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lucas abela discography

BIRTHDAYS LP, Anarchymoon / Turgid Animal / All Thumbs Press (2008)

Birthdays consists of two live sets by maverick amplified-glass player Justice Yeldham recorded during his & Keg's recent tour of Europe. If you've never heard of the guy you are in for a bloody treat. Using concert-grade piano contact mics, he amplifies a sheet of glass and plays it with his mouth and face, processing it with pedals attached to his belt, usually barefooted. The results are unworldly, and hearing it you would never imagine what created it, something an Aussie could especially achieve. Like careening assaults of insect spaceships, he transports the listener to other worlds of sound, ending most often in a crash of the glass upon his head. He survives, bloody but alive, never worse for wear in the morning. Side A was captured in Marseille on the eve of Justice's 35th birthday while side B was recorded on Kegs birthday in Porto (for a preview listen at myspace.com/justiceyeldham). And to top off the birthday cheer Keg also did the cover illustration as a gift for Justice's Birthday. Mastered by the god-like Rasheed of Dubplates (Berlin), the record has been collaboratively released in an edition of 600 copies across the world by Anarchymoon Recordings (North America), Turgid Animal (Europe) & All Thumbs Press (Australia).

LIVE IN SEOUL 7", 8mm (2007)

limited to 200 copies. side A - 190 seoul 290405, side B - 189 seoul 280405. Recorded in Seoul, South Korea on two consecutive nights. The second performance was particularly memorable. The venues wiring lets just say wasn't up to Australian operational health and safety standards. Every time Yeldham reached for his pedal belt he was receiving considerable electric shocks, it hurt, but he persevered anyway. The cover art was drawn by audience member Iso during his performance.

CICATRIX. CD ltd 500 copies. (SWEATLUNG) 2007.

After a five-year glass munching junket spanning four continents Justice Yeldham has finally put together 'Cicatrix' the first collection of his face on glass maunderings available on CD on Melbournian imprint Sweatlung. The disc is presented in four distinct parts. Part ONE: His first ever studio recordings Part TWO: Digitally captured pieces taken Justices short lived glass to digital period THREE: Live - 4 live recordings from Zurich, Sydney, Sydney again! and Toronto. Part FOUR: Video - the video that Youtube rejected for inappropriate content! Comes complete with a 24 page booklets of photos of Justices bloody performances from around the world.

REVIEWS.
Justice Yeldham - Cicatrix - Sweatlung CD
Cicatrix is the first full length CD from Australian noisician Justice Yeldham, aka Lucas Abela. Abela's career in sonic terrorism began in the early 1990s – his violent sound effects on a local radio show were heard by Oren Ambarchi and Robbie Avernaim, and he's been gigging every since. This CD features his work with glass, which he first took up in 2003, for its peculiar resonances, the comic/disturbing effect of his face squished up against it, and, I guess, for its tendency to shatter during the performance. Contact mics and noise-effects pedals are connected to a large sheet of plate glass, and Abela smears KY jelly onto the surface and then vocalises – mostly, screams – into it.
The CD features studio recordings, soundchecks from a 2005 tour, live recordings from Zurich, Sydney & Toronto. As a "bonus file" we're a url for the video filmed in Bologna, Italy that youtube rejected for inappropriate content – "inappropriate" because Yeldham is likely to have blood streaming down his face by the end of a performance, from the shattered glass. The sets I saw in Melbourne and Durham were performance art – Abela toys with exhibitionist masochism, and his act has been called a freak show. But he maintains that "The sound is the primary concern," and the CD shows the possibilities of his bizarre medium. The soundchecks in particular have a more reflective, musical quality, but elsewhere Abela motormouths through squalls of feedback scuzz, bubbling and seething noise-terror and mayhem. Over the long haul this is a gruelling listen, but the integrity and obsessiveness with which Abela pursues his unlikely artistic vision can't be questioned.
ANDY HAMILTON - THE WIRE.

