Music by Hal McGee
Indianapolis, Middle Period, 1984 and 1985
This music was recorded in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the time that Debbie Jaffe and I lived at 5015 1/2 North Winthrop Avenue. This period began with the purchase of our first 4-track cassette recorder. We started and operated the Cause And Effect International Cassette Distribution Service during this time. We started our solo projects: Jaffe's Master/Slave Relationship, and my Dog As Master.
Indianapolis, Middle Period, 1986
Indianapolis, Final Period, 1987-1988
Apollo Beach, Florida, 1988-1991
Gainesville, Florida, 1995-present
VISCERA
"Lying With The Beast"
Sex & Bestiality International Report
4 x C90 cassette compilation, released on the D.f.Sadist School label, A Bain Total Product, France, 1984)
3:11 -- 4.37 MB mp3
VISCERA
"A Cruel Accident Of Mindless Nature"
from Sensationnel, Le Journal 3/4 compilation (Illusion Production label, IP22, France, 1984)
2:47 -- 3.8 MB mp3
Master/Slave Relationship The Desire To Castrate Father
Debbie Jaffe's first MSR cassette, from 1985, featured Hal's brother, Mark McGee, on drums. Hal McGee played synthesizer on one song, "Sauve Qui Peut".
Click here for more information on MSR
VISCERA
"Thinking Without Words"
from the Hear The Roar Of Mountains compilation (audiofile Tapes, AT2B, USA, 1985)
4:26 -- 6.09 MB mp3
A black body is an object that absorbs all electromagnetic radiation that falls onto it. No radiation passes through it and none is reflected, yet in classical physics, it can theoretically radiate any possible wavelength of energy. Wikipedia.
DOG AS MASTER "Disastrous Consequences" from the Dry Lungs compilation LP, 1985, produced by Paul Lemos, Placebo Records, Phoenix
2:17 -- 3.15 MB mp3
Trivia: On the cover of the Dry Lungs LP, Dog As Master is listed as being from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I have never even set foot in Milwaukee, driven through, or flown over.
original Cause And Effect cassette release cover pictured above
cover from Freedom In A Vacuum label reissue
VISCERA
"Mons Veneris"
from the Homo Sexpiens Project compilation (3RIO Tapes label, Belgium, 1985)
3:59 -- 5.49 MB mp3
Trivia: The song by Viscera on the Homo Sexpiens Project is listed incorrectly on the cassette info insert and on the box that housed the tape and booklet as "Mons Vernis". Also, the noisy sounds you hear at the end of "Mons Veneris" arefrom the beginning of Merzbow's "Corruption" track, which is mixed in with the end of the Viscera song.
Listen to and download (Hi Fi 192 kbps -- ideal for broadband, high speed Internet connections) mp3 files of these tracks. Click on the HIFI button to stream the tracks. To save these files onto your computer, right click on the DOWNLOAD button and choose Save Target As.
Who Is This One was the third full-length cassette release by the duo of Hal McGee and Debbie Jaffe, and the first recorded with a 4-track cassette recorder (a Fostex X-15). All of the previous tapes were recorded direct to 2-track stereo (or mono) cassette. Originally released by Cause And Effect. Re-released by Harsh Reality Music in 1990.
In the Spring of 1984 we bought several pieces of new equipment, probably
right after we received our income tax return check. We purchased a Moog
Rogue analog synthesizer (new for about $320 from a shop in Noblesville,
Indiana), a Fostex 3050 digital delay rack mount unit, and a used set
of Pearl Syncussion synthesizer drums.
More significantly, we acquired our
first multi-track tape recorder, a Fostex X-15 4-track cassette recorder,
for something like $450. The 4-track cassette recorder was a real breakthrough
for home recording artists: multi-track recording at a reasonable price.
This opened up all kinds of possibilities and newfound freedom to explore
new sound dimensions.
I argued with Debbie against buying
a 4-track recorder. I can vividly remember sitting with Deb and our friend
Toby O'Brien near a fountain at the Lafayette Square shopping mall in
Indianapolis. I just kept saying over and over again that getting a 4-track
recorder would "change things". Up to this point most all of
our recordings together as Viscera (on our tapes In A Foreign Film
and A Whole Universe Of Horror Movies) were essentially recorded
live direct to tape through a stereo microphone, with both of us playing
and vocalizing, at the same time, in the same room. I feared that if we
started using a multi-track recorder that the direct, "real"
genuineness of our artistic expression would be compromised. So much of
the Viscera sound up to this point had relied on the intuitive interaction
between Deb and I as we spontaneously created our songs and sound poems.
Who Is This One continues with many of the same dark contemplative themes we had already explored, but with less innocence and naivete, and a good deal more calculation for certain effects.
"Red Houses", the first track on Side B of the tape, is a surreal story about a bad acid trip. Over a simple synthesizer line, there are three overlapping layers of my voice. It was night time as I wandered through a quiet residential district. Suddenly, all of the houses to the north started glowing blue in color and all those to the south glowed red. I knew that I needed to walk south to get back home, but I feared the red houses. The blue houses to the north reminded me of my brother's eyes, and therefore seemed friendly and safe. I was tormented by this awful conflict and started screaming out my brother's name. Finally, I was so torn up with fear and dread that I got down on the ground and started banging my head on the ground, and knocked myself out. When I woke up I found myself sitting in a ditch in cold water six inches deep, with a policeman's squad car light shining in my eyes.
Released
on the Cause And Effect label.
Re-released
by Harsh Reality Music.
"Who Is This One Part One" 23:12 -- 31.8 MB mp3
Side One of the tape: Clipboard Bodies / dreams perhaps too beautiful / Bleed in my bath / Sleep Away / Initiative/Attraction To Shame / Hanging Pictures / Floor falling out / leid / Field Glasses
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"Who Is This One Part Two" 21:11 -- 29.1 MB mp3
Side Two of the tape: Red Houses / Wednesday night / Abortive attempts / east / This one
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My beloved Moog Rogue analog synthesizer
photo by Jaffe
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Dog As Master An Organized Accident
(originally released on cassette in 1984, C47)
An Organized Accident was the first cassette release by Dog As Master, Hal McGee's solo recording project, originally released on the Sound Of Pig Music label (SOP 19) in 1985. Side One of the tape was a 23-minute piece by McGee, with words written by McGee and Debbie Jaffe. Side Two was a collaboration of Dog As Master and If, Bwana (Al Margolis) - the first collaboration of several by Bwana Dog.
Side One of the tape: Dog As Master: "Perfect And Silent, Plain And Insignificant" 23:48 -- 32.6 MB
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Dog As Master/If, Bwana "An Organized Accident Part Two" 22:18 -- 30.6 MB
Side Two of the tape: Unintentional Laughter / Dead, But He Won't Lie Down / A Sense Of Exhilaration In The Absurd / The Chinese Prestidigitator / Sad Acrobats Remain Impassive
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Dog As Master Coffee Spleen & The Barking Dog
(originally released on cassette in 1984, C30)
Coffee Spleen & The Barking Dog was the second cassette tape release of my solo project Dog As Master. I recorded this album during the time that I lived at 821 North Pennsylvania Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. The music was constructed with a Fostex X-15 four-track cassette recorder. Side One of the Coffee Spleen & The Barking Dog tape is titled "Slimy Stew And Pussy Gruel", a bizarre collage with strange voices, tape manipulations, electronics, disjointed acoustic piano, percussion and screeching noise...a noisy nightmare soundtrack. Side Two is "Slash Gash Hard And Cruel", a 17-minute onslaught of distortion, feedback, and noise created entirely with electric guitar, delay and 4-track. Released on the Cause And Effect label.
Side One of the tape: "Slimy Stew And Pussy Gruel" 15:09 -- 20.8 MB mp3
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Side Two of the tape: "Slash Gash Hard And Cruel" 14:27 -- 19.8 MB mp3
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Hal McGee and Zan Hoffman in the Cause And Effect studio, November 1984. Zan recorded three of his early tapes -- Zanstones 3 > Crawling Up The Wall To Trip Over the Ceiling, Zanstones 8 >Achtesteinzeitaltermusik and the Prostitution of Absurdity during two of his three visits to our homes.
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Cause And Effect January 1985 Catalogue Aural Sampler (C72)
In early 1985 Debbie Jaffe
and I officially launched the Cause And Effect International Cassette
Distribution Service. We distributed cassettes of homemade, independent
and underground experimental, electronic and industrial music by artists
in USA, Belgium, France, England, Canada, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy,
Northern Ireland, Switzerland, and Japan. This aural sampler
cassette contained
30-second excerpts from every cassette listed in the
the Cause And Effect
January 1985 Catalogue. In the future look for a special section of this
site in which I will publish scans of the pages of the catalogue,
which included small pictures of the tape covers as well
as short descriptions. Presented here is the entire January 85 Aural Sampler,
divided into four sections to make it easier for you to follow along with
the lists of the artists and cassettes. I hope that you will enjoy this
historical document which contains audio snapshots of the early cassette
music scene.
"Cause And Effect January 1985 Catalogue Aural Sampler Part 1" 17:25 -- 23.9 MB mp3
the first half of - Side One of the tape:
ANATOMY OF COINCIDENCE compilation / OSLWMMGIB? / DEGA-RAY Clasp/Click / ROBERT RICH Sunyata / ROBERT RICH Trances / ROBERT RICH Drones / ARCHITECTS OFFICE Memorial Issue / ARCHITECTS OFFICE Flowmotion / ARCHITECTS OFFICE Dispensation / PASCAL COMELADE Milano Enarmonisto / NEW 7TH MUSIC New Humanity Switchboard / NEW 7TH MUSIC Modella / PAUL KELDAY / Worlds Apart / YARD TRAUMA Reptile House / MANS HATE Suffer In Silence / OBJEKT #2 compilation / PSYCLONES AND SCHLAFENGARTEN Life Is Like Death With The Lights On / PSYCLONES AKA-DPL / MAYBE MENTAL Animisum II / SCHLAFENGARTEN Torque / SCHLAFENGARTEN Memorandum / (Legendary Pink Dots from the) CADAVRES EXQUIS compilation / S/M Operations LIVE AT THE HARRINGTON BALLROOM compilation / FETUS IN FETU / VISCERA Who Is This One / VISCERA A Whole Universe Of Horror Movies / VISCERA In A Foreign Film / SADISTIC GOSSIP - MARY DAVIS KILLS MARY DAVIS KILLS Confessions Of A Shit Addict / BLACKHOUSE / Pro-Life / GERTIE Overdoses Of Roses
MP3 DELETED
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"Cause And Effect January 1985 Catalogue Aural Sampler Part 2" 18:28 -- 25.3 MB mp3
the second half of - Side One of the tape:
TASTE OF TONGUES compilation / SLEEP CHAMBER Music For Mannequins / (Nocturnal Emissions from) BAND-IT #16 cassettezine / DEFICIT DES ANNEES ANTERIEURES La Famille Des Saltimbanques / GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA Live In Antwerpen / SWAMP PATROL 84 / CLEANERS FROM VENUS Under Wartime Conditions / TWA DIGS UNDER PARIS I Shin Ohn / AVANT-DERNIERE PENSEES Arte Deschecho / ARTLESS TIME Shells From The Italian (A)isle / ARTLESS TIME Inarticulate Volition / THE PHALLACY / SENSATIONNEL 2 LE JOURNAL compilation / DEFICIT DES ANNEES ANTERIEURES Prehistoric Rejet / KEVIN HARRISON - STEVEN PARKER Against The Light / UN DEPARTEMENT / FaLX cerebRi Rite 64 / GUT LEVEL ONE: A Compilation / PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE BRANCH / THE LAST SUPPER compilation / SMERSH Make Way For The Rumbler / WALLS OF GENIUS Before ...And After / WALLS OF GENIUS Crazed To The Core / JACK Up / NOISY BUT CHIC compilation / BLOODY BUT CHIC compilation / BENE GESSERIT Live In Belgium And Holland / 4 IN 1 compilation / INSANE MUSIC FOR INSANE PEOPLE Vol. 3 compilation / INSANE MUSIC FOR INSANE PEOPLE Vol. 2 compilation / INSANE MUSIC FOR INSANE PEOPLE Vol. 1 compilation
MP3 DELETED
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"Cause And Effect January 1985 Catalogue Aural Sampler Part 3" 15:51 -- 21.7 MB mp3
the first half of - Side Two of the tape:
MAGTHEA The Chilliness Of These Sounds Is My Cell / MAGTHEA AND SOFT JOKE A Soft Magisch Joke Theaterproduction / MAGTHEA Nothing Left To Believe In / MAGTHEA Magthea And Insanity / MAGTHEA AND MR. MINIMUM / AUDIO COMMUNICATION COMPILATION #3 / AUDIO COMMUNICATION COMPILATION #6 / THEATRE OF ICE Beyond The Graves Of Passion / THEATRE OF ICE The Haunting / OCCUPANT No Specific Answer / MARCO CACCIAMANI Step / HTHeW Galaxy / PLINY THE ELDER Torpid Liver/TIM ZUKOWSKI Observations, split tape / AUDIOLOGIE compilation / VOX POPULI! Introduction A La Theorie De La Subjectivite / RITUAL DOS SADICOS compilation / ONSLAUGHT #5 cassettezine / ONSLAUGHT #4 cassettezine / ONSLAUGHT #3 cassettezine / L.A. MANTRA II compilation / L.A. MANTRA / RANDALL KENNEDY Scenes Of Redemption / MYSTERY HEARSAY / 60 MINUTES OF LAUGHTER / JOHN WIGGINS Anagenic / X RAY POP After Bathing At Berlin With Adolf / DOG AS MASTER Coffee Spleen & The Barking Dog
MP3 DELETED
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"Cause And Effect January 1985 Catalogue Aural Sampler Part 4" 19:39 -- 26.9 MB mp3
the second half of - Side Two of the tape:
TARA CROSS Concocting Chaos / BENJAMIN ALLEN Film Soundtracks / VIT0 R1CCI Postones / JARBOE Jar / GARGOYLE MECHANIQUE House Of Dogs / MALCOLM Macac / THE ROOM 101 O.P.D. September 1984 / BANDE BERNE CREMATOIRE / NISUS ANAL FURGLER / DRUNKEN DOLPHINS / AURAL FIXATION compilation / IF, BWANA Freudian Slip / BIG CITY ORCHESTRA Number Five / F/i Zombie / RICHARD FRANECKI Points / RICHARD FRANECKI Two Drones / P16.D4 Wer Nicht Arbeiten Will Soll Such Auch Nicht Essen! / TEST DEPARTMENT Live At The Ritz New York July 1984 / DER AKTEUR The Accident In The Year Dada X / POLAR PRAXIS Werk Een / PTOSE Poisson Soluble / O'NANCY IN FRENCH / ROBERTA EKLUND Piano Improvisations / MR. HERZ Herziaanse Golven / HASHIMOTO Makuraga / TAKAHASHI-NUMAZAWA-HASHIMOTO Koutei / MASTER/SLAVE RELATIONSHIP The Desire To Castrate Father
MP3 DELETED
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Viscera Hot And Cold
(originally released on cassette in 1985, C31)
Hot And Cold
was
the fourth full-length cassette release by the duo of Hal McGee and Debbie
Jaffe. It was a compilation of Viscera songs that
had appeared on various international compilations. They were all recorded
between April 1984 to May 1985.
"Nation" appeared on Beyond Step One, a
compilation by Sound Of Pig Music, of Flushing, New York. Sound Of Pig
was one of the quintessential hometaper labels of the underground scene
in the 1980s, operated by our dear friend Al Margolis. Some of the other
artists on the the tape were Walls Of Genius, Het Zweet, Unovidual, Muslimgauze,
F/i, ABC Mutes, Psychodrama and X Ray Pop. "Nation" was a song
I composed about how all of our best friends lived far from us, in other
parts of the U.S. or in foreign lands; that our true nation was composed
of these unique individuals who created such personal, weird and idiosyncratic
music.
