Various Artists - "Soviet Ukrainian Funk" (Goat Goat Grooves – GG02) 2015

Steaming Hot Cold War Caucasian Jazzy funk from the Caucasus Back from the days before every Ukrainian band was a metal act,and Vladimir Putin was a joyless Stasi clerk Twat in Dresden. They were secretly Funky Mo-fo's;but,Funky as in Elevator's,libraries, and shopping centres, but nonetheless Funky.

Rather than try to work out whether these hieroglyphically named Soviet era musicians were actually Unkrainian and not Russian, or more commonly when it comes to music, Estonian.Here is a handy mixtape that has done the hard work for us,concentrating solely on our Ukrainian chums,gettin' the groove on, albeit in a TV cop-show library music kind of way,from the 70's and 80's.

Just to make it even more amusing for us Anglo-Saxon types, I have translated the Ukrainian tracklist into Chinese restaurant English,giving us such titles as "Let me, father, at the wedding","Oh, I will throw a beech on the pit", and the probably illegal in CCCP..."You Smiled?".

The Vladikavkaz peoples ministry of democratic Funk released a statement back in 1975 forwarded to the British gutter press:

"You Anglo-Saxon Western Pigdogs think you have a monopoly on 'The Funk'don't you with your arrogance? Well,we morose Eastern fuckers have got the funky rhythms too,bigger and better funky sheet than your capitalist freedoms could ever hope to equal.You have this James Brown agent, we have Nazariy Yaremchuk, you have zis secret Bootsy Collins weapon, we have Tatyana Kochergina, and Nile Rogers is no Yuri Bogatykov by any stretch of your western propganda's imagination.Directly as we speak,the Sofiya Rotaru Ensemble have been super-glued to a nuclear missile and sent to our Moon to perform a seriously funky version of her 'Hero of the Democratic Socialist Peoples Republic' award winning number "Ballad of two violins".We have fully loaded Kalashnikov's that say we're funkier than you,and are prepares to use everything at our disposals to prove it....we are NOT bluffinks!

Thank you for your time....what you have left, that is."

Back in the day,these records were the go-to place to find obscure beatz to sample the fuck out of. Luckily I have a couple of these, courtesy of the Ultima Thule record shop bargain bin section in the mid-nineties.....comin' up. 

Tracklist:

SIDE A:

Intro - MC Alex Pervin (aka Sahlim Quick)
01. Viburnum - Three trembitas
02. Nazariy Yaremchuk - Ozovysya
03. Arnika - Let me, father, at the wedding
04. Sofiya Rotaru - "Chervona Ruta" - Ballad of two violins
05. Kobza - Vodogray
06. Smerichka - Vodogray
07. Ensemble "Vodogray" - Three trembitas
08. Sofiya Rotaru,"Chervona Ruta"-Pisnya will be a part of us
09. Smerichka - Two Rings
10. Sofiya Rotaru, ensemble "Chervona Ruta" - Fairy Tale
11. Kobza - Na Ivana Kupala
12. Sofiya Rotaru, ensemble "Chervona Ruta" - Two rings
13. Nazariy Yaremchuk - You smiled?
14. Kobza - Oh, I will throw a beech on the pit
15. Kobza - Dudaryk
16. Nazariy Yaremchuk - When the blue mountains fell asleep

SIDE B:

Intro - MC Alex Pervin (aka Sahlim Quick)

01. Tatyana Kochergina - Play, Violin, Play (cut)
02. Patterns of the Ways - Circle of the Kalina Mill
03. Vodogray - Maiden Mila
04. Kobza - Wait
05. Arnika - Spring (fragment)
06. Vatra - How I Slept on the Seine
07. Arnica - How I Slept on the Seine
08. Vodogray - Puteshestvye
09. Kobza - Ishov Kobzar Clean Field
10. Vodogray - Vospominanie
11. Patterns of the Paths - Guajira
12. Yuri Bogatykov - Quiet Water
13. Arnika - Silver Ships
14. Vatra - Verkhovyna Lullaby
15. Arnika - Lviv Evening

DOWNLOAD these dirty ass-kickin caucasian elevator muzak classics HERE!.....or be shot!

Various Artists – "Voice Of The Wolf" (Gump – GUMP 7) 1975

As mentioned by fountain of all knowledge prog, Ian......sorry, no other form of identification is available or needed.,as if in a biblical tense therein.

It has been rightly pointed out,in the comments section that the Swedish groups that tagged along with the Rock In Opposition lot were actually part of their own scene.Manifesting itself around the time that ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest; called "The Movement" or the much more specific "Progg" ,with two gee's.

The "Progg" "Movement" encompassed many different musical genres from Sound Poetry to Avant Prog
The political progg movement,mainly self-righteous communism with music, culminated around the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Stockholm after ABBAs victory in Brighton the year before. It was expressed that "music can't be a contest",everyone is equal kinds stuff, and an "alternative festival",rather like the Rock In opposition festival a couple of years later, was held in protest.

In theory 'Samla Mammas Manna' might well be the only group to have played both?.Due to this debate,and part 2 of the eurovision trivia trail, Sweden did not participate in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest,rather surprisingly....leaving the door open for The Brotherhood of Man to claim the top prize with the dreadful "Save Your Kisses For Me",and that little dance they did while we screamed in unfathomable pain!

It was as if these awful townie torturers were dancing at the impending death throes of the Progg movement that they, and many others,including myself,never knew existed.But, by the time Abba were divorcing each other,Progg killed itself in a sea of pinko posturing and the Swedish predilection towards hard rock and punk rock,being one of the few places that the Pistols actually played in.

The book of Ian, also mentioned an impossibly rare Swedish human called Carsten Regild....who had an impossibly rare single released on Gump Records i am told;but, No i don't have it, but this funny fella Carsten Regilid appears a couple of times on this Progg compilation from the year of ABBA's arrival...there is no suggestion that any member of ABBA was in a Progg band,as far as I an aware.

Carsten's contributions err more on the side of Sound Poetry,with an ironic early Rock leaning.This guy is Kerrrazzzy!

Most of my knowledge of Sweden during this mixed up epoch is of the Tone Poem, Sound Poetry,tape collage scene which was, and still is firmly sellotaped to their cultural identity. The Great Sten Hansen is the sound engineer on this to the mysterious Carsten Regilid's role as Producer.....as well as being valuable contributors.

So don't expect any lost Gentle Giant copyist numbers on here...these guys are really nutz!...but that's how we like it innit?

