Box set collecting the 2 x CDR compilation ‘Miscellany’ (Pipkin CDR001 ) which was available separately and the following :
RC (1997) + 4 bonus tracks
Robot (1997) + 1 bonus track
My Pink Derrière (1998)
Birthday (1998) + 1 bonus track
The Mob Rules (1999) + 1 bonus track
The Hennaed Hand Of Glory (2000)
Aviatophobia (2000) + 3 bonus tracks
Viva! Raudive! (2000) + 1 bonus track
I Curse All Those Who Ever Wronged Us (2000) + 1 bonus track
The Bulbs Of The Vestibule (2000) + 1 bonus track
Prelude To An Un World (2001) + 5 bonus tracks
Love Song (2001) + 1 bonus track
Each CDR is inserted in its own plastic sleeve with insert. The box itself is in fact a heavy cardboard slipcase, embossed on the front board and with a stamp on the back board.
PLEASE NOTE THIS ITEM NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
Miscellany Deluxe was originally released as a 13 CDR box set in 2003. Eleven of the albums included in the box were later made available as individual downloads in 2011.
Both the box set and the downloads have now been deleted and will no longer be available. There have been plans over the years to issue the box as a general release, but until that day the download is the definitive collection of Andrew Liles archival recordings from 1984 to 2000.
These recordings were recorded on various tape machines. A compact mono cassette recorder, an Amstrad tape to tape, a Vestax MR300 and a Tascam 424. The later recordings were bounced down and mixed live on to CDR using a Phillips CDR870 CDR recorder. Aside from Love Song none of these recordings were created using computer technology.
Most of the original CDRs were released in extremely limited runs and were sold at live shows and to very a small mail-order clientele.
The Miscellany series of releases is, in a way, a personal diary that indexes my evolution as an artist, my studio techniques and my compositional know-how. It is a warts and all exposé, a collection of fragments, memories and compositions that show wildly varying degrees of competence, success and failure.
There have been 6 releases in the Miscellany series so far. All the physical copies of these releases are now sold out but are available digitally using the links below.
MISCELLANY – DOUBLE CDR – 2002 – DOWNLOAD
MISCELLANY – DELUXE – 13 CDR box set – 2003 – DOWNLOAD
MISCELLANY DELUXE (SOUVENIRS PERDUS D’ANTAN) – 3 LP box set – 2009 – DOWNLOAD
MISCELLANY – LUSSUOSO (ELECTRONICS: 1990 TO 2015) – 3 CD – 2015 – DOWNLOAD
MISCELLANY: MYTHOLOGICAL MARTYRS AND MALIGNANT MEMOIRS (THE LOW FIDELITY LIVIDITY RECORDINGS: 1985-1995) – 4 CDR – 2019 – DOWNLOAD
MISCELLANY: ADDENDUM (FRAGMENTS AND INCONSISTENCIES 1999 – 2013) – CDR – 2023 – DOWNLOAD
Reviews:
REVIEWS
Igloo Magazine
Where do you start with such a body of unfamiliar work? Well, I decided to just bite into this new box of “Miscellany” including 13 CDRs in a beautifully handmade, embossed packaging. With extra material, live recordings and alternative mixes this is especially a treat for those who came to know Andrew Liles work after he started making sound back in 1984. The artwork is playfully odd and minimal, graphically simple but somehow imbedded with perversity. The box acts as an unabridged collection of his last two decades, so when I picked up the live “Love Song” (originally a limited edition of 100 10″ vinyl records on Macrophonies) I knew I was on to something. This brooding, intricate mix of electric waves, variable static and uninterpretable goings-on is like the sound you hear when you are half asleep in an 18 wheeler going 60 down an open road past midnight. Sparse and elegant with an alien visitation or two. The phrase “suck it” turns “The Bulbs of the Vestibule (remix)” into a disturbing comment on porn, only there is nothing even slightly sexy about this recording. On “Mob Rules” (2000), what was once a promotional CDR incorporates a bonus live track. The title cut splits my channeled head with indulgent atonal blasts and circular echoes. Educational voice tapes are blended into the mix to add a corporate authoritarian voice speaking of society and down syndrome. The sounds of children contained by a playground with a layer of sputtering percussion attempt to dust off memories while emphasizing that the socialization of youngsters may have caustic results, a sort of yin-yang of past and future. Next up are recordings made between 1984-88 and my favorite title in the bunch, “My Pink Derriére.” An instant fairytale with the rhythm