Thursday, August 30, 2007

THE REFLECTIONS-SLUGS AND TOADS, LP, 1981, UK




Something of a UK DIY post punk supergroup and easily one of the rarest titles issued by Cherry Red, this ragtag assemblage culls together personnel from Alternative TV (Mark Perry, Dennis Burns), The Lemon Kittens (Karl Blake) and The Door And The Window (Nag) and much like the demographics suggest, around 3/4 of the contents here err on the side of the sort of itchy and endearingly disheveled post punk machinations that Perry, Burns and Nag were proffering in their primary vehicles, though Blake's presence insures some measure of overtly riotous sonic deformation will be brought to bear, most notably on the deeply twisted and uber-Beefheartian lurch 'n' caper-fest of "Toy Dog Ripped By Cat", one of the more demented chestnuts that Blake's ever had a hand in penning.

Get it Here

MAAD-S/T, LP, 1976, ITALY





Italian jazzy prog action with distinct latin, afro and funk moves at play, Maad's eccentric formulation often fuses these facets in unexpected ways, the results sometimes coming close to the vibe of NWW listers Napoli Centrale. Though the distinct perkiness of some of Maad's musical formulations might elicit the occasional wince (rapid-fire piano-driven cocktail lounge jazz rears it's head now and again), this is a largely successful trawl through fusionoid quirkiness.

***************NEW LINK POSTED SEPTEMBER 2012***************

Get it here

NO SAFETY-THIS LOST LEG, LP, 1989, USA




Absolutely definitive Downtown NY R.I.O.-ish art rock, No Safety's fidgety and punchily muscular take on this genre perfectly captures a moment in time when the sundry signifiers of this scene were coalescing into something immediately identifiable. It's a sound that perfectly synthesizes what each party here brings to the proceedings from their previous units (R.I.O.-like angularity, visceral post punk immediacy, mutant funk elasticity), fusing the idiosyncratic methodologies that the participants have honed to razor sharpness in outfits like V-Effect, Skeleton Crew and The Orthotonics into something intense, commanding and full of lopsided fun.

***************NEW LINK POSTED OCTOBER 2012***************

Get it here 

OLEG KOSTROW-THE GREAT FLASHING TRACKS FROM IWONA, CD, 1999, RUSSIA




The first solo album from this member of Russian dadaist kitsch mongers Messer Fur Frau Muller, this one'll probably send the whimsy-averse running for the hills, but for those with a a yen for the proactively ludicrous, the candy coated, cartoonish and occasionally too-cute-by-half sampladelic constructs that Kostrow cobbles together here (think Stock, Hausen & Walkman by way of Dim Dim) are idiotic fun of the first order.

***************NEW LINK POSTED OCTOBER 2012***************

Get it here 

BRUME-PERMAFROST, CD, 1994, FRANCE





Following my recent posts of his Signature Model and Battery Hen Sabotage CD's, here's another rich and mysterious expedition into Christian Renou's vivid vision of post-industrial sonic surrealism, the focus on Permafrost often being decidedly more constructivist and rhythm-centric than on much of Renou's output that I've encountered, sometimes affording the proceedings an air of Randy Greif-like fourth world malevolence.

***************NEW LINK POSTED SEPTEMBER 2012***************

Get it here  

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Another obligatory absence.

Dear friends
due to moving to a new house i will not have internet connection for about 10 days.This means there will be no posts from me at this period.Sorry about that,i will try one way or another to moderate comments board and keep the touch with my friends here.
See you in about 10 days
Jim Mutantsounds

Grattons-labeur - Le bal des sorciers ,LP,1977.France

Here's an early project of famous French folk singer Danielle Messia.Released privately in 1977 this lp,mixes traditional celtic folk with psychedelic and rock influences,all in a sad mystic mood.Excellent and much underrated.

