In the early 2000s Chris Phinney posted a handful of songs from his band Viktimized Karcass (VK) to mp3.com (remember that?!!). These were random tracks rather than albums. But the samplings were so intriguing that I have been itching to hear full albums ever since. When I embarked on the journey with Hal McGee and Chris to document the history of his Harsh Reality label, as much as I enjoyed pouring through each tape, I was edgily waiting for HR019 when I knew we would reach the first Karcass cassette, and that they would come fast and furious throughout the remainder of the catalog.

I have long considered Alien Planetscapes, F/i, and ST 37 to represent the pantheon of 1980s American underground Space Rock bands. And while I’ve only heard four VK cassette albums so far, the music has been so unique and creatively OUT THERE that the band clearly deserve the same accolades I’ve been heaping on the others for so long.
 
I have always loved Hawkwind’s Space Ritual, in part because of the spaced out, Blanga rocking chaos. But the Hawks have got nothing on VK for cosmic insanity. VK usually defy analogies, but my reviews of the first four tapes include references to Hawkwind, Chrome, Captain Beefheart, and, get this… ZZ Top, demonstrating the twisted, inverted, and totally art damaged impressions the music made on me.
 
If these analogies raise your eyebrows, just check out ‘Moving To Georgia’ on the Atrocity Slaughter album (HR022). Imagine a ZZ Top meets Chrome, acid drenched, space rocking jam and you might get something like this tune. The guitars screech and scream like banshees wailing and the vocals have a cool Damon Edge/Billy Gibbons quality that are very much on a surreal Alien Soundtracks/Rio Grande Mud point on the rock ‘n’ roll axis.

VK easily out Hawkwind the Hawks on their A Matter Of Principle (HR019) debut. I love how Side A wraps up with ‘Prelude To (Crazy)’, a mapcap jam that sounds like a lo-fi, industrial, yet heavy rocking take on the more freeform moments of Space Ritual. The oscillators are cranking and the guitars are jamming for what is just a prelude to the anarchy that continues on Side B with ‘Crazy’, with its screaming synths, cosmically carnivalesque electronic melodies, and crazy as hell but riotously fun tape manipulated vocals.
 
VK was launched with an intentional air of mystery. Before any music had been released, Chris published a full page ad in issue #3 of his Malice Fanzine which simply read: “Beware of Viktimized Karcass”, and including info c/o Malice.

The band began as the quartet of Chris, Roger Moneymaker, Richard Martin, and Pete McLean on drums. McLean would prove to be unreliable and passed away some years later. (A side note is that McLean was Alex Chilton’s cousin.) Richard Martin would already be familiar to Harsh Reality followers, having recorded with Chris in Macroglossia and Eternal Concessions.

But Moneymaker’s guitar took me completely by surprise. Fire up Side B of the Madness & Mayhem tape (HR025) and you’ll hear what I mean. The guitar is absolutely OUT THERE, with killer swirling, serpentine, Beefheart bluesy, brain fried leads. Moneymaker is a monster freakout guitarist on this stretched out space rock and sound effects experimental jam for the ages.

A few other musicians would join VK, including Mike Jackson, Phinney’s partner in another prolific band, Cancerous Growth. But Phinney, Moneymaker and Martin would be mainstays throughout the band’s history, which lasted until the early 1990s when Chris brought Harsh Reality to a close.

Not only was VK Chris' favorite of all his Harsh Reality bands and collaborations throughout the 1980s, but he considers it to have been the Harsh Reality ‘house band’.
 
In addition to over 30 tapes released on Harsh Reality (including an Alien Karcasscapes collaboration with Alien Planetscapes – HR047), VK tapes appeared on numerous other labels including Big Body Parts, IRRE Tapes, Lord Litter’s Out Of The Blue, Sound Of Pig, Audiofile Tapes, Galactus Tapes, Xkurzhen Sound, Prion Tapes, Old Europa Café, Alternate Media Tapes, EE Tapes, The Rat Music Company, and SSS Productions.
 
At the time I published this article, Hal McGee is digitizing and uploading the four VK tapes we’ve covered so far, along with the other new catalog tapes we’ve covered through HR026.
 
While this article focuses on Viktimized Karcass, it is really a status report, insidiously intended to focus the world’s attention on developments with the Harsh Reality historical site and, hopefully, keep your interests fired up.
 
Every tape in the catalog is, to varying degrees, a gem. Not only was Harsh Reality an important label in cassette culture history, a significant portion of the catalog documents the creative activities of a sprung-from-the-punk era, no holds barred, experimental slice of the Memphis, Tennessee creative milieu, consisting of label honcho Chris Phinney and his cohorts in what they liked to term the ‘Memphis Mafia’.
 
The Harsh Reality historical site can be found HERE
 
Bookmark this link and check it REGULARLY for updates!!

MORE photos below...

Digital music is fantastic. It is instantly, globally DISTRIBUTABLE. And it couldn’t be easier and cheaper for artists to collaborate. In short, I’m a supporter.

I am also a child of the 70s who spent countless hours sequestered in my bedroom listening to record albums and gazing at the covers. The music in those days got my full, undivided attention. People don’t necessarily do that in our 21st century world of DISTRACTION.

I am still a sucker for physical product. Three recent acquisitions are poster children for the beauty of music released by artists who put genuine tender loving thought and care into the entire package which is, ultimately, all part of the EXPERIENCE of the music they have created.

This is a tribute to music as something I can hold in my hands while listening. And, in these cases, marvel at the care that went into them. What follows is one vinyl LP, one cassette tape, and one CD. All are also available digitally.

Blood Rhythms – “Civil War” (LP)

I’ll say at the outset that this is the granddaddy of all physical music packages I have seen in years. The LP is pressed on red vinyl, comes housed in a sturdy gatefold jacket, and includes an absolutely STUNNING 44 page glossy art booklet. View the video for a detailed look.

