Stefan Jaworzyn

“It's flashback time at Shock! Everybody loves the '80s now innit, and everybody positively adores old tapes of bedroom noodling... So, always keen to exploit the latest trends, Shock has rummaged through the archives to come up with EATEN AWAY BY SHADOWS, over 79 minutes ('value' for money!) of SJ archive stuff recorded between '82 - '83, before editing Shock Xpress, playing in Whitehouse, Skullflower etc…This was recorded mostly in Bristol, some in London while living in a squat up the road from M Bower. (Mr P Best was crashing on my floor around then. Hilarious times were had by all.) It moves from 'guitar rock' to metal-banging, drone and industrial & ends with some major guitar 'deconstruction' and a positively uplifting organ/feedback orgy…Most of it doesn't sound too obviously like anyone else, so as far as influences go the dedicated can ponder what I'd been listening to (other than the Satanic voices in my head) at any given point. Suggestions on a postcard please. Many cheap instruments were abused in making this music. Guitars and mics were dropped, hit, beaten with pieces of metal and occasionally with an axe, and pretty much all of it (including a good old Dr Rhythm) went through some sort of distortion and a dysfunctional tape echo unit. Various glitches and tape oddities may be discerned at various points, all part of the music's many charms…Tracks are ordered as they appear on the cassettes, the titles (some a tad uninspired or stemming from idiotic 'private' jokes, sorry) are off the inlays. One piece was previously heard on a Fusetron 7", another appeared as the Hydra track on the Melt/Dissolve compilation, and one was chopped up & used on Band of Pain's Reculver CD. All are presented here in vastly superior sound quality. The album's mastered by Andrew Liles so it sounds amazingly good (given the limitations of the source material…), and we don't want to hear any moaning about the fact it's in a jewel case not a repulsive digipak! “ - Stefan Jaworzyn, 2013