#steve mcaffery

[mywifeleftme]

300: Four Horsemen // Live in the West

Live in the West Four Horsemen 1977, Starborne

The Four Horsemen were Canada’s great contribution to international sound poetry, a genre that has traditionally involved the authors of the most abstruse literary theory ever written doing the verbal equivalent of Monty Python’s Department of Silly Walks for small audiences that regret their own open-mindedness. (Look, the Splash Zone was clearly labelled.) The Horsemen became genuine counter-culture favourites because they understood that absolute freedom is as absurd as it is sublime. As a result, their second LP Live in the West is probably the most fun thing that’d come out of the whole sound poetry movement to that point. The poets presented themselves as something between a band, an avant-garde theatre troupe, and a sketch group, and their compositions flit between high- and lowbrow signifiers in a way that feels prescient of today’s culture.

Side One is dedicated to shorter compositions, classical sound poetry conceits like dismantling a single loaded word into discrete phonemes (the word “Assassin” dissolved into startled AHHs and hissing esses) and deftly syncopated sequences of non-verbal glottal noises and grunts. On “From Beast/Matthew’s Line,” Paul Dutton (I think) opens with a snippet of an Irish-sounding folk song; he breaks off, allowing Rafael Barreto-Rivera and bpNichol to exchange repeated non-sequiturs in Spanish and English while Dutton keens in the background; Steve McCaffery begins speaking over them, intoning John Clare’s nineteenth century poem “I Am!”; as McCaffery nears the climax of the poem, the others gradually transition into raga-style vocalizations. The effect is quadrophonic, not unlike Glenn Gould’s “contrapuntal radio” piece The Idea of North (1967), which layered recordings of spoken monologues to see how their meanings and sounds complimented and “splashed off” one another. It also anticipates the sampling era to come, but the analogue physicality and precision required to pull the piece of without the aid of electronics gives it a spark all its own.

The elaborate collaging of “Matthew’s Line” previews the two longer pieces on Side Two, “Mischievous Eve” and “Goodbye Stagelost.” On these quasi-theatrical pieces, the Horsemen lean into the characters their voices suggest: the plummy British accent of the Sheffield-born McCaffery makes him a natural for playing the role of a fusty square, though he is never far from descending into gibbering imbecility; Barreto-Rivera’s Latin-accented good cheer provides an earthy counterpoint, even as he often lapses into Spanish passages that deepen the complexity of following their ratatat chemistry; Nichol has a measured, precise cadence, leading his colleagues like a conductor even as he often dives the furthest into abstraction; little Paul Dutton’s boyish, wiseacre Ontario deadpan sounds like one of the Kids in the Hall, making him the perfect foil when things need deflating. These longer selections resemble a slapstick update of the overlapping dialogues in the second part of Eliot’s The Waste Land, found writing and original material and classical literature swirled together to capture life in the charnel house of modern culture, but with more jokes (a special tip of the cap to Dutton’s passing allusion to Nichol’s “dick-washing habits”).

Fifty years down the line, sound and concrete poetry have little presence in the Canadian scene (or internationally, for that matter) outside of a few holdouts of the old guard. Almost nothing on the shelves or the stage feels as genuinely creative or lively as this old record does. I haven’t the space or energy here to litigate the institutionalization of the genre, but I know in my bones that the world could use a little more nastiness like this.

300/365

#bpNichol #rafael barreto-rivera #steve mcaffery #paul dutton #four horsemen #sound poetry #avant garde #avant garde poetry #spoken word poetry #poetry #vinyl record #'70s poetry #concrete poetry #counter culture #toronto #coach house press

[aethermint]

My favourite audio for steve harrington would be Scotland by Mcaffery

#Steve Harrington #stranger things prompts #stranger things #steve harrington deserves the world #Hurt Steve Harrington #i love angst

[mattfinch1]

This was my final piece of work that was linked into Steve mcafferys work. I found that a lot of his works had the circle in the center so I used this one to say “ban conversion therapy” i played with the word “pride” aswell to create an intresting chain effect and then I used lots of 0 to create the abstract unknown feel to link to the artists work. Overall I found this one quite intresting however I feel like to improve I could add some imagery which is a bit above my level of skill and I didn’t want to ruin the image