The entire set is a delightful audio art, soundscape, collage, noise excursion. The music excels at simultaneous aggression and tranquil thematic development. I love how the music dramatically twists and turns on emotional and mood shattering dimes. It can be harsh, but there is a LOT going on… much sonic ear candy for the brain to ingest and absorb. I have listened to this LP several times, flipping slowly and intentionally through the art book, transfixed by the images. The imagery absolutely impacts the experience of the sounds on the LP!

Check out the No Part Of It label at https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com

Greathumour – “Hog is Dressed (Cassette)
 
EC community member Max Eastman’s Tribe Tapes label is new to me. Max got my attention when he posted a picture of this package and I promptly placed an order. The tape comes housed in a ziplock bag with an 8 ½ x 11 cover and credits, which is tastefully adorned with dried goodies from the ground.
 
This is an excellent set of experimental sound exploration that blends all kinds of fun electronics, keys and effects. The space electronics appeal to me. And I really like the church organ that blends with swirling bee swarm noise textures. The wind tunnel rush of noise and static is punctuated by oscillations and various other effects, some of which can be quite harsh, though it’s tempered at times by bits of groaning organ melody. Later Max blasts off into space for an onslaught of whimsical alien effects that attempt to navigate through a caustic maze of sound chaos. Things even get a wee bit rhythmic at times. Very cool!
 
Visit the Tribe Tapes label at https://tribetapes.bandcamp.com

Moon Men “3” (CD)
 
Moon Men is the quartet of EC community member Bret Hart, Bill Jungwirth, Jerry King, and Dave Newhouse. I’ve been following Bret’s music for nearly 20 years and have written about him extensively. And Newhouse was a founding member of Washington, DC based prog-jazz-Canterbury legends The Muffins.
 
I’ll confess that I only buy CDs anymore if they are by an artist I follow closely. Other than that, I’ll opt for digital if only CD is available. But Bret is not one to be hindered by the physical limitations of the format, which is no surprise because he came from the 1980s CASSETTE world!!
 
I sprung for the special limited edition. Check this out… The CD is housed in a gatefold jacket, but also comes with a postcard signed by the band members, a poster, and a bonus 3” CDR  with accompanying 14 page handmade, PERSONALIZED art booklet. Isn’t it loverly? View the video for a detailed look.
 
This is the third Moon Men album and, like the others, it’s a crazy but totally seamless blend of avant-jazz-progressive rock… Prog-jazz with an adventurous experimental edge. I like how jazzy horns trip along on ‘Peas & Carrots & Grass’ to a steady jazz-rock rhythmic pulse. After a few minutes the guitar challenges them and the musicians bull and matador circle each other, slowly jamming and finding their way as noise and effects color the proceedings. I love the contrast between the chaotic jamming groove, sweetly swooning horns, and brief punked out vocals on ‘Coeur De Boeuf’. Lusciously clunky!
 
Other highlights include ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon Is Dark For A Reason’, which has a dreamy melodic vibe that recalls the Canterbury sound of 1980s Muffins. But it’s amped up an experimental notch with scratching effects, clatter percussion and cascading electronics. Dig that lazy, lysergic jazz-blues on ‘Nurse Ratched’. Moon Men get nicely spacey on ‘The Mutt Stars And Cat Planets’, rocking HARD in alien prog-jazz land, but later make a gradual descent into a beautifully melodic Canterbury finale.
 
Progheads with a taste for the creatively strange will dig this!
 
Check out this and LOADS of other Bret Hart releases at https://bhhstuff.bandcamp.com

My introduction to the wild, whacky, wonderful world of Charles Rice Goff III was in 2001 when he submitted a CD by his band the Magic Potty Babies for review in my online zine Aural Innovations. My positive response to what I described at the time as “cosmic but crazy… meditational but chaotic”, and my inclusion of the album on my Best of 2001 list, led to what has been an 18 years and still counting journey into the work of an artist who sounds like no one but himself (and that includes his many band projects).

Regular visitors to the EC site will recall a few songs inspired by The Doors that Charles posted in recent months. If you enjoyed those then you’ll be tickled to know that he has now released a full nine song album. And you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say that Charles doesn’t “cover” Doors songs. As he says in the notes to the Swinging From Loose Hinges collection, “The interpretations presented here showcase how the Doors’ approaches to composition, performance, experimentation, and expression, affect me as an artist, right here in the 21st Century. While these recordings all contain elements of their antecedents, they each have a life of their own.”

The “right here in the 21st Century” part is important to note, because Charles explains that the Doors have been a powerful life-long inspiration, having recorded the first album of contemporary music he ever possessed (he was 8 years old, now 60).

I like to get immersed in an artist’s music. And I mean reeeeeally get my brain matter all gnarly wrapped around an album. And Charles make immersion enticing with his penchant for detailed album and track notes.

The music? Come with meeeeeeeee…….

The set opens with “Moonlight Drive”. Charles plays the song acoustic guitar singer/songwriter style, retaining the light, whimsical nature of the original as he embellishes the proceedings with trippy ambient waves, mystical melody and bells, and oddball percussion. After about three minutes the music briefly full band rocks out before receding into a pastorally spaced out finale.

Charles’ take on The Doors’ “My Wild Love” hews closely to the lazy tribal chant of the original, but colors the vocal/percussion core with electronic splashes, soundscapes, spectral choir, and other fun effects.

I love the alien bubbling/gurgling/symphonic electronics, keyboard melody, and guitar on “The Unknown Soldier”, creating a nicely flowing song that’s chock full of collage craftsmanship and oodles of freaky effects fun.

​“Wishful Sinful” is all Goff. He starts off like he’s going to do “Touch Me”, but then starts to recite other Morrison lyrics and layers in collaged vocals from, hold on to your hats… The Book of Revelations. The music then melts into a dreamily pop rocking version of “Wishful Sinful”. I love the way Charles creates the pop-orchestral elements of the song. There’s lots of lysergic montage effects fun, and near the end we briefly descend into psychedelic darkness and then, finally, a brief but lulling acoustic finale. Lots going on here, with many twists and turns, and Charles makes it flow seamlessly.

