Cultural Amnesia

This article is about the musical group. For the book by Clive James, see Cultural Amnesia.

Cultural Amnesia
Genres	Post-punk, electronic, industrial
Years active	1979–1983; 1998–present
Website	http://www.culturalamnesia.com/
Members
Ben Norland Gerard Greenway John Peacock

Cultural Amnesia (CA) are an English post-punk music group, first active between 1979 and 1983 as participants in the so-called cassette culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s in the UK. During this first period the band released three cassette albums: Video Rideo (1981), The Uncle of the Boot (1983) and Sinclair's Luck (1983) on English and German record labels, and contributed to a number of compilation albums. Early on in his career, CA worked with the late Geff Rushton (John Balance) of Coil, who wrote a handful of songs for them and who was an important supporter and enabler.^[1][2]

Working in the wake of the early industrial bands, CA's output is diverse, ranging from ambient soundscapes to synthpop, but it can be broadly characterized as song-based electronic music, normally making use of synthesizer, drum machine and guitar.

After fifteen years of silence the band produced three new tracks in 1998. Recent years have seen a return to sustained activity and some small-scale releases of old and new material. Enormous Savages, a compilation of material from 1981–1983, was released on LP in the summer of 2007; Press My Hungry Button, a double LP of 1980–1983 material, was released November 2007. The CD Enormous Savages Enlarged, from April 2009, includes five tracks recorded since 2004 in addition to the '80s tracks that appeared on the Enormous Savages LP.

The CA website is an extensive source of information on the band's output, both released and unreleased, with a number of tracks available for download.

Discography

Albums and EPs

• Video Rideo (CAC, Conventional Tapes 1981, Datenverarbeitung 1983)
• Sinclair's Luck (CAC, Hearsay and Heresy 1983)
• The Uncle Of The Boot (CAC, Datenverarbeitung 1983)
• Enormous Savages (LP, Anna Logue Records 2007)
• Little Savage (Mini-CD, Iron Banana 2007)
• Press My Hungry Button (2xLP, VOD Records 2007)
• Still Hungry (EP, VOD Records 2007)
• Enormous Savages Enlarged (CD, Klanggalerie 2009)

Compilation appearances

• "Yellow Song" on Standard Response (1979)
• "Cyberforms Dub" on Snatch 2 (1980)
• "Repetition For This World", "Reprise", "Dialogue Of Skull And Soul" and "Secrets Of The Passive Margin" on Endzeit (1982)
• "Colorblind" and "The Pigs Are Coming" on A Sudden Surge Of Power (1983)
• "Nobody Does It Like You Do!" on Qu'est-ce Qu'il Y A? (1983)
• "Resthome (The Man Who Worked With Tourists)" on Rising From The Red Sand (Volume Four) (1983)
• "Kingdom Come" on The Angels Are Coming (1983)
• "The Uncle Of The Boot" on Band-It 11 (1983)
• "Where Has All The Difference Gone?" on On-Slaught No. 6 (1985)
• "Down By The Canal" on Cassette Culture I: Pause And Rewind (2005)
• "Contains" on Cassette Culture II (2006)
• "I Am Taking Photographs" on Electricity 3 (2006)
• "Resthome (The Man Who Worked With Tourists)" on Nonpop 2 (2008)
• "Repetition For This World" on Messthetics Greatest Hiss: An Introduction to the DIY Cassette Scene 1979-1982 (2008)
• "Materialistic Man" on The Anna Logue Years (2010)
• "Little Blue Grains" and "Brand New Day" on Why Be Blake When You Can Be Bleak? (2010)

Discography sources: Discogs, culturalamnesia.com^[3][4]

See also

• Electronic music
• Industrial music
• Post-punk
• Cassette culture

References

1. ^ Dickie, Tony. Review of Press My Hungry Button & Interview with Cultural Amnesia. Compulsion Online, May 2008. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
2. ^ Pinsent, Ed. "Cultural Amnesia", Interview. The Sound Projector 16 (2008), p. 86.
3. ^ Cultural Amnesia artist page, Discogs. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
4. ^ 'Compilations' page, culturalamnesia.com. Retrieved 30 April 2011.

External links

• culturalamnesia