Reachout

Recently I posted a bunch of cyberpunk related musick. In the course of that post I doled out some Cybotron. Thought you might like a bit more...but wait, this is Bill Laswell doing "Cybotron". Well, I’m always partial to the Bills around here.

Bill Laswell - ROIR Dub Sessions, Reachout International Records RSCD9500, 2003.

decryption code in comments

Dread Iternal
Thunupa
Cybotron
Ethiopia / The Lower Ground

808,
NØ

Nuggets from a Legendary Prick: Return of the Lord of Garbage

I've posted plenty Kim Vincent Fowley madness (Venus & the Razorblades,  Dyan Diamond, Kim Fowley, Jr - Son of Frankenstein, Kim Fowley - Snake Document Masquerade...) hereabouts.  Fowley was "charismatic & repulsive, brilliant & demented, a visionary & a scumdog". But I never posted up anything as gloriously Fowl(ey) as this slab. Dig in.

The 32 tracks are comprised of tunes Fowley released in the '60s either: under his own name; songs he wrote or co-wrote; & songs he produced. Impossible but True: The Kim Fowley Story is a trip through an alternate history of rock in the '60s.

When Kim ran away from home in 1959, the world of rock 'n' roll became his life. After working as a publicist, promotion man, & song publisher, he co-produced his first #1 hit in 1960, "Alley Oop" by the Hollywood Argyles. More hits followed including B Bumble & the Stingers' worldwide smash "Nut Rocker" (written by Fowley) in 1962, & the Murmaids' "Popsicles & Icicles", a Fowley production that hit #1 in Record World in early 1964. The rest of the decade saw him involved with a multitude of projects in a multitude of roles: PJ Proby, the Hellions (with Dave Mason & Jim Capaldi), the Lancasters (with Richie Blackmore), the Mothers of Invention, Cat Stevens, the 'N Betweens (later to become Slade), the Belfast Gypsies (Them), Soft Machine, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, & Gene Vincent, to name just a few.

Despite all his industry connections & his ear for a saleable gimmick, Fowley remained one of pop's supporting players, a loose cannon condemned to a fringe role. His ear was more finely tuned to outrage than mainstream. It may have seemed like a good idea in 1968 to record the homicidal garage-rock song "Animal Man", with its promise to "butcher all the girls on the floor of my living-room". A year later, after the Manson Family murders, it probably didn't seem so funny. Kinda prophetic yet timing is everything.

This sucker appropriately starts with "Animal Man". I’ve included the 36 page booklet.

Various - Impossible but True: The Kim Fowley Story, Ace CDCHD 888, 2003.

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Animal Man
Bubblegum - Kim Fowley
Justine - The Rangers
To Die Alone - The Bush
Alley-Oop - The Hollywood Argyles
Reputation - The Rangers
Nut Rocker - B. Bumble & the Stingers
Popsicles & Icicles - The Murmaids
Shush Boomer - The Alpines
The Trip - Kim Fowley
The Comedown Song - Spider
Security - The 'N Betweens
Daydreaming of You - The Hellions
Portobello Road - Cat Stevens
Satan's Holiday - The Lancasters
Charge! - The Renegades
You Been Torturing Me - Gary S. Paxton & the Hollywood Argyles
Like Long Hair - Paul Revere & the Raiders
Heads Up, High Hopes Over You - The Pharoahs
Gloria's Dream - The Belfast Gypsies
Ski Storm (Part 1) - The Snowmen
No More - Little Victor & the Vistas
Louisiana Teardrops - Elfstone
Wild Thing - Cathy Rich
Space Odyssey - Kim Fowley
Fallin' Off the Edge of My Mind - The Seeds
Rainbow at Midnight - Gene Vincent
Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin' - The Soft Machine
People! Let's Freak Out - Freaks of Nature
Pink Dominos - The Crescents
Honest I Do - The Innocents
Papa Oom Mow Mow - The Rivingtons

