One of the slabs of vinyl you’d be wise to seek out post-haste on April 19 is Alexander Tucker’s self-titled debut album. Previously released by U-Sound Archives on CD-R in 2003, it’s getting a first-time vinyl pressing for Record Store Day by Thrill Jockey, Tucker’s label for his subsequent solo albums Dorwytch in 2011 and Third Eye a year later, along with his output as part of Imobogodom and Quietus favourites Grumbling Fur. Alongside the release, he’ll be playing an RSD in-store show at Flashback Records, which, along with Piccadilly Records and Norman Records, will be selling the album with limited edition artwork cards made by Tucker himself. Have a read of Tucker giving the background of his debut below and listen to our first play of album cut ‘The Black Bear’ above.
"The first solo recordings I made onto Dictaphone soon moved onto the newly introduced MiniDisc recorder into which I recorded guitar noise improvisations and field recordings. It wasn’t until 2001 that I got hold of my own eight-track machine. Initially I wanted to make a Faust Tapes-inspired collage of the MiniDisc improvisations spliced together with the field recordings, this was until I started processing the material through effects and loop pedals to create cut-up assemblages. Around this time I had been on a steady diet of 60’s psychedelia, Krautrock, Harry Smith’s Anthology Of American Folk Music, Bardo Pond, Dead C, Oval, John Fahey, Alexander Spence, Charalambides and Jandek. These influences began to merge to form the basis for my first self-titled collection of songs and sound-worlds. I liked the idea of primitive guitar work next to rudimentary electronics and combining these elements within the same place."
