The gracious Mikael Djurvall provided me with the following, which seems to have been written prior to the release of Arabic Yodelling.
It is taken from the tattered files of Resident and RatL archivist
Dr. B. Kim Andrews:
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 11:14:29 -0600
From: Kim Andrews
Subject: Trip to Venice
I'm including this for the Buddies who showed interest in R&L's wunderbar
work ... It is an early Ralph press release I came across while preparing
the RzWeb upgrade stuff ... I think it documents some of their earlier,
more obscure (!???!) work.
AND NOW A FEW WORDS ABOUT RENALDO AND THE LOAF
The name may imply mystery, and games of illusion, but actually David
Janssen and Brian Poole, who make up the group, don't intend it that
way at all. Quite to the contrary, we at Ralph found the two to be
straightforward and sincere, in a joyous but reserved British manner,
during their recent visit to our offices in San Francisco.
Both were born and still live in Portsmouth, England, where one fills
his days as an architect, the other a chemist. For just over ten
years, as friends and cocreators they have experimented, or in their
own words "operated" on sounds to create a unique idea of music. SONGS
FOR SWINGING LARVAE on Ralph Records is the first major public release
of what can only be called an ambitious new musical vision, which is
to say, it doesn't sound like everyone else. At the outset, neither of
them knew how to play a note, which over time has resulted in an
insular approach to playing and composing. This lack of convential
training has made it hard for them to play with other musicians
comfortably, and vice-versa. Fortunately, they've made the best of it,
and the results are unique in part because of this chance isolation.
Weekly, they escape to the world of Sneff's Surgery (their studio
located in David's bedroom), where it's obvious that they indulge an
alternate reality amid a variety of unusual instruments and
non-instruments, all watched over by a trusty tape recorder. As they
pointed out, due to certain financial limits, they've been forced to
fully exploit and develop all capabilities of the equipment at their
disposal. For example, what other record in your collection lists
scalpel, dissections, bouzouki, flocdrum, Ted's metal comb, hacksaw
blade, and biscuit tins under featured instruments? Extending this
even further, they often employ a method of 'esrever' (reverse)
talking, which involves speaking backwards, and then playing the tape
so the words make sense, but the inflections are radically
altered. They have even extended this technique to backward
filming. You are following all this aren't you? GOOD!
In their own words, David and Brian give a nice sense of the whole process:
"We now tend to feel totally at home in the bedroom studio. Sometimes
the music comes, sometimes not- we don't normally rehearse anything,
most of our music is spontaneous, quickly assimulated and
recorded. You see, our music is like a hobby, a diversion, very
personal- to us, creating a piece of music gives us the satisfaction
that doing a painting might. Consequently, playing live is outsville!
(although they've done it once) So you see, we are quite normal
inquisitive people who delve into their own world for inspiration and
diversion- no great philosophies, no created image, no political
stance, no great virtuousity, just ... We believe in bugs, do you?
CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY
1970- 1972: un-named, just Brian Poole and David Janssen experimenting.
1972: Brian worked in a group entitled, Galapas, occasionally thru 1976.
1973: Both Brian and David worked and experimented with a flute player,
Jeff
Clark.
1976- 1977: Brian goes to London/ David goes to college.
1977: Reunited again to renew their explorations.
1978(middle)- April 1979: called Plimsoliline.
1979(April): RENALDO AND THE LOAF ARE BORN!!!!!!!!!!
DISCOGRAPHY
TAP DANCING IN SLUSH / BEHIND CLOSED CURTAINS recorded between
September 1978, and April 1979, but has never been released for sale. Raw
Records was supposed to release TDIS as a 12 inch EP, and BCC as an lp in
1979, but it never happened.
RENALDO AND THE LOAF PLAY STRUVE AND SNEFF was recorded between
April 1979, and September 1979, and enjoyed a limited release in cassette
form in October of 1979 on David and Brian's own Rotcod
Productions. Note that Rotcod is doctor spelled backwards. Also of
interest, during this period they used at least parts of Luke
Reinhardt's book "Dice Man" in the choice of name, activities and
musical structure. For those unfamiliar with Mr. Reinhardt's work, in
simplistic terms it involves the use of dice throws to add an element
of random chance to decisions.
RENALDO AND THE LOAF PLAY SONGS FROM THE SURGERY , besides refering
to their studio, is a tape recorded between November 1979 and April
1980. Only two copies were ever made, and it included a bit of the
live show, as well as some material that later showed up on SONGS FOR
SWINGING LARVAE. Obviously, it was never released.
HATS OFF GENTLEMEN Once again there were only two or three copies made
of this tape, composed between April 1980 and August 1980. It's of EP
length, and includes "Honest Joe's Indian" from the SONGS FOR SWINGING
LARVAE lp.
SOUTH SPECIFIC which was released in August of 1980 on Brain Booster
Records, was a Portsmouth sampler of local talent. Renaldo and the
Loaf have three cuts on it, "Bali Whine" "Medical man" and "Scottish
Shuffle" of which the last is unavailabe anywhere else.
SONGS FOR SWINGING LARVAE was historically released by RALPH RECORDS
on April 15th, 1981, even though it had been completed in November of
1980.
Currently the two are of course working on new material and ideas. They
told us that although they don't think of themselves in terms of
influences, they were willing to share their current musical tastes, which we
can suppose will have an effect on future projects. David listens mostly to
classical and european avant garde, while Brian dables in ethnic folk from
various cultures, medieval and traditional forms, pop, and dancing music of
all kinds.