Scud & Nomex: Maschinenbau EP
Scud & Nomex
Maschinenbau EP
Praxis 56
cut at Finyltweek by Shane
330 copies pressed at Optimal
Official release date 08-10-2018
Maschinenbau was a label run by DJ Scud from Ambush and Nomex from Adverse which released only two 7”s in 1997/98. The first, Eurostar/Piling Machine, was limited to just 300 copies. It combined psychogeographical exploration and field recordings with Amiga-produced non-conformist breakcore and noise-abuse, while the second one, Total Destruction, became a classic of breakcore / noise crossover with several appearances on compilations such as Collision Drive on PIAS (compiled by Kevin Martin, aka The Bug), but nevertheless fell into relative obscurity – like most of the great early breakcore – during the following decade. Listening back, one can only be astounded by the raw energy and urgency of these tracks.
Twenty years after the original 7”s, Praxis is proudly releasing a 12” with all four original tracks in
October 2018 with the catalogue number Praxis 56.
‘Ambush meets Adverse to proliferate and diversify into Maschinenbau. On Eurostar the concrete sound source of a high speed train engine is cut up to provide bass sears, rumbles of re-harnessed energy and grainy Doppler-effects. These dense timbres are set into further movement by tinny breakcore rhythms and quicksand sucks to create a vertigo of sound quality and a collage of propulsions. If this track blows out the ‘the battle of the bass sound’ at the same time that it is distantly ironic then Pilling Machine does the same for the hardcore 4/4 kick by making a construction site mobile and ever relocatable. Waves of noise, a kitsch refrain and a voice sample move in and out of the ever more insistent pacing, waging a guerrilla struggle in defiance of the irrovocable tyranny of the 4/4. Rhythms make light aural tonnage.’
Flint Michigan in Datacide 3.
‘Scud’s best union of post-industrial scuzz, bionic steppers’ riddims and rootical reggae was his mind-boggling collaboration with Nomex, “Total Destruction” (1998) on the Maschinenbau label. With a ragga DJ gleefully singing , “Total destruction, the only solution” in the face of searing whiteouts of white noise and escape velocity “Amen” drum shrapnel, “Total Destruction” sounded like a Sam Peckinpah film breaking out in a Kingston dancehall.’
Peter Shapiro in Drum’n’Bass – The Rough Guide
Shapiro also reviewed the record – along with DJ Scud & Christoph Fringeli’s Bodysnatcher (Ambush 06) in the November 1998 issue of The Wire:
Paul Kidd aka Nomex was a noise musician and video artist. He ran the label Adverse and released a 12” on Praxis titled Trocante Gramofony in 1998 (Praxis 33). Formerly based in Croydon and London, he moved to New Zealand in the early 2000s where he continued his noise research. He died in a motorcycle accident in 2014.
A section of the Almanac for Noise & Politics 2016 is dedicated to him.
Toby Reynolds aka Scud is a DJ and producer who was a co-founder of Ambush, the seminal breakcore label based in South London in 1996. He also co-ran the Transparent label with Isound and collaborated with Panacea under the name The Redeemer on Position Chrome. Currently based in Cape Town, he produces (see Praxis 52) and blogs under the name Prole Sector.
