In a sense, Dockstader is one of the godfathers of Nurse With Wound, and a distant cousin of rap and techno. Long before anyone recycled outtakes from records, Dockstader took a razor blade to tapes of found sounds and radio equipment. He edited, treated and reassembled these into sonic landscapes that, for all their technical primitiveness, retain a great deal of power.
The 73 minutes of music here were all created between 1960 and 1965. The work of many early electronic and musique concrete composers sounds like disjointed blurps and squeals and possess less emotion than a typewriter. Not so with Dockstader; his pieces have a great deal of continuity and mood. Luna Park is restrained and haunting, while the creepiness of Apocalypse goes right over the top with its recordings of door hinges, voices, and animal cries. This record is essential for anyone interested in electronic music. (Starkland, Box 2190, Boulder, CO 80306)