SVEND CHRISTIANSEN/FUZZY-ELECTRONIC MUSIC PRODUCED IN AARHUS, LP, 1974, DENMARK

This fantastic and fantastically obscure Danish split LP of avant garde electronics was bequeathed to us by Mikkel, the fine gentlemen also responsible for unearthing the Gunner Moller Pedersen Stoned LP for us. This one's every bit as sensational. Christiansen occupies the A side and does a great job conjuring barren plains and inky voids pierced by squiggles and squelches on Urvaerk and high tension power lines under insectile assault on Noir but the real discovery here is Fuzzy. Not exactly your average moniker for this sort of rarified electronic music LP, but then Messr. Fuzzy is not your average practitioner, his side long track Blau slowly taking shape as escalating cascades of woody clatter and chain-linked thrum congeal into bursts of through-composed cartoonish electronic tomfoolery in the mode of Perrey & Kingsley and Tom Dissevelt, before glissing off into a twilight mystery electronic realm somewhere between Gunner Moller Pedersen and Ragnar Grippe and spinning out into a vortex of Vorhaus-like delirium at the finale.

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V/A-RANDOM RADAR RECORDS (A RANDOM SAMPLER), LP, 1977, USA/UK

Issued by avant proggers The Muffins on their own house imprint, this little gem higlights the intersections of a certain post-Canterbury/post-R.I.O./pre-Cuneiform sector of he American avant prog continuum as it collides with those responsible for influencing 'em, with brilliant Canterbury and R.I.O. jams being kicked out by Logproof, Illegal Aliens and The Muffins, bombastically surging electronic environments being unleashed by Mars Everywhere, druggy improv sprawl from Catch-A-Buzz Studios and two brief bursts of R.I.O.-esque whimsy from Cuneiform Records' Steve Feigenbaum (the first and last time he's on record, I believe) representing the American contributions and extended solo improv essays from both legendary alto saxist Lol Coxhill and avant prog all-star Fred Frith, who offers up four gorgeous fragments of intricate tabletop guitar dissections in the same mode as those heard on his Guitar Solos LP outings.

Track listing:

1. Logproof-Monster Comes To The City
2. Lol Coxhill-RR1 and RR2
3. Steve Feigenbaum-Borrowed Inspiration
4. Catch-A-Buzz Studios-Cream O' Wheat
5. Mars Everywhere-Attack Of The Giant Squid!
6. Steve Feigenbaum-Enharmonic Toads
7. Fred Frith-Lively Hills
8. Fred Frith-Ragged Rag
9. Fred Frith-Sorrow Music
10. Fred Frith-Sell-Out Music
11. Illegal Aliens-A Mutant Underglass
12. The Muffins-Peacocks, Leopards and Glass

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COMMUNICATION-S/T, LP, DENMARK, 1982

Contributed by an entirely different Dane named Mikkel than the Christiansen/Fuzzy LP also on offer today (it seems to be raining them) this adventurous electro-pop outing was issued on the Irmgardz imprint that brought you other vital Danish synth pop experimentation by the likes of Mind Pollution and Scatterbrain (both shared elsewhere on MS), the latter of whom share some of Communication's interests in artily extending the syntax of dark-tinged synth pop while still keeping events tidily organized; tendencies that elsewhere tug the proceedings in the direction of both Martin Dupont and Keine Ahnung.

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OSSIAN-S/T (AKA KSIEGA DESZCZU), LP, 1975, POLAND

A truly stunning weave of psychedelic avant ethno improvisations and compositions with powerful ritualistic overtones are on offer from this landmark Polish outfit, here with their debut recording. You could situate the sonics on this outing somewhere between the the Italians in Aktuala and Finland's Piirpauke, but overlaid with a spectral and eerie air that's theirs alone. It's a heady brew and one that created the precise template for celebrated latter day Polish units like Atman and their descendants The Magic Carpathians.

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PSI-HORIZONTE, LP, 1977, GERMANY

Peachy keen kraut jazz rock stylings squarely in the late 70's mode of Munju, Aera, Passport and Release Music Orchestra from this rather obscure ensemble, but with a sorta liquidly nimble elegance that also calls to mind Italy's Perigeo.

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SORRY, FOLKS...NEW POSTS UP BY TOMORROW...

Things have been in a bit of a frenzy of late, as a bunch of long-in-the-works projects are now reaching fruition (all shortly to be announced). Look out for some real gems tomorrow, including two further top tier Danish rarities that we've been gifted with.

