Dreams of Tall Buildings

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Dreams of tall buildings formed at the end of 1999, they began recording sound textures from their environments and surroundings, drinking 13 coffees in an hour to short wave radio oscillations in brain storming sessions. They wish to remain anonymous and stress that they are not restricted to the red tape of the conformed and structured norms of being an x piece. Instead they state that by the end of the next year there could be 1000 people in DOTB or none. They have visions of collaborating with people in Spain and Australia simultaneously, unaware of each other’s existence.

Dreams of tall buildings fill rooms with lush distant telephone pianos hitting against screams and sub bass frequencies. Typewriters and cine-projectors give out unearthly rhythms instead of drums. Transfixing listeners with Morse code wrestling gongs and water. Here is organised sound for films without any visuals.

Initial explorations led to the release of a series of limited tapes and CD-Rs in hand made packaging involving branded wooden sleeves and hospital specimen bags. They avoid becoming slaves to genre by having a doctrine as evolving as their sound constructions themselves. Their sound ranges from minimal microwaves, breathing and non - notes («A Red Carpet For Autumn») to hideously distorted trumpets and string loops sounding like Miles Davis stabbing Stan Getz in a floatation tank (« 14 Months «). Other tracks are created using one source (“Remember The Words») is compiled from video samples and surface noise with a Chinese text and children singing in the chorus, and in («Museum») samples from room noises from the Birmingham Museum are looped with grating metal violins to create a twisted clock work piece which closes on it’s self as soon as it opens.

D0tb have also worked with film makers Mike Stubbs on “cultural quarter” shown at Baltic and with PirateHairWaves on “thends” – an audio visual installation performance made up of the credits from movies as a visual backdrop to d0tb improvisations. ( shown at The Mead Gallery, Warwick)

In 2006 d0tb worked with Joseph Byrd and Norwegian noisettes SPUNK on a commission for the Sonic Arts Network Expo 06 called "White Elephant".

As for live events a performance at a secret location / tunnel is promised involving a sonic response to human frequency, heart beats and tuning folk resistance

Discography:

• Lorenzo’s Warm - limited to 10-blackboard c.d., 7 tracks, May 2000. • I am sensitive to objects - limited to 15, credit card c.d. single packaged in hospital sample bags, 1 track, August 2000. • Read Carefully - limited to 20, tape with typing sound of the sentence on the card also included housed in doTb liquor store bag, Jan 2001 • «Untitled» - limited to 500, 5 track debut release double 7 inch with individual hand stamped post cards, Bearos021, Bearos Records, July 2001 • Stephanie - Roomful Of Tuneful, Melodic Records compilation, Apr 2002. • Line 26, page? - 'Journeys Without Maps', Bearos Records Compilation. Mar 2002 • Artificial Memory and 14 months - video/sound collaboration with PirateHairWaves, first 50 videos come packaged in handmade material bags with document envelope containing maps and story, VAN44 Static Caravan Recordings, oct.2002. • Ltd edition 10 track release on 7" vinyl, hand cut by Geraldine lathe in New Zealand, with 2 different covers...an x-ray or a map both contain individual riddles...each one unique! VAN 49 Static Caravan Recordings. Nov.2002 • “ A dry mouth “ track on IS THIS MUSIC? Compilation Jan 2003 • «Concrete steps» - a 3-way collaboration with wotjk3k from Poland and digital etah from Cardiff based on a distressed vinyl workshop for pupils at swanshurst girls school u.k via School of Tall buildings! Feb 2003 • “Threehunderedandthirythree e.p” - Ltd edition white vinyl 10” with individual Polaroid of track listing in printed bag. Experimentalseafood records. March 2003 • “ Truth = Beauty live” – compilation of live pieces issued in a mummified wax cassette, victory garden records 2003 • “Black board” – 4 track e.p housed in a black board sleeve with unique art work held together by a bolt, limited to 111 copies on the great pop experiment records 2004 • “ nothing hurt and everything was beautiful” – 11 track CD on label pseudoarcana 2004 • “supersonic set live “ – credit card mp3 of dotb’s live set from ss04, bearos records 2005 • “ Songs of Opposites” – collaboration with USA sound artist Scott Smallwood, on Static caravan records , 2006 • “ e.p” – new 4 track e.p in wrapped round diagram silk screen to open out into a 21 inch sq piece of art on white vinyl, earworm gold series records, 2006 • “harbour’d in the sleepy west” = part of unlabels I CD per week release scheme, limited to 100 copies.

