Tuesday, July 31, 2007

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS-S/T, LP, 1969, UK




A mythical and rather ludicrous (in both the positive and negative senses of that word) album from the U.K. psychedelic underground, briefly tossed on the market by Instant Records before it was quickly withdrawn for it's boucoup copyright infringements. This stoned piss-take party was overseen by none other than Andrew Loog-Oldham and, if nothing else, really deserves to be recognized for being the first overtly plunderphonic recording extant, collaging chunks of appropriated source material from everyone from The Lovin Spoonful to Little Richard, wrangling it through periodic primitive processing, patching it together with contributions from Mike D'Abo of Manfred Mann's band, tapes being run backwards and fluffy orchestrations, all in a thoroughly haphazard fashion and all ostensibly inspired by a stage production of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, though how that ties into any of the malarky at hand is anyone's guess. Note: as there is absolutely no correspondence between the number of track titles listed and the actual number of cuts banded on the vinyl, I've just ripped each side as one cut, since accurate titling is impossible.

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Z.S.K.A.-DAS BESTE VON Z.S.K.A.-TAPE, 1981, GERMANY




Much like the archival material of theirs that was issued on 7" vinyl around five years back by Was Soll Das? Shallplatten, this is a beautifully relentless Neue Deutsche Welle doink hammer of pots 'n' pans percussion, primitive synth blurt and effected vocal slurry that should make anyone enamored by this warts-and-all side of the NDW equation idiotically happy.

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RICK POTTS-CAROUSEL OF PROGRESS, 3" CDR, 2005, USA




Released as part of P-Tapes ongoing 3" CDR series in an edition of a mere 100 copies, this 20 minute treasure from L.A. Free Music Society maestro Potts (Solid Eye, Gothic Hut, Human Hands, Steaming Coils, Dinosaurs With Horns, Le Forte Four etc.) wheels into existence on a whisp of wheedling musical saw, judders into a convulsive calliope hallucination and then spends most of the duration finding novel ways to melt the established sonic fabric into funhouse mirror inversions of it's prior structure before finally taffy stretching itself into a blasted tonal drift. Wonderful.

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OMOIDE HATOBA-DAIONGAKU, CD, 1989, JAPAN





Following my posts of several other titles by this beserk Boredoms offshoot, here's their long unavailable debut missive. Interestingly, this presages some of the more constructivist developments that Yamamoto would later apply as The Boredoms constrained the dementia into more digestible packets starting with Pop Tatari. This is not to suggest that there's any shortage of synapse frazzling spazz attacks at hand. Far from it. But in typical Omoide Hatoba fashion, the post punk shitfits are playing footsie with the psychedelically sprawling in ways that stymie pigeonholing as much as they do rational thought when in it's destabilizing presence.

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The Last-Look Again ,LP,1980,USA

Influenced by '60s surf, psychedelia, and folk-rock, brothers Joe (guitar), Mike (vocals), and David Nolte (bass) of Los Angeles formed the Last in 1976, along with associates Jack Reynolds (drums) and Vitus Matare (keyboards). The Last might be considered a seminal indie band, having released early singles on their own label, Backlash. Their first album, L.A. Explosion, released in 1979 on the Bomp! label, has been lauded as a powerful and nearly perfect first effort.
The Last recorded a second album, Look Again, in 1980 on Backlash and distributed it privately. In 1982, they returned to Bomp! for the EP Fade to Black, and then completed Painting Smiles on a Dead Man for Lolita Records before disbanding in 1985. David Nolte left to join Wednesday Week and eventually ended up in Lucky. The band reformed in 1988 with Luk Lohnes on guitar and vocals, Missy Buettner on bass, and Robbie Rist on drums joining Joe and Mike Nolte from the original lineup. That year they toured outside of California for the first time and released Confessions on the SST label. Two more releases on SST have followed -- Awakenings in 1989 and Gin & Innuendo in 1996. Dave Nazworthy replaced Rist on drums during the recording of Awakenings, and David Nolte has a cameo appearance on that album as well. Nazworthy also plays for the Chemical People.
Through the personnel changes, the Last have maintained a consistent style of potent power-pop, heavily influenced by the local music they grew up listening to in Southern California.
~ Nick Kemper, All Music Guide
for more infos visit Last's website
Only 60-100 test pressing copies known to exist.Excellent mod/psych farfisa driven sounds all through!A great companion to everyone's summer holidays!

