Temperatures

There's this duo from the UK that I really like: Temperatures. I don't know too much about them but I think they're just two guys from the UK. I sort of, well it's one of those things where you get your information through this underground network of noise and avant-garde, weird music that's happening all the time now. And I saw their name a couple of times, and then I saw the Temperatures album, the one on Heat Retention , at Hospital Records in New York. On the wall, it's like, Temperatures LP, limited edition, 100 copies, and the cover is kind of this rough paper and really homemade with silkscreen on it. Very little information. Just "Temperatures". It's the kind of thing that makes me buy records-- all of those aspects. Like, an intriguing name, only making enough records that they know that they can sell in a couple of months and not having any lying around in their basement in boxes, and the most minimal of information-- just play the fucking record and that's all the information you need.

They did two 7"s themselves, where the sleeves where very homemade. I knew it would be something really extreme, noise-duo kind of stuff. We were playing it the other day and it was pretty cool. It's really this dark-hole of noise-playing. It's actually really distinctive in a way amongst that genre, because there's a lot of standardized tropes in the noise genre that people fall into-- which I don't mind, I like the idea that this is traditional way of playing in that world, but it's always cool to hear something like this where you can't really slot it into those things. - Pitchfork

Last heard by us in 2005 with their brilliant private press EP "Too Hot To Handle" / "Too Cold To Hold" which was a true ’scorcher-maroo’. They’re a London-based guitar and drums duo, now spreading their ferocious wings over the length of two sides of a long player and turning in a much more complex and fascinating racket than their first primal, angry EP of brutal noise-thrash.

Somehow they are contriving a much more denatured, weirded-up sound - the recording quality here is not lo-fi, distorted or treated, but it still projects as just plain weird, radiating bizarro-beams across the county. What have they done to it? Agitated and twitchy, they’re playing like two crazed zombies stuck in neutral, creating hand-knitted tape loops out of their own primitivist styles. I could listen to this mesmerizing, growling, monotonous grind for 100 years. While we may look for some surface resemblance to Brooklyn duo Mouthus, I think Temperatures are already finding their own voice to the extent that they could give said Mouthus or even Yellow Swans some serious competition.

Temperatures can do noise, but this is very sophisticated and dynamic, at the same time exploring some difficult mixed emotions which are hard to name. It seems to be something to do with finding ways around blocked communications, overcoming frustrated gestures. Live and in real time, the duo can be heard to take on this semi-heroic struggle on behalf of the human race, and emerge at the other end drenched with the sweat of their efforts - perhaps not clutching the trophy of success, nor dispensing pat answers to the problematic questions of life, but certainly enriched by their experience.

You can be enriched too - snarf up a copy of this dark boiler-bash recording, housed in its murky screenprinted sleeve, and work out those constipated feelings via the cleansing purge of guitar and drum noise.
- Ed Pinsent, Sound Projector Magazine #16 (2007)

The drum and bass duo format has yielded some pretty tasty fruit over the past two decades. Groups from Japan’s Ruins to Rhode Island’s Lightning Bolt have proven that you don’t need to fill a sonic void in order to have some full-spectrum exploratory rock. England’s Temperatures don’t play rock per se, but are definitely capable of rocking. James (drums/synth) and Peter (bass/voice) have more in common with the U.S. duo Eloe Omoe than they do with someone like Godheadsilo. That is to say that the emphasis is more on unabashed improvisatory sound-sculpting than it is on prog-rock fuelled meter changes. These two side-long untitled pieces go hither and yon to places, in the band’s own words, that are ’too hot to handle, too cold to hold.’ Best to retain your heat while you can I suppose.

The first side plods along with some rumbles and throbs amongst some skittering trap-work and a bit of menacing synthesizer. I’m imagining an early Faust after-hours session with Zeppi Diermaier and Rudolf Sosna exhausting the last bit of whatever chemicals have inhabited their minds and bodies that day. A two-note figure lays the groundwork for some scrapes and barbed noise that the drummer freely extemporizes all over with a gratuitous amount of cymbal activity. About halfway through the drums threaten to usher in a norm of periodicity with some deft playing that feels as though we’re taking off into familiar rock territory. It turns out to be a tease as we get treated to an about-face into something that has more in common with vintage no wave or perhaps even Lake Of Dracula. The side concludes with amplitude-modulated throbbing bass, cheap-mic vocals and some feedback. This ties up the proceedings nicely and gives the piece a sense of cohesion.

