Beautiful electronic/folk/ambient work from such local heroes as Jilk, Cajita and Solarference, who blend and bend fantastic computer sonic manipulations with traditional vocals and instrumentation.
AngMoh is a new label from England spanning the two cities of Bristol and London. This first release, excitingly titled Sampler Vol. 1, is a compilation of some of the artists who are so far associated with the label, and serves as a little taste of the kind of thing we can all expect in the future. It features some really beautiful electronic/folk/ambient work from such local heroes as Jilk, Cajita and Solarference, who blend and bend fantastic computer sonic manipulations with traditional vocals and instrumentation. The three afore mentioned artists provide the stand out tracks for me, especially the slightly geeky but incredibly charming Solarference who I saw play live recently and was mightily impressed with. They are a duo who conjure music out of some very sparse initial input which is then effected, looped, layered and otherwise bullied into servitude live via their custom made software (Max/MSP, I’ll wager my hat on it), plus spine tingling vocal harmonies and counterpoint to create a very beautiful and innovative performance.
AngMoh means “red haired man” in Chinese, so it is with good reason the instigator and man behind this label, a red haired gentleman by the name of Terry Owen, called it such. I’ve met Terry several times during my movements through the city of Bristol, he’s partial to leaping around a stage barefoot screaming profanities, or sitting cross-legged crooning gently into a microphone and sometimes standing up and playing a trombone with aplomb to a background of computer spewn bleeps. The point is, he’s a man who loves music: writing it, performing it, listening to it, watching people do it, just being around it. It makes this label one of the many genuine institutes that will enable grass roots music to carry on and flourish. It’s clearly for the love, I get the feeling that money is nowhere near the top of the list in terms of priorities here, but encouraging and releasing genuinely beautiful music probably is. Running a label is a hard job. It involves pouring your heart and soul into it, working as many hours as there are available (usually around a day job), endless knock backs, days when the thought of approaching another music blog in the hope of garnering some interest makes your stomach turn cart-wheels, and days when you question what a grown man of your age is actually doing with his life, all in the hope that your releases sell just a few copies, enough to save you from going broke and continuing to promote the music you believe in. These are the releases people like us need to support, the real street level stuff, where the seeds are sown that will maybe become trees.
Sampler Vol. 1 is available on AngMoh. [Release page | Bandcamp]
