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Harsh Reality Music/Chris Phinney Historical Web Site (UPDATE)

1/8/2019

30 Comments

 
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.
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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
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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).
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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.
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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.
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ad for the first four Harsh Reality Music label releases, from Malice fanzine issue #9
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.
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cover of Malice #1, 1982
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.”
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Chris Phinney and Richard Martin, early 1980s
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’.
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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.
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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.”
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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).
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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…
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30 Comments
Rafael González
1/9/2019 03:32:20

Good job, Jerry! I love your article.

Reply
Jerry Kranitz
1/9/2019 17:53:41

Thanks Rafael! I’m excited about this project!

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Rafael González
1/9/2019 19:21:36

I understand you, it’s a beautiful project! We will enjoy a lot, thanks Jerry!

Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 05:42:36

Rafael, so glad you enjoyed the bit of history teaser, Jerry & Hal did or shall I say do an excellent job!

Rafael González
1/11/2019 10:35:40

Chris, I enjoyed a lot!!! An amazing history.

Lord Litter link
1/9/2019 05:57:48

..many thanks for this! Some info I never had .. I must have exchanged a zillion tapes with Chris in the past .. even made a special LL release for the label.

HR was one of THOSE labels to open dimensions to me!!..sounds I never heard before.

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 05:55:16

LL,

Yes we traded a zillion, collaborated & you released a few of mine, Mental Anguish - Moon of Passion & Viktimized Karcass - Living Hard Young & Getting Old. I released yours Litters - Real -al - ity on HR then turned it into a cdr with bonus tracks of some of our collab efforts like Return of the Magnificent Space Captain.
Very glad you got some info unknown :)

On your old Out of the Blue cassette label I failed to mention.

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Hal McGee
1/9/2019 06:02:27

I want to make it clear and strongly emphasize that what you will find at the HRM site at the moment is only the beginning! We plan to document and digitize as many of the Harsh Reality Music label cassette releases as possible.

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 05:59:30

Hal,

Excellent work my friend! On all the layouts & I love the photo from Usufruct! Among otherd of course.

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Hal McGee
1/11/2019 07:24:44

Yo Chris! Usufructo is going to be 30 years old this year!

Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 10:04:01

Hal,

Man I didn't realize!

Wolfgang Dorninger link
1/9/2019 07:28:24

A very informative article that helps me to catch up on information. Writing and artwork has been perfectly combined! Thanks a lot Jerry!

Hal, you have tons of work to do :)

Reply
Jerry Kranitz
1/9/2019 17:56:43

Tons! Honestly, I’m loving going through ALL these tapes, writing about them all and talking through them with Chris.

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 06:11:16

Wolfgang,

Nice glad you gathered some information from this. Jerry is like he said in his realm & it's quite enjoyable talking with him about all of this.

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Thomas Park
1/9/2019 08:49:46

Man! This is great-- well-deserved. Thanks for your work!

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 06:22:11

Thomas,

Glad you like, you know yesterday I was listening to a old mp3.com cd Evidence & was thinking of all the work we had done in the past. I imagine in due time we will get to touching on lps & Cds & CDRs but thats a longggggg way off. The HRM site on Hals site is incomplete on those & some tapes, one day in the distant future, I assume that will be covered one day at a time.

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Dylan Houser
1/9/2019 09:12:28

I'm really digging these historical/archival articles!

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 06:27:00

Dylan,

So glad you enjoy the historical archive, bunker down :)
Likewise I always enjoy reading, looking & listening to your works here at the Cottage!

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Leslie Singer
1/9/2019 12:32:42

Jerry, what a great article. It's so great to see all the wonderful historical photos and info on HRM. I look forward to digging in deeper... Thanks for all your great work. And thanks to Chris and Hal- really awesome!

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Jerry Kranitz
1/9/2019 17:59:59

Thanks Leslie! I’ll punt credit for the photos to Hal. But it’s a blast writing about all the tapes and interviewing Chris.

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 06:32:23

Leslie,

So very glad you are enjoying the historical information from the archives! Glad very that you look forward to digging in deeper. Awesome :)

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Carl Howard
1/9/2019 18:19:04

I am pleased-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d.

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 06:36:08

My man, glad you are pleased! These guys bust their chops.

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Adam J Naworal
1/9/2019 19:08:45

Excellent article! I can't wait to hear more from the archives!

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 06:38:24

Adam,

Thanks, so glad you can't wait to hear more from the archives!

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 06:41:39

As always Adam I enjoy reading, listening & looking at the material Aimee (sp) & you post here at the Cottage!

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Jeff Central
1/10/2019 09:07:17

This is wonderful news!! Chris and I recorded three collaborations together and started a fourth but it was never completed. Hopefully Chris and I can collaborate again. Cheers Jerry for a fun and entertaining read. Love the pics too!! ALL these people are like FAMILY to me!!!

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Chris Phinney
1/11/2019 07:00:15

Jeff,

You are my family, our 3 collabs shall be covered in time. As for the 4th, I have the material. Have listened, I just in !ast few weeks moved back to my house, from where I recovered from a bad leg injury last January. Took a long time, still not perfect, but moved some 944 sq ft, by myself, moving part, not all packing into my house, working on making my house livable again to my standards due to personal things, lots to dispose of due to other personal things we shall not touch on. The studio is still a ramshackle, as far as recording goes, I have things that need mixdown, plus I have our material. Remember you were also on the limited lp of 300 with Hands To. Plus numerous compilations. :)

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jayO
1/12/2019 01:46:27

can someone please email me netwrk77@iafrica.com the address of Loyd Mair jnr so that i can send him the re-mastered Sphinx releases that he was on. Also available to H R or other label's they were released on, thank you all, have a wonderful musical weekend !

Reply
Chris Phinney
1/12/2019 09:19:47

Jay,

Long time, L.G. Mair has seemingly dissapeared, he last lived about 400 miles from me. You are not the only one looking for him. I still have the South Africa cassette country series compilation & art by the way.

Reply



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    Jerry Kranitz

    Jerry Kranitz published Aural Innovations: The Global Source For Space Rock Exploration from 1998-2016. AI started as a printed zine (nine issues from 1998-2000) and then went online for the duration. The web site also included regularly broadcast editions of Aural Innovations Space Rock Radio.

    Jerry is also the author of the book Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age, scheduled for publication in 2019 by Vinyl-on-Demand.

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