HR032 - Cotton In Your Ears — C90 — 1986
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Side A:
1. Peach Of Immortality - (Washington, D.C.) - Rec. 26 Jan. 86 for REM Is Air Supply Not On LP 2. Jimmy Lee (Memphis, TN) - I Want 3. Jimmy Lee - A Day In The Life Of A Heart 4. Jimmy Lee - Baguette Blues 5. If, Bwana (Great Neck, NY) - The Long March 6. Cancerous Growth (Memphis, TN) - Devil Spawn 7. Costes Cassette (Paris, France) - Oldvai 8. Mental Anguish (Memphis, TN) - New Dawn Side B: 1. Viktimized Karcass (Memphis, TN) - No Where To Live 2. Macroglossia (Memphis) - Be Quiet & Listen The Pain (excerpt) 3. Barnacle Choir (Santa Cruz, CA) - Alternate Point Of View 4. Asbestos Rockpyle (Santa Cruz, CA) - Prayer Of Greed 5. Jeff Central/I.T.N. (Columbus, OH) - Excerpt From Devil's Night 6. Isolation (Memphis, TN) - Isolation #2 7. Cephalic Index (Memphis, TN) - Brain Highway 8. Nomuzic (Bayside, NY) - Zip The What Is It 9. Corn For Texture (Memphis, TN) - Bikini Atoll |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Cotton In Your Ears is a Harsh Reality compilation that, as usual, includes Memphis artists, artists returning from earlier comps, and new, international artists. True to its title, there is a wad of pink cotton taped to the box.
Peach Of Immortality (Washington, D.C.) return with their experimental noise-metal that scrapes, grates, grinds, feeds back, screams, rumbles, and roars.
Memphis’ very own Jimmy Lee contributes three fun songs. ‘I Want’ is a totally lo-fi and charmingly melodic instrumental created by cheesy keys and electro percussion. Kind of like a spacey Rug Rats soundtrack. ‘A Day In The Life Of A Heart’ is a lo-fi space-industrial blend of soundscapes, video game fun, and melody. And ‘Baguette Blues’ is the only one with vocals, being a drugged grungy rocker with funny vocals, and by that I mean Jimmy’s attempt at sultry Blues singing.
Al Margolis’ If, Bwana (Great Neck, New York) is a cosmically orchestral and noisily meditative experimental soundtrack, with continuously rolling synth waves and really cool alien warbling effects.
Cancerous Growth (Chris Phinney and Mike Jackson) play an 11 minute combination of noisy and rhythmically clunky robot punk, spacey orchestral freakout keys, crazy effects, and fun tape manipulation. There’s a song element, with ranting and chanting vocals, but there’s a stew pot of components that come together in creatively zany ways.
Costes Cassette (France) is Jean-Louis Costes, cranking out skittishly rhythmic tape cut-up wackiness within a French cabaret context. FUN stuff!!
Mental Anguish (Chris Phinney) creates an ethereal space organ exploration with lots of alien effects and a Phantom Of The Opera edge.
Harsh Reality house band Viktimized Karcass wrack our brains with a metallic, grungy, punky, noisy space rocker with chunky guitar and freaky manipulated vocals.
Macroglossia (Chris Phinney and Richard Martin) concoct a free-wheeling experimental glom of whispery and goofily chanting spoken vocals, plinkity toy keys, off kilter grooving electro beats, and various fun effects. The vocals are the star of this show, eventually devolving into a cross between ranting and demonic possession growl/yelling.
Barnacle Choir (Santa Cruz, California) contribute a spirited punk song that’s like a cross between John Foxx and early REM. Pretty darn good.
Asbestos Rockpyle are on the same Warpt West Must label as Barnacle Choir, and while the music is very different it sounds like it might be the same singer. Spacey bleeping electronics and ominously rumbling space drone waves lay the foundation for a spoken/sung narrative.
Jeff Central/I.T.N. (Columbus, Ohio) offer up a nifty industrial/electro synth tune with multiple minimal patterns and a disorienting, repetitive, pulsating jawharp like pattern that wrecked havoc with my brain.
Isolation (Mike Jackson and Michael Humphreys) create busy collages experimenting with the tape recorder noise, effects and vocals fun.
Cephalic Index’s (Mike Jackson) track is darkly demonic electronic music with bits of lo-fi Space orchestral composition, sci-fi soundtrack, and all with an industrial edge.
Nomuzic (Carl Howard) yanks us out on to the dance floor for some cool grooving, funky, and surreal atmospheric space-electronic punk-pop.
Finally, Corn For Texture (Memphis) create an experimental sound-art/collage piece with clanging patterns, minimal soundscapes, and voices to create a busy but repetitive theme and does an impressive job of developing it in interesting ways.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: You got a little artsy with the packaging on this one. The wad of pink cotton on the tape obviously connects to the title. But I’ll ask anyway what inspired you to slap a chunk of cotton on?
