4tRECk profile picture

4tRECk

About Me



In existence for about 11 years, 4tRECk / Sam CALLOW makes music based around approaches, such as spontaeneous improvisation, chance, using instruments (piano, guitar, violin, accordion, home-made stringed instruments, percussion, voice..) the "wrong" way, inventive (perhaps illogical) ideas, and detailed composition ... The results are entertaining, with a broad aural palette, and a melancholic undertow. (I'm not sure what an undertow is).
The name 4tRECk is a contraction of 4track recording, in hommage to the humble beginnings of this "homme-orchestre".
Every now and again (let's say every month) the tracklist above will change. There will be new recordings, sketches, live recordings, works-in-progress, and (perhaps) collaborations.
There is a live video recorded in Brighton that you can watch by clicking on videos.
You can buy the 4tRECk album "Je Me Promenade" through Rough Trade (www.roughtrade.com) priced at £9.99 + delivery AND through OPENPLANRECORDS.COM . The album is an hour long, and took about eight years to make. You can read reviews by doing a search on t'internet, or by averting your eyes left for a second..
Please note that the newly added piece "Sligo River Bleues" is a cover version of the John Fahey track "Sligo River Blues" from the album The Transfiguration Of Blind Joe Death.

There is now a 5 Cd box set is only available from the horses mouth i.e. me. Please don't hesitate to email me either via Myspace or to [email protected]. I assemble each one manually and the cost (through Paypal) is this :
20 pounds (uk) 30 euros (europe) 40 dollars (usa)
£ = € = $ =
Also I have a 5 track 7" Vinyl EP, featuring: 'Slave Ship' (Jesus Lizard Cover, not availiable on any CD), 'Socasam' 'Eastern Promise', Frankensinatra' and 'Eye of the Tiger'
Cost is £5
MP3s CAN BE BOUGHT AT ITUNES NOW!!!! FOLLOW THE LINK:itunes.com/4treck

Here is a review from WIRE magazine:
4tRECk
Almost complete ReCordings (1995-2007) 5xcdr
4tRECk, aka London lo-fi multi-instrumentalist Sam Callow, has been hammering away at the portastudio for more than a decade, and 'Almost Complete Recordings' is a record of his progress so far. What could have been an intimidating trawl through one man's unspooling mind soon reveals itself as an embarrassment of lo-fi riches.
This five CD set overwhelms not because of the sheer volume of material, but rather because Callow seems to have been ahead of the game on so many counts: proto-Hauntology, Position Normal-style weird mood Musak and Francois de Roubaix spy movie intrigue rub up against Faustian bricolage and sweet natured acoustica. Unlike similarly 'eccentric' US tape manipulator Ariel Pink, part of whose appeal lies in his distinct lack of quality control, Callow's material hits the mark more or less every time and is rarely less than musically accomplished. He refers to his "detailed approach to arrangement and structure", and all these songs are exquisite miniatures that bear repeated listening and frequently prove naggingly memorable.
If Callow can be said to belong to any kind of lineage, then it's that of Joe Meek (particularly on the third disc, perhaps the pick of the bunch), Lawrence Hayward, XTC's Andy Partridge (whose Fuzzy Warbles demo series features wobbly instrumental intervals similar to those on display here) and the Ghost Box crew, talented artists working wonders within limitations either self-imposed or unavoidable.
Yet despite its monomaniacal origins, this is ego-free music, imbued with joy yet never cloyingly so. As Callow's cover versions of Survivor's 'Eye of the Tiger', the Airwolf theme and the Jesus Lizard's 'Slave Ship' (not included here) might suggest, his propensity for prettiness is balanced by an abiding attraction to supposedly unworkable juxtapositions. If this is what toil - or rather play - in relative obscurity is capable of producing, it's tempting to selfishly hope that 4tRECk remains a marginal figure, even if he deserves the widest possible audiences this kind of intimate music can attract.
WIRE 2007 by Joseph Stannard

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/05/2006
Band Website: www.4track.co.uk
Band Members: Sam Callow