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Brother JT and Vibrolux -Music For The Other Head ,LP,1996,USA

Squirrelly, off-kilter, and more than slightly disturbing psychedelia doesn't come much more off than this. If Syd Barrett actually did crack via his acoustic ditties, Brother JT gives the sense of cracking with a full band behind him on Other Head. Certainly JT's opening snippets of conversation on "Comet" mentioning insanity and asking after Vibrolux member Difuria actually sound fairly calm, but as his voice starts snorting and snarling once the singing begins, Kansas (or, more appropriately, Pennsylvania) has been left behind. States of mind aside, though, "Comet" is a great monster of a track, a 20-minute-long workout with some truly grand guitar madness, of the squalling open-ended variety as opposed to clean fret wankery. The main line, "The comet will come," is repeated throughout like a mantra while more yelps, squeals, and semi-random rants add to it all. The rhythm is simple but does the business, a dance on the edge of normality. "Music For" is about half that in length but no less gone. JT softly mutters then sings the title phrase (subtitle -- The one inside the one, as illustrated by the wonderfully grotesque album cover) as everyone softly tunes up and plays, much like "Comet" in general approach. The soloing is a bit calmer all around, but the overdubbed vocal squelching and noise continues on. The final two songs are more on the straightforward side, though hardly without their own slices of oddity. "Blur (Twas)" initially fires up with a little bit of wah-wah and singing, then stops entirely and turns into a full-on acid punk rocker, with some deliciously gurgled and sneered singing. Everything wraps up with "Mind (I Don't... If You... Or Rot)," a heavy slice of funk as revamped through JT and company's distinct sensibilities.
~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide


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Carlos Maria Trindade & Nuno Canavarro-Mr. Wollogallu,LP,1991,Portugal

Great experimental /ambient with some ethnic touches release by ex-Corpo Diplomático - Heróis do Mar - Madredeus ,Carlos Maria Trindade and ex- Street Kids avant garde musician and film music composer Nuno Canavarro.

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End of Data-Sahrah,LP,1984,France

Great and rare French album .Minimal Synth,post punk and some art rockish hints. Would appeal to all fans of Autopilot,Kas Product,Dark Day,Sad Lovers and Giants,etc.

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Big City Orchestra-- Animal Religion,tape,1988,USA

One of the most idiosyncratic and original groups of the past two decades, BCO is not your standard Orchestra. Situated in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the band has released an enormous catalog of recorded material over the past two decades. Formed in the late 1970's the ensemble continues to maintain a free-flowing roster of artists from around the world that collaborate on specific projects. Categorizing the Orchestra into any given genre can be a task, as releases continue to surprise even the most devout listener. There is never any way to precisely classify the next BCO release. An album of authentic sea-shanties? A wall of noise? A shimmering downpour of lullabies whispered to the wind? A humorous or thought-provoking album of Sound Collages? Vocal excursions set to make Rod McKuen blush? We press play, leaning forward with slight apprehension. We await the first wave of blissful deception. We are perpetually rewarded.
From Discogs
This one was released through Ralph label,contributors are Crawling With Tarts and it's all consisted by manipulated animal noises!

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VANAY, Laurence "Galaxies" LP 1974 (France)

Laurence Vanay is the pseudonym for Jacqueline Thibault, wife of music producer and musician Laurent Thibault (ex-MAGMA). Here is her debut album entitled "Galaxies", a very rare item indeed and a Holy Grail for most collectors of 70ies underground French progressive.

