Recorded 1977, using a combination of a Vortexion WVB and a ReVox A77

This features two home-made oscillators, found objects and the plaintive honk of my very own invention:  the Sax-o-drainpipe.

Gradually winds itself to a screaming climax.  Enjoy!

© Ken Cumberlidge 1977 

Frolics In The Engine Room

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.

Frolics In The Engine Room

Steaming Audio