CP: Because it’s called Cotton In Your Ears and I wanted it to look different. The photo on the cover is my driveway.
JK: Did you include cotton on every tape you sent out?
CP: Yup.
JK: You’ve got some bands back from earlier compilations.
CP: Peach Of Immortality!
JK: Were these new submissions they sent you or leftovers from before?
CP: They were new ones. Noisy as hell.
JK: Costes Cassette. I didn’t know who that was so I found it on Discogs…
CP: Crazy ass Frenchman. Jean-Louis Costes. But Costes was cool. He recorded a lot and might still be. I don’t know.
JK: Two bands I like that were from the same label are Barnacle Choir and Asbestos Rockpyle. They’re both from Warpt West Music in Santa Cruz, California. Do you recall who ran that label?
CP: I don’t remember the name, but it’s the same singer on both bands.
JK: That was going to be my next question. In my notes I commented that Asbestos Rockpyle is very different from Barnacle Choir but the singer sounds like it might be the same person. (discogs.com says label run by Anatol Sucher)
CP: Same guy. And that’s who ran the label.
JK: The band Isolation shows Xkurzhen Sound as the contact so I asked Mike Jackson about it and he said it was the duo of him and Michael Humphries. Do you know who that was?
CP: Michael Humphries was at the Antenna Club. I hadn’t seen him in forever and we had a couple beers. And that’s the night I got run over. He recognized me, I didn’t recognize him. (Ed. note: Chris is referring to a late 2019 event)
JK: The Viktimized Karcass track is called ‘No Where To Live’.
CP: That’s from the Madness & Mayhem tape (HR025).
JK: And you’ve got Nomuzic on here. Was this your introduction to Carl Howard? You guys went on to record a lot together.
CP: We had been trading magazines and tapes. I’m pretty sure he was living in Bayside, New York at that time. So it’s probably around the same time we did our collaboration as well, through the mail.
JK: You had been talking about Corn For Texture in our previous discussions so I was glad to finally get to them on this compilation.
CP: Roger Moneymaker is the main guitar player in Corn For Texture. But he also had another guitar player, Eddie Hankins. Robert Hinson was the bass player in Corn For Texture. And they had the drummer we used at the South End (Viktimized Karcass “Live At The South End, HR114). And I occasionally sat in with Corn For Texture. And Mike Honeycutt occasionally sat in with Corn For Texture. I played live with them one time. They didn’t do a whole hell of a lot of recording. Richard Martin was the singer in Corn For Texture. It was almost Viktimized Karcass man!
JK: Did you say there was a live Corn For Texture show that you participated in?
CP: Yeah, but it wasn’t recorded. It was at the Antenna Club. We were warming up for somebody.
JK: I see you’ve got Al Margolis on here.
CP: If, Bwana is a bad ass track. Al always did good shit.
JK: And Jimmy Lee is back.
CP: He was a friend of Mike Jackson’s. He had some cheesy equipment. He wanted to submit some tracks to the comp and I said sure go ahead.
JK: It’s good to hear that because it supports how informal these things were. I did think his songs were fun.
CP: They were cheesy as hell but fun.
Cotton In Your Ears is a Harsh Reality compilation that, as usual, includes Memphis artists, artists returning from earlier comps, and new, international artists. True to its title, there is a wad of pink cotton taped to the box.
Peach Of Immortality (Washington, D.C.) return with their experimental noise-metal that scrapes, grates, grinds, feeds back, screams, rumbles, and roars.
Memphis’ very own Jimmy Lee contributes three fun songs. ‘I Want’ is a totally lo-fi and charmingly melodic instrumental created by cheesy keys and electro percussion. Kind of like a spacey Rug Rats soundtrack. ‘A Day In The Life Of A Heart’ is a lo-fi space-industrial blend of soundscapes, video game fun, and melody. And ‘Baguette Blues’ is the only one with vocals, being a drugged grungy rocker with funny vocals, and by that I mean Jimmy’s attempt at sultry Blues singing.
Al Margolis’ If, Bwana (Great Neck, New York) is a cosmically orchestral and noisily meditative experimental soundtrack, with continuously rolling synth waves and really cool alien warbling effects.
Cancerous Growth (Chris Phinney and Mike Jackson) play an 11 minute combination of noisy and rhythmically clunky robot punk, spacey orchestral freakout keys, crazy effects, and fun tape manipulation. There’s a song element, with ranting and chanting vocals, but there’s a stew pot of components that come together in creatively zany ways.
Costes Cassette (France) is Jean-Louis Costes, cranking out skittishly rhythmic tape cut-up wackiness within a French cabaret context. FUN stuff!!
Mental Anguish (Chris Phinney) creates an ethereal space organ exploration with lots of alien effects and a Phantom Of The Opera edge.
Harsh Reality house band Viktimized Karcass wrack our brains with a metallic, grungy, punky, noisy space rocker with chunky guitar and freaky manipulated vocals.
