After the big Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) round up in September of 1997, the flock of sonic explorers were led in a variety of directions by the shepherds of entropy. However, on June 23rd, 2001, Robert Silverman, still holding his place in Oakland, California, hosted what has turned out to be the last HOTES session to date. Joining him from Lawrence, Kansas, came Charles Rice Goff III and from Los Angeles, California, came Killr “Mark” Kaswan.

That day’s recording session produced the first and only direct-to-digital CDR release for the group, entitled: “Dolly & Jackie & Mr. Wren.” The session could be described as a celebration of free improvisation, and it flowed with all the spacey atmosphere and absurd dadaist humor that had characterized HOTES music for years previous. The shared intuition that Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman had developed from over twenty years of sonic collaboration expressed itself through electronic keyboards, guitar, homemade woodwinds, flutes, animal calls, a variety of percussion instruments (and non instruments), a few toys, and a couple of portable cassette recorders. This intuition was also especially apparent in the collaborators’ vocal interactions.

Some strange verbiage and weird stories also were cooked up in the Ether Space that day. The story that gives this collection its name came from a children’s book that Dee Ann Schaer had given to Goff on the evening previous to the recording session. The book, entitled: “The Bad Donkey,” had a special significance, because donkeys had served as themes and characters in the music of Taped Rugs groups for years. Schaer’s late husband, Steve, had been a part of the Taped Rugs family since its beginnings in the 1970’s and had participated in the HOTES round up session of September, 1997 (a year prior to his death).

Here Taped Rugs presents the final audio selection in the HOTES podcast series, entitled: “Level In The Box.” And for all of you curious listeners out there, the entire “Dolly & Jackie & Mr. Wren” CDR album is archived at the link below:

http://www.archive.org/details/DollyAndJackieAndMrWren

The full set of HOTES recordings, including many of the group’s previously unreleased productions, can be accessed through the two menus below:

http://tapedrugs.com/HOTESTapeLoopArchive.html

and

http://tapedrugs.com/HOTESArchiveBBCassette.html

TAPED RUGS PRESENTS will be taking a break from its podcasting for an indeterminate period of time, but rest assured, there’s plenty more noises to share and tales to tell. Until we all meet again, thanks much to everyone for tuning in.

In 1995, C. Goff III was approached by a friend about creating a piece of music to be included on a compilation CD with pieces from several other San Francisco Bay Area recording acts. At that time, there was virtually no affordable home-recording technology for CDs, and CDs were considered the highest state-of-the-art medium on which recorded music could be released to the public. Naturally inspired, Goff went to work and mixed together elements from several improvised Herd Of The Ether Space recordings into a unique composition, which he dubbed: "Obilazak" (a Croatian word which loosely translates to English as: "trip.") Goff provided his friend with a high-quality cassette tape recording of "Obilazak" and waited.

Goff moved to Kansas in 1996, still waiting for the release of the compilation CD. In 1997, Goff discovered from his friend that the would-be producers of the CD had been imprisoned by the US Government for trafficking illegal substances. Not long after that, Goff sadly discovered that his friend had died of a terminal illness.

In 1998, Goff put together a collection of rare and unreleased Taped Rugs recordings for distribution on cassette by EE Tapes of Belgium. He found a mixdown of "Obilazak," and added it to the EE compilation of rarities (released under the name: "Remnants From Magic Carpets."). Unfortunately, however, Goff could not find the master tape from which the mix had been made, nor any notes about the source materials that went into the mix. Nor was there even any information about the name of the recording label which had planned to release the CD that "Obilazak" had been composed for originally. In a coincidence that only could happen in the Ether Space, the main lyric which is chanted throughout the song is: "What was that?"

"Obilazak" is presented here in the form that EE Tapes released it in 1998. The taped rug in the photo which accompanies this podcast was part of the cover art for "Remnants From Magic Carpets."

On September 14th, 1997, Robert Silverman and Debra Burger hosted a Herd Of The Ether Space session for the ages in their home/studio in Oakland, California. Besides Robert and Deb, in attendance were Will Marston, Killr "Mark" Kaswan, Chris Arteberry, Brian Cogley, Steve Schaer, Dee Ann Schaer, Stuart Sands, and Charles Rice Goff III (who had returned for his first visit to California since moving his home and the Taped Rugs Productions base of operations to Lawrence, Kansas).

Throughout the day and into the evening, strange sounds filled the air as all the joys of a big reunion were celebrated without limit by the Ether Space family. The session appropriately yielded recordings rich in the HOTES traditions of improvisational mystery and Dadaist humor. The group's own technical debacles became fodder for some inspired sonic interactivity; weird Charles Manson vocal samples lead the Ether people into an area where only cassette cultists would ever dare go, and in the midst of some heavy rhythmic grooving, there was churned up a hard-driven rap about the colonic-flushing aspects of powerful sour soup.

The session, originally recorded by Silverman, was edited down to a half-hour presentation by Goff for release by Taped Rugs in January of 1998. The resulting cassette album, entitled: "Sour Notes," featured the three pieces presented here:

1 Hypercolagual
2 Melted Skelter
3 The Sour Power In My Soup

The photograph accompanying this presentation is of (L to R) Brian Cogley, Chris Artberry, and Killr "Mark" Kaswan, taken by Goff at the "Sour Notes" session in Silverman's studio. This was the last session in HOTES' long history for several of its members. As 1998 progressed, Kaswan, Sands, and Silverman started playing together as the group: "Glow." Arteberry and Cogley started producing live performances in Emeryville, California. Goff continued to work in Kansas with the group: "Turkey Makes Me Sleepy." And sadly, Steve Schaer, a beloved member of the Taped Rugs family since its earliest days, took his own life. Despite all of these 1998 twists of fate, HOTES lived on into the 21st Century. Stay tuned, there's more podcasts to come.

Members of Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) gathered in various San Francisco Bay Area locations for improvisational recording sessions several times throughout the first months of 1997. Goff, then living in Kansas, was still a member of the group, but obviously he did not participate in these sessions. There had been some discussion of Goff forming a new HOTES contingent in Kansas, which led the California HOTES members to refer to themselves as “Ether West” during this time period. At some point around the middle of the year, the members of “Ether West” compiled five recordings from their 1997 improvisational sessions into a cassette album entitled: “Pig Iron.” The album was never released to the public, however.

As 1997 moved forward, Goff joined with Michael Adams and Eric Matchett in Kansas to form the new group: “Turkey Makes Me Sleepy,” rather than creating a Kansas contingent of Herd Of The Ether Space. As a result, the idea of an “Ether West” melted away, and “Herd Of The Ether Space” lived on as the ever-evolving group it had always been.

Here Taped Rugs presents the first public release of three of the recordings from “Pig Iron:”

1) Obliteration (Arteberry, Cogley, Kaswan, Silverman)

2) Population Control For The New Millennium (Arteberry, Cogley, Kaswan, Silverman)

3) What’s Left On The Grill? (Arteberry, Cogley, Kaswan, Sands, Silverman)

The influence of Cogley’s busy, free-jazz percussion on the group’s sound makes “Pig Iron” a unique work within the HOTES collection of recorded materials. With Goff out of the picture, the creative forces of Kaswan and Silverman are on full display and ripe with mojo in this set.

On January 12th, 1997, Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) members: Chris Arteberry, Killr "Mark" Kaswan, Stuart Sands, and Robert Silverman gathered at Silverman's Law Office Studio in Oakland, California, for an improvisational session that planted the seeds of some future fruits for the group.

Here Taped Rugs presents three recordings from the session. The second of these is based around a broken up recording of the Bee Gee's disco smash hit: "Stayin' Alive" (Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb). Over the years, HOTES, Glow (which was the short-lived group featuring Kaswan, Sands, and Silverman in the late 1990's), and Kaswan on his own, all recorded and performed pieces based on broken up samples from this iconic record of the 1970's.

The third of these pieces conjures up a bit of Dadaist philosophy based around the 18th Century Puritan Missionary: Jonathan Edwards. The public got a listen to a refined version of this composition when HOTES performed live at Beanbenders in Oakland, California, on August 13th, 1997.

None of the three recordings presented here has ever previously been made available to the public.

In August, 1996, Charles Rice Goff III moved the base of operations for Taped Rugs Productions from Oakland, California, to Lawrence, Kansas. Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) developed somewhat of a split personality during the year following this move. Goff proceeded to produce and release new HOTES cassette albums from the collection of unreleased HOTES recordings that he had brought with him from Oakland to the Midwest USA. Kaswan, Silverman, Sands, Arteberry, and new HOTES percussionist Brian Cogley continued to record and perform in California.

On December 22nd, 1996, Kaswan and Silverman represented HOTES at a Christmas variety show hosted by the Beanbenders club in Oakland. Here, Taped Rugs presents a recording of the December 21st rehearsal for this performance. This recording never has appeared on a Taped Rugs cassette album nor has ever previously been made available to the public. Happy Holidaze, Ether fans!

Special Treat: The photo of Robert Silverman that accompanies this podcast is from a large party hosted by him and Goff in 1981, where they publicly shared the very first Taped Rugs release: "Might As Well Beyond Venus."

Ah, The Synergy Of Ether: This excerpt of the Herd Of The Ether Space podcast series is posted on the very cusp of one special 14th anniversary.

In 1997, Charles Rice Goff III mixed together the five sound collage compositions that make up the cassette album entitled: "Suggestions For Inverting Yourself" from recordings of challenging sonic improvisations created by Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) at the sessions described below:

1) Taped Rugs Studio, Oakland, California, May 8th, 1994.
Participants: Goff, Killr "Mark" Kaswan, Stuart Sands

2) Robert Silverman's Law Office Studio, Oakland, California, July 4th, 1996.
Participants: George Gibson, Goff, Kaswan, Sands, Robert Silverman

3) Druid Circle in Sibley Park, Oakland, California, July 21st, 1996.
Participants: Gibson, Goff, Kaswan, Sands, Steve Schaer, Robert Silverman

In a review published in Autoreverse Magazine, Ian Stewart described this cassette album thus:

"Ex-scare-a-mental improv! Keyboards, samples, clickyclacky "percussion," duck call, etc. It takes a nation of John Cages to hold Herd Of The Ether Space back. "I'll Drink the Pond Scum, But I Won't Eat The Mud" is my new anthem."

The session on July 4th, 1996, was the last in long a tradition of HOTES gatherings held on USA's Independence Day. It was a send-off of sorts for Goff, who moved from Oakland to Lawrence, Kansas, in August of 1996. The first HOTES Independence Day session was held on July 4th, 1980 ("The Space Night"). Several recordings of HOTES July 4th sessions were released by Taped Rugs on cassette albums, and these albums are all archived at archive.org.

The session on July 21st, 1996, was the last of a series of gatherings held by HOTES at a Celtic maze, built at the bottom of a canyon in the Oakland hills. The cover art for "Suggestions For Inverting Yourself" features a photograph of the maze taken from the hills above. The photograph accompanying this podcast is (left to right) of Sands, Goff, and Silverman, taken by Kaswan at the July 21st, 1996, Sibley Park session.

Doctor Crawford Long is considered to be the first medical practitioner to have administered Ether as an anesthesia during surgery.

The following five pieces make up the complete “Suggestions For Inverting Yourself” cassette album and are each presented here:

1) Avenue Of Impairment
2) Dismissed As Irritants
3) Tribute To Dr. Crawford Long
4) I'll Drink The Pond Scum, But I Won't Eat The Mud
5) Dancing Machine

Excerpts 31 and 37 of this podcast series both featured Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) recordings which were released to the public on the 1997 cassette album entitled: "Pruning" (by Taped Rugs Productions of California and by New Noise of the Netherlands). This excerpt of the podcast series completes the "Pruning" set with two pieces which some have described as being among the most annoying recordings in the entire Taped Rugs catalog.

First, Taped Rugs presents "Oaktown," which combines a noisy improvisation produced by George Gibson and C. Goff III on April 3rd, 1995, with a collection of clandestinely acquired sound bites that Goff recorded at various places around Oakland and Berkeley from 1994-95. Repeated lo-fidelity conversations, inspirations, fits of anger, expressions of joy, etc. paint up an audio picture that has often evoked disturbing visions.

This sonically-induced evocation is followed by "The Last Song," an improvisation recorded on May 13th, 1996, featuring Gibson, Goff, Killr "Mark" Kaswan, Zoe Kaswan, and Robert Silverman. In this piece, Zoe Kaswan's insistent verbiage competes with Goff's joking about Killr Kaswan's malfunctioning cello rig in a real-time, end-of-session, chaos experience.

Get ready to be disturbed.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/Pruning

On February 25th, 1996, a Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) gathering was held at the Taped Rugs Studio in Oakland, California, which produced several improvised recordings. In attendance were George Gibson, Charles Goff III, Viki O'Melveny, and Robert Silverman. HOTES members Steve Schaer and Dee Ann Schaer joined the group to help stir the Ether for a portion of this session as well. Over the next couple of years following that day, Goff edited out segments from the recordings produced at this session, so they could be released to the public by Taped Rugs and by other cassette labels. Goff dressed up a few of these edits with plundered media samples and a variety of found sounds.

