In the summer of 2010 I worked through my extensive archive of DAT tapes, cassettes and minidiscs, which had accumulated since 1977, and with the help of my ever capable and patient interns, began the process of digitizing these materials. The result, over 600 hours of largely unreleased material, was overwhelming to say
the least, and that was only the edited highlights, as we never touched any material prior to 1991.
Most of these recordings have never been heard before or released, though ideas, voices and samples may have reappeared in altered forms on future releases. Very little of it is ‘finished’ in any sense, it is more of a thinking process, sketches towards something else, a moment of inspiration briefly captured. At the invitation of Sub Rosa I honed down the selection to the controversial scanned telephone call works by-passing film scores, dance pieces, remixes and so on. The shorter pieces interspersed throughout the album were originally commissioned by James Lavelle for an edition of his Mowax compilation label series Headz, but for unknown reasons were never included. Two of the works, Blind Electricity and Moth Open Math, began life as remixes for other artists but then took on a life entirely of their own so were never issued in this form.
Underwater was released in an edition of 100 copies on 7″ vinyl on Syntatic Records Vienna, April 1995.
Tape Junk and Who Else Is There? were released on 7″ vinyl on Soul Static Sound, October 1996.