From a cassette found in a ruined trailer in New Jersey.

The Huroo

Arguably among the top thrashprog tracks recovered from a discarded cassette found in a ruined trailer in New Jersey.

Huroo Are You

More artisanal thrashprog recovered from a ruined trailer in New Jersey.

Huroo's Next

The final archival track recovered from the ruined cassete of The Huroo, a band that once thrived in an unconsidered corner of New Jersey, in a trailer in the woods.

Here are The Huroo in a more abstract, more meandering, more menacing mood.  

Angular Menace by The Huroo

From the "We Bore" compilation on Toast and Jam Recordings, 2002.  The idea is to turn music that you dislike into something that you like via sonic manipulation.  I chose an overwrought lick from the reviled Kenny G - sampled it, spun it around backwards, distorted it and put beats behind it.  Voila.

Backneck

From the We Bore compilation on Toast and Jam Recordings, 2002.  The idea: via sonic manipulation, turn music that you dislike into something that you like.  For this ambient-style track I sampled little bits of  "Almost Paradise" - a song that I do not like.  It turned into something nice and peaceful.  Soothing, even.

Elmo's Pair Of Dice

Part 4 of a sizzling panel discussion among artists and mischief-makers in April 2015 at California State University, Northridge.  The topic is FORMATISM: briefly, how formats such as vinyl, CDs, cassettes, and mp3s influence our thinking, dictate our choices, and determine our cultural interactions.

Formatism: How Do mp3s Suck?

Part 3 of a sizzling panel discussion among artists and mischief-makers in April 2015 at California State University, Northridge. The topic is FORMATISM: briefly, how formats such as vinyl, CDs, cassettes, and mp3s influence our thinking, dictate our choices, and determine our cultural interactions.

Formatism: The Future of Formats

Part 2 of a sizzling panel discussion among artists and mischief-makers in April 2015 at California State University, Northridge. The topic is FORMATISM: briefly, how formats such as vinyl, CDs, cassettes, and mp3s influence our thinking, dictate our choices, and determine our cultural interactions.

Formatism: In The Physical World

Part 1 of a sizzling panel discussion among artists and mischief-makers in April 2015 at California State University, Northridge. The topic is FORMATISM: briefly, how formats such as vinyl, CDs, cassettes, and mp3s influence our thinking, dictate our choices, and determine our cultural interactions.

Formatism: Constrain and Enable

Samples taken from "Het Staat In Uw Sterren: Weegschaal" - a Dutch spoken word record about the Libra horoscope sign from 1978.

The Windmills The Fairies

The 60 French Girls and Kumquat finally get together.

Top Tip Top Tip

All Music Guide:   
Having fun with the province of sample-based dance experimentation, sometimes in the most calm or melancholy of ways. "Herbert Hoover" features crackling samples of, presumably, the president in question, speaking of the threat of war and death while loops of acoustic guitar and beats play below. In general, Kumquat's songs do feel like just that: songs, as opposed to constructions of open-ended experiments or audio theater. The music often feels like a blend of lush Top 40 experiments from the '80s intermingled with the breakbeat obsessions familiar from the late '90s as alternative came to grips with hip-hop's dominance, yet given a further, different spin via Church's own obsessions. Thus the voice extolling various cooking ingredients on "About My Spices" is cut to the flow of the gentle beat rather than completely transmogrified, while the traded-off boy and man voices on "We Are the Aliens," along with the vocals, make for a funny rather than creepy exercise. There's also a nice bit of self-referencing with "Big Honking Radio," as a voice spells out "Big Kumquat" while the band name gets cited as an instrument. 

KumquatPower

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