CUT-UPS

Ian C Stewart "Cut-ups" MP3

I have a pile of work tapes that aren't really labeled anywhere on the outside. They were usually quick mixes of whatever music I was working on at the time, made to listen to in the car, or on a walkman. Not for posterity. And most certainly not for anyone else's delectation ten years later!

The first of these bulk work tapes says CUT-UPS. And that's the only clue of what awaits inside.

I might've heard Mark Gunderson referring to something he did as a "cut-up" in the mid 1990s. When I bought my first PC from him I guess I inherited a little bit of interest in seeking out and exploiting wacky and amusing sound sources. The more ludicrous the better. Unfortunately I do not share his gift for being able to craft something great out of disparate materials, as this pathetic, one-off tape reveals.

And Wayne Butane, I might've become aware of his work by this point, which would be some time in 1997.

From childhood I've always had a fascination with recording. I probably tried to crudely juxtapose things like my beloved Steve Martin album and whatever KISS record I loved the most that week.

Even though, process-wise, this cut up thing is like a FZZY PMPR demo, it's just a long, unfunny slab of unrelated audio events that I hoped would come together in a grand way. No such luck, despite a couple of promising buildups with a preacher dude and a Mercyful Fate record.

This piece was unreleased until today because it's extremely pointless!

The first few things I did on the PC, using Cool Edit 96, I didn't save any of it to the hard drive. Can you imagine! I made this 8 minute 12 second monstrosity on the fly and slapped it onto a cassette. Otherwise, gosh darn it, the world would never have known about it. Hopefully all of the bulk work tapes won't be this pointless.

I think the sources were................ The Damned from 'the captain's birthday party' live album
The Young Ones "living doll"
Bad News album
Buddy Rich album
the "good touch, bad touch" kids' album
Christian Death "this is heresy"
japanese 45?
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - that one b-side where they do all the talking
Milli Vanilli "girl you know it's true"
Billy Connolly album
Muppet Show album
1970s Israeli soft rock
Adrian Belew "the ideal woman"
Henry Rollins from "family man" - this is where the PC locked up during playback, so brace yourself for a buttkicking in 3-D and Sensurround here!!! Not kidding, it sounds like a machine gun.
King Diamond album
Berklee jazz history textbook cassette
Chris Rock album
a Learn to Speak French tape
Radio preacher dude
Mercyful Fate
Steven Wright album