Artist: Magic Moments At Twilight Time

Title: Freedom Overflow

Label: Rodent Tapes

Original Release Date: 21st February 2013

Bandcamp Revamp: 21st March 2021

Format: Download

Buy Link: *See Note Below

*Sadly, as of August 2022, Rodent Tapes are no longer available on Bandcamp, so only the Internet Archive version survives...

I've always had something of a soft spot for this collection, it was the very first MMATT release of the 'new digital era', following my 2012 return to underground life, after a decade long 'sabbatical'. Before The Magic Net had celebrated its first anniversary, before the Decadion collections were even conceived, and more than 2½ years before Flashbax Ω Ultimate saw the light of the day, there was Freedom Overflow. At the time, I hadn't digitised anything from the cassette underground era at all. To be honest, I was struggling enough with learning how to build a website! The only digital files I had of MMATT's tape years were ones that other people had done from 20 year old copies and been kind enough to send me; a couple of volumes of the original Flashbax series, volume 1 from Steve Lines' Acid Tapes and volume 3 from Matthias Lang's Irre Tapes; the Designer Brain Damage tape from Stan Batcow's Pumf Records; the Freedom Overflow theme song and the whole of White Hawk Atomic courtesy of Captain Garry Lee (the DJ whose links pepper it). I uploaded most of these MP3's to online platforms like Reverbnation and Soundcloud, our very earliest online presence, all of which is still there to this day. I did a couple of link pages for the website to go with them, also still there, then that was pretty much it. The next move went to the man I still insist on calling Gypsy, in spite of his recording under the name of Arzathon for many years now, old habits die hard, we go back over three decades, much of which neither of us can remember! He was doing a project he called Rodent Tapes Backstage on the Internet Archive, mostly  these were

digitisations of his own cassette era recordings, all available as free downloads. I don't know quite how it came about, whether he talked to me about it first or not, but he also included this 7 track collection of MMATT tracks, presumably farmed from the stuff I'd put online. It was all out there as free downloads anyway, so it wasn't a problem, I was quite happy at there being somewhere else you could get them. And I always thought it quite fitting really that Gypsy should be responsible for the first MMATT album of the digital era, his "Not At All" (M&E 001) album being the first release on our M&E tape label 21 years earlier! So, when he tells me he's moving a lot of these old Rodent releases up to the Bandcamp platform, you can imagine how keen I was to make ours worthy. Whilst the original featured MP3's at 128 and 192kbps, I went back to our original cassette masters for these, digitised in high quality WAV format. With the exception of Freedom Overflow, expertly digitally remastered by Klappstuhl Records in 2015, none of the tracks on here are available at this quality anywhere else. I also spent a while revamping the cover art and creating a new graphic for every track. The album even comes with lyrics and new cover notes, not bad for a 'name your price', eh?

NB: The original Internet Archive version is still online, and I hope it will remain so forever, it's a little moment in history!

LINK:

 https://archive.org/details/FreedomOverflow

01 FREEDOM OVERFLOW (6:29)

Recorded in 1992 as a theme tune for the pirate radio station of the same name, duly fronted by then married couple (we've all been there), Captain Garry Lee (now broadcasting legitimately as Starship Overflow) and The Black Widow. That's the two of them in their top secret Colchester bunker, back in the day. Originally released on "The Radio Cracker Tape" charity compilation.

02 ZEN SEQUENT (4:48)

From "At Twilight Time" (C-4013, 1987), better known as "The Magic Moments Album", reissued as part of "Psychotron 0" (MMATT 20) in 1988, this features the original foursome. The photo was taken at our debut gig at Frimley Community Centre on Saturday 27th June 1987, Shona Moments at the microphone; myself, Jay Time and the late Kate Twilight hiding in the background.

03 PANDORA (6:46)

The first of the five tracks taken from our best selling cassette album, "White Hawk Atomic" (MMATT 34, 1991), none of which are available in this quality anywhere else. That's me and Lulu in the picture, snapped by Pete Program at Virginia Water, circa the time of the recording, scanned from an article in the German magazine EB Metronom, published by the late Gisela Lobisch.

04 TROIS (4:57)

Of course, the recording is actually Lulu, Pete and myself; but the photo is of the original foursome performing this song at Farnborough Tech in March 1988, Miss Moments in her best psychotic schoolgirl costume, knife in hand, waiting for any unsuspecting member of the audience to stray a little too close to the stage. I sometimes wonder about all the psychological damage we caused...

05 BEWITCHED (3:44)

This IS a love song, though a long way from the misty-eyed ballads most might expect of one, this is very much MMATT style. From the "Zoen Nostalgia" story arc, this is about my meeting Sam at the infamous Lightwater party gig. That's us in the photo, right back at the beginning, circa 1989. We've been together for 32 years now, she did the part of The Hostess on "Mi Casa" last year!

06 PSYCHOJOLTING (6:31)

It was a trans-dimensional dance, in case you were wondering, one that could only be performed with the aid of a Gamma Syndrome Corporation Spacetime Continuum Hyperdrive Dome™, you know, like the one in the picture, hanging on the back of The Psychotron. Or, for the benefit of the cynics amongst you, the makeshift keyboard stand we built from an old sideboard sprayed silver.

07 THE SOULTAKERS (6:58)

From the end of the original MMATT story arc, culminating in The Doc kneeling over the bodies of the rest of the band in a post-blitzkrieg Citadel, as brilliantly illustrated by ex "2000 AD" artist, Thayen Rich, for the original 1996 release of "Creavolution", pictured right. As they say, when one door closes, another slams in your face. Move along now, and forget the nuclear obsession...

08 THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES (0:09)

Not a track, just one of those little jingle bits we used to put on the end of virtually everything. It was a MMATT thing. This is actually taken from the end of "White Hawk Atomic", though would have been recorded by Shona in early 1989 originally. It is a convenient excuse to get some pictures of the band from the time of the album though, back in the days when I was a hairy beast. Enjoy muchly...