About this item

Underground legend Drew Mullholland started recording as The Mount Vernon Arts Lab In the late 1990's. It was just one of the many names he was testing out for his imaginary groups and if things had gone differently, this album would be credited to Hyperion Illusion.

Expertly mastered by Antony Ryan at RedRedPaw and mostly sourced from long lost cassettes rescued from chaotic rehearsal rooms and the apartments of Glasgow friends, Deltic Vespers contains the pre Ghost Box recordings and is the ultimate statement on Mulholland's early experimentations. It's like peering into a disorderd vision of an alternative 1990's where instead of Britpop and it's phony psychedlia-lite, we got the full strenght Owsley acid version. The electronic elements are also there from the start, pulled from the unlikliest of sources and proving that Mulholland's invention and drive to get the sounds down has been there since day one. Fantastic stuff now preserved for posterity. You're welcome.

DELTIC VESPERS Notes from DREW MULHOLLAND:

"My favourite memories are the odd ones. Sharing Larry Grayson’s old dressing room, author Lawrence Norfolk telling a journalist that the Mount Vernon Arts Lab was one of his go to bands when writing, organising the first concert of electronic music in a nuclear command bunker in 1998, playing shows with Silver Apples, Add N to (x), Stereolab, Broadcast, Sonic Boom, Project D.A.R.K.
"Recording with Adrian from Portishead, Norman from Teenage Fanclub, Isobel Campbell, Coil, appearing on telly with Eugene Reynolds pet DALEK, chatting with Stuart Moxham from Young Marble Giants, a backstage conversation with Tim Gane about playing the Status Quo riff over & over for 90 minutes, Pete Kember excitedly calling me having just spoken to Delia Derbyshire, and later Delia herself telling me of her friend-ship with Brian Jones, and once during a performance in Liverpool looking up to see legends Paul Simpson and Will Sergeant in the audience, and finally having played in Shepherds Bush with nowhere to stay we ended sleeping on industrial sized bubble wrap.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Ooof, another essential release from the endlessly talented Drew Mulholland. 'Vespers' sees woozy synths and hissing tape artefacts, airy arpeggios and driven pulses coming together into a surprisingly cohesive, beautifully finished end product. Another killer outing from Castles In Space.