Saturday 1 March 2014

Philip Johnson - "Radio City" (self-released cassette) 1983


An unjustly forgotten figure of the early UK DIY cassette scene was one Philip Johnson.Who released and unreleased many of his fantastically spooky collages of sound on an unimpressed public; which is always a grand recommendation for anything.
One of the earliest participants in the British independent cassette scene he released his first cassette (54 Minutes of P. Johnson) in 1979.
Between 1979 and 1981 he released about 20 cassettes, until 1981 when Johnson became a partner in Namedrop, a short-lived independent record label (which also released Johnson full-fledge Lp ‘1982 – Youth the Morning’). When Namedrop collapsed Johnson went back to releasing cassettes and providing tracks for compilations such as 'Three Minute Symphony",and the 'We couldn't agree on a title' comp on ICR . In 1981 Johnson released material also under various pseudonyms such as Ancient Regime, the Barringtons, Flower Perverts.
He also contributed to the magnificent Doof ep, 'Exist'; for which he has kindly provided a new re-mastered version!!!!....Click Here to hear this classic in crystal clarity! What the anti- legendary Philip has also provided this blog with, is a couple of unreleased cassettes from 1983 and 1986(see next post)!

"Radio City" (1983)

A fantastic cut up of various current affairs radio broadcasts, with the classic AM radio sound quality, made good by that cosily depressing ferric oxide degradation technique.A hopelessly obscure classic that deserves to be discovered after nearly thirty years in the Johnson archives!
The man himself explains further:
"I never did any artwork for the 1983 Radio City – I recorded it and then left it aside. I’m afraid the tape isn’t a very interesting object either, because for a long time I never put any track-lists or sometimes even any identifying marks on tapes I made for myself. I could remember what was on a tape from just looking at it. However I’ve taken some pictures, and included a couple of my other tapes to liven it up a bit. You’ll see that I digitised it from a cassette copy, the original master reel is still there so I could do an improved remaster some time."
(And to check out what our Philip is doing now, click here! )

Radio City Track Listing:

1 Radio City
2 My Friends
3 American Intelligence
4 Parliament 1
5 At The Old Bailey
6 Parliament 2
7 Parliament 3
8 Parliament 4
9 Habit
10 Nothing
11 Holiday Train
12 Thats all for now
13 Debate
14 Afternoon
15 Game
16 Warning

DOWNLOAD Radio City HERE!

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