Rozz Williams - The Lost Recordings

"I've always been a great believer in provoking a reaction. I would rather make a record that is loathed by ten people than one which is ignored by everyone; I'd rather play a show which the audience walks out of en masse, than one they just stand around and talk through."
(Rozz Williams)


Introduction

Rozz Williams was the internationally renowned vocalist of legendary deathrock bands Christian Death and Shadow Project.
His name is synonymous with the gothic rock scene. Christian Death's debut album Only Theatre of Pain gave birth to deathrock in America and continuesto influence bands today, while Shadow Project's Dreams for the Dying album was described by one critic as the most evil record ever recorded.

Although Christian Death and Shadow Project helped build Rozz a large and dedicated fanbase, he himself did not want to be restricted either to the gothic genre or to standard musical structures in general. In fact two years after forming Christian Death in 1979 at the tender age of sixteen,and well before he had even entered a studio,
Rozz was already working with performance artist Ron Athey on his first experimental recordingsand been banned by local clubs for terrorising audiences . Raw to the extreme, these recordings and many that followedwould never be released in his lifetime or indeed even in the years since his untimely death on 1st April 1998.

The story behind the forthcoming releases:

I'd like to introduce myself as I am behind the forthcoming series to restore and release Rozz's old lost 'experimental' recordings.
At the end of last year, Ryan Gaumer, whom I had met in Paris in the Spring of 2007 at an exhibition of his artworks, contacted me and offered to sell me his share of Rozz's original, unreleased Premature Ejaculation cassettes. He knew that not only was I a very keen collector, but that I am a major contributer of material to the official Rozz site, Rozznet, and also a moderator on the premier Rozz forum 'The Land of Rozz'. As such, he believed that I would not only treasure these valued cassettes, but also be in a position to make the music available for all other fans to hear.
While making initial investigations, a further eight original cassettes have also been located and are now with Ron Marrs, the Rozznet webmaster.
Like Ryan, Ron has confirmed that he is more than happy for those recordings to be included in the project.I have also contacted Chuck regarding my plans and he has given me his full support for the project, and permission to include those particular HPOE releases that featured Rozz. The remaining titles are sourced from copies made by my good friend Andreas Hofmann from Rozz's original tapes. Those original tapes have not been located.
A lot of the PE and Heltir material has not been released before. I know that there have been attempts in the past to release some of this rare material though Malaise Media and Malaise Music but without success. I realise that it is impossible to please everybody, but my intentions on this are real and sincere. I like the idea of calling this Rozz Williams - The Lost Recordings, and it will just feature Rozz's 'experimental' projects.
It is a fan project with the purpose of making a professional quality product of Rozz's long lost PE and Heltir tapes for those who have always wanted to hear them.
There will not be any real mass promotion and of course all material that has been sold commercially will not be included in the project.
The material is to be remastered with each cd professional pressed.
The original cassette sleeves (where they exist) will be modified to fit standard jewel cd cases and each will be professionally printed.
We are sourcing all material from Rozz's original cassettes, where available, otherwise using first generation copies.
My sole intention is to make available this long lost material to those who want to hear it. Being such a fan and collector, I can assure you that there
is a great attention to detail in the remastering and restoring processes, and I feel very happy to help make these historic lost recordings available for fans to hear.
We'll keep you updated and we'll share some of the artwork and sounds when they are ready. best wishes.
(John Collins)

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These are the scheduled release dates

January 2010
Premature Ejaculation - (Part 1) (double cd) 1981
Premature Ejaculation - (Part 2) (double cd) 1981

February 2010
A Little Hard to Swallow (double cd) 1982

March 2010
Living Monstrosities/Descent 1985
Body of a Crow/Terror in the Sleep 1986

April 2010
Dead Horse Riddles (double cd)

May 2010
Rise (double cd)
6 1986

June 2010
Premature Ejaculation - (Part 3) (double cd)
Attempts at 7 (For the Sick)

July 2010
The Wound of Exit (Rough Mixes)
Underpass (17) (double cd) 1986

August 2010
Live at the Graduate (double cd) 1987
Live at the Krypt 1987

September 2010
Night Sweats (Warning) (double cd) 1987

October 2010
Death Cultures 1987
Death Cultures II / III (double cd) 1988

November 2010
Assertive Discipline (Mix 2)/Re-Assertive Discipline (double cd) 1988
Blood Told in Spine 1988

December 2010
lI Banchetto dei Cancri/VC-706 1989
69 Rituals 1989

January 2011
Not the Real Criminal DVD 1989

February 2011
Is Truth a Crime? DVD 1989

March 2011
Pulse DVD/CD 1989

April 2011
Ogunn 1986-1990
Environments 1990

May 2011
Tod und Sieg 1995
Dead in Toronto 1995

June 2011
Premature Ejaculation - (Part 4)
Compilation cd of rare tracks