by drummer Stu Martin and alto-saxophonist Don Davis, a friend of Kramer. They toured North America in an old school bus from April into June playing most of Gong's Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, with Martin departing after a few weeks, his place being taken by another of Kramer's friends, Bill Bacon. In autumn, they recorded the album About Time, followed by a September and October tour of France, after which Allen and the band amicably parted company when they "discovered they couldn't stand the European way of life". 1979–82: The band The band then took the name Material, from the Laswell/Cultreri-composed instrumental "Materialism" on the About Time album. Their debut recording was 1979's instrumental industrial funk Temporary Music 1 EP for Gomelsky's Zu Records. The band then signed to Celluloid Records, and the single "Discourse" was issued in 1980. They were reduced back to the trio of Beinhorn, Laswell and Maher for the 1981 EP Temporary Music 2 (included Don Davis on saxophone,"White Man"). The departed Cultreri later worked in A&R for Relativity Records where he is credited with bringing Megadeth, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani to the label. The group would play around New York as a three-piece with a revolving list of “front-men” such as guitarists Sonny Sharrock and Fred Frith, saxophonists Byard Lancaster and Henry Threadgill or cornetist Olu Dara. Laswell explained "We have a lot of directions to pursue, we do get involved in quite a few projects, and we like bringing different people into Material. It's healthy for us as players, and it's a way of exposing good musicians to new audiences. But even though we're fluid, we definitely are a band. And since whatever we play tends to have a strong pulse to it, I'd say we're a rock band... Playing with really strong musicians does change our playing, we improvise and play off one another. We may sound somewhat different, depending on who's playing with us, but to me that's an advantage." The first full album as Material, Memory Serves, was instrumental and featured strong jazz leanings with contributions from Sharrock, Frith, Dara, Threadgill and violinist Billy Bang. They started working with singers and their music became more melodic and funkier. Their next single "Ciquiri" (included on the American Songs EP) which featured guitarist Robert Quine, became popular in New York City dance clubs. The 1981 "Bustin' Out" single was released as an