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Scrine (1988)

by Hands To

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1.
Whag 04:30
2.
Milpic 01:59
3.
Sethube 01:39
4.
Tind 04:32
5.
Thraal 04:23
6.
Plathers 05:32
7.
Firad 08:37
8.
Sinc 04:29
9.
Scrine 04:38
10.
Mastic 04:22
11.
Biasis 2 17:03

about

Jeph Jerman is a respected and significant player in the mid-to-late-‘80s American cassette scene, his prolific Hands To project dwelling in the non-representational, highly textural, abstracted field recording realm of sound work during that time. Notice has been a long-time admirer of Jerman’s work, and we are honored to present this newly remastered reissue of Scrine, originally released in 1988 on Memphis' Harsh Reality Music. Both sides of Scrine have a measured pace, with sequences reminiscent of primitive noise and skewed interior/exterior domestic ambience flailing wildly amidst jagged cuts of inscrutable loops and statics. Featured throughout are uncomfortable layers of blown-out and magnified object abuse, some of which was gleaned from a junkyard and alley behind Jerman’s apartment at the time in Colorado Springs. Here he recalls a few insights about various approaches to some of the recording techniques on this album: “I remember doing quite a bit of ‘guerrilla recording‘, things like tossing tape decks off buildings or putting them inside running clothes dryers … whirling the mic overhead like a lasso and adding some plastic crunching and squeaking. … inching tape: pulling it over the play head manually. … an old shop sign which screeched and got blown about by the wind.” Tapes like this are one of the reasons we initiated Notice Recordings back in 2009, and we are completely smitten to have this reissue of Scrine stand as our 50th release.


"When this tape was recorded, I was living in an apartment above a used record store in the Knob Hill neighborhood of Colorado Springs. Surrounded by businesses and transient housing, it was deemed a "high crime area" by the local law enforcement. The alley behind my building was a repository for anyone's cast-offs: building materials, car parts, etc, and a fenced-off junkyard full of beautiful rusting detritus which I often took advantage of. 

I can't recall everything about these dispatches, but a few things come back to me upon listening. I remember doing quite a bit of "guerrilla recording”: things like tossing tape decks off buildings or putting them inside running clothes dryers — “Whag" was one example. I whirled the mic overhead like a lasso and added some plastic crunching and squeaking. "Tind" (tape wind), was made by inching tape: pulling it over the play head manually. The main sound in "Thraal" was an old shop sign which screeched as it got blown about by the wind. 

There isn't a lot of sampler use on this particular tape, meaning I may have even then been tiring of the limitations of lo-fi looping. “Firad" consists of layers of field recordings of the neighborhood. The voice heard poking out between a few tracks is that of Albert Einstein, recorded off the TV.  Also included (during “Sinc”), are remnants of the HCA project tape, playback of various recordings in multiple rooms one afternoon. Listen for the fire bell. “Scrine" (scribe whine) is layered recordings of pencils marking papers, and the last two bits are attempts at HNW before the term existed. “Biasis" is layered recordings of A. Smith's Metastasis LP, which I had access to several copies of. Later on I would make a whole tape of that nonsense, but that's another story…"

Jeph Jerman, 2019


Reviews:

Creaig Dunton/Brainwashed:
brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12221:hands-to-qscrineq&catid=13:albums-and-singles&Itemid=133

Frans de Waard/Vital Weekly:
www.vitalweekly.net/1194.html

credits

released July 22, 2019

Music by Jeph Jerman

Originally released by Harsh Reality Music, Memphis, TN, 1988
Recorded Nov - Dec 1988 at HCA
Remastered by Branic Howard, Open Field, Portland, OR

Original artwork by Jeph Jerman
Reissue layout by E. Lindorff-Ellery
Letterpress printed by Small Fires Press, New Orleans

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all rights reserved

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Notice Recordings Kingston, New York

Notice Recordings started in Chicago in 2009. We are now based in Kingston, NY, and Columbia, MO. We release experimental and contemporary sound works. Notice Recordings is run by Evan Lindorff-Ellery (NY) and Travis Bird (MO).

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