All month long I will be featuring play-offs by the top teams in the League. The first half of the month will be head-to-head battles between the Eastern division hopefuls, Zoviet France going up against the Western division hotshots (with former team-mate) the Rapoon Robins.
Some time ago Frenz of NSS Richard suggested I give thought to sharing some Zoviet France / Rapoon. What better time to share these two rivals than during March Madness. I'll just share the duels & let you, the fans, decide the outcome.
The second half of the month will be the league Final Four throwing down their best singles in a heated slugfest that should prove memorable in the annals of musical sports competition. The teams in the Final Four are, in no certain order: The Dread Zone; The Utah Saints; The Sha Men; & A Certain Rat. Reserve your seats now as these are guaranteed to sell out (& not in a sellout way).
Some time ago Frenz of NSS Richard suggested I give thought to sharing some Zoviet France / Rapoon. What better time to share these two rivals than during March Madness. I'll just share the duels & let you, the fans, decide the outcome.
The second half of the month will be the league Final Four throwing down their best singles in a heated slugfest that should prove memorable in the annals of musical sports competition. The teams in the Final Four are, in no certain order: The Dread Zone; The Utah Saints; The Sha Men; & A Certain Rat. Reserve your seats now as these are guaranteed to sell out (& not in a sellout way).
League Playoffs
Zoviet France is a music group from Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England. Their music is atmospheric experimental, their playing style is dissonant with strong industrial textures.
Original team members include: Lisa Hale (1980-1981); Robin Storey (1980-1992); Peter Jensen (1980-1984); & Ben Ponton (1980-present). They soon signed seasoned vetrans Paolo di Paolo (1984-1986); Mark Spybey (1987-1989); Andy Eardley (1990-1995); & Mark Warren (1995-present)
Rapoon is the ethno-ambient project started by ex-Zoviet France co-founder Robin Storey.
A Bit of History
I first really started following & collecting Zoviet France through a podcast they have on podbean called A Duck in a Tree. I archived about 138 episodes of the podcast, that lead me to so much other great music. Then I suppose other things had come up in my life, other paths & other distractions. During that time I had collected a large number of releases by the band. When Robin Storey moved on to Rapoon, I followed his career as well for many years.
:zoviet*france: presents A Duck in a Tree is a 59 minute continuous mix of some of the best genre-refusing, zero BPM, hypnatropic & maximinimalist recordings that have grabbed the bands attention. As of this writing, their most recent is A Journey to Three Quarters Episode 703 (yes #703) first broadcast 13 December 2025 by Resonance 104.4 FM & CJMP 90.1 FM. It is the 701st of a series of weekly radio programs created by :zoviet*france (for anyone into such things).
:zoviet*france: - Intro
David Lynch - Intuition [extract]
:zoviet*france: - [untitled – mouth organ]
My Own Cubic Stone - Peat Bed
Dave Dorgan - Monk on Beach
[unknown sound recordist / NASA] - Wind, Rain, Surf
Glenn Sogge - 3x100
Analoc - Padding
The Conet Project - 555 Konec
[unknown sound recordist] - Garsington Manor, Still in a Hurry, Now Running Light, Whistles up the Gradient from Warwick and Dashes Away Through Hatton Station, Towards Birmingham
Arrington de Dionyso with Graeme W. Smith - First Improvisation, Voice and Harp
400 Lonely Things - Amicus
Abigail Toll - Language of Echoes
Juanjo Palacios - Liquerique
Michiko Ogawa - Shizukana Hikari
:zoviet*france: - Outro
The first episode that I began collecting was beta 1, July 14, 2012.
One Umbrella - Eintrocinc
[no artist] - The Best of Günter Noris Volume One | run off groove (side 2)
[bird song - unknown sound recordist] - bhcodd4
Circle - Black Tape
Sex Vir Olli - [title unknown - ‘Vandag Se Waarheid?’ track 2]
Mobile Disco Unit - Food Preparation Unit
Boards of Canada - Sherbet Head
Magnetic Church - untitled [‘Magnetic Church’ track A1] [extract]
Bill Nelson - Crimsworth
Vitriol - Visita
The OO-Ray - Sfumato (live)
Arcane Device - Before Sunrise
For the first league playoff, I present Zoviet France - Music from a Spaghetti Western vs Rapoon - Easterly 6 or 7...
