Guy Lochhead, 29/12/10
Cornish electronic music group consisting of members Brian and Karen Tregaskin that released an EP, ‘Confederation Trough’, and an album, ‘Rushup Edge’, on Rephlex Records in 2007. The genuineness of the project has been questioned from its first release. The music bears a similarity to Aphex Twin’s, uses a rare and expensive Yamaha GX1 synthesiser that he is known to own, also comes from Cornwall and is credited to “JAMES RICHARD DAVID” in the BMI repertoire and Rephlex’s digital releases. The hoax was carefully calculated though, using tens of similarly-named MySpaces (BrianTregaskin, BrianTregaksin, Patregaskin, TheTussMusic, Tussticles, The Puss…) with similar music or different versions of Tuss tracks (sometimes under similar-but-jokey names like ‘Rushup Egg’) all linking to each other in their influences, top friends, commenters etc. The most hysterical attempted unravelling of the whole thing can be read here: http://frederickfoxtrott.com/2008/01/26/frederick-foxtrott-battles-the-tuss-cult/. The music itself is dense, super-intricate “braindance”, with a more melodious element that wasn’t there in the glitch on, for example, Aphex Twin’s ‘Drukqs’. Perhaps appropriately given the story behind this “group”, there is a more pastoral, folky element.. “The tuss” is Cornish slang for an erection, btw.. I love this. As the co-owner (with Richard D. James) of Rephlex, Grant Wilson-Claridge, said when interviewed about the whole thing, “People seem more interested in speculation and celebrity than content, quality or music. Be careful you don’t miss something really great that isn’t really famous”. Even though Richard D. James is most likely involved in this project, we will probably never be given a definite confirmation of that. The whole point of this project is that the music can exist without an artist. The web of MySpaces, supposed collaborators and influences is a nonsense intended to cancel itself out, leaving a sort of orphaned techno that is just way, way, way above the vast majority of lazy computer music. I love the care and attention that goes into Aphex records, and this record continues that/shows a similar approach. No element stays too long. An effort is being made in a way that is rare in electronic music, and music in general. In conclusion, I think it is true that celebrity clouds our judgement of great music; look at the negative reviews of Drukqs – would they have been given if it was the first release of another artist? Perhaps The Tuss is Richard D. James reaffirming how exceptional he is by stripping his music of his celebrity. The success of this experiment has been varied (I think most people now think it’s a James project), but I want to include it as an example of how visionary things can still happen in music despite the industry, and because it’s extraordinary, transcendental techno music in itself. I’ll include the vinyl of the EP because it messes around with speeds (one side at 45, one at 33), and I think that’s yet another nice example to set.