No style. No songs. No scales. No patterns. No message. NO THING…This month the Bay-area label Acousmatique Recordings revisits the Avant-Electronic trio No Thing with a five-plus hour release called Some Things. The group recorded and performed in and around Washington DC between the years 1989 and 1992. Comprised of members Arthur Harrison (vocals/electronics), Rupert Chappelle (electronics), and Jack Hertz (electronics/percussion), No Thing was an improvisational unit that created “psychedelic surrealism in a stream of continuous flowing electronic media.”
In the 1980’s, Harrison and Chappelle had been performing a collection of songs called Jobs For America (Thermidor Records) in DC clubs and galleries. Looking to employ new sonic elements to their repertoire, Chappelle invited Jack Hertz, after meeting him in a record store, to stop by the duo’s practice space. Hertz was familiar with Chappelle as he had seen the musician in the late 70’s performing solo on his ARP 2600 analog synthesizer at a movie theater owned by Harrison in College Park, Maryland. Stopping by the duo’s practice space on a summer night in 1989, the three bonded over a love of avant-garde electronic music, and soon began recording their own long-form improvised jams.
Recording these meet-ups to tape, Harrison explains:
“A majority of our sessions were done on weekend nights, often commencing around 11:00 pm and extending well past midnight.”
Responsible for the vocals, Harrison also performed on custom-made, keyless analog sequencers built from CMOS integrated circuits, as well as using a Yamaha VSS-30. Utilizing a variety of 80’s era synthesizers and keyboards, the trio’s collection of instruments included the Casio CZ-101, Yamaha VSS-30, Siel DK-600, as well as an Alesis HR-16 and Yamaha DD-5 drum machine, a Yamaha REX-50 effects device, and Hertz’s Casio DH-100 MIDI saxophone–to name a few.
Some Things collects together five-plus hours of the trio’s output. Six of these tracks were laid down to tape in the groups dimly-lit basement practice space while the closing offerings were recorded live at the Art Attic and Maryland Art Place. Combining elements of avant-garde experimentalism, classical, futurism, and popular culture, Some Things is a weird and wild ride into No Thing’s psychedelically warped electronic nexus.
