Hastings Of Malawi — Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth

First released in 1981, the wonderfully titled Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth was the first sonic fruit from this British da-da three-piece. It’s a wonderfully busy, layered at times unnerving record- which feels like a more detailed 'n' darting take on early NWW, but with more pronounced formal (often played in an informal way) musical instrumentation. Here we have a most welcome first-ever CD reissue of the album by the wonderful folks at Klanggalerie.

The CD comes presented in a glossy monochrome digipak- which features original bizarre and dada album artwork. On the front cover, we have a drawing of a man with his head popped off, and a black spine shooting off with the band's name attached to inner organs on top of it- within the foreground is a murky/ shadow photo of what looks like three armed Mexicans. Not sure of the numbers on this release- but I’d reckon it is not huge.

Hastings Of Malawi brought together the following three members Dave Hodes, Heman Pathak, and John Grieve. Each of them had already contributed to the first NWW's album 1979’s Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella. And the idea for their own debut album was to go into the studio one night- with just drums, clarinet, synthesiser and piano, as well as utilizing a few things they found around the studio its self-like old records, cookery books, telephone directories and a telephone. Some of the recordings were then played down the phone to randomly dialled numbers, with the answers' reactions added into the dada sonic strew. 

The resulting album was then released on the collective’s label Papal Products- with a 1000 vinyl copies being pressed in both clear red and orange. As the legend goes 120 copies were solid by Rough Trade- with the remaining 800 apparently being destroyed (for seemingly an unknown reason by) NWW label United Dairies. The original release listed five tracks, but for this CD they are split into two long tracks.

So first up we have “Pineapple Magnate / Kid Corn” which runs at the 15.47 mark. It starts with what sounds like an old storybook sample of a woman speaking, we get a short burst of the talking clock. And then we’re into the wonderfully drifting, at points darting sonic swamp of the track- along the way we get often layered blends of sluggish sax emissions, bashing drums, a man reading from a cookery book, another man saying ‘hello’ in a rather concerned manner, and sudden breakouts of weird odd advert samples.  We have a sudden stop for the talking clock again- with sister reverb added to it, as the track ends

The second track “Beouf En Crut / Sexist / Intravenous “runs at the longer 21.19. It opens with ticking clocks, with the layering up additions of strange fumbling’s, the sound of whales baying, banging ‘n’ tapping piano, and spacy tone rises and simmer. As we move on, we find more banging ‘n’ darting clusters of piano keys, weird baying ‘n’ warbling electro tones, and more ticking clocks. There are stops for the talking clock, inner and outer piano play, wacky noise rips, and slowly baying sax. And as we move on the general feel of dada is rich and high, as it’s married by both slight wacky- and often sinister unease.

Put simply if you enjoy crude sonic dada; that's dense,  virile, and often surprising then Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth is something you’ll fall head over heels for. And it’s so great to have this new CD release, so hats off( with the head still in it) to Klanggalerie for making it possible! To buy direct, before they all disappear drop by here