DASZU "Zone of Swans/Lucid Actual + 1/2 Dativa” 2xLP

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… or as some have suggested, early Devo. 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, burbling and buzzing electronics; in the propulsive drumming; in the insistent bass-lines; in the emotional vocals; and in the evocative and poetic 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 to achieving a place in the post-punk pantheon — 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 a 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 did it. Not with a big polyphonic keyboard, but with 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

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

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

•8-page insert 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.

•Vinyl edition comes in a heavy-duty tip-on jacket

•First time on vinyl for all tracks

•Contains two additional tracks not on the CD edition

a link to an mp3 sampler, which has a sample taste of every track on the record:

https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/0NTMZy2C4m

Track list:

Zone of Swans/Lucid Actual
Side A: *Severence
01. Love/Obsession 2:03
02. Cynthia 2:19
03. Suppressed Malice 2:49
04. Emotional Humiliation 1:36
05. Phrenesis 2:18
06. Beta Diminished 2:45
07. Ophelia 6:16 (Psycho-acoustic Theatre: live performance April 12, 1981)

Side B: *Enticement
01. Krystalene Voga 3:20
02. Dina-Tina 2:53
03. Maximum Talk (Minimum Shame) 3:21
04. Plans 4:53
05. Mythological Love 3:03
06. La Plus Belle 3:49

1/2 Dativa
Side C: *Severence
01. Declaration 6:01
02. Love/ Obsession 2:35
03. Pink Haze 3:14
04. Plans 4:54
05. La Plus Belle 4:00

Side D: *Enticement
01. Mr. Irie* 3:36
02. Dina-Tina 3:42
03. Hey Babu 6:49
04. Ophelia* 6:53

*vinyl-only bonus tracks

Format: 2xLP + 8-page insert booklet
Catalogue number: LION LP-174
UPC: 778578317416