Gum - Vinyl (1987) [SAA Album Club discussion thread]

[dankrsta]

Gum - Vinyl (1987)

This album was recommended by OccultHawk last week and since we all managed to get the Antology, I suppose, it's worth pointing out again that OccultHawk suggested the original Vinyl album, which in fact consists of the first 10 songs of the Anthology. Here's what he said:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

please note the track listing

Gum - Vinyl (Vinyl, LP) at Discogs

That was the original release but in all likelyhood people will end up downloading the full Anthology should this win but my suggestion is for the tracks on the original release only

Gum : Vinyl Anthology

"Gum's music consisted entirely of locked grooves, vinyl surface noise derived from the duo's destruction of thrift store acquisitions. You could say that Gum were early "turntablists" before there was a scene or a school for such a thing, before the instrumentalists' concern for technique spoiled it, before the community of practice turned it into "an artform". They presaged serious turntablists and noisicians like Philip Jeck, Otomo Yoshihde, Martin Tretault, Merzbow, Janek Schaefer. At their best, Gum rendered absolute minimal abstractions into foreground role, musically, playing off the residual, vestigial remains of sounds that threaten contextualization but routinely fail to deliver. Exquisite sound poems like "Smooth Torture in Exile" hold all of the manufactured memory that old vinyl carries, mangled just enough so the sounds don't divulge their sources and muddy the waters with 'reference'. The sounds come to represent only themselves and, as this collection demonstrates, these stand up to time. The results of decomposition, trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear."