• You will never be apart | Breyer P-Orridge

2007-11-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

"Lady Jaye died suddenly on Tuesday 9th October 2007 at home in Brooklyn, New York from a previously undiagnosed heart condition which is thought to have been connected with her long-term battle with stomach cancer. Lady Jaye collapsed and died in the arms of her heartbroken "other half" Genesis Breyer P-Orridge."
Gen, you are the man I've seen only once and pray for... No more words...

Palm Coast | Deserved Week

2007-06-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

Back to work on Thuersday. Two weeks of vacation passed... passed hardly. Cause this time I spent my annual leave in ruins, reconstructing our kitchen. 24 hours (in sum) spent in IKEA. A day or so – on construction market. And the rest of time – separeted in one room stuffed with kitchenware, used and freshly wrapped, with the door looked from the outside by the deliberate builders. And now it just would be fatal to push me into the office. So, as far as I got my visa (it was approved but I still have no documents in hands) I'm going to prolong my leave - detination - Florida, Palm Coast... Scarcely I will find any SH record stores in there and for sure I will not be able to ripp any of the items bought, if... so, no profit for the bloggers... but at least I'll spend a few days in another dimension.

SY | 26 years... and they are still the same

2007-06-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

"Yeah, I take my baby down to the corner and I buy him a soda-pop"
Sonic Youth "Washing Machine" ' 1995

Were on their gig yesterday night... "Good to be back here in Moscow" - Thurston Joseph Moore said. They really were here in 1989... 18 years ago... All around 50 years old post-post-post-punks were jumping, loosing their jacks, playing with pedals and amps. I am 27 years old and 44.(4) % of my life I've been waiting for this night. Now it's gone... Do not know what to say.

Chris & Cosey | Yet Incomplete Discography

2007-06-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

Sounds like a manifesto "Trust, Obsession, Action". Three more pieces by Chris & Cosey.

Minimal Synth, Avant Pop, Industrial...

↑ Download C+C "Action" | LD Records ' 1987 (63.8 Mb) This is a compilation from various live performances. LP ripp. Also available on CD.
↑ Download C+C "Obsession" | Play It Again Sam ' 1987 (29.1 Mb) Pre-released by Nettwerk as 12" as well, with two tracks cut off: "Obsession (Short Mix)" and "Metroeme".
↑ Download C+C "Trust" | Nettwerk ' 1989 (69 Mb) I own this Canadian LP, but "Trust" was also reissued the same year on SPV Recordings and PIAS. CD versions from PIAS and Nettwerk are also available.
(All sleeves are embeded, you can see these in iTunes artwork section).

• No reason to retype all sleeves info you can easily find some on Discogs.

PS. As for this post and for the previous one containing C+C the pics had been taken from Chris Carter's stream on Flickr.

Even Dwarfs Sarted Small | Auch Zwerge haben klein Angefangen

2007-06-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

Sleepless for 24 hours by now. Accidentely hit on a clip from Werner Herzog's "Auch Zwerge haben klein Angefangen" ("Even Dwarfs Sarted Small") ' 1969. Lay this out together with work of one of my favorite photogrpaphers Roger Ballen. The image above is a piece from "Shadow Chamber" series I've once managed to pull into "a" magazine although it's too bizzare to be printed in non-art-observing periodical. One cigarette and go to bed.

Bring Philip | Major Record Company Records

2007-06-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

One more thing from Shanghai. I promised myself not to re-upload gemms I'd downloaded from any other site and before this upload I'd kept my promise. But this EP sounds so similar to the previous post subject and was in such a heavy rotation duiring our stay in China that I think... I'll Bring Philip "Endoscopy" ' 1983. Previously posted by Mutant Sounds and described in full caliber by Vdoandsound.
"This early 80's Aussie outfit specialized in colorful, high strung and art damaged new wave of an immediately gripping sort, with a highly studio crafted sound featuring lots of startling stereo imaging (the sort of thing that a certain crowd likes to refer to as "zolo"), but also featuring, it must be said, a strong akin to Nothing To Fear-era Oingo Boingo, right down to the highly Elfman-esque vocalese. If thats a sphincter clenching prospect for you, avert your ears, though it's a fully happy proposition in these quarters..."
(The sleeves are not embeded as you easily can have a look at these on MS... on the same reason there is no sleeve info in the post but MS has taken the close up of the envelope, so the info is also available there in jpeg format).

A maximal synth record (as well). Damaged new wave. The Gender Solution Dance.

↑ Download Bring Philip "Endoscopy" (34.7 Mb)

Gary Allen | 19NINETY9

2007-06-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

No uptades for a while... We (me and my wife) have travelled to Shanghai. Now we are back with a whole bunch of impressions these are slightly vapouring from day to day - work, ordinary needs, unusual heat (yesterday it was 43 degrees centigrade here in Moscow) help to make these transparent faster. So, in attempt to "keep it real" I post the Shanghai OST... no playlist, no miscellaneous assemblage of pop masterpieces of all the times - just an EP that had pierced through my head in it's "stereo" manner during our stay in China. A while ago Vdoandsound (Eric Lumbleau) wrote on Mutant Sounds: "Damaged electropop-into-mutant-funk curiosity, sounding not remotely like anything else I've ever heard." Same shit here, Eric...
Gary Allen "In White America" (This Hollow Valley Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kindom), 12''. Released on 19NINETY9 Records in 1982.
(The sleeves are not embeded, as I do not possess this release at the moment but you easily can have a look at it on MS... on the same reason there is no sleeve info in the post but MS has taken the close up of the envelope, so the info is also available there in jpeg format).

A minimal synth record? No fucking way, this is a maximal synth record. Overflowing sound pastry. An obscure pop masterpiece... "He lost control again".

↑ Download Gary Allen's "In White America" (This Hollow Valley Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kindom) (26.5 Mb)

PS. Just wanted to ask if anyone hit on this page has got any other Allen releases, be so kind to share. Thanks.

Chris & Cosey | Incomplete Discography

2007-04-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

Genesis P-Orridge: “As to the Cosey being with Chris situation beinganything to do with TG splitting up. Absolutely not. Cosey and Chris had been sleeping together since we all met. Often in the bed with me. Yes I was very heartbroken initially to see her leave. But mainly because she felt compelled to do it secretly, behind my back, not in a mature, open way. The deception made me distraught. By 1981 I was married and very happy with everything except TG." ' Taken from the footnotes to "PostPunk 1978-1984" by Simon Reynolds.

From the very begining... Chris & Cosey

Minimal Synth, Avant Pop, Industrial...

↑ Download C+C "Heartbeat" | Rough Trade ' 1981 (78.6 Mb)
↑ Download C+C "Trance" | Rough Trade ' 1982 (46 Mb)
↑ Download C+C "Songs Of Love & Lust" | Rough Trade ' 1984 (76.7 Mb)
↑ Download C+C "Technø Primitiv" | Rough Trade ' 1985 (86 Mb)
↑ Download C+C "Take Five" | Nettwerk ' 1987 (68.1 Mb) I own this Canadian LP, but "Take Five" was also reissued on LD Records (a defunct sublabel of PIAS) in 1987.
↑ Download C+C "Rise" | Nettwerk ' 1989 (37.9 Mb) Again, one from my collection is Canadian but actually the release was twice repulished - by SPV Recordings and PIAS, both dated 1989.
(All sleeves are embeded, you can see these in iTunes artwork section).

• No reason to retype all sleeves info you can easily find some on Discogs.

XTC "3D EP" | Virgin

2007-04-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

First of all, this child above is completely OK... For wonderers, there is the whole story at end of the post.

"3D EP" was the band's vinyl debut. It was released on October 7, 1977 on Virgin Records. It was 12" single and was initially proposed with a 7" single (known as the 3D Single). However instead of issuing both Virgin recalled the 7" at the very last minute (however a few singles did escape). The singles that do exist have been known to fetch upwards of $1,000. ' Taken from Wikipedia.
In three songs the sound of XTC is firmly established. “Science Friction” promotes equally the skills of all the band members. Andy attacks his guitar to produce the most jagged mixture of ska and chord riffs anywhere west of early Gang Of Four. Terry maintains a steady fast pop dance beat, intentionally not interacting with Andy’s ska guitar pulls. Colin plays bouncy and creative bass guitar while Barry creates a twisted-carnival fun-house atmosphere with his farfisa organ. The stop & go rhythms defy you to dance and then make you spastically trip over yourself when you do. Mostly there’s Andy’s voice - puns and wit delivered in a voice that prefers to stutter and hiccup the words. If you listen to just Andy Partridge on the first few albums you’ll hear the most under-rated singer/guitarist in the history of new wave. His playing is jagged, intense, pissed and often discordant with the rest of the song, while his voice is an acrobatic marvel. “She’s So Square” is a more straight-forward pop song while “Dance Band” represents the other side of early XTC - slow, robotic dance anthems for manipulated and alienated youth (a theme expressed often in early new wave). ' Taken from Old Punks.

