ROBERT RIDLEY-SHACKLETON “Cardboard Prince” C60 (Cardboard Club)

Belt your stupid pop hits in another direction, there, singer of songs, because I’m listening to Cardboard Prince in a corner all by myself with a big silly grin on my face. I don’t know if you know Robert Ridley-Shackleton or not, but if you don’t better getcha head on straight, because he has more releases than you and your band and that other band you opened for combined. No band needed. Ridley-Shackleton is bigger than Kanye, honestly, he says so himself, and he sings over noise, just noise, and his voice is your pop song ground through a nightmare of processors until there is no song and nothing else but ol’ Robert’s daily doings, musique concrèted properly and with great disdain for rational thought. I’m marrying Peter Weller, dating Terminator, and loving Robocop, I think, but I’m not sure if that’s really the right answer and getting kind of sick thinking about it. Basically, Robert is menacing us like David Lynch would if Lynch had the balls to get all up in our grills and make Angelo Badalamenti music noises with his mouth realllll close to a microphone (see, e.g., “2 Bad”). “C’mon Kitty” is music. “Download Ure Memes” is terrifying music. “Mother Sublime” is music. Everything else is Eraserhead on acid (well, acid again) in 1993. Each sound pops and scrapes and fillets imaginary body parts that don’t exist in this dimension. Lops em right off. And my copy of this was recorded over a Children’s Talking Bible tape, like it bloody oughta. Were they all? I hope so. I hope yours was. I hope you’re paying attention and that you’ve subscribed to the madness. What happened to us? Why does this make sense?

Cardboard Club

-- Ryan Masteller

ROBERT RIDLEY-SHACKLETON"Sex U Up" C30 (Hissing Frames)

He's back, that lovable British lunatic, Robert Ridley-Shackleton.  Well actually he probably never left, seeing as this guys output is the definition of prolific.  Sex U Up is the best I've heard from him yet.  Apparently it was recorded after he got kicked out of his mother's house, which makes the subject matter all the more...how shall we say, interesting.  The whole thing is a funky weird lo-fi R&B album where Rob's unhinged come-ons coast over hissing backing tracks.  He says he was singing through a modified telephone and that all the supporting music is made entirely of vocal sounds.  Quite charming really, in a sick sort of way.

This tape isn't up on his bandcamp yet, but you can hear older stuff here.  He's got a tumblr where he posts updates and artwork here.  Finally, you can see which of his ultra limited edition tapes are available here.  Sex U Up appears to still be in print, there's lots more too, including a split with Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Baer, which seems like it's some sort of rite of passage these days.

ROBERT RIDLEY-SHACKLETON "Shut Up Egg" (self released)

We meet again Robert Ridley-Shackleton. This guy is some sort of British maniac who makes some pretty wacky music. Here is the "blurb" that came with the one-sheet for this tape:

Hi everybody my name is Robby as you know already. In this album I got into my demi-dog state where I am touching god and then I noticed that an egg was beating my wife in the kitchen. So I smashed him and saw his yoke splat all over the floor. Much later, after an incident with a naughty dog. The dog told me that the egg I beat up was actually Humpty Dumpty. I realised I had made a big mistake as I worship Humpty. I then saw a vision of him falling off a wall. When my mum finally came home from her job she saw the mess in the kitchen and as a punishment I have to eat eggs for the next 8 years.

Well there you have it. Words to live by. Robby's plays simple repetitive carnivalesque casio lines (sometimes over primitive drum machine rhythms) on top of which he "sings" his lyrics in a mildly frightening manner. Comparisons could be drawn to Wild Man Fischer, et al. One of the best things about his recordings are the way in which lo-fi recording quality makes them sound like missives from an insane asylum. That seems to be the modus operandi for just about every release I've heard from him, but hey, it works for me. I mean, you can laugh at this stuff and just say "this guy is taking a piss," but he's so committed to such a specific brand of audio insanity that you've got to give the guy credit. Shut Up Egg is actually my favorite thing I've heard from him so far. What makes this one stand out for me is the really beautiful keyboard instrumental that follows the brief song bit on the A side, the grimy riff that closes out the B side and the unified subject matter (eggs).

Robert's music webpage has tons to listen to.
This tape is distributed by Eggy in the USA.