Almuro Andreas-Kosmos, LP, 1969, France

Totally unknown French experimental act.Condsidered as proto minimal synth/industrial.Thanks to the anonymous user that send it to me.Extremely rare LP.Should have been in the NWW list!

get it here

Seatrain-Same (1969)+ Marblehead messanger (1971), LPs, USA

Sea Train were a short lived band that grew out of the remains of the Blues Project.They produced one self-titled album on A&M in 1969 that has become regarded as a minor classic, combining classical,folk,rock and jazz forms to create a quite unique musical artefact.

get them here

The Third Set Of Obscure DIY Classic 7"

DENIZENS:AMMONIA SUBWAY 7",UK, 1980
DENIZENS IN THE CROWD E.P. ,UK 1980

DISCO ZOMBIES:DRUMS OVER LONDON 7", UK 1979

DISCO ZOMBIES : THE INVISIBLE E.P., UK, 1979

DISCO ZOMBIES:HERE COME THE BUTS 7", UK, 1980FK9:STRANGER AT THE HEART/COMPLETE SURVEILLANCE 7", UK,1980

FK9: OUR CONDITION E.P., UK,1981

(sorry no pic sleeve)

HOBBIES OF TODAY:METAL BOYS/TIGHTROPE FIGHTER 7" 1979

THE PULLOVERS: PETER PAN PILL 7" UK 1980
Another bunch of great rare DIY punk/post punk 7" from the early 80s!
For further infos ,just ask me!

get them here

Toy Love-same, LP,1980, New Zealand

Toy Love was a New Zealand alternative/punk rock band fronted by Chris Knox. Other members were guitarist Alec Bathgate, bass player Paul Kean, drummer Mike Dooley, and keyboard player Jane Walker. The band developed out of the earlier punk band The Enemy in Dunedin, New Zealand, and are often regarded as the progenitors of the Dunedin Sound movement.
Toy Love were together for less than two years (1978-9) and spent a large part of that time in Australia. They released just one (self-titled) album, however the band members were apparently appalled by the mixing of the tracks which took the edge off the band's deliberately raw sound.

visit their website:http://www.toylove.co.nz/

Amazing punk from Down Under!Totally underrated!In some parts reminds me of Zounds sound!
get it here

Smegma - Pigs for lepers , LP , USA, 1982 (LAFMS band/NWW list!)

"Pigs For Lepers" was Smegma's second long player, originally the seventh release on their own Pigface Records imprint back in 1982.The actual "Pigs For Lepers" recordings span 1962 right up to 1982.This is an excellent introduction to the world of Smegma - a band whose influence has slowly seeped everywhere over the past few decades - ask Nurse With Wound, Wolf Eyes, Merzbow or any of the New Weird America crowd whom would give anything to be as 'weird' as Smegma!

get it here

The Cravats - Colossal Tunes Out , LPs, UK 1982

This is the 2nd LP by The Cravats (the most underrated punk group ever!).Anarcho-Jazz punk at it's best!

get it here

feor their first LP "in toytown" , go here

V/A - The pulse of new york, LP, 1983, UK(US bands)

Very rare and great one minimal synth compilation released in 1983 in UK by Glass records ,containing US bands!

Tracklist

A1 Funktionaries - Kiss My Funky Pts 1&2 (7:20)

A2 Xex - Look At His Heartbeat (5:15)

A3 Bronx Irish Catholics - Ulster Defense (3:15)

A4 Noise R Us - The Plague (6:07)

B1 Deekay Jones - New York New York (5:23)

B2 Tiny Tribe - Bay Street (1:40)

B3 Seven And Three - Equator (5:50)

B4 Heretix - The Chapter One (9:30)

get it here

VA- GIRAFFE IN FLAMES, LP,1984,UK

Strange,yet excellent, diy/minimal synth/wave sampler LP from 1984 with original insert.Released on AAZ RECORDS in Leeds.

Bands : Party Day / The Sinister Cleaners / The Marvelous Roofs / Len Liggins / The Chorus / Andrew Middleton / Two s Company / Nick Toczek / Victims of romance / Clive Tylor.

get it here

V/A-Integration tape, MC, UK,1983

Excellent and very rare minimal synth/experimental compilation realised in 1983 on Integrated Circuit label (IRC, other releases:We couldn't agree on a title LP,Flowmotin LP).

Tracklist:

A1 Trevor Wishart -Anna´s Magic Garden

A2 Muslimgauze -Afrikaner

A3 Paul Kelday -Towards A New Clear Age

A4 David Jackman- Last Estuary

A5 Ampnoise - Floppy Disk Drive

A6 MFH - To Give Painless Light

A7 New 7th Music - Untitled No. 7

A8 Andrew Cox - Ritual Dance

A9 Andrew Cox - Silent Moorings

B1 Ian Boddy - Sundance

B2 Subject - What Happened To You?

B3 I Scream - Menace

B4 Human Flesh - Delon Enlarges

B5 Carl Matthews - Power of three

B6 Carl Matthews-Harmless Thought

B7 Monoplane - Fin

B8 Citizens Of Science - She Moves Like A Machine

B9 Colin Potter - Hills

B10 Stratis - By Water

B11 Dave Jones - Memories Of...

get it here

VA - Another Thing from the Crypt ,LP, UK,1981

This the second volume of the compilation posted a few days ago!Much rarer that than first one,and just as good! Realised through Dead Hedgehog Enterprises

Tracks:

kickin the blits AND too late by SILENT RAGE
crack the whip AND film music (pt. 2) by JESUS COULDN'T DRUM
out of contact AND lesson by COLD WAR
hit the deck AND forward to regression by THE SLEEPING PICTURES
stop press AND robot chef by VERTICAL HOLD
andrew summers AND night time by THE KEVIN STAPLES BAND

get it here

V/A- Welcome to Norwich ,a Fine city, LP ,UK,1981

This time the compilation NORWICH, A FINE CITY. It's a Norwich city local bands compilation from 1980. Only 500 pressed. This is ripped from the original vinyl. Bands incuded are: Higsons, Screen 3, Capitalist music, Mohair twins....It is consider as one of the best compilations that came out from the local UK DIY scene. It is very rare(exchanging hands for 100-150 euro).

Tracklist(purple colour for band names):

1. Plan 9 from outer space - The Happy Few

2. My love is bent (at both ends) - Higsons

3. Live and learn - Screen 3

4. Railway sex - Mohair Twins

5. Little games - Panic Parade

6. Learning to smile - Clynics

7. Jane's gone to France - Capitalist Music

8. Shades of black - Screen 3

9. Eastern exercise - Clynics

10. Five Hawian Bullets - Mohair Twins

11. Ultimate Sanction - Happy Few

12. Blue light brigade - Panic Parade

13. We will never grow old - Higsons

14. Do you really love that girl - Capitalist Music

I posted it about 8 months ago at TWILIGHTZONE blog.Since then the link is dead so i repost it!

get it here

V/A - The circus comes to town, LP, 1981, UK

Very obscure UK local compilation from 1981.

Bands:Rimshots / Black Roots / Treatment / Alarm Clox / Gold / Riz Wah Wah / Steve Booton & Pat Jones / Dangerous Brothers / Forty Blue Fingers / Info-Mania / Kevin McFadden / The Bite.

Sorry no pic sleeve scans.

get it here

V.A. - Street to street volume two - A Liverpool album ,LP, 1981, UK

Tracklisting:

A1 Egypt For Now - Days On Edge

A2 Cooling Towers -The Thesis

A3 Systems -Total Recall

A4 Chinese Religion - Eden

A5 Games - Unrest In the Real World

B1 Games -The Song

B2 Systems - Glare Of The Lights

B3 Cooling Towers- Make This Day End Soon

B4 Egypt For Now -Soldiers

B5 Chinese Religion - Chambers
OPEN EYE RECORDS OE-LP502

Another great local compilation from UK "indie" early 80s scene!

Find volume one at TWILIGHTZONE! blog !

get it here

Tomaz Pengov- Odpotovanja, LP,1973, Slovenia

Tomaz Pengov, is an acoustic guitar player and singer/songwriter from Ljubljana, Slovenia. He recorded his first album Odpotovanja in 1973, reissued in 1981 in stereo. The original mono edition is very rare now. Pengov sings and plays 12 string guitar and lute. His music is original, the closest comparison is perhaps early Leonard Cohen. He took eight years (from 1980 to 1988) to record his second album, Pripovedi, recorded with guest musicians. The music is still acoustic, but more varied. Later in the 1990s, he recorded two more albums, "Rimska cesta"(1992) and "Biti tu"(1995).

from Wikipedia

A fantastic and very rare acid/psych folk LP!

get it here

Catherine Ribeiro + 2bis -same, LP, 1969, France ( NWW list!)

Biography

Catherine Ribeiro was born in 1939, the daughter of Portuguese immigrants. She starred in Jean Luc Godard's controversial film 'Les Carabiniers' aged 22, where she played a partisan. Here she met (and later married) guitarist and sound sculptor Patrice Moullet, the core member of the group they were to later form called Alpes. They released the first album Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis in 1969, but didn't use the name Alpes until the second album Nr.2. Her daughter Ioana was born sometime around 1971 and inspired many songs. Catherine is most well-known in France for her recording of Edith Piaf songs, but the music of Alpes under discussion here is much more revolutionary.

A review

I often say that the USA album is the greatest rock album made in the 60s, or that it's a toss-up between it and the VU + Nico album. Well, technically this album, more or less rock music I suppose we could say, was made in the 60s, and it makes the USA album seem like fluffy pop. I'm not saying that USA is at risk of losing its throne, but this a whole different breed of avant-rock royalty way off any scale we could construct. This is a holy grail of 20th century music. Never reissued, this needs to be heard by everyone even slightly interested in this aesthetic sphere.
It's misleading to call this rock music though, because rhythmically it doesn't use any conventional rock beats, and the percussion is used in a strikingly unusual way that gives a droney effect despite using a rapid stream of drum hits. That's drum, not drumkit. I don't think there's any drumkit used in this music. I suppose we could call this music "ecstatic psychedelic electric avant-folk music".
What's so amazing here is that the instrumental parts of the music are equally as idiosyncratic and startling as Ribeiro's bracing vocals. These people were from another planet. The avant-folk precursor to Magma.
Michael Anton Parker

IMHO just one of the 100 best records ever made!

get it here

The Scratch Orchestra - 1969 , 10" Mini LP(100 copies), 1999,UK (NWW list!)

CAUTION!

DON'T MISS THIS ONE

The Scratch Orchestra was an experimental musical ensemble founded in the spring of 1969 by Cornelius Cardew, Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton.
The Orchestra reflected Cardew's musical philosophy at that time. This meant that anyone could join, graphic scores were used (rather than traditional sheet music), and there was an emphasis on improvisation. The Scratch Orchestra arose from Cardew's 'Experimental Music' class at Morley College, London, which served as a venue for extra rehearsals for Scratch Orchestra concerts, but Scratch Orchestra rehearsals were also held separately.
The first meeting of the Scratch Orchestra was at St. Katharine's Dock, 1 July 1969. It was announced by means of a 'Draft Constitution', published in "The Musical Times" in June 1969. The Draft Constitution set out categories of musical activity: Improvisation Rites, Popular Classics, Compositions, and Research Projects. Cardew also proposed that the responsibility of programming of concerts be assigned in reverse seniority, so that the first concert, on 1 November 1969 at Hampstead Town Hall, was designed by Christopher Hobbs, an eighteen-year-old student of Cardew's at the Royal Academy of Music.
Despite the emphasis on free improvisation, the varying experience of the members, and the 'do your own thing' free aesthetic of the time, the Scratch Orchestra was a disciplined ensemble. Eventually the strains of Cardew's "reverse seniority", tensions between musically-trained and non-musically-trained members, and an increasing interest in political aesthetics led to a gradual change in the activities, and then the outlook of the ensemble. It was effectively inoperative by 1974.

from Wikipedia

also for a more detailed biography check:

http://www.stefan-szczelkun.org.uk/phd102.htm

sorry no pic scans

get it here

The Just Measurers - Flagellations, LP, UK, 1980 (NWW list!)

A Homosexuals/L Voag/Amos & Sara offshot!Released in 1980 on It's war boys label.Psych avant punk wierdness at it's best! Posted about a year ago at insect & individual blog, but since the links are "dead" he wouldn't mind ,i hope, reposting it.

get this gem here

The (Hypotetical) Prophets - Around the world with the (hypothetical) prophets ,LP,1982, France

The (Hypothetical) Prophets was the result of the collaboration between Bernard Szajner and Karel Beer. The following text excerpt in regards to Karel Beer, from an article published in the Herald Tribune, Aug 2005 by Mike Zwerin: "When he was co-leader of the France-based group the (Hypothetical) Prophets, he and his musical partner, Bernard Szajner, both used pseudonyms, and they were always photographed with their faces covered. Beer's father was traveling to Eastern Europe on business, and his family was Czechoslovakian and there were relatives still living there. "It was as though the Hypothetical Prophets had something against the Soviets," which, Beer says with a straight face, "was not really the case." The lyrics, in Russian, on one Prophet track were "the directions of how to build a nuclear reactor and what can happen if things go wrong," Beer says. "This was before Chernobyl. The information was already, you know, around. Another song listed Russian gulag railroad stations, where more people got off than got on. We could feel that there was some interest in 'certain quarters." Karel Beer today also says: “In the '80s I produced various records and started the Initial Recording Company, an indie label, and was in a fictitious group called The (Hypothetical) Prophets who signed with Epic in 1982. Currently I have a recording studio and promote stand-up comedy shows and concerts in Paris"

http://minimal-wave.org/site/modules.php?name=topMusic&op=bio&idartist=64

Another great minimal electronics LP, by the pioneer of of the genre Bernard Szajner!

get it here

Teddy Lasry - E=MCsquared, LP, 1976, France

Teddy Lasry used to play sax in Magma but after abandoning the band he switched to synthesizers for some reason, releasing a lot of Electronic Music albums, many of which were library releases. Magnificent record!

get it here

TAU-same, LP,1981,Germany

Very strange mellotron driven late kraut/progressive LP.Realised in Germany 1981.Very nice!

Any more infos will be much appreciated.

get it here

Lost Aaraaff - same, 1971, LP, JAPAN

Lost Aaraaff's Lost Aaraaff (1971) was devoted to three improvised jams. Their young guitarist, Keiji Haino (3) penned the eastern mass Ama No Gawa - Milky Way (1973). Then, inspired by free-jazz master Takayanagi Masayuki, Haino formed Fushitsusha (2) to play improvised psychedelic jams. Starting with Live I (1989), 100 minutes of noise that ranked among the masterpieces of the psychedelic jam of all times, a bacchanal that vomited debris of Blue Cheer, MC5, Iron Butterfly, free-jazz, Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix, this prolific trio (originally a quartet) released monumental and dissolute works that seemed to know no limits. Fushitsusha (1991) and Hisou - Pathetique (1994) were among the follow-ups, but later releases such as The Wisdom Prepared (1998) and I Saw It (2000) were equally torrential. In the meantime, Haino was also busy with Nijiumu and Vajra. His solo albums included the galactic suites Affection (1992) and Execration (1993), and his boldest experiment, I Said This Is The Son Of Nihilism (1995). As the influences of LaMonte Young and Brian Eno increased, Haino arrived at Abandon All Words At A Stroke So That Prayer Can Come Spilling Out (2001), which contains a hypnotic piece for hurdy-gurdy and treated voice, and an industrial collage of metallic noises, distortions and ghostly vocals. His collaborations included Animamima (2006), with a twenty-piece sitar orchestra.

http://www.scaruffi.com/history/cpt36.html

An early work by Haino Keiji, this was recorded in 1971 but apparently not released until PSF Records put it upon themselves. Consisting of percussion, piano and voice this flows along in an almost jazzy vibe although the occasional shrieks of Haino puts this in the experimental section. A good entrance point for those jazzheads that would like to investigate the sombre works of Haino.

get it here

L'infonie - Vol. 33 mantra, LP, 1970, Canada, (NWW list!)

For it's second album, L'Infonie recorded Walter Boudreau's arrangement of Terry Riley's landmark piece for wind ensemble "In C," here re-titled "Mantra." Boudreau modified it in order to fit L'Infonie's possibilities, but he also added a rhythm section. Therefore, this is the grooviest version of "In C" ever recorded. The bass (electric) and drums support the piano's pulsation, while an assortment of percussion instruments are used to punctuate events as they happen in order to give the piece relief. Riley's score is made of 53 short events placed on a pulsation. Each player has to move from the first to the second to the third, etc., until he reaches number 53, but he can repeat each of them as many times as he wants. Therefore, the piece evolves through some kind of osmosis. This impression is very palpable in L'Infonie's interpretation. The studio they recorded in was using 30-minute tape reels, so the album fades out around number 48. In the liner notes, Boudreau announced the remaining part would be released on a future L'Infonie record, but that promise was never fulfilled.

— Franηois Couture/all music guide

Infonie was created during Quebec/Kébèk's expo '67. Inspired by the concept of hell by Refus global de Borduas, L'Infonie was a concrete manifestation of total acceptance. In the beginning they created a parallel world with a commercial culture, an aesthetic approach diving in all kinds of forms of expression, in a revitalizing happening mad creation.
A book with 333 3/3 pages and 33 illustrations was the curriculum vitae (birth, evolution, ending) of l'Infonie, something that would characterise Kébèk from 1969 until 1973. With 33 artists, all lucid dreamers, L'Infonie became a polyvalent spectacle with paintings, sculptures, theatre, poetry, and music (popular, concrete, electronic and contemporary, folk and free jazz). The first book was followed by 6 others, 8 discs, a dozen of films, painting expositions, 5 theatre pieces.Walter retlaW uaerdouB Boudreau was the musical motor of l'Infonie, Claude Edualk Ts-Nyamreg St-Germain was the delirious teller, and Raôul luôaR yauguD Duguay was the verbal motor. Together they formed a creative basic trinity.Vol.33 Mantra is based upon Riley's in C, with Raôul Duguay, trumpet. It should have been perfect for my show in many ways. "In C" is like a kind of mantra in favour of life and its manifestation. Still inspired by the '67 expo, where new ways of living were considered (meditation, drugs, macrobiotic cooking,..) this meant another modification of our perceptions within the time limitation of a music piece. "In C" has the advantage of being able to be repeated to express that all in all manifestation ("touttt é to bouttt" / everything is in everything). Musically it was inspired by La Monte Young's "House of Dreams", performed by musicians like Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Bob Ashley, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen ("Mantra" & "Stimmung"). With Pandit Pran Nath from Tibet La Monte Young and Terry Riley sang the "Ôm" pulsation, expressed trough "in C" in 53 motives. Express everything or "Express toutt" becomes the life impulse of a kind of locomotive of life calling "toutt-toutt-toutt", followed by 53 wagons. All motves, languages are reassembled and dissembled by one another, as a symbol of the eternal change, an omega of evolution. The goal through this piece was to get to that ever changing evolution pulse, transforming into a hymn to life. Life and its creation are celebrated through the forming of each cell and atom.

http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/infonie.html

get it here

Tattoo host vision on! -same, LP, 1980, UK

Another classic minimal synth/wave LP from 1980.Released by Ambergis label.Ada Wilson featured in the line up.

get it here

Deep Freeze Mice - My geraniums are bulletproof ,LP,UK,1979

Credits from MOLE 1 - photocopied sleeve

Sherree Lawrence Alan Jenkins Graham Summers With Erica Stock: gongs Mick: backing vocals The first side was recorded at Rainbow Sound Studios, Nottingham (Eight track), and was engineered by Andy -----. All of the songs were written arranged and produced by us. The second side was recorded at the Leicester Polytechnic, Scraptoft music studio, Sherree's bedroom and Alan's bedroom; (on a cassette recorder). We also wrote, arranged and produced that. The entire opperation cost about #500, and we had 250 copies pressed. Please buy them. We want the money back. Mike and Graham are also members of the Leeds band "the Statics" 'if its worth doing, it's worth overdoing' Anyone know why Andy Croft's surname was obliterated from the engineering credits? Other Information Two inserts: 1. Photocopied sheet on coloured paper with graphics and lyrics for Emile Zola, My Geraniums are bulletproof , & Minstrel Radio Yoghurt Song lyrics published by Mole Embalming Records copyright 1979 etc. Emile Zola also appears in "french". "I vote conservative" was written in early July 1977 incidentally. Moreover "Emile Zola" was written late 1975, both songs having been performed by the Rushden group "Pus". gosh. 2. Photocopied sheet on coloured paper with graphic

Credits from MOLE 1 - regular sleeve

All tracks written, arranged and produced by the Deep Freeze Mice. Sherree Lawrence: piano etc. Alan Jenkins: guitar, bass, clarinet Graham Summers: drums etc. Erica Stock: gongs Mick Bunnage: backing vocals Andy Terry: engineer Special thanks to the Statics (the best Leeds group you haven't heard of) for providing Mick and Graham; and also to the maniac who faded both sides of this record without permission. This was recorded at Rainbow Sound in Nottingham, Leicester Polytechnic music department, and various bedrooms. Songs published by Cherry Red Sleeve by the Deep Freeze Mice with additional material by Chris Chapman. Photographs by the Deep Freeze Mice and a machine on the station.

