Zetex (Live At Cafe OTO)

Six selected pieces from the Zetex album (released Misc. Works, 2021) and one previously unheard piece, performed live at Cafe OTO, London, March 26 2022.

Zetex was inspired by, and partly constructed from, the short-lived transformation nocturnal East London underwent during 2020, when the noise-floor of diesel engines and alcoholism was replaced by a bottomless, inky silence.

Only when listening to amplified recordings of the "silence" were details revealed, like a space telescope exposing distant galaxies — the cries of urban wildlife, dystopian safety announcements, and the hum of unknown heavy machinery, presumably the sound of London, The Grey Machine itself, echoing and mixing together, diffused through hundreds of miles of empty streets.

Information for nerds: The performance was recorded to a new-old-stock 1983 TDK chrome cassette using a Technics M63 deck, as was the original album. The three-head 'E.R.P' system allows audio currently being recorded to be fed back from the play head in almost-real-time. This monitor output was played directly to the audience "live on tape".