The flipside kicks off with some frantic bass noodling and tight but free kit shenanigans. Just when you think that these guys can’t keep this up any longer, they diverge into some pulse-based jamming. The sense of temporal continuity is however fucked with royally. James’ elastic take on meter coupled with the pitch-bent strings of the bass come across like a restless tape-op ever so slightly retarding the tape’s journey across the recording head. When Peter’s vocals kick in, it’s as if we’re inhabiting the magnetic particles of some long-lost bootleg of The Fall (circa early 80s) on a night when Mark E. Smith has had just the right combination of lager and amphetamines. From here the duo ride on some free rock wave for a bit and settle into what sounds like a coffeehouse gig gone all wrong. Nice.

Overall this LP has a great sense of flux. The fidelity may be less than stellar, but the black on brown printing and shiny black vinyl are quite appealing. Temperatures’ music is like none other and therein lies the greatest appeal of all. If that interests you, then you should act quickly because there are only 100 of these in circulation. I need to water my plants. Have a blessed day.
- Empty J, Heathen Harvest

First full-length by this mysterious south London duo (see previous post here), one long untitled piece each side, downcast and sinister thick bass throbbing and rolling drumming on the first side, with vocals that sound like a broken man trying to explain what really happened to a hostile interrogator towards the end of the piece.

The second side is noisier, starting with their ’familiar’ sound of knotted, hammered bass notes and drum clatter that breaks down after a few minutes before exploding into some terrifically noisy interplay with -it has to be said - Mark E Smith-style ranting before the yearning, thrilling conclusion. These boys don’t give much away, with the abstract titles and imagery, so just enjoy this night bus ride through hell. This is fantastic, abject subterranean stuff. - Martin, Swedish Nurse

I'm glad T. Moore talked about this LP for his "Favorite New Music" section of Pitchfork's Guest List, because I'd been listening to it for a couple weeks myself and still wasn't really sure who or what it was. There was no info on the record or the package it came in other than the band name and title, silk-screened on the back cover in a slightly confusing triangle shape. All I had to go on was name of the label, Heat Retention Records, because it was typewritten on the back, and I already knew 'em from their excellent recent Church of Yuh LP release by the George Steeltoe Ensemble.

After listening to this new LP once, I thought it might involve some of the same players, because it also combines noise and jazz in some rather daring and surprising ways, but, according to Mr. Moore, Temperatures are a duo from the UK, and the more I listen, the more obvious it becomes that they are totally onto their own thing.

At first, side one of Ymir was almost too much, some sort of shuddering noise piece that moves very slow chord changes through a severe filter of obfuscation. It took me awhile to notice that some live free jazz drumming was also in the mix, somehow eventually taking the whole thing into tranced-out slobbering HC song territory, and then ending it all with seance noise over which the singer dude keeps saying shit. Whoah, and side two was perfect right away, starting with a hot double-bass-and-drums steeplechase not unlike a William Parker and Hamid Drake duo before morphing into some burning noise with more bizarre hardcore vibes. Apparently they only made 100 of these, so jeez, I feel lucky and I'd definitely like to hear more... - Larry "Fuzz-O" Dolman, Blastitude #26, Winter/Spring 2008

The Temperatures again prove that they are one of London's most spasmodically captivating outfits with the release of their first LP, Ymir (Heat Retention). The previous 7" aktion has been good (particularly the debut 7" on 4th Harmonic), but this record drags the whole drum/bass/duo concept into a new sludgier realm. They don't so any of the proto-prog calesthetics of Lightning Bolt, but prefer to just roll around in muzz. Which is a fairly admirable alternative, eh? - Byron Coley & Thurston Moore, Arthur #27, Dec 2007

"One of London´s most spasmodically captivating outfits". Con queste parole Byron Coley e Thurston Moore descrivevano i Temperatures su Arthur Magazine nel 2007, se non erro. Ed è nel 2007 che questo misterioso duo londinese formato da Peter Blundell (basso e voce) e James Dunn (synth e batteria) dava alle stampe "Ymir", album a tiratura limitatissima che lasciava intravedere le potenzialità della band, interprete di un noise improvvisato e minimale. In quel disco le reiterazioni ossessive dei pattern percussivi e il suono del synth, ronzante e sottilmente psichedelico, creavano scenari di soffocante alienazione urbana.