Its too dirty, it'll be banned,
NØ

Adam in Burning Chrome Chains

There was a time back in the mid-80s to mid-90s when I read every good cyberpunk offering I could lay my hands on. Gibson, Sterling, Rucker, Snow Crash-era Stephenson, John Shirley...ad infinitum. A few months ago I picked up a copy of Gibson's Peripheral at a used bookstore I frequent. After blazing through it way way too fast, I had strangely rekindled my jones for all things Sprawl, Bridge, Blue Ant, & beyond. I decided to reread all his books, grabbed Neuromancer, & dug in. It was way cool to read the various trilogies in three book chunks (when they first arrived we were forced to await the author's whim per further installments). I just finished rereading Peripheral. Now all I have to do is pick up a cheap copy of Agency & I’ll be a happy camper.

Here's some music I channeled while digging the cyberlit.

While Billy Idol's album Cyberpunk is about the cyberpunk culture in general, it's primary source of inspiration was William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer, from the overall visual esthetic of the artwork to songs such as "Wasteland" & "Neuromancer," (even the cover of Velvet Underground's "Heroin" as a tie-in to Neuromancer's protagonist Case & his various addictions).

Billy Idol - Cyberpunk, Chrysalis F2 26000, 1993.

all decryption codes are in comments

Intro
Wasteland
Interlude
Shock to the System
Tomorrow People
Adam in Chains
Neuromancer
Power Junkie
Interlude
Love Labours On
Heroin (Velvet Underground cover)
Interlude
Shangri La
Concrete Kingdom
Interlude
Venus
Then the Night Comes
Interlude
Mother Dawn
Outro

Transverse City is not every Zevon fan's favorite, but it's admittedly his most dismal album. Zevon always projected a dark side but he usually dressed his real-life horror stories in droll humor & a sense of wicked fun. But with Transverse City  he forgoes that formula. Although his lyrics stray away from murder & mayhem, songs like "Run Straight Down" & "They Moved the Moon" are easily among the bleakest, darkest songs from this excitable boy. Yet they're done without even a touch of humor. "Run Straight Down" is a grim ode to despair with stressfully swirling synths & David Gilmour guitar solo. The song begins with a menacingly chanted chemical formula & spirals ever dark from there. "Went walking in the wasted city/ started thinking about entropy" ala William Gibson.

"Told my little Pollyanna/There's a place for you and me/
We'll go down to Transverse City/Life is cheap, and Death is free
Past the condensation silos/Past the all-night trauma stand
We'll be there before tomorrow/Pollyanna, take my hand"

"Show us endless neon vistas/Castles made of laser lights
Take us to the shopping sector/In the vortex of the night
Past the shiny, mylar towers/Past the ravaged tenements
To a place we can't remember/For a time we won't forget"
     from "Transverse City"

Warren Zevon - Transverse City, Virgin America 2-91068, 1989.

Transverse City
Run Straight Down
The Long Arm of the Law
Turbulence
They Moved the Moon
Splendid Isolation
Networking
Gridlock
Down in the Mall
Nobody’s in Love This Year

Not only did Cybotron and Gibson more or less create entire genres within their fields (Detroit techno & cyberpunk, respectively), both presented dystopian, idiosyncratic visions of the future that, unlike the vast majority of similar predictions, have actually come true.

Cybotron - Enter, Fantasy F-9625, 1983.

Side 1 -
Enter
Alley of Your Mind
Industrial Lies
The Line

Side 2 -
Cosmic Cars
Cosmic Raindance
El Salvador
Clear

Dope Stars Inc. play primarily hardcore industrial with a special emphasis on technology & cyberpunk imagery. Keeping with a technological style, the band has focused on the strength of computers & society's over-dependence on them. The title of their first album, ://Neuromance, is an obvious homage to Gibson's initial novel.

"Born from the dust of the cyber world/there is no chance of salvation/but we fuckin' like it!" Dope Stars Inc. from "Rebel Riot".

Dope Stars Inc. - ://Neuromance 2xCD, Trisol TRI  229 CD, 2005.

