ALTO STRATUS - ELECTRIC JUNK

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ALTO STRATUS

ELECTRIC JUNK

CD-R Auricle AMACDR 009 DL deleted
available as...
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mp3 download

duration: 73'51" compilation

1. Junkgrinder (Intro) 1'40"
2. Shores Of Death (Pulse And Stutter) 3'23"
3. Shores Of Death (The Beach) 2'32"
4. Shores Of Death (Mangled Poem) 1'24"
5. Shores Of Death (Stormbringer) 3'50"
6. Junkgrinder (Mincer) 3'39"
7. Junkgrinder (Waste Disposal) 2'30"
8. Junkgrinder (Ending) 1'02"
9. Cold Smoke (Brang...!) 1'24"
10. Cold Smoke (A Nice Cigar) 2'52"
11. Cold Smoke (Chatterchoke) 6'29"
12. Conjunktion 4 (Intro) 3'20"
13. Conjunktion 4 (Junkgrinder) 0'55"
14. Stalker 1 (Frang...?) 1'10"
15. Stalker 1 (Aaarghhh...!) 13'42"
16. Stalker 1 (Gloop...!) 6'32"
17. Adjunktion (Intro) 3'30"
18. Adjunktion (Conjunktion) 5'03"
19. Adjunktion (Disjunktion) 1'36"
20. Adjunktion (Gristle) 5'16"
21. Adjunktion (Frooge) 1'57"

<a href="http://altostratus.bandcamp.com/album/electric-junk">Electric Junk by Alto Stratus</a>

Created by Alto Stratus (as Electric Junk) at Dark Star Studio (1983-1984).
Taken from SHORES OF DEATH (Dark Star DS 001), COLD SMOKE (Dark Star DS 002) & STALKER (Dark Star DS 003).
Compiled & remixed at Tachyon Studio (26 August 2001).

Alan & Steve Freeman: Yamaha CS5, Casio keys, radio, tape montage, string-thing, voice.
+
Nigel Harris: acoustic guitar.
Eric Minne: mangled electric guitar.

note...
This CD collates the choice material from Alto Stratus cassette releases originally issued under the guise of Electric Junk, another of many facets to add to the illusion that there were numerous different artists on the labels we were handling. I think there was a concept or ethos behind Electric Junk. But, looking back on it all, the only defining object in Electric Junk was that it should be challenging, bizarre, and (above all) involve a lot of processing via the external input on the Yamaha CS5 synthesizer. This all started when a guitarist friend of Nigel Harris' brought round his guitar to see what we could do with it. This experiment wasn't so successful, although extracts of those recordings feature in Electric Junk and on numerous other Alto Stratus releases.

The name Electric Junk was taken from a Guru Guru track. The text in "Shores Of Death" (although totally unintelligible) is from the Michael Moorcock novel. The title "Cold Smoke" was taken from the Tangerine Dream "Electronic Meditation" track (and is since the title of the ZBB release in this series). "Stalker" would seem to have been a dedication to the Tarkovsky film, however all the text (and most of the sound effects) were lifted from a few eccentric Canadian animations. "Junkgrinder", I suppose, explains itself. The meanings of "Conjunktion 4" and "Adjunktion" have been lost with time!

The three Electric Junk cassettes were issued on Dark Star, and hardly sold at all. Increasingly, we became dissatisfied with some sections, and they were deleted when we got fed-up with duplicating them. Thus, this choice selection, cobbles all the best bits, all montaged together (kinda "Faust Tapes" fashion) condensed into a 74 minute segued opus. Excepting those few that were mind-boggled by the tapes this, more palatable/consistent release, will be the first chance most will have to hear this outrageously bizarre music, all at the twisted end of the Alto Stratus (1983 to early 1984) sound. Beware - on headphones it's liable to mangle your brain!

As the pre-masters of these recordings no longer exist, this has all been dubbed, collaged and remixed from the cassette copy masters using a Fostex digital recorder. Any slight drop-out is down to the age of the tapes. I've taken considerable liberties with the sound enhancement on some pieces, extending the dynamic range and depth of the recording considerably. I've also attempted to eliminate all the hiss and glitches in the recordings giving them a more professional sound. Thus, these recordings now have a quality and clarity impossible at the time of the original cassette releases.

Alan Freeman (26 August 2001)

Versions...
CD-R - released 2001.
Bandcamp download - released 11/8/2014.

Auricle on Discogs
Alto Stratus on Discogs

ELECTRIC JUNK
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