My Inspiration: Lloyd Bolton (Kitchen Practice) – Into Practice Vol. 2

Newcastle and London-based indie label Kitchen Practice Records release the second of their multidisciplinary compilations, Into Practice Vol. 2, on Friday 16th September. The album showcases new music from their existing roster (Spider Noises, Frank Lloyd Wleft, Pink Poison and Friends of the Monday Table) and introduces some associates of the label to the mix, with music from In Tongues and eriCal mcCracken and poetry from Nick Veerapen (Women’s Fashion, No Country for Thin Men) and Sophie Muir (of the Gobjaw Collective).

To launch the release there will be a showcase gig on Thursday 15th September at Little Buildings, featuring Frank Lloyd Wleft, Spider Noises and eriCal mcCracken plus India Arkin. 

Into Practice Vol. 2 will be available via Bandcamp on Friday 16th September. Here, label founder Lloyd Bolton tells us what inspired it.

Into Practice is Kitchen Practice’s compilation series, which pushes against the boundaries of sound-based releases. Each instalment brings together work across a range of forms to make for an experience that is creatively stimulating in its unpredictable variation. This year’s collection features music alongside poems, prose and sound art.

The compilation is a time-honoured vehicle for labels to showcase their artists and introduce new ones. I love record labels like Slow Dance and Milk! for the way their releases and showcases illustrate the artistic communities they come from. Slow Dance’s annual compilations in particular play like time capsules for a moment in London’s underground music scenes. With Into Practice, we wanted to share some of our favourite new work, but also to build on the sampler compilation format to create something with agency as an entire piece. 

In this respect, we draw heavily on the blurring of formal boundaries that attended modernism in response to technological and theoretical developments. Many of the most influential artistic groups of the early Twentieth Century produced work across disciplines, their legacy becoming rooted in this refusal to be restrained by existing artistic practices. The Dada Movement(s), argued to represent the greatest influence on the subsequent history of ideas in Western society (check out Codrescu’s The Posthuman Dada Guide!), were defined by ephemerality and interdisciplinarity as they deconstructed, criticised and reinvented everything, especially themselves.  With ‘Into Practice’, we hope to open minds to creative horizons that would not be breached on a standard 40-minute album.

This collage production also feels appropriate to the contemporary means of engaging with culture. A scroll through Instagram throws every kind of art at us, and we are developing a mental agility to be able to bounce between these things and pick out what we like. The compilation is essentially a series of recommendations, presented in this manner out of trust that a listener can comfortably navigate its contents, which we feel complements itself across formal differences. Like a tastemaking feed, or a zine, or some bizarre radio station, this is a welcome into an extended universe of strange and interesting things. 

This year’s selections represent where Kitchen Practice is at but is also adorned with other interesting work we have come across over the past year. Representing our roster, we spotlight existing releases from blues punks Pink Poison and London cowboy-dandy Frank Lloyd Wleft. We also offer a taste of things to come as we debut new material from Gilesgate poet laureate Spider Noises and ambient-electronica duo Friends of the Monday Table. Completing the list of returning features is Nick Veerapen, ex- of Women’s Fashion and No Country for Thin Men, this year breaking out on his own with a poem from a fantastic new collection he is working on.

eriCal mcCracken is a really interesting addition to this year’s collection. eriCal got in touch last year enthusing about Into Practice Vol. 1 and was moved to share a handful of tracks recorded in a kitchen in Reykjavik (apt for the label, being called Kitchen Practice ‘n’ all). We loved what we heard and so, with a nice circularity, we are releasing those into the world on this year’s collection.

I came across Sophie Muir at a poetry open mic in London (Blue Shout). I went along to read my ‘Gilesgate Monologues’, which featured on Vol. 1 and before I went on there she was reading a piece remarkably similar in tone and content. ‘I am a Princess’ straddles academia, pub trips and inanity, comparing the validity and mystique of favourite bands with respected philosophers. The piece is a great introduction to Sophie’s work and we hope to be working with her more in future.

Our last introduction to the KP fold for this compilation is In Tongues, a fantastic band based out of a garage in West London. Their music resists formal and stylistic boundaries, balancing between post-punk and UK bass. ‘No Stable Way’ is a particularly suitable track for our collection, a spoken word piece arranged for a band. In Tongues are one of London’s most exciting new bands and we’re thrilled to have them involved in the compilation.

To put it simply, the inspiration for the compilation comes from its contents. Tracklisting is dictated by the pieces that catch our attention and form is inspired by the diversity of creative outlets available to us. We want to showcase anything interesting that can be recorded and encourage people to play around with form.