The Collected Views from the Archivist's Chair
or Last Knockings
As published in parts as the Reducer Website is Re-Born & Is Growing
No.1 Feb 2020 "The view from the Archivist's Chair" or Last Knockings... these may be the ramblings of a sick old fart, I dont really care - there's no problem - I don't feel that I'm going back to the past as part of some midlife crisis, this past was never really glorious except to us and the hardcore of our fans & I'm too old and fucked up for a midlife anything - we just got on with business- the same approach we took to everything - do it all..do it now..do it hard..do it well..do it all again and again - til your ears bleed and fingers cramp into claws.. you can hear the raw energy in some of the tracks that's just spot on - really caught the power we created live - huge walls of noise - put all the instruments on 11 then put echo & phase & more echo backwards then get on it and it's heh-ho let's go - out of the fucking way - Reducer coming through! Well full on!...getting back to now, what I'm hoping is to put some of it out there, most of it has been in storage for 30 - 40 years - I guess its happening now because it had to happen at some point, there's too much good here to stay in a box....maybe I should have done this and done that but here I am doing it now that's all it is - and listening to the tracks again with that kind of hindsight gives a perspective & appreciation of what we actually did achieve - we don't have old albums or even a very gig oriented history, but when we did gig, you better watch out..and it got remembered - true not by many, but that's part of what makes this ok now. Time to say just before you fade off into senility - I did this...and it's shit hot. It's an old mans privilege - time. Never really had any before as I was too busy getting fucked up..now I am too fucked up to do anything well..apart from press some buttons...anyway, I'm enjoying the music for reminding me why I was living at a thousand miles an hour and why we needed to make a noise while we were doing it..we were necessary - possibly more now - the state of.. oh dont get me started! Retro Spex! Bollocks to all that. Why do I care if anyone reads this microcosmic paranoid shit. I don't know why is the answer.. am I clutching for a last desperate gasp of meaning from my ill spent past? While we're pondering that I am listening to Sleng Teng Reducer Stylee! Fuck about! Its balls out from the start and it doesn't stop till we say so! Proper big Reducer sound - huge track of joy & energy...Some of it is tough going..Hearing how full on obsessive on I was - mixing the fuck out of things - 5 mixes or more, of the same track. .and hearing now for the first time maybe, clearly, when it hits destruction and when it's just right ...I couldn't tell at the time, well I probably could, but I didn't care...and I had no brakes - no one to say loud enough "your killing it & lost the point" ..or I wasn't listening more like! that's the trouble with talent it's self obsessed...that's it's nature but it sucks you in stroking your ego til you look round one day and your alone ..classic nihilism...what can you do? Damned if you do damned if you don't...maybe that's why I'm doing this...who knows? I'd like to think not but then I would wouldn't I? Aw fuck it - print & be damned.
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No.2 March 2020 "The view from the Archivist's Chair" or Last Knockings..When I started this process I knew it would be in some way a typically Reducer experience - wild full on stream of memories mixing with wild full on music - the incredible appearance of a long lost photo - bringing new found energy, time hopefully a new perspective - certainly different - but familiar..the intertwining gestalts spinning into madlebrots of sound and vision - cascading over the precipice into a pool of creation where Reducer were born and still exist, in the ether that still wraps itself around those who were part of it. I hoped perhaps at beginning to lay down a mark, a reflection of something that encompasses all that we did and were, but now I know that's not what's needed..its become more again, by growing in the usual Reducer way - never the way you think - always with brilliant inexplicable seemingly random input or mistakes that change the direction totally- resisting all attempts to define and explain, it will not be tied down and that's why we did it and in our way still do. I of course approached it with my usual totality and obsessive fine tuning & micro management - it's all part of it, as was the excessive lifestyles, the certainty of purpose and of core beliefs. Here is all All is here - what is here is elsewhere - what is not here is nowhere...Reducer Creator Destroyer
