Tuesday 19 August 2014

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!

13 comments:

bill said...

Mr Z your description is mouth-watering. Can't wait to hear!

faraway said...

great-thanx for posting this :)

Anonymous said...

Can't hardly wait! Thanks!

MrFab said...

Ah thank you sir. Another one I've been after for a while.

Carlo said...

Absolute masterpiece.
Everyone should listen to this record.
A classic of the genre.
Thank you for sharing.
Carlo

Jonny Zchivago said...

Hmmmm, seems a popular item? Pity there isn't a Miniatures 2? NOT!
Sequels are what makes the modern world so shit.The concept of 'Leave them wanting more' has now vanished,along with 'Quality NOT quantity'.
NOT!

A. S. said...

This line-up is truly fucked. Etron Fou & R.D. Laing? Ivor Cutler & Steve Miller? Good grief.

Jakob von Gunten said...

I managed to download 12 tracks only. Is this the first part for a start or...? Thanks for sharing!

Jonny Zchivago said...

Huh? It is only 12 tracks. All the minute pieces come in five minute chunks, edited together.
This is the whole of the LP.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes your apparently speed-fueled jabbering makes you like a bit of a fool. There IS a Miniatures 2, bub.

Jakob von Gunten said...

@Jonny Zchivago: Thanks for clarifying. Peace.

Marc Myers said...

Here in the states I heard this first on Dr. Demento, back before he became a shamelesss pimp for Weird Al! He played the Residents cut which led me down a road to no end in sight...along with everything else on this comp!Cheers

dee_seejay said...

Don't know if you were aware but there's a 40th anniversary celebration album out now, 'Miniatures 2020', just stumbled upon it while buying a copy of this Two Headed Emperor lp.
https://twoheadedemperor.bandcamp.com/album/deracination