PROPER LINKS FOR STEVE THOMSEN & JOSEPH HAMMER NOW POSTED

Sorry for the botch with the Recyclopedia C links getting included in the Thomsen/Hammer post in place of the correct links. These have now been corrected...

...AND THEN THE MASSMIRROR LINKS FOR MY NEW POSTS BEGAN WORKING AFTER ALL....

Guess what? I turns out that the Massmirror snafu I wrote about in that previous post (which I've now deleted) was only temporary. ALL the Massirror links for my 5 new posts are now functioning [deep sign of relief...]

G.F. FITZGERALD-MOUSEPROOF, LP, 1970, UK

A key if peripheral (and sadly under-documented) figure in the early 70's British underground, guitarist Fitzgerald's extant discography (as far as I can determine) comprises an appearance on the seminal "Guitar Solos" compilation (alongside Fred Frith, Derek Bailey and Hans Reichel) an archivally released collaboration with Lol Coxhill and this sui generis treasure chest of curios, featuring appearances from everyone from Henry Cow's Geoff Leigh to Roxy Music bassist Rik Kenton to early Fairpport Convention vocalist Judy Dyble, and as the idiosyncratic assemblage of players suggests, this traverses a great deal of territory, from numinous folk rock to Zappa-esque art rock snarkiness, all arranged for maximal head-scratch potential.

Get it Here

STEVE THOMSEN & JOSEPH HAMMER-SWAN TROVE, CDR, 1995 (REMIXED AND EXTENDED: 2001), USA

Both former Monitor member Steve Thomsen and Dinosaurs With Horns/Steaming Coils tape loop maestro Joseph Hammer have had several of their solo missives featured here previously, but this overlooked monument to cartoonish quease is easily one of their finest hours; to wit one of the finest hours in the entire L.A. Free Music Society canon. Essentially Solid Eye minus Rick Potts, Swan Trove was originally issued as a tape on Thomsen's private imprint. It's debatable which version is superior (this remixed and extended version privileging the assertive over the more milkily restrained), but there's no disputing the unhinged psychotropic forcefield this unleashes; a black-lit netherworld of woozy faux-spooky keyboard themes and dazed loops that cyclically churn in amniotic suspension.

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

Get it here 

MAHOGANY BRAIN-SMOOTH SICK LIGHTS, LP/CD, 1972 (CD REISSUE: 1997), FRANCE, NWW LIST

Drug damaged willful perversity and inspired amateurism from this Nurse With Wound-listed anarchic French underground mob. Corollaries could be made with The Godz, Frolkhaven and the like, but the particular taste left on the palate here (burned brains in black butter?), is decidedly specific; it's structural disjunctions clearly paving the way for later French units like Heratius. This is taken from the 1997 CD reissue, which includes a full 22 minutes of previously unreleased material.

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

Get it here

***NOTE: THERE'S A MIRRORED MEDIAFIRE LINK IN THE COMMENT FIELD*** 

ANDRE FERTIER & CLIVAGE-KASSIOPEE, LP, 1985, FRANCE

Following Jim's post of this fantastic French ethno jazz unit's debut "Regina Astris" and my post of their mindblowing follow-up "Mixtus Orbis", here's their third outing from six years on. While Kassioppee might lack a degree of the ecstatically outward bound momentum of their earlier era, Fertier and co.'s command of this aesthetic trajectory (one which places them in a lineage that spans from Scandinavian exponents like Archimedes Badkar and Piirpauke to Italy's Aktuala by way of The Entourage Music And Theater Ensemble) is never less than masterful.

Get it Here

RECYCLOPEDIA C-DE 3 CHARLES' SUITE, CD, 1999, NETHERLANDS

This expansive Dutch project of Frans Freiderich (Dull Schicksal, Tresspassers W., Estos No Son Pagagos) takes as it's remit the composing of three suites dedicated to three historical Charles', in this case, Charles Lindbergh, Charlie Chaplin (his being more of an interlude) and Charles Ives, all supported by a roster of fellow travelers that includes Tresspassers W.'s Cor Gout and Dutch improv stalwart Bert Palinckx. The scope and thrust of this project and it's uneasy collisions of suspended ambience, vocal interjection and faded interventions of historical artifact often result in something that feels closer to an elaborate radio play than a stand-alone CD release. Some sections here admittedly lose a bit in the translation for us non-Dutch speakers, but there's still plenty for the weirdly inclined to sink their teeth into here.

