Jaap Blonk + Damon Smith ‎– "Hugo Ball: Sechs Laut-Und Klanggedichte, 1916 [Six Sound Poems, 1916]" (2014)

Arch Dutch dadaist sound poet, Jaap Blonk...real name.....has made a career out of these six Hugo Ball penned 'sound Poems' .He actually earns money doing this, so how stupid are we?
Apparently, according to his biog on Wikipedia, he went through a lot of employment failures and sackings before trying his hand at being a musician,which he was also a bit crap at.This left his voice as his last chance for gainful employment without the boredom and toil of 'real work', and it...er... worked!The one thing you can say about a poet,is that you can never say he isn't working.Even when laying down he can always claim that he's thinking about his next poem. Perfect.
As sound poetry has been around for longer than 100 years, one cannot claim that this is something startlingly 'Neu',but it is an-neu-ing,and it will still have Mr and Mrs Henry Normal running in fear from this challenge to their world.That is a testament to the sheer originality and subversion of the original work.....yes that word again....of Hugo Ball.
This recording uses the improvisational skills of double bassist Damon Smith....real name....that give it,debatably, a more listenable edge.Jaap's grunting and raspberry blowing is a bit more paletable when backed up by scraping discordant contrabasse strings.
I would like to see a Jandek and Jaap Blonk collaboration on day....Jaap and Jan.

Tracklist:

1 Prelude 7:33
2 Wolken (Clouds) 6:08
3 Katzen Und Pfauen (Cats And Peacocks) 4:38
4 Karawane (Caravan) 5:57
5 Interlude 7:34
6 Gadji Beri Bimba 5:57
7 Totenklage (Dirge) 7:03
8 Seepferdchen Und Flugfische (Seahorses And Flying Fish) 5:20
9 Postlude 7:56

DOWNLOAD from jaaps huge-o balls of bollocks HERE!

Hugo Ball - " Six Sound Poems " - (1916)

The kraut responsible for all this sound poetry malarky,....it had to be a German didn't it!?...Was the father of the DaDa art movement,as well as inventing sound poetry,and starting the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, was Hugo Ball......that's him in his work clothes on the artwork.
These are  his complete recorded works captured on wax cylinder in 1916,and as you may hear,nothing much has changed over the ensuing century in modern sound poetry today.
Most men aged less than forty were at the time being butchered on battlefields all over the planet during that notorious conspiracy to cull the working class, called 'the Great War'; but not Hugo,no.He was too busy saying stuff like "Blago Bung,Bosso fatake, ba-omf!" in a surrealist pub in neutral Switzerland.

"What did you do in the war daddy?"
"Well Son, I dodged the draught,ran off to a neutral country, dressed up like a prat and made up silly words"
"Thank god for that daddy,you're not as stupid as you look-ed"

Germany is responsible for some of the most shameful variety of interests,hobbies, and pastimes that have ever shaken the foundations of civilisation. We've had...i think you know whats coming here.....Jew-Hating, guillotining students, expressionism, playing at being Nietzsche, Nazi glee clubs, wearing kinky boots, inventing and imbibing morphine replacements,Markism, Wagner,Neue Deutsche Welle,sausage munching,and, last but not least...the Dada movement. Without which we'd still be cooing at Constable's "The Haywain",and listening to Elgar.....many people still do amazingly!?


Tracklist:
1.Seepferdchen Und Flugfische (Seahorses And Flying Fishes) (0:41)

2.Karawane (Caravane)(1:24)

3.Wolken (Clouds) (1:04)
4.Katzen Und Pfauen (Cats And Peacocks) (0:52)5.Totenklage (Dirge)(1:48)

6.Gadji Beri Bimba (1:48)

DOWNLOAD and have a ball HERE!