MOTOR TOTEMIST GUILD-KLANG, TAPE, 1985, USA

This astonishing L.A. unit, arbiters of a strain of ingenious and highly formalized R.I.O. with roots in improvisation, the 20th Century classical canon and impish Residential songform deconstruction had a real formative impact on my teenage brain, having witnessed several knockout shows of theirs from the ages of about 14-16. Prime movers of the California Outside Music Association (C.O.M.A.), a coalition of art rock weirdniks (Steaming Coils, 5uu's and Cartoon/P.F.S. were among their esteemed ranks) that unleashed a criminally overlooked body of vanguardist brilliance across umpteen releases on the Rotary Totem imprint that are every bit the equal of the L.A. Free Music Society, this early tape by the MTG represents a bridge between the studio tweaked playful eccentricities of their debut LP Infra Dig and the decidedly more austere and chamber Ensemble/chamber jazz-into-improv outfit heard on their Contact With Veils LP, with winningly ludicrous and precision tooled surrealist constructs like The Barbie Variations (later to appear on their O Luigi Futi LP) playing footsie with archly starchy but oddly compelling slices of formal classical modernism.
Get it via Rapidshare here