SMITH & MUDD

TEA WITH HOLGER

BEWITH RECORDS RELEASE NOTES

It seems KPM have long been fans of Smith & Mudd and, after being introduced to each other by mutual friend Andy Allday, the peerless Balearic maestros were invited to contribute to the library label’s digital-only “Album Shorts” project. The results are predictably wonderful.

With past projects under our belt working with everyone involved so far it made perfect sense for Be With to take on the vinyl release of this instant library classic. But why is it called Tea With Holger?

“Holger” is of course Holger Czukay and the whole LP is dedicated to Smith and Mudd’s time spent with him and Ursa Major at Can’s famous Inner Space Studio in Weilerswist, near Cologne.

When not recording it seems they spent a great deal of time sat around being entertained by Holger’s stories and drinking many cups of different sorts of tea from all over the world. These moments provide some their fondest memories of their visits:

“Looking back, it was pretty incredible that we spent part of our lives with Holger in one of the most magical places we’ve ever known, Inner Space Studio. We have our memories and, of course, the Bison album we made with him. But to honour the time we spent with him, we wanted to dedicate an album to him called ‘Tea With Holger’. The names of the tracks are about that time.”

The album was recorded over several years in London, Margate and Gorthleck, a small hamlet in the Scottish Highlands. Mike Piggott, who played with Bert Jansch, handled the strings and played violin whilst Sam Creer lent his virtuoso cello work to the proceedings. The sessions employed a key recording technique from their time with Holger: hit record and play. They wanted to capture magical improvisational moments live and not do the work later on in editing.

In their own words (and in classic library record sleeve style) these tracks are collectively described as “Balearic themes including breezy soul, sun-dappled melodies, warm pianos and sweeping strings”. You want to hear this, right?

The album is vintage Smith & Mudd. The gentle piano ushering in opening track “The Gardener” is soon joined by low, bubbling drums. When the time is just right, lush guitars glisten above a Welsh language vocal, performed by Huw Costin, that floats like silk. Easy as a sea breeze. “Innerspace” is of course a nod to Can’s aforementioned studio. Dark, heavy piano meets rolling drums before warm chords and luscious strings take over, gliding over moody grooves to drive you home. Closing out side A, “Weilerswist” delivers more beautifully rolling piano and guitars over thumping cellos and building drums.

Side B opens with the full, string-enhanced version of “Away From Me”. This is Smith & Mudd’s preferred version and it’s only available here on this vinyl issue. For us it’s the standout on this all-highlight album. Tribal tones, piano and cello set a melodic staccato for violin to soar over while rolling piano lines and gospel organ chords descend into a drum drop that leads to a glorious vocal lead finale.

Distant synths introduce sun-drenched guitars and uplifting strings in “Kölner Street”, before a spacey Moog solo leads to a spellbinding, sci-fi drop. The sunshine returns before the track ends. The album closes with “Tea With Holger”. Airy vocal swells are punctuated by plucked cellos and picked guitars, all wonderfully warmed by a soulful piano.

Cut by Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, Tea With Holger comes in a classic KPM green sleeve complete with track descriptions from Smith & Mudd themselves. The finishing visual touches come courtesy of Richard Robinson. We’ve given this record the same care and attention as we give to each of our KPM re-issues, and it’s just as essential.

GORTHLECK

RELEASE NOTES

Some believe that the environment in which you make music – from the studio space, to the location itself – has a profound effect on the creative process. Immerse yourself in the world around you, the theory goes, and it will shape the music you make.

Listen to Gorthleck, the third album from veteran downtempo alchemists Benjamin Smith and Paul ‘Mudd’ Murphy, and you can almost visualize the craggy, windswept and breathtakingly beautiful environment in which it was made.

Reconvening after a near seven-year hiatus last summer, the duo headed up to the Scottish Highlands to spend a week recording in the surrounds of Gorthleck House, nestled on the shore of Loch Mhor in Inverness-shire. Earlier this year, they returned to the same venue, with its’ stunning views of the tranquil loch and rocky, wooded hills rising in the distance, to complete the nine-track set.

Certainly, the immersive environment and famously changeable weather seems to have inspired the longtime friends and studio partners. The album’s epic centrepiece, the nine-minute “Mhor”, sounds like an emotional love letter to the body of water they strolled alongside every day. Its’ undulating synthesizer line – reminiscent of classic Tangerine Dream and the Orb’s “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain” – mimics the slow ebb and flow of water across the loch, while Smith’s shimmering guitar lines mimic the glint of sunlight reflecting off the surface.

Elsewhere, the audio references are a little more subtle, but no less relevant. The hazy jazz guitars, twinkling pianos, rich grooves and fluttering clarinets of “Nether” sound like the perfect accompaniment to a single malt whisky-fuelled sunset session at the water’s edge, while the quietly foreboding aural textures, layered guitars and urgent electric violin of “Enos” evoke memories of watching storm clouds gathering behind distant Highland mountains.

The same could be said of “Mr Coats” – a track arranged in steamy Mexico, and blessed with all the humidity you’d expect from such an excursion – while you can hear gale force winds whistling around the rafters on “Dogwood”. As for “Errogie”, it’s as bracing as a crystal clear morning in the Highlands; chilly, but hugely life affirming.

The duo’s previous two albums, 2007’s Blue River and its’ 2009 follow-up, Le Suivant, were both hugely evocative, but neither captured a distinct a sense of time and place quite like Gorthleck. Listen carefully, and you could almost be there with them, watching the sunrise and sunset.

LE SUIVANT

REVIEW

Ben Smith and Paul "Mudd" Murphy are set to follow up 2007's Blue River with a brand new full-length next month.

Cheekily entitled Le Suivant ("The Next One" in English), the album sees the duo come together to work their collaborative magic in the studio yet again, with a few new people drafted in the help out. Faze Action's Robin Lee even lends his cello skills to the record, whilst the usual cast of friends and session musicians have fleshed out the tracks with all sorts of instrumentation. As with their previous work, Le Suivant sees the duo venture away from their more dancefloor-oriented material to create a lush summer soundtrack, mixing influences from folk, jazz, disco and even Indian music.

BLUE RIVER

REVIEW

In 2007, Smith & Mudd's first album – Blue River – came out as a CD release. It's now been fully remastered by Simon Francis for 2019.

"Blue River is a spine-tingling and evocative mixture of the organic and the electronic, the past and the future. It's an album you will want to hear again and again and as you listen more you will begin to notice the subtlety of the production, the clarity of the guitars, the warmth of the bass guitars, even the vivid colours the music paints in your mind while you listen. Blue River is a beautiful collaboration between Paul 'Mudd' Murphy and Ben Smith and features some incredible guitar work from Bob Klose, a founding member of Pink Floyd"

: smith & mudd