This deconstruction, reconstruction and proto sampling of the vinyl medium saw Rice systematically abusing records by placing them ovens, scraping them with sandpaper and even cutting them into pieces to crudely reassemble them, compiling their distressed and sometimes distressing new sounds for his own sordid purposes.

His next record release was the first under the name NON, chosen for its ability to imply "everything and nothing" simultaneously. "Mode Of Infection / Knife Ladder" (1977) took the form of a single sided 7" record featuring "Mode Of Infection" and "Knife Ladder" as well as "Sound Tracks 1-3", locked grooves to which Rice thoughtfully added a second axis hole drilled off-centre so as to present the listener with myriad playback possibilities, particularly on decks with 16, 33, 45 or 78 rpm speeds.

This idea was further developed on "Pagan Muzak" (Gray Beat US 1978) a 7" vinyl LP housed in a 12" sleeve. This record consisted of 17 locked and looped grooves, each containing a different noise, again with an added a second axis hole drilled off-centre with instructions to the listener to drill further holes should they require them.

This playful inventiveness was a key part of Boyd rice's live performances too. In 1978 he demonstrated his 'roto-guitar', a guitar with a metal fan secured to it and a shoe polishing machine, both employed for their ability to make as much noise as possible with the minimum amount of effort. His audiences were both threatened and bemused by his work, not that this discouraged Boyd Rice in any way. His commitment to his aesthetic took him to London where, whilst attempting to sell copies of his 'Black Album' in the Rough Trade shop he met Daniel Miller, who impressed with his singular vision, offered him a deal with his fledgling Mute label.

For his first release he reissued the material from "Mode Of Infection / Knife Ladder" which took up on side of the &'' EP whilst material by Smegma occupied the other. Mute also re-released the 'Black Album' (1977) as 'Boyd Rice' in 1981 and a 12" single 'Rise' (1982) before following it with the live LP 'Physical Evidence' (1982). The album's tracks had been culled from various performances, including Hollywood, Berlin, Paris and London and aptly demonstrated the raw intensity of a live NON show. Playing back tapes of his noise at volumes loud enough to blow speakers. Rice confounded all expectations of what music should be. By stripping it of structure, emotional clich�s and all familiarity, he was able to confuse the listener's perceptions, the intense and overwhelming volume forcing audiences to physically experience his 'music'. At some NON shows Rice remained in his dressing room, operating equipment from there, at others he simply stood on stage manipulating his machines, completely free of conventional instrumentation.

In fact Rice had discovered a method for utilising tape recorders as an effective instrument, which led him to experiment with other non-conventional sound sources and an excellent collaboration with Fad Gadget on 'Easy Listening For The Hard Of Hearing' (1984). To realise this project the duo had recorded everything from domestic appliances such as gas fires, along with water pipes and any furniture that seemed sonically pleasing. Looping and treating the sounds produced a collection of tracks that are infectious and often totally stunning.

A further collaboration with Current 93 resulted in 'Nightmare Culture' (Laylah 1985) and recordings with Coil produced 'A Sickness Of Snakes' (Laylah 1985),
Meanwhile Boyd's encyclopaedic knowledge of trash culture saw him edit 'Incredibly Strange Films' (1986) for US imprint Re/Search, a relationship that also saw him recount his tales of provocation and agitation for their book 'Pranks' (1986).

His next Mute LP 'Blood And Flame' (1987) featured tracks that used repeated words as their source, a further development of Rice's psycho-acoustic research where the brain starts to interpret the loops causing the listener to hear different words or simply interpreting the repetition as a rhythm. Other tracks extended the possibilities for noise, building cycles of broad rhythms and textures into stunning constructs that take on an almost orchestral feel as they develop.