Past Events

• Medicine Bar with Fly Pan Am -May.2001. 'Best support act on our tour', Fly Pan Am. • City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Centre, Arts Fest -Sept.2001 • Klinker Club, Sounds and vision collaboration with film maker Will Chipperfield -Nov.2001 • Metapod Festival, sound and vision collaboration with PirateHairWaves - Dec.2001 • «Bit Parts In Little Theatre», collaboration with Fate of Animals - Mead Gallery, Warwickshire Art Centre-Dec.2001 • “I am sensitive to objects” Audio exhibit for File Sound Art B’ham. March 2002 • “Artificial Memory” short film shown at Exploding Cinema, London. April 2002 • “Artificial Memory” shown at Cubist Gallery, London, May 2002 • “THEND” – D0tb vs. PirateHairWaves live at Electric Cinema, B’ham. March 2003 • “White elephant” – sound response to the painting of Japan based artist Adam Booth. April 2003. • “She Never Sleeps” – sound drawing finalist in Pizza Express contemporary drawing competition • D0tb vs. Black Dice at the Med Bar. May 2003 • “THEND” – D0tb vs. PirateHairWaves live at FREEFALL, Peterborough digital arts festival. May 2003 • “Artificial Memory” on tour with the U.K/ Canadian film and video festival, May-Nov 2003 • “THEND” – D0tb vs. PirateHairWaves live at Fierce Performance art Festival, Mead Gallery. June 2003 • “harboured in the sleepy west” – performed at the science fiction double feature show, May 2004 • “ robota = chezch for slave” – sound installation at sci-fi show , custard factory, B’ham, May 200 • 15/11/04 - Volume # 133, “SnackOnArt”, 30 minute curated video programme, Brooklyn Cable Access Television, usa • “mealy mouthed” – collaboration with milgram, creating a sound sculpture from a deconstructed piano ( see www.aas.clara.net)at u.c.e, 2004 • “project 99” –a 4 week performance event around B’ham, dealing with consumerism and artists multiples. 2004 • “ bone meal” – edit from mealy mouthed for taxi radio show • “ecco un poco” – live performance in an ice cream van for supersonic 05 festival commissioned by WAG and Capsule. • “ white elephant” - Joseph Byrd is collaborating with the British sound art group Dreams of Tall Buildings and the Norwegian noise improvisation group Spunk on a new Sonic Arts Network commission to be premiered at Expo. June 24th 05

Future projects:

“ silent factory” – internal body scapes form heart beats and human frequencies explored and investigated as instruments.

Reviews

And finally, the little hand on the clock is pointing at vinyl, while the big hand is pointing at obscure... Whee! It's Obscure Vinyl Time! Which, this week, takes us to the ever-lovable Bearos Records and the nameless double 7-inch pack they've just brought out by Dreams Of Tall Buildings, and a fine collection of work it is too. Any band that records an instrumental called 'Remember The Words' is clearly not to be trusted in the best possible way, and the fact that they make like a hillbilly Godspeed...! on 'Education / Shield And Sink' (badly spelled singles? We got 'em!) is pretty inspiring too, but the tune that's really got us in a fevery fluster is 'Quite Cab Ride', basically because it sounds like a donkey playing an accordion. Can we say kick-ass now? Oh dear, it appears we just have...

