Showing posts with label Systematics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Systematics. Show all posts

Wednesday, 29 June 2022

Pascal Comelade / David Cunningham – "Précis De Décomposition Bruitiste" (Parasite – PAR 006) 1983



Somehow we've found ourselves back in France thanks to David Cunningham's association with minimalist composer Pascal Comelade, and this cassette of decomposing noise. I don't know if this was decomposed at the Cold Storage Studio,but there is definitely a This Heat factor floating around here. Comelade did in fact have a minimal pop band named after a this Heat track as further evidence,"Fall Of Saigon",although how much they were actually an influence is up for debate. Comelade did go on to develop a very attractive minimal Satie-like method of tune writing,which reminds me of former This Heater Gareth Williams' fantastic solo album "Flaming Tunes" from 1985.....so one suspects the influence was indeed a two way street.
Comelade had a predilection for deconstructing pop tunes,sometimes slowing them down to a crawl,or reducing them to the barest of bones or, as in this case with ? and The Mysterians' garage classic "96 Tears",a slow decent into a fuzzy fog ,which i think was a consequence of another of Pascal's major influences 'Suicide' rather than Question Mark himself.
Coincidentally, it's apparently Pascal's 67th birthday tomorrow, how's about that for synchronicity?

Tracklist:

Face A: 1980/1981

Face B:
A Perfect Crime/96 Tears

Saturday, 25 June 2022

David Cunningham – "Grey Scale" (Piano – Piano 001) 1977

 


The first Piano release,made by cold storage recording studio main man, David 'Flying Lizard' Cunningham, was this minimal systems music offering in praise of the 'Error'. Without which nothing any good would have emerged from the primordial soup of music,slash, entertainment,slash everything.
Without error we would all still be banging drums in a cave in the south of France. Some people still are,mostly Hippies hiding away from having to get a job before the trust fund matures..
Without 'Error', mother nature would only have ever produced a rock,or a gas, or a Piers Morgan. There is an inherent need to mutate. Musical notes boast more than just a passing resemblance to the genetic code, so any note or gene in the wrong place can lead to the most horrific or exciting developments.Like evolution, if there's a need for this mutation, it will be used, but the mechanics remain in the background,....on the Grey Scale.
I'll let  David explain the Error System to you daft lot:
"Error System
The players play a repeating phrase. As soon as one player makes a mistake that mistake is made the basis of his repetition unless it is modified by a further mistake. Thus each player proceeds at his own rate to change the sound in an uncontrollable manner. On no account should 'mistakes' be made deliberately to introduce a change into a performance. In short - sustain your errors.
The water piece and the guitar piece are analogous to this process. However the process is automatic here, an inherent quality in the machinery used."

I found myself watching the hideous spectacle of Glastonbury 2022,last evening,with its endless reams of error-less meaning-less, middle class party music,absolute drivel.
I found myself weirdly enjoying Robert Plant and Alison Krause's rather splendid Folk renditions.....at the wrong festival i may suggest. While waiting for 'idles',whom i had priorly thought were 'not bad'.They bust a bloodvessel living up to the 'punk' band on the bill role they were assigned,and kept wheeling out a neo-hipster on a very expensive looking baritone sax,playing the same Free-Jazz squeal during the really 'Crazy' bits. I suspect the sax-hipster couldn't actually play his couple of grand's worth of brass,or understand what he had pretensions towards...for it was, was it not,Ornette Coleman who championed the erroneous note, as prioritizing the 'right wrong notes' over the 'wrong wrong notes'? This Idles guy got all the wrong wrong notes, but no-one had a single clue about what was wrong wrong or right right;one may as well play nothing nothing I thought.They formally stuck to the 'right' stuff that the massive sea of Billy Eilish fans from Surrey wanted to relay their 'Punk moment' and tell their children of the near-future about again and again....see, Mummy and Daddy really are the boring fucks you thought they were.Poor little sods, bored to sleep with endless tales of obscenely expensive festival exploits between the ages of 18 and 21,before they got their job in the city.As for the fuckers who are my age and their tiresome renditions of having an uncle who saw Quintessence and Bowie'a mime act back  in '71.....on mushrooms ('Drugs' they giggle!)...who cares? Its preposterous how these bland also-rans boast about paying to see some vaguely famed group play in the past,and seem to think that somehow this makes them 'cool' as if they were actually in these silly fucking groups? Yeah I was in Quintessence because i paid to see 'em.They'd even bring their own flute just in case the groups fluty man collapsed,and they asked the audience if anyone plays the flute,Keith Moon in Boston style.They hold up their hand ,"Me sir please sir!" in their moist pop star wet dream.Not a dry pair of Y-Fronts in the house. Yeah I saw Kajagoogoo play in Barnsley Railway station bogs back in '59.....hold on?...I'm genuinely envious of that one!!
Idles wouldn't have been allowed at any genuinely edgy 'punk' festival...if such a thing ever existed?.....hahaha those guys are sooo crazy,one of them wore a dress! hahahaha!
Prior to this shocking exposure, i had never heard of,or seen even a still of Billie Eilish. This is as dark as those kids are gonna get i thought.She led them in breathing exercises, started a reverse Mexican wave and shared her three commandments of concert-going: "Don't be an asshole, no judgment and have fun bitch!".Scything down 70 years of rock'n'roll history in one swooping scrape of Nero's fiddle like it had all never happened.
I felt a generation gap opening up immediately,mainly because I AM an Asshole,I judge everything and everyone, and i willfully avoid so-called,'Fun'...especially if i'm told to have it! 
I did ,however, join in on the breathing exercises,and the mexican wave in my friendless TV lounge, and consoled myself with a bout of sneering before i went to bed...alone...a choice not an obligation! 
Watching this crud was a very grave error on my part.....but maybe we can evolve from this?....I Doubt it very much.
Music is very fucking DEAD...well, at least very very fucking boring.

