The Shadow Ring - Wax-Work Echoes LP

For me ‘Wax-Work Echoes’ (1996) was the missing piece of The Shadow Ring puzzle. I’m of an age where ‘Hold Onto ID’ (1997) was readily available as a cheap CD, and Swill Radio had a secret stash of their final 3 albums if you asked nicely enough (thanks Scott!!!). The third album by this Kent duo-cum-trio was released in our hemisphere via Bruce Russell’s Corpus Hermeticum label. I wonder if it had any presence in this country at the time?

A bit over a decade ago I finally acquired WWE, directly from Bruce, as a last minute bargaining chip The Dead C’s artist contract for when they played R.I.P. Society’s 5th Birthday Party at the Sydney Opera House (thanks Bruce!!!). Even though I’d been thrashing all their other albums, this was no less an incredible chapter in one the most bewildering sound worlds of the 90s (and noughties).

The truly significant development in this album is that Tim “The Boss” Goss is now on board, adding his delightfully busted electronic work that sit somewhere between the early UK DIY homespun synth stylings of Robert Rental and the uncanny tape murk of Wolf Eyes/American Tapes/Hanson Records, to their “outsider” folk, fringe of DIY, for-fans-of Ivor Cutler and Alternative TV sound. All the pieces are in place for their even further deconstruction of the band dynamic.

‘Wax-Work Echoes’ feels as bewildering and engaging as when I first heard it. Openly no-frills avant-garde that gets the imagination spinning and might even produce a chuckle or two. I’m so glad these fellows decided to muck about with music! — Nic