Laser Pace - Granfalloon (Takoma - 1974) Wow!

yeah, I think I didn't change the details on the mp3 ID3 save thingy on the second one, so they both show as side 1.

Maureen O'Connor's vocals remind me of my long-lost friend John LaCroix who people in Boston kept trying to get to attend the opera program at Berklee. He had a band called the Cauldron. I miss him.

A cool story. :-)

But Maria, is there any reason side 1 is only 3, 4 minutes long?

man. this stuff is strange. i'm always waiting for that cheesy moment, that explosion into gucky supermelodic pop or something but it always heads in another direction. also, it sounds sort of like something a cult would pay to record and release. i like it.

oops, looks like side one is just the first song! sorry. i didn't check it before posting it. you can all just blame maria. i'll post the whole side today. what do you want for nothin'?

We ain't complainin', just curious. :-)

all day i tried to import the audacity file into an mp3 and every time i tried my computer crashed. so sad. i figured i could at least send it in an e-mail to someone.
my computer is a year old and it apparently can't handle audio/video anymore. so aggravating. it's not like i do a ton of stuff on my computer. why would a computer crash playing a measly cd?

man. this stuff is strange.

If YOU think that, I gotta hear this. thanks Scott!

maria bought me a cd player at radio shack today. god bless her. i've got doom metal to write about! i can't be anxious about CDs. satan didn't put me on this earth to worry about digital audio.

i gotta tell you, it's a cheap teac cd player and it sounds great. way better than my computer's player. mark hollis is now 5 star audio instead of just 4 and a half star audio.

if no one's up to the challenge, i'm down to separate the mp3s into separate tracks and reupload tagged and everything.

that is if we can get the full first side :D

i'll try again.

xpost I heard back from Keith of Anthology Recordings about this: he's def interested in hearing it, and who knows, maybe it will indeed end up on Anthology (although now that Concord Music Group's near the end oftheir glorious 50th Anniversary of Stax[through calendar-wise at least], maybe they'll start excavating Takoma treasures themselves)

Oh and speaking of Teac (and yeah, CD players usually sound better than computers to me, esp bass), the aforementioned Anthology reissue of Shoes' Black Vinyl Shoes was recorded on a Teac 4-track in their living room, and sounds amazing--come to think of it, Becker & Fagen said they recorded a lot of Steely Dan demos on one of those--

jaxon, you around? i think i actually managed to make an MP3 of the first side. I can try and e-mail it to someone. anyone around? Just e-mail me. I don't know how you can share with the class though. Although I guess I can just e-mail it to anyone who wants it. But I'm also kind of afraid that just trying to e-mail the file might crash my computer. we shall see!

e-mail it to me, scott
i'll be home in an hour or so

scott, if you can upload either the mp3 or the audacity file to megaupload.com and email me the link it spits out (jason @ art-ificial.com - minus the spaces) unless maria takes care of it.

I've got 7/8 of the tracks as separate mp3s (the one I'm missing is "Scatter"). I'll upload them in a minute.

ah there ya go!

i gave up. i need to take an audacity course. i thought i was turning the first side into an mp3 and it turns out i was making the whole album a big mp3. i couldn't e-mail it. too big for me.

so colin has the rest. and scatter is on that side two up there.

First seven songs here

scott and colin, i declare you co-mayors of ILM for november.

^^^
this

Yeah, extra-special thanks to Colin, Scott and Maria!

Everything about this reminds me of Annette Peacock. The slow, bluesy funk rock. The moog - especially on Sky Fell, that tone. And while her voice doesn't exactly sound like peacock's, her singing through effects does.

Howdy! This is John "Chris" Christensen from Laser Pace. I've really enjoyed watching (and listening to) your dialogue about our album Granfalloon. If you have any questions about the group or our music, I can be contacted at: www.myspace.com/johnchrischristensen

Thanks for keeping the music alive!

JC

Whoa, hey there! Glad you could find us.

Yeah! (having those Laser Pace tracks posted makes me paranoid about downloading, though--visions of black vinyl helicopters landing on my bank statements--visually hep, otherwise not so much)

Great stuff, John! You rock!

I wonder if John knows what happened to Maureen. And what he thought of her guitar playing.

Sky Fell

Black vinyl RIAA sky!

Maureen and I are still in touch. I ran into her and Doug aka: D. Distorto, at the NAMM Show last January. We joked that if we had about ten more fans we might stage a reunion tour!! We have heard that the album is supposed to be a minor cult classic in Europe, although it would hard for us to know for sure.

