The Conception Corportation - Complete Conception

All Music Guide

During their brief existence between 1970 and 1973, the Conception Corporation existed as a quartet of multimedia conceptualists and sonic escapists brandishing a unique social irreverence and satirical slant. Along with the Firesign Theater -- the Corporation's decidedly more academic rivals for the head humor market -- Jeff Begun, Howard R. Cohen, Murphy Dunne, and Ira Miller redefined the comedy album for their increasingly disenfranchised generation. Complete Conception is, as it's title suggests, an exhaustive examination of their recorded works featuring over an hour of previously unissued material -- including the lost Live at the Hollywood Bowl album. They were among the pioneers who took comedy off the stage and turned it onto people's turntables. It was a failed cinema venture which brought together the talents of Begun (an underground entrepreneur) and Cohen (a freelance writer) with Dunne and Miller (both members of the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago). While looking f...or the finances to complete their cryptically titled film, Mondo Goldfarb, the four began composing sketches which translated well into the theater of the mind. Once assembled and performed, the result was A Pause in the Disaster -- an album containing nearly two dozen tracks, some of which last mere seconds. The accelerated editing style, as well as the use of dynamic stereo phonics, is akin to an episode of Laugh In on record. Of course, there are many things that could be said or insinuated on a record that would never have made it past network censors in the early ‘70s. Catching the ears of an ever-increasing counterculture market, A Pause in the Disaster sold enough copies to garner the production of Void Where Prohibited By Law. This novel concept involved a pre-recorded video program -- produced by the Corporation -- which would be presented on four large video screens working in tandem. In theory, Void Where Prohibited By Law would be booked into small theaters for limited engagements. The show was greeted enthusiastically during its short but highly successful run in Los Angeles. The momentum gained with this project spilled over into their next album, Conceptionland and Other States of Mind. Their most consistent effort to date, Conceptionland and Other States of Mind displays one side of shorter skits, songs, and rapid-fire one-liners, as well as a side-long series of intertwined vignettes known as Conceptionland. The premise of the latter side being a day at Conceptionland -- the theme park in your mind. This brilliantly crafted epic presents the writers/performers in peak form. Although some of the drug humor and endless illusions to the generation gap tend to date it, there are many moments of truth, clarity, and good old satiric silliness. Increasing consumer interest and critical praise led to another album. Live at the Hollywood Bowl was recorded and otherwise prepared for release. In deference to the title, the disc was neither a concert recording, nor performed at the ~Hollywood Bowl concert venue. The Complete Conception liner notes indicate, that the album was shelved owing to Cotillion Records reassessment of priorities after severe limitations were placed on petroleum products during the '73 OPEC crisis. Nearly 30 years later, Rhino Handmade reconstructed the album, even going so far as to assign it an unused Cotillion Recordscatalog number. Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a much more polished project than the previous two, adopting the sonic layering styles of Firesign Theater with more traditional comedic pacing of early National Lampoon records. Besides the three larger projects, Complete Conception assembles various other recorded bits and pieces -- all of which are issued here for the first time. Among them are an unsold pilot for a radio show called Hollywood High, unused sketches from Live at Hollywood Bowl, as well as several clever Corporation conceived and performed radio adverts. The double-disc set comes with a full-color 24-page booklet which includes memorabilia and eye candy such as reproductions of album jackets and record labels. Plus, previously unpublished photos and essays on the origins and originators of the Conception Corporation penned specifically for this project. Complete Conception is limited to an edition of 3000 copies and made available online at /www.rhinohandmade.com. - Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide Read more Less