[Rumori] New Ward Album

[David]

WARD RELEASE:

Title:				Ward – ‘It might be useful for us to know’ (Loca Records)
Release Date: 		17th April 2005
Taster video at: 
		http://www.locarecords.com/video/WARD-GeneratingCivilSociety.mov
License: 			Released under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-alike

BACKGROUND

You don't approach a record as a closed book that you have to take or 
leave. There are always cuts that leave you cold. So you skip them. 
Other cuts you may listen to over and over again. They follow you. You 
find yourself humming them under your breath as you go about your daily 
business. 								Deleuze and Guatarri. A Thousand Plateaus.


This is not an easy album - it could not be otherwise.

All the tracks tell a story, from the shifting melody of Generating 
Civil Society, to the beautiful acoustic randomness of It Will Be 
Obvious To Everyone. Everything is turned upside down, inside out and 
stretched beyond expectation. But within each track lies a captivating 
beauty, a pearl waiting to be found by each of us, demonstrated most 
clearly by Armonica or Something - a track that rediscovers a forgotten 
musical instrument, the Armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin in the 
1700s. In it’s time a controversial instrument that "Many [physicians 
thought] the sharp penetrating tone runs like a spark through the  
entire nervous system, forcibly shaking it up and causing nervous  
disorders”. Illness began to be blamed on the instrument,  as well as 
marital unhappiness, premature birth, and convulsions in  cats and 
dogs, it fell into disrepute. In some German states it was  banned by 
police decree, “on account of injury to one's health and for the sake 
of public order”. In many ways it is the perfect instrument for this 
album.

In this album, Ward are giving us music with which to describe and 
analyze the schizophrenic experience. Like the Armonica, they would 
like to see the album contribute to a new thinking, a new listening. 
But the new is easily misdiagnosed. Ward’s music is difficult to 
experience, but its novelty is necessary if we are to understand what 
is happening to us now and what we are doing to make happenings. When a 
world view dies, the terms that define and analyze it also die, even 
though they live on through inertia, custom, unthought. Ward’s music 
bears witness that the two musicians feel the death of the 
pre-postmodern world view; their ambition is to give us the music to 
begin to know what has been happening. In one sense, it has not been 
happening until we use music to say what has been happening. Each track 
is a plateau of experience - the album a thousand plateaus of variation 
that places variables of content and expression in continuity. Songs 
slide in relation to one another.  Themes are perpetually folding and 
unfolding. Instruments pass into one another, communicating. The album 
opens to chaos, threatening exhaustion or intrusion. It is kept from 
chaos by rhythm. A single intensity meant to be listened to, sometimes 
once, others more. Some tracks you will like and play again, some you 
will not.  But, Ward hope that you will find something that you can 
keep with you.



Track Listing

1. Akilium Trow
2. Generating Civil Society
3. They're all mental - Cotillion at Olympus Mons
4. Chunky Whole Nuts
5. We is confident that you is capable
6. Please do not walk on the lawn in the Front Quad
7. SuperMackerel Noodles
8. It will be obvious to everyone...
9. Activity from the Head of His
10. De Fernius
11. Armonica or Something
12. Perhaps I won't make a police dog
13. Glass Rotation Insult


LOCAIX (LOCA009)
Experimental Electronica

Selected Comments and Reviews

WARD - Static Caravan VAN64

Ward ‘De Fernius’ (Static Caravan). Last time we featured those Ward 
kids Richard and David was when they knocked us bandy with their debut 
Static release from about 18 months ago entitled ‘Sesquipadelian 
Origins’ and before you ask, no we haven’t a clue either but you can 
bet your life savings it doesn’t go well with chips and ketchup. Since 
that time they’ve squeezed out an album for Loca Records called ‘It’s 
not necessarily your height it could be your feet’ which we somehow 
missed but will no doubt add to our never ending wish list of releases 
we won’t sleep until we have. Again as with the Young Barons release 
another lathe cut clear vinyl polycarbonate thingummyjig type er…thing 
(huh and they say the art of the English language is going for a 
burden). Ward step in with two tracks of such contrasting calibre that 
you’ll either be gently lulled to sleep or frankly to scared witless to 
close both your eyes at the same time ever again. ‘De Furnius’ is 
creepy, in fact so creepy that we reckon it’ll ensure that you’ll be 
leaving on all the household lights and nervously checking behind 
doors, under beds and behind sofas. Casting an eerie eye; in fact the 
same eerie eye as those belonging to the one eyed alien invaders with a 
predilection (not) to influenza from War of the Worlds, sparse 
manipulated sounds are the order of the day, impossible to dance to 
we’ve tried believe it or not, though don’t be surprised if various 
electronic appliances start acting up strangely. If you want my honest 
opinion I swear its one of those pornographic sex lines for toasters 
but in binary code. Flip over and things get a little more playful on 
‘Armonica or Something’ in fact so playful that you swear the Ward duo 
have discovered the enchanted land were all the old children’s TV 
themes go to when they’ve been discarded and forgotten. Amid the gentle 
scratchy toy box chimes the fleeting memories of Jamie and his Magic 
Torch, the Clangers, those surreal Charley Says adverts from the 70’s 
and a positive who’s who of BBC Radiophonic incidental pieces found 
lying around on the Tardis floor come out into the daylight for a spot 
of off ground tick. Very cute indeed and well worth annoying your local 
record emporium owner about.