get it here

When - Drowning But Learning,LP/CD,1987,Norway


A monument in the avant-garde, Lars Pedersen's origins date back to the late 70's with his work in the legendary experimentalist band HOLY TOY. Pedersen began composing material for WHEN in 1983 and has consistently developed the concept into the next millenium. Pedersen has reached a plateau many cannot attest to. His extremely illustrative aural stylistics which spans the universe of cut up/collage design manipulating everything from folk/ethnic, RIO [Rock In Opposition], cartoon schizophrenia, poignant soundscape, hypnotic minimalism, massive industrial/factory environment, adherent pop and intense orchestrative content have not even approached limitations - WHEN remains as visceral and seemingly arbitrary as it began, granting its listeners passports to limitless space and time.
As requested!
get this masterpiece here

Kawabata Makoto-Private Tapes 1-8,CDrs,1999-2003,Japan








I think there's no need for introduction to Kawabata Makoto ,for the friends of this blog.Here a series of 8 cdrs released in very limited quantities (from 50 to 200) between 1999 and 2003.There are 2 more releases in this series (9 and 10),both still in print.The music is totaly spaced out electronic psychedelic improvisations ,ready to melt your mind and trip you up.Check also Eric's post in March of Makoto's early 10cdrs boxset.
This post is divided in 6 parts : part 1,part2,part 3,part 4,part 5,part 6







Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Ferrante & Teicher-Blast Off!, LP,1958,USA

Ferrante & Teicher's work falls into two categories: prepared piano works and easy listening. After meeting as students, and then working as teachers, at Juilliard, they began to perform as a duo, primarily with classical groups, in 1946. They became a popular act on the "pops" symphony circuit. At the same time, they began experimenting with modifications to pianos, inserting objects into the stringbed, playing on the stringbed, striking keys or strings with blocks, and generally striving to figure out how to get the strangest possible sounds. Working before the first synthesizer, they succeeded in producing outworldly, almost electronic sounds. The pair described this musical transition:
... it was while teaching that we began experimenting and creating new material for two pianos. For novelty numbers we stuffed wads of paper, sticks, rubber stops, masonite strings, cardboard wedges, and sandpaper into the pianos conjuring up weird effects (a la [John] Cage) resembling gongs, castanets, drums, xylophone, and harpsichord. Though we have gradually dropped many of these gimmicks, we fell that we have developed a musical style, and undoubtedly play in a manner that makes some former colleagues at Juilliard wince a bit. People who associate F&T with their easy listening music are often startled to hear their prepared piano works. There is nothing quite like them in the annals of recorded sounds. In fact, throughout this period, the duo was accused of using more than just pianos to produce these sounds, and they had to produce the following affadavit to convince Columbia Records before the label released their first single: Divers persons upon hearing records of "Susanna's Last Stand" and "Caravan" and subsequent recordings by Ferrante and Teicher have asserted, implied or otherwise made known that such recordings were made by the use of various sundry instruments other than two pianos. Upon our solemn oath and undertaking we hereby assert, acknowledge, testify and state without equivocation or fear of contradiction that the only instruments played by Ferrante and Teicher in connection with the recordings of such compositions were two pianos.--Howard Scott and David Oppenheim, 24 Dec 1952 Aside from a few very early albums of classical pieces, most of their albums up to about 1961, however, are entirely comprised of prepared piano pieces. After joining United Artists in 1960, they added an orchestral accompaniment (usually arranged by Don Costa and conducted by Nick Perito) and quickly abandoned fiddling with their pianos. As High Fidelity magazine noted of their first album with Costa and Perito, Golden Piano Hits, their new sound was,
Devoid of gimmickry ... a fact that may appeal to the musical-minded more than those who listen, with both ears, for spectacular sonic surprises. It didn't take longer to figure out which was the larger audience. F&T became one of the best-selling instrumental easy listening groups of the 1960s. They had immediate hits with their renditions of "Exodus" and the theme from "The Apartment," and over 10 Top 100 hits in the next 13 years. They continued to record a steady stream of 4 albums a year for United Artists until 1979, when they formed their own label, Avante Garde. They often played to packed concert houses, appearing up to 100 times a year at their peak. Although they retired from performing in 1989, they remain close friends and have settled near each other in the Sarasota, Florida area. According to their manager, Scott Smith, they began practicing again in late 1998 in anticipation of a new series of recordings that will include new prepared piano sounds. You can safely skip virtually everything recorded from the early United Artists LP, "Pianos in Paradise" on, though, unless you need a Muzak fix. The one prominent exception to this advice, however, is their best-selling album, Midnight Cowboy, which gained a lot of attention for its prominent use of Vinnie Bell's "watery" guitar effects. For most space age pop fans, the prepared piano albums are the ones to seek out.
from:http://www.spaceagepop.com/ferrante.htm

