Reverse tape-loop rhythm, churchy organ noodling ...and 50Hz buzz from the un-earthed tape deck.

Recorded 1974, using the Vortexion WVB

The Famous English Cricketer Sits Down To His Tea

Sibling to "The Famous English Cricketer" and made in a similar way.

Recorded 1974 using the Vortexion WVB

The Famous Australian Golfer Stands Up To His Wicket

Random bits of collected sound, spliced together with brutal carelessness.

Slight echoes (pun thoroughly intended) of Joe Meek's introduction to "TELSTAR" in these sounds.  Hardly surprising: they were made using similar techniques.

Recorded in 1974 using the Vortexion WVB

EDITED HIGHLIGHTS

Ever had a hangover?  Then you'll know just what I was getting at.

Oscillator clicks, bass guitar at two speeds and a starring solo part for the egg-slicer.

Created in 1976 on the Vortexion WVB, this recording has not
survived well, and still sounds rough after assiduous
digital cleaning.  ....Never mind !

Waking Up In The Morning And Not Feeling Very Well

A stereo recording, best heard on headphones.

1978 - A BBC radio announcer listing the cast of a radio play. This was made into a loop which was played backwards several times, each time with different treatments.  This is a slow-developing thing, and strangely hypnotic.

NOTE:  Owing to the number of overdubs involved in its creation, there is quite a bit of hiss on this recording, even after digital noise reduction.  You get used to it!

SEELIGRAM MAIRIM

The "percussion section" is me coughing, made into a tape-loop and played backwards at the wrong speed.

The Farfisa organ was modulated against a home-made square-wave oscillator to produce a throbbing drone.

The foreground instruments are an egg-slicer, played via an old tape deck with a wobbly idler wheel, and me blowing raspberries down a plastic tube.  Oh, we knew how to have fun in them days! :)

Running Over A Penguin With A Combine Harvester

In the shadow of betrayal we have entered a nightmare. 
I found myself screaming in a foreign tongue. 
Bewildered and frightened: instinctive behaviour. 
Try to accept the conditions as normal. 
Like watching a film: a clinical study. 
It didn't decay, it was there from the start. 
From the moment of birth: a lifetime sentence. 

Why did we travel to this dangerous country? 
For self-satisfaction?  As a means of escape? 
Nobody finds the situation amusing. 
Conflict and passion in a communal house. 
Wherever you look, it's hard to ignore it: 
Ideals are distorted, the balance unclear. 
Total absorption, so much energy wasted. 

Tired of playing the role of the victim, 
But have you learned nothing after all you've been through? 
Watching the children as they grow into soldiers. 
Don't tell me God wants it: he can speak for himself. 
We can talk about promises and people and history, 
But everyone's got their own version of truth 
While you wait for some heaven-sent Final Solution...

Written 1980
Recorded 1983
Music & Lyrics © Ken Cumberlidge 1980

Version Of Truth

A story-song about a man who is living a lie:  outwardly settled happily with a wife and children, but unable to let go of his feelings for a previous male lover.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

LYRICS

He doesn't look much like the boy I knew:
Such a lovable spirit, such a physical wreck.
I watch from across the room, without the courage to say hello.

He wouldn't thank me for it, anyway.
He's got a friend and a place for the night.
Man at the bar buying him drinks: the same old lines, they never fail.

Life in a vacuum...love in vain...empty spaces - all that remain.  (rpt)

He always did just what he wanted to,
Knew the risks and took them just the same.
He knew just how and when to turn it on: I still remember it now he's gone.

I remember how we used to be,
I made him laugh and he made me strong.
He took me out and he took me over, without a word - not even goodbye.

Life in a vacuum....etc.

They left about an hour ago,
And I'm still here with my empty glass.
No-one wants to know me tonight, so I'm alone - but that's alright.

Driving home, feeling weary and drunk.
My wife's in bed: the kids are asleep.
She doesn't ask me where I go. She's never said it....but I think she knows.

Life in vacuum....etc

Music & Lyrics © Ken Cumberlidge 1980

Life In A Vacuum

 A moody thing, penned during my stint as bassist with "English Electric".  We recorded a (rather over-produced) version of it in Cargo Studios in Rochdale.

This is my original demo. Even though, being a 35+ year old quarter-track tape, it suffers from flutter, drop-out etc., I prefer it to the studio version.
_ _ _ _ _ _

LYRICS:

Now the war is over, they're taking down the barricades
And I'm nearly sober: there isn't time to be afraid.

Have you any notion of what to do now we are free ?
They stole my emotions, and I don't need the rest of me.

