V/A-UN TRIBUTO TO JAMES T. RUSSELL, CDR, 2001, VARIOUS

Issued by the Spanish Alku imprint as a tribute to the creator of the compact disc (and, evidently, to it's myriad possibilities for sound modification), this offers up a curious assortment of digital detournement advocates to sift through the implications, though Terre Thaemlitz is only "present" as a Cage-ian ghost, his/her succession of 35 four second tracks all being equally silent. Once Thaemlitz ceases the theoretical display and actual sound commences, you're immediately slapped in the face by Yasunao Tone and his 10 minute blast of disfigured digital effluvia extracted from carefully defaced and modified CD's after which Bay Area plunderphonic prankster Wobbly creates comedic whirligig motion out of a cascade of rubberized bloops and blurts, CD_Slopper (aka Florian Hecker and Farmers Manual's Oswald Berthold) litter shimmering filaments across a warping digital wheeze, Spanish electronic producer Javier Hernando amuses himself by back-skipping over a CD's contents, Markus Popp and his early Oval sparring partner Frank Metzger proffer three tracks of predictably superb mulchings and mis-handlings of sonic data and Alku and Discman each show up just long enough to make a small gesture.

1-35. Terre Thaemlitz-Untitled
36. Yasunao Tone-Man'yoshu #37, Wounded
37. Wobbly-Mini Bleb
38. CD_Slopper-X-0 Neol, Subject: Ad.di
39. Discmen-Our Love Is A Soft Technique
40. Javier Hernando-Vaivén Tsu
41. Oval/Frank Metzger-What If?
42. Oval/Frank Metzger-Vowels'N'Cons
43. Oval/Frank Metzger-V'n'c
44. Alku-Burning CDs

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LUDO MICH-MUSIC FROM FILMS BY LUDO MICH, LP, 2005 (RECORDED: 1966-1971), BELGIUM

Subterranean sounding and swaddled in echo, this collection of soundtracks is part Aktionist emetic, part Living Theater group gestalt and part Anton Bruhin-like primitivist tape mangle, while somewhere in the background Smegma are running around with a forrest fire in their left elbow. As was the case with the Citizens For Interplanetary Activity LP that I posted back near the beginning of my work on Mutant Sounds, these very rough and deeply fried recordings document the soundtracks that were made for freak fringe underground films of the era, though in this case it was not for films from the lionized NY scene of that time, but rather from Brussels, Belgium where the Fluxus-associated Mich and his enablers were concocting what appear from all the images included to be some serious Jack Smith/Kenneth Anger-like pansexual depravity.

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POPERA COSMIC-LES ESCLAVES, LP, 1969, FRANCE

One of the first salvos of true otherness from the French underground scene, this mindbomb features the notorious William Sheller, whose 1972 opus Lux Aeterna is a long heralded holy grail of this scene, here collaborating with both eccentric period singer/songwriter and former Alice vocalist Francois Wertheimer and Guy Skornik, who I've previously shared two albums of monster caliber acid folk and kosmniche weirdity by. How promising does *that* sound, eh? And while the orchestrations that frame the acid rock displays here clearly set the stage for the overwhelming sturm und drang of Lux Aeterna, it's absent both the churchiness conveyed by the relentless choral aspect of that album as well as it's shifts into Wakhevitch-like eeriness. Here, the swooning orchestrations creak under the weight of all manner of period psychedelic mad hattery; the spirit here overtly suggestive at times of Jean-Pierre Massiera's Les Maledictus Sound, with its outsized sense of theatricality (at times tipping over into Komintern and Grand Magic Circus territory), overloads of caustic acid guitar flailing and fabulously cooing, sighing, and keening vocals.

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TONE DOGS-ANKETY LOW DAY, LP, 1989, USA

With an uncanny ability to make hectic chop 'n' change asymmetries sound suave and ducky, this American R.I.O. unit's irresistible tunes and overall spirit of infectious bonhomie recall Fred Frith during his peak Gravity/Speechless period. High praise indeed, but the manner in which these folks temper their jubilance with undertows of unease mirrors Frith's work with the members of both Etron Fou Leloublan and The Muffins on those two album, and indeed, the man himself appears in a guest capacity here on guitar and violin as does virtuoso avant guitarist Hans Reichel, who doesn't normally move around outside of improv contexts. Tone Dogs were led by two highly fluid and unusual multi-instrumentalists in the form of Amy Denio and Fred Chalenor and backed up by one Matt Cameron, who's soon depart for rock star land as drummer for fellow Seattle-ites Soundgarden. Both Denio and Chalenor would go on to do much remarkable work in the future, Denio with the E.C. Nudes together with Chris Cutler and Chalenor with Caveman Shoestore and collaborations with Soft Machine's Hugh Hopper. But this album is where it all started. And it's a whopper.

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***NOTE: THERE'S A MIRRORED MEDIAFIRE LINK IN THE COMMENT FIELD*** 

SAKANA-MY DEAR, CD, 1996, JAPAN

Placing emotional emphasis in awkward places and limping when they mean to strut, this idiomatically askew Japanese crew really tax my capacity to frame their actions. Whether they're trying to be funky, romantic or sunshine-y, Sakana's subtle but persistent ass-backwardness subvert these vibes at almost every turn, though said subversions are often subdued enough that these tunes might pass as almost normal under less-than-close scrutiny. In tone and intent, these folks are perhaps most comparable to the Homosexuals-releated UK outfit Orchestre Murphy, if you could imagine them subverting their Slapp Happy-like overtones with soppy 90's lite jazz motifs and other questionable-seeming tactics. There are even some bits here fleetingly suggestive of popular 90's artists normally well outside our purview here like Bjork or even Beck, though the thrust and intent of this album is so consistently and naggingly "off" (never more so than on the title track), these trendier signifiers scarcely render events any closer to comprehensibility. The result is something curiously gripping, though you might feel like a dip in the shower after being in it's oddly queasy embrace.

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PANTHEON-ORION, LP, 1972, NETHERLANDS

Thrilling though occasionally tooth-achingly sweet Dutch Prog frivolity that occupies a mid-ground between their country mates in Supersister and Solution, while occasionally offering up servings of the sorta wide-eyed early Yes worship heard on albums by Sweden's Vildkaktus, along with it's attendant sweetly oohing and aahing choruses. True, they're not quite as technically or compositionally advanced as those Dutch peers of theirs, and those with a preference for a "heavier" vision of prog will find some of this pretty-as-a-daisy tootling and ivory tickling off-putting. It's their loss, methinks. As far as I'm concerned, this particular breed of flute and sax laden symphonic winsomeness is pretty damn near unimpeachable. Note: this transfer is taken from a later CD issue, which included three bonus tracks.

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V/A-WIENER BLUTRAUSCH, LP, 1979, AUSTRIA

I'll just give you a moment here to soak in that cover. The unreal quality of that image is matched by the cheerfully idiom obliterating nature of this Austrian compilation's contents, which veer wildly between prog, fusion and new wave, and seems to have triangulated a cherry spot pitched right in between these poles with the fascinating assortment of little known artists featured. Drahdiwaberl kick things off with a campily theatrical form of spacy rock that makes me think of Eroc covering Pink Floyd's Money, only to get prog funky in the rustic/Teutonic manner of Muck Groh. Over the rest of the A side, Mini-Sex propose equally unlikely shotgun weddings and make me think of the way New Wave forms got perverted in amusingly uncouth ways by Yugoslavian outfits like Zabranjeno Pusenje or Marjanov Cudni Zajec. Metzlutzkas Erben finish out the side by dancing an appealing fandango between high voltage fusion and the proggy satirical rock zaniness of later Checkpoint Charlie. On the flip, Chuzpe enjoyably tear through some early Ultravox-like art punk ramalamma with the nerviness they're named for, if not an equal measure of originality, Mordbuben AG proffer distinction-free back-to-basics rawk 'n' roll and Metzlutzkas Erben pop 'round for a second pass of absolutely wicked fusionoid antics.

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MARCOS VALLE-VENTO SUL, LP, 1972, BRAZIL

Together with folks like Arnaud Rodrigues and Azymuth, Marcos Valle was one of the premier exponents of advanced musical formulations coming off a related but distinct Samba/Bossa-influenced tip to the more well known Tropicalia crowd. Vento Sul was Valle's crowning achievement of this period and finds him being backed by prog rockers from the band O Terco. The exquisite end results are worthy of the dream-like cover imagery, taking the dewily lilting and hip swaying indigenous musical aspects of Valle's work and cross-pollinating them with the sorta fathoms deep acid rock exotica you'll hear in the grooves of a Traffic Sound or Malon album and the aching and keening emotional heft of prime era Franco Battiato when he's in song form mode.

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VAGTAZO HALOTTKEMEK-A HALAL MORESRE TANITASA (TEACH DEATH A LESSON), LP, 1988, HUNGARY

Playing what they describe as shamanic psychedelic hardcore, this utterly unique and slightly unreal Hungarian crew (whose name translates to The Galloping Coroners) unleash dense blasting waves of concentrated psychedelic otherness on their debut outing here and in so doing, anticipate a raft of later (and still ongoing) developments, particularly the psychedelia-as-collapsing-black-hole aesthetic of the crowd associated with Japan's PSF-label, with Hawkwind-like power drives imploding into fields of fierce abstracted motion.

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JUKKA TOLONEN-THE HOOK, LP, 1974, FINLAND

This was the third outing under his own steam from this one time leader of prog rockers Tasavallan Presidentti and unofficial guitarist for what was merely the greatest Finnish band of all time, namely Wigwam. With newly souped up production values and a four man horn section in tow, The Hook represents the moment when Tolonen really cemented his monster fusion guitarist status, his previous two outings (particularly the swooningly lovely Summer Games) having operated more in the folkloric-prog-with-jazz-trappings mode of Bo Hansson or Kebnekaise. With The Hook, it's clear that Tolonen had his sights set on the world stage and it's undeniably commanding work, with a fluid grandeur and air of mystery to it that suggests a mid-ground between Terje Rypdal, Placebo and Picchio Dal Pozzo.

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HARALD 'SACK' ZIEGLER-KENNEN SIE DEN ZIEGLER?, TAPE, 1993, GERMANY

Here's another disarming example of Ziegler's quizzical and faux naive shoebox universe courtesy once again of blog friend Roger. Unfurling in episodic and frequently bitty form, the Comelade-like tinker toy tinkle and pump organ wheezing bent of this stalwart German underground music operative's recently shared Zehn Meter Langes Regal Kippte Um tape continues apace here, only offset by some neurotically singleminded singing, with Ziegler working himself into a particular emotional lather over Barbie and Ken.

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EP-4-LINGUA FRANCA-1, LP, 1983, JAPAN

This crucial Mutant Funk crew evolved out of Vanity label minimal synthers R.N.A. Organism and offer up a seamless mix of polyrhythmic densities and polymorphous arrangements that varyingly nods in the direction of the 80's downtown NY axis via tautly concise Liquid Liquid grooves or the elaborately funky arrangements of Talking Heads on Speaking In Tongues, while elsewhere summoning some of those winningly disconsolate P.I.L.-damaged post Can-ism's that appeared during the NDW era on albums by Sticken-In, Phew and Czukay/Wobble/Liebezeit.
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RENATO ZERO-ZEROFOBIA, LP, 1977, ITALY

Patchy but occasionally insanely great disco absurdity with pronounced space disco tangents from this Jobriath-like character known for appearing onstage in a bird suit. This was sent to me by my old NY pal Tony a dog's age ago and I've mulled over the idea of posting it ever since, though the overt commercial angle of some of this dissuaded me before now. But then I listened to the cut La Trappola again last night and realized it'd be downright cruel to deprive kooks and aspiring hipsters the world over of such a mainline into the throbbing core essence of true blue cheese godhead. I'd be prepared to endorse this track from a hilltop with a megaphone if necessary. And I'm betting you will too, though It'll take the nasal equivalent of an enema to clear the phantom scent of amyl nitrate and sweat from your mental sensorium after a dip into this audio jacuzzi. And there is more of this sorta goodness strewn about elsewhere as on this thing as well, with Zero turning on some naked (and wonderful) Lucio Battisti emulation on "L'Ambulanza" and bursts of the most perfect synthetic Love Boat vibes imaginable on "Regina" for you aspiring Yacht Rockers with a hankering for deeper revelations.

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SEVERED HEAD IN A BAG-S/T, CDR, 2006 (RECORDED: EARLY 80'S), USA

Bootlegged from cassette and live sources by the cats behind the Dolor Del Estamago (formerly Stomach Ache) imprint, this fantastic and highly obscure early 80's slobbering free rock/free noise melee was brought to you courtesy of a loosely aggregated outfit led by Jon Wayne/3 Day Stubble nutter, future Medicine drummer and occasional Whitehouse associate Jim Goodall. Known (if at all) from having been documented in warts and all fashion on the notorious D.U.I. video comp of early 80's L.A. underground fare, a goodly bit of this sounds like a precursor to much of the detuned sludge rock that would become rife during the latter half of the decade via the likes of The Butthole Surfers or Crust on one end and labels like Amphetamine Reptile on the other; with the bemused nihilism and atonal caterwaul of Flipper being the best period touchstone for what's transpiring here.


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HARALD SACK ZIEGLER-ZEHN METER LANGES REGAL KIPPTE UM, TAPE, 1990, GERMANY

Following up on my recent post of his +10% Pustekuchen tape, here's more modestly scaled and whimsy sodden formulations from this longstanding naif mage and future member of folktronica operatives Sack Und Blumm. There's a tradition of this sorta thing within German underground music culture that extends from the the mercurial Neue Deutsche Welle electropop experimentation of Die Welttraumforscher and wends it's way forward to the weirder edges of the Cologne electronica axis via the likes of Schlammpeitziger. Smack dab in between those eras, Ziegler was imagining a candy coated and casio toned universe of cockamamie caprice, whose air of frivolity belies what a richly developed and unique vernacular it is that he's developed; indeed one that bears comparison with masters of the form like Pascal Comelade and Pierre Bastien. Blog friend Roger can be thanked once again for providing this treasure.

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TRIPOD JIMMIE-LONG WALK OFF A SHORT PIER, LP, 1982, USA

Formed by guitarist Tom Herman upon his exit from the early line-up of Pere Ubu and named in honor of a three legged pooch owned by one of the members, the musical propositions proffered here are not attempting to re-make the wheel ala Ubu, but taken on their own terms, Tripod Jimmie were a fierce and compelling proposition nevertheless, with a spare but garrulous garage-y attack offset by Herman's tensile guitar shards and twitchily yammering Girls-like vocalizing.

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HANIWA-CHAN, KANASHIBARI, LP, 1984, JAPAN

Just to set the stage with a round of maximum cognitive dissonance, this album initiates with a sphincter clenching Arena Rock gambit that would make Loverboy wince. Ah, but these high voltage Japanese oddballs are just setting you up for a fall. Down a rabbithole as it turns out, what with the sudden intrusion of three dimensional polka dotted electro-pop quirk of a sort that some of you might refer to as Zolo. It's but the first in a long and befuddling series of genius caliber rug-pulls from a group who can count both Chris Cutler and Henry Kaiser as worshipful adherents to their wild muse, both having at one time placed this LP in their top 10. Led by percussionist, composer and visionary Kiyohiko Senba, Haniwa-Chan played an alternate and smaller scale iteration of the sort of music he composed on a mass scale with his orchestra-sized ensemble Kiyohiko Senba And His Haniwa All-Stars (both posted on MS previously). And with tracks like Owannaino on here, Cutler and Kaiser's case is not a difficult one for someone to make. Spinning on a dime with pinprick accuracy and rubberized dimensionality, it's literally one of the most astonishing cuts I've ever heard; like some trans-dimensional equivalent of a Rube Goldberg device collapsed down into it's quadraphonic and holographic audio equivalent only to be suddenly ramrodded by an out-of-the-blue intrusion of charging Beetle Juice-like Danny Elfman orchestral bombast before finally reconstituting Rube for another round of airborne whirligig motion. Astonishing and intensely disciplined displays like this are just par for the course with this crew though; arbiters of that rarified realm of uber-weirdness that only fellow 80's Japanese outfits like After Dinner, Wha Ha Ha and Killing Time were plying, though for all the overt displays of compositional outlandishness, there's plenty of winsome cuteness to offset it all in neon pink air quotes. You can thank an anonymous blog friend for enriching your life with this treasure. Go grapple with this one and get back to me, folks...

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***NOTE: THERE'S A MIRRORED MEDIAFIRE LINK IN THE COMMENT FIELD*** 

TOTEM-CORRUPCION, LP, 1973, URUGUAY

Alternately thundering like badasses or lilting like latin lovers, this psych/prog gem comes out of one of the Latin American 70's scenes that few are yet hepped to. This was Totem's third, final and most developed album and and the luxuriant atmosphere on it is thick with drama. With wailing sax and weaving flutes to the fore on most cuts, their angle of approach here could be triangulated between Peru's Traffic Sound and Argentina's Malon and Bubu. Heady company indeed, but then this album's a motherfucker.

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DILEDADAFISH-MOTHBALL, CD, 1991, SWITZERLAND

Spluttery and spare, the output of this obscure Swiss crew (featured on the V/A-Point Of Yucca CD that I posted with my last round) intriguingly sways between several naif poles, notably those that temper their synthetic plink-plonk melodic sense with a counterweight of moody sound washes ala Steve Thomsen, Sebastian Gandera, Famlende Forsok and Jac Berrocal circa his Nato label output. As was the case with the Point Of Yucca CD, this is featured here courtesy of blog friend Roger.

NOTE: Links removed at the request of the label

HAL GALPER-THE GUERRILLA BAND, LP, 1973, USA

Monster caliber fusion from this hunched over ivory tickler and his crack crew, which includes drummer Don Alias and a very early outing from the Brecker Bros on horns, predating their much slicker inclinations on late 70's fusion hits. This kicks off squarely in the mode of Nucleus circa Solar Plexus, with half-speed horn flows elegantly rippling across a racing groove undercurrent and repeatedly returns to this rich well on subsequent tracks in a manner simpatico with Belgians jazz rockers like Placebo and Solis Lacus, though tempered by an occasional smoky lounge groove vibe akin to The Lyman Woodard Organization.
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