Jumble Hole Clough: Go And Play Quietly By Yourself

It's pretty rare for Colin Robinson to let another musician contribute to his one of his Jumble Hole Clough albums. He made an exception for fellow avant-gardist and friend Michael Linden West who contributed (and appears on) four tracks of the new Go And Play Quietly By Yourself album. They have performed together as The Clog Hunt Occasional Collapsing Knitting Society and appeared many times on the same bill at The Nutclough Tavern Road in Hebden Bridge.

The bulk of the material was broadcasted on Radiofare on Dublin Digital Radio, which might explain why all tracks are rather short, with the notable exception of Driven Bognor Regis, a skewed tribute of sorts to the ice cream and sausages that can be enjoyed at the seaside resort in West Sussex.

Jumble Hole Clough et al.: show @ Northlight Art Studios in Hebden Bridge

photo: Gareth Babb

Colin Robinson's Jumble Hole Clough and Michael Linden West are among the acts tonight @ Northlight Art Studios in Hebden Bridge. Could this mean that were be a set by The Clog Hunt Occasional Collapsing Knitting Society as well? Robinson offered this by way of explanation:

I'm playing a Jumble Hole Clough gig at Northlight Art Studios on Valley Road in Hebden Bridge this evening (Saturday 17th) starting around 7:30. As far as I know, performers will be Jumble Hole Clough, Mick West, Creedy & The Colour and Dawn & Simon.

More avant-garde tomorrow @ The Nutclough Tavern.

Avant-garde in Hebden Bridge: the Xmas edition

A special Xmas edition of English avant-garde goes down on Sunday December 18th @ The Nutclough Tavern on Keighley Road in Hebden Bridge. Folk, post-rock, stiff drinks and general merriment galore.

Dawn & Simon – beautiful Gallic-influenced acoustic songs
Paul Cornwall – direct from Saltburn-by-the-sea; folky, guitary, beautiful voice. Think of John Fahey.
Jumble Hole Clough – looping post-rock guitar, and anything else that Colin decides to throw into the mix.
And maybe other people as well, who knows?
Mick West as Santa Claus, with his bulging sack full of rubber chickens...

The Clog Hunt Occasional Collapsing Knitting Society: Live on Recycle Radio 1st October 2016

photo: Gareth Babb

On the 1st of October experimental guitar duo The Clog Hunt Occasional Collapsing Knitting Society paid a visit to the studio of Recycle Radio, a station ran by volunteers in Hebden Royd area. s Colin Robinson and Michael Linden West talked about their music with DJ Rosie Blunn before launching into to an improvised tune.

They named the track Noble Ruins for Rosie Blunn and it bears the stamp of their freak post-rock approach. While voodoo funk that was all over their latest live album Live at The Nutclough Tavern 25th September 2016, this latest slice of on-the-spot progressive geekery is a bit more harsh and it might have caused some people frantically trying to adjust their set.

The Clog Hunt Occasional Collapsing Knitting Society: Live at The Nutclough Tavern 25th September 2016

photo: Gareth Babb

When avant-garde guitarists Colin Robinson and Michael Linden West performed as a duo during the last weekend of the Winter of 2016, they didn't have a name for their project. They settled for The Clog Hunt Occasional Collapsing Knitting Society, suggested by Dave Lee, one of the regulars on the Clangroyd Facebook page, a hang-out for the various avant-garde acts in Hebden Bridge. Live at The Nutclough Tavern 19th March 2016 documented that debut performance and now there's another live recording, recorded in the first weekend of the Autumn of 2016: Live at The Nutclough Tavern 25th September 2016. They changed up things a bit and gravitated to twisted voodoo funk.

Spontaneity is key, with an assorted array of gizmos and effects acting like a bunch of kids after the school bell has rung to announce the holidays: a riot may happen without warning. Robinson and West share a love for Krautrock, King Crimson and Captain Beefheart; repetitive patterns and Sci-fi keyboards are torn apart by loud outbursts of distorted guitar. Fulsome Fishcake Funk sounds like an experiment by Adrian Belew and Thurston Moore that got out of hand. While most musicians would discard it as being just to plain weird, they use it as launchpad for howling feedback, serious clipping and post-rock mayhem.

Avant-garde in Hebden Bridge: Takeyari Shunta + The Clog Hunt Occasional Collapsing Knitting Society

A promising double will for the regular avant-garde music happenings @ The Nutclough Tavern on Keighley Road in Hebden Bridge. On September 25th Japanese acoustic guitar player Takeyari Shunta and The Clog Hunt Occasional Collapsing Knitting Society (Colin Robinoson and Michael Linden West) will provide sets of adventurous music. Arcane devices might be used as extra noise makers. Free entry (donations welcome).

Jumble Hole Clough: Live at the Nutclough with Mick West, 21st May 2016

A change of pace happened at the most recent Jumble Hole Clough gig omn the 21st of May at the Nutclough Tavern in Hebden Bridge. This time prolific avant-gardist Colin Robinson went for concise, improvised guitar excursions. Four of the five tracks have single word titles, foregoing the longish (and often funny) names of his previous output. Michael Linden West joined him on synthesizer for Saint and Star, adding an eerie Doctor Who vibe.

