Various ‎– Three Minute Symphony [2xLP] (1984, X Tract)

'The Elephant Table Album' and 'Three Minute Symphony' were put out by music journalist Dave Henderson on his label X Tract, the only two releases he ever did. Henderson was well known at the time for writing about some of the more difficult music of the early 1980s, an era rife with electro-experimentation and open to a certain level of arty weirdness, and that’s reflected by the artists he involved in his two projects. The premise of 'Three Minute Symphony' adds an extra level of difficulty for the artists, as each was asked to submit a piece of roughly three minutes in length. For some that may have been stretching their normal song length, but for others the idea of something as short as a radio-friendly three minutes was probably a challenge.

Some tracks like Kill Ugly Pop’s “Let’s Get Real Gone” aren’t that far out there, though follow that with Ptose’s “Waiting For My Soul” and you might start to re-evaluate your own mental stability. This is one of those records you could break down track-by-track, because there’s something unique and different waiting for you around each and every corner. If there’s a common thread here it’s simply the lack of mainstream-ism in general -even the songs with more typical structures, for example Human Flesh’s “L’Ultima Storia”, have their own unique strangeness, that intangible quality guaranteed to keep them as far off the charts as humanly possible. 

 

Perhaps the songs aren’t as “out there” as those on other comps, but more likely the short track durations (the longest song is 3:52, the shortest 1:58) keeps engaged even when faced with the daunting prospect of DDAA’s “Your Mother With A Cake”. Definitely a worth-while pick-up if you find it and want to explore some of the weirder corners of the early 1980s. Unfortunately unlike it’s predecessor 'Elephant Table' this one never go the CD re-release treatment, so vinyl (or an online rip) is the only way to hear it. [SOURCE: LIFE IN THE VINYL LANE] 

 

 

Label: X Tract ‎– XX002, X Tract ‎– Xx002 

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation 

Country: UK 

Released: 1984 

Style: Noise, Experimental, Industrial, Post-Punk, Minimal Synth

 

Tracklist:

A1 – Kill Ugly Pop Let's Get Real Gone 3:45 

A2 – Ptose Waiting For My Soul 3:30 

A3 – Trax Trax Co Mix 1 3:12 

A4 – Die Todliche Doris Maria 2:45 

A5 – Van Kaye And Ignit A Slice Of The Action 3:30 

A6 – Bene Gesserit White Men 3:10 

B1 – Colin Potter The State 2:57 

B2 – Subject  L'Ultima Storia 3:20 

B3 – DDAA Your Mother With A Cake 3:10 

B4 – Point Of Collapse When Worlds Collide 3:10 

B5 – David Jackman Wolf (Part 2) 3:05 

B6 – Sema Untitled 3:20 

C1 – Hunting Lodge Tribal Warning Shot 2:58 

C2 – Roll Kommando Die Romantik Ist Tot 3:00 

C3 – Stratis I Fotia 2:58 

C4 – Merzbow Xa-Bungle 3:10 

C5 – Philip Johnson Always Behind You 1:58 

C6 – Conrad Schnitzler Three Minute Symphony No 1 3:00 

D1 – Nagamatzu Bird, Spider, Fly 3:05 

D2 – Hurt Money Matters 3:20 

D3 – Nurse With Wound Antacid Cocamotive 93 3:50 

D4 – Legendary Pink Dots No Bell, No Prize 3:52 

D5 – Asmus Tietchens Dahinter Industriegelande 3:10 

D6 – Smegma The Breathing Method 3:00 

 

Notes:

24 track compilation album in gatefold sleeve. 

B2 is by mistake credited to Human Flesh, while it's a track by Subject. 

 

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