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.

Jerry's first post on EC was on April 20, 2018 in the now-defunct REVIEWS section
cassette review Le-Ultra Live Series Vol. One