ERVINNA & THE STYLERS - TOP HITS

i'm back! some things are worth saving and i've had requests from all over to continue as previously promised. the recent u.s. department of justice megaupload bust also compelled me to keep up the good fight... too many of my favorite music and film blogs have now been hobbled by the entertainment industry's draconian tactics. all that fantastic music/film/art gone in one fell swoop.

thanks to [madrotter] who originally posted this fab piece of indonesian/singapore pop... this was much too good to let blow away into digital dust.

[TOP HITS]

MEGAUPLOAD R.I.P.... 1.19.2012

most of my links here are hosted through mediafire, but for some files that exceeded the 200 mb limit that mf set, i used megaupload. as most of you are now aware, the u.s. justice department has taken down megaupload, and arrested 7 people at it's facilities in new zealand.

in light of all this, i'm reposting the links i had though megaupload via another file host. if any links are down, please bring it to my attention and i will re-upload. i know that this blog is now kinda m.i.a., but i do intend on the occasional post when i get the time.

watch this video, read up on sopa/pipa and just remember: we defeated them this time around, but the lobbyists for the entertainment industry will not let this die.... do you think that the takedown of megaupload the day after sopa getting defeated was just some coincidence? how much great music and art was lost in one fell swoop?

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

repost: Monster Sounds & Boppin' Tracks

reposted by request... happy halloween!

[update 1.19.2012- link permanently down due to the shutdown of megaupload by the department of "justice"... will repost soon via a different file host]

this blog is not dead, it's just hibernating.

expect more soon... including a podcast of sorts.

Sexangle (1975)

a little bit of a departure here from the usual album post, though still music-related... esp for any throbbing gristle/chris and cosey fans.

sexangle is a "blue movie" starring none other than Cosey Fanni Tutti. produced by the infamous [john lindsay] under the pseudonym of Karl Ordinez, this was one of the many endeavors in the adult industry that cosey used as both financing for Coum Transmissions and eventual fodder for the [Prostitution exhibition] at the ICA in 1976.

be forewarned, this is an real 70's porno film (grainy vhs-to-dvd transfer and all), and one of the more interesting artifacts of the entire tg legacy... you'll see cosey up close and personal and if you have any qualms about such things, just move on.

on a related note, [chronditic sound] recently released the soundtrack to this on cassette in an edition of 50.

[sexangle]

darksmith- total vacuum lp +

another post here that was temporarily waylayed by the great laptop meltdown of 2011. one of my fave albs of 2010, tom darksmith takes a subtler, musique concrète-esque hypnotic tack to the well-beaten noise horse. released on the all-mighty [hanson records] in an edition of 300. the first 30 came with a bonus 3" cdr which i'm including here.

as another bonus for my discerning readers, i'm also posting two earlier cdrs, landslide (2008) self-released on [mom costume] and weightless (2007) on [chondritic sound].

[total vacuum]

[weightless + landslide]

Karel Kryl- Plaváček (1983)

sorry for the delay in updating this thing, but i recently lost my laptop due to catastrophic hard drive failure and motherboard problems. luckily, i was able to get an awsm new replacement immediately... unfortunately, i lost all the bookmarks and cover art i had saved for my next 5 posts.

i used to love digging in bins of crappy 50 cent and dollar records for gems, but as the years have passed, i've lost my patience for it... grubby fingers, seeing the same shitty records over and over, my allergies flaring up from all the dust... yuck. in the past few months i've slowly started to enjoy the process again, and this record i recently found makes all the grainy fingertips and sneezing worth it.

karel kryl was an exiled czech protest singer who is a legend in his home country. no point rehashing his bio here... you can read about his storied life before and after feeling the communist regime in 1969 [here] or at the comprehensive [official website]. his discography is rather large and if you dig this, i suggest checking out his other records... you won't be disappointed.

[Plaváček]

comebacks.

catastrophic hard drive and motherboard failures kept me from the interwebs for two weeks... nothing of value was lost (aside from a few pics and bookmarks). new computer, new banner and new posts soon.

Yao Su-Yong & The Telstars Combo LP

priceless sleeve art and a nice piece of 60's taiwanese pop by the legendary [Yao Su-Yong], backed on this lp by the (Joe Meek inspired?) instrumental group [The Telstar Combo].

[Yao Su-Yong & The Telstars Combo]

The Korean Black Eyes

The Drake equation is a complicated and speculative piece of mathematical fiddling that uses galactic probability to find how many alien civilizations are in the Milky Way. A similar equation might be needed to explain the highly improbable, shoot-the-moon-serendipity which produced The Korean Black Eyes: a killer early 70's all-girl garage soul, rock and roll Cryptozoological fable now proven by Plus Tapes’ bubblegum-pink reissue.

The Black Eyes really cook- covering Sly Stone, a little Elvis, and weirdly, The Moody Blues and a selection from “Jesus Christ Superstar.” They also are perplexing. How popular were they? Was there a soul/funk scene in 1970’s Korea, or were they going it alone? Does the singer know English or is she belting it out phonetic-style? (I’ve listened to this tape dozens of times and still can’t make up my mind. One song has a typical R&B monologue that’s nearly impossible to understand.) What became of them and how were these songs located 30+ years after the fact? Who knows?

But the music tells me I’m asking too many questions. The band is decent but clearly not session vets. You can hear the frequent temporal arrhythmia and the bass plodding to the root belatedly. The guitars are decent; the organ, barely audible. What they do have is undeniable energy and heart backing a fantastic lead vocalist who sings the daughter James Brown and Janis Joplin never had- a daughter who grew up in Soul, or in this case Seoul, South Korea. Her vocals are great: passionate, enticing, raw, and filled with arc-welding screams. And the accent is awesome-the keystone to the whole tape, a shining example of the inadvertent innovations found in cultural discourse.
-[foxy digitalis]

an absolutely amazing cassette from 2009 on [plus tapes] compiling all three singles by this mystery band. released in an edition of 100, this thing sold out almost immediately, basically the micro-press cassette world equiv of going platinum.

thanks to [dustin drase] for the brilliant sleeve scans.

[the korean black eyes]

Eddy Detroit with King Heathen- The Philosopher's Stone

2nd (and final) lp from 1987... released on his own Pan label and (like his first alb) it has none other than Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls on guitar. way scarce, and so far hasn't gotten the re-ish treatment like his [first lp]. def more on the primitive beat/psych/acid folk side of town than said prior slab.

[The Philospher's Stone]

William Onyeabor- Hypertension (1982) & Anything You Sow (1985)

i'd [previously] said that i'd post more stuff by chief onyeabor, so here ya go, tip of the chapeau to [fish tail lion]...

[hypertension/anything you sow]