shytone
books
music
essays
home exploratories
new this month
...shy
tone...
below
is a complete listing
of these Brisbane, Australia
releases
including earlier/alternate
versions, compilation contributions,
and projected future/final
revisions (where planned) for their
“legitimate”
cd release - as well as forthcoming
and related releases
...plus contact details...
Please note that, before 1998, the lost domain was
known
as the invisible empire, so all earlier “versions”
are under that name.
We did relabel the old stuff, too...as that was the
simplest:
since hardly anybody had heard of it
or us...
and now,
on w/the show
the invisible empire: an unnatural
act...
(1990 no label cassette, self-release): 10 tracks.
the
invisible empire: an unnatural act...
(1992 malignant cassette): reissue from the same master.
the
invisible empire: an unnatural act...
(1995 shy tone cassette): remastered w/better sound
& package.
the lost domain:
an unnatural act ...
(2000 shy tone cdr): inc. two additional tracks from 1991.
the
lost domain: an unnatural act...
(2006 foxglove cdr): deleting the real interloper amongst
said additional tracks
& adding another from 1990.
the
foxglove is - finallly! - the definitive version of this
release
now
including our recently-rediscovered version
of Samuel Beckett’s “Radio 1” from
the end of 1990
and
long-thought lost....
this one is where we began,
overdubbing (via dual cassette deck) violently
fuzzed-out slide mandolin (and occasional 44 gallon
drum)
over similiarly-monstered archaic acoustic blues
guitar,
sometimes further treated...to produce a throbbing
chopped-up style.
the impact of
mental illness on the two main players
is exorcized via "feedback therapy" & such
or, at least
that was one intention
once described
as "the noisiest thing ever recorded",
it also anticipates our later/gentler stylings in "regret"
still some fans' favourite
the invisible
empire: jeezly fishcakes
(1992 no label cassette, self-release): 13 tracks.
a remastered
version
of this was prepared, but - after much thought -
it was abandoned...due to the grab-bag nature of the original,
and the
(usually) poor recording quality
of most of these (live) cuts.
however
two are due to resurface
in the followup to the dead set
already advanced in planning...
Anyway...a bit of a mess -
although, it does have its supporters!
all live, and wildly variable...in qualities of all sorts
- as we generally had rotten
mics, and were learning as we went,
to boot.... A mistake -
in retrospect - and there will be
no reissue in total.
slow loris: strip mining
(1993 no label cassette, self-release):
10 tracks
john
henry calvinist: strip mining
(1995 shy tone cassette): 10 tracks, remastered
john
henry calvinist: shackles first to fit
(2000 shy tone cdr): 10 tracks, remastered w/3 different
tracks
the
accidental solo album
I (JHC) got a cheap 4 track in late 1991
Trouble was, the band went largely into hiatus
round then, due to Simon’s illness...so I spent
weeks building
up tracks that he couldn’t work on...resulting
in me
inadvertantly finishing them...
decided
to “issue” some
by making up 10 copies and giving them to my friends
then, two years later...after changing the name because Canadians stole it
remastered the thing & vaguely attempted to sell
it
five
years later,
I’d done a handful of new ones during my last overdubbing bout,
and revised it for
cdr - dropping the 45 minutes of “channel o”
and the two 1990 pieces that I felt didn’t really
fit
replacing
them with two rejigged 1991 things
and the best of my 1997 ones...
and this is the final form
A strange thing,
no “solos” & two odd
“parodies”
that no one but me hears as such & well...
when one band member thinks something sounds
like
duran duran...and another says big black,
there’s obviously
something
odd at work
many
lyrical, some driving,
some monstrously grating - but all very evocative
like soundtracks to films
yet to be made
grubbage:
pie-eyed & mulish
(1995 shy tone cassette): 7 tracks
grubbage:
pie-eyed & mulish
(2000 shy tone cdr): 8 tracks, remastered w/extra track
easy as pie,
this stuff
was:
I was helping Greg work
up
a 4-track recording for
a compilation
and afterwards, we just
played & recorded it
1993
no overdubbing
Bettina
came home & joined in - it went so well
that we did it again soon after - and everything
is now out except for one where
the tape played up
informal,
but also
very intense...interestingly
and probably the most “New Zealand”-like
of the shy tone material currently available...and,
no overdubs...plus the most powerful amp used was 3 watts
and it was the easiest production job I’ve
ever done.
Greg & Bettina
joined the invisible empire
soon after
the invisible empire: blondes chew more gum
(1995 shy tone cassette): 8
tracks
the
lost domain: blondes chew more gum
(2007 digitalis forthcoming
2CD set): 14 tracks
no
reissue as yet, partly
because the original
was planned as a vinyl release
- abandoned due to lack
of money - and partly because
the projected reissue
is now a double lp, taking in material
from 1995-7 with the
same lineups.
digitalis
has this scheduled for a 2CD set in 2007,
by the way, but - we're STILL hoping for
a double vinyl set somewhere
down the track...
our
most “popular” release in its original form
-
& most people’s favourite (w/the
next), of the shy tone cassettes.
three drummers &
three string players
doing semi-structured rock’n’roll that was often
surprisingly restrained
- but always insisted on going where “it” wanted...
this
was when the group first really became its own thing
- and demanded its head...since then, we’ve been giving
way to it,
more & more...
the
dead set
(1995 shy tone twin cassette, w/a 70 page booklet
completed in 1997):
46 tracks total, over a third by us...
no reissue
yet
- although Revenant have expressed tentative interest -
but it’ll, probably, end up coming out as 4cds &
a book
and
the followup’ll be even deeper/broader in scope.
