Update

I'm still alive! Unfortunately the last few months have been very involved, between classes and music I've been making a point of treasuring my isolationary time. Posts will be, as they have been (for entirely too long now), sporadic. I'll try to make a point of throwing out the kind of thing that keeps this blog on your rss feed (or at least keeps bringing you back to check on it).

I first heard this when I was 17, which was after I'd gotten my first car. This is one of the two defining songs of the time when I drove a car. I really miss driving when I listen to this one.

DL it, pop it on cdr, tape, whatever you use to play music in your car. Flip it on on the interstate and enjoy the feeling of pressing that pedal down as far as it'll go.

floor it

REPOST: VA - Han-Ichi Independents

Reposting this because I've just gone back and compared the version I had before I ripped this and this recording, and the other can't compare. This is the best rip of this tape you'll ever find: original copy and aside from 25 years of wear it still retains fair fidelity. If you have any interest in the japanese avant-garde of the past 50 years or interestingly original music in general, get this. The text of the original post follows.



VA - Han-Ichi Independents (1983)

Alright, up today we have one of the gems of my tape collection. It's been posted elsewhere in various forms (actually having trouble figuring out where I found it in the first place, come to think of it), but this rip is from my copy of the original cassette. It remains in raw, full-side v0 mp3 form, since I don't think cutting it up into 'tracks' makes any sense. Have a listen and you'll see what I mean.

This release was a recap/medley of live performances for a 1983 Japanese Anarchist festival. Features bands such as A*MUSIK, Skeleton Crew (Fred Frith/Tom Cora), Remedy Control, and at least one or two noteworthy Japanese-name acts who I can't seem to remember and I'm having a surprisingly difficult time digging up the other blogs that have posted this in the past (I BELIEVE one of them is Zuno Keisatsu but I can't read Japanese at all). If anyone wants to translate the cover in the comments, there's a larger copy of the scan in the file. Anyway, I'm hoping to start varying up the posts from my increasingly regular dance single rips, so look for more like this in the future. Enjoy.

I love the 909

But I felt the 808 would fit my sound needs better. So I bought one. It's everything I'd dreamed it would be. The xoxbox arrives later this week.

That said, here's to the 909 I couldn't afford to go with her. the hats... the hats... oh god the hats...

Billy Cancel/White Wave - Hidden House Split EP

Billy Cancel - Scan Cluster Scan Scatter, Hidden House - S/t, White Wave - To The Hidden Life (2010)

This is a split/collab I was given yesterday evening by two very good friends of mine. Billy Cancel is an Anglo-to-Brooklyn transplant spoken word artist and half of the power electronics group Farms, who I'd highly recommend to anyone with a taste for Broken Flag or most of the first generation groups. White Wave is someone I've collaborated with on shows, recordings, and various other things often over the past few years (did a thing with Billy once but always a bit more of a schedule issue for us, go figure). Classically trained in viola with an interest in Deluze, Situationism, and loop-based improvisational music, the latter four tracks are densely layered lo-fidelity psychedelic minimalism done as only we of the starving Brooklyn set can do. That is, properly beautiful. The two central tracks are from their new collaborative effort, Hidden House.

This record was put together to celebrate (or at least finished at the time of) their engagement, sadly I can't seem to figure out where the hell the various other related myspace pages are so I'll have to update this at some point in the next week or two (the two Hidden House tracks are on the White Wave myspace). True shame that I haven't got my scanner anymore, as the handmade xerox art is 'legit as fuck' as you might say, and the liner notes are sweetly touched to boot. Cannot possibly recommend this highly enough, both as up-to-the-minute proof that people around north Brooklyn are still doing interesting things lo these many years and as simply excellent work by some of the most creative and interesting artists I've had the privilege to meet.

Congratulations!

D.D.A.A. - La Famille Des Saltimbanques

D.D.A.A. - La Famille Des Saltimbanques (1984)

One of the jewels of my meager cassette collection here. Includes scans of the packaging and all that. I'll leave the rest up to this short bit off the WFMU blog.

