Label: conatala – Conatala-003
Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: Japan
Released: 2021
Genre: Electronic
Style: Abstract
Tokyo’s Conatala label plunges deep into the sub-terranean world of the 80’s cassette scene with a debut vinyl compilation of mythical home-recording figure Steve Hartwell aka The Dead Goldfish Ensemble. In the 80’s Hartwell represented a cornerstone within a disparate group of people making music at home, recording onto cassette and using their own contacts for distribution, utilising the increasingly accessible, emerging electronic technology as a means of production. Armed only with the tools that were necessary, the output of DGE is a playful, polyrhythmic fantasy land representing the pure essence of the DIY ethos, but also tapping into and attempting to recreate some of the perceived ideas about the US minimalist scene of the time. It’s hard to picture now with the world of information at our fingertips, but reading in magazines about how American composers such as Steve Reich were experimenting with phasing and minimalistic structures, but not being to hear them, could easily lead to this novel, home-brewed interpretation. Despite the slower means of correspondence during the 80’s, the music of DGE found its way onto over 40 pan-European compilations, including revered outposts such as Insane tapes (Belgium), UK-based fanzine IRRE Tapes, Germany’s Tonspur Tapes, French label Organic Tapes, and a dizzying number of other near-impossible to find (and totally unknown) issues. However, the seasoned diggers and hardcore music-obsessives behind the scenes of Conatala have been with him every step of the way and are certainly best placed to make sense of this fascinating cult UK artist… (Mint / New - with insert) - Shops please get in touch for wholesale.
Tracklist
1 All The Hands
2 Chewing Shoes
3 Eric
4 Fractal Landscape
5 Bouncing Eggs
6 Annual General Meeting
7 Reality
8 Walking Walls
