There are few joys as pure as the feeling of hearing a new and wonderful thing for the first time. Not knowing what you’re going to get or what you’re about to experience and just letting the sound wash over you. Sometimes it energizes, sometimes it soothes – the best ones do both of course. It’s even better when there’s a bit of mystery beyond the average unknown, when you listen for the first time without expectation or context, and this was the case when I opened a box from London a couple of months ago. I knew it was from a fellow from HYGIENE and I like the HYGIENE records I have, but all the note said was that these were “…three tapes I released.” HAROLD TURGIS went on first and I couldn’t have been more engrossed – gloriously minimal and painfully deliberate electronics that border on ambient but are too consistently interesting to fade into the background. If the entire tape were the nine plus minute “Bewitched” with it’s stilted fade out ending? I would have been chuffed. Instead The Sentinels is a solid half hour (plus) of glorious modern adaptations of primitive electronic sound. It’s mesmerizing and it’s beautiful and “Zeethra” (which tapes up the entire second side) will make you weep if you listen deeply. And now my only complaint is that I’m going to listen to Satellite (the other HAROLD TURGIS tape in that box) with expectations. Very high expectations.