I've raved about DDAA elsewhere on this blog, and also addressed the fact that several of their best releases were cassette-only. La Famille des Saltimbanques was released in a beautiful custom package by the Italian ADN label in 1984, and is among my personal top three DDAA recordings, along with their masterpiece, the Ronsard LP (1988) and their first full-length album, Action and Japanese Demonstration (1982). DDAA's songs have a relentlessly human quality, an emotional intensity that I find lacking in much of the post-punk avant-garde, having more in common with Can or Amon Düül than with DDAA contemporaries like Nurse With Wound and P16.D4. The two lengthy songs that make up most of Face 2 of this tape are mindbending excursions of plodding percussion and monolithic distorted guitar.

This is certainly one of the more rockist outings for DDAA, heavy on the bass and the screaming guitar. I've chopped this rip up into the songs as listed on the packaging, if you'd rather get sidelong rips or grab it from a different source, WFMU has sidelong rips and this blog has their own rips as well. Quality might be better from them, I haven't checked. Tape's a bit spotty at points on my copy, ravages of age and all (can you believe it's really been 25 years since this came out? so much more interesting than most of what's coming out now)

V-Effect - Stop Those Songs

V-Effect - Stop Those Songs! (1983)

This is my personal rip from my copy, one of those 'this looks neat let me check it on the old demo turntable' thrift store buys. Mutant Sounds posted this about three years ago but took it down because some label said they were going to re-release it. Since they never did (so far as I can tell), here it is again. I'll knock it down when someone links me to a press on forced exposure or wherever.

V-Effect straddle the no-wave and downtown scenes, though I imagine they didn't see it that way. The downtown people probably didn't see it that way either, since Mori is still with that downtown set and none of the people involved with this record seem to have kept an explicit presence within the "downtown scene" (or anywhere else I can find). Background established, this is... well... likely an album unlike anything you've heard before. Somewhere between no-wave and post-punk, free jazz and actual revolutionary sentiment. Call and response, self-taught sax squeal, analog clap pads on mic stands to add to the drummers' repertoire, thoroughly DIY and anti-capitalist.

This is what w-burg hipster bullshit should be right now. Enjoy.



first your feet... then your back... then your mind... then heart attack...

Mandrill - Mandrill Is...

Mandrill - Mandrill Is... (1972)

Wild funk, fucked fusion, acid soul. This record easily places among the most impressive achievements of the era, ranging from Sly-style soul-funk (Ape is High), JBs doling out the hard-edge shit (Git it All), to straight up acid narrative tracks (the eminently samplable Universal Rhythms) and psych ballads (Central Park). Hell, forget Universal Rhythms, the whole album is chock full of great breaks and instrumental compositions worthy of breaking out the old MPC. This record is certainly a production of its' time, but only more amazing for it. Honestly, best suited to headphones and a couple of rips rather than dropping at a party. There's a lot here to enjoy, give it your best attention & enjoy.

I have this LP, but as I recall this particular rip was one I found on a now defunct blog (that one with four different interconnected blogs I can't remember the name of anymore). The quality is roughly equal to my own rips, but starting in the next week or two I'll finally have myself set up once again to rip records. I've got a grip of house singles, a couple of mix records, and a few LPs. Added to that, I've spent the last few days getting my old MP3 collection transferred from my several old hard drives to my new dual 1.5tb external mirror raid setup, so I've got a few hundred tidbits to share. Stay tuned...

CBS Top 100

Nothing new from me tonight, but I wanted to point this out to anyone who follows SRO (especially anyone interested enough to be reading me now after that months-long break). The CBS Top 100 is pretty much the definitive italo/electro/house/etc recc list. If you've noticed the new IFM widget on the side, IFM is what CBS evolved into last year. Four channels of amazing music and shows from some of the best talents in the West Coast of Holland scene (perhaps the best thing going at the moment), 24 hours a day 365 days a year. They didn't do the Top 100 show the last two years due to the switchover to IFM, which is kind of a shame, but there's still three years out there to download. Obviously these aren't my original posts, just strong endorsements.

2005
2006
2007

Graeme Park & Mike Pickering - Hacienda Live mix 08-1989

This is one I've had on rotation for an age, would almost swear I'd posted it up but a cursory review makes it clear that I have the privilege of posting this now, rather than at a time when I had other bits to provide. This is a DAT bootleg of a latter-era Nude party. Mix is top quality, as you would well expect of this legendary party. Even the boot gives a great sound-image of what the party was: whistle brigade is out in full force and captured here.

