A Q&A with Mecko, Leader of Fraticórnicos (Subject: Francis Framar)

Francis Framar was the first Fraticórnicos album. The first recorded, the first released, and the first with the original line-up, the duo of Pelo and Mecko. It was produced entirely with toy instruments, really cheap electronic keyboards and toys that produce sound. However, Pelo and Mecko, being their naturally and God-blessfully-talented selves, were able to take these kinds of instruments and create atmospheric, experimental, transcendent landscapes of sound that, upon listening, will make your eardrums smile and think to themselves, “How did they do it?”

Musically, the album owes no small debt to the Residents, one of the group’s biggest influences. It’s very artistic and well-crafted. The cheap keyboards and toy instruments were played in a very ornate, graceful and experimental fashion. At times, at least according to me, parts of the album has a classically-trained sound and gets to the point where the album could be placed into the progressive electronic category (a spot that features the likes of Vangelis and Tangerine Dream). The album is that awesome!

Conceptually, the album was the first of many concept albums that Fraticórnicos had worked on, and the concept is something that most people would be shocked at. Even though it’s mostly instrumental (only 5 of the album’s 21 tracks have actual vocals and lyrics), Francis Framar is a psychological horror type of story chronicling the embarrassing legend of the eponymous child of a family in a town of the Argentine interior (which is called America, according to the album’s commentary), who committed perverse and impure acts to toys, furniture and appliances. Despite all of this, according to some translation and proofreading, the lyrics were written in a way that is non-explicit and watered-down in terms of content, meaning that the lyrics were completely tame, so the album is not particularly obscene.

Recently, I decided to conduct another Q&A interview with Mecko, the group’s co-founder and most-prominent member. I just thought of doing this special interview because, after all, Francis Framar was the group’s very first album!

QUESTION #1
Tré: What directly inspired the album’s theme? Were there any movies, documentaries, books or whatever that played a big part in the making of the story?

Mecko: It’s the story of the alleged aberrations of a country boy, normal for a city but atrocious for a provincial child, and the small mentality of the inhabitants of a remote town who refuse to be moderated or to accept things they do not understand or do not want to alter. No books were consulted. Only our experiences of having known small towns of the Interior.

Tré: Well, here in America, we would view the stuff Francis did as sickening. Even I would view it as such.

QUESTION #2
Tré: Can you list me all of the toys and instruments used on the album?

Mecko: Various toy instruments were used, such as small keyboards and guitars, which no longer exist or whose whereabouts are unknown, mostly Casios and Kawasakis, and other ones with no brand. There were always children and nephews who kept the toys after the recording [of the album was finished].

QUESTION #3
Tré: The album was recorded at a place called Estudio Sur Records, in the town of Luis Guillón. How big was the studio, and what was its atmosphere like? Are there any photos of the studio available?

Mecko: I can’t remember. It was 21 years ago!

QUESTION #4
Tré: The original 1996 version contains “Kretino & Anodina,” the shortest track in the group’s catalogue. Were the sounds real or sampled, and what scene was the track portraying?

Mecko: We stole it from a few passages from an album of a dark garage group called The Deep, a 60’s band. It represents absolutely nothing!

(NOTE: In the album’s story, Kretino and Anodina were the names of the parents of the title character. Their names are both puns, being Spanish for “cretin” and “anodine,” respectively. Another bit of information is that Francis had a wealthy, unnamed grandmother who was so rich that her fortune left no heirs after her death.)

QUESTION #5
Tré: The original 1996 mix of the opening track “Espermas (Sperm Cells)” featured a backwards sample from the pre-Fraticórnicos project Aire. Would you consider that recorded snippet (and other things Aire made) to be the Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor (pre-Residents demo tape from 1970) of the entire recorded output of Fraticornicos?

Mecko: Yes.

QUESTION #6
Tré: There was another sample at the start of the 1996 mix of “Espermas” that comes between the Aire sample and the main track’s opening synth chord (coming between 0:31 and 0:37). Was that from another pre-Fraticórnicos project, like Falcon Verde or Vietnam or whatever?

Mecko: No. Again, it was a robbery of The Deep.

QUESTION #7
Tré: What meanings do each of the sections of the “Fratiana Suite” have?

Mecko: *laughs* Nothing at all! Just cute, weird titles. Many times, the names of the tracks were thought to deceive or confuse the audience, or have dirty, hidden meanings. Many times, it is more of what the listener imagines than anything else. Fratiana is Francis’ sister, and her behaviors were sometimes bizarre.

Tré: Now, correct me if I’m wrong about the translations of each of the sections of the suite…
-Centripeta=Centripetal
-La Amarilla Ceremonia del Te=The Yellow Tea Ceremony
-Capsula Crápula=Crapulence Capsule (NOTE: It was corrected as “Mean Capsule.” Explanation below.)
-Tres Vueltas en Pony=Three Turns on the Pony
-60,000 Toneladas sin Marrón Glacé = 60,000 Tones without Blown Frosting (NOTE: It was corrected as simply “60,000 Tons without Marrón Glacé.” Explanation below.)

Mecko: “Crápula” is “son of a b*tch,” a mean person. In this case, it’s “Mean Capsule.” As you can read it, it is nonsense, but it sounds good. Marrón Glacé is an ice cream flavor.

Tré: Is it tasty? What is it made of?

Mecko: Supersuper extra sweet. It’s made with “castañas.” Chestnuts. I don’t like it, so the title refers to 60,000 tons of ice cream without that [particular flavor].

QUESTION #8
Tré: Since it was the first Fraticórnicos album, how successful was Francis Framar upon release?

Mecko: The album aroused a lot of interest due to the use of toys, since it was the first time that it was done. And, [it was] my first album after El Tercer Hombre, so our fans wanted to know about what we were up to [at the time]. They loved it. They told us about the anxiety and despair featured in the album, [and that] there are some scary moments. I remember there were psychologists trying to figure out what we tried to express. They analyzed Francis’ behaviors and noticed [something] about our joke intentions. Also, the cover art was too disturbing and, at the same time, naïve. The cassette packaging was something never seen before, with lots of folds. We were one of the first bands in Argentina to include an e-mail address in the cover, borrowed by a friend.

QUESTION #9
Tré: Since the 2016 remix of “Play-Room Engendro (Play-Room Monstrosity)” featured the voice of the title character as a baby (done by someone named Agustín), was that track meant to detail Francis as a baby? And, who was Agustín?

Mecko: Yes. It was Francis playing [with and] surrounded by toys, not exactly instruments, but all of them with [their own] sounds. Agustín is Pelo’s son. His son and my daughter were born 12 days apart.

QUESTION #10
Tré: Which machine was used to record the original album?

Mecko: [It was] an analogue 8-track tape recorder.

Tré: Reel-to-reel! YES! That’s really, really cool!

