28 June 2014

Short Circuited at the Circus


Got a request from a visitor for a Various Artists compilation over on the High Priests of Electronic Dub post. While I was looking through VA stuff, once again realized I had been overlooking this category. I posted a couple, then got side tracked as usual. Here’s another one from the stack. Short Circuit - Live at the Electric Circus from 1978.



This 10" mini-LP was released to mark the closing of the Electric Circus, Collyhurst Street (off Rochdale Road), Manchester, England (since demolished). The Electric Circus punk venue in Manchester was scheduled to close. The reason being that Manchester Council officials deemed the club unsafe unless a major refurbishing was carried out. Due to lack of funds, their time had run out. October 1 & 2, 1977 were its final two nights. It was the weekend that all Manchester youth dreaded. The Circus, being charitable to the very end, donated the receipts from the club's closing nights to benefit cancer research. To capture the excitement of this two day event, the Virgin Sound Mobile recording studio was on hand to catch every moment on tape, for a (super-truncated) recording that would come out the next year under the title Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus.

 


The album was originally only available on 10" blue, black, or yellow vinyl. All of the performances on the 10" are soundboard recordings made on October 2, 1977. A printed insert sleeve contains a history of The Electric Circus venue & line-ups of the bands featured on the EP. Some copies included a dark blue promotional poster (folded in six segments) that contained a circuit diagram, band & location details, with the promotional blurb:
     "First 5,000 colour pressed on fashionable blue vinyl. Electric Circus. In handy shoplifting size. 10" for £2.99. Out now on Virgin VCL5003"

This was re-released by Virgin on CD in 1991.



Short Circuit - Live at the Electric Circus 10", Virgin UK VCL5003, 1978.
all decryption codes in comments

Side One –
Stepping Out - The Fall
(You Never See a Nipple in the) Daily Express - John Cooper Clarke
At a Later Date - Joy Division
Persecution Complex - The Drones

Side Two –
Makka Splaff (The Colly Man) - Steel Pulse
I Married a Monster from Outer Space - John Cooper Clarke
Last Orders - The Fall
Time's Up - Buzzcocks

Some copies included a pink vinyl 7" version of John Dowie's "Another Close Shave".

The 7" placement was totally random. It was included with blue, black, or even orange promo copies. Some of these randomly had an orange sticker to say there was an included 7". Some had no sticker but still included the 7". Some had a full promo poster with or without the 7". It was utterly random. The CD re-released did not include the Dowie songs.

John Dowie – Another Close Shave 7" EP, Virgin VEP1004,1977.

Side One –
British Tourist
Naked Noolies in the Moonlight
I Don’t Want to be Your Amputee

Side Two –
Mew Wave
Jim Callaghan
Time Warp

Jonder, bet you never thought you’d find The Fall posted here.

I Tell You




 
I was listening to the recently released (May 2014) Geins’t Naït & Laurent Petitgand - Je vous dis (I Tell You) & realized I should post up some of their early work. Geins’t Naït have been making great musick for nearly thirty years (with a nearly twenty year vacation in the midst, see below). Nowadays the duo's approach focuses on a sharpened sound with a rich balance, density, & impact. They utilize their own unique sensibilities for any element they include: a sample; a melody on the piano; the amazing works of voice; or the instrumentation that takes on a central role in the delicate balance of each title.
 




In the 1980s, Thierry Merrigout & Vincent Hachet were both students at L'école D'architecture de Nancy, France. They formed Geins't Näit in 1986. Although Hachet soon abandoned the project to pursue his directing career, Merrigout (ex-drummer for KAS Product) decided to continue on with the project & assumed the name Geins't Naït. In 1987 he enlisted the aid of Laurent Petitgand (also from Nancy), a talented composer & multi-instrumentalist. Laurent Petitgand, songwriter & performer, was well known for his theme music work with Wim Wenders (including Tokyo-Ga -1985 & Wings of Desire -1986) [more recently The Salt of the Earth - 2014]. The addition of Laurent’s refined musicality in post-industrial collage, adding guitar, piano, & other conventional instruments to Geins't Naït's more punk approach created their great style, inspired by the post industrial scene but also strongly influenced by Surrealists & Situationists
 



Between 1986 & 1993 they released six albums published with the collaboration of Permis de Construire & PDCD (Permis' Germany division) labels. In 1993, after the release of C / O Lisa, silence of almost 20 years. Then, in 2011, out of nowhere, Si J'avais Su, J'aurais Rien Dit (If I had Known, I Would have Said Nothing) was released in a limited run of only 500 copies. If anything, this & their latest disc demonstrates an increased chemistry between the two musicians whose paths may be very different outside this project yet here seem incredibly complementary.

