Friday, August 16, 2019

The Plagiarist Trio - Appearance

Label : Wafer Face - WAFER 4
Year : 1992
Country : US
Format : LP
Here's a strange whiplash of a record, from the fine friends of Wafer Face. As expected from the small press, this is a surreal and dadaistic piece of work. Also expected is the reliance of collages from different mediums from tape to vinyl record.
That's not all to it, really. It's hard to get into as every track in this wreckord sorta fades into the next yet clashes all the same. While it is mostly comprised of scattershot samples over a textural electro-acoustic kinda underbelly, some parts are more song-based than what one could anticipate. I haven't heard the groups other project under the alias Absinthe Radio Trio, but I have to imagine it's in the same ballpark in terms of musical surrealism.
[sic]

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Hinton-Templar - Isn't That What You Wanted?

Label : The Subelecktrick Institute - SEI 8601
Country : US
Year : 1985
Format : C90
 Brook Hinton was one of many in the Big City Orchestra, and his solo stuff isn't too far of a departure from the varied sounds of the long-running project. Hinton-Templar is apparently a collaboration between he and... himself. I think. This cassette has been ripped before on an obscure corner of the Internet Archive, but not in clear hissy flac format. So there you are.



Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Claus van Bebber - Akustische Werksübersicht 1977-1995

here

Here's something in the cards I've kept to my chest for awhile. Once again, I had been graciously provided a rip of a long awaited object by a certain online friend. Like a needle reaching the run-out groove, the time since this exchange has allowed me the chance to share with all of you.

Bebber is a very interesting in the Improv scene, a turntablist of sorts like the experimental likes of Marclay and Tétreault. Although I would say he is more in line with the latter than the former, but comparisons are comparisons. Surprisingly jazzy in the trifle and noisy, too! Originally encased in a wooden tomb for collectors of limited editions. I guess that is why it costs up to 100 euros to even hear it. Until today!
Looking back on this a bit, I've become very interested in hearing the rest of this boutique's catalog. Some names I never heard of with some delectable style tags.

Ripped by Scramoutcha
Format : CD
Year : 1996
Country : Germany
Label : Edition Vicchi Ravaglia Goch

Monday, June 10, 2019

Club Moral - Instruments Of Attraction (I. Cerebrale Pathologie)

Label : Kapellmeister Grammofon - KG 03
Country : Belgium
Year : 2003
Format : 10 inch
I'll leave this short. The first rip I'll post here working with new equipment. The turntable stays the same (Pro-ject Debut III) but with a different cartridge (AT95e) at the edge of the tonearm. Also snatched a used acrylic platter off of Amazon for the novelty of it all, I suppose. To tie things together I am using a Scarlett 2i2 to do the ripping. It's a very nice piece, certainly better than the line-in to an old laptop from the headphone jack method I had perfected.
Motor hum still present, an inevitability of Pro-ject systems. At least, from what I've read. Like the music I post, experimentation is key. And speaking of the music I post, I gather it is not too much of an issue that my rips be imperfect. But I'll try!
Anyhow, this is a record I've had for a while now. Can't really recall why I never posted it, other than the fact I didn't care all that much of it. A likely answer was that a rip was already floating around, a perfect excuse. I'll go with that, though the former still stands.
Very "installation" sounding exp. musik, like I'm missing half the picture. Certainly interesting, but nondescript within the realm of my own tastes. The booklet fleshes the whole thing out more, and I have it all scanned (with some words cut off due to the creasing spine of the paperbook making it hard) that I could host if requested. It's just that posting images outside of a vertical line downwards is a nightmare on this site.

Monday, May 27, 2019

Family Underground - West Coast Tour 2007

Label : Into the Lunar Night - No. 18
Country : Denmark
Year : 2007
Format : CDr

To whom it may confront:

primal screams at TV screens.

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Drone - The Fat Controller

Label : Q.D.K. Media - CD 007
Year : 1990
Country : Germany
Format : CD
I've said my piece or three [both in public and in private] about this excellent compact disc by this particular New Zealander group, so much so that I'm reduced to generic description. But that doesn't quite fit this album, too many tiny little sublime moments that compare favorably (yes, I'll compare em again) to contemporaries the Dead C. I swear I know a little bit more about this scene post the Dunedin sonic phenomena but I can't quite place it with Dadamah's aura. Listening and deciding is always better than reading and putting it off, really.
Maybe one of the first semi-unofficially authorized rips here? This site has had this up for quite a bit, but I decided to import it for better quality.

