Sunday, September 21, 2014

Die or D.I.Y.? Seiei Jack & Magthea ‎– The Joke Project 1984

The Joke Project 1984: Contains 9 different segments with various artists contributing sounds which 
Was then mixed by Seiei Jack, A lot of
Variety and nice ideas produced.


Something that cassette culture introduced to the world was the concept of music being made by completestrangers from all over the planet, who would never meet; except on cassette tape.
In 1984, Japanese artist, Seiei Jack Nakahara, started "The Joke Project/Re-Apocalypse Project", which invited any artist/musician, who so desired, to participate in a home taping/mail art collaboration program.This project was to join all kinds of experimental musics:Noize,Industrial,Breakcore,Ambient,Lo-fi, to create something, hopefully ,unique. Every person who wished to participate has only to add samples & loops to their own musical/audio treatment to create their own vision of the Apocalypse in a track. This was, of course done by 'snail mail' in 1984, whereas this is now commonly done via the information super highway that is 'the internet', leading to the artform that, enlightenedly  became known as 'mail art'.
Such home taping luminaries as Zan Hoffman, and Magthea, do their bit, amongst an array of unknown lesser lights to create a near chaotic sound collage that sounds like a very attractive version of the Apocalypse. Although Zan Hoffman, repeating the phrase "This is Mr Zan" over and over again, does seem to have a pretty tenuous apocalyptic message; but then again the concept of the Apocalypse itself is pretty tenuous, so what do I know?
Come friendly Apocalypse and entertain us as thoroughly as this thirty year old cassette!

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