Here are two tracks displaying Smegma’s pioneering style of audiophile-lo-brow -noise-rock, in their early-middle age when they were surviving through the birth of grunge, alternative, and indie rock. Excellent stuff. Swampdick was released as a 7″ by Sympathy For The Record Industry (SFTRI 65) in 1991. This is the pink vinyl with a pink sleeve release.

Tracks:

1. Swampdick
2. L.S.D. Bomb

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RTC or The Rockin’ Teenage Combo was founded in Groningen (Holland) by Niek Roovers en Nanne Tepper in 1980. At the beginning stages of the band they experimented with all sorts of instruments, in several small rooms, assembled as studio’s. In 1982 Ron Overbeek joins the band on percussion. In 1983 Nanne Tepper leaves the band for several reasons, but mainly on the musical direction of RTC. Nice mixture of electronic based rock songs with experimental and minimal tracks, most vocal songs dealing with, as the title suggests seropositivity and homosexuality. Tracks 1 & 6 are Zappa covers, track 5 is a Beatles cover. Seropositive was released on vinyl by Futuremusic (F.M. 1001) in 1987.

Tracks:

1. Revised Music
2. Oh Little Boy
3. Limited Speed II
4. Sick Of Sikhs
5. Drive My Car
6. The Black Page Part 2
7. Italian Waltz
8. Leaving
9. The Anouncement
10. Off!
11. Seropositive

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Not much info to be found about Gregorian George aka Greg Gasiorowski. Greg has also been responsible for the music project Gregorian George, now at an end. He has decided, after sixteen tape releases, to put Violet Glass Oracle (cassette label) on hold while concentrating on his own musical projects: Du Pont, a rock-oriented band, and Dime, a solo music project following in the footsteps of the bizarre and esoteric Gregorian George, but more sequencer based. Rebuilding The Origin was released as a cassette by Organic (OT 034) in 1990.

Tracks:

1. Desert Scream
2. Return To The Inception
3. Groggy Circus
4. Back Home To The Flesh Factory
5. Rebuilding The Origin
6. Nasty Woodpecker In The Demonic Hen House
7. Travels # 2
8. Travels # 3
9. Life And Death Of A Concrete Jungle Loon Tune

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With thanks to Decon here’s Savage Aural Hotbed. Starting out penniless, unable to buy instruments, four guys decided to scrounge junk heaps and alleyways for objects that would do the trick: saw blades, plastic barrels, a steel I-beam, trash cans and some kind of a metal frame laced with wires. Armed with fiberglass drumsticks (weighing about three times what normal drumsticks weigh) they took the name Savage Aural Hotbed and began pummeling and clanging out a surprisingly syncopated line. With the instruments they use now, the sound is so loud they don’t have to worry about amplification — at some shows people have complained that the music was too loud. For all that noise, Hotbed is not widely known. A year ago they released a self-titled, three-song EP on Useless Records, and one song, “Same Thing” got a bit of airplay on college and community radio stations. Excellent percussion / synth / wave. Savage Aural Hotbed was released on vinyl as a 12″ by Useless Records (UR103-89) in 1989.

Tracks:

1. Same Thing
2. In A Cage
3. Saint Bill

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Excellent minimal experimental synth 7″ by this UK band. Telstar is a cover from the well-known song by Joe Meek. The Loved One began in 1976 by Dryden Hawkins. The first recordings began in 1978 and culminated in the first release “An Example of the Species…, ” a collection of electronic songs and music. This album was well received and established The Loved One as one of the early pioneers of underground electronic music in England at that time. Zeb Yek joined The Loved One playing guitar and electronics in late 1979. Telstar was released as a 7″ by Polydor (POSP 295) in 1981.

Tracks:

1. Telstar
2. Sunday Morning Fever

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Multi-instrumentalist C.W. Vrtacek aka Chuck Vrtacek aka Charles O’Meara surfaced on the independent American scene in the early 1980′s, he created a stir in underground distribution networks with his first two LP’s and a cassette parodying the Residents’ mannerism. In the mid 80′s he was in a band called Dancing Lessons, they had one album, “Monkey on a Hard Roll”, the band broke up just before recording a second album. In 1989 Dancing Lessons was reformed and changed there name into Forever Einstein. This album is quit different than his previous releases, as stated on the album that this is a group effort, nice instrumental alternative/prog rock with a strong punk vibe. Monkey On A Hard Roll was released on vinyl by Leisure Time Records (LT 3) in 1984.

Tracks:

1. 202
2. Lost
3. Ultra Stress
4. A Dance For Vance
5. Stinko The Clown
6. It’s Alive
7. Lucky Strike
8. Happy Trails
9. I Remember
10. America The Beautiful
11. Wave

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Collaboration tape of AMK & GX Jupitter-Larsen (The Haters) dealing with television.
Taken from the backside: “With television you have all these channels:2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-
14-15-20-21-26-31-40-44-51-56, and with cable, you also have Arts & Entertainment Network, American Movie Classics, Black Entertainment Television, Cable News Network, The Discovery Channel, ESPN, Home Box Office, CBN, Lifetime, Cinemax, MTV, Nickelodoin, Showtime, Univision, USA Network, The Learning Channel, The Weather Channel and the Home Shopping network as well. With a home satellite-dish you can even get Sky Channel from Europe, and Channel 4 Tokyo. Not to mention what you can get on video-tape. The amount of data on television is infinite. Normal people will only watch; say 2-4-5-7 and maybe cable if a normal movie is on. The “I’m different” (but you’d never know it) crowd will watch only 3-8-9-11 and USA Network to see the 700 club in order to think they’re cool. So both have there blinders on, and are looking in a linear line. But with real television oriented guys, there’s no limit to the aesthetic. TV-oriented types will watch anything and sometimes nothing. TV-oriented guys will pick and choose whatever from the vast learning opportunities presented by television. Television, the the great liberator of the human soul!”
Two Television Oriented Guys was released on cassette in a small paper box with two booklets, by Banned Production (BP-11) in 1985.

Tracks:

1. Oriented One
2. Oriented Two

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With a big thanks to Volker here’s The Tyranny Of The Beat. The Tyranny of the Beat: Original Soundtracks From the Grey Area is, essentially, the secret history of Mute Records (via subsidiary The Grey Area). The title may indicate dance music, but the “beat” here comes closer to industrial than techno. As Biba Kopf’s liner notes state, “Beat presently imposes itself as the martial law controlling all expression. Music is now only music if legitimized by Beat. And the dancehall represents society under disco lockdown.” Although many familiar names are included, the tracks are rarely the most obvious. For instance, instead of, say, the oft covered “Mother Sky,” Can is represented by “Oh Yeah” (1971). Instead of “Ex Lion Tamer” or “Strange” (both from seminal recording Pink Flag), Wire is represented by a live version of “Our Swimmer” (1979). And so it goes with the rest of the selections on this 15-track sampler. Consequently, quite a few of them are now hard to find elsewhere. Many of the top British, German, and Australian noise merchants from the 1970s and ’80s are present and accounted for. This includes such interesting side projects as Dome (featuring Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert from Wire) and the Boys Next Door (Nick Cave’s pre-Birthday Party outfit). Those with an interest in experimental and electronic music could do worse than to track down these soundtracks for imaginary movies or the actual video companion of the same name, which features nine of the same artists (ten on the U.S. version). Review by Kathleen C. Fennessy. The Tyranny Of The Beat was released on CD by The Grey Area (A GREY 1) in 1991.

Tracks:

1. SPK – In Flagrante Delicto
2. Throbbing Gristle – See You Are (Live At The Factory, Manchester, 19 May 1979)
3. Cabaret Voltaire – Automotivation
4. Chris Carter – Solidit (Edit)
5. Die Krupps – Wahre Arbeit, Wahrer Lohn
6. DAF – Co Co Pina
7. Einstürzende Neubauten – Tanz Debil
8. NON – Cruenta Voluptas
9. Can – Oh Yeah
10. Wire – Our Swimmer (Live At Notre Dame Hall, July 1979)
11. Swell Maps – Midget Submarines
12. The Boys Next Door – Shivers
13. Dome – Cruel When Complete
14. Monte Cazazza – Candy Man
15. The Hafler Trio – A Thirsty Fish / The Dirty Fire

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David explains: Sonic Archaeology is probably the most ‘successful’ recording by The Darkening Scale inasmuch as one track was played on BBC Radio 6 on Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone. At least two people were listening because one of them emailed me to tell me that he’d heard the track and the other bought a copy of the CD-R (that was back in the days when I was still trying to sell my music)! Also a favourable review appeared in  ReGen magazine saying that Sonic Archaeology raised sampling to an art form. The recording explores what might happen to the recorded artefacts of an extinct civilisation (ours!) if they were discovered by future archaeologists and a possible music reconstructed from the fragments – hence the title Sonic Archaeology. So imagine what might happen if Elvis were to rub up against The Ride of the Valkyries, Abba to meet Dvorak, and the Beach Boys duet with Mozart. Or a Chinese lesson is interrupted by duelling mandolins, Sinatra’s backing orchestra going African and Fred Astaire meeting music concrete (allegedly). The recording is split into three tracks, conveniently labelled Part One, Part Two and Part Three, within each part the tracks crossfade into one another.

Tracks:

1. Sonic Archaeology Part 1
2. Sonic Archaeology Part 2
3. Sonic Archaeology part 3

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David about Six Things Recycled: although it’s subtitled ‘Remixes by The Darkening Scale’ they’re not really remixes in the usual sense, nor are they alternative versions of the original tracks. I was interested to see what would happen if I took some of the original FL sequencing patterns I used for The Entomology of Sound and then use different samples and alter the tempo and timing. Of course, changing the samples changed everything and immediately suggested new directions to pursue. So the tracks sound nothing like their parents and are really new compositions, although Casbah Air recognisably uses themes from Bach’s Aria and String Graft Men contains some recognisable material from the String Fragments.

Tracks:

1. Nettle Bison
2. Sallow Newt
3. Asphalt Soap Chairperson
4. The Laurel Bug
5. String Graft Men
6. Casbah Air

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This was posted several years ago but with the wrong tracks and with the migrating from Blogger to my current blog platform I lost a whole lot of the comments, and completely forgot about this until now and the comment of Old Skool on the old post. Blah Blah Blah was a UK minimal electronic post punk band who made the single “In the Army” on Absurd Records in 1979 and an album on Trans Universal Records in 1981. Later on they made several other albums on there own Blah Records label. They also contributed a track on the Some Bizarre Album. Members were Ian Smith, Vicky Jones, Chris Andrews, Martin Croxford and Peter Wiggins. Excellent minimalistic surrealistic madness. Blah Blah Blah was released on vinyl by Trans Universal Records (TU1) in 1981.

