Jay (aka Zombie Mountain aka Robots Red Robots aka the TSLOS webmaster and designer extraordinaire) set me up with this blog a while back and I have yet to really start posting anything…. so I thought I would start by recapping a little bit of where TSLOS has been and where we are going as we head into the final quarter of 2007 (and beyond).
First off the name TSLOS is a take off on a book called The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tomkins and Christoper Bird. The book was actually made into a movie (which is IMPOSSIBLE to find) with a soundtrack by Stevie Wonder (which is pretty amazing in an odd way).
The first release back in 2004 was a double CD-r (5″/3″ set) of Merzbow remixes called “Raw Material”. Actually, nothing much really happened with this release, and only about 20 were made because of a problem with vssW (very small sound waves) which prevented us from burning very many of the 3″. I’m actually seriously considering making some copies of this as a limited edition cassette towards the end of this year. I’m sure they’ll make great Chanukawanamas presents. But , I digress….
The whole idea of the label was to bring together really different approaches to music… and create a fusion of “outsider” artists. I can’t say enough about the fact that there is so much crap in every genre with people trying to be cool by aping somebody else’s best idea without putting much original thought into it. Yet there always people who are coming up with new ideas (and fresh new takes on the old ideas). I have always felt there was more of a similarity in “outsider” genres like hip-hop and experimental noise than people realized. The same way hip-hop challenged the idea that you had to have a “band” to play music, experimental artists challenged the idea that music had to be “Music”. To me, it comes down to people being willing to go against the grain to come up with something fresh.
The beginning of next month (October 9th to be exact) we will release TSLOS11, the Invisible Superstars compilation on LP and iTunes. I really feel like this record in particular is a summation of the kind of ideas that lead to the creation of the label and continue to motivate a lot of my efforts in promoting interesting new music.
Basically I approached more than a dozen artists that I really liked and thought were creating sound in new and exciting ways. The first artist I got in touch with was Controller 7, whose ‘Left Handed Straw’ album has been at the top of my list for a number of years. After some initial negotiation we worked out a deal for him to help put the record together with him selecting some of the artists and me selecting some. Initially I wanted Tommy (Controller 7) to create more of a mix, using interludes and transitions, but eventually he convinced me that the songs were all different enough that they needed to really stand on their own on the record.
In the end result, all of the artists on the LP – Controller 7, Scott Matelic, PNS, Corsic, Buddy Peace, Zombie Mountain, Meatsock, Mormon Freegan (ahem), Skoweyajeed, Thomas Dimuzio, 10shun, bring some different to the table. I feel that on IS001 we provided a diverse, yet consistant, mix and a chance to really change it up with different styles and different approaches to sound. I hope people will appreciate this sonic experiment, and take it as an opportunity to check out some new music.
Oh yeah and there are only 1000 copies; 300 of them on gold vinyl. After that they’re all gone. Unless you have an ultra-rare copy of The Secret Life of Plants the movie. Then we can talk.
Posted by R- Rock 
Posted by R- Rock 
Posted by R- Rock 