IGA CEMBRZYNSKA & SESSION 72-FOUR DIALOGUES WITH CONSCIENCE, LP, 1973, POLAND

Exceptionally eerie and unnerving essays for for slo-mo string-laden improv blear and ecstatic female utterance rent by occasional depth charge explosions of freeform hysteria from what was apparently one of Poland's top actresses of the period, here working in collaboration with an outwardly bound trumpet/piano/bass/percussion ensemble of exceptional poise and gravity and covering the full gamut from coo to caterwaul and rasping hiss to operatic trill. Fans of outwardly bound female vocals will be thunderstruck.

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GUNNER MOLLER PEDERSEN-STONED: AN ELECTRONIC SYMPHONY, LP, 1974, DENMARK

A flat out stunning hybrid of advanced electronic capabilities and stoned sensibilities, this exceptionally obscure LP was evidently only sold at the 12 concerts that this Danish electronic composer and student of Cornelius Cardew gave of this material. Make no mistake, that title is an indication that Pedersen means business and this glistening nocturnal sonic mirage is absolutely glazed in in a hyper-real patina of otherness. Over the course of this burbling and gurgling album length composition, Pedersen conjures allusions to everything from Deuter, Mort Garson, Moolah and Don Robertson to Sweden's Johan Hedran, and Polish electronic composer Krzysztof Knittel. Thanks to blog friend Mikkel for providing this unearthed monster!

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THE WHITEFRONTS-ROAST BELIEF, LP, 1986, USA

Wonky and trumpet-addled post punk spew with a engagingly shambolic approach to song structure from this mid 80's Santa Barbara, California outfit that reminds me of The Polkaholics, Circle X and Iceplants . The particularly hot and bothered among you can find their further live misadventures courtesy of the fine folks at WFMU Here

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THE ROLF KUHN GROUP-TOTAL SPACE, LP, 1975, GERMANY

A clarinet driven funky fusion beast. No, not clavinet, clarinet. Sounds like it'd be a strange proposition on paper, but it works a charm in the hands of the high voltage jazz rock and improv giants on hand for this particular date. Led by legendary fusion ivory tickler Joachim Kuhn's little brother Rolf and assisted by Joachim (whose own period work this comes close to the spirit of) Total Space finds them mated with a world class crew that includes trombonist Albert Manglesdorff, sax maestro Gerd Dudek, guitarist Philippe Catherine and bassist Bo Stieff and backed up up by the dual drumming of Daniel Humair and Kasper Winding.

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V/A-UN TRIBUTO TO JAMES T. RUSSELL, CDR, 2001, VARIOUS

Issued by the Spanish Alku imprint as a tribute to the creator of the compact disc (and, evidently, to it's myriad possibilities for sound modification), this offers up a curious assortment of digital detournement advocates to sift through the implications, though Terre Thaemlitz is only "present" as a Cage-ian ghost, his/her succession of 35 four second tracks all being equally silent. Once Thaemlitz ceases the theoretical display and actual sound commences, you're immediately slapped in the face by Yasunao Tone and his 10 minute blast of disfigured digital effluvia extracted from carefully defaced and modified CD's after which Bay Area plunderphonic prankster Wobbly creates comedic whirligig motion out of a cascade of rubberized bloops and blurts, CD_Slopper (aka Florian Hecker and Farmers Manual's Oswald Berthold) litter shimmering filaments across a warping digital wheeze, Spanish electronic producer Javier Hernando amuses himself by back-skipping over a CD's contents, Markus Popp and his early Oval sparring partner Frank Metzger proffer three tracks of predictably superb mulchings and mis-handlings of sonic data and Alku and Discman each show up just long enough to make a small gesture.

1-35. Terre Thaemlitz-Untitled
36. Yasunao Tone-Man'yoshu #37, Wounded
37. Wobbly-Mini Bleb
38. CD_Slopper-X-0 Neol, Subject: Ad.di
39. Discmen-Our Love Is A Soft Technique
40. Javier Hernando-Vaivén Tsu
41. Oval/Frank Metzger-What If?
42. Oval/Frank Metzger-Vowels'N'Cons
43. Oval/Frank Metzger-V'n'c
44. Alku-Burning CDs

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LUDO MICH-MUSIC FROM FILMS BY LUDO MICH, LP, 2005 (RECORDED: 1966-1971), BELGIUM

