Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Reflects On William S. Burroughs' Sound Experiments

From http://www.thefader.com/

Exclusive: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Reflects On William S. Burroughs' Sound Experiments

By PATRICK D. MCDERMOTT

For years, Dais Records co-founder Ryan Martin has been talking with avant-garde artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge about Nothing Here Now but the Recordings, William S. Burroughs' collection of tape recorder experiments and spoken work "cut outs" from the '60s and '70s. The intriguing artifact was originally compiled in 1981 by P-Orridge's label Industrial Records (it was actually the label's final release) and hasn't been pressed to vinyl since. Now, with the help of P-Orridge and Burroughs' estate, Dais Records are dusting off the long out-of-print project and giving it a proper vinyl re-issue.

In this new video interview—produced by Martin and Louis Caldarola and debuting here on FADER—P-Orridge provides behind-the-scenes stories of how Nothing came together in the first place, recounting hitchhiking to London to meet Burroughs' for the first time and helping him catalog shoeboxes stuffed with unlabeled cassette tapes and bits of stray reel-to-reel. "Genesis agreed to sit down with us and record recollections and thoughts about the original album and its lasting effect on modern culture," Martin told FADER of the 8-minute video's conception. "The video that came as a result seamlessly pulls together many different movements and concepts that are hardwired into our modern day conceptual beings, all of which were being discovered by Burroughs on these recordings." The reissue is out in January 2015 but you can pre-order it now; check out the record's artwork and track-listing below.

Track list:

Side A
1. Captain Clark Welcomes You Aboard
2. The Saints Go Marching Through All The Popular Tunes 
3. Summer Will 
4. Outside The Pier Prowed Like Electric Turtles
5. The Total Taste Is Here – News Cut-Up
6. Choral Section, Backwards
7. We See The Future Through The Binoculars Of The People 
8. Just Checking Your Summer Recordings

Side B 
9. Creepy Letter – Cut-Up At The Beat Hotel In Paris 
10. Inching – "Is This Machine Recording?" 
11. Handkerchief Masks – News Cut-Up 
12. Word Falling – Photo Falling 
13. Throat Microphone Experiment 
14. It's About Time To Identify Oven Area 
15. Last Words of Hassan Sabbah

Original source tape for COUM Transmissions "Sugarmorphoses"

Original source tape for COUM Transmissions "Sugarmorphoses" Released on LP by Dais Records in 2011. Provided by Ryan Martin.

COUM Transmissions Home Aged & The 18 Month Hope LP pre-orders!

"Pre-orders up for the new COUM Transmissions “Home Aged & The 18 Month Hope” LP which features a compilation of various recordings and interviews spanning from 1971-1975. COUM Transmissions was a Fluxus-inspired performance art group founded in 1969 by Genesis P-Orridge (then Neil Andrew Megson) after a stint with the Exploding Galaxy Commune and would go on for the next ten years and eventually morph itself into the industrial music pioneers, Throbbing Gristle." via Dias Records http://shop.daisrecords.com/collections/vinyl/products/coum-transmissions-home-aged-the-18-month-hope-lp

Coum Transmissions LP arriving from Dais records this October and THE BRITISH GOVERMENT Coum pieces -1975- inducted into the Tate Britain

The cover for the forthcoming COUM Transmissions "Aged Home & The 18 Month Hope" LP. Out on Dais Records this October.

ALSO...

COUM Transmissions' "THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT" (1975) has officially been inducted into the permanent collection of the TATE BRITAIN!

INVISIBLE-EXPORTS is proud to announce the inclusion of COUM Transmissions' "THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT" (1975) into the collection of the TATE BRITAIN.

original collage by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge on new Prurient double-7″ release

The tirelessly prolific Dominick Fernow aka Prurient is back, this time with a double-7″ release entitled Wrapped In The Flame Of Illusion, Masked In The Clay Of Behavior.

