POST- ISOLATIONIST - Investigating a new form via the ' MURDER BALLADS' series (Drift, Passages and Incest Songs) by M.J. HARRIS/MARTYN BATES. 1998 and 'MURDER BALLADS (INCEST SONGS)', the final volume of the trilogy,is realized, a release that further evolves post-isolationist ideas by dispensing with the one voice/one instrument approach deployed on 'DRIFT' and 'PASSAGES'. 'INCEST SONGS' utilises varying applications of multiple voice treatments, as Martyn Bates vocalisations/storytelling song-voices are by turns expressed as labyrinthine layers, calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resulting in a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences. MURDER BALLADS (INCEST SONGS) pushes at the post-isolationist frame of reference, innovating and extemporising further, refining and updating a truly original dazzingly unique form. Four years after its inception, somewhat surprisingly, it still remains an area overlocked by other artists working within its proximities.....an area that is still truly the sole province of M.J.Harris/Martyn Bates. extract from an interview QUESTION: The final volume of the Murder Ballads trilogy 'Incest Songs'...whilst sticking to your original concept, feels substantially different to its two predecessors. Why did you choose one particular topic for the song-words this time? MARTYN BATES: "With this third volume of 'Murder Ballads', I was intent on using a multivoice format where voices overlap, saturate and blur;..I guess its true to say that my decision to use 'Incest 'song-texts was influenced by the fact that I knew all the voices on the recording would be mine....so it seemed fitting to me, that I am going to be 'cross-fertilising 'my voices as it were, then its both relevant and appropriate to sing 'incest' songs!" MICK HARRIS: " Personally, I think that this third volume is the best of the Trilogy...there is a definite, audible progression thru the three volumes....the multi-voice idea has taken what we've done further out, I feel, to somewhere different again, beyond my soundscapes , the work I do with 'LULL'.....also, curiously, these pieces have definitely got more of a 'drugged' feel.... MARTYN BATES: "Well...there is a disconcerting 'narcotic' quality of beauty to 'Incest Songs', tho that isn't quite the best way to describe the effect, to my mind.....I mean to say, the aim was to create a DREAM-LIKE music, something mellifluous, mesmeric yet still infused with that characteristic stillness.....that slow, hypnotic unfolding of a graceful, gossamer kind of subtlely. To me, 'INCEST SONGS' is the apogee of our own personal explorations of this genre that we've created...there's a beautiful finality, a certainty to what we've done on this CD, I feel, in personal terms.....listening to it, I think it's easy to detect that the whole thing has been a truly exhilarating experience for the both of us, realising and developing this strange, sublime creature of ours.....and now I guess it's up to others to take up the challenge, to build on what we've done.......and I think that there are still SO MANY fantastic possibilities......
		M.J. HARRIS/MARTYN BATES 'Murder Ballads (Incest Songs)' CD catalogue number: eee 40
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