Cut Out

***STEVE FISK (PELL MELL, PIGEONHEAD) and BOB BEERMAN (PELL MELL) approached Interlude With Fun Machine in a similar manner to their work in Pell Mell: set up a pattern, offset it with a contrasting pattern, layer on a counter-pattern, and so on. But where Pell Mell’s renown derives from a signature guitar-based sound, CUT-OUT relies on textures, patterns, found sounds, presets, rhythm boxes, inversion of background and foreground elements, and a very deadpan sense of humor. 
 
Fisk and Beerman were first introduced to The Fun Machine’s charms when Pell Mell were recording the Star City album with Tchad Blake. Almost all of the tracks on Interlude With Fun Machine started with this arresting home organ’s built-in rhythm box and chord accompaniment presets. Anyone who gets buzzed from the warm glow of keyboards such as the Optigan and the Mellotron will find plenty to intoxicate here. Music performed by Fisk and Beerman in their other configurations has found temporary residence in diverse upscale audio trailer parks such as a Microsoft commercial, Kids in the Hall’s Brain Candy film, the short film Green Monster (shown on PBS’s P.O.V.), MTV’s Road Rules, Sex and The City, Six Feet Under, lots of NPR between-feature snippets, the film Joy Ride, ER, and others. Interlude With Fun Machine is similarly soundtrack ready. 
 
The all-instrumental album was recorded in one week, and benefits from noticeable inspiration from Hematic Sunsets’ (aka Asmus Tietchens) odd combination of kitschy lounge and soundtrack-ish music and “modern” electronic sounds; the casual, DIY, homespun aesthetic of French Paddleboat; classics such Dieter Moebius’s Tonspuren and, of course, Eno’s Another Green World; The Young Marble Giants’ unadorned rhythm boxes and Wurlitzer frailty; and minimal electronic music by Thomas Leer and Robert Rental, Cabaret Voltaire, Pyrolator, Cluster, Harmonia, et al.)