As to Maureen's guitar playing, I appreciate it a lot more in retrospect than I did at the time. I always thought that she was a brilliant lyricist, and her chord vocabulary and their use in composition were amazing. At the time I was much more impressed by her abilities as a rhythm player, which were extraordinary. I've always been disappointed that we didn't actually write some songs together, although the three of us did all the arranging together. Granfalloon was very much a group effort. Looking back, I can see that our individual approaches to lead guitar playing have more than a few similarities.
JC

Everything about this reminds me of Annette Peacock.

^^^ OTM.

John, if you want me to take down the mp3s, just let me know.

Thanks for the info, John!

One more question, if you don't mind. What inspired the use of electronics? What were you guys listening to at the time that might have contributed to the sound of Laser Pace. I can hear different jazz and progressive rock elements in the sound, but not everyone at the time was rocking the synths/electronics like you guys were.

Please don't take the clips down!

I actually sent out a bulletin from my Myspace (www.myspace.com/johnchrischristensen) telling people where to find the links. Right now, I'd just like to have more people hear it. The record hasn’t been heard much in the last 35 years except for a few playings here and there on alternative/college radio stations. Granfalloon isn’t currently in release, so I don’t really see a conflict. If it were out there legitimately, then it would be a little different.

JC

Good question Scott!

I think germ was actually planted in '66.

Doug, his brother Brian, and I were in a band called Opus 1. We recorded for Bob Keane (Ritchie Valens, Bobby Fuller, Barry White, etc.) on Mustang Records. The Deckers father was James Decker, a world class french horn player and studio musician, supposedly Stravinsky's favorite musician.

One day Jim (James) called and said that we had to come to this rehearsal of Stockhausen music he was going to perform in Ojai. At the rehearsal we met either Beaver or Krause, I can’t really remember which one anymore. They were working with one of the first Robert Moog synths. We were knocked out! I know Doug was profoundly affected by it, and so was I. From then on I was trying to incorporate tape effects etc., into my own music in an attempt to get that sound, which of course didn’t work!

In about ‘71 or ‘72 Doug bought a Buchla synth from Morton Subotnik. It was the one used to record “Silver Apples of the Moon.” We already knew even before we started writing songs for Laser Pace that it would be all over our as yet unnamed record. The Buchla would be played by Jim Divisek (who had studied with Subotnik), Doug (the rock and roller synthesist) and pianist Larry Parsons, who really didn’t program it, he just played it while Doug did the various processes. I think Maureen may have played some stuff on it as well, but I don’t really remember for sure.

We all listened to everything. Our tastes were diverse to say the least. I was (and still am) a huge Crimson fan, and was always bringing these records around for Doug and Maureen to listen to; some Airto, some Miles, Cathy Berberian, etc. At first they were a little bugged, and then once they got into it, they responded by ‘buying stock’ in Tower Records! The really good thing about Doug and Maureen back then was that they, like me, were influenced by what they heard, but they NEVER tried to copy it. We also hated it when Synths went from being synths, to being used to copy other instruments. That really was the death of synthesis, the way we saw it.

JC

Thanks again for the information and the memories! I love hearing stuff like this. I'm wondering if the album would have found a bigger audience if it had been on another label. Takoma was mostly known for acoustic/folk records(experimental acoustic/folk records to be sure - and don't get me wrong, i'm certainly glad that someone put it out),but here's this wildly creative progressive/experimental rock record...well, you get what I'm saying.
In any case, all these years later, thanks for the music! It's an inspiring listen. And certainly unique.

It would be great if someone like Anthology Recordings put it out there for more people to hear. It definitely deserves to be heard by more people.

This is really good stuff!

But none of the links above have included "Scatter" yet. Scott's first link matches up with "Endless" from Colin's upload, and the 2nd link matches up with all of Side 1 from ditto. So "Scatter" is the track that hasn't been put up yet. The speed/pitch differences betw. Scott's uploads and Colin's are pretty pronounced, which is closer to "correct"?

Holy shit, I suspected that had to be a Buchla or something equally exotic, so bizarre were those sounds! Not that I really know what the hell I'm talking about; but I completely agree with the "death of synthesis" sentiment.

Anyway: Cool record, JC! Thanks for getting in touch.

so, wait, that link up there that says side 2 is all of side 1? oh god, i'm so confused. i thought it was all of side 2. i don't know what the heck we were doing.

as far as pitch and all that, i have no idea. i have a brand new turntable. it sounds good to me. we put it right into the computer and into audacity.

I think it's side 2! I thought I heard all eight songs.

okay, it is side 2. and it ends with scatter. phew. i just downloaded it again.

About the Buchla. It played in Quadraphonic Sound! Too bad it had to be tracked in stereo. Doug still has the multitracks from the sessions. I always thought it would be really cool to remix the album 5.1 in surround sound.

