PIMMON-ORQUESTA DEL ARRURRUZ, 4" CD, 2001, AUSTRALIA

One of the finest operators in the universe of abstract electronica, Australia's Pimmon (ne Paul Gough) makes work of profound depth where others are content to skim the surface. Organic is a word that gets bandied about alot in reviews of Gough's work and indeed, it'd be tough to frame a discussion of his activities without citing it, teeming as his work is with strata upon strata of bristling micro-activity; all seamlessly meshed into immersive sonic environments so tactile, they virtually feel protoplasmic. What truly distinguishes Gough from most of his electronica peers though is the array of haunting submerged half-melodies that flit though his constructs. At times, these melodic cells have taken precedence to the point that his work has resembled some mutant DNA strand of instrumental electropop (his Snaps*Crackles*Pops CD on Tigerbeat6 being a good example of this tack), but on Orquesta Del Arruruz, these melodic strands have been teased out to the point of unravelling, as fathoms deep tides of bleary orchestrations swell and recede while dust storms of AI nanoparticles descend in swarms to form fissures in these diaphanous drifts. Pity that those whose only contact with this album is a download will miss out on the beauty of holding the actual article: a cloth-topped 4" CD embedded inside a 1" perimeter of clear plastic, seated on a bed of astroturf!

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

Get it here  

ROVO-PYRAMID, CD, 2000, JAPAN

Led by former Boredoms guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto and Bondage Fruit electric violinist Yuji Katsui, the headspinningly immersive and propulsive constructs deployed over the course of this unbroken 43+ minute magnum opus by these Japanese masters (their fifth in a sizeable discography) commences by shepherding you down a rabbit hole of endlessly tumbling polyrhythmic cascades before landing the discombobulated listener in the thick of the great universal OM. From this glazed state of suspension emerges a breed of King Kong sized cosmic funk so absurdly galvanizing, even Funkadelic might be inclined to take a pointer. I feel spent from taking it all in...

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


Get it here


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

YCLEPT DINMAKERS-EELEEMON MACHINE, TAPE, 1982, AUSTRALIA

Though the snarkily deconstructionist L.A.F.M.S.-like tendencies that this Aussie experimental electronic act exhibited on their debut (posted by Jim many moons ago care of blog friend The Eeleemon Machine, who also provided this gem) begin to creep back into their sonic palatte as this tape passes the half way mark, much of what's present here on their follow-up works a seam of experimentation thats startlingly prescient in both it's approach to electronic rhythm construction (wetly popping and minimalistically percolating) and the turbid pools of quease atmospherics it periodically sets on simmer, some of which wouldn't sound out of place on an Ekkehard Ehlers album. Count me as legitimately astonished. Sorry...no photo is available. Anyone out there that can help?


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Uni Sono-st,LP,1975,Finnland

Great Finnish Jazz-Fusion Featuring Pekka Pohjola, Reino Laine, Paroni Paakkunainen, Olli Ahvenlahti And Nono Sodenberg.Not an extremely innovative work,yet a very enjoyable LP.

As requested

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Liquid Visions - Teonanacatl,1997(?),Unreleased(?) LP,Germany

This is the so called lost LP by Liquid Visions , kindly presented to us by their singer,Psyched Alex.Great trippy organ based sounds ,floating lysergic soundscapes,acid sitar jams...a great psychedelic LP,pity it wasn't released.

Thank you very much Alex!

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Bill Quick-Maravillosa Gente,LP,1972,Spain