YELDHAM, JUSTICE (Sweatlung) cd
What initially sounds like a super distorted overblown recording of Hendrix playing his wild "Star Spangled Banner", or a super grinding fuzz drenched synth noise psych rock blow out, or some insane ultra processed Japanese psychedelic solo guitar freakout, is in fact, a 40 something man, covered in blood, holding a huge piece of contact mic'ed broken glass in his mouth. Huh?
Such is the musical world of Mr. Justice Yeldham. We weren't sure what to expect actually, conceptually we were definitely intrigued. A guy who records himself smashing his face against panes of glass, moaning and humming into the glass resulting in all sorts of bizarre alien sounds, and often ending up with the glass shattering and much blood being shed. He had us at glass and blood. The cd sleeve is even a patchwork of bloodied band-aids (euwww).
But when we finally got the disc, the sounds were just as amazing, maybe even more so than the process, which is definitely a rare occurrence. How many records have we gotten, where the story of the recording was way more fascinating that the resulting music? Way too many. The thing with this Yeldham disc, is it's actually quite listenable as well. Ostensibly a noise record, the sounds here are anything but run of the mill noise, they range from strange fuzzy drones, wailing streaks of coruscating feedback, crumbling synth like blasts (parts of this almost sound like samples from the Justice record!), grinding gnarled squalls of super distorted buzz and every strange fuzzy buzzy stop in between. And every once in a while you have to remind yourself that THIS IS A GUY WITH HIS FACE PRESSED UP AGAINST A PIECE OF GLASS! A piece of glass that just may shatter at any second. And the more feverish and frenzied the sounds become, the more strain is placed on the glass, and the more imminent shatter and bloodshed becomes. So weird, and so goddamn awesome.
Comes in a cool velour lined cd sleeve, adorned with images of band-aids and blood, inside a full color booklet with tons of photos of Yeldham performing live, amazing and intense, some weird, some strangely beautiful, some super disturbing, most of them really bloody!!
Aquarius.

LIVE IN SCHOOL, 7" ltd 400 copies.(load records). 2007.
Two shows in two education facilities. Two schools of thought Analog or Digital. Two sides of a record. Who will win? Which Justice track sounds better, pedals or laptop computer? To vote on our exclusive poll simply purchase the record from Load today and vote on which side rules. The winner (drawn randomly from voters on the winning side) will receive a free live presentation by Justice Yeldham* in their home, in their preferred style.

Side A – 172 MADISON 310305. ANALOG.
Recorded at a student co-op in the college town Madison Wisconsin. Pretty much a straight forward Yeldham set, made a bunch of noise blowing and sucking on a sheet of broken glass, chewed on it, smashed the sheet over his head, bled a little, hardly anyone showed up and even one of his hosts went home early. Miserable school kids on a miserable school night.

Side B – 212 HAMAR 261005 DIGITAL.
Recorded at the fame style, Toneheim Folkehøgskole musical highschool in Hamar Norway. Originally booked to play some stupid arts centre that luckily was double booked with more important people. Fortunately our host worked at the school and managed to move the gig to the assembly hall, and even better yet forced the entire student body to watch! Giving us the biggest audience for the entire Scandinavian tour. The kids loved it the joy was enough to make some faint and others sick.

*next time he happens to be in your town.

LIVE IN BEIRUT, 7" ltd 500 copies.(dualplover/chondritic sound) 2005.
side A - beirut 290504, side B - beirut 020604.
its safe to say that nothing like this was ever witnessed in the lebanease capital before short of the civil war which is how many audience memebers described the sound of the honourable justices performances in the still turbulant city. justice played on a sheet of broken glass he found at the beirut - damascus taxi terminal, an infamous place where many muslims where tortured and killed by the phalangists. the singles cover depicts the sticker that was on the sheet of glass played on the 020604 which was found in the semi ruined building.

LIVE IN LISBOA / MINNEAPOLIS, 7" ltd 500 copies.(dualplover/freedom from) 2005. SOLD OUT!
side A - Lisboa 230204, side B - Minneapolis 051203.
The first publically available offering of the good justices glass munching adventures. Side A features a recording of his bloddiest show ever in Lisboa, Portugal. The snow started when he lacerated his forehead and finished with his Tony Clifton t-shirt soaked in blood, the stain has been lovingly reproduced and screenprinted for the singles cover. Side B captured on a walkman in Minneapolis was not as bloody but that shouldn’t really matter as this is in reality a audio format.

live in germany, 8". ltd 23 copies. (dualplover) 2005. SOLD OUT!
side A - berlin 270104, side B - hamburg 300104.
I n actuality an acteate pressed by the legendary peter king and the 1st justice record released after stubbornly refusing to output material in the first two years of glassing himself. Brought on when he couldn't refuse the beatiful genevieve who asked him to contribute to her editions of 23 project, where 23 people made 23 things and everybody recieved one of everything. Knocking this up was the nail in the coffin for 'never releasing his music'.

yeldham tracks on compilations.