"Galaxies" opens in a progressive instrumental mood, a style elegantly dominating the entire record. The powerful swirling organ, with a sound that owes to early CATHARSIS, sets an atmosphere of acid hallucinatory mellowness which prevails throughout the whole recording. The sublime folk twists add an aura of quiet and restrained melancholy, soft and seductive yet in perfect emulation with the dreamy flute play. Refined sonorities are interwoven with troubled twists of anguish, to faint in an aetherial vaporous climate reminding delicate second CRESSIDA or early GRACIOUS. An album of inconspicuous, sincere beauty and a masterwork of the french progressive folk scene.

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Monday, July 30, 2007

Verdenskang - And it's there,tape,1985,Italy(Alien Brains/Organum related!)

Nigel Jacklin was the founding member of Alien Brainsa DIY noise/experimental band started by Nigel when hewas still at school in the late 1970’s. The school inquestion was Oundle a public school near Peterborough.Convincing the music teacher that their music “wasjust like John Cage” Nigel arranged for ThrobbingGristle to perform at the school on the 16th March1980. The concert was subsequently released on videoand apparently all but ended in a riot. (An extract ofthe performance can be seen on YouTube at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAX0ahuNcNo)

Moving to London Nigel released a number of AlienBrains tapes on such labels as Deleted Records,Fashionable Trousers and Snatch Tapes often featuringcollaborations with other like-minded experimentalistsincluding the Rupenus Brothers (New Blockaders), DavidJackman (Organum) and Philip Sanderson (SnatchTapes/Storm Bugs). A collaboration with the RupenusBrothers and Neil Purvis called Live at the Basementwas released recently in 2007on vinyl by Tub of Gutsin a limited edition of 200. A track by Alien Brainswas also featured on the 2006 Vinyl on Demand LPSnatch Paste.
Initially highly prolific gradually in the early 1980’s Nigel Jacklin’s output began to decreaseending with a final and arguably the best tape calledVerdenskang - And it's there. The tape credits saythat it was made in co-operation with: PhilipSanderson, Meat Means Bloody Murder, David Jackman andintroducing: Zena. The level of “co-operation” of thevarious parties is unclear as there is not track bytrack analysis but it seems likely from comments bysome of the parties that the tape includes extractsfrom both live appearances and recordings made onlocations at various sites including a South Londonschool, Ealing College, an abandoned swimming pool inNotting Hill and perhaps most exotically PuertoD'alcala, The Valley Of Assisi and Wisebach. Thoughreleased in 1985 Verdenskang is in effect a documentof collaborations from 1981-85. The tape isundoubtedly uneven but in places quite brilliant withsome exquisite drone and collage work that is up therewith the best of the New Blockaders. Organum and StormBugs work.
Thanks to Claire Thomas for this!


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Jeff Greinke-Cities In Fog,LP,1985,USA