Dreams Of Tall Buildings, Double 7" (Bearos) 2x7" Kaleidoscopic sound, all-encompassing and, if you let it be, hypnotic. Dreams Of Tall Buildings manipulate who-knows-what into what-on-earth-was-that? It's filmic, in the sense that it seems to have a narrative flow but any film it soundtracked would be dark indeed. The music wheezes and groans and whirrs and whirls and, if you let it, hypnotises. www.bearos.freeserve.co.uk PO Box 7179, Birmingham, B29 6RA Dreams of Tall Buildings' records have some of the most inventive packaging ever, for example the 7" packaged with a genuine X-ray, and the 7" bolted between two squares of wood! Bearos have released a live CDR by DOTB, recorded at the CBSO centre in 2001 (but released 3 years later). The packaging of this might not be as bizarre as two planks of wood with a bolt through the middle, but still has a creative and personal touch. The brown cardboard sleeve has hand-drawn artwork, as does the CD itself. A pocket inside the sleeve contains an envelope containing the tracklist, which is individually typed on a manual typewriter (not photocopied). The sleeve is sealed with an embroidered Dreams of Tall Buildings nametag, like those tags used to label school uniforms with the child's name. All of this is then wrapped in crinkly brown paper, hand stamped with the band name, album title and catalogue number, and tied up with string. I do like it when bands go to such an effort to package their releases, it shows they're serious about what they do. One of the people from DOTB is Justin Wiggan, formerly of Subaqwa, but you don't really need to know this as the style of this band couldn't be further away from Justin's previous band. DOTB are an experimental band and their music would come as a shock to anyone expecting the song-oriented guitar music of Subaqwa. Whilst I have heard a couple of DOTB tracks in the past that have been too abstract/devoid of tune for my taste, in general they make the positive, creative kind of experimental music. DOTB show that there is such as thing as very good experimental music, it just requires a lot of creativity and talent. All too often, people with neither of these try to make experimental music and it just sounds an amateurish mess, but this band know what they are doing. The music here combines drones, sound effects, percussion, and melodies that are often subtle but strong enough to hold the attention. They even use a typewriter as an instrument, alongside piano and wind instruments, in the beautiful and dreamlike track Unapproachable Light. A very impressive and original band. STOP PRESS: After writing this review I found out from the Bearos site that this is now sold out! Still, much of what I said above applies to DOTB in general, and I recommend you look out for anything by this band.

DREAMS OF TALL BUILDINGS 7" double pack (Bearos) This band includes Justin Wiggan, formerly of Subaqwa, who were one of my favourite bands. It would be a big mistake to expect this to sound like Subaqwa though - this is without a doubt experimental music. 'Experimental' seems to mean different things to different people, usually either post-rock (which may have started off as experimental, but much post-rock stuff has become rather cliched and samey); music that's basically pop but more off-centre than most; or horrible noise devoid of structure, melody or talent. Dreams of Tall Buildings are none of those. They make genuinely innovative music that's pretty much impossible to categorise, other than using the vague term 'experimental'. They use samples with an interesting effect, creating something a zillion miles away from dance music. Whilst not always strongly melodic, the music is always engaging. Listening to this is proof that in order to make really good experimental music you have to be talented. Too much experimentation is made by people who just want to make a row and don't have enough intelligent ideas to make their sound collages work, therefore giving the experimental genre a bad name. Dreams of Tall Buildings, however, create well crafted sound collages with plenty of original ideas. The experimentation here isn't just on the records but also the packaging, which consists of a cardboard record mailer with a 'documents enclosed' envelope stuck on the front, containing a hand-stamped sheet of card with the doTb logo. Info from alan@bearos.freeserve.co.uk

