AMG REVIEW: Only a few years into its existence, the R. Stevie Moore Cassette Club already had such an unwieldy catalog that it was easy to become paralyzed by choice when thumbing through it. In those pre-Internet days, before anyone had ever heard of 30-second RealAudio samples, R. Stevie Moore came up with that concept's lo-tech predecessor: in the summer of 1983, he created Ass-Ault!, a 30-minute cassette that he sold for a dollar as a combination loss leader, introduction, and experimental sound collage. Between them, the two halves of Ass-Ault! combine 75 different R. Stevie Moore songs into a sonic tapestry with a somewhat hectoring narration at the beginning and end. Stretches of the tape are a simple Stars on 45-style medley of memorable Moore favorites and obscurities, but there are other sections that combine musical and spoken elements from different songs in new and interesting ways, and as a result, Ass-Ault! not only works as a collection of song snippets for the curious, but as an interesting musical experience for longtime fans who get to play "guess the fragment." The CD version, still available from the RSMCC at www.rsteviemoore.com, is still priced inexpensively as an inducement to the curious.
–Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
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