IGA CEMBRZYNSKA & SESSION 72-FOUR DIALOGUES WITH CONSCIENCE, LP, 1973, POLAND

Exceptionally eerie and unnerving essays for for slo-mo string-laden improv blear and ecstatic female utterance rent by occasional depth charge explosions of freeform hysteria from what was apparently one of Poland's top actresses of the period, here working in collaboration with an outwardly bound trumpet/piano/bass/percussion ensemble of exceptional poise and gravity and covering the full gamut from coo to caterwaul and rasping hiss to operatic trill. Fans of outwardly bound female vocals will be thunderstruck.

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GUNNER MOLLER PEDERSEN-STONED: AN ELECTRONIC SYMPHONY, LP, 1974, DENMARK

A flat out stunning hybrid of advanced electronic capabilities and stoned sensibilities, this exceptionally obscure LP was evidently only sold at the 12 concerts that this Danish electronic composer and student of Cornelius Cardew gave of this material. Make no mistake, that title is an indication that Pedersen means business and this glistening nocturnal sonic mirage is absolutely glazed in in a hyper-real patina of otherness. Over the course of this burbling and gurgling album length composition, Pedersen conjures allusions to everything from Deuter, Mort Garson, Moolah and Don Robertson to Sweden's Johan Hedran, and Polish electronic composer Krzysztof Knittel. Thanks to blog friend Mikkel for providing this unearthed monster!

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THE WHITEFRONTS-ROAST BELIEF, LP, 1986, USA

Wonky and trumpet-addled post punk spew with a engagingly shambolic approach to song structure from this mid 80's Santa Barbara, California outfit that reminds me of The Polkaholics, Circle X and Iceplants . The particularly hot and bothered among you can find their further live misadventures courtesy of the fine folks at WFMU Here

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THE ROLF KUHN GROUP-TOTAL SPACE, LP, 1975, GERMANY

A clarinet driven funky fusion beast. No, not clavinet, clarinet. Sounds like it'd be a strange proposition on paper, but it works a charm in the hands of the high voltage jazz rock and improv giants on hand for this particular date. Led by legendary fusion ivory tickler Joachim Kuhn's little brother Rolf and assisted by Joachim (whose own period work this comes close to the spirit of) Total Space finds them mated with a world class crew that includes trombonist Albert Manglesdorff, sax maestro Gerd Dudek, guitarist Philippe Catherine and bassist Bo Stieff and backed up up by the dual drumming of Daniel Humair and Kasper Winding.

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V/A-UN TRIBUTO TO JAMES T. RUSSELL, CDR, 2001, VARIOUS

Issued by the Spanish Alku imprint as a tribute to the creator of the compact disc (and, evidently, to it's myriad possibilities for sound modification), this offers up a curious assortment of digital detournement advocates to sift through the implications, though Terre Thaemlitz is only "present" as a Cage-ian ghost, his/her succession of 35 four second tracks all being equally silent. Once Thaemlitz ceases the theoretical display and actual sound commences, you're immediately slapped in the face by Yasunao Tone and his 10 minute blast of disfigured digital effluvia extracted from carefully defaced and modified CD's after which Bay Area plunderphonic prankster Wobbly creates comedic whirligig motion out of a cascade of rubberized bloops and blurts, CD_Slopper (aka Florian Hecker and Farmers Manual's Oswald Berthold) litter shimmering filaments across a warping digital wheeze, Spanish electronic producer Javier Hernando amuses himself by back-skipping over a CD's contents, Markus Popp and his early Oval sparring partner Frank Metzger proffer three tracks of predictably superb mulchings and mis-handlings of sonic data and Alku and Discman each show up just long enough to make a small gesture.

1-35. Terre Thaemlitz-Untitled
36. Yasunao Tone-Man'yoshu #37, Wounded
37. Wobbly-Mini Bleb
38. CD_Slopper-X-0 Neol, Subject: Ad.di
39. Discmen-Our Love Is A Soft Technique
40. Javier Hernando-Vaivén Tsu
41. Oval/Frank Metzger-What If?
42. Oval/Frank Metzger-Vowels'N'Cons
43. Oval/Frank Metzger-V'n'c
44. Alku-Burning CDs

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LUDO MICH-MUSIC FROM FILMS BY LUDO MICH, LP, 2005 (RECORDED: 1966-1971), BELGIUM

Subterranean sounding and swaddled in echo, this collection of soundtracks is part Aktionist emetic, part Living Theater group gestalt and part Anton Bruhin-like primitivist tape mangle, while somewhere in the background Smegma are running around with a forrest fire in their left elbow. As was the case with the Citizens For Interplanetary Activity LP that I posted back near the beginning of my work on Mutant Sounds, these very rough and deeply fried recordings document the soundtracks that were made for freak fringe underground films of the era, though in this case it was not for films from the lionized NY scene of that time, but rather from Brussels, Belgium where the Fluxus-associated Mich and his enablers were concocting what appear from all the images included to be some serious Jack Smith/Kenneth Anger-like pansexual depravity.

