Sunday, January 31, 2010

Borsig - Sentimentale Jugend (tape, Cassetten Combinat 81011, 1982)


Borsig's real name is Alexander Hacke. Active since he was 13 years old. Former member of P1/E, Blässe, Sentimentale Jugend, Mekanik Destruktiw Komandoh and Sprung Aus Den Wolken, Borsig was one of the early members of Einstürzende Neubauten.

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Saturday, January 30, 2010

Rik Rue - Bend An Ear (tape, Les Ballets Mecaniques, 1987)


Rik Rue was born in Sydney in 1950, and at the age of 15 began constructing his own soundscapes from found and outdoor environmental sounds. Environmental sounds, his primary musical influences, have always provided him with "abstract and subconscious pleasures and an inner understanding of the physical environment", and manipulating them seemed to allow an imaginative reconstruction of, and some control over, the world that produced them. Rue, who is self-taught in composition, stayed in London from 1970 to 1973, while studying part-time at the Slade School, Camden Art Centre and Royal College of Art. Back in Sydney, from 1976 to 1979, his interest in improvisation and jazz surfaced in an organisational way when he helped present concerts of experimental and improvised music in the Paris Theatre in Darlinghurst and small galleries such as Central Street in Sydney. At this time he also played with a number of prominent Sydney improvisers, including Jon Rose, Louis Burdett and Serge Ermoll. Rue also achieved an important musical breakthrough. By using the tape recorder, he realised he could combine his love of environmental sounds, and of world musics, with his interest in improvisation and his desire to document and re-arrange sounds. Thus, the tape recorder became his `instrument'. He began presenting `live mixed' tape works in performance with improvisers such as Jim Denley and with the improvising group The Relative Band in the 1980s. Since the early 1980s, Rue has continued to work with live tape mixing in performances, particularly when playing with Mind/Body/Split , a group of Sydney-based improvising musicians including Jim Denley (flute and saxophone), Sherre De Lys (voice and texts), Jamie Fielding (synthesiser and percussion), Kimo Venonen (electronic samplings and manipulations) and occasional distinguished guests, such as Amanda Stewart (voice), Chris Abrahams (piano) and Graham Leake (percussions and samplings). At various times Rue had released a number of works on compilation discs produced by Fringe Benefit records but later, when he felt the need to personalise his output, created his own independent cassette label, Pedestrian Tapes in 1983. In recent years, Rue has extended his activities to include creative radio programming, hosting new music shows on Sydney's 2MBSFM and 2SERFM. His regular program on the former station, Stopgaps and Measures , began in 1985 and featured a wide range of works, from regional environmental works and sound/text experiments to local and international new music.

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Friday, January 29, 2010

Kiyoshi Mizutani - Inferior's Betrayal (tape, Ulcer House IH03, 1994)


Mizutani was a member of Merzbow in the 80’s and has done solo work since 1989. He has recordings on Ulcer House, ZSF Produkt, Shirocoal Recordings, NEdS, Sounds For Consciousness Rape, Pure, Artware, Kaon, e(r)ostrate, Povertech Industries and Flenix Records. This release was packaged in side-open cassette shell which has been spray painted white, except one strip which shows the artist and title on the j-card below. The cassette itself is also painted white. Limited to 100 numbered copies.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Anciestra (tape, Apraxia 00554, 1990)


Compilations play an important in this blog, but the were also the oil in the machine of cassette labels. This particular one was originally released by Big Body Parts and then later re-issued by Apraxia, which is this version. It has mainly US artists as Bunker Club, Illusion Of Safety, The Haters, John Hudak, Then Behavior, Allegory Chapel Ltd., Eric Lunde, City Of Worms, blackhumour, S.B.O.T.H.I., Hands To, Odal, Backwash and Jef Sampson. Thrown in are excepts from Costes, Suckdog, Marty, Man, Monkey, Christina, Officer Cop, Tom Viele, and Captain Clark between tracks.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Catharsist - Necrobta R.I.P. (tape, Caustic Tapes CT3, 1985)


Behind Catharsist was one Robert Vigneault, who also recorded as Convulsive Trance, Foreign World and his own name. Pretty industrial music if you ask me. But surely nice enough

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Electroacoustic Music In Nagoya Vol. 1 1990 (tape, Hyper Music Laboratory, 1990)


Serious electronic music from Japanese composers: Takashi Izumi, Atzki Tsutisumi, Hidemori Yamane, Takehiko Tanimura, Koujin Takahashi, Azusa Takeuchi and Mitsuaki Narita.

On a different note: I re-uploaded Nasmak 'Indecent Exposure 3 and 4', 2 will follow shortly. Ende Schneafliet's Staalplaat tape has been removed by request of the musicians.


link removed

Monday, January 25, 2010

Singles from Dr. Freakowitz, chapter 5








I must make a confession, I had and still have a weakness for synth-pop. Way back at the end of the seventies and early eighties, popmusic and synths were not that common as it is nowadays. Electronic music was for long haired nerds and most music pieces last for more than 20 minutes. Then Kraftwerk started to record catchy tunes of not more than 5 minutes: Radio Aktivität, Autobahn (the single version of course, the album version is also more than 20 minutes), Schaufenster Puppe and The Model to name a few. Influenced by Kraftwerk bands like Human League, Orchestral Manouvres In The Dark, John Foxx and Depeche Mode came along with crossovers between “serious” electronic music and almost “top 40” pop music. The nice thing about a good synthi-pop track is the use of analog synthesizers and mechanic sounding rhythm machines. That’s probably one of the main reasons real synth-pop songs are not published anymore nowadays, our equipment is too perfect and sounds too “real” (or warm).
I have digged in my record collection to reveal some almost forgotten synth-goodies for you. I start with the band who will surely make it to the top 10 of the peculiar band names: The Naughtiest Girl Was A Monitor. I expected a quit experimental sounding track but it turns out to be a smooth pop song. The B-side is darker and more interesting. They recorded 3 singles and recently (2007) a compilation according to Discogs. Psychic Youth from the USA only recorded one 7” as far as I know. Step In Time/Future Is Now sounds are both catchy minimal electronics synth-pop tunes. According (again) to Discogs they have released only this single. Two more commercial sounding attempts of synth-pop come from Greg Vandike. He made a couple of 7”-singles, the last three on Korova. I’ve included Clone (with the famous artificial clapping machine) and Marie Celeste. Even more commercial sounding are the singles (4 in total between 1983 and 1985) of Robert Marlow. In 1999, 15 years later, there was also a complete CD including all the singles. Just to give you an impression I have included Claudette, with a charming and simple synth-riddle. That must be enough (the two others I’ve got are only for the diehards). The last single in the row is from Sympathy Nervous, published on the famous Japanese Vanity Records. Two other singles of this label can be found on this blog (December 7, 2009). This one is all what good synth-pop is about: catchy electronic bass loop, vocoder voices, atmospheric background sounds, probably too weird for the average pop fan but surely just good for the average No Longer Forgotten Music follower. The B-side is much more experimental but also enjoyable.

not for sale


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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Harry Pussy - Vigilance (tape, 1993)


I borrowed a whole bunch of tapes from a friend, who is a big Harry Pussy fan. I am not that much. Discogs lists this tape from 1993 on Chocolate Monk as a C12, but this one is 90 minutes! A noise rock band from Miami, Florida of Bill Orcutt - Guitar and Adris Hoyos - Drums (who was a member Elklink, Monostadt 3, The Motor Of History, Transmission)

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Saturday, January 23, 2010

Zombies Under Stress - Fanatism & Hysteria (tape, 6de Kolonne, 1985)


Here a trio of Zombie Exit (voice, electronics), Hans von Majdanek (drums, and electronic percussion) and E. de Smet (electronics, tapes, guitar). A long tape. Also a track is called Goem, I wonder if the band Goem got their name from here? This tape is also on the site by 6de Kolonne, but somehow I think incomplete and a much lower bit rate.

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Muziek Terwijl U Sterft (tape, Cliche Bootleg Center Tapes 002, 198?)


Ok, then a great punk tape, with just Dutch bands: 700 Ennemies, Les Molotovs, Smexmec, Degrisement 1, World War Rockerz, Svatsox, Hysterical Flies and Ze Pigx. Early 80s, 1982 or 1983 I think.

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Odal - Onzuiver Bloed (tape, Industrial Therapy Unit ITU 04, 198?)


I thought I posted all of the Odal tapes I had, but it seems I forgot this one, released on Industrial Therapy Unit, the Canadian label from Not 1/2. The title means Impure Blood.

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Meridian Dream (tape, Fifth Dimensional Music, 1993)


Following La Peste and PMT this is another cassette with ambient house music. Perhaps only a demo of some kind. There is only CD release listed on discogs. Meridian Dream were Steven Rawlings & Rae Dileo. Rawlings was also a member of The Dance Society, but when this was released he relocated to the USA. This tape has always been a favorite of mine.

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A-a/ND (tape, ND/At1, 1987)


A combined effort of two great magazines (hopefully some or all of them one day on Notes From Underground), a compilation with Paul Thomas, Doro Benditz, Minoy, Gui Gui, Weird Scenes, Undercurrent, Banned productions, Schlafengarten, The Order Of Flesh And Blood, Joseph K. Noyce, Dave Prescott, Psychological Warfare Branch, Body Without Organs, Croiners, Nomusic, Architects Office, Alien Planetscapes.

Not for sale


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Monday, January 18, 2010

M.B. - Mectpyo (tape, Grand Mal Edicions 1985)


A Spanish re-issue of tape from 1980 by this noise master.

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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Jeph Jerman - Keep The Drum (tape, Apraxia Records, 1990)


On this release there is a Burroughs quote: 'He who plays death must keep the drum'. Jeph Jerman mainly used the name Hands To in the 80s but this is an early example of his work under his own name, and these are 'concussion solos', music for percussion. Not indexed

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Saturday, January 16, 2010

Angst - Burroughs (tape, Gezonde Boerse Copulaties, 1983)


Angst, the 'band' from Eruik Vloeberghs and his friends, have been posted before and other releases can be found on the Club Moral podomatic. Vloeberghs was also a great writer and has made a book with all his thoughts, also called 'Burroughs'. Here its all improvisations on guitar and percussion and Burroughs quotes. Weird as usual, fine as usual.

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Friday, January 15, 2010

Radiola Niewsbrief (tape, 198?)


I wasn't around to post anything yesterday, so two today. The first is the Radiola Nieuwsbreif, which was the audio newsletter released by Willem de Ridder. His radioprogramm (1980 era) was to play music people would send him on cassette, with no advance listening, just open the enveloppe on the air, play the tape. His dream was to have a magazine on tape (or earlier on vinyl and later on CD), and although there was a newsletter on paper, this is the only time he released one on cassette. With Andrew McKenzie he later released about 10 cassetts which acted as a sort of magazine under the name of Spiral. There is spoken word on this tape, in Dutch, in De Ridder's characteristic voice and of course music by various people. Cut as one track here, to make it like a radio programm.

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Arte Postale 63 (tape, Near The Edge Editions, 1992)


The second tape of today is another highly obscure one. Its the audio supplement to Arte Postale 63, the mail art magazine by Vittore Baroni. Though hardly a magazine: usually a folder with various sizes of visual contribution. He compiled various bits of music and spoken word together from mail artists and his own musical band Le Forbici di Manitu. Quite a strange release, which comes unindexed. You should check the cover in close detail to see who did what here.

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Current 93/Nurse With Wound (tape, Staalplaat, 1985)


This tape is called 'Mi-Mort' on discogs and apparentely, also according to discogs "Distributed by Staal Tape, Amsterdam, NL. Withdrawn immediately after release." I have no idea if that is true or not, but maybe someone is confused by the live release of both bands on Staalplaat. It contains I think failry known tracks by both bands.


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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Barry Schwartz - The Optic Nerve (tape, V2 Archief V2-14, 1991)


Strictly speaking Barry Schwartz is not a musician, but a visual artist: 'Barry Schwartz' main occupation is to expose and demonstrate natural phenomena that take place for example in electrical discharges (high voltage) and in expanding and contracting metal under the influence of external factors such as cold and heat. The use of electronics media turned out to be a stable factor in his work. Since the use of electronic media merely leads to a loss of direct communication he mainly uses video and audio in real time processes. These he can steer mechanically or manually. His work one might consider to be typically American, this in the sense that there is not shown any respect for nor tradition nor form and that you get what you get, a something raw and sensational' are the somewhat broken english words in the booklet, which I didn't scan. Its printed on oil paper and goes on with another page of description and pictures. Inside a metal book-like thing, this is an industrial affair. All of the sounds were created by Barry Schwartz, taken from various live recordings at V2 in 1990 and the whole thing is 'remixed and processed by Jacques van Bussel and Frans de Waard' for release on cassette.

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Monday, January 11, 2010

John Cage - Mureau (tape, S Press, 1972)


Of course John Cage needs no introduction (well, I hope). 'Mureau': the texts are letter-syllable-word-phrase-sentence mixes obtained by subjecting all remarks by Henry David Thoreau about music, silence and the sounds he heard that are indexed in the Dover Publication of The Journal, edited by Bradford Torrey and Frances H. Allen (New York, 1962) to a series of I Ching chance operations. Personal pronouns were varied according to such operations. The title is the first syllable of the word music together with the second syllable of the name Thoreau" - that's what Cage said in 1970 about this work. This is probably on of the oldest tape releases on this blog! Released in 1972.

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Sunday, January 10, 2010

Singles from Dr. Freakowitz, chapter 4








“Does humor belong in music?”. It was the title of one of the last shows of Frank Zappa, still available on both CD and DVD. You can say that the combination of humor and music not always results in the best music ever. Even Zappa who successfully combined prog rock, jazz and classic with satirical lyrics, has come up, although in my opinion, with pieces that are too mellow and of lesser quality than his other more serious work. For some reason a lot of people think that artists have to suffer or live a life close to the edge in order to generate master pieces. That counts for painters, poets and also for musicians. Nevertheless, music in all its variety is for entertainment and humor is a way to entertain your listeners. I have selected a couple of more or less obscure singles, which can be seen as attempts to combine humor and music into an enjoyable song, each one however with its own interpretation of humor. Splodgenessabounds is the name of a punk group that easily also can be seen as a pubrock band, typical British music on which you drink lots of beer and shout out loud. The 7” Simon Templar is their first from 1980. Especially the second “song” on the B-side, Two Pints Of Lager & A Packet Of Crisps Please comes close to what pubrock is all about. The Aliens made the title song for Kremmen the Movie. Kremmen was a cartoon broadcasted as part of the TV shows of British comedian Kenny Everett. I first thought this was a joke, but also the movie really exists. The Aliens are two not so famous disco musicians who made with this song a nice pastiche of disco and comic SF (including vocoder robot voices etc.). Skip the B-side, it is really a drag. More British humor and music comes from John Dowie. It’s Hard to be an Egg was released on Factory on white vinyl and with the feather of a chicken included. Fun With Animals put out a couple of 7_s on A&M in 1980 including this hilarious The Test of Love and Sex. Take the following test yourself…mark your answer with an X.
Test of Love and Sex
A) I don’t like you
B) I’m in love
C) I feel nothing
D) None of the above
Gerry and the Holograms called their single Meet the Dissidents as a sort of parody on the famous Residents album Meet the Residents. Minimal electronics here. The last single in this post was probably not intended to be funny but I couldn’t resist a smile when I heard it back after all those years. Nostromo sounds like camp, but I must admit, good camp. Theme from Alien, a catchy dark sounding synth-pop instrumental has been influenced by the movie of the same name. There is an excellent long edit of both tracks here

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Saturday, January 9, 2010

Pest(e) - Test(e) (tape, Suction Records 000, 1996)


Inspired by yesterday's post I guess, there is here today Pest(e), Gregory De Rocher's first musical outing. From discogs: "Lowfish is the musical guise of Gregory de Rocher. Born in Toronto in 1972, Lowfish spent his earliest years plagued with hearing problems and confined to hospital sound testing labratories monthly. Once cured, young Lowfish found sanctuary in the sound of music, and was particularly infatuated with his mom's disco 8-track of Giorgio Moroder's robotic masterpiece "I Feel Love". On a subsequent triip to the Ontario Science Centre, Lowfish witnessed a modular synthesiser demonstration, where he made the connection between this machine and the punchy analog sounds that would later form the basis of his sound. Raised on substantial doses of industrial music (Skinny Puppy, Nitzer Ebb) and early melodic electronica (Aphex Twin, early Warp Records output) Lowfish now finds himself an influential international player in both the worlds of electro AND electronica. Along with numerous compilation and remix appearances, 1997/98 saw Lowfish release a string of 12 inch's on his then fledging Suction Records label. 1999 saw Lowfish release his first acclaimed full-length, "Fear Not The Snow and Other Lo-Fiing Objects". Lowfish's 2nd full-length, 2001's "Eliminator", brought him both into the homes of descerning electronica fans AND into the crates of famous DJ's like Andrew Weatherall and Miss Kittin. 2002 saw an explosion of Lowfish output: a thunderous electro 12 inch "The Accidental Causer" on Detroit's Ersatz Audio, a unique "electro-class" EP, "Maintain The Tension" on Suction Records and an outstanding contribution to Ghostly International's seminal "Disco Nouveau" compilation. Lowfish has recently been bringing his unique brand of "drum machine electro-pop" to the stage. Playing solo and in tandem with Suction Records partner Solvent, Lowfish has performed for audiences worldwide alongside names like Tiga, Adult., Legowelt, and 2 Many DJ's. October 2003 sees Lowfish release his strongest work to date: "1000 Corrections Per Second" is Lowfish's third full-length release. If the international press (DJ Magazine, URB, Jockey Slut, Muzik, etc.) can be believed, the future of intelligent, catchy and unique melodic electro belongs to Lowfish. He's more than up for the challenge."
Its, although not mentioned on the tape, the first release by Suction Records, catalogue number 000. Excellent electro pop stuff.


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Friday, January 8, 2010

PMT - Blinde Greep Dan Maar (tape, 1990s?)


A good friend of mine send me a card for the new year yesterday. It was her who gave me this tape, which was found in the trash bins of Staalplaat. When they stopped selling tapes, somewhere in the mid-90s everything was dumped at a zero guilder price. This tape looks quite vague. I mean, who is PMT? Not much info than, but the music is great, and not like anything you heard on this blog. Ambient techno house with great dance rhythms, fine ethnic samples, and some more experimental tracks. Later on he released a CDR for Kleptones, one of Staalplaat's many CDR labels. These days he runs a bakery.

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Thursday, January 7, 2010

Nurse With Wound & Current 93- Nylon Coverin' Body Smotherin' (tape, Mi-Mort 04, 1984)


A pretty obscure tape I'd say, where its not some tracks by one and some of the other, but a collaboration. Rougher versions of works that later appeared. With the help of Edward Ka-spel and Foetus.

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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Illusion Of Safety - In 70 Countries (tape, Complacency CPC 14, 1989)




Also a cassette by Illusion Of Safety, and another fine one. All sounds and recordings IOS main core: Mitch Enderle, Spark Lunch, Dan Burke, D. Klein.


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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Thomas Dimuzio - Delineation Of Perspective (tape, Generations Unlimited, 1988)

From discogs: "Thomas Dimuzio is one of unsung artistic figures whose influence and abilities have substantially outstripped his visibility. Composer, multi-instrumentalist, sound designer, experimental electronic musician and recording studio owner, Dimuzio has been busy doing his thing(s) since the late 1980s with critically acclaimed releases issued by the legendary house of audio misanthropy, RRRecords and former Henry Cow drummer (and current Dimuzio collaborator) Chris Cutler’s well-regarded ReR Megacorp label. Equally fluent in a nearly every contemporary post-techno style, Dimuzio’s work clearly demonstrates an insider’s knowledge of older experimental musical forms such as musique concréte and electroacoustic, as well as contemporary ambient-industrial and noise. Thomas Dimuzio has performed and recorded as a solo artist and collaboratively with Fred Frith, David Lee Myers, Dan Burke, Due Process, 5uu's, Matmos, Wobbly, and many others." This is ripped from the cassette version. I see here that there is also a remastered CDR version available, so if you like this, get it properly.

Dimuzio website
Link
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Monday, January 4, 2010

Richard Franecki - She Goes A Little Mad Sometimes (tape, Generations Unlimited, 1988)


Richard Franecki is perhaps best known as the main man of experimental space rock bands F/i and Vocokesh, but he also has a few solo works of his own. More electronic, using a variety of old analogue synthesizers, but also spacious. There is also a 7" with the same title on Stomache Ache Records, but I'm not sure how they relate to this cassette, but perhaps its taken from this cassette.

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Sunday, January 3, 2010

Leben Und Arbeiten (tape, Cassette Combinat, 198?)


More by Leben Und Arbeiten (living and working), one of those groups around Sprung Aus Den Wolken. Otherwise I know nothing about them, other than there is also a 7" by them.

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Saturday, January 2, 2010

6de Kolonne - In Club Moral (tape, 6de Kolonne, 1985)

6de Kolonne was a label and group from Eindhoven and still exist as an art organisation until today. It included groups like Zombies Under Stress, MTVS and unit 6. Before that the label was called Kaisettes, of which I posted various releases before.

Not for sale.

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Friday, January 1, 2010

81025 Musik Zur Entspannung (tape, Cassette Combinat, 198?)


I'd say a pretty early 80s compilation with Borsig Werke, Padeluun, Sprung Aus Den Wolken, Ohne Unter Titel, Leben Und Arbeiten. Inro Intrigo Und Der Pakt Woodoo, Ein Weg Existenz and Out. That seems to me a classic case of the incestous Berlin music scene of that time. Nice one.

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