Tranquiity Bass...what can I say?
Tranquility Bass started life as the duo of Michael Kandel & Tom Chasteen They originally released material on their Exist Dance label.
Tranquility Bass - They Came in Peace (from They Came in Peace 12")
all decryption codes in comments
Tranquility Bass - Cantamilla (from California Dreaming Sampler 12")
These early 90s sounds are some of the finest encapsulations of a music scene where thousands of contrary yet interconnected ideas straight out of the minds & off the pages of Mondo 2000, science / fiction authors Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, cybernetic systems analysts, techno-utopians, or hardcore ecologists were surge-blended into an amalgam of the times.
If that's not enough of a Mindfuck, here's a few more...
Cap'm Stargazer vs Commander Mindfuck - Untitled, Exist Dance ED 014, 1994.
Side A -
Battle on the Tundra (The Initial Citrus Earthquake Confrontation)
The Mindfuck Introspective Ancestral Channeling Pilgrimage
Side B -
Allied Against Nivar the Floor Killer
Captain Mindfuck - Whiskey & Blood (from Commander Mindfuck/ The What of Sane split, 1997).
Commander Mindfuck - Hodah (from Isotope 217 mixed by Commander Mindfuck, 1999).
(note: Matthew Lux is the bass player for Isotope 217 & was Tranquility Bass touring bassist)
Since his death in May 2015, Michael Kandel has been heralded for his work in the early American rave scene & as the unheralded founding father of Trip-hop.
However, that's not what I get when I touch down at Tranquility Bass. Nothing of the Exist Dance tracks hinted at what I'm getting. In 1994 Chasteen moved to Tuscon, Arizona where his Skull Valley project was born. Kandel joined up withTyler Vlaovich to record an album on Lopez Island, Washington. In 1997 the album was released as Let the Freak Flag Fly on Astralwerks Records.
My freak flag for music flies free as any of you muthas out here, but this really did me righteous. To this day, every time I listen to this beloved disc, it checks all the boxes for me, musically, yet I have no idea why. It's a beautiful mystery, this recording. There's a sappy cover of a Jimmie Rodgers 1927 World War I ballad & a serious-as-a-fart-attack Western prairie anthem about fungus & yet I love every second of it. It's been described as "a grand journey through nearly a century of recorded music, a densely layered montage of electronic manipulations & live instruments".
Performed by the Insatiably Eclectic Hippy Freeform Freakout Band.
However, that's not what I get when I touch down at Tranquility Bass. Nothing of the Exist Dance tracks hinted at what I'm getting. In 1994 Chasteen moved to Tuscon, Arizona where his Skull Valley project was born. Kandel joined up withTyler Vlaovich to record an album on Lopez Island, Washington. In 1997 the album was released as Let the Freak Flag Fly on Astralwerks Records.
My freak flag for music flies free as any of you muthas out here, but this really did me righteous. To this day, every time I listen to this beloved disc, it checks all the boxes for me, musically, yet I have no idea why. It's a beautiful mystery, this recording. There's a sappy cover of a Jimmie Rodgers 1927 World War I ballad & a serious-as-a-fart-attack Western prairie anthem about fungus & yet I love every second of it. It's been described as "a grand journey through nearly a century of recorded music, a densely layered montage of electronic manipulations & live instruments".
Performed by the Insatiably Eclectic Hippy Freeform Freakout Band.
Tranquility Bass - Let the Freak Flag Fly, Astralwerks ASW 6200, 1997.
Five Miles High
La La La
The Bird
Soldier's Sweetheart
We All Want to be Free
Never Gonna End
I'll be Here
Let the Freak Flag Fly
Lichen Me to Wyomin'
Enigma me this,
NØ
They Came in Peace
ReplyDeletenHeN3ruLBg9D2tRL_pF-o-KssyEqFhgtIWe2AJgIaYo
Cantamilla
27RTfg7cwzzQ2nk5cBCRtghNRnEXr_injW7lmTHDrC8
Untitked
9KfTbq3CNO7xDt3His9xBkf8hIgzDNTNoIR3Va-5jJ0
Whiskey & Blood
DIsKTc1grlyB38C-eJT8M-jIzN2i-7v4HoXx3LeNAi8
Hodah
LX9RdwHGpcXOtu_v1dq6FtluJlSq19OBPTB-yrUfWLA
Let the Freak Flag Fly
vk_ILUFa1gpt-MW32fM5yf6LjSXSv-ZIWPpwLXPV5k4
Thanks Nathan! Keeping your words as a text file with all these files in a folder so's I have some reference later on. Per my related (by chance) post(s) today, from 60's to Triphop flight!
ReplyDeleteThanks Nathan! I had a subscription to Mondo 2000 back in the early 90s! I follow R. U. Sirius and Bruce Sterling and William Gibson. Good times!
ReplyDeleteDon’t know what happened to my reply to your comment, but noticed today that it was missing.
DeleteAll I really said was that I still have a stack of Mondos & that I still delve into cyberpunk a great deal. I shared a mega-post on Cyberpunk:
https://nathannothinsez.blogspot.com/2018/10/adam-in-burning-chrome-chains.html
& some Mondo Vanilli with R U Sirius:
https://nathannothinsez.blogspot.com/2021/10/why-did-it-have-to-be-nothing-records.html
Hoodah!!
ReplyDeleteYessirree. But it's Bring Your Own Snacks (BYOS).
DeleteGreat mix lost in the digital wilderness. Miles could easily move a toe or two to this Thanks Nathan.
DeleteDiego
Somehow the Insatiably Eclectic Hippy Freeform Freakout Band just strikes the perfect chord with my twisted mind. Let the Freak Flag Fly is one of my all-time top discs.
DeleteI'm going to take a trip to Tranquility Bass! Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteBrian
It's well worth the price of the ticket. Enjoy.
DeleteThanks Nathan -- Tranquility Bass totally passed me by but I'm definitely digging them now. Those days of Re/Search, "Mondo 2000, science / fiction authors Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, cybernetic systems analysts, techno-utopians, or hardcore ecologists" were heady days indeed!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, MrDave.
DeleteI find myself going back to Let the Freak Flag Fly quite regularly. IMO the best TB release. I have one more in the slot for a future post.
"Heady times" indeed. I still have my hoard of old Mondos, nearly everything from Dr. Tim & RAW. In fact, I was just perusing RE/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook the past few days. Great stuff per Z'ev, Throbbing Gristle, Monte Cazazza, Mark Pauline & much much more.
hi NØ
ReplyDeletewould you mind sharing the passcode for decrypting downloads?
TIA!
The list in the first comment is the release titles & the decryption codes. The links are the highlighted titled beneath the cover art for each. Just cut & paste the code when prompted by MEGA after following the link.
Delete