Stop Your Nonsense

Last updated

Stop Your Nonsense
PositionNormalStopYourNonsense.jpg
Studio album by
Position Normal
Released23 August 1999
Genre
Length41:32
Label Mind Horizon Recordings
Producer Position Normal
Position Normal chronology
Stop Your Nonsense
(1999)		Goodly Time
(1999)

Stop Your Nonsense is the debut album by English musical duo Position Normal, released in August 1999 by Mind Horizon Recordings. The album is constructed primarily from samples and found sounds, often taken from unusual vintage sources such as second-hand children's records and answer machine cassettes, often purchased by member Chris Bailiff in jumble sales and charity shops, or inherited from his father. Bailiff's bandmate John Cushway also contributes instrumentation and vocals. Released to critical acclaim, Stop Your Nonsense was praised for its distinctively whimsical and eccentric style, with writer Simon Reynolds later crediting the album for pioneering hauntology music. [1] Position Normal later re-released the album themselves.

Contents

Background and production

Position Normal emerged in London in the late 1990s, consisting of producer Chris Bailiff and vocalist/guitarist John Cushway, [1] both are former art students. [2] In the years prior to forming Position Normal, project leader Bailiff's first group Bugger Sod dissolved, and he faced mental issues such as public anxiety, and felt focusing on making music was a therapeutic activity. [3] The duo's only release as Position Normal prior to Stop Your Nonsense was the twelve-inch single "Part of the Bugger Sod Empire" (1998). [4] Bailiff aimed to create his own distinctive sound for Stop Your Nonsense, dispirited that other music was what he described as "sounds from people that wanted to be part of something as opposed to being themselves." Although not wishing to be part of musical trends, he later commented that the album "sonically suggests that I had absolutely no idea of what musical scenes were happening around me at the time." [3]

For musical inspiration and for sourcing samples for Stop Your Nonsense, Bailiff went to charity shops and car boot sales purchasing the cheapest records he could afford "with beautiful artwork and photography/illustration". He listened to various sources, including electronic music, easy listening, bands like T. Rex, church bells, "old music radio stations", world service radio, radio interference and "fruit and vegetable markets". He later commented: "You never know where the next lovely sounds are going to come from and what style or from what era they will be. There is no way of knowing, before you hear it, how you are going to feel or react." [3] Sources for samples on the album included spoken word albums, nursery rhyme records and documentary records collected by his father, who had developed Alzheimer's and was unable to continue collecting, leaving Bailiff to archive his own "history". [1] [5]

Featuring an image of a child revving a toy car on the album sleeve, [6] Stop Your Nonsense was Position Normal's sole recording for Mind Horizon Recordings. [6] [7] [3] Having been signed to the label by an A&R sole, the duo believed Mind Horizon to be a small independent label, but later discovered it was being funded by PolyGram, who Bailiff dismissed as egotists. He later commented: "When the bosses of Polygram found out that Position Normal was on their label they went ape shit. They spent the next five months trying to kick me out." [3]

Composition

"Much of Stop Your Nonsense is steeped in a mildly menacing anglo-Dadaist atmosphere that's redolent of the English comedy tradition of cracked whimsy: writer/performers like Spike Milligan, Ivor Cutler, Viv Stanshall, Reeves & Mortimer and Chris Morris. Other tracks bring to mind the cabinet of curiosities, Joseph Cornell's boxes of found objects and Kurt Schwitters's Merz collages and sculptural assemblages made of consumer detritus."

—Simon Reynolds, Retromania [1]

Stop Your Nonsense is a fuzzy, sample-based lo-fi album, [6] consisting mostly of short tracks. [6] [8] It is constructed entirely out of samples, aside from Cushway's sporadic vocals and ethereal guitar work. [1] The samples, many of which are voices, are variably either sourced from or resemble unusual vintage items, such as spoken word albums, faded BetaMax videos, time-worn answer machine cassettes and old reel-to-reel tapes. [9] [1] The fragmented speech samples are turned into "melodious mosaics" according to writer Simon Reynolds, who wrote: "Position Normal music is woven almost entirely out of samples which have a musty quality redolent of things stowed away in attics and forgotten for decades. This is B-boy crate-digging adapted to the English landscape of jumble sales and Oxfam." [1] According to Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger , the album aims to "take a bit of background noise and move it up front, spend a track exploring it. More often than not this sound is human speech." [8]