Get pt. 1 Here

Get pt. 2 Here

FINAL 10% NOW RE-UPPED...AGAIN THANKS TO JUSSI!

Yes....before I could even begin to re-up those last handful of titles that Xirror deleted, our hero Jussi beat me to the punch and located the cached google links for 'em! Somebody give this man an award! My next round of new posts will be up by wednesday...stay tuned...

90% COMPLETE

The links for all but 9 titles that I need to personally re-up have now been plugged back into the posts properly. Those 9 will get reinstated by tomorrow. Eternal thanks once again to our blog savior Jussi! My next round of new posts will go up within 2-3 days...

..ONE MORE THING...

Those new links that replaced the dead xirror ones can be found at the comments of each post.

MUTANT BLOG SEEMS TO HAVE A GUARDIAN ANGEL!

It's my turn now to thank a billion times this divine glorious anonymous friend that re-upped almost all dead xirror links from Eric's posts.The most amazing thing is that this great ,one of a kind , person remains anonymous.If he wants to he can contact me by e-mail....we need guys with this kind of ethics and such generous feelings as contributors in our blog.
Thanks a billion times once more
Jim Mutantsounds

OH MY....THANK YOU!

Some extraordinary anonymous human has seen fit to gift me with (so far and more keep pouring in by the moment) approximately 30 rapidshare links from the deleted Xirror uploads. Well...what can I say...Massmirror be damned in this instance...I've been saved an inhuman amount of work and, despite the fact that I don't usually post rapidshare links...well...what's that old cliche about not looking a gift horse in the mouth? Exactly. I am completely flabbergasted and blown away by the generosity of this person's actions. Thanks to them beyond words!

I'd been up all night attending to this problem before these links started pouring in, so I shall now proceed to fall on my face and begin the process of re-inserting these links late saturday...

TO THOSE OFFERING AID...

First off, thanks to all who've written with kind words of support. a fellow named Raymond stated in the comment board of the Xirror disaster post that he'd be willing to chip in and help get some deleted files re-upped. If anyone else should feel similarly inspired to assist (an act I'd be eternally grateful for), please let me know soon-ish and please upload the files to massmirror. I'm endeavoring to re-up 10 files of the most recently posted titles tonight (some of which comprise two parts). They are:

ron anderson/tatsuya yoshida-first meeting

minamo-wakka & live

x ray pop-psychedelik dolls

suburban lawns-s.t.

frieder butzmann-das madchen....

jason willett & ruins-s.t.

kevin ayers-just for olde tymes sake




A friend has also told me that he'll be helping re-up these:


tangle edge-in search of a new dawn

brian sands-fixation

pimmon-orquesta del arrurruz

yclept dinmakers-eeleemon machine


I've just spent the night sifting through the blog and I think I now have a good idea of all that remains to be re-upped. In wishing to avoid any complications, I'll take care of all files that have been divided into two parts, but if anyone is willing to help re-up any of these ones, please let me know:

Messehalle-Live Auf Dem Extase Festival 29.1.81
V.A.-Non Dom
Barry Dalive-homely all american...
Rovo-pyramid
Franco Battiato-Juri Camisasca-Osage Tribe-la convenzione
Junji Hirose & Yoshihide Otomo-silanganan ingay
Czechoslovak Radio Jazz Orchestra And The Blue Effect Group
Kohichi Makigami-minzoku no saiten
Denier Du Culte-L'Archange Enflamme EP
Alfred 23 Harth-Anything Goes
Kido Natsuki-disco space baby!
Total Issue-s.t
Novo Tono-s.t.
Toni Esposito-Gente Distratta
Toto Blanke-Spider's Dance
Dragon Blue-Hades Park
V.A.-Riddle Of Lumen
C.E.D.S.-Xandosis
Foehn-Insideout Eyes
Ur Kaos-s.t.
V.A.-Four Ways Out
Kemialliset Ystavat-Nuu Ha Ni Haka
Bene Gesserit-Music For The Fun Of It
Encore + Grande-total bliss
Killing Time-Bob
Phew-Our Likeness
Les Progres II-Apres Le Retour
Strange Fruit Abiku-Sin Eaters Picnic
V.A.-City & Industry
Hoyry-kone-Hyonteisia Voi Rakastaa
Gameboyzz Orchestra Project-Lajv_Ad_Hom
Kosmonautentraum-Livorno 1956
Komintern-Le Bal Du Rat Mort
Noodband-shiver
V.A.-Four French Forms
P-Model-In A Model Room
Steaming Coils-Breaded
Static Effect-Certain Random Firings
Earwax Control-s.t.
Shub Niggurath-s.t.-cass.

Please email these massmirror links to: pantheonbar@gmail.com and I'll get them re-posted right away.

A million thanks in advance....

Eric

XIRROR DISASTER ***PLEASE READ***

Xirror, the file spreading service that I've been using for the past several months (and which I'd periodically used before) has just removed ALL links, after apparently being persecuted by the German police. I'd switched to Xirror after Massmirror became overwhelmingly problematic to use. Now, I'm looking at having to re-up potentially hundreds of posts of mine, not to speak of having to fish through all my previous posts to find out which earlier ones I'd used Xirror for as well. It appears that Massmirror is back to being functional (albeit minus giving users the choice of using Rapidshare), so I'll revert to using their service.

Needless to say, this is obviously a major setback for me. I'd ask one and all to please be patient as I undertake the huge task of systematically re-upping these and understand that I'll have to hold off on putting up any new posts until I can resolve this nightmare. I'll try to do so as quickly as possible and will keep you all abreast of developments...

Camille Sauvage -Fantasmagories,LP,197?,France

Absolutely fantastic library music LP by Camille Sauvage.Electronic interpretations of horror themes.Music concrete meets psychedelic electronics pop!Highly recommented!

get it here

DADA-JYO,LP,1978,JAPAN

Drawing inspiration from German electronic music, Fripp & Eno and Heldon, Dada (Kenji Konishi and Mutsuhiko Izumi) infused synth and guitar driven sounds with gagaku-inspired drones to achieve a sort of Oriental lyricism. The band subsequently released the album DADA (King '81) before splitting. Meanwhile, Konishi formed 4D, shifting his direction towards techno dance music, while Izumi joined the jazz-rock group Kennedy, and later After Dinner.

From:"Vanity Fair In Osaka"by Satoru Higashisetofrom Music No. 2, 1998.

Yes guys,finally this rarity is posted here !The Vanity records 1st ever release.Great LP with much Fripp/Eno and Heldon/Pinhas influences. The record has some clovcks and pops .I tried to do the berst to clean it with cool edit.Thanks for this Sascha!This post is especially for my buddy here ,Eric...Hope you like it pal....

get it here

TIME NOW FOR A BIG ONE

Gruppo d'Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza-The Private Sea of Dreams,LP,1967,Italy

Much closer to free jazz than to progressive music, this ensemble from Rome is notable for the presence of well known film music composer Ennio Morricone(along with Roland Kayn,Franco Evangelisti,Egisto Macchi,Giancarlo Schiaffini and others). Their 1967 album was also issued in USA and Canada under the name Il Gruppo, while the 1970 album The feed-back is often mentioned as an italian avantgarde classic, being similar sometimes to some german cosmic music albums.Great impro LP!Possibly their rockier(!) one!

get it here

Grow Up - The Best Thing ,LP,1979,UK

So, here's one more from the Object records discography...this time the Grow Up LP.And that leaves only Dubious Collaborations unposted(i think).Here we got fiery punk jazz modish tunes with much use of saxes ...an absolute mutant punk LP with strange interuptions,strange harmonies ,yetr very enjoyable and IMO very "sunny"!

get it here

Borne-Exprime La Naranja ,LP,1979,Spain

Great Spanish late 70s prog fusion in Iceberg vein.Much Andalusian musica elements mixxed with jazz and even funky tunes.

