Unknown Passage was a Greek psychedelic garage band from Amindeo, Florina. This is their one & only studio album, recorded at Drumland Studios ,Thessaloniki, Greece in March 2001.
Made it through Musick that Needed Work: T so far. Hitting the U’s this month. Let’s go.
Umar Bin Hassan was born in Akron, Ohio, into a poor black factoryworker's family. Already as a youngster he dreamed of escaping his family's lot & getting more out of life than slaving for the white man at the local rubber mill. So he sold his little sister's record player to buy himself a bus ticket for New York City, where he joined The Last Poets, a group of black poets spreading a militant political message akin to that of the Black Panthers / Malcom X.
New York very nearly became Umar Bin Hassan's death. Of course, there was poetry, the passionate performances of The Last Poets. There was bebop, the music of Miles Davis & Charlie Parker, whom he revered, who influenced his poems. But the 'demons' of drug abuse, as he called them, got him into their power. They drove him out into the streets. He wandered from crackhouse to crackhouse, hustling, dealing, shooting up, until his sister finally came to his rescue. She took him into her Connecticut home.
He succeeded in kicking his crack habit, in regaining his zest for life. One day his little nephew played a tape recording of a hiphop band named Tribe Called Quest, who had, without his knowledge, set one of his own poems to music. The new gansta-rap was trying to link up with The Last Poets. Such rappers as Ice Cube & Chuck D. of Public Enemy sought inspiration with them. Umar now felt he should return to New York. There he continued his work with The Last Poets, whose message was still a relevant one. He resumed his writing & performing with the group.
Umar appeared at the Poetry International Festival 2002 in Rotterdam with a guitarist, to perform jazzy, associative narratives such as “The Drums” & “Grace”, evoking dark, infernal journeys through modern-day America, yet also counting his blessings with bebop music & love. With his strongly rhythmic, spectacular presentation, he impressed, bewitching many.
This is the first solo effort from Bin Hassan. Here Umar is joined by many of the Usual Suspects: Bootsy Collins; Bernie Worrell; Bill Laswell; Anton Fier; Buddy Miles; on & on.
Following up with one more for Día de los Muertos, this time more serious than the previous humor/horror, a variety of tunes from Mary Sims & friends.
You might not know her as Mary. You might know her by her stage name Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave. She was instrumental in the creation of the LA punk scene ghoul rock that spawned gothic deathrock. The band lasted from 1979-1991, when original bassist Rob Graves died from an accidental drug overdose. In the early Teens, Dinah resurrected the band to some success.
Before 45 Grave, Dinah was in the LA experimental punk band Vox Pop active 1979-80 featuring former/future members of 45 Grave, Germs, Nervous Gender, Angry Samoans, Dream Syndicate. They released two singles.
After a month of weird music, it's time to get a bit more serious. Here, to celebrate Día de los Muertos is that all-time jam band from San Francisco...no wait...not that Garcia ice cream band, they were grateful, oh yeah.
This is Andy Haldane, Jim Xavier, & Jonni Boa, some lads from the UK & you can believe they’re ungrateful...
Unless you’ve been living under a rock all your life, you know who Yoko Ono is & you know she's definitely weird.
This one is for celebrating All Hallow’s Eve with a bang-up party.
Yes, she’s a witch.
X-Ray Charles was a lo-fi jangle pop (with a raw, experimental edge) duo from Christchurch, New Zealand consisting of multi-instrumentalist James Sullivan with drummer & Melted Ice Cream label head Brian Feary. This lo-fi release was recorded on a Tascam 424 Mk III 4-track tape recorder with digital vocal overdubs.
Cabbage was a post-punk Manchester based five piece made up of: Eoghan Clifford - guitar, percussion; Joseph Martin - guitar, vocals; Lee Broadbent - synthesizer, organ, vocals; Stephen Evans - bass, vocals; & Asa Morley - drums. They were around from 2015-2021. Their music is an idiosyncratic, satirical attack in the form of discordant neo-punk.
