Toitu Seance

Richard Francis
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The Seedy R
Toitu Seance
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Feat. Tim Cornelius, Nathan Thompson, James Kirk, Peter Stapleton, Campbell Kneale, Richard Francis, Zoe Drayton, Antony Milton and Clinton Williams. In October of 2004 during the biannual Lines of Flight festival in Dunedin the band Sandoz Lab Technicians organised the usage of a recording studio so as to work toward their new album. Unfortunately for them they had innocently told other participants in the festival of their plan and what's more had invited them up to sit and listen as they played...
In hindsight it was of course inevitable that said musicians would not be able to resist the temptation to join in the fun and Toitu Séance is the recording that resulted from this NZ noise 'all-star' event. Restrained and controlled feedback hovers and shifts, organs groan, spontaneous drum circles erupt... Great stuff that will appeal to fans of the Metonymic label..

'There's no way on earth that I could pin down what New Zealand's Sandoz Lab Technicians are doing in mere words, but my love for their sound is as bright and clear as a Northern sky in February. But don’t be fooled to believe that Toitu Séance is a new moniker for the Sandoz guys, no this disc is a document of that trio teaming up with no less than half a dozen major forces in New Zealand fringe music. On this release we find Tim Cornelius, Nathan Thompson and James Kirk side by side with Peter Stapleton, Campbell Kneale, Richard Francis, Zoe Drayton, Antony Milton and Clinton Williams. It’s difficult to think of a more mouth-watering New Zealand line-up. The whole thing was recorded during the biannual Lines of Flight festival in Dunedin (mid-sized town on the Southern Island) and came about because Sandoz Lab Technicians organized the usage of a recording studio so as to work toward their new album, but with such an impressive number of talented musicians in town it was obviously impossible to “just” record another Sandoz album. Layers of restrained feedback are placed against a tapestry of improvised drums, subtle fogbanks of organ and lots more but it’s not the instruments applied that’s important here. Rather the filmic, organic, droning and improvisational feel that comes wrapped around the glacial and stretched out notes. Given who’s involved it might not come as a surprise.'
MATS GUSTAFSSON

'Beautiful big-band New Zealand sprawl from a virtual who-the-fuck-is-who of the NZ brain trounce brigade, featuring Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel/Black Boned Angel), Tim Cornelius (Sandoz Lab Technicians), Joe Drayton, Richard Francis, James Kirk (King Loser/Sandoz Lab Technicians), Antony Milton (Pseudo Arcana), Peter Stapleton (Sleep/Rain/Flies Inside The Sun/Terminals/A Handful Of Dust), Nathan Thompson (Sandoz Lab Technicians), Clinton Williams (Omit). A hail of mile-deep percussion blown to pieces by skull-venting lungs of smoke, heavy post-Industrial pot ritual and huge steel walls of drone. Recommended.'
VOLCANIC TONGUE