HR037 - New Society — 2 x C90 — 1986
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Tape #1
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Side A:
Cool & The Clones — (Cabin John, MD) -- Destroy Genesis David Nikias — (Greensboro, NC) — Explanations Chuck — (Greensboro, NC) Green Acres Chuck — Preparation White Hand — (Fremont, CA) — Christian Raiders Emil Beaulieau — (Lowell, MA) — Ilhan Blues Viktimized Karcass — (Memphis, TN) — Cat's Eyes |
Side B:
Architects Office — (Boulder, CO) -- AO374 Mental Anguish — (Memphis, TN) — High Road Keeler — (New York, NY) — Wall $treet Rhythm & Blue$ Keeler — Storm Brewing Parade Of Sinners — (Lowell, MA) — Oh, What A World! Parade Of Sinners — Death Doesn't Liberate Parade Of Sinners — Seconds (The Human League) Parade Of Sinners — A Decent Burial For The Dead Keeler — Longing Keeler — Coming To |
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Tape #2
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Side A:
Alien Planetscapes — (Brooklyn, NY) — Airships Part 1 Cancerous Growth — (Memphis, TN) — Of Blood Audio Letter & Fake Feelings Institute — (New York, NY) — The Materialization Of The World Room 291 — (Boulder, CO) — Force Of Habit Cephalic Index — (Memphis, TN) — Alien Smack |
Side B:
Cephalic Index — Sucked In Corn For Texture — (Germantown, TN) — Holding Viktimized Karcass — Rock Is Pretentious Smegma — (Portland, OR) — Now It's Dark Helliows — (Portland, OR) — ZXQSNF Amor Fati — North Bergen, NJ) — Materialization Amor Fati — Dark Passages Musique Psychologique — (Columbus, OH) — Burning Nipples |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Tape #1
Another jam packed killer 2 x C90 tape compilation from Harsh Reality!
Cool & The Clones (Cabin John, Maryland) are back with their avant freeform experimental with traditional instruments, plus noisy cacophonous free-jazz. Blaring, bleating saxophones, grating keyboard blasts, searing guitars. I like how the music zig zags between harshly mind shattering and quietly yet frenetically musing, with lots of interesting thematic twists and turns.
David Nikias (Greensboro, North Carolina) is back with an experimental tape collage. Nikias takes repetitive themes and slowly develops and adds additional bits and pieces. Voices are at the forefront and the choppity quality of the effects is dizzying. I can feel it demanding my brain's attention. Minimal yet interesting throughout its ten minute length.
Chuck (David Nikias and Murray Reams) offer up two very different tracks. ‘Green Acres’ is an avant noise rock and sound exploratory cover of the Green Acres TV show theme. The only association with the show tune is the lyrics. Totally twisted and pretty darn cool. And ‘Preparation’ is a solo guitar excursion, as Chuck attacks the instrument and wrenches all kinds of sounds, soundscapes and textures from it. It’s even a little bluesy at times. Another impressive piece.
White Hand (Fremont, California) are another returning band, offering up a less than three minute slab of hauntingly doomy ambient soundtrack. Way too short as I was really getting into this. I wish it had taken more time to develop.
Emil Beaulieau is Ron Lessard who ran the RRRecords label and shop in Lowell, Massachusetts. His ‘Ilhan Blues’ is experimental tape cut-up collage fun. This could have been titled ‘Abrupt’, as everything comes in fits and starts. Rapid fire pops, darting in and out, zipping to and fro. Interesting.
Viktimized Karcass (Memphis) continue to defy expectations with something really different for them. This is totally sound and alien effects exploratory. Whining guitar licks and keys, wildly churning oscillations. It’s all very noisily and chaotically sorrowful... a space symphony of sorrow. There are poetic vocals, but they take a back seat to the ever increasing intensity of the mournfully cosmic theme.
Architects Office is Joel Haertling from Boulder, Colorado. A conversation that seems to be about memories of Architects Office and other topics is backed by freeform sci-fi and video game electronics and horns.
Mental Anguish’s (Chris Phinney) ‘High Road’ consists of continually unfolding layers of drones and oscillations that slowly pulsate and twirl as they unfold, and punctuated by sharp blasts, garbled effects, and more. Meditatively intense.
Keeler is Keith K. Walsh from New York City, who offers up some excellent songs. He must be a Kraftwerk fan. ‘Wall $treet Rhythm & Blue$’ is a bouncy, spacey, robotic synth tune with a catchy melody. And ‘Storm Brewing’ is a little more experimental and less tuneful, with some of the effects sounding like the mid portion of ‘Autobahn’. There’s a sense of melody but overall this is a really cool synth, effects and rhythm exploration. ‘Longing’ is a tasty space age synth pop tune with a pleasant melody and spoken word vocal accompaniment.
