Tom Cameron

Nice to see this 1982 “Private Press” LP by Chicagoland’s Tom Cameron in the program; I’ve long felt this was one of the better “One Man Against the World ... with Synthesizer” LPs self-financed during the late-70s / early-80s. Each side features an extended, gorgeous take on analogue “Automation” book-ended by two, shorter, more “Accessible” numbers. The A-side’s “Another Question” is an impeccably gaseous, floating void of minimal diminished-minor filigree that rates up there with thebest of J.D. Emanuel & Steve Birchall’s variegated work while avoiding straight “Ambient Float” tactics. The B-side’s title-track works a heavy array of bubbling minor arpeggiations, killer tape-echo’ed rhythm-box flair with tons of metrically modulating lines & neat poly-rhythmic programming & Terminator-style malaise culminating in acascading bubble-wave. On top of the excellent, regional, private-universe zeal of the music, this has both one of my favorite album covers of all time - a portrait set on Raicevic-ian landscape-voids drawn by mr. Cameron himself - as well as back-cover, a “Money Shot” featuring mr. Cameron lounging in Oak Park amidst a full Shure Vocal Master P.A.. & a series of EML Electrocomp systems, all set in motion, transcribing his brain-wave activity ala Alvin Lucier & converting it to sound.