May 20
seen from Russia
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from France
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from Vietnam
seen from France
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Canada
UNDERWORLD
System 7 / Point 3: Fire – Water / record sleeve / design: David James Associates & Trevor Key / year: 1994
System 7 / Point 3: Fire – Water / record sleeve / design: David James Associates & Trevor Key / year: 1994
Don Bradshaw-Leather "Distance Between Us"1972 double vinyl,mega rare UK Private Avant Dark Psych,Electronic,Experimental,Minimal,masterpiece
Unfortunately not much things have been said or revealed about this artist. Don Bradshaw is an incredibly talented and inspiring multifaceted musician who cultivated his training dexterity, instrumentalist aptitude from his classical music background. Unfortunately Distance Between Us is the unique album published under his own name but what a fabulous creative effort. Published in 1972, Distance Between Us is a seriously enthralling psychedelic-thundering epic symphony largely based on furiously moving key soloing parts, ritual drum patterns, all into pure improvised madness. An absolute masterpiece, singular, dense, astral, tripped-out mystical effort which almost admits no comparison in the world of progressive music. Pure genius and a pick of musical virtuosity. A CD edition should be highly welcome......~ Review by Mellotron Storm Man this is one insane recording. A double album released in 1972 filled with piano, organ and percussion which is all soaked in mellotron. This is not for the faint of heart as it's quite experimental and repetitive. This music is way out there people. From what i've read Don approached CBS Records with some demo tapes and i'm not sure what was on those tapes but keep in mind that Bradshaw was a classically trained pianist that many called a prodigy. Anyway an executive at CBS Records had enough faith in him that they gave him some money upfront which was used to create a studio with the equipment and instruments he needed to record his music. It wasn't an easy recording session as Don had to layer the sounds himself. When he finished he took the recording to CBS Records who actually refused to release such an experimental work which led him to release it himself. Notice the spelling mistake in his last name "Bradshaw" on the album cover. We get four side long suites so fasten your seatbelts unless you want to be able to escape 'cause there's a mellotron storm on the horizon. Up first is "Distance Between Us-Part 1" and at first we have some incredible piano work before the mellotron arrives after a minute. A calm before 3 1/2 minutes as it changes with tribal-like drumming being the focus as the mellotron flows freely. Check out the organ 9 minutes in as it goes on for some time. Some vocal expressions and percussion before 16 minutes as the piano returns. This continues to the end of the song. "Distance Between Us-Part 2" opens with lots of piano but it's not long before the mellotron blows in. A calm before 5 minutes then the mellotron stops as it calms right down. The piano comes in and it's so beautifully played. This continues for some time then we get mellotron before 12 minutes to the end. I must admit the second album is a difficult listen for me, especially the first track called "Dance Of The Goblins". It's laid back percussion to start as the mellotron rolls in. It gets pretty chaotic 6 1/2 minutes in as the percussion and mellotron continue. Man this is a difficult listen. The chaotic sections come and go. With about 10 minutes left the percussion stops and it sounds more like an electronic beat with mellotron which is better in my opinion. "Autumn Mist" is piano and mellotron led and it's not nearly as abrasive as the previous track. It becomes quite powerful before 9 minutes. The mellotron seems to go from soft to loud constantly. Piano 15 minutes in as the mellotron stops but not for long as it's back in spades before 19 minutes. Some drama late sound-wise. Barely 4 stars for me but the first album is so good with the two part title track being the highlight of this recording. I'm not even sure if i'll play the second album again but this is such a unique recording and the first album is so good that I feel 4 stars is warranted. Music for the adventerous and somewhat deranged.....~ Review by Neu!mann
