Flying Lizards David Cunningham Grey Scale

$

33

David Cunningham - Grey Scale (PIano 001)

Here is THE most collectable item for any die hard Flying Lizzards fan (we know you're out there). Lizards founder David Cunningham cut this tremendous minimalist (a la Steve Reich percussive repetitions) in 1977 for the Piano records label. Don't miss out on a rare chance to get a hold of this gem!

Side A:
01) Error System (BAGFGAB) [2:23]
02) Error System (C pulse solo recording) [4:09]
03) Error System (C pulse group recording) [3:26]
04) Error System (E based group recording) [3:37]
05) Error System (EFGA) [4:58]
Side B:
06) Ecuador [2:58]
07) Water Systemised [4:06]
08) Venezuela l [3:02]
09) Guitar Systemised [3:11]
10) Venezuela 2 [2:46]
11) Bolivia [2:54]

Sleeve notes:
Instrumentation and musicians:
1. David Cunningham, piano, glockenspiel, synthesizer, percussion.
2. D. C., violin piano, bass guitar, glockenspiel.
3. Stephen Reynolds, glockenspiel; Alan Hudson, bass guitar; Derek Roberts, piano; D. C., violin.
4. Alan Hudson and Michael Doherty, percussion; Derek Roberts, glockenspiel; Stephen Reynolds, piano.
5. D. C., guitar, synthesizer, glockenspiel.
6. D. C., percussion, glockenspiel, synthesizer, recorder.
7. D. C., tape recorders and water.
8. D. C., piano, violin, guitar, percussion.
9. D. C., tape recorders, guitar.
10. Derek Roberts, glockenspiel,; Stephen Reynolds, synthesizer; D. C., percussion.
11. D. C., piano, percussion, synthesizer, strings, etc.

Sleve notes:
Error System: The players play a repeated phrase. As soon as one player makes a mistake that mistake is made the basis of his repetition unless it is modified by a further mistake. Thus each player proceeds at his own rate to change the sound in an uncontrollable manner. On no account should "mistakes" be made deliberately to introduce a change into a performance. In short...sustain your errors. The water piece and the guitar piece are analogous to this process. However the process is automatic here, an inherent quality to the machinery used. The numerical sequence used in Ecuador and Bolivia is: 11221111223332112222331112332233331122232 repeated three times. The last time, an extra 11 is tagged onto the end. Each number refers to a bar, repetitions of a specific number are uniform. Notated according to the Ecuador system, Venezuela is 11223344556677 etc. for each player except the musician supplying the constant pulse.

Cover photograph from the videotape "Snow Scale" (1975) by Steve Partridge.

Inscriptions in vinyl: side A) "BILBO!" side B) "DB-MASTER ROOM."

Description: The cacophonic and inharmonious music on this record is oddly soothing or totally maddening depending on what mood you're in. The rudimentary mathematical structure of the pieces explained on the sleeve notes (11221111223332112222... etc.) gives an indication to the album's rigid design (obviously inspired by Cage). But instead of sounding academic and stoic like a lot of material of this nature can, the music sounds playful, immediate, unpolished... even scrappy. Sounding suspiciously mocking in it's avant formality, there's a wacky humor warp running right through the center of this record that's hard to put your finger on. It sounds like the players are actually having fun while they slowly plod out these small experiments in predestination (although examination of the sleeve notes makes one wonder how many other musicians there were besides Cunningham during most of the tracks). Some tracks use odd piano/percussion/violin arrangements, others add de-tuned string instruments (usually plucked), hand claps, bleeping synths and off-tempo looping samples into the mix. Some throw so many synthesizers and tape recorders, water glasses (lots of those), bass, "violin pianos" and other obscure "instruments" in that things start to get pretty psychedelic. The sound tone of the record is warm, resonant and intimate. I'm guessing these sessions were recorded in a small-ish, padded room with microphones placed around. In the end, everything about this surreal album reminds me of toys, chandeliers or dinnerware quietly coming to life and moving themselves in a repetitive way - every sound is a quiet clink or tap or tinker or plunk. "Water Systemised" used samples that sound like either growling dogs or purring cats - putting them through some kind of slow relay device, and mixes them with sounds of water and what sounds like distant frogs (this piece reminds me of Pauline Oliveros' 'Alien Bog'). "Guitar Systemised" uses the same strange relay device, making violins sound like a mosquito buzzing your ear. My favorite track, "Error System (EFGA)" starts out with a trance-y pulse and then slowly turn into a kind of water glass ensemble, shimmering, spine chilly sound that will nod you right off into pleasant dreams.
Ways I've heard this record described by unsuspecting friends I've played it for::

"...a whole bunch of those toy monkeys who bang little cymbals when you wind them up but they're playing little pianos and water classes and synthesizers instead, and some run out of steam before the others and you have to rewind them and then the sound changes slightly"
"...the music they would play in a movie during a scene where a bunch of assembly line robots started going haywire and destroying everything"
"Philip Glass interpreted by a hillbilly washboard, pots 'n pans jug jamboree band"
"The little elves in Geppetto's workshop having a voodoo ritual late at night, banging out jungle rhythms with their miniature tools"
"Music made by the members of Gilligan's Island with rocks and coconuts on a night when they were bored"
"Your mom gets really stoned and goes into the kitchen to make dinner, but instead of cooking she starts hypnotically banging and tapping on all the pots and pans and utensils... making a strange music that only she can understand"
"A room full of croaking frogs rocking on creaky rocking chairs all going at once, each with a different kind of croak and creak"
"A room full of telephones that have all been left off the hook"

"Interestingly, if you took this album, and laid it on top of "The Secret Dub Life of The Flying Lizards" CD, you would pretty much have a blueprint for the early Lizards' sound. Hearing both of these recordings and reading their respective histories lets you clearly see where Cunningham was coming from with the first album. Many of the tracks on "Grey Scale" remind me of more primitive versions of the three ambient tracks on side two of the first LP; "The Flood", "Trouble" and "Events During the Flood". And I swear that the "Summertime Blues" B-side, "All Guitars", is taken from the "Grey Scale" sessions." - From a Flying LIzards web site.

condition: Jacket is VG+(+) due to light spine wear. Lp plays with occasional surface noise but has no visual flaws. VG++.

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