I had no idea until reading Charles’ track notes that The Doors’ “L'America”, which was on the L.A. Woman album, was originally written to be part of the soundtrack to Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 movie Zabriskie Point, though Antonioni rejected it. Interesting historical factoid. Charles begins with the vocals to the song, peppering it with jittery electronics. But it soon starts to alternate between and blend with a succession of psychedelic dreamland and quirkily eccentric themes.

“The Crystal Ship” is one of my personal favorite Doors songs. It’s so seductively and 60s psychedelically pop song mesmerizing. Charles touched on it during his rendition of “Wishful Sinful”, but here takes it into experimental outer space. Charles sings the core song, though the music is like some zany but beautifully crafted avant-prog composition and includes bits of Morrison himself reciting his poetry.

“Blue Sunday” is such a beautiful Doors song and includes the loveliest of guitar leads. Charles recreates the vibe of the song as only he can, sounding like an intergalactic piano bar crooner. AND, though completely different from the Robbie Krieger guitar of the original, Charles plays a luscious acoustic guitar lead, accompanied by piano and dreamily spaced out harmonies.

​“Aztec Wall Of Vision” caught my attention because I didn’t recognize the title and it’s credited to Jim Morrison/C. Goff III. Charles explains that it’s excerpted from Morrison poems that were never set to music by the Doors. The result is a stream of passionately recited poetry, supported by Frippertronic guitar, clatter percussion, and more.

“When The Music’s Over” is personal favorite in the Doors’ catalog. It’s classic West Coast 60s psych, with a soulfully grooving edge, and at nearly 11 minutes takes off into the cosmos with some killer jamming. Yet it’s trademark Doors, with lots of room for the Lizard King poet to stretch out. Charles’ version kicks off as an acoustic and electronic song with a slightly dissonant yet strangely lulling melody. The melody/rhythm is like a choppy, warbled march, punctuated by effects that are both searing and gurgling. It’s a hell of a roller coaster ride, veering from psychedelically bucolic segments to wigged out gloms of deep space effects, creating one big passionate blend of music, vocals, effects, and creative editing.

A free download of Swinging From Loose Hinges, including artwork and detailed notes, can be found at
https://archive.org/details/SwingingFromLooseHinges

I would also encourage all in the EC community to visit the Taped Rugs Productions web site for the muthaload of Goff history. Charles is a singular talent and creative force whose music is always challenging, different, and fun.

The journey starts here: http://tapedrugs.com

With nine issues published from December 1982 to January 1985, Malice Fanzine ended just as what I’ll call the post-OP zine scene in the U.S. was cranking up. Specifically, the zines that would include industrial, electronic, experimental music in their coverage, and homemade/cassette culture artists.

Malice may have been inspired by hardcore punk, but reading through the reviews in Issue #1 we see coverage of releases by artists such as Monte Cazazza, Richard Bone and Fad Gadget, in addition to more New Wave styled bands. Chris Phinney and Mike Honeycutt’s links to Rough Trade provided a window to the UK scene and, as Mike had explained when I interviewed him a couple years ago about his D.J. experiences in Memphis radio, they were able to leverage their ties to Rough Trade to secure overseas distribution for Malice.

​Issue #1 also included a plug for C.L.E.M., the late great Contact List of Electronic Music. OP magazine may have been a crucial catalyst for the cassette culture network, but Malice had an early finger on the pulse of developments in music coast to coast and across the ocean. Malice’s coverage was local Memphis, national, and international. The local component was also apparent in the increasing number of ads for Memphis record stores, comics shops, photographers, clothing shops, legal stimulants/smoking accessories, and more.

Malice was riotously punk in its attitude. I love the “MESSAGE TO OUR READERS!!” in Issue #4: “Malice would like to thank everyone that gave us a helping hand in putting this issue out. Anyone that stood in the way or fucked with our project can lick a big boner & slobber on a knob!! Fuck ‘em all. Malice is a non-profit organization for the advancement of new music, art & cultural enrichment. Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke!!!!! THANX”

While interviewing Chris for the Harsh Reality Music historical site, which is housed at haltapes.com, I was treated to detailed descriptions of his experiences booking shows at the Antenna Club. EC readers know that things happen because individuals step up and take the initiative. Publishing Malice dovetailed with Chris and Mike’s activities booking many of the bands that played the Antenna. Reading through all nine issues reveals Memphis as a hotbed of live activity. Concert reviews of bands that played the Antenna include a to-die-for gamut of punk and New Wave, including Bad Brains, Mission of Burma, U.K. Subs, Circle Jerks, Gun Club, Panther Burns, Shockabilly, Sun City Girls, and many others.

Non-Antenna (larger venue) shows included Iggy Pop, Nash the Slash, The Residents, Wall of Voodoo, Psychedelic Furs, and Public Image Limited. Well, ok, the PiL show was at the 688 Club in the Atlanta. I was living in Atlanta during these years and, though I wasn’t at the PiL show, I could write an article about the many fond memories I have of the 688. And four Atlanta bands I knew well from this era, REM, Pylon, Love Tractor, and The Method Actors, cropped up in reviews of shows at the Antenna. (It’s interesting to hear Chris recall booking REM on their first tour when they only had a 7” available and about 35 people were in attendance.)

To emphasize Malice’s importance in documenting the punk, industrial, electronic and experimental scenes, I’ll share some personal favorite highlights. If you haven’t read the scans that are online yet this will hopefully send you running to check them out:

Issue #2 includes an article on Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records. The ‘News & Info’ section lists the “Touch” cassette/magazine, “a unique art-music poetry collaboration”. The contributors weren’t homemade artists, but featured stalwarts of the day like New Order, Simple Minds, Tuxedomoon, Robert Wyatt, and others. Issue #3 has articles on Crass, Chrome, and Cabaret Voltaire, representing an impressive variety of ‘C’ bands! Issue #4 has an article on The Damned.

