Musick that Needed Work: T - Tuxedomoon

 

I found my two favorite Tuxedomoon releases gathering dust, ingnored in the heap of Musick that Needed Work. I am overjoyed to rescue these two behemoths. Half-Mute I played until I wore it out back in the day & after all these years (45+) I remember these great tunes like it was yesterday.

 

Tuxedomoon started out in San Francisco in 1977, the brainchild of two music scholars from S.F. City College, Blaine L. Reininger (keyboards & vocals) & Steven Brown (multi-instrumentalist). The group signed to the Resident's Ralph Records & released their first full-length in 1980. 

 

Tuxedomoon - Half Mute, Ralph Records CEL2-6558, 1980.
decryption codes in comments 

Side A -
Nazca    
59 to 1    
Fifth Column    
Tritone (Musica Diablo)    
Loneliness    
James Whale
Side B -
What Use?    
Volo Vivace    
7 Years    
KM / Seeding the Clouds

 

 

 

 

 

After another release on Ralph the following year, the band relocated to an artist's commune in Rotterdam, Netherlands, but soon moved to Brussels, Belgium. Though they went through many line-up changes & a stop/start history, Reininger, Brown, Peter Principle, & horn player Luc van Lieshout still record together as Tuxedomoon.

Combining Tuxedomoon avant-garde electronics with Beat Generation cool, this next album is named after the book Beat Museum – Bardo Hotel by Brion Gysin (Bardo Hotel was the Beat Generation hang-out in Paris). The soundtrack is heavily influenced from Gysin & William Burroughs' "cut-up" method. The recording features samples of airplane sounds, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) announcements, & other found sounds mixed in a blender of New Orleans jazz & twisted opera... 

 

 

Tuxedomoon - Bardo Hotel Soundtrack, Crammed Discs MTM38, 2006.

Hurry Up & Wait (Flying Sequence)    
Effervescing in the Nether Sphere    
Soup du Jour    
Flying Again    
Triptych    
I'm Real Stupid    
Airport Blues/Needles Prelude    
Prometheus Bound    
The Show Goes On (The Baron Brown/Jinx/Loneliness)    
Remote (Pralaya)
Dream Flight    
More Flying    
Vulcanic, Combustible    
Mr. Comfort/Another Flight    
Invocation Of...    
Carry on Circles

 

 

 

Enjoy,
NØ