Mute compiled a selection of 1980's NON recordings for "Easy Listening For Iron Youth: The Best of NON", a record which the Chicago Tribune suggested was, "not recommended for anyone whose perch on the mental balance beam is at all precarious." Elsewhere Boyd Rice succeeded in attracting attention to his extra-curricular activities through his association with Anton LaVey's Church Of Satan, bringing him to the attention of the radio evangelist Bob Larson, who, in the course of an on-air debate, bestowed upon Rice the accolade, "You are Satan!" and unwittingly became an effective PR man for Boyd Rice's work in the process.

The next NON offering, 1992's 'In The Shadow Of The Sword' debated social and Darwinist issues over drums and an abstract melody provided by both Rice and a selection of other musicians, including two members of Death In June and Rose McDowall of 80's pop sensation Strawberry Switchblade. The first selections on this album were recorded live in Japan with the remainder being created in Rice's studio in Denver, Colorado.

In 1993, Boyd collaborated with Rose McDowall, as a duo called Spell to create an album's worth of lost 60's pop classics from Dolly Parton's 'Going Down To Dover' to Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's 'Big Red Balloon' and the Terry Jacks/ Jaques Brel's suicide ballad of the title track 'Seasons In The Sun' (1993). The album spawned 'Big Red Balloon' as a single, the promo video being created by Ray Dennis Steckler, acclaimed mondo movie director and hero of Rice's

Boyd Rice took a different approach for the next NON release, 'Might!' (1995), something of a concept spoken word album that uses text taken from an ancient and obscure book Might Is Right, by an author called Ragnar Redbeard (who may or may not have actually been the writer and explorer Jack London). Once again the text deals with an exposition of Darwinian Law as it applies to man, his world and nature.

For "God and Beast" (1997) Boyd and his trusted musicians recorded with legendary producer Ken Thomas to create a fusion and further development of ideas that had been showcased on several earlier NON recordings, with this release also featuring two hidden tracks, tucked sneakily away thus extending this full and satisfying audio experience, when the listener least expects it.

In September 1999 Mute Records reissued "Pagan Musak" in all of its lock grooved glory, reminding the rapidly growing ranks of DJs and turntablists just how far back the tradition of using records as instruments stretched. This was after all, a record made by a man who back in the mid 1970's had rejected sounds made by scratching a stylus along a record's groove as being "too obvious". Still in its original 7" LP format housed in a 12' sleeve "Pagan Musak" exposed the early work of Boyd Rice to a new generation of vinyl manipulators and paved the way for "Solitude"(2000) a limited edition 7" single pressed primarily to promote the next NON album "Receive The Flame" (1999), the three releases being timed to take the work of Rice into the next millennium. "Solitude" featured a standard format A side, with the B being designed to play off-centre locked grooves at various speeds in other words that unique NON format. The album "Receive The Flame" featured "Solitude" and was a return to experimentation with pure noise, augmented with bubblegum pop loops and a selection of musicians playing notes that are stretched to breaking point. In short, classic NON material.

'Children of The Black Sun" (2002) contrasted beautifully with "Receive The Flame" eschewing more grinding, abrasive sounds in favour of a lush and rather transcendental collection of pieces which took a study of Gnosticism as its basis. Through combining undulating noise with rich orchestral overtones, Boyd Rice was demonstrating how his experiments were still capable of producing work that was distinctly his own.

This rampant individualism is well and truly celebrated on "Terra Incognita: Ambient Works 1975 - Present" (2004), a minimalist career-spanning collection compiled by Rice himself. This diverse material charts a journey through the wonky, woozy slippage of his early vinyl manipulation via his more darkly abrasive investigations, into the lush sonic palettes of more recent recordings.

Now that we have reached an age where loops, samples, noise, and distortion are the everyday tools of the modern musician, where it is commonplace to hear vinyl records wilfully mistreated in order to extract new sounds, it is worth recalling that before many of the pioneering figures of experimental and dance music had honed the skills that made their names, a man called Boyd Rice had already begun a journey into this territory and in a short space of time had made much of it, entirely his own.