Neil Campbell (musician)


Neil Campbell is a British musician, notable for his vast catalogue and his many collaborations. In 2005, The Wire declared that he, Richard Youngs and Matthew Bower had "provided the map co-ordinates for much of what passed for a post-punk UK underground during most of the 80s and 90s". Pitchfork media have referred to him as "one of the most important experimental musicians of the last 20 years".

Early years

Campbell was born in Scotland. He began making music in 1979 using whatever came to hand, having already developed a firm belief in improvisation, and that virtuosity would negatively impact upon the results.
In 1984, he first made contact with Richard Youngs when his Kettering based group ESP Kinetic applied to appear on a cassette compilation on Youngs' Jabberwok label. Although unsuccessful, he persevered for a while with ESP Kinetic and its successor, Redemption Inc, before extending his range outside the rock band format. Initially and typically for the period, much of Campbell's work was released on small tape labels or by Campbell himself and it is nigh-on impossible to document all of his releases.

From the "A" Band to Vibracathedral Orchestra

However, it was as a constant member of Nottingham's A Band that he met several future collaborators and first came to the attention of the international underground with an album "Artex/A Lot" being issued on Siltbreeze in the US. One reason for the A Band's growth in numbers is that, for each of their performances, he refused to appear onstage unless there was a new member. In 2007 Campbell was again involved in the revived A Band's recording and live activities.
As well as this, he often collaborated with UK noise music/art unit Smell and Quim under the alias D. Foist while also recording with Scottish DIY punk-improv duo Prick Decay on several occasions.
Towards the end of the 1990s Campbell hooked up with Julian Bradley to record 5 cassettes and an LP before they asked Michael Flower to join them, adding Bridget Hayden and Adam Davenport to form Vibracathedral Orchestra, who recorded and released prolifically, with many self-released items joining their US CD releases on VHF and Giardia. Campbell still found time to guest with Matthew Bower's groups Total and Sunroof!, work with people like Stewart Walden, Rob Hayler, Phil Todd, Universal Indians and Campbell Kneale and to record solo albums such as These Premises Are No Longer Bugged and Sol Power. He also finally made a duo album with Richard Youngs called How The Garden Is. He took to the CD-R medium as enthusiastically as he did the cassette and many limited releases appeared on labels in the UK, U.S., New Zealand and Australia.

Astral Social Club

Campbell left Vibracathedral Orchestra in 2006 and now concentrates on his Astral Social Club project. He has released several CD-Rs, with a "best of" CD compilation culled from the first 7 volumes released on VHF Records last year. He also issued a MP3 disc containing 256 kbit/s files of all the tracks from those 7 albums as well as a vinyl only LP for Qbico entitled Star Guzzlers. He also performs live under this name, securing the services of his friends Richard Youngs and Tirath Singh Nirmala for a performance in Glasgow in April 2006, and those of Arttu Partinen for a performance in Manchester.
As of 2015 Neil is working on setting a chapter of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake to music, for the Waywords and Meansigns project.

Music Mundane

In 2007, Campbell launched Music Mundane, a new label, with the first two releases being an expanded CD reissue of his "Sol Power" album and a revised CD-R edition of his friend Stewart Walden's limited edition cassette "Cucumber Sandwich", the first 25 copies of which come with a 3" CD-R containing remixes of the album by Astral Social Club. In 2008, he released an archive CDR of ESP Kinetic material, entitled "Fleck-Nor"

Discography

As stated above, a complete discography would be virtually impossible to compile. This list is an expanded and updated version of a select discography which originally appeared in the Perfect Sound forever interview.

Solo work

  • Mundanity split w/Richard Youngs TC
  • Face of Scurf TC
  • Itinerant String Section CD-R
  • These Premises Are No Longer Bugged LP
  • Excerpt from the Never-Ending Bowed Metal Song CD-R
  • The Hearing Force of the Humanverse CD-R
  • "Fuzzjam|Dub" MP3
  • "Rolling Exploding"/"Sky Full of Love" 7"
  • Boomerang is Love TC/CD-R
  • Lost Predelic Moonshine Music Tape/CD-R
  • "Rabbitfoot Oof" on untitled mini CD-R, two other tracks by Fickle
  • Rock on Brain cassette
  • SOL POWR LP, CD
  • Track on Gooseweek comp 7"
  • Is Not Here TC
  • split w/Jazz Buffoon TC
  • "Wheel Ramble/Real Scramble" 10"
  • Casio Rapman and Electric Guitar TC
  • The Singing Pubis TC
  • "Pan Wagon Oasis" on split w/Campbell Kneale 7"
  • String Quartets, Loops, Garden Talk CD-R
  • "Paint Everything White/Blip Pneumonia" 7"
  • "Mizzlefield Ploof Kingdom/Muttertown Birdsong Cindy" 7"
  • Executive Silk Lips C30
  • Recycled Music Cassette
  • "Teasel"/"Thistle" Cassette
  • The Hearing Force of the Humanverse CD-R

Astral Social Club

  • MCR Blast 8" lathe
  • Passing Star / Solar Filament self-released CD-R
  • Astral Social Club
  • Star Guzzlers LP
  • Neon Pibroch CD
  • Super Grease LP
  • Model Town in Field of Mud LP
  • Skelp/Ginnel 7" + CDR
  • Monster Mittens 7"
  • Octuplex
  • Capitols Collapsed Cassette
  • Generator Breaker LP
  • Magic Smile CD
  • Electric Yep LP
  • Destiny SNFU Cassette
As stated above, a majority of ASC music has been issued across a series of eponymous CD-Rs, all self-released by Campbell in limited numbers. At time of writing, this series is now up to 24 volumes and includes live recordings with Tirath Singh Nirmala, Richard Youngs and Stewart Keith. For the Model Town in Field of Mud LP, ASC was a duo of Campbell and Evans.

