Since 2015, Alex Hall has been releasing everything from EBM to dungeon synth on his label NATURAL SCIENCES. His ethos for the label can be summed up like this: “A label should keep you guessing, alienating others and bringing new freaks into the fold.” And that’s exactly what Natural Sciences does, and why we at CVLT Nation love this label. This April, he’s releasing Flesh Renewed, which marks ten years of the label with the 5th issue of his EMBRYO zine series, and we’re lucky to be premiering a video for one of the tracks on it, CRAWL OF TIME’s “Crossed Out.” We’re also sharing two in-depth interviews we did with Alex from Natural Sciences and Sam Torres from Crawl of Time…check those out below!
Take us back to your childhood—what music did you hear around your home, booming out of the cars in your hood, or your headphones?
Alex Hall: I grew up in the North-East of England in a conservative stronghold, so there wasn’t much going on there and definitely nothing cool blasting out of car stereos. If you wanted to get something going there you had to do it yourself, so we started bands and rented out church halls for us to play and slung printed-out tickets at school. These would usually descend into chaos, with mass underage drinking, the older kids doing speed in the vestry, police getting called, and eventually, banned from every spot in town — but I suppose that was our “scene.”
So, what you heard, you had to source yourself or come across totally by chance. When I was 8 or something, we drove to Scotland to stay in a cottage in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by huge trees, mountains, and it being pitch black like something from Deliverance. We had this audiobook cassette of ‘Dr. Jekyl and Mr Hyde’ read out in this weird, hostage negotiator voice-muffler vibe, that we hammered to the point that it was coated in static and would morph in and out as the cars built in system was jacked. That was one of the most fucked-up and disturbing things I’d heard and defo a tipping point when music and the setting combined into this depraved aura. Like a power electronics release on Slaughter Prod or something, but because all that info wasn’t available I had no reference points to it at all. Wish I still had that, such a killer. I guess you can say that the problem started there.
What inspired you to start Natural Sciences?
Before NS, I joint-released a record by Circuit Diagram with Ed Davenport, which was this krautrock-style band. That was cool, but I realized doing a collab release like was never gonna work for me as I’m too much of a control freak to allow outside opinions on the art or what a release might sound like. That first record didn’t sell at all and I wanted another crack at it and was sitting on a stack of music from friends or dug out through Soundcloud, so I sold everything I couldn’t live without and raised the cash to press up the first record, and learned everything else on the fly, from Photoshop to sourcing a distributor, and took it from there. I also wanted to do a Manchester label that drew on stuff I was into, like Death Metal and noise, but reframe it in a different way. So I wouldn’t say there was one specific moment of inspiration, instead a slow ten year descent into self-contained madness and obsession.
While I’d love to release a tape in a mouldy cheese sandwich or submerged in human vomit, I do have respect for the fine people at the post office who deal with enough of my bullshit already.
Alex Hall
Why has it been important to you to release records from all sorts of genres? From Sludge to Dungeon Rap to Industrial to Jakbeat — the list goes on!
To be honest, I’ve never really given that much thought. In all those styles there’s a part that makes it a NS release. I check out a lot of different styles and constantly trying to find new shit that trips me out, but ideally the first thing they’ve releases with next to no corporate infrastructure behind it. A label should keep you guessing, alienating others and bringing new freaks into the fold.
What have been some of the biggest moments of joy doing this label? Also what challenges have you had to overcome to keep it going?
The challenges are obviously cashflow. Most labels are run by rich kids or DJ’s (sometimes both) as a vanity project or subsidized by fees from the road. I hate what DJ culture has turned into over the last 10 years, and would never lower myself to playing pop edits to coked-up students every Friday and Saturday night. Of course, there’s some exceptions to that, but to make a record label work that releases actual underground music and not funnelling in cash from elsewhere or banging out tried and tested names is basically impossible, so I never ran the label with the intention of making cash or as a full-time thing. Some fools play golf, others spend their time cutting out barbed wire into zip-lock bags for tapes.
