Tuesday 5 May 2015

Cybe ‎– "Cybernetika" (Syncop) 1982



I once had a car with the registration H355 KUT, which my Dutch neighbours found hilarious! This,I was informed, was because KUT is a naughty Dutch reference to a ladies 'front bottom'. Well, looking at this cassette label, I am amused to see that Dutch for side 1 is Kant 1; and as we all know, Kant is very rude cockney for......a ladies 'Front Bottom'. Oh, the childish fun one can have with other nations' languages?
Brits don't know much about the inhabitants of Holland. We think that they all smoke copious amounts of Dope,live in caravans,have kinky sex parties, and go shopping for chocolate sprinkles wearing gimp masks, crotchless PVC shorts and clogs. The tale of Peter and the Dyke never fails to send any British UKIP voter into a giggling fit.
This admirable ignorance also stretches to Dutch music, 2Unlimited, Golden Earring and Focus are probably the only acts from the Netherlands that yer average Brit could name. Admittedly, if these three groups were hiding  in Anne Franks attic,I'd be first in the queue to inform the Music Gestapo of their location and their subsequent deportation to the East.
This fate should not befall Cybe, whose second cassette is IN the same format  as their first,and is just as good.Kant 1  is full of wonderful handcrafted minimal analogue electronic majesty, and Kant 2 has more of those lush ambient sound tapestries(or Muzak Paintings).
Now more 'fun' with exotic words:
Don't say "I like a nice beat" to a French person in a Discothéque,because it sounds like "Bite!"(pronounced Beet), and that is the equivalent to saying "I like a nice Cock".Could get you into an awkward situation could that.

Don't just sit there DAHNLOAD IT YOU FACKIN' KANT........NAAAAAAAAH!!!!

13 comments:

the saucer people said...

HOLY FAACCKIN KANTTTTS!

I was just shedding a tear last night over the fact that for some inexplicable reason I did not grab this from No Longer Forgotten blog exactly six years ago and my gods, you have posted it!

A quick listen and I concur, this is as good as the first - Weirdo, Staal, Sweet Strings and the Close Encounters inspired 'Chaos' as well as selected tracks from the first cassette make this the best thing I have heard this year by far - gods, imagine if there is a dusty box full of unreleased Cybe material.

Even the name 'Cybe' weirdly anticipates the Alvn Toffler 'Future Shock' of Detroit (yes, there is the Australian Cybotron, and as good as some tracks are, their music is more rooted in Fripp than Kraftwerk).

Many thanks for rescuing Cybe from the memory hole, a sterling public service.

the saucer people said...

Just to be the exception that proves the rule - I'll name Johan Timman, Sensus, Deir, Das Ding, Mistral and the deranged 1969 psych album 'Anita' by the wonderfully titled band 'First International Sex Opera Band' as some great Dutch music (though someone will probably point out they are all actually from Luxemburg, what do I know, I'm a KANTIN' BRIT!).

Jonny Zchivago said...

You fackin kant!....I've got that international sex opera thing too. this only strengthens the randy stereotype that the dutch are saddled with.Mucky fuckers! Don't think i own any music from Luxembourg...unless you count Baccara's "yes sir I can boogie",that eurovision classic entered on behalf of said tax haven.
All together now....
"Yes Sir,I can boogie, boogie voogie(sic), all night looooonnnnnngggg!"

Alan Burns said...

Great to hear another tape from this group (or individual?), many thanks!

Assuming the 'e' gets pronounced, 'Cybe' just makes me think of spring onions... although I was brought up to say 'scallions'.

And all this 'kant'-ing hasn't half put me in the mood for a bit of Micky Flanagan on Youtube. Or indeed a good once-through that tender and delicate Flux Of Pink Indians career highlight, The Facking Kants Treat Us Like Pricks. Which they do. So here's to (hopefully) kicking them out of power in two more sleeps' time.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Those Fackin Kants treat us like pricks alright. We don't need these arseholes who have murdered 100's of millions of innocent people over the centuries with their power grabbing wars. they can fack right the fack off. The red and the Blue tories. They can patronise us with our worthless votes,and get ruled by some kant you didn't vote for....thats democracy innit? We are being fooled...again!....probably for the last time.

bill said...

