While the price war on the high street in the 90’s forced many smaller UK retailers out of business, the fatal blow was dealt the following decade by a tax loophole called Low Value Consignment Relief, which annulled the VAT on any product worth less than £18 if it was shipped from the Channel Islands. Alongside supermarkets selling CDs as checkout loss-leaders, Amazon’s Channel Islands operation suffocated the market and, unable to compete on price, selection or distribution, hundreds of record shops were forced to close.
vinyl
Rotary Signal Emitter by Sculpture [Picture-Disc LP]
Sculpture is an audiovisual performance duo from London – electronic music producer, Dan Hayhurst, and animator, Reuben Sutherland.
Sutherland ‘DJs’ with home-made zoetropic discs, intricate concentric rings of illustrated frames, projecting fragments of looping images at 33, 45 and 78 rpm – pre-Edisonian imaging technology combined with a digital video camera.
Hayhurst deploys prepared audio material (found tapes, lo-fi electronics, computer programming, and analogue noise) across 1⁄4” tape loops, hardware sampler, cassette walkman and CDJ deck.
The process is important. a kind of unstable modular collage. style. rhythm. spontaneity. input, output, and a bit in the middle called MUSIC (audible and visible) which requires the computer to be switched off.
We present here an audio video picture disc by Sculpture called Rotary Signal Emitter. It can be played conventionally or as a self contained film. It is also intended to be reusable as part of future performances.
The music: A strange amalgam of found sounds (corresponding perfectly with the found imagery), Plunderphonics, ancient electronic music recalling the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, twisted rhythms (imagine Felix Kubin playing Dubstep), all mixed hands-on on the spot.
Demonstration Reel from Sculpture on Vimeo.
'this is what it's like most of the time'
'you could call it a showreel'
