Heavy Rugs Shaking The Floor

And now, for all you curious art lovers out there, this month's Swami Loopynanda Report...  

As I warned you all last month, Taped Rugs is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a few special releases.  Here's a little sample draft mix from one of these commemorative albums-in-progress that's likely to get your carpet shaking.  The piece is called Aspect For Red Finger Canons.  It re-interprets two old Goff III compositions into one big, brand new, punch in the head.  

The beginning bit brings back to life a song called Canons For You, which Goff wrote back in 1979.  Goff made a lo fi "multi-track" recording of this piece in 1979 with two reel-to-reel tape recorders.  The primitive multi-tracking process involved recording sounds on one tape recorder, then playing back the tape loudly through some speakers while performing new material along with it, recording the in-the-room "mix" on a second tape recorder through strategically placed microphones.  The final result blended together four performances (two electric guitar and two saxophone).  This recording has been archived online at the link below since 2009 for all to hear its endearing charms and faults.

Canons For You was performed  for the public only once, for a packed house at Ollie's Radcliffe Hall (nightclub) in Oakland, California, in January of 1983.  This event was the first-ever public appearance of the duo called "-Ing," featuring Goff and Steve Schaer (RIP).  The interpretation of the song offered to the audience that night was performed using a Frippertronics-style live tape loop.  The tape of the performance has not been seen nor heard since Schaer's passing, 22 years ago. 

The ending bit of Aspect For Red Finger Canons, as the title sort of implies, interprets a song called Red Finger Aspect, which Goff slow-cooked into existence around 1982/1983.  The piece never gelled for –Ing, but in 1987, it was incorporated into a recording for the duo called "Disism," which featured Goff and Killr "Mark" Kaswan.

Goff (L) and Kaswan (R), Taped Rugs Studio, 1986

The Disism recording starts out with a piece that Kaswan wrote, called Space 101, then segues into Red Finger Aspect for a somewhat dramatic conclusion.  Disism also performed this mini medley at Oakland's Ohana Cultural Center in April, 1987.  Disism's official, lo fi "studio" version of Space 101/Red Finger Aspect (recorded live in the Taped Rugs Studio) is archived online at the link below.   

In 2008, Goff experimented with performing solo versions of Red Finger Aspect, employing a digital loop duplicator to create live orchestrations of guitar and synthesizer sounds.  Some of these experiments were released through the Taped Rugs Uncooked series of albums and videos.  

Up to now, none of the many versions of Red Finger Aspect nor Canons For You that have been offered up for public scrutiny has ever really matched Goff's vision of the potentials that these compositions have to offer.   He produced Aspect For Red Finger Canons in the HOPE that it will better show off those potentials.  He performed all the instruments and engineered all the recordings for the piece himself.   He also incorporated into his mix some of the original screaming samples used to ornament the 1987 Disism recording.  The sample bit about the rugs being "the finest in the field" came from a 1950's record produced by the Dictation Disk Company.  Samples from this record have appeared in a couple of other Taped Rugs releases over the course of its 40 year history as well, which seems appropriate for the "anniversary" theme of the album on which this piece will later appear.  

Thanks for your attention.  Stay tuned next month if you are up for enduring another dose of Swami Loopynanda reporting on this year's Rug shaking challenges.