Their earlier works echoed the adventurous music of the 80s & bands like Coil, Current 93, Test Dept., Einstürzende Neubauten, & Sprung Aus Den Wolken, enveloping elements of ambient & industrial as well as minimalism or repetitive music. "A work of the mind, complex, poetic and elegant, even in its darkest moments." Fascinating French post-industrial musick, deep & heavy with atmospheric & industrial experimentation. A tasty morsel for serious noise, sound texture, & experimental fans.




My favorite of their back catalogue:
 

Geins’t Naït – Yvone, Permis de Construire Deutschland PPP103, 1990.
decryption code in comments

Tracklist –

indian
he! you
ministre
mouche
microb
zlac.ac
tsé-sé
vaclav
finestre
yvone
platex
alcool
miao
medici
kivala?
AllA
verdi

Enjoy,

25 June 2014

I Bring You...FIRE!!!





You may know Arthur (Wilton) Brown from his late 60s Crazy World. Yes, the 'God of Hellfire'. Fast forward a decade plus. This is from the period of time Brown was living in Texas. Here Brown has teamed up with Craig Leon. Craig Leon is an American composer & producer who is credited with the discovery & early promotion of such bands as Talking Heads & The Ramones. Brown is assisted here by David Flipse & M.H. Kollaart.




Recorded at Lone Star Studio, Austin, Texas. Mixed by Earl Mankey at his Back Room Studio, Thousand Oaks, California. Classic crazy Brown with an electro-twist. Reminds me a lot of another favorite of mine, Nash the Slash with the awesome addition of Brown’s signature 4-octave baritone voice. If you’re not sure, check out the God of Hellfire's version of "Not Fade Away". Quintessential.


Arthur Brown & Craig Leon – Speaknotech picture disc, Republic Records 9860, 1982.
decryption codes in comments

Side A –
King of England
Conversations
Strange Romance
Not Fade Away
The Morning was Cold

Side B –
Speaknotech
Name as Names
Love Lady
Big Guns Don’t Lie
Take a Picture

& while I’m enthralled by the voice of Arthur Brown, here’s a live show that just has everything going right for it.


Tracklist –
Time Captives
Master of the Universe
Gremlin-Time Confusion
The Watcher
Out of the Shadows
Chronoglide Skyway
Steppenwolf
Paranoia
The Right Stuff
Spirit of the Age
Take Me to Your Leader
Sun Ray
Hassan-i Sabbāh
Golden Void
Where are They Now?
Angela Android
Silver Machine

Line up: Arthur Brown – vocals; Dave Brock - guitar, synthesizers & vocals;  Alan Davey - bass & vocals; Simon House - keyboards & violin: Richard Chadwick - drums & electronic percussion.  Recorded by Arthur Brown collaborator & Hawkwind’s other some time vocalist Robert Calvert.

Enjoy,

23 June 2014

Sunday Dub Plate Special





Before I slip into unconsciousness…

For breakfast, two former Pink Dots band-mates, Edward Ka-Spel & Ryan Moore (Twilight Circus Dub Sound System) get together to serve up something.



 
For lunch, let’s go south of the border for some Aztek grub from bass master Keith Levene.

 
Aztek Dubd – Keith Levene
from Murder Global:Killer in the Crowd EP, 2002.


For dinner, let’s go all out. Maybe hit an All-You-Can-Eat smorgasbord. Fill up like there may be no more tomorrow. I’m a bit short on the Benjamins, so I just might have to sing for my supper. Here’s hoping nobody else is hungry. My singing has been know to scare some folks off their feed.


I Got a Song to Sing – Little Axe 
from On-U Sound 30 Year Anniversary King Size Dub, 2011.
 
 

Cook’n Curry – Liquid Stranger 
from The Invisible Conquest, 2007.
 

Overloader – Dub Syndicate
from One Way System, 1983.
 

 


& On the Seventh Day Dub – Sheriff Lindo & the Hammer
from Ten Dubs that Shook the West, 1988.

Enjoy & Goodnight,

22 June 2014

These are the Times that Try Zen's Moles

The Moles - Going Down (Freddie King cover, kinda) from Untune the Sky (1991).

