Various Artists ‎– "Miniatures (A Sequence Of Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces Edited By Morgan-Fisher)" (Pipe ‎– PIPE 2) 1980

"From the sleevenotes:
In 1979: Morgan-Fisher heard "The Goofing Off Suite"(by Pete Seeger), and got an idea...
In 1980: Invitations were sent out to a highly personal selection of creative artists, asking them to contribute
pieces of not more than one minute's duration, to what has turned out to be this extraordinarily eclectic album. "

This is sort of an 'Avant garde' kind of a compilation. Its full of strange bedfellows, like Kevin Coyne and Steve Miller;Half Japanese, and Michael Nyman;Pete Seeger and Ron Geesin? All squeezed together in several small boxes until they all become One. A conceptualised microcosm of the modern globalised world on one LP; except that 'Minatures' works and globalisation is killing the very thing that it is supposed to be 'helping'; eradicating culture, and creating an homogeneous cash grasping bland out, to benefit the Hyper-Rich uber class that will eventually wipe 'us' out and claim this rock for themselves.....if there's anything left of it?

The concept is that a diaspora of various muso's,from the full rainbow of musiciandom, and beyond. Through the visible spectrum,the infra red and Ultraviolet,into the microwave background. Provide a short tune, or composition, of around a minute in length. Then the compiler edits them together in chunks of approximately five minutes.Making a maxiture from the miniture.Then after the expansion from the minuscule, we get the contraction, after a short spell of silence, of the whole universe into a one minute summary of the whole record.

Any record that starts with a track called “Bum Love” simply has to be great? That ,and appearences from many luminaries of the DIY culture of 1980; David Cuningham,MarkPerry, Metabolist,Half Japanese. Rubbing Shoulders with serious muso's like Gavin Bryers, Nyman, Lol Coxhill,and Fred Frith.George Melly does a Dada sound poem(he was always a pretentious old cunt!),its got the great Andy Partridge on it, and isn't that Martin Chambers,the drummer from The Vacants? All this plus TheResidents,never ones to turn down a healthy concept, playing the best cover version of a Ramones tune ever!This was, after all, a less disciplined version of The Resident's “Commercial Album”,where every song finished at exactly 1.00 minutes on the dot.

Tracklist: 

		Band-1
A1	–Ollie Halsall & John Halsey	Bum Love
A2	–the Residents	We're A Happy Family / Bali Ha'i
A3	–Roger McGough	The Wreck Of The Hesperus
A4	–Morgan-Fisher	Green And Pleasant
A5	–John Otway	Mine Tonight
		Band-2
A6	–Pete Challis & Phil Diplock	My Way
A7	–Robert Wyatt	Rangers In The Night
A8	–Stinky Winkles	Opus
A9	–Mary Longford	Body Language
A10	–Andy Newman	Andy The Dentist
A11	–David Bedford	Wagner's Ring In One Minute
		Band-3
A12	–Fred Frith	The Entire Works Of Henry Cow
A13	–Maggie Nicols	Look Beneath The Surface
A14	–Joseph Racaille	Week-End
A15	–The Work	With Wings Pressed Back
A16	–Neil Innes & Son	Cum On Feel The Noize
		Band-4
A17	–Herbert Distel	Toscany In Blue (Last Minute)
A18	–Lol Coxhill	An End To The Matter
A19	–Ken Ellis	One Minute In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich
A20	–Steve Miller	Alice
		Band-5
A21	–Norman Lovett	John Peel Sings The Blues Badly
A22	–Patrick Portella	Serrons Nous Les Coudes
A23	–George Melly	Sounds That Saved My Life (Homage To K.S.)
A24	–Robert Fripp	Miniature
A25	–Andy Partridge	The History Of Rock 'N' Roll
A26	–Phantom Captain	Breather
		-
		Band-1
B1	–Ron Geesin	Enterbrain Exit
B2	–Alejandro Viñao	An Imaginary Orchestrina
B3	–Quentin Crisp	Stop The Music For A Minute
B4	–Simon Desorgher	Tetrad
B5	–Ralph Steadman	Sweetest Love (Lament After A Broken Sashcord On A Theme Of John Donne)
B6	–R.D. Laing & Son	Tipperary
		Band-2
B7	–Trevor Wishart	Beach Double
B8	–John White	Scene De Ballet
B9	–Ivor Cutler	Brooch Boat
B10	–Hector Zazou	Do Tell Us
B11	–Michael Bass & Ellen Tenenbaum	A Miniaturisation Of Bartok's Sonata For 2 Pianos & Percussion (3rd Movement)
		Band-3
B12	–Martin Chambers	A Swift One
B13	–Bob Cobbing & Henri Chopin	Refreshment Break
B14	–Dave Vanian	Night Touch
B15	–Metabolist	Raging Poodles
		Band-4
B16	–Gavin Bryars	After Mendelssohn (137 Years)
B17	–1/2 Japanese	Paint It Black
B18	–Simon Jeffes	Arthur's Treat
B19	–Mark Perry	Talking World War III Blues
B20	–Michael Nyman	89-90-91-92
		Band-5
B21	–David Cunningham	Index Of Ends
B22	–Kevin Coyne	James, Mark & Me (In The Manner Of Tom Waits)
B23	–Etron Fou Leloublan	Hep!
B24	–Neil Oram & Ken Campbell  & Science Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool	The Minute Warp
B25	–Pete Seeger	Chorale From Beethoven's 9th Symphony

DOWNLOAD a maximum number of miniatures HERE!