Re: Looper's Essential Listening revisited: the 1980's

[mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 11:34 AM -0500 2/13/06, mungenast@earthlink.net wrote:
>SUBMITTED: Roger Miller "Elemental Guitar" (SST)

In addition to his "Elemental Guitar" album that Tim mentioned, I'll throw 
in:

Roger Miller "No Man Is Hurting Me" (currently OOP)

"No Man Is Hurting Me" was the first and most well-known of Roger 
Miller's Maximum Electric Piano works produced between 1983-1988. 
Miller, who had up to that time been an alumni of both Mission of 
Burma and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, primarily confines himself to 
using a 'prepared' Yamaha CP-70 piano run through an original 
Electro-Harmonix 16-second delay, while occasionally using guests to 
add extra instruments.  Whereas many looping performers of the 1980's 
were exploring ambient textures and atmospheres, Miller instead uses 
his piano to lay down rhythmic -- at times frenetic -- percussion and 
chordal patterns that play over each other in a raucous (and 
occasionally cacophonous) manner.  Maximum Electric Piano is also a 
good example of early Live Looping performances, since the entire 
second side of the album was recorded in a single session, with no 
overdubs.  Indeed, seeing Miller perform during this time period was 
exhilarating, as he would construct entire songs from scratch using 
only the processed CP-70 and the Electro-Harmonix device.

Miller went on to release two more LP's ("The Big Industry" & "Win! 
Instantly!") and an EP ("Groping Hands") before folding the Maximum 
Electric Piano project and moving on.  All these releases are 
excellent, but the original pioneering "No Man Is Hurting Me" is the 
most famous/infamous of the series.

        --m.

-- 
_______
" I want to keep you alive so there is always the possibility of 
murder... later"