HR042 - Mental Anguish — Buddums — C60 — 1987
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Side A:
The Rain I Saw Death Waiting Green Ice Night Shadows Where Demons Dwell (Extended Version) Government Kickback Side B: Blast Fast Gold Bud My Friend Pillar Of Darkness Buddums Slag That Slug Die 4 U All Instruments C. Phinney This tape is dedicated to Goldbud my pet Golden Retriever who passed away Feb. 27, 1987, (Run Free Buddums) |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Buddums showcases Chris Phinney exploring both trademark Mental Anguish and off the beaten path territory. Side A opens with ‘The Rain’. I’ve never heard vocals like this from Chris. It’s actual singing. The music blends ethereal keys, playfully robotic synths, and a steady dance beat. A tasty mixture of bedroom singer-songwriter, spacey dream world and skittish grooves.
‘I Saw Death Waiting’ features spacey guitar and synths which create haunting atmospherics over which Chris does an impassioned spoken word about a face-to-face interaction with death. The instrumental ‘Green Ice’ is a marriage of contrasts, featuring symphonic space synths that are offset by a low rumbling drone. ‘Night Shadows’ is an instrumental that takes the symphonics into more spaced out angelic realms. This is beautifully peaceful, like floating through the cosmic heavens. ‘Where Demons Dwell (Extended Version)’ is another deep space, meditative instrumental excursion with light guitar licks, eerily shimmering effects, and a slowly propulsive groove. A cool blend of sci-fi and Halloween vibes. A short coda to Side A, ‘Government Kickback’, features multiple layers of dissonant blues-noise guitar, which soon bleeds into a gratingly extended whine that soon fades.
Side B kicks off with ‘Blast Fast’. A searing synth line leads the way, accompanied by a static drone and a barely intelligible voice sample. The drone begins to pulsate at varying rates, creating a throbbing pulse like effect, and a cavernous space soundscape develops like an aura that rumbles around the proceedings.
‘Gold Bud My Friend’ is a beautifully melodic, peacefully spaced out synth meditation. ‘Pillar Of Darkness’ is another synth musing, but this one is more minimal, with just a few layers of lightly pulsating and throbbing waves. It’s kept interesting by the slowly varying pitches and tones in the synth waves and drones.
‘Buddums’ is a rumbling industrial dirge, with vocals that are both eerily whispery and creepily spoken, instructing “My best friend Buddums” to “Run fast, run hard, run free”. I like the guitar that jams alongside the throbbing industrial percussive pulse. This is totally cool and creepy!
‘Slag That Slug’ is a minimal electronic percussion blasts study, set against a metronome effect that sets time by static instead of the trademark tic toc, and later colored by howls and other miscellaneous electronic and voice effects. Finally, ‘Die 4 U’ is another percussion centered minimal piece, which includes synth melodies that seem secondary to the percussion, but also injects a B-flick sci-fi soundtrack feel.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
JK: You’ve got a cute dog on the cover of the Buddums tape.
CP: It was dedicated to my dog. The best dog I ever had. My Golden Retriever.
JK: And his name was Buddums?
CP: His name was Gold Bud. His official name through the American Kennel Club was Golden Bud. I named him after some weed (laughs).
JK: Next to the image of the dog on the cover you printed ‘Looks Hide Anguish’.
CP: He hid his anguish. Before I got married, he used to sleep with me all the time. And when I got married that changed. He died. Heartworms got him, even though he was taking heartworm pills. They gave him poison to kill the heartworms and the poison actually killed him as well. And a little dog I had named Zeke was with us. A mixed Rat Terrier came scratching on the bedroom door when he died. I buried him over at my mom’s. And I had to about kill my mom’s boyfriend. The motherfucker’s goats… if goats get scared they’ll have a heart attack and die. He had ten goats that had a heart attack and died all at the same time. The motherfucker took his tractor and buried them almost right on top of my dog. Son of a bitch.
JK: You’ve got a cool combination of music and vocals on the title track ‘Buddums’. And the spoken word bit where you say, “My best friend Buddums” to “Run fast, run hard, run free”.
CP: It’s a cool song. It’s a good tape. I love that tape and I hadn’t listened to it in forever.
JK: The vocals on that track took me by surprise. Very different for you. And then the vocals on the opening track, ‘The Rain’, took me by surprise too. It’s actual singing. You sound like a bedroom singer-songwriter. So again, very different vocals for you.
CP: Yeah, that whole tape was different actually.
JK: Did the inspiration from your dog put you in a more…. I hate to use the term… “normal” song mood?
CP: Yeah. It’s more normal. Sad as well. I recorded that whole tape after he died. And the song ‘Where Demons Dwell (Extended Version)’ was inspired by the Skoptzies song ‘Dirty Demon’ (from On The Edge Of Insanity, HR012).
JK: Another track I like is ‘I Saw Death Waiting’. It’s got cool spacey guitar and synths, and then a spoken word about a face-to-face interaction with death. What were you talking about?
CP: I was having a conversation with the Grim Reaper (laughs). I was into a lot of that shit for a long time and then I got away from it.
JK: The track ‘Government Kickback’ that closes Side A. I described multiple layers of… is that looped guitar?
CP: It’s guitar through a 3.5 second loop. Through a Boss Digital Delay/3.5 second Sampler.
JK: What’s the voice sample on ‘Blast Fast’? Is that you or recorded off the TV or something?
CP: It’s me.
JK: You’ve got a song titled ‘Buddums’. But then you’ve got a separate track called ‘Gold Bud My Friend’. So two tracks named after your dog.
CP: If I recall correctly that’s a pretty mellow tune.
JK: Yes. I described it very simply as a “beautifully melodic, peacefully spaced out synth meditation.” And then on the track ‘Die 4 U’. It’s a very percussion focused piece. Are those real cymbals?
