Artist: Smegma
Publisher: Post-Materialization Music, St. Petersburg
Year: 2017
Single-sided C-90 cassette
Limited edition of 50
Smegma (a pun on the French band Magma) started in Pasadena in 1973. A couple of friends – none of them having had any formal musical training – got together and formed an experimental band on November 23rd of that year. Influenced by artists, thinkers and musicians as varied as John Cage, Harry Partch, Sun Ra and Buckminster Fuller and drawing from their own creativity, Smegma soon developed a distinct experimental and anarchist sound, which they labeled ‘primitive suburban folk’. Most band members moved to Portland, Oregon in 1975 but remained in close touch with Los Angeles through their friendships and collaborations with the LAFMS (Los Angeles Free Music Society). Smegma has remained active since. The band regularly performs in the US and Europe and releases cassettes of Smegma and friends every now and then through their label Pigface Records. Today the core members of Smegma are: Ju Suk Reet Meate, Rock and Roll Jackie, Dennis Duck and Ace Farren Ford, but their line-ups and collaborations have included more than 100 other musicians and artists over the years.
The Post-Materialization Music cassette, released in 2017, contains a couple of wild pieces by this ensemble of fine improvisers, who somehow always manage to keep a distinct sound of their own and re-invent themselves at the same time. Smegma is always Smegma but never the same. Great cassette by PMM from St. Petersburg!