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1980: A Year of Change

In January Heman Pathak, John Fothergill and I, alongside Jacques Berrocal, recorded the album To The Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl.. In March Heman left to work with David Vorhaus (of White Noise fame). During the mixing of Quiet Men it became clear that John and I had a very different view on the direction the musci should take. As a result, we compromised and I've always felt the album suffered greatly because of this. In May of that year I decided to make another album -- this time no collaborators, just myself and the Bombay Ducks at the controls. Over two weekends I recorded and mixed Merzbild Schwet. By the time of its release John and I were on very bad terms and Heman was totally out of the picture. John went off and started his own label 'Experimental Records' and put out albums by The Shiney Men, Experiments With Ice, and Two Daughters. At about this time I met Jim Thirlwell and we became friends (he had just recorded his first Foetus single as Foetus Under Glass). Through him I met Trevor Reidy and Rbert Haigh -- all three worked in Virgin's Oxford Walk store situated not two minutes from my graphid design studio in Poland Street. I remember Jim would often play my Chance Meeting album at ten to six to clear the shop for closing. It worked a treat: people just couldn't get out fast enough!

Jim, Trevor and I thought it would be fun to spend a little time in a studio "just to see what would happen", so I.P.S. with engineer Peter McGee was the obvious choice of studio (I knew of it through William Bennett, sho had just recorded his early Come and Whitehouse releases there). A the time Jim was playing bass with Prag Vec and Trevor was the drummer in Truth Club. When we arrived at I.P.S. Jim quickly decided to ditch the bass guitar and play the hum of his amplifier by stroking and hitting the jack-plugs and leads, Trevor reduced his kit to one snare drum and a couple of brushes, and I fucked aroud with an old, beaten-up Woolworth's guitar and a violin bow. The result was Absent Old Queen Underfoot. The next week I returned with a basket of junk, records, tapes and toys, and over the weekend produced the other two parts that became Insect and Individual Silenced. The tapes were very quickly mixed and mastered by a drunken engineer and a very stoned me.

Our previous United Dairies releases were all produced at Nimbus in Wales -- superior classical pressings which John had paid for -- but I was broke and impatient and eager to show that I could manage on my own. William had told me of the 'Linguaphone Institute', which pressed very cheap vinyl for the purposes of language education (his Come Org releases were pressed there). So, being broke, I ordered the records from Linguaphone.

When the completed album arrived I sat back in the cold light of day -- with no drugs or alcohol -- and listened.

I was horrified. This was a dismal failure, a dreadful pressing and an appallingly carefree mix -- in fact a seriously misguided project altogether, but by then it was too late: the album was pressed and ready to go. I could not afford to dump the project so I bit the bullet, tucked my tail between my legs and hid my head in shame. I had to put the damn thing out.

Twenty years later I had still not re-listened to it: it was filed away in my memory as a disaster and a steep learning curve (I went on to make Homotopy To Marie next -- an album I still enjoy to this day). Over the years people had started mentioning it as their favourite N.W.W. album, I thought they were insane. David Tibet was always saying "why don't you put Insect out again." No -- never was my reply, and to make sure I never would I burned the masters.

A few years ago I received a package from the mysterious irr. app. (ext.). To my great surprise it was a meticulous, beautiful cover version of the entire Insect album -- and artwork, too. I was stunned. I telephoned Mr. Matt Waldron, the man behind the venture, and asked him why THAT album! He replied that he loved it and coudln't understand my hatred of the thing. We became great friends. Then one day Christoph Heemann rand and said his friend Kevin Spencer of Robot Records had spent a lot of time and care making a pretty decent digital master and that I should give it another listen. I contacted Kevin, who had made this master for his own private use as he loves the album so much. Then I listened to it for the first time in over twenty years, and you know what? It's not half as bad as I remember. I was quite pleasantly surprised: no crackles or surface noise. It's still a failure, but maybe not quite as dismal as I once thought.

Several terrible bootlegs have appeared over the years, and persuaded by the enthusiasm of Matt, Kevin, David and Christoph, I;ve finally decided to re-issue Insect.

I would like to thank Kevin Spencer, Matt Waldron, David Tibet, Christoph Heemann, Ken Garwood and Colin Potter for their tireless persuasion.

Jim Thirlwell - bass amp, jack plugs
Trevor Reidy - snare drum, brushes and percussion
Steven Stapleton - guitar, noise, records, tapes, loops

Recorded at I.P.S. October 1981
Engineer - Peter McGee
Original Artwork - Steven Stapleton
Re-issue artwork manipulation - Matt Waldron

Thanks to Trevor (truth club),
Jim, Philip (foetus variations), Sharon, Anka, Barbie.
Dedicated to Boris Vian
All nww artwork Steve
Reference appendix the art of self-observation some with a whisper, some with a bang
The idea the non-medical use of post-scarcity anarchism repetition devotion all flesh is grass organic drugs fundamentals
The key? pushing the body limits sound bicycle divine copulation
The outward urge
God cosmic golf fundamentals

