With respect to the staggering amount of music that Antony Milton has released since the mid-90’s, I feel a little ill-equipped to review this recent CD on Ben Spiers Transient label. The only other disc of Antony’s that I’ve heard is the petite, insidious, but quite enjoyable motorised noise outing Small Engine Funk Tantra.

Call it one of the worthiest legacies of 20th century music: overcoming the given vocabulary of a musical instrument. Consider the electric guitar and just how many creative souls have taken on and extended the known language of sound and technique. It seems quite remarkable that anyone can find still more to be done. But they do …. And moving beyond the conventional structure of the guitar – both physically and musically – has been a concern of Greg Malcolm’s music for nigh on 20 years.

The idea of a sextet, y’know … a musical group with six members, isn’t anything too unusual, That is, until you venture into the world of new improvised, electro-acoustic, noisy, post-electronic (whatever) music. Here, the small unit is the dominant format – soloists, duos, maybe three-piece. Six is something special. Anyone familiar with the extensive discographies of these gents: Tim Coster, Richard Francis, Rosy Parlane, Mark Sadgrove, Clinton Watkins and Paul Winstanley will find anticipation of this mega-ensemble (convened by Richard last year) well-rewarded.

duende / n. 1 an evil spirit. 2 inspiration. [Sp.]

'All that has dark sounds has duende.'

F.G. Lorca: 'Theory and Function of the Duende', in Selected Poems: Penguin Books; 1960,

p. 127

As the Spanish Instrument par excellence, the guitar comes pre-loaded with a burden of extra-musical cultural significance. When we play the guitar, we are always playing with a caravan of images which trail us like ghosts across a television screen. Jimi Hendrix; Robert Johnson; and a crowd of anonymous Spanish gypsies, swarming like penitents on the road to Santiago.

On the Guitar

As an improvising sound artist, I was recently asked in an interview for a French magazine why I stuck to old hat stuff like playing the guitar, why I didnt radicalise my practice and get a sampler or something? I controlled my rage and politely expressed my disbelief that new technologies have rendered musical instruments anachronistic. I personally dont subscribe to any such notion.