CD 1 (link) -

Code Capricorn: Rise of the Machines

10,000 Watts
Infection 13
Platinum Girl,
Make a Star
Vyperpunk
Generation Platic

Code Saturn: Ultaviolent E-Volution

Rebel Riot
Theta Titanium
Self Destructive Corp.
Plug'N'Die

Code Cancer: Epicentre Gigaheartz

Defcon 5
Trance-Former
C-Beams

CD 2 (link) -

Code Cancer (cont,)

I'm Overdriven
Kiss (London After Midnight cover)
Right Here in My Arms (HIM cover)
10,000 Watts (Funker Vogt remix)
Vyperpunk (Deathstars remix)
Make a Star (Siderartica version)
Self Destructive Corp (Mortiis Midnight Mass remix)
10,000 Watts (Punto Omega remix)
Generation Plastic (Carmilla remix)
Make a Star (High Level Static Maximegalon remix)
10,000 Watts (Needleye Flatline remix)
Make a Star (Esoterica remix)
Plug'N'Die (Underwater Pilots remix)
Make a Star (Sundealers Panzer edit)
Platinum Girl (Endraum remix)
Infection 13 (DJm0 feat. Stephanie Luzie remix)
Generation Plastic (Pilori Decaydance remix)
Vyperpunk (Spiritual Front version)

Like lots of teenagers, Jasper Patterson was obsessed with The Matrix Trilogy when the films came out. Then his mother gave him a copy of William Gibson’s groundbreaking cyberpunk sci-fi novel Neuromancer. “This is where it all started,” she told him.

Ever since, Patterson, who creates electronic music under the moniker Groundislava, has been a major league cyberpunk fan. Frozen Throne encapsulates his passion in literature within his passion for music.

Groundislava - Frozen Throne, Friends of Friends FOF 134CD, 2014.

Girl Behind the Glass
Terminate Uplink
Frozen Throne
Under the Glow
The Descent
Feel the Heat
October Acid
A Way Out
October Pt. 2
Steel Sky

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." – William Gibson, Neuromancer.

Information Society or InSoc chose their name from George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984,there called Ingsoc. They're here for the Mirrorshades.

Information Society - Hack, Tommy Boy 9 26258-2, 1990.

Seek 200
How Long
Think / Wenn Wellen Schwingen
A Knife & a Fork / R.I.P.
Now That I Have You
Fire Tonight
Can't Slow Down / T.V. Addicts
Hard Currency
Move Out / CP Drill KKL
Mirrorshades  We Don't Take
Hack 1 / Charlie X
If Only
Come with Me
Slipping Away / Here is Kazmeyer
Chemistry

Renown bassist Stuart Hamm's first solo album, 1988s Radio Free Albemuth, was inspired by the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name. Kings of Sleep is the second solo album released by Hamm. The title of the album as well as many of the songs were inspired by the novels & short stories of William Gibson: Neuromancer ("Black Ice"); Count Zero(track title as well as the name of Gibson's second novel & the hacker handle of one of its protagonists); & the short story "The Winter Market" (Kings of Sleep is the name of a fictional stim-album in that story).

Stuart Hamm - Kings of Sleep, Relativity 88561-1013-2, 1989.

Black Ice
Surely the Best
Call of the Wild
Terminal Beach
Count Zero
I Want to Know
Prelude in C (Johann Sebastian Bach cover)
Kings of Sleep

Here's a final handful of tracks to round out this fiasco. Del the Funky Sapien singing about Neuromancer, a pair of Gibson inspired tunes from Sonic Youth, & two by Steely Dan that influenced Gibson: "Barrytown" (Bobby 'Count Zero' Newmark's New Jersey home town is Barrytown, where the youth culture is dominated by gangs who fetishize haircuts & clothing styles ["But look at what you wear/And the way you cut your hair"] & "Deacon Blues" (Reclusive artist Slick Henry lives in a place named Factory in the Dog Solitude, a large poisoned expanse of deserted factories & dumps on the tattered edge of The Sprawl. Slick Henry is a convicted car thief & ex-Deacon Blues gang member ("drink Scotch whiskey all night long & die behind the wheel / They got a name for the winners in the world / I want a name when I lose /They call Alabama the Crimson Tide / Call me  Deacon Blues"). Wrapping up this wrap up is a tune from The Matrix Trilogy by Juno Reactor called "Mona Lisa Overdrive" (Gibson's third novel & finale of The Sprawl Trilogy) & a Zomboy jest. But enough palaver...