Tracks:

1. My Mother Was A Radiator
2. Disney On Ice
3. Long John
4. The Red Spot
5. Going Down To Soho
6. So Sore
7. The Four Corners Of The World
8. Interference
9. Itching In My Pants
10. Natives Are Restless
11. Weasel Hunting
12. Liquidizing Chickens
13. Outside The Veg. Shop
14. Socialist Democrats
15. Wayo Wayo

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mrsneff explains: The Entomology of Sound was the first release I made under the name The Darkening Scale on returning to music after an absence of 20 years. The title acknowledges the influence of Renaldo and the Loaf who were also known to use insect-based titles – Songs for Swinging Larvae, The Blowflies Dilemma, the unreleased (and unfinished) Moths on Sloths, not to mention I Believe in Bugs (reworking of the Ivor Cutler classic). It’s also drawing a (tenuous) analogy between an entomologist collecting strange and exotic specimens and the process of collecting strange and exotic samples to produce music. As for the music, it’s quite a mixture there’s a couple of Residents remixes which predate Stuck Bad. Bach’s Aria samples Bach is Dead and Rest Aria while Blue Laughter samples Blue Rosebuds and Laughing Song. Trench 1 anticipates Sonic Archaeology, the trench of the title being an allusion to an archaeological dig. Elsewhere there are lots of big orchestral samples and a couple of ambient pieces. No doubt if I was recording this now there are plenty of things I’d do differently, but for a first effort I’m quite pleased with it. And I’d still like to hear the title track played by a real orchestra!

Tracks:

1. The Darkening Scale I
2. Blue Laughter
3. Dr. Cameron’s Round
4. String Fragment 1
5. Be Silent… Not
6. Trench 1
7. Also Sprach Siphonaptera
8. String Fragment 3
9. Bach’s Aria
10. Bach In Gondwana
11. String Fragment 4
12. The Entomology Of Sound
13. The Darkening Scale II

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David about the album: Secondhand Muon is the first new music that I’ve recorded in the two years since Hydrogen Kaleidoscope. It was mainly recorded in two chunks, firstly immediately after Hydrogen Kaleidoscope and secondly more recently, following the remix projects Stuck Bad, Aerobic Dallying and Larval Dissections. Difficult to pick out a couple of tracks to give the flavour, there are two other ‘songs’ in a similar vein to the ones I’ve selected, a couple of ambient pieces and some instrumentals. Also included is ‘Gladsome No More’, which recycles some of the vocal parts to ‘Gladsome Vane’ from The Songs of Langtuhn Hemblu. As a point of interest to students of Renaldo and the Loaf lore, the sound like a vuvuzela at the beginning of this track is sampled from a Renaldo and the Loaf piece that was never finished. Called ‘The Hydrophile’ it featured the sound of a Tibetan thigh-bone  trumpet culled from Radio 4 in about 1982. Anyway to hear it you’ll have to download the album!

Tracks:

1. Invocation
2. String Theory
3. Dire Lambencies
4. No Obscene Sighs
5. Jaunty Bone
6. Gladsome No More
7. Exit Of Dreamland
8. Weaving Uphill
9. Chanciness Foregone
10. Chained Vapour
11. Onrushing Cheese

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As requested by Pol here’s Band Apart’s first and only full album. Band Apart where Jayne Bliss and Medor Mader, this album is more softer than there 12″, more a cross between avant garde pop wave and post-punk with a dark undertone, but nonetheless an excellent album. Marseille was released on vinyl by Crammed Discs (CRAM 022 LP) in 1983.

Tracks:

1. The Lesson
2. Marseille
3. Ham Sandwich
4. O My Beautiful Song
5. Clean Sound
6. Lover
7. Dare Devil Lover
8. As I Watch The Train

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Excellent compilation album from Side Effects. Dressed like the Grim Reaper in designer rags, this record has a colossal amount to live up to. Those who have compiled this strange and tice marvellous collection have allowed their armageddon marketing to go mad and, as such, would have us all believe a new dark age is upon us. That the post-war West is sinking into a sterile abyss. That every last desperate attempt to rebuild culture and morality from imaginary beginnings will collapse in on itself. That steadily our over-indulgence will become a shelter and an exhibition of mass hysteria. What then will become of us? Well, we survived this record and you will, too. “Vhutemas Archetypi” is a compilation of the “New European” and the “New American” and tries to convince us of the dissolution of ideas and the decay of art. Review by Melody Maker magazine. Vhutemas Archetypi was released on vinyl by Side Effects (SER 05) in 1985.

Tracks:

1. Laibach – (Overture) To…
2. Laibach – Neue Acropolis
3. Hunting Lodge – Tribal Warning Shot
4. Hunting Lodge – Soul-Vac
5. Gerechtigkeits Liga – Five Skandhas
6. SPK – Invocation (Canto To The Departed)
7. SPK – Palms Crossed In Sorrow
8. Gerechtigkeits Liga – End Of The Present
9. Lustmord – Mass
10. Lustmord – Permafrost

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After playing in several rock band’s David Myers found himself drawn more toward the feedback possibilities of rock music and the various effects boxes associated with electronic music (in the purest sense of the term). After later being influenced by Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics and Brian Eno’s ambient music, he eventually came round to building a system that would produce feedback to be manipulated by numerous dials, knobs, and buttons, all Frankensteined together from various effects boxes and Arcane Device was born. Excellent feedback compositions. Improvisations For Feedback was released as a double 45 rpm vinyl by RRRecords (RRR 031) in 1988.

Tracks:

1. Studio-Front
2. Studio-Back
3. Live-Front
4. Live-Back

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Datsustora seems to be a ultra-obscure project band featuring the singer Elle a.k.a. Achy from L.S.D. Dark (post)-punk with an avant-garde / experimental touch that sounds similar to Byogentai, another band he did around the same time as L.S.D. All songs were recorded in 1981 – 1986. Of Final was released as a flexi by Lunatic (TD-002) in 1986.