Smiling Through My Teeth, CD, sonicartsnetwork (2008)

For the past seventeen years British artist Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) has been an influential figure in the field of audio visual collage, through her innovative sampling, appropriating and cutting up of found footage and archives. Using collage as her main form of expression, she creates audio recordings, films and radio shows that communicate a humorous, dark and often surreal view on life. People Like Us have previously shown work at Tate Modern, Sydney Opera House, Pompidou Centre and Sonar, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It.

It is relatively unusual to find humour in sound art and even less has been written on the subject. The avant-garde can be a dry and humourless area (and is therefore perceived as such), both in writing and practice. It is not unusual for writers and audience alike to dismiss anything to the contrary; the catch is, humour sometimes isn’t taken seriously, although the reality is, a practitioner has to be extremely serious and accomplished in order to carry off a good piece of humorous work.

Humour and music are commonly perceived as an unlikely pair, but the removal of this expression from the pleasure and appreciation of creative art is impossible. Inflections of wit can be found in the most unlikely of places, from John Cage’s 4’ 33” (using silence in the way Tony Hancock used dead radio air to implicate his own boredom) through to the parody of Erik Satie and Charles Ives, the metric disruptions and misquotations of John Oswald or Stock, Hausen and Walkman, and the mixing of genres by Ground Zero’s Revolutionary Pekinese Opera. The more popular end of sound manipulation is also inflected with avant-garde playfulness. For instance Carl Stalling’s cartoon music, the cut up manipulations of Spike Jones, the chaos and disorder of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and the mash-up exploits of 2 Many DJs. Humour transcends the confines of language and metaphor, opening the receiver’s mind to new ways of experiencing art, and a comprehension of something that may previously have been obscured.

TRACKLIST

01. 3:15 Spike Jones and his City Slickers “William Tell Overture”
02. 2:51 Raymond Scott “Girl at the Typewriter”
03. 2:17 Paul Lowry “I Got Rhythm”
04. 2:53 Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg “9.11 (Desperation Is The Mother of Laughter)” (edit)
05. 1:54 Komar & Melamid and Dave Soldier “The Most Unwanted Song” (edit)
06. 0:58 Ground Zero “China White”
07. 3:16 John Oswald “Pocket”
08. 1:04 Nurse With Wound “You Walrus Hurt The One You Love” (edit)
09. 2:13 Rudolf Eb.er’s Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck “Eel Dog Rap Mix” (edit)
10. 0:28 Nihilist Spasm Band “It’s Not My Fault” (edit)
11. 3:53 ‘The Freddy McGuire Show’ with Anne McGuire, Don Joyce & Wobbly “Dark Days Bright Nights”
12. 4:00 Vomit Lunchs “Total Pointless Guidance Mix” (Stock, Hausen+Walkman)
13. 0:07 Gorse “Interlude”
14. 3:40 Rank Sinatra “Take On Me”
15. 0:51 DJ Carhouse & MC Hellshit “Motha Fuck Mitsubishi”
16. 2:56 DJ Brokenwindow “Kit Clayton vs. Roscoe P. Coltrane”
17. 3:01 Christian Marclay “Maria Callas”
18. 2:35 Viennese Seven Singing Sisters “William Tell Overture”
19. 1:55 M.A. Numminen, Tommi Parko, Pekka Kujanpää “Eleitä Kolmelle Röyhtäilijälle”
20. 3:18 Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic Ribbon Device “Berlin, Germany, 270104” (edit)
21. 1:34 Adach i Tomomi “Lippp”
22. 1:02 Bill Morrison “Single Breath Blow”
23. 0:51 Zatumba “Natchung”
24. 1:12 Nihilist Spasm Band “Going Too Far” (edit)
25. 7:21 People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz “Air Hostess”
26. 0:44 Christian Bok “Ubu Hubbub”
27. 1:14 Gwilly Edmondez “Cock!”
28. 1:47 Spaz “Spaz”
29. 1:34 Komar & Melamid and Dave Soldier “The Most Unwanted Song” (edit 2)
30. 4:20 Xper. Xr. “Ride On Time”
31. 8:49 Richard Lair and Dave Soldier “Thai Elephant Orchestra Perform Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony First Movement”
32. 0:10 Nurse With Wound “You Walrus Hurt The One You Love” (edit 2)

Love and Circuits, 2xCD, Cardbord records (2008)

