In The Presence Of Justice

A couple of months ago, I found myself in a pub watching a man head-butt a sizeable piece of glass until it shattered. Now, depending on the cut of your jib, and where you like to take in a leisurely evening drink, this may or may not seem unusual.

I found it unusual. And I don’t even like wine.

I found it unusual because the purpose of the head-butting was not a show of masculinity, or an action against transparency, or an attempt to escape the crushing midweek mundanity of a South-East London watering hole, but to change the ‘pitch’ of the glass. For the man was ‘playing’ it.

That man was Justice Yeldham, and I say playing with a degree of caution. The glass had a contact mic on it, which was put through some kind of pedal of doom, and Mr. Yeldham was using his mouth to (once again, with caution) manipulate it, in the process of making some truly unholy noises. By breaking it into smaller pieces, the pitch of the noises changed. Simple really.

Needless to say, it was an interesting 25 minutes. The glorious ending, after much smashing, involved a quick dash to the lav for some toilet paper, and ultimately a couple of bandages and plasters. Pretty much your average New Cross Wednesday night then.

I got to talk to Mr Yeldham afterwards, and although he was a little bit the worse for blood loss, I can confirm the following:

1 – He has to locate a glass seller in every place he plays, all over the world. Surprisingly, they don’t let you take panes of glass as hand luggage nowadays.

2 – He takes his own personal first aid kit to every performance.

3 – He is a very nice man.

Playing glass is just his current leaning and the tip of his inventive ice-berg, as the following tracks can testify. They feature Mr. Yeldham ‘playing’ a turkey-skewer, accompanied by a drummer who wishes to remain nameless. It’s all quite full on, with a precognitive DIY nod to the likes of Wolf Eyes and that, but what do you expect from a noised up cooking implement?

Justice Yeldham – Recorded In Tokyo 1998 Track 03

Justice Yeldham – Recorded In Tokyo 1998 Track 06

By his own inference, the performance is as important as the result, so his stuff isn’t the easiest to get hold of, but you can download some of his glass based work with the Dynamic Ribbon Device here, and if you send him an electronic mail over the future-web, I should imagine he’d be only too happy to help you out. Like I said, he’s a very nice man.

Go and see him, though. It is truly worth it. Truly. Have a look at Dual Plover as well, his label of love.




Tiny Dancer