Tracks:

1. Untitled
2. Datsustora
3. Of Final
4. Waltz Dream Vision

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The Good Missionaries emerged, phoenix-like, from the ashes of Alternative TV (ATV).“ Mark Perry has cheerfully and naively disregarded the slightest imitation of rock ‘n’ pop frameworks and become totally intrigued by noise, space and improvisation.” Paul Morley’s quote refers to end of ATV. However it also perfectly sums up the the Good Missionaries. One album and single were issued to mixed acclaim and poor sales before the band called it a day. Excellent experimental post-punk. Fire From Heaven was released on vinyl by Deptford Fun City (DLP 04) in 1979.

Tracks:

1. Another Coke / The Body
2. The Force Is Blind
3. Thief Of Fire
4. The Radio Story / Strange Looks
5. Fire From Heaven
6. Release The Natives
7. Fellow Sufferer In Dub
8. Bugger The Cat

(Tracks 1 & 2 and tracks 3 & 4 are recorded together)

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Freek Kinkelaar  is a Dutch guitar player, music journalist and curator and the sole member of Gazza November. He has been active in the experimental music scene since 1984, In 1986 he began the short-lived Honeymoon Production label to promote his own releases & compilation cassettes. Through the years he has been playing in various bands such as: Beequeen, Wander, Wasp King, The Beautiful Glassbottom Boat, Brunnen, Gazza November, Honeymoon Production and The Rotating Chickens. Excellent guitar compositions from noise to ambient. Untitled / Unfinished was released as a 2x cassette by Honeymoon Production (Honey One / Honey Two) in 1992. This is the second edition.

Tracks:

1. Untitled
2. Untitled
3. Untitled
4. Untitled
5. Untitled
6. Untitled
7. Untitled
8. Untitled
9. Untitled
10. Untitled
11. Untitled

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One of the very first industrial bands in Italy, Officine Schwartz distinguished themselves as a multimedial project, fusing music with performance, theatre, dancing, and lots of other art disciplines. Their music creates a unique melt of heavy industrial rhythms (generated by found metal percussions), electronics, traditional popular songs, workers’ striking choirs, and a lot more. Excellent post-punk with a high Neue Deutsche Welle influence. Rambo / Fräulein was released on vinyl by Sub-Up-Records (UP! 04) in 1987.

Tracks:

1. Rambo
2. Fräulein

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Conceptual artist, dancer, musician, scholar and poet, Stefan Weisser began playing the drums at age 4. Moving to New York City from San Francisco in 1979, and adopting the name Z’EV, his work with performance/noise percussion broke new ground and drew the attention of rock symphonist Glenn Branca, dancer Simone Forti, guitarist Rudolph Grey and just about everybody related to the downtown scene. These recordings from the early nineties were created in New York with the assistance of long-time friends and collaborators Wharton Tiers and Glenn Branca. Excellent noisy percussion mini album. Tracks 7 & 8 recorded live from the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco, USA, March 29, 1980. Salts Of Heavy Metals was released on vinyl by Infidelity ( JMB-237) in 1981.

Tracks:

1. Brings. Brings.
2. Cold Roll.
3. Cries Dissolve As Sweat.
4. The Number Seven.
5. The Hand. The Palm.
6. Skin On Thigh. Thorns.
7. Yellow Arrow.
8. Three Kinds Of Game.

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This Is Not Your Shape is the first full album of new material from Cultural Amnesia for 28 years. Seven of the nine tracks are released for the first time here. The accompanying designed booklet, Verbose Logging, contains the lyrics of almost all the songs recorded by CA since they resumed activity in the late 90s. The video for ‘Contains’ is the first official video from the band ever. Cultural Amnesia were first active 1980–1983. They released three cassette albums and appeared on some of the better-known cassette compilations. They had a notable associate in the young Geoff Rushton, soon to change his name to John Balance. He wrote songs for them and acted as their manager (one of the songs on This Is Not Your Shape is dedicated to him). After 1983 nothing more was heard from CA. A contracted vinyl album failed to appear. But in 1998 the three members of the band recorded some new material, and in 2003 a website was launched. Since then they have been recording more new material and have released two well-received collections of their 80s recordings and a few of their new tracks. We hope you enjoy the contemporary sound of these intriguing survivors from the heyday of UK post punk. This Is Not Your Shape is a free download released by Bleak Netlabel (bleak036) in 2011.

Tracks:

1. Bone Chapel
2. Product Chunk
3. (Let’s All Help Solve) Gary’s Problem
4. Speak The Wet Language
5. Dummyface
6. During Their Fit
7. The Product Chunk Funk
8. Seasong (For Geoff Rushton)
9. Waiting For The End

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Zos Kia (also credited as Zoskia) was a British musical group initially formed by John “Zos Kia” Gosling along with John Balance and Min. This trio, along with Peter Christopherson on sound, and sometimes other guests, recorded and performed several concerts in 1982 and 1983 under the names Zos Kia and Coil, and some of this material is available on the Coil/Zos Kia release Transparent. In 1983, Balance and Christopherson left to concentrate on Coil full-time. All material released under the Zos Kia name alone was primarily the work of John Gosling. After retiring the Zos Kia name, Gosling went on to record with Sugardog and Psychic TV and to work solo as Sugar J and Mekon. Excellent second 12″ mainly John Gosling with the aid of members from Pure and Psychic TV. Be Like Me was released on vinyl by Temple Records ( TOPY 5) and Temple Records (T.O.P.Y. 005) in 1985.