Live At C.B.S.O DREAMS OF TALL BUILDINGS Bearos Records Released: I’m not sure I’m qualified to write this. I’m far too old, even at 24. Surely something so unorthodox, and yet subtly brilliant as this deserves a child’s vivid and unblemished imagination to deliver it’s cutting verdict, not an opinion weathered by a day packed with cynical phone conversations and hidden hatred. While this live airing of material by one of Birmingham’s most unprolific and yet mesmerisingly brilliant projects may leave many stroking their chins, I can’t help but feel that only the mentality of a child could paint the picture that this truly deserves. On paper it might appear to be the classic found sound formula, or a work based more on concept than quality, but Dreams of Tall Buildings have never failed to deliver something that knocks seven shades off any poor imitations. The track-list means little as one ghostly symphony morphs into another. Too many people are likely to label this live recording, made inside a rehearsal room at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, as music gone mad, or an art project gone so far up it’s own arse that you can see it poking out between the tonsils. But I think they’re wrong. A bizarre concoction of typewriters, mobile phones, string instruments and samples combine to create a unique live performance that probably deserves a visual release in addition to its audible partner. When something sounds so little like anything else, it’s a tricky task to explain, but if you were to think somewhere along the line of Sigur Ros’ most windswept and wide-eyed moments thrown in the pot with Four Tet’s craftsmanship and the ambiance of Stylus, you’d be a long way from the prize. But at least you’d be looking in the right direction. If three-minute pop songs are your bag and you still loving dust your vintage Silver Sun posters everyday, then Dreams of Tall Buildings may be a difficult pill to swallow. But for anyone with an open mind and the patience to give this CD a few spins before casting judgement (because, admittedly, that’s what it took me), there is a treat unlike many others in store.

4/5 Andy Robbins

Dreams of Tall Buildings, Threehundredandthirtythree EP (Experimental Seafood) 10" More white vinyl, this time packaged in a white sleeve with a white photo attached inside a white carrier bag. Purity is the general impression. Then you put the record on. Heaven is the general impression or, if not heaven, then at least its earthly staging posts: churches and cathedrals. The vaulted ceilings and spacious halls that give such soft, soft ambiance where any tickle of sound is transported away and back, returning disseminated but still somehow recognisable are here, on this disc. Imagine playing some Boards of Canada at low volume at the back of St. Pauls. This record is the sound that comes back. www.experimentalseafood.com

DREAMS OF TALL BUILDINGS (single) Posted by claire on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 If a change really is as good as a holiday, lets hope that Justin Wiggan has taken plenty of Piz Buin with him as this is something of a twist in direction from his more orthodox role of vocalist with alt-rockers Subaqwa. Joined by Simon Osgathorp and Darren Joyce to form Dreams of Tall Buildings, what is presented is a collage of atmospheric samples and loops which combine to produce cinematic arts pieces just as unlikely to find their way on to the ‘Greatest Indie Anthems And Wheatus Ever…9!’ as they are to crop up on ‘The Ultimate Black Lace Summer Party Album’. The brooding sound of a bugle is certainly an unconventional way to start your single, but it is so stark and bold it is immensely captivating and sparks into a further dimension with the introduction of a layer of sampled Japanese speech, and then into an almost avant-garde jazzy double-bass line. If no one really knows what avant-garde means, at least most people understand it to mean something straying from the predictable, and that is exactly what ‘Remember The Words’ is, unpredictable, like a Squarepusher record without the demented drum machine. In fact, lets go a little bit further than unpredictable, it is mesmerizing. ‘Education/Shield and Sink’ takes the use of cinematic influence literally, using a rambling monologue of American drawl explaining how a canteen of water gives you a 2% chance of making it across a desert, supplemented by an appropriately sinister brass sample, before descending into a cavernous well of gargled strings which wring themselves dry to emerge as an antique grainy violin melody. The spectre like vocal echoes and fragmented piano of ‘Revolution’ allow it to build like the most classic of Alfred Hitchcock’s work, spontaneously breaking into blood curdling screams and whining inhuman whistles, quite unlike anything labelled ‘music’, before disappearing back in on itself leaving not even a finger print as to give its presence away. The bizarre ‘Quite Cab Home’ is something of a more sombre affair and replaces the tense horror of its predecessor with looping accordion and slurred speech, so undistinguished its role is surely to add texture and nothing else, something it does in spades, groaning into a wall of samples and sound before spinning itself to a stop. Dreams Of Tall Buildings don’t’ even need the canteen of water to give themselves a 2% chance, they possess the unique ability to be like nothing else you are likely to hear today, tomorrow, or for that matter, the rest of your life.