The recurrent sampled children's voices, cover picture and album title have led critics to describe Stop Your Nonsense as childlike in nature. [6] [8] [9] Dominant throughout the album are sampled music taken from 1960s and 1970s children's albums and television series, material which makes heavy usage of horns, whistles and commonplace percussion. [6] According to Ewing, the second half of the album is largely "a big dreamy suite of children’s voices babbling away between half-remembered TV themes and carefree sonic gurgles." [8] According to Reynolds, a production trick used throughout is combining reverb and filtering to make sounds "glint like they've been irradiated by a sudden shaft of sunlight pouring into a gloomy room." Despite being sample-based, the homemade quality of the album emphasises a feel of hand-made tape loops; the writer says "collage-wise, it's somewhere between Nurse with Wound and De La Soul's first album. Only Nonsense's stoned-to-say-the-least aura locates the album in the post-rave Nineties." [10]

Critics compared the album's surreal, eccentric style to Dadaism and whimsical English comedians and humorists like Ivor Cutler, Viv Stanshall, Chris Morris, Spike Milligan and Reeves & Mortimer. [1] [8] In an interview with PopMatters , Reynolds reflected that the album's eccentric usage of odd samples and dreamy, Durutti Column-style guitar related to the whimsical, ethereal side of late 1970s post-punk that was absent in the more angular post-punk revival bands of the ensuing decade, comparing it to the unusual "bedsit" one-off singles of acts like Family Fodder and the Native Hipsters played by radio DJ John Peel. [11] The album's usage of found sound, such as Cockney stallholders in a fruit and vegetable market or a phone message left by one Aunty Betty for her niece Doreen, drew comparison to the interludes on Saint Etienne's first two albums. [10] The poetic speech on "Jimmy Had Jane" bears the influence of Dr. Seuss. [6]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Uncut Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [9]

Released on 23 August 1999 by Mind Horizon Recordings, [6] Stop Your Nonsense drew the attention of several music critics who wrote gushing reviews. [2] Andy Kellman of AllMusic named it an "Album Pick", saying "[t]he fact that the pied pipers behind Stop Your Nonsense are complete loons shouldn't hinder your ability to get lost in its juvenile buffoonery." He commented that the album's "gleeful regression" was an 'escape hatch' into "a rumpus room of fun house mirrors -- imagine adolescent versions of Prince Paul and Aphex Twin toying with a clunky My First Sampler." [6] In a biography on Position Normal, he wrote the album's sound collages baffled Position Normal's small audience with "fun house-style deranged children's music and psychedelic dabs of guitar and odd percussion," resulting in a "British version of The Electric Company gone to hell." [2]

Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger felt that Position Normal achieved "the most difficult pop trick of all – making an album that sounds like nobody else but obeys an immediate internal logic." He further praised the 'glorious' attention to detail, considering the echoed instrumentation and "placidly catchy undersea melodies" to be Position Normal's signature sound, concluding that Stop Your Nonsense was the year's most original and "lovable" album. [8] In a review for The Village Voice , Simon Reynolds positively commented that, due to the unusual sample sources, "Nonsense evokes the bygone crapness of Olde England--the provincial parochialism banished by the New Labour government's modernising policies and the twin attrition of Americanisation/Europeanisation. Some of the most magical tracks on the album aren't really music, but melodious mosaics of speech expertly tiled from disparate sources." [10] He also reviewed the album for Uncut , writing that the sampledelic album was "the missing link between The Residents' Commercial Album and Saint Etienne's Foxbase Alpha ." [9] Bailiff later reflected on the album's reception in 2010:

"When Stop Your Nonsense came out when there was, as far as I am aware, nothing like it around. You can obviously categorise something when there is a lot of it about, or at least more than one, but at the time I felt that music lovers enjoyed it. It was about London history to them. It seemed to reflect how they felt about their own background. but then recently someone from Paris told me that it reminds them of growing up there which I thought was awesome." [3]

Several music critics included Stop Your Nonsense on their lists of the best albums of 1999. [2] Ewing wrote that Stop Your Nonsense was one of several British albums that year to owe "little to anything except themselves. Uncaring of commercial success, contemptuous of indie rock cool, concerned only with the noble task of creating their own words of sonic or songwriting logic. [12] Reynolds named it his favourite album of 1999, later hailing Position Normal as pioneers of the hauntological genre. [1] Bailiff was originally unaware of being hailed "the Godfather of Hauntology" by Reynolds, later commenting of the album's influence: "I suppose other people with their ears to the ground became aware of what I was doing and were influenced by it. It did feel a bit weird after what I suppose is so many years of other folks being influenced by my sounds and me not knowing anything about it." [3] In an interview with Prog , actor Paul Putner praised the album, comparing it to Negativland and describing it as "[s]amples, cut-ups, weird easy listening… it’s got this heavy rock, Sabbath-type track played on recorders." [13] Position Normal later re-released Stop Your Nonsense on their Bandcamp page. [14]

Track listing

All tracks written by Position Normal.

  1. "Heavy" – 0:58
  2. "The Blank" – 3:27
  3. "Jimmy Had Jane" – 5:09
  4. "Whoppeas" – 2:31
  5. "German" – 2:19
  6. "Drishnun" – 1:45
  7. "Bucket Wipe" – 1:56
  8. "Nostrils and Eyes" – 1:06
  9. "Pepay Pepaymemimo" – 2:32
  10. "Rabies" – 2:02
  11. "Lightbulbs" – 1:36
  12. "Hop Sa Sa" – 1:36
  13. "Under Da Sea" – 1:59
  14. "Only On Da Water" – 0:58
  15. "Bedside Manners" – 11:52

Personnel

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boards of Canada</span> Scottish electronic music duo

Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of the brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, formed initially as a group in 1986 before becoming a duo in the 1990s. Signing first to Skam followed by Warp Records in the 1990s, the duo received recognition following the release of their debut album Music Has the Right to Children on Warp in 1998. They followed with the critically acclaimed albums Geogaddi (2002), The Campfire Headphase (2005) and Tomorrow's Harvest (2013).

<i>Experience</i> (The Prodigy album) 1992 studio album by the Prodigy

Experience is the debut studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy. It was first released on 28 September 1992 by XL Recordings in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disco Inferno (band)</span> English band

Disco Inferno were an English experimental rock band active in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Initially a trio of guitar, bass, and drums performing in an identifiable post-punk style, the band soon pioneered a dynamic use of digital sampling in addition to standard rock instruments. While commercially unsuccessful during their existence, the band is considered to be a key post-rock act.

<i>Nick Cannon</i> (album) 2003 studio album by Nick Cannon

Nick Cannon is the eponymous debut studio album by American rapper Nick Cannon. It features the song "Gigolo" that reached number 9 on the US Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart and number 24 on the Hot 100 in 2004.

<i>Soundboy Rock</i> 2007 studio album by Groove Armada

Soundboy Rock is the fifth studio album by English electronic music duo Groove Armada, released on 4 May 2007 by Columbia Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Reynolds</span> English music critic (born 1963)

Simon Reynolds is an English music journalist and author who began his career at Melody Maker in the mid-1980s. He subsequently worked as a freelancer and published a number of books on music and popular culture.

"It's a Fine Day" is a song written by English poet and musician Edward Barton. It was originally recorded a cappella in 1983 by Jane and later by Opus III, for whom it was a major international hit in 1992.

<i>Themes – Volume 1: March 79–April 82</i> 1990 box set by Simple Minds

Themes – Volume 1: March 79 – April 82 is box set released by Simple Minds. It was released on 24 September 1990 by Virgin Records. It documented the band's developing sound, ideas and ideals through their classic 12″ single releases.

<i>The Last Dance</i> (EP) 1993 EP by Disco Inferno

The Last Dance is the fourth EP and seventh overall release by English post-rock and experimental rock band Disco Inferno. The EP was the band's third release to develop their innovative production and sample-based approach. After initially recording sessions for the EP with their original producer Charlie McIntosh, the band's label Rough Trade Records were unsatisfied with the sessions and instead the band worked with a new producer, Michael Johnson, famous for his work with New Order. His production ethic included a period of pre-production, the first time the band had used this process.

<i>An Empty Bliss Beyond This World</i> 2011 studio album by the Caretaker

An Empty Bliss Beyond This World is the ninth studio album by the Caretaker, an ambient music project of English musician Leyland Kirby, released on 1 June 2011 through History Always Favours the Winners.

Sampledelia is sample-based music that uses samplers or similar technology to expand upon the recording methods of 1960s psychedelia. Sampledelia features "disorienting, perception-warping" manipulations of audio samples or found sounds via techniques such as chopping, looping or stretching. Sampladelic techniques have been applied prominently in styles of electronic music and hip hop, such as trip hop, jungle, post-rock, and plunderphonics.

