Nov 11, 2015

RhoDeo 1545 Aetix

Hello,

Today The Anti-Group Communications, or T.A.G.C. are a side project of Clock DVA. Formed in the early 1980s by Adi Newton (although the idea existed as early as 1978), T.A.G.C. (originally The Anti-Group) was conceived as an open-membership experimental multimedia collective, focused on audio, visual, and textual research and production, as well as performance art and installations. ... N'Joy

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Clock DVA are an industrial, post-punk and EBM group from Sheffield, England. The group was formed in 1978 by Adolphus "Adi" Newton and Steven "Judd" Turner. Along with contemporaries Heaven 17, Clock DVA's name was inspired by the Russian-influenced Nadsat of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange; Dva is the Russian word for "two".

Newton had previously worked with members of Cabaret Voltaire in a collective called The Studs and with Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware in a band called The Future. He formed the first lineup of Clock DVA in 1978 with Judd Turner (bass), David J. Hammond (guitar), Roger Quail (drums) and Charlie Collins (saxophone, clarinet) (born 26 September 1952, Sheffield). Clock DVA was originally known for making a form of experimental electronic music involving treated tape loops and synthesizers such as the EMS Synthi E. Clock DVA became associated with industrial music with the 1980 release of their cassette album White Souls in Black Suits on Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records.

Paul Widger joined on guitar. The LP Thirst, released on Fetish Records, followed in 1981 to a favourable critical reaction, knocking Adam and the Ants' Dirk Wears White Sox from the top of the NME Indie Charts, by which time the band had combined musique concrète techniques with standard rock instrumentation. "4 Hours", the single from Thirst, was later covered by former Bauhaus bassist David J on his 1985 solo EP Blue Moods Turning Tail.

The band split up in 1981, with the non-original members of the band going on to form The Box. Turner died in September 1981 due to an accidental drug overdose. In 1982, Newton formed a new version of the band. First releasing the single "High Holy Disco Mass" on the major label Polydor Records under the name DVA, the band then released the album Advantage (with singles "Resistance" and "Breakdown") under the name Clock DVA. After a European tour in 1983, however, the band split acrimoniously. Adi Newton went on to form The Anti-Group or T.A.G.C. They released several albums continuing in a similar vein to the early Clock DVA, yet more experimental.

In 1987, Newton reactivated DVA and invited Dean Dennis and Paul Browse back into the fold to aid Newton's use of computer aided sampling techniques which he had been developing in The Anti Group. They released Buried Dreams (1989), an electronic album which (along with its single "The Hacker") received critical acclaim as a pioneering work in the cyberpunk genre. It is also rumored to have been the CD found in Jeffrey Dahmer's stereo at the time of his arrest, according to a 1990s piece published by Alternative Press. Browse left the group in 1989 and was replaced by Robert E. Baker. The album Man-Amplified (1992), an exploration of cybernetics, was the next release. Digital Soundtracks (1992), an instrumental album, followed.

Following Dennis's departure from the group, Newton and Baker produced the album Sign (1993). After the release of Sign and related singles, Clock DVA toured Europe (line-up: Newton & Baker with Andrew McKenzie and Ari Newton) and Newton relocated to Italy. However, their Italian record label at the time, Contempo, folded which caused a number of problems. Collective, an anthology album and a box set was released in 1994. Newton began working on new material with Brian Williams, Graeme Revell (from SPK) and Paul Haslinger but continued problems with record labels eventually caused Newton and Clock DVA take a long break from the music scene.

In 1998, Czech record label Nextera released a reissue of Buried Dreams, sanctioned by Dean Dennis and Paul Browse but not by Newton. Adi Newton reactivated Clock DVA along with his creative partner Jane Radion Newton in 2008. Since 2011 Clock DVA has performed at several electronic music festivals and venues throughout Europe [6][7][8] with a new line-up consisting of Newton, Maurizio "TeZ" Martinucci and Shara Vasilenko. In November 2011, a new Clock DVA track "Phase IV" was featured on Wroclaw Industrial Festival compilation album. In January 2012, German record label Vinyl on Demand announced Horology, a vinyl box set compilation of early (1978–1980) Clock DVA material.

A historical overview exhibition of Clock DVA (photographs, video and audio) took place at the Melkweg cultural centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands in February/March 2012. In July 2013, a new Clock DVA album called Post-Sign was released on Anterior Research. It was produced and composed by Adi Newton in 1994–95 as an instrumental companion album to Sign, though it remained unreleased at that time due to problems with record labels. According to Adi Newton, Mute Records were set to re-release the eight Clock DVA albums remastered in a box set in 2012.

In 2014, Clock DVA released the album Clock 2 on a USB drive through their label Anterior Research. This limited edition release consists of 3 new studio tracks and various remixes of them, in addition to 4 video files. A 12" called Re-Konstructor / Re-Kabaret 13 was released shortly after. Another EP, Neo Post Sign, containing tracks recorded 1995-96 but omitted from the Post-Sign album, was released early 2015.

Initially conceived by Adi Newton of Clock DVA in the late '70s as a multimedia performance project, the Anti Group, later known by the initials T.A.G.C. (the C stands for "Conspiracy," "Collective," or "Communications") showcased Newton's more experimental side. the Anti Group didn't become more than theoretical mumbo-jumbo until after Newton departed Clock DVA in the mid-'80s. The loosely defined group, consisting of Newton with D.A. Heppenstall, D.F. D'Silva, B.R.D.L. Harden, Mark Holmes, Robert Baker, and Oskar M, debuted at the Atonal Festival in Berlin in February 1985, with a multimedia show called The Delivery that was later that year released as an LP. Also that year saw the release of the 12" single "Ha/Zulu" with help from members of Cabaret Voltaire.

T.A.G.C. audio recordings are released on Newton's Anterior Research Recordings label. The theoretical underpinnings of these recordings, which are often primarily psychoacoustic experiments or carefully constructed aural rituals, are made explicit in the lengthy liner notes which accompany most releases. Whereas early records cross-pollinated improvised jazz with industrial, each subsequent release, now under the T.A.G.C. banner, experimented in some new direction. The music on Digiteria, with many of the same crew as The Delivery, is based around ancient magic cults and tribal rhythms, whereas Teste Tones offered minimalist electronic experiments. The sound-and-visual project Burning Water, also from this time and released on CD several years later, offers a far more ambient sound.

Throughout the late '80s T.A.G.C. released a number of 12" singles that were eventually compiled on the CD Audiophile, along with an EP. These slabs of experimental electronic rhythms, slightly more accessible than the full-lengths, eventually pointed to the direction Newton would go once Clock DVA was re-formed in 1988. Since 1990, with the prolific DVA consuming more of Newton's time, only one further T.A.G.C. album has seen light, the CD Iso-Erotic Calibrations, recorded over three years and released in 1994.

In 2005, a maxi CD 'Psychoegoautocratical Auditory Physiogomy Delineated' was released as T.A.G.C. without Adi Newton's involvement or approval. After years of silence, Adi Newton with his creative partner Jane Radion Newton re-activated T.A.G.C. for a live multimedia performance at Equinox Festival, London in June 2009.[3] In 2013 T.A.G.C. performs at the Incubate festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

The acronym T.A.G.C. is also intended to represent the four nucleotides that make up DNA (thymine, adenine, guanine and cytosine).


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The Anti Group Conspiracy (or Collective or Communications), an offshoot of Clock DVA, was started by Adi Newton of that band to delve into much more experimental territory. This first studio full-length, originally released on the Sweatbox label in 1986, offers a more fully realized concept than the earlier live effort, The Delivery, as the influences of ancient cults and secret societies are added to the industrial jazz sound. The avant-jazz funk is still evident on tracks like "Balag Anti," but much of the album offers eerie, cavernous soundscapes in the Lustmord vein, with dripping and creaking noises or sinister distant voices, though ritualistic rhythms add a new dimension to this blend. Even more sinister, the piece "Pre-Eval" starts off with an ominous voice speaking about man and death. The narration becomes more distorted and chaotic with effects as the speaker draws deeper into Bataille-esque misanthropy until the track erupts into a dark funk groove, and than this eventually breaks down into a more savage tribal sound, to further emphasize the dark nature of man in the spoken words. Though not nearly as visceral, the rest of the album, from the spazzed-out jazz of "Chozzar Over Abyss" to the more ambient sections, is imbued with an incredibly sinister atmosphere for a cohesive work that is oddly beautiful.



