Bassline.89

EP notes from Routes not Roots," by K-S.H.E (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2006).

"Today's dancefloors are wakes in remembrance of a mythological era of openness that never was. Remember where you were. See where you are.... I'm in Kami-Sakunobe."
「今日のダンスフロアは伝説と化した、オープンと言われた−決してそうでなかった−時代を偲ぶお通夜です。あなたがどこにいたか覚えておいて。あなたがどこにいるか確かめて。わたしは上作延にいます。」
- K-S.H.E

Comatonse.000.R2

EP notes from Comatonse.000.R2, by Comatonse.000 (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2004).

In 1993, my first record "Comatonse.000" was self-released with no particular hopes or plans. Much to my surprise, the release gained the attention of select DJ's and collectors, and has become a cult item of sorts.
１９９３年、夢も計画もなく私の初めてのレコード「Comatonse.000」はセルフリリースされました。驚いた事には、そのレコードはより抜きのDJやコレクターの注目を集め、ある種、カルトなレコードになりました。ライブが好きではない事も手伝い、私の初めてのトラックは、ちょうどその10年後である２００３年までライブで演奏される事はありませんでした。

Given my dislike of live stage performance, it wasn't until ten years later, in 2003, that these tracks were actually performed live for the first time ever. It took a week of piecing together old computers and hacking old software just to know if it would be possible. Then, as fate would have it, I was invited by a special friend to perform "Raw Through A Straw" live for a second time just two weeks later. Given the support "Comatonse.000" and Comatonse Recordings has received in Japan, it only seems right that both performances took place here - first in the North, then in the East. (While I can't print the names of events or venues here, I'm sure the collectors can figure them out easily enough.)
古いコンピューターをつなぎあわせ、壊れかけた古いソフトウエアと格闘し、その最初のトラックが本当にライブで使える物かを知るためだけで1週間を費やしました。まるで運命のように、ようやく開いた初めてのライブの２週間後、再度「Raw Through A Straw」のライブ演奏を特別な友人から依頼されたのでした。日本における「Comatonse.000」そして「Comatonse Recordings」への支持を考えると、双方のライブが日本で−初めは北で、次は東に−開かれたことはとてもすてきな事に思えます。（コレクターの方々には多分分かってしまうかもしれませんが、あえてここではライブについての詳細（開催地、イベント名など）を書く事はいたしません。）

The 1993 Side of this record contains the original "Comatonse.000" recordings, un-remastered, un-re-anything. The 2003 Side of this record combines all live recordings of these tracks to date. Unfortunately, faulty wiring during the taping of the Eastern performance of "Raw Through A Straw" left me with only a recording of the right channel's sound. Rather than discard the tape, I decided to sync the right channel of the Eastern performance with the left channel from the Northern performance, resulting in the "Double Live" version on this record. While the "Double Live" version is intended for stereo playback, you can also use the L/R balance control on your stereo to separate the two performances and listen to them one at a time. "Tranquilizer" was only performed once, in the North.
このレコードのSide.1993には原盤からの「Comatnose.000」が収録されています。新しいマスターを作る事はしませんでした。何も手を加えていない初めのままです。Side.2003には今までに行われた全てのライブ演奏が収録されています。 残念な事に、「Raw Through A Straw」の東でのライブで録音の際に使用したケーブルの不良により、テープには右側のチャンネルしか録音されていませんでした。テープを捨てるくらならと考え、東のライブの右チャンネルと北のライブの左チャンネルをあわせようと思い付きました。そしてできあがったのがこのレコードに収められいる「Double Live」です。「Double live」はステレオでもお楽しみ頂けますが、ステレオの左右のバランスを調整し、左チャンネルと右チャンネルから別々に双方のライブを楽しむ事も出来ます。「Tranquilizer」は1度だけ演奏されました。北のライブでです。

A little over ten years later and Comatonse Recordings still exists with no particular hopes or plans, just an irregular trickle of music whenever I have something good enough to release - and that's the way I like it.
10年と少しを経て、Comatonse Recordingsは未だ夢も計画もないまま存在し続けています。少しずつ、不規則に、もれ出るようにリリースを続けています、リリースするに値するものがあるときだけ・・・・そしてそれが私の好きなやり方なのです。

Many thanks to everyone!
皆さんどうも有難うございます！

Love, Terre (a.k.a. Comatonse.000)
ラヴ、テ−リ（a.k.a. Comatonse.000）

A Crippled Left Wing Soars with the Right

Track description for "A Crippled Left Wing Soars with the Right," by Terre's Neu Wuss Fusion (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2002).

