Joe Oxley is the self-styled one-man electro / psych machine behind TVAM - arguably producing the biggest dancefloor action Wigan has seen since the legendary Casino closed its doors in the 1970’s . As 6Music’s Lauren Laverne observed “It’s like someone took Spiritualized to the club!!”
Hypnotic tracks which straddle an impressive spectrum of influence; with Boards of Canada’s irresistible nostalgia, Suicide’s deconstructed rock ’n’ roll and My Bloody Valentine's infinite noise all becoming touching points in Oxley’s musical output.
TVAM gigs blur the boundary between art and performance; via a large television sat on an 80’s secondary school-style podium, a VHS video recorder projects long-forgotten Mondo movies alongside vintage footage often sourced from hours spent poring through charity shop shelves – “What started as a passing interest became an obsession. I found so many seemingly random videos, each with its own individual meaning, now estranged from their owners. Did these people ever take up calisthenics? Did they install a model railway in their spare bedroom? Did they learn to communicate more effectively with their teenage children? Did they find something in those high-speed rally crash videos unseen by us today..?
I love the process of chopping things up and splicing back together; creating new meaning out of thin air. Combining this with the music I was making, I knew the performance had to fit. Somewhere between Adam Curtis and BBC Schools… somewhere between ‘Threads' and ‘Words & Pictures’.”
Self-produced and home-recorded, the album was mixed by the steady hands of Dean Honer (Moonlandingz, I Monster, Add (N) To X) - “It was great working with Dean. I’m a massive Add N To (X) fan and, after hearing what he was doing with Moonlandingz, I knew he’d get where I was coming from. Though having seen his collection of synths I now need to up my game.”
TVAM has remixed Amber Arcades, The KVB, TOY, FEWS and is currently putting fin-ishing touches to a remix for Tunng (who are returning the favour, watch this space…)
Crafting a world which touches on our memories but toys with our fears, a world in which information seeps under your door and pools by your feet, a world in which he seeks to define everything from abandoned meanings to subconscious desires, Psychic Data invites us to experience the psychodrama first hand.
TRACK LISTING
1. Psychic Data
2. Narcissus
3. Ident 7
4. Porsche Majeure
5. CRC
6. Bitplain
7. These Are Not Your Memories
8. Ident 9
9. Gas & Air
10. Total Immersion