The biggest moment was taking Dungeon Rap/DJ Sacred on the road last year. Behind the scenes, we sorted out Ukrainian work visas and trips to the embassy, all against a backdrop of immigrating to Spain out of a warzone, so it was pretty intense. We booked and set up shows across the UK and travelled between gigs with a suitcase full of merch and a MPC and pulled something off that was the total definition of the DIY underground and the ethos of what we set out to do with the label.
What impresses me about Natural Science Records is your attention to detail when it comes to package and design. Why are these elements are important to your vision?
At the start I did all the artwork myself, but overtime I wanted to bring in other artists who were working across other styles and use the label to platform all the sick work that was going on. The logo was designed by Anton Kreasan, who is an Ukrainian tattoo artist that we met in 2020 and a country that we have strong ties to. Human Nature is another tattoo artist from Denmark, and I used a design he worked on me for a tape, Mutant Joe’s ‘Home Invasion Anthems.’ Tin Savage did the artwork on that, but he’s mainly working in the punk and hardcore scenes. Gabrielle K Brown makes these large-scale paintings on wood and she did this killer piece for Dalibor Cruz. The list goes on, so there’s always been a link to other scenes across the label. My input now is bringing in some of the inspiration from noise and industrial culture and playing with packaging ideas, inserts. While I’d love to release a tape in a mouldy cheese sandwich or submerged in human vomit, I do have respect for the fine people at the post office who deal with enough of my bullshit already.
On the back of the last question, talk to us about your vision for your 10th anniversary box set and how ambitious of an undertaking it has been.
Alright, so this release is titled ‘Flesh Renewed‘ and it’s the 10th year label release, but also marks the 5th issue of Embryo, which is a magazine I’ve been doing on the side to talk about bands and labels I’m into, but not something that I can directly feed into the label. At first, these two were gonna be separate releases, but the more I thought it over, it made sense to combine them together and do something a little outside the box and bring all these strands together.
So what’s coming out on the 18th of April is a 12′ vinyl from DJ Warzone, a tape compilation of artists from the catalogue, friends, new names and others that have been on the hit list for some time. That nails down the NS ‘sound’ from power electronics, crushing noise through to industrial rap. The 7′ is a reissue of tracks from the Harsh Reality Music catalogue which was a tape label operating in the 80’s and one we have an affinity with from an earlier record we put out from Henry Hektik a few years back. In the magazine, there’s a whole load of shit in there. My favourite interview is with Jim Kirkwood who basically invented dungeon synth. He tells a story why he stopped making music for ten years after channelling spirits in a ritual and bringing a demonic entity into his group of friends. The real industry gossip!
Packaging-wise, all the above is housed in a boxset that I’ve sourced myself. With every single one I hand-glued the foam insert to bulk it out a bit, transferred down the inside art and stickered the front. My house is packed out with this fucking thing, but I wanted to do it as well but as cheaply as possible, as I know cash is tight for everyone right now. Either way I’m going to lose money on this thing, but I’ve given a good part of a year getting this together and busting my ass through the night to make it happen. Who knows, it might be the last thing we ever do, as I don’t think I have another one of these in me.
How does living in a country with so much CCTV surveillance play on your mental, and does it impact the art y’all create and share?
We all walk around with the state in our pocket, so everyone better be prepared for when shit goes south and they knock on your door. Stay vigilant and leave no trace.
If you could turn back the hands of time and be a DJ at the Hacienda, what would be the sonic theme of your set? What song would you open with and what song would you close with?
The building where the Hacienda used to be is now yuppie apartments with a plaque outside. I’d take a leaf out of the Hanatarash school of thought and cut to the chase, arriving to the club on a bulldozer, taking out the interior wall while playing Static’s Iron Orbit from the control panel of the machine. If there’s still an audience or building intact, the finisher would be Obituary Slowly We Rot to really reduce the place to dust.
Drop some science on why Dungeon Rap is so popular in Eastern Europe. Do you think your 2019 comp had an influence?
I couldn’t really say. That comp was a bit of a game-changer across the board. When Sacred sent that over to me I had no idea it would blow up the way it did. Considering he made the follow-up in a warzone and in the middle of electrical blackouts/missile attacks is crazy to me, but he’d never lean into that. He’s a singular artist and deserves all the attention. Also shout out to DJ Bishop, Lord Crucifix, and everyone else on those comps.