Issue #5 reviews the great “Rising From The Red Sand” Industrial music cassette compilations, plus reviews of the pre-Muslimgauze E.G. Oblique Graph, and an interview with controversial punk nut G.G. Allin. A full page is dedicated to Twist & Decease, the new cassette by LXSS, who I had not heard of before. I got wrapped up in the description of “dark electronics, tape & voice manipulation, & everything from minimal muzak to all out audio assault”. I couldn’t resist Googling and, surprise surprise, it’s on YouTube. Check out “Off Komarov”, which takes up all of Side A, featuring classic experimental sound and noise fun:

​Though cassettes had been reviewed in Malice, issue #6 is the first to explicitly call out ‘Tape Reviews’ in the table of contents. An entire page is dedicated to reviews of tapes by The Nightcrawlers, Chris Gross, Bliss Blast, and the Macrofusion Computer Music sampler. The last one I’d never heard of and it’s fascinating, in 1983, to read about digital music that is “created totally under computer control.” We’re also treated to articles on G.X. Jupitter-Larsen and The Haters, Maurizio Bianchi (M.B.), and a Suicidal Tendencies interview.

Issue #7 stands out with lots of cassette reviews and significantly more names who are today recognizable cassette culture veterans, including tapes by Tom Furgas, F/i, Human Flesh, Bene Gesserit, the great TRAX “Anthems 2” compilation and “Area Condizionata” cassette magazine, and much more.

Of importance to my work with Hal and Chris on the Harsh Reality Music historical site is the Issue #8 ‘News & Info’ announcement of a “Nu tape label in town, Harsh Reality Music”, and its first four releases plus upcoming tapes. Hopefully all EC readers are by now aware of the availability of digital listening on the Harsh Reality Music home page. Issue #8 also includes interviews with John Oswald (Mystery Tapes label) and Corrosion of Conformity.

Though Malice documents what seems like a vibrant Memphis live scene, Chris was frustrated by the lack of support for truly alternative bands and lost opportunities to book some of them. In the final issue ‘Editorial’, Chris challenges punks: “Why only listen to Hardcore? This is the question I pose to all the so called punks here. I mean open up your fucking mind & learn something! Electronic bands have things to say that are the same or just as important as hardcore groups. Industrial & E.M. & Hardcore go hand in hand.”

It isn’t easy being among the few willing to step up and make things happen…

One of my favorite parts of Malice, and a contributor to what I feel made it such and all around special package, was the ART! Comic art was a huge part of the zine, and increasingly so with each new issue. I was a fan of 70s undergrounds, and some of the art in Malice was on par with the best of 70s underground comix artists.

The two full pages of art by Darmstadter in issue #1 could easily have been from a 70s issue of Slow Death by Greg Irons or Jaxon.

The cover of issue #2 by XNO recalls the best Rich Corben comix art from the 70s.

​I love the clever issue #3 cover by artist Mad Mad, which depicts a chilled out guy with shades on who could be basking in the sun, holding a sign saying “Its Gonna Be A Golden Day! Music and Art for the New Age!”. And a note that the zine is “Free for Now!”. But what our relaxed fellow is basking in is not the sun but a nuclear mushroom cloud.

Another highlight is the issue #4 cover by XNO, which looks like an underground comix take on the crazy art that used to appear in old Hot Rod magazines.

And throughout each issue were Sunday Funnies styled comix, though with a twisted underground edge. And Lee Ellingson’s Testicle Head in issue #8 is like something from the old 50s EC comics.

It’s a thrill to finally be able to read these mags. Not only are they important documents of the era but are absolutely essential to the Harsh Reality Music historical site. Thanks to Chris for making them available and HUGE thanks to Hal for all the scanning!!!

This is the third part of an Electronic Cottage series introducing Malice Fanzine.
Part 1 -- Hal McGee introduces Malice Fanzine Issues #1-5
Part 2 -- Hal McGee introduces Malice Fanzine Issues #6-9

Chris Phinney has a long and varied homemade music/cassette culture history. From zinester, to local Memphis, Tennessee scenester, to homemade recording artist, Harsh Reality Music label head, and well beyond Earth’s orbit, Phinney’s contributions to the dawn of post-punk home recording and networking beg documentation.

I am excited about working with Chris and Hal on the Harsh Reality Music historical web site that will be housed at haltapes.com. Hal started the site with a label discography:
​http://www.haltapes.com/harsh-reality-music.html

A personal side note is that my introduction to both artists was through a review submission of their 1997 Homemade Alien Music Volume 2: Ancient Astronauts collaboration. In 2000, Chris sent me a copy of the CD for review in Aural Innovations, and the cover art and accompanying comic book immediately grabbed my attention. Here is the review I published in the online edition of Aural Innovations (issue #13, October 2000).

Little did I know at the time that this set of space exploratory music was only the beginning of what would be a glorious tsunami of submissions that would find me well steeped in both Chris and Hal’s experimental, electronic, space, noise, cut-up worlds for years to come.

Our approach (so far…)

I am listening to and making detailed track notes for every tape in the catalog. I’m in my element here… My love of deep dive, total immersion into music and writing about it is what drove my passion for running the Aural Innovations web zine for 18 years.

We started with the first ten tapes in the catalog. Check out the Harsh Reality discography and you will see that Hal has the first several releases, including the first of Chris’ ‘bands’ - Pungent Odor and several Skoptzies tapes - digitized and available to stream.

I sent my track notes to Chris, whose memory of these early 1980s efforts needed jogging. With the cobwebs (more or less) cleared, I called Chris on December 5, 2018, and we took a two hour stroll down Harsh Reality memory lane. We discussed his publication of the Malice fanzine, each of the first ten tapes in the catalog, and his efforts to inspire, provoke, and promote a local punk/experimental music scene in Memphis.

Talking to Chris was fascinating.
Chris (and Mike Honeycutt’s) publication and local/ international promotion of Malice, their efforts to promote both local and national touring punk acts in Memphis, and Chris’ international networking/trading/collaborating efforts with Harsh Reality straddle and intertwine with the punk and cassette culture histories that unfolded throughout the 1980s.