Mecko: Exactly, but that one was a little slow. The original tempos were modified by this damn machine, [which was] something I noticed during the remixing sessions. Tempos that were 130 suddenly became 128.

QUESTION #11
Tré: Were there any tracks from the 2-disc rarities set Nuestras Melodias Descartadas (Our Discarded Melodies) that were outtakes from the Francis Framar sessions? If so, which ones were they?

Mecko: No. Absolutely nothing [was there from the sessions], but there was a different mix of “Espermas,” but I didn’t know where it was [at the time of Nuestras Melodias Descartadas]. I wasn’t a big archivist of our stuff at the time, but I am now.

QUESTION #12
Tré: On the original album, how was the vocal experiment “Misterio y Defloración (Mystery and Defloration)” made?

Mecko: You mean that one with “Muebles y juguetes esperan su arroró….”?

Tré: No. The track that comes between “Boogie-Woogie en Block (Boogie-Woogie on the Block)” and “Bloqueada (Blocked).”

Mecko: No. You mean the one with a buzz.

Tré: Oh, that was a buzz?

Mecko: Actually, it was my mouth doing weird sounds, with a lot of reverb.

Tré: Considering the album was a reel-to-reel recording, was it tape reverb?

Mecko: The reverb setting was featured on the mixing table in post-production. That album needed- badly, badly, badly -a new version. The general recording conditions were very poor, with an engineer that hated us.

Tré: Claudio Galesi…

Mecko: Yes. That moronic one.

QUESTION #13
Tré: Is Framar a made-up surname, or is it not? Does it have a meaning attached to it?

Mecko: Yes. [First of all,] Francis was the middle name of a friend [of ours], a disturbed one whose voice you can hear on Brilla Tú, Gerente Loco, where he says “obertura histérica.” A demented one who told us our destinies with tarot cards. A fake witch doctor. [Secondly,] Framar is a trademark of leather jackets.

Tré: Woah! I never thought of a jacket brand like that before!

Mecko: In 1990, we attended a radio broadcast program called La Buhardilla (The Attic), in which we told weird stories. Framar Cueros was an advertiser. Francis Framar, both names of which begin with [the prefix] “Fra,” was a perfect name for the main character.

THE LAST QUESTION
Tré: Do you think that Francis Framar should be given an all-orchestral-and-choral treatment someday?

Mecko: Why not? It would be a lot of fun! Sort of an “all toy-made” version of Tommy.

Tré: “Fraticórnicos presents FRANCIS FRAMAR: Orchestrated and Conducted by John Williams”

Mecko: Sounds good to me! One more thing!

Tré: What is it?

Mecko: One of the funniest memories of those sessions was to see the faces of the studio’s owners when we opened our bags and took out our toys. “Those are your instruments?” “Yes!” “And, what else? I imagine you’re going to record something with real instruments!” “Of course! What you got?” That was the opening dialogue [at the studio].

Tré: Wow! You guys are pioneers! Adios, mi amigo! CUALQUIERISTA!!!

Mecko: Thanks to you, as always!

LINKS:
The Group’s SoundCloud
The Fraticórnicos Fan Club
The 2016 Remix of Francis Framar
My Music
The Facebook Page

 

 

 

 

 

Charles Bobuck-Maxine (2014)

Charles Bobuck, an alias of one of the members of the anonymous avant-garde music innovators, The Residents, was known for releasing solo albums during this decade. As his stage name indicates, this Resident took cues from the Name Game.

Yesterday, I decided to go to Bandcamp and listen to some of Mr. Bobuck’s solo work, and I ended up listening to his solo album Maxine, which was released in October 2014. Maxine is not an actual album, but it consists of one 33-minute suite that was the walk-in music for the Residents’s Demons Dance Alone Tour from 2002.

I can say that Mr. Bobuck is a pure Resident at heart. When I went to his “Codgers” blog on the official Residents website, he gave out the history behind the track “Moonman”, which was recorded on the day of the American moon landing in July 1969, before the Residents even had a name for themselves. Charles said he was recording a song about lasers when another soon-to-be Resident wrote a short poem and presented it to him. This was recorded on tape using cheap instruments, primarily an acoustic guitar and a sloppy electric bass, and became the track “Moonman”. Note that this track was uploaded on the Codgers blog, as well as being released on the limited-edition Residents rarities album Delta Nudes’ Greatest Hiss. Nowadays, he even likes to work on solo electronic projects using software synth programs for his iPad.

Let me describe the whole suite:

Part 1 (0:00-4:45)

This starts out with electronically-distorted voice samples, mostly sounding like a broken TV broadcast from the future. A simple piano melody develops with echoed ambient noise effects. A hip-hop drumbeat plays along to the piano, backed by some old jazz instruments. The jazz melody comes to mind of Dixieland jazz music. A distorted noise effect comes, leading to distorted, very nasally group vocals, backed by a woman singing. This woman’s voice sounds as nasally as the group vocals. As the woman continues to sing, a reprise of the piano-and-drum melody begins, with the ambient sound effects. A really campy electric organ solo pops up, sounding like old recordings from the 1920’s, with a really futuristic synth bass almost drowning out the other instruments as it slowly increases in volume.

Part 2 (4:46-8:22)

As the futuristic synth bass riff continues playing, other electronic sounds flutter all over, with a drum machine rhythm playing along. Strange machinery noises also show up, only to stop right when a drum machine is jamming along to some other synth effects and mechanical sounds playing in melody. A progressive rock-style synth melody opens up to some strange clanging and machinery.

Part 3 (8:23-10:22)

This begins with a really baroque string arrangement, accompanied by some clanging bells and weird sound effects. Another string arrangement comes, first with some electronic noises but then later accompanied by Southern folk instrumentation, primarily a banjo being played like an acoustic guitar. A string synth and drumbeat turns this into a lighthearted pop tune, with some high-pitched arena rock guitar soloing.

Part 4 (10:23-13:21)

This starts off with a modern-sounding trance tune performed with a synth bass and a drum machine. Later, there are some phasing electronic effects, which eventually becomes a reversed keyboard melody with droning ambient synth effects. A trance tune similar from earlier starts, but sounds like the Crystal Method’s theme song to the TV series Bones, albeit with a much faster tempo. Some acoustic guitar chords turns the trance tune into something more experimental with reversed sounds, which is later accompanied by wordless female vocals. This part closes out with some heavily-reverbed acoustic strings playing along to some shaking percussion.

Part 5 (13:22-14:16)

A really weird, speed-freak tune with barroom piano, saxophone and tuneless yodeling, with weird electronic noises appearing soon after.

Part 6 (14:17-15:52)

An industrial-sounding bongo rhythm emerges, accompanied by a really folky violin. A drum machine accompanies the bongo and violin, along with futuristic noises. The violin becomes slightly more dramatic.

