AN INTERLUDE OF WHACKED OUT SINGLES FROM THE BRAD LANER ARCHIVE

The selection of singles that follow come courtesy of blog friend and Steaming Coils/Medicine/Electric Company mastermind Brad Laner, though the commentary is my own (Eric's). As most all of these are as new to me as they are to you, my comments on 'em represent provisional first passes. Tons of great shit here...Dig!




BRENT WILCOX-LEISURE WITH DIGNITY, 1981, USA
You can pretty much thank Wilcox for my share of the content of this blog, as his 80's L.A. radio show FRGK (Funny Rock, God Knows...) was singularly responsible for shaping my sensibility back in my early teens. Turns out that his one-off single ain't too shabby either. The way half melodic improv ramble collides with spluttery, spastic yet spare rock fragmentation here calls to mind entirely French points of reference for me, from the art brut whimsy of DDAA, to 70's underground mutants like Barricade, Heratius & Mahogany Brain.




EAZY TEETH-CAR NOISE/HER BLADE. 1980, USA
Half cartoonish electronic boink 'n' doink between Der Plan, Akira Sakata and Morgan Fisher, half gritty lo-fi post punk instrumental churn of a vaguely Dark Day-ish disposition. All entirely winning.




GOG-THE BEATLESS E.P., SWEDEN, 1979
Mysterious and fried in the extreme, L.A. Free Music Society seems as likely a touchstone as any for the combination of Geiger counter click and splutter, lobotomized guitar and sax duals of walkman recording fidelity, transistor radio opera broadcasts and mouth-full-of-porridge mumbling found here. The Bananafish crowd oughta flip their wigs over this...




HOLGER HILLER-S/T E.P., 1980, GERMANY
Pretty far from the refined Residential vision displayed on his classic LP "Ein Bundel Faulnis In Der Grube", this debut single by Palais Schaumburg's Hiller is every bit as smurfily screwy as you'd anticipate, but it's also very spare and minimal in approach. Bedroom retardation full of naif charm.





JOHN DUNCAN-CREED, 1981, USA
For those expecting the shortwave austerity of his more well known experimental electronic work, this collection of obsessive vignettes should comes as a bit of a surprise. Recordings from this era of Duncan's work ran hand in hand with his notoriously twisted performance actions of the era. Housed in a sleeve spattered with real blood, this first single of his (following his Organic LP) finds festering pools of tape/vinyl mulch coexisting with poetic recitations, pots and pans percussion, backward tapes and extended phone calls to to Dr. Tony Grant's psychological help line. Curious stuff....




KI DI ME-MOTHER IS/ISLAMATIC, 1981, USA
Murky and bare bones, this minimal synth curiousity has a hard to finger appeal. A side is a bit Algebra Suicide-like, albeit graced with somewhat awkward vocalizing, B side sounds like pre-Human League material by The Future heard through ears full of maple syrup.




PLEBS-A COLLECTION OF QUESTION MARKS E.P., 1982, USA
Weedy and fidgety jazz punk scribble-scrabble maneuvers over plinking rhythm boxes issued on The Minutemen's New Alliance label, which sorta makes sense.




SLIVERS-RESTRAINT FOR STYLE, 1981, USA
Another punk jazz curio, this one with Will Shatter-like vocal spew dukeing it out with sax squall, rickity farfisa, and a relentless fixation on a particular scrabbly little above-the-bridge guitar noise. Nice.




THE LAUGHING SOUP DISH-TEENAGE LIMA BEAN/RAINY DAY SPONGE, 1985, USA
Primitive acid psych with a beautifully corrosive guitar tone and enough structural wobbliness and latent acid weirdity to vestigially tie this in with The Dukes Of Stratosphear and their fallout, ala Aussie psych poppers Tyrnaround. A real discovery and a helluva lot more fried than anything I woulda anticipated from the Voxx Records camp.



WILD KINGDOM-ROMA-DESTINY, FLEXI, 1981, USA
Wow! What the hell is this? Wildly elaborate and head-spinning art pop genius. Exceptionally unique, I can hear traces of Song Of The Bailing Man-era Pere Ubu, Fibonaccis and Human Hands here. You could knock me over with a feather after hearing this one! Anyone know if these cats recorded anything else?

