Motor Totemist Guild
ARCHIVE ONE

from INFRA DIG (1984)
1. Edison Games
2. Aunt Iodine
3. Get Angry
4. Mute Tape Process
5. The Totem Motorist
6. Humus Maskaself
7. Stares In Steps
8. Insular Phantastikos
9. Lap Over Chop Over Ring
10. In Sackcloth And Ashes CONTACT WITH VEILS (1986) 11. Unterm Rad
12. Nigh
13. A Mixture Of Guise
14. Felis Felicific
15. Cuneiform
order
nml/MTG1 - CD 1996 73'32"

 

Motor Totemist Guild
ARCHIVE TWO

from SHAPUNO ZOO (1988)
1. Set Of Crayons
2. Do The Crawl
3. Familiar Philippic
4. Indian Bingo
5. Imperfections
6. Prisms Of Ribbon
from A LUIGI FUTI (1989)
7. Omaggio A Futi
from KLANG (1985)
Barbie Variations
8. Birth By Injection Mold
9. Marriage & Divorce
10. G.I. Joe VS. Ken
11. Barbie In Hell
order
nml/MTG2 - CD 1997 71'33"

 

James Grigsby guitar,bass,Chapman Stick,keyboards,trumpet,vibraphon percussion,voice,loops &splices
Becky Henninger cello
Lynn Johnston clarinets & saxophones
Christine Clements clarinet,saxophones,piano,percussion,voice,vocoder
Emily Hay voice, flute,piccolo (nur Archive 2)
Eric Strauss voice,percussion,violin,keyboards,pan pipes,short wave, drums,vibraphon, tenorsax
David Kerman drums,percussion,toy rat,
   

plus guests: Iris Albers - voice; Nigel Bladen - drums; David Brown - guitar; Thoams Dodge - xylophon,drums,percussion, alto sax, keyboards,loops; Jeff Falkner - bass viol; David Goodman - piano; Kraig Grady - percussion; Stuart Hathaway - guitar; Billy Paul - synth,guitar; Winsten Smith - the wheel; Maw Win - voice;Gene Carl - keyboards; Brad Laner - percussion; Trelain Lewis - the voice of Barbie; William Roper - tuba; Curt Wilson - ghost; Coma Auxilliary Choir; USC Contemporary Chamber Ensemble; Musicians of Cambodia; Musicians of Laos

MOTOR TOTEMIST GUILD - a name that brings to mind an imaginary meeting between Sitting Bull and Henry Ford (Thomas Mauch) and therefor stands for the meeting of modern/ancient, artificial/organic and banal/sublime means and ends, the superimposition of that being called "Motor Totemism". The concept of duality between free improvising and composition leads to what mastermind and composer James Grigsby defines himself as "electric chamber music" naming influences ranging from Traffic, Henry Cow, Frank Zappa, Ornette Coleman to Edgar Varese, Oliver Messiaen, György Ligety, Conlon Nancarrov and Balinese Gamelan Music - a mixture of all different stiles of music which has nothing to do with post-modernist "anything goes" but with the search for and, concerning MTG, the creation of a vivid music which stands on it's own.

"Two CD's of ambitious genre-bending music which deserve close attention."
(Chris Blackford, Rubberneck # 25)

"Magnificent musical moments ... giddy conceptual camp ... cosmopolitian rainbow of influences ... should interest anyone who values civilized experimental music."
(High Performance)

"There style is filled with quirky twists and turns, drastic changes of mood and direction, and a subtile humor that is rarely found in music of this nature."
(Jinko)