Ashtray Navigations
Encyclopedia
Ashtray Navigations is an English
psychedelic
noise
group centered upon Phil Todd, active since 1991.
Colloquially referred to as "Ash Nav", The group operate out of Todd's home in Stoke-on-Trent
, England
, from which he also ran the record label
s Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers and, subsequently Memoirs Of An Aesthete. The project has also released music through labels such as Siltbreeze
, Jewelled Antler
, American Tapes, Menlo Park
, E.F. Tapes and Freedom From
.
Whilst the music evades easy categorisation due to variations in sound, approach and personnel, it often incorporates extended droning and lengthy guitar pieces. James Blackshaw
described the Ashtray Navigations sound as "sub-aquatic synth bubble, busted-up cassette-tape hiss and distorted electric guitar hover that sounds like a mythical god banished from the realm of light and trying desperately to clamber his/her way out of a dark bottomless void where time itself stands still." The Wire's David Keenan
has described Phil Todd/Ashtray Navigations as "a trashcan antidote to LaMonte Young."
Reviewing Todd's 36th album, The Love that Whirrs, critic Larry Dolman wrote "It's a pretty mammoth piece of work – almost 80 minutes of music spread out over six heavy tracks. They tend to start as intense sun-blinding drone-fields, but if you hold on tight for a minute or two and adjust yourself to these new conditions, you'll start to notice a wealth of detail, provided by a real band of ringers. Todd has Alex Neilson
(Directing Hand, accompanist with some Jandek live performances) on shimmering, fracturing percussion and Ben Reynolds on raga-style guitar and banjo. (Also, one Melanie Delaney appears on one epic track, playing reeds & tapes.) Trash drone, free skiffle, new electric raga, sun blindness music, call it what you will, this is a powerful statement."
Although Todd still records solo, most recent Ashtray Navigations titles and live shows have been undertaken by a duo of Todd and Melanie Crowley or by a trio of Todd, Crowley and one other, often Phil Legard (Xenis Emputae Travelling Band) although the line-up has also been joined at one time or another by Alex Neilson, Bill Kouligas (Family Battle Snake) and Ruaraidh Sanachan (Nackt Insecten) - the latter two can be heard on "Backstage Education" a limited four-disc document of Ash Nav's 2007 summer tour.
Their discography is extensive, with many limited releases on cassette and CDR formats: albums with a wider distribution include Four Raga Moods (which was followed-up several years later by Four More Raga Moods), The Love that Whirrs, To Your Fucking Feather'd Wings, Dirt Mummies & Bloody Amps, You Cannot Tell Cigars.... and Use Copenhagen 69 Guitars and Park Drive Circular Effects Pedals Exclusively.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
noise
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
group centered upon Phil Todd, active since 1991.
Colloquially referred to as "Ash Nav", The group operate out of Todd's home in Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, from which he also ran the record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers and, subsequently Memoirs Of An Aesthete. The project has also released music through labels such as Siltbreeze
Siltbreeze
Siltbreeze is an American independent record label based out of Philadelphia.-Roster:*1929*A Band*Above Ground*A Handful of Dust*Alan Licht*Alasehir*Alastair Galbraith*Angus Maclise*Ashtabula*Ashtray Navigations*Axemen*Bardo Pond*Blues Control...
, Jewelled Antler
Jewelled Antler
Jewelled Antler is a musical collective created in 1999 by Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson as an extension of their work in the organic drone folk-noise group Thuja. The idea was to release handmade CD-R's of various solo and collaborative projects and one-off bands, encompassing drones, songs,...
, American Tapes, Menlo Park
Menlo Park
Menlo Park may refer to:*Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA*Menlo Park, California, USA*Menlo Park, Pretoria, South Africa...
, E.F. Tapes and Freedom From
Freedom From
Freedom From is a Minneapolis, Minnesota based record label which primarily focuses on the international noise underground genre. The label was founded in 1996 with its first official release by a San Francisco three-piece named Job. Up until early 1998, the labels focus was singularly cassettes,...
.
Whilst the music evades easy categorisation due to variations in sound, approach and personnel, it often incorporates extended droning and lengthy guitar pieces. James Blackshaw
James Blackshaw
James Blackshaw is a Hastings-based guitarist and pianist, born in 1981. Blackshaw primarily plays an acoustic 12 string guitar and has been compared to Bert Jansch, Robbie Basho, John Fahey, Jack Rose, and Leo Kottke. To enable his fingerstyle playing, Blackshaw has grown long picklike fingernails...
described the Ashtray Navigations sound as "sub-aquatic synth bubble, busted-up cassette-tape hiss and distorted electric guitar hover that sounds like a mythical god banished from the realm of light and trying desperately to clamber his/her way out of a dark bottomless void where time itself stands still." The Wire's David Keenan
David Keenan
David Keenan is a Scottish author, critic and musician. He is the author of England's Hidden Reverse, a biography of Coil, Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, a regular contributor to The Wire since 1995, and proprietor of Volcanic Tongue, a shop, distributor, record label and mailorder business that...
has described Phil Todd/Ashtray Navigations as "a trashcan antidote to LaMonte Young."
