A Decade of Calamateur, Part 2: 2002

Part one of this series is here.

(Calamateur – ‘Driscoll’, from the Autocity EP)

2002:

After the release of ‘White Light Unknown / Inhabit‘ I was approached by a couple of cool little indie labels. One wanted me to record a 7″ single for them and another asked me to record an EP.

This was very exciting news for me and was definitely a step in the direction I wanted to go in. But, after a lot of initial enthusiasm on their part, followed by a lot of waiting around and frustration on mine, it all came to nothing.

So my second release as Calamateur was again self-released and couldn’t have sounded more different to my debut 7″.

The Autocity EP was a collection of four long, and fairly disturbing, sonic soundscapes that dealt with the cheerful subject of car-crashes. Yes, it was only my second release but I was already making concept records!

In the months preceding the recording of these songs a close relative of mine had been involved in a car-crash, a young guy I’d known since early childhood had been killed in a motorcycle accident, and Channel 4 screened a 3-part documentary series about car-crashes (from which I stole much of the spoken word material you can hear on the EP) so I’m guessing all of these played a part in the songwriting process.

I remember one person who listened to the CD and said they felt nauseous by the end of it. Another gave the genius one-word summation – ‘Shite’.

Either way, it was never going to be a chart-topper 🙂

It was, however, played by John Peel again and was also played on Late Junction, Radio 3’s late night, laid back music programme. (note – if you want to get large royalty cheques for very little radio play, write really LONG songs)

Here are some of the reviews it got:

“…4 pulsating tracks on a 3” cd which somehow mimic engine noise, while samples of crash death statistics interplay in a cursory warning on the evils of the automobile…so spooky that it seems it would soundtrack a space shuttle crash…” – Is This Music?

“…a lovely thing to look at…very pretty beautiful sounding stuff and well worth a punt…” – Norman Records

“…beautifully packaged 3″CD…” – Rough Trade

(note: the Autocity EP isn’t available anywhere right now but I’ll try and remedy that soon.)

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Not long after the Autocity EP came out I was asked by Scottish indie music magazine ‘Is This Music?‘ for an exclusive track for their cover-mounted CD.

I chose a track I recorded at the same time as the EP, called ‘Orion’.

(Again, I’ll try and make this available sometime soon. I should also say that all of these songs were recorded using Mark Russell‘s equipment while he was away in the USA for a few months. He generously lent me all of his gear and let me use it as much as I wanted. Thanks Mark.)

You can read the next chapter here.