"Iceberg may be the most well known fusion group from 70s/80s Spain which would definitely explain why Borne sounds almost exactly like them. Yes, Andalusian flavored jazz rock is the style here and Borne definitely know how to play, pulling off a fast-paced, riffing fusion with lots of room for soloing from keyboards and guitar. Along the way a number of styles are met from those cheesy 70s TV show type jazz rock themes, to funk, to straight out Mahavishnu-like riffing. This is generally fusion of the more accessible type, and with nine tracks there is rarely room for a more stretched out and solo occupied approach such as you'd find on an album like Coses Nostres. Borne do have their high moments of course, especially when the rhythm section pumps out a fast flowing fusion beat, the type of adrenalin-pumping action that almost makes you forget what's going on on top. However such moments are relatively rare and soon after you'll be faced with yet another nod to the sort of directions that watered down the fusing of two styles in the 70s to where the music sounds like "yet another fusion group." It would be hard to recommend this to someone versed in the genre or to a newcomer, but that's not saying there isn't good music to be had here. But Exprime La Naranja is generally a mixed effort and supposedly these nods to acessible forms of the genre find an even firmer ground on their follow-up from three years later. "

Mike McLatchey
23-August-2002
Exprime La Naranja
For Gnosis2000.net

get it here

Bob Edmund -I See No Colors ,LP,1970,USA

Great anti war folk in the Dylan vein.Backed by Byrth ,sound is led by organ.Very good and obscure record privately released with strongest efforts being the rhythmic church organ driven moments.

get it here

Astro Can Caravan-21st Century Drifting Episode,2005+Questral Places,2003,CDs,Finland

Absolutely fantastic free jaz meets RIO meets exp. funk from Finland by a band having interconnections with Aavikko,Pharaoh Overlord,etc.Reminding Sun Ra's cosmic jazz excursions blended with Magma RIO weirdness.

"Highly experimental, with one foot solidly in the RIO camp and the other in outer space, Astro Can Caravan is an unconventional mix of large ensemble post-Sun Ra cosmic jazz, Magma-influenced Euro-fusion and Herbie Hancock/Miles Davis-styled avant-jazz funk. The 20 members of ACC (most of whom are apparently Finnish) all display a consummate musicianship and a keen awareness of the intricacies of ensemble playing throughout the ten tracks on 21st Century Drifting Episode, and in the process virtually create a new sub-genre one might call "big band space rock." The uncanny mesh of horns (trumpet, trombone), winds (sax, oboe, clarinet), guitar, bass, synthesizer and four percussionists, in addition to being unusual when transposed to the context of space rock, creates some undeniably astounding altered states of consciousness if listened to for extended periods of time. The more overtly Arkestra-influenced pieces ("De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" and "Kohoutek") are brilliant, if not wholly original, exercises in solar jazz, in some ways extending, though not surpassing, the experiments in cacophony and atonalism that Sun Ra pioneered on Heliocentric Worlds. But ACC is quite capable of rocking the house, too, as both "Meteor Shower Geel" and "Mad Oracle" show. The up-tempo pace allows for some dynamic jamming where the synthesizers and saxes literally race each other as if they were on some intergalactic speedway. Imagine if Sun Ra's Arkestra were composed of members of Amon Duul II and Can - 21st Century Drifting Episode is the kind of album he would've done. Like most "difficult' music, you'll have to listen to it at repeated intervals in order to truly appreciate the thorough-going nonconformist approach that Astro Can Caravan adopts - especially on a piece like "The Scale of Anubis" - but rest assured that 21st Century Drifting Episode will clear out the cob webs in your CD collection and will probably find a place of distinction there in the near future."
Charles Van de Kree / Aural Innovations #32 (November 2005)

