Essendon Airport ‎– "Palimpsest" + "Sonic Investigations (Of The Trivial) EP" (Innocent Records) 1980/81

"Palimpsest" (1981)

Tracklist:

Correct Pitch?
No Quarter
Re-funkt
I Feel A Song Coming On
Jig
Like Young
Trad Jazz
Science Of Sound
Beguine
What Is This Thing Called Funk?
Rhythm Method
Entrance Of The Gladiators
Happy Ending

"Sonic Investigations (Of The Trivial)" (1980)

Tracklist:
Take Off
A1 Runway Rock 3:27
A2 How Low Can You Go... (?) 3:26

Touch Down
B1 Wallpaper Music 5:38
B2 3 Against 4 1:47

Well you know that '→ ↑ →' and 'Asphixiation' involved the members of Essendon Airport right?

Well here's Essendon Airports early records featuring no less than those very same members of Essendon Airport!

Blatantly the music of educated university graduates, this electronic version of Muzak suggests there must be an underlying theme to all this? Something we are too dumb to understand.There is a track title here, called "Wallpaper Music",which I suggest nakedly reveals the artists intention.

Its minimalism and non-rock uncommerciality is in itself admirable to behold;but there's again something rather sterile about it......nothing wrong with that however,just an observation.

I know this is good, but it just feels disposable,like the Elevator music it parodies.A world where humans are optional, except as consumers.....which you aren't if you download this file without the vulgar process of exchanging tokens of credit for it.That would just ruin everything!

The DOWNLOAD is now boarding at gate 1 HERE!

Asphixiation ‎– "What Is This Thing Called 'Disco'?" (Innocent ‎– ONO-001) 1981

This is basically an conceptual satire of the Disco cult by → ↑ →  and Essendon Airport, as a fictional group called 'Asphixiation'.
The LP was made as a backing track for the group members to mime to during a few performances at the George Paton Gallery in july 1980, where they pranced and mimed, badly, to an openly displayed reel-to-reel tape machine.
As it says on the official promo blurb from Innocent Records: 
"Ten arse-kicking tracks that encompass the wide dissemination of the most recent and prolific enigma yet to seduce the mass-market and tickle the art-cult: DISCO." 

It was quite popular around 1980 to do a tongue in cheek version of Disco by the more serious minded among the experimental pop community, of which there are many examples; notably The Residents disco version of their critically acclaimed album 'Eskimo', as 'Diskomo'.

This satirical experiment predates a lot of the 'Mutant Disco' stuff from downtown Manhatten in the early 80's, but this usurps all that by being a strictly one-off joke on both the Disco and Art worlds.

The provocative cover of an under-endowed male augmented with lit cigarette only serves to emphasise the subversivness of penetrating the ordinary home with subjects real Disco kept hidden behind the scenes.The music had the ability to lure children away from their parents like a piped piper to a taboo world of decadence and sexual discovery.Ohhhh La Laaa!!?

A similar swindle was attempted by Throbbing Gristle with their "20 Jazz Funk Greats" album. The idea being that any unsuspecting member of the public, when leafing through the record racks in Woolworths would happen upon this fake Jazz-Funk compilation,take it home and play it, but instead of the smooth danceable sounds of Level 42, they had Genesis P-Orridge groaning about 'Persuasion' and other dodgy sadistic topics. However on that album there did appear a couple of psuedo-disco tracks that did indeed presage House music by almost a decade......shame on you TG!!!!

Asphixiation, also touched on these same taboo's(I mean look at the cover and the groups S&M moniker?),but with far more humour involved than the largely humourless Throbbing Gristle.

Well....I could almost dance to this and think it was proper Disco.....dunno about you?

Tracklist:

Long Player Album:
A1 The Beat Aesthetic
A2 Feelings
A3 Asphixiation
A4 Blurred Movement
A5 Hunger-Food-Nausea
B1 Innocent Rhythms
B2 Aural Risk
B3 Traditional Europe
B4 Self Denial (Is A Beautiful Thing)
B5 African Disco Queen 

Twelve Inch Single (for A.M. Radio)
A L'Acrostique D'Amour

Twelve Inch Single (for Discotheques)
B The Crush

DOWNLOAD this thing HERE!

→ ↑ → ‎– "Spaces(1981)" + "3 EP's (1979-80) (Innocent ‎Records) 1979-81

Yes another 'request', but an admirable one, as I like any group that is unclassifiable alphabetically. This is why '→ ↑ →'(Philip Brophy & Essendon Airport basically) are often referred to as 'Tsk Tsk Tsk'. So the anal record store worker could file their output under 'T'.....ahhhhh the relief.
Another important bi-product of being unclassifiable in any filing system is 'No Sales!'.The casual browser would not find it easy to stumble upon a '→ ↑ →' record in any record store,which is how I managed to find most of my favourite LP's back in the day, just by looking at the cover art, and reading the track titles on the back (yes I can read...but I can't write!?!).
The music on this mini-lp and subsequent EP's (all on Brophy's Innocent records), is a kind of sterile art gallery bound variety of passionless brass enhanced electronica.Very 'Downtown', for people who boast of degrees and of reading books.Bereft of the accidental.....an important factor in human music.

Spaces Tracklist:

A1 Video Space
A2 Color Space
A3 Synthetic Space
B1 Total Space
B2 Flat Space
B3 Expressive Space

Venitian Rendezvous EP (1979)

Tracklist

A1 Lampadina
A2 Pallini
B1 Sportelio
B2 Canzona Di Una Notta

Nice Noise EP (1979)

Tracklist

A1 Nice Noise Theme
A2 Rock Song
B1 Doing Very Little
B2 One Note Song

"Caprice EP" (1980)

Tracklist

Born Again (Christian Revival Medley)
Caprice
AC/DC Current
Lunar Medley
Midnight Serenade
Moon River

DOWNLOAD all this from cyber space HERE!

Anne Cessna and Essendon Airport - "Talking To Cleopatra" (Innocent Records 7" NON 3) 1980

I noticed that Essendon Airport were on the Terse Tapes compilation , "One Stop Shopping", and this in turn reminded me of the classic one-off electrolurch single, with Anne Cessna. An absolute classic if ever there was one. Crackling circuit board bending outsider dance classic.Released in a Limited edition of 500.
"A hit single with no target to hit. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship." according to official Australian Innocent label 1981 catalogue.
I like their attitude.

Track Listing:

A		Talking To Cleopatra
B		Lost In Madagascar

DOWNLOAD this Aussie Classic HERE!