HR084 - Mental Anguish & John Hudak - Multiple Morning Green - C60 — 1988
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Side A:
Booming Skulls Drink Spirit Falsehood Side B: Lethargic Hallucinations Rub Me Green All Sounds C. Phinney/J. Hudak |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Multiple Morning Green is a collaboration between American homemade music veterans Chris ‘Mental Anguish’ Phinney and John Hudak.
The nearly 22-minute ‘Booming Skulls’ dominates Side A. It kicks off with a peppy Geiger counter static rhythm, buzzing drone wave, intermittent clatter, and a voice that is counting but can’t decide whether to do a countdown or up. Taken as a whole, the piece is a noisily mesmerizing excursion. It’s spacey and hypnotic, but also edgily intense. What impressed me most is that there are only a few components of sound, yet less is apparently more in this case, as the duo had me peacefully yet vigilantly transfixed throughout.
Rounding out Side A are two short pieces. ‘Drink Spirit’ teeters between quirkily melodic space trip and minimal synth-pop. And ‘Falsehood’ is a combination of freaky and at times strangely orchestral space effects, playful miscellaneous sounds, chug-a-lug rhythms, and distant voices.
Side B opens with the 22+ minute ‘Lethargic Hallucinations’, another blend of anxious atmosphere and noisily peaceful expedition. While this is similar in spirit to ‘Booming Skulls’, it can be more intensely noisy, smashing peaceful passages with brief blasts that can be, at times, like a power drill wavering out of control, and at others like high-speed alien transmissions. Another really cool variety of audio emotions and sensations all happening at once. Finally, ‘Rub Me Green’ has the same mixture of trippy space and noise but closes the set with healthy doses of hair-raising chaos.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): I didn’t look close to confirm but don’t recall seeing John Hudak on any of the HR compilations to date. Did this collaboration come from the usual tape trading?
Chris Phinney (CP): He wasn’t on any of them. We hadn’t been trading. He contacted me and asked me if I wanted to do a collaboration. I hadn’t been in contact with him before that. He had heard some of my stuff, and I was familiar with him. It might have been through Al Margolis, because John had done some work with If, Bwana. Either Al or Frans de Waard.
JK: So he made his way to you by hearing your music, as opposed to the tape trading that has typically led to your collaborations.
CP: Right.
JK: Who provided the source material and who ‘finished’?
CP: He provided the source material and I did all the finishing. He did all the counting and everything else. A lot of what he provided was very very minimal. I added my two cents worth and tried to keep it as minimal as possible. But it needed something more.
JK: You’ve just started shedding light on my next question. When describing ‘Booming Skulls’ in the review, I said what impressed me most is that there are only a few components of sound, yet there still seems to be a lot going on. I thought you guys did a good job with that.
CP: Yeah, there’s a lot going on but not much we used (laughs).
JK: I was also going to ask if one of you guys did the counting on ‘Booming Skulls’ or if it’s a sample, but you answered that question.
CP: It’s John doing it all.
JK: So all these bits on ‘Booming Skulls’ like what I described as peaceful passages, power drill wavering, high-speed alien transmissions… are those the kind of parts you added?
CP: Yes. He did a bit of the noisier stuff. I don’t think he had that many instruments. I think he did more work with vocals and effects units more than anything else. Everything else I’ve heard from him is kind of like that. Almost similar, but not similar, to blackhumour, who used his voice and effects a lot.
JK: The second song on Side A, ‘Drink Spirit’, is a little different. I described it as teetering between quirkily melodic space trip and minimal synth-pop. It has a song-like feel I didn’t detect on the rest of the tape.
CP: Yeah. John titled everything. He titled all the songs and the release.
JK: So when you got his source material you knew there would be five tracks?
CP: Yes.
JK: So he had some structure in mind when he sent the recordings to you.
CP: Yes. He kind of knew what he wanted. He just wanted me to add and flesh out whatever I wanted to put on there.
JK: Did he include any descriptions, instructions, or anything?
CP: None whatsoever. I was free to do whatever I wanted.
JK: ‘Lethargic Hallucinations’, the lengthy track on Side B… it’s similar in spirit to ‘Booming Skulls’ but struck me as more intense and noisy.
CP: Yeah, it had more going on. But I had to switch it up a bit.
JK: Overall I think you guys did a great job of establishing balance of theme and variety.
CP: That was our first collaboration. We’ve got another one coming up later in the catalog.
JK: I see John’s name come up two more times in the catalog. HR253 is another Mental Anguish/John Hudak. And HR175 is a PBK/City Of Worms, John Hudak, Illusion of Safety four-way collaboration. That should be interesting. Who did the drawing on the tape cover? It’s not the usual HR pic from the rag newspapers.
