Cardinal Fuzz Records interview with Dave Cambridge!

When the blog first started, Cardinal Fuzz Records, or more simply, Dave Cambridge, was one of the very first people to share the blog, and show an interest in what I was doing. Since then, Dave has gone onto release countless amounts of great music, including The Cult of Dom Keller, The Janitors, and The Shine Brothers. With all these amazing records being produced by the label, I thought I'd catch up with the man behind it to learn a bit more about how everything worked, and operated. 

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Dan: Hey Dave, Cardinal Fuzz Records have been going for some time. When did it begin, and why did you choose to start a label?

Dave: Well, it started through doing the Optical Sounds fanzine which started back in the Summer of 2010, though at that time I had no intention of doing a label; I just wanted to do a print magazine, giving coverage to a whole music genre that was getting totally overlooked by the mainstream press. Quite a few of the bands I was really into had no vinyl output, and I would be interviewing them and asking when the vinyl was coming and a few said if I did a record label they would gladly let me release it. Still seems crazy to me that no-one was releasing The Dead Sea Apes or The Janitors or The Cosmic Dead at the time. Anyway, once that idea germinated I was selling old records to raise money! I'm the type of person who when he says he is going to do something, I go and do it.

Dan: Even though I would say the sound of your label's output is somewhat hard to put a finger on, there is definitely some consistent themes, one for example being that you tend to put out acts from all over the globe, as opposed to just one location. Does your label try to achieve a certain sound?

Dave: My whole musical landscape is shaped by Spacemen 3, and The Heads. I think pretty much any band I release you can see the connection back to those 2 bands.  Pete Kember is a genius and I'm glad that after what seemed like a while of not getting the recognition he deserved, he is now, and is highly in demand it would seem. Still wish he would finish just one more Spectrum LP. Forever Alien is a much overlooked gem in his back catalogue – seek it out please.

Dan: As I previously mentioned, you source artists from across the international spectrum. How do you normally source the acts you put out?

Dave: I'm just like most music obsessives, I just scour the internet. Sometimes bands tip artists my way or it's just a word of mouth thing. I get really excited when I find a new band and become pretty obsessive. Myspace was great for that a few years ago, and I found so many great bands that way like Hills,  Magic Lantern, all the Santiago bands and The Cult Of Dom Keller and now there are so many places to find bands and hear their music. Some people might argue there is too much clutter out there making it harder for the better bands to be heard, but personally I don’t agree – good stuff will always shine through and of course what is good is always different for all of us.

Dan: How does the collaboration between the label and band usually work?

Dave: So far, it's been really good. I get completely obsessed with them and offer them a good deal and I think the bands can see that my enthusiasm is genuine. It helps that there has been a very, very positive buzz around the label with pretty much ever release selling out and that of course helps as the band knows it will get out there and create some excitement. However, I don’t do contracts, or any of that - though if the label does get much bigger I guess that would have to change…not for a while though. Bands do have full control, but I’ll always give my input and try to get what I want as well – be that on the art side or the track listing – but it's done out of a passion for everything to look and sound the best it can.

A Cult of Dom Keller test pressing.

Dan: Cardinal Fuzz doesn't seem to learn toward one medium over another, but what if you had to choose from cassette, vinyl, or CD, what would you choose and why?

Dave: The first few release were all on CD with the ever great Sam Giles doing the handmade vinyl replica sleeves that I really love. Small pressings because that’s simply what I could afford. But, I do much prefer Vinyl – I love everything about vinyl, especially the artwork which has sucked me into so many great albums. Also, what I love about vinyl over CD and digital is that you cannot skip songs or fast forward through tracks (well I know you can), but I  sit down and take each side in and it feels immersive. It always feels special as well when you get buy a vinyl record compared to a CD. And course I fucking love that the some of the music industry tried to kill it off - haha, clueless idiots.

Dan: How do you normally decide on what is the right physical medium to put out a band's music on?

Dave: Vinyl is always first choice for me, but I also wanted to do a live rehearsal room series. Really raw sound with guitars cutting you down, no hi-fi audio, and rough as a badger's balls and for that to me it seemed CD would be the right medium as a lot of people might not share my enthusiasm for everything in the red recordings! And more to the point these would run to 60-80 minutes and double LPs are bloody expensive. I’ve already released 4 double LPs by bands that had never even released one vinyl record which looking back scares me! I promised myself I wouldn't do any more doubles and now I'm committed to two more!

