What is it that when you see an unkempt beard with long hair wearing hippie clothing doing performance poetry, one automatically thinks...'Smartarse'!?
Here we have four Hippie Smartarse's enthusiastically showing us how smart they are.
This includes Steve McCaffery, who went on to do some less showy-offy sound poetry that bordered on minimalism.
This sounds like a bunch of university graduates who thought they were the only persons on the planet to have discovered Hugo Ball's Dada manifesto......hence the Cana-dada title.
Just to rub it in there is a 'dedication to the memory of....' printed on the sleeve.
This is a bad case of Borderline Performance Art Disorder, or B.P.A.D.,as a music Psychologist would abbreviate it.Its up there with 'Contemporary Expressive Dance Syndrome' (C.E.D.S), as the ultimate cringe. After a few years, performance art got its act together and dumped the well-read hippies,and smartened up their approach,dumping the really annoying show-off stuff, and making it into something less about themselves and more about the art......nah!They still exist,but there's certainly less of them.
At least The Four Horsemen were trying something different,and rejected guitars and drums.It was just the approach to it that needed honing somewhat.Like a spot of de-hippification for starters.
Tracklist:
A1 From Beast
A2 Matthew's Line
A3 Allegro 108
A4 Seasons
B1 Coffee Break
B2 Theme
B3 Monotony
B4 Michael Drayton
B5 In The Middle Of A Blue Balloon
Steve translates the basic principles of Marxism into the dialect of the west riding of South Yorkshire, from whence he came originally.
I would love to have seen the reaction of the kind of Yorkshireman he's parodying in "Wot We Wukkers Want" when confronted by his standard Abstract Sound Poetry. Performing this stuff in one of those northern workers club,he would have been lucky to escape with his life. Rather like the Sex Pistols playing in those redneck towns on that ill-fated US Tour.
Of course most of Urban Yorkshire used to be reliable socialists,so the translation of Das Kapital wouldn't have been too controversial.It could in fact be seen as a comedy turn. Yorksire was also, strangely enough,the motherland of Industrial music, with Cabaret Voltaire,and Clock DVA in Sheffield, and Throbbing Gristle coming from Hull. The 'Holy City' of Leeds was a Goth Hotspot with The Sisters Of Mercy and The March Violets, not to mention commie agit-poppers Gang Of Four.
But, despite the general population of 'Gods Own Country', as they call it, having the reputation of racially intolerant simple folk, it was a hotbed of left-field creativity,where men first wore make-up to go out;this included the Steel-workers too.
Of course, all this has gone now, including the Steelworks, and is a microcosm of little-englander Brexit and Tory voting nationalists. They could do with listening to "Wot We Wukkers Want", because I don't think they know anymore!
Tracklist:
Wot We Wukkers Want
A1 Wot We Wukkers Want
A2 Midnight Peace
A3 A Hundred And One Zero S One Ng
One Step To The Next
B1 One Step To The Next
Performer
B2 Emes
DOWNLOAD whenever you workers want HERE!
No this is not a guide on how to kiss a young lady,or even a young man,or both, depending on your gender preference.Or any other use of the mouth in a sexual context.
I know I've already lost half of you already. Thats what made the Internet such a raging sucess, or suck cess......not acess to all information, be it inaccurate or otherwise, but easy access to porn.
The two things that have driven human advancement,if that's what you wanna call it, are War and shagging. So anything that makes these two thing more possible is gonna be a big hit with the sex crazed human animal, predominantly the sex-crazed, MALE, human animal.So if they don't get these basic male requirements they're gonna get violent and take it.Dangerous bastard is the Human male.
This is not a criticism but an observation of the bleeding obvious. I like a bit of the old in-out every now and again,the odd spot of War too. To live in this increasingly feminized world I am drawn to violent music as a portal for this natural predisposition towards violence,Catharsis is necessary to keep the illusion that we are a step or two above the other apes, going. Another more positive route is the male's sex driven need to create.So 'Art' is another important distraction from the need to destroy ones rivals for the mating rights. The basic needs for the human Female to create Art are completely different,and just as basic. to be loved and appreciated, to gain status as the woman most likely to bare the healthiest cubs.To be 'Noticed' by the Alpha-male artist. Most Artists are dictators in their own world, and most dictators think are artists.They need to be in control, and control the hareem.No scenario captures this animalistic behavoural trait better than the legions of young ladies screaming at the Pop Star at a concert during breeding season, who enjoys the choice of any female from the 'pride' to mate with. No matter how aware of this inate drive to carry the Alpha-males baby, its quite out of the womans control. The genetics say you must keep your eyes on the prize,and sacrifice your sisters to get there.Ruthless.
So for those of us males who don't have simperingly good looks and a hit record in the charts, they, I don't refer to me of course...I'm gorgeous......'They', turn to more introspective pastimes, like Abstract Impressionism, or making Sound Poetry,like Steve McCaffery. Not blessed with the looks of Brad Pitt, our Steve, a displaced South Yorkshireman in Canada, channelled his natural male violence and sexual need into research on the topography of the sounds that the human mouth can make. A far more admirable direction than plaster casting the erections of Rock stars.The plaster casters wouldn't have bothered making a cast of a sound poets erection.They only sought out the Alpha male,not the interesting 'Beta' variety. But as I said, this is a completely natural behavioural pattern that wouldn't be out of place in a group of Chimpanzees.
As a Beta male myself, i can heartily recommend this fantastic tape....but it won't get you laid. So you can forget that idea right now!.....unless you've got a hit in the charts or, a Ferrari?
Tracklist:
A1 S.I.S.M.A. (Movements 1 & 2)
A2 Portraits 1 - 34
A3 S1Z2Z1E1R2Z3
A4 Names For Cricket
A5 Structure Of Incident: A Little Valentine / Pleasant Ode For Vincent Trasov / S.I.S.M.A. (Movement 3)
B1 Aupe Relationships
B2 Black Aleph 1 & 2
DOWNLOAD from the mouth HERE!
