For any NWW or Mirror fan who has yet to own anything from Organum, orcurious onlookers who saved their money from expensive eBay auctions ofthese two limited CDs the first time around, now's your chance tofinally get a piece of what made Organum so damned cool andcollectable. Both discs center around the material originally releasedby L.A.Y.L.A.H. and United Dairies from 1985 through 1987, where DavidJackman pretty much started releasing full albums'-worth pieces ofmusic as Organum. Long before software was making noise, Jackman (andpossible yet unnoted other members) would construct evil, abrasive, yetgorgeous noise symphonies from abusing objects and mis-playinginstruments, stretching vocal noises and crating a myriad of soundeffects, not entirely unlike a number of his contemporaries. Jackman,however, would weave the noises into a long, droning tapestry ratherthan shuffle through numbers of instruments like what the NWW camp wasdoing. Perhaps it is through this type of influence that Stapletonbegan to evolve from the choppy early cut ups and experiment more withlong soundscapes, as is heard on NWW's "A Missing Sense" (which was theother side of "Rasa", included here on Volume One).
Some of these lengthy pieces also unsurprisingly serves as an excellentprecursor to much of the non-new age drone music created by some of thevarious members involved. Jackman is joined by members of The NewBlockaders for the super-abrasive "Valley of Worms" from 'In Extremis',whose tracks straddle both releases while Andrew Chalk (Mirror, Ora,solo) teamed up with Jackman for the recording of the tame, hauntinglysubtle, yet no less intense "Horii" (on Volume Two). Appropriatelyconcluding the two-disc set is "Ich Reiste Weil,..." which, althoughfrom 1989, uses a number of similar elements as the earlierL.A.Y.L.A.H. recordings. The artwork is untampered from the 2000releases of these discs, however, at a basic black, none of theoriginal artwork from the 1980s remains, but hey, they're not going for$18 any more! Once again, however, these releases are limited, withoutany assurance of a re-press. Don't say I didn't warn you.
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