• The sleeve info:
1977 Virgin Records
Andy Partridge - Guitar, Vocals
Colin Moulding - Bass, Vocals
Terry Chambers - Drums, metal door of microphone cupboard, filing cabinet
Barry Andrews - Keyboards, Vocals
Produced and engineered by John Leckie
Tapes 'worked' by Haydn Bendall
Vans and Smooth Talk Steve 'Fullblast' Warren, Jeff 'money' Fitches
Recorded and mixed at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London NW8
Printed in England by Robor Limited
(All sleeves are usually embeded, you can see these in iTunes artwork section).

Bizarro pop, early new wave.

↑ Download XTC "3D EP" (18 Mb)

PS. "Pic story". Serching for some pic based on any correspods to that 12'' name or sleeve design to illustrate this post I've hit on that photo of Laura from Portland, Oregon. Here is the story: "I really envied my friends with freckles. So one fine day I got a brown felt-tip marker and gave myself freckles. It did not work very well". The corresponds are dubious - felt-tip markers were also used on 3D LP cover and here is E.T. printed on the T-shirt, well, that's almost "EP"=)...

Siglo XX "View of the Weird" | PIAS

2007-04-14T02:03:00.000-07:00

"Twentieth Century" is a literal translation of "Siglo XX" from Spanish. But "Siglo Iks Iks" or "Siglo Veinte" also terms an anarchist movement during the Spanish civil war...
Siglo XX was a tin mine in Bolivia. Along with the Catavi mine, it was part of a mining complex in the area. The mine was nationalized following the "Bolivian National Revolution" of 1952, when the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement and its allies overthrew the military junta. Siglo XX and other mines were placed under the control of a new state agency, the Corporación Minera de Bolivia. On June 24, 1967, government troops and a new military junta marched on the mine and committed the largest massacre of workers in Bolivian history. In 1987, as part of an economic restructuring deal with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the government shut down production at Siglo XX.
Well, what the hell was this historical excursus done for?..
The band members were from Genk, a depressed industrial city located in the Belgian province of Limburg. A peaceful village with a population of 2,000 by the begining of the twentieth century and the biggest city in Limburg, peaking to a population of 70 000 by the middle of the twentieth century, after a large quantity of coal was found there in 1901. In 1966 the coal pit of Zwartberg closed down and... by the end of the 1980s, the two remaining coal mines of Winterslag and Waterschei were also closed. 70 000 of unoccupied, beside these who managed to employ the Ford Motor Company factory... a painful present of poverty.
See the link?..

As Siglo XX, Antonio Palermo, Dirk Chauvaux, Erik Dries and Klaas Hoogerwaard started with their release of a single without a record company "The naked and the death" in 1980. The gloomy dark-new-wave sound of that 7" the group were to repeat all through the eighties. A sound that - much to their disgust - has been described by the critics as "cold wave".
"View Of The Weird" is a 12'' EP (EP, I suppose), recorded and released 1987 on Play It Again Sam (PIAS). For tracking down, here is the quick access discography.

• The sleeve info:
BIAS 73
"View Of The Weird" Produced by Luc Tijtgat and Siglo XX
"Silent Crowd" Produced by Ludo Camberlin and Siglo XX
All songs and instruments by Siglo XX
Coverdesign by Tone Loenders
(All sleeves are usually embeded, you can see these in iTunes artwork section).

So called "cold wave".

↑ Download Siglo XX "View of the Weird" (20.5 Mb)

Au Pairs | Kamera Records

2007-04-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

The Au Pairs formed in Birmingham in 1979, part of what became known as the "second wave" of punk, or simply "post-punk". The Au Pairs was fronted by Lesley Woods (on vocals and guitar (who was at the time one of only a handful of "out" lesbians in the whole punk music scene). The other members included guitarist Paul Foad, bassist Jane Munro and drummer Pete Hammond.
The Au Pairs were able to use their mixed line-up to highlight gender clash in their songs, with lyrics celebrating female sexuality and power stuggles between the sexes in relationships; they also took obligatory swipes at the conservative political climate sweeping England after Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister. The group released two studio albums, "Playing with a Different Sex" in 1981 and "Sense and Sensuality" in 1982. Interestingly, after their bootleg "Equal But Different" was released in 1983, an official version of the same concert was released as the LP "Live in Berlin" (with two less songs than on bootleg, however... but I've got that one - give it a comment and I know there is someone to upload it for). Their last release was the BBC Sessions, also released in 1983. The group disbanded later that year. In the late 1980's Lesley formed a band called The Darlings with Ellyot Dragon and Debbie Smith (of Curve, Echobelly and Snowpony), who later went on to form Sister George. But then left the music industry. She now works as a lawyer. Guitarist, Paul Foad remains an active musician, playing and teaching guitar in and around Birmingham. Bass player Jane Munro works as an alternative therapist in Birmingham. Pete Hammond also remains an active musician and teaches percussion in Birmingham.

So, "Sense and Sensuality" released by Kamera Records in 1982 is their second and actually the last album. Characteristics: Munro's heavy and prominent bass lines accented by two choppy guitars, "mid-hi" new wav-ish drums. "Sense and Sensuality" songs counstructions are so brittle and dissonant, the atonal bass and guitars are trying to shake the melodic grid holding it still at the same time. The album is a solid piece, 10 tracks, absolutely different melodically, but all the ingredient listed above draw the LP scheme so precisely that in case you like a track, you'll like the whole piece.
In case you would like to track down this release, there are still several items used on ebay (not that rare actually), but "Sense And Sensuality" was twice reissued on CD, first on RMP Records in 1993 and then on Castle Communications (a subsidiary of Sanctuary Records) in 2002 (remixed and digitally remastered from the original master tapes).

• The sleeve info:
KAM 010
Lesley Woods - guitar, vocal
Jane Munro - bass
Paul Foad - guitar, vocal, cello
Pete Hammond - drums
Plus: Chris Lee - trumpet, Olly Moore - sax, Keith Knowles - synthesizers, John Suddick - synthesizers, Milt Hampton - vibraphone.
Cut by John Dent (Sound Clinic)
Recorded at Jacobs Studios
April-June 1982
Engineered by Terry Barham and Ken Thomas
Produced by Au Pairs and Martin Culverwell
Published by Ideal Home Noise
Sleeve adapted by Martin Culverwell from a design by El Lissitzky
Artwork by Citizen Bank
Printed by Centre Print
Distributed by Stage One.
(All sleeves are usually embeded, you can see these in iTunes artwork section).

A well-known resouce, I suppose, but... take a look at them young and furious at New wave photos.

Post-punk or new wave, whatever - true masterpiece.

↑ Download Au Pairs "Sense And Sensuality" (60.2 Mb)

Martha and the Muffins | Dinsong (Virgin)

2007-03-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Here is Martha and the Muffins – a new wave band out of Toronto that got started in 1977 and "Metro Music" - their debute LP dated 1980.
In fact, there were actually two Marthas in the group: Martha Ladly (vocals) and Martha Johnson (vocals and keyboards), who was later one half of the duo M+M.
Mark Gane: "In May of 1977 as a young visual artist/experimental musician, I was invited by fellow Ontario College of Art student David Millar to start a band with him. The punk/new wave scene had been going for a few years and its ironic and distainful stance against the blandness of 1970's mainstream culture was immediately appealing. Suddenly, everyone around seemed to be starting a band or was in one already."... cut... "We were signed to Dindisc/Virgin Records in London and by the summer of 1979 we were recording our first album, "Metro Music", at The Manor, just outside of Oxford, England" – as told by Martha... cut... "Unfortunately, as with many young groups, the pressures of success and fame brought on differences of opinion, personality clashes and ultimately the erosion of band unity. It was very difficult for those six people to weather the changes that came with the success in 1980 of Metro Music" and the world-wide top ten hit "Echo Beach". Here the history of Martha and the Muffins ends and the M+M's one starts...

