here.

What or who are Cultus Sabbati?

They’re a group from Australia, who maintain closely-guarded anonymity and are practitioners of magick rituals involving vocals, guitars, home-made electronics, and massive amplification.

The rituals are recorded and then edited into compositions of quite terrifying density and sonic extremes. Whatever these rituals may or may not involve, they’re certainly not good for the hearing of anyone concerned.

Regardless, whether or not you buy into the occult schtick is largely irrelevant. The Garden of Forking Ways is simply a masterful drone/power electronics album.

It’s also got a mangled foot in the black metal camp, but this isn’t black metal as we know it. The vocal style reminds me both of Xasthur and of the Crypsis/Eurostopodus Argus 10″/7″ double-pack by fellow Aussie(s?) Grief No Absolution  - the harsher, rasping vocals are heavily-processed, possibly even subjected to massive bitcrushing, whereas more chant-like vocals are buried deep in the mix with loads of reverb and very little treble. It’s all brilliantly unsettling, and unsettlingly brilliant. But it might send you running back to Merzbow for some easy listening.

If you can get hold of the vinyl release, it’s doubly great – it’s on thick blood-red marbled vinyl in a beautifully-produced sleeve, and sounds incredible. The digital version simply doesn’t do this unholy squall of noise proper justice. There are just 333 copies – obviously they couldn’t afford a complete beast – and I have one of them.

I can’t recommend this highly enough if you like drone/noise stuff.

I also posted this on Audioboo last night – an ad hoc recording of Howard Skempton’s piece June ’77.

You should of course buy this, and play these glorious miniatures: Howard Skempton’s Collected Piano Pieces

This may of course change, depending on which way the wind is blowing…

I didn’t know Trish personally at all, but still vividly remember her amazing ice-cold stage presence during the only time I saw Broadcast perform live at the Irish Centre in Digbeth. Incidentally, that was the very same evening that I met John Peel and talked with him about The Fall and Polythene.

The score is available at the IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library at imslp.org

The programme is yet to be finalised but is probably going to be something along these lines:

Howard Skempton
Well, well, Cornelius
June ’77
Piano Piece 1969
Swedish Caprice
Quavers 3

Reflections

Notti Stellate a Vagli

Interval

Philip Glass
Mad Rush

Morton Feldman
Palais de Mari

I may replace the Glass with some more Feldman – that’s the thing I’m unsure of at the moment. I’ve had a very interesting few weeks playing all of this very quiet music; technical demands are (almost) absent, but the musical demands are absolutely huge. The whole enterprise is proving to be most enlightening…

I’m hoping that there will be a mystery première too.

Aficionados of black metal, drone metal, doom metal, “griefcore” and whatever other metal genres have sprung up in the last fifteen minutes might like to investigate Vasculum. The group/artist’s page has a few songs for download – I like it very much, but then I would.

The Vasculum manifesto is, apparently,

no audience engagement – no promotional engagement – no performance – no collaboration – no photographs – identity of no significance – location/eating habits of no significance – to be listened to at massive volume or not at all

It’s safe to assume that it’s music in the best tradition of one-man lo-fi black metal projects, I think, and puts me in mind of the likes of Xasthur and Leviathan. If anything Vasculum is (are?) a lot less refined and a lot more brutal. Listen here: http://vasculum.co.uk