A Tier II

Dachise.

Paul D. Knowles' early alias · cult UK 1990s noise release · first live position supporting Smell & Quim and Con-Dom at the 1 in 12 Club, Bradford (Mike Dando partnership) · later The Digitariat (2000s) and Threads Original Soundtrack (2020s)

filed under
harsh noise / experimental / UK 1990s noise tradition
Tochnit Aleph / Self Abuse / Tonspur catalogue · cult 1990s position · alias-cycle continuing through 2020s
nameDachise (1990s) · The Digitariat (2000s onward) · Threads Original Soundtrack (2020s onward)
Born1976
Founding locationHarrogate, Yorkshire, England
Current locationUnited Kingdom
Modeharsh noise · experimental · 1990s UK noise tradition
early imprintsTochnit Aleph · Self Abuse · Tonspur
Later-period imprintsEntr'acte (The Digitariat) · Tribe Tapes (Threads Original Soundtrack)
first partnersMike Dando / Con-Dom (partnership at first-live-show position) · Smell & Quim (UK noise partner)
releasesSugar Path / Eager (Tochnit Aleph) · Coalescence · Sweet & Bitter · Sunken Chambers
statusDachise alias dormant; successor positions continuing
Filed atartist file · dachise.html

Editorial.

Dachise is the early alias of Paul D. Knowles (born 1976, Yorkshire, England), a British noise release the Bureau files as significant beyond its modest physical-distribution scale. The Knowles position has operated continuously across about three decades through an alias-cycle: Dachise across the 1990s; The Digitariat from about the early 2000s onward; Threads Original Soundtrack from about 2022 onward. The Bureau files the Knowles position at Tier II mainly on the strength of the early Dachise partnerships and the cult-status the 1990s position has later sustained in the UK noise tradition.

The founding event: Knowles' first live position was at the 1 in 12 Club, Bradford, supporting Smell & Quim and Con-Dom. Mike Dando (Con-Dom's working operator) called Knowles in to replace the Haters at short notice; the position constituted the Knowles debut and the partnership through which the early Dachise mode later extended into the UK noise scene. The 1 in 12 Club, Bradford, is significant in the UK noise tradition: a long-running anarchist working venue that has documented the UK noise, hardcore-punk and experimental tradition across the 1980s-onward career.

The early catalogue: Knowles' position on the Tochnit Aleph imprint (the European mail-order and cassette partner) sustained the early releases. Sugar Path / Eager is the early document on the imprint; the catalogue extends through positions on the Self Abuse imprint, the Tonspur imprint and the 1990s UK noise network. The later catalogue (Coalescence, Sweet & Bitter, Sunken Chambers and the vein the Rate Your Music documentation has chronicled) extends the early release across the 1990s.

The idiom: Dachise's method runs through the harsh-noise and experimental-electronic tradition the UK 1990s noise release cultivated. The Bureau reads the manner as adjacent to the Smell & Quim position (the noise partnership the founding-show partnership engaged with) and the Con-Dom tradition (Mike Dando's UK power-electronics release the partnership engaged with), but distinct: Knowles' method has tended toward the abstract-noise and experimental-electronic palette rather than the confrontational power-electronics mode the Con-Dom tradition mainly inhabited.

The successor position: from about the early 2000s onward Knowles operated mainly as The Digitariat. The vein extended into the Entr'acte partnership (the UK abstract-electronic imprint the tradition has produced); Agitated (E22, recorded July 2005) constitutes the Digitariat position the Bureau has chronicled. The Digitariat idiom documents the transition from the early harsh-noise release into the later disciplined-drone and abstract-electronic manner the Knowles position has later cultivated.

The current position: from about 2022 onward Knowles has operated as Threads Original Soundtrack. The release Reveals New Face (Tribe Tapes, 18 November 2022) constitutes the founding Threads document; the palette runs through the clinical-steel and harsh-noise release the Knowles tradition has later developed, themed around plastic surgery and beauty-ideals mode. The Threads name position is adjacent to the 1984 BBC nuclear-war film Threads, a working touchstone the UK industrial-and-noise tradition has variously engaged with across the decades.

The Bureau's editorial reading: Dachise is filed at Tier II as the early alias of Paul D. Knowles, a cult position in the UK 1990s noise tradition. The life across the Dachise / Digitariat / Threads alias-cycle constitutes one of the UK noise tradition's sustained career across about three decades. The Bureau files the Knowles position with reference to all three aliases; this filing mainly addresses the early Dachise position but cross-references the later aliases as continuous with the early vein.

Filed by Bureau editor · VAGO · c. the Georgian era · last revised c. the Norman period

Selected discography.

Discography · The Knowles catalogue across the three aliases 8 entries
YearTitle / releaseImprintNote
1990sSugar Path / EagerTochnit Alephearly Dachise position
1990sCoalescencevarious1990s Dachise catalogue item
1990sSweet & Bittervarious1990s Dachise catalogue item
1990sSunken Chambersvarious1990s Dachise catalogue item
2005The Digitariat, Agitated (E22)Entr'acteDigitariat partnership document; recorded one take July 2005
variousThe Digitariat catalogueEntr'acte · various2000s idiom
2022Threads Original Soundtrack, Reveals New FaceTribe Tapes (TRIBE 019)founding Threads Original Soundtrack position; 18 November 2022
continuingContinuing Threads Original Soundtrack catalogueTribe Tapes · varioussustained current position

Cross-references.

ARTMike Dando / Con-Dom · UK power-electronics release · partnership at the founding 1 in 12 Club live position; continuing working adjacency
ARTSmell & Quim · UK noise partner · 1990s UK noise partnership through the founding live position
ARTThe Haters · the American noise release that Knowles replaced at the founding live position; adjacency through the 1990s noise tradition
LBLTochnit Aleph · European mail-order and cassette partner · early Dachise imprint
LBLSelf Abuse · early partner
LBLEntr'acte · UK abstract-electronic imprint · Digitariat partnership
LBLTribe Tapes · current Threads Original Soundtrack partnership
F·adjF·07 Power electronics · adjacency through the Con-Dom partnership; Dachise's manner is distinct
F·adjharsh noise · the early palette the Dachise alias mainly inhabited
infra1 in 12 Club, Bradford · long-running anarchist working venue · founding location for the Dachise live-debut position
infraHarrogate, Yorkshire · founding location · UK Northern experimental tradition base
infraThreads (1984) · BBC nuclear-war film · touchstone for the current Knowles alias (Threads Original Soundtrack)

Coda.

Filing held open. The Bureau will close this note when the catalogue settles.