No.3 April 2020 "The view from the arthritics chair - or arch critics or archivist's chair" or Last Knockings....As the veneer of democracy fades...what a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into! Now comes the rule of the absurd & reactionary ..arbitrary decisions made by people so stupid they don't know how stupid they are..tis a ship of fools and headed for the rocks dear brother & sisters...and so it is with haste I go hence and deliver unto the people righteous psalms and the sound of horns triumphant..Rejoice Rejoicer Reducer - methinks tis time for that vast leviathan..that colossal titan of joy & wonder... Killer. Well we re-launched and after a small but nevertheless seriously irritating hour or so the website got up & has started to walk - I'd like to report to our Stakeholders that site traffic has increased by 1550% - most Globecorp's would eat their Mother for that - so Rejoice here - Rejoicer Reducer...where would we be without those kindly patient souls who withstood the onslaught of being attached to Reducer in full flow - the quiet one's..who chose to drive us to gig's - tolerated our extreme behaviour - gave of themselves freely - generously, kindly and saintly in their patience - Salutations and Praises good people & Thank You.. So it had to happen! Playing with 30+ Year old cassettes, one had to snap...so I had to splice it back together- I haven't done that for 30+ years - mad - taking the cassette body apart and getting both spools the right way round then keep each spool in its place within the plastic shell and.. then..fucking it up as a long curly ribbon goes spooling across the floor - took me an hour to wind the tape back onto the spools ..then I had to cut out about a 9" section as it was crinkled and weak, it took 3 goes to get the whole thing back together and....The splice is in perfect time! Still got those magic skills that appear to be just luck but happen so often I think it must be instinctive subconscious skill or divine intervention by the great Universal Spirit...and now my little droogies it's time for my Hot SynthoChock - the old Moloko with Angels Singing and..."Oh sleep...oh gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse" WM Shakespear Henry IV part 2 - it's been emotional.
No.4 May 2020 "The view from the Archivist's Chair" or Last Knockings..Greetings & Salutations My Brothers & Sisters, Welcome Welcome Welcome To This Most Splendid of Visboutiks & What a Great Big Slice of Slooshy Cake We Have My Little Droogies..Angel Trumpets and Devil Trombones - Hear all Cascade, and Shatter Like Mirrors, Tinkle Tinkle..Flash Flash and Being All Like Peace and Glim and Like Free! So, My Lovely Dvotchkas & Malchicks, Here I am on my oddy knocky & Having a Horrorshow Time Slooshying All The Gorgosity and Like Red Red Reducer Flowing and Trust Me Oh My Brothers & Sisters What a Wondrous Explosion of Like Energy and Truth it is. So Lovely People We have Given of Ourselves ...We Hope You Enjoy REBORN & REPOSSESSED. Although this Represents a Large Portion of the Archive, Do Not Fret as There Are Still Other Tracks to Come, As Well As More Tracks from The Human Aerial....Kick Back and Let Your Souls Feed on the Delicacies and Good Home Cooking that is REDUCER and The Fruits of our Audio Odyssey.....I have removed the T-shirts and I'm stopping the "Merchandise opportunities" on the website as it seems only to serve as a reminder that quite a lot of my creativity goes unnoticed and or unrewarded, no one has even inquired about any of it in months. I'm not trying to make money but I can't offer it for free and I don't need a reminder of how little people are interested, I know when I'm beat, so it's time to hang it up. The Product 12" ep will stay on sale til my contract with Paypal is up - Then it will be deleted - You have been warned. Thankfully the Website in General is doing alright so I'll continue to put my energies into this - a bit like concentrating on the league when you've been knocked out of the cup. Champion!
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No.5 June 2020 "The View from The Archivists Chair" or Last Knockings.....Happiness - Happiness - The Greatest Gift That We Possess. Oh Frabjous Day!...What's it going to be then eh? Some of the old up & down, Fortune & Infamy - Pockylockets Swollen with Pretty Polly or Riptorn Old Rags Laden with Filth - it Matters Not Boys & Girls, For We Came Into This Life With Nowt & With Nowt We Will Go Out - But Wait! What's this? A Manifestation of Pure Life Energy, Blessed by Providence, Chance & Circumstance - was Born, and from this Nebulaic Cloud, Forming & Reforming, Shape Shifting - Absorbed this & Dissolved that - Gathered Knowledge, Skills & Senses Enough to Achieve Cohesion via the Electromagnetic Fields of The Ether, so that for a few years there became an outlet for this Pure Shining Life Energy - Reducer. That Such a Momentary Flash of Passion & Energy Left an Impression 35 Years Later is only as Astonishing as it is Obvious - We Were, For Those Few Golden Years, Where It Was At. Not Arrogance - just Happy, Lucky and Grateful That We Were Blessed Thus. To make the Music We Did Was Nothing Short of Possession - by The One True Spirit - Life, Not Because We Were So Good But That The Others Were So Bad.