T.A.G.C. - Digitaria  (flac 336mb)

01 Blood Burns Into Water 3:04
02 Dog Star 4:23
03 Balag Anti 8:12
04 Chozzar Over Abyss 2:13
05 Pre-Eval 5:03
06 Ghost Cultures Under Collapse 6:59
07 Noosphere 8:12
08 Lux Nox 9:07
09 Tzaddi 1:27
10 The Abominable Plateau Of Leng 1:56
11 Sekhet 4:59

T.A.G.C. - Digitaria   (ogg  134mb )

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Side A recorded December 13, 1986 in Tu Mensa, Atonal, Berlin. This work was further manipulated and later entitled Teste Tones on the Meontological Research Recording Record 2 Teste Tones LP.Side B is an abridged live version of the soundtrack for a film called Burning Water, recorded February 14, 1987 in SO 36, Berlin. An awesome mindbending soundscape with disjointed speeded up vocal preamble. A later version of this track was issued on the Burning Water CD.



T.A.G.C. - Meontological Research 1  (flac 194mb)

 Test 1
A Sonochemistry 23:53
Test 2
B Synthesis 54 (Burning Water) 23:43

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Much more industrial than its predecessor 'Meontological Research I' and far more affecting. The start of the album, a couple seconds of a 40 hz hum, a voice intoning, "This is only a test" and then another high-pitched tone, certainly wouldn't dispel that idea. The tone drones endlessly, is joined by a few others without compromising the extreme minimalist aesthetic, while the voice, which is also used on the more dance-oriented 12" single "Broadcast Test," repeats. On this record, Adi Newton seems to have ditched most of the group from earlier efforts, as well as the jazz elements, for a work of pure electronics. The third track, "E.P.M.D.," cuts loose from the mode, as a clanking, bare-bones electro beat becomes the backdrop for sirens, panicking voices, and other suspense sound bites. An even more fascinating track, "A.A.A.," starts off with very simple repeating elements, and slowly layers more on top until the piece achieves a strange tension of changing sounds similar to some of Steve Reich's early tape experiments. The pair of longer tracks at the end are more in the minimal ambient sonicscape that T.A.G.C. has done elsewhere just as well, but on the whole, this is a strange disc, psychedelic music for the 21st century. Still sounds as up-to-date as it did over 20 years ago.



T.A.G.C. - Meontological Research 2  (flac 296mb)

01 Test Tone – 40 Hz 5:59
02 Teste Tones 5:53
03 E.P.M.D. (Eroto–Psycho Motor Disturbances) 10:02
04 A.A.A. (Audio Alpha Activity) 0:06
05 Magnesia 5:04
06 Magnetic Pharmacology 17:41
07 A.A.A.A. (Accelerated Audio Alpha Activity) 4:38

T.A.G.C. - Meontological Research 2   (ogg 115mb)

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The original idea for The Anti Group was devised by A. Newton and S. J. Turner as early as 1978, with the intention of the formation of a multi-dimensional research & development project active in many relatedareas. Research and development of sound, film, video and performance and the documentation of each project was the fundamental "modus operandi". Underlying this basic idea is the deeper philosophical and theoretical conceptuality; The Anti Group could be any given number of collaborators or participants. In this respect The Anti Group are free from the formats that have built in limitations, operating within this context The Anti Group are also free from the erroneous problems of Ego. Audiophile contains eleven tracks from three singles and an EP, all previously released on 12" (1985-1990), all long deleted. With the exception of "Broadcast Test" this is the first time these tracks have been issued on CD. All tracks have been remastered for this compilation.



The Anti Group - Audiophile  (flac 385mb)

01 Ha 6:35
02 Zulu 6:23
03 Shgl 3:46
04 New Upheavil 5:56
05 F.E.M. 4:07
06 Morpheus Baby 6:26
07 Sunset Eyes Through Water 5:30
08 The Ocean 7:23
09 Big Sex 5:26
10 Big Sex II 8:09
11 Broadcast Test 5:44

The Anti Group - Audiophile  (ogg 162mb)

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for Digitaria, Rho

Anonymous said...

Thanks for Digitaria, fascinating stuff. For some reason it reminds me of Laszlo Hortobagyi no matter how different that is, maybe it's the spatial element or something...