Do not pay more than #6,000,000 for this record unless the bloody tory government gets in again.

Chocolate Mousse Serves one (Quantities can be multiplied for more servings) Ingredients: 1 oz. plain chocolate 1 teaspoon milk or water 1 egg, separated 1) Melt the chocolate slowly with the milk or water in a basin over pan of hot (not boiling) water, stirring to blend 2) Remove from the heat and beat in the egg yolk 3) Whisk egg white until stiff and carefully fold into chocolate Pour into a small dish and leave to cool 'if its worth doing, it's worth overdoing'

I think that's enough (for today:))

get it here

Deep Freeze Mice - War, famine, death, pestilence, and miss Timberlake, LP,UK,1987

Tracks 17-27 are CD edition extras!

Credits
Alan Jenkins Sherree Lawrence Michael Bunnage Peter Gregory with Neil Stout: guest lead guitar on Fish in the air/birds in the sea, (and he also engineered it all)

All songs written by The Deep Freeze Mice and published by Octagonal Rabbit Music 1987. Front cover by Michael. Back cover illustration by Regale. The illustration above is a design for a new kind of pasta. Regale attempted to introduce it into Italy in 1938 but Mussolini was so angry that he had to flee the country with the design concealed in his nose. Regale later admitted that he did it with his left hand while he was unconcious during a surgical operation. (this was towards the end of his career as an anaesthetist). It was also used as the score for 'It's Snowing' (part three).

You want more?

get it here

Deep Freeze Mice-I love you litle BoBo with your delicate golden lions, 2LP, UK,1984

Side 1 (Orange)
Something else instead (3.29)
I love you little Bobo with your delicate golden lions (0.53)
Why do you squeak? (2.02)
Most people aren't fit to live part one (0.57)
Entropy of cubes (1.03)
Most people aren't fit to live part two (2.53)
Polanski's dog (2.47)
Twenty three exceptions (1.34)
O.P. 1 (0.20)
O.P. 2 (0.03)
Who's afraid of humans ? (4.39)
Side 2 (Yellow)
(24.55)
Side 3 (Lemon)
A trillion sprods (13.23)
a) The dalmation b ) Natural forces c) 186,000 endings per second (4.19)
Thunderbirds (3.32)
Side 4 (Cream)
This is terrible (3.24)
All through summer (2.53)
Zoology (2.25)
Whose afraid of humans? (reprise) (0.51)
Roget's thesaurus (3.27)
A motor throbbed above the rim of the brush (3.44)
A trillion sprods (version) (3.03)
Credits
Sherree Lawrence: organ, piano vocals Michael Bunnage: bass, lead guitar on 'Trillion Sprods (version)' Peter Gregory: drums Alan Jenkins: vocals guitar and also John Grayland: trumpet, euphonium, oric programs (OP1+OP2) Andrew Nicholls: Alto sax Paul Devlin: cello side two Mark Orphan: double bass side two Ricky Willson: engineering Neil Stout: engineering (side two) David Wells: editting

Recorded at Barkby Road and Neil's studio, Leicester, in between October 1983 and April 1984 (in about 8 days). Produced by the Mice and Ricky Willson All songs by the Deep Freeze Mice....... Published by Octagonal Rabbit Music 1984

Do i have to say more?????????/

get it here

V/A - A selection - 1981,LP ,Australia

Another M Squared records minimal synth/experimental compilation!Contributors,amongst others:Systematics, Limp,SPK(Solipsik),etc.Track list on the sleeve presented.

get it here

Cruciferius - A nice way of life,LP, 1970, France,(Zeuhl classic!)

A classic ZEUHL LP from 1970. Christian Vander (MAGMA) is on the line up...more infos will be appreciated!

get it here

Siegfried Kessler+Jean-Francois Pauvros - Phoenix 14 ,LP, 1978,France,NWW list!

Pauvros, "a well-known avant garde guitarist composer & performer. He met and plays since the early 70s with the most renown musicians (Ted Milton/Blurt, Arto Lindsay/DNA, Elliot Sharp/Carbon). Part of Catalogue with Jac Berrocal and Gilbert Artman (Lard Free & Urban Sax)Siegfried Kessler played with numerous artists and namely Yochk'o Seffer. Considered as one of the most brilliant pianists of his time, he recorded several albums. This is a magical record they've done together in 1978,absolute masterpiece!

get it here

Raymond Boni - Pot-pourri pour parce que , LP, 1977, France, (NWW list!)

Influenced by musicians as diverse as Django Reinhardt and Cecil Taylor, French guitarist Raymond Boni has developed a unique and dazzling style derived from gypsy technique. After studying the piano and switching to the harmonica, Raymond Boni learned how to play the guitar with Gypsies living near his home. This empirical experience would leave a permanent imprint on Boni's approach to the instrument. In the early '60s, still a teenager, he decided to go study in London. Surrounded by a very diverse and creative musical environment, Boni decided to get serious about the guitar and to break from the musical framework of musical academia. Back in France, he settled in Paris where he was among the first French musicians to embrace free jazz and free improvisation. His first major collaboration was a long-lived duo he formed with guitarist Gérard Marais in 1973. In 1976, he joined the André Jaume/Gérard Siracusa duo and worked with saxophonist Claude Bernard. The latter was also responsible for allowing Boni to fulfill his ambition to compose for and perform with dancers.
In 1978, he started a long relationship with Joe McPhee, which produced some stellar albums such as Old Eyes & Mysteries and Oleo & a Future Retrospective and a tour in the U.S. and Canada (1985). In 1981, Boni moved to Marseille where he was not able to perform as often as in Paris. As an alternative, he focused on writing and diversified his projects. In 1982, he met dancer and choreographer Geneviève Sorin and started to compose music for her company. Raymond Boni also continued to foster some old partnerships while developing new ones with accomplished artists such as Les Mistrals with British improvisers Terry Day and Max Eastley. In the '90s, the guitarist worked extensively with musicians from younger generations, most notably Claude Tchamitchian and Eric Echampard. Boni also multiplied collaborations with artists having a background other than jazz but a bent for improvisation. Another worthy project is Boni's Family with Sorin and son Bastien Boni, which honors his Gypsy legacy and capitalizes on his talented household. In 2001, Boni reunited with McPhee for an album, Voices & Dreams, and several concerts in the U.S. and Europe.

~ Alain Drouot, All Music Guide

Although Beni is the main performer the LP is credited to Claude Bernard .Strange?Any infos + pic sleeve scans will be appreciated.

Another NWW list gem!

get it here

Ragnar Grippe - Sand , LP,1977, France (NWW list!)

Born 1951 in a family with a singing mother and a radio producer father and a brother.
Since early childhood I’ve been told that I spent late evenings as an infant under a grand piano, thus consuming lots of lieder by Hugo Wolf and Franz Schubert. I would think that this type of immersion into music must some way alter the state of a person.
With this musical coating I was soon presented to the recorder, an instrument that was considered the entrance tool for music exploration. After some years I was given the possibility to play cello, and this instrument was my alternative to a football, even though I never considered football an alternative.
At age 14 I was presented with the possibility to register for the application to enroll as a student at the Royal Music Conservatory. Here is where personal decisions were obsolete, but who at age 14 would take the decision of an adult ? I didn’t, and this is where music suddenly became the object of timing or coincidence. Since I was 14 I had an advantage before the older applicants, undergoing the test exam to be admitted under the utmost stress, while the 14 year old didn’t know which school he was soon attending, and therefore didn’t have time to think about stress. The school didn’t represent anything.
College in Stockholm, at the same time Music Conservatory with cello, playing six stringed bass with a virtuoso guitar player, and finding the cello repertoire the subject of my wishes to transform. You don’t transform Beethoven. Therefore an unknown yet undescribed yearning for composition.
Come the end of college, and I had decided, I can’t become this soloist with an incredible musical future. I don’t know whether it’s reconstruction of the past or not, but I think that my inabilties to render the cello’s inherent qualities ”visible” to an audience was the reason why I didn’t continue.
I went to the south of France to study French and attend some classes at the Université d’Aix-Marseille in History of Architecture. My interests had been divided between diplomat, architect and composer at this time. After some thinking I realized that my ”bred in the bone” music was something that I would have years to spend in order to - if ever - to give as deep an unconscious knowledge of as in my music to for example architecture. So I realized I had a treasure that I had to manage. This is not boasting, because what I’m saying here is not whether my music is good or not, only that there was a ”knowledge” that was ready to be used. Whether it would be well used or not is nothing that I can discuss.
Stockholm University 1971, classes in Musicology. The term paper was to be written, and I had gotten my eyes on the Electronic Music Studio in Stockholm. Why? I had heard some records that were sent to my father, and thought that they were mostly awful. I thought, how can so much money be invested in something that awful!
After the months spent at the studio, under the auspices of former director Knut Wiggen, I learned to like the possibilities that must be inherent in this new medium, and I asked Wiggen where to study the music. His firm answer was; There is only one school, Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris. I applied for a grant, and was off as a cellist studying composition at Group de Recherches Musicales some months later.
Not understanding a word for months, listening to Pierre Schaeffer, morphologie de sons, testing working, trying the blends and mixes of sound, more and more entering a universe that is today a universe that has existed for some 25 years as a professional composer. When you’re new in a new world - that of music - everything’s very important in that world. Maybe that’s what charming, but also alarming. Charming because there is a open-mindedness and curiosity for all related philosophical and creative aspects, alarming because the focus is on the detail, not the function as in a holistic view. You can discuss the interval during a night and probably find 13 good reasons why the composer used it, but maybe you’ve been discussing the interval in a ”bad” piece of music. So in the end everybody’s tired, because you discussed an interval in a piece that nobody would listen to.....
France has good food and wonderful friends, Paris was in the 70’s a cultural center for arts before leaving for New York, Stockhausen, Renaud-Barrault, Centre Beaubourg known as Centre Pompidou, Paris was alive.
GRM had a first year test, some students were ousted, it was quick and without much time to think.
I had met with Luc Ferrari, worked in his studio ALM (Atelier for the Liberation of Music), and composed Situation I on the BIS label and the SAND composition on the Streamline label.
I firmly believe that lack of resources is the mother of invention, SAND was composed with two Revox tape decks, electronic organ, castanets and an electric guitar. Composed to the paintings by Viswanadhan, Indian-born painter living in Paris since 1971. I met with Uno Svensson, Swedish artist now residing in Nice, France, and composed music for his major show in Stockholm 1974 at the Royal Fine Arts Academy, at Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris and in the Malmöe Konsthall in Sweden. Art critics were stupefied by the strength and violence of Svensson’s paintings picturing tube babies born in factories and painted in 1972 - 74, a long time before in vitro and other cloning aspects were even discussed. This with an alarming music with human voices transposed and processed gave the audience one of the first big exhibitions with sound in Sweden.
Ballet came across since I met through Ferrari with the American choreographer Carolyn Carlson, hailed superstar at the Paris Opera. She used the piece Situation I for a solo ballet with the late Paolo Bortoluzzi, for a long time hailed solo dancer with Maurice Béjart, and later continuing with a solo career. Carlson’s piece was entitled ”SPAR”, and was premiered at Espace Cardin, the designer Pierre Cardin’s theater close to Place de la Concorde in Paris.
One year later Bortoluzzi commissioned a piece for La Scala’s Milan bicentennial, with stage design by Beni Montresor.
My attitude was that instrumental music had a tough time to get performed, I wanted to use as much energy to compose electronic or electro-acoustic music, in order to establish myself as a composer. Through the ballets, later film music since 1979 and radio play in France and Sweden, I got an audience and was in a state of dream, since I had the opportunity to do what I liked most, compose and get paid. Only it did take me a long time to understand that this money was what other people would consider their salary. I’m a slow learner.
In 1975 I left Paris for Montreal, studying electronic music at McGill University. I was offered a Ph.D. grant, but thought at that time that I had studied some 10 years since entering the Conservatory in Stockholm, and I chose at that time to opt for a career as a freelancer. Maybe this is/was my first conscious decision about my music career.
Montreal was a place where I felt at home, it’s very similar in size to Stockholm, my native city, I met composers with different philosophical departures than their European counterparts, life is wonderful when there are so many different approaches, Buckminster Fuller, domes and a wireless society were discussed in 1975. Who said artists are ahead of their time ?
I left Montreal after some 5 months.
San Francisco in spring 1976. A friend goes to the wrong bar after arriving from Paris, gets teeth knocked out his second night in SF I locked my doors to the Dodge when I drove in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood where I stayed one month. Ran to the gate after having circled the block for some 10 - 20 minutes every night in order to avoid any hustlers in the dark. I must have looked stupid. Gave some lectures at UCSD, San Jose State University and other places, played music at KPFK in Berkeley, longed back to University looking at the campuses, got a question from one of the students after one concert at UCSD if it was a religious ceremony. The students had been lying in a dark room on cushions while listening. I said "sure".
Paris in 1976, commission after return to Paris from Groupe de Recherches Musicales. Work with Swedish painter Uno Svensson on a multimedia project ”The Human Confetti”, with music from three compositions; Sine Qua Non II, Situation I and Anagram, shown in the Modern Art Museum in Malmö.
Ballet at the Royal Opera in Stockholm with Oscar Araiz, former Joffrey Ballet choreographer. Short time in Amsterdam, work with a piece in the Utrecht studio, old time feeling, big rooms with big electronic gear like from a futuristic movie from the 40’s or 50’s. Name of piece: ”Where are they” Voices from a woman and a child, always gives me some somber mood listening to it.
Stockholm, movies in the end of the 70’s, my first feature movie, fascinating and a new world opened up. Many films followed after that in the 80’s.
Composed in the 80’s more ballets, performed in Paris in Stockholm with the Cullberg Company worked at IRCAM (l’Institut de Recherche et de Coordination
Acoustique/Musique) at Luciano Berio’s department for Electroacoustic Music. I worked with problems around virtual sound sources, inspired from the beginning by the Aphex Aural Exciter.
Worked with late artist Ron Hays, Los Angeles on a video for Swedish Television, short movies got their music from my hand etc.
In the 80’s my music started 1980 with ”Orchestra”, possibly the first electroacoustic work using 24 tracks in Sweden. The studio I worked in in Stockholm was EMS (Elektronmusikstudion), the one where my interest had started for this type of music. But in the beginning of the 80’s I also bought a Synclavier, a system that enabled me to work from home and then bring the system to the studio for the final mix. Music since 1981 has been composed to a large extent with the Synclavier as sound source, while prior to that the ”Buchla” Synthesizer was the mother to most sounds.
1986 I composed ”The Room” with words by Mark Strand, and sung by Kerstin Johnson-Ståhl. 1985 saw a composition entitled ”Conversation”, composed after a visit to a 40th memorial in Hiroshima of the atomic bomb.
Music for TV, jingles in France and Sweden, records with BIS, CRI and EMI, radio programs from Paris about music.
1987 commission by Swedish radio to compose a ”radio opera” with author Stig Larsson writing the libretto. Swedish Radio Orchestra and Choir blended with electronic sounds in the other parts of this 50 minute composition with four soloists.
1990 I compose ”Musique Pour Orgue” an instrumental piece for the organ player Gunnar Idenstam. Now instrumental music takes over in interest, different notation programs start coming out on the market, one less brilliant than the other. Composition becomes somewhat formed after the limitations of the program. But the Hammerklavier did also form the music.
Piano duo 1993 for Swedish duo Kristine Scholtz/Mats Persson, Piano Concerto for swedish pianist Roland Pöntinen 1993, septett in 1996, first performed during the Gotland Chamber Music Festival on the island Gotland on the east coast of Sweden.
The electronic music also got its share during these years, with l’Arbre Egayé 1991, Suspended Choirs 1993, Le Mécanicien Effrené 1994, l’Archer Coupe l’Air en Deux 1994, La Chambre d’un Rêve 1995, Shifting Spirits 1996.
In 1994 I started with the music that eventually became ”Requiem” with soprano Madeleine Kristoffersson.
Requiem was a new start towards a new blend of music, combining the sound of pop music with the operatic voice. Released on BIS in 1996, it was performed and much talked about in many countries.
The last couple of years have seen the New Year’s music for the city of Stockholm performed at midnight on 1997,1998 and 1999/2000.
Current projects include a new recording with soprano Madeleine Kristoffersson, instrumental music, electronic and in the background an ever tempting opera idea.

(Ragnar Grippe about himself!)
http://www.anarchicharmony.com/ragnar/

One of the best items in NWW list!

get it here

Polyphony - Without introduction,LP,1971,USA

Polyphony’s "Without Introduction" is renowned for being a highly-collectable and listenable album of psych/prog jams reminiscent of some of the British or Italian psych monsters from the early ‘70s. Released in 1971 on the Eleventh Hours label (Eleventh Hour 1003), this hard progressive rock outfit from Virginia features some stunning guitar and keyboard work, as well as a percussionist at home on congas, timbales and just about everything hittable. The band is definitely influenced by early UK exponents of prog including Keith Emerson, Steve Howe and Peter Gabriel. The stunning original artwork lends itself perfectly to the album’s inspired music.

A rare and obscure gem !

get it here

Music Improvisation Company-same(1968-1971), LP, UK,1971,(NWW list!)

Saxophonist Evan Parker and guitarist Derek Bailey met while both played with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble in the late '60s. In 1968 they combined with percussionist Jamie Muir and keyboardist Hugh Davies to form the Music Improvisation Company, one of England's seminal free improvisation units. Although the musicians were conversant in jazz styles, the music made by the MIC was essentially and intentionally non-idiomatic, drawing upon any and all elements of musical thought and given voice in the moment. The resulting music was dissonant, discontinuous, and ultimately in the vanguard of improvised music. With drummer Tony Oxley, Parker and Bailey formed Incus Records in 1970. The label documented MIC's music on the album Music Improvisation Company 1968-1971; the title reflects the group's brief lifespan. However, in 1976 Bailey formed Company, a similar enterprise with rotating personnel that has included a plethora of creative musicians from around the world. Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Fred Frith, and Bill Laswell are just a few of the many and varied musicians to participate. In 1977 the ensemble held the first of its "Company Weeks," a week-long festival of improvised music featuring different guest musicians every night. The festival became an annual event.
Derek Bailey: Electric Guitar

Evan Parker: Soprano Saxophone

Hugh Davies: Live Electronics

Jamie Muir: Percussion

Christine Jeffrey: Voice


August 25, 26, 27, 1970 , Merstham Studios, London Date of Release Aug 25, 1970+Aug 27, 1970 (recording)

Another masterpiece from the NWW list!

get it here

Michel Portal - Our meanings and our feelings, LP, 1969,France, (NWW list!)

Born in 1935 in Bayonne, France, reedman Michel Portal has the unique position of being one of the architects of modern European jazz and having a hand in some of the most significant shifts in modern classical music. Portal, along with pianist Francois Tusques, trumpeter Bernard Vitet, drummer Charles Saudrais and tenorman Barney Wilen, embraced and expanded upon the innovations of Ornette, Cecil, Coltrane and Shepp as part of the nascent French free jazz movement. In addition to leading and co-leading groups with Leon Francioli, Pierre Favre, Joachim Kuhn and Barre Phillips throughout the '70s, Portal was a central figure in post-Cageian open-form classical music. With trombonist-composer Vinko Globokar, pianist-composer Carlos Roque Alsina and percussionist Jean-Pierre Drouet, Portal and New Phonic Art worked with Stockhausen, Maruicio Kagel and Luciano Berio among others - figuring importantly in Stockhausen's From the Seven Days compositional cycle.

Another rare gem from the NWW list!

get it here

A kind request

Please when writing comments about a record mention for which one you are reffering to.It's very hard for me to answer to all since when i moderate them i cannot see in which post they reffer to.If your comment is a general one ,there's no need to mention the post.
Thank you very much
mutantsounds

Richard Pinhas :L' ethique, LP, 1982, France (NWW list!)

