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!
