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The Fast Set

Home Recordings, 1978-1980 (Tape)

Label: The Tapeworm

Format: Tape

Genre: Electronic

Out of stock

"In 1978 I started making experimental home recordings with my old schoolfriend Alan Clark. We both had Akai 4000DS reel-to-reels, which made for easy swapping of locations and ideas. We would meet most evenings to record – for the best part of two years. Much of the music on this tape comes from those experiments. Some of my solo pieces on this cassette were on a compilation cassette I made for my friend Brad Day, who in 1979 was working at Beggars Banquet record shop in Earl's Court. He happened to be playing it in the shop when co-manager Peter Kent walked in and asked who it was. From that I was offered a 7" release on the Axis label Peter was starting with his colleague Ivo Watts-Russell, and my first gig was organised at Mayhem Studio in Battersea, supporting Vice Versa. With another schoolfriend, Steve Player on guitar and Stylophone 350S, my 16-year-old brother Peter Knight on backing tapes and backing vocals, and me on VCS3 and vocals, we put a set together within a week.

The filmmaker John Maybury projected Super-8 films over us at the gig, and suggested we call ourselves The Fast Set – as all three of us were rooted static to the spot with nerves. The name stuck, and it now seems appropriate to retrospectively apply that name to our previous untitled endeavours. This cassette release is a 'patchwork' I constructed back in 1980 of the late-70s home recordings – both solo or with Alan. There were two projects back then – the experimental pieces, and the electronic 'pop' songs. This release consists of the former, which I feel age has been kinder to. The tapes had remained untouched for over 40 years until I baked and transferred them recently, so please excuse the hiss, distortion, pops, crackles, and wobbles, as I wish to maintain the integrity and home-made feel of the original recordings." – David Knight

Details
Cat. number: TTW#164
Year: 2024
Notes:
Recorded 1978–1980 in Battersea, London on an Akai 4000DS and later a TEAC 3300SX. Instruments used: EMS VCS3, Roland System 100, Hohner K4 String Machine, Dubreq 350S, piano, guitar, percussion, Roland RE201 Space Echo, Colorsound Ring Modulator, EHX Small Stone Phaser, Ibanez Standard Fuzz. This tape is a product of The Tapeworm – “a curious mix of cycling sportswear and musky anime superheroes” TTW#164, copyright 2024 The Tapeworm.