Nothin' Sez Count Zero - bonus tracks

no code needed here

Deltron 3030 - 3030
Steely Dan - Barrytown
Sonic Youth - The Sprawl
Steely Dan - Deacon Blues
Sonic Youth - Pattern Recognition
Juno Reactor - Mona Lisa Overdrive
Zomboy - Vancouver Beatdown

All Tomorrow's Parties,
NØ

Munch Some Bush

"Cowboys in Africa" has always been one of my pick-me-up songs. The version here is sublime. & their cover of "Cold Turkey"...I say no more.

Bush Tetras - Tetrafied, Thirsty Ear THI21311.2, 1996.

decryption code in comments

Punch Drunk
Fess Up
In Mind a Run
Das ah Dub
Dub in the Night
Funky Dub
Cowboys in Africa
Cold Turkey
Boom Lakka Lakka
Make Sure
Stare You Down
Point that Gun
Race for Space
Dewback
Juana la Gusta
Voodoo
Rare & unreleased recording from 1980 - 1982...tracks 7, 8, 10, 13 - 16 live.

Bush Tetras is: Cynthia Sley - vocals; Pat Place - guitar; Laura Kennedy - bass; & Dee Pop - drums,  compiled by Henry Rollins & Dee Pop.

Make Sure,
NØ

She’s as Beautiful as a Foot

In May 2009 I offered a birthday salutation to a fellow Taurean "Then Cäme the Läst Däys of Mäy". It was called "3 & a half minutes of aural beauty". It featured one of my favorite BÖC tunes, from their initial self-titled album of 1972. The three song set that ends that first side is also one of my favorite chunks of "aural beauty". I decided to post up those three song but when I dug into the BÖC stack, I reacquainted myself with other tunes I had left to another time.

Culled from the first seven Blue Öyster Cult studio albums (primarily the first three "Black & White" releases...by Cultosaurus Erectus I could only really offer up "Divine Wind"). If the band was in decline since the Black & White trilogy, then they went to total shit when Al Bouchard was fired after Fires of Unknown Origins. This compilation ends with the three song set this concept began with....big finish!

Blue Öyster Cult - The BÖCult of the Sad Mollusk Boys 1972 - 1982.

She’s as Beautiful as a Foot
ME 262
Divine World
The Red & the Black
This Ain’t the Summer of Love
The Revenge of Vera Gemini
Harvester of Eyes
Joan Crawford
Morning Final
O.D.’d on Life Itself
Death Valley Nights
Sole Survivor
Dominance & Submission
Flaming Telepaths
I Love the Night
Then Came the Last Days of May
Stairway to the Stars
Before the Kiss, a Redcap


Also I have added the band's(???) swansong (IMO) Imaginos. One of the best BÖC albums you probably never heard. The story behind Imaginos is interesting enough to tell here, I believe. If you want the in-depth stuff, check out Imaginos: Cult-album enigma, titanic turd, or both?

The concept of Imaginos was originally created by the young Sandy Pearlman for a collection of poems & scripts called The Soft Doctrines of Immaginos. Pearlman was Blue Öyster Cult's lyricist/producer. Bouchard began writing music for Imaginos following the release of the BÖCs first album in 1972. There were plans as early as 1975 to release a concept album dedicated to Pearlman's scripts, but the material was not ready. All of the songs had been written by 1977. At least four of them ("Astronomy", "In the Presence of Another World", "I Am the One You Warned Me Of", & "Imaginos") were completed & recorded during the sessions for the album Spectres. Demos of the other tracks were recorded by Bouchard & remained in various stages of development during the following years. Two parts of the narrative, "Subhuman" (now entitled "Blue Oyster Cult") & "Astromony" appeared in earlier iterations on 1974s Secret Treaties (last of the Black & White trilogy). By 1981, when work began in earnest on Imaginos, it had become essentially Bouchard’s solo project. Both Bouchard & Pearlman were out of the Cult.

