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LP
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BMR 131LP
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2024 repress. "In the 1980s, Michael Morley helped to push the jangly New Zealand music scene towards rougher, more exploratory realms, as a member of Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos, The Weeds, and the almighty Dead C. His gnarled, distorted guitar tone and aggressively moan-based vocal style are both as distinctive as they are secretly beautiful. Morley has released dozens of solo recordings -- starting in the late 1980s as Gate, then more recently under his own name, and as the Righteous Yeah. He's also unafraid to tackle entirely new genres and sounds, and to move into interactive installation-based music as well. Birdman is beyond excited to present the first vinyl release of this archival Gate release." "... I think it is classic Gate material. The idea of the palette is fascinating as I think I did approach it with a set of limited instrumentation and the desire to make something again that could sound like rock music. There is certainly a direct line from Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, through the Dead C, and to Gate. I think I was also inspired by listening to [infamous and tragically short-lived early 1980s band] the Double Happys, and remembering their performances as a duo with the drum machine. There was such utter chaos and anarchy during their sets, with a desire to represent punk rock at its nascent truth, I wanted to see if it was possible to re-imagine that feeling. I was possibly also listening to the Stooges and MC5." --Michael Morley
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LP
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MIE 036LP
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"Saturday Night Fever takes the concept of the movie of the same name and stretches the night a bit later, the fever a bit higher to the point where the party ends up blending into something much more sinister and wild. What starts out as a disco drumbeat with funky guitar swagger and melodic horns may slowly deteriorate into some sort of corroded ambient loop that eventually morphs into melodic horn samples. Basically every track is subverting its own gestures, carving out a narrative of interruption and stretching the disco template in directions simultaneously embracing and mocking the form. In a way, this album is a sequel to A Republic of Sadness (2010), embracing the criticisms people had of that album and expanding on those flaws. The resulting album sounds like Morley's pulling out some heaping doses of the hermit boogie and Otago funk and stretching it into some sort of Basinskian disintegration loop gone Bernard Bonnier zonked mutant scene. There are so many moves within each of the four extended tracks that it feels like that illuminated dance floor is always slipping beneath your feet. I promise it'll be worth the effort, twinkletoes . . ." --Pete Swanson
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CD
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PM 79
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"The latest of what has become the favoured modus operandi of Gate. The infinite universe of sound and our obsession with the truth of it. Five tracks are featured in this ravers paradise. Ms Ciccone is thankfully absent from this most recent of party mix tapes constructed by Mr Morley alone. This cannot be true. There is also talk of a Bootylicious remix with video coming very soon indeed."
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CD
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PV 001CD
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Gate is Michael Morley (Dead C., Precious Metal Inc.) and whoever he feels like working with. This CD features performances from the 1994 Gate tour, when Morley travelled around with Keiji Haino & The Thurston Moore Male Slut trio. Lee Ranaldo (who recorded a ton of studio Gate stuff with Morley around the same period that has yet to surface), joined him for a single-song 30+ minute guitar duo instrumental extravaganza in Boston, which is reproduced in its entirety here as the first track on this CD. Building layers of feedback, sonic delay and looped drones, this is a mesmerizing work of organic power. It's followed by six shorter tracks, recorded a few days later in NY, with a trio lineup of Morley, Ranaldo and electric harp improviser, Zeena Parkins; densely organized sectors of gloriously abstract noisic combinations are faded in & out for appraisal. Packaged in Poon Village's elegant trademark screenprinted card-folio.
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7"
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TW 1023EP
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1992 single from Michael Morley of the Dead C.
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