GEN KEN MONTGOMERY

Postcards 1981 - 1986 

Vinyl on Demand  2lp  2012

Gen Ken Montgomery, a New York-based Visual Artist and Sound Composer is absolutely genuine; he has no training in traditional music or art. He was never a follower of any direction or school. Instead he founded his own school of off-beat DIY-electronics, driven by irresistible curiosity and ingenuous enthusiasm for sound experimentation and process-oriented performance.

His music is dense and full of polyrhythms and counter harmonies with singular control over layers of randomly pulsing, bleeping synthesizers and drum boxes. As a composer in the early eighties Ken was creating multi-channel sound works often performed in total darkness.

He began his sound explorations with electronic toys, cheap synthesizers and household gadgetry for which he had a special fascination. His ever present objects of affection are electric machines including an ice crusher (ICEBREAKER), aquarium pump, refrigerator, shoe shine machine, hand massager and a laminator (The Sound of Lamination).

Postcards has 41 (!!) tracks; 22 tracks on LP 1 compiled from his first tape Gen Ken & Equipment (1981), his second tape Collaborations (1982), his third official tape Kalkreuth Keks (1986), recorded at Conrad Schnitzler’s Studio, and several live recordings under the name KMZ with Michael Zodorozny of Crash Course in Science. Postcards LP2 includes 19 songs from the 4th official tape Beatmusik 1981-84 (SoP186) released by Sound of Pig, New York, songs from 1984 on his 5th release Room to Roam on Out Of The Blue, Berlin, plus 3 previously unreleased tracks from the same time period, one also as KMZ.

Gen Ken & Equipment was self-produced in an edition of 150 tapes in 1981 and led Montgomery to corresponding and trading tapes in the international Cassette Culture and Mail Art network, leading to relationships and collaborations with such luminaries in the underground music scene as Conrad Schnitzler, Giancarlo Tonuitti, CHOP SHOP, David Lee Myers (Arcane Device), Al Margolis, John Hudak, Francisco Lopez, AMK, Istvan Kantor (Monty Cantsin), G.X. Jupiter-Larsen (The Haters), Rod Summers (VEC), Maurizio Bianchi, Masami Akita alias Merzbow, CM von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren among others.

“Cassettes were an inexpensive and practical way of getting feedback from the developing international community of sound/noise/music experimenters. Cassettes allowed for spontaneous freedom and experimentation without the burden and commitment of releasing vinyl which was expensive to mail and costly to press in editions of less than 500”- gkm

Montgomery used the earliest Casio keyboards, self made electronic gadgets, cheap drum boxes and his favorite instrument, the Korg MS-20 synthesizer. The mixture of noise/pop/rock/electronic and soundscapes all on one cassette show how musical genres hadn’t become entrenched in the Cassette Culture scene yet. “Do it!”, “Small World” and “Treat The Hell Out of It” (released as a flexi-disc included with Onslaught Magazine (Artwerk) in 1982 are examples of the songs he composed at this time.

In the early 80s in New York City there were still small record shops such as Venus Records, Bleecker Bob’s, Soho Music Gallery and 99 Records that sold artist produced cassettes and fanzines. Independent mail order distributors like Rough Trade and Aeon Records carried Montgomery’s cassettes and On-Slaught Magazine, Option Magazine, Factsheet Five and other small DIY zines listed them or reviewed them.

Montgomery’s interest in structured improvisation and avante-garde theater theatre led to the formation of KMZ with his friend Michael Zodorozny from Crash Course in Science. KMZ performed regularly at the legendary Pyramid-Club in NYC. Tracks from KMZ and collaborations with other artists such as Stephen Spera and Stefan Tischler of Port Said can be found on his 2nd tape Collaborations.

Between 1982 and 85 Montgomery spent time in Berlin combining performance art and electronic music where he had the fortune to meet and develop a relationship with Conrad Schnitzler who has had a major impact on his life and work.

His third official Tape Kalkreuth Keks was recorded in Conrad Schnitzler’s studio during a 2-week stint in the dead of winter 1986. These 8-track recordings incorporated the violin, guitar, and keyboards with analog synthesizers, processing, voice and the “new” sounds of the Yamaha CX5M music computer. Three of the tracks on Postcards are from these sessions.