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POPERA COSMIC-LES ESCLAVES, LP, 1969, FRANCE

One of the first salvos of true otherness from the French underground scene, this mindbomb features the notorious William Sheller, whose 1972 opus Lux Aeterna is a long heralded holy grail of this scene, here collaborating with both eccentric period singer/songwriter and former Alice vocalist Francois Wertheimer and Guy Skornik, who I've previously shared two albums of monster caliber acid folk and kosmniche weirdity by. How promising does *that* sound, eh? And while the orchestrations that frame the acid rock displays here clearly set the stage for the overwhelming sturm und drang of Lux Aeterna, it's absent both the churchiness conveyed by the relentless choral aspect of that album as well as it's shifts into Wakhevitch-like eeriness. Here, the swooning orchestrations creak under the weight of all manner of period psychedelic mad hattery; the spirit here overtly suggestive at times of Jean-Pierre Massiera's Les Maledictus Sound, with its outsized sense of theatricality (at times tipping over into Komintern and Grand Magic Circus territory), overloads of caustic acid guitar flailing and fabulously cooing, sighing, and keening vocals.

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TONE DOGS-ANKETY LOW DAY, LP, 1989, USA

With an uncanny ability to make hectic chop 'n' change asymmetries sound suave and ducky, this American R.I.O. unit's irresistible tunes and overall spirit of infectious bonhomie recall Fred Frith during his peak Gravity/Speechless period. High praise indeed, but the manner in which these folks temper their jubilance with undertows of unease mirrors Frith's work with the members of both Etron Fou Leloublan and The Muffins on those two album, and indeed, the man himself appears in a guest capacity here on guitar and violin as does virtuoso avant guitarist Hans Reichel, who doesn't normally move around outside of improv contexts. Tone Dogs were led by two highly fluid and unusual multi-instrumentalists in the form of Amy Denio and Fred Chalenor and backed up by one Matt Cameron, who's soon depart for rock star land as drummer for fellow Seattle-ites Soundgarden. Both Denio and Chalenor would go on to do much remarkable work in the future, Denio with the E.C. Nudes together with Chris Cutler and Chalenor with Caveman Shoestore and collaborations with Soft Machine's Hugh Hopper. But this album is where it all started. And it's a whopper.

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

SAKANA-MY DEAR, CD, 1996, JAPAN

Placing emotional emphasis in awkward places and limping when they mean to strut, this idiomatically askew Japanese crew really tax my capacity to frame their actions. Whether they're trying to be funky, romantic or sunshine-y, Sakana's subtle but persistent ass-backwardness subvert these vibes at almost every turn, though said subversions are often subdued enough that these tunes might pass as almost normal under less-than-close scrutiny. In tone and intent, these folks are perhaps most comparable to the Homosexuals-releated UK outfit Orchestre Murphy, if you could imagine them subverting their Slapp Happy-like overtones with soppy 90's lite jazz motifs and other questionable-seeming tactics. There are even some bits here fleetingly suggestive of popular 90's artists normally well outside our purview here like Bjork or even Beck, though the thrust and intent of this album is so consistently and naggingly "off" (never more so than on the title track), these trendier signifiers scarcely render events any closer to comprehensibility. The result is something curiously gripping, though you might feel like a dip in the shower after being in it's oddly queasy embrace.

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PANTHEON-ORION, LP, 1972, NETHERLANDS

Thrilling though occasionally tooth-achingly sweet Dutch Prog frivolity that occupies a mid-ground between their country mates in Supersister and Solution, while occasionally offering up servings of the sorta wide-eyed early Yes worship heard on albums by Sweden's Vildkaktus, along with it's attendant sweetly oohing and aahing choruses. True, they're not quite as technically or compositionally advanced as those Dutch peers of theirs, and those with a preference for a "heavier" vision of prog will find some of this pretty-as-a-daisy tootling and ivory tickling off-putting. It's their loss, methinks. As far as I'm concerned, this particular breed of flute and sax laden symphonic winsomeness is pretty damn near unimpeachable. Note: this transfer is taken from a later CD issue, which included three bonus tracks.

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