It's All Gone Weird

I have a track (as The Bim Prongs ) on this fun new various artist comp from members of the Electronic Cottage community, curated by Leslie Singer (Girls On Fire). Each track on "Rocket In My Pocket" was created using pocket-sized instruments and sound-makers. https://halmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/rocket-in-my-pocket-compilation - W.A.Davison

The Dutch duo of Ed Van Kasteren and Ignatine Bekken, a.k.a. Van Kaye & Ignit , began working together in 1980 and over several years, produced two influential cassettes and a 7" vinyl EP of interesting and unique minimal synth songs and abstract electronics. They also formed their own label called Ding Dong Records and Tapes which went on to release material by Portion Control , The Legendary Pink Dots , Bene Gesserit , and others. I first encountered Van Kaye & Ignit in a collaborative track with their friends Bene Gesserit (see my post from a couple of weeks ago), released on one of my favorite various artist comps from the 80s, "Cadavres Exquis" (from Montreal label Chimik Communications . I posted about this as well, earlier in the year). At the time, neither Van Kaye & Ignit nor Bene Gesserit caught my attention enough for me to track down releases or learn more about them. In later years, however, I found a new appreciation for both bands and hav...

My collaborative piece with MUWN is now available on "Two Halves (Vol. 9)" from panpanpanaviandistresscall/Bandcamp: https://panpanpanaviandistresscall.bandcamp.com/album/two-halves-vol-9 - W.A.Davison

Bene Gesserit , the music project, that is...not the mystical sisterhood of psychic witches from Frank Herbert's Dune . I could have just as easily tagged this post Human Flesh or Pseudocode or Insane Music or Alain Neffe and Nadine Bal . What I'm talking about is the Belgian artist couple of Neffe and Bal who have produced so much interesting underground, experimental weirdness since the late 70s and early 80s. They're still at it, in fact. Here's an interview with Alain Neffe from 2016: Neffe's label Insane Music was significant in the origins of 80s and 90s cassette culture and was responsible for many interesting projects and collaborations, as well as contributing to the growth of the cassette network itself (mostly by listing the postal addresses of every artist involved with the label). In spite of the significance of their work, however, like a lot of 80s cassette culture it remains obscure and very little written information about Neffe , Bal , or ...

Terrible news today that Monte Cazazza has died! I never knew him personally but both his solo work and his collaborations, in particular his historic role in the founding of industrial music, were of tremendous importance to me. This is a hard one to process. I am very saddened by this. As I said, I never met him, but I do have one personal anecdote. In the early 90s, shortly after my escape from Nova Scotia, one of the first things I did upon arriving in Toronto was to secure a screening of my experimental film work with local film group Pleasure Dome. Thanks largely to PD member/curator Jonathon Pollard, my work was paired with a collection of films and videos by Monte Cazazza that happened to be touring at that time. The screening was called "Industrial Primitive". I was thrilled and honoured to have my work presented alongside that of Monte Cazazza and, needless to say, that screening was hugely significant to me! No obituary has been posted yet. Here is the Wikipedia...