Cassettes Playing Backward

  

Tony Coulter here, with another post spotlighting audio artifacts picked up in Portland, OR, my home of eight months. As always, I've given you my favorite tracks -- the ones I would have played on the air if I still had a show on FMU. This time 'round, the focus is on cassettes -- and on sounds from the '80s "cassette underground." For the sake of optic stimulation, I've also thrown in a quintet of homemade cassette covers, lovingly preserved since my own tape-trading days.

And now, please fast forward past the jump....

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The Melodic Energy Commission: M = E/C² (Energy Discs, 1982)

   Let's commence with a cassette from the Vancouver, Canada outfit Melodic Energy Commission, whose prime mover was the cosmic-minded bassist/vocalist Xaliman. M = E/C² was the group's third album, and, sadly, it's nowhere near as good as their sublime debut, the 1979 LP Stranger in Mystery, or the almost-as-good follow-up LP,1980's Migration of the Snails. Those two albums -- which in addition to Xaliman and guitarist George McDonald featured synthesizer-player Del Dettmar (of Hawkwind fame) and sound sculpture--builder Randy Raine-Reusch -- were very subtle and experimental in their approach to psychedelic "space rock." By the time of this third cassette-only release, the focus had shifted to a more accessible and "updated" sound. Mostly, this doesn't really work too well -- but they did manage to turn out one very nifty number, the opener, "What Would You Say?" The burbling synth, incidentally, was provided by guest-returning-member Del Dettmar.

Back in 1981, two songs from the tape, "Melody Is Energy" and "Night Rhythm," were issued as Melodic Energy Commission's sole single. M = E/C² currently remains un-reissued, but the first two albums -- both heartily recommended -- can be found paired together on the CD Moon Phase Compendium, released by Xaliman in 1997. There's also a fine "comeback" album, recorded between 1988 and 2004 and issued on CD as Time Is a Slippery Concept.

Hand puppets of destiny: 

Melodic Energy Commission: What Would You Say?

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Arcane: The Smartest People Do Not Make the Decisions (no label, 1980)

  Next up is a mysterious release about which I can tell you almost nothing, other than that it was self-released in 1980 and is probably from the U.S. I do know I like Arcane's brand of somewhat pigheaded experimentalism, which is nicely hermetic and hallucinatory. I'd guess they were influenced by some of the European avant-progsters -- but who knows? Would love to find out more....

Turn, cassette tape, turn:

 

Arcane: Library

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Steve Moore: The Way In (Inner Ear Recordings, 1990)

  Right off the bat, I should say we're not talking "R. Stevie" here. This "Steve Moore" is an English electroacoustic artiste, best known for the LP A Quiet Gathering, released by Recommended Records (or more properly, ReR) in 1988. Compared to that fine LP, this tape is not overly impressive -- it's rather sterile-sounding and (ack!) new agey. It does have its moments, though -- chief among them, the brooding track "Chiaroscuro," which mixes in animal sounds in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Basil Kirchin's Worlds Within Worlds.

Rising into the air: 

Steve Moore: Chiaroscuro

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Random Bob: Painting by Numbers (no label, 1985)

 Staying within the (outer reaches of) the Recommended Records orbit, we turn next to a tape by the Anglo-Dutch band Random Bob. Based in Rotterdam, Random Bob was one of a series of projects fronted by ex--Henry Cow member Geoff Leigh (saxes, flutes) -- some of the others being Red Balune, Kontakt Mikrofoon Orkest (KMO), and the Black Sheep. While those latter (somewhat earlier) bands were highlighted on the CD set Mass Culture Control Bureau: Things from the Past (Ad Hoc, 2004), the Random Bob material remains un-reissued.

Leigh is a technically accomplished musician, well versed in jazz and various ethnic musics -- but in the late '70s he nonetheless lept headfirst (or maybe it was footfirst) into the then-emerging postpunk scene. His take on postpunk was quite credible and suitably "raw," if always arty-- but by the mid-'80s, when the Random Bob material was recorded, he could no longer completely resist the urge to display his jazz chops and knowledge of world music. This makes for a somewhat uneasy mix with the still-present post-punk attitude, and on Painting by Numbers the two strands only gel successfully on a few tracks -- I've given you my two favorites below.