No.6 July - September '20 "The View from The Archivists Chair" or Last Knockings.....Greetings & Salutations one & all...The Sweet Summer Sun Shines upon the Righteous & the Evil Alike, but for These Few Brief Months - Where it's Been Shining on Our Ass! Nothing Short of a Reducer Renaissance has/is Happening ..We are Overjoyed, Humbled, Vindicated & We are Grateful - Thank You Lovely People - All of You Around the World Who Have Been Listening to Our Music. Reducer never sought overt recognition via popular media or indeed needed it - however it gives me a lovely squishy feeling in my guttywutts brothers & sisters - to see and read the emails, and the amount of plays our music is getting around the world, my heart grows a little stronger every time a new person joins the website, so far have been rewarded with listeners in 17 Countries and growing! Something that would have never happened whilst we were a band. I would like to think this 'Reducer Renaissance' is reflective of our Determination, Endurance and Spirit. When I started this Adventure into the Web & the Digitisation of the Archive, My Main Goal was to Publish & Present a Tangible 'Record of our Body of Work' via the Website for our Music, Art, Tattoo's and Beliefs, and not much more to be honest, it was enough that our Music and Ideals were 'out there' if people wanted to access them...I really didn't expect so much attention and interest. Whilst my Confidence and Belief in what We Achieved has Never Waned or been in Need of Bolstering by Recognition, it is Very Flattering. Reducer was and is all about The Celebration of Life - All Life - Everywhere and Everywhen. Pure Life Energy Coursed Through our Veins and Found it's Outlet Through our Music - Rejoicer Reducer - Dance into the Apocalypse - Dance with Death and Life - Hand in Hand - Turning Forever Burning - In Death There is Life - In life There is Death - This is what made Reducer Possible - We Allowed Pure Life Energy to Manifest and Resonate - and Ultimately it has Allowed You to Become Part of the Freedom and Happiness it Brings - Play our Music as Loud as You Can and Really Listen to it - So You Don't Miss One Note of The Sound of Love, Let it Flow Through and Over You As it Did Us.
No. 7 October - November '20 "The View from The Archivists Chair" or Last Knockings.....or The View from the Alchemist's Chair.
Forces & Sources of Forces - Signs of Signs - Pure Life Energy Made Manifest - There is a Force at Work Here ...the Secret Truth of the Universe Unlocked & Unimpeded, is Filling the Void with Light & Dark - a Small Whisper of an Idea or the Raging Face of Armageddon - both are Heeded & Welcomed - This Eternal Truth... the most Ancient & Purest of All Truths, Universal Immortality, to Coagulate the Swirling Liquid of Human Existence into Pure Moments, Crystallised into - New Metal New Sinew New Fire New Life - For we are Blessed - Blessed from the Stars and the Earth - Blessed by the Sun & the Moon - Blessed by Every Atom Everywhere - These Forces & Signs - Have been made Manifest by the Witness & Testament of The Brotherhood of Reducer, so that others may Transmigrate & Realise their Oneness with the Universe...and are now to be Released afresh.... the Wind of Knives that cuts to the Bone of Truth is not Painful but Cleansing, The One True Liberation - Freedom of the Soul through the Truth of Infinity - How it lifts the Veil of Physical & Egotistical Vanity and the Ether of Confusion Spread by Untrue fogs & Unworthy worship. It is happening here now - Photographs given years ago - with no Immediate or apparent use - Suddenly Become Perfect Images for Creative Moments that have only Occurred in the Last Few weeks - melding with those that were Started over 40 years ago - the Metaphysical Processes Created Space for these things - Captured Flashbacks within Flashbacks become The Perfect Final Image of a Film made 40 years before ..or the Background to a Record Sleeve that took 35 years to Realise - Circles Within Circles Within Circles...this is Birth, Life & Rebirth - in Front of Your Eyes - Reducer..
