A review of “Transcript” by Frans de Waard is now online in Vital Weekly 824

“For a long time best known as Cheapmachines, Phil Julian now works, from time to time, under his own name, and while I am not sure what makes the difference, his output has always been quite diverse. From noise to ambient to electro-acoustic and anything that might make a cross-over between all of that. Here he returns to lo-fi sound sources: blank cassette tapes (bulk erased, endless loop, vintage, new), cassette decks (stereo, mono), personal stereo and dictaphones and the music is recorded with cassette recorder, telephone induction cells, close-range VLF detector, piezo & pvdf film tab contact microphones. ‘Transcript’ has two parts and it makes up quite a minimal set of works, hissy, scratchy but also spacious and mildly noise based. An excellent choice, I’d say, to put these works out on cassette, and unlike some others of this week, the overall sound quality is very good. Julian knows how to construct his sound pieces to keep them both minimal yet interesting and works along the lines of Howard Stelzer in that respect, but also Joe Colley and Jason Zeh as an influence is never far away. Excellent cassette all around.”