Parade Of Sinners is Andrew Szava-Kovats from Lowell, Massachusetts who contributes four songs. ‘Oh, What A World!’ consists of high energy inventive spacey synth pop with an industrial edge, and would make great soundtrack music for an action flick. You can even dance to it! This segues seamlessly into ‘Death Doesn’t Liberate’. ‘Seconds’ is an instrumental Human League cover that is far more caustic and steroidal (BETTER) than the original. If Chrome covered it might sound something like this. And ‘A Decent Burial For The Dead’ features more industrial synth pop.
Tape #2
Alien Planetscapes (Brooklyn, New York) are back with an epic 17+ minute space exploration. It starts off with soaring gliss, synths and bubbling electronics amidst a rumbling droning preparation for blast off. The atmosphere is deep space, tension laden eerie, though I like the contrasting dissonant repetitive melody.
Cancerous Growth (Mike Jackson) is the perfect follow up to AP, being a chaotic, synth mania and whacked guitar jamming space-noise exploration. The atmosphere consists of intense static-y soundscapes that rush and roar, as a moaning melody cries in the distance. I like the combination of fiery noise intensity and easy paced angst, which is punctuated throughout by various howling and pulsating effects.
Audio Letter & Fake Feelings Institute… Audio Letter was headed up by Sue Ann Harkey. I Googled and found a Bandcamp page that says “Fake Feeling Institute is the result of a Collaboration Tape begun in 1985 by Rick Hazle in San Francisco and Audio Letter in New York”. It’s a killer blend of mystical, pagan folk song, with trippy acoustic guitar, but also experimental collaged accompaniment.
Room 291 is Paul Kern from Boulder, Colorado. His ‘Force Of Habit’ is a Valium paced tune with strained guitar licks that would be at home on the Twin Peaks soundtrack. Electro grooves, space soundscapes and orchestral keyboard washes, make for lightly drifting magic carpet ride.
Cephalic Index (Mike Jackson) offers up a noisy fun with cut-ups and sounds exercise on ‘Alien Smack’. I like the cool and strange rhythmic pulse that propels it all, and then tape drag slowed down/sped up near the end. ‘Sucked In’ is similar but with voice samples from religious radio or television and a disturbing yet cool repetitive metallic grinding pulse. And then at the end I realize... I think anyway... that Mike had been messing with Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’!
Corn For Texture (Memphis) create minimal ambience that locks itself into a round and round we go pulsation that made my head want to automatically twirl. Strange voice samples are later introduced, which speak some kind of narrative chant that fits in nicely with the mysterious ambient swirl.
Viktimized Karcass (Memphis) yet AGAIN explore uncharted territory with a New Wave Rock n Roll dance song within a dirty rocking ranting punky spacey jamming VK context. Pretty freakin’ awesome.
Smegma (Portland, Oregon) are fun with their absolutely whacky and hysterical carnival collage of zany sounds, music, voices and singing.
Helliows (Portland, Oregon) contribute less than two minutes of performance spoken word and strained, slip sliding guitar.
Amor Fati (North Bergen, New Jersey) is the solo project of Amaury Perez. ‘Materialization’ consists of energetic tribal percussion driven with avant-noise/jazz horn and guitar, plus weird scat voicing. ‘Dark Passages’ includes similar percussion but is slower and more introspective, with ethereal call to prayer wind instrument.
Musique Psychologique is a solo project from Jeff Chenault (Columbus, Ohio). It’s robotically beat driven mechanical electronica with erotic porn themed narrative.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: As usual I have to ask you about the photos on the tape covers.
CP: Tape #1 is a whole bunch of tombstones. Tape #2 is a one tombstone mausoleum.
JK: You had several returning artists. David Nikias and Chuck. White Hand. Emil Beaulieau…
CP: Cool & The Clones starts off Tape #1.
JK: I liked their track on this tape even better than the one on Judgement Day. All kinds of cool experimental, freeform, noisy, free-jazz jamming music. Among the new artists you had Architects Office, Joel Haertling from Boulder, Colorado. And you’ve got Parade Of Sinners, which was Andrew Szava-Kovats who put out the Grindstone compilations.
CP: Andy came into the picture during Malice. He put an ad in one of the Malice fanzines. And that’s how I got to know him. I think these were some of his first tracks. It’s some good shit.
JK: Another new artist is Keeler, which the contacts say is Keith K. Walsh from New York City. He had some pretty cool songs. One song, I said in the review that he must be a Kraftwerk fan.