Jeff Greinke is a musician, composer, performer, sound sculptor and visual artist known worldwide for his unique sound. Through a highly developed process of layering, Jeff composes and performs music rich in texture, depth, mood and subtle detail. Using various acoustic and electronic instruments, found sounds and extended studio techniques, Jeff sculpts sound worlds that conjure a strong sense of location, hovering somewhere between the familiar and the exotic. Key elements include mood, texture, space, motion and a perception of place, with no one element being primary. Jeff Greinke began composing and performing music in 1980 while studying meteorology at Penn State University. "As far back as I can remember I've been fascinated by the weather... I soon realized that much of my work runs parallel to this interest... It has always been more intuitive and experiential than scientific... I see the correlation between meteorology and my music more after the fact. It's never premeditated." Here, Greinke explains his approach to improvisation and composition, "I approach each new work as a blank slate. I begin by searching for interesting sounds from which to create a foundation, whether it be a drone, or little melodic phrase, or a compelling rhythm. Each piece evolves over time through a meticulous process of layering, combining sounds vertically and placing them spatially into a three dimensional environment. Each layer stimulates new ideas from which to continue until I reach a point where no new elements are needed."
After moving to Seattle in 1982, Jeff formed the production company and recording label, INTREPID, through which he produced his first LP, Cities in Fog. He has since released twenty other recordings on various U.S. and European labels. His most recent is entitled Weather From Another Planet, released in 2003 on First World, a label and distribution network he co-owns with four other musicians. Greinke's work can also be heard on numerous compilation recordings. He has composed music for film, video, dance, theatre, radio, and art installations. Jeff Greinke has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe and has performed in China, Canada, and Mexico. His 8 May 1994 performance at The Gatherings Concert Series was a turning point for the innovative music scene in Philadelphia, "I approach live performance in a very different manner from that of the studio. I'm very much concerned with the 'live' aspect of the music, so I set up situations that require me to be fully involved with that process. I don't use any pre-recorded tapes, CD's, or pre-programmed sequencing. I am interested in performing music that is multi-layered, much like that of my studio work. So I tend to get a lot going on at once between my sampler, synth, other acoustic elements like trombone, voice, small percussion and several long delays. Things can get pretty precarious at times, and I like that. It keeps me active on stage - I'm dancing really - and there's a tension for me which I hope translates to the audience. Furthermore, the audience can visually see me expressing myself. I think this is important. Also, there's a greater amount of improvising going on, and when I'm on, in flow, that can be powerful for an audience." Greinke has also been a member of numerous ensembles and is founder of the group LAND, featuring Lesli Dalaba (trumpet), Dennis Rea (guitar), Bill Rieflin (drums) and Fred Chalenor (bass). LAND toured China in 1996 which included playing the prestigious Beijing International Jazz Festival. Greinke's current ongoing project is a collaboration with former Sky Cries Mary vocalist Anisa Romero called Hana. He is also working with the group Faith and Disease, "LAND and Hana have provided me with the opportunity to branch out into areas that also interest me - beyond that which I've explored as a solo artist. My work with Anisa has me experimenting with more conventional song-oriented forms of music while maintaining my textural moody sound." Contemplating the musicial evolution since the release of his first LP, Greinke relates that, "The changes have been very gradual. My work has become more refined yet also more broad, and somewhat more accessible. The earliest works were generally dark. My studio was very minimal and techniques fairly crude. My approach was experimental and adventurous. Slowly I began to infuse my work with rhythms. In 1989 I spent six months travelling around Southeast Asia. Upon returning I found that my aural experiences there were informing my music. The albums 'Changing Skies' and 'In Another Place' reflect that influence. Over time I developed my ability to create more complex and texturally interesting rhythms. I also began collaborating more with other musicians. I became intrigued by the possibilities presented through interacting with more adept players of instruments I wanted as part of my work. So I formed LAND in 1993. When I met Anisa, I was able to explore my interest in composing a more conventional style of music that none-the-less was imbued with the kinds of moods and textures that had been part of my music all along. At present both of my group projects have quieted down, so I am back focusing on my solo work, creating quieter compositions, similar in terms of mood and spaciousness as my earlier work, but pared down, simpler. I'm attempting to achieve some of the same qualities with less going on." Jeff Greinke's current musical offerings are Wide View (Hypnos) and Weather From Another Planet (FWD). On these releases Greinke leads the listener through a range of themes in tonality, coloristic range and contrast. The compositions seem basic: slow, open melodies over a shifting foundation of swelling harmonies. But these works are more than mere system driven modernism - ruled soley by a compositional method; it is introspective, personal and deliberately widely spaced. Here the mood ranges from noirish and nocturnal to idyllic and beautiful. Yet, these latest albums do not contradict the earlier isolationist atmospheric works, but are more interested in what can be discovered than in preserving what this artist is already known for. Perhaps now we have Greinke's most inviting works - his music for a newer century. Greinke's album Soundtracks debuted on the 08.15.04 broadcast of STAR'S END and was officially released at his concert in Philadelphia on 11 September.
Selected Press Quotes:
"Greinke continues to prove himself as one of our finest and most important composers and sound artists. His style has encompassed ambient industrial soundscapes, fourth-world exoticism and ambient washes, and he displays a magnificent ability to create compelling, sensual, tangible textures, sonorities, moods, and atmospheres."
- AUDION Magazine
"His music, which bridges synth, the avant-garde, ambient and industrial styles, can also be simultaneously accessible and challenging, a music in a no man's land for which no journalist has yet coined a cliche. If anything, Jeff's music is all about atmosphere, a power through subtlety." - AUDION Magazine
"Take the pace of everyday life and slow it down to the imperceptible movements of the planet. Take the sounds of a factory and spread them in a slow motion design. That's the concept of Jeff Greinke, a musician who has taken Brian Eno's ambient music concepts to extremes. He takes conventional instruments and slows them down, runs them backwards, sends them through extensive processing that changes their sound beyond recognition and places them in soundscapes like barges moving slowly through a fog."
- ECHOES Radio
From:http://www.starsend.org/jeffgreinke.html
Jeff Greinke's debut has just as much in common with industrial music as it does with ambient music. as the title suggests it's a collage of sounds you'd find in an urban environment - the hums of factories, machinery, engines, wind, far away crowds of people - and he blends them together in a murky fashion. although it is beatless and without words, there are clear, hypnotic rhythms emerged deeply in this quiet tension and the feeling one gets is that of utter isolation and a feeling of dread, a knot building in the stomach over the immense terror lurking somewhere in there, as if you're alone in a high rise flat looking out of the window at the grimy city below which is emerged in fog.