The release comes courtesy of LA-NY label Dais Records, purveyors of all that’s good and grim in industrial, noise, neofolk and black metal (past releases have come from the likes of Cold Cave, aTelecine, Lord Foul and Tor Lundvall). It’s comprised of four tracks, which Dais describe thus:

“Recorded within the bleak transitional period immediately prior to the sessions that would now become known as Bermuda Drain, Dominick Fernow sketched out four compositions which can only be framed as ‘ambient power electronics’. Some of Fernow’s most destitute works to date, this release captures Prurient at its most vulnerable and sedate, reflective and rapt. Compositions that throw away that past decade of experience, only to start at the foundation of his art.”

Bermuda Drain, which was one of FACT’s top 10 albums of 2011, was something of a break-out success for Fernow; it was virtually a synth-pop record, albeit a superbly angsty one, influenced by stark European techno and also doubtless by Fernow’s now permanent role as keyboardist in Cold Cave. Wrapped In The Flame Illusion is the first vinyl offering from Prurient since Time’s Arrow, an EP addendum to Bermuda Drain which came out late last year.

The cover design of Wrapped In The Flame Of Illusion – which is limited to 500 copies, and available to pre-order here http://www.daisrecords.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=62
 – features an original collage by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. The Throbbing Gristle co-founder has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Dais in recent years, issuing several records of his own through the imprint, including archival offerings from COUM Tranmissions and Psychic TV.

Next COUM record out on DAIS this spring

Facebook post From Ryan Martin, Gen's management and head of Dais Records.

Ryan Martin

listening to the COUM Transmissions "Sugarmorphoses" masters from 1972 for the next COUM record out on DAIS this spring...could they get any weirder!!!

coming april 1....

TONY CONRAD, GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE and MORRISON EDLEY will reprise their ongoing improvisational sonic explorations of two violins and percussion in a live disconcert on WFMU Radio. They will create musics intuitively on WFMU on April 1st 2010, and, NO!, this is not, repeat NOT! an April Fool’s joke. They really WILL be playing a live set hosted by FABIO a lifelong friend and supporter of both their musics. Unfortunately for those of you just becoming aware of these recently manifesting collaborations their DAIS Records vinyl only live album “TAKING ISSUE” sold out long ago but DAIS Records is always releasing fascinating and groundbreaking musics so check out their website www.daisrecords.com and make sure you don’t get left empty handed and thereby empty-eared!

Gibby Miller and Ryan Martin of Dais records discuss the "early worm" release and Gen's audio archives...

excerpt from an august 2008 interview conducted by Cory Card with Gibby Miller and Ryan Martin of Dais records,concerning their work with Gen,early worm,and the audio archives




A number of your titles revolve around reissuing the archival recordings of Genesis P-Orridge. How did you guys hook up with Genesis? Why do you think these recordings are just coming to light at this point in time?

GM: Ryan is the archivist to Genesis and he/r archives... I'll let Ryan tell this story. Our ability to release this fantastic material comes down to trust and friendship.

RM: Well, to make a very long and personal story as short as possible… A few years ago, I started working with Genesis P-Orridge, he/r wife Jackie, and Eddie O’Dowd by helping out with website stuff and archive maintenance. Over the course of a few years, we all became very close and personal friends and worked more in depth with research throughout Genesis’ massive and extensive archives. Having access to such a wealth of obscure knowledge and one-of-a-kind documents and artifacts makes it an invaluable resource. For years, I would make mention to Genesis that s/he should really make use of all the recordings/ tapes that are sitting unheard in the archives. I was always given the brush off and the excuse that “no one wants to hear that old stuff” excuse (the same excuse that William S. Burroughs gave Genesis almost 30 years prior upon finally giving Genesis permission to release the Nothing Here But The Recordings sessions on Industrial Records). Finally Genesis gave in and warned me that the recordings were old, dated, and just not good, but said if I wanted to put them out myself…that I had he/r 100% blessing. Upon listening to many hours of reels of tape, I was blown away by what I had heard... and so the story goes.