Immaterial is Dermot Bucknall, singer of Liverpool/Stoke band Rooney from 1993 to 1999 (rejoining for one gig in 2000). His career in Rooney, and his subsequent solo projects, were beset by misfortune, often exacerbated by his claim to be able to channel the voices of otherworldly entities through his performances. One of Dermot’s last public statements before his retirement from music in 2007 was a very candid and moving essay about his performance ‘possessions’ entitled Towards the Heavenly Void. Alain Chamois’ 2018 Owd Scrat single Let Me Take You There also mentions one of Dermot’s uncanny ‘turns’ within its spoken word narrative.
The Immaterial release 1981 is from Dermot’s pre-Rooney days: Dermot made a number of lo-fi experimental cassette albums – in small handmade editions – in the summer, autumn and winter of 1981, when he had just turned 14 (not long after regaining his voice after a childhood trauma).