A 4th cassette Beatmusik, released on Al Margolis Sound-of-Pig-Label (SOP186) in 1988 featured a selection of tracks recorded between 1981 and 86. In 1989 Lord Litter from Berlin also released a fifth Gen Ken-tape called Room To Roam, also with recordings from 1984. A selection from these two tapes can be found on the additional accompanying 7”inch.

In 1987 Montgomery, along with David Prescott and Conrad Schnitzler started the label Generations Unlimited. Two cassettes of cassettes of minimal electronic music, Stepping Through Rooms and The One Sided Triangle were released on Generations Unlimited and in1988, GENCON, a collaboration with Conrad Schnitzler was released on vinyl.

His involvement in the late 70’s and 80’s Cassette-Culture and the Mail-Art movements led to his creation of the first and arguably still the most important Sound Art gallery in New York City in 1989: Generator. Located in the East Village, then in Chelsea, Generator’s wide scope and novel approach toward audio art made it a vector-point for some of the most interesting and important artists from around the world. Gen Ken also founded A.T.M.O.T.W.— Art is Throwing Money Out The Window — and Generator Sound Art Inc., and he co-founded the seminal experimental label Pogus Productions.

The past three decades many of Montgomery’s cassettes, records and CDs have been released in limited editions on small labels outside of mainstream distribution on such respected labels as De Fabriek (Holland), Staalplaat (Holland), Tellus, Mark Lane’s Artwerk, Banned Productions, XI Records (all USA), Firework Edition (Sweden), Old Europa Café (Italy) and Discos Esplendor Geometrico (Spain). Other recorded works are available on his own A.T.M.O.T.W. label, Generator Sound Art and on Touch Radio.

Montgomery continues to produce music and soundworks while also producing visual art, collage, bookmaking, and international correspondence art. As The Minister of Lamination (a.k.a. Egnekn) he is the world’s foremost practitioner of sonic Lamination Art and he continues to mail postcards to friends and collaborators throughout the world. (VOD 2012)

Strange Passion

Explorations in Irish post punk DIY and electronic music 1980-83

Finders Keepers vinyl/cd 2012

Ireland in the late 1970s and early 1980s was an island in the grip of unrest, with civil and political strife in the north, and a tardy economy and religious hegemony in the south. To be young in Ireland at this time was extremely tough with many choosing to follow the well worn path of emigration. A significant number of those that stayed had little choice but to join the dole as employment opportunities were scant. However, the increasing influence of those windows to the wider world such as TV, radio and print were combining to fuel imaginations and plant seeds of disaffection amongst an increasingly sophisticated and pop literate youth desperate for change. Needless to say when punk entered the mainstream the cultural and social conditions were such in Ireland that a new generation of kids were perfectly primed to tap into its energies and values.
Focusing on a three year period from 1980 to 1983, Strange Passion is a compilation of rare, unheralded and unreleased Irish music that emerged after the first wave of punk and new wave bands. A time when the raw primitive sounds of punk began to absorb new ideas and technologies and emerging acts were reaching audiences on an unprecedented scale thanks to new magazines such as Hot Press and Heat, RTE Radio 2 and it’s Fanning Sessions, as well as new youth magazine programmes on national TV like Anything Goes. Access to UK’s broadcasting and magazine cultural behemoths (Peel, NME, Morley etc.) as well as touring bands such as The Clash and PIL also played their part in creating an appetite for this thrilling new subculture and soon venues such as The Magnet, Dandelion and Project Arts Centre in Dublin and Kampus in Cork became significant live music hubs.
This was catalysed by new youth scenes which sprung up particularly in the main urban centres of Belfast, Derry, Dublin and Cork. Fuelled by boredom, antipathy towards society and inspired by the developing DIY scene in the UK, new bands, independent labels fanzines and creative art provocateurs began to emerge. Such was the rapid growth and creative freedom of this new culture that for a couple of years there seemed a constant stream of emerging acts producing work that was both original in content and presentation.
Undoubtedly U2 were the breakthrough act from this new generation of acts. However, others such as Virgin Prunes with their Dadist inspired blend of performance art and punk offered a darker vision tapping into the latent energy of their environs which resulted in extraordinary live events and the odd incendiary TV performance. Live legends, The Threat and Chant! Chant! Chant! were gone almost as soon as they arrived but so fully formed were they already that recordings they did leave behind stand as prime examples of post punk music.
Finders Keepers Records are proud to present the first ever compendium of Irish post punk and new wave - featuring extensive liner notes, rare photos with the full participation of the featured artists and bands.

