V/A-ALPHABETICAL UPLOADS OF WHACKED OUT SINGLES PT. 10

THE FIRST CHURCH OF NAPOLEON SOLO-DEBBYDID/GAME OF BAGATELLE, 1984, UK
A lost curio from the waning days of the post-punk era, the A side a listing and pitching punchdrunk instrumental that garlands swooping streaks of tape reversed backwash and subtle harmonic shimmer over a devolving rhythmic tumble, the B side a wholly unalike bit of spare and untutored D.I.Y. songsmithery of the Johan Kugelberg-approved sort.




FISH & ROSES-FRIAR TUCK RECORD, 1991, USA
As a nice tie-in with another of today's posts via their presence on the Festival MIMI 87 compilation, here's more of Fish & Roses amiably askew Downtown NY art rock lurch; this the last of their output under the mantle of Fish & Roses, before Rick Brown and Sue Garner regrouped alongside Alan Licht in Run On.





THE FLYING LIZARDS-MOVE ON UP/PORTUGAL, 1980 + LOVERS & OTHER STRANGERS/WIND, 1981, UK
Effectively the pop face (albeit artfully skewed) of one of Britain's true unsung musical heritages, the trifecta of David Cunningham, Steve Beresford and David Toop constituted a formidable braintrust of art pop savvy improvisors and jocular genre fuckers that in various assemblages formed the core of ensembles like Alterations (covered in this month's Wire Magazine), General Strike and the below featured 49 Americans, who just happened to tidily fit into this particular alphabetical post. Many will recall the Flying Lizards simply for their 15 minutes of pop glory in the annals of early 80's synth pop one-hit wonders via their cover of The Beatles' "Money", but this particular well runs infinitely deeper into the recesses of weirdity than anyone might surmise from that. Four killers cuts here (the A-sides taken from their second album Fourth Wall, the B-sides exclusive to these singles) that run the gamut from "Lovers & Other Strangers"' Raincoats cum Family Fodder-like rubberized art punk playfulness to the blearily seductive synth pop of "Wind" and from "Move On Up", which mines a vein of skewed disco pop like Belgian proggers Cos were attempting at the end of their career to the unexpectedly stark and Cab Voltaire-ish "Portugal".



FOREIGN BODIES-THE INCREDIBLE TRUTH/LONG WALK HOME, 1980, USA
In tribute to the memory of Jim Jones (no...not THAT one...), a Cleveland underground all-star who had memberships over the years in Pere Ubu, David Thomas & The Wooden Birds and The Mirrors and who unexpectedly died of a heart attack earlier this year (check out his contributions to David Thomas & The Wooden Birds-Blame The Messenger to see how impressive this guy was), here's one of his earlier recorded achievements. The Incredible Truth sounds like some post punk fever dream of a Roxy Music jam while The Long Walk Home is a brilliantly unnerving instrumental, tapping a realm of suffocating post punk instrumental abstraction that carries a strong whiff of The Swell Maps' A Trip To Marineville at it's furthest out on a limb.



THE 49 AMERICANS-WONDER ONLY 85 PENNIES, 1979, UK
The insular and lo-fi mirror inverse of The Flying Lizards studio-fied confections, within the bounds of 49 American's tinker toy universe Beresford and Toop (distinctly absent Cunningham here) conspired with assorted post-punk provocateurs and untrained hangers on from workshops they used to stage to form these fey and fractured little art pop nuggets of jerry-rigged joy that seem yoked together with dental floss and have all the more what-the-fuck? appeal for the gesture.



FRAGMENTS-NUT BUSH CITY LIMITS, 1979, UK
FOllowing Jim's post of their Some Other Guy 7" in one of his own D.I.Y. 7" posts, here's another round of sing-songy and affably shuffling rhythm machine pre-set D.I.Y. synth pop doink; the A side applying the treatment to Ike & Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits, the flip settling into a spare and dejected sounding guitar and rhythm box instrumental lope.



