Sparkle Girl Audio Podcast Propaganda

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Sparkle Girl is a guerilla sound-art project founded in 1994 by Kurt D and Jim E. A “garbage noise duet� and “cultural esoterrorist auditory affinity group�, Sparkle Girl is a decidedly non-academic, anti-hegemonic, sonic circus of resentment. Sparkle Girl makes few concessions to taste, talent, quality or other such mystical abstractions. In the spirit of play, Sparkle Girl is engaged in the cultural production of sound collages, field recordings, free improvisations and loose compositions. Our work is sonic, visual, literary and propagandistic in nature. Sparkle Girl has produced and distributed over 6,000 handmade recordings in cassette, CD and mp3 formats. The majority of these works have been handed out free at public events such as protests, concerts and live actions. Many have been left on public payphones, toilets and buses to be randomly discovered. Some have been placed in record store bins with labels that say “free�. Many of our cassettes have been recorded over corporate music releases, which were then re-labeled with handcrafted collages. Another source of raw material consisted of hundreds of dumpster dived tapes from AEI music. Their cultural detritus was expropriated and recycled by Sparkle Girl, pressed into service as a tabula rasa for our carnival against boredom. Sparkle Girl agents have distributed these objects in cities around the United States and Canada. Works have also been distributed via the Internet and through trade with other sound artists. Our work as Sparkle Girl represents an assimilation and assortment of our daily experience with sound, media and our own nervous systems. Sparkle Girl utilizes a wide assortment of tactics and tools in her sonic architecture; Walkmans, samplers, bass, guitar (heavily treated), everyday household objects such as key chains and children’s toys, contact microphones, turntables, megaphones and snare drums. Our work with tapes and found sounds carries over from our field recording activities and our interest in broadcast media as sites of cultural contestation. The sonic detritus of our lived experience is captured, deconstructed and re-organized using briccolage and cut-up methodologies. Snippets of news programs, rainstorms, opera, insects, oceans and answering machines rise and fade amidst classroom lectures, radio static and violent demonstrations. Nothing is off limits. We have even written a “song� now and again. The sound of Sparkle Girl runs the gamut from easy listening to bizarre transgressive psychodrama. enjoy the sound of egocentric nihilistic decadence, the uncontained howl of irresponsible hermeneutic surrealism. Bypassing traditional means of music distribution we prefer to give away releases at rallies, protests, performances, civil disturbances not to mention telephone booths and restrooms. However time and economics and the capitalist system have also led us into the realm of retail sales at affordable rates from such fine stores as Wall Of Sound (Seattle), Enterruption and the Electric Heavyland (Seattle), Aquarius Records (San Francisco) and in Europe at www.volcanic tongue.com Specializing in avant garde sound improvisation Sparkle Girl utilizes whatever tools may be at hand; heavily treated traditional instruments, samplers, voice, text, bullhorn, keyboards, computers, toys, cooking utensils, tapes and found sounds and field recordings. As an outgrowth of our field recording pursuits we also document as much as possible the underground culture around us. We believe in the documentation and archiving of events that might otherwise be forgotten. These projects usually take the form of limited run handmade cdr editions that are presented to the artists to distribute as they see fit. In addition to our own work we are just as proud to have documented and preserved performances by the following: The Infernal Noise Brigade, Climax Golden Twins, Wolf Eyes, Rob Millis, Greasy, Sublime Frequencies Cabal, Sea Donkeys, The Black Sun, Monster Defiance Headquarters, Animal Collective, Girth, Grey, Dead Machines, Withdrawl Method, Konono No1, Panicsville, Metalux, Rubber O Cement, Tarantism, Anti-Ear, tarentel, Sugar Skulls, Na, Cerberus Shoal, Paul Flaherty & Chris Corsano, Prurient, Sun City Girls, Earth, Emil Beaulieau as well as many others, see the blog post for Sparkle Girl Archives for more info on the ever expanding list

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