(*wolfie Smith : much loved joke commie character on UK Tv in the 1970's)

Tracklist:

1 Bengt Nordström– Natural Music 2:36
2 Pugh Rogefeldt– I En Annan Värld 2:26
3 Åke Hodell– Ur Mr. Smith In Rhodesia 3:29
4 Happy Cousins, Rolf Börjlind And Carsten Regild– Nya Tider - Nya Änglar 2:00
5 Sten Hanson– How Are You 1:59
6 Sergeant Honolulu Dubble Fucking Five, Hans Tiberg, Rolf Börjlind, Rolf Heyman, Lars Göran Reijner– Juanita 0:48
7 Leo Nilson– Päls 0:23
8 Carsten Regild– Home To My Baby 1:33
9 Joakim Skogsberg– Offer-Rota 1:26
10 Carsten Regild– Typografi 2:25
11 Sten Bergman– Sorti 2:27
12 J.O. Mallander– Extended Play 2:15
13.Hans Anton Knall– Merde 23:35

DOWNLOAD the voice of wolfie smith* HERE!

Various Artists– Violent Party Omnibus Tape - Downtown Street Punker (Violent Party Records – TAPE NO. 7) 1984

And you thought that Nuclear Weapons were just Fear Porn!?...wrong!!!

There's nowhere else, not even Chernobyl,who's been exposed to more rads on the Geiger counter than the Japs.This goes a long way to explain why they are such a bunch of apeshit muther fuckin' crazy assed muther fuckers.Either that or they have lived in one of the most socially repressive environments on the planet this side of Victorian England.

This is the label that brought us Sieg Heil, but it seems they have ill-advised pretensions towards real music....No.NO NOOOOO!? Why does this always happen?Maybe Sandi Hook (Die or DIY?'s official conspiracy nut) is right, and the new world order has us by the balls?

On the cover it reads; "Very Very Group", like the original Violent Party label tape does instead of "Ragin' Hardcore".

Which means, der management doesn't want to be seen as just another Hardcore label,which is understandable I suppose.

The majority of it is of the type of zero-Fi hardcore lunacy that Seig Heil so generously committed to tape for us future dwellers to enjoy in the 21st century.

However, the other stuff on here,like No Cut and The Craps,flirts with the pure evil that is Melody!?

The outstanding quality of the sound on here is the thoroughly repulsive guitar sounds these kamikaze muso's effortlessly achieved like a divine wind of integrated circuitry.The sound of solid state transistors committing mass suicide is one of thee most subversive sounds on earth.Holing what passes for worthless early 21st century music below the waterline in the process,machine gunning the survivors in the water.Enjoy it while you still can,because they are coming for your mind.

Tracklist:

A1 Gai – Damnation
A2 Gai – Fundmental Human Right
A3 Gedon– Today Is Happy
A4 Gedon– Entertainer
A5 No-Cut– Open Way
A6 No-Cut– Dead Cry
B1 Confuse– Spending Loud Night
B2 Confuse– Fight Against The Plutocrats
B3 Craps– Cannot Stop Laugh
B4 Craps– How Long Do You Give Me
B5 Gess– This Is Religion
B6 Gess– Rock And Roll
B7 Gai – Two Mohicans - Hakata Punk And Punket Story

DOWNLOAD from the punker downtown HERE!

Various Artists – "Tokyo Flashback 3" (P.S.F. Records – PSFD-34) 1993

 Yeah I dig,I dig,Alan!

This Alan Cumming geezer gets it right in his sleeve notes. As Japan was cut off from the outside world in centuries gone by,they were again in the post war era,as far as the west was concerned, albeit only musically.

Before 1993,all I knew of Japanese pop music was the bloody awful Yellow Magic Orchestra, and The rather amusing Frank Chickens,who i saw as a novelty act more than a musical turn.

The afore mentioned eclecticism that is so evidently rife in all Japanese music,tended to produce an identifiable form of extreme music that specifically came only from Japan and nowhere else.Their Free Jazz is more extreme, Their Rock is noisier,their Noise is Noisier, their Pop unfathomable, fueled by,as Cummings puts it, an Interzone of possibilities trapped behind one way glass,observing outwards at a wonderland through the looking glass.

Western ears were not attuned to this ,even if they did have the same record collections, their Branes needed to be trained,and the membrane penetrated.

Enter the Tokyo Flashback compilations......ahhh now i understand, I think?

There's plenty of noisy stoner rock, free improvisation,skewed versions of classic anglo-saxon pop,and other unidentifiable stuff.White Heaven,for example, features a rather bizarre singer who sounds for want of a better word, Drunk;but i suspect its a Japanese accent of some form?

As Krautrock was populated by bands who couldn't really play their instruments like those Anglo-Saxon Progressive Rock stars,so had to play within their abilities to create something accidently 'Neu'. Japrock was full of equally unschooled musicians who tried and failed to play the Psychedelia of that tired western template,but instead of playing within their abilities ,they focused on the noise and the freedom and went further.Embrace your inabilities and magnify them There was nothing like Fushitsusha anywhere else,not even in West Germany, 1970......and don't forget Fushitsusha were going even before then!?

Tracklist

1 Overhang Party– Fever 7:49
2 White Heaven– Midsummer Stroll 5:36
3 Fushitsusha – Began To Notice 11:28
4 Cobalt – Woodcutter Mountain People -3:01
5 Komo Ta Hae– Bottom Of The Night 8:47
6 Sweet & Honey– Ritual Of The Sun 4:44
7 Ghost – Suspect Tells Of Dog Under The Sun 6:19
8 Daiichi Hakkensha – All Die Anyway 4:22
9 Uchu Engine– Certificate 6:11
10 Maher Shalal Hash Baz– Tapes (Tuning-Casey Don't You Know How It Makes Me So Damn Crazy-うつ病のくすり~The Night Of Notins) 9:48
11 Schizuka – Mother Of A Child that Has been Unwound 7:44

DOWNLOAD and say kon'nichiwa to japanese psychedelia HERE!

Various Artists - "Tokyo Flashback 7" (P.S.F. Records ‎– PSFD-189) 2009

An essential document....it reckons... of the psychedelic,.....it says here,..... improvisation scene that existed in the deepest catacombs of the Tokyo underground in 2009! Includes live performances by six of the scene's most ungrooviest groups. Recorded live at the legendary Koenji Show Boat venue in Tokyo on May 31, 2009.

Included here mainly for 'Derakushi', which features your scribes' current favourite guitar wielder Kuzuha, who would go on to even greater things as part of Self-Deconstruction,Japan's premier female Power Violence trio.

Tracklist:

01 Le Son de L'os - "Still Water"

02 Bon-No-Kubo - "Untitled"

03 Derakushi - "Red Shoes"

04 Sabo Orimo unit - "Inochi"

05 Touyounomajyo - "White Light Spear"

06 Hasegawa-Shizuo - "Gray ray"

DOWNLOAD a psychedelic flashback from way back in 2009 HERE!

