Stories of Rejection: Part 1
Collated by Justin Watson
As part of the recent and on-going ISOLATION AND REJECTION by Front & Follow and Gated Canal Community, we’ve been collecting the stories behind the tracks submitted.
This is Part 1.
Names have been changed and redacted to protect the innocent and the guilty.
“The track was originally recorded near Maentwrog in 2018 as a cascading sequence which ultimately went nowhere. It was rejected as being unacceptably frisky.
Later, the idea arose of taking something deemed a failure and treating it as a piece of found sound. The piece was copied multiple times and remoulded in two phases: with time and pitch speeded up and slowed down, transforming the original by creating interference effects, phasing and waveform changes.
Not unlike the quantum mechanical phenomenon in which an electrically charged particle is affected by an electromagnetic potential, despite being confined to a region in which both the magnetic field and electric field are zero. But with shitloads of delay on it.”
“This track was intended to be the opening track on my most recent release. Unfortunately, it felt too earthy and a little too noisy, where [my work] is concerned with space, melody, fuzz optimism. It lived as the first track for a couple of weeks until it was removed. Rejected by its own maker - I'm sorry, little friend.”
“I wanted cheering up after hearing about Florian Schneider dying. It was going to be called Four to the Florian. That and I’d deleted my original submission for elsewhere in a fit of pique.”
“Diwddion (Welsh for ends/endings) is constructed from the run-out grooves of various pieces of iconic Welsh-language vinyl.
[REDACTED RECORD LABEL] announced a call for submissions for an experimental music compilation in late 2014 - a successor to their popular [REDACTED] release earlier that year. I sent them this track, they liked it but said it was too long, so I sent a shorter version but then they went quiet and nothing happened, likely because this was around the time that label co-founder [REDACTED]’s solo career was taking off.
They still had a weekly radio show though playing a quality eclectic mix of odd local and international sounds, so a couple of years later I sent a few CDRs of my various projects to them, including the track that was supposed to go on the compilation, hoping they might at least play some of it on the radio.
However, a couple of weeks after I sent it the radio show stopped and they announced they were closing the label. Just an unlucky coincidence, I'm sure. Most of the other music on the demo discs has since been released in various ways, but this now-twice-rejected track is seeing the light of day for the first time.”
"Ran Aground Off Thanet certainly makes me feel isolated and adrift.
It was written for an album I'm still working on called Lost Signals which explores absence and memory along the rapidly eroding east coast of England. The music was created using radio and field recordings made in bunkers, abandoned radar stations and disappearing pillboxes along the Holderness coastline.
This track was rejected as it didn't quite fit the sound or the concept enough to be included. Its title refers to the Margate lugger Victory, which was lost with all crew in 1857, as it set out to rescue stranded sailers in Botany Bay"
“Rejected by the esteemed [REDACTED] for the [REDACTED] compilation. This track is one of a suite that she wrote whilst teaching in London as a teaching aid for sensory experiences with pupils. Anyhow, I love it, and I love it more for being too weird for [REDACTED].”
“As an improv trio we do not rehearse or practice. However in the mid 2000s we frequently met in one of our living rooms to record. 'Sommerhit' is the result of one of these sessions. 'Summer Hit' because we were really enthusiastic about it, summer was just about to begin and our new track featured beats. Well, it featured the stuttering of a mixing board feedback chain, also one of us was very happy about a newly purchased russian test signal generator. The ears are still ringing.
'Sommerhit' conveyed bittersweet melancholia and nostalgia for us. Vienna, where all of us were living, is very quiet in summer and it is a morbid city in its best of times. The genres we call our home know no charts, no 'Summer Hit’ - a type of song that captures carelessness, a soundtrack for barbecues and beach fun. And yet euphoria guided our involuntary associations, of the taste of sun lotion and the rubbery smell of hot air mattresses, of loudly blasting 'Sommerhit' on the car stereo on our imaginary drive to the quarry pond.
A 'Summer Hit' is not a hit for very long. There is an expiration date. Planned obsolescence. Soon we would forget about our new track again but not before we got the opportunity to celebrate it.
Back in the day when you attended a concert of experimental electronic music, you often found yourself looking at someone sitting behind their laptop staring onto their screen. We always used a wide array of instruments and devices. When we were invited to play a 10 minute performance at a festival, setting up and clearing the stage would have taken us more than twice that time. So we had an idea.
Each of us put a pizza box in front of us with the lid open. There was nothing in them except for a discman plugged into a tiny mixer. We pressed play and a CD with 'Sommerhit' started playing while we kept staring into our empty pizza boxes.“
“It's a track I've had for a long time and has gone through 3-4 different versions. The first take was totally beatless and was based around a soundscapey drone type sound, but I stumbled on this great drum plugin and managed to make that crazy beat straight away. I let the track build its own momentum from there.”
“Last track recorded live at Eastville Project Space (Yeovil) - first day of the lockdown - grabbing some kit for home - mostly electronic components/soldering irons etc.. plugged in my Orla Ruby keyboard in the last 5 minutes before leaving - a total live jam - no edits - not my normal way of working - not made anything new since...
Current situation has found me digging deep in past work etc (tapes/cdrs/mini-discs spanning decades), finding exciting things in long forgotten collaborations. I seem to have lost, at this time, the need for making stuff - which is strange.
Not touched anything I rescued from Eastville pre-lockdown - stumbled upon this though ... enjoy”
“This track is part of a project exploring quarantine. The first week is new and exciting, what does lockdown mean? what the hell is Furlough? why are people hoarding toilet roll? The next week is an eerie silence, you can hear the birds sing, the skies are clear, no trails from the planes, no murmur of traffic. Week three we are getting into a routine, always wash your hands for 20 seconds, don't touch your face, clap for the NHS, discover your town while doing daily exercise. Week 4 arrives, and you begin noticing the noises in the house and the weight of lockdown, and the lack of physical contact with people outside your house. Isolation.
Over the years you work on new tracks, throw many away and arrive at something interesting, you send them off with the excitement you feel about creating something only to meet the wall of silence.
‘we will contact you if we think it is interesting’
‘we receive thousands of demos and don't have time to respond to everyone’.
Rejection.”
“This piece is several years old and was originally recorded as part of a split cassette with a certain noise artist. Ideas and sounds were exchanged, and things were moving along very nicely. I ended up re-working my tracks too many times, and I lost faith in my abilities. The project fizzled out soon after.”
“This orphaned 2015 track comes from an ambient collaboration project that never came to fruition. Jeffrey Sinibaldi shared field recordings of him dragging an axe across the concrete floor of his garage which JS Adams then processed and further manipulated.”
More soon.
ISOLATION AND REJECTION is collating rejected sounds and celebrating them, raising money for The Brick, a fantastic charity in Wigan.
Buy Vol 1 here, and Vol 2 here. 3, 4 and 5 to come.