FRANKIE TEARDROP!-ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC ROLLERCOASTER RIDE/APHRODITE'S LULLABY, 1997, USA
The sole release under this moniker from dearly departed Vas Deferens Organization/Yeti/Ohm keyboard guru Doug Ferguson, Frankie Teardrop! was the alter ego he used for his solo keyboard outings, this one produced by Matt Castille from VDO (I sat this session out for some reason) during some downtime from the recording of VDO's "Zyzzybaloubah", if memory serves. Two for the ages from the maestro here, Electro-Acoustic Rollercoaster Ride liquidly surging through Phaedra-like progressions, 666-era Vangelis flourishes and passages of the hectic gothic grandiosity he'd take to such hair raising ends in Yeti and Aphrodite's Lullaby riding the pulse of the universe somewhere between the tranquilly fluttering core of Harmonia's Deluxe and the pastoral electronics of Sowiesoso-era Cluster.





FRONT-GEORG, 1981, GERMANY
Another tersely mutant funky Neue Deutsche Welle treasure from the ZickZack stable, Front's choppy and stark but groovulating attack often landing them somewhere between fellow NDW operatives Kosmonautentraum and The Contortions circa Buy.

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GESTALT ET JIVE-NOUVELLE CUISINE, LP, 1985, VARIOUS

With an amazing globe-spanning cast of avant rock heavyweights in it's line-up (Alfred Harth from Cassiber and Goebbels and Harth, Steve Beresford from General Strike and The Flying Lizards, Ferdinand Richard from Etron Fou Leloublan, Anton Fier from Pere Ubu and The Golden Palominos), expectations would understandably be set pretty high for the work of this surprisingly little known outfit. Originally a trio of Harth, Richard and Uludag drummer Peter Hollinger (their debut documenting this era coming soon), the remit here on their second recording widens exponentially with the expansion of their line-up, with everyone involved leaving their distinct imprimatur on these recordings, most notably Ferdinand Richard, whose exquisite involuted bass perambulations are the engine at the heart of most of the beautifully gnarled R.I.O.-ish constructs at hand here.

NOTE: Turns out that I've had it backwards and that this is actually their debut! Thanks to those that offered a correction...

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David Cunningham - Grey Scale,LP,1977,UK

David Cunningham was born in Coleraine Northern Ireland in 1954 and lives and works in London. Cunningham's work has ranged from pop music to gallery installations, including work for television, film, contemporary dance, and a number of collaborations with visual artists. His first significant success came with The Flying Lizards' single 'Money', an international hit in 1979.
Since 1993 he has created a continuing series of installation works based on real time exploration of acoustics. 'The Listening Room', Biennale of Sydney (1998) was followed by 2 installation works in "Days Like These", The Tate Triennial of Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain 2003 and subsequent installations at ICC Tokyo, Ikon Birmingham and Camden Arts Centre London.
This body of work asks the question "What happens if you magnify the sound of a room?" Cunningham's response is to alter the sound of an architectural space in real time to allow its resonant frequencies to become audible and interactive. This process is modulated by very slight acoustic changes as people move around the room, by ambient sound, by humidity, by anything that causes air to move.
Cunningham states: "The presence of the spectator integrates the object of the work with its subject.
The work could be considered to be a sculpture in the sense that there is a consistent structure which is moderated by conditions of the space, just like a sculpture catching different patterns of light at different times of day or in differing locations. However, there is a musical function and unlike much other time-based work is responsive to musicological analysis. It creates a slowly shifting series of chords always related to a resonant frequency of the location."
Following his first album release 'Grey Scale' in 1976 he has worked as a composer and record producer; engaging with a range of people and music, from rock groups (This Heat, Owada) to improvisors (David Toop, and Steve Beresford), to Michael Nyman's music for Peter Greenaway's films, plus work with Ute Lemper and others.
Live performance has involved collaboration and performances with John Cage, Kathy Acker, Michael Nyman, Peter Gordon, Panasonic, Michael Giles, Scanner and others.
Music for film and television has included Ken McMullen's films 'Zina' and (in collaboration with Michael Giles and Jamie Muir) 'Ghost Dance', and a series of television collaborations with visual artists which has included John Latham, David Hall, Stephen Partridge, Bruce McLean. Related work has included the production and treatment of sound for installation and broadcast artworks by Martin Creed, Brad Butler and Karen Mirza, Sam Taylor-Wood, Susan Hiller, João Penalva, Ian Breakwell, Gillian Wearing and many others.
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V/A-AT CLOSE QUARTERS, CD, 1993, UK