Karen  Novotny X 

Nothing here now but these recordings: 78-79

Great Pop Supplement vinyl 2012

Karen Novotny X was a short lived electronic project based in Hackney, East London and comprised three members; Cy Levene, Anna Bloom and Niko Nicolotti. Meeting and formulating ideas at the London School of Economics and the Slade School of Art around the dawn of 1978. They resided in a number of East London squats and set up makeshift studios with borrowed equipment and Synthesisers purchased by Levene. A creative rush between the spring of 1978 and the summer of 1979, saw them recording a plethora of music primarily influenced by Disco, a number of key Italian composers, Throbbing Gristle, Krautrock and the industrial sounds coming out of Blooms hometown of Sheffield, not to mention an obsession for Donna Summer's "I Feel Love". This intense 2 year period took its toll on this very close and guarded threesome and they soon found themselves heading off in three directions. Bloom back to her hometown of Sheffield whilst Niko was enlisted to the Italian Army. The tapes -which included last years quick sell out GPS 5 trk 7" and cassette- have been coaxed from the reclusive Levene who now resides in Brussels; and leaves the KN X archives empty, with the release of this full length. So what are we left with? Well Levene now looks back on this short, but eminently fruitful period claiming they were trying to make electronic / disco themed pop music in an attempt to get on to TV. While disco may have been at the heart of KN X, a very different beast lurks within. An often dark, unsettling narrative set to simple drum machines, synthesisers, sequences and the isolated, almost childlike vocals of Cy Levene and Anna Bloom puts this shortlived project into a whole new genre. An LP -and series of recordings- that its creators imagined forever lost to the masses, now seems set to earn itself a key role as main hitter in the murky, yet increasingly researched world of mid to late 70s minimal synth. An extraordinary LP proudly released by The Great Pop Supplement, numbered to 500 white vinyl copies with hand stamped library inner bags and collage insert.

Gary Sloan and Clone - Harmonitalk (1980)

Finders Keepers vinyl/cd reissue 2012

 Alaska, 1980. The robotic harmonica and his Clones have landed on glacier planes. Meet mutant commander Gary Sloan - this is the dawn of Harmonitalk! Less than 1000 copies of this privately pressed Alaskan electronic harmonica album by the tight-knit synth trio called Clone actually survived the journey out of their Anchorage base camp, leaving an explosive trail of unidentified synth pop, New Age, low-fi blues, techno, vocoded folk funk and prog rock blazing behind them. See what happens when a homespun innocent blues collective become possessed by the souls of Vangelis, Klaus Schulze and Suzanne Ciani on the frost bitten film set of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Over 30 years later Cache Cache and Finders Keepers Records resurrect Harmonitalk's original black box and find more lost transmissions in the process.

Originally released as a privately funded 1000 copy vinyl run in 1980 this rare LP by Alaskan electric harmonica player Gary Sloan and his interchangeable synth trio known as Clone is a record that pushes the concept of American outsider music to its furthest geographical limits. With few physical copies travelling beyond their tight Alaskan fan base upon release this mutant album of conflicting mediums and truly forward thinking electronic pop music combines an unlikely mix of synth pop, New Age, low-fi blues, techno, folk funk and prog rock - providing the locale’s sparse vinyl industry with a much needed and veritable document of this collective’s truly unique and open-minded psyche.

With its origins lying a decade earlier in the 1971 release of Sloan’s first privately pressed prog rock electric blues combo, Proof, the transmuted music of Clone stands as a triumphant example of how independent and experimental American music can flourish and evolve outside the restraints and fashionable whims of the major music industry. Taking the true essence of rhythm and blues and applying it, without inhibition, to the most profound mediums available, Sloan’s integration with local synth enthusiasts Paul Alexander and Kurt Riemannn (known internally as The Trio) coupled with a wide range of unfiltered influences (comprising everything between New Age to new wave) lead to what is perhaps one of the most unexpected, improbable and underexposed pop fusion triumphs to emerge out of 1980s North America. Throughout the 70s and 80s, as a pillar of the Anchorage live music scene, Gary provided local musicians (including himself) with welcome platforms via his organised events and radio shows, such as The Import Hour which opened two way doors for regional and international artists resulting in various members of the Proof family collaborating with names such as Harvey Mandell and Klauss Schultze. The ongoing Proof records, limited cassette releases, and the Boogie Til Dawn production company have also played host to a wider community of North American both blues, punk and New Age artists with the same integral free-thinking and progressive policy (some of whom can be heard for the first time guesting on this LP). Finders Keepers

