Premature Ejaculation – Part 1 – Malaise Music – 2010 – 2 x
CDR.
Started in 1981, Premature Ejaculation (PE) was the most
prolific and favourite project of the late Rozz Williams (1963 – 98). Much of
the material was self-released and on labels like Happiest Tapes on Earth, Dark
Vinyl, Gymnastic, TripleXXX, Malaise Music, Baader Meinhof and Cleopatra
records. There was a lot of PE material released privately on cassette by Rozz
himself and Happiest Tapes that has never been commercially available to fans
and they have now been unavailable for some time. With Malaise now gone, this
review revaluates my original reviews of the project from when the series of
Lost Recordings began in 2010. The Lost Recordings were the tapes that Rozz did
himself and gave to friends.
The original Malaise Music was a label started by Rozz’s
close friend Erik Cristides in the 1990s, one great compilation was released
(Merry Maladies), but plans to release all of the rare PE material on Malaise
were cut short by Erik’s untimely death in 1997. Original masters of the
cassettes were purchased by John Collins and Malaise Music was reactivated by
two German fans. Benjamin Siebert expertly remastered all the lost recordings
and the first release is Premature Ejaculation part 1. Alex Scott remastered all the original the
artwork. The original cassette has been remastered in its entirety onto one
disc, it has been broken down into 7 untitled tracks. Additional found bonus
material from around the same time has been added onto a second disc, this was then
released in 2010.
These recordings were Rozz’s first recordings of Industrial
noise material, key influences at this time were Throbbing Gristle, Johanna
Went, Monte Cazzaza, SPK and Boyd Rice. It was also known Rozz preferred Industrial
sounds over most other music throughout his life. An additional mind-blowing fact is that Boyd
and Rozz having become friends (after Rozz used to stalk Boyd and watch him
eating his salad at an LA restaurant) were meant to collaborate on a project
before Rozz’s untimely death.
Part 1 (recorded in 1981) also highlights how open ended the
later named early Deathrock scene was, Rozz was active in Christian Death, yet
had a strong interest in Industrial. 45 Grave had an experimental project
around the same time called C.E.D.S. (Citizens for the Exploration of Deep
Space) Indicating that the movement had a sideways influence from Industrial. 45
Grave drummer Don Bolles was renown for wearing a Throbbing Gristle badge in
early group shots. Nervous Gender trod a fine line between Post Punk, Deathrock
and Industrial making their own unique odd sounds.
Track one begins with a long passage of synth frequencies,
this material is far more aggressive than a lot of PE’s later material. I
consider this to be an early, primitive attempt at Noise with a slight leaning
to Power Electronics, a movement that as we know it now, was in its infancy,
Whitehouse were very much also in their early days at this time. Due to the
lack of distortion here I would there is an untreated rawness that reaches high
levels of aggression through merciless repetition. Premature Ejaculation appear to be testing the
boundaries of noise at that time, shooting higher frequencies across the
recording at intervals. The synths then break into low frequency drones. Track
two indulges displays of higher frequency passages of noise stretched out for
long periods. Track three begins with the sound of bubbling coming from
underwater whether this is containers, or a person being held under is unclear,
however a heartbeat takes over as the solo sound, this is consistently rhythmic
and manipulated. A helicopter sample takes over to be quickly replaced by a
pulsing synth and sounds recreating baron atmospheres as they work around each
other. This sample would crop up on later PE releases; PE constantly recycled
their own sounds onto other recordings to tie works together. It is this track
that begins to formulate their later approach to their releases as human pulses
and sounds bring the collage to an end.
Track four continues sound and sample combinations to more
suggestive effect; the human sounds are looped, painful and unpleasant.
Suggestiveness is where PE flourished, there are no obvious details, and
samples are very everyday such as toys, video loops and cheap keyboards. There
is also a mock religious/esoteric feel to the track, but it’s not too specific
so other avenues of thought are opened. Tambourine percussion opens five as an
intro to a further human chant. The two sources work around each other and
morph as one, this being the most effective use of combined sounds. 6 begins
with a guitar noise feedback episode which pays light homage to Lou Reed’s
metal machine album, considered later to be a major influence on contemporary
noise. Raw, abrasive frequencies return to build primitive walls of sound that
close PE part One.
The bonus disc shows another different aspect to Premature
Ejaculation in that a lot of untreated electronic instrumentation and toy
sounds unite in a chaotic unstructured jam. There is some SMEGMA homage plain
and simple; SMEGMA’s Ace Farren Ford would work with Rozz on later projects
including Heltir. What’s interesting is the layering of different sound sources
that would flourish later in PE’s discography. Raw noise assaults and
unstructured instrumental work would be put aside and used on early Heltir
releases such as Ill Bancheto del Cancri/VC06 and 69 rituals.
Overall this is a very raw recording; each area works
individually and is best seen as a presentation of separate experiments in
abstract sound manipulation. It highlights how Chuck Collison’s later
involvement was crucial in helping to bond separate threads of interest together
with his own, as well as reaching much higher production standards. It also
show’s Ron Athey’s role in the early US Industrial/Noise scene before taking
off as a solo performance artist, widely respected in the history of Body Art. It
is unknown as to how many of these recordings feature Athey and which feature
Collison or are Rozz alone. It shows an open-ended approach before Premature Ejaculation
tightened its focus to selected working methods. It shows Williams and Athey,
in areas to be active practitioners of Industrial Noise with purpose and
conceptualisation. The original artwork along with certain tracks mark the
beginnings of the later P.E. Death Culture aesthetic.
wejustwantyoutoseethingsasclearlyaspossible
Choppy Noodles 2019
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