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23 Skidoo \ Beyond Time [TWI 1223]

Beyond Time is a soundtrack album by acclaimed experimental group 23 Skidoo, released as a special double disc edition combining their score for the 2011 documentary film, and a DVD of the film itself.

Directed by Alex Turnbull and Pete Stern, Beyond Time is a journey into the life and work of artist William Turnbull, from his modest roots as the son of a Dundee shipyard engineer to his standing as one of the world's most highly regarded modern sculptors. Narration is by Jude Law. "An insightful, irreverent documentary, yet with a palpable sense of purpose" said the Daily Telegraph, with the Guardian confirming that "William Turnbull helped change the way we see art today."

The soundtrack music is performed by 23 Skidoo. Formed in 1979 as industrial, post-punk and funk genres coalesced, the group included Bill Turnbull's sons Alex and Jonny together with Fritz Catlin and Peter 'Sketch' Martin. As well as new music, the score features several re-worked versions of older material. "Johnny and I thought 23 Skidoo's anti-commercial tendencies came from a punk sensibility," explains Alex. "But it turns out we had a genetic predisposition to anti-establishment practices. Bill was a polymath at a time when that was a dirty word, shifting between sculpture and painting and putting both in a symbiotic relationship. Now crossing boundaries is everywhere: think of hip-hop. The name of the band referenced a William Burroughs short story. Burroughs used, as we did, cut-up techniques, collaging and sampling. We were oblivious to the fact that a lot of that aesthetic was in what Bill did until I made the film."

Both the CD and vinyl versions of Beyond Time include a Region 0 NTSC format DVD of the documentary (with bonus features), but feature different artwork. The CD/DVD package features a portrait of Bill by photographer Ida Carr, while the vinyl/DVD version features a detail from 05 by William Turnbull (oil on canvas, 1959) printed on matt reverse board.

CD + DVD tracklist:

1. Dawning (version)
2. AYU (ambient)
3. Calypso
4. Interzonal
5. Kendang
6. Contemplation
7. Helicopterz
8. Urban Gamelan
+
Region 0 NTSC DVD

LP + DVD tracklist:

A1. Dawning (version)
A2. AYU (ambient)
A3. Calypso
B1. Kendang
B2. Contemplation
B3. Helicopterz
B4. Urban Gamelan
+
Region 0 NTSC DVD

Design concept by Neville Brody. Vinyl + DVD version contains free download.

Available on vinyl + DVD, CD + DVD and digital (MP3 or FLAC - music only). To order any format please first select correct shipping option (UK, Europe or Rest of World) and then click on the Add To Cart button below the cover image. Digital copies are supplied by link via email.

Or, you can order with the option of tracked shipping from our friends at Burning Shed (click here to order)

To redeem your free download after purchasing a copy of the vinyl edition please visit Darla Records. Log in to your account, or create one if you have not already done so. Under MENU (on left) on the page you land on when you log in, click on "Add a Coupon or Voucher". You can enter your download code here and proceed to checkout. Adding the code here will add the item to your cart and zero out the cost so that you can check out for free.

Beyond Time [TWI 052]
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Beyond Time [TWI 1223]

Reviews:

"The quasi-industrial reputation of 23 Skidoo always did them a disservice. Their best work blends exotic menace with a Zen-like composure. Beyond Time, their first album in 15 years, is often closer to the music the group made during their 2000 comeback - jazzy breakbeats on Dawning, turntable scratching and spectral sax on Interzonal, although a retake of 1983's Urban Gamelan remains a thing of cold dread. Calypso shows how the group remain one of the most durable and underrated British post-punk bands, looping a steel-drum sample over expansive, Eno-esque terrain" (Uncut, 04/2015)

"New track Calypso, with its subtly distorted guitar and overall nod to gamelan and Steve Reich, is well worth a listen. Elsewhere AYU (Ambient) is a beautiful, perfumed sound" (The Wire, 05/2015)

"As film music the score's conscientiously unobtrusive. Opener Dawning (now with its Pharoah Sanders sax excised) is low-temperature trip-hop, while Calypso's gliding minimalism and Urban Gamelan's chiming South East Asian soundworld are similarly discreet. Even without the estimable documentary, they serve as an inviting means of letting the mind's eye defocus" (Q, 04/2015)

"23 Skidoo are pioneers in subversive avant-funk-punk, experimental tribal and industrial music. Beyond Time is the soundtrack to a documentary directed by Alex Turnbull, and while the music is less frenetic than, say, the astonishing Seven Songs from 1982, it's as mesmeric as usual" (Classic Pop, 06/2015)

"As musical accompaniment to William Turnbull's visual imagery and bronze icons, 23 Skidoo's soundtrack juxtaposes perfectly in sparking off coloured patinas and twisted moulds to their mutual benefit. Much of the featured music has been re-purposed from 2000's self-titled album, at the time regarded as a retreat from the revolutionary fervour of their earlier releases in favour of renewal as a more blissed-out Massive Attack. But the material has worn well in the intervening years. Dawning (Version)'s smoky piano groove, vinyl crackle and hint of mixology yearns for an urban aesthete's endless Sunday afternoon of the soul, while Ayu (Ambient) alchemises In A Silent Way's organ phrases into translucent vapour. Away from these tracks, Calypso incorporates disco minimalism with churning rhythmic loops, while the remaining pieces fashion ancient tools with modern methodology into Urban Gamelan. Here, once again, we hear the Turnbulls and their working partners hinting at potential new designs for living and maintaining the possibilities of transfiguration from a bagful of dust" (The Quietus, 05/2015)

"Written by 23 Skidoo, Beyond Time's unobtrusive accompaniment is comprised of reworked and new material including new versions from the band's self-titled 2000 long-player, as well as a revisit of Urban Gamelan. Pick of the bunch is the new and beautiful cyclical Calypso, a remarkable eight-minute masterpiece sitting somewhere between Reich, Roedelius and Hillage, a musical sculpture that hypnotically concludes with brain-rattling downbeats and distorted riffs" (Flipside, 03/2015)