Part 7 (15:54-17:48)

This consists of a reversed piano loop. At one point, you hear a dramatic choir sample, but it was really brief. As the piano loop continues, various electronic effects emerge, later followed by some classical violin. The same weird electronic noise effect from part 5 engulfs the track, accompanied by a long synthesizer drone that sounds identical to a clarinet, albeit with a phasing effect.

Part 8 (17:49-20:48)

A stereo-panned tympani rhythm treated with reverb becomes a surf rock electric guitar riff backed by synthesizer effects and a dramatic string synth. A weird buzzing noise shows up after a minute or so. Another guitar emerges, playing a distorted solo, which eventually becomes a distorted violin. A drum-and-bass drum machine rhythm comes later.

Part 9 (20:49-22:16)

Some weird reverbed noises starts out this segment, with some Jimi Hendrix-style guitar soloing that comes to mind of his performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. This guitar solo is also treated with reverb, and it is accompanied by some high-pitched whistling and a slowed-down voice sample.

Part 10 (22:17-24:24)

A Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood-esque piano boogie strikes up the track, accompanied by the same whistle from earlier and some reversed noises. The use of a saxophone makes this tune even more jazzy, also with a drum machine and watery synth effects. A distorted spoken voice closes out this segment.

Part 11 (24:25-25:41)

This starts out with a very short rock jam, but eventually a synthesized creaking noise engulfs it. Later, it becomes a much more bluesy tune with harmonica, futuristic noises, piano, and percussion. At one point, you hear something that sounds like a robot from Star Wars talking in reverse!

Part 12 (25:42-29:39)

A reverbed noise effect and tympani note introduces a jazzy tune performed with piano, with a rapid drum machine rhythm and industrial music-style synth sounds. As the drum machine rhythm continues, some long bleeps and drones starts to sound like a saxophone solo. After that comes some atmospheric synth washes, along with some synth bass and mechanical sounds to close out this segment.

Pat 13 (29:40-30:44)

This starts off with a classical melody performed with reverbed brass instruments, with one of them beginning to take up a more jazzy sound. A strange, continuous guitar surge opens up to a poppy acoustic guitar riff.

Part 14 (30:45-32:05)

As the guitar surge closes out, a deep vocalization leads into a folky electronic tune that is very brief, because it eventually becomes an industrial-sounding dance melody. There’s also a really funky guitar riff and a kitschy guitar solo thrown in there, too.

Part 15 (32:06-33:30)

This closing segment consists of a really old-school jazz melody with piano and drums that is accompanied by some crooning vocals, with some backing vocals that were sped-up and sounding like Alvin & the Chipmunks. What’s weird is that this segment cuts off abruptly right in the middle of the song, ending with about 5 seconds of silence.

This sounded interesting the first time I listened to it, but sounded 10 times better the second time!

This is by far Charles Bobuck’s best solo recording I had ever listened to. If you’re a die-hard Residents fan, then by all means, listen to it! You can easily download a copy or buy it on CD. The Bandcamp link is right here: https://bobuck.bandcamp.com/album/maxine

 

 

 

 

Internet Club-世界から解放され (2014)

I’ve never been really into much of Vaporwave, mostly because even though it’s a subgenre/subculture of experimental music, much of it to me is just weeaboo-style (no offense!) electronic lounge music that can put me to sleep at times.

There are, however, two exceptions. I of course mean stuff from the Vaporwave genre that actually are kinda interesting. Those are the music of my friend SLØUGH and this album by the German outfit Internet Club.

I remember SLØUGH shared this album with me over Twitter a year ago, and I thought it was actually an amazing listen. However, I couldn’t find it recently until I asked him again, and he even provided me with the Bandcamp link, which I will post to this article if you guys want to hear what it sounds like.

This album, given a Japanese title, is rather interesting because when I first listened to it, it was a mixture of Dada-inspired sound collage music, tons of Negativland styles (mostly their 1980-83 era and their JAMCON ’84 period), The Residents at their most weirdest, and a massive amount of Japanese influences, especially on the album’s sci-fi anime-themed album cover.

The tracks:

“サンライズTODAY”-A really bizarre collage loop of what sounds like an anime sample that also gets slowed down. Later, you hear what sounds like a Michael Jackson sample, with more loops collapsing on top of each other. To me, this sounds like a Japanese version of Max Headroom malfunctioning.

“MORNING今日のプログラミングDAYTIME”-A sloppy mess of loops of old-school disco samples and high-pitched Japanese voices (not from something girly and kawaii-related, as these were male voices).

“PRIMETIME今日のプログラミングLATENIGHT”-A chopped-up-looped-and-speed-manipulated collage of hip-hop samples, sci-fi sound effects, and Japanese voices.

“覚えておいてください!”-A 34-second loop of a synthpop sample.

“渋谷のハート”-A sloppy chopped-and-screwed piece consisting of slowed-down voices, synthpop samples, and snippets of synthesized lounge music.

“あなたの人生を更新「新しいデラックスライフ」”-Continuous loops of an electronic music sample that eventually gets chopped-up bit by bit, eventually forming machine-like rhythms.

“A NEW TIME IS IN YOUR HANDS「それを実現させる！」”-A sloppy collage of old folk rock recordings (could be from the 70’s) that loops and changes in pitch.

“《ゴシップ好き》”-A 31-second chopped-and-screwed number consisting of a slowed-down and looped disco sample.

“プロミセス「世界から解放され」”-An experimental speed loop montage of haunting piano music with a voice speaking a half-word. Maybe this could be from an old TV commercial from around the mid-70’s to early 80’s? Later, the loops start to become processed in a way that it produces photocopy machine-like sounds.

“本当の人生?”-A 58-second chopped-and-screwed collage of an old Japanese TV commercial.

“私たちのスポンサーからの単語”-A 32-second collage of an electronic music sample that sounds like it came from an old TV commercial from the 80’s.

“それではまた明日！”-This minute-long closing is the same as the opening track, but more longer and more chaotic. This is like Max Headroom after he had too much caffeine.

To check out this weird, hyper-trippy, but yet interesting Vaporwave album, go to: https://internetclub.bandcamp.com/album/-

Socket-Household Objects (2001)

Who would think that Pink Floyd only recorded an album (which was sadly unreleased but only two songs) called Household Objects, which uses what’s described in the title?

The tracks:

“Guitar”-A minimalist acoustic guitar improv that distinigrates into pure noise trash and back again. This track perfectly comes to mind of a mix of Jandek and grindcore at its most pretentious. Still a rather good song, however.

“Glass”-This sounds like a recording of glass objects that were fed through either a synthesizer or an effects pedal. Later, you also hear what sounds like a distorted organ melody.

“Tin”-This track consists of the manipulated sounds of tin cans clanging and banging about.

“Drum”-A distorted and warped recording of a guy futzing around on a marching drum. Well, at least that’s what it sounds like!