Somiglianze? Difficile trovarne. La cifra del suono dei Temperatures è abbastanza personale, tuttavia se proprio volete dei nomi, beh prendete come riferimento il noise progressivo dei Ruins, le decostruzioni ritmiche dei Dead C e le squadrature matematiche dei Lightning Boilt, ma in una versione molto più scheletrica e minimale. A due anni di distanza i Temperatures tornano con un nuovo disco sotto l'egida della nostrana Ultramarine, che ha già dimostrato di avere occhio lungo, vedi i casi di Amolvasy e The Right Moves. Allora "Eksra" ripete il canovaccio del disco precedente, pigiando l'acceleratore sulle ritmiche - ancor più serrate e "fratturate" - e su una dinamica di interplay che mette in risalto i contrasti tra i pieni e i vuoti di suono.

Le urla soffocate di Blundell e il synth deturpato di Dunn danno corposità all'incedere claudicante e sventrato di questa musica, che riesce a darsi un briciolo di intelligibilità proprio grazie ai suoni sintetici in sottofondo, che costruiscono traiettorie noise quantomeno ricorsive. Nelle pause tra un assalto sonoro e l'altro poi, è proprio la batteria a riempire i vuoti, dando l'impressione di fungere da collante tra quelle che potremmo definire come vere sessioni improvvisative.

Una curiosità: pare che il batterista James Dunn abbia collegato un synth ARP 2600 modulare a un microfono a contatto e alla batteria. Suonando quest'ultima riesce, quindi, contemporaneamente a far suonare il synth. - Antonio Ciarletta, Onda Rock

Temperatures “Bifurcation” makes up side two. A very different side, but man it is a wooly mammoth sized holy mother of god beast. Just sit the stylus down and stand way the fuck back. Falling down stairs drumming, white light and sub-bass electronics and all sorts of yorps and yells come forth. Then spin off into a distant hairy planet. Damn this thing has teeth. By the time Bifurcation had ended. I felt as if I had been pistol-whipped, but in a good way. Is there such a thing? But I am begging for more. - B.Miles, Foxy Digitalis

Temperatures are the London-based duo who use bass guitar and drums in utterly inhuman and monstrous ways. They can do no wrong for this listener and their Ymir LP is one of my favourite slabs of oily filth. On ‘Bifurcation’ they spit out a vicious and incoherent rant of garage-rock-noise that can match some of their US counterparts (Sightings, Mouthus) any day you’d care to nominate for a match in the blood-bath arena. ‘Bifurcation’ has the instant ‘thickening’ of sound that results from excessive amplification and angry playing, as effective as pouring lemon juice into whipped cream (to make edible concrete). Distortion is used as a weapon, not a decorative effect or to add lo-fi credibility; it mows down the enemy like a howitzer. The bass guitar player soon settles into a repetitive action of some sort, but what could it be? He is not ‘riffing’ by any stretch of the imagination; no notes, no tune, just pure growling and painful moaning. This is just a blanket of pent-up hateful emotion that wipes out everything before it. - Ed Pinsent, Sound Projector Magazine # 18, Issue 2010

Given that Noise as a movement was predicated on a desire to break free of straightjacket musical structures, it’s ironic that some of the more stimulating groups working in that zone have retained elements of rock. Units such as Mathew Bower’s Skullflower, the transatlantic trio PeeEssEye and Edinburgh’s Muscletusk have blended guitars and drums into the hum and roar of Noise to create a visceral, hybrid free rock. Temperatures are a London based duo of bassist/vocalist Peter Blundell and drummer James Dunn, who strip the form back to the bone, relying on the natural properties of their instruments, a handful of pedals and a synth wired up to the drums to create unruly, improvised Noise rock.

The obvious comparison would be Lightning Bolt, but Temperatures have a less bludgeoning, more light-footed approach, with Dunn’s drumming owing more to free jazz than hardcore, even hints of Prog. But there’s an infectious sense of irreverence and adventure that stops them getting bogged down anywhere too long. The two untitled tracks on the A side of this debut LP move from arrhythmic clatter, through shambolic Beefheart-style riffs and into an extended Krautrocking trance-groove. Through all of this, Blundell adds an extra layer of intrigue with murky, unintelligible vocal proclamations, sounding like Vivian Stanshall with his head in a bucket, learning to speak Esperanto in his sleep.