:Zoviet France: - Music from a Spaghetti Western, Klanggalerie gg111, 2005.
decryption codes in comments
decryption codes in comments
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Rapoon - Easterly 6 or 7, Staalplaat STCD114, 1997.
Sign
Our Trespasses
Blow (Lethal Blow)
All Criminals
Waters Reaching
Falling More Slowly
6 or 7
Variable 2
Rattling Sabers
Our Trespasses
Blow (Lethal Blow)
All Criminals
Waters Reaching
Falling More Slowly
6 or 7
Variable 2
Rattling Sabers
Next up tomorrow...Mental Travellers vs Shadow, Thief of the Sun,
NØ
Music for a Spaghetti Western
ReplyDeleteUWcfO3WMLONxFkIR-S8ddtNRaGS1JD7VXNXLEI2OcvU
Easterly 6 or 7
l7bvow_98tpfVo-scWBKQgr9cFmpNIh2HAUHz95cOoY
You won't be surprised, Nate, that I prefer this March madness to the previous month. Utterly excellent!
ReplyDeleteAnd since you are going through your ZF collection ... The End of Nothing, the Beginning of Everything, Russian Heterodoxical Songs, A Long Walk, The Tables Are Turning, Further Collusion, A Third Collusion, Ω ℧ ...
If any of these could enter the competition, I'd be very grateful. Many thanks!
I figure this entire month of shares will be right up your alley. However, the teams already submitted their schedule of entrants fo the Play-offs, so you may or may not get your requests. This is an official League event & requests are not necessarily answersed. & please state who won each stage of the competition if you would so that we can tabulate the winning team.
DeleteBlow (Lethal Blow) is one of my favourite Rapoon pieces, but I think ZF wins this one. Looking forward to the next entries.
DeleteThanks, my friend. The score so far is ZF - 2, RR - 0.
DeleteThank you very much, this is going to be a monumental journey.
ReplyDeleteMy fondest memory linked to :zoviet*france: is a radio show on Dutch pirate radio 100. Horzon 2 22 was invited for a radio show. They set up their stuff and right before they went on air, the dj said, Well, I'm Off for a bag of chips, you'll manage?
and they played for 4 hours or so. There are recordings which to my knowledge are mislabeled as at Patrick at VPRO. For me Through The Round Window remains my favorite of :zoviet*france: related music. I hope you feature it somewhere
This "monumental journey" was all inspired by you. Thanks for the inspiration & the cmment. As I stated in the reply above...the teams already submitted their schedule of entrants fo the Play-offs, so you may or may not get your requests. This is an official League event & requests are not necessarily answersed. Please state who won each stage of the competition if you would so that we can tabulate the winning team.
DeleteGreat selections for this first matchup. I'm a fan of both groups and enjoyed to nudge to relisten to both of these albums this morning over coffee and crosswords. "Scene 2" has to be one of my favorite Zoviet France tunes, from one of the more obscure releases of theirs (I had no idea it wasn't an "official" release until recently). This album is great, though maybe a little inconsistent between tracks. Rapoon however deliver more depth and a fuller sound in their style of dark-industrial-ambience, though I feel at times it lacks some real progression and the warmth that Zoviet France could regularly deliver. I am excited for future iterations of this match up; for this round "Music for a Spaghetti Western" is the clear winner in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the insightful commentary on the action so far. I will be really appreciating when folk give a rundown of the head-to-head battles such as you have done. I especially appreciate you selecting a winner for the individual round. As I sez in the write-up: I'll just share the duels & let you, the fans, decide the outcome. So as of now---ZF - 1, RR - 0.
ReplyDeleteLovely music which I've been listening in loop for entire day
ReplyDeleteGlad you're enjoying these. Many more to come.
Delete