PS. From "Today's Parent" (June/July) – review by John Hoffman: "What happens to pop stars when they have kids? Some, like Martha Johnson, try their hand at children's music. Many have taken this shot, and most miss the mark- Not Johnson. She and partner (family as well as musical) Mark Gane were collaborators in Martha and the Muffins (subsequently known as M+M), a Canadian group that enjoyed some international success in the '80s. Songs from the Treehouse, her first album for children, is pretty much what you might expect from the folks who brought us Echo Beach. The music is simple and melodic with a clean, modern sound that, fortunately, resists the temptation to overindulge in technology, even though it's synth-based. One highlight is My Little Sister, a catchy little a cappella tune about learning to talk, made all the more appealing by the recorded babblings of Johnson's daughter Eve. Overall, it's a fresh new sound in children's music, and that's quite an accomplishment these days in a genre where few stones have been left unturned".=)

Here are some links all these citations has been taken from: Wikipedia on Martha and the Muffins, Women of 1970's Punk, A site dedicated to the musical artistry of Mark Gane and Martha Johnson OKA (once known as) Martha and the Muffins AKA M+M, Russian web page on Martha and the Muffin – fuck, is that what I see?

• The sleeve info:
Carl Finkle – bass
Mark Gane – guitar, synthi A
Tim Gane – drums
Andy Haas – sax
Martha Johnson – vocals, keyboards
Martha Ladly – vocals, keyboards, trombone.

Produced by Mike Howlett
Sequencer on "Terminal Twilight" - Mike Howlett
Engeneered by Richard Manwarning
Assistant Engeneer - Lawrence Diana (ADVISION)
Tape op. - Paul Menpes
Recorded at The Manor, August 1979
Mixed at The Manor and ADVISION, London
1980 Dindisc, Dinsong Limited.

Sleeve based on map 30M/11 of the National Topographic System with kind permission of DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, MINES AND RESOUCES, OTTAWA, CANADA. (All sleeves are usually embeded, you can see these in iTunes artwork section).

Canadian Musician 81: "The English used to call them pop. Now they don't know what to call them. We just call them Martha and the Muffins". Absolutely new wav-ish piece.

↑ Download Martha and the Muffins "Metro Music" (63.9 Mb)

Kevin Dunn and the Regiment of Women | Armageddon Records

2007-03-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

Third – I still count gems of mine. And the first LP I bought... Kevin Dunn and the Regiment of Women "The Judgement of Paris", Armageddon Records 1981, Atanta. Of course, I thought it was Kevin Drumm... was in such a nervous tremor, visiting the vintage LP store near by for the first time=). Thanks God, it was Dunn... First a Fan, then sole leader (and member) of a Regiment of Women.
"The Judgement of Paris" is a striking modern-music pop album by this onetime member of Atlanta's great pioneering independent band, the Fans. In reality a solo album, with lots of synths and guitars, Dunn mixes technical flash with semi-demented musical ideas, camouflaging nutty lyrics in engaging melodies and closing out the proceedings with an instrumental "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," complete with devolving rhythms." [Ira Robbins, whoever she is.]
What's so special about this release: the number of rythmic and melodical changes per time unit, the density of musical ideas for such a monotonic and moodish direction as new wave. These adroit pop tunes are made of absolutely "non-pop" stuff... it's amaizing. For exqmple, the A-Side "Creep" is so "dense", "CPM" enough and to spare, the "non-pop" effected guitar solo is absolutely unique... Listen to the drum machines – "nonconvetional" would not be exact enough. It's TR606... I think... or TR 808... programmed so uncommon, fast and almost falling out of step...well, it can take time to compose a full description, but there is no sence. Sometimes you got to just let the record speak for itself.
Get this gem, dig for more on Dunn... buy this LP if you can, write him a message on "His"Space...
Just wanted to mention, for further search... a great resource, one page only, on Atlanta area new wave bands.
If onyone has any other releases from Dunn's RW or Fans ripped or has been in time with downloading "Nadine" (his first solo 12'' containing a cover of the Chuck Berry classic and a song about the Soviet era underground comic character Oktyabrina) from CRUD CRUD, please, let me know.
• The sleeve info:
ARM3 Kevin Dunn and the Regiment of Women "The Judgement of Paris" (12")
Kevin Dunn and the Regiment of Women are: Kevin Dunn, Debbie Heidel, Lenore Thompson, Terry Coburn
Produced by Kevin Dunn except Tootsie 1produced by Bruce Baxter and Kevin Dunn
Engineered by Bruce Baxter/Recorded at Channel One, atlanta, 3.12.80 to 13.3.81
Executive Production: Danny Beard
Cover by Sean Bourne
Thanks to: Alfredo Villar for consultation on bass and backing vocal arrangements; Clark Musical Instrument Co. for sundry essential assists; etc., etc....

Once again, absolutely new wav-ish piece... unusual up to the limit.

↑ Download Kevin Dunn and the Regiment of Women "The Judgement of Paris" (63.9 Mb)

The Sensational Creed | Beggars Banquet

2007-03-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

The Sensational Creed is kinda band-phantom for me... absolute info absence. I mailed to Mutant Sounds and left comments on several blogs more in attemp to get any info that would be somewhat more than just niggardly cat description. Well, anyway, The Sensational Creed "Nocturnal Operations" is a masterpiece... and nevertheless I cannot inform you in a worthy manner, this LP is the one I would like to share more than any. Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin. In 1977, spurred by the prevailing DIY aesthetics of the British punk rock movement (then at the height of its popularity), they decided to join the fray as an independent label and release records under the Beggars Banquet imprint. Two daughter labels, Situation Two and 4AD Records, were launched to release artists like The Pixies, Cocteau Twins and others. Situation Two was the label to press the first The Sensational Creed 7'' under the same name three years later their 12'' "Nocturnal Operations" was pressed on Beggars Banquet. This ripp was done from the 1984 BEG 12''.
• The sleeve info:
BEG 125 T Sensational Creed "Nocturnal Operations" (12")
All titles written by Sensational Creed
"Nocturnal Operations": Christine Beveridge* – Voice; Steve Reid – Voice, Instruments; Mixed and Produced by M. Hedges, B. MacKenzie and S. Reid
"Down Pericomoscopes": S. Reid – Voice, Instruments; S. Mason – Synthesisers; B. MacKenzie – Tubular Bells; Mixed and Produced by M. Hedges, B. MacKenzie and S. Reid
"The Voyage of the Titanic": S. Reid – Instruments; Howard Hughes – Grand Piano, Emulator; Jamie McCormack – Euphonium; Mixed and Produced by S. Reid
* Christine Beveridge, Billy MacKenzie's friend from Dundee, Scotland. Christine and Billy were old friends. They met in The Crypt, Billy's clothes shop in Dundee, where Christine was a "regular costumer". Later, she had moved in London with Steve Reid, and that's where she met Billy again in 1981. According to the Glamour Chase (Maverick Life of Billy MacKenzie (Paperback)) biography, she moaned about being forced to sing in that breathy style by Billy.
Any additional info would be appreciated. No sleeve attached, sorry... problems with a scanner (I do not paste the covers into the post body but these should be embedded and seen in iTunes as "Artwork"... not this time*).
*Upadated, now with the front and back of the sleeve scans embeded.

"So, brilliant, but obviously too strange for that time, to be a hit"... tricky avant-pop with, shaking vocals by Reid, breathy one from Beveridge... really twisted bass lines are the well produced supplement for the simple drum lines structure... new wave masterpiece... it's outstanding.