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Czesław Niemen- Aerolit,LP,1974,Poland




Czesław Niemen (real name Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki) (February 16, 1939 - January 17, 2004) was one of the most important and original Polish singer-songwriters and rock balladeers of the last quarter-century, singing mainly in the Polish language.
Niemen was born in Wasiliszki in Grodno county. He made his debut in the early 1960s, singing Polish rock and soul music. He possessed an unusually wide voice range and equally rich intonation. He was also an ardent composer and a keyboard player. Soon after his first successful concerts in France, he started to use the pseudonym Niemen instead of his real name, gaining wider notoriety in Poland and making it easier to pronounce by foreigners. His song of 1967, "Dziwny jest ten świat" (Strange Is This World) became the most important Polish protest song of that era. He was one of the first Polish performers to wear long hair and colourful clothes and introducing psychedelia style to communist Poland. The first three LP album's Niemen recorded with his band "Akwarele" (Watercolours). Subsequently, he recorded with his other new bands: "Enigmatic", "Grupa Niemen" and "Aerolit". In 1969 he changed musical style to progressive rock while recording the monumental album Enigmatic. The most notable song from it was "Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod" (A Mournful Rhapsody in Memory of Józef Bem), based on the 19th century poem by Cyprian Kamil Norwid. The rest of Enigmatic songs were a sung poetry as well. Niemen played Hammond organ, later mellotron and Moog synthesizer on his records.
In the early 1970s, Niemen recorded three English language albums under the CBS label. In 1974 he recorded Mourner's Rhapsody with Jan Hammer and Rick Laird from Mahavishnu Orchestra. In the seventies, Niemen turned to jazz-rock fusion and electronic music (Katharsis album). In 1972 he also contributed with a song performed by him in "Wesele" (The Wedding (1972 film)) by director Andrzej Wajda , laureate of an honorary Oscar. Later, Niemen also composed film soundtracks and theater music. In the 1990s he showed interest in art painting and computer graphics. He died of cancer in Warsaw.
FROM WIKIPEDIA

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Incontinents-The Call,LP,1981,France