"Stupid Bright Day" by Viscera was one of 27 tracks
on the Objekt No. 2 International Compilation, put out by the Ladd-Frith
label of Eureka, California. Brian Ladd and Julie Frith were two of our
closest and dearest friends at the time. They recorded lots of great punk-
and industrial-inflected rock under the name Psyclones. Their Ladd-Frith
label was one of the great indie labels of the early 80s. Some of the
other artists were Vox Populi!, Smersh, If Bwana, Twa Digs Under Paris,
Problemist, Walls Of Genius, Psyclones, Asmus Tietchens, F/i, Human Flesh,
Schlafengarten, Architects Office, Blackhouse, Pacific 231, Minimal Man.
"Unjustly Accused" was a satirical song I wrote
after reading an interview with William Bennett of Whitehouse in Unsound
magazine. It appeared on a two tape compilation that accompanied the
Zamizdat Trade Journal #2, of Boulder, Colorado. ZTJ was published
by Joel Haertling and members of the group Architects Office. Other recording
artists on the tape included Etant Donnes, Human Flesh, Gerechtigkeits
Liga, K2, L'Eponge Synthetique, Smegma, Psyclones/ Schlafengarten, Architects
Office, Merz, DDAA, Fetus In Fetu, Pacific 231, Neo Zelanda, Stan Brakhage,
Camera Obscura, Haters.
Deb's song "IDBM" was on Alain Neffe's Bloody
But Chic compilation. Other people on the tape included Psyclones,
Der Akteur, F/i, Architects Office, DDAA, Merzbow, Magthea, Human Flesh,
Nisus Anal Furgler, Gerechtigkeits Liga, The Starkman and 15 others. Neffe's
Insane Music (Trazegnies, Belgium) was one of the first great underground
tape labels, and he was one of the grandfathers of the hometaper movement.
He was putting out tapes in the mid 1970s into the 80s under various names
and in various groups such as Pseudo Code, Human Flesh, Bene Gesserit,
Cortex, M.A.L., Japanese Genius and others. In the 1980s he released lots
of great essential compilations featuring early recordings by artists
who have gone on to some popularity and notoriety, such as Bourbonese
Qualk, Merzbow, Legendary Pink Dots, Colin Potter, Front Line Assembly,
etc.
"Silent Friend" originally appeared on the Pas
De Deux compilation LP record, released by Auxiliio De Cientos, Spain.
Other artists included Algebra Suicide, Psyclones and Bene Gesserit. "Silent
Friend" also appeared on RRRecords' 3XLP record box set compilation
God Bless America (Lowell, Massachusetts).
Unfortunately, we did not list in the liner notes of Hot
And Cold which compilation each song appeared on; and I just can't
remember all of them. Perhaps in time I will re-discover this information.
The title track "Hot And Cold" is a freaky song
based on a story about another bad LSD trip. I took a hit of acid before
going to see William S. Burroughs and John Giorno give a spoken word performance
at the Vogue Theater in Indianapolis. When the drug kicked in my face
felt like it was burning up. I had to run to the bathroom to splash cold
water on my face. I got back to my seat and my face started feeling like
it was freezing. I ran back to the bathroom to dowse my face in hot water.
This went on all evening. All the while, as I was tripping out, my mind
kept ticking off the numerals 0, 1 and 2. I kept thinking that these were
the primary numbers around which all existence revolved, or some such
nonsense...
Released
on the Cause And Effect label.
"Hot And Cold Part One" 13:04 -- 17.9 MB mp3
Side One of the tape: Stupid Bright Day / Wasted And Wanted / Nation / Vertigo / No Meaning
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"Hot And Cold Part Two" 17:33 -- 24.1 MB mp3
Side Two of the tape: Silent Friend / IDBM / Plague Buckets / Unjustly Accused / Hot And Cold
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Dog As Master Black Body
(originally released on cassette in 1985, C37)
Black
Body was
the third cassette tape release of my solo project Dog As Master. I recorded
this album with a Fostex X-15 four-track cassette recorder. This is one
of the best and one of my favorite Dog As Master albums, and is highly
recommended as a good starting place for getting acquainted with DAM.
