Tape#2 by the Bran (Another plight of medic's...) Pos

The Bran (Another plight of medic’s…) Pos (later shortened to bran(…)pos) was born in 1996 as a solo recording project, probably on a whim, and almost certainly as a response to inter-personal band drama I had been experiencing at the time (definitely caused by me). I recorded a series of collage pieces onto 4-track cassette tape utilizing whatever I had available-voice, fx pedals, percussion, bass, ukulele, found sound, and produced my first tape release called Tape#1 in an edition of 50. Tape#1 was, if nothing else, a psychotic demo tape I sent around to confused venue bookers and zine writers-and most of the copies likely ended up in the trash.

Recorded in the summer of 1997 in Staten Island, NY, and then shoved into a shoe box for 25 years, the material on Tape#2 follows closely after Tape#1 and uses much of the same equipment and recording technique. The master tape I found in 2022 is labelled only "NY1 Master Dub" with no titles or any notes whatsoever (the titles have been added for this release). I have fleeting memories of making this stuff, and can only guess as to why I never released it, even though to my current ears, it is more sophisticated and musically rich than Tape#1. It's still raw, primitive early Bran--the recording is noisy, the pieces are messy, and I've left all the murky edges intact.

The artwork here is pulled from a flyer for the first ever bran(...)pos gig at the Knitting Factory that summer. I was likely working on this material while prepping for the gig. I played solo and then as a duo with Ed Chang (Spin 17) in the Alter-Knit.

This stuff has never been heard until now, and I think it captures some of my best and some of the last 4-track collage work I made before I started performing live as a solo act and before adding synthesizers and computers to my recording setup.

bran(...)pos is the ongoing audio-visual-performance-noise-musique-brain-bend of Jake Rodriguez from San Francisco, CA. Rodriguez has been performing and recording under this moniker since 1996 with releases on C.I.P., Resipiscent, Ratskin Records, Planetary Magnetics Corporation, Tymbal Tapes, Rubber City Noise, Animal Disguise, and Chitah! Chitah! Soundcrack.

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