DASZU "Zone of Swans/Lucid Actual + 1/2 Dativa" digipack CD
DASZU VOL. 2


DaszuZone•Excavation of astounding underground post-punk recorded from 1979-1983

•Style: minimal, semantic, intense (in poetic first). There is poetic subtlety and musical freshness not confined to one historical period.

•24-page 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.

•CD edition of 300x copies—vinyl to come later in 2018

If there's one thing we've learned from doing reissues for twenty years, it's that there is often a lack of justice in the arts. All too often, the intensely talented are shunted aside, or not able to access the means to a greater hearing, or marginalized (or eradicated) by larger societal (commercial) (racial) (political) forces, to name just three potential prongs of an art-crushing pitchfork. The less an artist's work can be categorized, the greater the odds of being an eternal outsider. The more pure those artistic efforts are, the greater the chance they cannot be categorized. Such is the case with the music of Daszu. They were three, and minimal. Bass, synthesizer and drums.

I'd like to tell you that the music of Daszu reminds me of This Heat. I'd like to tell you that the music of Daszu reminds me of the Pop Group... or A Certain Ratio. It does, in purity of intent—in the great expansive reach of the attempt, and the self-assurance of the resulting music. This intensity of intention is evident in the dark, buzzing electronics; in the propulsive drumming; in the insistent bass-lines; in the emotional vocals; and in the lyrics. How about this, from 'Ophelia':

The wound and the tending hand do kiss, kiss
I am waiting for you… but the days… they pass... like tiny beads…
     they slip away like a broken necklace.

or this from 'Maximum Talk, Minimum Shame':

Maximum Talk, minimum shame, ritual love, master and slave
planet and moon, around and around, magnetized field,
current and ground
Re-invent love, re-invent clothes, re-invent names, re-invent Total
The whispering curtains flutter with the thought of it.

An impediment: 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 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 didn't use a big polyphonic keyboard, preferring 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.

So if you a girl who is the measure of ecstasy
And if you are a boy who is the measure of anarchy.
Once you will meet there'll be no limit to Anything.
Oh Pink Haze
Measure of ecstasy, measure of anarchy

a link to mp3 sample tracks:
https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/FzVyc0uwgp

Catalogue number: LION 682
UPC: 778578068226



Daszu2000 MARK RUDOLPH "Lucid Actual 2000" digipack CD

•20-page booklet contains background history of these recordings, and Part 3 and 4 of Mark Rudolph's poetry.

•CD edition of 300x copies—vinyl to come later in 2018

Unlike earlier Daszu music, Lucid Actual 2000 was digitally constructed and edited from recordings and generated loops for use in live interactive 3D performances: many of them were performed at a Digital Electronics Festival in Montreal in 1999. The introduction of a visual element into the mathematical minimalist world of Daszu composer Mark Rudolph allowed for a more ambient, repetitive, suggestive—and danceable—style.

These pieces were composed by Daszu creative mastermind Mark Rudolph via listening to combinatoric loops with an occasional long melody or vocal line spinning over time. Their style is described by Rudolph as 'hypno'—"an attempt to free the mind from its material neighborhood and make possible a better future based on mutual respect and kindness, despite the fact that our home is not here in life."

It is life-affirming, energetic music—particularly the *Enticement sequence of  'Butterfly Close to Me,' 'Kanushnaya Sweet,' 'Oo Eh' and its inverse 'Hey Suni'—music for a joyous club life that may or may not exist or have ever existed—or which perhaps may be encouraged into existence by experiencing this music.

a link to mp3 sample tracks:
https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/q5UjLf5C15

Catalogue number: LION 683
UPC: 778578068325