Saturday, January 12, 2008

Mark Tucker-In the Sack,LP,1982,USA

Mark Tucker (born 1957-10-11 in Laurel, Maryland, and who legally changed his name in 1991 to T. Storm Hunter) is a musician, and co-founder of Tetrapod Spools.
His debut album, Batstew, which is now collectible, was released in two runs, each of 100 copies. There was also one personalized edition for his girlfriend of the time, Eva Bataszew, whose title was Bataszew. The album was re-released in 1996 as a compact disc, with extra tracks that never made it onto the original LP. It comprises amongst other things recordings of Tucker's car, a 1964 Cadillac which he had nicknamed "The Bat".
After a couple of mental breakdowns, Tucker recorded his second album, In The Sack, in 1982, under the pseudonym "T. Storm Hunter" which he later adopted as his legal name. The music was largely experimental, with tracks including "Everywhere with Sally (Ride)", a pop song recorded backwards.
From Wikipedia
David Keenan called it “an apocalyptic/dystopian concept album that centered on the American postal system and that sounded something like a cross between a teenage Van Dyke Parks and a slightly less disobedient Half Japanese.” Writing for Acid Archives, Scott Blackerby: said “Apparently Tucker's second release, 1982's In the Sack was recorded after he'd suffered at least a couple of mental breakdowns, pulled himself back together and relocated to Encinitas, California. Self-produced under the pseudonym "T. Storm Hunter", it's largely a one man show with Tucker/Hunter responsible for penning all eleven tracks, as well as handling all of the vocals and most of the instrumentation. With that background you probably won't be shocked to learn that musically this is one mixed up and messed up album. Supposedly a concept piece having to do with karma and the postal system (I have no idea what the plotline is), the album offered up an indescribable mix of spoken word segments, experimentation, instrumentals, and surprisingly commercial numbers. Finding a comparative baseline for this one is pretty tough - perhaps Jonathon Richman had you put him on mood altering drugs for a year. "Everywhere with Sally (Ride)" is a great slice of pop, except for the fact it was recorded backwards. Cool, but typically strange. The snippet "Down the Pipeline" sounds like it was lifted from a video game. A mix of avant garde, tape manipulations and experimental ramblings, "The Importance of Making Molehills One of Specks" could have been mistaken for a slice of musique concrete. The pretty, pseudo-jazzy instrumentals "Shelly" and "Can't Make Love" sound like they were lifted from a Peanuts cartoon. Clearly not for everyone, but there are enough of you out there who are either brave enough, or sufficiently damaged to give this one a shot.”

A great and much underrated (due to Batstew and it's limited release) weird record combining electronic sounds,jazzy piano ,noises of found objects ,whispers ,screams and poetry from a "damaged" brain.Brilliant!!!
get it here



NOTE: THE REISSUE OF THIS ALBUM IS DUE TO BE RELEASED VERY SHORTLY ON DESTIJL RECORDS, SO THE LINK FOR THE DOWNLOAD HAS BEEN REPLACED WITH A LINK TO THEIR SITE. PLEASE SUPPORT MARK TUCKER AND DESTIJL AND PURCHASE THIS REMARKABLE ALBUM.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great album. Just love it. Have it somewhere on 20-years old cassette. Thanx, Mutti!

Anonymous said...

available legitimately 9 / 9 / 08
destijlrecs.com

soundvoyeur said...

I have a CDR entitled "T. Storm Hunter/1980". On the back it has the Tetrapod Spools logo and name. 18 tracks recorded 1980-81. I picked it up maybe 6 years ago in a thrift store for $1. If you're interested I'll find a way to send it to you. My email is geoffreywilimek@gmail.com.

vdoandsound said...

Hi twyndyllyng...

Wow...that is QUITE the discovery! Yes, please do send it on to me. I'd love to be able to share this thing.
You can reach me at: pantheonbar@gmail..com

Thanks!

Eric