BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC-S/T EP, 1983, USA

Founded by former Mission Of Burma member Roger Miller, Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic represented a complete departure from the guitar-centric post punk strategies he investigated in MOB. Abandoning his axe in favor of piano, the work he instigated in Birdsongs (alongside Martin Swope, Rick Scott and Space Negros founder Erik Lindgren) remains completely sui generis. Taking cues from both the modern classical canon and the systemic minimalism of Glass and Reich and welding them to a carapace of rhythm machine pound and R.I.O-ish angular astringency, this debut EP finds them in complete command of a radically new musical vocabulary thats uniquely their own.

I've just been informed that this amazing EP has been reissued on Cuneiform as part of a 2xCD comprehensive collection of all of Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic's early recordings. Please support these artists and this excellent label and purchase a copy for yourself.
It can be found Here

THE HOTOTOGISU-WHITE WIND OF AUTUMN, CDR, 2000, UK

Delicate and tasteful are not adjectives ordinarily associated with the work of Matthew Bower (also know for his work in Sunroof!, Skullflower, Total & Pure), but before he decided to reverse polarities upon beginning collaborative work with Marcia Bassett, Hototogisu was initially his vehicle for exploring the most subtle and harmonious dimensions of his aesthetic proclivities. Those only familiar with the latter day Hototogisu recordings opposite Bassett (which rank among Bowers most corrosive and unrelenting work) will find the material found on White Wind Of Autumn as being almost unrecognizable as the work of the same individual. "White Wind..." was both the first salvo issued under the Hototogisu moniker and the first part of a trio of similarly inclined recordings, soon followed by the 100 copy LP Cukoo Cloudland and culminating with the utterly delirious and magical Floating Japanese Oof! Gardens Of The 21st Century, both evidently due for reissue at some future date on Destijl Records. The six tracks herein are finespun and windblown melanges of low key guitar figures, drones, chimes, bells and tootling recorders conjuring arcadian vistas and beatific reveries. I wonder if we'll ever find Bower in such a restrained state again?

Get pt 1 Here


Get pt 2 Here

HOT TROCHE-MUNAA POYU, CD, 2001, JAPAN

Following The Cooking Errchestra, here's the second in my series of posts of releases on the enigmatic Cha-Bashira label (though this is actually on their Pink Rabbit sub-label). Housed inside a cute little towel, Hot Troche's giddy and mercurial ADD-addled electronic spasms sound like light speed deconstructions of the cartoontronica idioms explored by the likes of Dat Politics and Stock, Hausen & Walkman. A relentless dadaist brain hammer and a barrel of monkeys for those so inclined.

Get it Here

SHAREONALL'S DEMISE

The recent death of both Xirror and now (very unfortunately) Shareonall at the hands of GEMA (see Here for the depressing details) resulted in six of the links in my recent posts going down (Ron Geesin-As He Stands, Nimal-Voix De Surface, Transit Express-Opus Progressif, Energy-s/t, Keijo-Soon With The Sun & Solid Eye-Electromagnetic Field And Stream Of Consciousness). These have all been re-upped with Sharebee. My heart goes out to all my fellow music bloggers who've been completely crippled by Shareonall's demise. It's hard to even digest how much content in the music blogosphere just disappeared in the blink of an eye. I wonder...does anyone out there know where Shareebee is physically located? It'd be nice to know if they're also subject to German law like Xirror and Shareonall were and stand to get hit by their rotten campaign.

THANKS TO ANONYMOUS FOR FILLING IN THE THREE BLANKS...

Some kind soul has seen fit to take my prompt and has filled in the three missing posts, so links for the Aiyoku Jinmin Joji Gekijo compilation, Code BMUS EP and Light Bulb Christmas cassette on LAFMS are now back up again. Whoever you are...I owe you one!

ALL BUT THREE OF MY FORMERLY DEAD LINKS NOW RE-UPPED. ANYONE CARE TO HELP WITH THOSE ONES?

All the following titles are now re-upped:

Dressed Up Animals-Strizzi Rizzi EP
Bayon-s/t
Steve Thomsen-Retrospective
V/A-Contemporary Denshi Zatsuon
Estos No Son Pagagos-De Arte Venandi Cum Avibus
V/A-The Cassette Mythos Audio Alchemy CD/K7
Expo-Do The Expo!
V/A-Drive To Heaven, Welcome To Chaos

These ones I no longer have on my drive, but found posted elsewhere, so my posts of them now link to those:

Eider Stellaire-s/t (1st) and s/t (2nd)
Quasar-Man Coda

If any of you want to do me a huge favor and re-up any or all of these three and send me the links, that'd be hugely appreciated, as time to re-record them has been sorely lacking of late:

V/A-Aiyoku Jinmin Juji Gekijo
Code BMUS-Strike Now! EP
V/A-Light Bulb Issue 3 Christmas Cassette

For those who've commented in the boards about various posts of Jim's being down, that will have to be taken up with him upon his return to the blog in the (semi)near future....

ALAN SORRENTI-COME UN VECCHIO IN INCENSIERE ALL'ALBA DI UN VILLAGIO DESERTO, LP, 1973, ITALY

Transcendent and phantasmagorical work from one of the premier visionaries of the Italian cosmic rock continuum that includes the likes of Franco Battiato, Pierrot Lunaire, Franco Leprino and Arturo Stalteri (to name check just a few), and his work here on "Comme Un Vecchio...", while absent some of the blasted rockist momentum of his debut LP "Aria" ripples and shudders across your consciousness with such palpable psychotropic force, a contact high is almost a forgone conclusion. The deeply folk-inflected material that comprises side A beckons with a profound warmth and humanity to it that compares favorably to Lucio Battisti's sublime mid 70's work on Anima Latina; Sorrenti's wildly keening vocals soaring over these components to completely throat-lump-inducing effect, but it's the side-long title track spread across side B that truly renders this album a holy grail of the scene. Beginning with ecstatic wordless caterwauling appended to atonal piano maneuvers, scything electronics and ritualistic percussion roiling and tumbling across the stereo spectrum like some mediterranean cousin of Igor Wakhevitch, these hair raising elements gradually coalesce at the half-way mark into a round of deliriously emotive acoustic guitar driven rock hysteria wrenching enough to drop you to your knees. I for one am humbled in it's presence.

Get it Here

GROUP 1850-LIVE, LP, 1974 (RECORDED: 1969), NETHERLANDS

Though I tend to think of their 1967 debut release "Agemo's Trip To Mother Earth" as being this Dutch psych unit's piece de resistance (and one of the finest psych albums of the whole era, for my money), this live album from two years hence is a thoroughly heady experience in it's own right. Recorded in the immediate wake of their follow-up missive "Paradise Now" and featuring substantially altered versions of two of the tracks that appeared therein, "Live" roils with a wild and infectious kinetic energy. If Agemo's Trip To Mother Earth was informed by Piper-era Floyd, the following few years found them reformatting their palette toward the more beefy and overtly rockist; both "Paradise Now" and "Live" at times flying a similar flag to that wielded by Guru Guru in their heyday, with brief roundelays into almost Santana-ish territory at times. That said, the glorious 15+ minute "Veradering" exits the aforesaid continuum entirely, free floating into the kosmiche ether on a tide of shuddering electronic waves and abstract guitar energy in a way that precedes and virtually surpasses much krautrock.

