[52.2] CLOSER TO THE EDGE OF SOUND

Among the best eclectic new music journalism around today is that of John L Walters. His On the Edge column is a refreshing regular feature of the Friday Review at the moment. Search the site for other articles here.

Walters is well know for his catalysing role in the realisation of the innovative Unknown Public (q.v), once-a-box-now-a-book with a CD. His earlier Edge pieces are also archived on the fine UP Links page. He edits Eye Magazine, which is concerned with contemporary design, and he is a practicing musician and composer (see Landscape).

To any curator of the obscure it will not come as a surprise to discover that Walters contributed computer programming, wind synthesizers, soprano sax, flute and vocals to the 1981 electro classic LP/MD/CD ‘From The Tea Rooms Of Mars… To The Hell Holes Of Uranus’ (re-issued with four bonus tracks, April-May 2002, Cherry Red Records, CDMRED 209)

Apart from its glorious title, the album prefigured elements of what subsequently became house and techno – though it is not without its cheesy moments. Norman Bates eat your heart out…