Instruments:
Guitar Organ,
Percussion, Cello,
Piano, Flute
Synthesizer etc.

Special thanks: Peter Hennig, Nadine Mahdjouba

This album is dedicated to LUIGI RUSSOLO.

Even more thanks to ......
......Nicky Rogers for the commercial guitar........nice....

A Little History

I was a frustrated signwriter with a passion for unusual and absurd music. Heman was Indian and against his family wishes became obsessed with European rock music. Heman was also the only other person I'd ever met who was a fan of Floh De Cologne! John was a genuinely eccentric intellectual; an aesthete of the avant garde.

I met Heman at school in North London. He had a similar taste in music and we soon became great friends. Together we started our investigation into the musical unknown with nothing to guide us but a few simple rules:

1. There had to be long tracks.
2, We didn't like songs - no vocals.
3.Inspired or drug related cover art.

With this in mind we started visiting all the second hand record shops in greater London and buying on spec any strange looking record that fitted the bill.

It was on one of these trips in the old Record And Tape Exchange in Goldbourne Road where I first came across John. He and his mother were fishing out interesting looking records that I would have liked to buy; he too was into the musical unknown. I asked if I could check out the album under his arm; we got talking and soon became friends. John taught me so much; he became my mentor.

For the next five or six passionate years we, as a trio, would visit all the second hand stores every week buying hundreds of albums between us. Occasionally we would take in Paris, Hamburg, Milan and other places just for the music, just for the records.

As a signwriter I became employed at BMS studio to paint their window. I met Nicky Rogers, the resident engineer, and we got on well. It was my first time in a studio; it was a big 48 track and it looked amazing; all those buttons and lights. He said if you ever feel like making some noise come in over a weekend when the studio is officially closed. "I have a band", I lied. That evening my head was buzzin'. I rang John and Heman: "I've got some studio time, go buy an instrument and let's see what happens". John got an electric guitar with a treble booster and a ring modulator, which was very disappointing - ring modulators always sounded so great on album credits. Heman brought along an old keyboard and I found a cheap Bontempi organ and as many little noise making items as I could carry.

We arrived at BMS on the Saturday morning. Poor Nicky Rogers, I think he was expecting something a little more professional: I put my junk in one corner, John laid his guitar on the floor, tipped a box of nuts and bolts all over it and started stroking the thing with a toilet brush; only Heman looked like he new what he was doing. So after a 30 second warm up for levels we launched into what eventually became known as 'Blank capsules...'

Steven Stapleton, Cooloorta, September 2001

John Fothergill: electric guitar and effects

Heman Pathak: keyboards, piano and effects

Steven Stapleton: organ, percussion, toys, tools, tapes and noise

Nadine Mahdjouba: voice
Nicky Rogers: commercial guitar
Peter Hennig: piano

Recorded at BMS studio, Wardour St, W1, September 1978
Engineered by Nicky Rogers assisted by Peter Hennig

Original cover and new artwork by Steven Stapleton assisted by Matt Black

Remastered from original analogue tapes
Digitally transferred and enhanced by Denis Blackham at Country Masters

'Categories strain' original insert compiled by Fothergill/Pathak/Stapleton

Extra material recorded at ICR studio and mixed at Aranos studio September 2001

Colin Potter: voice manipulation
David Tibet: voice and censored sarcasm
Steven Stapleton: atmospherics mix

Thanks to David Tibet for the little rubber fellow, Denis Blackham for his enthusiasm, Colin Potter for his sound twisting and Petr Vastl for his help.

Thanks also to Mark Logan and Paul Jackson.

I would like to dedicate this CD to John and Heman, wherever you are now. It was a great time and I think we made a beautiful album - Steven.

Instruments:
Guitar Organ,
Percussion, Cello,
Piano, Flute
Synthesizer etc.

Special thanks: Peter Hennig, Nadine Mahdjouba

This album is dedicated to LUIGI RUSSOLO.

Even more thanks to ......
......Nicky Rogers for the commercial guitar........nice....

A Little History

I was a frustrated signwriter with a passion for unusual and absurd music. Heman was Indian and against his family wishes became obsessed with European rock music. Heman was also the only other person I'd ever met who was a fan of Floh De Cologne! John was a genuinely eccentric intellectual; an aesthete of the avant garde.

I met Heman at school in North London. He had a similar taste in music and we soon became great friends. Together we started our investigation into the musical unknown with nothing to guide us but a few simple rules:

1. There had to be long tracks.
2, We didn't like songs - no vocals.
3.Inspired or drug related cover art.

With this in mind we started visiting all the second hand record shops in greater London and buying on spec any strange looking record that fitted the bill.

It was on one of these trips in the old Record And Tape Exchange in Goldbourne Road where I first came across John. He and his mother were fishing out interesting looking records that I would have liked to buy; he too was into the musical unknown. I asked if I could check out the album under his arm; we got talking and soon became friends. John taught me so much; he became my mentor.

For the next five or six passionate years we, as a trio, would visit all the second hand stores every week buying hundreds of albums between us. Occasionally we would take in Paris, Hamburg, Milan and other places just for the music, just for the records.

As a signwriter I became employed at BMS studio to paint their window. I met Nicky Rogers, the resident engineer, and we got on well. It was my first time in a studio; it was a big 48 track and it looked amazing; all those buttons and lights. He said if you ever feel like making some noise come in over a weekend when the studio is officially closed. "I have a band", I lied. That evening my head was buzzin'. I rang John and Heman: "I've got some studio time, go buy an instrument and let's see what happens". John got an electric guitar with a treble booster and a ring modulator, which was very disappointing - ring modulators always sounded so great on album credits. Heman brought along an old keyboard and I found a cheap Bontempi organ and as many little noise making items as I could carry.

We arrived at BMS on the Saturday morning. Poor Nicky Rogers, I think he was expecting something a little more professional: I put my junk in one corner, John laid his guitar on the floor, tipped a box of nuts and bolts all over it and started stroking the thing with a toilet brush; only Heman looked like he new what he was doing. So after a 30 second warm up for levels we launched into what eventually became known as 'Blank capsules...'

Steven Stapleton, Cooloorta, September 2001

John Fothergill: electric guitar and effects

Heman Pathak: keyboards, piano and effects

Steven Stapleton: organ, percussion, toys, tools, tapes and noise

Nadine Mahdjouba: voice
Nicky Rogers: commercial guitar
Peter Hennig: piano

Recorded at BMS studio, Wardour St, W1, September 1978
Engineered by Nicky Rogers assisted by Peter Hennig

Original cover and new artwork by Steven Stapleton assisted by Matt Black

Remastered from original analogue tapes
Digitally transferred and enhanced by Denis Blackham at Country Masters

'Categories strain' original insert compiled by Fothergill/Pathak/Stapleton

Extra material recorded at ICR studio and mixed at Aranos studio September 2001

Colin Potter: voice manipulation
David Tibet: voice and censored sarcasm
Steven Stapleton: atmospherics mix

Thanks to David Tibet for the little rubber fellow, Denis Blackham for his enthusiasm, Colin Potter for his sound twisting and Petr Vastl for his help.

Thanks also to Mark Logan and Paul Jackson.

I would like to dedicate this CD to John and Heman, wherever you are now. It was a great time and I think we made a beautiful album - Steven.

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