The Scots will save our arses. Please. At least before they faack off and leave us stewing in our own putrescence... forever. They'll be well out of it.

the saucer people said...

Two days of solidly listening to Cybe and I unofficially pronounce him/them the coolest early eighties unknown fuckers on this prison planet - the Kosmische/Klaus Schultze/TG (that's of the tangerine not meat variety) tracks aside, the rest is just astounding in its originality and delivery. - thunderous applause for JZ for making the two tapes available.

No Dutch readers to fill in any biography on the who/what/why? of Cybe?

This is what I like about the comments on Dieordiy2 - where else can you find mention of Baccara, the First International Sex Opera Band and Flux in a single post - absolutely nowhere, I'll put pennies on it.

Yep, the fucking cunts are still treating us like pricks and the smell of NATO led fascism is most definitely in the air.. the veneer of democracy is way beyond fading, but at least we will have an excellent soundtrack to accompany said decline.. As Cybe twiddles, Europe burns....


Frans de Waard said...

This year Brussel label ini.itu will release a LP with music that is a sort of remix of Cybe by Dutch Wieman, as Cybe (who's real name was Siebe) doesn't want a re-issue of his old tapes. These days he's wedding photographer. It's gonna be a great record. Probably out after the summer. check the cool label's site
http://www.iniitu.net/

Jonny Zchivago said...

Thanks Frans.The mystery is revealed. With a horrible ending! Condemned to a life sentence as a Wedding Photographer! No-one deserves that!?

The new record sounds promising,but he really should reissue a compilation of his tapes...dumping all the ambient stuff.What a killer that would be.

the saucer people said...

Yes, thanks for the information Frans, most appreciated.

Yes, mystery revealed - though I am starting to wonder if I should have requested any more info as I was imagining Cybe AKA Seibe in a self-imposed exile on some Indonesian island, wearing over-sized cyberpunk shades and laying down the blueprint for the music of 2035 - a wedding photographer was I must admit, the very last thing in the world I imagined - though perhaps the fact his genius was not recognised in the wider world at the time meant he just gave up on the music, or perhaps he just really likes photographing weddings and he's following his dream.

Why you would be ok about someone remixing your music but not ok about letting the world hear what a fucking genius you were is the real mystery (no offence meant Dutch Wieman, I am sure it will be excellent, but you get what I mean I hope).

In fact, I am so sad about hearing he is not interested in reissuing his music, I am going to do what no middle-aged man in his right mind should ever attempt and that is type an unhappy emoticon.... :< such is my misery!

In fact, this news is more depressing than hearing the fascist Tories will be back in power in several hours time.



Frans de Waard said...

yeah a re-issue would be great. but unlikely. i don't think he has anything left. we created samples from the released cassettes. in fact i am not in contact with him at all, just my label boss...

the saucer people said...

Thanks for the extra information Frans, it explains everything as I just could not understand why he would hand over his original master tapes but not want his music reissued. It would also explain why we have not seen a Vinyl On Demand/Dark Entries/Minimal Wave etc, reissue!

In fact, I look forward to hearing what you have done with his music, especially given the fact that the way he constructed and processed sound and rhythm was so ahead of its time.

Still, I like to believe that there is a forgotten dusty cardboard box somewhere overflowing with Cybe material and perhaps your efforts and this blog will one day make him go and look for it - when I think of some of the bland, generic late seventies and early eighties electronic music that is being reissued and touted as genius - and knowing there is such great music like Cybe around that is almost unknown, it is a real shame.

Absolute Ruler said...

compilation due on STROOM~~ out around summer 2017.