Video: Delia Derbyshire, Loop Composer

Watch in high-definition on Youtube

January 22, 2013 Update: I posted this back in 2010. This music-video collage is still just as impressive as the first time I had the pleasure of watching it. I'm sure there were plenty of people who missed this post the first time around, and since we're in the process of re-uploading content for the blog, I thought I would bump this post to the top of the blog so that it can be shared with an entirely different group of visitors. Unfortunately AK_Alias seems to have disappeared since then. I last heard from him back in 2010, a few months after this was posted. I have yet to see him appear on the internet under this alias. AK if you happen to see this, or anyone who knows him, please contact me.

While searching for Delia Derbyshire videos, I recently stumbled across this amazing video, "Delia Derbyshire, Loop Composer". AK_Alias is the artist behind this project. He likes to refer to his creations as 'sync|sound' music videos, stating "the audio and video are treated as a single chunk of media." Upon watching his first video, I was immediately reminded of Negativland, the infamous plunderphonics group which have made a few appearances here on Meltd0wn in the past. AKA's videos are a form of visual plunderphonics, as he cuts up various scenes, images, sounds, and samples, and then arranges them into a collage that entices both the visual and aural senses.

AKA goes on to further describe his videos as being the result of taking a hip-hop approach to music and video. This thought also crossed my mind while watching his videos, as "video scratching" is made use of in much the same way a DJ would use turntables to manipulate the sound of a vinyl record. Clips are often brought forth throughout, accompanied by music and spoken word samples, then promptly altered by being "scratched", expanded, shrunk, thrown in reverse and rearranged. Each small clips helps to build the collage, whether it is incorporated into the beat, or to introduce various sound effects.

While AKA prefers to describe his creations in a nutshell as "instrumental hip-hop using videos as samples", he doesn't spare any genre from being sucked into his cacophony of visual and aural delights. The hip-hop element is present, but it is also subtle, as AKA brings so many other elements into the fold. Classical, jazz, rock, library music, tv show clips, spoken word bits, standup comedy and many other types of samples are used extensively throughout his videos.

The subject of this video is Delia Derbyshire, a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop who pioneered several magnetic audio tape editing techniques. She is another artist who has appeared on Meltd0wn in the past, and her albums can be found here. I believe the footage of Derbyshire seen in this video is taken from the amazing documentary "Alchemists of Sound". Others sampled include: Tristram Cary, Milton Babbitt, Chuck D, Aretha Franklin, Dennis Chambers, Jaco Pastorius, Joy Division, James Brown, Bernard Herrmann, David Lynch, Piano Tooners, Jimmy Page, Charlie Parker, Elastica, Homer Simpson, and Richard Pryor.

I hope you enjoy AK_Alias' work. Please be sure to check out the links below to his profile and channel on Vimeo, and take the time to leave him a comment regarding his work. He is taking a break at the moment to work on other projects, but I have a feeling you will be seeing his work again on Meltd0wn in the future.

AKA_Alias on Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/aka
Sync|Sound Music Channel:
http://vimeo.com/channels/syncsound

With this video I plan to start sharing at least one video a month, if not more, here on Digital Meltd0wn. Some of you may remember that at one time I regularly posted videos here. It wasn't a concept that I purposely abandoned, but one that I was forced to slowly filter out as the amount of free time I had available to me dwindled to a virtually nonexistent level. I have also created a Youtube channel for Digital Meltd0wn, which you can find here: http://youtube.com/digitalmeltd0wn I haven't uploaded many videos yet, but I will host the majority of the videos featured here, as well as a few that I have yet to share. If any of you would be interested in contributing to the Digital Meltd0wn Youtube channel, please leave a comment and let me know. I'm just looking for someone who would be willing to upload a couple of videos a month.

Muslimgauze - Port Said EP (1999 - 320kbps)

What could be a better excuse for me to post up something by my favorite band Muslimgauze, the non de guerre of Bryn Jones.


Bryn used his musick to paint a statement about the conditions in the Arab world. He used the artwork of his covers to paint a picture of rebellion. We are featuring musick from the countries affected by or involved in the current popular resurgence in the Middle East but I find that Jones, an outsider from Manchester, England faithfully & honestly presented those same feeling of unrest.