Terre's Neu Wuss Fusion presents Comatonse.010 - Sounding frustration in attempts to actualize fluid social contexts when forced to advocate for community rights in consistently essentialist terms.

Direct social action
is more than slogans penned on cardboard
and carried down predetermined streets
to the endless beats
of trite rhymes
spoken out of times when
a crippled left wing soars with the right

Social Material: Class/Consciousness

EP notes from Class/Consciousness, by Social Material (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2001). On the EP cover the text is hand written like a diagram, which is a bit difficult to convey here with type. Click here to view original release artwork.

locate objects which represent collison of -
A. socio-materialist agendas
B. 'spiritually' daden historical references
3. ultimately ambivalent marketplace
(the 3 elements of all Comatonse Recordings releases)

filter expectations - it's what's LEFT(ist)!

dance - OK!
feeling - OK!
deep thought - OKAY!

no escaping it            big mess

(Terre's piano playing gets messy too!)

Bassline.89

EP notes from Bassline.89, by DJ Sprinkles (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2001).

"Stripped and minimal.... New York.... Newark.... Chicago.... Toronto...? These are reconstructed memories of the sounds embraced by late '80s underground House culture.... Particularly among Latinos and African Americans.... Queer.... Tranny.... Fierce.... Ova.... Ovaplayed...? Quickly subjected to cultural decontextualization and commercialization.... A decade passes.... Now this.... Possibly an attempt to decommodify a musical era.... Probably yet another form of communal exploitation."
- DJ Sprinkles

A Quiet Of Distance Mirrors Intimacy

Track description for "A Quiet Of Distance Mirrors Intimacy," by Terre Thaemlitz, from the compilation Digital Space (UK: Lovebytes, 2000).

It is a Thursday night, the blackness of the evening polluted by the orange sulfur glow of distant city lights. Three lesbian lovers sit in a triangle at the foot of a small bluff, their glances carried to one another by a gradually chilling breeze. Candice says the cold ground beneath her is freezing her ass off. Lauren and Beth laugh slightly and say they are fine. Candice remembers when Lauren suggested bringing Beth into their relationship. It was shortly after she and Lauren bought a house together in the suburbs. Candice had begun feeling distant from Lauren, who seemed to spend all of her time taking naps after work, or going out by herself. When Lauren introduced Beth to Candice, Candice thought Beth might be a pleasant distraction from her boredom. Candice thinks Beth is sexy but uninteresting and inexperienced. As she shifts her seat on the cold ground, Candice notices the distant silhouettes of two men walking in a nearby field. Their forms are hazy and frequently lost in the motion of shadows from trees, only to reappear a few seconds later, then disappear again. They move across her line of vision, never coming toward or away from her. She feels a sense of security in the men's lack of approach, and decides she is ready to go home.

Paradaisu (Imada Kuufuku)

Track description for "Paradaisu (Imada Kuufuku)" (translation: Paradise [Still Hungry]), by Terre Thaemlitz, remix of multiple titles from the album Paradise Of Replicas by After Dinner (UK: ReR, 2000).

Thirty-three days have passed since Koji left Toshi, his lover of two years. They had met in a local gay club which they continued to frequent during their years together. Koji was first attracted to Toshi by his sense of fashion and mannerisms, although none of them seem particularly distinguished in retrospect. Since Koji left Toshi he has done little other than go to work and eat his ritual post-breakup cleansing diet of beef flavored Cup Noodle and kimchee. Koji has methodically eaten this and only this three times a day so that now the stale oil and spices seep through his every pore. As usual, when he reaches the bottom of cup ninety-nine he feels weak and sick - sick of whatever tragic remorse he felt for leaving Toshi and sick of staying home alone. He once again hungers to be part of the crowd at the club, its fashions and mannerisms, all of which seem distinguished from his recent days at home. After a short train ride and a hurried descent of stairs, Koji stands at the club's door - the threshold to a paradise of replicas.

Transit(ional)

Track description for "Transit(ional Edit)," by Terre Thaemlitz, remix of "Transit" by Pierre-André Arcand (Canada: OHM Editions/Avatar, 2000. Original version of "Transit" appears on the album Écrire Fait du Bruit).

As usual, Vicki held her book unopened as she sat in the underground tunnel waiting for her train. Her long skirt had gotten slightly twisted when she sat down, but she liked the way it felt tight around her legs. She began thinking about her boyfriend Tom, and the way he always made her feel stupid by turning her words against her. She looked with a glazed stare across the open tracks to the white tile wall before her. She began to focus on the grey grouting between tiles. At first she could only think of the grout as a small substance between the large and orderly tiles, but after a while she began to see it as a massive interconnected object surrounding thousands of tiles. Minutes passed. Finally her train approached. As the train stopped, Vicki quickly lifted her skirt to her knee, removed the safety chain and boarded the train in the space between cars.

Genrecide (I Wish Tricky'd Die Any Way I Hope)

Track description for "Genrecide (I Wish Tricky'd Die Any Way I Hope)," by Terre Thaemlitz, from the compilation Modulation & Transformation 4 (Germany: Mille Plateaux, 1999).

She is in the back seat. All she can think about on the way home are the numbers. 26.25 cash divided by 15 compact discs is 1.75 each. 15 times 2.10 is 31.50 in trade. Using an average original cost of 11, she calculates the cash rate is close to 16 percent, and the trade rate is close to 19 percent. She tries to devise a formula to offset possible gain from the higher trade rate by including the probability of reselling whatever purchases she made using trade credit. Now they have stopped in his driveway. She aligns herself directly behind the driver's seat, and makes her body rigid. The back of the driver's seat rises high and conceals him completely, except for an opening in the headrest through which she can see the back of his head. His short hair fills the hole completely. She considers the aesthetics of his hair and the seat as that of a texture in a picture frame. She decides it is not pleasing enough. She imagines she is in the driver's seat, and pictures seeing the back of her own head through the headrest. She is only tall enough for her head to fill the lower quarter of the hole. She gazes at the control panel and estimates the tank reads 89 percent empty. A click of the ignition key, followed by the click of the stereo being turned on, matches the timing of harsh chaos rhythms that rattle the speakers. She accelerates with headlights shining in search of a stunned deer in the road, like spotlights shining in the eyes of her favorite pop star. She wishes to grant the star the ultimate negation promissed in lyrics that multiply her emotions by elevens of millions, uniting them in a mangled wreck of screaming meat, machinery and fire. With a sudden jolt she finds herself still sitting rigidly in the back seat, the attentive audience to a soft tone whispering "door ajar," and realizes he has gone inside.

She's Hard

Track description for "She's Hard," by Terre's Neu Wuss Fusion (US: Comatonse Recordings, 1998).

A smiling stranger's blow
dragging blood across her cheek
and her stretching not to taste the spit upon her face
 
recalls
 
a smiling stranger's kiss dragging lipstick across her cheek
and her stretching to taste
the spit upon her face

Pretty Mouth (He's Got One)

Track description for "Pretty Mouth (He's Got One)," by Terre Thaemlitz (US: Comatonse Recordings, 1997).

A sudden awkwardness of pause in conversation
rushed to like an inadequate facial expression
or a cheek colliding with open lips

Liquid Evolution (Sinking Canoe)

Track description for "Liquid Evolution (Sinking Canoe Remix)," by Terre Thaemlitz, remix of "Liquid Evolution" by Adham Shaikh, from the compilaton Ambient Intermix (US: Instinct Ambient, 1995).

A sunken body laying amongst the rocks, gazing upward through the waves of moss, anticipating the arrival of a sinking vessel and its promise of navigation.

Raw Through A Straw

Track description for "Raw Through A Straw," by Comatonse.000 (US: Comatonse Recordings, 1993).

He is troubled by his oddly displaced excitement
in witnessing the birth of a world
where the only cum safe for his ingestion is his own

Tranquilizer (Track)

Track description for "Tranquilizer," by Comatonse.000 (US: Comatonse Recordings, 1993).

"Emerging from the couds a sixth time
The moon floods the lilac fields with icy blue light"

Suddenly finding herself laying with her neck on the damp soil
peering at the stars through a web of violet thistles
she can't help feeling betrayed by the specificity and banality of the liner notes