Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield 346 Items

An impediment to achieving a place in the post-punk pantheon — Daszu was based in Milwaukee, not in the UK. Except for cassette distributions in Helsinki and Dublin, and a few scattered performances, they lived, practiced and performed near home. In 1979, Mark Rudolph (now an interactive 3D artist, musician, software developer, mathematician and the director of i3Dmedia LLC) talked in his kitchen to David Wolf about an idea he had for a new music: how music could be 'popular' without rock guitars and a big wall sound such as large amps and organs. "I said we could do a minimal three-piece music based on new melodic lines and poetry and synthesis. I thought that we could remake reality. It was possibly ambitious, but I didn't think so. We decided to do it." They did it. Not with a big polyphonic keyboard, but with a mini-moog sound generator.

The 1/2 Dativa material included on our Lion survey of Daszu's musical innovations was the work of Rudolph and his Australian friend and musician, Greg O'Connor (Boom Crash Opera). Rudolph had been studying mathematics and computer music in Australia, and a mix of Daszu, his computer generated music and O'Connor's great genius with electronic parts is evident in these intense, propulsive recordings made on a pair of DX-7 synthesizers one feverish day in 1983.
• Excavation of astounding underground post-punk recorded from 1979-1983
• Style: minimal, semantic, intense. There is poetic subtlety and musical freshness not confined to one historical period
• 8-page insert booklet contains the Daszu manifesto, poetics for most tracks, a measure of band history, and Part 1 and 2 of Mark Rudolph's poetry from the Daszu era.
• Vinyl edition comes in a heavy-duty tip-on jacket
• First time on vinyl for all tracks
• Contains two additional tracks not on the CD edition

Presenting the multi-talented force that is Mecha Maiko, who is also known as Hayley Stewart, and previously one-half of Dead Astronauts. This debut span many sounds influenced by many cultures and synth implementation. The overall effect is killer sonics and a fresh sound we have been waiting for. Mad But Soft is a solid debut for Mecha Maiko, and all retro lovers and synth maniacs alike will enjoy this album.