Thursday, January 04, 2007

Don Bradshaw-Leather - ''Distance Between Us''{UK}[1972]

Who the hell is Don Bradshaw-Leather? Not much is known about him, but his self-released LP Distance Between Us (Distance Records, 1972) is certainly one bizarre egg. It's on the infamous Nurse With Wound list of Steven Stapleton's favorite weird records, so it's no wonder that this was brought to my attention by David Late Tibet of Current 93 (and sometime NWW collaborator). David sent me a copy and described it as a strange DIY horror symphony beyond words, and it indeed is dificult to describe. There's hardly a thing about this double LP on the web besides want lists and offers for sale (it seems to be averaging around $200 for original vinyl), though rumor has it that Don was a wealthy hippie (some say a member of Barclay-James Harvest, which David refutes) who was squatting around London in the early 1970's, whereabouts unknown now. The four lengthy tracks here ("Distance Between Us" Parts 1 & 2, "Dance of the Goblins", and "Autumn Mist") are dense, swirling, and hellish tapestries of blurred instrumentation, squawking voices buried in the mix, and seemingly no layout of progression from point A to point B in various movements (i.e. it's all a giant progression, but almost like a dog chasing its tail in a mad frenzy). Tracks have the leanings of some epic Messaien pieces in some ways, though imagine Bradshaw-Leather taking his symphony and filtering it through some kind of lo-fi source like a boombox or something and then just went bananas in the post-mix.(taken from Here)

11 comments:

EelaFree said...

i didnt upload 'Track 4' due to lack of sound quality. i'll upload it as soon as possible.
@192

Don Bradshaw-Leather

Anonymous said...

thanks a bunch for this one. and thanks to the always-awesome david tibet for providing.

Anonymous said...

thanks for the nice music! could you re-upload george romanos's album, please???

Thanx!
Psycho

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this rare lp.

Could you please upload track four when you do, by itself with it's own link.

That way we'll be know when it's up, and it'll be easier to grab..

Thanks

ZaXXoN said...

Excellent post - Glad to add this to my shares. Post more.

Anonymous said...

Merci, sought after posting.
Waiting for Track 4.

Anonymous said...

Hello Eelafree,

Thanks for sharing this magnificent album. It's really something precious. The music is very captivating, haunting even...
And the fact that so little is known about Don Bradshaw-Leather, only adds to the sense of mistery and myth that this record attempts to convey.

Anonymous said...

Hi!
While you find a fine rip of track 4, is it possible to u/l the not-so-good one?
Thx in advance.

Anonymous said...

track 4 please!

Anonymous said...

Crazy music, greatly appriciated!

mblawi said...

I'm pretty certain that Don Bradshaw Leather is Robert John Godfrey, who was an early member of Barclay James Harvest and later formed The Enid. He also made a great solo album in 1973 called The Fall of Hyperion. The piano playing on that album is VERY similar to that on Distance Between Us. It even looks a lot like Robert John Godfrey on the cover picture, if you take away the beard and blackface.

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