Discreet Frequencies

Discreet Frequencies Machars Action Remixed was originally released on the 3rd of September 2021 at 6pm on The Dark Outside tape label (TDO43) in a limited edition of 75 cassette tapes which all sold out in 44mins (thedarkoutside.bandcamp.com/merch/sheer-zed-discreet-frquencies-machars-action-remixed). When I was a child in the early 1970s I used to tune into Radio Luxembourg with a small cheap transistor radio that I listened to under the bed clothes with a torch (flashlight if you’re American), slowly slipping across the radio stations, white noise, and strange unidentifiable signals. I heard Kraftwerk’s Autobahn for the first time this way. It blew my mind. I thought aliens had landed and re-created what they thought they had experienced travelling down a German motorway using sound as a scientific recording medium. All manner of radio transmissions, from these early encounters, right through to my fascination with pirate radio stations in North London during the early 1990s (“Transmission one in the lock up mate, in the lock up!”) have continued to enchant and intrigue me. When Stuart first began The Dark Outside I was excited by not just this truly original and unique idea but also by the breadth and depth of creativity that surrounded and poured through it. Now after slightly over just ten years since 2012 this idea still manages to weave a spell of wonderment and pioneering exploration. When Stuart then released the first Machars Action tape on his superb TDO tape label I fell immediately in love with the idea. Even though The Conet Project’s Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations hold much to cherish, it’s the Machars Action releases for me that endure and glow with a surreal and sublime mystique. So here then is Discreet Frequencies Machars Action Remixed from someone somewhere who still in part lives in and of the spectrum, reinterpreting Machars Actions SDR Recordings whilst daydreaming of Kraftwerk and remembering his very first sanctuary under the bed clothes. - Sheer Zed, August 2021. Sheer Zed would like to thank; Stuart MacLean (aka @frenchbloke) of The Dark Outside, Mum, TQ zine, Tak Tent Radio, Anticipating Nowhere, Rituals & Declarations zine, Indie Shaman magazine, Folklore Thursday, www.thethaioccult.com, Mae Surasatee, Bandcamp, Kraftwerk and Spydeee Gasmantell. Audio production, remixing and mastering by Sheer Zed. Album cover designed by Stuart MacLean (aka @frenchbloke) of The Dark Outside (thedarkoutside.bandcamp.com).