CHRIS:
“We started Malice with Bob X and Xno. They were both cartoonists. Mike Honeycutt wrote some stuff and I wrote some stuff. When we started the zine it was a mutual thing. We had artwork from all over the place. We wanted it to be comics, and reviews, live stuff and photos. And we paid for it with ads. As we got closer to the end everyone pretty much kind of quit. The last issue, number 9, I did all by myself. I was talking to Honeycutt and we said, you know, why are we reviewing all these other people’s stuff when we could be doing our own stuff, even though we don’t have the gear to do so? Basically we got burned out on the publishing. So I started a label and started recording with no gear hardly at all.”

The Harsh Reality label released tapes by an exciting array of international artists, including a country specific series of compilations. But beginning with the first Harsh Reality tapes was of particular interest to me because of the very first recorded experiments by Chris and some of his Memphis cohorts. It’s crucial to understand that despite the range of international artists on the label, there was always a local Memphis element, featuring numerous bands and collaborations by a group of musicians that Zan Hoffman dubbed ‘The Memphis Mafia’.

When I was introduced to Chris’ music in 2000, he was already a seasoned home recording artist and knew his way around synths and keys.
​But listening to the first recording under his Mental Anguish moniker aka — HR001: Better Pull That Plug — was a shock and awe experience. The young artist noodling at home and exploring the possibilities features a fun glom of banging on objects, primitive percussion, power tools, ranting vocals, and even some organ and acoustic guitar. All were recorded real time with an Akai 4-track open reel-to-reel.

CHRIS:
“The organ was an organ that my dad had. It was an electronic organ that you plug in. And of course I had an acoustic guitar. A Spanish flamenco. And everything else was basically trash can lids, sheet metal, horseshoes. I was just trying to make my own stuff and see what would happen. It was all pretty much just improv really. Mostly real time, recording as you’re playing it.”

The rest of the first ten releases include collaborations with Mike Honeycutt (Non Religious Sect), Richard Martin (Macroglossia), the Pungent Odor and Skoptzies tapes, another Mental Anguish set, and Chris’ first experience with releasing music by an international artist (Konstruktivists - Psyko-Genetika 2).

And this is just the tip of a 338 tape iceberg. Interviewing Chris by phone about the first ten releases went really well, so I think we’ll continue to attack these in chunks. We allowed the discussions to be sufficiently free-form that all kinds of interesting and important historical bits crept in. I imagine the discussions will always be more detailed when it comes to the local releases that Chris and his mafia cohorts collaborated on. And, indeed, I see the local Memphis component as being a story in itself. Stay tuned for further updates…

Jerry Kranitz:
A few months ago I agreed to host the sizable collection of cassette tapes that Robin James could no longer store himself. Like a kid in a candy shop I spent the following weeks pouring through the treasure trove of globe spanning goodies from the 1980s-90s.

​One of the last boxes turned out to be dominated by an enormous number of Eugene Chadbourne homemade cassettes from the 1980s. I was so bowled over that I emailed Robin with the Subject line: "Chadbourne MANIA!!"

Which led to the following article by Robin...

Quality is never an issue, it’s all about quantity. To Eugene it’s more important to get that product out and start on the next one rather than agonizing over production details and proper remastering and all that nonsense. He was able to record an evening's performance and have a supply of fully packaged releases with artwork and playlist, housed in his special covers, ready for sale to fans by that same night's dawn.

Looking at his discography on Discogs.com he has over 348 CD type releases credited to his name, this includes collaborations, solo works, contributions to anthologies, and so forth, a busy guy. I personally collected 57 Parachute releases, but he never gave me any cassettes for free until that performance in Detroit where he did give me one (the first one as Camper Van Chadbourne which features "Evil Filthy Preacher" one of my faves in his Country-Protest ou-ver-ah), I had to buy all the rest and they were expensive. I wonder if I can get any consideration? Not the right kind of consideration, I fear.
​

Greetings all... My book - "Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age" - is in the formatting stage and targeted for publication by Vinyl-on-Demand late first quarter 2019. I'm working on selecting photos and need assistance with my chapter on Creative Packaging...
Do any of you 1980s artists/networkers have any tapes from the 80s that were packaged in artistic/creative ways? The crazier the better. These must be PRE-1992.
If anyone is willing/able to send me high quality jpg images of such cassette albums I would be eternally grateful. I need these fairly quickly.
 
Please email me if you can help.

Facebook is great. I love it. A handful of holdouts notwithstanding, nearly everyone I care to communicate with is on Facebook. My family is there, but it’s my friends from the music network I communicate with through social media. Five minutes before I started writing this article I saw a post by a band I’ve followed for years with a link to order their new album and I was off to the races. In that regard it is quick, reliable, and efficient.

Facebook is great for news and keeping tabs on what people are up to. And it’s something of a necessary evil in that I HAVE to be on Facebook because far too many of my friends from the network will only communicate through the social media platform. They will not check their email, they will not announce new releases via email distro lists, and even if they still have web sites they will post immediately to Facebook but they won’t update their web site.

Facebook does not facilitate and can in no way be relied on for detailed topic specific discussion and exchange of ideas. Sure, there are newsgroups, like the ‘1980s-1990s Cassette Culture Archives’ group. But they consist of miscellaneous postings and discussion is limited to ‘Comments’, resulting in an ongoing stream of posts that aren’t organized in any helpful way.

So how, in the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, name-yer-poison social media era, can meaningful online community be created among those with shared interests?

Hal McGee is hell bent on doing so with the online reboot of his Electronic Cottage magazine that published six issues in the 1990s. And he’s got a head start with the 42 (currently counted ‘Personal Pages’) participants who are hometaper networking veterans.

Participants are encouraged to write articles and share information through the EC web site. But Hal is also engaging the community with projects like the new Electronic Cottage Compilation 004.
Hal stated his intent for the compilation in his call for contributions:
— To create a stronger connection among EC community members!
— And to promote Electronic Cottage to the outside world!

