PASCAL, NIK - The Complete Narco Records And Tapes Recordings (1971-1975)

"a reproduction of all four lps originally self-released by nicolas nik pascal raicevic on his narco records and tapes label (rumored to be one of the first truly independent labels...) between 1971 and 1975. the music is nothing short of genius; a fine beaded mist of exceedingly lo-fi (tape drop-outs are prevalent, entire frequency ranges completely excised from certain tracks... not to mention the piss-poor quality of the original pressings) hands-off psychedelic synthesizer fumblings (paralleling only douglas leedys entropical paradise in its seemingly arbitrary rhythms & note-choices) & rudimentary drum-machine / bongo diversions. 1971s beyond the end... eternity consists solely of loose, exploratory moog modular dirges; raicevic is clearly still in the early learning-curve stages... yet by the following years the sixth ear, more complex gated passages & rhythmic activity begins to surface (including a few bits that rival pierre henrys mise en musique corticalart in their sheer monolothic joy...) along with overdubbed bongo jams and a few actual chord progressions... by 1973s magnetic web, raicevic has added an arp 2600 and a few rhythm-boxes (often running a few bpm apart, yielding some rather zonked phase-effects) and hand-percussion (tibetan finger-cymbals) to his arsenal, increasing the levels of raw synth-blat tenfold (more than a few tracks stream sample-and-hold layers throughout.) - in my mind this is his masterpiece. finally, after a year off, nik drops his last album, zero gravity, the side-long title-track working a harmonic-series patch with drizzles of space-dusted echo & miniature alien-tongued white-noise licks, the b-side offering a set of shorter songs... as far as early-mid 70s american bedroom electronic music goes, these lps have to be among the first transmissions from this sector, made all the more attractive when coupled with raicevics alien topography (the covers are high-color portrayals of venusian lanes, knotted growths, & future-past architecture) & copious downer sentiment... this music is imbued with a sort of lonely, anti-social sensibility thats about as far as you can get from the academic early electronic vector. while im not going to blanket-recommend this one for all followers of the creel pone series, i will say that if the steve birchall, cellutron & the invisible, and/or pythagoron replications seed your garden, this will likely do the same..." - Creel Pone. Great to have these classics "available".. Very highly recommended!!