The ultra-prolific Bryn Jones was infatuated with the politics, music, sound, & feel of the Middle East. Almost every single release of his has sampled Middle Eastern speech, percussion, instruments, etc. to make some of the most incredible music out there, ranging from noise to dub to hip hop to ambient to.. well, whatever Port Said is.

Since this is a very limited release, long out of print, I thought it would be excellent to post here. Although it is named after Egypt’s famous port, Port Said is unique among Jones’ releases in that it's one of few Muslimgauze release with absolutely NO Middle Eastern influence.

Year of Release: 1999
Label: Audio.NL 004
Genre: Trance

Tracklist:
Port Said 1
Port Said 2

Download: Muslimgauze - Port Said ep
Download Size: 46.2MB (ripped at 320Kbps)

A.K. Klosowski & Pyrolator - Home Taping Is Killing Music

"Demented pop music from the very early days of sampling"This album was passed on to me by one of my friends on last.fm If you are reading this Metawirt, thank you very much for introducing me to this wonderful gem, as well as all the other music that you regularly recommend. Metawirt was also kind enough to set up a last.fm artist page, which unfortunately didn't exist until he created it. To my knowledge this is the only project that A.K. Klosowski worked on. There are two bonus tracks included which are a collaborative effort by Klosowski and T. Eckart. I am unsure if these were included on the original release, or if these were included on a reissue. If any of you have any more information on this release please pass it on. I haven't been able to dig up much information on this project, and I'm short on time at the moment, so I will pass on the information that Metawirt posted on last.fm:

"In 1984 Pyrolator (aka Kurt Dahlke, specialist for music & computer and early part of “Fehlfarben”, “Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft” and later part of “Der Plan”) teamed up with A.K. Klosowski for the groundbreaking sampling experiment Home Taping Is Killing Music:
Demented pop music from the very early days of sampling. Numerous artists are credited as being the sample sources, but good luck to you finding them." - Metawirt

Year of Release: 1984
Label: Captain Trip
Genre: Electronic, Sampling, Sound Collage
Bitrate: 192kbps

Track List:
1. Overtüre
2. Österreich
3. Tschak
4. Hammond
5. Agana Wudiov
6. What Made You So No Good
7. Heimat
8. Dahomey
9. You know, I Need...
10. ZV9
Bonus Tracks by A.K. Klosowski & T. Eckart
11. HiFidelity
12. China First On Mars

Download: A.K. Klosowski & Pyrolator - Home Taping Is Killing Music
Download Size: 58MB

DJ Chaos X - Live Mixxx (2006)

DJ Chaos X is one of the many aliases of Yamantaka Eye, better known as one of the founders of the noise rock group Boredoms. I posted an album "Planetary Natural Love Gas 19999", by DJ Pica Pica Pica, which was very well received here, so I thought that I would share yet another Yamantaka Eye release. In my opinion the album released under his DJ Pica Pica Pica alias is overall a much better album, although those who prefer rock may favor the DJ Chaos X release. You can find the DJ Pica Pica Pica album here: http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com/2010/02/dj-pica-pica-planetary-natural-love-gas.html

The DJ Pica Pica Pica release was an extremely eclectic album, featuring every genre under the sun. While "Live Mixxx" is also a well rounded release, it primarily leans toward a more rock oriented approach, featuring rock, punk rock, and experimental music. The Beatles, Suicidal Tendencies, Dow Jones and the Industrials, and Bad Brains are a few of the artists sampled on the album. The tracks on this album are very short in length. There are 45 tracks in just over a 50 minute time span. Each track averages a little over a minute in length, although there are several that are well under a minute.

To the best of my knowledge the tracks do not have names, so I will not be providing a track listing. Although if I am mistaken I would greatly appreciate it if someone could correct me and provide a proper track listing. I do know that very few CDs were issued for this release, but I don't have any figures for the exact amount that were released. The album is now out of print, and extremely difficult to find a physical copy.