Richard Pinhas is internationally recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians: the "father" of French electronic music. He was the founder of Heldon, a band whose violent fusion of electronics and guitar in the '70s rivaled the German electronic school. As a guitar player he has been compared to Robert Fripp. Cited as an influence by many electronic musicians, Richard Pinhas has helped to define the Spacemusic genre. Since founding the seminal spacerock band Heldon in 1974, Pinhas has released over 15 albums, had involvement in dozens more and shaped the way we listen to music today.
At one time a professor of philosophy at The Sorbonne, Pinhas left academia to found Heldon and pursue music full-on. Influenced by the political climate, science fiction literature and the ambient music of Fripp & Eno, Pinhas' music is "specifically emotional yet tinged with theory. He has developed an attitude towards music that goes far beyond the sounds one actually hears to an almost mystical conceptualization of the meaning behind the sounds."

Many Pinhas/Heldon LPs coming soon!

get it here

Malfatti & Wittwer - Thumblin, LP, 1976, Germany, (NWW list!/FMP label)

Another gem of extrordinary music improvisations from the NWW list.Maybe someone who can provide their 1978 LP " UND?"??

get it here

Hero-same, LP, 1974, Italy(realesed in Germany)(NWW list!)

Robert Deller (keyboards, vocals)
Massimo Pravato (guitar, bass)
Umberto Maschio (drums)

Guitarist Massimo Pravato, from near Venice, had played since the late 60's in various groups in the Padova area, The Bart's Group and I Delfini. Around 1970 he joined a group from Udine, Upupa, that included the english born keyboardist Robert Deller, and he played with them for a couple of years, until the two of them split and formed a trio with drummer Umberto Maschio, also from Padova.
The yet unnamed group moved to Germany, having a residency in a Munich club thanks to Deller's father, and they recorded their album in 1972 having had a contact with the Poliband music group (that was specialised in children music) that owned the Pan label. Despite the death of Massimo Pravato in a car accident in 1973, the album was released a year later, but went largely ignored.
A nice album by a little known group, the LP was only released in Germany, but unlike the Atlantide album Francesco ti ricordi, it's very hard to find even from german dealers.
Hero is a very long album, over 46 minutes, and contains nine songs in the 4-5 minute range, with the only exceptions of the 9-minute Clapping and smiling and the 7-minute long Dew-drops, in a rural hard prog style with english lyrics, well sung by Deller. The sound is not particularly original but a very pleasant listen overall.
An Umberto Maschio playing percussion with guitarist Jacopo Gianninoto from Vicenza is Hero's drummer's son.
http://www.italianprog.com/a_hero.htm

Excellent one-off progressive rock LP from this Italian band, released in 1974. Hero took a more song-oriented approach than many Italian bands of the period, with clever arrangements and a tasteful minimum of noodling, their overall sound being similar to Van der Graaf Generator.
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/01/adventures_in_t_1.html

Very rare and very nice gem from the NWW list!

get it here

Doo-Dooettes - Think Space (1975),LP,USA (NWW list!,LAFMS)

Great release from Los Angeles Free Music Society weirdos Doo-Dooettes, related with Airway, Le Forte Four, the Residents, Half Japanese, John Duncan, Boyd Rice. "Group improvisations intended to accompany a film on the Viking space probe in 1975. Includes the original Doo-Dooettes lineup; Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Fredrik Nilsen, Tom Recchion, Harold Schroeder.." "The unearthing of the LAFMS recordings is experimental rock history at its most historical and hysterical -- a completely bizarro and further-out counterpart to the LA punk scene." -- Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth.

Note that "Think Space " project was unreleased till now that Cortical Foundation released it on cd version acompanied by a 7" with recordings from 1977(not included here).

get it here

Bron Area - The trees and the villages, LP,UK, 1983

Following my previous post here's the LP by Bron Area realised in 1983 by Glass label.Great LP!

get it here

Happy Refugees - Last chance saloon ,LP, UK, 1984

Totally unknown,and very rare(yet not that expensive when it comes up) DIY /post punk LP ,by this fantastic group released through Gymnasium records in 1984.Further releases a 7" (Warehouse sound) on the same label.Another obscure gem!

get it here

Deep Freeze Mice - Hang on constance let me hear the news, LP, UK, 1985

Here we start with a 1985 release of the marvelous, exciting,fantastic,....DEEP FREEZE MICE.....and since 2 of their best LPs were recently posted to Lost In Time blog ...i start their discography postage backwards:). More to follow!

The Deep Freeze Mice made ten albums in between 1979 and 1989, all with the same line up except that they changed drummers once. On these first three"My Geraniums are Bulletproof", "Teenage Head in My Refrigerator" and "The Gates of Lunch", they were Alan Jenkins - guitar and singing, Sherree Lawrence - keyboards, Mick Bunnage - bass guitar and Graham Summers - drums. Graham played on a few tracks on this one"Saw a Ranch House Burning Last Night", but then Pete Gregory took over the percussion department. The next two albums were"I Love You Little Bo Bo with your Delicate Golden Lions" (a double L.P.) and "Hang on Constance Let Me Hear the News". These were probably the two best ones. The next one was recorded live in Switzerland in 1985Next one, "Rain is when the Earth is Television", is a compilation of various unreleased tracks. It has now been dismantled and the tracks have been restored to their appropriate chronological places as extra tracks on the CD releases of all the other Deep Freeze MIce L.P.s"War, Famine, Death, Pestilence and Miss Timberlake" was released in 1987 and the last one, "The Tender Yellow Ponies of Insomnia" was released in 1989. Alan had already formed The Chrysanthemums just after "Timberlake" was recorded, and after the last Deep Freeze Mice album he also helped put together Ruth's Refrigerator. After that he played in The Creams for most of the 90's and now plays in The Thurston Lava Tube. Sherree got married, moved away and raises children and cats. Mick works for Loaded magazine in London. Pete still plays drums in bands such as Evil Dick and the Banned Members (although I think he just left them).

by Alan Jenkins

visit the Cordelia records website for more!

get it here

Hans-a-Plast-same ,LP, 1979 ,Germany

Great German punk from 1979 in X ray Spex vein.Female/male vocals,saxophone....marvellous!Released in 1979 on LAVA label and re-released later on No Fun label.

get it here

V/A:The Thing From The Crypt, LP, 1981, UK

Perhaps, IMHO, the best (together with Welcome To Norwich LP) and most essential diy synth, new wave, post punk UK compilation ever, fantastic groups and amazing tracks included!First appearence by SAD LOVERS & GIANTS with "Take me inside" (only available in this compilation!) and "Clint" (first demo-like version, not available anywhere else!).Two tracks are included by each group present and there are some great ones like GAMBIT OF SHAME, EXHIBIT A, MEX, S-HATERS, SOFT DRINKS. Top stuff!!!

Track listing

Side One

1. EXHIBIT A - Rain

2. SAD LOVERS & GIANTS - Take Me Inside

3. MEX - Evil Creature

4. GAMBIT OF SHAME - Dancing With The Turks

5. FLYING BEECHCRAFT - Bugger Off

6. IMAGE IN RUIN - Tank

7. SOFT DRINKS - Squash

8. S-HATERS - Necromancer

Side Two

1. SOFT DRINKS - Pepsi Cola

2. FLYING BEECHCRAFT - Frog Girl

3. IMAGE IN RUIN - Bottle

4. S-HATERS - Canal

5. EXHIBIT A - Echoes

6. SAD LOVERS & GIANTS - Clint

7. MEX - Functioning Fripp Girls

8. GAMBIT OF SHAME - She Lawn

get it here

Basil Kirchin-Worlds within worlds, LP, 1974,UK, (NWW list!)

Experimental composer Basil Kirchin was born in Great Britain in 1927. He made his professional debut in December 1941 at London's Paramount, playing drums in his father Ivor's jazz band, and remained a fixture of the group throughout the remainder of World War II, playing 14 shows per week. After the war ended, Kirchin joined Harry Roy's newly-formed New 1946 Orchestra (one of the first true British big bands) as a featured soloist, gaining national exposure via the band's regular appearances on BBC radio. As the decade drew to a close, Kirchin signed on with the Ted Heath Big Band, at the time arguably the most popular big band in all of Europe -- in 1952 he returned to London to form his own group, installing his father as co-leader and recruiting trumpeters Tony Grant, Stan Palmer, Bobby Orr, and Norman Baron; saxophonists Ronnie Baker, Duncan Lamont, Pete Warner, John Xerri and Alex Leslie, pianist Harry South, bassist Ronnie Seabrook, vocalist Johnny Grant, and arranger John Clarke. The Kirchin band made its debut on September 8 with a year-long residency at the Edinburgh Fountainbridge Palais, followed in November 1953 by an engagement at the Belfast Plaza Ballroom that extended into the spring of 1954. At the same time, the group also backed singer Ruby Murray during a 13-week series for Radio Luxembourg.
In mid-1954 Ivor Kirchin was critically injured in an auto accident, and Basil attempted to lead the band on his own -- without a head for business, however, he struggled to keep the operation afloat before ultimately dissolving the lineup. Once Ivor recovered he returned to work, and with the formation of the New Kirchin Band -- a unit featuring four trumpeters, four saxophonists and three percussionists -- their sound veered away from traditional big band jazz to a more rhythmic, brassy approach that proved extremely popular with listeners, and after just ten months in existence, they placed fourth in a -Melody Maker reader poll of Britain's most popular groups. After recording four singles and an EP for Decca, the Kirchin Band signed to Parlophone, where they collaborated with future Beatles' producer George Martin -- moreover, they were the first band to travel with their own P.A. system, and Basil obsessively recorded each live performance and rehearsal session, including now-legendary dates backing Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan. However, he felt increasingly confined by the limitations of the big band model, and at the peak of the Kirchin Band's fame, announced its dissolution in 1957, spending the next few years traveling the globe, including extended stays in India and the U.S.
After arriving in Sydney for what would amount to a two-year stay in Australia, Kirchin left his luggage -- including nine hand-compiled 7" tapes containing only the absolute highlights of the Kirchin Band's five-year run -- aboard his ship. Days later he received an apologetic phone call from the docks: In the process of removing the cargo from the ship, his luggage fell into the sea, and everything was destroyed -- in effect, his life's work was lost, with only their studio sessions to document the group's music. Although Kirchin finally returned to Britain in the spring of 1961, he abandoned traditional jazz forever, instead working with engineer Keith Herd on a series of electronic compositions written for imaginary films -- from there, he was commissioned to score a number of actual films, television programs, documentaries, and theatrical productions. In 1964, Kirchin began pursuing an approach he dubbed World Within Worlds -- essentially, he began combining traditional instruments with wildlife sounds and the amplified noise of insects, painstakingly editing and manipulating the results to create beautiful yet utterly alien soundscapes that clearly anticipated the subsequent ambient experiments of Brian Eno, as well as a generation of electronic artists like Aphex Twin. Not until the Swiss tape recording manufacturing firm Nagra issued their next-generation tape machines and microphones in 1967 was Kirchin able to acquire the technology necessary to fully realize his vision -- his source material grew more and more obscure, and his tape manipulations grew more and more extreme with each new project, discovering new "inner sounds" virtually inaudible at standard playback speeds.
While earning an income from soundtrack projects including 1967's The Shuttered Room, 1968's The Strange Affair, and 1971's The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Kirchin continued honing the World Within Worlds' aesthetic, finally releasing an LP under that name in 1971 -- a sequel followed two years later, this time featuring liner notes written by the aforementioned Eno. However, record company meddling and politics victimized both records, and a disillusioned Kirchin accepted more film and TV work in order to continue funding the equipment needed to further his more personal projects. Sadly, no new material was forthcoming for decades, and only in 2003 was Quantum -- a work fusing live performances from Evan Parker, Darryl Runswick, Kenny Wheeler, and Graham Lyons with ambient field recordings and the voices of autistic children -- finally issued on the Trunk label. The two-fer Charcoal Sketches/States of Mind -- the latter composed in 1968 for a psychiatric conference -- soon followed.
Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,453692,00.html#bio

get it here

La Monte Young-The Black Record, LP, 1969, USA (NWW list!)

La Monte Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, commonly seen as the first minimalist composer and one of the four most celebrated leaders of the minimalist school, along with Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley, despite having little in common formally with Glass and Reich.
His works have been included among the most important and radical post World War II avant-garde, experimental, or drone music. Both his proto-Fluxus and "minimal" compositions question the nature and definition of music, and often stress elements of performance

Life

Born to a Mormon family in Bern, Idaho, his family moved several times in his childhood while his father searched for work before settling in Los Angeles, California. He studied at Los Angeles City College, and came out ahead of Eric Dolphy in a saxophone audition for the school's jazz band. In LA's jazz milieu, he also played alongside notable musicians like Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry and Billy Higgins.
He undertook further studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), then at the University of California, Berkeley. then the summer courses at Darmstadt under Karlheinz Stockhausen and finally electronic music with Richard Maxfield. Over this period he concentrated on composition, influenced by Anton Webern, Gregorian chant, and various music of other cultures — including Indian classical music and Indonesian gamelan music.
A number of Young's early works use the twelve tone technique, which he studied under Leonard Stein at UCLA. (Stein had served as an assistant to Arnold Schoenberg when Schoenberg, the inventor of the twelve-tone method, had taught at UCLA.) When Young visited Darmstadt he encountered the music and writings of John Cage. There he also met Cage's collaborator, pianist David Tudor, subsequently gave premiers of some of Young's works. At Tudor's suggestion, Young engaged in a correspondence with Cage. Within a few months Young was presenting some of Cage's music on the West Coast; in turn Cage and Tudor included some of Young's works in performances throughout the U.S. and Europe. By this time Young had taken a turn toward the conceptual, using principles of indeterminacy in his compositions and incorporating non-traditional sounds, noises, and actions.
When Young moved to New York in 1960, he had already established a reputation as an enfant terrible of the avant garde. He initially developed an artistic relationship with Fluxus founder George Maciunas (with whom he published a text titled An Anthology) and other members of the nascent movement. Yoko Ono, for example, hosted a series of concerts curated by Young at her loft, and absorbed, it seems, his often parodistic and politically charged aesthetic. Young's works of the time, scored as short haiku-like texts, though conceptual and extreme, were not meant to be merely provocative but, rather, dream-like.
His Compositions 1960 includes a number of unusual actions; some of them are unperformable, but each deliberatively examines a certain presupposition about the nature of music and art and carries ideas to an extreme. One instructs: "draw a straight line and follow it" (a directive which he has said has guided his life and work since). Another instructs the performer to build a fire. Another states that "this piece is a little whirlpool out in the middle of the ocean." Another says the performer should release a butterfly into the room. Yet another challenges the performer to push a piano through a wall. Composition 1960 #7 proved especially pertinent to his future endeavors: it consisted of a B, an F#, a perfect fifth, and the instruction: "To be held for a long time."
In 1962 Young wrote The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer. One of The Four Dreams of China, the piece is based on four pitches, which he later gave as the frequency ratios: 36-35-32-24 (G, C, +C#, D), and limits as to which may be combined with any other. Most of his pieces after this point are based on select pitches, played continuously, and a group of long held pitches to be improvised upon. For The Four Dreams of China Young began to plan the "Dream House", a light and sound installation where musicians would live and create music twenty-four hours a day. He formed The Theater of Eternal Music to realize "Dream House" and other pieces. The group initially included Marian Zazeela (who has provided the light work The Ornamental Lightyears Tracery for all performances since 1965), Angus MacLise, and Billy Name. In 1964 the ensemble contained Young and Zazeela, voices — Tony Conrad (a former Mathematics major at Havard) — John Cale strings — and sometimes Terry Riley, voice. Since 1966 the group has seen many permutations and has included, at various times, Garrett List, Jon Hassell, Alex Dea, and many others, including members of the 60s groups. Young has realized the "Theater of Eternal Music" only intermittently, due to a lack of funding for such an expensive project, requiring extensive and exceptional demands of time in rehearsal and mounting.
Most realizations of the piece have long titles, such as The Tortoise Recalling the Drone of the Holy Numbers as they were Revealed in the Dreams of the Whirlwind and the Obsidian Gong, Illuminated by the Sawmill, the Green Sawtooth Ocelot and the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer. His works, too are often of extreme length, conceived by Young as having no beginning and no end, existing before and after any particular performance. In practical terms, too, Young and Zazeela are also on an extended sleeping-waking schedule – with "days" longer than twenty-four hours.
Beginning in 1970 interests in Asian classical music and a wish to be able to find the intervals he used by ear led to studies with Pandit Pran Nath. Fellow students included calligrapher and light artist Marian Zazeela; composers Terry Riley and Yoshi Wada; philosophers Henry Flynt and C.C. Hennix, and many more.
Young considers The Well Tuned Piano — a permutating composition of themes and improvisations for just-intuned solo piano — to be his masterpiece. Performances have exceeded six hours in length, and so far have been documented twice: first on a five-CD set issued by Grammavision, then on a DVD by Young's own Just Dreams label (a later performance). One of the defining works of American musical minimalism, it is strongly influenced by mathematical composition as well as Hindustani classical music practice.
Together Young and Zazeela have realized a long series of semi-permanent "Dream Houses" — combining Young's just-intuned sine waves in elaborate, symmetrical configurations and Zazeela's quasi-calligraphic light sculptures — in long-term installations. The effect is highly modernistic and deeply sensual, utilizing aspects of the viewer/auditor's perception to create an extraordinarily refined sensory overload, within a physical space which is barely defined. Like his work of the 60s and 70s, when he was at his most playful, his installations with Zazeela remain alarmingly psychedelic.
Influence

La Monte Young's use of long tones and exceptionally high volume has been extremely influential — notably on John Cale's contribution to The Velvet Underground's sound — and with Young's associates: Tony Conrad, Jon Hassell, Rhys Chatham, Michael Harrison, Henry Flynt, Charles Curtis (musician), and Catherine Christer Hennix. Young's students also include Arnold Dreyblatt and Daniel James Wolf.
The album Dreamweapon: An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music by the band Spacemen 3 is influenced by La Monte Young's concept of "Dream Music," evidenced by their inclusion of his notes on the jacket.
Lou Reed mentions (and misspells) La Monte Young's name on the cover of his album Metal Machine Music: "Drone cognizance and harmonic possibilities vis a vis Lamont Young's Dream Music"
Drone rock pioneer Dylan Carlson has stated Young's work as being a major influence to him.
The Fall included a song called High Tension Line on their album Shift-Work. The chorus line is "High Tension Line - Step Down".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Monte_Young

Aproach with respect!

get it here

RADIOMÖBEL - Gudang garam + Tramseböx ,1975/8, Sweden

First released as a private press in 1978, this is a classic slice of Swedish, keyboard driven prog with a very DIY production. Almost symphonic in its execution and performance, and with great swathes of classic synth and guitar work, the overall sound is reminiscent of bands like Camel, or Van Der Graaf Generator in their more contemplative moments. An excellent hidden slice of undiscovered prog taking the musical journey to it’s highlight in the 15 minute "Flugornas morgon".This is their 2nd LP.

get it here

Their first LP is available here too ,thanks to the rapid response of Mr. Musicgnome!

get Tramsebox here

If Then Else-Warhead , LP, 1981, USA

The Weirdos were part of the original wave of American punk rock from Los Angeles in the late 70s. They were DIY to the bone and not afraid to experiment with ideas of how things were supposed to be done. While purely inspired by the punk rock of London (and NYC), they did not choose to merely follow that path for their whole existence. If Then Else was the short-lived experimental side project of John and Dix Denney, the brothers who founded the Weirdos and boy is it ever a wild departure.
Much like the Residents or Einsturzende Neubauten or music concrete, their's was not a music of instruments as much as it was of sounds. Washing machine percussion loops, tape slices, dying synths, and feedback. And it seems they had an agenda as well. The LP artwork is a chaotic black and white collage of weaponry, corporation, and slices of modern life reassembled as Wheres Waldo's nightmare. Song titles like Hey Big Oil, Warhead, and Destruction makes it sound like they weren't all that please with some things going on in the world. The LP,Warhead, was put out by Contagion Records in 1981 and the name of the band, If-Then-Else, hints to the dystopian robotic future philosophy where emotion is stripped out and we only follow computer logic!

Another crown jewel of minimal electronics,yet avantgardish early 80s scene!

get it here

S.Y.P.H - PST!,LP, 1980, Germany

German band somewhere between Punk, Avantgarde and Neue Deutsche Welle. Founded 1977 by Harry Rag (Peter Braatz), Uwe Jahnke and Thomas Schwebel in Solingen/Germany. Thomas Schwebel hit upon the idea of naming the band "Syph" because it's a dirty name. Harry Rag added the periods to make it look like an acronym and confuse people. S.Y.P.H. was then translated into "Saufender Yankee Prügelt Homo" (Drinking yankee beats queer). After 1986 it stood for "Save Your Pretty Heart" When Schwebel said goodbye to play with Mittagspause, the band was joined by Uli Putsch and Jürgen Wolter. This new formation stayed - more or less - stable until 1981, but had many changing guest musicians, including Holger Czukay from Can. In return S.Y.P.H. played with Czukay on his LP On The Way To The Peak Of Normal. Uwe Jahnke also appears on the Wobble/Liebezeit/Czukay EP "How Much Are They?". The band paused in 2003 and is now active again.
http://rock.discogs.com/artist/S.Y.P.H.