One 36 minute tape collage, meticulously laid out in overlapping layers
of shrill synthesizer trills and patterns, cascades of tape cut-ups, voice
choruses, and noise blasts from a Commodore 64 data cassette. This took
me about six months to create. Black Body is noisy and chaotic, yet highly
listenable, with a thrilling and high energy electronic sound. Symphonic
grandeur, positive anger, with a touch of Residents whimsy. Released
on the Cause And Effect label.
review by Alessandro Aiello, Constrictor, 1985:
"BLACK BODY is a strong suite that has the same serenity and awareness
of a powerful precious work even if it's composed of a cluster of sound-noise-music
and by a series of pauses, models of sounds. McGee's answer to the high
concept of creating a connection with serial electronic music."
Side One of the tape: "Black Body (Part One)" 17:49 -- 24.4 MB mp3
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Side Two of the tape: "Black Body (Part Two)" 19:00 -- 26.1 MB mp3
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The Concrete Etendue
(originally released on cassette in early 1985, C13)
The Concrete
Etendue
was a one-time collaborative effort of Debbie Jaffe and Hal McGee with
a foreign high school exchange student from Liege, Belgium, Eric Therer
(who was staying with a family in Marion, Indiana at the time). A rarity,
originally released on the Cause And Effect label.
Sort of cold-beat industrial with French-language vocals by Eric.
For completists only.
"The Concrete Etendue Part One" 5:30 -- 7.5 MB mp3
Side One of the tape: The Dark Fields (00:00-02:14) / La Court (02:14-05:30)
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"The Concrete Etendue Part Two" 6:52 -- 9.4 MB mp3
Side Two of the tape: Perdu (00:00-03:23) / Fevrier Funk (03:23-06:52)
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Dog As Master Trompeur Et Sournois
(originally released on cassette in 1985, C46)
Hewn from the same mass of sonic material as Black Body, Trompeur Et Sournois is a real test of your stereo equipment and your endurance. Thumbing my nose, slap in your face, a sadistic twist and pinch in sound. Over and over again, no matter how much it hurts. It is the quieter parts which make the roof-shakingly loud parts all the more painful. Released on the Cause And Effect label; re-released by Freedom In A Vacuum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1990).
review
by Mike Gunderloy, Factsheet Five, 1985:
"Usually I'm not all that thrilled with experimental music, but
I took a shine to this one, perhaps because of its outright obnoxiousness.
Most of the tape is somewhere between dead silence and low-level white
noise. But the listener who cranks it up will be sorry, because this is
punctuated at irregular intervals by blasts of electronic sound. Not easy
to listen to, but strangely rewarding."
Side One of the tape: "Trompeur Et Sournois (Part One)" 22:59 -- 31.5 MB mp3
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Side Two of the tape: "Trompeur Et Sournois (Part Two)" 22:43 -- 31.2 MB mp3
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Dog As Master Brash Pussy
(originally released on cassette in 1985, as a C59)
Brash Pussy was originally released on the French power electronics/noise label 3AP/Le Syndicat, Paris in 1985, and later by Sound Of Pig Music in 1986. The title track is a 30-minute massive sound destruction collage that explodes into chaotic raging frenzied foaming at the mouth lust-rage. Tapes of Turkish music, synthesizers, percussion, one particularly nasty phrase screamed over and over again (an aural ejaculation of lust, inspired by Debbie Jaffe). Noise filth sound damage with a wry grin. A satire of power electronics and its concomitant obsessions of perversion, hard sex and sodomy. Side B of the Brash Pussy tape is not offered here because it is merely Side A backwards.
Listener discretion advised.
Listen in Streaming Audio to a Hi Fi 192 kbps mp3 for Broad Band Internet Connection
Download a Hi Fi 192 kbps 40.2 MB mp3
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Viscera Get In The Action
(originally released on cassette in 1985, C37)
Get In The Action
was
the fifth full-length cassette release by the duo of Hal McGee and Debbie
Jaffe, released
on the Cause And Effect label. Re-released
by Harsh Reality Music in 1990.
"Get In The Action Part One" 20:29 -- 28.1 MB mp3
Side One of the tape: Sleeping People / Strange New Failures / Relax / Get In The Action / Falling Backwards
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"Get In The Action Part Two" 15:35 -- 21.4 MB mp3
Side Two of the tape: Noir / Feeling As If / Get Carried Away