Astro Can Caravan were formed, according to their short-on-info website and Myspace, in 2001 in Kuopio in Finland by Otto Eskelinen, Pharaoh Pirttikangas, Tomi Kosonen and Tuomas Eriksson. The band has gone through a lot of personnel changes ever since, with at least 35 people that have played in ACC in some line up or another.According to Pentti Dassum from ACC, the 2007 line up of ACC is: Otto Eskelinen, Pharaoh Pirttikangas, Rasmus Pailos, Jusu Berghäll, Tuomas Eriksson, Tuomo Kuure, Pauli Lyytinen, Tomi Kosonen and Pentti Dassum ("give or take a few people, depending on the traveling distance... we live around finland, on a radius of ca 600 km from each other"). ACC are as Crucial Blast puts it a “jazz / prog / abstract / free-skronk-noise collective/orchestra”. Their albums 21st Century Drifting Episode and Questral Places will please listeners into jazz and avant-rock, and who like rhythmic and groovy textures, varied instrumentation and variety and richness of sound.
Thanks to Pentti Dassum for the help in compiling this biography.
==Assaf Vestin (avestin)== From ProgArchives.com

visit theit website here

get those both here

Andreas Thomopoulos-Born Out of the Tears of the Sun,LP,1971,UK/Greece

Great underground acid folk LP by Greek singer Andreas Thomopoulos,that lived in UK(possibly because of the Junta in Greece).Released in the legendary folk label Mushroom this is his 2nd LP,being the first the one called "Songs of the street" on the same label(i think it was 1st label's release). The melancholic Andreas voice accompanied with a vast of acoustic mostly organs creates a dreamy atmosphere with lyrics both in Greek and English.This record seems to have been vanished friom the face of earth!

get it here

An affluent COIL Live CD-r post(well a 7" attached)

Here's a set of 4 live recording of the legendary COIL.These include their first ever performance(08.04.83), a 2002 live in NYC,and Selvaggina,go back in the woods and Black antlers(2004)cd-rs.Attached is the extremely rare 1993 7" "Is suicide a solution"/Airborne Bells".Nothing to write here...COIL were and will always be unique...tears almost came to my eyes hearing John Balance singing Tatooed Man....May he rests in peace....

get this lengthy post here,here,here,here and finally here!

Hasidic New Wave-Psycho-Semitic,CD,1998,Israel

When five Downtown New York improvisers with deep roots in the jazztradition embrace the Hasidic musical legacy and the scintillating rhythmsof the holy land, a new voice emerges. Blending together an intensemixture of ethnic and cosmopolitan sounds, Hasidic New Wave fuses spiritualsongs from Hasidic dynasties to funk and jazz, Arabic dances withavant-garde rock, and juxtaposes horas and freylekhs with sheerimprovisation. Hasidic New Wave's alternatingly ecstatic and meditativeperformances, imbued (as is consistent with Hasidic tradition) with joy andpassion, has led critics to liken the band to Sun Ra meets Jimi Hendrix ata Jewish wedding and exclaim HNW marries Hasidic music to avant-jazz,spinning traditional Jewish celebratory songs into extended Jazzimprovisations that incorporate ferocious horn blowing and raucous electricguitar solos.
Thanks to Maria for this.Great Jazz meets Lounge,meets rock,meets eastern music gem here.