This is their 2nd LP,produced by Holger Czukay,released on Pure Freude label.Excellent !

get it here

Reifenstahl - Die Wunderwaffe , LP, 1981, Germany

Gerd Gaida and Matthias Rapp pose as a duo on the cover (a typical NDW approach), and play all instruments on the record, though additional members of Croox sound as if they may well be involved on some tracks. After all, like jazz players, it was not uncommon for members to drift in and out of various groups during the highly versatile post-punk era, especially in the experimental Düsseldorf scene, circa 1980. Reifenstahl's Die Wunderwaffe LP was the sixth release on Ink Records, 1981. Their Residents inspired chaos can be heard on these this LP.

From Mein Walkman Ist Kaputt blog post in May 2006.

get it here

Conrad Schnitzler-R0t(1973) + Gelb (1974 /1981), LPs, Germany (NWW list!....)

Without him industrial scene would never existed!

Rot:private pressing KS 1002 (1973)LP circulation 500 copies

Gelb:Edition Block EB 110 (1981)LP circulation 500 copies re-issue of The Black Cassette, 1974

Conrad Schnitzler has been an institution in the German electronic music scene for thirty years. He studied with Joseph Beuys in the mid 1960’s, and in the late sixties joined the then fledgling German rock band Tangerine Dream. He added a bizarre, conceptual approach to Tangerine Dream that catapulted the band to legendary status, documented on the bands first album “Electronic Meditation”. Schitzler left after that first album, forming with his friends Moebius and Roedelius the band Kluster. Kluster recorded and released three albums before Schnitzler again left, this time to pursue his own work under his own name. Kluster continued with just Roedelius and Moebius under the name Cluster. Since the demise of Kluster, Schnitzler has released dozens of albums, cassettes and CDs, both on his own and on various labels around the world. For a complete history and discography of Schnitzler, please refer to the excellent book on Schnitzler, titled “Con-sequence”, written by Rolf Sonnemann and Peter Stöferle, available from: Rolf Sonnemann, Kaspar- Bitter-Str. 6, 38685 Langelsheim, Germany

http://www.empty.de/Schnitzler.htm

For discography go:http://www.the-edge.ws/schnitzler/index.htm

get it here

After a mail from Fire Museum records i had to remove Alan Sondheim post...sorry for this but i had to respect this demand.If you want it you can buy the CD reissue straight from Fire Museum records for 10$.
http://www.museumfire.com/

Mixed Band Philanthropist - The Impossible Humane, LP, 1986, Germany

This long gestating LP (three years) is the work of the Rupenus brothers (New Blockaders), a 30 minute sound collage using tape sound sources from most of the active tape traders in the experimental "scene" of the time. Pretty hard to identify the Organum contribution.

Submitted raw sound material specifically for this projest by:

A.O.T. + Bird Cage Walk + Andrew Chalk + Dada Duo + Manon + The New Blockaders + Nihilist Assault Group + Noise Perverts + Nurse With Wound + Organum + Penis Art + Sperm Culture + Verdenskang (UK) + Etant Donnes (France) + Mieses Gegonge + H.N.A.S. + P16.D4 + Lorelei N.Schmidt + SBOTHI + Asmus Tietchens (Germany) + Orchestra of the Obvious + Vortex Campaign (Belgium) + Vittore Baroni + Giancarlo Toniutti (Italy) + Dan Froberg (Sweden) + Architects Office + Peter Catham + Controlled Bleeding + Mystery Hearsay + Tom Recchion + Smegma (USA) + The Haters (Canada) + Merzbow (Japan) .

The LP was limited to 300 copies in hand painted sleeves and was released through Selection label.

get it here

Cosmic Eye - Dream Sequence, LP, UK, 1972

Prog? Jazz? Avant-Garde? Lotta sitar, tabla, violin. From what I can glean from the net, this is a crew of British jazz musicians from the early 70's taking a stab at psychedelia and doing a damn good job of it.

get it here

Bombay Ducks-Dance Music, LP, 1981, UK,United Dairies Label(aka NWW!)

Actually NWW project here (Paul Hamilton & Joseph Duarte).A bit more "popish"(!?) /Jazzish NWW....Danielle Dax (Lemon Kittens) made the cover design and appears in some tracks. Other NWW "commercial " projects were Experiments with Ice and Shiny Men(soon to appear here).Realised of course through United Dairies label (UD05).

get it here

Between-And the waters opened, LP ,1973, Germany

An unusual and unique group, the German group Between was the brainchild of musical theorist and experimentalist Peter Michael Hamel. As such, Between drew together a wide range of international musicians into a musical and cultural melting pot. And The Waters Opened with its atmospheric dronings is probably Between's most innovative and fascinating, it's an album that oozes beauty and mystery. Haunting and evocative, it's almost chilling!

get it here

Algebra Suicide - The secret like crazy, LP, 1987, USA

(original cover)

(cd re-issue cover)

ALGEBRA SUICIDE DISCOGRAPHY

Algebra Suicide EP7 (Buzzerama) 1982

An Explanation for That Flock of Crows EP (Buzzerama) 1984

Big Skin [tape] (Cause & Effect) 1986 (Buzzerama) 1988

The Secret Like Crazy (RRR/DOM) 1987 (RRR/Cargo America) 1992

Real Numbers (Ger. Pursuit of Market Share) 1989

Alpha Cue (Bel. Body) 1990

Swoon (Widely Distributed) 1991

Tongue Wrestling (Widely Distributed) 1994

LYDIA TOMKIWIncorporated (Widely Distributed) 1995

Of the many vocalist/instrumentalist duos to emerge in and around the new wave, this Chicago team was quite unique, a fascinating marriage of Don Hedeker's music and Lydia Tomkiw's poetry. Over the course of its career, Algebra Suicide flirted with pop forms and occasionally shared stylistic ground with both Laurie Anderson and the Velvet Underground but never wavered from its own individual path.
The eponymous debut, a four-song 7-inch, offers a sketchy but atmospheric mix of guitar and rhythm box behind Tomkiw's coolly intoned short texts, which include the haunting and memorable "True Romance at the World's Fair," among the group's most enduring pieces. An Explanation for That Flock of Crows adds bass, better sound and new vocal inflections (Tomkiw nearly sings "Tonight") to the recitation of four more numbers made accessible — even catchy — by tangible, occasionally narrative ideas and strong internal tempos. Algebra Suicide isn't rock'n'roll, but even those with an aversion to poetry should try the pair's concise records.
Originally issued on cassette with a lyric booklet and later revamped on vinyl, Big Skin introduces piano and simple synthesizers to Hedeker's increasingly complex and dynamic music. The duo occasionally stumbles in its efforts to synchronize the verbal/instrumental rhythms, but both the song-form music and the lyrical content (like a fascinating, wry discussion of death entitled "Little Dead Body Poem," also released on a contemporaneous single with two other Big Skin selections) are engrossing.
The Secret Like Crazy is a generous compilation: three tracks from each EP, half of Big Skin, four oldies from various sources and three new cuts. The German CD-only Real Numbers is a convivial 1988 live album, recorded with tapes supplementing Hedeker's onstage guitar work. Introducing new material and revisiting more than a dozen oldies (all benefiting from new backings/presentations and Tomkiw's brief setups), it's an ear-opener for a band that might otherwise seem studio-bound.
Alpha Cue ups the couple's production ambitions, employing a guest to play bass and piano on two numbers and delivering carefully formed tracks with a credible band sound and enough chordal structure to easily support melodies. (Too bad about the robotic electronic drumming.) Tomkiw's multi-tracked vocals occasionally resemble tune-shy singing more than recitation. Sample: "What's inside me is rampant / Wanting ice bath or alcohol sponge / Something to extract it into a test tube / Glowing in the dark like Madame Curie's lover."
Her carefully measured flow and his one-man arrangements both continue to gain style and confidence on Swoon, a CD which includes all of Alpha Cue. The poetess' structural experiments go so far as "Tender Red Net," a series of palindromes, but the bulk of her provocative prose is personal contemplations riddled with anxious emotions and aroused with sexual imagery. A nouveau rock star turns out to be a bigheaded jerk in "He's Famous Now," but even the changing of the seasons ("After Busy Summer") is described as "big lipped, hyper, with bawdy tone"; the fog in "Charming Twilight Haze" is "sexy...thick enough to choke on."
Tomkiw doesn't mince words — or maybe that's exactly what she does — in "What I Like Doing Best," the unrestrained paean to kissing that opens Tongue Wrestling, Algebra Suicide's final album and easily their best. Hedeker outdoes himself with grand backing tracks that sift through early '80s new wave idioms (think of the sweeping guitar/synth vistas of A Flock of Seagulls, Big Country and Human League) and update them; Tomkiw's ticklish vocals have enough up-and-down motion to be free-style singing. Though the words and music don't exactly seem related or connected, the two elements still play off the moods and catch the angled light of each other, turning tracks like "Thank You" ("I have no sleeves, no pockets or secret hiding places / Except my head, my heart and other such tiny empty holes"), "One Night I Fell in Love" (a harrowing hallucination about obsession: "So very much in love, so I got up and drank a fifth of gin / And smoked a million cigarettes, and thought about / All the dead people I knew to make me drowsy...") and "Loose Change," a powerful meditation on the meaning of money: "I am living to find a new method / Of measuring success."
Relocating to New York, Tomkiw made her solo debut, using various musicians — including the Chicago trio Reality Scare, the Cleveland quartet Sosumi, Britain's Martin Bowes (ex-Attrition) and Edward Ka-Spel with some of his Legendary Pink Dots — to provide strong, surging tracks of atmospheric rock and adventurous ambient techno. In a voice that lacks some of the sing-song delight of her previous work, Tomkiw recites pieces like "Iris," which makes effectively sensual use of vocal distortion, "Thief" (personality transfer set to what could be a film score) and "Saturn Makes a Move," a relationship-ending slap delivered with steely bitterness over coldly electronic industrial noises. The backing of "Pretty Something" has an otherworldly quality; the edgy, wistful relationship lyrics, however, are clear and real: "Because it was hopeless / I turned my face toward you and let you color my skin."
[Ira Robbins]

http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=algebra_suicide

Members: Don Hedeker, Lydia Tomkiw

website:http://www.clivebarker.com/bands/algebra/

get it here

Archaia - same, LP,1977, France (NWW list!)

Listen closely and take heed, for what we have at hand here is singlehandedly some of the most potent medicine that a dedicated tripper could possibly lay their paws upon. Little else you will ever encounter in this life or any other will singe your synapses or tattoo your brain quite like this. Heavy duty psych/prog vinyl collectors think nothing of forking over $600+ for this puppy when it pops up (almost never), and it's no mistake, for this deadly mindbomb resides near the summit of 70s French lysergic monsters, among that elite coterie of artists that include Heldon, Lard Free, Spacecraft, Horrific Child, and Igor Wakhevitch. Tensely suspenseful, profoundly sinister and completely unnerving as only the French know how to be, the vibe on this baby couldn't possibly be more remote from the krautrock model of psychoactive sonics to which this and the aforementioned five artists lay waste.
Right from the start, thick billowing tides of analog warmth cocoon the listener in amniotic suspension as a huge phased subaquatic bass rises from the depths to the tolling of a bell. This is followed by the emergence of a haunting, ghostly synth line with a spooky "singing" tone that never fails to send shivers down my spine. Suddenly, Pierrick Le Bras & Phillipe Bersan's choral voices of doom enter. Soleil Zeuhl's press release for Archaia's CD reissue would lead you to believe these are zeuhl voices (i.e. repetitious, incantory and bombastically operatic, a hallmark of the zeuhl school of Orff-ian jazz-prog that emerged in the wake of the mighty Magma.) Perhaps they are, but in the context of this music's framework, the result feels like something else entirely. It's just that what that something is remains utterly elusive, but damned if it isn't creepy as all hell anyway. What follows next is simply the sickest, most flawlessly acidic wiry phased guitar tone imaginable. All of this is par for the course, as Archaia delve ever deeper into the abyss, zeroing in with laser-like precision on your third eye and not relenting no matter how many times you cry uncle.
Completely unyielding in its will to have its way with your mind, this is literally too much of a good thing, and too much of a good thing is always a good thing.
(Originally published in Alternative Press #131, p.82)
http://gnosis2000.net/reviews/archaia.htm

Heldon fans take note. Hard boiled mixture of Heldon / Magma influences resulting in an extremely intense and powerful brew.
http://www.pugachov.ru/eem/an.html

get it here

Alrune Rod - Alrunes Rod , LP, 1969, Denmark

Alrune Rod is a band from Denmark who released about half a dozen albums from the late 60s to the mid 70s. Their first three albums were released on LP on the Sonet label. These three albums have been released on a double CD under the name Sonet Εrene 1969-1972. The CD also includes an early single added as a bonus. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1969. It features five tracks, of which four tracks are between 10 and 13 minutes in length. On this album they sound somewhat similar to The Vanilla Fudge, and during the spacier, more psychedelic parts, early Pink Floyd is a reference point.Their 2nd LP Hej DU from 1970 coming soon.

get it here

Airway - Live at the Lace ,LP 1978, USA (NWW list!/LAFMS label)

2 track LP on LAFMS recs from 1978 by Airway.Two long improv freak outs of distorted garbled greatness.Guitars,drums,sax,mandolin,bass and "vocals" all get a heavy dose of electronic treatments.
It was recorded live at Lace Gallery in downtown Los Angeles, April 27, 1978. This incarnation featured Vetza (vocals), Tom Recchion (drums), Rick Potts (electric mandolin), Dennis Duck (sax), Juan Gomez (electric guitar & bass), Chip Chapman (processing mix & microsynthesizer) and Joe Potts (tapes processing & mix).
The first pressing came with color xeroxes of autopsy photos on both sides (the credits state that the model is Vetza, which is incorrect; the 'model' is a real autopsy subject!).

"Airway was a musical ensemble based within the Los Angeles Free Music Society.
Airway was initially a solo project of Le Forte Four member Joe Potts. The first release was the Airway 7", which featured subliminal messages to coincide with an art exhibition in Tokyo. In August 1978 Airway made their live debut at the Lace Gallery. This lineup featured Potts and Chip Chapman on electronics, Vetza on vocals, Rick Potts on mandolin, Dennis Duck on saxophone, Juan Gomez on bass, and Tom Recchion on drums. They attempted to create subliminal messages beneath a wall of noise by using tape delay. Recordings from the performance were released as Live At Lacy by the Los Angeles Free Music Association.
Throughout 1978 the group performed more concerts with differing lineups, but always with Joe Potts' subliminal message experiments. The project disbanded in 1979. Airway reformed in 1998 for a performance at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, which featured 18 musicians. Recordings from the performance were released as Beyond the Pink Live.
Their sound influenced the Japanese noise band Hijokaidan"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airway_(band)

More LAFMS releases (DooDooetes,Le Forte Four, etc) coming soon!

get it here

A.D. Conspiracy, LP, 1979, UK

Another crown jewel of minimal synth scene.Released in 1979 in a limited to 500 copies pressing.Fantastic record!In some parts reminds me of John Bender's "i don't remember...." period!

get it here

2+2=5 - Into the Future ,LP, 1984, No Name records, Italy

Extremely rare dark minimal synth LP , released in 1984 through No Name records in Italy,containing 6 inserts.One of the crown jewels of minimal synth scene!

get it here

V/A:We couldn't agree on a title, LP, UK 1981, Intergrated circut record

Colin Potter - Behind You

Colin Potter - We Are So Glad

Missing Persons - Buried Alive

Missing Persons - Mama

Missing Persons - Electrical Storm

The Instant Automatons - Routine Habit

The Instant Automatons - Invertebrates

The Walking Floors - If I Could Turn The Clock Back

The Victims Of Romance - 9 AM

The Digital Dinosaurs - Organs

The Digital Dinosaurs - Hole

Robert Lawrence - Heart Finds A Home

Those Little Aliens - Sentimental

Those Little Aliens - Low Point X

Mic Woods - Why

The 012 - Blabber 'n' Smoke

Philip Johnson - The Bridewell

Philip Johnson - Anaesthetic (changed version)

This compilation followed the Angst in my pants e.p., as it does here:)

Magnificent songs,DIY/miniml synth masterpieces here!

Intergration tape compilation along with other releases of Deleted records and Intergrated circuit Records are coming soon!

get it here

V/A:Angst In My Pants EP , UK, 1980

The Instant Automatons - Restless Night

The Instant Automatons - Scared To Be Alone

The Door And The Window - C.C.H.

Mic Woods - Cracked Actor?

Mic Woods - Weekday Lovecrush

The Midnight Circus - Silicone Baby

The Midnight Circus - The Hedonist Jive

The 012 - 9 To 5The

012 - In The Ghetto

The Digital Dinosaurs - The Sideways Man

Lily Malone & Angus McSteering-Wheel - No Got Champagne

Colin Potter - Is It You, Is It Me?

Colin Potter - I Am Your Shadow

Colin Potter - Quick One

Missing Persons - The Blue-Eyed Boy Addresses Himself To The Matter In Hand

Missing Persons - Angst In My Pants

Excellent DIY compilation released through Deleted records as 2ble 7" e.p. with stickers for the labels ,etc.

get it here

Tolerance-Divin, LP ,Vanity records ,Japan ,1981 (NWW list!)

NOW WITH THE RIGHT PIC SLEEVE!This is a magnificent absolutely rare records from the NWW list.Experimental/minimal electronics all through.Any more infos will be valuable!

get it here

Hunger-Strictly from Hunger, LP ,USA, 1968

The group Hunger was an extremely talented group from Portland, Oregon. The album "Strictly From Hunger" was released in 1968. It was to be the only release from the group, as a streak of bad luck broke the band apart. Unfortunately on two separate occasions their equipment was stolen.
The group featured long organ driven instrumental breaks with piercing guitar lines between some strong songwriting in a majority of their songs. They were a very popular group that was rising fast in the California psychedelic scene. By the time it was over they were right on the verge of crossing over to hard rock.
Songs like "Workshop," which delves into your thought processes and dreams, I thought, were very introspective and thought provoking, and great musically. "She Let Him Continue" is a psych-rock gem from the vaults. With all of the sound effects (which were fairly new at the time) and the strong vocal inflections from the pipes of Bill Daffern (drums), the song still sounds as hauntingly fresh today as the day it was laid down in the studio. Mike Parkinson normally handled all the vocals. John Morton (lead guitar), Steve Hansen (rhythm guitar), Tom Tanory (bass) were the core of the group that supported the great songwriting and vocals. "Portland" is a stunning instrumental passage. This particular track made me realize that this group would have evolved quite interestingly if they had remained together. The potential for moving more into fusion was evident in their music right from the start. You can hear elements of just about every genre (jazz, blues, pop, rhythm & blues) intermingled amongst each song, although you must listen very carefully to hear it all. Every song serves as an excellent example of the cross pollination of genres. They were so much more than the psych-rock band that they were generally perceived as.

One of the best US psych LPs ever released!

get it here

V/A:Identity Parade, LP, UK , 1980 (TJM records ML01,Manchester)

Another great UK local compilation,from Manchester, released in 1980 through TJM label.Great punk/post punk mod here! Includes tracks by V2, Mellotron, Direct Hits, Genocide, Speed, Eddie Mooney and the Grave, She Cracked, Sister Ray, Steroid Kiddies, The Teardrops !

get it here

V/A:Household Shocks, LP ,UK ,1980 ,(Stark products LCP01)

BRILLIANT U.K. MINIMAL SYNTH/POST PUNK/DIY/INDIE COMPILATION. ONE OF MY TOP TEN FAVORITES OF UK 1978-1982.
BANDS :
PRODUCT OF REASON
THUNDERBOYS
ONE GANG LOGIC
SINKING SHIPS
JUVENILES
MYSTERY GIRLS
DEFECTORS
FAULT 151
URBANTECH

get it here

released in blue virgin wax!

V/A :EAST, LP, 1980 UK (Dead Good records Good1)

TRACKLIST

1. CIGARETTES "Stay Inside"

2. FATAL CHARM "Madam Blues"

3. WHIZZ KIDS "Comalife"

4. B-MOVIE "Man On A Threshold"

5. CIGARETTS "Looking At You"

6. PSEUDO EXISTORS "Posion"

7. SINCERE AMERICANS "Contact"

8. B-MOVIE "Refugee"

9. WHIZZ KIDS "Someone"

10. HALF LIFE "Steve Biko"

11. VICK SINEX & THE NASAL SPRAYS "High Rise Failure" (Dub)

12. PSEUDO EXISTORS "Beyond The Zone"

13. CIGARETTES "Frivolous Disguises"

14. FATAL CHARM "Stoned Living"

15. FATAL CHARM "Spend The Night Alone"

Needless to say anything!One of the 10 best UK punk/DIY compilation 1978-1982!

get it here

Modern Art - Age of lights, tape, UK (mid 80s, year unknown!)

