Sound UbuWeb

The Tape-beatles The Tape-beatles on UbuWeb A subtle buoyancy of pulse (1988) 01 Remain quiet and passive 02 The Charlie Murdock show 03 Number one cheese spread 04 The ads become the news 05 Listen to the radio 06 Deeper 07 These are our radio voices 08 Talking about the Tape beatles 09 Sing sing sing (Sing sing) 10 Concern about 11 I'm Lonely 12 Guitar filler 13 A hard hand to hold 14 Love song 15 Wow feel the amazing power 16 Recognize resist 17 These are the real things 18 Scream scream scream 19 Stove top 20 Play by their rules 21 Right for the job 22 You people are in great danger 23 You make the choice 24 Urgent rushing around 25 What kind of problems 26 Microphone burning in flames 27 I think I'm in heaven 28 The law of repetition 29 The law of always being nice 30 Piano filler 31 Individual choice 32 Really fine yoke of bondage 33 Big show 34 The salt 35 Opera lady 36 Take my hand 37 On with it I suppose 38 Radio plays 39 Right for the job 40 That means a lot 41 It's been done 42 Exciting Exiting 43 Logo 44 Rhythm filler 45 Short history of the Tape beatles 46 Catbird 47 Silent filler The recordings in this collection is the debut release a new group trying to find its own means of expression in a rather narrowly self-defined project: that of making a kind of "pop" music entirely without the use of musical instruments. Taking their cue mainly from musique concréte and cut-up technique, The Tape-beatles made analog tape recording and basic home stereo equipment, connected in unorthodox configurations, their only instruments. Originally a cassette-only release, this recording created something of a stir in the home-taper community and cassette underground when it first came out on the Plagiarism label in 1988. (Parts of the work were originally conceived for radio.) In 1998, it was painstakingly remastered and re-sequenced for its first release on CD. Lang Thompson, writing for Option, October 1988, said: """The Tape-beatles don't just go after easy targets or use a shotgun approach hoping something will work. Their focus and sense of purpose make it worth the attention paid to their dense, associative mix. Like early Firesign Theater, you can't catch everything in just one listening. Especially insightful are the pieces dealing with politically-oriented artists and trendy esthetic theories, because the Tape-beatles are too smart to just ridicule them. The Tape-beatles also want to create new, politically responsive art, but they're working on more effective ways of creating it." Composed by: Lloyd Dunn John Heck Ralph Johnson Paul Neff Cassette release (1988): Plagiarism Cassettes, Iowa City, Iowa Expanded CD release (1998): Staalplaat, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Berlin, Germany Additional material at: http://pwp.detritus.net/works/recordings