The Recedents

Mike Cooper electric lap steel guitar, Roland Bassline, Korg drum machine, Casio SK-1
Lol Coxhill soprano saxophone, Casio SK-1, Waisvisz crackle box
Roger Turner drumset and percussion, EMS Synthi-A, twang harp, radio


During this period I was using a Roland Bassline and a Korg drum machine, two instruments which at that time were being used by techno and dance music musicians - the idea being to not program them but use them as playable instruments.
The Roland Bassline was pre-programmed, but not by me. I used whatever it came with - it was secondhand so presumably the previous owner had programmed it or had found it too hard and had just sold it on with the factory settings intact. Whatever, I simply cranked them up to full speed or slowed them down to almost a non rhythm and tweaked the EQ to give me a sound I could live with.
The Korg drum machine was easily playable and had a lot of drums sounds in it which I put through a delay and pitch shifter pedal to convert it into a mini synth. Sometimes I inadvertently hit the ‘play’ button and it leapt into some pre-programmed latin rhythm.
Both Lol and I also had Casio SK1 sampling keyboards, a cheap but effective polyphonic live sampler which I used for many years on gigs and I still use for recordings sometimes.
My guitar was a Korean electric lap steel guitar which I put through a fuzz box and pitch shifter delay pedal.

There are some wonderfully absurd moments and some texturally rich musical moments combined together with great dynamics here.
I don't think many other people at the time were doing anything as musically diverse as we were. It was a great journey and one that informed the rest of my music even until today.
With the demise of The Recedents I didn't want to play improvised music together with other musicians for a long time after.
I concentrated mainly on either solo improvising or other styles of music.
I still miss The Recedents versatility and humour.
We never talked about our music before or after concerts. No intellectual or academic analysis - we just played and we had a lot of fun doing it.

Thanks Lol and Roger... I miss you.

[Mike Cooper]


whoaaaa
the audacity of the machine... not even the finger wants responsibility !!
I think this was the apex of the TECHNOLOGICAL RECEDENT ENVIRONMENT, where the acoustic drums had to find a space to deliver or suffer the consequences.
I am sure my use of brushes so much was an act of both musicality and defiance !!
for sure this was the very last time I used my old e.m.s. synthi A to warp some of the metal. you can sometimes just about discern it in an occasional smear, but I struggled to get it all to work easily, and it seemed more trouble than it was worth. all those wires and what-not, when all I really wanted to do was play the drums (( the drums as in drums and bins of junk percussion )) but truthfully, did the Recedents ever need more electronica? so the e.m.s synthi had to go...
in any case, you know, the fragmented reconstruction of solid musical matter — the building of new form — really works.
we were trying to give each other musical space, to give meaning to the instant, whilst pushing vocabularies to the limit. surprisesurprise, I could even play my twang harp or a single bell and get it heard... and Lol was able to underpin it all with lo-fi electrics and sublime soprano interludes.
I listen and look back and feel the Recedents were musical shape-shifters, way ahead on that road down the urban jungle, having lots of fun, lots of humour on the journey, lots of struggles too...

hello Mike
no need to miss me: i’m still here...

[Roger Turner]