The
Secret Dub Life of The Flying Lizards
CD
1995 (recorded in 1978) Piano Records (Piano 501) - Produced by David Cunningham
01) Preface [6:48] (mixed in 1995)
02) Shake [3:32]
03) Time and Salt [3:50]
04) Mute [3:44]
05) Skin and Stone [4:25]
06) Crab Claw [4:34]
07) Outside [4:06]
08) Inside [4:36]
09) Ash and Diamond [4:22]
10) Flicker [6:14]
11) Postscript [5:50] (mixed in 1995)
Sleeve notes:
The source tapes
for this CD were recorded in Jamaica by Jah Lloyd (Patrick Francis) as
part of a series he made for Virgin Records' Front Line label. The original
tapes were not released and were offered to me by Front Line's Jumbo Vanrennen
with the suggestion that I should "remix" the music. I accepted the project,
expecting lots of time in one of Virgin's studios to play with the music
and the equipment, only to be presented with a mono master tape. So I began
to invent (or perhaps re-invent) techniques of editing, looping, filtering
and subtraction to deal with unremixable mono material (these were the
days before samplers). The subsequent work took a long time: as I thought
it might be something of an indulgence I worked on it at weekends and evenings
rather than let it interfere with other projects. The techniques used here
expanded my vocabulary of musical electronic (as opposed to electronic
music) treatments and appear in a very different form on records made at
that time. Notably "Fourth Wall", my collaboration with Patti Palladin,
and my production work on Michael Nyman's records. The original players
remain unidentified. Jah Lloyd used various combinations of musicians but
did not include who played on which tracks. This year I added the "Preface"
and "Postscript" using a similar approach as in 1978 but with the technology
of 1995, partly to make the CD a decent length, partly to find out what
effect a different technology would have, and additionally in recognition
of the continuing influence this work has had on my approach to the recording
studio. - David Cunningham, May 1995
Basic tracks recorded by Jah Lloyd, restructured and produced by David Cunningham for Piano Records. Keyboard on "Flicker" by Julian Marshall, other additions by David Cunningham. Thanks to Jumbo Vanrennen, Vivian Goldman, Laurie-Rae Chamberlain, Tim Young, Simon Baker and in particular Jah Lloyd and his musicians. Design by David Cunningham and Jon Wozencroft. All compositions Jah Lloyd/David Cunningham. The Jah Lloyd tapes appear courtesy of Virgin Records Ltd. Made in Austria.
Description:The
above sleeve notes do a good job describing this. The music reminds me
of some of Lee Perry's earlier albums (reggae/dub beats with samples and
sounds buried deep in the mix), mixed with the low-tech tape butchery of
Perry and Kingsley's early "sampling" work. The sound sound of this CD
is of a very quirky, ambient dub record. Despite the use of "the flying
lizards" in the title (although it's relation to the group is explained,
and relevant), fans expecting this to have that early Lizards' sound minus
vocals are probably going to be a bit disappointed, but only a bit. Keeping
that root sound in mind, I have been amazed after repeated listenings how
many samples haunt these instrumental songs; creaking hinges, bouncing
ping pong balls, popping champagnge corks, wounded trombones, shuffling
papers and other odd sounds start to unfold themselves through the layers
of sounds. Again, I don't know exactly WHAT those sounds are, but that's
the best guess I can give. If you really listen you will appreciate and
admire Cunningham's make-shift, use-the-tools-he-has attempts at sampling
(again, I am reminded of an even lower tech version of Perrey and Kingsley's
pioneering sound work). These experiments do actually work to create a
mellow, whimsical sound, and do open some insight into the sound of the
samples used for the Flying Lizards' albums. Cunningham definatley has
a "style" to his sampling, and the roots of that style I think may be revealed
here.
If you took the music on this album, and laid it on top of Cunningham's
"Grey Scale" LP, you would pretty much have a blueprint for the first Flying
Lizard's album. Hearing both of these recordings side by side, you can
see where Cunningham was coming from with his work under The Flying Lizards
name.
Availability:Still in print, available from Amazon.com, CDNow, etc. Or can be ordered from the Piano website.