This is a tape of unknown year of release,perfect minimal synth wave.he Modern Art (sometimes spelled Mødern Art) was a psychedelic rock band formed by Gary Ramon in the 1980s. It had a loose lineup that never played gigs but did see the release of two studio albums and a number of self-produced cassettes. Ramon disbanded the group out of a desire "to make a more live-sounding group that could go out and play". Many Modern Art members subsequently joined Ramon in various incarnations of his new band, Sun Dial.

any infos will be appreciated!

get it here

Deux Filles - Silence and Wisdom, LP , 1982, France/UK

This obscure album from the French due Gemini Forque and Claudine Coule includes some contributions by Matt Johnson, although how much he contributed to this album, I have no idea. The music has been described as "Vini Reilly meets the Cocteau Twins" and "what Brian Eno might do if he recorded on 4AD". I've also heard that even though the liner notes tell you this album is performed by two women, it is actually the two men that make up the driving force behind The Gadgets. Specifically, Colin Lloyd Tucker is part of the duo, who is probably the only person out of The Gadgets that Matt actually liked.

Released through Papier Mache [PULP31] in France ,1982.

A dreamy record!One of my top 50 all time favorites from the early 80s scene!

get it here

Anonima Sound. Ltd.-The Red Tape Machine ,LP ,1972, Italy

The story of Anonima Sound is similar to that of Alusa Fallax. Formed in 1966 as a trio, they recorded several melodic singles, including the infamous "Parla Tu" in 1967. After two more singles in the early seventies, lead vocalist Ivan Graziani left to pursue a career as a solo artist. At this point, the group, having recruited new members, changed its musical orientation, releasing a progressive album, "Red Tape Machine", entirely sung in English. It's an interesting album, featuring obvious Jethro Tull influences: the singer tried in places to imitate Ian Anderson and one of the principal instruments in the sound was the flute. Yet, the group had a distinct sound of their own.
LP: "Red Tape Machine" (1972) Arcobaleno - ARC 000111

45: "10 Prendo Amore"/"Cerchi" (1971) Arcobaleno - ARC NP 2071

Taken from "The Return of Italian Pop" by Paolo Barotto (Vinyl Magic VM201, 8016158220124)

get it here

Black Randy and the Metrosquad - Pass the dust, i think i'm Bowie ,LP,1980, USA(CD issue with extras)

Black Randy (who wasn't 'black') was one of those extraordinarily split people: his first action in the embryonic Hollywood punk scene was to steal the receipts of the Masque and heroically return them a few hours later. Black Randy died of HIV related illnesses somewhere in California when it was still GRID. He could've been infected countless times- dirty needles, unprotected sex. He was sneering for your affection and everything he said and did, no matter how serious, teetered on the edge of laughter that laid over a vast despair. He once sung in his ode/attack on San Francisco "golden gate/ready to jump..." while he railed against the very pimps, pushers and punks that he made documentaries of in Seattle and started a punk label for in L.A..That label was Dangerhouse Records, the seminal L.A. label. Slash and others have endured longer and done more, but Dangerhouse gave L.A. punk the jump start it needed- they released early singles by the Germs, X, Weirdos and Avengers. Dangerhouse folded by 1979, leaving Los Angeles less than a year before Black Flag codified punk into hardcore, and then began the next phase of L.A. punk.
Black Randy and his Metrosquad were a supergroup of the Hollywood punk era: the line up included members of the Randoms, Eyes and the Dils as well as one of the other founding partners of Dangerhouse, David Browne. Musically, they were nothing like the hard-fast-loud sound of punk- if anything they were a '60's Soul/James Brown style funk/soul band that played rather fast. They also had echoes of early Blondie and the Who, with there tough and tight rock and roll. They were a funny band, a joke band in the sense that humor was key to understanding what they were about. The bands' music, with its circus-like Woolsworth Doors organ vibe, played the collective straight man to Black Randy's drunken, buffoonish, drawling, sneering voice. His voice is one of the few truly filthy voices I've ever heard in music- every word he says is dripping in self hatred and general loathing, a venomous nicotine and beer-stained voice that's just laughing. His voice is sleazy enough that you don't just think that he just slept in a porn arcade (as the lyrics to his anthem "I Slept in an Arcade" discuss), you think he INHABITED it. The band was perfectly in sync with Black Randy, playing covers of "Shaft" and "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" while he took aim at the songs, exaggerating the swaggering manhood of one and the simple minded racial pride of the other to grotesque proportions.
Black Randy as a lyricist was a satirist who made everything he took aim at disgusting and outrageous, but still rooted in the real world. This is important, as many artists will take satire into fantasy (such as Eminem), making the situations so outlandish they become unreal. Almost all of Black Randy's lyrics are internal narratives of a person's feelings at a certain moment. A man revels in his ability to manipulate others in "I Tell Lies Everyday" (complete with a 'nya-nya-na' chorus). Another song has a man discussing his love for the syphilitic African dictator Idi Amin ('Idi-idi-idi Amin/I'm your fan!/Idi-idi-idi Amin/I'm your man!). The only song of his that betrays any sympathy for other people is one called "Marlon Brando," whose chorus goes 'What could they do?/He was Marlon Brando?.' The song is about an incident at the Oscars in the '70's where Marlon Brando won an award, and sent a Native American woman to accept it for him and who used the acceptance speech as an opportunity to rail against the treatment of Native Americans in the U.S. The 'they' in the song is everyone involved with Marlon Brando, who has to submit to the power he wields- and this includes the Oscar people, the Native Americans and the audience that was watching. While the sentiment behind Brando's decision was laudable, it was entirely the product of his power, and finally, everyone was kowtowing to him. Black Randy was obsessed the abuse of power, with the ego and obsession and the vanity that it produces.
My favorite Black Randy song is "I Wannabe a Nark." Like all his best work, it's about power and is probably his most vicious look at it. The music, secondary in a lot of Black Randy songs, seems like a half thought- its a loping rock and roll background, pounding in the way that one's head does when you have revenge fantasies.
The narrator is a high school kid who's been rejected by the hipsters, 'the scene' he wishes to join. He's rejected the people he believes to be 'cool,' who have that ideal lifestyle he wants. His rejected triggers the fantasy of "I Wannabe a Nark." It's stating the obvious to say the he now wants to be a cop, but it's his reasons, the specific forms his desire takes, that makes the song brilliant. He wants to be a dirty, dirty cop in Hollywood, like something out of Bad Lieutenant. More than that, he dreams of demanding bribes, taking the hipsters' dope and throwing them in the back of his car. He dreams of being able to assert power over the very cool rock culture that's rejected him as a square. He'll become the ultimate symbol of Squaredom, and lock them up for locking him out. He veers between sneering and sniveling, saying that he has to study hard to become a cop. He can't wait. He wants to take bribes, steal drugs and lock 'em up. This song has a vicious take on the rock star/fan relationship, displaying how powerful a force jealousy is when we're watching people perform- jealous of the power we give them, and that they enjoy so much. This song is the strongest example of Randy's satire, as well as the one that's the nastiest of his songs.
The other interesting aspect of Black Randy is his total obscurity. He doesn't even have an individual listing in the All Music Guide. This is extraordinary in of itself. Everyone has a listing there: The Dils, Chainsaw Kitten, even Delta 5 (a band known more for a single and a tour than an album). Black Randy's album was briefly reissued by Sympathy for the Record Industry, but has fallen out of print again. He hasn't been discovered by a new generation of punk kids, but then he was never embraced by the older generation of punk fans either.
Why is this? Part of the reason is that he put out very little recorded work in his lifetime. His one and only album Pass the Dust, I Think I'm Bowie is little over half an hour. Even with some dodgy out-takes and live recordings added (including an interminable sampling of Randy's stage show), the CD barely cracks the fifty minute mark. Randy's early death prevented any kind of body of work from forming.
Also, his music was strangely difficult. Unlike the Germs or X who drew from fairly traditional rock roots, Black Randy's appropriation of soft funk-soul makes him a much less appealing artist for musicians in his milieu to follow- he had no Gang Of Four no-wave-isms or Minuteman virtuosity and song writing. Black Randy's music isn't very interesting when viewed as music per se- rather, it should be viewed as performance art. His use of his musical forms was to further exaggerate the grotesque parody.
The last reason I think that he's been largely forgotten is one of image. Unlike Darby Crash or Exene, Black Randy never embodied (or even seemed to try to embody) the punk look. He was too old and kind of chubby. He wore long hippie shirts and pork pie hats- never anything close to the punk look. Black Randy wasn't sexy or iconic, and didn't live long enough to become a punk elder and didn't die young enough to become one of its martyr's.
His cerebral and vicious humor, combined with his antagonistic actions and odd appearance meant in some ways that he wasn't the kind of fascist/charismatic rock star figure around which legends build. He didn't seem to embody some kind of ideal state to which to aspire towards. Black Randy was working against the rock star image the majority of artists cultivate- he bathed in the dregs of society without trying to ennoble them (like Lou Reed). He didn't try to make a virtue out of weakness like punk rock traditionally did- he wasn't the voice of the oppressed or an agent of the oppressor, but rather a howling, bitter laugh. He was a nihilistic satire of our collective vanity and ambition, and showed how the human desire for power is consuming and essentially always the same, whether it's in the form of a bloated celebrity, hipster, African dictator, cultural icon or religious worshiper relying on God to provide.
Hopefully, one day there'll be a cult following for Randy, and I'm sure he'd have secretly brimmed with pride, while subjecting them to as much abuse, verbal and otherwise as he could.
http://www.furious.com/Perfect/blackrandy.html

One of the best US punk/post punk LPs ever!

get it here

Fear Condition - ... 'Till Night Comes Again, LP, 1986, Greece

Greek band from Thessaloniki that recorded this LP only ,heavily influenced by BAUHAUS/early Birthday Party sound.Released through Smash records(SR 001) in a limited quantity(500 copies?) .Not one of the best Greek acts ,but wiorth checking out.

get it here

also check my posts to 16forever blog :

Xwris perideraio

Lena Platwnos

(these are really Greek artists that kick asses. Xwris Perideraio LP is the best Greek minimal electronics LP ever and very very rare one! Lena Platwnos is a Greek pioneer in electronic music ,kinda Ruth White meets Laurie Anderson meets Nico!)

Frame of Mind - same , LP, 1972, Germany

Without any doubt,the best album of KRAUTROCK of all the times!! some members of this group after went to played with PELL MELL in "only a star" album.Highly recommended .

Andy Kirnberger (guitars, vocals, piano),
Cherry Hochdörfer (organ, piano, Mellotron, spinet),
Peter Lotz (bass, vocals, percussion),
Dieter Becker (vocals, percussion),
Wolfgang Claus (drums, percussion).

get it here

Hiro Yanagida - same , LP ,1971, Japan

Hiro Yanagida was the keyboardist for two early Japanese psych bands such, Foodbrain and Love Live Life + One. His eponymous solo album from 1971 is typical of the early Japanese psych bands though sometimes showing a bit of progressive influence (such as hints of the Nice/Emerson between jams). Driving, energetic blues based hard rock/psych jams with Yanagida's swirling Hammond trading licks with Kimio Mizutani's blistering guitar leads. Of particular note is the eight minute "The Murder in the Midnight" with Yanagida turning in some fine Hammond work. Flute and sax make appearances on a few cuts. One or two songs, such as "My Dear Mary" (which feature's Speed, Glue and Shinki's Joey Smith on vocals) are in the pop vein, much of this album is raw blues/psych but it comes off as a mixed bag.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiro_Yanagida

Hiro Yanagida – this keyboardist really got around! He was in Apryl Fool, Foodbrain, Masahiko Satoh & Sound Brakers, Love Live Life + One, and also played on Shinki Chen’s solo album. Throughout this time he was putting out solo albums with some of the same musicians, such as Kimio Mizutani [see above]. His debut was ‘Milk Time’ [Liberty, 1970], which has a cool photo of a stern-looking gorilla on the cover, done by the same artist who did the Foodbrain album cover. The backing band included Hiro Tsunoda from Foodbrain, Strawberry Path and Flied Egg [see above], guitarist Kimio Mizutani and electric violinist Hiroki Tamaki [see below], as well as flautist Nozumu Nakatani and bassist Keiju Ishikawa [who later played with Akira Ito – see below]. The music is in part similar to Foodbrain, but more varied, with lighter, jaunty short tracks and some tripped out sounds.
This was followed by ‘Hiro Yanagida’ [Atlantic, 1971], with great cartoon psychedelic artwork. He’s again joined by Kimio Mizutani, and Joey Smith from Speed, Glue & Shinki [see above] sings on one track, a silly doo-wop ballad! The album as a whole covers slightly similar territory to that of ‘Milk Time’, though more accomplished, and some of the mellower keyboard-oriented stuff here is a bit more experimental and progressive. One track reminds me of Supersister and oddly, Stereolab from more than 20 years later! His 3rd album, ‘Hiro’ [URC, 1972], seems to be obscure and I can’t find any information about it. ‘Hirocosmos’ [CBS, 1973] was reputedly another great album, in a more progressive vein. There are a few more album which I know nothing about - ‘UFO’ [CBS, 1978], ‘Shichi Sai No Rojin Tengoku’ [label? year?] and ‘Ma-Ya’ [Substance, 2003]. I’ve seen another album listed, ‘Planets in Rock Age [1971], but I don’t know how that fits in or if it’s just rumour. ‘Milk Time’ was reissued on CD by P-Vine, but appears to be out of print; ‘Hiro Yanagida’ and ‘Hirocosmos’ have been reissued on CD by Showboat and are tricky to track down outside of Japanese retailers.
Yanagida played on J.A. Caesar’s ‘Matihedeyou Syowosuteyo’ [and probably other Caesar albums – see above], and also recorded some material with Tokyo Kid Brothers.

http://www.recordheaven.net/japan.htm

Milk Time LP coming soon!

get it here

Frolk Haven - At The Apex Of High, LP ,1972, UK (NWW list?)

EXCEEDINGLY RARE British private pressing LP from 1972 by Frolk Haven, “At the Apex of High” – a true homemade college kids low budget pressing if there ever was one. Now if you can get past the crude cover art, the Randy Tuten For Beginners band logo (5 years after the fact), and song titles like “Zonation of Galactic Cosmoidal Entities” (a real toe tapper, that one!) and “Idiomatic Interlude”, you’ll notice that the drummer on this album is none other than a young, gangly and downright scrawny Stuart Barfalonius Copeland – that’s right, the SAME Stuart Copeland who would later go on to worldwide fame as the drummer for Klark Kent. And that other band…what were they called? Oh yeah, the Police. And while you won’t find anything even close to “Roxanne” or “Hole in My Life” on Frolk Haven’s LP, you WILL be surprised that this is Stuart’s teen band and not Sting’s, because of the crazed mental spastic jazz fusion the band lays down all over this thing. Okay, so technically the post-Police Sting favored the mellow cocktail lounge jazz vibe, whereas his buddy Stuart prefers a kind of intense cosmic freakout jazz, like King Crimson colliding with Captain Beefheart as performed by epileptics. The opening track begins with some intense thrashing and burning, and so much dissonance it comes out overdriven through their little Radio Shack Tandy mixing board – Stuart’s flailing drums are double tracked, the vocals are oddly distorted (probably unintentionally), and you can actually hear the guys playing with the production board controls. It’s like King Crimson’s “RED” played by the Shaggs, and goes on for a patience-trying 12 and a half minutes. And they call it “Oracle of Delphi” too…go figure. After this dubious opening, things get better with the spacy jazz freakout “Cyclation”, which features some great wah wah guitar action. And much, MUCH better when the interstellar overdrive kicks in on “Zonation”, a series of monklike chants over an oscillating sine wave and some heady space synth and moog FX, which proves that at least ONE member of the Police owned a copy of “Ummagumma.” The freakishly demented “Back Up!” sounds like Captain Beefheart attempting to cover “Purple Haze” on open mike night. Over some squealing freeform saxophone and some heavily distorted buzzing fuzz guitar, the rantings of lead vocalist and guitarist Charles Hugo Nowak “Zilch” Ostman II play like a Village beat poet reciting the high school yearbook musings of a young Gene Roddenberry: “Dance to the rhythm of the paisley skies – Out of the mist, what is that I see? A stray time warp coming straight at me, and all the colors before my eyes…Back up, back up! This is a nightmare!” Perhaps this strange, mystifying album is best summed up by a line from “Quest” – “This is the only window that faces the cortex of the mind.” Whatever that means, I don’t doubt that THEY fully believe it. Both Stuart and Charles were in college in England when they recorded this bizarre homemade album – but make no mistake, this is NO lo-fi basement garage band. These are the musings of a couple of honor roll students heavily into Star Trek, the Outer Limits, free jazz and Captain Beefheart. And to think 11 years later, our little Stuart (now spelled “Stewart”) would be professing his attraction to a sassy Russian military woman in an ill-fitting uniform. Now I ask you, is that REALLY musical progression?1972 private pressing from the UK – needless to say, this has NOT been reissued and probably never will be.

get it here

Gunter Schickert - Samtvogel - 1974 Germany (NWW list!)

(original /1st Brain-Metronome issue cover)

(1981 Brain re-issue cover)

German pioneer of the echo-guitar, renowned for his classics "Samtvogel" and "Überfällig", he also worked with Klaus Schulze (in concert). Günter also ventured in to more explorative Krautrock and developed a style comparable to the early work of Achim Reichel. The GAM trio (Günter Schickert, Axel Struck, and Michael Leske) featured two guitars and drums, and is really freaked-out improvisations recalling the psychedelic space treks of Ash Ra Tempel or Pink Floyd.

blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/01/adventures_in_t_1.

A cosmic and trippy guitar-based album, with echo effects similar to Achim Reichel's. In fact, the second track, "Kriegmaschinen, Fahrt Zur Holle", perfectly recalls AR & Machines' masterpiece, ECHO (1972). The opener is a bit silly and confused, but the third and longest track ("Wald") is much thicker, a fantastic, intense jam, sometimes close to minimal music and Manuel Gottsching's solo works. Günther is a great guitarist and here he is at his best, "Samtvogel" is a very innovative album, well worth listening.

rateyourmusic.com/artist/gunter_schickert

Like an alien mothership landing on your fanny, Gunter Schickert's deep heavy ooze dripping slab of Teutonic electronic bliss through treated mayhem overcomes you. This is probably what it sounded like inside of Jimi Hendrix's brain stem under that LSD-soaked tie-dyed bandana onstage - totally lit and lividly lucid, another planet opens up a searing tunnel through space and time while this sublime album plays on. Heralded as an underground classic for decades, we have "Samtvogel," an indiscriminate spacerocker's fantasy and diamond filled pocket through time and space. Working with overdubbed guitars never came off so thick with effects rife and rich. 'Apricot Brandy*' is a world unto itself wholly. NOTHING SOUNDS LIKE THIS! (*Well, actually, there's an 'Apricot Brandy II' on the followup, "Uberfallig," albeit not actually achieving the same insane headspace as this - very, very nice in it's own right, though. 'Kriegsmaschinen Fahrt Zur Holle (Tr.: War Machines Travel to the Holle)' launches itself *directly* past the stratosphere on its own mission heading directly to the very heart of the cosmos. The takeoff is delayed with a slow churning rise (not to worry, Houston, there is no problem) until it is clear that the ozone has been shucked off and there is nothing left but the growling intensity of careening through outer space. A soundtrack to a movie about being there never gurgled with the resonance of this. It's a long track clocking in at 16:58 which clips into a frenzy of guitar-wall smattering up right against your face creating stubble from the rubble of its rumbling on. Shortly after the first wave of madness comes plucking pizzicato at the speed of some "Music From the Body" over heavenly washes of reverbed vocals. As for what his multiple guitar tracks are doing at this time, ask Steve Tibbetts when he's multiplied by ten. Coming off that crest we get served some spacegroove with the urgent before the clittering-clattering electronic tinkles come in sprinkled liberally enveloping the room with the feeling of being inside a container of boingy-boing tic-tacs shaken about. Don't get me all wrong about the guitar work, some of it is very clean and gentle approximating the sound of folk progressive acts like Hoelderlin and Emtidi without the pastoral effect. Shredding does also play a serious factor in the conclusion as all the notes drop off the face of the sky churning itself back to the big black note it came from.
The other side is a humongous 21:35 opus splattered across every last little groove of this delightful platter. The air feels like Solaris in here, otherworldly and creepy while at the same time dreamy and sleepy. Spelunking over the sea of tranquility is his swansong of the magnitude Loch Ness that is 'Wald (Tr.: Forest).' Draping shimmering leaves of lush eternal electronic green sets adrift on memory wish to the turning of the akashic record. Striking a chord deep in the psyche of humanity, dense with textures, this piece is meditative while laden with universally rich sonorities throughout. Open up the pearly gates, I'm swimming home across the whole thing with this as the soundtrack in my head, dig?
gnosis2000.net/reviews/schickert.htm

get it here

Bron Area-Fragile sentences e.p. + One year MC, Tape & 7" ,UK, 1981

Bron Area began in March 1979 as a duo playing songs at small gigs mostly to friends. Steven had been playing piano for 4 years and sang in a punk band Addix through ’77. Martin had played ’My Way’ to drunks in social clubs on the organ for some time, and played punk R&B band Radiation One before joining Bron Area. The music from those days as a duo are summarised in part one.
Since then their music has become somewhat more agressive, and they have acquired a guitarist, Alain. He played in several bands in France until he moved to Brighton and was a founder member of The Squares. He then moved to Cov. and joined Bron Area after a jam.