Here Taped Rugs presents five of these February 25th distillations, each described below:

1) "Throat Feelings In My Dream" (Gibson, Goff, O'Melveny, Silverman. Unmodified Improvisation)

2) "I Watched A Football Game With A Plastic Surgeon" (Gibson, Goff, O'Melveny, Silverman. Improvisation Enhanced With Television Snippets From February 12th, 1997)

3) "Ever Growing Pressure" (Gibson, Goff, O'Melveny, Steve Schaer, Silverman. Improvisation Enhanced With Audio Storyline Of Plundered Samples)

4) "The Downfall Of Nabbage" (Gibson, Goff, O'Melveny, Steve Schaer, Dee Ann Schaer, Silverman. Unmodified Improvisation)

5) "I Want To Know It All" (Gibson, Goff, O'Melveny, Steve Schaer, Dee Ann Schaer, Silverman. Improvisation Enhanced With Edits From An Improvised Recording Created By Goff and HOTES member Stuart Sands on May 31st, 1993)

All of these recordings except for "The Downfall Of Nabbage" were released to the public in 1997 by Taped Rugs and by New Noise/Nihilistic Recordings (Netherlands) on the cassette album entitled: "Pruning." "The Downfall Of Nabbage" appeared on the 1998 Taped Rugs cassette compilation of out takes entitled: "Remnants From Magic Carpets," which was produced specifically for and co-released by EE Tapes of Belgium.

The photo that accompanies this podcast is of HOTES member Viki O'Melveny, taken in August, 1996, at the Taped Rugs Studio.

In December of 1995, Charles Rice Goff III received this invitation from Gianni Santillie of Oklahoma City's ECTO Tapes:

"Congratulations! You are one of seventeen people being asked to participate in a mail cassette project. The tape enclosed has a five minute sound piece on one side and the other side is blank. Please take the original sound piece and manipulate it. Add to it your own sounds, words, or whatever you like. Put the new sound piece on the blank side of the cassette, write your name on it, and please return it to ECTO Tapes. The blank side is exactly five minutes long, so do not add any length to the sound piece. If you feel you are unable to participate in this project, please send the cassette and instructions to someone whom you believe would be interested in participating. When the seventeen cassettes are returned, they will be compiled with the original to make a ninety-minute cassette titled TAKE FIVE / PROJECT TWO. All participants will of course receive a copy when it is released. Thank You."

On January 1st, 1996, Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) kicked off the new year with a recording session dedicated specifically to producing a response to this invitation. In attendance were: Goff, Killr "Mark" Kaswan, Stuart Sands, Robert Silverman, and HOTES initiate: Mason Holding. This was the only HOTES session that Holding ever participated in. He had been playing keyboards for a jazz-ish band called: "Liquid" around the time of this HOTES gathering.

The piece featured here was recorded live at Silverman's studio in Oakland, California, on a four track cassette deck. No effects nor overdubs were used to enhance this recording, which was sent back to ECTO and released on the Take Five, Project Two, compilation later in 1996.

A SPECIAL BONUS RECORDING is included after the HOTES version of "Take Five" in this podcast. It is the "Take Five" recording produced individually by HOTES member (and –ING member) Steve Schaer. He used the pseudonym: "Random Gunfire" to identify himself for this production. No other Random Gunfire recordings were ever released by Taped Rugs Productions or by any other cassette labels – this is the one and only.

In the last excerpt of this podcast series, three improvisations were presented from a Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) improvisational recording session held on May 14th, 1995, at the Taped Rugs Studio in Oakland, California. The Ether Players involved were: Chris Arteberry, George Gibson, C. Goff III, Stuart Sands, and Robert Silverman.

Excerpt Thirty of this podcast series showcased a unique HOTES piece, which was created specifically for Belgium's Red Neon "Made In USA, Volume II" compilation cassette album.

THIS PODCAST presents the HOTES piece, "Lesson 33," which was recorded at the May 14th, 1995, session cited above, and which was presented to Patrick Parent of Red Neon for inclusion on his "Made In USA, Volume III" compilation cassette album.

No overdubs nor effects were added to the original improvised recording of "Lesson 33" before it was shipped off to Red Neon. It is presented here in that unedited form.

The photograph which accompanies this podcast is of Chris Arteberry, taken during a late 1990's visit to the Taped Rugs Studio in Lawrence, Kansas.

In the previous excerpt of this podcast series, we celebrated one half of a Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) cassette album released by Biotope Art Organization of the United Kingdom (and, formerly, Italy) in 1995. In this excerpt, Taped Rugs presents the other half of the tape, entitled: “Remedies From Roots And Molds.” All 30 minutes are here:

1) Oxidation Deprivation Situation
2) Nack Mollis
3) Disconsciousness
4) Sprayed With Asparagus
5) The Great Chastisement

Tracks 1, 3, and 4 are live improvisations, recorded on May 14th, 1995, at the Taped Rugs Studio in Oakland, California, featuring the talents of Chris Arteberry, George Gibson, Charles Rice Goff III, Stuart Sands, Robert Silverman.

Track 2 is a live improvisation recorded at the Taped Rugs Studio on April 3rd, 1995, featuring the talents of George Gibson and Charles Rice Goff III.

Track 3 is a Goff III manipulation of a recorded message from the "Our Lady Of Roses" Prophet: Veronica Lueken.

"Remedies From Roots And Molds" was the first of several HOTES tapes on which Chris Arteberry appeared.

A wide variety of instruments and non-instruments were employed in creating the recordings archived here. The intuitive improvisational skills of HOTES are on display in these unique and curious sonic sculptures, presented in their original forms without alteration.

As promised back in Excerpt Thirty of this podcast series, Taped Rugs now presents in its entirety ...

A Goblin Realm Of Fakery

1 Vertical Yoked Prism
2 Bibulous Barb
3 Chewing Gum
4 Filter Exhibit
5 The Chemistry Of Plastics

Released in the Fall of 1995 by Taped Rugs Productions (USA) and Biotope Art Organization (UK).

The cassette album: "A Goblin Realm Of Fakery" consists of five complex sound collages produced by Charles Rice Goff III on a four track cassette recorder. Several members of Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES), who each recorded individually with Goff in various environments, speak as one group in this carefully concocted stew. The tape features blends from recordings of the improvised experimental sonic sessions described below:

1) George Gibson, Charles Rice Goff III, at Gibson's studio in Oakland, California, on September 9th, 1991

2) Robert Silverman, C. Goff III, at Redwood Park in Oakland, California, on September 7th, 1992

3) Alex King, C. Goff III, at Taped Rugs Studio in Oakland, California, on March 8th, 1993

4) Killr "Mark" Kaswan, C. Goff III, at Sibley Park in Oakland, California, on June 13th, 1993

5) Large group of reveler improvisers at a "Shadow Motivations Party," held in Berkeley, California, on July 11th, 1993

6) Viki O'Melveny, C. Goff III, at The Exploratorium in San Francisco, California, on August 15th, 1993

7) K. "M" Kaswan, Zoe Kaswan, C. Goff III, at The Exploratorium in San Francisco, California, on May 30th, 1994

8) C. Goff III, at Taped Rugs Studio in Oakland, California, on October 21st, 1994.

Goff also blended the following recordings into this Ethereal production:

1) Sampled bits from three television shows, including the Perry Mason episode: "The Case Of The Jaded Joker" (Season 2, Episode #18) which features the murder of character: "Charles Goff" and a whole lot of Beatnik jive.

2) Samples from a Gilbert chemistry set television commercial

3) A recording of a thunderstorm made during Goff's first visit to Kansas, on July 4th, 1995

4) A recording that Goff made at a gift shop in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport on July 5th, 1995

Further Specifics:

1 Taped Rugs released this cassette album as a 30-minute tape. Biotope Art Organization released the album as one side of a 60-minute tape; the other side featured the HOTES album: "Remedies From Roots And Molds."

2 This is the only HOTES album on which Alex King appears.

On June 13th, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were brutally stabbed to death in Brentwood, California. The Los Angeles Police suspected that American football hero: O.J. Simpson, was the perpetrator of this gruesome crime, but instead of arresting him directly, they agreed to let Simpson turn himself in. When Simpson failed to appear at the police station as scheduled on June 17th, 1994, a media spectacle began which eventually served as the inspirational fodder for the Herd Of The Ether Space cassette album entitled: "Suicide Driver."

On the afternoon of June 17th, an army of police and media vehicles spent over an hour following Simpson as he slowly cruised down a Los Angeles freeway in the passenger seat of a white Ford Bronco, driven by Simpson's former NFL team mate, Al Cowlings. Adding to the drama, Simpson had brought along a loaded gun with him on this trip. Earlier that afternoon, Simpson's friend and attorney, Rob Kardashian, had come to the police and press with a note from Simpson, in which Simpson claimed his innocence and rambled on in sentences that suggested he was about to commit suicide.

Because Simpson had been a beloved public figure for over 25 years, media outlets all over the United States seemed compelled to cover Simpson's freeway adventure. Television coverage of an NBA basketball play-off game was even discontinued, as live reporting from the Bronco ride took precedence over everything else on the airwaves. The massive media coverage actually inspired hundreds of people to go out to the Los Angeles freeway and watch for Simpson in person. Then, naturally, the media began reporting on the crowds that it had inspired to come out and gawk at the suicidal hero.

The absurdity of this tragic public spectacle served as perfect subject material for the Dadaist commentaries of Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES). Charles Rice Goff III recorded the Bronco ride broadcasts from several media outlets and later edited up the audio bits into beds of bizarre news noises, over which musical instruments and other sounds could be played. These collages of media madness include interviews with starry-eyed onlookers, a phone conversation with bawling NFL player Vince Evans, and even a Baba Booey-style prank call that fooled ABC's Star Reporter Peter Jennings. On September, 4th, 1994, Killr "Mark" Kaswan and Viki O'Melveny joined Goff at the Taped Rugs Productions studio in Oakland, California, to record the cassette album: "Suicide Driver."

While "Suicide Driver" takes some hard pokes at the American media, it does not take lightly the tragedy of the double murder. The final piece of "Suicide Driver" vividly brings to life the horror of Simpson's brutality. Dark noises and hushed cries color sampled bits from 911 emergency phone calls made by Nicole Brown Simpson during the months previous to her violent death.

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Goff had become aware of Simpson (a native San Franciscan) at the beginning of his rise to fame. In fact, in 1970, Goff met the football star in person at the beginning of his NFL career, at a "Sports Night" dinner hosted by his Fremont, California, junior high school. The photograph that accompanies this podcast appeared in a Fremont newspaper on the day after the dinner. Goff appears in the horn-rimmed glasses, getting Simpson's autograph.

Here Taped Rugs Presents the entire 30 minute cassette album: "Suicide Driver."

On April 24th, 1994, Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) members C. Goff III, Killr "Mark" Kaswan, and Stuart Sands created a half-hour improvised audio recording entitled: "Nixon's The One." The themes within this recording were specifically designed for a performance art project which was executed by Andries "A.D." Eker over the course of three days during May, 1994, at a public library in Zwolle, Netherlands. Curious audiences watched as Eker painted visual interpretations of avant garde audio recordings on the inside of a giant transparent cylinder, filling a third of the cylinder with colorful images during each of the three days. "Nixon's The One" served as the culminative recording for Eker's project on its final day: May 21st, 1994.

Eker named his work: De Cirkel van Een ( The Circle Of One ). A skillfully-edited video of this three-day painting extravaganza was distributed to the public in small quantities by Eker and some of his associates later in 1994. The portion of this video from the May 21st performance has been archived at the link below:

http://www.archive.org/details/TheCircleOfOneMay21st1994

The audio recording: "Nixon's The One" was released to public in 1997 by Taped Rugs Productions and by New Noise/Nihilistic Recordings of the Netherlands on the cassette album entitled: "Pruning." It is presented here in full.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/Pruning

For those of you who are paying attention, you'll notice that the previous podcast excerpt took a big jump from October, 1992, to September, 1993, and now "Taped Rugs Presents" is speeding right into 1994. Just so that you all know, there were several Herd Of The Ether Space recordings made in 1993; many were recorded with portable devices on location in various places. Throughout the mid-to-late 1990's, extracts from some of these audio documents were blended with other sonic samples, and the combined results were released to the public by Taped Rugs and by a number of international cassette labels. You'll get to hear many of these recordings as this podcast series progresses, but before that happens, "Taped Rugs Presents" will focus its attentions on the completed projects of 1994.

The first new Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) production of 1994 was collaged together from some previously recorded HOTES sessions (no dates available) and from several sampled commercial audio sources. Charles Rice Goff III glued together this composition, entitled: "Slowed Electronically," specifically for a compilation tape produced by Patrick Parent's Belgian "Red Neon" tape label. This tape, entitled: "Made In USA, Volume II," featured 13 recordings by 12 American sound artists. Parent's invitation, calling for participants, serves as the cover art for this podcast excerpt; Goff's handwritten note at the bottom reads: "Sent Slowed Electronically 3/14/94."

