The Futurist

An album that was never officially released but given away to friends.

"The cover of the album contains 779 names—one for each copy of the album. At the bottom of the cover is a blank space for anyone not named on the cover to write their name. Each person who received the album got a copy with their name circled on the cover; this was done for identification of a "culprit" should the album ever end up for sale.The Futurist was never released commercially. There is speculation that this was because Shellac were not satisfied with the finished product."

Not much of a gift then! 

Oddly, I once invoked the Italian Futurists in the context of Big Black:

"Big Black's anti-Romanticism was signaled very clearly in the sleeve note salutation on Songs About Fucking to "all bands who don't write love songs", which recalled the Futurists' proclamation that the nude in painting was an exhausted idiom, sentimentalized and enfeebled."

Would you believe, I have never listened to Shellac  - until today.

After Rapeman, I didn't bother with Albini's musical efforts.  

Listening to At Action Park, I didn't feel like I'd missed a whole heap. 

The Brillo Pad guitar sounds like someone fixated fairly fruitlessly on trying to replicate - without exactly repeating - the impact that Andy Gill / Bruce Gilbert / et al - had on him at an impressionable age.  So not really Futurist -  Past-ist, if anything. 

I've had more time for Albini as thinker and opinionator  - I don't think there's been an interview, or a piece of writing, that he's done in ensuing decades that didn't have something in it that made me think, even if the thinking was to work out why his opinion was bullshit. He did work hard to achieve and maintain consistency in his ideas about aesthetic integrity and the right(eous) way to go about being a band. Anybody who attempts to formulate a system of ideas and values - even at the risk of rigidity and self-dogma -  is worth paying attention to.  

I found myself nodding at these acerbic remarks about Zorn - from an Invisible Jukebox in the Wire, probably '94, or '95 - even as they nestled amidst absolutely ridiculous opinions about Black Sabbath and The Beatles. 

fremtidigomani

 

International Times no 42 - 1968 October 

Four Front?  Never heard of that series before.

But here it is

First mentioned in Gramophone in November 1968, the series was named for the four parts It would concentrate it's releases on; Musica diversa, Organ, Electronic and Percussion, and Poetry and Prose. The records would Retail at 27s. 11d.

"Take an electronic trip with the most with it label on the market"  - this ad slogan is delicious because I am fairly certain that by 1968  - and certainly in terms of the readership of International Times - the term "with it" would have been decidedly "without it". 

It reminds me a bit of this imprint that tried to market classical music to the younger generation and "heads" - Orphic Egg, a division of London Records.  Trippy album covers and liner notes from rock critics. 

In France, the Norwegian Electronic and Pierre Henry releases came out under the Prospective 21e Siecle banner, the series with the amazing silver abstract pattern sleeves.

Also file under "dette var i morgen"

Crikey, hark at the cover of this other Four Front release

Talking "sonic fiction" and Futuromania in LA (and beyond) - July 17

 

I'll be making a guest appearance at the Sci-Fi Short Story Club, discussing "The Sound-Sweep" - one of a couple of acutely imaginative tales involving music of the future dreamed up by J.G. Ballard.

The event, hosted by Los Angeles Public Library, is loosely tied to Futuromania - which features a extended essay about the ways in which science fiction writers have grappled with the challenge of imagining the future forms and functions of music.  So in addition to "The Sound-Sweep" and Ballard's work, the discussion will encompass the broader subject of the interface between s.f. + music

The book club meets by Zoom, so I can see no reason why - beyond issues of time zone differences -  someone who doesn't live in LA could attend, if they fancied. 

This free event takes place at 6 pm PDT, on Wednesday July 17th. 

Reading J.G.'s 1960 story in advance is helpful if you wish to participate in the discussion, but not essential. 

Sign up here. 

Keen on chatting about necro-futurism

Here I am chatting with Andrew Keen for his show Keen On - about Futuromania, future-music, AI, and the intersection of science-fiction technology and retro culture - what you might term  (well, what I did term - a trial run for a coinage) necro-futurism.

I had a great chat with Andrew about a dozen years ago when Retromania came out - that time I went round to his HQ in San Francisco, sitting in a TV-style studio - so it was cool to bookend with this conversation, albeit this time done remotely.