Subterranean sounding and swaddled in echo, this collection of soundtracks is part Aktionist emetic, part Living Theater group gestalt and part Anton Bruhin-like primitivist tape mangle, while somewhere in the background Smegma are running around with a forrest fire in their left elbow. As was the case with the Citizens For Interplanetary Activity LP that I posted back near the beginning of my work on Mutant Sounds, these very rough and deeply fried recordings document the soundtracks that were made for freak fringe underground films of the era, though in this case it was not for films from the lionized NY scene of that time, but rather from Brussels, Belgium where the Fluxus-associated Mich and his enablers were concocting what appear from all the images included to be some serious Jack Smith/Kenneth Anger-like pansexual depravity.

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POPERA COSMIC-LES ESCLAVES, LP, 1969, FRANCE

One of the first salvos of true otherness from the French underground scene, this mindbomb features the notorious William Sheller, whose 1972 opus Lux Aeterna is a long heralded holy grail of this scene, here collaborating with both eccentric period singer/songwriter and former Alice vocalist Francois Wertheimer and Guy Skornik, who I've previously shared two albums of monster caliber acid folk and kosmniche weirdity by. How promising does *that* sound, eh? And while the orchestrations that frame the acid rock displays here clearly set the stage for the overwhelming sturm und drang of Lux Aeterna, it's absent both the churchiness conveyed by the relentless choral aspect of that album as well as it's shifts into Wakhevitch-like eeriness. Here, the swooning orchestrations creak under the weight of all manner of period psychedelic mad hattery; the spirit here overtly suggestive at times of Jean-Pierre Massiera's Les Maledictus Sound, with its outsized sense of theatricality (at times tipping over into Komintern and Grand Magic Circus territory), overloads of caustic acid guitar flailing and fabulously cooing, sighing, and keening vocals.

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TONE DOGS-ANKETY LOW DAY, LP, 1989, USA

With an uncanny ability to make hectic chop 'n' change asymmetries sound suave and ducky, this American R.I.O. unit's irresistible tunes and overall spirit of infectious bonhomie recall Fred Frith during his peak Gravity/Speechless period. High praise indeed, but the manner in which these folks temper their jubilance with undertows of unease mirrors Frith's work with the members of both Etron Fou Leloublan and The Muffins on those two album, and indeed, the man himself appears in a guest capacity here on guitar and violin as does virtuoso avant guitarist Hans Reichel, who doesn't normally move around outside of improv contexts. Tone Dogs were led by two highly fluid and unusual multi-instrumentalists in the form of Amy Denio and Fred Chalenor and backed up by one Matt Cameron, who's soon depart for rock star land as drummer for fellow Seattle-ites Soundgarden. Both Denio and Chalenor would go on to do much remarkable work in the future, Denio with the E.C. Nudes together with Chris Cutler and Chalenor with Caveman Shoestore and collaborations with Soft Machine's Hugh Hopper. But this album is where it all started. And it's a whopper.

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SAKANA-MY DEAR, CD, 1996, JAPAN

Placing emotional emphasis in awkward places and limping when they mean to strut, this idiomatically askew Japanese crew really tax my capacity to frame their actions. Whether they're trying to be funky, romantic or sunshine-y, Sakana's subtle but persistent ass-backwardness subvert these vibes at almost every turn, though said subversions are often subdued enough that these tunes might pass as almost normal under less-than-close scrutiny. In tone and intent, these folks are perhaps most comparable to the Homosexuals-releated UK outfit Orchestre Murphy, if you could imagine them subverting their Slapp Happy-like overtones with soppy 90's lite jazz motifs and other questionable-seeming tactics. There are even some bits here fleetingly suggestive of popular 90's artists normally well outside our purview here like Bjork or even Beck, though the thrust and intent of this album is so consistently and naggingly "off" (never more so than on the title track), these trendier signifiers scarcely render events any closer to comprehensibility. The result is something curiously gripping, though you might feel like a dip in the shower after being in it's oddly queasy embrace.

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PANTHEON-ORION, LP, 1972, NETHERLANDS

Thrilling though occasionally tooth-achingly sweet Dutch Prog frivolity that occupies a mid-ground between their country mates in Supersister and Solution, while occasionally offering up servings of the sorta wide-eyed early Yes worship heard on albums by Sweden's Vildkaktus, along with it's attendant sweetly oohing and aahing choruses. True, they're not quite as technically or compositionally advanced as those Dutch peers of theirs, and those with a preference for a "heavier" vision of prog will find some of this pretty-as-a-daisy tootling and ivory tickling off-putting. It's their loss, methinks. As far as I'm concerned, this particular breed of flute and sax laden symphonic winsomeness is pretty damn near unimpeachable. Note: this transfer is taken from a later CD issue, which included three bonus tracks.

