"After the successful reissues of the two Mormos albums on Wah Wah, we proudly present a fantastic double LP + bonus 7 EP with the works of Jim Cuomos pre-Mormos band Spoils Of War. Jim had already served with instro-rockers The Cool Notes in Texas, along with future Big Brother & The Holding Co. founder and guitarist Sam Houston Andrew III when he moved to the University of Illinois to obtain his Master Degree in Music. It was in Illinois where The Spoils Of War were born in 1968, named after a musical instrument invented by Harry Partch - its name coming from the fact it had actually been built from spent artillery shells. Alongside Jim, other members included Al Ierardi on guitar, Roger Francisco on bass, Frank Garvey on drums and James Stround on "live sound manipulation." Annie Hat would soon join on vocals, and last gigs were played with Charlie Braugham on drums.\r\n \r\nThe S.O.W. sound was an intelligent mixture of late sixties acid psych with electronic experimentation -in a similar way to what Joe Byrd was producing with The United States Of America or Cork Marcheski would explore with 50 Foot Hose- plus theres some very imaginative songs here that could put the band in the same league Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention were playing. Exciting computer generated sounds mix into a cool psychedelic rock background. It is one of the early pioneering experiments of electronic music and drones on a rock band, made at a time when programming computer sounds was really an adventure, since electronic music was still a burgeoning phenomenon. The box that had been opened by the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio a.o. left a lot of things for Cuomo and his peers to explore - and they were not afraid of doing so!\r\n \r\nBack in the day the Spoils Of War had little chances to publish their recordings. Only two small 33RPM 7" EPs were released, showcasing their talent and adventurous love for experimentation\r\n \r\nHere are -collected in a gorgeous 2LP set compiled with the great cooperation of Jim Cuomo himself- their studio works, including previously unreleased recordings, some later work by Cuomo and Co. plus a bonus 7" reproduction of the first Spoils Of War original self-produced EP from 1969.\r\n \r\nReissued in a 500 copies limited edition double LP housed in a gatefold gimmick sleeve with inner pop-up, fratures a bonus 7" EP, a Spoils Of War sticker, comes with remastered sound and includes an insert with liner notes courtsey of Jim Cuomo himself and Klemen Breznikar, plus full colour photos." - Wah Wah.
After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.
This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).
Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.
Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.
Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
