The Elephant Table Album: a compilation of difficult music was a 1983 compilation album, released on Xtract Records. The double album was compiled by music journalist Dave Henderson following a series of articles by him in Sounds, the British music paper. It was reissued on CD by the same label in 1989, but with the tracks sourced from the vinyl release rather than the master tape,Listeners to the CD version have reported vinyl noise; they presume that the CD has been mastered from a vinyl copy. and the number of tracks reduced from 21 to 17.Various - The Elephant Table Album The tracks consisted of a selection by lesser-known experimental, industrial and electronic artists of the period.
Track listing
Side 1
Portion Control - Chew You To Bits Chris and Cosey - Raining Tears Of Blood Metamorphosis - Musak From Hawthorne Court Coil - S Is For Sleep Nurse With Wound - Nana Or A Thing Of Uncertain Nonsense
Side 2
400 Blows - Beat The Devil Konstruktivits - Andropov '84 Lustmord - The Boning Of Men Muslimgauze - Milena Jelenska David Jackman - Edge of Nothing
Side 3
SPK - Despair MFH - Vox Humana Nocturnal Emissions - Suffering Stinks Attrition - Dream Sleep Legendary Pink Dots - Surprise, Surprise Paul Kelday - Birth of Planetesimals
Side 4
Bourbonese Qualk - Under The City Sirius B - Build Your Children New 7th Music - New Human Switchbaord (Extract) We Be Echo - Alleycat Bushido - Modelwerk
Release details Catalogue number: Xx001 Format: Double Vinyl LP (5 September 1983), single CD (1989) The CD version lacks the tracks by Paul Kelday, We Be Echo, New 7th Music and Muslimgauze.
Influence Steven Stapleton of Nurse with Wound also did the artwork for the album, and was sufficiently impressed by David Jackman's track that he invited him to collaborate on a series of music projects.
The album has been cited as an influence on the EBM genre."to aficionados of EBM it provides a good basis for where the music came from" in
Despite the "difficult" nature of the music, one band on the album, 400 Blows, hit the British charts in 1985 with "Movin'",Brown, Kutner and Warwick, The Complete Book of the British Charts(Omnibus, 2002); p389., a cover version of a Brass Construction song.
Three Minute Symphony A second album, Three Minute Symphony (XTract XX002), was released in 1984; again it was a double LP compiled by Dave Henderson."This album was the sequel to THE ELEPHANT TABLE ALBUM, also compiled by Sounds music journalist Dave Henderson, featuring a very wide range of post-punk, industrial and noise bands." in . A track list is here: Each artist was invited to provide a track of approximately three minutes' duration. In contrast to The Elephant Table Album's emphasis on British-based music, many of the featured artists were from other countries, including the USA, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Side 1 Kill Ugly Pop Let's Get Real Gone Ptôse - Waiting For My Soul Trax - Trax Co Mix 1 Die Tödliche Doris - Maria Van Kaye And Ignit - A Slice Of The Action Bene Gesserit - White Men
Side 2 Colin Potter - The State Human Flesh - L'Ultima Storia DDAA - Your Mother With A Cake Point of Collapse - When Worlds Collide David Jackman - Wolf Sema - Untitled
Side 3 Hunting Lodge - Tribal Warning Shot (instrumental) Roll Kommando - Die Romantik Ist Tot Stratis - I Fotia Merzbow - Xa-Bungle Philip Johnson - Always Behind You Conrad Schnitzler - Three Minute Symphony No 1
Side 4 Magamatzu - Bird, Spider, Fly Hurt - Money Matters Nurse With Wound - Antacid Cocamotive 93 Legendary Pink Dots - No Bell, No Prize Asmus Tietchens - Dahinter Industriegelande Smegma - The Breathing Method
References
2x12" vinyl LP at discogs.com CD entry at discogs.com
External links The text of Dave Henderson's original article