Bron Area: A Biography
To start at the beginning: Bron Area started life as a duo in March 1979, emerging from an embryo of musicians in Nuneaton. Martin Packwood and Steven Parker had been involved in a number of these before meeting a wider and more competent group of musicians. Notably among these was Peter Becker who supported and encouraged them in the early stages of Bron Area. With the reorganization of The Reluctant Stereotypes, resulting in the departure of Martyn Bates and Chris Dunne (later to drum on all later Bron Area records) the former arrived at a Bron gig to be introduced to Peter and thus Eyeless In Gaza came into being. Ambivalent Scale Recordings was later established and saw the release of Bron Area’s One Year cassette album and Fragile Sentences Ep as well as Eyeless In Gaza’s Kodak Ghosts Run Amok Ep and Kevin Harrison’s On Earth 2 cassette (later released as a Cherry Red album [remixed]). As Eyeless moved on to greater glory via their deal with Cherry Red Records, the momentum of Nuneaton’s music scene diminished, Bron Area subdued their efforts somewhat until David Barker of Glass Records, having heard 2 songs from the Alternative Sounds fanzines compilation tape Facet 1 asked them to appear on his Wonderful World of Glass Vol. 1 Lp at the end of 1981. So impressed was Mr. Barker that on the strength of a recent demo tape Bron Area were signed to Glass at the beginning of 1982. The first vinyl was a 12” Ep entitled ’Different Phrases’ released in March ’82 and later released as a 7” on Posh Boy Records in the USA. Now, after the best part of 1982 being spent in the recording studio Bron Area’s first album is ready. The album is The Trees and the Villages – a title which suggests the sentiments of their present music. Although not quite as described in Stringent Measures fanzine ”a modern day country music … with a little organic additive” it does through different means seek to fulfill the same role as that music. Martin Packwood: ”The album doesn’t take risks, but I really don’t see how any music could claim to do so. The only thing you risk in being avant garde is that no one is going to buy the record and listen to what you have to offer. People take risks in their lives – in their decisions, their lifestyles and so on – not when they listen to a record.”
(http://www.eyelessingaza.com/bron.html)

These are the very first recordings of this electronics duo , in the early Eyeless in Gaza vein.Released through Eyeless in Gaza label ,Ambivalent Scale in 1981. A must for all minimal electronics /synth wave collectors!Sorry no scan of the tape cover....

get it here

Patrick Vian - Bruits et temps analogues (LP), 1976, France (NWW list!)

Excellent moog-based rock album released in 1976 on the legendary Egg label. It's a wonder this hasn't been reissued, what with the intense interest in all things analog, to say nothing of the dozens of "sampleable" grooves herein. Similar to early Heldon, or mid-period Tangerine Dream, but really its own thing and a very enjoyable recording. Patrick Vian had previously led the group Red Noise (1970), also featured on the list.

(from: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/09/adventures_in_t_2.html)

Patrick Vian was the son of French jazz musician and writer Boris Vian. Patrick went a different route in the world of music, first as a member of a group called Red Noise in 1970, and then embarking on a very short-lived career in electronic music. This is his one and only solo album, likely the first release on the EGG label, and a wonderful, and obscure gem of electronic music certain to please the fans of Heldon and the likes. Lots of Moog (modular) and ARP 2600, plus piano and electric piano. Some jazz influences do surface (can't be helped, because of his father), and even gets help from jazz musicians like Mino Cinelou (who had played with the likes of Gong, Weather Report, and Miles Davis), but by and large a highly experimental form of electronic music. Whatever became of Patrick Vian after this album, I can't say, but I can be certain he returned to his day job.(http://rateyourmusic.com/list/Proghead72/my_favorites_in_70s_electronic_music)

get it here

Horrific Child - L'etrange mr. whinster, LP , 1976, France(NWW list!)

The Horrific Child album is, to me at least, the jewel embedded in the forehead of the golden idol that is the NWW List. Part rock album, part experimental album, part imaginary horror soundtrack, L'étrange Monsieur Whinster is a psychedelic pop audio show, flowing naturally from one surprising sequence to the next. Horrific Child was the creation of one Jean-Pierre Massiera, also the composer behind the Les Maledictus Sound project from 1968. Les Maledictus Sound were an inventive, high-brow concoction of Easy Tempo-style instrumental mod big band music, with heavy brass, plucky bass and fuzzbeat guitar. Horrific Child is certainly the logical stylistic next step from that record, evidence of the composer's having survived several years beyond the psychedelic era. A section from side 2 of L'étrange Monsieur Whinster was released in 1999 as a bonus track on the CD reissue of the Les Maledictus Sound album. Originally released on the Eurodisc label in 1976.

(from:http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/10/adventures_in_t.html)

get it here

Horde Catalytique pour la fin - Gestation sonore ,LP,1971, France (NWW list!)

This Lp was posted in September in the Lost-In-Time blog, by the awasome blogger Mystery Poster.It seems that many people had difficulties downloading it from his server,so here's the link to the post (for infos,etc.)http://lost-in-tyme.blogspot.com/2006/12/horde-catalytique-pour-la-fin-gestation.html ,

and here's the new download link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/13379446/horde_catalytique_pour_la_fin_-_gestation_sonore_-.rar

The Wibbley Brothers Go Wierd , LP, 1982, UK

The Wibbley Brothers, Ronnie and Terry, first came to Stretham in 1981 to record the 4 tracks which would appear on our e.p. "Dark Side of the Mune" (sic). For some reason we were signed to a Midlands label which specialised in punk and thrash stuff; I don't think they knew what to make of our more... er... individual approach to music-making, but I persuaded them to book Spaceward as I'd been a great Soft Boys fan. The tracks were engineered by Gary Lucas and "Dan" (according to the sleeve) and produced by Guy Jackson and the band. I think I realised I was entering an unfamiliar world when I was stopped on the platform at Ely station by a porter, helpless with laughter because I was carrying a Walkman. "Look at him; 'e's wearing headphones!" he shouted in disbelief to everyone in sight..
Later on in the year we came back to do the album "Go Weird" (with Joe Bull engineering, and making a vocal apperance at the start of side 2) and were generously allotted 40 hours to do everything - slightly tricky as I was playing all the instruments, overdubbed one at a time in these pre-sequencer days. Amazingly we managed to record and mix about an hour's worth of material in that time, but the real story of the week was the accomodation we enjoyed. This was before the studio had residential facilities, and we were put up in the guest house across the road. It was October and freezing cold yet our hostess refused to put the heating on because "it's too expensive this time of year". We slept every night shivering, fully dressed, with coats over the bedspreads. There was also a yappy little dog that would take chunks out of your ankles given half the chance. Consequently we did everything possible to put off our return until bedtime, which normally meant darts in the nearby pub, even joining in with a women's darts league match on one particularly desperate night. An evening out to Ely was like the bright lights of New York. The whole experience is related in a song on our forthcoming album "Mornin' Jack", together with a description of the fabled Stretham telephone box piled six feet high with leaves.
A few months later, the album still unreleased, we somehow got agreement to return for 2 8-hour days to remix and do a couple of new songs. Fortunately this time there was a room at the studio we could sleep in, although most of the night was spent with the first Roland TR606 and TB303s I'd ever seen, and their instruction manuals. This creative frenzy produced "The Wonderful World of Terry Wibbley" the following morning, along with hours of fun with yards of tape loops running round the control room supported by pencils held aloft. Samplers? Who needs 'em? Then we got our bicycles and pedalled back to Cambridge to catch the train home.
Ronnie Wibbleywww.wibbley.com

(from :http://www.spacewardstudios.ukf.net/obscure.htm)

crazed out minimal electronics here!

Dear friends,Ronnie from the Wibbley brothers contacted me and announced the reissue of this marvelous LP on cd format,so the link to d/l has to be down.Will inform you soon about the reissue and of course give you a link where you can get the cd.

Philippe Doray Asociaux Associes - Nouveaux Modes Industriels , LP, 1978, France, (NWW list!)

The music is a bit difficult to describe because it's pretty diverse. Doray delves, as you can deduce from the title, into industrial sonics, but there are also a lot influences of pop music, free jazz, funk and new wave on Nouveaux Modes Industrielles and the sound of the beatboxes and synths is pretty amazing for that time (it was released in 1977 in Scopa Invisible label). I guess you could call it perverted pop music, because it's as if Doray made a normal pop record and then decided to fuck it up real good.
He sings quite a lot but his voice is sometimes warped into a sort of nagging screech, which makes it all sound pretty dirty and unhealthy, like a Captain Beefheart who has gone electronic. When his voice is not treated he sounds pretty arty, but that doesn't disturb a bit. A possible reference, though still pretty far removed, could be Cluster's Zuckerzeit, if that record had vocals on it, but the electronics are far less rhythmical, more freeform. Amazing record, though incredibly hard to find, even through the usual channels.

notes from:http://fireinthemindmk2.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html

This is both in NWW List and a minimal electronics masterpiece!

get it here

Cohelmec Ensemble- Hippotigris zebra zebra , LP, 1971, France (NWW list!)

Small-combo post-psychedelic jazz record, with vibes/piano/harpsichord, alto sax/flute, double bass and percussion. Released around 1970 on the Saravah label, the free-styled compositions are reminiscent of both the ESP-DISK classics of the early 60s, and late-period Coltrane. The Cohelmec Ensemble made several other records, including the album Next and several live recordings, with varying personnel. Jean Cohen, the reed player on this album, is the "Jean Cohen-Solal" who's also named individually on the NWW List.

Jean Cohen (Solal): sax tenor, alto, soprano

Evan Chandlee : Clarinette basse, flϋte, piccolo

Dominique Elbaz : piano, clavecin

Francois Mιchali : contrebasse

Jean Louis Mechali : batterie, vibraphone

A GEM!

get it here

Strafe Fur Rebellion : same , LP, 1982 , Germany (Pure Freude label)

Strafe fur Rebellion is Bernd Kastner and Siegfried Syniuga.

The first LP by these pioneers of German experimenta/industrial music.This LP is a masterpiece following the steps of HNAS and NWW in a more "poppy" yet dark way.

Released in 1982 with as 12 " LP + 7" single.

NOT TO BE MISSED!

get it here

Holy toy-Warszawa LP+Soldier toy 12",Norway/Poland ,1982

Andrej Nebbs legendary experimental/ electronics group acheived cult status in England and the rest of Europe with their first album "Warsava" (Uniton 1982). Later the band did two albums on Sonet, "Panzer and Rabbits" and "Why Not In Choir", both released in England, Continental Europe and Scandinavia. Sonet later licensed "Warsava" for the company’s A Norwegian Classic-series.Members of Holy Toy later formed WHEN.

Sorry no pic scan of the 12",any help appreciated!

get it here

Il segno del comando-Der golem,LP, Italy,1973

The ecclesiastical theme is omni-present on this fab release. Black masses, satanic rituals, life after death and the underworld are the main ingredients for this six-piece band. It’s especially the duels between the guitars and keyboards that results in a fantastic debut rightfully situated in the slipstream of "gone by glories" such as Jacula, Antonius Rex, Monument and the label’s BIG example: Black Widow. What you see depicted on the sleeve (a procession of the Ku-Klux Klan) you can also hear in the music. As soon as the sublime church organ opens the title song, you are glued to your chair! It’s sometimes the Black Sabbath inspired "riffs" that place the rock influences next to the classical ones. Sadly I hear a lot of the classic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” in their original “Messaggero di Pietra” composition, whilst the “Bilitis” melody keeps me enchanted time after time. If you have too much incense and many candles you’ll soon be pleased to hear “La Teverna Dell’Angelo” which opens with a lot of touching Mellotron before it steers the song towards an unpredictable ending. Il Segno Del Comando without any doubt is the darkest revelation in a long, long time!
Reviewed by: John "Bo Bo" Bollenberg, February 2001
Musicians:
Diego Banchero - bass
Gabriele Grixoni - guitar
Mercy - vocals
Matteo Ricci - guitar
Agostino Tavella - keyboards

get it here

Jean Michel Jarre - Early works (1970-1974)

No need for an introduction about Jean Michel Jarre, I think. For those who think he started with Oxygene in 1976,check these recordings.....Excellent stuff and very rare.

In parts reminds me a kind of "light" Heldon in a more psychedelic mood!

get it here

Les Champignons - Premiere Capsule , LP, 1972, Canada

Excellent Psych /prog from Quebeq ,Canada.1972 release.Any infos will be much appreciated!

get it here

Matthew de Gennaro-same, LP, 2003 ,Epigonic#3

Excellent droning psych folk!Released in 2003 through Epigonic label in a very limited handmade edition of around 50 copies.

Don't miss this one!

get it here

MEX- Alternative pop music (tape) + 7" ,UK, 1980-83 (Exhibit A / Solid Space / 12 cubic feet related )

Totally obscure items.Sorry no picture sleeves,no infos,no nothing.....Even Paul Mex himself does not refer to these recording. On the other hand we have here another DIY /minimal electronics diamond.(As soon as i got my scaner repaired i will post the pic sleeves).

get it here

Mnemonists - Gyromancy , LP ,1983, USA

Colorado-based Mnemonists, later renamed Biota, were among the earliest avantgarde groups that engaged in chaotic collages and harked back to abstract, dadaistic art. They assembled wild assortments of sonic events on albums such as the monumental Mnemonist Orchestra (1979), Biota (1982) and Rackabones (1985) that ran the gamut from classical music to sheer noise. Gyromancy (Dys, 1983), a 39-minute piece recorded by a line-up of six musicians, and entirely played on acoustic instruments (piano, cello, guitar, vass, viola, sitar, harpsichord, bagpipes, clarinet, trombone, percussion and many others), although electronically tortured to make them unrecognizable, was their most radical and analytic work yet, but also the most accessible up to that point. The symphony begins in a subdued mode, unleashing several incoherent drones and unrecognizable noises. As the volume intensifies, the drones expand. After 14 minutes the "music" comes to a pause. Electronic processing dissolves the identities of the instruments and leaves in their place only a dark nebula of sound. Slowly, during side B, individual elements become discernible again, although they are now only warped mirror images of the instruments that produced them. This faceless, anarchic and percussive flow of events is progressively accelerated until it becomes a frantic orgy that makes everything coalesce into an organic and terrifying buzzing noise. The music collapses again after 13' of side B, and never quite resurrects, content of slowly burning off the few parts that are still alive.

(from :http://www.scaruffi.com/oldavant/mnemonis.html)

Mnemonists: the very name inspires dread in the tongue. It acted as cover for six Colorado-based musicians whose music resulted from the real-time manipulation of live performance on a wide variety of instruments such as piano, cello, guitar, bagpipes, etc. Gyromancy (the term refers to divination performed by drawing a ring or circle, and walking in or around it) was recorded in the summer of 1983 though the music is singular enough to emanate from anytime in the last forty years.
"Gyromancy 1" begins with a sudden jet of sound like fire from a flamethrower. Even as it begins to repeat, the sound metamorphoses, all the while eluding identification. It's akin to seeing something mysterious through frosted glass that might otherwise be easily identified. As the intensity of the performance increases, a looming undertow like the shadow of a mournful giant becomes audible. There's something magnificent and blasted about this percussive sound, like a fist knocking repeatedly on a skull that recalls,­ however faulty the memory, Harrison Birtwistle's Yan Tan Tethera. After a brief pause, a wavering drone starts up that engulfs everything around it. There's an unpleasant slithering, sliding quality to this noise that suggests a combination of oily snake and drunken bagpipe. Another pause and the nightmarish intensity is ratcheted up a few notches, only to gradually and unevenly unwind again. Imagine watching a slinky navigate stairs in slow motion while under the influence of psychedelic stimulants.
"Gyromancy 2" continues in similar vein: percussive sounds swathed in reverb, alien gamelan adrift in lysergic seas. This intense, nightmarish music demands that the listener surrender to its unfamiliar logic, sink into its inky morass. Gradually the sound fades into the distance, looming all the while like an increasingly befogged Fall Of The House Of Usher. So ends the last of the two longer pieces, each a shade under 20 minutes in length.
This music suggests the less friendly parts of White Noise's An Electric Storm, the industrial soundscaping of David Lynch's Eraserhead or a newly discovered early Stockhausen tape piece. It's like sound from somewhere else, intent and unearthly. Access with care.
Reviewer: Colin Buttimer

More to come!

get it here

Nico - Desert Shore, LP, 1971

To write anything about this record will be offensive! Just listen with respect one of the best rock records ever made!Even if this record hand only 1 song ,and that will be "Janitor of Lunacy" , it will deserve it's place amongst the 50 best records ever made!

A classic!

get it here

Ilitch:10 suicides,LP , 1980, France (NWW List)

(reproduction of booklet)

Like other 1970s European electronic rock artists from Heldon to Conrad Schnitzer, Ilitch owes more to the avant-garde experiments of Stockhausen and Xenakis than to the rock and roll of Chuck Berry or even the Beatles… Ilitch came out of France, was the work of mostly one person, Thierry Muller, using unconventional guitars as well as keyboards and other electronics to create strange textures and sounds. Muller was a photographer and graphic artist from Paris who started making recordings in the early 1970s using prepared guitars, harmonium, and even using the tape recorder as another instrument. Initially he worked completely solo but by late 1975 he was being helped by Ruth Ellyeri. In 1976 his brother Patrick Muller on EMS synthisizer and treated guitar joined Ilitch, for a live performance at the Cafe La Manille, in Paris, and the duo also played there the following two years as well. In October and November of that year, Ilitch recorded the material for the LP "Periodikmindtrouble", but by the time the LP was released, in 1978, the original second side was scrapped for other more recent material. This album featured abstract music that was completely instrumental and with a heavy use of electronics. Though this is considered the first Ilitch LP, in fact a year earlier Muller released "Portraits" in an extremely limited edition of one with hand painted cover. By 1980 Ellyeri, on guitars, vocals and electronics, became more integral to the Ilitch sound, and Muller occasionally added in synth player Philippe Doray and saxophonist Patrick Dubot into Ilitch as well. They released a second LP, "10 Suicides" that year, a more varied album that included some heavily processed vocals as well as a sixteen page booklet with many of Muller's photo-collages. The same year under the Ilitch name Thierry released the cassette only "PTM Works"(Eurock), as well as the one-sided EP "Culture", which was credited to him and Edouard Nono. After this Muller took a break from music for a couple years, but in 1982 he began work on a new project. The project eventually became the group Ruth (though Ruth Ellyeri wasn't a part of it), as Muller began collaborating with many more musicians for recordings done in 1984 and 1985. Ruth's music was far more polished and accessible, adding a quirky new wave twist to Muller's textured guitar and synth treatments. The Ruth LP "Polaroid/Romans/Photos" came out in 1985 with a 12-page booklet. That same year Muller released an EP with Doray called "Pile on Face". Muller stopped pursuing music for the most part to devote more time to graphic arts after the Ruth album, though he did release three more extremely limited records, "D. Prune Tributes" Volumes 1 through 3, under his own name between 1989 and 1991. Though his records had limited releases and have long been out of print, much of his music has recently been made available on CD by the Fractal records label with Bonus tracks.

Extracts from Rolf Semprebon's article, All Music Guide

10 SUICIDES is one of the greatest amalgamations of guitar textures, electronics and twisted avant-pop you’ll ever hear. His treatments of all sound sources create a striking pastiche of styles. Quite unlike anything I’ve heard, it stands as a landmark recording .

