Telectu - Ctu-Telectu (1982)
Future veterans of portuguese experimental music, Telectu, kick-started things, the year Philip K. turned astral, with a dystopian Dick-inspired improvisational new-wave soundscape, that expanded on what 1/2 of Telectu, Vítor Rua (Jorge Lima Barreto being his academically savvier half in the group) was up to at the time with then pop experimentalists GNR (no apostrophe) on Independança, also from 1982.
What's interesting is that, just as in that record GNR pushed their experimental tendencies to the edge - particularly with a side-long track, Avarias, that sounded like an approximate answer to the question 'what if Can were a new-wave band' (and which I find historically significant, but not entirely successful in itself) -, it could be argued that, while much more abstract, Telectu's debut, which even featured GNR's drummer, might in turn have been tempered by some of this group's parallel concerns with accessibility and engaging with the 'now' - concerns that would often elude a less immediately welcoming part of Telectu's subsequent career path and notable avant-garde collaborations, with the likes of Chris Cutler, Jac Berrocal or Louis Sclavis (not to say that Ctu Telectu (which is not some literary crossover wordplay on Cthulhu; I checked) could be accused of bearing any particular sympathy for success either).
Does all that mean that artistic virtue lies in the middle? I don't know; nor, more importantly, do I know if one rule fits all, at all (well, that's rhetorical; I don't really think it does; different talents require different strategies to operate properly in different conditions, and figuring that out is a big part of their struggle). Either way, I also couldn't say how the tiger with the tie ties in with all that monkey business, but he sure looks snazzy. Isn't that its own reward?
