Malcolm Catto Presents: Quatermass Sound Lab / Strut – By Adam Turner

Wonderful words by the ever erudite Adam Turner. Malcolm Catto‘s East London studio is an under the radar and off the beaten track kind of place, filled with vintage analogue equipment, valve amps, old recording desks and the smell of music being captured live- punk, rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, psychedelia, electronics, the full range of leftfield and outlier sounds. For this 14-track compilation Malcolm has opened the Quatermass Sound Lab archives and unleashed a slew of unreleased songs, alternate versions and different mixes of music he encouraged, recorded, produced, drummed on or summoned out of the ether at various points over the last two decades. The collection begins by stepping inside the bizarro world of Snapped Ankles and their “Shopping Parade”, where sharp synth squiggles battle with rattling snares and chanted vocals, in a 2020s post- punk tirade/ celebration of the unloved and forlorn high street. The song could sound as equally at home in 1981 as 2026. Cyril Cyril‘s “Le…