Ineresting French band ,that released only this LP and a 7" through Scopa Invisible label. Influences of early Gang of 4,Maximum Joy,Medium Medium and the whole mutant funk Y records scene is more than obvious,all that mixed with the classic for the period post punk sounding.
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Beia Come Aba -st,LP,1979,Italy


An interesting combination of new age, prog, and fusion that leans toward sparse instrumentation and extended improvisation. In many ways it reminds me of early Vangelis (e.g. The Dragon or Hypothesis) but is more guitar driven. It's high points are courtesy of Antonio Lombardi (guitar) and Sergio De Francesco (keyboards). Released with 2 different covers.

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C.C.C.C.-Cosmic Coincidence Control Center,CD,1992,Japan

C.C.C.C. is a noise band from Japan, alongside such bands as Merzbow and Incapacitants.
The core line up of this band consisted of Hiroshi Hasegawa (also of the bands Astro & Mortal Vision) and former bondage-porn star Mayuko Hino. Hino would occasionally during live shows reprise this element of her past into her performances by engaging in such acts as onstage stripteases. Other members were occasionally and variably brought in for work on singular albums, but had no permanent membership in the band.
Aesthetically, the band, and Mayuko Hino in particular, advocated a very emotive and cathartic approach to noise music as opposed the conceptual and intellectual approaches advocated by many European noise musicians, most notably within the "power electronics" subgenre. Mayuko Hino believes that Noise, when done emotionally rather than intellectually, not only creates more interesting sounds, but reveals much about the personality of the noisemaker. Sonically, C.C.C.C.'s first release, "Cosmic Coincidence Control Center" was much quieter and much less distorted than most "Japanese noise" releases, bordering on being experimental ambient. Later releases, such as "Rocket Shrine" and "Love and Noise", however, took the psychedelic ambiance and oddball sounds of early C.C.C.C., but amplified the volume and distortion levels to easily be as loud, and harsh as other Japanese noise bands, if not more so. The band's later releases rank among the more sonically diverse of noise albums, exploring an incredible variety of sonic dissonances, while still maintaining a consistently ear-splitting loudness.
The band eventually broke up. Hiroshi Hasegawa has returned, by all appearances, to doing experimental ambiance, this time under the name Astro. In 1995, Mayuko Hino released an album called "Chaos of the Night", which also starred Monte Cazazza of "Industrial Records" fame.
As of early 2007, C.C.C.C. have announced a new CD release entitled "Chaos Is The Cosmos" which is forthcoming on Cold Spring Records.
FROM WIKIPEDIA

Harsh psychedelic noise at it's best!

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Sunday, July 29, 2007

SEPSIS-LITURGIA BEZUMIA, LP, 1991, RUSSIA




If you can begin to wrap your head around the idea of a fusion of Relayer-era Yes, The latter day Magic Band (especially Ice Cream For Crow) and Butthole Surfers circa Hairway To Steven, you'll begin to comprehend what this acidically brainburning Russian power trio have cooked up here on their sole release, the sickness of which is clearly suggested by the title, which translates to "A Liturgy Of Madness". Working it's way up to some of the most beautiful, baffling and unaccountably emotionally wrenching musical conflagrations I've yet encountered, the elastic yet precision tooled rhythm section (worthy of Guru Guru) masterfully undergirds maneuvers of distended guitar eloquence that flame, squeal, whinny and howl in a way that's very Glenn Phillips as well, come to think of it. Almost beyond imagining.

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LUCIEN BOITEAUX-EXISTENCE IS PROOF, LP, 198?, AUSTRALIA




Housed in a super-elaborate handmade collage sleeve, this album of magnificent one-man higher-key improv blowouts (presumably multi-tracked) is brought to you by Aussie X-factor Boiteaux (who there is not a single peep to be found about online) and realized via drums, piano, flute, voice and "body percussion". Boiteaux establishes the outwardly bound agenda here right out of the gate with accretions of piano densities and tripped flute whirlwinds loosely yoked to massed rhythmic flurries in a way distinctly suggestive of a will to transcendence, a sensibility that carries through the entirety of this lost gem.

