S A T U R D A Y   2 5 t h   O C T O B E R   1 9 8 6 :   T H E   W 2 0   S E S S I O N S

The entry for that date from “The Journals Of Dr. Mick Magic Ps.D.”

Albert had been in my living room by the time I woke up this morning. With great care, he had assembled my synthesizers and effects pedals in such a way that sheer magic emanated from them at my very touch. This was it! May Clinton Ford almighty bless you, Albert, for you have put me on the road to the discovery of the Weirdobop! I spent hours playing such strange and wonderful noises this day, I discovered the “Zen Sequent”, “White Cathay”, “I Feel Sick” and “Are Souls Epileptic?” amongst many other wonderful sounds. Truly this day has been one I shall remember until I forget it.

Long before digital cameras, and completely unaware that this was to be the beginning of a great pan-dimensional adventure that would continue for decades, these two grainy photographs are the only visual record the Doc made of that now legendary day...

It was kind of like a 'once upon a time' moment, for this was the day the Magic Moments At Twilight Time sound came into being, albeit in a somewhat embryonic state. The benefit of recording on a Nicam VHS machine was that the tapes were three hours long, so it was just a case of put one in, press 'record', and play around with things until it clicked off and began its auto rewind (very handy for avoiding fines at Blockbusters). Afterwards, I went back through it all and transferred the more reasonable bits on to a cassette, which I still have, 19 'tracks' in all, the vast majority of which have not seen the light of day for very many years. One notable exception is "The Cylinder", because it was the first, and thus was included on the digitally remastered collection, "Flashbax Ω Ultimate" (Klappstuhl Records, 2015)...

   CYL 1086068 / The Cylinder (0:51)

There's also one I dubbed 'I Feel Sick' (most of the titles were made up on the spur of the moment so I could tell which one was which), merely 'interesting' in its original format (re-released on "Flashbax Omicron 13" as part of the 'Magic Moments Revival' series of online events in 2018), but that riff later formed the roots of "Pandora" (also on "Flashbax Ω Ultimate") and "Aftermath" (first released on "Grain-Aid" in July 1988). Three very different takes...

   IFE 1086148 / I Feel Sick (2:07)

   Pandora (5:10)

   Aftermath (5:21)

The session also turned up a piece I called "Discotheque Traveller", which later formed the bones of "Traveller II"; "White Cathay" and "Zen Sequent", both embryonic versions of their namesakes; "Acoustatic", which was remixed into "Air On A Radio Frequency Interference String" in the early days of the Magic Bullet project; and finally, if I had to pick a favourite, it would be the one I rather insensitively described at the time as "Are Souls Epileptic?" Even in the original raw live take, it had something that appealed to me. Here it is, digitalised specially for today, previously unavailable for 38 years! It also went on to become one of my own personal favourite MMATT tracks, "The Soultakers", which finally resurfaced on "Flashbax Epsilon Psychotronic" as part of The Music & Elsewhere 25th Anniversary Collection from 2017...

   ARE 1086016 / Are Souls Epileptic? (4:15)

   The Soultakers (5:00)

Of course, things didn't stay this way. Some 16 months later, we all went back in time in the Ford Escortron and did this day over again, thus history records two versions of it, but that's another story, we'll get to "The Time Machine" in February 1988. Meanwhile, you have a fortnight to wait until Willy The Oak Tree's 20th birthday party on the very next page, not to mention his 60th on board the WSS Boobyprise on Mick Magic's Radioshow To The Stars...

WILLY THE OAK TREE'S 60th BIRTHDAY PARTY