However, as the early Bouchard/Pearlman Imaginos sessions ramped up, the two were joined by Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, Joe Bouchard, & Allen Lanier along with several other notable guest stars, including Robby Krieger of the Doors (on two tracks, including "Blue Oyster Cult" [the rewrite of "Subhuman"]), Aldo Nova, Kenny Aaronson & Thommy Price (both from the Billy Idol band).

Despite the star power, however, this first mix of Imaginos was summarily rejected by Columbia Records, sending the project further along on its strange odyssey. Pearlman would continue tinkering, adding future Blue Öyster Cult bassist Jon Rogers on vocals for the title track, a young Joe Satriani on "The Siege & Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria" (the guitarist actually traded for studio time to finish Surfing with the Alien, his 1987 breakthrough), as well as parts from Karl Precoda of the Dream Syndicate, among others. Still more new vocals & guitar parts were added, along with a keyboard overdub by Allen Lanier’s BÖC successor Tommy Zvoncheck. The final version was finally released in 1988.

Blue Öyster Cult - Imaginos, Columbia Records FC 40618, 1988.
decryption code in comments

Side 1 -
I am the One You Warned Me Of
Les Invisibles
In the Presence of Another World
Del Rio’s Song
The Siege & Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein’s Castle at Weisseria

Side 2 -
Astronomy
Magna of Illusion
Blue Öyster Cult
Imaginos



Man, this started out as just some Blue Öyster Cult flight of fancy...then it metamorph’d into some entirely different soft doctrine.

After Albert was fired from BÖC in 1981, he returned to work with Sandy Pearlman on the Imaginos project, recording all the basic tracks by 1982. Then Albert brought Joe Bouchard, Allen Lanier, &  Buck Dharma to play certain portions of some of the tracks. By 1984, the Imaginos work was essentially completed. Sandy Pearlman first approached CBS about putting the album together around 1981, & CBS was initially interested in the project. But BÖC basically imploded by 1986.  Now CBS’s only interest was as a new BÖC album with Eric Bloom & Buck Dharma singing lead vocals.

With the band re-forming in mid 1987 without Albert or Joe Bouchard, Albert abandoned the Imaginos project. However, Sandy Pearlman & BÖC went forward with the project, re-doing some of the tracks by early 1988, releasing Imaginos as a Cult album later that year. The original 5 members of the band are credited as performing on the album, along with several other musicians (see section about BÖC - Imaginos).  However, it is not clear how much of a BÖC album it really was, beyond Eric & Buck’s lead vocals.

According to Albert Bouchard, the bulk of the instrumentation credits should go to former Ian Hunter guitarist Tommy Moringiello, former David Johansen guitarist Jack Rigg, Tommy Mandel (keyboards – uncredited on the album), Kenny Aaronson (bass) & Thommy Price (drums) both of Billy Idol band. Tommy Zvoncheck later indicated that most of Tommy Mandel’s keyboard parts were replaced by his own on the Columbia version of Imaginos.

Give these demos a listen if you care about such things...it’s worth it just for the Subhuman Dub ("Blue Oyster Cult (reprise)").

Albert Bouchard & Friends - Imaginos Demos, Al Bouchard studio soundboard, 1981-1984.

