Wonderful words by the ever erudite Adam Turner. 

Malcolm Catto‘s East London studio is an under the radar and off the beaten track kind of place, filled with vintage analogue equipment, valve amps, old recording desks and the smell of music being captured live- punk, rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, psychedelia, electronics, the full range of leftfield and outlier sounds. For this 14-track compilation Malcolm has opened the Quatermass Sound Lab archives and unleashed a slew of unreleased songs, alternate versions and different mixes of music he encouraged, recorded, produced, drummed on or summoned out of the ether at various points over the last two decades.  

The collection begins by stepping inside the bizarro world of Snapped Ankles and their “Shopping Parade”, where sharp synth squiggles battle with rattling snares and chanted vocals, in a 2020s post- punk tirade/ celebration of the unloved and forlorn high street. The song could sound as equally at home in 1981 as 2026.  

Cyril Cyril‘s “Le Gens” appears in a new Catto mix, the Swiss duo (both called Cyril unsurprisingly) decrying extreme tourism over minimal, Tropicalia flavoured psyche. Little Barrie, a garage rock trio led by the guitar hero Barry Cadogan, turn up with an early version of “Rest In Blue”, a terrific echo laden lo fi blues. 

Malcolm’s wide-ranging eclecticism is evident all across everything – for example, including Idriss Ackamoor‘s “Beginning Roots”, a trip into Afro-jazz, a spacious and beguiling sound, rich in analogue detail. From Lausanne, Professor Wouassa shimmies in similar vibey territory. Meanwhile, on “Backstroke London”, Vanishing Twin dive into experimental waters with percussion and flutes, half sung/ half murmured vocals, swimming in a blur of kosmische and Brazilian influences. French hip hop outfit Wet Enough? follow suit with abstract, fractured rap and found sounds, children’s voices and barking dogs. D.O.K.‘s dreamy “Valediction” finds a space somewhere between 60s girl groups, psychedelia and skunk smoking beats.  

The album concludes with Toyface‘s “Spinning On A Wheel”, a Bristol based band who don’t seem to have released anything since 2015, and sound like they could have been making songs in 1915 with the surreally brilliant potter’s song”. Drums, piano, intense vocals, strings, drama and theatre. Quatermass Sound Lab then, obscure, experimental, instinctive and enthralling. Something for everyone.  

“Malcolm Catto Presents: Quatermass Sound Lab” can be ordered directly from Strut.

You can find more proper, on point, prose from Adam Turner over at his own brilliant blog, The Bagging Area. Adam is also part of the admin at the mighty Flightpath Estate.