"Mysterious Bill Quick..this guy was son of North-American dad and Venezuelan mum, and landed in Madrid in the early 70s, spending most of his time playing music and manufacturing leather belts and other stuff that he later sold at the popular Rastro flea market in Madrid, meeting point for all hippies of the time. He somehow got in touch with famous producer Alain Milhaud, who got really impressed by his work and quickly offered him a deal for recording a long-play to be released in Milhauds own Explosion label. Then Bill recruited some of top studio musicians and foreign friends who were also living in Madrid at the time; the list of people who play on the recordings is impressive: Salvador Dominguez & Chema Pellico (ex-Cerebrum), Rafa Galvez (Vainica Doble), Frank Rojas (Sangre). Jess Lam (Jess & James).. and up to eleven musicians joined Bill in the recording studio. As a result, "Maravillosa gente" (Beautiful people) was recorded. Ranging from beautiful, introspective, acoustic solo tracks like "Beautiful People", "Only the weather" or the acid-folk of "Winters gonna come" to full backing-band hard-edged ones like "Take me away", "Somebody" and the folk-rock sounding of "With you, Lord" or "I sing this song", the album is a real treat from start to finish. It has an awesome sound and amazing production (it was recorded at one of the most advanced Spanish recording studios at the time), along with top musicianship and Bills amazing songwriting. A real big ticket that was absolutely ignored in Spain at the time, and even today remains unknown to most of folk-rock collectors and fans. Curious enough, the album got released in Brazil as well (with poor sales again), with a different cover artwork"(shown above).

Great Folk/psych rock!

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Bazar · Drabantbyrock ,LP,1974,Norway

Great bluesy hard progressive pilit rock from Norway.This is their 2nd LP, much better than the 1st one which was much uninspired and aged for it's time. Great guitarwork,some psychedelic elemments too.

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Alex(aka Alex Oriental Experience) -Alex,1973+That's the deal,1975.,LPs,Germany

Magnificent Kraut meets Oriental albums by one of the considered pioneers of the genre. Members of Can participated in these first two records(inc.Jaki Liebezeit,Helmut Hattler,Horst Stachelhaus and others). These 2 first records of Alex Wiska came with simply his name:Alex and are much more oriental/Turkish rock oriented.His later ones are under the name Alex Oriental Experience and are much more space rock /kraut oriented. Many comparisons were made with the Turkish band Cem Karaca(coming soon here) .Great saz tunes by Alex and good accompanied by some of the brightest names of German rock scene.Highly recommented... not to be missed!

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FRANCO BATTIATO/JURI CAMISASCA/OSAGE TRIBE-LA CONVENZIONE, CD, 2002 (RECORDED: 1972-1975), ITALY

For those with an ear cocked to the kosmiche, Franco Battiato was perhaps the most formidable presence on the Italian 70's scene and the first two of his four tracks here (originally issued as a single in 1972) are the precise sort of mind erasing acid godhead that listeners to his first five albums have come to anticipate; all scything and burbling VCS3 synth haze, Upfull acid guitar filigree and soaring and poignance-twanging vocal keening (the lesser third cut, "Stranniza D'Ammuri" from three years later anticipates his more mainstream pop tendencies that'd manifest themselves later). If I have the story straight, the connective through line for this compilation is that in addition to the four proper Battiato cuts featured here, he was also responsible for producing the remaining tracks here by Casmisasca and Osage Tribe for the Bla Bla label. I've no idea how Camisasca's material squares with that featured on his highly touted solo album from the period (which I've yet to hear), but his five cuts here are a lovely melange of elements, the first two in more of a sophisticated prog pop mode somewhere between Godley & Creme and 801's "Listen Now", the next three veering between Lord Krishna Von Goloka acid folk and explicitly Battiato-ish psychotropic overdrive. The one Osage Tribe cut here is a blazing krautrock-ish sounding power trio shitstorm replete with intoning choral vocals. Please do yourselves a collective favor though and omit listening to the howlingly awful and depressing new version of "La Convenzione" that Battiato felt was necessary to tack on the end here. It's a definitive turd in the punchbowl and after having this monster compilation buffet you from one sublime acid fantasia to another, it's a cold kick in the nuts to be confronted by an 80's-hair-metal-sounding (or whatever this rot qualifies as) version of one of his masterpieces from the 70's, a track that truly proves how much he lost the plot (and evidently the pot) after his glory days in the 70's.

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JUNJI HIROSE/YOSHIHIDE OTOMO-SILANGANAN INGAY, LP, 1989, JAPAN

This, Otomo's hellaciously rare vinyl debut opposite Ground Zero/Shibusashirazu member Hirose (absent his usual sax here) is precisely the delicious clusterfuck of vinyl and toy instrument abuse one would hope for from this era of Otomo's deconstructive praxis. James Brown, Orson Welles, Herb Alpert and Ken Nordine are all grist for these pranksters mill, though the chop 'n' change ratio here is sometimes less intensive than one might anticipate; some passages here appealingly balancing the bricollage with through-lines of rhythm box clatter.

