Updated 21st January 2012

Damo Suzuki
Crayola is a sound carrier for the former Can singer, having provided effected alto sax, oboe, guitar, keyboards and bass at gigs alongside (variously) E-da from The Boredoms as well as DJ Scotch Egg, Terry Bickers (House of Love, Levitation), Jon Poole (Cardiacs, Wildhearts), Iain Laws (Coin-Op, Shark), Easy Pete (Shark), Heidi Heelz (Shark, Black Violets), Maff and Ned (The Egg), Alistair Strachan (Hamilton Yarns) and David Davis on analogue synths. Bohemia Arts Festival in Kent was the most recent gig with Damo and here is Lectern's account. Previous shows  were at Brighton's Pressure Point, Freebutt and The Spitz in London.
Click here to view some pictures of the Freebutt gig.

La Mômo 
Crayola is a full time member of La Mômo, playing electric guitar mainly. The groop have forged a singular musical path and have had Kid Loco remix tracks and Gordon Raphael record them at his London studio. The  album Party Rings  will be appearing on Brighton's  Adronalin imprint . Email gogo@lamomo.com for a pre-release copy or hear them at the link above.

MAP
The brain-meltingly freaked out duo of Crayola Lectern and Emil Smith, described as "the beautifully glowing post-rock adventurists from Brighton"  by Rock Sound magazine have an album Genetic Malfunctions Triggered By Events to be released this year as a Limited edition on Adronalin. Five years were spent recording this culmination of a very creative musical partnership.
MAP's Org records page has the most comprehensive biog and discography on the web.
MAP's MySpace page is here for those brave souls willing to undergo the tumultous ravages of their oeuvre.

Tim Keegan
Tim's The Living Room residency at Brighton's Marlborough Theatre included Crayola on keys, sax, guitar alongside fellow band member Noah Taylor. Others to have joined the group have included Rob Mullender (laptop), Simon Edwards (bass, percussion), Alistair Strachan (trumpet, cornet), Jon Poole (guitar, percussion), Josh Thomson (guitar) and Warren Ellis (violin, mandolin). Tim's solo album, Foreign Domestic was released to universal acclaim. CL played some Hammond on this splendidly introspective work. This musical partnership began during Tim Keegan and The Homer Lounge and through Departure Lounge's advenures.CL has also contributed some piano, sax and casiotone to Tim's forthcoming album.
Drum Eyes
Started off as keyboard player to add some psarkles to DJ Scotch Egg, Kai and E-Da's thundersome krautrock. Ended up as the sax player and contributed some sax and oboe to the terrific and acclaimed album, Gira Gira.

Departure Lounge
Departure Lounge's life was rich and varied, releases and tours throughout large swathes of this peculiar planet. Four people who transcended the norm whenever they were in a room with instruments. So much to say - too much to mention here really.

Ray Dickaty/Crayola Lectern - Duets
Recorded at Metway Studios in Brighton. One saxophone (Ray - Spiritualized, Moonshake, Skree, Gallon Drunk, Solar Fire Trio, Dr John, Cornershop, Stereolab) and one piano (Crayola Lectern) improvising some emotionally charged sounds. They also collaborated on ethereal drone pieces in a catacomb in Worthing.

Rocket Horsehead Nebula
Kosmische space adventurerers Wolsey White and Crayola Lectern have nearly completed their forthcoming album 10,500 B.C. Atlantis which sees the intrepid duo take their sound past Orion to the Horsehead Nebula from which they may never return. Strangely emotional music. Orchestras of robots weeping in the extremes of space adventure music, anyone?
Two tracks from this meisterwerk featured on Darius Akashic's Crooked Stylus radio show.
Bluemood is the only place here in digitalis where you can hear any Rocket Horsehead Nebula.

Emötikon
Occasional band featuring Crayola lectern, Tim Leopard and Noah Taylor. Rock-outs with splintering geedars, drones, mighty organs, triple drumming, noise-making way gone sounds.

The Rhinestoned Immaculates
CL has played sax and bass with Noah Taylor's UK duo who have had various contributions from other talented geezers like Tim Leopard, Warren Ellis amongst others.

Electric Temple/The Vibration Society
Ray Dickaty's project featuring various members of Spiritualized, Julian Cope's band, Echoboy, Cinematic Orchestra and more. Crayola played some keyboards on the recordings and Can-style guitar at the gigs.

Supermodel / Supermodel GT
Teenage Fanclub/ Dino Jr fans who under the auspices of Triani's muse made three albums (see discog on News page) and both bewildered and enchanted audiences throughout the Western hemisphere depending on whether it was a bad hair day or not. Crayola Lectern played bass, sang bv's and called himself Chris for goddsakes!