The six-and-a-half-minute-long recording presented here explores many aspects of space, leading listeners' ears through a variety of sonic atmospheres, exercising listeners' minds with a serious regimen of surreal word play. The HOTES participants featured in this piece are:

Goff: electronic guitar/vocals/plundered samples/percussion/toy piano/synthesizer
Killr "Mark" Kaswan: electronic guitar
Robert Silverman: electric organ/synthesizer

"Slowed Electronically" was the first of several Taped Rugs recordings generously released by Patrick Parent and Red Neon.

On September 6th, 1993, the Oakland, California, studio of Killr "Mark" Kaswan hosted an improvisatory recording session featuring the following Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) line-up:

C. Goff III: Electronic Guitar/Vocal(Babblechants, Screams)/Micro Moog Synthesizer/Modified Casio Keyboard/Percussion/Modified Electronic Toys
K. "M" Kaswan: Saxophone/Trombone/Vocal(Growls)/Electronic Guitar
Stuart Sands: Electronic Guitar
Steve Schaer (RIP): Drum machine/ARP Odyssey Synthesizer/Electronic Guitar

Four years later, two 15-minute-long pieces from this session were released to the public by Taped Rugs Productions and Luca Galuppini's (aka ONQ) Italian Chupa Verga label on the cassette album entitled: "Short Wayner." This tape has the distinction of receiving the least complimentary review ever published about a HOTES release. The review, published in Volume Six of Ian Stewart's "Autoreverse" magazine (1997) is quoted here:

"Two 15 minute long "free jazz" noodlin' tracks which would make okay two-minute filler tracks on a tape, but as long improv peices they are unendurable. Admittedly, I don't know anything about jazz, much less "free jazz," but I know noodling when I hear it. And that is what this is, and bad noodling at that. Sounds like an outtake even the STUFFINGS would have left off in most listless phase. What's most confusing is that it was recorded in 1993 and only released this year, why bother releasing it half a decade later when it's not really...I'll stop. They should, too." Review by Michael Anderson.

Naturally such a review provokes commentary, and, looking back, Goff offers his here:

"I love that the reviewer was so disturbed by this cassette album that he was moved to write these words. It's clear that listening to this tape exposed him to some rhythms, pitches, energies, and attitudes with which he had no previous experience, and that hearing these sounds produced some powerful emotions within him. Strong responses are exactly what Taped Rugs Productions always seeks to evoke. This reviewer revealed as much or more about himself as he revealed about his subject, and readers of such revelations are presented with the sorts of truths that only art can unveil. I do wonder a bit about his reference to listlessness, however, because, if nothing else, it seems to me that a great deal of energy is exhibited in these pieces."

Here for all to judge themselves are both pieces from the session:

1) Short Wayner
2) Shaking The Prey

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/ShortWayner

Rod Serling and Edgar Allan Poe did not attend the Samhain gathering of Herd Of The Ether Space on October 31st, 1992. Their spirits, however, were likely hanging around as Will Flanagan (aka Will Marston), George Gibson, C. Goff III, and Killr "Mark" Kaswan traded horror stories and supernatural sonics in the dark Oakland night.

As mentioned in the previous podcast, this convergence of herdsmen witnessed the last trip around the reels for the Taped Rugs Frippertronics system. Indeed, the air in the recording studio that Hallows Eve seemed heavy with the breath of death, as the possessed Ether men spoke in tongues, summoning disturbing tales of terror. Taped Rugs presents two of those unnerving narratives here:

1) "Three Guys Jumped A Killr"

In this creepy canticle, Kaswan blasts a trombone over Gibson's space bass, while Flanagan strums guitar and Goff brews a stew of synthesizer, screaming toys, voice, and phonograph records. Then Kaswan begins to recall how three young men had set upon him in front of an Oakland church one day to violently beat his body without reason. He screams with conviction: "WHY! WHY ARE YOU HITTING ME?"

2) "Crematory Story"

This disturbing ditty literally gives off an air of dark humor. As Gibson blows upon a reeded horn over a procession of percussions and whines from bowed strings, Goff dramatically reads a newspaper article (from Contra Costa County’s “West County Times,” 10/5/1990) about how smelly clouds of black soot from a Crematorium had been violating air pollution laws and disturbing neighbors.

Like the piece from the previous podcast, both of these pieces were co-released to the public in 1993 by Taped Rugs and Tonkonstruktionen on the cassette album entitled: "Taming Lions With Drugs."

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/TamingLionsWithDrugs

In October of 1992, Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) got its last uses out of the old Frippertronics-style tape loop system which had been it mainstay during the previous decade. After more than a dozen years of abuse, served up during hundreds of recording sessions and live performances by the Taped Rugs acts: -ING, Disism, HOTES, and C. Goff III, the two old Pioneer RT-707 reel-to-reel tape recorders were deteriorating. The playback and recording qualities of both decks had dulled to the point that a single sound could barely survive three looped repetitions before fading into an audio blur.

Goff decided that the Frippertronics system should get one more chance before it was abandoned for good. It had not been used in a HOTES session since 1989. Actually the system got two more chances: one on October 24th, 1992, in a session powered by the duo of Goff and Robert Silverman; and the next: a week later, on Halloween. The Halloween session will be the subject of the next episode in this podcast series, but here Taped Rugs presents a piece from the Goff/Silverman collaboration entitled: "Lyrically Cackling Microchip Flavor."

In this piece, Silverman commands Ensoniq synthesizer, electronic guitar, and voice. Goff accompanies on Micro Moog synthesizer, electronic guitar, voice, phonograph, and modified electronic toys. Both Ether men employ a battery of electronic sound effects as well; however, the main sound effect which they both play through is the tape loop system itself. No other effect can produce the same orchestrated rhythms as a Frippertronics-style tape loop, and evidence of this unique quality can be heard on this recording.

"Lyrically Cackling Microchip Flavor" was released by Taped Rugs on the cassette album entitled: "Taming Lions With Drugs" in 1993. The tape was co-released in Germany by Alex Frick's Neuzeitliche Tonkonstruktionen label.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
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"Riot Via Satellite" is a cassette album which demonstrates the capacities of improvisational prowess that could be served up by the members of Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) when given the proper set of circumstances. Recorded entirely on May 16th, 1992, there were no overdubs nor deletions made to the album’s 90 minutes of recordings when they were mastered for release to the public by Taped Rugs Productions. Previous to this date, HOTES members: George Gibson, Charles Rice Goff III, Killr "Mark" Kaswan, and Robert Silverman had not all gathered together for a round of sonic improvisation since they had prepared for their "Noises Of War" performance in March of 1991. These audio astronauts were all long overdue in their need to satiate their sonic senses, and, as a result, they all displayed a considerable flash of pent up musical mojo at this recording session.

Helping to set the scene and add sources of inspiration for this HOTES gathering, Goff had prepared several recent news media recordings to randomly inject into the improvisational flux. As a result, listeners of this album are reminded of the economic recession which gripped the United States in 1992, of the first nationally-televised revelations of Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton's sexual indiscretions, of the several days of rioting in Los Angeles following the trial which acquitted police officers of having used excessive force when arresting Rodney King, and of the first flight of the space shuttle Endeavour and its record-setting space walks.

A sense of Dadaism colors these soundscapes as well. Silverman twiddles bits from Johann Strauss's "Blue Danube Waltz" over reports from the LA riots; Goff plays bits from a self-help tape designed to increase sex drive side by side with the voices of Clinton and his accusing lover: Jennifer Flowers.

The members of HOTES orchestrate electronic guitars, Yamaha electric organ, Micro Moog and Ensoniq synthesizers, cello, trombone, voices, circuit bent Casio keyboards, electronic toys, flutes, whistles, various percussion, and a variety of electronic sound effects to create the audio atmospheres which breathe life into "Riot Via Satellite." The cohesiveness with which the rhythms and pitches flow from moment to moment on this album is compelling. Within the huge collection of HOTES cassette albums, "Riot Via Satellite" stands out as a model of HOTES's ability to create sonic magic from literal scratch.

Here Taped Rugs presents the half-hour portion of the cassette where the Ether meets the LA Riots: “South Central Three Step.”

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
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Keeping with the scholastic theme of the previous excerpt of this podcast series, we now host the final examination of the cassette album: “C4H10O.” This is also the final examination of Herd Of The Ether Space for the year: 1991. On November 12th, George Gibson, C. Goff III, and Geoff Morgan (aka “Jeff” Morgan) met at the Oakland, California, Taped Rugs studio for a rendezvous with sonic destiny entitled: “Sharks Gums & Toothpick.” The piece is a collage of improvised recordings made that afternoon and later mixed by Goff and included on the 1992 cassette album: "C4H10O." The blends of electronic square waves and pulsing percussives provide the perfect definition of what has of late been referred to as: “electro-acoustic” music.

The Herd did not meet up again until May of 1992, and, naturally, you’ll read all about that in the next excerpt of this podcast series.

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As promised, here the Taped Rugs Ether Space Instructional Series offers its students yet another lesson for the Audio Endurance Test (see Excerpts 15 and 16 of this podcast series for the first two lessons). This tutorial features one of two improvisational recordings made at the Taped Rugs studio in Oakland, California, on October 15th, 1991. Featured in this recording are noises (possibly even music) created by George Gibson, C. Goff III, and Killr “Mark” Kaswan.

This recording, entitled “Human Guinea Pigs,” is a 24-minute tolerance experiment, led primarily by Doctor Kaswan and his probing cello. Associates Gibson and Goff aggressively spray a variety of sonic concoctions into the ears of their prospective test subjects throughout the lesson. This learning experience was released to the public in 1993 on the cassette album entitled: “Audio Endurance Test,” co-released by Taped Rugs Productions and the California outlet of Kentucky Fried Royalty Tapes, the latter headed up by Professor Donald Campau.

The photograph accompanying this podcast is of Doctor Kaswan, shot sometime during the middle 1980’s at the Taped Rugs studio.

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The chemical symbol "C4H10O" represents Ether. It also is the name of an HOTES cassette album released by Taped Rugs Productions in 1992. Two recordings which appeared on that cassette album were featured in Excerpt Fourteen of this podcast series. Three more recordings are featured in this excerpt:

1) Later Than You Think

2) Toothbrush On The Rack

3) Thick Liquids In A Moving Car

These recordings are all improvisations. They showcase how, in mid-1991, HOTES returned to the uninhibited "anything goes" approach to composition which typified much of the group's music during the 1980's. Characteristically, the members of HOTES employed a number of unusual instruments and non-instruments into the production of these recordings, yet these improvisations never deteriorate into chaos. Instead, they demonstrate the capacity of HOTES to intuitively mold abstract rhythms and sounds into collages that capture the imagination and hold its ears prisoner.

The first piece was recorded by Will Flanagan (now Will Marston), C. Goff III, and Killr "Mark" Kaswan on May 19th, 1991. The other two pieces were recorded by Goff, Kaswan, and Robert Silverman on August 18th, 1991. Excerpt Twenty-Five of this podcast series will host yet another piece from the "C4H10O" cassette album, but before that gem is revealed, the next podcast will offer a new chapter of study for the "Audio Endurance Test."

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
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The “Noises Of War” production served as a bold coda to a vigorous year and a half of sonic adventures for HOTES. After the performance, the members of the Herd retreated into their dens for a few months of hibernation. While passing time in his lair, Goff slowly brewed up a collage of several stray HOTES recordings and modified samples from other sources into a huge 45-minute production entitled: “The Hills Of Home.”

While the specific dates of the stray HOTES recordings are uncertain, edits from sessions which feature George Gibson, Killr “Mark” Kaswan, the mysterious “Pete (of 60 Cycle Hum),” Goff himself, and HOTES initiate Jeff Morgan are all included in the lengthy mix. Tapes produced by Gibson and Vivianne Marc (of Quintet De L’art) are also blended into this brew, which, in addition, contains some strange recordings from Goff’s answering machine as well as several oddly played samples from a variety of phonograph records.

“The Hills Of Home” served as the title track for the cassette album, “The Hills Of Home,” released to the public in 1991 by both Taped Rugs Productions and Pete’s “Dancing Bear Audio Research” recording label. Here, Taped Rugs presents “The Hills Of Home” in its full 45-minute experimental glory.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/TheHillsOfHome

At last the build-up is over -- here Taped Rugs presents the opening segments: “Purification” and “Shifting Sands” from the actual March 1st, 1991, HOTES “Noises Of War” (NOW) performance, which has been the hot topic of this podcast series for the last few weeks. These two pieces also served as the opening bits for the NOW cassette album, released in mid 1991 by both Taped Rugs Productions and Kentucky Fried Royalty. The original source for these recordings was a four track cassette deck, which also served as a mixing console for the public address system used during the March 1st performance.