Although from Manchester, Cabbage are more like a northern version of Fat White Family’s southern uproar, with a dash of the Fall’s garage rumble
Young, Dumb, & Full of... is a collection of their early EPs. What's weird about this??? That it's not 1977, it's 2017.
Weeping Bong Band is a stoner space psych outfit from Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts. This, the band's eponymous debut, is perfect fodder for higher consciousness excursions & late-night fade outs into the aether. The band consists of Anthony Pasquarosa - guitar, Beverly Ketch - lyrics, Clark Griffin - bass, Pat Gubler - guitar, Wednesday Knudsen - guitar. They are known for their atmospheric instrumentals creating a state of permanent 2AM Grateful Dead improvisations twisted through the soul of Brightblack Morning Light, doused in the blood of John Fahey. They followed up this release with II & then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Dub Narcotic Sound System is live touring & studio recording band founded 1993 in Olympia, Washington by Calvin Johnson. Johnson is a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, music producer, & disc jockey born in Olympia. He was a founding member of the bands Beat Happening & The Go Team as well as Dub Narcotic Sound System. He is also the founder / owner of the influential indie label K Records.
All their releases showcase the group’s style which is a lo-fi fusion of punk, funk, Dub, indie rock, & hip-hop highlighted by Johnson’s deeply droning low & gravely vocals.
Dub Narcotic Sound System - Out of Your Mind, K KLP83, 1998.
decryption code in comments
Wicked Bad
Basemess
Teenage Time Bomb
Dub Narcotic's Delight
Sawed Off
Rebel Makes Rhymes
Out of Your Mind
Oslo Calling
Belly Warmer
Shock Mount
Papa's Got a Brand New Burnbag
Weirder & weirder,
NØ
Injury Reserve was a Tempe, Arizona-based rap group formed in 2013 consisting of DJs Ritchie with a T, & Stepa J. Groggs (R.I.P. June 2020) & producer Parker Corey. They released two acclaimed mixtapes Live from the Dentist Office & Floss (recorded in a dentist office belonging to Corey's grandfather).
The group relocated to Los Angeles in 2017. The two original mixtapes were stylistically jazz-rap, but after moving to California, their sound gravitated to a more industrial / glitch style. While recording this album in 2020, Stepa died (age 32). Ritchie & Coery finished the album but as tribute to their deceased bandmate, they stopped using the Injury Reseve name & became By Storm.
Gorgonzola Legs was an improv industrial-jazz group from IJmuiden, The Netherlands, active in the 80s. The band consisted of: Jos Van Duijne - guitar; Hessel Veldman - guitar, bass, piano, synthesizers, tapes; Herman Te Loo - soprano & alto saxophone, clarinet, piano, vocals; & Gert Jan Prins - drums, percussion, sampling, keyboards.
This is a live recording recorded at De Bunker in Rotterdam, October 25, 1986 (forty years ago today).
I've shared the weirdness of the Tape-Beatles several time before on NSS, here & here.
Well, they're weird as ever. Here's one more from the Plagiarism® gang.Enjoy.
V-3 was a lo-fi experimental rock band from Columbus,Ohio in the 1980s-90s led by underground legend Jim Shepard (formerly of Vertical Slit).
The album was released with a hand painted cover with paste on front/back cover slips. It was pressed at a slightly lowered volume level so you may want to crank it up.
V-3 sez:
"We would have just put 'play real loud' on the jacket, but that's simply a cheap ploy from another era..."
Here V-3 is: Jim Shepard - multi-instrumentalist, guitar; Leland Cain - bass; Al “Nudge Squidfish” Martin - songwriter, bass; Sam Brown - multi-instrumentalist, drums; Rudy K. Smith - drums; David Mikula - drums.
Frontman Jim Shepard passed away in the late 1990s shortly after the group's demise, cementing their cult-legend status.
Alex Buess is a saxophonist, composer, producer. He has collaborated with Peter Brötzmann, Toshinori Kondo, Bill Laswell, Tim Hodgkinson, & many other musicians in the wide field of improvisation, electronics, electro/acoustic music. Buess has written compositions for various contemporary music ensembles & works as a producer / sound engineer.
