In 1990, Brian Damage became co-host of CKUT radio’s “The Late Night Atrocity Exhibition” with a guy named Dave. Dave left the show in 1992 and Brian transformed the show in his image, making it a focal point for the local industrial scene and adding radio art elements to the mix.
One such project was called “Six Minutes Of Neoism”, which explored different facets of Neoist philosphy in sonic form. An episode of “Six Minutes Of Neoism” was broadcast every last Thursday of the month from November 1993 to October 1994.
The theme song, which was used as the basis for the pieces in the “Six Minutes Of Neoism” series, used samples from Monty’s album “Ahoura Neoismus”.
01 A Call From Amen
Original broadcast date: November 25 1993
Features Monty Cantsin on vocals. The call from Monty is followed by an excerpt from “The Anti-Cycles of Neoism”, featuring Monty on Scrap Metal and Megaphone and Brian on Sampler.
02 The Destruction Of The Monument
Original broadcast date: December 30 1993
In 1993, Les Cent jours d'art contemporain de Montréal presented Istvan Kantor / XX Monument temporaire, bringing together the artist's performances, installations, and recent video productions. The Desrtuction of the Monument was the closing / destruction of Monty’s installation at “Les Cent Jours”, held at the Montreal Musum of Fine Arts October 31, 1993. The installation was destroyed by a group of sledgehammer-weilding Neoist conspirators, and made into a film by Etienne Desrosiers. The sound was recorded and narrated by longtime Neoist collaborator Spiel.
Monty: "Without blood we are dead flesh thrown on the scales of commerical criteria. Blood gives us the capacity of experimenting new ideas. The system of pleasure operates through blood. The aim of my installation is to glorify vandalism as the ultimate act of creation. The greatest works of art were always insulting, irritating, or at least they were questioning established rules. The greatest artists always vandalized the notion of art. I have never really thought about vandalism until I read it in a newspaper that what I was doing is vandalism. For many years I tried to defend myself against this accusation. I always used empty white walls to make my blood paintings and if some drops fell on a Picasso, like for example at the Museum of Modern Art, it was not my intention. My intetion was to give a gift to the museum. I always asked them to keep it until it becomes meaningless, obsolate. Of course they never accepted my donations, and they quickly eliminated my works, washed and painted the walls, cleaned the floors. Should I say that by cleaning up the gallery they vandalized my work? That would give them too much credit, anyway, after a while I realized that the best is to admit their accusation of vandalism without being affraid of this term. So I decided that I should not defend myself against vandalism but I should defend vandalism as the ultimate act of creation, and that's the basic idea of this exhibition."
03 Veins - A Brainless Megamusical
Original broadcast date: January 27 1994
The lyrics were taken from Monty Cantsin’s “Book Of Neoism” which was a collection of writings by Monty, and a prelude to a larger, never published, work called “Phone Book”. Parts of the “Book Of Neoism” were used in the booklet for Monty’s “Noise Bible” CD. This track also appeared on the Phÿcus release “LUMPTHZ”.
04 Report on UK Akshun
Original broadcast date: February 24 1994
In February 1994 Brian & William were invited to accompany Monty Cantsin on an excursion to the UK. The pros of this was that we got to spend a week doing art with Monty. This was also the cons. After spending a few days in London, where William and Brian accompanied Monty on various art actions, the crew ended up in Brighton, performing at a festival called “The Violence of the Imagination”, which featured all manner of extreme performance art. It was a blast! We knew we would have to step it up a bit to be in theme, so this performance had a bit of self-mutilation and the burning of a scrap of wrapping paper – a nod to Monty’s “Ideal Gift” campaign, where he would leave blood paintings on the walls of galleries. Phÿcus cleared the room, of course, with the exception of one heckler, who the organizwer of the event, Roger, told to “Fuck off”. We also met Simon Dywer, author of the Rapid Eye anthologies, who bought us a pint and declared us “the new Throbbing Gristle”, which is saying a lot considering we wre in the city that Genesis currently called home. The soundguy made it to the top three stupidest soundmen we ever had to deal with.
05 Brainforest
Original broadcast date: March 31 1994
As with “Veins”, the lyrics were taken from Monty Cantsin’s “Book Of Neoism”.
06 Sounds Of The UK Akshun
Original broadcast date: April 28 1994
The sounds were taken from the performance in a railway trestle in London. The participants were Monty Cantsin, William Davison and Brian Damage using oil barrels and scrap metal.
07 SPK-553 – The Life And Death Of A Tatoo
Original broadcast date: May 26 1994
Vocals by SPK-553.
08 Bill Satan’s Letter
Original broadcast date: June 30 1994
Words by William Davison, performed by Brian Damage.
09 Brainforest II
Original broadcast date: July 28 1994
Further excerpts from Monty Cantsin’s “Book Of Neoism”.
10 Neilism
Original broadcast date: August 25 1994
Tapes by Neil Wiernik.
11 Voices And Ruins
Original broadcast date: September 29 1994
Further excerpts from Monty Cantsin’s “Book Of Neoism”.
12 Spiel – A Message from OSP
Original broadcast date: October 27 1994
The Overnational Socialst Party was the artistic name used by the duo of Neoists, Gina and Spiel. They contributed to several of Monty’s actions during the late 80’s and early 90’s. The recoring of the edition of “Six Minutes Of Neoism” featuring their contribution has been irreparibly garbled. The outro was the only part of this recording that was salvageable.
13 Six Minutes Of Neoism Theme
credits
released October 26, 1994
Monty Cantsin – Original music for the theme, Lyrics (01, 03, 05, 09, 11) Vocals (01, 02), Scrap Metal (06), Inspiration on all tracks
Brian Damage – Sampling and Sequencing for the theme, Vocals (03, 04, 05, 08, 09, 11), Scrap Metal (06)
William “Bill Satan” Davison – Lyrics (08), Scrap Metal (06)
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