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DE FABRIEK-LABISH INTERMEDIARIES, LP, NETHERLANDS, 1989




With a line-up featuring Conrad Schnitzler (partly recorded at his Con Studio) and minimal synth figurehead Mark Lane, this is a rather unusual and auspicious outing for this long lived Dutch post-industrial unit. Much more watery and synthy than most of their recorded canon, these languid sound-morphs ambiguously unfurl in drifts through which slither flits of Michael Otto's bassoon in an atmosphere only really comparable to the more kosmiche-directed output of De Fabriek's sister project Narwal. Perfect 5 AM drift off material, methinks.

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JOSEPH HAMMER-MARBLE LOBBIES, CDR, 2003, USA




71 unbroken minutes of queasy listening from a live radio broadcast by this L.A. Free Music Society legend, Solid Eye /Dinosaurs With Horns/ Points Of Friction/ Joe + Joe member and living master of monophonic reel-to-reel tape manipulated wooze. It's worth noting that Hammer cites his primary musical influence as being "an episode of Land Of The Giants in which the heroes used tape loops to fend off alien baddies". Herein, please find soupy slurries of floppy and slack rotors and belts wetly drag against each other and slowly swaddling you in viscous thickets of amorphous gloop. Pass the cough syrup and don't let the inertial drag pull you into the undertow! Note: in order to upload this 70+ minute solid block of audio, I had to drop the bit-rate for this title from my customary 256 to 192.

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KLANGKRIEG-DAS FIEBER DER MENSCHLICHEN STIMME, CD, 1998, GERMANY








Before Felix Kubin's reign as king of NDW-inspired electronica ensued, he was spending his time proffering considerably more abstruse sonic universes under the name Felix Knoth with the aid of co-conspirator Tim Burre in Klangkrieg. On "Das Fieber...", the remit was to use only the sounds of processed human voice and the results are brilliantly nerve-rattling and surreal, sheets of austerity giving way to shattered bursts of spitting phonetics and hissing ejaculations amid sparse beds of electronic rasp, sear, ping and singe from vocals DSP-ed into oblivion.

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Claudio Rocchi & Paolo Tofani-Un gusto superiore,LP,1980,Italy


2 legends of the progressive scene Claudio Rocchi(Stormy Six) and Paolo Tofani (Area,Electric Frankestein), collaborate in this 1980 LP.A rather mainstream prog rock LP, yet very beautiful and exceptional.
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Capricorni Pneumatici-st,tape,1987,Italy

Italian duo active from 1987 to 1991. Ambient, ritual and concrete music. Their name comes from Aleister Crowley's book "Liber A'ASH vel Capricorni Pneumatici SUB FIGURA CCCLXX". The two persons involved in the project were only known under the pseudonyms of Pazuzu and Soda Caustica.

"...Your music is very good, truthfully, I like it better than any that has been sent me by various groups.
Both tapes are excellent."
Z'ev - November 1988, writing about CP and Al-Azif

Spooky creepy ambientritualistic industrial soundscapes all through.Don't listen it with lights off!

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Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange-Within Dreams,radio broadcast,1964,UK


