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HalTapes new releases 2003
   MY BRAIN is my newest compact disc of avant garde experimental electronic music. The CD is 77 minutes in length and consists of two massive multi-tracked kaleidoscopic audio collages in the audio trash sculpture mode: "Look At The Mess I Have Made!" (31:07) and "Propagation Disturbation" (46:36).
   Seemingly-random jumbled heaps and piles and accumulations of sounds: piano improvisations, theremin, circuit bent Casio SK-1 and Speak & Spell, percussion, Moog Rogue analog synthesizer, flute, Casio VA-10 keyboard, Radio Shack Moog synthesizer, shortwave radio, Dark Star synth module (constructed by audio artist Dave Fuglewicz), spoken word (me reading out loud from e-mails I have sent, phrases from a poster in a veterinarian's office, random thoughts and memories and associations, dream recollections, descriptions of how the CD was constructed), audio tape field recordings of street and public transportation sounds and my work and home environments -- all mixified on a Fostex X-12 4-track cassette recorder and mastered directly to compact disc.
   Crazy, chaotic, an organized mess, kind of like a finger painting in sound. You will discover something new every time you listen to this CD, and I promise that you have never heard anything quite like my MY BRAIN CD. Highly personal and abstract at the same time. Strong visual images in sound. Audio objects for your contemplation -- you can observe these audio objects in much the same way you would a painting or a sculpture or a random collection of objects in a roadside ditch or a trash dumpster. You complete the audio works by shaping them into sound forms in your mind. No beats, no melodies.
   The painting of me on the cover is by Jimmy McCullough. The CD comes in a slim line jewel case with full color insert and label.
   HOAX is a 77 minute CD of some of the strangest music you will ever hear on this planet. A massive audio sculpture in the fourth dimension. Two tracks: "jdbgmgr.exe" (31:03) and "Forward as An Attachment" (46:41).
   Don Campau has been a friend of mine since the mid 1980s. He has recorded dozens of tapes and CDs of underground experimental rock and pop, all of which are stamped with his own highly personal and idiosyncratic style and vision. He also operates the Lonely Whistle music label and hosts the No Pigeonholes radio show on KKUP in Cupertino, California. It is with great pride and satisfaction that I (Hal McGee) present this collaborative effort, just recently completed in May 2003.
   Campau sent to me two CDRs containing 100 tracks total of lengths varying from a few seconds to a minute and a half. Here is the list of the soundmakers he employed: Yamaha synth, Les Paul XR-2 guitar, Fender Precision bass, Digitech PDS 2000 sampler, Alesis Microverb III effects, Teac 3440 4 track recorder, Sony Mini Disc recorder, Pioneer CD recorder, various percussion and acoustic gadgets, the zipper of his pants, turntable, flywheel and burglar alarm bell, acoustic guitar, flute, etc. I took his raw sonic materials, and, using random chance and methods of indeterminacy I laid out his tracks in a free improvisational manner onto two tracks on a 4-track cassette recorder. I then added on my own sounds, such as theremin, analog synthesizer, piano, percussion, circuit bent Casio SK-1 and keyboards. I then mixified the materials directly to a CD master.
   HOAX is an audio work which seems to change with each listen. And in fact, it takes about three listens until it reveals itself to the listener. The moods and textures change constantly in shifting layers of fluttering veils, like patterns of sand blowing in the desert wind. I am quite pleased and excited by this work because it seems to hold an infinite wealth of mysteries. I am not really sure though whether HOAX changes with each listen, or if it is the listener's perceptions which change.
   Abstract electronic music that takes you on a trip deep into the cosmos and the hidden reaches of the Inner Mind. Totally freaky space music -- it even weirds me out!
   This zone that surrounds our little ball of spinning mud puddles looks so empty, but there's all this electromagnetic stuff going on--gamma rays and xrays and infrared and ultraviolet--big splashes of light and fire from these huge globs of hydrogen and helium that spit enough energy to cook your eggs on desert rocks or kill you in a second if you aren't covered in layers of lead outside the gas bubble around Earth. And there's radio waves too, and they don't just come from the stars--our very own human-generated radio waves are washing this void, shot from our planet's highest evolutionary peak with all the enthusiasm and energy that we self-absorbed bags of chemical reaction can muster. Good Gods, our little brains have swollen up so much not that theories of black hole voids full of all kinds of whacky gravity and time distortions are clouding our thoughts of emptiness. Obviously some overbearing obsession drives the need for theorization, for exploration, for explanation. It's the verve of the void... (CGoff3)
   Micromoog analog synthesizer, Circuit Bent Casio SK-1 (created by eBay seller Waterhed), Big Briar Etherwave Theremin, Analogue Solutions Tri Tone 24 synthesizer, Fender Telecaster, MXR, Boss, and DOD distortion pedals, Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, 1970's Morley Volume/Wah pedal, Synthespin (PAIA Kit, 1970's), Yamaha FX500 digital effx box, Fostex X-12 4-track cassette recorder, Acid Pro 3.0, Sound Forge editing program, Music Mentor Midi compositional tool, two Pioneer Reel To Reel Tape decks for "Frippertronic" tape loops, and several treated vocal samples.
   Four tracks: "Hydrogen Into Helium" (7:10), "Unertia" (12:59), "Hissing Nebular Gas" (14:24), and the epic "Transmission" (30:54). Slim line jewel case.
   We are adventurers in space and time. We have witnessed the birth of stars, the rise and fall of civilizations, the majesty of multiple universes in a teardrop. We have ridden wild comets, plumbed the depths of black holes, and plucked the blossoms of females from Earth to Canis Major. Antenna Club rides on waves of sound, bristling static, pulsating currents of noise, dissonance and audio sensation. These recordings catalog some of our adventures in this and other universes.
   Abstract electronic space music by underground audio scientists Chris Phinney and Hal McGee. This is a 76 minute CD consisting of nine tracks: "Timetunnel", "Shocking Secrets Of The Crab Nebula", "Calcutta Brothel Raid", "Death Spiral", "Stargrove", "Tapestry Of Creation And Destruction", "The Wrong Kind Of Galaxy", "Insectoid Assembly Line", "Milky Way Marauders". Slim line jewel case.
   These sounds were created with Big Briar Etherwave Theremin, Circuit Bent Casio SK-1, Radio Shack Moog synth, Analogue Solutions Tri Tone 24 synthesizer, shortwave radio, Yamaha DGX-500, Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, Electro Harmonix Tube Zipper Filter Distortion, Alesis Microverb III, Access Virus B loops, various synth loops and Acid loops -- constructed on Acid Pro 3.0.
   Possible points of reference include early 80s Industrial Music, Throbbing Gristle and early cabaret Voltaire, Conrad Schnitzler, early 70s Tangerine Dream, and early Cluster, krautrock, Klaus Schulze, etc.

 

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