Before I close this post, I would also like to ask everyone to please take the time to leave a comment. This isn't something that I normally ask people to do. Although it is always very encouraging and appreciated whenever you readers do post a comment, it doesn't upset me when a post doesn't receive comments, as it does with many other bloggers. If I'm not receiving many comments, I take it as a sign that I need to do a better job selecting material to share here. The reason I am asking everyone to take the time to comment is to let me know if there is a particular genre that they would like to see featured more on Digital Meltd0wn in the future, and if everyone enjoys the most recent material posted here, or if you prefer the material that I posted when I first started this blog (Punk, Psych, and Garage Rock). To those who will comment, I would like to go ahead and thank you in advance. I hope you all enjoy this rare gem.

Year of Release: 2006
Genres: Experimental, Punk Rock, Sound Collage
Bitrate: 192kbps

Download: DJ Chaos X - Live Mixxx
Download Size: 71MB

DJ Pica Pica - Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin' 199999

By request, this post was re-uploaded 01/18/2015. Enjoy.

It isn't too often that I find myself completely incapable of writing a worthy description to sum up an artist/album's sound; however, this is definitely one of those occasions. DJ Pica Pica is one of over a dozen aliases of Japanese musician, Yamantaka Eye, who is perhaps more well known as one of the founders and frontman of the noise rock group, Bordedoms.

To mistake this for "just another danceable DJ mix" would be a crime, as this album is a masterpiece of sound collage, encompassing numerous different genres, and consisting of a wide variety of source material. Pica's inclusion of genres run the gamut, stirring up a little bit of rock, blues, hip-hop, funk, techno, and even music from indigenous Pacific tribes into a brew that at times threatens to descend into pure chaos, yet manages to retain it's groove throughout. A wide variety of instruments can be heard throughout, as he seasons the mix with piano, synths, electric and accoustic guitar, african djembe drums, flute and much more.Yamantaka controls the tempo perfectly, often whipping the music up into a frenzied tribal state, only to bring it down to a tranquil pace at just the right moments.

This is one of those albums that just needs to be heard, and as I stated before, I am incapable of accurately describing the sound contained within. I don't have enough time on my hands to put up a track list at the moment, but I'll try to remember to put one up tomorrow.

Year of Release: 1999
Label: Comma
Genre: Experimental, Sound Collage, Turntablism
Bitrate: 320Kbps

Download: DJ Pica Pica Pica - Planetary Natural Love Gas
Download Size: 173 MB

Subduction - Bad News from the Inner Solar System (Digital Meltd0wn Records / Psyche Zenobia Music Joint Release) (2009 - 256kbps)

SSubduction is an avant-garde electronic project brought to life by the duo of William (Brian) Van Huss and Ian Briscoe. They formed with the intention of releasing one collaborative effort capable of perfectly capturing the unique bond that exists between the two, as well as humanity as a whole, yet also comparing and contrasting what makes them unique as indivduals, painting a bleak musical picture of the great divide between two souls and the .

Little is known about the mysterious Ian Briscoe. Briscoe builds and plays his own moog synthesizers, including those heard on this album. He also contributes vocals on the track "Celebrate". William Van Huss is certainly a mysterious and enigmatic figure in his own right, although he happens to have the better documented artistic career of the two. Van Huss is a multi-talented artist, known for producing works in several different mediums. In 1989 he founded Psyche Zenobia, a company created for the purpose of distributing his creative works. Although he has received the most recognition for his musical output, he has also responsible for producing numerous paintings, drawings, poems, essays, fanzines and photography pieces. Under the Psyche Zenobia Music imprint, he has released five albums to date, including this joint release with Digital Meltd0wn Records. "Bad News From the Inner Solar System" could be considered a "return to roots" album for him. One of his first bands, Ghoul Feeding, was a noise rock band that experimented with improvised sounds using a wide variety of found instruments. His career demonstrates an undeniable ability to continuously evolve as a musician, always seeking out and exploring new territory, with his music reflecting his growth and maturity on a personal level.