The NOW show was hosted by the “Art Here” Gallery in Albany, California, just north of Berkeley. The art exhibits which were on display in the gallery at the time of the performance provided just a portion of the visual ambience for the HOTES presentation. A television in the room played a video collage of Gulf War-related news reports throughout the show. This collage was edited together by HOTES members C. Goff III and George Gibson, who pared down about forty hours of raw TV footage onto a two- hour-long video tape. Artist Debra Burger created an impressive set for the show with bricks, sandbags, and barbed wire. She also promenaded around the set in dramatic costuming at various points during the performance.

HOTES member Will Flanagan (aka Will Marston) filmed the entire NOW performance with a video cassette camera. Goff recently re-edited the original footage , and the entire restored video (70 minutes) is available to view and/or download at the link below:
http://www.archive.org/details/NoisesOfWarTheVideo

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
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The previous excerpt of this podcast series featured selections from the third rehearsal session that the members of HOTES held to prepare for their public performance/commentary on the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990’s. The fourth and final rehearsal was held on February 24th, 1991. Locked within the sanctuary of the Taped Rugs studio on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California, the group performed all seven pieces from the program with inspiration and confidence. The recordings made that day reflect the refined and unified vision made possible by a solid month of preparation.

Two recordings from this session were released to the public by Taped Rugs Productions on cassette albums in 1993. “Mourning Has Broken” (an alternative title for “Mourning Breaks”) was included on the Taped Rugs compilation album entitled: “Fjaern,” co-released by Hypertonia World Enterprises of Norway. “Exorcism” filled up Side A of the 30-minute long cassette album entitled: “Alternative Transportation,” co-released by Ooh Ooh Music of Canton, Ohio.

Here Taped Rugs presents the February 24th recording of “Exorcism.” This version is a few seconds longer than the version edited to fit on the “Alternative Transportation” album. The piece features HOTES member C. Goff III singing the words of a poem written by Doors legend, Jim Morrison. Goff’s literary interpretations are backed by a full battery of Ethereal sonic forces bent on chasing away the demons of the Persian Gulf conflict.

After “Exorcism” this podcast excerpt features the February 24th recording of “The Duel,” a short story by Eugene Field, dramatically read by Killr “Mark” Kaswan. Kaswan’s literary interpretations are enhanced with improvised sound sketches painted with a Herd mentality. This recording has never previously been made available to the public.

The photograph accompanying this podcast is a still image of Goff, extracted from the video of the actual March 1st Noises Of War performance.

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The previous excerpt of this podcast series featured a piece from the second rehearsal session that the members of HOTES held to prepare for their public performance/commentary on the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990’s. By the time of their third rehearsal, held on February 17th, 1991, the war had already moved through several stages and had left behind considerable destruction and torment. The members of HOTES also had moved through several stages of outlining the format of their upcoming performance by this point in time and had agreed upon a basic framework for the show. Seven improvisationally-oriented compositions, following a somewhat narrative arrangement, would lead the band and the audience through the following stages:

1 Purification (basically an introduction and preparation for what was to come)

2 Shifting Sands (establishing the setting for the war and showcasing some of the events leading up to it)

3 The Bombing Of Baghdad (the beginning of the war expressed through a Killr Kaswan modified folk song)

4 Reaction To War (a violent expression of frustration over the violence of the war itself)

5 The Duel (a metaphorical look at the senselessness of war as expressed through the reading of a short story by Eugene Field)

6 Mourning Breaks (a lament over the tragedies caused by the war)

7 Exorcism (an attempt to free the mind and body from the torments of the war – this portion included a reading of some ethereal words written by Jim Morrison)

Killr “Mark” Kaswan participated in the first hour of the February 17th rehearsal, but he had to leave early and did not rehearse three of the pieces with the rest of the band that day. Two of those pieces sans Kaswan are presented here. This is their first public airing.

The first piece: “Reaction To War,” is the most aggressive portion of the “Noises Of War” suite. Robert Silverman’s barrage of battleground sounds, George Gibson’s reeds, winds, and toy guns, and Charles Goff’s distorted lap steel guitar give this presentation a powerful punch.

The second piece: “Mourning Breaks,” is unique because Silverman colors it with extensive electric guitar playing, which he did not incorporate into the public performance of the piece. Goff’s use of tapes, toys, and phonograph records and Gibson’s woodwind playing build sorrowful atmospheres into this improvisational composition.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
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The previous excerpt of this podcast series presented a bit from the first rehearsal session that the members of HOTES held to prepare for their public performance/commentary on the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990’s. During that first rehearsal, HOTES member Killr “Mark” Kaswan played a folk song for the band that he had written several years previously. He offered the song to the group to interpret and include in their Gulf War concert/statement. Kaswan renamed the piece: “The Bombing Of Baghdad” for this occasion.

The first HOTES rehearsal of “The Bombing Of Baghdad” took place on February 10th, 1991, and here Taped Rugs presents this first rehearsal of the piece in its entirety. This recording has never previously been made available to the public.

The recording begins with the group improvising an audio atmosphere colored with bits from news reports, a lamenting cello, some exotic woodwind playing, blips of Morse code, and the sounds of weapons fire. As this introduction fades down, Kaswan strums chords on his electric guitar and sings. The song progresses as the accompaniment shifts to air raid sirens, more specific news references to bombings and to Baghdad, percussive metals, and a few harmony vocals. This formula more or less held together as the basic blueprint for the public performance of the piece throughout the remaining HOTES rehearsals.

The image accompanying this podcast is the cover art from the "Noises Of War" cassette album, released in mid-1991 by Taped Rugs Productions and the California outlet of Kentucky Fried Royalty recordings, supervised by Don Campau.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
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A savage war for the control of Middle East petroleum resources took place between the years 1990 and 1991. As the conflict escalated, governments from all over the world got involved, and lives from every corner of the globe were put at risk. By the time that a cease-fire had been achieved in March of 1991, the Middle East was left with tens of thousands of dead and wounded soldiers and civilians, a number of unprecedented environmental cataclysms, and a host of precariously unresolved political posturings.

Soon after President George H. W. Bush ordered the USA's military to bomb Baghdad on January 17th, 1991, the members of Herd Of The Ether Space (HOTES) decided it was time to express their disgust for those responsible for bringing so much pain to the planet with their quests for petroleum supremacy. Their ire was not only aimed at Bush and his Republican supporters, but at Saddam Hussein and everyone else responsible for this deadly exercise in greed management: every dictator, shah, prime minister, oil company executive, media magnate, weapons manufacturer, etc.

HOTES members: George Gibson, C. Goff III, Killr "Mark" Kaswan, and Robert Silverman, chose March 1st, 1991, as the date on which they would make the first HOTES public statement regarding the Persian Gulf conflict. This statement would come in the form of an elaborate live performance. In the weeks leading up to the show, the group compiled a library of audio and video about the conflict to incorporate into their presentation. They spent hours editing up these materials into forms that could easily and effectively be used on stage. To refine their themes and performance strategies, the Herd gathered to rehearse on January 25th, February 10th, February 17th, and February 24th. All the while, the horrors of the conflict and the predictions for even more terrible things to come were piling up.

Indeed, the world seemed convinced that this particular chapter in the Middle East war for oil would be a long one, and as a result, the members of HOTES anticipated that their March 1st show would be the first of several performances on the subject. As it turned out, however, the so-called "liberation" of Kuwait took just over a month, and a cease-fire agreement was signed on the very same March 1st that HOTES gave their first (and thus, only) performance in protest of the Persian Gulf War. The show was filmed and the live audio was recorded. Taped Rugs Productions released a cassette album from the performance, entitled: "Noises Of War" later in 1991. A couple edits from the rehearsals were released by Taped Rugs in the following years on other cassette albums as well.

An edit dubbed: "Arabian Nights," from the January 25th rehearsal was also included on the "Noises Of War" cassette album. Taped Rugs here presents the entire half-hour-long January 25th improvisation from which “Arabian Nights” was edited. This is the first time that this recording has been made available to the public. The next few excerpts of this podcast series will feature other bits from the HOTES rehearsals leading up to the March 1st, 1991 performance.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/NoisesOfWar

Followers of this podcast series know by now that members of the Taped Rugs family frequently gather together on American holidays. The unedited improvisation presented here, entitled: “Dean Martin’s Ether Breath,” was recorded on New Year’s day, 1991. It features the talents of George Gibson, C. Goff III, and Killr “Mark” Kaswan. It also served to initiate yet another new member into the Herd: bassist Matt Faivre. This is the only HOTES public release with Faivre on it. He went onto fame as a Death Metal star in the later 1990’s.

As for the star of the song, Dean-o himself can be heard mumbling “King Of The Road” from an off-center phonograph record toward the end of this ethereal romp through the sonic wilderness. The real star, however, is Kaswan, who’s babbly scat vocals at the beginning of the piece are particularly engaging as they wind around the Dadaesque rhythms and melodies created by the bass, woodwinds, guitars, and phonograph records.

“Dean Martin’s Ether Breath” was released to the public in 1993 by Taped Rugs Productions on the cassette album: “Audio Endurance Test” (see the previous podcast for more about this album). It is the only recording from that day’s session to appear on a HOTES album.

The next presentations will be focused on HOTES reactions to Operation Desert Storm. Stay tuned for an exercise in free speech American style.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
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On November 5th, George Gibson, C. Goff III, and Killr “Mark” Kaswan joined together at the Taped Rugs Studio in Oakland for what turned out to be the last Ether Space session of 1990. The two pieces presented here are unaltered improvisations from the session. They were originally recorded directly onto a stereo cassette tape and contain no overdubs nor added sound effects. Taped Rugs Productions released them to the public in 1993 on the cassette album: “Audio Endurance Test,” which was co-released by Don Campau’s California outlet of Kentucky Fried Royalty Tapes.

The most obvious sonic generators used in this recording session are cello, woodwinds, electric organ, and a variety of unconventionally played phonograph records. John F. Kennedy makes a speech to kick the whole thing off. Taped Rugs presents here:

1 “American Hero At Ground Zero”

and

2 “Walking Through Space With A Prospective Tenant”

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The end of the summer in the USA is marked by a holiday for workers. The Labor Day of September 3rd, 1990, was marked by rally cries of cacophony created by George Gibson, C. Goff III, and Robert Silverman.

Having spent the previous months composing from pre-planned themes and performance-related plans, these members of Herd Of The Ether Space were ready to let loose with a heavy dose of unbridled free improvisation. They powered a variety of instruments, non-instruments, television feeds, phonograph records, and tapes into a four-track cassette deck, producing complex layers of audio disturbance.

Two compositions that were created that day were released by Taped Rugs Productions in 1992 on the cassette album, C4H10O (which is the chemical formula for Ether). “Retrograde On A Curve” is a blend of two improvisations recorded on opposite sides of a single cassette, one improvisation recorded forwards, the other backwards. Goff twiddled the knobs to create the mix for the cassette release. The reversed mix, however, as one might suspect, is equally as interesting as the one offered on the cassette, and is presented to the public here for the first time in its full glory (of about 17 and a half minutes).

“Infinitely Elastic” is a pure improvisation and was presented on the C4H10O cassette album unedited, just the way that it was made on that Labor Day so long ago. A noteworthy aspect of this recording is the bit of television news quoting President George H. W. Bush in a speech he made about Operation Desert Shield in Iraq. A few months later he took the world to war in Operation Desert Storm, which served as the subject for an Ether Show with a powerful punch. That show will be featured in a future podcast, but for now it’s:

1 (the reversed) “Retrograde On A Curve”

and

2 “Infinitely Elastic”

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/C4H10O

WARNING: THIS PODCAST CONTAINS SOME ADULT THEMES AND IS NOT MEANT FOR CHILDREN

As promised in the previous excerpt of this podcast series, here Taped Rugs presents a 45-minute recording from the August 11th, 1990, Herd Of The Ether Space performance at the Ohana Cultural Center in Oakland, California. This is the only surviving recording from the show and represents about half of the total performance. A significant portion of the beginning of the show and a slight portion of its ending were not recorded. Up until right now, this recording has never been made available to the public.

The recording began as members of the audience joined George Gibson, C. Goff III, Killr “Mark” Kaswan, and Robert Silverman for a marathon of paper and cardboard tearing. Prerecorded tapes of paper being torn, keyboard samples of tearing paper, and live ripping made up this cathartic collage, entitled: “Tears For Your Ears.” Goff has always had a nervous reaction to the sound of tearing paper, and this piece was intended to exorcise his demons. It left the venue in a huge mess, but after the show, all the bits of torn paper were collected and taken to the recycling center. As for Goff’s demons, they vanished briefly but returned after the performance.

An intermission followed “Tears For Your Ears.”

Next up, the Ether men hosted a Dadaist square dance entitled: “Psycho Hoedown.” Conjuring up a drugged cowboy rhythm, the group provided Goff with an appropriate backing for a throatful of very odd square dance calls. Silverman’s use of keyboard samples created from phonograph records colored this piece in a transcendent shade of gingham.