“Brush”-A guy messing around with a paintbrush (or some other type of small brush) and effects units. Later, it sounds like the recording was played backwards.

“Sharpie”-A distorted recording of a guy using a Sharpie marker, backed by high-pitched electronic tones.

“Wine Bottle”-A noisy recording of a wine bottle being scraped on something, treated with effects to make it sound like a piece of droning ambient music. This is exactly like “Wine Glasses”, a track Pink Floyd recorded during the Household Objects sessions back in 1974.

Check it out here: http://yellowmoon.bandcamp.com/album/household-objects

Los Angeles Free Music Society-I.D. Art #2 (1976)

Mac McCloud-“A. Mac McCloud/B. Mac McCloud”
The first section consists of overdubbed vocal drones. The second section is a beatnik-esque spoken word piece that consists of two voices overdubbed on top of each other.

Harold Schroeder-“Silent Rituals”
This piece features desolate electronic drones that were performed on a synthesizer, but sounds like they could’ve been produced on a Hammond organ. It also has some electric guitar sounds, bass, oboe musette, and some mechanical noises. Later, you hear a distorted voice that sounds like it was spoken through a dictaphone.

Greg Neutra/J.D. Elliot-“Grieg Fatigue”
A sound collage consisting of recordings of classical music being layered on top of each other.

Smegma-“A. Rrose Selavy Will Wait For My Washing Machine, Even/B. The Andalusian Dog Often Digs into the Furniture with Onyx Fingers”
The first track consists of a recording of a washing machine and some out-of-tune trumpet-like noises. The second track is a recording of a saxophone being played backwards, backed by oscillator drones.

Smegma-“Potatoe War”
Starting with a deep chanting, a short diddy with vocals about potatoes and a Jew’s harp plays for the rest of the song as the chant continues.

Fredrik Nilsen-“You Can’t Hide From Aldehyde”
A collage of tape loops of random freak-out weirdness.

Le Forte Four-“Discarded Portion of the Soundtrack for Rick’s Film “Burger Madness”
A 14-second noise collage piece, as performed on a “Boop-o-graph” by Joe Potts, that was used as part of the soundtrack for a high school film project that Joe’s brother Rick Potts had made. I was lucky enough to ask Rick on Facebook about it, since he was one of my Facebook friends, he told me that the film was about a guy who goes to Jack in the Box, eats a cheeseburger, and then has hallucinations.

Miles Forst-“Art, Art, Art”
A recording of a woman making coughing sounds, along with some background noise and dialogue.

Smegma-“One Moment”
A sound collage of a rock music jam session (that was later reversed) and samples from various music and TV shows (or radio broadcasts), all spliced together and manipulated in an interlocking manner.

Smegma-“Pigface Blues”
A short diddy with vocals and out-of-tune acoustic guitar.

Doug Henry-“View This Command as a Verbal Enactment of a Command”
Just 15 seconds of the guy saying the track’s title (backed by an electronic buzz), followed by some silence.

Josie Roth-“Heal, and Another Little Time”
A recording of what sounds like a toy animal, or something like that.

Joe Potts-“I Don’t Want to Go to the Farm”
A collage of random singing voices.

Otto Fick-“Untitled”
A tape loop of flute sounds and a voice about satisfaction. A different voice accompanies the tape loop. The track ends with an out-of-tune flute finale.

Smegma-“Excerpt From: I’ll Have Julie Nixon-Eisenhower For My Appetizer (Sour Lungs to My Surprise)”
A noise rock jam with distorted electric guitar, bass, flute, kazoo, random sounds, strange vocals, and weird electronic effects that sounds like a UFO. An extreme attempt at trying to impersonate The Mothers of Inventions’ 1968 album We’re Only in it For the Money.

Karen Kato-“Xmas 1952”
An old home recording of the Kato family during Christmastime in 1952, as recorded on a phonograph. The recording ends with a locked groove, meaning that the last part loops at the end.

J. J. Allen Vargas-“Victim of Racism”
The first half consists of records being speed-manipulated with a turntable. The second half consists of samples from Looney Tunes cartoons.

Le Forte Four-From “The Origin of Largie Shrapnel”
Performed by Rick Potts with trashcan tympanies, bass, piano, and cartoonish vocals, this was an excerpt from another film project by the aforementioned composer.

Dennis Guy Mehaffey-“Busta Nosa”
A piece consisting of warped records that could also have been speed manipulated. This perfectly recalls the second Neu! album.

M/R/Zuniga-“Vulnerability: Rape, Male vs. Female”
Beginning with some tiny sped-up voices and electronic percussive sounds, this leads into a creepy horror movie-style piece with a teenage girl repeating the words “raping my mind” like a schizophrenic.

Mike Green-“Martin Heiddeger Revisited”
A collage of a rapid spoken word piece and singing.

Le Forte Four-“I Haven’t Heard You For A Long Time…”
A short conversation between a woman and Chip Chapman on a CB radio. This piece was recorded at “Loud Mouth” Dunn’s CB shop in El Monte.

Dennis Guy Mehaffey-“A. Introduction by Buckminster Fuller/B. I Stumble/You Laugh”
The first track is a spoken introduction about a radio broadcast. The second track consists of a piece with strange guitar sounds and mechanical percussion. The guitar was played by the one and only Mr. Foon, who also recorded a piece for this album. 

Le Forte Four-“Fat Ape”
A piece composed by Tom Potts for distorted voice and Mexican radio. The way the voice is distorted sounds like it was processed through a cheap vocoder-esque device.

Jules Lemelle-“Untitled”
A field recording backed by the sound of a clock ticking. You also hear a motorcycle revving later on. The sound quality makes it sound like it was recorded on a cassette tape.

Maureen Abbott-“Untitled”
A 14-second recording of a woman speaking, backed by an electronic buzz.

Smegma-“Take One”
An free jazz composition featuring an out-of-tune hammer dulcimer, bass, clarinet drones (both performed on an acoustic clarinet and a metal clarinet), koto, “flax”, trombone, violin, and tape effects (credited as “toons” on the original release).

Dan Weiss/P. Hamilton Ross-“A Bicentennial Tribue to America’s Freight Trains”
A recording of two guys talking about freight trains in a beatnik manner, along with some harmonica sounds.

Mr. Foon-“Timeless #1”
The album’s longest track, clocking in at 5:50. This track is a sound collage consisting of a continuous, stereo-panning tape loop of a telephone voice sample (it pauses at points throughout the song), singing, various samples, out-of-tune instruments, and random noises.

Bertil Petersson-“Monologue to Henry VIII”
A spoken word voice consisting of a woman, in a number of voices, speaking as if to King Henry VIII.

Amrein & Stoll-“Untitled”
A piece featuring: (1) deep electronic drones and African thumb piano, (2) deep saxophone-like noises, (3) an electronic rumbling sound, and (4) more deep drones and some metallic clanging.

