Vaccine

Drowned KRK062 CDR 7trks 73min

Between early 1995 & mid 1996 David released 5 Vaccine cassette albums on kRkRkRk. Drowned collects the best moments from this period - including the 45min entirety of the original Drowned cassette which first appeared in early 1996.

In common with its successor, The Drawing Room, the Vaccine project combined structured song/lyric pieces with much more abstract soundscapes. The soundscape pieces, in particular, with their slow, subtle, dragging rhythms & mesmerizing synth drones, revealed David's perennial preoccupations with fundamentals & essences - even at this early stage.

Also apparent was David's infatuation with what might be called materiality in music. The Vaccine recordings document his first experiments in combining acoustic & electronic textures - although, at this stage, David was unfamiliar with electro-acoustic music as a movement. The introduction of scraping, droning & percussive sounds derived from metal sheets, drums & implements - as well as stone, wood, glass & cardboard objects - was an intriguing & effective way of fleshing out musical compositions for someone of his limited instrumental abilities. It also reflected one of kRkRkRk's unifying characteristics - a fascination for unusual (or even very banal) sounds for their own sake; regardless of whether or not they could be incorporated into music.

There were some precedents for this sort of music in New Zealand - notably classic Flying Nun bands such as Marie & The Atom, This Kind Of Punishment & Skeptics. However, David's primary influences were international. The moody, folk-noir aspect of the Vaccine project owed much to Michael Gira's music with Swans & The World Of Skin. Other influences included industrial/ambient pioneers such as Einsturzende Neubauten & SPK.

Drowned was initially compiled onto CDR in latter 1997. During 2000 David again remastered the album, fixing up a few flubs & errors, to produce the edition which is currently available.

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Text by David Khan. Web-building by Ed Wilson. No apologies for disinformation.
August 2004