Intersystems – “Intersystems” – [Alga Marghen]

Thurston Hunger   2/5/2016   12-inch, A Library

A spectrum spectacle from max’d mixed media men, Toronto late 60’s,
produced more than just this triple vinyl hippy trip-trek. There were
installations and tactile rooms and sculptures, all long gone but are
ears are still there thanks to this Alga Marghen release. Noise
concrete chopped with early Moog movements and analog achievements
courtesy of John Mills-Cockell. Draped in tapes, especially those
capturing the poetry of Blake Parker (stark intoning, with a delivery
like a Dalek narrating Fractured Fairytales.) Parker’s poems fix
your attention, not so much with their content but with their
clipped delivery (and the clipped feeling of a Dream Machine
splicing sentences together). That being said there is a sort
post-modern attack on “Number One” (Ezra Pound and T.S.
Eliot are summoned, but then so is the sound of the air
conditioner). On “the second lp, Peachy” that’s where the
fairytale dust was sprinkled in with the LSD, at times more grim
than the Brothers Grimm. Guns appears and you know what
happens when they do in fiction. Parker with an odd cadence
concludes vignettes prounouncing a malediction of sorts
“The story has been told it is ended; it is the end.” On the
third record, “Free Psychedelic Poster Inside” a comic book
romance/tragedy/assembly line soap opera is unveiled and
an actual cut-up comic accompanies this glorious package.

Altogether ear-bending explorations that have fared well
and will transfix the grandchildren of hippies tuning in today
via KFJC and dropping out of the internet for a bit Whether
played raw (you feel some of the chains rattling and taped
vox humana warpage best that way) or cooked up in a modern
method with our samples layered on top.

KFJC was lucky to have the Cortical Foundations first pass at
gathering some of this material (less lucky was Cortical founder
Gary Todd as discussed in artist Tom Recchion’s contribution
to the massive liner book included.) The full liner experience
sort of torpedo’d my enjoyment after a first pure listen, but it
connects dots to artists known and not (KFJC has neither
Syrinx nor Kensington Market but youtube beckons one),
Reading all those liners I hit a kind of headache harmony of
the gospels. But I’m sure people connected to the scene at
that time will appreciate a flashback today to the flashbacks of
yesterday.

The sounds were clearly ahead of their time, and I suspect this
record will be a favorite dipped into off and on for years to come.
-Thurston Hunger