Hidious In Strength

Hidious In Strength (aka Hideous In Strength) was an early experimental solo project of John Zewizz. The solo project began around 1982 while Zewizz was working on keyboard tracks for Sleep Chamber, although there was outside participation on the live cassette Az Recorded Live. Most of the project's material was released on limited edition cassettes through Inner-X Musick. While the musical style could be considered , often the recordings would involve the more ambient and atmospheric styles of music; it is not known whether this was by design or due to the fact that much of the music was synthesizer experimentation. Hidious In Strength music was often a combination of synthesizer experimentation, tapes, and "found" vocals from the TV.
Live
Hidious In Strength only performed live a handful of times. All performances featured John Zewizz with occasional help from Malcom Smith or Eugene Difransico. Most of the shows were performed at colleges or at John's Innersleeve Gallery. The recording of one show, recorded at Dunns in Peabody, MA, was released under the title Az Recorded Live. According to John this performance was not received well: "It featured me and Eugene Difrancisco. The difficult thing with this style of music is that it does not go over well in bars. It seems to provoke chaos and violence. I guess that's because of the lack of vocals and a beat. It only took this one show to realize that this was not "bar" music — only art shows and college gigs."

A final live performance was scheduled at WZBC-FM featuring Zewizz and Jonathan Briley. This live on air performance was cancelled when a rain storm threatened the transportation of equipment.
Hidious In Strength/Mahcanik
The final Hidious In Strength release was to be titled The Mahcanik, however, the name of the band was left off the cassette. Over the years this has caused much confusion, even leading people to believe that there was a band called "Mahcanik". According to Zewizz, The Mahcanik was the last Hidious In Strength release: "I didn't even title it as a Hidious In Strength release. I was done with Hidious."
Discography
Except where noted, all releases were available only as a cassette release.
* Soundtrack To Forever (1982)
* Line Of Souls (1982)
* Industrial Suffocation (1983)
* Nun With A Gun (1983)
* Az Recorded Live (1983)
* Stranger Days (1984)
* Eyes See To This (1984)
* Slow & Painful Sex (1984)
* Nun With A Gun/Gut Grip (7" Single) (1984)
* Cold Dark Tales A Smell Of Death (1985)
* Within Wires (1985)
* The Mahcanik (1985)

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