Add my voice to the slowly growing chorus of mystified admirers belatedly discovering this unique artifact: an epic monument to self-indulgence, which ought to be reason enough to enshrine it in a temple of Progressive Rock. The twin LP was obscure even when it was fresh in 1972, self-produced and self-released by 24-year old Essex native Donald Bradshaw (the Leather-suffix was presumably a stage affectation), after somehow managing to secure a cash advance from CBS Records for this homemade, one-man project. The label then backed away (quickly, I'm guessing) from the finished product, and I have to wonder how deep into the recording they got before pulling the corporate plug. Any five-minute stretch would be enough to trigger cardiac arrest in a career A&R flunky; the full hour-and-a-half experience is best approached as sweet torture to an avant-rock masochist. The album doesn't exactly win fans; it attracts willing victims, and as a glutton for punishment I speak from experience. The artwork alone is eye-catching, without even considering the rear cover photo of the same paint-blackened primitive (the elusive Bradshaw?) mauling a naked woman, like two contestants in a Celtic mud-wrestling competition. And then there's the music itself, a multi-tracked collision of classical piano, atonal organ, and tribal percussion, played as if for a ritual gathering of headhunters: rhythmic spice for the missionary stew to follow. But the album's pièce de résistance is a wildly hyperbolic Mellotron, sounding like an entire string section staggering across the orchestra pit after a weekend bacchanal. Bradshaw was clearly a virtuoso talent, blessed with an amateur's lack of inhibition or boundaries. But an unfortunate side effect to that same creative vigor was a likeminded scarcity of structure and direction, evident throughout his magnum opus. Occasionally a groove is located and (briefly) followed, but for much of its length the album flails about in a chaotic frenzy almost guaranteed to make you drop your jaw, shake your head, and wonder where all your houseguests have suddenly gone. Rural Essex is a long way from Germany, but where else except in the Krautrock column would you list such a glorious racket? A more polished production (and a little editing) might have found a lasting classic of Outsider Rock expressionism, and kept Bradshaw from having to pawn copies of his album around local London record shops (mine is a secondhand digital bootleg, preserving every snap, crackle and vinyl pop). But a professional effort would also have denied us the opportunity to hear such a bizarre, blue moon curio, always a privilege in our current age of devitalized cookie-cutter entertainment. He might have believed he was making a hit record, instead of what it ultimately became: a crowd-pleaser for an audience of one, arguably the goal for any true artist. In which case I applaud his illusions. The music world desperately needs visionary nut-cases like Mr. Bradshaw-Leather, a hopeless dreamer eager to pursue his muse into the darker alleys of his imagination, and ravish her.....~ Review by GruvanDahlman I really can't decide what I think of this album. Is it brilliant or simply droning noises? Is it an experiment of great musical achievement or some mad scientist flushing away on the mellotron? I don't know. I guess I kind of lean towards some sort of brilliance, as far as this album is concerned. The greatest thing about it is really the mysteries surrounding it all. I love the feel of the album and the fact that it is shrouded in a haze of uncertainty and mystery. Listening to it I get a strong feel of the times, of occult leanings, Dennis Wheatley, misty meadows and mansions in the far. That is enough to make me joyous. It is stories of bands like Monument, crazy parties and demented, charred mad men playing keyboards all through the night in some sort of quasi-religious haze. I'm making all this up, naturally. It is just my imagination running wild but that's the great thing about music, isn't it? I can't recommend any track as superior to any other on the album. They are all as great or bad as the other. I guess the music could be described as the soundtrack for mind travel. It is pleasant enough (and unsettling). I wish I could get hold of a copy or better still, get it on CD. I would buy it without thinking twice. Conclusion: The mythology is greater than the music but it is entertaining and weird. In summary it is worth three stars. Two for the music and an extra star for the mysteries surrounding it......~ Review by DamoXt7942 "Distance Between Us" is, as the title says, a one-shot Krautrock / psychedelic / avantgarde mixture gem "far from the real world" produced by a superb talented pianist / composer / producer Don Bradshaw, and this mysterious suite consists of four long tracks unrefined and unsettled, just as he wanted to create. His splendid piano technique could make a backup for this illusory desert music production I guess, and you can find the unavoidable fact easily. Via his suite, strong unstableness created with dissonant mellotron harmonies and scattered old-fashioned percussion sounds, and fantastic nightmare along with short-breathed problematic music structure, can be heard definitely. Yes fully massive his crazy explosive classic flavour gets in the beginning of the first track "Distance Between Us Part 1". Don's piano concerto is excellent, only that can make us comfortable, whilst mellotronic blows behind us are quite killa