Slab frontman Stephen Dray put out some records under the name Killer Moses in 1995-96. As he tells it on the Unfit For Print blog (and I recommend you read the whole thing for the Slab history and to see the Slab resuscitation unfold):Following SLab Paul [Jarvis] and I wrote a lot of stuff together largely based on the slab third album ( never released or even properly recorded but very diverse and way ahead of its time.... again!) At the same time I was writing with Sherman [a member of the last, unrecorded Slab lineup] who had basically single handedly got the NME to write about dance music and championed the Orb and Andrew Weatherall etc in his guise of Sherman at the Controls. He basically introduced electronic music to the NME audience. He was djing a lot and he and I wrote some tracks around 1990 one of which was released on Guerilla Records which was just about the leading dance label at the time. we chose the somewhat dubious name of Euphoria and the track was called Mercurial. It sold bucketloads and is on about 20 compilations....Anyway Euphoria sold and is still coming out on compilations... and me and Sherman got the princely sum of £150 each and a t shirt....After that I became Killer Moses and released 4 eps on Shermans own label called CLoak and Dagger. again it got lots of good press and reviews but the label went bust before an album came out. There are various Moses tracks on compilations... not sure how you categorise it really but the albumm was heroically dark.... a very narcotic Slab....
I would categorise it as instrumental dub/breakbeat, and "heroically dark" definitely fits; something like a cleaner Scorn or Ice. Offered here are three of the EPs:
Seizure EP (1995)
- Insomniac
- Drive In
- Big Wheel
Unseen EP (1995)
- Killer Moses
- The Hanging Garden
- Bogeyman
Succubus EP (1996)
- Icarus
- Sea of Fear
With tracks ranging from six-and-a-half to nearly twelve minutes, there's plenty to listen to. The A-sides are especially seductive: they gain intensity as they wear on, and you might find yourself headbanging without realizing you'd started. Get the vinyl rips here or here.
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11 comments:
That's made my week, thanks very much !
this seems pretty decent so far! little more upbeat than Scorn or Ice i'd say, but still...
by the way, which of the 3 covers is that pictured above?
thanks!
You're both welcome. There is no cover art on any of the records, they're in plain black sleeves with an open center. The graphic is the Cloak and Dagger logo used on the non-printed-side label (note the stylized CD): this red one on Seizure and Succubus, the same graphic in green on Unseen.
Mr Dray here...
The Unseen ep came out first
the title track ends up pretty Slab like... even if it starts out a bit jazz hop... cue Dennis Hopper's laughs from Blue Velvet and we begin to enter my real world half way through the track .. it was a sort of fuck you to all those pleasant little trip hoppers
The Seizure Ep came second and has Insomniac on it which has featured on a lot of compilations and been used on TV. Same thing really... track starts off ok but scuzzes up half way through...
basically i get bored quickly....
Then came the Incubus and Succubus eps as a double release... probably not the best idea as we didnt really want a dble release
I still have some spare vinyl copies of all of em if anyone wants...
Listening to these again Fantod is right the A sides are much the strongest and all 3 of em are directly related to Slab...."Killer Moses" becomes Slab in interstellar space with the ghost of Miles Davis... "Insomniac" has a driving dirty mutha of a bass and absolutely no one had made a screeching synth sound like the hook line before that record... and Icarus is fucked up hypnotic space Slab meets 2001 on a mission to god knows where...
the b sides were (with the exception of Hanging Garden) a bit shite....
and I should add that I wrote most of those tracks with my wife Lily Bath... or she'll stab me... only joking honey...
New links:
FS MF ZS
any chance on a re-up, both links are dead
sorry, didn't see the new links, i used to spin the seizure ep regularly at club night i did back in the 90's.
thank you!
Any chance of a re-up? I've tried all the links and they appear to be deleted.
Great blog btw.
Sorry. Just figured it out.
I first heard Insomniac on the radio early 95 (if not earlier) and had a dodgy tape recorded copy of it with the first 30secs missing, year later or so I found a mix on dope on plastic 4 (though it never sounded exactly the same and had an extra sample in it i think?) and over the last 20 years I have always thought this was one of the finest tracks of the era. I'm trying to find a digital copy of it now to buy or download and found yet another version with yet another added sample, anyway, for what it's worth, I think it is a superb track and has brought me a lot of pleasure, so mr moses, if you're reading this, thanks a lot!!!
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