V/A with Hal McGee, John Wiggins, Le Scrambled Debutante, PBK, Yannick Franck, Zanstones, Etc. - International Email Audio Art Project Volume 2, 2010

PBK:

"60 one-minute compositions by a host of international underground musicians, noisemakers and sound experimentalists. Hal McGee compiled this series of free net-releases, titled 'International Email Audio Art Project', a 21st century tribute and extension to the concepts of the Mail Art movement that began in the 1960's, but really peaked during the 80's/90's, those same decades that ushered in the Cassette Underground. The Tape Network, in my opinion, a moment in music history that anticipated the open sharing of self-made music, and music in general, on the Internet, was the last manifestation of the Mail Art movement. As physical mailing waned due to the Internet, artists like myself looked to the Web for the next incarnation of the concepts embodied in Mail Art. But it never arrived. It appeared that many musicians were simply going to use the Internet to promote their work in ways that echoed the corporate and/or corporate-blueprinted indie labels. Some sites, such as the TapeGerm Collective, (which McGee is also active in) were moving in the right direction and taking a very proactive approach to web-based collaboration and interaction, even as fans of the experimental sub-cultures, mostly musicians themselves, became more and more directed towards the fetishization of music product in the form of limited edition cassettes and vinyl. So this project, for me, restores faith in and reveals even more the possible potentials of freely networking for ALL ears via the Internet!

Despite the apparent randomness of the order in which the tracks are presented, without prejudice, i.e., in the order they were received, the brilliant 'exquisite corpse' style that emerges when listening to it is fresh and inspiring. This edition, Volume Two, contains the beautifully strange electroacoustics of Adrian Beentjes, curious vocal incantations of Julia LaDense, lo-fi guitar experimentation via Bret Hart, feedback biomechanical-sounding improvisations of Hal McGee, and that still leaves 56 more tracks... inspiring! Certainly there are a few jarring moments and some things that don't seem like a solid fit, but that sort of diversity was ALWAYS the case in the cassette network. I do not see that as a drawback, rather, exemplifying for me, the tremendous amount of personal creative energy moving in many different, but simultaneous, directions. There is much to find of interest here, friends of mine such as Allan Zane, John Wiggins, Travis Johnson, Yannick Franck of Y.E.R.M.O., Zan Hoffman, many others and a track of my own titled 'Stars In The Human Mind'."

DOWNLOAD via the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/InternationalEmailAudioArtProjectVolume2

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