Lisp was an English trip hop band from East London. Formed in 1995, they were signed to Mind Horizon Recordings, a subsidiary of London Records, on which they released their first and only album, Cycles (2000), which saw radio success from its singles "Flatspin" and "Long Way to Climb".

<i>The English Disease</i> (album) 1989 studio album by Barmy Army

The English Disease is the only album by the Barmy Army, a moniker for British producer Adrian Sherwood. Released in October 1989 through the musician's label On-U Sound Records, it features bassist Doug Wimbish and guitarist Skip McDonald from Tackhead, whom Barmy Army are sometimes described as an alias of, and drummer Style Scott among other musicians and contributors.

UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by jungle, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop and R&B. It is defined by percussive, shuffled rhythms with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals, and snares, and may include either 4/4 house kick patterns or more irregular "2-step" rhythms. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weekender (Flowered Up song)</span> 1992 single by Flowered Up

"Weekender" is a 1992 single by the band Flowered Up. The band had performed the song as early as 1991. The song has been described as denouncing people who only go to clubs on the weekend and advocating a party-all-the-time philosophy of the group. The group originally wanted it to be released through their label at that time, London Records. The single was turned down by London Records and released later in April 1992 by Heavenly Recordings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypnagogic pop</span> Music genre

Hypnagogic pop is pop or psychedelic music that evokes cultural memory and nostalgia for the popular entertainment of the past. It emerged in the mid to late 2000s as American lo-fi and noise musicians began adopting retro aesthetics remembered from their childhood, such as radio rock, new wave pop, light rock, video game music, synth-pop, and R&B. Recordings circulated on cassette or Internet blogs and were typically marked by the use of outmoded analog equipment and DIY experimentation.

<i>Soundclash</i> 1990 studio album by Renegade Soundwave

Soundclash is the debut album by English electronic act Renegade Soundwave, released by Mute Records in February 1990. Co-produced by the band with producer Flood, the material was recorded over several years, and displays the band's unique style of dance music, taking influences from hip hop, rock and dub music. The music incorporates breakbeats, tape loops, stalking basslines and numerous samples sourced from disparate material. The album's lyrics concern social issues, with the band aiming to write lyrics that approach issues from unusual angles.

Position Normal are an English musical duo, formed in London in 1986, consisting of Chris Bailiff and John Cushway. Their music is sample-based, incorporating existing music and found sound from unusual vintage sources into collage-like tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hauntology (music)</span> Musical genre

Hauntology is a music genre or a loosely defined stylistic feature that evokes cultural memory and aesthetics of the past. It developed in the 2000s primarily among British electronic musicians, and typically draws on British cultural sources from the 1940s to the 1970s, including library music, film and TV soundtracks, psychedelia, and public information films, often through the use of sampling.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Reynolds, Simon (2012). Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to its Own Past. London: Faber & Faber. pp. 333–335. ISBN   978-0571232093 . Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kellman, Andy. "Artist Biography by Andy Kellman". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Norling, Joakim. ""It sounds too much like a personal story" – The Position Normal interview". Friendly Noise Magazine. Archived from the original on 7 January 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  4. ↑ "Position Normal to play rare London live show". FACT. 19 July 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  5. ↑ Fisher, Mark (2014). Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures (1st ed.). United Kingdom: Zero Books. ISBN   978-1780992266 . Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kellman, Andy. "AllMusic Review by Andy Kellman". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  7. ↑ Stop Your Nonsense (liner). Position Normal. Mind Horizon Records. 1999.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ewing, Tom (7 October 1999). "It's a Kid's World". FreakyTrigger. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Reynolds, Simon (1999). "Position Normal - Stop Your Nonsense". Uncut.
  10. 1 2 3 Reynolds, Simon (1999). "Position Normal - Stop Your Nonsense". The Village Voice.
  11. ↑ Ensminger, David (27 November 2011). "Simon Reynolds Redux: A Conversation from the Past About Post-Punk". PopMaters. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  12. ↑ Ewing, Tom (17 October 1999). "MESSTHETICS: The Beta Band – The Beta Band". Freaky Trigger. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  13. ↑ Kendall, Jo (8 February 2017). "Little Britain actor Paul Putner lets us leaf through his record collection". Prog (Louder Sound). Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  14. ↑ "Position Normal Stop Your Nonsense". Bandcamp. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.