I should mention that the bass player on Painting by Numbers is Colin McLure (Black Sheep, KMO, Red Balune, Trespassers W), and the keyboardist is Henk Weltevreden (Slipover), both of whom also appear on Random Bob's other cassette, Ekwinocks 68/86 (1986).

It's coming....

Random Bob: Clowns (1)

Random Bob: Japanese Flute Song

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Mama Dada 1919: Slow Slits (The Out Music Co., 1979) 

 Next up is a cassette that shares six of its ten tracks with a 7" EP released in the same year (i.e., 1979) under the title Slits, Quick. Since I've owned that EP for years, and am focusing here on newly acquired music, I've restricted myself to choosing my favorite of the four cassette-only tracks -- after all, without rules, all is lost! Now that I've settled that bureaucratic matter, I can tell you that Mama Dada 1919 (aka MD 19) was/is a fascinating and long-lived project based in Baltimore and led by one Bradford Braden. In addition to the two 1979 releases, I know of one CD, from 1997, titled The Promise on Dresser's Door.

Anyhow, what of the sounds? Most of the 1979 tracks suggest a primitive postpunk stab at some strange sort of imaginary classical music; by contrast, the four cassette-only cuts are based around a kind of twitchy physicality, and seem almost to grow out of the motion of making them. The 1997 CD, somewhat surprisingly, offers up a sort of avant prog and is much more technically proficient. 

Mama or Dada?

 

Mama Dada 1919: Kulewala

Mama Dada 1919: Red Emma

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The Larry Mondello Band: Fun with Static (Mondello  Music, 1981)

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The Larry Mondello Band: Live at Mather Hall (Mondello Music, 1981)

 Let's close the audio portion of this post with a two-fer:  two cassettes released in 1981 by the one-and-only Larry Mondello Band -- two of whose other cassettes have been profiled on Mutant Sounds. The music of the Larry Mondello Band is funny and angry, wonderfully extreme and demented -- a giant "fuck you" to consensus reality, perhaps. Give a listen ... but don't try to work at the same time! 

"The Farmer" and "Eighth Ancient" are from the Fun with Static cassette, while "Church & State" is from Live at Mather Hall -- despite not being recorded live at Mather Hall (it's one of two studio recordings).

Cosmic Larry:

The Larry Mondello Band: The Farmer

The Larry Mondello Band: Eighth Ancient

The Larry Mondello Band: Church & State

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Let's finish up this post with five handmade covers sent to me by improviser/composer/poet Adam Bohman, over the course of a number of years during which we engaged in the fine art of tape-trading. These covers were designed not for releases of his own, but to house dubs of various and sundry items from his private music collection. Though clearly originating in photocopies of previously made collages, each cover is uniquely embellished and cropped. Take that, file-sharing!

Art: Adam Bohman

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Art: Adam Bohman

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Art: Adam Bohman

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Art: Adam Bohman

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Art: Adam Bohman

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  That's it for this time -- see you in two weeks!
 

Comments

[Brian Turner]

TC, how much overview does the MCCB disc cover? It seems like someone needs to get an LAFMS-style slab together for this material.

[Tony Coulter]

Hey Brian,

The MCCB disc has all of the releases on the MCCB label -- but not related projects on other labels (or non-labels).

[illlich]

Larry Mondello band DID play at Mather Hall at least once (I know, I was there, it was actually in the Underground Coffee House, directly below Hamlin hall where both Fred Frith and Etron Fou performed in the 70's, which was before my time but WRTC-FM had tapes at one point)), though it was several years after this 1981 release (I question these release dates-- I recall Fun With Static coming out in 88, but that might have been a "reissue" or re-solicit the band did in 88.) There was also another LMB cassette from that same era but the name escapes me, "Where's Larry" or something similar.

[Tony Coulter]

iIIIich: All but two of the tracks on "Live at Mather Hall" were indeed recorded there, in 1981. As for when "Fun with Static" first came out, all I can say is that it's dated 1981.

How was the concert you were at, by the way?

[LW]

Geoff has put it up at bandcamp....

http://geoffleigh.bandcamp.com/album/things-from-the-past

its full of wonders.