Although my first singularly wall venture was to be Panic, the first proper wall I ever recorded (outside of some experiments with static a few years earlier that had happened from a different point of departure entirely) was the track that would end up on the 4-way split Four On The Floor, released through Cantankerous Records from Australia and also featuring contributions by The Shock Technician, PPP and Dotåbåtå. Originally recorded in 2008, the 4-way split would not see the light of day until 2012, by which time the horsing moniker had been mostly retired (that year saw the last release under the moniker, a split with fellow Dutch HN/HNW act TRAITORS).
Yukiko Okada was named for a Japanese idol and singer who tragically committed suicide in 1986. She had served as an inspiration before, lending both the title as well as a sample to the track Little Princess / If There Was A Magic To Forget You off the horsing split tape with Zebra Mu. While that track was a mixture of found sounds and phone-recorded screechy harsh noise, an experimental approach firmly in line with the general horsing approach, Yukiko Okada was a true wall and was the track that gave way to my first all-wall project, Panic, as well as my first (and shortly-lived) all-wall label, Plague Records.
Four On The Floor is comprised of four bizcard CDrs that come in a cassette case, each individually in a pink slipcase, with a J-card and two inserts. The bizcards are stamped with the initials of each project and Roman numerals IV. The lay-out and design was courtesy of Carey Knight, half of the crew running Cantankerous Records (along with Kyle Dennis, producing harsh noise under the Fuck, The Retarded Girl moniker) and the man behind Dotåbåtå. The picture below gives an overview of the release’s aesthetics, showing its J-card, inserts and the horsing bizcard.
I collaborated quite a bit with Carey for a while, doing releases on each other’s labels and a split, among other things. Eventually we lost touch; by the time this release saw the light of the day we were no longer in contact. I eventually picked up the release myself through Discogs. It’s a very cool release that, just like everything else that was done on Cantankerous at the time, had a distinct aesthetic and a lot of care put into it.
The track itself can be listened to on the horsing Bandcamp right here: Yukiko Okada.
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