V/A - The Quiet Space Sampler (Disembraining Songs, 1998)

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murmur
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V/A - The Quiet Space Sampler (Disembraining Songs, 1998)

Post by murmur »

This tape is a great illustration of how rich the 90s industrial scene was, even in one of its relatively obscure corners. Per the liner notes, it was meant to coincide with a series of shows at the titular venue in 1996 here in Toronto, but those didn’t happen and the tape didn’t see the light of day until a few years later.

Four artists appear on the comp: The Proposed Frequency, Organism, Dust That Collects, and Songs of the New Erotics. While they all fall broadly into the cassette-culture/underground industrial zone, the specifics vary greatly.

The first side starts with two tracks from Proposed Frequency. These seem to be (appropriately) radio-focussed, with cuts into transmissions, static of various flavours underlying looped speech which also has a radio-broadcast quality and has a creepy, mysterious shortwave feel to it. Really interesting, non-musical stuff. Organism follows, with the most musical material on the tape. Nice synth sounds, song structure more or less, etc., but not very memorable, at least for me.

The second side, one track each from Dust That Collects and Songs of the New Erotics, is right in the industrial-cassette culture zone. Dust That Collects opens with some of the most wonked-out guitar, and violin sounds I’ve ever heard. It sounds like they’re recorded via functioning air duct. What follows is a series of baffling, mostly electronic sounds, many of which could be from the Radiophonic Workshop, one suddenly cutting to the next. Finally, the Songs of the New Erotics track is a really beautiful piece of synth drone that eventually fades into repeated drum hits, what sounds like audio from a French movie, then ends with hollow, air vent synths.

I’m no expert, but it doesn’t seem that any of the artists featured here are household names, even in relative terms. Despite this, it’s a really compelling set of tracks that show a high level of artistry. It’s beautiful that these recordings exist and have survived nearly 30 years, for us to prod at and wonder about.

More info here: https://www.discogs.com/release/5739298 ... uiet-Space
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Re: V/A - The Quiet Space Sampler (Disembraining Songs, 1998)

Post by Scream & Writhe »

Completely unknown to me. Toronto and Montreal of this era have a lot of these very obscure and under the radar artists and releases. I feel like some of these people still propagate on the absolute fringes of our underground, evinced by acts playing the long-running Mardi Spaghetti nights here in Montreal that seem to involve people of this very same ilk. One of the projects at tonight's MS iteration had members with involvement in the nether-niches of the Montreal underground dating back to the late 90s (tapping into another extension of a more fringe Canadian underground: the Francophone scene).
murmur wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2024 10:54 pm More info here: https://www.discogs.com/release/5739298 ... uiet-Space
As soon as I saw "neoism" referenced in the release description I knew there had to be some Phÿcus involvement. And sure enough, Songs of the New Erotics is an alias of Bill Satan from Phÿcus, who also ran Dismembraining Songs.
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Re: V/A - The Quiet Space Sampler (Disembraining Songs, 1998)

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Scream & Writhe wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2024 11:16 pm Bill Satan from Phÿcus, who also ran Dismembraining Songs.
Digging a little deeper, Bill Satan is AKA W. A. Davidson who’s still around doing shows here. Interesting.

Edit: he’s also got a cool YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@wadavison?si=Rv9BaRZiGouChGPP
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Re: V/A - The Quiet Space Sampler (Disembraining Songs, 1998)

Post by Thomas_B »

murmur wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2024 11:59 pm
Scream & Writhe wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2024 11:16 pm Bill Satan from Phÿcus, who also ran Dismembraining Songs.
Digging a little deeper, Bill Satan is AKA W. A. Davidson who’s still around doing shows here. Interesting.

Edit: he’s also got a cool YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@wadavison?si=Rv9BaRZiGouChGPP
WA Davison is a genuine head who’s in it for life. He’s an unsung hero of noise and experimental music in Canada. I first saw him perform in the early aughts when I first started getting into this stuff, and most recently saw him do an excellent set at the Tranzac on a bill with Fleshtone Aura, Toanche Dwelling, among others.
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Re: V/A - The Quiet Space Sampler (Disembraining Songs, 1998)

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Thomas_B wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2024 8:49 am on a bill with Fleshtone Aura, Toanche Dwelling, among others.
Would pawn a bollock to see this
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Re: V/A - The Quiet Space Sampler (Disembraining Songs, 1998)

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Thomas_B wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2024 8:49 am Tranzac on a bill with Fleshtone Aura, Toanche Dwelling, among others.
Barrett told me that was his first show, at least as Toanche Dwelling. Crazy.
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Re: V/A - The Quiet Space Sampler (Disembraining Songs, 1998)

Post by Thomas_B »

It was an excellent live debut!
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