SELF PUBLISHING - NEW OLD OLD NEW

OLD NEW NEW OLD

These last months have seen three releases launched into the the world: tape dubs of old and new bass solos on a small local label, a digital re-release of electronic music from 2003 onto Bandcamp and the culmination of 12 years work with Decibel on The Complete John Cage Variations Project resulting in a book with CD release, a curated exhibit and upcoming show.

I was approached out of the blue by Tim at Burgan Triangle Tapes, a small tape label just out of Melbourne in Healesville. He’d come across my bass noise stuff from the early 2000s and wanted to put it out in his solar powered belt driven real time dubbing on recycled cassette tape. He adds his own drones in the excess time and hand prints the covers. He curated a collection of my Fetish live bass noise solos that i’ve been doing since 1999 under the title ‘Fetish Catalogue 1 (BTT007) and you can get the limited edition hand made tapes and/or digital streams on his Burgan Triangle Tapes Bandcamp. I love the look of these tapes, thier gaffer taped label over the top of on-plastic printing of the original contents. The pencil writing for the title, the tired tape feel, the speed variations, the hand written note that came with my five copies.

This inspired me to listen back to a few things - I updated the original CDR Fetish release of 21 live bass solos on bandcamp, i had only ever managed to put 7 of the 21 up. When i was looking for the original CDR to rip, I found my only copy of my label'Bloodstar’s CDR release of Jackie Hush, and decided to re-release this odd collection of my electronic music from the start of the millenium. This was originally released as a very limited edition (maybe 5?) CDR with music AND photos inscribed on the CD. Mind you - I am pretty sure most CD players wouldn’t play it because of that combination, but sometimes they played the photo data as sound and that was OK with me. Some of this music was recorded during my tour of the USA in 2001, commissioned for radio or as a film soundtrack. The cover was photocopied onto transparency paper, and the CDR label art was silkscreened on by hand. It was the heyday of my label Bloodstar around then- meaning i loved putting quite a few records together for release, but never did anything about distribution or - uh - sales. Too soon to judge my new friend at Burgan Triangle Tapes on the distribution front, but we didn’t have Bandcamp or Insta back then. But i think we were both going for something similar - stuff made by hand by us for each other because we like it like that.

A photo of the original cover for the Jackie Hush CDR (2003).

Another release of a different nature was the book and CD of the Decibel new music ensemble’s ‘Complete John Cage Variations’. This project began in 2012 for Cage’s centenary - I curated the eight variations into a single concert, which involved making new digital scores for the works and touring the show through Australia, Malaysia, Japan and Italy. My colleague Lindsay Vickery and I set about creating an edited book on the subject of these works, and together with a Decibel recording of the Variations (which i play noise bass in Variations VI alongside Tristen Parr in our duo Herz Herz Herz - a missing album out in the Brusio Netlabel ether) we released the book and CD on Mode this year. It is not exactly self published - but it is halfway there. We designed and paid for the book, curated and edited the submissions, created an iPad app to organise and generate the scores, oversaw the recording and mixing of the album, looked for someone to distribute the project for us. Mode lend us thier history with Cage releases and funded the manufacture of the CD.
The first launch of the book was at the wonderful Wallace Gallery in Perth on May 15, where we also played some of the works, and I curated an exhbit of the scores and related items. You can read more about that here. It is on until end of July. You can read about the entire project - which i curated and performed in - here.

Book Cover for the Book/CD about the Complete John Cage Variations Porject - ‘Actions Remarks’

What has all this got to do with anything? Well, i have no desiere to see my favourite bands from the 90’s when they tour nowadays because i enjoy the memory of them at that time, i don’t see the point in going back there or ruining it with these strange looking older versions of people with thier newer gear. With my own music though, it is fun to re-engage after such a long time. These new releases of old music really speak to the time and my own personal situations when they were made, as does the Cage recording and book for Decibel and what we were doing aroudn that time. These releases are not to transport anyone else back though time, but rather to lift these projects up into the now - for a different evaluation. I wonder how they will fare. Old stuff feeling new. They were already new once so re-presenting them on these more recent platforms makes them seem old when nothing seemed to have happened to them inbetween these new times. Self publishing is still happening, Because it is powered by the sun and enthusiasm.

FETISH CATALOGUE 1 (2004) is available on the Burgan Triangle Tapes Bandcamp as stream or cassette with download.

FETISH (2001) is on the Cat Hope Bandcamp.

You can find the digital download of JACKIE HUSH (2003), with the photos, here.

ACTIONS | REMARKS visual art exhbition is on at Wallace Gallery, 346 William St, Northbridge, Western Australia until July 19. It is open 9-5 Monday to Friday, inside the With architecture studio.

The ‘ACTIONS | REMARKS’ book and CD can be bought here, or you can just get the music as a digital download from that same place. Melbourne launch performance at Tempo Rubato on September 20, with special guests from Monash University School of Music and Performance. Tickets here.