Tracklist:

1.Error System (BAGFGAB)
2.Error System (C Pulse Solo Recording)
3.Error System (C Pulse Group Recording)
4.Error System (E Based Group Recording)
5.Error System (EFGA)
6.Ecuador
7.Water Systemised
8.Venezuela 1
9.Guitar Systemised
10.Venezuela 2
11.Bolivia

Tuesday, 3 July 2018

Systematics - "Pulp Baby7" EP" + "Rural 12"EP" + Rural Side 3 Cassette" (M Squared/Doublethink) 1979/80



"Pulp Baby 7" EP (Doublethink) 1979

Tracklist:

Pulp Baby
Nuts To You
Product




"Rural 12" EP" (M Squared) 1980

Tracklist:

A1 Numbers In General
A2 245T
A3 When I'm Older
A4 Flowers On The Wall
B1 Vanessa Teratology
B2 Dinner's On The Table
B3 Stuh Echipidah
B4 Mmmm


"Rural - side 3" Cassette (M Squared) 1980

Tracklist:

A1 Livewire in the Bathroom
A2 Stringbag Of Death
A3 Living in a Blue Light
A4 Bride of Surface
A5 Amniotic


Sydney based Minimal Wave combo who made introspective electronic tunes with that classic bedroom ambience we all crave....don't we?
The "Pulp Baby" single could qualify as the Southern Cross area's version of Thomas Leer's DIY electronic classic "Private Plane" seven incher;but with pretentions to be The Normal's "Warm Leatherette". Obviously recorded whilst Mum and Dad were asleep in the next room.The vocals are as quiet and unobtrusive as possible so as not to wake the parents....or girlfriend, as was the case with Mr Leer.Just in case someone found out what they awere doing.
It gives the recordings an intimate sound, as if we are privileged to eavesdrop on the process.
For the Rural Cassette, they get a bit more experimental and droney, and why not?

Sunday, 24 June 2018

Various Artists ‎– "A Selection" ( M Squared ‎– M2010) 1981


A broad local band compilation from Sydney Australia  in 1981.
Featuring future Industrial legends as SPK and Severed Heads.
There's also plenty of local Sydney underground heroes like Slugfuckers (can't see them getting very far with a name like that....top marks), and Negative Reaction.
Terrible artwork, but full of gems.

Tracklist:

A1 –Wild West - Pelican
A2 –The Dead Travel Fast - Urchin
A3 –Negative Reaction - Land Of Surrender
A4 –The Limp - Pony Club
A5 –Severed Heads - Eat Roland
A6 –Slugfuckers - Reggae
B1 –Tame O'Mearas - Curl Curl
B2 –Splendid Mess - Nasa Secret Anzac
B3 –Pel Mel - Click Click
B4 –Systematics - Die For My House
B5 –Scattered Order - I'm Not Whole
B6 –Solipsik (SPK) - Zombod
B7 –Aural Indifference - Baby Love


Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Various Artists - "One Stop Shopping" (Terse Tapes TRS009) 1981



This is Terse Tapes version of Monty Python's 'Instant Record Collection Idea', again only matched in shear scale and ambition by Danny and the Dressmakers massive conceptual rcok (sic) opera '200 Cancellations'.It also reminds me of the 'Deleted Funtime' compilation on ,yes, Deleted Records.......and if anyone has a copy of that tape could they please either sell it to me or donate some mp3's to this blog. My copy was taped over sometime in 1985....this happened then, it all seemed so disposable!?
This collection is worth it just for the band-names (eg, The Somersaulting Coincidences,The Alan Bamford Musical experience, etc), which display that illusive wanton lack of ambition, which we at Die or DIY? prize very highly as the only honest way forward for human creativity.
As much as i admire artists who release hundreds of albums, all sounding pretty much the same; there's something attractively enigmatic about the acts that briefly exist for one single moment, buried away on an impossibly obscure comp like this. Like a sub-atomic particle sparking into life in the Hadron collider for a nano-second then disappearing back into the darkness as a mathematically proven entity.
And Yes, I wish I'd called my group The Jean Paul Satre Band !!!

Download the full booklet, Slug Fanzine, and newspaper articles in a convenient PDF file here!

