TMA-1 profile

Way back in 1987, after reading Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, J-mz Robinson noted, in one of his high school exercise books, that TMA-1 would be a good name for a band. Four years later, in September 1991, J-mz befriended fellow Canterbury University student Peter Wright who just happened to own both a drum machine (make unknown - but probably a Roland TR series beastie) & a Fostex X-26 cassette multitracker. The rest, as they say, is history.

The importance of Tycho Magnetic Anomoly - One to kRkRkRk, in the label's formative period cannot be overestimated. Between late 1991 & late 1994 the group produced eleven albums worth of material - a creative output which remains unequalled to the present day. This prolific body of work, combined with many enthralling (& sometimes frustrating) live performances has influenced all those associated with the label ever since.

The very existence of kRkRkRk was predicated on that of TMA-1. Drawing no small inspiration from Robin James' Cassette Mythos, kRkRkRk - as the brainchild of Peter & J-mz - was intended to operate as a kind of psuedo-label, by which their rapidly growing collection of home recordings could be disseminated in a calculated parody of the workings of the real music industry.

TMA-1 not only brought the label into existence but, also, functioned as the creative conduit along which kRkRkRk's tendrils spread to other, like-minded individuals. Peter, in particular, deserves special credit (or blame - you decide!) for sharing recording gear & technical skills to anyone who showed a genuine interest. He single-handedly encouraged many of the label's current contributors & associates to compose, perform & record music of their own for kRkRkRk release. To this day
TMA-1's example - the embracing of the home recording ethos, an enthusiasm for the possibilities of technology & an intuitive & spontaneous attitude towards the creation of music - remain central to the label's identity & operation.

Originally conceived as a punk band with a drum machine, TMA-1 combined J-mz's musical eccentricity & love of spontaneity with Peter's flair for compositional structure & organisation. Another university friend, Richard Calder, fleshed out the group's live sound & contributed to its collective sense of irony & satire - an inclination distinctly British in character. From the Goons to the Goodies, from Monty Python to the Young Ones - an anarchic streak of self-deprecating parody ran through TMA-1's music from the very start.

This music was, of course, coloured by the punk rock & industrial movements of the late 70's & informed, in the New Zealand context, by the pioneering efforts (especially in the realm of lo-tech, DIY, home recording) of Flying Nun. To the group's mutual appreciation of Chris Knox & the Headless Chickens, J-mz contributed a taste for freakish experimentation, a la the Residents, & early electronica, courtesy of Kraftwerk. Peter liked the Beatles & the Dead C - the latter group soon to encourage him to explore one of kRkRkRk's spiritual predecessors, in NZ music, the Xpressway label - founded by the Dead C's Bruce Russell.

Never stridently political, TMA-1, nonetheless, functioned as an almost necessary undermining influence in a local music scene dominated by the usual quota of self-important, self-deluded musos trying to make it. In stark contrast to the hype, bombast & commercialism that infected their more conventional contemporaries, J-mz, Peter & Richard steered a distinctly alternative course with music refreshingly original & emphatically homemade.

The ingredients of TMA-1's noise comprise a fascinating story in themselves. The main drum box, a Kawai R-50e - still used today by J-mz's solo project, NoTV - featured some gloriously cheesy synth bass & orchestral hit sounds that the group, naturally, used to maximum effect. Peter's Boss DS-3 sampler/delay pedal (with a one second sample time) introduced the trio to lo-fi digital sampling & could be triggered by the drum machine for a number of interesting rhythmic embellishments. The wonderfully grainy samples, generated by this device, would also enrich the music of later kRkRkRk projects such as Coitus/In Vitro, Vaccine & leonard Nimoy.

TMA-1's roll call of basses, guitars & keyboards constituted a motley collection of battered & broken devices - with the notable exceptions of Peter's authentic Gibson guitar & J-mz's Roland Juno 60 analogue synth.

Richard contributed one the band's most esoteric toys - an antiquated & bulky 70's vintage tremelo/fuzz box known as the Psychedelic Machine - through which TMA-1 gleefully recorded everything from rhythm tracks to vocals.

Other instruments were as homemade as the music that they helped to create. The War Machine, an early invention of Peter's, comprised a guitar pick-up & a bass string attached to a long, stainless steel tube. It generated a variety of sounds - some vaguely bass-like, some crunchy & percussive & many that were simply indescribable!

TMA-1's recordings, mostly engineered & produced by Peter - although J-mz did make significant contributions - fully explored the possibilities of 4-track cassette recording. It's a worthwhile exercise exploring this subject in greater detail. If there is one fundamental characteristic that has united kRkRkRk's many contributors over the years it is surely their adherence to the home recording ethos. All this activity began with TMA-1.