Museum
Sadie Fredericks (La Momo) and CL create improvisations over drones and loops with Casios and drum machines which are set against photographs of buildings which have become disused or abandoned.

Salter Cane
2012 sees Crayola Lectern adding some piano and organ colours to Salter Cane's fine and pleasing dark canon of top songs.

The Legend!
CL started playing with The Legend! covering Dan Treacy songs before returning to playing the raw improvised gigs of yore.  Artrocker magazine contains a good live review of one of them, describing the show as brutal minimalism meets dreamy semi-improv. CL's psycho-blast keyboards get a mention too. The live recordings of The Legend! performing songs by Dan Treacy, accompanied by Crayola Lectern on Omnichord and Casiotone is (possibly) still available on 7" vinyl on Unpopular Records.

Friends Of The Bride
CL has provided some saxophonic horndom to Sitcom Theme by the well dapper FoTB. Recorded at Maida Vale studio 3 no less. Follow the link to hear it.

The Flying Rabbits
Written in a caravan in Blakeney in Norfolk with daughter and wife, recorded at home in Hove, so far three perfectly excellent new wave pop gems have been made.

Jon Poole/God Damn Whores
Jon Poole (Cardiacs/Wildhearts), one of the most versatile and creative musicians alive had CL stick a bit of alto sax and oboe on some recordings of his. Jon also plays many of the live Crayola Lectern gigs on Casiotone keyboard.

The Billy Reeves Experimental Soul Band
Former Theaudience founder, Billy Reeves, having survived and overcome injuries from a harrowing car accident, wrote and sang a collection of top pop nuggets at the sadly gone Blah Street Studios in Hampshire, with the help of CL.

The Cryptonics
Jake Rousham from Metway Studios and CL pump out some real classic surf. Wouldn't sound out of place in a Fifties dance hall although it has been gobbled up by Cbeebies somewhere which is good news for the (little) kidz. More recently a more psych-flavoured track has been recorded. Also Jake has his own collection of music out - Jake's Magic Sound-About

Heidi Berry
Much respected singer/songwriter and exceptional talent, Heidi Berry played a couple of shows in Brighton accompanied by Crayola Lectern on piano.

Robyn Hitchcock
The godhead living figure of English psychedelic surrealism (with enough 'pop' to keep it good) and wit extraordinaire did a US tour in Nov '99 with Departure Lounge. CL played oboe and some backing vocals on a couple of numbers in his big group which included another great former Soft Boy, Kimberley Rew.

Joss Cope
With a most curious musical history which includes having been signed to Creation in the early days, Joss, who currently plays in the excellent Dexter Bentley has himself written some rather fine and beautiful psychedelically flavoured songs, sometimes reminiscent of Love. Joss has also sometimes accompanied Crayola Lectern on the casiotone keyboard and electrophonic guitar.

Celebricide
Celebricide were an exceptionally stunning band from Brighton who brought to mind such things as The Fall, Joy Division, Sonic Youth, Pulp, Suicide, Nick Cave, Lou Reed yet who are so totally themselves. A dry, dark wit underpinned by holy fuckin' great music. Headed by Tim Leopard and Steven Barber, the almighty album, See The Bad Nurse Make Disease can be obtained from the website above. Colin Newman from Wire did a remix (included on the album). Crayola contributed bass, sax and a little bit of piano and tracks have been used in the British TV comedy series Ideal starring Johnny Vegas.

Caramel Jack
CL has provided a little saxophonic hornness to the Caramel Jack album alongside such luminaries as BJ Cole (pedal steel), Ashley Slater (trombone) and Bela Emerson (cello).

Comrade
Comrade are Tracey Godding (formerly of Bandit Queen) and Louisa Hernandez. They make really beautiful songs which bring to mind somehow a female Sparklehorse or Coco Rosie. They rented an ancient cottage in the idyllic setting of the South Downs where they set up their equipment to record some more new songs. Mrs Lectern played some drums on a couple of numbers and Crayola sang a duet and played some keyboards on another song.

Noah Taylor
Noah Taylor (a.k.a. Cardboardbox Man, a.k.a. Nervous Breakdown) is a gifted and extremely prolific music-maker and kosmick sounds manipulator. Whether it be firing up a storm on unusual stringed instruments or singing his outer-spaced-out tone poems over repetitive kraut beats, he has been known to let Crayola Lectern play sax and bass at his gigs and together they play in other permutations and collaborations to be divulged further at an appropriate time.