A fascinating assemblage of tracks recorded live at the These Records shop in London that in varying assemblages manages to features contributions from the four major movers of the Flying Lizards/ General Strike/ Alterations/49 Americans camp: David Toop, Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack and Max Eastley. Kicking off with a screwy duet of Beresford on casio and low grade consumer electronics and John Butcher on tenor sax, what follows has Charles Hayward of This Heat/Camberwell Now reading the lyrics to a track from his collaboration with Nick Doyne-Ditmas before spending 16 odd minutes lingering in a held organ note purgatory before popping 'round again for another brief recitation, Barbed delivering a lovely slice of spliced and diced plunderphonics glissing out in a reverbed haze, David Toop and Max Eastley processing flutes and bowed metal for 18 gorgeously suspended minutes of suspense, Nicholas Collins splattering his trombone-triggered electronics and samples across a ferociously squealing soundbed of Peter Cusack's massively distorted electric bazouki and Morphogenesis ending the affair by spending 17 minutes splaying out into something that sounds like AMM staging a ritual invocation.

Track listing:

Steve Beresford/John Butcher-The Same Elephant (Dedicated To Nancy Banks-Smith)
Charles Hayward-Hilly Field
Charles Hayward-Risque Verglas
Charles Hayward-Unearthing Fossil Fuels
Barbed-Calling Dick Tracey
David Toop/Max Eastley-Normal Entrance, Abnormal Exit
Nicholas Collins/Peter Cusack-Baby It's You
Morphogenesis-Escape From The Unseen Cracks

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ALTERATIONS-MY FAVOURITE ANIMALS, LP, 1984, UK

Alterations were part of a whole raft of interrelated and little known improv-into-skeletal-song-form-by-way-of-weird-post-punk bands associated with various groupings of Steve Beresford, David Toop, Peter Cusack and Terry Day which I'll be posting in the coming days. By far the most well known intervention into weird new wave made by improvisers Beresford and Toop was their participation in The Flying Lizards (in collaboration with David Cunningham, another principal mover in this orbit), but together with these select cohorts in various assemblages, exceedingly odd and wonderful records emerged during the early to mid 80's from General Strike, 49 Americans, The Promenaders, The Avocados and varyingly assemblages of these personnel on numerous Nato Records releases, most notably together as part of Alterations. Herein, please find: disassembled funk, wheezy melancholia, hairshirt squeek-bonk improv praxis, beatnik hepcat spieling, duets for cocktail lounge jazz and balloon squeak and doo-wop piss-takes among other seemingly chalk and cheese combos, all whipped into a feather light frappe by these droll iconoclasts.

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V/A-NATO "ALTERNATE CAKE", LP, 1986, VARIOUS

Carving a uniquely idiosyncratic niche for itself,  the French Nato records imprint was, during it's 80's heyday ground zero for the zone where free improv began consorting with post punk art pop strategies and generalized genre disrupting malarky, much of it with a strong line in humor and irreverence, though their standing affection and recurrent homages to Henry Mancini and supper club piano jazz are certainly baffling enough. Amongst the freak fringe demimonde to be found at this nexus one could count the Toop/Beresford/Eastly/Day U.K. contingent responsible for General Strike/The 49 Americans/The Flying Lizards/Alterations, here running headlong into the wing of the French underground whose avant-rock-into-improv strategies descend from the May of '68 spirit of Red Noise, Mahogany Brain and Futura Records (read: Jac Berrocal, Jean-Francois Pauvros, Pierre Bastien et.al.). Within those parameters, the contents of the epic length LP (32 odd minutes per side!) constitute a virtual state of the union and offers a compelling rebuke to those who think the torch of fringe innovation was at a low flicker during the mid to late 80's.

