R.P.M.
Members: Colin Potter, Phil Mouldycliff
We Couldn't Agree On A Total
in Colin Potter own words: This is the 100th release by ICR. The first was the compilation LP ‘We Couldn’t Agree on a Title’ in 1981. Back in those days, I never imagined – no, wait – that’s so long ago, I really can’t remember what I imagined. I know that I did think Integrated Circuit Records was a good name for a label that was ‘integrated’ (?!) and vaguely electronic. Which is why it’s now called ICR, much less of a mouthful. But it is slightly surprising to have made it to 100 releases, alt…
Orbits
This sequence of pieces, composed in the main by Jackson Mouldycliff, with additional interventions & modifications from Colin Potter & Phil Mouldycliff, was started back in 2019 but because of the Covid pandemic it was only recently completed. The work centres on loops, repetitions & recurrent elements of sound assembled by MPM to accompany a series of mixed-media drawings by Phil, which in turn, takes as its starting point, star charts, celestial globes, planetaria, orreries, armillary spheres…
Ago
*300 copies limited release. In process of stocking* An original and particular approach to rhythmic electronics, with an incredible sound, like in all of Colin Potter's works. Six hypnotic tracks from Colin's archive of rarities, for the first time on vinyl, perfect to play really loud. These six pieces were recorded between the late 80s & mid-90s at IC Studio, which was then located in Tollerton, North Yorkshire. “I wanted to make some tracks which were much more rhythmic. By then the studio w…
A Long Time
*300 copies limited release* The second of Polytechnic Youth’s new releases for March sees a return to the label for Colin Potter, revered not only for his home 4trk recordings of experimental electronics, minimal synth and DIY cassette output from 1980 onwards, and his esteemed ICR label also of course his continued work as part of Nurse with Wound. His celebrated back catalogue has -alongside a killer body of new recordings- been reissued on vinyl for a first time by labels such as PY, Deep Di…
Fog Maps
The new album from Phil Mouldycliff has finally arrived. A full length CD in a digipack featuring his artwork. These are tracks that Phil has been working on for many years, mainly at IC Studio, using sampling, field recordings & sound manipulation An immersive journey from Z to A.
Debris Field
* 2021 Stock * This is the CD and catalogue for the 'Debris Field' exhibition at Bolton Museum curated by Phil Mouldycliff. The CD is an editied version of 'Debris Field ambient wash', a 48 minute piece that is split into 3 movements. The catalogue includes an essay by Mouldycliff titled 'Tracing paths through debris fields' which gives some insight into the exhibition and CD. Also includes photographs of some of the exhibits and artist biographies for those involved including Colin Potter, Keit…
The Simple Plan
* 2021 Stock * Recorded and completed at the end of 2008 and on into the first months of 2009, ´The Simple Plan´ offers a change in focus from previous collaborations between these two artists. Comprising five tracks, ´The Simple Plan´ is purely instrumental, recorded in real-time and subjected to only minimal digital processing. Before recording began, the decision was made to create a simpler, more organic piece of work, using computers only sparingly to record the tracks and help with arrange…
Fragile Pitches
* 2021 Stock * Fragile Pitches was originally commissioned by Unique Promotions to be performed in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland, as part of the city’s formal New Year Fire & Light celebrations. The event was very sucessful & saw somewhere in the region of 1200 people experience the performance. The juxtaposition of a formal, yet familiar space(thecathedral)with the less familiar musical aspects of electronic sound beds,drones, samples, effects and treated instrumentation created a com…
And Then
* 2021 Stock * Released in 2000, shortly after ICR had returned as an operating label, this was the first solo album since the 90s from Colin Potter, perhaps best known as a collaborator with and engineer for Nurse With Wound, Current 93, Ora, Monos, Kiln and many others. Over 62 minutes a wide range of sounds pass—languid sway, relentless rhythms and rolling drones—sounds that were never meant to be—steam engines lost in space, galleons passing in electric fog, static in the flowers. 'This isn'…
The Man Who Floated Away
* 2021 Stock * For the first time together, author, vocalist and keyboard player Edward Ka-Spel (Legendary Pink Dots, Tear Garden) and sound collage wizard Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound) offer us a 19 plus minute long piece called The Man Who Floated Away, composed and recorded in 2017. On the other side, the master of drone Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound, Monos) and french free sax player Quentin Rollet (guest with The Red Krayola, Nurse With Wound, Mendelson, David Grubbs, DRAME …) presen…
It Was
