V/A- FM-BX Society Tape 001 LP (S.S. Records, 2010)

S.S. "Records is pleased to present the first vinyl edition of the FM-BX Society Tape 001. Originally released in 1981 only on cassette, with a limited run of 200, FM-BX 001 was the first in a series of compilation tapes released by the staff of a radio station in Brussels, Belgium. Needless to say, not many tapes made it around, and very few survive today. I'd say that is a shame but with this vinyl release, the word will get out about the bands on this tape, albeit a few decades after its initial release!

FM-BX 001 features three bands, two from Belgium, one from Scotland. The Belgium bands are Isolation Ward and Unit 4. Isolation Ward are known in underground synth collector circles, as they had a bit of a run after their debut on this release. Bleak and futuristic, Isolation Ward fuse post punk with early 80s synth sounds and a DIY approach.

The stars of FM-BX are the all-woman foursome Unit 4. Little is known about the band or their current whereabouts. No problem because their music is all you need to tell you that they had something special going. By their sound, the influences are obvious: Kleenex, Delta 5, and the
Raincoats all reverberate here though less "slick" than any of those bands. Unit 4's aesthetics are more akin to the Petticoats and, at times, the Shaggs. Fans of current day lady singers Titmachine and the Dead Clodettes will dig. This is truly wonderful punk rock.

From Scotland comes the Topplers. If the name sounds familiar, it is doubtful that it is because of the band. One of the Topplers is a guy named Allan Henry, who runs the excellent DIY label Topplers Records. In fact, it is Allan who turned me on to FM-BX to begin with. His band The Topplers? Great stuff. Teens with an ear towards the TV Personalities, The Times, and Subway Sect. They only existed for a couple years but wound up on this tape and, as a result, with an opening slot for Golden Earing! These are the only recordings that exist. Had they come out at the time on a 7"s, I have no doubt DIY collectors would be fighting over copies." (S.S. Records)

Yeah, the Unit 4 tracks are truly on-point. Been bopping around the kitchen all morning to 'em. This reissue was pressed in a vinyl edition of 500.



Download Link: Removed by request from SS

SS056

A1 Unit 4 - Hidden Faces
A2 Unit 4 - Rules
A3 Unit 4 - Growing Up
A4 Unit 4 - Act
A5 Topplers, The - Pat Mc Gluskey
B1 Isolation Ward - Dangerous
B2 Isolation Ward - Trackers Of The Night
B3 Isolation Ward - High & Low
B4 Topplers, The - Slave Train
B5 Topplers, The - Flack Town

Hali Gali Halid- VO-ZDRA (Listen Loud!, 1990)

"HG Halid (Goran Bare) was the singer for the Croatian garage punk band Majke. He also knows his Turkish music. So when a wave of trendy commecialized faux-Turkish folk music swept up Yugoslavia in the early 90s, Hali decided to make a record mocking the trendies, using Turkish melodies backed by a hapdashed punk band. His pal Zdenko pressed up 500 copies of this four song 7" on his Listen Loudest label, which released a wealth of music documenting the Croatian punk scene prior to the Civil War." (Static Party)

Cassette version of this peculiar Croatian punk classic. Strangely enough, a handful of copies of the 7" version of this rare EP have ended up in the hands of Scott Soriano of SS Records.

Hajde Da Se Drogiramo (Let's Do Drugs):


Download Link: Hali Gali Halid- VO-ZDRA (Listen Loudest! 1990)

A1 Samo Nočas Da Zaboravim Tugu
A2 Samo Za Tebe
A3 Hajde Da Se Drogiramo
B1 Moje Srce Zna
B2 Mirela
B3 Ne Pitaj Me

Ozzie- The Parabolic Rock: 1975 - 1982 2LP (SS039)

Rare and bizarro 70s California art-rock, newly unearthed by the good folks over at S.S. Records, released in 2010 as a 2xLP set. If you dig Devo, Sparks, The Quick, Tubeway Army, etc, then this is probably going to be your new jam. My brother Zack just walked into the room and confirmed it: "Yeah, this is my style..." So it was written, so it shall be...