One of Sam Giles' vinyl sleeves.

Dan: Additionally, how do you usually source artwork for your releases? I've noticed most of them are quite innovative, and/or original.

Dave: The band normally has their own idea's and even if it's not been to my liking – if they are 100% sure, I’ll go with it. Hills and The Oscillation let me go ahead with my own idea's though which was much fun. I roped in Sam Giles to do the Hills one which looked great (based of course on Hapshash and Marin Sharp's artwork).  For The Oscillation I had my own idea's which Brett Savage helped with and in the end I changed and inverted the sleeve after Brett sorted out a cool warped background. Printed on the Mirror Sleeve, I was extremely pleased how that looks and feels. We have just found a great screen printer as well and I'm really pushing bands to go down the screen printing route as I love the look of hand screened sleeves.

Dan: Being so closely involved with record output, do you have a collection of your own? And, if so, what are some of your most prized pieces?

Dave: I reckon people would be pretty disappointed if they saw how little my collection is! Well the wife would not agree but compared to some of the collections of friends its tiny. Prized bits - The Heads and Spacemen 3 vinyls of course and some of them are worth (to others) a fair bit but to me they've never been sold so it doesn’t matter. I've got a real nice Seeds album, 'Future' on a South American label (lovely little op art logo) with all the titles in Spanish…sounds like shit though! Pretty Things SF Sorrow though I would reckon to be one I do take extra special care off as it’s a first press.

Dan: I have to ask, Cardinal Fuzz is an unusual name. Does it have a special origin, or suchlike?

Dave: With both the fanzine and the label the links are to bands I love, so Cardinal Fuzz is The Heads, and Optical Sounds is The Human Expression. Much love to each of those bands.

Dan: Is there any advice you would like to impart to prospective label owners?

Dave: Just don’t be too downhearted if/when things go wrong – because everything will! You have to be a stubborn bugger in this game to keep going. But, the rewards of releasing music you love far far far outweighs all that. The sleepless nights you will encounter are all worth it for the day the vinyl pressing arrives at the front door and you get first play – it’s a great feeling. Work out all your costs - know what your brake even is. Don’t rip off the bands you are working with – these are people you love so treat them well. I don’t promise fame or fortune just that I will get you music pressed on vinyl in a real nice package and I will get people excited about your band. Hopefully then you can sign to a proper label!

The Optical Sounds Fanzine.

Dan: Lastly, how do you feel about the digital age, and the way it has shaped music listening culture?

Dave: Personally I think its brilliant – I hate elitism - maybe that’s a British class thing but it used to be only those in the know got to hear all them mythical recordings. Now anything you want is there at the tip of your fingers. It used to be you only got to know about a very small amount of bands through the weekly press – now there are some great blogs out there pointing you all in whatever direction you want to go in. A band in Santiago releases a record and everyone in the world can now hear it – that has to be good. The media  like to tell you nowadays because of the internet we all have the attention span of a gnat but for me I've only got the attention span of a gnat when I'm listening or reading something that doesn’t excite me. Its great to read a blog where their excitement for a particular band or record is coming through and within a few clicks you can be sat listening and making your own mind up and maybe within a few more clicks buying the vinyl/CD/download.

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With new records for Kikaguka Moyo, The Myrrors, and more, skewed for release soon, make sure to like the Facebook page here to stay up to date.

Also, to find all of the current Cardinal Fuzz catalogue make sure to check out their Big Cartel site here.

The Optical Sounds Fanzine can also be found here.

Interview conducted by Daniel Sharman.

Drone Head - The Janitors (album review)

After Drone Head's release on Cardinal Fuzz Records on the 24th of June, D.Y.E.P catches up with the Swedish duo's latest sonic outing.

In the past, psychedelic music used to be a bit of an obscure obsession. I remember those driven pre-digital days, traipsing across town and dale in search of the latest EVA '60s garage comp, the hours spent lusting after the ridiculously expensive in-store used copy of Kaleidoscope's Beacon from Mars at the local hip record emporium, or the excitement I'd feel hearing "Tomorrow Never Knows" getting a rare spin on the radio. But with the dawning of the internet all that has changed, with today's generation becoming spoiled for choice; music of a psychedelic persuasion(in addition to just the original '60s stuff) is hard to miss any more and, as the sold out crowds at Tame Impala's US tour bear witness, it all suddenly threatens to become a bit too predictable. 

Music of a psychedelically inclined nature is what Sweden's, The Janitors, deliver in spadefuls. Their new double-LP Drone Head (Cardinal Fuzz, CFUL008), pairs the duo's two 2012 EP's Head Honcho and The Worker Drone Queen into one glorious gate-fold package on white vinyl. Hailing from Stockholm, this duo play what they claim is "Swedish evil shoegaze boogie woogie and stökpsych a go go!" Now my Swedish is a bit rusty these days, but last time I checked, stök roughly translates as "mess." Although I'm not entirely sure what mess-psych is, based on repeated listens to the menacing beauty that is Drone Head, I'm fairly certain these boys are fully cognizant of the messy and messed up legacies of their preferred musical genre. Indeed, they create a convincing and recognizably "psych" sound on this record, and one that fans of the likes of Spacemen 3 and Wooden Shjips will feel instantly familiar with.

Other reviewers have also taken note of the dark edge to this duo's distorted sound, their penchant for overdriven fuzz and reverb, the booming and sinuous throb of the low end that anchors the buzzing whip of the chainsaw whine throughout each of the record's songs. Take note: if you like your psych-rock heavy and dark, with a bit of demonic quarter-speed Bo Diddley pounding through the wash and wave of the froth and fuzz, then there's much to like here. Take the booming drum-driven intro of a song like "Strap Me Down" for example; its propulsive howl, perfectly timed pauses, and horror-echo vocals are so pitch-reminiscent of the epic psych melodrama of the Angels that you'll be sucked in from the outset. The song ends with a swirling, crashing tide of hypnotizing technicolored shimmer that puts me in mind of the sort of 'we-have-lift-off' opus that is the Austin Fab Four's luminous speciality. The last song on Drone Head is "Nevereverism," surely an homage--surely?--to the tune of nearly-the-same name on Directions To See A Ghost, and as it builds from a deliciously menacing stomp into a shredding, sparkling, guitar driven whirl we're snaking our way to the back of the blue bus and beyond. 

Listening to this, and tracks like the magisterial "A-Bow," all twelve-and-a-half elemental minutes of it, I'm dragged up that familiar kaleidoscopic psych-rock road right to the top of Holy Mountain, and it's clear that The Janitors ride their influences for all to hear. There are a few surprises on this record. The "Strssmmnt Remix" of "Coming Down" for instance, strays from the tried and tested formula of most of the rest of the songs for a slow hybrid burn that fuses electronica and shoegaze and puts me in mind of some of the more fanciful Tame Impala Innerspeaker remixes. And although I say "few surprises" like it's a bad thing, for a lot of psych-rock fans of course, 'few surprises' isn't a bad thing at all. We are after all fans of psychedelic rock. We enjoy its signature moves.

But isn't that surely a part of the problem of the aforementioned main-streaming of psych, it running the risk of becoming a set of musical cliches (reverberated vocals here, drone bliss-out there, backwards guitar bit over yonder, nirvanayada, yada), sonic transcendence rendered as corny cosmic shorthand? Holy Mountain as theme park. But also, wasn't it ever thus( . . . The Black Angels, Spacemen 3, and Wooden Shjips, after all . . .)? Or just maybe I'm one Binson Echorec shy of becoming a psych cynic? For all that, however, I'll always ever be the sucker for the epiphanic psychedelic catch phrase, and The Janitors do these up in style, and then some--and with heart too, it must be said. Simply put, if you love the flourishes of heavy psychedelic drone-esque spacerock and shoegaze then you'll absolutely love this record too.

Critics Rating: ★★★ - Good, no new suprises here, but ticks all the boxes for someone looking for straight up fuzz-heavy, drone rock to relax to at the end of a long day.


Written By Grow Fins (Phil Dickson) on 19:38, 13/08/2013.