"This programme of sounds and voices is an attempt to re-create in five movements some sensations of dreaming - running away, falling, landscape, underwater and colour. All the voices were recorded from life (by Barry Bermange) and arranged in a setting of pure electronic sounds." (RT) -Produced by David Thomson.
--Note also BBC RADIO 3 19.10.93 Between the Ears: The Dreams by Barry Bermange An invention for radio: people talking about recurring elements in their dreams; ethereal electronic sounds. Introduced by Mark Russell in conversation with Barry Bermange." --Nigel Deacon
"Part of the four programme "Inventions for Radio" series, created in collaboration with Barry Bermange, Dreams is a collection of spliced/reassembled interviews with people describing their dreams. Delia's editing and repetition, together with her dissonant, often terrifying musique concrete soundbeds, make this distinctly uneasy bedtime listening. The entire piece is 45 minutes in length." -- d-d.org
"Her collaborations with the poet and dramatist Barry Bermange for the Third Programme showed her at her elegant best. He put together The Dreams (1964), a collage of people describing their dreams. It was set by Delia into a background of pure electronic sound." --Brian Hodgson
Broadcast 1964-1965 (according to the www.doollee.com article on Barry Bermange).
1. Running (08:08) 2. Falling (08:45) 3. Land (07:02)
4. Sea (09:38) Lyrics 5. Colour (09:22)
More electronic weirdness by the pioneering electronics "witch" Delia Derbyshire.


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Hototogisu-Cuckoo Cloudland,LP,2001,USA

This was the 2nd release by the Hototogisu, and was touted as being the work of a mysterious Japanese group with ties to the Taj Mahal Travellers, only later did we find out that it was really Matt Bower of Total / Skullflower / Sunroof! / Vibracathedral Orchestral fame. Bower is currently working as the Hototogisu with Marcia Basset of the Double Leopards. The record comes in a plain white jacket, with a textured silk-screened red rice-paper cover. Very nice indeed, probably De Stijl’s best work.
Just 99 copies were made.

As requested!
After kindly destijl request i have to remove this link ,as there is a plan to reissue "cuckoo cloudland" on CD.

Hermann Nitsch-Orgelkonzert 9 dec 1986 Linz,2xtape,1987,Germany

Hermann Nitsch (b. 1938) is an Austrian artist who works in experimental and multimedia modes. He is associated with the Vienna Actionists, and like them conceives of his art outside traditional categories of genre.
In the 1950s, Nitsch conceived of the Orgien Mysterien Theater (which roughly translates as Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries), staging nearly 100 performances between the years of 1962 and 1998. These ritualistic performance actions, often included staged crucifixions and animal slaughter, incorporating other ritualistic actions as well as music and dance.
Nitch juxtaposes slaughtered animal intestines with quasi-religious icons, satirizing and questioning the moral ethics of atavistic religion and sacrifice.
His abstract splatter paintings also establish a controlled violence theme, using bright reds, maroons, and pale greys that communicate organic mutilation.
By 1995, Nitsch had been sufficiently embraced by the establishment that the Vienna State Opera invited him to direct and design the sets and costumes for Jules Massenet's opera "Herodiade."
In 1998, Nitsch staged his 100th performance (named the 6-Day Play after its length) which took place at his castle in Austria, Schloss Prinzendorf. Nitsch considered this performance his pinnacle. In 2004, he held an abbreviated (2-day) version of the work. He continues to publish articles and release CDs.
From Wikipedia
Great spooky soundtrack to nightmares.Wish i could find a dvd of his performances.

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

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Friday, July 27, 2007

LUCAS TROUBLE-LE ROY DEFIGURE, LP, 1981, FRANCE




Brilliant and wide ranging French synthy post punk art damage released on the seminal Scopa Invisible imprint (responsible for releases by Ilitch, Philippe Doray, Hector Zazou, Incontinents, etc), which should perhaps give you an idea of the rarified territory of weird we're discussing here. Much like these aforementioned artists, there's a distinct sense here of radical outsider art prog energy re-directed by post punk imperatives and the sense befouling sonic cocktail that's resulted is one for the ages.

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

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WERKBUND-STAHLHOF, LP, 2000, GERMANY




Following a raft of postings of Werkbund material by both Jim and moi, here's one more essential piece of the puzzle, with Asmus Tietchens and Ulli Rehberg masterfully honing their cryptic sonic mirages of suspended, vaporous and hazily resonating atmospherics into ever more esoteric territories on this haunting essential work.

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