HR154 - Don Campau - Guaranteed Injection Comfort Or Your Money Back - C60 — 1989
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side one:
CORNER MARKET STICKUP MIND/BODY SPLIT THE AMERICANS ARE THE GUILTY PARTY LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR DRIVING ON THE SAN ANDREAS FAULT 22 UNITS: MORNING AND NIGHT |
side two:
DELICIOUS DAMAGE (for Amy Denio) TRIBUTE TO CATTLE (for Al Perry) SCHOOLS, SHOPPING, STRUCTURE AND DESIGN THE THRILL SEEKERS MOTTO LOOPY CELLO DUET INSULIN REACTION CAREER THREATENING MEDLEY (for Dan Fioretti) GUM FOR THE TOOTHLESS |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
‘Icon’ is not a word I bandy about frivolously, but in homemade music/cassette culture history, that’s exactly what Don Campau is. Starting with the 1971 private press LP by his band Roots of Madness, to what may be thousands of hours of homemade music, both experimental and song-oriented, and his going on 40 years running No Pigeonholes radio show, Don’s body of work and contributions to the scene would be hard to overstate.
This C60 consists of both musical tracks and experimental exercises. There’s an incredible amount of variety here. ‘Corner Market Stickup’ features dirty, grungy, chug-a-lug guitar rock that feels like Captain Beefheart as an Industrial band. ‘Lowest Common Denominator’ is a good time rocker with a Kraftwerk vibe. ‘Driving On The San Andreas Fault’ is a minimal melodic rocker with bits of Frippertronic guitar thrown in. ’22 Units Morning And Night’ consists of beautifully melodic guitar backed by oceanfront soundscapes. And ‘Tribute To Cattle (For Al Perry)’ is a wacky slab of psychedelic country.
Among the experimental highlights is ‘Mind/Body Spirit’, a free-wheeling 11 minutes of avant-acid rock jamming, Industrial-Prog, zany mashups of melodic music and tape manipulation/collage/cut-up fun. Several of the tracks make creative use of radio/TV samples and miscellaneous sound sources. And Don has a flair for making even the most abstract collage pieces pleasantly musical. ‘Schools, Shopping, Structure And Design’ is a collage of daily urban life, with machinery, traffic, street musicians, and other manipulated field recordings, plus radio/TV samples. ‘Loop Cello Duet’ is exactly what the title says, making for an interesting minimal piece. ‘Insulin Reaction’ is a looped dancey jazz ditty. And ‘Gum For The Toothless’ is like a stoned blend of organ grinder and early Berlin school Kosmiche.
In 2000, Harsh Reality reissued the tape on CDR with six bonus tracks. The Bandcamp page includes the tracks from the CDR reissue. Bonus detail: At the time of the reissue, I was publishing the Aural Innovations Space Rock zine. Chris sent me the reissue CDR for review and I’m pretty sure it was my introduction to Don Campau’s music.
‘Icon’ is not a word I bandy about frivolously, but in homemade music/cassette culture history, that’s exactly what Don Campau is. Starting with the 1971 private press LP by his band Roots of Madness, to what may be thousands of hours of homemade music, both experimental and song-oriented, and his going on 40 years running No Pigeonholes radio show, Don’s body of work and contributions to the scene would be hard to overstate.
This C60 consists of both musical tracks and experimental exercises. There’s an incredible amount of variety here. ‘Corner Market Stickup’ features dirty, grungy, chug-a-lug guitar rock that feels like Captain Beefheart as an Industrial band. ‘Lowest Common Denominator’ is a good time rocker with a Kraftwerk vibe. ‘Driving On The San Andreas Fault’ is a minimal melodic rocker with bits of Frippertronic guitar thrown in. ’22 Units Morning And Night’ consists of beautifully melodic guitar backed by oceanfront soundscapes. And ‘Tribute To Cattle (For Al Perry)’ is a wacky slab of psychedelic country.
Among the experimental highlights is ‘Mind/Body Spirit’, a free-wheeling 11 minutes of avant-acid rock jamming, Industrial-Prog, zany mashups of melodic music and tape manipulation/collage/cut-up fun. Several of the tracks make creative use of radio/TV samples and miscellaneous sound sources. And Don has a flair for making even the most abstract collage pieces pleasantly musical. ‘Schools, Shopping, Structure And Design’ is a collage of daily urban life, with machinery, traffic, street musicians, and other manipulated field recordings, plus radio/TV samples. ‘Loop Cello Duet’ is exactly what the title says, making for an interesting minimal piece. ‘Insulin Reaction’ is a looped dancey jazz ditty. And ‘Gum For The Toothless’ is like a stoned blend of organ grinder and early Berlin school Kosmiche.
In 2000, Harsh Reality reissued the tape on CDR with six bonus tracks. The Bandcamp page includes the tracks from the CDR reissue. Bonus detail: At the time of the reissue, I was publishing the Aural Innovations Space Rock zine. Chris sent me the reissue CDR for review and I’m pretty sure it was my introduction to Don Campau’s music.