0. Beginning in 1984, an alternative history of blood group, post blood group and darkroom events re-covering (uncovering) times covered in History's Chickens, Baleeshas 88, Ascending and Descending and View From the Darkroom, up to 1991 and beyond: pre-millenium inventions by Poets and Singers, Bill Davies (and) Baleeshas 13.
1. Shortwave radio was used as a musical instrument by experimental German band Can, something we were keen to emulate. Following our tape experiments in the early 80s (e.g. Man in the Forest, on Saturday For Acrobats) where we recorded extracts from spoken word LP's, we began to record shortwave broadcasts onto cassette tapes to add texture to our performances/recordings. The mechanical controls on a cassette recorder allowed you to cut up and splice different sound sources using the pause button, collaging your sounds in the way you wanted. Digital controls put a stop to this (there is an extra, unwanted pause after you press pause) but then samplers began . . .
It's a Big Night Tonight started life on the HO3 demo. We took the bassline more or less from the original track, reggaefying it here and there, replacing the original machine led percussive kafkaphony with reggae-style drums, thus making our own riddim. 2. a sound collage constructed fromFrom the 80s cassette tape 'short wave radio materials' where is to be found the 'vintage' short wave radio announcement at the beginning of the medley. More on riddims . . .
3. In the mid-1980s there was a thriving reggae scene in the UK based around the Fashion label and a new 'fast-style' way of toasting which was pioneered by UK MCs like Smiley Culture and Asher Senator. There were new dancehall riddims coming over from Jamaica as well: the new 'rub-a-dub' style led by Paul Blake and the Bloodfire Posse, digital dancehall and uncompromising singjays like Tenor Saw. Liverpool 8 - home to the Blood Group - was steeped in this music. The practice of taking 60s and 70s riddims, speeding them up or slowing them down and putting new tunes over them, was rife. There was also an experimental riddim called 'Sleng Teng', taken from an altered Casio home keyboard preset pattern, which formed the basis for whole albums or extravaganzas by different artists. The Blood Group adapted riddims to a rock music style. Stalag, the riddim for 'We'll Meet Again', appears on a classic album called JA to UK MC Clash by Johnny Ringo and Asher Senator (on the tracks Dedicated to Jah/Senator No Skin Up) which directly compared the Jamaican style with that of the UK. It is also the bass-is for the legendary track Bam Bam by Sister Nancy.
4. this one was found on a doctor alimantado track, which i think was called in the kingdom of dub; i don't know the name of the riddim.
5. 6,7; recorded on the X-26 in the darkroom
8. This is a song about rusholme, manchester. it was recorded in the darkroom on a PC linked to the beloved X-26, the instruments played on a soft synth using an AWE 32 sound card and general midi protocols, the vocals cued up on the cassette four-track by an electronic stripe. (technology described in the sci-fi story The Typists Will Appreciate . . . by Guatemalan author Felipa Bizarro Ujpan) [As I write, the X-26 is in a state of limbo. Two years ago, while I was preparing a sound collage for an exhibition at the Museum of Ordinary People, a cassette tape got stuck in the machine and I had to smash it out with a screwdriver. In doing so, I destroyed the play/record mechanism of the machine. I got the phone number of someone who might be able to fix it, but was unable to ring him for six months because I was suffering from social anxiety. By that time I was in therapy, and for my homework I finally rang him, from a public place (which was part of the brief).. I couldn't hear him properly (I was in a cafe) and missed my appointment. Luckily I went back half an hour later and caught him. He is a lovely man who lives surrounded by broken technology from a previous age, stuff which was almost tangibly fading into obsolescence as we sat chatting and he replaced the RAM battery in my DX100. That was over a year ago and he is still searching for replacement parts for the X-26 so he can complete the restoration.]
9. from an unfinished album called What Do You Think? in which our science is mystical, and references Native American and African American inspirations. Beth's keyboard is played live and everything else is programmed, except of course the lead vocal which is recorded onto a cassette synched to a computer by an electronic 'stripe' - Heady stuff from the days when technology couldn't keep up with its own self. I had two files on my computer - Inspiration Information and False Testimony, which provided source material for our lyrics. recording this we were crying laughing in the chapel.
10. ditto, the title is a quotation from Ben Okri's The Famished Road. there is also a reference to The Power a popular tune of the time by the German group Snap!
11. recorded on the X-26 in the darkroom.
12. rough mix of a track from Bill's solo album Bill//Songs. It started life as the end section of This Terminal Beach (from Ascending and Descending). It was recorded by Phil Swann in 1999 and as such should be chronologically the final track of the collection. However . . .
13. this is either a short section of a work placed on an unfinished album, the seance, abandoned due to its reliance on uncleared samples, or a complete track on a later unreliable album, The Moon Tape, named after a mixtape made for the boys in catherine st, liverpool,
14. the 4 original baleeshas together again in the darkroom