get it here

Through a Telephone Box Darkly,CD-r,2001,UK

Here's a project Phil Sanderson ,of Storm Bugs/Snatch Tapes/etc. fame has sent me a while back. It was supposed to be posted in another blog(stormbugblog.blogspot.com) but seems link is dead.I let Phil speak for himself about this ,actually, masterpiece:
"Philip Sanderson of Storm Bugs/Snatch Tapes etc here. I'm going through my archives of unreleased or under-released material and it occurs to me you might be interested in this project. From 2001 its called Through a Telephone Box Darkly. The idea was to take small fragments from Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust LP; be they fade outs, fade ins or odd notes and phrases and construct an album around these snippets using digital processing and granular syntheses. Much less aggressive than a "mash up", Through a Telephone Box Darkly occupies a parallel universe to the original LP. In some ways the music is more of a soundtrack to Heddon Street the location for the Ziggy Stardust cover photo shoot.
Originally the project was called Suicide Suite and some 50 CD-Rs were printed up and distributed. The idea of releasing a longer version on post office red vinyl was explored but the legal hurdles proved too insurmountable. Listening to the tracks some 7 years on, the music is almost easy on the ear certainly when compared to say Storm Bugs or Seal Pool Sounds. The track listing is as follows:
1.intro (The Boy in the Bright Blue Jeans)2.Golden showers3.Cortege4.Heartache in Heddon Street5.Darkness & Disgrace6. Then Another Finger7.Suicide Drive8. Weird & Gilly ride again"
"A warning: fans of fuzz and excessive noise may find this recording offensively easy on the ear. Also owing to copyright restrictions all persons playing these recordings must be in possession of a battered copy of the original Bowie LP."

get it here

Kracq-Circumvision,LP,1978,Netherlands

The band Kracq was formed in 1977 by members of the band King's Ransom (Twan van der Heijden, Cees Michielsen and Bert Vermijs) and Jos Hustings then operating under the name Carmine Queen. This directly gives the explanation for the name of the band: King's Ransom And Carmine Queen. With Bert Vermijs on piano, string, synthesizer, clavinet and vocals; Jos Hustings on guitar and vocals; Cees Michielsen on drums and percussion and Twan van der Heiden on bass guitar and percussion and a few additional musicians they recorded Circumvision in 1978. This was their first and only studio album; later only a live album and an obscure 'cellar tapes trilogy', with a different formation, was released. The album was released in a limited edition of only 500 vinyl LP's through the Dutch Pop Promotion Foundation, but by 1979 the band already split up again.Very much reminiscent of Finch,Supersister,Alquin,etc,though much more experimental in parts reminding Zappa,Gongish freaked out jazzy compositions,and in solo parts some Vangelis like symponic moments.

get it here

Jean-Luc Roudière-Overchoses,LP,1978,France

Excellent folk/prog experimental LP,full of strange sounds,dark vocals,stoned guitar by Jean Pierre Grasset (of Verto fame),free jazzish horns,spacey electronics.Second side contains a long dark narrative track reminding much the Belgian period of Tuxedomoon.

Overall,a masterpiece!

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

Get it here   

Pandora-Measures Of Time,LP,1974,Sweden

Pandora was founded 1971 in Norrkoping Sweden by drummer Bertil Jonsson and on guitar Urban Gotling. Later joinded by the singer Peter Hjelm and on keyboard Janne ”Flojda” Dockner. Gotling was replaced by Åke Rolf (fd H2O) and Leif Hellqvist. This line up recorded ”Measures of Time” 1974. Pandora had their workshop at this time on the top floor of Bergaskolan in Soderkoping. 1976 Hellqvist quit. He went over to play danceband-music (the rumour says that his girlfriend couldn't dance to Pandoras music, so..) At the same time also Bjorn Malmqvist guit. He started study music. New members came: On keyboard Uffe Stern and on base Gunnar Hermelin (fd Madeira). This line up where 1978 on swedish radio "Tonkraft" and recorded the single ”Makten och Harligheten”. They also did concerts in Horsalen Norrkoping together with bands like ”Trettioariga kriget” och ”Kaipa”.The Band had under these years a record shop ”Rockslag” Nygatan in Norrkoping. The shop became a little centrum of culture for recordfreaks, to gather in, have a coup of coffe and talk abouth music. The shop went bankrupt in 1980. Band that inspirered Pandora was Genesis, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Camel, Wishbone Ash, Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep och Weather Report.From the start Pandora played harder rock but went over to more jazz-symfonirock when Stern och Hermelin joined. The last demo was recorded in 1980 on Stage & Music in Norrkoping. Pandora came to be an inspiration to the band Tribute, and their members Gideon Andersson and Per Ramsby often visited Pandoras concerts. Ramsby even played in some concerts as a replacement for Uffe Stern.Janne and Uffe and later Åke Rolf and Gunnar Hermelin continuied to play in ”Flojd & The Boys” that was in -75.

