Neon - A Day In The Land Of The Lost Horizons (12", Subdivision/Torso, 1981)

Neon were a four piece band from Eindhoven, The Netherlands, who, as far as I know only recorded this 12", one of the two releases on Subdivision, a side label of Torso. The other one, by Phantom Limb, was posted by Phoenix Hairpins a while back. Music that is a bit lighter than Joy Division, and sounded like The Cure area 'Seventeen Seconds'. Otherwise I have no clue about them.

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Andre De Saint-Obin - Sound On Sound (cassette, Ding Dong, 1982) - La Voix Qui Rit (7", Ding Dong 1982) - Live (unreleased)

This is a posting of the almost complete works by Andre De Saint-Obin. The only track missing is his piece on 'Insane Music For Insane People Vol. 3' (anyone have that for me?). I believe Ding Dong first released the 7" and then the cassette. Especially the cassette is a long lost item, which deserved to be released on CD. I have no idea where the live recording came from, but it was given to me by a good friend. The cassette was transferred to CDR for me by someone else, and thus I don't have the cover. The cover shown with this post is the 12" cover version of the 7". If I remember correctly there were 500 of the 12" covers and 500 of the 7" covers There was a glitch on 'Desolation', which gives the music a strange bump half way through. Don't let that spoil the fun. Andre de Saint-Obin played all instruments (voice, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums an electronic percussion) himself and recorded it on a four track - hence the title 'Sound On Sound'.

English Subtitles - Original Dialogue (LP, Glass Records, 1982)

Having quite enjoyed the flexi disc these boys did for Vinyl, it took me some years to find this LP. It has a studio side, which is the most interesting one, and it includes both tracks from the flexi and a rawer, punky live b-side. The live recording was made at the Electric Ballroom London, 19-2-1980 and the studio was Jacobs Farnham in August 1981. They use different drummer and different guitarist on the concert. They also released two 7"s which I don't have (anyone else who may have them?). A fine Joy Division clone.

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Grønvirke (LP, Gay Records, 1982)

Before you think I'm turning to just Dutch music and with some grief over Rasmussen's kick out of the Tour de France, today something from Denmark. Grønvirkewas duo of Sten Jorgensen on cornet and vocal and Freddy Frank on Electronica and tapes. That's about all I know, besides that according to Graf Haufen's magazine Die Katastrophe (issue 12, 1984) Freddy commite suicide. The LP here says 'mini LP 45 rpm' on the cover but on the insert the sticker says 'play at 33 rpm'. The name of the label is a bit hard to read in the hand writing on the cover, but I think it's Gay Records. It's great slow Cabaret Voltaire music circa their 'Mantras' pieces.

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Nexda - Vinyl Works (1982-1984)

As far as I know these should cover all the material by Nexda on vinyl. The two 12"s on Plurex are quite well-known and the piece on the 'Dokument' also. The split 7" with Cargo Cultus is lesser known, but the true gem here is the LP which I never saw for sale or mentioned. Packed in silkscreened carton sleeve, this is a true beauty. Nexda came from Haarlem, The Netherlands, and played music on handmade drums, metal, organ, voice and saxophone. They sounded quite different from many of the other bands around that time. They released many cassettes on their own Studio 12 label, which was also the name of their shop in Haarlem. I no longer have the cassettes, sorry. The Cargo Cultus side I will use in a forthcoming folder of Dutch 7"s. Most of their track have no titles or just numbers. The complete picture is this:

Nexda (12") released by Plurex (0026) in 1982
Second (12") released by Plurex (0031) in 1982
untitled piece on flexi disc by Vinyl Magazine in 1982
untitled piece on Dokument - Ten Highlights In The History Of Popular Music 1981-1982 by Vinyl Records in 1982 (documenting the flexi's from Vinyl, but Nexda have a different track here)
untitled piece on a split 7" with Cargo Cultus (Studio 12) in 1983 (?)
LP released by Studio 12 in 1983/4 (?)

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Vice - Vice 12"/A Plain Reprise LP (12"/LP, Torso/Akzidanz 1982, 1984)

A promised a few days ago, here are both records by Vice, from Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Probably the least known of the four bands from that city (Bazooka, Das Wesen, Mekanik Kommando and Vice), they only made these two albums, after which I believe members went on to form Güler and later techno act Ulan Bator. These days Ties van der Linden is still active, producing music for commercials and much more, check out www.fonofactory.com. Oddly enough nothing about Vice on this site, except that it's mentioned in the discography. Strange, since it's quite strong, especially the first 12" on Torso. The LP is a bit dull at times, with songs too much in mi-tempo. But Vice played a great set of minimal popmusic, with synths, sequencers, bass an guitars.

Vice was released by Torso (torso 129) in 1982
A Plain Reprise was released by Akzidanz (akzi 4) in 1984


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World According To (3 albums, Plurex/Prime, 1983-1985)

Quite an extensive posting, all three albums by The Netherlands' World According To (W.A.T.), a group around Ad Van Meurs, on guitar. Before he was in Bleistift and today plays americana as The Watchman. This group was with Ankie Keultjens (his wife and also in The Wtachman) and Frank van den Nieuwenhof. As W.A.T. they played rather uncomplicated synth pop with a drum computer, synths and lovely vocals by Ankie. Van Meurs plays already much slide guitar here, which gives them a rather distinct sound. As far as I know they recorded three albums, of which the first one, 'Defreeze' still stands as a powerful synth pop classic. There might be a fourth one, but perhaps that was never released. There are two uploads here, the first one is 'Defreeze' and a live recording from around the same time as they released this, though not the greatest quality. Their second and third release are in the second folder. 'Defreeze' and 'Thin Blue Notes' were both mini LPs with six tracks, and 'We' is a full length LP.

Defreeze was released by Plurex (3302) in 1983
We was released by Prime (3) in 1985
Thin Blue Notes was released by Prime (MD 7978) in 1985

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Five Or Six - A Thriving And Happy Land (LP, Frizbee Records, 1981)

Certainly one of my favorite UK bands, who combined a great pop song with fine sense of experimentalism. This album was ill fated. Frizbee Records, of Amsterdam (connected to the Boudisque Shop and Plurex) had a high hopes of selling loads of copies, but it work out. So coupons in magazines appeared that you could this record for like one guilder, and in the end hundreds of copies were dumped at the garbage. What a shame, since it's a great record, more modern classical than popmusic. I made photos of the cover, which aren't great, but better than having nothing at all, right? The cover is a nice piece of art by Russell Mills actually. It's a great pity that has never been a proper re-issue of all their material onto a nice double CD. More to come here by them, including a live recording from around the same period.

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5 times 7"inches from Belgium (1980-1981)

Recently I got a new turntable, thanks Ray! I could finally transfer a bunch of favorite vinyl to my computer. Some of the records are pretty old, so a bit hissy and scratchy. The first vinyl is parcel of five great 7" inch record from post-punk Belgium. Struggler is the most punk one, whereas the other two are heavily influenced by Joy Division.

There is:

Struggler - Wanted/Don't Care (Doggy Do Records, 1980)
Struggler - Night Fever/My Heart (Doggy Do Records, 1980)
Siglo XX http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif- The Naked And The Death (Straatlawaai, 1980)
Repetition - The Still Reflex/Fade Out (Les Disques Du Crepuscule, 1981)
Repetition - A Full Rotation/The Body Cries (Les Disques Du Crepuscule, 1981)

folder contains scan of the covers, front and back, but not the labels


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Solid Space - Space Museum (tape, In Phaze Records, 1982)

Synth pop band who just had this one release. Musicians were: Dan, Matthew and Jon Winegum on one track. Cheerful and melancholy. Still a big favorite down here. In the Dutch magazine Vinyl this was reviewed saying it was nice but it'll be all forgotten about in five years. Yeah right. Still great.

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Mekanik Kommando/Vice (live recording, unreleased)

This is an unreleased live recording from two bands from Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Both were taped from radio broadcast, Vara's Popkrant. Also broadcasted were interviews, but we have just the music here. Mekanik Kommando was broadcasted on september 22, 1981 and Vice on june 29, 1982. Both bands at the time worked together in Stichting Akidanz, who looked after their business affairs (along with Bazooka and Das Wesen). Mekanik Kommando is quite known still but Vice is not anymore. It's kinda short with three tracks from Mekanik Kommando and two from Vice, but quite nice to hear again, even when they were taped to a shitty cassette. The two albums by Vice I will do somewhere in the future, especially their first 12" is a great minimal synth popmusic. Track listing:

Mekanik Kommando - Microbes
Mekanik Kommando - Vortext
Mekanik Kommando - Birds

Vice - Running And Hiding
Vice - Water And Steel

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4 In 1 (tape, Grafika Airlines, 1982)

This is not to be confused with more well-known 4 In 1 LP, with The Legendary Pink Dots among others, but this came before that. Each of the bands had 15 minutes at their disposal, and it's a great compilation of experimental and industrial music. Track listing:

Side 1:
Mecanique Vegetale - Incantations Cycliques
Mecanique Vegetale - Lamentations
Mecanique Vegetale - Zona Periodica
Mecanique Vegetale - Sick Soldier
Pseudo Code - Le Gange

Side 2:

Etat Brut - Sollicitation Ext.
Etat Brut - Psychosomatique
Human Flesh - Total Recall
Human Flesh - Tina 74
Human Flesh - Matin. Promenade
Human Flesh - Airport (Your Selfish Mind)

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Test Dept - European Network (tape, V2, 1986)

Test Department at their peak, as far as I think. They played The Netherlands in november 1985 and both Staalplaat and V2 wanted to release this on cassette. V2 'won' the bidding war, perhaps because their recording (back then to a 'hi-fi stereo video') or the more art-presence of V2? I don't know, but this is an excellent live recording and quite a popular cassette release in the 80s, alsodue to the fact that it came in a nice black carton box. You'll find also scans of the various inserts, which may have been only part of the first edition.

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New Science (tape, Kubus Kommunikaties, 1984)

One of the lesser known Dutch cassette labels from the early 80s was Kubus Kassettes - at least lesser known these days. The label was run by Rob Smit, who is musically responsible for several releases under various guises, as well as various other people, such as Act Of God, Pain and Muziekkamer (whose excellent work will follow shortly). I only have a few of the releases, all to come, but we start with 'New Science', which is a 30 minute sampler of released pieces from various other releases, except the sixth track of side A. Many of the releases of Kubus are quite ambient in approach, but 'New Science' is a bit more 'industrial', but quite enjoyable. There is a tape glitch at the beginning of side A, which couldn't be repaired. Anyone who has MP3s of other Kubus releases, except 002, 003 and Digit USA: please let me know

Tracklisting:

Side A:

Act Of God - z.t. (Untitled)
Het Winnifred Komplex - Samenzang (community singing)
Digit 1 - Modern Conversation
Digit 1 - The Jump
Dsmitmachien - Het Stille Weten (The silent knowing)
Dsmitmachien - Nachtploeg (Nightshift)

Side B:
Act Of God - Hesychasme (Towards God)
Pain - Naderend Geweld (Approaching Violence)
Mark van Kempen - Naar School (To school)
Pain - All Those Moments
Act Of God - Plane

Both sides as separate MP3, unindexed.

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Endzeit (tape, Datenverarbeitung, 1982)

Germany's Datenverarbeitung produced a couple of interesting tapes, like the well-known Bain Total Germany sampler and Sinn & Form, besides Hunting Lodge and Die Klopferbande. 'Endzeit' is perhaps the most unknown release, limited to 230 copies only and co-released with Power Focus Records. Even back in the day that was a strange thing, seeing three tracks from Section 25 and one by Virgin Prunes, quite well known then. The complete track listing:

Side 1:
The Virgin Prunes - Song
Cultural Amnesia - Repetition For This World
Section 25 - Hit
Culturcide - Disco
Section 25 - Inside Out
Cultural Amnesia - Reprise

Side 2:
Raudive Bunker Experiment - Phillipp's Song
Section 25 - The Visitation
Die Klopferbande - Cadillic Im Ghetto
Cultural Amnesia - Dialogue Of Skull And Soul
Die Kloperbande - Finale
Raudive Bunker Experiment - Bluemix
Cultural Amnesia - Secrets Of The Passive Margin

Both sides as separate MP3, unindexed.

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Gust De Meyer - Casioworks (tape, Ding Dong Records & Tapes, 1983)

This was the second release (and last) in a thematic series of C30 cassettes Ding Dong planned. The first was by Anne Gillis which I don't have anymore. Gust de Meyer was part I believe of the early line up of Wim Mertens Soft Verdict. This tape, the only release I know of him, was entirely made with the then fashionable Casio VL-Tone 1, which made me give up playing it altogether. I knew I could never reach this level. The original tape came in an oversized carton box, which looked a bit like the casio, but I couldn't find it anymore. Side A and B of this release were made into one unindexed track

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Portion Control (tape, 198?, unreleased)

Somehow somewhere and somehow I got this demo from Portion Control. I am not sure when it was recorded, but listening to it, it seems to me that it's quite an early work, when they were less harsh and more poppy. The period when I liked them best. The tape is housed in a handmade carton box with an old poster glued to it. The band knows about this, but didn't care about it too much. On their recently released 5CD of archive works the whole first period seems rather underrated, which me thinks is a great pity.

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Hembrug (tape, 1982, Finger In The Dike)

A compilation like so many of the releases on Finger In The Dike, but this one is all centered around Rob van Wijngaarden, who was also responsible for Mental (who had a flexi with Vinyl Magazine). On this tape you'll find Sluik, Ma Colle, Opel Kadett, Rob Van and Paay. Unlike many of the Finger In The Dike releases, this is more minimal synth and less no wave.

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Paul Haig - Drama (tape, 1981, Rhythm Of Life Organisation)

This is a truly obscure tape from Paul Haig, dating back the early days of Josef K. It has various experimental music works which he recorded in his bed room. Although the label says 'Rhythm Of Life Organisation', it has not much to do with the later work under the same name. Unindexed.

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