IMHO

get it here

The Diagram Brothers - Some Marvels Of Modern Science ,LP, UK,1981

The Diagram Brothers were a quartet of passingly deranged Mancunians who produced a few singles, an album and an EP mostly on the Buzzcock's New Hormones label, all except their first single We Are All Animals. They did songs of urban angst in the most discordant way possible, usually with brass and electric guitars but they weren't afraid to use milk bottles, bread trays and Casio VL-Tones either. Art terrorism at its most polite. They wrote songs about Satanism among the fondue folk, mail order bargains that turn out to be utter rubbish, Little Englanders and people who think that buying a motorbike instantly makes them James Dean. They also put the Manchester Evening News to music which is probably a first. Trouser Press magazine reckoned that they were a poor man's XTC but this is a disservice to both bands. They both liked to play silly buggers on occasion but otherwise had little in common.
information for this piece comes from Jonathan Howard
Andy said about the Diagram Brothers in an exclusive interview with One Of The Three
Diagram Brothers from 1980 to 1982. Me and my brothers formed this guitar band, in Manchester. I played bass guitar. We called the music "Discordo". The music was made to a strict formula or set of rules. All the guitar chords were based on discordant notes, all the beats were very simple rock or disco, and all the words were very very straightforward and down to earth. Let me give you an example :
"Bricks, lay them down in a straight line. Bricks, build them into a wall. Bricks, very useful objects. They're not expensive at all."
The Diagram Brothers were big favourites on the John Peel show, we recorded three sessions for him that he played many times. The Diagram brothers recorded 2 singles, an album and an EP for New Hormones label ( the Buzzcocks label). They are not available any more, although me and my brothers are looking into getting them re-released on CD."
The line-up for the band was :
Fraser Diagram - Vocals / Guitars
Lawrence Diagram - Guitar
Andy Diagram - Bass
Simon Diagram - Drums
The releases were :
October 1980 - We Are All Animals / There Is No Shower 7" (Construct Records - cat no CON-1)
July 1981 - Bricks / Postal Bargains 7" (New Hormones - cat no ORG9)
November 1981 - Some Marvels Of Modern Science (LP) (New Hormones - cat no ORG17)
July 1982 - Discordo 10" EP (New Hormones - cat no ORG21)

get it here

Essential Bop- Chronicles, CD compilation, UK, 1979-1982

This is a CD compilation of all the recordings of this historical Bristol group.Don't miss it!

The Essential Bop Story

When the Great Book of Bristol Rock is written Essential Bop will probably merit little more than a substantial foot note in the chapter headed 'Post Punk and Stuff'. Such reputation as they have derives largely from a series of anarchically intense live performances and a rather mixed bunch of recordings.
Essential Bop was formed in the spring of 1978 by a disparate bunch of musicians, mostly refugees from assorted Bristol bands like The Cortinas (Mike Fewings, guitar), The Biros (Steve Bush, singing) and, er, Dragon Sandwich (Simon Tyler, keyboards). Dave Robinson (who was responsible for starting the band) was a bluesman who had played bass with the likes of 'Champion' Jack Dupree and Joe Cocker. Nick Tufnell had never played drums before, but really wanted to so, like, why not The band also featured 'visualist' Seng-gye, whose job it was to create bizarre and arty stage happenings
The band debuted at The Stonehouse (alongside the Art Objects) and soon developed a very enthusiastic live following, assisted by well-received appearances at the Ashton Court Festival and a track on the 1979 'Avon Calling' compilation ('Chronicle').
Record company interest was hard to come by so in 1980 the band released the 'Eloquent Sounds' EP (Eloquent Sounds/Raider's Blues/Failsafe/Mandarin Whores) on their own Monopause label. This garnered some press interest, and the NME's famous Paul Morley trekked down to the sticks to interview Steve Bush, subsequently proclaiming Essential Bop as one of the bands that would make it in the 1980's. Having the kingly wig thus laid upon them made the band even more popular within the BS postal area, and further recordings were issued in the form of two tracks on the Bristol Recorder 3 compilation (Tin and Plastic/Love is a Loud Noise) and a single (Croaked/Butler in Running Shorts) in early 1981 (also on Monopause).
By this time line-up changes had reduced the band to a guitar-less four piece, with Steve Bush and Simon Tyler assisted by Danny Cotterill and Phil Howard on bass and drums respectively.
The band had constant trouble getting many gigs outside Bristol, a problem which was relieved by the offer of a US east coast tour in the summer of 1981 - a result of the single featuring in the independent charts in New York. The tour was successful, but the band split on their return, with Cotterill and Howard returning to New York to live and work. The band's last ever live appearance was at the Peppermint Lounge in NYC in August '81.
Steve Bush and Simon Tyler joined the mass exodus of Bristol musicians of the early '80's, and re-formed the band in London in 1984 with Mike Fewings on bass and Martin Kiernan on drums. The band's debut album - 'The Flick Was Boss' - was issued in that year on TSAR (The Sound of Amnesia Records), comprising a mixture of new and previously released material, plus some live recordings. The band split up for good the following year.
Listening to the material some 20 years after the event, one is struck by the rather schizophrenic nature of much of it. Given the varied interests of the band's assorted members (punk, prog, poetry, r'n'b etc) the songs were bound to be a bit of a mishmash, but by the time 'Croaked' and 'Tin and Plastic' rolled around there seemed to be a definite direction emerging. Often - erroneously - compared to the Doors or the Stranglers (not worthy of the former, and as for the latter), Steve Bush was at that time mostly worshipping at the Church of Devoto and Simon Tyler always danced (and composed) to his very own private drum that somewhat defied definition, although he once professed to a liking for surf music and for some time the band hit the stage to the sound of a tune called 'Wild Bike' from an obscure Annette Funicello beach movie.
Most of the band's fans seemed to be spotty youths with thick glasses, anxious to discuss their neuroses - a source of profound irritation to the band's testosterone charged members. Odd - well, very odd, moments stand out in a Spinal Taptastic way. The topless onstage shoeshine event was a standout, as was the puking-on-groupies incident. The 'shoot Reagan' US radio outburst caused much distress in the irony-free zone that was America in those days, and the contents of those little brown envelopes dished out each day by their US tour manager led to some seriously dilated pupils (but not much money).
Live, the band were (when they could get it together) a much less tightly-wrapped proposition than the rather tenuous studio outings imply. Steve Bush usually came on like some deranged person, half Iggy half Ian Curtis. Tyler looked like a Zen Monk who'd been slipped a Mickey - breaking from his usually static stage posture to attack his keyboards with fists, feet, or inanimate objects found nearby. Dan Cotterill was a serial guitar-smasher, Dave Robinson was the archetypal leather-clad rocker and a stone-solid horse-frightener. Mike Fewings was the best musician anyone had ever heard, but seemed indifferent to praise or blame, standing stock still throughout as if dipped in embalming fluid. Phil Howard, a moody Northerner was a drummer of incandescent ability who made his own drums in sculpture class at Bower Ashton, whilst skinsman numero uno - Nick Tufnell - brought a tender aristocratic sensibility to a band which got louder and louder after his departure. Also mentioned in despatches are drummer John Langley and guitarist Jon Klien (then of the Art Objects and Europeans, respectively) who depped during the not infrequent periods of upheaval, and Martin Kiernan who added a touch of Scouse spice to band's final incarnation.
Steve Bush went on to form A Pair of Blue Eyes with Christian Clarke (formerly of Various Artists and the Art Objects) enjoying very modest success on CBS/Sony in the late '80's. His 'Blossom Freak' album will be released soon on Green Goat Productions Simon Tyler is writing the definitive history of the Fosseway, Nick Tufnell has become a country squire, Mike Fewings is a rally driver and still records with Steve from time to time. Dave Robinson is enjoying life as a coastal guru and Martin Kiernan is now an intellectual Scouse Git. As for the others who knows?
Greatness in any form is rarely invoked by nostalgia alone. Essential Bop were never great, but sometimes they were good. Hell, ain't that enough ?
(Benny Badman July 2000)

get it here

V/A:Streets,LP, UK 1977

You asked for it...here it is!

A1 The Doll - Trash

A2 The Members - Fear on the Streets

A3 Lurkers - Be My Prisoner

A4 Arthur Comics - Isgodaman

A5 Art Attacks - Arabs in 'Arrads

A6 The Dogs - 19

A7 The Reaction - Talk Talk Talk Talk

A8 Cane - College Girls

B1 Slaughter and the Dogs - Cranked Up Really High

B2 The Nosebleeds - Ain't Bin to No Music School

B3 The Drones - Lookalikes

B4 The Zeros - Hungry

B5 The Pork Dukes - Bend and Flush

B6 The Exile - Disastermovie

B7 Drive - Jerkin

B8 John Cooper Clarke - Innocents

B9 Tractor - No More Rock n' Roll

check also Mein Walkman Ist Kaputt blog for extented infos.

get it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/13267248/va_-_streets__1977_.rar

Apologies

Sorry to some friends...by mistake i rejected their comments...very sorry for this...actually they were comments sent during the last hour....A friend who found this blog through FM Shades and another one who has a blog...mix avantgrde ...don't remember exactly...if you do not mind please resend your comments.Sorry once again....

Moral:And life is..., LP, 1984

Another crown jewel of the early 80s minimal electronics scene and very rare one....

get it here

Mama Bea Tekielski-LA Folle (1977),LP, France (NWW list!/Isadora label)

Demonic virtuoso Polish-born vocalist Mama Bea Tekielski delivered powerful rants that mixed pure sonic experiment and Patti Smith-style anger on her classic albums LA Folle (1977), Il Faudrait Rallumiere la Lumiere (1977), Pour un Bebe' Robot (1978), Le Chaos (1979), Pas Peur De Vous (1980), Aux Alentours d'Apres Minuit (1981), Ou Vont Les Stars (1982). She disappeared for a while, but then returned with La Difference (1986), Violemment la Tendresse (1988), No Woman's Land (1991), Indienne (1998), L'Indienne (2006)

get it here

Reform Art Unit-Impressions ,LP,1978 , Austria(NWW List!)

Improvisation/free jazz band from Austria.

members:

Anthony Braxton

Fritz Novotny

Muhammad Malli

Paul Fickl

Walter Schiefer

Clifford Thornton
Heinz Jδger

1978 – September 30

First International Music WorkshopKrems (Austria)

Sorry could not find the pic sleeve!

Included in the NWW list!

more info:http://www.advancedpoetx.com/RAU/rau00i.html

get it here

Ovary Lodge-st,LP ,1973 (NWW list!)

Keith Tippett, Piano (Zither on "Tropic of Capricorn")

Roy Babbington, Bass

Frank Perry, Percussion (Piano Interior on "Tropic of Capricorn")
"The sounds are acoustic, no electronics are involved" Robert Fripp
"All music on this album is improvised" Keith Tippet
These two deceptively simple quotes might actually better describe the music on this than any review I could muster up but I'll give it a whirl. This is free jazz as good as it gets, noisy, obnoxious and very experimental. I guess after the Centipede project, Keith Tippett had a yearning for a much smaller unit to work with. Well, what this trio lacks in personnel, it makes up for in the vast array of sounds that it produced. Ovary Lodge...ok you can get the giggling out of the way now...is an album of epic proportions and I'm very surprised I had never heard anything about it before purchasing it. Those who dig Tippett's work on King Crimson's "Cat Food" and the Lizard album will surely want to add this gem to their collection.
The first few moments of "First Born" give you the notion right away that this is going to be an unusual journey. Keith's wild abstract playing combines with Frank Perry's relentless hit-as-many-things-as-you-can-in-one-beat style, add to that Babbington's freaky bowed bass lines and you have a recipe for musical insanity to put it mildly. Things don't let up at all throughout piece either. Hold on folks, this is only the beginning!
The second track, "Mountain Temple in Spring", is a much more laid back excursion with lots of atmospheric percussion noises along with a good deal of experimental grinding, scraping and bowing of things. It may sound like it could be annoying, but the sounds are basically kept to a quiet level. Actually it reminds me of the "Dream" section in "Moonchild" from In the Court of the Crimson King with lots more stuff thrown in. Fripp's quote rings true in that there are some very "electronic" sounds here.
On "Tropic of Capricorn", Frank climbs into the piano and starts banging on things while accompanied by Keith's absolutely dreadful sounding zither. The next two tracks are piano solos. I guess Perry got kicked out of the piano and Keith decided to do a few on his own. "Come On In" and "Nursery Rhyme" are a couple short but very busy pieces of piano absurdity.
The albums closing number "Sylphs in Pisces" shows the trio stretching very far out into that musical nirvana that only occurs very rarely with great improvisation from very skilled players. This is Sun Ra territory guys! I swear Fripp and Crimson got the inspiration for THRaKaTTaK from this one. And many of you know how much I like that one. ;~)
I guess it should go without saying that this should be approached with an open mind.

from: http://www.progressiveears.com/ASP/reviews.asp?albumID=2486&bhcp=1

get it here

Geinoh Yamashirogumi-(1976) Chi no hibiki higashi yu~roppu wo utau(Echoes Of The Earth Sing Eastern Europe)

As asked one more LP from Geinoh.As always fantasic!Sorry no pic sleeve!More to follow!

get it here

Clock DVA:White souls in black suits, tape/LP, 1980

ClockDVA release their first official album WHITE SOULS IN BLACK SUITS viaan invitation from Throbbing Gristle to be released on their Industrial Recordslabel as a cassette release only. The album itself is a raw pre-amble prior tothe Formation of Thirst. Taken from fifteen hours of improvisational sessions afive member version of DVA recorded the sessions via a mobile recordingunit.The album was mixed and produced at Caberet Voltaires Western Worksstudio. The album includes a tape chance montage sequence in collaboration withChris Watson. Richard H Kirk and Stephen Mallider engineered and co-producedin collaboration with DVA.
WHITE SOULS IN BLACK SUITSIndustrial Records IRC31 [MC][UK]Original came with a 10 page A4 Booklet containing Images and Words.
Italian Records EX24 [LP][ITAL] (1982 & 1990 re-release)
Contempo CONTEDISC 157 [CD][ITAL](1992 re-release)
CONTE 157 [LP](1992 re-release)[Limited 1000 Copies]
CONTE 157X [LP](color vinyl re-release)
CONTAPE 157[MC](1992 re-release)
1. Consent (5:05)
2. Discontentment (1&2) (6:03)
3. Still /Silent (7:22)
4. Non (11:07)
5. Relentless (5:27)
6. Contradict (5:23)
7. Anti-Chance (14:08)(Soundtrack; Keyboards assemble themselves At Dawn)
Personnel:
Adi Newton
Stephen James "Judd" Turner
David J. Hammond
Roger Quail
Charlie Collins

get it here

The Second Set Of Obscure DIY Classic 7"

SA55:Compromised/Love is blind

In the top-10 UK DIY 7"!A masterpiece and totaly unkown

To the Finland Station :Domino Theory e.p.

Another gem!

Moskow :Man from U.N.K.L.E


Pete Fender and the 4 Formulas :4 track e.p.
Vi Subversa's (Poison girls) son .Later formed Fatal Microbes/Rubella Ballet.

The Decorators:Pendelum & Swinge

Their first and best 7"

The Freeze:In colour e.p

Andy Ross's First band.Their 1st 7".A psych/punk masterpiece!

The Apartments:Return of the Hypnotist e.p

Their first 7" from 1979 on Able label (AUSTRALIA).Conections with Go betweens.A forgoten masterpiece!

ATTIC:All plans exist e.p.

The group from South Specific compilation LP(posted earlier here) in their first magnificent e.p. .2 more followed.

Note all the 7" are from UK (except the Apartments) and were released between 1979-1982).For more infos contact me.

get them here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12647690/vol2.rar

Arbete Och Fritid -st+Andra ,LPs ,1970-71,Sweden (NWW list!)

On the first record from Swedish jazz/folk/psych improvisers the music is quite normal. There's a melancholy, Scandinavian feel in most of the tunes that I find very attractive. The instrumentation is changing - piano, cello, trumpet, sax, violin, marimba, drums, electric bass .... but no guitar A&F line-up: Bengt Berger, Torsten Eckerman, Ove Karlsson, Roland Keijser, Kjell Westling

After the 2nd album Bengt Berger & Kjell Westling left (and was later replaced by Tord Bengtsson & Bosse Skoglund). It's more experimental on songs like "Fylke Airport" - great cello/violin workout & "Den tredje gång jag såg dig" - begins like World Music and ends in Free jazz. Only two songs are in the same, melancholy folk/jazz style as the first album - "Finsk sorgmarsch"(one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded) & "Två grekiska låtar". "Tango Gabardin" with two noodling organs reminds me of Pere Ubu's "Arabia" from The Art of Walking.

Great LPs!Connections with Trad Gras Och Stenar. Of course included in the NWW list.

get them here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12692005/arbete___fritid__vinyl-1970_.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/12696661/arbete___fritids_andra_lp__vinyl-1971_.rar

Pierre Henry - Le livre des morts Egyptien 1988

Pierre Henry (born December 9, 1927 in Paris, France) is a French composer, considered a pioneer of the musique concrète genre of electronic music.
Between 1949 and 1958, Henry worked at the Club d'Essai studio at RTF, founded by Pierre Schaeffer. During this period, he wrote the 1950 piece Symphonie pour un homme seul, in cooperation with Schaeffer; he also composed the first musique concrète to appear in a commercial film, the 1952 short film Astrologie ou le miroir de la vie. Henry has scored numerous additional films and ballets. Among Henry's best known works is the experimental 1967 album Messe pour le temps présent, one of several cooperations with choreographer Maurice Béjart featuring the popular track "Psyche Rock".
Perhaps one of Henry's most well-known influences on contemporary popular culture is the theme song to the TV series Futurama. The tune is clearly inspired by Henry's 1967 song "Psyché Rock."
Ceremony (1969) (in collaboration with English band Spooky Tooth)
In 1999, Fatboy Slim issued a remix of Psyche Rock.

Starting the hommage at this very important composer with a slightly recent work.More to come!

get it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12712327/pierre_henry_-_le_livre_des_morts_egyptien.rar

Chene Noir - Aurora + Chant pour le delta la lune et le soleil, LPs ,France, 1971/6 (NWW list)

As one might guess from this band's full name, Théâtre du Chêne Noir d'Avignon, Chêne Noir was a troupe of musicians and actors from the city of Avignon in southeast France. Avignon in fact is famous for its numerous theater companies and the name refers to both the performance group and the ancient chapel where they are headquartered. Many similar groups -- such as Principal Edwards Magic Theater, Grand Magic Circus, and Floh de Cologne -- in the early '70s throughout Europe blended rock with theater, but Chêne Noir, more avant-garde than most, deserves special note for its blend of improvised jazz and rock, spoken word, dance, and theatrics. Musician and writer Gerard Gelas founded Chêne Noir in 1968 as a way to create ceremonies to release the full potential of humanity and push the performers physically and psychological to the limits. Though occasionally the troupe put on material by Molière, Alfred Jarry, and other more obscure French writers, their main focus was on original material by Gelas and the others in the group. In 1971, the legendary experimental jazz label Futura released the group's first album, Aurora, recorded from a May 1971 performance of a piece in their repertoire since September 1970. Whereas on this debut, Chêne Noir was a seven-piece and by the late '70s when they released a couple more albums, Chant pour le Delta la Lune et le Soleil and Orphee 2000, on their own label, they had filled out to ten members. Meanwhile, the physical theater itself provided a performance space to other acts over the years; in 1972, both Magma and Steve Lacy performed there and for Lacy, it was the very first of his many solo concerts. The Chêne Noir company has continued to perform throughout the last several decades into the new millennium, either at the chapel or on tour to other parts of France, Moscow, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Algeria, and even Canada.