Tracks:

1. Be Like Me
2. Ten Miles High

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Excellent international double compilation album released by the Italian magazine Ass. Cult. THX 1138 – Amen Prod. edited by Roberto Marchioro. Some very rare bands on this mainly Italian compilation like La Fura Dels Baus, Officine Schwartz, Teatrino Della Volpe and The Tapes among others. Ranging from noise to experimental to ambient. The Negative Communication Age was released as a 2x vinyl with a 80 paged booklet, 2 inserts, and a floppy disk (don’t ask me what’s on the floppy because I did not own a PC when I bought the album) by Amen – THX 1138 (THX 1138-6) in 1990.

Tracks:

1. La Fura Dels Baus – Aigua
2. The Tapes – Tanz Fabrik
3. Phaeton Derniere Danse – L’Alignement Dans le Septième Ciel
4. S. Core – Shame Mask
5. Officine Schwartz – G.R.U.
6. Le Syndicat – Matrix Massacra
7. Das Synthetische Mischgewebe – Dusty Shivers on the Threshold of a New District
8. Etant Donnes – Cette Rose Qui Tourne Au Dessous de Mon Coeur
9. F.A.R. – Orgia
10. Phaeton Derniere Danse – N’Espère Plus Ton Corps
11. Cranioclast – Still Unknown
12. S. Core – Millstone
13. Tasaday – Crisalide
14. Etant Donnes – Transparente Nature
15. MGZ – I Don’t Love
16. Teatrino Della Volpe – Vado Lungo Il Fiume
17. Teatrino Della Volpe – La Casa Rossa

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Fra Lippo Lippi was formed in Nesodden, outside Oslo, by Rune Kristoffersen, Morten Sjøberg and Bjørn Sorknes after a couple of years of writing and rehearsing as Genetic Control. Debut 7″ 4-track instrumental EP is released on Private Records, 3 of the tracks being short, funny, quirky stabs at electropop, the b-side a longer, darker and more ambient offering. Songwriting for the debut album is showing the strong influence of groups like The Cure and Joy Divison and Bjørn Sorknes decides to leave. He will shortly join Holy Toy, the experimental rock group led by Andrej Nebb and featuring Lars Pedersen (When) and later to be composer Rolf Wallin. Debut album “In Silence” is released on Norwegian independent label Uniton. Excellent post punk / wave album. In Silence was released on vinyl by Uniton Records (UNITON 003) in 1981.

Tracks:

1. Out Of The Ruins
2. A Moment Like This
3. In Silence
4. Recession
5. The Inside Veil
6. I Know
7. Quiet
8. Lost

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Bogart grew up as Hubert Haverkamp in Emsdetten. There he began to play the drums at the age of six. In the early 80′s he was already a recognized experimental musician and live performer. From October 7th to November 19th Mac Whitney, a well-known American sculptor, had his first solo exhibition in Germany in the Kunsthaus am Moritzplatz, Berlin-West. The Sounds of this album were made on “Concan”, one of Mac Whitney’s stainless-steel sculptures. Sounds Of A Sculpture was released on vinyl as a box set with booklet by Bog-Art (BOG 103) in 19??.

Tracks:

1. Sounds Of A Sculpture I
2. Sounds Of A Sculpture II

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Thanks for your understanding,

C.

This album was written and recorded by the group during 1983-1984 at their newly occupied headquarters, the notorious “Ambulance Station”. The Ambulance Station was a 5 storey building in the roughest part of South London, which quickly became a nationwide center for anarchist events. Bourbonese Qualk performed there regularly and organized gigs, exhibitions film events etc during the buildings 3 year occupation. Hope is a record with intensity that makes your pulse beat faster, it stops your breath, it makes your teeth chatter and your brain dizzy with excitement. Hope is full of excesses, it is loaded with it but never too much, it gets you and drags you on. You will get from hope very clear views with a murdering vitality and a passionate deathly atmosphere, powerful and significant sound. Heavy metal percussion cuts through visionary areas, chunking bass accompanies the delayed orgasm of sunset sex and headstop. This is dripping emotion. This is feverish energy. This is music with balls. Hope is coming off on icy heights. Review by Peter Claessens. Hope was released on vinyl by Recloose Organisation (LOOSE 007) in 1984.

Tracks:

1. Erector
2. Sunset Sex
3. Invocation
4. Cold Blood
5. Head Stop
6. Mission England
7. Dereliction
8. Black Madonna
9. Gag
10. Something In The Air
11. There Is No Night

(Tracks 1, 2 and 3 are recorded together.)

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Bourbonese Qualk seem to creep up on you. Their haphazard existence and punk ethos doesn’t come across on record: they’re a different proposition altogether. “Laughing Afternoon” is an oddity indeed; it meanders through embryonic cabs, floating vini reilly, thumping TG and a wealth of other angles but never gets stuck in a rut, it never becomes obvious or predictable. At one point it sounds like an abominable thud that’s coming from next door, then a crisp regular beat irons out the indecision and layers of melody and noise spar for position, you lose track for a moment, that sunday afternoon sense of being comatose creeps back and the migraine is accompanied by a crunching chorus. Bourbonese Qualk don’t fit in, this lp is messy but mesmerising. At times rough and at times smooth. they don’t so much change the face of rock’n'roll in a revolutionary way, more twist and torment it with sadistic pleasure. Review by Dave Henderson. Laughing Afternoon was released on vinyl by Recloose Organisation (LOOSE 004) in 1983.

Tracks:

1. God With Us
2. Idiot Pain
3. Barcelona Telephone Exchange
4. Freefall
5. Blood Orange Bargain Day
6. Behind Closed Doors
7. Qualk Street
8. To Hell With The Consequences
9. Building Jerusalem
10. Feast Of Trumpets
11. Virgin Ears, Virgin Eyes
12. Spanner In The Works
13. Mystery Dance

(Recorded as Side A & B)

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Excellent post punk album by this Manchester band. Crispy Ambulance started in 1977 as a two-man outfit but adding Keith Darbyshire and Gary Madeley to the line-up in 1978. During their first five years they recorded sessions for local and national radio and released several records on Factory, Factory Benelux and Aural Assault. They toured in the UK and Europe, both as headline act and as support to Joy Division, Killing Joke and Section 25. The Plateau Phase was released on vinyl by Factory Benelux (FBN 12) in 1982.

Tracks:

1. Are You Ready?
2. Travel Time
3. The Force And The Wisdom
4. The Wind Season
5. Death From Above
6. We Move Through The Plateau Phase
7. Bardo Plane
8. Chill
9. Federation
10. Simon’s Ghost

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Here’s an excellent split album by these two experimental electronic artists. Brume (Christian Renou) is a prolific French musique concrete composer/sound organizer who has been releasing CDs and cassettes worldwide. The sound of La Nomenklatur can be described as a very intensive mix of old school industrial sounds, extreme vocals, atmospheric and melodic parts, metal percussions and intelligent used samples. End Of Symptom Dump / Meosta was released on vinyl by La Légende Des Voix (LDV 002) in 1989.

Tracks:

End Of Symptom Dump

1. Brume – Part 1: An Introduction To Dumping System (Bienvenue Au Zoo)
2. Brume – Part 2: The Reaction
3. Brume – Part 3: Continuum Mobil
4. Brume – Part 4: Plastic Truth / Pseudo Orgasm
5. Brume – Part 5: The Dejection
6. Brume – Part 6: Washed Life
7. Brume – Part 7: Now, You Can Die (Bienvenue Au Zoo.2)

Meosta

8. La Nomenklatur – Meosta (Part I)
9. La Nomenklatur – Meosta (Part II)
10. La Nomenklatur – Meosta (Part III)
11. La Nomenklatur – Meosta (Part IV)

(End Of Symptom Dump is recorded as one track)

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This is the third and final part of the trilogy, four tracks of manipulated vocal and mouth sounds. Von Mund Zu Mund 3 was released on vinyl by Die Stadt (DS28) in 2000.

Tracks:

1. Mann Im Zimmer
2. Ein Wenig Angst
3. DaV 45
4. GuU 49/2

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Here’s the second part of the Von Mund Zu Mund trilogy by this German pioneer of experimental electronic music. The same voice manipulations and treatments as on part one. Von Mund Zu Mund 2 was released on vinyl by Die Stadt (DS27) in 2000. In a limited edition of 400 copies.

Tracks:

1. Belehrung 2
2. Ikarus
3. Mit Schiefem Mund
4. Spielzeug Greift An

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As a Christmas special mrsneff thought it might be interesting to dig something out of the vaults that’s rarely seen the light of day: Renaldo and the Loaf’s one and only live performance. Mrsneff explains: Back in 1980 Renaldo and the Loaf played their one and only live performance. The performance was one of a number staged to promote the release of the sampler of Portsmouth music, South Specific. We approached the performance with some trepidation as it was somewhat out of our comfort zone, and we sought certain assurances before we committed ourselves. Specifically, we wanted adequate time to set up and do a sound check before the performance to ensure that we could monitor our playing adequately. Although the gig was supposed to promote the album we weren’t playing any of our music from the album because we didn’t know how we could reproduce it live. Instead we opted to perform an improvisation using a tape delay system, and the nature of the system makes it essential to hear what you’re playing, ‘mistakes’ tend to return and haunt you. Of course the nature of the tape delay system meant that we had a recording of the performance. We put it on a shelf, forgot about it and got on with other things, like recording Songs for Swinging Larvae. In 2006 Brain gave me a CD with a number of obscure Renaldo and the Loaf pieces on it, including the Bali Hai recording. I thought it might be fun to reinterpret it and set about sampling the recording. This was before I’d started using FLStudio, I just used a simple audio editor to extract and treat the samples (just with some echo and reverb) and put the whole thing together using a free program called Kristal. Everything you hear was played on that night on guitar or prepared guitar or by Brian singing, just not necessarily in that order or at that particular pitch, no extraneous sounds have been added. So there you have it Renaldo and the Loaf Live @ the Bali Hai 1980, not exactly as it was, but as it might have been, a trifle heavy on the reverb perhaps. The artwork is adapted from a picture of Brian and I at a fancy dress party around the same time.  Enjoy the recording while you can – on 1 January 2012 it will disappear.

Tracks:

1. Live @ the Bali Hai

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Asmus Tietchens is a German electronic musician who has pursued “absolute music” through an almost mathematical process of rigid formal exercises. With strong ties to Karlheinz Stockhausen’s early electronic work, Tietchens specializes in irregular patterns of sonic abstractions that are suspended in gray drones to create cold textural voids from external references. Excellent 7″ solemnly made of manipulated voice sounds. Von Mund Zu Mund 1 was released on vinyl by Die Stadt (DS24) in 1999.

Tracks:

1. Da Sitzen Sie Nun
2. Die Tränen Einer Wurst
3. Den Bach Runter
4. Halluzination
5. Belehrung 1

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In the Shadow of the Sun is an improvised “score” created by Throbbing Gristle for the Derek Jarman 1980 super-8 film bearing the same title. It is an example of what Throbbing Gristle founder Genesis P-Orridge called “Ambient video”, used to “enhance or complete an environment.” In the Shadow of the Sun has drawn comparisons with the ambient music works of Brian Eno, Pink Floyd circa Ummagumma (1969) and krautrock stahlwarts Ash Ra Tempel. In the Shadow of the Sun premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 1981, where it was received enthusiastically by the audience. In The Shadow Of The Sun was original released on vinyl by Illuminated Records (JAMS 35) in 1984. Re-released on CD by The Grey Area (TG CD9) in 1993.

Tracks:

1. In The Shadow Of The Sun

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Wind in the Wires represented something of a departure from The Darkening Scale usual highly structured style and was influenced by my (David Janssen) work with Sylvie Walder in The Tapeworm Vessel, leading to an exploration of a more open, atmospheric approach. Recorded at a time when I was getting bogged down with what would eventually become Hydrogen Kaleidoscope, Wind in the Wires was an effective way of blowing away the cobwebs suggesting new avenues to explore. The other big influence was a nostalgia for the way Brian and I used to sit around with two guitars just experimenting to see what appeared. Wind In The Wires is only available as an MP3 download.

Tracks:

1. Wind In The Wires
2. Inorganic Dharma
3. Autumnal Bile
4. Snow Over Gwastedyn
5. Koto Agreement
6. Linoleum Tractor
7. Aeolius
8. Ceramic Campfire
9. Returning To The Source

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Here we go with a TG live bootleg celebrating 20 years of infection and cauterising, recorded on a stereo sony cassette supplied as a “Virus” by William S. Burroughs, that was recorded in 1975, that’s what’s stated on the CD, but most tracks seem to be from taken from Throbbing Gristle’s live performances in Berlin in 1980. Track 3 is “Epping Forest,” which also appears on Nothing Short Of A Total War and Assume Power Focus. Track 6 is the original 7″ mix of the song. Track 7 is an extended version of “Final Muzak” from First Annual Report. There is also no mention of Peter Christopherson which is highly unlikely. aside from these few facts an excellent experimental / noise release. Blood Pressure was released on Cd by Dossier (DCD 9048) in 1995.

Tracks:

1. Blood Pressure
2. Destoria
3. Cerebral Aneurysm
4. Catheder Depletion
5. Humoral Response
6. Zyklon B. Zombie (Alive)
7. Speed

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The Songs Of Langtuhn Hemblu is The Darkening Scale’s album of songs! The project grew out of one particular piece, Black Death. I (mrsneff) got hold of a recording of some children singing the nursery rhyme “Ring Around The Roses” from The Freesound Project. I was aware of the alleged association of the nursery rhyme with the plague and started recording a piece which set the innocence of the children’s voices against a much darker, sinister backing, complete with voices singing from the Requiem Mass and a middle section like a funeral march. Only available as an mp3 download.

Tracks:

1. Shaker Loops
2. T for Tuva
3. Banshee Moron
4. Desperate Griper
5. The Aforementioned Lard Rant
6. Gladsome Vane
7. Forget Nephritis
8. Edema Ladylove
9. Fictive Funk
10. Black Death
11. Mandrake Hymn
12. Balsamic Novelist
13. A Health Warning

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Patrick Parent from Belgium was a well known force with his Etat Des Stocks project in the mid 80′s releasing tapes and one offs for other labels. He is also the founder of Red Neon Tapes. Nice electronic experimentation. Galactic Gigolo was released on cassette by Red Neon Tapes (rn 10) in 1991.

Tracks:

1. Overload
2. No More
3. Midnight
4. Roller Skate
5. Chips
6. The Forge
7. Ben Guess
8. Numbers
9. Sirens
10. Streets
11. Electricity
12. Down
13. Cat
14. Modern Language
15. Cycles
16. The Monk
17. Bass Mania Part 1
18. Etat Des Stocks
19. Bass Mania Part 2
20. Modern Language Instrumental
21. Modern Language Dub

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Here’s another Darkening Scale, this time it’s the remix of Songs For Swinging Larvae. David explains: “As with Aerobic Dallying the idea wasn’t just to create alternative versions of the original songs, rather to see what was possible given the starting material. So, while some tracks are recognisably similar to their originals others are totally unrecognisable. Venice Restored bears no relation to Renaldo’s Trip To Venice but all the material is derived from it apart from the drum loop. There’s also a new twist to a couple of tracks this time; hybrids! So A Sob Story has been crossed with Ow Stew The Red Shoe to form Sobbing In The Red Shoe, and Honest Joe’s Indian etc. has been crossed with Bali Whine to form Joe In Bali. There’s also some serious slicing and treatment of some of the vocal parts on Gnome Song, Medical Man, BPM and Spratts Medium.” Larval Dissections is only available as an mp3 download.

Tracks:

1. Intro
2. Jersey Mill Slag
3. Riotous Index
4. Melodic Swine
5. Trumpet Sadism
6. Storm Tempo
7. Meson Gong
8. BPM
9. Seven Polymers
10. Sobbing Into The Red Shoe
11. True Bootleg Bush
12. Venice Restored
13. Do Gophers Eat Peanuts?
14. Hats Off Again
15. Joe In Bali

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This Texas based duo, Jim Leggett and Rikky Wilson, previously masqueraded as Surgical Ills, Unca Meat or Vunderglass. They began working together around the end of ’83. Delving delicately in the difficult areas of new age music, electronic experimentation, sonic collage and found samples. Blistering Moments play mood music, with a whole lot of experimentation. Therapeutic Dreams was released on vinyl by Dead Man’s Curve (DMC 010) in 1986.

Tracks:

1. Night Prowler
2. 77 Seven, I Guess
3. The Plat-Eyed Disposition
4. Bushwacker’s Overture
5. Clean Thyself
6. Die Mütherfucker

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Could not find any info about this Japanese avant garde /  new wave band. Akebono Jirushi was released as a 7″ by Telegraph Records (TEL 0025) in 1985.

Tracks:

1. One: Great Sea Beyond
2. Two:  A Clear Day
3. Three: University Driven Nightlife

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Glaxo Babies were a Bristol-based UK post-punk group, formed in late 1977. There were three distinct phases in the bands life and after initially breaking up in 1980, they reformed in 1985, only to finally break-up again in 1990. Excellent avant garde / post punk album, which seems to be recorded in just one day. Nine Months To The Disco was released on vinyl by Heartbeat Records (HB2) in 1980.

Tracks:

1. Maximal Sexual Joy
2. This Is Your Vendetta
3. Seven Days
4. Electric Church
5. Nine Months To The Disco
6. Promised Land
7. The Tea Master And The Assassin
8. Free Dem Cells
9. Dinosaur Disco Meets The Swampsstomp
10. Conscience
11. Slim
12. Shake (The Foundations)

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Here’s the last known recording of Cranioclast. Cranioclast provide two rhythmic tracks in the form of cocktail recipes. Side 1 utilizes a crazed out beatbox sound and intermingles the beat patterns with all kinds of noise and tape splicings. Woven in with this active soundscape is Cranioclast’s signature sound – distant voices. This time the human factor creeps in in the form of a small child babbling away. Side 2 is denser and not so overtly rhythmic – there is much brooding under the surface going on. Excellent as always by Cranioclast. Carl’s On Acit was released on vinyl as a 10″ by Auf Abwegen (travel_document #4) in 2003. Limited edition of 500 copies.

Tracks:

1. Biosemiotic Experiments
2. Heartbeats Of Mating Galaxies

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1983 is the official start of Vagina Dentata Organ and World Satanic Network System, under which Jordi Valls will produce his own works. “Music for the Hashishins in memoriam of Hasan Sabbah” is his first release. This record was inspired and conceived from a tape by Psychic TV while recording The Pack (of wolves) on the 23, 24 and 25 of July 1983 in Soho, London. It’s a functional record to play only at selected times: “Listen carefully to these recordings and you might discover your true will. It is highly recommended as background music to your sexual games and blood rituals.” All you hear on both sides of this LP is the wild growl of a real dog trained to kill. This is the second release of the album. Music For Hashasins was re-released on vinyl by Temple Records (TOPY 012) in 1987.

Tracks:

1. Trained To Kill
2. Sexual

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Could not find much info about Nubile, formed by bassist/singer Ken Tanami (famous for playing in the Japanese punk “Typhus”) and guitarist Yoshihide Igarashi from Sadie Sads. Two excellent post-punk tracks like Sodom and Sadie Sads.  Nubile was released as a 7″ flexi by ADK Records (ADK-04S) in 1983.

Tracks:

1. Strawberry Hill
2. In Sight

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Here’s the second part of The Music Is Taboo, again an excellent compilation of different bands and persons doing there cover versions of songs by Renaldo and the Loaf. Some big names on this compilation like: Andrew Liles, Big City Orchestra and Renaldo and the Loaf themselves. The compilation is now available as a download, with cover art by Renaldo M, and has been split into 2 volumes to make it easy to burn to CD.

Tracks:

1. The Albatross Pseudonym – Medical Man
2. The End Time Orchestra featuring Renaldo M – Bearded Cats At The Blue Mango
3. Otalgia – Absence
4. Lightness Ascending – JPWBC
5. Mr Mute – Mahogany Wood
6. Sylvie Walder – Nelda Danced At Daybreak, But I Was Not There
7. The Spectral Pride – Mr Leery
8. Andrew Liles – A Street Called Straight
9. Logan 5 – Dying Inside
10. Rectoplasm – Kimbolton Nome Song
11. The Darkening Scale – Seven Interludes from Struve & Sneff
12. QWE – Renaldo’s Trip to Venice
13. Big City Orchestra – Anthem
14. Renaldo and the Loaf – Hambu Hoedown

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The Music Is Taboo was the braichild of Charles Klee. Charles approached Renaldo and the Loaf with the idea of getting bands and artists to submit their cover versions and remixes of Renaldo and the Loaf songs. Charles himself set the ball rolling with his version of Bustle the Burgoo from Songs For Swinging Larvae, set up a MySpace page and invited people to send in their renditions. Slowly the tracks began to accumulate and the project closed in September 2008 with 28 tracks and over 100 minutes of fantastic music. The compilation is now available as a download, with cover art by Renaldo M, and has been split into 2 volumes to make it easy to burn to CD.

Tracks:

1. Henk – Medical Man
2. Renaldo M – Rosa’s Still Lonely
3. The Pedantic Pedestrian – Absence
4. Charles Klee – Bustle the Burgoo
5. The Oblong Boys – Boule!
6. Twentyagon – BPM
7. The Knobster – Haul On the Bowline
8. The Tapeworm Vessel – Wheelchair and Anaesthesia
9. Mr Mute – Nelda Danced At Daybreak
10. Aldo Tamarind – StruveAndSneff
11. Mandible Chatter – Mahogany Wood
12. Dr Butcher – The Bathroom Song
13. Sylvie Walder – A critical dance (from the neighbours point of view)
14. Umbrella Whirlpool – Then at Iona Lanthem

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Here’ s another collaboration between The Darkening Scale and Sylvie Walder, excellent ambient drones from a duo that have never met, a fine mail art project. For more info on The Tapeworm Vessel, The Darkening Scale and Renaldo And The Loaf you can visit mrsneff’s new blog. Mp3 download with artwork.

Tracks:

1. Sleeping Near Belgium
2. Broaching Rage
3. Waving & Nodding
4. Gentian Rooftop
5. Snake Kiss Remix
6. Headpiece Dirge
7. She Shall Tell A Sea Shell Tell
8. Distant Rumbling
9. L’éducation Sentimentale
10. Last Tea With Emma

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