Various Artists - "Here's The Shit!" (Greenwich Performance Collective) 1984

 

Those wacky chaps at the Greenwich Performance Collective were at it again in 1984 with more classic DIY tchoons from all our favourites.

Cancer Club return with another minimal synth masterpiece that could have been a 'Hit' but is content with just being the 'shit',as are we all?

The 'Well Known Wankers' scum up our current political situation nicely with "Government Scum", and 'Your Heterosexual Violence' return with an attempt at sensitive songwriting.....did they ever make an album?...dunno, but, they are on Bandcamp incredibly!?

'Psyco Psyco' are a new GPC act that didn't appear on "Dennis",with the Post-Punk anti-war classic "Headstrong Big War", and the 'Bulbous Skunk Cabbages' show that not only can your bandname finish your career, your songs can too.

But that's not the point is it? Careers are for the others,as are profits too.This selection displays all the lack of ambition, lack of professionalism, and lack of commerciality of a pure independant soul. Property is theft, but sharing isn't.

TRACKLISTING:

DOWNLOAD the hits not the shits HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Dennis" (The Greenwich Performance Collective) 1984

 Balancing carefully on the zero degrees longitude meridian ,and therefore at the center of the Earth, The Greenwich Performance Collective were also balancing on the watershed point of the 80's,at the point when the Proles started to get into vintage clothes and buy hit Cardiacs singles....like Punk never happened.Worse was to come with surreal visions of white factory fodder dancing to electronic music and getting Psychedelic. Not that I can imagine 'Your Heterosexual Violence' from the Greenwich Performance Collective (the GPC) ever shaking a tambourine to the funky drummer beat.

This collective compilation is Indie/DIY crossover at its zenith before the unwashed masses heard that the Roland TB303 bassline wasn't a piece of shit after all, oh the purity.

One does suspect that a lot of these marvellously named groups on 'Dennis' contain the same members,but its rather better disguised than some of Jim Whelton's attempts at faux-compilations,like the otherwise excellent, "Psst!Wanna Buy A Tape"

The best part about making music is always making up band names.It's ALL downhill from there.Whether you're in 'The New Catalonian Slipper Boys','The Dandy Lions','Dead Celebrities','0.2.WOT',it's all going the same way. If only Boy George was in 'Cancer Club' and not the sickening concept that we're all in this together and getting on with each other that suggests the name of his own group, then we probably wouldn't hate the fucker's guts anymore....there would have always been the name to raise a smile instead of a small bit of vomit into the buccal cavity.

Basically,my adice to any youngsters who wanna rediscover indie pop,just find a name that makes you laugh,then just keep it at that,forget the music part.

Who wouldn't want to be in a group called 'Your Heterosexual Violence' for chrissakes? An added bonus is that musically they sound like a more incompetant Nightingales.

I also like the fact that there's a group called 'Dali's Car'at exactly the same time of that Neu Romantic/Goth supergroup pairing of Mick Karn and Peter Murphy...also called 'Dali's Car'....unless they are the same entity,in which case mucho respect to Karn and Murphy.Personally I like both of Dali's cars.I also like Dali's moustache,a version of which I now proudly sport on my upper lip.

It's not just DIY and Indie punk on this fantastic cassette, there's stuff for the intellectuals and european music fans,some cosmic and minimal synth stuff,so,sadly, it's not totally offensive to the average music bore.There's also some disco for dancing, and even some white boy Rap.....you may never need another tape?

Tracklist:

A1 –Your Heterosexual Violence - Incredible Story
A2 –The Vinegarettes - Guilded Youth
A3 –0.2.WOT - Skeleton Fields
A4 –Dead Celebrities - Dead Celebrities
A5 –Almonds And Diamonds - Talk
A6 –Malvinas Brothers - Hollywood
A7 –Unknown Colours - Gun In Your Pocket
A8 –Violet Circuit - Ash Wedding Wednesday
A9 –Thee Mystery Trend - Count Down
A10 –Cancer Club - There Is No Fate Worse Than Death
B1 –Adventures In Colour - Cost Of Living
B2 –Replaceable Hedz - I Can't Sing It
B3 –Climbing Frames - The Pick Up
B4 –Dalis Car - Glad To Be Alive
B5 –Spring Hippies - Christ Died In Springtime
B6 –The Ringing - Doctor
B7 –The Dandy-Lions - Engine No.9
B8 –Paul Dunbar - The Regressus
B9 –Ptah Sokar - Pyramid Rise
B10 –The New Catalonian Slipper Boys - B.B.C.
B11 –The Pus - Split The Party

DOWNLOAD a tape called dennis HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Swindon This Is Swindon" (Redbrick Records ‎– RED 00001) 1980

I 've been to Swindon but once, to support my beloved Leicester City against the home team in the second tier of the English football league in about 1993. I'm damned if I can recall the score, but Glenn Hoddle was their player manager...he's the one that got sacked by England for saying that disabled people must have done something bad in a previous life.....so that's him disabled in his next life then?

The other 'bad' thing Hoddle did was manage Swindon Town FC when they beat Leicester in the play-off final at wembley with a contentious penalty after the Foxes had come back from 3-0 down to level the scores. Swindon got promotion to the Premier league and got thrashed every week,never to be heard of again......rather like the Bands on this Local Bands EP.

Hoddle was also incredibly guilty of releasing a pop duet with be-mulleted geordie mate Chris Waddle, called "Diamond Lights",another moment that had to be endured gazing through one's fingers. Don't do it Glenn,we implored,but...too late!!!!

Also the very great XTC came from Swindon.Those slight americanisms in Andy Partridges vocal inflections were actually his local west country accent, not an attempt to mimic those American pop stars we all love.....not that I can name any,they were all Canadian anyway. Probably explains why there's a growing cult stateside for XTC.

Alas,no XTC on this EP however, just a quartet of post-punk and power pop also-rans....y'know the kind of stuff we all love . "Narrow Feint"...wot?....do a deaf glee club party's version of Elton John's "Saturday Nights Alright for Fighting".......i'm in no doubt Sir Reg and Bernie Terrapin would sue if they ever heard this blatant rip off of their terrible yob-glam anthem's chorus. 

The terrible names continue with "Wheelz",whose charming ditty will have you whistling all afternoon;.... whistling what, is another story all together.

'Bantu' treat us to another belter that you're sure you've heard somewhere before....it'll come to me.

'The Early Bathers' (how do their minds work in Swindon?) finish off with a tune you culd have sworn was on "Hicks From The Sticks"....or at least on "Songs From Pigland" which was the LP version of the local yokal post-punkers around Wiltshire.

