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Delay Tactics — Out-Pop Options & Any Questions?
(Multiphase Records MP-CD130, 2024, 2CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-09-28

Out-Pop Options & Any Questions? Cover art

Few recordings were as influential as the two mid-70s albums by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, along with the extensive Frippertronics touring that followed through hundreds of small venues (including record stores, etc.) across the USA and worldwide. Often, the influence on up-and-coming musicians doesn’t manifest itself as downright imitation, but instead as a spark of energy that ultimately created something entirely new. The group at hand, Delay Tactics, began life in 1981 as the St. Louis based duo of Carl Weingarten and Reed Nesbit, two guitarists using tape loops and other effects as the basis for their late-night ambient music concerts at local movie theaters, slowly building up a following. By the following year, it was time to commit some of their ideas to a recording, and it was at that time that engineer and synthesist Walter Whitney threw his lot in with the duo, making Delay Tactics a trio for their first album, Out-Pop Options. Subsequently Nesbit left the group and was replaced by guitarist / keyboardist David Udell, which led to the group’s second album Any Questions? in 1984. During this period, Delay Tactics caught the attention of college radio programmers for their innovative use of delay effects, sampling, rhythmic experimentation, and looping in an instrumental pop context. On both albums Jim Mayer appears on electric bass on select tracks, and Joan Bouise added wordless vocals to the track “Oysters” on the second album. Both of these LPs have been reissued on CD previously (on mp3.com) and we have covered them both here at Exposé (and those reviews of Out-Pop Options and Any Questions? certainly deserve a second look), but with the passage of two dozen more years and a magnificent remastering job, these two albums have never sounded better. Furthermore, ten bonus tracks are included that wouldn’t fit on the original LP format, approaching 47 minutes of additional music, standouts being “Ceremony” and the twelve-plus minute “Initial Opus” on the first disc, and “Fictionmusic,” “Mr. Witchdoctor” (featuring vocals by Asa Harris), and the funk-driven “Car Crash Jam” on the second disc. With brilliant pieces like “Kites,” “Journey to Omdurman,” “Cymbolia,” “Le Noeud de Viperes,” “On Green Waters,” and “Under the Ice” leading the way, one can quickly see how Delay Tactics made such engaging and innovative music over four decades ago.

Filed under: Archives, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Carl Weingarten, Delay Tactics, David Udell

More info
http://carlweingarten.bandcamp.com/album/delay-tactics-out-pop-options-and-any-questions-remastered-edition

 

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