If you could put three albums from the Natural Sciences catalogue in a time capsule to be opened in 2062, what would you put in there, and why?
I’m going down like a Viking burial and having the whole catalogue cast out to sea and shot down with a burning arrow, but if somehow a few releases escape this demise, it would have to be Age in Decline, Dungeon Rap The Introduction, and this new one, Flesh Renewed. The amount of solvents I’ve used in this 10 year comp will hopefully trigger a chemical reaction which will corrode everything it touches, so fingers-crossed, by 2062 and the nukes are triggered, it’ll only be the cockroaches left and they’ll have enough on their plate. The best you can hope for is a slow descent into obscurity.
You have a strong sense of self when it comes to your creative vision. What life experiences helped shape the way you see the world?
Compared to others, I haven’t had the roughest life, but it’s been far from easy. Growing up in a single-parent household in the North East drives in a do-or-die mentality that I’ve maintained ever since. I don’t have a lot of resources to play with, so like this 10 year release, I have to think out the box, get creative and bust my ass to get these things over the line.
Talk to us about your community in Manchester and how it inspires what you do with Natural Sciences.
I wouldn’t say Manchester really feeds into the label all that much. Yeah, there’s friends doing cool shit like Space Afrika, Sferic, and All Night Flight, but the label sits a bit outside what else is going on, which is cool and how I prefer it. The city can be quite humbling and quick to keep you in your place. That’s not shade, just a humbling mentality which keeps you on your toes and removes egos, which, to be honest, the whole scene could learn from.
For many different reasons there is one label from Manchester that comes to mind when I think of Natural Science records: Factory Records, for all the reasons I’ve listed above (packaging, design, genres, etc). Can you see how the comparison fits? Was Factory an inspiration for you?
It wasn’t at all actually, if anything I try and distance myself from some of that Manchester history as it has marked the city for too long. The labels I’m most inspired by are Bunker, Slaughter Productions, Bloody Fist, Cloister, Wax Trax!, Hanson, early Doomshop, and Vanity Records. Support The Underground!
Interview with Crawl of Time / Sam Torres:
If you had to describe your song “Crossed Out” as a sonic disease of death what would be the symptoms and what would be the cure if any?
Crawl of Time / Sam Torres: That’s an interesting question. I don’t really see it as a disease with any specific symptoms. I see it more as a cold and calculated plan against you. Waiting to be executed with illest of intentions. Someone who hates you, plotting against you, finally has your location and is ready to make their move. Once they have the drop on you, they take their time with you and make sure you suffer the way they suffer. There is no cure for such things. People become like animals in the sense where once they have decided they are going to hurt you there is nothing that can change their mind. You are in the crosshairs. It’s over.
If you could manifest anywhere in the world to record music, where would it be and why?
I’d like to go to Mexico City. I’d like to be romantic and say a specific village or area my folks are from, but my homeboy lives in CDMX and has been for almost a decade at this point, and it just seems like a place where I can be inspired the city itself and then lock in when it comes time to create. My Dad lived there for a brief period when he was a kid with his Grandma, and always had amazing stories. There is just an energy and a presence there that seems conducive to the creative spirit.
You have a UK tour coming in May. What can we expect on that and do you have any survival tips for the road?
On this tour Mack (God Is War, my bandmate in Terror Cell Unit) will be joining me as a part of Crawl of Time. I’ve only ever done the project solo, so this should be interesting! We have great chemistry and having him on board allows me to dive a little deeper into the vocals and be more of a true force that I always expected out of myself. So, folks in the UK will be the first to see this incarnation of COT.
As far as survival tips? Bring a good pair of headphones, something to read, wet wipes, a portable battery, and pack only what truly you need. If it’s not an essential, leave it behind. You don’t want to lose something you can’t replace and you certainly don’t want things to weigh you down. Also, this isn’t vacation. Don’t expect your creature comforts to be on demand. Things like coffee, food, and sleep might seem like priorities to you but to others they aren’t. Be prepared to bow down to the will of the entire group you are rolling with and not your own. If you can handle that you can survive. I’ve seen many people fold or have meltdowns when their needs are not met while on the road.
