LPH 052 - Future Queens Vol. 1 (Women in Music) (1977-2001)

[Lucky Psychic Hut, 2016; #052
- first posted at Border Music in 2007 as Vol. 1 of the "Future Queens" series]


notes from 2007:

"Arboribus and I decided to post some compilations about Women in Music.
I will start with the first compilation, and Arboribus explains our subject:

'(…) working on a compilation of music requires the setting up of at least one border: The separation line between the songs included and the ones excluded.

Therefore the compiler starts out with thinking about the criteria for in-/exclusion. Certainly the pool which we draw from is our subjective, personal music taste, but that leaves the field still too wide. The next question was, if we'd like the selection to be avantgardistic, folkloristic, or just rock+roll? We didn't want to erect a border fence between the genres, so you will find all these kind of approaches on this compilation. For my part, I can say, that I soon expanded the original triangle women-music-humor to women-music-power. In some way or another, I feel that all the songs I selected are having power in common, no matter if they are humorous, serious, or reflective.

While thinking about these practical questions, my mind raised some disturbing theoretical questions as well. What does it mean, if two men - like Lucky and me - are working on such a project in a post-women's-liberation-age? Is it just a nice gesture which is in accordance with the aims of women who fought for their emancipation? We might feel that way, and we'd like to understand it that way ourselves. We feel, that women are not only great singers and performers of classical music (in these two fields of musical activity women seem to be represented quite well), but also great composers, improvisers, and bandleaders (these fields are obviously still male-dominated). By concentrating on the latter field - without ignoring the 'traditional' female activity of singing - we want to promote this insight and provoke the listener's further interest in female composers and musicians. Yet, there is a 'however'…

In postcolonial theory western scholars often face a problem: If they speak in favor of the former colonized peoples and with the best political intentions, the intellectuals from 'third world'-countries still could complain: In the era of colonialism the westerners have deprived the colonized subjects of their voices. If the western scholars nowadays keep speaking in the name of the former colonized, they keep depriving them of their voices. The same can be applied to the history of gender relationship: If men nowadays speak in the name of women - even with the best intentions of emancipation - they create a male discourse again, and thus stick to the old patriarchal rule. I have no answer to this problem, I can only assert again, that we are not meaning to impose ourselves upon a female discourse. We'd be happy, if women would take over. We'd be happy if this music sampler would be the start of a dialogue rather than remain a male monologue. (…)'"

tracklist:


FUTURE
Penetration "Don't Dictate" (UK/1977)
The Slits "A Boring Life" (UK/1977)
X-Ray Spex "Oh Bondage Up Yours" (UK/1977)
Siouxsie + The Banshees "Nicotine Stain" (UK/1978)
Essential Logic "Wake Up" (UK/1979)
Kleenex "Ü (angry side)" (CH/1979)
The Raincoats "In Love" (UK/1979)
Young Marble Giants "Ode to Booker T." (UK/1979)
Hans-A-Plast "Dicke Kinder" (D/1980)
LiLiPUT "Eisiger Wind" (CH/1981)

QUEENS
Joyce "Essa Mulher" (BRA/1980)
Les Reines Prochaines "Advices to My Child (Wild)" (CH/1990)
Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet "Mu" (USA/1993)
Maggie Nicols/Irène Schweizer/Joëlle Léandre "Advices to My Child (Wild)" (UK-CH-F/1993)
Zeena Parkins "AIN SEFRA: In Captivity and Flood" (USA/1993)
Dagmar Krause + Marie Goyette "Through My Satellite" (D-F/1997)
Meret Becker "Vive La Trance" (D/1998)
Aki Takase "Nur da wo du bist da ist nichts" (JAP-D/2001)
Maria Kalaniemi "Dim Light in the Farmhouse" (FIN/2001)


total time: 72'08


Queened by Lucky, 2007.
Cover by Lucky.


Online-discussion about Women in Avantgarde @ the NM-List (1/1997).
'Gender and the avant garde' @ The Captain Beefheart Radio Station (contains an extended bibliography on that subject).

Dedicated to my sister.
Swiss group Les Reines Prochaines provided the inspiration for the name of the series.
"Future" part inspired by Greil Marcus' books "Lipstick Traces" and "Ranters and Crowd Pleasers (USA) / In the Fascist Bathroom (UK)".