Its charmingly simple stuff,and we love it.....another UK DIY classic.

Tracklist:

A1 –Narrow Feint - Saturday Night 3:17
A2 –Wheelz - I Can See Everything 2:45
B1 –Bantu - This Time Around 3:35
B2 –The Early Bathers - Impact Adhesive Man 2:46

DOWNLOAD the great rock'n'roll swindon HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Electronic Panorama: Paris, Tokyo, Utrecht, Warszawa" (Philips ‎– 6740 001) 1970

This is the 'NOW that's what I call music" for Musique Concrete,or "NOW That's what I don't call Musique" for most people. Looking at the pictures of the artists on insert cover, it seems that to make music like this you needed to wear National Health Service spectacles,wear a suit, have a side-parting even if you were balding, and be male! The being 'male' part was not an essential ingredient,as emphasized on this blog, by the lengthy 'Women in Electronics' thread wot I dun a few weeks back. And there's me thinking that Holland was a progressively liberal state.
More likely is that women,sensible creatures that they are, just don't wanna make silly directionless sonic nonsense, or Nonsense Sonique, like this;putting their undeniable talents into such popular male ghetto's as Football,getting blind drunk and mindless violence.

The intention of this four disc compilation was to show us nay-sayers that Musique Concrete was a worlwide phenomenon,and we do get some early noise pioneers from Japan,which is where the best disc in this quadruple album draws its tracks from.Was this the start of the japanoise obsession with how to damage ears without touching them....an extention of their interest in torture and disembowelling themselves at the drop of a hat.
The French disc, naturally has all the legends of Concréte, Schaeffer,Henry, Ferrari, Parmegiani, in fact anyone without a French surname.
After listening to the entire three hours and twenty minutes of this album, you will be willingly joining your Japanese chums with a celebratory disembowelling.After raiding this for a bunch of rather marvellous samples of course.


Tracklist:

Disc 1: Groupe De Recherches Musicales De L'O.R.T.F.
1–Ivo Malec- Spot 1:35
2–Luc Ferrari- Visage V 10:34
3–Guy Reibel- 2 Variations En Étoile 6:49
4–Bernard Parmegiani- Ponomatopées 6:33
5–Bernard Parmegiani- Générique 2:20
6–Pierre Schaeffer- / Pierre Henry- Bidule En Ut 2:30
7–Ivo Malec- Dahovi II 7:20
8–Pierre Schaeffer- Étude Aux Allures 3:30
9–François Bayle Solitioude 6:30
Disc 2: Studio Voor Elektronische Muziek Utrecht
10–Jaap Vink- Screen 7:30
11–Milan Stibilj- Rainbow 7:00
12–Frits Weiland- Textuur 6:50
13–Jacob Cats- Lux 6:55
14–Alireza Maschayeki- Shur 6:40
15–Luctor Ponse- Radiophone 6:01
16–Jos Kunst- Expulsion 9:00
17–Gottfried Michael Koenig- Funktion Blau 6:00
Disc 3: Studio Of Radio NHK, Tokyo
18–Toshiro Mayuzumi- Mandara 10:20
19–Maki Ishii- Kyoō 13:15
20–Minao Shibata- Improvisation 9:32
21–Makoto Moroi- Shōsanke 13:20
Disc 4:Studio Eksperymentalne Polskie Radio
22–Krzysztof Penderecki- Psalmus 5:05
23–Andrzej Dobrowolski- Musique Pour Bande Magnétique Et Hautbois Solo 9:00
24–Arne Nordheim- Solitaire 11:00
25–Włodzimierz Kotoński- Microstructures 5:20
26–Bogusław Schaeffer- Symphonie 17:40

DOWNLOAD music to disembowell yourself to HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Electronic 2000 (Philips ‎– 6585 007) 1971

While everyone in the British Isles were inexplicably making music everyone wanted to listen to and pay enormous amounts of money to its creators for the privilege, the also-ran nations were releasing compilations of serious minded weirdness  by even more serious looking librarian types and university lecturers. The Netherlands being one of the main culprits;making music no-one wanted to listen to, never mind pay for. This compilation,one of thousands from the same epoch with the word 'Electronic' in its title, is a case in point,bringing together Librarians from all over the world to appear on an evocation of what we would all be dancing to in the RollerDisco by the year 2000......which was, and still is the Future, where good taste in Electronica resides.
Back in 1980,which I also mistakenly thought was 'the Future', the year 2000 seemed unimaginably far away,and one could only wonder at what magic awaited us in the ensuing 21st century........i think you know where this is going?........indeed what treasures have we been spoilt with in the first two decades of the Two Thousand's......Twerking, free internet porn for the starving,Kanye West, instant information on what Kim CarKrashian is doing in any given second, Cars that all look the same,but still use the internal combustion engine and rubber tyres, trains that can get you anywhere you want to be late in, as quickly as possible.......I could go on,but basically fuck-all has changed fundementally since 1980.Except, easier acces to the kind of prescription medication that you can see in blurry form on the cover of this aural prediction on plastic.......a recorded medium that we thought would never survive the Millenium,but twenty years hence is now the fastest growing seller in this shrinking market. One advancement is that super-rich pop stars are now endangered species,'cus we can get all their rip-off product for freeeeee, just like those poor little starving kids in africa can now all access freee pornography.
One prediction that has certainly gone wrong, is that we'll all be listening to Penderecki by 2012, and dancing to Luctor Ponse in the skool disko by 2008-ish.
Almost true......male record collectors now chew their arms off to get hold of a vinyl copy of this album,and others like it, to impress ....er....other male record collectors.

What??.....the record?.....oh yes.....its dead good.
Track 1 is your typical Japanese groaning woman intersperced with Hitler speeches over an electronic morass....you know the one Beyoncé wanted to do a cover version of.And the type of record that many an Industrial Artist ripped off and made their own,whilst at the same time moaning that illegal downloading was costing them money???
The rest is quite simply,just as good,especially the rampant use of a short wave radio on track 4, and could clear a room of K-Pop fans in nano-seconds.
It is therefore highly recommended to download this for Freeeee,and deprive these musique concréte masters of the same one quarter of one percent of the profits that you are denying Feargal Sharkey of everytime you illegally download 'Teenage Kicks'.