Ace & Duce-“Dogs Are Barking”
A short recording of acoustic guitar, a man singing, and a dog barking.

Irene Dogmatic/Rose Tattoo-“Untitled”
A piece featuring a reverbed female voice, another voice (that sings later on), and some acoustic guitar playing.

Gordon Shields-“Cotton Duck, Up and Back”
A recording of some tearing noises with the tape played backwards and forwards.

Donald Spaulding-“I Don’t Want This to Happen”
A tape loop of the guy saying the words of the title. 

Tom Kemp-“Pasadena Subway Station Poetry Stills”
A recording of the guy reciting his poetry in a subway station, with real acoustic reverberation on the guy’s voice.

Janice Felger/Joan Hugo-“One Minute of Art News Update in 30 Seconds”
The title says it all!

Sue Farthing-“Untitled”
22 seconds of background noise

Waynna Kato-“White/Noise”
To me, this track sounds like a lo-fi recording of scraping violin noises backed by some old recordings and other random sounds. At the end, you hear a recording of an electric guitar playing a surf music-style melody.

Jim Abuan/Peter Muzzey-“Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad?”
A loud refrain recorded over the telephone.

Juan Gomez-“This is My Country”
A lo-fi recording of schoolchildren singing the titular song, backed by a grand piano, glockenspiel, and percussion.

P.J. Campbell-“Untitled”
Just one minute of silence with nothing else!

Kathe Schreyer-“Don’t Make Me Laugh”
A woman making high-pitched laughing. At the end, the recording sounds like it was going through a filter, with some reverb to top it all off.

Mary Dana Chodzko-“Patty Smith by Mary Dana Chodzko”
A poetic a capella that could easily be one of the very first hip-hop songs!

Gary Laskin-“Have Sex With Rex”
A recording of a fictional dating service.

Jean Koller-“Dream”
And so, the album ends with a woman giving a description of one of her dreams.

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band-Trout Mask Replica (1969)

Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of one of the greatest experimental rock albums of all time, which would happen to be Trout Mask Replica. It was released on CD many times, but it never made its way to iTunes for some strange reason (I get lots of my music off of iTunes), but I was lucky enough to hear the full thing on YouTube plenty of times before I would have a chance of buying it. I remember when I first listened to it a couple years ago, and I thought it was one of the most awesome things I had ever listened to. In fact, some of this was recorded in an old abandoned house! Don Van Vliet, as is the real name of Captain Beefheart, sure is a musical genius!

I remember reading the album’s credits, but they looked rather plain (but it did give out some of the instruments used). So, for this reason. when I describe each of the tracks for this review, I’m going to give personnel credits to each of the songs, just to add to the album’s weirdness!

“Frownland”-An electric boogie starts, but Don’s vocals quickly deconstructs the song into interlocking guitar noise. Not like noisecore in the Gerogerigegege fashion, but more in an electric blues style. This is a good way to start the album, by the way!

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-lead guitar, steel appendage guitar (slide guitar with a steel slide)
Zoot Horn Rollo-lead guitar, glass finger guitar (slide guitar with a glass slide)
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“The Dust Blows Forward n’ the Dust Blows Back”-A lo-fi a capella sung by Don, and he pauses the cassette recorder several times throughout the song, meaning that the song could’ve been improvised

Captain Beefheart-vocals

“Dachau Blues”-A song about the Holocaust. This song starts in an ominous manner, and Don’s voice sounds more deeper. The drums began to have a much slower beat. He also plays a deep droning bass clarinet in the background, at times sounding like some of the music you hear in the original Thomas the Tank Engine series. At the end, there’s a field recording of Rockette Morton giving an impromptu narrarion.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, bass clarinet
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar, narration
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-field recording

“Ella Guru”-An interlocking song about a pretty woman. Throughout the song, you hear random voices talking, and Antennae performs vocals with his hand cupped over his mouth. This was credited in the notes as a “flesh horn”.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar, flesh horn
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
The Mascara Snake-voice
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-voice

“Hair Pie: Bake 1”-This track is a “bush recording”, beginning with an improv duo between Don’s saxophone and The Mascara Snake’s bass clarinet. Since this is a field recording, you can hear various outside sound effects. Both instruments were panned perfectly, in an atmospheric manner. Afterwards, the Magic Band strikes up a tune, recorded inside of the house that they recorded this in, with the other two instruments outside. Later, the Magic Band’s music gradually becomes louder, eventually drowning out Captain Beefheart and the Mascara Snake. The track ends with Don talking to two unidentified neighbors, with sounds such as doors opening and closing, an airplane flying, a dog barking, and some other outside sounds.

Captain Beefheart-tenor saxophone, voice
The Mascara Snake-bass clarinet
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-bush recording, effects
Dialogue provided by two anonymous contributors

“Moonlight On Vermont”-A more garage rock-oriented tune centered around distorted guitars. In the middle of the track, you hear some guitar feedback, and some more feedback while the band are still playing.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar, feedback
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Gary “Magic” Marker-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Pachuco Cadaver”-This begins with Don talking about “a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag”. After that comes a jam driven by Rockette Morton’s bass. A strange tenor saxophone solo comes in later on.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, tenor saxophone, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Bill’s Corpse”-I can’t describe this song!

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Sweet Sweet Bulbs”-This song has a more country feel to it. The lyrics describe a garden.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish”-This is a jazzy tune driven by Don’s vocals, which sounds like it was processed through a small speaker to give it a very tinny quality. He also plays a simran horn and an oboe musette.

Captain Beefheart-robot voice, simran horn, oboe musette
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“China Pig”-This is a lo-fi delta blues piece played by Doug Moon on acoustic guitar with Don singing about a piggy bank. Near the end of the song, there is a tape splicing sound effect.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, voice
Doug Moon-acoustic guitar
Gary “Magic” Marker-tape splice

“My Human Gets Me Blues”-This is another interlocking song that has really weird vocals.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Dali’s Car”-A minimalist/modern classical-style guitar duel without any other accompaniment.

Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar

“Hair Pie: Bake 2”-The same rock melody from “Hair Pie: Bake 1”, but this time was recorded in an actual studio. The track ends with the sound of sleigh bells that gets sped-up to sound like a vacuum cleaner. Don was indeed a vacuum cleaner salesman at one point.

Captain Beefheart-sleigh bell tin tear drop
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-special effect

“Pena”-Beginning with some studio dialogue, this leads into a really weird tune with high-pitched, very nonsensical, girly ranting backed by high-pitched barking.