Reviewing Todd's 36th album, The Love that Whirrs, critic Larry Dolman wrote "It's a pretty mammoth piece of work – almost 80 minutes of music spread out over six heavy tracks. They tend to start as intense sun-blinding drone-fields, but if you hold on tight for a minute or two and adjust yourself to these new conditions, you'll start to notice a wealth of detail, provided by a real band of ringers. Todd has Alex Neilson
Alex Neilson
Alex Neilson is an English drummer, percussionist and singer who is currently based in Glasgow but grew up in Leeds. He has performed alongside a large number of bands and artists including Lucky Luke, The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden, Ashtray Navigations, Alastair Galbraith, Isobel Campbell,...
(Directing Hand, accompanist with some Jandek live performances) on shimmering, fracturing percussion and Ben Reynolds on raga-style guitar and banjo. (Also, one Melanie Delaney appears on one epic track, playing reeds & tapes.) Trash drone, free skiffle, new electric raga, sun blindness music, call it what you will, this is a powerful statement."
Although Todd still records solo, most recent Ashtray Navigations titles and live shows have been undertaken by a duo of Todd and Melanie Crowley or by a trio of Todd, Crowley and one other, often Phil Legard (Xenis Emputae Travelling Band) although the line-up has also been joined at one time or another by Alex Neilson, Bill Kouligas (Family Battle Snake) and Ruaraidh Sanachan (Nackt Insecten) - the latter two can be heard on "Backstage Education" a limited four-disc document of Ash Nav's 2007 summer tour.
Their discography is extensive, with many limited releases on cassette and CDR formats: albums with a wider distribution include Four Raga Moods (which was followed-up several years later by Four More Raga Moods), The Love that Whirrs, To Your Fucking Feather'd Wings, Dirt Mummies & Bloody Amps, You Cannot Tell Cigars.... and Use Copenhagen 69 Guitars and Park Drive Circular Effects Pedals Exclusively.
Partial discography
- Who's Been Rocking My Dream-Boat? (cassette, 1996)- Less Than Zero
- Four Raga Moods (CD, 1997)- Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers
- Use Copenhagen 69 Guitars and Park Drive Circular Effects Pedals Exclusively (LP, 1997) - Siltbreeze
- End-of-the-Pier Vault (7", 2000) - Tonschact Records
- Plaster Projection Instruction Record (12", 2000) - Menlo Park Recordings
- Last Kiss Amateur Frequencies (7", 2002) - Gameboy Records
- Some Cat Lost In His Own Picture (7", 2004) - Memoirs of an Aesthete
- You Cannot Tell Cigars By the Picture on the Box (CD, 2004) - Celebrate Psi Phenomenon
- Blues Power Cake (CDr, 2005) - Memoirs of an Aesthete
- Deader Neptune Thunder Creating East (CD, 2005) - Memoirs of an Aesthete
- A Monument to the British Rock (CDr, 2006) - Memoirs of an Aesthete
- Strawberries and Ice (3" CDr, 2006) Memoirs of an Aesthete
- Dirt Mummies and Bloody Amps (CD, 2006) - Freenoise
- Four More Raga Moods (CD, 2006) - Ikuisuus Records
- Who's Been Rocking My Dream-Boat? (Cdr reissue of 1996 cassette, 2006) - Memoirs of an Aesthete
- Stranded in the Tea/Standing in the Tea -(cassette, 2006) Fargone Records
- Throw Up in the Sky/With Fine Clinking Magnets - (12" LP, 2007) Qbico Records
- Caeduceus and Black Sal (CDr, 2007) - Memoirs of an Aesthete
- Running on Autokinetic (CDr, 2007) - Memoirs of an Aesthete
- Those Are Pearls That Were His Eyes (CDr reissue, 2007) - Revival
- Throw Up in the Sky (12", 2007) - Qbico
- Greatest Imaginary Band (CDr, 2007) - Self-released
- Snakestrings / Hollywood Taught you How to Kiss (Double CDr, 2008) - Self-released
- The Cream Wheel (CDr, 2008) - Self-released
- Sugar Head Record (CDr, 2009) - Deep Water AcresDeep Water AcresDeep Water Acres is a US-based independent webzine and record label dedicated to experimental music. Originally a physical magazine called Deep Water, the Internet publication features musical commentaries, reviews, artist profiles and interviews as well as Australian campfire recipes...