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ZAIMPH
Zaimph is the solo project of ambient noise artist Marcia Bassett. Although legendary for white-hot guitar and vocal brutality, Zaimph's recent recordings and performances infuse cracked-raga song structures with dense electronic and synthesiser drones to create soundscapes where a lurking apocalypse is eclipsed by shimmering, meditative beauty.
As a co-founder of Philadelphia's shambolic psychonauts un and tectonic drone pioneers Double Leopards, Bassett is deeply entwined with the American noise underground, and has mapped regions still only dimly understood by subsequent sonic travelers. From 2003-2008, Bassett joined Matthew Bower in Hototogisu, where her mastery of cacophonous eardrum shred achieved monolithic proportions. During the same period, she explored American underground psychedelic folk-improv music with Steve Gunn and Pete Nolan in GHQ, and with Tom Carter in Zaika.
Zaïmph CDs and LPs have appeared on independent labels such as Gift Tapes, Hospital Productions, W.M.O.r, Utech Records, Gypsy Sphinx, Volcanic Tongue and No Fun records. Bassett has released numerous Zaimph recordings on her own Heavy Blossom imprint. In 2012, Bassett retired Heavy Blossom and started Yew, a label showcasing Zaimph and other aesthetically allied projects.
In addition to her work with Zaimph, Bassett is a frequent collaborator with a wide spectrum of musicians including Helen Espvall (Espers), Samara Lubelski, Margarida Garcia, Jenny Graf (Metalux), Taylor Richardson (Infinity Window), and Barry Weisblat.
"it would be tough to write a history of the last two decades in underground music without including Marcia Bassett ... and any angle would have to include Zaïmph, Bassett's solo project. Through small-run releases on numerous labels including her own, Heavy Blossom), Zaïmph has carved out a unique take on decaying feedback, assaultive fuzz, echoey ambience, and abstract expression." - Pitchfork, The Out Door, 2010
"...ever-changing, fluid... intensely changing formations of blissful drone polyphony." - foxy digitalis, 2007
"The riffs slowly crawl across the cold night air, slowly becoming more and more psychedelic... dissolving into pure madness." - Brainwashed, 2007
"...blasting a hole through the flimsy wall that separates 'dark psychedelic' and 'free drone-rock'." - Paris Transatlantic, 2009
"Grim tales... coalesce into a leaden curtain of narcotic minimalism." - The Wire, Sept. 2007
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB
“Twenty years from now, if I get asked to come up with a list of records or artists that speak of the late 2000s, then Neil Campbell’s Astral Social Club, and very definitely this second full-length for VHF, will be on it. The collision of electronic and acoustic textures is extreme and compelling all at once – spastic drum machines, flickering synthesizer riffs, mangled guitar lines and countless other bits of sonic debris cluttering and then overloading the stereo spectrum. This density of sonic information, packed into every ASC piece, overwhelms, and aurally approximates our own daily information flood, suggesting that instead of resisting it, maybe we should ride it.” (Matthew Wuethrich, dusted)
“Neil Campbell is a one-man subculture. In 30 years of music-making in various configurations of improvised rock, psychedelia and electronics, he has released hundreds of hours of recordings, mainly in micro-editions of home-produced cassette, CD or mp3, and collaborated endlessly with a global network of musicians that have fallen through the cracks of genre or stylistic allegiance. Since separating from Leeds-based guitar drone group Vibracathedral Orchestra in 2006, he has mainly concentrated on his activities as Astral Social Club.” (Joe Muggs, the arts desk)
“Given Neil Campbell’s musical track record, it may be surprising to hear him state that, “I don’t take psychedelic drugs.” With a penchant for experimentation, Campbell’s hallucinogenically inclined pallet has been an important presence on the British side of the experimental pond for years now. Having left the rock-drone pursuits of Vibracathedral Orchestra in favor of his own unit, Campbell continues to explore levels of electronic catharsis on this album, which moves from techno-inspired ravers to drifting expanses of electrified psychedelia.” (Henry Smith, brainwashed)
