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March 2001

2001-03-11 / Tape-beatles to Début New Work on German Radio. You may think of us as just idle thrill-seekers, but never coddle the suspicion that we are lazing at home, sitting on our thumbs. Instead, we are making beautiful new audio art that will make the world a better place to live in.

A case in point: a recent commission by the Syndikat für Gegenlärm [Syndicate for Counter-noise] resulted in a new quasi-documentary audio work that will make its début this coming June 1 on DeutschlandRadio Berlin, heard throughout the German-speaking countries of Europe.

‘My Horspiel [radio play] will be a very subjective documentary collage about the world-wide noise culture (including plunderphonics and media guerillas),’ explains the program’s producer Felix Kubin. ‘I plan to make some short journeys to collect sound material of all kinds: live-recordings in clubs and concerts, environmental sounds, spoken word fragments. Nevertheless, my documentary will not include interviews like, ‘On which label will your next album be released?’. I am more interested in cultural-political statements in forms of music or spoken word.’ Aside from the documentary material, the program will also feature studio works by groups such as The Tape-beatles.

We will post an mp3 of the Tape-beatles’ contribution as soon as it is broadcast.

2001-03-05 / A piece with promise. I have no doubt that not one of you will recognize the reference embedded in the headline to this article. You never had a prayer, really, since it is a title from a work that never saw the light of public day. I recently came across this work on an old audio cassette when sorting through an box of Tape-beatle production tapes rescued from the Glassed-in Laboratories during the big move of 1994. In a wanton scrawl, on a dog-eared self-stick label, and in quotes, Ralph had written ‘A piece with promise’ to sum up his feelings about an afternoon’s labors in the studio that the tape had memorized.

Hello again, I’m Lloyd Dunn, one of the founders of the Tape-beatles, as well as a member of Public Works. I am also the editor of these web pages. As I mentioned in an earlier article here, I am soon moving to Prague. This entails nothing less than the complete dismantling of my life — at least the part of it that resides in objects. I’ve sold my car, found a new home for my couch, packed dishes and papers away in my mother’s basement, and basically compacted my material life as much as possible.

One of my goals is to digitize nearly every bit of the various projects I’ve worked on (the important ones, anyway) so that I may take them with me. For example, I spent much of last Saturday and Sunday transferring our library of U-matic video tapes to the newer DV format, to facilitate digital editing and the possible making of a new documentary about the Tape-beatles and their rise to obscurity. Another weekend was spent making high-resolution scans of all the original PhotoStatic Magazine paste-ups. I have in mind the goal of preparing all manner of historical content for delivery at this site, since there exists many works made under my purview that are currently unavailable by any means to the general public. Zines, videos, alternate audio mixes; all may eventually appear here. More than any right-minded person will probably want.

So be warned: the floodgates may open in the coming months, and there will be many things old and new that you have never before read, heard or seen. Not for nostalgia’s sake alone do I do this, but also for the simple reason of showing that we have a past, and it is a rich one.

2001-03-01 / Today’s Reading. ‘A New Angle On Free Speech.’

• ‘Triangle Boy’ by Angela Gunn from AlterNet

New Compilation Includes Tape-beatles and Public Works …

2001-03-01 / … alongside works by 169 others. Described as ‘ … concrete, abstract, enraged, objective, caustic, soulful, sardonic, provocative — all unfiltered, all clear,’ State of the Union 2.001, a new 3-CD compilation released by the Electronic Music Foundation is now available. Compiled by Elliott Sharp, the set presents work by 171 artists. The only requirement Sharp made for submitting work was that no piece should exceed one minute in length.

Public Works, not heard from on disk since 1997’s CD Matter, chime in with a pared-down segment called Hoping it’s all a dream, culled and reworked from an upcoming new release on the Elevator Bath label. The forthcoming disk, entitled Numbers, will be an unusual 9-inch vinyl release, and is currently being manufactured. Watch for an announcement to come in the near future at this site.

In addition, a new track by The Tape-beatles, entitled ‘Broken broadcast’ makes its début. This is a new track that has appeared nowhere else before. It is the first new recorded work by the Tape-beatles since an untitled loop they made appeared on the lockERS LP last November.

• Visit the Electronic Music Foundation site.

• Read a description and track listing of the State of the Union 2.001 compilation.