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Tulpa - "Mosaic Fish"

by Tulpa Music

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Songs from original 1/4" Analogue Master
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 CAD  or more

     

1.
2.
3.
Hoot Mun 03:31
4.
Mosaic Fish 03:39
5.
6.
The Cage 03:57
7.
Passion 04:58
8.
9.
10.
Hidden Track 01:07

about

"Mosaic Fish" was produced by Tulpa, then licensed to Midnight Music in the UK in 1985.

The hidden track #10 is included here - a horn duet by Nic Gotham & Tom Walsh.

As a bonus item we have included artwork here for our first vinyl 45" "Apologize to Your Mother" b/w "Mystical Dreams".

The original artist's artwork for Mosaic Fish is displayed here - the European label we licensed the album to in 1985 - Midnight Music - changed the vinyl release art from yellow to bronze.

We hope you like the songs as much as we did playing them.

Rock on!

Chris Bottomley, John Bottomley (RIP) & Mike Severin

REVIEWS

"Unable to settle, Tulpa move continually, nimbly and nervily around an axis of battered pop fundaments and crude bop, eating a way out from the inside, streamlined and precocious. A suburb of sound , and a new development worth visiting, Tulpa have got what we take."

Ralph Traitor - Sounds Magazine UK

"One of the best live acts i've ever seen"
Hilly Krystal - CBGB Owner

"By the mid-eighties the tight-knit punk scene along Toronto's Queen Street had begun to fray into various musical threads. A more escapist alt-country scene was developing around the irrepressible Handsome Ned, exposing a seedier heroin-fuelled underside on the street's western fringes. The Bunchoffuckinggoofs had staked out Kensington Market with their Baldwin Street hangout. And when post-punk stalwarts Rent Boys Inc and the Dave Howard Singers decamped for gloomy Britain, the void - acutely felt in all those dour bangs-and-overcoat types - was swiftly filled by the band Tulpa.

The Bottomley brothers along with drummer Sev Micron had been plying their multimedia show, dubbed The Tulpa Circus, since about 1981, initially as Private Lives and then later on as Tulpa. The energy-packed show incorporated slide projection, dance and futuristic cyber clowns into the band's rhythmic post-punk. A featured slot on Daniel Richler's New Music programme on local City-TV expanded their net somewhat. But with the dearth of indie labels in Canada at the time, the lads were forced to make that trek to the U.K., issuing their debut Mosaic Fish as an import on the Midnight Music imprint in late 1984.

Mosaic Fish burns with the same blistering intensity of Tulpa's live shows, starting with the primitivism of 'Life's So Strange', which melds bassist Chris B.'s loping bass with brother John's Metal Box-era guitar noodling. Though the record at times seems to veer in radio-friendly directions (the funkier 'Initiation Rites' or the frantic beat of 'There is a Fear') the stop-start time changes, the squealing sax and John B.'s overly-earnest vocals were probably too much for the club kids at the time. Still, the almost-dreamy 'Passion' could by rights be resurrected onto CBC Radio 2's hipster-friendly programming.

After the release of Mosaic Fish, Tulpa started to make headway down in the states, especially in New York City, where they played CBGB a number of times. Of course, it helped that they were favourites of owner Hilly Kristal ("One of the best live acts I've ever seen"). The group certainly seemed on the verge of something when their follow-up live LP, Off the Board - Live at CBGBs, found release in the U.S. and Japan. But alas, in 1987 Micron left, to be replaced by future Blue Rodeo drummer Glenn Milchum for a spell, and Tulpa never really recovered, ending things not long after. John Bottomley kicked off his fruitful solo career with 1990's excellent Library of the Sun, while brother Chris ventured down groovier bass-heavy paths with his Brainfudge project. The guys often mused about another reunion gig, but sadly John B.'s untimely passing in April 2011 seems to have forever put paid to that idea."

Michael Panontin - CanuckistanMusic.com

credits

released June 12, 1984

Produced by TULPA
Recorded at Sounds Interchange & Wellesley Studios, Toronto
Engineers: Scott Boyling & Jeff McCulloch
Mastered at McClear Place by Corby Luke, Toronto
Cover Painting by Joe Manitowabi

Chris Bottomley - Bass & Vocals
John Bottomley - Guitar & Vocals
Mike Severin - Drums & Vocals
Nic Gotham - Alto Sax
Tom Walsh - Trombone

Many thanks to Hilly Crystal, CKLN, CKCU, Daniel Richler, Tony Wannamaker, Sue Bottomley, Mike Bush, Frank Koka, Mike Banhart, Susan Walker, Eric Beldowski, Noble House, the greatest comedy troupe ever - Sledgehammer Pie, John, Kev and Neil. Nick M (keys), Fleur G, Kyle Wagner, Kris Wagner, Mike Dent, Ralph, Gary Topp, the dancing, drinking Klowns - Julie Asterisk, Jennifer Capraru, John Tench, Susie Strange, Polly Groen, Ursala and John, Susan D, Phil Furge, Dennis Huard, Marty Coles, Kevin Bottomley, Paul Bottomley, George Guerra , all the Moms and Dads , families and everyone who helped in the exsistance of this power pop punk trio. Once again a BIg thank you from all of us I`m sure to all of you.

Sincerly Tulpa.

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about

Tulpa Music Toronto, Ontario

Formed in 1981, Tulpa was equal parts Chris Bottomley, John Bottomley and Sev Micron (Mike Severin).

Tulpa shot to national prominence in Canada with a City TV New Music feature by host Daniel Richler, one of many such features.

RELEASES:

"Mosaic Fish" on U.K.'s Midnight Records in 1984.

"Off the Board - Live at CBGBs" - 1986
... more

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