Friday, April 19, 2019

Foreign World - Trying To Escape

Label : Foreign Records - F.R.001
Country : Canada
Year : 1984
Format : LP
Escapism, or at least an attempt. Less an excursion into a fictional world and more of a desperate following of uncertain paths out of it. Case in point:
A far cry from what I was given in elementary school. Anyway,
onto the music.
That's what has brought us together today.

I've been at this for so long, and I've never really stopped to think about my methods. No, not those methods. "Ripping" yes, but for plastic platters. I have taken a concerted effort of observing other intrepid givers in the community, be they on trackers or on their own blog, and what equipment they use. It seems obvious to me that my rips have been of a fairly lower quality, with noticeable hums, outdated tech, unnecessary parts of a chain, etc... This one isn't so bad given the "slightly warped" as described nature of the record and my lack of a Gritty Doctor 500 or whatever. I'll be lookin' at tomorrow (Welfare) 
Oh yeah, this is some interesting stuff. A sort of ambient electro-folk improvised. A friend pointed out that it reminded him of number stations broadcasts, an eerie unsettler. I like to think some of the vinyl scraping gives it a character all on its own.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

XX Century Zorro - La Volpe Du XX Siècle

Label : Old Europa Cafe - OECD 140
Country : Italy
Year : 2011 (1983 orig)
Format : CD
Not to blaspheme the blasphemers, but in the face of the revolutionary MonSter sound system I have shirked the original intentions by doubling the tracks on each channel into one for every song. In its original form, the album has different tracks going on at the same time in the stereo space, perfect for equalizers... But I intend to give it a bit more accessibility if at all.

Warped cabaret tunes and postpunk industrialism in a collage of madness.


Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Five Or Six - A Thriving And Happy Land

Label : Frizz Bee - Frizzbee 2
Country : Netherlands
Year : 1982
Format : LP
Like Durutti Column, except in place of pastoral melancholy there exists an aggressive undercurrent of urban spiral. Like a hellish construction site, but also a bit heavenly. I'm surprised these guys haven't gotten the full-on Cherry Red reissue treatment, having just a Greatest Hits (hm) CD to their name. That's all well and good in this thriving and happy land but it's missing some key tracks. Some of the implied tracks appear here, and on the early retrospective "Cántame Esa Canción Que Dice, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" that today still sit on their respective plastic platters. Five or six years from now, maybe.

Monday, April 1, 2019

Iva Bittová & Pavel Fajt - Bittová & Fajt

Label : Bonton - 71 0535-2
Country : Czech Republic
Year : 1997 (1988 orig)
Format : CD
Is there a more dynamic duo in the field of avantgarde reimaginings of cultural folklore? I think not. Truly some beautiful and soulful music, much less of an academic look into this particular world than some takes from their contemporaries; A homely offering.
That isn't to say that the vaguely generalized label I attributed to their so-called "contemporaries" (whom I probably couldn't name in the moment despite being sure of myself) is meant to diminish them in comparison. Tons of great music came from this arena of the avant music scene circa 80s.


You might recall the mesmerizing "Morning Song" from Fred Frith's encapsulating "Step Across The Border" verite film... It's in here!





I apologize a bit for the lack of activity for the past month or so, I got more stuff to post in time.

Monday, February 4, 2019

King Frog - Silver Gelatin

Label : Oblique - Oblique-001
Country : US
Year : 1997
Format : LP
"Suburban Gamelan", a phrase stuck to this particular project that then stuck into my head for awhile. An interesting concept, and I think it befits this just a little bit. The visuals and some of the sounds come to mind as a bleak cityscape.
I went out of my own usual way for this one--I heard a rip of this LP a year or so ago after being interested in the King after first reading about it in Blastitude. The 128kbps rip found on slsk was serviceable and I ended up really liking the sound, so I went and bought a copy to get a more "definitive" sound. I guess.
The whole album has a sound that I can cling to. A sort of unholy cacophony of almost early 20th century clamor. I liken some aspects to some choice 80s tracks from Band of Holy Joy and ZGA's excellent "Gloom". The art book that comes with is also a great companion piece in its sort of amateur expressionism. Also some of the tracks sound like Casio demos, which is quite charming.


 


 

(Man, formatting on this site is annoying)