Intersystems — #IV
(out April 30th, 2021 on Waveshaper Media)

Genre(s): Experimental, Electronic, Spoken Word
RIYL: Syrinx, Throbbing Gristle, Oneohtrix Point Never, Morton Subotnick, William S. Burroughs

Press Release
Download


John Mills-Cockell : Website
Waveshaper Media : Website | Bandcamp

ABOUT: Infamous psychedelic multimedia collective, Intersystems, makes a surprise return with their first album since 1968, #IV, out April 30th from Waveshaper Media (of I Dream of Wires notoriety). Comprised of architect Dik Zander, light sculptor Michael Hayden, poet Blake Parker, and musician John Mills-Cockell (of Syrinx, Kensington Market and more), this groundbreaking Torontonian group was known for its hi-tech pan-sensory events, and a trilogy of defiant and disorienting records that have since become coveted collector’s items (and seen lavish reissue via Alga Marghen)

Nearly fifty years on, Hayden and Mills-Cockell decided to revive the long-dormant project with a series of sessions at Hamilton, Ontario’s storied Grant Avenue Studio. This music, documented #IV remains congruent with the project’s original impulse, yet is irrefutably of the present moment. Taking cues from its stark predecessor, a modular Moog synthesizer system is the primary instrument, but here the sonorities that Mills-Cockell conjures are dynamic and diverse. Meanwhile, Parker’s texts are rendered in computer-synthesized voices that alternate between an eerily life-like delivery and slurred cybernetic faltering, bringing a glossy dystopian veneer to the group’s anxious surrealism.

While bursting with new psychoactive ingredients, #IV also offers a reminder of just how radical Intersystems was in the first place.

COVERAGE:
Review — Chris Ingalls, PopMatters
Review — Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis
Review — Jon Davis, Exposé
Review — Pat Padua, Spectrum Culture
Review — Vincent Chanson, Section 26
Review — Bryon Hayes, Dusted
Review — Jesse Locke, The WholeNote
Review — Daniel Barbiero, Avant Music News
Review — John Nicol, Obladada
Review — Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly
Review — Densidad 20.25
Radio — Freeform Freakout, FFFoxy Podcast #181
Radio — The Eternal Now, WFMU
Radio — The Sound Projector, Resonance FM (feature on Intersystems)
Radio — Daniel Blumin, WFMU
Radio — Signal To Noise, Slack City
Radio — Feelings with Michele with One “L”, WFMU
Radio — Spin Age Blasters with Creamo Coyl, WFMU
Radio — Noise, CJSW (spotlight on Riparian Media new releases) (May 13th 2021)
Radio — Alternative To What, CJSW (June 3rd, 2021)
Radio — The Future Language, CJSW (May 21st, 2021)
Radio — Noise, CJSW (May 20th, 2021)
Radio — Total Eclipse of the Charts, CKUT
News — Adam White, Some Party.ca
News — Synthopia.com