Frugal Justine from Meanderthol by Full Crumb

For the last forty seconds of this song the 424's fader was kept up after the vocal take had finished, so that the wren's calls could be recorded. That wren crops up on several other songs (I need to keep better notes on this stuff so I can pinpoint which ones!).

Their song is quite shrill yet also melodic, and they're weirdly brave. I watched one attack our big tom cat. It flew like a Japanese kamikaze straight into its midriff. The cat must've seemed like a massive US aircraft carrier - the wren battered into his side, bounced off, and flew away back to its favourite bush. Our cat flinched momentarily as if to say wtf dude. But that was all, really.

In any case, back when the Full Crumb studio was based in the old static caravan (Constellation 27 as it said on the side), wrens' song was often audible in the background of vocal takes or at the end of a track.

I also noticed their Latin name is Troglodytes - and then remembered there's a track on one Full Crumb album called Dear Mrs. Troglodyte. It's purely coincidental, but it does make you wonder if psi-power is an actual thing, and that Full Crumb have special mind powers that just need to be honed and harnessed in order to destroy enemies, install authoritarian regimes, and go wild in the streets. Wild, I tell you.

Intrepid adventures through the 4-track cassette wilderness. Emphases on DIY-fi pop, rock, found sounds, field-recordings, short-wave, psych, anti-folk, pro-folk, garage groove and post-punk exploration. Inspired by krautrock, Ramones, GbV, MBV, new-wave, Husker Du, BBC Radiophonic stuff, Von Südenfed - and that's not even the half of it. Bring packed lunch, torch, compass and spare mind.