Cultural Amnesia
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Cultural Amnesia (CA) are an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
music group, first active between 1979 and 1983 as participants in the so-called
cassette culture The cassette culture (also known as the tape/cassette scene or cassette underground) refers to the practices associated with amateur production and distribution of music and sound art on compact cassette that emerged in the mid-1970s. The cassett ...
of the late 1970s and early 1980s in the UK. During this first period the band released three
cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...
albums An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...
: ''Video Rideo'' (1981), ''The Uncle of the Boot'' (1983) and ''Sinclair's Luck'' (1983) on English and German
record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
s, and contributed to a number of
compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
s. Early on in his career, CA worked with the late Geff Rushton (
John Balance Geoffrey Nigel Laurence Rushton (16 February 1962 – 13 November 2004), better known under the pseudonyms John Balance or the later variation Jhonn Balance, was an English musician, occultist, artist and poet. He was best known as a co-founde ...
) of Coil, who wrote a handful of songs for them and who was an important supporter and enabler due to his contacts as editor of '' Stabmental'' magazine, arranging most of their releases and providing constant encouragement. The band has become more widely known since 2000 following release of a number of compilations of their early '80s music in which the members of the group have been fully involved. Since the late '90s the band has also been occasionally active in the recording of new music and there have been a number of releases of new material since the early 2000s. Working in the wake of the early
industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...
bands, CA's output is diverse, ranging from ambient soundscapes to
synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
, but it can be broadly characterized as song-based
electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
, normally making use of
synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
, drum machine and
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
. The three members of the band were occasionally joined for recording and live performance by guitarist, Alastair Murray. The band’s methods of recording, as with many of those involved with the cassette/
DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
scene of the
post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
period, were initially extremely primitive, growing more sophisticated as they could afford better equipment. However, CA never recorded in a professional
studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...
of any kind. The members of the band had little interest in
punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
, but in addition to the inspiration of bands such as
Throbbing Gristle Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pi ...
and Cabaret Voltaire they enjoyed a broad range of music of the post-punk period; they also listened a great deal to the
art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...
of the late '60s and '70s, including
Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
and
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
, and had a keen interest in dance music and
disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
. Cultural Amnesia stopped activity close to the completion of what was to be their first vinyl LP, ''Obscenity'', with the German company Datenverarbeitung.
John Balance Geoffrey Nigel Laurence Rushton (16 February 1962 – 13 November 2004), better known under the pseudonyms John Balance or the later variation Jhonn Balance, was an English musician, occultist, artist and poet. He was best known as a co-founde ...
's sleeve notes for the unreleased album give a perceptive insight into CA’s body of work (the blurb was published on the inner sleeve of the 2007 compilation LPs, ''Press My Hungry Button'').
What does one say? Cultural Amnesia have never ceased to amaze me with their finely honed songs of innocence and insecticide. Each gleaming tune a button on their hair shirt. There is a raw spirit of experiment, of mis-adventure with emotions, that is almost awkward to listen to. Time shifts and personal twists reveal a complex web of older children, playing with something they know full well is not really for the general public. Using a vocabulary of myths and symbols, along with splintered shards of themselves, caricatures and alter egos weave and parade in drunken 'night on the town' scenarios, in crazy-glass-house confrontations with each other. All life is here. Bitter and sweet. Love, sex behind supermarkets, truth and lies, jealousy and an all-pervading earthy magick. And Death. Having lurked in the herbaceous borders of the DIY cassette scene, earning critical acclaim for their numerous releases, this record now marks the edge of that dark, tangled frustration of a country. Beyond... is another day. – John Balance, the Ides of March 1983
After fifteen years of silence the band produced three new tracks in 1998, and in 2003 launched a website. Their resumption of activity coincided with renewed interest in what has become known as 'cassette culture' and the emergence of specialist labels, of which
Vinyl On Demand Vinyl On Demand is a record label that targets vinyl collectors of 1970's and 80's minimal synth, industrial, and avant-garde music. Along with sales to distributors, Vinyl On Demand provides a subscription service. Most releases are limited to ...
is the best known, dedicated to reissuing on LP and CD material originally released on cassette in the late 1970s and early '80s. Having launched a website in 2003, the band began to receive inquiries from labels. ''Enormous Savages'', a compilation of material from 1981–1983, was released on LP in the summer of 2007, early sales accompanied by a four-track mini-CD of material recorded 1998–2006. ''Press My Hungry Button'', a 30-track double-LP compilation of 1980–1983 material, was released November 2007, early sales accompanied by a four-track EP of further 1980s material. The CD ''Enormous Savages Enlarged'', from April 2009, includes five tracks recorded 2004–09 and a further '80s track in addition to the material that appeared on the LP. These compilations of 1980s material were well received in print and online, with ''Enormous Savages'' described in ''The Sound Projector'' as "a remarkable piece of musical archaeology and certainly one of the reissues of the year". In November 2011 the band released ''This Is Not Your Shape'', their first full album of new material since the early 1980s. The album was accompanied by a highly designed A4 lyrics booklet, ''Verbose Logging'', including the songs on the album and others recorded during their second period. A special-edition CD of the album was released September 2012, with an additional track, booklet, postcards and a lapel badge. Two further albums and two EPs of new material have been released since then. A number of videos for both new and old material have been produced by John Peacock of the band. (Please see the discography below for further information and references.) Although the 2007 compilation LPs collected many of the best of the band's 1980s recordings, a considerable amount of material remains unreleased. The CA website is an extensive source of information on the band's output, released and unreleased, and on the early-'80s milieu in which they were first active. John Peacock and Ben Norland (the latter as themilgramobediencetoauthorityexperiment (''sic'')) are active as solo artists.