"Bad News from the Inner Solar System" is anything but a conventional album, and attempting to pigeonhole it into a specific genre would be futile. "How Very Much (I've Loved You)" utilizes tape loops, moog synthesizer, and various other elements. The tape loops are samples from the notorious "death tape" recordings of the Jonestown massacre, discovered by the FBI during the aftermath. The samples, accompanied by what sounds like blasts of steam, along with an eerie moog give the track a very haunting sound remeniscent of early industrial musicians such as Throbbing Gristle.

The next track uses samples in a much more upbeat way. All of the samples used in "Greetings" are from the Voyager Golden Record, a gold plated phonographic record containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, which both Voyager spacecraft carried during their launch in 1977. The track opens with a sample of a female singing a Peruvian wedding song recorded by John Cohen, followed by samples of songs from Indonesia and Africa, and finally the U.N. President's greeting for those who might discover the Golden Record. These samples are backed up by a groovy beat, which wouldn't seem out of place in an old school hip-hop record. One might normally expect to hear such songs accompanied by bongo or djembe drums, yet it works perfectly in this case and helps to tie it all together.

"Celebrate" is the only track on the album which features vocals contributed by the artists involved. Ian Briscoe delivers the vocals on this one, which backed up by Van Huss on stylophone and short wave radio. It could be considered EBM (Electronic Body Music), as it combines elements of both industrial and electronic dance music.

The grand finale of the album is the epic "Anything In here", which clocks in at just under 23 minutes. It could be considered an electronic jam session of sorts, as it was recorded live in one session. As with the previous tracks, it features a variety of different synth instruments, audio samples, and various other sound effects. Some of the samples used are taken from the movie "The Fly". The sound similar to a fax machine heard throughout is actually the teleportation device from the movie.

This is an outstanding debut release from the duo of Briscoe and Van Huss. "Bad News from the Inner Solar System" is at times earthly, at others celestial, often desolate, and yet heartening also. If the goal was to make a statement concerning the human condition, it achieves it remarkably. If you consider yourself a fan of experimental music, or the other genres mentioned, you owe it to yourself to listen to this.

Year of Release: 2009
Label: Digital Meltd0wn Records/Psyche Zenobia Music
Catalog #: DM 001
Genre: Experimental, Sound Collage, Electronic
Bitrate: 256kbps

Track List:
1. How Very Much (I've Loved You)
2. Greetings
3. Celebration
4. Anything In Here

Download: Subduction - Bad News From The Inner Solar System
Download Size: 67MB

Soundcloud: Play or Download on Soundcloud

Delia Derbyshire, Dudley Simpson, Brian Hodgson, & David Vorhaus - ESL 104/The Tomorrow People

Produced by the UK's Thames Television between 1973 and 1979, The Tomorrow People was a sci-fi drama show for kids that ran for eight series. A large portion of The Tomorrow People soundtrack was taken from the Standard Music Library's "ESL104" LP. In fact, all but four tracks from "ESL104" were used to score The Tomorrow People.

Standard Music Library was established in 1969 as suppliers of specialist production music for film, television, radio and commercials. The styles range from orchestral, jazz, dance and a variety of world music, to avant-garde composers such as Brian Eno. ESL 104 was one of their first releases, and the original record was used to provide incidental music to several 1970s Doctor Who stories, episodes of ATV's Timeslip and Thames' The Tomorrow People. Delia and Brian recorded the majority of the tracks on ESL 104 under their "Nikki St George" and "Li De La Russe" composing hats, with David Vorhaus, an avant garde American composer who formed Camden Town's Kaleidophon studio with Derbyshire and Hodgson, composing the remaining tracks.

They were highly experimental composers, with no access to synthesisers, using a very innovative approach to composition and scoring with physical manipulation of tape loops, cut up recordings and oscillators as well as traditional instrumentation. The work of Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson could be said to be a precursor to today's ubiquitous use of samplers. In 1963, these applications were so technically advanced for their time that Delia was able to construct the legendary Doctor Who theme through filtered oscillation, cutting, speeding up, and assemblage note- by-note, in a two week period. Again, no synthesisers were used. The heightened, unearthly sound of Doctor Who was born. Delia was able to take the forms of musique concrète, originally developed by by Pierre Schaeffer, with the use of microphones and magnetic tape recorders, and organically bring the truly experimental and the popular together and present it to a mainstream audience.

