Martin Swope (b. June 1, 1955, Ann Arbor,

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, US) is an American musician and composer. He was the tape manipulator and sound engineer for the Boston-based postpunk band

Mission of Burma Mission of Burma was an American post-punk band from Boston, Massachusetts. The group formed in 1979 with Roger Miller on guitar, Clint Conley on bass, Peter Prescott on drums, and Martin Swope contributing audiotape manipulation and acting a ...

from 1979–1983, when they split up due to lead vocalist/ guitarist Roger Miller's problem with the hearing disorder

tinnitus Tinnitus is the perception of sound when no corresponding external sound is present. Nearly everyone experiences a faint "normal tinnitus" in a completely quiet room; but it is of concern only if it is bothersome, interferes with normal hearin ...

. Swope's first role was as a tape loop engineer for Mission of Burma's live performances, but his role gradually evolved into live sound mixing as well. From his seat off stage at the

mixing console A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for Audio mixing (recorded music), mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals fro ...

, Swope used a

reel to reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

tape machine to record and manipulate sounds produced by the musicians onstage by speeding or slowing them, reversing them and/or creating

tape loop In music, tape loops are loops of magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound when played on a tape recorder. Originating in the 1940s with the work of Pierre Schaeffer, they were used among cont ...

s. These techniques were inspired by composers like John Cage and

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

who earlier led Miller (also a pianist) to write compositions for piano and tape loops. Swope would then re-introduce the manipulated tape effects into the public address system, essentially as fourth instrument. The tape effects ranged from recognizable as their original source, or distorted and manipulated beyond recognition; see the live album '' The Horrible Truth About Burma'' whose songs feature Swope's tape work perhaps most clearly among their discography. Drummer Peter Prescott was quoted as saying it was difficult to predict how Swope's tape effects would sound in live performances, "and that andom factorgot to be the really fun thing." Journalist

Michael Azerrad Michael Azerrad is an American author, music journalist, editor, and musician. A graduate of Columbia University, he has written for publications such as ''Spin'', ''Rolling Stone'', and ''The New York Times''. Azerrad's 1993 biography '' Come a ...

later wrote: "A lot of people never knew about Swope's contribution and were mystified by how the musicians onstage could wring such amazing phantom sounds from their instruments."Azerrad, Michael.

Our Band Could Be Your Life ''Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981–1991'' is a book by Michael Azerrad. It chronicles the careers of several underground rock bands who, while finding little or no mainstream success, were hugely ...

. Little, Brown and Company, 2001. Though his contribution is widely considered an integral part of Burma's sound, Swope very rarely appeared onstage, only occasionally appearing to play second guitar during encores. in 1981, Swope (on

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

) and Miller (on electric piano) joined the mostly instrumental, classical-rock group

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic Birdsongs of the Mesozoic is an American musical group founded in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, in 1980.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 226-7 The music of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic is almost ent ...

that later became their main musical project. Miller left Birdsongs after their first album but Swope stayed until 1993 contributing guitar, percussion, tape effects and compositions to three albums. Swope declined to rejoin Mission of Burma when they reformed in 2002, and was replaced by

Bob Weston Bob Weston (born 1965) is an American musician, producer, recording engineer, and record mastering engineer. Critic Jason AnkenyAnkeny, Jason. " Bob Weston: Overview from Allmusic.com declares that "Weston's name and fingerprints are all over th ...

Shellac Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...

. Miller reported that Swope "dropped off the map" and moved to Hawaii.

Discography

With

* Signals, Calls and Marches (Ace of Hearts 1981) * Vs. (Ace of Hearts 1982) * The Horrible Truth About Burma (Ace of Hearts 1985) With

* Birdsongs of the Mesozoic (Ace of Hearts, 1983) * Magnetic Flip (Ace of Hearts, 1984) * Beat of the Mesozoic (Ace of Hearts, 1986) * Faultline (Cuneiform, 1989) * Pyroclastics (Cuneiform, 1992)

References

1955 births Living people American male musicians 20th-century American musicians Mission of Burma members American post-punk musicians {{US-music-bio-stub