The record digger is a bit like a detective: there are times when a record slots into a well-known plot, or provides a key clue for a puzzle to click into place. Other records are crystallised one-offs you can’t believe anyone lived without. And then there are records that seem to hijack the plot and divert it into a whole sub-story with its own set of characters, philosophies, activities, and scenes. A whole worldview opens, and you think, ‘I love this, I have to know more’. Finders Keepers pair Andy Votel and Doug Shipton are specialists in uncovering these kinds of records.
The label’s latest swings the focus to Melbourne circa 1979, and brings us one of Australia’s “rarest synthy post-prog vinyl artefacts” from the mind of Geoff Krozier. Tranceformer sees Krozier and his band, the Generator, produce a heady mix of dark, distorted guitars with lots of synths and drum machines. It’s all drones, ominous melodies worthy of the most fetishised horror films, atmospheres à la early Eno, bursts of sick sonic experimentation reminiscent of Der Plan. Krozier recites prayer-like lyrics, monologues that create imaginary landscapes about alien abductions and spatio-temporal transfers: he puts a blown bubble back together without sticky tape, he says he’s a crocodile, he acts like a tiger. But Krozier is not only a poet and musician, but also a magician (voted Sydney’s official 1980 Magician Of The Year) and all that we hear on this double LP was conceived for or indeed recorded at magic shows. He died attempting an illusory hanging in 1981. Tranceformer is what we have left. You have to listen to this.
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