As Hal said in the compilation announcement: “I think that this is a perfect way for all of us here at EC to get to know each other better and to make new connections with our friends here!” Hal elaborated on this to me in a personal communication: “Another purpose of the compilation is to stimulate more community projects. So far most people are still reporting and commenting and writing about their interests and projects outside the site. In the future I’d like to see that change.”

Electronic Cottage Compilation 004 notably emphasizes the collective effort by crediting the set to the ‘Electronic Cottage Community’ rather than the usual ‘Various Artists’. 34 EC contributors sent in recordings of 2 minutes or less, making for a cracking set of experimental audio fun. It’s a hotbed of creativity and an excellent introduction to the EC world for both the contributors and the uninitiated. So join me as I take a tour this collective effort…

Ditlev Buster’s singer-songwriter styled guitar and space-synth is a welcoming opener. I love the lyrics: “Welcome to the Electronic Cottage compilation. It’s a great great CD. We also have a web site. You can go online to see. But don’t sit at your computer for too long. Or you’ll go blind.”

Frank lays down a cool, quirkily jazzy groove as he attempts to, but doesn’t quite specify, how he would like to be remembered.

​{AN} EeL has an awesome title with “The Quaker’s Staff & The Dutch Oven”, alternately babbling baby talk and scat/opera singing amidst a combination of light piano recital, telephones ringing in harmony, and electronic atmospherics.

Thomas Park cranks out a noisy yet flowing soundscape tour.

Juan Angel Italiano’s contribution features spoken word (Spanish) and various howling and chanting recorded voices along with ambience and lightly tribal free-improv.

Another fun track title is Jack Hz’s “Don’s Refrigerator Makes The Best Cottage Cheese”, which is a somber soundtrack with retro-futuro space electronics.

Shaun Robert creates hauntingly mesmerizing space-ambience and cosmic sound exploration.

Don Campau follows with an equally awesome bit of mind-bending and acid laced space excursion.

I love Rafael González’s choppy clang-clang robot grooves and static drenched blasts.

Walls Of Genius lay down a steady guitar, bass and bells/percussion groove that sets the stage for zany vocalizations as only the WOG morons can produce.

Swami Loopynanda (aka Charles Rice Goff III) rocks out with Frippery snake guitar, ploddy guitar plucking, light ambience, and vocals that remind me of a Cream song! [Editor’s Note: I am glad to know that I am not the only person who thinks it is reminiscent of Cream! How about “I Feel Free”?]

John M. Bennett voices a nifty Dadaist spoken word piece.

Ken Montgomery treats us to scratching strings and an interesting collage of recorded voices that builds in atmospheric intensity.

Eduardo GOZNE creates a very cool space and drone ambient piece.

Lord Litter takes the piss out of instructional recordings with his good fun recording techniques.

Phillip Klampe travels the cosmos with a clever bit of percolating space-ambience and experimental sound manipulation.

Yet another fun title comes from Dylan Houser with his “Stop-Motion Zombie Frycooks On The Moon”, which consists of an interesting conglomeration of experimental sounds.

Ditto for osvaldo cibils, who morphs and mixes electronic bubbles, phases, scratches, whirs and blasts.

I like Chris Phinney’s percussion that has a Sun Ra Nubians Of Plutonia cosmic tribal feel.

Jim Barker creates a cool collage work with voices, instruments and field recordings.

Lumen K goes awesomely spaced out freeeeeky with his “A Shaman Prays For Hal McGee”. I love the combination of alien electronics, voice samples and droning chant.

Aimee Grace Naworal contributes a lovely, dissonantly melodic stringed ditty.

Adam Naworal rocks out with a slab of freeform bashing bass jamming (I think it’s bass?) and oscillating effects.

Seiei Jack offers a frenetic crowd sample and alien effects collage.

I enjoyed the combination of steady palpitation and cosmic drift on Jen Sandwich’s melodic, floating space excursion.

The “Electro Acoustic Cottage Visitation” title nails Shatter Wax’s contribution, with wildly bubbling and whizzing electronics, strumming guitar, radio effects and more.

John Wiggins’ piece is a quietly subtle, experimental sound and object/instrument manipulation.

Dave Fuglewicz specializes in space exploration and treats us to a micro tour of darkly symphonic majesty.

Jeff Central’s contribution brings to mind a stripped down Kraftwerk tune with voice and effects collage layered over the top.

Francesco Aprile surprised me with what sounds like a 1960s fun-with-tape experimental psychedelic radiophonic freakout.

W.A. Davison assaulted me with his start/stop sound sample collage fun, with bashing noise blasts and a brain paralyzing drone pulse.

​Hal McGee creates his trademark experimental collage with day-in-the-life-of-Hal narrative.

Hal Harmon is pure punishment with his sonic assault space-industrial blast.

David Nadeau closes the set with a fun bit of carnivalesque whimsy.

In an email exchange Hal McGee told me: “To me the most important thing about the hometaper scene is the people, not the things, not the music art objects they produce.” I responded that for me it’s about the people AND what they produce. But then I went on to describe the projects I’ve worked on with him, and how nearly all the new music I keep up with anymore is by artists I’ve communicated with for many years and… I realized we were probably saying the same thing.

I’ve gotten to the point where I’m in a groove checking the EC web site at least every couple days looking to see what’s new. I will watch its progress with anticipation, and be mindful of participation…

Brick Through The Window: An Oral History Of Punk Rock, New Wave And Noise in Milwaukee, 1964-1984
by Steven Nodine, Eric Beaumont, Clancy Carroll, and David Luhrssen
​(Brickboys 2017)
-- review by Jerry Kranitz

History can only be fully told when its many parts and pieces are identified, analyzed as individual components, and, ultimately, tied together for a larger understanding. My favorite music magazine is Ugly Things, which was launched in the early 1980s as a homemade zine and now publishes two 150+ page issues a year. Subtitled Wild Sounds From Past Dimensions, the magazine focuses on Beat, garage rock, psychedelic, and good old rock ‘n’ roll bands from the 1950s 70s, with occasional forays into the 1980s.