Tracklist:

A1 –Toshiro Mayuzumi- Mandara 10:20
A2 –Krzysztof Penderecki- Psalmus 5:05
A3 –François Bayle- Solitioude 6:30
B1 –Luctor Ponse- Radiophonie I 6:01
B2 –Milan Stibilj- Rainbow 7:00
B3 –Bernard Parmegiani- Générique 2:20
B4 –Jos Kunst- Expulsion 9:00

DOWNLOAD via your trendy vintage 1999 AOL dial-up conection HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "From Czech Electronic Music Studios" (Supraphon ‎– 1 11 1423) 1974

If ever there was a soundtrack to life in a police state then this is it. On State Label Supraphon, with cover art from some twisted nightmarish detention centre inmate after a long spell of sleep deprivation, this musique concréte escapade emits all the joylessness of a lifetime spent under curfew.
Largely involving tape manipulation,and thankfully lacking access to the Soviet Union's state-owned EMS synthi 100 in Moscow, the edited and varispeeded recorded sounds have all the characteristics of a fully furnished subterranean dungeon in Prague.
Each new track is like an interrogator saying "Let's Go back to the Beginning",as it seems we've been here before but still aren't any wiser as to what you did last summer,especially as every day feels like winter.Music that'll make you admit to anything to avoid the 'Bath of Shit' part of the afternoon.Nothing's worth that illegally imported pair of jeans you purchased from that under-cover policeman last July.
Most of Czechoslavakia's prog rock fraternity were locked up in the same interrogation centre that this stuff evokes,but you could get away with it if you achieved the status of of 'Official Musician'. Without the nod from the State you weren't allowed to play music to a paying audience,if at all.Anything 'western' or subversive was an arrestable offence; as the Zappa-esque Plastic People Of The Universe found out. 
The composers of these creepy early electronic cattle prod-a-gogo instruments of aural torture,were,of course, possessors of pieces of paper that allowed them the distinction of being official 'State Composers', so they were safe in their state provided accomodation.....undoubtedly bugged,but its a rent controlled roof over one's head, where subversive thoughts could be encrypted into indecipherable weird noises and passed off as 'Avant-Garde'.


Tracklist:

1 –Zbyněk Vostřák - Scales Of Light (1967) 13:55
2 –Miloslav Ištvan - Isle Of Toys (1968) 9:25

Two Parts From The Kinetic Ballet (1968)

3 –Václav Kučera - The Labyrinth 14:00
4 –Václav Kučera - The Spiral 7:35

DOWNLOAD the sudetenland of electronics HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Anthology Of Dutch Electronic Tape Music: Volume 1 (1955-1966)" (Composers' Voice ‎– CV 7803) 1978

On a purely Intellectual note to start off with......TeeHeeHeeeee......His name is Hans Kox...titter titter! Fnar Fnar Kyuk Kyuk!
Well, Hans off yer Kox now,and lets get serious.....Nah!
Like everywhere else,the Dutch think they invented Electronic music,and one has to say,they were pretty close to having a point.
The origin of Electronic music is almost as tiresome an argument as who invented Punk Rock.....but in Punk Rocks' case it was quite clearly England, Not Detroit,Not New York,Not Scotland...England,gottit?
As for coherent electronic composition, it seems,on the whole, to be a French thing, although it turns out that Daphne Oram of the BBC may have trumped Pierre Shaeffer,but it was kept traditionally  Hush Hush in that understated British way.We don't like show-offs over there  y'know?
One thing that the Dutch are world class at however, is Funny Names.

Hans Kox .....gaffaw gaffaw. laff laff!

Tracklist:

Studio Of The Netherlands Radio Union
A1 –Hans Kox - Three Pieces For Electronic Organ 3:48
A2 –Ton De Leeuw - Study 6:47
Studio Of Delft Technical University
A3 –Jan Boerman - Musique Concrète 3:04
A4 –Jaap Spek - Impulses 7:58
A5 –Rudolf Escher - The Long Christmas Dinner 6:15
Philips Studio
B1 –Henk Badings - Cain And Abel 8:57
B2 –Dick Raaijmakers - Piano-Forte 4:56
B3 –Ton De Leeuw - Antiphonie 15:17
Studio Of Utrecht University
C1 –Frits C. Weiland - Studie In Lagen En Impulsen 4:46
C2 –Hans Kox - Cyclophonie III 7:33
C3 –Tom Dissevelt - Fantasy In Orbit 3:05
C4 –Axel Meijer - Werkstuk-1964 2:32
C5 –Robbert Jan De Neeve - A.F. 1:17
C6 –Peter Schat - De Aleph 7:46
Studio Of Ton Bruynèl
D1 –Ton Bruynèl - Reflexen 4:34
CEM Studio, Bilthoven
D2 –Will Eisma - BTH. 3457 4:08
D3 –Klaus Gorter - K 45 5:40
D4 –Luctor Ponse - Etude-I 6:19
D5 –Berend Giltay - Polychromie-I 6:42

DOWNLOAD some early electronics with clogs on HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Electronic Evocations A Tribute To The Silver Apples" (Enraptured ‎– RAPTCD02) 1996

This is the album that restarted it all. Simeon Coxe was flicking through the CD's in Tower records and came across this tribute to his former band in the various electronic section.Refreshingly not getting upset that someone was releasing versions of his tunes without asking him.He contacted Enraptured and congratulated them,and expressed a desire to get back into music again.
In fact, unknown to Coxe, a german label had been selling bootleg copies of the first two Silver Apples albums for years,helping grow the legend.No spiteful where's the money gone rants,just gratitude that someone had taken the time to spread the appreciation of the Apples work far and wide......some other 'Artists',and money driven bourgois reissue labels should show the same appreciative qualities when comes to the Music Blogs, who have done a Silver Apples for many a rediscovered musician,or buried record labels (eg Vanity records).
Here we have the cream of 1990's UK Indie neo-psych drone meisters,plus Windy and Carl,and Outrageous Cherry,whom i saw in New York and the female bass player was playing unplugged for at least two songs before someone else in the band noticed. Of note is that Scouts of Uzbekistan member, Mark Carolan, is drumming and programming for Alphastone's version of "You're Not Foolin' Me".
Ahaaa, Alphastone, as led by the 'other one' from Spaceman 3,I suppose, Spoaceman number 3, Pete Bassman,which had one of those extraneous members in the group, like Bez,or Chas Smash, who appeared to do nothing.They alway had to have a silly name too, and this one was called 'Digger'...he played some inaudible Conga's,but clearly thought he was Mozart.The only thing he had in common with Mozart however, was that he was an arsehole too. Naturally, constantly stoned off his face like he thought a proper musician should be, Digger had a problem with me and my entourage invading the backstage area to meet Simeon,and drink all the beer;Alphastone were supporting the Xian Hawkins era Apples,who weren't very good. Upon referring to their 'new' drummer, who had replaced the Scouts' Mark Carolan on the drum stool, as 'The New Drummer','Digger' insisted on saying 'Thee Drummer' with increasing aggression until everyone realised that he was indeed 'Superfluous', like the Paul Rutherford of UK neo-psych that he was.Couldn't hear his bongo's for love nor money,and i suspect he had a digeridoo stashed somewhere on his person too. The Silver Apples were better at their next Leicester gig a year later(where I posed as an Observer rock critic),with the original Dan Taylor on skins....now he was 'Thee Drummer', and thankfully, No Digger in sight.I think Windy and Carl supported this time...a vast improvement.
This compilation, However, is brilliant....maybe even better than the Silver Apples' records?...or is that blasphemy?


