Description
Fish Drum is an album by British experimental rock project Secret Archives of the Vatican (fronted by Vince Millett), independently released on cassette-only in 1993. The album was recorded at Appletree Studios in Buckinghamshire, England; with Vince Millett and Phil Goss producing and engineering. All pieces written by Vince Millett (unless otherwise stated) with “Dance for the Earthmaker” written by Jon Payne.
Featuring Vince Millett on guitars, guitar synths, and percussion programming with Jon Payne providing all guitars on “Dance for the Earthmaker” and Jax providing MIDI Sax on “Fish Drum,” “Chalice of Beechwood,” and “Do Not Gnaw Upon the Treeroots”.
Following up 1991’s ‘White Flower of the Blackberry’, this demo finds SAotV evolving more and more into a dub/house band, while still keeping various world instruments in the mix. They even have some rock songs on here like «Dance for the Earthmaker». Well, rocking electric guitars over an electronic beat and samples. Not really industrial, though. More rock. And yes, there are a lot of songs here – but they cover a lot of ground in many different musical styles. So it never gets boring. And they are still going and evolving today – they just released ‘Carved in Ruins’ this month, which explores even different styles of music than this one. But as far as this tape goes, the next one after this was ‘Isa’s Tears’ in 1994. I haven’t seen that one, or really the next four after this tape, so hopefully they will show up some day. [Christian Tape Underground, May 16, 2021]
Cross Rhythms has long eulogised the fascinating recorded experimentations of world music avant guardist Vince Millet (Mr SAOTV) though in the past we’ve had to make reference to technical limitations (of home studio recordings) and a defiantly experimentalist attitude to music that on occasions seemed almost obscurationist. All that’s changed on Turquoise’ though Vince still delights in unexpected instrumentation (listen to that eery er-hu, a Chinese bowed instrument, on «Sun Of My Shadows» or the Tibetan melody on «I Wish To Stay With The Dragons»). On many of the 18 instrumental here (good ol’ Vince is always more than generous with the playing time) he’s added plenty of accessible bass and drums grooves which are, gulp, danceable. To my mind and ears the best ever Secret Archives Of The Vatican and if you’ve any taste you’ll both buy this tape and make sure you catch British Christendom’s most unique talent at Cross Rhythms ’96. [Tony Cummings, Cross Rhythms, April 1996]
Cassette tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Fish Drum”
A2. “Salt Trader Buys A Yuk”
A3. “Dance For The Earthmaker”
A4. “Gelding Of The Devil”
A5. “I Often Wonder Am I… Mad??”
A6. “Fold Your Dark Locks”
A7. “Delight Of The Poet’s Road”
A8. “Sarabande”
A9. “Peacocks Raise Their Heads At The Sound Of The Chariot’s Axle”
Side Two
B1. “Chalice Of Beechwood”
B2. “Gavotte”
B3. “Y Ssaith Gwr A DDaeth Yn Ol O Iwerddon”
B4. “Do Not Gnaw Upon The Treeroots”
B5. “Summer Unlasting”
B6. “The House Of Healing”
B7. “Ex Semine Abrahe”
B8. “Tabernacles”
Note: Fold out j-card, hand-written generic labels on generic SA60 tape.
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