CP: No, it’s a drum machine. And ‘Slag That Slug’ is backwards tape manipulation, in case you were wondering about that one. It was 90% backwards tape manipulation.
Buddums showcases Chris Phinney exploring both trademark Mental Anguish and off the beaten path territory. Side A opens with ‘The Rain’. I’ve never heard vocals like this from Chris. It’s actual singing. The music blends ethereal keys, playfully robotic synths, and a steady dance beat. A tasty mixture of bedroom singer-songwriter, spacey dream world and skittish grooves.
‘I Saw Death Waiting’ features spacey guitar and synths which create haunting atmospherics over which Chris does an impassioned spoken word about a face-to-face interaction with death. The instrumental ‘Green Ice’ is a marriage of contrasts, featuring symphonic space synths that are offset by a low rumbling drone. ‘Night Shadows’ is an instrumental that takes the symphonics into more spaced out angelic realms. This is beautifully peaceful, like floating through the cosmic heavens. ‘Where Demons Dwell (Extended Version)’ is another deep space, meditative instrumental excursion with light guitar licks, eerily shimmering effects, and a slowly propulsive groove. A cool blend of sci-fi and Halloween vibes. A short coda to Side A, ‘Government Kickback’, features multiple layers of dissonant blues-noise guitar, which soon bleeds into a gratingly extended whine that soon fades.
Side B kicks off with ‘Blast Fast’. A searing synth line leads the way, accompanied by a static drone and a barely intelligible voice sample. The drone begins to pulsate at varying rates, creating a throbbing pulse like effect, and a cavernous space soundscape develops like an aura that rumbles around the proceedings.
‘Gold Bud My Friend’ is a beautifully melodic, peacefully spaced out synth meditation. ‘Pillar Of Darkness’ is another synth musing, but this one is more minimal, with just a few layers of lightly pulsating and throbbing waves. It’s kept interesting by the slowly varying pitches and tones in the synth waves and drones.
‘Buddums’ is a rumbling industrial dirge, with vocals that are both eerily whispery and creepily spoken, instructing “My best friend Buddums” to “Run fast, run hard, run free”. I like the guitar that jams alongside the throbbing industrial percussive pulse. This is totally cool and creepy!
‘Slag That Slug’ is a minimal electronic percussion blasts study, set against a metronome effect that sets time by static instead of the trademark tic toc, and later colored by howls and other miscellaneous electronic and voice effects. Finally, ‘Die 4 U’ is another percussion centered minimal piece, which includes synth melodies that seem secondary to the percussion, but also injects a B-flick sci-fi soundtrack feel.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
JK: You’ve got a cute dog on the cover of the Buddums tape.
CP: It was dedicated to my dog. The best dog I ever had. My Golden Retriever.
JK: And his name was Buddums?
CP: His name was Gold Bud. His official name through the American Kennel Club was Golden Bud. I named him after some weed (laughs).
JK: Next to the image of the dog on the cover you printed ‘Looks Hide Anguish’.
CP: He hid his anguish. Before I got married, he used to sleep with me all the time. And when I got married that changed. He died. Heartworms got him, even though he was taking heartworm pills. They gave him poison to kill the heartworms and the poison actually killed him as well. And a little dog I had named Zeke was with us. A mixed Rat Terrier came scratching on the bedroom door when he died. I buried him over at my mom’s. And I had to about kill my mom’s boyfriend. The motherfucker’s goats… if goats get scared they’ll have a heart attack and die. He had ten goats that had a heart attack and died all at the same time. The motherfucker took his tractor and buried them almost right on top of my dog. Son of a bitch.
JK: You’ve got a cool combination of music and vocals on the title track ‘Buddums’. And the spoken word bit where you say, “My best friend Buddums” to “Run fast, run hard, run free”.
CP: It’s a cool song. It’s a good tape. I love that tape and I hadn’t listened to it in forever.
JK: The vocals on that track took me by surprise. Very different for you. And then the vocals on the opening track, ‘The Rain’, took me by surprise too. It’s actual singing. You sound like a bedroom singer-songwriter. So again, very different vocals for you.
CP: Yeah, that whole tape was different actually.
JK: Did the inspiration from your dog put you in a more…. I hate to use the term… “normal” song mood?
CP: Yeah. It’s more normal. Sad as well. I recorded that whole tape after he died. And the song ‘Where Demons Dwell (Extended Version)’ was inspired by the Skoptzies song ‘Dirty Demon’ (from On The Edge Of Insanity, HR012).
JK: Another track I like is ‘I Saw Death Waiting’. It’s got cool spacey guitar and synths, and then a spoken word about a face-to-face interaction with death. What were you talking about?
CP: I was having a conversation with the Grim Reaper (laughs). I was into a lot of that shit for a long time and then I got away from it.
JK: The track ‘Government Kickback’ that closes Side A. I described multiple layers of… is that looped guitar?
CP: It’s guitar through a 3.5 second loop. Through a Boss Digital Delay/3.5 second Sampler.
JK: What’s the voice sample on ‘Blast Fast’? Is that you or recorded off the TV or something?
CP: It’s me.
JK: You’ve got a song titled ‘Buddums’. But then you’ve got a separate track called ‘Gold Bud My Friend’. So two tracks named after your dog.
CP: If I recall correctly that’s a pretty mellow tune.
JK: Yes. I described it very simply as a “beautifully melodic, peacefully spaced out synth meditation.” And then on the track ‘Die 4 U’. It’s a very percussion focused piece. Are those real cymbals?
CP: No, it’s a drum machine. And ‘Slag That Slug’ is backwards tape manipulation, in case you were wondering about that one. It was 90% backwards tape manipulation.