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SOUNDMASCHINE-6.094, TAPE, 1980, GERMANY

With their detuned and wobblingly mutable attack that staggers between lumber/bellow/screech sturm und drang and artfully elusive jerry-rigged constructs of rhythm box, radio and slithering little guitar figures that spit flecks of rust off their corroded strings as they're agitated, Neue Deutsch Welle weirdniks Soundmaschine here effectively set up camp in the theater of operations/theatre of the absurd staked out by the Geniale Dilletanten mob (Die Todliche Doris, Einsturzende Neubauten, Sprung Aus Den Wolken, Frieder Butzmann et.al.). A good 'un.

NOTE: Due to it's idiosyncratic structure, it's nearly impossible to discern where one track ends and another begins on this tape, so I've ripped each side as one track.

Get pt. 1 Here

Get pt. 2 Here

CZECHOSLOVAK RADIO JAZZ ORCHESTRA AND THE BLUE EFFECT GROUP (aka MODRY EFEKT)-NEW SYNTHESIS 2 (NOVA SYNTEZA 2), LP, 1974, CZECHOSLOVAKIA-NWW LIST

Largely fabulous and completely over the top orchestrated fusion/hard rock hybrid from this Nurse With Wound-listed crew, though some of the uncouth strained vocalizing might cause some sphincter clenching for our more sensitive patrons. Argentina's all-star La Bibblia project from the mid 70's (featuring just about everyone from the Argentine underground of the era) is about as close as I can come to finding a touchstone for the species of swelling histrionic orchestrated prog bombast found within these grooves. An album custom made for those of you out there for whom the term over the top is a siren song rather than a warning.

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S/T-THE DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM, CD, 1995, GERMANY

Corrosive and monochromatic but oddly compelling sing-songy psych visions from two unfortunately coiffed German psychonauts whose favorite color scheme is evidently Pink Dots on Chrome.

Get pt. 1 Here

Get pt. 2 Here

V/A:MR 447 39 10 ,LP,1983,Spain

Particularly good Spanish post punk/minimal synth compilation,amongst the most favorites of mine.Great influence from the UK bands of the same period. Not something innovative though,yet much agreeable.

Tracklist

01.-PISTONES - Nadie
02.-ULTIMA EMOCION - Las Reglas del Juego
03.-EPISODIO - El Largo Viaje
04.-V2 BERLIN- Marquee Moon
05.-LUNA - Es un Sueño
06.-ESTACION VICTORIA - Galeon Español
07.-WAQ - Toros Blancos
08.-FARENHEIT 451 - Ojos a tu alrededor
09.-MERMELADA - De Lunes a Viernes
10.-DESIERTOS - El Elixir

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Aekie-st,CD-R,2005,Finnland

Awesome folkish weird improvised finnish recording from 2005.Released through Foxglove in ridicolously limited edition of 115 copies!Reminds me Vaapa,Magic Karpathians and all this weird ritualistic folky drenched acid improvisation scene.

get it here

Abbildungen Variete-st,tape ,1983,Yugoslavia/Slovenia

Great Slovenian early 80s industrial band.Following the path of Last Few Days and Vox Poppuli! their music is highly ritualistic ,dark yet innovative,realising the scene of their country the period this came out.Released through a somekind gallery edition in just 230 copies.

get it here

Yoshihide Otomo-Memory Defacement,CD/2ble LP,1997,Japan

One of the weirdest ant most extravageant works of Otomo ,aided by Sachiko M.Fond sounds in the so called black LP,live performance on the one side of the clear LP while the other side is left blank!
here's what Otomo Yoshihide says:

"Memory Defacement" is different from the performances and recordings I have done in the past. It is the project which shows the entire four stage-processes that took place in half a year. Releasing this double-vinyl is its last stage. The first stage was to compose and record the sound resource for the black vinyl. I cracked a record, and based on the cracks I decided precisely where all the sound should be recorded; I put the collage sound in 87 spots with exactly the same timing on the A & B sides are different; I used a variety of music from the 20th century for the A side, and avant-grade music, especially electric sound, for the B side. The second stage was to press 500 analog disks of the sound, and to play them continuously on 10 turntables for 3 weeks at Xebec Hall in Kobe. My initial plan was to use many more turntables and play the records for a longer period, so the songs of the 20th century and the various experiment recorded on the A & B sides would sink into the sea of scratch noise. Unfortunately, the plan did not reach that far and the records were not so damaged. Hopefully, you will play this redord continuously untill the fragments of this 20th century legacy return to sea of noise. The third stage was to have the live performance at Xebec Hall using the original sound redources, and press it on the clear vinyl. This live perfomance became possible with the cooperation of Sachiko Matsubara on sampler, Noriya Maekawa on recording and Tetsuya Kotani on mix. And at last the 4th stage is to release the consumed black vinyl and the clear one as a package to be distributed to the market so you can purchase it. It is up to you how you listen to it. I have no answer for its meaning.The entire above process is the "Memory Defacement".Without Naoko Mizoguchi the producer at Xebec Hall, the entire concept of this project would have never been considered. I would also like to sincerely thank Mr.Shiino, Vestax president who provided the turntables for the performance, Japan Overseas and Shojiro Ishibashi of FMN Sound Factory who administered the manufacturing of the record, Noruhisa Shimoda and other staff of Xebec Hall who made the installation possible.

Yoshihide Otomo / September 24, 1997

Released in a limited 500 copies edition and long out of print.

get it here

Neuronium-Quasar 2C361,LP,1977,Spain

Here,'s a classic synth/space album.The 1st Neuronium LP ,recorded in 1977 much close in the Atem era Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schultze sound. A wonderfull cosmic electronics work (or psychotronic as they usually call it).
Here a short biography from Discogs.com:
Neuronium is a Barcelona, Spain based electronic music group. It was founded in 1976 by keyboardist/synthesist Michel Huygen, keyboardist/synthesist/guitarist Carlos Guirao and multi-instrumentalist Albert Giménez. This lineup released two albums for EMI-Harvest, "Quasar 2C361" in 1977 and "Vuelo Quimico" (Chemical Flight) in 1978.
With the departure of Giménez the group continued as a duo but was joined on their third album, "Digital Dream" (1980), and their fourth album, "The Visitor" (1981), by guest guitarist Santi Pico. After the release of the fifth album, "Chromium Echoes" (1982), Guirao departed. Since then Neuronium has become synonymous with Huygen, either solo, with Santi Picó, or with guest musicians. On most albums released between 1983 until 1996 Neuronium was the duo of Huygen and Picó with both musicians listed as full members. Three Huygen solo efforts were released under the Neuronium name during that time as well. Picó also returned for an appearance on the album "Alienikon" (1999).
Huygen has termed Neuronium's music as "psychotronic music" and "cosmic electronic music". Neuronium (Huygen and Guirao) collaborated with Vangelis on the album "A Separate Affair", recorded in 1981 and released in 1996.

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Boneschi Electronic Combo -Sounds Electronic,LP,1973,Italy

Great LP of library electronic music that sometimes is funny and naive but in some parts very weird reminding Residents era recordings.No infos found of who is behind this project but remours want it to be Nino Nardini.A song from here was chosen by Luke vibert and was included in his Nuggets series.

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Bitter Blood Street Theatre-vol.2,LP,1978,USA

Following my previous post of Vol.1 here comes vol.2 of Bitter blood Street theatre. This time less hard rocky and more psychedelic,yet moving to weirder paths that foresaw their outcome as the wonderfull Blacklight Braille(anyone got their 80s LPs for share please?).

