from signal to noise magazine. review by jon dale.

NEIL CAMPBELL + ROB HAYLER
In Luck
Fencing Flatworm FF 021 CD-R
Neil Campbell's position as one of the heads of the true English underground is undeniable. As one fifth of the Vibracathedral Orchestra juggernaut, Campbell has been jointly responsible for some of the finest group-think freedom sounds to leak out of that Fair Isle since the A-Band first strapped on helmets and found themselves caught, Groundhog Day-style, at the first step of the alphabet. Campbell's work outside of the VCO orbit is just as instructive in different ways. His recent series of solo discs - Excerpt from the Never-Ending Bowed Metal Song, The Hearing Force of the Humanverse and Sol Powr - has seen him move away from his more dronological side to embrace a take on free music that's unabashedly pop, sentimental, and romantic. He first hinted in this direction on his cover of the Ronettes' "Why Won't They Let Us Fall in Love", but more recent recordings have integrated the pop and the noise in a superior manner.

In Luck, a collaboration with Fencing Flatworm head honcho Rob Hayler, points in another direction again, one which won't be too surprising to those who've read any recent interviews with Campbell. Like many souls, he is enamored of the Pop Ambient styling of German electronic label Kompakt, and his collaboration with Hayler takes off from the ideas laid out by the Kompakt crew, injecting them with a more rigorously gritty sense of sound placement and development. In Luck also harks back to another of Campbell's loves, Krautrock, as the toy box melodies and shimmering opaque hums and hisses recall Cluster's joyous innocence. The massive lagoon of starburst sound that is "Drunken Forest" is probably In Luck's most traditionally arresting moment, but there is something to the simplistic house pulse and padded texture-whoosh of "Get Down" that is rather endearing. And, although it's intriguing to hear Campbell and Hayler interpolating their interest in modern electronics into their own sound, what comes through loudest about In Luck is the duo's individuality - they've absorbed some lessons in space and pulse-grids from their German peers, but never at any point do any of these tracks sound like anything other than beautifully turned English potting shed free sound. It's just that, its pulse has quickened a little. And that's a good thing, right?

neil campbell + rob hayler - in luck (fencing flatworm recordings ff021)

the leeds based fencing flatworm label has been performing a real public service over the past few years, documenting the sub-radar broadcasts beamed from the brains of liberated musicians all across the north of england. any low-level sweep of that particular part of the map is bound to pick up on the activities of vibracathedral orchestra mainman neil campbell, and the label have done a good job of making some of his more oddball recordings available. in luck sees campbell paired with label boss rob hayler, although overall it feels less like a collaboration and more like a split release. the first three tracks, minimal electro instrumentals that pulse with underwiring and interference in a way that seems fairly derivative of the basic channel roster, feel more like hayler solo tracks; whereas the last three, celestial rainbows of eternally-peaking drone and tinkerbell percussion, bear campbell's unmistakable fingerprint. unless, of course, i'm mistaken.

Neil Campbell + Rob Hayler - in luck (Fencing Flatworm)

although he has made solo albums previously, neil campbell is better known - in the wire reading circles at least - as a member of local ensemble vibracathedral orchestra, a five piece who dedicate themselves to making velvet underground-inspired drone-rock jams that are alternately mecitative and invigorating. meanwhile, as well as running the fencing flatworm label (which issues music from the sonic fringes on wallet-friendly cd-r) hayler usually records as midwich, using a 303 to produce bubbling oscillations.

together, they create a music of suprising minimalism. it may consist of regular beats overlaid with electronic sounds but techno seems too harsh a word. instead of the claustrophobic robo-scapes of artists like plasticman, in luck uses the barest of beats and most discreet of synths, to conjure up a world of pastoral freshness. opener 'false positive' is built around a sound like amplified flapping or slowed down rain dropplets, whilst 'radiata' throws a chirrup, which is half cricket, half frog, between the speakers to hypnotic effect. with its drawn-out, resonant tones and birdsong-like trills, 'drunken forest' may initially resemble a new age track, but the sounds are crisp and glistening, not so much suggesting the kind of soporific tones heard at your local yoga class as a spring evening giddy with fecundity.

if you put in luck on the stereo expecting its beats to soundtrack an aerobics session or some housework then puzzlement will ensue, as it's an album whose textures and moods only emerge upon close listening. but neither should you mistake its minimalism for meanness: think of it as the best party album your houseplants have ever heard

review by abbey blis

Neil Campbell + Rob Hayler 'in luck'-Fencing Flatworm-CDR-plastic envelope color artwork
/You may think I review every record I get and you're wrong. You may think I review every record I get from FFR and you're wrong again (no more than a little 50%). But the number of reviews you can read here show how prolific this label is, and how good its releases usually are. This one adds a little something to the somewhat watery melodic-synth-ambient R. Hayler as Midwich usually does, a rhythm there, a little processed guitar feedback here, a little tune elsewhere. No noise on this record but no silence neither, it flows continuously like it had been recorded in a sensory isolation water tank somewhere in space in the 70s or perhaps in the capsules used to grow Lt Ripley's clones in Alien 4. I guess my favourites there are 'radiate' and 'get down', the most rhythmic tracks. Perfect background for reading a good science fiction novel.