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The Infinite Wisdom of Cassette [Volume 3- flexidisc]

by Peri Urban

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1.
flexidisc part 1 05:44
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2.
flexidisc part 2 13:50
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about

Recorded by Peri Urban direct to cassette in Dumbarton, April 1979.

Mastered and compiled by Peri Urban, January 2023.

The idea of the promotional flexidisc was that it was thin enough to bind securely into the pages of popular magazines of the day. I have one somewhere by Frank Zappa. They were not meant to stand the test of time, and they were notoriously difficult to play on some record decks, because being made of cheap plastic they would often warp and scratch before they got near a stylus.

For anyone who ever suffered through the 1970s, the music featured (and mangled) here was a constant presence on radio and TV. These tunes have stuck in my head for the last forty odd years, largely because of this particular performance piece.

I was happy to pervert and destroy these pieces of music, which haunted me even then. As a newly angry young man, and with the principles of the punk and post-punk movements echoing through my brain, I hated everything to do with what Reader's Digest represented, with this repackaging of what they so obviously saw as nothing but product. Even good songs (I liked the ones by Sweet and Slade) were rendered facile and contemptible by the company they were forced to keep - Lonnie Fucking Donegan!

The flexidisc in question did not survive my treatment of it. You will hear what thin plastic etched with the hits of the day sounds like when it has been melted, scratched and stretched, played at the wrong speed with a old stylus designed for 78rpm playback.

It was the attack of the teenage DJ, before the word DJ meant what it means today.

* * *

From Peri Urban's personal correspondence -

"The very beginning of Part 1 actually came from somewhere else. That "oooooo" sound and the whistling is from the original recording of Serutan Yob by The Unnatural Seven (an offshoot of Red Ingle and His Natural Seven), which my grandparents had on an old 78, but it was played on a modern record player at 45 or 33 rpm. The song is an alternative version of Nature Boy, and the sounds are supposed to represent nature.

Under that is a playback of the 45rpm flexidisc played at 78rpm - you see what I did there? Clever, eh? Unlistenable, true, but clever. Just like John Cage or Karlheinz Stockhausen.

That's the first 40 or so seconds, so if you got past that bit (and why would you?) that's where the destruction of the pop music of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s begins.

If you get as far as part 2 you can hear what a microgroove record sounds like when it's been attacked by a teenager wielding a dagger (really, an actual dagger) and then melted (the disc, not the teenager)."

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released January 10, 2023

Peri Urban - Readers Digest Flexidisc; Garrard 40B Automatic record deck, dagger, lighter.

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Peri Urban UK

Like all musicians I wished I had the same number of limbs as an octopus. My wish was granted, but not in the way I had hoped for. My cephalopod partner is an enthusiastic volunteer from the worldwide animal charity Save Humans From Themselves. We share a special kind of love. ... more

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