Park & Pickering - Hacienda pt 1 pt 2 08-89


ARTEFACT - AGIT'POP (1981)

Kenyatta HiFi - Meditation Dub

A set of ten roots dub tracks produced by Winston Riley sometime in the 70s. Horrifically low quality bootleg, just as it should be. Sounds like the record was mastered from another record, in fact. Odd problems with channels, there's at least one very large pop in the groove (I bought it brand new a few years ago and have only played it twice before now) and one track literally restarts in the middle of it. It's so bad this might even be a lathe bootleg, although the effort involved in that seems unlikely.

That said, there's some nice tracks here. At some point I need to sample Glambling Dub. The B-side is better than the A, in my opinion.

Kenyatta HiFi - Meditation Dub (197?)

VA - Han-Ichi Independents

Alright, up today we have one of the gems of my tape collection. It's been posted elsewhere in various forms (actually having trouble figuring out where I found it in the first place, come to think of it), but this rip is from my copy of the original cassette. It remains in raw, full-side v0 mp3 form, since I don't think cutting it up into 'tracks' makes any sense. Have a listen and you'll see what I mean.

This release was a recap/medley of live performances for a 1983 Japanese Anarchist festival. Features bands such as A*MUSIK, Skeleton Crew (Fred Frith/Tom Cora), Remedy Control, and at least one or two noteworthy Japanese-name acts who I can't seem to remember and I'm having a surprisingly difficult time digging up the other blogs that have posted this in the past (I BELIEVE one of them is Zuno Keisatsu but I can't read Japanese at all). If anyone wants to translate the cover in the comments, there's a larger copy of the scan in the file. Anyway, I'm hoping to start varying up the posts from my increasingly regular dance single rips, so look for more like this in the future. Enjoy.

VA - Han-Ichi Independents (1983)

The Passage - Degenerates

Second LP of the night, highly literate english synth-pop from The Passage. First track is one of my favorites of the genre, 'XOYO' is a paean to gender & sexual equality and features some of the lushest synth work I've ever heard. That synth work carries on through the rest of the album, and should strike a chord with both minimal synth fans and fans of more grandiose works (Schulze, for example, or the various albums I've posted in the past). 'Fleck', for example, is a mean little song with a couple of aggro little monosynth basslines, while '(Ourselves)' is a bit like Vangelis-gone-synthpop. Punky up-tempo synth lines and intelligent lyrics found here in spades. Enjoy.

The Passage - Degenerates (1982)

Merzbow - Pornoise

I think this is in the Merzbox but here's my copy of the 5 C60 book set of Merzbow's epic 1984 masterpiece Pornoise. You can still get this from RRR, runs $25 and you should buy it because RRRon is a great guy and deserves your money for continuing to provide not only this but so many other amazing releases (like: a ton of United Diaries cassettes, a book set of the absolutely necessary Rising from the Red Sand comp series, cdrs of p16.d4, etc). Here in five parts, ripped in utterly unnecessary v0, is five hours of cassette noise from the master himself during (imo) his best period. I've got a few other things I might post tonight but who knows what I'll get uploaded.

Personal favorite side is #9, A-side of the last cassette, "Toy 69". Rhythmic noise blasts, either from an overdriven drum machine or a machine gun on a tape loop, a lot of freaked out shortwave & synth noise and a woman being tortured to top it all off. If you haven't got an RS account, get that one.

done in single tape zips, open 'em all to a folder.



A Penis Art Is Microphone
B Loop Fuck / Obituary
C Night Noise White
D New Karhma
E Neon Swarm
F International Velvet
G Dynamite Don Don
H De-Filement Of His Nubile Young Wife
I Toy 69
J UFO Vs British Army

Musicworks 23 - Music of the Inuit

I'm back! Not set up for vinyl rips yet so I'll be doing some cassettes from the stack. Still only about half unpacked, need to toss some things too and gotta ship out a ton of bits of equipment I unloaded on ebay.

Today's rip is one I'd been meaning to do for a while. Sorry I haven't got a proper scan, I'll try to get things properly set up by next week.



MUSICWORKS 23 - Music of the Inuit (1983)

From the j-card:

MUSICWORKS, 1087 Queen Street West,
Toronto, Canada, M6J 1H3 (416) 533-0192

Compiled by Tina Pearson and John Oswald.
Edited and Manufactured by John Oswald.

ⓒ UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION OF THIS MATERIAL IS PROBABLY INEVITABLE.

SIDE A

• FM and Shortwave Radio of the North, 1982, from the collection of Marvin Green.
  Includes excerpt of a hymn sung by Joase and Susie Onalik.
  
• Donald Suluk speaking at Inuktitut Music Workshop.*
  Donald and Alice Suluk sing Once in Awhile (Pisiq)
  Courtesy Canadian Ethnology Service
  
• Katajaiit : Alice Alasuak and Nellie Nunguak from Povungnituk, Quebec. *
  
• Katajaiit : Timanginak Petalaussie and Haunak Mikkigak from Cape Dorset, Northwest Territories.*
  
• Canti Illuminati 1982 (LP Excerpt) by Alvin Curran. Shiphorns, A.C.'s voice and synthesizer. (FORE 80/SEVEN, Italy) cross fade to....
  
• Aerosons, 1982 (opening section) by Leo Küpper, computer and vocal synthesis. From Music Gallery's Electronic Music Festival concert.
  
• Young Love from In Vitro, 1978. Tina Pearson, with Paul Hodge, clarinet.
  

SIDE B

• more FM and Shortwave Radio of the North 1982.
  
• Aftersounds, Gordon Monahan's illustration for Faraway Sounds. 1983
  
• Kissing Jesus In the Dark (excerpt) 1981, by Miguel Frasconi and John Oswald.
  
• Inflexions Vocales, 1982, (ending) by Leo Küpper. Anna Maria Keiffer, mezzo-soprano, Leo Küpper, computer and vocal synthesis.
  
• Ur Sonate, 1922-32 by Kurt Schwitters. Excerpt from Christopher Butterfield's performance at Mercer Union, Toronto, 1982.
  
• Amazing Grace in Inuktitut sing and played by the participants in the Inuktitut Music Workshop: Raddi Kuitchak (song), Frank Cockney (fiddle), Steve Kikoak (guitar) from Tuktoyaktuk, NWT. Donald Suluk (song & drum), Alice Suluk (song and drum), Charlie Panaguniak (song and guitar) from Eskimo Point, NWT. Emile Immaroitok (song and drum), Michael Qupak (song and drum), from Igloolik, NWT. Johnny Keeyootuk (accordian), from Broughton Island, NWT. Norman Ichaluktuk (song and guitar, Susie Onalik (song) from Frobisher Bay, NWT. Charlie Adams (song and guitar) from Baker Lake, NWT. Nellie Nunguak and Alasie Alasuak (throatsong) from Povungnituk, Quebec. Timanginak Petalaussie and Haunak Mikkigak (throatsong) Elelu Etedlui (guitar) from Cape Dorset, NWT. Joase and Sue Onalik (song and guitar) from Makkovik, Labrador.

* Inuktitut Music Workshop, Igloolik, NWT, 1982.
Recordings by Marvin Green

Connecting voices are Inuit radio announcer, Anne Skinner and Leo Küpper.

You may still be able to pick up a copy here, I didn't get mine there though so I can't vouch for them.

enjoy.

Turning Shrines - Cinnabar & Porcelain

Turning Shrines - Cinnabar & Porcelain (1988)

Turning Shrines was the name of Fred Giannelli's home recording experiments up until he joined Psychic TV. The album contains three songs and four tracks (one of which is side-long) of sampler experimentation. The sampler stuff isn't of much interest, coming off like a very low rent tape collage (which, twenty years on, we now know to be what it always sounds like anytime someone without much idea what he's doing sits down behind a sampler). Forgiven of course because sampler use hadn't been much refined by that early date and he clearly found his footing in very little time. The proper songs are a bit more interesting. Are You Experienced? was redone as an acid single with Carese P-Orridge's vocals to good effect. The version here is an early 4-track instrumental. Mystification and Iron Nights are both good-if-a-bit-amateurish sequenced synth tracks, great inspiration to me in my own amateurish sequencing attempts. I'd guess this is all FM synth and sampler, but there could be an analog in there somewhere. Wish I had access to his sample library from the time.

Vincent/Lang - Nights of Babylon

Vincent/Lang - Nights of Babylon

g+ to vg- quality imo

found this in a bin at the vortex in w-burg, will try to do a better rip sometime on request. enjoy

post.

UPDATED 6/15/11 with mediafire DL