Original liner notes:

Dire Images of Beauty: in this case, compositional improvisation, delayed counterpoint, making-up-stuff music. Music which is unsuitable for hypnotherapy---though unsolicited dream states may occur spontaneously at any time in your life, not limited to those times at which you listen to our music.

This band is mad and scared about many things our country does. It felt kind of hopeless to protest the US massacre of Iraqi people and the disgusting celebrations which have followed, and maybe I only mention this because it's easier to talk about politics than music, but so long as musicians (i.e., all people) chase after fame, money and status, we're going to have the killing of souls, if not bodies. This music is not going to sell, yet Randy and I are already making plans to lose money on more projects after this one. Our intent is quite serious: not merely to put the music out there, but to throw our lot in with the elephants: who as a species are being removed bodily from the planet as some grandiose monument to free enterprise.

I've come to like this recording a lot for being so elusive and unaccountable. Especially Randy's guitar solo on "Along These Lines."
The more I listen, the more I hear of a unique unsuitability to commercial exploitation. Also, the listening goes well with making pies.

-- Dan Plonsey

Evolution of a Species:

The formation of The Manufacturing of Humidifiers [Man of Hu (Hu~Man)] was inevitable. When I moved into my current abode in 1986 where Plonsey had already been living for two years, new musical capers, experiments, challenges, victories, and failures began consuming our lives. This house (dubbed "The Berkeley Home for the Musically Insane" by one inmate, David~80, became a hub of musical activity. In the fall of '86, the Composers' Cafeteria formed: an anarchy of composer/performers which would present about 150 new compositions over the next three years. The Cabinet (KaBaNet) followed soon thereafter as an ensemble of compositional-improvisors. Plonsey & I & others organized these groups and Ward Spangler was there coloring the sounds and laying the grooves when he wasn't playing with the Oakland or Berkeley Symphonies or about a dozen other gigs that could offer him what we couldn't (US~currency). Producer, engineer, bassist, composer, salesman extraordinaire, Steve Horowiz left Cal Arts in 1989 and moved back to the Bay Area to push and poke this local scene and specifically move his own scene out of the bathroom and into the streets. "I will be the Donald Trump of Improvised Music!" Horowiz prophesied. Now that he's co-founded the Improvised Music Association and dropped the 't', we're starting to believe him. Horowiz found Jim Bove drowning rhythmically in a sea of bureaucracy at S.F. State. Jim joined us as trap-man, and Ward moved on to mallets and other percussion. Raj Mehta attended our first concert in Spring 1990, and praised and flattered us
so highly that we suckered him into joining us.

We went into these sessions without any preconceived notions except to engage in interactive, melodic, compositional-improvisation. We are a very melodic ensemble: our audition was a melodic one. There is also a lot of humor in our music. We don't know where it comes from: we are not funny. Yet somehow, there is always plenty of fat-and-tall-tailin' and pure unadulterated bullshit which goes right over our heads. Still while being humorous, the music has very serious intent and it is from our hearts. We hope the music touches you.