A strange ritualistic concoction of bamboo flutes and bongos and gongs improvised to moans and French spoken word. At times, like early in "Arrivee," the sound is almost ambient, just a single flute droning over the distant rumble of drums. "La Vieillesse et la Mort," on the other hand, cuts loose on a wild improvisation while a woman screams and howls and the horns kick up a squall. Over a somber backdrop of flute and drums, the woman's voice becomes more and more possessed on "Le Conte de la Terre," until the sax and trumpet erupt again. Though Chene Noir is a theatrical performance company, on this disc they are firmly entrenched in the avant-garde with tracks that lack any sort of song structure, but instead offer slow, free-form buildups to wild outbursts of raw emotion, or slower soundscapes of bleakness and beauty, often with long instrumental sections, like the lone saxophone lament of "Vivre," which closes the album. Aurora is one strange trip, even without the visual performance that accompanied it when first performed. The second record by this theater troupe is a far more relaxed affair than the chaos of Aurora. Gone are the screams and howls to a free-form squall of noise. Instead, Nicole Aubiat's voice, mostly spoken, rides almost continuously over the steady ethno-percussion jazz-rock of the band. Since the lyrics are all in French, and there are no instrumental stretches until the final track, "Nil," some listeners without knowledge of the language might be put off, even more so without the visual aspects of the performance. Though at times her voice and the music are evocative enough, even when one doesn't know the meaning. The opener, "Le Train," is propelled by African percussion and steady vibraphone riff, while Aubiat's voice, sexy and throaty, seems to climax with the rising horn session halfway through the song. Most of the emotion of the record is in her voice, as the band carries off a trance-like funk groove on "Hey," or an eerie ambience with bird noises in "Les Oiseaux." "Nil" sinks into a dirge, while her voice becomes forlorn. The record comes off maybe too well mannered, especially following in the shadow of Aurora. Rolf Semprebon, All Music Guide

Magnifect LPs!Of course included in the NWW list!

get them here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12665650/chene_noir_-_aurora.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/12669603/chene_noir_-_chant_pour_le_delta_et_la_lune_-.rar

V/A:Rupert preaching at a PicNic, LP, UK,1981

Great DIY compilation from UK!Contains the first ever song by Portion Control and an unissued song by Innocent Vicars!!

tracklist:

1.Two Choices/ Frets

2.Twist And Run/ Elusive Diplomats

3.Actress/ Bona Dish

4.Life And Times/ Life Machine

5.Dope Prohibition/ Köln

6.Sword/ Oblivion 2

7.Fairytales/ Absentees

8.She Was My Girl/ Innocent Vicars

9.Hate The Girl/ Marine Girls

10.Somebody/ Frankies Crew

11.Factory Girl/ Deranged

12.Bat Brain Moon Man Boiler Boy/ Plugs

13.Girl On The Corner/ Amatory Mass

14.Boy Named Sue/ Eddy Steady Go

15.Preach/ Portion Control
get it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12680450/va_-_rupert_preaching_at_a_picnic.rar

V/A:more songs that will never be released, TAPE ,1980, Australia (Systematics,Scattered order,etc)

Tape compilation released in only a few copies .Contains unreleased Systematics,Scattered Order, Makers of the dead travel fast tracks.

Fantastic!

check:http://www.spin.net.au/~mifilito/msquared.html

(A selection compilation LP comes soon)

get it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12644012/various_-_more_songs_that_will_never_be_released.rar

Spooky Tooth and Pierre Henry-Ceremony (an electronic mass), 1968 ,LP

Pierre Henry: Synthesizer, electronics

Gary Wright: Vocals, organ, keyboards

Luther Grosvenor: Guitars

Mike Harrison: Vocals, keyboards

Mike Kellie: Drums and percussion

Andy Leigh: Bass, guitar

Subtitled 'An Electronic Mass' (and that definitely calls for a spelling error in the second word!). Featuring a bizarre twist in Spooky Tooth fate. Derided by fans and non-fans alike, treated as a joke/blasphemous insult/dated piece of bizarre crap, whatever you want. And besides that, featuring a really scary album cover. I swear, before I spotted that nail in the fellow's hand, I really thought that streak of a blood was coming from a vampire's tooth (add in the band's name, and you get the idea). And I hate vampires - my neck always gets itchy when I think of them. That's how sensitive I am.
Now of course this revelation goes nowhere. Just like this album. Apparently, it wasn't initially even suggested as a Spooky Tooth release. Avantgarde "musique concrete" composer Pierre Henry wanted to experiment with a pop album, so he selected Spooky Tooth (it could have been Badfinger for all I care!) and they were asked to write a set of conceptual songs for Monsieur Henry to vent it through his 'progressive' electronic treatment. Gary Wright liked the idea, so he penned a set of pseudo-religious tracks, the band recorded them almost overnight, and then the stuff was given to Henry. He recorded all these effects, and then bang! all of a sudden, the album was credited to Spooky Tooth. Fans of Spooky Two rushed to the stores, grabbed the new album from the guys that rewarded this world with 'Evil Woman', and... ugh, the very thought makes me sick.
Fact is, it ain't such a bad album. As far as music goes, at least, it's at least several steps above the similar, and far less listenable, Mass In F Minor project by the Electric Prunes. The big problem is that the music simply does not gel with all of Henry's stupid noises. It - Does - Not - Gel. ALL of the stuff that Monsieur Henry had overloaded over this poor bunch of songs just sucks. I have nothing against avantgarde when it's atmospheric, or when it's well constructed. But I can't help thinking about how randomly all the electronic effects on the album have been chosen. 'Confession' is almost entirely ruined by all these ear-destructive industrial noises, sounds of clinking hammers and tingling bells or something like that. 'Have Mercy' is equally ruined by idiotic effects that sound like some guy passionately chewing on a leg of beef while Mike Harrison is going out of his way singing 'Lord have mercy!'. Even worse, it is then followed by a series of clicks and clucks that now, in the CD age, probably make me jump out of my chair much more frequently then they would have in the age of LPs - these clucks sound exactly like my CDs sound when there's something wrong with them. The last straw, of course, was 'Credo', where right in the middle Pierre Henry catches on some dude feebly blabbering out 'ba ba ba b-ba b-ba' or something like that and loops it all over the world. After that I couldn't face playing the album in the presence of my family or they'd think I went completely gaga. So I had to put on my phones, and gaga I went twice as much.
Fortunately, I brought myself 'round to having a second listen, and a third one, and even a fourth one. The weirdness wore off, and I found... that some of the songs are actually well-written. I would now give everything in the world (except for my collection of Rod Stewart's Eighties albums, of course - how can a human being breathe, feed, and particularly copulate without a copy of Camouflage nearby?) for a Ceremony that'd be entirely Henry-devoid. I suspect there must be bootleg copies of it floating around... anyway, my imagination is strong enough to picture these songs without the electronic "treatment", and as such, they work on a certain level. There are some really really nifty hard-rockin' pieces floating around, actually, the best of these being 'Offering', a short three-and-a-half track where the electronic effects actually do work: the dark gothic riff merges perfectly with the paranoid vocals, and the panting noises and the murky diddly-diddling in the background actually add to the atmosphere, plus, it's kinda funny when they go 'Let us have salvation!'.
'Have Mercy' and 'Credo' are actually quite nice as well. 'Have Mercy' begins as a typically bluesy number that heavily abuses the bluesy cliche of the title but then proceeds to become another frantic hard rocker showcasing the professionalism of the guys - even if they knew they were doing a toss-off, they were still playing it with enough energy. As for 'Credo', its ending section is pretty moody as well, the most grim and ominous, could we even say desperately cruel, piece on the record, even if it is really undermined by the baaaaaaah-ing idiot. And 'Hosanna' has terrific guitar solos.
Anyway, one should understand that even without the stupid treatment, Ceremony would be no great shakes, but the hard rockers might be salvageable; it's the slower tracks like 'Confession' and 'Prayer' that really bog the record down and give it an air of unnecessary pretentiousness and gimmickry. Thus, it would probably be an overall 10 on my scale for the effort and essentially for being more or less able to convert the idea of a 'bizarre religious hard rock album' to reality (much more so than the Prunes, at least), but one point is deduced for the electronic crap. Well, what do you want? It didn't exactly lead to a big critical rave-up or commercial breakthrough back then, when this stuff was at least novel and 'innovative', so what would you expect now? In fact, Ceremony almost led to the band breaking up, with their reputation of solid British roots rockers destroyed and replaced by a reputation of pretentious pseudo-artsy weirdos. In the end, it led to Gary Wright quitting over this whole thing (he went to play with George Harrison, the nice boy that he was) and the band regrouping around Harrison (MIKE Harrison, that is. Say, do you think Mr Wright had a natural attraction to Harrisons?). Funny that the album is still available - if you see it, pick it up anyway, if only as a major historical curio. Bad as the effect is, it's still quite unique in its own way.

get it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12640922/spooky_tooth_and_pierre_henry-1968-ceremony__an_electronic_mass_.rar

Ruth's refrigerator:Suddenly a disfigured head parachuted+A lizard is a submarine on grass,LPs ,UK ,1990/91

Ruth's Refrigerator was a short-lived collaboration between Leicester, England-based neo-psychedelic guitarist/songwriter Alan Jenkins (formerly of the Deep Freeze Mice and the Chrysanthemums) and the British indie pop band Po! (not to be confused with American alt-rockers P'o). The members were Jenkins, namesake singer/guitarist Ruth Miller, keyboardist Blodwyn P. Teabag (whom Jenkins later married), bassist Terri Lowe, and drummer Robyn Gibson. Ruth's Refrigerator released two fine albums' worth of jangly psych-pop, 1990s Suddenly a Disfigured Head Parachuted and 1991's A Lizard Is a Submarine on Grass, but was never meant to be a full-time project. Miller and Lowe returned to Po!, and Jenkins, Teabag, and Gibson went on to form the Creams.
Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

The Deep Freeze Mice(one of my favorite bands) sound in the '90s!

For extensive infos please visit:http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/strebor84/site_dfm.htm

For (well, some....,very litle...) records by DFM visit the garage/psych Lost-In-Time blog(see my links).Also tell me if you have any requests on DFM nd related stuff.

get them here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12634431/Ruth_s_Refrigerator_-_Suddenly_A_Disfigured_Head_Parachuted.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/12632376/ruth_s_refrigerator_-_a_lizard_is_a_submarine_on_grass.rar

Rhythm & Noise - Contents under notice ,LP ,USA, 1984

The experimental, largely unstructured sounds on Contents Under Notice fall roughly under the umbrella of the band's name, but just barely. One side consists of various-length sonic mood pieces ("Lull," "Vagues," "Looms," etc.); the other is filled with "Monomenon," a long hypothetical score of indescribable audio goings-on. It incorporates industrial sounds, other audio vérité, synthesizers, tape manipulations and god knows what else. In its raucous, multi-layered complexity, the piece asymptotically approaches sheer white noise din. Maybe this is what Martians with insomnia listen to.
The troubling anti-new age ambience on Chasms Accord could serve as the soundtrack to any number of offbeat films. Cut up into 13 segments with wonderful titles like "Lingering Fingers," "Bent Metal Forest" and "Delve," the LP — which acknowledges the assistance of Z'ev, Diamanda Galas and others — is high on drama and low on intentional ugliness, making it a vivid and apropos match for the stress of modern life.
[Ira Robbins]

Discography:

Contents Under Notice (Ralph) 1984

Chasms Accord (Ralph) 1985

from:http://www.trouserpress.com/

get it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12629496/rhythm___noise_-_contents_under_notice__lp_.rar

Paul Revere & the Raiders - Midnight ride (1966) & The spirit of '67(1967), LPs

Some of you might think:"what happened?mutantsounds goes mainstream?".Well this post is maybe a bit mainstream but these are 2 classic LPs of 60s pop.Don't forget also that members of Paul Revere and the Raiders formed the "musique concrete" ,free form psych group Friendsound ,mentioned in the legendary NWW list(and pretty soon coming to this blog!).

So here's a litle history (until 1973,from :http://en.wikipedia.org/):

Early yearsThe band, initially located in Boise, Idaho, started as an instrumental rock outfit led by organist Paul Revere (legal name Paul Revere Dick; original stage name Revere Dick [1]), whose distinctive given names were in honor of the Revolutionary War hero. In his early twenties, Revere already owned several restaurants in Caldwell, Idaho, and first met singer Mark Lindsay while picking up an order of hamburger buns from the bakery where Lindsay worked (this circumstance was later referred to in the tongue-in-cheek song "Legend of Paul Revere"). Lindsay joined Revere's band in 1958. Originally called The Downbeats, they changed their name to Paul Revere & The Raiders in 1960 on the eve of their first record release for Gardena Records. The band scored their first Pacific Northwest regional hit in 1961 with "Like, Long Hair", an instrumental. Revere was drafted, became a conscientious objector and worked at a mental institution for a year and half of deferred service. After reforming the band, they attracted national attention again with a cover of "Louie Louie", which was picked up by Columbia Records although beaten in the charts by The Kingsmen's version.
They would maintain a huge level of popularity in the mid-1960s beginning with "Just Like Me" (1965), which marked the beginning of a string of garage rock classics. The Raiders, under the guidance of producer Terry Melcher, increasingly emulated the sounds of British Invasion bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Animals albeit with an American R&B feel.
The band appeared regularly on national television, especially on Dick Clark's Where the Action Is, Happening '68, and It's Happening, the latter two of which were co-hosted by Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay. Here they were presented as the American response to the British Invasion. The group wore American Revolutionary War soldier uniforms and performed slapstick comedy and synchronized dance steps while the ponytailed Lindsay lip synched to their music. This farcical, cartoonish image obscured the proto-hard rock sound that their music often took.
Their hits from the mid-60's included "Kicks" (Billboard Pop Chart #4), "Him or Me - What's It Gonna Be?" (#7), "Good Thing" (#5), "Hungry" (#5), and "Great Airplane Strike" (#20). Of these, "Kicks" became their best-known song, an anti-drug message written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil that was especially akin to The Animals.
In mid-1967, with three gold albums to their credit, they were Columbia Records' top-selling rock band; their Greatest Hits album was one of two releases selected by Clive Davis to try out a higher list price for albums expected to be particularly popular, along with Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits.
Changing tastes in the late 1960s rendered the group unfashionable, but they still continued to have hits through the rest of the decade, "I Had A Dream" (1967 - #20), "Too Much Talk" (1968 - #18, and an illustration of their tendency towards Beatles imitations), and "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon" (1969 - #18). Tensions between Lindsay and Revere increased during this time; Lindsay wanted to go more in the direction of hard rock acts like Led Zeppelin or the James Gang, while Revere sought a bubblegum pop direction. Lindsay's vision for the Raiders was represented on songs such as "Let Me" (1969 - #20 - Gold Single), "Powder Blue Mercedes Queen" (1972 - #54) and "Just Seventeen" (1970 - #70) and the 1970 album Collage. By the time of the release of Collage the band's name was officially shortened to The Raiders. "Freeborn Man", written by Lindsay and bassist Keith Allison, has since gone on to be a Country Rock standard, covered by The Outlaws, Junior Brown, and Glen Campbell amongst many others.
Ironically, their single release "Indian Reservation" (1971 - #1 - Platinum single) would be their biggest hit of all, after about a year and a half or so of no hits.
In 1972 The Raiders made one last attempt at a pop album with Country Wine but Columbia was sinking money into other acts, such as Mott The Hoople and Aerosmith, and Country Wine and The Raiders sank in the resulting quagmire.

get 'em here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12621943/paul_revere_2_lps.part1.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/12626324/paul_revere_2_lps.part2.rar

Outsiders-Vital Hours(pre- Sound/Second Layer)

Collection of tracks from The Outsiders' 2 albums ("Calling On Youth" and "Close Up") and EP ("One To Infinity"). All tracks are from 1976 - 1978.

get it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12617170/outsiders_-_vital_hours__pre-sound_second_layer_.rar

Vortex-Les cycles de Thanatos, LP, 1979, France

Les Cycles de Thanatos is a dark-sounding album integrating rock, jazz, and neo-classical elements. Probably the most dominant feature on the album is the dark brooding neo-classical rock, sounding not unlike Univers Zero or Art Zoyd. In addition, there are Zeuhl-ish jazz rock passages that remind me of Zao, Moving Gelatine Plates, instrumental Zappa, and Potemkine. An excellent album of typical French avant-garde/underground music.

http://gnosis2000.net/reviews/vortex.htm

Line-up:
- Jean Pierre Vivante / fender rhodes, yamaha organ, piano
- Jacques Vivante / bass
- Gérard Jolivet / saxophone
- Christian Boissel / fender rhodes, hautbois, English horn
- Jacques Guillot / saxophone
- Jean-Michel Belaich / drums
- Alain Chaleard / percussions
- Maurice Sonjon / percussions
Guests:
Sunny James / violin
Michel Boissel / bassoon

get it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FJI5FB58

Takehisa Kosugi:Catch wave ,LP ,1974, JAPAN(NWW LIST!)

European version on Iskra label (300 copies)

TAKEHISA KOSUGI creates mixed-media sound performances and installations, making use of daily materials and electronic technology, realizing the multiplicity of sounds in space.
Born in Tokyo in 1938, he studied musicology at the Tokyo University of Arts, graduating in 1962. During this period he began multi-instrumental improvisation. In 1960 he co-founded the "Group Ongaku" in Tokyo, a group to play anti-musical DADA-istic performances against conventional creativities. His event pieces, introduced by Fluxus in the early 60s, received recognition in Europe with Fluxus members in New York. In 1969 he co-founded "Taj Mahal Travellers," a group of collective improvisation, playing in various locations with intermedia presentations. In 1970 he participated in Expo '70 in Osaka, with commissioned works for environmental sound events for the Festival Plaza. From 1971 to 1972, he made a travelling event with the Taj Mahal Travellers, voyaging via England, Europe and the Near East to the Taj Mahal in India. The event included participation in Utopia and Visions in Stockholm, ICES '72 in London, recordings for Radio Bremen and BBC TV, and many other performances.
Kosugi has been a resident composer/performer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company since 1977. Commissioned works for the Company include S.E. Wave/E.W. Song (1976), Interspersion (1979), Cycles (1981), Spacings (1984), Assemblage (1986), Rhapsody (1987), and Spectra (1989). He has been music director of the company since 1995.
Kosugi has received grants from The JDR 3rd Fund in 1966 and 1977, a DAAD fellowship grant to reside in Berlin in 1981, and John Cage Award for Music from Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts in 1994.
He has performed in many international festivals including the Festival d'Automne in Paris (1978/79); the Festival at La Sainte-Baume (1978/79/80); the Holland Festival (1979); Opening Concert in Rome (1980); Workshop Freie Musik in Berlin (1984); Pro Musica Nova in Bremen (1984); Almeida International Festival of Contemporary Music in London (1986); Welt Musik Tage `87 in Cologne (1987); Experimentelle Musik in München (1986/88); Inventionen in Berlin (1986/89/92) and Biennale d'art contemporain in Lyon (1993).
Kosugi's sound installations have been presented in various exhibitions and festivals including Für Augen und Ohren in Berlin (1980); Ecouter par les yeux in Paris (1980); Soundings at Purchase, New York (1981); New Music America Festival in Washington (1983); Im Toten Winken in Hamburg (1984); Klanginstallationen in Bremen (1987); Kunst als Grenzbeschreitung: John Cage und die Moderne in München (1991); Iventionen in Berlin (1992); and Musik Tage in Donaueschingen (1993).

get it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/12721194/takehisa_kosugi_-_catch_wave__1975_.rar

Pataphonie:st, LP ,1975 ,France (NWW list!)

Before Pataphonie was unofficially “born” in 1973, the band members who were friends, played in several rock groups for the 3 previous years before that and mainly did covers. This trio consisted of Andre Viaud (guitars), Gilles Rousseau (drums and percussions) and Pierre Demouron (bass and contrabass). They then joined forces in a group without name that played a mixture of rock and jazz. Gradually they started opting for a more free-form rock. For a certain project they were joined by two other musicians; Bernard Audureau on piano and Alain Seve on saxophone. This group did this project which was inspired by contemporary compositors such as Bela Bartok, Eric Satie and Maurice Ravel and was reputed to have influenced Weather Report, Hugh Hopper and Henry Cow. The band chose their name at random using a dictionary, going first for Mussel and then Patagonie. The sound of Patagonie attracted them and they opted for a fusion of two words – Pata from Pataphysique (unclassified) and Phonie which stands for sound, making them unclassifiable sounding. The band was to be an instrumental guitar, bass and drums trio. Their sound appeared to appeal to music critics in several journals that said in 1975 that Pataphonie “could be the great European discovery of the year”. In 1976 the Pole records label collected their past recorded tracks from 1972 to 1976 and released them under “Pataphonie”. However this mainly improvisational-based collection did not show the band member’s abilities. The band members themselves said in 1977 that "To be free in music, you must work for yourself. Freedom isn't the notes recitation, but the feeling that you put into. You must work on the sound as a clay model. We think that we play an innovator music with his defaults. We can be wrong commercially, but musically, we're right. Music is not synonymous of success at all". It is only in 1978 that the band can allow itself financially to record in a studio. It is in July 1978 that they record their phenomenal album “Le Matin Blanc” (The White Morning). The album is instrumental, experimental, inspired by free-jazz and traces of contemporary classical composers. This release was embraced by their fans and media. Since no major label was interested in distributing this album the members decided to create their own with the purpose of distributing it themselves – Feeri Music. The album was sold by mail-order to about 1000 people. On the reissue of this album on CD there are bonus tracks. Among them is Mandoline Station which was written in April 1978 and never played live. However due to technical reasons it was not included on the original release. There are also 4 live tracks, including Memoire Baroque which is the title of the never release second album…This second album was completely composed however due to lack