Macroglossia (Chris Phinney and Richard Martin) concoct a free-wheeling experimental glom of whispery and goofily chanting spoken vocals, plinkity toy keys, off kilter grooving electro beats, and various fun effects. The vocals are the star of this show, eventually devolving into a cross between ranting and demonic possession growl/yelling.
Barnacle Choir (Santa Cruz, California) contribute a spirited punk song that’s like a cross between John Foxx and early REM. Pretty darn good.
Asbestos Rockpyle are on the same Warpt West Must label as Barnacle Choir, and while the music is very different it sounds like it might be the same singer. Spacey bleeping electronics and ominously rumbling space drone waves lay the foundation for a spoken/sung narrative.
Jeff Central/I.T.N. (Columbus, Ohio) offer up a nifty industrial/electro synth tune with multiple minimal patterns and a disorienting, repetitive, pulsating jawharp like pattern that wrecked havoc with my brain.
Isolation (Mike Jackson and Michael Humphreys) create busy collages experimenting with the tape recorder noise, effects and vocals fun.
Cephalic Index’s (Mike Jackson) track is darkly demonic electronic music with bits of lo-fi Space orchestral composition, sci-fi soundtrack, and all with an industrial edge.
Nomuzic (Carl Howard) yanks us out on to the dance floor for some cool grooving, funky, and surreal atmospheric space-electronic punk-pop.
Finally, Corn For Texture (Memphis) create an experimental sound-art/collage piece with clanging patterns, minimal soundscapes, and voices to create a busy but repetitive theme and does an impressive job of developing it in interesting ways.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: You got a little artsy with the packaging on this one. The wad of pink cotton on the tape obviously connects to the title. But I’ll ask anyway what inspired you to slap a chunk of cotton on?
CP: Because it’s called Cotton In Your Ears and I wanted it to look different. The photo on the cover is my driveway.
JK: Did you include cotton on every tape you sent out?
CP: Yup.
JK: You’ve got some bands back from earlier compilations.
CP: Peach Of Immortality!
JK: Were these new submissions they sent you or leftovers from before?
CP: They were new ones. Noisy as hell.
JK: Costes Cassette. I didn’t know who that was so I found it on Discogs…
CP: Crazy ass Frenchman. Jean-Louis Costes. But Costes was cool. He recorded a lot and might still be. I don’t know.
JK: Two bands I like that were from the same label are Barnacle Choir and Asbestos Rockpyle. They’re both from Warpt West Music in Santa Cruz, California. Do you recall who ran that label?
CP: I don’t remember the name, but it’s the same singer on both bands.
JK: That was going to be my next question. In my notes I commented that Asbestos Rockpyle is very different from Barnacle Choir but the singer sounds like it might be the same person. (discogs.com says label run by Anatol Sucher)
CP: Same guy. And that’s who ran the label.
JK: The band Isolation shows Xkurzhen Sound as the contact so I asked Mike Jackson about it and he said it was the duo of him and Michael Humphries. Do you know who that was?
CP: Michael Humphries was at the Antenna Club. I hadn’t seen him in forever and we had a couple beers. And that’s the night I got run over. He recognized me, I didn’t recognize him. (Ed. note: Chris is referring to a late 2019 event)
JK: The Viktimized Karcass track is called ‘No Where To Live’.
CP: That’s from the Madness & Mayhem tape (HR025).
JK: And you’ve got Nomuzic on here. Was this your introduction to Carl Howard? You guys went on to record a lot together.
CP: We had been trading magazines and tapes. I’m pretty sure he was living in Bayside, New York at that time. So it’s probably around the same time we did our collaboration as well, through the mail.
JK: You had been talking about Corn For Texture in our previous discussions so I was glad to finally get to them on this compilation.
CP: Roger Moneymaker is the main guitar player in Corn For Texture. But he also had another guitar player, Eddie Hankins. Robert Hinson was the bass player in Corn For Texture. And they had the drummer we used at the South End (Viktimized Karcass “Live At The South End, HR114). And I occasionally sat in with Corn For Texture. And Mike Honeycutt occasionally sat in with Corn For Texture. I played live with them one time. They didn’t do a whole hell of a lot of recording. Richard Martin was the singer in Corn For Texture. It was almost Viktimized Karcass man!
JK: Did you say there was a live Corn For Texture show that you participated in?
CP: Yeah, but it wasn’t recorded. It was at the Antenna Club. We were warming up for somebody.
JK: I see you’ve got Al Margolis on here.
CP: If, Bwana is a bad ass track. Al always did good shit.
JK: And Jimmy Lee is back.
CP: He was a friend of Mike Jackson’s. He had some cheesy equipment. He wanted to submit some tracks to the comp and I said sure go ahead.
JK: It’s good to hear that because it supports how informal these things were. I did think his songs were fun.
CP: They were cheesy as hell but fun.