Brick Through The Window: An Oral History Of Punk Rock, New Wave And Noise in Milwaukee, 1964-1984 is like reading a 600+ page single topic issue of Ugly Things. The ‘Oral History’ of the title is exactly how the book is structured. The four authors conducted detailed interviews with Milwaukee music scene participants from the era and organized quotes into an impressively organized and absorbing tale of one city’s experiences, contributions to the larger punk historical record, and the lasting influence on its participants. If you liked the format of Neil Taylor’s Rough Trade history, this is very similar.
http://brickthroughthewindow.com/

I became interested in the book after reading a review in… Ugly Things! And my purchase decision was locked in after cassette culture-Uddersounds-F/i-Vocokesh veteran Richard Franecki told me he had been interviewed by the authors. I am by no means a walking encyclopedia of bands. I’ll be fascinated by an Ugly Things interview, but beyond listening to the subject on YouTube, may not necessarily remember them. My attraction to all these stories is the way in which they come together to shape an understanding of the “Hows” and “Whys” of history.

The entire book paints a picture of an enthusiastic and mutually supportive local scene, well steeped in the DIY ethic. Musician and radio DJ David Gunkel recounts a classic punk era DIY approach to everything: “You had bands with absolute crap equipment, but they made it work. You had drummers using everything from cardboard boxes to trashcans. You had lead singers who simply did not fit the profile of frontman, yet they got up on a crappy excuse for a stage and belted out lyrics, even if the crap PA system couldn’t provide enough output for anyone to hear him or her.”

Gunkel also describes what he calls DIY nightclubs and cassette production that will resonate with EC readers: “Like the Lincoln Arcade shows we did with the Laytons, the Shemps and the Honest Disgrace, where band members took turns booking the event, running the door and tending bar. A mere 25 cents for a beer cup and all-you-can-drink beer. What the fuck were we thinking? And you had basement recording studios churning out low-fi gems on cassette tape, and kitchen-table makeshift art departments producing the Letraset posters that decorated the street corners and facades of vacant buildings. No one knew shit, but that did not stop us.”

Entire chapters are devoted to Milwaukee punk clubs Zak’s and Starship. Co-author Clancy Carroll, explains how those two clubs, from 1977-82 were key facilitators for local bands. In 2001 Carroll was involved in the compilation of the History in 3 Chords 2-CD compilation, which was intended to represent this period in Milwaukee punk history: “The beginning of punk rock in Milwaukee to the end of the Starship in ’82. The golden era, if you will, at least how Scott Krueger, Jeff Menz and I defined it when we put together that compilation. Most of the songs on there I remembered just from hearing in the clubs.”

It was all about the local Milwaukee scene. As musician Kevn Kinney explains, “These were great times to be young and hungry. What I learned most was: if you want to create, create. It doesn't have to be polished. It doesn't have to be approved. Technique can be learned. Sharing and being part of the community should not only be welcomed but absolute.”

The sharing and community minded aesthetic truly was local. In fact, Richard Franecki is the only interviewee who touches on the global network and OP magazine. When I asked him in an email exchange if he and F/i were somehow outliers he replied, “I was probably the ONLY one in Milwaukee who got into the  network as extensively as I did. Everyone else in the 'scene' pretty much went the conventional route. Sort of like Chrome/Helios Creed and Damon Edge doing studio stuff at the expense of live gigs. We were sort of the same way, with EARLY F/i in particular. So YES, we were really into a whole other 'universe' than the rest of the musicians here in town. The result is that we developed a national reputation while other musicians became local celebrities, but were little known outside the Milwaukee area."

This comment drew my attention to the many pages devoted to Milwaukee psychedelic revivalists Plasticland, who intentionally cast their net as widely beyond Milwaukee as possible and enjoyed a measure of success. And it’s a hoot reading about how the Violent Femmes, probably the era’s most successful Milwaukee band, had been ubiquitous street buskers.

​One of my favorite chapters is the one about WMSE, the Milwaukee School of Engineering radio station, whose freeform format included a heavy local focus. DJ Tom Crawford explains how local bands were always a predominant part of WMSE’s programming: “One of the people that took it to a level to make it an open door policy, Pete Christensen, was our station’s morning show host. Pete always said to bands, If I’m on the air, come on down. Don’t call me. If I’m on the air, you come on down. Bring your records, your cassettes; I don’t care. I’ll play them.”

And I love Crawford’s description of how, “We were getting so much local music in that we took an old two-drawer wooden file cabinet and we converted it into a local music dropbox, right where you walked in the door. You pulled open the top drawer, you’d put your cassette in, you’d close the drawer and it’d drop into the box.” I checked the WMSE web site and they’ve currently got shows in their schedule with titles like Industrial Noise Core and Why My Head Hurts.

WMSE listener Jeff Hamilton shares a memory that struck a chord with me: “Before I left for school, I would put a 120-minute cassette tape in and hit record. Couldn’t wait to get home and hear what I caught. Angry Samoans followed by the Grateful Dead, followed by MX-80 Sound, followed by The Shag meant I had found a station that knew my tastes before I even knew!”

When I lived in Atlanta, Georgia from 1981-87, I was a devout WREK (Georgia Institute of Technology) listener. I still have several of what I labeled ‘WREK Rock’ cassettes, where I stuck in a blank and just hit record. They are all gems that I still listen to from time to time. Some are theme shows and others are as free-wheeling diverse as Hamilton describes. I just checked the WREK web site and my beloved Destroy All Music show from the early 80s is STILL in the schedule!

Despite the 1964-1984 of the title, the lion’s share of the story is told from the late 1970s to mid-1980s. And the book is light on the Noise portion of the title (unless by ‘noise’ they mean ‘racket’). I asked Richard Franecki about this and the lack of F/i mention, to which he replied: “The extreme experimental 'noise' scene was a little scene within the broader scene, and not everyone is into stuff like that. The same ten people showed up for all our shows! And we all got to know each other better. Boy Dirt Car in particular. Eric Lunde and Darren Brown were/are great guys, and we REALLY supported each other, doing shows and appearances, resulting in the split LP on RRR in 1986. The reason F/i is not mentioned more is the fact that F/i reached a peak AFTER the time period the book deals with. We were a noise band (pre-drums) during the era the book deals with.”

