Here we have yet another compilation on Epitapes that was established by Mike Tetrault from Belchertown, Massachusetts.
Throughout the 80's dozens of these compilations were created. Each
compilation was based around a certain theme and assembled accordingly by Mike Tetrault. Some of the tracks were taken from existing releases while
others were sent specially for these tapes. You can read an interesting
interview about these cassette series with Mike Tetrault over here.
The title of this cassette "Warmth And Silence" already reveals the type of music that was selected for this compilation: subtle ambient experimental sounds for more than one hour and a half created by a large range of home-taping projects from around the globe. Present on here are quite a few more known cassette culture protagonists like Illusion Of Safety (Dan Burke, US), Hessel Veldman (Holland), DZ Lectric (France), Hands To (Jeph Jarman, US) and Los Paranos (Christophe Petchanatz, France).
A curiosity on this compilation is that Mike Tetrault also features a piece by himself in which delicate rhythms create a base for a whispered reading of André Breton's surrealist poem "Freedom Of Love".
The Swingin' Love Corpses were a spontaneous jam outfit from Lakewood, St. Louis, Missouri connected to the Church of the SubGenius. The band consisted of Dr. Philo Drummond (saxophone and vocals), Col. Sphinx Drummond (trumpet and vocals), Baba Ray Hay (guitars and vocals), Elvis Hemingway (keyboards), Mojo "Skippy" Butcher (drums), Lafe Kowabunga (bass and guitar), Pope Cecil X. Nixon (trombone and vocals) and Dr. Winston Torquemada (synthesizers, percussion, trombone).
Philo Drummond, one of the key figures of the band, was founder of the Church of the SubGenius together with Reverend Ivan Stang. The church represents a parody religion that mocks popular as well as lesser known belief systems. It also has an own mythology created around the ficticious 1950's salesman J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, who saw God on a televison set he created. He is used as the symbol and epitome of the recurring American capitalist dream and is also depicted here on this cassette cover as some sort of sci-fi warrior.
In 1988 Ivan Stang and others published the book High Weirdness By Mail that was a compendium of all kinds of strange fringe-organisations, visonaries, UFO worshippers, political extremists, Jesus-freaks, weirdo's, conspirators and other pseudo-religious groups. Included were their mail-adresses or other contact information and descriptions. People were thus able to communicate with these groups and started to correspond.
Through the mythology and tactics as well as the complex systems which imitated their subjects, the Church of the SubGenius functioned as an organized form of Culture Jamming. Media culture and cultural institutions were ultimately being disrupted through a clever Church scheme of playful anti-consumerist protest. It's as if they were giving media, the mainstream culture and consumerism a bit of its own medicine and used their own mechanisms against them, whether in the form of mockery or as direct disruption.
In any case a lot of the activities of people involved with the Church of the SubGenius were also related to music. A radio show called Hour of Slack, hosted by Ivan Stang, has been going on for decades and can still be heard to this day. The Church had interest for music that was manifested through home-taping culture and mail-art. Those were often people either using media in an autonomous way or people who were actually manifesting recordings from their self-created fringe-world away from the mainstream.
The Swinging Love Corpses were one of the bands of the Church of the SubGenius that played over thousands of hours of jam-sessions. They also played many live gigs and released cassettes that were distributed thoughout the global home-taping circuit. In a way they come from a similar realm of American mockery and/or weird groups using absurdism or culture jamming like The Residents, Negativland, Frank Zappa, Butthole Surfers, Blacklight Braille and many others. Ofcourse Pop-Art seems to have been one of the first manifestations of this kind of post-war capitalist mockery and reversal of media powers in general.
I guess there's a lot to check out more elaborately for yourself within all of this, specially regarding today's perpetual digital media simulacrum trip and the post-reality virus age...But for now here are The Swingin' Love Corpses providing their great mutoid funk, zappa-esque manoeuvres, space jazz and trippy jam explorations for the end of the world détournement party which was already recorded some 30 years ago.
Here is another great tape from the home-taping cassette network, this time from the US. It's quite an unknown one that compiles 25 different artists from various genres with home-taping tracks created around the theme of sleep. Yes: sleep, dreams, snores, lullabies and other sleepytime sounds that are meant to keep you awake or to put you to deep hypnotizing sleep.
As for the artists I'd say that some of them are to be found more regularly on US home-taping cassettes like the mind-warping The Evolution Control Committee that came from North-Canton, Ohio or Hermanos Guzanos from Fairfax, California. But about most of the acts I have no clue who they were. I also don't know who released this compilation, how many were made or when it was exactly released.
Another interesting cassette in the typical American home-taping style, with lots of silliness, humor, cool electrified tracks, pop songs and experimental sounds. A perfect soundtrack to the time of hibernation during this winter that is commencing! Zzzzzzzz
The Voice Is The Matter is a beautiful CD-only release from The Netherlands that was created by American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Michael Moore, singer Jodi Gilbert (voice, dulcimer), Dutch double bass player and member of the Instant Composers PoolErnst Glerum, Michael Vatcher (drums) and Russian composer and jazz musician Alexei Levin (piano, accordion). All of these musicians are based in Amsterdam.