as requested!
get it here

Ellis Dee & The Dans-st,LP(?),196?,USA(?)

Awesome distorted psychedelic recordings.I believe it's from the late 60s.No infos found anywhere.A friend passed it to me and here it is presented to all of you.Excellent fuzzy guitars,organ,distorted vocals. SF psychedelia,distorted bluesy tunes some heavy Hedrix like guitar riffs and swirling organ all through.These guys must have been heavy on acid when recording this.Any info and pic sleeve scans (if any) would be much appreciated.VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENTED FOR ALL ACID HEADS OUT THERE!

get it here

Day Blindness -st,1969,LP,USA

Only LP from San Francisco psych band in 1968 with lots of fuzz leads & organ, at times a dark Doorsy mood peaking on the 12:30 long track "Holy Land". Featuring on guitar Gary Pihl,of Boston fame.Highly recommented!

get it here

Feo-Eg Meini Teo,LP,1971,Denmark

Ynkown Danish acod folk rock LP.Not much infos found.Much use of flute ,some jazzish hints here and there.Excellent LP.

get it here (no massmirror link since it is found that doesn't work)

Aeolian String Ensemble-Lassithi / Elysium ,CD,1998,UK


This is the first, full-length release by the UK based project Aeolian String Ensemble. Although originally set for release on the legendary United Dairies label, Robot Records have secured distribution. The work was produced by David Kenny, a long time collaborator on Nurse With Wound / Current 93 projects.
Consisting of two evolving pieces, Lassithi (1992) and a specially commissioned new work Elysium (1996) this CD offers a more linear and fluid overview of this fascinating material than that of excerpted, early compilation appearances.
The Aeolian String Ensemble's post production technique (harmonic extraction) on sounds generated by the strings of various different materials, recorded at sympathetic locations, create a hazy, shifting and spacious atmosphere for your total aural immersion".

From:http://www.aeolianstringensemble.com/lassithi.html

Music is created by manipulated Aeolian harp tunes(see photo bellow),giving a floating ambient spacious atmosphere.


get it here
or here(not quite sure if massmirror link is working as many problems were faced uploading to mass mirror)

Monday, August 27, 2007

ERUPTION "Eruption" unreleased LP 1970 (Germany)



Eruption were an obscure krautrock legend operating on the Berlin underground in parallel to MkI TANGERINE DREAM and KLUSTER. Created at the Zodiac Club as a project of sound engineer Klaus Freudigmann, they existed for a little more than one year and at their peak they featured the all-star line-up of Freudigmann, Conrad Schnitzler, Lutz Ulbrich, Michael Gunther (both AGITATION FREE), Dieter Serfas (EMBRYO), Klaus Schulze, Manuel Goettsching and Hartmut Enke (that later become the ASH RA TEMPEL trio).

Up till now, their only documented recording is a 1970 studio session of an early line-up of the band as a trio of Freudigmann, Schnitzler and Wolfgang Siedel, unearthed by the Italian Qbico label. Sitting between a more experimental early TANGERINE DREAM solitary cosmic styling and an aggressive electronic cacophony full of free-form ethos, the trio moves through ring modulated percussives, echoed violin, cascading guitar textures and distorted vocals in a tortured journey to collapsing post-war german urban landscapes.

Upon the split of this extraordinary project Siedel went on with Schnitzler as CONSEQUENZ and then in TON STEINE SCHERBEN, while Conrad went on a glorious solo career and Freudigmann continued active as a studio owner, album producer and occasional musician.

A ridiculously limited 2005 LP edition, already sold out. Get it here.


PS. A rare video of the project can be viewed there.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

RETURN OF THE COMMENT BOARD COCK-UP AND REPLACEMENT OF THE GOTHIC HUT LINK...AGAIN!

Well...it appears that Blogger's comment boards have once again been dysfunctional for the last 3-4 days, as, in a repeat of last time, all your collective comments of the last days have spilled in all at once today. Thus, I didn't notice 'til now that my last replacement of the defective Gothic Hut link was itself also defective! Eegads! Anyway, I've just replaced the prior link with a properly working one finally, so appy-poly-logies to one and all for the continued hassles with that post. I'll try to get replies to all your comments circa later tonight. Thanks to all who've commented for the kind words once again...

Mutantsounds's back

Hello to all
i just stepped in home after a 15 days vacation and although i had a wonderful time ,i missed this blog and it's friends.So from tomorrow (have to put myself together after so many days away) i start posting again.Thank you very much Eric and Spacefreak for the great posts you did while i was absent.
See you all tomorrow

MAMMA NON PIANGERE-N.1 (MUSICA BESTIAME E BENESSERE), LP, 1979, ITALY




Fabulously screwy and totally forgotten, this arcane mob of Italian avant proggers stitches together the most unlikely of things. Circus music, R.I.O.-ish angularities, Archimedes Badkar-ish folk-into-drone-psych, dixieland, Italian folk, found sound and location recordings...these cats somehow corral all that and more together and make it sound like the most obvious and effortless combination in the world. Not to be missed.

***************NEW LINK POSTED SEPTEMBER 2012***************

Get it here

DIE TANZDIEBE-LIVE, LP, 1982, GERMANY




Following Jim's post of the truly amazing Tanzdiele LP, here's their multi-instrumentalist frontman Piet Klocke's follow-up outfit with a slightly different name and a completely different cast, though what I've gleaned from viewing translated text online suggests that both were more projects than proper bands, assembled by Klocke to help flesh out and present his work (someone please correct me if I'm wrong...). The emphasis here has shifted from the odd but precision-tooled brilliance of The Tanzdiele's synthy and pumping vision of Neue Deutsche Welle and toward something decidedly more mutant funk inflected, sax having surmounted the role one occupied by synth. For me, it's a wee bit less immediately enthralling than Klocke's original formulation, though it still fairly hot-shit NDW action, regardless.

Get it Here

LIEUTENANT CARAMEL/LA SONORITE JAUNE-JE NE VEUX PLUS VOIR LE CIEL, SPLIT LP, 1988, FRANCE




I've posted umpteen titles over time by the gifted French experimental electronic artist Lieutenant Caramel (aka Philippe Blanchard), though the material present on this rare split LP with French contemporaries La Sonorite Jaune takes a rather more single-minded approach to the deployment of surrealist sonics than his more dense and sprawling work on the CD's of his that I've posted previously. Thats not to suggest that this is anything other than brainscrambling. The focus here is sharp and pointed, with voices spluttering and ranting amidst half melodic zapping synthetics (including what sounds like a enraged dwarf), bubbles and zings pop and fling, metallic sonorities snap like mental pincers as effected vocal occasionally surface in this jousting melee. French post-industrialists La Sonorite Jaune on the other hand offer something rather more soupy and tenebrous, with thick nebulous drifts of not-unappealing atmospheric murk through which flit vague tendrils of harmonic activity.

***************NEW LINK POSTED OCTOBER 2012***************

Get it here

MAMI CHAN BAND-LIVE, CD, 2001, FRANCE/JAPAN/UK







The 7 person strong, multinational Mami Chan Band is (was?) one of Andrew Sharpley's projects after the demise of the brilliantly snarky and dadaist Stock, Hausen & Walkman and is a bit of a carry-over from his somewhat more well known post-S,H&W project AE (who've had releases on Mouse On Mars' Sonig imprint) as AE's Emiko Ota is also part of the extended line-up present here. This doesn't get me any closer to attempting to explain the sounds at hand though, which is a bit of a trick, as the suave yet warped schtick that they fabricate defies easy capsulization.I hear snatches of Tipsy-like detourned lounge kitsch, R.I.O.-ish angularities, oom-pah, faux-spooky Danny Elfman-ish thematic progressions, the Yoshida/Tsuyama's piss-takey joker end of their avant-prog proclivities as heard in Akaten and, obviously, the dead-on sampler fuckery that you'd expect Messr. Sharpley to bring to the proceedings. Top notch screwiness.