MAP

Map (Crayola and Emil), mentioned in Rock Sound who magazine called us "Map - the beautifully glowing post-rock adventurists from Brighton." Part of the Org-an-ised Single Series on Org records, the single also featured bonus tracks by The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg, The Mass, Cay (unreleased), Three Children Of Fortune and Jon Poole (Cardiacs/Wildhearts)."

 

Genetic Malfunctions Triggered By Events is the name of the awesome Map album whose release will finally be forthcoming on Adronalin. 5 years were spent recording it and it was the most special thing, a culmination of a very creative musical partnership.

CELEBRICIDE

The album "See The Bad Nurse Make Disease" which is actually a reverse speech quote from George Bush has literally just been pressed up by Bad Nurse records. I don't have the words to describe the stunning power of this cd. Even Nick Cave came to see Celebricide play in Brighton. There aren't many groups I can think of who utilise the narrative form to such stunning effect apart from the aforementioned Mr Cave.

 

"Brighton’s Celebricide sing about child abuse, contract killings and self-immolation in a way that forces the listener to address their own complicity in a culture where such things seem increasingly ordinary. As their name suggests, they’re on a mission; using shock tactics to break the habit of vicarious living, sleepwalking through life and the dream of fame that’s really the ultimate consumer ambition: to finally become a product yourself.
“…In the future, everyone will be anonymous for fifteen minutes…”
A 5-piece (plus, tonight, Sadie of La Momo on backing vocals), Celebricide musically recall Pulp, The Fall, or Magazine; guitars and keyboards churning up a relentless but darkly melodic groove over which frontman Tim Leopard recites his nasty little tales of blasphemous reality. Looking more like the pub bouncer than the lead singer, Tim is a frightening and compelling presence. Speaking calmly, but carrying a metaphorical big stick, he spits out his words like they disgust him, falls to the floor repeatedly like a string-cut puppet, or stands blankly catatonic at the side of the stage. There’s something of Chris Morris about both his performance style and his twisted yet strangely moral worldview. Did I mention that Celebricide have a sense of humour?
“They’ll. Never. Stop. Us.”
...No-one since The Birthday Party has sliced through to the heart of darkness with such gleefully unflinching zeal. Tonight, truly, this ain’t rock n’ roll; this is Celebricide.
Ben Graham Stool Pigeon Magazine

La Momo

Crayola can be seen performing with La Momo across the planet right now using the highly unlikely pseudonym, Chris! Click here for more

La Momo have worked with Gordon Raphael (The Strokes) on some songs as well as Kid Loco who did some mixes. There's another one he's done on his site. (go to mix no. 3.) Cristian Vogel was also rumoured to be doing some mixes for the band.
Here's a La Mômo gig reviewed by Joyzine.
Claire Kember played La Momo tracks on so many of her radio shows on Juice 107.2fm and on totallyradio. For those of us who loved John Peel, here is another person with that nose for new music, whether or not it's PR'ed. Everett True has also played La Momo on his Totallyradio Plan B and Careless Talk Costs Lives shows and written plenty of nice things about the band.
Claire Sturgess has played La Momo on her Xfm show as well as the late, great John Peel on Radio One.

Departure Lounge

Bluemood longtime Departure Lounge devotees from NYC have deemed it appropriate to put up a Crayola track on their fine site. So thanks for that, people, it's very much appreciated.
Furthermore, on a Departure Lounge note, their track "Aloneagainand" features on the soundtrack to the movie, The Butterfly Effect.
Channel 4's "Teachers" comedy drama Christmas Special featured the Departure Lounge song, "Christmas Downer."

What the press said...
Sunday Times"Some of the most wonderful, eclectic, optimistic pop music being created at the moment"
Magnet magazine "A top-to-bottom masterwork... Among the best English pop created in a decade.
Detroit Metro Times "this is, literally, the record of the year"
Q Magazine"****"
The Independent "****"

Departure Lounge Mellow beauty put out by the fine Bella Union label.

La Momo Kraut-inflected, fizzing hypnopopadelics.

Celebricide Towering moral purpose of Crass, panache of Pulp, sewer-mouthed wit of Derek and Clive.

Map Full-on brain meltdown no-fun on the deeply underground Org records.

Drum Eyes Japanese freekout psychedelic explosion musik.

Passiondale Instant full-throttled music and world-wise polemics, scorn and acrobatics in the key of E.

Emotikon Delicious chunks of bile with a side of vulgarity.

Discography