Family Fodder

Family Fodder operated less as a fixed ensemble than as a perpetual gathering of players who experimented with tape manipulation inside the basement of a London apartment. Alig Pearce launched the endeavor in 1979, at which point Small Wonder put out the first 7-inch while the project still operated under the name Te Deum; the label’s two other simultaneous singles happened to be the Cure’s debut release and Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” Odd tape splices, dub treatments, and Dominique Levillain’s chanteuse vocals shaped the core sound. Drawing on Syd Barrett, the Kinks, and This Heat, Pearce guided his pieces through psychedelic phases, drone explorations, and early electronic works built from fragmented location recordings. Though the musicians approached their work with complete seriousness, the constant editing and recurring humor gave the results a buoyant character. The group completed three tours between 1981 and 1982. In 1983 Pearce redirected part of the advance supplied by their new label, Fresh, to support another project’s touring schedule; the resulting album, All Styles, therefore emerged from reduced resources as a rough, haphazard home recording that sold roughly 100 copies on release. Pearce later worked as a professional accordionist and, in 1989, reassembled Family Fodder with Levillain, Hobbs, and Wilson. He also tours under the name Johnny Human. The 1999 reissue by Dark Beloved Cloud brought Family Fodder to a renewed listenership among avant and new wave listeners.