LCM, by Thomas Dimuzio

LCM

by Thomas Dimuzio

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Sculpting Electric: Red Sun, Sculpting Electric: Foldings, Sculpting Electric: The Return, Sculpting Electric: 9600 Baud, Radiesthesia, Sculpting Electric: The Gas, LCM, Sculpting Electric: In The Ice Phase, and 18 more. , and , .

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1.	Large Cresting Microwaves: Loop Cycling Manifests 04:32	buy track
2.	Large Cresting Microwaves: Lag Clocking Modulates 08:05	buy track
3.	Large Cresting Microwaves: Live Coursing Melodies 05:42	buy track
4.	Lush Calming Memories: Lens Coating Magnifies 05:32	buy track
5.	Lush Calming Memories: Loose Cracking Mosaics 08:28	buy track
6.	Lush Calming Memories: Lights Casting Mediums 03:26	buy track

about

In the mid-2010’s, seemingly half of the weird music shows in East Oakland all went down at Life Changing Ministries, a tiny chapel one block from West Oakland BART that started as a residence throwing occasional shows before expanding into a proper co-op running concerts three to six nights a week. It wasn’t safe to include the address, especially on a searchable events page, but everyone knew exactly where the show was going to be if they saw these three letters next to each other: LCM.

A mainstay of the Bay Area experimental music scene, Thomas Dimuzio played countless times at this comfortably carpeted venue, that kind of privately public space where it can be hard to properly tell the music apart from the community. Though ’LCM’ is technically a live album — two side-long suites, each built out of three continuous movements — it’s also been seamlessly composed from so many different nights that it represents an entire era, evoking the sites that allow music like this to come into being.

The often unrecognizable textures on this recording were all generated on Thomas’s carefully cultivated Buchla synthesizer. Being an early adapter of the relaunched Buchla 200e series, Thomas sometimes found himself informally acting as quality assurance, reporting workflow quirks and bugs directly to Don Buchla over the phone as he integrated more and more modules into his setup. Of course, Dimuzio knows that Buchlas are designed to surprise, not to be tamed — or as Don once barked in response when Thomas asked him about a module’s possibly unintentional behavior: “Well… does it sound GOOD?” ‘LCM’ is West Coast music, emphasizing surprise and opportunity over safety.

Though Thomas himself often jokes about the phenomenon of the ‘Mod Life Crisis’, which is part a reference to how undeniably expensive these instruments are — it’s less a secret than it is essential to recognize the role of Thomas’s storied career as a Test Engineer for musical software & hardware companies, dating back the early 90’s. His sprawling Buchla & Eurorack setups reflect a life dedicated to discovering and then exploiting the unexpected uses of our musical technology. Questions about how these strange sounds are being produced slowly give way to the undeniably musical logic on display, the way these recorded sounds find their own flow through time in seemingly different ways with every playback.

All volunteer venues, by their nature, can’t last forever; they crumble, or become mere institutions. The building’s still occupied, for now, though other venues have taken on the work of hosting shows. But every musician and every audience that participated recognized what was happening at Life Changing Ministries during its own lifetime — there’s one in every lucky city, the opposite of a tragedy, worth remembering every time something like this manages the miracle of coming together.

Life Changing Ministries was founded by Angela Edwards in the early 2010’s when she moved into a tiny chapel on 8th Street in West Oakland. In 2013 it was expanded into a full time cooperative with financial and booking responsibilities shared by a team which included Michael Daddona, Alexandra Buschmann, Sarah Lockhart, James Decker, Raub Roy, Dianne Lynn, Bobby Adams and Nathan Bowers.

—text by Jonathan Leidecker (aka Wobbly)

“…It is a mystery how these sounds are produced, and that magic, like the production of the vinyl record itself, is some kind of alchemy. You take air and thoughts and these much-loved but esoteric machines, turn some dials and somehow whole universes form or different psyches manifest themselves, emerging whether dragged or eased into our welcoming light.

Although otherworldly, the sounds on LCM have a human memory and we only need to open our ears and allow Mr Dimuzio, our guide, to show us the way.” — Mr. Olivetti/freq.uk

freq.org.uk/reviews/thomas-dimuzio-lcm/

credits

released June 2, 2021

Performed live at LCM in Oakland, CA between 2013 and 2015.

Composed, recorded, and mastered by Thomas Dimuzio.

Much love and thanks to Sharkiface, Sarah Lockhart, Michael Daddona and the entire LCM audience for thriving on the fringes of music and the bounds of sound.

Cover photo by Scott Friedlander. Design by Thomas Dimuzio and Chandra Shukla.

LP released by Erototox Decodings (ETD0036).

© 2021 Thomas Dimuzio
℗ Gench Music [BMI]

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about

Thomas Dimuzio San Francisco, California

Thomas Dimuzio's recordings have been released internationally by ReR Megacorp, Asphodel, RRRecords, No Fun, Sonoris, Drone, Record Label Records, Odd Size, and other independent labels. Among his frequent collaborators are Chris Cutler, Dan Burke, Joseph Hammer, Nick Didkovsky, Due Process, Voice of Eye, Fred Frith, David Lee Myers, 5uu's, Matmos, Wobbly, and Negativland. ... more

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