↑ Download The Sensational Creed "Nocturnal Operations" (29.8 Mb)

Tuning Shrines | Temple Records

2007-03-18T08:15:00.001-07:00

As my survey of the wast "hauntology" array here comes the first (awaited and thoroughly prepared...) ripp from the orginal UK print dated 1984. Temple Records curated by Genesis P-Orridge and the T.O.P.Y (World Network System) are the units to thank for that homogenic piece (and my Maranz 6300+Logic Express as well=)).
• The sleeve info:
TOPY 007 Turning Shrines "Face Of Another" (12")
All titles written by TURNING SHRINES
Produced by FRED (*) for Temple Records 1984
Recorded at EUPHORIA, Boston, USA
Mastered by Steve Angel at UTOPIA, UK
Collage by ASAKO
Editor in Chief: Genesis P-Orridge
A HYPERDELIC RELEASE
* Fred Giannelli - a member of the band. As far as I see, he was a drum programmer, sound engeneer - and this massive reverbs is a result of his FX presets=). "Fred has been producing some of the finest techno and minimal tracks as the Kooky Scientist, as well as his working with Richie Hawtin and Dan Bell on the Spawn project for Plus 8 after his early recordings with The Turning Shrines and his work on the new PTV albums". You can read irrefragable (more or less) interview with Giannelli here.
Sorry, but there is no file on two other members of the Turning Shrines: Asako and Neal... no surnames on the envelope, no any scarps on Google... anyone can help?

Strongly reverbrated guitar noises and slides, deep and muted bass lines, drum machines simple "newwavish" patterns – a minimal synth piece curated by Gen P.

↑ Download Turning Shrines "Face of Another" (31.7 Mb)

POST POST

2007-02-24T11:08:00.000-08:00

"Robespierre's Velvet Basement", "Roping Wild Bears", "Vibing Up The Senile Man", etc. Listed are the strange letters in double commas from the "senile" LP sleeves I've found in the basement of the near by building. There is a small room... or a big one... difficult to estimate the space cause the space is stuffed with 100 000 LPs – pasteboard boxes jauntily marked as... "POST POST", for example... dusty secondhand with 7.64 USD for the new wave "no-name" and up to 76.4 USD for an item from Woebot list.
Being inspired by Mutant Sounds music sharing activity (and depressed a bit at the same time... however it's the subject for the separate discussion) I've decided to share a piece of content bought lately in this small store in the middle of nowhere. Although I am too busy at the moment (no time to update my "four-days" podcast), I will try to place several gems as soon as I can... look for updates...

Vert | Update

2007-01-31T14:01:00.000-08:00

In November I reviewed Vert's "Some Beans and an Octopus". Finishing and pushig "PUBLISH" I left the line "In awiting mode for the Adam's playlist..." leaving the post in "to be continued" mode. It' s February. And I've got an e-mail from Adam.

From: mail@v-e-r-t.com
Subject: Re:
Sorry that it's taken so long, I've got problems with my elbows at the moment, too much computing and piano playing, so I can't really type any more.
Anyway, here's a list of my top five track from last year which I compiled for a radio station here in Cologne:
• Klaxons, "Gravity's rainbow"
• Spank Rock, "Rick Rubin"
• Tom Ze, "Ave Dor Maria"
• TV on the Radio, " Wolf like me"
• Tom Waits, "Lucinda"
Thanks for listening,
Adam

BBC Radiophonic Workshop | II

2007-01-19T12:19:00.000-08:00

Next level. "Radiophonic Workshop" – no cognizance? Read the previous post.
Reading some scarps of Ekkehard Ehlers' interiview (cannot clearly recall the source) I've found a line on matter of two questions: "What?" and "How?", both are endlessly relevant for a listener (by the way, in that interview, Ehlers rejects the influence of "How?" question on his own experiments... a slyness, I think). In opposition, isn't it bewitching to look at Thomas Brinkmann cutting and scratching 12'' with a knife (a short video) for his "Klick" or the Staalplaat YOKOMONO 10 vinyl killers - toy car record players, each customised with its own fm transmitter when the sound comes through a set of radios receiveing the signals transmitted by the toy VWs. It's not the problem of spectacularity. Here the process becomes a part of the final result (a short video).
So this post is an extract of the Radiophonic's "tech" history, the history of the process. Cause when in 1959 you're asked to produce "...out of existance..." (citation from Delia Derbyshire (will not link her name – the next post theme!) interview from BBC Radio Scotland's Orginal Masters in 1997) sound, you have no choice but to fail or to become a pioneer.
There are few "tech" facts listed below in no particular order which impressed me while familiarize with BBC Radiophonic Workshop in pre-synth era.

"In 1958, the Radiophonic Workshop began by providing musique concrète material for radio. Using a wide range of equipment, often obtained from other departments, it soon acquired an enviable reputation for the sounds and music that it created for radio and television". © Ray White 2001 (and all texts in quotation marks further).

| M I X I N G
"Sound mixing was provided by an outside broadcast mixer, originally used during the war. Jeff Bottom of Radio Projects once recited a tale concerning a mixer that had been installed in the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral for Winston Churchill’s funeral. For some inexplicable reason, it managed to fall down from the BBC’s commentary position onto the aisle of the church, but was almost unscathed, apart from the glass in its meters and the valves. However, to the credit of BBC engineering, but not to those in the vicinity, it left an embarrassing dent in the floor!"
| T A P E M A C H I N E S
"In 1962, the Workshop received six Philips tape machines. These were the first high-quality machines to be used in the Workshop. All incorporated three tape heads (erase, record and replay), allowing the user to check the quality ‘off tape’ whilst creating a recording. Although only considered ‘semi-professional’, they were absolutely perfect for fast editing. A standard BBC editing block and a splicing tape dispenser was fitted to each machine. Single-sided razor blades were used for editing: this was a safety nightmare, requiring ‘razor-blade’ boxes that would ensure their safe disposal. In front of the tape deck was a BBC-designed panel containing switches that could prime the ‘remote start’ facility provided on the mixing desk. This allowed the machine to be started in playback or record, with green and red indicators on the desk showing the setting. Three of these machines were arranged in a line, allowing a tape to pass through the heads of every machine. A special remote control box allowed one or more machines to be started by means of a single switch. This was an incredibly flexible arrangement, since any of the machines could be in recording mode. The tape could be drawn out as a loop between any pair of machines, or a tape loop could be created that returned from the third machine back to the first. Such a loop was conveniently held at tension by a special spring-loaded ‘loop stand’. This was a modified microphone stand with a sprung arm, the end of which contained a tape guide".
| E F F E C T S
Reverberation "was provided by a small echo room located in the basement of the building. This had bare painted walls, was cold and damp, but had a loudspeaker with an amplifier at one end and a microphone at the other. It featured a sloping ceiling, although the author never really found out whether this was for acoustic reasons or simply a structural necessity. Despite having a reverberation time fixed by the dimensions of the room, the actual sound quality was quite good".
Delay, "discovered first as the delay introduced between the record and replay heads of a tape machine, later been explored running a tape directly from the left hand spool of one tape machine to the right hand spool of another, passing both sets of record and replay heads. By drawing the tape out between two machines on a sprung loop stand (or bottles, if stands weren’t available), the delay on the output from the second machine could be extended. Also, the audio output of the second machine could be carefully mixed back into the input of the first machine, so creating rising and falling ‘waves’ of sound". But still it was impossible to get the delay in range of 1/100 second using the scheme mentioned above. The inquisitive Italian company Binson offered tape echo effects without the hassle of tape. "...Binson Echorec Baby, had a spinning metal drum, surrounded by tape heads that produced multiple delays".
Stretching. "Another device, the Tempophon, was strapped to the side of a tape machine, with the tape passing its spinning replay head. Since the tape speed in relation to this head was set by the Tempophon itself, irrespective of the actual speed, it was possible to vary the pitch without altering the tempo".
Composite effects or processing tricks. "Echo rooms, plates and springs were commonly used. Most echo springs gave awful results, although hitting them could often generate interesting sounds! One popular trick involved copying a tape backwards and adding reverb, then playing it forwards to give a reverse echo. Equalisers, preferably of the "graphic" type, were much in vogue for musique concrète. Passive versions, comprising simply of coils and capacitors, often provided a remarkable degree of quality (Q), enabling dramatic changes to be made to any sound. The mechanical voices were created using a simple ring modulator, consisting of three transformers and a ring of four diodes. An untreated speech signal was connected to the ‘main’ input, with a low frequency (usually upwards of 15 Hz) applied to the ‘carrier’ input. A multiplexer – this specially-constructed device contained of a circle of fixed capacitor vanes, connected to the outputs of the tape recorders. The multiplexer’s output came from a rotating vane, driven by a variable-speed motor. As this turned, each signal was heard in sequence, one sound fading into the next".
| S A M P L I N G
There is no special point in listing the sources of sounds used at the Workshop as such could take "a while". Just wanted to mention an interesting machine, sort of storage – "the BBC’s Programme Effects Generator (PEG) provided ‘spot effects’ for radio drama. This device used a separate tape cartridge for each effect, the tape being pulled out of the cartridge, played and then drawn back in again. A further development of PEG was the Mellotron, a keyboard instrument with cartridges containing sampled instruments".

