If you’ve never been to Edmonds, Washington, it does not give off the vibe of being a hotbed of electronica. Extremely well-maintained older homes vie for space with more modern builds in competing for lots with views of Puget Sound. Perhaps 20 minutes north of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, it’s part of that slow sprawl that extends all the way from Seattle to Everett with hardly a break, the town proper comprised of a handful of streets and shops and restaurants – no glass and steel commercial buildings here. It’s kept separate from it’s bigger neighbors to the south (Seattle) and north (Lynnwood) in part by the “difficulty” in getting there, requiring you to get off the highway and work your way west through residential streets with painfully slow speed limits.
I unearthed these records in, not surprisingly, a shop in Edmonds called Musicology. The college is still there, though now it’s just Edmonds College having dropped “community” from the name. The school’s Electronic Music Club was founded in 1984. Per the jacket reverse of Iatrogenics:
With 30 initial members, the focus of the club was centered around the production of [Iatrogenics]. The philosophy of this organization is to encourage and perpetuate the creation and performance of Electronic Music.
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The Electronic Music Program at Edmonds Community College is rapidly becoming one of the most comprehensive programs of its kind in the United States. Eight courses in both subtractive and additive synthesis as well as private study are offered to help students develop and improve their skills on analogue and digital instruments as well as multitrack tape and computer disk recording.
How did this program end up in sleepy Edmonds? I don’t know, but it appears to have produced one album per year from 1984 through 1990, the first five pressed on vinyl and the last two put out on cassette. In a review of the album EMC5 (1988) published in early 1990, faculty director Jim Guard indicated the club had increased in size to 80 members, not bad for school that only had 3,000 students at the time. At least one former club member has been tracked down by a blogger. Scott Knol, who appears on both the records I have, provided a little bit of background HERE in 2013 – he’s the one sitting with wires attached to his head on the cover of Iatrogenics. Knol was surprised someone found a copy of the record after what at the time was almost three decades. “I am actually astonished that any of the album units are still around,” he wrote, which makes me wonder how many copies of these were printed. One would assume not many, though I suspect it would be in the low hundreds.
The Electronic Music Club Of Edmonds Community College emerge into space and time with “The Primordial Past”, the first track on their debut album Iatrogenics, modified wave forms punctuated by sci-fi laser beams, the narrator’s voice coming to us like that of a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica. The compositions are somewhat diverse, though linked together by that sort of classic early 80s synth “sound”. Many are atmospheric bordering on experimental, but others follow more traditional song structures. “Elevator Of Love”, while bringing back that Cylon voice from the opening track, has a very cool, basic electronic beat and synths played in a more traditional keyboard-like fashion.
In Reel Time opens with a cool, brisk rendition of Bach’s “Toccata & Fugue In D-Minor”, something that is both recognizable and completely foreign at the same time (it conjures up images of Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, as well as a bit of 1975s Rollerball, two dystopian retro-futuristic visions that leveraged synths and organs). “The Force” also breaks new ground for the club, adding what sounds like guitar, with a very hard rock/metal riff creating a song that easily could have appeared on a metal record of the period. The entire album sees the students significantly broadening both their skills and visions, making it a much more entertaining listen.
Iatrogenics has averaged about one sale per year on Discogs since 2011, so while far from common, it’s also available if you’re patient. In Reel Time, however, has only sold three times, most recently in 2021, which is more typical of the remaining albums in the series. While the data is limited it certainly appears Iatrogenics is the most common of the seven titles, which makes me wonder if it may have had a higher print run than the later releases (the two cassettes combined for only a single sale on Discogs, with one of the tapes selling for $115 last year). Are the Electronic Music Club of Edmonds Community College albums worth their $100+ price tags? Well, that’s in the ear of the beholder, but they are quite interesting recordings, especially if you’re into esoterica.