Get part one Here

Get part two Here

TO NIJE SALA/WHAT MAKES DONNA TWIRL?-A BITER KERMIT HAEVEN/SELF TITLED, SPLIT LP, 1989, USA

Following my barrage of Steaming Coils posts, here's a little known and critical piece of the Brad Laner puzzle (well, half of this anyway). To Nije Sala's side finds a post-Steaming Coils Laner paired up with Steve Stain and Lucija Kordic of What Makes Donna Twirl?, and it's a combination electrically charged with the sick synergy of flipped sensibilities colliding for the first time. With Stain's strained vox at the fore (his exhibitionistic approach standing in stark contrast to Chrisman's low key warble in Steaming Coils), The mixed company Laner's keeping here prompts him to re-approach the overt insanity of the first era of Steaming Coils and it's a gorgeously demented thing to behold. What Makes Donna Twirl?'s side is equally touched in the head sounding, if slightly less in-your-face with it's psychosis mongering. The vibe here is distinctly claustrophobic, percussively churning, grunting and howling in a personal hermetic abyss uniquely their own.

Get it Here

ORIGINALTON-MEIN LEBEN IST EIN WERBESPOT, LP, 1982, GERMANY

This Teflon Fonfara-related Neue Deutsche Welle project was promised a while back and now here it is in all it's glory. Less warped and outwardly bound than Teflon Fonfara, Originalton's femme vox-fronted and mutant funk inflected minimal synth-y formulation occupies a delicious territory somewhere between Bene Gesserit, Alesia Cosmos and late model Cos, circa "Hotel Atlantic".

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

Get it here  

KILLING TIME-IRENE, CD, 1988, JAPAN

Another headfuck from these Japanese mavens of the unpredictable, Irene (their third; "Skip" and "Bill" having been posted here previously) immediate screws with your expectations by frontloading the cloyingly muzak-y strains of of "Kokorowa", something that in no way can prepare you for the mad but relentlessly amiable musical subterfuges that follow, their insanely dense thickets of whacked post-prog chicanery often couched in some truly mystifying jazz-lite moves. the near-indescribable 20+ minute Irene suite is a true peak of head-scratching art rock lunacy, it's structurally destabilized arrangements coming very close to Wha Ha Ha territory. Completely mental.

Get it Here

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

GO UNDERGROUND TO SEE MORE ANIMALS-S/T, CDR E.P., 2001, POLAND

Another in a long line of exceptional projects involving Wojciech Kucharczyk (Molr Drammaz, Pathman, Retro Sex Galaxy) issued on his superb Mik Musik imprint, Go Underground To See More Animals follows the Pathman CDR I posted previously in documenting a trajectory of Kucharczyk's work far from the laptop damage usually associated with both his label and his most well known recording entity, Molr Drammaz. GUTSMA's squirrely and impish aesthetic touches on both vague R.I.O.-isms ala the quirky circus jazz of France's Six Cylindres En V and screwball moves that owe something to Belgian synth poppers Bene Gesserit. Sly and charming work.

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

Get it here  

NEW POSTS ON MONDAY

Sorry for the palty amount of posts from me lately. Sometimes life throws you curveballs, and the ones I've been dodging lately have prevented me from having much time to devote to Mutant Sounds. I'll do my best to get more goodies posted starting monday...

V/A-BLUB KRAD, LP, 1978, USA

A seminal missing piece of the L.A. Free Music Society puzzle (only one track from it was included in the Lowest Form Of Music boxset), there's a serious array of L.A. underground avant goodness to be found within these grooves, with most of the major LAFMS personnel making an appearance here, both under their own names and as members of one-off projects. For my money, the really choice bits here include Vetza's mad vocalizing being macerated by Joe Potts' Airway processing, Tom Recchion's conflation of pots 'n' pans clatter, balloon squeak and distant organ themes, Rick Potts' magnificently smurfy and addled "Ode To Archaeopterx" and the trifecta of mutant pop pleasures that lead off side B, with three projects all containing largely the same personnel: the Human Hands-like art pop of Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Tom Recchion and Rick Potts under the moniker Paul Is Dead (the one track here that was deemed worthy of inclusion on The Lowest Form Of Music box), The Doo-Dooettes-like doink of The Square Haircutts (basically the same line-up as Paul Is Dead, with Juan Gomez replaced by one Freddie Tobiason) and the equally Doo-Dooettes-like jingle of The Fine Arts Dumpsters, which is the same line-up as Paul Is Dead, with instruments swapped among 'em. Essential.