***************NEW LINK POSTED SEPTEMBER 2012***************

Get it here  

Saturday, August 25, 2007

TSURUBAMI-HANSHOH NO OMOI-CDR, 2001, JAPAN




Though 'll refrain from attempting to contrast this with the rest of Kawabata & Co.'s ceaseless onslaught, having not spent the requisite year sifting through the mountain of releases that are released weekly from the gates of the Acid Mothers Temple, the endlessly churning reverb soaked atonal acid sprawl this particular agglomeration (Kawabata + AMT's Higashi Hiroshi +drummer Emi Nobuko of Ohkami No Jikan/Seventh Seal and occasionally A.M.T) kicks up at the outset of their fourth of seven releases here is hovering right on the precipice of the same sucking black hole thats at the center of so much contemporary Japanese psychedelic music practice and the effect is a little like listening to Fushitsusha and Toho Sara jam in a wind tunnel. This ultimately ruptures and spills over into long stetches of spare, open and intuitive (albeit still scribbly and distended) improvisations that after the preceding shitstorm are both lovely, unexpected and welcome and which carry on for much of the duration, before the the gravitational pull of the void ultimately rears it's howling head again.

NOTE: PROBLEMS WITH THE LINK FOR PART ONE HAVE NOW BEEN CORRECTED WITH A REPLACEMENT LINK.

Get part one Here

Get part two Here

Thursday, August 23, 2007

VANDROOGENBROECK, Joel "Meditations vol. 1" LP 1979 (Belgium)



Following Jim's post of some weeks ago, here's the first volume of Joel Vandroogenbroeck's "Meditations" series, released on the library Coloursound label.

Belgian Joel Vandroogenbroeck, currently residing in Mexico, has been the leader of legendary kraut progressive band BRAINTICKET. Aside this project, he traveled around the world doing musical research of ancient world musics. The culmination of his ethnic studies have been the albums he issued on the german library Coloursound label between 1979 and 1985, before retiring to South Pacific islands and then Mexico. Here is his third album for Coloursound and debut for the 4 meditations series; a perfect example of his atmospheric outworldly musical instinct, a study on ethnic ambient dicipline hinting at early Stephan Micus.

Get it here.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

THE HUMANIST ADVENT CONCEPT-INVASION, LP, CANADA, 1979




Utterly fried and totally unique sounding, this pack of Canadian acid heads even added Brainticket-like warnings to trippers
on the sleeve, which is actually anything but hype in this instance.To my ears, what The Humanist Advent concept are getting up to here relates less to the work of any of their Canadian contemporaries and far more closely to the distinctly American spin on structurally disfigured acid rock plied by the likes of The Hampton Grease Band or Oho, with flaming acid guitar extensions twisting and coiling through the discontinuous interstices in their addled arranngements and around big lungfuls of screwball verbiage. Absolutely wicked shit here, and the deeper into the pudding you go, the more deformed it gets.

Get it Here

HARTE 10-S/T, LP, 1983, GERMANY




Featuring NWW list artist Frank Kollges on drums and vocals, this seriously fucked and wildly all-over-the-place band's music (housed in a rather priceless cover) capers around the fringes of so many disparate genres and modalities, it's hard to know where to start cataloging this madness. Starting off with art rock mischief somewhere between Aqsak Maboul and late Etron Fou Leloublan, this ultimately takes in everything from grotesque schlager, chanting, Wurlitzer rhythm presets and mutant funk to the sort of delicate airy whimsy I usually associate solely with Japan in the 80's.

Get it Here