Even Dwarfs Sarted Small | Auch Zwerge haben klein Angefangen

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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)