The Mysteries of Extremophilic Folk

by Noel Meek

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	1.	The Churn 04:44
	2.	Rails Toward The Sky 06:26
	3.	Weedflowers 08:03
	4.	Entropy And Wanting More Out Of Life 05:19
	5.	Plastic Memories 04:46
	6.	Sunshine Over Helsinki 08:30

about

Lathe cut LP available through Knotwilg Records from May 15th, 2016.

Featured in the Top Ten Outer Limits end of year list in The Wire!
"Some sheer joy was unexpectedly bottled in the analogue gizmo rituals of New Zealand artist and Wire contributor, Noel Meek."

The Wire: "The curse of contrived seriousness is often the Achilles heel of experimental music. Not in the hands of Noel Meek, who brings some of that waggishness back to dada. The artist hails from Wellington, New Zealand, and heads up his own antipop noise label End of the Alphabet, who've released bountiful Kiwi weirdness on tape, as well as a 7" series featuring Wolf Eyes, Makoto Kawabata and Neil Campbell among others.

"Meek's second solo album, however, marks the first release for long-simmering Belgian label Knotwilg, lathe cut and wrapped in an acid trip cover cartoon by Indonesian artist Wedhar Riyadi. The music has all the hallmarks of the international instrumental weirdo underground - grating electronics, analogue bloops, and a total resignation to the gods of entropy. But the artist's vision isn't bleak or brutish; "Extremophilic Folk" is a playful, outright fun listen.

"Meek's analogue set-up leaves no space for comfy quantisation, and the wonky keyboard and drum sequences that fail to interlace on the aptly titled opener "The Churn" could potentially realign into a groovier shape. But the nonsensical arrhythmic landscape is ultimately far more compelling, and Meek guides his set-up into uniquely strange moments of delightful disorder. Submerged major key synth melodies play vital roles throughout, weaving their way between small vacant spaces amid the mania on "Rails Toward The Sky" and "Weedflowers" then heading right into the foreground on the luminescent finale "Sunshine Over Helsinki". The latter could almost be an inverted mix of Mike Oldfield's "Hergest Ridge", sped up a dozen rpm. "The Mysteries of Extremophilic Folk" illustrates Meek's joyous approach to music, being evocative of a child joyously colouring with no regard for keeping within the lines."

Writing Around Sound: "A musical missive sent by the strange extremophilic creatures of another world . . . And it is excellent."

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released May 14, 2016

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Noel Meek Christchurch, New Zealand

Noel Meek is an
Ōtautahi, Aotearoa based improvisor and composer.

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