Minimal Wave Records

Started playing drums at 13, studying Mitch Mitchell, Simon Kirke, Ginger Baker and Jon Hiseman, playing in school bands and timpani in the orchestra. Made a big noise with prog power trio Warp III.

Frustrated by lack of success and the onslaught of punk rock in 1977 Arnold Lane joined North London nutters The Bazoomis, performing night after night to seething pogo-ers at the Marquee, the Vortex and the Roxy, supporting The Damned and The Motors. By this time he had written many songs on a battered semi-acoustic guitar but only had a few of them performed. Inspired by Talking Heads and Elvis Costello he abandoned live performance and began a new writing phase. Based in Ladbroke Grove he recorded songs and experimental pieces using drums, percussion, guitar, bass and effects.

His Wasp synthesizer came from Anton Loach of Metabolist. This featured on many recordings, such as the single Book of Sand and tracks on the cassette EP, Jagular. The imagery came from his obsession with South America and the fiction of Borges and Garcia Marquez. Book of Sand used an experimental live Wasp performance – no programming – as a backing track, with the Wasp’s white noise and a little drum synth box for the percussion, played by hand. Later this syndrum box was clamped to a pole fitted with a kick pedal and used as a bass drum. He was sharing a flat with Mark Beer who had released a number of new wave solo records. Nico spent some time with them. They provided a haven from her junkie associates. They’d walk down Latimer Road and play pool in the pub. Members of Killing Joke had the downstairs flat.

Some tracks were purely home recordings, like Jagular and The Secret, while others had overdubs and remixing done at the Hard Corps Studio in Brixton. Dirty Money was recorded entirely there. At this time he also played on various sessions, including Mark Beer’s single Pretty, and his LP Dust on the Road. After The Silent Types EP Mark Beer, Anton Loach and Arnold Lane formed Sneezes in China … Deaths in Paris. Mark’s Brussels connections led him to work with synth player Jean-Marc Lederman (Kid Montana, The Weathermen), and to release two singles on Double Dose. Book of Sand was released by Philippe Sion on New Dance, home of Front 242.

“The Sneezes” played the London clubs, supported Bow Wow Wow and recorded half an album, never released. Arnold Lane then released Jagular on Dangerous Rhythms run by Malcolm Lane of Metabolist. By this time his interest had shifted to Latin and African music, still using the combination of synthesizer and percussion. During the Eighties he played with a number of bands, still home recording on a 4 track portastudio.

Arnold Lane became more serious about earning a living and raising a family, without any musical output until 1992, when, joining in acoustic club sessions he developed a solo act, Lonely Fire. Using MIDI percussion pads and a Casio CZ101 synth with acoustic percussion he played arrangements of songs from Africa, South America, Eastern Europe and England. He also studied conga drums with Bosco D’Oliveira and joined Alan Hayman’s Samba School.

He worked as a percussionist with various soul, funk and blues bands until in 1995 he formed Asafetida with poet/artist Lioux Maunder, combining performance poetry, rap and acoustic and electronic percussion. After playing small clubs and festivals the band expanded to include K (Ozric Tentacles) on bass and sax and Adrian T (Walking Wounded). The last ten years has seen two more ground breaking projects, Fresh Tracks and Bucket (and a new family!). Brainchild of Irish poet, musician and mc, the Fresh Tracks CD was released in 1998. Israeli multi-instrumentalist Shmil Frankel formed bucket in 2002. After some line-up changes the first CD, Peckham Pop, was released in 2005, consisting of live songs and percussion/guitar/double bass improvisations. The Arnold Lane compilation “Blatant Secrets” 1981 to 2001 was also released in 2005.

In 2011 Bucket reconvened for some low key but high quality improv in Tel Aviv.