Discography


Albums and EPs

*''Video Rideo'' (Cassette, Conventional Tapes 1981, Datenverarbeitung 1983) *''Sinclair's Luck'' (Cassette, Hearsay and Heresy 1983) *''The Uncle of the Boot'' (Cassette, Datenverarbeitung 1983) *''The Undertow of Evening'' (Recorded 1982/3, unreleased) *''Obscenity'' (Recorded 1982/3, unreleased) *''Enormous Savages'' (LP, 1980s compilation, Anna Logue Records 2007) *''Little Savage'' (Mini-CD EP, Iron Banana 2007) *''Press My Hungry Button'' (2xLP, 1980s compilation, VOD Records 2007) *''Still Hungry'' (EP, 1980s compilation, VOD Records 2007) *''Enormous Savages Enlarged'' (CD, 1980s compilation + five post-2000 tracks, Klanggalerie 2009) *''This Is Not Your Shape'' (File album, Bleak 2011) *''This Is Not Your Shape special edition'' (CD, Bleak 2012) *''Bad Meditation'' (File album, Bleak 2015) *''Ring The Hungry Bell'' (File EP, 1980s compilation, Bleak 2016) *''Agile Business Practices'' (File EP, Bleak 2016) *''Laments'' (File EP, Bleak 2016) *''Super Whippy'' (File album, Bleak 2017)


Compilation appearances

*"Yellow Song" on ''Standard Response'' (1979) *"Cyberforms Dub" on ''Snatch 2'' (1980) *"Repetition For This World", "Reprise", "Dialogue of Skull And Soul" and "Secrets of the Passive Margin" on ''Endzeit'' (1982) *"Colorblind" and "The Pigs Are Coming" on ''A Sudden Surge of Power'' (1983) *"Nobody Does It Like You Do!" on ''Qu'est-ce Qu'il Y A?'' (1983) *"Resthome (The Man Who Worked With Tourists)" on ''Rising From The Red Sand (Volume Four)'' (1983) *"Kingdom Come" on ''The Angels Are Coming'' (1983) *"The Uncle of the Boot" on ''Band-It 11'' (1983) *"Dance" and "Where Has All The Difference Gone?" on ''The Best of the Rest (Volume 27/28)'' (1984/5) *"Where Has All The Difference Gone?" on ''On-Slaught No. 6'' (1985) *"Down by the Canal" on ''Cassette Culture I: Pause And Rewind'' (2005) *"Contains" on ''Cassette Culture II'' (2006) *"I Am Taking Photographs" on ''Electricity 3'' (2006) *"Resthome (The Man Who Worked With Tourists)" on ''Nonpop 2'' (2008) *"Repetition For This World" on ''Messthetics Greatest Hiss: Classics of UK Cassette-Culture DIY, 1979-1982 (volume 1)'' (2008) *"Materialistic Man" on ''The Anna Logue Years'' (2010) *"Little Blue Grains" and "Brand New Day" on ''Why Be Blake When You Can Be Bleak?'' (2010) *"Materialistic Man" on ''Close to the Noise Floor'' (4xCD, 2016) *"Materialistic Man" on ''Close to the Noise Floor'' (2xLP, 2017) Discography sources: Discogs, Tape-Mag, culturalamnesia.comCultural Amnesia
page, ''Discogs''. Retrieved 30 April 2011
Cultural Amnesia
page, ''Tape-Mag''. Retrieved 28 October 2020
Compilations
page, culturalamnesia.com. This incomplete listing remains useful for the links to information about labels. Further information on compilations on which CA has appeared can be found at ''Tape-Mag'' (1970s/'80s releases) and ''Discogs''. Retrieved 26 October 2020.


See also

*
Electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
*
Industrial music Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...
*
Post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
*
Cassette culture The cassette culture (also known as the tape/cassette scene or cassette underground) refers to the practices associated with amateur production and distribution of music and sound art on compact cassette that emerged in the mid-1970s. The cassett ...


Notes and references


External links


culturalamnesia.comCA YouTube
Official videos
themilgramobediencetoauthorityexperiment
Solo project of Ben Norland of Cultural Amnesia
John Peacock
Music by John Peacock of Cultural Amnesia {{Authority control British experimental musical groups Cassette culture 1970s–1990s English electronic music groups English post-punk music groups Third Mind Records artists British industrial music groups British electronic musicians