Microcassette Quatrains by Minmae

I don't remember clearly much of the past... esp. twenty years past. I remember I received a package from Sean Brooks, and it blew my mind. We corresponded and released each others music on Bluesanct and Sean's label, Airborne Virus. Sean would send me envelopes full of strange photos and collages from magazines. I would re-purpose them for his releases.

To this day, we have yet to meet in person.

Sean's original press release puts it all in perspective, from his side of the universe.

- Mkl, Apr 2019

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FROM SEAN'S ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE:

Circa 1998. You're in San Diego, CA. Banker's Hill, where the old guard hobnobbed in the 30's before moving onto the greener pastures of La Jolla. You've secured yourself a flat at the Barcelona Apartments, with Willam Defoe lookalike, Howard Chalfa as your apartment manager. There's a picture of him at Off The Record, years before, the lone audience member standing behind Nirvana during an in-store. Ho goes way back. This is why he keeps all the "kids" up on the 4th floor; to protect them from other vehement anti-noise tenants, and to keep and eye on them himself, figuring that if they were anything like he was in his youth, that they probably were not good kids.

But you're a good kid, and you've just finished your 4track full-length, "Microcassette Quatrains." You borrowed the 4track from some guy down the street. Equipped with this, a digital delay pedal, a Squire Jagmaster and copious amounts of, let's say, "artistic substance," you're putting the finishing touches on the soon-to-be-released-cassette on BlueSanct. You don't have a TV. You never wanted one. Your bedroom doubling as a closet space, or the other way around. There isn't much save for a 30's era refrigerator, a stove, a bunch of postcards of a girl you've filed up on the wall, oh, and the records. The inspiration. How many times have you listened to Sebadoh's 'Freed Weed?' Or GBV's 'Alien Lanes?' How about that cool Grimble Grumble 10" or Hood's "Lee Faust's Million Piece Orchestra" or that Robyn Hitchcock live CD you found? These among others have given you new inspiration; new inspiration to create something, well, new, but also old. And you call yourself a neophyte because you still don't even know exactly what a CD burner does, let alone why you should have one. So a cassette release is more than fine by you.

2002. Portland, Oregon. It rains here a lot. You still don't have a CD burner but you're using one to re-master "Micro-Trains." Michael (BlueSanct figurehead) needs it tracked for the CD re-issue of the cassette. You notice the introduction (track 01) and you mention it to him. There's a tape dropout right into the first 2 minutes of the CD. You tell Michael you're going to start the fade in after that point because you think the dropout sounds bad. He reminds you that it sounds cool, that you should leave that dropout in there. He reminds you, indirectly, of the past.

And now you, dear listener, hold this CD. You love it or hate it. You opine positively or negatively. But you must know that is has history, that within it there is a story; of fate, of hope, of the future and of the past. 'Microcassette Quatrains' may have been born early, or maybe help up for four years before seeing the light of day, but no rust ever came upon it and no silver ever flaked from it as a result. It stands as resilient as it did ever so long ago in those 4th floor halls of the Barcelona (Howard Chalfa listening through the door).

- Minmae


Download contains PDFs of original booklet, artwork, and press sheet.
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BLUESANCT DISCOGRAPHY:
http://bluesanct.com/archive/bsmdisc.html

Started in 1995, Bluesanct has over 100 releases from artists all over the world on Bluesanct and sister label, Orphanology.

We are excited to re-issue the many out-of-print titles here on Bandcamp.


BLUESANCT IS NOT ACCEPTING DEMO SUBMISSIONS AT THIS TIME


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