Cramming ideas into a shorter time frame might win him some new listeners with a limited attention span, but one cant escape the feeling that the tracks could have been even better if they had been allowed to develop more fully. Castle is the best of the crop. It's a trip through possibly haunted and crumbling edifice, with Robinson leading the way through dusty rooms and creaky staircases, nearly coming to a halt at times to admire the view.

The Clog Hunt Occasional Collapsing Knitting Society: Live at The Nutclough Tavern 19th March 2016

English avant-garde guitarist Michael Linden West (guitar & devices) and Colin Robinson (guitar & devices, drum machine) have both performed at the Nutclough Tavern in Hebden Bridge, a pub that is turned into a free port for geekery, loops and freak funk ambient metal about once a month. This time they decided it would be nice if they plugged in simultaneously and take it from there. Record thw whole thing and release it as a digital album: Live at The Nutclough Tavern 19th March 2016.

West and Robinson are both suckers for repetitions and since they where a duo that night they could stack layer upon layer, creating lopsided impossible structures that still manage to stand tall. As the set progresses a true connection develops. Opener Newts' Bonsoir starts to gel about halfway through and once the initial stumble blocks are of the way for a free-flowing showcase of twin guitar workouts.

Avant-garde in Hebden Bridge: Michael Linden West, Mark Douglas, Sarah

Another night of good old English avant-garde goes down this Saturday @ The Nutclough Tavern on Keighley Road in Hebden Bridge, with Michael Linden West, Mark Douglas and Sarah providing adventurous sounds before a crowd that can handle stiff drinks and homemade effect pedals:

Avant-garde in Hebden Bridge: Colin Robinson & Michael Linden West, Paul Weatherhead, Andy Duncan

Another night of English avant-garde goes down tonight @ The Nutclough Tavern on Keighley Road in Hebden Bridge. Colin Robinson and Michael Linden West will join forces for the first time ever and there will be sets by Paul Weatherhead and Andy Duncan:

For the first time ever in the history of performance art (apart from the time Mick sneaked a biscuit-tin guitar solo into a Jumble Hole Clough performance), Michael Linden West (Abrasive Pheasants, etc.) and Colin Robinson (Jumble Hole Clough, etc.) will play live together – totally improvised and unrehearsed.

Expect the extemporaneous composition of music unfettered by the prescriptive features of a specific musical text; the creative activity of immediate in-the-moment happenings. Walking a tightrope without a safety net. Listen to our post-nietzschean sensibilities rejecting the bovine gregariousness of a senile oligarchy.

And that’s not all. Paul Weatherhead will perform excerpts from a teenage zombie opera set in Hebden Bridge. With added aliens and donkeys and a kazoo too.

And there's more: Andy Duncan (pianist and experimenter) will be playing the piano and experimenting.

» Michael Linden West on Soundcloud
» Jumble Hole Clough on Facebook

HCTF review of ive at the Nutclough Tavern 23rd January 2016 (Jumble Hole Clough).

The Cosmic Puppet, Michael Linden West and Jumble Hole Clough: Live at the Nutclough Tavern 30th December 2015

photo: Tony Halsall

The Cosmic Puppet (Tony Halsall), Michael Linden West and Jumble Hole Clough (Colin Robinson) provided a night of avant-garde merriment at the Nutclough Tavern in Hebden Bridge on December 30th. The Jumble Hole Clough set already saw the light of day, but now there is change to sample the music by the other two acct on the bill. Hebden Bridge was caught up in a major flooding in the days leading up to the gig, but by piping in power from a neighbouring source the gig was still on.

The Cosmic Puppet set took a bow to the heyday of English Seventies prog with luscious vocal melodies riding on top of intricate keyboards, while both Michael Linden West and Jumble Hole Clough opted for an all-improv approach, playing guitar and an assorted array of effects. West comes close to the ambient Sci-fi niche with to lengthy meandering tracks, while Robinson goes for more accessible freaky stuff by stacking loops - he gets only one track on this album but the full set is available here.

Avant-garde in Hebden Bridge: Michael Linden West + The Cosmic Puppet + Jumble Hole Clough

photo: Colin Robinson

December 30 is a night for eccentric, avant-garde music at The Nutclough Tavern on Keighley Road in Hebden Bridge, UK. Things will get weird but in a good way with Michael Linden West, The Cosmic Puppet (Tony Halsall) and Jumble Hole Clough (Colin Robinson). New tunes, old tunes and quite a few tunes that will come out of nowhere. Beer, tidbits and chatter about effect pedals and homemade instruments.

» The Cosmic Puppets on Facebook
» Michael Linden West on Soundcloud
» Jumble Hole Clough on Facebook

HCTF review of A List Of Things That Never Happened (Jumble Hole Clough).