PZYK PRODUCTION LINE is a Static Gallery project, intiated by Paul Sullivan and presented in collaboration with Clinic as part of the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia.
Bumping into Paul on Bold Street, he asked if I would be interested in being one of the artists creating live mixes from feeds pulled from every space in the Festival, including the street and bar area.
The set up was simple - microphones fed back to an upstairs mixer and artists could control which of the live sounds were played through the four speakers in that space. Four cassette recorders mounted in the middle of the space then captured the lo-fi bleed of sounds. These cassettes became instantly available to purchase as audio snapshots from the Festival.
During a twelve-hour stint, the project attracted much attention. Some attendees came up to the stall out of curiosity, perhaps with a political-personal craving for the one-off that, once purchased, removed the possibility of anybody else owning that audio snapshot of the festival. This was not the Internet with unlimited copies of every minute of every room. Some bought a cassette (£3 for C20, £6 for C40/C60) without even wanting to listen to it.
PZYK PRODUCTION LINE created a form of Reynold's franciticy but in the analogue world. This was archiving, box-setting and historicising literally within seconds of the live event being over. But more than a standard 'bootleg', this was about hearing the Festival through (a) other peoples ears and (b) cassettes.
The Saturday was also National Cassette Store Day and it was fascinating to watch people of all ages handle, fondle and fiddle with brightly coloured cassettes. The most common comment (to me) was "that's a cool idea" which perhaps suggests a dearth of ideas elsewhere across the festival, in favour of the spectacle or quasi-1967 immersive communal sonic experience.
Static puts artists in positions and demands/expects that
they do what they do best, namely create new content. PZYK PRODUCTION LINE is the latest in a line of Static projects that aspire and conspire to
break open the mechanics
of not only institutions but the culture that
those institutions trade on. Static is an x-ray machine meets journalist. They invited artists to give tutorials to
architecture students and to review Degree Shows. During 2012 they curated Bill
Drummond's Curfew Tower in a manner that
negated presumptions around previous artworks made there.
Static remains one of the most, if not the most, vital components in Liverpool.
The fact that it emerged in the RAY + JULIE year of 1995 in Liverpool is
but one facet to explore in future.
Fuzztones Bad news travels fast
Dream Syndicate When you smile
The Point All my life
Clay Allison Fell from the sun
Echo & The Bunnymen Thorn of crowns
Jesus & Mary Chain Never understand
The Nomads Have love will travel
Clinic Distortions
Nancy Sinatra Sugar town
The Chiffons Nobody knows what's going on in my mind except me
After the Museum of silence, there exists a 2'33" mix of noise from psychfest.
In a spirit of cross-polination.
Top ten psych fuzz tracks, adapted from the original Green on red:
