Grey
Scale
(David
Cunningham solo LP)
(UK) 1977 Piano Records
(PIANO 001) - Mixed and Produced by David Cunningham
Side A:
01) Error System (BAGFGAB) [2:23]
02) Error
System (C pulse solo recording) [4:09]
03) Error
System (C pulse group recording) [3:26]
04) Error
System (E based group recording) [3:37]
05) Error
System (EFGA) [4:58]
Side B:
06) Ecuador
[2:58]
07) Water
Systemised [4:06]
08) Venezuela
l [3:02]
09) Guitar
Systemised [3:11]
10) Venezuela
2 [2:46]
11) Bolivia
[2:54]
Sleeve notes:
Instrumentation and musicians:
1. David Cunningham, piano, glockenspiel,
synthesizer, percussion.
2. D. C., violin piano, bass guitar, glockenspiel.
3. Stephen Reynolds, glockenspiel; Alan
Hudson, bass guitar; Derek Roberts, piano; D. C., violin.
4. Alan Hudson and Michael Doherty, percussion;
Derek Roberts, glockenspiel; Stephen Reynolds, piano.
5. D. C., guitar, synthesizer, glockenspiel.
6. D. C., percussion, glockenspiel, synthesizer,
recorder.
7. D. C., tape recorders and water.
8. D. C., piano, violin, guitar, percussion.
9. D. C., tape recorders, guitar.
10. Derek Roberts, glockenspiel,; Stephen
Reynolds, synthesizer; D. C., percussion.
11. D. C., piano, percussion, synthesizer,
strings, etc.
Sleve notes:
Error System: The players play a repeated
phrase. As soon as one player makes a mistake that mistake is made the
basis of his repetition unless it is modified by a further mistake. Thus
each player proceeds at his own rate to change the sound in an uncontrollable
manner. On no account should "mistakes" be made deliberately to introduce
a change into a performance. In short...sustain your errors. The water
piece and the guitar piece are analogous to this process. However the process
is automatic here, an inherent quality to the machinery used. The numerical
sequence used in Ecuador and Bolivia is: 11221111223332112222331112332233331122232
repeated three times. The last time, an extra 11 is tagged onto the end.
Each number refers to a bar, repetitions of a specific number are uniform.
Notated according to the Ecuador system, Venezuela is 11223344556677 etc.
for each player except the musician supplying the constant pulse.
Cover photograph from the videotape "Snow Scale" (1975) by Steve Partridge.
Inscriptions in vinyl: side A) "BILBO!" side B) "DB-MASTER ROOM."
Description:The
cacophonic and inharmonious music on this record is oddly soothing or totally
maddening depending on what mood you're in. The rudimentary mathematical
structure of the pieces explained on the sleeve notes (11221111223332112222...
etc.) gives an indication to the album's rigid design (obviously inspired
by Cage). But instead of sounding academic and stoic like a lot of material
of this nature can, the music sounds playful, immediate, unpolished...
even scrappy. Sounding suspiciously mocking in it's avant formality, there's
a wacky humor warp running right through the center of this record that's
hard to put your finger on. It sounds like the players are actually having
fun while they slowly plod out these small experiments in predestination
(although examination of the sleeve notes makes one wonder how many other
musicians there were besides Cunningham during most of the tracks). Some
tracks use odd piano/percussion/violin arrangements, others add de-tuned
string instruments (usually plucked), hand claps, bleeping synths and off-tempo
looping samples into the mix. Some throw so many synthesizers and tape
recorders, water glasses (lots of those), bass, "violin pianos" and other
obscure "instruments" in that things start to get pretty psychedelic. The
sound tone of the record is warm, resonant and intimate. I'm guessing these
sessions were recorded in a small-ish, padded room with microphones placed
around. In the end, everything about this surreal album reminds me of toys,
chandeliers or dinnerware quietly coming to life and moving themselves
in a repetitive way - every sound is a quiet clink or tap or tinker or
plunk. "Water Systemised" used samples that sound like either growling
dogs or purring cats - putting them through some kind of slow relay device,
and mixes them with sounds of water and what sounds like distant frogs
(this piece reminds me of Pauline Oliveros' 'Alien Bog'). "Guitar Systemised"
uses the same strange relay device, making violins sound like a mosquito
buzzing your ear. My favorite track, "Error System (EFGA)" starts
out with a trance-y pulse and then slowly turn into a kind of water glass
ensemble, shimmering, spine chilly sound that will nod you right off into
pleasant dreams.
Interestingly, if you took
this album, and laid it on top of "The Secret Dub Life of The Flying Lizards"
CD, you would pretty much have a blueprint for the early Lizards' sound.
Hearing both of these recordings and reading their respective histories
lets you clearly see where Cunningham was coming from with the first album.
Many of the tracks on "Grey Scale" remind me of more primitive versions
of the three ambient tracks on side two of the first LP; "The Flood",
"Trouble"
and "Events During the Flood". And I swear that the "Summertime
Blues" B-side, "All Guitars", is taken from the "Grey Scale"
sessions.
Availability:Out
of print collector's item - very, very hard to find. This elusive and obscure
record is in high demand amongst elusive and obscure fans of The Flying
Lizards (and David Cunningham) and hence, I have decided to include it
in this discography. In the last few years I've seen it go for a high-dollar
amount at a WFMU record fair in NYC, seen it listed on Japanese collector's
websites for $60, seen it listed on American sites for $30, been cut off
mid sentence by record store clerks who told me "You'll never find one!",
and heard ecstatic stories from people discovering it crammed in 50 cent
bins at out-of-the-way used book stores. I wish the Piano label or David
Cunningham would re-release it on CD. After casually (OK, totally obsessively)
searching for it around the globe for almost fifteen years, it wasn't until
I got plugged into the web two years ago that I finally nabbed one from
a collectors store's website out of California for $18. Definitely search
the web, it's out there (and if you do find one, grab it - they go
fast).
ALSO: Weird ways I've heard this
record described by unsuspecting friends I've played it for::
"...a whole bunch of
those toy monkeys who bang little cymbals when you wind them up but they're
playing little pianos and water classes and synthesizers instead, and some
run out of steam before the others and you have to rewind them and then
the sound changes slightly"
"...the music they
would play in a movie during a scene where a bunch of assembly line robots
started going haywire and destroying everything"
"Philip Glass interpreted
by a hillbilly washboard, pots 'n pans jug jamboree band"
"The little elves in
Geppetto's workshop having a voodoo ritual late at night, banging out jungle
rhythms with their miniature tools"
"Music made by the
members of Gilligan's Island with rocks and coconuts on a night when they
were bored"
"Your mom gets really
stoned and goes into the kitchen to make dinner, but instead of cooking
she starts hypnotically banging and tapping on all the pots and pans and
utensils... making a strange music that only she can understand"
"A room full of croaking
frogs rocking on creaky rocking chairs all going at once, each with a different
kind of croak and creak"
"A room full of telephones
that have all been left off the hook"