and exclusive, merged with conga-tic percussive (but unpolished) tribalism, and such a leaning can be felt especially in the third track "Dance Of The Goblins", flooded with dramatic mellotron tragedy launcher based upon ethnic ritualistic structure. Everything out of musical order or uncommon sense can be accepted, without any fanfare of common people. No fastidious fuss is needed for us under his ironic theatre madness. Only what we can tell theoretically via his suite is that cheap sound effects and unsettled development of the suite have reminded me an intensive pulse for Krautrock. And at last, amazingly as a natural consequence, his four long tracks are connected to the last experience titled "Autumn Mist", that Don might gather all of his musical / literal messages in his brain and his heart together into the tearful mystic mist. In conclusion, this obscure album should be a full-blown tragic theatre filled with mellotronic grave and tribal percussion indolence. Not strongly recommended for every Krautrock fan but let me say for discordance freaks, please enjoy with leaving yourself along to Don's imaginary dramatic space....~ Review by Guldbamsen Spaces between us This album means a lot to me. I remember buying it in Valetta airport Malta, when I was about 18 years old. I didn't know the first thing about the music, but just like now, I was extremely intrigued in all things out of the mundane - the weird n eccentric, bad taste, kitsch and bizarre. I saw the front cover of this overtly Caucasian dude painted in black looking back at me, and I was instantly hooked. I bought it straight away, and couldn't wait to get on the flight - to know just how this freakishly looking man would sound like. The flight turned out like a sonic adventure akin to the likes you'd encounter in an Indiana Jones from outa space meets Haight Ashbury type deal. I was blown away by the music, to which I could find absolutely no heads or tails of. It still struck me as incredibly powerful and entrancing - hypnotic and pulling like a huge frightening vortex. There has been written a lot of things about the great Don, the most famous obviously being that he in fact is The Enid mastermind Robert John Godfrey. To tell you the truth - Don was actually a lad from Essex born in 1948 - later on classically trained musician............................. Still, when you take a quick look at that cover art, it's quite striking how much the two of them look alike. Hell, Don's phenomenal piano techniques even sounds oddly familiar.... That is probably part of why this little curiosity has gained the cult status it has over the years, but my personal guess as to why it's currently been floating round the webs, is that it's featured in the now infamous Nurse With Wound list - crafted by the artist bearing the same name aka Steven Stableton, and while you can accuse this man of making avant-guarde and left-field music, the things you'll encounter in the list will make him look like Sha-Na-Na. Spanning from musique concrete and free jazz to the most insane Krautrock and circus music ever conceived - one could indeed also find Don Bradshaw Leather's sole oevre Distance Between Us. Somewhere along the ridges of Krautrock where you find the Tangerine dream solar flares of mellotron, you'll find the hovering part of this album. It's like watching a star being born. Suspended in mid air, the music twirls around itself with contours flickering metamorphosing back and forth like smoke caught in a stagnant room with beautifully fitted lush n creamy organ bubbles lying down underneath as a huge enveloping flying carpet. Pirouetting within this levitating sculpture of sound, you get the classical side of the man - the great big penguin suited guy, that throws himself around the piano like the Mozarts and Rachmaninovs of the world. Coupled together with those eerie mellotrons, that wouldn't sound out of place on either Alpha Centauri and Atem, the feel of the music mimics that of no other artist I've heard before in my life. Drums!!!! Rhythms!!??? Are they even present on the album? Why sure - this is not ambient music, although some of it ventures into slow creepy Gothic electronics that sway and linger on the air like fingers of dust. When you get to the rambunctious parts of the album - suddenly things get tribal and wild with aggressive percussive forces that sound like they're coming from the heartland of the jungle. Long forceful drones of mantraing congas and African drums stack up on top of each other, and very cleverly adds the twang to an otherwise extremely elusive affair. With a double sided LP you get fed 4 tracks around the 20 minute mark. One could very easily be lead into thinking that this classically trained musician would come up with something akin to compositions, yet the overriding principles to the music remain obscure and enigmatic. The tracks all develop as they go along, with either the organ or the piano leading