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V/A-WIENER BLUTRAUSCH, LP, 1979, AUSTRIA

I'll just give you a moment here to soak in that cover. The unreal quality of that image is matched by the cheerfully idiom obliterating nature of this Austrian compilation's contents, which veer wildly between prog, fusion and new wave, and seems to have triangulated a cherry spot pitched right in between these poles with the fascinating assortment of little known artists featured. Drahdiwaberl kick things off with a campily theatrical form of spacy rock that makes me think of Eroc covering Pink Floyd's Money, only to get prog funky in the rustic/Teutonic manner of Muck Groh. Over the rest of the A side, Mini-Sex propose equally unlikely shotgun weddings and make me think of the way New Wave forms got perverted in amusingly uncouth ways by Yugoslavian outfits like Zabranjeno Pusenje or Marjanov Cudni Zajec. Metzlutzkas Erben finish out the side by dancing an appealing fandango between high voltage fusion and the proggy satirical rock zaniness of later Checkpoint Charlie. On the flip, Chuzpe enjoyably tear through some early Ultravox-like art punk ramalamma with the nerviness they're named for, if not an equal measure of originality, Mordbuben AG proffer distinction-free back-to-basics rawk 'n' roll and Metzlutzkas Erben pop 'round for a second pass of absolutely wicked fusionoid antics.

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MARCOS VALLE-VENTO SUL, LP, 1972, BRAZIL

Together with folks like Arnaud Rodrigues and Azymuth, Marcos Valle was one of the premier exponents of advanced musical formulations coming off a related but distinct Samba/Bossa-influenced tip to the more well known Tropicalia crowd. Vento Sul was Valle's crowning achievement of this period and finds him being backed by prog rockers from the band O Terco. The exquisite end results are worthy of the dream-like cover imagery, taking the dewily lilting and hip swaying indigenous musical aspects of Valle's work and cross-pollinating them with the sorta fathoms deep acid rock exotica you'll hear in the grooves of a Traffic Sound or Malon album and the aching and keening emotional heft of prime era Franco Battiato when he's in song form mode.

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VAGTAZO HALOTTKEMEK-A HALAL MORESRE TANITASA (TEACH DEATH A LESSON), LP, 1988, HUNGARY

Playing what they describe as shamanic psychedelic hardcore, this utterly unique and slightly unreal Hungarian crew (whose name translates to The Galloping Coroners) unleash dense blasting waves of concentrated psychedelic otherness on their debut outing here and in so doing, anticipate a raft of later (and still ongoing) developments, particularly the psychedelia-as-collapsing-black-hole aesthetic of the crowd associated with Japan's PSF-label, with Hawkwind-like power drives imploding into fields of fierce abstracted motion.

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JUKKA TOLONEN-THE HOOK, LP, 1974, FINLAND

This was the third outing under his own steam from this one time leader of prog rockers Tasavallan Presidentti and unofficial guitarist for what was merely the greatest Finnish band of all time, namely Wigwam. With newly souped up production values and a four man horn section in tow, The Hook represents the moment when Tolonen really cemented his monster fusion guitarist status, his previous two outings (particularly the swooningly lovely Summer Games) having operated more in the folkloric-prog-with-jazz-trappings mode of Bo Hansson or Kebnekaise. With The Hook, it's clear that Tolonen had his sights set on the world stage and it's undeniably commanding work, with a fluid grandeur and air of mystery to it that suggests a mid-ground between Terje Rypdal, Placebo and Picchio Dal Pozzo.

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HARALD 'SACK' ZIEGLER-KENNEN SIE DEN ZIEGLER?, TAPE, 1993, GERMANY

Here's another disarming example of Ziegler's quizzical and faux naive shoebox universe courtesy once again of blog friend Roger. Unfurling in episodic and frequently bitty form, the Comelade-like tinker toy tinkle and pump organ wheezing bent of this stalwart German underground music operative's recently shared Zehn Meter Langes Regal Kippte Um tape continues apace here, only offset by some neurotically singleminded singing, with Ziegler working himself into a particular emotional lather over Barbie and Ken.

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