Christoph Fringeli is responsible for the Vision & Praxis labels. Vision was a label project from Basel, Switzerland, founded by Christoph in 1986 & finished in 1992. The material released by Vision were not limited to cassettes / records but also included printed materials / visuals. These items included fanzines, posters, t-shirts & like the recordings, received catalogue numbers. Vision evolved into Praxis, which was both a label & a record shop for harsh experimental electronic music led by Fringeli based in Berlin (first located in London/UK, then in Berlin/Germany, then in Basel/Switzerland, now again in Berlin/Germany).
Markus Kneubühler plays synthesizers, mostly concentrating on free-Jazz experimental noise.
The three got together to create Electronic Noise Twist as a project for Fringeli’s Vision label.
Here Fringeli plays guitar & provides vocals, Kneubühler plays bass & manipulates tapes, & Buess plays saxophone & drums making wild, crazy Blurt-like jazz/industrial crossover.
ADULT. is Nicola Kuperus & Adam Lee Miller. They have been married for 17 years, working together for nearly 20, via their band ADULT. They have released material on their own Ersatz Audio label as well as Thrill Jockey, Ghostly International, Mute, Third Man Records, & Dais Records. Their style is electro-punk, integrating vocals with drum machines, analog synthesizers & electronic/punk elements, uniquely danceable as well as harshly abrasive.
You might not know the name Efrim Manuel Menuck, but if you wander around here much or like weird music as I do, then you've heard him before now. He's a Canadian musician & composer, playing guitar & synthesizer, singing, writing, & producing. He is one of the founding members of Godspeed You Black Emperor!. He also created Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band as a side project. He is co-owner of the famous Hotel2Tango, a loft space that acts as a practice area, recording studio, & one of the very few non-commercial venues in Montreal capable of accommodating live concerts..
Here's his second solo effort, some sweet weirdness...
Ah Cama-Sotz is the industrial-techno/ritual-tribal/dark ambient project of Belgian electronic music producer/DJ Herman Klapholz.
Active since the early 1990s, the name is inspired by the Mayan bat deity Camazotz. The name reflects Klapholz's themes of darkness, mysticism, & the underworld. The music ranges from haunting cinematic soundscapes to energetic, rhythmic club tracks, often exploring apocalyptic, ritualistic, spiritual concepts. Well known throughout the underground electronic scene, Ah Cama-Sotz creates immersive atmospheres that captivate with a fusion of heavy beats, ritual chants, & eerie ambiances.
David Peel was a legend in his own mind & in the minds of a generation, He died April 6, 2017 at age 74. What a life. His raw, acoustic "street rock" with lyrics about marijuana & "bad cops" appealed mostly to hippies or the culturally disenfranchised. In 1968, Peel was contracted by Elektra Records when he was first discovered. He recorded two albums for the label. His album Have a Marijuana peaked at No. 186 on the Billboard chart.
Peel was rediscovered by John Lennon in 1971 as the early seventies continued its swing towards the youth revolution. Lennon befriended Peel when David was playing with his ragtag hippie band in New York's Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Lennon produced The Pope Smokes Dope for Peel. The album was banned in many countries & since has become a cult classic sought by collectors worldwide.
As the acoustic hippie counterculture shifted into the aggressive late-1970s punk movement, Peel adapted his anti-establishment ethos. This release stands as an obscure bridge between 1960s underground fringe-folk (such as The Fugs) & the raw New York punk.
Determinedly low-fi, accompanied by squalling banks of angry guitars & no drums, here Peel ramps up the stoner howl he had been using since the mid-60s into a sneering double-tracked monotone which almost sounds like punk parody,
David, not with the Lower East Side but with The Death-O-Lettes.
I've shared 17 Pygmies three times in the past on NSS. Their's is some of my favorite weirdness. I've shared Welcome here, Isabel here, & Jedda here. If you want to read or hear more from this Art rock outfit, my pleasure...
This is CD2 of the 2013 compilation Jedda/Captured. CD1 contains Hatikva & Jedda by the Sea. CD2 is Captured in Ice with five bonus outtakes.
The cover artwork below is from the original Captured In Ice release (the comp cover can be seen at the Jedda link).