CP: John did it.
Multiple Morning Green is a collaboration between American homemade music veterans Chris ‘Mental Anguish’ Phinney and John Hudak.
The nearly 22-minute ‘Booming Skulls’ dominates Side A. It kicks off with a peppy Geiger counter static rhythm, buzzing drone wave, intermittent clatter, and a voice that is counting but can’t decide whether to do a countdown or up. Taken as a whole, the piece is a noisily mesmerizing excursion. It’s spacey and hypnotic, but also edgily intense. What impressed me most is that there are only a few components of sound, yet less is apparently more in this case, as the duo had me peacefully yet vigilantly transfixed throughout.
Rounding out Side A are two short pieces. ‘Drink Spirit’ teeters between quirkily melodic space trip and minimal synth-pop. And ‘Falsehood’ is a combination of freaky and at times strangely orchestral space effects, playful miscellaneous sounds, chug-a-lug rhythms, and distant voices.
Side B opens with the 22+ minute ‘Lethargic Hallucinations’, another blend of anxious atmosphere and noisily peaceful expedition. While this is similar in spirit to ‘Booming Skulls’, it can be more intensely noisy, smashing peaceful passages with brief blasts that can be, at times, like a power drill wavering out of control, and at others like high-speed alien transmissions. Another really cool variety of audio emotions and sensations all happening at once. Finally, ‘Rub Me Green’ has the same mixture of trippy space and noise but closes the set with healthy doses of hair-raising chaos.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): I didn’t look close to confirm but don’t recall seeing John Hudak on any of the HR compilations to date. Did this collaboration come from the usual tape trading?
Chris Phinney (CP): He wasn’t on any of them. We hadn’t been trading. He contacted me and asked me if I wanted to do a collaboration. I hadn’t been in contact with him before that. He had heard some of my stuff, and I was familiar with him. It might have been through Al Margolis, because John had done some work with If, Bwana. Either Al or Frans de Waard.
JK: So he made his way to you by hearing your music, as opposed to the tape trading that has typically led to your collaborations.
CP: Right.
JK: Who provided the source material and who ‘finished’?
CP: He provided the source material and I did all the finishing. He did all the counting and everything else. A lot of what he provided was very very minimal. I added my two cents worth and tried to keep it as minimal as possible. But it needed something more.
JK: You’ve just started shedding light on my next question. When describing ‘Booming Skulls’ in the review, I said what impressed me most is that there are only a few components of sound, yet there still seems to be a lot going on. I thought you guys did a good job with that.
CP: Yeah, there’s a lot going on but not much we used (laughs).
JK: I was also going to ask if one of you guys did the counting on ‘Booming Skulls’ or if it’s a sample, but you answered that question.
CP: It’s John doing it all.
JK: So all these bits on ‘Booming Skulls’ like what I described as peaceful passages, power drill wavering, high-speed alien transmissions… are those the kind of parts you added?
CP: Yes. He did a bit of the noisier stuff. I don’t think he had that many instruments. I think he did more work with vocals and effects units more than anything else. Everything else I’ve heard from him is kind of like that. Almost similar, but not similar, to blackhumour, who used his voice and effects a lot.
JK: The second song on Side A, ‘Drink Spirit’, is a little different. I described it as teetering between quirkily melodic space trip and minimal synth-pop. It has a song-like feel I didn’t detect on the rest of the tape.
CP: Yeah. John titled everything. He titled all the songs and the release.
JK: So when you got his source material you knew there would be five tracks?
CP: Yes.
JK: So he had some structure in mind when he sent the recordings to you.
CP: Yes. He kind of knew what he wanted. He just wanted me to add and flesh out whatever I wanted to put on there.
JK: Did he include any descriptions, instructions, or anything?
CP: None whatsoever. I was free to do whatever I wanted.
JK: ‘Lethargic Hallucinations’, the lengthy track on Side B… it’s similar in spirit to ‘Booming Skulls’ but struck me as more intense and noisy.
CP: Yeah, it had more going on. But I had to switch it up a bit.
JK: Overall I think you guys did a great job of establishing balance of theme and variety.
CP: That was our first collaboration. We’ve got another one coming up later in the catalog.
JK: I see John’s name come up two more times in the catalog. HR253 is another Mental Anguish/John Hudak. And HR175 is a PBK/City Of Worms, John Hudak, Illusion of Safety four-way collaboration. That should be interesting. Who did the drawing on the tape cover? It’s not the usual HR pic from the rag newspapers.
CP: John did it.