CP: While he was alive he did some good stuff. He died of AIDS quite some time ago.
JK: And you had a Viktimized Karcass track (‘Cats Eyes’) from the most recent tape at the time, Flaming Desires. I thought this was really different for Karcass. And Mental Anguish is on here.
CP: That Mental Anguish track is from Bloodbath. I think it’s the first song on Bloodbath.
JK: On tape #2 you had Alien Planetscapes again. A 17+ minute track.
CP: Doug recorded that for something else, it’s Part I. And Part II was probably on some tape he had. I think it was either Doug and Carl (Howard) or Doug and Louis Boone.
JK: I liked that the Cancerous Growth track followed Alien Planetscapes. Musically it was a perfect follow up…
CP: I believe that particular track is on a tape you’ll get to soon, Ritual Of Preparation (HR039). I think that’s where that came from.
JK: So this was on a compilation before the full tape is was released on.
CP: Right.
JK: There’s several artists new to Harsh Reality. Sue Ann Harkey and her band Audio Letter.
CP: Hell yeah. We used to trade a little bit.
JK: Smegma I knew of. They were kind of popular. You’ve got Smegma and Helliows, both on Pigface Records in Portland, Oregon. Do you know if there was any relation between Smegma and Helliows?
CP: It was some of the same people who ran Pigface Records.
JK: One I had never heard of was Amor Fati.
CP: That was Amaury Perez. He used to produce 7” records and all that. He did some good shit.
JK: And then there’s a new solo project from Jeff ‘Central’ Chenault I’d not heard of before, Musique Psychologique.
CP: Yeah, he’s got a million different bands (laughs).
JK: And there’s another Corn For Texture track. You’ve got Richard Martin in the contacts, whereas on Judgement Day you had Roger Moneymaker in the contacts. I know they were both in the band.
CP: Roger had probably moved at that time or was in the middle of buying a house. And Viktimized Karcass is on there.
JK: This Karcass track is yet another very different style for the band. I described it as a New Wave Rock n Roll dance song.
CP: Yeah, it was a rock song man (laughs). That was released on Carl Howard’s label (audiofile Tapes). That was the first tape released on audiofile.
JK: Well that was the first Karcass song I’d heard yet that you could easily dance to.
CP: It was pretty wild. We called it ‘Rock Is Pretentious’.
JK: And there was another Boulder, Colorado band…
CP: Room 291. That guy was good but he was very to himself. He didn’t say a whole hell of a lot. But he did some good shit.
JK: Discogs says his name is Paul Kern.
CP: And you’ve got Mike Jackson on there, Cephalic Index.
JK: Yeah, he ends Side A and begins Side B of tape #2. That song ‘Sucked In’ sounds like Mike is sampling Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’.
CP: He might have. He did some wild shit. When we got Robert Hinson on bass, and Mike was still with us before he left Memphis, Mike switched over to effects and cassette players. We got the cops called on us. That video on YouTube with Doug Walker and Carl Howard playing at my house and Karcass was playing. We got the cops called on us and Jackson was wearing a cop uniform. The cops got called because there was all this screaming, and it was Mike teasing his sister that he had recorded on tape.
Tape #1
Another jam packed killer 2 x C90 tape compilation from Harsh Reality!
Cool & The Clones (Cabin John, Maryland) are back with their avant freeform experimental with traditional instruments, plus noisy cacophonous free-jazz. Blaring, bleating saxophones, grating keyboard blasts, searing guitars. I like how the music zig zags between harshly mind shattering and quietly yet frenetically musing, with lots of interesting thematic twists and turns.
David Nikias (Greensboro, North Carolina) is back with an experimental tape collage. Nikias takes repetitive themes and slowly develops and adds additional bits and pieces. Voices are at the forefront and the choppity quality of the effects is dizzying. I can feel it demanding my brain's attention. Minimal yet interesting throughout its ten minute length.
Chuck (David Nikias and Murray Reams) offer up two very different tracks. ‘Green Acres’ is an avant noise rock and sound exploratory cover of the Green Acres TV show theme. The only association with the show tune is the lyrics. Totally twisted and pretty darn cool. And ‘Preparation’ is a solo guitar excursion, as Chuck attacks the instrument and wrenches all kinds of sounds, soundscapes and textures from it. It’s even a little bluesy at times. Another impressive piece.
White Hand (Fremont, California) are another returning band, offering up a less than three minute slab of hauntingly doomy ambient soundtrack. Way too short as I was really getting into this. I wish it had taken more time to develop.
Emil Beaulieau is Ron Lessard who ran the RRRecords label and shop in Lowell, Massachusetts. His ‘Ilhan Blues’ is experimental tape cut-up collage fun. This could have been titled ‘Abrupt’, as everything comes in fits and starts. Rapid fire pops, darting in and out, zipping to and fro. Interesting.
Viktimized Karcass (Memphis) continue to defy expectations with something really different for them. This is totally sound and alien effects exploratory. Whining guitar licks and keys, wildly churning oscillations. It’s all very noisily and chaotically sorrowful... a space symphony of sorrow. There are poetic vocals, but they take a back seat to the ever increasing intensity of the mournfully cosmic theme.
Architects Office is Joel Haertling from Boulder, Colorado. A conversation that seems to be about memories of Architects Office and other topics is backed by freeform sci-fi and video game electronics and horns.
Mental Anguish’s (Chris Phinney) ‘High Road’ consists of continually unfolding layers of drones and oscillations that slowly pulsate and twirl as they unfold, and punctuated by sharp blasts, garbled effects, and more. Meditatively intense.
Keeler is Keith K. Walsh from New York City, who offers up some excellent songs. He must be a Kraftwerk fan. ‘Wall $treet Rhythm & Blue$’ is a bouncy, spacey, robotic synth tune with a catchy melody. And ‘Storm Brewing’ is a little more experimental and less tuneful, with some of the effects sounding like the mid portion of ‘Autobahn’. There’s a sense of melody but overall this is a really cool synth, effects and rhythm exploration. ‘Longing’ is a tasty space age synth pop tune with a pleasant melody and spoken word vocal accompaniment.
Parade Of Sinners is Andrew Szava-Kovats from Lowell, Massachusetts who contributes four songs. ‘Oh, What A World!’ consists of high energy inventive spacey synth pop with an industrial edge, and would make great soundtrack music for an action flick. You can even dance to it! This segues seamlessly into ‘Death Doesn’t Liberate’. ‘Seconds’ is an instrumental Human League cover that is far more caustic and steroidal (BETTER) than the original. If Chrome covered it might sound something like this. And ‘A Decent Burial For The Dead’ features more industrial synth pop.
Tape #2
Alien Planetscapes (Brooklyn, New York) are back with an epic 17+ minute space exploration. It starts off with soaring gliss, synths and bubbling electronics amidst a rumbling droning preparation for blast off. The atmosphere is deep space, tension laden eerie, though I like the contrasting dissonant repetitive melody.
Cancerous Growth (Mike Jackson) is the perfect follow up to AP, being a chaotic, synth mania and whacked guitar jamming space-noise exploration. The atmosphere consists of intense static-y soundscapes that rush and roar, as a moaning melody cries in the distance. I like the combination of fiery noise intensity and easy paced angst, which is punctuated throughout by various howling and pulsating effects.
Audio Letter & Fake Feelings Institute… Audio Letter was headed up by Sue Ann Harkey. I Googled and found a Bandcamp page that says “Fake Feeling Institute is the result of a Collaboration Tape begun in 1985 by Rick Hazle in San Francisco and Audio Letter in New York”. It’s a killer blend of mystical, pagan folk song, with trippy acoustic guitar, but also experimental collaged accompaniment.
Room 291 is Paul Kern from Boulder, Colorado. His ‘Force Of Habit’ is a Valium paced tune with strained guitar licks that would be at home on the Twin Peaks soundtrack. Electro grooves, space soundscapes and orchestral keyboard washes, make for lightly drifting magic carpet ride.
Cephalic Index (Mike Jackson) offers up a noisy fun with cut-ups and sounds exercise on ‘Alien Smack’. I like the cool and strange rhythmic pulse that propels it all, and then tape drag slowed down/sped up near the end. ‘Sucked In’ is similar but with voice samples from religious radio or television and a disturbing yet cool repetitive metallic grinding pulse. And then at the end I realize... I think anyway... that Mike had been messing with Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’!
Corn For Texture (Memphis) create minimal ambience that locks itself into a round and round we go pulsation that made my head want to automatically twirl. Strange voice samples are later introduced, which speak some kind of narrative chant that fits in nicely with the mysterious ambient swirl.
Viktimized Karcass (Memphis) yet AGAIN explore uncharted territory with a New Wave Rock n Roll dance song within a dirty rocking ranting punky spacey jamming VK context. Pretty freakin’ awesome.
Smegma (Portland, Oregon) are fun with their absolutely whacky and hysterical carnival collage of zany sounds, music, voices and singing.
Helliows (Portland, Oregon) contribute less than two minutes of performance spoken word and strained, slip sliding guitar.
