Biohazard Sessions

Biohazard concert 1981 © Helen Craig

The Biohazard & Alistair Sessions

The Biohazard session was a series of songs created by extending and repeating a series of improvisations, recorded in a single day, and the main body of work to which Alistair Murray contributed. John was, sadly, absent, but he participated in the Biohazard concert (see above image). 

Recorded July 1981

October 2026: The only track to be released from this session thus far, first on a double-CD compilation from 2006 (see below) and 30 October 2026 in a new mix for Bandcamp, is "Down By The Canal".

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The tracks were:

"Don't Let The Wind Change"
"Hardscreamin’"
"When My Girl Left"
"Alistair’s Ballad!"
"Information"
"Biohazard"
"Deceit"
"Down By The Canal" (released 2006, new mix 2026)

Alistair Sessions
Alistair also joined us in summer 1982, with John this time, when we recorded, amongst a few other things:

"Bottle Sex"
"Wee Patent Ethnic Beastie"
"What is This Song and Dance"

As of October 2026, none of this material has been released.

The Biohazard Sessions is some of our more industrial music.

"Down By The Canal" is included on Rewind and Pause: Cassette Culture Compilation I. See compilations.

The Industrial Music of Cultural Amnesia (Biohazard, summer 1981)

“A rat crept softly through the vegetation 
Dragging its slimy belly on the bank 
While I was fishing in the dull canal 
On a winter evening round behind the gashouse”
– T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

The c. 8 industrial pieces made with the participation of Alistair Murray (guitar) and dating from the summer of 1981 are pure improvisations, both musically and lyrically. The fundamental piece of equipment contributing to these recordings is the WEM Copicat, used not as an echo box but as a loop creator. The track would begin with the construction of the base-track loop; the rest of the band played whilst one of us unblocked and blocked the recording head of the Copicat with a piece of cardboard. These harsh, building, jagged metallic textures evoked a bleak landscape of the desolate urban-industrial outskirts as backdrop for the rest of the track. Once the loop was in place, the band would continue to play over the top of it, and the vocal would be improvised. The completely improvisational approach was intrinsically hit and miss, and how much of the material (of both the Biohazard and Alistair sessions) will stand up to release remains to be assessed.