Ric E. Braden then joined the group to help provide some audio coloring to a Killr Kaswan lecture on Kegel exercises. Naturally, Kaswan encouraged the audience to participate in this threat to public morality, entitled: “Tipper Gore Aerobics Lesson.” Of course, in 1990, Tipper was not yet the wife of a Vice President/Nobel Prize Winner; she was, instead, the face of the “Parents Music Resource Center” which brought warning labels to the music industry.

George Gibson introduced the final piece, an unadulterated improvisation, which had all the elements needed to be named: “At The Space Bar (Version 3)”. Unfortunately, the ending of this ethereal piece was not recorded.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
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As promised in the last excerpt of this podcast series, here Taped Rugs presents two more recordings of rehearsals for the Herd Of The Ether Space show that took place on August 11th, 1990:

1 “Mister Bojangles” (recorded at the Taped Rugs Studio July 28th, 1990)
&
2 “Dada’s Little Girl” (recorded at the Taped Rugs Studio August 5th, 1990)

Both of these pieces were included on the “Dada’s Little Psycho” cassette album released by Taped Rugs Productions in late 1990. “Dada’s Little Psycho” was co-released by IRRE Tapes of West Germany. The Ether Space members who played on and, thus, composed these pieces were: George Gibson, C. Goff III, Killr “Mark” Kaswan, and Robert Silverman. Variants of these compositions opened up the August 11th Ether extravaganza in Oakland, California, but, unfortunately, those portions of the performance were not recorded.

“Mr. Bojangles” is a Dadaesque tribute to Sammy Davis, Jr., who had died in the weeks immediately preceding the HOTES performance. During the live presentation, Gibson, wearing a suit which was covered in electronic buttons which triggered various percussive sounds, tapped out a vigorous dance which would have likely pleased both Davis and John Cage.

“Dada’s Little Girl” features Kaswan reading and improvising verbiage from a book which came from his daughter’s personal library: “Max’s First Word” by Rosemary Wells. Taped verbalizations from Kaswan’s daughter were incorporated into the performance of this piece as well.

The next podcast in this series will feature the portions of the August 11th show which were recorded.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/DadasLittlePsychoandDadasLittlePsychosRelatives

On August 7th, 1990, Herd Of The Ether Space members Charles Goff III, Killr “Mark” Kaswan and Robert Silverman joined John Gullak at the KPFA studios in Berkeley, California, to promote their first public performance. Gullak’s weekly “No Other Radio” program was legendary for showcasing avant garde composers and performers, and this was the second time HOTES had been invited onto the show (the first time is documented in Excerpt One of this podcast series).

Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman gave Gullak’s radio audience a verbal preview of their upcoming performance, enticing listeners with tales of a Dadaist tribute to Sammy Davis, Jr., a psychotic square dance, an audience-participation/paper-tearing marathon, and a lesson on performing Kegels exercises. They also presided over a couple of twisted trivia contests and the premier broadcasts of three recordings: “At The Space Bar,” “Happy Home,” and “Shaken By A Wild Hallucination.”

The actual performance that HOTES was promoting during this radio show was held on August 11th, 1990, in Oakland, California. The members of HOTES refined their presentations for this performance during a few rehearsals held in the weeks preceding it. Several of the recordings made during these rehearsals were later included on the cassette album, “Dada’s Little Psycho” (which was introduced in the previous podcast). As with all things Ether Space, chaos colors the production of this cassette album. “Shaken By A Wild Hallucination” was later renamed: “At The Space Bar,” and served as the opening piece on Dada’s Little Psycho. The piece presented here as “At The Space Bar,” retained its name and was released as an out take version in 1993 on the Taped Rugs compilation album entitled: “Fjaern” (along with the remixed version of Happy Home which was featured in Excerpt Six of this podcast series).

Just to throw a few more threads into this tangled mess:

The Dada’s Little Psycho version of “At The Space Bar” was recorded on July 22nd, 1990, and features Goff, Kaswan, Silverman, George Gibson, and tapes created by Vivianne Marc of Quintet De L’art (from France).

The Fjaern version of “At The Space Bar” was recorded on August 5th, 1990, and features Goff, Kaswan, Silverman, George Gibson, and Ric E. Braden.

A third version of “At The Space Bar” was publicly performed at the Oakland show on August 11th, 1990, by Goff, Kaswan, Silverman, Gibson, and Braden.

Here Taped Rugs presents the entire HOTES radio interview from August 7th, 1990.

The next podcast will feature more recordings from the Dada’s Little Psycho album.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. THE VERSIONS OF "AT THE SPACE BAR," AS HEARD BY LISTENERS VIA THIS BROADCAST, ARE ARCHIVED AT THE LINK BELOW:

http://www.archive.org/details/DadasLittlePsychoandDadasLittlePsychosRelatives

If it has not been obvious in the previous podcasts of this series, 1990 was a busy time for Herd Of The Ether Space and Taped Rugs Productions. This excerpt from the HOTES podcast series features two compositions which both were included on the 1990 cassette album: “Dada’s Little Psycho.”

While many recording sessions took place at Taped Rugs studio during 1990, not every recording was released on a Taped Rugs cassette album. The session from May 12th yielded only one five-minute long production, but it stands out in its own unique dadaist/country/western dimension as something apart from all other HOTES compositions. “The Bible & The Bullet” was recorded on a four track cassette recorder in two takes. The first was a crude sort of cowboy-from-space instrumental improvisation; the second was a weird campfire sing-a-long thing, backing up an improvised dadaist Wild West narrative. The cast of characters involved in this production included two first-and-only timers: Jack Engard and Mary Reddington, as well as four old-timers: Jeff Faulkner, George Gibson, C. Goff III, and Viki O’Melveny.

In 1991, Goff layered “The Bible & The Bullet” into the collaged soundtrack for the Taped Rugs video extravaganza: “Life And Death Drama.” The nine minute segment of this video which includes “The B & The B” can be viewed on You Tube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gn6-ow6trA&feature=channel_page

“Cloaked Parameters” is a hefty eighteen-minute piece, collaged together from two improvisations. The first was recorded by Will Flanagan (now Will Marston), George Gibson, C. Goff III, and Viki O’Melveny on March 23rd, 1990. The second was recorded by C. Goff III, Killr “Mark” Kaswan, and Robert Silverman on April 28th, 1990. Nearly every instrument, non instrument, and sonic generator in the HOTES closet makes an appearance in this chaotically jarring production.

Here Taped Rugs presents both “The Bible & The Bullet” and “Cloaked Parameters” for your listening pleasure. As for the “Dada’s Little Psycho” cassette album, it and its many connecting threads will be the subject of the next few excerpts in the HOTES podcast series. These threads lead to a radio interview and the first HOTES public performance – stay tuned if you have the stamina.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/DadasLittlePsychoandDadasLittlePsychosRelatives

During the mid summer of 1990, another new member was initiated into Herd Of The Ether Space. “Pete,” as he was known at the time, had been trading experimental tapes with Charles Goff III throughout the previous year. These two sonic adventurers met at the Taped Rugs studio in Oakland, California, on July 8th for a fiery one-on-one recording session.

Pete is quite handy with electronics, and he has built several synthesizers and other noise gadgets from scratch. The devices which he brought with him to Oakland from his home base in New Jersey were a natural compliment to Goff’s collection of musical and non musical instruments.

A thirty minute edit from the July 8th session was later entitled: “60 Cycle Cell Anemia” and released to the public in 1991 by both Taped Rugs Productions and Pete’s Dancing Bear Audio Research recording label on the cassette album: “The Hills Of Home.” Here Taped Rugs presents the full dose of this powerful distillation of sonic madness.

A BIT OF BACKGROUND: Pete started operating Dancing Bear Audio Research in the late 1980’s. From the early 1980’s to the early 1990’s, Pete was a member of the recording and performing group called “60 Cycle Hum.” Taped Rugs and Dancing Bear together released the 60 Cycle Hum cassette album: “Space I/O” in 1989. Pete took on the nom de plume of “Crystal” around the turn of the 21st Century. He has continued to create electronic devices and sonic productions in various guises and locations. The Dancing Bear Audio Research website can be accessed at:

http://www.gardenofsensualdelight.com/DBAR.html

The poster which embellishes this podcast was used to promote a Dancing Bear Audio Research Halloween performance in 1990.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/TheHillsOfHome

It’s hard to figure out where the HOTES cassette album: “Off Duty Beelzebub” should appear in the chronology of the group’s chaotic collection of recordings. It appears here because the final raw materials that it was composed from were recorded by George Gibson and C. Goff III on April 13th, 1990.

In producing Off Duty Beelzebub, Goff’s objective was to put together a cassette album focused around controversial readings and interpretations of evangelical Christian literature and Biblical prophesies. To create this heretical concoction, Goff employed a four track tape recorder as a makeshift cauldron, in which he stirred together carefully chosen vials of improvised Ether to serve up a tonic which flows with quirky and haunting sonic mystery. The recipe for this brew called for a stereo cassette recording made by Goff, Gibson, and Robert Silverman on November 18th, 1989, and a Frippertronics-style tape loop recording made by Goff, Silverman, Killr “Mark” Kaswan, and Stuart Sands sometime in 1988, to be boiled together with the April 13th recording mentioned above.

All of the members of the Herd express their candidacies for exorcism by preaching, petitioning, proselytizing, chanting, and speaking in tongues. The results likely forever denied them invitations to revival meetings hosted by Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson.

Off Duty Beelzebub was released as a 90 minute cassette album by Taped Rugs Productions in 1991. The album was co-released by ECTO Tapes of Oklahoma City.

Taped Rugs presents here two of the album’s big hits.

1) “Floss Your Soul” (This is actually one of the true stand-outs from the entire HOTES collection of recordings -- a Silverman-inspired twisted tale that positions every listener directly between outer space and hell.)

and

2) “Deities For Dollars”

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/OffDutyBeelzebub

Excerpt Four of this podcast series showcased two pieces from the cassette album: “Kumquat Over Again.” The album’s other two pieces: “Kumquat Jelly” and “Jellied Quat Kum,” were created at the Taped Rugs studio on March 18th, 1990, by George Gibson, C. Goff III, and Killr “Mark” Kaswan, and are both featured here in their entireties. As explained in Except Four, these two compositions contain elements which were recorded both forwards and backwards, and while one piece is theoretically the “opposite” of the other, they are not exact opposites, because each was mixed individually.

The vibrant tang and Vitamin C punch of kumquats often served as a propellant for HOTES recording sessions. At this particular session, however, they also served as a subject for the group’s Dadaesque improvised vocal bits. The potent kumquat fuel, in fact, had a near-explosive effect on the band during this session, and the walls of cacophony exhibited in these recordings have often overwhelmed listeners.

Al Margolis’s “Sound Of Pig” home recording label co-released “Kumquat Over Again” with Taped Rugs Productions in 1990. The Taped Rugs catalog described the tape thusly:

“For the totally nonserious, some core members of the Herd (Kaswan, Gibson, Goff, Silverman) slosh through germ transmissions and jellied quat kum in a sort of Warholish tribute to bizarreness. Each side of the tape contains both forward and backward material, which can be listened to in either direction, depending on which side of the tape is in the cassette deck. A good deal of attention is paid to a particular little orange fruit throughout the work. C-90”

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW: http://www.archive.org/details/KumquatOverAgain

In January, 1990, ECTO Tapes of Oklahoma City began circulating requests that read:

“Yo Four Eyes! ECTO Tapes iz putting together a Compilation of Residents cover songs. So send those eyeball songs on Hi-Bias Chrome tape now! “

The members of Herd Of The Ether Space were all fans of this heroic avant garde ensemble, and, naturally, they rushed to conjure up a contribution for this compilation project. On February 27th, 1990, Charles Rice Goff III, Killr “Mark” Kaswan, and Robert Silverman recorded a version of “Happy Home,” one of the pieces from the Residents album: “The Tunes Of Two Cities.” The HOTES interpretation is a seven-and-a-half-minute-long collage of randomized variants of the simple themes of the original song, played on Kaswan’s cello, Silverman’s digital synthesizer, and Goff’s electronic guitar. Goff sent the recording off to ECTO lickedy split. (Goff also submitted an ancient –ING tape-looped cover version of the Residents “Smelly Tongues” for the compilation).

Five years later, ECTO finally released a gargantuan three-cassette production called: “The Residents Unmasked.” This project has earned a somewhat mythical status in the home recording world since its release. The Residents themselves eventually approved of the production, and their Ralph Records recording label offered copies for sale through its “Buy Or Die” catalogs.

Since the time between the original recording and the ECTO release was rather lengthy, a shorter variant mix of the HOTES homage to “Happy Home” was created and included on the 1993 Taped Rugs compilation cassette album entitled: “Fjaern,” which was co-released in Norway by Jan Bruun’s Hypertonia World Enterprises.

Here Taped Rugs presents both versions (the ECTO first, followed by the Fjaern).

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. It will be reposted online at some point during the next few months, stay tuned.

