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CAMBERWELL NOW — The EP Collection
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Camberwell, in South London, pops up infrequently in pop culture. Perhaps you know it from the Camberwell Carrot, the heroically sized joint smoked in cult movie Withnail & I, or perhaps if youre attuned to experimental music you know of Camberwell Now. The group formed from the ashes of This Heat, the art-noise group whose catalog was reissued on Modern Classics Recordings in early 2016.
Not so much a supersession as a continuation of that group, Camberwell Now featured This Heats vocalist / drummer Charles Hayward, who assembled an unusual line-up comprising Stephen Rickard, a former BBC sound engineer, on field recordings and tape manipulation and Trefor Goronwy on bass, vocals and ukulele. We had a very specific set of skills, says Hayward, in new liner notes compiled for this long overdue reissue, and it wasnt immediately clear to us how best to bring them together so that we could play live.
Taking inspiration from seafaring and imperialism, and the fact that the music was created within close proximity to the meridian line in Greenwich, the Meridian EP was originally intended to be a project for This Heat. The groups departing member Charles Bullen plays on the opening track, Cutty Sark, named for the famed British clipper ship.
The second EP, 1987s Greenfingers, was their final recorded work and, according to Hayward, its possible to hear the group atomising and preparing to go its separate ways within its grooves. The only This Heat or Camberwell Now recording not to have been produced at Brixtons Cold Storage studios, it was recorded as a DIY exercise and unusually for either of the groups was not pored over laboriously for a great deal of time. The EP also saw the addition of a new member, Maria Lamburn, primarily on sax, whose Element Unknown was inspired by her experiences in the nuclear protest camp at Greenham Common.
Comprising tracks that overlapped between This Heat and Camberwell Now, the EPs concerned themselves with information technology, surveillance, propaganda and what Hayward describes as day-to-day, hand-to-mouth survival all pertinent concerns in a fractured Britain under the rule of right-wing Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, and perhaps still as pertinent today in fractured, recession-hit, isolationist Britain.
The group dispersed after a final European tour, amicably, quietly, and differently, the latter their MO throughout a unique career. Goronwy, Hayward and Rickard all share their experiences and thoughts on The Camberwell Now in liner notes accompanying this landmark release: young and old, birth and death captured on two sides of vinyl.
Note: On download card (and audio samples above), track one includes the songs Cutty Sark, Trade Winds and Pearl Divers. Total running time for track one is 9:34 and each song is distinct, though they are to be experienced as one long-form piece of music.
Release Notes
Official vinyl re-issue in collaboration with original members
24 bit/96 kHz re-master from original analog tapes
Restored art, expanded to a gatefold tip-on jacket
Includes download card with two bonus tracks
8 page booklet with track notes by the artists, lyrics and archival photos
Auf Camberwell in South London wird sich in der Popkultur immer wieder bezogen. Vielleicht kennt man es von der Camberwell Carrot, dem
berdimensionalen Joint, der im Kultfilm Withnail & I geraucht wird, oder von CAMBERWELL NOW. Die Band entstand aus der Asche von THIS HEAT und bildete sich um Snger und Schlagzeuger Charles Hayward, der den ehemaligen
BBC Sound Engineer Stephen Rickard fr Field Recording und Bandmanipulationen
und Trefor Goronwy an Bass, Vocals und Ukulele akquirierte. Wir hatten eine sehr spezielle Herangehensweise, sagt Hayward, und zu Beginn wussten wir nicht, wie wir unseren Sound live umsetzen sollten. Die Meridian EP vereinigte
Einflsse aus der Seefahrt und dem Imperialismus und spielte auf den Fakt an, dass
die Musik nahe am Meridian in Greenwich entstanden war. Die zweite EP, Greenfingers von 1987 war ihre allerletzte Aufnahme, auf der man laut Hayward hrt, wie die Gruppe sich langsam zerstreut und getrennte Wege geht. Auf der EP war erstmals das neue Mitglied Maria Lamburn am Saxophon zu hren, deren Element Unknown von ihren Erfahrungen in einem Protestcamp gegen Atomenergie inspiriert ist. Die EPs vereinen Tracks aus Zeiten von THIS HEAT
und CABERWELL NOW und befassen sich mit Informationstechnologie, berwachung, Propaganda und dem tagtglichen berlebenskampf, ernsthafte Sorgen im gespaltenen Grobritannien unter der eisernen Margaret Thatcher und vielleicht heute noch genauso relevant im zerrissenen, rezessionsgeplagten, isolationistischen Grobritannien der Gegenwart.
