Here Comes That Day...

No posts for a while as I've been on hols... communing with the local mysteries in Tangier. So there.

Brilliant, breaking news.... Cherry Red are releasing the Into a Circle back catalogue on CD for the first time. I've written something for the sleeve notes - Alex from the record company tells me they've got 'a fan, a critic and an artist' (i.e. me) providing reflections and memories.

I cannot stress this enough but In2aO were utterly sublime and absolutely the most formative thing in the world of teen-Stephen. I always thought it criminal they were never bigger than they were. Here's my text for the CD; if you've never heard of them I strongly recommend you get the compiliation when it's out. I'll post a link for it in November!

"Into a Circle's songs were and are dreamlike, sexy, and dangerous. They inhabit a strange sound-world of alternative religions, sexual experiments and bare-chested boy assassins. When I close my eyes I imagine them echoing through an other-worldly landscape as endless as one of Brion Gysin's Sahara paintings... I love these songs and in recent times I have been listening to them again and playing them whenever I get a chance to DJ.

"One of the interesting things about Into a Circle, aside from a fantastic image, was that the band surrounded themselves with the cultural and literary influences behind the songs. Bee's graphics and art-work referenced Hans Bellmer and William Burroughs, and the sleeve-notes always listed enough counter-cultural pointers to keep the library card of a provincial teen busy for weeks in those pre-internet days. All of this strengthened the songs and made Into a Circle a more complete and intelligent outfit than a good many bands who were around at the time. It is only now, some 20-years later and thinking about my development as a practising artist, I realise quite how formative the world of Into a Circle was for me. I can draw a number of lines of influence of those artists and writers who have affected my own work, or the way I carry out my work, back to Bee. I therefore find myself wondering how my work as an artist might have happened, and what art and books I would love and admire, were it not for Into a Circle."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_A_Circle
Bee's now in Bangkok doing Futon:- www.rehabisfab.com