Antennae Jimmy Semens-lead vocals, steel appendage guitar
Captain Beefheart-voice, barking
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
The Mascara Snake-voice
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-voice

“Well”-The album’s second a capella. This, however, is not a lo-fi recording. The reverberation in Don’s voice comes from the house’s acoustic setting.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals

“When Big Joan Sets Up”-The album’s lognest track, coming in at over 5 minutes. In this song, Don plays an even weirder tenor saxophone solo. Some of the instruments stop and start at a couple of points.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, tenor saxophone
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Fallin’ Ditch”-This bluesy track begins with a musique concrete intro of sound effects and dialogue. The sound effects heard in the intro are:

1. An amplified recording of someone munching on food with Laurie Stone, Captain Beefheart’s girlfriend at the time, talking in the background
2. A recording of Laurie’s laughter that was sped-up, with some clacking sounds accompanying it
3. Tiny static
4. A tape-spliced voice that darts like a laser beam

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar, narration
Drumbo-drums
Laurie Stone-voice
Frank Zappa-tape effects

“Sugar n’ Spikes”-I can’t describe this track, either!

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar, background vocals
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Ant Man Bee”-This track has Don playing a soprano saxophone and a tenor saxophone simultaneously.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, tenor and soprano saxes played simultaneously
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Orange Claw Hammer”-The album’s last a capella, sung in the form of a sea shanty. At one point, when Don pauses the tape recorder between verses, his voice warps a little. This is common in most lo-fi recorders of the time.

Captain Beefheart-vocals

“Wild Life”-Much of the guitars in the beginning of this track have a proto-grunge feel to it due to the distortion. Later, a jazzy bass clarinet solo comes in.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, bass clarinet
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“She’s Too Much for My Mirror”-This song begins with a radio announcer-style voice. After that is a short jam about a beautiful woman. At the end, Don’s voice echoes off into the distance, with a tiny bit of commentary to end it all.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums
Dick Kunc-announcement

“Hobo Chang Ba”-This track is driven by jingle bells. At one point, you hear a tiny flute noise

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, jingle bells
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar, flute noise
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“The Blimp (mousetrapreplica)”-In this song, Frank Zappa’s group, the Mothers of Invention, plays their composition “Charles Ives”, while Antennae Jimmy Semens recites impromptu poetry by way of telephone, with Don accompanying him on a hunting horn. In some points, the drums roll off into space, some brass instruments honk like car horns, and a piano can be heard futzing about.

Captain Beefheart-hunting horn, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-voice
Roy Estrada-bass guitar
Arthur Tripp III-drums, percussion
Don Preston-piano
Ian Underwood-tenor saxophone
Bunk Gardner-alto saxophone
Buzz Gardner-trumpet
Frank Zappa-voice, telephone

“Steal Softly Thru Snow”-I can’t describe this track as well!

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Old Fart At Play”-One of the album’s best-known songs. This consists of the band accompanying the Captain’s bizarre poetic ranting. This is also where the title of the album comes in. At the end, Antennae can be heard speaking in a hippie manner.

Captain Beefheart-voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar, voice
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Veteran’s Day Poppy”-The track ends with a song about some veteran’s day poppy, but if the lyrics are any indication, the song might have been about a psychedelic drug.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Gary “Magic” Marker-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

The Don Music Sound-The Great Adventures of Don Music (2015)

Today, I’ll be reviewing the second and latest album by Madison, Wisconsin-based Negativland clone The Don Music Sound, called The Great Adventures of Don Music. I listened to a few tracks off of this album, and I found them to be quite awesome, but I never got around listening to the full album as I listened to all of the previous album, 2012’s I Stole This!.

The tracks:

“NegativTraveler”-Musically, this is a mixture of new age-style folk music, field recordings, spacey Krautrock guitar licks, and the most junky analog electronic noises and sound effects that you’ll ever hear!

“The Miracle”-First, you hear some cosmic, distorted drone effects that turns into a jazzy improvisation. You also hear a male voice sample, and some faint background music (maybe it’s a rock music sample?). A sudden scream turns the track into a piece full of atmospheric music samples and the same voice as earlier. I just discovered that the voice talks about the digestive system of a Venus flytrap and genetic manipulation/mutation.

“Piece of 41.3”-An interesting collage of deep reverbed voices, reggae music, guitar solos, sound effects, and voice samples from old records.

“2 Hip Perchance 2 Hop”-This is what you get when you put William Shatner inside a hip-hop club performance by Eric B & Rakim!

“Dirty Bird”-An experimental hip-hop jam featuring electronic noises, random voice samples, sailor whistling, and a conga rhythm.

“(interlude)”-A Vaporwave-esque cut-up montage of electronic music and voice samples, chopped-up and glued together in an interlocking, rather angular manner.

“Moby Duck Duck Goose”-A chopped-and-screwed remix of Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick”. Even the track’s original drum solo gets similar treatment.

“(moment)”-The album’s shortest track, clocking in at 1:22, consisting of a cut-up montage of electronic noises, whistling, and voice samples. Some of the voices were treated with speed effects.

“Dittle Litty”-If you combine Red Hot Chili Peppers with the punk poetry of Attila the Stockbroker, you would get this track.

I totally loved what I heard on this album, and I pretty much loved it the same way as I Stole This!. The full album is on Bandcamp: https://thedonmusicsound.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-adventures-of-don-music

Kevin Dooley-Radio Waves (2011)

For this review, I’m going to review a SoundCloud album by artist Kevin Dooley. This album, called Radio Waves, is an interesting mix of original tunes, sound collage music, and found sounds from shortwave radio. All of the recordings are technically lo-fi in quality. I listened to the almost all of this album yesterday, but it is time for me to review the full thing.

The tracks:

“Petty Crimes”-This 31-second intro consists of a sample from an old record talking about “petty crimes committed by little people”, backed by a droning electronic buzz.

“Interlude 2: John Zorn, Morse Code, and Typewriters”-An interesting collage of the samples described in the title, which mostly makes me think of relaxing cowboy music being interrupted by alien electronics that transforms into a busy workplace accompanied by an old Christian radio broadcast.

“Mr. Ed”-A collage of samples from the Mr. Ed television show, with bouncy, video game-style electronic background music.

“Righteousness”-A warped and distorted recording as captured by shortwave radio.

“A Side of Glass”-An original electronic composition, performed on programmed synth and surf music-style guitar, as dedicated by the performer to the famed composer Philip Glass.

“No Facts”-A shortwave radio collage of music and advertising that is interfered by some strange radio noises.

“Carpenter’s Close to You-KD Remake”-A post-punk-style cover of the classic hit by the Carpenters, featuring a drum machine, distorted electric guitar, almost-shouted vocals, and synthesizer. In some parts, it sounds like a 50’s-style rock n’ roll tune, and there’s some experimental guitar solos in other parts.

“January Mood”-An original modern classical synthesizer composition that also features some experimental acoustic guitar noodling.

“Everybody’s Scared”-A shortwave collage of old-school religious music, pop, and talk radio.

