The Cutty Wren, The Wire magazine review – May 2021
18 April 2021
The Cutty Wren EP
“The first collaboration between ex-Monochrome Set[?]/The Chefs singer Helen McCookerybook and analogue synth composer Willie Gibson is one of the more spirited examples of the by now overfamiliar folk meets electronics template. The three tracks commence with an eight minute version of the traditional song ‘The Cutty Wren’, set to what sounds like Jean-Michel Jarre. ‘Fatberg’, an ode to the mountain of congealed oils and garbage that recently blocked London sewers, braids together several nagging melodies in the idiom of New Order circa 1981.”
Dan Barrow, in the The Wire magazine (Electronics) Issue 447: www.thewire.co.uk
[?] McCookerybook has worked with Lester Square (ex) of The Monochrome Set but hasn’t been in them (although she is now an honorary member).
The Cutty Wren EP released today
09 April 2021
A very limited edition (15) Lathe-cut 10″ vinyl record, and also available as a digital download.
“The Cutty Wren by Helen McCookerybook (whimsy of Vashti Bunyan, zesty harmonies of France Gall) and analogue synthesist master Willie Gibson (stomping synths of the Art of Noise, hints of elegiac Wakeman), is an eclectic three track EP that nods to folk, electronica and prog rock, whilst artfully assimilating McCookerybook’s soul-mining vocals, graceful harmonies and wit. …”
Released on Gare du Nord Records and distributed by Kudos Records:
garedunord.kudosrecords.co.uk/release/gdn45041/willie-gibson-helen-mccookerybook-the-cutty-wren-ep
Buy limited edition Lathe-cut 10″ vinyl record: williegibson.bandcamp.com
Buy digital download: helenmccookerybook.bandcamp.com
‘She’s at the Controls’ book published today
29 March 2021
She’s at the Controls: Sound Engineering, Production and Gender Ventriloquism in the 21st Century
by Dr. Helen Reddington
www.equinoxpub.com/home/shes-at-the-controls
“She’s at the Controls gives a socio-historical examination of the roles of women studio professionals in the UK music industry. At the heart of the book are interviews conducted over six years with 30 female studio practitioners at different stages of their careers and working in different genres of popular music including reggae, hip hop and pop. …”
Moths on ‘Miniatures 2020’ released today
15 March 2021
Miniatures 2020 (Various Artists)
2 CDs, 64 page booklet in a DVD DigiPak case
“This is the third in a noble series: the first was Morgan Fisher‘s now legendary 1980 classic, then in 2000 his expanded volume two; now – another twenty years on – Volume three, an even further extended homage to Morgan’s minimal but cornucopian concept, which was simplicity itself: invite a selected body of artists to make a one minute composition and then group them together in through-listening blocks. This, the 40th anniversary edition, features 124 contributors.”
Track 68: Moths by Helen McCookerybook