(NB, Download the tapes at the bottom of this post)

Credits: Compilation arranged by Tom Ellard 1980-1981
5 album equivalent.
In a Festival of Quasi-Normalcy.
Booklet by Terse Tapes - Slug Magazine
Released as two C90 cassettes, and one C60 cassette in March of 1981 wrapped in a photocopied catalogue made by John Laidler of Slugfuckers/Bleeding Arseholes/Rhythmyx Chymx fame. A three-cassette survey of the Australian post-punk, and experimental underground. Roughly 900 hand dubbed copies were made.
On the cover of the magazine there are some misspellings; Ernie Althoff is listed as Ernie Altoff, The Oroton Bags are listed as Ze Oroton Boys.

Track Listing:

A01     Agent Orange  –     We Eat For You        
A02     Agent Orange  –     Now        
A03     Alan Bamford Musical Experience –  An Old Joke        
A04     Ernie Althoff –     Free Form Vocal Trio        
A05     Art Throbs –     Room With A View        
A06     Bathroom Beansi –     Little-Washer-By-The-Ford        
A07     Bathroom Beansi –     The Visitor        
A08     Bleeding Arseholes –     Funky Number        
A09     Bleeding Arseholes –     Nice Song        
A10     David Chesworth –     Be Mine Or 13        
A11     David Chesworth –     Piece For Chord Organ        
A12     Graeme Davis –     Cassettes Are Driving Me Crazy        
A13     Disneyland –     Pineapple        
A14     Disneyland –     Giligan's Island        
A15     East End Butchers –     Butchers        
A16     East End Butchers –     Assassins        
A17     East End Butchers –     Psychiatrist Takes Wine        
A18     Essendon Airport –     Guitar Duet        
A19     EST –     Fascinating Womanhood        
A20     Graeme Gerrard –     Rotations
       
B01     Holiday Funn –     Near Enough        
B02     Holiday Funn –     The Bells The Bells        
B03     Holiday Funn –     Saying Prayers        
B04     Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed Up Zombies, The –     Space Is The Place    
B05     Institute Of Dronal Anarchy –     7 Rare Dreamings Extract        
B06     Invisible Boys –     Oh Baby        
B07     Invisible Boys –     Song For The Deaf        
B08     Invisible Boys –     Pretty Void        
B09     Invisible Music –     Finished Stavinsky And Funky Havanis        
B10     2 Johnnies, The –     Experience        
B11     2 Johnnies, The –     Advice To A Dead Marxist        
B12     2 Johnnies, The –     Truckdriver        
B13     J.P. Sartre Band –  Songs Of Dead Philosophers        
B14     Junk Logic –     Yellow Bean        
B15     Klu, The –     Weekend In Warsaw        
B16     Laughing Hands –     Untitled        
B17     Lazlo Toth –     Kilgamesh        
B18     Lazlo Toth –     Ghost Train        
B19     Limp, The –     Tombeii The Mist        
B20     Limp, The –     True Hawaii        

C01     Lunatic Fringe –     Daddy        
C02     Mice Against God –     Untitled        
C03     Mindless Delta Children –     Go South        
C04     Mindless Delta Children –     Snappy Tom Time        
C05     Multiplicative Inverse –     Untitled        
C06     Music4 –     Biorhythms        
C07     Negative Reaction –     Untitled        
C08     Painkillers  –     Disney Punk March        
C09     Pastel Bats –     Arabise        
C10     Person Brothers –   Worried Man        
C11     Pissy Relay Switches –     Ho! These Teeth        
C12     Pissy Relay Switches –     Telephone Man        
C13     Pissy Relay Switches –     Animal Einstein        
C14     Rhythmyx Chymx –     Summer Song        
C15     Rhythmyx Chymx –     Throb        
C16     Saxophone Caper –     He'll Never Be Logical        

D01     Scattered Order –     Fun        
D02     Paul Schütze –     Untitled        
D03     Severed Heads –     Untitled        
D04     Shane Is Dead –     Untitled        
D05     Slugfuckers –     Gormange        
D06     Somersaulting Coincidences –     Untitled        
D07     Stutgarters –     No Fixed Address        
D08     Sunday Painters –     Terminal Ward        
D09     Swinging Hogs –     I Got Brains        
D10     Sydney Quads –     Untitled        
D11     Systematics –     Sunny        
D12     Systematics –     Marine Boy        
D13     Tame O'Mearas –     Collision        
D14     Tame O'Mearas –     Bah!        
D15     Teese And Tattersall –     Duets For Violin And Clarinet

           
E01     Peter Thin –     Tesseract        
E02     Tch Tch Tch –     Entertainment Division        
E03     Paul Turner  –     Austerity Measures        
E04     Use No Hooks –     Passion In My Feet        
E05     Wet Taxis –     Brown Owl        
E06     Wild West  –     Locking        
E07     Wild West  –     Pelican        

F01     Mesh  –     Untitled        
F02     Oroton Bags  –  Spontaneous Combustion        
F03     ZGlutz –     Warts        
F04     Nervous System –  Bertolucci        
F05     Nervous System –  One        
F06     N-Lets –     Untitled        
F07     A Word From The Editor –     Untitled 


DOWNLOAD Tape one HERE! or HERE!
DOWNLOAD tape two HERE!  or HERE!
DOWNLOAD tape three HERE! or HERE!