BIOTA – Rackabones (Dys ‎– DYS 12/13 // 2LP-1985)

Label: Dys ‎– DYS 12/13

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1985

Style: Abstract, Art Rock, Jazz, Experimental, Avantgarde, Free Improvisation

Recorded Spring 1984 – Winter 1984/85. Rec. Technology Inc / Camarillo California.

George Harms – photography

Carol Heineman – [folder mezzotints & line etching], design

Tom Katsimpalis – illustrations [center labels], folder insert drawings

Tanya Staab – jacket inside drawings (artwork - l.)

Joy Froding – jacket inside drawings (artwork - r.)

Peter Lange / Randy Yeates – artwork [jacket outside (drawings)]

Bruce Leek – engineering
Mark Derbyshire – technician [technical assistance]

Composed By [Composition], Producer [Production] – Carol Heineman, Mark Piersel, Randy Yeates, Steve Scholbe, Tom Katsimpalis, William Sharp

Coordinator [UK Coordination] – Bryan Downes

Effects [Processing], Mixed By [Mixing] – Piersel, Scholbe, Sharp

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, etched): DYS 12 A RD 18426 - I

Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, etched): DYS 12 B RD 18427 - II

Matrix / Runout (Side C runout, etched): DYS 13 C RD 18428 - A

Matrix / Runout (Side D runout, etched): DYS 13 D RD 18429 – B

side 1:

A - Vagabones - I ....................................................................................................... 26:10

side 2:

B - Vagabones - II ...................................................................................................... 26:00

side 3:

C - Rackabones - I .................................................................................................... 17:38

side 4:

D - Rackabones - II ................................................................................................... 17:30

BIOTA:

Carol Heineman – instruments, production

Tom Katsimpalis – instruments, production, illustrations

Mark Piersel – instruments, production, mixing

Steve Scholbe – instruments, production, mixing

William Sharp – instruments, production, mixing

Randy Yeates – instruments, production

Musical sources: organs/ guitars / dulcimers / tamboura / ching / ukulele / alto saxophone / clarinet / harmonicas / bagpipes / accordion / recorders / whistles / voice / toys / bass drum / bodhran / metronome / side drum / maracas / wood drums / bells / kalimbas /…

Recorded Spring 1984 – Winter 1984/85. Comes with a visual portfolio with 6 folders. Distributed by Recommended Records.

Rackabones is the sixth studio album by the free improvisation ensemble Biota, released in 1985 by Dys Records. The album marked the official beginning of Biota as an ensemble separate from the Mnemonists name. (The name Mnemonists has continued to be retained for the group's visual output.)

Incredible stuff from the American band. This was after they’d changed their name from Mnemonists, and forged forward as the musical project Biota. Under the new moniker, the collective were quieter; more discrete. However, the music oozes towards you in an extremely unsettling manner; rolling, cracking, clumping, and dissolving then reforming before your very eyes.

Founded amid the college-town environs of Fort Collins, Colorado, in the late 1970s, Biota's initial recordings were produced under the name Mnemonist Orchestra (soon after shortened to Mnemonists). Produced and engineered by Mark Derbyshire and William Sharp, Mnemonists released five albums between 1980 and 1984 on its self-founded Dys label.

After the release of Gyromancy in 1984, the group split into two collaborative factions: a visual-arts collective, which retained the name Mnemonists, and the musical group, Biota.

Biota is a longstanding American experimental electronic music ensemble that has released a growing number of elaborate musical-visual projects and albums since their beginnings in the late 1970s. Biota is known for its highly detailed and often radical approach to composition and arrangement, founded largely upon principles of studio-based co-composition, simultaneity, and meticulous electronic processing of mostly acoustic sound sources — creating an unconventional continuum of traditional and nontraditional musical forms, including folk, jazz, chamber, rock, and occasional balladry.

Four long pieces can be heard on "Rackabones", which are stylistically based on the two long compositions found on "Gyromancy". In the very elaborately designed booklet of the LP (which also contains 6 double-sided art prints), the musicians and the instruments used are listed, but without specifying who played what. Steve Scholbe, Tom Katsimpalis, Mark Piersel, Randy Yates, Carol Heineman and William Sharp serve here: organs, guitars, dulcimers, tambura, ching, saxophones, clarinets, ukulele, harmonicas, bagpipes, accordion, recorders, whistles, voice, toys, bass drum, bodhran, metronomes, side drum, wood drums, bells, kalimbas. The whole thing was edited, distorted and mixed by the Trio Sharp, Piersel, Scholbe, with the help of Mark Derbyshire, who still belonged to the band on "Gyromancy".

The result is an adventurous and extremely complex sequence of countless sound events, the origins of which cannot always be clearly heard. The music fluctuates between ambient-like soundscapes, RIO-like strumming, electronic sound walls, pure noise confusion, meditative sound floating, minimalist sound constructions, strange songs, edgy chamber music confusion, percussive stamping, confused plingings, bizarre tape collages, chopped-up sound puzzles, strange white sound puzzles, strange , broken folk fragments, somber roar and halls, weird gurgling and almost industrial noise back and forth. For almost 90 minutes there is just strange, hard to describe music to the ears, which, if you get involved, offers a very fascinating listening experience. The whole thing often looks as if someone had put a myriad of different recordings, of instrumental voices, noises, voices and rhythms, into a mixer, finely chopped them up, mixed them well, hung them together, and then electronically distorted the mess. Amazingly, the result is a very dense whole, which oozes out of the speakers like an extreme acoustic nightmare, like an intense sound hallucination, like a drug trip painted in sound. This is how madness sounded. Grandiose!

At least two things can be gathered from my painstaking attempt to put this musical event into words: on the one hand, the whole thing is a rather extraordinary, musical work of art (and in my opinion the best album from Mnemonists / Biota), which on the other hand is far beyond it, what is considered "normal" in the musical field. So only music lovers who hear rather strange "stuff" should listen in here. For lovers of avant-garde sounds, this album is highly recommended! A small problem, however, is that "rackabones" are not yet available on CD.

(Review By: Achim Breiling)

Note:

A small change was deliberately made at the some pages which has no effect on the quality of the original design. In this way, I protect my work.

If you find it, buy this album!