Exclusive: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Reflects On William S. Burroughs’ Sound Experiments
The avant-garde artist and Dais Records are giving Burroughs’ out-of-print sound experiments a second life.
For years, Dais Records co-founder Ryan Martin has been talking with avant-garde artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge about Nothing Here Now but the Recordings, William S. Burroughs' collection of tape recorder experiments and spoken work "cut outs" from the '60s and '70s. The intriguing artifact was originally compiled in 1981 by P-Orridge's label Industrial Records (it was actually the label's final release) and hasn't been pressed to vinyl since. Now, with the help of P-Orridge and Burroughs' estate, Dais Records are dusting off the long out-of-print project and giving it a proper vinyl re-issue.
In this new video interview—produced by Martin and Louis Caldarola and debuting here on FADER—P-Orridge provides behind-the-scenes stories of how Nothing came together in the first place, recounting hitchhiking to London to meet Burroughs' for the first time and helping him catalog shoeboxes stuffed with unlabeled cassette tapes and bits of stray reel-to-reel. "Genesis agreed to sit down with us and record recollections and thoughts about the original album and its lasting effect on modern culture," Martin told FADER of the 8-minute video's conception. "The video that came as a result seamlessly pulls together many different movements and concepts that are hardwired into our modern day conceptual beings, all of which were being discovered by Burroughs on these recordings." The reissue is out in January 2015 but you can pre-order it now; check out the record's artwork and track-listing below.
Track list:
Side A
1. Captain Clark Welcomes You Aboard
2. The Saints Go Marching Through All The Popular Tunes
3. Summer Will
4. Outside The Pier Prowed Like Electric Turtles
5. The Total Taste Is Here – News Cut-Up
6. Choral Section, Backwards
7. We See The Future Through The Binoculars Of The People
8. Just Checking Your Summer Recordings
Side B
9. Creepy Letter – Cut-Up At The Beat Hotel In Paris
10. Inching – "Is This Machine Recording?"
11. Handkerchief Masks – News Cut-Up
12. Word Falling – Photo Falling
13. Throat Microphone Experiment
14. It's About Time To Identify Oven Area
15. Last Words of Hassan Sabbah