“Transformers”-An instrumental medley featuring backwards synth bass, an experimental synthpop jam, and an industrial synth tune with droning sounds playing in melody.

“Interlude 3 (Bill Frisell in Shortwave Radioland”-A collage of Bill Frisell samples and shortwave radio.

“It Was No Accident”-A sound collage consisting of “easy listening, instructional records, organ music, shortwave radio, and FM radio… Blue Velvet, Berger and Brothers, noise, chatter, instructions on how to build a sewing machine table, bad 80s rock song, radio DJ with teenager on phone”. An interesting number that is a mixture of old fashioned music, radio ads, and arena rock!

“Half a Paragon”-A folk number with acoustic guitar and flanged synthesizer that I believe was recorded on a cassette tape, due to the massive amount of tape hiss on this recording, as if it came from the late 1960’s or early 1970’s.

“Interlude 4”-A collage of found shortwave radio sounds and random sound effects. You can hear a lot of cars zooming by on the road in this recording.

“Negativland Time Zones Remix”-A collage of radio recordings, piano, and Negativland samples, particularly from the track “Time Zones” off of their 1987 album Escape from Noise, and two tracks off of the band’s 1980 self-titled debut album.

“The Faith (JFK Remix)”-A collage of experimental dance music, a John F. Kennedy speech, and baby sounds.

“Elements”-A modern classical composition filled with string arrangements, conducted in a baroque-style manner.

“Gone Fishin-Orchestral Tribute to the Andy Griffith Show Theme”-A completely orchestral version of the theme song for The Andy Griffith Show.

“Pull That Handle-Bill Frisell Meets Instructional Record”-A collage consisting of “an old radio program on sales tactics, sound effects, organ music and music by Bill Frisell.”

“Draw Nigh Unto Elohim-A Mix with Sunday Morning Religious Talk Radio”-A shortwave radio collage of church radio programming.

“Somewhere: Bernstein Mixed with Grateful Dead, the Carpenters, and Ken Nordine”-This also features samples from FM radio and cable TV.

You can find this fantastic collage of randomness at: https://soundcloud.com/kevin-dooley/sets/radio-waves

Doctor Midnight-Crotch Rocket Extremities and​/​or Popular Culture Atrocities (2013)

So, what if you get if you have two Elvis Presley-inspired guys from Alabama making music using two computers, a guitar, a piano, a marimba, an upright bass, and a baby? You would get this promising Bandcamp album by the duo Doctor Midnight!

Tracks:

“Baby Confounded by Infinite Number Combinations Hangs Up Infinitely”-Consists of a sound collage of electronic noises and some telephone samples. This reminds me of the stuff you hear on the first Negativland album from 1980.

“Bull Turns on Applause Sign at State of the Union Address”-Starts off in a scream-filled Gerogerigegege-style noise jam, but this time with a more rhythmic drumbeat. It also features altered voice samples and some electronic noises. Later, you hear some clapping along with some bull grunting. After some screeching feedback, the track ends with mechanical reverb effects,

“Half-Mast, Permanently”-This features a distorted drum machine rhythm with piercing electronic noises (but not very loud if you have a good volume level, at least). It also features some redneck voices talking about keeping a flag at half-mast.

“Gordholes”-This has some droning organ sounds (could be artificial, since no organs were credited on the album) with some soft bongo-like percussion and distorted redneck vocals that sounds like they were completely improvised. It later develops a hip-hop style drumbeat with wordless vocals, then back to the original theme, eventually cutting both themes into each other. You later hear weird synth horns, a droning synth flute and a real-sounding gong.

“With Any Luck I Won’t Turn Out Like My Father”-A looping collage of electronic sounds, chiming bells, percussion and organ.

“Chocodino”-Consisting of distorted redneck vocals, piano, and some white noise. It gradually gets more and more noisy to the point of almost becoming a power electronics song! Note that I’m not a fan of power electronics. It gradually becomes a piece with looping vocals and faint electronic sounds.

“Ain’t Sh*t on TV!”-A very short collage of static, Elvis Presley concert samples, and noisy jazz drums.

“Skinnin’ Catfish in A Japanese Airport”-This piece is an IDM-style tune full of buzzing, mechanical electronic noises, along with a looped, jazzy drum rhythm (could’ve been sampled) and faint voices.

“Now I’m a Bat!”-This is full of out-of-tune marimba, random mechanical noises (sampled, not synthesized). It then becomes a noise jazz piece full of electric buzzing and drums, before turning into a more electronic jam at the end.

“Contempt for Harmony, Part I”-This starts off with backwards piano samples that afterwards plays into a normal piano theme. This piano sounds all dark and ominous, and you hear some sacral chants in the background. Some mechanical electronic noises turns this track into a mix of both Autechre and modern classical music.

“Theme for Fingerprints for Vomit”-This features a hip-hop drum machine rhythm along with ominous bowed bass noises and a looped rock music sample. The drumbeat becomes an acoustic jazz rhythm after 14 seconds or so. You also hear a piano playing a rather light melody, along with an out-of-tune electric guitar jam.

“Abracapocus”-A collage of improvised redneck singing with a looped “ping” sample from the beginning of the Pink Floyd song “Echoes”, along with a more deep “ping” noise.

The Final Verdict: If you wish that Elvis was more of a redneck with a passion for experimental noise punk, then you’ll love this album by Doctor Midnight!

Here’s the Bandcamp link for the album: http://doctormidnight.bandcamp.com/

Negativland-Negativland (1980)

A month ago, I posted an article about how the arena rock band Journey is related to the sound collage/Plunderphonics group Negativland. Now, it’s time for me to post an actual review of a Negativland album. That album is their 1980 self-titled debut album. This album I listened to on YouTube when someone uploaded the full thing, and Negativland themselves are busy working on a reissue of this album, mainly for an iTunes release along with the two albums that came after this one (this is what Negativland actually told me on their official Facebook page when I asked them when will the first three albums come out on iTunes). I get a lot of my music off of iTunes, and here’s what they told me on Facebook about the album’s cover art (I’ll explain it after):

“The 1980 release had 9000 vinyl and 6000 CD covers made over the years, all by hand, each one totally unique! We’ve never quite known how to translate that into a download. But we do have a big surprise planned related to this in the next year or so!”

The album’s releases on CD and vinyl had various handmade covers for each release, and the CD release included an insert containing a recipe for coffee toffee torte, which I included for this review.