Andy Robbins

Dreams Of Tall Buildings - Live At Cbso Centre 2001 (Bearos) [A PennyBlackMusic Review]

This is probably the single most nicely packaged CD I have ever seen. The wonderfully understated hand-drawn box closes with a piece of cloth into which is stitched the band's name. The whole thing is covered with brown paper and tied with string like an old fashioned parcel. The title is printed on a separate label and the track listing has been written with a typewriter on a small piece of musical score paper and folded inside a tiny envelope. It would be a tragedy then if this was a style over substance record where the actual music was a huge disappointment and I am very happy to say it's not. The sounds created by Dream of Tall Buildings actually fit perfectly with the retro, minimalist packaging ¬ although as all the packaging is individually made other copies may come adorned with bright pink stars for all I know. This live set was recorded in 2001 at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra practice space to what sounds like an audience of ten people. Thankfully now those of us who missed this gig can enjoy a wonderful set of pared down instrumental songs. The eight songs flow nearly seamlessly into one another for thirty odd minutes of gorgeous, abstract sound. Although it occasionally strays a bit, and starts to sound like a couple of guys banging frying pans, in general this is a great chilled out album, if a little short. Perhaps unsurprisingly it doesn't totally live up to its packaging but to do that it would have to be inhumanly great. While it won't be the best album released this year it is the perfect alternative to all those dreadful post-pub 'chillout' albums by the likes of Zero7 that seem to appear all the time. And how often do you get to hear a typewriter solo? This review appears in the PennyBlackMusic magazine here

Dreams of Tall Buildings vs. Scott Smallwood ’Songs of Opposites’ (Static Caravan). Without doubt the best looking thing we’ve received in yonks this - limited or should I say strictly limited to just 100 copies (and word is on presales alone this is fast dwindling) cute thing comes packaged like one of those old floppy disc things from the 80’s - housed in a neat Memorex sleeve to boot. At first we thought uh-ho given that previous dotb releases have either come pressed between planks of wood or as mummified soap slabs, maybe, just maybe this would be another release to merely drool over for looks alone, but hey we are veterans of the Krypton Factor and having pondered after a sleepless night found our way into said package to unearth a CD with 8 tracks to boot - whoopee! Be warned though it’s a lights on to be played in the day time type release, this isn’t your playful dotb here this is their impish alter ego hell bent on frazzling your head and into the process scaring you shitless. Resorting to sound manipulations, distortions and drone-scapes ’Songs of Opposites’ creates a deceptive barren like collage of moods as eerie as we’ve heard since Tears of Abraham’s ’Sacrificing the Text’ earlier last year and perhaps further still to those all important early outings of Pimmon (especially on ‘Red becomes black‘). It’s not all doom and gloom though - okay then we are talking degrees of doom and gloom here - after the disturbing opening shot of ‘96 small squares’ which to these ears possesses shades of Barry Gray’s closing credits to ‘UFO’ the doomy bleakness of ‘Feed’ soon dissipates as the organic augmentation begins to take shape a la Set Fire to Flames. On the other hand ‘Black Ice Letters’ could easily be the long lost art of Martian communication chattering incessantly inside your head while the quite frankly ominous and dare we say bed wetting ‘Patience knows these hands’ is distracting only for the fact that you’ll either keep checking behind the sofa expecting to be met by something with large teeth and a taste for human flesh or have the overriding need to impishly scream ‘It’s behind you’. Perhaps the most together cut to be found on this collection is ‘Propaganda Film’ which itself belies an oddly Far East resonance while being equipped with all manner of bells, chattering clicks and spooky creaks and groans - not so much a song as such but rather more a passing through a point of reverence. Personally though for me the ornate after dark down tempo vibe of ‘Victory found in books’ serves as the high water mark here as for once the abstract / concrete tendencies and the visibly alien terrains are left aside in their place warmer textures and a lunar like calm not unlike the type Warp used to frequently engage in pervades throughout. Eclectic and erratic they may be but Dreams of Tall Buildings can and never will be accused of being dull. Essential and indeed worrying your life mightn’t be made any more enlightened for the experience of having it but your record collection will certainly be that much cooler. Consider yourselves told. www.staticcaravan.org