culver | route of aesthetic

culver is the main guise of lee stokoe, who can currently be found recording with matthew bowers on the latest skullflower records. "route of aesthetic" was his debut album "proper" - depending on your view of tape releases - and unsurprisingly given the title, it's a thing of beauty, both sonically and visually.

lee always had a way with drones, these dense layers of sound conjured from the simplest sounds. and on this record the drones shift from the whine of a train ripping past you to the ominous growl of a mechanised monolith approaching immeasurably closer as time slips by. lie back and let yourself drift and all sorts of sounds start to appear, little pops of tones, sound waves forming, merging, colliding.

whle generally culver is generally considered "noise", on this record at least think of lee as a 4-track version of john clyde-evans.

the sleeve is screen printed on clear plastic and the record is one of peter king's lathe cuts. nice.

once upon a time i was going to release a collaboration 7" between culver and total, and it was going to be a real beauty, but sadly both my finances and motivation went tits up and it never happened. bummer.

lp released by matching head some time in the mid-to-late 90s i think.

eeeeeeeeeee.

p.s. lee also plays bass in mazuraan. deliciously heavy.