1980: A Year of Change

In January Heman Pathak, John Fothergill and I, alongside Jacques Berrocal, recorded the album To The Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl.. In March Heman left to work with David Vorhaus (of White Noise fame). During the mixing of Quiet Men it became clear that John and I had a very different view on the direction the musci should take. As a result, we compromised and I've always felt the album suffered greatly because of this. In May of that year I decided to make another album -- this time no collaborators, just myself and the Bombay Ducks at the controls. Over two weekends I recorded and mixed Merzbild Schwet. By the time of its release John and I were on very bad terms and Heman was totally out of the picture. John went off and started his own label 'Experimental Records' and put out albums by The Shiney Men, Experiments With Ice, and Two Daughters. At about this time I met Jim Thirlwell and we became friends (he had just recorded his first Foetus single as Foetus Under Glass). Through him I met Trevor Reidy and Rbert Haigh -- all three worked in Virgin's Oxford Walk store situated not two minutes from my graphid design studio in Poland Street. I remember Jim would often play my Chance Meeting album at ten to six to clear the shop for closing. It worked a treat: people just couldn't get out fast enough!

Jim, Trevor and I thought it would be fun to spend a little time in a studio "just to see what would happen", so I.P.S. with engineer Peter McGee was the obvious choice of studio (I knew of it through William Bennett, sho had just recorded his early Come and Whitehouse releases there). A the time Jim was playing bass with Prag Vec and Trevor was the drummer in Truth Club. When we arrived at I.P.S. Jim quickly decided to ditch the bass guitar and play the hum of his amplifier by stroking and hitting the jack-plugs and leads, Trevor reduced his kit to one snare drum and a couple of brushes, and I fucked aroud with an old, beaten-up Woolworth's guitar and a violin bow. The result was Absent Old Queen Underfoot. The next week I returned with a basket of junk, records, tapes and toys, and over the weekend produced the other two parts that became Insect and Individual Silenced. The tapes were very quickly mixed and mastered by a drunken engineer and a very stoned me.

Our previous United Dairies releases were all produced at Nimbus in Wales -- superior classical pressings which John had paid for -- but I was broke and impatient and eager to show that I could manage on my own. William had told me of the 'Linguaphone Institute', which pressed very cheap vinyl for the purposes of language education (his Come Org releases were pressed there). So, being broke, I ordered the records from Linguaphone.

When the completed album arrived I sat back in the cold light of day -- with no drugs or alcohol -- and listened.

I was horrified. This was a dismal failure, a dreadful pressing and an appallingly carefree mix -- in fact a seriously misguided project altogether, but by then it was too late: the album was pressed and ready to go. I could not afford to dump the project so I bit the bullet, tucked my tail between my legs and hid my head in shame. I had to put the damn thing out.

Twenty years later I had still not re-listened to it: it was filed away in my memory as a disaster and a steep learning curve (I went on to make Homotopy To Marie next -- an album I still enjoy to this day). Over the years people had started mentioning it as their favourite N.W.W. album, I thought they were insane. David Tibet was always saying "why don't you put Insect out again." No -- never was my reply, and to make sure I never would I burned the masters.

A few years ago I received a package from the mysterious irr. app. (ext.). To my great surprise it was a meticulous, beautiful cover version of the entire Insect album -- and artwork, too. I was stunned. I telephoned Mr. Matt Waldron, the man behind the venture, and asked him why THAT album! He replied that he loved it and coudln't understand my hatred of the thing. We became great friends. Then one day Christoph Heemann rand and said his friend Kevin Spencer of Robot Records had spent a lot of time and care making a pretty decent digital master and that I should give it another listen. I contacted Kevin, who had made this master for his own private use as he loves the album so much. Then I listened to it for the first time in over twenty years, and you know what? It's not half as bad as I remember. I was quite pleasantly surprised: no crackles or surface noise. It's still a failure, but maybe not quite as dismal as I once thought.

Several terrible bootlegs have appeared over the years, and persuaded by the enthusiasm of Matt, Kevin, David and Christoph, I;ve finally decided to re-issue Insect.

I would like to thank Kevin Spencer, Matt Waldron, David Tibet, Christoph Heemann, Ken Garwood and Colin Potter for their tireless persuasion.

Jim Thirlwell - bass amp, jack plugs
Trevor Reidy - snare drum, brushes and percussion
Steven Stapleton - guitar, noise, records, tapes, loops

Recorded at I.P.S. October 1981
Engineer - Peter McGee
Original Artwork - Steven Stapleton
Re-issue artwork manipulation - Matt Waldron

Thanks to Trevor (truth club),
Jim, Philip (foetus variations), Sharon, Anka, Barbie.
Dedicated to Boris Vian
All nww artwork Steve
Reference appendix the art of self-observation some with a whisper, some with a bang
The idea the non-medical use of post-scarcity anarchism repetition devotion all flesh is grass organic drugs fundamentals
The key? pushing the body limits sound bicycle divine copulation
The outward urge
God cosmic golf fundamentals