AUD$10
LESS-LETHAL, vol.1 (ALKU, 2007)$15
A compilation CD about sound-based nonlethal weaponry featuring tracks by Carlos Giffoni, Dave Phillips, Francisco López, Gæoudjiparl van den Dobbelsteen, Justice Yeldham, Lasse Marhaug, Mark Fell, Powerbooks for Peace, Torturing Nurse, Weasel Walter and Zbigniew Karkowski.
Keywords: less-lethal, nonlethal, torture, warfare, noise, crowd control, psychoacoustics.
LESS-LETHAL, vol. 1 is a sarcastic approach to the use of commercially available music in the military context (see Waco, Noriega, etc.) It includes a 16-page booklet with an essay by German researcher Paul Paulun about nonlethal force and its historical relationship with sound and music.
The foundations for this project were laid around 1999, with a long period of research into the equally blurry and fascinating fields of nonlethal weapons (also known as less-lethal weapons) and the behavioral sciences. Over the course of this time, we found that one of the most interesting aspects of this phenomenon – full of mythology and speculation – was the use of commercially available music in the context of armed conflict, torture and crowd control. Particularly the sheer lack of imagination on the part of military experts who resort to the use of pop music as a weapon, by playing it back for painfully long periods of time at very high volumes.
The direct relationship between sound and behavior has been documented outside the military over the centuries, from the musical treatment of mental patients in the Ottoman Empire to Muzak's stimulus progression theory. With this in mind, it was the PSYOP’s complete lack of research which provided an excellent starting point for a challenging musical exercise. Eleven artists were invited to contribute a sound piece that could be used as a weapon in an armed conflict.
The resulting tracks approach the subject matter in radically different ways. Amplitude, duration and repetition may indeed constitute key elements of discomfort, but these tracks all go well beyond that. Exploring dynamics and frequency range, structure, latent content, or various aspects from the realm of psychoacoustics, these pieces pose a stimulating (and less lethal) alternative to the average weaponized AOR.

AUD$10
i don't think the dirt belongs to the grass (carbon records, 2006)$30
triple CD set celebrating 12 years of the carbon records label from rochester USA features an amazing aray of artists and the only justice yeldham track released thus far that was not performed live. the track titled oslo soundcheck was simply that, doing some tests pre show and recording them so i could play back to check the levels then forgot about them was cleaning my laptop of files when i discovered a pocket of tracks i had recorded in this fashion and really liked them completely clean line recordings from my first and only digital tour in europe late 2005.

AUD$10
can buy me love (couch-fort, 2005)$10
features okalahoma city 100305 which was a very interesting gig for me as the venue was double booked with a touring hip-hop show. obviously no one showed up for my stick besides the usual 5 noise nerds in everycity but this time i also had a growing number of american hip hoppers enduring the yeldham magic and soudn of them were blown away by the experience especially when i explained that it was australian beat boxing.

AUD$10
no noise is good noise(noisemachine, 2006)$10
compilation from newcastle australia with 99 short tracks in under 80 minutes.

the swamp comp vol. III 2xCDR ltd 100 (swamp of pus quality media)
compilation of live stuff from colorado, features my 040305 stint at monkey mania.

pre yeldham releases.

albums.

a kombi : music to drive-by (dualpLOVER 1996)
more a documentation of abela's vw kombi van than music of his own device. the van in question began making strange distorted noises after its car stereo was transplanted into a new body after the van rolled on mount tambourine in 1993. these recordings where originally recorded in 1994 but after two years of no ones interested became the reason for lucas to found dualpLOVER recordings.

peeled hearts paste : plover brand (dualpLOVER 1997)
only available collection of abela's earlier instruments. featureing the sounds of his high powered turntables played with handheld skewer and knife styli.

dj smallcock : yinyue (dualpLOVER 2000)
improvised music concrete for love, 9 hours of beijing radio re-recorded down to 50 odd minutes in a single session by simply hammering at the pause button over and over for 9 hours straight on a double cassette deck.

compilations.

SOUN 7"(gameboy records 2003)
many artists submitted tiny tracks to become one track includes pieces by peeled hearts paste and dj smallcock.

AUD$10
swallowed by machinery : volume 3 (forthazel, boise, usa, 2002)$10
features goder by the band from bloody elle a collaberation with label mate swerve played on classical chinesse instruments abela purcahsed while on his chinese odyssey.

popular music for popular people (gameboy records, ohio, usa)
smallcock runs late a collaberation with late from Minneapolis, late providing the source material and smallcock ruining it.

my baby does good sculptures : bananafish 12 (1997).
justice yeldham in it's original manifestation as abelas dream band, features friends oren, robbie, chris, damien attacking radios and other things to create a hit. featured in bananafish 12# companion CD.

no frills (no frills, stanwell park, australia, 2002)
features peeled hearts paste performance from 2002 playing a turntable with top
speed of 2580rpm.

