THE HAFLER TRIO - "BANG" - AN OPEN LETTER @ 40

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this month is the debut LP from The Halter Trio, "BANG" - An Open Letter, which was released by Cabaret Voltaire's Doublevision label in June of 1984. The album introduced both a wildly original approach to audio art while also perpetrated a remarkable prank upon the oft pretentious experimental music community.

H30 were founded by Andrew M. McKenzie and Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Christopher R. Watson in the early 1980s. Watson had left Cabaret Voltaire during the recording of their 2x45 album in 1982 as the group were evolving into a more mainstream, dance-floor friendly incarnation, and rapidly shedding the elements of experimentation and industrial/surrealistic "musique concrète" that had defined their early career. McKenzie had dabbled in music as a member of the short lived Flesh, who released a single cover of the song, My Boy Lollipop. The third member of the "Trio" was a fictional character by the name of "Dr. Edward Moolenbeek", which is where the "prank" aspect of the group comes into play, but more on that later.

The principal theory that drove the group's sonic direction was the conception that sound could be organized in a manner that had little or no relationship to traditional musical structures of melody and rhythm. Andrew McKenzie has stated in interviews that the principal guide for the creation of their early works was based on the mechanisms of film editing. Their idea was to assemble their sounds in the same way a film editor might create a narrative from images. This involved Chris' skills as a a natural sound recordist combined with Andrew's use of electronics and their mutual talents for audio processing. You'll find no verse/chorus/bridge structures in Hafler Trio productions. No time signatures, no keys or chords or notes, though frequency modulations were certainly an element of consideration. Transitions would be built in the same that way a movie is assembled, using cross dissolves, cuts and juxtapositions. It was all intended to have a cinematic essence.

The album was presented as the result of specific scientific investigations on the nature of sound and its effects on humans that were supposedly conducted by one Robert Sprudgen [?], who had conducted extensive secret research during the mid 20th century. The third member of the "Trio", Dr. Moolenbeek, was supposedly an expert on this research and a former colleague of the researcher, who worked out of a corporate entity known as "Robol Sound Labs". All of this was backed up by research papers and other documentation, much of which could be obtained by writing to The Hafler Trio PO box, whereupon they would provide various pamphlets and booklets detailing the history of this research. I've seen some of these materials thanks to a friend making the effort to contact the group. All of it gave the impression that they'd somehow managed to uncover a vein of scientific research from decades ago that had been largely forgotten or, as suggested by the documentation, buried because of the controversial nature of the materials and the potential for misuse if it should fall into the wrong hand. I must confess that myself and my friends who got into early H30 were completely suckered into believing all of this, and it was only years later, when access to the internet became common, that the truth of the hoax finally became obvious. I certainly felt gullible, but also marvelled at the depth and detail of the work that went into creating this fiction.

As for the album itself, it's a strikingly original construction, only finding any remotely close kin with the likes of Nurse With Wound and their surreal sound collages, though NWW could be positively musical in comparison to H30 and their obtuse alien soundscapes. These recordings definitely opened up some sonic possibilities in my mind as a result, indoctrinating a branch of sound art that was utterly divorced from conventional music making principals.

After its release, The Hafler Trio would only continue operating under the "Robot" banner until the departure of Chris Watson in 1987. Chris would go on to an illustrious career with the BBC as one of their most renowned natural sound recordists, contributing his skills to innumerable documentary programs. He would also occasionally release solo album collections of some of his personal audio experiments, ranging from purely documentary field recordings to more composed & processed assemblages of these sounds, like his incredible 2003 album, Weather Report. Andrew McKenzie would continue on with H30 as primarily a solo alias, though, like Steven Stapleton's Nurse With Wound, he'd involve a wide variety of ever changing collaborators, including Stapleton and the likes of Genesis P-Orridge and Autechre. Without Watson's contribution, the focus of H30's sound shifted away from natural sounds into more processed electronic drones and textures, involving less editing and more extended atmospheric washes. Releases would continue to be elaborately packaged in limited editions with accompanying texts and artwork.

Unfortunately, there is currently no free streaming source for this album. While there is a Halfer Trio Bandcamp page, in 2022 all the non-spoken-word releases were removed due to certain accounting complexities which Andrew McKenzie did not go into any great detail to illuminate. I cannot even find anyplace to purchase this particular release at all, save used copies on Amazon and similar sources. Very little of the H30 catalogue can be found on YouTube as Andrew has remained ever vigilant against allowing unauthorized uploads, which are taken down as soon as he discovers and reports them. As such, if you don't already have this or have never heard it, you'll just have to take my word that it is a remarkable and unique creation that breaks barriers for what sound art can achieve. Plus it was a wicket little trick to play on unsuspecting hipsters looking to get in on the ground floor of something nobody else knew about. You NAUGHTY trio!