Greatest Hots

005HOTS, 2019, stereo

Greatest Hots assembles songs, instrumentals, soundscapes, ambient compositions, cynicism, satire, and raw emotions from a love-sick chickenshit.

This collection is a revised assemblage of the original cassette album - with several additions including two versions of Nancy Sinatra's Boots - that had the self-confident, or cocky, title of Greatest Hits. The typeface on the cover was so florid that “Hits” looked like “Hots” – hence the title of the revised version.

Originally released in 1987, Greatest Hits blended musical styles – including sheer noise – into an hour-long album. Angrinose thought that he was making psychedelic punk rock but was later branded as an electo-acoustician. The album charts a progression from strong desire through deep frustration onward to tentative acceptance.

Nancy Sinatra’s Boots 92 
3’29, 1992, stereo; Studio: Concordia University, Department of Music and Audio-Visual Department; Song, psychedelic-style 
Classical guitar (Yamaha); voices; sampler (Casio SH1), electric organ (Yamaha PS2) 
Nancy Sinatra’s Boots is a song about Nancy’s boots. Why not? It could have been a hit – perhaps if it was in a major key. I tried to make a song that was as nasty as the Velvet Underground's Venus in Furs, but it didn't get anywhere near that intense.

My Baby She Left Me 
0’41, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Song, blues-style 
Voice, electric guitar (Gibson Sonex), fuzz (Supa Tonebender); looped voice and percussion 
My Baby She Left Me is a satirically enraged outburst against an extreme scenario that would surely generate the blues in anyone. 

Interlude 1 (Frank’s Esophagus)
4’14, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Instrumental interlude 
Electric organ, analog synthesizer (Yamaha CS-15), and echo (Effectron); looped voice and percussion 
A friend once described Interlude 1 as sounding like a trip down “Frank’s Esophagus” – the best description so far. 

Organ 
1’46, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Instrumental interlude; Electric organ and echo 
Organ is a chord sequence with echoes, a creepy type of pause. 

Train (Never Getting There) 
3’23, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Collage 
Train (Never Getting There) is a collage of electric organ, guitar, and loops of trains, voice, and percussion. 

Calling Deer Lake 1 
2’36, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Electric organ, resonant filter (CS15 VCF), voices 
Calling Deer Lake 1 layers two failed telephone calls to a beloved in a very distant Northern Ontario. Operator assistance was required, but contact remained impossible.

Calling Deer Lake 2 
2’28, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Previously released on En Red O, Symposium of Electoacoustic Music, 2000, Barcelona; Electric guitar, fuzz; voices; baseball game; elevator 
Calling Deer Lake 2 is an instrumental and noise reaction to the failed phone calls. 

Interlude 2 
1’41, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Instrumental interlude; Electric organ, Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesizer (Yamaha DX100), and echo; Electric guitar and flanger; Instrumental interlude 
Interlude 2 presents a melodic space, another pause. 

They Don’t Even Fit Ya 
0’32, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Soundscape 
They Don’t Even Fit Ya (These are High Heels) is a verbatim soundscape of children playing outside. A boy criticizes a girl, seemingly his sister, for wearing her mother’s shoes. The boy repeats his phrase several times in exactly the same manner and tone, like a loop running on a machine. Other children assert unrelated statements or outbursts. The voices, narratives, and thoughts run independently and in parallel. No child really listens to the others, or if they do, they don’t care. Each effectively plays alone. 

Punk Song 1 
1’19, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Song, punk-style; Electric guitar, fuzz, microphone as a slide; electric organ, reverb; voice 
Punk Song 1 is a satire of enraged, fuck-absolutely-everyone punk rock with references to the movie Blue Velvet thrown in. 

Blues 2 
1’15, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Song, blues-style; Acoustic guitar (Takeharu); voice; harmonica (Hohner) 
Blues 2 is another attempt to play the blues. It ends with history’s worst harmonica solo. 

Over You 
3’07, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Song, country-style; Electric guitar, resonant filter (CS-15 VCF), flanger (Loco Box); acoustic and classical guitars; voice 
Over You is a psychedelic country riff that trips over itself but tries to recover. 

Christmas 1987 
2’46, 1987, stereo; Studio: Hope Street (home); Collage; Edited version of “Frank Koustrup Fan Club OFFICIAL 1987 Christmas Tape”; Performed at the CEC Diffusion festival in Toronto, 1988 – the shortest composition on the program, but with the longest title 
Christmas 1987 is a satire of the popular music business – fan clubs, merchandise, gimmicks. This composition takes a cue from the Beatles' Christmas records. Commercial phrases such as "For Christmas gift-giving ideas", "Just can't wait for Christmas", build to a shameless, hyperventilated plug for the Greatest Hits album. Rolling echoes devolve into a looping mantra that "Rock and roll is dead". 

Echo Test Over You 
0’59, 2009, stereo; Studio: Home; Collage; Classical guitar, voice 
Echo Test Over You is a collage of outtakes. 

Nancy Sinatra’s Boots 93 
2’20, 1993, stereo; Studio: Concordia University, Department of Music and Audio-Visual Department; Song, psychedelic-style; Classical guitar; voices; samples, electric organ, FM synthesizer (Yamaha DX7) 
This 1993 version of Nancy Sinatra’s Boots has modified chords, a mellower vocal delivery, and adds a hint of politics to the image of Nancy’s boots.

Last Cheesebox in Paris 
3’13, 1985, stereo; Studio: home; Instrumental interlude; Electric organ, resonant filter (CS-15 VCF) 
Last Cheesebox in Paris filters an electric organ – a cheesebox – though a nostalgic, atonal mood. 

Happy Birthday 23 
4’12, 1986, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Instrumental interlude; Layered electric guitar, echo, screwdriver as a slide 
The 23rd birthday was rather melancholy. 

May 1987 
5’53, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Instrumental interlude; Electric organ; analog synthesizer; electric guitar, echo, screwdriver as a slide; sound effects of ducks, water, laughter, feedback 
The month of May 1987 housed a crisis that crushed a deeply desired but hopeless relationship. 

No Chemistry 
3’37, 1987, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Song, garage-style; Electric guitar, slap echo; voice; laughter, feedback; locomotive, voices 
No Chemistry records a departure from desires but only by way of passage through a paranoid garage. 

Meditation in E 
7’12, 1986, stereo; Studio: Purgatory (home); Ambient composition; Original title In E (a meditation); Doubled analog synthesizer, cars passing over an expansion joint in a bridge 
Meditation in E is an ambient, bell-like composition that, in giving up on redemption, settles for acceptance.