Factories (De Fabriek & Agog) - Factories Astir + Factories In Flux (ZH27 ‎– 121, cass, 1987) + Agog Hit By A Tire At A Disco (Damian Bisciglia Interview By Krista Nicols And Dylan Nyoukis, Bananafish)

Enormous talent, born American, about which much (but never enough) has been written by the "old masters" of experimental, home-taper scene on the occasion of his suicide on 11th December 2012... Damian Alfred Bisciglia, under moniker Agog.

Randy Greif remembers Damian Bisciglia
In Memory Of Damian Bisciglia by Dylan Nyoukis
Damian Bisciglia Tribute by Johannes Bergmark

Agog's Hebdomos, First Edition, 1989-90, an example of special cassette packaging on Spagyric

In the 1980s Agog owned the Spagyric label, which reflected the care and effort he put into his art, works that included sculptures made from found objects, beautiful handmade collages, and funny manipulated tapes. He also made sound collages incorporating free-jazz, noise, musique concrete - everything including rock. Bisciglia was an artist who devoted his life to cassette culture. His creations still decorate both his own tapes and those by other artists, his friends and collaborators, and continue to inspire us to this day.

His kind is of the utopian character that I feel so attracted to, of the excited curiosity for the basic raw materials of sounding matter and making the music directly from there, treating discarded traditional instruments like the zither in the same way as found decorative metal sculptures and other trash that can be recycled into a new life of sonic excitement and often bizarre weirdness. - Johannes Bergmark

Besides the Points Of Friction releases from the 1980s - a group Bisciglia was a member of alongside Joseph Hammer, Kenny Ryman and Tim Alexander, The Erotic Builders with Mitchell Brown and Joseph Hammer, and Bisciglia Bohman Hammer (with Joseph Hammer + Adam Bohman) - he contributed artwork and music to numerous collaborations with iconic artists such as Minoy (used to call themselves No Mail On Sundays), Zan Hoffman, Randy Greif, Eric Lanzilotta, Mitchell Brown, Dylan Nyoukis, Johannes Bergmark, Matt Piper, Kio Griffith and many others.

Damian Bisciglia with his sister Debra, niece Natale and nephew Carter (another sister Laura kids)

"Factories" is collaboration pseudonym between Agog and Dutch collective De Fabriek, jointly issued on tape by Zan Hoffman and later reissued on CD.

Happy birthday and rest in peace, beautiful Damian.

Courtesy of Debra Bisciglia-Casas and Taylor

DOWNLOAD Agog Hit By A Tire At A Disco (Damian Bisciglia Interview By Krista Nicols And Dylan Nyoukis)

DOWNLOAD FACTORIES.

Herd Of The Ether Space - Halloween Masks Look Almost Real! (Taped Rugs Productions ‎- TR #31, C-90, 1990)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! 

I have a special trick and treat for you today!

During the 1980’s, Herd Of The Ether Space produced spooky improvised recordings on the Halloweens of 1987, 1988, and 1989. Released by Taped Rugs Productions in 1990, the cassette album: “Halloween Masks Look Almost Real!” blends together recordings from October 31st, 1987, and October 31st, 1989, into a scary presentation that can liven up any All Hallows Eve gathering. 

The first two pieces from the cassette: “Lacing The Candy” and “Witches To Char” are mixes of recordings from the 1989 session, featuring Charles Rice Goff III and Robert Silverman. The session was held at the home of Silverman’s girl friend, Debra Burger, in Berkeley, California, in a room where the walls were cracked and crumbled from the Loma Prieta earthquake, which had taken place less than two weeks previous (on Goff’s birthday). Trick or Treaters who came to Debra’s house that night were tricked and treated with some genuinely frightening noises. The recordings from that night were made on a stereo cassette deck; no tape loop system was used.

To create the other two pieces on the cassette: “Giant Bat Flies” and “Tongue Of Lizard Certain Death,” Goff mixed recordings from the 1989 session with recordings from the 1987 session. The Herd’s line-up for Halloween, 1987, consisted of Goff, Silverman, and Killr “Mark” Kaswan. This improvised sonic adventure into the underworld was made with the Taped Rugs Frippertronic-style tape loop system at the Taped Rugs Studio on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California. 

The full archive from the cassette, presented here, kicks off with Debra greeting some costumed innocents at her front door, then features the Herd playing a wide variety of instruments and inputting sounds from all sorts of Halloween tapes and records, evangelical recordings, scream generators, etc. 

Copyright 1987, 1989, 1990

by Taped Rugs Productions
Taped Rugs Productions Vimeo
Taped Rugs Productions PodOmatic
The History Of Herd Of The Ether Space: 1980's & 1990's

DOWNLOAD.

Nicole Campau - Akrisa (Not On Label, 1995)

Don Campau's daughter was about eleven when she did her first home taping. Her father helped her with some technical stuff and play a bit as well. Later, when she was 19 she made another, deeper and exotic tape “Akrisa” but this early tape is very special to Don still with charm, intelligence and a verve that cannot be denied. Hear her classic song, New Fashion from 1988.

Nicole Campau: lyrics, vocals, instruments

Additional music by Don Campau

Recorded in 1994/5 in San Jose, California

DOWNLOAD.
download.