HR055 - Mid-Cult Matrix – Berkelianism C60 - 1987
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Side A:
Fugitive Squad Side B: Sealed In Cement All instruments by Dave Prescott & Chris Phinney 
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REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Mid-Cult Matrix was a collaboration between Chris Phinney and David Prescott. Berkelianism is a C60 that consists of two side long adventures into space and sound.
Side A, titled ‘Fugitive Squad’, is a groovy blend of deep space electronica, extraterrestrial effects, and cosmic drones. I love the rapid-fire alien speak-in-tongue chattering and other signals from beyond that sound like they could be S.E.T.I.’s evidence that we are not alone. But there’s also plenty of rumbling drones and mechanical activity to indicate that we may have had that closest of encounters and already be whisked off to the great ‘Elsewhere’. The alien and other chattering transmissions get increasingly loud and intense at times as the piece progresses, as if the crowd were only getting bigger. At times I felt like I was in the Alien movie walking amongst all the soon to hatch pods. Spooky! A well-crafted synthesis of electronics and effects.
The fun continues on Side B, ‘Sealed In Cement’. It begins with pulsating, bubbling and strained drones and tones, plus various battle-in-space effects activity. After a few minutes a heart murmur-ish pulse kicks in, steadily pumping the cosmic hemoglobin as a chorus of space sirens flare as if we’re running for cover in a War Of The Worlds air raid. The action eventually dies down though danger is still a lurking presence. A minimal musical pattern flutters as the sirens become drones that slowly melt into lingering squalls that sound like trumpeting elephants. Lots of killer boisterous alien action throughout.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: Was this your first collaboration with David Prescott?
Chris Phinney (CP): Yes. I’d been to Boston to visit him but we didn’t do any recording. I was actually there to see Mike Jackson and record. Dave invited us up to his radio show and we both went to see Prescott. We played stuff on the radio and talked B.S. Dave had an extra Arp 2600 keyboard he gave me that went with the Arp 2600 synthesizer. I took it with me in case I ever got a 2600, which I never did. Years later my Arp Axxe died and I sold the Axxe to Dave Fuglewicz who can fix most any old analog synthesizer. Plus I sent him the schematics for the Axxe as I had them also. I realized by that time I was never going to get a 2600, so when I sent Dave the Axxe which he bought from me I threw in the 2600 keyboard.
JK: So you met him on a Boston trip to visit Mike.
CP: I had been to New York. I went to visit Doug Walker. I recorded with Doug and Louis Boone. And Jackson came and recorded. We had a big ass jam session. I recorded with Al Margolis, which resulted in the Angwana-Slither cassette (HR294 - SOPHR2). So I did all that recording and then I headed up to Boston. Prescott knew I was coming and invited us up to the radio station to listen to tunes and listen to him play some tunes. (David Prescott had a radio show on WZBC at Boston College)
JK: Did you play music during his show?
CP: No, we just hung out and played records and tapes, mostly tapes. Then he sent me the material to work on that became this tape.
JK: Well that answers one of my questions. I’m always interested during these collaborations who got the source material and did the final mix.
CP: I did the final mix.
JK: Did you just record your parts along with his or separate after having heard Dave’s?
CP: I was listening to what he did and was inspired by what he did and added what I thought made it sound decent.
JK: It’s a good tape. I really like it. I always love solid side long continuous pieces.
CP: I like them too. I was reading something where someone I was collaborating with was complaining about not caring for longer songs. But he was recording with me so he didn’t have a choice (laughs).
JK: Well the kind of music you and Dave were doing on this tape totally lends itself to 30 minute excursions.
CP: Exactly. With Dave you’d do that. With Doug Walker of course you’d always do that.
JK: With these space excursions you want to take them somewhere. Take time and let the thing develop. It was fun writing about this tape. ‘Fugitive Squad’ was full of deep space electronica, alien effects, spacey drones. But then there was this rapid fire… I don’t know if it was a voice sample… but I described it as alien speak-in-tongues chattering. Really interesting sounds.
CP: There’s some shortwave radio in there. Dave used to use a lot of that. On the Red Shift series he was tuning into some Russian broadcast. Today I think it’s harder to find things on shortwave radio than it used to be.
JK: Then on the B-side, ‘Sealed In Cement’, it goes in different directions.
CP: It went in different directions and it was a little mellower than ‘Fugitive Squad’ to me. When I was digitizing the tape and listening to it that side sounded a little mellower than ‘Fugitive Squad’. We had toned it down just a hair.
JK: I think the two sides complement one another nicely. What is that cover image? Looks like a window with some kind of shrouded spectre?
CP: It’s supposed to be a demon, a ghost. Like death. I got it out of some magazine. And that’s why I called it Mid-Cult Matrix.
JK: Mid-Cult Matrix was inspired by that image?
CP: Yeah.
JK: And the back cover… it looks like a wheel with chains on either side.
CP: It's a picture I took of a mesh type pizza pan. The chains are the old letraset rub on lettering we used to use.
JK: I Googled Berkelianism and found a whole article about how it’s some theory of macroeconomic policy that…. Goes on and on. Who came up with that, you or Dave?
CP: I was looking through a book I had and found the word Berkelianism. I read the definition of it and thought that it would be a good name for the tape as it seemed to fit well and sounded cool.
JK: Did you do anymore collaborations as Mid-Cult Matrix? I don’t see any more in the HR catalog but I do see HR245 which looks like a quartet collab between you, Prescott, Merz and Zan.
CP: We did that and there’s another tape in the HR catalog just called David Prescott. But we didn’t do any more collaborations. (There was also Dave’s Red Shift Part 2 tape, HR045, and the PrescoRolmo collaboration with SB45/Roger Moneymaker, HR056.)