Mr. Skull for (Pre-) Resident





The actual usage of The Residents band name first appeared in 1974 on the cover of Meet the Residents. The name arose from a communication from Hal Haverstadt of Warner Brothers Records. The loosely bonded friendship of musicians & other crazies that would become The Residents had mailed a reel-to-reel tape to Haverstadt in a bold attempt by the (unnamed on the mailing) group to secure a recording contract with Warner Bros. Haverstadt mailed the tape back months later with a short rejection notice which he simply addressed to 'Residents, 20 Sycamore St., San Francisco'. Along with the rejection he also noted that the mysterious artists at least deserved an A for originality.




The unnamed band was really The Delta Nudes, from Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1966, lured to the Flower Power Revolution going on in California, the group moved to the Bay Area, settling down in San Mateo, about 20 miles south of San Francisco (according to Residential lore, their van broke down there & they decided to stay). At that time in California, experimentation artistically, culturally, & socially was in full swing. Many young people from the much more conservative South who were looking for more freedom of expression tended to drift toward the West.


By 1971, the Delta Nudes had recorded a great deal of material. They were looking for someone who might be interested in their brand of insanity. They sent one of their early demo tapes to the Warner Brothers executive Hal Halverstadt who had signed Captain Beefheart.






The Warner Bros. Album contains approximately 40 minutes of short songs, recorded only on reel-to-reel tape. Complete front & back artwork along with strange liner notes were designed for the tape box, even though the music was never released. The artwork is credited to one N. Senada. There is debate as to whether or not he really existed, or was simply an invention of The Residents. N. Senada (which may be a play on 'Ensenada'…'en se nada', meaning "in himself nothing," or 'enseñada', a form of the past participle meaning "taught" [or N. may stand for Nigel???]) was supposedly a Bavarian composer & music theorist who formulated the Theory of Obscurity. Supposedly born in 1907 & dying in 1993 at the age of 86, Senada was one of The Residents' earliest collaborators, having arrived in San Mateo, California, with Philip Lithman (better known to Residents' fans as Snakefinger). It has also been speculated that N. Senada may have been Captain Beefheart himself because in the late 1960s Beefheart & his Magic Band lived in a residence on Ensenada Drive in Woodland Hills, California, while recording Trout Mask Replica & Safe as Milk. Beefheart’s influence can be heard in early Residents works. Senada allegedly collaborated with band on their pre-Santa Dog work & then disappeared. He resurfaced in the mid-1970s, returning from an Arctic expedition bringing with him a sealed bottle of pure Arctic air; this served as inspiration for The Residents Eskimo project.




A rare copy of the unreleased tape was played in its entirely on KBOO-FM (Portland, Oregon) during a 1977 Residents Radio Festival. The song list on the reel-to-reel varies slightly from the CDr listing. I have noted the variations in the tracklist. This, as well as Baby Sex were recorded in San Mateo as the San Francisco studio was not completed until 1972.


The Residents – The Warner Bros. Album CDr, unofficial release, 1977.
all decryption codes in comments

Tracklist –
Strawberry Fields Forever
The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany
Baby Skeletons & Dogs
Bop Bop (Shoo Bop Bop)
Stuffed Genital (originally entitled Snippet #1)
Every Day I Masturbate on A Merican Fag
Oh Mommy Oh Daddy Can’t You See That it’s True
Baby Skeletons & Dogs Reprise
The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany Reprise
Love & Peace (originally entitled Going to Arcata Blues)
The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany Reprise 2
Black Velvet Original
The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany Reprise 3
Christmas Morning Foto (originally entitled Jimi Hendrix Dildo)
The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany Reprise 4
In the Still of the Night
Maggie’s Farm (originally the ending of this track was entitled Snippet #2)
Snot & Feces (live at The Grunt Festival)
Sweet Meat
Oh Yeah Uhh Bop Shoo Bop
Ohm is Where the Art Is
Concerto in R Flat Minor I
Concerto in R Flat Minor II
Concerto in R Flat Minor III (originally entitled Snippet #3)
Gagagapiggaeioupe
Sell American
Love Theme from a Major Motion Picture
Prelude for Accordion, Sousaphone, & French Horn
Oh God You’re a Pie in the Sky
Short Circuit Comes to Town I (originally entitled Snippet #4)
Short Circuit Comes to Town II (originally entitled Snippet #5)
Marching Toward AEIOU Blues
In the Still of the Night Again
Unknown Title (originally entitled Snippet #6)
Oh Mommy Oh Daddy Can’t You See That it’s True Again
Art, the White Elephant (Instrumental I & II were originally part of this track)
Instrumental I
Instrumental II
Psychedelic & Orgasmic Finale I
Psychedelic & Orgasmic Finale II

On October 18, 1971 The Residents would play their first show at The Boarding House, a small club in San Francisco. It was 'open mic' night that evening, & the group along with Senada & Lithman took over the stage. They performed 30 minutes of poetry set to music. For Lithman, the event would provide yet another monumental moment in moniker mutation. Someone had taken a photo of him playing his violin. Upon viewing it, one of The Residents noted that his pinky finger was positioned in a manner much like how a snake would appear just prior to making an attack. Hence, Lithman became 'Snakefinger'. He would use the name for the rest of his life. He would remain a close friend & collaborator with the group until his death. The Boarding House performance was captured on tape. Portions of it make up parts of Baby Sex, the band's last sub-subterraneaneously self-manufactured tape before making a go at making the music world wobble on a different axis altogether.



