NEWS
1/9/2008
Hear ye, new release online by The Inventors of Aircraft, science fiction for the modern day man, release number seventeen is sure to please.
17/6/2008
Normal service resumed - all oustanding orders have now shipped - thanks for your patience
2/6/2008
Computer woe. The machine I use for printing / burning the CDs available in the shop has had to be returned to the manufacturer with a fault, this means any orders placed will be delayed until the computer is returned. I would hope to resume normal service within at most two weeks.
*** T-shirts have now all gone! ***
MAILING LIST
REVIEW OF SER006
Review by Earlabs
http://www.earlabs.org/text/review.asp?reviewID=52
In the beginning there was organ. A monumental instrument! Mike Ramsey a.k.a. 1000 Hours Of Staring opens his EP on UK netlabel Serein with a track that limits itself to some simple, drony organ-chords and a delayed guitar. The keyboard sounds very analog and noisy, so i think it ain't a plug-in. Nice one.
Song number two shows up with scraping and grating found sounds. Rewind-guitars can be heard, decent synth and organ-tones in the back, unrecognizable samples pitch high and low. Born In A Swallow is more experimental than Enamel (the first song), and equals the weight of a feather. Both tracks got a strong Fridge-feel. Concerning the atmosphere, Opiate might also be a good comparison.
With I Am Philips Head, Mike introduces some great string-arrangements and a 'real' guitar- and piano-melody. Heart-rending, boy! My Pistil Your Pedal at position number five got a strange sound. Far in the back, there may be three or four layers of looped guitars, played in different velocities… Or something else. A improvising solo-guitar is introduced, permutating a simple motive until the noises from the back take over. Cymbal-sound? Field-recodings? Dunno, you can't grab it.
Essen, finally, is a striking prove for the songwriting-qualities of 1000 Hours Of Staring. Once again, Mike piles up different layers of picked guitar. They seem to disappear in reverb and feedback at first, but come back in a beautiful swarm of single chords at minute 2:30. Like rain pounding against your windows. Slowly, the main motive emerges from the different layers until a simple bass-guitar gives hold to the indefinable melody. Fantastic! The song upraises in volume and distortion before this beautiful and strange EP comes to an abrupt ending.
Note: Make sure take a closer look at the artwork- both artists (Mike himself and Alanna Gladstone for the frontcover) crafted a colorful visualization of the sound the art corresponds to.