A “celebration of the hundred years of rock’n’roll,
prior to the british invasion”
it
was part serious music theory, part revisionist music history
designed to put certain archaic hillbilly, pre-blues, and
blues styles
into their rightful place - and part pisstake
wherein: I (JHC)
made up stories about us
&
our friends to suggest that most everybody was ridiculously
old
-
well over four hundred, in one case - and had lived bizarre
lives...
all ending up in Brisbane, Australia
&
still playing.
one
tape was old 78s &
field recordings
aggressively remastered
- as I refused to sacrifice impact to get rid of surface
noise -
and
the other was almost all us, in varied lineups,
tapping into what Curt Sach’s called
“the wellsprings of music”
Probably the one I’m most proud of....
partly as it was purely my baby and, although I’ve
learned/listened
to a hell of a lot more since then, there’s nothing
I really need
to change about what I then wrote....
niell
armstrong experience: now wait for last year
(1995 shy tone tape): 3 tracks
niell
armstrong experience: now wait for last year
(2000 shy tone cdr): 3 tracks, straight reissue
niell
is something of a spirit invoked
when Greg Hilleard & Andrew Carr are in the vicinity
of electrical equipment
preferably
old & malfunctioning
and lots of it - sometimes other people
get caught up in it - sometimes they do it on regular
instruments...and sometimes people throw bottles
and the police come
think
huge walls of the stuff of space
sometimes frying in the sun
or buried deep in a dripping cellar
1988 & 1992 recordings
no overdubbing
tripod:
brainwired/braned brain
(1996 shy tone cassette)
no
reissue because tripod
even tripod broken up - can’t agree on anything
amount of time spent chewing over this stuff
was ridiculous - and, as I just said
tripod can’t agree on anything
they’ll
probably do you a copy though
if’n you ask nicely
two
poor boys: no farming in liquorland
(1996 shy tone cassette): 6 tracks
another
mistake
it started as a holiday from tripod, and
from Greg’s solo album - which never came out
because sometimes Greg can’t agree w/himself
I (JHC)
trawled back through tapes that Simon & I
had made as a duo & hadn’t got used anywhere
else
pulled it together over a week or so...very fast for
me
but, Simon wasn’t keen - even though he’d
liked the
stuff when we did it, a lot.
I wanted
another release & I prevailed
but he was right - it doesn’t hang together
the
best track, our monstrously drunk
deconstruction of Link Wray’s “Rumble”
will appear on the followup to the dead set
but there will be no reissue in total
tom
& greg
(1997 shy tone cassette)
more
of an “associated” release
since it didn’t wasn’t packaged by JHC -
all I did was tweak the sound somewhat,
and make up a bunch of copies.
like
tripod, you can probably get one from them
if’n you ask nicely
the
north will rise again
(1997 shy tone cassette): 20 track sampler
nothing
that wasn’t elsewhere
the
big idea was...instead of mailing off
labouriously packaged & expensive to mail things
I’d do a sampler, make them in bulk & really
try,
for a change, to get some o/s interest...but,
I got depressed
a handful
of copies exist
the lost domain: the empire never ended...
(1999 shy tone cdr): 12 tracks.
the 1997-9 recordings
our
first
cd, so we made it as long as possible - a mistake....
current planning is to
cull the centre - rock’n’roll - section,
and build a new album
around it,
adding material from
the following year
On
the other hand, it’s all strong & well-recorded,
and features our first real ventures into work w/organ
& horns.
We no longer had three drummers - but we had Jeffrey
Wegener
(ex-Laughing Clowns)
plus
Eugene Carchesio (ex-Holy Ghosts) on organ & sax
...so we certainly weren’t repining...
the first lost domain release to be transfigured by gentler
approaches,
and still available in its original form.
and...at
least one other further album - and, possibly two
are planned (to add to the releases stemming from
this period)
...until Monsieur Jeffrey left....
alain-fournier’s
dream
(2002 shy tone cdr): 1 track.
Currently deleted,
as it
is on the rhizome
cdr below..
our
first “single”...46 minutes long
recorded
in late 2001
the lost domain: from
son to sun...
(2002 shy tone cdr):
4 tracks.
our
“accidental covers” album, with strange/long
versions
of Sun Ra, the Velvet Underground, Randy Newman, and
Lee Perry,
also the sole release to include what one future band
member called
“digital jiggery/pokery” in a few places
(courtesy Greg aka Papa Lord God).
we’d long found that songs just surfaced, and that
they were,
usually the fresher/stranger for not being premeditated.
after
several such, in a short period, we decided to put
together these
- and also made use of various hunks of recorded speech
& such -
to helping tie this weird beast together...
the
title refers to Son House & Sun Ra...
shorthand for our wanderings into new terrains.