Baby Sex is another experimental reel-to-reel tape which has never been release in its entirely in any form. Portions of this 37 minute album were recorded live at the Boarding House in San Francisco on October 18, 1971 as mentioned above & also at radio station KHSC-FM (Arcata, California) during a live interview. The shocking & censored front cover illustration for the tape box was taken from a kiddie-porn advertisement from Denmark. Only the back cover design is pictured here. Once again, the complete Baby Sex tape was heard during the 1977 KBOO-FM Residents Festival

Kamikaze Lady was released on the Residue album, the Heaven?/Hell! CD & was also included with the instrumental track "King Kong" on The Residents Radio Special cassette; "Eloise" was included on the Whatever Happened To Vilness Fats? soundtrack LP & on The Eyeball Show live album. The full recording of The Boarding House show was released in 1991 on the Daydream B Liver CD (UWEB). The full recording of the KHSC show was released in 1997 as part of Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses 4xCD box set (Euro Ralph). Margaret Swaton née Margaret Smyk played the part of night-club singer Peggy Honeydew on several Residents outings. She sings on "Hallowed Be Thy Ween".



Track A1 – riff borrowed from the Tim Buckley's song “Down by the Borderline".
Track A2 – a parody of Led Zeppelin's song "Whole Lotta Love".
Track A5 – written by Frank Zappa.
Tracks B1 & B2 – live at The Boarding House, San Francisco, CA (October 18, 1971).
Tracks B3, parts A to E – live in studio KHSC-FM, Arcata, CA (October 30, 1971).

The Residents – Baby Sex reel-to-reel, unreleased, 1971.

Side A –
We Stole This Riff
Holelottadick
Baby Sex
Deepsea Diver Song
King Kong
Cantaten to der Dyin Prunen

Side B –
Something Devilish
The Fourth Crucifixion
Hallowed Be Thy Ween Medley
  1. Sandman
  2. Eat Me Mother
  3. Eloise
  4. For Doorknob
  5. Kamikaze Lady

Enjoy,




The Naked Cult

This file has been fixed 08/09/2014.  
 
 
An astute listener let me know that there was a recording error at the 2:46 minute mark of Side B. Sorry to anyone who previously downloaded this. So sue me!





Back from my Holiday with the Checkered Demon. Had a Hell of a time. Back to the sulfur & brimstone. Had a request from Nick Stanley, a visitor to that other blog I contribute to, the old Meltd0wn, asking if I could post up Hickey’s self-titled opus. Sure ‘nuff. 


Hickey – Hickey, Probe Records PR-05, 1995.
decryption code in comments

Side A –
Believe
40 Oz. of Bad Karma
Basic Tips for Squirrel Hunting Success
Sean’s Mohawk
California Redemption
Her Prosthetic Hands
Stupid Sun
War of the Super-egos
Treadle of the Loom

Side B –
In the Beginning

Miss ya, Matty!

19 June 2014

Holiday in Paris, Where Else?




Featured here is the short-lived (1968 - 1973)St. Louis, Missouri based Black Artists Group, a group playing music similar to the more well known The Art Ensemble of Chicago. BAG only recorded this one album. It was only released in France on a label named after the group. In Paris, Aries 1973 was, as the name implies, recorded live in Paris in 1973 in memory of Kada Kayan (bassist who was to be part of the group in Paris, he died of encephalitis before their departure) with a lineup including: Joseph Bowie - trombone, conga, & miscellaneous instruments; Baikida E.J. Carroll - trumpet, flugelhorn, bass, log drum, cowbells, & miscellaneous instruments; Charles 'Bobo' Shaw - drums, woodblocks, gong, & miscellaneous instruments; Floyd LeFlore – vocals, trumpet, & miscellaneous instruments; & Oliver Lake - saxophones, flute, marimbas, mud drums, & miscellaneous instruments.

