Its been three years since Astral Social Club's last release for Trensmat but on this 7" Neil Campbell continues onwards and upwards from the vapour trail of Skelp/Ginnel.

'Snaefell' on the A is a flurry of swirls and glitches, swoops and shimmers, locked into a relentless electro psych drone loop. Its a fractured alien techno which gradually gets clouded in a dense, divine and otherworldy drift. Flip over for 'Mocne' - more alien dancefloor beatmaking where the groove gallops through a glimmering field of chopped synth stutter, warped electronic glitchery and sparkling streaks of stuccatoed shimmer.

Buyers of the 7" will be able to uniquely access an additional download which features digital copies of Snaefell & Mocne as well as three additional tracks - Snizort, Moff & Snaefug - that continue to mine the expanses of processed glitchery and shimmery starburst. A full 26+ minutes of ASC for the price of a 7"!

VERY limited edition 7" in full colour wraparound picture sleeve (+ downloads).

Apr 2011, TR021.

Snaefell
Mocne
After three years, Astral Social Club returns, the project of Neil Campbell, he formerly of Vibracathedral Orchestra. Originally ASC was a logical sonic offshoot of VCO, but along the way something happened, and ASC was transformed into some strange bit of alien electronica, and this brand new single continues in Campbell's warped dancefloor trajectory.
     
The A side is some serious cosmic psychedelic space techno or whatever you want to call it. The sound is hazy and shimmery and psychedelic, but it's all about the beats, and the glitches and squelches, arranged into a twisted bit of daft funk, fractured beats, super distorted Casios, buzzing synths, propulsive and frenetic, and growing gradually thicker and darker as the track progresses. The B side is like some twisted ASC house music, a pounding 4 on the floor beat, surrounded by buzzing drones, more glitched out electronics, percussive synths adding sympathetic rhythms, all wound up with tangled distorted melodies, peppered with high end hiss and more tangled tones, some seriously psychedelic space house. The perfect music for your next alien dance party...
     
SUPER LIMITED, the label doesn't say how many exactly, but there's a good chance that these are the only copies we'll be able to get since we had to pre-order these, and Trensmat only made as many as were ordered...
Aquarius Records


Astral Social Club's Neil Campbell returns with a more than welcome slab of 7" wax filled to brim with alien space jams and cosmic chaos. 'Snaefell' kicks things off in a swirl of eternal synth drone punctuated by subtle dub tones and ever evolving organ arpeggios in a variety of tempo's and shapes. This is white washed in a shower of cosmic fireworks that'll totally wreck your bonce. It's a queasy yet peaceful assault on the senses. Flip it and you get 'Mocne', a another intergalactic exploration of epic proportions that uses similarly disorientating layers of glitched and warped layers, this time tied to a hard bass beat and distant yet insistent handclaps. These tunes bring to mind elements of the recent Growing stuff and Black Dice in their most recent incarnation. Like mashed up party music for over exposed thrill-seeking music listeners with a taste for strong chong. Excellent as always. 7" includes three bonus tracks in download form.
Norman Records SOTW


Amazing shot of backwards psych-funk hedonism with a submerged dub/bass aspect that could almost be early Aphex Twin from Neil Campbell’s (Vibracathedral Orchestra/A Band et al) solo project. Headswimming depth of detail meets pristine studio reification for the ultimate mind-fuck. Almost wish this hadda been transposed for maximal all-night 12” remix style ala 100% Silk as it’s eternal/groove aspect is especially narcotic. But this is the most potent snapshot of where Neil’s at since whenever.
Volcanic Tongue


Again ridiculously limited and by all accounts already sold out at source, the welcome return to the trensmat fold of Astral Social Club (you may recall their ’skelp’ 7 inch from a few years back). We used to go to school on Snaefell (Avenue) as a child - why I tell you this not so illuminating piece of useless information is beyond me but hey if there’s a connection to be made then making that connection we will no matter how trivial or redundant it may be - and anyhow it all adds to the word count which had I been getting paid per word (in case you ask - I am not - in fact while we are here what is pay) I’d have neatly serenaded you with tales spent their in Spock masks and Star Trek boots (3rd generation of course - phew nearly give my age away then - 78 in case you were wondering - d’oh) alas I’ll leave those printed horrors to another day (bet you can’t wait eh?). Anyway where were we - Astral Social Club that’s the bunny - two track 7 inch again replete with additional downloads giving access to three further tracks - ’Snizort’, ’Moff’ and ’Snaefug’ - which aside all sounding like names for uncomfortable skin complaints our copy seems to have omitted (excuse me while I howl and bawl). For those new to Astral Social Club - this is the experimental project of Vibracathedral’s Neil Campbell. ’Snaefell’ really does sound like a sunburst shower following a cosmic firework pageantry, mutant dub step hybrids and primitive glitch grooves endow it with a retro subterranean trance persona that wouldn’t look out of place on prized wax slabs from a youthful tigerbeat6 imprint, factor in the subtle locked groove psychotropic waveform washes and lunar swirls and you have yourself something of a forward thinking slab of futuro funk minimalism. ’mocne’ over on the flip side - will fit neatly alongside your cherished and very rare Frank Wobbly and Sons record collection, more mutoid schisms from the underbelly of the outer spheres of the minimalist electro funk universe, mind warping layers of pulsing acid house grooves re-baked under the watchful mindset of a youthful Aphex Twin with Black Star Liner on hand for additional head frying flavouring. Did we mention its essential.
Losing Today

Having lain dormant for nearly two years, our favourite Irish label returns to the fray with these dizzying flurries from arch rave wrangler Neil Campbell. Usurping disco etiquette with devious guerrilla pulse tactics and Pokémon levels of hyperactive insurgency he registers a brace of joyous conflations, anchored by a convoy of pounding throb and woozy incisor moo. Euphoric neon cluck and burbled hyperbole coast along upon lurid rivers of translucent pink flux, garnering reactions ranging from cerebral contusion deficit to temporal transcendental float.
Record Collector


Seems to be one of Neil Campbells more Techno-deranged outings here. Whether that means he's fiddling solo or not is anyones guess. But it is one of the more disturbed slabs of ostensible dance music you will hear this season.
The Wire