The roots of the AMM (Association of Musical Marxists): a disco put together on MiniDisc by Out To Lunch for a social at the 2004 Historical Materialism Conference in the RADA bar, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London, on Friday evening 9 October. The music produced no effect on the crowd until track six, which was an improvisation by vocalist Phil Minton on belches, squeals and slurps and Guenter Christmann on bowed cello (âFor M. & H.â from â(for) friends and neighbo(u)rsâ explico, 2002). Immediately two guys detached themselves from the loquacious hubbub at the bar and came striding towards me, each with a different agenda: "You must turn this off, comrade, it's utterly distracting ..." and "What IS this music? It's fantastic, I must get some ...". Proof that great music - and the track really is great - always divides an audience and creates debate. To quote myself from elsewhere, this time as a slogan for the AMM: "We come to bring, not a piss-poor performance, but a sword". The other notable response was Sebastian Budgen lauding my choice of a "mainstream rock" track (long an opponent of the alt.values of the Anglophone Left, I don't think Seb knew it was Iggy Pop's song for Van Gogh). The mix includes two of my favourite segues: from Theodor Adorno's song for a musical based on the same Mark Twain story as Spielbergâs Raiders of the Lost Ark to the music for an absurd sketch involving Keith Moon and a giant acuum cleaner from Frank Zappaâs 200 Motels; and from Vareseâs âHyperprismâ to Johnny âGuitarâ Watson. No-one danced, so I reckoned I'd failed.



OTL 28-vii-2013





HISTORICAL MATERIALISM DISCO 2004



1. Carl Weber - Movement no 3 from Concerto No 1 in F Minor Opus 73 (1811) featuring Benny Goodman on clarinet.

2. Frank Zappa - Amnerika (Civilization Phaze III, 1993).

3. Archie Shepp âOn This Nightâ (On This Night, 1966).

4. Claude Debussy - Arabesque No 1 in E Major (1888) played by Walter Gieseking.

5. Miles Davis/John Lee Hooker - Hot Spot End Credits (Hot Spot, 1990).

6. Phil Minton/Guenter Christmann - For M. & H. (â(for) friends and neighbo(u)rsâ, 2002).

7. Theodor Adorno - Totenlieder auf den Kater (1933).

8. Frank Zappa - A Nun Suit Painted On Some Old Boxes (200 Motels, 1971).

9. Edgard Varese - Hyperprism (1924).

10. Johnny âGuitarâ Watson - Love That Will Not Die (Funk Beyond the Call of Duty, 1977).

11. Iggy Pop - Starry Starry Night (Brick by Brick, 1990).

12. Evil Dick - Hair Spider Stuck to Sock (2002).

13. Olivier Messiaen - Le Cossyphe dâHeuglin (1974).

14. Kurt Weill - Overture/Mack the Knife (1928).

Addeddate 2013-07-28 08:53:45 Identifier HistoricalMaterialismDisco2004