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LP
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NMN 093-3LP
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2022 limited restock. Alga Marghen presents a reissue of Intersystems' Free Psychedelic Poster Inside (1968). Intersystems occupied a difficult-to-reach critical nook between the many tropes that had established to frame the various artistic trends of 1960s. Announcing itself with a quivering beam of fluorescent sound, the beginning of Intersystems' Free Psychedelic Poster Inside feels as though it's slowly piercing right through your frontal lobe. Blake Parker's poetry is a dark glimpse into mundane domesticity and the suburbs. One can't help but sense that they're being brainwashed: the slow metamorphosis of sound is juxtaposed against Parker's even-tempered yet electronically-tampered-with speech. There are occasional hints at the twitchy energy of Peachy (NMN 093-2LP), but everything is braced by a spine of lean, cool tones, making Free Psychedelic Poster Inside a far more stark outing than either of its predecessors. Yet the sense of impending danger and general volatility found in the rest of the catalogue is still present - if not amplified. In contrast to Peachy, the shapes the music cuts are smooth rather than jagged, but one is never sure just when Parker's strangely uninflected voice will emerge from the blinding aggregates of pure color. While these clusters of glowing sustain assert an aggressive mesmerism, they serve as a primer for the ears, ominously readying them for virtually anything to happen. When something does, there's often a sense mild alarm on the listener's part even when said change comes in the form of a reprieve from the relentless swarms of high frequency - cascades of synthetic giggles, sliding slow elastic melodies, vigorous strobing modulations and bubbling passages of electronic fizz. Musician and insatiable collector Julian Cope, on his exhaustive online chronicle of all things rare and psychedelic, "Head Heritage" calls Intersystems third LP "one of the densest, most oblique collections of sound ever". Re-mastered by John Mills-Cockell. Mastered for cutting by Giuseppe Ielasi. Comes with original LP graphics as well as a new insert. Edition of 300.
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LP
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NMN 093-1LP
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2022 restock. Alga Marghen presents a reissue of Intersystems' Number One Intersystems (1967). Intersystems' works evoke the heightened awareness, intermittent psychosis, intellectual over-stimulation and giddy nihilism of an acid expedition. "Orange Juice and Velvet Underwear" may indeed be the most typically "Psychedelic" cut of Intersystems entire catalog. Its saturated crypto-Indian drone and bent acoustic guitar notes, are upstaged by Parker's lurid-sounding declamations and Mills-Cockell's fierce industrial clatter. From there, it all spirals further into a vortex of frayed cacophony and sober-yet-surreal orations. The sixteen-minute "Blackout Mix" is a perfect demonstration of just how tenuous their relationship was to even the furthest-out reaches of psychedelia in spite of their own pronounced use of related terminology. All curdled puddles of synth noise and caustic electronic howls, Parker's fragmentary deadpan bark both penetrates, and is enveloped by, the sticky sonic tapestry. He unfurls a series of disparate images, more-than-flirting with the mundane horror enumerated later (and more explicitly) by the likes of Throbbing Gristle. "Vox 3/13/67" is Number One Intersystems' second longest and arguably most varied piece. John's contributions span dimly elegiac textures, evoking distant chimes and striated choral voices. Parker delivers his writing as staunchly as ever, yet hacks certain words into syllabic mincemeat that spills violently and incoherently into the middles of sentences. It's by no means less anxious than other pieces on the album, but its tension is achieved through an eerily pronounced sense of breath and movement rather more aggressive means. Where elsewhere Number One Intersystems seems to forecast post-punk excursions into avant-noise antagonism, here there's more indication of Mills-Cockell's training and more canonical influences in its careful phrase-shaping. Featured throughout the album was a homespun instrument devised by John, dubbed "The Coffin", which was also employed live in their "presentations". Mills-Cockell recalls: "It was a 6 foot long box line with purple satin, housing a long plank strung with many parallel lengths of piano wire held in place with tuning pegs which were adjustable with a wrench we kept on board for the purpose. There were contact mikes which were switchable, just like on a Telecaster except that the switches could permit not only selection of different harmonic spectra when the instrument sounded, but of a variety of loudspeakers in various locations in a performance space." Re-mastered by John Mills-Cockell. Mastered for cutting by Giuseppe Ielasi. Edition of 300. Presented in the original Allied Records sleeve.
