Background

Caprice was one of the first music projects of → ↑ →, commencing in early 1977. The concept was to form a band to play Muzak-style instrumental covers of the evergreen/easy-listening songs (ones we equally loved and hated) and perform them with synthesizers, a drum machine, guitar and sax.

A selection of those cover versions (from Charlie Christian, Glen Miller and Henry Mancini) were recorded for an EP in 1980, augmented with an original composition, the eponymous track Caprice. By 1978, the 'Muzak' ideas for this were developed into a suite of original 'minimalist-muzak' pieces for the → ↑ → Venitian Rendezvous project.

1st pressing © 1980

Credits

Record

Arrangements, synthesizers, toms & drum machine - Philip Brophy
Bass synth - Maria Kozic
Guitar - Leigh Parkhill
Sax - Ralph Traviato
Recording engineer - Brian Parrish

Music-video

Direction, camera & editing - Philip Brophy
Lighting and camera - Kim Beisel
Choreography - Louise Brophy
Dancers - Louise Brophy & Romano
Additional cast - George Huxley, Bernadette Brophy, Rosaleen Brophy, Ralph Traviato, Peter Lawrence, Kim Beisel

1984

Music-video for Present Records

1983

7" EP second pressing - Present Records

1980

7" EP first pressing - Innocent Records

Overview

In the mid-1970s, Glam, Pop and Hollywood all merged in a gaudy audiovisual carnival of second-hand styles. The sound of old movies, the feel of old photographs, the image of old music - everyone seemed to dissolve into a faux-nostalgic past. The important distinction, though, is that the past was alien, weird, and faced in an opposite direction to world-conscious socially-relevant enterprises of the same time. You supported either Bowie's Young Americans or Eric Clapton's I Shot The Sherrif - for identical reasons. Immersed in the sonic worlds of music, Philip and → ↑ → heard Glam in all sorts of places - from the harmonious golden sound of Glen Miller's sax lines to the harmonizing multi-tracked fuzz sustain of Robert Fripp. The weirdness of all sounds in the Pop realm (in contrast to their sodden realist guise in the then-dominant 'singer-songwriter' arrangements and productions) fuelled much of → ↑ →'s musical explorations. Caprice is probably the most ungainly and discomforting manifestation of this. Ralph came up with the record's title: in contrast to 'mood music', Caprice was more interested in the music's inability to convey a stable and inviting mood.

2nd pressing © 1983

Technical

Record

The music was recorded at Latrobe University studios with Brian Parrish.

The record was released in two pressings - the first featured gold ink hand-silkscreened on embossed leatherette card; the second featured 3 colours hand-silkscreened on gold foil card.

Poster - 1st pressing © 1980

Music-video

The music-video was produced at Open Channel studios in Melbourne. It was shot on Super 8 to give it a 'cine' feel. The choreography is by Philip's sister Louise. Hollywood musicals are directly referenced in the ballroom costumes and bare staging (particularly the Stanley Donen / Gene Kelly collaborations of the '50s), and the music-video's approach follows a stylistic vein established in the Asphixiation music-video for Aural/Oral Risk.

Flyer & poster - 1st concert © 1977

Recording @ Latrobe University recording studio, Melbourne © 1980 - photos by Maria Kozic