Friday, February 23, 2007

Two Daughters Cassette (Methane Music) 1980

It doesn't look like this has been posted yet. It is the untitled cassette by Two Daughters released in 1980 on Methane Music. I am not sure how many copies were pressed, but I rarely see it offered for sale.

To my knowledge, Two Daughters have only appeared on two other releases. A substantially edited version of 'Return Calls - We Are' can be found on the Cherry Red compilation, "Perspectives and Distortion". Their only LP, "Kiss the Cloth/Gloria" was released in 1981 on Anthony & Paul Records, a sub-division of United Dairies Records, the label run by Stephen Stapleton of Nurse with Wound. Overall, I think I like the music on this cassette more than the LP.

I haven't located much info on Two Daughters. I presume there were two members, Anthony & Paul. The liner notes to the compilation mention Jon More on clarinet. Does anyone have more info on this sadly short-lived group?

For anyone familiar with the LP or the compilation piece, the quieter moments there will give you an idea of what the music on some, but not all, of this cassette is like. Many tracks have guitar and/or vocals/chants run through a vibrato effect. There is percussion on a couple tracks, one of which has a 'ritual' feel to it when accompanied by chanting.

The clarinet on 'Return Calls - We Are' reminds me of Electroscope, particularly their limited cassette on Boa. Not sure if this is the appropriate audience, but I can upload a copy of that as well. If anyone desires, contact me via the comments.

I have a copy of their LP for sale. Anyone interested should check out the link to my Atlantis or GEMM site for more details.

Enjoy.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I have the "Kiss the Cloth/Gloria" tape on UD. Two Daughters are Nicky Rogers and friends.Nicky Rogers played on the first NWW album.
Anthony & Paul is the label name and is a sub division of United Dairies Records. Did not have this tape, thanks.

mutantsounds said...

great post!any chnces to get the RNA Organism LP within thes weekend?

Over The Moon said...

Yeah, you like need to post more stuff and faster, like Mutant Sounds and the like. And nothing less than 320 bit rate, please. And only use MediaFire, dammit. I'm just teasing about all the above... :O)

So far, lots of great stuff you are sharing here, and your blog has only been online for a week or so. I just started mine two weeks ago as well.

Thank you for linking to my blog on your main page. I added your site as a link on my main page a few days ago as well.

It's good to check in to everyone else's blog every day or two, since sometimes there's new stuff already posted.

Have a great weekend and thanks again for posting this rare, great music. It's more appreciated than you'll ever know.

-Over the Moon

Atlantis Audio Archive said...

thanks for the comments.

I'll try to get to RNA this weekend. I'm starting off with all the titles I've already archived to my HD.

thanks also to all of you for adding links on your pages.

I will try to get a post up every day, possibly 2 a day this weekend.

J. said...

http://dadaradio.blogspot.com/2007/02/in-english-so-all-you-suckers.html

samon takahashi said...

I tried long time ago to find also who was behind Two Daughters. I have a strong presumption that Simon Fisher Turner is the "and friends" giving a hand to Nicky Rodger, here. He even may be Nicky Rodger :). Simon Fisher Turner is known for his Derek Jarman film musics and did also over 20 solo records (most of them pop oriented - but weird pop) under his own name or nicknames or bands like The King of Luxembourg (on El Records). His unique style of twisting songs, of producing and mixing can be easily recognized here. The loop based opening track of the Kiss the Cloth LP reminds highly of the background loops that can be found on both Deux Filles lps (meaning Two Daughters in french - strange isn't it ? and the first came only 1 or 2 years after the Two Daughters LP, I cannot think that Simon Turner wasn't aware of it) that he is suspected have commited as well (and the 2 women credited on the LPs do not exist at all - it seems even on the cover of 1st LP that the picture shows travestites men instead). He was close to all the british scene of these early 80's, having been involved (through Jarman ?) in several collaborations (mostly in disguise again) with Karl Blake and Lemon Kittens, Paul Kendal (check the brilliant experimental album by Kendal/Turner/Overdrive), Morgan Fisher (Turner appears also on Miniature comp.), Bruce Gilbert, Daniel Miller, he is the occult member of the first The The group version, etc. He is still everywhere working on numerous projects (for example with Steve Roden - the Steno project) or film music (an Oscar nomination in 1999 for Jane Campion movie. Knowing all this I guess it makes sense that he was involved in Two Daughters (but, even in his discography it doesn't appear - maybe to prevent any complain from David Bowie whose voice is looped on Kiss the Cloth ??). I higly recommend the first Deux Filles LP (Silence and Wisdom, on Papier Maché) and his music for Derek Jarman (especially 'Caravaggio' and 'Blue'). Also, the CD Amonite Murmur is just a fantastic blend of field recordings, electronically processed songs and experimental pop (uplink rec, japan, circa 1998). You need to hear this one! Well, hope this will add something. Sorry for my english.

