Menu
ELECTRONIC COTTAGE
  • HOME
  • HOME

Son Of Madness compilation 1986

2/28/2019

5 Comments

 
Walls Of Genius' 1986 compilation of Cassette Culture artists,
"Son Of Madness", is now available on Bandcamp:
https://wallsofgenius.bandcamp.com/
Picture
When we put out the call for "Madness Lives" in our catalog "The Gift Of The Geek" (approx. March 1985), we had no idea that the response would be so enthusiastic that a sequel would be warranted. But that was in fact the case.
Picture
Some of the materials were out-takes from the first go-round. We were sent more material than we could use for each artist and wanted to include as many artists as a 90-minute cassette would hold. We requested that artists limit themselves to 5 minutes. "Restrictions (were) limited to questions of recording quality (we're not super finicky) and content (we're partial to peculiar stuff...)". We asked contributors to not "be afraid to go psychologically naked for this project, let it hang down to your knees and, above all, to take effective measures to unleash your inhibitions." The response from the Cassette Culture was a tsunami of fascinating and diverse material, from sound collage to demented rock'n'roll.
Why "Son Of Madness" now? Why not the original "Madness Lives" first? That's just a quirk of circumstance.  In the course of conversation I discovered that Little Fyodor had already digitized almost all of Walls Of Genius' titles at his end, so I asked him if I could get copies of "Son" and "Live Improvisations". I started checking out his digitized version of "Son" and one thing led to another.  So, eventually, of course, "Madness Lives" will also be available via Bandcamp, but for the moment, only "Son Of Madness" appears on the Bandcamp site (along with other WoG titles).
The most comprehensive discussion of all the tracks on "Son" appears on Hal McGee's website, haltapes.com, in the Walls Of Genius archive section: 
http://www.haltapes.com/wog-0030-son-of-madness.html
Briefly, thirty different artists each have a track. I've broken the 90-minute cassette into volumes one & two for convenience because that's a lot of tracks!  Some of the artists are just Walls Of Genius in different incarnations. Cowtown is Walls Of Genius backing up Cowtown's only actual member, punk dee-jay Peter Tonks. Wally Bob Colorado is WoG's own Head Moron putting on his cowboy hat.  Meichenbaub was the teenage brainchild of one of our Boulder pals, Bob O'Connor. Russ Stevens, imploring us to "slap the buttocks", was one of the
original Dirt Clods from the proto-Walls Of Genius period in Ed Fowler's living room.
Picture
Many others were stalwarts of the scene, like Problemist, from Unsound's
William Davenport. Dino DiMuro gives us the first of two Hitler related pieces, while the salacious Roberta Eklund gives us the second. The prolific Don Campau appears, as does Schlafengarten (a Psyclones associated group), Minóy, Smersh, Tom Furgas, Ken Clinger, Booed Usic (a/k/a tENTATIVELY ... a cONVENIENCE​), John Wiggins, and Master/Slave Relationship (Debbie Jaffe of Viscera and Cause & Effect). Others were artists getting airplay on Little Fyodor's radio program "Under The Floorboards", Johnny J. & The Diversatones for one. All of the artists on the comp represent individuals who had either received our catalog or knew somebody who had. Some of those artists remain quite mysterious to this very day.
In any case, "Son Of Madness" is a real tour through the classic 80s Cassette Culture scene and is filled to the brim with gems every bit as worthy as those found on the original "Madness Lives". We here in WoG-land hope you enjoy!
5 Comments
Atomizador link
2/28/2019 07:21:28

Amazing, thanks!!!

Reply
Rafael González
2/28/2019 13:29:30

Super good cool great!

Reply
Leslie Singer
3/1/2019 12:55:29

Oh the memories of the way we were! Both of these volumes are bringing them back. I had forgotten that Phil Milstein was a big participant on the cassette scene back in the day. Cowtown's take on Dylan is one for the books. And one could never go without including one TV show theme song re-make on a compilation right? Especially from the shows of the Great Society era like The Andy Griffith Show, The Patty Duke Show, Green Acres and of course, Gilligan's Island. Thanks to all so much for publishing and posting these great volumes.

Reply
Little Fyodor
3/8/2019 21:21:38

The Great Society Era of TV!! I never thought of it like that, but it does do a good job in pegging things in a certain way....

Thank you and all for the kind words!! Though it occurs that it's mostly other people's music that I'm accepting compliments for!! Releasing a comp is a little like doing a radio show, you get to toot your own horn by tooting others'!! Well, I'm proud of the role I played (along with Evan, of course!) in helping to present all these deserving of attention sounds to the world!

Reply
Juan Angel Italiano
3/3/2019 20:07:35

Very good rescue!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Walls Of Genius

    formed in 1982, a musical performance-art comedy experimental noise ensemble, featuring everything from musique concrete, sound collage and extended rock improvisation to demented top-40 parodies, free jazz, industrial and audio experiments of all kinds, mostly fitting in no category whatsoever.

    Over the course of the next four years, Walls Of Genius took the underground by storm and rained on every conceivable parade, all with tongue firmly in cheek and cockeyed smiles.
    ​
    The brain-child of disgruntled musician and self-anointed "Head Moron" Evan Cantor, Walls Of Genius' other founding members ('genial genii') were the famous wild-man Little Fyodor and electric guitar wizard Ed Fowler. 

    Stalwarts of the early 80's cassette culture scene, Walls Of Genius was both loved and reviled in equal measure.

    By 1986 WoG had disbanded and was inactive until reunion sessions in 2014 re-ignited the flame. They happily soldier on, voices crying in the wilderness of madness that is this world in the 21st century.

    Evan Cantor email
    Little Fyodor email
    Walls Of Genius Bandcamp
    WoG Archival site

    Archives

    January 2022
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018

    RSS Feed

Electronic Cottage is a webzine covering independently-produced Experimental & Electronic Music, Space Rock, Audio Art, Video Art, Mail Art and more.