ENTROPY NOODLE by The Nag's Head
Named lovingly after the venerable boozer from Only Fools and Horses, The Nag's Head is the sonic moniker of Brighton artist Stephen Maskell. Combining on the fly recordings, kitchen sink instrumentation and addictively constructed beats, Maskell's music is - as one customer puts it - at times moving, at time hilarious and sometimes just great dance music.
Following a trilogy of tapes, ENTROPY NOODLE is Maskell's first LP proper, and signals a maturation of sound - bending, twisting and manipulating synthesis to explore every microtonal corridor of the sonic spectrum. Gone are the radio toasts, gloopy video snippets and provincial ephemera, as every soggy beer mat and bent dart in The Nag's Head is raptured upwards into the stellar vacuum.
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BLUE NEPTUNE
neptune looms out of the emptiness hawaiian-style.
TROPICAL MANFLU
the brain-bendy effects of a virus recently classified by dr polly comfort of the london school of hygiene & tropical medicine.
JE SUIS GIANT SQUID
mating call of the giant squid as it rises from crushing abyss to the surface, guided by a full moon.
SHOWER NOODLE
the best ideas come in the shower.
CUSP
quantum spacetime entropy collapse, expands and contracts. made for a group show on the theme of 'cusp'.
GARDEN NOODLE
my best ever musical performance in a children's play area.
TRANSACTION RITUAL
made for a group show on the theme of 'power' - a ritualised pissing contest of supressed masculine entitlement and faux-matey bantz in the modern econo workplace politic.
PEDESTRIAN NOODLE
a derive starting and ending at a sun-filled piano room by the sea visiting various destinations on the way, via a sarcastic snack.
THE SEARCH FOR THE LOST CHORD
the beatles guitar songbook kickstarted my ongoing quest for the magic chord that opens a portal to new dimensions. here a server farm learns to build chords and tries to make a sequence. it finishes on major 7th which is a nice unresolved place to end up.
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Praise for The Nag's Head:
'Brilliant' - Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC 6 Music)
'Luxury Slime Vortex erupts like The Shard, all shiny and pointy and terrifying' - The 405
'Shivering, chewy techno. From the slowly constructed breakbeat velocity of Supermalt VIP to the rich textural scale of Crushed Memory Era' - Bleep
'Goes off like a grenade in a biscuit tin' - No Fear of Pop
Tracklist
| 1. | Blue Neptune | 2:34 |
| 2. | Tropical Manflu | 4:15 |
| 3. | Je Suis Giant Squid | 4:55 |
| 4. | Shower Noodle | 1:55 |
| 5. | Cusp | 5:13 |
| 6. | Garden Noodle | 0:32 |
| 7. | Transaction Ritual | 6:01 |
| 8. | Pedestrian Noodle | 6:00 |
| 9. | The Search For The Lost Chord | 9:02 |
Credits
All song's written and produced by Stephen Maskell. Artwork by Stephen Maskell and Rich Greenan.
