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Gurus Are Fucked

by Graham Sparks

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1.
Grasshopper Incest Music 23:19
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2.
Two Flutes 03:40
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3.
Sax Bit 02:54
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4.
Bukti Yoghurt / Gurus Are Fucked 12:12
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5.
Solo Horns 20:07
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6.
A Night in Circular Quay 05:17
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7.
Crying Song 21:44
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about

"It was a surprise to hear from my friend that he'd come across a copy of 'Gurus Are Fucked'.
I don’t even own a copy myself.
I made this recording thirty years ago, most of the work being done in a hall near Circular Quay.
It is not my best work and quite frankly I was glad it was behind me and forgotten, but there you have it.
All our deeds both good and bad are recorded for eternity in the fabric of the universe.

I was about 24 years of age and this was probably recorded with a Selmer balanced action alto.
The other members of the band were Alan Corne and Paul Huntingford.
Alan is still playing drums but I don't know what Paul is doing.
The recording quality is poor because of the trashy tape recorder, which I purchased from a pawn shop. It had a very heavy compression function and consequently ironed out all of the dynamics which really crapped me off because I like to play with a lot of light and shade.
The title 'Gurus Are Fucked' is a rebuke for spiritual teachers of all flavours who claim to know God and his plans and who perceive that taking money, time and energy from their customers is a valid occupation.
So many of my friends were sucked in, screwed and ripped off by these charlatans.
Although thirty years have passed I still think that gurus are fucked, but time has made me more erudite and the manipulation of language in poetry is like a fine telescopic sight on a cannon.

Although I never found a way to make money from music or art and gave up music 25 or so years ago in order to purchase food and not sleep in squats, I have always managed to assuage my creative urges and have recently purchased a beautiful 1943 Beuscher Big B alto and have taken up painting again."

Inconstant Sol:
"This album is a mixed bag, as was the experimental scene in the 80's - a fertile time during which outside of AM radio there was lots of cross-pollination of genres, one could go to a pub and see 5 completely different sets in one evening with occasional unrehearsed jams in between... Post-punk bands were experimenting and improvising extensively , the Slugfuckers, Mad Room and numerous others playing completely unscripted sets...

Stylistically here echoes of Don Cherry are evident in the flute pieces, the group pieces being basically long jams, AACM-influenced ethno freak-outs with an electro-acoustic element, the electronics being oscillators built by Graham.

For my money the best and most individual pieces are the three alto solos... some startling soulful original playing there... despite Graham's comments it's not that bad sounding at all."

credits

released June 1, 1983

Drums – Alan Corne
Percussion – Paul Huntingford
Saxophone, Flute, Electronics, Percussion – Graham Sparks

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all rights reserved

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Fringe Benefit Records Sydney, Australia

Fringe Benefit Records was set up in 1977 by Jon Rose as a tape library of Australian improvised music. By the time of the final release in 1985, more than 50 cassettes and more than a dozen LPs had been released. This site now exists to digitise and bring those releases to a new audience, beginning with the compilation double CD released on Entropy Stereo Recordings in Michigan in 1998... ... more

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