End. Next level – Delia Derbyshire.

BBC Radiophonic Workshop | I

2007-01-15T14:24:00.000-08:00

"What is the noise supposed to be that precedes the two-o'-clock Television News? It sounds like a nightmare in a railway train!" – F. M. M., Shrewibury (Letter to Radio Times, 10th November 1960).

Two weeks, no line. I've been beating around this theme considering the right direction to approach from, the volume would be enough for the comprehensive observation, start point, adequate end. Finally, feeling myself a senescent and exhausted writer with no word in reserve, I type something masturbating my own interest.
Well, the passage in quotation marks, meant to be an epigraph, is a reaction of the bearer on BBC Radiophonic Workshop activity results. "Radiophonic Workshop? Do they repair radio sets?" – one more reaction of the contemporary. "The trouble with the future is that you never fully know about it until you’ve passed it…" – Roger Limb.
"In 1957, a small group of BBC producers and studio managers began using ‘radiophonic’ techniques to create pioneering music and drama programmes. The process consisted of recording real sounds, such as those created by the human voice, bottles, bells, musical instruments, percussion devices or even boxes of gravel or pebbles. These were then manipulated to produce entirely new material. Tape machines provided reverse playback, speed and pitch changes, or were used to create sound loops, whilst reverberation and equalisation could modify the sound quality. Various elements of the work were edited together using tape-splicing techniques, often note-by-note. This was a time-consuming business, requiring endless skill and patience, but the results were often very impressive. These processes, similar to musique concrète, created or enhanced the atmosphere in a programme, but weren’t considered an ‘art in itself’. The leading light of the group was Daphne Oram (take a look at her Radiophonic archive shooted by Mark Pilkington... she left on January 5, 2003), a studio manager who was also trained in music, together with Desmond Briscoe and Norman Bain.
The BBC, having seen the potential of this new aspect of broadcasting, established a Radiophonic Effects Committee. This decided to set up a Radiophonic Workshop, using outdated equipment from the BBC’s Redundant Plant, as well as £2,000 that was to be spent on additional requirements.
The Workshop was initially established in a large area created within Rooms 13 and 14 of the BBC’s studio complex at Maida Vale."
It will take long tell the whole story, moreover it will consist of further copy-paste of the extraordiary detailed source... Ray White's text.
For those who cannot fix on letters: Alchemists of Sound – BBC' trifling pardon for no credit, no CD, no honored attention neither to the Radiophonics inter vivos, nor to the legacy they had left.
To be continued...

My Noisy Matchbox

2007-01-02T06:47:00.001-08:00

"Taking advantage of this democratisation of recording technology, "My Noisy Matchbox" will offer people from all walks of life a stimulating opportunity to produce an audio snapshot of their lives." Created by Simon James and Curtis James.

Creel Pone and Four Reverbs "PRE-SET"

2006-12-26T15:33:00.000-08:00

The thing was first about Creel Pone, an arcane Reykjavik formation or the one man only, Mr. P.C./C.P - an Icelandic "craftsman"... shady matter. There are some difficulties with placing the deffinition "records" after the label's name, it hardly can be called "label" at all. Creel Pone used to reissue series of LP covers and related packaging items, with everything printed as closely as possible (screenprinting method instead of CMYK process) to exact 5/12 scale including the inserts, label ephemera, booklets. In fact everything but the LP labels and the LP it's self. No sound carrier inside the first editions. "But almost immediately people wanted the missing element so I began including the music inside the sleeve on a CD-Recordable" – Creel Pone. Now each release is a limited fac-similé edition with a silver foil-stamp on the crystal-clear polypropylene compact-disc sleeve. An amaizing fact, the reproductions prime cost is higher than the everage cost they are distributed for. "It's not about money but just a way for pure and great art both in vision and sound" – citation. Found a "touching" discussion, partially dedicated to that mentioned Creel Pone's profit question, can barely believe it's not fake... worth to read.
The "missing element" and, actually, the inspiration subject is "Unheralded Classics of Electronic Music" as embossed on every foil-stamp. 1948–1981 – yes, those dates on the foil-seal as well... October 5th, 1948, the ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française) broadcast Pierre Schaeffer's "Cinq Etudes de Bruits" – hailed by many as the birthdate of musique concrète and subsequently electronic music composition as we know it. Explaining the "cutoff" of 1981 let's just say that 1981 is exactly half-way between the launch of the Fairlight CMI(Computer Musical Instrument ($25,000, 16kbs... just a note) in 1979 and the Yamaha DX7, featured a whole new type of synthesis called FM (Frequency Modulation), in 1983 – both synonymous with the onset of the "digital" era... or possibly this margin date was chosen owing to E-mu's Fairlight inspired E-mulator, 1981, a sampling keyboard by Dave Rossum and Scott Wedge.
Since I've written so many letters as regards Creel Pone and it's subject of exploration, you might have understoond – I've adopted this theme for my own research... and promise to inform you on time in my Four Reverbs Podcast, special serie marked with "PRE-SET". Unheralded Classics of Electronic Music. Look for updates.

For Creel Pone's "releases" purchase go to Mimaroglu Music Sales or Volcanic Tongue.

Trevor Brady

2006-12-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

To construct a sharper "image" of the blog's content visit Trevor Brady's page, a photographer from Vancouver who "creates a graphical composition from an existing scene" and call it "ReDesign"...
Just seemed matching to the sound I write about, on the visual level.
Or go to IRISF64 – online galery, representing Trevor... among the others, it's worth to pay attention to.

Four Reverbs

2006-12-03T15:46:00.000-08:00

Every four days my sidebar will be updated. It's kind of a podcast or whatever... four days, four tracks, mixed together carefully. From now on... The reason is an amount of music passing by. Some stuff is old, some is off time, some have been released as single or a compilation element, some have no actual correspondence to the blog content as a full-length but contain a few brilliants. All the scarps are at 128 kbps and packed with the whole bunch of info. Well, check it out from 12.03.2006

Rashim | Mosz

2006-11-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

Founded 2003 by Stefan Nemeth, member of Radian, and Michaela Schwentner aka Jade, Mosz – Vienna-Berilin "non-conform musical strategies supporting" label, took off as formaly non-comformistic with Kapital Band 1 first release including a blank CD-R beside the one their album was burnt on. Further volumes by Martin Siewert, Lokai, Metalycée, Boris Hauf etc. were exploring rather inner "unconventionalism" then coresponding to the basic statement precisely.
11th release, November 2006. Rashim "suns.shadows" on Mosz. Gina Hell and Yasmina Haddad – a female duo. "Intitially we wanted to bring Xenakis and Techno together... well, in the end it sounded really different....", Gina says.
Well, in my humble opinion, the interbreeding experiment was a success... simply some part of the final material mutated as a result of the operation or just wasn't involved in. The symbiosis of Iannis Xenakis and Techno is an exact definition for this full-lenght montage scheme. Xenakis' stochastic mathematical techniques in compositions (Maxwell-Boltzmann kinetic theory of gases, aleatory distribution of points on a plane, Gaussian distribution, Boolean algebra, Brownian motion) and techno' square patterns. Sharply mapped piece. Medley of sampled acoustic guitar snippets, jazz drum kit unsophisticated passages intersecting the sharp drum-synth lines. "Our work process-really simple: Reason and Logic, but the sounds are produced by us, which might be the reason why it sounds so analogue - guitars and some instruments (kalimba, tambourin, keyboard, voices, bags, chairs..) and a minimalistic approach cause we're both in permanent war with technique and virtuosity", - Gina and Yasmina say.
More info: Florian Horwath (guitar), Martin Brandlmayr (drums, percussion, bass?) – member of Radian, Kapital Band 1, Trapist, Autistic Daughters and Howe Gelb (piano) collaborated Gina and Yasmina to fill this album with analogue warmth of the acoustic instruments.
NONCONVENTIONAL.