In France the group received a warm welcome. They played many gigs throughout France (usually under the moniker Oliver Lake BAG Ensemble). Oliver Lake would later join the renowned World Saxophone Quartet while Joseph Bowie (Art Ensemble's Lester Bowie's brother) formed the group Defunkt.

This is squeaky squawky Free Jazz perfectly highlighting the greatness of the early 70s sound. The album was a limited release, with only a few hundred copies pressed. This album was re-released on vinyl only in March 2011 by Rank & File Records of Berlin with a limited number of 500 albums. That re-release has already sold out. The album is once again out of print.
 


Black Artists Group - In Paris, Aries 1973, Black Artists Group BAG 324 000, 1973.
decryption code in comments

Program 1

Echos (Bowie, Lake, Shaw, Le Flore, Carroll)
Something to Play On (Shaw)

Program 2

B1 .

Re-Cre-A-Tion (Lake)
OLCSJBFLBC (Bowie, Lake, Shaw, Le Flore, Carroll)

Enjoy,









Satan Take an Unholy Day


I might be gone for a few days. I'm taking a holiday with Satan.




Even the Devil needs a little revitalizing now & again. Anton LaVey here applies his kaleidoscopic vision to conjure forth occult musical treasures, sending them out into the æthers, to haunt & delight us. With his background in classical, burlesque, circus, & roadhouse styles of playing, LaVey uses modern synthesizer technology for illegal purposes---to evoke feelings. The murky deathless halls of Tartarus resound with songs of suicide, strained gaiety, & unreserved romance. Dim the lights, settle back, & let His Infernal Majesty take you on a holiday tour of His world…




Remakes of classic old songs, mastered with the unique touch of Anton Lavey & his Unholy Organ. "Band Organ Medley" contains "Money in My Clothes", "Taboo", "Giovanni" & "Yankee Rose". Additional vocal help by Blanche Barton on "Blue Prelude" & "Satan Takes a Holiday 2" & Nick Bougas (tracks 4, 7, 11, 14, & 15).


Anton Szandor LaVey – Satan Takes a Holiday, Amarillo Records ACM 594, 1995.
decryption code in comments

Tracklist –

Satan Takes a Holiday (instrumental)
Answer Me
The Whirling Dervish
Chloe (The Song of the Swamp)
Thine Alone
Golden Earrings
The More I See You
Band Organ Medley
Hello Central, Give Me No Man’s Land
Blue Prelude
Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise
Honolulu Baby
Variations on “The Mooche”
Here Lies Love
Dixie
If You Were the Only Girl
Satan Takes a Holiday (vocal)
Satanis Theme

Hail the Horned One,

15 June 2014

More Animals that Swim --- German Shepherds




In the days before proper anger management therapy, two disaffected Zen students from Akron in northern Ohio bonded in their urban commune over their mutual distaste for the growing new age movement & their common love of many aspects of recorded music, particularly how such music was written, produced, & distributed. They moved to San Francisco, CA & what followed was an early example of DIY effort.

The German Shepherds was formed by Sandy Stark & Stephen Scheatzle in 1981. They concocted lumbering, atonal synth blorping, & stumbling drum machines patterns that serve a very loose backdrop to the flat, cynically delivered lyrics that mocked the paradigms of control: politics; morality; & religion, complete with the requisite Jim Jones appropriation that was commonplace for the proponents of Industrial Culture. They released a three song 7” in 1981 with "I Adore You", an offering of prayer & submission along with "Message from JJ", a rousing sermon by Peoples Temple chief Rev. Jim Jones on one Side A & "Booty Jones", a paean to child molester & kidnapper Kenneth Parnell on the other Side A. These songs feature Stark's menacing yet child-like vocal affectations.

In 1983 the Shepherds began work on their first LP. In early 1984 they released "THC" b/w "Quit It", a promotional single from those sessions. Scant information exists about the band. Misleading biographies & omissions are a part of their legend. For instance, they announced that Sandy Stark was arrested in June of 84 on trumped up child molestation charges. He committed suicide while awaiting trial. Shattered by Stark's death, Scheatzle enlisted German Shepherd producer Mark Hutchinson to replace Stark. The band continued on with Hutchinson replacing Stark…well sort of... as Stark & Hutchinson are in fact the same person. The Sandy Stark suicide was all just a publicity stunt to support the 1984 album Music For Sick Queers.


Side A –
I Adore You
Message from J.J. (Jim Jones)

Side A(?) –
Booty Jones

I also included two bonus tracks from the You’ll Hate This Record Record compilation.

The Earthquake has Come
&
I Adore You (dub version)

Feelin’ lucky, punk?