Director Douglas Camfield eschewed the normal route of asking Dudley Simpson to compose the incidental music and instead selected a number of stock library tracks. The majority of the tracks originate from ESL 104 and two other tracks, the legendary 'Delian Mode' and 'Blue Veils And Golden Sands' originated from the BBC Radiophonic Music album that had been released in 1968. 'Blue Veils' was originally composed for a World About Us documentary about the Tuareg tribes of the Sahara. This Delia composition was composed and constructed using filtered electronic oscillators to give the "shimmering heat haze" atmosphere to accompany the footage. It also uses manipulations of Delia's voice and the ringing of a now infamous green lamp shade. It seems quite fitting that Camfield should use such an atmospheric piece to underscore the fiery destruction of the world in Inferno and her 'Blue Veils and Golden Sands' emphasises Stahlman's complete obsession and madness. Her 'Lure Of the Space Goddess', a kind of swirling electronic woodwind effect, also surfaces from ESL 104 to provide further mood and an uneasy underscore to the environs of Project inferno.

If you are a fan of early electronic/experimental music then I can't recommend this enough. This contains some of Derbyshire's finest work. To view more Delia Derbyshire/BBC Radiophonic music from the archives click here.


Track List:
1. The Tomorrow People
2. Lure of the Space Goddess
3. Battle Theme
4. Homeric Theme
5. Greek Concrete
6. Attack of the Alien Minds
7. Gothic Submarines
8. Whirring Menace
9. Souls In Space
10. Time Capsule
11. Restless Relays
12. Planetarium
13. Wet Asteroid
14. Way Out
15. Fresh Aire
16. Delia's Theme
17. Tentative Delia
18. Delia's Idea
19. Delia's Psychedelian Waltz
20. Delia's Resolve
21. Delia's Dream
22. Delia's Reverie
23. Delia's Fulfilment
24. Build Up To
25. Snide Rhythms
26. The Tomorrow People Theme

Download: ESL 104/The Tomorrow People
Download Size: 37MB

The Tape-Beatles - The Grand Delusion

I actually discovered the Tape-Beatles via Psycho Cat's last.fm profile. Due to the limited number of plays, I thought it was safe to assume that he hadn't had a chance to listen to a full album by them yet, so I hope this comes as a surprise to you Psycho. I was also surprised to discover that the Tape-Beatles, under the moniker of Public Works, sampled heavily from an obscure album titled the Conet Project, that I recently discovered thanks to Allywonderland (a former guest-blogger here). It's a small world after all...

The Tape-beatles (also known as Public Works) are a multi-media group from Iowa City that formed in December 1986. Don't let the name fool you though. This group has more in common with Negativland than the fab four. Its members include Lloyd Dunn, John Heck, Ralph Johnson and Paul Neff. Beginning with analog tape recorders, and later expanding to include digital technology and film media, the group has used collage techniques to create works that challenge the notion of intellectual property. Their works make extensive use of materials appropriated from various sources through a process they call "Plagiarism®". The Tape-beatles' body of work consists mainly of music and audio art recordings, 'expanded' and 'performed' cinema performances, videos, printed publications, as well as works in other media. They produce and release work under an umbrella organization called Public Works Productions.

In 1993 the Tape-Beatles released their third album, The Grand Delusion, still hailed as their masterpiece by those familiar with the entirety of their work. The Grand Delusion is a bitter mediation on the U.S. Persian Gulf War and the historical context that created it. It uses voice samples from a wide variety of sources, including speeches from George H. W. Bush, television news, and the occasional right-wing religious zealot. These voice samples are accompanied by collages of sampled sounds and music, which generate an overall atmosphere of uncertainty and unease. In addition to their musical evolution during this time, the group refined their presentation approach as well, distilling it down to just three 16mm projectors, used in a configuration the group named 'Polyvision', in honor of Abel Gance's pioneering movie techniques of the 1920s

Year of Release: 1993
Label: Staalplaat
Genre: Sound Collage, Plunderphonics, Experimental
Bitrate: 160kbps

Track List:
1. The American Adventure
2. Primary Delusion
3. America Is Confident
4. Lament
5. Frog Story
6. Mind Problems
7. Love
8. Home Problems
9. Behold A Republic
10. Grave Implications
11. Great Difficulties
12. Chilling
13. You Have To Participate
14. Candidate
15. Flowers For Dead Heroes
16. Thus
17. Back To The Start
18. More Difficulties
19. The Difference
20. Mother
21. Help

Download: The Tape-Beatles - The Grand Delusion
Download Size: 68MB

Negativland - U2

This will probably be the longest description for a single that I ever post on this blog, and with good reason. I don't believe that any other single has generated as much controversy as this one did at the time of its release.