Well, here is a playlist by Rashim dated December 1:
• Arthur Russell, "011 june"
• Joseph Beuys, "Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee"
• Badawi, "Awakening"
• Billie Holiday, "Strange fruit"
• Charlemagne Palestine, "Piano drone"
• Jim O'Rourke, "Women of the world..."
• Iannis Xenakis, "Rebonds"
• Gustav Mahler, "Symphony Nr.5"
• Texas Gladden, "One morning in may"
• Art ensemble of Chicago, "Illustrum"
• Robert Wyatt, "Sea song"
• Guinea Kpelle, "Key Hin Bala"
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Gesang der Jünglinge"
• Theo Parrish, "Overyohead"
• Kate Bush, "Violin"
• Amina Claudine Myers, "The Blues"
• David Behrman, "On the other ocean"
• Peter Tchaikovsky, "To sleep"
• Joubert Singers, "Interlude"(Larry Levan Remix)

Beach House | Carpark

2006-11-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally. Beach House on Carpark. Steady downpour.
Downloaded, been rotated for couple of days by now, had made me curious. I'd read near eight reviews before compiling this blog post to learn the subject (the modest revelation of the smatterer). Well, the debut now looks like a vintage traveler's suitcase totally pasted with the labels such as: Cocteau Twins, Young Marble Giants, Nico, Mazzy Star, Galaxie 500, Spiritualized, Slowdive.
"A penny dropping into a cup of oily water...sound of the ocean through an expensive cell phone... visions from the room of deaf... Beats are hand made from found sounds, xylophones, clanking bells, etc or taken from the heart of the organ when played live. There are no drum machines in Beach House, just simply recorded-onto-four track live drums or the pulse of the organs's heart." - an excerpt from Beach House' MySpace "Sounds Like" section.
Well, had spitted into the inadjustable identification scheme of the superior echelon critics.
"We don't consciously try to make it sound like anything else. These are just sounds that we like,"- Legrand says to Baltimore City Paper.
Pleasantly lulling to sleep homogeneity of the album, seemingly low for pop song rounds per minute, minimal amount of the tools... all forming a sharp mood piece. One mood writting=5 months in the basement studio, minimal number of over-dubbings, hyper speed. Components: opened refrens of vintage organ and delicate synths lazy oscillations paired with Alex' guitar muted slides and fingerings, Victoria's cooing and restrained dramatic vocals.
Three months of winter are yet to come...

x0xb0x | TB303 clone

2006-11-15T00:38:00.000-08:00

The TB303 (Transistor Bass) was introduced by Roland in the early 1982's. Invented by Tadao Kikumoto, at that time the 303 was not expensive, only about £215. The small plastic-piece was intended to emulate a real bass player. Roland stopped producing them 18 months after releasing it. They'd produced about 20.000 copies alltogether (TB303+TR303 as these boxes was released and offered to the market at the same time). Nowdays, hardly several items on ebay, used equipment stocks sale some, and a safe price for the box in good condition is fluctuating around $700.

"Hello, my name is Limor & I'm an engineer."
Introducting the x0xb0x. It is not just another MIDI-controlled TB-303 clone. x0xb0x is a full reproduction of the original Roland synthesizer, with fully functional sequencer. These sick enthusiasts Deutsch engineers sourced all of the original components, even though "it took 6 months of harrassing people on the phone, but we tracked down all the original transistors. Just deciding on which potentiometers to go with took three solid weeks of searching through catalogs". Now, starting at $315.00 via Adafruit Industries. But of cource, this kit is in such high demand, you have to get on the waiting list to purchase it.

Vert | Sonig

2006-11-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

3 "...years pass, Shibuya: "Oh hi, where do I know you from?
Wait, you're the guy I don't know", all enthusiasm gone
He said "It's kind of like a thriller that you saw & then forgot
Where you can't say who's the killer but you still know half the plot..."
- Vert, "Familiar girl"

Three years gone after "Small pieces loosely joined" was released on cologne Sonig. Still Michael Stipe look-a-like Adam Butler sits at the piano that he's used to play since 6 years old. He seems to change his wardrobe but forgot to burn his cap. And that' what is in the quote above. Well, "Some Beans and an Octopus". Shapes and shift, feedbacks, cuts junctions, samling controled errors, bitcrushes, gentely distorted drumlines supported by 8 bit sounds, notes failures and sustains - all the technical stuffing of the previous release, buched with unexpectable witty vocals. You can hardly call it as "vocals"(pardon), but you can easily call his words as "lyrics". Containg of the things you've been thinking of but couldn't give them a form, a literal shape. As for me, tricks like that have always been qualitative characteristics of the worthy reading (listening, in this case). Plus, "Some Beans and an Octopus" has been done in cahoots with musicians such as rapper Noah 23 ("definitely one of the best hip-hop albums of the year." (de:bug magazine)), turntablist DJ Elephant Power (cooking a new album on Sonig coming out in february) and a Serbian double bassist Fedor Ruskuc.

In awiting mode for the Adam's playlist, offer you the

Top 15 all-time albums for Spex magazine:
• Jelly Roll Morton, "The Library of Congress Recordings"
• Sly & the Family Stone, "There's a Riot Goin' On"
• Fun Boy Three, "Really Sayin' Something"
• Dizzee Rascal, "Showtime"
• Various, "American Primitives 2: Pre-war Revenants (1897-1939)"
• TV on the Radio, "Return to Cookie Mountain"
• Tom Waits, "Frank's Wild Years"
• Thelonious Monk, "Monk Alone"
• The Clash "London Calling"
• Roots Manuva, "Run Come Save Me"
• Prince, "Parade"
• Noah 23, "Jupiter Sajitarius"
• Mouse on Mars, "Radical Connector"
• Charles Mingus, "Blues & Roots"
• Captain Beefheart, "Trout Mask Replica"

Andrea Belfi | Häpna

2006-11-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago i found this man on Häpna, one of the few. 27 year old Italian artist Andrea Belfi’s. His LP “Between Neck and Stomach“. "He’s been playing drums since he was 14, that gives you enough time to get bored of playing it the conventional way." The drummer reinterprets the instrument as the slow amorphous synth, fills the space of the track with the soft unbalanced tapping (on "Sunglass"). "Extraevil" brings more usual but still charming and illogicaly broken beat. The next three tracks architecture is even more destorted. And the last one - "footprints" is the "song" in all the meanings. What's highly amusing – "the acoustic elements and the electronic ones mingle, intertwine and sometimes switch places: the acoustic sounds are treated as they were electronic, and the actual electronic ones are played at the very moment." Hapna has been publishing an amount of carefully selected artists, has a sharp policy, and belfi is the one to give you the clear vision of this policy. Go to, get some.

Andrea's Playlist:
• Miles Davis Nefertiti (Columbia)
• Burt Bacharach Portrait in music (A&M)
• C-Schultz e Hajsch S/t (Sonig)
• Kevin Drumm e Taku Sugimoto Den (Sonoris)
• Radiohead Kid A (Parlophone)
• S.Augustin Amokhali (Family Vineyard)
• Soft Machine Third (Columbia)
• Captain Beefheart Mirror Man (Budda)
• Ielasi-Radaele-Alati S/t (Sonoris)
• Tony Conrad e Faust Outside the Dream Syndicate (Table of the Elements)

Four Reverbs and Four Reverbs "PRE-SET"

2006-10-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

"Four Reverbs" – what's that in my sidebar?
Every four days my sidebar will be updated. It's kind of a podcast or whatever... four days, four tracks, mixed together carefully. From now on... The reason is an amount of music passing by. Some stuff is old, some is off time, some have been released as single or a compilation element, some have no actual correspondence to the blog content as a full-length but contain a few brilliants. All the scarps are at 128 kbps and packed with the whole bunch of info. Well, check it out from 12.03.2006.
"Four Reverbs "PRE–SET"" – what's that?
Four Reverbs Podcast special serie marked with "PRE-SET" is a mixed result of my research in the field of pre-digital music era. Titles from early 50's to nowdays. All around musique concrète, electro-acoustic music etc. Unheralded Classics of Electronic Music. Look for updates.
Powered by Native Instruments.