Platform 23 is delighted to present music from Colin Potter with It Was, a collection of tracks chosen from his 1989 cassettes Recent History Volumes 1 & 2. After a burst of activity, mainly on his ICR label, from 1980 - 82, the tapes were the first released music in seven years and highlighted the intervening period. While much of his earlier recordings have now been reissued by Dark Entries, Deep Distance and Sacred Summits, It Was covers the period where Potter recordings were limited while w…
The Ghost Office
**400 copies, clear vinyl** A fabulous newly expanded -first time on vinyl- double LP set of Colin Potter’s seminal 1980 cassette only release “The Ghost Office”. The label is gradually working through Colin’s revered back catalogue of cassette only releases, with previous titles “The Scythe” and “Two Nights” selling out instantly. His run of half of a dozen home recorded, DIY / minimal synth cassettes between 1980 and 1982 is rightly granted legendary status, influencing a slew of home produce…
A Gain
**500 copies, sold-out at label!** Colin Potter’s vaulted classic A Gain bubbles up for reissue with Joyful Noise Recordings, presenting its first ever reissue proper of a UK synth classic (if we discount the augmented compilation of Entering Again released by Sacred Summits in 2014) Recommended to Joyful Noise for reissue by Benjamin John Power (F*ck Buttons, Blanck Mass), who states “…the lines are simple but perfect… It’s incredibly well constructed”, Potter’s best known release prior to join…
Circle Line
A very peculiar journey... Circle Line initially started life as a graphic score created by Phil Mouldycliff as a piece to be played by Keith Rowe in 1989. Over a period of twelve years this open form composition developed to the point where by 2002 an opportunity arose to make a recording of the work at IC Studio in Preston, using ambient recordings taken from Circle Line Tube stations made specifically for the project by Phil and Colin Potter. Keith effectively solos over the assemble tape col…
Shut Your Eyes On The Way Out
After stranding listeners in deep space with Schleißen 4 in 2015, Nurse With Wound’s Colin Potter, Alessio Natalizia (aka Not Waving) and Guido Zen regroup along the percussive vectors of Shut Your Eyes On The Way Out for the Ecstatic label. Three years in the making, taking cues from German synth rock, cosmic disco, abstract EBM, and obscure library sounds, the trio head for seductive new horizons of pulsing rhythms and floating ambient dub tones. The six hands control the mission with masterfu…
The Where House?
Colin Potter is a sound engineer and musician currently based in London. He has worked within the fields of electronic and experimental music for over 35 years, collaborating with the likes of Current 93, The Hafler Trio, Organum, Andrew Chalk, and most notably as a key part of Nurse With Wound alongside Steven Stapleton. He started the esteemed ICR (Integrated Circuit Recordings) label in 1981 releasing a clutch of wonderful home recordings of his own, over half a dozen small run cassette only …
The Abominable Slowman
This new release by Colin Potter, "The Abominable Slowman", is the logical follow-on from his previous 2015 LP “Rank Sonata”. Like that album, there are elements that were recorded many years ago, but this work also contains new music. Again, the emphasis is on rhythm, although the rhythmic components range from conventional drum sounds to strange electronic and/or mutated outbursts, often accompanied by squalling guitars. As to what this sounds like, keywords would be soundtrack, experimen…
Austral Soundscapes
A double CD loosely following on from their ‘Trajectories’ release. This is further work from the recordings about a trip Phil Mouldycliff and Colin Potter made to Australiato play some music at the Horizon Planetarium in Perth. A piece of music to 'accompany a simulated trip through the universe created by Carley Tilet using SkyScan in the 18metre full-dome project space'. 'Universal' makes up fifty-two minutes of the first disc. On the second disc one finds two further pieces, 'Auspex Australi…
The Scythe
Necessary, 1st-ever vinyl issue of Colin Potter’s fizzing post-punk & avant-pop experiment, The Scythe (1981), repackaged with a handful of alternate mixes and a cut from Nightshift, plus new sleeve design by Jonathan Coleclough, who also did the original tape artwork.
Leading on from Deep Distance’s 2013 reissue of Two Nights, which was also made and first issued in 1981, The Scythe finds the Nurse With Wound member really indulging and exploring his thang for krautrock, dub and noisy ele…
Rank Sonata
"Colin Potter has been a central figure in the UK's DIY and post-industrial underground since the late '70s. His ICR label, founded in 1981, blurred the lines between post-punk experimentation, crude pop, Krautrock-inspired drone work and contemporary electronica, with releases by everyone from DIY legends The Instant Automatons through Chris & Cosey of Throbbing Gristle, experimental composer Trevor Wishart, drone soundists Andrew Chalk and Darren Tate and Bryn Jones's Muslimgauze. He has also …