Two new members were initiated into Herd Of The Ether Space on February 17th, 1990, as Julia May and Viki O’Melveny bravely joined C. Goff III and George Gibson for a workout around the Taped Rugs four track cassette recorder.

The recordings made that day are unbridled celebrations of the primitive and Dadaesque elements that so often color HOTES sonic adventures. Improvised yells, chants, giggles, and rants are layered upon percussive rhythms, wind instrumental churnings, and electronic pulses, in ways that make the three compositions which emerged from that day’s session unique in many aspects. At the time, these recordings actually gave a bit of a shock to listeners who had grown familiar with the flowing tape-looped HOTES recordings of the previous decade.

After their initiations, both May and O’Melveny came back for more adventures into the Ether Space, and O’Melveny had a particularly ubiquitous presence and influence on HOTES cassette albums throughout the remainder of the 1990’s.

Here Taped Rugs presents the three recordings from February 17th, 1990, all three of which were released by Taped Rugs on the 1990 cassette album: “Other Than Random Modulation” (see excerpts #21 and #22 from the HOTES in the 1980’s podcast series for more about this cassette album):

1 The Revolving Door Of Storms (Gibson, Goff, May, O’Melveny)
2 Illumined For An Instant In Mayonnaise Money (Gibson, Goff, May, O’Melveny)
3 The Smokers Are Re-Upping (Gibson, Goff, O’Melveny)

The photo accompanying this presentation is of Julia May and George Gibson, taken at Gibson’s studio in Oakland, California, around the time that this recording was made.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW: http://www.archive.org/details/OtherThanRandomModulation

The HOTES rehearsal session of January 28th, 1990 (featured in the previous podcast), produced some recordings which were not directly related to the KPFA performances on January 30th, nor which were showcased in the President Nixon Fights The Dope Scourge cassette album. These bits were instead incorporated into a unique HOTES cassette album entitled: “Kumquat Over Again.”

To create Kumquat Over Again, Charles Goff III used a four track cassette recorder to juxtapose two recorded segments from the January 28th session onto a single tape, one running in the opposite direction of the other. This process used about a third of a blank 90 minute tape. Goff filled the remainder of this 90 minute tape with two similarly juxtaposed segments from another HOTES studio recording, made on March 18th, 1990. The March session featured the talents of Killr “Mark” Kaswan, George Gibson, and Goff himself.

Goff then played the first “side” of the 90 minute tape on the four track recorder to mix the forwards and backwards parts together onto a regular stereo cassette deck. He individually varied the input levels of the four tracks and individually panned the tracks live “on the fly.” He then turned the tape over and performed the same mixing technique on the second “side” of the cassette. Thus, side one of Kumquat Over Again is, in theory, the opposite of side two. However, because the two sides were mixed individually, they are not exact opposites.

Here Taped Rugs presents the two “opposite” mixes from January 28th, 1990:

1 Caused By A Germ Transmission
and
2 Germinated From A Transmitted Cause

The instrumentation showcased on theses pieces is similar to that used by Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman on the other recordings from the same January 28th, 1990 session. The recordings from the March 18th session will be featured in a future podcast.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW: http://www.archive.org/details/KumquatOverAgain

To wind up the trilogy of podcasts related to the Herd Of The Ether Space live appearance on KPFA January 30th, 1990, here Taped Rugs presents recordings from the rehearsal session, held on January 28th at Taped Rugs studio.

Charles Rice Goff III, Killr “Mark” Kaswan, and Robert Silverman prepared for their first public (albeit over the radio) HOTES performance with a desire to show off a wide variety of instruments and sounds. Electronic guitars, digital keyboards, cello, phonographs, tape players, and three unique collections of sound effects are on full display in this program. While both the rehearsal and the radio performance were improvised, a collection of prerecorded sounds was prepared specifically to inject into the soundscapes for the KPFA show. These prerecordings helped to build frameworks for the live improvisations and, consequently, created some sonic similarities between the recordings from the rehearsal and those from the live radio performance.

Not long after their creation, the recordings made during the rehearsal were released to the public on the cassette album: “President Nixon Fights The Dope Scourge.” The 90-minute tape also included some older, previously unreleased, HOTES material and was co-released by Nihilistic Recordings of the Netherlands (Peter Zincken’s label, later renamed: “New Noise.”) Here Taped Rugs presents most of the first side of the cassette:

1 Organ In My Car
2 Spiro Slugs Drugs

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/PresidentNixonFightsTheDopeScourge

The Herd Of The Ether Space cassette album: “Alternative Transportation,” was the first Taped Rugs production of many that were released on 30 minute-long cassettes. The tape was co-distributed by OOH OOH MUSIC of Ohio. Like many other HOTES cassette albums, the recordings presented on Alternative Transportation were created long before the cassette’s 1993 release.

Side Two features two mixdowns from the live four-track tape recordings created at KPFA on January 30th, 1990 (showcased in Excerpt One of this podcast series). The night of the KPFA show was haunted by specters who infected the radio station’s electronics and produced broadcasts that sounded quite differently to the radio listeners than they did to the HOTES performers. Alternative Transportation provided the public an alternative auditory view of a couple of the HOTES radio show performances from that dark and spooky night: “The Most Beautiful Orange” and “Organ In My Car.” Both pieces are presented here.

Yet ANOTHER version of “Organ In My Car” will be on display in the next excerpt of this podcast series, which will be feature recordings from the rehearsal for the KPFA radio performance – material that was eventually released on the HOTES cassette album: “President Nixon Fights The Dope Scourge.”

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/PresidentNixonFightsTheDopeScourge

During the 1990’s, Herd Of The Ether Space expanded into several different dimensions by increasing its group membership, by experimenting with new compositional styles, by exploring new locations for creating recordings, and by trying out new instrumentation and recording technologies.

The decade kicked off on January 30th, 1990, with core members Charles Rice Goff III, Killr “Mark” Kaswan, and Robert Silverman joining radio show producer John Gullak on KPFA’s “No Other Radio Network,” broadcast from Berkeley, California. HOTES performed some live improvisations during the program, incorporating a variety of instruments, tapes, phonograph records, and voices. The banter between Gullak and the space trio centered around the history of Taped Rugs Productions and the Herd’s various ongoing projects. Older pieces from the Taped Rugs catalog as well as HOTES and Disism recordings that had yet to be released to the public were showcased as well.

The radio station also experienced some unusual technical problems during the HOTES visit, which interrupted conversations and created some unexpected topics of discussion.

The live performances from the program were recorded on a cassette four track recorder, and some of the audio bits were later mixed down and released on a HOTES tape entitled: “Alternative Transportation.” These mixes, which sound quite different than what came out over the radio airwaves, will be presented in the next excerpt of this podcast series.

Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman’s rehearsal session for the show took place on January 28th, 1990, and was also later released on a HOTES tape – this one entitled, “President Nixon Fights The Dope Scourge.” Some of the material from that session will be featured in the third excerpt of this podcast series.

And this covers just the first month of the 1990s...

Taped Rugs presents here the entire HOTES No Other Radio encounter from January 30th/31st , 1990.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. THE ON-AIR PERFORMANCES, AS HEARD BY LISTENERS VIA THIS BROADCAST, ARE ARCHIVED AT THE LINK BELOW:

http://www.archive.org/details/PresidentNixonFightsTheDopeScourge

To wrap up the Herd Of The Ether Space In The 1980’s podcast series, Taped Rugs Presents the last 1980’s HOTES recording to reach the public’s ears: “Verging On The Non Mellow” was recorded by Goff, Kaswan, Sands, and Silverman on the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system in 1986 (unfortunately, the specific day of the recording is not available). This piece remained hidden in the Taped Rugs archives until 1997, when Belgium’s Red Neon Tapes included it on its “New Hippies Volume 14” international cassette compilation.

Appropriately enough, this spacey bit of recording history recalls the early tape loop days of HOTES and wraps a nice historical circle around this podcast series. In the near future, Taped Rugs will begin the presentation of a “Herd Of The Ether Space In The 1990’s” podcast series. As one might expect, the Herd continued to evolve in its membership and methodology as the new decade brought forward a new society fueled by quickly advancing technologies. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, and that mysterious man in the photo who's looking down upon this podcast--it's HOTES member Robert Silverman in a classic turn-of-the-decade pose.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. It will be reposted online elsewhere within the next few months, stay tuned for more information.

Besides serving as the vessel for “Claws Longer Than Your Middle Finger,” (check the previous podcast for that audio gem), the cassette entitled: “Other Than Random Modulation” also features the first recordings that were actually “composed” on the Taped Rugs four track recorder. Goff hosted two sessions in late December, 1989, during which the recorder’s capacities for speed variation, backwards recording, and effects processing, were employed as compositional tools. The many tracks that were mixed down into compositions from these sessions were pure, improvised, first takes (not one “re-do” in the bunch). The results are true examples of “experimental” sound sculpture.

The first of these sessions, held on December 22nd, featured Goff, Will Flanagan (now Will Marston), and new Herd Of The Ether Space member Jeff Faulkner. Guitars, strange percussion devices, flutes, saxophone, toys, and vocals were combined in various ways into three compositions. The second session, held on December 30th, featured Goff, George Gibson, and another new Herd member: Ric E. Braden. Braden had been corresponding with Goff from his home in Oregon for the previous couple of years and had moved to San Francisco in late 1989. Four compositions were produced from this second gathering, which turned out to be even more experimental than the first.

The December 30th session incorporated prerecorded tapes, saxophone, synthesizers, percussion, lots of toys, and the voices of all three participants. Tracks were recorded at various speeds in various directions; often the performers improvised their noises while sequestered off in a room alone.

Presented here are:

1 Opera For The Slovenly Tourists Of Rome (12/22/89)
2 Warm Liquid Cake (12/22/89)
3 In The Cold Sunlight (12/30/89)
4 Squash Blossoms (12/30/89)
5 Prism Bars (12/30/89)

The next TAPED RUGS PRESENTS podcast will be the last excerpt in this series, wrapping up the adventures of Herd Of The Ether Space in the 1980’s and laying some groundwork for HOTES in the 1990’s.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW: http://www.archive.org/details/OtherThanRandomModulation

In early 1990, Goff melded the recordings from two very different 1980’s sessions to create the piece: “Claws Longer Than Your Middle Finger.”

One component of this melding is a Frippertronics-style tape loop recording from February 27, 1988, which showcases the talents of Stuart Sands, Kevin Pittman, and Goff himself. This is the only recording in the Taped Rugs catalog on which Pittman appears. Electronic bass and guitars dominate this session, but there are some other elements present, particularly some up-front, off-center phonograph records.

The other component of this melding is a non-tape loop session from December 2nd, 1989, featuring George Gibson, Will Tait, and Goff. This one is a no-holds-barred cornucopia of madness. Hand drums, kalimbas, off-center records, modified keyboards, a biofeedback machine, and a wildly blown saxophone light some of the sparks for this fiery jam. All three participants also read aloud bits of news reports and advertisements from various 1950s magazines.

Goff once again took full advantage of the controls of the four track recorder when mixing these two recordings together. The forty-five minute result: “Claws Longer Than Your Middle Finger,” was released by Taped Rugs in early 1990 on a cassette entitled: “Other Than Random Modulation.” The full recording is presented here.

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/OtherThanRandomModulation

In December of 1989, the Taped Rugs studio became equipped with a fancy new four track cassette recorder. This new piece of equipment was used to record and/or mix all of the Herd Of The Ether Space cassettes that were released after its acquisition. The next few recordings that will be presented in this podcast series contain materials which were originally recorded in the 1980’s, but which were mixed and later released to the public in 1990.

The cassette entitled “Beyond The Confessions Of Hiss” contains recordings from three sessions featuring Goff and Silverman. One of those sessions predates all other Ether recordings, having been made during the days when –ING was still in its infancy. On June 7th, 1981, Goff joined Silverman for an electronic guitar tape loop jam at Silverman’s home overlooking Tilden Park in the Berkeley hills. In 1990, Goff blended portions of the recordings made that day with recordings that he and Silverman had made on November 2nd, 1989, to create the first side of the “Beyond The Confessions Of Hiss” cassette. The second side of the cassette contains recordings that Goff and Silverman created on September 30th, 1989.

Both 1989 sessions were recorded with a standard stereo cassette deck and did not employ any Frippertronic-style tape loops. However, a number of prerecorded materials were mixed “live” into both 1989 sessions. At a few points, a tape of prerecorded Goff vocals was mixed in through a cassette deck that Goff had redesigned to play tapes backwards. A tape of strange recordings made by George Gibson, entitled “Short Stream Long Dream,” colored the sonic landscapes in places as well. Guitars, voices, keyboards, toys, and several oddly-played record albums made up most of the rest of the source materials for the 1989 recordings. When Goff created the final mixes for the cassette, the controls of the four track recorder came into full play, as materials panned around, entered, exited, and even reversed themselves.