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NMN 093-2LP
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2022 limited restock. Alga Marghen presents a reissue of Intersystems' Peachy (1967). The sound work of Intersystems cannibalized stray bits of McLuhanism, psychedelia, Cagean experimentalism, and even the modernist gestural strains of nascent electronic music, yet it was all couched within a very particular DIY ethos. Peachy pushes the meticulousness of Number One Intersystems (NMN 093-1LP) even further and, as such, represents a more balanced amalgam of Intersystems' various disparate stylistic and emotional elements. The truncated opening cut "Experienced Not Watched" is deceptive, beginning with lush, tuneful organ swells that almost border on the ecclesiastical and washed-out metallic pulsations. Yet, the track comes to an abrupt end. What follows is thinner and more gestural, imbued with both poise and awkward buoyancy, owing more to musique concrète than anything on Number One Intersystems. Each sound is framed within ample negative space, inviting listeners to savor each moment, yet its dynamism, and boisterousness, mischievous character steer it well away from being too precious. This impression is reinforced by the decidedly rugged and opaque timbre of much of the sonic activity. Peachy's balance can also be attributed to its consistent flow. The album may superficially be divided into discrete tracks yet the pieces follow one another seamlessly, conveying a single arc, with many continuities and recurring motives. Many of these motives are just mere pithy jolts or shudders of white noise that dart in and out of the aural scenery. In "So They Took The Guns", it matches the gestural profile of the opening cut - it's suddenly lopped off, shifting decisively back toward a slice of Parker's grim narrative, planted squarely in the foreground amidst various percolating abstract chatter. Just as the musical textures have a more unified logic, Parker's texts are also more integrated into the total picture, both aurally and thematically. Despite its sharp veerings into death and violence, the abrupt leaps have a more absurd timbre, than one of abjection and morbidity. And the sudden shifts, of course, are complemented well by the restless intensity of Mills-Cockell's contributions. Parker's voice is subject to a wider spectrum of electronic treatments than before. They're also situated in various places, both spatially and within the mix. Re-mastered by John Mills-Cockell. Mastered for cutting by Giuseppe Ielasi. Edition of 300.
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3CD BOX
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NMN 094CD
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Limited 2022 restock. First historical edition! Limited to 500 copies. This three-disc box collects Number One Intersystems (1967), presenting the correct side sequence and (for the first time) the original tracks' sub-section divisions; Peachy (1967), with (for the first time) the correct track separations, timings, and titles; and Free Psychedelic Poster Inside (1968), with (for the first time) the original (double) track titles. All works remastered by Intersystems founding member John Mills-Cockell for this edition. The three-CD box includes full-color digipak sleeves and a 56-page booklet with two texts by Intersystems founding members Michael Hayden and John Mills-Cockell situating Intersystems in the contexts of contemporary art and music, a text by Nick Storring about the original three records and Intersystems founding member Blake Parker, the complete chronology of Intersystems Presentations, and 23 full-page images illustrating the dense evolution of this short-lived and essential mixed-media collective.
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3LP BOX
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NMN 093LP
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First historical edition! Three-LP box version. One-time limited edition of 500. Remastered by Intersystems founding member John Mills-Cockell; mastered for vinyl by Giuseppe Ielasi. Includes Number One Intersystems (1967), with the correct side sequence and (for the first time) the original tracks' sub-section divisions, in the original 1967 avant-press sleeve designed by Intersystems founding member Michael Hayden; Peachy (1967), with (for the first time) the correct track separations, timings, and titles; and Free Psychedelic Poster Inside (1968), with (for the first time) the original (double) track titles, in a silkscreened envelope reproducing the original 1968 sleeve. Also includes a 132-page book with the detailed chronology of all the Intersystems Presentations and 110 full-page images illustrating for the first time ever the story of this essential collective, as well as the following texts: "How the Mind Excursion came to be" by Michael Hayden, covering details on Intersystems Presentations and meetings with Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, John Cale, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Ralph Metzner, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and Allen Ginsberg; "Intersystems" by John Mills-Cockell, introducing his sonic adventures from the early encounters with Ann Southam and Udo Kasemets to the accomplishment of the Intersystems multimedia works; "Selected Poems" by Intersystems founding member Blake Parker; "Notes" by Michael Hayden; "Network" by Bart Schoales and John Mills-Cockell, on the early mixed-media Presentation of the same title and meeting with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, founders of the Yippie movement; "Intersystems" by Nick Storring, including a short introduction to Blake Parker as well as analysis of Intersystems' sonic productions in relation to their historical context; "Radically Rethinking Art" by Dennis Reid, analyzing the chronology of Intersystems Presentations in relation to contemporary art; "Intersystems and Allied" by Jack Boswell (founder of Allied Records); "Intersystems and Moog" by William Blakeney; "Recalling Intersystems" by Tom Recchion; "The 60s: something happened but what?" by Ed Fitzgerald; "Memoir" by Russ Little, on John Mills-Cockell; and "Notes on the mastering of Intersystems recordings" by William Blakeney.
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