Astral Social Club at Catch, Shoreditch

Fragile and furious broadcasts from the noise underground

by Joe MuggsSunday, 17 January 2010

The genial noise-generator Neil Campbell aka Astral Social ClubFatCat records

Neil Campbell is a one-man subculture. In 30 years of music-making in various configurations of improvised rock, psychedelia and electronics, he has released hundreds of hours of recordings, mainly in micro-editions of home-produced cassette, CD or mp3, and collaborated endlessly with a global network of musicians that have fallen through the cracks of genre or stylistic allegiance. Since separating from Leeds-based guitar drone group Vibracathedral Orchestra in 2006, he has mainly concentrated on his activities as Astral Social Club, under which name he performed a relatively rare live set at Shoreditch club night Noise! Noise! Noise! last night.

Explore topics

Share this article

The future of Arts Journalism

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

more New music

Albums of the Year 2024: Katherine Priddy – The Pendulum Swing The Pendulum Swing is one of the great British folk-acoustic albums of the decade

Travis, OVO Hydro review - a Christmas night out with some regrets Sound issues and an odd stage set-up marred the group's homecoming gig

The Unthanks in Winter, Cadogan Hall review An Unthanks Christmas is forever, not just for the season

Albums of the Year 2024: Everything Everything - Mountainhead The Manchester art-rockers seventh album illustrates their unmatched creative vision

Music Reissues Weekly: Hawkwind - X In Search Of Space, Doremi Fasol Latido Must-have box-set editions of two of British rock’s most important albums

Albums of the Year 2024: Samara Joy - Portrait From Grammy triumphs to sonic odysseys: nine of the year's most transcendent jazz albums

Albums of the Year 2024: Mercury Rev - Born Horses An exploration of inner space, freeze-dried electronica, French nursery rhymes and more

Albums of the Year 2024: Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso - Baño María Art that creates it's own (deliriously wild) lane

Albums of the Year 2024: Kneecap - Fine Art The music sector finely emerges from the long shadow of Covid with a bumper year

Albums of the Year 2024: Kenny Barron - Beyond This Place Consistently glorious - nothing less than a very great album

Music Reissues Weekly: Vanilla Fudge - Where Is My Mind The ATCO Recordings 1967-1969 A wild ride with the ‘You Keep me Hanging on’ hitmakers

Albums of the Year 2024: Meemo Comma - Decimation of I A concept album from the perspective of an infected planet provides succour and sustenance

Follow @theartsdesk