Spot-on reproduction of a quartet of mythical Library offerings, including a side-length program each of "Cosmic Sounds", "Electro Sounds" (TVMusic 101, 1969), "Weird Sounds", "Crazy Sounds" (TVMusic 102, 1970), "Video-Tronics", "Hi-Tronics" (TVMusic 103, 1972), & finally "Electro-Themes", & "Electrosonics" (TVMusic 104, 1973), all conjured & reined-in by Georges Teperino (aka Nino Nardini) & Roger “Cecil Leuter” Roger (aka Eric Swan.)
While “Cosmic b/w Electro” has some nice moments of “lyrical” electronic music that presage pretty much the entire “Library” spec, "Weird b/w Crazy" is completely bonkers, throwing any & all “Groovy” connotations out with the bath-water in favor of alternatingly “White Lab Coat” & “Reckless Abandon” approaches that boggle the mind. The opening track sounds fresh out of a Stockhausen piece (an electronically gated trombone drone slowly folds over itself) & from there things only get stranger (drum machines, played backward through echo accompanied by tape-munged slide guitar - dissonant organ clusters & theremin / synthesizer glissandi float over milky pools of phosphorescent vibes.)
But easily the most head-scratch-ingly awesome moments are the first three “Cues” on side B, sounding like an aborted Mahogany Brain / Fille Qui Mousse jam session gone awry, in which a zonked “Psych” power trio essentially covers the AMM / MEV split in its entirety (OK, maybe that’s a little hyperbolic - but it’s a seriously out-there session). This recedes into a suite of minimal collage pieces, all involving small, clicking “Clock” noises sent packing through an array of tape-manipulation & time-based effects.
This 2018 edition offers, for the first time, all four TVMusic titles across two discs, replacing the previous TVMusic 102-only disc. Over 2 hours of arguably the best & easily the most experimental output from either Composer, all in one handy package.
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