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There are moments within memory loss when you thank fuck you can't remember the name of say... a pair of proper cunts - or half a riff and then after half an hour comes the trauma when you do remember, it was Hall & Oates. Why are those 2 pigfuckers in my head? Why? Or I'll see some radio 2 'deejay' story and praise be I can't remember his name but just as your giving thanks the fucks name comes swanning out from your "memory"! Why does my brain remember shit I want to forget - it must be some form of trauma or something why does my brain not remember what I just want to write down, random mind impressions via exposure to certain frequencies of Shit.. Brainwashing!..finally! AHG! for fucksake ...oh fuck I'm fucked - Heed Me Children of the Revolution - do not grow old as those before you have, as I indeed am doing, but perhaps not for much longer - burn twice as bright for half as long...I watched family & friends go through years of appalling decay for no good reason- with a complete lack of dignity - that can't be right. We have to learn to deal with death as we do birth - embrace it! For there is no death - only A Change of Worlds. Take it from me folks getting old is overrated. Mostly it's just self disgust and boredom if you're lucky enough to have food, bed & shelter....
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April 2021 Last Knockings or "The View from the Archivists Chair"....Fuck Me! When the shit hits the Fan Man... It's been quite awhile since I wrote this section last and safe to say an entire Ocean of water has passed under the bridge...6 months ago I was ready to say "I am content with life at the moment" - not words that have passed my lips on many occasions in 60 years, but of course, life has a way of soon sorting out any happiness pretty damn quickly when it has it in mind so to do. .and thus while getting the EP produced, mastered & art sorted, I lost a very good, kind & close friend, Pete, he was for 3 months, back with us at least in mind & spirit, but ultimately it was not be & this was his change of Worlds - Pete was generous enough to leave me some money on strict terms that it be used for funding Reducer & T.H.A. projects and I used part of it to help make the EP the Best Reducer record I could and to realise getting the Video Film - "A Change of Worlds" which I made back in 82 - 85, and that was used by us as the Reducer video projected Lightshow, and on stage TV Video, restored and made into a cohesive film, which had been a dream since I made it.
I am so happy the record has come out as well as it could have - I'm so deeply sad my friend died while I was doing it. It was a wild & exhausting ride of dichotomy & amped up highs & lows, which due to having spent most of my life as a "rodeo rider" I managed - as another rite of passage & the true power of life & Death - Creation & Destruction - the True Reducer Path - it tested my body a great deal - it also spurred on my spirit to achieve an exactitude in making the record we would have made - remaining as always true to our roots - there was an obligation to make an authentic 80's sleeve - in colour, was very important - (if you remember) the 80's saw the introduction of & access to full colour copying - not an opportunity as artists, we would have spurned, especially as I worked at a High St Printers & Photocopy shop for a day job a) to pay bill's & b) to get art & promo done for.. ahem, I also knew it all had to be good enough to "pull it off" - 35 years later - to match the music & keep it fresh but "retro" - I know what I would have been like back in 88, "this sleeves gotta be colourful & in your face Reducer but self deprecating using distortion and messing with the images like we do with sound" Fuck Me! Are we retro? Fuck that shit. We are Redro! Redoosa, Read you sir, Red user, Reducer - upon reflection my children the sudden impact of a tragic life changing event for my friend, focused my mind, I couldn't save my friend or give him hope for a future either, in the end, but I managed to do what he asked and what was absolutely necessary - and to do it right. I am happy that I've achieved that & trust me, happiness & I are not close acquaintances, in recent decades particularly, and so I relieve my deep sense of loss & grieving by being content that I did a job well & fulfilled both the promise of a dying man & the dream of an old fart.