Don't come to me and say you've got a plan.
If you're looking for a leader, choose another man.
I've got no time for causes: I lost mine yesterday.
I don't want to hear your reasons. Please, just go away.

So we're on our own, now. We've lost, just as I thought we might.
Disconnect the phone now, lock all the doors, turn out the light.

The war is over.....  (rpt.)

N.B.:  The final line may ring familiar to anyone who saw "4 Weddings".  It's pure coincidence:  in 1980, I had never read a word of W.H.Auden. 

Written 12/4/1980, recorded May 1980
Music & Lyrics copyright Ken Cumberlidge 1980

Another Man

Back in 1982, being a lover of Brecht & Weill's works in their original German recordings, I was often dissatisfied with the available translations of Brecht's lyrics. Those that stuck slavishly to the original German text sounded awkward and unnatural, and the 1954 Blitzstein variant (as made famous by Bobby Darin) seemed to turn the song into a completely different animal.

I thought it would be fun to try writing my own "translation" (loose term!): one that would use English idioms and speech patterns while attempting to retain the imagery and menace of the original.  Whether or not I succeeded will be for others to decide!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

LYRICS

Oh, the shark has many teeth, dears, and he keeps them white as snow.
Just a flick-knife has MacHeath, dears, and it's never left on show.

Now the shark's a filthy creature.  You can smell blood on his breath.
Mack The Knife, he's so much neater:  you couldn't ask a cleaner death.

On a Sunday, under blue skies, lies a body in the sand.
Down the beach, a child makes sand-pies:  in his bucket, a severed hand.

Samuel Meyer died unhealthy, but his bank-book was immense.
Mackie's looking very wealthy ...but it's just coincidence.

At the docks they've found another.  Jenny Towler was her name.
Mackie's comforting her mother:  "Such a nice girl. What a shame..."

Seven babies lie in ashes, burned alive in their layettes
And MacHeath says "I've got no matches.  Would you light my cigarette?"

There's a child-bride in the paper, and her killer's still at large,
But we all know who has raped her - Mackie, how much did you charge?
Yes, we all know who has raped her - Mackie, how much did you charge?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Backing track & lead vocals recorded 1982; backing vocals added 2004

Original Music & Lyrics © Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht 1928 

Mack The Knife

Recorded 1975 on a half-track mono Vortexion WVB - each new layer added by turning the erase head off.

This is one of my favourite early things: a serendipitous cacophony involving multi-layered tape-loops and the playing of found objects ( LP rack...wire egg-slicer...etc ) with guitar pickups attached to them.

The result of this aural vandalism sounds like some bizarre industrial process is going on:  curiously reminiscent of the famous sound-effect from "The Man In The White Suit".

The 'explosion' about 1:30 in is the sound of a violently plucked Hammond Reverb Spring totally overloading the input stage of the Vortexion.  Happy days !

© Ken Cumberlidge 9/12/1975 

Alexander's Ragtime Bend

Playlist 1:
HOW D'YE STOP THIS THING?
We were an electronic family.  As children of a Radio Ham, my brother and I grew up surrounded by magic boxes full of glowing valves and high voltages, our ears thrilling to the ethereal sci-fi soundscape of the short wave bands. Hardly surprising, then, that we should both develop a fascination with audio, electronic music and recording technology.

One of those magic boxes was a half track mono Vortexion WVB tape deck. In the mid 1970s I used this machine to record a number of bizarre pseudo-musical cacophonies involving tape-loops, home-made oscillators and found objects. For these purposes, the Vortexion's most useful feature was a switch which turned off the erase head.  This enabled me to overlay new sounds directly onto an existing track.  The only problem was that, being mono, there was no other track to bounce to, thus no way I could overdub in sync with myself:  I had to rely on the delayed output from the playback head. This is why most early tracks involve vague drones and random sounds.  And, of course, as I would be recording over the original track every time, each new take was an irrevocable step; a one-off; no going back !

Playlist 2:
A SOUND SPANKING
In 1981 I bought a ReVox G36 (all-valve predecessor to the A77) which could do track-to-track overdubs, and from 1981-84 I used this machine to record numerous songwriting demos.

Then, as it is all too fond of doing, life got in the way and the songwriting got shelved. The tapes lay in their boxes undisturbed until 2001, when I got my first computer and discovered the capabilities of digital editing.  I overhauled the G36, dug out the tapes (some of them by now rather fragile) and set about digitising their contents. The results were then re-worked as multi-track edits, adding new vocals and, in certain cases, a number of MIDI-synthesized instruments - all the ones I could never have afforded to own 20 years earlier. ;-)  These recordings are the basis of this set.

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