Krozier & The Generator – Tranceformer (1982)

Country: Australia

Tracklist

1. House Of The Sun 02:40
2. Khan-Khallili Razaar 03:27
3. The Devil May Care 08:23
4. Slave Traders 02:38
5. Land Of Unclean Spirits 04:03
6. Perhaps Reincarnation 02:02
7. House Of The Joker 08:27
8. Take A Look 04:56
9. Temple Of Exotic Delights 15:37
10. Feed You To The Sharks 01:47
11. Lapis-Lazuli 06:45
12. I´ll Be A Sphinx For You 01:37
13. Doubting Thomas 01:34
14. Paid Your Money 07:37

Geoff Krozier (Born Geofrey Thomas Crozier) was a music performance artist and avante garde magician.
His first connection with magik came when he amazed one of his teachers

by accurately predicting the placegetters in a school cross-country run.
A number of amateur appearances as an illusionist provided a slight insight into where he was going.
His first real break came whilst working as a set designer and props man for a Melbourne television station.

The booked act failed to turn up for a talent program, so he stood in and won.
Television appearances mushroomed nation wide, and by the late 1960’s the tendrils of rock and roll 

reached out and grabbed him and he often filled spots between main acts.
Geoff’s first real complete stage show came with the formation of Crozier’s Indian Medicine Show,

a wondrous show of pyrotechnics, smoke and lighting effects with multi-decibel rock and roll.
It would be a mistake however to assume that the shows were well planned or well rehearsed,

it was more like ‘hold on’ for the audience, and, ‘hang on tight’ for his band.

As Duncan Fry, one of Geoff’s earliest guitarists wrote:

“What he wanted was free-form continuous music for the 30 minutes or so that he performed,

while clouds of oily smoke, flashpots, and strobe lights alternately choked and dazzled the audience.

Most of the musicians who turned up for the audition couldn't handle such a laissez-faire attitude to the music side of things.

"But what songs are we going to play?" they would whine.

"No songs, just play, play" Geoff would reply, setting off another flashpot.”
Throughout the 1970’s Geoff and various incarnations of the Indian Medicine band toured Australia widely,

putting on performances, which ranged between brilliant and totally chaotic.

He was variously faced with stunned silence or rapturous scenes of mayhem as the audience went wild.
Despite the showings of appreciation, his act languished for the want of wider acceptance.

He lapsed into a deep depression and eventually left for America.

He worked with a variety of musicians and then disappeared again, this time to appear in Paris,

where he was the highlight act at the Olympia.
Another stint back in the USA followed, he formed Kongress, with noted keyboardist Otto Von Ruggins,

but he was tiring of the rock & roll element of his shows, and indeed felt a need to return to his native Australia,

and so it was he reappeared in Melbourne, Australia in the late 1970's.
It was then that he connected with the experimental group The Generator (aka Rainbow Generator),

a two-man outfit consisting of Rob Greaves on all manner of synths and rhythm machines

and David Labuschagne on guitar and synths.
Rainbow Generator had tried to produce something new and unheard in their studios.

Releasing dozens of tapes which were thrashed and no one ever seen them.

They come up with a full length in 1978 entitled "Dance Of The Spheres" 

that was released in 399 copies from which only 200 survived the floods.
Blending experimental electronics with tribal elements and using instruments like Didgeridoo

with some drony psychedelic rock fusions.
As Krozier & The Generator they played an intense series of shows in and around Melbourne in the later part of 1980.

In January 1981 he and the entire show, menagerie and all, relocated to the Fission Chips Studio

(a three story building in the squats of Woolloomooloo NSW), operated by Generator guitarist, David Labuschagne.
There was to be a lay-off while David shaped hours of recorded material together,

and Geoff devised a new set of illusions, all in preparation for a national tour.
Unfortunately Geoff Krozier died on May 17th 1981 at the age of 33,

from an accident at his home, before that tour manifested.
The double vinyl album "Trancerformer" was released in mid 1981 as a tribute to him

featuring tracks that were selected from recordings of the last live shows by the group,

between January 7th and 26th 1981, prior to Geoffrey´s death.
That album was subsequently re-released in in 2015 on the Finders Keepers label.

Memory