
Small Hours — ‘The Lovers, The Dreamers & Me’ & ‘This Is The Sta
First things first we must discuss the rather unequal packaging for this release. The two tapes come in a small green jute bag, which as well as the two tapes includes a hand knitted Kermit doll!. Both tapes feature full colour artwork that takes in pictures of Kermit & Robin.
Each tape here is single sided, and offers up one long ten minute track. The first tape is entitled “The Lovers, The Dreamers & Me”. This first track starts out with a verse & a chorus sample from "The Rainbow Connection", which was a Kermit song that was sung over the opening credits of the original 1979 The Muppets movie. Slowly but surely the ‘wall’ starts bubble & judder up around sample until the sample disappears. And when the ‘wall’ fully takes hold it’s built around a juddering/ billowing lo-end texture, which is interlaced with this simulated collection of chirping ‘n’ croaking sounds that suggests the swamp where Kermit lives. All told it’s an effective & clever bit of ambient wall-making, and it works very well around the seemingly unlikely theme constraints.
Tape two’s track is entitled “This Is The Stair, Where I Always Stop”, and this once again starts with another song sample. This time it’s a verse or so of “Half way Down the stairs” which was sung by Kermit’s cousin Robin, and I used (I think) on one of the original TV episodes of the original Muppet show. With-in ten or twenty seconds the ‘wall’ has galloped in over the piano & chirpy voice of the song sample, and this wall is a lot more rapid & battering in it’s feel. It’s built around a fast jittering ‘n’ juddering tone, which is tautly under weaved by a tight mass of skipping static grained noise. Once again it’s a well put together piece of ‘wall making’, and while it’s slightly less spot on with it’s theme/ sound mix I still very much enjoy it.
So this is a very quirky little ANW/HNW release that offers up a rather surprising theme, and for the most part makes it work. Sadly this was ltd to only five copies which have long been snapped up- so let’s hope this gets a reissue or download release, as once again it shows Mr Killick on very good form indeed.
