Hear Kurt Cobain’s Unearthed, Experimental Mixtape, “Montage Of Heck” (1986)

Dangerous Minds has helped unearth Kurt Cobain’s “Montage Of Heck” — a 1986 experimental collage of sounds that Cobain culled from his “wide-ranging collection of LPs, manipulated recordings of the radio, … Nirvana demos,” and other audio sources. Made with a four-track cassette recorder, the 36-minute recording features sounds ripped from recordings by Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, Cher, James Brown, John Denver, The Partridge Family, George Michael and Queen. But if you think you’re going to hear an upbeat sampling of pop songs when you click play, you’ve got another thing coming.

Over at Vimeo, you can actually download the audio track, and there you will find one comment that puts the mixtape into some perspective. Owl Berg writes, “It’s no surprise that Kurt collaborated with William Burroughs on The “Priest” They Called Him. They were so obviously on the same wavelength. Here we have evidence of Kurt applying the cut-up technique which comes straight from Burroughs’ writing and tape experiments, with results that are equally funny and frightening and mind-blowing and essential to scrubbing our minds clean of our preconceptions about sound.” You can revisit Burroughs’ and Cobain’s 1992 collaboration by visiting this post in our archive.

via Dangerous Minds

Related Content:

The “Priest” They Called Him: A Dark Collaboration Between Kurt Cobain & William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs “Sings” R.E.M. and The Doors, Backed by the Original Bands

Patti Smith’s Cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Strips the Song Down to its Heart

William S. Burroughs on the Art of Cut-up Writing

William S. Burrough’s Avant-Garde Movie ‘The Cut Ups’ (1966)

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Hear Kurt Cobain’s Unearthed, Experimental Mixtape, “Montage Of Heck” (1986)