BASIL KIRCHIN: MAVERICK WIZARD OF SOUND

A British bohemian treasure

A much under-valued original, Basil Kirchin was one of the most unique musician producers to emerge out of the British post-war big band scene and will surely one day be recognized as an artist of stature. A native of Blackpool, he made his debut aged 13 playing drums in his father Ivor Kirchin's orchestra at the Paramount, Tottenham Court Road. The Ivor and Basil Kirchin Band released proto-punk classic Stone Age Mambo in 1956, a young Keith Moon took note.

In an impossibly bohemian move he went to India in the late 1950s spending some time in  an ashram.  In the 1960s he worked on experimental music and film soundtracks such as the Abominable Dr Phibes, using rock session men like Jimmy Page to make weird De Wolfe Library records. In the 1970s he issued his experimental sound works as "World within worlds". They were ahead of their time and maybe are still. Kirchin belongs the same pantheon of maverick British sound artists as Joe Meek or Vernon Elliot. 

Primative London is a rare exploitation film about London's seamier side
Here is a review of Basil Kirchin's soundtrack LP which was issued in 2011.

here is the wikipedia entry but more interesting examination of Basil's work from Sound and Music

and a reminiscence from Bearded Magazine and an interview by Bob Stanley from 2002

World within worlds can be heard here