Pierpaolo Zoppo (Mauthausen Orchestra)
1963-2012

Don Preston - Filters, oscillators & envelopes 1967-82

Sub Rosa vinyl/cd 2012

One could hardly not see in Don Preston a key musician within Frank Zappa's oeuvre. He is not only that, but his presence has marked The Mothers' major records from 1966 to 1974. His touch was already there before the arrival of Ian Underwood, and it continued after Ian left. You all remember King Kong (its magnificence as interpreted by Dom DeWild) from the second Uncle Meat suite. A certain form of jubilation emanates from this track, thanks to Preston's fluid style and lightly astringent tone on the Moog synthesizer - that instrument never sounded quite like that before or after. This might have to do with his double training, his twin interests, since he had been simultaneously working with Gil Evans and listening intensely to Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Tod Dockstader. Immersed in jazz music, he was imagining secret ties with the nascent electronic music.

In the mid-'60s, Preston started developing an electronic instrument, using a home-made synthesizer and a series of oscillators and filters. Out of this instrument came Electronic (1967), his first piece. Two years later, he became a close friend of Robert Moog, and their discussions gave birth to a number of applications in relation with the flexibility of the instrument. Nowadays, you can't mention the Mini-Moog without thinking of Preston. Bob Moog himself said about his solo in Waka Jawaka: "That's impossible. You can't do that on a Moog.". Filters, Oscillators & Envelopes features the other side, the hidden side of Don Preston: the composer of purely electronic music.

Annette Peacock - I'm the one (1972)

FDR vinyl/cd reissue 2012

“I’m the one, you don’t have to look any further. I’m the one. I’m here, right here for you,” oozes jazz, rock, and electronic music pioneer Annette Peacock on the leadoff title track of her solo debut LP. The album’s wide range of vocal emotions and diverse sonic palette (featuring Robert Moog’s early modular synthesizers, which the singer actually transmitted her voice through to wild effect) places it firmly at the forefront of the pop avant-garde. Originally released by RCA Victor in 1972 to widespread critical acclaim, I’m The One found itself amongst good company. Both Lou Reed and David Bowie had recently signed to the label—Bowie in particular was enamored with Annette—and artists ranging from ex-husband and jazz great Paul Bley, along with notable Brazilian percussionists Airto Moreira and Dom Um Romao, guested on the album itself. Writing and arranging I’m The One’s nine passionate tracks—bar a unique cover of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender”—the disc grooves easily from free jazz freak-outs and rough and rugged blues-funk to gently pulsing synthesized bliss.An extension of Annette’s late 1960s work with her Bley-Peacock Synthesizer Show combo, I’m The One is filled with strength and power, as well as a tender, sensual, and seductive side, born of a life surrounded with music and culture. Composing by age four, Peacock’s mother was a professional violinist. By the early 1960s, Annette had also collaborated with first husband, jazz bassist Gary Peacock and toured with legendary saxophone player Albert Ayler. Studying under Zen macrobiotics educator Michio Kushi and a confidant to Timothy Leary at the Millbrook psychedelic center, Peacock later worked, post-I’m The One, with rock stalwarts like guitarists Mick Ronson and Chris Spedding, Yes/King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, as well as surrealist artist Salvador Dali.

The second release on our Future Days Recordings imprint, I’m The One will be available on CD and LP, re-mastered from the original tapes with a booklet containing beautiful unseen photos from the vaults of Sony Music and extensive liner notes from NYC-based writer and musician, Mikey ‘IQ’ Jones. The LP is limited to 1,000 hand-numbered copies and sports a deluxe Stoughton “Tip-On” jacket with a unique spot UV gloss and includes the same booklet as the CD plus a folded 18″ x 24″ poster of a never-before-seen photo of Annette.