Also, Sky Fell (Too) is one of my two vocals on the record. I think I began the composition of that song while I was in Vietnam in ‘68. I know it was finished while i was serving in Germany in 1970. D. Distorto got co-writer credit for the improvised bass solo at the beginning of the song that he played reluctantly (and brilliantly) at my urging. D: “Was that what you wanted?” JC: “Absofringinlutely.”

Yeah, great point about synthesizers aren't meant to imitate other instruments; Brian Eno also said in the 70s that he was determined to stay away from that (and also from the synth as just one more instrument, which was why he sat behind the sound board at Roxy concerts and used the synthesizer to texture the overall mix), and I think it was Chick Corea (or maybe Herbie Hancock) who said he finally realized he had to give up treating it as piano or organ, and start from scratch, which is what Miles was trying to get him to do.

In about ‘71 or ‘72 Doug bought a Buchla synth from Morton Subotnik. It was the one used to record “Silver Apples of the Moon.”

!!! wow

I loved what Herbie Hancock was doing with the band "Sextant" when he had Patrick Gleason doing all the synth stuff. It was textural and environmental, not necessarily tonal. Catching that band live was like the best psychedelic experience you could ever have without drugs! That's the stuff we loved!

JC

Patrick Gleason! Yeah, forgot about him--wonder what else he's done...also that guy, Roger Something? who did the album Cosmic Furnace, and worked with Todd Rungren, I think.

And speaking of Silver Apples Of The Moon, Chris, did you listen to the band Silver Apples? Or United States Of America?

who's chris?

is the roger you're talking about Robert Margouleff of TONTOS Expanding Headband (with Malcolm Cecil)?

That would be Roger Powell. And "Chris" is presumably Mr. Christensen.

Catching that band live was like the best psychedelic experience you could ever have without drugs!

Sextant is pretty good WITH drugs too!

awesome

i am a proud owner of the CD reissue thanks to you

wow!! awesome skot

i swear off RSD every year and then there's always one thing that gets me out....

you should be able to get it from Feeding Tube direct after RSD if you don't see it in a store. or Forced Exposure. pressing of 500.

Amazing work indeed. :-)

WOW!
great work

!

you the man, scott

liner notes by me and doug decker and also chris who posted on this thread so many years ago! his piece on the band is amazing and hilarious.

just really happy to have it happen for real. and really happy that more people will be able to hear it. listening now and it sounds great.

Picked up a copy at Cheapo today
What an amazing, demented record

Good job on the liner notes skot

thanks!

oh shit i gotta pick one of these up just for scott's notes

i mean also for the record itself

i was chatting a little with byron coley at his feeding tube table at wfmu. he said the reissue did really well -- he sold them all out. so grab one from a record store if you see it.

One unending tautology that kicked around the early pirate community was whether or not something was worth pirating automatically gave it cred. So with that in mind, I noticed that a lossless copy of the 2008 remaster was made available on D3m0n01d. (and no it's not me)

I don't listen to extreme music as a matter of practice, but sometimes things come up on shuffle that provokes reactions in surprising ways. For example, side one of the first Flying Saucer Attack album: I've often noticed that when people don't know that it's playing, some will go to the window looking for a car accident. Spacemen 3's Dreamweapon unyielding frequencies will sometimes crush anothers and they just have to get out.

And then there's Granfalloon. No other album clears a room full of humans faster than this. Even the most experienced Diamanda and Jandek listeners accelerate from "what...is...this?" to "what the FUCK is THIS?" zero to one hundred instantly. Awhile back, I was in a line of cars all charging and within seconds of a Granfalloon coming on, the cars on either side of me rolled their windows up.

I think the last time I listened to the album start to finish was when I bought the reissue. Ever since then - it's just there on my phone and whenever one of these tracks come on it's always "oh shit, hold on!!" like some big psychic rollercoaster. Ride it if you dare; I'm glad it exists. Well done everyone!

Still hoping for release of thee follow-up!

yeah I picked up the feeding tube reissue mostly because of the John Fahey connection, there really truly is nothing like this record

Amazon has Feeding Tube vinyl (currently 1 copy) and digital:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/611uEjTBZjL.jpg