Many years ago on my road to find firstly, rock bottom & then sobriety - I came across a piece of AA cod philosophy - worthy only because it is a Universal Truth, it was this... "Feel Happy? don't worry, it'll pass" Now I don't stand for no 12 step goose stepping teatotalitarianists and they're suitcases of guilt & amends - it did nothing for me, but in doing nothing, made me realise the real force for change lies within. I found my sobriety my way - inside me, and that's where I found the strength to deal with the last six months - to know love, joy & passion, you must know hate, sadness & dispassion equally. Learn this to use the anger and sadness as an energy - focus it and the truth will become clear...as will the path of action. Rest in Peace All My Departed Friends...I'll use my memories of you to help guide me through & fight the good fight - We must move forward...to the Past. Until We meet again. As for you lot - well - there is a buzz about - a buzz unfelt for decades - I have to admit to a small feeling of pride - not a feeling or emotion I'm comfortable with & smacks of self congratulatory vanity & conceit - but I think - I hope - the originality, integrity and passion of our music transcends that enough to ensure when your listening to Reducer your listening to music that speaks the truth & does it in an original, unique style. Reducer Stylee.
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Everything is true in some sense, false in some and meaningless in another sense. A working knowledge of this concept is a useful tool for staying relaxed. For example, if somebody say's something about you that is untrue, you should not get upset, regardless of whether you consider the statement positive or negative. Its is true in the sense that it is what one person believes to be true about you; it is that individuals truth. It is false in the sense that it does not represent your truth. It is meaningless in the sense that it does not change who you are; your identity is independent - so Fuck 'Em All!
June '21 The View from the Archivists Chair.....Bless our little socks - Sisters & Brothers....If your sitting comfortably then I'll begin, because of the nature of true randomness - meaning you were as likely to hear the same album 10 times in a day as only once, Apple, when launching a new iplayer said "we've made it less random so it sounds more random" - think about that - not just that true randomness is exactly that, but that it makes you feel uncomfortable to the point were the software company in knowing this, adjusts reality too fit to your understanding of what randomness is, so therefore adjusts your life so you feel more comfortable whilst pretending to be random because you are so far removed from feeling comfortable that the universe & everything in it is random. Does that make you feel uncomfortable? What other "features" do they change to make your life "more comfortable"?
All of them dummy. These multibillion dollar IT & software corporation's know what you eat, wear, how you travel & where & when- they know everything you've ever done on the internet. Your private email is private to you, sure- but it's also private to them. Read the small print.
You think any corporation and or government in the world isn't going to use this vast database of information to enable greater powers & control and a give them a direct line into as many citizens lives as possible? Personalisation of adverts and information is but a box ticking exercise. The more you rely on your phone the more intimate the parasitic bloodsuckers get..I had personal experience of this- even though I take stringent measures to keep my private life private whilst dealing with a)the possible long term need for 24 hour care for a stroke victim & b) dealing with making funeral arrangements for my friend. During both or these events when I used apps that have ads - the ads became by no means with my permission, (or so I thought!) focused on services & businesses that deal with these events - a complete capitalist intrusion into my private life & grief ! There is no low to which they will not stoop to ensure you stay within reach and ensure your digital fingerprint is as up to date & in depth as possible. Do you feel comfortable with that? If you do you may as well sign a piece of paper allowing Corporations & Governments to access every part of your life, oh, you already have. Still feel comfortable? Now the time has come and gone where action could have been taken, and hysterically all the Cunts who are responsible & are now saying they are changing! Yes, of course you are dear... Humanity is finally really starting to notice it's inevitable slide into oblivion and I'll tell you what I'll be doing, Sitting & laughing at the slow motion train crash that is humanity's slow but inexorable collapse into dust, I must say I'm having rather a good time...Laughing at the TV Coverage of floods in Europe - now it's affecting white middleclass westerners they are getting awfully worried suddenly! HA! TOO LATE FUCKWIT. We spoke up 40+ years ago for change and there was none - We were vilified & dismissed as treehuggers, crusties, druggies & ne'r do wells...well who's laughing now you fat fucking western gut bucket knuckle dragging monobrow cunts? I hope your grandchildren & theirs get cholera and no clean water or food - a plague on all your houses motherfuckers. You've done so much to deserve this, killed & oppressed so many, destroyed so much wild habitat and polluted the oceans so badly....I won't, sadly, be around to still be laughing in your face over the next & last 100 years (if you have that long) but trust me fuckers, you'll hear me in your head every night you try to go to sleep - laughing at your misery, pain, guilt and long overdue Extinction.
