Background

Very little information about Attempts at 7 exists. It has the same general feel as A Little Hard To Swallow and Rise. It can be assumed that Attempts at 7 was recorded sometime between the end of 1983 and the beginning of 1987, and in our opinion it dates from the earlier period. However, it is well structured and could be considered a companion to Body Of A Crow. 

Tracklisting

 Atempts at 7 consists of a long sequence of untitled tracks. Since the original cassette recording featured few, if any, distinguishable track breaks we felt it important not to arbitary separate each single piece of music for the cd release. Rozz had obviously intended for the music to be enjoyed as a continous listening experience rather than for each piece to be listened to in isolation. One piece towards the start of the recording can be found on our previous release,'6', as track 10, but the rest are unique to this release.

Artwork

The original artwork for Attempts at 7 does not appear to have survived. If anyone has any information about what happened to the original artwork then we would be very interested to know. The artwork we have used is a direct copy made by Andreas Hofmann from Rozz's original cassette sleeve.  

The artwork for Attempts at 7 is taken from an article about electric-shock torture machines. It reads: 'In many countries the torture of prisoners is systematic and routine. The picture of the machine was first published in the Turkish newspaper Democrat in May 1980. The headline asks the Prime Minister just what the machine is: according to Democrat it was made in a government-controlled factory and used for electric-shock torture." Underneath the article is a slightly better image of a similar torture machine, and beneath that is the name of the project, Premature Ejaculation, and the words 'FOR THE SICK,' which this cassette is sometimes sub-titled.

According to Darius Rejali in his book Torture and Democracy, interrogators in Turkey 'turned to electrotorture in 1971, and it became more frequent after 1980. Torturers used a 'magnetic field telephone', attaching it to sexual organs and the tongue, to the fingers, and to the small toe. In May 1980, the  Democrat newspaper ran a picture of a small torture device, a hand-crank magneto. It resembles the Brazilian and Vietnamese pepper mills. In 1995, the state minister for human rights, Azimet Köylüoğlu, confirmed that interrogators commonly used the 'magnetic telephone'.

The original cassette artwork was black and white, quite plain and faded. We decided to discolour it to to make it look more like a page from an old newspaper or magazine, as the original photograph was taken from an old Turkish newspaper.

The next task was to decide on the design for the back cover. As the images of the torture machines on the original artwork are not of the best quality, we managed to locate a much better and clearer photograph of a similar device, and decided to use this for the rear artwork. We have given the image a tinted colour so that it compliments the front artwork.

We again chose to incorporate a barcode to the back cover in keeping with many previous Premature Ejaculation releases. Since the barcodes used by Rozz were purely decorative and served no other purpose, it was our intention to use a replica of the one on the 1989 issue of the Death Cultures cassette. The use of the barcode is a common theme throughout the series.