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"A hidden masterpiece." - Losing Today A solo electronic release from black tape for a blue girl's Sam Rosenthal.
Includes a bonus fifteen minute CD-ROM track of Sam's video art, for the track fragments of benediction
Projekt and Black tape for a blue girl's founder Sam Rosenthal had his musical beginnings in electronic music before there were genre names like "electronica." Back in 1986 -- without sequencers, samplers, or MIDI for stringing together computers and keyboards -- Rosenthal was experimenting with the creation of instrumental music synchronously warm and ominous. Playing with the shape of sounds in a totally "hands-on" manner, Rosenthal pioneered a style close to the post-prog work of Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno.
* Originally recorded in 1986, simultaneous with the rope, black tape for a blue girl's debut. * Before The Buildings Fell has previously only been available on a rare, limited cassette release, making it a sought-after underground classic. * This is the first time B>Before The Buildings Fell appears on CD; the original master tapes were carefully re-mastered for this release by Rosenthal.
Dave - of Lexicon Magazine - writes: "This is not synthpop, although it is entirely synthetic, nor is it strictly ‘goth’ or 4AD, although it does have elements of both. It recalls Philip Glass and has echoes of This Mortal Coil's instrumental passages."
Sam comments: "This cd represents the sort of 'hidden side' of my music, where I can explore through electronic sounds rather than focusing on the words and lyrics. I'm actually quite pleased that people who only know of my work with black tape are giving me such positive feedback on this release. It has been dormant for so long and it is nice to see that people appreciate it all these years later."
Sam Rosenthal's work as Black Tape For A Blue Girl has always resonated from the caverns of his heart and soul, as both the music and the liner notes for this re-release from 1986 attest. Recorded concurrently with the rope (Black Tape's first album), Before the buildings fell is a shining example of post-prog / pre-electronica electronics, and Rosenthal's underappreciated ambient efforts. Without sequencers and samplers to simplify the process, Rosenthal and his contemporaries labored in a profoundly hands-on environment, proving that, even in this age of machines, art remains in the hands of the artists. Sounding rather like Steve Roach's earliest work, Before suggests a photo album of memories before the bombs fell, an apt metaphor for the demise of a relationship. Artists enjoy the rare opportunity to purge their pain through their art, and the majority of the tracks here apparently went a long way toward bridging the gap between suffering and healing. The 15-minute CD-ROM track for "Fragments of Benediction" is like a blissful tether to bygone happiness. "The Room" is a more eerie and ghostly track, but melancholy and longing are the dominant themes here and Rosenthal's gift for bringing this to bear makes for a work of lasting quality. -Mark Burbey