(not so old) sarge 1991-92 cassette demos

previously ONLY available on cassette, now ONLY available digitally...

contrary? moi?

released to coincide with the perfectly ludicrous concept that is 'Cassette Store Day 2013', I will be the first to admit that this is an equally ludicrous concept...

a selection of guitar and drum machine instrumental demos, recorded straight to cassette in my bedroom in my parents house in, for the most part, one take...with no overdubs or the slightest semblance of production values whatsoever...

you have been warned...

three guitars were used...my trusty Fender Stratocaster...an old Eko acoustic, with a pickup...a sub-Jack White quality electric 6 string I got as a gift from an old high school friend that I decided, somewhat optimistically, to turn into a 12 string...

alternate tunings were stumbled upon and pressed into service...colour and texture was provided by overdrive, distortion, chorus, flanger and wah...

they're the Arion/Rocktek pedals still present and correct in my somewhat expanded pedal board...photo here...

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the beats, where audible, were provided by my (still functioning to this very day) Boss DR-110 Dr Rhythm drum machine (circa 1983...good grief...)...

so, all of this crap was plugged into a Tandy (oh, the quality...) 2-channel 50w amp, setup for a trebly guitar sound that did the already tinny drum sounds no favours at all...

the resulting racket was captured for posterity on Maxell and TDK cassettes on The Colonel's lo-fi Realistic (oh, the quality...) home stereo...none of those fandangled 4-track recorders for me, no siree...

the final takes were then bounced onto other cassettes for safe keeping back in '91-'92 then, having been mostly ignored for 20 years, I finally got around to capturing the tracks digitally and, with only the lightest of turd polishing (limited to basic edits and volume/fade adjustments only), here they are for your, ahem, 'delectation'...

my influences at the time of recording have been reflected in the 2013 naming scheme for the tracks and, should you be interested in such trivia, the number in the name reflects the order they were originally recorded in...

when listening back to the tracks, some of these influences are more apparent than others...but if I can recall correctly, those were my intentions at the time...

as a consequence, as pieces of 'music' per se, I'll be the first to admit they're not very good...

then again, neither is the fetishisation of dead and dieing music formats...but, I digress...

anyway, I think you'll agree, there's no doubting my youthful zest, enthusiasm and invention, and that my ambition and imagination certainly exceeded the limitations of my technical prowess...

so, if you like a bit of shoegaze, noise pop, feedback and effects drenched squall, then you've come to the right place...

otherwise, you'd best fuck off with your ears (and any credibility I may have garnered with you with my more recent digital musical offerings) still intact..

all the best... os :))

fin


old sarge welcomes the copying and free distribution of this music on a strictly not for profit basis

copyright © 2013 brian thomson an erratic monkey production

for more information: listentooldsarge.blogspot.com