An odd bit of coincidence also came into play during the November, 1989, session. Silverman had brought a record of Edward R. Murrow news reports to incorporate into the session. As he and Goff grooved to Murrow’s historic reports about the Cold War and the building of the Berlin Wall, people in Germany were actually beginning to chip away at the Berlin Wall, which was finally breached a week later on November 9th, 1989. The “Hiss” in “Beyond The Confessions Of Hiss” refers to Murrow’s reports about accused Communist Alger Hiss, as well to the hiss of the old 1981 tape loop recording used in the mix. The finished “Beyond The Confessions Of Hiss” cassette was co-released in Norway on the Yecch Music Mania label of Anders Moe.

Here Taped Rugs presents from Side A: “Confessions Of Hiss” and from Side B: “Desperately Waltzing With Spock.”

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.archive.org/details/BeyondTheConfessionsOfHiss

Throughout most of the 1980’s, the Taped Rugs Frippertronic-style tape loop system provided a major source of context and continuity for all of the acts on the Taped Rugs label: -ING, Disism, Herd Of The Ether Space, and Goff III’s solo endeavors. Some things started to change in 1989, however, and Taped Rugs Studio began hosting recording sessions that left the loops behind. By the early 1990’s, the system had actually burned itself out.

The Herd Of The Ether Space cassette: “Hardware Murals,” released in 1989, was the first tape on the label (#21 in the Taped Rugs Catalog) that included no tape loops in any of its 90 sonically-twisted minutes. Goff constructed “Hardware Murals” by running several tape recordings through a no-frills mixer into a stereo cassette deck. No effects, no panning, no changes of any kind were made to these recordings as they were blended together. In fact, the right and left stereo channels are completely distinct from one another, creating a unique listening experience.

Core members: Gibson, Goff, Kaswan, Sands, and Silverman made up the cast for this revolutionary presentation. The following five sessions (dates/personnel) made up the source material for the cassette:

5/7/89 (Goff/Kaswan)
5/28/89 (Goff/Sands)
6/30/89 (Goff/Silverman)
8/12/89 (Goff/Kaswan/Silverman)
8/20/89 (Gibson/Goff/Silverman)

Electronic instruments, oddly-played phonograph records, acoustic guitars, cello, modified keyboards, toys, percussion of various sorts, and, for the first time in the Herd’s history, the voices of some of its members, all come and go in various configurations throughout the tape. The presentation juxtaposes moods, atmospheres, words, ideas, and textures, creating both comfortable collages and disturbing dissonances. The experimental nature of this tape produced mixed reviews from the Herd’s listeners. A review in “Factsheet Five” stated:

“It’s a mix of found sounds...wandering somewhat aimlessly from style to style...A sprawling attempt at experimentalism.”

“Hardware Murals” marks a point of transition for Herd Of The Ether Space as the group prepared to move into the 1990’s. After “Hardware Murals” was released, no other HOTES cassettes were produced that contained tape loop improvisations that stood alone and were not blended with other recordings. “Hardware Murals” was also the first of several Taped Rugs Productions to be co-released by ECTO Tapes of Oklahoma City. The pieces from the cassette presented here are:

1 Lintball Sweater

2 All Of Shakespeare Twice

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE LINK BELOW:
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Good old Ralph Records used to hold garage sales from time to time in San Francisco to offer defective merchandise, promotional items, new products, etc. to fans of The Residents, Snakefinger, and the other various acts who appeared on the label. On December 5th, 1988, Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman made a pilgrimage to one such sale, then returned to the Taped Rugs studio in Oakland to listen to their new Ralph acquisitions and create some new recordings of their own.

The dark and playful influences of Ralph Records can be heard in the three recordings from the session presented here. While these recordings are heavy with guitar, a variety of instruments are showcased, as well as a biofeedback generator and several oddly-played phonograph records. Kaswan’s cello and Silverman’s guitar particularly shine up this collection of shadowy atmospheres. The session was recorded on the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system. The pieces presented here are:

1) Ralphingism

2) The Census Vile

3) Residents Of The Bubble

These recordings comprised the entire Side A of the Herd Of The Ether Space cassette, “3 Of A Mind,” released by Taped Rugs in 1989.

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The last podcast featured a piece from the 1989 Taped Rugs cassette “Tut’s Slaves.” The other three recordings that make up Tut’s Slaves were recorded on February 19, 1989, by Gibson, Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman. This quartet became the core of Herd Of The Ether Space as the project moved into the 1990’s. The two pieces presented here are:

1 Dance For Our Amusement

(featuring vocal samples from Victor Buono in the roll of King Tut from the 1960’s Batman television show)

2 Level Four

Again, these recordings were made with the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system, and feature a huge variety of instruments and other sonic generators. Tut’s Slaves is one of the most popular of the Herd Of The Ether Space cassettes released by Taped Rugs in the 1980’s.

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“That Blast Of Noise,” which appeared in the previous podcast, peeks in here again to introduce yet another member of the Herd Of The Ether Space. The first piece on the cassette: “Antoo,” recorded on March 18th, 1989, features Gibson, Goff, Kaswan, and Will Tait. Tait is a visual artist who briefly popped into the Taped Rugs universe to leave behind a few graphic images for cassette cover art and a few twiddles of sonic magic in the Taped Rugs studio.

The March 18th session was recorded on the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system and features guitars, cello, keyboards, modified toys, oddly spun phonograph records, and much more, including several dosages of live manipulation of the tape loop itself. The second piece in this podcast was recorded during the same session, but was released by Taped Rugs on the 1989 cassette: “Tuts Slaves.” It is appropriately dubbed: “If The Will Is Spiriting.”

The accompanying photograph is a rare look at George Gibson.

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In the previous excerpt of this podcast series, we celebrated Steve Schaer’s initiation as a member of Herd Of The Ether Space. In this excerpt, Schaer returns, showcasing his ARP synthesizer chops on three pieces which were recorded on April 2nd, 1989:

1 Adrift
2 Hing Yer Swips
3 Invisible Handlebars

Once again, these improvisations were recorded through the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system, and once again, Goff was a participant in this session, playing modified keyboards, electronic guitar, phonograph records, and some other toys.

The new element in this podcast is the presence of George Gibson. Gibson is an incredible tinker who possesses the ability to construct impressive devices that make unique sounds, both electronically and acoustically. His knowledge of world music and his innate talents for improvisation led him into the Taped Rugs family in the late 1980’s. He quickly became a regular member of Herd Of The Ether Space and over the years contributed to several HOTES cassette releases. He also participated in HOTES performances before live audiences.

Here George showcases his talents on some of his electronic noise-making toys. He will be featured often in future podcasts as well. The three pieces presented here were released by Taped Rugs in 1989 on a cassette entitled: “That Blast Of Noise.” The cassette was co-released by the German branch of Kentucky Fried Royalty.

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On May 31st, 1986, Steve Schaer was officially initiated into the group that later became known as Herd Of The Ether Space. This was Schaer’s first session at Taped Rugs Studio since the breakup of –ING in late 1984. He brought his friend Tina Karel to join in the sonic fun with Goff, Sands, and Silverman that day. Schaer’s ARP Odyssey synthesizer is prominent in this presentation of the only surviving piece from the session: “Alternate Beginning.” As is the case with most of Taped Rugs productions during the 1980's, Alternate Beginning was recorded through the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system.

Sadly, Schaer took his own life in 1998. His work with –ING was documented in a previous TAPED RUGS PRESENTS podcast series. His work with Temporarily KY and a couple of his solo endeavors have also been presented by Taped Rugs in previous podcasts. He will always be remembered as a hero among Taped Rugs sonic explorers. The next podcast will feature more of his work with Herd Of The Ether Space.

Karel (now Christina de Souza) does not appear again on any Taped Rugs productions. She sings jazz now and still resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As for “Alternate Beginning,” it was the opening piece on the Taped Rugs cassette “Flexing The Musical Muscles” (see Excerpt Eleven of this podcast series). Flexing The Musical Muscles was co-released by the English branch of Kentucky Fried Royalty. KFR was a short-lived world-wide cassette distribution network, heavily promoted by the likes of home recording giants Lord Litter (Germany) and Don Campau (USA).

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As promised in Excerpt Twelve, here Taped Rugs presents: “Swirling Factions,” the 42-minute second side of the cassette entitled: “The Kettle Is Boiling Over.” Please see the description of this deep space dadaesque adventure in the previous podcast. Listeners should expect an ever-changing tour of an exotic sonic universe. Keep an ear open for a young Ronald Reagan’s voice toward the end of the recording.

The graphic that illustrates this podcast was created by Goff as a piece of stationary to promote Herd Of The Ether Space in the early 1990’s. Taped Rugs exchanged its cassettes through the post with people residing all over the world in the 1980’s and 1990’s. There was no email during most of that time, so scribbled notes on such stationary were commonly included in packages that shipped out of Taped Rugs Productions headquarters. Goff also frequently put toys, souvenirs, and other strange little things in his packages.

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As promised in Excerpt Eleven, Taped Rugs here reintroduces the world to a recording session from September 3rd, 1988, which features the live improvising talents of Charles Goff III, Killr Kaswan, Stuart Sands, and Robert Silverman. This incarnation of Herd Of The Ether Space was full of enough creative fire that day to burn up two nonstop Frippertonic-style recordings of over forty minutes each. A cello, several guitars, various keyboards, digital sound samples, percussion devices, toys, sound effects, and a whole lot of record albums manipulated on two turntables—all of these sound generators melded into the tape loop’s rotations that day to stir up an ever-evolving cauldron of creativity. The subconscious communication that went on between the musicians at this session should be obvious to any careful listener.

Both of these hot, extended recordings were released by Taped Rugs in 1989 on a tape appropriately dubbed: “The Kettle Is Boiling Over.” This excerpt features the piece from Side A of the cassette: “Just Say Maybe.” And because this tape exhibits such exceptional and unique qualities, Taped Rugs will present Side B in its next podcast excerpt. Get ready to discover places that you can find no where except in the Ether Space…

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On June, 21st, 1986, Charles Goff III and Killr “Mark” Kaswan performed as Disism before a live audience for the first time. After Disism’s set, they joined with Robert Silverman and Steve Schaer (of the then defunct –ING) for a live tape loop improvisation. They called their makeshift group: “The Musical Muscles.” Stuart Sands had been invited to join in the fun as well, but he didn’t make it. Unfortunately, there are no surviving recordings of the Musical Muscles performance. However, these sonic explorers did get together in various groupings at other points in 1986, and recordings from two of those sessions were released by Taped Rugs on a cassette entitled: “Flexing The Musical Muscles” in 1989.

This excerpt from the Herd Of The Ether Space podcast series focuses on a gathering at Taped Rugs studio held on March 1st, 1986. In attendance were Goff, Kaswan, Sands, and Silverman. Their afternoon adventures in sound were recorded on the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system. Most of the sounds they created originated in some way from electronic guitars, but a few other instruments, a couple of prerecorded tapes, and even some microphoned vocals also vibrated their speakers that day.

Here Taped Rugs presents two pieces from the session: “Photo” and “Up The Reverb Without A Paddle.” “Photo” was the first piece recorded that day. Goff had placed an usual photograph, which had been taken by his niece, Katrina Guiney, on the floor where all the musicians could see it, and asked that they look at it while they improvised. The photograph above that accompanies this podcast is a small reproduction of the picture that inspired the group’s musical muscles that day.

TAPED RUGS PRESENTS will revisit “Flexing The Musical Muscles” in a future podcast. But before that happens, we will take a detour to where the kettle boils over and unveil another session featuring Goff, Kaswan, Sands, and Silverman.

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As promised in Excerpt Nine of this podcast series, Taped Rugs here presents more Goff/Silverman Herd Of The Ether Space improvisations. These two pieces: “Synesthesia” and “Discontinuum,” were both recorded on March 26th, 1989, and were released to the public later that year by Taped Rugs on a cassette entitled: “Chaos Marches On.”

Silverman’s keyboard serves up some dramatic moods in both of these pieces, establishing appropriately ethereal accompaniments to Goff’s mind-stretching experiments. In “Synesthesia,” Goff is heard playing around with several record albums originally intended to be used as the soundtracks to filmstrips. The filmstrips were originally intended to teach school children the dangers of drug abuse.

In “Discontinuum,” Goff employs some different records, playing them at various speeds off-center as he bends the strings of his electronic guitar to fit within some warped Casio rhythms. At the end of the piece, Silverman fingers his own electronic guitar as Goff tinkles the keys of a toy piano.

Both of these pieces were recorded through the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system, and there are several points in these recordings where the tape itself becomes the lead instrument. The brand of chaos that Silverman and Goff cook up here is very much prescription strength.

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Robert Silverman and Charles Goff III first began exploring sound together in the 1970’s, during their college days at UC Berkeley. TAPED RUGS PRESENTS has documented how they performed and recorded with one another in Temporarily KY and in –ING, as well as in their 2005 “Opposite Of A Miracle” collaboration. The Ether Space, however, is where the great majority of their sonic interactions are documented.

