JOHN CHARLTON

It was in the spring of ‘97 when a good friend from London, Ontario generously lent me the use of his beloved ½" 8-track recorder. I  was being given the use of it for, as I understood it, an indefinite period of time. It’s a magnificent piece of equipment from the old analogue days, and something I’ve always wanted to own. So I was buzzing with excitement when I first set it up in my living room and  began toying around with it. A couple of songs went down quickly and easily, and it seemed as though hours of musical indulgence lay  imminently ahead. But as is often the case when good intentions are of the order, my interest slowly waned and gradually the once coveted machine started blending in with the furniture. Eventually I stopped using it at all, and so it sat waiting patiently on my dining room table, ready and willing to record but a beat or a twang. But the ol’ "brain dumb, inspiration won’t come" syndrome persisted, and for  months not a stripe did I lay... 

At least not until its’ owner called me up several months later announcing that my time was up. "You’d better get my machine back here buster!" he advised "Or I’ll stuff your monkey ass!" Well now, that was my cue. I immediately set about laying tracks down onto the only 2 reels of tape I had, enough for one hour of music. My plan was simply to record until there was no tape left to record on. Then as it progressed the notion of producing a limited release of cassette tapes for friends and family began to take shape. With Christmas just around the corner, this seemed like a sound plan. People love those homemade gifts. And so it was under this very premise that the project was conceived. There was no intention of making a CD out of it, but when we did finally complete the recording the idea started to take root, mainly due to the encouragement of some very kind and supportively people. At first I was apprehensive, feeling that a certain recording quality standard had to be achieved before it was worthy of such an honor. But then the thought arose, "Why not make a CD? Is there a rule stating, ‘Thou shall not print CD’s with low budget, homemade recordings’? None that I know of. Besides, it’d be a blast." So we all dove in and, well, here it is - one low budget, homemade recording printed on a CD and even packaged in a fancy cover with a colour layout - for your listening pleasure. There are no synthetic or sampled sounds, and all mistakes were played live to tape. I therefore challenge you to get down and dig it! 

And now it’s time to clear up this issue of the CD title. Benji. What the hell kind of title is that? What’s it supposed to mean? Who’s responsible for it? Well, as much as I’d like to allow a shroud of mystery to form around it, though it’s difficult to do anything but, it  wouldn’t be fair to all you kind listeners if I didn’t at least attempt to address it. First of all, Benji is not a cult as many people undoubtedly suspect. Nor is it any kind of entity or phenomena that can be fully or even remotely comprehended by the human mind, let alone defined. 

Benji is…the essence of spiritual music, for music is the essence Benji. It has widely been written that music is the protocol by which our souls communicate. It is thought to be the workings of a higher life form, a divine force that bears down from the heavens upon an unsuspecting, somewhat oblivious mass of human life. Any follower of Benji is believed to be "of-the-body". As one such follower put it, "It is clearer today than ever before. Our world is currently facing the mother of all crises and is in dire need of a deity. That deity shall be 
 known as… Benji"