Last week we brought you two tracks from The Quietus Phonographic Corporation’s latest release, a collection of spoken word pieces from tQ’s John Doran’s Jolly Lad. Today, we unleash a third – a morbid and gruesome fantasy about the brutal killing of a man who bears a striking resemblance to rape-joke-making pranny lad Dapper Laughs with a shuddering backing from Perc that sits with his more noisy interests on Perc Trax subsidiary label Submit. John Doran tells us more about the track below. The official launch for Jolly Lad is at Foyles later this month and features backing music from The Grumbling Fur Time Machine Orchestra and a DJ set from tQ’s Hamburger Ladies. Facebook info here.
"The track ‘The Guardian’ has a much more recent genesis. I was staying at my mate John Tatlock’s flat in Manchester late last year and ended up too traumatised to sleep after watching an entire series of Walking Dead in one sitting. This, and extreme irritation with the then briefly popular televisual misogynist nob rash Dapper Laughs, left me in a state of no little psychic discombobulation. Coincidentally, the day before I’d been at a photo shoot with tQ photography machine Al Overdrive in Abney Park Cemetery. A man walking his dog asked me if I knew whose grave I was standing next to and when I admitted ignorance he told me it belonged to William Calcraft, who, it turned out, was Britain’s most prolific executioner. Calcraft used to favour the controversial short drop method which often didn’t snap the neck of the poor soul who was to be despatched, meaning the hangman often ended up sitting on the shoulders of the condemned and jumping up and down in order to break the neck… much to the delight of the gathered crowds. Calcraft was extremely popular and would be paid a lot of money to carry out hangings. If he came to your town he would bring a lot of trade as well as the tens of thousands who would flock to one of his executions. He loved his work and carried on working full time until well past retirement age.
"Unable to sleep, lying on John Tatlock’s couch, head buzzing full of zombies having their heads blown off, Uni-lad envoys for rape culture and too much coffee, I started having a torrid daydream… It was about a modern day Calcraft – an unemployed butcher who had lost his job at Smithfields who was forced to live in a condemned and near empty block of flats because of rising London rents – and his plans to leave a bequest for London. After throwing in a respectful nod to Michel Foucault’s 1975 chortle-fest Discipline And Punish: The Birth Of The Prison, by the time the sun came up the next day I was left with a short story that, if nothing else, made me feel quite nauseated and unhappy.
"Given the punishing nature of the text I aimed about as high as I could and luckily for me, Mr Ali ‘Perc’ Wells, agreed to the commission – which came with the simple instructions: "Make this story very tense via nefarious sonic means." And the track he turned in really ratchets up the revulsion and clammy panic to horrific levels. I love this track but I don’t think it’s going to be cropping up in anyone’s Fabric Live or Boiler Room set any time soon. However I’m getting a 24 bit WAV out to Jamie xx as we speak, so fingers crossed."
Also involved in the record are: Abi and Neil from British Sea Power, Nicky Wire from the Manic Street Preachers and Loz Williams, Perc, Arabrot and Karin Park, and Nik Void from Factory Floor and Carter Tutti Void. You can hear excerpts below and stay tuned to tQ for news of more ways to hear the music. The record can be purchased from Norman Records, The Drift, Totnes and Rough Trade and digitally from iTunes.