Two Herd Of The Ether Space cassettes released by Taped Rugs in 1989 are exclusively devoted to Goff/Silverman improvisations. No other member of the Herd participated in the sessions that are documented on these tapes.

Here Taped Rugs presents: “Twentieth Century Bankhead,” recorded on March 12th, 1988, at Taped Rugs Studio on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California. Most of this piece showcases Silverman’s electronic guitar skills, although Robert does display his digital keyboard chops near the end of the recording too. Goff, for a change, plays no guitar at all on this piece. He is heard thumping a bass, twiddling a toy piano, squeezing sounds from a modified Casio keyboard, tapping rhythms on a bunch of plastic bottles affixed to a man-sized piece of plywood, and working a phonograph needle through the grooves of a few carefully chosen record albums. One of those albums features the powerful acting talents of Tallulah Bankhead, who delivers a bit of dialog that can make a listener’s ears stand straight up.

The name of the cassette on which this piece appears is: “The Chaos Of Bobby And Chuck.” The next podcast will feature recordings from “Chaos Marches On,” which is the other Goff/Silverman exclusive cassette produced by Taped Rugs in 1989.

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Excerpt One of this podcast series contains the long and twisted tale of how Herd Of The Ether Space came to life. “Moon River Walk” is the only surviving recording from the session of February 26th, 1989, which was the day that C. Goff III, Killr Kaswan, and Robert Silverman decided to give a name to their ever-evolving band of sonic improvisers.

NOTE ADDED, April, 2009! There are TWO surviving pieces from this session, both of which were presented on the Taped Rugs cassette: "Bowed But Unbulging." The other piece is called "Right Here In My Hand." Sorry readers--a case of pure oversight, now corrected for the ages.

The name they came up with was “The Order Of Chaos.” Eventually the name was mutated into “Herd Of The Ether Space.” For those hardcore people who would like to review the details of this story, Excerpt One is still posted on the main TAPED RUGS PRESENTS podcast page.

For those who would like to have a listen, the twenty-two minutes of “Moon River Walk” are presented here. A modified 1980’s Casio keyboard, a sampling Ensoniq keyboard, a couple of electric guitars, a few phonograph records, a music box, a cello, and several sound effects all fed into the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system to create this bit of audio history. “Moon River Walk” was released in 1989 by Taped Rugs on the cassette entitled: “Bowed But Unbulging.” (Yes, that’s the tape featured in the previous podcast. The tentacles of the Ether Space are tangled in several places.)

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Only about twelve minutes of recorded material survives from the Herd Of The Ether Space session held on Halloween, 1988. The recording, dubbed “It Is Night,” was released by Taped Rugs on a cassette entitled “Bowed But Unbulging” in 1989. Kaswan’s cello, Silverman’s digital keyboard, and Goff’s guitar provide the sonic meat for this devilish feast. A 1960’s Halloween LP spices up the session with some spooky interjections. The recording was made with the Taped Rugs Frippertronic-style tape loop system.

Here Taped Rugs presents “It Is Night,” just in time for the Trick Or Treaters of 2008. As for the “Bowed But Unbulging” cassette, it will return in the next podcast to bring forth the recording that was created on the day that The Order Of Chaos was formed.

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Besides July 4th, another popular day of the year for gathering together members of the Taped Rugs family is October 31st, All Hallows Eve, Halloween. During the 1980’s, Herd Of The Ether Space created recordings on Halloweens in 1987, 1988, and 1989. Back in 2006, TAPED RUGS PRESENTS posted several excerpts from spooky improvisational sessions recorded on Halloweens past. Here Taped Rugs presents a twenty-five minute piece which was not included in the 2006 Trick Or Treat series.

The piece is entitled: “Giant Bat Flies.” It contains a mixture of recordings created on Halloweens in both 1987 and 1989. The line-up for the 1987 session was: Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman. The 1987 recording was made with the Taped Rugs Frippertronic-style tape loop system, and the scary sonic action all went down at the Taped Rugs Studio on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California.

The line up for the 1989 session was just Goff and Silverman. It took place at the home of Silverman’s friend (and future wife) Debra, in Berkeley, California, in a room where the walls were cracked and crumbled from the Loma Prieta earthquake, which had taken place less than two weeks previous (on Goff’s birthday). Trick or Treaters who came to Debra’s house that night were tricked and treated with some genuinely frightening noises. The recording was made on a stereo cassette deck; no tape loop system was used.

Goff performed the mix of the 1987 and 1989 recordings. “Giant Bat Flies” was released by Taped Rugs in 1990 on the cassette entitled: “Halloween Masks Look Almost Real!”

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There was no gathering of Herd Of The Ether Space on July Fourth, 1988. Goff was in Rochester, New York, and other members of the Herd did not get together.

On July Fourth, 1989, however, a couple of sonic explorers made their first and only forays into the Herd and created some fresh audio textures for the summer holiday. Charles Goff III was joined by Jeff Easter, Will Flanagan (now Will Marston), and Matt Lauten. At that time, Flanagan and Lauten were co-workers with Goff at a grassroots nonprofit group called: “Citizens For A Better Environment.” Easter is the brother of another of Goff’s co-workers from that time period, Chris Easter. Other co-workers of Goff, Flanagan, and Lauten attended the session as observers. Lauten and Goff were sharing the living space at the Taped Rugs studio during that time as well.

Electronic guitar, electric bass, sound effects, and digital keyboards of various qualities (including one which had had its guts altered by Goff and which would now be referred to as “circuit bent”) all fed into the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system that day. A couple of record players infused prerecorded sounds into the mix as well, including Ronald Reagan’s readings from a history of the American Revolution entitled: “Freedom’s Finest Hour.” Ninety minutes of recordings from the session were released to the public in late 1989 by Taped Rugs on a cassette entitled: “Activism.”

Here Taped Rugs presents three pieces from “Activism:”

1) Revolution 4

2) (4 X 4) + Hiss

3) Before And After Pollution

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On July Fourth, 1987, the United States Congress was in the middle of a long investigation of various illegal activities conducted by the Reagan Administration. The American public was being treated to a host of dark revelations about its government. US agents had sold weapons to the Iranian government for promises that American hostages held in Iran would be freed. Money received from this arms sale illegally circumvented the oversight of the US Congress and was funneled to pay the costs of an undeclared US war with the Sandinista Communists in Central America. The Iranians had used the weapons that they had received in the deal to fight the Iraqis, who at the time were considered allies of the United States.

Meanwhile, back in Oakland California, another gathering of Herd Of The Ether Space was taking place. The participants: Goff, Kaswan, Sands, and Silverman. Like the previous July Fourth sessions, this one was recorded through the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system. That day the members of HOTES were mourning the loss of one of their heroes, Snakefinger (Philip Lithman), who had died of a heart attack three days previous. Guitars, guitars, and more guitars meshed with the sounds of gibbons, drum machines, and voices projected through guitar pick-ups.

Recordings from this sonic gathering were released on the Taped Rugs cassette, “Declaration,” in 1989 (see the previous podcast for more about “Declaration.”) Here Taped Rugs presents two pieces from the cassette:

1 “Snakefinger RIP” (recorded 7/4/87)
2 “Full Force Of The Tidal Wave” (contains HOTES recordings from 7/4/86 mixed with HOTES recordings from 7/4/87)

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On July Fourth, 1986, a huge ceremony was held in New York and New Jersey to unveil a big fix-up on the Statue Of Liberty. Meanwhile, back at Robert Silverman’s home in Albany, California, a freeform improvisational music session was taking place. The intersection of these two activities was a dadaesque poke at an expensive display of American nationalist pride.

Long time friend Stuart Sands joined Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman for this musical collaboration. His guitar and a live input from a television colored the soundscapes produced that day in a few new shades when compared to the July Fourth recordings of the previous two years. At one point, Sands actually fingered bits from the Star Bangled Banner as television reporters chatted up the big Liberty celebration. As in previous years, the entire session was recorded on the Taped Rugs Frippertronic-style tape loop system.

The group played off and on over the course of several hours that day. In fact, even after the less interesting portions of the recordings were discarded, there was so much music to showcase from the session that Taped Rugs needed to produce two cassettes to properly release it all. One of those cassettes, entitled “Liberty,” is filled with ninety minutes of sounds from the session. The other, entitled “Declaration,” includes another forty-five minutes from the session. Both tapes were released in 1989.

This podcast features three pieces, totaling about forty minutes:

From LIBERTY:

1) “Liberty” (spacey sonics, lots of Liberty Statue TV blah blah blah)
2) “Dance Of The Golden Monkeys” (rhythmic and intuitive finger pickings)

From DECLARATION:

3) “Three Molar Crown" (Silverman vocals, TV weirdness, wacky guitar noises, tape manipulations)

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As in the previous excerpt of this podcast series, this excerpt presents material recorded on a Fourth of July. Members of the Taped Rugs Productions family actually got together for sonic improvising on several July Fourths during the 1980’s. In an effort to display a bit of continuity in this podcast series, the next few excerpts will feature July Fourth recordings.

For 1985’s midsummer rendezvous, Herd Of The Ether Space founders: Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman, gathered at the Taped Rugs main base on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California. Only four short recordings from this session survive in the Taped Rugs archives. They were released to the public (along with the recordings from the July Fourth, 1984, HOTES session) on the Taped Rugs cassette: “Independence Daze” in 1989. All four short recordings are presented here.

Cello, voices, prerecorded tapes, electronic guitars, and manipulations of the Frippertronics-style tape loop form the building blocks of these improvised audio collages. The moods, rhythms, and atmospheres shift around considerably, but the highly intuitive interactions among the participants glue the session together, exhibiting a consistent and inspired flow.

The illustration for this podcast is the first-ever Herd Of The Ether Space promotional poster, created in 1990 by Goff III.

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On the Fourth of July of 1984, Charles Goff III, Robert Silverman, and Killr Mark Kaswan got together at Robert’s house in Albany, California for an improvisational recording session. Guitars, keyboards, and a cello all fed into the Frippertronics-style tape loop system which had been the structural backbone for –ING and many of Goff’s solo projects for the previous five years. The three sonic collaborators didn’t know it then, but that day they made the earliest recordings of Herd Of The Ether Space.

The story of how Herd Of The Ether Space got its name is a long and twisted tale. Referring to this grouping as an incarnation of –ING was out of the question. After a year and a half of performing in local venues and appearing on various radio broadcasts, Goff and Steve Schaer had established the identity of –ING as a duo. (The history of –ING was presented in a previous Taped Rugs podcast series.) Silverman, Kaswan, and others had collaborated on some of –ING’s early works, but by 1984 it was clear that a recording session without Schaer could not be referred to as an –ING recording session.

-ING split up at the end of 1984. Goff and Kaswan started working as Disism in 1985. Disism was a duo from its inception. (The history of Disism was also presented in a previous podcast series.) However, Goff, Kaswan, Silverman and a wide variety of others (including Schaer) partook of occasional improvisational recording sessions for the next several years. The recordings were saved; sometimes copies were made for the participants or for listeners interested in Disism, but no effort was given to name or promote this loose knit band into something more until 1989.

On February 26th, 1989, after a particularly inspiring recording session, Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman decided that there should be a name for their ever-growing band of improvisers. They agreed that the group’s membership should be open to anyone who was adventurous enough to participate, that there should be no restrictions regarding styles of music, methodologies of composition, instrumentation, or anything else. They also agreed that all the recordings of improvisations which had been saved over the previous years could now be released by Taped Rugs Productions as products of this newly dubbed band. Appropriately enough, the band name that they came up with was: “The Order Of Chaos.”

At some point in early March of 1989, however, Silverman reported that another musical act called “The Order Of Chaos” was performing in the San Francisco Bay Area. During a phone conversation, he and Goff used a thesaurus to come up with a new name for their band to avoid any conflicts with this other act. Thus “Herd Of The Ether Space” was born.

The Herd remained active for years, despite members moving to different regions of the USA. It could be argued that the band still exists, although it has been in a dormant state for many years now. By 1998, Taped Rugs had released 34 Herd Of The Ether Space cassette tapes. Many of these are hodgepodges of recordings from various dates and/or involving various participants, physically exemplifying the “anything goes” attitude of the band. Tape labels from countries throughout the world co-released several of these cassettes. Herd Of The Ether Space also contributed material to a variety of internationally produced compilation tapes. The Herd even occasionally performed for public audiences. The last official Herd Of The Ether Space session took place in 2001.

This “Herd Of The Ether Space In The 1980’s” podcast series will present a wide variety of recordings from the early HOTES days, most of which were made using the Taped Rugs Frippertronics-style tape loop system. This particular presentation introduces the band with a half hour long piece recorded on that fateful July 4th, 1984 by Goff, Kaswan, and Silverman. The piece is called “Independence Day” and was released to the public in 1989 on the Taped Rugs cassette entitled “Independence Daze.”

Future chapters in this podcast series will attempt to put a bit of order to the chaotic history of Herd Of The Ether Space, but in the spirit of this anarchic, entropic, unconventional recording act, that order may appear elusive…

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