rarg

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Welcome to the asylum

of rarg.

 

 

rarg is an avant-garde composer based in the UK, making music out of himself, his surrounding objects and assorted musical devices.

 

Influenced by the likes of Coil, Nurse With Wound, Aphex Twin, Dr. Octagon, Tom Waits, Leafcutter John and Scott Walker, rarg is possibly the oddest noise you will ever hear.

 

Dark, brooding and enigmatic, rarg and his music goes beyond the underground, and into the realms of sound populated by very few daring artists.

 

According to some people, he is a sonic alchemist

 

and possibly

 

very, very wrong.

 

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There is one album available, and another two are nearing completion. rarg composes on a daily basis, so new product is always forthcoming.

The music is available through this website. Please click on to this highlighted text, which should take you where you ought to be going.

This website is supposed to be updated as often as the music is being produced. Come back whenever, and please feel free to email if you have any comments or queries..

(C) All music and content: DJW GREENSMITH 2004

rargNEWS

October 2005

  • I know, I know, it's been a while since I've updated. So spank me.
  • rarg has not been idle. Oh no. Having said that, although rarg.2 is almost complete, the main focus this year has been on the mighty SMOKEHAND
  • Yes, the Smokehand album 'The Last Train' is now available here. Buy it! Buy it now!!
  • Smokehand are gigging in the run-up to Christmas. Have a look at the gigs page to find out if the wild and exotic sound of Smokehand is coming to a venue near you.
  • You can also visit Smokehand's Myspace website. There are some samples, plus it's an easy way to keep in touch with the Smokehand juggernaut!
  • rarg has completed a session for Darius Akashic, that mad, crazy, wonderful dude who hosts totallyradio.com's CROOKED STYLUS. If you've come here as a result of hearing rarg on the show, then a big fat hello to you!
  • rarg.1 is still available, but not many copies are left. You can still get it here.
  • Hopefully more news very soon.

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March/April 2005

  • Belated Happy New Year to you!
  • rarg has been played a few times on Crooked Stylus; a radio show dedicated to the darker side of music that is part of Brighton's www.totallyradio.com. rarg will be curating a show in July!
  • The show from 4th March 2005 is now in the archives, but you can always join the listener's club to hear it. DJ Darius played '1.30 (i)' and 'Architeuthis'. If you caught the show and have come here to check out the site, welcome!
  • rarg.1 continues to sell. Do get hold of a copy while stocks last. Work on rarg.2 is now stepping up a gear or two now that 2005 is well underway.
  • SJ Esau's remix album, 'Stop Touching My Cat', featuring rarg, Twocsinak, Team Brick, Why?, and some other assorted reprobates from Bristol and beyond is now available. Go to his website and check it out for more information. You simply must get a copy as it is a fabulous document of the avant-pop scene in this fabulous city. Esau's new album, 'Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse' is also now available and is frankly excellent, featuring rarg's other half, Meiliung, as a backing vocalist on one track.
  • rarg will be playing drums for the Esau man at the War Against Sleep album launch, 30th April, at the Folk House, Park Street in Bristol
  • Smokehand is playing a few gigs for your diary in the coming months.
  • 29th April - Toucan Club, St. Marys Street, Cardiff
  • 5th May - Aberystwyth University
  • Do come along and support!
  • The Smokehand album is due to be released in July 2005!!! You will buy a copy.

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December 2004

  • rarg.1 is selling pretty well in the run-up to Christmas. It does seem to make the perfect present for the more discerning of you.
  • 'Glass Statue' has been featured on the 'Madvent Chokalender' website, a selection of seasonal delights from the Choke Forum c/o White Trash Ambition.
  • You can find the Chokalender here. Have a flick through all the dates. Like all advent calendars, it reveals a lovely surprise every day, each featuring a guest band. Unlike some advent calendars (for example, a cheap Thomas the Tank Engine one for rarg and a Barbie one for Meiliung), this one does not contain poor-quality chocolate and frankly shit pictures of baby Jesus. rarg's contribution is the choice soundtrack for December 7th.

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November 2004

  • rarg.1 is being duplicated by machines this very month, and the album should be available in time for Christmas. The cover was completed a few short weeks ago by Meiliung, rarg, and our friend Lucy, who is very very good at this sort of thing.
  • Music, music, music and occasionally horrid things like a day job and real life are the order of the day. If it seems like time is dragging on and there is not enough happening on this website, it's probably due to:

    a) Boredom/ennui/depression/fed up/listless

    b) Too many other things to do - housework, cooking, doing "stuff", and the like.

    c) Guests popping round and doing for me what persons from Porlock did for Coleridge. Thank heaven for Meiliung and her skill with cocktails.

  • During all this time, the splendid Phil, who writes and directs plays, is talking with rarg about the possibility of further collaboration. As the last few projects together have been extraordinarily fertile for rarg and potential album ideas/material, this should be one to watch. Watch this concave space.
  • Smokehand are increasing their gig rate and the album is incoming. Next gig is The Barfly in Cardiff on 12 November supporting Nick Harper. After that, it's 20 November at Aberystwyth University. If you can make either of those gigs, it would be great.

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August 2004

  • The constant tide of work keeps flooding onwards. rarg.1 is now finished and awaiting some sort of cover design. rarg and Meiliung will probably do that in the next few weeks.
  • More music, as ever. rarg.2 is being mucked about with so that there is going to be an absolute ORGASM of sound. Track listing is being quibbled over, so bear with us until the body is in the bag.
  • There is a purpose to all this bragging, which is to say that we're beginning the hype for rarg.2. Of course, you may also wish to know that the hype starts HERE for the new Smokehand album, which is also having cover negotiations. An October release is anticipated.
  • You may have noticed some shiny new pics around the site. rarg, Meiliung and Meiliung's poetic brother Pip went on a photo rampage just recently and the results are now doing the business on the website. Enjoy!
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May.2004

  • New rarg website and hurrah for that! Please feel free to have a bit of a nose around and bookmark for regular updates...
  • rarg's true identity is busy with the finalising of the Smokehand album, 'The Last Train'. We're just waiting for sleeves and suchlike to be finished. Gigs and release date will be announced shortly. Watch this ever-changing space.
  • rarg has been asked to remix a track by Bristol-based singer-songwriter, and all-round psychedelic funster, SJ Esau. The original track, 'Dream o' Sweetness' featured on SJ Esau's marvellous album, 'Queezy Epiphany Coming Through The Wall', features Meiliung (rarg's significant other) on vocals. rarg has re-recorded Meiliung's vocals and done some of his usual techniques (i.e. mucking about) to create a massive, dark, epic track which completely turns on its head the original song, which can best be described as pleasant whimsy.
  • The track may or may not see a release on this site (maybe as part of a future rarg release? Who knows?), but will certainly (possibly/probably) be part of SJ Esau's remix album 'Stop Touching My Cat', to be released along with his third album. Don't ask me when that'll be, you'd be better off contacting the SJ Esau man himself.