Vibracathedral Orchestra

  • See Vibracathedral Orchestra - Campbell features on virtually all of their releases to date and a discography appears on their page.

A Band

  • See A Band - Campbell features on the majority of their releases and a discography appears on their page.

ESP Kinetic/Redemption Inc

These 1980s bands recorded several tapes but it is doubtful that any will be found without searching eBay. Campbell had a boxed set of ESP Kinetic cassettes placed on the shelves of Kettering Library after asking the library to order it. ESP Kinetic titles include: "Dance As Hallucination", "The Message Is No Message", "Mission", "fleck-NOR" and "Songs for Drowning Men". A CDR entitled "fleck-NOR" was issued by Campbell in 2008. Redemption Inc released a self-titled cassette and one entitled "Further Down The Spiral". There was also a cassette by Meat Your Mother entitled "Meat Dreams" which was also mainly Campbell's work. The track " Store Keep / Reward Report from the Head", which was originally released by ESP Kinetic in 1985 on cassette was featured on Unassimilated Sounds radio in 2015.

Smell & Quim

A prolific noise unit, Campbell is known to have appeared on the following releases:
  • Your Enemy's Balls / What's Your Health Problem CD
  • Diameter of Elvis' Colon CD
  • Seven Inches Inside Vagina 7"
  • Piss with Drills of Blood 7"
  • Jim Seed Collector 7"
  • Non-Stop Robotic Fornication 7"
  • Non-Stop Robotic Stinky Horse Fisting 7"
  • Quasi-Modo Cacandi S&Q/Expose Your Eyes collaboration cassette
  • Retract Your Balls it's... cassette
  • Meat / Pregnant Asian Special CD + cassette
  • Pushy Gothic Gnome Versus Charity Techno Gnome cassette
  • Titwank cassette
  • Oral CD
  • 69 one-sided split LP
  • The Psychedelic Sounds of Smell & Quim and Tea Culture 7"
  • Autoficial 7"
  • Pervertigo Porksword Billyclub 7"
  • Polk Salad Fanny 7"
  • Cosmic Bondage cassette
  • Chariot of the Cods cassette
  • Pro-Celebrity Mutual Masturbation cassette
  • Snizz Guzzlers cassette
  • Spermathalon cassette

Julian Bradley/Neil Campbell

  • First TC
  • 2 TC
  • Bradley Campbell Three TC
  • V TC
  • untitled LP
  • "Untitled" on Scenes From Ringing Isle 2CD
  • Scythe Apocalypse CD-R
  • The Lift, Brighton,14 March 1998 CD-R

Matthew Bower

Campbell appears on the following recordings by Total:
  • Buffin' the Celestial Muffin CD
  • Kaspar Hauser CD
  • Merzbow Mixed Total cassette
  • Eternity's Beautiful Frontispiece CD
Campbell appears on the following recordings by Sunroof!:
  • Delicate Autobahn Under Construction 2CD Slipstream CD-R
  • Found Star Sound CD
  • Temple Music Vols. 1&2 2CD-R Bliss 2CD

Richard Youngs

  • Festival - Neil provides "tapes" on one track
  • Motorway - Cassette - Neil plays percussion on two tracks
  • Georgians
  • How the Garden Is LP

Neil Campbell/Stewart Walden

Prick Decay/Decaer Pinga

Decaer Pinga are Prick Decay by another name.
  • !!!Cuba.Planet Cuba!!! TC
  • "Vachement Click with Turntable Editions" on Studies For Postal Orgies TC
  • Rate of CHB is in TC Big Band Xerox TC
  • "He'll Look Like Moses" on Studies For Postal Orgies Vol. 2 CD-R
  • Electronic Honky TC
  • Strobelights to Boston CD-R

Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck & Schimpfluch-Gruppe

  • Shitpflug CD-R
  • Psycho-Physical Tests And Trainings With Rudolf Eb.er And R&G/Schimpfluch Personnel CD CD credited to Rudolf Eb.er.

One-off collaborations

Campbell has recorded with several bands and individuals on a one-off basis:
  • Basquadeck Shelf cassette, 1985 - released in 2001 by Fencing Flatworm Recordings at part of their Ordinance, Tape Only project
  • Durian Durian LP - not related to the film of the same name.
  • Tape Hiss cassette
  • Big band Xerox Cassette
  • "Nice Duo Stewart" on lathe cut 7" Mary Dickson Says: Just Fucking Calm Down, Right?
  • The Cuckoos Sang in Their Appropriated Nests CD-R
  • "Soun " a single-sided 7" single consisting of extremely short contributions by a hundred artists including Neil.
  • "Live at RRRecords"/"Long Distance Moan" .
  • Live at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow
  • Paekong Mae LP
  • untitled CD-R
  • In Luck CD-R
  • Untitled collaboration with Sean McCann