Sublime

From the label that brought you B. FLEISCHMAN. At the beginning was the tape, and the tape was moving. From Landsberg to London, to Landsberg to Weilheim. Layers were built up, and then divided or re-edited. Very normal, everyday incidents only get an aura of movement if the single tracks melt together into a cohesive unit - so that the whole thing grabs you, and the borders between inside and outside dissolve. Ted Milton has managed to do this before: he gave you this feeling in the beginning of the eighties, when he composed hypnotic, no-wave hyms with his band BLURT. In doing so, he made it impossible for punk to turn back. Andreas Gerth, A.K.A Loopspool, as machine operator and engineer, is the backbone of the Weilheim TIED AND TICKLED TRIO. His complex soundscapes are the base for the tactile improvisations of the other musicians. The layering of this sound material with the instrumental elements creates a strong emotional pull, which transcends space and time. The immediacy and spontaneity of the Milton and Gerth project inevitably yields a hint of exhibitionism. From what was initially a mail-art joke, grew a melancholy creature with real feelings. Milton’s poetry is like fresh Gavin Friday material. He celebrates his melancholy in a decent bar-lounge ambience, because he cannot be alone with it. The former deep red velvet on the walls has become a morbid dark red. Time cannot stand still. As a disillusioned crooner, Ted Milton lets his emotions run freely. His characteristic saxophone retreats, and only plays the role of messenger, whilst silence is accentuated. The timbre is right. Again Milton has found his own language and the words are strong. Loopspool’s machinery stands beside Milton’s special style of poetry. Their common love for DUB, not only gives the lyrics a lot of room, but provides Gerth with limitless possibilities to be experimental with his equipment. The relaxed tone of "Sublime" is the result of this freedom. Gerth’s rhythmic patterns, noises, loopbreaks and piano tunes were formed in the Weilheim Uphon Studio. By adding bubbling, gurgling, blooping noises and deformed bass-loops (in some songs these were played by COUCH bass-player Michael Heilrath) into sound layers Gerth creates a relief-like surface, beneath which lies an open, endless body of resonance which is able to softly fade-out every noise. At the start there were no structures. They were created at the mixing desk together with Mario Thaler, who co-produced this album - a painstaking process This music required a lot of hard work, and the amazing thing on "Sublime" is, you can’t hear it. Ted Milton-Loopspool project is the second classic-pop music project, after Bernhard Fleischmann, on this label from Vienna. Although this seems to be out of place at first sight, it makes sense on closer inspection: the working methods of Loopspool and the electronic avant-garde of Christoph Kurzmann’s label differ only slightly. Pop is just one step away!