We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Wireless

by The Bulky Mule

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £2 GBP  or more

     

1.
Wireless 03:24
2.
Range 03:01

about

Currently resident in Melbourne, Australia, The Balky Mule is the alias of UK ex-pat Sam Jones, a highly talented, self-taught multi-instrumentalist, who over the past decade or more has been a key figure in Bristol’s vibrant post-rock scene, playing alongside his brother Matt in both Crescent (guitar / drums) and Movietone (guitar), as well as in Flying Saucer Attack (guitar), Minotaur Shock (bass / marimba), and Third Eye Foundation (echoes / samples). Whilst also active as The Balky Mule throughout this time, Sam’s home-recorded material (almost entirely instrumental) had been confined to just one self-released album (an eponymous debut in a small edition on Sam and Matt's Archipelago label in 2000), small runs of CDRs pressed on request and tapes swapped amongst friends, plus a handful of remixes (for Pram and Vase) and tracks for compilations, including a very early track appearing on FatCat’s 2001 compilation of demos, ‘No watches. No maps’.

Whilst ‘The Length of the Rail’ may be the first physical release in 8 years, Sam has never stopped making his own music, but has either remained shy about it, or not felt a need to share it, and thus to 'finish' things into a releasable form. Self-recorded either side of a 2006 move from the UK to Australia, the album is beautifully balanced, intelligent and captivating and sounds like little else around right now. A fully coherent, organic mix of acoustic and electric instruments and neat electronic detail, it marks the start of a more focused, significant period of activity for The Balky Mule.

Created over a period of 5 years, most of the songs on the album grew out of a library of existing short sound-snippets Sam built up from experimenting with old boot sale-find keyboards, analogue synths and scavenged electronic kit (Arp Axxe, Casio SK1, Rhythmatix analogue drum machine) - guided by their inherent personalities and discovering what sounds could be coaxed from these manual-less and sometimes malfunctioning objects. Attracted to the notion of lost / redundant technology, some of the album’s sounds came from a Bentley Carousel - a huge home organ bought from a charity shop and left in a shared house he moved into. A minidisc of odd noises and collaborations with these idiosyncratic machines slowly accumulated.

These two cuts from ‘The Length of the Rail’ – ‘Wireless’ and ‘Range’ - demonstrate Sam’s effortless ability to genuinely capture the purest of sentiment with a Daniel Johnston-like honesty. The content is all enchantingly ramshackle and collaged, the form has a confidence, light-heartedness and maturity that brings to mind as many fundamental giants of pop (Beach Boys, Talk Talk etc.) as it does modern (-ist) experiments in genre exploration (early Beck, Animal Collective and Faust are all in Sam’s influences list).

‘Wireless’ begins with a soft, near-Soft Machine-esque acoustic guitar chord sequence with a series of percussive interventions and cleverly-integrated electronic noises . The summery, head-nodding sweetness recalls 60’s pop, in all its unashamed amiability and life, but a 60’s pop noticeably played through the lens of a true outsider, unafraid of pure noise, convention-eschewing texture and surreal lyrical abstraction.

B-side ‘Range’ – also on the full-length – is another pure-pop piece hidden amongst Sam’s distinctive inventions and adventures in timbre, driven by home-made percussion recorded in a community centre after his move to Australia, where the background noise was a constant competition. Charming, heart-warming faults and wobbles act as idiosyncrasies to the piece – not to be corrected, but to be forgiven and celebrated.

credits

released March 9, 2009

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Balky Mule Melbourne, Australia

contact / help

Contact The Balky Mule

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Wireless, you may also like: