perfect vacuum

•PERFECT VACUUM - I MUST NOT THINK BLEAK THOUGHTS • (BP125)
•11 track LP - 180 grams

A1. Maybe Some Bach, 2. Apres la Deluge, 3. Ratopolis, 4. The Arp Lovers,

5.Asphalt Yeah, 6. 55 Years Ago

B1. She’s So Angry, 2. Bolidoli, 3. No Callers, 4. Strange Pomtato, 5. Gold Features

Recorded at Klangendum, Worm Studios Rotterdam, Beefy & Figaro’s London and The Kingdom, Finland

Produced by Wim Dekker (Blowpipe) and Lukas Simonis (Worm)

Mastered by Jos Smolders. Special thanks: Henk Bakker & all at Worm

PERFECT VACUUM are: DAVE MARSH / Voices, PAiA Proteus synth

LUKAS SIMONIS / Voices, ARP 2500, optigan, synton syrinx, yamaha 81z, Yamaha cs 40, roland sh09, ARP Avatar, technics SY-1010, doepfer dark time with red leds, audiowerkstatt mini se-quencer, INGEBORG MULLER / Hammond organ, ARP 2600, EMS putney, macbeth M3X, nord lead1, rhodes stage piano 73, roland jd 800, analog baroque piano, TREND WATKISS / Erebus dreadbox, korg ms10, 15 & 20, roland juno 6, roland jd 990, tiesco 60f, behringer deepmind 12, NAZMIYA IBRAHIM / Voice, roland 808, roland 909, roland 606, roland tb303, klangendum custom electronic synthesised percussion eurorack, doepfer ms 404, PASCAL ‘TITI; TABARNAC / Arturia minibrute, Yamaha ‘Fido’ prototype synth, arp odyssey mk 1 model 2800, Yamaha cs 60, rob hordijk blippo box, moog prodigy, korg ps-3100

Beloved contributors: NINA HITZ / electronic baroque cello, PIU PIU MAYA / rapping, voices, TED ‘BONGO BONGO’ BARROW / analog percussion, voice, synare 2 - analog baroque trumpet, LAYLA DAVIES / trautonium, pestle wand

Guest artistes: PROFESSOR KNUT AUFERMANN - Sine wave analysis and The Combinex, TANIS ROOS - Maplin 5600s. thank you Annemai & Krys O.

Graphic design by ALFRED BOLAND

all songs by Marsh/Simonis except part of the text of apres la deluge; from a poem (death) by Max Bodenheim

PERFECT VACUUM - i must not think bleak thoughts

Band name & title of the album taken from Stanislaw Lem (Stalker fame) - with reviews on non-existent books. PF is a collaboration between Lukas Simonis and someone who calls himself Dave Marsh but is perhaps more known by names such as L.Voag, Amos, Harmon Y Phraisier, Xentos and many other pseudonyms. He was once a "Homosexual". Simonis also has a lot to his name, let's skip his endless line of band names and projects and limit ourselves to a handful; Vril, Coolhaven, Trespassers W, Deus Cantos. That must be enough. The album is played on by a variety of real and imaginary friends. After ‘A Guide to the Music of the 21th Century’ this is already the second PF album this century.
It was recorded in the electronic studio of Worm (cultural place in Rotterdam), hence the seemingly endless row of synthesizers that have been used. To be honest; Marsh and Simonis are not the gearslutz they suggest to be(on the sleeve). They are more concerned about the music... and that delivers a pretty rotatable record - the 180 grams of vinyl certainly help - that sounds like a dialogue with the English avant-garde rock of the 70/80 years and offers a dose of fragmentary abstraction, but on the other hand delves into 50 years of rock & pop history, like popsicles. Although all these influences bake the second PF cake - they are in no way consciously incorporated into the music. This is just what happens if you continue to play and listen all those years. Don't do this at home kids!

the press about their first album - A Guide to the Music of the 21st Century
I have to admit I was quite surprised that the album still sounded very good after many listening sessions. Timbral variety and imagination in the arrangements make for the tracks - and also the album as a whole - sounding longer than they really are (this is obviously meant as a compliment!). While I noticed that - day after day - songs sounded less like "quotes", and more like "individual creations", which is not bad, I suppose. (beppe packages, clouds and clocks)
Superficially these songs may sound very accessible and equally catchy, and that's what they are. But they are very cleverly arranged and colored with strange sounds in a very fanciful way. A very enjoyable and full-grown album. (dolf mulder, vital weekly)
The unpredictable nature and the refined texture of both text and music ensure a long shelf life. As a result, “the guide to …… The Music of the 21st Century” may continue to fill the vacuum of perfect memories in the coming century. (ycreate)
Sometimes you may think they probably put together most of the tracks whole they where drunk but the result is overall good so thumbs up to whatever they took to put together such a goofy-spacey release. How can you comment music like this, it's out of time, or space and shows the musician skill or these guys is great but at the same time it makes you think these people has escaped from some sort of madhouse. (chaindlk)
The seaming of the different parts - because a single three-minute piece can contain up to a boxes of them - is so well executed that one would be almost justified in thinking “Zappa” during the quirky itineraries of selected fragments. A series of infringements or compositional rules that, absurdly, generate a music obeying to other imperatives: those of quick-minded entertainment informed by unadulterated musicianship. Weird commodities in today's stereotyped "art". (Massimo Ricci)