Author Archives: suckingchestwound

Side Projects #1 – Building Balanced Children

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In January 1986 PnrH and dWM began a weekly radio show on CKLN-FM, a Toronto community station. The show was called Building Balanced Children and the premise of the show was to perform a live improvised mixdown using 100% sampled material. They used turntables, tape loops, digital delays and the first affordable digital sampler – the Ensoniq Mirage.

They performed the  Building Balanced Children show under the name Security Operations Consultants, which they would also use for a live performance in the fall of 1986.

The  Building Balanced Children show lasted until April 1986, and during its run  produced some of the most extreme music being broadcast on the Toronto air waves at the time. Hear for yourself – here’s both sides of the BBC compilation tape release:

Best of BBC Side A

Best of BBC Side B

The original PnrH artwork for the Best of BBC cassette tape

Cassette Culture #3 – A Collection

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After the move to Toronto, in 1985 SCW released the compilation cassette tape “A Collection”. This consisted of greatest hits from the first two tapes and selected recordings from their live shows. We won’t post any audio here because it’s  documented in previous posts.

“A Collection” cassette tape cover – folded out – by PnrH

The Move to Toronto

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Between 1985-1986 the members of SCW finished their studies at the University of Waterloo and headed to the big city. PnrH and dWM were the first to leave, followed later by Roba and Jeff-0. PhrH and dWM embarked on a series of side projects, and SCW played a few one-off gigs, but no new SCW material was recorded during this time. Jeff-0, PnrH and dWM ended up living in a house together in a seedy part of downtown Toronto, but practice/recording space was limited to a tiny section of the slug-infested basement. By this time SCW had sold off all their analog synths and drum machines and were starting to use ‘real’ instruments (drums, guitar, bass, sax etc.) but were also experimenting with some of the new digital sampling technology that was becoming affordable.

Cassette Culture #2 – Model 152 Blow Gun

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SCW’s second release on cassette came out in mid-1985 and was a mixture of new material and live recordings from the Sweet Children of the West show in April that year. The new material continued in the same techno-industrial post-punk style of the first cassette, with added horns in some tunes. This release marked the end of SCW’s use of analogue synths, and drum machines – all future work was done using either ‘real’ instruments played live or digital samplers, drum machines and effects.

“Model 152 Blow Gun” cassette tape cover – folded out – by PnrH

In the First Days…

Bass, tapes and drum machine…

6th Test Amendment

Same as above but with added synths

Drop Kick

SCW gets jazzy.  Horns would become a bigger part of SCW’s sound in subsequent incarnations, first as a free jazz ensemble and then as a disco-jazz-funk- punk band.

Puppy (on the table)

 Sit see the puppy on the table…

Thank You Jesus

Sequenced drum machine and synths plus tapes

In The Reichstag

Hitler invades Poland – ’nuff said…

SCW also produced a video to accompany one of the new tunes, Capacity 330. Most of the video footage was recorded at SCW’s Willow St. practice/living space

The second side of the Model 152 Blow Gun cassette is a live recording from April 17, 1985. See the previous post for some video footage of the show.

Live Show #2 – Sweet Children of the West

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On April 17 1985 SCW returned to the Mayfair Hotel in Kitchener, Canada for another performance. This time they performed upstairs at a club called Level 21. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear they performed as Sweet Children of the West; the name would be resurrected later on when they were banned from performing as Sucking Chest Wound. The focus of the show was on videos prepared beforehand and played back on video monitors located throughout the performance space, along with slides projected onto the stage.  SCW performed largely behind screens, occasionally venturing out onto the stage to tweak knobs etc.

Here’s an edit of the performance

SCW T-Shirts $39!!

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Hey kids here’s your chance to own a vintage SCW “Mind Control” T-shirt!

We produced these shirts for our final show in 1997. There’s still a limited number of mint condition shirts available. We lost the original artwork so there won’t be any more after these run out!

Available in two sizes, shipping included:

Large: for twinks, hipsters and girls.

X-Large: for everyone else

Click on the PayPal button below to purchase. Be sure to specify L or XL

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Live Show #1 – Chandelier Performance

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The first proper SCW performance occurred on November 30, 1984 at the Chandelier Room of the Mayfair Hotel in Kitchener, Canada. The show came about through a Fine Arts course that PnrH was taking at the University of Waterloo. The show was actually marked by his professor and applied towards his credit for the course!

Ticket for the show – by PnrH

  • Front side of ticket for Chandelier Performance Nov 1984
  • Back side of ticket for Chandelier Performance Nov 1984

The performers included all four members of SCW plus an additional four performers recruited for the show. SCW played in the background while the other four were up front using various mic-ed up domestic and industrial tools: Charles on vacuum cleaner/balloon, Jim on sewing machine, Claudio on power tools and John on heavy metal. Film projections and video were also part of the staging. All the performers wore masks cast from their faces with plaster bandages, similar to the ‘death masks’ dating back to the middle ages. The workers rose up against their slave masters but the power tools of the workers were no match for the media tools of their slave masters…

A mask being made for dWM – note the glasses underneath the plaster…

The masks as worn by Jeff-0 and dWM during the show

Video edit of the show

After the performance, SCW played a set that included Albert Ayler’s Ghosts and Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, before the power was cut by the hotel proprietor. This excerpt illustrates SCW’s critique  of the disco-industrial complex that would would be a central theme of SCW’s work right through until their demise in 1997.

I Feel Love