HR176 - Phinney/McGee - Heads - C60 — 1990
SIDE A:
Danger-Gasoline! The Cigar That Breathes Indelible Purple Safe-Positive-Tamperproof Keep A Spare |
SIDE B:
Consistency For Patching If Swallowed, Do Not Induce Vomiting! Run In Thoroughly, Repeat Four Time A Year For Best Results |
Review by Jerry Kranitz
Chris Phinney and Hal McGee’s first collaboration (Usufruct – HR144) was recorded during Chris’ October 1989 visit to in Florida. Heads was their second collaboration and done by mail.
Side A consists of five tracks. ‘Danger-Gasoline!’ opens with a repetitive pulse that’s like an electronic foghorn announcing a ship coming into dock, accompanied by bleepy bubbly tones, lightly rushing wind, and other similar yet playful bubbles and gurgles. ‘The Cigar That Breathes’ continues this theme, feeling very sound exploratory and the foghorn at times is like a groaning spectre from ‘beyond’, almost like it’s talking, accompanied by whizzing and whirring electronics. With ‘Indelible Purple’ it’s all starting to come together like painting a deep space environment, as if I were alone on a drifting spacecraft. I remember reviews of the first Alien movie liked to describe it as ‘claustrophobic’ and this reminds me of that. It feels barren, yet there’s activity, some of which could be the sounds of the craft and others which are clearly alien. The pace picks up with ‘Safe-Positive-Tamperproof’, with a skittish sandpapery pattern and a fireworks constellation of space electronics and effects. This segues into the even more busily animated ‘Keep A Spare’.
Side B opens with ‘Consistency For Patching’, a space/alien sound exploratory piece that also has a 1950s/60s sci-fi soundtrack quality. I can hear an eerie voiceover in my mind’s eye as the effects buzz, dance, gurgle and soar. ‘If Swallowed, Do Not Induce Vomiting!’ is next and is somewhat similar but with more of a space-industrial machine shop quality, before melting back into the previous theme. Finally, the 14-minute ‘Rub In Thoroughly, Repeat Four Times A Year For Best Results’ follows a similar path but as it develops there are moments that feel somewhat musical.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): Was this the first Phinney/McGee release since Usufruct (HR144)? I wasn’t sure if there had been another new one on someone else’s label.
Chris Phinney (CP): Yes, this was the first Phinney/McGee since Usufruct. We hadn’t released anything on anybody else’s label. Hal had sent me all his raw material through the mail before we met to record Usufruct, but I hadn’t finish it yet.
JK: The Usufruct album was recorded the year before (1989) when you visited Hal in Florida. Heads was a mail collaboration. Mail collaborations were common and you were both old hands at it by this point but given your explanation of the process of freely improvising Usufruct in person during that interview, I’m curious how it felt recording individually by mail trading tapes. Positives? Negatives? Just like any other mail collaboration?
CP: It was just like Hal was in the room working with me. But it’s probably one of the main reasons it’s not as warm as Usufruct. I was working with his material which was raw, with no effects. So, I added effects to his stuff and then did mine on top of it. It’s more cold electronics as opposed to the warm electronics of the other Phinney/McGee releases that we’ve done.
JK: Can you expand on what you mean by ‘cold’ electronics’?
CP: Cold electronics means that the material doesn’t float in space. It can, but it’s just harder. It doesn’t have as much delay or reverb. It doesn’t have the floating space electronic feel like the others.
JK: Do you think the results were more ‘deliberate’ with the mail collaboration vs. live improvisation?
CP: I think more time was spent with this because it was a mail collaboration. We’ve only done one other mail collaboration and it was more of an internet collaboration. It was a totally different type of material.
JK: How much back and forth swapping of tapes was required to complete Heads?
CP: As far as I recall Hal just sent me all the source material at one time and I finished it.
JK: Side A has five shorter tracks in the 4-6 minute range. But they seem to flow nicely. What was your thought in breaking them down like that rather than more extended tracks?
CP: Hal sent them to me broken down like that.
JK: I can never resist asking about your track titles. Which one of you came up with them and was there any rhyme, reason, inside joke, etc. to them?
CP: All of these track titles came from me looking at stuff that was sitting around in my studio. Like ‘The Cigar That Breathes’ was written on a Roi Tan cigar box. ‘Indelible Purple’ is a color I had seen in my shop/recording studio. ‘Danger-Gasoline!’ is taken from a gas tank for a boat. I had a ski boat at that time. ‘If Swallowed, Do Not Induce Vomiting!’ was from some kind of chemical I had in the shop. That’s what it said on the can. ‘Rub In Thoroughly, Repeat Four Times A Year For Best Results’ was some kind of furniture polish. ‘Consistency For Patching’ is plaster that you mix. ‘Safe-Positive-Tamperproof’ is from a chemical that kids can’t get into.
