WELCOME TO THE NEW MUTANT

And so we're off with this first batch of goodies for the faithful. As noted in the texts, these have gone up on my own dropbox in advance of officially putting pen to paper with the FMA, as they were promised this week. Off to your right you will now see both the new Mutant Sounds/VDO twitter feed and links to visit and download all the VDO and VDO-related posts, which are the only remaining older posts of ours to feature active links.

BRAD LANER-MICRO-AWAKENINGS, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED, RECORDED: 2004-2009, USA

Though never realized in its originally proposed incarnation as a double LP set earmarked for our old label Free Dope And Fucking In The Streets (the precursor to our current Puer Gravy imprint) for reasons to complicated to entail, this remarkable outing from trans-generational underground music icon and Mutant fixture Brad Laner (Medicine, Steaming Coils, Savage Republic, Electric Company and about 100 more since 1982) has now been green-lit to share with you in an awesome gesture of Mutant solidarity from Mr. Laner. 

Originally laid out in suite formation, these pieces have now been re-imagined as 61 inter-linked but free standing musical mosaic tiles, with Micro-Awakenings fragmented approach to the art of composition extending back to the de-centered and jarring acidhead disjunction of The Faust Tapes, one of Brad's key childhood influences. Fast forwarding through several decades that have taken him from the furthest flung fringes of L.A. Free Music Society freak culture marginalia to the epicenter of indie scene reverence via his legendary noise pop unit Medicine before venturing off into the hinterlands of left-field electronica, Micro-Awakenings utilizes this cellular song format to create something part kaleidoscopic tapestry and part Rube Goldberg contraption. A million thanks to Brad for offering up this treasure chest to share with you!

note: In order to get my initial posts up by the end of the week as promised, I've decided to hoist these first three files on my own dropbox account and then migrate them over to the FMA later, once the i's are dotted and the t's crossed in setting everything up with them.

Get it Here

PHILIP SANDERSON & VAS DEFERENS ORGANIZATION-"UPSTAIRS BACKWARDS", ADVANCE TRACK

One of the first fruits from the new and as-yet-untitled collaboration between Storm Bugs/Snatch Tapes mastermind Philip Sanderson and Vas Deferens Organization, the band in which I work, "Upstairs Backwards", subtitled "Drums in the Sanctuary (Abandoning The Office - She Descends Into The Underworld)" is VDO assisted by "The Lundon Physician" as he lovingly vivisects our work and teases the results into a series of wide-angle tracking shots.

note: In order to get my initial posts up by the end of the week as promised, I've decided to hoist these first three files on my own dropbox account and then migrate them over to the FMA later, once the i's are dotted and the t's crossed in setting everything up with them.

Get it Here  

NO-NECK BLUES BAND-FURAMINGO JOSEI, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED, USA, 200(?)

Since their first recorded output wafted up through the cracks in 1995, NYC's No-Neck Blues Band have been acting as a collective diving rod; tapping an arcane and wizened old vein of outsider musical research and group-mind action that extends in an erratic line out from the sort of heavy-lidded shambolic summonings of Krautrock-associated improvisors like Limbus 3/Limbus 4 and more acid rock-based but too-stoned-to-hold-it-together exploits of Siloah, threads its way forward to the collapsing psych improvs of 80's German marginals Heavy Kremls & The White House Devils and Blumen Des Exotischen Eises and eventually winds up as a template for the more hirsute and mind-altered breeds of contemporary free music action. Their tangible aura of otherness would eventually lead them to collaborations with the Krautrock visionaries in Embryo and productions helmed by Jerry Yester for John Fahey's Revenant label. Heard here in their natural habitat on this exclusive archival post for Mutant (likely recorded sometime in the mid 2000's around the time they made Qvaris, according to NNCK's Pat Murano), their assembled id is spilling out of them like frankincense-soaked silly string sprung from their collectively trepanned third eyes, as erratically respirating freeform freakouts and lumbering ragas disintegrate and spontaneously re-assemble amidst dense thickets of percussive clatter.

Note: In order to get my initial posts up by the end of the week as promised, I've decided to hoist these first three files on my own dropbox account and then migrate them over to the FMA later, once the i's are dotted and the t's crossed in setting everything up with them. 

Get it Here  

MUTANT SOUNDS AND THE FMA GET HITCHED + TWITTER NEWS

I'm delighted to announce that the Free Music Archive will be working together with Mutant Sounds and hosting our upcoming archives. Thanks to those on the comment board the suggested this great idea! My account with them is now being set up and a batch of extra-special goodies to reward your patience and launch our new incarnation with will likely be up by the end of this weekend.

Prior to that, there will be a new Mutant/VDO twitter account launched and linked off of the side-bar here by tomorrow night, so you can follow us and keep up with our new postings in real time as they come in, along with any VDO related news.

*****MUTANT SOUNDS: REBORN*****

There's been such a passionate outpouring against our abandoning Mutant Sounds, so much encouragement from fans, artists and labels associated with the albums that we've shared to find some way to continue that it's driven us to devise a new way to keep Mutant alive.

While all former posts will remain as text archives only, Mutant Sounds will now carry on sharing rare, unreleased and long out of print music both new and old from many of your favorite artists here. It's just that this material will now be shared with the full authorization of each artist and, as a result, will be hosted on our personal Dropbox account.

Make sure to get the word out to your friends: Mutant has not died. It's just transformed and is now about to emerge like a butterfly from a chrysalis. Stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled for more goodies. The first fruits of this will begin appearing next week…

THE END OF AN ERA

So this is where I get to tell you everything you never wanted to hear me say. While it's been a fantastic ride and I hope everyone has enjoyed it, the recent news that issues pertaining to copyright online are now being re-interpreted by the powers-that-be in alarming new ways means that there's no point in pushing this boulder up a hill any longer. Mutant Sounds' original founder Jim is in full agreement with my sentiments and everything except for the texts has now been deleted. I understand this is really crushing news for many and I sympathize with your pain but I also hope you can see why the time has now come to call it a day.

Thanks to every one of you that have expressed your enthusiasm and moral support for Mutant over the years. I'm convinced that this music and a better understanding of it and its historical place will continue to spread, as it's been circulating around out there for some time now, so a thousand other platforms await your own able hands and intentions. My texts (those on the posts put up by vdoandsound) at least still reside under my control and thus they are now deemed anti-copyright and you are free to spread them far and wide, though proper attribution on these would obviously be appreciated when they're used.

For those who would like to be kept abreast of Vas Deferens Organization activity, a twitter account will be launched shortly to keep everyone interested up to date and to periodically hand out free material that we own.