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Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings-Propellers In Love,LP,1986,Germany/USA

Arnold Dreyblatt (b. New York City, 1953) is an American composer and visual artist. He studied music with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, Alvin Lucier and media art with Steina and Woody Vasulka. He has been based in Berlin, Germany since 1984. In 2007, he was elected to the German Academy of Art (Akademie der Künste, Berlin).
In his installations, performances and media works, Dreyblatt creates complex textual and spatial metaphors for memory which function as a media discourse on recollection and the archive. His installations, public artworks and performances have been exhibited and staged extensively in Europe. "Dreyblatt's project, maintains its edge--and its importance for the rethinking of identity, history, culture, and memory--by refusing to retreat from or transcend... ...public, archival traces." - Jeffrey Wallen, Hampshire College.
Among the second generation of New York minimal composers, Arnold Dreyblatt has developed a unique approach to composition and music performance. He has invented a set of new and original instruments, performance techniques, and a system of tuning. His compositions are based on harmonics, and thus just intonation, played either through a bowing technique he developed for his modified bass, and other modified and conventional instruments which he specially tuned. He originally used only a steady pulse provided by the bowing motion on his bass (placing his music in the minimal category), but he eventually added many more instruments and more rhythmic variety.
Dreyblatt's mother, Lucille Wallenrod (1918-1998), was a painter.
From Wikipedia
"Dreyblatt's ensemble, consisting of altered, adapted, and prepared instruments are in just intonation and play drones or repeated tones, setting up heady resonances with a contiually changing and complex matrix of overtones. By adding drums and other percussion, and by writing fast, sometimes furious tempos, Dreyblatt avoids the dreamy and sometimes stultifying effect that is a part of so much drone music. The entire six-part title track is lively and vibrant. High Life is similar in spirit to La Monte Young and Alvin Lucier, with its nonstop drone and lavish array of overtones to inspect and exult in."

-Option Magazine
"Arnold Dreyblatt’s ensemble performed a bright, colorful work for winds, strings, guitars, cimbalom... ...an essentially minimalist impulse and a spirit that’s multi-cultural: its heavy drum beat and the freewheeling, almost manic quality of its string and wind writing made parts of the work seem a stew of primitive, ritual musics, both Asian and African.“

-The New York Times

Need to say more?A masterpiece of contemporay music!

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Dorothy Carter-Troubadour,LP,1976,UK

Dorothy Carter was a very talented folk musician, born in the late 30s(i think 1937 ) and sadly died in 2003.Playing hammered dulcimer and psaltery and some flutes she is creating excellent contemporary folk with much medieval elements .But in my opinion what is outstanding is her voice,that gives in all the otherwise traditional folk songs a very weird feeling that sometimes touches the weirdness found in Comus recordings!This is her first LP .IMHO highly recommented to fans of folk/acid folk music.

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Maelstrom-st (aka On the Gulf),LP/CD,1973/1997,Canada

Following Erics semi recent post of Roberts Owen's LP,here's an ancestral LP of him,actualy from Maelstrom ,his band.Released in 1973 in Canada, this is a great sample of symphonic prog influenced by Genesis and Yes of this period,although in this particular recording Canterbury scene influences are glaring,especially those of Caravan and early Soft Machine.Strong use of mellotron and the flowing sax parts reminds me of VDGG and will surely appeal to the fans of the forementioned.2 bonus tracks from the cd re-relase are included also, those one having more jazzy influences than symphonic ones.

get it here

The Ariel Pink afluent psychedelicpunkisurfpopavantcosmicsurrealisticexperimental box of goodies!

So guys,starting this bunch of posts with a cheesy spicy psychedelic appetizer.Here are presented some early Mr. Ariel Pink's wonderfull works that he had the kindness and extreme generosity to offer to all of us. So the recordings are:
1.HIITS-attention! 1996 - 1997, actually the papermache tape (although song titles don't match,but hey,this is a part of the game i suppose!)

2.Underground-1998

3.Welcome 2 our World-??(from 1999 maybe?)

4.FF+-2001

5.Yas Dudette 98-06

Most of these works are from tapes Ariel had issued privately in the 90s in redicolously limited quantities.Also hosted here is a mini exhibition (well mostly sleeves) of Ariel's wonderfull collage/graphics art(more extensive in files bellow.