Negativland, formed in Contra Costa County, California, were best known for using samples and electronics that conveyed messages related to politics, the music industry, copyright law, gun use, and radio programming. However, on the 1980 debut, this was home to a very different Negativland. This first version of Negativland was described by founding member Mark Hosler in an interview in Spinal Jaundice magazine in 1989:

“Our first record was in 1980. I was just graduating from high school when that came out. And a couple years previous to that we had started just messing around with a lot of loops and sounds and noises and tapes and stuff. We were in the suburbs, I really was not aware of what was going on in independent music. I wasn’t familiar with the more ‘classical’ experimental music history like John Cage, Stockhausen, Musique Concrete. I really don’t know why it is that with all the music we were listening to, that we said well, what we want to do is make these tape loops and turn on our oscillators and mix in the sound of the TV set and my mom in the kitchen baking a pie. You know, why are we doing this. It just seemed like that was what needed to be done.”

Mark Hosler and Richard Lyons, the two founding members of Negativland, recorded this album between late 1979 and mid-1980 when they were in high school at the age of 17. On board with them were David Wills, better known as The Weatherman, guitarists Peter Dayton and W. Kennedy M., a.k.a. Bill McFarland, and Joan Alderdice, who provided “bellbeating” on the album. The Weatherman introduced to Holser and Lyons the Booper, an electronic oscillator that he built in 1975 that was made out of a transistor radio that he circuit-bent and made into a noise machine. Many years prior, the Weatherman recorded tapes of his family, some of which you hear on this record. Negativland took their name from a song off of the 1972 self-titled debut album by Neu!, a German experimental Krautrock band who formed out of members of future techno innovators Kraftwerk. Neu! had largely influenced the project along with Faust, another Krautrock band from the 70’s that was more sound collage-oriented. The album was released on Seeland, an independent label set up by the band that also took their name from a Neu! song.

Here are the tracks, even though there are no actual track titles:

“#1”-A TV news broadcast plays along with sound effects treated with reverb. As the broadcast continues, a Cabaret Voltaire-style industrial jam starts, featuring echoey acoustic guitar, spooky synth bass, and a drum machine. The track ends with a tape recording of the Weatherman’s grandmother introducing the listener to Negativland (in a Firesign Theater-esque way), followed by a warped recording of what I think is a folk song. I can tell because I hear an acoustic guitar.

“#2”-Some faint conversation with a clock ticking. A Pink Floyd-style acoustic guitar melody plays, accompanied by various machine sound effects like a mechanical saw, a vacuum cleaner, and some more clock ticking.

“#3”-A droning electronic jam with synthesizer and a drum machine, playing in tune to a sample of a guy talking about a homicidal maniac. You also hear weird electronic noises, Captain Beefheart-esque clarinet, and more TV samples. The track ends with an interview with a fascist, anti-immigrant guy.

“#4”-A low rumbling wind sound effect leads into a strange, squeaky clarinet improv, like the Captain Beefheart track “Hair Pie: Bake 1”. A dog barks later on, and a startling Hammond organ noise appears to end the song. This may have been performed on a Hammond organ because it sounds all mechanical instead of being synthetic.

“#5”-Starts with the sound of banging and a lit-up fuse, as if like on a bomb, leading to a strange, futuristic sound collage improv filled with echoed Hawaiian slide guitar, acoustic guitar, clanging, banging and chiming percussion, synthesizer noises, backwards voice samples, distorted arena rock-style electric guitar soloing, video game-like sound effects, and the Booper.

“#6”-A new wave-style drum machine rhythm opens the track, along with droning synth, voice samples playing in tune to the music, and baroque-sounding viola. The Weatherman recites a bizarre spoken word segment in his very silly voice (it’s his natural voice!). It suddenly cuts into a short collage of electronic effects and voice samples.

“#7”-A short collage of TV samples (one of them has some classical music in the background, but is a lot noticeable when listening with headphones), droning industrial synth bass, and warbling noises coming from the Booper.

“#8”-Blurbing Booper noises appear, playing along to a desolate Jandek-style tune with deep acoustic guitar and bleating, emotionally-dissolute vocals.

“#9”-The majority of this song is a random secession of samples of singing schoolchildren, electronic noises, TV samples, and an organ chord. It ends with the sample of a schoolteacher talking to her students about silent E’s at the end of words.

“#10”-Beginning with a field recording, this leads into one of the two song-oriented pieces on the album. The song consists of a new wave tune with drum machine, electronically-distorted electric guitar, the Booper, clanking percussion, horns, and whispery vocals singing a love song.

“#11”-Out-of-tune trumpet-like synth noises starts the track, along with French voice samples and clarinet. It also has a tape loop of a Southern voice that continues throughout the rest of the track, along with a droning organ note, clanging cymbals and percussion sounds.

“#12”-A loud, distorted tape loop of a man saying the Hail Mary and a woman saying the Rosary.

“#13”-A collage of TV samples, polar wind sound effects, a continuous droning synth note, weird electronic sound effects (as like from an old transistor radio), CB radio samples, a helicopter, and a family tape from the Weatherman.

“#14”-Ambient synth sounds accompanied by a weird teen voice sample, leading to a collage of “wub-wub” synth bass, electric zapping noises, voice samples, and what sounds like a bird chirping. It ends with another collage consisting of distorted electronic noises and a TV sample of a woman talking about a book.

“#15”-The second song-oriented piece on the album. Beginning with a faint field recording, followed by some coughing, leading to a piece with bluesy acoustic guitar accompanied by experimental acoustic string sounds (maybe a duel between Peter and W.?), which sounds like someone placed his hand on a guitar’s strings against the body, thus producing weird muted sounds. You can also hear some more coughing, along with some very faint TV samples that are noticeable with headphones at a good volume level. I notice these because I have Beats headphones. Yes, they are the Dr. Dre headphones! The song cuts off abruptly at the end.

“#16”-An ominous chant leads into spacey synthesizer noises. Afterwards comes a collage of TV samples that were all thrown into and edited with a mixer. You can also hear a strange noise improvisation performed on the Booper.

“#17”-A strange improvisation featuring a slow drum machine rhythm, mechanical acoustic and electric guitar sounds, manipulated voice samples, and squeaky, high-pitched electronic sounds. You also hear some stretching noises by the end.

“#18”-A collage of electronic sounds, water sounds, and another family tape from the Weatherman.

“#19”-A collage that is more chaotic than tracks 5, 7, 13, and 16 combined! This starts off with an electronic alarm sound effect, leading into a piece with TV samples, loud synthesizer noises, samples of children, a phone conversation tape from the Weatherman, and a vinyl record being played (I can tell because of the background music and the audio quality, as you can hear some hissing). Afterwards, it fades out into a piece with CB radio recordings, lo-fi samples of people talking about Coca-Cola and Pepsi (accompanied by an old recording of opera music) and a sample of a small child having fun. The track ends with an ambient-sounding reverb effect.

“#20”-The final track has electronic cricket noises playing along to samples from old records; one coming from a classical music record (I think), and the other being a record talking about what real parakeets sound like. The album ends with artificial bird sound effects produced on a synthesizer.

To me, this is Negatviand’s finest work of the 1980’s, and I can’t wait for it when this gets on iTunes next year!