themysteriousflame said...

Back in 1992 I was given a box of three cassettes containing this, David Jackman's 'Ritual' and the Clare Thomas/Susan Vezey album. Somehow I managed to lose them all, years ago. It was the Two Daughters I missed most, so it's great to finally hear it again after all this time - thanks for posting it.

Samon - I've got the Deux Filles Silence & Wisdom LP and I think you may be onto something.

palaeologos said...

I think the fact that "Deux Filles" translates as "Two Daughters" is not a coincidence.

Anonymous said...

Some supplementary comments to Samon's post above:

I think his theory about the 'friends' including Simon Fisher Turner is interesting but extremely unlikely, for the following reasons.

(1) All the info Samon gives about SMT, King Of Luxembourg, Jane Campion, etc, is just info, it doesn't connect to the Two Daughters project.

(2) The one verified Two Daughters collaborator is Jon More on clarinet. This would be enough to justify the phrase "and friends", since in English it is not considered acceptable to say "and friend". (I can explain why, but it would be an essay in linguistics and take too long.) However, please note that the instrumentation on both Two Daughters releases is very sparse (they liked to use just two or at most three sonic elements in each piece) so there really isn't room for more than two or three people on these recordings.

(3) Samon is struck by the similarity between "the loop based opening track of the Kiss the Cloth LP" and "the background loops that can be found on both Deux Filles lps". Apart from the fact that about a zillion different avant-garde groups use loops, there is no track on the two Deux Filles albums whose loops sound like 'Kiss The Cloth'. Moreover, Deux Filles were not hugely reliant on loops; they tended to play instruments in real time.

(4) True, it's cute coincidence that 'Deux Filles' means 'Two Daughters' (or 'Two Girls') in French, but no significance can be attached to the Deux Filles debut coming "only 1 or 2 years after the Two Daughters LP". The Sex Pistols' debut came only 1 or 2 years after Elton John's 'Rock Of The Westies' - does that mean The Sex Pistols and Elton John might be the same artist?

(5) Samon rightly notes that SFT does not mention Two Daughters in his own discography, speculating that maybe this is "to prevent any complain from David Bowie whose voice is looped on Kiss the Cloth". I have listened to "Kiss The Cloth" many times and I cannot hear Bowie's voice on it. Overactive imagination, methinks.

I'm not putting Samon down, I'm pleased he likes good music. I just think he's mistaken in this case.

Best wishes,

esswis

Unknown said...

Hi guys,

Thanks for uncovering this rare gem. I can tell a little bit about Two Daughters: the Anthony of Anthony & Paul was Anthony Burke, my uncle. Two Daughters were recording in Brixton around 1980-1982. Anthony passed away in 2004 but there are plans to re-release some of the Two Daughters recordings, provided we can find them in good enough condition in the family 'archives'! I'm gleaning scraps of information from various family members, but as far as I can tell they were offered a major recording contract that never materialised for whatever reason. Anyhow, I'll post updates here as and when I have them.

Thanks for your interest.

Thomas

Anonymous said...

Thomas, sorry to hear about your uncle's passing. Hopefully by reissuing some of his beautiful music his spirit may live on among a new generation of listeners. I personally would love to see a reissue. In fact, I found this post by googling the words 'two daughters reissue paul anthony'.

Btw, if you don't plan on issuing the record yourself, and haven't got a label in mind, then you might try either Kye records or Swill radio. I know both Lambkin and Foust are big fans of your uncle's music, and if they can't/won't do it I'm sure they'd be able to suggest someone who might. In any case, Lambkin is a master, uhh, masterer, so you could always hire him to do the mastering if you can't find anyone suitable.