Mystery Circuits, LLC
By Mike Walters - Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Dear Mike,
I am sure you must already know this, but the
"melloman" was built in the mid-70's AND used on
almost all our live gigs by Sleazy of Throbbing
Gristle.
The only real differences are that his was built into
a flight case to protect it when touring, also he
could sequence the keys in any order to create rythms
from random street recordings on cassette we either
made ourselves or "found". It is often copnsidered to
be the very beginning of the "sampling" concept in
modern electronic rock. Or as TG( more specifically
myself and Monte Cazazza ) called it INDUSTRIAL MUSIC.
Our intention was to create a hybrid of the mellotron
and the cut-up tape techniques of our friend William S
Burroughs. Which we did.
Some TG tracks are created by using the "BOX OF
TRICKS" to generate rythms from combinations of
sounds, TV, film, telephone messages, anything, as
source material.
The keyboard would be instructed to sequence both
sides of each casette in the walkmans, and could also
play both sides of the stereo on each side at the same
time via modifications by Sleazy.
Sleazy's instrument WAS the walkmans. He bought quite
a few on a business trip to Tokyo when they first came
out. All this is documented in interviews, videos,
from the mid to late 70's onwards ( I dont recall the
year Walkmans came out in Japan).
A couple of years ago a boxed set of 24 HOURS of
Throbbing Gristle was released on mute and an art
exhibition was arranged at Cabinet Gallery in london
as promotion. The TG "melloman" was exhibited there
too.
I am glad you have picked up on this idea again. We
always wanted to produce more "Box Of Tricks" but
never had the time with touring and recording with
that as a fourth valid ( to us) instrument.
After TG split up I formed Psychic TV and created a
new improved "BOX OF TRICKS" which included a small
amp/monitor, a miniature harmonizer, fuzz, wah, delay
and signal generator as well as a mini mixer and
cassette players.
I cant imagine you didn't know all this as its a part
of rock history at this point!
If you didnt know, I thought you'd be interested. I
sent a link to Sleazyh.
cari saluti,
Genesis P-Orridge
> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 19:51:24 -0700 (PDT)
> From: M <****@******.***>
> Subject: Re: [music] The Melloman: A Mellotron made
> of Walkmans (fwd)
> To: faBio <****@******.***>
> CC: ****@******.***
>
> --- faBio <****@******.***> wrote:
>
> Dear Fabio!
>
> WHAT!!!! Sleazy built EXACTLY this box in TG...the
> first year walkman's were for sale in Tokyo ( he was
> there on a visit).
>
> The use of this box by Sleazy, which was exhibited
> in
> London at CABINET GALLERY as part of the art show
> of
> TG to promote the 24 HOUR boxed set, is well
> documented.
>
> It has been described dozens of times in interviews.
> Seen in videos etc.
>
> It had a keyboard. You could either play BOTH sides,
> BOTH channels ( he modified the walkmans, as "notes"
> or you could sequence the keys in various orders and
> speeds to create cut-up ruthms.
> WHAT A DAY by TG has a ruthym track created this way
> in the latter 70's..!
>
> This is clearly a SLOW thinker or an attempt to rip
> off Sleazy, hoping the current kids are ignorant..
>
> OUTRAGEOUS!
>
> I will forward this to Sleazy too. He will be mildly
> amused I imagine.
>
> Djin
>
> >
> > Includes (great) photos and sound samples:
> > http://mysterycircuits.com/melloman/melloman.html
> >
> > Excerpt: <<This is my interpretation of the
> > Mellotron, a classic
> > instrument invented in the 1960s. It was one of
> the
> > first sample players,
> > and was used by The Beatles, and countless
> > psychedelic and prog bands. The
> > Mellotron played strips of tape to emulate flutes,
> > strings, choirs,
> > orchestras, etc. The flutes at the beginning of
> > Strawberry Fields are a
> > good example of the Mellotron.
> >
> > My version, The Melloman, uses Walkmans and
> cassette
> > tapes to play
> > original Mellotron samples, or whatever cassette
> > tapes you want to put in.
> > Inside the box, there are 14 continuously running
> > Walkmans mounted side by
> > side. The first Walkman is designated for drums,
> and
> > the next 13 provide
> > sampled loops for 25 notes.>>
> >
> >
>
>
After I published the page for the Melloman, I got a lot of emails. This was from Genesis P-Orridge (RIP), kindly reminding me that Sleazy of Throbbing Gristle built something similar years before. I didn't know about it. Here's the email, in its entirety, from 2005: