MALICE IN SUNDERLAND




was originally the name of FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB's record label, but over the course of time it has become a sort of umbrella disorganization for the various pies we have fingers in, many of which you'll find on this site in some form or another... Frankenstein Sound Lab, Wolfs Head Press, Frankenstein Arts Lab and Starfishman Mail Art.
It's also the title of an occasional printed fanzine issued by Wolfs Head Press.


MALICE IN SUNDERLAND RECORDS



CD - 0401   FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB  -  Alchemy & Accident


The earliest FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB releases, circa 2000-2001, were released originally on cassetes.

This CD collects together the best of the material from those days,including the first ever FSL track to be recorded - "Morning Star" - and its evil twin, "Evening Star" in which a radio evangelist rants against everything he finds unholy and ungodly...which in this case appears to be the Pope.

Oh, and then there's "From Necropolis With Love" which features excerpts from a radio phone-in show about necromancy... very much a case of everything you wanted to know but didn't like to ask about!

Not forgetting "Mir" - a tribute to the Soviet space station, recorded on the day it re-entered Earth atmosphere, and "Alchemy & Accident" which features the sampled vocals of poet T.S. Eliot.

There are some collaborations too - with Bidoche Musique [Belgium] and Dancing Ken Hanks, Minister of Happiness in the Monster Raving Loony Party, who sounds more like Captain Beefheart than Screaming Lord Sutch.

01 - Morning Star
02 - From Necropolis With Love
03 - Be Happy
04 - Evening Star
05 - Ergo Virgo I
06 - La Ina Intuicio
07 - Hammer Into Anvil
08 - Mir
09 - Alchemy & Accident
10 - Ergo Virgo III
11 - Maintain Low Profile

 

CD - 0402   FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB  -  The Diceman Variations


Some sonic experiments quite unlike the rest of the FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB output. Three long tracks [or lots of short ones joined together, if you prefer, because that's basically what they are].

THE DICEMAN VARIATIONS were recorded using borrowed Cubase technology in the days before we got a computer of our own to abuse. Inspired by Luke Rheinhardt's cult novel The Dice Man, lots of chance operations, mainly throwing dice, were used to build this piece. Finished confusing cubase, we took the results back to the Sound Lab, fed it into our then-state of the art technology [a creaky old 4-track cassette recorder] and abused it some more. Originally released on cassette.

THE CASE OF THE SIX-SIDED MAN has been described by one reviewer as musique concrete, so perhaps it is. We don't know what that is, so cannot venture an opinion. Various tapes running off against each other resulted in this. Whatever it is.

1011 was originally recorded for an art show of some kind... you had to choose an hour on a certain day and do something artistic. We chose 10 - 11 am [hence the title] and this is what happened. In the afternoon, we went to a football match, I seem to recall, so it must have been a Saturday.

01 - The Diceman Variations [20:54]
02 - The Case Of The Six-Sided Man [21:33]
03 - 1011 [13:35]

 

 

CD - 0404   FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB  -  The Man From Taured

 

In The Directory Of Possibilities [editors: Colin Wilson & John Grant, 1981]the topic of Appearing People is adressed. These are sort of the opposite of people who vanish without trace - they arrive from places that don't exist.

"Other people have claimed to come from lands not known to exist. In 1851 a certain Joseph Vorin came to the attention of the German authorities: he said that he was from Laxaria, in a country called Sakria. In 1905 a young man was arrested in Paris; he spoke an unknown language but managed to convey that he was a citizen of Lisbian - not, it should be stressed, Lisbon. And in 1954 a passport check in Japan is alledged to have produced a man with papers issued by the nation of Taured."

So that's where the title came from. And whoever that man was, and whatever happened to him, he'll probably never know that he had an album named after him.

01 - Alien Nation
02 - Intermission #1
03 - The Man From Taured
04 - Intermission #2
05 - I Walked With Strange Gods
06 - Intermission #3
07 - Event Horizon
08 - Intermission #4
09 - Beginning Of The End
10 - The End

 

 

CD - 0501   FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB  -  Joe Meek Shall Inherit The Earth

Just in case there's actually anyone out there who doesn't know who Joe Meek was... he was an innovator of sound recording techniques, a record producer, songwriter - he was responsible for Telstar by The Tornadoes [the first single by a British group to top the American charts] and lots more. He's been described as "a pioneer of the punk DIY ethic and a patron saint of home recordists everywhere."

Also, in 1967 he shot and killed his landlady, before turning the gun on himself.

It's this latter act that inspired the title track of this album - the FSL first disc to use computers and digital recording - imagining that the shotgun blast sent his soul or spirit or whatever into space, where it endlessly orbits the Earth, a bit like Telstar.