Mid-Cult Matrix was a collaboration between Chris Phinney and David Prescott. Berkelianism is a C60 that consists of two side long adventures into space and sound.
Side A, titled ‘Fugitive Squad’, is a groovy blend of deep space electronica, extraterrestrial effects, and cosmic drones. I love the rapid-fire alien speak-in-tongue chattering and other signals from beyond that sound like they could be S.E.T.I.’s evidence that we are not alone. But there’s also plenty of rumbling drones and mechanical activity to indicate that we may have had that closest of encounters and already be whisked off to the great ‘Elsewhere’. The alien and other chattering transmissions get increasingly loud and intense at times as the piece progresses, as if the crowd were only getting bigger. At times I felt like I was in the Alien movie walking amongst all the soon to hatch pods. Spooky! A well-crafted synthesis of electronics and effects.
The fun continues on Side B, ‘Sealed In Cement’. It begins with pulsating, bubbling and strained drones and tones, plus various battle-in-space effects activity. After a few minutes a heart murmur-ish pulse kicks in, steadily pumping the cosmic hemoglobin as a chorus of space sirens flare as if we’re running for cover in a War Of The Worlds air raid. The action eventually dies down though danger is still a lurking presence. A minimal musical pattern flutters as the sirens become drones that slowly melt into lingering squalls that sound like trumpeting elephants. Lots of killer boisterous alien action throughout.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: Was this your first collaboration with David Prescott?
Chris Phinney (CP): Yes. I’d been to Boston to visit him but we didn’t do any recording. I was actually there to see Mike Jackson and record. Dave invited us up to his radio show and we both went to see Prescott. We played stuff on the radio and talked B.S. Dave had an extra Arp 2600 keyboard he gave me that went with the Arp 2600 synthesizer. I took it with me in case I ever got a 2600, which I never did. Years later my Arp Axxe died and I sold the Axxe to Dave Fuglewicz who can fix most any old analog synthesizer. Plus I sent him the schematics for the Axxe as I had them also. I realized by that time I was never going to get a 2600, so when I sent Dave the Axxe which he bought from me I threw in the 2600 keyboard.
JK: So you met him on a Boston trip to visit Mike.
CP: I had been to New York. I went to visit Doug Walker. I recorded with Doug and Louis Boone. And Jackson came and recorded. We had a big ass jam session. I recorded with Al Margolis, which resulted in the Angwana-Slither cassette (HR294 - SOPHR2). So I did all that recording and then I headed up to Boston. Prescott knew I was coming and invited us up to the radio station to listen to tunes and listen to him play some tunes. (David Prescott had a radio show on WZBC at Boston College)
JK: Did you play music during his show?
CP: No, we just hung out and played records and tapes, mostly tapes. Then he sent me the material to work on that became this tape.
JK: Well that answers one of my questions. I’m always interested during these collaborations who got the source material and did the final mix.
CP: I did the final mix.
JK: Did you just record your parts along with his or separate after having heard Dave’s?
CP: I was listening to what he did and was inspired by what he did and added what I thought made it sound decent.
JK: It’s a good tape. I really like it. I always love solid side long continuous pieces.
CP: I like them too. I was reading something where someone I was collaborating with was complaining about not caring for longer songs. But he was recording with me so he didn’t have a choice (laughs).
JK: Well the kind of music you and Dave were doing on this tape totally lends itself to 30 minute excursions.
CP: Exactly. With Dave you’d do that. With Doug Walker of course you’d always do that.
JK: With these space excursions you want to take them somewhere. Take time and let the thing develop. It was fun writing about this tape. ‘Fugitive Squad’ was full of deep space electronica, alien effects, spacey drones. But then there was this rapid fire… I don’t know if it was a voice sample… but I described it as alien speak-in-tongues chattering. Really interesting sounds.
CP: There’s some shortwave radio in there. Dave used to use a lot of that. On the Red Shift series he was tuning into some Russian broadcast. Today I think it’s harder to find things on shortwave radio than it used to be.
JK: Then on the B-side, ‘Sealed In Cement’, it goes in different directions.
CP: It went in different directions and it was a little mellower than ‘Fugitive Squad’ to me. When I was digitizing the tape and listening to it that side sounded a little mellower than ‘Fugitive Squad’. We had toned it down just a hair.
JK: I think the two sides complement one another nicely. What is that cover image? Looks like a window with some kind of shrouded spectre?
CP: It’s supposed to be a demon, a ghost. Like death. I got it out of some magazine. And that’s why I called it Mid-Cult Matrix.
JK: Mid-Cult Matrix was inspired by that image?
CP: Yeah.
JK: And the back cover… it looks like a wheel with chains on either side.
CP: It's a picture I took of a mesh type pizza pan. The chains are the old letraset rub on lettering we used to use.
JK: I Googled Berkelianism and found a whole article about how it’s some theory of macroeconomic policy that…. Goes on and on. Who came up with that, you or Dave?
CP: I was looking through a book I had and found the word Berkelianism. I read the definition of it and thought that it would be a good name for the tape as it seemed to fit well and sounded cool.
JK: Did you do anymore collaborations as Mid-Cult Matrix? I don’t see any more in the HR catalog but I do see HR245 which looks like a quartet collab between you, Prescott, Merz and Zan.
CP: We did that and there’s another tape in the HR catalog just called David Prescott. But we didn’t do any more collaborations. (There was also Dave’s Red Shift Part 2 tape, HR045, and the PrescoRolmo collaboration with SB45/Roger Moneymaker, HR056.)