SPHYX (1994)

THIS WAS AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY TO ME UNTIL JIM SAID IN THAT EXCELLENT TONE GLOW PIECE THAT HE PLAYED ON IT. LET US REWIND:

Obviously I don’t do a lot of interviews, but I've always been kind of shocked by how nobody ever asks me about the years I was part of Organum. To me It seems like one of the most amazing things that anyone could ever say—“Yeah, I was in Organum.” (laughter). But no one ever asks about that stuff. Maybe it's not as big a deal as it seems to me, or it doesn't have the cachet it used to. But I mean, David was in the fucking Scratch Orchestra.

I did wanna ask you about Organum, you were on Sphyx.

I’m actually on a lot of them, it’s just that there aren’t credits. I was on like ten of them. Sphyx was kind of the result of Eddie introducing me to write with David Jackman. We recorded that in this studio in this area of London, it was really kind of brutal. But it’s down in the south of London and it’s that studio the band Skullflower recorded in. Do you know the band Skullflower?

WELL I WON'T BE FINDING OUT WHICH TEN JUST FOR THE SAKE OF COMPLETENESS, THOUGH I MAY COVER MORE ORGANUM IF IT ORGANUMICALLY (HEHEHE) COMES TO MY ATTENTION IN FUTURE WEEKS.

ALSO ISN'T SKULLFLOWER GUY A NAZI GUY NOW? ISN'T THAT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED? THIS WORLD MOVES TOO FAST TO EVEN KEEP TRACK OF WHO IS A NAZI OR GRABBED SOME TITS WITHOUT CONSENT.

EDIT: LINK TO SKULLFLOWER HYPOTHESIS, I HAVE NO COMMENT.

SO AN ORGANUM IS, IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY, A KIND OF MEDIEVAL POLYPHONY (REMEMBER A LOT OF WRITTEN MUSIC USED TO BE IN UNISON UNTIL VARIOUS DEVELOPMENTS IN EUROPE INTRODUCED COUNTERPOINT, ETC.) AND I SUPPOSE THAT NAME IS KIND OF APPROPRIATE HERE - ALTHOUGH THIS IS A KIND OF MEDIEVAL-ISH SOUNDING COMPUTER MUSIC.

I HAVE TO SAY I REALLY LIKE THIS. I KNOW IT ISN'T JIM'S MUSIC PER SE AND I GUESS I CAN'T GIVE IT CERTIFIED: GOOD FOR THE MUSIC OF JIM O'ROURKE, BUT IT IS CERTIFIED: GOOD. IT IS FULLY OF ITSELF; A WHOLE PIECE, COLLIDING SUBTLE COMPUTER MANIPULATION WITH LIVE DRONES AND IMPROVISATIONS. YOU CAN SEE HOW THIS WAS A FORMATIVE EXPERIENCE FOR JIM AS SOME OF HIS LATER RECORDS DO SEEM TO REFLECT VARIOUS LESSONS LEARNED HERE.

FUCK IT: CERTIFIED GOOD