01 - Prologue : Forever Orbiting
02 - Induction
03 - Comsat-1 [Relay Activated]
04 - New Worlds.1
05 - To Boldly Go...
06 - Joe Meek Shall Inherit The Earth
07 - Radiation.1
08 - Comsat-2 [Earth Orbit]
09 - Trace Elementals
10 - Phosphene
11 - Through Fire & Water
12 - Radiation.2
13 - New Worlds.2
14 - Experiments With Destiny
15 - God Is Dead [We Killed Him]
16 - Comsat-3 [Edge Of The Void]
17 - Epilogue: Only The Stars Remain

 

 

CD - 0701   FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB  -  It Was A Dark & Stormy Night...



This is NOT a concept album about the the downfall of the Vatican and the grisly fate of the last Pope.

Having said that, there is a tenuous narrative thread running through the album, and it does finish with the Pope being executed and his body buried at a crossroads with a stake through his heart.

So I guess it's not difficult to see how some might jump to that conclusion.

Starting an album with a spot of necromancy is always a good ploy, and we get this as the ghost of St. Malachy is summoned up. Malachy was a 12th century Irish bishop who is credited with a series of prophescies listing future Popes from Celestine II in 1143, through to the last one, who he names as Peter the Roman. And if Malachy is right, the next Pope after the present incumbant will be... Peter the Roman. Google it if you don't believe me - tons of stuff out there on the web.

Anyway, it's in this possible near-future that this non-concept album is partly based. And on the basis that you cant have too many spectres on one album, the ghost of William Blake also makes an appearance, to narrative a re-working of his poem The Garden Of Love.

01 - Malachy... Come Forth From Your Grave
02 - It Was A Dark & Stormy Night...
03 - World News At Midnight
04 - Das Vatican Ist Gefallen
05 - Out In The Fields
06 - Stormclouds Gathering
07 - Voices In The Storm
08 - Rome Burning
09 - Pope On The Run
10 - White Throat / White Dress
11 - Agent Of Destiny
12 - Accused Of Prophecy
13 - The Signs & Portents Show #1
14 - William Blake & The Garden Of Love
15 - The Signs & Portents Show #2
16 - A Discourse On The Nature Of Angels
17 - Dancing On A Pinhead
18 - Zagreb ? Warum Zagreb ?
19 - Whom The Gods Love
20 - Les Cardinaux Pendant
21 - Lex Talionis
22 - ...But They're Closing In...
23 - An End To It


CD - 0801   FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB -  Rawhead & Bloodybones                 Ride Again


Rawhead & Bloodybones was a sort of bogeyman entity of a couple of centuries ago. It would enter the house via the drains and abduct naughty children who didn't eat their greens, go to bed when told, etc.

This album, from 2008, contains no less than 5 versions of "I Reached Out To Jesus...And He Bit Me" a prime example of what can happen when an attempt at a warped gospel song goes bad...

I reached out to Jesus...and he bit me
I reached out to Jesus...and he bit me
I reached out to Jesus...and he bit me
Now I'm a vampire too
Hallelujah !

This sprang from intense theological discussion, which concluded that anything that rises from the tomb must be Undead. I particularly like version 2 - the electro-pop one.

01 - I reached Out To Jesus...And He Bit Me.1
02 - The Road To Damascus [Is Closed.Detour
 via Babylon]
03 - From Dank & Stagnant Cavaties They Come
04 - Rawhead & Bloodybones Ride Again
05 - I Reached Out To Jesus...And He Bit Me.2
06 - Vanishing Point
07 - Confused/Inverted
08 - Shadows Casting Shadows
09 - Malice In Sunderland Theme
10 - I Reached Out To Jesus...And He Bit Me.3
11 - Man On The Grassy Knoll
12 - Strange Folkdance [For Strange Folk]
13 - Those They Pass
14 - Salvage Rites
15 - I Reached Out To Jesus...And He Bit Me.4
16 - Every Breath You Fake
17 - Furtive Men & Turkish Coffee
18 - Hit & Miss
19 - I Reached Out To Jesus...And He Bit Me.5




CD - 0901   FRANKENSTEIN SOUND LAB   -  Who's Afraid Of The
Big Bad Moth ?


Well, there's this guy, you see ? And he's convinced that he's being menaced by this huge and evil moth, right ? Of course it's all in his head.

Or is it...

Released June 2009, I guess this is a concept album. It has a beginning, middle and end, with a narrative thread running throughout. And the tracks have been structured to run into each other.

Hmmm... is this actually an album or an experimental audio play ? A good question, the boundaries are a bit blurred...

Tell you what - you decide. Buy yourself a copy, hell, they're cheap enough.

01 - bigbadmoththeme.1
02 - nature of the beast
03 - butterflies released as bats
04 - path through the forest
05 - the night side of nature
06 - voices
07 - dream autopsy.1
08 - like a moth to a candle
09 - dream autopsy.2
10 - caterpiller tracks
11 - twilight zone
12 - bigbadmoththeme.2
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