07 August 2023

Houston...This is Neil & Buzz...Reporting in from Tranquility Base...The Bird has Flipped...

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...
 
 

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.
 
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,

15 comments:

  1. They Came in Peace
    nHeN3ruLBg9D2tRL_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

    ReplyDelete
  2. 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!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks 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!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don’t know what happened to my reply to your comment, but noticed today that it was missing.

      All 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

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. Yessirree. But it's Bring Your Own Snacks (BYOS).

      Delete
    2. Great mix lost in the digital wilderness. Miles could easily move a toe or two to this Thanks Nathan.
      Diego

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    3. 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.

      Delete
  5. I'm going to take a trip to Tranquility Bass! Many thanks.

    Brian

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's well worth the price of the ticket. Enjoy.

      Delete
  6. Thanks 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!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the comment, MrDave.

      I 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.

      Delete
  7. hi NØ
    would you mind sharing the passcode for decrypting downloads?
    TIA!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 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
  8. NØ A refreshing journey into the 90 s rave party =Tranquility Bass - Let the Freak Flag Fly=...Big up one more time for this awesome album of the late 20th century...you truly rock bro.

    ReplyDelete