12″ Edition of 39. Numbered. Riso Looseleaf cover / back art printed at Looky Here.

OUT OF PRINT

On the evening of Friday July 3, 2020 (although it was the morning of Saturday July 4 in New Zealand), Michael Morley (aka He Who Is Gate) went into his front room to play a few acoustic tunes. Luckily for all, a gaggle of people was spying on him via Zoom, so the results of this fine-ass recital were recorded and may now be presented to you in all physical glory.

With an approach using equal measures of beauty and abstraction, Morley played a glorious set, quite different from the noisier electric work for which he is known via Dead C, Wreck Small Speakers, etc. And while I enjoyed the entire thing, some of my favorite parts were the ones where it sounded almost like he was spinning an imaginary radio dial in his head, playing snippets from each decontextualized tune he heard. Other notable parts had some circular logic reminding me of Tashi Dorji. The rest was all broadcast straight from the unknown.

All in all it was a beautiful night of music. And it has been preserved for your pleasure. Too bad Michael kept his pet parakeet (Luciano) all covered up so it couldn’t hear a damn thing. But then, you can’t spell “monster” without “m-o-r-l-e-y,” eh?

-Byron Coley, 2020