Tracklist:

1 –Windy & Carl- Program 4:24
2 –Scaredycat- You And I 5:08
3 –Third Eye Foundation- I Have Known Love 4:49
4 –Flowchart- Lovefingers 4:29
5 –Sabine- Dancing Gods 6:06
6 –Outrageous Cherry- Misty Mountain 2:34
7 –Alphastone- You're Not Foolin' Me 6:32
8 –Lorelei - Oscillations 4:08
9 –Monitor - A Pox On You 3:25
10–Amp - Seagreen Serenades 3:28
11–Tranquil - Ruby 4:36

DOWNLOAD evocativly HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore(1927-1948)" (Mississippi Records ‎– MR-014) 2007

Don't worry, i'm not gonna post dozens of Harry Smith type compilations,but the title and the miserable Hill billyess relation to Susan Boyle,'the Hairy Angel' on the cover, just demanded that I have this on my coffee table the night my artist chums come round for my Finnish smorgasbord soirée.
Since the advent of those music magazines that are concerned only with the past,a bit like this blog(?); endless compilations of lost 78's from between the wars,but before the wars that came afterwards, flooded the independant record stores of the day.
Anything seems to go with this one,there's Gospel, Blues, Calypso, Bluegrass and Cajun Folk.
Eclectic is a popular word for the record collections of the 21st century,and this certainly fits the bill.
If a bunch of pre-reggae West Indians singing about the Abdication Crisis of 1936 is right up your alley, then , I reckon you're gonna love this.
From a time when if you wanted entertainment you really had to do it yourself. It was either that or chew your own,or someone elses, leg off.....and many of them did.

Tracklist:

A1 –Marika Papagika - Zmirneikos Balos
A2 –Wilmoth Houdini - Blow Wind Blow
A3 –Cleoma Falcon - Prends Done Courage
A4 –Mme. Riviere's Hawaiians - E Mama Ea
A5 –The Caresser - Edward The VIII
A6 –Two Gospel Keys - I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore
A7 –Sexteto Bolona - Te Prohibido El Cabaret
B1 –Jacob Hoffman & Kandal's Orchestra - Diona & Hora
B2 –Blind Uncle Gaspard & Dela Lachney - Baoille
B3 –Mike Hanapi's Ilima Islanders - Hilo Hula
B4 –Lydia Mendoza - Palida Luna
B5 –Blue Sky Boys - Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?
B6 –Unknown Artist - Sorban Palid
B7 –Big Boy Cleveland - Quill Blues

DOWNLOAD that homely feeling HERE!

Harry Smith ‎– "Anthology Of American Folk Music (Volume Two: Social Music)" ( Folkways Records ‎– FP 252) 1952

This is the creepiest of the three anthology volumes.
Its like stumbling over the rehearsals for Rosemarys Baby in a near-by copse,except that its for real, and no mere rehearsal.
Just imagine stumbling over a child sacrifice in a clearing on Walton's Mountain, and recording it.Thats basically what Harry Smith did.It got dat Voodoo.
Hillbillies frighten the living shite out of me,in the same way that Islamic fundamentalists do.They are part of the American Taliban,and in their simple ways exude the very essence of Stupid,but a loveable brand of Stupid.
Just imagine their toothless grins as they stomp merrily on their shack's front porch,pickled on Moonshine whiskey, burning crosses and berating Abe Lincoln.
Why they would want to slag down the memory of President Lincoln for, I dunno.They had so much in common after all?

Actual Abraham Lincoln Quote:

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

Tracklist:

Dances No. 1
A1 –Uncle Bunt Stephens - Sail Away Lady
A2 –J.W. Day - The Wild Wagoner
A3 –Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers - Wake Up Jacob
A4 –Delma Lachney And Blind Uncle Gaspard - La Danseuse
A5 –Andrew And Jim Baxter - Georgia Stomp
A6 –Eck Robertson And Family - Brilliancy Medley
A7 –Floyd Ming And His Pep-Steppers - Indian War Whoop
Dances No. 2
B1 –Henry Thomas - Old Country Stomp
B2 –Jim Jackson - Old Dog Blue
B3 –Columbus Fruge - Saut Crapaud
B4 –Joseph Falcon - Arcadian One Step
B5 –Breaux Freres - Home Sweet Home
B6 –The Cincinnati Jug Band - Newport Blues
B7 –Frank Cloutier And The Victoria Cafe Orchestra - Moonshiner's Dance (Part 1)
Religious No. 1
C1 –Rev. J. M. Gates - Must Be Born Again
C2 –Rev. J. M. Gates - Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting
C3 –Alabama Sacred Harp Singers - Rocky Road
C4 –Alabama Sacred Harp Singers - Present Joys
C5 –Middle Georgia Singing Convention No. 1 - This Song Of Love*
C6 –Rev. Sister Mary Nelson - Judgement
C7 –Memphis Sanctified Singers - He Got Better Things For You
C8 –Elders McIntorsh And Edwards' Sanctified Singers - Since I Laid My Burden Down
Religious No. 2
D1 –Rev. Moses Mason - John The Baptist
D2 –Bascom Lamar Lunsford - Dry Bones
D3 –Blind Willie Johnson - John The Revelator
D4 –The Carter Family - Little Moses
D5 –Ernest Phipps And His Holiness Singers - Shine On Me
D6 –Rev. F. W. McGee - Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room
D7 –Rev. D.C. Rice And His Sanctified Congregation - In The Battle Field For My Lord*

(*) missing track(s) from the file...click to download separatly,or just play the mp3 see if this is your bag or not?

DOWNLOAD some walton's mountain voodoo HERE!