Some part of Peter's inspiration, in this area, originated in a book he owned which detailed the recording sessions of the Beatles. These classic recordings were, for the most part (until around 1968), carried out on the 4-track recording equipment available to them at the time.

Now, no one would pretend that a modern portastudio recording (utilising one eighth inch chrome cassette tape) could match the quality achievable on the half-inch (or greater) tape machines of the 60's - but many of the techniques used, in that period, were directly applicable to the 4-track, home recording artists of today.

From accounts describing the creation of such classics as Tomorrow Never Knows or Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite (one of J-mz's childhood favourites), Peter was introduced to such tape-based recording techniques as backwards playing tape, tape saturation (basically a sonically pleasing sort of distortion achieved by recording at high levels of amplification), tape loops & cut-ups &, especially, ping-pong recording.

Ping-pong recording (also called reduction) was a way of defeating the limitations of the 4-track medium. In this process, multiple pre-recorded tracks would be mixed down onto one or two (for a stereo mixdown) free tracks on an existing tape - or even a totally fresh tape in another recording device. This would, effectively, free up tracks for additional recording beyond the normal limit of four tracks. TMA-1's method was to create a basic 4-track recording of rhythm, bass & guitar tracks on Peter's Fostex X-26. This recording would be mixed, to 2-track stereo, onto another cassette tape in a home sound system cassette deck. This second tape (containing only two tracks) could then be placed in Peter's Fostex & a further two tracks recorded - usually vocals, noises or extra instruments. A master mix would finally be created on yet another cassette tape or, later in kRkRkRk's history, Digital Audio Tape or CD-Rom.

Not all of TMA-1's recordings used this method (which effectively resulted in the creation of 6-track mixes) - but the later Coitus/In Vitro & Vaccine recordings used ping-pong recording almost without exception. leonard Nimoy added a more sophisticated wrinkle by using a DAT recorder for the initial mixdown. This helped to eliminate the extra tape hiss generated by mixing directly to another cassette tape.

This technical digression is not essential to the account of
TMA-1's creative activities, but it does serve to illustrate how modern day home recording is grounded in the studio technology of the 1960's. Furthermore, a discussion of the technical aspects of home recording reveals to what degree innovation & resourcefullness are crucial to the whole creative process. With a little care, some very professional-sounding results can be achieved with very minimal resources. Here at kRkRkRk we've always been pleased with the relative quality of our recording efforts - compared with what is achievable in a full-blown pro-studio. If the music cuts it, the average listener will easily forgive somewhat lower fidelity, a little tape hiss or distortion - or even what amount to significant errors in recording or production. The main objective is to get the musical ideas down - & not spend $$$ doing it! In this particular, as far as all of kRkRkRk's later projects are concerned, TMA-1 showed the way.

TMA-1's first live performances & home recording sessions got underway in November 1991. Their first release (&, indeed, the first ever kRkRkRk release), Kills Mould, Fungi & Lichens KRK000 appeared in March 1992. As with most of the group's recordings, Richard was largely absent (although, on bass, guitar, keyboards & acoustic percussion, he always made an invaluable contribution to the band's live performances) - therefore, Kills Mould… documents the very first collaborations between J-mz & Peter.

Peter has since disclosed that it took him about a year to get his head around J-mz's eccentric & anarchic working methods. Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that their early recordings were a little uneven. Kills Mould… eventually materialised as 60min of meandering drum machine rhythms, tape loops, cut-ups & noise which sat on the outer edges of what could have been described as punk-inflected, industrial rock music. Occasionally the proceedings coalesced into actual songs but, for the most part, Kills Mould… was an interesting (intermittantly enthralling) collection of half-formed musical ideas & soundbites. There are no plans to remaster the album to CDR at the present time - but who knows what the future may bring?

From about the beginning of 1992 to around July 1993 J-mz & Peter were flatmates at various locations around Christchurch. Firstly, at 493 Cashel St. & then, from early 1993, at a dive on Brougham St. Richard moved into Cashel St. about June '92. This situation created plenty of opportunities to make music &, not surprisingly, this was to be TMA-1's most genuinely collaborative period.

