Michael Baxter | Filler - Fourth Dimension Records - 1988 @mickeypenguin | Uploaded June 2020 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
From a small Nottinghamshire village, Filler had a great sound that was reminiscent of the mid 1980s Washington D.C scene, which at the time included such iconic bands as Rites Of Spring, Beefeater, Embrace and Marginal Man.
Those band’s, and that scene were admired by Filler's vocalist and bassist Jabbs, so much, that he licensed several songs from Olive Tree Records (a record label from D.C) to be released on his on Wetspots Record Label to sell in the European territories.
The magnificent 'I Need A Job' 12" mini-album by Beefeater, and the brilliant 'D.C Rox' compilation album.
Added to those two records, Wetspots Records also released albums by Screeching Weasel from Chicago, White Flag from Los Angeles and F.O.D from Philadelphia.
Filler only had four records released by three record labels during the bands lifetime.
Firstly this record, 'Goodbye To All That' on Fourth Dimension Records (soon followed a re-release of this 7" record during 1988, the same year, released on Limited Edition Records, a record label from Germany).
The second 7″ record, 'MYHC' was released on Pig Boy Records, Rob Tennent's record label who worked in the Vinyl Solution record shop. The third single 'Malaise', this time a 12" single was also released on Pig Boy Records.
All of these records are very good indeed.
Another 7" single featuring both Filler and Spongetunnel from Chicago and was released on Jabb's own Wetspots record label.
Filler in live performances were decent enough, but the records, especially this debut record, showed a lot of promise. All four songs layered in feedback with that mid-1980s mid-paced D.C influence, and importantly some fragile vulnerability in some of the lyrics, which I find irresistibly charming.
I visited Jabbs in his parents home in that small Nottinghamshire village once in 1990 or thereabouts. He was, and presumably still is, a nice person, as in fact were his parents!
Before Filler, Jabbs was in a band called Eyes On You, a band that were active in the mid-1980's and released a cassette on Dick Lucas's Bluurg Tapes and an mini album on Tim Bennetts Children Of The Revolution Records. Eyes On You were a a band that played slightly at a faster 'American hardcore/skatecore' tempo than Filler did. I preferred Filler.
Interestingly (to me at least) is that the centre label on the Eyes On You mini-album has a photograph of Sean 'Gummidge' on, who was, and definitely still is, a nice person.
This little known 7″ record by Filler was on of my favourite records of 1988!
I knew Richo vaguely from his Grim Humour magazine, and also through Fourth Dimension Records in the latter years of the 1980s. I took copies of the magazine and records to distribute via my King Penguin Distribution 'empire' (tongue firmly in cheek). I also witnessed performances by Playground, and later on, Splintered, two of Richo's bands that I know of, several times in various venues around London.
The text below is a history of Fourth Dimension Records from Wiki.
Fourth Dimension Records is a British record label, specialising in international underground music. It was founded by Gary Levermore as an offshoot of his Third Mind label before being taken over by Richard Johnson (aka Richo) in 1984. The label became quite successful in the 1990s, releasing music by Simon Wickham-Smith & Richard Youngs, KK Null, The Gerogerigegege, Circle, Splintered (band), Thurston Moore, Hijokaidan, Filler and Merzbow, side projects by members of Amp and Skullflower and myriad 7" and 10" singles by experimental artists from the UK, US, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Japan. Alongside the label, Johnson also ran a mail order service, stocking rare underground releases from around the world.
Shortly before taking over the label, Johnson began editing a fanzine called Grim Humour, initially covering non-mainstream artists such as Big Black, Swans, Killing Joke, Lydia Lunch, Whitehouse and Sonic Youth. These often came with cassette or vinyl compilations (usually given FD catalogue numbers) with participants including the aforementioned Sonic Youth, Cindytalk, Ausgang, Con Demek and Portion Control. The fanzine ceased in the mid 1990s but Johnson has since launched a new title, Adverse Effect, which has been praised by Record Collector and Ptolemaic Terrascope, lasted four editions and now can be found as a blogspot and via the Fourth Dimension website.
Although Fourth Dimension was dormant for a short while in the late 1990s, it has since relaunched with further releases from Merzbow and Circle, as well as albums by Johnson's own project Theme, The Fields of Hay and British sound artist Andrew Liles. He has also begun a second label, Lumberton Trading Company, a joint venture initially started with Hassni Malik The Vitamin B12. It has issued a number of albums by artists including Experimental Audio Research, Theme, Thighpaulsandra, Human Greed and Michael Gira.
From a small Nottinghamshire village, Filler had a great sound that was reminiscent of the mid 1980s Washington D.C scene, which at the time included such iconic bands as Rites Of Spring, Beefeater, Embrace and Marginal Man.
Those band’s, and that scene were admired by Filler's vocalist and bassist Jabbs, so much, that he licensed several songs from Olive Tree Records (a record label from D.C) to be released on his on Wetspots Record Label to sell in the European territories.
The magnificent 'I Need A Job' 12" mini-album by Beefeater, and the brilliant 'D.C Rox' compilation album.
Added to those two records, Wetspots Records also released albums by Screeching Weasel from Chicago, White Flag from Los Angeles and F.O.D from Philadelphia.
Filler only had four records released by three record labels during the bands lifetime.
Firstly this record, 'Goodbye To All That' on Fourth Dimension Records (soon followed a re-release of this 7" record during 1988, the same year, released on Limited Edition Records, a record label from Germany).
The second 7″ record, 'MYHC' was released on Pig Boy Records, Rob Tennent's record label who worked in the Vinyl Solution record shop. The third single 'Malaise', this time a 12" single was also released on Pig Boy Records.
All of these records are very good indeed.
Another 7" single featuring both Filler and Spongetunnel from Chicago and was released on Jabb's own Wetspots record label.
Filler in live performances were decent enough, but the records, especially this debut record, showed a lot of promise. All four songs layered in feedback with that mid-1980s mid-paced D.C influence, and importantly some fragile vulnerability in some of the lyrics, which I find irresistibly charming.
I visited Jabbs in his parents home in that small Nottinghamshire village once in 1990 or thereabouts. He was, and presumably still is, a nice person, as in fact were his parents!
Before Filler, Jabbs was in a band called Eyes On You, a band that were active in the mid-1980's and released a cassette on Dick Lucas's Bluurg Tapes and an mini album on Tim Bennetts Children Of The Revolution Records. Eyes On You were a a band that played slightly at a faster 'American hardcore/skatecore' tempo than Filler did. I preferred Filler.
Interestingly (to me at least) is that the centre label on the Eyes On You mini-album has a photograph of Sean 'Gummidge' on, who was, and definitely still is, a nice person.
This little known 7″ record by Filler was on of my favourite records of 1988!
I knew Richo vaguely from his Grim Humour magazine, and also through Fourth Dimension Records in the latter years of the 1980s. I took copies of the magazine and records to distribute via my King Penguin Distribution 'empire' (tongue firmly in cheek). I also witnessed performances by Playground, and later on, Splintered, two of Richo's bands that I know of, several times in various venues around London.
The text below is a history of Fourth Dimension Records from Wiki.
Fourth Dimension Records is a British record label, specialising in international underground music. It was founded by Gary Levermore as an offshoot of his Third Mind label before being taken over by Richard Johnson (aka Richo) in 1984. The label became quite successful in the 1990s, releasing music by Simon Wickham-Smith & Richard Youngs, KK Null, The Gerogerigegege, Circle, Splintered (band), Thurston Moore, Hijokaidan, Filler and Merzbow, side projects by members of Amp and Skullflower and myriad 7" and 10" singles by experimental artists from the UK, US, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Japan. Alongside the label, Johnson also ran a mail order service, stocking rare underground releases from around the world.
Shortly before taking over the label, Johnson began editing a fanzine called Grim Humour, initially covering non-mainstream artists such as Big Black, Swans, Killing Joke, Lydia Lunch, Whitehouse and Sonic Youth. These often came with cassette or vinyl compilations (usually given FD catalogue numbers) with participants including the aforementioned Sonic Youth, Cindytalk, Ausgang, Con Demek and Portion Control. The fanzine ceased in the mid 1990s but Johnson has since launched a new title, Adverse Effect, which has been praised by Record Collector and Ptolemaic Terrascope, lasted four editions and now can be found as a blogspot and via the Fourth Dimension website.
Although Fourth Dimension was dormant for a short while in the late 1990s, it has since relaunched with further releases from Merzbow and Circle, as well as albums by Johnson's own project Theme, The Fields of Hay and British sound artist Andrew Liles. He has also begun a second label, Lumberton Trading Company, a joint venture initially started with Hassni Malik The Vitamin B12. It has issued a number of albums by artists including Experimental Audio Research, Theme, Thighpaulsandra, Human Greed and Michael Gira.
