MUDDLIN GEAR by JAMIE LIDELL

HARDY:
It was 1999 and, in old Brighton town, you could still secure white hot sonic alloys of the highest grade from the very best, as everyone had to pay their rent. I'll give you a grand if you deliver us an album. Of course, I knew I'd love it. Jamie was an unmatched performer and had a chaotic, noisy, one man improvisation show that teetered on the brink of collapse. What I didn't expect was the huge range of the album. Listening now, twenty years later, I still think it sounds amazing and fresh.

JAMIE:
Muddlin Gear will never be repeated.
I couldn’t make it again if I tried. Like sonic marmite it causes extreme reactions even 20 years on. I’ll put that down to the fact that I put some real unrefined confusion and searching into this. It was my music for the ears of Spy and Ra.
That time in my life wasn’t smooth and the music will always shoot me straight back to the fiery headiness of Brighton at the end of the 90s.
Much respect goes to Cristian Vogel and the gang at no-future. I couldn’t have made this LP without them. The studio that I shared with Cris was incredible. Just blew my mind to have access to his collection of machines. In a way this record is the sound of my mind and sonic universe expanding to fit the options in that place.
Speaking of which I owe a huge debt to my pal Pablo Fiasco. I was his room mate during this time and he heavily inspired me to go way deeper than I would have dared. We listened to amply Sun Ra and Can which I think you can hear buried in the muddle.
There was a lot of getting wasted, getting lost, getting deep. I was singing into trumpets, making music entirely from a 50s tone generator and sometimes painstakingly cutting micro sounds individually into place. It took me weeks to finish these tracks. There’s drone music, clicks und cuts, some sun ra doo wop, some noise jazz and a touch of R and B.
Probably the most honest record I ever made in terms of wearing all the outfits at once.
I was buzzing to make a record for Spy. I always held Hardy’s music taste in the highest regard. He introduced me to Dilla, Fela Kuti and so many other incredible worlds so I wanted to hand in something that packed some oomph.
So here we are again 20 odd years later.
I hope you’ll spread a little muddlin on ear. It’s full of life like a sonic yeast.
You’ll likely like it in small doses.
:)

In 1995 a crack commando unit was sent to Brighton by an arbitrary court for an EP they didn't release. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Essex underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a demo, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire Spymania.

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