things along in what may seem as the spear-tip of the music; the engine bay, where this black bearded guy shovels coal like a man possessed. A lot of rumours have been going around, suggesting that David Tibet off of Current 93 has plans to rescue this long lost treasure, but I honestly don't know whether that bears fruit or not. I surely hope so. For an album cooked up in 1972, this is as out there and progressive as a baboon smoking the pipe - only a smidgen more beautiful, vast and mysterious. This album is equal measures unfathomable and strangely alluring, and just like my good friend Steve said in his remarkable review of it, I too am slightly tempted to give this one the full Monty, but something's holding me back. Maybe the fact that the mere task it is to finish the album in one take, has you obliterated into smithereens and tiny protons - melted away in life's big Tetris cornucopia, before you reach the end of the journey. It takes time for me to reassemble and make ready for the next excursion into infinity and the tiny spaces in between. 4.5 stars.....~ Review by HolyMoly A Left-Field Classic This is one of the more mystifying obscurities I've ever come across. Not much is known about this American one-shot who released this highly accomplished album on a small vanity label in the early 1970s and then disappeared. As I understand it, Bradshaw impressed some major label with his demos, and was given an advance to record an album. Bradshaw took the money and customized a studio full of a variety of keyboards and percussion and god knows what else, and recorded a double album of four sidelong instrumentals of highly experimental music. The record company wasn't thrilled at what they heard, but Bradshaw put the album out anyway on his own label in 1972. Still out of print, the album has slowly been gaining some much deserved visibility thanks to the internet, and one can only stand back in awe at what Bradshaw accomplished here. The dominant instruments are piano, Mellotron, and a variety of percussion. It sounds at times like a very early Tangerine Dream album, but with a classical compositional sense. One gets the impression that Bradshaw intended to create one-man symphony of sorts. The first two tracks form parts one and two of the title track, both of which are anchored by a staccato piano theme that sets the tense mood. Later on, tribal percussion over Mellotrons appear, reminding me of the warped avant garde of the early Residents - at least until a subdued but insistent organ melody comes in. The piece flows organically for about 40 minutes, each section shifting the timbral colors just enough to create a hallucinogenic mood, but not jarring enough to be unpleasant. Given the crazed album cover, you would almost be justified in assuming this album contains the incoherent ramblings of a stoned madman set loose in the studio. But it's really well composed, more subtle than you would expect, and reveals a rather accomplished composer behind the wacko exterior. Sides three ("Dance of the Goblins") and four ("Autumn Mist") continue in the same fashion; in fact, I'd be hard pressed to come up with any descriptions of the music that don't apply to sides one and two - side three seems "scarier" and side four seems "quieter", but those are just quick generalizations. But like the first two sides, the music is engaging, mystical, and creates a hazy mood that is further enhanced by its home-made nature and rough production methods. The inspiration and passion of the composer is felt in every hissy Mellotron chord, every muffled drum beat, every wandering piano melody. This is an absolute must for "outsider music" fans. Easily a four star album even ignoring its fascinating back-story; of course, that back-story and the sheer unlikelihood of records like this even existing at all tempts me to raise this to a five. But it's not Close to the Edge; it's perched on the edge, looking into infinity.....~ First vinyl reissue of this legendary dark psych minimal masterpiece! Exact reissue, deluxe gatefold sleeve with black inner sleeves. "The music on this bizarre double album from 1972 is somewhere between gothic horror and psychedelic. Don Bradshaw Leather was apparently some kind of British occult group who self-released this album with no credits. (Also, on the record cover the name is spelled “Bradsham-Leather,” not Bradshaw Leather, as it is referred to in everything from the Nurse With Wound list to the book and web guide on early U.K. psychedelic rock -Tapestry of Delights.) The title track, which takes up the first two sides, begins with some spooky piano rambling and then more mysterious sounds are added in. Soon tribal rhythms pound away while an organ seeps in with more creepy tones. The track gets a bit more intense as the organ and piano jam with the rhythms. Though most of it is instrumental, some wordless female vocals appear toward the end of side one, as the music settles down slightly. The rest of Distance Between Us is quite similar — spooky organ and keyboard chords, obsessive piano plinking, primitive drum circle-style percussions, and other mysterious noises and drones in the background, with an overall pervasive gothic ambience, a horror film/cinematic feel At times quiet and restrained, other times full of freaked-out energy, parts of this would not be out of place on one of Shinjuku Thief’s Witch albums. The obsessively scary mood is sustained over all four sides. ~ Rolf Semprebon, All Music Guide....