G.X. Jupitter-Larsen ( The Haters)
Above and below, a 1995 double 7” release on the Vinyl Communications label. Some of the sounds: explosions, flame throwers, sound of things falling apart, shattered car recordings, skipping CDs and other scrappy noises.
Back in 1980 I just gave my records away at punk shows or sent them off as mail art. I was completely out of the loop when it came to what the kids in the industrial scene were up to. It wasn’t till 1982 when a mail artist in Texas passed one of my records along to MB* in Italy. MB then contacted me directly. It was soon after that when MB told Merzbow about me and the three of us started trading like crazy. This was all done via the post office. It took weeks to complete a trade.
Any how, it was because of my correspondence with MB and Merzbow that I finally got plugged into a scene that was slowing becoming what we now know as Cassette Culture. Must have sent stuff in for a couple hundred cassette comps. Some got released, some didn’t. Even if the thing did get released, a lot of the time there were only enough copies made so each of the artists who took part could get one single copy. Still, at the time, it was the best way to get your stuff out there. And it was a great way to get to know what like-minded people were up to.
*Maurizio Bianchi, underground Italian musician.
The Haters have been the unbelievably prolific project of GX Jupitter-Larsen since about 1979. His use of destruction as an artistic or even “anti-art” element has produced many recordings and countless live actions. In a show I did with Eric Muhs and Big City Orchestra in 1990 in Santa Cruz, The Haters were scheduled to perform but for some reason could not make the show so sent a pre-recorded tape instead. This tape consisted of some very harsh noise and while being played at a loud level, members of BCO were miked behind the club digging in the dirt with shovels.
I also encountered GX two other times. Once at dAS’ radio show in Santa Cruz where he was involved ( with others) in a wild radio broadcast of, among other things, broken vinyl being aired from several different areas of the station at once. Then, also at a Survival Research Laboratories performance where he evidently did the soundtrack for the machines that were destroying each other. A perfect fit.