I single this out more as a point of personal interest and something that will be notable to EC readers. In any event, Brick Through The Window is a fun and riveting read that does a great job of showcasing this era in Milwaukee punk history through the eyes and memories of its participants (or some subset of them?).

The History in 3 Chords compilation (linked above) is chock full of bands featured in the book. I also highly recommend the MKE Punk web site, which houses free downloads of bands from the era and is where the History in 3 Chords download lives.

Another cool punk compilation on the site is America's Dairyland from 1983.

Finally, F/i fans may be interested in free downloads of Richard Franecki’s pre-F/i punk band, The Shemps.

The only previous appearance that I’m aware of Belgian guitarist Daniel Malempré’s M.A.L. was on the first volume of Alain Neffe’s Insane Music For Insane People compilation in 1981. Malempré also collaborated with Neffe in Subject and was in the first lineup (1973-74) of Neffe’s German Kosmiche in Belgium band, Kosmose. In 2015 the Sub Rosa label released a fantastic 2-CD/LP set of archival Kosmose live recordings from 1973-78, kosmic music from the black country, including detailed historical notes from Neffe.

Sub Rosa has now released My 16 Little Planets, a set of M.A.L. tracks recorded by Malempré from 1972-76. The package doesn’t include the multi-page booklet the Kosmose set was stacked with, but the story in the notes makes a remarkable claim that adds a touch of tabloid journalism to this review.

The notes begin by acknowledging Manuel Göttsching’s (Ash Ra Tempel) 1975 released Inventions For Electric Guitar as a classic. Recorded using only an electric guitar and 4-track tape recorder, Göttsching created a guitar excursion unlike anything I had heard, even though I didn’t discover it until the early 1980s.

The explanation continues to describe why the album was so influential, before launching into a claim about how in 1974 the Ohr label had received a tape sent by M.A.L., “same design, same configuration, almost the same tracks.” In fact, it was sent to both Ohr and Virgin, with the A side labeled ‘M.A.L.’ and the B side labeled ‘Alain Neffe’. (I wonder what was on the Neffe side?) And then the blatant claim is made that “Malempré is the actual inventor of this technique, which Göttsching reproduced a few months later.”

So… make of that what you will. I relate the story without opinion or judgment. In my upcoming book, Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age (to be published 2019 by Vinyl-on-Demand), I add an index with representative reviews, including the Insane Music For Insane People Vol. 1 compilation. Of the M.A.L. contribution, written prior to being aware of Malempré’s accusations, I said, “M.A.L. is a Daniel Malempré solo project and the two featured tracks (dated 1974) are intricately beautiful kosmiche guitar explorations. The first consists of gradually developing guitar patterns that would appeal to fans of Manual Göttsching, and the second has a meditative soundtrack feel with lusciously multi-layered guitar and melodic solos.”

That, of course, doesn’t in any way support the claim. Interestingly, what escaped me when I wrote that was that Malempré’s story goes back to the 1981 release of the compilation. I realize now that the track "Manuel Ist Unehrlich" translates to Manuel Is Dishonest. The grudge has persisted for decades.

Anyway, I mean no disrespect to Malempré’s concerns by now putting the controversial stuff aside. Instead I’ll focus on the content, which is a stunning, 16 track, 76 minute set of deep space kosmiche guitar exploration that is absolutely on the same playing field with what Göttsching accomplished on Inventions. The set consists of stretch out tracks and shorter pieces in the 1-4 minute range. I’ll focus on the longer tracks…

Deimos features 9 luscious minutes of multiple floating and trippily soloing layers of guitar, with a steady beat of gently rippling pulsations. 

Elara alternates between guitars that sing like cosmic acid queen sirens and shimmering palpitations, before settling into a groove that brings to mind a blend of Ash Ra Tempel and Virgin era Tangerine Dream with beautiful swirly organ. The last two emotional minutes are hauntingly somber and among my favorite moments of the set.

Thor is pure cosmic angst, combining a Forbidden Planet mélange of sci-fi soundtrack effects with eerily playful kosmiche guitar and a commanding battery of low drone bass rumbling riffs.

Thethys is the surprise rocker of the set, though it’s an adventurously avant-kosmiche one. Malempré cranks out trippy rocking solos while bassist Maya maintains the rhythmic pulse, along with spaced out pipe organ by Alain Neffe.

But my hands down favorite of the set is the 15 minute epic Pandore, which is on par with the best of the album but spices up the proceedings with additional instrumentation. Malempré solos freely on guitar along with his now trademark atmospheric backing. But we've also got spacey melodic flute. Some of the segments sound like early Genesis with a heavy dose of space kosmiche influence. Clarinet and pipe organ are also credited, though the clarinet must be efx'd and absorbed because I couldn’t detect it. This piece nicely utilizes its length to develop a continually evolving parade of themes. Slowly churning drones and soundscapes intermesh with one another as they rotate, expand and contract. The guitar is ever present, some of which sounds like a heavily efx'd gliss style. The last minutes are like a harrowing ride through some of the darkest, most cavernously droning yet atmospherically drifting reaches of space. If any single track stands out for soaring into space and taking the listener with it, this baby is the one.

In summary, I’ll leave it to those who know the truth to settle any disputes. I am, however, curious about what was actually submitted to Ohr. The notes say that is was almost the same tracks as Inventions For Electric Guitar. That album consisted of three tracks clocking in at 17:45, 6:34, and 21:36, while this set has 16 of wildly varying lengths.

Regardless, the important thing is that these wonderful recordings have finally been made available. They also contribute to the larger Alain Neffe/Insane Music history, who Malempré endearingly credits in the notes.

For more information visit the Sub Rosa label.

Here is a downloadable PDF of this article. The Bandcamp audio players are not included, but the PDF includes links to the tracks, so that you can listen. The YouTube player below is also not included.