- Source: The Elephant Table Album
The Elephant Table Album: a compilation of difficult music was a 1983 compilation album, released on Xtract Records. The double album was compiled by music journalist Dave Henderson following a series of articles by him in Sounds, the British music paper. It was reissued on CD by the same label in 1989, but with the tracks sourced from the vinyl release rather than the master tape, and the number of tracks reduced from 21 to 17. The tracks consisted of a selection by lesser-known experimental, industrial and electronic artists of the period.
Track listing
Side 1
Portion Control - Chew You To Bits
Chris and Cosey - Raining Tears Of Blood
Metamorphosis - Musak From Hawthorne Court
Coil - S Is For Sleep
Nurse With Wound - Nana Or A Thing Of Uncertain Nonsense
Side 2
400 Blows - Beat The Devil
Konstruktivits - Andropov '84
Lustmord - The Boning Of Men
Muslimgauze - Milena Jelenska
David Jackman - Edge of Nothing
Side 3
SPK - Despair
MFH - Vox Humana
Nocturnal Emissions - Suffering Stinks
Attrition - Dream Sleep
Legendary Pink Dots - Surprise, Surprise
Paul Kelday - Birth of Planetesimals
Side 4
Bourbonese Qualk - Under The City
Sirius B - Build Your Children
New 7th Music - New Human Switchbaord (Extract)
We Be Echo - Alleycat
Bushido - Modelwerk
Release details
Catalogue number: Xx001
Format: Double Vinyl LP (5 September 1983), single CD (1989)
The CD version lacks the tracks by Paul Kelday, We Be Echo, New 7th Music and Muslimgauze.
Influence
Steven Stapleton of Nurse with Wound also did the artwork for the album, and was sufficiently impressed by David Jackman's track that he invited him to collaborate on a series of music projects.
The album has been cited as an influence on the EBM genre.
Despite the "difficult" nature of the music, one band on the album, 400 Blows, hit the British charts in 1985 with "Movin'", a cover version of a Brass Construction song.
Three Minute Symphony
A second album, Three Minute Symphony (XTract XX002), was released in 1984; again it was a double LP compiled by Dave Henderson. Each artist was invited to provide a track of approximately three minutes' duration. In contrast to The Elephant Table Album's emphasis on British-based music, many of the featured artists were from other countries, including the USA, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Side 1
Kill Ugly Pop Let's Get Real Gone
Ptôse - Waiting For My Soul
Trax - Trax Co Mix 1
Die Tödliche Doris - Maria
Van Kaye And Ignit - A Slice Of The Action
Bene Gesserit - White Men
Side 2
Colin Potter - The State
Human Flesh - L'Ultima Storia
DDAA - Your Mother With A Cake
Point of Collapse - When Worlds Collide
David Jackman - Wolf
Sema - Untitled
Side 3
Hunting Lodge - Tribal Warning Shot (instrumental)
Roll Kommando - Die Romantik Ist Tot
Stratis - I Fotia
Merzbow - Xa-Bungle
Philip Johnson - Always Behind You
Conrad Schnitzler - Three Minute Symphony No 1
Side 4
Magamatzu - Bird, Spider, Fly
Hurt - Money Matters
Nurse With Wound - Antacid Cocamotive 93
Legendary Pink Dots - No Bell, No Prize
Asmus Tietchens - Dahinter Industriegelande
Smegma - The Breathing Method
References
2x12" vinyl LP at discogs.com
CD entry at discogs.com
External links
The text of Dave Henderson's original article