Birchville Cat Motel

Birchville Cat Motel is a one-man experimental music project formed by Campbell Kneale from Wellington, New Zealand. Although largely unknown in his home country, Kneale has toured throughout Japan, America, Europe, and Australia. His first vinyl release was Jewelled Wings on the Freedom From label. Many of Kneale's rare and out of print recordings have been reissued recently on a 6cdr collection entitled Chaos Steel Skeletons.

Kneale operates the labels Celebrate Psi Phenomenon and Battlecruiser which have issued CDs by artists from New Zealand and overseas, including Matthew Bower (under the name Mirag) and Simon Wickham-Smith with recent releases by Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson and one involving Tony Conrad. Kneale has used Birchville Cat Motel as a vehicle for many collaborations with other musicians, including Lee Ranaldo, Neil Campbell, and Bruce Russell. He also records under the names Black Boned Angel and Ming and compiled the Prince tribute album Shut Up Already Damn!. After being active as Birchville Cat Motel for 10 years, Campbell has recently disbanded this project to focus on his new project Our Love Will Destroy The World.

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Birchville Cat Motel is the artist name for which noise monger Campbell Kneale first garnered some critical acclaim. His own blend of out-of-this-world noises and layers and layers of resonant drones were something quite unheard of before. To think he comes from a country renowned for it's peculiar underground noise bands (Dead C, Gate to name but two), it is surprising it took so long for Kneale to emerge and get some recognition. His earlier efforts were much louder and harsher than his later works; but as his career progressed, so did his sound. From a cold and uninviting blizzard of thick noise, it matured drastically and with time, a sense of dramatics has established itself within the thick layered drones. New, strange and exciting sounds surfaced and gave the noise an exotic touch which kept it from becoming tedious. Kneale has always been extremely prolific releasing album after album under the Birchville Cat Motel moniker; usually in very small editions (not unlike Acid Mothers Temple) on his own Celebrate/Psi/Phenomenon label (which is also responsible for releasing albums by Kemialliset Ystävät and Simon Wickham-Smith). But he is also known for his works under his own name, his collaborations and various other artist names he has used through the years on both his and other labels. No need to say his body of work is huge, just like his sound. Elements of doom metal have recently surfaced in his work and he's even put together a new label, Battlecruiser, dedicated to these metal tendencies.

• 1997 - Birchville Cat Motel - 192 Kbps
• 1998 - Siberian Earth Curve - 192 Kbps
• 1999 - Blankangelspace - 192 Kbps
• 1999 - Lion Of Eight Thousand Generations - 192 Kbps
• 2000 - Cranes Are Sleeping - 192 Kbps
• 2000 - Crop Circle Empires - 192 Kbps
• 2000 - Shapeshifter - 192 Kbps
• 2000 - Swarming Tamagotchi Plague - 160 Kbps
• 2001 - Droop Drone Drops [with Eso Steel & MSBR] - 320 Kbps
• 2001 - Galleries 4-6 [with Doe & Eso Steel] - 224 Kbps
• 2001 - Jewelled Wings - 256 Kbps
• 2001 - We Count These Prayers - 320 Kbps
• 2002 - Birchville Cat Motel vs. The Ecstacy Trio - 192 Kbps
• 2002 - Creeping Frost Onset - 192 Kbps
• 2002 - Crestfallen / Winters Crackling Glory - 320 Kbps
• 2002 - Home - 157 Kbps
• 2002 - Long Vanished Spirals - 192 Kbps
• 2002 - Mighty Spine Catcher - 192 Kbps
• 2002 - September - 192 Kbps
• 2002 - Vespertine - 224 Kbps
• 2002 - White Ground Elder - 256 Kbps
• 2002 - Serene Trajectories [with Eso Steel] - 224 Kbps
• 2002 - Under Nagoya [with Kuwayama Kiyoharu] - 192 Kbps
• 2003 - Assholes Of The World Unite And Hunt In Packs [with Guilty Connector] - 192 Kbps
• 2003 - Birchville Cat Motel / Bruce Russell - 185-210 Kbps
• 2003 - Glass Harvest Mason - 192 Kbps
• 2003 - Screamformelongbeach - 192 Kbps
• 2003 - Summer's Seething Pulse - 192 Kbps
• 2003 - British Steel [with Neil Campbell & Phil Todd] - 192 Kbps
• 2003 - Btwxt / Bdvld [with James Kirk & Kim Pieters] - 192 Kbps
• 2003 - Untitled [with Neil Campbell] - 192 Kbps
• 2004 - Beautiful Speck Triumph - 192 Kbps
• 2004 - Chi Vampires - 320 Kbps
• 2004 - Nurse - 320 Kbps
• 2004 - Split [with  Reynols] - 192 Kbps
• 2004 - With Maples Ablaze - 192 Kbps
• 2004 - Hiss Methodologies [with Antony Milton & Richard Francis] - 185-274 Kbps
• 2004 - The Silver Chair - 192 Kbps
• 2005 - 30th December 2004 [with Lee Ranaldo] - 320 Kbps
• 2005 - Firepower Fragrant Cloud - 128 Kbps
• 2005 - Live At Cuba Street Carnival & Huttstock [with Antony Milton & DEL 'Noise'] - 192 Kbps
• 2005 - Stellar Collapse - 320 Kbps
• 2006 - Chaos Steel Skeletons #1 - 320 Kbps
• 2006 - Chaos Steel Skeletons #2 - 320 Kbps
• 2006 - Chaos Steel Skeletons #3 - 320 Kbps
• 2006 - Curved Surface Destroyer - 149-239 Kbps
• 2006 - Pink Stalingrad - 192 Kbps
• 2006 - Her Anger Is Limitless - 320 Kbps
• 2006 - Our Love Will Destroy The World - 320 Kbps
• 2006 - Split [with Yellow Swans] - 320 Kbps
• 2006 - Untitled [with Opaque] - 320 Kbps
• 2006 - Untitled [with Mattin] - 320 Kbps
• 2007 - Astro Catastrophies - 320 Kbps
• 2007 - Birds Call Home Their Dead - 320 Kbps
• 2007 - Bird Sister Blasphemy - 320 Kbps
• 2007 - Fear Falls Burning & Birchville Cat Motel - 184 Kbps
• 2007 - Seventh Ruined Hex - 320 Kbps
• 2007 - The Frog Prince - 320 Kbps
• 2007 - Three Sparkling Echoes [with Anla Courtis] - 191-192 Kbps
• 2008 - Four Freckle Constellation - 192 Kbps
• 2008 - Gunpowder Temple Of Heaven - 198 kbps
• 2008 - Second Curved Surface Destroyer - 320 Kbps
• 2009 - Live [with Antony Milton & with throats as fine as needles] - 320 Kbps
• 2011 - Came A Great Stallion Whose First Leap Sparked The Celestial Star - 274 Kbps
• 2013 - Sprang A Great Stallion Whose First Leap Sparked The Celestial Star  - 320 Kbps
• 2014 - Alpine Pacific Triangle - 256 Kbps
• 2015 - Fake Capricorn - 320 Kbps
• ???? - China Slope [with Small Blue Torch] - 128 Kbps
• ???? - Glamourpuss - 154-240 Kbps

See also Invisible Pyramid compilation with  Campbell's participation

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