I Am the One You Warned Me Of
Imaginos
Gil Blanco County
Del Rio’s Song
Blue Oyster Cult
Les Invisibles
The Girl That Love Made Blind
The Siege & Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein’s Castle at Weisseria
In the Presence of Another World
Blue Oyster Cult (reprise)
Astronomy 1984
Magna of Illusion
Magna of Illusion Chorale

musicians on these demos: Al Bouchard – lead vocals, drums, guitar; Tommy Moringiello – guitars; Jack Rigg – guitars; Phil Grandee – guitar; Tommy Mandel – keyboards; Kenny Aaronson – bass; Thommy Price – drums; & Jon Rogers – additional lead vocal (“I Am The One You Warned Me Of ”) with backing vocalists Jeff Kawalik, Corky Stasiak, Helen Wheels, Glen Bell, Peggy Atkins,  & Casper McCloud

Radios Appear,
NØ

I’m Feelin’ Really Funked Up (Oh My Baby Pussy) Everything Is On The One Up In Here

Last night the Mothership landed & freed my mind. My honkey ass soon followed. Been a while since I laid down any good P-Funk. I’ve been boosting Dub for the last few months to get the biggest bang for my bud. Now I’m slick as any puffin’ viper ever struck a stride. Here’s a quart’ o’ puro FUNK.

Funkadelic - America Eats Its Young 2xLP, Westbound Records 2WB 2020, 1972.

all decryption codes in comments

Side 1 -
You Hit the Nail on the Head
If You Don’t Like the Effects, Don’t Produce the Cause
Everybody is Going to Make it This Time

Side 2 -
A Joyful Process
We Hurt Too
Loose Booty
Philmore

Side 3 -
Pussy
America Eats Its Young
Biological Speculation
That Was My Girl

Side 4 -
Balance
Miss Lucifer’s Love
Wake Up

Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, Casablanca NBLP 7034, 1976.

Side 1 -
Prelude
Gamin’ on Ya
Dr. Funkenstein
Children of Production
Getten to Know You

Side 2 -
Do That Stuff
Everything is on the One
I’ve Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body)
Funkin’ for Fun

Bootsy’s Rubber Band - Bootsy? Player of the Year, Warner Bros. Records BSK 3093, 1978.

Side 1: Radio Active -
Bootsy? (What’s the Name of This Town)
May the Force Be with You
Very Yes

Side 2: Monster Rock -
Bootzilla
Hollywood Squares
Roto-Rooter
As in (I Love You)

The Brides of Funkenstein - Never Buy Texas from a Cowboy, Atlantic SD 19261, 1979.

Side One -
Never Buy Texas from a Cowboy
I’m Holding You Responsible

Side Two -
Smoke Signals
Mother May I?
Party Up in Here
Didn’t Mean to Fall in Love

As in I Love You,
NØ

I Recently Noticed

...a great deal of activity on the Cruising...with Ruben & the Jets post. It’s needed re-upped for a long time now but...doh. I re-ripped it from not-bad-for-50yr-old vinyl at 48,000 HZ 320Kbps so it should sound even better this time than last. If I gots ta du it ova, eyes mite asswell dew eet rite.

I’m starting to funk out. I’ll post the results of that when I shake it all out. Until that time here’s the shout out...no bout adout it.

Here’s the link to the original post where the notice arose..

Later that night...I cried my heart out.

NØ

Grey Poupon Dub

After the great Jamaican Dub diaspora, Dub spread across the globe. It settled in some very unexpected places. The Dub scene in Great Britain is well documented (I’ve certainly posted a large share of On-U Sound / Conscious Sounds). Places like Germany (Dub Spencer & Trance Hill / Umberto Echo), Austria (Dubblestandart / Shalamanda HiFi), Netherlands (Twilight Circus),  France (Art-X / Panda Dub), & Italy (Imperial Sound Army / Alambic Conspiracy) are also happy homes to some fantastic Twenty-first Century Dub.


Original Dub Gathering is a French net-label created by Ondubground, promoting a wide range of music in Roots, Dub, Stepper & Dubstep style, for free & legal download (under Creative Commons license), from various artists around the world. Label name is shortened to ODG Prod.

Full Dub is producer Fabien Romain from Dijon, France.

Full Dub - Hard EP, Original Dub Gathering ODGP136, 2016.

In Your Mind
Speed of Light
Atoms
Hard
Break Your Neck

Full Dub - Heavy EP, Original Dub Gathering ODGP163, 2017

Arc
Legendary Horn featuring Soulprodz
The Wall
Inside
Heavy Breaking

Full on Dub,
NØ