Not so much a supersession as a continuation of that group, Camberwell Now featured This Heats vocalist / drummer Charles Hayward, who assembled an unusual line-up comprising Stephen Rickard, a former BBC sound engineer, on field recordings and tape manipulation and Trefor Goronwy on bass, vocals and ukulele. We had a very specific set of skills, says Hayward, in new liner notes compiled for this long overdue reissue, and it wasnt immediately clear to us how best to bring them together so that we could play live.
Taking inspiration from seafaring and imperialism, and the fact that the music was created within close proximity to the meridian line in Greenwich, the Meridian EP was originally intended to be a project for This Heat. The groups departing member Charles Bullen plays on the opening track, Cutty Sark, named for the famed British clipper ship.
The second EP, 1987s Greenfingers, was their final recorded work and, according to Hayward, its possible to hear the group atomising and preparing to go its separate ways within its grooves. The only This Heat or Camberwell Now recording not to have been produced at Brixtons Cold Storage studios, it was recorded as a DIY exercise and unusually for either of the groups was not pored over laboriously for a great deal of time. The EP also saw the addition of a new member, Maria Lamburn, primarily on sax, whose Element Unknown was inspired by her experiences in the nuclear protest camp at Greenham Common.
Comprising tracks that overlapped between This Heat and Camberwell Now, the EPs concerned themselves with information technology, surveillance, propaganda and what Hayward describes as day-to-day, hand-to-mouth survival all pertinent concerns in a fractured Britain under the rule of right-wing Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, and perhaps still as pertinent today in fractured, recession-hit, isolationist Britain.
The group dispersed after a final European tour, amicably, quietly, and differently, the latter their MO throughout a unique career. Goronwy, Hayward and Rickard all share their experiences and thoughts on The Camberwell Now in liner notes accompanying this landmark release: young and old, birth and death captured on two sides of vinyl.
Note: On download card (and audio samples above), track one includes the songs Cutty Sark, Trade Winds and Pearl Divers. Total running time for track one is 9:34 and each song is distinct, though they are to be experienced as one long-form piece of music.
Release Notes
Official vinyl re-issue in collaboration with original members
24 bit/96 kHz re-master from original analog tapes
Restored art, expanded to a gatefold tip-on jacket
Includes download card with two bonus tracks
8 page booklet with track notes by the artists, lyrics and archival photos
Auf Camberwell in South London wird sich in der Popkultur immer wieder bezogen. Vielleicht kennt man es von der Camberwell Carrot, dem
berdimensionalen Joint, der im Kultfilm Withnail & I geraucht wird, oder von CAMBERWELL NOW. Die Band entstand aus der Asche von THIS HEAT und bildete sich um Snger und Schlagzeuger Charles Hayward, der den ehemaligen
BBC Sound Engineer Stephen Rickard fr Field Recording und Bandmanipulationen
und Trefor Goronwy an Bass, Vocals und Ukulele akquirierte. Wir hatten eine sehr spezielle Herangehensweise, sagt Hayward, und zu Beginn wussten wir nicht, wie wir unseren Sound live umsetzen sollten. Die Meridian EP vereinigte
Einflsse aus der Seefahrt und dem Imperialismus und spielte auf den Fakt an, dass
die Musik nahe am Meridian in Greenwich entstanden war. Die zweite EP, Greenfingers von 1987 war ihre allerletzte Aufnahme, auf der man laut Hayward hrt, wie die Gruppe sich langsam zerstreut und getrennte Wege geht. Auf der EP war erstmals das neue Mitglied Maria Lamburn am Saxophon zu hren, deren Element Unknown von ihren Erfahrungen in einem Protestcamp gegen Atomenergie inspiriert ist. Die EPs vereinen Tracks aus Zeiten von THIS HEAT
und CABERWELL NOW und befassen sich mit Informationstechnologie, berwachung, Propaganda und dem tagtglichen berlebenskampf, ernsthafte Sorgen im gespaltenen Grobritannien unter der eisernen Margaret Thatcher und vielleicht heute noch genauso relevant im zerrissenen, rezessionsgeplagten, isolationistischen Grobritannien der Gegenwart.