Posted ages ago in Prog Not Frog blog,this is Swedish prog masterpiece.Hints of King Crimson,Nektar,Camel even some heavier moments in early Uriah Heep vein.Great guitarwork,moog riffs and excellent sensetional vocalparts.

get it here

Oceano - En Vivo Universidad Tecnica del Estado Sala Bulnes ,LP,1977,Chile

Great complex progressive sounds from Chile.Recorded in 1977,this live recording,is blended with Tangerine Dream(2nd rockier period)/Nectar influences,yet very unique ,especially in the improvised parts.No much infos though found in English...

get it here

SUBURBAN LAWNS-S/T, LP, 1981, USA

With a sound that owed more to the Akron, Ohio Devo/Tin Huey axis that anything else transpiring in the L.A. scene of the period, this oddball crew created a debut album of herky jerk new wave godhead that stands as both one of the finest releases of the L.A. underground and indeed the entire era. Anyone that's had the pleasure of witnessing their jaw dropping performance on Peter Ivers' New Wave Theater will have 13 year old chanteuse Su Tissue's pigtails-braces-and-catholic-schoolgirl's-uniform visage burned into their retinas for life, but it's the alternately heliated and husky vocals that issue from her absurdly precocious mouth that'll pin you to the wall. Mad, frantic and giddily, dizzyingly celebratory, this is my idea of the ideal party soundtrack.

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

Get it here

TANGLE EDGE-IN SEARCH OF A NEW DAWN..., LP, 1989, NORWAY

Easily one of the finest retro psych outfits of the era (only Sun Dial and Mooseheart Faith were giving these boys a run for their money around that time), this debut LP by these furry Norwegians is simply overflowing with the sorta sanctified acid moves and dead-on period detail that'll send chills down the spines of those psychotropically inclined, particularly those partial to krautrock moves, as Tangle Edge wear their Amon Duul 2 influence like a badge of honor. I'd be hard pressed to cite more than a handful of bands that have ever managed to successfully tap into the sound of the godhead that was Amon Duul 2 in their prime and Tangle Edge nail it harder than anyone else. That said, nothing about any of the moves here seems remotely calculated or copyist. Rather, it's simply embodies many of the qualities that made AD2 such superhuman event, while never settling for mere emulation. NOTE: Though the LP jacket is pictured (as a CD cover just can't do justice to this imagery), this is taken from the early 90's CD reissue on Demi-Monde, since I find the remixed version slightly preferable...

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

Get it here  

X RAY POP-PSYCHEDELIK DOLLS, LP, 1987, FRANCE

For my money, next to the Barry Dalive LP I hoisted a few weeks back, pride of place in RRRecords' extensive catalog of releases would have to go to this charming French minimal synth/art pop unit's vinyl debut (or is it their second outing?....hard to tell, given that both came out in '87). This was one of RRRon's earliest releases on his legendary imprint (before noise aesthetics became firmly cemented as their remit) and it's a lovely cocktail of blippy shimmy, seductive femme vox, tinking rhythm box and periodic guitar muscle.

Get it Here

MINAMO-WAKKA + LIVE!, CD + CDR, 2000, JAPAN

Known for their releases on imprints like Apestaartje and 12K and their collaboration with Tape, this pristine and pinprick acute abstract Japanese laptop and guitar duo create work of a very high order, though unlike many others operating in this field, they neither traffic in hairshirt austerity nor pastel tonal wash, as Minamo have a canny knack for finessing all manner of subtle harmonic details and shadings into the weave of their DSP tweakery. Wakka was their debut release and was originally issued on their own Cubicmusic imprint and later issued in an edition of 100 in the format at hand here: housed in a handsome wooden box and accompanied by a CDR of live material thats every bit as gripping as it's studio counterpart.

Get Wakka here 

Get Live! here