Out of the Dungeon VII

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon VII: Kollege Doesn't Have a "K"!
Better Than Kollege Fragments, What Are They?
Cold Hard Facts About This Dip by Math

Here's the brief rundown of thee Kollege-era No Sunlite dip:

1) NSFTM receives 7-Track. Without knowing how to use it, we make some tracks. The first song ever recorded, before NSFTM knew how to sync things or listen to previous tracks when overdubbing was "Point of thee Song".

2) Finally, a style is discovered involving rewinding tapes. We settle on this technique for 60 minutes of music mixed to a master cassette. This becomes Better Than Kollege, Vol. 1: 7-Track Kollages, which presents this entire project in chronological order (order recorded = order on the tape). [Download BTK1] [Read about BTK1]

3) NSFTM decides to loop up drumbreaks 'n' begin a hip hop phase. This becomes BTK2: Fi-Lo Hop Hip, which is never completed fully. "Mars Is Gonna Eat Ya" is thee first of this style, aside from thee "Rich Beats" series.

4) No Sunlite makes various noise collages to be released as BTK3: Noise for Boys. It also is never complete.

5) The pop songs from earlier (see "1" above) along with various other poppy recordings from the high-school years are slated to be released as BTK4: Purple Rubber Pet Sounds. It never happens. This includes early versions of "Rhino", "Octopus", 'n' "Dentist", the earliest record of Jana with the NSFTM gang, including Mikey Negrin.

6) Actual kollege begins 'n' Math decides to do the opposite of the BTK series 'n' do things all digital to make Kollege Than Better, Vol. 1. [Download KTB1] [Read About KTB1] [Read More About KTB1, if yr imagination can handle it]

7) Following this, No Sunlite continued to record various songs that would either fit onto the next full lengths, Lungless Beavers and Dungeon Records, or be left as remnants. These fragments became fodder for this blog 'n' eventually part of BTK5: Pieces.

This set also included various Christmas tunes, which would find themselves in limbo as well.

8) Along with this portion of the BTK saga was a long series of shows that NSFTM played as Bella Bagels' house band. At a Bagels performance was where NSFTM had its Lungless Beavers release show. Many songs were practiced 'n' performed first here.


9) What is the final fate of all these songs? Better Than Kollege, Vols. 2-5 have little chance of ever seeing the lite, so we decided to edit them down for Fragments and rerelease BTK1 with these all as a bonus 2nd disc to tie up all these loose ends. [Download BTK Fragments]

The BTK reissue album cover, showing Math 'n' Martha in their Dungeon habitat.

These Fragments helped complete a picture of NSFTM in transition, or rather constantly bouncing about from styles. Many of these rather shabby, one-take acoustic recordings butted up against full band freak psych. Not too unlike a regular NSFTM release, hey!

The Bikini Frog from BTK1 reappeared in
the 2xCD artwork to usher in the Fragments.

The only major sonic component of the No Sunlite puzzle that this compilation, along with the albums from the time, neglected was our Mar-Lu-Ridge Summer Camp theme song for pool parties, "Live Out Loud". Played on more 10 year olds' iPods than any No Sunlite song, surely, "Live Out Loud" was an unexpected monster - created in a mere hour, sparking all sorts of cannonballs 'n' even this camper-created home video:

Finally, a question of fashion. NSFTM silkscreen tees of this era were all one design: the early, booty but now highly sought-after, Rhino design. The rhino was barely recognizable, but the song was a hit, so the shirt is now everywhere. The design was remade a year later to correct the bad lines, tho this upset fans of the punk rock nature of the OG style.

I KNOW!

The rhino design screened on top of Beyonce shirts
was typical No Sunlite mashup design in 2k6.

Hopefully this detailing should give some background as to why you can find songs about octopi next to hymns next to noise collages next to Martha playing the organ next to hip hop soul searchers next to live acoustic jams next to whatever it is on Better Than Kollege: Fragments. & everywhere...that's NSFTM.

-Math
Annandale, VA
Nov. 2k9
That's Not thee Point: