JOHN LIVENGOOD-S/T, TAPE, 1980, FRANCE

Having traced a course from the Zappa-fied dadaist detournements of his formative May '68 unit Red Noise to the post-Heldon/Lard Free electro-acid prog soundscaping of his late 70's work in Spacecraft (both of which can be found elsewhere on the blog), this French freak supreme's deeds would secure him near sainthood in a sane universe, but alas, with only a seasoned core of collector kooks to fly his flag, critical work of the caliber evidenced on this long-disappeared tape can manage to corrode in obscurity. But...no longer. Now you too can experience the charge of rolling these lysergic chestnuts around on your sense organs; their liquid drifts of kosmiche electronics and cross-cutting percolations still bearing distinct traces of Spacecraft's ominous acid melt, though in the main, (barring an apropos-of-nothing blast of acid rockin' Chrome-ian dystopia at the beginning of side B), the poison has been repurposed into a psychoactive balm whose constituent elements are more queerly Cluster-fied than proactively clusterfucked. Note: the way the first track on side A abruptly begins and the odd cut-off (and unlisted) fragment that ends the same side may seem like errors, but they're precisely the way that Eurock issued this tape.

Get it via Sharebee Here

Get it via Rapidshare Here

CROINERS-MUSIC TO LISTEN TO OTHER TAPES BY, TAPE, 198?, USA

Flat out fabulous and equilibrium destabilizing work from one James Levine, a truly unsung oddnik of the 80's American underground cassette network whose species of mindwarpage deserves more ear holes to invade. Levine can be counted as one of the principal proponents of loop-as-loop-qua-loop fuckery; his jerry-rigged and effects smeared constructs blooping, blearing and listing about like drunken robots snared in candy floss. "Clifford..."-era Severed Heads, The Loop Orchestra's heavy lidded slurries, Tom Recchion at his most defocused and miasmic, and the Krofft Superstars-on-Robitussin soundworld of Steve Thomsen are all good points of reference here and if any of the above sounds to you like a good place to go soak your head, you'll find Music To Listen To Other Tapes By as heartwarming as your favorite Alaskan Polar Bear Heater. "A Sample Of Croiners..." and "Introspective Retrospective Vol. 1" will follow in the coming weeks. In the meantime, his debut (or at least I think it is...hard to be certain...) was recently posted by The Thing On The Doorstep Here

Get Music To Listen To Other Tapes By part 1 via Sharebee Here

Get Music To Listen To Other Tapes By part 2 via Sharebee Here

Get Get Music To Listen To Other Tapes By via Rapidshare Here

URBAN SAX-URBAN SAX A JAKARTA, CD E.P., 1995, FRANCE

This brief and difficult to locate live E.P. stands as the last extant documentation of ex-Lard Free/Catalogue mastermind Gilbert Artman's monumental Urban Sax ensemble (2001's 4-man Quad Sax retooling of the concept exempted), and the gorgeous commingling of Gamelan percussion's otherworldly timbres with the preternatural drama of Artman's massed sax drones and wordless operatic vocals on this live document is really something to behold, though the more dulcet tones of Artman's vision circa this era might surprise some, it's more restrained (if no less hauntingly lovely) manifestation here suggesting a mid-ground between late-model Art Zoyd, Mikel Rouse Broken Consort and Philip Glass' score for Mishima. Thanks to an anonymous blog contributor for this!

Get it via Sharebee Here

Get it via Rapidshare Here

FISH & ROSES-WE ARE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU, LP, 1989, USA

The follow up to my post of this Downtown NY unit's eponymous debut E.P. and their Friar Tuck 7", We Are Here To Serve You finds Fish & Roses at the peak of their peculiar powers, here locating their trademark nagging tension from the friction of Sue Garner's homespun-as-a-homily vocal stylizations and the nimbly askew Etron Fou-like R.I.O. grooves she conversely helps ex-V-Effect drummer Rick Brown enact (traits she shares with Amy Denio), over which organist David Sutter plies a line in low-key lopsided whimsy with the odd side of atonal wheeze 'n' wobble. Garner would soon venture into tamer pastures on a spate of solo albums that Homestead issued in the wake of this, but the work at hand here is anything but and a real delight for anyone into this suaver dimension of R.I.O. praxis.

Get it via Sharebee Here

Get it via Rapidshare Here

Crash Worship /ADRV- The Science of Ecstasy ,tape,1989,USA

"Crash Worship was a San Diego, California-based percussive/experimental/actionist group, formed in 1986. The band is most renowned for its live shows, in which audience members are often showered in various substances such as blood, water, and honey, while band members ignited fires within the performance area. Crash Worship has also released several albums and singles of both live and studio-recorded music. Although live they played "songs", for the most part it was left open to spontaneity & improvisation.The band formed in 1986 as Crash Worship - ADRV (Adoración de la Rotura Violenta), initially as a studio project, but soon learned after performing the power of a live audience.During live performances, the band's members (or often, audience "provocateurs" as well) would "manipulate" the audience, involving them more deeply into the show, though often the crowd would make its own way to the performance area. The musicians would also "mobilize" their instruments off the stage into the middle of the audience (or outside) igniting explosives or hosing down the crowd with liquids creating an atmosphere of celebration and sexual din. The disorder of the band's live shows and often- Occult-like or heathen imagery invited attention from police, who would forcibly shut down a large percentage of the band's shows.
After much successful touring in the United States for many years, Crash Worship fallowed suit with two full European tours in the mid-90s. It was also at this time the band was deemed "unmanageable" by many labels, booking agencies, or clubs which proved difficult to tour much afterward.
The group disbanded sometime in the early 2000s, with the members moving to various other cities in the United States and forming their own solo and side projects. One of them, the Extra Action Marching Band in Oakland California, began as a processional for the group."

From Wikipedia

Great US, industrial/experimental band much influenced by Psychick TV and T.O.P.Y. philosophy. Strange dark soundscapes,sometimes ritualistic and much sexual references.An uneasy though wonderful listening.

get it here

Takako Minekawa -Cloudy Cloud Calculator,1998+Roomic Cube,1997,CDs,Japan

"As an accomplished all-around musician, Minekawa's musical skills set her firmly outside of the J-Pop "idol" tradition: she writes and composes most of her material, singing quirky lyrics about subjects such as clouds, cats, and the color white (her personal favorite), with her love of Kraftwerk and French Pop Music also showing through her unique experimental sound. She often makes use of vintage Casio keyboards and analog Moog synthesizers, as well as vocoders and other electronic instruments.
Her live debut was in 1990, calling herself Mamene Kirerie as a member of the group Fancy Face Groovy Name alongside Kahimi Karie and backed by Flipper's Guitar. She was also a member of the band L⇔R before releasing her solo debut, Chat Chat in 1994.
Although as a child Minekawa had a short acting career, this interest has not resurfaced in her adult life (aside from her voice exclaiming "PlayStation!" in a recent commercial for the product).
She has written professionally, as regular columnist in the Japanese edition of Keyboard Magazine; she also contributed a serialized novel to the Japanese quarterly Bungei.
She married fellow musician Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius) in 2000. The pair have collaborated on several projects. Cornelius remixed some of her songs, including the well-received "Milk Rock". He also produced her album Fun9.
Minekawa's musical influences are as varied as her lyrics. An avowed fan of French pop, some of her favorite French artists include Françoise Hardy and Pierre Bachelet. The influence of the British band Stereolab can also be heard in her music. While there are certainly touches of humor in her lyrics and tone, she is a sincere fan of Krautrock, particularly the earlier works of electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk, to whom she dedicated the song Kraftpark!
In an interview, Minekawa explained her admiration for the band: "I decided to describe the landscape of Kraftpark with sound and narration. This song is not a parody of Kraftwerk. I did it because I love them!""

From Wikipedia

wonderful technopop , japanese style. Kraftwerk-ian sounds, streched vocal parts,analog synths and much use of moog.Reminding in parts their labelmates Stereolab. Incredible!

get them here and here

Drahomira Song Orchestra -Strange Baltic Laboratoire,CD,1999,France/Russia

Following my previous post of their "the return120 Magicians "cd,here's their first one(i think) from 1999.No words to describe it.Magnificent heavenly music!

get it here

Puhdys -Computer Karriere,LP.1983,Germany

"Die Puhdys (pronounced [ˈpuːdis]) are a veteran German rock band, formed in Oranienburg, in what was then East Germany, in 1969, although they had been performing together, with various lineups, as the Puhdys since 1965. They continue to record and tour. Although they are especially popular in their native eastern Germany, the Puhdys enjoyed significant success outside the GDR, and were one of the first East German bands allowed to tour West Germany. They are one of the most successful German-language rock groups."

from Wikipedia

A very nice LP by this very important German band.In this LP their sound turns to a more electronic/synth pop style ,much influnced by the period's NDW sound.

As requested,get it here

Radio Noisz Ensemble -Yniverze,LP,1982,Germany

"This band emerged out of the ashes of Emma Myldenberger and they made this fantastic album of enthralling ethnic music (especially from the Middle East), although some traces of European folk music can be heard as well. Remarkable is the extensive use of oboe as a lead instrument on the album. Yniverze is essential listening for anyone into bands such as Third Ear Band, Between, Aktuala, Clivage and Oregon. "
From Gnosis2000.net
Tracklisting:
01. Double Spring Code I/II
02. Serenade Central
03. Space Fasching
04. Der Schδfer Von Rotterdam
05. Der Chrybische Printz/Prettie Fiona a) Chrybian Waltz b) Fiona Dagda c) Waltz 2/Finale
06. Yniverze (Improvisation)
One of the most beautiful 80s acid/folk German LPs . Great soundscapes, all instrumental, with much use of flute and zither, dreammy atmospheres.Comparisons can be made with Clivage, Brosselmachine, Between,etc. Obvious influences of middle eastern music tradition . Posted years ago on Prog Not Frog blog,but link seems to be dead.

get this masterpiece here

Touch El Arab -LRK,LP,1988,Switzerland

"Touch El Arab was a Swiss band from Basle that lasted only for a couple of EPs and one album. Their song 'Muhammar', originally released as a B-side in 1987, reached number 4 in the Swiss charts and was also very successful in Italy and France. They used arabic samples combined with melodic italo-type synth-pop and humourous lyrics. Before Touch El Arab they recorded under the name Billy Bordelli and got into problems because they played nude on some gigs. Later Philippe Alioth recorded under the name Spartak where he made more Industrial sound, after that he got more techno/house related with Alexander Friedrich as Alioth & Friedrich. Christoph Müller moved to Paris where he formed Gotan Project with Philippe C. Solal."

From Discogs

Great electro band with some eastern influences.Much aggressive in parts and mellower in others. Of course the 80s NDW influnce is obvious,blended though with more current (for the period) elements.

get it here

Hi-Posi-Seizensetsu,2000+Gluon,1998,CDs,Japan

"Singer-songwriter Miho Moribayashi's weird and wonderful Hi-Posi has been churning out sweet pop confections for almost two decades. Inspired by a wide array of influences, including new wave, techno-pop, ska, and lounge, Hi-Posi is one in a long list of Japanese artists able to distill seemingly disparate influences into something uniquely Japanese. Hi-Posi was formed in 1988 as a two-member unit centering on Moribayashi, where the confessional, often sex-centered style that she retains today was soon defined. The following year saw the addition of guitarist Kenji Kondo and bassist Naomi Araki, and the band appeared in the TBS music contest Ikaten, where they performed the song "Sakasama no sekai chizu". Unfortunately, they were not victorious. Despite the Ikaten setback, Hi-Posi made their major label debut on Toshiba-EMI in 1991, where they released two records, including the theme song to the Tokyo Television program 2x3 ga roppo, on which Moribayashi had become a regular. The group soon returned to the indie world, however, where they released a wide range of records over the next several years, including an album filled with cover songs of cuts from other Japanese bands. In 1995 Hi-Posi dropped two members and returned to the majors as a two-person unit featuring just Moribayashi and Kondo. The unit released a rash of records from this time through the late 1990s, collaborating with the likes of Keigo Oyamada (Cornelius), Hiroshi Kawanabe (Tokyo No.1 Soul Set), Towa Tei, and Tomoyuki Tanaka (Fantastic Plastic Machine). Kondo left the unit in 1999, and Hi-Posi's 2000 record Seizensetsu was largely a Moribayashi solo affair. 2000 was also the year that Moribayashi came up with the Hi-Posi's present sound - which blends breathy vocals with a twisted, electronic-influenced pop sensibility - a mix that inevitably invites comparisons to Kahimi Karie, Takako Minekawa, and Pizzicato Five. Hi-Posi's 1997 record 4n5 was released in the United States on the Tokyopop Pictures label. Moribayashi also works as a contract songwriter and voice actress, with over 30 credited works including work for NTT DoCoMo, NHK, Bennesse, Meiji Milk, Wacoal, Toshiba, Pentax, and others."

From Nipopp website

A nice example of stretched out techno-pop japanese style.Etheral voices,strange sounds,unusual song infrastracture. Many influnces mixed together creating a wonderful result.

get them here and here

WARNING-ELECTRIC EYES, LP, 1983, GERMANY

Here's the seriously choice cheeseburger follow-up to Jim's post of this uber-campy German unit's electro/Italo/synth pop/space disco debut, whose glorious ridiculousness bears that unmistakable ripe aroma that heretofore I'd believed to be solely exuded by French late 70's/early 80's cosmic disco kitsch purveyors like Video Liszt, Rockets, Henri-Michel Raschle and Jean-Pierre Massiera (particularly circa his work on the eponymous second Visitors LP), but no...the gorgeously garish admixture they get up to here (replete with all the mock sinister vocoder spieling and and unctuous disco-era Goblin melodrama you'd expect) is virtually larded with such Gallic fromage signifiers. It's also damn near indistinguishable in vibe to their debut, which oughta plaster shit eating grins on the mugs of more than a few of you, considering the onslaught of adjectives that ensued after Jim upped their debut. Thanks to my buddy Steve Kenney from Demons for providing this sick and essential piece of the puzzle.

Get it via Rapidshare here

BOUDEWIJN DE GROOT-PICKNICK, LP, 1967, NETHERLANDS

This Dutch underground figure's affably baffling admixture of flatfooted folksiness, lysergic effects, big brassy fanfares, stinging acid guitar,toothachingly twee string arrangements and generalized period rococo accouterments would probably come across as rather less mystifying if one is privy to the lyrical content, but for us non-Dutch speakers, well...some of its brainburning and some of it just lies there inert, but Picknick's overall peculiarity renders it perfect grist for the Mutant Sounds mill, regardless. De Groot would arrive at similarly inscrutable ends with his darker follow-up Nacht In Ontij, which can be found Here ...

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

Get it here  

OTOLITHEN-3, UNRELEASED, SWITZERLAND/NETHERLANDS, 2000

Adopting and adapting strategies first manifested by Fred Frith and Tom Cora's in their "dual one-man-band" Skeleton Crew, this Swiss/Dutch duo set for themselves the task of constraining all their activity to what can be triggered by their four limbs in real time; in this case, four limbs emitting angularities that'd convince you that said limbs were comprised of nothing but elbows and joints if band photos didn't suggest otherwise. Comprised of two former members of frenetic R.I.O.-er's Blast, who issued a spate of intensely challenging if occasionally hairshirt-y convolution fiestas on Cuneiform during the 90's, Otolithen on their beautiful and heretofore-unreleased third and final emission trade some of the stormy tempestuousness of their previous outing (1997's "S.O.D.") for a certain quizzical Cornell Box intimacy and woody string-centric momentum suggestive of obscure French R.I.O. movers like Virgule V and the post Etron Fou outfit Ferdinand Et Les Philosophes. Thanks to an anonymous blog contributor for this gem.

Get it via Sharebee Here

Get it via Rapidshare Here

GARRY BRADBURY-DRUG INDUCED SEX RITUALS, CDR, 2001 (RECORDED: 1990), AUSTRALIA

As I'd mentioned in my prior post of Bradbury fare, the pinprick precise and giddily warped electropop-into-electronica constructs that this criminally overlooked Severed Heads founding member enacts on his solo efforts hew far tighter to their exalted original template than any of their other alumni have seen fit to muster in the intervening years, and here on his solo debut, the rivet spitting beat programming, surgical applications of pungent sound byte snarkery and candy coated but subtly perverted way with a melody are (as they were on his previously posted Ruffini Corpuscle/Corpuscle Plus two-fer) remorselessly raked across beds of gnashingly sawtoothed signal proceesing, while still managing to remain swaddled in the druggily melted synth goodness that any true Severed Heads devotee will want to roll around naked in. Just...ummm....not with the ape....

NOTE: SEVERAL OTHER ALBUMS OF GARRY'S FANTASTIC WORK CAN BE FOUND FOR PURCHASE Here

Get it via Rapidshare here

CAROUSELL-A DEAD BRIDGES INTO DUST, CDR E.P., 2005, UK

By turns lullingly ruminative and plangently affecting, Carousell is one of the assorted aliases under which Britain's Richard Skelton (who also trades under A Broken Consort And Heidika) lovingly teases out subtle and variously gradated shadings of string scrape drone motion and for my money, it's his most wholly satisfying. Carousell's luxuriant sonics may reflect the most conventionally pretty manifestation of Skelton's immersive muse, but there's still plenty of understated experimental heft to this particular alloy, Skelton here recasting his long-form drones and sweetly chiming acoustic note cascades inside spectral and pregnantly suggestive soundworlds of an almost Ulver-ish cast.

Get it via Rapidshare here

V/A-DARKER SKRATCHER, LP, 1980, USA

A seminal artifact of the L.A. Free Music Society's salad days and one that, unlike most extant L.A.F.M.S. compilations, spends most of it's time highlighting the less well recognized quirk pop perfection dimension of the L.A.F.M.S.' collective praxis; to wit, it's a compendium essential enough for me to be willing to bear the karmic burden of sharing a recording containing work by a certain Boyd Rice. All that aside though, what self respecting freaky fringe music acolyte could be without this watershed document? From The Rick Potts Band's suavely ludicrous bontempi pop to BPeople's angular art fracture and from 45 Grave's delightfully dejected sounding novelty song kitsch to Human Hands' ferocious post punk juggernaut (one of their finest moments ever), it's a testament to the sundry modes of ass-backward brilliance collectively deployed by this genre disrupting (and genre defining) art geek mafia.

P.S.-I think I must have initially done a google search for this to see if it had been posted elsewhere and spelled Skratcher with a c instead of a k as I just now noticed that it's been upped elsewhere. If ever there was an album that deserved to be displayed in the Mutant Sounds vitrine though, this is it, so...er...what the hell...

Get it via Sharebee Here

Get it via Rapidshare Here

CASSIX-LIVE-19.10.83 + WORKSHOP 18.10.83, UNRELEASED, 1983, VAR.

Fascinating and, 'til now largely unavailable (save for a small portion of this material showing up on one side of a Re Records Quarterly), this R.I.O. supergroup comprised the entirety of Cassiber (ex-Henry Cow/Art Bears drummer Chris Cutler, ex-Toto Lotto NDW vocalist Christoph Anders plus German improv eccentrics Heiner Goebbels and Alfred Harth) alongside three members of Italian folk-prog-into-R.I.O. movers Stormy Six and proposed a sound with a distinct akin to the work Cutler would latterly get up to about 10 years on alongside fellow Italian R.I.O-er's La 1919. Iterating the particulars of this project and it's subsequent realization is however a task that I will leave in Cutler's able hands. Quote:

"I was in Henry Cow when we met Stormy Six and joined their co-operative 'L'Orchestra' in 1975. They became one of the 5 original RIO members in 1978. Soon after, Stormy Six were playing at the Festival of Political Songs in East Berlin where they met the Goebbels/Harth duo (who were presenting their Eisler programme there at the Academy of Art). In 1982, Cassiber was formed (comprising Heiner Geobbels, Alfred Harth, Christoph Anders and myself). And two years later, Franco Fabbri invited three of us (Heiner, Alfred and myself) to join three of Stormy Six (Umberto Fiori, Pino Martini and himself) to present a public workshop and recording project as part of Hans Werner Henze's 1984 Montepulciano Cantiere Internazionale D'Arte (the following year, as a direct result of this project, I was invited back to co-ordinate a young musicians project there). The idea was that the six musicians would divide into all possible pairs (15) and each duo would prepare or improvise a 3 or 4 minute piece which would then be recorded to 8 track tape. These recordings were subsequently to be treated as raw material for the whole ensemble to work on, using overdubs, editing, composing and processing, the goal being to produce from each beginning a fully fashioned recorded composition. On the last day, we had to perform these compositions, and others, in the town square. The workshop took place in the open courtyard of an old Castello where we worked for a week on the fifteen pieces. The process and the final pieces were all recorded for subsequent broadcast by RAI 3, Italian Radio. 7 of the pieces later appeared on the Re Records Quarterly Vol No.3. and 5 were reissued on the ReR Quarterly Collection, Volume 1 CD collection (ReR QCD1). "

Many thanks to an anonymous blog friend for contributing these...

Get Cassix-Live - 19.10.83 pt. 1 via Sharebee Here

Get Cassix-Live - 19.10.83 pt. 2 via Sharebee Here

Get Cassix-Live - 19.10.83 via Rapidshare Here

Get Workshop 18.10.83 pt. 1 via Sharebee Here

Get Workshop 18.10.83 pt. 2 via Sharebee Here

Get Workshop 18.10.83 via Rapidshare Here

IMAGES & AVANT-QUART-LE DERNIER JOUR D'UN CONDAMNE, LP, 1979, FRANCE

This very obscure French acid-folk-into-prog curio frames Victor Hugo's text The Last Day of a Condemned Man with plangent and finespun latticeworks of acid folky filigree over which roil fervent beseechings (frequently delay-dappled) with distinct overtones of Christian Decamps' poignant histrionics in Ange. The peculiar tension and release patterns and periodic right-angle eruptions of rock and/or improv strategies makes their equally obscure countrymen in Sonorhc just about the only viable reference point I can manage to muster here; the aforesaid eruptions capping with the unhinged "La Mort", whose wisps of organ drift and tendrils of shrill electronics fall away to reveal a delirious mesh of ethno rhythmic tumble, Alpes-like percussive string percolation, low-lying Fripp-ian sustained guitar sear and mouthy melodrama.

Get it via Rapidshare here

SIMON STEENSLAND-LED CIRCUS, CD, 1999, SWEDEN

Continuing on from my posts of this Swedish R.I.O. stalwart's extraordinary first two missives, here's his thoroughly relentless fourth studio outing (following a collaboration with Sten Sandell that I'm missing), one on which the blistering and claustrophobic dimensions of Steensland's muse are ratcheted up, but so too are the occasionally alienating ones, the airless density and murkier mix here sometimes subsuming the proceedings or clotting them into indigestibility. It's still fascinating, furious and cantankerous work and continues to extend the legacy of R.I.O.'s more forbidding dimensions (Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, Present, Shub Niggurath et.al) even if it's monomaniacal zeal for malevolent pummel makes you want to cry uncle from time to time.

Get it via Rapidshare here