#(second in the series but i forgot to demarcate the myhouse one so whoops)

[the-takosader]

TMMSOTI Ramble

Can I just mention how weirdly unsettling it is to know that we've got a partially lost media that we're trying to find the origin of? Now, I know we found the "origin" of it. Darius S.'s broadcast recording from 1984 on NDR2. But in this case, that's not enough.

Now, I know you might be wondering, "Why's he on about this? What's with the massive topic shift from the post he made on Sunday?" Well, it's because I mentioned TMMSOTI in the image, if you were mad enough to go so far as to look closely at the image (It's the normal orientation of the Gas Station dream, next to the biggest text on that image.), but that's not important.

What is important is that it feels weird to know that this song exists, has existed for close to 40 years now, and no one is even close to figuring out its origins. Granted, the search only started 4 years ago, but still. And the strange thing is, they can't even find NDR's official record of the broadcast!

"Strange." Heh. As if I didn't know that's not nearly the worst case of record-keeping out there. The BBC has a much MUCH worse history of record-keeping, especially from the mid-50s. Most of early Doctor Who's serials are audio only now, and who knows how much of Hartnell and Troughton's acting was lost because of the BBC deciding to wipe without backups. (Side note: those are REALLY British names, even to me, a Brit.)

But back to business. TMMSOTI is undeniably a product of the '80s. From the sound of it, it's unashamedly synth-heavy, as heard in the chorus, but overall, it doesn't feature electronic instruments all that much. It doesn't feel so much like punk, or "post-punk", as Wikipedia describes it, but I'm not a connoisseur of that genre. The only song I've really listened to from it is London Calling by The Clash (who have enough range to also write such songs as Rock the Casbah and Should I Stay or Should I Go), so I'm in no such way describing myself as someone who does, solidly and truly, know what the hell they are talking about.

If there's a solidly defined bassline in there, I sure as hell cannot decipher it. Transcripts I find on Songsterr do not feel solid about the bassline. Literally the only things that feel solid in that song are the guitar and the drums. The guitar feels solid because it's the main driving force, right the way through the whole song. It plays eighth note power chords in the intro and guitar "solo", and arpeggios in the verses.

AS FOR THE DRUMS. HOO BOY. I don't think I've mentioned this here, but I have a minor penchant for the drums (read: done every Beatles song to the best of my ability). I listen to that, I hear someone who's been playing for a while. Every fill has a different pattern. The timekeeping is rock-solid. About as close to metronome as humanly possible.

So, what's so significant about rock-solid drumming? Well, apart from the fact that it's a grand measure of skill, it's also a sign that this isn't just your average garage band (not to be confused with the app of the same name.)

So it's a semi-professional drummer with a skill for keeping time, and a guitarist that knows his way around some chords. The bassline is obscured by the quality, and the synths are generic enough as is. Some theorise it originated from behind the Iron Curtain, but if that's the case, why send it to NDR2, based in Hamburg, instead of the much closer West Berlin?

In my very VERY limited opinion, I think it's much more likely that it's a small West Germany band that got lucky enough to get their demo featured on Musik Für Junge Leute in 1984, where it was then, unceremoniously dumped into the nearest rubbish receptacle. If anything, had it not been for Darius S. taping that night's NDR2 broadcast, we might not have heard this song... ever, in fact. Hell, even he forgot about the tape for that broadcast until digitising them for an archive 20 years later.

I guess that goes to show how remarkably fickle memory is, where no one remembers the song's title or the band's name. Also has the side effect of being fucking creepy when you think about it, because it's quite existential in a way. How, when all's said and done, everyone might forget about us unless we are immortalised in some way. I guess that it helps that the Internet exists now.