The alternative pop-rock and lo-fi recordings of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti are full of intrigue, and full of contradictions. Pink, a male singer, composer, musician and producer who is based in Los Angeles, provides songs that are melodic, catchy and familiar; songs that, in their own unorthodox way, recall the most immediate, accessible, straight-forward FM pop-rock of the '70s and '80s. But Pink's work also comes across as bizarre, trippy, skewed and twisted; and a lot of that strangeness comes from his production style. As a songwriter, Pink has a real sense of pop-rock craftsmanship, but his very muddy way of producing and his oddball, kooky sound effects make the late '90s and early 2000s recordings of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti (which is really the name of a project, not an actual group) sound highly eccentric. At times, Pink (who plays guitar, bass and keyboards) sounds like he is singing into a mono cassette recorder in a basement or a garage back in 1977; he really goes out of his way to sound as underproduced and demo-like as possible. But once you get past his production style, it becomes apparent that Pink has strong pop-rock instincts (sometimes adding a touch of blue-eyed soul). The Southern Californian brings a long list of influences to the table: influences ranging from David Bowie, John Lennon, the Bee Gees, Hall & Oates and the Raspberries to Frank Zappa, Brian Eno, Roxy Music and late '70s/early '80s new wave. Some of Pink's melodies wouldn't have been out of place on Bowie's Station to Station album in 1976; some of them would have worked well for A Flock of Seagulls, Men at Work or the Talking Heads in the early '80s. But because Pink's production style is so quirky and off-center, those comparisons may not come as easily to listeners who don't have a taste for the bizarre; and depending on who you talk to, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti is either mindlessly self-indulgent studio masturbation or the work of an insane musical genius. There are some listeners who just plain don't comprehend what he is doing, but the small cult following Pink acquired in the late '90s and early 2000s tends to be highly enthusiastic; Pink's admirers really swear by him and insist that there is a method to his madness. Pink recorded his first Haunted Graffiti project, The Doldrums, in 1999 and 2000; that disc was followed by Vital Pink a few years later. At first, The Doldrums and Vital Pink were only CD-Rs that Pink burned on his home computer and circulated himself, but in 2004, Pink landed a record deal with the independent Paw Tracks label (which seemed to admire his do-it-yourself work ethic and made him the first Paw Tracks artist who wasn't a part of the Animal Collective). In October 2004, The Doldrums was reissued by Paw Tracks and enjoyed much better distribution; Paw Tracks' version of The Doldrums spans 1999-2003 and also contains the material from Vital Pink.

–Alex Henderson, All Music Guide

Ariel Pink (born Ariel Marcus Rosenberg on June 24, 1978) is an avant-garde/hauntology musician who is based in Los Angeles. He attended Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California. Later attending the School of Art at the California Institute of the Arts. Married to Alisa Daniels, July 2002 - still married. Pink has been recording his music on tape since 1996 but it wasn't until after he passed a CD-R to the New York-based band Animal Collective that his commercial musical career took off. He has since caught the attention of various media sources, especially in the Los Angeles area. As most of his albums are self-made, many of them have never been heard by fans.
Pink produces and plays almost all of his own music, and is noted for creating drum sounds using primarily his mouth, and sometimes his armpits. His home recording technique gives his music a very lo-fi sound, to the point where new listeners may mistake the era of his music.
Pink cites R. Stevie Moore--friend, mentor, and "father of home recording"--as one of his major influences. Pink boasts a cult following and endorsements from more widely known artists such as fellow Paw Tracks artists Animal Collective.
Aside from his music, Pink makes semi-abstract and surreal grotesque drawings, which can be purchased from his unofficial website, ARIEL PINK haunted house, for a hefty price. Pink is also an avid contributor to Steve Quayle's Genesis 6 project, which is considered the authority on giants; their origins, and their "unimaginable cruelty, sexual perversity, and cannibalism."
Underground Releases can be purchased from Ariel and his friends' self made label called Human Ear Music: http://www.humanearmusic.com/

from Wikipedia

SOOOO,here we go:

get HIITS-attention! 1996 - 1997

get Underground-1998

get Welcome 2 our World

get FF+

get Yas Dudette 98-06

get artwork here

Also be informed that Matt and Eric (OUR Matt and OUR Eric ,aka Vas Deferens Org) are going to produce the forthcoming Ariel Pink album!

Thanks Ariel for all those great recordings you offered !

YOU ARE A REAL MUTANT!