The Art Of PCP

There was not only the sound of PCP that was fascinating with me. There is so much more to PCP records; that is lost if you just click a link on youtube, a mix, or, dare you, listen to a "ripped" mp3. The artwork; the text; the liner notes; the artist names; the descriptions; even the credits. At a time when a lot of labels just put records in black sleeves, or a label used the same graphic for each release, PCP took record art to a whole new level. Who did all this? The artwork is special, creative, strange, enchanting, delicate. We get space creations, image manipulation, doodles and sketches, or pictures of unknown source. One wonders who is behind this, the same 2-3 artists, or a whole team - a large crew?

The whole art adds to the whole PCP experience. It adds a second stage to it. It intermingles with the sound and the sound with the art. Creating a complete experience. It is another expression of sound; two expressions; visual and sonic, interconnected. One could look at some of these artworks for hours. fill a gallery with it. The first PCP exhibition of the world.

But it is not only the graphics; also the text; and maybe it's even more important. Many pcp records have almost a bit of a short story, a short novel around them, put down on the record printing. Shout outs to imaginary gangsta crews, unknown people, strange organisations; that are usually Acardipane and his friends under another alias again; and these names spoken have records of their own again, which mention other projects too; creating a whole net, a whole sphere, a whole world of persons, purposes, connections - cyborgs, Latin cowboys, robot troopers, secret cults - imaginary, but intricate, amazing.

Which brings us to the artist names; which again seem to carefully chosen. In a time when "Hardcore" usually resolved to create easy to remember, "hard" sounding names - the 100th variations of 'evil' and 'fucker' - with PCP each artist name seems much deeper, as if there is a whole story behind him or her or it. The Nasty Django, Ace The Space, Mescalinum United, Syrius 23... you get the picture. Again, these are not portrayed as single persons, but part of teams, cults, crews, according to the record notes. A whole nation of psyched-out anarchist terrorists from the future. That just exist in the imagination of PCP - but yet might be armed and dangerous.

This brings us to the last part, the secret hints. Obscure messages are written on the record covers, and the sleeves. Made in pressure zones. Take care, doom supporter! From the lost zones. A manipulated text by Franz Kafka. Instructions and manuals, messages and infos. Again, coming from this wonderful imaginary PCP universe.

Messages that appear to be sent by individual cyborg soldiers to raise an underground army. Or by LSD rappers to organize their next hangout.

Again, these notes add to the whole PCP experience. If you listen just to the sound - you're missing a lot. These artworks, these texts, are engraved in the whole PCP experience, a sum of it, an expression.

They are stunning, amazing, and, again, create a whole, enclosed world, of imaginary terrorists, anarchists, and half-man half-electronic sages sitting on a planet far away somewhere in the galaxy.