Monday 2 November 2015

Bill Bissett & Th Mandan Massacre ‎– Awake In The Red Desert (1967), album review

Sound Poetry

This has been an exciting discovery for me. Bill Bissett is a Canadian poet - The Godfather of Canadian Poetry, by some suggestions - and an experimental poet, on this 1967 album dealing in sound work, always focused on voice, but also much background musical accompaniment, acid-based folk [or electronic noise as on heard ya tellin and fires in th tempul], and if you want a touchstone you can think of The Fugs, but Bill's work here is much more to do with the vocal performance.

There is little point in trying to review individual tracks, but there is much playing with sounds through repetition of words or vowels or other noises, and varying the tone of delivery, and always generating a hypnotic chanting aura to the performance - and that is the key word about this poetry performance.

Reincarnated as someone's front lawn

I just typed that line as it was delivered [as I am listening] from 2 awake in th red desert

and that is how Bill spells it, and if you don't believe me - why not? - this is Bill's commentary on his 1992 book Inkorrect Thots

WARNING each wun uv thees pomes may contain inkorrect thots these pomes have not bin kleerd by th ministree uv korrect thots Ths book contains reel storees that have reelee happend th mysteree uv pain has not bin adequatelee xplaind 2 us why memorees can cum crashing down on us robbing us uv our present or why we lifting grasp hold of a suddn laffing idea baloons us up n what we lern from memorees I cum skraping across a glacier bringing yu ths burnd flowr see its petals bleed as it opns all ovr our plans our mesurd safetees see its tabula filling with such wondrous snow these pomes have not bin bleerd by th ministree uv korrect thots we have no control ovr what is not being xpressd heer eithr byond ths sign yr on yr own

I have ordered a couple of his books on the basis of listening to and loving this album.

U cld do th same.


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