Amor Fati (North Bergen, New Jersey) is the solo project of Amaury Perez. ‘Materialization’ consists of energetic tribal percussion driven with avant-noise/jazz horn and guitar, plus weird scat voicing. ‘Dark Passages’ includes similar percussion but is slower and more introspective, with ethereal call to prayer wind instrument.
Musique Psychologique is a solo project from Jeff Chenault (Columbus, Ohio). It’s robotically beat driven mechanical electronica with erotic porn themed narrative.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: As usual I have to ask you about the photos on the tape covers.
CP: Tape #1 is a whole bunch of tombstones. Tape #2 is a one tombstone mausoleum.
JK: You had several returning artists. David Nikias and Chuck. White Hand. Emil Beaulieau…
CP: Cool & The Clones starts off Tape #1.
JK: I liked their track on this tape even better than the one on Judgement Day. All kinds of cool experimental, freeform, noisy, free-jazz jamming music. Among the new artists you had Architects Office, Joel Haertling from Boulder, Colorado. And you’ve got Parade Of Sinners, which was Andrew Szava-Kovats who put out the Grindstone compilations.
CP: Andy came into the picture during Malice. He put an ad in one of the Malice fanzines. And that’s how I got to know him. I think these were some of his first tracks. It’s some good shit.
JK: Another new artist is Keeler, which the contacts say is Keith K. Walsh from New York City. He had some pretty cool songs. One song, I said in the review that he must be a Kraftwerk fan.
CP: While he was alive he did some good stuff. He died of AIDS quite some time ago.
JK: And you had a Viktimized Karcass track (‘Cats Eyes’) from the most recent tape at the time, Flaming Desires. I thought this was really different for Karcass. And Mental Anguish is on here.
CP: That Mental Anguish track is from Bloodbath. I think it’s the first song on Bloodbath.
JK: On tape #2 you had Alien Planetscapes again. A 17+ minute track.
CP: Doug recorded that for something else, it’s Part I. And Part II was probably on some tape he had. I think it was either Doug and Carl (Howard) or Doug and Louis Boone.
JK: I liked that the Cancerous Growth track followed Alien Planetscapes. Musically it was a perfect follow up…
CP: I believe that particular track is on a tape you’ll get to soon, Ritual Of Preparation (HR039). I think that’s where that came from.
JK: So this was on a compilation before the full tape is was released on.
CP: Right.
JK: There’s several artists new to Harsh Reality. Sue Ann Harkey and her band Audio Letter.
CP: Hell yeah. We used to trade a little bit.
JK: Smegma I knew of. They were kind of popular. You’ve got Smegma and Helliows, both on Pigface Records in Portland, Oregon. Do you know if there was any relation between Smegma and Helliows?
CP: It was some of the same people who ran Pigface Records.
JK: One I had never heard of was Amor Fati.
CP: That was Amaury Perez. He used to produce 7” records and all that. He did some good shit.
JK: And then there’s a new solo project from Jeff ‘Central’ Chenault I’d not heard of before, Musique Psychologique.
CP: Yeah, he’s got a million different bands (laughs).
JK: And there’s another Corn For Texture track. You’ve got Richard Martin in the contacts, whereas on Judgement Day you had Roger Moneymaker in the contacts. I know they were both in the band.
CP: Roger had probably moved at that time or was in the middle of buying a house. And Viktimized Karcass is on there.
JK: This Karcass track is yet another very different style for the band. I described it as a New Wave Rock n Roll dance song.
CP: Yeah, it was a rock song man (laughs). That was released on Carl Howard’s label (audiofile Tapes). That was the first tape released on audiofile.
JK: Well that was the first Karcass song I’d heard yet that you could easily dance to.
CP: It was pretty wild. We called it ‘Rock Is Pretentious’.
JK: And there was another Boulder, Colorado band…
CP: Room 291. That guy was good but he was very to himself. He didn’t say a whole hell of a lot. But he did some good shit.
JK: Discogs says his name is Paul Kern.
CP: And you’ve got Mike Jackson on there, Cephalic Index.
JK: Yeah, he ends Side A and begins Side B of tape #2. That song ‘Sucked In’ sounds like Mike is sampling Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’.
CP: He might have. He did some wild shit. When we got Robert Hinson on bass, and Mike was still with us before he left Memphis, Mike switched over to effects and cassette players. We got the cops called on us. That video on YouTube with Doug Walker and Carl Howard playing at my house and Karcass was playing. We got the cops called on us and Jackson was wearing a cop uniform. The cops got called because there was all this screaming, and it was Mike teasing his sister that he had recorded on tape.