Four Reverbs | Playlists and links

2006-10-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

P R E - S E T
• Fabian Racca, "Rain" | Musicworks ' 2004 ("Musicworks 89" CD comes with the Summer 2004 issue of Musicworks. no info neither on this particular composition nor on composer. Any help would be appreciated.)
• Bernard Parmegiani, "Dedans-dehors-jeux" | INA GRM ' 1992 (Bernard Parmegiani (1927) is a French composer of musique concrete who trained (1959) under Pierre Schaeffer in person. Originally a sound engineer and a mime, his first major composition was the theater piece Violostries (1964), compiled on the double-disc Violostries (Ina-GRM, 1992), that also contains Pour en Finir Avec le Pouvoir d'Orphee (1972), Exercisme 3 (1986), Le Present Compose' (1991), etc."Violostries" is from 1964 and is scored for solo violin and four channels." – Woebot's blog tells. Originally distributed by Philips France. "I implore you to find Parmegiani's "La Creation du Monde" or better yet "De Natura Sonorum" or better yet (well DNS is the accepted classic, but I have a personal fondness for this) "Dedan-Dehors" They're all available on CD.")
• Gordon Monohan, "Danse Aquatique" | Musicworks ' 2004 (Gordon Monahan's works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and live performance. Early in his career, he specialized as a pianist, performing John Cage's Etudes Australes, premiering pieces by James Tenney and Udo Kasemets, and composing extended works for acoustic piano (Piano Mechanics, 1981) and amplified prepared piano (This Piano Thing, 1989). The renowned composer John Cage once said, "At the piano, Gordon Monahan produces sounds we haven't heard before." Beginning in the late 1970's, he created sound works using elements of natural forces and the environment, eventually constructing long string installations activated by wind (Long Aeolian Piano, 1984-88), by water vortices (Aquaeolian Whirlpool, 1990) and by indoor air draughts (Spontaneously Harmonious in Certain Kinds of Weather, 1996). His work for electronic tone generators and human speaker swingers (Speaker Swinging, 1982), is a hybrid of science, music, and performance art, where minimalistic trance music based on the Doppler Effect contrasts with issues central to performance art such as physical struggle and 'implied threat'. Viewing the loudspeaker as a discrete instrument for generating or 'representing' music, Monahan has constructed a loudspeaker catapult (A Magnet That Speaks Also Attracts, 1986) and a series of 'imitation' loudspeaker installations (Music From Nowhere, 1989). During the 1990's he developed an ensemble of multi-functional computer-controlled sound-machines which undergo various transformations as performance and installation environments. In Machine Matrix (1994-96) a programmable MIDI computer controls the actions of a network of machine sculptures built from electronic surplus and industrial trash, which generate complex layers of acoustically produced sounds. A remote-controlled robot enters this environment and pretends to learn how to perform and behave on a public stage. He created an interactive mechanical sound installation for the Sony Center in Berlin (2000), and has recently developed new installations using computer-controlled water drops falling upon amplified objects (When it Rains, 2000/2002). Monahan's interest in 'hi- and low-tech' and 'high and low culture' led him to collaborate with Laura Kikauka and Bastiaan Maris in establishing The Glowing Pickle (Berlin, 1993-95), an electronic surplus store using 20 tons of discarded East German scientific equipment, parodying both communist and capitalist cultures.
Monohan has independently released several LPs ,CDs, and videotapes of his work. He also appears on the Electra/Nonesuch CD compilation Imaginary Landscapes: New Electronic Music. His first solo CD was released on Swerve Editions (Zone Books) in 1992. His videotapes are distributed through V-Tape (Toronto), The Kitchen (NY), and Verge (Peterborough, Canada). Monahan's written texts have been published in Musicworks (Toronto), Ear Magazine (New York), and Zeitschrift für Neue Musik (Frankfurt-Main).)
• Ann Southam, "Rewind" | CBC Records ' 2006 ("Ovation Volume 4" release notes: "CBC Records is proud to release OVATION: VOLUME 4, the next set of the multi-volume project documenting the emergence of a generation of pioneering professional composers that have established Canada’s place on the world’s musical map. This distinctly Canadian music is of the highest order but has not had the audiences nor the attention it deserves.
Each disc in this set, is dedicated to a single composer; each collects in one convenient place that composer’s most accessible and representative works. This fourth set celebrates the music of Robert Turner, Ann Southam, Brian Cherney and Istvan Anhalt." "Rewind" was recorded in 1984 for Toronto Arts Productions.)
↑ Download 01.30.2007 (21.7.5 Mb)

P R E - S E T
• Vladimir Ussachevsky, "Two Sketches for a Computer Piece No.2" | New World Records ' 1991 (Obligatory lazy paste from a website: "Pioneers of Electronic Music" collects works created at the Columbia-Princeton Music Center, one of the more important early centers for electronic music. Included are works by Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, Pril Smiley, Bülent Arel, Mario Davidovsky, and Alice Shields. The works selected are from 1952 to 1971. Ussachevsky contributes several analog electronic pieces. His "Two Sketches for a Computer Piece" are completely electronic, and are the result of using a computer to sequence pitches. "...piece 2" is dated 1971." You, obviously, will hear a repeating sequence of sound, sort of loop, on the second minute of the track that seemed interesting to me not only as a cross-fade point but as a form of rhythm design, latter adopted by early techno musicians, now days known as "Basic Channel sound". As well, you can hear a hardly flanged layer over that loop... second track is coming effected by Traktor FX console.)
• Doris Hays, "Sacred trip" | Lo Recordings ' 2000 (The track was released on collection of library tracks compiled by Add N To (X) front-man Barry 7. The original recording is dated, surmisingly, 1960's/1970's. Still waiting for reply to my letter to LOAF, wait for update in this playlist.)
• Johann M. Beyer, "Music Of The Spheres" | Sub Rosa ' 2003 (Released on Sub rosa as a part of compilation "An anthology of noise & electronic music vol. 2 – second a-chronology 1936-2003" "Music of the Spheres" (1938) by little known American composer Johanna M. Beyer (1888-1944) has a Scelsi-like aura about it commencing with growling rasps (originally scored for lion-roar) and then evolving into hovering sonorities that softly undulate for the remainder of the 5:59 duration of the work. The work, perhaps one of the first to be scored for electronic instrumentation, was originally conceived as part of a theatre work and was scored for "three electronic instruments or strings". It was performed for this recording in 1977 by The Electric Weasel Ensemble boasting such distinguished members as Allen Strange, Brenda Hutchinson, Donald Buchla and Amirkhanian himself performing on Music Easel Synthesizers, live frequency shifting and triangle.)
• Jim Burton, "Passages From A Buried Script" | Musicworks ' 2004 ("Musicworks 89" CD comes with the Summer 2004 issue of Musicworks. Jim Burton is one of the most active participants of the vibrant New Music explosion that took place in NY in the 1970's. I won't say a word on Jim Burton cause this person inspires me so much, posting space suits better for the description... check for update. "Passages From A Buried Script" is one of the late opuses, can't name the date exactly.)
↑ Download 01.26.2007 (13.5 Mb)

P R E - S E T
• Paul Bonneau, "Touch Typing" | Lo Recordings ' 2001 (Paul Bonneau studied music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and received the premier prix d'harmonie (1937) in the class of Jean Gallon; the premier prix de fugue (1942) in the class of Noël Gallon; and the premier prix de composition (1945) in the class of Henri Busser. Bonneau was a prolific composer and arranger. He collaborated on 51 French films and a number of courts-métrages" – wikipedia compressed data. Preambule No. 36 was released on collection of library tracks compiled by Add N To (X) front-man Barry 7. The original recording is dated, surmisingly, 1960's/1970's. Wrote a letter to LOAF asking to clear the situation... but it's time to update Four Reverbs "PRE-SET", wait for update in this playlist.)
• Pierre Henry, "Trille" | Philips (France) ' 2000 (In 2000, Philips Music Group (France) released "Mix 02.0" (4 CD) including tracks from Henry's album "Investigations" originally recoded in Studio Apsome, pressed(?) by La Galerie Internationale d'Art Contemporain a Paris in 1959. )
• Takis Velianitis, "Klidon" | ETEBA ' 1997 (No info.... 5 CD release called "Greek Avant-Garde Music of the 20th Century". Could be released on Nonesuch in the series with quarter artwork on the envelope around 1968-69... but it's only a supposition)
• Oliver Messiaen, "Oraison" | Sub Rosa ' 2006 (Originally recorded in 1937!)
↑ Download 01.22.2007 (21.6 Mb)