Harry Smith ‎– "Anthology Of American Folk Music Volume One: Ballads" (Folkways Records ‎– FP 251) 1952

Indeed, you guessed it. One cannot mention the quest for the American Primitive ,and incidently, the birth of record collecting, without Harry Smiths Anthology of American Folk series from the early 50's. A very trendy item for the proto-hippie scene in all major metropolis's,or metropoli, in northern America....but nowhere else I may add.That is until this got re-released in the nineties;when it could always be gauranteed to be seen casually placed atop every ikea coffee table beyond canary wharf,alongside those John Fahey CD's.A particularly heinous form of Poundland sophistication.
Yuk! I can just see Nick Cave salivating,or worse, over this,post Birthday Party around 1983.Carefully taking notes, and actually stealing a few songs for that lamentable 'Murder Ballads' LP, y'know, that one with Kylie Minogue on?
This album (The Anthology not fucking Murder Ballads!) launched a thousand earnest young men with acoustic guitars in those neo-neo-neo-folk singer songwriter revivals throughtout the latter 20th and,criminally,again in the early 21st century.The thing that mutated and finally gave us complete bastards like Ed Sheeran and that inexcusably posh "You're Beautiful" idiot. Posh fuckers shouldn't be anywhere around Folk music, or Football, or playing cockney's in that next Netflix atrocity.
The people who made these murky recordings were certainly NOT posh,but they may well have habored opinions somewhat right of Attila The Hun.
This observation is entirely pieced together from long distance,and from watching the uncut version of John Boorman's "Deliverance". I've never met a Hillbilly,or hardly ever met a Redneck, never mind conversed with one. I did ask a local the direction to Flagstaff in some shithole in Arizona once,....he stared zombie-like at me,as if i had just landed from a small planet somewhere in the vacinity of Betelgeuse.One of those Easy Rider moments.
I had a similar moment in a bar in Nevada,when playing pool, i selected something the local yokels would like to hear, and chose AC/DC's 'Back In Black',which actually turned out to be Culture Club,with Boy George exhaling the words to "I'll Tumble For Ya!"
To escape a severe bumming,i fouled the eight-ball and made for the exit to get back to civilisation in.....er.... Vegas?
On a less prejudiced note,and as a very 'English Englishman', one must thank the peasants of the Appalachian mountains for preserving English Folk culture from destruction,as most of those fine English folk tunes were preserved in moonshine within the minds.....(if 'Minds' is the right word?).....of these very same Hillbillies,filed alongside nigger lynchin' and other such Appalachian pastimes.
They also kept the culture(?) and music of the early Americans deep frozen waiting to be thawed out by such proto-beatnik east coast nascent hippie types as Harry Smith.
Got some cracking,and crackling, tunes about muderers and hangings and stuff on here.Its kind of like listening to an entertaining seance with Smith as the medium calling on the spirits of this long dead mountain scum to sing us a little song.
Is there anybody there?.......NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Tracklist:

Volume One: The Ballads:

1–Dick Justice - Henry Lee 3:28
2–Nelstone's Hawaiians - Fatal Flower Garden 2:58
3–Clarence Ashley - The House Carpenter 3:16
4–Coley Jones - Drunkard's Special 3:16
5–Bill And Belle Reed - Old Lady And The Devil 3:05
6–Buell Kazee - The Butcher's Boy 3:05
7–Buell Kazee - The Wagoner's Lad 3:05
8–Chubby Parker And His Old Time Banjo - King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O 3:09
9–Uncle Eck Dunford - Old Shoes And Leggins 3:01
10–Richard Burnett And Leonard Rutherford - Willie Moore 3:16
11–Buster Carter & Preston Young - A Lazy Farmer Boy 3:00
12–The Carolina Tar Heels - Peg And Awl 2:59
13–G.B. Grayson - Ommie Wise 3:12
14–Kelly Harrell And The Virginia String Band - My Name Is John Johanna* 3:13 (* this one is missing from the file,so click it to download,or play the mp3 to see if this is your bag or not?)
15–Edward L. Crain - Bandit Cole Younger 2:57
16–Kelly Harrell And The Virginia String Band - Charles Giteau 3:05
17–The Carter Family - John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man 2:57
18–The Williamson Brothers And Curry - Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand 3:26
19–Frank Hutchison - Stackalee 3:01
20–Charlie Poole And The North Carolina Ramblers - White House Blues 3:31
21–Mississippi John Hurt - Frankie 3:28
22–William And Versey Smith - When That Great Ship Went Down 2:58
23–The Carter Family - Engine 143 3:19
24–Furry Lewis - Kassie Jones 6:16
25–The Bently Boys - Down On Penny's Farm 2:50
26–The Masked Marvel - Mississippi Boweavil Blues 3:09
27–The Carolina Tar Heels - Got The Farm Land Blues 3:17

DOWNLOAD the alternative cast of deliverence HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "The American Song-Poem Christmas: Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four? (Bar/None Records ‎– BRN-CD-147) 2003

Ho! Ho! fucking Ho!
Indeedy, Americans sure know what Christmas is all about.
Without Christmas we wouldn't have these prime nuggets of  pure awfulness that manage to make the yuletide festivities even worse.
These tunes aren't as bad as a christmas song by someone like Meat Loaf, accompanied by a video with our loud fat friend dressed up as Santa. As Santa is an anagram of Satan, there has to be a special corner of Hell where this Meat Loaf xmas exists on an eternal loop......but as Hell is only, vaguely, mentioned twice in the whole bible, I'm confident that we are safe from that......for want of a better word....Nonsense!
These tunes from the MSR Song-Poem company, are unbelievably bad, but the right kind of 'Bad', that is....er...Good!?
If you didn't know, MSR were a bunch of musicians who advertised in the US press classified section, offering to put your poems to music.The lucky punter would then receive a vinyl single of their atrocious poem ,indeed, put to music.Quality control was obviously a secondary matter,as they had to arrange a few standard riffs and fit these terrible lyrics into some kind of melody,then record it,in little more time than it took to play the finished single.I shall be returning to the vast MSR archives in the near future,but this jolly Yuletide jamboree of shite will more than wet your appetite for more,jaw dropping badness in 2020!
So gather around your christmas table and sing-a-long to "Randy, The Li'l Elf" or the inexblicable "Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile", and bin off Crosby for another year.

Tracklist:

1 –Heather Noel - Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile 2:44
2 –Bobby Boyle With The Singers - Santa Claus Goes Modern 2:17
3 –Norris The Troubador,Seaboard Coastliners - Christmas Time Philosophy 2:33
4 –Dick Kent With The Lancelots - A New Year's Dawning 3:47
5 –The Sisterhood - The Rocking Disco Santa Claus 2:16
6 –Stan Beard - & The Swinging Strings - Snowbows 2:18
7 –Bobbie Boyle With The MSR Singers - Randy, The Li'l Elf 1:40
8 –Rodd Rogers - Maury, The Christmas Mouse 3:19
9 –Randall Reed With The Forerunners - The Peppermint Stick Man 2:23
10 –The Sisterhood - Christmas Treat, Peppermint 2:26
11 –Kay Brown - Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four? 3:06
12 –Rodd & The Librettos - How Do They Spend Christmas In Heaven 3:24
13 –The Sisterhood - Ole Year Christmas 2:28
14 –Gene Marshall - Evelyn Christmas 2:50
15 –Rodd & Nita - Jolly, Jolly Santa Claus 3:20
16 –Sonny Cash - Merry Christmas Polka 2:24
17 –Rodd & Judy - Santa Fix My Toys For Christmas 2:54
18 –The Sisterhood - Baby, It's A Cold Night In December 2:10
19 –Rodd Rogers - & The Librettos - Santa Claus Goes Modern 2:23
20 –Cara Stewart With Lee Hudson Orchestra - The New Year Song 3:17
21 –Teri Summers & The Librettos - Season's Greetings 2:03