The B side is less propulsive – and less compelling – exploring instead some of the electronic textures you might experience at a standard Noise gig, with distorted bass and synth loops that hark back to late 1980s Industrial. When Dunn rises up with a heart-stopping swell of freeform percussive activity – and a touch of Chris Corsano’s feverish attention to cymbals and toms – it’s enough to make you thankful that the drum’s not dead. - Daniel Spicer, The Wire Magazine #313, March 2010

Thurston Moore li ama dagli inizi. Oggi finalmente escono per l'italo americana Ultramarine con un long playing. Il noise incenerito dei Temperatures

Capita che Mr. Thurston Moore si materializzi nel web consacrando qualche oscuro act agli esordi. E' successo ai Mouthus, agli Upsilon Acrux ed ora è il turno dei Temperatures, scovati spulciando tra i dischi del fido negozio di Prurient a Brooklin e prontamente segnalati in una pubblicazione di Pitchfork. Era la fine del 2007 e il duo basso/batteria costituito dai due pischelli Peter Blundell e James Dunn aveva appena pubblicato, su Heat Retention, un primo ellepì intitolato Ymir. Un lavoro rumoroso nello stile della Load rimasticato però in una variante detritica, lasciando di quel suono soltanto le rovine. In pratica, se da una parte rifiutava la matematica dei Lightning Bolt, nondimeno quel sound toglieva quel poco di wave rimasto ai Sightings senza farsi mancare infide cacofonie ottenute attraverso un synth semi-modulare.

Se Colin Langenus, batterista del duo Usa Is A Monster ha dribblato con l'organo a pedali il problema di aggiungere spessore all'output sonico di una formazione ridotta ai minimi termini (che dai Ruins agli Hella, oltre ai già citati LB, si risolve spingendo al limite muscoli e cervello), i Temperatures ne escono con l'ausilio della (vecchia) tecnologia: un synth analogico ARP 2600 collegato tramite microfoni a contatto ai tamburi di Blundell che amplifica e deturpa (in lunghi scrosci e gracchi) i colpi del batterista.

È col medesimo setup che a tre anni di distanza, licenziato lo scorso febbraio dall'italo-americana Ultramarine, esce il sophomore Eksra, un passo decisivo verso una cifra stilistica significativa. Il drumming si è fatto più vicino al free di Sunny Murray o Chris Corsano, lasciando sovente a Blundell e al suo basso il compito di reggere la struttura ritmica a colpi di motorik, mentre blatera frasi incomprensibili alla maniera lightinboltiana. Ne vengono fuori delle sorta di jam sbronze, in cui si alternano fasi slabbrate e fuori controllo ad intenzioni più propriamente rock, in cui i due spingono all'unisono verso una catarsi mai data. Mantenendo nei loro pezzi quelle sensazioni come di un ebbro torpore che impedisce ogni spinta risolutiva.

E' un sound sempre in bilico tra costruzioni instabili e rovine inevitabili, che li tiene lontani da facili tentazioni parossistiche di band come Skullflower e Dead C declinandoli verso i toni remissivi - e quasi malinconici - della madre patria albionica. E già così Temperatures. - Leonardo Amico, Sentireas Coltare (7 April 2010)

Both freshness and familiarity are on display here, with this full length being released on the upstart Italian-Brooklynite label, Ultramarine, whose MySpace page proudly proclaims, “Power to fantasy!” Listening to this full-length by the London-based hardcore-noise duo Temperatures, the only fantasy here looks toward originality, as the duo has produced a strong example of their hard-to-pin-down sound.

“1” alternates between freeform blasts of drums and bass over distorted screaming, with the vocals present but never intelligible. They fall into a hardcore groove whose stilted rhythm is augmented by a persistent feedback squall. The mesmerizing “2” features this feedback prominently, effecting it and turning it on and off. Vocals mumble over a repetitive bassline, with cheap microphones triggering feedback bursts on the drums. At most points, it’s hard to tell how composed things are. As “2” stretches past the 10-minute mark, drums build to a frenetic climax with vocals sounding vague and deadpan, yet wounded. The duo grabs exciting moments and hold on to them, sustaining their grooves with manic intensity. Even when they’re not in sync, they’re never out of sync.

They show a remarkable ability to avoid predictable hardcore patterns and basslines, but when these patterns do encroach toward the end of “2,” the intensity is such that it’s not only completely fulfilling as a climax to the piece, but it’s also a logical continuation from what’s come before.

Side B is more noise-oriented. “3” builds a compelling, tense noisescape, combining what could be echoes, loops, or tremolo through the bass and microphones for several minutes, aided eventually by non-rhythmic kit-tapping, cymbal swells, and even some synth sounds, remaining satisfying throughout its duration. “4” is similarly intriguing, with rhythmic bass lurking in and out of synth and feedback, the acoustic drums forsaken entirely. Whatever these guys are up to, they’re definitely on the same page. - Travis Bird, Foxy Digitalis (25 August, 2010)