The Committee For Sonic Research

20/07/2025

Check out this compilation of tracks made by vacant possession and leeg bezit for 'motif', the monthly radio show on grey clay radio, just released on Vacant Possession Records.
vacant possession and leeg bezit have both contributed to the TCFSR Solo Word project.

7 track album

17/07/2025

P.O Box 1439, the recent release of archive material by Except Buses, is currently listed first in the Bandcamp 'Archive' best-sellers category, with BERG 9 by British Experimental Rocket Group hanging in there at no. 9.
Thanks everyone.

13/07/2025

OUT NOW:
'P.O. Box 1439' by Except Buses

In 1985 The Committee For Sonic Research was created in order to self release the work of the band ‘The Working Party’, who became ‘Mr Schmertz’s Wordless War’ who then morphed in to ‘Except Buses’. We have used the name Except Buses for all archive tracks from the 1980s and 1990s.

Cassettes were distributed at concerts in London and also by mail order. The Committee For Sonic Research had a mailbox address P.O. Box 1439. The building on the cover is the Royal Mail West Kensington Delivery Office.

It’s been a decade since we last issued anything from the early years so for the 40th anniversary of TCFSR we have pulled together an Except Buses retrospective. Half of the tracks appeared on cassette released during the late 1980’s, the other half have never been released and are revealed for the first time, thirty five years or so after they were recorded.

A set of Except Buses pin badges is available and come with a link to an additional track that we can’t make generally available.

22 track album

11/07/2025

TO BE RELEASED: On Sunday 13 July
P.O. Box 1439 by Except Buses

In 1985 The Committee For Sonic Research was created in order to self release the work of the band ‘The Working Party’, who quickly became ‘Mr Schmertz’s Wordless War’ after a headline in the London Evening Standard. On 29 Feb 1988 in mid-concert Mr Schmertz’s Wordless War morphed in to ‘Except Buses’ (there’s a VHS of the concert somewhere). The most popular 20th century cassette releases were those of Except Buses, so in this digital age we have used the name Except Buses for all archive tracks from the 1980s and 1990s.

Cassettes were distributed at concerts in London and also by mail order. The Committee For Sonic Research had a mailbox address P.O. Box 1439. The building on the cover is the Royal Mail West Kensington Delivery Office.

It has been a decade since we last issued anything from the early years so for the 40th anniversary of TCFSR we have pulled together an Except Buses retrospective compilation.

Apart from the tracks 'The Pimp' (without which no Except Buses retrospective would be complete) and 'Vice Squad' we have not included tracks from previous archive releases from Except Buses
Solstice 25 tcfsr.bandcamp.com/album/solstice-25
BANKSIDE https://tcfsr.bandcamp.com/album/bankside

24/06/2025

OUT NOW:
'Kairos' by tourmaline hum

It is 40 years today since Simon (Dental Drill) first met Steve (Lone Cosmonaut) in a West London social security office on Monday 24 June 1985. This turned out to be the seminal moment that lead to them creating music together over the next four decades and counting, under a variety of names including Except Buses, tourmaline hum and British Experimental Rocket Group and led to the creation of The Committee For Sonic Research audio label. Shout out to Richard (WarpCensor) who has been integral to all of these projects.

Simon and Steve continue to work together and individually (Richard dropped out of tourmaline hum some years ago but also contributes both individually and jointly to TCFSR) however they feel the tourmaline hum has now run its course (although never say never!). What better time to wrap things up than with a farewell release on the day of the 40th anniversary of their first meeting.

A fuller history is provided on the Bandcamp release page.

4 track album

23/06/2025

TO BE RELEASED: On Tuesday24 June
'Kairos' by tourmaline hum

Simon (Dental Drill) first met Steve (Lone Cosmonaut) in a West London social security office on 24 June 1985, 40 years ago on Tuesday! This was the seminal moment that lead to them creating music together over the next four decades, under a variety of names including Except Buses, tourmaline hum and British Experimental Rocket Group and led to the creation of The Committee For Sonic Research audio label. Shout out to Richard (WarpCensor) who has been integral to all of these projects.

Simon and Steve continue to work together and individually (Richard dropped out of tourmaline hum some years ago but also contributes both individually and jointly to TCFSR) however they feel that tourmaline hum has now run its course. What better time to wrap things up than with a farewell release on the day of the 40th anniversary of their first meeting.

There'll be a fuller history on the Bandcamp release page.

18/06/2025

SOON

30/05/2025

It is five years today since we released BERG 7 (30/5/2020) https://tcfsr.bandcamp.com/album/berg-7.
There has been a small run on BERG 7 sales recently and is now listed first in the Bandcamp 'Hauntological' best sellers. A nice birthday present. Thanks.

17/05/2025

OUT NOW on TCFSR:
'Ostrofon Symphony' an EP of archival material created in 1988 by Dental Drill Slips.
https://tcfsr.bandcamp.com/album/ostrofon-symphony

8 track album

15/05/2025

As an antidote to the Eurovision Song Contest and as part of The Committee For Sonic Research 40th Anniversary, on Saturday 17 May we are going to issue some tracks from our own archive.

Fortunately WarpCensor kept all of the 20th century output of TCFSR on cassette and DAT and with the resurgence of tourmaline hum and TCFSR in 2011/2012 he digitised our entire archive.

The tracks Ostrofon 1 to Ostrofon 5 were part of this archive, although Ostrofon Symphony did not survive (or was perhaps never committed to tape?).

Ostrofon 1-5 were created on a Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard (sampling bit depth of 8 bit PCM and a sample rate of 9.38 kHz for 1.4 seconds), by Dental Drill in 1988 as part of the Except Buses catalogue. They were intended as component parts of a track to be titled Ostrofon Symphony.

At the time we didn’t know what to do with Ostrofon Symphony and it never appeared as an Except Buses track.

In 2012 Dental Drill created an Ostrofon Symphony using the five parts and placed it on his now long dormant Soundcloud page, where it can still be found. soundcloud.com/dental-drill This version is included on the release.

Dental Drill has also recreated the original Ostrofon Symphony (1988) and used the parts to create an entirely new interpretation of Ostrofon Symphony from these five obscure noise tracks.

The cover image is an actual x-ray of Dental Drill's teeth, with thanks to his dentist.

24/04/2025

OUT NOW on TCFSR:
'BERG 9' by British Experimental Rocket Group.
The ninth archival release of BERG material is the first to include audio from a newer project.
tcfsr.bandcamp.com/album/berg-9

18 track album