photo by Gerry Dollso

As Slomatics‘ guitarist Chris Couzens will attest, the perfect curry is a labour of time lovingly lavished, which, when combined with diligent preparation, shall bring forth it’s just rewards…

I first encountered the sleeve artwork for Slomatics’ previous vinyl foray, ‘Estron‘ somewhere around the tail-end of 2014 – following a tip-off from my long suffering hairdresser Norah, who as it turns out, is a mutual friend of Slomatics’ drummer and vocalist, Marty Harvey.

The transcendent artwork by Tony Roberts, captivated and whisked me back to a youth, spent pouring over the pages of sci-fi fantastical landscapes, penned by Chris Foss and Roger Dean.

“beauty is in the street”… (May 1968 uprisings street poster)

The other week, the BBC repeated it’s ‘Punk Britania’ television triptych – ‘Pre-Punk 1972-1976’, ‘Punk 1976-1978’ & ‘Post-Punk 1978-1981’, first aired in 2012.

I could, and frequently do, watch things like this until the cows come home. Gleaning ever more intersections, connecting ever more “goddamned dots”, with each renewed viewing.

This time I was struck with two things, firstly that the copy of, ‘The Truth of Revolution, Brother: An Exploration of Punk Philosophy’, that I had bought a year or so ago, still sat languishing, unopened on the bookshelf. Secondly, that if 1977 had been the high-water mark of the Punk movement, was there something more to this, just beyond half-way through the decade, watershed moment?

“Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a box set, and for my sins, Cardinal Fuzz gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice collection, and when it was over, I wanted another one”…

Please forgive my paraphrasing of this classic line, but what can you do when you have a game-changing release to contend with?!?  Such has been my absolute immersion in all things The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol, that though my soul tells me my initial contact, “seems a thousand centuries ago”, cold hard logic suggests it was actually with the release of the 2nd press of ‘Pathfinder’, around the tail end of 2014. All thanks to the Cardinal himself, Dave Cambridge.

To celebrate the official release of The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol‘s, ‘Symbol Box’ – triple album set on Cardinal Fuzz, here again is episode 11 of ‘chromaticism‘s revolutions on the radio’, featuring an in depth interview with TBWNIAS’s drummer, John Westhaver…

Before we launch headlong into Day 2 at Eindhoven Psych Lab 2016mg, let’s rewind to just after the White Hills set, the night before.

Many of you, I know, like myself, suffer from that affliction known as vinyl-itis – a debilitating condition, which can strike unexpectedly, at the faintest whiff of a “limited edition”…