DOWNLOAD the true spirit of christmas HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Red Wave — 4 Underground Bands From The USSR" (SNC Records ‎– SNC 4018) 1986

Awwwww, bless 'em.
If you had grown up in the political equivalent of a cupboard you'd make music like this too.
Assembled from the snippets of information assimilated from the west,primarily Zer Beatles and blue jeans, somehow the underground bands from the USSR managed to all sound like inoffensive post-new wave antipodean hitmakers 'Men At Work'.

One does have a regular fantasy about how good it would be ,creatively, if one could be isolated from the various advancements, or regressions, in the musical/art world.Free from the oppression of what is cool, and what is acceptable.

The reality is,after your isolation, one ends up, somehow, as an inferior version of Men At Work!!!

It seems that originality doesn't come from the abscence of influence,but sprouts naturally from informed plagarism.The default position seems to be a forgettable blank space.....return to factory settings.

So the moral of this story is,don't bother making any art,genuine 'Outsider's' excepted,unless you know your art history.Knowing what NOT to do is, as,if not more, important than knowing what to do.That what is not!A kind of limited unlearning is the way,as long as you don't erase the parts of history that should not be repeated, like Genocide, and ...well....Men At Work????

Tracklist:

1 –Aquarium - Ashes 3:10
2 –Aquarium - Tonight 4:35
3 –Aquarium - Dance On The Edge Of The Spring 4:22
4 –Aquarium - The Thirst 3:52
5 –Aquarium - Dreams Of Something Bigger 4:27
6 –Kino - Saw A Night 3:00
7 –Kino - Films 3:27
8 –Kino - City 3:43
9 –Kino - Wake Up (It's Love) 2:47
10 –Kino - Streetcar Headed East 2:23
11 –Alisa - Experimentator 4:25
12 –Alisa - We're Together 2:37
13 –Alisa - Dr. Boogie 3:43
14 –Alisa - Bad Boy 3:15
15 –Alisa - Juice Squeezer 3:10
16 –Alisa - Come On Me 4:55
17 –Strange Games - Metamorphoses 2:30
18 –Strange Games - Chorovod Song 3:50
19 –Strange Games - No Telephone 2:45
20 –Strange Games - Egocentrism 4:20
21 –Strange Games - If You Think 3:15

DOWNLOAD the red ripple from down underground HERE!

Various Artists - "Soviet Synth Wave Volume Two " (2019)

Like a wave of electronic tanks sweeping across the Kursk salient,pushing aside the far superior German Synth wave, the Soviet synth forces ejected the inovative manoeuvres of the Neue Deutsche Welle,and ignored the East German equivalent, to produce an unstoppable tsunami of eurovision contest inspired electro-schlager.
They cleared their territory of the invaders,and like the aftermath of actual Battle of the Kursk, the Russian forces stopped at the Elbe,leaving the west to their over-rated qualities of good taste,free speech and fashion sense. Dooming this wave of incredibly naff nonsense to fester in the gulag of iron curtain pop,until now.
These communist electro-protagnoists found it very difficult to avoid the stomping beat of Cossack culture,best demonstrated by the opening track,which sounds like both a kids action TV series about our Cossack chums, and a winning entry at Eurovision in 1994.
Back in the eighties there used to be a male vanity product called 'Cossack', which was basically,hairspray for men.......no it wasn't a popper for fucks sake, I said Hairspray!
Presumably, it didn't work on womens hair?
I did,however, use Cossack to maintain my Sidney Vicious hairstyle,even though it cost more than ladies hairspray, to avoid embarassment.
I'm told that Sid was also a 'Cossack' man?
Check out this advert for this classic male grooming product,which inevitably involves a bloke,dressed as a Cossack of course, on a horse, kidnapping a young blonde lady,for what reason I shudder to imagine!(Click Here)

Tracklisting:

1-The Cossack Song -Sector Gaza
2-Nautilus - The Nentre
3-I Haven't Noticed - Theatre
4-The Telephone - Primus
5-Давайте созвонимся! (Lets Call Up) - Forum
6-Going Crazy - The Electro Club
7-B2 - Argo
8-Anything You Want - Technology
9-Simple Words - Arrival
10-The Time Calls Me - NRG
11-Surrealism - Goodbye Youth
12-Romantic Express - New Collection
13-The Robot - Interview
14-The Aesthete - Bioconstructor

DOWNLOAD some wave surfing ussr HERE!

Various Artists - "Soviet Synth Wave Volume One (1980-88)" (2019)

The Soviet approach to making pop music was very similar to their apprach to architecture,as featured on the accompanying photo with this compilation. Brutal,formulaic,structually unsound ,with humans reduced to nothing more than an after-thought. There are no Yazoo's, Pet Shop Boys,or Gary Numanski's on here, just a jumble sale of imported music tech let loose in the hands of young(the 35-45 demographic) socialists with little or no idea of how to write a catchy tune......sounds good huh?
This all sounds like a whole music culture based on catching a brief snippit from a western radio transmission of a post Vince Clark Depeche Mode tune,merged with a three second snatch of a Classix Nouveaux track.
However, the Mumii Troll track is a urainium tipped classic.
Yep, leave the timeless electro-pop hits to those pale eye-liner wearing English Kids, and leave the Russians to do what they do best.....clearing a room.

Track Listing:

01. Alisa - Experimentator (1984)
02. Nautilus Pompilius - Eta muzyka (1985)
03. Nochnoi Prospect - Ansambli (1986)
04. Nikolai Kopernik - Liudi mira (1985)
05. Alians - Govoriashchaia golova (1984)
06. Agata Kristi - Vtoroi front (1988)
07. Mirazh - Okolo polunochi (1987)
08. Kino - Poslednii geroi (1985)
09. Televizor - Chelovek iz vaty (1985)
10. Zvuki Mu - Yezhednevnyi geroi (1987)
11. Mumii Troll - Saionara diska (1987)
12. Avia - Urok russkogo yazyka, par (1986)
13. Pop-kombinat - Telefonnyi robot (1987)
14. Zodiak - Zodiak (1980)

DOWNLOAD these dancefloor emptiers HERE!