of a lost DIY soundtrack as illustrated by the virtually warped “Bendy Building (edit)”. This showcases a certain pervasive habit for Liles using voiceover samples, crossed with hysterical beats and circus humor – an accordion here, heavy breathing there. All along you realize that there are some true, revealing themes throughout Liles’ work but they are all sort of secretive, somewhat sacred you might say. He’s like a mad doctor who drank an experimental elixir that was still in its development stage, but somehow between a state of still life coma and the dramatic re-enactment of live cultures something has gone terribly awry. Though he still manages to present work that creeks fearfully yet can use a traditional Japanese vibe at the same time and make it work as on “Who is Glenn Larcombe?” By adding three new tracks (originally called “Fear of Flying”) to the previous live event recording (at Rective, London) Liles has made a full-length out of the hauntingly poignant “Aviatophobia”. One of these unreleased tracks, “37,000 feet” is just all wind beneath its wings, but instead of being big gusts its more like one of those lazy Sunday midday warm breezes that takes randomly strewn debris slowly in its path. A creepy ambience dusted with the allure of the paler side of Fellini’s “La Strada.” If you are interested in the perimeter of imagination, enjoy the work or Mirror, Asmus Tietchens and Jonathan Coleclough or if you just want to be purely brainwashed you can rest assured that every penny spent on this set will be an essential return on your sensory investment. – TJ Norris
Evolver
Frühes Opus magnum
Der britische Sound-Tüftler legt mit einer 13-teiligen CDR-Box sein komplettes Frühwerk in einer wunderschön gestalteten Spezialaufmachung vor.
Spätestens seit Andrew Liles’ sensationellem Wien-Konzert Ende letzten Jahres ist der Mann aus Brighton auch hierzulande kein Geheimtip mehr. Vor wenigen Jahren tauchte sein Name plötzlich im Umfeld solcher Ambient-Meister wie Colin Potter oder Andrew Chalk auf, und von dort ist er mit seinen sensationellen Releases seither auch nicht mehr wegzudenken. Liles verbindet dronige Ambientsounds mit einfachen, aber effektiven Melodien und streut gern das eine oder andere Störgeräusch ein, um seine Hörer herauszufordern. Sein musikalisches Hauptcharakteristikum ist dabei der Einsatz oft unheimlich wirkender Stimmen, die von Geisterkindern oder ähnlich spukigen Begegnungen erzählen.
Jetzt hat der Meister all seine vor seinem Debüt-Album produzierten Arbeiten in einer wunderschön gestalteten Box gesammelt und unter dem Namen “Miscellany Deluxe” herausgebracht. 13 CDRs finden sich darin, die alles von den ersten Aufnahmen im Jahr 1984 bis zu einem Livekonzert im Jahr 2003 in den USA enthalten.
“Birthday” ist das Re-Issue eines wunderschönen Albums, das ursprünglich in einer Auflage von drei Stück an Freunde zum Geburtstag verteilt wurde. Chinesisch angehauchte Melodien werden dem Geburtstagslied “Happy Birthday to you” entgegengestellt, wobei es Liles sogar mit diesen kindlich-kitschigen Zutaten schafft, das ganze ein wenig unheimlich klingen zu lassen. “I curse all who ever wronged us” wurde ursprünglich in Mini-Auflage bei einem Konzert in London vor fünf Jahren verkauft und ist ein Musterbeispiel für spannenden Minimalismus. Elektrische Störgeräusche treffen hier auf den sich ständig wiederholenden Satz “We hate you” und kulminieren später in einem krachigen Finale.
“Prelude to An Un-World” enthält Frühversionen und alternative Mixe des gleichnamigen Albums auf Infraction Records. “My pink Derriere” sammelt die ersten musikalischen Gehversuche und bereits diese klingen besser als 95% von dem, was im Bereich alternative Elektronik heute so herauskommt. Die Kompositionen sind noch melodielastiger als spätere Tracks, und es verirren sich auch ein paar Beats dazwischen. “Love Song” erschien ursprünglich als Vinylschallplatte und “Miscellany” ist ein Sampler von Bits and Pieces, die sich sonstwo im Liles´schen Archiv verloren hätten.
Die Cover sind in einheitlich-ansprechendem Design, oft wirken sie, als wären sie von oder für Kinder gemacht worden, die Kartonbox ist handgebastelt und mit Stempeln verziert. 13 CDRs, das klingt im ersten Moment viel, doch wenn man diese Box besitzt, dann kann man guten Mutes 20 CDs von anderen Genre-Künstlern wegwerfen. Und somit bekommt man nicht nur sensationell gute Musik zu hören, sondern kann auch noch im CD-Regal Platz sparen. – Walter Robotka