In 1991, Negativland released a single with the title "U2" displayed in very large type on the front of the packaging, and "Negativland" in a smaller typeface. The songs within were parodies of the group U2's well-known 1987 song, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", including kazoos and extensive sampling of the original song. The song "The Letter U And The Numeral 2" features a musical backing to an extended profane rant from well-known disc jockey Casey Kasem, lapsing out of his more polished and professional tone during a frustrating rehearsal which had gone out to many stations as raw feed and was taped by several engineers, who had been passing it around for a number of years. One of Kasem's milder comments was "These guys are from England and who gives a shit?" (U2's members are in fact from the Republic of Ireland).

U2's label Island Records quickly sued Negativland, claiming that placing the word "U2" on the cover violated trademark law, as did the song itself. Island Records also contended that the single was an attempt to deliberately confuse U2 fans, then awaiting the impending release of Achtung Baby.

In June, 1992, R. U. Sirius, publisher of the magazine Mondo 2000 came up with an interesting idea. Publicists from U2 had contacted him regarding the possibility of interviewing Dave Evans (aka "The Edge") hoping to promote U2's impending multi-million dollar Zoo TV Tour, which featured found sounds and live sampling from mass media outlets (things for which Negativland had been known for some time). Sirius, unbeknownst to Edge, decided to have his friends Joyce and Hosler of Negativland conduct the interview. Joyce and Hosler, fresh from Island's lawsuit, peppered the Edge with questions regarding his ideas about the use of sampling in their new tour, and the legality of using copyrighted material without permission. Midway through the interview, Joyce and Hosler revealed their identities as members of Negativland. An embarrassed Edge reported that U2 were bothered by the sledgehammer legal approach Island Records took in their lawsuit, and furthermore that much of the legal wrangling took place without U2's knowledge: "by the time we [U2] realized what was going on it was kinda too late, and we actually did approach the record company on your [Negativland's] behalf and said, 'Look, c'mon, this is just, this is very heavy...'" Island Records reported to Negativland that U2 never authorized samples of their material; Evans response was, "that's complete bollocks, there's like, there's at least six records out there that are direct samples from our stuff."[1]

The "U2" single (along with other related material) was re-released in 2001 on a "bootleg" album entitled These Guys Are from England and Who Gives a Shit, released on "Seelard Records" (a parody of Negativland's record label Seeland Records). It is thought likely that Negativland themselves were responsible for the re-release, and that U2 gave their blessing; although the Negativland website refers to this release as a bootleg, it is available from major retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and Tower Records, as well as Negativland's own mail-order business.

Negativland are interested in intellectual property rights, and argue that their use of U2's and others' material falls under the fair use clause. In 1995, they released a book, with accompanying CD, called Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2, about the whole U2 incident (from Island Records first suing Negativland for the release to Negativland gaining back control of their work four years later). The book ends with a large appendix of essays about fair use and copyright by Negativland and others, telling the story with newspaper clippings, court papers, faxes, press releases and other documents arranged in chronological order. An unfortunate side effect of the Negativland-Island lawsuit was another one brought on between Negativland and SST, which served to sever all remaining ties the two had. To get back at Negativland (while wryly circumventing their name), Ginn later released the Negativ(e)land: Live on Tour album on SST.