The album The Voice Is The Matter was recorded in Amsterdam on March 11, April 18, May 24, 1997, but got released in 1999. Musically it's a mixture of free-jazz improvisation, experimental scatting, poetry, smooth-jazz and Macedonian and Bulgarian folk-song interpretations in which voice is emphasized. All musicians present are also pinnacle figures in the Dutch and international improvisation scene already for decades and have released dozens of different records. I suggest you give some other releases a listen too when you can. The album is also reminiscent of The Schismatics that I posted before on the blog.
Actually the fact that it doesn't reach too heavy 'impro moments' combined with a hollistic album approach causes this recording to be quite dreamy, listenable and comforting. Just the right soundtrack for necessary tranquility during the winter month of December we are finding ourselves in.
Merry Christmas and an Archaic New Year to all followers of the blog!
Blacklight Braille was an ever morphing band from Cincinatti, Ohio led by musicians Owen Smith and Doug Knight. The band claimed their own style called "Fringe Rock". Once they described it in a very good and thorough interview from 1993 as:
"Music created
by rock musicians, yet not quite meeting the classical definition of
rock' n' roll. It differs to the degree that it might be said to fall
within an entirely different location, fringe rock. When we started,
we were doing a music that was so far out on the fringe that the beauties
were cryptic or hidden. It
is highly improvisational music created with the available technology,
and it searches for new and different musical instruments and sounds, You can't dance to it, but it does have elements of rock music."
Blacklight Braille made numerous albums on their own Vetco Records and started out in the mid-seventies as a collective of street performance artists and musicians under the name Bitter Blood Street Theatre. They acclaimed some underground fame in Cincinatti for their weird shows. Eventually they created the project Blacklight Braille with their first totally demented and experimental collage album Electric Canticles Of The Blacklight Braille in 1981.
Later on Blacklight Braille was also picked up by the international deviant music scenes through the many albums that they distributed to radio stations worldwide. Besides their Fringe Rock music they also started to incorporate the somewhat occult fascination for British King Arthur and the Arthurian Legends. The musical influences became even more diverse and were now being accompanied by oral stories and poetry, regularly dealing with the Arthurian Legends.
The Carbonek Album, (Castle Carbonek is the place where supposedly the Holy Grail is kept) is a strange Arthurian concept album in which the world of Arthurian legends unfolds. About ten different people are part of the band for this occasion and the album goes into many directions, ranging from electronic ambient synth sounds to the new age sounds of fountains to dark experimentation with spoken tales. It has a humorous yet serious approach always keeping a pace with Arthurian atmospheres and concepts with tracks like The Fountain Falling From The Ace Of Cups, The Gift For Galahad and Guinhwyvare The Tall And Fair. It sort of reminds me of later work by Legendary Pink Dots, although more demented in approach. Also It makes me think of Big City Orchestra and their vast discography of albums.
Blacklight Braille is another one of those great US bands that is very much overlooked considering their unique music and the efforts they have put in their albums. Look out for the rest when you can!
This here is - I think - the last cassette of the On-Slaught compilations which is still not to be found on the web. Moreover it takes us back to the beginning of this blog with cassette releases from the early eighties DIY home taping scene (more similar stuff to follow soon). The On-Slaught volumes always consisted of some songs taken from proper album releases and previously unreleased tracks by the featured artists. All the other five On-Slaught compilations are to be found here and here. This time I will make an exception by quoting what Cranio of The Thing on The Doorstep tells us about the On-Slaught series because I couldn't do it more accurate:
On-Slaught magazine was founded by Jody Quirk (editor) in 1982 and
published by Artwerk Records with the intent of bringing attention to
unusual and experimental music. The first two issues had flexi-discs in
them and were successful on a cult level and brought the magazine
notoriety in the darker side of the budding New Wave music scene of the
early 80s. However in 1983 Jody Quirk left the magazine in career
pursuits and electronic musician Mark Lane assumed the role of editor.
He was assisted by the graphic artist Julie Vlasak (now with Rhino
Records). The two of them published four more issues of On-Slaught on
the Idiosyncratics label as a cassette magazine. This not only allowed
them to have more bands/artists participate, but also pushed them into
the forefront of a by now flourishing worldwide cassette underground.
The reader would listen to the cassette program while following the
information provided in the printed portion. At the time this concept
was ground breaking, and has now become influential as attested to by
all magazines that now have CDs in them.
This fourth compilation shows electronic Krautrock legend and founder of Kluster Conrad Schnitzler on the cover of the magazine who plays a track with his son on this compilation (they did a whole album together in the early eighties). Other acts present are a.o. Algebra Suicide, Sleep Chamber, Doo-Dooettes, Mood of Defiance and Ony. What I personally like about the On-Slaught series, apart from the extensive information on international bands, is the right balance between electronic acts and more punk-like improvised noise-bands. Great songs! Legendary compilations. I included the full magazine in the file. Enjoy!