Get it Here

V/A-CREEPING DAWN VOL. 2, 4x3" CDR'S, 2006, VARIOUS

As promised, following my post of the first volume of this hyper limited 50 copy edition compendium on the notable Students Of Decay label, here's volume two. This set covers quite a bit of aesthetic ground and I'll proceed by assessing the contents in the order the discs are presented in. First up is Ohio noisician Mike Shiflet. I'll freely confess that I'm no one's idea of a noise advocate, so I'll politely recuse myself from passing judgement on his Haters-indebted parched plain of seismic grit. If this sorta thing is your bag, this is as good a sonic pumice stone to abrade your cilia with as any, I 'spose. Next up is Atlanta, Georgia native David Kirby (who has had a handful of other titles issued on this imprint) here trafficing in finely honed tactile soundfields wrought from shimmering resonances, assertive hums, and tintinnabulating tones that'll do funny things to your perceptual mechanisms. Disc three here comprises work by the long time Bay Area experimental operator Robert Horton, who has been ferreting around in the back alleys of the avant garde since the late 70's, though lately he's found a substantial second life in the wilds of the freak folk/New Weird America CDR culture, and the four tracks that comprise his "Ritual Ingestion Of Insect Substance" EP are easily the most exciting of the lot here; his densely interwoven but profoundly musical thickets of buzzing strings, clattering chimes, bowed/scraped metals and windy atmospherics suggestive of some of Kemialliset Ystavat's peak moments. Perfectly complimenting Horton's maneuvers is the lovely final disc here courtesy of Alligator Crystal Moth, one of the numerous non de plume's of the extremely prolific Foxglove/Foxy Digitalis label head Brad Rose, this one being his collaboration with Michael Donnely of Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood. Equally suggestive of the gnomic forest improv psych shenanigans of the contempo Finnish scene as Horton's doings are, but plied in a more loose, addled and expansive fashion, it's beguiling and accomplished work. Volume Three of this series will follow in the not-too-distant future.

CONTENTS

Disc one: Mike Shiflet-Puritan Heartbreaker
Disc two: David Kirby-Shrieks Against The Glass
Disc three: Robert Horton-Ritual Ingestion Of Insect Substance
Disc four: Alligator Crystal Moth-Cow's Town Ornamental

Get Mike Shiflet-Puritan Heartbreaker Here

Get David Kirby-Shrieks Against The Glass Here

Get Robert Horton-Ritual Ingestion Of Insect Substance Here

Get Alligator Crystal Moth-Cow's Town Ornamental Here

THE COOKING ERRCHESTRA-LIVE AT ICC 2-20-2000, CD, 2000, JAPAN

The first of four utterly bizarre and singular releases on the Japanese Cha-Bashira label (run by Cooking Errchestra mastermind Pol Mahlow) that I'll be presenting in the coming days, Live At ICC is one continuous and seamless 42+ minute assault on your equilibrium. The wonderfully queasy and gelatinously slippery methodology that underpins The Cooking Errchestra's heaving and sighing instant constructs is a marvel to behold, pitching and groaning in comically wobbly fashion like some bastard stepchild of L.A. Free Music Society vets Solid Eye at their most destabilized.

Get it Here

PSYCHATRONE RHONEDAKK-THE SUB-UNDERGROUND TAPES, LATHE-CUT LP/CDR SET, 2004 (RECORDED: 1994-1999), USA

With a recent release of 1996-era material appearing on the Qbico imprint, this Pennsylvania native's rough hewn and modest home brewed kosmiche moves have garnered a substantially higher profile. This 50 copy lathe-cut polycarbonate disc documents some long lost 90's era tape material, though the pressing was evidently dire enough to require them to append a CDR from the master tapes to the jacket (the version you'll hear here). Whatever the case though, Psychatrone Rhonedakk's grasp of the fundamentals of acid soundscaping is solid; his glazed arsenal of distended guitar shimmer 'n' drone, syrupy synth slurry, watery loops and silvery electronic atmospherics amalgamating on the palate in a most agreeable manner.

Get it Here

PROYECTO "A"-S/T, LP, 1970, SPAIN

Aesthetically situated somewhere between Vampiros Lesbos exploitation psych, Tropicalia acid shimmy, library music groove and Massiera's haunted funhouse, this brain burning and exceedingly obscure Spanish marvel (evidently some sorta concept album about the planets of our solar system) has systematically reduced some of the most heavyweight collectors of my acquaintance to spluttering and drooling in disbelief upon exposure. Your new favorite album...I shit you not.

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

Get it here  

PSUEDOELEKTRONIXX-C'EST LE TON...QUI FAIT LA MUSIQUE, TAPE, 1982, GERMANY

Stripped and punchy mutant funky minimal synth (or, as the cover would have it, "free funk no wave") from the deepest recesses of Neue Deutsche Welle tape culture. Pseudoelektronixx pitch their sonic tents over forcefully fore-grounded funk-a-poppin' bass machinations, and flank it with cheaply clonking rhythm boxes, synth blip and the requisite hectoring vocalese. If this all sounds like it'd be somewhat textbook NDW, well...perhaps it is, but though the opening salvo of this 4 track EP isn't likely to raise too many pulses, this does work up a nice head of steam for those sold on this scene.