Losing Today Magazine


WARD It’s not necessarily your height, it could be your feet

Ward est l’archétype du groupe difficile à cerner, à définir.

Le duo se lance ici dans un travail visionnaire, mélangeant 
electronica, post rock et indus. Des guitares imprévisibles (comme sur 
les dernières secondes de " Just Back from holiday in Wales ") se 
nouent à des voix perdues dans l’espace ; le tout, disposé sur une 
boîte à rythmes (dont on sent la capacité à être violente, mais qui 
garde cette violence en elle), disposé sur un fond sonore bruitiste 
finalement très réaliste. Parce qu’un simple sample de manège ("Few 
words before of after"), de modem cherchant à se connecter à l’Internet 
ou de conversations téléphoniques remet les pieds sur terre.

  Des groupes comme Autechre ou Hood sont parfois suggérés 
lointainement, mais le duo revendique son envie de création et 
d’expérimentation. Les bruits du quotidien impressionent par les images 
qu’ils annoncent, par le monde dans lequel ils plongent l’auditeur.

  Le côté indus est suggéré par touche fine ; on parlera de post indus 
ou de post electronica, ce qui ne signifie pas grand chose. Il faut se 
laisser porter par cet album, il faut lui laisser une confiance aveugle 
et voyager.

Massive Beard rappelle Leftfield en plus rêche, en plus sincère, en 
bidouillé, en moins produit aussi. Chaque morceau est une aventure, une 
fresque héroïque. Ward n’a finalement rien à voir avec les trois 
groupes cités dans cette chronique. Ward est un groupe qui a su faire 
partager son côté cérébral grâce au dressage des machines et à une 
recherche sensorielle de tout premier rang.

Rares sont les occasions de sentir son esprit décider de se scinder 
pour pouvoir voguer à des endroits différents dans le même espace 
temps : les seules écoutes de " Sesquipedalian Origins " ou 
" Anatarbarus " sauront à coup sûr vous convaincre.

9/10

Soit dit en Passant Magazine


WARD, Sesquipedalian Origins

Record of the year 2002

A lengthy excursion into an underground world where the squid is king 
and syncopated beats really don’t hold that much weight.

Record Collector Magazine


Ward, Sesquipedalian Origins (Static Caravan) 7"

Sensation: It’s the long-lost Satie/Reich collaboration, Three Minute 
Concerto For Solo Piano and Photocopier. Beguiling in its simplicity 
and uncompromising in its treatment of the listener, Sesquipedalian 
Origins sucks you in, reproduces your arse in grainy black and white 
and pins copies up all round your office. You will not be the same 
person after listening to this record twice. I guarantee it. 
Information: Blue Vinyl, 500 copies. Ward are Meme and Richard Williams 
of Calvados Beam Trio. www.staticcaravan.com

Robots and Electronic Brains

WARD - Static Caravan VAN36

I'd swear that the releases emitting from the sound laboratories of 
those Caravan boys and gals are neatly timed to within a heartbeat of 
each missives eventual appearance. Recently seen described on one 
website as abstract and experimental, the Ward boys, there being most 
definetely two of them, pop out their debut blue vinyl offering for the 
record decks delights. Admittedly not as poppy as previous Van releases 
vis a vis Fort Dax and ISAN, but nonetheless possessing enough cerebral 
pizzaz to earn it mucho brownie points. Ward lie somewhere in the outer 
regions of the so called chill epidemic currently sweeping the local 
multi conglomerate emporiums near you, instead of instilling a sense of 
calm theirs imbues a feeling of spookiness. 'Sesquipedalian Origins' 
which in a literal sense means the overuse of long and ponderous words, 
hey kids you learn something everyday, sounds oddly enough like a 
stapler being played in an echo chamber with a reflective piano 
coursing over the tops, more sinister than sensual. 'Calcium Taut 
Verdun' offers some strikingly magical moments, trippy lullaby like 
grace with melodies that seem to have an in built elegance about them 
that shifts curiously into a second movement where I swear someone is 
washing dishes against a very refined 'Sugar Plum Fairy' like symphony. 
Quite unnerving but altogether alluring. Available from Static Caravan 
Records Cat No Van 36.

Losing Today Magazine

Ward Discography


2001	VAN036 	Sesquipedalian Origins 	Static Caravan 7"

2002	LOCA004  	Its not necessarily your height it could be your feet 
	Loca CD

2003	VAN064  	Armonica or Something/De Fernius (Lathe Cut 7") 	Static 
Caravan 7"

2005	LOCA009 	It Might Be Useful For Us To Know	Loca CD


http://www.locarecords.com