Piers Headley’s Music for Toilets is an unsung masterpiece, a cheeky environmental imaginarium that once played on loop at Berlin’s Fisch Labor. And now, thanks to Tresor Records, it’s coming to you.
It’s a lush, fanciful world, not fussy; you can almost see pink, rainbow-hued dolphins floating through this one. The also-legendary UK record purveyor Boomkat is carrying this one and wrote this excellent review:
Tresor reissue a 1993 collage of tape looped environmental sounds – running water, dolphins, macaques and the likes – pieced together by Piers Headley, an early business associate of Dimitri Hegemann, co-owner of their Markthalle bar and hostel in Mitte, Berlin
Named in honour of Eno’s classic but with a different intent, ’Music For Toilets’ was originally conceived as soundtrack to the bogs at Markthalle, where the 47 minute piece played on loop to possibly perplexed ablutions. Sharing a certain conceptualism with Florian TM Zeisig’s music for the Berghain cloakroom, too, the work delivers a slice of classic ‘90s Berlin whims with a suitably wry twist of Berlin humour, just enough to raise a corner of the mouth whilst you drop kids off to the viewing platform or drip on your Adidas.
Music For Toilets at Boomkat, Cat No: Tresor021 [Twenty-one! Wow…]
Everything about this is a glimpse of another time, from Markthalle to the C. Red Studio where this was recorded. And more old-school Berlin silliness accompanies Tresor’s release:
Tried and tested in Fisch Labor, Berlin.
For use in bathrooms constructed by qualified plumbers.
Caution!Prolonged use may result in a red ring around the posterior.
The result is something you might well play in your bathroom for your next party, or cue up for a moment of tropical escape when the oppressive Berlin winters (and perhaps oppressive Berlin Polizei — allegedly) get you down.
Obviously, you need this on cassette. Then you have an extra excuse to buy that dusty tape player you spot at the Flohmarkt. Sorted.
Fancy Japanese toilets wish they had this loop.
Speaking of that, though, I accidentally stumbled on this whole account, which is entirely dedicated to imagining bathrooms at parties in specific years. I don’t know why it’s this satisfying to listen to muffled versions of Kylie Minogue, but it is. There’s an astonishing variety of these:
Alternative producer with a slightly more industrial/concrete sounding … wall.
And then this will put you to sleep after the party. This is also a genre. Bless you, YouTube.
Dolphin image: David Blaikie. Some rights reserved.