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The Potato Cooking Sessions

by Vacum

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    Download includes alternative artwork by Rockthing
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1.
Mammoth 19:53
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2.
Baked Potatoes Part I: The Casually Smoked Potato 17:41
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3.
Baked Potatoes Part II: Barrett: Astronomy Domine 09:30
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4.
Pot Holder 03:28
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about

This experimental odyssey combines multi-track sound collage 
and experimental electronics recorded at the Homestead on Wilkins, 
with live ensemble play recorded at The Beacon Basement, during 
July 1994 sessions for what became the "One and a Half for Two" album.


This project was not completed until late 1995 
at the newly established Wightman studio where Antonioni's Floating 
Chamber Orchestra had begun rehearsing and recording. 


By this time, Vacum as a performing unit had effectively ceased 
to exist, but there was still plenty of material to sift through 
from this short-lived, but prolific project. Unfortunately that 
meant that The Potato Cooking Sessions received extremely 
limited release after hours of pain staking manipulation. This is 
undoubtedly the most accessible this material has ever been.

This remaster was Made in Japan at The Nest from the original two track mixdown cassette at high resolution. By "remaster" we mean that a lower gen cassette was used to create a higher bit-rate digital conversion. No other digital fiddling has taken place.

The first track, Mammoth, features the familiar quartet 
featured throughout "One and a Half for Two" with Nicolai using 
a breath controlled synth, Gunter shredding 6 strings, Sven on bass 
and adding, occasional vocal interpolations 
with, of course, Ezra bashing away on percussion in ever more abstract ways. 
Baked Potatoes features acoustic guitar duos and vocals 
by Gunter and Sven linked by experimental ambient sound collage 
and electronics. Pot Holder closes out the album in a 
delicate electronically altered ambient state.

This piece has a long and sordid history. Certainly something has been left out.

credits

released January 1, 1996

Gunter "Merlin" Forrest: guitars/vocal
Sven "Rockthing" Shah: bass guitar/ acoustic guitar/vocal
Nikolai "Big Daddy" Hulkenbar : breath controlled synthesizer
Ezra "Loudness" Vacca: percussion

Produced by Vacum

Recorded by Big Daddy at the Beacon Basement, and S. Shah and Merlin at The Homestead on Wilkins between July and January 1994, and S. Shah at the AFCO's Wightman Studio in December of 1995.

Mixed and Mastered by S. Shah

Release History:
● Originally released on cassette by Aquatic Space Music in 1996.
● Reissued from a first gen copy as a free mp3 download, and ultra-limited-edition CDR by BS Entertainment - busaichedelic.org in the 00's.
● Hi-Res digital master produced from the original two track master by Low&Slow.Disk in June of 2017.

Cassettes coming soon!!!

1. "Mammoth" written by Shah, Forrest, Hulkenbar, Vacca
2. "Baked Potatoes: Part I" written by Shah, Forrest, Hulkenbar, Vacca with references to Syd Barret, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason.
3. "Baked Potatoes: Part II" written by Syd Barrett, arranged by Shah, Forrest.
4. "Pot Holder" written by Forrest, Shah.

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Vacum image

Vacum Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

An experimental rock freakout group active from between 1993 and 1995 with a penchant for covering early Floyd, gratuitous panning sweeps, and backwards everything.

One former member seems to have disappeared, while another is rumored to be working as an undercover agent the at-large members are just waiting on the right reunion offer. ... more

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