AUD$10
rebirth of fool vol 2 (dualpLOVER 2001)$10 (CDR Version of original reelease in surplus covers)
lucas features on two tracks on this comp. first while not really his work is a secret recording of lucas talking with a hip hop dude in the milk club in shibuya during his tour in japan in 1997. the conversation has then been cut up and music added by masa for the kitchen poofter track. lucas also plays piano on the inspiring and horrifing rendition of private dancer by burner.

compilation : information (imperial records, auckland, new zealand, 2000)
features a live peeled hearts paste set from 1998 performing on a amplified trampoline while sucking on a amplified skewer.

500 lock-grooves by 500 artists (rrrecords, lowell, usa, 1998)
3 seconds of peeled hearts paste can be found somewhere on this record well worth the effort!

rebirth of fool vol 1 (dualpLOVER 1997)
features 3 abela projects, justice yeldham doing a cold chisel number, a dj smallcock track titled love him an excerpt taken from his radio show back in 93 and bass herd a piece orchestrated by inviting people to show up to an early plover event with bass guitar and amp and play anywhere in the room, recording by two roaming recorders who can be heard in the left and right channels respectively.

ground zero : consummation / consuming ground zero, vol.3 (creativeman disc, tokyo, japan, 1998)

the idol competition for remixing Otomo Yoshihide ground zero project. In actuality not a remix as Lucas simply attached the CD to one of his machine turntables and destroyed it with his handheld styli skewers.

ministry of shit (spasticated recordings, sydney, australia, 2003)
features curse of the smallcock, an accapella remix of mya's rnb hit case of the ex. abela's first foray into computer music, using protools he stretched the track as long as it would go then slowly over three or so months moved slithers of the audio information around. some say it would of been easier to put a slight distortion on it but that defeats the point!

cock esp : hurts so good (v/vm test, manchester, uk, 2003)

smallcock esp remix of american noise idiots cock esp.

THE END OF THE FEAR OF GOD : fear of god tribute album
(tochnit-aleph, berlin, germany, 2004)
features fear of smallcock remix of legendary pioneering grindcore outfit fear of god.

BLUNT : a biased history of australian rock.
anthology of blunk zine in bookform, dj smallcock features on companion CD doing a remix of an interview he did for radio national to promote the waht is music festival.

KITCHEN SINK : LIVE.
features very early dj smallcock from his old radio skid row live to air performances from 1994. i titled the track something like this 'i've cooked a few meals in my life and they don't call me a chef, but if you suck one cock?' but for some reason the label ommitted it!

LO-FI KILLERS : V/A DISC_01.
smallcock remixing peeled hearts paste all done in the back of his van during the year he lived in his vehicle.

collaberation and split releases

JUSTICE YELDHAM AND THE DRUMMER WHO WISHES TO REMAIN NAMELESS CDR ltd 40 (dualpLOVER)2007.
after running out of stock in france Justice Yeldham produced this last minute tour souvineer CDR using leftover scraps from aa screenprinting workshop and some recordings a certain drummer didn't want it to see the light of day. after almost 10 years lucas finally lsitened to the recording that were made actually in tokyo in 1998 edited them into pieces and masterred them. when it was ready he contacted the drummer in question to ask where to send the recordings for his consideration on possible future release, without hearing the material the reply was. "please keep our recording as secret private session. I don't want to release it any format." sorry if you bothered to listen to it i may have respected your wishes!

track 3 mp3

track 6 mp3

melange-a-trois ltd 80 (e.t. tapes & cdrs)
compilation of 3 ways collaberations where ventolin orchestra + chettary and JUSTICE YELDHAM submitted some raw amterial and jonathan livingsteven seagal reworked it.

pit viper (imperial records, auckland, new zealand)
one sided 7" featuring a cut up piece based on a live collaboration between pit viper and lucas abela at the 1997 what is music festival in melbourne.

peeled hearts paste / schimpfluch gruppe : no more gun,
live in nippon split 7" (dualpLOVER 1998)
two live shows from consectutive nights during their tour of japan in 97.

noise ramones : rocket to dna (dualpLOVER 1999)
lo fi noise trance piece by EYE + 4 x remixes by dj smallcock.

lucas abela mondo cane : prison food (8mm 2006) CDR edition of only 60 copies.
collaborative between lucas abela (aka justice yeldham & the dinamic ribbon devices) and italy's mondo cane. sounds were recorded live in a 4 track during their last italian tour (february 2006). the result is this 23 minutes huge piece, an intense psychic excursion with some chill-out breaks interrupted by yeldham's giant roars and growls.
the disc comes in a super-sized silkscreened cover by ilcanedicoda.