Negativland were the main subjects of Craig Baldwin's documentary Sonic Outlaws, detailing the use of culture jamming to subvert the messages of more traditional media outlets. There are many other artists who push the boundaries of copyright law in a similar way to Negativland, including John Oswald, the Evolution Control Committee, The Bran Flakes, Countymojo, The Tape-Beatles, Sir Mildred Pierce, and People Like Us.
(Year of Release: 1991)

Track List:
1. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (1991 A Cappella Mix)
2. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Special Edit Radio Mix)

Download: Negativland - U2 (12MB)

Negativland - A Big 10-8 Place

Since a few of you asked so nicely, I've decided to bring you more Negativland. I also have 'Helter Stupid' and 'U2'. If you would like me to upload them, just leave a comment. This is Negativland's legendary 1983 conceptual suburban epic A Big 10-8 Place. Over three years in the making, and with thousands of analog tape splices, this insanely cut-up and uniquely weird release remains the hands down favorite of many fans of Negativland's work. A Big 10-8 finds Negativland's work at its most insanely detailed and heavily edited. The lbum opener 'Theme From A Big 10-8 Place is a misleadingly straight-up pop excursion, but three minutes later you get an almighty plunderphonic blitzkrieg to contend with, in the shape of the first part of the album proper, a thirteen-minute deluge of cut-and-paste mayhem and fast-cutting audio collage.

Named after the citizen's band code for "on the air," A Big 10-8 Place made good use of recordings of people talking over the airwaves. In its entirety, the album served as a kind of documentary of Contra Costa County, where the bandmembers lived (there was even a piece with directions on how to get to Concord from San Francisco, if you were interested in visiting). The album fired the opening volley in Negativland's ongoing challenge against copyrights and what is considered public domain. How much does something have to be changed before it's original? If you say something over the air, is it public domain? Although A Big 10-8 Place posed some of these questions, it was just a warm-up for the albums to come.
(Year of Release: 1983)

Track List:
1. Theme from A Big 10-8 Place
2. Big 10-8 Place, Pt. 1
3. Clowns and Ballerinas
4. Introduction
5. Four Fingers
6. Big 10-8 Place, Pt. 2 (180-G)

Download: Negativland - A Big 10-8 Place (71MB)

Negativland - Escape From Noise

While the sound collage of Negativland's first three studio albums pointed in the band's ultimate direction, they were really rough sketches compared to Escape From Noise. Escape is a full-on audio assault, more musical than ever, but with tight and well-constructed sound sections thrown in. Instead of simply a collection of sounds and snippets, however, each cut on Escape From Noise picks a target and takes aim. "Quiet Please" takes on market research in the world of radio. "Michael Jackson" is a laundry list of pop stars being charged with creating commercial pop. "Sycamore" turns happy, shiny, new pre-planned communities into something far more sinister. Although some other tracks ("Yellow, Black and Rectangular," "Car Bomb") don't really take on particular targets, they're fun nonetheless. Probably the most accomplished piece is the strangely creepy "Time Zones," which talks about how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union (there are 11, by the way, and it's not even funny). Although it wasn't apparent at the time, the centerpiece of the album would be "Christianity Is Stupid," a prime example of how sound bites can be rearranged to say whatever you want them to say. (The full sound bites appear on the album Helter Stupid, the first half of which was inspired by a media frenzy after the band suggested that a murder may be attributable to "Christianity Is Stupid," as an excuse to get out of having to tour in the wake of this album, which turned out to be a much bigger success than anyone expected.) Scattered throughout the album are unexpected guest appearances from some of the biggest names in underground music, including Jello Biafra on "toilet flushing," the Residents on "hoots and clanging," and the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart on mouth sounds and "processed animals." In addition to better-constructed material, the production quality on Escape From Noise is also top-notch, making it a joy to listen to. Although future works would prove more controversial, this is probably Negativland's masterwork.

Track List:
1. Announcement
2. Quiet Please
3. Michael Jackson
4. Escape From Noise
5. The Playboy Channel
6. Stress In Marriage
7. Nesbitt's Lime Soda Song
8. Over The Hiccups
9. Sycamore
10. Car Bomb
11. Yellow Black And Rectangular
12. Backstage Pass
13. Christianity Is Stupid
14. Time Zones
15. You Don't Even Live Here
16. The Way Of It
17. Endscape

Download: Negativland - Escape From Noise (57MB)