here is a reproduction of the original 1999 CD liner notes:


during the period 1991 - 1993, the crafty acoustic guitar duo "the dozey lumps" was undergoing a musical transformation of which even they were blissfully unaware. having created a large and complex repertoire in the new standard tuning for guitar, and after performing acoustically for some two years, the group wanted to try something different.

these are the earliest known recordings by the band that, quite suddenly, became "bindlestiff". fragile, delicate compositions which were created under the most primitive of technological circumstances. a fascination with looping, and with ambience, is already clearly evident at this early stage, and these pieces have a delightful naivete seldom found in recorded music today. the songs are presented in roughly reverse chronological order, which makes it possible to witness a delightful lessening of musical structure as we progress backwards in time to the most minimal, ambient and atmospheric pieces.

by the end of this period, the band had developed a set of live performance pieces that they continued to execute through the period 1993 - 1995. looking back through the years from the vantage point of 1999 (and again now, in 2013!) , it is very nearly unimaginable as to exactly how these recordings were made. these unique works, most of which are the only existing versions, are truly "early".


the phonographic copyright in these performances / compositions is operated by pureambient records on behalf of the artist, with whom it resides. pureambient,com accepts no reason for artists to give away such copyright interests in their work by virtue of a "common practice" which is out of tune with the times, was always questionable, and is now indefensible. copyright 1999 (the world) bryan helm / dave stafford.


2013 notes:

the album was recorded during the period 1991 - 1993, and was originally completed and released in 1993 (20 years ago as of 2013). cassette versions existed between 1993 and 1999, when the album was finally released on CD; hence the repeated mentions of "1999" in the album notes reproduced above.

early is utterly unique in the bindlestiff catalogue, the pieces are studio creations rather than live (most bindlestiff records are almost entirely live in the studio) and only one of the pieces from the album, "a chink in the armor" was ever performed live (sans reverse guitar solo, obviously), and was in fact a live performance staple right up through 1995 - the other eight pieces were never performed live, and are therefore unique studio creations.

this was our beginning.


dave stafford, pureambient HQ, november 2013