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Barry Douglas Lamb (born 9 May 1963) is a British experimental musician born in in South Shields, Tyne and Wear.

Musical career

Lamb became known in the early 1980s initially as a member of the experimental duo Frenzid Melon with Peter Ashby, and then (with Ashby and Owen Turley) as frontman to the rock band the insane picnic (named after his 1981 album) who were among the pioneers of the DIY cassette culture in the UK. During this time he was also involved in the development of the Falling A record label. He has released a number of solo albums which are avant-garde / electronic / industrial in nature. The album "Dusk" is perhaps his best known solo work of that period. During his most prolific period, Lamb had regular correspondence with fellow contemporaries Bryn Jones of Muslimgauze, members of Attrition, and the Third Mind record label. Much of this appeared to shape his thinking about music.

For most of the 1990s his creative output was minimal and apart from an appearance on the WMTID album "Pale Saint" he seemed to have disappeared without a trace. Mid-way through 2005 though, he re-emerged with an appearance on the Jasun Martz (former Frank Zappa sidekick) album The Pillory / The Battle playing mellotron and wind synth as well as releasing a brand new album entitled It's All About Purpose on the Six Armed Man label. 2006 saw another flurry of activity with several contributions to various Six Armed Man releases and another album of new material entitled "Observations of Istanbul".

In 2007 he commenced work on an anthology of work spanning his 30 years of recording history from his early diy cassette days to the more recent projects. This is expected to surface in 2009 under the title "From dusk to now". He also released an album of new material called "...this is" which has received critical acclaim in the underground music network. Lamb's continued partnership with former insane picnic and Frenzid Melon member Peter Ashby continues to bear fruit as they work together within the framework of Dynamite Vision which operates as a collective of independent musicians. Recent collaborations include Lamb playing saxophone on Peter Ashby's "Disturbances in the ether" album, being sampled by up and coming urban hip hop artist Tor, collaborating with Keith Levene (ex- Public Image Ltd.,), and being covered by Swiss chanteuse Hilda.

Known solo musical works

• "Dusk" (given as 1977)
• "Keys" (1978)
• "Ludi Funebres" (1979)
• "Telephone call at the edge of the universe" (1979)
• "Untitled" (1980)
• "Charlie Bildgewinders experimental bus service" (1980)
• "the insane picnic volume 1" (1981)
• "Seven Secrets" (1990)
• "It's all about purpose" (2005)
• "Observations of Istanbul" (2006)
• "...This is" (2007)
• "From dusk to now" (2009)

Other musical contributions

• 1985 "Show me a sane man" by Omming for Woks (sleeve credit)
• 1993 "Pale Saint" by WMTID (co-writing credit and vocal narrative appearance)
• 1985 "You're lost little girl" by The Acid Slothe (Vocal performance)
• 1994 "The concubine harvester" by Braintree (Vocals & various instruments)
• 2005 "The Pillory / The Battle" by Jasun Martz (Wind synth & Mellotron)
• 2005 "The narrow path" by Ermin Grud (Wind Synth, Saxophone, Mellotron & Vocals)
• 2005 Incidentals (Six Armed Man)
• 2005 Small Packages (Six Armed Man)
• 2006 With Arms Extended (Six Armed Man)
• 2007 "Disturbances in the ether" by Peter Ashby (Alto Saxophone)
• 2009 Ashby, Lamb, Levene by Ashby, Lamb, Levene (Alto Saxophone, Wind synth, Mellotron)

External links

• Dynamite Vision
• Barry Lamb blog
• Review of ...this is
• Keith Levene biography info on collaboration