Anyway Children of the non Revolution, that's the end of this chapter so it's time for me to say goodbye til the next exciting instalment of "The View from the Archivists Chair" same Reducer time Same Reducer Channel.
The View from the Archivists Chair - Jan 2022
Yay there was a great wailing & gnashing of teeth - and the multitude did run around screaming "the sky is falling" - Well Wakey Wakey me old chummy wummies - IT IS! There's a War on you know! - Now buck up & keep strong - many are the obstacles in the path of the righteous, all can be overcome with the our greatest tool - LOVE. Love of life - Love of Death - for the two are the same - as with all things - equal but different.
As the Planetary balance is currently unequal and following the the 2nd law of Thermodynamics it will only increase in its imbalance until a point of entropy whereupon the scales will rebalance- it is somewhat unfortunate we find ourselves in the unwilling but guilty position of watching the beginning of the end of this imbalance being tipped by our own hand toward inevitable oblivion of humankind - there is nothing we can do but watch the pornography of humankinds last death orgy of high level IT & lo level basic care for any other thing than themselves & shed tears of joy because our eyes have seen the glory of coming of the end! ...Pah! Jumped up stonechippers - what passes for civilisation has begun to disintegrate & fail - it is our lot to carry - our burden, to witness this beginning, an honour to see humanity fail, it is our fault after all.
I can only curse at being too old to see the finale...or am I?
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May 2024
The view from the archivist chair - or where the fuck have you been? welly welly Well my brothers & sisters - it been a long time since I've been in position to write anything, due in main to illness & playing catch up when not so ill - I have missed the opportunity to lay it on the line & tell you what's good for you. A lot has happened with Reducer & The Human Aerial, culminating in the masterly eponymous 12" ep - followed by the creation & mini tour of screenings of the miraculous film REDUCER RE》ANIMATED - I'm afraid as a test of my health & wellbeing it took its toll & I have been recovering since. Close friends have passed onto other worlds, and little old me has finally got what I I've wanted since 1976 - a solo record - just when we had drained the coffers of cutter, along came a benevolent friend of the band and myself to ensure the Holy Hooly Trinity of 3 x12" records was made manifest. Its most disconcerting to live such a juxtaposed life, being seriously physically ill every day for the rest of my life (and for the last 16 years) whilst finally realising a lifetimes ambition & all that has happened in the Reducer Rennaciance of the last 9 years and in particular the last 4 - it's been nothing Short ov a total throttle up miracle - a second chance, which had to be grabbed with both hands regardless of personal issues & which in & of itself is exhausting, but trying to do it autonomously whilst being chronically sick has been nothing short ov total completion & a sense of achievement that Transcends the mere physical, and explains how the fuck I managed it all - pure life energy & a grim determination to leave a mark on this planet while I was here! A Legacy or Proof that I got off my lazy arse & did something more than go to work or have kids - any of that petty Human toss that's supposed to leave you feeling as I do now. I've never been sicker nor happier - make of that what you will - whilst writing this on a good day I want to say how that this sense of completion had bought a Zen like lightness into my life I had no idea that would be the case - mainly because I never thought I'd realise my dreams. To do so now I'm 63 & sick for life is beyond words.
I'm not special - it's just your are all lazy arsed bone idle settee sitting bubble wrapped "I'm alright Jack's" that would rather attend my funeral than have a "let's all meet up while we're still alive" party types. I should be shocked & saddened by this soul crippling inertia, however it serves only to affirm that I am indeed imbued with divine powers & you are mere tiny unmotivated zombies, I won't even get angry. You watch, there's a fly in my room...they expect me to swat it - kill it - but I won't, I'm not going too, that's what they want....
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