BYO Sheet Metal

Hi hi hi,

Busy October. Isn’t the weather funny, etc. etc.

We handed to reins this month to EARWORM who helped us continue to populate the “noise” genre tag on Balamii’s website (no longer just various episodes of our show!). More on that below. Let’s get into this bagel.

Govt. Institution Siphon Money / Guitar Info Stale Market

V: I’m back studying this month (as of yet I have dodged catching multiple mutations of Autumn colds from 19 year old freshers), and our house band RUBBER is finally making headway into recording. As a result of recording a full live band for the first time in my life, I’ve fallen down many technical-based Youtube holes involving a bearded guy saying the phrase “clean tone” which was recently salvaged by a hilariously overproduced SUNN0))) pedal rundown where the host has to pad out the fact they basically reveal their entire sound is a tuner and a Rat Pedal. Admittedly, there is also the 9 £3000 vintage guitar heads, but y’know.

B: It should be said that I once found a Sunn practice amp at the community and electronic waste hub that is Deptford Market, but was sad to find that “they rebadged it, you fool,” a Squier dressed up for the rock show. If you find a piece of contemporary technology irritating, just lie back and think about when you’ll find a shattered pile of them in a charity shop in 2036, next to the Peter Kay DVDs.

V: I recently listened to No Tags discuss the long-awaited death of “The Night Czar” (no planned replacement for the role lol lmao), where they have journalist Ed Gillett offer a pretty concrete defense of her work, which is kind of fascinating for nothing else if not its sheer rarity. It would be fair to say I am 100% not sold given her insane annual salary and complete refusal to accept the inefficiency of her role, but I am always open to a counterpoint!

B: I have spent the first weeks of autumn getting back into films and Tetris 99. Ticked eXistenZ off at home before hooting and hollering (and occasionally averting my eyes) at The Substance in the cinema – as well as a Monday night spent sitting in stunned silence at the 40th anniversary screening of kitchen sink apocalypse classic Threads thanks to the punk-adjacent team at Video Bazaar. Both Threads and On The 8th Day, a documentary from 1984 which detailed the then new scientific consensus that we’d be right fucked, are on iPlayer now.

V: In other nuclear news I recently obtained the new GISM DVD 烈波壊虐音群突入911. It’s no secret I am a huge fan of the band’s visual work and my honest opinion is this is where they really embody the horror of the band’s mystique. The film is curated from decades of the band’s visual archive, which leads to a slightly confusing mishmash where the smudgy 16mm of 1984’s next-level GEOTROPISM short film meets a slightly half-arsed 2007 performance in hi-res digital. There is also a clip of them covering the Sex Pistols?

It’s hard to encapsulate the band’s mythology if you’re unfamiliar – and as an intro this is probably painfully obtuse – but all I know is watching Sakevi lob smoke bombs at teenagers really sets me alight. The DVD is still available, but you can also view it in blinding 480p here. Your dear writer recommends the deeply nihilistic SUBJ. EGOS CHOPPED [VHS RIP, 1995] as definitive statement.

It hasn’t been announced properly yet but inbetween mailouts I will be DJing Dalston Superstore’s new latex night SPANKY’S on the 26th October, alongside some fellow well-known lovers of that synth disco-goth goodness. Come slink around!

RS w/ EARWORM on Balamii • October 2024

V: Obviously, we didn’t have a lot of input in the content of this one, but I had been wondering how to fit Bark Psychosis’ 20m monster single-track 12” “SCUM” onto a show, which worked very well here imo. Worth trying to find an original copy which has a b-side containing nothing but switchblade scratches on the vinyl. Very pleased to have James on the show finally!

Something we can talk about is next month’s show, where I’m going to interview Ben about his upcoming three-day fest Attempting Something, and his decade long risograph empire Another Subculture. Contrary to some recent friend conversations I’ve had and some mutual aesthetic links, Another Subculture is 100% BP production and I have nothing to do with it. Yes, it probably would have made sense to call the show Another Subculture. Yes I’m aware it’s confusing. No it won’t change.

B: An Another Subculture radio show would probably just resemble one of those caller hotlines you’d ring in the 90s to see when the SEGA Bus was coming to Cleethorpes, except it’s The Tubs. This is much better.

01 Scum – Bark Psychosis
02 Install Safe Conduit – Cementimental
03 ROTAEWN - Ravenous People – Bride
04 Found Enroute – Shadow Pattern
05 Karate Choppers – Sevenyearwaitinglist
06 Recovery Hours – Distraxi
07 Reject Principles – Vomir
08 Gravekeeper's Servant – Shearman
09 Ulcer – Slow Murder
10 ERWACHEN AM WENDERKREIS – Coma Cluster
11 Substance – Alocasia Garden
12 King of Kinx – Tape Wyrm
13 6 – yPLO
14 Gas Artefacts – Dressing
15 Liquid Flowing Crystal - DJ Hold Me Close I'm Floating Now

All our Balamii shows can be found on Mixcloud, Soundcloud or Balamii’s website. Links to tracks available on Bandcamp can be found on our Buy Music Club.

James Shearman (EARWORM)

James Shearman is no stranger to multiple aliases and universes of his own. James has created a vast catalogue of his own works as SHEARMAN, A Raja's Mesh Men, Camera Fiend, Echoes Throughout The Caverns Of Leytonstone, Jåshlýkk, Roadside Dead, Self-defeating Soundwaves, Shear Mania 94, and Visage - as well as in past collaborations as part of DESTTCCOLV, Disappearing, Prolonged Version, and Sober Students Improv Players. He runs the label Small Worm as well as holding space for an overwhelming amount of work with digital-only label Harsh Noise Wall netlabel.

James took over the show as his frequent event alias EARWORM, and was gracious enough to answer a couple of questions.

V: EARWORM is something you’ve sort of reanimated from the mid-2010s. It feels particularly thankless as a task to be doing in the current climate, but you constantly have events on the horizon. Why did you decide to bring it back with such regularity now?

JS: EARWORM began as a new alias for curating noise shows of mine last February 2023 after a four year hiatus (which partially includes lockdowns). I wasn't actually doing live shows previously under this name, but I've been putting on shows here in London back to the early/mid 2010s with breaks here and there.

There was something of an organic impetus that grew from the success and reception of the first event last year (the London show for a small tour of KNURL from Canada at New River Studios)  and the subsequent programming, so EARWORM represents a shift for me in trying to really attack this thing and making events that are much more regular, carefully curated and with a renewed focus on noise and experimental industrial music and art.

V: Do you find it to be relatively self-sustaining at the moment?

JS: Well…I’d say no they are not. Plenty of my shows just about break even or make a small loss. I’m usually doing this all on my own and don’t expect to see anything back from it. I put shows on that I want to see happen, and getting to see and host artists I adore is usually payment enough.

In one sense my close connection and love for noise will always keep me rearing for more and engaged enough to want to keep going with it - there is a level of 'perpetuating' going on - but they’re also precarious (for many obvious reasons, simply living in London for one).

V: You’re a born Londoner like me, which is pretty scarce at this point. Obviously we could go some very laboured thing about expenses and “changes to the city”, but what keeps you here? I obviously know you primarily through noise and DIY, but when I think about the city beyond my mum living here there’s cultural things I’ve missed about the brief periods I’ve lived away from it.

JS: I've been a born and bred Londoner living in Leytonstone for almost all of my life - the simplest answer for what keeps me here at this point is that it’s is home for me and I can't imagine being able to make a home for myself elsewhere. When I can, I’m met with a large number of obstacles that tend to outweigh the many 'cons' of living here.

It’s certainly true that the audience for noise stuff specifically seems to be gradually growing and becoming more engaged here, and that’s amazing to watch happening in real-time and be a part of it too.

⬤

The next two EARWORM events in London are:
21/10 – Natural Causes, Degradation + more – New River Studios
26/10 – GENDERISTHEBASTARD vs. SEVENYEARWAITING LIST + more – Spanners

Oi! from South East London Ⓐ

BP and VSP play Non-Standard Music every second Friday of the month on Balamii, live at midnight UK time. Available to listen back to on Mixcloud or Soundcloud. Subscribe to the RS Substack for one monthly email of sonic detritus.

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Ⓐ Oi! from South London Ⓔ

Repetitive Strain is free every month, both in audio and writing. However, supporting helps us along with radio fees, technical stuff, non-alcoholic beers. Feel free to throw us a little if you wish.

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