P R E - S E T (?)
• John Bischoff and Tim Perkis, "Touch Typing" | Artifact Recordings ' 1989 (Composer: Tim Perkis. Performer: Tim Perkis. Recorded: Mills College Concert Hall. This piece grew out of attempts to build a work based on the behavior of genes in biological systems. Perkis used a simplified model of sex and mutation: A string of bits defining a sound event (a "gene") is randomly mutated – one bit, selected at random, is flipped – or the entire gene is cut in half and mixed with another one. These actions are all done under the control of keys on the computer keyboard, which either play events ("express" the gene), cause a mutation to happen, or cause an event to be "bred" with another. This set of controls defines an instrument, which Perkis freely plays in the performance: "I fill the role of natural selection, by choosing to keep some sounds and discard others.")
• Bülent Arel, " Postlude from Music for A Sacred Service" | New World Records ' 1998 (among the others, New World's "Columbia – Princeton Electronic Music Center 1961- 1973" CD includes some works of the head of the Western music programs on Radio Ankara, founder and conductor of the Madrigal Chorus, designer and installer of the Yale’s first electronic music studio – Bülent Arel. His play "Music for a Sacred Service" was commissioned by the United Methodist Church of Illinois. The "Postlude" (mentioned in the list) is composed of cascading patterns, based on purely electronic sound sources modified by mixing and an orgy of tape splicing. The piece moves as a whole, in speed and complexity, from a broad and serious beginning to a virtuosic conclusion. Finished in 1961, it is is an example of finely detailed handwork in the pre-synthesizer days of electronic music. )
• Bülent Arel and Daria Semegen, "Out of into" | New World Records ' 1998 ("Out of Into" is a ribald animated film by Irving Krieberg of metamorphosing figures. The electronic music soundtrack for "Out of Into" was composed by Bülent Arel at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1971, with the technical and musical help of Daria Semegen. The sound sources are electronic. Techniques of construction include loops, mixing, and synchronized tape reels. Both composers also collaborated on the electronic piece "Trill Study", which was created with sound materials used for "Out of Into".)
• Toychestra, "Iren" | S.K. records ' 2002 (Toychestra is an all-women musical ensemble that plays toys. Some are actual instruments like toddler-sized pianos and xylophones and drums. Others just make great sounds, like the pink zoo train or Boo Megaphone or the acoustic, multi-sonic Activity Center. Still others are used for percussion, like the washboard, Don’t Wake Daddy, and woodblock. Each instrument is individually amplified with contact microphones and the collection is mixed live for a bigger electronic sound. This creates a sophisticated aural experience that is a far cry from a bunch of kiddies banging around.)
↑ Download 01.18.2007 (21.6 Mb)

P R E - S E T (?)
• Pierre Henry, "Mouvement" | Philips (France) ' 2000 (In 2000, Philips Music Group (France) released "Mix 02.0" (4 CD) including tracks from Henry's album "Investigations" originally recoded in Studio Apsome, pressed(?) by La Galerie Internationale d'Art Contemporain a Paris in 1959.)
• Hugh Le Caine, "Dripsody" | Radio Canada Intl. ' 2004 ("Dripsody: An Étude for Variable Speed Recorder" (mono version) recorded in 1955 was Le Caine's first project for his new Multi-track Tape Recorder (formally known as the Special Purpose Tape Recorder). It was composed in one night using a recording of a drop of water falling into a bucket, re-recorded at different speeds to produce the pitches of a pentatonic scale. The version mentioned above is a stereo version dubbed in 1957, yet in National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Ottawa, in spite of the fact that his musical activities were permitted in NRC for the benefit of his work on the development of the first radar systems.)
• Hugh Le Caine, "Mobile" | Electronic Music Foundation ' 1999 ("Mobile: The Computer Laughed (Perpetual Motion)", composed in 1970, was one of the first pieces to be produced on the NRC Computer Music System. The form was influenced by the mobiles of Alexander Calder: the elements seem to build recognizable harmony and counterpoint, but then shift to something unexpected.)
• Pekka Airaksinen, "Sukirti" | Love Records ' 2004 (Love Records put out "Madam I'm Adam", a double CD collection of Airaksinen's music from 1968 to 2003. Most of the which consist of brand new material, but also a few reinterpretations of popular The Sperm (underground/performance group, formed in 1967) favourites from "the golden sixties". "Sukirti" is the piece from 1983, a piece of cosmic "electro-jazz" Airaksinen developed in the 80's, fusing bebop, free jazz and the 808 drum machine sound, still astonishes.)
↑ Download 01.14.2007 (21.6 Mb)

P R E - S E T (?)
• Mount Vernon Arts Lab, "Electroluminessense" | Via Satellite ' 1996
• Kirk Corey, "Two Part Invention No.1" | Soundprints ' 1996 (Composed using techniques based on theories of chaos; a long catalogue name has been given to the release however I couldn't find any evidence of this label presence.)
• Desmond Leslie, "Invention of The Weapon" | Trunk Records ' 2005 (Released never before, Theme Music from the film: "The Day the Sky Fell In" finished in 1958.)
• Percy Granger, "Free Music 1 (for Four Theremins)" | Sub Rosa ' 2003 (Nothing but the reissue of the composition originally recorded in 1936.)
↑ Download 01.10.2007 (5.6 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Jean Schwarz and Alexandre Ouzounoff, "Assolutamente" | Celia Records
• Mats Gustafsson, "Catapult of Solitudes – to Paul Auster" | Doubtmusic
• Taku Sugimoto and Kevin Drumm, "Den #4" | Sonoris
• Bunsho Nishizawa and Tim Olive, "Ushitsuki" | Improvised Music from Japan
↑ Download 01.06.2007 (20.5 Mb)

P R E - S E T (?)
• Jean-Claude Risset, "Mutations" | INA GRM ' 1969
• Pierre Henry, "Sequence" | Philips, France ' 1959 (Released never before 2000.)
• Daniel Teruggi, "Leo Le Jour" | Wergo and INA GRM ' 1997 (Appears to have come as appendix of 5/97 issue of Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, a German New Music magazine.)
• Zack Settel, "Skweeit-Chupp" | Empreintes DIGITALes ' 1990
↑ Download 01.02.2007 (9.2 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
It's only three tracks, one track less. Can I effort, it's a Holy Day after all?
• Chinaboise, "Time-Temp" | Gulcher Records
• Blind Boys Of Alabama, "Precious Lord" | RealWorld/CEMA
• Geeez'n'Gosh, "Oh, Precious Lord (I'm thankful)" | Mille Plateaux
↑ Download 12.24.2006 (7 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Solmaz Sporel and Ilhan Mimaroglu, "Gizmeli Kedi" | Creel Pone (released only in Turkey)
• Boris D Hegenbart, "Crockl" | Quecksilber
• Waldron, Stapleton, Sigmarsson, Haynes, Faulhaber, "Candlelight Ceremonies For Killing Time"
| The Helen Scarsdale Agency
• Electronvc, "Mecanictrue" | Acedia
↑ Download 12.20.2006 (8.9 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Enore Zaffiri, "Rannoch, BY Glencoe" | Rossbin
• Respirator, "Theremin" | Organic Pipeline
• Manfred Miersch, "Tierpark 03" | Krautopia
• Mats/Morgan Band, "Drum and Theremin" | Ultimate Audio Entertainment
↑ Download 12.16.2006 (12.2 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
It's only two, but enormously long, tracks:
• RFZ, "Berlin Labor er 5" | Krautopia
• Pestrepeller, "My gun scatters, my gun kills" | Important
↑ Download 12.12.2006 (15.8 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Sebastien Roux, "The Guitar and Drums Song" | 12k
• Fred Frith, Stevie Wishart, Carla Kihlstedt, "Time goes largo" | Intakt
• Huntsville, "Melon" | Rune Grammofon
• Christina Carter, Andrew MacGregor, " We Know When We are Thinking About Each Other"
| Very Friendly
↑ Download 12.08.2006 (26.6 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Freiband, "Bij" | Crуnica
• Will Guthrie, "Taken" | Cathnor
• Mass Ensemble, "Clear Span" | Aluminum
• Nils Okland, "Slor"| Rune Grammofon
↑ Download 12.03.2006 (15.3 Mb)

take off

2006-10-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

take off.. do not know where i land.. 0:57.. to be continued