~ Don Bradshaw-Leather was born 1948 in Essex, the son of middle-class Jewish parents. According to Bradshaw-Leather’s sister, “[Don] grew with and into music more by genetic destiny than environmental consequence.” During the long, dark hangover of the Summer of Love, the classically-trained prodigy approached CBS Records with demo recordings. Though it seems incredible in hindsight, a forward-thinking A&R executive must have seen a potential revenue stream in Bradshaw-Leather’s avant-classical noise. The artist was given a generous advance to record an album. DBL’s sister fills in the blanks: “[Don] used the funds to create a large studio in Sussex with many instruments including an actual church organ. Here, on his own, without the use of any electronic sequencing, he recorded Distance Between Us using simply multitrack tape, layering each part of the composition.” Upon hearing the product of their financial investment — four side-long tracks of blurry organ drones, frantic piano tinkling, and ritualistic percussion — CBS understandably got cold feet. The album was self-released on Bradshaw-Leather’s own Distance imprint, a vanity label established for the sole purpose of releasing the album. Pressed in a tiny edition, mint condition copies of the album can fetch up to $500 at auction today. The double gatefold sleeve is full of mysteries, from the misspelling of “Bradshaw” (“Bradsham”), to the coal-blackened visage of the bohemian madman on the cover (DBL himself?), to the rear photo collage depicting the same madman accosting a nude woman. The music isn’t any less mysterious; shapeless symphonies of smeared-out Mellotron, tribal drums, and wordless vocals. After swimming in the album for a little while, the absence of structure begins to seem utterly logical, and the album washes over like a peyote-induced Gothic fever dream. Don Bradshaw-Leather passed away in the 90s, making a reissue of this classic oddity seem increasingly less likely, though David Tibet of Current 93 has intermittently announced plans for a reissue on his own Coptic Cat label over the years. It’s an inspired match. Here’s hoping it comes to pass....~ Who the hell is Don Bradshaw-Leather? Not much is known about him, but his self-released LP Distance Between Us (Distance Records, 1972) is certainly one bizarre egg. It's on the infamous Nurse With Wound list of Steven Stapleton's favorite weird records, so it's no wonder that this was brought to my attention by David Late Tibet of Current 93 (and sometime NWW collaborator). David sent me a copy and described it as a strange DIY horror symphony beyond words, and it indeed is dificult to describe. There's hardly a thing about this double LP on the web besides want lists and offers for sale (it seems to be averaging around $200 for original vinyl), though rumor has it that Don was a wealthy hippie (some say a member of Barclay-James Harvest, which David refutes) who was squatting around London in the early 1970's, whereabouts unknown now. The four lengthy tracks here ("Distance Between Us" Parts 1 & 2, "Dance of the Goblins", and "Autumn Mist") are dense, swirling, and hellish tapestries of blurred instrumentation, squawking voices buried in the mix, and seemingly no layout of progression from point A to point B in various movements (i.e. it's all a giant progression, but almost like a dog chasing its tail in a mad frenzy). Tracks have the leanings of some epic Messaien pieces in some ways, though imagine Bradshaw-Leather taking his symphony and filtering it through some kind of lo-fi source like a boombox or something and then just went bananas in the post-mix. And if the front cover wasn't insane enough, he's again in Wolfman-garb on the back with a screaming topless woman. The whole sleeve package seems to be hand-cut and stitched as well. Here's a Real Audio excerpt from a recent airing on WFMU. Thanks to David for dropping this befuddling thing into our realm.....~ Tracklist
A Distance Between Us (Part 1) 18:59 B Distance Between Us (Part 2) 18:24 C Dance Of The Goblins 22:58 D Autumn Mist 23:14
Don Bradshaw-Leather "Distance Between Us"1972 double vinyl,mega rare UK Private Avant Dark Psych,Electronic,Experimental,Minimal,masterpiece
https://johnkatsmc5.blogspot.com/2022/02/don-bradshaw-leather-distance-between.html
....
https://johnkatsmc5.blogspot.com/2022/02/don-bradshaw-leather-distance-between.html?m=1&view=sidebar