Tag Archives: Rock And Roll Jackie
Sissy Spacek/Smegma
Ballast
CD
Helicopter, H 88
Ace Farren Ford, Dennis Duck, and Ju Suk Reet Meate (three original members) are joined by Rock ’N’ Roll Jackie (35 years in the band), John Wiese (approximately 10 years), and a cast of others form the current third phase Smegma. Personnel of this album, “Ballast”, consists of this line-up plus Charlie Mumma, a member of Sissy Spacek since 2008.
The source material of “Ballast” was recorded at home and on the Los Angeles radio station Dublab, but what we hear is not exactly Smegma and Sissy Spacek performing together as a live group. Wiese’s production of the recording is a kind of un-doing of the live group playing, forging it into a new collage of sound. It reminds us of genome editing which results in diversity, and sometimes in mutation, of organisms.
The title of the album, “Ballast”, refers to a weight on a ship which improves it’s stability, but it is also a term for an electrical component that regulates electricity so as to not destroy the other components. It’s double meaning fits between the cover art and the collage process which is constantly partitioning and interrupting the elements of sound.
—Takuya Sakaguchi, from the liner notes
https://helicopter.storenvy.com/
https://sissyspacek.bandcamp.com/merch
http://gorejet.com
Smegma—Mutant Stomps LP
Helicopter, HEL 94111
These American legends of outsider avant-garde need little introduction. Since becoming core members of the Los Angeles Free Music Society over four decades ago, they have retained their focus, determination and unmatched originality, influencing generations and never ceasing to advance further avenues of progress. Mutant Stomps is a result of Smegma’s living room recording sessions at their pink house in Portland. All tracks were produced 2012–2013, with one dating back to 1975 for good measure. The line-up of Dennis Duck, Ace Farren Ford, Rock and Roll Jackie, Ju Suk Reet Meate, Madellyn Villano, John Wiese and Donkey Flybye deliver a consistently amorphous, surreal-concrète sound.
The full length LP comes in an edition of 100 copies.
Tracklist:
1. Vout #9
2. Mutant Stomps
3. Hot In There
4. Variations VII
5. Code 61
6. Jug Band Waltz
http://helicopter-la.com/
https://helicopter.bandcamp.com/album/mutant-stomps