Mandrax Raga by Osmiroid

Bloxham Tapes BT09

OSMIROID are an improvising noise-making collective, formed in 2012. 'Mandrax Raga' is their first release on Bloxham Tapes, the ninth cassette on the label.

Its core members, C. Fleischer and Commodore Meniscus, are based in and around the gravitational forcefield of the London Orbital. Collaborative tendrils have stretched out to Glasgow (Apostille), Oxford (Greening Lambourne), Sheffield (Galloway) and Stroud. The majority of their limited edition cassettes and CDRs have been via the Stars, Dots and the "New" Junk microlabel, with an additional release on the cult Mordant Music imprint. They are perhaps best described by Baron Mordant, thus: "Osmiroid is a seeping mass of congealed brine working its way from cubicle to cubicle via Mancunia & Karlsbad."

'Mandrax Raga' captures a covert duo session of Fleischer (Osmiroid project influences: Pierre Soulages; Antonio Gramsci; :Zoviet*France; JG Ballard; Saudi Mory) and Meniscus (Osmiroid project influences: Knives; Taj Mahal Travellers; Double Leopards; 'The Unexplained' magazine; soundtracks/ABBA) on a cloudy day in Potters Bar.

The internet curtains twitch in the cul-de-sac. Audio gruel with lashings of lumpy gravy for lunch. Borges on the bookshelves. 'Bullseye' repeats flickering silently in the half-light. Mandrax gulped, raga unfurled. Dream baby dream, om shanti om.

"...this be OSMIROID with a pair of tracks you’ll find lurking with dark intent on their unearthly MANDRAX RAGA set… dished up with copious amounts of disturbia, kind of Alphane Moon freebasing on Sonic Boom’s EAR sounds whilst on a seriously bad trip were you in need of reference markers, its softly subtle trance toning psychedelic mantra creeped with a warping mind controlling pulsar... for listening to from the relative safety afforded from behind the settee, preferably with the lights on and in daytime..." – THE SUNDAY EXPERIENCE

"Slouching Towards Bethlehem in the span of seconds had me purchasing this beast without a second thought... I can hear synthesis being torn apart in this place as walls of white noise and feedback team up to annihilate the entire creative field upon which OSMIROID have been operating... in short, everything which has been done before by them, every hypothesis, every theoretical strand of composition has been taken to the extreme... It is as though the pillars which held up this rarefied atmosphere have been thrown down. MANDRAX RAGA is their House of Usher, it is their Ozymandias and it is their Wasteland... Whatever ground hadn’t been covered before has now not only been crushed underfoot it has been salted and then used to line the grave of this project... I’ve had moments where this has happened before and they remain the most exhilarating and terrifying moments of my life which I wouldn’t trade for anything... For an artist to have pulled this out of me again and again through their music has been remarkable, it may have been a trampled-on trifle but I didn’t know indignation had a range like this until you folks turned up. Much appreciated." – PETER MARKS, SANTA SANGRE

Bloxham Tapes. Experimental sounds for an unsound world. Riding the London-Bergen ley line.

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