Get it Here

ISLAND-PICTURES, LP/CD, 1977, SWITZERLAND

Housed in a striking H.R. Giger sleeve, this Swiss prog crew concoct dense and turbid suites of exceedingly Van Der Graaf Generator-ish moody convolution. Much of what is transpiring here is sensational, if never quite achieving the sense of profound cathartic release of Hammill and co. Alas, amid this brilliance are some truly squirm-worthy vocals that'll have you wishing you could shove a sock in this cat's mouth, though fortunately, said vocals are largely kept to a minimum. Note: despite the LP sleeve being pictured, this is taken from the mid-90's CD reissue, which is both re-mastered and fleshed out with a superb 23 minute bonus track, which finds them pursuing similar ends but in a rather less claustrophobic fashion.

Get pt. 1 Here

Get pt. 2 Here

OLEG KOSTROW-TARTUF, CD, 2005, RUSSIA

A follow-up to my post of this Messer Fur Frau Muller member's late 90's solo debut "The Great Flashing Tracks From Iwona", "Tartuf" finds this Russian avatar of the blithely absurd plowing a similarly cartoonish furrow to that found on Iwona, but it's a finely honed furrow filled with bite-sized morsels of concentrated camp and the finest schtick money can buy and largely absent the penchant for preciousness that sometimes marred his debut.

Get it Here

HEIMCOMPUTER 80-UNSERE MODERNE WELT, CDR, 2002, GERMANY

On the heels of my post of their Systemfehler debut CDR, here's the follow up doink attack from these German mavens of post-Neue Deutsche Welle 8-bit video-gamey synth blurt, administered with a enjoyably nasty overloaded granularity to it that occasionally makes them sound like digital hardcore for the prepubescent set.

Get it Here

VIRTUALLY ALL REPLACEMENT RAPIDSHARE LINKS ARE NOW POSTED

Discounting a bare handful of titles that I need to re-up (maybe 10 or so) all other dead links (many hundreds of them from both Jim's and my posts) have now been replaced with functional Rapidshare links. In the few instances where rapidshare links were unavailable, these links have been replaced with Zshare, Badongo or Megaupload links. And now I shall go fall on my face....

WOW...SUDDENLY SHAREBEE IS WORKING FOR MAC USERS...THEY'RE NOW THE OBVIOUS CHOICE...

Thanks to the prompting of one Cheeba on the message boards, I decided to give Sharebee another chance, in case they've finally resolved their longstanding problem with allowing mac users to use their system. Well, as it happens, they have indeed! I'm much more comfortable going with an established provider like them then using a largely untested one like Fileducky, so...er...THANKS Cheeba! This particular issue has now been thoroughly resolved...

ALL EXISTING MASMIRROR LINKS ARE BEING REPLACED BY RAPIDSHARE LINKS

Today was the straw that broke the camel's back. You may have noticed that virtually all the Massmirror links on MS are coming up as "file not found". Whether this is another temporary snafu, or the actual end of those links, my patience with Massmirror has come to an end. Starting in a moment, I'm beginning the arduous process of inserting all the rapidshare links I've saved from within the Massmirror posts before they went down again in place of the original Massmirror links. I'll let all of you know when the process is complete....

LE GONG DU BALAYEUR-PAS IMPORTANT, LP, 1981, FRANCE

An exceptionally obscure album from the waning days of France's prog glory run (which continued to go from strength to strength years after other countries prog scenes died off or largely turned to cheese), Le Gong Du Balayeur can initially be a somewhat difficult nut too crack, with their curious conflation of electrified folk themes (sometimes quite close in spirit to Belgium's Nuit Caline A La Villa Mon Reve), and Zappa-by-way-of-Komintern whimsy taking several spins to wrap your brain around, but the rewards for the diligent are ample.

Get it Here