"Android Love"- Their rad first single.


"Big Body Build"- Easy to hear Ozzie's direct influence on Nothing People


"Scattered Values"- A fine example of Ozzie's off-kilter power-pop


Download Link Removed: Purchase the wax from Academy or the mp3s from Other Music Digital

Promo write-up:
SSR Records: This double album vinyl release features 24 songs covering the career of one of Sacramento's most iconoclastic eclectic obscurantist proto-punk-art-rock bands (and, yes, I know that's too many mouth mumbling words).

From their ground-breaking rock opera, Berlin 1990 to their historic opening for The Talking Heads to their years in Los Angeles, competing for attention with spandexed hair-bands and mohawked poseurs, The Parabolic Rock tells the story of a Sacramento band's eccentric adventures on the blurred periphery of obscurity and cult status.

It is 1971 in a small town near Santa Cruz, California. Three friends from Sacramento have just polished off a bottle of cheap wine to the sounds of Captain Beefheart’s Strictly Personal and wander on to the beach with a couple of harmonica and a guitar. For the next couple of hours, they howl out some Beefheart inspired blues yuck. Thus begins a musical relationship that would become the band Ozzie. From their wine-soused, Magic Band obsessed roots to their art-rock/new wave end some ten years later, Ozzie made some fantastic music. They built up substantial followings in Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. They were a Mabuhay Gardens regular, sharing the bill with bands like the Weirdos, The Sleepers, VOM, and the Nuns. In Sacramento, they played with everyone from the Rutabaga Boogie Band and the Talking Heads to the Nerves and the Fleshtones. However like many bands of the time, their limited output (only three 7”s during their lifetime) and difficulty fixing them to one musical subgenre led to their obscurity and ultimately them being forgotten. In the early 90s, S.S. stumbled upon Ozzie’s 1977 debut single, “Android Love”, and flipped. He tracked down one of the band’s main members, William Fuller, and struck up a friendship with him.

A decade later S.S. tosses Fuller the idea to reissue “Android Love” single with a different B side. Fuller digs out some reel to reel tapes, an act that starts a multi-year odyssey through the Ozzie archives, recordings and print material spanning from the mid 70s to the early 80s. The proto-punk meets glam wildness what made “Android Love” (produced by Public Nuisance/Twinkeyz David Houston) such a great song was present in the tapes, but there was more: Massive doses of Blue Oyster Cult inspired hard rock brilliance, Roxy Music glam drama, Sparks-like art, Bomp! Records-worthy power pop, edgy new wave that recalls the Suburban Lawns, and mid-Seventies-style underground rock sounds that thrill any collector of private press obscurities, all with a Keith Moon/Jethro Tull inspired drummer. By the time, S.S. was done digging through the archives, he’d assembled a solid double album worth of unreleased and live material, as well as alternative tracks and a few gems from Ozzie’s previously released stuff. Complete with a full history of the band, lots of photos, and archival images “The Parabolic Rock: 1975 – 1982” is the definitive document of Sacramento’s forgotten band, one worthy of mention with Sacto underground icons Public Nuisance, the Twinkeyz, and Tales of Terror.

"This Ozzie comp is nuts. Reissue of the year." - Rich Kroneiss, Terminal Boredom

Nothing People- Soft Crash (2010)

Soft Crash is the latest release by Orland, CA's Nothing People. Its an SS Records vinyl-only release, limited to 1000 copies. I keep reading references to Chrome, Hawkwind & Simply Saucer wherever they're mentioned. Sure, I hear what that's about- they're talking about the meandering punk-fuzz guitar & their occasional off-kilter electronics. Call me crazy, but I'm kind of hearing Gary Newman, Superchunk & Truman's Water in the vocals and the songs themselves. Joy Division is also a fair reference point, especially to the bassline in the title track. At times, they even remind me of a sort of less hardcore and less ridiculous Men's Recovery Project. Well, whatever dude: Music reviews are mostly bogus anyway. So, "don't take my word for it".

Mediafire Download Link Removed: Purchase Soft Crash via iTunes.