JK: By the way, ‘Consistency For Patching’ is one of my favorites.
CP: If you consider the time constraints, we started this thing March 18, 1989 and it was July 1990 when I finished it. So, it took quite a while to finish.
Chris Phinney and Hal McGee’s first collaboration (Usufruct – HR144) was recorded during Chris’ October 1989 visit to in Florida. Heads was their second collaboration and done by mail.
Side A consists of five tracks. ‘Danger-Gasoline!’ opens with a repetitive pulse that’s like an electronic foghorn announcing a ship coming into dock, accompanied by bleepy bubbly tones, lightly rushing wind, and other similar yet playful bubbles and gurgles. ‘The Cigar That Breathes’ continues this theme, feeling very sound exploratory and the foghorn at times is like a groaning spectre from ‘beyond’, almost like it’s talking, accompanied by whizzing and whirring electronics. With ‘Indelible Purple’ it’s all starting to come together like painting a deep space environment, as if I were alone on a drifting spacecraft. I remember reviews of the first Alien movie liked to describe it as ‘claustrophobic’ and this reminds me of that. It feels barren, yet there’s activity, some of which could be the sounds of the craft and others which are clearly alien. The pace picks up with ‘Safe-Positive-Tamperproof’, with a skittish sandpapery pattern and a fireworks constellation of space electronics and effects. This segues into the even more busily animated ‘Keep A Spare’.
Side B opens with ‘Consistency For Patching’, a space/alien sound exploratory piece that also has a 1950s/60s sci-fi soundtrack quality. I can hear an eerie voiceover in my mind’s eye as the effects buzz, dance, gurgle and soar. ‘If Swallowed, Do Not Induce Vomiting!’ is next and is somewhat similar but with more of a space-industrial machine shop quality, before melting back into the previous theme. Finally, the 14-minute ‘Rub In Thoroughly, Repeat Four Times A Year For Best Results’ follows a similar path but as it develops there are moments that feel somewhat musical.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): Was this the first Phinney/McGee release since Usufruct (HR144)? I wasn’t sure if there had been another new one on someone else’s label.
Chris Phinney (CP): Yes, this was the first Phinney/McGee since Usufruct. We hadn’t released anything on anybody else’s label. Hal had sent me all his raw material through the mail before we met to record Usufruct, but I hadn’t finish it yet.
JK: The Usufruct album was recorded the year before (1989) when you visited Hal in Florida. Heads was a mail collaboration. Mail collaborations were common and you were both old hands at it by this point but given your explanation of the process of freely improvising Usufruct in person during that interview, I’m curious how it felt recording individually by mail trading tapes. Positives? Negatives? Just like any other mail collaboration?
CP: It was just like Hal was in the room working with me. But it’s probably one of the main reasons it’s not as warm as Usufruct. I was working with his material which was raw, with no effects. So, I added effects to his stuff and then did mine on top of it. It’s more cold electronics as opposed to the warm electronics of the other Phinney/McGee releases that we’ve done.
JK: Can you expand on what you mean by ‘cold’ electronics’?
CP: Cold electronics means that the material doesn’t float in space. It can, but it’s just harder. It doesn’t have as much delay or reverb. It doesn’t have the floating space electronic feel like the others.
JK: Do you think the results were more ‘deliberate’ with the mail collaboration vs. live improvisation?
CP: I think more time was spent with this because it was a mail collaboration. We’ve only done one other mail collaboration and it was more of an internet collaboration. It was a totally different type of material.
JK: How much back and forth swapping of tapes was required to complete Heads?
CP: As far as I recall Hal just sent me all the source material at one time and I finished it.
JK: Side A has five shorter tracks in the 4-6 minute range. But they seem to flow nicely. What was your thought in breaking them down like that rather than more extended tracks?
CP: Hal sent them to me broken down like that.
JK: I can never resist asking about your track titles. Which one of you came up with them and was there any rhyme, reason, inside joke, etc. to them?
CP: All of these track titles came from me looking at stuff that was sitting around in my studio. Like ‘The Cigar That Breathes’ was written on a Roi Tan cigar box. ‘Indelible Purple’ is a color I had seen in my shop/recording studio. ‘Danger-Gasoline!’ is taken from a gas tank for a boat. I had a ski boat at that time. ‘If Swallowed, Do Not Induce Vomiting!’ was from some kind of chemical I had in the shop. That’s what it said on the can. ‘Rub In Thoroughly, Repeat Four Times A Year For Best Results’ was some kind of furniture polish. ‘Consistency For Patching’ is plaster that you mix. ‘Safe-Positive-Tamperproof’ is from a chemical that kids can’t get into.
JK: By the way, ‘Consistency For Patching’ is one of my favorites.
CP: If you consider the time constraints, we started this thing March 18, 1989 and it was July 1990 when I finished it. So, it took quite a while to finish.