Malcolm Mooney
for President
(2002 shy tone cdr): 1 track.
Our second “single”
- and also deleted, for the same reason.
the
lost domain: something is...
(2003 rhizome cdr): 2 tracks.
the lost domain: something
is...
(2006 shy tone cdr): 2 tracks.
the
reissue of the above two - deleted - “singles”
...and, our first release to get any o/s exposure.
the
first is quiet & expansively minimal, the second
a full-on piece existing somewhere
between psychedelia & jazz
the
rhizome issue is out of print, but
you can now get this again
from shy tone
the lost domain: and
yet the sea is not full
(2003 shy tone cdr): 1 track
our fully-fledged
dreamscape album
a night's sleep
- both deep sleeps & dreamings
compressed into 45 minutes - w/a rude awakening
amidst a nightmare of modernity
compiled from
six separate improvisations
made in late 2001/early 2002
the lost domain: sailor,
home from the sea
(2004 broken face/digitalis cd): 6 tracks.
the first international
release:
bookended free takes on John Lee Hooker's"the waterfront"
surround a weird (yet apt) set of
short instrumental pieces
all recorded in 2004
the lost domain: palace
(2006 pseudo arcana
cd): 5 tracks
our drummerless long-tone
explorational set, recorded late 2003
in a derelict ballroom
bowed
space, you might say
yet, still, clearly, blues
of sorts
John
Henry Calvinist: King Solomon Hill
(2006 foxglove cdr): 7 tracks
much
sparser & (definitely) stranger
than the first, it's structured by insanity
depression
engulfing, mania erupting/then dispersing
as peace, belatedly/welcomingly
breaks out
mostly
recorded at the turn of the millennium,
albeit
two are recent
the
lost domain: white man at the door
(2006 digitalis cd): 6 tracks
our acoustic trio "pre-blues"
set
recorded in 2002
with
Simon's finest vocal performances, to date
a
strange glimpse of our roots in the
hybrid vernacular musics of the nineteenth century
the
lost domain: lie still, sleep becalmed
(2007 digitalis cd): 2 tracks
a
sort of "cure" for insomna
recorded
2004-2006
or,
at least, an attempt to make it more bearable?
also
something of a companion piece/precursor to
"and yet the sea is not full"
albeit less strange & dreamy,
more still and restful
in ways
the
lost domain: wayouthere
(2006 digitalis cd): 10 tracks
a
truly extreme set
recorded
2001-2005
from
lyrical minimalism & grubby free improv
to electroblurt & radio, a dub take on
St. James Infirmary,
strange jazz stylings, a one-note dance classic,
death funk & velvets demolition
something
of a day in the life, too
that is, if you have a mood disorder
lotsa
fun
as well,
there's a seriously
full-on set
recorded w/Antony Milton in late 2005, which
should see the light of day soon
not to mention
several other finished albums we've yet
to find homes for
(interested
labels please apply)
the
lost domain compilation contributions
There was a track taken from “an unnatural act”
on a tape issued in Perth in 1991 - but no-one here
has a copy,
so its name
will have to remain a mystery. Apart from that,
the rest’re
all here:
“Walking Blues”
Burning the Sun (1992 Malignant cassette)
“Toupee
Blues”
Fuck the White Race (1993 Malignant cd)
“Country
Blues” (a Dock Boggs cover)
Spill Compillation 2 (1993 Spill cd)
“(I
Walk a) Lonely Avenue”
Spill Compillation 3 (1995 Spill cd)
“a
friend of my brother’s wife”
Get to Know Your Oven (1997 From the Same Mother lathe-cut
lp)
“Last
Go Round”
Cybernana (1997 4ZZZ/Oracle 2cd)
all are long
sold-out/deleted.
“Walking
Blues” and “Country Blues” resurfaced
on “the dead set”.
“Toupee Blues” was taken from “jeezly
fishcakes”
& will resurface on the sequel to “the dead set”
and,
finally “(I Walk a) Lonely Avenue”, “Last
Go Round” +
“a friend of my brother’s wife” will be
on the expanded version
of “blondes chew more gum”
and,
that’s the lot
except for “water falling”
in Dream
Magazine 5 from palace
(pseudo arcana)
"death dances" on Gold
Leaf Branches
(digitalis) from wayouthere
(digitalis)
&
"dry bones (in the valley)" on Wailing
Bones Vol 5
(foxglove)
note:
all shy tone cassetes
(except the sampler)
came in video cases, w/accompanying booklets
- usually about 16 pages - the dead set was different, of
course...
all cassettes
are now deleted
albeit cdrs of most are available
for all further
shy
tone
information
please contact jhenryc@hotmail.com
&
to contact the
lost domain directly
please email thelostdomain@gmail.com
available
releases the
lost domain
discography/history