Editorial Reviews
Special Thanks to all who helped with this recording and release. ************************************** from the WOW! Blog: Fantastic stuff! i haven't even listened to the second side yet and i'm already in love. Just amazing. Why isn't this album world-famous? did maureen o'connor ever do anything else? i can't find much info. 'avatar' is the jam! Even the lyrics rule. More later. ............ Describe please! ........... punk prog noise. Intense space mellotron stuff. Electronic fx all over the place. Tons of synth/electronics in general. But also awesome guitar action. The only guitar listed is maureen's and if she played all this stuff then she should be on some list of gods. She sings a little like Anisette from the Savage Rose. But her vocals are also heavily processed for maximum whatthefuckness. Some of the electroprog moments remind me of Ubu in a big way. This was recorded in 1973. D.Distorto on bass. The drummer used to be in the garage band The Opus 1. he mentions the record in an interview on-line: ................... The bass playing is so Ubu too. There is an awesome instrumental on here called 'Scatter' that sounds like King Crimson + Can + PIL. Until it turns into freeform jazz piano/sleighbell/electronic nod-out acid jam. Then it becomes something else entirely. My fave lyrics: 'Cherish and hold the time scrape off the cream it'll be so clean as you glide into a void so strong vessels bursting from the shit you brought along.' .......... man, i don't know what her voice sounds like. It's crazy. Anisette is just the closest i could come as far as a comparison goes. .......... actually david thomas is a pretty good comparison! i wonder if those guys were fans. Sure sounds like it.

the feeding tube reissue common as pyrite out here. i had one for a real long time because when i play downtempo records i generally also end up playing drifty krauty prog along the lines of sensations fix, maybe the more ambient gong or soft machine type records. i was always in a panic though because it was imperative to get out of the mix before the vocals started, every time i forgot about the singing it was like in a movie when someone interrupts an opera and the band stops and it's dead silent except for the twang of a breaking harp string as everyone turns to look ....

there's been a glut of 70s uhhh free folk type private press from educational programs. like a community college in imperial valley decides to put out a record as a semester capstone for the music majors with ppl taking electives doing session work for course credit. or high school jazz bands doing covers of heavy 70s rock. i really want to thank granfalloon for teaching me not to look twice at those records

sorry laser pace*

http://www.elkbugles.com/2018/12/the-unexamined-life-is-not-worth-living.html

https://www.discogs.com/release/4956461-Mohs-The-Unexamined-Life-Is-Not-Worth-Living

^^ i've seen people trying to hock this for $500 (or $1000, but they're drop shipping) which makes sense if it includes the amazing hand typed liner notes you can check out at discogs

parts sound like stone harbour other parts sound not good

Found a Takoma copy of Granfalloon yesterday in the wild for $15. Pretty stoked about it, even if I’m fairly sure I’ll play it once and hate it.

Turn It UP!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qVjQ993nOk

woah! look at this from the comments on that youtube upload:

@jason698
8 months ago
Sounds like they were listening to a lot of Zappa when they made this.

Reply

The Gladiator Of Rock
·

2 replies
@thegladiatorofrock1572
@thegladiatorofrock1572
8 months ago
F. Zappa was already a legend "Laser Pace" They arrived later, but very good. I greet you✌

Reply

@jchris3227
@jchris3227
8 months ago
Nope - although we were very aware of Frank, our influences were extremely diverse. I can’t really point to one point of reference….it was all over the place. Our ears were open, and we cut a few more commercial songs and then dumped them. Avatar was originally a straight ahead rocker and was morphed and warped at our final recording session which also included Scatter, which was a concept by D. Distorto — it was then it improvised in three connected sections and some overdubs added for flavor. All the other pieces were practiced, rehearsed and arranged by Distorto, Maureen, and myself over a period of months; tweaking and tweaking until we could play them effortlessly in the studio and embellish as we wished so they’d still be fresh. By the way my credit was W.G. Christensen, not VW. I was avoiding Union conflicts. John “Chris” Christensen

Reply

Didn't see that last, thanks! John "Chris" Christenen also joined us way upthread, setting off first attempt at reissue (I told the Anthology Recordings dude about Granfalloon and he got excited but yadda yadda anyway LP eventually got it remastered and reissued on FT), and was informative as always---queried about his previous combo Opus 1 he also provides a chronicle of all or many other bands he's been in on this page (which incl link to interview all about Opus 1)
https://garagehangover.com/opus1/
--ending with this comment:

t seems that something I’ve done in every decade since the sixties has seen renewed interest this past year. Domenic Priore’s book has a couple of paragraphs about Opus 1. SJ McParland has interviwed me extensively for his book on Mustang Records/Bob Keane/Bobby Fuller; it’s due out in ‘08. 1974 band Laser Pace’s album Granfalloon will most likely be reissued through Anthology Records in ‘08 due to an recent internet feeding frenzy.
My ‘94 CD “Songs from The Xenozoic Age” by Christensen/Schultz is finally seeing wider release, and I am putting out a complete unreleased album by Hot Food To Go, recorded in ‘84; it’s called “Adrenaline Drum.”John “Chris” Christensen

And indeed, both of those albums are on YouTubeMusic, Apple, and others.

Granfalloon is still available as download on Amazon, which currently also has a few copies of the LP.