JOHN DUNCAN AND EXTENDED ORGAN
JULY 14, 2007

CURATED BY:
LETICIA CASTANEDA AND JAIL GALLERY

ARTISTS:
JOHN DUNCAN
EXTENDED ORGAN:
MIKE KELLEY
PAUL MCCARTHY
FREDRIK NILSEN
JOE POTTS
TOM RECCHION
JOSEPH HAMMER

DESCRIPTION:
"John Duncan -- ostracized by the arts community of 1980 Los Angeles (and in Stockholm in 2002) after airing documentation of Blind Date, his work involving necrophilia as a metaphor for male emotional repression -- returns for the first time in five years with a performance of cataclysmic sound of unknown origin executed in total darkness.
Contrast that with the splintered sound collage of Extended Organ, a SoCal supergroup made of Tom Recchion on Kurzweil and guitar, vocalist/mess-making mastermind Paul McCarthy, irascible stuffed-animal noiser Mike Kelley, prototurntabalist sampling by Joe Potts and onanistic organ-grinding by Fredrik Nilsen.
That the accumulated effects of these experiences are tantamount to ejaculation in one's spiritual ovum is an understatement; that these people do mankind a service by exploring the possibilities of sound as betterment of the human organism -- not so much."

-David Cotner, LA Weekly

“Such was the case on a Saturday night a couple of weeks ago, when Duncan's chakra-rattling frequencies activated a darkened, sweltering warehouse space in what remains of downtown's Skid Row. Produced by Jail Gallery and experimental musician Leticia Castaneda, Duncan's performance was old-school room clearing, leaving only a few die-hards like Mike Kelley, whose succinct Fuckin A! rose above the scattered but enthusiastic applause. Kelley had played keyboards and percussion in the opening act, Extended Organ a sort of L.A. audio-art supergroup featuring L.A. Free Music Society alums Tom Recchion, Joe Potts, and Fredrik Nilsen (channeled in this case by Joseph Hammer) who created a bed of sound for Paul McCarthy's vocalizations, hollered into some large cardboard tubing that McCarthy would also intermittently assault with a circular saw.”

-Doug Harvey, LA Weekly

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