[CP 199.20 CD] Roberts Owen, Steve Tittle; Immature Oocytes, (One Of The) Merely Players

November 2023; coming up on the 20th "CP 199.XX" title, I'd like to take a moment to point out the raw, socialized patience I've had in dealing with all of these otherwise "Questionable" titles, capped off here by possibly the most patience-trying entrant yet (which, in a bizarre twist of fate & in the spirit of full disclosure, features two titles I nominated myself; take that cabal!) Much like the CP 199.10 pairing of the two South African titles by Hans Rosenschoon & Gerald LaPierre (which seems to have been oddly popular) this "Two-for-One" set combines two actually-unrelated-yet-aesthetically-linked titles (one of "Music for tape, acoustic/electronic instruments, and voice" & one of ostensibly home-recorded "Prog").

Recorded by the keyboardist of the Indianapolis-based Free Jazz / Prog band Maelstrom (whose 1975 Private "Paradigms" has its moments) between 1979 & 1981 & issued, similarly, privately on his own Mortsleam imprint, "Immature Oocytes" has, from the outside looking in, all of the trademarks of an early Creel Pone banger: per-song equipment list (mentioning brand-names as a pride-point: Moog, Korg, Arp) with effects explicity listed as "Instruments" (Ring Modulator, "Ondes Sol Digital Audio Processor") & the ever-present reach for canonic art forms ("Homage a Max Ernst", indeed). It's a fascinating blend of improvisations, tape-music experiments, and blown-out room recordings, bathed in the ever-present glow of studio trickery (in this regard it most resembles the various self-released LPs by Bob Downes).

The following year, up in Halifax, the Canadian composer Steve Tittle began recording the pieces that would make up "(One Of The) Merely Players;" in his words: 

"This album contains studio versions of a few of the pieces that i perform in my solo concerts. Some of the instruments used are Korg and Arp synthesizers, trumpet, flugelhorn, bamboo sax, broken-down guitar, and various percussion. The tape was produced in my home studio and at the Experimental Sound Studio of the Dalhousie Music Department. It was recorded on TEAC 4 and 8-track machines and mixed with a TEAC model 5 mixer to a TEAC 35-2 half track deck. It was entirely a one-man operation."

With a statement like that you can't go wrong, and in fact it's a neat mix of styles & attitudes, closely recalling similar energies from Glenn Williams's "Who Says Birds..." LP ([CP 208 CD]). Taken together, these two, again, completely independent (in terns of both geography & framework) suites of Electronic Music share a similar outlook, and the outcomes both benefit from a one-man-against-the-world ethos that should be familiar by followers of the series thus far...

Comes in a nice glossy six-panel booklet recreating all of the setail from both LPs in micro-miniature; closing out this series (for now) on a high note!