About this episode

The episode explores the unconventional music project Alien Brains and its impact on the DIY cassette underground in the early 1980s.

The strange, uncompromising world of Alien Brains , the project led by Nigel Jacklin that helped define the outer edges of the early 1980s DIY cassette underground. Emerging from a school science lab, inspired by John Cage  and nurtured by the fledgling cassette network, Alien Brains rejected conventional song structures in favour of pure spontaneity, raw improvisation and a deliberate embrace of failure as an artistic possibility. The DIY cassette scene of 1979 , with its “it's easy, cheap, go and do it” ethos, provided the perfect outlet for these early recordings. Mark Lancaster of The Instant Automatons and Deleted Records recalls encountering Nigel, playing an early gig with him at his school, and releasing the first Alien Brains cassette “Menial Disorders” . The story takes a notorious turn into the heart of the British public school system. As head of the Rock Society at  Oundle School , Nigel invites  Throbbing Gristle  and  Monte Cazazza to perform in the main hall, a collision of avant-garde industrial noise and traditional boarding school culture. We find a recording of Cosey Fanni Tutti sharing her memories of the shock…

Topics covered

• DIY cassette culture
• avant-garde music
• improvisation
• British public school system
• 1980s music scene

Keywords

• Alien Brains
• DIY music
• improvisation
• Nigel Jacklin
• Throbbing Gristle
• 1980s
• cassette culture

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Throbbing Gristle, Monte Cazazza, Industrial Records, Deleted Records

Books & works: Menial Disorders

Places: Oundle School

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