"Unbeknownst to the general public at the time and underappreciated until today, arguably the world's first punk record was recorded on September 28, 1966, in New York. On that day, The Godz got together to record their first album Contact High with The Godz in about 30 minutes, to be released on the avant-garde label ESP. It comprises eight rudimentary songs (plus one bizarre Hank Williams cover), played without prior rehearsals or repeats, sounding deliberately incompetent and completely lacking even the political undertones or avant-garde ambitions of other far-out music produced in New York at the same time. In 2008, Berlin-based musician and journalist Jacek Slaski met ESP owner Bernard Stollman in New York and learned the story behind the Godz' first album. He decided to trace and re-enact that historical moment and got together his band The Curators to perform a note-by-note replay of Contact High with The Godz. Again, without rehearsals or repeats. They set up (without audience) in the Festsaal Kreuzberg in Berlin on November 30, 2008, began by listening to the first Godz song, repeating it, then the next, then the next. The resulting first derivative of the original album was duly titled Contact High with The Curators and is finally released here after having laid around on external hard drives for 15 years. Edition of 200 with insert containing liner notes, and a beautiful sleeve design by Nathan D'Arcy. The Curators were formed in Berlin in 2007 by architect Anna Krenz and writer Jacek Slaski, who at the time ran the art space ZERO, and were joined by camera operator Patrick Classen. All three are non-educated and non-professional musicians. The Curators played in different venues in Berlin, Rotterdam, Vienna and Warsaw, and the band was dissolved around 2011. For this album, they were joined by songwriter and singer Doc Schoko."
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.
