ALPHABETICAL UPLOADS OF WHACKED OUT SINGLES PT. 8

What follows is the eighth installment in my ongoing series of postings of singles from the vdoandsound archives.





DRINKING ELECTRICITY-SHAKING ALL OVER/CHINA, 1980, UK
Sharp and punchy minimal synth fun. A side is a poppy slice of femme vox pleasure, B side is a lovely instrumental that nudges the proceedings in the direction of Dignity Of Labour-era Human League, B.E.F. and Dennis DeFrange's work on Bowling Balls From Hell.





JOHN DUNCAN/ANDREW CHALK & CHRISTOPH HEEMANN-THE ELGALAND-VARGALAND NATIONAL ANTHEM FOR CHORUS AND PERCUSSION/OLD HIVE, 1998, USA/UK
Austere experimental electronic composer Duncan's side of this split departs from the main thrust of his activities with a grim trudge of slo-mo percussives underpinning the death rattles of trolls groaning at the periphery, while Chalk and Heeman (aka Mirror) contribute a slice of the precise sort of wavering, watery and liminal fare they've been alluringly plying since they began working together, this being one of the earliest examples of their partnership, coming a year before their debut under the Mirror moniker on "Eye Of The Storm".





KEVIN DUNN-NADINE/OKTYABRINA, 1979, USA
This one's a bit schizophrenic. A side's an undistinguished slice of rock ramalama (albeit with some half-appealing guitar squalling interjected), but Oktyabrina's a peachy bit of rib-sticking melancholic synthpop that's well worth three and a half minutes of your life.





DUPPI-VELVET NIGHT, FLEXI, MID-80'S, JAPAN
A true mystery item, the A side of this addled sounding flexi finds typically whispery and coquettish Japanese chick vox getting swaddled in nebulous washes of detuned wooze, keyboard plink-plonk and the wheezy groan of bowed kokyu. B side buttresses her spiels with buzzing synthetics, hand drums and a protracted dewy drift off.






V/A-EARCOM 3, 2x7", 1979, USA/UK/GERMANY
Issued on the legendary Fast Product label (home to the first Human League single among other choice items), this notorious compilation is a mixed bag of charmingly naif and shambolic art brut primitivism (Noh Mercy's hectoring bash, harangue and wail, the artless idiocy mongering of Stupid Babies, The limping Door And The Window-like DIY meander of From Chorley) Neue Deutsche Welle ferocity (a top notch slice of early Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft) and semi-useless hardcore from Orange County vets The Middle Class.





ELECTRIC MAX BAND-MICK & MAX/KNIVES, FEATHERS AND FIRE, 1972, FRANCE
Produced by Igor Wakhevitch (though there's nothing here remotely akin to his otherworldly hallucinogenic soundscapes), the A side sounds like an instrumental backing track from T. Rex. Nice enough but a wee bit insubstantial. The B side is where the action is though, with a flaming synth-twitter-saturated acid rock jam that smacks of Richard Pinhas' first band Schizo.







ELECTRO STATIC CAT-LETHOLOGICA, 1987, CANADA
Fetching post-industrial weirdity from this Canadian unit that later morphed into Empirical Sleeping Consort and which manifests the same Nurse With Wound cum SPK atmosphere of morbid surrealism that they wielded on their Dysteleology LP (posted by moi back in April).





ESKATON-LE CHANT DE LA TERRE/IF, 1979, FRANCE
This head-spinning and luminous Zeuhl jazz rock pearl was the first available recording by this legendary French outfit. Though this lacks the immaculately polished and enveloping atmosphere of their 4 Visions album that followed a year later, these two cuts are still soul stirring treasures and a vital piece of the puzzle for you zeuhl true believers out there.

Get part one Here

Get part two Here