Get it Here

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

MARK GLYNNE AND BART ZWIER-HOME COMFORT, LP, 1980, NETHERLANDS

Odd, eerie and occupying a unique musical and psychological landscape, the closest I could come to describing this quizzical post-punk combo would be to suggest a fusion of mid-period Tuxedomoon at their most languid and non-rock overlaid with Ka-Spel-like sing-speak narrative moves. Not always 100% successful, theirs is still an utterly singular and obsessive soundworld with an approach completely distinct from anything else going on during the era.

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

Get it here  

GIANPAOLO CHITI & SERGIO MONTORI-RISOLUZIONE SONORE, LP, 197?, ITALY

One of the most profoundly ridiculous library releases ever, and yet one with a strange allure. To hear this is to marvel at just what the hell exactly they assumed these pieces were intended to soundtrack, as the sonics herein are utterly retarded. Gracelessly flat-footed and rinky-dink keyboard themes set to bontempi organ cha-cha/bossa nova beat presets, it's a sound that for the right set of ironic ears and under the right set of conditions (say...in a party mix with Tom Recchion and Tipsy tracks) would have a definite amusement value. Well...I for one am amused, anyway. Your milage may vary.

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

Get it here  

ANNE GILLIS-REMENTACT, CD, 1989, FRANCE

Following posts of Gillis' LP's by both Jim and moi, here's another curious foray into intuitive electronic bricolage by this idiosyncratic French character, with a squirrelly approach that harks back to the more mulchy and obsessively single minded work of her Lxgrin LP.

Get it Here

RANDY GREIF & DAN BURKE-FRAGMENT 56, CD, 1994, USA

Following a raft of Greif posts by both Jim and myself, here's another foray into preternatural soundscaping, this time in conjunction with Illusion Of Safety's Dan Burke. The tension between their distinct sound worlds is pronounced; Greif's usual post-Fourth World phantasmagorias here morphed into distended atmospheric drifts modified by Burke's protean permutations between the liminal and the corrosive.

Get part one Here

Get part two Here

No posts for the last few days.

As you may have noticed there were no posts by Jim Mutantsounds the last few days.This was because i was terribly ill,with much cough and high temperature.I was planning to make some posts today but still feel very weak and dizzy.Hope i will be ok tomorrow and make some posts.Sorry to all friends of the blog for this...See you all soon.
Jim MutantSounds

New Asia-Gates,LP,1982,UK

The person behind this album of disjointed sound scapes and abstract beats was Ian Little, better known for his production of Duran Duran's 3rd. album "7 & The Ragged Tiger". Ian started his career in music working for 3+ years at Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera's Gallery Studio and it was during this time that Gates was completed. Ian came up with the foundation of each track but then gave the assorted musicians involved freedom to come up with their own parts, which Ian then edited, treated and mixed to create the finished album. Not a commercial success, "Gates" was non the less well received within the media andLynden Barber did a full page article in Melody Maker on July 10th 1982 where he described the album as an "...imaginative combination of loose improvisation, spikily twisting themes, sound collage and drum machines...underpinned by the tension of modern industrialism"
...as reviewed by musiceel for Discogs

Gates is a passel of grating, noisy tracks from a recording project (not a band) led by Ian Little, a Phil Manzanera protégé who became a noted and successful producer. Other participants include Manzanera and former Hitmen Ben Watkins and Pete Glenister.

From Trouser Press

Imho a great LP ,with greater geusts,playing a mixture of experimental/minimal synth music with ethno and jazzy touches.At least, worth listening(though i believe this is a great masterwork that any "mutant" should include in his collection of obscurities)

get it here

Pyranha-s.t.,LP,1972,Switzerland

This is one of the best psych/prog LPs ever came from Switzerland.Released privately by Epsilon label only in France,this masterpiece contains breathtaking deep psychedelic floating tracks,with experimental/jazzy and even funk hint.

get it here

Plamp-... Und Uberhaupt ...,LP,1979,Switzerland

Great Swiss prog/psych LP.Much use of keyboards,flute and excellent guitarwork ,combined with a very emotional voice.Unfortunatelly no much infos were found ,so any more info will be much appreciated.

get it here