Callum Higgins

PRE-ORDER NOW LIVE: SAC-R #005: GNOD R&D - NOBODY KNOWS THIS IS ANYWHERE This is a big one. To say we are beyond excited for this release is an understatement. As part of their 20th year celebrations Gnod grace us with the latest output from their ongoing R&D project. Operating as a stripped back two piece the raw energy and sonic power shines through across the two tracks that make up ‘Nobody Knows this is Anywhere’. ‘Catholic FM’ and ’Sunset 102’ are but a fraction extracted from a mammoth 2 day recording session at Gnod farm back in 2019. Recorded straight to cassette at the time and with minimal editing done at some point over the past couple of years to bring these tracks to life. Gnod was formed back in 2006 and the band quickly made Salford's Islington Mill their home. It was at this same venue/studios/art space that Sacred Tapes was first born. Artists on the Sacred Tapes rosta frequently played at gigs and events with Gnod and some were released on the Gnod affiliated Tesla Taps label. Likewise members of Gnod would release solo material through Sacred Tapes often. And so it's with profound joy that we reforge those connections with this very special release. Through a number of line up changes over the years there has always been the constant presence of Chris Haslam and Paddy Shine, co-founders and core members of the band. Shine and Haslam started their R&D project in 2017 as a way to experiment and play around with new sounds, styles and influences. With releases on Riot Season, A Colourful Storm and Sound of Cobra, we are proud to present this latest Gnod R&D offering. Pre- order now at sacredtapes.bandcamp.com Releases on 3rd July Link in bio

A new trailer for @theodysseymovie is out. Lots of the weapons we made in there as well as a nice shot of the raft we did.

@setcircle have released a bunch of behind the scenes images from @frankensteingdt including these great shots of our miniature work for the film

OUT NOW!! SAC#043: ASTER - PARTY DOWN THE HALL Aster are poets and experimental sound makers Alex Keramidas and Catherine Norris. Their practice is informed by perpetual choirs, sacrificial stones and top of the pops, as well as being guided by divination. Party Down the Hall is their first album - a collaboration built on ethereal narratives, samples and melodies, creating invocations for the modern era. Available now at sacred tapes.bandcamp.com Link in bio

OUT NOW!! SAC #042: A.A.X'T - BETON LIBRARY: CLOCKWORK SYSTEM ARCHIVE [1] Artist Aubrey Taeuber bring us a fascinating new concept piece in the form of two long form sound collages weaving a tale of forbidden knowledge stolen by the elites and denied to the poor. “The Beton Library, is a derogatory term given to the sealed concrete posterns of the technocracies final fortifications. In pressing yourself against one you become as close to our confiscated culture as anyone can be. As you know the technocrats abandonment of the precariat achieved two-fold, the seizure of all our recorded culture and our assumed extinction in the dust of ecological collapse. Silent and unadorned, their fortifications resided over this hopelessness, rendering all outside of them returned to orality and subsistence, sudden story tellers and desperate villeins. a.a.x’t exists here, several generations past the sealing, content to press themselves against the Beton libraries, forcing their head, ear first, painfully into the concrete surfaces, convinced that some ‘culture’ may sound to them. This ritual, while purely symbolic for the majority of the precariat - who practiced it as a mourning and remembrance of what was taken, a.a.x’t believed it would actually lead to 'the restoration’. The sounds herein prove a.a.x’t’s devotion, what a hair width fault in one of the libraries whispered to them and lit the restoration. Cut up, carved apart and grafted sounds, greed melted, these songs, languages, stories and manipulations all play simultaneously, playing over each other, competing and harmonising, mechanically looping above the awful remains of technocrats.” Limited qty of 50 copies Available now from the Bandcamp page Link in bio

Some more behind the scenes coverage of the Frankenstein miniatures. This is a clip from a longer video called behind the vfx of Frankenstein on youtube

The new issue of @beforesmag is all about Frankenstein and features a great section on the miniatures work we did for the film. There's an in depth interview with the miniatures supervisor Jose Granell where he breaks down all of the miniatures we made and how they were destroyed/blown up/ collapsed as well as some great photos of how they looked before digital touch ups were added on top.

First trailer for @theodysseymovie is out. This was the most incredible project I've been lucky to work on. It allowed me to live and work in Rome for 5 months and be part of a team making hundreds of swords, shields, spears and a selection of hand props and other things. Can't wait to see it.

Spent 3-4 months working on Digger, then called 'Judy', back in 2024. Definitely not a job I'll forget anytime soon. Was hard to get a read on how this was going to turn out at the time, very interested to find out next year.

Went to see Frankenstein last night. Great film, always exciting seeing our work in the cinema and catching my name in the credits. Still can't believe I got to work on a Guillermo del Toro film.

A free exhibition of materials from the making of Frankenstein is showing in London at @theofficialselfridges of all places. I've been told it includes some of the miniatures work we made for the film

After 7 long years the small independent record label I ran is back, this time with @johnpowell_jones helping me out running things. The first release is this incredible album by @aliyah.a.hussain available on vinyl. I cant express how amazing this music is and how happy I am to get to help make this record a reality. Please go and check out the album at sacredtapes.bandcamp.com. you can listen to it for free, and if you like what you hear then please consider supporting the hard work we have all put into making this happen by buying a record, it would honestly mean so much to each of us.