The crucial work created at this time, 5 (originally released as KRK001 - a 60min cassette in November 1992), radiates an irrepressible exuberance & sense of fun. Scarcely a finished work, amidst 5's myriad musical sketches were many moments of pure pop genius. In fact, 5 could easily be regarded as the prototype for all later kRkRkRk pop releases. The punk-industrial trappings were still most evident - & the album did have its darker moments - but TMA-1 generally eluded the genre's obvious pitfalls: deadly seriousness & extreme self-consciousness. These paths were, instead, to be the province of the later kRkRkRk project, leonard Nimoy - a group never to attain TMA-1's spontaneity & sheer charm.

Work on TMA-1's next album, Screech! commenced towards the end of 1993 when J-mz & Peter were again flatting together at 44 Ely St. This flat, later dubbed Spent Member Studios by David Khan (who flatted there with Peter during leonard Nimoy's final phase in 1996), was the scene of an extraordinary amount of activity during kRkRkRk's early period. It has now been bulldozed & replaced by a characterless townhouse.

J-mz has always been one of the label's most avid collaborators &, even during the period in which TMA-1 created their definitive album, he was involved with a number of other bands. The most significant of these comprised a fascinating electro-pop quartet called Spastic Crunch. This group featured Tracey Pagey (Psycho-Kat, leonard Nimoy), Rangi Powick (Chapel Of Gristle) & David Rainer. J-mz was also a member of COD - a sort of local industrial supergroup put together by Jason Lane (Silium 19, CeLL). By mid 1994 both of these groups had sputtered out - but by that time J-mz was working on his first NoTV solo recordings & with Mikel Goodwin (who he'd met playing with COD) in a project called Placenta Cookbook.

The point of this digression is that, by 1994, TMA-1 were beginning to lose momentum. Peter has subsequently described Screech! as the peak performance by a now fractured & faltering group… TMA-1's White Album, a collection of solid individual contributions combined with thrilling group collaborations. In fact Peter wrote, performed & recorded most of the music on Screech! - although J-mz's contribution was not exactly insignificant! Compared with their earlier releases Screech! was, again in Peter's words, trimmed to pop perfection without all the excess baggage & half complete doodles that usually made it onto TMA-1 releases. This was a fair statement. In terms of finish & coherence Screech! far surpassed their earlier efforts. Many of the songs cleverly mined John Boorman's 1973 cult science fiction movie, Zardoz, for samples. These were generally used to hilarious effect & helped to give the album a more unified feel.

Yet, compared to the engaging pop lunacy & unselfconscious madness of 5, an altogether darker, moodier tone permeated Screech! In some respects the album prefigured the direction Peter would shortly take with his solo music &, in collaboration with David Khan, with leonard Nimoy. There is a caustic undercurrent to Screech! which contributes to the album's expressive punch, but which is almost absent from 5. Perhaps that's why we, at kRkRkRk, generally play the earlier album at parties!

Screech! KRK005 was originally released in February 1994 as a 45 minute cassette. During 1996 Peter remastered the entire album to DAT & reissued it, with a couple of extra tracks, as KRK063 - now a 60min cassette. The album was again remastered to CDR in latter 1997 (more extra tracks brought the length to 73min) & further polished & processed using Pro Tools & Peter's Apple Powerbook in mid 2002. This last spot of attention was necessitated by the fact the the March 2000 CDR reissue of 5 actually made the, then current, edition of Screech! sound murky by comparison. Who would ever have thought the day would come when we at kRkRkRk would worry about something like that!

The TMA-1 story did not quite end with Screech! The band continued to perform throughout 1994 (their final gig was at Quadrophenia, cnr of Lichfield & Manchester Sts, near the end of the year - with leonard Nimoy & Alien) & work began on a new album. Unfortunately this new work was never really completed. Entitled 007 (after its catalogue number KRK007), this new album combined samples from the 1965 James Bond flick Thunderball with tracks TMA-1 wrote for their brief & final phase of playing short pop songs live. A tape of one such performance at the, then soon-to-be demolished, Star & Garter hotel on Barbadoes St was stolen & the only remaining record of this music comprised several unfinished 4-track recordings - mostly the work of Peter.

Scraping together various bits & pieces Peter eventually released 007, posthumously, as a 30min cassette during 1995. Although no Screech! the album was actually quite punchy & fun - inadvertently evoking the random bog of noises that had made up 5. Between May & September 2001, as part of kRkRkRk's archiving/reissuing programme of early recordings, Peter remastered 007 from the original master tapes - unearthing several more pieces in the process. 007 was duly reissued in early 2002 as KRK107 - now 54min of noise, punk & madness that, in hindsight, we really couldn't have lived without.

007 KRK107
5 KRK100
Screech! KRK063
TMA-1 intro
Listen to TMA-1

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