From: The Cassette Mythos, Autonomedia 1990
OK, so cassette networking goes into adolescence. Appearance of secondary sexual characteristics, adaptation to the "adult" range of responsibilities. Venturing out into the real world now, long past the clutching to parents, past the need for sleep curfews and having our clothes selected for us.
And especially, past the infant stage of shit-eating. From my experience in networking, building an international contact web of like-minded shut-ins, we have learned to accept a broader range of cultural influences, and we've adapted our music to various musical traditions. We have stopped needing to whimper and whine, and to throw our food: we have stopped having to rely on that old hagged-out standby, industrial music. As I look at the work of my most stalwart networking friends, their music has all graduated from the industrial model--which is typified by an immature bravado used to cover an inability to play music well--to a more developed and sophisticated music. For various reasons relating to personal ability and taste, the sophisticated model tends to be realized as a hybrid between free electronics, rock, and "world music."
This is excitingly illustrated, for me, in the work of contemporary British psych-revival bands like Sponge, Omnia Opera, and The Oroonie, all of whom have delved into the strong root provided by progressive bands of the previous generation (who in turn followed their own root systems to come up with something exciting and new). With swirling and often old-fashioned analog synthesizers, complex effects chains following instruments of all kinds, and a real vigor and ability to play the music, these and other bands have recharged the battery of space rock. Many of the bands in this UK scene gained access to their listeners through the cassette medium. In 1990 this began to change with the support of Demi Monde Records (a label which has concentrated on British avant-rock bands for years), but by and large bands like Paradox, The Crimson Iguanadon, and Krel have had to rely on the strange world of networking for their outreach. And here in the U.S., where exposure to space rock is often limited to old Pink Floyd and Hawkwind records, the response that they get is frequently just as electric.
Face it, the USA has enjoyed few proponents of space rock these past years, and somehow all of the brightest lights have owed their family jewels to the support they've received in the cassette network. I'm talking about Viktimized Karcass down in Memphis, Alien Planetscapes in New York City, and--perhaps best known--F/i in Milwaukee.
Furthermore--and this goes right to the heart of one of the deepest problems still felt by the "cassette culture" in this country--space rock in AmeriKKKa can count among its proponents no small number of African-Americans. These performers bring to their work a rich background of progressive rock, free jazz, and as often as not a strongly leftist political emphasis that motivates their feelings about the community around them and the music that those communities make.
All of this makes space rock a stalwart challenger, just right for shaking up the too-insular character of many cassette networkers. While industrial music claimed to be challenging by deliberately invoking shock, space rock invites a vigorous creativity which leaves no room for posers. And when we fly the banner of the music, we find that this is a far more worthwhile response.
So somehow this music is able to bring out the best in musicians, and in so doing is able to crack open the cliquish character which has narrowed the scope of so many cassette musicians here. Perhaps it has been part of the infantile leaning in the past to anal-retentive musics, that there has been an aversion to seeking new friends outside of the immediate fold, or outside the warmth of the womb. The labels and players whom I am in contact with who have embraced space rock have also been able to embrace other genres of progressive music quite easily, and in so doing have picked wicked holes in what has been the standard geno- and phenotype of the networker: WHITEMALEMIDDLECLASS. The more that this hang-up is broken by networkers, the richer the musical experience will be that comes out of this "underground." And this goes right back to the space rock. Maybe it has to do with the tie-in between this music and hallucinogenic science fiction--or maybe it's just the hallucinogens--but space rock has always stood for progressive political subversion, from the decidedly Communist structure of a band like Gong (the whole band being greater that the sum of its parts) to the sexual freedom that Nik Turner used to chant about on stage with Hawkwind, to the unabashed race-mixing in the most recent lineup of Alien Planetscapes. Basically you're talking about space rock being a wicked kick in the ass of stodgy, hateful AmeriKKKan values any way you go. And for me, it realizes the best promises of a real and truly "alternative" creative community without ever needing to hang back and waffle and preach about what ought to be. The added perk is that a band like F/i makes music that kicks ass. So my label is going to continue to make available music which defies expectation, and so are those other labels in this country who've survived to this mature phase; and while we're all waiting to see what comes next, at least we'll have some crunchy music to dig.
So put away that metal percussion and those randy-ass nihilist books. The industrial shit is no longer the vanguard; real ability is the In thing now. And kids: no more painful pierced penises!
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