Influences: BUy 4tRECk MP3 s here!: itunes.com/4treck

To became a fan on facebook, go here (more tunes to lsten to as well):
Well, groups or artists I like) : LOcelle mare, Dock Boggs, oud music, appalachian banjo music, wade ward, alan lomax folk recordings, Jean Ritchie, Mariachi, The Jesus Lizard, John Fahey, Shellac, MF Doom, Robbie Basho, Jon - The Singing Dog, Melt-Banana, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Brainticket, John Peel, Larry David, Love, Neutral Milk Hotel, Palace, John Renbourn, Akaten, Souther Still, Pinback, Langley Schools Project, London Pirate Radio circa '89 - '91, Tom Ze, Moondog, Serge Gainsbourg, Shirley Collins, Yoshida Tatsuya-solo, Vashti Bunyan, Albert Marcouer, Dazzling Killmen, Dusty Springfield, Gastr Del Sol, Nub, Henry Purcell, Battles, Rroselicoeur, Captain Beefheart, Cheval De Frise, Ruins, the Monks, Steve Reich, Daniel Johnston, Geiger Counter, Yona-kit, The Shaggs Led Zeppelin, Optaginally Yours, Joe Meek, Zeni Geva, Sleep, ... that's enough for now
Sounds Like: I've been told in various reviews and comments: Captain Beefheart (instrumentals), The Pascals, Pascal Comelade, Gastr Del Sol, Fred Frith, Jim O'rourke, Robert Wyatt, Philip Glass, Brian Wilson, Legendary Stardust Cowboy, the Wickerman soundtrack, Moondog.

SOME COMMENTS / REVIEWS:

Jolly, and full of grace, 4tRECk's idiosyncrasy works around themes of waltzes, and of other dances that could be of Bohemian, Austrian, French or whatever origin. 'I Go Walkies', as the album title translates, is proportionally speaking, a mind-shattering experience. Callow tried his wit on punk tracks before, coming out with aloosely performed bonanza but there is little of that on 'Je Me Promenade'. The mayhem comes in the thought behind the recording.Maarten Schiethart Pennyblack Music

Eccentric and original record, with some very interesting pieces, some complex rhythmic material (a little after Mats and Morgan) and a strange eclectic mix of other styles and fragments, featuring voice, piano, guitar, drums, melodica, casio, TV, Tape manipulation, vibraphone, accordion, jews harp, junk and so on. (tiny echoes of Beefheart, Zappa, early Americana, Exotica, 60s electronics but essentially this is a highly original confection, so comparisons don't help. Chris Cutler ReR Megacorp

Sam bricole sa musique et certaines mélodies ont l'air de tenir par miracle ou d'exister parce qu'elles se déglinguent. D'authentiques ritournelles dont le côté lancinant permet toutes les explorations derrière, en-dessous ou à côté - et plusieurs niveaux d'écoute pour l'auditeur qui glisse, donc, entre deux mondes.Ma définition de l'enchantement. C'est-à-dire que l'on entend un homme faire de la musique et c'est finalement assez rare. On entend un homme "musiquer" (pour reprendre le beau néologisme de l'ethnomusicologue Gilbert Rouget dans "La Musique et la Transe"). On entend ou l'on croit entendre l'homme qui joue - quelles que soient les manipulations "en studio". Ma définition de la folk music indeed.Alex Pierrepont Jazz En Liberte

4tRECk 'SLAVE SHIP' 7" E.P. By Mats Gustafsson in The Broken Face magazine.
A 7" starting with a musette style cover version - including shockwaves of accordion, sampled percussion and piano - of The Jesus Lizard's "Slave Ship" is all I need to be sucked in. This 12 minute long debut single presents the bizarre worldview of London resident Sam Callow AKA 4tRECk, and as it moves back and forth from folk to electronica, from Beefheartian weirdness to exotica, it becomes very clear that there is no way I'll be able to put a tag on this. "Eastern Promise" sounds like Fahey playing samba music and the odd, slightly Ruins-esque cut up rendition of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" still shakes the foundations of this very house. It comes as no surprise at all that the Pickled Egg imprint are planning to release a 10" 4tRECk compilation later this year. This is right up their genre-defying and surrealistic sound alley.
"Frankensinatra" LIVE

"April 97" LIVE

"Short and Sweet and Sour" (live as a duo)

"Est-ce que tu a vu les levres pulpeuse de la petite mouche" (Live)

"April 97/2007"

"Socasam/French Song" - live at the Boogaloo

"Amazonian People" - live

"Acoustique"- live

Sligo River Bleuse"- live

"Je Me Promenade" - video

"Le Sais Moi"- live

Record Label: 4tRACk RECordngs / Partycul System / unsigned / ..

My Blog

13th ever Newsletter

Hello there In brief: 4tRECk has some gigs coming up in France (Reims and Nancy) and England (London and Exeter) and has a hand-painted one-off cassette release (edition of one!) in an exhibition at C...
Posted by on Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:36:00 GMT

Any filmakers out there who would like a soundtrack to a film...?

Any filmakers out there who would like a soundtrack to a film...? Or anyone fancy making a video to accompany live concerts..? If so, get in touch   cheers
Posted by on Sun, 21 Oct 2007 13:27:00 GMT

I'd like to do more gigs....

If anyone wants to offer me a gig.  I'd be up for it. cheers
Posted by on Sat, 02 Jun 2007 07:11:00 GMT