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.

re-uploaded 7.29.12
[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]

Alvarius B.- Baroque Primitiva LP

By my count, Baroque Primitiva is the sixth album cut by Alvarius B. and is, like its predecessors, a deep swim through mysterious waters. The 11 tracks here were recorded at various sessions over the course of several years and range from "Humor Police" [a track that imagines what Syd Barrett might have sounded like had he been a devotee of rembetika] to a trippily Beatles-damaged version of 'You Only Live Twice' [the sole surviving shard of the aborted Alvarius B. Plays The Bond Songbook project]. Baroque Primitiva is the first long-format telegram from Alvarius B. since he lost his mothership [the Sun City Girls, with whom he employed his slave name, Alan Bishop] and it also feels like his most consistently non-acerbic -- perhaps even most beauty-oriented -- work. The songs often have a meditative pace and are filled with gorgeous lo-fi blends of vocals, guitar, bass and keys. Eyvind Kang guests on several tracks, but the bulk of the material was broadcast direct from the naked soul of Alvarius B., which turns out to be a warmer, sweeter place than you might imagine. The record also marks the return of the equally-legendary Poon Village label, whose productions are always extraordinary in visual terms, and Baroque Primitiva is no exception. The cover's meditative human mandala is a brilliant ocular ode to shifting visions of feminine pulchritude, and is worthy of the best framing job you can afford.
-byron coley

much kudos to [holy warbles] for the initial posting of this gem... if you have to purchase one record this year, this one is damned well worth it for the amazing hand-screened gatefold sleeve... only 300 pressed. don't fret if you missed out, a cd re-pop w/ deluxe packaging is right around the corner...

update 2.26.11:

sold out. link removed by request. re-ish cd coming soon.

black hippies

i neglected to cobble together a top-whatever of 2010 list due to... well, just living life. to rectify this a little, i'm posting all the stuff by one of my fave discoveries of this past year, black hippies. not much on the interwebz aside from [myspace] and [last.fm] pages, their posts at [id reverberations] and an interview at [sick of the radio]...

teenagers? really?!? well fuck all, i guess there is hope for the future. dig the whole hobo cult/fonal/not not fun/avant-drone-pastiche vibez? then dig in... dig real deep.



[Acid With Black Hippies]
[Our Prayer]
[The Jewels In God's Wristwatch]
[Wicker House]
[Laughing Sickness]
[PBO present: Black Hippies meets Udmurtia]
[Throwaway]

daisies (sedmikrásky) soundtrack- 1966

'Daisies' pulls together what you might call the 'Holy Trinity' of the Czech New Wave - director Vera Chytilova, costume and set designer Esther Krumbachova, and cinematographer Jaroslav Kucera - arguably the three most forward thinking and truly experiMENTAL minds in the whole of the CNW collective... The radical and experimental nature of 'Daisies' is further enhanced by its erratic score which consists of the juxtaposition of various non-melodic elements and sound effects, laden with a broad palette of samples and snippets of choral and classical vintage recordings spliced with concrete effects, traditional brass band music, Disney style exotica. charleston dance standards and token 60's beat tracks... By utilising the live sound effects within the film such as clock pendulums, scissors and typewriters Sust and Slitr paid homage to the pioneering work of Pierre Schaeffer and his Musique concrete legacy.
-[finders keepers]




[you don't belong to this century]

peeesseye- pestilence & joy

the best album sleeve of 2010 and of my personal faves from this past year... just scroll over the above pic to see it in all its full colour tom of finland-meets-caligula glory. only 300 made, but you can still find a few over [here]... free-form psych gunk divine.

[…and a rottener man never drew breath]

[peeesseye]