Track listing:

1. Steve Beresford/Terry Day/Deb'Bora-The Nato Calling
2. Louis Sclavis-Pour Memoire
3. Violeta Ferrer-Les Chats
4. Tony Coe-Les Bourgeons Du Temps
5. Annick Nozati/Fred van Hove-Complaisance
6. Michel Doneda/Phil Wachsmann/Benat Achiary-Au Magasin
7. Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky/Andre Jaume/Johannes Bauer-Pavane
8. Alan Hacker/Karen Evans-Sketches From a Bagpiper's Album "Salute"
9. Jean-Francois Pauvros/Arto Lindsay-La Pointe Aux Oies
10. The Melody Four-The Three Caballeros
11. The Recedents-Oiseau Pour Nato Et Chabada (Bon Appetit!)
12. British Summer Time Ends-Running Bear
13. Lol Coxhill-Grope
14. David Toop/Kazuko Hohki-Shin Shin
15. Gerard Siracusa-Drole D'Endroit Pour Regler Sa Montre
16. Kahondo Style-Floor Polish Tango Et The Mohel
17. Jac Berrocal-Pacific
18. Raymond Boni/Max Eastley -Art Moderna Cha Cha Cha
19. Denis Levaillant-Les Menteries Du Style
20. Daniel Deshays-Ma Blanche

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KREUTZER-LIEBLINGSFARBE 12" EP, 1982, GERMANY

Thick and dynamic sounding synthy Neue Deutsche Welle coolness that has an interesting tie-in with the General Strike material I posted as well today, in that this too is produced by David Cunningham of The Flying Lizards (I wonder if he did any other NDW bands?). Odd rubbery synth-bass funk undertows, pensive slow burns with slowed down vocals, punchy D.A.F.-isms...yup...some very nice stuff indeed...

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Steve Beresford-The Bath of Surprise+ Dancing the line(with Anne Marie Beretta),LPs,1980/1985,UK,NWW list

Steve Beresford (born 1950) is a British musician. He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music. He is probably best known for free improvisation, but has also written music for film and television and has been involved with a number of pop music groups.
Beresford was born in Wellington, Shropshire in England, studied at the University of York, and stayed in York after graduating, becoming involved in theatre as well as arranging various free improvisation concerts in the city. At this early stage, he was playing a wide variety of music, playing the Hammond Organ in a soul music covers band, featuring on Trevor Wishart's early work Journey Into Space (1973) and free improvising.
In 1974, Beresford moved to London, where he played in Derek Bailey's Company events and in the groups Alterations with David Toop, Terry Day and Peter Cusack, and the Three Pullovers with Nigel Coombes and Roger Smith. He was also a member with Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno of the Portsmouth Sinfonia.
Beresford has continued to play free improvisation with a number of prominent musicians, including Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn and Han Bennink. He has also worked with a number of popular musicians, including The Slits, Frank Chickens, Ted Milton and The Flying Lizards.
During the 1970s, Beresford was a co-founder and co-editor of the magazine Musics, which dealt mainly with free improvisation, whilst during the early 1980s he helped to set up the somewhat glossier publication Collusion, which had a wider musical remit, covering fields such as rap, heavy metal, classical music, film music, pop music as well as the avant-garde and free improvisation. Along with David Toop, Beresford was also a prime mover of the London Musicians Collective.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Beresford"

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