(Also referred to as SOLO 1978/79 and SOLO 1978-1979, but it says SOLO 78/79 on the digipak so I'm going with that. The liner notes provide "aka do unseen hands make you dumb?", which may very well be a real alternate title.)
Pigface, 1980; reissued with bonus tracks by De Stijl; available
CD: 4 tracks, 44:57
Most readers of this blog are probably familiar with Smegma (and if you're not, fix that quick!). For his solo outing, long-time member Ju Suk Reet Meate (pronounced "you secrete meat" just for the record) filled two vinyl sides with an intriguing mix of spare noise rock and Reichian tape manipulation. The sides each have a bunch of tracks, but they ebb and flow into each other and are mastered by side on the CD. Side one, subtitled "1978", features a nice contrabass solo and some nifty looped guitars in addition to the rather restrained (and thus highly listenable) sound collages. "1979" seems to be all collages, and it's by far the more experimental and twisted side. That being said, other reviews have pointed out how refreshing it is that Meate doesn't feel the need to go in the red with his noise, and that really is a nice change. Surprisingly enough it all sounds a lot like contemporary turntablist efforts! The De Stijl reissue comes with great liner notes (or "NOISE CLIFFSNOTES" as he calls them) by Wolf Eyes' John Olson, along with two bonus tracks. Both of these date from '79, and both have very descriptive titles, namely "Guitar & Loops" and "Short Wave". They're fairly good but not especially enlightening, considering both are under five minutes. That being said, this is a solid listen and definitely worth acquiring.
4 comments:
The bonus tracks indeed seem to be added to fill up the CD.
The first two songs (as they originally appeared on the LP) are splendid! When listening to the CD you even hear the (original?) vinyl cracks so it seems the original masters weren't used to produce the CD but a simple vinyl recording took place (or is that what De Stijl wants us to believe?) ... you never know with Smegma-related stuff do you ...
I was wondering that myself. It's highly possible they used a vinyl master, but then again maybe it sounded like that on the original LP? I'll never have the money to AFFORD an original, so we'll just have to wonder.
I read somewhere that the bonus tracks may have been for an aborted single. MEATE ON 45?
Seefeel has done that in the past as well (adding vinyl cracks to CD-only albums). Af Ursin's "Aika" (2008 vinyl-only release) is covered under a thick layer of old vinyl cracks as well. The whole album is some sort of an homage to old music, hence the added vinyl cracks, which does make the sound very nostalgic I must say. It's like listening to a vinyl from the 1920's or so.
http://mudbirdshivers.blogspot.com/2009/08/af-ursin-aika.html
But like you, I don't own an original Ju Suk Reet Meate copy on LP either, so I don't know how the vinyl release sounds.
I've a Tuxedomoon reissue on CD (JoeBoy/Crammed Disc 1987) containing the Desire LP and the No Tears EP. The latter one also contains the vinyl cracks, so maybe that was also pressed on CD using a vinyl master.
That Tuxedomoon disc was reissued in '03 as part of the Crammed Global Soundclash series. From the bits I've heard it sounds remastered, but I could be wrong. I'll have to compare the two versions at some point.
You're right! Seefeel were big fans of that! Stereolab, too (even though they did put out a lot of vinyl).
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